Bungie's Destiny

Never stepped foot in IB this week. We are on vacation right now at the Grand Canyon then on to Vegas for a week, then Utah, and finally back through Colorado. I refuse to play an objective game mode in crucible. Even though I play Control... I never play the objective. I hated Rift in D1 and I can't see me liking it in D2.

 

Missed 2 weeks of Trials due to vacation. LFG'd it. Took 4 groups to get to Flawless. Played with a couple from Norway. His wife could snipe better than most I've seen. Got knocked out on the 5th round though. Everyone I played with yesterday was great. This was just the group that we all played well together. No Adept weapons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ7XlG7GSjo

815 Trials Opponents defeated.



My new favorite Submachine Gun. Not exactly the roll I wanted but it's got stupid range and Golden Tricorn is actually a good perk



Finally hit 97 on the season pass to get the skull helmet ornament.



And yes... I'm still K/D farming because it still works.

 

I forged a Calus Mini Tool and upgraded it with the Incandescent perk. Running Sunbracers and aspects that give me longer-lasting solar grenades, and a short period of unlimited grenades if I kill something with my melee snap. Everything burns. Still miss the Void build with Funnelweb and volatile rounds, but burning stuff is fun, too.

 

It's still funny that the week MM was bugged/removed was the week with the most engagement.

 

Calus Mini Tool is a good gun. It just doesn't put out the damage. I "personally" would have crafted a Drang. That is just about the king of Sidearms in PvP right now. I've got Incandescent on it and I've no idea how many kills I have on it in PvP because I forgot to put the tracker on. But it's basically a Last Word with more bullets.

I don't understand why people get worked up over going into the Flawless pool. It makes no difference to me. It's all the same. You step foot into Trials you are generally playing the best of the best.

 

The most discouraging part is not even the flawless pool. I win my first 3 matches for the week and then it's the best of the best. I'm flattered, but also discouraged lol

 

Basically I'm stuck mid-ladder without a fuck to give.

 

Still need the pattern for Drang, tons of drops but only one with the pattern and none have dropped with Incandescent yet. I've got a couple Beloveds with the perk, but it's better for mobs and closer range.

 

The worst part to me is Freelance weekend like this last weekend. The issue (besides Freelance sucks) is Freelance fuckes up the card based bracket system even in regular Trials. The way it's supposed to work is you start a fresh card and your opponent starts one also. You face off and may the best team win. But on Freelance weekend the card based system goes out the window even in regular Trials. So we could start a new card and match up against someone on their final match. Not really a big deal since you're going to face off against someone on their final match anyway. But still, it fucks up the entire system. Don't get me started on people dropping out of matches on the final match in Freelance.

I've only got one red border Drang so far. Luckily the one I'm using is a god roll. I still don't use Solar 3.0. I just don't like it as much as Void. Don't get me wrong... I'm glad they added it. Just seems like it takes way more setup time to make it work as well as Void did last season. I might mess around on the WL later with it. Not a fan of it on the Hunter though.

 

Finally got the pattern for Drang done. I thought I was going to have to wait the 4 full weeks to get the last pattern. I farmed the Castellum for probably 4-5 hours the other day and just couldn't get it to drop. Gave up and farmed some more the next day and finally got one. Then spent about and hour and a half at the Shuro Chi checkpoint leveling it up so I could put the perks I wanted on it for PvP and also the Trials Memento on it.



I've taken it into Trials the last few weeks but I just can't make it work very well in Trials. It's good but it won't compete with Fusion Rifles in 3v3. In 6's? It's awesome since there are so many more people to shoot. But I just end up using Lord of Wolves even though it's been nerfed. It's still a great shotgun for deleting people.

I just can't get into this season for some reason? If I get on? Now all it is, is just to play Trials each weekend and PvP during the week. But I seriously considered not even playing Trials this last weekend because there is no loot there that I can get that I don't already have multiple rolls of. Ended up getting on and playing because I'm competitive I suppose and I didn't want to break my streak of going Flawless each week since Trials was reintroduced (other than when we've been on vacation). Took one LFG group and one run at it to complete the card. Fast easy card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRGt-Uc6Dgo

I'm glad they are making the changes to the subclasses. You can really create so unique builds. But I still find myself running Void. I just can't get into Solar 3.0. It will be worse once Arc comes out because I NEVER play Arc on my Hunter. Hell, I never play Solar. The changes are good. Just not for my personal play style.

