Hotfix overview 10/14/14

This morning is a sad day among those who cheesed The Templar fight.

      Good morning! Today, Bungie pushed out some hotfixes to address some of the issues plaguing players worldwide. All quotes are directly from Bungie.net.

      "Fixed a bug where the Valkyrie-O5X Ship was the same as the Aurora Lance"

Finally, a difference in all the ships! Not really. They are all pretty boring aside from the Magic School Bus awarded from the Iron Banner.

"Titan

Unbreakable: Fixed an issue with the perk granting more agility than intended

Warlock

Brimstone: Perk can now activate if player is airborne"

Most of us Titans would not have noticed this change with agility on weapons. Not sure if the Warlocks noticed the other change. Good to see Bungie is addressing class abilities though.

" Auto Rifles

Base Damage decreased by 2%Reduced Precision Damage multiplier from 1.50 -> 1.25 (head shot bonus)Stability decreased by 4% - 17% (driven by stat value)"

AHA! A change most of us will feel. With auto rifles being how they were, there was almost no option in what weapon to use. Though, some were brave and used others. In a shootout though, the option was clear that auto rifles were above others. I'm glad to see this change, as I was getting tired of the ability to full auto something with almost no recoil on my Suros Regime. The damage nerfs however, kind of scare me. It's a huge hit to the DPS output in PVE, and now i'm afraid we'll be left with unusable weapons in comparison to the other options. I guess we'll have to see how they fair in VoG this week.

"Hand Cannons

In-air accuracy now increased"

As if hand cannons weren't easy enough to hit head shots. Now we can fly through the air and hit them.

"Scout Rifles

Base damage increased by 6%Damage vs. Combatants increased by 6% - 25% (based on tier)Improved target acquisition, plus additional recoil tuning."

This change also has me pretty worried. With the change to auto rifles, players will now be searching for that new best in slot (other than Vex Mythoclast) in raids and PvP. It is pretty clear now that Vision of Confluence will be the go-to weapon if you have not acquired your Mythoclast yet. Scout rifles are already known to have solid stability, and now we have a buff to that. Vision of Confluence can also be fired in full auto. So now, we have an extremely stable scout rifle, that fires in full auto, with elemental damage and more impact. Why even change auto rifles? You effectively changed one of the best scout rifles in the game into an pre-hotfix auto rifle.

"Shotguns

Decreased base damage at maximum range (falloff) by 20%Shot Package Perk now has a slightly wider cone of fireThe Rangefinder and Shot Package perks are now mutually exclusive"

 Finally, a change we can ALL get behind. It was clear since the beginning that shotguns were too strong for PvP. This change will now reduce the amount of people creeping around and killing you at max range with a shotgun. Hallelujah.

"Exotic Weapons

Vex MythoclastBase Damage decreased by 34%Increased Precision Damage multiplier from 1.25 -> 1.50 (headshot bonus)Pocket InfinityEnhanced Battery Perk has now been replaced with the Speed Reload Perk"

I don't care what anyone says, but Mythoclast deserves this nerf. In PvP, you cannot compete with this weapon. It's damage was just too high. Even if you started firing first and hit all of your head shots, someone with Mythoclast could 2 shot you if they hit their head shots. Unfortunately, those of us who raid with it will feel this nerf as well. It will still be the best-in-slot item, but man it's losing some of it unf. Pocket Infinity now has less ammo. So what, most of it is used in PvP and you can just pick more up.

"Raid - Vault of Glass

Templar Encounter

Kill volume added to sniper platforms to prevent players from sitting on top of them

Relic is now removed and respawned if the holder leaves the playable area"

Ahh, our beloved cheese strategy has been destroyed. Time to stop being marked for negation. Now we actually have to do what Bungie wanted us to do. Great.

"Destinations

The Fallen have also retreated from their hold over the Rocket Yard to discuss a new takeover plan"

Oh no! Our new loot cave is gone. Oh well, its not like it was as good. Nothing compares to the original loot cave. And Bungie, no matter what you do, we will always have a loot cave somewhere. We will stick it to the man.

