Crunchy Dragon

Quite a few interesting sandbox changes were made in the latest TWAB, though I'd make a discussion post talking about the changes and what it means for me.
 
Sniper changes:
Grenade launcher changes, generally won't have an effect on PvP:
Lord of Wolves:
The long-awaited Last Word nerf:
Some shotgun balancing:
Fusion rifle changes, mostly to high-impact frames and backup plan:
AUTO RIFLES GET A BUFF!!
 
So what does all this mean? It means The Last Word will be less of a problem and hopefully make the hand cannon meta slightly more diverse(with specific regards to Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten). The fusion rifle changes mean I will be farming yet another Erentil, chasing Firmly Planted and Tap The Trigger. Auto rifles will probably see more use, and 600 RPM adaptives are good already. What this buff means is that I'll probably be chasing a well-rolled Gnawing Hunger every other week from the Reckoning.
 
The sniper change means I'll probably still be chasing a Supremacy from Last Wish(because I need a good kinetic that isn't Revoker), and I will still continue the hunt for a snapshot/box breathing Beloved from the Menagerie.
 
As far as my progress goes, I've got some good news. Unfortunately, the Beloved roll I want still eludes me. Weekly reset just happened, and I still don't have my god roll Gunnora's Axe.  On the bright side, Thorn is starting to really work out. Apostate isn't an opening shot Twilight Oath by any means, but I'm pretty satisfied with it. I also finally got Bastion, which has been an interesting learning curve compared to other fusion rifles, mostly in regard to damage falloff.
 
Oh yeah, also this:
 
 

Ordinarily, I'd be more upset about having a reload speed masterwork on a hand cannon. In this particular instance, having the reload masterwork is acceptable since I didn't get the curated roll featuring Drop Mag.
 
As for the rest of my checklist, I've gotten 2 Gunnora's Axe rolls from Iron Banner. Both are decent rolls, but not quite what I'm after. I've been properly getting the hang of Thorn as well, leading to some straight up carnage in Iron Banner. The hunt for Gunnora's Axe continues.

Been a bit since my last update. I've since climbed up to 4300 Glory, about 2/3 through Mythic 2.
I'll take this opportunity to give an update on my build as well, since I realized that I didn't actually talk about that in my last post(oops).
 
Due to I'm More Comfortable On My Main Class, I've decided I'm going to rock my Hunter all the way to Legend as much as possible.
 
I've changed my subclass, instead of running middle tree Arcstrider Way of The Current or bottom tree Gungslinger Way of The Sharpshooter, I'm rocking top tree Nightstalker: Way of The Trapper.
Benefits of this subclass are:
Go invisible when dodging Enhanced radar Faster sneak and sprint speeds I'm also running the void Spike Grenade because it's basically a Tripmine grenade but on a void subclass and I love Tripmines. For my exotic armor, I'm running the Fr0st-ee5(or Frostees). These give me faster cooldowns on my melee, grenade, and dodge when I sprint. My dodge recharges fast enough that I can have near 100% uptime on being invisible.
 
For most of the journey I've been rocking the Erentil and Good Bone Structure rolls I mentioned in my previous post. Truth(oh yeah, I finally sat down and ground out Truth) has spent a lot of time in my heavy slot as well. Revoker and Luna's Howl have also seen a fair share of use.
 
Update on weapon progress:
Thorn is coming along, I really should focus on learning that one. Last Word is still a no-skill gun in my opinion. Still no dice on Kindled Orchid or Beloved rolls. Iron Banner rolls in tomorrow, so I can continue my hunt for a Gunnora's Axe with quickdraw/opening shot.
 
I'm starting to learn Apostate(moon sniper rifle) as well, and that's been fun. It's not an opening shot Twilight Oath, but it's not bad with Snapshot.
 
For bonus points, I went and found myself a proper competitive team to grind with.
That's all for today, take care y'all.

Ordinarily, I'd be more upset about having a reload speed masterwork on a hand cannon. In this particular instance, having the reload masterwork is acceptable since I didn't get the curated roll featuring Drop Mag.
 
As for the rest of my checklist, I've gotten 2 Gunnora's Axe rolls from Iron Banner. Both are decent rolls, but not quite what I'm after. I've been properly getting the hang of Thorn as well, leading to some straight up carnage in Iron Banner. The hunt for Gunnora's Axe continues.

Been a bit since my last update. I've since climbed up to 4300 Glory, about 2/3 through Mythic 2.
I'll take this opportunity to give an update on my build as well, since I realized that I didn't actually talk about that in my last post(oops).
 
