Over the last year, Bung has been making changes to our kinetic weapons to make them more worthwhile to use, which they definitely needed since there wasn’t really much of a point in using them over stasis weapons back in the day. With the launch of Lifefall, though, Bunny scaled stasis weapon back to no longer have that 5% damage bonus versus unshielded targets in PVE.
Changes to Kinetic Weapons in Gaming
Additionally, giving kinetic damage weapons a decent buff by increasing their damage multiplier. Some folks seem to forget this, but kinetic primary ammo weapons were increased from a 1.05 multiplier to 1.1, and kinetic special ammo weapons were increased from a 1.05 multiplier to a 1.15 multiplier.
Depending on if you’re in an activity that has surge active, and if your subclass is matching the Surge, this too will grant your kinetic weapons an additional 25% damage bonus.
The Introduction of Kinetic Trimmers
Now, a new perk was also introduced around this time, exclusive to kinetic weapons, which is the focus of today’s article – kinetic trimmers. Nearly three seasons later, the reason for focusing on this perk is its impending changes next season, which are expected to make kinetic trimmers even better.
Future of Kinetic Weapons
We’re continuing to look at kinetic and have something planned in a year of the final shaped timeline that may make them a little more unique. But maybe it’s time for that kinetic subclass. Now, this could be complete speculation to say that kinetic weapons could be the meta in the near future. Bungie’s already publicly come out and said that next week they’re going to be going over all the stasis changes, which is making us speculate whether or not next season is going to be very stasis heavy in regards to the meta.
Overview of Kinetic Trimmers in Weaponry
It’s still going to be a bit before we get it. Now, whether or not we get a kinetic subclass down the road or something that ties into our kinetic weapons, or whatever other various buffs Bungie may give to kinetic weapons, regardless, where we are now, kinetic trimmers is one of the best perks you can have on your kinetic weapon.
Today, we’re going to be taking a look at the changes that are coming to this perk. We’re also going to look at some of the hypothetical numbers for next season and give you a rundown of the weapons you need to be keeping with kinetic trimmers.
Kinetic Trimmers: Shock Wave Perk Explained
Now, I’m sure most people watching already know what kinetic trimmers does, but for those who don’t, the perk reads: sustained kinetic damage to a target emits a shock wave that damages any nearby targets. To activate the perk, you need to score the amount of hits necessary versus your target within 3 seconds of each other, which will emit three shock waves of damage.
Weapon-Specific Kinetic Trimmer Requirements
It’s different for every weapon. For submachine guns, it’s 14 hits; pulse rifles and sidearms, it’s 12 hits; hand cannons and scout rifles, it’s six hits; and for sniper rifles, it’s three. It’s a fun perk, granted for certain weapons, not necessarily the most meta perk, especially in comparison to energy counterparts.
When it comes to clearing out ads, most people like incandescent or vot shots or even destabilizing grounds. Personally, I think it’s that perfect middle ground right where it does a good job clearing ads but mainly it’s able to do sustained damage against meatier targets.
Upcoming Season Changes to Kinetic Trimmers
What’s changing next season? Detailed in Bungie’s season 23 weapons preview blog post, they wanted to make the activation requirements more consistent across archetypes. So, they’re changing the amount of hits needed to trigger on some weapons.
For pulse rifles, for the base perk, they reduce shots required or bullets landed from 12 to 11. Enhance actually is going up, so enhance is getting worse here, from 9 to 10.
Nonb Sarps, for example, Buzzer the Comon trade, is being reduced from 12 to 8, which is a substantial improvement. The enhance is going from 9 to 7, so all around net buffs here.
Specific Weapon Focus: Buzzard and Others
Now, out of all these changes, the one I’m most excited for is for SARS. Look, I’m not saying that Buzzard’s going to be the meta, but going from 12 to now 8 at base, and then 9 to 7 at enhance for potential future sidearms, that’s huge. This has been one of the main things holding Buzzard back, outside of course being a sidearm.
It’s those shots needed to activate, considering it only has 16 bullets in a magazine. You’re left with only four shots after getting that kinetic trimmer to proc, and that’s if you land the 12 shots needed to begin with.
Comparing Kinetic Trimmer Weapons: From Spare Rations to Showrunner
Now, we looked at some of the kinetic trimmer damage values previously in our Showrunner review as we wanted to compare some of the top options. We’re going to be revisiting that list with some additional weapons included.
Currently, there are 11 unique weapons that can roll with kinetic trimmers, and three of those are craftable. We have spare rations, battle scar, chattering bone (which is craftable), the messenger, hung jury, nameless midnight, Ry’s throwing knife, Transfiguration (which is craftable), Buzzard, the supremacy (which is also craftable), and Showrunner.
