The Crucible: How update 2.0.0 changed Destiny PvP Secondary & Heavy Weapons

Overview

This post is part two to my previous blog entry that I published yesterday which highlighted how the new Destiny update changed primary weapons for the crucible. The focus of this post will be to finish examining how this update changed the crucible but with secondary and heavy weapons.

Secondary Weapons

Secondary weapons remain relatively unchanged in the new update. Snipers, obviously, still dominate the picks for long range, and are selected on the few maps with good sight-lines where they can be used safely and avoid getting engaged on in close combat. Shotguns with range perks still dominate the close engagements, as they have only received a slight range nerf and the other secondary weapon class that can be used effectively at close range, fusion rifles, are still inferior in almost all aspects to shotguns. While they can be used at a longer range than shotguns, the delay of firing with having to charge the weapon, the travel time of the bolts, and the spread of the bolts all make the damage that these weapons can do too inconsistent for most players to use them. Even fusion rifles with strong base stats and perfect perk choices, can struggle for kills at their optimal ranges. I leave the sidearm class off this list on purpose, as there are only two sidearm weapons in the game, they are almost never used, and therefore are hard to place in comparison to the other weapons.

Heavy Weapons

The heavy weapon class, much like the secondary class, has not seen any changes. Rocket launchers still show their dominance over heavy machine guns. This trend is not necessarily showing that rockets are stronger than heavy machine guns, but they serve a much different purpose, and this purpose is valued much higher by most crucible players. Heavy machine guns are much better at chaining kills together and snowballing the game through having the strongest DPS gun in a firefight. Rockets fulfill a very different role, clearing out congested areas and giving your opponent no chance at fighting back. This enables a team to quickly gain an advantage over another, or take away an advantage that the other team has achieved. Rockets are also a great counter to those that choose to use heavy machine guns, as the quick instant kill counteracts their high DPS. This class however may be subject to change, as the Taken King DLC that launches tomorrow morning, introduces a new heavy weapon class, swords. Although just by looking at the weapon type and relative nature of swords in other games, it is not far fetched to say that swords will be outshone in the crucible by their other heavy weapon counterparts.