Reviews the Solstice SMG "Year Tide Apex" for PvE, discussing its strengths, ideal perk combinations, and best class builds, arguing it is currently the top primary weapon alongside the event’s grenade launcher.

Solstice SMG Overview and Event Context

• Year Tide Apex is a 900 RPM solar energy SMG, highly recommended for PvE.

• The event is notable for offering two top-tier weapons in their respective slots.

• Using both the SMG and the event grenade launcher together is possible due to energy/special slot placement.

Ideal Perk Combinations

• Three preferred right-column perks: Burning Ambition, Incandescent, and Chaos Reshaped.

• Three preferred left-column perks: Demolitionist, Hill Clip, and Attrition Orbs.

• Most valuable rolls combine any left-column perk with any right-column perk, aiming for nine possible combinations.

• Burning Ambition excels when used in builds that already apply Scorch, but is slower to ignite targets solo.

• Incandescent is better for instantly applying Scorch and ignitions, especially on Titan builds.

• Attrition Orbs creates orbs even in tougher content, pairing well with Burning Ambition.

Class Build Recommendations

• Warlock/Starfire: Combine Burning Ambition with Demolitionist for fast grenade regeneration; six kills refills grenades at 100 grenade stat, reduced to 2.5 kills while Radiant.

• Titan/Ashen Wake or Hammer: Incandescent and Demolitionist favored for faster, more widespread ignitions and synergy with grenade-focused builds.

• Hunter/Grapple: Chaos Reshaped and Demolitionist boost damage and help regain grapple cooldown, though the GL remains slightly preferred.

• All roles benefit by mixing and matching recommended perks for optimal results in various builds.

General Weapon Performance and Other Event Weapons

• The SMG’s reload speed is low but compensated by its origin trait and mods like solar loader.

• Using Demolitionist often negates the need to reload, especially in grenade-focused builds.

• The event bow is also strong, mainly for players lacking similar bows with Dragonfly or Damage perks.

Decisions

• Recommend farming for Year Tide Apex with Demolitionist and Burning Ambition or Incandescent for main builds.

• Encourage participation in the event for top-tier weapon drops.

Recommendations / Advice

• Target rolls with any combination of the three preferred perks from each column.

• Prioritize Demolitionist for grenade builds, especially on Warlock and Titan.

• Use Attrition Orbs in harder content for easier orb generation.

• Don’t overlook the event bow if lacking high-quality bows.

Action Items

• TBD – Viewers: Farm Year Tide Apex during the event, focusing on high-tier perk combinations.

• TBD – Viewers: Experiment with the recommended perk and build pairings for each class.

Solstice SMG Year Tide Apex Review

What's up guys, today we're going over the Solstice SMG, the Year Tide Apex, and I think this might be the best primary in the game. Yeah, you read that right. Not only is the GL probably the best special and maybe the best weapon overall in the game, I truly think this SMG is also PV's best primary currently for the exact same reasons. I think it's the best weapon for the best builds in the game.

And with it being in the energy slot, you can use both at the same time. This event is just incredible. You definitely get in there and start farming because two of the three weapons are, in my opinion, the best possible weapons in their slot in PV currently. So in this video, we will be breaking down what those roles are and in what builds and why I think they're so great. So starting off is going to be a 900 RPM solar SMG.

And there's going to be three perks in each column that you want practically every single combination of those three perks. So the goal is as you get tier 4 and 5 versions of this weapon, hopefully you can knock out a few combos per actual drop instead of holding what 9 different ones. And so we're going to kind of work backwards and talk about the right column perks, then the left column perks that I pair with it.

So starting off with a new perk, Burning Ambition. Dealing sustained damage more quickly scorches the target. Dealing damage to a scorched target inflicts scorch. So we look at how this works on an SMG.

It takes roughly 24 shots to proc Scorch on a target. And then once something is Scorched, shooting the game will apply more and more stacks until they eventually ignite. And there is a cooldown to applying more stacks of Scorch to an already Scorched target. If you actually shoot full auto with the SMG, it takes more than one mag to cause an ignition.

Roughly like one and a half mags for the ignition to actually happen. So not necessarily the best way to scorch and ignite a target. I think it works better once a target has already been scorched.

So combining this with the right build for example Hellion on Warlock makes a lot of sense. This will only apply scorch to everything around us. And then when we shoot that target we're already then kicking into phase 2 and apply more and more scorch.

And now with those two things stacking, you're closing one and a half, almost two missions per magazine with SMG, which is obviously a huge damage increase for the weapon. And the first thing I would pair with this is going to be Demolitionist for Starfire on Warlock. And as we talked about, this stacks with the grenade stat once you get up to 100 and have the 190% grenade energy scaler.

So with Demo and 100 grenade stat, it takes six kills to get your full grenade back, which is already incredibly fast. But if we combine that with Starfire while Radiant, Uh, yeah, you get your grenade pretty fast, as in two and a half kills for each grenade. So five kills with a primary equals two grenades. And those two grenades are nuclear bombs. So yeah, I think this is by far the best weapon to use with Starfire Warlock.

