Destiny 2: Warlock Turrets and Buddies Are Becoming a Cliché

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Summary

  • Heresy improved Arc subclasses in Destiny 2, making Amplified more valuable and Bolt Charge a powerful DPS choice.
  • Warlocks got Ionic Sentry aspect in Heresy, adding more turrets/buddies potentially turning it into a trope.
  • Destiny 2’s Frontiers should shake up Warlock’s gameplay to avoid repetitive elements like turrets and buddies.

Heresy has arguably been a shot in the arm for Destiny 2 after the overall debacle that was Revenant, and despite redeeming the Episode-based model, Bungie is going to shift the game’s release schedule and type of content heading into Frontiers later this year. As much as Heresy has been and still is a solid Episode so far, especially with new and interesting activities like The Nether and Court of Blades, it may also have gone overboard with one class theme. This is because Heresy added three new Aspects, one for each Destiny 2 class, with the most used and better received being the Arc ones. Yet, one of them is fun but more of the same.

Arc subclasses were heavily buffed in Destiny 2 with Heresy, which was much-needed considering the state they were in. Amplified is now a much more valuable buff, for example, and Bolt Charge packed an extra punch when it comes to the Arc subclasses’ ability to deal damage and have higher DPS overall. Titans got the incredibly strong Storm’s Keep Aspect, which generates Bolt Charge stacks rapidly and discharges them with weapons, whereas Warlocks got Ionic Sentry. This Aspect is also quite powerful, allowing Warlocks to generate Bolt Charge stacks and blinding enemies, but it once again uses the trope of turrets and “buddies.”

Destiny 2’s Warlock Turrets and Buddies Explained

The theme originally started with Void 3.0, where Warlocks got access to Child of the Old Gods as an Aspect to have a Void turret similar to the iconic Arc buddy created by Arc Soul and Bleak Watcher from Stasis. The reception was good and players loved the idea, even if Child of the Old Gods didn’t initially see a lot of play in PvE. After that, with Prismatic Warlock builds and The Final Shape came a new Warlock Solar Aspect and Super, with the Aspect being called Hellion and creating a Solar mortar dealing damage and Scorching enemies hit.

To take things even further, the new Rime-Coat Raiment from Episode Revenant gives Warlocks using Bleak Watcher (thus Stasis or Prismatic builds) the ability to create Stasis crystals around the Bleak Watcher turret and also generate icicles that target enemies when shooting at them. Now, with Destiny 2‘s new Finality’s Auger Exotic from Sundered Doctrine and Ionic Sentry, Warlocks can create two more turrets/buddies in their gameplay loop, making it most likely that any build for the class will feature at least one.

Why Warlock Turrets and Buddies Are Turning Into a Cliche

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it may have taken a fun concept to the levels of a trope, meaning that a potential third Darkness subclass could very well end up having another turret or buddy Aspect tied to it. Likewise, future Aspects for existing subclasses may end up adding more turrets or buddies, with the most likely candidate at this stage being Strand – though one could argue it already has “buddies” in the form of Threadlings. All these Aspects and gameplay features contribute to the idea that the Warlock can be a summoner, without ever making it the focus of a given subclass, like building a small army.

There are builds that use multiple turret and buddy abilities to take the concept to extremes, but the game doesn’t actively cater to them much for endgame activities. More importantly, constantly adding new things that add turrets or buddies to the Warlock’s kit can eventually turn this unique idea into a boring cliche because players expect it and most turrets/buddies in the game end up sharing some DNA. This doesn’t mean that Ionic Sentry or Finality’s Auger are bad or even “ruin” the class, but Destiny 2‘s Frontiers should shake things up in this department in order to try something new.

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2025-03-15 22:42