Best Destiny 2 Warlock Builds Today (Heresy Meta)

by | Mar 4, 2025 | Armor

Are you a Warlock main and want to take your game to the next level? These are the best Warlock builds in Destiny 2, including builds for endgame, Solo players, and PvP content. Whether you’re into Solar, Void, or are into the brand-new Strand subclass, these builds have you covered.

And by the way, as any great Destiny 2 build, these will guide you every step of the way, including essential Exotics, Mods, and more.

Best Warlock PvE builds: Episode 3

Episode 3 Heresy Icon Destiny 2Updated as of Episode 3: Heresy. See Updates.

--NameSubclassRankExcels inGearAreaClassStatus
Warlock Prismatic featured Destiny 2Prismatic BlizzardPrismatic icon Destiny 2 Prismatic1 🥇EndgameGetaway Artist Warlock Exotic Destiny 2 art Khvostov 7G-0X art Destiny 2PvEWarlockTop 3
Osmiomancy Gloves Warlock DestinyStasis EngineerPrismatic icon Destiny 2 Prismatic2 🥈GrandmastersRime-coat Raiment art Destiny 2 Ager's Scepter Destiny 2 artPvEWarlockTop 3
Lodestar featured Destiny 2Electrostatic SentryArc Arc3 🥉EndgameGeomag Stabilizers Warlock Exotic Destiny 2 art Lodestar art 2 Destiny 2PvEWarlockTop 3
Solar WarlockRadiant SunbracerSolar Solar4EndgameSunbracers Warlock Exotic Destiny 2 art CALUS Mini-Tool Destiny 2 artPvEWarlock
Khvostov Exotic Gameplay screenshot Destiny 2Prismatic FlamePrismatic icon Destiny 2 Prismatic5EndgameGetaway Artist Warlock Exotic Destiny 2 art Destiny 2 Sunshot artPvEWarlock
Speaker's Sight Exotic featured Destiny 2Speaker’s SupportSolar Solar6Casual & EndgameSpeaker's Sight art Destiny 2 Destiny 2 Sunshot artPvEWarlock
Warlock SubclassMindspun SuspenderVoid Strand7EndgameNecrotic Grip Warlock Exotic Destiny 2 art The Immortal artPvEWarlock
Void WarlockVoid LeechVoid Void8EndgameSecant Filaments Warlock Destiny 2 art Joxer's Longsword art Destiny 2PvEWarlock
Cenotaph Mask Warlock ExoticMasked NavigatorVoid Strand9EndgameCenotaph Mask Warlock exotic The Navigator art Destiny 2PvEWarlock
Ager's Scepter ExoticFrostmakerStasis element Destiny 2 Stasis10Solo ContentMantle of Battle Harmony Warlock Exotic Destiny 2 art Ager's Scepter Destiny 2 artPvEWarlock

Top 3 Warlock Builds

Warlock Prismatic featured Destiny 2

Prismatic Blizzard

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons & Raids)

Goal of the Build: Utilize both Bleak Watcher and Getaway Artist turrets to dominate the battlefield while also having access to Devour and Transcendence.

Mandatory Gear: Getaway Artist and Khvostov 7G–0X.

  • Aspects: Feed the Void and Bleak Watcher.
  • Fragments: Facet of Grace, Facet of Devotion, Facet of Dawn, Facet of Purpose, and Facet of Protection.
  • Abilities: Song of Flame, Phoenix Dive, Arcane Needle, Storm Grenade.
  • Stats: Resilience → Discipline.
  • Mods:
    • Helmet: Kinetic Siphon, Heavy Ammo Finder.
    • Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike.
    • Chest: Relevant reserve/resist mods.
    • Legs: Relevant ammo scavenger/surge mods.
    • Class Item: Distribution, Time Dilation.

Gameplay Loop

Swallowing your grenade not only provides an Arc Soul and Amplified from Getaway Artist but also places a Bleak Watcher turret at your feet. This interaction is the centerpiece of the build, allowing you to double-dip on things whenever your grenade is charged.

