Summary
While it wasn’t a big part of the game when it first came out in 2017, buildcrafting has become a huge part ofDestiny 2’s identity and even changed its gameplay loop and the kind of rewards it offers. For example,Destiny 2’s Heresy buffs to Arcadded more depth to what felt like 2.5D subclasses due to the lack of either a big damage-related effect or a new defensive layer. The current version of Arc is its best, with players having damage reduction from Amplified and the potential for massive damage spikes with Bolt Charge. On top of that, Heresy added a new damage perk that may seem more powerful than it truly is.
New weapon perks inDestiny 2are often one of the means to generate hype for seasonal weapons or reprised weapons, as they can only be found on a limited selection of guns when they come out. Such is the case for some perks added with Heresy - namely, the new Elemental Honing damage perk. Much like the tried and popular Bait and Switch, Elemental Honing is a damage rotation perk, but it may be biting off more than it can truly chew inDestiny 2’s current meta.
Destiny 2’s Elemental Honing is Not Worth The Trade-off
What Bait and Switch does is give players a 30% damage boost to the weapon with this perk as long as all other guns in the loadout have been fired at an enemy at least once. This may seem overly complex at a glance, but it has found its established place inDestiny 2’s endgame activitiesdue to how reliable it is and how big of a difference it can make in terms of total damage and DPS. Heresy’s new Elemental Honing works on a similar idea, as players are required to rotate between weapons to increase their damage multiplier.
Unlike Bait and Switch, Elemental Honing activates in stacks, and players can get one stack each time they hit enemies with a unique element. For example, Elemental Honing is found onDestiny 2’s new meta weapon Adamantite, which is a support frame Strand auto rifle that can both heal allies and sever and unravel enemies. If players shoot Adamantite with Elemental Honing, they will get one stack of this damage buff that covers Strand as an element. Elemental Honing can stack up to five times total for a 35% damage buff that is stronger on Kinetic weapons.
Why Bait and Switch is Superior to Elemental Honing
So, while it’s relatively easy to deal damage withdifferent elements inDestiny 2, especially with Prismatic subclasses debuting in The Final Shape and having access to all five elements, Elemental Honing requires more work to activate compared to Bait and Switch for a relatively small improvement. At full stacks, the difference between Elemental Honing and Bait and Switch is only 5%, so the former is still potentially dealing more total damage, but the price may be lower DPS or a less optimized build. This is because dealing damage with all five elements requires some level of buildcrafting, as players should optimize the damage found on their weapons and abilities in order to have five different elements across the board.
This also means possibly straining rotations by forcing the use of specific abilities sooner than it may be preferred to cast them, and that is just to get five stacks of Elemental Honing. What follows is that, even with a total duration of 20 seconds that is refreshed every time players use a new unique element for the first time since the buff is granted, Bait and Switch is still the better option. Though it only lasts for 10 seconds, the difference in damage is just 5% per shot, but since it’s an easy and reliable perk to trigger, it’s much more desirable. There are scenarios likeDestiny 2’s Dungeonsand Raids where Elemental Honing may make a difference in competitive teams, but overall, Bait and Switch remains the best perk for damage rotations - especially on Heavy-ammo weapons that are likely to have fewer shots available.
