Exotic Armor, why are some GREAT, but others AWFUL? | Destiny 2 Design Analysis

Recently there's been talk about the state of Exotic Armor in Destiny 2. Bungie has been slowly rolling out reworks to a number of underused Exotics, and that has made people question what makes a particular Exotic fun or meta in the first place. Today we'll be analyzing the design behind what makes a great Exotic, and why some meet the design goals, while others don't. We'll be going over examples of good and bad exotics from Hunter, Warlock, and Titan, so no matter which class you play you'll be able to follow along!

If you have suggestions for particular Exotics you'd like to see me cover in depth in the future, or you have ideas of your own, let me know in the comments!

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[joedubner]

It will never cease to amaze me how one exotic will be like "get an invincible and reflecting shield while sliding" and another exotic will be like "your diamond lances leave behind a small stasis crystal. Create diamond lances near you while using a stasis subclass and standing behind your rally barricade"

[JonnyRocket-nbcp]

cadmus ridge lance cap is very nice for stasis helps with control. allows you to make stasis crystals which for titans, give damage resistance when nearby, provides cover for teammates and yourself and when u or teammates break crystals, they cause 'shatter' damage which is a stasis 'verb' . there was an exotic added last season called wicked implement and the lance cap works very well with it as well as the new stasis bow they added recently. I forgot to mention diamond lances. stasis titans with lances which is a stasis titan aspect, get kills with stasis and enemies then create a diamond lance which is a spike of ice u can throw at enemies and freeze them, with the exotic cadmus ridge lance cap, when u throw that ice spike, depending on how strong the enemy is, creates more or less crystals. so red bars, freeze and spawn 1 cryalstal beside them. champion, freezes and spawns 2-3 crystals. oh and there is another aspect for titan that allows you to create stasis shards after breaking or 'shattering' stasis crystals. each crystal shattered by your, create 1 stasis shard. each shard replenishes some melee energy. there is an aspect that grants grenade energy while taking damage. as a titan, 100 resiliece is a must. rally barricade takes under 15 seconds to regen; while in use, grants bonuses to range, stability and reload speed when behind. obviously in close quarters this may not be as easy but you still get dmg resist while near crystals or frozen targets. throw ur stasis crystal grenade, less dmg, cover and if u need stasis shards boom, all in one grenade. shatter a crystal get a kill, create a lance, throw lance, freeze target, repeat. ager's scepter even works since it freezes targets. stasis bow grants stasis crystal arrows when u get kills up to 5 or 6. Wicked implement grants overflow when collecting stasis shards and slows and freezes enemies when rapidly landing precision hits apart from bosses, they just get slowed.

[dingusfighter]

I have personally tried assasins cowl strand hunter and it works great in a solo content build where you use finishers to generate treadlings that weaken enemies so that you can finish them generating even more threadlings all while never being visable.

[deputydumpling]

Promethium Spurs we’re changed so now instead of being bad, they’re detrimental to use. It’s no surprise no one talked about it but it’s surprised me how reviewers of the changes forgot about it

[SkywardShoe]

Khepri's Sting actually has one weird, interesting way to use it in PvP (props to Coolguy for this build.) Basically, you throw your smoke bomb at a corner you want to keep tabs on before moving around a corner, and if someone comes around the corner they get smoked, and you can now see them through the wall, allowing you to line up your shot on them before exposing yourself. You don't really use the on-melee cast part of the perk, but as a information gathering exotic in PvP it does have some use.

[evanhughes]

First time seeing a vid from you, but I have to say, seems super professional and well edited and scripted for a channel with 250 ish subs. Great job man keep it coming

[OSKXT]

You got the effect of the skull of dire ahamkara wrong, it also refunds super energy on kills. Also the stasis lances are already a thing that exists on the stasis titan so there's no real need to explain them in the exotic description too. Furthermore, it's not like having lances spawn right next to you isn't emergent gameplay or of benefit to the player, while stasis titan is underwhelming in high end content the exotic certainly does help use its actual aspects by allowing you to use lances without having to approach which helps survival. Also yes, the lances can be useful since they do stun champions and provide some AOE crowd control.

