KEY POINTS

  • 180RPM hand cannons now require fewer crits to kill
  • The Survivor's Epitaph drops very frequently from Crucible matches
  • Auto rifles and scout rifles were also buffed in the last patch

The PvP buffs for several weapon archetypes in “Destiny 2” are now live along with Solstice 2022, and this could possibly lead to a resurgence of underperforming hand cannons, scout rifles and auto rifles.

The Survivor’s Epitaph, in particular, has the potential to be a top-tier pick in the Crucible thanks to the 180RPM hand cannon buff. Previously, developer Bungie announced that it was going to bump the damage of this weapon archetype up to allow for quicker and more forgiving kills.

Precision Frame hand cannons should now be able to take down most enemy Guardians with two headshots and two body shots, according to the patch notes. Critical hit damage has been increased from 57 to 60, while body hits now deal 40 damage, up from 37.

The optimal TTK of the Survivor’s Epitaph remains the same, but it is now much more forgiving than it was before since players no longer need to hit as many crits.

The Survivor's Epitaph hand cannon in Destiny 2
The Survivor's Epitaph hand cannon in Destiny 2 Destiny 2

However, this weapon becomes extremely lethal when a damage buff is active.

A small 10% boost to the Epitaph’s crit damage can result in a three-shot kill on most Guardians, resulting in a 0.67s TTK value. This is reminiscent of the “Forsaken” era where Luna’s Howl and Not Forgotten dominated the Crucible.

Survivor’s Epitaph has five different damage perks in its fourth column, with Kill Clip and Multikill Clip being the most reliable ones. Players can also proc the Radiant buff from the Solar subclass to get that small 10% damage bump.

Granted, such lethality applies to all 180RPM hand cannons, but Survivor’s Epitaph is extremely easy to get compared to other choices. It can drop after completing any Crucible match, and it’s got S-tier PvP perks like Rapid Hit, Kill Clip, Snapshot Sights and Eye of the Storm.

The only real downside to this gun now is that it can only get a max range of 30 meters and its perk pools are large, which will make getting the perfect roll difficult.

The Epitaph falls a little bit short in the range department, but it more than makes up for its downsides with its newfound reliability and effectiveness in short distances.

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