All of the other things in the notes don't really matter. But overall, i think most of the changes are for the better. But the scout rifle buff still has me worried. Have we traded one meta for another? Only time will tell.

Have a good day and happy hunting!


  

Patch notes 1.0.2 release

Well, today is a great day for Destiny players worldwide.

      The notes for patch 1.0.2 have been release by Bungie today. All the changes are wonderful.

First off;

Cryptarch
Legendary  engrams will always produce a Legendary quality item or higher
Note: Legendary engrams that exist in your inventory will change to Rare quality items when the patch is applied. However, decoding these engrams will still produce the same results as before.
Rare  engrams will always produce a Rare quality item or higher.
Chance for Legendary gear increased
Materials: Ascendant Shards and Ascendant Energy promoted to Legendary quality (from Rare quality).

      Hooray! No more trolling from the Cryptarch. Now we can farm up those Legendary Engrams for materials and possible Exotics! And of course the Legendary items, for those not high level yet.

Rewards: 

Rare and Legendary Engram drops added to the potential rewards for:

Vanguard: Tiger Strike Playlist
Daily Heroic Missions (first time per day)
Weekly Heroic Missions (first time per week)

When selecting a higher difficulty for daily missions, XP Bonus not show in the reward display.

You will still get the XP bonus, you just won't see it in the UI.

      Yet another awesome change!  This will change the fact that we had no way to definitively farm up our ascendant materials. Doing strikes can now reward us with those legendary items that can be sharded. Happy day.

Crucible 

Reduced time limit on Bastion and First Light in Control and Clash from 15 to 12 minutes, bringing them in line with non-vehicle maps in those playlists.
Lowered weighting on Bastion and First Light in Control and Clash so they appear less often in those playlists. 

      Who cares, FREE LEGENDARY'S FROM THE CRYPTARCH! 



That's all for the notes provided. You can probably expect this patch to drop today. If not today, then tomorrow.  Happy engram farming!

 

Patch is about to go live!

Bungie tweeted out that the patch for engrams and drop rates will be going out "soon". This could mean today, or maybe tomorrow. My money is on today. So get ready to love the cryptarch!

The loot cave is dead.

      Well, the whole meaning of my blog has now died. RIP in piece. The hotfixes that have been pushed out changed the game a lot so far. Though, I do agree with all of the changes. I'm sure you will find many that do not agree, but the changes are for the best.

      First, they have changed the loot drops from doing parts of missions over and over.

      Missions

• Reduced drop rate of engrams following a hard wipe [fixed in 1.0.1.4]

• Clarification: This effect only lasts for a short period of time immediately following a hard wipe

      This means that the part of the mission "The Dark Beyond" where all of the hive rush out of the shrine can no longer be exploited for its loot. Granted, you could still do it, but it would take you two times as long and just isn't worth it anymore. Some people found this way of farming better than the loot cave, but personally i'm glad this fix has been implemented. No one should have to do the same part of a mission repeatedly just to get better gear.

Queen's Wrath Event

• Material rewards for dismantling Queen's Wrath gear will no longer provide ascendant materials, but missions will continue to drop Legendary items

Another huge change to the event. This was by far the best way to farm up the Ascendant Shards needed to upgrade that shiny legendary gear you obtained. Now, you're left with doing two public events a day, and praying to the RNG gods for shards off of engrams. Bungie pls.

      And of course, our favorite change of all;

World

Destinations

• The Hive of the holy “Treasure Cave” have realized the futility of their endless assault on Skywatch and have retired to lick their wounds and plan their next attack.

