Season of the Seraph features auto rifles, bows, hand cannons, grenade launchers, pulse rifles, scout rifles, and submachine guns as weapons capable of stunning the three different Champion types. Regardless of the popularity some of these weapon types have earned, their anti-Champion mods have some very underwhelming performances. The current Season of the Seraph introduces a new Exotic weapon, which has an intrinsic perk for stunning Champions. The new Exotic taking up a kinetic weapon slot heavily restricts the remainder of players’ available anti-Champion weaponry, making the case that Exotic weapons should be able to stack anti-Champion mods with existing perks.
RELATED: All Destiny 2 Season of the Seraph’s New Exotics
Why Anti-Champion Weapons in Destiny 2 Should Stack With Exotic Perks
The weapon and ability mods that apply anti-Champion damage change with every Season, mixing up which weapon types will be most useful in the new and existing activities across the different Seasons in Destiny 2. A small portion of weapons in the game remain permanently useful though, as Exotic weapons with anti-Champion perks. These Exotic weapons include the Arbalest, Bastion, Devil’s Ruin, Divinity, Eriana’s Vow, Le Monarque, Leviathan’s Breath, Malfeasance, The Lament, Thunderlord, and Wish-Ender. The anti-Champion perks on these Exotic weapons behave differently than the mods available for the rest of the legendary and Exotic weapons.
The performances of the anti-Champion mods in Season of the Seraph on legendary weapons have plenty of room for improvement. The anti-Barrier mod for bows takes two fully drawn arrows to break a Barrier Champion’s shield since the shields prevent critical hits. The long draw time on some bows can leave enough time for the Champion to regenerate over a third of their health from within their shield. The Unstoppable mod for hand cannons this Season requires players to aim down sights for an awkwardly long period without firing for the mod to activate. Such a long pause in the middle of a firefight can often be the difference between life and death.
The new Revision Zero Exotic pulse rifle could have set a new standard for Destiny 2 Exotics weapons with existing anti-Champion perks to stack with seasonal anti-Champion mods, though since it didn’t happen, the change doesn’t seem likely. The Revision Zero is able to fire anti-Champion rounds unconditionally, meaning that any conditions required to activate additional anti-Champion mods wouldn’t interfere with how the gun currently works. Not all the anti-Champion Exotic weapons work unconditionally, but the Revision Zero alone highlights how disappointing the current mods can perform on otherwise favorable legendary weapons.
Allowing anti-Champion damage types to stack on Exotic weapons could help players by increasing the amount of weaponry that is useful in any given Season. Unlike how a wide variety of weapons can be used to deal with enemy elemental shields, anti-Champion mods having such a limited amount of options each Season can be very restricting. Allowing anti-Champion mods to stack would especially improve the solo experience of Destiny 2.
Even if allowing anti-Champion mods to stack with perks on Exotic weapons isn’t likely to be in a future update, the mods themselves could still benefit from performance upgrades. As Champion enemies continue to appear in activities throughout Destiny 2, the existence of anti-Champion Exotics has been a great addition to the game. The ease of the conditions for activating anti-Champion perks on Exotic weapons is a strong factor influencing their usage compared to using the seasonal mods on other weapons, and they could use a fresh coat of paint.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.
MORE: How Destiny 2’s Champion Mods Could Be Made Independent From Seasonal Artifacts
