How to improve your DPS in Destiny 2 (2023)

Entry

In raids and dungeons, DPS (Damage Per Second) is an aspect that equipment is based on. Typical encounters have a damage phase, a period where the boss can be damaged after performing a series of mechanics.

DPS is important because the sooner a boss is killed, the less likely the extra mechanic is to perform and the fewer mistakes that can be made to cause a shift.

This guide includes weapons, mods, and perks that are highly recommended to increase damage, but will be more than "equip weapon X and use mod Y, then shoot the boss."

Not everyone has access to the best weapon options and DPS mods, but there are tricks and techniques to increase DPS no matter what gear you're using that this guide will go over.

Raise your weapon

First, we'll discuss which gear is most recommended for dealing high damage. There's a little more nuance to which gear is best than having the same weapon for everyone that has the best performance due to team damage buffs, boss nerfs, using a super to deal damage, ease of use, and general access to certain weapons and mods.

Below is a list of the best options and a brief description of the recommendations and their role during the damage phase.

Exotic weapons

The Last Izanagi

This sniper deals so much damage with his Exotic feat that he saves 4 shots per 1 damage when you hold down the reload button. Ease of use is not enough as precision and technique are required to get the most out of this weapon. But if you can use it as efficiently as possible, it's the best option for damage. It is recommended that most of your team use this weapon if possible in a 6-man team, and all players can use it in a 3-man team.

Divinity

It is a unique tracking weapon that applies a debuff to the target that not only increases your teammates' damage by 30%, but also creates an easy-to-hit crit box on the target. This makes using Izanagi's Burden easier for teammates as less precision is required to use it.

It is recommended that 1 player on your team use this for 6 man actions and it is not necessary to use it for 3 man actions as the percentage debuff is not worth taking a third of your damage heavily reduce to increase the damage of the other two.

Witherschat

Another unique option as this grenade launcher derives most of its value from dealing damage from the AoE pool left under the target. Thanks to the catalyst, this gun gains access to an autoloading holster, which is the main advantage of the DPS. Due to some interactions, it is recommended that only one person in your party use this weapon, as the character's hit and damage may not be counted if you use more than one of these weapons.

Megaphone

The Exotic rework of this famous weapon was fantastic because in the old days of Destiny 1 6 Gjallarhorns were the best way to DPS, no questions asked. The new perk adds Wolfpack rounds to teammates' rocket launchers, giving a massive boost to teammates using the autoloading holster Legendary Rocket as they gain Wolfpack round damage bonuses and autoloading holster reload perks.

Xenophage

Thanks to the recent buff and the Solar 3.0 release, this weapon is now a good and very easy option to deal damage. It has a low rate of fire and great aim assist that allows it to deal damage easily. This can be supplemented with an Actium War Rig on Titans to reload the weapon while using it, or Dodge the Fighter to reload the weapon and skip the long reload animation.

Legendary combinations of weapons and perks

Linear fusion rifle with triple tap and line of fire

Reed's Regret is the main weapon you can get with this perk combo. The effectiveness of this combo is due to the fact that damage increases when you are next to teammates, which is common during the damage phase, and Triple Strike bypasses some of the reload time. This fits very well with the Witherhoard and Izanagi's Burden.

Rocket launcher with auto-loading holster and explosive light or lasting impression

Palmyra-B is the easiest weapon to get this role because it can be crafted. The autoloading holster bypasses reloading, and other potential perks increase damage.

This weapon pairs well with any of the Exotic weapons listed above, especially the divine ones, which we'll cover in the Techniques section below. If you are using Divinity, this option is highly recommended and continues to be recommended for all fireteam members due to its ease of use.

Fusion Linear Rifle with bait and switch and quadruple charm or triple strike

The Apprentice's Vow linear raid rifle is the main weapon this role can have. Bait and Switch gets a big buff in season 17 to 35% extra damage and works well with Witherhoard and Izanagi's Burden as both options only have 1 shot.

Triple tap sniper rifle with line of fire

This option isn't as good as the others as you'd end up running out of the weapon's base ammo, but if you don't have access to one of the Exotic or other Legendary options, it's a pretty good substitute for what can hurt.

Supers and skills

The source of glow

This super solar sorcerer is the best DPS option as it grants a 25% damage boost to teammates and heals everyone in it. Depending on the encounter, it is recommended that 1 to 3 players use this Ultimate, with the rest of the team using the other Ultimates listed below. Lunafaction Boots are the recommended Exotic armor for this Ultimate.

