Everyone who plays Destiny 2 knows that the competitive meta is largely dominated by Titans and Hunters. Despite how unique the Warlock class is, players who favor the magic and support-based playstyle is almost always outclassed by the other two Guardian types. Even in PvE, it’s arguable that Warlocks are lacking compared to their more offensive counterparts. There are several impressive builds for Warlocks for PvE/PvP, but that number is far outweighed by the sheer number of optimal Titan and Hunter exotic builds out there.
Plenty of Warlock players continue to echo how bad their class’ viability is on the Destiny 2 subreddit, especially now with Beyond Light‘s exotic lineup revealed. While Hunters and Titans received exotics that transform, change, or augment various abilities and existing abilities, Warlocks got more of the same with Beyond Light‘s exotic armor. Short of discussing permanent changes to the subclasses themselves, these new exotics continue to kick Warlocks while they’re down.
As an example, here are the two Warlock exotic armors coming to Beyond Light in November: the “Dawn Chorus” helmet and the “Necrotic Grip” gauntlets. The Dawn Chorus helm amplifies Daybreak Warlock users, strengthening the sword strikes themselves along with an improved Solar burning effect. The Necrotic Grip, borrowing its name and function from the Hive, activates a “poison”-based damage effect upon striking enemies that damages them over time. If both of these exotics sound remarkably similar to other exotics, it’s because they are.
All of the best Warlock exotic armor for PvP, save for a few examples like the Getaway Artist gauntlets or Nezarec’s Sin helmet, utilize a defining perk that either recharges or augments a grenade/super ability. There are very few unique exotic Warlock armor pieces that generally assist with PvP scenarios. There’s a reason why most Warlocks in PvP scenarios either continue to use Transversive Steps, Karnstein Armlets, or Crown of Tempests, depending on the subclass they’re using. Obviously mileage varies between Warlock users, but a quick search on guardians’ loadouts will show a lot of similar exotic armor pieces over time.
Meanwhile, the Beyond Light exotics for Hunters and Titans get a ton of interesting exotic armor pieces that change the way their moves function in interesting ways. The new Icefall Mantle gauntlets for Titans transforms their stationary Barricade abilities into an overshield, while Mask of Bakris for Hunters turns their invincible dodge into an intangible teleport, similar to Warlock’s Blink double jump. The point is Warlock exotics continue to augment existing abilities without innovating or changing up their playstyles in significant ways.
The exotic armor coming in Beyond Light (so far) seems to continue this trend. While the “poison” effect from Necrotic Grip is technically the most “unique” armor piece, it’s just another persistent damage effect that essentially has the same purpose of the “burning” effect from Solar damage. Speaking of, Dawn Chorus does the exact same thing that Crown of Tempests does, but for a different subclass. This basically means another round of Warlock exotics that either gives existing abilities (and supers) a slight damage boost, or is activated by what is widely considered the worst melee attack in the entire game.
Unless the damage boost is incredibly significant, which it likely wouldn’t be to preserve balance in PvP, these exotics aren’t going to budge the needle for Warlock viability in Crucible (or other activities, for that matter). Numerous posts on the Destiny subreddit, by newcomers or veteran players, have pointed this out as well, echoing a feeling that many have had for a while. Warlocks all play the same in Crucible, to their deficit. There just isn’t enough variety in PvP builds for Warlocks: most of the recent Warlock exotics either heavily relied on casting Supers, or attacking with a charged melee attack.
Considering how Supers are used conservatively by Warlocks in Crucible, and how Warlocks also happen to have the worst melee attack compared to Hunters and Titans, these two new Beyond Light exotics are extremely disappointing. A user on the Destiny subreddit (gravendoom75) notes that these two exotics are emblematic of a growing problem in Destiny 2: Warlocks continue to receive exotic armor that just doesn’t make sense with how the class is typically played. These exotic armor pieces just mean more Warlocks are going to stick with top-tree Dawnblade builds in Crucible, and both Void and Arc (and perhaps also Stasis) will continue to go unused by the majority of players.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light releases on November 10, 2020, for PC, PS4, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. The PS5 version releases on November 13.
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