So here's the deal. Iron Banner is hard. Or ... well, not really, if your fireteam is good. But when you're playing with randoms, it can get ... irritating. Mostly because lots of random people playing have either no idea what they're doing or just haven't had anyone tell them what's what. So that's what I'm here to fix. I'm salty and thorny from watching people do stupid stupid things during this event, and even though this'll probably the last we'll see of this event for a little while, for posterity, here's what I've learned about how to win. Note: A shader, class item, and emblem each provide a 10% bonus to IB rep gain. So ... remember to wear these, or try to get them. First of All: Thorn. The Last Word. Hawkmoon. Exotic handcannons are an overpowered nightmare of salty tears and dead scrubs. But it's still the current meta, and these are things everyone should learn how to counter and adapt to, especially if they get initiative. But I'm not going to run through all the myriad situations on how to deal with each one. That would take an entirely different post altogether, so I'll just say this: Deal with it. Yes. They suck. Yes. The people who use them are taking advantage of obviously overpowered weaponry to bolster their success. So what. If you don't use these weapons out of principle, or because you don't have them, okay. Great. Or not, depends on your answer. But just because you choose not to shoot the lion with your gun doesn't mean the lion will choose not to rip your throat out with its claws. You can't blame your opponent (who you have to assume wants to win) for using something that you both know is over powered. Nor am I saying you should sink to that level. Nor am I saying that you shouldn't. I personally like The Messenger and the No Land Beyond, but I'll switch to Thorn or TLW if I'm pissed off enough to prove wrong the people who think they're good just because they use these OP guns . Just ... Don't let it cloud your focus, or judgment. This game is mostly about having fun, and being salty about someone using an OP exotic can't be good for your cool, which can't be good for your focus, which can't be good for your k/d, which probably isn't good for your team, which ... you see where I'm going with this. This actually leads me to my next point. Use what you're comfortable with. If into using a weapon you don't like just to counter a different weapon. Do what works for you. TTK, while an important stat in the current meta, often assumes two bodies with a clear line of sight between them. Funny thing about the maps though, there's a ton of cover just laying all over the place. Which brings me to my next point: Know the maps. Know what works where. Know the objectives, and which ones you probably shouldn't take, and know when to flip spawns. Here's a list of maps and popular objective points to control, as well as brief notes on their meta. [b]Firebase Delphi[/b]: A is the best point to hold and capture, is often ignored by most every team, and feeds into B quite easily. It's also conveniently close to the heavy. [b]Pantheon[/b]: Whoever holds B holds the key to victory. This is true about a lot of maps, but moreso here than any other map, except maybe Exodus Blue (sorry xbox users). And in my experience, whoever holds the blue side tends to win more often as well. [b]Blind Watch[/b]: Capture C. Ignore A. Leave it open for your enemy to take. If you spawn by C, keep it. Keep someone in the area so you can't spawn flip. Or, if you're stuck with A, spawn flip, so you can feed cover fire on would be B assailants. [b]Asylum[/b]: Zone A is the best zone to assault and even hold B. Keep this one. If you do take C, I hope to god you're in a full fireteam, and you're beating the opponent by at least 5000 points. Or you know, because yer gettin' wrecked and you need to capture [i]some[/i]thing. [b]Shores of Time[/b]: Much like blind watch, the zone to maintain is C, 1. for it's generous sight-lines across multiple choke points, and 2. for it's multiple entry points towards B, which everybody always tries to get. Never take A. NEVER TAKE A. Here's a guide: The first rule about Shores of Time is you DO NOT TAKE ZONE A. The second rule about Shores of Time is you DO NOT TAKE ZONE A. Rinse and repeat for [b]Exodus Blue[/b], [b]Rusted Lands[/b], and [b]Twilight Gap[/b], except for [b]Twilight Gap[/b] you need to flip the letters around, in which A is what you want, and C is what you take when things are going REALLY well. [b]Cauldon[/b]: Zone A. Keep Zone A. It helps you feed into B, and the opposing team's heavy ammo. [b]Anomaly[/b]: This one is a toss-up. I prefer Zone A, for the easy access to the sniper's balcony, which overlooks B and enables coverage of multiple choke points. But some people like C, so ... I guess that one is up to you. So ... map awareness. You should have it. It's like .. 