I haven't done all of the Taken War missions, so I'm not sure either. That being said, the quest for warpriest, golg, and oryx was definitely the start of the Touch of Malice chain.

There are two quests for Warpriest, Golgoroth, and Oryx, though.

The one for the beginning of Touch of Malice doesn't task you with killing the bosses, it asks you to collect specific items. The Blade of Famine, the Shroud of Ir Anuk, and the Ravenous Heart. So it's actually a quest for Warpriest, Deathsingers, and Oryx, I guess. You get the items automatically upon killing them (only if you have the quest, I think).

There is another quest called Road to King's Fall which the objectives Kill the Warpriest, Kill Golgoroth, and Kill Oryx. That rewards you with the Artifact, I think.

Anyway, not trying to be argumentative, and this thread is old and probably ignored now, but the point is I'm pretty sure the 310 artifact is a direct reward from completing the Raid.

Maybe I'm not remembering correctly, but I'm not sure that's correct.

I know for a fact that I got the Artifact directly after completing the Raid. It was the first thing I turned in and received at the Tower directly after the Raid, but I don't recall what quest it was. I really think it was the one for defeating The Warpriest, Golgoroth, and Oryx. Road to King's Fall, maybe?

I haven't done all of the Taken War missions, so I'm not sure either. That being said, the quest for warpriest, golg, and oryx was definitely the start of the Touch of Malice chain.

I know for a fact that I got the Artifact directly after completing the Raid. It was the first thing I turned in and received at the Tower directly after the Raid, but I don't recall what quest it was. I really think it was the one for defeating The Warpriest, Golgoroth, and Oryx. Road to King's Fall, maybe?

Still one of the greatest video game characters ever.

- There are no activities in the game which require light higher than 290. Anything higher than that is purely an ego stroke right now. There is one (ONE) special strike for the Touch of Malice that is light 300, but it is fully doable at 290 (albeit very difficult).

In the raid near the end, the enemies are light 300. There is benefit to hitting 300.

Okay, so it's not purely an ego stroke, but you also do not need to be light 300 at all. I was 288 the first time I killed Crota, and we only had 2 raid members higher than 290.

It's going to be interesting to see the new power curve in Trials and Iron banner. It's there that being 290 could possibly put you at a disadvantage.

Yep. Personally, I hope it doesn't as I feel like making PvE gear the best loot for PvP activities (and vice versa) is poor design. Loot should compliment the activities one prefers to spend time in, rather than "forcing" people out of their comfort zone in order to remain competitive.

That said, if you're feeling extra trusting (and aren't crazy about the whole "sense of accomplishment" thing), I could play as/carry your character through some of the tougher challenges. You wouldn't be the first friend that I've taken to the Lighthouse (or gotten close. Sorry, Paddy!). ;)

Heh - I tried Trials once. That was enough for me. ;)

Crossing the 300 barrier is really unimportant unless you are raiding. None of the other high level activities are over 290 anyway. If you want to do the hard mode raid, it would be good to be closer to 310, but it's not strictly necessary and you should really run the easy mode raid a few times first anyway which should get you above 300.

Here's the thing, though:

If I'm at 301, and I decrypt an Exotic engram, I have a decent chance (1 in 4?) of getting a 310 Exotic. If I'm at 300 (or below), I have a 100% chance of getting a 290, instead.

Yeah, that struck me as somewhat annoying, which is why I can't wrap my head around why they're nerfing the Spindle's Attack value, when the mission is not only difficult (no real way to cheese it), but you can get 310s regularly once you cross the threshold (in more ways than one).

I'm getting two or three exotics for every few hours of gameplay (I'm no longer keeping track of actual numbers of coins used, or fights waged, because what really matters is drops per hour of gameplay), so that's a LOT of lost opportunity, even if I can't find the time to beat the raid. Do I NEED them? No, probably not (though they'll likely make my chances of beating the raid in a reasonable amount of time better)... but that's not really the point.

