‘Destiny 2' Can Flip A Single Gear Switch For An Easy Win
However, once again I found myself running another Conquest as part of trying to rank up, and sure enough, I discovered that my amazing Hunter build now had to be handicapped because my exotic class item was not deemed 'New Gear.' I didn't even bother trying to make an entirely different build and I just threw on a legendary cloak instead. Forget it.
Destiny 2 s imply needs to scrap the idea that only specific exotics in a season count as 'New Gear.' It's not just being annoyed in one-off Conquests (which I assume Bungie will make repeatable at some point), it's about the Portal score system.
More or less the entire game is now based around hitting certain ranks in the Portal, namely A-rank, but that gives you extra bonuses based on how much New Gear you have on, even if it's not 'mandatory' like Conquests.
Destiny 2 already badgers you into using New Gear for legendary armor and legendary weapons despite the extremely limited arsenal right now. But even doing something as simple as picking a single, non-featured exotic weapon and a single non-featured exotic piece of armor is enough to get me to miss A-rank by a sliver some of the time. And god forbid you use even more slots without the New Gear badge.
It sucks to have to hamstring my build, for instance, an Ashen Wake Titan build in a Solar season, or literally any Prismatic build, because it's not featured for whatever reason. Or I'm hurt using Gjallarhorn or Monte Carlo or Ergo Sum (why do they hate Prismatic this season?).
I mean, come on, the answer is obvious here. All exotics should be considered New Gear. The only reason this system exists is because Bungie wants to encourage different metas and builds in a given season but we already have systems in place for that. The artifact give big bonuses to 1-3 elements a season already. The 'New Gear' system for the legendaries already only give you a small amount of new guns to put in those slot. Do we really need exotics hurting our all-important scores on top of all this?
We do not. This change is inevitable. It's one of those things that is so obviously a bad idea that you know Bungie will reverse course. But we do not need some sort of months-long internal debate about this. Do it in the next patch, and please don't say it's some sort of impossible coding issue, I'm not buying that anymore, especially for something like this.
Follow me on Twitter , YouTube , and Instagram .
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
26 minutes ago
- USA Today
After glitch, 'New Heights' dropped 20 more minutes with Taylor Swift. What you missed.
"New Heights" had a brief interruption, a slight malfunction after the YouTube version of its episode with Taylor Swift was unexpectedly cut short. "We hit a glitch but will be back shortly!!!" the show's X account wrote around 8:45 p.m. ET on Aug. 13, roughly an hour and 45 minutes into the episode's premiere. The episode of the show, which is hosted by Swift's NFL player boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce, featured the singer's reveal of her upcoming album, "The Life of a Showgirl." Over a million people were watching the stream when the glitch happened. The full recording, which is about two hours long, was available on Spotify. "Swifties so powerful we broke the internet," WNBA star Caitlin Clark wrote in a post on X. Shortly after 12:30 a.m. on Aug. 14, "New Heights" posted that the full episode was up on YouTube. "Shoutout to the amazing team at @YouTube for helping get this fixed!!!" the show's account posted. While many fans still caught the audio on other platforms, those streaming on YouTube might have missed the last 20 minutes, which featured a rapid fire question round. Here's what happened. Taylor Swift reveals what inspired Eras Tour cleaning cart arrival Swift confirmed that it was her idea to hide in a cleaning cart before going onstage at every Eras Tour show. "I wanted to curate and really romanticize the images that (fans) were seeing first," Swift said. "So I didn't want them to see my first outfit and my first look which would have given away what the first era was." She also said she initially planned to use the cart at the first show, but "then I just got attached to it." "There's a weird little side of me that likes sneaking around and and I think the fans found it funny, too," she said. "They're like, 'What a weirdo. We've come to see a weirdo in concert. Why is she doing that?'" How Jason Kelce's kids met Taylor Swift's cats Travis Kelce revealed that Jason Kelce told his kids Wyatt, Elliotte, Bennett and Finnley that cats are poisonous. Swift said it made for "a great challenge" when the girls met her cats Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson and Benjamin Button. "It was my goal to prove to them that they weren't poisonous," Swift said. The