Weapon upgrades

Do you all know how the upgrades for the old weapons work?

If you have an exotic that is not fully upgraded, you can add the shard to "Mac it for year 1". After doing that do you still need to add the shard in the final slot to fully upgrade it, or will it be instantly upgraded to full?

Also, the new etheric stuff seems really hard to come by for what all you need it for, but how does it work on the pre-wolves gear too?

Yea, you essentially need two exotic shards to max any pre-HoW exotic. One for the final spot and one to ascend it. Post-HoW exotics come pre-ascended and you just need the one shard for the final slot like before.

The etheric light just raises the floor on all legendary gear so that it can reach max level once it's upgraded. It might still be a step below the top PoE or ToO gear though, I'm not sure. It is hard to come by so be careful about where you invest it. You'll do more damage by increasing your overall level to 34 than you will by maxing the damage on a weapon so I would invest in armor first.

Ok, let's see if I can make all this make sense...

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Upgrading Exotics:

All Exotics can be upgraded.
Upgrade material needed: 1 Exotic shard, X-materials, X-glimmer (mats and glimmer vary from item to item)

Notes:
- New caps are 365 damage for guns and 42 light for armor.
- Upgrading a fully leveled Exotic will bring it up to the new cap.
- Upgrading a new or partially leveled Exotic will only bring it up to the new/current level.
- It will NOT complete the leveling process nor will it reset any leveling.
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Upgrading Legendary Gear:

All Legendary Gear can be upgraded.
Upgrade material needed: 1 Etheric Light, X-materials, X-glimmer (mats and glimmer vary from item to item)

Notes:
(same as exotics)
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So the basic run down is that every piece of Legend/Exotic gear you have can be upgraded to the new level cap. Original/Dark Below or House of Wolves Gear.  All can be upgraded.  Upgrading simply brings it up to the new standard.  It does not fully max un-upgraded gear nor does it reset progress.  If you maxed out your old Fatebringer long ago (300 dmg), you just need 1 Etheric Light and some mats to get it to a shiney 365.  However, if it was only half way upgraded, you can still ascend it with Etheric Light but it would only be the new equivalent of what it once was.

How to get Exotic Shards/Etheric Light?

Exotic Shards are obtained when breaking down Exotics you own or buy purchasing them from Xur on the weekends.  1 Shard = 7 Strange Coins

Etheric Light is obtained from several places:

- Weekly Nightfall has a chance to drop at the end roll
- New HoW chests have a chance to drop.  These include the chests at the bottom of PoE as well as special chests that spawn with the new public events (Pack of Wolves events)
- Chance to drop in ToO reward packages (any purple package will probably have one in it)
- Guaranteed EL from PoE rewards lvls: 34 & 35 each week

And I think that is about it.  Hope this helps.

Cool- thanks. That does help me decide which Exoctic I'm going to break down for the shard.

I don't know how many wolf chests you all have opened, but I have to be well over 50 (maybe 100) and found 3 or 4 legendary items, but no etheric light. I didn't get any on either of the nightfalls' or the first two levels of POE, so it seem pretty hard to come by.

S7 mrmiller wrote:Cool- thanks. That does help me decide which Exoctic I'm going to break down for the shard.

I don't know how many wolf chests you all have opened, but I have to be well over 50 (maybe 100) and found 3 or 4 legendary items, but no etheric light. I didn't get any on either of the nightfalls' or the first two levels of POE, so it seem pretty hard to come by.

From what I've read, some people pwn the RNG and get a ton of both and some people get pwned and get nothing. Unfortunately, it sounds like you're part of the latter group.

Yeah, it can be really hard to pull out of RNG. Destiny is sh1tty like that but you get one guaranteed from PoE 34 & 35 so that is 2 a week you can get for sure once you level up. Also, keep in mind you don't need much EL (if any at all) to hit lvl 34. There is armor you can get from the new vendors on the Reef Outpost that is fully leveled with 42 light. You can get one peice for running PoE 32 and one you can get from lvl 5 rewards in ToO.

Below is my breakdown of how I hit lvl 34 in the first week...

Completed PoE 32 - Rec'd Armor Core and traded it for Light 42 Arms (this week is a chest, and changes weekly)
Upgraded my Exotic Helm with 1 Exotic Shard
<---------- with 2 peices upgraded I hit lvl 33
Completed PoE 34 and rec'd one EL. Upgraded Boots to Light 42
Completed 5 wins in ToO and received Light 42 Chest
<---------- lvl 34 acheived with only 1 EL.

* Note: I was lvl 32 to start off with. If you are under 32 to start, you will not hit 33 until the 3rd piece is upgraded.

Yea, I was 31 and upgraded my chest with the shards and got the gauntlets from the PoE and am at 33 now. I don't know that i really need/want the chest over my armormentum, but might grab it now while it's available (I'll have to get another armor core first anyhow). I haven't run the Trials yet or anything higher than the 32 PoE as it was a b!tch anyhow.

Trials is a lot of fun IMO. You should check it out if you get the chance. One of the best things to come out of Destiny aside from perhaps the first Raid and it has the best rewards so far. I got 2-EL's, a kick ass chest piece, nice auto-rifle and a bunch of coins and motes. All the while pwning kids with my bro's and having a blast.