Due to I'm More Comfortable On My Main Class, I've decided I'm going to rock my Hunter all the way to Legend as much as possible.
 
I've changed my subclass, instead of running middle tree Arcstrider Way of The Current or bottom tree Gungslinger Way of The Sharpshooter, I'm rocking top tree Nightstalker: Way of The Trapper.
Benefits of this subclass are:
Go invisible when dodging Enhanced radar Faster sneak and sprint speeds I'm also running the void Spike Grenade because it's basically a Tripmine grenade but on a void subclass and I love Tripmines. For my exotic armor, I'm running the Fr0st-ee5(or Frostees). These give me faster cooldowns on my melee, grenade, and dodge when I sprint. My dodge recharges fast enough that I can have near 100% uptime on being invisible.
 
For most of the journey I've been rocking the Erentil and Good Bone Structure rolls I mentioned in my previous post. Truth(oh yeah, I finally sat down and ground out Truth) has spent a lot of time in my heavy slot as well. Revoker and Luna's Howl have also seen a fair share of use.
 
Update on weapon progress:
Thorn is coming along, I really should focus on learning that one. Last Word is still a no-skill gun in my opinion. Still no dice on Kindled Orchid or Beloved rolls. Iron Banner rolls in tomorrow, so I can continue my hunt for a Gunnora's Axe with quickdraw/opening shot.
 
I'm starting to learn Apostate(moon sniper rifle) as well, and that's been fun. It's not an opening shot Twilight Oath, but it's not bad with Snapshot.
 
For bonus points, I went and found myself a proper competitive team to grind with.
That's all for today, take care y'all.

I'm properly starting my grind to max rank(5500) in competitive, thought I'd post an update showcasing my various weapons I'm using on the road!
 
First of all, let's take a look at the PvP meta, courtesy of the Charlemagne Discord bot:

 
Because I really want to reach Legend this season, I'm not holding myself to any real standards like I normally would. I'm fully prepared to abuse the meta as much I need to if it means I can achieve my goal. Still not going to drop myself to Lord of Wolves level because I do believe that I am better than that.
 
Let's go over a list of weapons I use from the meta list, and their types of rolls, starting with the kinetic slot:
(this is a list of weapons I've had for some time. exotics are not included)
Spare Rations: moderately rolled, has max handling(basically quickdraw) and Rapit Hit. Revoker: fixed roll, my go-to kinetic snipe. Energy:
Luna's Howl: fixed roll, I have 1,200 PvP kills with it. Power:
Hammerhead: god rolled for PvP, PvE, and Gambit. Play of The Game: moderately rolled, does its job when I need it. Avalanche: solid roll. As you can see, I don't dip my toes too far into the meta. When Shadowkeep released, it reigned in a lot of weapons(hand cannons and pulse rifles most notably), which opened up the midrange for things like auto rifles, scout rifles, and so forth. While I do have a collection of off-meta builds and loadouts, they do unfortunately falter in the higher levels of the comp playlist. This is why I've been farming for some more on-meta weapons that I can properly compete with, and recently added some weapons that counter the meta very well.
 
 
In my list of new weapons, I have:
(exotics not included)
Good Bone Structure Bygones Erentil FR4  
Taking this list from the top, we have a shotgun. Good Bone Structure is a precision frame slug shotgun, and can kill just under the maximum range of The Chaperone. This makes it an excellent choice for countering annoying weapons such as Lord of Wolves and Mindbender's Ambition, as this will kill outside their ranges. Perks are Full Bore, Appended Mag, Quickdraw, Slideshot. Range masterwork, Icarus Grip mod. This one is indeed a real looker.
 
Next is Bygones. This is the most forgiving pulse rifle in the game, capable of two-bursting Guardians with Kill Clip active. Mine is a range masterwork short of a god roll, but it serves its purpose. Full Bore, Ricochet Rounds, Kill Clip, Outlaw. Freehand grip mod.
 