singer said her cats "are so good with kids." "They're like 'Meredith is here.' I'm like, 'Yep. And you know what? She didn't bite you at all, did she? No, she didn't. And if she did bite you, she wouldn't be poisonous,'" Swift said. "They're like, 'That's not what our dad said.' I'm like, 'Well, I heard you're getting a cat.'" Was Taylor Swift in 'Happy Gilmore 2'? After Travis Kelce appeared in "Happy Gilmore 2," internet conspiracists began theorizing that Swift may have made a secret cameo as a bear who attacks Kelce. "Can you confirm or deny this rumor?" Jason Kelce asks, to which Swift says, "I can deny." "We're just sort of at this point we're just like, 'Of course they think I'm inside of a bear costume," she said before adding, "I'm honored to be thought of in that context 'cause I loved that movie so much." Taylor Swift on being on NFL field for first time: 'I've never seen this many cameras' When asked about her "welcome to the NFL moment," Swift said it was the first time she stepped onto a field after the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Baltimore Ravens in January 2024. "Everybody's screaming and his mom goes, 'All right, let's go down to the field,'" Swift said. "And I was like, 'What? We're doing what?'" She explained, "So I'm walking out onto this field and it's just like, 'Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. There's so many lights. I've never seen this many cameras. I've never seen this much media in my life.' And I've seen a lot of media." Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at
New York Times
27 minutes ago
- New York Times
Even Taylor Swift Can't Resist Podcasts, the Celebrity Safe Space
The transformation of podcasts from a niche audio format to a linchpin of celebrity press tours is complete. Taylor Swift has finally appeared on one. Her guest spot on 'New Heights,' a video podcast about football and pop culture co-hosted by her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, amassed nearly nine million views in about 12 hours on YouTube, setting a record for the show and cementing its place among modern media properties. About 1.3 million people tuned in simultaneously to a livestream of the episode before it was felled by a technical glitch. By comparison, an October episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience' with President Trump reached about 11 million views in its first 12 hours on YouTube. Released on Wednesday night, the 'New Heights' episode served as a long-form album announcement for Ms. Swift, who has never taken a particularly traditional approach to delivering such news. When not dropping surprise albums, she has opted for announcing albums on tour stops, on Yahoo livestreams or in the middle of awards shows. Rarely does Ms. Swift sit for an interview. (Exceptions include in-depth conversations about songwriting for Apple in 2020, and about directing for Variety in 2022.) That her first proper podcast interview was conducted beside her romantic partner speaks to both her personal reluctance to engage with mainstream media and a larger truth about podcasting: For prominent figures, it has become a friendly space, where unchecked conversation can flow freely. Silicon Valley founders and White House officials have embraced two- or three-hour conversations with Mr. Rogan. Athletes and musicians talk about their mental health on 'Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard.' The actor Jason Momoa just made his podcast debut on 'SmartLess,' disclosing a near-drowning, while Dakota Johnson chose to make her debut on 'Good Hang With Amy Poehler,' holding her new puppy in her lap. 'Not only do these podcasts have massive reach, but they're also places where you can have a very nuanced, long-form conversation,' said Josh Lindgren, head of podcasts at Creative Artists Agency, in an interview on Wednesday. 'The editing tends to have a fairly light touch, and so it's a place where you can go and have a conversation and expect that that's more or less what's going to get transmitted to your audience.' (CAA represents some of Mr. Kelce's business.) While these interviews may seem journalistic in nature, most stars of new media do not consider themselves journalists. In their celebrity interviews, they reject the blunt questions of 1990s network broadcasters and the literary sensibility of 1970s magazine scribes. They foster a sense of safety. Their goal is intimacy, not necessarily accountability. 'We're not a 'gotcha' show,' Michael Bosstick, chief executive of the podcasting network Dear Media, told The New York Times this year. He and his wife interviewed Ivanka Trump, the elder daughter of President Trump, in her second podcast appearance; her first was with Lex Fridman, a podcaster focused primarily on science and technology, whom Ms. Trump described as a 'friend.' Neither show was a places where Ms. Trump would have expected to be grilled on her father's policies or her role in shaping them. 