Tusk of the Boar checks two gigantic boxes for Destiny 2: it’s the game’s first Strand / Wave Frame / Special Ammo / Grenade Launcher, and it’s the second ever Special Ammo / Wave Frame that can roll Chain Reaction. It’s a great compliment to existing loadouts in PvE and PvP, and there are a few perks you should keep an eye out for as you dive into Iron Banner.
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Raid matchmaking is one of the most-requested features in Destiny’s history. Browse the comments of any official Destiny facebook post and you’ll eventually find players asking for some way to join endgame activities without resorting to LFG tools outside of the game. In fact, more control over matchmaking in general has been a popular ask since the game began. Why can’t we enter a strike by ourselves? Do we have to play in public spaces with other players? So far Bungie hasn’t provided us with a way to play by ourselves, so some gamers have resorted to scripting tools that effectively prevent the game from matching you with other players.
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The latest batch of new mods in Destiny 2 Season of the Lost include both new Elemental Well mods, plus new Stasis mods that fit into Stasis armor. The addition of a new elemental type for armor is a bit of a mixed bag. You’ll need to upgrade new armor, or change existing armor from Arc, Void, or Solar to Stasis, but it’s worth it. These mods are incredible and easily among the most powerful additions to the sandbox in Season of the Lost.
Continue readingSeason of Arrivals has been a high point of my Destiny 2 experience during the game’s third year. After the complete letdown of Season of the Worthy and a mediocre Season of Dawn I had no hopes that Year 3’s final season would be anything more than a single activity and a bunch of hints towards the next expansion. I was wrong. Arrivals is Destiny 2 at its best, and it contains some of the best weapons currently in the sandbox.
This Season’s three Exotic weapons are all must-haves, but two are found only at the end of lengthy quests. Don’t let that discourge you: they’re all fantastic guns that are worth taking the time to unlock without an Exotic Cipher. Ciphers are already in high demand for weapons like Eriana’s Vow, and there’s still plenty of time to get the Exotics from this season.
Witherhoard Is Stupid Good With Stasis
The Exotic Grenade Launcher Witherhoard is awesome, but if you haven’t bought into Season of Arrivals I wouldn’t suggest buying in now. Put your $10 towards Beyond Light and use your next Exotic Cipher to unlock it instead. However, if you are playing this Season I highly recommend that you finish the Exotic Catalyst. Auto-Loading Holster is huge damage-per-second and quality of life improvement for loadouts that include Witherhoard because you no longer need to manually reload. It’s the perfect perk to pair with the ‘Witherhoard then Falling Guillotine a thing to death’ strategy.
I fully expected to see a balancing pass on Grenade Launchers in Beyond Light, but it looks like Witherhoard and Anarchy will remain top picks going into the next Season. Remember that Witherhoard is especially powerful against stationary targets, and it has synergy with Malfeasance. Stasis will lock more enemies in place for Witherhoard to burn, and Malfeasance is getting a magazine size increase in Beyond Light. Seriously, go finish that Catalyst before the Season ends.
Ruinous Effigy’s Nerf Isn’t That Extreme
In my last post I argued that Effigy’s nerf could be telegraphing major changes coming to encounter designs in Beyond Light. Specifically, Effigy’s huge area-of-effect draining bubble is having its damage reduced, which could mean that we’ll be seeing more encounters with huge groups of enemies. I’m inclined to believe this is the case, and Effigy will probably be very effective at upcoming content even after its nerf.
The reason I’m mentioning Effigy here isn’t because it’s powerful. Actually, the main reason you should pick it up is because it’s an incredibly fun and unique weapon to use. This thing turns enemies into balls that you can punch, dunk, guard, and leech enemies with. It has a Catalyst that rewards a full team of Effigy users, and its suppression effect is almost non-existent among other weapons in the game. Only flashbang grenades on certain Grenade Launchers even come close to simulating the crowd control that Effigy is capable of.
Lately I’ve been trying to get my friends back into Destiny 2 before Beyond Light hits. Talking about Effigy has become my go-to for getting them back into the game, and every time someone unlocks the weapon for the first time they’re instantly captivated by its ability to transform the game. This gun is hilariously fun, and arguably the most unique weapon in a looter shooter this generation.
