Season of Arrivals, Destiny 2’s 11th season, features eight weapons in the Iron Banner loot pool. Two of these weapons are reprised weapons from the game’s first year, returning to us for the first time with random rolls. The other six are reissued weapons that will have a max power cap of 1360, meaning they’ll be good for the next year.
The first Iron Banner of this season begins this Tuesday, June 30th. Over the next few days, and into the event, I’ll be posting a guide for the “god roll,” or at least what I personally consider the god roll, for each weapon.
You can check out the previous god roll guide for The Fool’s Remedy here.
Now, here’s my God Roll Guide for this season’s other reprised year one weapon, The Forward Path.
This is a Kinetic Auto Rifle, and it’s in the dominating 600rpm Adaptive Frame archetype.
Two of the best legendary AR’s in the game are Gnawing Hunger and Galliard-42. Both of those are energy weapons, and Galliard-42 is being sunsetted after this season. While they’re both great in PvP, they are also excellent in PvE.
The Forward Path will be fantastic in PvP too, but it’ll be even better in PvE due to kinetic weapons dealing more damage to non-shielded enemies.
In PvP, you’re looking at a 0.70 optimal time-to-kill with 7 crits 1 body. It’s body shot time-to-kill is decent at 1.20, requiring 13 body shots. These adaptive frame AR’s do a base of 25 crit damage and 16 body damage.
- Impact = 21
- Range = 50
- Stability = 48
- Handling = 72
- Reload Speed = 64
- Rounds Per Minute = 600
- Magazine = 43
- Aim Assistance = 71
- Inventory Size = 60
- Zoom = 16
- Recoil = 60
- Bounce Intensity = 40, Tends Right
If you’re comparing this bad boy to the ever popular Gnawing Hunger, they are pretty darn similar. In terms of base stats, Gnawing Hunger is better in Range by 3, Stability by 1, and that’s it. Forward Path has better base handling, aim assistance, and a much better recoil that we’ll talk about later.
The Forward Path can drop with the new Iron Banner exclusive perks Iron Grip and Iron Gaze in the final perk row. Grip gives a +20 to Stability and a -40 to reload speed, while Gaze gives a -40 to range and a +20 to aim assistance.
So what’s the god roll we should be chasing on console, for PvE and PvP? Luckily, they’re the same so you don’t need to hunt two of them to have one for PvP and one for PvE.
Personal god roll choice listed first, acceptable alternative listed second.
- Red Dot Micro (+9 Range, +2 Zoom, +7 Handling) / Cleanshot IS (+5 Range, +1 Zoom, +10 Handling)
- Steady Rounds (+15 Stability, -5 Range) / Tactical Mag (+5 Stability, +10 Magazine, +10 Reload Speed)
- Feeding Frenzy / Dynamic Sway Reduction (or Pulse Monitor)
- Multikill Clip (or Swashbuckler) / Eye of the Storm
- Masterwork: Stability or Range
- Mod: Counterbalance
The god roll I’ll be grinding for is Red Dot Micro, Steady Rounds, Feeding Frenzy, Multikill Clip with a Stability Masterwork.
I have a Gnawing Hunger with Steady Rounds, Zen Moment and Kill Clip. It shreds, and it’s super stable. Unfortunately, Forward Path can’t roll Zen Moment, otherwise that would be my recommendation.
Feeding Frenzy pairs very well with Multikill Clip or Swashbuckler, I don’t really have a strong preference between the two and will be happy with either of them. In PvE it already will shred enemies fast enough to acquire a x3 stack of Multikill Clip or a x5 stack of Swashbuckler with a high stack of Feeding Frenzy to get the fast reload going.
Now Dynamic Sway Reduction got a buff, and so I wouldn’t dismantle one that had it.
Outside of the recommended god roll I’m chasing, I also wouldn’t mind having one with Pulse Monitor and Eye of the Storm. Those two perks aren’t going to do much for you in the beginning of a duel, but they could help you win a duel after just coming out of one to keep your streak going. They pair very well, with Pulse Monitor reloading your weapon and giving a boost to handling when your health is low and Eye of the Storm giving you better target acquisition and another boost to handling while your health is low. Could be fun to play around with.
If you have Steady Rounds, a Range Masterwork would be nice to have, but on console I favor Stability almost always and so that’s why it’s listed first.
The good thing about The Forward Path is the recoil of 60 (over Gnawing Hunger’s base of 54). 60 isn’t great by itself, but slap a Counterbalance mod on it and it goes to 75. The thing about recoil is the higher the better, unless it ends in 5 and then it doesn’t matter much. If the recoil ends in a 5, then it’ll be almost entirely vertical. The base recoil of 60 would bounce right, a recoil of 70 will bounce left… 65, 75, etc. will be vertical.
Until the Adaptive Frame AR’s get reigned in a little bit, which they will, this thing is gonna be a monster in PvP and PvE. As of this season, it is the only viable Adaptive Frame AR going into next season and beyond. The only Adaptive Frame kinetic with random rolls thus far has been Ether Doctor, which isn’t that good and will be sunsetted. So The Forward Path is kinda special at the moment.
We don’t know what the loot pool will be like for Iron Banner next season. Hopefully there’ll be entirely new weapons to chase, and if that’s the case, this could be your only season to acquire The Forward Path.
If that’s the case, you’re gonna want it just because we don’t know if Bungie will bother to release a new Adaptive Frame kinetic next season or beyond. They had several in year one with static rolls, but only one since year two with random rolls. So they’re rare and haven’t been a priority in the kinetic slot so get it while you can.
Skill Based Match Making is no longer a thing in Iron Banner, so jump in and get to grinding!
Vortainment 