Contributing Author: Alex R.
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#2 or #3 – SUROS ARI-41 | Auto Rifle
- Perfect Balance / Appended Mag | SPS / HandLaid Stock | Private Eye
- Perfect Balance / Feather Mag | Snapshot / HandLaid Stock | Hipfire
- Fitted Stock / Appended Mag | Snapshot / Rifled Barrel | Private Eye
Weak! The ARI-41 boasts about “Balance. Flexibility. Style.” Unfortunately, we didn’t see any of that today, and I am recommending a pass. If you have your heart set on picking up a decent Auto Rifle though, at least Roll 2 will let you down gently. At the end of the night, you’re still dancing alone though.
We’re never going to be in love with a gun that has Take a Knee, but Rank #3’s roll still gives us a good stat combination. Overall, the ARI-41 has enough stability to stay on target, but Fitted Stock is a nice bonus. Rifled Barrel puts range where you’d want it to be for PvP, but the reload tradeoff kills this roll in PvE unless you have reloader gauntlets to compensate. If you want a perfect roll on this, you’re going to have to wait for Hidden Hand for PvP or Outlaw/Feeding Frenzy/Spray and Play for PvE instead of Take a Knee. If you just want a solid Auto Rifle with a good stat blend, this roll can work for you!
#1 – SUROS DIS-43 | Scout Rifle
- Perfect Balance / Appended Magazine | Full Auto | Speed Reload / Hand-Laid Stock
- Fitted Stock / Oiled Frame | Hip Fire | Snapshot / Rifled Barrel
- Hammer Forged / Casket Mag | Rodeo | Snapshot / Injection Mold
If you like Fully Automatic! And cross-map shots to brain! Have I got the Scout Rifle for you: This week’s DIS-43 is having a bit of a mid-life crisis, and seems to think that’s it’s the DIS-47, which would really be a monster with this roll. That said, the slower firing 43 can still take full advantage with monstrous stability that keeps you on the level no matter what Mirror’s Edge parkour crap you pull, enough range to challenge snipers on any map without vehicles, and – what else do you need to hear? Pull the trigger, Guardian, and don’t let go.
If you liked the Vision of Confluence, you’ll love this Scout Rifle roll, and if you weren’t around for Year One, you’ll get to experience the convenience of a quality Full Auto Scout Rifle. Although it doesn’t actually increase the fire rate of the gun, Full Auto will allow you to devote more of your focus to precision rather than when to pull the trigger. If that wasn’t enough, the combination of Perfect Balance and Hand-Laid stock pushes this roll to autopilot.
Plus, if you’re the ultimate min/max player, consider this: the only thing that Hand-Laid Stock decreases is range, which this gun has plenty of already. Overall a near perfect roll!
#3 – Cocytus SR4 | Scout Rifle
- Icarus | Single Point Sling / Casket Mag | Firefly / Exhumed
- Icarus | Extended Mag / Feather Mag | Third Eye / Surrounded
- Life Support | Lightweight / Smallbore | Firefly / Surrounded
I’m sad to say it, but none of these rolls make any real sense for the Cocytus. Icarus? Are you really planning to be jumping around and trying to shoot this gun mid-air?
The Cocytus, being an Omolon Scout Rifle, has a PvE-centered perk pool. As such, we’re going to favor Firefly and Life Support on Roll #3. Both of these perks reward thinning the herd of trash enemies during strikes and raids, keeping you alive and offering some area of effect damage. Smallbore may be tempting, but you’re not going to want this gun’s clip size to be any lower.
It’s already sporting a 13 round clip, so you’re not going to want to lower that on top of having a slower reload animation. Lightweight is a neutral alternative.
#1 or #3 – Tamar-D | Sniper Rifle
- Arc | Surplus | Partial Refund | Explosive Rounds / Quickdraw / Appended Mag
- Solar | Counterbalance | Zen Moment | Explosive Rounds / Snapshot / Braced Frame
- Solar | Surplus | Partial Refund | High Caliber Rounds / Quickdraw / Appended Mag
If you were in the market for a decent PVE sniper, you have a couple good choices this week, and a question for yourself: Arc or Solar? Choose wisely! Can’t stand pesky Wizards and Taken Captains? Me neither. Arc is a good option too though. Taken Phalanxes are the bane of Guardian existence in the raid, so this could be a big help.
Other than that, Rolls 1 and 3 are effectively identical high Ammo sniper builds, perfect for running Strikes and Nightfalls (where ammo can be scarce). Surplus gets you more ammo drops and more ammo from each brick, Partial Refund…might get you some ammo back when team-shooting majors, I guess. And Appended Mag grants you an extra round in the chamber at the cost of slower reload. Worth it!
It doesn’t revive snipe and it has low stability, but Surplus is one of the most powerful PvE perks for ammo management.
#1 or #2 – Uzume RR4 | Sniper Rifle
- Void | Performance Bonus | Single Point Sling / Injection Mold | Life Support / Eye of the Storm
- Void | Performance Bonus | Single Point Sling / Rifled Barrel | Clown Cartridge / Mulligan
- Solar | Outlaw | Lightweight / Casket Mag | Life Support / Eye of the Storm
Roll 1 is a really solid choice as a PVP sniper, insofar as there are still better guns (see Weyloran’s March, although Saladin’s vendor roll isn’t great this Iron Banner). The low-zoom Faucon scope, Performance Bonus for ammo management, Single Point Sling for swapping and strafing, and your pick of health regen or aim assist when you nearly get killed – it’s acceptable!
