What is in an artifact in Destiny?
Artifacts were added to Destiny in The Taken King expansion.
They were supposed to provide extra value to players but instead turned out to
be just another armor piece needed to boost ones overall Light Level.
Artifacts will be getting a complete overhaul and the new kinds of artifacts being released with the Rise of
Iron will enable players to use certain abilities, which is probably
much closer to the initial hopes Bungie had for artifacts in the first place.
There are 8 of these new artifacts for Rise of Iron and they
are:
Memory of Radeghast – “The ability for your sword to deflect projectiles such as rockets as well as other things such as ogre blasts”
For PvE this could be a particularly fun artifact to use and
can obviously come in handy in certain sticky situations. I wonder if
“projectiles” ALSO include those annoying snipers. If that is the case I think
this artifact is one of the first ones I would personally want to obtain.
For PvP, the ability to deflect rockets in Destiny is game
changing, the question is whether it will be game breaking and I hope not. I
hope that it’s implemented in such a way that it makes it more tactically
effective without making rockets completely useless.
Memory of Perun – “The ability to highlight guardians with
full super in yellow and guardians who are low on health in red”
This one although not as exciting as the first one seems
like a more PvP based artifact. Identifying which guardians have full super can
definitely come in handy especially in certain games modes (Mayhem Clash) but
even for regular Crucible matches. I feel like certain classes would benefit
more from this than others. For example a Titan using this could identify a
person with a super and then throw his ability nullifying grenade with more
benefit as to randomly throwing it whenever it becomes available.
This artifact can also be used to identify if that menacing
Titan is more likely running towards you to use his SUPER or shotgun you in the
face.
Memory of Jolder – “Removes the Sprint cooldown completely”
Let it be known that I will be one of the first people to
say that this one absolutely terrifies me. Just imagine the increase of people
running around with shotguns or worse yet imagine the increase of people using
the Titan shoulder charge ability. Some people actually think the opposite of
this and say that there shouldn’t have been a sprint cooldown in the first
place, but I think with the way Destiny works a sprint cooldown was definitely
needed.
This one is definitely a bonus for those that love running
and shot-gunning things in the face.
Memory of Silmar – “The ability to dramatically reduce any damage dealt by DoT(Damage over Time) effects.
Again this one is probably more influential for PvP as that
is when you would need this artifact the most. Another troubling or good sign
for some people is the mention of the Thorn in relation to this artifact, which
could indicate the return of Thorn. I can see this being really helpful as
there have been many occasions in PvP where I killed a person but was then
burned to death by either their lingering grenade or super ability.
Memory of Felwinter – “Lose your super, but gain an
additional grenade and melee and small boost to all stats. Orbs grant melee and
grenade energy”
For PvE I don’t know if giving up your super is worth what
you get in return especially certain classes such as Titan Defender as PvE
modes rely heavily around the Titan defender bubble.
For PvP as well I am not sure if giving up your super is
worth an additional grenade and melee unless you are they type of player to
rarely use your super or you are playing a class where you can’t effectively
use the Super well, I just don’t see people using this that much in PvP. Supers
are just that handy and sometimes are game changing if used correctly and can
be the difference between losing a game and winning one.
Another thing I am not sure is if this ability will stack
with other grenade/melee increase perks such as Warlock Sunsinger double
grenades or will it stack with armor such as The Armamentarium to give you a
total of THREE grenades with then might be worth giving up your super for I will
admit. A max discipline Warlock with not one, not two, but THREE sticky
grenades can be a force to be reckoned with.
Memory of Gheleon – “The ability to gain a detailed radar at
all times, including when aiming a Primary Weapon”
This already looks like one my favorite artifacts so far,
because you are essentially getting two perks simultaneously. You get the
detailed radar much like the current NightStalker keen scout perk which if you
think about it can then be in conjunction with this artifact to use shadestep
and you could use another exotic item (other than the one that provides
shadestep) OR use the exotic to grant shadestep and use another perk thereby
letting you use all THREE perks for the last column of the Nightstalker
subclass.
The second is like the MIDA’s ability to keep your radar
active while aimed in. Like many people in PvP, I myself use the MIDA quite
often and it is often my go to gun when I am trying to win a game so this
ability is definitely a welcome addition.
Memory of Skorri – “Speeds up super recharge for all nearby
allies”
This one sounds pretty useful for PvE encounter such as
raids and Nightfalls as your allies could potentially have a never ending super
cycle as long as someone in your fireteam has this relic. That begs the question
if this ability stacks with itself, as in what if everyone in your fireteam had
this relic, would your super recharges 3 times as fast or even 6 times as fast?
I hope not as this again could potentially be game breaking.
Again for PvP this relic can be quite useful as long as it
is implemented correctly and if it IS only one instance of this ability that
counts rather than stacking then one person would be left to play the “support”
of the team.
Memory of Timur – “Melee attacks on low-powered enemies have
a chance to make them an ally for 30 seconds”
This one seems to be only for PvE portion of the game obviously and in my opinion seems to be an extremely fun artifact to be able to use and I personally can’t wait to try this one out. Now obviously you can’t control a Major (yellow bar enemy) but it would still be pretty awesome to use on boomer knights or snipers or even regular wizards.
How to get an artifact in Destiny Rise of Iron?
Well after I showed you all the various new artifacts coming
to Destiny Rise of Iron, many of you are probably wondering, well how DO you
get the new artifacts and what do you need to do?
Even though there are 8 new Artifacts in total in the Rise
of Iron, only 3 of them will be available at a time on a weekly basis. What
this means is that three artifacts will be offered per week with a different rotation
of artifacts being offered each week from the Vendor.
Players will have to do a weekly bounty that resets every Tuesday
like most other weekly activities in Destiny. Upon completing these weekly
bounties and all of the weekly quests, players will then earn a token which can
be traded in for ONE of the three artifacts available for that week.
The Vendor’s name is Tyra Karn who gives out these weekly
bounties as well as the Token for completing said bounties. Once you trade in
the Token for an artifact you then need to activate the artifact with its corresponding
Iron Lord. Each artifact is named after a previous member of the deceased Iron
Lords and the abilities granted by the artifact is similar in nature to the
corresponding Iron Lord’s power when they were still alive.
CONCLUSION
Some of these artifacts seem extremely interesting while
others not so much. Either way at least artifacts now serve a slightly better
purpose, other than just another armor slot needed to be filled up. Some of
these perks have the potential to be game breaking even if they are not so I
really hope Bungie implements them in the right way. I do think that the
addition of these NEW artifacts is a good move by Bungie as it adds, not only a
new dynamic to the game but also more purpose to the artifacts, rather than
them being just a piece of armor you need to get. Other than that I can
honestly say I am pretty excited for Rise of Iron, not just because of these
new artifacts but just generally altogether.
What are your thoughts on these new artifacts soon to be
introduced in Rise of Iron and which one looks to be your favorite? Let me know
in the comments section below.