Feed the Void grants Devour on ability kills (including your Arc Soul!), increasing survivability. Beyond that, the majority of our fragment choices are focused primarily on building Transcendence quickly, which is assisted by the use of Khvostov since it lacks an elemental affinity.

 

Osmiomancy Gloves Warlock Destiny

Stasis Engineer

Excels In: Grandmaster Content

Goal of the Build: Slow and freeze large groups of enemies using countless Bleak Watcher turrets.

Mandatory Gear: Rime-Coat Raiment and Ager’s Scepter.

  • Aspects: Bleak Watcher and Devour.
  • Fragments: Facet of Ruin, Facet of Balance, Facet of Purpose, Facet of Protection, and Facet of Dawn.
  • Abilities: Nova Bomb: Cataclysm, Healing Grenade, and Arcane Needle.
  • Stats: Resilience 🡒 Discipline.
  • Mods:
    • Helmet: Stasis Siphon, Special Ammo Finder
    • Arms: x2 Impact Induction
    • Chest: Resistance and Reserve Mods
    • Legs: Surge Mods matching your equipped weapons
    • Class Item: x2 Bomber, Reaper

Gameplay Loop

The primary loop of this build consists of throwing a Bleak Watcher turret down to control the battlefield, then recharging your grenade through Devour (which can be gained through any ability kill or by collecting an Orb of Power).

Ager’s Scepter, especially when used inside Bleak Domain’s radius, also helps to control hordes of enemies through Slow and Freeze. Once charged, your Super and Transcendence abilities can be used to kill larger enemies that don’t die from your other abilities/weapons.

 

Lodestar featured Destiny 2

Electrostatic Sentry

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

Goal of the Build: Blind and Jolt hordes of enemies through your abilities and weapons for supreme crowd control.

Mandatory Gear: Geomag Stabilizers and Lodestar.

  • Aspects: Electrostatic Mind and Ionic Sentry
  • Fragments: Spark of Amplitude, Spark of Magnitude, Spark of Ions, Spark of Discharge
  • Abilities: Chaos Reach, Ball Lightning, Storm Grenade, and Healing Rift.
  • Stats: Max Resilience 🡒 Recovery 🡒 Discipline.
  • Mods:
    • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Special Ammo Finder.
    • Arms: Bolstering Detonation, Focusing Strike.
    • Chest: Relevant resist/reserve mods.
    • Legs: Elemental Charge, Arc Weapon Surge.Class Item: Distribution, Bomber, Powerful Attraction

Gameplay Loop

There’s no specific “loop” to this build; simply use Lodestar (and its alternate firing mode!) to kill waves of enemies, then use abilities as they charge up.

Utilizing Ionic Sentry when it’s charged is especially important since it grants so much Bolt Charge and can regenerate rather quickly. If you’re ever near max Bolt Charge, remember that you can also sprint around to top it off with Geomag Stabilizers.

Our last bit of advice here is to use your Super liberally. Because it lasts longer with Geomag Stabilizers and can be canceled early, you’re likely to have some charge stored up even immediately after using it. The remaining charge is easily gained from Ionic Traces and kills with generic weapons and abilities, allowing you to recharge your Super in mere seconds.

 

More Destiny 2 Builds:

Solar Warlock

 

Radiant Sunbracer

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

Goal of the Build: Rain terror from above by throwing an infinite amount of Solar Grenades. It provides excellent ad clear and can give you a seemingly infinite damage buff via surge mods.

Mandatory Gear: Sunbracers. A Solar weapon with Incandescent is recommended.

  • AspectsTouch of Flame and Heat Rises.
  • Fragments: Ember of Ashes, Ember of Searing, Ember of Empyrean, and Ember of Resolve
  • Abilities & Stats: Well of Radiance, Solar Grenade, Phoenix Dive, and Incinerator Snap.
  • Stats: Max Resilience 🡒 Max Recovery.
  • Mods:
    • Helmet: x2 Ashes to Assets, Harmonic Siphon.
    • Arms: Firepower, Bolstering Detonation, Momentum Transfer
    • Chest: Relevant Resistance and Reserve Mods.
    • Legs: x2 Solar Weapon Surge
    • Class Item: -

Gameplay Loop

Get a kill with your charged melee ability to start the gameplay loop. If you’re struggling with this step, try binding your charged melee to a unique button so you can send it off at a more specific time.