Finally, we come to what some players consider the scummiest weapon to exist. In most circles, it's a tie between this fusion rifle and Lord of Wolves. The beastly Erentil FR4 is arguably the best fusion rifle in the entire game, and this particular roll is probably the ultimate god roll, the king of all Erentils. Firmly Planted adds a lot of consistency and stability across range, Backup Plan is an amazing counter to shotgun rushers. Liquid Coils means I do more damage, the scope gives me a bit more range. Stability masterwork for obvious reasons, you'll get the most consistency out of a fusion rifle if you keep it straight when all the bolts leave. This is also the reason for the Counterbalance Stock mod.
Next on my list of weapons to acquire is the curated Kindled Orchid out of the Black Armory forges, a better Beloved with snapshot/box breathing, and a couple various exotics. Jotunn is on that list, and a few pieces of exotic armor as Armor 2.0. Also need to learn Thorn and, to a lesser extent, The Last Word. Next time Iron Banner rolls around, I'll be chasing a Gunnora's Axe with max range and quickdraw/opening shot.
 
I'll try to remember to post various updates here as well, it makes me sad that I keep forgetting.
Perhaps I'll see you out in the wild as I journey to 5500. Currently sitting at 3495 in Fabled 3, just shy of Mythic 1.
 
Take care y'all.

Another build at last! I like to use the Maxtrexx 55 in builds like this one, but the case had been backordered for several weeks. I found this SAMA-Line ARGB as an alternative, and the quality seemed comparable to the Matrexx 55. The colour changing fan was a nice bonus. Also, you can't see it in the photo, but the RX 470 looks absolutely stupendous. I really like how Sapphire designed the card.   

The specification and cost breakdown (Prices in USD): 
 CPU: Intel Core i5-2500; $0.00
 RAM: 2 x 4GB of Hynix DDR3 @1333MT/s; $0.00 
 MOBO: Intel DH67BL; $29.62
 Graphics Card: Sapphire RX 470 4GB Nitro+; $75.45
 HDD: 1TB Seagate Barracuda; $12.00
 PSU: Corsair TX 650W; $25.00
 Case: Sama-Line-ARGB; $48.03
 Total cost excluding OS: $190.10

The i5-2500 and Hynix RAM were included in another purchase. The other item was well worth what I paid for it, so I considered these components gratis.  

Here are the benchmarks:
All games were tested in 1080p and the FPS is the mean. 
 CSGO: Maximum Settings;186 FPS
 Minecraft: 8 Chunks; 216 FPS
 Apex Legends: High Settings; 84 FPS
 Rainbow 6 Siege: Ultra Settings; 136 FPS
 Fortnite: Epic Settings w/out Shadows; 107 FPS
 Star Wars Battlefront 2: High Settings; 75 FPS
 Overwatch: Ultra Settings; 112 FPS
 League of Legends: Maximum Settings; 170 FPS  

A gaming computer for under $200! I really liked how this build turned out; hopefully I can find similar deals in the future.  

Decided today was a Warlock day, so I hopped into Rumble and started experimenting.
 
I initially ran Coldheart and a curated Lonesome(Reckoning sidearm), but that didn't go over so nicely in a lobby of Recluses and Riskrunners. Following that, I started looking around in my vault for different kinetic weapons, as I still wanted to do a build with Coldheart.
 
What I have for you today is not a build featuring Coldheart.
Instead, I have a build that I'm tentatively naming "Rocky Balboa". This build features a Year 1 pulse rifle, the Disrespectful Stare:
I like this pulse rifle because it's a decent PvP option with the buff to high impact pulses in Shadowkeep, and it features high-caliber rounds on top of being a high-impact. The SC Holo sight is also my favorite sight in the game. This pulse rifle will indeed kill a Guardian in two bursts. I'm warming up to it very quickly.

In my energy slot, I have a Wizened Rebuke that Saladin gave me yesterday:
This baby features a Red Dot sight, Liquid Coils, Auto-Loading Holster, and Tap The Trigger(the best perk for fusion rifles in my opinion). The icing on the cake is the range masterwork. I added a targeting adjuster mod for extra consistency. Also, due to being a high impact frame, this fusion rifle is incredibly forgiving.
 
In my power slot, I'm running just about anything. Since I'm not running an exotic anywhere else in my loadout, this is where I've been sticking my exotic weapon. Black Talon, Deathbringer, and Thunderlord have been my options so far. Black Talon is a particular favorite of mine, it has all the benefits of running a sword with none of the drawbacks.

Decided today was a Warlock day, so I hopped into Rumble and started experimenting.
 
I initially ran Coldheart and a curated Lonesome(Reckoning sidearm), but that didn't go over so nicely in a lobby of Recluses and Riskrunners. Following that, I started looking around in my vault for different kinetic weapons, as I still wanted to do a build with Coldheart.
 
