Another Iron Banner has come and gone. Many of The Tower's Guardians brought their best weapons and armor into the competitive field of online combat and tested their will daily against the best that Destiny has to offer. I partook in this fiesta of explosions and head shots for the first time since Destiny's release. I was at an appropriate ranking during the last banner, but it either didn't interest me or I rage quit after one or two games of getting my ass handed to me. It's hard to remember. This however was a new day, a new TJ, and a new set of gorgeous loot brought to us by none other than Lord Saladin Clause in his big bag made of diamonds and the priceless tears of past Guardians who have failed to either get enough rank or enough Glimmer to purchase his top shelf wares. But more on that in a bit. What follows is a recounting of my Iron Banner experience start to finish. Rank 0 – Rank 5 in one week. I am going to share my Loadout, my rewards, and my overall game play experience both flying solo, and when running with this great clan we have here. So let's dive in. [i]My Loadout[/i] (Hunter Class) Having recently hit 32, and with several fully upgraded weapons at my disposal. I "locked and loaded" with the following set up: [u]Subclass[/u] BladeDancer/Gunslinger (about 60/40 BD to GS) [u]Armor[/u] Helmet:[b] Unyielding Casque[/b] Gauntlets: [b]Dogged Gage[/b] Chest Piece: [b]Relentless Harness[/b] Boots: [b]Tireless Striders[/b] Class Item: [b]Shroud of Flies[/b] / [b]Shattered Vault Cloak[/b] / [b]Mantle of Gheleon[/b] [u]Weapons[/u] Primary: [b]SUROS[/b] / [b]Thorn[/b] Secondary: [b]Predyth's Revenge[/b] / [b]Found Verdict[/b] Heavy: [b]The Swarm[/b] / [b]One Way Ticket 000[/b] Now it's time for the why. I knew I had two of the most effective PVP weapons maxed at 331 with my SUROS and Thorn. They were situational for sure, with me primarily focusing on SUROS healing power and impact ability in closer quarters matches, and Thorn in maps where I had space to move around with more of a scout rifle mentality. My Predyth's revenge, while only hitting for 300, gave me a low recoil Legendary Sniper with explosions upon precision kills. An easy alternative since my other worthwhile snipers are exotic, and not good for PVP. Found Verdict was a bit of a default choice as well. Maxed at 300, and with full auto capabilities, I only equipped this on heavily compact maps and only used it as a last resort since I am adverse to shotgun use in general. I tend to play at a distance since I was using my Hunter. The Heavy weapon choices were primarily dictated by Lord Saladin's daily bounty for 10 Machine Gun Headshots. My Swarm, while only hitting for 300, had high enough stability and impact that when I was fortunate enough to land the Heavy Ammo drop for myself, I could usually snag 2-3 headshot kills before getting annihilated by a Fist of Havoc or a Nova Bomb. But more to come on that. Not much to say about my armor other than it was what I had that got me to 32 with the only adjustments I could make being to throw on either a Crest of Alpha Lupi (no good in Control) or Don't Touch Me Gauntlets (would rather show off my raid armor). When It came to class item, this was highly dictated by my shader. When I was using Cryptographic, I had Shroud of Flies, but as soon as I hit Banner rank 2 and could purchase Million Million for some XP gains, I swapped to the Shattered Vault Cloak for a more cohesive look. Finally, at Rank 4, I bought a Mantle of Gheleon to help me quickly scoop up the last rank before the week was over. I'm sure it goes without saying by now that equipping Banner shaders, emblems and class items added to your overall reputation gains, in addition to the daily Tempered buff. [i]On to the gameplay.[/i] It was pretty clear from the very first match that I was not in Guardian Kansas anymore. These guys are on another level. I was alone during my first bout in the banner and for much of my progression in general. What I found was my overall experience varied depending highly on the other team and the other 5 guys I was playing with. I did find that I typically had one of two extremes happen when I was playing alone without communication. I either became a 1-Guardian army, and ended the match with around a 3.1 K/D, or I got slaughtered because I didn't have any support at all and ended matches with about a .28 K/D. With friends however, the whole experience changed. I was able to coordinate strategy, call out for help, warn my teammates about potential attackers and get all motivational when we were down by promising tender BLOWIES to everyone on the team if we won. Not really, but I should have thought of that sooner, maybe we would have won more. I also believe that having a team mentality going into a match made me