Q: What are masterwork rolls?
A: Most legendary weapons are capable of being Masterworked. The masterwork system is a way for you to upgrade your favorite weapons to their maximum potential.
Q: What does it take to upgrade a weapon to a masterwork?
A: Upgrading your weapons, in broad terms, takes a small amount of glimmer, legendary shards, and, most importantly, Enhancement Cores.
Depending on what Tier your weapon is at, the requirements to raise it to the next tier increase the closer the weapon is to being fully masterworked (Tier 10).
Q: What benefits do I get for masterworking a weapon?
A: Each tier that you increase your weapon will grant a small buff to a single stat, chosen randomly when the item drops.
Beyond that, at Tier 5 you gain access to a kill tracker. At Tier 10, your multi-kills will generate orbs of light.
Q: So what are these "masterwork roll" stats?
A: These are the possible stats that upgrading your weapon will grant a bonus to. Depending on what tier you are at, you can grant anywhere from 1-10 additional points in any of the stats listed to your weapon.
Q: Any catch with this?
A: The Bungie API currently says that all weapons can potentially roll with all stats as their masterwork stat. This obviously isn't accurate, as Blast Radius isn't applicable to, say, Auto Rifles.
The list you see on this page is trimmed to only show stats that actually appear on the weapon. However, it is possible that Bungie has additional logic behind the scenes that further filters these
possibilities to, for example, prevent certain items from being able to have an Impact masterwork. Until Bungie modifies the API files to 100% accurately display which masterwork stats are possible on
each item, take what you see here with a pinch of salt.
______________
PvE: This perk can be useful, but it's hard to want it.
- Heavy weapons get 10%, which is still good if no other perk is worth going for (plus, some boss DPS with any amount in damage increase is good), though there's always another perk that can help (explosive light comes to mind, but there are other perks that work too).
- Special weapons get 15%, and this doesn't change from how it used to work. Certain weapons like snipers and shotguns can make punching bosses and vehicles easier without relying on heavies.
- Primary weapons get 20%, but I've never needed primaries for boss damage. Usually, these weapons are more for utility and survival than they are for putting holes in a boss' kidney.
However, vehicle damage when out of Heavy or Special ammo can help to a degree, so no loss on that account.
- Note: if you use Vorpal on Primaries, let me know how good/bad it is, because I'd actually like to learn more on that
PvP: It's always good, especially if you know how to take a super down and survive. Vorpal always provides a super-stopper while causing the guardian to get salty over wasting their super. "Think twice" and all that.
It can mean the difference between turning the tides and drowning.