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Old Sterling god roll & best perks

Old Sterling — Destiny 2 Auto Rifle
Legendary · Auto Rifle
Where it drops: Source: Open Legendary engrams and earn faction rank-up packages.

“It's far from pretty, but it will never let you down.”

Full perk pool, stats & source for Old Sterling →

Built from 66 curated wishlist rolls for this Auto Rifle. Perks marked essential appear in every roll of a recommendation; alternatives are the other perks curators call worth keeping.

Recommended rolls

pandapaxxy

pve mkb controller 36 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvE / M+KB / Controller): Recommended MW: Reload Speed. Adaptive Frame(600) Strand Auto Rifle Primary Ammo. "It’s interesting to see the old Scathelocke model being used. I know many vets who loved this auto and I can’t blame them. Reliable was the name of the game back in Vanilla. In today’s world the best roll to look out for is similar to Rufus’s Fury. The benefit Old Sterling has is in its frame. Being an adaptive frame might feel better to some users compared to Rufus;s Fury being a rapid-fire frame. Entirely dependent on how you like to shoot. Frenzy and Demolitionist I listed as being better perks only because Hatchling falls off incredibly quick on non-Strand builds. The extra damage from the Threadlings are nice, but don’t pack as much of a punch without Strand to buff them."

Strong alternatives

Arrowhead Brake Appended Mag Rewind Rounds Frenzy Corkscrew Rifling Smallbore Flared Magwell Surplus Demolitionist Hatchling

pandapaxxy

pvp controller 18 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvP / Controller): Recommended MW: Stability. Adaptive Frame(600) Strand Auto Rifle Primary Ammo. "Adaptive autos have not been meta in quite a while. It was back when Hard Light was too strong that adaptive autos felt like they had a place. What a weird time to be playing Destiny. It was like a light show all the time in PvP. Nowadays you’re going to have to do a lot to make adaptive autos feel strong. Surplus will bring up all your stats. Harmony when paired with a special weapon can also make multikills feel like a breeze if you couple the two. A fast handling, good feeling auto with a damage bump. Takes a lot to make this auto work, but I’m sure someone wants to."

Essential perks

Accurized Rounds

Strong alternatives

Harmony Arrowhead Brake Surplus Hammer-Forged Rifling Smallbore Slideways Adagio Demolitionist

pandapaxxy

pvp mkb 12 wishlist rolls

pandapaxxy (PvP / M+KB): Recommended MW: Range. Adaptive Frame(600) Strand Auto Rifle Primary Ammo. "Adaptive autos have not been meta in quite a while. It was back when Hard Light was too strong that adaptive autos felt like they had a place. What a weird time to be playing Destiny. It was like a light show all the time in PvP. Nowadays you’re going to have to do a lot to make adaptive autos feel strong. Surplus will bring up all your stats. Harmony when paired with a special weapon can also make multikills feel like a breeze if you couple the two. A fast handling, good feeling auto with a damage bump. Takes a lot to make this auto work, but I’m sure someone wants to."

Essential perks

Accurized Rounds

Strong alternatives

Harmony Extended Barrel Surplus Extended Mag Slideways Adagio Demolitionist

What these Old Sterling perks do

Rewind Rounds

Upon emptying the Magazine: Refills 60% of the number of Hits landed (rounded up) into the Magazine from reserves. Hits are counted from either your last reload or the last time the perk was triggered. Does not require Direct Hits. Requires firing 28.75% of the Magazine Capacity for the refill to activate. Cannot load the Magazine beyond its base capacity. Hits after triggering a refill do not count while the Rewind Rounds buff is active (1? second). Adaptive Burst Linear Fusion Rifle behavior: • Each individual bolt in the burst counts as a Hit • Refill amount is uniquely 14% of the number of Hits rounded up (numbers are subject to change once we get more data points)

Frenzy

After being in Combat for 12 seconds: Grants 15% increased damage, 100 Handling, and 100 Reload Speed for 7.2 seconds. Works and can activate while stowed. Dealing and receiving damage refreshes the buff duration. For Frenzy, being in Combat is defined as having either dealt or received damage within the last 5 seconds. Self-damage and environmental damage do not count.

Surplus

Grants Stat Bonuses depending on the number of Charged Abilities. Stat Bonuses with 1|2|3+ Charged Abilities: • 5|15|25 Stability • 5|25|60 Handling • 10|25|60 Reload Speed

Demolitionist

Weapon Kills grant 10% Grenade Ability Energy. Kills with Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, Glaives, and Fusion Rifles grant 20%. Using your Grenade Ability refills the Magazine with a 3 second cooldown. Ability energy gained may be significantly decreased based on your selected ability's Chunk Energy Scalar. Learn more about this mechanic in our explainer blog post on the Clarity website.

Hatchling

Scoring a Precision Kill or 3 kills within 3 seconds of each other spawns a Threadling at the target's location.

Harmony

Upon readying the weapon within 3 seconds of getting a Kill with a different weapon: Grants 20% increased damage and 15 Handling for 7 seconds.

Slideways

Sliding refills 15% of the magazine (rounded up) from reserves and grants 15? Stability and 30 Handling for 3 seconds. 0.5 second cooldown between activations. Buff is removed on stow.

Adagio

Weapon Kills grant the following for 7 seconds: • 10 Range • 30% increased damage • 20% longer Firing Delay/Charge Time/Draw Time Hand Cannons only recieve a 27% damage increase. Buff is removed on stow.

Recommendations aggregated from curated community wishlists; credit to the curators linked above.

Old Sterling in Destiny 2

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