Among The Witch Queen's new features is the first weapon archetype introduced in Destiny 2 since Forsaken: the glaive, a hybrid weapon that can be used as a melee polearm, to shoot elemental projectiles, and as a shield. Players get their first glaive in Destiny 2 by playing The Witch Queen campaign, eventually shaping The Enigma at The Enclave's Relic on Mars. Because the default Legendary glaive is craftable, players can improve and change it to better fit their playstyle.
One of the best things about the glaive is that it's conceived as a versatile weapon, and whether this translates into the gameplay loop depends on the players' actions and preferred combinations. However, Destiny 2's The Witch Queen introduces the investigation board, which allows players to complete several Resonance missions that eventually unlock the Exotic quest to get a class-specific glaive. The problem with the Exotic glaives is they are incredibly hard to obtain because of how RNG-dependant one of the Resonance missions is, and ultimately these weapons also fail to deliver.
Why Destiny 2's New Exotic Glaives are Underwhelming
All the Resonance missions available at The Enclave are relatively easy, but one of them that requires players to craft the Come to Pass auto rifle and Tarnation grenade launcher at the Relic. This might seem doable at first glance because it's not hard to come by Deepsight Resonance guns, which are required to unlock weapon Patterns in Destiny 2, but the requirement is harsher than anticipated: Come to Pass and Tarnation are only available as random drops when completing the Wellspring activity in Savathun's Throne World.
The Wellspring has a rotating loot pool that changes daily, with a total of four different weapons available, meaning that players can only get Come to Pass and Tarnation once or twice a week. Furthermore, many Destiny 2 players have lamented issues with drop rates of Deepsight Resonance weapons from the Wellspring, many not finding a single one in over five hours of farming. This RNG layer can be an excruciating step to complete the Resonance mission, meaning it's important that Bungie upholds its promise to investigate the drop rate for Wellspring weapons.
The Exotic glaives themselves are also underwhelming in terms of performance, and they are counter-intuitive to use when compared to the standard Legendary glaives. A glaive accumulates energy by dealing ranged damage to enemies, and the energy can be spent by raising the glaive's shield. However, Destiny 2's Exotic glaives all have a unique perk that requires players to expend the weapon's full energy charge, making it lackluster.
Achieving full energy with Exotic glaives often requires five-to-seven projectile shots, which is around a third of the weapon's reserves, meaning players will only be able to use the unique perk two or three times before running out. Additionally, players using the melee part of the glaive will not gain more energy to spend, and using the shield will deplete energy accumulated, resulting in two of the three functions of a glaive becoming less useful. There are better options for Exotic weapons, and some Legendary guns still do something similar to the Exotic glaives - but more consistently and often. As such, Destiny 2's Exotic glaives are not worth the grind at the moment, and only substantial changes can make them usable.
Destiny 2 is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
