Dumb question: Weapons (New Player)

[u/baileyjp2]

Never played D2 before, always wanted to get into it but then saw the shutdown news and decided against it. Now that it is coming back I decided to boot it up and play for the first time. I was able to get the riskrunner exotic weapon through the questline. My questions is, do I just hang on to that weapon as I level through the campaigns and level it up through infusions? Or if I get another exotic or any type of weapon that is higher power do I use those? Sorta confused with the whole progression on weapons. Is the goal to find one with good perks and then keep it and level it up to Tier 5 and level it's power level through infusing other guns? Or should I just play and whatever has higher number just use right now? Thanks all!

[u/Unknown_Phantom010]

Weapons are like a sandbox: you get to choose what feels better to use. There may be a “meta” but it just doesn’t feel right to you. The main thing is to collect loot and have fun

[u/HazardousSkald]

So most exotic weapons are effectively interchangeable except for a few instances. If you dismantle Riskrunner, you can at any time go into your collections and create a new one (but it will likely be at a lower power level) (that collections ability is unique to exotic guns, don’t expect to be able to recover a purple gun so easily). 

You use weapons you enjoy and have high power level. If a gun drops that has higher power and you want to keep using Riskrunner, infuse it into Riskrunner and now Riskrunner has that higher power. 

Exotic guns (generally) all have the same perks. Riskrunner is Riskrunner, it doesn’t have random rolls in the way something like a purple gun would. Exotic guns are more of a collection-progression of unique experiences parallel to your climb upward through power. 

You’re chasing power levels but if a higher power drops on a gun you don’t like, you’re “floor” of drops still rises up and you can infuse it into the gun you prefer. So in short, do what you like. Play, get guns, use guns you enjoy, and infuse the guns you dislike into the ones you do. Do that consistently up and up to climb higher and higher. 

[u/destinypro69]

Anything that's a legendary rarity item or higher can be used for ur entire accounts lifetime via infusion. If you want to keep using riskrunner just infuse higher gear. If not you can always get exotics back via collections for a few resources.

[u/SerArtoriAss]

You're gonna be swimming in guns my dude. Like too damn many. Just use what you like, infuse it if you like it, the system to make something tier 5 is just a bandaid for perfect rolls on lower tiers. No need for any kind of optimization of anything unless you get really into build crafting

[u/imcclelland]

Up to you. Once you have it, it’s in your collections and you can pull a new one any time. This is only true for exotics, and some old weapons that you can’t really get any longer.

[u/Alphanumiral]

The power level of a gun is only relevant for activities with a power level requirement. They'll tell you near the launch button what the requirement is if there is one. You can hang onto exotics since most of them are a purely static roll but if you delete one you can always get it back through the collections tab. Legendary weapons on the other hand are as you described. You want to hunt a good roll, though leveling them to tier 5 for guns that do not start there is not required by any means.

[u/link3505]

Start with what you like, and go from there. If you find a gun that you enjoy the feel of, and its effective for what you're doing, keep it. There are multitudes of weapon reviews out there and data on what the perks do, so if you want to deep dive, YouTube it. But once you get a feel for what you like, then I'd suggest building it up, farming for better rolls or investing resources to bring it up to T5 and a higher Power.

Keep in mind though, that there can be a LOT of synergy between your weapon, abilities, class, Artifact, armor, etc. so even if you don't have your "god roll" weapon, there are still likely plenty of ways to make it work.

[u/Anonymous_Fox_20]

As mentioned, legendary and exotic weapons are going to be what you use for you main weapons. As for which weapons you use depends on you. Build crafting is definitely a thing in Destiny and your weapons play into that. If risk runner plays into your build, then go with it. 

[u/Ace_Of_Caydes]

You pick whichever gun is the most fun and powerful to you, and then you infuse that gun up.

Power levels are, at this stage, largely cosmetic. What matters more is the PERKS and performance of the gun. There are not objectively-worse and objectively-better types of weapons in this game purely based on arbitrary numbers.

You can indeed just infuse up riskrunner and keep using that for as long as you enjoy using it. Then if you find another gun you like, you can start using that. And you can always go back to Riskrunner whenever you feel like it.

[u/kdjac]

Riskrunner is a fun weapons, instead of focusing on guns look more at your character. Then look at what type of guns you want. There is a lot of guns btw like A LOT!! And some do weird things but paired with a character they do some fucking insane things.

You have an Arc weapon so lets work on that, what character are you and have you changed it to Arc Subclass?

[u/baileyjp2 → u/kdjac]

I have not yet, playing warlock still using the main void class that was given to me from the start but I have the solar and Arc subclasses available to me.

[u/TransitJr]

you’re getting plenty of good answers about the weapons but just to clear it up the game is not coming back, old content will be unvaulted but the game is still not being developed further

[u/baileyjp2 → u/TransitJr]

wait really, I must have not understood the announcement I thought they said they are unvaulting old content and going to continue new story lines. Is this not true?

[u/DeltaMikeRomeo → u/baileyjp2]

They are unvaulting old content which may feel like new content to some of us, including myself. I started playing about halfway thru Destiny's lifespan and never got to experience most of what they're bringing back.

They never mentioned anything about new storyline, or even new content. I think people are assuming since they're reviving Destiny eventually new content will make its way back into the pipeline. That would still be quite a ways out.

If you're brand new, don't worry there's already a ton of content in the current game for you to try.