Bungie recently put out a Destiny 2 Weapons Preview blog and one of the first things being discussed was Weapon Balancing and how the mid-season balance pass impacted PVP. In a rare move of transparency, Bungie shared how they evaluate weapons for PVP depending on various factors like kills, usage and skill types.
Bungie shared graphs for the top 50 primary weapons and their respective types, for both before and after the mid-season balance patch was released. We got a look at the general meta but also saw some outliers that weren’t being talked about in the community as much but were still performing better than expected, even for Bungie (Hi Vex Mythoclast).
We also saw certain weapons, for both high skill players and players of every skill level, that are underperforming but still somehow in the top 50. Obviously, players should use what they like and feel comfortable with, nothing should change that! But I do think that some of the weapons in the top 50 don’t feel like they really belong especially now that we have data from Bungie to back it up.
10 Overrated Destiny 2 PVP Weapons
10. Syncopation-53
This was one of the first craftable weapons ever. It sports a modest perk pool with notable perks like Zen Moment or Moving Target and Headseeker or Rangefinder for PVP. But even with solid perk combos, Syncopation-53 is an Adaptive frame pulse rifle, which is arguably the weakest archetype of pulse rifles in the current meta. Its optimal TTK (time to kill) is very slow compared to other archetypes and while it may have a slightly stronger stat package, it can’t compete with the likes of a Piece of Mind or a Messenger or even an Autumn Wind. Players may see streamers like GernaderJake and Coolguy tout this gun but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s “Meta,” it isn’t, and you shouldn’t waste your time with this one.
9. Eyasluna
Eyasluna came out with the 30th Anniversary Pack as a drop from the final encounter of the Grasp of Avarice Dungeon. It’s a 140 RPM (rounds per minute) Stasis hand cannon that features a good perk pool that leans more towards the PVP side of things, and its stat package certainly backs that up. It had its time in the sun when it came out in December 2021, for a long time at that, but now it has been outclassed by the likes of Rose and the reprised Austringer, simply by virtue of having better perks than Eyasluna. I don’t know if there’s a nostalgia factor in play here or if people just really like the feel of it but if you’re going to use a hand cannon in the current automatic weapon meta, you’d be better off using something else.
8. Spare Rations
The famed Spare Rations, once a PVP beast that dominated the Crucible, had been sunset for the longest time. Every PVP content creator you could think of made videos on this gun, reminiscing about how good it was and how much they wanted it back. The gun finally returned in Season of the Deep with a slightly updated perk pool but maintained the base stat package it had back before it was sunset.
Its welcome has been a bit of a mixed bag as the general consensus on the gun has been that it doesn’t feel as good as it did before even though it is literally the same gun. Spare Rations suffers from the fact that there are better hand cannons in the kinetic slot now but also from nostalgia. People want to experience the good old days with Spare Rations but in today’s sandbox, the gun can’t hang as much as people want it to.
7. Randy’s Throwing Knife
Another gun that’s seeing a resurgence because of the nostalgia factor. Its perk pool definitely adapts to the current sandbox better than Spare Rations does but even then, perks can’t save this gun because its stats are abysmal. Still, people are trying to make it work and to mixed results at that. Scout Rifles are definitely heavy hitters in the meta but Randy’s Throwing Knife is a Rapid Fire frame, which aren’t the strongest in scout rifles when heavy hitters like the Hung Jury SR4 and Glissando-47 exist. Randy’s Throwing Knife’s popularity is very much a result of nostalgia and nothing else.
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6. No Survivors
No Survivors, the Solar Aggressive frame SMG from the Ghosts of the Deep Dungeon, is an interesting gun that felt like it had a lot of potential when its perk pool came out, with many people even calling it an energy slot “Immortal” but in reality, it wasn’t quite up to that mark. Sure, it has the Rangefinder/Target Lock combo people sought out in the Immortal but its stats don’t even come close and the concessions for trying to get it close to the stats of the Immortal aren’t worth the effort. It also doesn’t help that both Rangefinder and Target Lock are getting nerfed so its main sell for PVP is even less enticing this season. Ultimately, Aggressive frame SMGs dominate the meta and both Rangefinder and Target Lock will still be viable to some degree but No Survivors is not the top choice people think it is.
5. Rufus’ Fury
Rufus’ Fury, the Strand Rapid Fire auto rifle from Root of Nightmares, had a lot of hype in PVP when it first came out. People were enamored with the Perpetual Motion/Target Lock combo and it certainly packed a punch considering Target Lock would hit harder than it would for something like the Immortal because Rufus’ Fury, an auto rifle, had more ammo than the Immortal, an SMG. Rufus’ Fury definitely has a good stat distribution but it’s certainly not the top choice people think it is for PVP and with the Target Lock nerf, the only other main choices are Tap the Trigger and Paracausal Affinity, both of which are robust but definitely not the strongest choices for PVP.
4. Funnelweb
Funnelweb, a Lightweight Frame Void SMG, had a very potent combo with Killing Wind/Rangefinder and its origin trait, Veist Stinger, when it came out. Since then, Veist Stinger has been nerfed from its original state of refilling its entire magazine upon damaging enemies, to refilling only a quarter of its magazine. Moreover, Rangefinder has been nerfed, so there really isn’t much in this gun outside of Elemental Capacitor or Frenzy, which you can use in PVP but it’s not the strong option people want it to be.
3. Old Sterling
Old Sterling is a new world drop Strand auto rifle. It doesn’t have a lot of perks for PVP in the third column beyond Slideways and Surplus and the only real damage perk is Adagio. It does have the Field Tested Origin Trait, just like the Immortal SMG, but that’s really where the similarities end. Its Lightweight frame isn’t very strong and while Adagio offers a nice damage bonus, the slower rate of fire certainly doesn’t help its TTK. This gun just cannot hack it in today’s meta, as much as players want it to.
2. Different Times
The new Seasonal Rapid Fire Strand pulse rifle only has one option for PVP with Moving Target/Headseeker, maybe even Golden Tricorn for those who enjoy the perk, but ultimately it lacks in the perk department. Its stats aren’t anything special either so there really isn’t much to this gun outside of enhanced perks. Its origin trait, Unsated Hunger, offers a strong bonus to Stability, Handling and Reload Speed. But that comes at the cost of using all your abilities and while you could try to make a build less focused on abilities so you can have Unsated Hunger active at all times, that simply wouldn’t fly in today’s PVP sandbox for a lot of players.
1. IKELOS_SMG_V1.0.3
It pains me to say this but a lot of the hype for the Ikelos SMG is just that, hype. The gun was and can still be robust but after the nerf to its reduced recoil, which made it feel way stronger than the average Aggressive Frame SMG, the gun simply hasn’t felt the same. Sure, it has strong perk combinations like Dynamic Sway Reduction or Killing Wind with Rangefinder or Tap the Trigger and its Aggressive Frame archetype makes it a heavy hitter, but the reality is that the Ikelos SMG has been outclassed by the likes of Immortal. It’s not the strongest choice anymore but people still use it to remember when it was.
