Destiny 2, a game for fans of both the Borderlands and Halo franchises. The perfect combination of Sci-Fi, random loot, and space magic. The initial game was essentially just more of Destiny 1, with new beautiful set pieces and bulkier enemies. But the DLC's up to now have had less than stellar reception from the fans.
Thankfully, it seems as if the Forsaken DLC is different.
First of all, it starts with a tragic end for a main character. This alone makes it different from other DLC's as it has a tangible impact on the world and characters. Along with major plot changes, the DLC also drops a whole slew of new weapons, game modes, and sub-classes. Honestly, it's a ton of fresh content! Each of the 3 guardians has a new subclass for their 3 variations. That's 9 new supers! Each new sub-class has an exotic that attempts to enable it even further. But those aren't the only new exotics, we have ones that mark enemies, reflect projectiles, even ones that let you use your super essentially infinitely. The new gear dropped in this DLC is full of fresh and exciting ways to make your guardian a walking WMD. But, not every one of them is successful. Some are weaker, or straight up outclassed by older weapons and armors. That, along with the fact that you can only use 1 exotic at a time, means that it's easy to ignore a lot of the new weapons. And I'm here to help with my list of The 15 Best Items In Destiny 2: Forsaken (And The 15 Worst) so you know exactly what to grind for!
30 Best: Chromatic Fire
So let's begin with probably one of the coolest exotics in the Forsaken DLC, the Chromatic Fire.
This Warlock chest piece comes with Crystalline Transistor, an exotic perk that’s focused around mad skills.
Essentially, whenever you land a headshot, this weapon generates an explosion at the site of impact. This explosion is of course, in the element of your subclass, and stacks with other precision abilities. It stacks with other weapon perks such as the Ace of Spades. Essentially, the Chromatic Fire has it all, looks, a good ability, and tons of explosions!
29 Worst: Cerberus +1
Now the Cerberus +1 isn't’ awful, it’s by no means an exotic you should pick over the others in this DLC, mostly because of its silly name.
This Exotic Auto Rifle comes with the Perk Four Headed Dog, which basically means it shoots all four of its barrels at (around) the same time.
This, of course, means a higher rate of fire, but it also shoots pretty erratically, essentially where you aim doesn’t mean it’s where it’ll land. Having a weapon that has any kind of RNG is non-optimal and honestly not all too fun.
28 Best: The Sixth Coyote
Hey, you like dodging? What if we gave you dodging on top of your dodging?
That’s right the Sixth Coyote is the Hunter Exotic chest piece that’s really easy, to sum up. you can dodge again.
Hunter guardians already have a dodge roll, and this chest piece allows you to do it twice in a row! While that’s not a very flashy ability, it is insanely useful. For Hunter mains, I’m sure you see all the potential what with knife throws, auto reload rolls, and the fact that melee recharges on rolls.
27 Worst: Subtle Calamity
The Subtle Calamity is the lite version of the Oath Keeper.
It's a Legendary Bow that takes longer to draw for more damage.
It also has increased hold time and reload speed while crouched. But, why would you ever use this bow if you could have indefinite hold time? If this list is here to purely compare the different weapons, no matter their drop rate, why would anyone use the Subtle Calamity? If you'd like a bow with optimized hold time, use the Oath Keeper. Is it alright to use while you wait for Exotic drops? Sure. Otherwise? Nah.
26 Best: Black Talon
Swords have always been my favorite part of both Destiny games. I run a Titan tank who focuses on that amazing melee ability, so I’m always in the thick of it. The downside is, I’m vulnerable to enemies I can’t reach. Well, not anymore thanks to the Black Talon!
This sword has pretty decent stats, an amazing design, and the ability to shoot projectile energy waves.
Plus you can shoot two energy waves at once. The only downside is the projectiles take two ammo instead of one but honestly, you get ammo back quick enough anyway.
25 Worst: Malfeasance
This is the definition of a niche weapon, sad too because it’s one of the prettiest weapons I’ve ever seen.
