What are the best Destiny 2 Warlock builds? They’ve diversified massively since the subclass overhauls gave players more freedom to customize their playstyle. Now players can change their elemental subclass, armor, weapons, and mods, and they also have the opportunity to choose aspects and fragments, which can lead to some rather complex character builds.
These builds reflect the state of the current meta in the free PC game, considering the nature of the season’s available activities and the broader context of the subclasses and playstyles currently popular in PvP, not to mention the best PvP weapons. Here are the best Warlock builds in Destiny 2.
Best Warlock PvP build: The Invincible Dawnblade
This Warlock PvP build aims to focus on continuous healing for you and your teammates while also maximizing weapon and Super effectiveness. The constant healing it grants is a sizable advantage in a 1v1 with an equally skilled player with no similar defensive mechanism.
Class: Dawnblade – Daybreak
- Daybreak grants the player wings and a sword that fires exploding projectiles on collision.
- Glide is the Warlock’s base jump ability and it grants infinite casts, increased boost, and decreased downward acceleration. Firing a projectile while gliding suspends the player’s altitude.
- Icarus Dash is a movement ability that allows the player to dash and reset vertical momentum. The player can assert directional control of the dash, and the ability can be cast again after 0.5 seconds. It’s augmented to one cast of a longer dash and also grants an Orb of Light for each kill.
Essential stats: 100 recovery, at least 70 discipline, at least 70 intellect, high recovery if possible.
- Gain this by masterworking armor to maximize stats and using armor mods that increase them even more.
Class abilities
- Healing rift: Grants a well of power that continuously heals all inside it.
- Burst glide: Grants more singular momentum than the other options.
- Celestial fire: A spiral of three explosive Solar energy blasts.
- Healing grenade: Cures allies on impact and grants an Orb of Solar Light, which grants restoration to allies who pick it up.
Aspects
- Touch of Flame: When used with healing grenades, it improves the strength of its cure and restoration effects.
- Icarus Dash: Dodge quickly while airborne. Rapidly defeating targets with your super or weapon grants cure.
- This also grants benefits for the Heat Rises aspect, but that will only be useful for players who tend to take a lot of airborne fights.
Fragments
- Ember of Benevolence: Applying restoration, cure, or radiant grants increased grenade, class ability, and melee regeneration. (-10 discipline)
- Ember of Torches: Powered melee attacks make you and your nearby allies radiant.
- Ember of Solace: Radiant and restoration effects applied to you have increased duration.
- Ember of Beams: Solar super projectiles have stronger target acquisition. (+10 intellect)
Exotic armor
- Ophidian Aspect: Improved weapon-ready speed, reload, and melee range.
- Alternatively, try Promethium Spur, which creates a healing and empowering rift after killing Guardians or enemies when Daybreak is active.
Armor mods
- Use mods that support the types of weapons you use in PvP. For seasoned players, this will often mean prioritizing hand cannons, shotguns, and rocket launchers.
- Radiant Light (leg armor): Casting your super causes nearby allies to become charged with Light. (+20 strength if socketed with another Arc mod)
- Classy restoration (class item – seasonal mod): Activating Solar class abilities grant you restoration.
Weapons
- In this case, your choice of weapons won’t impact the build as long as you choose the proper armor mods to match, so choose a loadout you’re comfortable using.
Best Warlock PvE build: The Supercharged Shadebinder Turret
This Warlock build works because it acts defensively and offensively simultaneously, making it an excellent choice for protecting your team while also dealing mega-damage to ads. The build optimizes Stasis turrets, which damage and slow enemies. Additional modifications allow players to freeze their foes with Stasis while prioritizing quick ability regeneration. Armour mods also highlight the use of Stasis elemental wells. This build is downright unstoppable in PvE.
Class: Shadebinder – Winter’s Wrath
- Winter’s Wrath: Summon a stasis staff.
- Primary: Cast out a barrage of Stasis shards that freeze targets.
- Secondary: Cast out a shockwave that shatters all frozen targets.
Essential stats: 100 recovery, 100 discipline, 100 recovery if possible.
- Gain this by masterworking armor to maximize stats and using armor mods that increase them even more.
Class abilities
- Healing rift: Grants a well of power that continuously heals all inside it.
- Burst glide: Grants more singular momentum than the other options.
- Glacier grenade: A grenade that creates walls out of Stasis crystals to block damage and freeze targets.
- Other options include the Duskfield Grenade or the Coldsnap grenade (when paired with Osmiomancy Gloves, explained below).
- Penumbral blast: Send a blast of Stasis forward to freeze your targets.
Aspects
- Glacial Harvest: Freezing targets creates stasis shards around the target.
- Bleak Watcher: Press and hold the grenade button to turn your grenade into a Stasis turret that fires slowing projectiles at nearby targets.
Fragments
- Whisper of Torment: Gain grenade energy each time you take damage from targets.
- Whisper of Durance: Slows from your abilities last longer. For abilities that linger, their duration also increases. (+10 Strength)
- Whisper of Shards: Shattering a Stasis crystal temporarily increases grenade recharge rate. (+10 Resilience).
- Whisper of Conduction: Nearby stasis shards track to your position.
Exotic armor
- Eye of Another World: Highlights priority targets and improves the regeneration speed of your grenade, melee, and Rift abilities. Also adds a minor increase to airborne effectiveness.
- Alternatively, players who prefer Coldsnap Grenades can use Osmiomancy Gloves, which grant Coldsnap Grenades better tracking and grant grenade ability upon both hitting and freezing an enemy.
Armor mods
- Harmonic Siphon (helmet armor): Rapid weapon final blows with damage matching your subclass type create an Orb of Power.
- Grenade Kickstart (arms armor): When your grenade energy is fully expended, gain grenade energy.
- Better Already (leg armor): Health begins to regenerate immediately after picking up an Orb of Power.
- Distribution (class item): Reduces all ability cooldowns when using your class ability near targets.
- Perpetuation (class item): Reduced ability cooldown when using your class ability.
- Elemental Shards: Stasis shards count as elemental wells for you.
- Well of Restoration: Picking up a Stasis elemental well grants you additional energy for the ability that has the lowest energy. Multiple copies of this mod increase its effect.
Weapons
- Weapon containing a Headstone trait: Precision final blows spawn a Stasis crystal at the victim’s location.
Ultimately, your particular build will conform to your playstyle, but this should serve as a starting point to help you understand how the Exotic armor, armor mods, aspects, and fragments can work together to augment your base character class to make it even more powerful. To read more about developing the best Destiny 2 builds, review our guides to Void, Solar, and Arc, too.
