With over 30 new and reissued weapons added into the sandbox for Season of the Chosen it can be hard to know what's worth investing the time in grinding for the god roll.
An interesting aspect of this Season is that the core playlists now have a weekly rotation of what weapons can drop within the playlist. As it’s only the first week of the Season this means that there are still a couple of weapons that are not actually dropping within the game yet.
In the meantime, this is a quick list of five of the best weapons within the new Season that you absolutely should grind for a good perk roll for. Another list will be released later in the Season if some of the later weapons end up being worth the time.
In no particular order:
Extraordinary Rendition
As one of the few Kinetic Primary weapons added in the new Season this is already one you should be grinding for to simply give you more loadout options. The good news here is that Extraordinary Rendition is an extremely fun and powerful weapon with some fancy new perks to help slay the enemies of the Last City with.
One new perk called ‘Frenzy’ is really quite interesting. If you manage to stay in combat for 12 seconds you will receive a 20% damage buff that lasts until you exit combat. To stay ‘in combat’ you must have either received combatant damage within the last 5 seconds or dealt damage to another combatant within the last 5 seconds. This is a great perk as there isn't really any thought or effort in activating it. Just start slaying enemies, the Frenzy perk will eventually activate, then slay enemies even harder until they are all dead.
‘One for All’ is another one to look for as it is extremely easy to activate with a Submachine Gun. Simply spray across a group of enemies to hit three within three seconds and you will receive a 35% damage buff that lasts 10 seconds.
Since the recoil buffs for controller Submachine Guns have become fairly usable within PvP too and Extraordinary Rendition can roll with some top tier perks. Zen Moment combined with Tap the Trigger will create a stream of bullets that are extremely easy to control, making it easier to hit that optimal time to kill.
How to Get - Through focusing Umbral engrams or through the Battlegrounds Seasonal activity.
Recommended PvE Perks:
- Barrel - Hammer-Forged Rifling, Full Bore
- Magazine - Accurized Rounds, Alloy Magazine, Tactical Mag
- Perk 1 - Overflow, Surplus, Subsistence
- Perk 2 - Personal preference as all perks are great for PvE except for Tap the Trigger
- Masterwork - Range, Reload Speed
- Mod - Backup Mag, Rampage Spec if using Rampage, Minor Spec
Recommended PvP Perks:
- Barrel - Hammer-Forged Rifling, Extended Barrel
- Magazine - Accurized Rounds
- Perk 1 - Zen Moment
- Perk 2 - Tap the Trigger
- Masterwork - Range
- Mod - Targeting Adjuster
Frozen Orbit
Frozen Orbit is one of the few Sniper Rifles added in this Season and the only Aggressive Frame that is also Energy. For some of you out there this is already reason enough to grind for in order to give more options for loadouts. Thankfully, this Sniper Rifle is also crispy as all hell and comes with excellent perks for PvE and PvP.
Compared to other Aggressive Sniper Rifles it has better overall states than the Iron Banner Bite of the Fox, but worse stats than Succession from Deep Stone Crypt. So it's squarely in the middle ground.
The one problem with Frozen Orbit is that it has a lot of perks that it can roll with, which can make it take awhile before you can a roll tuned for PvE or PvP that you can work with.
For PvP it's best to focus on perks that increase ADS speed, target acquisition, or draw speed. For PvE it's best to focus on perks that increase magazine size, or increase damage in order to increase your overall DPS to bosses.
How to Get - As an end of activity reward from Crucible matches or Crucible faction rank ups.
Recommended PvE Perks:
- Barrel - Fluted Barrel, Corkscrew Rifling
- Magazine - Appended Magazine, Alloy Magazine
- Perk 1 - Triple Tap
- Perk 2 - Vorpal Weapon (+15% Boss Damage)
- Masterwork - Reload Speed
- Mod - Backup Mag
Triple Tap, with Backup Mag and Appended Magazine will allow you to shoot seven shots if you manage to land precision hits with all of them. Combined with Vorpal Weapon this ends up being fairly decent for Boss DPS.
Recommended PvP Perks:
- Barrel - Fluted Barrel
- Magazine - Steady Rounds
- Perk 1 - Moving Target, No Distractions
- Perk 2 - Snapshot Sights, Quickdraw, Opening Shot
- Masterwork - Handling
- Mod - Targeting Adjuster
Code Duello
With Rocket Launchers receiving a 30% increase to damage with the latest update it's always a good idea to have a few good ones in your back pocket for when you need them.
