Relentless god roll & best perks

warlockmaggie (PvE / M+KB / Controller): "High-Impact Pulse Rifles may be a little less common in PvE but don't pass up this workhorse of a gun! Firefly shows up as a 3rd column perk, granting additional reload and a Solar explosion on a precision kill. This pairs amazingly with Hatchling or Elemental Honing (you get 2 stacks if you get kill from the solar explosion). Tear and Slice are both options for applying Sever, but that's about it... seriously, just get Firefly in that 3rd column!" Recommended MW: Stability or Reload Speed.

Strong alternatives

Hatchling Appended Mag Firefly Corkscrew Rifling Elemental Honing Paracausal Affinity Tear Slice Armor-Piercing Rounds Flared Magwell Fluted Barrel Smallbore

warlockmaggie (PvP / Controller): "Okay, this is where High-impact pulse rifles shine the most, ye olde Crucible. Take your pick of your favorite stat increasing perk in the 3rd column along with Headseeker or Closing Time for neutral game benefits or Desperado for kill chaining (psst, Firefly could work in column 3 with Desperado or Headseeker too). Since getting those two-burst kills requires all 6 shots to crit, focus on Stability and recoil via Barrel and Magazine to reduce flinch and tighten the burst." Recommended MW: Stability or Handling.

Strong alternatives

Arrowhead Brake High-Caliber Rounds Desperado Keep Away Headseeker Closing Time Rapid Hit Lone Wolf Ricochet Rounds Light Mag Fluted Barrel Smallbore

Inspired by @PodvsEnemies episode 141 from 27 May 2025 (https://open.spotify.com/episode/51wAzrVIRJRsBHGTMCLZ0n?si=fade7bb615184d3e) with @Saint_Kabr, @ImpetusAlways and @CourtProjects (PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE pick for clearing Minor adds in both general at-level or better, and end-game underleveled content, particularly with a Strand build. Relentless returns as a Strand high-impact frame, offering bonus accuracy when ADSing and moving slowly or stationery. At base, by comparison with its peers, the stats are pretty average - d2foundry.gg calculates that 55 Range equates to 32.20m ADS and 20.13m hipfire before damage falloff, 49 Stability is ×1.1653 flinch resist at 100 Resilience, 24 Handling is 0.47s ready, 0.41s ADS and 0.46s stow speed, and 36 Reload Speed is a 2.12s reload. Recoil Direction is 65, and Zoom is 18, and Magazine size is 27 (max 45). With the handling and Recoil Direction both needing love, there's really only one barrel perk to choose - Arrowhead Brake. In the magazine perk slot, any of the combat effect mags are great or choose something that helps Reload Speed. For Strand builds, Tear or Slice in the first trait perk column provide an option to proc sever to reduce damage output from enemies to ×0.6 - Tear spreading sever in a AoE cloud on a crit kill, so good for tough groups of adds, or Slice to apply it up to three times on a hit after using your class ability, so better for single targets or bosses. In the second column Paracausal Affinity provides a ×1.2 damage boost for 6s following a darkness energy kill. The Crossing Over origin trait is a little strange, providing extra range and handling in the top half of the mag, and a damage boost in the bottom starting at ×1.015 at 50% and ×1.03 with your penultimate and last shot, while Gravity Well can be very useful to pick up ammo bricks within 5m on a manual reload. Recommended MW: Handling, with a Backup Mag mod or, when masterworked, Synergy to create Strand Tangles or, when the artifact mod's around, Stunloader.|tags:PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Arrowhead Brake Paracausal Affinity

Strong alternatives

Tear High-Caliber Rounds Slice Armor-Piercing Rounds Ricochet Rounds Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell

Inspired by @PodvsEnemies episode 141 from 27 May 2025 (https://open.spotify.com/episode/51wAzrVIRJRsBHGTMCLZ0n?si=fade7bb615184d3e) with @Saint_Kabr, @ImpetusAlways and @CourtProjects (PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE pick for clearing Minor adds in both general at-level or better, and end-game underleveled content, particularly with a Strand build. Relentless returns as a Strand high-impact frame, offering bonus accuracy when ADSing and moving slowly or stationery. At base, by comparison with its peers, the stats are pretty average - d2foundry.gg calculates that 55 Range equates to 32.20m ADS and 20.13m hipfire before damage falloff, 49 Stability is ×1.1653 flinch resist at 100 Resilience, 24 Handling is 0.47s ready, 0.41s ADS and 0.46s stow speed, and 36 Reload Speed is a 2.12s reload. Recoil Direction is 65, and Zoom is 18, and Magazine size is 27 (max 45). With the handling and Recoil Direction both needing love, there's really only one barrel perk to choose - Arrowhead Brake. In the magazine perk slot, any of the combat effect mags are great or choose something that helps Reload Speed. For Strand builds, Tear or Slice in the first trait perk column provide an option to proc sever to reduce damage output from enemies to ×0.6 - Tear spreading sever in a AoE cloud on a crit kill, so good for tough groups of adds, or Slice to apply it up to three times on a hit after using your class ability, so better for single targets or bosses. In the second column Hatchling completes the Strand synergy, generating a Threadling on a crit kill or after rapidly killing targets. The Crossing Over origin trait is a little strange, providing extra range and handling in the top half of the mag, and a damage boost in the bottom starting at ×1.015 at 50% and ×1.03 with your penultimate and last shot, while Gravity Well can be very useful to pick up ammo bricks within 5m on a manual reload. Recommended MW: Handling, with a Backup Mag mod or, when masterworked, Synergy to create Strand Tangles or, when the artifact mod's around, Stunloader.|tags:PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Hatchling Arrowhead Brake

Strong alternatives

Tear High-Caliber Rounds Slice Armor-Piercing Rounds Ricochet Rounds Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell

Inspired by @PodvsEnemies episode 141 from 27 May 2025 (https://open.spotify.com/episode/51wAzrVIRJRsBHGTMCLZ0n?si=fade7bb615184d3e) with @Saint_Kabr, @ImpetusAlways and @CourtProjects (PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE pick for clearing Minor adds in both general at-level or better, and end-game underleveled content. Relentless returns as a Strand high-impact frame, offering bonus accuracy when ADSing and moving slowly or stationery. At base, by comparison with its peers, the stats are pretty average - d2foundry.gg calculates that 55 Range equates to 32.20m ADS and 20.13m hipfire before damage falloff, 49 Stability is ×1.1653 flinch resist at 100 Resilience, 24 Handling is 0.47s ready, 0.41s ADS and 0.46s stow speed, and 36 Reload Speed is a 2.12s reload. Recoil Direction is 65, and Zoom is 18, and Magazine size is 27 (max 45). With the handling and Recoil Direction both needing love, there's really only one barrel perk to choose - Arrowhead Brake. In the magazine perk slot, any of the combat effect mags are great or choose something that helps Reload Speed. The trait perk combination of Firefly in the first trait perk column, which procs a 4m-wide solar explosion on a crit kill (and buffs Reload Speed by +50 for 6s) and Elemental Honing as as additional damage perk in the second should mean that a crit kill should proc two stacks from the two different energy types for a ×1.1 for 20s. Additional damage to enemies from different energy types (Stasis, Arc and Void, probably on a prismatic subclass) can boost this to ×1.35 at 5 stacks. The Crossing Over origin trait is a little strange, providing extra range and handling in the top half of the mag, and a damage boost in the bottom starting at ×1.015 at 50% and ×1.03 with your penultimate and last shot, while Gravity Well can be very useful to pick up ammo bricks within 5m on a manual reload. Recommended MW: Handling, with a Backup Mag mod or, when masterworked, Synergy to create Strand Tangles or, when the artifact mod's around, Stunloader.|tags:PvE PvE-MinorSpec PvE-God PvE-EndGame M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Arrowhead Brake Elemental Honing Firefly

Strong alternatives

High-Caliber Rounds Armor-Piercing Rounds Ricochet Rounds Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell