SUROS Regime Updated Review

Nostalgia as a weapon of war. Style as a hallmark of victory.

The very mention of this weapon recalls the halcyon days of yore, when Auto Rifles were king in the Crucible, and the last few bullets of Suros’ magazine could drop a Guardian from full health – “nostalgia as a weapon of war”, indeed. Now, the famous Auto Rifle has been nerf’d and buffed until its performance scarcely resembles that of its glory days. In spite of this, the familiar rifle still sees play as a reliably performing Exotic that delivers exactly what you expect (and not much more).

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Stats

Once an exemplar of each stat, the Suros has been readjusted to require appropriate perk investment to reach its peak performance in any one category. The base model sports the High Impact/Low RoF subclass, average Stability of 46, and an appropriately above-archetype-average Reload Speed of 65.

With 33 rounds in the magazine, the Suros can fire a little longer than most High Impact Auto Rifles before it needs to reload. Aim Assistance and Equipment speed are unremarkable; essentially, expect this Auto Rifle to perform like a standard Legendary variant.

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Perks

Unremarkable, but reliable: that’s the picture its stats paint. As we’ll see shortly, the perks don’t do much to dispel that image.

You have the choice between Field Choke, Linear Compensator, and Smart Drift Control. If you’re looking to eke out the most Range and feel comfortable with your ability to manually control recoil, then Field Choke will be your choice. For most of us, the reliability of Smart Drift Control (even with the penalty to Range) is preferable. Note that Linear Compensator has a tight initial spread, but Smart Drift Control will stay consistently vertical even as you progress through your magazine.

The Regime is a weapon designed to be customizable, and its first two distinct perks demonstrate this design goal. The classic “Focused Fire” sets Suros apart from almost any other weapon, slowing the rate of fire but amping up the damage in compensation. It also offers a massive buff to Range that takes the Suros’ base into near-Scout Rifle territory. Of course, the trade-off winds up lowering your overall DPS, but improves ammo economy and allows for consistent critical hits by attenuating recoil. The other side of the coin is “Spinning Up”, a new perk with the Taken King perk that requires the weapon to spool up before increasing its RoF beyond its weapon subclass, while retaining the High Impact. In this way, Suros is able to shirk Bungie’s otherwise strict DPS profiles and become even deadlier. Unfortunately, you’ll chew through your reserves like crazy in doing so.

Suros’ classic combination perk of Glass Half Full and Life Support is nowhere near as potent as it once was. That said, Suros Legacy still will save your butt in a pinch if you manage to pull off a kill while in danger, all the while increasing your damage output as you empty the magazine. It’s a far cry from the days of exponential damage scaling, but it’s a vertical buff, and thus quite appreciable.

No “middle column” of perks to speak of – instead, Suros offers you the choice between Lightweight and Hammer Forged. Go Hammer Forged. It’ll help compensate for the Range lost by choosing Smart Drift Control or Linear Compensator, and in general too many helpful stats rely on superior Range for Lightweight to be a good trade-off.

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PvE

If you’ve used an Auto Rifle in PvE, and have been following along so far, you can probably guess how well the Suros does against Bungie’s monsters and villains. The answer is: eh. It’s squarely average. Auto Rifles in general don’t really hack it in PvE these days, being out-damaged handily by Scout Rifles and Hand Cannons, and losing out to the former in effective engagement range, ammo economy and – very arguably – perk power. After all, Scout Rifles and Hand Cannons are able to take advantage of mob-clearers like Firefly, while Auto Rifles are stuck with Crowd Control at best.

Running with Focused Fire, the boost to Range will allow you to just barely sniff the minimum engagement distance of Scout Rifles, but at the cost of being able to do any real damage. In fact, your base DPS will be intolerably low. You will be able to pop skulls just fine, but against anything with a health bar that isn’t red, you might as well be tickling them with a feather. With a steady stream of headshots, you may benefit from reliable stagger, but frankly you should just use a Sniper, Fusion Rifle, or even Shotgun for tougher enemies. Still, if you’re concerned about wasting your ammunition, don’t mind taking extra time on a few enemies, and really want to run with an Auto Rifle, a Focused Fire Suros is a good call.

Now, if you’re more concerned with getting that ideal DPS, then Spinning Up should be your pick. You’ll top the Auto Rifle charts in this regard, but the trade-offs for doing so are not entirely comfortable. It takes nearly ¼ of your ammunition reserves before the increased RoF comes into play, and at this point Suros’ 46 Stability isn’t nearly as satisfactory as it is with Focused Fire – or even on the base model. What’s more, with its subclass-specific reserve ammunition being less than that of lower Impact models, you’ll be scrounging for white ammo bricks before too long. Still, if you can handle these drawbacks, a Spinning Up Suros will give you DPS and a stagger rate that does just allow you to wrangle tougher enemies without leaning too heavily on your Heavy or Special weapons.

