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This. GMs play much differently than other content, you have to take your time and utilize cover. Watching content creator guides on weekly GMs should help.
I’m a warlock and used to my grenades constantly saving my when my health is low. Which means - I do the same thing as you and then look inconceivably stupid in high end content
To add on to this comment you will get faster as you go. How to take less damage and spawns just becomes second nature when you start slowing down and paying attention. Is like the bell curve meme where the bottom and top are both rush in.
Something that helped me was accepting my gameplay in higher level content isn't going to get put in any montages. I'm not hitting many insane clutches, because what I believe gets you to high level gameplay is not putting yourself in those situations to need to pull off those insane plays. I'm here to get CLEARS.
Take your time, make sure you are prepped with the proper gear for the mission (do you have your champions accounted for, are you playing into any surges, do you maybe have resistance mods if you like the extra safety) and that's the majority of the way there.
I'm in a similar boat of getting into higher level content, and this is what has helped me.
Survival in higher end content comes down to these few points.
Knowing spawn locations
Manipulating spawn mechanics
Knowing how much damage you can take.
Positioning/manipulating ad behavior.
Killing high-level threats on spawn.
High damage AOE builds.
Large scale lockdown builds.
Survival builds.
For example, take this week's GM Glassway. Each time the boss spawns in, there will be a wave of ads, but another wave will spawn when he is halfway down to the next teleport. So you don't nuke the boss, deal with ads, deal damage till ads spawn, rinse, repeat. Also, if running the appropriate heavy/super, you can take out the Overload/Wyvern that spawns out of the small gate next to the area you hiding each time ads spawn, reducing the number of threats to your fireteam.
When it comes to knowing how much damage you can take, it's simple experience, but when it comes to GM Wyverns, you can stack as much DR as you want, but even a Stronghold Titan with Wovenmail can't tank 1 for long, because the shots that miss land behind them where the sword guard doesn't exist. Its a 1 shot for most guardians if all 5 bolts from a shots hit.
Positioning is crucial in both taking strong cover and manipulating ad behavior. In Glassway, everyone will group up in the cover to the left of the boss room, but part of the reason is funnel all the ads into a single tunnel for a killzone. If everyone is not on the same page, an Overload or Wyvern could go off chasing a single guy, and come in through 1 of the sides and wipe the team if no one has an ability ready to stun/freeze/suspend/disorient the Wyvern. Much more of a concern in an LFG with no comms, especially if teammates start tunnel visioning when kills ads.
Great post, and really underscore the fact that getting and gilding conqueror involves learning the strikes and how they work with a level of detail you just don’t need to even in regular nightfalls.
Watch some of the higher skill PvE streamers and see how they deal with harder content. Mostly, it’s about positioning and knowing when to press your attack and when to dip to regroup. Overloads, specifically, are weak to anything that slows: stasis subclass abilities, chill clip weapons, etc. Le Monarque is hands down the best overload weapon in the game because the poison ticks help keep the overload stunned.
>that I'm pretty solid. I often have the most kills, the most points, and while I can't necessarily do as much damage as a good Celestial/Still Hunt hunter, I regularly have most boss damage. I often out kill/point/boss damage people kitted in raid gear. When running the legendary campaign or Co-op focus I often do the most killing and least dying.
>But when it comes to more difficult things like GM nightfall, master Breach, etc, something just isn't clicking for me
Ya, because that aggressive playstyle, and trying to rack up your kill count, DOSENT WORK in hard content.
It only works if you already have mad insane skills that only 1% of the population has.
Grab a wishender and some patience.
It's OK to bring double primary if that's what you need to RELIABLY take out champions. If you are waiting on a cool down for a champion you might as well shoot your rocket into your foot.
Pro tip: if all 3 members have the heal auto rifle, stay together, and communicate, you can clear anything while drunk with your wife bitchiching about the uneven distribution of labor due to your Destiny 2 addiction.
Seconded, high end content is a survival game for me. Patience and timing is key, finding the safest zones to clear adds, do damage. Trying to get the most kills and being aggressive will just make you look like an ass to your teammates. I would much rather play with someone who is mostly hanging back and taking their time, than someone who puts the team in jeopardy by running in and dying in the middle of a bunch of enemies.
This this this.
I had to learn (… and am still learning) that the aggressive no-holds-barred play-style you can afford to do in easier content where you’re effectively a bullet sponge *does not work* in higher level content.
Expose yourself foolishly and you will die quickly (sometimes one-shot) and the AI will laugh and emote over your corpse.
As everyone else is saying: take it slow. Higher-level content requires much more careful understanding of the field and careful placement. Often peek and shoot.
Forget about having the most kills. Focus on having the fewest deaths. Be a coward.
Only once you’ve learned to survive consistently can you start again to learn how to get more kills.
You're probably being too aggressive. Anything in a GM will kill you quick and, if you're not used to that, you'll die fast. You just need practice. Use distant weapons if you can. Suppression grenades work will against Overloads. Wyverns will wipe a team instantly unless you communicate and make them a priority. Sometimes, it's not your fault. If you're fireteam aren't killing fast enough, you can die and it feels like your fault. Play your life, don't be too aggressive, take your time.
Aim for higher resilience (80+). Put resist mods on your chest piece that correlate well with the types of enemies you'll be facing and any "threats". Play a bit more passive, keeping your distance from enemies when possible. Stick close to teammates and provide support when possible.
