• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Destiny 2 |OT3| The Token King

It's amazing noticing the difference between last week where there were so many complaints about not having anything to chase and this week where there's so much salt over Iron Banner packages.

Just sayin'

(I'm firmly in the "I love the new D2 progression and hate RNG and grinding and hate praying for loot." camp)
 

Kaibutsu

Member
(I'm firmly in the "I love the new D2 progression and hate RNG and grinding and hate praying for loot." camp)

I think it's a great system for people that don't play the game religiously like a lot of others here. If you play the game a few hours a week, the high rate of drops and the token systems are fantastic. If you play like 6 hours a day like I do, the constant rate you get legendaries, exotics and tokens to get packages equals a lot of dupes. In this case there is still RNG with the randomness of what will be in packages. I forget on what podcast I heard it on, I think it might have been Austin on a Beastcast, but he said true randomness means there is a possibility you can roll the same number 10 times in a row, or something like that. i think that totally applies
 
DAT Recovery!

My condolences!

I love that we hunters basically get to pick from one of three armor sets, regardless of how they look. I went with FWC just to lock up a recovery set, and bugged unlimited turn ins did the rest.

Had probably my best night ever in this game. Got Better Devils and an Iron Banner chest piece within an hour of each other.

People aren’t kidding when they say BD is the best hand cannon in the game, holy shit.

It's amazing. Been rocking a 305 Devils in the raid shader for two weeks and it's locked in as my PVE main. The only downside I can see is in ammo constrained fights. I swapped over to the raid assault rifle specifically for Calus, for instance. The loss of impact was super noticeable, but I didn't risk running out of bullets.
 

VE3TRO

Formerly Gizmowned
Grinding done. Now to play the game.

pPmdMi4.png

ZNNiYz9.png

tFWzEsw.png
 

gspec

Member
Planetary vendors loot pool doesn't rotate. Vendor pools in general don't rotate. What rotates is what is shown in the preview. You could always get Uriels Gift from Nessus, Gunsmith, or from Engram Decryption. You can also get it from IB.

Edit: Possible exception may possibly be Faction Vendor weapons, but it's unknown at this point since they've only been available for one event.

Faction Vendor weapons can be gotten from Cayde's Treasure boxes.
 
It's amazing noticing the difference between last week where there were so many complaints about not having anything to chase and this week where there's so much salt over Iron Banner packages.

Just sayin'

(I'm firmly in the "I love the new D2 progression and hate RNG and grinding and hate praying for loot." camp)

The issue is a difference between a "good" grind and "bad" grind. A bad grind is being mostly or a 100% at the mercy of RNG. This is what we have now with the token system in IB. It's also why people don't think of the mod system as a valid endgame chase activity because it's all a glimmer slot machine at the Gunsmith (plus the mod system is really limited). A good grind gives you something to chase and a visible progression towards it. That's what you had with IB in D1 where you grinded ranks so that you could buy what you want.
 
It's amazing noticing the difference between last week where there were so many complaints about not having anything to chase and this week where there's so much salt over Iron Banner packages.

Just sayin'

(I'm firmly in the "I love the new D2 progression and hate RNG and grinding and hate praying for loot." camp)

Yeah, the Token system throughout Destiny 2 is the worst RNG Destiny has ever had at any point, easily. It was clearly implemented as an artificial longevity attempt.

It definitely has no place in Iron Banner.

Getting 8 assault rifles, 7 pulse rifles, etc and having 3 sidearms or submachine guns drop in a row has nothing to do with any kind of chase but rather an awfully flawed system.

And I'll say it again and again people misinterpret a lot folks (not all) clamoring for random rolls as some kind of chase when in reality all they want is more variety instead of immediately knowing that the weapon they just got for the 20th time is 3 useless shards.
 

Trakan

Member
Yeah, the Token system throughout Destiny 2 is the worst RNG Destiny has ever had at any point, easily. It was clearly implemented as an artificial longevity attempt.

It definitely has no place in Iron Banner.

Getting 8 assault rifles, 7 pulse rifles, etc and having 3 sidearms or submachine guns drop in a row has nothing to do with any kind of chase but rather an awfully flawed system.

And I'll say it again and again people misinterpret a lot folks (not all) clamoring for random rolls as some kind of chase when in reality all they want is more variety instead of immediately knowing that the weapon they just got for the 20th time is 3 useless shards.

Can I ask what you mean by "worst RNG Destiny has ever had"?
 
Can I ask what you mean by "worst RNG Destiny has ever had"?

Yeah, sure.

For example, it means I can go do mundane activities on say Io, get 20 Tokens, go to Asher Mir, play a slot machine just to have a chance at possibly getting a piece gear that I want/need and be rewarded with a generic "Additional Reward."