What I have for you today is not a build featuring Coldheart.
Instead, I have a build that I'm tentatively naming "Rocky Balboa". This build features a Year 1 pulse rifle, the Disrespectful Stare:
I like this pulse rifle because it's a decent PvP option with the buff to high impact pulses in Shadowkeep, and it features high-caliber rounds on top of being a high-impact. The SC Holo sight is also my favorite sight in the game. This pulse rifle will indeed kill a Guardian in two bursts. I'm warming up to it very quickly.

In my energy slot, I have a Wizened Rebuke that Saladin gave me yesterday:
This baby features a Red Dot sight, Liquid Coils, Auto-Loading Holster, and Tap The Trigger(the best perk for fusion rifles in my opinion). The icing on the cake is the range masterwork. I added a targeting adjuster mod for extra consistency. Also, due to being a high impact frame, this fusion rifle is incredibly forgiving.
 
In my power slot, I'm running just about anything. Since I'm not running an exotic anywhere else in my loadout, this is where I've been sticking my exotic weapon. Black Talon, Deathbringer, and Thunderlord have been my options so far. Black Talon is a particular favorite of mine, it has all the benefits of running a sword with none of the drawbacks.

Wow, it's been a while. I do apologize for my absence, life got busy.
 
Anyway, let's get right into it! New year of Destiny, new blog posts, hopefully. This entry will be discussing my competitive PvP loadout for Shadowkeep so far. It's been about a month since the Shadowkeep launch, so I figure this is a good time to fully document what I've been using to slay Guardians in the Crucible.
 
First things first, there is a solo queue playlist, and comp is now 3v3 Survival. This is a fantastic thing for me, as a mostly solo player, enabling me to match with other players who are also solo. I've made my way to Mythic 1 thus far, mostly solo. As you may imagine, this has played a role in what I've chosen as my loadout. I started the season off with a mediocre Spare Rations and Graviton Lance. Graviton Lance has wiped groups of 3 for me very efficiently in the past during Forsaken, so that was my first choice.
 
Eventually, I ran into some problems with this build, however: rapid-fire(540rpm) pulse rifles. This archetype received a buff in Shadowkeep, making them much more viable in PvP than previously during Forsaken. Graviton Lance, while being a consistent 3-tapper, struggled against these pulse rifles especially in their effective range. As you may imagine, most maps are not big enough for me to outrange them with Graviton Lance. Clearly, I needed another option. While poking around my vault, I stumbled across another Year 1 exotic pulse rifle. This was Vigilance Wing. It features the Harsh Truths exotic perk: "fires a 5-round burst. When a nearby ally is killed, gain health regeneration and increased movement speed." The trait for this pulse rifle is Last Stand: "Improved weapon performance and greatly increased recovery when its wielder is the last surviving member of a fireteam."
 
See where I'm going with this? In case it's unclear, Vigilance Wing means I regenerate health faster, move faster, and handle the weapon faster when a nearby teammate goes down, or when my entire team goes down. As far as other perks go, this is a 530 RPM pulse rifle with some good range and stability. Almost as fast as the rapid-fire pulses that were plaguing me, with a very distinct benefit: Vigilance Wing can kill a mid-resilience Guardian in two bursts. For bonus points, Vigilance Wing's catalyst(which I completed this evening) lets it fire fully-automatic.
 
As far as my energy weapon goes, I opted for arguably the second best hand cannon in the energy slot: Luna's Howl. I talked a bit about this hand cannon a few blog posts back, and it is consistent as ever even now. There is a new "bug" with the Magnificent Howl perk however, letting users of the Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten hand cannons 3-tap Guardians at ranges these cannons frankly have no business being in, especially after the range cap to hand cannons. Occasionally, I will switch onto my Retold Tale or even my Recluse if the map calls for it. More often than not though, I end up switching my kinetic weapon. For maps like Burnout, I'll switch to Chaperone or Parcel of Stardust.
 
I've rocked this build from 1800-3800 Glory in the competitive playlist, haven't had any reason to switch from it yet. It works incredibly well for the gamemode, Vigilance Wing has incredible synergy with worse teammates and Luna's Howl keeps me covered in the closer ranges. I think it's safe to say that this is my bread and butter in PvP.
 
This is probably a good time for me to talk about my subclass. I've tried Spectral Blades with the new exotic Assassin's Cowl helmet, which isn't terrible and is a strong build by all means. With the nerfs to roaming super damage in Shadowkeep, I immediately opted for the only Hunter super that could actively resist and reflect damage: Way of the Current, or middle tree Arcstrider. Holding my melee button lets me spin my Arcstaff in a circle, reflecting all incoming damage towards my enemies. It doesn't last as long as Spectral Blades does, but it is still incredibly lethal.
 
