Destiny 2 Best Strand Builds to Dominate Season 23

Strand, Destiny 2’s newest element, is here, and if you, too, are falling in love with the new Strand subclasses, the following builds will help you take your game to the next level.

And by the way, as with all the best Destiny 2 builds out there, these builds will guide you every step of the way, including essential Exotics, Mods, and more.

Top Strand builds

--	Name	Class	Area	Subclass	Excels in	Element	Status
	Mindspun Suspender	Warlock	PvE	Strand	Endgame	Strand
	Masked Navigator	Warlock	PvE	Strand	Endgame	Strand	Top 3
	Threaded Maelstrom	Hunter	PvE	Strand	Endgame	Strand	Best in Class
	Suspending Coyote	Hunter	PvE	Strand	Grandmasters	Strand
	Berserker of War	Titan	PvE	Strand	Endgame	Strand	Top 3
	Abeyant Leap	Titan	PvE	Strand	Endgame	Strand	Top 3

Updated as of Season of the Wish (S23).

Destiny 2 best Strand Class today?

As of Season 23, the best Strand class is arguably Titan. While all Classes have at least two solid Strand builds each, there is no denying that the top Strand build right now is Banner of War. That alone makes Titan the strongest Strand Class right now. 

But as said before, all classes have two to three strong Strand builds:

Destiny 2 Strand builds: Hunters

The Threaded Maelstrom

Excels in: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build:  Utilise your Strand Weapons and Abilities to generate Tangles and weaponize the Maelstroms to add to your DPS or help in ad-clear.

Mandatory Gear: Cyrtarachne's Facade. Strand weapons are recommended (a One-Two Punch Shotgun can also work).

Name: Cyrtarachne's Facade

Class: Hunter Slot: Helm

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: Lightfall

Exotic Perk: Gain Woven Mail when activating grapple. Increased flinch resistance while Woven Mail is active.

	Dead Weight	Shotgun	Special	Arc	Playlist: Gambit
	Quicksilver Storm	Auto Rifle	Primary	Strand	Exotic Kiosk

• Aspects: Widow’s Silk and Whirling Maelstrom.
• Fragments: Thread of Ascent, Thread of Generation, Thread of Transmutation, and either Thread of Isolation or Thread of Binding.
• Abilities: Gambler’s Dodge and Shackle Grenade or Grapple Grenade. Shackle is better in higher-level content, but Grapple is more fun.
• Stats Priority: Resilience 🡒 Mobility 🡒 Discipline.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Heavy Ammo Scout, and Heavy Ammo Finder.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike, and Harmonic Loader.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Recuperation, 2x Strand Weapon Surge.
  • Class Item:  Powerful Attraction, Bomber, and Proximity Ward.

Gameplay Loop

The loop for this build revolves around Woven Mail. Keeping Woven Mail active is necessary for your survivability, as well as generating Tangles as Thread of Transmutation is one of your primary sources of Tangle generation.

Grappling from place to place, keeping your Woven Mail active will allow you to stay on the move while also continuously spawning the Threaded Maelstrom Tangles. These maelstroms, on top of the damage from Quicksilver Storm or a Grapple Melee, allow you to wipe any non-boss enemy off the map with ridiculous speed.

Overall, look to keep Woven Mail active through your Grapple, generate as many Tangles as possible, and let your Threaded Maelstroms roam the battlefield while you pummel enemies with your weapon of choice and Grapple melees.

Suspending Coyote

Excels in: Grandmaster Content

Goal of the Build: Utilise the Strand keywords, especially Suspend, to take down groups of enemies and crowd-control everything.

Mandatory Gear:  The Sixth Coyote. Strand weapons are recommended.

Name: The Sixth Coyote

Class: Hunter Slot: Chest

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Forsaken Pack

Exotic Perk: Gain a second dodge charge.

Wish-Keeper

Combat Bow

Primary

Strand

Exotic Quest

• Aspects: Widow’s Silk and Ensnaring Slam.
• Fragments: Thread of Continuity, Thread of Generation, and Thread of Warding. The last Fragment is up to you (Thread of Isolation is solid for general survivability, but Thread of Wisdom increases your Orb of Power generation).
• Abilities: Marksman’s Dodge, Threaded Spike, and Shackle Grenade.
• Stats Priority: Max Resilience 🡒 Discipline 🡒 Mobility.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Heavy Ammo Finder, Heavy Ammo Scout.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Grenade Kickstart, Fastball.
  • Chest: Charged Up and Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your weapons.
  • Class Item: Time Dilation and 2x Bomber.

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop of this build is focused on rotating your Grenade and Dodge cooldowns to always have a method of Suspending a target available. Using your Armor Charge stacks with Grenade Kickstart, alongside Thread of Generation, will allow you to have your Shackle Grenade on a low cooldown.

Orbs of Power are also vital as they are your source of Woven Mail, granting 58% damage resistance to all attacks. Players can use this build to crowd-control a large group of weaker enemies or constantly Suspend a tankier enemy, like a Champion in a Nightfall. Having four different avenues to Suspend a target allows for incredible flexibility in your abilities.

