Updated on: Apr 28, 2015 @ 17:52

With enough Motes of Light, you’ve got the opportunity to Reforge any Iron Banner weapon.

With persistence and a little luck, you can essentially create the perfect weapon for your playstyle, and this article will show off some of the best perk choices.

To reroll the perks on an Iron Banner weapon, simply equip it and talk to Lord Salad[man]in.

We also have a general tips and tricks guide for Iron Banner and a complete Control guide, with strategies for each map.

[divider]

Reforging to Perfection

Jolder’s Hammer

Aggressive Ballistics

You’ll get more damage out of this ballistics upgrade and should be able to down other Guardians with 3-4 shots with it.

Counterbalance / Rodeo / Perfect Balance

Even though the slow rate of fire helps you control the recoil, the base stability is below average, so any extra can only help you. Avoid Persistence since it’s practically useless in PvP.

Field Scout

The magazine size without this perk is only 26, very low compared to many other machine guns.

Hammer Forged

You won’t be able to have Field Scout & Hammer Forged, but the additional range will help each precision shot go where its intended, hopefully saving ammo.

Crowd Control

The more damage the better! You’ll undoubtedly be getting multiple kills with this heavy-hitter.

Feeding Frenzy

Arguably just as good as Crowd Control (if not better), the slow reload speed will be alleviated with this perk. Kills will be easy to get which means you shouldn’t have to worry about reloading.

Felwinter’s Lie

Field Choke

This barrel provides tighter spread, increasing range and damage but greatly increasing recoil.

Cascade

Cascade kicks in after performing melee kills. You can use Cascade when facing weak (or weakened) enemies, allowing you to reload incredibly quickly and continue your spree, possibly bolstered by a melee kill ability bonus.

Cascade is a fantastic mod if you make heavy use of melee combat, and with the slowest reload of Legendary shotguns, you’ll want it.

Luck in the Chamber

An extra bit of damage boost is helpful in any situation and sometimes it might be just enough to finish off an opponent.

Field Scout

A base magazine of 6 is good, but more ammo means less reloading, and that’s always a good thing.

Full Auto

All of the column 6 perks aren’t too bad but a full auto shotgun is just so deadly.

Rangefinder / Shot Package

Equally useful in their own way, both of these perks will help you hit your target more accurately.

Rangefinder boosts your weapon’s performance at a distance while in ADS.

Shot Package is a high-risk, high-reward perk that tightens your pellet spread, giving you a better chance of landing all of Felwinter’s Lie‘s potential damage.

Efrideet’s Spear

Unflinching

Unflinching reduces the effect of incoming damage on your accuracy. The overall effect is a 33% reduction on incoming flinch damage which has a positive effect on your accuracy, though the exact benefit can vary considerably depending on how much incoming damage you’re taking.

In PvP, where you are very frequently in a heads-up firefight against another player, minimizing Flinch can absolutely win battles. In PvE isn’t not particularly as helpful.

Rodeo

For the same reason that Unflinching is helpful, Rodeo reduces the recoil of this sniper rifle, which in turn makes it easier to aim/shoot.

Efrideet’s Spear has the lowest stability of any Legendary sniper rifle, so for Guardians who aren’t particularly steady with their aim, this is going to help a lot.

Spray and Play

An extremely useful and easily triggered +50% Reload boost, this mod demands that you fully empty your magazine to gain its benefit. With just a 3 round magazine, there’s a high probability that you’ll be emptying the entire magazine quite often.

In PvP this can occasionally save your life if you burn your entire magazine on one opponent.

Snapshot

Even though we didn’t rank this perk very well in our “best and worst perks” article, it’s still one of the best choices in PvP for this sniper rifle.

The 30% increased ADS speed is particularly useful when taking advantage of Final Round; quickly aim at the body and shoot.

Field Scout / Clown Cartridge

Both of these perks will help out with magazine size, obviously one more consistently than the other.

Field Scout is really helpful for Efrideet’s Spear as it maximizes the below average magazine & inventory capacity. You’ll be able to double the magazine size to 6.

Clown Cartridge has a 25% chance to add 1 additional round to the magazine after reloading.