Most of what I run in comp subclass-wise has been either of these options; Spectral Blades with Assassin's Cowl or Arcstrider with Stompees. I can't say I favor one over the other, but the ability to reflect damage in the face of a damage resistance nerf makes Way of The Current more viable than ever, in my opinion.
 
Hopefully I can get back into more regular posts here soon.
 

Wow, it's been a while. I do apologize for my absence, life got busy.
 
Anyway, let's get right into it! New year of Destiny, new blog posts, hopefully. This entry will be discussing my competitive PvP loadout for Shadowkeep so far. It's been about a month since the Shadowkeep launch, so I figure this is a good time to fully document what I've been using to slay Guardians in the Crucible.
 
First things first, there is a solo queue playlist, and comp is now 3v3 Survival. This is a fantastic thing for me, as a mostly solo player, enabling me to match with other players who are also solo. I've made my way to Mythic 1 thus far, mostly solo. As you may imagine, this has played a role in what I've chosen as my loadout. I started the season off with a mediocre Spare Rations and Graviton Lance. Graviton Lance has wiped groups of 3 for me very efficiently in the past during Forsaken, so that was my first choice.
 
Eventually, I ran into some problems with this build, however: rapid-fire(540rpm) pulse rifles. This archetype received a buff in Shadowkeep, making them much more viable in PvP than previously during Forsaken. Graviton Lance, while being a consistent 3-tapper, struggled against these pulse rifles especially in their effective range. As you may imagine, most maps are not big enough for me to outrange them with Graviton Lance. Clearly, I needed another option. While poking around my vault, I stumbled across another Year 1 exotic pulse rifle. This was Vigilance Wing. It features the Harsh Truths exotic perk: "fires a 5-round burst. When a nearby ally is killed, gain health regeneration and increased movement speed." The trait for this pulse rifle is Last Stand: "Improved weapon performance and greatly increased recovery when its wielder is the last surviving member of a fireteam."
 
See where I'm going with this? In case it's unclear, Vigilance Wing means I regenerate health faster, move faster, and handle the weapon faster when a nearby teammate goes down, or when my entire team goes down. As far as other perks go, this is a 530 RPM pulse rifle with some good range and stability. Almost as fast as the rapid-fire pulses that were plaguing me, with a very distinct benefit: Vigilance Wing can kill a mid-resilience Guardian in two bursts. For bonus points, Vigilance Wing's catalyst(which I completed this evening) lets it fire fully-automatic.
 
As far as my energy weapon goes, I opted for arguably the second best hand cannon in the energy slot: Luna's Howl. I talked a bit about this hand cannon a few blog posts back, and it is consistent as ever even now. There is a new "bug" with the Magnificent Howl perk however, letting users of the Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten hand cannons 3-tap Guardians at ranges these cannons frankly have no business being in, especially after the range cap to hand cannons. Occasionally, I will switch onto my Retold Tale or even my Recluse if the map calls for it. More often than not though, I end up switching my kinetic weapon. For maps like Burnout, I'll switch to Chaperone or Parcel of Stardust.
 
I've rocked this build from 1800-3800 Glory in the competitive playlist, haven't had any reason to switch from it yet. It works incredibly well for the gamemode, Vigilance Wing has incredible synergy with worse teammates and Luna's Howl keeps me covered in the closer ranges. I think it's safe to say that this is my bread and butter in PvP.
 
This is probably a good time for me to talk about my subclass. I've tried Spectral Blades with the new exotic Assassin's Cowl helmet, which isn't terrible and is a strong build by all means. With the nerfs to roaming super damage in Shadowkeep, I immediately opted for the only Hunter super that could actively resist and reflect damage: Way of the Current, or middle tree Arcstrider. Holding my melee button lets me spin my Arcstaff in a circle, reflecting all incoming damage towards my enemies. It doesn't last as long as Spectral Blades does, but it is still incredibly lethal.
 
Most of what I run in comp subclass-wise has been either of these options; Spectral Blades with Assassin's Cowl or Arcstrider with Stompees. I can't say I favor one over the other, but the ability to reflect damage in the face of a damage resistance nerf makes Way of The Current more viable than ever, in my opinion.
 
Hopefully I can get back into more regular posts here soon.
 

