Not even Act 2’s Artifact can save Destiny 2’s most tragic Exotic

Echoes Act 2 introduced five new Artifact Mods, with two of these improving all Sniper Rifles, yet the one Exotic that should have benefitted most from these is as terrible as ever.

Amongst the five new seasonal mods added in Act 2 were Anti-Barrier Sniper Rifle and Sniper’s Meditation. Combined, these let Snipers stun Barrier Champions, increase damage by 25% in certain activities, and grant additional damage, stability, and reload speed after any hit.

Given these boosts, you would expect the best Snipers to be more popular than ever. To an extent, that’s true, with the likes of Still Hunt and Whisper of the Worm seeing plenty of use in the current meta and even Cloudstrike proving effective on some builds.

However, D.A.R.C.I has somehow remained the worst Exotic weapon in the sandbox, even after benefitting from these two mods. It is a remarkable failure given that it even receives double stacks from Sniper’s Meditation, as is true of all Heavy Snipers.

The problem is simple. Even after these artifact mods are applied, D.A.R.C.I’s DPS is impressively bad, and Personal Assistant is a gimmick at best. Being able to see an enemy’s health and how far away they are is never going to be useful in any activity, and the damage boost provided by this perk is nowhere near sufficient enough to matter.

It isn’t as though D.A.R.C.I’s catalyst does it any favors either. All it does is increase the Sniper’s stability stat by 18. No added effects, no additional damage, but rather slightly more stability to make hitting follow-up shots marginally easier.

To Bungie’s credit, the Destiny developer buffed D.A.R.C.I back in Season 19 by granting Personal Assistant the ability to Jolt. This boosted its damage and gave it the ability to debuff enemies, but it was nowhere near enough to make the Exotic Sniper Rifle viable.

D.A.R.C.I struggling even with Act 2’s Artifact Mods signals that it’s time for a more substantial buff or potentially even a rework. That could involve a huge damage increase, a switch to Special ammo, or a complete redesign of how it functions, potentially becoming the Gjallarhorn of Snipers. Regardless of the approach Bungie opts for, no other Exotic weapon needs buffs more than D.A.R.C.I.