Destiny 2 fans will know that the game is experiencing a dwindling player count as we approach 2025, a year intended to reinvigorate the series with Episode 3 and upcoming expansions, but the hardcore players still playing are still tooling with their builds.
In service of this, popular Destiny streamer Aztecross has introduced a new series called Build Battles where he compares community-made loadouts and pits them against each other. And, while this week’s first build didn’t quite inspire the streamer or his community, the second one has drawn some interest.
Destiny 2 streamer surprised by classic Exotic build
On the episode, which you can watch on YouTube above, Aztecross uses 44Kang’s ‘Poison Malice’ loadout to clear a Nightfall in a quicker time than rival Nyroc87’s IKELOS SMG one, even going so far as to say “I didn’t think it was gonna work”.
“It essentially allows you to run around and do a tremendous amount of damage with Touch of Malice on that last shot,” Aztecross says, praising the creativity of the build, dubbing it “pretty amazing”.
Winning 88% of the build competition and earning 3,000 Silver in the process, 44Kang got the bragging rights while Nyroc87 was banned from the chat as per the competition rules – but what makes the build so special?
You can access it via DIM here, but the easiest way of summarizing is that it uses the exotic from the King’s Fall Raid, Touch of Malice, to deal bonus damage through the last round in the magazine. This comes at the cost of the player’s health, but the included healing grenades help mitigate at least some of that damage.
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The build’s description on DIM reads “Poison and unravel enemy’s and use bleak watcher for lockdown and unstoppables.”
“Touch of Malice is double edged sword as when buffed it cranks at the cost of health but rift and healing grenades offset it plus the blinding effect of Touch of Malice is nice,” 44Kang adds, saying they’ve polished off a GM (Grandmaster Nightfall) with the build.
Bleak Watchers are ideal for chipping away at enemies while you take cover, while Touch of Malice’s second exotic perk, Charged with Blight, can allow players to get the drop on enemies with the blinding light it dishes out, while the build also employs an SMG (Subjunctive) to rack up a bunch of damage stacks.
If you’re keen to give this Exotic a try, maybe you can use it to duo the King’s Fall Totems encounter? As it turns out, it’s actually possible.
For more Warlock loadouts, check out our Infinite Nova Bomb and Stormtrance builds.