Recently got the catalyst for Graviton Lance, been essentially maining it in PvE and PvP as a result.   Today, I'd like to talk a bit about this weapon. In the event of somebody not knowing Graviton Lance, I'll start by doing a quick run-down: Graviton Lance is an exotic Void pulse rifle. It fires a two-round burst, and features the Black Hole perk(second round does more damage, has no range falloff, and has more recoil), and the Cosmology trait: kills with this weapon cause enemies to explode and spawns Void projectiles that track enemies. A quick screenshot of Graviton Lance's stats from Destiny Item Manager: https://i.imgur.com/IxHc0Qe.png Ignore the range stat of 91, that's part of what the catalyst gives you upon completion(DIM is weird with exotic catalysts).   Because the two-round burst on Graviton Lance is very closely timed, it feels a lot more like a scout rifle than a pulse rifle, which I would recommend you treat it as. My opinion on this weapon: I think it's better than most people give it credit for. Yesterday, due to the Cosmology perk, I was able to take out a total of 3 Guardians, 2 of which were behind cover(clip here). Plays such as that have got me thinking, maybe Graviton Lance could be strong in the competitive playlist. At the time of posting, that play would have almost wiped a whole team; here's the important part, without a sightline. I couldn't see them, they couldn't see me.   Today, I started trying to develop a build around Graviton Lance. I essentially modified CammyCakes' "Attack Helicopter" build, substituting Graviton Lance for Fighting Lion. If you don't want to click the link, it basically consists of middle tree Arcstrider(I ran top tree because I like it more), Stompees, and Trackless Waste with kill clip. Screenshot of the build* *not shown: gambler's dodge, arcbolt grenade, triple jump   I honestly love this loadout. It's not the strongest one I've played by any means, but it can work wonders. Graviton Lance aids with taking out groups very well, and can leave Guardians susceptible to SMG cleanups, proccing Kill Clip. I didn't really care what I ran in my heavy slot, the grenade launcher is there because I still need Mountaintop progress. This isn't the most aggressive loadout I've used, but I did have a lot of fun playing it. Thanks for reading this far, and feel free to provide any constructive criticism and share your thoughts and/or experience in the comments!

Recently got the catalyst for Graviton Lance, been essentially maining it in PvE and PvP as a result.   Today, I'd like to talk a bit about this weapon. In the event of somebody not knowing Graviton Lance, I'll start by doing a quick run-down: Graviton Lance is an exotic Void pulse rifle. It fires a two-round burst, and features the Black Hole perk(second round does more damage, has no range falloff, and has more recoil), and the Cosmology trait: kills with this weapon cause enemies to explode and spawns Void projectiles that track enemies. A quick screenshot of Graviton Lance's stats from Destiny Item Manager: https://i.imgur.com/IxHc0Qe.png Ignore the range stat of 91, that's part of what the catalyst gives you upon completion(DIM is weird with exotic catalysts).   Because the two-round burst on Graviton Lance is very closely timed, it feels a lot more like a scout rifle than a pulse rifle, which I would recommend you treat it as. My opinion on this weapon: I think it's better than most people give it credit for. Yesterday, due to the Cosmology perk, I was able to take out a total of 3 Guardians, 2 of which were behind cover(clip here). Plays such as that have got me thinking, maybe Graviton Lance could be strong in the competitive playlist. At the time of posting, that play would have almost wiped a whole team; here's the important part, without a sightline. I couldn't see them, they couldn't see me.   Today, I started trying to develop a build around Graviton Lance. I essentially modified CammyCakes' "Attack Helicopter" build, substituting Graviton Lance for Fighting Lion. If you don't want to click the link, it basically consists of middle tree Arcstrider(I ran top tree because I like it more), Stompees, and Trackless Waste with kill clip. Screenshot of the build* *not shown: gambler's dodge, arcbolt grenade, triple jump   I honestly love this loadout. It's not the strongest one I've played by any means, but it can work wonders. Graviton Lance aids with taking out groups very well, and can leave Guardians susceptible to SMG cleanups, proccing Kill Clip. I didn't really care what I ran in my heavy slot, the grenade launcher is there because I still need Mountaintop progress. This isn't the most aggressive loadout I've used, but I did have a lot of fun playing it. Thanks for reading this far, and feel free to provide any constructive criticism and share your thoughts and/or experience in the comments!

Let's talk about Liar's Handshake some more.
This is easily one of my favorite exotics to run in PvP. It pairs excellently with top tree Arcstrider, Way of The Warrior.
 