This season has basically sucked. Really nothing to get me excited about. The Casellum is boring as hell to me. The New Dungeon is fun but meh. Other than that? There isn't anything to hold my interest. I think I only logged into D2 a couple of times this last week and that was just to play PvP and Trials. I'm hoping they are bringing back Kings Fall next season. I'll be in that raid all the time since it is still the best raid they ever came out with IMO. But until then? I'll be in GT7 I suppose.

 

So for anyone that still reads this. CRAFT A DRANG NOW!!! It is the best sidearm in the game. Think of it as a mini Last Word.

Don't believe me? We'll here is your proof.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LteTrCFrc5w

 

Well... I just had the hardest time going Flawless this last weekend. Distant Shores I can confirm is one of the harder maps to go Flawless on. There are so many different variety of weapons that are viable on that map. I started paying at around 9pm and didn't go Flawless until around 6:00 am. I stayed up all night the other night and consistently made it to the final round but would get knocked out. A large part of that reason is the loadouts that people are using on that map (not necessarily a bad thing). The more viable weapons that can be used the better. But the biggest issue is the Trials population has dropped significantly due to there being no good loot. The took the best loot out of Trials (with the exception of Eye of Sol) and replaced it with a sub par fusion rifle and sidearm. So many people have said "fuckit", "What's the use?". And I agree to an extent. I play Trials because I enjoy Trials. The loot I just don't give a shit about. Just the fact that I can do the hardest content in the game and complete it? There is satisfaction in that. But that leaves you playing the best of the best which I like because I have to play at the top of my game all the time. But this was the hardest weekend for me personally. I tanked my K/D from a 3.5 to 2.91 over the course of the play session. But that is my biggest problem. I will not quit until I win.

 

Obviously if these guys had this much trouble on Distant Shore then you now know why "I" had so much trouble. I'm in the top 1% of Trials players and these guys are much better than I am. Even they struggled this weekend. Obviously you're not going to watch a 50 min video of people playing Trials (I wouldn't). But just trust me. It was fucking rough this weekend and the fact that they had so much trouble doesn't make me feel as bad.

There were only 258,739 players that played Trials this weekend. That is an all time low for Trials since it was reintroduced. Only 62,075 players went to the Lighthouse. Bungie is going to have to put some sort of incentive for people to play Trials. They took away the best weapons and loot so in a lot of people's mind there is no use. And I get it. I wouldn't play either if I weren't so competitive by nature. I don't give a shit about the loot because I have everything I could possibly get out of Trials. I play it because I want to be one of those 62,000 players in the game that actually makes it to the Lighthouse. Whatever drops at the end? I don't care. I play to win. Winning is the only thing that matters in that game mode to me. Regular Crucible? I don't give a shit if we win or lose. I just go in to kill as many on the opposing side as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik-UlyBaQfo

 

My daughter ran across this and sent it to me, pretty cool. Won't let me embed it for some reason.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9SM-qc3N0Jk

 

That's impressive

 

So for all of those that voted for Eternity to be the Trials map for this weekend? I hope your fucking dogs tail falls off, hope it goes blind in one eye, and then dies. That was one of the dumbest Trials maps ever played. I voted for Widows Court because I know every single inch of that map (not that I don't know every single inch of Eternity). But I played all day Saturday with LFG groups, stayed up until 3am playing last night, and then got back on today when my regular group was on. We lost one match on our way to Flawless and it came down to the wire on the very last round of the final match. The problem with Eternity is it is a big map but all the fighting took place right outside of the tunnel where the flag spawns. Sniping wasn't much of an option because once I sniped someone they had plenty of time to drop a barrier and get the rez. So that pretty much took snipers out of the equation. It was just dumb and frustrating. Then you add in that it was Freelance weekend and it took us upwards of 5 mins just to find a match. This was one of the worst weekends for Trials ever. All I really want is the ship and of course it didn't drop for any of us. I hope they never put Trials up for a vote again because I honestly think that most people voted for Eternity as a joke. And we got it. It was a fucking joke.

 

They better turn Trials around in a hurry. According to Destiny Trials Report only 297,308 players actually played Trials this last weekend and that was with Freelance Trials going on which "should" have brought those numbers up much higher. But only a few thousand more people played Trials this weekend than last weekend. Even worse, not nearly as many people were able to make it to the Lighthouse. Only 57,209 players made it to the Lighthouse and this was a freelance weekend where there "should" have been many more.