Roll 2 could also work pretty well as a PVE sniper, with plenty of ammo to go around from PB and CC. The Tamar, above, is still stronger though.
This is solid build for the Uzume in both PvE and PvP. With Injection Mold, Performance Bonus, Eye of the Storm and the low-zoom Faucon scope, you’ve got yourself a great sniper for Iron Banner this week. Eye of the Storm can also save you in PvE, and the Uzume has a great reload speed in general that works well when you need to do serious damage to a target in a short amount of time. The extra ammo from Performance Bonus will keep you going in both modes, and Injection Mold’s handling boost combines with the sleek Omolon look to give this gun a great feel.
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Weapons from Previous Weeks
Thesan FR4
- Void | Spark IS6 / Torch HS2 | Grenadier | Enhanced Battery / Braced Frame | Underdog / Exhumed
This is a really solid roll for the Thesan, with the Torch scope enhancing your target acquisition (vital for landing near-mid range shots) and Braced Frame maxing out your Stability. Grenadier isn’t bad, giving you an extra Grenade every now and then (lots if you’re killing 2+ Thrall per shot – Awaken the Hive, my son!). Finally, Underdog’s bonus is actually somewhat useful, enhancing Range (not by enough to be detectable) and more importantly, Handling, when health is low – that clutch reload could save your life. Plus, you’re probably going to get shot a lot using a slow charging Fusion Rifle, at least until you get good at pre-charging.
SUROS JLB-42
- Arc | Confined Launch / Smart Drift Control / Hard Launch, Heavy Payload / Speed Reload | Tracking | Perfect Balance / Snapshot
The JLB-42 showed us something this week, and I don’t mind it at all. Hard Launch and Heavy Payload give us some nice boosts to Velocity and Blast Radius, while Snapshot combos nicely with Tracking so you can lock on in a hurry. If you take this into PVP though, remember – don’t lock on down a hallway unless you want to watch one of your two rockets curve into a wall as your enemies take cover. Just saying!
Strongbow-D
- Solar | Surrounded | Full Auto | Single Point Sling / Fitted Stock / Oiled Frame
- Solar | Close and or Personal | Battle Runner | Flared Magwell / Perfect Balance / Rifled Barrel
- Arc | Army of One | Feeding Frenzy | Flared Magwell / Hand Loaded / Rifled Barrel
You can really take your pick of the Strongbow’s this week, and since the package is for sale again you might as well!
Roll 1 is really a great pick for hectic PVE situations, purpose-built for the Guardian who likes to jump face-first into the action and start pumping out rounds. You’ll want to get right up close to take advantage of Surrounded’s damage bump, which should be on almost constantly in places like The Court of Oryx and a lot of story missions and strikes. Full Auto really increases your rate of fire, and Single Point Sling keeps you on the move and flexible.
Rolls 2 and 3 give you PVP choices, if you want them. Roll 2 is perfect for Warlocks, enhancing their stupidly long range Melees to ensure that no one escapes your wrath (Sith Lords might just 1HK some undamaged Guardians, but I haven’t done the math), and enhancing your speed if you do land a killing shot with the gun. Meanwhile, Roll 3 rewards a run-and-gun lifestyle with extra grenade and melee recharge, and Feeding Frenzy helps shore up slower reload speeds. Lovely!
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Next Week’s Orders
| Weapon | Type | Impact | Notable Stat |
| Arminius-D | Auto Rifle | Lowest | AA (80) |
| Tuonela SR4 | Scout Rifle | Medium | Stability (69) |
| Gaheris-D | Hand Cannon | Medium | AA (80) |
| Strongbow-D | Shotgun | Medium | Stability (56) |
| Uzume RR4 | Sniper | Low | Reload (75) |
Arminius-D
This archetype of auto rifle has been getting lots of love lately. Think of a Nechrochasm, Atheon’s Epilogue, or Doctrine of Passing – but with low stability and quick reload speed. We’ll see next week if there are enough perks offered to shore up the stability while providing some use in either PvE or PvP.
Tuonela SR4
This Scout Rifle offers the Vision of Confluence impact/RoF blend with great base stability of 69 and reload of 62. With a lower magazine of 13, this scout should fit comfortably in Crucible situations and shorter PvE encounters, but reload perks can overcome this drawback.
Gaheris-D
This Hawkmoon archetype Hand Cannon will need help to fix its 23 base range, but with 80 Aim Assistance, we’re willing to hold out hope that we can make it work. This gun also has decent base stability and a very attractive Recoil Direction stat (something we don’t mention that often unless it’s really high). If you want a balanced Legendary Hand Cannon, this gun can be the answer to your problems as long as you don’t mind the small clip size of 7.
Strongbow-D
This shotgun is no different than the Dead Orbit’s Patch-A, the Crucible Quartermaster’s The Next Big Thing or the test shotguns we’ve been using week to week. Basically, this shotgun is a low-impact, high rate of fire archetype that won’t be preferred in PvP but can work in PvE. With Full Auto, it’s finding a niche in Crucible by emphasizing a higher rate of fire than the normal high-impact shotgun.
Uzume RR4
This Sniper Rifle shares the impact/RoF class of the Eye of Sol, but it packs way more base stability at 58. In non-revive game modes, this is a great option for getting quick headshots or double tapping for body shot kills. We’ll be looking for something like Triple Tap or Zen Moment for PvE while hoping for a Faucon SS1 low-zoom scope for PvP.