Video for those who haven’t done it yet.
I need to use it more, but so far, I’m actually quite enjoying it. It doesn’t seem super strong or anything (especially when something like Ager’s Scepter exists), but it seems pretty solid. Feels like a solid workhorse gun to me. Once we’re able to get the catalyst (correct me if I’m wrong, but nobody’s gotten it yet), it’ll be pretty nice in a stasis shard setup. My one wish is that it got a damage boost from collecting shards as well, because never reloading is nice, but feels slightly lacking. It would also fit the theme of the gun, being a gift from Xivu Arath to basically tithe as the Hive do with the sword logic.
The thing making me want to use it a lot going forward is the look. It looks simply amazing; very unique styling. It almost reminds me of Alchemist’s Raiment from D1 with the lights.
What does everyone else think of it?
I tried comparing it head to head in 2x runs of Terminal Overload against the Glassando which Banshee just sold (both at 1810); Wicked has a +10 range/stability but is otherwise on par for stats. Against the red bars you can get that exotic damage buff (for example, from the same close distance 2 shots from Wicked vs. 3 shots from Glassando to take out a Cabal ground turrent) - it was roughly ~3300 vs ~4700 (it varied on how well the shots were placed, Vex are hard) for precision damage but sometimes up to 6700 on Wicked with a beefy red bar Colossus but sometimes lower like 2200 even for Wicked.
Once we moved onto orange/yellows though, the advantage disappeared - so shot for shot (a lot of body shots on those angels during the last phase, boss precision, etc.) from both guns was even at normal distance you’d use a scout for this kind of fighting. Maybe the shots slowed enemies, it was hard to tell - there were no champs so not sure if it stuns or not or how many shots it takes, but that perk just felt… underwhelming. By the time I collected the shard I’d already reloaded most of the time, as I was in the “keep shooting fast” type of scenario (not a ranged plinker one like say a GM). It might help though with the stasis fragment which grants overshields on shards, need to test that. But that limits it to a specific subclass benefit and I’m enjoying strand Warlock right now (I played this char/class to get Wicked).
The jury is still out, but it’s sort of OK but not knocking my socks off compared to Glassando as a direct competitor other than red bar damage. In contrast, I just started leveling Transfiguration up (150 raid scout) yesterday and took it into the Cosmodrome 2A legend lost sector and even at cheesy level 1 beginner perks that thing shredded the overload Vandals and the final boss from a distance and I can eventually craft some really good perks on it.