All the while, you see your Legendary Shard count continue to rise because of all the duplicates and useless gear you acquire. Those shards must be important considering they are on the character page, have a name like "Legendary,' etc. Yet, they have next to no use when in the first game you could use them to buy specific gear and later on rotating gear regarding perks. This all stinks of a late development change (Token system taking center stage instead of Legendary Shards being the central Economy/Currency focus) either forced upon Bungie or maybe they did it themselves, who knows? This is all speculation, of course, but when you think about it, it becomes harder to believe that this overall system is what the game actually shipped with as a lot of it simply doesn't jive.
 
I think it's a great system for people that don't play the game religiously like a lot of others here. If you play the game a few hours a week, the high rate of drops and the token systems are fantastic. If you play like 6 hours a day like I do, the constant rate you get legendaries, exotics and tokens to get packages equals a lot of dupes. In this case there is still RNG with the randomness of what will be in packages. I forget on what podcast I heard it on, I think it might have been Austin on a Beastcast, but he said true randomness means there is a possibility you can roll the same number 10 times in a row, or something like that. i think that totally applies

I think Datto talked about this in a recent video. The issue here is it's a time limited event with randomness so you end up feeling your time investment (40-100 minutes per package depending on wins and losses) isn't rewarding by getting the same thing over and over again thanks to RNG. Even worse is the fact that the loot is always the same (no duplicate being something interesting). So it's kind of a cascading effect.

One can want RNG perks but also be disappointed at this system in place. Old IB had a set of items you can purchase and random drops at end of game. Both are gone and replaced with the token system that, thanks to RNG, can lead to a high loss of time. Again, it's not truly the grind it seems, it's more so "this thing is only here for a week and I keep getting the same thing." If it was a permanent thing you would see less complaints on the grind (well aside from general crucible complaints).
 

void666

Banned
You should be able to buy any of the IB reawards with a set number of tokens. Let's say 40 tokens for a piece of gear. 30 for a weapon. Or choose the slot machine with 20 tokens.
I am sure this is something they are going to tweak down the line.
 
Yeah, sure.

For example, it means I can go do mundane activities on say Io, get 20 Tokens, go to Ashir Mir, play a slot machine just to have a chance at possibly getting a piece gear that I want/need and be rewarded with a generic "Additional Reward."

All the while, you see your Legendary Shard count continue to rise because of all the duplicates and useless gear you acquire. Those shards must be important considering they are on the character page, have a name like "Legendary,' etc. Yet, they have next to no use when in the first game you could use them to buy specific gear and later on rotating gear regarding perks. This all stinks of a late development change (Token system taking center stage instead of Legendary Shards being the central Economy/Currency focus) either forced upon Bungie or maybe they did it themselves, who knows? This is all speculation, of course, but when you think about it, it becomes harder to believe that this overall system is what the game actually shipped with as a lot of it simply doesn't jive.

My legendary shards go to Xur (assuming he is selling something I don't have) and the 45 shard per Gunsmith package system. I want that damn Antiope-D. I am shit with smgs but I heard it's good and it looks awesome in the raid shader.
 

Trakan

Member
Yeah, sure.

For example, it means I can go do mundane activities on say Io, get 20 Tokens, go to Ashir Mir, play a slot machine just to have a chance at possibly getting a piece gear that I want/need and be rewarded with a generic "Additional Reward."

All the while, you see your Legendary Shard count continue to rise because of all the duplicates and useless gear you acquire. Those shards must be important considering they are on the character page, have a name like "Legendary,' etc. Yet, they have next to no use when in the first game you could use them to buy specific gear and later on rotating gear regarding perks. This all stinks of a late development change (Token system taking center stage instead of Legendary Shards being the central Economy/Currency focus) either forced upon Bungie or maybe they did it themselves, who knows? This is all speculation, of course, but when you think about it, it becomes harder to believe that this overall system is what the game actually shipped with as a lot of it simply doesn't jive.

Okay, I thought you meant something else. In regards to what you actually meant, I agree about legendary shards being useless. It would be really nice if they tied that to improving weapons somehow, so 90% of them aren't garbage anymore.

I myself am a fan of the token system. I was grinding IO for the Titan helm, and didn't get it til rank 29. For me there is still not a more satisfying feeling than getting that thing you've been chasing. I do think with this token system though that getting that last piece can be frustrating for some, and that they could offer the armor for sale but for a ridiculous amount like 200 tokens. That way it would be possible to get that last piece.

In the raid, tokens should always accompany a drop though, not be THE drop. Unless it's something small like opening each section of the raid.
 
