In Destiny 2, you can currently earn a new exotic weapon – the hand cannon Lumina. But how does the new firearm perform in practice? Is the weapon worth the effort?
What is the Lumina? With the weekly reset on July 2nd, the Lumina quest is live in Destiny 2. Since then, all Annual Pass owners have been able to seize a new exotic gun – the hand cannon Lumina.
You can find out how to get the Lumina here in our guide: Destiny 2 Guide: How to get Rose and Lumina – The Exotic Quest
But what can this new weapon do in detail? Is the grind worth it? We take a closer look at this new weapon exotic and tell you how it performs in PvE and PvP.
What makes the Lumina special?
This is what the Lumina can do: The Lumina is the first weapon in Destiny history that can heal others. It’s a kinetic hand cannon with 150 RPM.
What the perks do: Kills with the Lumina leave remnants, a kind of sphere. When you absorb this sphere (just walk near it, and it will be drawn to you), your next hip-fire shot turns into a “Noble Round” and partially refills the magazine. Up to 5 Noble Rounds can be stacked this way.
These Noble Rounds are meant to be fired at allied Guardians. They have aggressive tracking and follow allied targets. It’s enough to shoot near (within a radius of three to four meters) another Guardian for the spherical projectile to hit them safely. You don’t need to aim precisely.
By the way, you fire the Noble Rounds from the hip. If you use the scope, the Lumina will still fire regular projectiles, so you can continue to fight normally, even if you have one or more Noble Rounds stacked.
If you use a Noble Round on an ally (meaning you hit them with it), it heals the ally and increases weapon damage for you and the affected Guardian for 10 seconds. The shooter does not get healed.
This is what the buffs can do: Healing restores about 3/4 of health instantly, after which health regeneration begins immediately.
The damage buff extends not only to the Lumina itself but to all equipped weapons and is approximately +19 – 20 % in PvP and +35 % in PvE.
This is how the Lumina plays in PvE
In PvE, the Lumina is really fun. It’s not like it’s an absolute must for every member of a fireteam, but if one of the team has it equipped, it opens up some additional possibilities.
You can build up a 5-stack of Noble Rounds with the weapon and save them for the right moment. So when it matters, you can even give a whole raid team and yourself a quick 35% damage boost, which (hopefully) can stack with other damage buffs (currently, that doesn’t seem to be the case, but it’s suspected to be a bug. We will keep you updated on this).
For this, you don’t even need a Warlock with Well of Radiance (currently, the buff of the Lumina doesn’t seem to stack with Well of Radiance). This could be a welcome additional boost, which can be provided by any class when fighting bosses.
Moreover, the loss of the exotic slot for the bearer is not too tragic since many currently use legendary grenade launchers in the power slot. The rest of the team can still use their weapons as desired.
Especially, Dawnblade Warlocks with the Blessing of the Dawn benefit greatly. Because the Noble Rounds of the Lumina trigger the Warlock class perk Benevolent Dawn, allowing the Warlock to almost continuously regenerate their class, grenade, and melee abilities when healing others. This way, Warlocks can fully dedicate themselves to the support role.
This is how the Lumina plays in PvP
In PvP, the Lumina is a good and solid weapon on its own, which also opens up interesting possibilities, but much depends on whether you are playing alone or in a well-coordinated team. Guardians have already found some effective combinations for PvP with the Lumina.
Solo: If you are on your own, the Lumina won’t provide you with significant advantages over established competitors. It is very situational and can struggle to showcase its strengths in a chaotic random team.
This means you may not always get to the spheres after a kill or might even die in the process of trying to grab them. Other teammates often cannot benefit from the damage buff if they are not aggressively pushing at that moment.
If you are playing solo, there are simply too many other alternatives, such as Luna or Not Forgotten (even after the nerf), God-Roll Falkner, The Last Word, Trust, or even the Thorn or the Rose, with which you will be better off regarding weapon effectiveness.
In a group: In a group, the Lumina is much more interesting to play but is still very situational and not an absolute must-have, just something that is fun to use.
In the competitive playlist, it will likely struggle to compete against common top weapons in PvP – although skilled teams can certainly use it to their advantage. You can heal or buff an ally at a critical moment, making weapons like shotguns or snipers much more effective.
However, to unlock the potential of the weapon, you essentially need to focus entirely on a support role and your teammates, while also getting kills yourself. Whether such a strategy will find wide usage in competitive mode is questionable, but it should become clearer in the coming weeks.
In quickplay, however, you can certainly have fun with it. You can push your larger group while rushing and easily snag kills. In that mode, a supporter doesn’t impact a group as much as in a 4-man team.
Is the effort for Lumina worth it?
In short: It depends. The weapon is not an absolute must-have in the end.
For whom is the Lumina worth it? In PvE, the Lumina makes a more solid impression. While it’s not a weapon that everyone should have equipped during a boss encounter, with one or two support builds in the team that lean on the Lumina, you can make a more significant impact and secure an additional, crucial advantage.
In PvE, the weapon is fun and offers real utility, especially if you enjoy the support role. If you like providing your team with buffs, this weapon could pay off for you.
In PvP, the Lumina is a good weapon in itself, where you can also have fun – especially on PC. However, it may struggle to stand out against established competition. Only coordinated and well-synced teams might extract a truly decisive advantage from Lumina – but even that is very situational.
In the Crucible, it looks more like the Lumina will remain a fun weapon and only benefit the best teams in certain situations. For many PvP players, it will likely just be a completion of their collection and end up gathering dust in the vault after a few weeks of fun.
However, if you’re into hand cannons or have a particular affinity for Thorn, then the Lumina could be worth a look for you in PvP.
You can find an initial video review of the weapon by YouTuber Aztecross Gaming here:
Have you already earned the Lumina? What are your experiences with the weapon?
