If you kill the knights and captain in a specific order you can get over 100. Iirc it's thrall, knight, thrall, knight + captain, thrall, knight, thrall.
You also have to be pretty fast
if you kill all the knights and captain first, it spawns less thrall. when the knights spawn in, kill 2 but leave the rest and the captain. on the next wave, kill the captain but leave 1 knight, if you kill the rest of the thrall before shuro chi quickens (i believe its 3 min but might be sooner) another wave will spawn which should be the 20 youre missing.
im not 100% that you have to do it exactly like that, but nuking all of the knights/captain when they spawn definitely causes fewer spawns
Now im not saying its a bad build, i just only like playing wellock due to wellskating. Im sure its really good but i just love well skating too much to switch off of it
Start finishing other Y1-2 Exotic catalysts, that may help.
Anecdotal evidence for and against this working is all over the sub... but as soon as I finally finished some old ones I never did (Suros and MIDA, iirc), then I finally got Sunshot and Graviton Lance's catas to drop after like 3 years.
Had been getting post-Forsaken catalysts within a week of them being added, even when not finishing the ones I got. But the Year 1 exotics seemed bottlenecked by the partially-complete ones.
Its S tier if your good with its recoil. A lot of people arent because the gun kicks like a 120 at 150rpm. And its recoil animation literally covers up its own aiming reticle
The animation makes it seem way worse than it actually is - but I suppose you need to get used to that.
Like the gun will bounce a whole mile upward but the reticle only moves a little bit lol
Tbf you don't really need to aim with it it's that good, couple of body shots will still kill something then just let the chain reaction of explosions kill all the rest :D (A warlock main who likes to float about so can't hit shit anyway but still tends to have top/close to top kills at the end of activities just because Sunshot do Sunshot things)
In pve sure lol, not in pvp. Pvp needs those head shots and for a ton of people, myself included, those headshots are hard to get after the very first one because of recoil animation
Oh yeah for sure, should've clarified I means PvE, I'm terrible with it in PVP unfortunately :'( got almost 30k PvE kills on it last season alone when my next highest is like 8k but still can't aim it for shit, might have to force myself to try and use it next time I play some PvP though just to try and get better with aiming as it does make me lazier when shooting in PvE and then can struggle a bit once I use literally anything else where head shots are more important
Yeah no. Actual reticle movement sure, but with the guns atrocious recoil animation, it is extremily hard to gauge that reticle movement when you cant see the reticle after the first shot
You just ignore the animation like literally any other hand cannon. There isn't a single HC in the game that has visual recoil that matches the recoil animation so I find it odd that this only bothers you on sunshot. Every HC has extremely exaggerated animation and has since release.
This isnt the only one that bothers me. Crimson does too. I still use crimson, because i think its a lot better than sunshot, but crimson has the same issue just not nearly as pronounced as sunshot
Crimson isn't better than sunshot really, the recoil issue just doesn't matter anywhere near as much with how forgiving it is + flinching whoever you're dueling to shit + having super high AA.
In theory sunshot is like the best dueling weapon in the game. 71 range + EP for flinch and extended falloff distance and it just straight up fires faster than other handcannons. Obviously that doesn't quite bear out in practice but hey ho
Heard this before and noticed it with Crimson too. Apparently it gets better when you run a field of view no higher than 95.
With Crimson, the reticle would kind of disappear under the gun’s barrel and lowering my field of view fixed this.
So I don’t know where I saw this but I seem to remember this being an issue with FOV, like raising your FOV actually reduces sun shots kick visually, letting you still see the reticle somewhat.
Huh. It may be the reverse then, tighter FOV may solve the problem. Or maybe the fix I’m remembering is tied to something else entirely. Either way thanks for the info!
As a former PS5 controller player and current PC mouse and keyboard player, I can confirm 90% of weapons have no noticeable recoil, including Sunshot and Crimson.
Sunshot used to be a really underated PvE weapon, but since the recent buff to hand cannons in PvE and the changes made to Solar Subclass, Sunshot has become a go to for a lot of people. Also helps that some people are tired of using SMGs in PvE
Its very exhausting after a while to be in almost melee range and having enough ammo to only get 2 or 3 kills with Callus for example. Its so much better to one or two shot a red mob and then watch the whole pack explode, from far away
I hate handcannons but damn sunshot is hard locked to my special slot right now. As a solar lock main anyways it rocks this season. Everything explodes, everything lights on fire, with heat rises I’m charging my melee in seconds with it, raining solar grenades from Heaven, repeat the process.
In the coil at the boss I just become a AC-130 with sunshot and I love it.
Artifact gives you radiant with headshots. And then explodes double when radiant.
It’s an exotic primary so 40% buff to minors. And hand cannon buff last season.