11 and a half months into year 1. You should probably be familiar with them by now, so, next point: Jump. Use your vertical space. Use cover. Juke. Read your opponents and track their line of sights. Especially snipers. If you dying by same guy in the same spot doing the same thing, study his tactics, and try to develop counter-strategies... stop feeding him kills. I realize these are snap-second analyses which you have to make and execute on the fly, but if you can learn to be flexible and adapt to an opponents personal meta in a pinch, you'll definitely start to excel. Next Point: Use Grenades. Grenades are pretty awesome at finishing kills, guarding choke points, and causing confusion and and generally giving your opponents a bad time. Be wary of them, and be wise with them. This feeds into map awareness, and learning good grenade placement. Youtube has lots of great videos about it. I like TrueVanguard, he seems to know his stuff. Next point: Try not to die. For the love of god, stop feeding your enemy. Don't just run into a space with a bunch of skulls laying around. If your team got wiped, chances are, you will too. Back off. Regroup. Flank. Go a different direction, maybe start dancing, but don't feed enemy kill streaks. It's demoralizing, wasteful, and frustrating to the better members of your team. I realize aim can be hard for some people. In which case, hang back, equip a shotgun, guard an objective. But don't just run out into a sniper's line of sight over and over and over and over and over and over and over and... You had a k/d of .05? ... dude. Next point: If you do get killed, there are two things you should look for. 1. The weapon you were killed by. 2. The enemy that killed you. He'll be listed and highlighted in red. Learn from your deaths. Try not to get salty from them, dying is inevitable, and if that bothers you, play Dark Souls. If somebody shotguns you a bunch of times, probably your best bet is to keep them at range and pick them off before they can close the gap, OR, it can give you an idea of who you should run away from. Don't be afraid to admit when someone is better than you. It happens. Millions of people play this game. SOMEBODY is better than you. Just take a deep breath and accept it. If you run away you live, THAT'S GREAT, because streaks are important (especially in Iron Banner), and all the pros do it all the time. Think like the greats. Think like a pro. Think of it as tactically retreating. So with the basics out of the way, all that's left are Bounties. Most of the bounties are easy to finish organically without special care, so really I'll cover the hard ones. [b]Iron Wrath[/b] If you didn't know by now, assists count towards. Kills and Assists scored while dead ALSO count. Your best bet to completing this bounty is playing conservatively. Approach a fray with caution, throw a few bullets here and there, and if you get hit, seek cover, or flee. It's really that simple. Try not to be intimidated by it. Just play organically, but mindfully. I like to assume every life is an Iron Wrath life. The key is not getting salty when you die with only one more to go. Remember: Calm and Collected > Aggressive and Angry And remember, there's always gonna be some jackass with a shotgun sprinting through the map and cutting people short. Try not to be this guy. [b]Heavy Metal[/b] is definitely one of the hardest bounties to complete, and easily can take more than a few games to get this one done. Half of the problem is just getting Heavy in the first place. My only tips are this: First, Heavy spawns at 9:00, 5:45, and 2:45. Watch the clock. This is important. If you have your super, and Heavy is about to spawn, make your way over there, and be ready to clutch. Second, if you don't reload your machine gun, you only need 3 kills to get a machine gun spree. If you do reload, the chain moves to 5 kills. Okay, so you've gotten LMG ammo, and you're ready to get some kills. Whelp ... don't. Go hide. Seriously. Watch the kill feed. If you see a lot of blue on the left (like, 5 or 6 names), it's safe. If you see a lot of red on the left (or more red than blue) it is NOT safe, and you should be scared out of your mind. Rocket beats Machine Gun every day of the week. So keep that in mind. So that's my piece. and for the lazy: tl:dr Tips on how to win that seem a lot like common sense but are surprisingly unknown by a surprisingly high amount of players. And of course, as with all things Destiny, play with a full fireteam with open communication for best results. (preferably with people you like.) Okay. Pesky out.