• Respawn timers for monster caves in Skywatch have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 6)

• Respawn timers for monster caves in Forgotten Shore have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)

• Respawn timers for monster caves in Ember Caves have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)

• Respawn timers for monster caves in the Shattered Coast have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 10)

• Respawn timers for monster caves in the Barrens have been normalized to 40 seconds (increased from 20)

      The loot cave is officially dead. This was one of the best ways to farm up materials needed for either upgrading, or getting the weapon parts/class reagents. And engrams as well. Personally, I agree with this. Bungie recognized that this was not the way they wanted the game to turn out. The best way to get gear, and not gamble, is to farm up that reputation with the faction of your choice. When I got level 20, this was the first thing I did. I went to the loot cave during down time specifically for the Ascendant shard drops from the engrams. Once i hit rank 2 with the Vanguard i was able to purchase what i needed and immediately upgrade them with the shards i had collected.

      In closing, the changes are for the better. But it leaves a bad taste in my mouth knowing I have no surefire way to farm up the Ascendant materials I need to upgrade the shiny gear. Bungie truly changed the game by not adding in a way to get these materials regularly. I believe that in the coming patches and hotfixes, they will address this with increased drop rates of the materials from doing strikes or crucible. We'll just have to see. But for now, ill be doing two public events a day and going back to the crucible.

Getting your level past 20: A guide

     

 So you got to level 20? Congrats! I hope you enjoyed the story line and got to see all the beautiful landscapes that Bungie has created for us! But now what are you supposed to do? Don't stress it, that's what i'm here to help you with.

After reaching level 20

      After reaching max level, you will now start to see the stat called "Light" on your items. Depending on the rarity of the item, there will be more light on it. Level 20 blue items will have 13 light without upgrading it, and 15 light when it is fully upgraded. Light can only be on your 4 gear slots, including your helmet, gloves, chest piece, and boots. With all four being level 20 blue's, with full upgrades, your level will be sitting at 24. Above, in the top right  of your character screen you will see the word "Light", which displays your level after applying the light stat. Mine is currently 25. This level will be displayed for other players, and allow you to entered more challenging content within the game. The first "Raid" of the game is set at level 26, though not suggested, you may enter it at level 25.

      The first thing you will need to do in order to better your character and move up in levels, is to obtain better gear. The easiest way to do this is to visit the Loot Cave, and farm it as much as possible. I created a guide on how to do so HERE.

      If farming for items is not what you want to do, then you can always do strikes and bounties until you are Rank 2 with The Vanguard. The Vanguard is the main reputation faction that sells legendary gear. The reputation comes from doing PVE (Player Versus Enviroment) tasks. This includes strikes, bounties, and patrols.

Strikes

      Strikes are the instances you can enter to kill monsters and bosses for loot. By now you have probably already did one or two of them when you went through the main storyline. If you go to any of the planets and see the icon shown above, that means that mission is a strike. When you enter a strike, it starts you off on a mission that can be repeated over and over. The mission will be the same each time. After completing the strike by killing the last boss, you will be rewarded with a random item. This could be an Engram, materials, or just gear. Strikes give you reputation with The Vanguard, and also give you Vanguard Marks. Vanguard marks are used to purchase the gear once you reach Rank 2 with the faction.

Vanguard Bounties

      Vanguard bounties are another way you can earn reputation points with the faction. These are daily tasks you can complete for reputation and experience. The bounties vary by day, and can only be completed once per day. You should pick these bounties up everyday while you are running strikes. A lot of them can be completed by just doing strikes with the bounty in your inventory.

Patrol missions

      Patrol missions are listed on each planet, with the icon above. When you choose a patrol to go on, you will arrive on that planet, free to roam wherever you want. All around the map will be green flashing items, that will give you a mission. There are a lot of different types, from killing monsters, to just scanning something within the region. Patrol missions will give you reputation for The Vanguard, per mission. You will also find that the Vanguard bounties will sometimes ask you to complete 6 missions on said planet. This way, you can double up on the amount of reputation you earn, by completing the missions on patrol and a bounty at the same time.

Getting Rank 2

      After getting to Rank 2 with the Vanguard, you will be able to purchase any of the legendary armor items from you respective class Vanguard leader. They will have 18 light on each piece, which can be upgraded for even more light.

