The Season of the Worthy is in full swing in Destiny 2, and while it may not be living up to everybody’s expectations, there’s still plenty of fun to be had. One of the best features the season has brought us is Warmind Cells, items which can be spawned using Rasputin’s Seraph weapons and interacted with to create various effects. On their own, Warmind Cells are unreliable, since their spawn rate is random. But one mod on the seasonal artifact turns them from an occasional bonus into room-clearing grenades, and in turn forms the core of one of my favorite Warlock builds in a long time.
The Build
First thing’s first — you need to unlock enough levels of your seasonal artifact to get to the last tier. Once you’ve done that, grab Tyrant’s Surge. This armor mod spawns Warmind Cells whenever you do damage with Arc abilities. That’s pretty good in itself, but we can do better. Equip middle tree Stormcaller, which gives a chance to return ability energy on each kill. Now, grab a Monte Carlo. This Exotic weapon has benefitted from the auto rifle buff this season, making it even more deadly than it used to be. More importantly, it has great synergy with Tyrant’s Surge. Kills with Monte Carlo have a chance to restore your melee energy, meaning you’ll be throwing charged melee attacks that generate Warmind Cells even more often. As a bonus, melee kills immediately max out Monte Carlo’s damage buff.
You’ll need to equip some other mods to get your Warmind Cells to actually do anything. I recommend some combination of Rage of the Warmind, Cellular Suppression, and Global Reach. This combination will create Warmind Cells that, when fired at, will blind and suppress enemies. Further damage will destroy the Cell in an explosion that can take out an entire room of adds. You can play around with different mods, but you probably want to make room for Global Reach regardless, as it greatly extends the range of the Warmind Cell effects.
I only mention three seasonal mods because we’re also going to equip an Exotic armor piece. Originally, I used Felwinter’s Helm in this build, since it has good synergy with the melee-focused strategy. However, that Exotic is currently disabled and we have no idea when it’s going to be back. In its place, I’ve been using Crown of the Tempest. On middle tree Stormcaller you won’t get its boost to your Super, but it does provide a reliable boost to your ability regeneration. Another option is Geomag Stabilizers, which will keep Chaos Reach more often and make it more useful for boss melting. Keep in mind, though, that while Chaos Reach will generate Warmind Cells, you can’t detonate them with it.
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Loadout Options
Your Energy and Power slots are pretty flexible, and you can go with whatever you feel most comfortable with. That said, I like running a Sword in my Power slot, since this build is already focused on close-range encounters. After this season’s buff to the weapon type, swords are pretty effective for tearing down powerful enemies and bosses, and they’re just a lot of fun to use too.
For your Energy weapon, a shotgun is a solid choice, especially one with Trench Barrel, Demolitionist, and/or One-Two Punch. The Seraph shotgun is pretty effective, and is useful for popping Warmind Cells more quickly than Monte Carlo. Another option is to run a second Primary weapon — I’ve been using a Traveler’s Judgement 5 I grabbed last season with an Anti-Barrier mod. Between that and the Disruption Blade seasonal artifact mod, I have good coverage against Champions in Seraph Tower and Lost Sector activities.
Limitations
Warmind Cells don’t appear in Crucible, so this build is purely a PVE setup. Additionally, you might have some trouble with Champions in Nightfall and Lost Sector activities. For the most part, you can deal with Champions by equipping an Anti-Barrier sidearm or Unstoppable hand cannon alongside your Disruption Blade sword, but in Master level Nightfalls the close-up nature of this build will be a liability, and most of the time you’ll be better off running Well of Radiance, a special sniper rifle, and a long-range Power weapon.
Still, for nearly every other PVE activity in Destiny 2, this build is a blast. The flow is different enough from my normal Warlock play that it almost feels like a different game, and it’s made this otherwise kind of lackluster season feel fresh and exciting. Give it a shot, and let me know how it goes for you in the comments.