'It's about making the guests feel comfortable that we're going to actually let them tell their story,' said Mr. Bosstick, who spoke to Ms. Trump about skiing, workout supplements, her morning routine and her interest in A.I. Alex Cooper, the host of 'Call Her Daddy,' told The Times last year that when interview subjects arrived at her studio 'terrified' that the internet would pick apart their words, she reassured them that 'we're good' and 'it's chill.' Sean Evans, the host of 'Hot Ones,' told Vulture in May that he believed his show should be an 'extension of the guest,' assuring one actor that he was in 'safe hands' while eating spicy wings. 'I would assume talent gets bored doing the traditional press junket, so this feels fresh and exciting,' said Kareem Rahma, host of 'Subway Takes,' who has interviewed guests including the actress Cate Blanchett and Zohran Mamdani, New York's Democratic candidate for mayor, while riding the city's transit system. 'From a more practical perspective, the average American spends seven hours a day looking at their phone, so it makes sense to meet the audience there.' Much energy has been devoted to positioning internet-native shows like 'Hot Ones' or 'Subway Takes' as the new version of late-night talk shows — a long-declining format — particularly in terms of the clamoring by celebrity publicists to book their clients. (Mr. Evans has also been public about his desire for a prime-time Emmy statue.) But late-night television appearances have always been short and sweet, marked by canned anecdotes or contrived games. Even glossy magazine covers, once pursued like a golden ticket by publicists, have lost some of their appeal. Agents are still eager to see their clients swathed in high-fashion brands and shot by big-name photographers, but podcasts are simply 'much quicker to execute, and they offer the talent the chance to speak in an unmediated way,' said Charlotte Owen, the editor of Bustle, which publishes both podcasts and more traditional cover stories. But to Ms. Owen, who hosts 'One Nightstand,' a podcast on which guests talk about their favorite books, it is not only celebrities who benefit from these lengthy video interviews. 'I'm often having more robust, intimate and revelatory conversations than I do when sat in a restaurant with a voice recorder between us,' she said. 'And for guests, it's like being in a batting cage for an hour. You're going to hit something in that time.' 'New Heights' will certainly benefit from Ms. Swift's appearance at a crucial moment for the podcast. Last year, Wondery acquired the rights to distribute and sell the show's advertisements, negotiating a reported $100 million deal with Mr. Kelce and his co-host, his brother Jason. But this month, Wondery was broken up by its parent company, Amazon. The Kelces have since been funneled into a new department, Creator Services, as the company focuses less on traditional audio podcasts and more on deploying its splashy video-friendly talent across its platforms. Before the episode's release, after days of teasing the interview with Ms. Swift, 'New Heights' reached No. 1 on Apple Podcasts' chart. It had held that spot before, but not consistently. Previously, the brothers' most-watched YouTube video had about 8.6 million views. That was an interview with Jason Kelce's wife, Kylie.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
When Code Performs: Arts Nonprofits Face A New Test
Larry Bomback is the founder of Strategic Nonprofit Finance. It was only recently that we laughed as AI-generated images gave us people with six-fingered hands. But now we watch digital actors question their own existence. Prompt theory, the viral trend that creates these AI reflections, is much more than online theater. It signals that machines can produce work so convincing that audiences confuse code with craft. I tested the idea at home. My mother, 79, stared at a prompt theory compilation on YouTube and asked, "What do you mean these aren't real people?" My daughter, 13, rolled her eyes and said, "Dad, you're four months late." For nonprofits, especially those rooted in human experience, this advance brings new pressure. If software can imitate the traits we call human, what happens to missions built on empathy, live connection and unique voice? And no industry feels the pressure more than arts and culture. Music, film, design and writing now roll out of prompt engines at near‑zero financial cost. I think it is perhaps the most frightening time in human history to be a creative. Six Risk Lines To Watch 1. Funding Drift: Grant panels chase novelty. AI creations look fresh, so dollars may move to tech pilots and away from live craft. 