Despite technically existing in Destiny 2 since launch, Trace Rifles have only just begun to see their time in the sun thanks to the rise of double special loadouts with Lightfall. Chances are you weren’t prepared for that, and now you need to know what to run. Well, aren’t you lucky I’m here? I’ll be going through the best Trace Rifles in Destiny 2, and ranking them. If you’re trying to put together a new double special loadout, these are the weapons you want to run.
Ager’s Scepter
Element: Stasis
Source: Monument to Lost Light
Best For: PvE and PvP
Ager’s Scepter is the best Trace Rifle in Destiny 2, and it’s not even close. That being said, it’s got a much lower usage rate than most Legendary Traces. That’s because it fulfills a different purpose to those, and it just so happens that Legendary Trace Rifles are in fashion as of Lightfall. Still, this weapon defines the potential of the Stasis subclass and amplifies it to new heights.
In case you don’t know what it does, Ager’s Scepter fires a Stasis beam. When you get a kill with it, it causes the target to emit a slowing blast. To simplify that, kill one Add and everything next to it will freeze. It refills your mag when you get kills, too. Ager’s Scepter also has an alt-fire mode that consumes super energy but it’s actually worth it. This mode makes the beam itself freeze and is a phenomenal Champion counter in high-end content.
Acasia’s Dejection
Element: Solar
Source: Root of Nightmares Raid
Best For: PvE
Root of Nightmares launched to mixed reception. Regardless of what you think about the raid, though, there’s no denying the weapons are awesome. Not only do they look sick, but they almost all have phenomenal god rolls that’ll make many of them META in PvE and PvP. None of them moreso than Acasia’s Dejection, though, now that we’re in a double special Trace Rifle META.
Acasia’s Dejection is craftable, which is always a nice touch. It’s also a Raid weapon, meaning there’s an Adapt version of it up for grabs if you’d prefer to go that route. Either way, you’re looking for one of two god rolls. You either want Rewind Rounds with Target Lock or Incandescent. Target Lock will be the go-to for a DPS Trace, but Incandescent should be your first-choice pick. Trace Rifles are used for Add-clear in double special loadouts, and that’s exactly what Incandescent was designed for.
Retraced Path
Element: Solar
Source: 30th Anniversary Activities
Best For: PvE
Much like Acasia’s Dejection, Retraced Path lives and dies by the fact that it’s craftable and rolls with Incandescent. The only reason I’ve put it lower on the list is the fact that it’s harder to get red borders of this weapon than it is for Raid weapons. You could be grinding for months for a full set of Deepsights for Retraced Path, while it won’t take you any longer than five weeks for Acasia’s.
However, there’s an argument to be made that Retraced Path is the better of the two, and in fact possibly the best Legendary Trace Rifle in Destiny 2. We’ve already talked about Incandescent, but rather than roll with Rewind Rounds, this gets Subsistence. Personally, I prefer that perk over Rewind, but both of them serve the same purpose well. I would recommend farming for an Acasia’s, and keeping an eye out for Retraced Path.
Divinity
Element: Solar
Source: Garden of Salvation Exotic quest
Best For: Raid boss encounters
Everybody and their mother knows about Divinity. If you don’t, you’re either brand-spanking new to the game, or terrified of trying to find a raid team. Not only do you need to finish a raid to get Divinity, but all of its strengths lie in raid encounters, too. In fact, if I was writing this list a few short months ago, not only would Divinity be at the top of this list, but it’d be one of the best weapons in the entire game, full stop.
When you fire Divinity at a target, it causes a bubble to grow around them. This bubble acts as a crit spot, allowing your teammates to shoot it. It also amplifies damage done this way. The benefits of this are two-fold. First, it makes it easy to maximize damage on enemies with hard-to-hit crit spots like Rhulk. Secondly, it used to increase your damage by 30%, and that was massive. So massive that Bungie cut it in half to 15%, so now you only really see Divinity when a boss is hard to hit. Still, it’s META in enough stuff to be S-tier.
Wavesplitter
Element: Void
Source: Exotic Engrams
Best For: PvE
People are sleeping on Wavesplitter. This Trace Rifle got a sleeper buff with Lightfall and is now one of the best Trace Rifles in all of Destiny 2. It fires a laser that has three power levels. These levels oscillate while you’re holding the trigger down. However, picking up an Orb of Power grants you a free reload, and a temporary period of the max power level, as well as making the beam Suppress targets.
Orbs are everywhere since the mod system changes, meaning it’s really not hard to maintain a high uptime on this mode. What’s more important, though, is the fact that those Orbs let you maintain a Supressing beam. In Master and Grandmaster contact, Suppress is an incredible subclass verb. It can carry you through encounters, and having access to a laser that applies it is incredible. You’d typically use a Grenade Launcher with Blinding Grenades to achieve this, but Wavesplitter does it better.
