Hey everybody. Fair warning, this will be a long post. There's a TL;DR at the end for those after the executive summary version :) I'm a long-time casual Destiny player who's never set foot inside a raid. In fact, up until a month ago I'd never even completed a Nightfall or used Destiny LFG to form a group. The hardest activities I'd played were Strike playlists and the occasional Crucible. This was largely a deliberate choice on my part (although it should be noted that I do suck in Crucible), to avoid Destiny becoming the kind of time-sponge I know it will become if I indulge my completionist tendencies. I went cold-turkey from World of Warcraft about 8 years ago and I'm determined for the addiction to remain kicked :) As a result of my casual playstyle my beloved Titan has always lacked a bit of power compared to the raiders. I've never been at the level cap, never had an elemental primary weapon and never even seen Gjallarhorn drop. HoW's etheric light system has finally changed that, enticing me to finally hop onto Destiny LFG to get a group together for L32 Prison of Elders and its guaranteed armor core, followed by competing in Iron Banner for the first time, grinding out rank 5 (and much improving in Crucible in the process, although I still suck) and gaining the etheric light needed to reach the cap. At max Light level for the first time, I began to think that it would be cool to experience some raid content for the first time. Surely my level advantages would help make up for lack of experience. I made a post on Destiny LFG, and after hesitating for a moment, noted that I had never run VoG before but had a mic and would listen to instruction. Although it might hurt my group-finding chances, I didn't want any misunderstandings about my knowledge level. This actually worked in my favor, as a very friendly Guardian messaged me a few moments later saying "I'm doing a sherpa run, want to join us?". Turns out this "Sherpa" run involved two experienced raiders showing 4 complete noobs like myself through the Vault. The fireteam leader was incredibly patient, explaining what he was doing, where he was going, and how normal VoG differs from Hard mode. I defended a plate and opened the doors for the first time. I walked through the Fanatics' green death goo to see what it would do. I killed Oracles and ran to the middle to get cleansed when we didn't quite make it through a wave. I got stuck in a buggy detainment bubble that un-equipped my weapon, and proceeded to punch or grenade everything that approached me until the Templar died. Shortly afterwards I was crouching, sprinting, hiding and carefully NOT double-jumping while navigating the Gorgon labyrinth. This was the first time in Destiny that I'd been forced to be stealthy, and it was a great deal of fun. We reached a loot chest, and the fireteam leader tells us this chest has a high chance to drop exotics. I was not disappointed, Hawkmoon dropping for me for the first time and The Last Word dropping for someone else. I've heard a lot about Hawkmoon and I was super stoked about my fortune, thinking that even if we proceed to wipe for a few hours and disband the raid has already been worth it. And then we reach the jump maze. IRL I have a fear of heights, and although I'm usually fine with it in a video game this section did rattle me a bit. The two experienced raiders made it across quickly, of course, after showing us both the direct approach and the tunnel off to the side. Two of the other newbies also made it across after a few attempts, leaving me and one other guy dying over and over again on the far side. As a Titan who specs for armor and recovery, precision-jumping has never really been a thing for me in Destiny. The fireteam leader waits patiently, but after 15 minutes of trying and failing it was clear we needed some help. Most raid leaders at that point would surely either boot us from the group, or got to the next checkpoint and asked us to leave the fireteam and rejoin to bypass the jump maze. This man didn't. He (a Hunter) looked up some Titan-specific advice from Youtube about using shoulder charge from a ledge to the right to get across in one leap. I re-specced to Striker, equipped a MIDA Multi-Tool for the movement speed increase, and made it across after two attempts. I have to really tip my hat to our ever-patient "Sherpa" for this, for taking the time to look up class-specific advice for me and make sure I could get across myself in subsequent runs. Eventually we reach Atheon. The fireteam leader insisted on some of the new players grabbing Relics,, even though this resulted in a few wipes. I was tempted to stop and screen capture my Titan holding a big glowing shield - moment of pure aesthetic pride - but tried to concentrate on what I was doing. Shield-bashing Minotaurs was great fun, as was going completely blind in another dimension and getting lost in space and time :P I can see why people rave about VoG, it has some excellent and flavorful mechanics. Atheon dies in a haze of Relic-empowered, Weapons of Light-enhanced artillery fire. And then Gjallarhorn drops, and I tunnel vision to the bottom corner of my screen to see my name next to it. Along with Atheon's Epilogue, my first elemental primary weapon, and a new shader. Naturally I go nuts over team voice chat, exulting in my drops. "Congrats, is that your first Gjallarhorn?" My character still dancing, I replied in the affirmative. "Hawkmoon and Ghorn from your first run," he comments good-naturedly, "people are going to hate you!" TL;DR: I'm a vanilla casual player who has never been in a raid, just finished VoG for the first time and got a Gjallarhorn, Hawkmoon and Atheon's Epilogue. I'm stoked, and feel like I've just climbed about 3 rungs in Destiny-status. I greatly enjoyed the run and tip my hat to our "Sherpa"; DaBozz88, you truly are. Thank you kindly sir.