Like any live game, the usefulness of the different Destiny 2 abilities varies depending on the current state of the meta. But one super ability has been so lackluster for so long that’s it’s approaching embarrassing at this point. We’re talking, of course, about the Warlock Arc super, Chaos Reach.
In Destiny 2, Chaos Reach allows Arc Warlocks to unleash an enormous “laser” which deals damage to enemies. Unlike many supers, it can be deactivated early to conserve some super energy. That’s about all it does. It can be useful in PVP sometimes, but it’s rarely the best choice. Even for Arc Warlocks, there’s a better super for most situations in the form of Stormtrance. But why is it so bad, exactly?
Well, super abilities in Destiny 2 are generally classed into one of three types. Burst damage supers deal a lot of damage to one or a group of targets very quickly. These include abilities like Thundercrash and Nova Bomb. Roaming supers allow Guardians to move around while attacking enemies, like Stormtrance and Bladefury. And support supers create beneficial effects for allies — the classic examples here are Ward of Dawn and Well of Radiance.
Chaos Reach is so terrible in part because it doesn’t really fit into any of these categories. Is it a burst super? Not really, because it has a long animation while the Guardian is firing the beam. But it isn’t exactly a roaming super, either, since you can’t move much aside from aiming while you’re firing. And it certainly doesn’t provide any beneficial effects to your fireteam.
Add on to all that the fact that Chaos Reach’s damage is quite low in comparison to other damaging supers, and you have a lackluster ability that has very little to recommend it. And ever since Bungie reduced the brightness and glare of the beam, it doesn’t even look that cool to activate.
So how could Destiny 2 improve Chaos Reach? Here are a few possibilities.
Chaos Reach could create a Divinity-like bubble while trained on a target, weakening bosses and increasing the size of the precision damage area. Weakening abilities aren’t currently in Arc’s subclass wheelhouse, however, so this seems unlikely.
Another possibility would be for Chaos Reach to apply some kind of Arc debuff to enemies. This wouldn’t make it much more useful against bosses, but having it apply Blind, for instance, could give it more applications for add control, allowing Warlocks to sweep the beam across a group of enemies to debilitate them without having to train it on each one to finish them off.
Or how about allowing Warlocks to generate Orbs of Power for as long as Chaos Reach is trained on a target? That would be a way of increasing the super’s utility against bosses without simply making it do more damage. It probably wouldn’t unseat Well of Radiance, but if the tuning was right then there would be much more incentive for players to run it.
There are a number of ways that Chaos Reach could be improved in Destiny 2. Until at least one of them happens, however, this super will continue to be one of — if not the — worst in the game.
