Despite recent buffs to many weapon categories, auto rifles, pulse rifles, hand cannons and scout rifles, it still feels hard to want to use a legendary primary in most circumstances, and when you do, it essentially needs one recently introduced perk on it. Here’s the problem right now:
- The recent buffs to weapon types also applied to exotic weapons, which have an intrinsic 40% damage buff to red bars for better mobbing. So while that has made something like Quicksilver Storm feel great, for instance, most legendary auto rifles are still not going to feel good with few exceptions. This really helped exotics but didn’t change all that much for legendaries.
- The buffs in many instances just are not enough. Three crits to kill a Harpy on Neomuna with a hand cannon does not feel good. When they were announced, I was worried these buffs were not enough in some categories, and they don’t seem to be. I do wonder if all primaries, not just exotics, need a buff against red bars, or at least a reversion of the Shadowkeep era precision damage nerf.
- But one main issue I keep seeing with the legendary primaries that do get used is that it’s almost absolutely essential to have a core subclass 3.0 perk on them. Top tier are Incandescent, Voltshot and Destabilizing Rounds, all of which have the potential to clear entire mobs of enemies and synergize with subclass 3.o verbs for bonus effects. Second tier is probably Hatchling and Repulsor Brace. I can’t include Headstone for Stasis here as I don’t think it’s in either tier, despite being subclass-based. But the point is, practically any other roll that doesn’t have one of these might as well just be a PvP weapon. Nothing else can compete, and almost all old and even new perks that don’t subclass synergize have now been power crept out.
For some people, even those perks aren’t enough to get them to use legendary primaries. People are either going with exotics or more frequently now, people are running double special weapons. Because of ammo finders this is very viable, and Trace Rifles in particular have been buffed where if they have the ammo, they can mob clear far better than any primary. Then you combine with whatever shotgun/fusion/sniper you want and your heavy of choice, and you’re good to go. Manage some ammo and bam, killer build. And depending on seasonal perks, like last season’s void heavy ammo generation, I was essentially using my Commemoration LMG as a primary in most content.
It’s clear that despite recent buffs we still have significant problems with legendary primaries as compared to exotic and special options, and within legendary primaries we’ve created a top tier of perks with more or less nothing that can compete with it. It’s Rampage/Outlaw all over again, but even stronger now. It’s hard! It’s hard to balance this! But it’s certainly an issue if Bungie wants to keep a huge chunk of loot options viable.
