Like any good shared world experience, Destiny 2 has brought back a seasonal event to give players some festive bounties, cosmetic items, and weapons to perk up their holidays. Titled The Dawning, the event is scheduled to conclude on January 5, 2021. While most of the new expansion, Beyond Light, has been ominous with the focus on Darkness and the new Stasis subclass, The Dawning offers a reprieve from the constant snuffing of the Light.
Along with the cosmetics (including ships, shaders, and sparrows), The Dawning offers a couple of festive weapons on which Guardians are trying to get their hands. These weapons will only be available as drops until the event ends on January 5, 2021. So, players interested in acquiring these items should invest some time into participating in The Dawning 2020. One of those weapons is the legendary fusion rifle, Glacioclasm, dealing void damage to enemies.
How to Get the Glacioclasm in Destiny 2
Glacioclasm is only available as a loot drop during The Dawning seasonal event in Destiny 2. Players will have to bake some tasty treats to deliver to the game’s various allies and vendors. Doing so will prompt these non-player characters (NPCs) to give Guardians a gift of their own: a Legendary Dawning package (known in-game as A Gift in Return), which can be found in players’ Inventory tab.
Opening the package, which basically functions as a legendary engram, has a chance of dropping the Glacioclasm void fusion rifle. It is an energy weapon that takes up players’ secondary slot in their character’s loadout. Placing some fusion rifle ammo finder mods in a helmet slot can help make this weapon as useful as possible in PvE, though, there are better uses of mod slots when completing in-game content.
Glacioclasm PvE God Roll in Destiny 2
The general consensus as to what constitutes a god roll for Destiny 2’s Glacioclasm differs between PvE and PvP. For PvE in Destiny 2, most weapons benefit from Hammer-Forged Rifling or Smallbore. Smallbore gets the edge for the Glacioclasm on consoles, as it offers both range and stability. PC players, however, may want to focus on Hammer-Forged Rifling (increases range) since stability tends to not be an issue when using a keyboard and mouse.
Next comes the ammunition, or magazine. Since Hammer-Forged Rifling or Smallbore increase range, for PvE, Guardians will want to maximize their damage output by having to reload less. For this purpose, something like Enhanced Battery is useful for Glacioclasm because it puts more rounds in the magazine. The result is players needing to reload less, and when they do, slotting a Fusion Rifle loader mod or two into their Guardians’ gauntlets can be helpful.
To capitalize on having more shots available in the base magazine, gamers should be on the lookout for the Ambitious Assassin primary perk for the Glacioclasm. This perk overflows the magazine when fans reload, and the extent to which the magazine overflows is based on how many kills Guardians achieved with the weapon prior to reloading it.
With the extended range provided by Hammer-Forged Rifling or Smallbore, and the increased magazine capacity from Enhanced Battery, players will be able to rack up kills at a decent distance and rarely need to reload. This gives them more uptime on more powerful enemies and, thus, increases their damage output. Couple this philosophy with the final potential perk, Swashbuckler (not Rampage), and Glacioclasm becomes a nasty addition to Guardians’ arsenal.
Pull the weapon out, get a melee kill to get five stacks of Swashbuckler immediately for a hefty damage buff, and go to town with this fusion rifle. For the purposes of Destiny 2 PvE, Swashbuckler is going to be more useful for Glacioclasm, as the damage bonus stacks can be gained with a single melee kill. Conversely, Rampage stacks can only be gained by defeating enemies with the weapon itself, thereby wasting a few unoptimized shots to build the damage buff. This would be fine with a kinetic weapon, as primary ammo is abundant. With energy and heavy weapons, however, every shot matters.
In a nutshell, the Destiny 2 Glacioclasm PvE god roll looks like this:
- Rifle/Barrel: Hammorforged-Rifling (PC) or Smallbore (console)
- Magazine: Enhanced Battery
- Primary Perk: Ambitious Assassin
- Secondary Perk: Swashbuckler
Glacioclasm PvP God Roll in Destiny 2
What works in PvE is not always what is optimal in PvP in Destiny 2. There is some crossover, but ultimately, the two arenas require their own builds and loadouts. PvP is more about surviving and seizing opportunities by picking off players when it is safe to engage. There are ways to achieve this through more aggressive playstyles, but the core concept remains.
Therefore, Guardians need some long-range capabilities while also being formidable at medium and close ranges. For this purpose, both PC and console players will want a Glacioclasm with Hammer-Forged Rifling. Smallbore becomes a bit irrelevant in PvP, as special ammo is not abundant. Players typically only start out with two rounds of energy weapon ammunition in PvP, acquiring more by defeating Guardians who still have special ammo and picking up what they drop, which is not much. Thus, stability is unnecessary, as players will not be volley firing. Range wins.
The second perk Guardians will want for Glacioclasm in PvP is Projection Fuse, which also increases the weapon’s range. The farther away fans can fire this weapon and do some impactful damage in the Crucible, the more likely they are to get that kill and live to tell the tale. Staying far away, particularly for Hunters, is one of the best ways to utilize Glacioclasm.
Next, Slideshot is the key. This perk’s primary use is increasing range and stability (mostly range) after sliding. It also partially reloads the magazine from reserves, which is useful if gamers have any special ammo reserves, but this portion of the perk is largely negligible in PvP. Again, being able to get that kill from farther away is beneficial to come out on top, and Slideshot helps accomplish that. The stability increase does not hurt, especially for console users.
Finally, the High-Impact Reserves perk comes into play. Since special ammo is at a premium in PvP, meaning players are almost always low on the commodity, High-Impact Reserves increases the damage done when low on ammo. Combine this innate damage boost with the range provided by Hammer-Forged Rifling, Projection Fuse, and Slideshot, and Glacioclasm becomes a bit of a monster, especially for characters with a lot of mobility. Unsuspecting opponents will rue the day they underestimated Glacioclasm.
Basically, the PvP god roll for Glacioclasm in Destiny 2 looks like this:
- Rifle/Barrel: Hammer-Forged Rifling
- Magazine: Projection Fuse
- Primary Perk: Slideshot
- Secondary Perk: High-Impact Reserves
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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