Don't Worry, Destiny 2's New Glaive Won't One-Shot You In PvP

You'll soon be making your own weapons in Destiny 2, thanks to a new crafting system coming to the game in the upcoming expansion, The Witch Queen. Among the first weapons you'll create is the new Glaive, a first-person melee weapon that can stab, shoot, and shield players. It's so versatile, in fact, that the weapon sounds like it might be a bear to deal with in Destiny 2's competitive space, the Crucible.

There's good news, however, for those Destiny players worrying that they're somehow about to get instantly dropped by a spear that can shoot energy, as if someone added space magic to a Dark Souls weapon. During a recent preview event in which we saw some of The Witch Queen in action, Bungie explained that the Glaive isn't one-shotting Guardians in the Crucible. While the device looks deadly, it doesn't sound devastating.

Instead, from the way Bungie has described the Glaive in PvP, players will need to use the Glaive more like a shotgun. The strategy developers have used internally is to fire one or more of the Glaive's energy blasts at opponents as you close the gap between them and you, and then follow up with a melee strike. That sounds like an approach shooter fans should be pretty familiar with--in fact, Bungie just got done making a bunch of new weapons for its 30th Anniversary that celebrate the shoot-melee-grenade strategy that it popularized in its Halo games.

That's not all the Glaive can do, however. It also is capable of generating a shield to protect its user, which looks like it'll absorb quite a bit of damage, at least in PvE activities. You'll be able to use the shield in the Crucible, but not indefinitely or right away, Bungie explained. Instead, you'll need to charge up the Glaive shield by landing shots, which, given other weapons with similar requirements to trigger their neat abilities, might be tough to do when you're under fire against other players.

Given Bungie's recent changes to the ammo economy in the Crucible, it sounds like the Glaive will be interesting, but not exactly game-breaking. Then again, other weapons have unexpectedly turned out to be ridiculously powerful in the Crucible, at least for a time. We'll have to wait until we can start zapping and slicing up other Guardians with Glaives on February 22 to know for sure.