So we're standing on the doorstep of week three of the Age of Triumph and as we get set to see what the returned King's Fall brings, I want to take a little time to talk about the first two weeks and the vastly different experiences that were Crota and VoG. I was not a raider in year one. That said I did run HM Atheon and Crota when they were endgame and so it's been interesting to see where the development teams have gone in resurrecting them. It goes without saying that VoG has probably been the crown jewel of D1 and it's been the measuring stick by which all other raids (and loot honestly) is measured. Crota on the other hand was buggy as hell, infinity cheesable and probably the least epic of the raids, but it still had its moments and was some quick mindless fun. When Bungie announced they were bringing back the old raids it was curious that the first one would be Crota, but these past two weeks have shown how far Bungie have come... as well as how much they still have to learn. [b]Let's start with Crota, the undisputed King of cheese.[/b] Again, I didn't run this a lot when it was endgame but I was familiar with mmo raiding from years playing WoW and I did run run Crota at least a few times and the experience was pretty underwhelming. From the [quote]Ok, everyone sit here at the start while the Hunter goes invisible and cheeses the lamps[/quote] To the watching teams spend an hour climbing walls and towers to cheese the bridge, to [quote]Ok, everyone stand here and shoot Gjally while the Hunter whacks Crota[/quote] It was not a very involved process for most of the raid team. The new encounter fixed literally everything. I don't know if the lamps were toned down or it is just the way they didn't raise the light level with AoT and we're all mostly 400, but each run we've all run the abyss and it's FUN, it's the right mix of killing and running and it's bossy enough at the bridge that usually only 2-3 make it across. It's very well balanced and plays superbly and beats the hell out of sitting at the start waiting to be pulled through. Then there's the bridge and probably one of the best moments in 3 years of D1. First the change to require 5 guardians to make it across again made everyone important to the process without being stupid. It requires teamwork, timing and communication, but is never cheap and depends solely on players doing what they're supposed to. Then once everyone is safely across, everyone gets a Hive sword and holy shit, the battle vs all the knights is the perfect mix of mayhem, destruction and just pure badassery. Anyone that hasn't run this, I hope some way, somehow you are able to. It's that good. Then there's the Deathsinger and Crota. The Deathsinger seemed dauntingly impossible at first, but again requires everyone to just do their job and rewards doing it right. And once everyone has their role, it's unbelievably​ rewarding watching her fall. Crota himself is a masterpiece. Even a week before the new raids released, I was shut out swinging a sword at him so a Hunter could do it. Now suddenly players could only grab one sword and so everyone had to try it and again... It's so -blam!-ing fun and beats the hell out of standing on a ledge firing rockets and nothing else. My favorite moment was when we downed him in two swords with just two Warlocks swinging. The entire experience showed how much Bungie had learned from the original raids mistakes and how fun raiding can be. We ran it probably a dozen times week one and a couple more this week. It was challenging, but it was never cheap or random. [b]Then there's the Vault if Glass.[/b] I had run this raid much less and outside of the Atheon fight itself, never really had a clue what the hell we were doing at the Templar, but it was all movement, shooting and desperately trying to stay alive. I know this is the raid of raids, but I can't help but feel like this version has in some ways gone backwards and it's the challenge mode that did it. Where Crota's End's fights felt engaging, (and the first two lead up rounds are okay, but) suddenly the challenge of keeping the Templar from teleporting turned it into another​ "everyone stand in this bubble and shoot" boss fight. What's worse is the mechanic to drain everyone's supers if the relic holder dies before them. It turns the entire fight into a hurry up and wait affair. I know there's been a lot of back and forth in another thread about just starting and wiping to build supers, but that gets old fast and the minute someone decides to try to grab that heavy brick real quick as the relic holder says wipe and they lose their super and it's back to square one... Yeah, not really fun. And the actual boss fight is fun enough but unless you're the runner there's no real challenge other than maybe popping a synth mid fight. The Gorgons are the new raid cheese and honestly I'm not sure how fun it would be not cheesing it. The gatekeeper is actually fun with the 3 relics and defending the Conflux. I like that it gives more people a chance to learn to handle the relic and I've enjoyed that part of it. Atheon challenge is not terrible. Everyone having to kill an Oracle is challenging, but not overly so and just takes a little communication. Atheon himself is still just a piñata that can be dropped in one DPS phase with weapons+Tether+sleepers, but where everything goes to hell is the Suplicants. They take a huge chunk of skill out of the fight and turn it into RNG/luck on not running into one entering or leaving Gates. What it also has done is turn the fight into Vosik phase 2. That is not a good thing. The thing with Vosik wasn't that the fight was overly complicated, but one little mistake to a random add was all it would take to end runs and push the tries into way more attempts than need be. It brought too much right place, right time luck into the fight and too much "oh hey, a -blam!-ing Vandal jumped in front of my throw" or "hey, the sword bastard fell off the map" and 15 seconds later "oh -blam!-, he's back" That fight killed raid groups and I'm afraid Atheon is right there now. It's already made dedicated members of our raid team not want to keep running and it's frustrating trying to get others through and they get the Oracle mechanic but someone constantly dies to a random add. I almost think a better ​direction to the fight would have simply been to not make the Suplicants such a big factor, but rather just up Atheons' health to where it took 2 perfect phases or 3 good phases to down. The adds inside the gates are okay and add to the challenge, the random shit on the outside, not so much. It's also pretty amazing how polar opposite the Templar and Atheon are as far as hurry up and wait and go go go. It's a completely bipolar/MD raid. I've still enjoyed the overall experience and it's been cool to get to really get to do that raid as meaningful content, but I think it could've been better still and Crota proved that in spades. That VoG loot though... Now if only we could get some armor or the shader. So all in all I think AoT has been a success so far, but again I think it really has shown where this game can excel and where it hits ruts.