Revealing the Secrets to Domination with an Exotic Classic
As a Destiny enthusiast boasting over 2000 hours, exotic armor holds a special place in my heart. Optimizing builds through unique gear interactions fuels the hardcore community. And among the roster of equipment, few items offer concealed functionalities like Lucky Pants.
Today, I‘ll be decoding the cryptic mechanics of these leg armor to maximize their potential. You‘ll learn precisely how Lucky Pants operate under the hood and why their obscured details are integral to domination.
Here we go, straight from the Guardian that remembers when Xûr first sold these infamous pants.
Decoding the Concealed Buffalo
Lucky Pants‘ exotic perk, dubbed Illegally Modified Holster, is the star of the show:
"Readying a fully loaded Hand Cannon grants a short period of bonus precision damage. Rapidly landing precision hits extends duration and increases bonus up to 5x"
Let‘s break this down:
- Readying any hand cannon loads it automatically and starts a buff
- For ~4 seconds:
- 60% bonus precision damage
- Enhanced target acquisition, range, handling
- 33% increase in ready/stow speed
- Faster aim down sights & equip speed
- Landing rapid crits extends duration up to 5x
- At 5 stacks = up to 300% increased precision damage
But wait, there‘s more!
The Lucky Pants also have an intrinsic Leg Armor Archetype Perk called Hand Cannon Holster Mod, which provides all the following simply for carrying a hand cannon:
- Faster ready speed
- Quicker aim down sights
- Enhanced target acquisition
So you get the best of both worlds – temporarily amplified damage and accuracy within the exotic buff duration plus permanently improved handling simply by equipping a hand cannon in your energy slot.
Let‘s explore why this combination offers a secret edge…
Unleashing Ace of Spades‘ True Potential
Pairing Lucky Pants with Ace of Spades – a gunslinger favorite – is where guardian angels are born. Ace‘s notorious Mori perk synergizes perfectly:
Mori: Bonus damage on precision kills. Reloads magazine from reserves.
Now we have doubly amplified precision damage stacks, feeding into more frequent refills directly from reserves thanks to Mori. This means sustaining max damage output throughout the magazine instead of waiting on painfully slow refill animations.
With Mori active, the buffed mag allows destroying minor/major enemies in 1-2 crits. When it comes to elite enemies and bosses? You‘ll shred through their health bars faster than a Pulse Rifle could dream.
We‘re talking ~100% increased precision damage when layered!
Let‘s see the math on a red-bar dreg with no bonuses active:
- Ace crit: 130 damage
- 5 crit shots to kill
Now with Mori (33% bonus) and Illegally Modified Holster x5 (300% bonus):
- Ace effective crit damage: 130 (1 + 3.33) (1 + 3) = 312 damage
- Kills in 2 crit shots. Over 50% reduction in time-to-kill!
Keep landing those precision blows with Ace every few seconds and the buff timers continually refresh. The synergy allows outputting hilarious damage for minutes on end. All without needing to manually reload or swap weapons thanks to outpacing animations with Mori‘s reserves fill!
This perpetual domination is why Ace & Lucky Pants are forged for top-tier PVE DPS across raid encounters and nightfalls. I‘ll expand on end-game Min-Maxing implications later…
First, more weapons ready to step into the spotlight.
Optimal Partners Beyond Ace
I‘ve experimented with practically every hand cannon in Destiny 2. And while Ace reigns supreme, several alternatives hold their own:
Packing Heat with Crimson
Firing in reliable 3-round bursts makes Crimson another natural fit. The exotic‘s notorious for naturally reloading after kills – perfect for keeping Illegally Modified Holster rolling!
With Lucky Pants equipped, sprinting between burst crit volleys on targets keeps your damage amplification and ready speed in overdrive. Stringing headshots together, this pairing allows slaying entire swaths of adds at warp speed.
Those healing bursts don‘t hurt either on higher difficulty activities!
Empowering Allies with Lumina
Don‘t sleep on team utility option Lumina – its‘ Noble Rounds buff allies by an equivalent 20% damage – the same as Empowering Rift!
