New findings by the Destiny 2 community have revealed that an extremely popular weapon mod is actually making it less effective.
Featured as this week’s Nightfall weapon from June 25 to July 2, Scintillation is one of the best Linear Fusion Rifles ever added to Destiny 2. It has a stacked perk pool that includes a wide range of meta perks including Rewind Rounds, Envious Assassin, and Bait & Switch.
However, the presumed god roll isn’t quite as expected, with it now being discovered that Backup Mag is often a poor option to use on Scintillation. As shared on r/DestinyTheGame, Backup Mag rarely increases Scintillation’s magazine size but always decreases ammo reserves, reducing the Strand Linear Fusion Rifle’s total damage output.
Testing how Backup Mag impacts Scintillation’s magazine size and ammo reserves, Reddit user MadBuc discovered the following:
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- Enhanced Battery: 6 in magazine, 15 in reserves
- Enhanced Battery + Backup Mag: 6 in magazine, 11 in reserves
- Enhanced Battery + Adept Mag: 7 in magazine, 11 in reserves
- Backup Mag: 6 in magazine, 13 in reserves
- Adept Mag: 6 in magazine, 13 in reserves
As for Ionized Battery, that works out much the same as Enhanced Battery. While it can increase the LFR’s magazine size to 7, it also decreases reserves to 13. Firing fewer shots will always have a far larger negative impact on DPS than a slightly increased magazine size, especially during longer boss fights or phases.
According to Light GG, 71.6% of Scintillation users have Backup Mag equipped despite the mod being largely useless on the weapon. Similarly, 41.6% of Scintillation (Adept) users have Backup Mag equipped, and a further 12.2% are using Adept Mag.
As for what mod you should be using, those with Scintillation will want to equip Counterbalance Stock if Recoil Direction is not already 100 – in which case – Targeting Adjuster is the best option instead. However, Scintillation (Adept) can access Adept Charge Time, which is the best overall mod to use on the Strand Linear Fusion Rifle.