Destiny 2's The Witch Queen expansion introduced the brand-new concept of weapon crafting, a feature that allows players to craft a base version of a given gun and then level it up in order to unlock its full potential. While weapon crafting itself is partly limited by it being tied to acquiring materials and unlocking weapon patterns currently available in Destiny 2, it does make a difference in the endgame because players are guaranteed to eventually unlock a god roll.
This is a big change because drops in Destiny 2 have always been randomly generated, and it calls for a deeper understanding of what the true god roll for certain weapons is. This guide explains the reasons why Palmyra-B is one of the best DPS weapons in the game at the moment, and what its god roll is.
What is The God Roll For The Palmyra-B Rocket Launcher
The definition of god roll in Destiny 2 is that a given weapon should have the perfect perks across the board, counting all four column perks and the Masterwork bonuses. For Palmyra-B, there are many great rolls due to the weapon having a great perk pool, but it's worth narrowing it down before crafting it.
As for Palmyra-B's Masterwork trait, which is found in its frame, players should always go for velocity over every other option.
Palmyra-B's first column has a total of seven possible rolls, but there are two that Destiny 2 players should look out for. The first is Hard Launch, which increases the rocket's velocity by a lot, at the cost of a small penalty to blast radius and stability.
This is optimal for maximizing velocity, which in turn means that the rocket will reach its target faster, eventually avoiding sudden movements that may make the rocket miss.
The second perk that's worth taking a closer look at is Quick Launch, which also increases the rocket's velocity - albeit to a lesser degree than Hard Launch.
However, Quick Launch also increases Palmyra-B's handling and, more importantly, the speed at which players are able to aim down sights. Either perk in this column is fine, and it mostly comes to personal preference.
The second column offers a selection of five different perks, and it is a much easier choice than the first column. In fact, Destiny 2 players should always pick Impact Casing here, which increases stability and the damage dealt with direct hits.
The third column is also quite easy to settle down on, as it features multiple good perks, but ultimately players will want to pick Auto-Loading Holster.
This perk is what makes Palmyra-B an absolute monster in terms of DPS because it allows players to fire their other guns or use abilities while the rocket launcher is stowed, eventually swapping back to it only to find the rocket already loaded into the magazine.
Auto-Loading Holster is also the only perk on Palmyra-B's god roll that's actually worth enhancing with Ascendant Alloy. This is because the base time for Auto-Loading Holster to proc is 2.5 seconds, whereas the Enhanced Perk procs after 2.3 seconds. The difference might seem irrelevant, but it's actually what makes Palmyra-B so good.
In fact, Destiny 2 players can shoot their Izanagi's Burden once, reload it, and hot-swap to Palmyra-B to immediately fire a rocket. The normal version of Auto-Loading Holster is not fast enough to do that, leading to the Enhanced Perk being the best option here.
As for column four, Palmyra-B has several great damaging perks, with some also being more useful for add-clearing. However, because rocket launchers are mainly boss DPS weapons, there are only two viable choices in this slot.
The two best damaging perks available to Palmyra-B are Lasting Impression and Explosive Light, and the difference in terms of damage between them is not as noticeable as one would think. Lasting Impression deals more damage than normal rockets by delaying the explosion, which applies to every missile shot.
Explosive Light has the same base damage as rocket launchers without damaging perks, but it outdamages Lasting Impression if players shoot the rocket after picking up an Orb of Power.
This mechanic is a bit more complex, however, as players need a sustainable source of Orbs of Power, and Explosive Light only allows players to stack it up to six at any given time. With Palmyra-B having base reserves of seven rockets, it means players need to pick another Orb of Power mid-fight if they want to fully take advantage of the buff. Also, dying completely deletes all the stacks of Explosive Light players had, and new Orbs of Power need to be picked up.
However, it's worth mentioning that Destiny 2's new Void 3.0 update allows all classes (not just Warlocks) to use Devour, which is a buff that fully heals players on kill. The Fragment that grants Devour is called Echo of Starvation, and it requires players to pick up an Orb of Power in order to trigger the buff.
Normally, players can't pick up Orbs of Power when their Super is full, but Explosive Light changes that - even at full stacks - thus allowing a constant source of Devour if players are waiting on the right moment to cast their Super.
Lasting Impression has the advantage of providing a huge boost to the rocket's blast radius, which means that it's more likely that other nearby enemies will be struck by the delayed explosion. While this is a pro, the con is that the delayed explosion is also more likely to kill Destiny 2 players and nearby allies depending on proximity with the rocket when it goes off.
The damage gap between Explosive Light and Lasting Impression is further reduced if another player in the fireteam shoots their Gjallarhorn, which then provides Wolfpack Rounds to Palmyra-B, increasing the damage of both perks to a point where they are mostly indistinguishable.
Still, without this buff, Explosive Light deals more damage across the board, but its efficiency drops immensely if players are out of Explosive Light stacks.
As far as enhancing either Explosive Light or Lasting Impression, the bonus is not worth the cost. Enhanced Explosive Light simply increases the rocket's velocity by a very small amount, and while it's always good to have more velocity, it costs too much to craft.
Enhanced Lasting Impression is possibly even worse, as it increases by a very small amount the blast radius of the explosion. This is already massively increased by the base perk, and an additional few points of blast radius don't increase the weapon's DPS.
The question of whether one should pick Explosive Light or Lasting Impression is rather subjective, at this point. The arguments in favor of the former are that it deals more damage than Lasting Impression rockets and that it allows picking up Orbs of Power when the Super is full.
The arguments in favor of the latter are that Lasting Impression is more consistent across the board because it has no activation requirements other than shooting the rocket, even if that translates into less burst damage due to the delayed explosion.
Overall, Palmyra-B is currently one of the best weapons in the game mainly because of Auto-Loading Holster, but it's worth pointing out that it also benefits from being a Stasis rocket launcher. In fact, players can use Font of Might to increase Palmyra-B's damage whenever they pick up a Stasis Elemental Well, further increasing the weapon's DPS.
While this holds true for all elements, Stasis builds have access to an easy way of getting Elemental Wells in boss fights without relying on killing adds, which is a mod called Supreme Wellmaker.
What it does is spawn three Stasis Elemental Wells upon casting one's Super, making Revenant Hunters the best pick for this job because they have an instant-cast Super, whereas Warlocks and Titans have roaming Supers.
Destiny 2 is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.