Unlocking the Future: Destiny 2's Game-Changing Season 22 Revelation Shakes the Status Quo

Highlights

Season 22 introduces new Seasonal Artifact mods that allow players to generate Elemental Orbs in Destiny 2.

The Elemental Orbs can be hurled towards enemies, inflicting damage and applying unique debuffs that are specific to each Light Elemental Subclass. Additionally, players can receive the advantage of reduced ability cooldowns upon collecting these Elemental Orbs, thereby amplifying the effectiveness of ability-based builds during the Season of the Witch.

With Season 22's new Seasonal Artifact mods, players in Destiny 2 can now generate Elemental Orbs. Equipping these mods and using Elemental weapons will periodically create Void, Solar, and Arc Elemental Orbs from weapon kills. These orbs function similarly to Strand Tangles, as they can be picked up and thrown at enemies to cause area-of-effect damage. In addition to impact damage, Elemental Orbs have the unique ability to apply debuffs for each Light Elemental Subclass and can also reduce ability cooldowns for players when picked up.

While the ability to clear adds by throwing Elemental Orbs adds a positive aspect to the current weapon balancing in Destiny 2, it may not be an urgent issue that requires immediate attention. However, the high availability of abilities and Elemental debuffs fueled by Elemental Orbs in Season of the Witch may become problematic.

Elemental Orbs Are Overkill for Ability Builds in Destiny 2 Season 22

Creating a build with all the benefits provided by Elemental Orbs requires only a few essential investments. It is expected that these builds will become quite popular among players during Season 22. One of the main reasons for this trend is the fact that Seasonal Artifact Mods no longer occupy armor mod slots. This change, which has been implemented for several seasons now, has elevated buildcrafting in Destiny 2 to a whole new level. Players can now combine Seasonal Artifact mods with existing mod builds, allowing for greater customization. Additionally, the abundance of Elemental Orb mods in the current Seasonal Artifact, apart from the Champion counters, is another motivating factor for players to adopt Elemental Orb builds.

While it can be risky to collect Elemental Orbs during a firefight due to their spawning at the location of slain enemies, they are highly valuable in most PvE content in Destiny 2. Activities like Raids and patrol destinations greatly benefit from a constant stream of Elemental Orbs, especially when the majority of players are equipped to maximize their effectiveness. The arrival of Season 22 has sparked a surge in ability-based builds in Destiny 2.

However, some argue that the recent buff to ability cooldowns is unnecessary as abilities are already quite powerful. With armor charge mods, Orbs of Power, and specific Exotic armor and weapon combinations in the Lightfall era, maintaining high ability uptime is relatively simple even without Elemental Orb mods. In fact, shortly after the release of the Lightfall expansion, a daring player successfully completed the Root of Nightmares Raid solo flawlessly, utilizing an abundance of abilities to surpass the damage output of six players. Since then, many players have accomplished similar feats and faced other incredibly difficult challenges, leading to predictions of nerfs for ability builds. However, the introduction of Elemental Orbs suggests a different outcome.

Destiny 2 is currently testing Elemental Orbs as Seasonal Artifact mods in Season 22, potentially making them permanent armor mods in the future. This may explain the current extreme nature of the game. While this could disrupt existing buildcrafting tools in Destiny 2, it could also provide more depth and variety for players who heavily invest in Elemental Orb builds. Whether or not Elemental Orbs return after this Season, Season of the Witch will greatly enhance ability-based builds with these mods. Destiny 2 is playable on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.