Destiny 2’s Season of the Witch introduced major adjustments to how damage falloff interacted with zoom and, as a result, the Crucible saw something it hadn’t had in a long time—what looked to be an auto rifle meta.
The Ammit AR2’s dominance seemed proof enough of that, but the return of an old hand cannon has disrupted that dominance.
A week after its triumphant return was overshadowed by a major crafting bug, Igneous Hammer’s Adept version has finally perched itself at the top of both Quickplay and Trials of Osiris for overall kills. Despite Ammit AR2 trailing close behind in terms of usage, the difference in the efficacy of both weapons is more significant based on statistics from Trials Report and Destiny Tracker.
As of the conclusion of the Trials of Osiris weekend that ran from Sept. 22 to Sept. 26, Igneous Hammer topped the kills charts with 1.7 million kills, which accounted for about seven percent of the overall final blows. Ammit AR2, the auto rifle that topped both weeks of Trials this season so far, fell to third at the same time with only 1.1 million kills over the course of the event. It isn’t a massive gulf by any means, but with how easily accessible a god-rolled Ammit AR2 is to all players in comparison to the newly reissued Adept Igneous Hammer, even a small gulf is more significant.
The statistics are inherently influenced by the fact that Igneous Hammer is a new toy specifically curated to please hardcore PvP fans—Eye of the Storm, Opening Shot and Precision Instrument are all massively impactful perks to put in its fourth column. On top of this, its dominance of the meta back in its original form during Season of the Chosen will also have played a role in the buzz around its return, despite how long it’s been since 120 RPM hand cannons have had an impact in the Crucible.
Yet its popularity extends beyond just Trials of Osiris. Even in Quickplay, Igneous Hammer has dethroned Ammit AR2 in both its usage rate (2.98 percent compared to 2.93 percent) and, more significantly, in percentage of overall kills (4.78 percent compared to 3.95 percent). It isn’t yet indicative of a hand cannon meta, but it does represent a trend upward worth keeping an eye on as players continue to figure out what the strongest weapons are in the reworked zoom sandbox.
The real test of Igneous Hammer’s staying power will come in the following weeks as the excitement around its release dies down. However, for a weekend of Trials that was severely waylaid by a constant stream of server issues caused by DDoS attacks, the speed at which the gun rose to the top is worth taking note of.