I don't have a life right now that allows me to raid properly. I joined with a blind group a couple of weeks ago, and we played for a lot of hours - so far, I've beaten the Warpriest twice, but nobody else. (I wasn't available for the night they ran Golgoroth successfully, and we were unable to take down the Daughters even though we knew the mechanics.) I can't schedule multi-hour sessions in advance, because my life doesn't work that way - so it's opportunity-only, and so far the opportunity hasn't arisen.

People are really starting to fall into the groove of the raid's encounters (the biggest issue seems to be which of the myriad strategies the team will employ), so the length of runs is greatly decreasing, which may help your situation out (hopefully Iron Banner has high level drops too).

I also notice that a number of times that people ask for help, they're on the 360, which seems to be a small (and shrinking) part of the community, so that makes it more difficult to help out.

That said, if you're feeling extra trusting (and aren't crazy about the whole "sense of accomplishment" thing), I could play as/carry your character through some of the tougher challenges. You wouldn't be the first friend that I've taken to the Lighthouse (or gotten close. Sorry, Paddy!). ;)

So yeah, I don't NEED 310s - but it seems like a stupid waste not to raise my overall light by 1.5 points before decrypting those engrams, because if I don't, I lose 20 points per.

- There are no activities in the game which require light higher than 290. Anything higher than that is purely an ego stroke right now. There is one (ONE) special strike for the Touch of Malice that is light 300, but it is fully doable at 290 (albeit very difficult).

In the raid near the end, the enemies are light 300. There is benefit to hitting 300.

Okay, so it's not purely an ego stroke, but you also do not need to be light 300 at all. I was 288 the first time I killed Crota, and we only had 2 raid members higher than 290.

It's going to be interesting to see the new power curve in Trials and Iron banner. It's there that being 290 could possibly put you at a disadvantage.

- There are no activities in the game which require light higher than 290. Anything higher than that is purely an ego stroke right now. There is one (ONE) special strike for the Touch of Malice that is light 300, but it is fully doable at 290 (albeit very difficult).

In the raid near the end, the enemies are light 300. There is benefit to hitting 300.

Okay, so it's not purely an ego stroke, but you also do not need to be light 300 at all. I was 288 the first time I killed Crota, and we only had 2 raid members higher than 290.

Is this unusual, or is everyone having similarly bad luck with the nightfall rewards?

No, they suck. I got a 280 exotic. That's ridiculous. Last one I got one rune and one mote of light. Seriously.

I think the fact that nightfall rewards are not automatically 300+ is absolutely insane. Making that so would provide a way for non raiders to advance a bit. Right now, unless you want the actual challenge of the modifiers, nightfall rewards are complete garbage.

I'm glad you brought this up... I've run 3 or 4 nightfalls since TTK shipped... every single reward I've seen (including the rewards of my teammates) has been laughable. The best drop I've witnessed has been 13 strange coins. More often than not the drops seem to be legendary weapons or armor in the 260-280 range (worse than the gear you already need in order to run the nightfalls).

Is this unusual, or is everyone having similarly bad luck with the nightfall rewards?

Are you asking if I'm pissed about getting Antique Runes three weeks running? Because it doesn't feel awesome at all. I've disavowed nightfalls and am much happier just farming vanguard heroic strikes.

- There are no activities in the game which require light higher than 290. Anything higher than that is purely an ego stroke right now. There is one (ONE) special strike for the Touch of Malice that is light 300, but it is fully doable at 290 (albeit very difficult).

In the raid near the end, the enemies are light 300. There is benefit to hitting 300.

I think the fact that nightfall rewards are not automatically 300+ is absolutely insane. Making that so would provide a way for non raiders to advance a bit. Right now, unless you want the actual challenge of the modifiers, nightfall rewards are complete garbage.

I'm glad you brought this up... I've run 3 or 4 nightfalls since TTK shipped... every single reward I've seen (including the rewards of my teammates) has been laughable. The best drop I've witnessed has been 13 strange coins. More often than not the drops seem to be legendary weapons or armor in the 260-280 range (worse than the gear you already need in order to run the nightfalls).

Is this unusual, or is everyone having similarly bad luck with the nightfall rewards?

So, the question (as I read it) was "how do you cross the 300 threshhold without raid gear when you're already in the high 290s?"