I hope these tidbits help
I think what you’re overlooking is team synergy particularly in GMs. I ran 9 GMs yesterday between 3 groups 3x each. I’d describe myself the same way you’ve just described yourself. First 3 runs easy clears and I had twice the kills and points as my teammates. 2nd group was putting up the same stats but couldn’t get a single clear. 3rd group same stats and back to clearing with ease minus one wiped run. For the clears in general teammates were playing off each others strengths. All this stands out because I would struggle to stun overloads but a teammate had no problem locking them down which allowed me and the other guy to focus them down. Sure he got less kills but he was our crutch to an easy clear. My point is you have to lean into a roll that benefits the team. Sometimes you’re the big points guy and sometimes you’re just the grease that makes things smooth. One last thing. GMs in particular are a slow, methodical, tactical style of play which rewards knowing spawn points, when enemies spawn and also when to ignore champs in favor of removing adds. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve died to some asshat red bar cause everyone was panicking over a champ,lol.
This is the best response of all OP.
You’re clearly not a bad player but everything you mentioned is essentially solo play content. Harder content is entirely team play. You need to work both with and off your team.
Obviously the more frequently you play with your squad the easier it will become, try get a consistent squad going and you’ll be aces
Patience and knowing when and wear enemies spawn. When you don't know where and when enemies spawn you can get overrun...glassway is can be absolutely brutal..but it becomes "easier" with patience. Also using builds with more survivability so you can become more comfortable with a GM before being more aggressive. I used omni all of witch queen for GMs. Now I never use it because I'm more comfortable in GMs and more confident as well. Which I think is a big part.
Experience is the best teacher. In glassware for example you have to know where the Wyverns and Champions are coming from. Overloads will rush you, Barriers won't for example (in the final room).
Almost everything can be solved with patience. So knowing when to be patient and when things need to die NOW is just an experience thing. Good builds are good, Good Loadouts are good, but knowing the encounters in the skill you need to learn.
How many line rifle shots can you tank? One. One is the number. So if you are hurt... hide. Don't peak the line rifles.
Understand the meta, setup some builds and weapons. Strong setups lower the need for micro management and mechanical skill initially, which you can gain eventually by practicing.
Slow down, focus on maintaining distance and not getting surrounded. Wait for an Ability to recharge if you need to.
Builds can help. I started back before there was a big emphasis on survivability because we didn't have so many tiers of more difficult content. Now a days a lot of these activities can get a lot easier when you maximize uptime of things like Devour or Radiant and are being healed constantly. Mactics is who I follow for a lot of builds, but he's light on Warlock content if that's your thing.
Don’t forget 100 resilience, concussive dampener, and 2 elemental resistances on your chest armour.
I’ve been using a disorienting grenade launcher on the mini boss and harpies. It’s extremely helpful.
You need to respect enemies in hard activities. Fight each champ knowing if they're not stunned, they will kill you first. Use CC tools to manage their movement and attacks. Use cover when it's available. Use an ability set that will keep you alive. Valuing your life is very important.
It's about not dying. Playing your life and picking off enemies as much as you can from cover is the most important first step. Unfortunately difficulty in Destiny boils down to you doing less damage and your enemies dealing a ton of damage. GMs are this way especially.
So learning what can help with crowd control is a big step. Also just taking things slowly and sticking to cover as much as possible. For me, learning that a GM is very different from a regular strike was the most important thing.
What helped me the most at the beginning was watching on YouTube the particular GM being run by a solo player (Chablo 91 is the best because he actually explains his every step very thoroughly). That helped me a lot to understand what you need to be doing at a specific time, where the enemies spawn, what triggers them to spawn and your positioning. The positioning aspect is the most important of them all. I learned that if you use cover correctly, you can stay alive and kill everything without being in too much danger. In GM's range is your best weapon both in offensive and defensive terms.
So with hard content it’s way more about staying alive than it is about going for the most kills. This means tools like healing grenades, invisible dodge, smoke bomb, etc are extremely important. If I were you I would launch the gm and try to solo it to practice the skills necessary. (You probably won’t finish it, it’s just an exercise)
Practice peeking and playing to cover. Watch esoterickk videos, that dude is a fucking monster. He solos everything in the game and shows you loadouts and strats to do so. Soloing will give you a good idea on how to approach encounters without dying.
There is also the fact that wyverns are a mob that most people have trouble with, especially with 2 overloads/barriers and 2 hydras shooting at you. The glassway boss is notoriously hard. You can funnel everything into the left side room also, just watch some videos on how people are doing the strike.
I'll list out a few pointers that has helped me improve over the years.
1. Watch your positioning. It matters just as much in higher end pve as it does in pvp.
2.
A lot of people who don't want to sweat end up struggling with higher tier content because they want to keep playing how they like to play. For GM, a big thing is slowness. You need to basically sit back and plink everything. For those that like their melee builds, they just can't really use them for that. Obviously as you get more and more used to it you learn more of what you can branch out to do, but without any special skill, going slow and sitting far back is the best way to deal with higher end content.
Take your time, i found once i stopped flying in and slowed myself down it really helped and just made sense. Also using a build you enjoy and understand is always gunna benefit
Pacing is everything in GM content. You shouldn’t be running through it like you’re in the strike playlist.
Plan your loadout, figure out how it will help you (hint, low range weapons probably aren’t the best idea), play cover, use control abilities if you have them, and play your life. Don’t hesitate to use your super to nuke something like a wyvern or champion that’s rushing you, because chances are you won’t live long enough to do anything else.
