Well, it’s finally time. Destiny 2 has added enough pinnacle weapons where it makes sense to do a ranking order of them, given the three that arrived in Season of Opulence. As with all ranking orders of things on the internet, it is entirely possible that you will disagree with this list, but that’s just how it goes.
As best I can tell, here is what I would deem the ranking order from worst to best of all the pinnacle weapons released so far for Crucible, the Vanguard and Gambit across the past few seasons.
11. Hush
Grinding out bow kills in Gambit was fine, but medals was a slog, and what we got at the end was arguably the worst pinnacle weapon in the game. Hush allows you to have insane draw time if you get precision hits from the hip. As anyone who has ever played on console will tell you, hip firing is garbage, and that’s especially true for bows. And even on PC, there are just fifty thousand better options for this slot, most of which are not even pinnacle weapons, and I don’t understand a place for Hush in the current state of the game in PvP or PvE. When you get into a rhythm it can be kind of fun, but it’s a novelty, compared to many of these others which are close to best in class.
10. Oxygen
I swear every four days on reddit there’s a thread saying that Oxygen needs to be buffed, and they’re not wrong. First, there’s the more general problem with scouts that they’re weaker than other weapon classes. Next, Oxygen sucks because its pinnacle perk, Meganeura, does not replace Dragonfly, but simply exists alongside it, meaning that this weapon essentially is missing a perk. And on top of all of that, Dragonfly just isn’t as good as Firefly used to be in Destiny 1 anyway. It’s not a terrible scout but scouts are bad and dragonfly is bad and that makes this…surprise, pretty bad.
9. Revoker
Revoker is a weird one because the central perk seems designed for exactly not the crowd who would grind out sniper kills to get it. You miss a shot you have a chance to get that ammo back, but the best snipers rarely miss completely, so it’s a weird perk. The best part of Revoker is its very short scope, but it was introduced alongside Beloved, which is arguably a better sniper in almost every way. This is easily the worst Crucible pinnacle weapon when those are usually defined by being great, if not flat-out overpowered. And again, it’s kind of a class problem as snipers are still just not what they used to be.
8. Redrix’s Claymore/Broadsword
I remember when Redrix’s was the end-all, be-all since it was the first pinnacle weapon everyone was scrambling for but now? It’s just okay, and is usually not picked over a number of non-pinnacle pulse rifles from Bygones to Blast Furnace to Go Figure, thanks to their combination of Outlaw/Feeding Frenzy/Kill Clip/Rampage that is better than Redrix’s rate of fire pinnacle perk. It’s…fine, I guess, but hardly a wonder compared to these other ones.
7. 21% Delirium
Well, here’s one that I forgot about completely when I first wrote this article so that should tell you something. Look, 21% Delerium is fine with its perma-rampage and massive ammo pickups, but the archetype is just not as good as Hammerhead or the Menagerie’s Fixed Odds. It’s fine but with so many good heavy options I think you’ll rarely choose it over a lot of other stuff.
6. Breakneck
I still really like Breakneck a lot, and I would absolutely consider it one of the best legendary auto rifles in the game in both PvP and PvE. It’s one of the easiest pinnacle grinds in the game (just get a lot of auto rifle kills in Gambit, essentially), and its ROF increase on rampage stacks is fantastic, and works even better when you slap a Black Armory rampage mod on it. The biggest problem with it is that like scouts and snipers, auto rifles are not exactly in the strongest spot right now compared to pulses and hand cannons. But if autos are ever buffed in the future? Look out.
5. Wendigo
Grenade launchers are all the rage in the heavy slot right now, and Wendigo with its orb-charged explosions is quite good. I mean, it’s probably not as good as any spike grenade grenade launcher which does the same if not more damage on direct hits through that, and if you don’t have the orbs for Wendigo, it’s kind of just…a crappy grenade launcher. But it does have a bonus perk in that it lets you keep picking up orbs even with a full super, which is useful for triggering class item perks.
4. Luna’s Howl/Not Forgotten
These two have been nerfed recently, a bit of a damage dip just so they weren’t quite as utterly dominant as they were before, but they’re still very strong and two of the best hand cannons in the game when hand cannons are doing great. They’re also the two HCs that probably feel the best to use on console, which has struggled with recoil and bloom issues unlike PC. Even with their nerfs, they’re still some of the best pinnacles around, and worth the grind if you can get them.
3. Loaded Question
I have always been preaching that Loaded Question is underrated, but after the fusion rifle buff recently? Oh man, forget about it. Paired with a rally barricade or Luna’s Warlock, getting that seventh major shot off on repeat is absolutely crazy. I put a boss spec on my LQ and it’s practically a second heavy. Not to mention it’s also fantastic at mob clear due to its propensity to create explosions on kill. It’s just a fantastic fusion in PvE and Gambit and I am rarely seen without it on my Titan.
2. Mountaintop
This is arguably the worst grind for a pinnacle weapon there is with its insane grenade launcher multikill requirement, but somehow, Mountaintop has become meta not just in PvP, but also high end PvE content where it operates like a heavy weapon in your primary slot as you can spam it to take down majors and bosses alike. Out of everything on this list, it seems likely that this could be headed for a nerf down the road because I don’t think Bungie ever intended for optimal raid strategies to be spamming the PvP GL primary at bosses, but we’ll see. Get it while it’s still powerful.
1. Recluse
Recluse very well might be in my top three legendary guns in Destiny series history. It’s just that good. One of my most memorable Destiny experiences was grinding out Recluse by getting to Fabled in competitive in a single 24 hour stretch, and the reward was better than I could possibly image. This thing shreds literally everything with its Master at Arms perk in both PvP and PvE and I put a major spec on mine to kill pretty much everything I need to in any context. It is quite simply a blast to use and puts almost all other weapons in the energy slot to shame. I am hoping that it’s also not headed toward a nerf like Mountaintop because it doesn’t feel as cheesy. It’s just good, and if you want to commit to any tough grind for any of these, this is the one to do it for.
So, what did I get wrong?
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