Getting that powered melee kill will proc Sunbracers, granting you five seconds of ‘infinite’ Solar Grenades. Realistically, you can only fire a maximum of five during this time due to the time it takes to execute the animation. Swallow your first grenade to get Heat Rises, then take to the skies and watch everything below burn via your other Solar Grenades. Any kills in the air (including those from the grenades) will give you 30% of your melee energy, allowing you to repeat this loop infinitely.

If you ever fail to kill something with your melee, just get kills in the air with your weapons—you’ll get it back soon after due to Heat Rises. As a nice bonus, casting Phoenix Dive while Heat Rises is active grants Restoration, which you can extend with Solar kills via Ember of Empyrean.

 

Khvostov Exotic Gameplay screenshot Destiny 2

Prismatic Flame

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons & Raids)

Goal of the Build: Control the battlefield with both Hellion and Getaway Artist turrets, while also taking advantage of Prismatic Warlock’s kit and inherently potent weapon options.

Mandatory Gear: Getaway Artist. We highly recommend The Call with Strategist coupled with a potent Energy-slot Primary such as Sunshot, Trinity Ghoul, etc.

  • Aspects: Feed the Void and Hellion.
  • Fragments: Facet of Hope, Facet of Sacrifice, Facet of Balance, Facet of Dawn, Facet of Purpose.
  • Abilities: Song of Flame, Healing Rift, Arcane Needle, Storm Grenade.
  • Stats: Resilience → Recovery.
  • Mods:
    • Helmet: Heavy Ammo Finder and a Siphon matching your primary weapon.
    • Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike.
    • Chest: Relevant reserve/resist mods.
    • Legs: Relevant ammo scavenger/surge mods.
    • Class Item: Time Dilation.

Gameplay Loop

Swallowing your grenade offers an Arc Soul and Amplified through Getaway Artist while casting your rift summons Hellion. The former regenerates easily with Devour through Feed the Void, while your class ability can be quickly regenerated through Facet of Hope and your Strategist weapon.

Beyond this, there isn’t much of a “loop” for this build. Rotate your grenade and class abilities as frequently as you can while also attempting to build Transcendence through weapon kills and Arcane Needle hits.

 

Speaker's Sight Exotic featured Destiny 2

Speaker’s Support

Excels In: Casual & Endgame (Dungeons & Raids)

Goal of the Build: Constantly heal allies through Speaker’s Sight while also granting yourself worthwhile buffs.

Mandatory Gear: Speaker’s Sight. A Special ammo weapon with Demolitionist is highly recommended (such as The Call paired with Sunshot).

  • Aspects: Touch of Flame and Icarus Dash.
  • Fragments: Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Solace, Ember of Benevolence, Ember of Torches.
  • Abilities: Song of Flame and Healing Grenade.
  • Stats: Resilience → Discipline.
  • Mods:
    • Helmet: Heavy Ammo Finder, Harmonic Siphon.
    • Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike.
    • Chest: Relevant reserve/resist mods.
    • Legs: Relevant ammo scavenger/surge mods.
    • Class Item: x2 Bomber.

Gameplay Loop

Utilizing this build is as simple as throwing your grenade, which will be a healing turret through Speaker’s Sight. This turret generates Orbs of Power, recharges your abilities (Ember of Benevolence), and grants you x2 Restoration (Touch of Flame).

Beyond this constant healing for you and allies, Ember of Torches offers Radiant upon using your melee ability. Both this and Restoration can be extended through Ember of Empyrean, granting you seemingly infinite buff uptime while also benefitting allies. The only trouble you may encounter is if your grenade doesn’t recharge in time, in which case you can use the equipped Demolitionist weapon we recommended earlier.