This was an interesting question to me, since I have exactly the same question.

All of the answers, so far, have been talking about how to GET to the high 290s, which the OP didn't really need (well, on his main).

So let me ask again, more clearly:

If you have a character that's in the high 290s (297-299), and you're already doing the high-light-decoding trick, and you haven't finished the raid... how do you cross the 300 barrier?

Here are all of the sources of light 300 or higher items which I am aware of, which are also not from the raid:

- Chaos Theory D, a light 300 shotgun, is the reward for the 5 strikes, 5 heroic strikes, 1 nightfall quest chain.
- You get a light 300 relic for finishing Eris' court of Oryx rank 3 quest chain (court of oryx 3 can also drop light 300 legendaries and blues).
- Until they patch it, Black Spindle is a light 310 weapon from a secret daily heroic mission.
- I have not done this yet, but I've been told that you get a 300 ghost shell from finishing the Taken War quest chain completely (can someone verify this?).
- I have gotten a high percentage of light 300 drops from the elimination crucible playlist (of my 20 or so games, I've gotten 5 as rewards at the end of a full match, both from winning and losing).
- You can get light 300 rewards from rep packages from any and all factions.

Of note:
- Raid drops are guaranteed between 300 and 310 and are hands down the best means of crossing the 300 threshold. Go raid! It's fun!!!
- There are no activities in the game which require light higher than 290. Anything higher than that is purely an ego stroke right now. There is one (ONE) special strike for the Touch of Malice that is light 300, but it is fully doable at 290 (albeit very difficult).

My advice would be to either chain vanguard heroic strikes, farm the court of oryx (doing as many rank 3s as possible), or play the elimination playlist, depending on which game mode appeals to you the most. Mix and match to keep things interesting!

So yeah, I don't NEED 310s - but it seems like a stupid waste not to raise my overall light by 1.5 points before decrypting those engrams, because if I don't, I lose 20 points per.

I'm not going to call it a mistake, because anything over 301 seems to not matter (unless if has some kind of measurable effect on Iron banner / Trials). However, it does fall in to the trap that they wanted to avoid of having people be stuck unless they get raid drops, and you have large jumps in benefit for just a few light points. From 299 to 300 is a huge deal if you can now get 310 exotics. The chance to get 310 should be granular, not on/off. My arms and chest pieces are still stuck at 296/297 because I have not gotten much armor from the Raid.

I think the fact that nightfall rewards are not automatically 300+ is absolutely insane. Making that so would provide a way for non raiders to advance a bit. Right now, unless you want the actual challenge of the modifiers, nightfall rewards are complete garbage.

Crossing the 300 barrier is really unimportant unless you are raiding. None of the other high level activities are over 290 anyway. If you want to do the hard mode raid, it would be good to be closer to 310, but it's not strictly necessary and you should really run the easy mode raid a few times first anyway which should get you above 300.

Here's the thing, though:

If I'm at 301, and I decrypt an Exotic engram, I have a decent chance (1 in 4?) of getting a 310 Exotic. If I'm at 300 (or below), I have a 100% chance of getting a 290, instead.

I'm getting two or three exotics for every few hours of gameplay (I'm no longer keeping track of actual numbers of coins used, or fights waged, because what really matters is drops per hour of gameplay), so that's a LOT of lost opportunity, even if I can't find the time to beat the raid. Do I NEED them? No, probably not (though they'll likely make my chances of beating the raid in a reasonable amount of time better)... but that's not really the point.

I don't have a life right now that allows me to raid properly. I joined with a blind group a couple of weeks ago, and we played for a lot of hours - so far, I've beaten the Warpriest twice, but nobody else. (I wasn't available for the night they ran Golgoroth successfully, and we were unable to take down the Daughters even though we knew the mechanics.) I can't schedule multi-hour sessions in advance, because my life doesn't work that way - so it's opportunity-only, and so far the opportunity hasn't arisen.

So yeah, I don't NEED 310s - but it seems like a stupid waste not to raise my overall light by 1.5 points before decrypting those engrams, because if I don't, I lose 20 points per.