Vanguard marks and reputation

      When you complete missions and get vanguard marks and reputation, you will notice the icon for the vanguard on your "Choose Destination" menu will start to fill up in a circle around it. This is because there is a limit on how many Vanguard marks you can earn per week. You may only earn 100 marks per week as of right now. The week will reset every Tuesday. But, you are always free to get more reputation, because it does not have a weekly limit. The limit on marks is to ensure you cant just boost right to the end game content. What would be the fun in an MMO where you can just skip right to the end parts? *COUGH* WORLD OF WARCRAFT *COUGH*

Once you have earned your gear

      Once you have some nice gear on, you'll need to upgrade them. The first couple of upgrades should only cost you glimmer and parts obtained by deconstructing other pieces of gear. You will run into a lot of green items you will not need, so you can deconstruct them for the materials needed to upgrade your gear. If you get to wearing some legendary gear, its a little different. You will need what is called "Ascendant" materials. This could be Ascendant Shards, or Ascendant Energy. You will also need reagents.

Ascendant Shards and Ascendant Energy

      These items can be obtained by doing public events, or the daily heroic story missions. The public events happen on every planet in every area. The first public event you do WILL reward you with one of these. It is random on which one you get. Every other public event you do afterwards has a chance to give you more of them.

      The daily heroic story missions will also give you these materials. When you complete the story, you will receive one of the two. This can be done over and over until you have enough materials you need for your upgrades. You will find that is common to find these while doing missions or decrypting engrams.

Reagents needed for legendary upgrades

      The reagents needed, depending on class and item type are listed above. In order from left to right, they are Spinmetal, Helium Filaments, Spirit Bloom, and Relic Iron. The item you are trying to upgrade will list which reagent you will need to use for the upgrade. Each reagent can only be found on one planet.

Spinmetal - Earth

Helium Filaments - The Moon

Spirit Bloom - Venus

Relic Iron - Mars

      The reagents can be either gathered, or collected in chests. On each planet, there are spawn points for chests. Most of the time, they will be inside a building. Sometimes they are outside behind a rock or up somewhere on top of something. Each chest will contain at least one of the reagents, depending on which planet you are on. You may also gather them by finding nodes in the open world. Each one has spawn points on their respective planet. You can find these by just riding around and looking for a node of the type. Going after the chests is a better route, if you know where to find them.

Other notes

     The Crucible is another way to get your legendary gear. It is a reputation just like the Vanguard. Instead of doing the PVE missions, you may do PVP (Player versus Player). This is called the Crucible. You may enter matches by going to your "Select destination" menu from orbit, and choosing the crucible icon at the bottom right. There are also bounties you can do for the crucible, that will give you even more reputation and marks. Again, you must reach Rank 2 for the gear available from the Crucible. I will explain this in a later post.

Closing statement

      Getting level 20 is just the beginning. Like every other MMO, there is always more content to do. Most MMO's are on PC. This is another reason why i chose to make this blog. I know there is a separation between console gamers and PC gamers, and console gamers may not be familiar with the way MMO's work. This is one of my favorite reasons for loving Destiny. It is a crossover between the PC world that i love, and the console world in which i grew up with. I hope you liked this guide, and if you have any questions you may comment and ask away.

Dont forget to go to the Destiny Reddit page!

Welcome to the Loot Cave!

Welcome to the Loot Cave!

    

        I have created this blog, because i have a passion for the game Destiny. If you know of it and play it, you know that the game is absolutely amazing! So far, the game has been everything i expected out of Bungie. Being a big fan of the Halo series, i had high expectations for the story and game play for Destiny, and its even better than i imagined!

My goals for the site 

       With so many websites dedicated to the content of the game, my only goal is to bring you the latest updates, tips, hints and tricks for getting the most out of your play time. 

Your first tip

      Your first tip for the game;

GO TO THE LOOT CAVE!!!