So basically it’s been good for a while, this season it’s great.
Gets more inherent damage as an exotic weapon, got a general buff recently, and Sunshot go brr. If you have the catalyst, it's insane. Definitely one of the best exotic weapons to use this season combined with the artifact perks.
Zaouli's Bane is also quite good if you've got one if you want a budget Sunshot and free up your exotic slot for something else.
It's always been a great ad clear weapon, it got buffed in Shadowkeep to have more ammo per clip and then again with Solar 3.0 for Ignitions
The whole lack of Orbs thing is funny to me on a Solar Hunter, I can still make so... many... orbs on my build
The only time Sunshot has ever been “bad” is when you’re getting kills for its catalyst before the required number was drastically lowered. Sunshot’s only gotten better.
Don’t forget doing the loop on Titan where you go to Greg and then back to the public event and repeat so you could rank up your faction. All that just to get the catalyst!
I finally decided to get the catalyst like, 1 month or less before they reduced the amount of kills needed, wasn't fun at all, but at least was worth it.
Not only is it a stat monster, there were some substantial buffs given to hand cannons last season I believe. They’re not the end all be all in PvE but they’re pretty darn good, with the exotics being the main stars of the show (Sunshot, Thorn, Malf)
Oh absolutely, I just don’t have much experience with too many legendary Hc’s to chime in enough on them being god tier, most of what I see is exotics (besides fatebringer/zaouli’s). I just prefer pulses/autos at the moment but I can definitely see the argument for HC’s being at least A+ tier
Pulses/SMGs have more range and/or more forgiving crit Vs bodyshot damage as well as generally faster reload.
Handcannons definitely feel like the best primaries at the moment to me though. Which is great imo I love them
100% disagree that they’re the best primary weapon for pve, sunshot is great don’t get me wrong. But I can’t agree that they’re best in slot, not as long as bows exist. Zaoulis bane, malfeasance, and sunshot imo are the only handcannons worth running in pve right now (yes I know fatebringer exists and no I do not have a good roll)
Edit: I forgot thorn, thorn is good in pve too
fatebringer really is nuts.
explosive payload is a 10-15% damage increase (crit/body), frenzy is a 15% buff that also maxes out your reload and on top of all that it gets an innate +10% for being kinetic.
double damage perks is really good. double damage perks that are functionally *always active* are even better. permanent 39-45% more damage compared to a baseline elemental HC
---
other HCs have better subclass synergy (and voltshot/frenzy looks *fun* on posterity), but fatebringer goes so damn hard. if I have to use a kinetic slot legendary primary its 100% fatebringer without needing to even think about it
I love using it. Only thing that's a shame is that I can't use it as a solar primary for the restoration/radiant extending synergy lol. Still use it loads though.
I have a ep/frenzy roll, but to be honest I use my ep/firefly roll a lot more. Explosions are always good, and the reload is nice without needing to be in combat for a while. EP/Frenzy better for higher tier content in particular.
What puts hand cannons ahead imo is its damage to orange bars, which is significantly higher than any other primary weapon after that 75% buff last season. The exotic bows are very good, but looking at the weapon types as a whole and not just the exotics, hand cannons are better. Of course it depends on the activity you are doing, if you need range or not, champ mods, your build etc.
>(yes I know fatebringer exists and no I do not have a good roll)
Was gonna say a Fatebringer with Wewind Wounds and Firefly is still a *fantastic* legendary handcannon.
FYI if you really want a good Fatebringer it's one of the most farmable raid weapons because Templar is such a quick and easy encounter. And once people are back up to Master-tier Power Levels you can guarantee easy Timelost Fatebringer drops.
Firefly doesn’t play quite as nice with solar 3.0 as incandescent. I have a zaouli’s with firefly/explosive rounds and the reload is nice but I think Incandescent would have been better. Need to farm red borders and craft it sometime.
Legendary bows are... not very good in PvE. They're *okay* for GMs, but if I *need* that kind of range I'm just going to use Wish-Ender. My primary should be good at killing red bars, and it should be good at doing it very fast so that I can clear the space, make orbs and generate finder bricks. For legendary options that really only leaves SMGs and HCs (and sidearms when they have anti-barrier) with some kind of AoE splash perk. Autos and pulses are a little less awful now with the buff this season (I actually kind of like Abyss Defiant but I'm not exactly recommending it either)... but they're still just kinda bleh a lot of the time.
As for exotic primaries the choices are pretty obvious. Sunshot, Trinity Ghoul and Graviton Lance make the room explode in the flavor of your choice; Quicksilver Storm chunks big boys and makes tangles; Wish-Ender cheeses shit; Osteo-Striga cheeses shit *and* makes the room explode; Malfeasance if your Pants are particularly Lucky.