Golden Pistol - Sharpshooter

The DPS of this Super is fantastic, and with Celestial Nighthawk, an almost-mandatory Exotic helmet to use with this Super, it's a great way to get a quick burst of damage and resources to cancel reloads, which will be covered in Techniques. This ultimate is recommended for any player outside of the Well of Radiance who uses warlocks.

Lightning disaster

Like a golden gun, this one deals a lot of damage.

Crest of the Fallen Star is a highly recommended Exotic armor piece to pair with this Ultimate as it provides an instant damage buff and can be obtained solo in Legendary Lost Sectors

New bomb

Both Nova Bomb options work because they deal roughly the same amount of damage depending on the boss's movements and the surrounding enemies. It's a sorcerous version of an ultimate that deals damage quickly. There are no specific recommendations for an Exotic, as no Exotic directly boosts this Ultimate, so be sure to choose an Exotic armor that supports other aspects of the game.

Bladestorm + Knock them down

This Ultimate has been greatly improved with Solar 3.0 and the Knock 'em Down aspect adds blades to Blade Barrage for increased damage. It's a simple super-point and click with fairly fast animation. Star-Eater Scales are Exotic items that overcharge your Ultimate for bonus damage.

Shadowshot - Moebius Quiver

This ultimate does a lot of damage, but not as much as the other options listed. The damage is compensated by the target's debuff, causing them to take 30% more damage from you and your teammates. Orpheus Rig is a good Exotic with this Ultimate, but is not as highly recommended as the other Exotic armor pieces listed for other classes due to the Exotic time-draft that the Super is used.

Echo of the undermining fragment

This allows grenades to weaken targets over time and applies a lesser version of the debuff that applies divinity and mobius quiver to enemies by 15%. This makes grenades a great way to deal extra damage, cancel reloads, and increase the total damage you deal to yourself and your teammates when no Divinity or Tether is active. This pairs best with the Vortex Grenade due to how long it lasts.

Mody

Boss specification

This weapon mod is essential for any legendary weapon you plan to use to damage the boss, it gives you a constant damage bonus without any downsides.

Radiant light

This mod causes teammates to be charged with light when you cast your ultimate. This is great for a warlock using a Well of Radiance to charge teammates with light to use some of the mods below.

High energy fire

This gives the weapon a 20% bonus and consumes a charge of light for each enemy defeated. For example, if your sorcerer uses Well of Radiance and uses Radiant Light, they will give a damage bonus to your first shot with your weapon.

Let's say you use Izanagi's Burden, the weapon relies on 1 very strong shot which takes 20% extra damage from this mod and 25% extra damage amplification while in the Well of Radiance.

Take the lead

Another mod to charge with light, this time the condition is to pick up a power orb. This can be achieved by simply grabbing a teammate's ultimate orbs at the start of the damage phase.

Supreme Wellmaker

This mod attracts the attention of those using Reed's Grief and spawns stasis resources for using our next mod, Font of Might.

Power font

When you pick up an elemental pit that matches your subclass's elemental type, the damage of a weapon with the matching element will increase your damage. Great for some high damage options like Reed's Grief and the stasis class. Combos to look out for in Season 17 are the new solar subclasses with Xenophage and Cataclysmic, as they are solar weapons and are a very good match for the Celestial Nighthawk Golden Gun user.

Holster mods

These are weaker versions of autoloading holsters as they progressively recharge holstered weapons over a longer period of time, but are still extremely useful for snipers, linear fusion rifles, and other weapons without an autoloading holster.

Technical abilities

Now that we've got gear out of the way, let's look at how to use it most effectively to maximize DPS. This information is useful if you have all the recommended weapons, mods, and exotic armor pieces, or if you only have a few or none at all, as some of these techniques are universally applicable.

Stack reinforcement

Damage buffs do stack. If you are in a Radiant Well and have a line of fire weapon, both damage percentage bonuses apply and increase damage.

Stack weakness

Weaknesses work differently than buffs, and it's important to remember that only one active debuff can be applied to a target. If your team uses Divinity and Tether, the target only takes damage from one of these debuffs. So using two of them at the same time will result in wasted damage as the debuffs can be spread out such that one player will use the higher damage option instead of applying an unnecessary debuff. If you're using Tether and a weak grenade, it's best to keep them as far apart as possible to spread the debuff timer and an added bonus if you can use these abilities to cancel, which is discussed next.

Reload Cancel

This is a very useful skill that can be used with any weapon, but is extremely useful with Izanaga's Burdens, snipers, and linear fusion rifles. While reloading, there is an animation where the magazine is reloading and the ammo is displayed in the lower left corner, but the pistol cannot be fired during this animation.

