What you should buy from Destiny’s Xur this weekend (9/18-9/19/15)

Although weapon-less, Destiny’s Xur has hit the tower once again. Today marks his first appearance following the release of The Taken King, and, like the expansion itself, has ushered in several fundamental changes. As such, evaluating Xur’s latest stock is a bit trickier than usual.

An Insurmountable Skullfort: We do, at least, start things off simple with the Titan’s Insurmountable Skullfort, which is every bit as needless as it was on release. Much like the Warlock’s Claws of Ahamkara, the Skullfort allows special melee charges to stack. Given the increased discipline that year two gear provides, those melee charges will stack markedly quicker, but even so the Skullfort’s ability is not worth an exotic slot. If you’re a Titan hankering for a new exotic helmet, you’re better off buying a few helmet engrams, which Xur is also selling this weekend.

Image via Destiny Wikihttp://destiny.wiki.fextralife.com/Young+Ahamkara%27s+Spine

Young Ahamkara’s Spine: The Gunslinger’s tripmine grenades are some of the funniest around, especially in Crucible, but that may not be enough to justify the year two take on the Ahamkara’s Spine. Like all year two gear, variable stats and perks may result in some dream armor, but without an ideal setup, the Spine is largely on par with the Skullfort. Its ability is nowhere near as impactful as most exotics. But it is funny.

The Impossible Machines: Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Warlocks are the first class to receive brand new gear from Xur in the form of the Impossible Machines, a wonderfully sparky pair of gauntlets built to accentuate the new Stormcaller class and its Stormtrance super. Landfall, the ability added by the Machines’ unique skill, Lightning Rod, adds additional area-of-effect to the super. On activation, you “fire a bolt of lightning into the ground, creating a devastating shockwave under you.” Remember Pikachu’s ‘down + B’ move from Super Smash Bros.? It’s pretty much that.

The Landfall node is a tough fit in the Stormcaller skill tree, but as a free pickup, it’s quite potent. The ability changes the way Stormtrance can be used—from a mid-range destroyer a la Golden Gun to a reactionary or defensive ability closer to Fist of Havoc. Flexibility like that can be life-saving in the Crucible, so PvP-minded Warlocks should definitely pick up a pair of Impossible Machines.

Engrams: In place of a weapon, Xur brought two types of engrams this week: legacy and exotic. The latter is your same old engram model: this week’s helmet engrams will decode into year two versions of new and upgraded exotics. So if there’s a helmet you want to upgrade, or a new one you want to roll for, give them a go.

However, if you aren’t targeting specific gear, the new consumable, Three of Coins, may be a better use of your strange coins. The Three of Coins grants Ultras (Strike bosses) a chance to drop exotic engrams of any type. In fact, if you keep using them, you’re guaranteed to get one to drop eventually. We don’t yet have data regarding the coin-aided engram drop rate (though early estimates put it at roughly 1:7), but given the possibility of finding weapons, the Three of Coins is a hot buy. (Above image via Etsy)

Legacy engrams are more complicated still. See, legacy engrams will only decode into year one exotics—with year one stats, mind—that you haven’t found yet. They were designed to help veteran players fill in the gaps in their exotic collection, presumably in preparation for future year two revamps. In other words, you should only buy this week’s legacy heavy weapon engrams if you want one of the four original exotic heavies: Gjallarhorn, Truth, Dragon's Breath or Thunderlord (bounty-obtained Super Good Advice exempt). If you have all of these weapons, or simply aren’t interested in them, save your coins—doubly so given the steep cost of a legacy engram.