Destiny 2: All Dawning Weapons, Rated

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Summary

• Destiny 2's Dawning event features limited-time weapons and fun activities with seasonal currency.
• Glaives like the Albedo Wing offer unique gameplay, but are overshadowed by other weapons in the meta.
• Weapons like Zephyr, Avalanche, Stay Frosty, and Glacioclasm provide various benefits, but may not be the best choice

Fate 2 is back with its holiday event, The Dawning. The Dawning continues the familiar formula of gathering ingredients and baking delicious treats for various characters Fate world. Players must first pick up Eva's Holiday Oven 2.4 and the opening quest from event vendor and space grandmother Eva Levante.

Once the initial quest is completed, by giving Zaval his favorite Gjallerdoodles and returning to Eve, players can collect seasonal currency, Dawning Spirit, and various ingredients to their liking until the event ends. With The Dawning, of course, Bungie is giving players the chance to get Dawning weapons for a limited time, as well as a new entry into the mix while the event lasts.

6 wing of Albedo

Underpowered Weapon On an underpowered weapon type

• One of the more affordable glaive options
• Glaives are not very powerful or popular

Glaives were an interesting addition Fate 2 since they were added Witch Queen extension. They are a combination melee weapon and projectile with a shield that recharges each time an enemy is defeated. Albedo Wing sits as the most affordable Arc glaive in Fate 2. Other options in Unexpected Resurgence and Nezarec's Whisper are locked behind Trials of Osiris and a rotating exotic mission. Forecast.

Some of the newer perk combos are tempting, like Closing Time, Strategist, and Desperate Measures, but glaives are not only handily outclassed by other Dawning Weapons, but they're not very popular in the meta at all. The exception would be niche use cases in the Crucible, but that's about it.

5 Breeze

The perks per weapon are staggering

• Solid overall packaging
• Underperformance in premium content

The Zephyr is the Dawning's oldest weapon Fate 2so it went through many iterations as each Dawning event goes through. The basic sword is an overall good deck in terms of its stats, but the new Rimestealer and Cold Steel perks really play well into the Stasis fantasy. Each charged heavy attack of Zephyr with Cold Steel provides a slow effect, slowing and eventually freezing enemies, while Rimestealer provides Frost Armor with each defeat of a frozen target. It can also stun overload champions with slow and unstoppable champions when they break and help freeze Barrier champions for other players.

Unfortunately, outside of Stasis, Zephyr is pretty weak compared to other sword options like Bequest and the exotic option, The Lament. Even with the amazing characteristics of champions, champions become very real threats in higher tier content like Nightfalls and Raids, where many of them can kill players with a single melee hit in Grandmaster Nightfalls. In PvP, swords are not considered priority heavy weapons.

4 Avalanche

Good rolls, but oversaturated

• Fun throwing weapons
• Oversaturated

With many Dawning weapons, they are more of a by-product of the more popular but harder to come by options. Fate 2. The Avalanche machine gun has been refreshed with a number of popular perks, such as Heal Clip to regenerate health when refilling the magazine after defeating an enemy, Collective Action for elemental buffs to player subclasses, and Incandescent to create solar blasts when defeating enemies. It's in good company with other Solar heavy machine options like Fixed Odds from the Duality dungeon and Speleolog from Episode: Echoes.

With these throws, the Avalanche fills a perfectly useful role in a player's arsenal. However, the adaptive frame is common with other more attractive options such as Hammerhead, Commereration and Song of Ir Yut. The latter two are exclusive to the raid, but the Hammerhead is accessible through the Onslaught activity. The rolls also do not favor Avalanche in any kind of PvP.

3 Mistral Lift

An affordable raid and dungeon DPS weapon

• Lots of great combos for the DPS role
• Linear fusion rifles are not currently in the meta

The Mistral Lift is the latest weapon to be introduced in The Dawning, it is a heavy Aggressive Frame linear fusion rifle with an excellent perk pool. Combos like Envious Arsenal + Bait and Switch, Reconstruction + Vorpal Weapon, and Envious Assassin + Precision Instrument all complement the three shot linear fusion rifle really well.

On the other hand, there are a lot more great boss-damaging weapons than there used to be, so Mistral Lift isn't exactly a standout option at this point. High DPS load also lives and dies by certain artifact perks and rotating damage increase modifiers for each activity, meaning sweet DPS drops if players aren't playing activity modifiers. Rocket launchers and grenade launchers deal more damage but limited reserves, while linear fusion rifles can deal damage for longer. Linear games are also more specialized in PvP environments.

2 Stay Frosty

A well-balanced pulse rifle for activities​

• Excellent in both PvE and PvP
• Not very unique

Aside from the seemingly retired Cold Front SMG, the Stay Frosty is the only primary kinetic weapon from The Dawning. It has some perks that work very well in PvP as a main damage dealer, with combos like Encore + Headseeker, Moving Target + Kill Clip, and Lone Wolf + Desperado giving players some downright essential PvP perk combos. For PvE, he can also play with Rimestealer + Headstone for some Stasis fun.

The Stay Frosty is a very fun weapon that works hard on a lot of PvP maps and modes, but it's hard to move the needle compared to other ubiquitous PvP picks like the Graviton Lance, No Time To Explain, and even the BxR-55 Battler. There are better options out there for players, but the Stay Frosty is still a very competitive weapon in the Legendary Pulse Rifle inventory.

1 Glacioclasmus

Special ammunition

• A superior weapon in many activities
• No longer best in class in PvE

Glacioclasmus is an overall great weapon to use in any activity. Almost any Glacioclasm roll is a great roll, regardless of the perk combination. Glacioclasm has a reputation as a threat in PvP with perks like Under Pressure + High Impact Reserves and Slideshot + Desperate Measures. It even has some DPS backup boss potential like Envious Assassin + Vorpal Weapon and Overflow + Reservoir Burst.

While Glacioclasm has been in the spotlight for a while now, more utilitarian Fusion Rifles like Riptide from the Crucible or Deliverance from the Vow of The Disciple raid have more value in PvE due to their Stasis damage type and ability to stun champion enemies. Despite this, Glacioclasm is still a popular choice for its high damage in both PvE and PvP.