Welcome back to another weekly roll-up of Destiny information guardians!! Xûr has brought us some goodies to trade our strange coins in for. In addition, we will be scanning through the Challenge of Elders, a brief overview of Iron Banner, and finishing up with going over recent news.
Xûr Inventory
Xûr has made himself noticeable back at the Reef tucked away in his own little corner on the far right side as you zone into the Reef. He has brought some items that might even help make your battle a little easier in the Iron Banner.
For the Titan this week, Xûr is back at it bringing back the “No Backup Plans”. It’s been since early January since the last time these gauntlets have blessed us with their presence. The original year one exotic perk just increased Force Barrier’s duration. The year two boost does the same but can trigger Force Barrier with a shotgun kill. This makes it a little bit easier to trigger Force Barrier compared to the requirement of getting a Disintegrate kill (titan melee power). In addition, these gloves come with shotgun loader and Rain Blows. These two perks will help your shotgun reload speed and increase your melee attack speed.
Overall Opinion: These gloves can be a game changer if used properly in PvP. I like these gloves to make the titan an immovable object during control matches (which is the current Iron Banner game mode). If you combine these with Unbreakable, Relentless, and Untouchable perks it will help to lock down a spot. The only downside to all of this is that while locking down an area you become vulnerable to getting a titan smashed, golden gunned, nova bombed, ect.. These gloves compared to other titan exotics don’t do much to help a PvE group. Although if you are out on your own these can come in handy to keep you alive.
For the Hunters this week, we have the “ATS/8 Arachnid” helmet. This helmet only benefits the Gunslinger subclass. This helmet allows the Golden Gun Super ability to be zoomed in allowing your hunter to pick off targets across the map with ease. In addition to that, it also allows the Golden Gun to be Kept ready for a longer duration. This can come in handy in PvP when your enemies run away from you after hearing the Super become active.
Overall Opinion: This helmet works great to help refine the Golden Gun’s crosshairs especially during those long range across map shots. You only get three shots with this helmet, but it will help make them count. I currently use the “Young Ahamkara’s Spine” instead of this helmet to increase my trip mine ability. The ATS/8 has made it a lot easier to pick off enemies with the Golden Gun from a far range that miss if you are a sliver off target.
For the Warlock this week, Xûr has presented the “Starfire Protocol” chest piece. The Starfire Protocol is an armor built exclusively around Sunsinger Warlocks and their fusion grenades. Its self-titled exotic ability grants the Warlock an additional fusion grenade charge. Additional things that this armor does for the Warlock is giving them a boost with solar armor, and special/heavy ammo perks. If you are skilled at throwing fusion grenades getting them stuck to your targets, then this is the armor you have been waiting for.
Overall Opinion: Like stated before this armor is built around the fusion grenade of the Sunsinger Warlock. If you are one of the Warlocks that likes to attach these grenades to their enemies then look no further. This armor is balanced for both PvE and PvP so feel free to choose this armor to compliment your play style.
The gun that Xûr has presented this week would be the “Bad Juju”. This weapon looks like it came out of a voodoo’s lock box, with the animal skull and green flames that are on it. This weapon has some very nice perks which make this pulse rifle special. The main ability called String of Curses allows your pulse rifle to reload instantly and increases its base damage for a short while after a kill. The extra bonus on top of that is that every kill helps charge your super ability a little more than a normal kill would. This pulse rifle will fire in full auto and has bonus accuracy while hip firing. If that isn’t enough to open your eyes and pick this weapon up for PvE then check out the following perks. You get the choice to select from Perfect Balance (extremely reduces recoil), Armor Piercing Rounds (over penetrates targets), or Send it (increases range and accuracy, but at a cost of ammo capacity and handling).
Overall opinion: I really don’t care for this weapon in PvP, but when it comes to PvE this pulse rifle does work. As long as you are killing minions than the weapon is always reloaded going to the next target. You generate your supers a lot faster and just mop the floor with your enemies in PvE.
Destiny Weekly News Roll-Up
Iron Banner has returned with a vengeance this week. To much surprise, Bungie was able to send out a hotfix on Wednesday to fix the hailstorm of unnecessary rockets. As you, all might have known this issue caused delays (Iron Banner) and cancellations (Trials) last week. Once that hotfix was released Iron Banner immediately became available for all the Guardians to enjoy. That being said since it did start a day late guardians will be earning XP a little faster since the Tempered Light buff is already active.
This month’s Iron Banner is faction around the Control gameplay. Teams will fight for control of three flags which will boost the amount of points a team gets per kill. So to be honest this game mode is always about having the majority of the three control points while denying your enemies kills and capture points. So far from solo queuing it has been a serious struggle for my team to get wins since most random’s don’t communicate. That being said once I joined up with a team it was a lot easier to put up a fight with the right guardians on my side. If this sounds like the struggle you are having I urge you to use either Bungie’s Recruitment Forum or Destiny LFG to branch out and find your new friends and team members.
There is a wide variety of gear to earn during this Iron banner. The weapons consist of the “Ashraven’s Flight” fusion rifle at rank 4 and Ironwreath-D sidearm at rank 5. For armor Lord Saladin has brought Chest pieces and gauntlets. For the PlayStation exclusive armor, this month’s piece are the gauntlets as well which are all available at rank 3. That being said all these rewards can be earned during as post match rewards
-News From Bungie-
There has been no acknowledgment from Bungie about last week’s potential information leak that has spread across the community like a firestorm. Looks like we will be having to wait for the information to drop at E3. On the bright side, Bungie decided to take us along and show us the makers of the Crucible maps that we either love or hate. If you missed the stream on their twitch channel you can go back to view it right here. DeeJ decided to give us a little hint at the future stating “They’re hard at work on your next arena”. So we will see what kind of Crucible arenas the Bungie Dev team can come up with.
-Challenge of Elders-
This week’s Challenge of the Elders grants bonus points for all grenade kills. Getting this maximum amount of points this week will all depend on how well your grenade placements are made. If you place them wrong or damage yourself with them the extra modifiers that are active this week will make you pay.
These modifiers are Airborne and Exposure. Airborne will help you cause more damage while in the air, but sometimes it can cause you to take unnecessary damage. With Exposure active taking damage will not help since your shields will not regenerate in combat. So jump around throw some grenades and take cover when needed.
No matter what guardian you bring to the challenge I recommend wearing armor that provides max Discipline and Impact Induction (bonus grenade energy on melee hits). If you are searing for armor that has that perk look through the Iron Banner gauntlets or other PvP ones you have in your inventory. Other things I will be looking for are exotics that provide an extra grenade perk.
These exotics consist of The Armamentarium, Starfire Protocol, Nothing Manacles, Sunbreakers, Young Ahamkara’s Spine. With that being said everyone has their own playstyle and grenade preferences so use the gear that helps you utilize those preferences.
Thanks for joining us on another week diving through the Bungie universe exploring the ins and outs of what is going on throughout the workweek. That being said it’s time for some Iron Banner, feel free to drop me a line on PS4 if you see me in the midst of battle.
-ShadowAssault86