Both Thorn and The Last Word are weapons that have become staple armaments that you will become very accustomed to whether you own them or not when you step into Destiny’s competitive PvP arenas: The reason is simple. The vast majority of players you’ll run into use them.
Both guns of the hand cannon variety; One being a blackened pistol that can act as a pocket sniper and the other, a golden revolver that has the stopping power of a tank. Both undeniably great at what their concepts attempt to do, but the problem lies in the fact that in the current meta they seem more like a requirement than a choice in a game that pushes the idea of being an individual on your quest to ‘become legend’.
Look at the break down of weapon using in Destiny’s foremost competitive mode, The Trials of Osiris. Thorn clearly is the ‘run away’ winner here currently sitting pretty on just over 50% usage, with everyone’s least favourite shotgun taking ‘silver’ at just over 16%. The Last Word comes in at just under 15% and honestly, those numbers are very telling of the disparity between weapon choices with the next primary weapon on the list being #8 – Hawkmoon at 6.5%.
Rather than comment on how overpowered these guns are (believe me, that particular dialogue is already all over the internet and very much may be for the rest of time) let’s look at some of the other cool exotics weapons that we work so hard for, or our boy Xur sorts us out with that currently don’t get the love that they should and how they could be improved so that they do.
#3 – MIDA Multi Tool
A strong scout rifle that actually gets more use in PvP than this list might suggest. It has a decent ammo clip size even when not increased, strong stats with perks that aid it in being what it aims to be: An all purpose weapon that gives you an answer to most situations and fights. The biggest problem with the MIDA is that it really doesn’t have the ability to stand up against against two weapons in particular (yep, you guessed it) in terms of dueling potential. The range of the Thorn and more importantly it’s damage over time perk (Mark of the Devourer) can beat this weapon 1-on-1 in most cases and well placed shots from The Last Word can kill before you can do the same to them.
Rather than buff this weapon hugely as I do think it is strong, I think it is more the case of that there are better and more importantly, non-exotic scout rifles out there that do what the MIDA does without taking that all important exotic slot. Increasing its damage slightly may help it really become a weapon that could justify it’s place slightly more, while evaluating its clip size depending on how much damage it would be able to crank out. Balance people, balance.
#2 – Suros Regime
An exotic auto rifle. Once upon a time, it was THE exotic to use in PvP: not unlike what we see now with Thorn. Once the king, perhaps ironically now famously the pauper of competitive weapon choices. Bungie saw fit to nerf auto rifles and this weapon with particular focus back late last year as there seemed to be a similar lack of variety at the time. In the same vein as the MIDA, while not the worst weapon to run it is hard to make the active choice to go all in with the Suros as your Exotic choice simply because it cannot dish out the damage quickly enough to compete.
Auto rifles in general need to be looked at (and I believe that they will be) as they are really underutilised. It has good perks built into what the gun should do but damage is what lets this weapon down. A lot of the Destiny old guard have been praying and weeping for this gun to come back to it’s former glory, and while I doubt it will ever be the kind of work horse that it once was, I don’t think it should be left gathering dust as it is in most Guardian’s vaults now as it has really strong potential.
#1 – Bad Juju
Ah yes, the weapon of Toland himself, the guy that seems to have dumped Eris Morn so many times she now cries green tears. Ick. A pulse rifle with a impressive firing speed, and a perk that clearly had a lot of thought put into it. String of Curses is the name and automatically reloading and slightly increasing damage while increasing super gain is its game. On paper it sounds too good to be true: that is a strong lineup of benefits. In reality, it is supremely outclassed by brother-in-arms, Red Death and (I think you know what is coming here) Thorn and The Last Word.
I can see where this is a hard weapon to balance and is amazing in PvE for what it does. The fact of the matter is that it needs more damage or more bullets to its clip. Precision is the name of the game with this weapon because it is very unforgiving for people that cannot get the kill in a world of stronger weapons and are left not getting the benefit of the damage buff or auto reload. It’s usually you feeling the ‘Bad Juju’ as you get killed by yet another Thorn. Adjusting the base damage of this gun too much would make it too good and a clip too large would change it into something else but there must be a better balance of those two evil. Leaving the weapon as it is just confirms it as a cool but uncompetitive mess. As big fan of it, I really hope to see Bungie do something about this pulse rifle.
So there we have it. 3 popular weapons that need some love to be able to put more hurt on those people that dare face you in the Crucible. It is clear that Bungie do care about the PvP side of the game from their huge investment into it with the last expansion. The Taken King, Destiny’s next expansion will be dropping in just over 2 months. Let’s hope some of our old favourites will get the attention they deserve.
What weapons would you like to see improved or changed? Sound off in the comments or fire those shots directly to me at @Black2DaFutureZ – opinions of any shape and size are welcome. I also stream pretty regularly so follow me there or on twitch.tv/black2dafuturez for updates on stream times. They are always fun and I win all the games. Honest.
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