Destiny 2’s Champions are not easy to deal with unless players come prepared, as they can steadily regenerate their health and spam powerful attacks that deal all the more damage at higher levels of content. As such, anti-Champion mods are required everywhere Champions spawn, including Dares of Eternity or seasonal activities like Shattered Realm and Override. Bungie revealed in a recent TWAB that Season 16 - which will launch alongside The Witch Queen expansion - will get popular anti-Champion options in the form of Overload SMGs and Auto Rifles, and Anti-Barrier Scout Rifles and Bows, revealing a potential new meta.
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Best Overload Weapons to Get Before The Witch Queen
Because the only confirmed options for Overload weapons in Season 16 are SMGs and auto rifles, the best advice is to choose which weapons are best suited for PvE activities. As for the Kinetic slot, the most reliable SMGs include guns like Friction Fire, Extraordinary Rendition, and Huckleberry, whereas the best auto rifles in this slot include False Promises, Scathelocke, Chroma Rush, and Sweet Business. Friction Fire and Extraordinary Rendition can come with a higher range stat than other Kinetic SMGs, and perks like Overflow, Subsistence, Zen Moment, Rampage, Frenzy, and Vorpal Weapon are fantastic to deal with rank-and-file enemies.
The same holds true for the Legendary auto rifles, which in the case of False Promises and Scathelocke can get a very high range (with the option of more zoom on the latter) that helps deal with Champions from great distances. Chroma Rush has a lower range than the others, but it does have more ammo in the magazine and the highest rate of fire among auto rifles, sitting at 720 rounds-per-minute. Exotic options like Huckleberry for SMGs and Sweet Business for auto rifles are particularly powerful because they have lots of ammo and can be used to stun Overload Champions, which are Destiny 2’s most difficult.
There are many valuable options in the Energy slot as well, like Exotic auto rifle Hard Light which has the ability to change its damage type on the fly, easily adapting to every enemy’s shield. Legendary auto rifles like Gnawing Hunger and Shadow Price are also particularly reliable at dealing with Champions, seeing as they have decent range stats and sport perk combinations like Zen Moment and Rampage for the former or Overflow and Disruption Break for the latter. Shadow Price is not hard to come by this Season because it’s found in Destiny 2 Nightfalls, with higher chances to drop based on the difficulty of the activity.
As for SMGs, there are two great Exotic weapons for the Energy slot in Tarrabah and Riskrunner, even though the former is a reward from the now-vaulted Scourge of the Past Raid and thus is only available for Spoils of Conquest in the Tower. Riskrunner is an Exotic that players can get with a story quest early in the game, and it’s amazing because it provides reduced Arc damage while overcharging when taking that damage, releasing bolts that are great for add clearing and melting Champions. Legendary options for SMGs include Destiny 2’s Trials of Osiris-exclusive Shayura’s Wrath, which usually rolls with a very high range; and the evergreen IKELOS_SMG_V1.0.2, which can be used to generate Warmind Cells but also has good perks and RPM.
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Best Anti-Barrier Weapons to Get Before The Witch Queen
Because the Anti-Barrier options include scout rifles and bows, it’s highly probable the best weapons to use will be Exotics: Dead Man’s Tale, Polaris Lance, and Symmetry for scout rifles, Ticuu’s Divination, Trinity Ghoul, and Le Monarque for bows. Dead Man’s Tale is an exceptional Kinetic scout rifle, and it can have the best rolls to deal with Champions if players can get their hands on an Armor-Piercing Rounds and Vorpal Weapon. Polaris Lance and Symmetry are generally good scout rifles that deal Solar and Arc damage, respectively, and both have Exotic perks that make them great at add clearing and defeating Champions.
As for bows, the three Energy ones in Destiny 2 all have something unique. Ticuu’s Divination is particularly useful for stunning Champions while firing from the hip, as arrows have tracking, but it also packs a punch when defeating enemies with AoE and single-target damage. Trinity Ghoul is one of the best add-clearing weapons in the game with Lightning Rod AoE damage, and while it functions as a regular bow for disrupting Champions, it also shoots three arrows at a time and it can stun enemies from behind cover if its Exotic perk is active. Le Monarque is the best of the bunch against Champions, as players can fire poison arrows when they perfect-draw, and the poison constantly ticks while the Barrier shield is up.
Kinetic Legendary options for scout rifles include the new Servant Leader, a full-auto gun that comes from Gambit, the Nightfall-exclusive Hung Jury SR4, and the Night Watch, which every player can get a curated roll of by playing through the New Light campaign. The best Energy options include Contingency Plan, Season of the Hunt’s Royal Chase, and Eternal Blazon; a world pool drop that can roll with Anti-Barrier perks. Great Kinetic bows include Whispering Slab and Biting Winds, the former being a Lightweight Frame bow with a low draw time, and the latter able to roll Explosive Head and Rapid Hit.
Energy bows to look for are the Monument to Lost Lights’ Point of the Stag, which has Vorpal Weapon and Archer’s Tempo, as well as Season of the Lost’s Wolftone Draw, which has potent rolls in Archer’s Tempo, Frenzy, Impulse Amplifier, and Harmony. Destiny 2’s Season 16 should be stacked with options for all players to choose from, and these are only some of the mods that will become available with the new artifact. It’s likely at least one Special ammo weapon will get anti-Champion mods, and Bungie already announced that the upcoming Glaive will get Unstoppable Champion mods as well, making for one of the best meta arsenals in a while.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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