Destiny VoG Beginner’s Quick Guide

Destiny VoG Beginner’s Quick Guide by armbarawareness

There are some amazing guides and videos out there for VoG. I was pretty worried on my first attempt and didn’t want to be the one to wipe the group, so I read up a lot about all of the fights. In addition, our raid leader would explain the fight for 10 minutes before the entrance, templar and Aetheon fights.

The problem was that it was just information overload. The fights are fairly complex, so going over every detail without context is a recipe for forgetting. I encourage people to do their homework, but would like to give a more broad overview to some of the fights if you don’t want to spend a lot of time diving into every detail. If you’re running with a PuG that is experienced, you don’t need to know all the nitty gritty details. If you are running with a team for the first time, i’d suggest reading some more detailed guides out there since you’re most likely a bit undergeared as a team.

I ran this with a pug last night that was fairly experienced, and no one worried about positioning or anything. Everyone knew what to do, saw the holes and filled them and we cleared it in an hour with no wipes. If you have the general overview of what needs to be done, that’s enough.

This overview won’t go over being the relic holder. I’m assuming if it’s your first time you won’t be responsible for this duty.

Entrance

There’s 3 confuxes you need to gaurd, so groups of 2 make sense- you need to defend them and not allow any vex onto the sync plates. Kill shit. The Praetorians are the toughest, so use a void fusion rifle and call your partner for help if you see one.

Templar Phase 1

Stuff comes out left middle and right. Same as entrance, kill stuff. If you kill a mob and there’s a green puddle on the ground, don’t step on it. If you step on it, go into the middle (down the ramp), and there’s a big shiny light. Get on it to cleanse yourself and GTFO since vex spawn there.

Templar Phase 2

Oracles spawn. They look like big orange lights…just kill them quick. Oracles should take priority over everything. Also kill hobgoblins sniping you. Fuck hobgoblins

Templar Phase 3

You actually fight the templar now. He has a big shield, so don’t bother shooting him until the shield is down. Your relic holder will call out on the mic when he is going to blast the templar to bring his shield down, once he does this, focus fire the templar. Stay alive, focus templar when shield is down.

When the shield gets broken, do not move. He will potentially cast a shield around you, and you have to fire at the shield to break it. You die if you try to walk through it. If you use a rocket launcher on your shield you’ll kill yourself. You can generally just start firing from a stationary position right when his shield is going down. You’ll either hit him, or break the shield first thing…either way you’re safe if you don’t move.

Rinse and Repeat. That’s really all there is to the boss fight.

There’s a cheap way to beat templar as well from a hobgoblin floating column. I won’t get into it, since if you’re doing it you can just follow your team.

Aetheon Phase 1

Kill everything, then kill the gatekeeper

Aetheon Phase 2

After you down the gatekeeper, vex will start spawning behind you. This is where you will be divided into the outside group, or the inside group.

Outside group opens up one of the portals by stepping inside the sync plate and kills the stuff spawning. These sync plates are located below the portals toward the entrance (small raised column). Their goal is to guard that plate and not let any vex on it (just like the entrance). If you are in this group, just kill everything outside and guard that plate.

Inside group will go through the portal, kill everything, including a gatekeeper, and someone will grab a relic. If you’re on the inside, once the gatekeeper is down, you will get cursed. Just chill out and wait for the relic holder to cleanse you. You have to be close so stay with him.

Once the relic is retrieved, you go out the portal and move to the other portal to do the same thing.

Outside group: When the inside team leaves the first portal, your job gets a bit more difficult. You need to defend the same sync plate on the opposite side, but a conflux appears in the middle which you have to defend as well. Split your resources and guard both. You’ll either be guarding mid, or the new sync plate.

Inside group repeats the same thing in the 2nd portal and when they come out, EVERYONE get to the middle conflux and defend.

Congrats you just beat phase 2, arguably the hardest phase. You’ll get loot and have down time.

Aetheon Phase 3

Aetheon will teleport the 3 farthest people, so you will be one of groups. Teleported group, nor not teleported group. You will decide on this before the fight begins.

Not getting teleported: Hang around the portals and kill harpies. When the teleported group gets in, they will tell you which side they are on. You’ll need to open the portal for them (stand in plate). Kill stuff and try to stay on top of columns. The harpies are suicide bombers.

Getting teleported: You’ll hang around the back until you get teleported. Run to the stairs, and chuck a grenade down. The relic holder will go down and mop up the few mobs. You just chill, you’re going to wait for oracles to spawn. The first spawns above you, and their spawns get closer and closer to the exit portal. Shoot those bitches and move to the exit. YOUR JOB IS TO KILL ORACLES WHILE MOVING TOWARDS THE PORTAL

Upon exit everyone gets a buff from the inside team killing the last oracle. Everyone jumps to the middle platform (between the 2 portals). The relic holder will put up a shield that protects you from the outside. DPS the boss down while you have this buff. When the buff ends (there’s a timer), it’s important the same 3 get teleported. At the 3 second mark of the timer, either jump to the back so you get teleported (if you’re in that group), or jump to the left or right and find cover while killing more harpies.

Repeat after the teleport.

edit: Thanks everyone for your comments. I didn’t think this post would cause so much controversy. I firmly believe everyone learns differently and i’m one that likes to look at problems top down. I did read very in depth guides prior to my first attempt, but the amount of details makes you start memorizing a formula for a bottoms up approach.

Imagine learning the game of football by starting with a coach drawing X’s and O’s on a white board and showing you who is blocking who, without any context of the sport. While it could be effective, i’d much rather teach them first that the goal is to just get the ball 10 yards down the field, and ultimately the end zone.

In my opinion, it would have been more helpful to just generally know what was going on, and learn the finer details the 2nd or 3rd run. I fully expect people to wipe and mess up with my lack of details, but it’s really about making someone feel comfortable stepping in for the first time. I felt like I would have learned faster during the first run if I was given a broad overview.

If you’re the type that needs to know every detail going in to feel comfortable, then check out this guide here.

Thanks all for the great comments!