PvP is becoming a chore again if you're not good at it thanks to the new god-tier weapon, the Chaperone--a single slug-firing shotgun that can and will take you out in a single blow. If the whole enemy side has one you might as well just give up. And since it's acquired through an Exotic quest, pretty much everyone who's really good at close-in fighting in the Crucible has one.

What are the later requirements for that quest? I know it's the one from Amanda Holiday where you have to kill lots of things in the Crucible with the Last Word. It looks like the Chaperone would be good in PvE as well, and I'm a motivated collector anyway. (hopefully motivated enough for all the Crucible I'll probably have to play to get it...)

So... is there a reason I'm being forced to solo Story Strikes? I've been trying to do Will of Crota but maybe 20 seconds into the matchmaking queue and searching for other Guardians I'm being dumped into the Strike alone, so obviously I can't run it solo. I heard matchmaking in this game is kinda restricted but being unable to finish a story strike because I'm being dumped solo because I can't get matched sucks.

1. Reach rank 3 in the Crucible and talk to Amanda Holiday.
2. Get killstreaks in the Crucible with the Last Word equipped--kills do not need to be made with the Last Word, it merely needs to be equipped. Every death loses about 2% progress. If the Last Word isn't equipped, you're not penalized for dying.
3. Bribe Amanda with 15000 glimmer as a "generous donation"
4. Your choice between killing 40 Major-type enemies in PvE, or 34 Guardian kills in the Crucible with shotguns.
5. Complete a specialized light-level 290 Shield Brothers strike, and kill each of the eponymous Shield Brothers with a shotgun. Just land the killing blow on them with a shotgun to be safe.
6. Claim the Chaperone at the next weekly reset on Tuesday.

I'm pretty certain that's entirely a connection issue. Happens to me a lot too.

......well, that's it for getting the Chaperone then. All those hax players in the Crucible destroy me long before I get any killstreaks. But the final nail in the coffin is that the few killstreaks that I ever get will be wiped out by the death penalty. Over enough time I could probably build them up, but not losing 2% with each and every death. Screw you Bungie. -_-

Especially if you try to get them with the Last Word. Pretty much every time you have the Last Word and get into range to make good use of it, your opponent is invariably equipped with the Chaperone. And you're not even allowed to complain about the difficulty of it on the Bungie forums, 'cause those same hax players will just tell you to "git gud or GTFO".

If you've got a lot of coins and like helmets and Solar subclasses, now's the time to use 'em. Immolation Fists, Celestial Nighthawk, Heart of the Praxic Fire, and Year 2 Helmet Engrams--good for getting new essentials like Graviton Forfeit, or upgraded classics like the Helm of Inmost Light and Helm of Saint-14. Xur's over by the Speaker balcony in Tower North.

The Crucible is my biggest gripe with Destiny. For a company that made something as entertaining as Halo multiplayer they sure tripped up and fell into a cake with Destiny. The PvP for Destiny is nothing but a hodge-podge of ways to get killed instantly. Shotguns, snipers, supers, and the wealth of sticky grenades that home in on you makes it less a test of skill and more a race to get OHKO opportunities as fast as possible.

I honestly don't have any problem avoiding sticky grenade death. Those grenades with long single-direction range and things like the void grenade in narrow tunnels on the other hand.....
But yeah, all that stuff is a huge problem with Destiny PvP. And despite Bungie saying they reduced the range on shotguns to avoide shotgun sniping, I'm still on the receiving end of it everywhere in the Crucible. And I honestly haven't even seen anybody toting the Chaperone yet, so when that gets around it'll be even worse.
And I swear, the enemy players always have a super ready for me. I put up a bubble around a control point, a Titan pops Sunbreaker, rushes in my bubble, and one-hit aoe kills me. (good luck having Saint 14 save you from that) I turn a corner and I walk straight into a Nova Bomb they fired before they even saw me. I get a guy to low health, he pops Golden Gun or Arcblade and kills me. The Crucible is BS.

I'm still being dumped solo into Will of Crota and now being dumped solo into Legacy Strike playlists. I'm just going to assume it's because no one runs those old content anymore.

Oh well. Might as well solo those story strikes when I'm a higher level.

Hmm, I'm not having that problem. Don't know what to say. :/

Golgoroth. All of my hate.

Having difficulty with him? I might be able to help (beat him with my friends in about two minutes today). What's your strategy?

I finally just had a group that beat him. Got an armor piece matching the values of what I had, so I'm still low. >.>

That said you can only help me if you're on Xbox 360. I'm one of the lowly peasants.

But seriously, though. Golgoroth. All of my hate.

Finally managed to find a group for Will of Crota. Of course they were a lvl40 Hunter and Warlock who facerolled everything in front of them while I did other less contributory stuff. Can't complain since I finally finished it.

And now I'm stuck on Oryx. Friggin' Godzilla-sized bosses are just unfair.

So I just made 40. I assume just hit every daily and every content that gives legendary marks and strange coins. Any advice on how to efficiently spend LMs and coins? And yeah where can I efficiently grind dem coinz?

Huzzah. Oryx defeated. Took some luck, but I'm finally level 300. Hopefully I get more armor next week, and a better weapon... not two of the worst raid weapon, the auto rifle.

Unless you want to get a head start on getting a high enough level for Heroic grinding and Nightfalls, I'd recommend holding onto the marks and just getting what rewards you can from Strike playlists and quests. Once you get up to light level 290 you can start focusing on using the LMs to level up Legendary and Exotic equipment.

There are actually a number of good and even great weapons from the Tower venders. My top recommendation is the Hung Jury scout rifle from Dead Orbit. It's a great weapon with high damage, nearly maxed out stability, a goodszed clip, and the Triple Tap and Firefly perks are two of the best in the game, especially when put on a weapon so accurate.
Second is the Vanity from Futurue War Cult. It's the closest gun to Fatebringer that you can buy so you don't have to rely on luck for your hand canon drops to have the right perks, and it's just a good weapon on its on.
The Vanguard vendor has several good weapons as well.
Your choice whether to save up your makrs for buying the weapons or use them for infusing to reach a higher light level.
THere really is no single place to grind for strange coins anymore. You get them just about anywhere, from decrypting rare engrams, completing bounties, etc. Really, if you play enough, you'll actually get more coins now than when the wekly heroic dropped nine per character. I made almost 70 in one week just from completing quests and throwing in a few strikes.

I'm actually having trouble with he post-story quests that give LMs. I'm standing at Light 238 so I'm thinking I'll do the daily LM grind until I'm high enough to do those missions properly, and then work my way up from there.

And is that sword quest worth it?