Hand Cannon recommendations (Destiny)

by Durandal, Sunday, June 12, 2016, 21:40 (2897 days ago) @ Oholiab

High Impact - (87/90)
Judith-D: Hits like a truck but ultimately fires too slow. I've tried it but you get outshot in PVP. In PVE you really need some reload perks.
Vanity can be ok.
Uffern works well in crucible with the right perks.

Mid Impact - (81)
Most good handcannons fall in this category. Like by gone but not forgotten Chance from Y1. They all have the same base RoF stat of 32, so the big selector is range and perks.
Lord High Fixer, Finnalla's Peril, Imago Loop, and Eyasluna all have the highest range stat. This is the key to why people like these the most, as the range on top of an additional range boosting perk means they handle well and have good target acquisition.

In PVE range isn't as important. I've gone through KF and CoE with Zoauli's Bane, which has a range stat of 15, less then half of the above HCs. You mainly have trouble shooting Acolytes at ranges where Pulses and Scouts still take them out easily. Generally, you can just advance and oneshot the lower mobs with satisfying firefly explosions.

Low Impact (68-71)
All the low impact HCs suffer from low range stats, and the magazine size and reload speed doesn't go up enough to compensate for the lower DPS. For example "Stolen Pride" has 3 fewer rounds, and only 5 extra points of reload speed vs. Eyasluna. While the low impact class is pretty smooth with low recoil and a faster RoF, it just doesn't feel worth it most of the time vs. the big hitters in the medium category. Aside from The Last Word, you just can't spam shots like you used too without having them vanish.

Recommendations;

For PVP:
Eyasluna With Surshot/Truesight - Rangefinder/Hidden Hand - Rifled Barrel Snapshot/Hammerforged/Small Bore
Finnalla's Peril with the same
Imago Loop with the same

I tend to go with max range over reload or lucky bullets, on the presumption that I have to hit with 3 shots anyway and maximizing this is better then relying on a lucky hit. That being said, Judith-D can two shot with a lucky bullet to the head, but you have to make the shots because a miss drops it from the fastest TTK to the lowest given its slow fire rate.

For PVE:
Anything with Firefly, especially one of the 81 impact high base range guns.

For fun:
Uffern with Luck in the chamber and outlaw. Paired with hand cannon loader arms, a headshot kill will grant you very fast reloads.