After a long, tedious, and arduous six months, The Witch Queen has finally arrived, and what an arrival it has been. The Witch Queen is being greeted with overwhelming positivity from the community. Literally every single part of the DLC has been a hit, including all of the new exotic goodies.
We’ve got two new pieces of armor for each of the three classes, a new kinetic exotic, three new energy exotics, and two new heavies. Granted, one of these is the raid exotic, meaning it’s currently hidden until Vow of the Disciple drops. So, I’ve briefly gone over every single one of the new Destiny 2 Witch Queen exotics that we have access to right now. While I haven’t had the opportunity to play with most of them myself, I’ve tried to provide some sort of experienced insight on whether or not they’ll be useful.
Destiny 2 Witch Queen Exotics List
Hunter Armor
Blight Ranger
As a Hunter main of over seven years, I can say that the Blight Ranger exotic helmet is, more or less, useless. It looks like a poor man’s Graviton Forfeit, and I can’t say much better about its exotic perk.
In PvE, middle-tree Arc Staff is arguably one of the worst subclasses in the entire game. It has absolutely no place in any sort of end-game content with the very rare exception of the occasional GM Nightfall, although shield Titan does that job MUCH better.
In PvP, it sees a little bit more use, but it’s far from being a META option. So, having increased damage and orb generation with it has little to no use case. It might be worth experimenting with it for boss DPS in PvE, maybe, but that’s about it as far as I can tell.
Renewal Grasps
I feel like Hunters sort of got the short end of the stick with these new Destiny 2 Witch Queen exotics, although I don’t mind that since the new Void Hunter subclass is literally broken levels of good (easy 100% invisibility uptime).
However, unlike Blight Ranger, Renewal Grasps are definitely worth playing around with. It’s possible that some decent builds could be crafted out of it, although that depends on how big the Duskfield is, and what percentage that reduced damage is.
Last season, there were some nutty infinite Stasis grenade Hunter builds out there, so once the community crunches the numbers, there’s a very real possibility that these gauntlets become META.
Being able to completely spam any given area with AoEs that cut enemy damage in half, for example, is going to be invaluable. Even for end-game content given that you can just throw one of them at the feet of your Fireteam.
So, keep an eye on these as people start creating builds later on into The Witch Queen and Season 16.
Titan Armor
Loreley Splendor Helm
Titan is my least played subclass, and by a fair margin, too. When I do bust it out, though, I tend to play solar more often than not.
So, with that limited experience under my belt, I’m going to go out and say that this helmet is pretty high tier, although it’ll struggle against the current BONK build exotics.
The Loreley Splendor Helm is likely to have a place in both PvE and PvP content. In PvP, being able to instantly heal when you’re critical, in a super, is powerful. Granted, you want to avoid being brought down that low in the first place.
In PvE, it’s going to be slightly less useful, although an increased level of survivability is always welcome on Titan builds.
You’re not going to see anyone busing this out in GMs, but it’ll have its place I reckon. Plus, it looks absolutely awesome. Like, seriously.
Hoarfrost-Z
I’ll come right out and confess that I have never really played Behemoth Titan. As a PvE player, there has never been an incentive to beyond the initial Beyond Light curiosity. It’s easily the worst PvE subclass in the game, so I haven’t got much experience to pull from when talking about the Hoarfrost-Z.
However, I do have a high level of general game knowledge and experience. So, using that, I’m going to suggest you stay clear of this exotic if you can. Behemoth Titans really needed to get something powerful to make them viable, and this is far from that.
Having more Stasis crystals on demand is nice, but not at the cost of your exotic armor slot. That’s all it really does, too, because the buffs are pretty meaningless, even with the reload speed increase which is typically sought after in end-game content. It’s simply outclassed by every other META Titan exotic right now, plus it’s on the worst possible subclass.
Warlock Armor
Osmiomancy Gloves
I play my Warlock quite a bit, especially once I’ve maxed out my Hunter and have no more Triumphs/gear to collect.
Having the benefit of playing both Hunter and Warlock extensively, I can say, with confidence, that Bungie absolutely LOVES Warlocks. That sentiment of mine is only reinforced by The Witch Queen exotics that they’re after getting.
Not only are both of the new Warlock exotics well worth using, but both of them are easily META options going into Season 16.
Given how powerful Stasis turrets are, any exotic that buffs Warlock Stasis grenades is going to be welcome, even if that means forfeiting the Coldsnap buff a lot of the time. However, depending on how quick the recharge is, we might see builds that flex both using the turrets and Coldsnaps side by side.
I’ll still be using Eye of Another World for my Stasis-Lock build, but Osmiomancy Gloves will be well worth experimenting with.
Secant Filaments
The new Void Hunter has quickly become my go-to for difficult solo content, but before that, it was Devour Warlock.
Anyone that’s played with the subclass knows why. Healing on every single kill, with a refresh on the buff, can single-handedly carry you through some of the most challenging solo-experiences Destiny has to offer. In fact, it has carried me through them, including my solo runs of Prophecy.
While I haven’t had much time to experiment with the new Void Warlock, I’m going to take a wild guess and say that hasn’t changed.
So, having Devour on your Empowering Rifts essentially makes Healing Rifts useless, not to mention the disruption effect. On top of that, it doesn’t look like you even need to be using Void to get the buff.
Out of all the new exotics, this is the one I’m most excited about. Make a point of getting it as soon as you can, especially if you’re a Warlock main.
