Orbs of Power have always been very strong in that they provide a small amount of Super energy when players pick them up, making for a rather fast recharge time when fireteams are properly organized. However, Orbs of Power have also always been very problematic because they were tied to Destiny 2’s Masterwork weapons, which gained the ability to generate Orbs on multikills with all Masterwork weapons at any given time. The problem lies in the fact that Masterwork weapons became too powerful and limited in their arsenal of perks, and Exotic weapons without a catalyst were borderline unusable because they couldn’t generate Orbs - which also became very relevant with Charged with Light mods. All of this is changing with The Witch Queen, and it’s hard to tell if it’s for the best.
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Destiny 2: Why Planned Orb Generation Changes Are Problematic
Orb Generation in Destiny 2 will drastically change with The Witch Queen expansion, becoming unbound from Masterwork gear and rather tied to element-specific mods that are also going to be exclusive to helmet slots. The main issue here is that there are four elements in Destiny 2 (Void, Solar, Arc, and Stasis), plus Kinetic damage, which is an elemental-less source of damage that relies on the force of impact. However, there are only two available slots on helmets for mods that are not tied to stat augmentation or Destiny 2’s Combat Style mods.
What this means is that players can, at best, have only two different sources of damage generate Orbs of Power on multikills when The Witch Queen launches, which in-and-of-itself limits build and loadout choices by a lot. This is further exacerbated by the fact that some other build-enabling and generally useful mods are exclusive to helmet slots, including mods that allow Destiny 2 players to find more ammo for specific weapon archetypes. Thus, not only players will have fewer options to choose from, but they will also have to give up handy mods that don’t disrupt regular gameplay on their own.
Endgame activities like Destiny 2’s Nightfall Strikes often feature modifiers like Match Game, which requires players to deal damage of the same element as the shields of the enemies to destroy them quickly. Having also mods that limit Orb generation to specific elements can make it very uncomfortable to switch between builds and loadouts in-between activities, and also an unnecessarily frustrating experience.
Furthermore, many Charged with Light builds and even specific item perks - such as that of Destiny 2 Hunters’ Star-Eater Scales - rely on Orbs of Power to get going, but there will be a scarcity of them moving forward. Mods like Taking Charge will mostly be unused, and builds that are based on fast Super energy generation will lose out on part of their fuel, making them outclassed by most others. As such, unless the Orbs of Power situation is further addressed with complementary changes to make it more bearable for both theorycrafting builds and switching loadouts, the changes are likely to be a debacle.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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