In Destiny 2, the Lion’s Roar looks cool, but it fails to impress in combat. Is it the worst exotic weapon?
A lion’s head, wings, and elaborate embellishments in gold and silver adorn this weapon: The Lion’s Roar.
It is an exotic grenade launcher that closely resembles a Gjallarhorn from Destiny 1 in design. However – and all Guardians seem to agree on this – there are significant differences between these two pretty weapons in terms of power.
In surveys among Guardians about which Exotic is the worst weapon in Destiny 2, the Fighting Lion (Lion’s Roar) is mentioned time and again. Why is that? What makes this weapon so miserable?
What makes the Lion’s Roar in Destiny 2?
The Lion’s Roar is an exotic grenade launcher that deals Void damage. The magazine holds one shot. You can obtain it from all possible sources that drop exotic engrams. Also, Xur may bring it.
Three features, including two special perks, distinguish it:
- The Lion’s Roar is carried in the energy slot. All other grenade launchers are in the power slot. This is actually a significant advantage as the ammunition for energy weapons drops much more frequently than power ammo.
- The intrinsic perk is Delayed Gratification: grenade projectiles bounce off surfaces. You can determine the timing of the explosion yourself by holding down the trigger (for the shot) and then releasing the button (for the explosion).
- Herd Thinning: Direct hits deal more damage to enemy combatants with shields. Quick kills of enemies that have taken damage from a grenade refill the magazine.
The idea behind this weapon sounds interesting: since the Lion’s Roar is an energy weapon, it is often available to you. You blast the shields off enemies, switch to the kinetic weapon, finish off the enemy, which automatically reloads the Lion’s Roar, switch back to the Lion’s Roar, and fire another shot.
In other words, you constantly switch weapons, eliminating the need to reload the Lion’s Roar.
This playstyle of constantly switching weapons is, however,
- not for everyone
- and is also far from being as cool as one might imagine.
Why is the Lion’s Roar so bad?
The first disadvantage is the perk “Delayed Gratification.” Instead of exploding on impact, the grenade bounces around a bit. While you can also trigger the explosion yourself, the timing can be challenging in heated battles, such as in PvP. When firing a grenade from a distance, you don’t have time to wait for the explosion. Instead, you should already be aiming at the next enemy or taking cover behind a wall.
Moreover, the weapon deals far too little damage. Guardians complain that sometimes the shield doesn’t even get completely destroyed. This means that either you reload and shoot again with the Lion’s Roar (rendering the special perk unnecessary), or you switch to the kinetic weapon and hope to bring down the enemy’s shield and health quickly enough to benefit from the perk.
The Lion’s Roar simply deals too little damage in PvE and PvP. The required playstyle is hardly implementable. It’s not fun, it’s unhelpful, it’s just frustrating.
In PvP, the weapon only deals just over 100 damage at close range. It is not capable of getting a kill directly. And by the time you reload or switch weapons, you become an easy target.
On top of that, you have to sacrifice the Exotic slot for the exotic grenade launcher. It’s more sensible to equip any legendary energy weapon to eliminate the shields of enemies and then switch to the kinetic weapon.
In short: The Lion’s Roar is not recommended in either PvE or PvP. The weapon needs a buff. However, it is difficult for Bungie to balance it – because as a grenade launcher, it would need to deal a lot of damage, but as an energy weapon, it must not be too strong. Difficult…
This article was first published at the end of September.
Which weapon do you think is the worst Exotic?
You can find an overview of all exotic weapons in Destiny 2 here.