Perfect Balance

Obviously a great choice since this sniper rifle has very low stability.

Final Round

This perk gives you a 100% chance of dealing 33% more damage with the last shot in your magazine; an absolute must-have. In PvP this means that the final shot will always kill your opponent with just 1 hit!

Silimar’s Wrath

Counterbalance

Counterbalance provides a 9% bonus to recoil control on top of Silimar’s Wrath base Stability. Unfortunately the base stability is below average (similar to Payback SOS), so the increased control you’ll gain from this perk is crucial.

Field Scout

With this perk you’ll be able to increase the magazine size to a respectable 84 rounds, enough for 4 kills without having to reload.

Perfect Balance / Fitted Stock

Either of these column 5 perks will increase the stability, which is very much needed for the high rate of fire archetype.

Hammer Forged

Silimar’s Wrath has the absolute lowest base range for any Legendary auto rifle, which is why this perk is so critical.

Third Eye

Most useful in PvP, this is going to allow you to keep an ‘eye’ on your radar at all times. Obviously the increased awareness while aiming down sights is nothing but a good thing.

Rangefinder

With nearly the worst range out of all of the auto rifles, you’ll benefit greatly from this perk.

Gheleon’s Demise

Outlaw

The ranged equivalent of Cascade, granting you 150% of your base reload speed after a precision kill. This scout rifle nearly has the slowest reload speed, only slightly faster than B-Line Trauma (full review).

Zen Moment / Rodeo

Zen Moment boosts your Stability by a percentage, capping at 66% after five hits.

Rodeo adds a overall recoil reduction with no special prerequisites to activate it.

These are the best perk to have because the base stability is so poor; it’s going to help those who have trouble steadying their aim.

High Caliber Rounds

Perfect for PvE as you’ll want to stagger enemies as much as possible, and this perk will cause that extra flinch you’re looking for.

If you prefer to stay at medium to long range in PvP, High Caliber Rounds can improve your chances in almost every engagement.

Explosive Rounds

This perk will increase your damage on single targets and also give you the ability to damage other nearby enemies. Great for PvP and PvE.

Flared Magwell

The final column 5 option, you want to be able to reload as fast as possible, given the nearly 2.6 seconds it’ll take you to reload without upgrades.

Don’t worry about range perks like Hammer Forged, Send it, or Custom Optics – this scout rifle already has a strong range as it is.

Firefly

Best used in PvE, this perk will decimate enemies that are stacked up on each other. If you’ve used Fatebringer or The Saterienne Rapier (full review), you already know the power of this.

Perun’s Fire

Rangefinder / Hip Fire

Our #1 Legendary fusion rifle, it suffers from low Impact and range. You’ll want to increase the chance of hitting your target by increasing the range with either of these perks.

Flared Magwell

The reload speed is already very quick, but it can always be quicker!

Send it

Range and accuracy is essential in PvP, especially since the base range is so slow on Perun’s Fire.

Enhanced Battery

The benefits of an increased magazine size should be obvious.

Feeding Frenzy / Who’s Next?

You will be getting a lot of kills with this weapon, so going for feeding frenzy feels almost like a no-brainer.

While the reload speed doesn’t need much help, a buff to it helps since the magazine size is low.

Grenadier

If you want to get a little something extra out of your weapon, Grenadier is always a good choice. This will make it into a more PvE-viable weapon since you will get your grenade cooldown up much quicker.

Timur’s Lash (Full Review)

Rangefinder

Even though its got the highest range out of the Legendary hand cannons, the upcoming patch will decrease the effective range of hand cannons.

Rangefinder will increase your range by 10% and also help with falloff damage.

Outlaw / Spray and Play

Outlaw will help out with the downright sluggish reload speed. This hand cannon is built for precision damage, so it only makes sense to quicken reload speed whenever possible.

Spray and Play is also to counteract the slow reload speed of the weapon. This choice should be complimented with Final Round considering you’ll be emptying the low magazine often.

Perfect Balance

With the lowest stability among Legendary hand cannons, Perfect Balance helps counter the recoil. This perk will make correcting your follow up shots a easier.

