Hey Guardians, we are back at it again rolling through Xûr’s stash to see what goodies we can acquire this weekend. First off, you will be able to find Xûr in the west tower across the hall from the speaker. Once there you will discover the following items up for grabs.
This week’s Titan exotic is a helmet that looks like it belonged on the head of an astronaut during an earlier deep space mission (aka The Taikonaut). What makes this shiny shielded helmet so special is its exotic ability. For all those guardians who got a great stat roll on a rocket launcher but ended up without tracking”¦..Worry NO MORE!!! Just slip this helmet on, and your rocket launcher can now track your enemies with the help of the “Air Traffic Control” perk. This perk comes with several bonuses as well. Not only do all your rocket launchers track, but your radar will remain visible while zooming with heavy weapons. In addition to that, (yeah I know crazy how much this helmet allows) heavy ammo will drop more often (PvE only). Honestly, this helmet comes with some extra perks that will help both playstyles.
Overall Opinion: This helmet can really help you in some clutch moments if required to use Heavy ammo. Now breaking it down to PvE vs PvP, I believe this helmet is more fluidly designed for the PvE gameplay around the Heavy Ammo requirement. That being said, freeing up an exotic slot and not having to tote around The Truth can help change up your loadout to one you prefer. It all depends on the player to be honest. This helmet works extremely well in PvE allowing you to keep battlefield awareness while lining up your next rocket shot on a boss/enemy while creating more heavy ammo to throw at enemies. Basically, it all comes down to if you have the 13 strange coins it is going to cost to unlock this helmet. Do you want your favorite rocket launcher to have tracking?? If so, buy it no matter what sub-class type you prefer.
Hunters be prepared for these gauntlets Xûr has brought to the tower. These “Sealed Ahamkara Grasps” gauntlets are a total knock out. They come loaded with its exotic perk called “Nightmare Fuel”. This perk grants the hunter an additional melee charge and has a chance to auto reload your primary weapon when causing melee damage. Ever have those awkward moments when you have an empty primary and you are trying to win a punch fight? Well, if you are lucky, these gloves can reload your weapon so you can go back to shooting your target while backing up to make sure you don’t die from a second melee. This week’s stat roll on them comes with only strength to help reduce those melee cooldown timers. Another helpful node on this armor is Switchblade, which decreases melee cooldowns even further.
Overall Opinion: These gloves are balanced for both PvP and PvE work. If you are a hunter who loves to get into punch fights with your enemies, these gauntlets are for you. Go melee crazy. I have seen these gauntlets be used in both game modes effectively, but it all depends on your play style. If you are a melee heavy Hunter, then these are a must buy. Getting caught without a reloaded primary weapon always hurts, so these gauntlets can get you out of tough situations if used properly.
Last but not least of the Guardian classes is the Warlock item of the week. It is yet another year one remake the “Apotheosis Veil”. The year one version allowed the Warlock to regenerate health upon activating their super. The difference between that and the year two version is now it regens the grenade and melee as well. The helmet’s roll has more of a PvE aspect since it will only work while killing minions of the Darkness.
Overall Opinion: I would pass on this helmet as well this week. This helmet has a really good exotic ability, but the downfall for many that use this helmet is when to activate it. When activated at the right time, it could turn the tides of battle. When used poorly, it becomes a massive waste of an exotic slot. Additionally there are too many other exotics out there that can benefit your team or have superior exotic abilities compared to this one.
Instead of a weapon being sold this week Xûr has decided to grace us by returning with a gauntlet engram for purchase. It’s going to cost you 19 strange coins for one, and will either be at 290 or 310 defense depending upon your light level at type of decryption. They will always decrypt to 310 if you are light level 310 and above. If you are above 301 they will decrypt to 290 but have a small chance to decrypt to 310. I have been buying and earning engrams for months awaiting the release of new exotics. I am not sure if these engrams will have a chance to decrypt into the new ones since Bungie has yet to confirm that, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
Iron Banner Gear
As it is an Iron Banner week as well, Lord Saladin has opened up the gate with his presence. Although Iron Banner Control has been going on since Tuesday, there are still some that have yet to hit Rank 5 reputation during this week’s challenge. For help with that, I will direct you to a post in Reddit by GenericDreadHead that will walk you through what you need to do to complete the reputation grind before the event leaves.
As far as gear goes during this event, Lord Saladin will be selling two weapons, a chest armor, and gauntlets. Each class will be able to purchase the chest (at rank 3) and gauntlets (at rank 4) for 40 legendary marks a piece. In addition, PlayStation Guardians will be able to purchase the exclusive gauntlet gear at rank 4 (note: the gear has the same stat roll as the original). The armor being sold all have intellect and discipline stats across all three classes.
For the weapons being sold, Saladin has decided to bring the “Finnala’s Peril” Hand Cannon and “Bretomart’s Stand” Machine Gun. My honest opinion on the Hand Cannon is that the stat node rolls are terrible unless you really like to be able to view your radar, then they are great. The Machine Gun, on the other hand, has a great roll of perks. These include Spray and Play, Hand-Laid Stock, and Crowd Control.
I’ll be seeing you Guardians in the Iron Banner over the weekend. I’ll be back next week with a roll up of the Sandbox/Crucible changes and weekend information for you.
-ShadowAssault86
Comments