Overall, you must keep track of your cooldowns and abuse the duration of Suspend to ensure that your cooldown rotation can fully complete.

🔷 Pro tip: You can find more top-tier builds on our dedicated Hunter Builds hub.

Destiny 2 Strand Builds: Warlock

Mindspun Suspender

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build: Dominate the battleground with both Suspend and Threadlings, immobilizing and damaging combatants with little effort.

Mandatory Gear: Necrotic Grip. A Primary Strand weapon with Demolitionist is recommended.

Name: Necrotic Grip

Class: Warlock Slot: Arms

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: Beyond Light

Exotic Perk: Damaging combatants envenoms them with poison that deals increasing damage over time. Defeating a poisoned combatant spreads the condition to nearby targets.

The Immortal

Submachine Gun

Primary

Strand

Trials of Osiris

• Aspects: Mindspun Invocation and The Wanderer.
• Fragments: Thread of Mind, Thread of Generation, Thread of Continuity, and Thread of Warding.
• Abilities: Needlestorm, Shackle Grenade, Arcane Needle, and Healing Rift
• Stats: Discipline 🡒 Resilience 🡒 Recovery.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon.
  • Arms: Grenade Kickstart, Impact Induction.
  • Chest: Charged Up.
  • Legs: Elemental Charge.
  • Class Item: Bomber, Outreach.

Gameplay Loop

Consuming your Shackle Grenade with Mindspun Invocation grants you 25 seconds of Weaver’s Trace, making all final blows create an explosion of Suspend. Killing these Suspended targets will create a Tangle and grant class ability energy.

Throwing that Tangle at another group of enemies will Suspend them, starting the process over again. All of these Suspend instances also last longer due to Thread of Continuity. To top it all off, collecting Orbs of Power from your Siphon mod will give you Woven Mail and grenade energy indirectly via Grenade Kickstart.

Masked Navigator

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build: Support allies on the battlefield by spreading Woven Mail, providing heavy ammo, and severing enemies.

Mandatory Gear: Cenotaph Mask and The Navigator.

Name: Cenotaph Mask

Class: Warlock Slot: Helm

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: Lightfall

Exotic Perk: Steadily reloads a portion of your equipped Trace Rifles's magazine from reserves. Damaging a vehicle, boss, or champion with a trace rifle marks them as the target. When an ally defeats the marked target, generate special ammo for yourself and heavy ammo for your allies.

The Navigator

Trace Rifle

Special

Strand

Ghost of the Deep Dungeon

• Aspects: Weaver’s Call and Mindspun Invocation.
• Fragments: Thread of Rebirth, Thread of Evolution, Thread of Continuity, and Thread of Generation.
• Abilities: Needlestorm, Threadling Grenade, Arcane Needle, and Healing Rift.
• Stats: Resilience 🡒 Recovery.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Special Ammo Finder.
  • Arms: Focusing Strike, Impact Induction.
  • Chest: Relevant Resistance and Reserve Mods.
  • Legs: Strand Scavenger, Strand Weapon Surge.
  • Class Item: Outreach, Bomber.

Gameplay Loop

Because it relies on weapon and armor perks instead of abilities, Masked Weaver doesn’t have a specific loop. Basic knowledge of both Exotics is all you’ll need to succeed here.

Shooting an ally with The Navigator grants you and them Woven Mail, equating to 60% damage resistance. If you hit an enemy instead, you’ll Sever them, reducing their outgoing damage by 33%. Damaging combatants will also regenerate your grenade ability, and Navigator kills have a chance to spawn a Threadling.

When you’re ready to use your abilities, start by swallowing your grenade. After doing so, casting your rift will immediately send out eight Threadlings, providing substantial burst damage.

Lastly, damaging a vehicle, boss, or champion with The Navigator will mark them. Marked enemies will drop heavy ammo for allies upon death, providing even more support to your fireteam.

🔷 Pro tip: You can find more builds on our dedicated Warlock Builds hub.

Best Strand Builds: Titan

Berserker of War

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build: Utilise the Banner of War Aspect to continuously grant healing bursts to yourself and allies while also dealing outrageous melee damage.

Mandatory Gear: Synthoceps or Wormgod Caress Exotics. A One-Two Punch Shotgun is recommended. The Navigator or Tractor Cannon can also help.

Name: Synthoceps	Class: Titan Slot: Arms	Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: Increased melee lunge range. Improved melee and Super damage when you're surrounded.
Name: Wormgod Caress	Class: Titan Slot: Arms	Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: Melee kills increase melee damage for a period of time. Additional kills extend duration and increase effects.

CALUS Mini-Tool

Submachine Gun

Primary

Solar

Presage

• Aspects: Into the Fray and Banner of War.
• Fragments: Thread of Fury, Thread of Warding, Thread of Generation, and Thread of Transmutation.
• Abilities: Grapple, Frenzied Blade, and either Barricade works.
• Stats: Resilience 🡒 Strength 🡒 Discipline🡒 Recovery.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Hands-On and a Siphon Mod matching your weapon.
  • Arms: Heavy Handed, Momentum Transfer, and Firepower.
  • Chest: Relevant Resistance and Reserve Mods.
  • Legs: Invigoration, Absolution, and Innervation.
  • Class Item: Distribution, Bomber, and Outreach.