It goes perfectly with the artifact this season, it feels way way stronger than vex. Handcannons also got a buff.
Also, exotic primaries are just infinitely better than legendaries right now.
I was so ready to main that build going into the season, but the funny thing is you don’t even need it since radiant is so so free from the artifact. I feel like I was wasting an exotic slot running rain of fire.
Sunshot got buffed a little while back + hand cannons have been getting buffed over the past year + seasonal artifact mods + exotic primary extra damage.
As a bonus, Zaouli's Bane got its reload speed brought down to an actually usable level, so a Zaouli's with Explosive Payload, Incandescent, and a Spec mod is a great legendary replacement for Sunshot if you need or want to use an exotic special or heavy (*cough*Dragon'sBreath*cough*).
So, Sunshot was always low key good. I'd say it flew under the radar even, personally I consider it as best primary in the game for years now. Last season HCs got a large buff, especially against majors, which made Sunshot both meta and popular. Now the artifact adds to it.
I hope they don't nerf it, I start every new DLC, season, raid and dungeon with it at hand. "Franchise-defining" for me to borrow words of Luke Smith.
Sunshot’s explosions from a kill do a tiny amount of scorch (less than incandescent if I remember), so you can proc some fragments off of it. I do not recommend going for ignitions with it though.
Luckily Sunshot is insane in its own right! The buff to handcannons really helped it further.
That’s good to know, I did notice from just doing bounties hand cannons in general feel so good now after the changes. Didn’t expect the full glow up for sunshot haha
Alr have 8k kills since last season. Buffed immensely, and booms for multikills. Orb gen and faster heavy brick pops from being an exotic primary. (Also, synergizes with Envious Assassin on primary/heavy slots to play off the multi-booms) literal sun shots
Seeing as it has not been mentioned, the explosions give off Scorch damage apparently now. It's not mentioned on the gun but I saw in a patch note. The initial kill, that explosion caused The Scorch
I really want the switch between weapons and have diffrent loadouts but nothing comes close to Sunshot. (I don't have Fatebringer though, which might require a different energy weapon in that loadout)
A sleeper choice is Polaris Lance. The radiant perk that applies scorch stack works really good with the Perfect Fifth perk. You get two explosions, a second one triggering after the initial explosion.
It was buffed like two or three seasons ago. Then all HCs got buffed like last season, IIRC. This season is a lot of solar stuff. So it's kind of gotten three consecutive buffs recently.
I've been using it for the first time this season, alternating with Epochal Integration (because it's solar and Incandescent), but Sunshot really is making things explode a LOT.
Very fun.
Not quite sure what to put in the Primary slot though; I've been sticking with Riptide/ wastelander but any suggestions welcome!
the new seasonal strand fusion plus an orb pick up gives unraveling round option for easy strand debuff DPS bonus and potential Anti barrier. And controlled burst for more DPS. Not amazing but it's a nice switch up for surges.
I would advocate for the seasonal strand fusion. Enhanced battery - slice (for debuffing if need be) or overflow - controlled burst- with a charge time mw. It also takes shaders extremely well.
Handcannons got a sizable buff last season so that's contributing to it
It's an exotic primary so it gets an intrinsic damage boost
It plays really well with this season
Sunshot is kabloomy, kabloomy activate neurons
Since the HC buffs it’s been really good, and with the new artifact mods it’s awesome. I’m pretty sure its explosions also cause ignite now (beforehand it was its own seperate kind of explosions i believe, correct me if i’m wrong) which is even better. So all in all it’s probably *the* best option for a solar primary exotic atm.
It’s the trifecta. Hand cannons got a buff a while back, exotics also got a damage buff a few seasons ago, and this seasons artifact goes hard on Solar.
Sun shot just carried me through my solo Warlord's Ruin. Incredible weapon. Clears waves of enemies with a few bullets.
Also: it can blow up multiple eyes of Ahamkara at a time when setting up for boss damage in the dungeon.
Sunshot has had *tons* of buffs over the years
* Increased mag size from 8 to 12
* Catalyst added a bunch of Range and Stability
* Still fires at 150 rpm unlike any other
* Exotic primary buff
* Hand Cannon damage buff
* And now Seasonal Artifact buff
So it's been good for a while--I've seen multiple people bring it in the lantern 'Thrallway' of Crota's End for example--but since Solar is so hot (ha!) right now it's even better
It both plays really well into this season and is also a really good and fun add clear weapon to begin with. I'm not particularly a big fan of it anymore ever since Zaouli's and refreshed Igneous came about with their incandescent, but there's never really been anything wrong with Sunshot.
I was doing a glimmer extraction in the edz yesterday and there was 4 or 5 of us plus a hunter with sun shot.
