These two Destiny 2 Smite of Merain god rolls are pretty dissapointing compared to some of the weapons we got with the reintroduction of King’s Fall. Zaouli’s Bane, for example, is arguably the best gun in all of Destiny 2 right now. Even Midha’s Reckoning is a weapon well worth pursuing. Smite of Merain, on the other hand, comes up short. At least, it does in my humble yet experienced opinion.
Despite that, I’ve put together two Smite of Merain god rolls to try and make the weapon somewhat endgame viable in both PvE and PvP. This gun and its rolls are awkward. There are some great perks here, sure, but the column composition is weird and lacks any sort of cohesion. You’ll see what I mean when you jump into the rolls below.
Destiny 2 Smite of Merain God Rolls
Smite of Merain God Roll for PvE
- Arrowhead Break
- Accurized Rounds
- Demolitionist
- Firefly
I agonized over this Smite of Merain PvE god roll. There are three top-tier perks available on this weapon, and all three of them are in the fourth column. If even one of the three was in column three, this would be one of the best PvE pulse rifles in the META. None of them are, though, which sort of puts Smite of Merain up in the air for me.
Before diving into that, I’m going to go over Arrowhead Break and Accurized Rounds briefly. Arrowhead Break is arguably the best barrel perk in the entirety of Destiny 2. You can throw it on anything and it’ll perform well – there’s just nothing wrong with some increased handling and better recoil direction. Even on hand cannons – which you really want something like Full Bore on, Arrowhead will still perform perfectly adequately.
The same thing goes for Accurized Rounds. It’s a flat range buff, and almost every weapon in the game is going to benefit from that.
Now, columns three and four are where things get iffy for me. In column three, I’m running Demolitionist. This perk makes every kill with this Smite of Merain god roll regenerate 10% of our grenade energy. It’s a top-tier perk that works well with automatic, AD-clear weapons.
In column four, I’m running Firefly, and I hate that I am. Column four on Smite of Merain also has access to Swashbuckler, but more importantly – Adrenaline Junkie. Both of these perks are S-tier, but the combination of Adrenaline Junkie/Demolitionist is possibly my favorite roll in the entire game behind Osmosis/Demolitionist.
Both Swashbuckler and Adrenaline are scaling damage buff perks that increase the weapon’s damage with each kill, up to 33% at five kills for a short duration. Each kill you get refreshes the buff’s timer. However, Adrenaline Junkie also increases your weapon’s damage on grenade kills, so you’ve got a loop of increased weapon damage, followed by that weapon regenerating your grenade, then that grenade buffing your weapon – and so on.
Now, I’m not using that perk. Instead, I’m using Firefly and that’s what I meant when I said that if only Firefly, Swashbuckler, or Adrenaline Junkie was in column three this would be an S-tier weapon. Firefly is too good to pass up on an AD-clear weapon. It simply offers the gun too much value to not use, meaning we need to sacrifice the other two perks. Demolitionist does synergize pretty well with Firefly, getting Firefly kills cause Demolitionist to proc – resulting in crazy grenade regen. Despite that, the gun lacks that damage buff needed in higher-end PvE activities.
In anything below raids, this Smite of Merain god roll will shred. For raids and master content, though, I might give it a skip – or play around with the other potential roll combinations.
Smite of Merain God Roll for PvP
- Arrowhead Break
- Accurized Rounds
- Moving Target
- Adreneline Junkie
As far as PvP pulse rifles go, Smite of Merain sucks. At least, it does in my opinion. It lacks any of the staple META pulse rifle perks that make weapons like The Messanger and New Purpose so good. That’s going to be an unpopular opinion – a lot of high profile members of the Destiny community love this thing – and I think they’re crazy.
All the same, I’ve got to put together a Smite of Merain PvP god roll to go alongside my PvE one, so here it is.
I’m obviously keeping Arrowhead Break and Accurized Rounds on this roll. They’re just as good in PvP as they are in PvE, so there’s absolutely no reason to get rid of either of them. You can swap them out, if you want to, it ultimately doesn’t matter too much on a pulse rifle.
I’m swapping out Demolitionist for Moving Target. Demo isn’t all that useful in PvP, although it’s certainly a usable perk. Moving Target, on the other hand, is a top-tier Crucible perk, especially for players like me that migrated from console to PC. It gives you faster movement speed when your ADSing, which is nice, but the increased target aquisition means we get a slightly more forgiving hitbox on targets in the Crucible – a benefit that far outweighs everything else in this column.
For our last Smite of Merain PvP god roll perk, I’m running Adreneline Junkie. I’ve already talked about this perk at length, so there’s no need for me to go over it again. What I will say, though, is that it’s not all that great for PvP. Despite that, it’s best in class which speaks volumes as to how awkward the rolls on this weapon are. There’s no Outlaw or Kill Clip here, and that really hurts. Getting your Adreneline Junkie buff active consistently, and at a high tier, is going to be tremendously difficult – but you don’t have many other options.
Overall, I would avoid taking this thing into the Crucible despite what some YouTubers might tell you. Still, try it out for yourself. Maybe you’ll think they’re right and I’m wrong – who knows?
