Destiny Guide: The Best Rolls for The Clever Dragon
By Weston Albert 06 November 2016
Iron Banner is active in Destiny this week, and it brings with it The Clever Dragon, a top-tier pulse rifle that every player of PvP should be chasing.
Last time Iron Banner came to Destiny, fans discovered a new weapon that had been added in the Year 3 iteration of the monthly PvP event, a pulse rifle called The Clever Dragon. What makes it so special? It is in the same archetype as the Grasp of Malok, a pulse rifle that some fans have spent hours farming, but was only available as a random drop from the Omnigul strike.
November’s Iron Banner is now live in Destiny, and The Clever Dragon is in the loot pool for post-match rewards and available for purchase from Lady Efrideet, the new Iron Banner vendor atop Felwinter Peak.
But what rolls should you be looking for? What’s worth keeping, and what rolls are infusion fuel?
Buy the Vendor Version
Some players just have bad RNG, and will never get a good drop (and for the truly unlucky, maybe not even a drop) of The Clever Dragon. Regardless, the roll available at Lady Efrideet is a must-buy.
Its perk tree includes Perfect Balance and Braced Frame in the first column, Snapshot and Casket Mag in the second, and Counterbalance and Life Support in the third. Configuring this with Perfect Balance, Snapshot, and Counterbalance should provide a snappy pulse rifle with extremely low vertical recoil and horizontal sway. Truly, Counterbalance on this archetype of pulse rifle is a MUST, so the vendor roll is also putting most players in the right spot. That, combined with Braced Frame already has the vendor Clever Dragon in a very good spot, but there are a few other perks worth pursuing as well.
Other perks to look for
While Braced Frame is a solid option in the first column, those wanting to push The Clever Dragon’s range out further will want to look for Hammer Forged. Alternatively, for a balance of both increased range and stability, Smallbore is a great option but the trade off will be to reload speed and magazine size.
In the second column Quickdraw is also a viable option as it will make weapon handling faster and it will make switching to The Clever Dragon even faster. That can be a big advantage, especially for snipers who want to switch quickly after a body shot to clean up a kill. High Caliber Rounds is also becoming quite popular in the Destiny community, as it will stagger opponents, increasing the flinch (a.k.a. how much their reticle moves when hit by rounds).
Popular choices in the third column are Headseeker, which gives extra damage to precision hits after landing some body shots first. For a fast firing pulse like The Clever Dragon, this can often be very effective, as many shots are sure to hit the body with the recoil leading up to deliver those damaging headshots. Many people also like Outlaw, which dramatically increases reload speed on a precision kill. With a magazine that will take many of its shots to kill being able to reload quickly is a definite advantage.
Iron Banner is live now, and will run until reset on Tuesday, November 15.
Destiny: Rise of Iron is available now on PS4 and Xbox One.
