Help at level 20+

Kerosene31

Kerosene31

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Sep 12, 2013
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I finally hit 20 on a character last night (took a break from this game) and I am a little confused.

Now, I get that I need armor that has light to progress now (right?). I can either get this from drops or from tower vendors.

Where I am confused is with the vendors. The ones like Dead Orbit, Future War cult, etc... they only provide armor for pvp/crucible, or is it useful in the rest of the game? If I don't play crucible much, should I just ignore that and do raids and buy stuff from the "main" vendor guy for my class? Also, at this point, any XP now goes to my vanguard rank to buy stuff from my class vendor guy?

On that note, if I do get into crucible stuff, should I pick one of the other vendors (I read that they each have a little different gear) and buy one of their "marks" for when I play pvp? Is it beneficial to play pvp? I don't mind the pvp mode, but I'm not a huge fan either.

I've googled a bunch of this stuff and there's lots of info but none of it seems to be explained simply enough for me :) I'm not looking for an easy mode or anything, but I don't want to waste my time either.

I know I should be doing raids (when I have enough gear), strikes, the daily stuff, right? Mostly on weeknights I don't have time for much beyond some patrol missions, but that helps at least give me some vanguard rank (I think?)
 
Kerosene31 said:
I finally hit 20 on a character last night (took a break from this game) and I am a little confused.

Now, I get that I need armor that has light to progress now (right?). I can either get this from drops or from tower vendors.

Where I am confused is with the vendors. The ones like Dead Orbit, Future War cult, etc... they only provide armor for pvp/crucible, or is it useful in the rest of the game? If I don't play crucible much, should I just ignore that and do raids and buy stuff from the "main" vendor guy for my class? Also, at this point, any XP now goes to my vanguard rank to buy stuff from my class vendor guy?

On that note, if I do get into crucible stuff, should I pick one of the other vendors (I read that they each have a little different gear) and buy one of their "marks" for when I play pvp? Is it beneficial to play pvp? I don't mind the pvp mode, but I'm not a huge fan either.

I've googled a bunch of this stuff and there's lots of info but none of it seems to be explained simply enough for me :) I'm not looking for an easy mode or anything, but I don't want to waste my time either.

I know I should be doing raids (when I have enough gear), strikes, the daily stuff, right? Mostly on weeknights I don't have time for much beyond some patrol missions, but that helps at least give me some vanguard rank (I think?)
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Run all the Vanguard bounties you can run every single day to build your Vanguard rank. turning in bounties also will level up your weapons and armor really fast and you can always equip the weapons you want to level up right before you turn them in. also run a lot of Vanguard strike missions to earn

Vanguard marks that way you will be able to buy all of the legendary gear from the vendors and you also have a chance at getting legendary drops . make sure you were on the daily mission every single day as well. and then when you get about 15 strange coins you can buy an exotic helmet from zur. so with all Vanguard armour in an exotic helmet that will get you to level 29 or 30 now since they are selling the new gear.
 
Kerosene31 said:
I finally hit 20 on a character last night (took a break from this game) and I am a little confused.

Now, I get that I need armor that has light to progress now (right?). I can either get this from drops or from tower vendors.

Where I am confused is with the vendors. The ones like Dead Orbit, Future War cult, etc... they only provide armor for pvp/crucible, or is it useful in the rest of the game? If I don't play crucible much, should I just ignore that and do raids and buy stuff from the "main" vendor guy for my class? Also, at this point, any XP now goes to my vanguard rank to buy stuff from my class vendor guy?

On that note, if I do get into crucible stuff, should I pick one of the other vendors (I read that they each have a little different gear) and buy one of their "marks" for when I play pvp? Is it beneficial to play pvp? I don't mind the pvp mode, but I'm not a huge fan either.

I've googled a bunch of this stuff and there's lots of info but none of it seems to be explained simply enough for me :) I'm not looking for an easy mode or anything, but I don't want to waste my time either.

I know I should be doing raids (when I have enough gear), strikes, the daily stuff, right? Mostly on weeknights I don't have time for much beyond some patrol missions, but that helps at least give me some vanguard rank (I think?)
Click to expand...

Don't even worry about the Faction vendors until you max out your Vanguard and get to at least 28.

If no friends are on run the Vanguard Strikes(has Matchmaking) and Patrols. Buy better gear and then run the strikes at the higher difficulty. Get to 26 and have someone take you on the VoG Raid but it is funner if you are 27-28. Then run the Raid once a week and the Daily+Strikes. You will be beast in no time.
 
The factions like Dead Orbit, New monarchy have unique gear sets that are specific to their faction. Really just cosmetic but the rest are perks that can be obtained from other normal vanguard or crucible gear sets. Really up to you which one you like. If you play crucible, you earn crucible marks and rep that can level up your crucible and give you gifts and random drops during each match. I would do the daily vanguard and/or crucible bounties, do the dailies, and when you get to level 24ish, do the vanguard tigers playlist to get random drops that will help you become higher light level.
 