[RebelOfTheNorm]

6:15
I’m DISGUSTED that you didn’t say Synthoceps.
It is the BEST titan exotic by a mile!
-+200%melee damage when in range of 3 or more enemies, and the effect lasts for 8 secs, on a instant refresh
-increase weapon handling and reload speed (used to be melee lunge, but taken away)
-increases SUPER DAMAGE by 50% when in range of 3 or more enemies

It’s literally the punchy boys (of which I am a premium member) corner stone exotic, and the most reliable in game for all encounters and supclasses (especially volatile on strand right now)

Anyway…back to the video

[mstebbins]

You left out skull can give you 50 percent of your super back. It was heavily nerfed awhile back when you could get 100 percent of your super back.

[thelonewolf]

Assassins Cowl Strand Hunter is really fun. The thread melee triggers the invis as well as the grapple punch

[josephrichardson]

I think it's unfortunate that some exotics suffer the fate of whatever they're for not being a great option in the first place. Triton Vice is a a great example, because if you like Glaives, you have a specific exotic that would assist you, surrounded on any glaive sounds like it'd be great! But the problem is, it's a glaive, and will very likely end up getting you killed because it provides no defensive upside like every other CQC ability/exotic. I use this with the void fragment that starts health regen on Melee hit and general invisibility to help with that, but compared to something like Assasin's Cowl it's just doesn't compare.

At least I look like a blue lobster to get all the fashion commendations.

[hurtchain]

Lance cap is actually a great exotic for behemoth. Behemoth loves crystal spam, which this thing does extremely well. Only issue is behemoth is currently the weakest titan subclass. So no one uses it because they dont want to bother forcing the subclass in a situation where something else works better.

[ClockworkBlade]

I love strand and stasis assassin's cowl because it takes what I do and adds a flow but also changes the gameplay loop to something more unique. With strand I feel like a ninja pirate swinging about and kicking people overboard while vanishing into the chaos of the battle. While stasis makes me feel like some cold heartless assassin taking targets out from afar with shurikens and bows from the shadows where none dare wander!

[Gibbo]

They should do exotic pairs, where if you have a specific exotic weapon with specific armor, it gets an insane but niche effect

[obnoxas]

B-but...SoDA so cool with The Want of Lies and Wishes. Also, I've been having great fun with my Thorn build (using kinetic siphon for many orbs) using it for ad clear. The loop goes like this: proc devour, shoot lots of things with Thorn (I regen health with devour and get ammo back with remnant), gather a lot of orbs, cast super, get a bunch of super back so I can cast more bombs.

That aside, I mostly use SoDA for fashion and personal lore reasons, my guardian has a cult dedicated to riven and their helmet is made from her bone, which they claim lets them hear her voice and so they are The Last Voice (their title as leader of the cult). The cult is also called The Last Wish, because it's a really good ahamkara cult name and technically isn't the name of anything in-universe (it's just the name of the Raid gameplay-wise). Anyhoo, fashion/fun/lore over function, I love my SoDA. If you want more of my guardian's lore I'll happily provide lmao

[RebelOfTheNorm]

I KitKat want to say, Casmium ridge is not a bad exotic, it’s just underpowered….because stasis is underpowered.
Basically, you create ice lance (a throwable) 2x as much as before. When you hit an enemy with the lances, depending on enemy strength, you create 1-4 glaciers, thag can be destroyed for damage and ice shards.
It’s a fav of mine…but because stasis is pretty underpowered right now, it feels like. Bad exotic.
It’s an exotic that works best in solo/slow situations, where smart tactics are needed

[ralpharambe]

I like exotics that aren't ridiculously OP but alter the way you play and are, most importantly, *fun.* Hoarfrost-Z on Behemoth checks all the marks for me; you can almost endlessly loop making and breaking Stasis crystals and allows you to use them both offensively and defensively. If it were to get a minor buff (which I wouldn't mind), I'd like for it to get a steady increase in Shatter damage each time a crystal is destroyed, stacking X times for Y duration.

[benamende]

You should try out 'Promethium Spur'. Now that is an exotic right there. Proof that Bungie doesn't test anything. You need to be standing in a rift for it to do anything. But it doesn't do anything unless you have full rift I think you can see the

[wolk]

i think the ahamkara helmet for the warlock should bring back the d1 effect where you dont throw one nova bomb but 3 small ones

[BigfoxN-A-chiccenhouse]

Apotheosis Veil rework removes super. Adds extra grenade & melee. Inherent 0 intellect stat, absolution & recuperation mods are free & high base melee stat.