For PvE, Code Duello can really chuck out some serious damage. The aforementioned 30% damage buff, combine that with the Argent Ordnance mod for another 20%, the new Lasting Impression perk for another 20%, and Boss Spec for a further 8%. You can see how this damage can start to stack up.
There is another new perk for Rocket Launchers called Impulse Amplifier which massively increases velocity and reload speed. Combine this with all the stuff mentioned before and you have a DPS machine.
You can always use Chain Reaction or Cluster Bomb if you want a Rocket Launcher more tuned towards clearing out lesser enemies.
How to Get - Through focusing Umbral engrams or through the Battlegrounds Seasonal activity.
Recommended PvE Perks:
- Barrel - Hard Launch
- Magazine - Impact Casing
- Perk 1 - Impulse Amplifier, Auto Loading Holster, Field Prep
- Perk 2 - Lasting Impression, Chain Reaction, Cluster Bomb
- Masterwork - Velocity, Reload Speed
- Mod - Boss Spec
Recommended PvP Perks:
- Barrel - Volatile Launch
- Magazine - Black Powder
- Perk 1 - Quickdraw, Impulse Amplifier
- Perk 2 - Cluster Bomb, Lasting Impression
- Masterwork - Blast Radius
- Mod - Quick Access Sling
The Messenger
The Messenger is a newly added weapon to the Trials of Osiris loot pool and is returning from Destiny 1. This weapon has the community in a bit of a buzz at the moment as people have been grinding out Trials this weekend in order to try for a good perk roll.
What’s interesting about this gun is that it can roll with the ‘Desperado’ perk. This perk was originally a perk that could only roll on one of the original Pinnacle weapons Redrix’s Broadsword. This is an extremely powerful perk that drastically increases the fire rate of the weapon when reloading after a precision kill. This keeps the Impact of the weapon the same though so its overall time to kill goes down to an insanely quick time.
Redrix’s Broadsword was considered a very powerful Pulse Rifle for PvP and The Messenger has slightly better all round stats, mainly having better range. This is simply an extremely consistent Pulse Rifle and a must have.
How to Get - The Messenger is currently available as a three win reward from Trials of Osiris, although this will only be until the next weekly reset on February 16. The weapons available each weekend of Trials of Osiris are on a rotation so don't worry if you miss out on this weapon this week, it will come back around again soon.
Recommended PvE Perks:
- Barrel - Hammer-Forged Rifling
- Magazine - High-Caliber Rounds, Ricochet Rounds
- Perk 1 - Rapid Hit, Outlaw, Killing Wind
- Perk 2 - One for All
- Masterwork - Range
- Mod - Counterbalance Stock (Controller), Backup Mag
Recommended PvP Perks:
- Barrel - Arrowhead Brake, Chambered Compensator
- Magazine - High-Caliber Rounds, Ricochet Rounds
- Perk 1 - Rapid Hit, Outlaw, Zen Moment
- Perk 2 - Desperado, Kill Clip
- Masterwork - Range
- Mod - Targeting Adjuster
The Third Axiom
This last one is more of a personal preference rather than a meta pick, although is still an extremely strong PvP weapon.
For those of you out there who were fairly attached to the old Gambit Pulse Rifle Bygones and were sad to see it sunset will certainly enjoy The Third Axiom.
Bygones was one of my favourite PvP weapons back in the day and The Third Axiom is essentially the same gun, with largely the same stats and perks. Not too much to say about this one, just a consistent Pulse Rifle for PvP that performs similar to Bygones. It might not have the best time to kill when compared to High-Impact and Aggressive Pulse Rifles but it is much more forgiving and easier to use.
How to Get - The Third Axiom can be obtained as an end of activity reward from Vanguard Strikes and Vanguard faction rank ups.
Recommended PvE Perks:
- Barrel - Hammer-Forged Rifling, Extended Barrel
- Magazine - High-Caliber Rounds, Ricochet Rounds
- Perk 1 - Feeding Frenzy, Surplus, Subsistence
- Perk 2 - Multikill Clip, One for All, Rampage, Thresh
- Masterwork - Range
- Mod - Backup Mag
Recommended PvP Perks:
- Barrel - Hammer-Forged Rifling, Extended Barrel
- Magazine - High-Caliber Rounds, Ricochet Rounds, Light Mag
- Perk 1 - Feeding Frenzy, Zen Moment
- Perk 2 - Multikill Clip, Rampage
- Masterwork - Range
- Mod - Targeting Adjuster
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