Don’t Like Sidearms? Try Traveler’s Chosen
Lastly, Traveler’s Chosen is a build-maker’s dream and a huge boon for min-maxers like myself. Its perk reduces ability cooldowns by up to 100% on demand, which means you can double or even triple your ability output when paired with the right exotics. Traveler’s Chosen just keeps getting better as you score more kills, and its perk is like a better version of Demolitionist mixed with Monte Carlo. Oh, and there’s Class Ability regen thrown in too.
What sets Traveler’s Chosen apart from other Exotics is its synergy with Surprise Attack: a Charged with Light mod introduced in Season of Arrivals. The text reads “major damage buff” which almost undersells the fact that it’s double damage for your Sidearms. Yes, you’ll need to become Charged with Light, but that’s easily achieved with Swift Charge which gives you stacks of CwL by killing enemies with a Sidearm. The combo is extremely potent, and depending on the effectiveness of Stasis abilities it might become a serious PvE strategy for harder content where ability uptime is crucial.
Ruinous Effigy and Traveler’s Chosen should be priorities right now if you haven’t managed to pick them up, but again, I’d hold off on buying the Season if you haven’t done so already. We’re two weeks away from Beyond Light and the next Season Pass will probably contain an Exotic Cipher anyways. If you do own Arrivals I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you finish the Witherhoard Catalyst and complete your remaining quest. Signed, someone who had to run 200 strikes to finish his Eriana’s Vow catalyst.
Crowd control is the name of the game when Beyond Light drops in November. The new Stasis subclasses are designed to control hordes of enemies by limiting their movement through slow and freeze debuffs. Right now it’s hard to imagine a place for Stasis in current activities outside of Reckoning or Escalation Protocol: two activities that are being removed as part of the Destiny Content Vault.
We’ve seen plenty of evidence in recent trailers that Beyond Light is leaning more into a horde-style encounter system, much like Warframe. That means more enemies in a room, more enemies on screen, and ultimately way more reason to use abilities that can ‘lock up’ groups of adds or slay them rapidly. It’s a perfect storm for Stasis and at least one other weapon: Ruinous Effigy.
The newest addition to the Trace Rifle family, Ruinous Effigy is one of the best weapons from Season of Arrivals and it has a couple of unique mechanics that make it a clear standout mob killer. Effigy’s single target damage is solid, but it’s orb-creation mechanic is a game changer. While holding the orb dropped by Effigy kills you’re able to do single target damage with a melee, do burst damage with a slam, and guard, heal, and deal area-of-effect damage while remaining mobile. It’s an insane combination of powers that makes it an absolute slayer in normal content.
That said, Ruinous Effigy isn’t all that great in end game content. It’s not used in high tier Nightfall: Ordeals because getting close to enemies is basically a death sentence, and in Dungeons or Raids you’re more likely to use your exotic slot for a weapon with higher damage per second. It’s still amazing in horde content though. Try taking Effigy to Sorrow’s Harbor and run a few waves of Altar of Sorrows. Your teammates might even sent you hate mail.
So what does this mean for Beyond Light? First, it’s possible that Ruinous Effigy might end up being extremely powerful in Beyond Light content. It currently trivializes large crowds of enemies, and it’s clear that Bungie wants us to leverage Stasis powers specifically to deal with the new challenge. The nerf announced this week addresses two different ways in which Effigy is used:
Transmutation Spheres
This Week At Bungie – 10/22/2020
Reduced the damage of the aerial melee attack by 25%
Significantly reduced the damage of the drain effect on enemy combatants
The first point is a little deceptive. At first glance you might think that Bungie is nerfing the slam attack, but it’s actually the in-air normal attack. There’s currently an exploit where performing a small hop and using your normal attack is actually faster than attacking on the ground, which directly translates into a DPS increase. The damage reduction simply brings that combo back in line with the ground attack.
The second change is might potentially break Effigy and make it no longer worth using. The drain effect doesn’t need to kill enemies quickly, but it does need to kill them before the Transmutation Sphere starts eating at your own health. Enemies under the effect of the drain become disoriented, and while holding the block button you’re also deflecting damage. You have time to chill out in a group of adds and let the drain do its thing, provided the damage reduction isn’t something insane like 70%.
I think it’s clear that Effigy will be fantastic for new content in Beyond Light, but I get the feeling that normal content is easy enough for other weapons to quickly take its place. Trinity Ghoul is already extremely well positioned as a dedicated add-clear machine that doesn’t require you to get up close and personal with one-hit melee mobs. The race for excellent weapons is going to be very contentious when sunsetting begins, and weapons like Effigy and Trinity Ghoul will likely become even more popular.
