Here's what's happening this week in Destiny: The Taken King....
Nightfall (Shield Brothers)
- Epic - This is a standard Nightfall modifier. It just means there are more enemies to fight, and a greater number of Majors (the yellow health bar dudes) on the field.
- Small Arms - All Primary Weapon damage is increased.
- Match Game - Enemy shields resist unmatched elemental damage.
- Grounded - Guardians take increased damage while airborne.
- Trickle - All abilities recharge very slowly.
Some tips on playing this week's Nightfall:
This Shield Brothers Nightfall really isn't that hard. You have to play the Strike a little differently than you would if it popped up in a Vanguard/Vanguard Heroic playlist. But as Nightfalls go, this happens to be one of the more manageable possibilities.
There are two major encounters you should concern yourself with in this Strike. First is the tank fight. You know those fire jets that ostensibly keep you locked in the area where the tank spawns? Well there's nothing stopping you from falling back behind those and picking off adds from there, then advancing to put fire on the tank before reinforcements spawn in. That's really all there is to it. You just need to be patient and take your shots when you can.
The final boss showdown is a similar exercise in patience. The general rule is to just ignore the bosses whenever reinforcements spawn in and focus on those instead. Adds don't spawn infinitely; they appear at specific health thresholds for each boss. So just damage the boss(es) until adds spawn, then clear the adds, then go back to boss damage until more adds spawn. Make sure to bring your best primary weapon along for this one, as Small Arms is a huge boost.
Weekly bounties
There's also a new lineup of PvP bounties, available in the Tower from both Lord Shaxx and the Crucible Quartermaster. They don't unlock until you complete a very lengthy line of quests (details here), but finishing all six of Shaxx's weekly bounties grants you a reward that's on par with Nightfall drops. In other words, the Shaxx bounties are the PvP equivalent of a Nightfall.
Here's what Petra, Shaxx and the Crucible Quartermaster want you to pull off this week:
Petra
- Take The Wanted: Dornu, Horn of Oryx. Found in the Cosmodrome.
Head to Earth, turn right from where you spawn, and follow the path through the building until you reach The Divide. Dornu spawns here. Cool your jets until Taken start appearing, then wipe out the three Lieutenants and Dornu will appear.
- Take Them Out: Kill 12 Consumed or named Fallen, Hive, Cabal or Vex on Venus.
- Take Them Out: Kill 100 Taken.
Crucible Quartermaster
- Ballistic Scalpel: Win three matches in any playlist with a minimum of six scout rifle kills.
- Ballistic Trauma: Win three matches in any playlist with a minimum of six hand cannon kills.
- Bullet Scalpel Expert: Win a match in any playlist with a minimum of nine scout rifle kills.
- Ballistic Trauma Expert: Win a match in any playlist with a minimum of nine hand cannon kills.
Lord Shaxx
- Individual Achievement: Win two Crucible matches with an individual score of at least 1500 points.
- Making an Impact: Win seven matches.
- Crucible Combat: Win one game in three different Crucible game modes.
- Featured Matches: Earn points in any featured playlist. Crucible wins are worth 3 points. Starting a new match costs 1 point.
- Returning Victor: Complete the Crucible Daily match on three different days.
- The True Meaning of War: Complete all five of Shaxx's weekly bounties in one week. Finish this and you get a Nightfall-tier reward.
Court of Oryx
This week's is the Thalnok, "fanatic of Crota." Generally speaking, make sure four or five players (or more) are participating before you use an Antiquated Rune. Failing doesn't consume the rune, but you're here to win, right?
Tips on Defeating Balwur:
The trick to defeating Balwur is knowing how to deal with the poison that coats the floor of the Court throughout this fight. The only forever safe area is directly underneath the raised platform, below where the boss wizard spends the entire fight floating around.
Once the encounter starts, sprint to the safe area and look for named Acolyte Majors that start spawning. Kill one to clear a temporary poison-free area in the center of the Court. Once that's done, head out to that spot and put as much fire on Balwur as you can while keeping fresh groups of adds at bay. This isn't very hard with a full fireteam. Just keep clearing the poison and damaging the boss from the temporary safe zone.
Other weekly activities
The release of The Taken King pulls the plug on Weekly Heroic Strikes, which used to award players with three to nine Strange Coins (a rare currency) once per week, depending on the difficulty played. Now you earn 10 Legendary Marks (another rare currency) for each of the first three Heroic-level Strikes completed in a given week, in addition to any rewards the Strike would have normally given you.
To get your weekly Marks, which you can use to buy new gear and upgrade your existing arsenal, simply hop into the Heroic Strike playlist with any character. The 10 Mark reward is gifted as soon as each of your first three Strikes for the week are completed.
Prison of Elders is still around, but it's really not worth doing anymore if you've hit the new level maximum of 40. Prison of Elders was introduced with House of Wolves. It's an arena challenge with difficulties at levels 28, 32, 34 and 35. Enemies don't drop loot, so you only get something when you complete the entire five-round event. And anything you get is leveled for less powerful characters.
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SOURCE: DestinyTheGame REDDIT