Canceling a reload is to switch weapons, use an ability, use a Super, or sprint when the new ammo is shown as full, so that a new action is taken when that animation occurs and the weapon cannot be fired. Once the second action is performed, this weapon can be used again as the time window for this animation has ended.

For example, if you cancel the reload and then run fast, your weapon will be ready again and the animation will not trigger, but the weapon still CANNOT be fired within the time window where the animation would otherwise take place. The basic strategy of this technique when using a single weapon for DPS is reloading the weapon to cancel the reload with an ability or Super, such as firing Izanagi's Burden, canceling the reload by throwing a grenade, and repeating as seen in the clip where reload cancellation is done both from switching weapons and throwing grenades.

When using multiple weapons and/or ace and swaps, swapping weapons and occasionally using abilities will cancel the reload. An example would be firing at Izanagi's Burden, canceling the reload by switching to the Rocket Launcher, firing the projectile, reloading, then canceling the projectile by switching back to Izanagi's Burden (or not canceling the reload if using an autoloading holster).

To break it down more clearly, here's the entry order and flowchart if you're using Izanagi's Burden Rocket Launcher and Auto-Loading Holster Rocket Launcher:

1. Shoot at Izanagi's Burden and reload for one charge
2. Cancel the reload when the magazine is loaded by:
   • Using skills/ultras
   • Replace weapons with rocket launchers
3. If you used the skill, repeat
   cycle by shooting Izanagi's Burden
   Again
4. If you turn the gun into a projectile
   launcher repeat the cycle by replacing
   again to Izanagi's Burden

As you can see in the clips below, you can fire 2 Izanagi's Burden rounds in less than 5 seconds, but in the second clip the reload cancel was used to fire a round between two rounds without any delay!

Terminal 1

Terminal 2

Swap the bait and change

This technique is specific to the use of bait and trade advantage. Best suited to Witherhoard or Izanagi's Burden as they only have 1 shot per use.

It starts by firing one of these two exotics, cancel reload if using Izanagi by switching to secondary weapon, fire this weapon once, switch to heavy weapon with bait and switch, use full clip, reload, cancel heavy weapon, and then repeat the cycle.

To maximize this a bit more, you can use weapons that carry well, such as the submachine gun in the energy slot, and mods that increase the weapon's cooldown and storage time.

Here is the order of entries using Bait and Switch:

1. Fire 1 shot from a high-burst weapon in a kinetic slot (Izanagi's Burden, Witherhoard, etc.)
2. If the kinetic doesn't have an autoloading holster, reload the weapon by switching to energy weapons.
3. Fire 1 energy weapon shot
4. Switch to heavy weapons with Bait and Switch
5. Make all shots on Ace and Switch weapons
6. Reload cancel ace and switch weapons by switching to kinetic lock weapons
7. To repeat

Autoloading holsters

This perk is a great option for DPS as it allows you to use a different weapon for damage instead of reloading. To get the most out of this perk, use up your entire weapon clip and practice setting perk trigger timing, as the perk activation sound is drowned out by the hectic nature and stream of encounter sounds.

It should be noted that the Witherhoard gains this advantage if he obtains a catalyst and has a specific task for it.

Divine Rocket Swap

If you're a member of your team that's kind enough to use Divinity, you can increase your DPS by using a rocket launcher with an autoloading holster. Using Divinity, you can switch to a projectile, fire it quickly, and make the projectile reload with the perk. This is best done by canceling the reload when the Divinity ammo supply runs out, but can usually be used at any time.

Example team equipment

3-man Dungeon team

For simplicity and for the sake of integration, let's assume your team consists of 1 of each class.

wizard

Well of Radiance, Izanagi's Burden, any weapon in the energy nest, Linear Fusion Rifle with Triple Hit and Line of Fire, Lunafaction Boots.

This player's role is to place a well just before the damage phase to buff everyone's damage and create stasis sources for this with the Supreme Wellmaker mod to further buff a teammate's damage if he succeeds before deciding to use Reed's Grief and subclass stagnation.

The damage strategy is to fire off Izanagi's Burden, cancel the reload with a linear fusion rifle switch, fire all shots, and cancel the reload back to Izanagi's Burden.

Jager

Shadowshot - Moebius Quiver and Vortex Grenade with Weakening Echo, Izanagi's Burden and energy-blocking weapons, Holstered Rocket Launcher with autoloading light burst and loaded with a light mod.

