Best God Rolls for Dead Man’s Tale

If you don’t know by now, Dead Man’s Tale is, quite literally, one of the best primary weapons in the game. Not one of the best exotic primaries, it is simply the best, full stop. And unlike other exotics, this scout rifle drops with random rolls so you can run Presage each week for a chance at the exact roll you want. If you aren’t sure about which perks to chase after, you’ll want one of these god rolls on your Dead Man’s Tale.

Weaknesses of Dead Man’s Tale

With any god roll, you’re going to be chasing after specific weapon perks that shore up the weaknesses of a weapon while maximizing its damage output. Dead Man’s Tale is no different and there are two areas that need improvement.

• Slow reload: This weapon reloads a single round at a time instead of a full magazine, which makes for slow reloads.
• Low stability: The base stability on DMT is 37 which is painfully low. And since you’ll be hip firing this weapon (because of the catalyst), it can be quite difficult to land precision shots to proc Cranial Spike

So, we’re looking for perks that A) improve stability, and B) improve reload speed to help you get back into the fight faster.

PvE Godroll for Dead Man’s Tale

• 1st Column | Corkscrew Rifling: +5 to range, stability, & handling
• 2nd Column | Ricochet Rounds: +5 to range & +10 to stability
• 3rd Column
  • Vorpal Weapon: Final blows grant increased mobility, weapong range, and handling for a short duration
  • Subsistence: Defeating targets partially reloads the magazine from reserves.
• 4th Column | Hand-Laid Stock: +10 to stability

Both Vorpal Weapon and Subsistance are fantastic choices for your third-column perk. However, the PvE activity you’re running and your role within it will be a major determining factor in which perk is the best fit.

For example, if you’re primarily focusing on boss damage (or you don’t have a great DPS exotic) then you’ll want to have Vorpal Weapon on your Dead Man’s Tale. But, if you’re more focused on clearing adds, Subsistence is your go-to perk. The reason behind that is DMT’s exotic perk, Cranial Spike.

Cranial Spike: Chaining precision hits grants bonus damage and quickens reload speed.

This damage buff will have you chewing through trash mobs like nobody’s business AND constantly proccing Subsistence. You’ll basically never have to reload since you’ll always be at, or close to, full ammo after each kill.

Some people will argue that Outlaw is the better choice, but Subsistence procs on all kills, not just ones with precision hits. That gives you a little more wiggle room so you aren’t being punished if your aim was a bit off.

PvP Godroll for Dead Man’s Tale

• 1st Column | Corkscrew Rifling: +5 to range, stability, & handling
• 2nd Column | Ricochet Rounds: +5 to range & +10 to stability
• 3rd Column
  • Killing Wind: Final blows grant increased mobility, weapon range, and handling for a short duration
  • Outlaw: Precision kills greatly reduce reload time.
• 4th Column | Hand-Laid Stock: +10 to stability

Some players like to run Vorpal Weapon as a way to more reliably counter enemy players in their super (which is fine), but the perk has a very short uptime because of its conditional usage. You’ll get far more uptime out of perks like Killing Wind, Outlaw, or even Subsistance since they proc off of every single defeat.

That being said, it’s a toss-up between Outlaw & Killing Wind for that 3rd column perk. Killing Wind makes Dead Man’s Tale even more effective at what it does while Outlaw is Outlaw. It’s still a great perk, even after its nerf, and it has a ton of synergy with DMT. You should be focusing on precision shots so you should be primarily getting precision kills.

However, since Dead Man’s Tale has a pretty decent reload speed, you can equip a Scout Rifle reload mod (or two) to get a faster reload so you don’t have to use Outlaw.

Recap

If you don’t have Dead Man’s Tale already, you need to get it. It’s an incredibly powerful primary weapon with a unique playstyle that’s both fun and rewarding. Chasing after these weapon perk combinations will give you a god roll Dead Man’s Tale that will help you dominate regardless of what activity you’re playing.

Don’t forget. Both of these god rolls rely on you completing the At Your Fingertips mission which will give you the catalyst for Dead Man’s Tale. Doing a solo Presage on heroic might be out of your reach, but you can quickly find a fireteam to group up and knock it out to get your Dark Forged Trigger. While DMT is a great weapon on its own, the Catalyst really takes it to the next level.