Flared Magwell

As mentioned above, the reload speed is extremely slow, so anything you can do to increase it should be your priority. This perk doesn’t stack with Outlaw though.

Field Scout

If you plan on using this in PvE then you absolutely need Field Scout, which will increase the magazine size from 7 to 13.

Final Round / Luck in the Chamber

The high Impact + Final Round/Luck in the Chamber = massive damage.

Crowd Control

If you are able to dispatch someone and still have rounds in the magazine, then this perk is capable of making the gun a 2 shot kill in PvP (15% damage for 3 seconds after a kill). It feels like more of a PvE talent though.

Radegast’s Fury

Cluster Bomb

This will basically turn your Iron Banner rocket launcher into Hunger of Crota (full review). Less powerful than Wolfpack Rounds, cluster bombs don’t track their target causing a lot of their damage to whiff.

In the Crucible, Radegast’s Fury has enough blast radius to kill most targets with its initial payload. This perk is better suited to PvE, where it’s bound to cause extra damage, but it’s not terrible for PvP.

Grenades and Horseshoes

This perk causes rockets to detonate based on proximity, which is invaluable for PvP. This perk will pick up kills you would have otherwise missed so make sure you have it.

Surplus / Tripod / Field Scout

Surplus is a solid perk netting you double ammo on pick ups.

Tripod is another extremely useful perk. Tripod will allow you to burst larger bosses quicker and clean up adds without the constant need to reload. In PvP it’ll have you ready for the next guardian that turns a corner too fast.

Field Scout also increases the magazine size, but does not stack with Tripod.

Tracking

This perk shines in PvP where your targets are extremely mobile. In PvE this perk still has its uses in swatting pesky Wizards or other mobile targets from far ranges.

Heavy Payload

Exactly what you’re looking for in rocket launchers. Usually this perk is an easy choice, but the blast radius is so high that the benefit is minor. It’ll help, but not by much.

Flared Magwell

On most heavy weapons this perk makes a considerable difference. Reload is more important in PvP where getting caught while doing so usually results in death.

Javelin

Arguably the best perk here, having a raw boost to velocity means that there’s less time for enemy counter-play.

Spray and Play

A phenomenal perk on rocket launchers, increasing reload speed by 50%. Even if you’re running Tripod or Field Scout, you’re likely to empty Radegast’s Fury‘s magazine quickly, and you’ll be stuck in reload frames with enemies barring down on you.

This situation is so frequent with rocket launchers that you’re bound to get tons of use out of this perk.

Clown Cartridge

What could be better than reloading and receiving more ammo than normal? Not much. Every reload has a 25% chance to add additional rounds to the magazine.

[divider]

General Tips

Tempered Bonus

Lord Saladin will offer a 12-hour buff called Tempered which will boost Iron Banner reputation gains. You can use this buff multiple times throughout the week.

As the week goes forward, this buff will boost gains even more, so people who start later in the week will be able to catch up easier.

Day	Tempered XP Bonus	Tempered XP + Class Items	Tempered XP	Win XP with Buff & Items
Tuesday	5%	40%	4	70
Wednesday	12.5%	50%	9	75
Thursday	25%	66%	17	83
Friday	40%	86%	27	93
Saturday	60%	112%	40	106
Sunday	100%	166%	67	133
Monday	150%	232%	100	166

Iron Medallions

Reputation gains are only awarded to the winners, but when you lose, you’ll be rewarded with an Iron Medallion token. You can carry up to 5 of these tokens.

Each Medallion you carry will convert into Iron Banner reputation after winning a match. Medallion XP is worth 80% of a victory.

 

Bounties

Use the daily bounties to increase your Iron Banner standing so you’re able to purchase the armor and weapons.

With an Iron Banner class item, shader, and emblem equipped – which give a stacking bonus to reputation gains – you’re going to be able to gain a lot more XP (outlined above).

Day	Base Bounty Value	Bounty + Class Items	Bounty XP Amount with Tempered
Tuesday	100	133	141
Wednesday	100	133	153
Thursday	100	133	166
Friday	100	133	186
Saturday	100	133	212
Sunday	100	133	266
Monday	100	133	332