Stardust Report: August 13th, 2016
- WLinden
- Aug 14, 2016
- 13 min read
WELCOME BACK!
How can this week get any better?! You guys have been rocking the recruiting post, you're blowing up the INTERSTELLAR PHOTOGRAPHER bounty, and eating up the Overwatch mini-event... so many smiles and so much laughter. This week we get to know our Guardians of the Month a bit better, we introduce two new features to the LUX Community, and we start to lay the foundations for our final LUX Bounty before we name the first ever LUX BOUNTY HUNTER.
There's a TON of info in this week's report so make sure you really look over each section! Put on your lounging pants, kick off your shoes, and dive into this report!
NEW TO THE COMMUNITY OR BAND?
Make sure your name on BAND is your PSN (not a variation of it). Another acceptable display name is your PSN followed by your first name in brackets.
Make sure you have an avatar; It’s so much easier to figure out and associate who is talking.
We have a few simple rules to help keep our clan awesome…
1. Be respectful, to your clanmates and admins. Harassment, arguing, or general misconduct are the fastest ways to be removed from the clan.
Reports of RAGE QUITTING will receive one warning.A second offense will result in removal from the clan. (Rage quitting is defined as rudely exiting a game; whether that is PvP, or PvE related. We're all adults here, act like it if something is going wrong)
2. Be helpful. No one likes a lifeless group or a lack of a team for challenges. Hop in a new fire team every now and help out.
3. Have fun and be mature. Joking around is ok, but let’s keep it relatively clean and appropriate. You’ll be warned once if you cross a line. Don’t be that guy to get booted for breaking a rule. No one likes that guy.
LUX IMPORTANT INFO
- ACTIVITY CHECK INFO: Our check is over and those who didn't respond have been removed from all chats except the PENDING REMOVAL chatroom. You do not want to end up there... As of this morning, only ONE PERSON has read the chat and responded, keeping him in the group. The other 41 members have about 10 days left to respond before we open up their spots for members to move around. The next ACTIVITY CHECK is scheduled for October, make a note!
- WLINDEN WILL BE OFFLINE AND AWAY FROM BAND TUESDAY EVENING THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING. "My wife is on vacation all week and we're heading to the beach Tuesday afternoon. While I'm away, Repliforce and Zaraeleus will be in full control of the show, and Chex is being given temporary co-admin powers to help police chats. If there is any immediate, pressing issues that needs an admin, please start with Repliforce and be patient for responses. Zaraeleus should be a last resort option as he is currently packing for a move. I'll check Band when I can, but my attention will be on my wife and kids 99% of the time. Have fun, and don't burn the house down."
- NEVERWINTER GUILD: We opened up a seperate Band for our LUX Neverwinter Guild, currently being run by Valek_27, HawkZoned, and Kharazidusk. These fine gentlemen have not only taken charge of this surprisingly popular game, but have put together quite the guild for our members and non-Destiny members to enjoy. In the next few days, we will be opening a page on our website specifically for the NW Guild. Thanks to the guild leaders, we will also have a ton of information for new players, as well as a welcome for our non-Destiny folk.
NO STARDUST REPORT NEXT WEEK. Unless plans change, there will not be a Stardust Report next week. We will update everyone using Band with a mini-report sometime Saturday or Sunday.
MOMENTS OF TRIUMPH REMINDER:
This coming week should be a return visit from Thalnok at the Court of Oryx, and the Oryx Challenge should be active as well. If you're needing either of these fragments, post your requests for help in the Main Chat, or the Missions/Strikes Chat.
Thalnok should be easy for any teams of three with mics, and Oryx can be done on normal mode for EVERYONE wanting to get the fragment quickly. (Remember that we do have a King's Fall guide posted on our site.)
FROM BUNGIE
Check out this week's update from Bungie right HERE
The information about Rise of Iron just keeps coming! This week we can expect to finally learn about the new Crucible changes coming, and should get a preview of the new mode, Supremacy. Curious and wanting to see the new changes for yourself? Bungie will be hosting a Twitch stream on August 16th at 10am PST. Check that our here: Bungie's Twitch Channel.
Also on Tuesday will be some scheduled maintenance and the return of Iron Banner! Expect maintenance to start around 10am PST (guess you could watch the stream while work is being done) and to conclude sometime between 11am and noon PST. Once we have our game back online, IRON BANNER - CLASH will be live and offering what may be one of the last chances at Iron Banner gear from Year 2.
