It is official: Future 2’s grenades are common now. Lately Bungie gave us a showcase of a few of The Witch Queen’s upcoming options, together with a have a look at the Void 3.0 rework that is launching alongside the growth for Season 16. And the large information for Guardians chasing grenade kill bounties is that you’ll equip any Void grenade within the sport. Need some Axion Bolts on your Hunter? Positive factor. Need to rock Suppressors in your Warlock? Go for it.
Void 3.0 is the primary a part of Bungie’s plan this yr to maneuver all the Gentle subclasses over to the extra modular system used for Stasis in Past Gentle. Which means as a substitute of getting three ‘timber’ per subclass, every with fastened perks, the up to date system allows you to combine and match, enabling you to construct in direction of a selected aim. And, very like with Stasis, all seven Void grenades can be equippable by each class.
To start out, although, solely your class’s authentic grenade sorts can be unlocked. You will be shopping for the others from Ikora, who presumably acts as the seller for the brand new Void goodies—very like Elsie Bray did for Stasis. Bungie did not say how a lot every unlock would value, simply that they do not need it to be a degree of friction for gamers—excellent news for these of us who keep in mind grinding out the Stasis unlocks on extra courses.
As with Stasis, the meat of the Void 3.0 rework is with the equippable Facets and Fragments. Facets are tied to your class; serving to outline its character by providing distinctive interactions tied to what that factor is about. You’ll be able to equip two of them directly, and so they kind the spine of your construct.
Within the demo, Bungie performed as a Warlock, and so we bought an opportunity to dig into the Facets of that class.
Two will already be acquainted to Voidwalker gamers. Chaos Accelerant allows you to overcharge your grenades to deploy extra lethal variations of their base results. This was already current within the previous top-tree Voidwalker means suite, the place Vortex grenades elevated in dimension and length, Axion Bolts generated an additional dart, and Scatter grenades would dwelling in on enemies.
However the brand new Chaos Accelerant additionally works with one of many new (for Warlock) grenade sorts. With it outfitted, overcharged Magnetic grenades will set off a short-range Void blast. This sounds quite a bit like what was middle-tree Voidwalker’s Handheld Supernova. And whereas it is not clear if the impact can be as highly effective, by tying it to a selected, beforehand unavailable, grenade kind it does sneakily nerf sure Unique interactions like utilizing Nothing Manacles to get two Scatter grenades that—below the previous system—could possibly be became Handheld Supernova fees.
Feed the Void is the opposite current means now retooled as an Side. That is what allows Devour builds, the place defeating a goal with a Void means restores your well being with every subsequent kill. This was already one of many strongest talents within the Warlock package, and the important thing to many a solo dungeon completion. The draw back, below the previous system, is that utilizing it meant giving up the injury potential of the top-tree Voidwalker’s ‘Slowva’ bomb tremendous. Now, you possibly can have each, which is already an thrilling prospect.
Provided that working Feed the Void and Chaos Accelerant collectively already feels like an absurdly highly effective improve over the previous system, the stress is on for the Warlock’s third, new Side to earn a spot in your construct. Referred to as Youngster of the Previous Gods, it spawns a Void Soul if you solid your rift, who will fly over to the enemy you are taking pictures to use injury and a weak point impact. Here is the important thing bit, although: whereas draining an enemy, the Void Soul will both provide you with grenade and melee vitality should you’re working therapeutic rift, or well being should you’re working empowering rift. It is the latter that pursuits me extra, and the way it would possibly pair with the brand new Unique boots—introduced in The Witch Queen’s vidoc—that trigger empowering rifts to heal you.
To summarise: you possibly can pair Devour with a Void Soul that provides an extra well being regen impact, with an unique that lets your empowering rift heal you. After which you possibly can nonetheless equip your Slowva bomb and the brand new Warlock Void melee, Pocket Singularity, which launches a monitoring ball of vitality that, when it detonates, pushes targets away and applies a ‘unstable’ impact—exploding them once they take injury. Which you are able to do a variety of, since you’re in an empowering rift.
The good unknown of this method proper now’s the Fragments, that are class agnostic. There will be a set of those within the Void rework, and up to now I’ve solely seen a couple of with pretty minor results: melee remaining blows granting grenade vitality, lingering grenade results getting elevated length, remaining blows giving tremendous vitality when surrounded by combatants. None of them sound like a sport changer, however I count on them to perform very like Stasis, the place Fragments are sometimes the distinction between an honest construct and one thing that sings by way of synergy with mods and Unique results.
Mainly: there’s each motive to be excited should you’re a fan of Future 2’s quickly increasing buildcraft potential. Stasis’s flexibility made it some of the attention-grabbing subclasses within the sport, even after the PvP nerfs. Primarily based on what I’ve seen right here, I doubt Void will grow to be the go-to selection for group end-game content material, at the least for Warlocks—there’s simply an excessive amount of utility in Photo voltaic’s Nicely of Radiance, or Stasis’s Bleak Watcher turret. However I do see it being the most suitable choice for tough solo content material—Grasp Misplaced Sectors, solo dungeon makes an attempt and the brand new Legendary marketing campaign. Particularly as Season 16’s artefact mods can be designed to spotlight potential Void builds.
Greater than something, this can be a sturdy first exhibiting for what the Gentle subclass rework might obtain—a set of customisable choices designed to boost and increase the sport’s current roles. It is a constructive first step that, by the point the subsequent growth roles round, ought to enormously enhance what our Guardians can do.
