Episode Heresy is just around the corner and some olde, lesser loved exotic weapons are getting some much needed buffs. Today I’m going to go through these exotic weapons, and will let you know which ones to grab out of the vault when Episode Heresy rolls around in Destiny 2.

Without further delay let’s dive into the Exotic weapons to check out in Episode Heresy.

Lorentz Driver

Lorentz Driver was once a terror in the Crucible and has since caught a number of changes to its efficacy. Since then, it has struggled to compete in most activity types. We’ve made a few changes that will reward you for playing its bounty game successfully and keep it going into further encounters.

Picking up a bounty tag now grants one ammo to the mag.
Triggering Lagrangian Sight by picking up a bounty tag adds six ammo to the mag, the first time you trigger it.
Returns to adding one ammo per tag on extensions while the buff remains active.

Delicate Tomb

We’ve made a few adjustments to Delicate Tomb to help get it into its Tempest Cascade loop a bit more predictably and give it significantly more punch while buffed.

Increased the chance to make an Ionic Trace from minor combatants from 4% to 10%.
Increased the PvE damage bonus on the Tempest Cascade shot from 30% to 100%.
Removed the timer from Tempest Cascade. Lasts until fired.

D.A.R.C.I.

D.A.R.C.I. has long struggled to compete with its Exotic brethren, so we are taking a stab at building a niche for it in a fireteam the way Gjallarhorn and Ergo Sum have found for their respective weapon types. This new catalyst should give you an edge up in encounters where Snipers may not previously have been viable.

Added a new catalyst perk – Networked Targeting
Hits with Personal Assistant active grant you and nearby allies improved overall weapon performance and precision damage with non-Exotic Sniper Rifles.
Improves recoil, flinch, target acquisition, handling and precision damage.
Stacks up to 5x.
D.A.R.C.I also gets this buff itself.
D.A.R.C.I user also gets +15% damage after granting five stacks to a teammate.

Edge of Action, Edge of Concurrence, Edge of Intent

The class Exotic Glaives have felt a bit clunky since their addition to the game. We’ve made some changes here along with the global changes to Glaives that we help will smooth over the gameplay loops on each of these, as well as add additional neutral game value outside of the special shots.

All Class Exotic Glaives

Special shot is no longer tied to Glaive energy.
Now triggered on six weapon hits to allow the special reload.
Increments off both shots and melee hits.

Edge of Concurrence
Effects of Jolting Feedback trait added to intrinsic perk.

Edge of Action
Effects of Destabilizing Rounds trait added to intrinsic perk.

Edge of Intent
Effects of Incandescent trait added to intrinsic perk.
Added Cure pulse to special shot impact.
Healing Turret no longer targets allies at full health.
Allies need some damage done to their shields to be eligible targets.

Centrifuse

Centrifuse’s perk that reloads the magazine while sprinting encourages pivoting and repositioning, but as it stands the magazine is just a tad restrictive and sometimes feels burdensome in PvE.

We’ve increased the magazine size to increase the potency of this perk and let you keep the weapon’s accumulated charge for longer before needing to reload.

Increased mag size to 45.

Dead Messenger, Hard Light, & Borealis

We’re revisiting the Exotic perk “The Fundamentals” to modernize it a bit. Elemental keywords such as Restoration and Volatile have become a part of Destiny 2’s modern fundamentals. The stat bonus based on current element has been removed in favor of a damage bonus when you apply or receive an elemental keyword matching the current element. We’re also giving a small stat bump to Borealis since some high-skill PvP players have taken a liking to its current stat offerings.

The Fundamentals:
New effect: Grants a 30% damage buff (10% in PvP) to this weapon for 10 seconds when you apply or receive an elemental keyword that matches the currently selected damage type of this weapon.
Removed Effect: No longer grants different stats based on current element.
Borealis only: Increased Stability by 20 and Aim Assist by 10 to permanently grant it the Void element bonus that it will no longer have access to, since Borealis is a sleeper pick in PvP.
This bonus was selected over Arc, since there are more ways to gain Handling.

Telesto

Overall, Telesto is a solid weapon, but it lacks a solid high point in its power fantasy and does not interface with buildcrafting much. Additionally, the weapon has a unique dual identity as a weapon associated with the Awoken Harbingers in-universe and associated with a storied history of Telesto-specific bugs in our community. With that in mind, we gave it a buff that embraces both aspects and ties them together in a single, deeply self-referential package. How do you buff Telesto? Make it more Telesto.

Telesto
Harbinger’s Pulse:
Now only refills Telesto’s ammo from reserves (instead of Telesto and your Kinetic slot weapon).
Now triggers with any Void final blow.
Final blow requirement increased from two to three, however Telesto final blows count double (in other words, will trigger from two Telesto final blows, one Telesto final blow + one other Void final blow, or three other Void final blows).
Multikill timer increased from 2 seconds to 4.5 seconds.
Catalyst
New perk: Harbinger Seethe
After three activations of Harbinger’s Pulse, special reload the weapon to cause a rain of Telesto projectiles on your next direct hit.

Vexcalibur

With the buffs last season to Void Overshield’s effectiveness, it seemed like the weapon could use a few tweaks to take maximum advantage and emphasize the paladin-protector fantasy with its area overshield.