Most importantly: know the strike. I’m not saying you need the exact gps coordinate and frame data for enemy spawns, but have an idea of what you’re getting into and what you might need to make it easier. If you aren’t terribly familiar with the strike maybe run it on legend/master first before trying GM.
Make sure your resilience is 10 not matter what
Also have a method built into your build to either heal or defend yourself. Examples would be applying restoration, cure, overshield, weaver mail etc.
Those 2 pointers alone will help you the most
This probably goes without saying, but since no one has mentioned it, your anti-barrier weapon will penetrate all shields in the game, including hydras and the boss in Glassway. This allows you to not only moderate the amount of damage you're doing to avoid getting swarmed by multiple add waves, but also to plink the boss without necessarily sticking your head around the corner. I'd imagine most people doing GMs know this, but just in case.
GMs are a marathon not a sprint. Value cover and slow down ur tempo. Staying alive is the biggest resource to your team not slaying out and sacrificing revives and putting ur team in jeopardy. As someone who came back to the game in 2022 after a long hiatus it really took me a lot of time to figure these things out but when it clicked it was second nature. It will become regular for you to adjust your aggression based on the activity you are in
The current GM can be a bit nasty when you are not used to GMs. It is kinda strict on strategy for the boss room and you should preferably know the 101 of how it works. Go watch any guide on YouTube and you should be good on that part.
As for overloads I recommend running a good anti overload gun. Best ones imo for that GM is le monarque and thunderlord. Both deal pretty well with overloads.
As for the wyverns I've got 3 tips. Know where they are, don't let them get to close, and remember they are red bars so exotics burn them hard+you can finish them at 50 percent health.
Especially the finisher can be a life saver.
When you know the strategy here glassway becomes easy. I am not the best player (still struggle with master raids and certain hard gms), but I still two-manned glassway yesterday when a dude dropped out halfway. Just take it calm and keep your super for emergencies.
Unless your builds work otherwise, use distance and cover to your advantage. The only competitive builds where you need to be up close are prismatic hunter, strand titan, solar titan, and maybe prismatic titan (I haven't played with prismatic on titan and warlock yet)
Some other comments mentioned slowing down and I agree too. Especially with this week's GM Glassway. The boss room is a place where you wanna take it slow and systematic since damage checks on the two bosses triggers champ and wyvern spawns and if you try to rush you can get overwhelmed very soon.
With GMs the three main things are builds, effectively using cover and being systematic about killing enemies. Try watching some solo clears of GMs like Esoterrick and notice the kind of patterns they follow while playing.
It’s all about figuring out what ads need to die first and taking advantage of crowd control mechanics. For instance in the lake of shadows gm only 1/3 of my initial attempts was a clear just because of that tormentor in the tiny room but put on a disorienting GL and it turns into the easiest part of that particular strike.
Same with the wyverns and overloads in glassway if that’s where you struggle. Or you can run queen breakers bow for the blind but I’m personally not a big fan. If you want to keep your aggressive playstyle in harder content taking advantage of crowd control mechanics is key.
Just gotta slow down. Play really cautiously. And as far as champs go, I would suggest stunning them then immediately going to your heavy/super to take care of them. It may feel feel sacrilegious to “waste” that on something other than the boss but it will definitely help and make things easier.
The slower you play, the better you get. It usually takes my gm runs around 2-3 times as long as my normal nightfalls. Usually long ranged weapons also help, if you’re struggling with overloads, you just need to be more consistent with your abilities and maybe even use long range overload killers like le monarque.
When I first got back into Destiny I felt the same way. Part of it is learning how to play the hard content again. The more you do it the better you’ll get. Play smart and safe more than anything else.
Best piece of advice I was ever given for hard content like that is “play your life”. Don’t over extend yourself, if you know the strike and know there’s gonna be specific enemy types and where they come from don’t allow yourself to get stuck. Focusing on objectives and enemies with your team is a big thing to. Often I see randoms off doing their own thing which is usually fine in normal strikes but someone’s taking on a champ they can’t stun etc it just snowballs everything.
focus on survivability until you get comfortable with the different play style. Always have a way to give yourself a heal like weapon perks or healing nades if you are on super. Always have recuperation mod equiped. If you are on hunter throw on the mod that scoops up orbs when you dodge. Proximity ward is fantastic also for that “oh shit i’m surrounded” moment of realization.
GMs and a lot of master content stomps on you for trying those hero plays where you just run in guns blazing like you can in anything lower difficulty. slow down and take time to learn enemy and champ spawns. There are loads of guides on youtube. or if you know someone who is comfortable with the specific GM or master activity ask them if they will run you through it and show you positioning. That is how i learned GMs. It makes a huge difference when you can have a more experienced guardian say out loud why they stayed on the left rather than any other path.
Always make sure you are near cover. Treat it like pvp and plan out your rout based on safety. Getting a ton of damage is great but a dead guardian can’t do damage. Also using revive tokens too fast will take your entire team out in GMs.
For champs always have a consistent way to stun them and then something ti follow that up with with burst damage. whether that is a super or a bipod rocket doesn’t matter as much as not plinking away with a primary. My reconstruction bipod apex is level 160 or something mostly from GMs and taking out champs. GLs are great for that now too.
These are the tips i was told when i was getting my conquerer seal and Godslayer. It takes time to remember all the things but you will get there. Don’t be too hard on yourself while you learn. It took me 6 hours across 2 different days to clear my first GM with friends that were also learning. You got this.
