Summary
With the new Seasonal Artifact mods in Season 22, players can now create Elemental Orbs inDestiny 2. After equipping the mods, using the corresponding Elemental weaponry will periodically generate Elemental Orbs for Void, Solar, and Arc weapon kills. These Elemental Orbs function like Strand Tangles inDestiny 2, in that they can be picked up and thrown at enemies to deal area-of-effect damage. On top of dealing impact damage, Elemental Orbs have the added utility of being able to apply debuffs exclusive to each of the Light Elemental Subclasses, and they can also provide ability cooldown reductions for players upon being picked up.
While the add-clearing potential from throwing Elemental Orbs around is a welcome addition to the current state ofweapon balancing inDestiny 2, this isn’t necessarily an issue that needs to be addressed at the moment. On the other hand, though, the up-time for abilities and Elemental debuffs that Elemental Orbs are going to fuel is arguably going to reach a problematic extreme in Season of the Witch.
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Elemental Orbs Are Overkill for Ability Builds in Destiny 2 Season 22
There are only a few required investments for putting together a build with all the available benefits from Elemental Orbs, which will likely make it extremely common for players to use throughout Season 22. Part of the reason that many players are expected to run Elemental Orb builds inDestiny 2is that Seasonal Artifact Mods no longer take up armor mod slots. This change has been in place for many Seasons by now, and it has takenbuildcrafting inDestiny 2to a new level by allowing players to combine Seasonal Artifact mods with existing mod builds. Another reason why many players will likely run Elemental Orb builds is that they are the majority of the mods available in the current Seasonal Artifact, aside from the Champion counters.
While Elemental Orbs can sometimes be dangerous to go and fetch in the middle of a firefight since they spawn at the location of slain enemies, they are arguably worth the risk to utilize in most PvE content inDestiny 2. Especially in activities with large amounts of players, likeDestiny 2’s Raidsand patrol destinations, having a steady stream of Elemental Orbs in play can create a cycle of chaos. Especially when the majority of players present are equipped to benefit from Elemental Orbs, Season 22 is going to be all the rage for ability-based builds inDestiny 2.
This new buff to ability cooldowns inDestiny 2is overkill, given that abilities are already in a very generous spot. With armor charge mods, Orbs of Power, and certain Exotic armor and weapon builds in the Lightfall era ofDestiny 2, it’s fairly easy to maintain great ability uptime even without incorporating Elemental Orb mods. For reference, shortly after the Lightfall expansion was released, one daring player even completed theRoot of Nightmares Raid solo flawlessly, utilizing an excessive amount of abilities to deal the damage of six players by themselves. Since then, many players have accomplished this same task among other ridiculously difficult challenges, making it seem as though nerfs were incoming for ability builds, until the opposite happened with Elemental Orbs being introduced.
It’s possible thatDestiny 2is currently testing out Elemental Orbs asSeasonal Artifact mods in Season 22before releasing them as permanent armor mods in the future, which might explain why things seem extreme for the moment. While this might take away from their synergy with existing buildcrafting tools inDestiny 2, turning them into permanent mods could also pave the way for more depth and variety for players who choose to heavily invest in Elemental Orb builds. Whether Elemental Orbs return after the current Season or not, Season of the Witch is going to put ability-based builds into overdrive thanks to these mods.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
