The Wounded
- Pros – High stability, range, and reload speed.
- Neutral – Average aim assist.
- Cons – Below average mag size.
Recommended Perks
- Reflex
- Explosive Rounds, High Caliber Rounds
- Triple Tap, Outlaw, Perfect Balance, Smallbore, Third Eye, Unflinching
- Hidden Hand, Crowd Control, Zen Moment, Firefly
Recommended Vendor Perks
- Reflex
- Explosive Rounds
- Triple Tap
- Crowd Control
If you’ve never been a fan of scout rifles, this one may change your mind. Its ability to kill with two crit and two body shots is just fantastic. On top of that, in PvE there are almost no drawbacks to using it – especially with the vendor roll this week.
Reflex is my favorite sight out of the group, giving a small boost to aim assist couple with an open sight picture. Explosive Rounds will keep your opponents staggered or flinching and deals extra damage to adds on body shots, while the combination of Triple Tap and Crowd Control will enable you to keep firing and dealing bonus damage after kills.
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Parthian Shot
- Pros – Very high range, recoil direction, & above average magazine.
- Cons – Low aim assist, below average stability & reload.
Recommended Vendor Perks
- Reflex
- Outlaw
- Hand-laid Stock
- Counterbalance
Recommended Perks
- Reflex, SureShot IS, SteadyHand IS
- Life Support, Outlaw, Eye of the Storm, Feeding Frenzy
- Hand-laid Stock, Perfect Balance, Braced Frame, Smallbore
- Headseeker, Third Eye, Counterbalance, Rangefinder, Glass Half Full
High-impact pulse rifles were, for a brief period, the rulers of the Crucible. Unfortunately they were cut down and have since struggled to find a useful niche. However, Parthian Shot has done its best to lead the resurrection, and the vendor roll this week is absolutely worth picking up. With a fantastic recoil pattern, Counterbalance isn’t even necessary, but it’s all the better with it.
On top of that, the vendor roll comes with Reflex and Hand-laid Stock to add some more aim assist/stability and that tightens the burst spread. And Outlaw is just the icing on this already excellent cake.
If you happen to get a random drop, Headseeker would probably serve you better than Counterbalance.
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Last-Ditch 001
- Pros – Hit the range cap using Hand Loaded/Hammer Forged with Accurized Ballistics, Linear Compensator, or Field Choke.
- Neutral – Average mag size.
- Cons – Below average reload speed. Very low aim assist and equip speed.
Recommended Vendor Perks
- Accurized Ballistics/Field Choke/Linear Compensator, Smooth Ballistics
- Hand Loaded, Quickdraw
- Hammer Forged, Keenpads, Close and/or Personal
- Rangefinder, Full Auto
Recommended Vendor Perks
- Field Choke
- Hand Loaded
- Hammer Forged
- Crowd Control
The ‘Matador archetype’ has almost been put on a hiatus because of the special ammo nerfs, but as the meta stabilizes they’re starting to make a return. This Dead Orbit shotgun has tremendously high base range, and the version this week combines that with Field Choke, Hand Loaded, and Hammer Forged, which allow it to reach max range, and just below max Impact!
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The Wormwood
- Pros – Hitscan. High stability.
- Cons – Below average range, reload speed, & magazine.
Recommended Vendor Perks
- SureShot IS/TrueSight IS
- High Caliber Rounds
- Fitted Stock
- Rangefinder
Recommended Perks
- SureShot IS/TrueSight IS
- High Caliber Rounds/Quickdraw, Lightweight
- Hand Loaded, Fitted Stock, Zen Moment
- Rangefinder/Hidden Hand, Hot Swap, Reactive Reload
This sidearm has only one true drawback: magazine size. But other than that, there’s not much to complain about when it comes to its stats.
For perks, the sight recommendations are the same as ever: TrueSight and SureShot. High Caliber Rounds is always my favorite in the second column, but Quickdraw is also an excellent choice. In the third slot you can use Hand Loaded to improve on the range, or Fitted Stock or Zen Moment to help with the already good stability. In the last column I’d go with Rangefinder, particularly if you don’t use Hand Loaded in the previous slot, but Hidden Hand can also be used to push the above average aim assist even higher.
The vendor roll for this weapon is almost perfect this week.
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Each New Day
- Pros – Above average Impact/damage per bolt. High stability.
- Neutral – Average reload speed.
- Cons – Low range.
Recommended Vendor Perks
- Reflex
- Life Support, Unflinching
- Accelerated Coils/Perfect Balance
- Counterbalance
Recommended Perks
- Reflex
- Life Support, Replenish, Icarus, Hip Fire, Unflinching, Battle Runner, Kneepads
- Perfect Balance/Rifled Barrel/Braced Frame/Accelerated Coils, Smallbore, Hand-laid Stock
- Counterbalance/Rangefinder, Hidden Hand, Eye of the Storm, Hot Swap
Each New Day trades a little less range for more stability. Counterbalance will make the recoil pattern more vertical, but if you choose to use Acc Coils for the faster charge rate (it doesn’t increase the bolts to kill) it will be up to you to control it.
If you really don’t feel like you can get a tight enough bolt spread without a stability perk, pick Perfect Balance over Accelerated Coils, but the charge rate is pretty slow.
Even if you were to get one to drop, you really can’t do better than this week’s vendor roll.
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Bitter Edge 010
- Pros – Quick reload speed, large magazine, good stability.
- Cons – Can’t 1-shot a revived Guardian.
Recommended Vendor Perks
- Ambush SLH25
- Snapshot
- Life Support
- Unflinching
Recommended Perks:
- ShortGaze SLH10/ViewTac SLH20, LongView SLR10, Ambush SLH25
- Quickdraw, Snapshot
- Perfect Balance/Life Support
- Hidden Hand/Unflinching
Part of the Weyloran’s March archetype, this sniper rifle can be a great tool for those who want to use emulate a scout rifle.
Life Support and Unflinching are currently among the the most useful perks for PvP, so the vendor version isn’t bad at all this week.
If you get one to drop, ShortGaze or ViewTac would be better than Ambush, simply so that you can take advantage of the high aim assist.