Clan Emblem: Revolver

Clan has decided to go with Revolver as our clan emblem. It is currently being sold at the Guardian Outfitter, Eva a Levante, in the Speaker Wing of the tower.

Her stock will reset at midnight tonite, Pacific Time, so go get it now!

SGA: Make it rain heavies

Great post on reddit today from /u/toleressea:

http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2t1vyk/the_importance_of_heavy_weapons_in_raids/

About Me:
I'm 27, married (aka I don't have infinite time to work with), and I love to Sherpa raids in Destiny. Learning the mechanics of raid content in and out and then teaching it to others in a fun manner is one of the greater joys I've found in this game.
Note: There may be some raid content spoilers in the body of this post.

---

We've all been there (well, some of us).

You're at the gate of Vault of Glass, and you've been faithfully obliterating every Minotaur that comes your way on the right side with Corrective Measure. The center looks to be holding pretty solid as well. The only catch is that the two guys on the left seem to be dying every 30 seconds or so. After a few times of scoping in to help them out, you realize that you never see them using anything but primary weapons. You've been at this gate for 15 minutes now, and all you're hearing is "We're level 31, I don't need to waste heavy ammo synthesis for this."
It sure might be possible, but boy would it be easier.
You've made it to Confluxes! Unfortunately, you've also been wiping for 45 minutes with no end in sight. That left conflux keeps getting overrun, regardless of the THREE guardians you have positioned there. Getting truly frustrated, you call out, "I'll cover center instead of right", with an aim to getting an eye on left, to see what the heck is going on over there. It's then you notice they're trying to take down Minotaurs with Auto Rifles only.
You might get it eventually, but boy could it have been quicker. You get the idea. We've all been at that point where your heavy ammo hits 0 and you ask yourself a question, "Is it worth spending the heavy ammo synth? Can we make it without it?" How you, and every member of your fireteam, answers that question is unbelievably important to your success.
A lot of guardians think they can get by, and they just want to save their glimmer. I understand the perspective, and I'll explain why it's not efficient further down.

---

What's the alternative?

I've been an avid user of DestinyLFG.com/net, r/fireteams, and the100.io, as they've been released. There are a few friends I often take with me into raids, but on the whole I've been pugging groups (pug = pick-up group) since the first week I raided. I have seen a lot of different people, with a wide variety of attitudes, skill levels, styles, and general badassery to go with it.
I can say that without a doubt, the thing that has the greatest impact on our effectiveness, how quickly we clear the content, is the frequency with which raid members fire their heavy weapons and use heavy ammo synthesis.
It's critical to point out that Gjallarhorn is not necessary for your heavy weapon to be useful.
I've also raided every bit of content in Destiny as it's released, which means I appreciate what it feels like to down a boss without a full raid of max-level guardians. The point I'm making about heavy weapons is relevant regardless of your level and the level of the raid you're in.

---

Are you saying to use it all the time?

No! I'm saying that when it hits the fan every raiding guardian should:

1. Have heavy ammo synthesis
2. Be willing to use it

You should of course make every effort to use heavy ammo that drops during the raid, and definitely ask the raid to specify whether or not this attempt "is a wipe" before using it. If the raid says they want to keep pushing that attempt, don't be stingy. Give it your all.
Here are some classic examples of current raid content where heavy weapons can really make or break the check point:
Vault of Glass:

• Opening the gate in VoG
• Conflux
• Oracles (non-cheese)
• Templar (no teleport non-cheese)
• Gatekeeper
• Atheon

Crota's End:

• Lamps (you might say not necessary, I say why not)
• Thrallway
• Deathsinger
• Crota

Spoiler alert: It's useful for nearly every check point of every raid.

---

Dagnabit, but it's expensive!

