Vault of Glass – originally released in 2014 – my first completion of this raid came on December 2014. VOG has always been a favourite. I like that it is can done quickly, it’s simple to understand once you get a grasp of it. Add ot the fact that it takes place beneath a planet and the art within is just beautiful. When you actually take a moment inside the raid you can really appreciate the work that was put in to create the environment. Atheon is also a fun boss mechanic where it is not overly complicated unlike some raid bosses in the years after it.
Crota’s End – also released 2014 has over the years been known as a strike rather than a raid as it is much shorter than VOG and was one of the first raids I ever attempted contest mode on. My first completion of this one came February 6th 2015 We didn’t get far that first time but it was very entertaining nonetheless. We were there for several hours just in the opening! I’ve always joked about falling into the pot holes in the first area because it was just something I did in contest without fail. Every. Single Time. It became such a funny meme or me, so whenever if we had to sherpa newbies through the raid I’d be the one to make sure I would deliberately find the holes so they wouldn’t fall in. With the amount of time we spent in Crota’s End (hard mode especially), I had that whole area engraved permanently in my brain.
King’s Fall – for me this raid has the most mechanics to understand in comparison to VOG and CE. Yet once it was understood what needed to be done it became like second nature. Also had a poke around during contest day. My very first completion was pretty funny because it ended being a team that included me and two of my friends I’d played with early on in Destiny plus three randoms from LFG! Considering many of the horror stories I had heard about people from LFG I was pretty apprehensive. Luckily the ones that joined us were amazing individuals. No egos. No bad behaviour just some nice cool dudes. First clear was October 13th 2015. Personally KF became the raid where I was doing a majority of my runs to help people complete their Touch of Malice quest. Since the exotic weapon quest was tied to the raid alot of players were needing help with that part. And I mean ALOT, and I was one of many experienced raiders that got them to the quest. It wasn’t hard work it was fun, but one that took a lot of time and patience. Sadly, I didn’t exactly get much thank you for it.
Wrath of the Machine – second raid where I stayed up to wait for contest mode to open so I could have a look. I wanted to see what it was all about. I went in obviously having no clue like everyone else and it was fun to explore. I did manage to work out one part of it solo it was confusing. This raid, I always felt was a bit of a make or break in terms of raid teams at least that is how it felt to me. First completion of this one was October 3rd 2016. prior to this there were a lot of failed completion. I don’t remember where we failed the most but it was a tough one. Funnily though when I look back Wrath wasn’t that hard, it just took a lot of fiddling especially at the boss. A hilarious memory I have from the final encounter was when doing part of the mechanics where you needed to jump on the boss’s back and dunk on him as part of his stun lock. Well, on my Hunter I went to do just that but the boss being well…the boss reared up like a horse in real life does and he bucked kicked me straight off and I went FLYING across the room. So funny. I never recorded it but certainly remembered that one well. Another fun memory, and this one definitely sticks out the most was finally getting the raid ship known as the Nanophoneix. It has one of the hardest drop rates of any item in the game (or at least so I’m told!), something along the lines of 0.00001%. Man that is probably worse than exotic armour or exotic weapons from raids. However, I do think raid exotics are probably in the lower range of chances too. Yet that was supposedly the drop rate of a legendary ship from a raid!! Hard Mode did have a slightly higher chance yeah..slightly!! Anyway, I obtained the ship on the 35th and final clear of the raid, and in a funny way I never got to finish the Hard Mode armour for the titan in exchange lol. All I ever needed was the legs!
So, that’s a wrap on the first four raids in Destiny and some accompanying stories.
In Part 2 on Thursday I’ll list the next four raids that came with Destiny 2 which were:
Leviathan
Eater of Worlds
Spire of Stars
Last Wish