Am I ready to get yelled at? Sure am, and I wanted to write this anyway. I have played a lot of Destiny over the past five years, and have gotten my hands on pretty much every exotic weapon over that time period (except Hawkmoon when it was good, damn you PS4 exclusivity). As such, I think I’m ready to make a controversial declaration that I have found the best all-around Destiny exotic weapon of all time. And it arrived here in Black Armory.
It’s Jotunn, as you might have guessed by that picture up there.
When I say “best all-around exotic,” that means, and does not mean, a few things. While yes, Jotunn is obviously not going to be the boss-burner that OG Gjallarhorn or Whisper were/are, I think it succeeds across almost every Destiny activity in almost every situation because of its strengths. I also am not declaring it my favorite Destiny weapon, as I know some weapons “feel” better than this one and everyone has their own personal picks for the “best” weapon, as that’s largely based on personal preference.
But let me make my case.
Jotunn One-Shots Most PvE Enemies, Two-Shots Almost Everything Else
Obviously things depend a bit here on power level and the activity in question, but Jotunn is pretty much an automatic kill on any enemy at any range. Jotunn will one-shot Wizards and Centurions with their solar shields, and will two-shot pretty much anything else from major Knights to Minotaur to Captains and so on. It two shots pretty much any major or blocker in Gambit, or any Forge blue boy.
Jotunn Can Mob Clear
It’s a fireball, so while it’s not Huckberry for mob clear, in a pinch you can easily wipe out groups of enemies all the same with its AOE explosion.
Jotunn Can Still Do Solid Boss Damage In A Pinch
No, it’s not its primary purpose, but Jotunn is so powerful that it can put solid damage on a larger boss if your heavy option is out of ammo, so you’re not sacrificing much to have it in your exotic slot in that regard.
Jotunn Has Damage Over Time
Just in case its huge damage wasn’t quite enough to kill something the first time, there are many situations where its additional burn damage will tick off the last 10% of an enemy’s health bar, killing them all the same.
Jotunn Doesn’t Hurt You Up Close
Despite being a huge fireball and functioning like rocket launcher, there’s no risk of ever killing yourself with a close-up Jotunn blast because the fire just tickles you, at worst.
Jotunn Has Almost Unlimited Range
You can track enemies in PvP or PvE across an entire map with Jotunn’s homing rounds, and from what I can tell, there’s little to no damage falloff as I’m still killing Guardians at 300 meters that I’d be killing at 20 meters.
Jotunn Is A One Hit Kill Against Guardians
You hit someone, they die in PvP. If they’re in a super or a Gambit invader, it takes maybe two shots instead, but there’s a reason this gun is starting to dominate these modes the more it drops for people.
Jotunn Is Relatively Low Skill With Its Homing Rounds
Jotunn would still be pretty strong even if its projectiles didn’t seek its targets, but the fact that they do elevates this to god tier and it means that almost anyone can use the weapon unlike say, Icebreaker, which still required you to be a halfway decent sniper.
Jotunn Is A Special Weapon With Plentiful Ammo
A lot of the “greatest hit” exotics in Destiny history are heavy weapons, which means big damage, but it also means relatively limited ammo, especially for the fan-favorite Gjallarhorn. The fact that Jotunn is a special not a heavy is a huge point in its favor.
Jotunn Has Avoidable Downsides
The “downsides” of Jotunn are a high charge time and slow reload. The charge time really is not all that important given the DPS the thing puts out when you do fire it. The slow reload can easily be ignored by all three classes with dodge/barricade/Lunafaction, which are often being used anyway.
The point is, you can see my “all-around” argument. And since I know you’re going to ask:
Gjallarhorn – In its glory days, there was nothing even close to compare it to, as it could erase any boss and mob clear if you had extra ammo. But I think the fact that you can use Jotunn almost non-stop with special ammo special elevates it here to the number one spot.
Telesto – I think you could also make a case that Teleso is a top 3 all-time exotic, especially its Destiny 2 version, as it has many of the same upsides I’ve listed of Jotunn, though it’s about to get nerfed in PvP in a week or so.
Icebreaker – Icebreaker is a fantastic weapon, but across a smaller range of situations than these others, namely as a way to fight through tough encounters through the safety of a sniper perch with unlimited ammo.
Thunderlord – Destiny 2 Thunderlord at least is up there in terms of utility and power, though I think this may have more to do with MGs in general being hugely overpowered right now rather than Thunderlord being super broken by itself.
MIDA/Hawkmoon/Thorn/Ace of Spades/Bad Juju/Last Word – Look, everyone has their favorite primary, but again, I think if we’re looking at all-around utility these other options are higher up, though that might be a controversial sentiment.
And even if I’m declaring the Jotunn the best exotic the game has seen today, I am not saying it’s “broken” and needs to be nerfed. I hope Bungie doesn’t touch it, frankly, despite its power. I like having an exotic with this much utility, but at the same time it also doesn’t feel “mandatory” and I’m not running it in every loadout.
So, have I made my case to convince you? Or are you still going to stick with Gjallarhorn or one of the others?
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