I hear you, I really do. To counter this common myth, that using heavy ammo synth is too expensive, especially in light of the horrendous heavy ammo bug, we're going to do a little pseudo math now.
Not counting strange coins, it costs 950 glimmer to buy a single heavy ammo synthesis. That means with a maximum 25k glimmer, you can buy 26 heavy synths (24,700 glimmer). It takes about 45-50 minutes to farm 25k glimmer using the most popular Exclusion Zone farming method.
The key is understanding how expensive every raid wipe actually is. You have to stop looking at how much glimmer each heavy ammo synth costs, and start looking at how many heavy ammo synth you could have bought with the time you spent wiping in the raid.
You wiped for 30 minutes on Gatekeepers? You could have bought 12-13 heavy ammo synth with that time, good for 60 minutes straight, popping one every 5 minutes. The reality is that most often, you don't end up using them on cooldown. Additionally, if everyone in the raid is using their heavy weapons, the content is cleared quicker, costing everyone less glimmer. It's about sharing the load, a lighter concept.
All too often, that one guy with a Gjallarhorn ends up spending 90% of the glimmer in a raid, as everyone else assumes "he's got it covered." I've been that one guy. I'm happy to do it, but I appreciate it a heck of a lot more when my fireteam is firing their rockets, even rare quality ones, right beside me. This brings me to my last point...
Note: I use boots with +heavy ammo, regardless of the bug, because I'd rather have 7 rounds when I pop a synth than have rounds carry over wipe after wipe after wipe...

---

Being generous with your heavy ammo is contagious.

More often than not, when guardians see their fireteam going crazy with heavy weapons, they don't want to be left out. They want to join in the explosions and general badassery.
This isn't 100%. There's always that guy, who stoically refuses the necessity of the thing, convinced that those blessed with Ghorns deserve to spend every ounce of glimmer they have so he can have a chance at getting his own.
After a week of raiding, I usually use between 5 and 10 heavy ammo synth per character (not counting my Titan, because Ruin Wings are amazing). I usually buy a minimum of 20 per character with strange coins each time Xur shows up.
Note: Don't be that guy who uses heavy ammo, a wipe happens anyway due to this or that, and then complains LOUDLY to everyone how X guardian cost them their heavy ammo. We're all in the same boat; suck it up, Guardian.

---

Don't believe me with all of this? Try it.

Hard mode Crota's End hits tomorrow, and the point I'm making is especially crucial when hitting new content you've never seen before. You want to get a feel for the mechanics and then hit them with everything you have. Don't waste your time wiping over and over again. Get it done, guardians.
I understand that some of you feel as though you simply don't have time to farm the glimmer and strange coins to stay stocked up. I heartily believe that you'll actually redeem time with this method, and I think you'll have more fun doing it. It's fun to use heavy weapons - Bungie did a great job with them, and not just Gjallarhorn.

---

TLW (tl;dr) The willingness of raid members to use heavy weapons is directly proportionate to the time it takes to clear raid content, lessening the load for everyone.
Edit: Formatting

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. X1 Destiny.

Phogoth with arc burn.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. X1 Destiny.

Weekly strike is Sepiks, with an Arc burn for the Nightfall.

Congratulations to darknorpo on reaching level 25 and completing his first raid!  Game stats at gametracker.com - OD experienced his "legend" moment at the Gatekeepers, solo'ing the center conflux.

Some Super Good Advice:

• Brune's weekly tracker sheet

Destiny Addiction

Clan stats.

Player	Hours	Progress	Grimoire	Main	Alt1	Alt2	Hrs/Day	HPD Dec
Beer4Porter	85	43%	1,430	29	0	0	0.7	1.3
Brune TSLJ	474	75%	2,145	30	29	30	4.0	6.6
CoolerSopranos2	212	68%	1,835	29	30	2	1.8	1.7
Cubert30	558	90%	2,145	31	31	31	4.7	5.7
darknorpo	23	26%	1,155	24	0	0	0.2	0.6
Freaky cP	294	78%	1,910	32	20	23	2.5
gtdroptop	422	87%	1,990	31	32	31	3.5	3.2
o DeadEye o	10	17%	530	9	6	0	0.1	0.0
OmniscientDeath	347	80%	2,025	31	32	31	2.9	3.2
Wadster90	491	90%	2,415	31	31	31	4.1	4.4
YVRShyAsian	654	90%	2,190	30	30	31	5.5	5.3

Brune appears to have developed a problem, jumping up to an average of 6.6 hours per day in the last month.  Impressive.