My legendary shards go to Xur (assuming he is selling something I don't have) and the 45 shard per Gunsmith package system. I want that damn Antiope-D. I am shit with smgs but I heard it's good and it looks awesome in the raid shader.

Not familiar with this, what is it?

I have about 3,000 LS, if Xur would actually have a couple things I don't have (Lion Rampants) I would gladly fork over some shards or you know like actually sell something quite useful like weekly rotating gear/weapon mods.
 

Cornbread78

Member
How difficult is the Prestige Nightfall this week? I want that trophy but i'm useless most of the time lol

If you know what to do and have a good guide it is do able.

I seriously ran it like 15 times on Sat. night and the only time we could get there with more than 2:30 secs was when I stayed back and did the PE that kicked off right at the start of the strike. That PE gave us almost 2 extra mins, but it still wasn't enough to kill the boss.

The floor fall animations and the teleporting takes away important seconds....
 

br3wnor

Member
The issue is a difference between a "good" grind and "bad" grind. A bad grind is being mostly or a 100% at the mercy of RNG. This is what we have now with the token system in IB. It's also why people don't think of the mod system as a valid endgame chase activity because it's all a glimmer slot machine at the Gunsmith (plus the mod system is really limited). A good grind gives you something to chase and a visible progression towards it. That's what you had with IB in D1 where you grinded ranks so that you could buy what you want.

This is my main issue a month into the game. Granted I’m not a hardcore player, but I’m also not casual, have almost 70 hours invested, a Titan up to 303, but for past few weeks all I’ve done is log in on Tuesdays/Wednesday and bang out all the ‘Powerful Gear’ Milestones except for the Raid and Nightfall. I gave IB a shot but after an hour and realizing how many hours I’d need to grind tokens, I felt that I wouldn’t be able to put the time in that was needed for the full set and w/out any sort of stat tracking, I had no real interest to play control over and over.

I was able to get the New Monarchy armor set but only because of the one cheese grind spot on Titan that got me all the tokens I needed in about 3 hours.

The first 40-50 hours of my playing this I was caught hook line and sinker, I found the grind to be enjoyable and was playing at least 2-3 hours every night. But once I got close to 300 and finished the exotic quests, I’ve found the grind pretty shallow especially since I’m just chasing cosmetic stuff at this point (have every gun I wanted except Sweet Business). And more importantly, there’s no real tangible difference in your gear from LL 290 to 304 if you’re not doing the Raid. And what further kills all of this is that PVP is just not that enjoyable. If the PVP hooked me and my gear made an actual difference, I could see myself grinding for that reason alone. But with no PVP hook and no desire to do the raid, I don’t have a whole lot to look forward to.

When I was addicted to WoW what made the grind fun was knowing “Ok I run this dungeon and this piece of gear I want will have a % chance of dropping from this specific boss” and there was gear I was chasing that made me feel more powerful. I’m not getting that with D2 and on one had it’s good because I can finally play some other games, but there is nothing for me to chase when I know it’s not making a huge difference outside of running 1 raid. I get that D2 isn’t a full fledged MMO and I shouldn’t expect it to be WoW, but it really needs to beef up the end game to get me to buy the next DLC.
 
25 packages into Iron Banner and still no class item for my Hunter. I have duplicates of everything else, though. I think I'm stacked with 4000 IB scout rifles, though. So, that's completely useless.

I'm gonna try and get 10 more packages tonight. I just need a little bit of luck on my side. Speak of luck, I'm still shit out of it when it comes to the Orpheus Rigs. I did get 3 Dragon's Shadow chest pieces in a row, though. So again, that's completely useless.
 

peetfeet

Member
I seriously ran it like 15 times on Sat. night and the only time we could get there with more than 2:30 secs was when I stayed back and did the PE that kicked off right at the start of the strike. That PE gave us almost 2 extra mins, but it still wasn't enough to kill the boss.

The floor fall animations and the teleporting takes away important seconds....

oh dear, does not bode well
 

Deku Tree

Member
I seriously ran it like 15 times on Sat. night and the only time we could get there with more than 2:30 secs was when I stayed back and did the PE that kicked off right at the start of the strike. That PE gave us almost 2 extra mins, but it still wasn't enough to kill the boss.

The floor fall animations and the teleporting takes away important seconds....

oh dear, does not bode well

I did three regular NF this week, on prestige NF, and one rat king NF this week. Here is the strategy we used.

On our successful prestige NF attempt we had two minutes left on the clock when we beat it.