Remember folks, you can build a fireteam using the EVENTS: Trials, Banner, SRL chatroom. Don't forget to take turns popping Crucible Reputation boosters throughout the week!!
FROM BLIZZARD
Check out the most recent patch notes from Blizzard right HERE.
This round of patch notes focused entirely on the PC side of things, but as we know, those notes translate into a future patch for us on PS4. To recap those notes:
MAP BALANCE UPDATES
Respawn time for defenders has been standardized to 10 seconds on all map.
Payload speed has been slightly reduced on Watchpoint: Gibraltar.
MAP SPECIFIC CHANGES
Estádio das Rãs (Lúcioball)
Fixed a bug that allowed players to spawn as heroes other than Lúcio
Nepal
Fixed an issue which allowed players to get stuck outside the normal boundaries of the map
Temple of Anubis
Fixed a bug causing a portion of the city wall to display incorrectly on all graphics settings
We can expect to see these fixes implemented soon. Now on to a more exciting piece of news we learned this week, focusing on three heroes needing a bit of tweaking as well as a very large change to gameplay mechanics.
In a recent Battle.net forum post, community manager Lylirra confirmed that 63-tick servers, or more recognizably referred to as "High Tick Servers" will be rolled out to all regions over the course of a few weeks. High Tick Servers are HUGE for both PC and console gaming because it creates a more responsive game. At the current setting, Overwatch is running on a 28-tick system, so imagine inputting a command and seeing an immediate response, lower latency, and smoother gameplay.
For players without a strong enough connection to utilize the High Tick Servers, a balancing mod will be active to adjust your gameplay on the fly while you play.
Regarding characters, first on the block is Zenyatta. After the most recent buff patch, Zenyatta has become a bit overpowered and it has been noted specifically to involve Zen's Discord Orb. While details have not been set in stone, expect to see a slight nerf to the recent increase given to the Discord Orb specifically.
Next we have Mercy and her healing abilities. While Mercy is still a top choice for healers, she hasn't really fallen into a particular happy place with her abilities. During the last patch, Mercy received a great update to her damage output, but that may have affected her in healing. Balancing manager Geoff Goldman stated "At one point, [Mercy] had a new ability that put a slow heal over time effect on everyone around you, that meant you could use it to toss onto people that needed topping off without having to swap beam targets as often." That idea was scraped for now, but the efforts to improve Mercy are apparent, and we can assume another buff is in her future.
Finally, we end with the icy problem child, Mei. While the details are very light regarding the work going into Mei, it appears the focus is directed at her ultimate ability. There is talk of making is penetrate barriers (such as Reinhardt's shield) along with increasing the radius of the freeze. Why cruel Overwatch gods... why!?
We're also on the lookout for new info about Season 2 of Competitive Mode. As soon as we have more info, we'll post it all in a Stardust Report.
LUX EVENTS and bounties
CURRENT BOUNTY: Interstellar Photographer
On Tuesday we started a rather unique Bounty. We asked you to send your screenshots to WLinden via PSN message and tag the photo with either bold word:
ACTION - Take an action picture: Anything related to battling or movement.
SCENE - Take a environmental picture: Anything in the world of Destiny that looks cool.
You have responded in extraordinary fashion! There's still time to send in your screenshots but you need to hurry. On Monday morning there will be two polls posted with a link to each slideshow of the photos submitted. It is our job to pick a winner, and award some BOUNTY HUNTER points.
The rules for voting are simple: You may select 1 picture from each slideshow and vote for it. Screenshots will not have a name attached to them, only a LETTER. This will eliminate any bias from your decisions. The top three in each category will earn 5, 4, and 3 BOUNTY HUNTER points, in that order.
Voting will be active for 24 hours and the winners announced Tuesday evening.
UPCOMING BOUNTY: The Iron Lords Are Watching
This may be the last Iron Banner we see before the Rise of Iron expansion is released... so we're igniting our own banner once more. Race to be the first 10 people to submit a screenshot of their RANK 5 reputation. Screens must be placed in the comments of the BOUNTY POST when it goes up or sent to WLinden via PSN Message.
Your screenshot MUST contain your PSN ID and the Rank 5 Reputation info in some form.
This bounty will be posted on Tuesday before maintenance is done.