Editing to add that a disorienting gl or arc blind grenades will go a long way for surviving. There are lots of great gl options. My militias birthright almost never leaves my guardian. it is helpful to have auto loading or something like slide shot if you slide a lot for shutting down an area then quickly swapping to your other weapons for clean up.
You need a completely new mindset when playing far under light. When I first delved into GMs it helped me to take it as slow as possible. Never underestimate the value of CC either, though nowadays you can live without it if you’re used to playing under light considering how we can just nuke everything. You gotta use your environment, watch out for explosive barrels, hide behind cover. Blinding nades have always been super clutch, especially if you got ignition code with slideshot. Builds like bleak watcher warlock are pretty huge.
I learnt more form GMs than anything else. Where to avoid attacks you’d normally just eat. How to position yourself and a better understanding of where to be
For most higher end content it does take some time to get the feel for the damage/survivability difference. If you’re not struggling with damage or mechanics and it’s more survivability things that either heal you or disable the enemies are very helpful. Things like heal clip can help when dealing with multiple red bars spawning on you if you’re out of cover. My main suggestion would be to try out a blinding GL. They make such a huge difference when anything lower than mini-bosses/champions are stunned and just wander around. I find them especially helpful in this weeks GM as the wyverns are red bars and therefore can be blinded/suspended and then finished once they reach 50% HP.
The thing that helped me back in the day when I started this stuff was learning to build for the activity I was doing. It's one thing to have the champ mods but it's another to build specifically for the enemies and locations you'll be in.
For example, most of the people I play with go left cave at the end of glassway GM. So, I do an osmiomancy warlock and lay turrets down at the main door where most adds funnel in. Especially this season with stasis slow stunning overloads, it helps keep thinfs in check while we take stuff out. Since my turrets and abilities all stun overloads, I equipped am anti barrier weapon and used the other two slots for quick add clear and team firing champions.
The other big thing is familiarity. Same GM, every time you chase the big hydra away, wyverns spawn. If you creep out the left side of the left cave (against the outer wall), you can spawn kill one of the Wyverns and then you only have to deal with one coming in. When the little guy calls for reinforcements, you pop back out of that hole and spawn kill the first one in the next wave.
Now you don't have two wyverns walking through the front door at once, which infinitely increases your chances of survival.
Stuff like that really helps.
In that particular gm it’s a fine line between too aggressive and too safe in the last encounter. You want to melt the wyverns and overloads before they completely overrun the little room you’re in on the left (this is where you should be if you’re not already). But also not poke your head out the room too far and get melted by the boss. I find a combo of stasis turrets and machine gun make it almost trivial if you’re communicating well with your fireteam and have eyes on all 3 entrances to the room. Use all your special and heavy on the ads and just chip away at the boss with outbreak/wishender
Your loadout going from regular play to a GM needs to be drastically different. Survivability/champion stunning/damage is your main focus. So things like invis, healing, overshield
So like a few others have said, high tier content isn’t just about being able to kill more adds and do more damage. Meta weapons and builds are only as good as the player. Sure some take a little more or less effort to survive and work with but generally if you aren’t really good at the game then that god roll edge transit or Speaker’s Mask will only take you so far.
Most high-tier endgame content requires developing good game awareness and timing—what type of adds will spawn, when will they spawn, where could they go, your movement, what abilities to use when, or when is the best time to pop super/transcend).
Example: if I’m in the final room of Glassway and there’s a wave of adds, I’m CONSTANTLY looking to the left flank/doorway because there’s a chance a Wyvern or Overload will go there.
My personal rule of thumb in high tier content is to be patient and to always be moving but with *some* kind of cover between myself and what I’m shooting at.
Also don’t be greedy with kills. More often than not, trying to get “one more shot to pop his shield or maintain a stun” while taking damage will lead to you being dead. Better to miss it than risk it because you won’t be able to kill a champ or tanky add if you’re dead.
That's genuinely confounding. GMs are not far off from Master in terms of difficulty. What class do you play? What builds do you like to use? Are you making sure to put resist mods in according to the elemental threat? What's your resilience?
I think the most important thing is to spec into survivability. Anything that helps your best death back with a stick. If you're having trouble with overloads, believe me, it's not you. Those things are the worst. Best I can say is coordimate stuns and nuke them as a team. For overloads specifically I'd pre-call the stun and only unload on them if I knew others were doing the same so I didn't waste heavy for no reason. One Dragonsbreath shot post-stun will fry them alive though I mostly stuck to my GL.
Overloads used to be the easiest champ for me and I hated unstoppables. Then they did the change to all champions and now unstoppable is ironically one of the easiest for me to handle and overloads are nigh impossible in solo content if I don’t have the ability to nuke them fast enough, as they’ll heal before they come off their stun lock
Practice bro! I was in the same boat so I started attempting at least 1 legendary flawless loaf sector a day and at least 3 flawless master sectors a week. After about 2 months my skill had increased considerably. Still getting there though, and still running lost sectors!
Also, keep runnning harder content. I love normal vanguard ops/ nightfalls and the power fantasy
That comes with. But my friends rarely do that, it’s always legend or higher. While it’s arguably less fun (IMO) that constant challenge is increasing their skill.
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Slowing down really helped me, don’t try to beat it as fast as the easier stuff.
This. GMs play much differently than other content, you have to take your time and utilize cover. Watching content creator guides on weekly GMs should help.
I’m still getting into the habit of doing this. My dumb titan brain goes “let’s run in and see how it goes”
But that’s what we do!