Kill everything as fast as possible in all areas. Except in the area where you are dropping down and sparrowing to the two cabal bosses, skip that stuff. Go to the right and kill the first cabal boss ASAP with super. Then kill the second Cabal boss who is by the right lift (not in the left house where he usually is during the strike). take out everything in the room where you wait to gain time.

After that final jump lift then leave two people back to kill as many adds as possible to gain time. Have one person run ahead and get to the boss and pull the other two forward, need a good person to do this... basically you run the top path and take time to wait and avoid the pushing things and watch out for the vex hobgoblin at the end (take a moment to kill it don't try to run past it). Then get to the boss, and DPS the boss and kill adds as quickly as possible to gain time.
 
Okay, I thought you meant something else. In regards to what you actually meant, I agree about legendary shards being useless. It would be really nice if they tied that to improving weapons somehow, so 90% of them aren't garbage anymore.

I myself am a fan of the token system. I was grinding IO for the Titan helm, and didn't get it til rank 29. For me there is still not a more satisfying feeling than getting that thing you've been chasing. I do think with this token system though that getting that last piece can be frustrating for some, and that they could offer the armor for sale but for a ridiculous amount like 200 tokens. That way it would be possible to get that last piece.

In the raid, tokens should always accompany a drop though, not be THE drop. Unless it's something small like opening each section of the raid.

The Token system would be fine if it worked in conjunction with all the vendors also selling specific weekly rotating gear/weapons (like one piece of gear and one weapon per week) for Legendary Shards.

One of the biggest issues with the current Token/RNG/Economy/Currency system is there is literally no where in the game to outright buy specific gear that you want/need outside of Xur and his inventory is completely random and minuscule to boot.

I will be shocked if the first expansion/major update does not include a complete re-working of Legendary Shards which mimics the old Marks system in that you had a soft cap that when reached you had to spend them in order to earn more Marks. This will require a complete resetting of every player's LS count but that is a necessary sacrifice. These changes all working in conjunction with adding specific loot that you can buy outright either permanently or weekly rotating items (more likely).
 
I really like the token system.

There's a certain game feel that I liken to Skyrim, which is that any moment there is something to do. D2 has that feel in Patrol, especially with the Brilliant addition of Flashpoints. You pick up a Patrol as you head to a Pub Event. You finish the pub even with a needing a few more kills and then you see a High Value Target and bring it down and then you're right near a Lost Sector and you need just 1 more token to get a package, so why not go do that? Now I don't need to wonder when I'll get my next piece of Crucible gear. Now if I want a certain drop I can farm tokens for that vendor.

There's also a certain game feel that Diablo 3 has, which is that you can make progress in any activity and at any difficulty. Destiny 2 does that via Tokens. Tokens are a way to make meaningful progress regardless of what activity you're completing. Patrol is relevant. Public Events are relevant. Nightfalls are relevant. Crucible is relevant. Challenges are relevant.

I will happily bend a knee to the Token King.

(None of this is to say I don't think things couldn't be improved. Being able to buy gear for tokens at high prices, being able to redeem weapon vs armor engrams, allowing armor to roll any stat split, etc.)
 
I really dislike the double kill challenge for IB, it just seems so random to occur regardless the class.

especially since the major abilities nerf from D1 to D2.

in D1, you would Space Magik that shit and have fun. In D2, oh oh you got to preserve that Super because you only get 1 per match.

and the insane Sticky Grenade nerf, like LOL, in the face, still alive
 

Kaibutsu

Member
I seriously ran it like 15 times on Sat. night and the only time we could get there with more than 2:30 secs was when I stayed back and did the PE that kicked off right at the start of the strike. That PE gave us almost 2 extra mins, but it still wasn't enough to kill the boss.

The floor fall animations and the teleporting takes away important seconds....

Yeah lol, I'm not sure it's doable. We tried it 5 or 6 times and no matter what we did we couldn't get to the boss with more than like 2 minutes. The best we did was make it to the boss's 2nd teleport but honestly I don't know what more we could do to get there with more time.
 

peetfeet

Member
I did three regular NF this week, on prestige NF, and one rat king NF this week. Here is the strategy we used.

On our successful prestige NF attempt we had two minutes left on the clock when we beat it.

Kill everything as fast as possible in all areas. Except in the area where you are dropping down and sparrowing to the two cabal bosses, skip that stuff. Go to the right and kill the first cabal boss ASAP with super. Then kill the second Cabal boss who is by the right lift (not in the left house where he usually is during the strike). take out everything in the room where you wait to gain time.

