The new threats coming in Destiny 2: The Witch Queen mean Guardians must secure new tactics in order to quell the threat. When the latest expansion comes to Destiny 2 later this month, it brings along something that Guardians have not had in years: A new weapon Archetype.
The Glaive has been advertised heavily since the official announcement of The Witch Queen expansion. First thought to be just a special Exotic melee weapon, it's now known that Glaives will be an entirely new weapon type, a first since Bows were introduced to the game in the Forsaken expansion. In an interview with Game Informer, James Tsai detailed further the reason why Guardians will be given this new weapon type to fight against Savathun's Lucent Brood.
What Glaives Bring to Destiny 2
The Glaives will serve a new purpose for Guardians as a short-to-medium range melee weapon. The short-range attacks will feature heavy thrusts at enemies that dare to get up close. At medium range, there will be an elemental damage burst that can address a tightly packed group.
Tsai said in the interview that the Glaive will also have multiple functions. On offense, multiple jabs in succession will have a unique animation that will make it feel more fluid. Defensively, the Glaive can be used to block attacks and will power up as Guardians defeat encroaching enemies. The Glaive seem to exist in an area where Guardians have a need to be in close parameters with Hive enemies that Bungie feels the Fusion Rifles nor Shotguns can efficiently deal with. It can possibly be a weapon for Guardians to use in the small window of time to crush the Ghosts of Light-bearing Hive Knights and Wizards.
Looking at one of the latest Witch Queen Weapons trailers, there will be a special Glaive for each Guardian class. The Glaive will be introduced along with another first for the Destiny franchise in Weapon Crafting. There is bound to be a campaign mission that will explain why Guardians are now harnessing this new weapon type along with the reason they can build their own fine-tuned weapon with personalized stats and perks. Perhaps there could be a return of Ada-1 and her forges after maybe dropping her stigmas against assisting the Guardians with the larger threat looming.
This new weapon archetype and its potential gameplay implications are an exciting new aspect of the Destiny universe. Excitement for new weapons can be mixed into the larger hype for The Witch Queen that led to its one million preorders. The idea is fascinating, but it comes down to the execution and how well this new weapon type and its possible perks at the Legendary and Exotic levels meshes into the Destiny 2 sandbox.
Destiny 2 is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S with The Witch Queen expansion set to release on February 22nd.
Source: Game Informer