@randalian: A lot of us have just been digging into Black Armory this week, but you are correct. Originally, the Volundr Forge was locked to 615-630 enemies, making it pretty impossible to do under about 615 or 610 in you were incredibly skilled, but on Wednesday they did a server side patch that dropped that to 610-625. It actually helped quite a bit for those of us at 600 when Black Armory dropped, but it won't help a player like yourself so far away from 600 still. During the TWAB this past week, Bungie mentioned this as their plans to address this issue on Tuesday...
- Prime engrams will now drop more frequently and with larger power bumps for players under 600 Power. This change is planned to land in the 2.1.2 update on December 11. We are also considering additional changes to assist with the Power climb in a future update. We will continue to monitor your feedback on Season of the Forge as it continues.
Prime Engrams currently drop at +5 Power (2/3 a PL). Since Black Armory dropped, there was a pretty hefty Global increase in Prime drops (I'm seeing roughly 5x as many as before if not more than that, post 600). If I had to guess, since the new Raid drops are coming in at +10-12, Primes sub 600 come Tuesday will start to drop around that (roughly 1.3-1.5 PL per). Add that to your normal Powerful Gear drops, and you should be seeing a drastic increase in the rate at which you climb PL. But, keep in mind, this does not fix the fact that the Forges are still set at 610, and the new Raid is 640. For reference, I ran everything on 2 characters this week, and everything but a Last Wish run on my Warlock, and my highest character was only able to get up to 626, which is still a bit shy of being able to do the new Raid this week. My first character could only hit around 610 though, so if you picked up 18 PL's this week, that's actually rather good for 1 character. I'm guessing next week you'll be able to pick up at least another 25 with the new changes, maybe even hit 600, but I completely understand the frustration of not being able to do new content you paid for. I think the biggest thing to be aware of with the Annual Pass, and something much more obvious to us all now that Black Armory is out, is that they intent the Annual Pass to very much be End Game Content. I wish I had better news, but the reality is you probably have another 2 weeks of grinding before you can play the Black Armory Forges with any success, and another 2 weeks most likely after that before you can access the new Raid Scourge of the Past, or at least access those Activities with any success without being a detriment to your groups. All of this could change though, as Bungie flipped a switch on the Forges Power Level instantly last Wednesday, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that they make further changes in the future. Keep in mind the content rollout is rather slow for Black Armory, so the truth is you aren't missing much. This first big thing to release appears to be Niobe Labs on Jan. 8th. That's the date by which I'd want to be caught up and try to be around 630+, because all things point to that being the Bubble Locations and leaks are that it includes a new Dungeon. Here's hoping, because so far, Black Armory has been disappointing shallow on content. Even though Scourge of the Past looks like one of the best Raids they've ever made.
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