My biggest pre-Beyond Light project involves fixing a potential pitfall in the upcoming Titan Behemoth class: its inability to freeze enemies with its melee ability. It’s a weird oversight that might end up being a non-issue when Beyond Light launches and we get hands-on with the Aspects and Fragments system, but for now Titans have the only Stasis subclass with a melee ability that doesn’t freeze enemies.
There are, however, three grenades coming to all Stasis subclasses. Two of them freeze enemies, so if you’re a primarily solo Titan you’ll definitely want to consider investing in a grenade-heavy build. Or, at least, thinking about how you’ll build for grenades with new gear in Beyond Light.
The build guide I’m describing here is a solid starting point for any grenade-heavy strategy. It’s not locked into any specific class or subclass, and it’s not locked into any particular weapon either. The goal here is to show you how you can reduce your grenade cooldown as much as possible using legendary armor and weapons. You can add in Exotics, like Armamentarium, into your build later.
Let’s start with the obvious: Discipline. At zero Discipline your grenade recharge rate is stuck at 107 seconds, which is an absurdly long time to wait for one of your most important abilities. At 100 Discipline that cooldown drops to 32 seconds. We can cut that down even further by leveraging a Charged with Light mod from Season of Dawn.
Firepower regenerates about 15% of your grenade energy, per copy of Firepower, on grenade throw. You don’t need to get a kill or damage an enemy, so it’s a perfect for Stasis grenades. I think this mod was mostly ignored when it launched because there were so few ways to generate Charge with Light stacks, and right now it’s passed over in favor of Taken, Hive, and Fallen mods. I like its position next season as an all-around grenade-generating machine, but you do need to build for it.
Making Firepower Work
Firepower needs a few things to effortlessly benefit your cooldowns. First, you need a way to become Charged with Light (CWL). You can take your pick here: Orb of Light pick-up, finishers, shield breaks, or specific weapon kills are all fine. Weapon kills are probably the easiest unless you’re in a group, and every weapon type in the game has a mods that lets you become CWL via multikills or rapid precision kills.
Firepower doesn’t consume more than one stack at a time, so feel free to slap one CWL generator and two to three copies of Firepower and call it a day. Otherwise you can add in Supercharged and Stacks on Stacks to raise your max CWL to four and double the rate at which you generate CWL. Again, Firepower will only eat a single stack of CWL per grenade throw, so don’t feel like you need to go too crazy supporting it.
Pairing CWL Weapons With Demolitionist
With two copies of Firepower and max Discipline you’ll have an effective 22.4 second grenade cooldown. Not bad, but we can shorten that even more by adding in extra perks that reduce grenade cooldown. If you do find yourself using a build with Taking Charge then Innervation is an awesome pick for getting extra grenade energy. However, if you’re using a weapon-based CWL generator you’ll likely want to peruse Demolitionist instead.
Seems simple, right? If you’re building up stacks of CWL with an SMG then naturally you’ll use an SMG with Demolitionist. Not only are you bridging the gap between your Firepower-reduced grenade cooldown, but you’re also building up those stacks of CWL again. It’s worth noting that Demolitionist is more rewarding on special weapons, but it might be a bit trickier to ensure you have ammo all the time.
You Can Use This Build On Anything…But Titans Probably Need It Most
Beyond Light Titans probably need their grenades much more so than the other classes. Honestly, for Warlock I can’t imagine not building around their new ranged melee ability that freezes enemies. Hunters can also freeze enemies by using both of their melee charges, but I’m not sure if building for melee is the right call there.
Titans can take full advantage of Armamentarium to keep an extra grenade in tow for bigger fights. Firepower will overcharge your first grenade and give you a 30% refund on your next one, so you don’t have to worry about missing out while using Armamentarium. Otherwise you can always use Heart of Inmost Light to pick up reduced cooldowns for your grenade when you use your melee or class ability.
Right now you can go absolutely crazy with a setup that includes Breach Resonator and the Anti-Barrier mod, but I’m assuming that this particular set of Artifact mods won’t be available in Beyond Light. For now I highly recommend giving Firepower a try, and remember: in Beyond Light you’ll be able to slot it into your exotic armor too.
