Greetings my fellow guardians. And good day. Today I will be discussing a matter that many people here do not know. I'm talking about orbs. Did you know that there are two types of orbs? Big and small. Big orbs take 8 to fully charge a super. Small ones take 16. "But Embracing, what do you mean by big and small orbs?" Glad you asked! You see, each subclass makes a different size of orbs. The following subclasses create large orbs: Sunsinger, Defender, Striker, Voidwalker, and Gunslinger. Here's a quick breakdown on how this works...
Sunsinger- Any kill while in radiance generates orbs. Melees, grenades, and of course regular kills. In addition, the Sunburst perk has the ability to create two more orbs. All are large orbs.
Defender- The Ward of Dawn immediately creates two orbs upon deployment. An additional three can be created through the use of gift of the void. The perk for force barrier, gift of light, creates additional orbs on melee kills, while the ability is active. HOWEVER, the iron harvest perk, which grants orbs through the method of heavy kills, generates smaller orb.
Striker- Probably the simplest of these big orbers. The Fist of Havoc generates large orbs. Nothing more to say.
Voidwalker- Another simple one. Nova bomb creates large orbs. Nothing more to say. (It has been rumored that lance and shatter affect the amount of orbs created. This is being tested by myself and a few friends.)
Gunslinger- Last big orber. The Golden Gun creates large orbs. Simply all there is.
Now we get to the remaining classes. Stormcaller, Nightstalker, Sunbreaker, and Blade Dancer. Let's discuss...
Stormcaller- The Stormtrance super generates a mix of both large and small orbs. Depending on the amount of lightning you out into an enemy. The longer and enemy is exposed, the larger the orbs. This is why larger enemies, such as centurions or captains or minotaurs or Knights, drop larger orbs than shanks, dregs, acolytes, etc.
Nightstalker- Perhaps the most controversial orb maker here. This orb machine, or so it appears, makes small orbs and large orbs. Upon initial super use, two large orbs are generated. Each additional enemy tethered spawns another orb. With the Light of the Pack perk, up to 8 more small orbs can be created when tethered enemies are defeated. (9 with the Crest of Alpha Lupi)
Sunbreaker- This subclass simply makes small orbs. (A test is underway to prove wether or not suncharge affects orb generation.)
Blade Dancer- These guys make nothing but small orbs. Nothing else to say.
Now that we have discussed the subclasses, let's talk about relics and armor. I'll be brief.
All artifacts that spawn orbs, be it by melee, grenade or precision kills, make small orbs.
Armor from the Vault of Glass, Crotas End, and Kings Fall, I.e. Vex striker, Vexbreaker, etc., make small orbs.
This concludes our lesson in orbology! Any questions? Feel free to ask.
(This post is of course subject to change. All negative comments will be removed. These are the results of nearly four weeks of testing so please, rude comments to yourself.)
Edit 1: Thanks for the replies so far! Hope everyone that reads can benefit from this.
Edit 2: Left one way of making orbs out! Boltcaster does spawn small orbs with its perk.
Edit 3: Left out Telesto! It creates small orbs. Shout out to my friend who pointed this out.
Edit 4: Oh my goodness I'm trending. Thank you all for your support!
Edit 5: Another thing to note about orbs is the process we have decided to call orb dilution. It is the process by which orbs created by allies in turn spawn smaller, less super yielding orbs, when the super is cast.
Edit 6: I'd like to thank you all for the support. My team and I are working right now to add videos of our research to YouTube. All vids should be done by the end of the month at the latest. Will post the links here when that happens.
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Very detailed. Terrific work, kudos to you and your team.
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Skyburner's Annex?
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What about orbs generated from grenade kills when you have an Artifact?
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Finally a post that is useful and not just a nerf post
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I had noticed the sizes, but this is helpful to see where they come from. Thanks!
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Hol-E shit that's actually pretty in depth! It'd be a nice detail if large orbs were solid blue and small orbs were the light blue-white we have now.
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Early nomination for best post of the year.
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I've noticed that large orbs have shrunk when the player who made them died. I haven't really been watching for this, but I've noticed it enough to think it isn't coincidental.
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Also the Telesto spawns small orbs on double kills.
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When you say big and small orbs, are they actually different sizes visually or do they just give more or less for your super charge?
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I've noticed this, nice to know it more in depth
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Great informative post.
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Telesto?
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Good post. 10/10
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10/10 bump
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Note: you put "miniatures," instead of "minotaurs." Just in case someone gets confused, I'd fix it. [b]Very[/b] good post, sir. This is the kind of thing that I come to the forums for. Job well done.
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All defender titans noticed this on day 1 of TTK
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It's sad that posts like this are needed for people to be able to figure this stuff out, but good on you for knowing the game.
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I didn't even realize a difference in orb sizes until my friends pointed it out a couple months ago.
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Good shit. Bump.
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10/10
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this is -blam!-ing legit :D nice job
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You know, funny you mention it. I think I've always noticed: "hey some orbs seem smaller" and have also noticed "hm that orb didn't give me much super" but I never thought to actually wonder if 2 seperate types were generated by some rules by different sources. Kudos!
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Telesto spawns small ones I assume?
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I always knew that night stalker made less orbs than gunslinger but nobody would listen to me. Not a lot of people knew about big and small orbs. Protip: If you are a hunter at Oryx and your job is to make orbs at the start, put on gunslinger, combustion, and symbiote and youll make way more orbs than a nightstalker would.