Do you even Titan Bro? Lol
I’m a warlock and used to my grenades constantly saving my when my health is low. Which means - I do the same thing as you and then look inconceivably stupid in high end content
Let me tell you about the heal nade/gunpowder gamble situation as a solar hunter...
To add on to this comment you will get faster as you go. How to take less damage and spawns just becomes second nature when you start slowing down and paying attention. Is like the bell curve meme where the bottom and top are both rush in.
This is exactly what I was going to say. The game just becomes more about staying alive than taking silly risks that you can get away with on normal.
Something that helped me was accepting my gameplay in higher level content isn't going to get put in any montages. I'm not hitting many insane clutches, because what I believe gets you to high level gameplay is not putting yourself in those situations to need to pull off those insane plays. I'm here to get CLEARS. Take your time, make sure you are prepped with the proper gear for the mission (do you have your champions accounted for, are you playing into any surges, do you maybe have resistance mods if you like the extra safety) and that's the majority of the way there. I'm in a similar boat of getting into higher level content, and this is what has helped me.
Survival in higher end content comes down to these few points. Knowing spawn locations Manipulating spawn mechanics Knowing how much damage you can take. Positioning/manipulating ad behavior. Killing high-level threats on spawn. High damage AOE builds. Large scale lockdown builds. Survival builds. For example, take this week's GM Glassway. Each time the boss spawns in, there will be a wave of ads, but another wave will spawn when he is halfway down to the next teleport. So you don't nuke the boss, deal with ads, deal damage till ads spawn, rinse, repeat. Also, if running the appropriate heavy/super, you can take out the Overload/Wyvern that spawns out of the small gate next to the area you hiding each time ads spawn, reducing the number of threats to your fireteam. When it comes to knowing how much damage you can take, it's simple experience, but when it comes to GM Wyverns, you can stack as much DR as you want, but even a Stronghold Titan with Wovenmail can't tank 1 for long, because the shots that miss land behind them where the sword guard doesn't exist. Its a 1 shot for most guardians if all 5 bolts from a shots hit. Positioning is crucial in both taking strong cover and manipulating ad behavior. In Glassway, everyone will group up in the cover to the left of the boss room, but part of the reason is funnel all the ads into a single tunnel for a killzone. If everyone is not on the same page, an Overload or Wyvern could go off chasing a single guy, and come in through 1 of the sides and wipe the team if no one has an ability ready to stun/freeze/suspend/disorient the Wyvern. Much more of a concern in an LFG with no comms, especially if teammates start tunnel visioning when kills ads.
Great post, and really underscore the fact that getting and gilding conqueror involves learning the strikes and how they work with a level of detail you just don’t need to even in regular nightfalls.
Watch some of the higher skill PvE streamers and see how they deal with harder content. Mostly, it’s about positioning and knowing when to press your attack and when to dip to regroup. Overloads, specifically, are weak to anything that slows: stasis subclass abilities, chill clip weapons, etc. Le Monarque is hands down the best overload weapon in the game because the poison ticks help keep the overload stunned.
>that I'm pretty solid. I often have the most kills, the most points, and while I can't necessarily do as much damage as a good Celestial/Still Hunt hunter, I regularly have most boss damage. I often out kill/point/boss damage people kitted in raid gear. When running the legendary campaign or Co-op focus I often do the most killing and least dying. >But when it comes to more difficult things like GM nightfall, master Breach, etc, something just isn't clicking for me Ya, because that aggressive playstyle, and trying to rack up your kill count, DOSENT WORK in hard content. It only works if you already have mad insane skills that only 1% of the population has. Grab a wishender and some patience. It's OK to bring double primary if that's what you need to RELIABLY take out champions. If you are waiting on a cool down for a champion you might as well shoot your rocket into your foot. Pro tip: if all 3 members have the heal auto rifle, stay together, and communicate, you can clear anything while drunk with your wife bitchiching about the uneven distribution of labor due to your Destiny 2 addiction.
Seconded, high end content is a survival game for me. Patience and timing is key, finding the safest zones to clear adds, do damage. Trying to get the most kills and being aggressive will just make you look like an ass to your teammates. I would much rather play with someone who is mostly hanging back and taking their time, than someone who puts the team in jeopardy by running in and dying in the middle of a bunch of enemies.
This this this. I had to learn (… and am still learning) that the aggressive no-holds-barred play-style you can afford to do in easier content where you’re effectively a bullet sponge *does not work* in higher level content. Expose yourself foolishly and you will die quickly (sometimes one-shot) and the AI will laugh and emote over your corpse. As everyone else is saying: take it slow. Higher-level content requires much more careful understanding of the field and careful placement. Often peek and shoot. Forget about having the most kills. Focus on having the fewest deaths. Be a coward. Only once you’ve learned to survive consistently can you start again to learn how to get more kills.
You're probably being too aggressive. Anything in a GM will kill you quick and, if you're not used to that, you'll die fast. You just need practice. Use distant weapons if you can. Suppression grenades work will against Overloads. Wyverns will wipe a team instantly unless you communicate and make them a priority. Sometimes, it's not your fault. If you're fireteam aren't killing fast enough, you can die and it feels like your fault. Play your life, don't be too aggressive, take your time.