Until next time then
One of the most shocking revelations detailed in the lore books of Destiny 2’s Forsaken expansion was the betrayal of the Awoken by Variks the Loyal. If you don’t recall, Variks used to run the Prison of Elders for the Awoken and was an obvious ally in the first Destiny, particularly in House of Wolves and The Taken King where he played a vital role in battles against rogue Fallen houses. But Variks’ entire context as one of the ‘good guys’ was turned on its head when it was revealed that Variks himself was responsible for the mayhem in the Prison of Elders at the start of Forsaken. In fact, Variks’ actions led directly to the death of Cayde-6, the curse of the Dreaming City, and untold Awoken deaths in the Reef.
And now, Variks is suddenly back in Beyond Light.
Is Variks one of the good guys again? Bungie describes him as an ‘Uneasy Ally’ in their new page for Beyond Light, but there’s a lot of nuance here. Variks has undoubtably betrayed the Last City and the Awoken, so it’s hard to imagine giving us him a chance to rehabilitate himself. I don’t think Petra would hesitate to put him down if she came across him.
He did not speak to Petra.
By the end of that day, the Prison of Elders descended into chaos.
“Your time WILL come, Variks.”
Uldren sits in his favorite spot, gazing in his favorite direction. “She told me so. She has but one last wish of you.”
“No, your grace.” Variks’ voice was gravelly with emotion. “It is I who has one last service for you.”
Where Loyalty Lies
Variks might not be strictly evil, or an ally of the Darkness, but he’s definitely not our friend. Our relationship with him will never be the same. Remember all of those Awoken bodies littering Mara’s throne room? That blood is on Variks’ hands, and we don’t tend to make nice with character that cross us once.
I was shocked to see Variks show up in a Beyond Light trailer last month. We knew Variks was potentially on Europa thanks to the lore tab in the Exotic Ghost pre-order bonus for Beyond Light, but we didn’t know to what extent he’d play a role in the story. It’s clear that he’s going to be a central character here, and ostensibly he’s going to have some sort of ceasefire agreement with us. The new page on Bungie.net gives us a bit more insight into his role:
https://www.bungie.net/7/en/Destiny/BeyondLight/Story
After helping Uldren Sov escape the Prison of Elders, Variks has only recently emerged from hiding. An uneasy ally in the fight against Eramis, he is a shrewd opportunist who wants to do good, even if his choices are always suspect.
One thing’s clear from the new story trailer: Variks and Eramis do not agree with each other. There’s a scene where Eramis is freezing Variks in place with her abilities, and Variks protests her ‘change’ that is seemingly resulting from her acquisition of Stasis powers.
Did Variks bite off more than he could chew? It looks that way, and now we’re headed to Europa to put his ‘allies’ down. Whether Variks remains an ally long term is yet to be seen, especially with characters like Mithrax waiting for a bigger spotlight in the story. For now, Variks could be helpful in understanding Eramis’ motivations, and I expect him to give us every advantage against the House of Salvation until fighting them no longer serves his interests.
Until next time then
-Kelly
Choosing to masterwork armor is an important decision, and it’s easy to waste difficult-to-aquire enhancement materials if you invest in the wrong armor piece. ‘Wrong’ is a bit subjective because investing in the armor you like is perfectly fine, but if you’re trying to make the most of your enhancement materials, maximize your stats, and have coverage of the game’s most important mods you’ll want to plan your investments carefully. After all, nobody wants to fully masterwork an armor piece only to get a better drop later, or discover that they can’t run their favorite mods.
There are five major considerations to make when masterworking armor. These points aren’t necessarily listed in order of importance either, so keep that in mind as we talk about investment strategies.
Fashion is king for many players, at least until transmog arrives. I won’t blame you for masterworking a set that you absolutely love running, even if it’s going to sunset in Beyond Light. If you’re this kind of player feel free to stop reading now. Masterwork what you love, and come back to this article after transmog is implemented.
If you care enough about stats then you’re probably willing to forgo some Destiny 2 fashion for a bit of extra ability or health regen. Masterworking is a huge boon to min-maxers because it delivers a total of twelve points to each piece of armor at a rate of two points per stat. In total that’s sixty points to your stats will a fully masterworked set, which more than makes up for the missing stat points on your class item. That’s a full extra tier on every single stat and absolutely worth chasing.
