Greeting fellow Guardians, So I hit rank 5 on all 3 of my characters today. It was really one of the more interesting weeks I've experienced in-game in awhile and it wasn't always pretty, but for the most part it was fun. So the first thing that was so different was IB being Clash. I had played a few games here and there of the other game modes since launch, but I doubt I'm alone when I say that for the most part, I stuck with Control. In fact outside of a handful of Clash games, I really hadn't played any straight team-deathmatch since Halo 3 way back when. I didn't expect to experience anything profound, just run around lone wolf trying to get kills, but I was actually wrong about that. [b][i]It turns out that Clash is more teamwork-dependent than Control.[/i] [/b] This was by far the biggest learning experience of the week and some will probably wonder how a game without objectives could be more of a team game, so let me explain. Control certainly requires teamwork. We've all been on the team with the kids who refuse to cap, refuse to defend, or cap A on Blind Watch as you scream at your tv for them to get the hell off it. But here's the things, in Control there are definitive zone objectives that dictate the flow of battle and even if you aren't in a fireteam, you have a pretty good idea at any time where you need to be in the framework of a match to help your team win. Because of the structure and the defined objectives, it actually makes it very lone wolf friendly. Clash on the other hand would appear to be a game mode where lone wolves would excel, but I found it's actually the exact opposite. Because there are no objectives, the battle continually shifts around a map and the contested zones are constantly shifting in the ebb and flow of a match. Because there are no defined areas where you know an enemy will be attacking or defending, when you run lone wolf, you run the risk of coming up against a pack lol. What that means is that in order to really be successful in Clash, you need to be almost hyper-aware of where your teammates are at all times and try to gather in numbers to form a defense. I couldn't tell you how many times this week we held the high ground on a map like Widows Court (by the A zone) and were able to cover each approach and mow down enemies as they tried to attack... only to have my teammates run down and go chasing the enemy across the map and leaving 1 or 2 of us to get overrun and allow the enemy to take the high ground. The other thing that became apparent through the week is that the margin of error is a lot smaller in a Clash match. There were occasional uneven matches, but I would say the lions share were decided by less than 1000 points and countless by less than 100. One bad decision, one person quitting or one red bar not dying on the other team were all too often the difference between victory and defeat. So that was something that took some adjusting to throughout the first day or two of playing. Then there were the weapons... I used a lot. I started the week with Coiled Hiss (yes year 1 level 160). The reason I did was because I used my 160 NA3D1 last IB and was able to not only get kills, but go positive in matches with it and I wanted to show that it doesn't matter if some weapons are a bit better than others, it's what you do with them more than what they do for you. So I rolled Coiled Hiss the first 5 or 6 matches and it started out okay. I went 7-5 in the first match with it, but because of the burst nature of the weapon and 11 damage per hit, it wasn't as easy to get kills with as NA3D1 had been. I did get stupid amounts of assists, but after the first game, the kills were hard to come by (although if it had been ascended to year two, I'm not sure there would have been a better weapon in PvP). From there I ended up using: Hung jury Last Extremity Nirwen's An Answering Chord Does Not Bow The Suros Armsday Pulse Rifle (with the RoF of Hawksaw) What was reinforced for me as I cycled through weapons for the second IB in a row trying to find a setup I liked is how much the weapon in your hand determines how fun this game is or isn't and how sad it is that I had the most perfect weapon set for each of my classes and they got left behind with year one. I would say that this is the worst I've done overall in PvP since the week Destiny launched. I had some decent games and one or two really good ones, but between playing clash without a fireteam to coordinate with and two months into TTK still not having found a PvP primary I really really like, it was tough. I wish there was a way Bungie could make it a bit easier to get variations of specific weapons to try to get ones we like. As it stood, I had the most success with Hung jury, AAC and Last Extremity and had a really good time in most of the matches. That all changed when i used the Pulse Rifles. I absolutely hated them. Nirwen's isn't bad, but Last Extremity is better in my opinion. The Suros though, I despised. It dropped from an engram so I leveled it in IB and it was the least fun I've ever had playing in the Crucible. I kept thinking as perks unlocked it would get better, but no, if anything each game was worse. It was such a crappy and frustrating weapon that it made me want to turn the game off (and yes, that's a message for you Bungie). Also, Bungie desperately need to invest in Dedicated servers for Destiny 2. Once again, red bars determined way too many matches this week and it's really frustrating to see a game turn from someone taking five shots to the face and not taking damage. [b]Then there's the loot.[/b] I've seen posts from some saying they still weren't getting rewards, but I don't know that I went more than 3 matches without a legendary too often. I had more IB chests drop than I knew what to do with. Got a 319 (I believe) Nirwen's, a 318 IB Scout (crap perks sadly), probably 6 hand cannons, 4 ghost shells and quite a few Ib gauntlets as well. Overall I'd say the loot was a huge step up over the last IB and it was nice to get drops that actually were better than what we already had. Overall the week has been fun and Clash was (at least in my opinion) a nice change of pace and the decent rewards were a bonus. I ended up dropping myself down 10 light levels to wear my Armamentarium for the last handful of matches today and it was a-freaking-mazing, shoulda done it at the start. I can't wait for the year 2 to drop in December along with year 2 MIDA. Hopefully they are released before the next IB :) The last thing I'll mention is the classes. I played Striker, Sunbreaker, Sunsinger, Voidwalker, Stormcaller, Gunslinger and Nightstalker over the course of the week. I still don't put Sunbreaker as the best of that bunch, I'd put Striker and Gunslinger ahead on my list. Voidwalker is definitely bringing up the rear though which surprised me. I hadn't run Sunsinger in PvP since probably last December and was surprised at how fun and effective it was. Nightstalker was disappointing this go-round. I posted earlier about it, but the Shadowshot needs work in my opinion. I think it should instantly suppress enemy supers and not be delayed until tethered (for everything but Quiver which I'd leave unchanged). Also , bladedancers can cast Arcblade and not only live through a Shadowshot, they can kill while tethered and escape the tether sometimes. That's obnoxious. As far as playing against other classes, Stormtrance was by far the most lethal super I faced. I'd put Golden Gun and HoS about even behind it, but they were a ways back. Weapons were interesting. I died to a hand cannon once all week that I noticed (TLW). What surprised me about enemy weapons was the number of ARs I died to. I would put them pretty damn even with Pulse Rifles. I'd put the list of what I was killed by the most like this: Pulse/AR Shotgun Sniper Heavy Fusion Scout Hand Cannon Kinda messed up to see hand cannons just so miserably not played now, but also surprising how few people use scouts because Hung Jury is awesome and Last Extremity kills as fast as anything if you land head shots. The beauty or the curse of the game (depending on your PoV) though is that it will all change again next month and we'll all be using something new. I thought Scouts would be the next meta, but after seeing the AR usage vs Scouts this week, I think it's going to be Suros Banner revisited next go-round lol. That's my experience with IB Clash week, what did you all think of it?