Destiny - Say anything.

So long as I can pre-order before September 20th, I'll be fine. 

So.. I read somewhere, probably reddit, that xbox digital pre-orders allow you to download the game before the release date and then on the release date it unlocks.  The post I read says that this is likely why xbox pre-orders are delayed, because the game isn't done enough.  PS supposedly doesn't do this.   Dunno if I really believe that... 

I have no experience with digital pre-orders, so it got me to wondering if the early download part is true.  If it is, I may very well be a much happier camper come 9/20 as we won't have 2 machines downloading the DLC at the same time.

Lots to read there. And a lot of it sounds exciting.  Also saw an article that said they plan to have the return of the Festival of Lights & SRL after RoI. 

I'm finally leveling my Titan and Hunter chars to 335. Got nice new 335 drops last night from completing hard mode as Hunter, including Dark Harrowed Pulse rifle.

Just had to share, I'm a proud new owner of a Vienna Singer.  :)  Dragged Ranger in, and we ran through it two more times, but it finally dropped for me.   That mission is getting easier.  Still quite willing to help anyone who might want/need a black spindle still.  We two manned it today and had a little time left over.  So it should go pretty quickly with a third.

Deep are you listening?

KalSC, that mission scales up in difficulty with a third fireteam member. More adds & stuff. Folks have recommended to me to go in with a fireteam of two. That being said, the only two times I've cleared it (after too many tries to count) have been with a team of 3.

Was surprised to read on Reddit this morning that only 9% of Destiny players have completed the King's Fall raid. Not sure of the source, but I notice that some sites track these stats...but in a form that **did not** let me quickly verify.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/4wdxxw/i_would_just_lik... (see comments at bottom).

Edit: Missed a couple essential words.

Blam, we've done it a a couple of times with 3 before and we had tried several attempts in the past to two man it (unsuccessfully).  Truthfully, the 3 man attempts felt easier, someone else to work on adds, less cursing when someone died.  I hope it didn't sound like it was a breeze with two.  We still got killed, but we got through and I know had over a minute to spare the first run, second felt faster but I forgot to watch the time.  It just felt easier yesterday.  And I finally got my ship :).

Congrats on getting the ship! Like I said, I've only been able to get through it twice and only with a 3-person fireteam. Getting it done with 2 is impressive for the reasons you mentioned, even if there is less damage.

I've done more gun testing recently, and discovered that hand cannons are in a sad place with damage output, bloom and range fall-off. 　

The First Curse is the highest impact hand cannon I have. The Colovance's Duty is the highest impact scout rifle I have.

Go to the Ultra Knight room on the Dreadnaught, stand in the doorway, and shoot the Knight in the head with the First Curse and then a Colovance. From the doorway,. the FC does ~1000 crit damage. The Colo does 1521. Move downslope 1/3 closer to the Knight with the FC, and now it does 1957 damage. The Colo can safely stay in the doorway and lay out 1513s till the Knight is dead. Kill time is faster (can't see any bloom or range falloff with the scout rifle at that distance).　

Surprisingly, even up close some of the current hand cannons (i.e. Down & Doubt) put out less damage than the Colo at the Ultra Knight at any range. From the doorway, the Colo can put out almost the same damage per round as TLW up close and in the Knight's face.　

By the way, the newest Nirwen's Mercy does 575 x 3 crits at the same Ultra Knight from the doorway. The MIDA does 1172 crits, the Suros DIS-47 921,  and a 1000 Yard Stare does 7220.

I also tested some sidearms on the Ultra Knight. Some of the sidearms have dramatic range fall-off and some have decent range. Notably, the Vestian Dynasty and the Jabberhakke have quite a bit more range than the other sidearms I tested (Queen's Choice, Crow's Eye).

This week's Nightfall is The Shadow Thief (Taniks strike) and we had some funsies last night farming for my Tankis cloak (I finally got one!).

Modifiers this week are: Arc Burn, Grounded, Trickle and Brawler. The funsies part comes in with running a Striker Titan with Peregrine Greaves. The Arc Burn and Brawler modifiers allow the Greaves to "one-shot" many of the baddies in the strike - including the Tank!

Now, you have to hit the tank on the arc cannon with a flying "shoulder" charge, but if you get it right, you can destroy the tank with one hit. As soon as you clear the room of ads and you see the tank drop, it's open for business, so try to get there before the room fills up with ads. 

I discovered you need to come in a little below the arc cannon to allow the flying knee charge to come up into the cannon. If you come in too high, you'll just sail over the tank and everything is awkward...lol

Now, the tank explosion will kill you, so this is not a recommended practice if running solo, but just make sure your team hangs back while you do your Titan thing.

Kal, Ranger and I ran this strike about 6 times in an hour and that was with a couple of breaks to change characters and change weapons/armor, so it's relatively farmable if you are looking for the strike-specific cloak or auto rifle. 

That was a lot of fun last night.  I had already written off doing the NF due to trickle, but to be honest, it was not bad. We flew through that strike.  Sure more grenades and supers would have been useful, but watching a titan fly through the air and shoulder charge the tank was worth it.  

Darth, did the cloak drop while you were running your Titan?

Did you make a clip?