This player's role is to debunk and deal damage by firing the first shot of the ultimate, firing Izanagi's Burden, reloading cancel Izanagi's Burden with the second ult shot, firing Izanagi's Burden, reloading canceling Izanagi's Burden by switching to projectile, firing the projectile, switching to Izanagi's Burden, cancel reload , throwing a grenade to reapply the debuff, fire Izanagi's Burden, cancel the reload by switching to Rocket Launcher, and end the phase by switching between Rocket Launcher and Izanagi's Burden.

This class has the most juggling power and, when mastered, deals a lot of damage and applies a debuff to everyone.

titanium

Thundercrash, Crest of the Fallen Star, Witherhoard, any SMG, Linear Fusion Rifle with Bait and Switch and loaded with Light Mod. This throw is a bit less intense as you'll use a Witherhoard followed by a super scoop, but make sure to land Trap the Hunter for the debuff bonus, and once you've landed, enter the pre-selected Decoy and Change Combo out.

The Witherhoard is fired before the Super, so Witherhoard draw damage occurs when you use your Super due to the cast time. Giant Pulse can be used in a combo to cancel the Linear Fusion Rifle.

Things worth noting

There is no divinity as there are only 3 people and the 30% debuff is not worth the damage loss and can be made up with a chain and Vortex grenade. There is only one Witherhoard that prevents tick damage from being lost.

Specific weapons can be traded between classes, but it is recommended that the Titan use the Witherhoard as character damage can occur in super mode. The Gjallarhorn can be used if the player does not have the other Exotic weapon listed. In this case, the other players are encouraged to use the Rocket Launcher.

6-person rally team

We do the same and assume equal numbers of classes on the whole board, 2 from each class.

Wizard 1

Light source, divinity, holstered rocket launcher autoloader and Lunafaction boots. Since this class uses the ultimate before the damage phase starts, it's best to run Divinity to keep up with the debuff. The rocket launcher can be fired to reload and cancel divinity, or occasionally several times during the damage phase, which will briefly interrupt the debuff.

Wizard 2

Nova Bomb - Cataclysm, Vortex Grenade with Echo or Weakness and weapon combo depending on preference. It is not necessary to run Divinity or Witherhoard. This player may be the only user of Gjallarhorn. Deal damage using the strategies listed above, canceling reloads with a weapon switch, swirl grenade, or Super. The grenade is worth having as it can hold the debuff in case the divinity user needs to reload or fire a projectile.

Jagis 1

Golden Gun or Blade Barrage - Sharpshooter and Celestial Nighthawk if using a golden gun for precision damage bonus or Knock them down and Star-Eater scales if using Blade Barrage, and any weapon group. He may be a user of Gjallarhorn.

Jagis 2

Golden weapon, Barrage Blade of the Trap with Mobius Quiver. Any group of weapons can be used with this player. If they use Tether to cover the windows where the Divinity debuff falls into, they pair well with using Izanagi's Burdens and autoloading holster rocket launcher due to the number of abilities they use.

Titan 1

Thundercrash with Crest of the Fallen Star, Witherhoard, and any heavy depending on your preference. This Titan uses the same damage strategy with the Witherhoard and Super combo.

Titan 2

Can use Thundercrash with Crest of the Fallen Star of Ward of Dawn. The weapon can have any preference and is a good candidate for a Gjallarhorn sole user.

Things worth noting

There are only 1 Divinity and 1 or zero Gjallarhorn users. Void classes use debuff abilities because they can help keep the debuff if the Divinity user needs to reload, fire a rocket, or die.

Last word (don't use last word for DPS)

There are a few things to consider when choosing gear for the primary purpose of DPS. The main thing is the meeting and the boss himself. Is the boss constantly moving and hard to hit like Rhulk in Apprentice's Oath?

If so, Izanagi's Burden might not be the best choice if you're unsure of your stealth skills, and using Divinity and a Rocket Launcher might be a better choice. Do the boss and nearby enemies deal a lot of damage? In this case, it would be best to prioritize the radiation source over the nova superbomb to ensure that you and your teammates survive while dealing damage.

What your teammates use is another matter. For example, when using the Gjallarhorn, make sure your teammates use rocket launchers to get the most out of your advantage.

Another thing to consider is debuff stacking with teammates. If a teammate uses Divinity, no other debuffs will be respected, and applying a lesser debuff may be a waste of time that would be better spent shooting the boss.
The last and most important factor to consider is what you have and are comfortable using.

The first is a bit obvious... using the Witherhoard isn't ideal for you if you don't have the Witherhoard. But the latter is often not thought of.

Players stick to which options have the most DPS in a perfectly perfect setting, but most settings are not perfect, and some players are better at certain weapons than others. So choose what works best for you from the options discussed here.

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