 

Warlock Strand featured 3 Destiny 2

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. The Call with Demolitionist is highly recommended (another Strand weapon with Demolitionist can be a decent replacement).

  • 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, Special Ammo Finder.
    • Arms: Impact Induction.
    • Chest: Relevant reserve/resist mods.
    • Legs: Elemental Charge, Strand Weapon Surge.
    • 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, allowing you to tank shots from enemies who aren’t affect by Suspend.

 

Void Warlock

Void Leech

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

Goal of the Build: Be able to debuff everything in sight while maintaining Devour for survivability.

Mandatory Gear: Secant Filaments and a Repulsor Brace + Destabilizing Rounds primary weapon.

  • Aspects: Feed the Void and Child of the Old Gods.
  • Fragments: Echo of Remnants, Echo of Undermining, Echo of Persistence, Echo of Expulsion
  • Abilities: Nova Bomb: Cataclysm, Vortex Grenade, and Empowering Rift.
  • Stats: Resilience 🡒 Recovery 🡒 Discipline.
  • Mods:
    • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon.
    • Arms: Bolstering Detonation.
    • Chest: Relevant Reserve and Damage Resist mods.
    • Legs: Surges matching your equipped Special/Power ammo weapons.
    • Class Item: Bomber.

Gameplay Loop

Because there are so many moving parts to this build, there’s no one “loop” you’ll need to execute. You have multiple ways to debuff enemies: Weaken with a grenade, Volatile from melee and Destabilizing Rounds, and more Weaken from Child of the Old Gods. Plus, you’ll get Devour by placing your rift or getting an ability kill.

After defeating a target with a Void debuff, you’ll gain an overshield through Repulsor Brace, granting additional survivability. These debuffs also spread relatively easily, especially when looking at Destabilizing Rounds’ new buffed form.

Once the chaos subsides from one round of enemies, your abilities should be nearly recharged due to kills with Devour, allowing you to repeat the process again and again.

Going further...

 

Cenotaph Mask Warlock Exotic

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.

  • 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.

 

Ager's Scepter Exotic

Frostmaker

Excels In: Solo Content

Goal of the Build: Slow and freeze everything in sight, giving you tons of super energy and, eventually, a weapon damage boost.

Mandatory Gear: Mantle of Battle Harmony and Ager’s Scepter.

  • Aspects: Iceflare Bolts and Glacial Harvest.
  • Fragments: Whisper of Chill, Whisper of Fissures, Whisper of Rime, and Whisper of Conduction.
  • Abilities: No specific abilities are required.
  • Stats: Discipline 🡒 Resilience 🡒 Recovery.
  • Mods:
    • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Special Ammo Finder
    • Arms: Stat, reload, and dexterity mods
    • Chest: Charged Up
    • Legs: Stacks on Stacks, Innervation
    • Class Item: Special Finisher, Empowered Finisher

Gameplay Loop

There isn’t a specific gameplay loop here; just use Ager’s Scepter and your abilities to freeze and kill as many enemies as possible. Mantle of Battle Harmony will provide super ability energy from said kills, while Glacial Harvest and our selected fragments will grant Frost Armor through Stasis Shards.

Once you reach full super energy, you have three options that are all very strong. The first is to use your super to kill a large group of ads (or even damage a boss!). Assuming you have excess Ager’s ammo, a second option is to use the firing mode from Ager’s Scepter’s catalyst, making the weapon freeze everything and do more damage. The third and final option is not to use either and instead take advantage of Mantle of Battle Harmony’s second perk, giving you extra Stasis weapon damage after a Stasis weapon kill (as long as you keep full super energy).

Unlike other builds, the Frostmaker is extremely potent while not having a super specific gameplay loop, meaning it can be effective anywhere.

