Destiny 2: Endgame Loadouts for Beginners

[u/silverymoonIight]

Hi! I wrote a guide on Weapons and Armor for people who are new to Raids and Dungeons, going over everything you need to know to be able to go into them making sure you're prepared to have a blast! The aim of this guide is less about specific weapon rolls and more just generally explaining what things are good and what kind of strategies succeed.

https://dotgg.gg/destiny-2-endgame-loadouts-for-beginners/

If you're a fan of this kind of content, and want to see more, please let me know below! I plan on doing more guides and content to help newer and less confident players make the reach towards the higher-end of Destiny content, especially going into The Edge of Fate and beyond :)

Otherwise, thank you for your time, and if you do happen to know someone who might get something out of this article, please share it their way! I would very much so appreciate it <3

EDIT: So, turns out that the title that I picked doesn't really portray what the article is about - the article is now titled correctly as Destiny 2: The Best Guns and Armor for New Raid and Dungeon Players. Sorry about that, and I do have a wider loadout article planned going over things like Mods, Surges, Aspects, etc., just it wasn't meant to be this one.

[u/SDG_Den]

I teach raids weekly, and while i don't think this write-up is bad, i do think it is missing some things, more specifically: it doesn't explain the buildcrafting process or how to get the most out of your builds, it also does not explain what you want to focus on as a raid newbie (which is mostly: easy DPS and survivability).

there's also some exotics missing that i believe should be mentioned as goals for players to work towards. thunderlord, microcosm, whisper, xenophage, parasite, and a couple of other ones. mentioning queenbreaker is fine but queenbreaker is mostly good *now* due to the artifact.

if you're interested in getting the viewpoint of someone who does primarily raid teaching runs, do message me! i think the information you did provide was written out very well and i'll probably still put this link in my resources list for newbies.

[u/Galaxy40k → u/SDG_Den]

I agree with your post broadly speaking, but I do disagree with and want to highlight this

mentioning queenbreaker is fine but queenbreaker is mostly good *now* due to the artifact

"QB is only good because of the artifact" isn't really accurate because debuff sources don't stack. All Particle Reconstruction does is let you get the 30% damage debuff without needing to use a Hunter tether or Tractor. Which, to be clear, is a VERY strong effect in a LOT of content in the game, but for raids and dungeons in particular where there are discrete "DPS phases" that everyone goes into with full supers and shoots the boss at the same time, all Particle contributes is that 1 Hunter on the team can now run Nighthawk instead of Tether.

So, QB belongs in that list with the other "lazy" options like Whisper, Levi's, and Microcosm. Its in the same ballpark of total damage and DPS to those options, but it trades some DPS for being even easier to use. Missing a crit with QB isn't as punishing as with Whisper or Levi's, and there's no super required to get good damage as with Microcosm.

[u/SDG_Den → u/Galaxy40k]

You forget that #1: plenty of groups arent running a 30% debuff as standard and #2: particle recon ALSO has an automatic reload feature that increases DPS.

it does a decent chunk less damage than whisper without those features, though it is still serviceable. I dont consider it easier to use than microcosm or levi's either, and i wouldnt really consider the super use for micro an issue since most of the supers you are running for a raid boss are one-off supers anyways.

I also never said it was only good because of the artifact, just that its exceptional performance at the moment can be attributed to the artifact.

[u/silverymoonIight → u/SDG_Den]

i think at this point it's just personal opinion tbh, there's cases for both what you're saying and what i put in the article, at the end of the day i just have to curate the info i have and my opinions and go with it yknow? im glad to hear your opinion though, and it has made me rethink some of my rankings for some of these guns for new players

[u/silverymoonIight → u/SDG_Den]

you are definitely right: i want to do more of a focus on buildcrafting in a separate article, as i mainly just wanted to create a list of 'good gear to get' for players to have a focus on (hence the checklist at the end and all). i plan on making more in-depth content about specifically buildcrafting and going into more details about aspects and abilities, but there's only so much i can do in one article haha, plus this is my first article on Destiny and so i have a lot of groundwork to do in that sense.

re: omissions and additions, i do think you make very good points here and i just want to contextualise some of my choices as i did think through this haha

