One particular player in the Destiny 2 community has seemingly done the impossible and completed the new Root of Nightmares raid alone and without dying. Footage of the player in mention has gained a lot of popularity online as the “world’s first” Root of Nightmares raid completed both solo and flawlessly from start to finish. Since Destiny 2’s raids are designed with a full team of 6 players in mind, the attention that this record-breaking run has earned might be bad news for other daring solo players as well as the Warlock class’ tricks that make it possible.
Root of Nightmares isn’t the first raid that solo players in Destiny 2 have tried their hand at, and it likely won’t be the last. Even though the community considers the Root of Nightmares raid’s difficulty to be far more approachable than other ones, it’s still quite the accomplishment that a player could complete it solo, especially without dying. The difficulty of content in Destiny 2’s Lightfall expansion has been plenty controversial already, and this particular raid completion only throws another wrench in the works.
Warlocks in the Lightfall Era of Destiny 2
Immediately at the start of the run, the player, Xemo, utilizes movement techs known as Well-skating and sword-skating. Skating techniques are effective for covering a long distance in a short amount of time, so they are a great way to speed up the journey between raid encounters. Where skating in Destiny 2 starts to become problematic, though, is when players can use these techniques to bypass puzzles with brute force. Sword-skating is the most basic form of skating that all classes have access to, while Well-skating is exclusive to Warlocks since it relies on a specific ability.
Certain parts of Destiny 2 can become trivialized when players can move at such high speeds that advanced skating techniques allow. In Xemo’s famous run, these techniques allow the player to entirely skip the platforming puzzle leading up to Destiny 2's Macrocosm encounter without ever interacting with the mechanics. This kind of high-profile showcase could be what gets the advanced skating techniques on Bungie’s radar to be removed from the game in the near future.
Another trait that Xemo’s run publicly demonstrates is how Solar 3.0 Warlock builds can have nearly infinite grenades. What makes infinite grenades problematic to a degree is that they have taken on many uses nowadays in Destiny 2. The sheer damage potential of the grenades themselves is already relatively high on its own, but mixed with weapons that have the Demolitionist perk it becomes one of the best DPS loadouts in the Lightfall era of Destiny 2.
On top of that, Warlock’s Well of Radiance often takes the crown for the most invaluable Super in raids. Even without the incredible DPS of the infinite grenade loadouts, Solar Warlocks still have the best support Super nowadays, outdoing Titan’s Ward of Dawn in most cases. The fact that this Warlock has generated a lot of well-deserved popularity for achieving the world's first record makes it a prominent reference point at the moment. Skilled players on other character classes in Destiny 2 might be able to complete Root of Nightmares solo flawlessly, at least technically speaking, but Xemo’s run shows how Warlocks have the upper hand in the current sandbox.
Warlocks are in high demand in Destiny 2’s endgame content lately, and Xemo’s raid completion is plenty of evidence of why. Whether it's for cooperating with a team or being a one-player army, Warlocks are incredibly powerful in the Lightfall era compared to Destiny 2’s Titans and Hunters. However, with such a high-profile showcase as Xemo’s run, Destiny 2’s Warlocks may have gotten too much spotlight for their own good, and before too long, some of the techniques and skills that Warlocks are currently capable of may see some nerfs from Bungie.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Youtube