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In recent years, buildcrafting has emerged as a fundamental aspect of Destiny 2, transforming the game’s dynamics and influencing not only gameplay but also the type of rewards that players can earn. Initially, back when Destiny 2 was released in 2017, buildcrafting wasn’t really in the spotlight. However, the introduction of features like Heresy buffs to Arc has injected new life into what previously felt like rather straightforward subclasses. The revamped version of Arc is arguably the best it’s ever been, providing players with damage reduction through Amplified and enabling explosive damage potential with Bolt Charge. Additionally, Heresy introduced a compelling, yet possibly overrated, damage perk.
New weapon perks have always been a cornerstone of the excitement surrounding seasonal or reprised weapons in Destiny 2, primarily because they appear on a specific set of guns each season. This excitement can be seen with Heresy’s introduction of the new Elemental Honing damage perk. While this perk operates in the same rotation-based damage strategy as the well-loved Bait and Switch, Elemental Honing might be aiming too high within the current meta of the game.
Bait and Switch has carved out a reliable spot for itself in endgame activities, offering a 30% damage boost to weapons carrying this perk, provided players shoot an enemy once with each of the other weapons in their loadout. It might sound complicated, but its reliability and significant impact on overall damage and DPS make it indispensable. Meanwhile, the newly introduced Elemental Honing is based on a similar principle that requires players to rotate through weapons to boost their damage multiplier.
However, unlike Bait and Switch, Elemental Honing relies on accumulating stacks, with one stack earned each time players hit enemies using a unique element. Take, for instance, Destiny 2’s new Adamantite auto rifle—a support weapon capable of healing allies, and severing and unraveling enemies. By shooting with Adamantite using the Elemental Honing perk, players gain a stack of the buff corresponding to the Strand element. This perk can stack up to five times, totaling a 35% damage buff, which is especially effective on Kinetic weapons.
Despite the seemingly straightforward feat of dealing elemental damage given Destiny 2’s subclass diversity with Prismatic powers, Elemental Honing demands more effort for comparatively minor gains versus Bait and Switch. Achieving maximum stacks only yields a mere 5% increase in damage over Bait and Switch. Although Elemental Honing could result in a higher total damage potential, it may lead to lower DPS or a less optimized setup because incorporating all five elements requires strategic buildcrafting. Players need to ensure that their weapons and abilities can deal with five distinct elemental damage types, which might disrupt combat rotations by compelling early ability use just to stack Elemental Honing.
Even though this perk provides a 20-second duration refreshed with each new elemental use, Bait and Switch ends up being more appealing for most players. The latter, albeit short-lived at 10 seconds, offers straightforward and dependable activation for a nominal 5% damage per shot difference. While there might be niche scenarios like Destiny 2’s Dungeons and Raids where Elemental Honing could offer a competitive edge, overall, Bait and Switch remains the go-to choice for effective damage rotations, especially on Heavy-ammo weapons prone to limited ammunition availability.
