I guess I would say at least 1 nightstalker, then the rest celestial nighthawkin slingers. yeehaw

A Weapons of Light bubble will deal with Ogres in no time. 4 rounds from a decent sniper (plus support fire from the appropriate plate) and they're gone. Save the Nighthawk for the Vessel, Echo or Oryx.

Now why didn't I think of dropping a WoL bubble for our floaters? I found that Cyber or TalkingOrange (almost) always had their bubble up and I bet if I dropped some extra orbs they'd have theirs charged for when we dps Oryx.

The ads are very light and ineffective

Only because I was tethering the shit out of them ;)

Jokes aside, I'm gonna go nighthawk/gunslinger next time around, too. At least for Oryx.

I would say night stalker everywhere in the raid except for Oryx, and for when you prove your worth to fight the Warpriest. That encounter has light enemies, but a few high value targets like the Knights up top and the Wizards in the middle.

The ads are very light and ineffective

Only because I was tethering the shit out of them ;)

Jokes aside, I'm gonna go nighthawk/gunslinger next time around, too. At least for Oryx.

I think it could be done, if you didn't stand on the plate for the full period. I don't know if you can even get the Brand if you still have Deathsinger Power though.

You can't. If you have the deathsinger power, you cannot get the buff to stay alive in the totem rooms.

Celestial Nighthawk. 'nuff said.

Gunslinger with the Nighthawk is definitely the way to go for the Oryx fight. The ads are very light and ineffective, while the ogres need to be killed quickly. A single golden gun shot that takes away 2/3 of your ogre's health is more useful than a snare on the ads in my opinion. Add in a tripmine, and the ogre is at maybe 5% health. You can also use it to stagger Oryx if you get in a bind.

But for the most part, I think the DpS issue will disappear as we all get access to better weapons. With the Spindle our team took down both the Warpriest and Golgoroth in just two phases each. Along the same lines, we killed the sisters in just two phases (one each).

I think the hardest part of having less players would be reduced add control (and not having enough players to stand on plates)

I think you could probably do most of the raid with 5, but 4 could get real interesting, and 3 would be impossible.

Right now, the big hurdle that I don't see a smaller group getting past is the sheer DPS requirements during some of the encounters. During the final battle, we would fail to stagger Oryx if even 1 of us out of sniper ammo or missed a few shots. Of course, this will get easier over time as we all continue to level up and find better gear, but our group was all close to 300 using decent sniper rifles. I can't imagine a group of 4 could pull that battle off without some majorly powerful weaponry.

I remember a moment during one of our last VoG runs before TTK launched; we were at the conflux section, a couple members of our fireteam died right near the beginning. A couple minutes later another 2 died, leaving just me and Thee Chaos standing as we went into the 3rd wave (defend all 3 confluxes). We went ahead and 2-manned it, no problem.

I remember doing something similar with Cody(?). Ruin Wings, when they work, are a life saver.

Those kinds of things really don't seem possible in King's End, not without major exploits of some kind.

I think you could probably do most of the raid with 5, but 4 could get real interesting, and 3 would be impossible.

I remember a moment during one of our last VoG runs before TTK launched; we were at the conflux section, a couple members of our fireteam died right near the beginning. A couple minutes later another 2 died, leaving just me and Thee Chaos standing as we went into the 3rd wave (defend all 3 confluxes). We went ahead and 2-manned it, no problem.

Those kinds of things really don't seem possible in King's End, not without major exploits of some kind.

King's Fall had the light and heavy elements down, but lacked something in the middle. I think the ultimate raid will combine both sections that are mechanically complex and unforgiving like King's fall, and those that are more open ended like the Gatekeeper section of VoG.

There is something to be said for elements that require teamwork, but are open and improvisational.

One trick I did find that helps is using the sword to give me a third person camera. Helps out a lot in some circumstances.

Bungie's random number generator really had it in for me that night.