We’ve made it easier to generate guard energy in PvE when wading through enemies and quicker to apply overshield to your allies. As weapon made to hunt and kill the Vex, we figured this was also a good opportunity to reinforce this theme as well.

Triggering ‘Perpetual Loophole’ (by scoring a melee kill while your overshield is active) now also fills your Glaive energy to full.
Slightly increased Void Overshield trickle-on rate to nearby allies and yourself when guarding.
Increased the potency of Vexcalibur’s (secret!) innate advantages against the Vex.
Vexcalibur’s secret damage bonus when striking with its projectiles against a certain enemy faction has been increased from 10% to 25% to match Wish-Ender and Malfeasance.
Vexcalibur now briefly disorients non-boss Vex with its melee attack.

Wardcliff Coil

Wardcliff Coil is a classic weapon that is easy to use but lacks a niche in a lot of content. We want to double-down on the thematic chaos with a tie-in with the new Arc keyword Bolt Charge, which Wardcliff Coil will grant stacks of to all nearby allies when fired. This change should appeal to players who want to bring more firepower to their team without needing a game plan more complex than “stand near allies, look at enemies, pull trigger.”

New intrinsic effect: Grants one stack of Bolt Charge to all nearby allies for every two rockets fired (four stacks per trigger pull).
The Queenbreaker

One of the most requested features for this weapon was to be able to special-reload to swap between the scopes while in game. We’ve added that functionality along with some other changes to make each scope’s firing mode feel unique.

Players can special reload at any time to swap between scopes.
Marksman Sights retains the previous behavior of firing a single shot that chains to nearby targets and blinds them.
The range of the chain has increased from 8 meters to 10 meters to make chaining easier.
Combat Sights now alters the weapon to fire a three-round burst at a charge time of 533. Sustained damage on a target decreases the charge time of the weapon down to 300 charge time (with no loss to damage), useful for quickly dealing damage to bosses or other high health targets
The scope that you select in the inspection screen will determine which scope is active by default when spawning into an activity.

The Colony

The previous changes to the Colony did some interesting things but it still ends up losing out to other grenade launchers due to its base gameplay and proximity detonation behavior. We’ve made a change to push this closer to other GLs in damage.

Increased detonation damage by 40%. This puts its damage per shot a little above Legendary Drum Grenade Launchers
Increased number of bots spawned by one for all enemy tiers except players:
Player: 1
Minor: 1->2
Elite/Major: 2->3
Champion/Miniboss/Boss: 5->6
Quicksilver Storm

The previous changes to this weapon were a little too much, so we have rolled those back some.

Reduced shots required to trigger a rocket by 17%.

The Legend of Acrius

Acrius has long been a viable but particularly niche pick. With the Shotgun changes doing well in the last release we wanted to give this a bit of love in that same theme.

Reduced spread angle by 33%.
Increased maximum projectile range from 12 to 18 meters.

The Fourth Horseman

Fourth Horseman has also been a particularly niche weapon. We’ve made some changes to help it excel at its mag dump weapon fantasy.

Reduced the rate of fire slightly to give more control over wasting shots.
Loads ammo from reserves to the magazine per kill.

Lord of Wolves

Lord of Wolves has had a storied history of terrorizing multiple parts of the game and has caught a number of nerfs because of it over the years. With the release and success of Choir of One, we have taken a similar approach to redesigning this iconic weapon.

Increased range, reduced base damage.
Removed accuracy penalties from standard fire mode.
Release the Wolves now triggers on hip fire instead of special reload.
Fires full auto.
Greatly increased damage and rate of fire.
Reduced accuracy and range.
Catalyst
Reload Speed and Stability boosts are now built in.
When Release the Wolves is active, dealing damage to targets scorches them.
When ADS, defeating targets spreads scorch to nearby combatants.

Cloudstrike

Since Bolt Charge is about creating a devastating lightning bolt, it seemed appropriate to interweave that with Cloudstrike’s gameplay loop.

For Bolt Charge, abilities are the only way discharge max stacks, unless you’re behind a Striker’s Storm’s Keep Barricade. These changes allow Cloudstrike to quickly build stacks, which can help bring back your melee abilities faster thanks to Bolt Charge, or cash in quickly with an extra Bolt Charge lightning attack when paired with Storm’s Keep.

Added behavior to Stormbringer perk:
Rapid precision hits create a lightning storm at the point of impact and grants a stack of Bolt Charge.
Added behavior to Mortal Polarity perk:
Precision final blows generate a lightning bolt at the target’s location and grants a moderate amount of Bolt Charge.
Thunderlord

Since Cloudstrike was updated with Bolt Charge, it was only natural to turn our sights on the original lightning-creation menace. For Thunderlord, our goal was also to tie into what Thunderlord is already doing and reinforce its gameplay mechanic, which is generating lightning through sustained fire.

Similar to Cloudstrike, this means Thunderlord will be great at building stacks and melee ability energy but will also get an extra kick with a Bolt Charge lightning attack when paired with Storm’s Keep.

Added behavior to Reign Havoc perk:
Final blows with this weapon generate lighting strikes from above. Lightning strikes grant a stack of Bolt Charge. Strong against Overload Champions.

Let me know what you think in the comments.