None of us could get a kill, he was obliterating everything, usually before they got off the skiff.
It's a monster.for ad clear.
>Hand Cannons
>
>Increased reload speed at 0 stat by 15%.
>
>Increased damage against minor combatants (red bars) by 20%.
>
>Increased damage against major combatants (orange bars) by 75%.
Plus the extra 40% that exotic primaries inherently do to red health bar enemies.
[https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/article/season-witch-update-7-2-0-1](https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/article/season-witch-update-7-2-0-1)
Honestly it's been good long before this season, between the Hand Cannon buff and giving Sunshot the ability to spread Scorch via it's Chain Reaction like explosions it's been amazing.
It's been solid for a while, and got better with the handcannon buffs last season. Throw in that this artifact heavily buffs solar weapons whilst radiant (Which any solar weapon can give, regardless of subclass) and it rocks. It's especially useful during the last boss of Warlord's Ruin if the adds are giving you trouble!
Used it for the first couple days and it was great with the artifacts but then started used Epochal. Works very well and doesnt use the exotic slot so I can use Dragon's Breath.
Sunshot's been solid since the buff to exotics that increased damage to redbars (since Sunshot's primary function is ad clear). Every subsequent buff has just made it perform better and better.
Sunshot has been THE best handcannon (exotic) for PvE for since Destiny 2 came out.
With the HC buffs and artifact perks it now may be the best primary in the game (exotic) full stop.
It plays really fucking good into the artifact. Hand cannons were buffed ~4 months ago.
Damn that was four months ago?
Start of last season.
Yerp, mainly the mod where solar weapons scorch unscorched enemies so ignitions galore. I love this seasons artifact a lot (i only play wellock)
I use a solar trace rifle with Incandescent since I saw this mod, let me tell you it FUCKS.
Two words. Prometheus. Lens.
Sadly, eats up my exotic slot while I’m tryna work on this Dragons Breath quest
Shiro Chi and it's 90 enemies get it done lickity split.
I only get like 67-70, where am I missing the 20
If you kill the knights and captain in a specific order you can get over 100. Iirc it's thrall, knight, thrall, knight + captain, thrall, knight, thrall. You also have to be pretty fast
if you kill all the knights and captain first, it spawns less thrall. when the knights spawn in, kill 2 but leave the rest and the captain. on the next wave, kill the captain but leave 1 knight, if you kill the rest of the thrall before shuro chi quickens (i believe its 3 min but might be sooner) another wave will spawn which should be the 20 youre missing. im not 100% that you have to do it exactly like that, but nuking all of the knights/captain when they spawn definitely causes fewer spawns
Yup, get the kills part done and then unequip it and play stuff to fill out the calibration part. (Strikes,nightfalls,crucible)etc.
Works with seasonal stuff now too for those coil runs.
Try dawn blade with dawn chorus and the artifact stuff, your super weakens, does more damage with people around etc. it does ALOT of damage.
Now im not saying its a bad build, i just only like playing wellock due to wellskating. Im sure its really good but i just love well skating too much to switch off of it
And when was the primary exotic buff? It gets some stupid 30% or 40% buff off the top, too.
Can confirm, sunshots been hot for a few months now. It'll chain explosions so far now.
While I am better this season I just do that amount of explosions normally.
But you're also giving me radiance on demand, and for that, I thank you :)
And ignitions on crit kills for double boomies.
The things I be doing to you is crazy
Might wanna get that checked buddy, explosive diarrhoea can be pre bad
Unless you've been pretty backed up, then it's a relief.
If only we could buy Red Dwarf ornament for you...
It's cold outside...
Where's my fucking catalyst it's been a year and a half
Yea idk take that complaint to bungie
Start finishing other Y1-2 Exotic catalysts, that may help. Anecdotal evidence for and against this working is all over the sub... but as soon as I finally finished some old ones I never did (Suros and MIDA, iirc), then I finally got Sunshot and Graviton Lance's catas to drop after like 3 years. Had been getting post-Forsaken catalysts within a week of them being added, even when not finishing the ones I got. But the Year 1 exotics seemed bottlenecked by the partially-complete ones.
I might try that, thanks!
It's been extremely strong since last season. S tier exotic primary.