CURRENT EVENT:
NO EVENT THIS WEEK
With Iron Banner active, we know most of the focus will be there. We will be launching the sign-up for our next event though, so keep your eyes open. Full event info will be posted by Tuesday.
CURRENT OVERWATCH MINI-EVENT: Peek-A-Boom!!
You guys wanted a sniper battle... we decided to make the snipers work for it.
This event was run on Thursday, and was an absolute BLAST! (Pun fully intended)
Similar to when we set up Merciful Knights, we didn't know what to really expect for this event. At first, the teams seem really unfair, but as we played it became clear that it was a challenge for everyone. The mix of long snipers and Junkrats lobbing grenades all around made for some very intense battles of the payload. Overall, I would dare say this was another successful and entertaining event.
The next Overwatch Mini-Event will go live AFTER Iron Banner concludes. We'll share the details next week... but will leave you with a small hint with who it involves. You may be a bit torb between our choices, but it shouldn't be too hardt once we explain the challenge.
UPCOMING EVENT: Challenge of the Iron Lords (A Tier Based Raid Event)
We will layout the details for this awesome two-week long event, which was designed by our very own HawkZoned, on Tuesday during the maintenance time. Keep an eye on our main Band page for the full details. Sign-ups will also go up at that time.
Brace yourselves for a raid specific event designed to get you in the groove for all the new content coming with Rise of Iron. Oh... and it's a race. Get your raid legs ready! Start forming your teams now!
Guardian of the month
If you missed the announcement last week, this month's Guardians of the Month are TheCostlows and Killer_of_EpicZ. These two guardians have shown their love for the world of Destiny, as well as their willingness to help out our community whenever they can. Both received many kudos from the community and definitely deserved to earn this title.
Just like we did last month, and plan to do each month, we asked the winners a few quick questions. Here's those five questions and their responses:
1: We didn't tell you in advance about being picked as GOTM. What did that feel like to have everyone cheering and congratulating you in chat and on our Stardust post?
C: "At first, confusion, I didn't even know what GOTM stood for until I asked like I ask everything, lol. It was really cool, and felt like I was apart of something great and unique when everyone started congratulating Killer, and myself. I hadn't yet finished the report before it all started flooding the chat rooms. It makes me extremely happy to be apart of Lux."
K: "For me it felt rewarding and really nice. I had just been going around helping people when I was bored and being guardian of the month was a goal I had set as soon as I saw Hawk and Chex being the first ones. Everyone said some really nice words to me, thanking me for the things I did and I felt happy."
2: What brought you to Destiny?
C: "Truthfully, it was half off on the PlayStation Store on Black Friday and my wife bought it and told me to try it out. Haven't played many games since, except random few times of Umbrella Corp, and Diablo III with my best friend."
K: "I got the game when I first got my PS4 because it was one of those promo deals. I got it together with Advanced Warfare and at that point I had stopped playing Cod games. So I started destiny chose my hunter and went on. At first the controls annoyed me so much but after switching it up I started to love the game so much."
3: Outside of the game, do you have any crazy hobbies you like to do? Unique skills/talent perhaps?
C: "I don't have much time outside of "Adulting" with being married, a 7 month old, and a full-time job. My biggest and favorite hobby is of course playing Destiny. Outside of gaming period, I attend a lot of concerts and music festivals because music is my passion, and as a result of that I have a gigantic vinyl collection of new and old albums. Most of course are my wifes jams, and I can always find her dancing and singing them loudly, best hobby to have right?"
K: "I do not have any hobbies/Talents. I do not go outside too much due to having to repeat a year twice and that made me quite the shut in."
4: What has been one of your favorite or most memorable moments since joining LUX?
C: "Probably that week I played non-stop I leveled up a brand new titan of mine from level 0 to level 40 in just about 18 hours total.. But I of course couldn't of done that without Killer_of_Epicz being right there on my fireteam every bit of that week. Something that makes Lux my favorite group of people to play with is, that every single member makes everyone feel welcome, and like Lux is their home. There is no clan like Lux, and the ones that say we suck, can eat my salt."
K: "All the IB matches with Clan members. It's funny how all of us together get pissed off at all the other people. Going flawless has been one of the things that are probably gonna stick with me as well. Playing with TheCostlows was really great too. We got pissed off together and just helped each other and kind of adapted to each others play style."