Now there are plenty of videos on Youtube and Reddit that explain where you need to go to get in on this before (and if) Bungie patches it out. But just in case you are not aware of what exactly the Loot Cave is, ill explain it.

What is it?

      The Loot Cave (Also known as the "Treasure Cave" or "Murder Cave") is a cave in the Old Russia portion of Earth. They call it such, because it is an easy route to getting gear and glimmer in the game. The cave spawns up to six Hive beings at once, every 10 seconds or so, if you kill them in the cave quick enough. They will continue to spawn over and over if you kill them before they leave the cave. This has not been addressed by Bungie as an exploit or a glitch. Until it is, it is safe to continually farm this spot without getting banned or in any type of trouble.

When should i go there?

      Once you are level 20 or above, you have a chance to get Legendary Engrams from anything you kill in the game. You also have the chance to get Uncommon Engrams and Rare Engrams more so. I would not suggest farming this cave until you are 20+, as it will not be as rewarding since you cannot get Legendary Engrams until you are 20+. 

What kind of loot will i get, and how much of it?

      There have been a few people who have done the statistics on what you will get. As for the when, i do not have statistics on that. I know it is based off of RNG (Random Number Generator), so getting a Legendary Engram is much less likely than getting an Uncommon Engram. Usually when i hit the cave, i stay for about three to four hours. RNG has been good to me so far, and i have usually picked up 1 or 2 Legendary Engrams, 10+ Rare Engrams, and 30+ Uncommon Engrams.  This is by far the best way to farm items if that's what you need.

What will i do once i have these "Engrams"?

      Once you have obtained Engrams, you will need to take them to the Cryptarch. The Cryptarch is located in The Tower, just to the right  and forward of where you spawn after choosing to go to The Tower. He is standing by a small booth awaiting you. If you have at least 1 Engram in your inventory, he will have a green diamond with an exclaimation point in it above his head. When you first talk to him, he will have a turn in for any engrams you currently have. Now the fun starts. Each Engram CAN contain certain things. It i not guarunteed that you will get the rarity you want from it. A recent Reddit post by GrievouzOCE explains the chance of what you will get in each engram. He did some decrypting, and his results are below.

" Total engrams gathered

Green: 290 Blue: 250 Purple: 55

Results:

(FOR THE SAKE OF CLARITY I WILL POST THE COLOR OF THE LOOT NOT THE NAME OF THE RARITY)

GREEN ENGRAM RARITY:

White: 68 \ 23.45%

Green: 201 \ 69.31%

Blue: 21 \ 7.24%

Purple: 0

Yellow: 0

BLUE ENGRAM RARITY:

White: 0

Green: 53 \ 21.2%

Blue: 186 \ 74.4%

Purple: 11 \ 4.4%

Yellow: 0

PURPLE ENGRAM RARITY:

White: 0

Green: 2 \ 3.64%

Blue: 33 \ 60%

Purple: 19 \ 34.55%

Yellow: 1 \ 1.82% "

      Essentially, what you need to understand is that if you get a Legendary Engram (listed above as "Purple Engram"), it does not mean that when the Cryptarch Decrypts them there will be a Legendary item inside of it. It just has a higher chance to have one.  This can be frustrating at times, but overall farming the Engrams is worth every second.

Alright, this sounds awesome. How do i get there?

      The easiest way to get to this spot is by going to the "Patrol Cosmodrome" mission on Earth. You then follow the path ahead of you up to the big building with the satellite on top of it. There will be a large opening with two Dreg's and one Captain standing guard. You can run past these guys, and head into the building. You will then follow the path inside of the building (There is only one route you can take), and eventually you will come out of the back side of the building. Once you're outside, you can head straight up the path to a rocky area just outside of what looks like a green spaceship. Ahead of you will be the cave in question. Below is a good video explaining how to get there and what you need to do in order to make it all pan out correctly.

      And that's it for the Loot Cave! If you have any questions, there is always the Reddit page. They answer a lot on some of the main posts. 

Reddit page!

Happy farming!