Anticipated Changes to Kinetic Trimmers in the Upcoming Season
I’m most excited to be using Buzzard. The biggest issue with Buzzard right now is that it just takes too many shots to proc kinetic trimmers, and it doesn’t have the ammo economy to justify using it. That’s all going to be changing next season.
Now, these changes aren’t necessarily changing your GPS per se, since there’s no actual increase to the damage that kinetic trimmers is outputting. But it’s worth noting that Buzzard does have the highest individual kinetic trimmer damage and the highest DPS amongst these weapons, outside of course Supremacy.
Next Season: Buzzard’s Enhanced Damage and Dual Kinetic Trimmers
But what will be changing is your total damage, more importantly, your forgiveness. Theoretically, next season, Buzzard should be outputting 159,160 damage per mag with kinetic trimmers, which will now be able to proc twice per base magazine.
Upcoming Adjustments to Buzzard and Kinetic Trimmers
Now, keep in mind, unless you have a MAG perk or something actually boosting your mag size, this is going to require you to be 100% accurate. There’s also going to be a 2-second delay before you can proc kinetic trimmers again, so you very well could just reload instead of waiting to shoot again. Where you’re really going to be noticing this difference, though, is when it just comes to procing it that first time. And of course, parts that grant you more ammo, whether that be four times the charm or the combination I wish I had, that being overflow in kinetic trimmers.
Sly Buzzard Leaves Nightfall, Legacy Focusing Available at Zavala
Now Sly Buzzard is leaving the Nightfall rotation, and if you missed the week of October the 17th, well then FOMO is about to set in. But you can focus for the non-adept version still at Zavala, and you can do that even next season. It’ll be available for legacy focusing. So if you don’t care about it being Adept, you can just focus one right now, guys, and actually, it’ll be slightly cheaper than the Legacy focusing price next season.
Again, I’m not saying Buzzard is going to define the meta, but it is one of those that I’m going to keep in my vault just in case. It puts out kinetic trimmer procs more often on it, and it’s going to put out even more.
Pulse Rifles: Chattering Bone and Battle Scar Analysis
Next up, I want to take a look at pulse rifles, more specifically Chattering Bone with enhanced kinetic trimmers and Battle Scar with the base kinetic trimmers. Now, unfortunately, I don’t have the Messenger with kinetic trimmers, but to be quite honest with you, I’m not that crazy about high impacts inside a PVE.
Next season, the difference between base and enhanced is only going to be by one shot, so in my opinion, it’s not really going to be worth enhancing. Yes, your total damage per mag is going to be high as you can pull off three kinetic trimmer procs per mag, but like.
Analysis of Kinetic Trimmers on Pulse Rifles
I mentioned before that you would have to wait for the activation delay to be over, and the only perk that can feed us ammo here on Shattering Bone is Discord. With that being said, there’s no perk on Battlecore that produces ammo either, at least not with the ease of use that I would love to see. Granted, what are the chances Bungie gives us a triple tap kinetic trimmer pulse rifle? It’s just not going to happen, but I still think kinetic trimmers is going to be great on pulse rifles. It deals solid DPS and the total damage, although it is lagging behind things like Buzzard and Showrunner, it’s still good.
Upcoming Buffs to Pulse Rifles in PVE
Now, do keep in mind we’re receiving a buff to pulse rifle damage inside PVE – 12.5% to be exact against red and orange bars. All of this testing we actually didn’t even factor in that 12.5% increase in damage. Again, we’re going to be testing this extensively next season, but pulse rifles actually look pretty good. No line Battlecar with a MAG perk, plus Shoot to Loot and Kinetic Trimmers in combination with Fil Tested, would be my go-to pulse rifle, even over Chattering Bone.
Impact of Changes on Supremacy and Sniper Rifles
The last weapon I want to look at is Supremacy. Now, there isn’t any direct change coming to Kinetic Trimmers for sniper rifles next season, but sniper rifles are getting a significant buff. Matter of fact, we just covered that 15% buff, and this is going to affect everything with SP: The Worm, Darcy, Cloud Strike, Izanagi’s Burden, even Honed Edge.
Theoretically, Kinetic Trimmer damage should be going up with the sniper rifle buff. We’re going to wait and see though, and get those pre- and post-damage values. But keep in mind that Supremacy is already doing excellent damage, with a combined DPS of 73.56 with Kinetic Trimmers, with a total damage of 265,000 – the best bang for your buck out of all the weapons with Kinetic Trimmers, even though it had less DPS than something like Buzzard.
But next season, it’s going to be hard to argue against Buzzard being the top dog when it comes to that Kinetic Trimmer combination.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
For right now, I urge everyone to go to Zal, turn in some of your engrams if you got any, and try to get yourself a good Buzzard with Kinetic Trimmers for next season. At the same time, Bungie could just give us a craftable kinetic sarm with Kinetic Trimmers in Season of the Wish, and then we’ll be really cooking.
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