Reminder: Clan chat

As a reminder, we have a live clan chat that runs on groupme:

• https://groupme.com/join_group/11486142/Le5gT5

groupme doesn't cost anything and is ad-free.  You can use it through the website from any browser, or as a free app on any smarthphone.

It's certainly not required to join, but Destiny is pretty complicated and a TON if information is exchanged in chat these days.  I only post about 5% of the information into the blog.  If you're feeling a bit lost, joining chat is probably a good idea.  A lot of chat tends to be focused on top-level content because those are the guys who are most active, but it's absolutely the best place to bring your questions on any level of content from 1-32.

• Website
• Android App Store
• iTunes App Store
• Windows Phone Marketplace

Weekly useful Destiny stuff

Some Super Good Advice:

• Hit (undocumented) "X" at the difficulty selection menu to reset a story on Heroic mode
• Destiny Ghost Hunter: Website that tracks which ghosts you have or have not picked up
• Crota's End lamp room map
• Nightfall rotation schedule: Not yet updated for Omnigul, the rest appear to hold though
• destinytracker game viewer: Like how bungie.net used to do Halo stats

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. X1 Destiny.

gt, cubert and wadster carried the two key checkpoints over the reset last night, so we have a ton of fun queued up for this week.  Welcome back from the holidays!

• Valus Nightfall: Lightswitch, Juggler, no burn
• Valus Heroic Strike: Lightswitch
• Vault of Glass Raid: Normal mode, fresh start through Templar
• VoG: Normal and hard mode, Gorgon exotic chest
• VoG: Hard mode, Atheon [Checkpoint carried over]
• Crota's End Raid: Lamp room first chest
• CE: Fresh start through second chest
• CE: Crota cheese [Checkpoint carried over]
• Still some toons with Eris stories to finish

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. X1 Destiny.

Typically Nightfall or Crota raid on Tuesdays. But I'll drop down and run lower content with anybody that joins. Message me on XBL if you're unable to join the chat party because it's full or whatever.

Seasons Greetings

As composed by wadster90:

You know Cooler and Cubert,
Brune and OD.
Norpo and Porter,
Freaky and GT.
But do you recall,
The most famous cheeser of all?

Wadster the red-nosed warlock,
ready to go and cheese.
Nightfalls should drop some sweet loot,
Gjallys around if you please!

If Crota is to meet his end,
Cubert needs to leave.
We all need to DPS,
and force him to a knee.

GT wants some armor,
OD needs a helm,
I still want a Mythoclast,
The best in Atheon's realm

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. X1 Destiny.

Nexus is the strike this week. Void burn for the Nightfall.

I'll be back in town and plan to be on. I do still have guests in town though, so there's a chance I may be delayed. But I don't need to sleep anymore, so should be on at some point, even if not right at 9.

groupme Clan Chat

With the complicated Destiny game mechanics and regular patches that totally change how the game is played, I think we need more real time comms.  Please either register at groupme.com and/or download the app to your phone.  It's a free app that allows group chat threads.  Download links:

• Website
• Android App Store
• iTunes App Store
• Windows Phone Marketplace

Once you get registered, please invite me to chat using gtdroptop@hotmail.com, or click this link to join the group directly.

Tip: The groupme notifications for mobile can get busy.  You can disable these per your personal preference.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. X1 Destiny.

Plan for tonight is to run Nightfalls, up to 3 times to cover everybody's characters.  Be sure to join the Xbox Live chat party, because we will be running parallel strikes.  Nightfall and Heroic Weekly this week are level 30 Phogoth with Arc Burn.  Please try your best to NOT go into matches underleveled, because it makes it more difficult and time consuming for everybody involved.  The Bada Bing Best Known Method for Nightfall and Weeklies is to run at max level, and then to switch out to alts at the end as needed for rewards.  e.g., I will be running everything 3 times on my 30 Hunter, but switching to my 29 Warlock on one run, and my 29 Titan on another run.  We would much rather wait 5 minutes while you go to Tower and switch out, instead of spending an extra hour struggling through Nightfall underleveled.  Rough plan for the rest of the week:

• Tuesday: Nightfalls, weekly Heroic if there is time
• Wednesday: Crota's End Raid
• Thursday: TBD Raid - CE or there's a request for Vault of Glass Hard Mode to try and get some Fatebringers

People will start to break off for the holidays starting on Friday, so will have to see who's around to see what we play.