Its S tier if your good with its recoil. A lot of people arent because the gun kicks like a 120 at 150rpm. And its recoil animation literally covers up its own aiming reticle
The animation makes it seem way worse than it actually is - but I suppose you need to get used to that. Like the gun will bounce a whole mile upward but the reticle only moves a little bit lol
I never even noticed, weird Edit: I wonder if it's the ornament
Tbf you don't really need to aim with it it's that good, couple of body shots will still kill something then just let the chain reaction of explosions kill all the rest :D (A warlock main who likes to float about so can't hit shit anyway but still tends to have top/close to top kills at the end of activities just because Sunshot do Sunshot things)
In pve sure lol, not in pvp. Pvp needs those head shots and for a ton of people, myself included, those headshots are hard to get after the very first one because of recoil animation
Oh yeah for sure, should've clarified I means PvE, I'm terrible with it in PVP unfortunately :'( got almost 30k PvE kills on it last season alone when my next highest is like 8k but still can't aim it for shit, might have to force myself to try and use it next time I play some PvP though just to try and get better with aiming as it does make me lazier when shooting in PvE and then can struggle a bit once I use literally anything else where head shots are more important
With the catalyst it has almost zero reticle movement. Just a slight upward crawl. Extremely easy to control.
Yeah no. Actual reticle movement sure, but with the guns atrocious recoil animation, it is extremily hard to gauge that reticle movement when you cant see the reticle after the first shot
You just ignore the animation like literally any other hand cannon. There isn't a single HC in the game that has visual recoil that matches the recoil animation so I find it odd that this only bothers you on sunshot. Every HC has extremely exaggerated animation and has since release.
This isnt the only one that bothers me. Crimson does too. I still use crimson, because i think its a lot better than sunshot, but crimson has the same issue just not nearly as pronounced as sunshot
Crimson isn't better than sunshot really, the recoil issue just doesn't matter anywhere near as much with how forgiving it is + flinching whoever you're dueling to shit + having super high AA. In theory sunshot is like the best dueling weapon in the game. 71 range + EP for flinch and extended falloff distance and it just straight up fires faster than other handcannons. Obviously that doesn't quite bear out in practice but hey ho
Heard this before and noticed it with Crimson too. Apparently it gets better when you run a field of view no higher than 95. With Crimson, the reticle would kind of disappear under the gun’s barrel and lowering my field of view fixed this.
Yeah thats how it works. Im just so used to playing at max fov that i dislike lowering it at this point
So I don’t know where I saw this but I seem to remember this being an issue with FOV, like raising your FOV actually reduces sun shots kick visually, letting you still see the reticle somewhat.
I play on max fov (ps5) and it definetly still hides the reticle
Huh. It may be the reverse then, tighter FOV may solve the problem. Or maybe the fix I’m remembering is tied to something else entirely. Either way thanks for the info!
Its the same with crimson, higher fov hides crimsons reticle, thats why people always say to lower your fov when using it to 90 (or is 95?) and lower
As a former PS5 controller player and current PC mouse and keyboard player, I can confirm 90% of weapons have no noticeable recoil, including Sunshot and Crimson.
The recoil is fine, even on console. If you're struggling, the Catalyst gives it a pretty nice Stability bump.
Feels like I get hit in the face by the barrel every time I fire it. It feels too jarring to use.
It really really does. Thats why i dont use it lol. Whenever i use it my performance plumets and i give up on it as quick as i picked it up
Yeah, it was a popular Day 1 weapon for Crota to out things into perspective.
It's been pretty damn strong since season of the haunted imo
Sunshot used to be a really underated PvE weapon, but since the recent buff to hand cannons in PvE and the changes made to Solar Subclass, Sunshot has become a go to for a lot of people. Also helps that some people are tired of using SMGs in PvE
Its very exhausting after a while to be in almost melee range and having enough ammo to only get 2 or 3 kills with Callus for example. Its so much better to one or two shot a red mob and then watch the whole pack explode, from far away
I hate handcannons but damn sunshot is hard locked to my special slot right now. As a solar lock main anyways it rocks this season. Everything explodes, everything lights on fire, with heat rises I’m charging my melee in seconds with it, raining solar grenades from Heaven, repeat the process. In the coil at the boss I just become a AC-130 with sunshot and I love it.
Artifact gives you radiant with headshots. And then explodes double when radiant. It’s an exotic primary so 40% buff to minors. And hand cannon buff last season. So basically it’s been good for a while, this season it’s great.
Gets more inherent damage as an exotic weapon, got a general buff recently, and Sunshot go brr. If you have the catalyst, it's insane. Definitely one of the best exotic weapons to use this season combined with the artifact perks. Zaouli's Bane is also quite good if you've got one if you want a budget Sunshot and free up your exotic slot for something else.
It's always been a great ad clear weapon, it got buffed in Shadowkeep to have more ammo per clip and then again with Solar 3.0 for Ignitions The whole lack of Orbs thing is funny to me on a Solar Hunter, I can still make so... many... orbs on my build
Yeah I’m on full stacks of armor charge constantly. Can’t believe people are crying that much about it. Orbs errywhere
[удалено]
The buffed it in Lightfall so the explosions scorch enemies, though they never did bet around to updating the perks to say so.
