One of the mission statements of The Final Shape has been Bungie releasing some strange and wonderful new weapon variants into the sandbox. One of the most exciting of these is Lost Signal, aka the legendary Witherhoard.
As most Destiny players will know, Witherhoard is an exotic grenade launcher that leaves pools of energy on the floor that deal damage over time to enemies standing in them, or deals a poison effect if shot directly at an enemy. Lost Signal does both these things, although it doesn't deal as much damage per 'tick' of poison as Witherhoard, nor does it last as long. What it does do however is fire four grenades in quick succession, meaning that if you flick your cursor as you fire you can cover a really wide area. So good for clearing out big hordes, but not as strong at slowly wearing down tougher enemies as its exotic bigger brother.
Lost Signal PvE god roll
- Barrel: Quick Launch, Smart Drift Control, Countermass
- Magazine: High Velocity Rounds
- 3rd Column: Auto-loading Holster
- 4th Column: One for All, Demolitionist
- Masterwork: Handling, Reload Speed, Velocity
The first thing to consider when crafting a Lost Signal is that it already comes with 100 Blast Radius, so most boosts to that stat are going to be wasted. Instead I recommend focusing on Handling for quick draws. I also can't really see past Auto-Loading Holster in the first slot here, it simply compliments how the archetype is meant to be used: draw, fire, stow.
So the interesting decision here is what to do with the fourth slot. On an area damage weapon like this One For All is going to be hands down the best damage buff, literally all you need to do is hit three enemies within a very generous time window, which will happen any time you fire Lost Signal into a crowd. The other strong case here is Demolitionist: special weapons with Demolitionist can give out a lot of grenade energy, and with Lost Signal's ability to quickly clear out a lot of weak enemies, you could find yourself recharging your grenade extremely quickly.
Lost Signal does come with the new perk Reverberation, which makes kills increase the blast radius of the weapon (presumably bypassing the actual blast radius stat, as most perks like this do) so why haven't I recommended this here? Because frankly, blast radius is not Lost Signal's problem, it can already blanket an area in damage very easily, so I think more damage or grenade energy is the better choice.
Lost Signal PvP god roll
- Barrel: Quick Launch, Smart Drift Control, Countermass
- Magazine: High Velocity Rounds
- 3rd Column: Auto-loading Holster
- 4th Column: One for All, Vorpal Weapon, High Ground
- Masterwork: Handling, Reload Speed, Velocity
PvP Lost Signal is an interesting prospect. Witherhoard can be a huge irritant in Crucible, firing into choke points and forcing enemies to change position. Unfortunately this is where Lost Signal's shorter duration and lower damage makes it tough to compete with its exotic brother.
On the plus side there isn't a massive difference between PVP and PVE rolls here, you're looking for Auto-Loading Holster and if you manage to trigger a damage buff all the better. In particular I think there might be a case here for the newly revamped High Ground, which now acts as a traditional stacking damage buff that sets itself to max when defeating an opponent from above. If you can find a higher point of elevation, and fire down into an enemy or chokehold, those shots will get a nice little damage bonus.