The Malfeasance sports the Explosive Shadow perk, where hitting an enemy with 5 bullets in succession causes all 5 to explode for an extra burst of damage.
Is that useful? Not really. In PVP you’ll rarely get 5 subsequent hits. And in PVE that’s really only good for bosses, as the weaker mobs will take 1 to 2 hits at most. The other perk is this weapon does extra damage to Taken enemies. Unless you’re fighting tanky Taken enemies, your perks aren’t activating!
24 Best: Antaeus Wards
What's the peak of skill in an FPS game? Oh, that’s right, looking stylish while dominating your enemies.
The Antaeus Wards are a perfect tool to help you achieve peak style.
These Exotic Titan boots have the ability to reflect ANY projectile while you’re sliding (and for a second after your slide’s over too). That’s not all, reflecting projectiles also refills your super energy. Now, what classifies a projectile in Destiny? Honestly, just about everything, you can even reflect a Titan’s flaming hammer or void shield super! Talk about sweet kicks.
23 Worst: Queenbreaker
The Queenbreaker is one of the Exotic snipers included in the Forsaken DLC and it’s honestly just alright.
It’s a lower damage, high fire rate sniper that has the option for a short or long range scope.
But honestly, if you’re using a sniper, why would you want one that shoots fast up close? It’s kind of the opposite of a snipers main purpose. Although the hitbox is forgiving to compensate for its average stats, the Queenbreaker is really only viable in PVE and even then, there’s better exotics to use.
22 Best: Ace Of Spades
This weapon is one of the best for a couple reasons, mainly, it’s not a random drop. Destiny 2’s Forsaken DLC has made finding Exotics MUCH rarer. A couple of these I haven't even touched, thank you, RNG.
The Ace of Spades is Cayde-6's signature Hand Cannon, that the player gets through story progression.
It’s Exotic Perk Momento Mori lets your next couple bullets do extra damage after defeating an enemy, plus you get radar when aiming down sights. Both of these are perfect for a Hand Cannon, which reloads constantly.
21 Worst: Lord Of Wolves
The Lord of Wolves is a bad Shotgun. There I said it. Is it a bad weapon? No, not really, but it’s a poor shotgun.
It’s better than all the other shotguns at a range, but if it's a ranged fight, you shouldn’t be using a shotgun.
A Shotgun is supposed to be a huge burst of damage, at close range. Also, because of how damage drop-off works, past a certain range, it doesn’t matter how many projectiles you unleash, they’ll do little more than tickle the enemy.
20 Best: Ursa Furiosa
This Exotic Titan arm armor is absolutely insane. The new Tian sentinel subclass the Code of The Commander comes with a new super, the Banner Shield. This is similar to Reinhardt’s shield from Overwatch, it's an energy-based shield that actually buffs friendly bullets as they pass through it.
With the Ursa Furiosa however, you can move faster with the Shield up as well as regaining super energy for all damage blocked.
This may not seem like much but if used correctly, you can literally always have your super running as a Sentinel, it’s absurd for both PVP and PVE
19 Worst: Contraverse Hold
This is another Warlock Exotic, this time for your arms. It’s Perk Chaotic Exchanger essentially makes you a tank while you charge any variation of your Void grenades. Then, once your grenade hits its mark, you’ll get a random amount of grenade energy back. What does this mean? First, it has "random" in its description, meaning it isn’t consistent. Secondly, it’s honestly not a great ability.
You could potentially charge your grenade to tank damage, then keep charging to repeatedly to function as a makeshift tank.
But that’s a hyper-niche playstyle, and honestly, why aren’t you playing Titan instead?
18 Best: Transcendent Geometry
This right here is an Exotic Warlock Ornament, and it's exotic for good reason.
The Transcendent Geometry show’s off one of my favorite aspects of Destiny’s Armor design, the hologram aspects.