The problem is that enhancement materials aren’t particularly fun to get. In PvE you can source Enhancement Prisms from Ordeal Nightfalls, but to get a decent amount you’ll want to run matchmade versions. You can also pick up six Prisms per week per character in Pit of Heresy by dismantling the armor awarded from the final encounter. It’s a useful trick if you’re capped on Prisms. Shards are mostly found in Master and Grandmaster Ordeal activities, at least for us normal players who can’t go Flawless in Trials of Osiris. Being efficient about our usage means less time running Ordeals, and more time playing the actual content in Beyond Light.
Investing In Armor With Long-Term Value
One of the things I stressed in my video, which was made before the changes were announced to the Seasonal Mod Slot, was the importance of finding armor with long-term value. Basically, you don’t want to invest in stats and mod capacity for armor that can’t be used in the Beyond Light endgame. Season of Undying armor sunsets on November 10th, so investing in it isn’t a great idea. You won’t be able to take it into the new raid anyways. Season of Dawn gear is good for the next season, but with its sunsetting date potentially coming up in three months I’d suggest also avoiding it.
Functionally, there’s no reason to not use Season of Arrivals armor right now. It has the latest sunset date and the best mod coverage until Beyond Light. When Beyond Light hits there are a few changes coming that makes all 2.0 armor identical in terms of Seasonal Mods.
All Armor 2.0 armor acquired during Seasons 8-11 have had their Seasonal mod sockets replaced with a single, unified Legacy mod socket that can socket all Charged with Light mods, all Warmind Cell mods, all Nightmare Hunt mods, all Garden of Salvation mods, and all Last Wish mods.
This Week At Bungie – 10/8/2020
If you’re going to masterwork any legendary armor before Season 12 I highly recommend targeting Arrivals armor, including armor you can find in the raids currently. That’s fine for the most part: these armor pieces have a good chance of having high rolls anyways. However, the changes to Season 12 armor and beyond leave us with a new set of considerations.
All armor released in Beyond Light and Season 12, all Last Wish and Garden of Salvation armor acquired starting in Season 12, and all Armor 2.0 Exotic armor pieces (including those already possessed by players) will have a Combat style mod socket. In Season 12, this socket will accept all Charged with Light and Warmind Cell mods.
This Week At Bungie – 10/8/2020
I’m not exactly sure what the last sentence means, but I’ll just assume for now that there’s a non-zero chance that Season 12 armor might not be able to slot in certain Charged with Light or Warmind Cell mods in Season 13. Maybe. We’ll have to see what gets announced in the future.
But if Season 12 armor can also hold mods from Year 3, why invest in armor right now at all? In fact, the single best armor set in Season 12 will probably be the raid set since it’ll have an extra mod slot. If you don’t raid then it’s not particularly relevant, but if you do see yourself jumping into the raid regularly you’ll probably want to set aside some enhancement materials at some point.
So I Can’t Invest In Armor At All Right Now?
Theoretically you could hold off on investing your materials now, or at least until you start getting solid legendary/raid armor drops. That said, you probably want to gear up for the raid. This is an excellent season to grind armor rolls from the raids and from the Prismatic Recaster, but more importantly you can also grind out rolls on Exotic armor. This is where I think you should invest the most resources: maximizing the stats on the best exotics that work with Stasis.
So far I’ve been spending much of this season looking for rolls on exotics like Heart of Inmost Light and Armamentarium. As a Titan main I’ve personally awarded these two exotics the “most likely to be good with Stasis” award due to the fact that synergize with grenade abilities. The only freeze ability that Behemoth has access to, at least that we know of, is attached to the grenade, which means more grenades could be essential.
Exotics don’t have sunset dates, are effectively evergreen, and can now hold four mods at once. They’re more expensive to masterwork, but they have more long-term value compared to legendary gear. For now I’d recommend holding off on masterworking legendary armor, but if you absolutely must I’d recommend targeting either Garden of Salvation or Last Wish armor. They have the Season of Arrivals power cap and in Beyond Light they’ll be updated to five slots. Otherwise simply pick whichever armor looks best that isn’t being sunset in November, and try to hold out for good drops from the raid or a Prime Engrams.
Of course, if you have the time I highly recommend getting in on some of these double reward Nightfall Ordeals. Not only will you get a chance to see more exotic rolls, but you’ll also be stocking up on the materials you need so you’re not making hard decisions early in Beyond Light.
Until next time then,
-Kelly
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