Published on: Oct 28, 2015 @ 11:41

Contributing Author: Bones

Incoming Shipments

#1 or #3 – Hakke Arminius-D | Auto Rifle

Relentless Tracker, Persistence, Snapshot/Fitted Stock/Braced Frame
Danger Close, Counterbalance, Fitted Stock/Smallbore

This Arminius-D is a rare breed, one of only two legendary Auto Rifles in The Taken King to have the max rate of fire. If you go with option #1, Relentless Tracker offers greater resolution on your radar, and Braced Frame’s stability boost is incredible. Don’t worry about the smaller mag – you’ll still have 60 rounds to fire in order to let Persistence do its thing.

This is a bullet-hose for sure, reminiscent of the Nechrochasm. This could be fun in PvE, but we wouldn’t recommend going with this in PvP due to its low impact archetype and lower stability.

Rank #3’s roll gives us a good shot at making this gun stable. Counterbalance will change the recoil pattern to be more predictable, helping you compensate for the quick rate of fire. You can choose between Fitted Stock for a no-risk boost to stability and Smallbore for a better boost to stability and some extra range with a sacrifice to clip size and reload speed. Plus, in PvE, you will often find situations where two or more enemies are in close proximity, activating Danger Close’s reload and handling boost.

#1, #2, or #3 – SUROS DIS-43 | Scout Rifle

Perfect Balance, Spray and Play, Smallbore
Feather Mag/Fitted Stock, Hidden Hand, Smallbore
Fitted Stock/Feather Mag, Hidden Hand, Speed Reload/Smallbore

This Scout Rifle falls in a Vision of Confluence archetype, and with a magazine size of 19, it should be great for PvE and PvP. Overall, we want to buff its stats to increase stability and reload speed, even at the cost of a few bullets in the magazine.

Your choice this week depends on whether you’re taking this gun into PvE or PvP. For PvE, Rank #1 offers Perfect Balance and Smallbore offer near perfect stability and range with just a small sacrifice to clip size and reload speed. Luckily, Spray and Play fixes our reload problem, giving you a massive reload speed after unloading a full clip into a group of enemies or a boss. The SPO-57 sights are one of the cooler new choices in The Taken King, so try them out!

For PvP, go with #2 or #3. The second option with Hammer Forged, Full Auto, and Hand Laid Stock will provide very strong stability.

On option #3, address reload speed with Feather Mag or stick with Fitted Stock for extra stability and no downsides. Hidden Hand will increase Aim Assist, a huge help for getting headshots in the Crucible, and Smallbore gives the gun even more range and stability. SLO-12 Sights should be the least clunky in Crucible and offer better weapon handling.

Honorable mention goes to Rank #2’s roll with Hand-Laid Stock’s amazing stability buff and Full Auto. While we wouldn’t recommend over the other rolls due to the lack of a reload buff, if you love Full Auto, feel free to get this roll and use it as a laser in PvE.

#2 or #3 – Judith-D | Hand Cannon

Relentless Tracker, Final Round, Speed Reload/Oiled Frame
Suresight IS, Army of One, Feeding Frenzy/Speed Reload, Explosive Rounds/Reinforced Barrel

This foundry has a unique feel and sound; they’re surprisingly comfortable to use. The obvious choice is #2 with Feeding Frenzy, which makes reload speed irrelevant as long as you’re getting kills.

Insane Impact, with a low base stability, poor reload speed, and the standard Hakke clip size of 7, you’ll have to shoot patiently and accurately. If you’re looking for some perks to make this gun worth it in PvE, go with option #3.

The rolls on Rank #1 and Rank #3 are very similar, offering Feeding Frenzy and the same choices in the perk tree, but Rank #3 gets the edge with Army of One and Sureshot IS sights, granting the best Aim Assist. #2 is better for PvP because of Final Round.

When looking at this gun, we can see that Feeding Frenzy is the answer to its slow reload speed, and in the middle tree, we have three equally interesting options. Speed Reload gives us a no-risk buff to reload speed, Explosive Rounds can add area of effect damage in PvE, and Reinforced Barrel, while reducing Stability to basically 0, increases range to competitive levels.