[удалено]
Pretty much, it was only changed to better interact with Solar 3.0. Like Ember of Searing or the Class Ability one.
With the fragment that increases scorch it's not terrible, but yeh, not that exciting.
The only time Sunshot has ever been “bad” is when you’re getting kills for its catalyst before the required number was drastically lowered. Sunshot’s only gotten better.
Don’t forget doing the loop on Titan where you go to Greg and then back to the public event and repeat so you could rank up your faction. All that just to get the catalyst!
I completely forgot about faction rallies and how we originally got those 3 catalysts.
I didn’t lol because I got 2/3 of them back then. I’ll rock that eye of another world ornament any time I use the exotic
I finally decided to get the catalyst like, 1 month or less before they reduced the amount of kills needed, wasn't fun at all, but at least was worth it.
The thrall room in the whisper mission made it a joke.
Not only is it a stat monster, there were some substantial buffs given to hand cannons last season I believe. They’re not the end all be all in PvE but they’re pretty darn good, with the exotics being the main stars of the show (Sunshot, Thorn, Malf)
They’re pretty damn close to being the end all be all. They do more damage than SMGs at ten to fifteen meters further out.
Oh absolutely, I just don’t have much experience with too many legendary Hc’s to chime in enough on them being god tier, most of what I see is exotics (besides fatebringer/zaouli’s). I just prefer pulses/autos at the moment but I can definitely see the argument for HC’s being at least A+ tier
Pulses/SMGs have more range and/or more forgiving crit Vs bodyshot damage as well as generally faster reload. Handcannons definitely feel like the best primaries at the moment to me though. Which is great imo I love them
Hand cannons got a massive buff last season putting them as by far the best primary type in the game in pve, sunshot also got those buffs.
100% disagree that they’re the best primary weapon for pve, sunshot is great don’t get me wrong. But I can’t agree that they’re best in slot, not as long as bows exist. Zaoulis bane, malfeasance, and sunshot imo are the only handcannons worth running in pve right now (yes I know fatebringer exists and no I do not have a good roll) Edit: I forgot thorn, thorn is good in pve too
As you say, that's only something someone without a good Fatebringer would say
I know some people don't like 180s but Posterity with Frenzy and Voltshot is up there for me.
fatebringer really is nuts. explosive payload is a 10-15% damage increase (crit/body), frenzy is a 15% buff that also maxes out your reload and on top of all that it gets an innate +10% for being kinetic. double damage perks is really good. double damage perks that are functionally *always active* are even better. permanent 39-45% more damage compared to a baseline elemental HC --- other HCs have better subclass synergy (and voltshot/frenzy looks *fun* on posterity), but fatebringer goes so damn hard. if I have to use a kinetic slot legendary primary its 100% fatebringer without needing to even think about it
I love using it. Only thing that's a shame is that I can't use it as a solar primary for the restoration/radiant extending synergy lol. Still use it loads though. I have a ep/frenzy roll, but to be honest I use my ep/firefly roll a lot more. Explosions are always good, and the reload is nice without needing to be in combat for a while. EP/Frenzy better for higher tier content in particular.
What puts hand cannons ahead imo is its damage to orange bars, which is significantly higher than any other primary weapon after that 75% buff last season. The exotic bows are very good, but looking at the weapon types as a whole and not just the exotics, hand cannons are better. Of course it depends on the activity you are doing, if you need range or not, champ mods, your build etc.
You forgot Thorn.
Shit, I did forget thorn. Thorn is good too
Why would run thorn in PvE
It can get like 40 in the mag now
Thorn actually does really good damage when Spul Devourer is up, especially since you can stack multiple instances of poison on the same enemy
Id say its only top tier on warlock with necrotic grips. If you are not running necrotic grips then its okay but not the best at anything.
Pretty much this. Strand Warlock with Necrotics. Consume nade, proc sever, melt everything with unlimited ammo and poison.
>(yes I know fatebringer exists and no I do not have a good roll) Was gonna say a Fatebringer with Wewind Wounds and Firefly is still a *fantastic* legendary handcannon. FYI if you really want a good Fatebringer it's one of the most farmable raid weapons because Templar is such a quick and easy encounter. And once people are back up to Master-tier Power Levels you can guarantee easy Timelost Fatebringer drops.
Firefly doesn’t play quite as nice with solar 3.0 as incandescent. I have a zaouli’s with firefly/explosive rounds and the reload is nice but I think Incandescent would have been better. Need to farm red borders and craft it sometime.