The past couple of weeks have been Arc Burn with lots of Thrall.  The best guns we've seen for these runs have been:

Primaries

• Fatebringer: One of the best guns in the game for current content.  It's a Legendary hand cannon that does Arc Damage.  That means it gets a damage boost for Arc Burn, gets tons of ammo drops, does 1-shot kills for most trash mobs, and still leaves an Exotic slot open somewhere else.  Can only be earned via RNG drop when killing the Templar in VoG on Hard Mode.
• Bad Juju: Since the last update, Bad Juju is awesome for Hive missions.  The set of perks allow you to hipfire, in full auto mode, and never have to reload.  You can essentially go Rambo mode on all the thrall and solo the mobs.  Can be obtained by completing the Toland's Legacy exotic bounty.  I recommend everybody in the clan start working that bounty off.
• Suros Regime: This is a really good choice for the Lamp run at the beginning of Crota's End Raid.  It has the Lightweight perk that can be unlocked for +2 Agility, which is very helpful for running quickly.  It is also effective when firing from the hip (not ADS), which is very helpful for clearing the thrall crowds.  Has been offered by Xur several times, so most of us have one of these.  Doesn't really matter at this point if you ReXurbished it to 331 damage or not, is mainly useful for the +2 Agility and ability to clear low level trash mobs.
• Vision of Confluence: This is a mediocre choice, but is useful for the Wizards and shielded Shanks that show up in the current maps.  Does Solar damage in the primary slot.  Can only be earned via RNG drop when running VoG in Normal or Hard mode.

Secondaries

• Murmur: This is one of the best choices in the Secondary slot.  It's earned from the Eris story line, so I believe everybody who is currently actively playing has it.  Can swap between Arc or Solar damage, and is awesome at vaporizing Thrall mobs.  Also has the Lightweight perk for +2 Agility.
• Ice Breaker: Everybody's favorite unlimited ammo sniper rifle, newly ReXurbished this past weekend.  Good choice for Wizards and providing ranged support at the CE bridge.

Heavies

• Gjallahorn: "Gooberhorn" is the best rocket launcher in the game, once you unlock the Wolf Pack rounds.  Can currently only be earned via RNG.  So if you don't already have it, don't worry about it.
• Thunderlord: Exotic arc damage machine gun.  Again, can currently only be earned via RNG.  So if you don't already have it, don't worry about it.

If you don't have these weapons, Arc damage is the best choice.  Preferably Legendary or Exotic max damage 331 variants.  If you don't have that, please chat with the party to see what options are best.  It is always worth it to move your best gear to the character that you are playing on.  We'll wait.

Xursday Considerations

The first post-DLC Xursday is in about 5 hours.  We expect that Xur will have Exotic guns and Exotic upgrades to pre-DLC Exotics.  We also expect Xur to have some Exotic armor.  Here are all the new Exotic armor pieces that come with the DLC:

Name	Rarity	Class	Type	Offense
The Glasshouse	Exotic 36	Titan	Helmet	Def: BoL/WoL last longer
The Stag	Exotic 36	Warlock	Helmet	Def: Self-res disorients enemies
ATS/8 Arachnid	Exotic 36	Hunter	Helmet	Off: GG zooms ADS
Starfire Protocol	Exotic 36	Warlock	Chest	Off: Extra Fusion grenade
Ruin Wings	Exotic 36	Titan	Gauntlets	Off: More hvy ammo drops
Claws of Ahamkara	Exotic 36	Warlock	Gauntlets	Off: Extra Scorch/Energy Drain
Don't Touch Me	Exotic 36	Hunter	Gauntlets	Taking melee dmg makes you invisible
Mk. 44 Stand Asides	Exotic 36	Titan	Boots	Off: More Shoulder Charge
Radiant Dance Machines	Exotic 36	Hunter	Boots	Off: Move faster while ADS

I've marked "Off:" or "Def:" for if the armor is more offensive or defensively inclined based on it's perks.  I'm also making a guess that Exotic DLC armor will have max light of 36 - i.e., 3 higher than the DLC legendaries (like pre-DLC armor).