 

 

Crucible featured

Best Warlock PvP builds

PvP Essentials

Because of its competitive nature, stats are significantly more critical in the Crucible than in PVE. For Warlocks, high Recovery is a must as it is tied to your health and rift regeneration speeds. Additionally, because of Destiny’s ability-focused nature, high Discipline is irreplaceable too. Lastly, while it’s more important on Titan, mid-high Resilience can also be helpful. Some things (such as two-shot kills with Thorn) depend on the enemy’s Resilience stat, so having around Tier 6 or 7 is always useful.

Generally speaking, the most potent PvP mods come in the form of stat, unflinching, targeting, and dexterity mods. These all provide passive buffs that are strong enough to notice in moment-to-moment gameplay.

Warlock Subclasses: Ranked

While there is usually a meta subclass or general setup to run for the Crucible, every element has unique strengths and weaknesses.

Dawnblade

Solar Warlock

Beginning with Solar, Dawnblade primarily focuses on giving you and your allies various buffs. Radiant, a 10% damage bonus, can be easily activated using something like Ember of Torches. Restoration is the second primary Solar buff, giving you constant regeneration—even while taking damage. There are various ways to activate this, including Healing Grenade and  the combination of Phoenix Dive and Heat Rises.

These buffs can be enhanced using fragments such as Ember of Solace and Ember of Empyrean. You can also use Ember of Benevolence to boost ability regeneration when benefitting your allies.

Pros: 

  • Great healing/support potential
  • Various movement options
  • Numerous choices for all abilities

Cons:

  • Generally weaker abilities compared to Voidwalker/Shadebinder
  • Weaker debuffs
  • Less desirable fragment options

Prismatic

Warlock Prismatic featured Destiny 2Prismatic Warlock, by nature, offers little that other subclasses do not. However, as is the case in PvE, Prismatic’s strength and novelty come from unique interactions created by pairing abilities and aspects together.

From Lightning Surge and Arcane Needle to Bleak Watcher and Getaway Artist, many of the synergies dominating the PvE scene also make their way into The Crucible. While some of the more popular abilities and aspects like Icarus Dash are still locked behind other subclasses, Prismatic Warlock has found no issue cementing a solid place in the meta early on.

Pros:

  • A multitude of Super ability options
  • Access to the majority of elemental buffs/debuffs
  • Access to Transcendence

Cons:

  • Lack of various meta-defining aspects and abilities
  • Little intrinsic power and instead relies on the creation of specific builds/synergies
  • Takes on many of the nerfs/changes to individual abilities and aspects from other subclasses, even if they aren’t warranted on Prismatic

Voidwalker

Warlock Void 3.0 featured

Moving onto the next element, Voidwalker is functionally the opposite of Dawnblade, focusing on debuffing opposing Guardians. Echo of Undermining is the most direct way of doing so, weakening your enemies when hit with your grenade. You can also use Echo of Instability if you have a void weapon, granting you Volatile Rounds on grenade kill.

Voidwalker also provides some survivability with the Devour buff, most easily triggered on Warlock via the Feed the Void aspect. This makes Void widely considered the most well-rounded Warlock subclass as of the writing of this article, but that’s bound to change.

Pros:

  • Powerful abilities at base
  • Powerful buffs and debuffs
  • Numerous super options and a unique jump ability (Blink)

Cons:

  • Lacks movement compared to Dawnblade
  • Weaker super abilities
  • Able to do everything other subclasses can do, but significantly less well (jack of all trades, master of none)

Stormcaller

Warlock Arc 3.0 featured

Inarguably the weakest of the three light subclasses before the Light 3.0 updates, Stormcaller now has a surprising amount going for it. Being all about speed and mobility, this subclass can grant you movement and weapon handling speed without the need to equip popular neutral exotic armor pieces such as Transversive Steps or Ophidian Aspect.

All three aspects are powerful here, but Lightning Surge is the stand-out, allowing you to close the gap between you and your opponents while also unleashing a substantial amount of damage. Arc Soul (and by extension, Getaway Artist) is also a popular pick, granting a good amount of chip damage to make kills more consistent. Lastly, while the Arc fragments available don’t have too much build potential, some (such as Spark of Resistance, Recharge, or Magnitude) provide very potent neutral buffs that can work anywhere.