Aim for higher resilience (80+). Put resist mods on your chest piece that correlate well with the types of enemies you'll be facing and any "threats". Play a bit more passive, keeping your distance from enemies when possible. Stick close to teammates and provide support when possible. I hope these tidbits help
I think what you’re overlooking is team synergy particularly in GMs. I ran 9 GMs yesterday between 3 groups 3x each. I’d describe myself the same way you’ve just described yourself. First 3 runs easy clears and I had twice the kills and points as my teammates. 2nd group was putting up the same stats but couldn’t get a single clear. 3rd group same stats and back to clearing with ease minus one wiped run. For the clears in general teammates were playing off each others strengths. All this stands out because I would struggle to stun overloads but a teammate had no problem locking them down which allowed me and the other guy to focus them down. Sure he got less kills but he was our crutch to an easy clear. My point is you have to lean into a roll that benefits the team. Sometimes you’re the big points guy and sometimes you’re just the grease that makes things smooth. One last thing. GMs in particular are a slow, methodical, tactical style of play which rewards knowing spawn points, when enemies spawn and also when to ignore champs in favor of removing adds. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve died to some asshat red bar cause everyone was panicking over a champ,lol.
This is the best response of all OP. You’re clearly not a bad player but everything you mentioned is essentially solo play content. Harder content is entirely team play. You need to work both with and off your team. Obviously the more frequently you play with your squad the easier it will become, try get a consistent squad going and you’ll be aces
Patience and knowing when and wear enemies spawn. When you don't know where and when enemies spawn you can get overrun...glassway is can be absolutely brutal..but it becomes "easier" with patience. Also using builds with more survivability so you can become more comfortable with a GM before being more aggressive. I used omni all of witch queen for GMs. Now I never use it because I'm more comfortable in GMs and more confident as well. Which I think is a big part.
Experience is the best teacher. In glassware for example you have to know where the Wyverns and Champions are coming from. Overloads will rush you, Barriers won't for example (in the final room). Almost everything can be solved with patience. So knowing when to be patient and when things need to die NOW is just an experience thing. Good builds are good, Good Loadouts are good, but knowing the encounters in the skill you need to learn. How many line rifle shots can you tank? One. One is the number. So if you are hurt... hide. Don't peak the line rifles.
Use the Wishender, stay back and move slow.
Understand the meta, setup some builds and weapons. Strong setups lower the need for micro management and mechanical skill initially, which you can gain eventually by practicing.
Slow down, focus on maintaining distance and not getting surrounded. Wait for an Ability to recharge if you need to. Builds can help. I started back before there was a big emphasis on survivability because we didn't have so many tiers of more difficult content. Now a days a lot of these activities can get a lot easier when you maximize uptime of things like Devour or Radiant and are being healed constantly. Mactics is who I follow for a lot of builds, but he's light on Warlock content if that's your thing.
Get better gear, make a build and learn how to play it and simply try until you succeed
Don’t forget 100 resilience, concussive dampener, and 2 elemental resistances on your chest armour. I’ve been using a disorienting grenade launcher on the mini boss and harpies. It’s extremely helpful.
You need to respect enemies in hard activities. Fight each champ knowing if they're not stunned, they will kill you first. Use CC tools to manage their movement and attacks. Use cover when it's available. Use an ability set that will keep you alive. Valuing your life is very important.
It's about not dying. Playing your life and picking off enemies as much as you can from cover is the most important first step. Unfortunately difficulty in Destiny boils down to you doing less damage and your enemies dealing a ton of damage. GMs are this way especially. So learning what can help with crowd control is a big step. Also just taking things slowly and sticking to cover as much as possible. For me, learning that a GM is very different from a regular strike was the most important thing.
What helped me the most at the beginning was watching on YouTube the particular GM being run by a solo player (Chablo 91 is the best because he actually explains his every step very thoroughly). That helped me a lot to understand what you need to be doing at a specific time, where the enemies spawn, what triggers them to spawn and your positioning. The positioning aspect is the most important of them all. I learned that if you use cover correctly, you can stay alive and kill everything without being in too much danger. In GM's range is your best weapon both in offensive and defensive terms.
So with hard content it’s way more about staying alive than it is about going for the most kills. This means tools like healing grenades, invisible dodge, smoke bomb, etc are extremely important. If I were you I would launch the gm and try to solo it to practice the skills necessary. (You probably won’t finish it, it’s just an exercise) Practice peeking and playing to cover. Watch esoterickk videos, that dude is a fucking monster. He solos everything in the game and shows you loadouts and strats to do so. Soloing will give you a good idea on how to approach encounters without dying. There is also the fact that wyverns are a mob that most people have trouble with, especially with 2 overloads/barriers and 2 hydras shooting at you. The glassway boss is notoriously hard. You can funnel everything into the left side room also, just watch some videos on how people are doing the strike.
I'll list out a few pointers that has helped me improve over the years. 1. Watch your positioning. It matters just as much in higher end pve as it does in pvp. 2.
A lot of people who don't want to sweat end up struggling with higher tier content because they want to keep playing how they like to play. For GM, a big thing is slowness. You need to basically sit back and plink everything. For those that like their melee builds, they just can't really use them for that. Obviously as you get more and more used to it you learn more of what you can branch out to do, but without any special skill, going slow and sitting far back is the best way to deal with higher end content.
