Watchful Eye god roll & best perks

Watchful Eye — Destiny 2 Machine Gun
Legendary · Machine Gun
Where it drops: Random Perks: This item cannot be reacquired from Collections.

“A Guardian is first watchful, that they might know right action.”

Full perk pool, stats & source for Watchful Eye →

Built from 600 curated wishlist rolls for this Machine Gun. Perks marked essential appear in every roll of a recommendation; alternatives are the other perks curators call worth keeping.

Recommended rolls

Community wishlist roll

240 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for sustained DPS in a damage phase against a single yellow-bar target in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty, particular with Arc builds. Watchful Eye is an aggressive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame PvE by @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "best balance of DPS and total amongst LMGs, stagger intrinsic good". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Unstoppable, but no other benefit as per the Destiny Data Compendium. The recoil direction is right and loose so you could improve recoil control or look to boost Stability to help hit crits, or Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size work best for a boss damage roll. For a sustained damage roll with Arc builds, in the first trait perk column Overflow refills the magazine and boosts its capacity to ×2.2 of base, rounded up, on picking up an ammo brick, or Eddy Current boosts Handling with a ×0.95 animation scalar and +20 Reload Speed with a ×0.95 animation scalar for 3s after sprinting for 1.5s, which is all applied instantly with +60 to Reload Speed when Amplified. Alternatively, Field Prep grants +55 Reload Speed with a ×0.8 animation scalar to both reload and ready/stow when crouched, and bumps Ammo Generation by +40. In the second column for both target and AoE damage, Jolting Feedback applies Arc Jolt after 14 hits (11 when Amplified) to tougher enemies who can survive the weapon damage, triggering chain lightning on further hits, or Rolling Storm generates ×1 stack of Arc Bolt Charge (×2 when Amplified) on a kill, to trigger a lightning bolt at ×10 stacks. Aegis ranks the Willing Vessel origin trait as C-Tier - it generates up to ×5 stacks of a slowly decaying buff on dealing damage and kills, to boost Stability, Handling and Reload Speed. If you're interested, the name carries a deeper narrative meaning that ties directly into vanguard espionage, internal paranoia, and the monitoring of corrupted allies during Episode: Heresy. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Strong alternatives

Arrowhead Brake Extended Mag Overflow Jolting Feedback Rolling Storm Eddy Current Field Prep Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

Community wishlist roll

240 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for sustained DPS in a damage phase against a single yellow-bar target in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty. Watchful Eye is an aggressive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame PvE by @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "best balance of DPS and total amongst LMGs, stagger intrinsic good". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Unstoppable, but no other benefit as per the Destiny Data Compendium. The recoil direction is right and loose so you could improve recoil control or look to boost Stability to help hit crits, or Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size work best for a boss damage roll. For a sustained damage roll with Arc builds, in the first trait perk column Overflow refills the magazine and boosts its capacity to ×2.2 of base, rounded up, on picking up an ammo brick, or on an Arc subclass Eddy Current boosts Handling with a ×0.95 animation scalar and +20 Reload Speed with a ×0.95 animation scalar for 3s after sprinting for 1.5s, which is all applied instantly with +60 to Reload Speed when Amplified. Alternatively, Field Prep grants +55 Reload Speed with a ×0.8 animation scalar to both reload and ready/stow when crouched, and bumps Ammo Generation by +40. In the second column for damage, Killing Tally gains a stack for each enemy killed up to ×3 to boost damage by up to ×1.3 until you reload or stow. If there are adds arounding during damage, Surrounded boosts damage by up to to ×1.47 while within 15m of 3+ enemies. Aegis ranks the Willing Vessel origin trait as C-Tier - it generates up to ×5 stacks of a slowly decaying buff on dealing damage and kills, to boost Stability, Handling and Reload Speed. If you're interested, the name carries a deeper narrative meaning that ties directly into vanguard espionage, internal paranoia, and the monitoring of corrupted allies during Episode: Heresy. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Strong alternatives

Killing Tally Arrowhead Brake Extended Mag Overflow Surrounded Eddy Current Field Prep Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

Community wishlist roll

80 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for sustained DPS in a damage phase against a single yellow-bar target in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty, particular with Prismatic builds. Watchful Eye is an aggressive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame PvE by @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "best balance of DPS and total amongst LMGs, stagger intrinsic good". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Unstoppable, but no other benefit as per the Destiny Data Compendium. The recoil direction is right and loose so you could improve recoil control or look to boost Stability to help hit crits, or Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size work best for a boss damage roll. For a sustained damage roll with Prismatic builds, in the first trait perk column Overflow refills the magazine and boosts its capacity to ×2.2 of base, rounded up, on picking up an ammo brick. Alternatively, Field Prep grants +55 Reload Speed with a ×0.8 animation scalar to both reload and ready/stow when crouched, and bumps Ammo Generation by +40. In the second column for damage Elemental Honing grants an escalating stack of damage up to ×1.35 for 23s for each elemental damage type inflicted, which can be refreshed with a new damage type until you've run through all 5. Aegis ranks the Willing Vessel origin trait as C-Tier - it generates up to ×5 stacks of a slowly decaying buff on dealing damage and kills, to boost Stability, Handling and Reload Speed. If you're interested, the name carries a deeper narrative meaning that ties directly into vanguard espionage, internal paranoia, and the monitoring of corrupted allies like Sloane during Episode: Heresy. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Elemental Honing

Strong alternatives

Arrowhead Brake Extended Mag Overflow Field Prep Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

