Published on: Sep 22, 2015 @ 19:01
King’s Fall has been conquered, and the spoils are available to anyone who has been brave enough to explore and conquer the Dreadnaught. You may have seen a few of the flavorful Legendary Weapons that it can reward in circulation among your friends, and you may also be wondering how they stack up next to that nerf-looking gun you got from Zavala.
Well, this article will outline in brief how these Raid Legendaries fare, without getting unnecessarily in-depth. For the most part, it’s good news!
Keep in mind that every Raid Legendary comes with “Cocoon” – a novel talent that automatically reloads its paired weapon whenever it is not in use. This isn’t instantaneous, but is excellent for when you need to keep up DPS on a single target or would find reloading onerous. In addition to this, they all do about 10% bonus damage to Taken enemies, courtesy of the intrinsic “Will of Light” perk.
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Primary Weapons
Auto Rife: Anguish of Drystan
Okay, let’s get this one out of the way first. The Auto Rifle, Anguish of Drystan, is staggeringly average. In fact, we can practically guarantee that if you have an Auto Rifle with similar Light, you’ll want to go with that pretty much anywhere. Its stability is disappointing, and can only be noticeably remedied by selecting Braced Frame, which lowers its magazine size to 26.
If you get this one, cross your fingers that you get Crowd Control – or maybe Surrounded – as its only real allure over any alternative is the damage it can do to Taken. Might as well make the most of it.
Pulse Rifle: Smite of Merain
It shares the RoF/Impact class of some very strong contenders like Red Death, Hopscotch Pilgrim, and the Apple of Discord. Fortunately, it does not have the same base Stability problems as the Anguish of Drystan, but unfortunately it can not boost its natural 66 to any higher level. This makes it a problem in PvP, where Pulse Rifles need to have a laser-thin spread to really start excelling. In PvE, you’ll be crossing your fingers for Firefly, a perk that can be randomly rolled out of four possible options. In tandem with the slight damage bonus from Will of Light, you’ll have an excellent Taken add-disposer on your hands – and the only Pulse Rifle currently in the game with Firefly. Not bad!
Scout Rifle: Doom of Chelchis
The Raid Scout Rifle is immediately appealing for its RoF/Impact class, shared by some of the best Scouts Destiny’s ever seen, including Vision of Confluence, the Saterienne Rapier, and the new Tlaloc – a Warlock’s best friend. Much like its Primary brethren, however, its other stats are fairly mediocre.
You’re going to have a hard time keeping the reticle steady at its max RoF, and for this reason we might even recommend Smallbore in the middle row. You’ll lose a bit off your base 20 Magazine Size, but Cocoon can often make this a non-issue, and Scouts pack enough of a punch that you’ll have plenty of time to get breathing room for a reload. For its random perk, Full Auto is tantalizing for the base DPS increase, but Rangefinder is a worthy alternative to remedy the oddly low base Range on this Scout.
Hand Cannon: Zaouli’s Bane
It’s the fastest-firing HC you can get your hands on, which also means it has minimal impact. Thankfully, “minimal” on a HC is often more than enough, and the healthy base Magazine Size of 11 means you won’t be spending more time reloading than firing. It has a little trouble with stability, though. Its base value is not terrible, but because of its extremely low base Range, you’re going to be tempted to select Reinforced Barrel, which is going to push the recoil into unmanageable territory. It might honestly be best to take a half-measure and choose Hand Loaded. It has two stellar random options in Firefly and Life Leech. We’re tempted to side with Life Leech, which rewards a bit of health and immediately jump-starts shield regeneration following three quick kills. With sharp aim, and plenty of Taken Psions or Thralls, you’ll be sitting pretty with Zaouli’s Bane.
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Special Weapons
Fusion Rifle: Midha’s Reckoning
Trust the Midha’s touch. This raid FR is packing a hell of a punch at 94 Impact, which of course means it takes a very long time to charge. This is the trade-off you’re opting for: unmatched burst damage at the cost of overall DPS. It’s ideal for a group of Blood Bound-tethered Taken, or one irksome Captain, but less useful for swarms. For whatever reason, Bungie decided to give this FR an absolutely abysmal 20 base Stability, which all but neuters any efficacy at has at ranges beyond “Oh crap, Alak-Hul is absolutely about to kill me.”
