Storm’s Keep has amazing potential (so here’s some theoretical build crafting. Theory-crafting, if you will).

(Bungie, great name by the way)

Before getting into anything else, just to summarize the ability for those unfamiliar with it:

Casting your barricade gives you and nearby allies 4 stacks of bolt charge. Remaining behind the barricade passively gives bolt charge and so does inflicting damage on any enemy (I think, not sure about that second part). Dealing weapon damage at 10x bolt charge then discharges it with a lightning bolt (cashing in on 10 stacks normally requires ability damage — this sidesteps that). As with normal bolt charge, getting stacks also provides some melee energy.

This aspect does 4 things: cover, taunting, lightning, melee regen (holy hell that’s a lot for a class ability). All barricades provide cover and taunt enemies, but the rate at which you accumulate melee energy and cause lightning strikes depends on how fast you get stacks of bolt charge.

So, the objective here is to maximize the rate at which we get bolt charge stacks. How do we do that?

Coldheart. (Wait, what if this somehow becomes the meta and we end up going full circle… that would be hilarious)

Cold heart ramps-up damage the longer you remain on target and periodically generates ionic traces. Since spark of discharge will award bolt charge when an ionic trace is picked up, dealing damage which coldheart will basically gives us another source of bolt charges in addition to the passive effects of the barricade. We’ll have to see just how much of a difference this makes but in theory we should be causing lightning strikes much faster.

Honestly, any weapon that can do passive damage or has a large mag capacity would be ideal for this too. That means most trace rifles, sweet business with war rig, mgs (thunderlord for more lightning lol), and things like alethonym, anarchy, and witherhoard.

As for armor exotics, point contact cannon brace might end up being the best option due to Storm’s Keep’s ability to cause passive melee regen. However, there could be some unconventional combos here too. Khepris horn would theoretically allow you to cause an ignition on a target and follow up with a lightning bolt for more damage in a short span of time. Likewise, using hazardous propulsion with 6 or more stacks of bolt charge would fire the missiles and instantly cause a lightning strike (then follow up with dragons breath for more ignitions and more rocket damage and more lightning (manic laughter))

Now the big question:

How much are we betting that arbor warden is somehow going to break this ability?