Community wishlist roll

40 wishlist rolls

Constructed by @Adamsdown_Boy (PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller): First-choice PvE roll for sustained DPS in a damage phase against a single yellow-bar target in activities rated Normal, Hard or Very Hard difficulty. Watchful Eye is an aggressive LMG, which are rated B-Tier for endgame PvE by @TheAegisRelic Endgame Analysis Spreadsheet​, who says "best balance of DPS and total amongst LMGs, stagger intrinsic good". The frame intrinsic offers built in Anti-Unstoppable, but no other benefit as per the Destiny Data Compendium. The recoil direction is right and loose so you could improve recoil control or look to boost Stability to help hit crits, or Handling if you can land your shots. In the magazine perk slot, perks that improve Reload Speed or mag size work best for a boss damage roll. For a sustained damage roll with Arc builds, in the first trait perk column Overflow refills the magazine and boosts its capacity to ×2.2 of base, rounded up, on picking up an ammo brick. In the second column for damage, Target Lock stacks up to 5 times on repeated hits within 0.2s of each other for up to ×1.4 damage at 110.33% of base magazine capacity - so works best on overflowed or auto-refilled magazines. Aegis ranks the Willing Vessel origin trait as C-Tier - it generates up to ×5 stacks of a slowly decaying buff on dealing damage and kills, to boost Stability, Handling and Reload Speed. If you're interested, the name carries a deeper narrative meaning that ties directly into vanguard espionage, internal paranoia, and the monitoring of corrupted allies during Episode: Heresy. Recommended MW: Handling, with your preferred choice of mod to boost weapon stats, ammo generation, or elemental pickups for builds.|tags:PvE PvE-Boss PvE-SustainedDamage PvE-EndGame PvE-God M+KB Controller

Essential perks

Target Lock Overflow

Strong alternatives

Arrowhead Brake Extended Mag Appended Mag Alloy Magazine Flared Magwell Light Mag Chambered Compensator Extended Barrel Fluted Barrel Corkscrew Rifling Polygonal Rifling Smallbore Hammer-Forged Rifling

What these Watchful Eye perks do

Elemental Honing

Dealing Elemental Damage grants a stack of Elemental Honing for 20 seconds for each unique Element used. Maximum of 5 stacks. Gaining a stack refreshes the buff duration. Duration cannot be refreshed once at 5 stacks. Buff can be activated while stowed. Kinetic Damage does not trigger the buff. Weapon damage increase at 1|2|3|4|5 stacks by weapon damage type: • Kinetic: 10%|20%|30%|35%|40% • Elemental (PVE): 2.5%|10%|20%|30%|35% • Elemental (PVP): 1.25%|5%|20%|30%|35%

Overflow

Upon picking up Special or Heavy Ammo: Refills and Overfills the Magazine from reserves. Overfill amount maxes out at 100% of the Magazine Capacity. Activates even while stowed.

Field Prep

Grants the following while Crouched: • 50 Reload Speed • 0.8x Reload Duration Multiplier • 0.8x Ready/Stow Duration Multiplier Passively grants 20 Ammo Generation stat. (50% more than 1 Ammo Generation armor mod)

Alloy Magazine

Linearly grants a Reload Duration Multiplier as your magazine drops from 50% capacity to empty. Reload Duration Multiplier scales from 0.9x at 50% capacity to 0.8x with an empty magazine.

Jolting Feedback

Scoring multiple Direct Hits with the weapon within 3 seconds of each causes the next Direct Hit to apply Jolt. Being Amplified decreases the number of Hits required. Hits needed to activate normally | while Amplified: • Submachine Guns, Trace Rifles: 18 | 13 • Machine Guns: 16 | 11 • Auto Rifles: 15 | 11 • Pulse Rifles: 14 | 9 • Sidearms: 10 | 7 • Rocket Pulse Rifle: 8 | 5 • Scout Rifles, Hand Cannons: 7 | 6 • Swords: 6 | 4 • Glaives, Linear Fusion Rifles: 4 | 3 • Rocket Sidearm, Sniper Rifle?: 4 | 2 • Bows, Grenade Launchers: 3 | 2 • Shotguns, Aggressive Frame Fusion Rifle: 3|1

Rolling Storm

Weapon Kills grant 1 Stack of Bolt Charge. While Amplified, this is increased to 2 Stacks.

Eddy Current

Grants the following after sprinting for 1.5 seconds with the weapon readied: • 20 Reload Speed • 0.95x Reload Duration Multiplier • ? Handling • 0.95x Handling Animation Duration Multiplier Sprinting refreshes the buff duration. Being Amplified removes the sprinting requirement and increases the Reload Speed stat bonus to 60.

Killing Tally

Weapon Kills grant a Stack of Killing Tally. Maximum of 3 Stacks. Stowing or reloading the weapon removes all Stacks. Damage increase at 1|2|3 Stacks: • PVE: 10% | 20% | 30% • PVP: 5% | 10% | 15%

Surrounded

Being within 15 meters of 3 Enemies grants 40% increased damage. Buff lingers for 1.5 seconds once the condition is no longer met. Exceptions: • Swords only receive a 35% damage increase. • Grenade and Rocket Launchers receive a 35% Explosive Damage increase and a 40% Impact Damage increase. • Wolfpack Rounds receive a 35% Explosive Damage increase.

Target Lock

Successive Hits within 0.2 seconds of each grant a ramping Damage Buff after scoring 12.5% of the Magazine Capacity as hits. Missing deactivates the buff. Stacks displayed on-screen are only visual aides, the buff ramps up with each shot once active. Reaches maximum strength at 5 Stacks. % of the Magazine Capacity as Hits required for each Visual Stack: 12.5%|35.5%|54.5%|74.5%|110.33% Damage Buff ramps up from 16.73% [10.46%] to 40% [25%] upon reaching maximum strength. Assuming no missed shots, it provides roughly a 25% [15.85%] Damage Buff on average after firing 100% of the Magazine Capacity.

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

Watchful Eye in Destiny 2

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