Before I get into all of that however, let's talk about Swashbuckler. Fallout Plays did a very good job of explaining it in his video along with some damage numbers, but I'll give you a basic rundown if you don't want to watch it.
Swashbuckler is a damage increasing perk like Rampage. Unlike Rampage however, Swashbuckler goes up to x5(+1 for each weapon kill, instant +5 on melee kill). Swashbuckler lasts for about 5 seconds, same as Kill Clip. In PvE, Swashbuckler x5 grants you a 65% increase in damage. In PvP(which is what we're all here for), Swashbuckler x5 grants you 30% more damage, about the same as Kill Clip.
 
The nice thing about Swashbuckler though, is the fact that you can get max level with just a melee kill. I now present to you, my basically god roll Bug Out Bag that I got last week while farming The Reckoning:
It features Full Bore, Accurized Rounds, Grave Robber, and Swashbuckler.
Let's talk about why the last two perks are italicized:
They pair beautifully together. Grave Robber reloads your magazine on a melee kill. At the same time, Swashbuckler gives you the same damage boost as Kill Clip. You may see why I began this post with Liar's Handshake.
If that's unclear, please allow me to explain the workings of this exotic to you.
 
Liar's Handshake features the Cross Counter perk: using your Arc melee or taking melee damage allows you to follow up with an extremely powerful melee counterpunch that heals you.
This pairs with Way of the Warrior's Combination Blow perk, that lets you stack melee damage for about 25 seconds(give or take) with each melee kill. Eventually, you can get a one hit melee kill in PvP as a Hunter. But that's not all!
 
Get a melee kill, whip out the SMG, shred some people. If you're fast enough, you can also stack Combination Blow between SMG kills, making your next melee kill to proc Grave Robber/Swashbuckler even more efficient. When you get enough enemies on the same place, all the perks of the subclass, exotic armor, and weapons flow together perfectly.

Titans punch things, it's what they're known for doing, it's the main thing they do.
This build will knock a Titan out of his One Eyed Mask.
 
Let's start by talking about top tree Arcstrider, Way of the Warrior.
There are three perks of this subclass that I want to draw attention to:
Combination Blow. Kills with this ability trigger health regenaration and increase melee damage for a short period. Combat Flow. Melee kills recharge your dodge ability. Deadly Reach. Dodging increases your melee range. Combine this with Gambler's Dodge, which restores your melee ability when you dodge near an enemy.
 
All fine and dandy, right? Never fear, it gets even better.
Introducing the Liar's Handshake exotic, featuring the Cross Counter perk: using your Arc melee ability or taking melee damage will allow you to follow up with an extremely powerful counterpunch that will also heal you.
 
As you can see, all these perks and abilities flow very nicely together. Punch, dodge, punch, stack Combination Blow. Eventually, you will be able to get one hit kill melees as a Hunter.
Cross Counter makes it very easy to survive melee fights as well, since you get health regeneration when you deal damage with it.

It's a new week, time for another blog post. Today: Zippy Boi v2: Hunter Edition
Let's talk about the Iron Banner/Control gamemode.
 
Running around capturing zones and killing people to gain points is fun. It can be tough sometimes, but it is fun. Especially if you equip the right loadout for doing so.
Last time Saladin visited the tower, I perfected what I believe is my ideal loadout for the Control mode.
 
The parts of this loadout are fairly simple:
In my kinetic slot, I run a shotgun. This can be Dust Rock Blues, Parcel of Stardust, or Chaperone depending on the map. In my energy slot, Recluse all the way. Heavy slot. Wardcliff Coil or Roar of The Bear. For my super, I run Blade Barrage with tripmine grenades, triple jump, and gambler's dodge. My exotic armor consists of Stompees on the hunter class.
 
All the shotguns I've listed allow for quick and easy kills, which proc Master of Arms on the Recluse for taking out groups of people with ease. This makes it easy to push people off of zones while zipping around the map.
Wardcliff Coil can be flicked as you fire it, allowing for upwards of 3 kills with a single round.
Blade Barrage works very similarly, allowing for slaying Guardians en masse while shutting down supers.
 
What this build comes down to, in essence, is taking out groups of people quickly and effectively.
Lead with the shotgun and proc Master of Arms. Clean up everybody else. Rinse and repeat.
 
Generally I save Blade Barrage for super shutdowns or if 4+ people are all in one place, to ensure maximum carnage.
 
This build shines on the more enclosed maps such as Retribution, Burnout, Solitude, and similar. For maps like Endless Vale, Dead Cliffs, Solitude, and where range becomes more necessary, I like to run Chaperone in my kinetic slot.

This is just a quick post asking people never to do what this guy did:

 
This is an Icarus Grip mod, on a grenade launcher.
 
But why, Crunchy? Icarus Grips improve in-air accuracy, right? On most weapons, yes.
However, all grenade launchers are 100% accurate from the air anyway. So this is essentially a waste of an Icarus Mod that this player will never use again unless they dismantle this Orewing's Maul.
 
Icarus Grip is the most pointless mod you could ever put on a grenade launcher. Please never do this. Put something useful like sprint grip or freehand grip on your grenade launchers.

Fixing computers is always a satisfying thing. Especially after chugging away at it for hours or even days. And when you come across the solution, you tuck it away in your memory, notebook, or what have you so the next time the problem shows up, you can fix it again. But I don't think that's enough to really "master" the computer.
 
I'm having a feeling that a lot of people who are beyond beginners accumulate solutions to problems or at least know how to find them online and simply spout out the solution. While this is fine for minor problems, more involved issues tend also seem to get little more than a glance as to understanding why something is happening in the first place. I find this detrimental and growth stunting in some ways.
 
Since it came up recently, I saw yet another reply in a thread where the OP mentioned cloning drives and the reply was "just reinstall Windows, you'll have problems if you clone." The last time I had any care about trying to talk to these people, I was linked to an article to someone who cloned it and shared their nightmare story about things were broken, but they just reinstalled Windows and everything was fine. It makes me wonder... have these people actually cloned their OSes or are they just spouting rhetoric that someone else wrote? Because I'm looking at myself going "I've cloned a half dozen times, none of them had issues." And then there's the fact that cloning is a popular way for mass deployment of a system. It's simply much faster to copy the data over to a new drive than it is to go through the setup process.
 
Without poking at the solution presented, it breeds misinformation that spreads. I did do a somewhat haphazard test of cloning an OS and used it, and my research only led to one thing that might possibly be it and it's caused by something someone would likely do. But if the solution to cloning is "don't do it, reinstall Windows because cloning causes issues" and the person can't explain why, then I don't think whoever says that doesn't understand the nature of the problem or the solution. They don't have to go down the specific details like "oh because xxx driver is dumb and hard codes where it lives" or "yyy setting affects zzz thing that's dependent on aaa thing", but something that at least makes sense.
 
Why is this important? Because establishing a root cause is helpful to knowing if the same problem happens again and you try the same solution you always have but it doesn't work, you can try a solution that's related.
 
One example of this is when people report their RAM usage is very high, but when they add up the amount of RAM their apps are taking up, it's much less. Like Task Manager reports 15/16GB is used, but the apps only use up 3GB. People often go "you might have a virus" (possible) or "something is wrong with RAM" (also possible). However, when I see this problem, I ask OP "Can you check if your non-paged pool is high?" Why? At first when I looked into this issue, the one thing that popped up a lot was that the Killer NIC driver's were leaking, and this causes the non-paged pool to increase in use. And so far most of the time when someone reports this, they're using a Killer NIC, so a driver update usually solves their problem. The root cause might be "Killer NIC drivers leak memory, causing the non-paged pool to increase." But then I dug around with what the non-paged pool is: it's kernel space memory that can't be paged out. So it's possible the poorly written drivers of any sort can do this. So the solution in general isn't just "If you have a Killer NIC, update the driver", it's "update your drivers if you haven't, one of them may be leaking and the update may have fixed it". I also found out after some random testing that VMs usually use the kernel memory space, which may also cause a situation like this to happen.
 
In another example, I work for a company that does system critical software. That is, this software needs to be reliable as failing can mean serious injury or death to those operating the machinery that software controls or to others that happen to be around it. When a problem comes up and it's severe, we investigate the hell out of it to find root cause. We do not like solutions that work but we don't know the "why." We still implement and post the solution, but it's not very helpful if we don't know what caused it. Because if it happened once, it'll happen again, and the solution may not be a complete solution, it may just lessen the severity of the consequences. And if we know the root cause to that problem, it may start lighting bulbs in our heads that the issue may have led to other problems.
 
So the next time you come across a complicated problem and solve it, try to figure out why that problem happened in the first place. You never know, it may allow you to fix your computer without consulting Google.