This fusion rifle is a grenade making machine.
The Final Shape continues to produce some of Destiny’s most desirable guns straight out of the gate in the form of extremely powerful craftable seasonal and destination weapons. The Pale Heart weapons in particular have been incredibly impressive compared to their counterparts of yesteryear. Today we’re talking about a particularly underrated weapon: the fusion rifle Axial Lacuna.
Way back when I first did Vow of the Discipline, one of the first guns I crafted was Deliverance, a hard hitting precision fusion rifle. It carried me through a lot of content (although it spent a few months on the shelf during the period where chill clip was nerfed) and I even brought it out recently in Salvation’s Edge to deal with some pesky yellow bars in the second encounter. Now Bungie has created an energy slot equivalent.
Axial Lacuna PvE god roll
Barrel: Arrowhead Break, Fluted Barrel, Hammer Forged Rifling Magazine: Projection Fuse, Liquid Coils, Accelerated Coils 3rd Column: Reconstruction, Demolitionist 4th Column: Controlled Burst, Incandescent, Surrounded Masterwork: Charge Time
Let’s start with a word on charge time on fusion rifles: the magazine perk Accelerated Coils reduces charge time but also reduces damage, while Liquid Coils increases both charge time and damage. So which one should you pick? It really comes down to feel here, if you find yourself running out of ammo a lot and want to milk the maximum amount of damage from each brick, go liquid, if you find long charge times extremely annoying, go accelerated, if you aren’t sure then Projection Fuse is a safe pick. Feel free to switch these around and see which one feels best for you, it really is a personal preference. Note however that charge time masterworks don’t reduce damage any more, and so are recommended for everyone.
Now for the column three and four perks you’re looking at two distinct roles here. The first is the standard tried and tested fusion roll: use Controlled Burst or Surrounded to deal massive amounts of damage, and Reconstruction to ensure you always have plenty of shots and never need to reload. I used this exact roll on Techeun Force for most of last season and it rips.
The second roll is the “energy Deliverance” I alluded to earlier. The perk Demolitionist gives you grenade energy for every kill, but how much it gives depends on the type of weapon you’re using. As a fusion rifle Axial Lacuna is at the top end of the spectrum, which is why so many Stasis Warlocks loved Deliverance, as they could use it to generate tons of Bleak Watcher turrets. Axial Lacuna actually takes this even further by adding Incandescent. Already a very strong perk, especially on a Solar subclass, Incandescent also synergises directly with Demolitionist, with enemies killed by the scorch it generates also granting grenade energy. The result is a grenade recharge machine.
Axial Lacuna PvP god roll
Barrel: Polygonal Rifling, Smallbore, Hammer Forged Rifling Magazine: Projection Fuse, Particle Repeater, Accelerated Coils3rd Column: Eye of the Storm, Firmly Planted 4th Column: Kickstart, Frenzy, Vorpal Masterwork: Range, Stability, Charge Time
In addition to their PvE prowess precision fusion rifles have also been strong in PvP for some time. Notoriously Xur once sold a godrolled Main Ingredient that became a staple in the crucible for months, so much so that Bungie had to tone them down a bit. Axial Lacuna doesn’t have the top tier perk combinations that Main Ingredient had, but it has higher base stats and, crucially, is craftable.
PvP fusion rifles are all about hitting enough fusion bolts to guarantee a one hit kill at as long a range as possible. Range is important to this stat obviously, but so is stability and accuracy, and a damage boost can sometimes let you still secure the kill even if you miss a bolt. For that reason I’d lean towards Smallbore and Particle Repeater to keep both range and stability high, but you could just as easily combine Polygonal Rifling and Projection Fuse for a similar effect. If you want the fastest charge time possible you could go for Accelerated Coils, but be aware that damage loss could be the difference between a one hit kill and an enemy who is still alive and annoyed.
Firmly Planted has long been a strong perk on fusion rifles, despite successive nerfs, due to granting both accuracy and stability when crouched. This pairs well with Kickstart, which gives bonus damage and charge rate while sliding. This is probably the best perk combination you can get if you are good at sliding into combat. As someone who is very bad at sliding in the Crucible I’d probably lean more towards Eye of the Storm, which gives you bonus accuracy as you take damage, and a bonus damage perk like Frenzy or Vorpal. Sadly Axial Lacuna lacks an accuracy perk in the fourth column, which is what really sets it back versus other similar fusions.
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