more confident upon first spawning. While I may not have lived at the highest end of the K/D spectrum when I was with a team, I had consistency and a more even spread across all the teammates. Some super frustrations I had with the overall experience is just how limited the actual ways to be successful are. Rarely did I get killed by something other than a shotgun. And when I did, it was usually a SUROS or Thorn. I think that having Control be the only game type really solidified a lot of these weapons choices. As I usually experience a wide variety of Destiny's weapons in other Crucible game modes. I felt the same way about class choice. There were many Titans, and I mean a LOT of them. I remember facing at times, an entire fire team of Titans who ran 3 Strikers, and 3 Defenders, then broke off into 3 teams of 2 and dominated each capture point with Armor of Light bubbles, Fists of Havoc, and Shotguns. I raged, frequently, and for that I am sorry. Finally, a couple things I really enjoyed about the gameplay experience revolved around feeling like my weapons and their perks really mattered. I remember trying to use some new weapons I got during play, that weren't upgraded to 331 and feeling like I was shooting the enemy team with spit balls. Specking for 32, with equal parts armor and agility, and equipping my best weapons made me feel like a formidable Guardian who was not to be trifled with. That feeling is awesome. I also really enjoyed getting to know maps I otherwise would have written off as shitty because I had lost on them before. Since IB doesn't require The Dark Below expansion, there was a rather small map rotation that was available. IF you wanted to win, you HAD to get to know the maps, how they worked, and plan accordingly. I remember regularly hearing RedDagger9438 saying, [i]"Okay, if we hit this spawn when the match starts, Tuck and I are going to go here, TJ cover B, and Joe and Pete, put on Fist of Havoc and -blam!-. SHIT. UP."[/i] It was great. By the end of the week, I found myself liking maps that I used to hate with a passion. [i]But what did I get?[/i] On the week, I was able to achieve rank 5 by Saturday night. Mainly thanks to the ever stacking Tempered Buff that came in at a hot 2 Motes of Light once a day. That, combined with the loss medallions that redeemed much of your lost XP upon a win, (provided you didn't go far beyond 5 losses in a row) really made Rank 5 attainable for a daily player. Which I think is the point since the rank resets as soon as he leaves. What I don't understand however, is how our dear Lord Saladin gets away with charging Apple sized prices for gear with perks that are GOOD, but are far from perfect. Much of the gear is too expensive for either the casual player to afford, or for someone who doesn't have the ability to Glimmer farm. I suppose they assume if you take the time to hit rank 5, that Gimmer won't be a problem. Well it was for me. I had to do quite a bit of farming to be able to purchase everything I wanted from IB. In the end I did do it. Here's what I ended up with. [u]Armor[/u] Gauntlets: [b]Iron Regalia Sleeves[/b] Boots: [b]Iron Regalia Boots[/b] [u]Weapons[/u] Scout Rifle: [b]Gheleon's Demise[/b] – Precision Kills increase reload speed and cause enemies to explode. Shotgun: [b]Felwinter's Lie[/b] – Aiming the weapon increases its effective range. Kills return ammo to the magazine. Rocket Launcher: [b]Radegast's Fury[/b] – Tracking, reloading has a chance to result in a larger magazine. [i]Note on the Rocket – I got this as a random drop after a match. During IB, there is a chance for other weapons that Saladin is not selling to drop. The best part is they can still be re-rolled for new perks with him. For 2 motes per roll, you can gamble the game away until you get two perks that will work for you. After 9 rolls, I got the two perks listed above. With arc damage. Which means that between Radegasts, Gjallahorn, and Truth I have a tracking rocket for all 3 elements. [/i] [u]Other[/u] I also purchased all the shaders, both emblems, and the class item, all resulting in about 66,000 total Glimmer expenditure. Wow. Needless to say I didn't buy anything else the entire week. Well worth it though for some great new 36 light gear and guns. [i]Conclusively[/i] Iron Banner is by far my favorite way to enjoy the Crucible. The intense competition, mixed with great reward possibilities makes you think you are truly working towards something, rather than just mindlessly playing matches with an occasional drop. The imbalance also creates a crowd of only the most elite players that is fun to be a part of. The loot is incredibly expensive, but worth it to any collector or just for someone that wants to set themselves apart from the masses of Crota armor donning Guardians.