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.
How it is worded makes you think that after you hip-fire the weapon, it'll start working when you aim down your sights. (Hip-fire first, then bonus stats while aiming down). This is wrong.
What it actually does is this:
- Around 20-35 handling
- 20 reload speed
- MOVING TARGET (increased movement speed while aiming down sights)
That last part on how it's worded is basically an equal (or worse) version of Moving Target, but the perk allows you to use it while hip-firing.
Truth told, this perk is pretty niche on the Spire weapons, and even then while "Yee-haw-ing" is fun, there's little reason to rely on the origin trait in PvE. The weapons themselves are already a workhorse for PvE.
The Terminal Horizon (LMG) and Wilderflight (Breach GL) could make use in PvE more, but not really something to bother about considering you've got perks that help with reloading already (and handling on them isn't as needed).
As for PvP, I Know that at least the Liminal Vigil (sidearm) and Long Arm (scout) are great with the bonus stats and movement speed, but that's considering you're surviving long enough while hip-firing to gain benefits from the trait.
All-in-all, it's okay as Tex Mechanica's first origin trait on their weapons, but don't rely on them too hard in any content other than PvP.