IF Crota's End raid works like Vault of Glass, one type of armor will be withheld for Hard Mode.  On VoG, you could only get the Raid Helmet by playing Hard Mode, so the easiest way to 30 was to have an Exotic Helmet instead and get the Normal Mode raid armor drops.  If that same mechanic continues, and if we look at the DLC Exotic offerings, we know that the HM armor can not be a Chest or Boots, because there aren't Exotics offered for all 3 classes.

What does this mean?  My *GUESS* is that a HM-only Crota's End drop is probably a Helmet or Gauntlets.  However, reddit data from players has shown Gauntlets dropping as loot in Normal Mode.  Nobody has reported receiving a Helmet yet.  That means if Xur is offering a helmet for your class, you should buy it.  It would appear that the CE HM-only drop will be a helmet again.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. X1 Destiny.

Welcome darknorpo to Destiny!  I'm traveling this week, but OmniscientDeath should be on, look for his party invite.

Player	Hours	Progress	Grimoire	Main	Alt1	Alt2
Beer4Porter	48	39%	1260	27	0	0
Brune TSLJ	284	70%	1740	29	14	9
CoolerSopranos2	164	65%	1700	29	26	2
Cubert30	392	90%	2000	30	30	30
darknorpo	6	14%	490	11	0	0
gtdroptop	329	70%	1830	29	28	28
o DeadEye o	10	17%	530	9	6	0
OmniscientDeath	254	70%	1870	30	29	28
Wadster90	363	85%	2015	30	29	29
YVRShyAsian	499	87%	2090	29	29	28

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Destiny.

If we have six at level, we'll most likely run Raid. If not, then Nightfall. The strike this week is Nexus, with Solar burn for Nightfall. The Nightfall pattern has been cracked:

Arc Sepiks, Void Phogoth, Solar Sekrion, Arc Valus, All Aksor, Void Sepiks, Arc Phogoth, Void Sekrion, None Valus, Arc Aksor

We are on the Solar Sekrion week. So many exotics to choose from: Ice Breaker, Pocket Infinity, Invective, Super Good Advice, Gjallarhorn, Vex Mythoclast

Destiny Relic Guide

Now that the whole clan is raiding regularly, everybody needs to be comfortable with the relic. Below is a great guide on how to use it. You can ignore the Templar portion, we cheese him instead of the traditional method. For Gatekeeper, we have been having the relic holder go into both gates, but we can try having the first relic go to the conflux.