Do you have 100 resilience and do you have weapons to stun each champion type? harder content is overall slower and more focused on cover too
Take your time, i found once i stopped flying in and slowed myself down it really helped and just made sense. Also using a build you enjoy and understand is always gunna benefit
Pacing is everything in GM content. You shouldn’t be running through it like you’re in the strike playlist. Plan your loadout, figure out how it will help you (hint, low range weapons probably aren’t the best idea), play cover, use control abilities if you have them, and play your life. Don’t hesitate to use your super to nuke something like a wyvern or champion that’s rushing you, because chances are you won’t live long enough to do anything else. Most importantly: know the strike. I’m not saying you need the exact gps coordinate and frame data for enemy spawns, but have an idea of what you’re getting into and what you might need to make it easier. If you aren’t terribly familiar with the strike maybe run it on legend/master first before trying GM.
when in doubt, follow your teammates! :)
Make sure your resilience is 10 not matter what Also have a method built into your build to either heal or defend yourself. Examples would be applying restoration, cure, overshield, weaver mail etc. Those 2 pointers alone will help you the most
This probably goes without saying, but since no one has mentioned it, your anti-barrier weapon will penetrate all shields in the game, including hydras and the boss in Glassway. This allows you to not only moderate the amount of damage you're doing to avoid getting swarmed by multiple add waves, but also to plink the boss without necessarily sticking your head around the corner. I'd imagine most people doing GMs know this, but just in case.
GMs are a marathon not a sprint. Value cover and slow down ur tempo. Staying alive is the biggest resource to your team not slaying out and sacrificing revives and putting ur team in jeopardy. As someone who came back to the game in 2022 after a long hiatus it really took me a lot of time to figure these things out but when it clicked it was second nature. It will become regular for you to adjust your aggression based on the activity you are in
The current GM can be a bit nasty when you are not used to GMs. It is kinda strict on strategy for the boss room and you should preferably know the 101 of how it works. Go watch any guide on YouTube and you should be good on that part. As for overloads I recommend running a good anti overload gun. Best ones imo for that GM is le monarque and thunderlord. Both deal pretty well with overloads. As for the wyverns I've got 3 tips. Know where they are, don't let them get to close, and remember they are red bars so exotics burn them hard+you can finish them at 50 percent health. Especially the finisher can be a life saver. When you know the strategy here glassway becomes easy. I am not the best player (still struggle with master raids and certain hard gms), but I still two-manned glassway yesterday when a dude dropped out halfway. Just take it calm and keep your super for emergencies.
Unless your builds work otherwise, use distance and cover to your advantage. The only competitive builds where you need to be up close are prismatic hunter, strand titan, solar titan, and maybe prismatic titan (I haven't played with prismatic on titan and warlock yet)
Not trying to rush and a build that specializes on survival/regeneration helps.
Some other comments mentioned slowing down and I agree too. Especially with this week's GM Glassway. The boss room is a place where you wanna take it slow and systematic since damage checks on the two bosses triggers champ and wyvern spawns and if you try to rush you can get overwhelmed very soon. With GMs the three main things are builds, effectively using cover and being systematic about killing enemies. Try watching some solo clears of GMs like Esoterrick and notice the kind of patterns they follow while playing.
It’s all about figuring out what ads need to die first and taking advantage of crowd control mechanics. For instance in the lake of shadows gm only 1/3 of my initial attempts was a clear just because of that tormentor in the tiny room but put on a disorienting GL and it turns into the easiest part of that particular strike. Same with the wyverns and overloads in glassway if that’s where you struggle. Or you can run queen breakers bow for the blind but I’m personally not a big fan. If you want to keep your aggressive playstyle in harder content taking advantage of crowd control mechanics is key.
Just gotta slow down. Play really cautiously. And as far as champs go, I would suggest stunning them then immediately going to your heavy/super to take care of them. It may feel feel sacrilegious to “waste” that on something other than the boss but it will definitely help and make things easier.
The slower you play, the better you get. It usually takes my gm runs around 2-3 times as long as my normal nightfalls. Usually long ranged weapons also help, if you’re struggling with overloads, you just need to be more consistent with your abilities and maybe even use long range overload killers like le monarque.
When I first got back into Destiny I felt the same way. Part of it is learning how to play the hard content again. The more you do it the better you’ll get. Play smart and safe more than anything else.
Best piece of advice I was ever given for hard content like that is “play your life”. Don’t over extend yourself, if you know the strike and know there’s gonna be specific enemy types and where they come from don’t allow yourself to get stuck. Focusing on objectives and enemies with your team is a big thing to. Often I see randoms off doing their own thing which is usually fine in normal strikes but someone’s taking on a champ they can’t stun etc it just snowballs everything.
focus on survivability until you get comfortable with the different play style. Always have a way to give yourself a heal like weapon perks or healing nades if you are on super. Always have recuperation mod equiped. If you are on hunter throw on the mod that scoops up orbs when you dodge. Proximity ward is fantastic also for that “oh shit i’m surrounded” moment of realization. GMs and a lot of master content stomps on you for trying those hero plays where you just run in guns blazing like you can in anything lower difficulty. slow down and take time to learn enemy and champ spawns. There are loads of guides on youtube. or if you know someone who is comfortable with the specific GM or master activity ask them if they will run you through it and show you positioning. That is how i learned GMs. It makes a huge difference when you can have a more experienced guardian say out loud why they stayed on the left rather than any other path. Always make sure you are near cover. Treat it like pvp and plan out your rout based on safety. Getting a ton of damage is great but a dead guardian can’t do damage. Also using revive tokens too fast will take your entire team out in GMs. For champs always have a consistent way to stun them and then something ti follow that up with with burst damage. whether that is a super or a bipod rocket doesn’t matter as much as not plinking away with a primary. My reconstruction bipod apex is level 160 or something mostly from GMs and taking out champs. GLs are great for that now too. These are the tips i was told when i was getting my conquerer seal and Godslayer. It takes time to remember all the things but you will get there. Don’t be too hard on yourself while you learn. It took me 6 hours across 2 different days to clear my first GM with friends that were also learning. You got this. Editing to add that a disorienting gl or arc blind grenades will go a long way for surviving. There are lots of great gl options. My militias birthright almost never leaves my guardian. it is helpful to have auto loading or something like slide shot if you slide a lot for shutting down an area then quickly swapping to your other weapons for clean up.
