As a guardian who has been playing since day one, and ground out way too much time on Destiny, I for one am glad Bungie made Crota's End Hard Mode so difficult. Vault of Glass was easy and fun, yet people found the need to "cheese" Atheon relentlessly on normal. On hard mode, especially, people were finding exploits for Atheon for the longest time, and many groups never even did VoG on Hard Mode once legitimately. Also, many guardians quickly learned several super cheap ways of killing Crota on normal mode. Such exploits as keeping Crota down longer due to the intentional switching of party leaders is not only insultingly cheap, but also unnecessary considering people managed to defeat Crota legitimately in one sword (YES LEGITIMATELY). A friend of our clan asked us for help on Crota one day, and told us to just start switching leader between two people. We immediately left fire team. We refused to partake in such an insulting method, especially considering we could still kill Normal Mode Crota in two swords every time. Thankfully, Bungie fixed such exploits, along with others throughout the Crota’s End raid in preparation for the hard mode release. Everyone who decides to keep complaining about the difficulty of the Hard Mode Crota encounter needs to relax, find a good team of friends whom are 32 and well coordinate, and adapt to the minimal changes made in the Crota encounter. The level 33 minions and the 35 Crota are intimidating, even for 32s. Being thrown off by a wizard on the bridge instead of a sword night, and having to worry about a Gatekeeper being in your midst is rather disorienting and frustrating, but you will get through it. Many have also complained about Crota going enraged “early”. (SPOILER ALERT) – Crota gets enraged early in hard mode right before you need 3 or less sword hits. This is your calling sign to have everyone focus fire on Crota to get that shield down. After 2 hours of dealing with a lagged out and/or incompetent swordbearer, Crota getting up super early, adapting to a new strategy, etc., the five shooters on my fireteam last night died by Boomer Knights and other minions as we let loose our final one or two rounds on Crota, but at that point it does not matter because you’re either going to win, or your going to wipe. Our sword-wielding hero managed to get in 3 final blows to Crota before, also being obliterated by a Boomer Knight. And guess what. Crota was dead, and we were being rewarded with the fruits of our labor. Long story short, be 32, have a well coordinated team, be willing to adapt to a new strategy, give it your all, and above all be patient and quit complaining. Hard mode has been around for a day. You will succeed in due time. I hope the little insight into the final phase of our strategy helps a bit. Don’t get discouraged. Good luck guardians.