Thanks so much to everyone, this helps quite a lot. I read a bunch of online guides, but none of them seem to explain anything fully, and many contradict each other.

Also, at this point plain XP does nothing for me now? I need to be doing at the very least patrol missions? (for example if I buy the DLC and do the missions it doesn't give me anything except for drops?)
 
Kerosene31 said:
Thanks so much to everyone, this helps quite a lot. I read a bunch of online guides, but none of them seem to explain anything fully, and many contradict each other.

Also, at this point plain XP does nothing for me now? I need to be doing at the very least patrol missions? (for example if I buy the DLC and do the missions it doesn't give me anything except for drops?)
Click to expand...

XP helps to level up your gear, weapons and give you motes of light to use for Xur and other vendors.
 
I'm still not 100% sure on the crucible stuff. If I did want to play pvp, should I pick a vendor and try to get some of that stuff at 20? On weeknights I don't have a lot of time to play so raids are out and strikes mostly are as well. I was doing some patrol bounties and missions, but that will take an eternity to level up. Hopefully by the weekend I can get some more time.

Also, an unrelated question, is it normal to still get disconnected during patrols? I get disconnected usually at least once a session, but only from patrol. Missions, crucible, and the strike I was on were fine.
 
Kerosene31 said:
I'm still not 100% sure on the crucible stuff. If I did want to play pvp, should I pick a vendor and try to get some of that stuff at 20? On weeknights I don't have a lot of time to play so raids are out and strikes mostly are as well. I was doing some patrol bounties and missions, but that will take an eternity to level up. Hopefully by the weekend I can get some more time.

Also, an unrelated question, is it normal to still get disconnected during patrols? I get disconnected usually at least once a session, but only from patrol. Missions, crucible, and the strike I was on were fine.
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You mean pick a faction? I would start at vanguard and crucible bc you only get faction stuff if you want something in particular. And yeah, random disconnects are normal.
 
DriedMangoes said:
You mean pick a faction? I would start at vanguard and crucible bc you only get faction stuff if you want something in particular. And yeah, random disconnects are normal.
Click to expand...

I forgot that you can get crucible bounties from the main robot guy. I think I am finally getting it.
 
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I have not had any serious connection drops in a long long time. Early on I did and then it got worse after the first patch on XB1 but after that no issues. My Nat is always OPEN though.
 
MilkManX said:
I have not had any serious connection drops in a long long time. Early on I did and then it got worse after the first patch on XB1 but after that no issues. My Nat is always OPEN though.
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I get dropped at least once a night. My NAT is open too. I usually have no problems, but the only other online game I have been playing is Halo MCC which has tons of problems too.

The connection drops without warning, but I can just sign right back in and go back to playing. When I play COD Ghosts, I have no problems with this.
 
My only worry is that for me the disconnects are pretty regular. I'm pretty much guaranteed to get one every time I play, although I have spent a lot of time on patrol and that seems to be the worst. I had one during a crucible match last night, but I don't know if the host just dropped (I assume this game is p2p?).

When I was still playing the story missions though it never seemed to happen, so I assume it is on the server side.
 
Kerosene31 said:
My only worry is that for me the disconnects are pretty regular. I'm pretty much guaranteed to get one every time I play, although I have spent a lot of time on patrol and that seems to be the worst. I had one during a crucible match last night, but I don't know if the host just dropped (I assume this game is p2p?).

When I was still playing the story missions though it never seemed to happen, so I assume it is on the server side.
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Not sure but I think it is all Hosted. If it was P2P there might be a private match option but there is not.
 
If you go fast enough on your strikes you can reach your limit in 3-4 hours of gameplay, most people doing strikes will be in the same boat.
 
The best is when you get that random disconnect when you're almost at the end of the night fall mission, solo. Makes you want to go outside and do a bunch of cartwheels. Lol
 
Yeah honestly that is a really bad thing with a game like this. I thought it might be my connection but I play other games no problem.
 
I got Marion Barry once!

I was worried it was my connection, but I can play COD and never have one issue.
 
I didn't buy the dlc. I'm level 24 and was working toward vanguard gear. I had been with a faction so am still low rank with vanguard. Noticed all the npc vanguard gear now has a 1 in corner... does that mean I cannot buy/use it unless I buy dlc?
 
Lnin0 said:
I didn't buy the dlc. I'm level 24 and was working toward vanguard gear. I had been with a faction so am still low rank with vanguard. Noticed all the npc vanguard gear now has a 1 in corner... does that mean I cannot buy/use it unless I buy dlc?
Click to expand...
I don't think you have to buy the dlc for the new Vanguard/Crucible gear. Im fairly certain it is available to everyone. You just need to be Vanguard/Crucible rank 2 for armor, and 3 for weapons. Starting at rank 3, you will get Vanguard/Crucible Commendations every time you lvl your reputation. Some items require a Commendation to purchase them.
 
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