Weapon Discussion

[JsinOwl 644]

Some weapon testing results:

No Time to Explain, Bad Juju, and Red Death are all basically the same gun in terms of damage output. Red Death hits a wee bit harder than the other two, but fires slower. NTTE hits a wee bit harder than Bad Juju out of the gate, but once String of Curses activates, they are basically identical. Bad Juju fires a cunt hair faster but is a bit less accurate, so a wash. That said, each of these weapons performs better than the others in certain situations.

If you find yourself frequently going down or almost going down, then Red Death is likely the best option since it kick starts health regeneration with every kill. The flip side is that if you’re doing low level activities, it’s a wasted perk. It is spectacular in PvP, since gunfights will often leave you with only a sliver of health remaining. Versus mobs of garbage, nothing outperforms Bad Juju. You can lay on the trigger and never let up until you decide to use your super (which will be quite frequently). You’ll also not be running out of ammo. With every kill, Bad Juju gives you a little bonus super energy and refills your magazine from some magical other dimension (as opposed to your reserve). NTTE’s special ability is that precision hits are immediately returned to the magazine. This is great for mobs, just like BJ, however it lacks the super boosting awesome. Versus a boss however, it’s fantastic. If a boss has a relatively easy to hit critical location, you can lay on the trigger and not have to reload for… well if you’ve got decent aim, 100+ rounds is reasonably achievable. For example, I easily took out the taken zealot Dornu (sp?) in the Divide on Earth, solo, using just NTTE. I reloaded probably 4 or 5 times. End result of my testing, is that I carry all three of these exotic beauties, since they excel in different applications.

I recently reported that Ace of Spades poops all over the First Curse, which is does, in Spades, but Hawkmoon—not so much. First of all, if you hate hand cannons, try them on a Gunslinger using Chain of Woe, that’s when they’re at their best IMO. Also, increased HC ammo armor is practically a must for PvE. If you’ve got yourself properly set up, then hand cannons will hang with all the other weapon types just fine, but I digress. The Ace of Spades has Firefly, which provides a serious bump to total DPS. I believe it is far and away the best perk for a hand cannon, but I digress again. That said, Hawkmoon does about 25% more damage with a regular shot and considerably more with the three bonus damage bullets. Whether you prefer the extra damage of Hawkmoon or the AoS with Firefly is up to you. The latter is better versus piles of garbage, but the former is better versus yellow bar enemies as well as your fellow guardians in the Crucible.

So far, my favorite legendary hand cannon is The Vanity, vendor version, available from Future War Cult. It comes with Firefly, Luck in the Chamber and Extended Mag. I love the feel of it and rather than try to break down the stat profile, I’ll just say that in play, the thing works, and works very well. My current legendary pulse rifle of choice is The Villainy. It’s another Future War Cult piece, however, this one was a drop with some different attributes that I like. This particular one has Rangefinder, Perfect Balance, and the Ranged Lens RLR5 which I really, really like. Range is the king stat in Destiny, as talked about at length by one of the devs prior to the big December rebalancing patch. Perfect Balance, Rangefinder, and the high mag scope make this particular Villainy extremely effective at ranges far beyond the capability of other pulse rifles. Prior to the Villainy entering my life, I was happy with a Hawksaw that also had Rangefinder. However, when I tested them side by side, I was one bursting dregs from a long ass distance with the Villainy and couldn’t land hardly a single critical with the Hawksaw due to its leftward pull and it’s not like the Hawksaw pulls hard either. I’ve spent a lot of time messing about Hakke pulse rifles, but thus far, they all seem to fall flat for me in one way or another.

As a lead in to my next post, I’ll say that I’ve recently come to really appreciate the gun sights. I used to look only at stats and perks; then I’d stick on whatever the least offensive sight was and use the gun. Not no more. I’ve found that there are some sights which drastically change my evaluation of a weapon, to the point where I prefer my drop Not Like the Others to the Hung Jury vendor version. OMFGWTF!

Share your thoughts on anything related to the weapons of Destiny.

[techno 3,496]

You said having elemental burn primaries would render non ones useless which I can understand so how about making kinetic (think that's what they are) weapons do more damage against all shield types than the wrong elemental burn weapon would.

Say arc primary burns down arc shield but does less damage to void and solar than a kinetic weapon would of the same damage model therefore surely increasing weapon choice and diversity.

[JsinOwl 644]

That makes a lot of sense. I always thought it was weird that there was no penalty for using an 'off' element. Kinetic would remain the most versatile option and still better than the wrong element.

[BO7H B4RRELS 2,451]

Not a bad idea Gary.

[TigerBurge 2,375]

Enjoyed that read Owl and that's a good idea Gary

[GazzaGarratt 11,006]

Nice thread Owl. Have you tried Zhalo Supercell in comparison to Bad Juju? I find that the linking damage to neaeby enemies perk is fantastic and beats scout rifles when being overrun.

Also, I agree that firefly is a great perk, however wasn't it found ages ago that firelfly has a lower DPS shot than a normal crit shot? It's just you get extra damage to other enemies from the splash?

[TigerBurge 2,375]

Nice thread Owl. Have you tried Zhalo Supercell in comparison to Bad Juju? I find that the linking damage to neaeby enemies perk is fantastic and beats scout rifles when being overrun.

Also, I agree that firefly is a great perk, however wasn't it found ages ago that firelfly has a lower DPS shot than a normal crit shot? It's just you get extra damage to other enemies from the splash?

I think you're talking about explosive rounds.

[JsinOwl 644]

Nice thread Owl. Have you tried Zhalo Supercell in comparison to Bad Juju? I find that the linking damage to neaeby enemies perk is fantastic and beats scout rifles when being overrun.

Also, I agree that firefly is a great perk, however wasn't it found ages ago that firelfly has a lower DPS shot than a normal crit shot? It's just you get extra damage to other enemies from the splash?

I've used it but not extensively. My Titan is my auto rifle character and I still haven't played him a ton.

As Chris said you're thinking of explosive rounds, which I think are of dubious value.

[techno 3,496]

I believe explosive rounds stopped firefly from procing ...is that a word ?

But explosive rounds do work against mobs and especially thrall.