Best Weapons After Update 2.5.0.2 in Destiny

A lot of changes happened in update 2.5.0.2 in Destiny. If you have ever visited Destiny communities on Twitter or Bungie.net, you will know that they are filled with crucible players expressing things that they find over or underpowered in the Crucible. After some time, Bungie collects this information, do some test, check some stats and then make changes to the game.

Often times these adjustments drastically changes the meta game. Just to summarize these changes:

• Special Ammo

Players will begin with special ammo but is now lost upon death.
Sidearms are not affected by this change

• Auto Rifles

Increased Precision Damage modifier to 1.3x (up from 1.25x)

• Pulse Rifles

Reduced rate of fire for very high rate of fire Pulse Rifles by 7.7%
Increased rate of fire for low rate of fire Pulse Rifles by 5.3%

• Shotguns

Shotguns no longer deal precision damage
Shotguns now have significantly less magnetism when fired from the hip
Shotguns now have significantly less in air accuracy
Shotguns no longer have a movement penalty
Shotguns now deal 20% more damage to combatants

Before Destiny update 2.5.0.2, The Clever Dragon reigned supreme in the Crucible for primary weapons. This was due to it being a fast rate of fire pulse rifle that had one of the fastest TTK (time to kill). This weapons killed even faster than the popular Grasp of Malok.

As far as special weapons, shotguns still reign supreme. The ever-popular Matador 64 still was most guardians go to weapon. This was due to its ability to kill in one hit from a pretty far range.

Now that update 2.5.0.2 in Destiny is out, we have been keeping an eye on how the meta will change; and change it did. Here are some stats from guardian.gg shortly after the update. These are taken from the Trials of Osiris game mode since that is the more competitive game mode.

As we can see the No Land Beyond has seen an increase in usage. This is due to the special ammo change and the fact that this gun doesn’t get affected by the recent increase to flinch for snipers. Also, there is now a side arm meta that they can use to compensate not having a traditional primary weapon.

Next you can see that hand cannon usage has slightly increased. Lots of players were excited that hand cannons have made a return similar to how they were in year 1. From what I learned about the Palindrome is that it has a fast TTK, killing you as fast as The Last Word.

As I mentioned, side arms are now the meta for special weapons. The change in the way special ammo works caused this migration since side arms always have ammo upon spawn. Some side arms can kill as fast as primary weapons.

Heavy weapons have seen sort of shift too. The Truth rocket launcher was the popular heavy weapon of choice. Now with its reduction in ammo, we see other weapons taking its place.

Bungie has also kept an eye on their changes and have already mentioned some adjustments. Side arms may see a decrease in the amount of ammo you spawn with. No land beyond may also see a decrease in ammo.