Is Ascendancy's Explosive Light perk underperforming in Destiny 2 Season of the Lost?

Destiny 2 is no stranger to sun-setting and nerfs of gear. From ritual weapons to legendary perks, the community has seen the arrival and departure of numerous meta throughout seasons and expansions.

One such weapon was called the Wendigo GL3, with the legendary perk called Explosive Light, introduced with the Destiny 2 Year 2 expansion alongside Season of the Opulence. About eight seasons later, Bungie has decided to reissue the perk, pairing it with a different weapon type altogether. The result has been unexpected for the Guardians.

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Ascendancy and the Explosive Light perk in Destiny 2

The legendary ritual rocket launcher of Destiny 2 Season of the Lost, Ascendancy, can be acquired by leveling up the reputation rankings on any playlist vendor at the Tower. The vendors are Zavala for Vanguard Strike, Drifter for Gambit, and Shaxx for Crucible.

However, after using the rocket launcher inside Destiny 2, there have been traces of irregularities in damaging outputs, with or without certain modifications. One of the armor mods called Argent Ordnance increases the damage and reload speed of the weapon-type after the wielder becomes Charged with Light.

The Ada 1 vendor for the Argent Ordnance mod (Image via Destiny 2)

The perk, Explosive Light, increases the damage and reload speed of the following projectile after picking up an orb of light. This makes it very useful in synergizing with the Argent Ordnance modification.

Ascendancy's numbers in damaging a boss in Destiny 2 come up in two different amounts simultaneously, one being a smaller number and the other being a larger one. Multiple runs with this weapon have confirmed that the Argent Ordnance mod without the Explosive Light perk buffs both numbers at the target by 20%.

Damage without the Explosive Light (Image via Ehroar)

A Reddit user, Ren_Chelm, confirmed the irregularities of the output in damage by Ascendancy after calculating with and without buffs.

• Without Buff: 55640 + 17467 = 73107
• Argent Ordnance only: 66768 + 20960 = 87728
• (66768 - 55640)= 20%
• (20960 - 17467)= 20%

Furthermore, upon testing this with just the Explosive Light perk and without the Argent Ordnance mod, users can see that only the larger number is getting the 20% buff while the smaller number remains the same.

The Hezen Vengeance rocket launcher (Image via Destiny 2)

After further calculation with other weapons and rocket launchers inside various Destiny 2 activities, it can be seen that Explosive Light can buff up the impact damage by 40%. The total damage to the explosion, being approximately over 100k, beats a Hezen Vengeance with the Vorpal perk, alongside the Argent Ordnance modification, by 1000.