The Destiny 2 PvP meta can be a volatile landscape as even a small balance change can lead to weapon types, and certain weapons themselves, rocketing to the top of the usage leaderboards.

Even though Bungie doesn’t release PvP patches that frequently, when they do they are usually large scale changes such as the most recent buff to the Auto Rifle weapon type.

Below is a list of the most used Destiny 2 PvP weapons.

These kill percentages are taken from the Trials of Osiris mode as this gives us a perfect snapshot of the meta as only the best weapons are used frequently in this mode due to its high stake gameplay.

Felwinter's Lie - 12.2%

Felwinter’s Lie is a returning Shotgun from Destiny 1 that was just released within the last few days. This weapon was an absolute menace in the original Destiny due to its ideal perk rolls allowing it to achieve obscene one shot kill ranges that led to it becoming the top of the meta.

History appears to have repeated itself as once again this weapon is the king of the Crucible. This is due to a few different reasons. Firstly, the quest to obtain the weapon is fairly straightforward with it only taking 2 hours at the most to complete.

Secondly, the weapon only has a single curated roll which completely eliminates the need to grind many hours for a good perk roll, everybody who completes the quest simply has the best version of the weapon.

And thirdly, the curated roll for Felwinter’s Lie contains some of the absolute best perks for a PvP Shotgun causing it to completely trump the previous Shotgun King in Mindbender’s Ambition. Felwinter’s has Full Choke, Accurized Rounds, a choice between Slideshot or Quickdraw, and a choice between Opening Shot or Vorpal Weapon which is basically every ‘best in slot’ perk you could want on a PvP Shotgun.

There’s even the option to switch to Vorpal Weapon when you know the enemy is about to use their Supers to ensure you can pull off a point black shot plus a melee strike to shut them down.

If you do not have this Shotgun yet, you absolutely need it.

Revoker - 8.9%

Revoker is an Aggressive Frame Sniper Rifle that does Kinetic damage. This weapon was added into the game as the Crucible Pinnacle weapon for Season of Opulence and so it can take some time to earn.

When Revoker was first introduced it was first seen as a fairly mediocre Pinnacle weapon when compared to other greats such as Luna’s Howl and The Recluse but over time the community has greatly warmed to this weapon.

This was partly due to the recent nerfs to other Sniper Rifle archetypes such as the Rapid-Fire and Adaptive Frames but was mostly due to the weapon’s signature perk ‘Reversal of Fortune’ simply being slept on.

The perk description reads “Missing a shot returns the bullet to the magazine after a short duration”. Many players dismissed this at the start saying that it simply rewards bad play but it actually allows players to take more risky shots without the fear of wasting ammo. Essentially it allows for infinite ammo until a kill is obtained.

Being an Aggressive Frame also means that Revoker is exceptional at taking out enemy Guardians using their Super, something that is critical in high tier games.

To earn Revoker players must complete the quest ‘In Your Sights’ from Shaxx in the Crucible which requires 300 Sniper Rifle Final Blows, 50 Sniper Rifle Precision Kills and accumulate 3, 500 Glory.

SUROS Regime- 8.2%

SUROS Regime is an Exotic Auto Rifle. SUROS Regime is also an Adaptive Frame Auto Rifle so like stated earlier, this gun benefited greatly from the huge buffs recently granted to this archetype Its two main perks of interest are ‘Spinning Up’ and SUROS Legacy. Their descriptions read:

Spinning Up - Holding down the trigger increases fire rate
SUROS Legacy - The bottom half of each magazine deals bonus damage and has a chance to return health on kill.

If the trigger is held down, the weapon will see a drastic increase in fire rate once the 21st bullet in the magazine is reached. On top of this, bullet 17-1 will see a scaling 5-10% increase in damage.

When both Spinning Up and SUROS Legacy perks are activated, the player is able to absolutely shred through a full health enemy Guardian in under half a second. A good strategy with this weapon is to pre-fire around corners if you know an enemy is on the other side to activate these perks much earlier and give the enemy almost no time to react before they are dead.

Be careful though as this will drain the magazine fast so you will need to hit most of the bullets in the lower half of the magazine to be assured a kill. SUROS is already a decent Auto Rifle before these perks come into effect with its exceptional Range, Stability, Handling and Reload Speed stats.

SUROS Regime can only be obtained through Exotic Engrams, as a Powerful/Pinnacle drop or from Xur.

The Summoner - 6.3%

The Summoner is an Adaptive Frame Auto Rifle that deals Solar damage. As this weapon is an Adaptive Frame it benefited greatly from the buffs to Auto Rifles at the start of Season of the Worthy. The Summoner to put it simply, is a workhorse.

With the right perk roll this weapon can be extremely solid in almost any situation you find yourself in within a PvP match. This is due in part to its low Time to Kill and exceptional Handling, Stability and Magazine stats. The Summoner has taken the number one spot from Hard Light only recently due to some heavy nerfs dealt to Hard Light some weeks ago. Another benefit for using The Summoner is that it doesn't take up an Exotic slot like both Hard Light and SUROS Regime do.

The Summoner can only be obtained through the Trials of Osiris game mode as a reward for reaching the required 3, 5 or 7 wins or by achieving Flawless. The rewards for each win threshold change each week so be sure to check each Friday to see if The Summoner can be earned.

Recommended PvP Perks:

Barrel - Arrowhead Brake (Controller), Extended Barrel (M+KB)
Magazine - High-Caliber Rounds
Perk 1 - Moving Target (Both), Zen Moment (Controller)
Perk 2 - Rangefinder
Masterwork - Stability (Controller), Range (M+KB)

Let's be friends