Coldheart
Element: Arc
Source: Exotic Engrams
Best For: PvE
Coldheart is the OG of Trace Rifles. It was a preorder bonus Exotic from when Destiny 2 launched, and even now all these years later, it’s still one of the best Trace Rifles in the game, granted that’s thanks to a rework Bungie gave the weapon. Originally, Coldheart’s whole Exotic selling point was that it is a Trace Rifle. These days, that doesn’t cut it.
Following a rework, Coldheart now has the ability to inherently generate Ionic Traces. It also increases its damage the longer you shoot a single target. Ionic Traces, out of all the subclass 3.0 Elemental Well replacements, are the easiest to spawn. That admittedly limits Coldheart’s potential, but not by much. Any weapon capable of spawning buffs that interact with your subclass is going to be worth using, even if it is for Arc.
Path of Least Resistance
Element: Arc
Source: No longer obtainable
Best For: PvE
When Season 19 dropped, all anyone was talking about was Voltshot. A whole bunch of weapons rolled with this new perk, but eventually all the hype distilled into the Ikelos SMG, with the power of that weapon overshadowing others, even if they rolled with Voltshot as Path of Least Resistance does. That being said, anyone playing high-end PvE knows just how powerful this Trace Rifle can be.
Immediately, I would recommend not running Voltshot here. Sure, the perk is great, but Trace Rifles are not designed to be constantly reloaded. Instead, I would recommend Subsistence or Triple Tap and either One for All, Dragonfly, or Gutshot Straight. That’s going to give you an incredibly powerful Add-clear special weapon that takes advantage of Trace Rifle’s inherent strengths. You can run Voltshot if you want, but it will be suboptimal.
Hollow Denial
Element: Void
Source: No longer obtainable
Best For: PvE
When you’re playing PvE with a Trace Rifle user, it’s generally either Path of Least Resistance or Hollow Denial that they’re using. Both of these Traces were seasonal weapons, meaning it was easy to get them crafted, so a lot of players use them out of convenience. As time goes on, though, and more people get access to Retraced Path and Acasia’s Dejection, you can expect to see those numbers fall off.
In the meantime, though, they’re both incredibly popular. In particular, Hollow Denial has a few more niche use cases compared to Path of Least Resistance. It doesn’t roll with Subsistence, which hurts, but it does roll Lead from Gold which is an S-tier perk for double special loadouts. In column four, though, it gets Killing Talley, Dragonfly, Swashbuckler, and Unrelenting – all of which are viable god roll picks. Alternatively, Repulsor Brace is also an option for all you Void mains out there.
Prometheus Lens
Element: Arc
Source: Exotic Engrams
Best For: PvE and PvP
There was a very brief, but very fun time in Destiny history when Prometheus Lens was META in PvP. People lovingly refer to that period as “laser tag weekend”, because that’s what it felt like you were playing. Prometheus Lens fires a beam that generates a bubble where it hits, similar to Divinity. That bubble deals damage, though, and grows the longer you fire.
If you can imagine 12 Guardians all shooting each other with this thing, you can see where the whole “laser tag” bit came from. Aside from that bit of history, though, Prometheus Lens has never been anything significant. It’s far from the best Trace Rifle in Destiny 2, even if it is a whole lot of fun to use. Admittedly, Prometheus suffers from being an old-school weapon that hasn’t gotten a rework, which kills its viability. Maybe it’ll be META one day, but it’s pretty mediocre for now.
Ruinous Effigy
Element: Void
Source: Monument to Lost Light
Best For: PvE
I love gimmicky Exotics, even if they’re not great. Not every Exotic weapon needs to be META, they just need to be different and unique. That’s the case with Ruinous Effigy – a Trace Rifle that’s incredibly fun to use, but one that I don’t think I’ve ever seen out in the wild. That may be because of its Exotic effect, which causes your final blows to create throwable Void spheres.
If the Corrupted Nightfall has taught us anything, it’s that blueberries don’t know how to throw balls. So, a weapon that’s all about creating them doesn’t seem ideal. However, the spheres do have a number of unique effects which, when wielded properly by a skilled Guardian, can actually be surprisingly effective. However, you’re relying on either yourself or your teammates to have those skills, and that’s never a good thing. It may be fun, but you’ll be struggling to make it work.
Conclusion
That was the best Trace Rifles in Destiny 2 ranked, as of Lightfall. As time has gone on, Traces have moved more and more into the META spotlight. While only high-end players are taking advantage of them right now, everyone should be experimenting with them. Trace Rifles are fun, powerful, and enable you to build around having no primary weapons in your loadout – maximizing your DPS potential.