It’s only in a few rare places such as on Ikora Rey’s arm piece but it’s just so cool. Having Holograms as an extra layer to the armor design is such a neat idea that Bungie really doesn’t utilize enough. But this Transcendent Geometry ornament is exactly what I’ve always wanted. Now If only I had ever played a Warlock before, guess it’s time to start.
17 Worst: Wavesplitter
The Waversplitter is one of the rarest Auto Rifles to be found in the new Forsaken DLC. And it's damage is dependent on random chance.
It’s called the Wavesplitter because it’s damage is split between different “waves” as you hold down the primary fire.
It circulates between different intensity’s of the beam, with some doing more damage than others. What beam it’ll be on at any given moment is a luck of the draw, that means your damage is inconsistent. While it’s stats are strong the RNG mechanic of the weapon puts it right into the trash bin for me personally.
16 Best: Shards Of Galanor
The Shards of Galanor are the better of the two Exotic Gauntlets for Hunters. They’re also made for the new Hunter Super, Blade Barrage.
The more enemies you defeat with Blade Barrage, the more super energy you get back.
So the best time to capitalize on this would be when a wave of weak enemies spawn and you can take them all out. With the right setup, you can get ¾’s of your bar back but it’s almost impossible to get the full super. That said, it’s still a worthwhile exotic especially when it buffs such a DPS intensive super.
15 Worst: Oath Keeper
The Oath Keeper is another Exotic for the Hunter Class, this time it’s your gauntlets. Its Exotic Perk is exclusively tailored to bows, they charge faster and can be held at max charge indefinitely.
While people who mainly use combat bows will love this, there’s not much there outside it.
The main draw of the weapon is the huge quality of life perk. I’d much rather have an exotic with a perk the buff’s my damage. To me, a perk that takes the annoying part of using bows, and fixes it, isn’t enough to take my exotic slot.
14 Best: One-Eyed Mask
The One-Eyed Mask has been the center of a lot of complaints. And that’s mostly because it’s absurdly strong.
This is a Titan Exotic Helm that is just a strong both PVP and PVE. It’s Exotic Perk, Vengeance, mark’s any enemy that dares to damage you.
If you then defeat said enemy, you get a damage buff and an over-shield. In PvE this is insane, you’re constantly getting pecked at by tons of enemies, you can have this Perk active essentially all the time. In PVP it quite literally makes you stronger and tankier the better you do.
13 Worst: Gwisin Vest
Man, I feel bad for Hunter’s, seems like a lot of their exotics are on the wrong side of this list.
The Gwisin Vest is another Exotic chest piece for Hunters and is directly applicable to the new Spectral Blades Super for the Nightstalker sub-class.
It’s another Exotic to constantly refresh your super, only this one does it the least. The Perk Roving Assassin means each enemy you defeat before going into stealth will restore more super energy. This seems like you’ll constantly be refreshing your super but in reality, you’ll keep trying but never quite get there.
12 Best: Heart Of Innermost Light
The Heart of Inmost Light is another Titan exotic, for their bulky chests.
It’s based off the Helm of Inmost Light from Destiny 1 and has the Overflowing Light Perk.
This Perk is incredibly useful for a Titan that loves to use grenades, barricades, or melee. Because after using ANY of your 3 abilities, the other two both get a shorter cooldown and a damage buff. Essentially this chestpiece enables players to play the Titan class to its utmost efficiency. It’s honestly my favorite Exotic because it enables people to experience the best aspects of being a Titan.
11 Worst: Wish-Ender
This is another Exotic, and it’s another combat bow. But, with drop rates being what they are and this being a RAID exotic, the chances of you actually getting it are pretty slim.
But don’t fret too much, it’s honestly not worth it. Its main perk lets you see through walls, as well as letting the arrows pierce enemies.
The see-through aspect seems absurdly strong for PVP, but it’s entirely unnecessary in PVE. And, the piercing part, while pretty neat, isn’t all the useful either. Arrows have a very slim hitbox, and enemies rarely stand in a line.