This HC fires very slowly, so try out Reinforced Barrel to see if you can keep it on target. If not, you can fall back on Speed Reload in PvP and Explosive Rounds in PvE.

#2 – Uffern HC4 | Hand Cannon

Truesight IS, Zen Moment, Extended Mag/Reinforced Barrel, Triple Tap/Eye of the Storm

Omolon keeps it interesting with their signature liquid style, and the Uffern is no exception. They manage to make such a small weapon look extremely cool, and a great base stability of 70 suggests it might be able to compete as well. Due to the gun’s small magazine size, we recommend the second choice. Zen Moment and Eye of the Storm will keep you alive and in the fight longer.

The gun looks and feels different due to Omolon’s design and unique impact archetype. It’s got great base stability, but with the new changes to handcannon range, we’re looking for range perks to make this better for both PvE and PvP.

Rank #2’s roll addresses all of the issues with this gun’s range with Reinforced Barrel, sacrificing some of its plentiful stability for a huge boost to range. Zen Moment works to increase your stability as you land shots, pairing perfectly with Triple Tap, which refunds bullets as you chain headshots. If you want this gun to be super stable in closer ranges in PvE, you can go with Extended Mag, increasing the clip size to 9 while preserving the gun’s high stability.

#1 – Lyudmila-D | Pulse Rifle

Army of One, Full Auto, Hand-Loaded

Range is everything in the Crucible, and 63 on a Pulse is a good place to start. If you’re a fan of the 4-bullet-burst from Hakke, it might be worth grabbing the first roll. Army of One will keep the grenades coming, and Full Auto makes timing your pulses a non-issue. Hand-Loaded is also important for the boost to range, which affects target acquisition.

High-Impact pulse rifles such as this one are incredibly powerful in the Crucible, so we’ll be looking for perks that could make this gun an S-Tier primary in the upcoming Trials of Osiris event. With the recoil pattern of Hakke Pulse Rifles being a notable problem for precision, any roll with Counterbalance will get a serious look to try and get the perfect recoil pattern.

The rolls this week aren’t amazing, but Rank #1’s roll at least offers us Army of One for some cooldown reduction, Full Auto for easier firing and Hand-Loaded for a bit of range. However, this gun could become a monster with a better roll, so if you have the patience, wait until next week! Next Armsday, the Gunsmith will give you three new choices to pick from, and those choices could include something better for what this gun needs such as Counterbalance or Hand-Laid Stock.

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What to Order Next Week?

The perks next week may be different than the ones offered this week, so get a feel for the RoF/Impact model that you feel most comfortable with.

SUROS DIS-43 | Scout Rifle

This Scout Rifle falls in a Vision of Confluence archetype, and with a magazine size of 19 (pending database errors), it should be great for PvE despite its stability issues (base 48). With a range of 77, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a situation where this Scout Rifle isn’t hitting for full damage.

SUROS ARI-45 | Auto Rifle

This is a slower rate of fire Auto Rifle with a very balanced, middle-of-the-pack stat blend. Overall, it will need a boost to stability in order to become a reliable Crucible threat, but it’s base 48 range should keep it viable in most engagements.

Gaheris-D | Hand Cannon

This is a Hawkmoon archetype handcannon with only 7 shots in the magazine. It comes in with great aim assistance at 80 and decent stability at 56, but with a base range of 23, we’ll need a range buff next week for this gun to reliably land shots. With only 7 in the clip, Extended Mag could be good for PvE as well.

Strongbow-D | Shotgun

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. We’ll look to see if there are any interesting rolls next week regardless, as this is the first shotgun offered for order.

Lyudmila-D | Pulse Rifle

Hakke pulse rifles have been all the rage, and this is Hakke’s highest impact model. We highly recommend placing a few orders for these, as with a solid roll, this gun can be the next best thing to an exotic primary in PvP. It has base range of 63 and stability of 54, so we’ll want to preserve the range while increasing stability to laser-like levels, and a reload perk like Feeding Frenzy would be icing on the cake.