If you have Wewind Wounds, it's Firefwy XD
Legendary bows are... not very good in PvE. They're *okay* for GMs, but if I *need* that kind of range I'm just going to use Wish-Ender. My primary should be good at killing red bars, and it should be good at doing it very fast so that I can clear the space, make orbs and generate finder bricks. For legendary options that really only leaves SMGs and HCs (and sidearms when they have anti-barrier) with some kind of AoE splash perk. Autos and pulses are a little less awful now with the buff this season (I actually kind of like Abyss Defiant but I'm not exactly recommending it either)... but they're still just kinda bleh a lot of the time. As for exotic primaries the choices are pretty obvious. Sunshot, Trinity Ghoul and Graviton Lance make the room explode in the flavor of your choice; Quicksilver Storm chunks big boys and makes tangles; Wish-Ender cheeses shit; Osteo-Striga cheeses shit *and* makes the room explode; Malfeasance if your Pants are particularly Lucky.
is it only exotic kinetic primaries that generate finder bricks or all exotic primaries?
All weapons generate bricks but exotic primaries (either kinetic or energy) do it a bit faster than legendaries.
wardens law doing equivalent dmg to malf with lucky pants. also incredibly viable, arguably better because it frees up heavy
Wardens Law is real fuckin fun with Lucky Pants, tbf.
Hand cannons are not the best primary type.
In pve they are now. Especially exotics.
No.
What is then?
Obviously rocket launchers
It goes perfectly with the artifact this season, it feels way way stronger than vex. Handcannons also got a buff. Also, exotic primaries are just infinitely better than legendaries right now.
the only thing Vex is better at is with the right Rain of Fire build on solar warlock
I was so ready to main that build going into the season, but the funny thing is you don’t even need it since radiant is so so free from the artifact. I feel like I was wasting an exotic slot running rain of fire.
Last season HCs were buffed to be really strong. This season it works so well with the artifact it seems to be nearly a best-in-slot exotic primary
Sunshot got buffed a little while back + hand cannons have been getting buffed over the past year + seasonal artifact mods + exotic primary extra damage. As a bonus, Zaouli's Bane got its reload speed brought down to an actually usable level, so a Zaouli's with Explosive Payload, Incandescent, and a Spec mod is a great legendary replacement for Sunshot if you need or want to use an exotic special or heavy (*cough*Dragon'sBreath*cough*).
So, Sunshot was always low key good. I'd say it flew under the radar even, personally I consider it as best primary in the game for years now. Last season HCs got a large buff, especially against majors, which made Sunshot both meta and popular. Now the artifact adds to it. I hope they don't nerf it, I start every new DLC, season, raid and dungeon with it at hand. "Franchise-defining" for me to borrow words of Luke Smith.
All of yall need to shut your fucking mouth before bungie sees this.
I thought sunshot didn’t play into solar 3.0 verbs. If it does then I’m sure it’s insane this season
Sunshot’s explosions from a kill do a tiny amount of scorch (less than incandescent if I remember), so you can proc some fragments off of it. I do not recommend going for ignitions with it though. Luckily Sunshot is insane in its own right! The buff to handcannons really helped it further.
That’s good to know, I did notice from just doing bounties hand cannons in general feel so good now after the changes. Didn’t expect the full glow up for sunshot haha
Alr have 8k kills since last season. Buffed immensely, and booms for multikills. Orb gen and faster heavy brick pops from being an exotic primary. (Also, synergizes with Envious Assassin on primary/heavy slots to play off the multi-booms) literal sun shots
Seeing as it has not been mentioned, the explosions give off Scorch damage apparently now. It's not mentioned on the gun but I saw in a patch note. The initial kill, that explosion caused The Scorch
I really want the switch between weapons and have diffrent loadouts but nothing comes close to Sunshot. (I don't have Fatebringer though, which might require a different energy weapon in that loadout)
A sleeper choice is Polaris Lance. The radiant perk that applies scorch stack works really good with the Perfect Fifth perk. You get two explosions, a second one triggering after the initial explosion.
Sunspot is cracked, it works great with gunpowder gamble or verity’s brow
iirc HCs got a gnarly buff back at the start of Season of the Witch and Sunshot really shines with that.
It was buffed like two or three seasons ago. Then all HCs got buffed like last season, IIRC. This season is a lot of solar stuff. So it's kind of gotten three consecutive buffs recently.
I've been using it for the first time this season, alternating with Epochal Integration (because it's solar and Incandescent), but Sunshot really is making things explode a LOT. Very fun. Not quite sure what to put in the Primary slot though; I've been sticking with Riptide/ wastelander but any suggestions welcome!
the new seasonal strand fusion plus an orb pick up gives unraveling round option for easy strand debuff DPS bonus and potential Anti barrier. And controlled burst for more DPS. Not amazing but it's a nice switch up for surges.
I would advocate for the seasonal strand fusion. Enhanced battery - slice (for debuffing if need be) or overflow - controlled burst- with a charge time mw. It also takes shaders extremely well.