Because using it consumes your one Exotic slot, the Suros’ one true virtue, versatility, is hamstrung by its own design limitations. You can’t use Black Spindle, Dragon’s Breath, the Sleeper Simulant, Plan C, Truth or any number useful Exotics to patch up the Suros’ blind spot, and being that there are Legendary alternatives on at least equal footing, it’s just not a good overall pick in PvE. In fact, even with an increase to damage across the board, just about any Auto Rifle is a tough sell for Raids, the Challenge of Elders, and Heroic Strikes. There are just too many specialized weapons that do the same job, and do it better.

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PvP

Auto Rifles have enjoyed a light resurgence in the Crucible, with the Doctrine of Passing dominating usage statistics due to the ease of obtaining it and its devastating TTK. Mid Impact Exotics like Monte Carlo continue to be a reliable way of scoring kills too, but High Impact/Low RoF Auto Rifles have not experienced a renaissance in any sense of the word. Suros, belonging to this unhappy class, still can’t escape the feeling of being left out, and must rely on Focused Fire or Spinning Up to distinguish itself.

The former lets you play mind games with your opponents, as they feel the brush of an Auto Rifle and backpedal instinctively, only to find their health still dropping as Focused Fire’s Range boost helps deliver a hail of accurate bullets. As you near the end of your magazine (and it can be advised to empty half of it pre-emptively), the bonus damage may even help you score kills on wounded Guardians that might not have been finished off with the base Impact.

Unfortunately, your depressingly high TTK will result in a multitude of assists where you once might have scored kills. And that assumes that you even “win” your gunfights; going one-on-one, assuming competent competition, Suros will lose out to just about any Scout Rifle or Hand Cannon. The MIDA Multi-Tool is darn near a hard counter in this regard, allowing its wielder to micro-strafe at speed to spoil your accuracy, and plug your head just beyond where your damage begins to fall off. Even with its boosted base Range, it’s still an Auto Rifle, and a Scout Rifle is superior at a distance.

So, you switch to Spinning Up. In PvE, wasting half a dozen rounds to proc the extra RoF is not too demanding. In PvP, however, you’ll have to become adept at knowing when to begin firing. Too soon, and you’ll exhaust your magazine before landing a kill shot; too late, and your DPS won’t climb fast enough to out-damage an opportunistic Hand Cannon user, or an aggressive Shotgun or Fusion Rifle wielder. In this regard, it’s not ideal in most situations. This is not to say that a patient and skilled player won’t see success. Seriously, if you can take advantage of that subclass-breaking TTK, you’ll frustrate an opponent who isn’t used to squaring off against the Suros. Unfortunately, in learning to do this, you’ll likely grow tired of losing firefights where you are unable to get the drop on an unwary Guardian. If you’re intent on using this auto rifle, stick with your team to provide reliable damage from medium range. They’ll be grateful for the hit markers, and you just might clean up a few of their kills as well.

In summation, Suros fares a bit better in PvP, while once again facing the unenviable position of not truly excelling in any category. Honestly, the same could be said of most Auto Rifles, so don’t think we’re piling on here. Sure, it’s not the Doctrine of Passing, but for a High Impact/Low RoF, it can still just barely keep up with the pack.

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Cosmetics/Sound

“It has a lightweight, almost plastic look with an all-white chassis, featuring red, blue, and yellow accents, including its iconic brand logo emblazoned on the side. It sports future-retro style with its HUD, and truly feels simultaneously like a relic and sci-fi super toy.”

That’s what we said before. Well, now it’s black and red. Whether or not this is an improvement to you comes down to personal taste. It must be said that there’s nothing quite like the toy-like original white finish. As for the sound? Well, as Patrick put it, it no longer sounds like a ping pong ball falling down a flight of stairs. Surely, that has to be an improvement.

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Conclusion

This isn’t the weapon for those interested in using the best of the best. Its stats, even with the benefit of Focused Fire or Spinning Up, don’t do enough to compensate for the inherent weaknesses of its class and subclass in both PvE and PvP. In spite of this, the pinpoint accuracy under Focused Fire, and class-breaking DPS under Spinning Up, still give it enough of an Exotic flair to make it a fun choice when you’re not particularly stressed about steamrolling your way to a raid clear or Crucible victory. And while you wield it, a steady plink-plink and the retro-futuristic design will ensure you do so in style.