Weapons in Destiny 2 can have any of the 4 Rarity classes. The common(green), Rare(Blue), Legendary(Purple) and Exotics(gold). And certain Exotic class weapons can make any legendary look bad. Some exotic weapons have additional functionality or buffs such as built-in anti-barrier rounds, which will let you spare a mod slot on your armor when jumping into higher difficulty activity.
Unlike legendaries, exotic weapons never got sunset either although they may get nerfed to change the meta, which means all the weapons that were introduced from the beginning are still available in the game and only the method of acquiring them got changed.
And as with most expansion or seasons, new exotics are introduced in-game, which can make it slightly cumbersome to choose the best exotic. To make this matter easier I will list the top 5 exotics rated by the average players.
Top 5 Exotic weapons in Destiny 2
Gjallarhorn
This is a fan favorite weapon introduced back in Destiny, and was later brought back in Destiny 2 with the release of the 30th anniversary event. This weapon has wolf pack rounds which splits into micro missiles and lock on to enemies. This weapon is extremely useful when it comes to clearing hoards of adds but is just as useful against huge boss fights, as it still has a high DPS. This weapon also provides a support buff, as it provides your fireteam wolfpack rounds as well, as long as they are using a legendary Rocket launcher in the power slot.
Arbalest
This weapon has been in Destiny 2 for a long time. Your enemies hate this weapon especially those champions with anti-barriers. As this weapon breaks their anti-barrier shield with a single shot making them highly vulnerable. The best part about this weapon is that it spares a mod slot on your armor and it can destroy any elemental shield as well. So in higher difficulty content where the shield matching is quite high, this weapon comes quite handy. As long as a Barrier /elemental shield exist, Arbalest will stay relevant and just as effective.
The Lament
This Exotic sword was released along with the Beyond Light expansion and holds the title for the best exotic sword in the game. After Beyond light this weapon was good that its usage rate soared sky high and Bungie had to nerf it down. Yet the weapon hasn’t lost its charm, You still get a high DPS, and is one of the best weapon for boss fights when it comes to close encounters. Other than DPS, this weapon also has a decent perk which is healing. Every time you damage an enemy, a small percentage of health is restored.
Osteo Striga
Osteo Striga is a Kinetic smg introduced in the Witch queen DLC. And can get this weapon easily by crafting at the enclave. With the Witch Queen expansion destiny 2 introduced new methods of crafting weapons so even though you can craft the weapon at the very start, the perks are locked and need to be leveled up to unlock it. This weapon can track enemies, so no matter how bad your aim is, you simply need to look in their general direction and spam the fire button. But that’s not what makes this weapon so good, instead, it’s the perk you unlock at level 16 i.e Toxic overload, which spreads poison to enemies within a certain radius, and the more enemy you kills with the spreading poison, your clip gets overflowed and can go over 100, which is insane.
Witherhoard
Witherhoard is a kinetic grenade launcher that does area damage(AoE) and works really well in both PvP and PvE. This weapon has broken many game features in the past much like Telesto and was even disabled. The weapon shoots a ring of blight which damages enemies, and when shot directly at an enemy will take damage over time and spawn a blight ring at their position once they die. This weapon is used more like an area denial tool, so you can stop adds from pushing you. This weapon alone doesn’t do much when it comes to boss fights, but using this along with another power weapon will greatly increase your total DPS.
These are the top 5 exotic weapons currently in Destiny 2. Ather 40 days this may change as the meta keeps shifting