For a live service game like Destiny 2, the meta for what weapons, gear, and abilities work best is always changing. This is due in large part to changes to the game, either from normal updates, seasonal changes, and even large expansions adding new content. Things were thrown into flux late last year with the Destiny Content Vault and Weapon Sunsetting removing large portions of content, though the player base always manages to find the next best thing.
The Destiny franchise has a rich history of instances where weapons and gear dominate for stretches of time. Bungie has taken care to limit what it deems as too powerful, though certain weapons like Telesto, Prometheus Lens, and even Lord of Wolves had their moments in the sun. Last year, the exotic auto rifle Hard Light also caused plenty of headaches for players in the Crucible PvP modes thanks to the auto rifle having almost zero recoil, no damage falloff, and rounds that can ricochet off walls. While Bungie has since made adjustments to bring the Hard Light auto rifle back in line, new gear and weapons have continued to rise to the top of the food chain.
Over the past month or so, Warlock players have seemingly gravitated towards a very specific build inside of competitive modes like the Crucible and Trials of Osiris. The build is effective at countering a lot of the other classes, making it quite formidable in PvP oriented events. Here’s why Destiny 2 Warlock players have started leaning so heavily on the Chaos Reach and Geomag Stabilizers build.
Originally introduced inside of the Forsaken expansion, Chaos Reach is the middle tree for the Stormcaller subclass. Instead of channeling lightning, activating the super launches the player into the sky to fire a continuous stream of arc energy. What makes this super stand out, however, is the ability to cancel it by pressing the super activation controls again. This is effective for saving remaining energy and potentially getting another super faster.
The other key aspect to this new Warlock build is the exotic boots, the Geomag Stabilizers. It’s intrinsic perk is known as Close Enough, and it allows the player to sprint to generate super energy when the meter is nearly full. In addition, any enemies damaged by the Chaos Reach beam will extend the duration of the attack.
Players have found that these boots can charge the last 15 percent of the super meter just by sprinting, so resourceful individuals have figured out a way to earn free kills. Essentially, when the super is ready, players can activate it to earn an easy kill. By immediately canceling it, players save a significant amount of energy which can quickly be recharged by taking out other enemies and sprinting to finish the meter. When combined with weapons that have the perk Thresh, and armor with high intellect stats, the super cooldown time gets even lower. All in all, players can get access to their super anywhere from three, four, and maybe even five times in a single Crucible match.
While this build was viable before, the arrival of the Stasis subclass with the Beyond Light expansion has shaken up the meta significantly. In fact, many Warlock players would argue that it has hurt this class the most as the Shadebinder subclass was heavily nerfed by Bungie in December of 2020 due to its overwhelming strength.
While many Warlock players felt as if they lost a viable competitive subclass without many to turn to, the Hunter and Titan stasis classes began to take over. In order to stay competitive, Warlock players began turning to the Attunement of Control subclass and Chaos Reach, which has proven to be an effective counter to Stasis.
It’s effective at long range, eliminating the possibility of being too close to those with roaming supers or getting frozen by the Revenant’s Silence and Squall super. In addition, players can get their supers back very quickly, more so with the build mentioned above. Other players have also reported that Chaos Reach has the ability to kill through walls, which likely isn’t intended behavior, but is no doubt helpful.
For Trials of Osiris, the strategy appears to be quickly using the super to pick off an enemy player, ending the super, and then taking out the last two remaining players for additional meter before using Geomags to run around and fill the final 15%. It does involve a bit of skill for a mode like Trials and scoring the final hits on the enemy team, but it’s a strategy that has become more and more popular with Warlocks over the past month.
It’s tough to counter, especially for Stasis subclasses and keeping Warlocks at range isn’t good enough either. It’s unlikely that Bungie will do anything to counter this build as technically it is being used as intended, though if it becomes the dominant strategy for Warlock players, the studio will likely start taking a look at things more closely.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light and Season of the Chosen are out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
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