It's really not even close. Burning Ambition makes so much sense with all the scores we'll be playing. And I think it's actually better than Incandescent for this build.

Pairing that with Demo to have 100% uptime on our grenades is insane. 100% worth farming and using in this build. It is the best weapon to use. Moving on to Titan, we could still use Burning Ambition for Ashen Wake or Hammer Titan, but I think for this I like Incandescent a little bit more. That's just because with the Sunspots, the Sunspots aren't going to be applying as much Scorch to targets, so it takes a little bit longer to build up to an Ignition.

I think just getting the Scorch from Final Blows with Incandescent is a more effective way of applying Scorch and causing more and more Ignitions. but both perks would work really well on titan and once again i would still pair it with demolitionist for ashen wake obviously and even for hammer titan in yesterday's video i was talking about how i want to convert it into not only a hammer build but also a grenade build and i did get a little bit better armor not perfect yet but i have 100 grenade and if i use the festival flight With the Blast perk, I can get that to 165, throw in a Grenade Fault, 185, and now combining that with Roaring Flames, my grenade also does a lot of damage, and you can go the route of Aggr with Thermite still, or you go the route of damage with Fusion, and not only have a hammer that one-hits champions, you can make your grenade also one-hit too, because you have the 65% increase from 200 Grenade, and then 73% from Roaring Flames. So even on Titan, I think Demo plus Incandescent is probably the way to go for Ashen Wake and even Hammer Titan. Obviously on Ashen Wake, if you for whatever reason don't get your Fusion Grenade back, once again, with Hunter Grenade, just getting two, three kills, you will have it fully back.

And then all of the Scorching from Incandescent and the Sunspots, those will just be Chain Explosions and Great Accelerator also. Once again, probably the best weapon for the best Titan builds. And then even for grapple hunter, I would then swap over to chaos reshaped for the 35% damage increase and extra healing just from being in combat for a while.

Once again, pair that with demo to help get our grapple back. And now on hunter, it's not as strong as an option. It's still one of the better options in the energy slot.

But honestly, on grapple hunter, I usually just spam the GL and I still think that is the play, but it's a different slot. So you could run both at the same time, shoot the GL to boost up your damage. Grenade stat and keep Verity stacks going and then swap over to this to get demo kills and get your grapple back incredibly fast. And those are just my three demo rules I would want for these builds.

You then have the other two left column perks that you want with all the same right column perks. So once again, we have Burning, Ambition, Incandescent, and Chaos Reshaped. And then we already talked about the three demo versions of that, but I also want it with Oakclip just for general play. Hillclip + Incandescent makes a lot of sense just for really anything in the game or even Chaos Reshaped.

And finally the same rules with Attrition Orbs. Attrition Orbs will create about 1 orb per mag. Just another way to guarantee orbs when you're playing a little bit harder content where you're not going to be getting a lot of kills.

And that obviously makes a lot of sense to pair with Burning Ambition for that harder content and that role will require no kills at all. Just simply shooting a target will ignite them and create orbs. So that seems like a dream role for Starfire for harder content. So overall the three perks on the left you want are Hill Clip, Attrition Orbs, and Demo, and the right Burning Ambition, Incandescent, and Chaos Breach Shaped, and you want every single combination of those six perks, which means basically nine different roles, and hopefully as you get higher and higher tier loot, you can knock out most of them in a single role if you get lucky. But yeah, definitely from the scene and trust me get one with demo and incandescent or burning and use it on like your favorite sword builds.

It is just absolutely wild. I was actually flabbergasted when I started using it with Starfire of just how fast you get your grenade back. It's absolutely insane.

Yeah, I can't really give this event more praise. Not only is it dropping high tier loot for most players that haven't experienced that yet. It's also helping leveling and two of its three weapons are like legit some of the best in the entire game. And even the third one, which I probably won't make a video on, the bow, the bow is incredible also. The only reason I'm not as excited about it is I already have wood bows from last episode with the exact same rules.

So I already have basically that exact bow and that's why I'm not as excited about it. If you don't already have a bow with Dragonfly, D-Stabe, or you know, whatever combination of perks that bow has, it's definitely worth farming. And yeah the dream is to get a shiny hollow foil drop with like all three perks in both columns.

That way you just have one perfect roll and you're good to go. And one last thing I guess I could mention about this SMG is it has pretty low reload speed but with the origin trait and just throwing on like a solar loader. I have no issue at all with the reload speed on this weapon. I even like dropped it down to like 10 with Xenomag and with a sword loader it still felt the exact same. It has really good built in reload and with using demo in a lot of these sword builds you won't usually find yourself reloading anyways just throw a grenade.

And with Starfire getting it back in two and a half kills yeah you just will never have to reload anyways. anyways i think that's me it for the video i thought i retired from the mines but it turns out my bosses gave me one day off and scheduled me for overtime the next week and i got right back in there and farmed out these weapons and you should too anyways thanks for watching catch us next time