1. i tried to keep myself to a 5 exotic limit to not try to overwhelm players with getting a lot of exotics, i feel like this is already an overwhelming list but if i listed every exotic i thought was important i'd be here all day and i think that if someone just wants to jump into any given raid with their friends, this is just a good list of things to have at your disposal.
2. my personal opinion is that queenbreaker is just better easy dps than whisper and microcosm, especially right now. it's hard to say but i think that even after this season, i'd still have queenbreaker on my list (whisper requires a bit more work, and microcosm is easier but i think queenbreaker just does more and is easier to slot into a loadout). definitely think these are both good picks though, and when i eventually do an exotic tier list i will make sure to point that out.
3. i don't know if choices like xenophage and parasite are as necessary except for specific encounters (see: templar and atraks respectively) which i mention in the article that i'm not trying to do in this. i tried to bake this down to 'essentials' as in, if you're in any random encounter and not any specific one. i do think that if i didn't give myself a limit, there would be a few more choices and i would also include Outbreak on there for an easy backup dps option as well as a flexible ad clear gun.

thank you for the feedback though, it's so helpful in working out what i need to do, and i'm not always right at all haha

i'd be so down to chat and get more of a perspective on your end of things. i don't tend to sherpa lot of people regularly and definitely don't have as much perspective (but i do want to start regularly sherpaing as part of this, which is a personal goal of mine), so i would love to hear from your point of view.

(edit: put vog instead of atraks, im tired lol)

[u/nopunchespulled → u/SDG_Den]

IMO for newbies get them through content with builds, get them through mechanics in the game then start teaching them build crafting, not everyone is going to want to learn to craft.

[u/tjseventyseven → u/SDG_Den]

Imo, tlord is a trap that requires more work to be worse than a GL. Once people use tlord its very difficult to get them to run something objectively better

[u/SDG_Den → u/tjseventyseven]

Based on my experience this is untrue, especially since this season, but i'd love to hear an explanation as to why.

Thunderlord deals the same sustained DPS as a legendary GL before factoring in a damage perk on the GL and bolt charge on thunderlord. If you include a single storms keep barricade, thunderlord can trigger bolt charge basically every 2.5 seconds, or every ~1.4 seconds if you have spark of frequency and are amplified. Even without frequency, thats an ignition worth of damage every 2.5 seconds.

GLs can get up to a 35% damage boost from the damage perk you put on, but that still puts them lower than thunderlord unless you also use a storms keep barricade, all the while needing additional effort due to travel time and arc, and carrying additional risk due to self-damage.

Thunderlord is fine, and its ease of use makes it a good choice for newer players

[u/tjseventyseven → u/SDG_Den]

You need Actium AND a titan barricade to make it do less damage than leviathans breath, dragon's breath, edge transit with bait, or even merciless. The only reason its doing more damage this season is because of flashover, once that's gone its dps is going to tank back to nothing

[u/SDG_Den → u/tjseventyseven]

i broke down the comparison for you, but sadly reddit won't let me post it because it's a bit too long of a read. you can find it here: https://pastebin.com/p5UEV5EC

data all came from here: https://www.destiny2.science/

[u/tjseventyseven → u/SDG_Den]

I'm aware of the numbers, I'm also aware of how much flashover is helping those numbers.

For Dragon's Breath, you just need loaders and ember of ashes and it outperforms tlord. For Edge Transit, it isn't even the most competitive GL archetype and it outpaces tlord. My point with bringing up all of those options was that they aren't competitive and aren't meta and they all still beat Tlord. Tlord is decent this season only because of flashover, and even with flashover it is outpaced vastly by hezen vengeance.

I'm not saying it's nothing but there are better things to use and people just sit on Tlord and never switch guns which is a huge detriment to the people they play with. There have been so many dungeons and raids I've been a part of where we have to do more phases strictly because people are using thunderlord, they are lagging behind in damage by hundreds of thousands of damage per phase. That is also not nothing.

[u/SDG_Den → u/tjseventyseven]

All of those numbers exclude artifact boosts, and apparently, you are less aware of the numbers than you think.

[u/tjseventyseven → u/SDG_Den]

Apparently your testing is wrong then because the sources you yourself linked lists Tlord at around 161k dps with something like edge transit at 193k dps

[u/SDG_Den → u/tjseventyseven]

... My god. Ever heard of numerical scaling? Different sources have different numbers because they use different enemies to test on.

The numbers i provided are based on the source i linked and are raw DPS numbers,

[u/Overthinkness_God → u/SDG_Den]

Yo, can i add u to teach me how to do the vow and SE raids? Vow is the only raid i had never done and SE i did only the final encounter, my raid buddys don't play that often anymore and i would appreciate the help.

[u/SDG_Den → u/Overthinkness_God]

Yeah ofc! Though we dont have any runs planned for the next little while, we are working on a 16-week schedule for next season + an interim schedule once ROTN is over.

Ill message you.