5: If you had to pick just one, which class could you play as for the rest of Destiny's lifespan? Why?
C: "The hunter, without a doubt. I started with a hunter, and have played every other class, but none of them compare to my hunter. Most importantly.. The throwing knifes."
K: "Hunter. Definitely Hunter. I'd pick up golden gun and destroy some salty noobs... Or just shoot 'em once with a hand cannon and throwing knife their heads off. The jumps are one of the easiest to control in my opinion.
Killer: "Just one small thing I'd like to add is thanks to everyone in the clan for accepting me and playing along with me. I could not have been as far in Destiny as I am right now without you guys!"
Know someone doing an extraordinary job in our community? Someone you see in chat often offering help or advice? Make sure to send a kudos message to the admins so we can recognize you guys for living our community's core values!
THECOSTLOWS and KILLER_OF_EPICZ
Congratulations again you two!
GEAR OF THE WEEK
Fresh from an exotic engram, our FORGEMASTER is bringing us a new piece of gear to discuss.
"This week I decided to do the review on another favorite Warlock exotic armor piece of mine:
The Ram ....PRAISE ME...
The Ram was well known in Year-1 because the amount of of armor it added. While the amount of armor granted was nerfed, this is still a very good choice as an exotic. More so in PvP because it allows you to be more of tank. There is a lot of stuff you can survive with The Ram that you couldn't otherwise.
Here is a full list: http://planetdestiny.com/ram-exotic-year-2/
Personally I think this exotic is better for PvP but extra armor can be good in PvE as well.
PvP:
Re-roll stats to go with your build
Increased armor across all sub-classes for Warlocks
Grants life steal for EVERY Voidwalker melee (smack things and get health). You don’t even need a melee charge
Increased armor can make you more of a tank and is good for more aggressive playstyles
PvE:
Life steal on melee hits can be very nice to not die in strikes or any other PvE activity
Increased armor can be nice to withstand more enemy fire
Overall I believe this exotic is more useful in PvP but it isn’t the worst option for PvE either. The amount of benefits for PvP can make you a very powerful force in the crucible and is worth trying. With the right build you can be a tank and your survive-ability will increase, which is good. That’s all for now from cha boi. ~Chex
CLAN HIGHLIGHTS
Destiny, Overwatch, The Division... we don't care what the game is. (Yes, even some Pokemon GO stuff will make it's way here... we know it.) If you're playing with Lux members, it's welcome here! Send your highlights in to WLinden via Band, or email your pics and video URL's to LuxViatores@outlook.com by Thursday evening every week!
This week’s highlights include:
From: Dpeso21 "Blink and you'll miss it" Editor Note: Had to replay this super slow to even see the headshot connect. Amazing shot Peso!
From: Killer_of_EpicZ "Another Golden Gun use for the Hall of Flame."
From: TheTrueWhiteWolf "Instant Revenge - Triple Kill Tripmine"
From: Killer_of_epicZ "The last light you'll see"
From: Killer_of_EpicZ "A view many are eager to see one day"
From: XxSkeleknightxX
"One of the first reported Black Holes from a LUX Member."
From: Odinson_92 "All this space and still plenty of things to be awe-struck by."
From: WLinden and Bearholdensharks "Nothing to see here.. just a scummy Bastion with scum sauce drizzled all over it"
From: Ethereall (Im_An_InSoMnIaC)
"Another weekly trip to the Lighthouse... no big deal"
From: Middie36
"SPAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCEEEEEE!"
From: WLinden
"The biggest teabag ever to the Warpriest, complete with exaggerated jazz hands." Editor Note: No idea who that is in the teabag, but I'm sorry. Lol"
From: Daxter2579
"Alright, who let Adele in here?"
IF WE MISSED YOUR VIDEO/PIC, LET US KNOW OR RESEND IT AND WE'LL ADD IT TO NEXT WEEK'S REPORT.
admin thoughts
Again you guys, thank you so much for the awesome work you've done with recruiting. Our recruitment post has been at the top of the Highest Rated list for almost two weeks, and we're now in the top five! Also, please remember that any issues you guys may have this week need to go to Repliforce or Zaraeleus - Repliforce first - and Chex will have be watching for any unapproved shenanigans. I'll see you guys in a week!!
Thanks for reading this week’s
STARDUST REPORT!
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