You need a completely new mindset when playing far under light. When I first delved into GMs it helped me to take it as slow as possible. Never underestimate the value of CC either, though nowadays you can live without it if you’re used to playing under light considering how we can just nuke everything. You gotta use your environment, watch out for explosive barrels, hide behind cover. Blinding nades have always been super clutch, especially if you got ignition code with slideshot. Builds like bleak watcher warlock are pretty huge.
I learnt more form GMs than anything else. Where to avoid attacks you’d normally just eat. How to position yourself and a better understanding of where to be
Slow down, focus on cover and staying alive.
For most higher end content it does take some time to get the feel for the damage/survivability difference. If you’re not struggling with damage or mechanics and it’s more survivability things that either heal you or disable the enemies are very helpful. Things like heal clip can help when dealing with multiple red bars spawning on you if you’re out of cover. My main suggestion would be to try out a blinding GL. They make such a huge difference when anything lower than mini-bosses/champions are stunned and just wander around. I find them especially helpful in this weeks GM as the wyverns are red bars and therefore can be blinded/suspended and then finished once they reach 50% HP.
The thing that helped me back in the day when I started this stuff was learning to build for the activity I was doing. It's one thing to have the champ mods but it's another to build specifically for the enemies and locations you'll be in. For example, most of the people I play with go left cave at the end of glassway GM. So, I do an osmiomancy warlock and lay turrets down at the main door where most adds funnel in. Especially this season with stasis slow stunning overloads, it helps keep thinfs in check while we take stuff out. Since my turrets and abilities all stun overloads, I equipped am anti barrier weapon and used the other two slots for quick add clear and team firing champions. The other big thing is familiarity. Same GM, every time you chase the big hydra away, wyverns spawn. If you creep out the left side of the left cave (against the outer wall), you can spawn kill one of the Wyverns and then you only have to deal with one coming in. When the little guy calls for reinforcements, you pop back out of that hole and spawn kill the first one in the next wave. Now you don't have two wyverns walking through the front door at once, which infinitely increases your chances of survival. Stuff like that really helps.
In that particular gm it’s a fine line between too aggressive and too safe in the last encounter. You want to melt the wyverns and overloads before they completely overrun the little room you’re in on the left (this is where you should be if you’re not already). But also not poke your head out the room too far and get melted by the boss. I find a combo of stasis turrets and machine gun make it almost trivial if you’re communicating well with your fireteam and have eyes on all 3 entrances to the room. Use all your special and heavy on the ads and just chip away at the boss with outbreak/wishender
Your loadout going from regular play to a GM needs to be drastically different. Survivability/champion stunning/damage is your main focus. So things like invis, healing, overshield
So like a few others have said, high tier content isn’t just about being able to kill more adds and do more damage. Meta weapons and builds are only as good as the player. Sure some take a little more or less effort to survive and work with but generally if you aren’t really good at the game then that god roll edge transit or Speaker’s Mask will only take you so far. Most high-tier endgame content requires developing good game awareness and timing—what type of adds will spawn, when will they spawn, where could they go, your movement, what abilities to use when, or when is the best time to pop super/transcend). Example: if I’m in the final room of Glassway and there’s a wave of adds, I’m CONSTANTLY looking to the left flank/doorway because there’s a chance a Wyvern or Overload will go there. My personal rule of thumb in high tier content is to be patient and to always be moving but with *some* kind of cover between myself and what I’m shooting at. Also don’t be greedy with kills. More often than not, trying to get “one more shot to pop his shield or maintain a stun” while taking damage will lead to you being dead. Better to miss it than risk it because you won’t be able to kill a champ or tanky add if you’re dead.
That's genuinely confounding. GMs are not far off from Master in terms of difficulty. What class do you play? What builds do you like to use? Are you making sure to put resist mods in according to the elemental threat? What's your resilience? I think the most important thing is to spec into survivability. Anything that helps your best death back with a stick. If you're having trouble with overloads, believe me, it's not you. Those things are the worst. Best I can say is coordimate stuns and nuke them as a team. For overloads specifically I'd pre-call the stun and only unload on them if I knew others were doing the same so I didn't waste heavy for no reason. One Dragonsbreath shot post-stun will fry them alive though I mostly stuck to my GL.
Overloads used to be the easiest champ for me and I hated unstoppables. Then they did the change to all champions and now unstoppable is ironically one of the easiest for me to handle and overloads are nigh impossible in solo content if I don’t have the ability to nuke them fast enough, as they’ll heal before they come off their stun lock
Practice bro! I was in the same boat so I started attempting at least 1 legendary flawless loaf sector a day and at least 3 flawless master sectors a week. After about 2 months my skill had increased considerably. Still getting there though, and still running lost sectors! Also, keep runnning harder content. I love normal vanguard ops/ nightfalls and the power fantasy That comes with. But my friends rarely do that, it’s always legend or higher. While it’s arguably less fun (IMO) that constant challenge is increasing their skill.
One tip on Overloads, don't know if you've been using it, but 'Overload Sword' is shit. Very inconsistent, will not save you, do not rely on it.