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Pre Astyanax IV god roll & best perks

Pre Astyanax IV — Destiny 2 Combat Bow
Legendary · Combat Bow
Where it drops: Source: Pinnacle Ops

“The lord of the city grants the blessing of precision.”

Full perk pool, stats & source for Pre Astyanax IV →

Built from 18 curated wishlist rolls for this Combat Bow. Perks marked essential appear in every roll of a recommendation; alternatives are the other perks curators call worth keeping.

Recommended rolls

Community wishlist roll

12 wishlist rolls

Inspired by @PodvsEnemies episode 151 from 26 August 2025 (https://open.spotify.com/episode/2i6uazTPn8rdPCD6amcjSc?si=C-kdbOCvTCqhRYq7M8zYnw) with @ImpetusAlways, @Saint_Kabr and @CourtProjects (PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for use against minor adds in both general at-level or better, and end-game underleveled content, particularly with a Solar build. Pre Astyanax IV returns, reprised from Season 22 with refreshed perk set. At base, by comparison with its peers, the stats are okay, which is helped at Tier 4/5 when bowstring and arrow perks are enhanced - d2foundry.gg calculates that 33 Stability is ×1.0625 flinch resistance and a 0.40s perfect draw window, 50 Handling is 0.59s ready, 0.44s ADS and 0.45s stow speed, and 40 Reload Speed is a 0.78s reload. The standard play with bows is to use the bowstring perk to reduce Draw Time, and the arrow perk to improve Accuracy. There's no Archer's Tempo in the first trait perk slot, so the best alternative is Successful Warm-Up, which reduces Draw Time to ×0.625 for 6s after a kill, with additional kills extending the timer by 4s up to a maximum of 20s. However, you could also double down on solar perks to combine Incandescent, great for crowd control, spreading +30 Scorch stacks to adds within 4m on a Minor add kill (+45 stacks within 8m for orange and yellow bars), with Burning Ambition in the second. This procs a +10 scorch stack on tougher targets after 2 hits (1 when enhanced) with +10 added on each additional hit to build towards an ignition. All of the scorch stacks are increased by ×1.5 with Ember of Ashes. If you're interested, the literal translation means "Before Astyanax". Astyanax (“Lord of the City”), in Greek legend, is the Trojan popular nickname for the son of the city's greatest warrior, Prince Hector of Troy, and his wife Andromache. The Problem Solver Origin Trait is very good for PvE when facing orange and yellow bars - 3 arrows hitting will proc to exhaust them and reduce damage output to ×0.75 for 5s and grant +50 to Reload Speed and Handling for 10s. Otherwise, Wild Card is always fun, providing a chance to drop Telesto-like "experimental submunitions" on kills. Recommended MW: Draw Time, with your preferred choice of mod/enhanced mod to boost mag size, weapon stats, ammo regeneration, or elemental pickups for builds - and don't forget to check any available seasonal fragile mods.|tags:PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller)

Essential perks

Burning Ambition

Strong alternatives

Elastic String Fiberglass Arrow Shaft Incandescent Successful Warm-Up Straight Fletching Polymer String Flexible String

Community wishlist roll

6 wishlist rolls

Inspired by @PodvsEnemies episode 151 from 26 August 2025 (https://open.spotify.com/episode/2i6uazTPn8rdPCD6amcjSc?si=C-kdbOCvTCqhRYq7M8zYnw) with @ImpetusAlways, @Saint_Kabr and @CourtProjects (PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for use against minor adds in both general at-level or better, and end-game underleveled content, particularly with a Solar build. Pre Astyanax IV returns, reprised from Season 22 with refreshed perk set. At base, by comparison with its peers, the stats are okay, which is helped at Tier 4/5 when bowstring and arrow perks are enhanced - d2foundry.gg calculates that 33 Stability is ×1.0625 flinch resistance and a 0.40s perfect draw window, 50 Handling is 0.59s ready, 0.44s ADS and 0.45s stow speed, and 40 Reload Speed is a 0.78s reload. The standard play with bows is to use the bowstring perk to reduce Draw Time, and the arrow perk to improve Accuracy. For add clearing minor enemies, there's the "all the explosions" roll of Firefly, for a 4m solar explosion on a crit kill with +50 to Reload Speed (+55 when enhanced) for 6s, with Explosive Head for ×1.15 bodyshot and ×1.1 crit damage with 3m AoE damage and additional flinch. If you're interested, the literal translation means "Before Astyanax". Astyanax (“Lord of the City”), in Greek legend, is the Trojan popular nickname for the son of the city's greatest warrior, Prince Hector of Troy, and his wife Andromache. The Problem Solver Origin Trait is very good for PvE when facing orange and yellow bars - 3 arrows hitting will proc to exhaust them and reduce damage output to ×0.75 for 5s and grant +50 to Reload Speed and Handling for 10s. Otherwise, Wild Card is always fun, providing a chance to drop Telesto-like "experimental submunitions" on kills. Recommended MW: Draw Time, with your preferred choice of mod/enhanced mod to boost mag size, weapon stats, ammo regeneration, or elemental pickups for builds - and don't forget to check any available seasonal fragile mods.|tags:PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller)

Essential perks

Explosive Head Firefly

Strong alternatives

Elastic String Fiberglass Arrow Shaft Straight Fletching Polymer String Flexible String

What these Pre Astyanax IV perks do

Burning Ambition

Direct Hits against Scorched Enemies apply additional Scorch on a 0.5 second cooldown: • Primary Weapons apply 10 [4] additional Scorch per Direct Hit (15 [9?] with Ember of Ashes) • Special and Power Weapons apply 20 additional Scorch (30 with Ember of Ashes) Scoring multiple Direct Hits within 3? seconds of each causes the next Direct Hit to Scorch the target. Hit counter persists through stow. Number of Direct Hits required by weapon type: • Bows: 2 • Swords: 3 • Other Weapons: 55% of the base magazine size Scorch applied by Burning Ambition to Unscorched targets counts as Weapon Damage. Ember of Ashes increases the amount of Scorch applied by 50%.

Incandescent

Weapon Kills trigger a Solar explosion that applies 30 Scorch Stacks (40 with Ember of Ashes) and deals up to 30 damage to enemies within 4 meters of the target. Killing Elite or higher tier Combatants and Players increases the radius to 8 meters and applies 10 more Scorch Stacks. Scorch damage can be increased through Weapon Damage Buffs.

Successful Warm-Up

Weapon Kills decrease Charge/Draw Time by 37.5% for 6 seconds. Kills while the perk is active add 4 seconds to the duration up to a maximum of 20 seconds. Buff is removed on stow.

Explosive Head

Splits off 50% of the Bow's bodyshot damage into an Explosive Payload that detonates in a 3 meter radius on impact. The Payload deals 30% increased damage in PvE and staggers PvE Combatants more. Payload detonation time after hitting a target or surface depends on the distance. The remaining Impact damage portion receives an increased Crit Multiplier to compensate for the Payload not benefitting from crits. [PvE] Total damage is increased by ~15% of the weapon's bodyshot damage. On crits, the overall increase is 10.33% for Precision Bows and 9.69% for Lightweight Bows. [PvP] Total damage remains roughly the same but can vary by 1-2% in either direction for crits.

Firefly

On Precision Kills: • Target explodes, dealing 104 [80] Solar damage in a 4 meter radius • Grants 50 Reload Speed for 6 seconds

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

Pre Astyanax IV in Destiny 2

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