KEY POINTS

  • The cost of changing masterwork armor will be reduced significantly
  • Masterwork weapons will no longer generate Orbs of Power
  • Players will be able to unlock all Seasonal Artifact mods soon

Some big and rather controversial changes are heading over to “Destiny 2” once Season 16 and the “Witch Queen” expansion go live in February.

Masterwork equipment will be receiving some interesting changes next season, as laid out by Bungie in the latest TWAB. Soon, players will be able to change the element of their masterwork armor pieces much more liberally than before, and masterworking weapons may not be as enticing anymore.

The cost of changing the elemental attunement of masterwork armor pieces will be lowered drastically. Instead of requiring the same cost of fully upgrading another armor piece, the new system will only ask players to spend 10,000 Glimmer and one Upgrade Module for legendary armor pieces. Meanwhile, swapping elements for exotic armor will need 20,000 Glimmer and one Upgrade Module.

This goes hand in hand with Bungie’s decision to bring a greater focus to buildcrafting by giving players the freedom to swap their mods around with little-to-no consequences.

Breach Savathun's Throne World and take back the Light in Destiny 2 The Witch Queen
Breach Savathun's Throne World and take back the Light in Destiny 2 The Witch Queen Bungie

Speaking of buildcrafting, players will soon be able to unlock all of the Seasonal Artifacts mods instead of being limited to 12. Bungie stated that the amount of XP needed to unlock the first 12 mods will remain roughly the same, but unlocking more will gradually increase the XP requirement, forcing players to make meaningful decisions.

As for masterwork weapons, they will no longer generate Orbs of Power. Instead, a new mod for Helmets will be introduced to allow all weapons, including exotics with no catalysts, to generate Orbs. The community is already revolting over this upcoming change as it forces players to sacrifice an ammo finder mod just to get an effect that everyone already enjoys.

While the change to Orb generation opens up some possibilities with a few exotic weapons, it may actually end up restricting some builds. This might funnel players into using Elemental Well builds as they allow for a bit more leniency and flexibility as well as some added synergy with mods like Elemental Armaments. With Void 3.0 coming up, players can expect Well builds to dominate the meta once the new expansion pack goes live.

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