--------

Reposted from reddit

Now, the raid relic is a special object that completely replaces your kit and applies the kit of the relic, lets go over the basics of this kit.
Grenade = Cleanse, this is 100% necessary during the atheon or gatekeepers because your team mates will go blind without this cleanse, during templar fight you must cleanse your team mates if you do not take out the oracles in time.
Melee = Dash attack, if you are the same level as harpies, then you will one shot them, otherwise avoid using this unless you need to fly back to the entrance of the time gate after picking up the relic, just jump and Spam Melee and you will be there without touching the floor and will save a lot of time
Shoot = Smash attack, deals significantly more damage and has a little bit of a longer charge up time than the Melee Dash attack, always use this against minotaurs and anything with a shield.
Jump + Shoot = Ground pound, this is probably my favourite ability in the entire game, just because of how fun it is to use. This allows you to deal a fairly large AOE attack which will deal the same amount of damage as your smash attack but will have much more recovery lag (yes I am a smash player), always use this if you are on the left time gate, the one that looks like a desert to kill the hobgoblins during the atheon fight.
Now, during the templar fight your job will be to take care of adds mostly and try to kill as many oracles as you can, many people would advise against you killing oracles but if you are the same level as them and reach them in time you can 1 shot them with your super or your smash attack which is very useful. Now, you have to build up your super which is why you are killing the harpies, this is very important as once your super is built up, warn your team and fire it at the templar because once this happens his shield will drop and your whole team will be detained if i am not mistaken, if you are detained just hit the detainment barrier with your smash attack and it will 1 shot it. then your team must completely shoot the shit out of Templar before he teleports and his shield comes back up. rinse and repeat until templar is dead.
Now, with the gate keeper phase as soon as you get the relic, one of the relic holders must go to the centre as if you are level 28 you can 2 shot the red health minotaurs that spawn in the centre with your smash attack, these spawn pretty consistently and should be dealt with immediately, i normally use the ground pound and then wait for them to drop, then use a regular smash attack and they will die.
With atheon, when dealing with the venus minotaur, make sure you ask your team to help you by killing the goblins, this is all that is necessary, drop in and ground pound him, jump back and dodge his melee, and then smash attack him, rinse and repeat until the minotaur is dead, then go and cleanse your team, you need to ask the oracle team to stay together or else they not be cleansed by your bubble.
in the mars portal, try to ground pound all 3 hobgoblins at the same time, make sure you get no help with this part because if their shield is activated it will just damage you 9 times out of 10 and you will probably die, with this part you just need quick reflexes, dodge the hobgoblin bullets if possible and 1 smash attack will kill one of them.
Once you have obtained times vengeance, everyone will jump in the middle and shoot up atheon, you will hold the cleanse button, make sure you are in the top right corner of the middle platform and make sure you do not move, this will make sure you do not get splash damage, make sure everyone is in your bubble shield and communicate with your team when 5 seconds of time vengeance is left to run out, rinse and repeat until atheon is dead.
Congratulations! you have now learnt how to use the relic, it is by far my favourite part of the raid, it just requires you to put the effort and practice, practice is very important in dealing with a lot of the relic holding bits.
Thank you for your time and have a wonderful morning/night/afternoon/whatever the fuck the time in your area :)

Very useful websites

There's some websites I go to almost daily:

• bungie.net : You can view your Destiny character, gear, vault items, and even change equipped gear
• destinypublicevents.com : See when the next Public Event is likely to happen on each planet - I like to have this in the snap pane so I can watch it update live
• xboxclips.com : "Xbox Record That" clips show up here in real time
• destinylfg.net and destinylfg.com : Places to find extra players for Strike or Raid in real time - this is basically manual matchmaking
• destinystatus.com : Just discovered this today, show all three of your characters with their gear, marks, XP, rep, etc - Most useful is that it shows which characters have finished the weeklies, nightfall and raid.

For your convenience:

• Beer4Porter
• CoolerSopranos2
• Cubert30
• gtdroptop
• OmniscientDeath
• Wadster90
• YVRShyAsian

Gamertags with spaces appear to be problematic.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Destiny.

Because of the holiday week, we may need to prioritize Raid on clan night.  If we have six at level, I'll probably us through a quick Raid for the first hour.  Otherwise, it will be Nightfalls and Weeklies as usual.  This week's strike is Phogoth, the Nightfall has Epic, Juggler, Angry, Void Burn, and Nightfall modifiers.  Heroic just has Angry, no burn.

Weekly clan stats:

Player	Hours	Progress	Grimoire	Main	Alt1	Alt2
YVRShyAsian	410	85%	2020	29	29	27
Wadster90	289	78%	1925	29	28	26
Cubert30	278	87%	1915	30	28	28
OmniscientDeath	207	63%	1800	29	29	27
gtdroptop	290	68%	1775	29	28	28
CoolerSopranos2	118	63%	1640	29	16	0
Brune TSLJ	225	60%	1600	28	9	1
Beer4Porter	35	34%	1180	24	0	0
o DeadEye o	10	17%	530	9	6	0

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Destiny.

Vault of Glass raid, normal mode.

I apologize for my suck this weekend, will definitely be on tonight for raid, and I'll suck it up to be the one to find others to fill out the 6 spots.