This stacks with Illegally Modified Holster, so landing Noble Rounds in between your own crit sprees can enable some seriously potent fireteams.
I‘ve found this shines in 2+ Guardian activities like dungeon boss DPS phases. Have your Lucky Pants Hunter consistently shoot Noble rounds at teammates unleashing Supers and Heavy ammo for tremendous stacked damage!
Pestilence with Malfeasance
Malfeasance excels by turning enemies into volatile slugs – popping corrupted explosions after 5 shots. This pairs flawlessly with Lucky Pants to accelerate the slug conversion process through raw damage amplification.
Critting with Malfeasance under Illegally Modified Holster feeds its perk faster. And while the corrupted explosions don‘t directly benefit from the bonus, landing precision kills refreshes your duration as normal. This means you‘ll be spreading elemental chaos at record speeds!
Between the boosted weapon stats and Lucky Pants damage stacks, Malfeasance transforms into a add clearing beast.
When Lucky Pants Get…Unlucky
However, a few hand cannon outliers buck the trend of synergy with these leg armor.
Ariana‘s Vow receives only ~30% bonus precision damage rather than the usual 60% initially and 300% at max stacks.
Its catalyst First Glance works fully with the increased damage duration after rapidly landingprecision hits. But the diminished scaling from base Illegally Modified Holster makes returns more limited.
Additionally, Ariana‘s intrinsic perk triggers an auto-reload after 5.5 seconds – faster than Lucky Pants buff expires. So you‘ll constantly be fighting unreliable uptime.
Fate had other plans for Hawkmoon as well – its Paracausal nature causes exotics like Lucky Pants to have no direct interplay.
While obscure, good to know some exceptions exist before jumping into combat hoping for secret buff interactions!
Implications for PVE Min-Maxing
So what does unravelling all these concealed mechanics mean for build crafting? Savvy Hunters should rethink what exotics to run on higher difficulty PVE activities.
Understanding amplifications from Lucky Pants puts you miles ahead of average players in terms of maxing combat effectiveness.
You‘ll reach monumental DPS thresholds key to excelling in Nightfalls and raiding thanks to stacking bonuses. For example, I utilized this build during Day 1 King‘s Fall‘s Warpriest and Golgoroth encounters to astounding success.
My fireteam struggled with outputting enough damage before wiping to mechanics. Equipping Lucky Pants + Ace allowed crushing stagger thresholds that progressed us further with each attempt.
And I‘ve replicated similar successes across Vow of the Disciple, whereby amplified hand cannon damage enabled skipping multiple damage phases. This proved instrumental in clinching first-week clears.
Beyond weapon pairings, prioritize the following armor stats to maximize Lucky Pants potency:
- Mobility – Boosts base reload speed to minimize down time
- Discipline – Frequent grenade regeneration to activate artifact perks like Incinerating Light for bonus weapon damage
- Strength – Maximizes uptime on amplified damage from combination blow melee hammer
- Resilience – Crucial for survival, even on a glass cannon build
The days of prioritizing Recovery as a be-all hunter stat are long gone. Instituting an offensively skewed stat split like this accommodates Lucky Pants‘ strengths.
And don‘t forget seasonal artifact mods! Run Incinerating Light or Volatile Flow to double down on weapon damage and crowd control. Combined with the secretly boosted hand cannon perks, you have all the tools needed to excel in PVE.
Time to Show Some Leg(s)
I won‘t pretend Lucky Pants haven‘t seen ups and downs since debuting in Destiny 1. But between recent sandbox buffs and intrinsic synergies unveiled today, they‘re firmly planted in the hunter meta.
Both new lights and veterans should re-evaluate what Lucky Pants bring to the table. Their concealed capabilities make a world of difference when using numerous hand cannons.
Hopefully exposing functionality around the Illegally Modified Holster perk helps fellow players rethink builds for end-game PVE activities. Designing around these exponential stack bonuses leads to untapped power.
Trust me, no other leg armor will leave enemies feeling quite as unlucky! So next time you suit up your hunter, show some leg and let Lucky Pants work their magic.
And as always, eyes up guardians! Let me know what exotic you want uncovered next…