Kinetic Weapon
Osteo Striga
I hate to say it, but gimmicky exotics have a history of not being very useful, and a lot of the new Witch Queen exotic weapons are very gimmicky.
On top of that, weapons that track also tend to do less damage than those that fire good old-fashioned regular bullets.
So, in other words, Osteo Striga isn’t really all that good. It’s a whole lot of fun, though.
In PvE, it should be fairly obvious why this will see no end-game play. I mean, it’s a submachine gun, that poisons, and tracks. That’s it. Not only do you not want CQC weapons for raids or GMs, but why would you give up your exotic slot for something so underwhelming compared to something like a Gjallarhorn.
In PvP, Osteo Striga’s usability is a little more niche. Traditionally, poison is incredibly popular in player versus player game modes. While SMGs aren’t top of the META, they are certainly useable. So, this should be a combination made in Heaven, right?
Well, this particular SMG suffers from some pretty nasty damage drop-off. Unless your positioning is perfect, you’re going to struggle to put up good numbers with it.
Osteo Striga is no Dead Man’s Tale, put it that way. However, it’s worth trying out for the novelty aspect of it, if nothing else.
Energy Weapons
Edge of Intent/Action/Concurrence
Bungie has put a lot of stock in its new glaives. Whether or not they’re useable in end-game content, though, remains to be seen. You wouldn’t think that a melee weapon would see any late-game use, but I’ve been experimenting with a Glaive invisibility Hunter build and it’s actually been ridiculously effective. So effective, it’s making the Legendary of The Witch Queen campaign laughably easy.
On top of that, I have a sneaky suspicion glaives will be incredibly good for certain boss encounters, depending on whether or not you get a phase in which you can just go nuts whacking said boss.
That’s why I think all three of the class-exclusive glaives will find themselves a place in the current META in some form or another, primarily for Hunters, but I can see all classes getting use from them.
As for the unique effects of the three exotic glaives themselves, Edge of Intent will easily be the best of the bunch. Having a, more or less, on-demand healing turret will be incredibly valuable when your playstyle involves being up in enemy faces.
Dead Messenger
I’m going to get the PvP aspect of Dead Messenger out of the way immediately. It’s not all that good. It’s certainly better than regular GLs, but it’s not a weapon archetype built for the vertical, high-speed gameplay of Destiny’s PvP scene. That’s not to say you can’t do well with it, because you can, but it’s not going to break into the META.
Grenade launchers have always been used in end-game PvE content. In particular, launchers with the Blinding Grenades perk. Dead Messenger doesn’t have Blinding, and it doesn’t have anything to fill that void.
Its Trinary Vision exotic perk isn’t nearly good enough to make up for that loss, making Dead Messenger fall short compared to other, Legendary grenade launchers.
As with all of the new exotic weapons, though, it’s worth playing with just for the fun of it. Maybe you’ll find a way to make it viable, who knows?
Heavy Weapons
Parasite
Parasite is… interesting. It’s incredibly fun to use, and not just because you’re shooting Hive worms at your enemies. It requires you to completely change your playstyle in a way that no other exotic calls for.
Its perk, Worm’s Hunger, gives you a damage buff in the form of a stack. This stack maxes out at 20. To get a stack, you need to kill an enemy with a weapon that isn’t Parasite. With that in mind, it’s clearly built for single target damage, and it does that job well.
At max stacks, you’re going to be instakilling more or less everything in the game minus bosses. That includes Hive Lightbearers. However, the work required to reach that stack level isn’t really worth it when you can hit whatever you’re fighting with a rocket and call it a day.
Personally, I think Parasite will have niche use in PvE. There will be very specific encounters that it will be META for. However, I can’t see it becoming a loadout staple.
For PvP, it’s just a grenade launcher. Its perk, and its other exotic perk that gives you a damage buff if you damage yourself with it, don’t really matter given that it’s a heavy. It might as well be a regular purple launcher for all intents and purposes.
Grand Overture
Grand Overture is my dark horse pick for a META contender out of the new Destiny 2 Witch Queen exotic weapons (although I’ll die on the “glaives are good” hill.)
It won’t be getting brought into any raids anytime soon, given that it isn’t built for high DPS. Instead, I can see this machine gun being a world-beater in a lot of ad-intensive end-game encounters.
Essentially, Grand Overture is two weapons in one. On one hand, it’s a slow-firing, heavy-hitting machine gun capable of easily taking down majors. On the other, it’s a volley-fire rocket launcher that will decimate whatever group of unfortunate souls you point it at.
If you use it right, you’ll find yourself wiping out large groups of enemies with little to no effort whatsoever.
Stacking up missiles is easy thanks to how much damage each shot of the weapon does, and each missile will kill whatever it hits, within reason.
Personally, I’ll be experimenting with this machine gun in content like solo Dungeons and Nightfalls. Its ability to wipe out regular red bars is something that should be explored in the coming weeks and months.
That’s my take on Grand Overture in PvE. In PvP, I’m not sure. Machine guns have always been good heavy weapon picks in the Crucible, but the wind-up time and low fire rate make me question its viability. Plus, you’ll never get to load more than one or two missiles with it. It could be a powerful clutch machine in the hands of a capable player, though.
That’s our look into the new Destiny 2 Witch Queen exotics. For more related content and guides, check out our website’s Destiny 2 section.