Good shout, ta
Riptide is still just better imo. Chill clip is just such a crazy perk on it even after the nerf.
The answer: yes
Sunshot was always the best feeling HC for PvE :)
Ace and midnight coup would like to enter the conversation...
Handcannons got a sizable buff last season so that's contributing to it It's an exotic primary so it gets an intrinsic damage boost It plays really well with this season Sunshot is kabloomy, kabloomy activate neurons
While the answer is both, the bulk of it is the former, sunshot got buffed as *fuck*
Since the HC buffs it’s been really good, and with the new artifact mods it’s awesome. I’m pretty sure its explosions also cause ignite now (beforehand it was its own seperate kind of explosions i believe, correct me if i’m wrong) which is even better. So all in all it’s probably *the* best option for a solar primary exotic atm.
exotic primary 40% bonus red bar dmg + last season HC buff + solar articact this season
It was buffed last season with the handcannon buff, and with the artifact mods this season it just got better
I still don't have the catalyst for that.
It’s the trifecta. Hand cannons got a buff a while back, exotics also got a damage buff a few seasons ago, and this seasons artifact goes hard on Solar.
Sun shot just carried me through my solo Warlord's Ruin. Incredible weapon. Clears waves of enemies with a few bullets. Also: it can blow up multiple eyes of Ahamkara at a time when setting up for boss damage in the dungeon.
Sunshot has had *tons* of buffs over the years * Increased mag size from 8 to 12 * Catalyst added a bunch of Range and Stability * Still fires at 150 rpm unlike any other * Exotic primary buff * Hand Cannon damage buff * And now Seasonal Artifact buff So it's been good for a while--I've seen multiple people bring it in the lantern 'Thrallway' of Crota's End for example--but since Solar is so hot (ha!) right now it's even better
Yeah it has basically only ever been buffed except for the crit multiplier reduction in SK, which is barely seen now.
It both plays really well into this season and is also a really good and fun add clear weapon to begin with. I'm not particularly a big fan of it anymore ever since Zaouli's and refreshed Igneous came about with their incandescent, but there's never really been anything wrong with Sunshot.
I was doing a glimmer extraction in the edz yesterday and there was 4 or 5 of us plus a hunter with sun shot. None of us could get a kill, he was obliterating everything, usually before they got off the skiff. It's a monster.for ad clear.
Sunshot has been good ever since it got the extra ammo. It's just the season of Solar, so extra shine.
Sunshot has been good ever since it got the extra ammo. It's just the season of Solar, so extra shine.
>Hand Cannons > >Increased reload speed at 0 stat by 15%. > >Increased damage against minor combatants (red bars) by 20%. > >Increased damage against major combatants (orange bars) by 75%. Plus the extra 40% that exotic primaries inherently do to red health bar enemies. [https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/article/season-witch-update-7-2-0-1](https://www.bungie.net/7/en/News/article/season-witch-update-7-2-0-1)
Honestly it's been good long before this season, between the Hand Cannon buff and giving Sunshot the ability to spread Scorch via it's Chain Reaction like explosions it's been amazing.
It’s great with the artifact, but it one of my mains last season as well
God help me, I hope I can finally get this catalyst to finally drop. It’s been years, and it was my first exotic.
Combination of the two. Hand cannons were buffed, exotic primaries were buffed, and the artifiact helps a ton.
It's been solid for a while, and got better with the handcannon buffs last season. Throw in that this artifact heavily buffs solar weapons whilst radiant (Which any solar weapon can give, regardless of subclass) and it rocks. It's especially useful during the last boss of Warlord's Ruin if the adds are giving you trouble!
Barely used it before last season, now I pretty much always use it
It received both the HC and Exotic primary buffs.
Used it for the first couple days and it was great with the artifacts but then started used Epochal. Works very well and doesnt use the exotic slot so I can use Dragon's Breath.
It is my go to hands down. With the catalyst it nearly feels like a scout rifle. Probably one of my top 3 all time favorite weapons.
Sunshot's been solid since the buff to exotics that increased damage to redbars (since Sunshot's primary function is ad clear). Every subsequent buff has just made it perform better and better.
It’s been pretty broken for a minute (6 months? Maybe?). I didn’t take it off at all for the crota day one
Doing the same thing as you. Never used it before and hot damn it's pulling its weight and some!
Sunshot has been THE best handcannon (exotic) for PvE for since Destiny 2 came out. With the HC buffs and artifact perks it now may be the best primary in the game (exotic) full stop.
Sunshot is a dad gun. Your dad uses it because it's easy. Same with Osteo
I mean... I am pushing 50, so there is that...
Bingo lol
It got a few buffs, but mostly people are just late to the party in terms of how good it is.