The issue is no useable /desirable loot. The loot completely sucks with no weapon that stands out other than the Eye of Sol sniper which is arguably one of the best snipers in the game with the right rolls. I've got multiple god rolls of the Eye of Sol so I'm not even going for it while playing. This last weekend was The Forgiveness Sidearm that is meh at best. There are so many other side arms that are better (Drang) and easier to get. So I got an Adept Forgiveness and infused it into something I'll actually use. This is the problem Bungie has always suffered from. When they remove or sunset weapons, they take away the incentive to play in that playlist. I understand that they don't want "power creep" to become a factor in the game but it already is and always will be. No matter what they do, power creep will always be a thing. Same thing happens in MMO's and they seem to have little issue with it. They just release a new raid and along with that new raid comes more desirable loot. But it doesn't make the old loot obsolete either. It still has a place in the game. It's like Bungie goes out of it's way to remove items from the game that are desirable.

There is ZERO reason to play in the Comp playlist right now. ZERO!!!! If you hit 5500? Good for you. Here's your cookie. But you don't even get that. When they took pinnacles out of the Comp playlist, they ruined Comp forever. Until they give an incentive to play in Comp people will just avoid it. I've only played a handful of times in it this season since the guy I was helping to get his "Unbroken" title gave up. So if he isn't going to play? I'm sure as hell not going to play in that playlist since I get absolutely nothing out of it. The only time I played Comp was to get my 4 wins without a loss for gilding the Unbroken Title. After I got my 4 wins? I haven't set foot back in there and have no intention of doing so since there is nothing to chase.

 

@Slow Internet

I figured I'd break my last post up to this one since this is what we were talking about of why I run in stacked teams. I said if they bring back SBMM to Quickplay then it would do away with stomping on the other teams. Well... They are bringing back SBMM (sort of) to Quickplay. The issue is "how" they are bringing it back. They are trying to balance connection, skill, and complete blowouts which is impossible. Even the way they describe it in the last TWAB you already know that isn't going to work. Don't get me wrong. I "want" SBMM to return in Quickplay. That will take care of running stacked teams in the long run because you "will" eventually run out of lesser skilled players to play against. I'm all for that.

The issue is the way they are implementing it. As it stands "right now", if you should happen to have two teams of complete solo queue players playing against each other and there is a top tier player on one team, it gives his or her team the shittiest players because the game "tries" to balance out the ELO of all players. Bungie doesn't even use the API for ELO. It uses the API from Destiny Tracker. So even if that person is somehow able to still "slay out", he or she will still most likely lose that match. If you go to Destiny Tracker and look at past games, it says at the very top of the match board what the odds were for each team given their makeup. So the match is almost always predetermined before it even started.

So now their solution to SBMM is pretty wide. It "will" be more approachable for those just stepping foot into PvP and that is a good thing. But the tiers they are using will still bring about the same issues as you rise in rank. The game (or better yet, Destiny Tracker) will assign you an ELO score and you will find yourself in the same situation that exists right now. What this means for top tier players like myself, if I'm over (let's use 1000 as an example) and I'm sitting at 900 or above. It will take forever to find a game with people that are in the same level to match up against. SBMM should be just that. Match a group of random people, put people that are close to the same level on opposite teams no matter the skill gap, and let them go at it. That is the way it used to be but now they have made a solution to a problem that is easy to fix into one of the most convoluted fixes they could have come up with. And this will still do nothing to stop people like me from forming a premade fireteam and still going in and stomping the living shit out of a group of randoms no matter how good they are.

The fix is easy. Go back to the way SBMM was. Simple as that. Put people that are close to the same skill level on opposing teams. Everyone wins in that scenario (even though one team will still lose). But it would at least lower the blowouts that occur right now.

 

And it's going to take 10 minutes to match up any 6v6 game now. Too many boxes to check to fill up teams. Fingers crossed they have a plan but in theory it seems frustrating.

 

I agree. It seems they made it way to complicated. I suppose we'll see next season but I don't hold out much hope for how this new system is going to play out. All they had to really do is just bring back SBMM the way it was. It was simple then and allowed for someone that hasn't played very much PvP to go in and start to hone their skills and learn all of the in's and out's of just how PvP works in D2 and not get their ass handed to them every single game.

It would also stop what we are doing right now with going in as a full stack. "Eventually" SBMM would catch up with everyone that runs in a full stack and you would be playing against players that are at the very least "your" skill level or above. That would put a complete stop to what I am guilty of doing all the time. And I would be fine with that. But until then? I'm going to keep on doing it since I see no reason not to for the reasons I've mentioned before in this thread.