2. Workforce Erosion: The sector depends on part‑time artists. If AI replaces even 1 in 5 contracts, many will leave the field, draining skills that machines cannot hold, like improvisation or cultural context. 3. Intellectual Property Fog: Current laws have yet to catch up with the complexities of hybrid creative works. If a composer feeds their archive into a model that then writes a score, who owns it? 4. Authenticity Crisis: Audiences pay for a sense of real presence. Deepfake actors blur that line. If patrons feel deceived, they may pull back on both ticket purchases and charitable support. 5. Volunteer And Donor Fatigue: Many supporters give because they know musicians, dancers or playwrights by name. When art shifts to screens, personal ties can weaken and renewal rates slip. 6. Ethical Reputation Risk: In 2016, ING, Microsoft and TU Delft printed The Next Rembrandt, a data-driven canvas that looked like a lost work. They disclosed the method, yet the debate still rages over authorship and value. Human‑Centered Responses AI is not a fad. Telling artists to ignore it is like asking them to press CDs instead of livestream. A 2024 Society of Authors survey already shows that a quarter of illustrators and more than a third of translators have lost assignments to generative tools. Moreover, visual artists' median earnings in the U.K. have dropped 40% since 2010, with researchers calling AI "the straw that broke the camel's back." Unless we truly are living in the infinite prompt loop simulation that Elon Musk mused about back in 2016, we do still get to choose our response. For nonprofit arts groups, I think the answer is avoid morphing into tech companies, doubling down on what only people can do: Bring other people together to create shared, in-person experiences. Gen Z, digital natives by birth, are already signaling the demand. In a 2025 Live Nation study, 92% said they actively seek real-world experiences over online engagement, and 90% ranked "realness" and "authenticity" as life's top values. Reinforcing The Human With that in mind, here are ways that arts organizations can reinforce their human competitive advantage: 1. Make the process visible. Open rehearsals, studio livestreams and maker talks let supporters see sweat and revision. This narrative anchors value in effort, not just output. 2. Adopt authenticity labels. Create a simple tag system: "human‑made," "human‑AI hybrid," "machine‑generated." Clear labels help build trust. Show your supporters where that line is and then invite them to cross it with you. 3. Secure artist income. Offer paid residencies focused on craft that AI cannot mimic: site‑specific performance, participatory work or art rooted in local history. Tie funding to fair wages, not output volume. Quality over quantity. 4. Build digital rights clauses. Update contracts so artists keep training rights to their work or receive royalties if archives feed a model. 5. Create AI governance committees. Form small groups with artists, technologists, ethicists and board members to review projects. Publish the minutes. I believe that transparency helps discourage shortcut temptations. A Production For The People? As an example of a model embodying these concepts, here's a bold, human-first twist on the traditional season pass: Sell one production, experienced in five acts rather than separate shows. 1. Auditions: Open the doors to the tryouts. Subscribers witness unfiltered emotion and a wide range of talent. The casting room becomes the first stage. 2. Rehearsals: Offer a menu of rehearsal dates. Patrons drop in, watch scenes evolve and see how directors and actors solve problems in real time. 3. The Workshop: Bring the audience into the design studio. They watch sets, costumes and props take shape, and maybe even help craft a piece or two. 4. Tech And Dress: Give subscribers a seat for the first full run-through with lights, sound and orchestra. The tension and near-final polish make this a show of its own. 5. Opening Night: Finish with the premiere, where every earlier moment pays off. Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal proved that process can be riveting art. Nonprofit theaters and opera companies can borrow that insight, turning each step of creation into a ticketed experience that deepens engagement and sustains revenue. No gimmicks. I believe this is a repeatable and cost-effective way to keep artistry thriving in an era that's been reshaped by history's greatest technological leap. Summing Up There's nothing wrong with using technology to assist in creating new work. But ideation must always begin in the human mind. Make sure to control the narrative by showing patrons how the work is made and how much of the budget is going to living artists. In today's fast-paced culture, slower creation can actually build deeper ties—as long as patrons feel genuinely engaged throughout the process. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
