Prior to the launch of Destiny 2: The Final Shape, Bungie announced sweeping nerfs to one of its most problematic Super abilities – Well of Radiance. Thousands of Warlocks cried out in joy (myself included) at the thought of not having to be The Well Guy in their fireteams, cursed eternally to stick that damn sword in the ground to keep the whole team alive for any damage phase.
But incredibly, I'm willingly using Well of Radiance more than ever now, despite its noticeably worse performance. That's largely thanks to the new Speaker's Sight Exotic Helmet and the No Hesitation Auto Rifle, both of which add and enhance your healing capabilities. I've been rocking this fireteam medic build that lets you become a true Destiny 2 healer, rather than the one-note Well Guy of yore, and it might just be one of the best builds in the game.
Guardians never die!
Firstly, let me talk you through the essentials of the super-healer build that I, and many other Warlocks, have been using:
- The Destiny 2 dev behind Titan's game-changing Banner of War was also on its new Exotic shotgun Slayer's Fang: "I gotta live up to this, especially as my first gun"
- "If your cake is trash, nobody wants to eat it": At a tough time for Destiny 2, Bungie drops an Exotic mission promising vampire vibes, a cool shotgun, and a finale with bite
- Super: Well of Radiance
- Grenade: Healing Grenade
- Melee: Incinerator Snap
- Class ability: Phoenix Dive
- Aspects: Touch of Flame and Heat Rises
- Weapons: No Hesitation Auto Rifle with enhanced Physic perk
- Armor: Speaker's Sight Exotic Helmet
Obviously, the foundation of a healing build lies in Healing Grenades, but with Touch of Flame, Heat Rises, and the Speaker's Sight helmet, they become ridiculously useful. Now you can consume your Healing Grenades to send out a powerful healing burst to reinvigorate yourself and your allies, create a healing turret that shoots allies with improved healing projectiles, and gain the benefits of Heat Rises, which'll make your Phoenix Dive healing much better.
In our Destiny 2: The Final Shape review, we said that it's "an incredibly well-executed expansion that nicely rounds off a decade-long journey, making it Destiny 2's best".
The icing on this Solar Subclass cake is the new No Hesitation Auto Rifle from the Pale Heart, which is Destiny 2's first Support Frame weapon. It's got the unique ability to fire healing bullets towards allies when firing from the hip, and I've used this so many times already to keep a teammate alive that may have charged into the fray a bit too hard and out of my turret's reach. Craft your own No Hesitation and slap the enhanced Physic perk, and you'll even get the healing benefits too.
When it all comes together, it makes for an incredibly active playstyle that is both fun and useful for the whole team in any PvE activity. Importantly, I think it was sorely needed for Warlocks stuck in this support role too. Even with its nerfed damage resistance and health restoration, Well is still undeniably essential in the hardest of activities in Destiny 2. However, by bringing Destiny's holy trinity of guns, armor, and abilities together into this playstyle, it provides plenty of ways to keep your team alive and yourself occupied other than just the one-note "kill stuff until Well is ready" approach.
It almost scratches the same itch as when I played a lot of Mercy in Overwatch. The combat puzzle of positioning and priorities that comes from playing a non-lethal healer in the chaos of battle was often immensely satisfying, only ruined by greedy Genji-mains and idiotic Tracers. Although, that comparison has also made me realize that, back in Destiny 2, many other Warlock builds are lacking the same "active" playstyles.
To use the hot, new Prismatic Subclass as an example, one of the best Warlock builds uses the Bleak Watcher Stasis Aspect and Getaway Artist Exotic Gauntlets to let you consume your grenade to create a Stasis turret and an Arc Soul and, to be honest, it's kind of boring. The Stasis Turret slows and freezes enemies, and the Arc Soul zaps stuff, while everything else I do serves to regenerate my grenade for even more Stasis turrets and Arc Souls. I just need to keep regenerating my grenade by any means necessary to create two AI companions that do the work for me – it's just "kill stuff until X is ready" again.
Of course, one could argue that a lot of Destiny 2 builds are like that, but my hope is that this guardian angel build opens the way for Bungie to implement more creative options for Warlocks, and even Hunters and Titans, in the future. Options that aren't just new ways to use my grenades or summon AI companions, but instead use nearly every aspect of a build to fulfil a singular fantasy to great effect. Now get out there and keep your fireteam alive, medic!
The Final Shape has added lots of new stuff to unlock, from all the Destiny 2 Prismatic Fragments to new Exotics, like the Destiny 2 Khvostov!
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