Black Hammer
Black Hammer
The BH is a legendary solar sniper found/awarded in the CE raid. At first glance it appears to be nothing special, having just a 3-shot magazine. Certainly, the 6-shot Icebreaker is better in most situations... except for when you need to have another exotic online.
The BH's claim to fame is the attribute of "3 critical hits return the ammo to the magazine" iirc.. If you can quickly make three headshots in a row, you'll not use any ammo out of the mag and can continue shooting without needing a reload. Tough to do in CE, except for the ogres (or maybe the oversoul... I haven't tried it yet).
However, the Goliath/Spider tanks in the Valus or Sepiks strikes are perfect targets for the BH. Shoot/hit the legs or thrusters, which count as critical hits, and you'll shoot for as long as you have a target. I shot a 20-25 shot string as fast as I could pull the trigger and without reloading last evening at the Valus tank's thrusters. He was down at the end.
Miss a critical shot though, and the 3-shot mag bites you...
In Crota's End, Black Hammer is best used on Boomer duty, to clean one side of the knights that shoot down onto your team on the stairs/swordbearer. Black Hammer is an interesting weaon. In about 85% of cases, its a tool that's better done with virtually any other sniper rifle you have with a halfway decent roll on it, or even Praedyth's Revenge. Those other 15% of the time? There isn't another gun out there that you'd rather have.
In retrospect, 15% of the time seems a bit generous. Its probably closer to 5%. Its a good balance of useful, but not overpowered, except for rare circumstances. A well designed weapon overall.
The BH really shines on bosses with easy crit spots since you can just keep firing - makes the summoning pits strike a breeze at the end as you can keep the ogre stunned with constant crit shots...lol
BH is a decent replacement for the Icebreaker if you need to free-up an exotic slot, but mainly for boss encounters that allow you to just spam shots.
BH is my go to when I'm not using IB. I hate the 3 mag limit since I just about never get 3 crit hits in a row.