Sliflist

Elemental Wells

In spite of playing Destiny for thousands of hours, I’ve never equipped a single Elemental Well mod. It took me probably a year to wrap my head around Charged with Light mods, and history has repeated itself yet again. It’s now Season 15 and we have approximately thirty well mods. With more ways to generate wells and more and varied benefits than ever before, how about we dive in? Please see the Reference section below for a list of the resources this information was gathered from.

Overview

Understanding Elemental Wells falls into two categories: understanding how they’re generated and knowing what happens when you pick them up.

Generating wells is similar to generating Warmind Cells or becoming “Charged with Light” - there are many ways to generate them, and it depends on the armor mods you have equipped. For example a Super final blow or rapid explosive kills could generate a well.

When you pick up a well, two things happen:

  1. The first benefit is that you will always gain ~10% energy to your lowest-energy ability. If the element of the well matches your subclass, you will also grant ~10% energy to your other abilities.
  2. The second benefit entirely depends on the elemental well mod(s) you have equipped. Let’s walk through an example.

Example - Using your Fists

Step 1 - What Benefit(s) Do You Want?

Let’s say you’re a Titan. You really love punching things and you want to do it MOAR. As it turns out, there’s a mod precisely for you.

Well of Striking
Picking up an Arc elemental well grants you additional melee energy. Multiple copies of this mod increase this effect.

Not only does it give you melee energy, you can equip it on multiple armor pieces and get even more. Awesome, I’ve booted up a piece of  arc  armor and equipped the Well of Striking mod. Now I need to pick up an  arc  well. Where do those come from?

Step 2 - Generating Wells

As of Season 15, in general you can think about most (not all) well generation as tied to your subclass, because most well-generating mods require it. For example, if you want to generate  arc  wells, you’ll need to be running an  arc  subclass. Of course this is Destiny so there are exceptions like the Overcharge Wellmaker mod, but I’ll leave that as an exercise to the reader 📚🙃

Let’s say you happen to love the Arc Logic Auto Rifle. You’re in luck! There’s a mod that fits your playstyle:

Elemental Armaments
Weapon takedowns with a damage type that matches your subclass element have an escalating chance to spawn an elemental well.

Now that you have that mod equipped and are running an  arc  subclass, you’ll be generating  arc  wells. Pick up those wells and you’ll be super saiyan punching everything in no time.

DeMarko’s Quick Reference

Words of wisdom from an experienced well-user:

 solar  builds are the easiest, as usual.  stasis  builds are interesting, but for Warlocks, a  void  build should get some mileage. You can mix and match of course, but you only have five slots.

Armor ElementGeneration and Benefits
 arc Melee, melee damage, finishers, wells come to you
 solar Explosions, grenades, and healing
 stasis Stasis shards as wells, recharge ability with lowest energy, increase well ability timers, supers
 void Class abilities, weapon final blows after class abilities, damage reduction

Reference

Mods: Creating Wells

ModArmorCostWell ElementRequirementComments
Elemental ArmamentsAny2SubclassWeapon takedowns matching your subclass~10% on PvE kill; stacks until a Well spawns. It takes around eight kills on average to spawn a Well.
Elemental LightAny1SubclassSuper final blowsYour Super needs to be able to damage enemies to generate Wells.
Elemental OrdnanceAny3SubclassGrenade final blowsGrenades can only spawn an Elemental Well once every couple of seconds. Any grenade that deals persistent damage over an area, such as a Vortex Grenade, works best with Elemental Ordnance. When paired with Elemental Charge, this gives your abilities a means of generating stacks of Charged with Light
Melee WellmakerAny4SubclassMelee final blows (powered)
Shieldcrash WellmakerAny4(varies)Breaking a shield with the matching weapon typeThe Elemental Well is generated under the target that just had their shield destroyed. This mod pairs exceptionally well with Shield-Break Charge.
Bountiful Wells solar 2(varies)One or more other well-generating modsAllows well generating mods to stack, but the best part is just having this mod equipped will spawn an additional well to any other well generating mod. ex: 1 Bountiful Wells + 1 Elemental Ordnance = 2 wells on grenade kills, add 1 Explosive Wellmaker and a single explosive grenade can generate 4 wells.
Explosive Wellmaker solar 3 solar Rapid explosive damage final blowsApplies broadly, basically anything that explodes save for Warmind Cells. Includes: Telesto bolts, Xenophage, Rocket/Grendade launchers, Reservoir Burst explosions, exploding thrall/supplicants/screebs, etc.
Overcharge Wellmaker arc 4 arc  x 2Finisher final blowsDue to how finishers place you next to enemies, you’ll usually consume both Elemental Wells when the animation ends. Since finisher animations are rather lengthy, this mod indirectly bypasses the Elemental Well spawn cooldown, allowing you to spawn two Wells with every finisher.
Supreme Wellmaker stasis 3 stasis  x 3Cast your super
Elemental Shards stasis 2 stasis Pick up stasis shardsStasis shards count as Stasis elemental wells for you. Does not apply to Crucible, Trials, or Iron Banner.
Reaping Wellmaker void 2 void After activating your class ability, your next weapon final blowReaping Wellmaker’s effect lasts until you either kill an enemy or you die.

Mods: Damage

ModArmorCostEffect On Well Pickup
Font of MightAny4Picking up an elemental well that matches your subclass energy type grants a 10s, 25% weapon damage buff of that same elemental type.
Well of Ions arc 2Picking up an  arc  elemental well causes your next melee to deal 30% more damage.

Mods: Protection

ModArmorCostEffect On Well Pickup
Well of Life solar 2Picking up a  solar  well grants uninterruptible regeneration for 10s.
Well of Tenacity void 2Picking up a  void  grants 10% damage reduction for 5s.

Mods: Ability Recharge

The base effect of all Elemental Wells is to grant ability energy on pickup. The following mods cause Elemental Wells to grant additional energy.

  • Each of these are stackable, meaning the more you have equipped, the greater the energy gain.
  • Each of these requires you to pick up the matching elemental type. E.g. if the mod is  solar  you need to pick up a  solar  well.
ModArmorCostEffect On Well Pickup
Font of WisdomAny4Temporarily sets Intellect to 100, improving super recharge.
Well Of Striking arc 1~6% melee energy / stack
Well Of Ordnance solar 1~6% grenade energy / stack
Well of Restoration stasis 4~6% energy for the ability that has the lowest energy / stack
Well Of Utility void 1~6% class ability energy / stack

With the addition of Bountiful Wellmaker (which spawns an extra well for every well generated), these mods tend to feel a bit underpowered (as of Season 15).

Mods: Utility

ModArmorCostEffect
Enduring Wells void 2Increases the lifespan of elemental wells you create. Multiple copies of this mod stack, further extending the lifespan.
Elemental ChargeAny2Become Charged with Light by picking up an elemental well. If the elemental well’s element type matches your subclass element, you gain 2 stacks of Charged with Light.
Elemental Time Dilation stasis 3Elemental Well mods that grant you time-limited benefits can now stack, increasing the duration of the effect for each copy of the mod you have equipped.
Seeking Wells arc 2Elemental wells you create will seek out nearby players.

Sources