After that final jump lift then leave two people back to kill as many adds as possible to gain time. Have one person run ahead and get to the boss and pull the other two forward, need a good person to do this... basically you run the top path and take time to wait and avoid the pushing things and watch out for the vex hobgoblin at the end (take a moment to kill it don't try to run past it). Then get to the boss, and DPS the boss and kill adds as quickly as possible to gain time.

cheers for the tips
 

Llyrwenne

Unconfirmed Member
With all the Dailies done and one extra token for the final package that's me done with this Iron Banner.

42 Packages gave me all the weapons, the Titan set, and the Hunter Cloak, Boots, and Chest.
 
and the insane Sticky Grenade nerf, like LOL, in the face, still alive

You're kidding with this, right?

Like, the end of Destiny 1 was a mess with sticky grenades. You got one every ~20 seconds, plenty of armor let you have two, they could be thrown forever far away and they had INCREDIBLE AUTOAIM.

It ruined Trials, especially on small maps.

Thank goodness they're weaker now.
 
I really like the token system.

There's a certain game feel that I liken to Skyrim, which is that any moment there is something to do. D2 has that feel in Patrol, especially with the Brilliant addition of Flashpoints. You pick up a Patrol as you head to a Pub Event. You finish the pub even with a needing a few more kills and then you see a High Value Target and bring it down and then you're right near a Lost Sector and you need just 1 more token to get a package, so why not go do that? Now I don't need to wonder when I'll get my next piece of Crucible gear. Now if I want a certain drop I can farm tokens for that vendor.

There's also a certain game feel that Diablo 3 has, which is that you can make progress in any activity and at any difficulty. Destiny 2 does that via Tokens. Tokens are a way to make meaningful progress regardless of what activity you're completing. Patrol is relevant. Public Events are relevant. Nightfalls are relevant. Crucible is relevant. Challenges are relevant.

I will happily bend a knee to the Token King.

(None of this is to say I don't think things couldn't be improved. Being able to buy gear for tokens at high prices, being able to redeem weapon vs armor engrams, allowing armor to roll any stat split, etc.)

This sounds great and was quite doable especially during the Factions Rally Week (with the added quasi PE) but outside of that I'm not sure how realistic this somewhat of a cycle-like almost no down-time kind of play is given fast-travel, instances, player population etc. Playing in a group I guess makes it much more possible but not so much if not. This seems like it was Bungie's intention especially in the EDZ but less so on Io, etc. I'd love more than anything to just go to a Destination (at any time, not just Flashpoint reasons) and go in any direction while finding constant activities to partake in along the way with other random players.
 

void666

Banned
I think the sticky grenade nerf was overdone. I mean, i hated them in D1. But they are useless in D2.

It's odd that every grenade has been nerfed but pulse grenades have been buffed so much. Endless veil, sprint to B. Get ready for a seizure. Hell, any B flag for that matter.
 

sense

Member
I think the sticky grenade nerf was overdone. I mean, i hated them in D1. But they are useless in D2.

It's odd that every grenade has been nerfed but pulse grenades have been buffed so much. Endless veil, sprint to B. Get ready for a seizure. Hell, any B flag for that matter.

I like throwing pulse grenades at B and getting free kills ;)
 

Wootball

Member
So I joined an LFG party of 3 advertising free Trials carries. First game, they were laughing and saying that they were getting lag, and bang two of the opposition team were kicked out, then the remaining two quit of the match. This then happened again the second game. Basically these guys were clearly cheating and somehow kicking other people from the game - I left after the second match because A) It's scummy as fuck, B) I don't want to get wins by doing this sort of shit, and C) I don't want my account to be associated with cheating.

I didn't even know this was a thing - how and where is the fun in this? I'll be fucking livid if this gets my account limited or even banned.
 
I seriously ran it like 15 times on Sat. night and the only time we could get there with more than 2:30 secs was when I stayed back and did the PE that kicked off right at the start of the strike. That PE gave us almost 2 extra mins, but it still wasn't enough to kill the boss.

The floor fall animations and the teleporting takes away important seconds....

my team got there with ~4min on the clock; the best way to manage your time is juggling supers, having rockets with cluster bombs, AoE grenades; finished with 1:08 remaining.


I think the sticky grenade nerf was overdone. I mean, i hated them in D1. But they are useless in D2.

It's odd that every grenade has been nerfed but pulse grenades have been buffed so much. Endless veil, sprint to B. Get ready for a seizure. Hell, any B flag for that matter.

especially with a 4-man striker team :)
 

Olengie

Member
Lol this exact thing happened to me yesterday. It seems to always happen. If you have A and B just leave C it will lose you the game taking it

I rather have any two points captured. From all the matches I played, only a few people actually did that.

Plus damn the leavers, especially those that left half way. They're just wasting their time and their out of 2 tokens.
 
Top Bottom