I’ll start us off with Omolon Fluid Dynamics which immediately stands out to me as THE choice for any DPS scenario. Since you’ll likely be spamming your shots at your enemies, the extra Stability it gives will come in handy to make controlling recoil a tad easier. And the best part is that since you’ll likely be running Envious Assassin for DPS, it’ll give you the full 20 Stability bonus for every single one of your overflowed shots!

The next one worth highlighting is One Quiet Moment (OQM) which is a decently solid perk for general use in PVE. While the normally 5-second out-of-combat requirement makes it pretty redundant, kills drop that down to 1.5 seconds thereby making it a pretty viable reload perk with its 40 Reload Speed and 5% animation scalar. If you’re using your GL for add-clear (which isn’t even that bad of an idea with the upcoming reserve size buff), you can easily pair OQM with Demolitionist for more grenade energy or even Field Prep to boost your reserve size further while still keeping a solid reload buff for when you’re not crouching.

Lastly, we have Alacrity . The only use case I can see for it (aside from being the only actual option for PVP) is to be an alternative to OQM when you’re running activities solo. It’s 50 Reload Speed and 20 Stability so it’ll make the gun feel that much better in that one specific scenario.

In the first column, you essentially only have 3 choices if we’re being generous at most 2 if we’re not. First off, Hard Launch will be the one to go for if you want to squeeze every bit of damage out of this GL. The reason for this is what we already went over in the Weapon Behavior section: the Blast Radius stat being tied to the split of damage between Impact and Explosion. But let’s expand on that a bit more.

Since you’ll want to go for Spike Grenades in the second column for the highest DPS, we need to maximize the Impact damage of our GL which can be done by lowering the Blast Radius as much as possible. So by going with Hard Launch to drop the Blast Radius by uh… 5… you can get around 0.4% more damage with each shot. Wooo!

So yeah, probably not the play when you can instead go with Quick Launch or Smart Drift Control, especially considering that this difference in total damage will drop even lower come Patch 7.3.5 on March 5. So the TLDR on this is that you probably shouldn’t bother decreasing Blast Radius as much as just not increasing it.

But if the roll you’re hunting for isn’t intended for DPS, the equation can change quite substantially. Take an add-clear roll as an example, you’d probably want to max out the Blast Radius to deal as much damage to enemies as possible. A good starting point for that would be going with Volatile Launch to bump it up by 15.

The same goes for PVP if you’re running Proximity Grenades. Since this magazine perk gets rid of Impact Damage, you naturally want to make sure you’re getting the most out of your Explosive Damage which means Volatile Launch is once again the play here. Throw on a Blast Radius masterwork on top and you’re good to go!

There are also a few potentially interesting choices in the second column post-reserve buff but we’ll have to see how the magazine size bumps interact with reserves so I’ll reserve judgment on those for now. Even still, it’s unlikely that they would make me give up either Spike- or Proxy Nades. High-Velocity Rounds is probably the one alternative I’d accept from what I’ve seen so far.

Slickdraw

Slickdraw is an odd choice here because GLs are like the one weapon type where its downsides really just don’t matter in any capacity. So making the gun feel incredibly snappy by maxing out the Handling for essentially free has its appeal. The problem, however, is the opportunity cost of running it over any other viable option. Every alternative aside from maybe Enlightened Action does more than it for your gameplay loop so I really can’t justify choosing Slickdraw over them.

Impulse Amplifier (IA)

IA is arguably one of the best choices here mainly for PVP but general use PVE as well. The frankly insane 35% increase it grants to projectile velocity combined with its passive reload speed buffs make it an amazing workhorse perk in PVE and a breeze to use in PVP.

While the PVE utility tends to get outshined by Envious Assassin or Field Prep in the endgame for DPS, it’s still an excellent perk in every other situation. And in PVP, I’d argue it’s the best perk around as it all but eliminates the need to lead your shot and factor in gravity. Point, shoot, and enemy go boom!

Envious Assassin

Envious is flat-out the best DPS option you have in this column. Even with the nerf it’s catching in a week or so, it’ll still allow you to cram 3x as much ammo into your magazine as you would otherwise. That means you don’t have to bother with reloading, stowing, or anything before you’ve fired off those shots which then translates to very high DPS due to the lack of downtime in firing. There’s not much else to be said here, it’s an excellent choice.

Field Prep

Field Prep is a pretty solid choice for any situation where you want to dump all your ammo into a target without bothering with anything else. Although nowadays that style of DPS has fallen by the wayside, Field Prep is still your best option for that. But what I’d highlight about it instead is the general use functionality of it starting with it increasing your reserve size. Now, we don’t know how much of an increase it’ll provide post-reserve buff, but it’s still going to be something. Plus, its reload speed and handling benefits while crouching will also make the gun feel better as you’re clearing out enemies in a strike or GM.