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop for this build is quite simple but has slight alterations based on the exotic being used. In general, you’ll want to leverage your Grapple Melees to engage in fights, killing a minor enemy, and then use your Banner of War buffed Frenzied Blades melee attacks to deal outrageous damage.

If using Wormgod’s Caress, it's important to remember that both melee kills (charged or uncharged) and finishers fill up the meter. This can be used to build up the charge before a larger fight, where enemies might be sparse, and Synthoceps might not activate.

A tip to follow is ensuring that you actually hit the enemy with your Grapple attack to proc the melee generation from Momentum Transfer. Killing an enemy with the Grapple Melee will create two Orbs of Power thanks to Heavy Handed and Firepower, and Orbs you grab will grant plenty of melee energy, allowing you to slay out with your Frenzied Blades, practically one-shotting any enemy that isn’t a multi-million health boss.

Finally, when entering a damage phase, remember that your melee charges are refunded after your super ends, so a proper damage loop would be: melee → super → melee. This will get the most use out of both melee-enhancing buffs.

Cuirass of the Falling Star

Excels In: Endgame Content (Dungeons, Raids, Legend Content)

Goal of the Build: Deal massive damage to large targets using one of the strongest one-off Supers in the game and its accompanying exotic.

Mandatory Gear: Cuirass of the Falling Star. A weapon with Demolitionist is recommended.

Name: Cuirass of the Falling Star

Class: Titan Slot: Chest

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: Beyond Light

Exotic Perk: Greatly increases your Thundercrash impact damage. Gain an overshield that lasts longer the farther you travel before striking a target.

• Aspects: Knockout and Touch of Thunder.
• Fragments: Spark of Resistance, Spark of Amplitude, Spark of Magnitude, and Spark of Shock.
• Abilities: Pulse Grenade, Seismic Charge, Thruster, Thundercrash.
• Stats: Resilience 🡒 Discipline → Intellect.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Ashes to Assets, Matching Siphon.
  • Arms: Firepower, Grenade Kickstart, Bolstering Detonation.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Innervation, Insulation, Elemental Charge.
  • Class Item: Powerful Attraction (as many as possible).

Gameplay Loop

Although the days of Thundercrash being the best damage super for Titans have long passed, there is no denying the fun and power behind this Super. Cuirass of the Falling Star buffs its damage by 100% and gives an overshield after it ends.

Gameplay loop is rather simple: use your grenade as much as possible to spawn orbs and gain Super energy, and then use Thruster to pick the orbs up from afar. With Touch of Thunder, these grenades will also spawn Ionic Traces, which will give you Armor Charges from Elemental Charge. Use these Armor Charges in tandem with Grenade Kickstart to make the loop quicker!

Once your Super is charged, find whatever high-tier enemy needs removal, and fire it off. Use the overshield to reposition to safety, and start from the top.

Abeyant Leap

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build: This build allows a single titan to dominate large areas by Suspending enemies whilst also providing Woven Mail to you and your allies.

Mandatory Gear: Abeyant Leap. Wish-Keeper is recommended.

Name: Abeyant Leap

Class: Titan Slot: Legs

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: Lightfall

Exotic Perk: Drengr's Lash spawns two additional projectiles, tracks targets more aggressively, and travels farther. Gain Woven Mail when suspending targets.

Wish-Keeper

Combat Bow

Primary

Strand

Exotic Quest

• Aspects: Into the Fray and Drengr’s Lash.
• Fragments: Thread of Mind, Thread of Continuity, and Thread of Generation. The last Fragment is up to you.
• Abilities: Rally Barricade and Shackle Grenade.
• Stats: Resilience 🡒 Recovery.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Siphon Mod matching your weapon.
  • Arms: Grenade Kickstart.
  • Chest: Relevant Resistance and Reserve Mods.
  • Legs: Stacks on Stacks.
  • Class Item: Utility Kickstart.

Gameplay Loop

The centerpiece of this build is the Abeyant Leap exotic. The exotic perk Puppeteer’s Control buffs Drenger’s Lash by creating additional ripples. These ripples suspend enemies and allow for some of the best ad control in the game. Defeating these enemies will refund portions of your barricade due to Thread of Mind and create Tangles and Orbs of Power.

The tangles can be used to grant yourself and allies the Woven Mail buff, whereas the orbs of power can be used to proc Grenade/Utility Kickstart reducing the cooldown of these abilities. This setup allows you to infinitely suspend large groups of enemies.

🔷 Pro tip: You can find more builds on our dedicated Titan Builds hub.

Before you go…

While Strand is the cool new kid on the block, there are many more excellent builds that can even outperform Strand in endgame and Grandmaster content. You can find our best builds here.