June 04, 2019
Hello and welcome to my breakdown of the Penumbra weapons, here you can find a links to my past articles for Forsaken, Black Armory, and Joker’s Wild. Below are the weapon’s base stats and my thoughts and opinions on their best rolls.
Pinnacle Weapons
Name - Revoker - Kinetic / Crucible
Rate of Fire: 72
Impact: 90
Range: 80
Stability: 34
Handling: 30
Reload Speed: 37
Mag size: 3
Aim Assist: 44
Recoil Direction: 72
Aggressive Frame / Extended Barrel / Accurized Rounds / Snapshot Sights / Reversal of Fortune
Revoker is the new crucible pinnacle weapon this season and has a very interesting quest. 300 total sniper kills, 50 precision sniper kills, and achieving a cumulative glory score of 3500. For the first time since pinnacle weapons were released the Revoker does not require reaching Fabled rank to obtain. The weapon itself is all you could ask for in a sniper. A short zoom scope via Ambush SLH25, and Snapshot Sights will give this weapon an overall quick feel within your hands. I do not currently know how Reversal of Fortune will behave, but a timed Mulligan means you can be a bit more aggressive in sniping as you know it will return to your magazine after that duration is up. It will also allow newer sniper rifle users a chance to get better as ammo is a constant source of frustration for longer distance kills. I cannot say for certain how this sniper will perform in PvE activities because it doesn't have any damage boosting perks, like Rampage or Box Breathing; nor does it have magazine extending perks, like Triple Tap. I think overall it's going to be a solid weapon, one I cannot wait to get my hands on and test out.
Name - Hush - Energy / Gambit
Draw Time: 760
Impact: 76
Accuracy: 79
Stability: 46
Handling: 54
Reload Speed: 46
Aim Assist: 64
Recoil Direction: 78
Precision Frame / Natural String / Straight Fletching / Opening Shot / Archer's Gambit
Gambit's new weapon has an interesting set of perks. Opening Shot on a bow is something I will definitely have to test out and see how it performs. However, the pinnacle perk, Archer's Gambit, is something else entirely. Getting precision shots with a bow while hip-firing will not be the easiest task, but will be made easier with Opening Shot. I am not the largest fan of bows but compared to Archer's Tempo on a Subtle Calamity or even the Vow, I'm hoping the payoff for getting that precision hit will be monstrous. In Gambit or other PvE activities where there are a lot of low level adds you should be able to reliably get Archer's Gambit going, but in Crucible will be another story. I do not think Hush has a place inside of PvP. Where it will shine is doing faster DPS against larger enemies or against hordes of thrall.
Name - Wendigo GL3 - Heavy / Vanguard
Rate of Fire: 120
Blast Radius: 30
Velocity: 36
Stability: 44
Handling: 46
Reload Speed: 51
Mag size: 6
Aim Assist: 66
Recoil Direction: 78
Adaptive Frame / Smart Drift Control / Blinding Grenades / Auto-Loading Holster / Explosive Light
An interesting idea but I'm not sure how it will be in practice. Getting Orbs of Light should be easy with masterworked weapons and supers. And the damage buff stacks with each round until the magazine is full. The issue I have with Wendigo GL3 is Blinding Grenades. They reduce the blast radius by a whole *two hundred*! Granted grenade launchers have a blast radius floor of 5, so the blast radius won't go lower than that, it is still pitifully low for PvE. So Explosive Light better ramp up that blast radius and damage a whole 300% to compensate. Arguably the redeeming quality of Wendigo GL3 is that it is self-sustaining. Get an orb by any mean and get Explosive Light going, use those higher damage grenades to kill large groups of adds, and because all pinnacle weapons are fully masterworked it will create an orb itself. Stow Wendigo to have full ammo and walk over the orb to start the chain all over again. Could be good for that continuous loop but it doesn't feel worthwhile. I'm hoping the damage numbers can change my mind.
If you would like more articles like this check out my breakdowns on Penumbra's new kinetic, energy, and power weapons. Happy hunting Guardians!