Enlightened Action

Just no. It’s an alright perk but it’s so irrelevant on this gun that I don’t even think it’s worth talking about. It’s a perk that only helps Reload Speed and Handling, both of which are covered by other perks that do it better like Field Prep or Impulse Amplifier. Instant shard for me.

Auto-Loading Holster (ALH)

While this perk has also fallen out of favor with the introduction of Envious Assassin, I believe it has a very appealing interaction on Cataphract that makes it worth using. Namely, it’s when combined with Cascade Point. And sure, while the perk combo won’t increase your total damage which is a glaring downside, it will bump your DPS up close to the top of what’s achievable in the game aside from one-and-done high damage options like a Celestial Nighthawk Golden Gun.

It is worth noting that you can fire off 9 GL shots while Cascade Point is active which tips the scales in favor of Envious Assassin in shorter DPS windows. However, as soon as DPS goes on long enough for you to need to reload with Envious, ALH will start catching up and will eventually surpass Envious. But if you want to be safe and not think about it, just go with Envious and call it a day.

Demolitionist

Demo is the add-clear dream. Especially with the reserve buff, it’s going to be an amazing option on Cataphract to help your ability uptime. It can even serve as a pseudo-dps perk due to it reloading your weapon upon using a grenade. I’d say it’s probably your best option for anything aside from boss DPS if you’re running an ability-focused build.

Explosive Light (EL)

Oh EL, how far we’ve fallen… well whatever let’s talk about it. The thing with EL is that it fundamentally only buffs a small portion of your shots. On Rockets, this is mostly still fine because 6 rockets are still around half of your total reserves in the worst-case scenario. But on GLs, the story changes quite a bit as they have much deeper reserves which is even getting a substantial buff with 7.3.5.

In very short burst DPS windows, it’s still an excellent choice as it provides a roughly 43.5% overall damage buff assuming an ideal roll but it’s still only for 6 grenades so it’s not a great deal. I’d say this perk is much more focused on general use nowadays like bursting down champions or wiping out groups of enemies with a single shot due to it buffing explosive damage specifically by a whopping 60%. In short, it’s a great perk but its use case has shifted and that’s fine.

Cascade Point

Cascade Point, on the other hand, is going strong and that’s certainly not stopping anytime soon. While it has the downside of not increasing total damage output, the sheer speed it allows you to blow your load at even puts Wardcliff Coil to shame. So the point is, a 67% increase in your rate of fire effectively translates to a 67% damage buff so long as you don’t run out of ammo.

The ideal pairing for it is going to be Envious Assassin as it allows you to fully unload two Cascade Point bursts (read: 9 grenades at 200 RPM) without reloading as long as you overflow your mag fully to triple the size (using post-nerf Envious numbers). But as we discussed above, you can make an argument for Auto-Loading Holster as well.

Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction is a simple one. If you want a purely add-clear focused GL, look no further. It won’t give you the general-use versatility of Explosive Light or the DPS potential of Cascade Point and Bait and Switch but it sure will create more explosions! And as they say, more explosions are more better. Bottom line, great add-clear but nothing more.

On the PVP side of things, it’s one of two options I’d actually consider on this gun. The explosions after a kill can soften up nearby enemies meaning that your next shot may kill them even if you’re a bit too off-target. I’ve been daily driving a Chain Reaction + Impulse Amplifier GL in PVP for a good while and I can’t recommend it enough.

Hatchling

Hatchling is like the little brother of Chain Reaction with the difference being that the secondary explosions are traded off for a little suicidal green lad. I personally don’t really see the appeal unless you just LOVE Threadlings but you do you. I’m sending my worm regards!

Full Court

Remember when Full Court was a good DPS option? I don’t because I wasn’t playing the game back in Shadowkeep 3.5 years ago. If you do, it’s probably time to let go because those days are gone. It roughly works out to a 17.8% overall damage increase with a good roll (25% explosive damage increase) and that’s only IF your grenade has been in flight for 1.1 seconds already. These numbers just don't keep up with the current damage meta so I think I’ll pass.

HOWEVER, as a matter of fact, it’s going to be my recommendation for a consistent PVP roll. As you might know, it can be a little iffy getting kills with GLs because the maximum damage of the explosion isn’t much higher than the total health of a guardian. Full Court can tip the scales a little in that case to snag kills just a little easier. It’s going to be your best consistency perk maybe aside from Impulse Amplifier.

Vorpal Weapon

No. Maybe against supers in PVP but no. It’s an insignificant damage increase that can’t even begin to compare with the alternatives. Just forget it.

Bait and Switch (BnS / B&S)

BnS is last on the list but arguably the most important perk to consider. Despite it being due for a nerf from a 35% damage buff down to 30%, it’s still going to be your top option for DPS rotations. Aside from certain situations where Cascade Point might provide more value, BnS is king.

There’s not a lot to be said about it, it’s an excellent choice and a known quantity by now. If there’s only one roll you should keep of Cataphract, it would absolutely have BnS on it.