The Edge of Fate expansion forDestiny 2is only a few weeks away, which means this is the time to get your arsenal in shape. We know that the entire itemization system is changing and all of your armor is about to become virtually worthless, but weapons? Weapons are valued by their trait combinations, not some teal pips on their stat sheet.
Gear tiers are not going to make current weapons irrelevant. Tinasha’s Mastery is still going to be the anti-Champion king; Hezen Vengeance will continue to dominate DPS charts; Blast Furnace will continue to be the weapon of choice for Destiny dads with 17 children and 30 minutes of spare time a month. Point is, you need to be ready. Fortunately for you, we have the skinny on what’s good.
Best Roll
Air Trigger + Chill Clip
We’re tagging this as an honorable mention since it currently isn’t obtainable—the last Iron Banner this season ended in early June. This is a special ammo sidearm that fires micro-rockets at targets, dealing immense damage on impact. It’s currently the only rocket sidearm that deals Stasis damage, which means it can get Chill Clip.
Chill counters Overload Champions outright and can eventually freeze targets, stunning Unstoppable Champions. Throw on the Radiant buff, and you have a weapon that can counter every Champion type in the game. It’s quite ammo efficient, too.
What If I Can’t Get Tinasha’s Mastery?
For countering Champions, your best bet is to runRiptide with Chill Clip, a fusion rifle you may get from the Crucible. If the thought of PvP sounds more painful than browsing the Destiny subreddit, then you’ll need to wait for Iron Banner’s return during the mid-season update. Saladin’s sitting this next expansion out, at least until Ash and Iron drops later this year.
If you just want a strong rocket sidearm, The Call is a craftable weapon that’s a guaranteed drop from the Final Shape campaign.
Rewind Round + Kinetic Tremors
The Supremacy is the ultimate special weapon for players who can’t aim—games journalists, your PvP teammates, and most people on LFG, to name a few. This gun can get Enhanced Kinetic Tremors in the second column, triggering a series of explosions if you land two hits on a target. They can be anywhere on the body, not just precision hits.
Each explosion counts as a hit for Rewind Rounds, which means you’re able to fully reload your magazine when your gun runs dry. Praedyth’s Revenge can technically output more DPS than Supremacy, but the synergy with Rewind Rounds and Kinetic Tremors is too useful for general play. If you’re obsessed with special weapon DPS to that degree, let’s be real, you’re usingLord of Wolves. Or you want to impress your team with some off-metaD.A.R.C.I.loadout. I won’t judge; I respect it.
Auto-Loading Holster + Vorpal Weapon
We’re only recommending this for players who love Prismatic and want to trigger Transcendence as fast as possible. Lost Signal is effectively legendaryWitherhoardthat you can craft. It doesn’t deal much damage on its own, but it’s a fantastic source of Darkness Transcendence energy. Its Void counterpart, VS Velocity Baton from Vesper’s Host, fills a similar niche for Light Transcendence.
Envious Arsenal + Bait and Switch
Remember when players thought that Bungie were rigging item drops during Episode: Revenant? Remember howthe community was actually right? Yeah, they gave everyone a free 5/5 god roll as an apology forthe errant bug in the game’s code.
History lesson aside, VS Chill Inhibitor is the best legendary GL in the game, full stop. Envious Arsenal with Bait and Switch is an S-tier combination that melts just about every boss in the game. If you weren’t able to snag one from Banshee when he was giving them out like candy, you’ll need to farm Vesper’s Host until it inevitably drops. You can’t blame broken RNG this time, though.
Heal Clip + Incandescent
With the shift away from craftable weapons and more towards RNG drops in Edge of Fate, you’ll want some reliable workhorse weapons for the opening weeks of the expansion. Aberrant Action absolutely fits the bill, as it’s the only craftable rocket sidearm in the energy slot.
Heal Clip, Ambitious Assassin, Incandescent, and Golden Tricorn are just a few perks you can get on this weapon. It’s absolutely stacked with good options and is arguably theonlycraftable legendary worth chasing this year—not disregarding Lost Signal, but that weapon’s purpose is far more niche.
FOMO Reality Check
If you can’t get Aberrant Action before Edge of Fate, a similar weapon will be obtainable from the Crucible playlist. It’s also a Solar rocket pistol, although we aren’t sure what perks it can roll with.
Best Optic
Combat Sights
There’s a good chance you own this weapon already. If you don’t, check Xur’s inventory on the weekend and pick this thing up. It’s the best linear fusion rifle in the game due to its fast charge rate and Rewind Rounds catalyst. Scintillation can probably outperformThe Queenbreakerin a sustained DPS scenario, but for actual burst, Queenbreaker is usually better.
I find it unlikely that LFRs will be meta in Edge of Fate since Particle Reconstruction is going away. Even still, keep this in your collections just in case. We’re entering uncharted waters with all the upcoming sandbox changes. Linears might be the best weapons for the upcoming raid. Or maybe it’ll beWhisper of the Worm—I highly doubt it, but you never know.
N/A; just hipfire this thing
If you’ve been living under a rock for the last six months,Lord of Wolvesis kind of broken right now. This weapon received a colossal buff that made it dethrone some heavy weapons overnight. Bungie gave it a hefty nerf a few months later, yet itstillobliterates everything up close. Not even raid bosses are safe.
Get near a target, aim near their chest, and hold down the trigger. You don’t even need to aim. It’s hilariously strong and easily one of the best shotguns in the game. If you didn’t grind thousands of Spider bounties during Forsaken, you can acquire Lord of Wolves as an RNG drop from decrypted Exotic Engrams.
What is there to say about Hezen Vengeance that hasn’t already been mentioned elsewhere? It’s dethroned every rocket launcher by a country mile and will likely remain on top until Bungie nerfs Timelost Magazine. I’d be shocked if they didn’t. Envious Arsenal with Bait and Switch is already a fantastic perk combo, but throw in a larger magazine for simply casting your Super? It has no equal.
Best Catalyst
Onslaught
Choir of One seems to be a direct insert of the shotgun Ammit everyone made during The Craftening, a short period where players could transfer perks between crafted weapons through a bug. Its hipfire is a Wyvern cannon, firing a cross of Void projectiles that detonate on impact. ADS this weapon, and you get a fast-firing sniper rifle with over 200 rounds in reserve.
Calling this a strong weapon would be a massive understatement. Choir of One is the most versatile Exotic in the game, period. It’s amazing for clearing adds, melting majors, and destroying Champions. It can even act as a strong backup DPS option for boss fights. This gun trivializes just about everything if you’re able to manage your ammo.