For this reason, Braced Frame is a necessity, even though it reduces the magazine to 4. Cocoon will be your friend, and if you can get Hip Fire or Hot Swap for a little extra effective range, maybe you’ll find a way to make this damaging monster go to work for you.
Shotgun: Silence of A’arn
It’s got one of our favorite RoF/Impact profiles for Shotguns, with 14/61 for just the right balance to achieve maximum stagger potential. As Field Scout has been sunsetted, it makes more sense to choose slower-firing heavy-hitters; their overall DPS will be lower, but ammo efficiency and eventual cumulative damage will be top-tier. Speaking of which, Cocoon was basically designed for this weapon, as you can forego chambering all of its 6 rounds by simply switching to your Primary or Heavy for a good 10 seconds. Unfortunately, the base Range can’t be masked with Shot Package or Rangefinder, so you’ll have to go with both Field Choke and Hand Loaded to make it tolerable.
In the last slot, Life Leech, Army of One, or even Surrounded are all fairly solid. The first requires you to pick easy targets, the second is an effective CD boost for Grenade/Melee, and the third takes A’arn’s damage to a new tier when you’re menaced on all sides. None are a standout, but all will help your game noticeably.
Sniper Rifle: Defiance of Yasmin
Bungie’s refusal to adjust base Magazine Size according to RoF/Impact class already hurts Yasmin’s PvE potential considerably; 4 is simply not enough. It’s understandable for PvP reasons, but the fact is, all things being equal, a higher-Impact Sniper Rifle is simply going to outperform it in almost all PvE scenarios. The Defiance of Yasmin’s base Stability is also disappointingly low for its RoF, but can thankfully be patched up to satisfaction as soon as you unlock Injection Mold, which will sacrifice some of its unnecessary extra base Range to make pulling off consecutive headshots easier.
Firefly is, as always, a good final perk, but Defiance of Yasmin has a new talent that bears consideration. This is “Perfectionist”, an extremely high-risk/high-reward perk that refunds an entire magazine if you manage to score a precision kill with each round in the previous one. To give Yasmin its niche, you’ll have to pick Tier 1 enemies that can be downed with one bullet, but if you’re a sharpshooter, you’ll be rewarded for your precision.
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Heavy Weapons
Machine Gun: Qullim’s Terminus
Now this is a Raid weapon. This LMG was designed excellently, featuring a high-DPS RoF/Impact class, excellent base Stability to keep your shots on-target, and a Field Scout-quality base Magazine Size of 58! If that weren’t enough, you can take it a step further with Extended Mag. Your other option is, interestingly enough, Smallbore, which will shave off a few rounds from that large magazine in exchange for boosts to both Range and Stability. It’s actually not the worst idea in the world, especially as Cocoon can remove that pesky need to reload if you play right.
For the random perk, it just keeps getting better. You can get Army of One for serious CD reduction, Persistence or Eye of the Storm to hang tough when emptying the full mag, or even Life Leech (!), which all-but-guarantees you can set up shop in the middle of a crowd and mow them down with impunity. All-in-all, this is the best NM Raid Weapon we’ve seen, and every bit worth your effort.
Rocket Launcher: Elulim’s Frenzy
Hey, Bungie is giving its Raid Heavies some love! A worthy successor to the Hunger of Crota, the Frenzy has the best possible combination of base RoF and Blast Radius, with 18 and 96, respectively. Most Legendary RLs have to sacrifice a considerable amount or RoF to achieve the near-perfect Blast Radius that Elulim’s comes standard with. Of course, the Frenzy has a predictably low base Velocity, but it comes with Javelin right out of the box to fix that!
Its random perk will be the difference between a solid launcher and your go-to Heavy Weapon. You can get Cluster Bombs, Tracking, Tripod, or Army of One. Grenades and Horseshoes is absent, but many will probably be crossing their fingers for Tracking – a fire-and-forget PvE perk that is a must for any mobile targets. Titan’s rocking the Taikonaut helm could try to score Cluster Bombs or Tripod for the most deadly PvE launcher of which we can currently conceive.
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Your Favorite?
It’s normal mode, so for a few of the weapons to be underwhelming is understandable – maybe the Harrowed versions will offer something better (or maybe not)? Besides the Auto and Fusion Rifle, most of what King’s Fall has to offer is worth the struggle.
If you haven’t had a chance to get into the Raid, we hope that this review has whet your appetite to go stop Oryx once and for all. Once you take on Oryx, let us know what your favorite new King’s Fall weapon is! Happy hunting!