Pros:

  • Extremely good neutral game
  • Potent aspects
  • Superior movement

Cons:

  • Weak super abilities
  • Lacks build potential
  • Weaker-than-average fragments

Broodweaver

Warlock Subclass

Broodweaver functions as a mix between Stormcaller, Dawnblade and Shadebinder, providing strong crowd control in combination with useful movement abilities.

Each grenade does something unique but powerful: Grapple can either close the gap or give you space, Shackle can stop opponents in their tracks, and Threadling can seek down low health enemies to kill.

Pros:

  • Has a nice variety of abilities and uses
  • Area control, shutdown, and movement abilities
  • Powerful subclass verbs (Suspend, Woven Mail, etc.)

Cons:

  • Few options for Super, Melee, and Aspects
  • Little access to subclass verbs compared to other Strand classes
  • Acts as a jack of all trades, master of none

Shadebinder

Shadebinder Warlock Stasis featured

Shadebinder is primarily used to counter your enemies by slowing or freezing them.

All three grenades have some slowing or freezing capability, and the Iceflare Bolts and Frostpulse aspects can grant more opportunities. Fragments are simple here; most simply buff your abilities or give you stat boosts. Whisper of Hedrons and Whisper of Chains are some of the more popular picks, but you can easily build into unique ones like Whisper of Rime as well.

With the addition of the Light 3.0 subclasses, Stasis has slightly fallen out of the meta. However, it’s still potent and is sometimes unfairly disregarded by the community.

Pros:

  • Excels in close quarters combat
  • Various shutdown and area control abilities
  • Amazing dueling super
  • Exceptional fragments and debuffs (Freeze/Slow)

Cons:

  • Extreme lack of movement
  • Less Grenade, Melee, and Super ability choices
  • Mediocre grenade options at base
  • Little to no intrinsic buffs (compared to Devour, Restoration, etc.)

Best PvP Warlock Exotics

General Exotics

ArmorClassTypeRequirementsSourceReleasedRequiresExotic Perk
Ophidian Aspect Warlock Exotic Destiny 2 art

Ophidian Aspect

WarlockArmsFree-to-PlayExotic EngramsSeason 2Free to Play Destiny 2 icon
Free-to-Play
Weapons ready and reload very quickly. Provides a small benefit to the airborne effectiveness stat of all weapons.
Transversive Steps Warlock Exotic Destiny 2 art

Transversive Steps

WarlockLegsFree-to-PlayExotic EngramsSeason 1Free to Play Destiny 2 icon
Free-to-Play
Sprint speed increased. After a short time sprinting, your currently equipped weapon is automatically reloaded.

Because of their ease of use and 24/7 activation, neutral exotics are the most common for general PVP. Ophidian Aspect has always been an S-Tier pick, passively boosting the snappiness of your weapons. Transversive Steps excels for a similar reason, providing quicker and more fluid movement (plus the ability to get a free reload).

Subclass-specific Exotics

ArmorClassTypeRequirementsSourceReleasedRequiresExotic Perk
Boots of the Assembler Destiny 2 art

Boots of the Assembler

WarlockLegsBeyond LightLost SectorsSeason 14Beyond Light Destiny 2 icon
Beyond Light
Standing in a healing rift creates Noble Seekers that seek out allies that are not in a rift and heal them. Noble Seekers from Empowering rift grant both you and your ally a damage bonus. Each time a Noble Seeker finds one of your allies, the duration of your rift is briefly extended.
Osmiomancy Gloves Warlock Destiny 2 art

Osmiomancy Gloves

WarlockArmsThe Witch QueenLost SectorsSeason 16The Witch Queen Destiny 2 icon
The Witch Queen
Your Coldsnap grenades have an additional charge that recharges quicker on direct impact. The seeker spawned from Coldsnap grenades travels further.
Rain of Fire Warlock Destiny 2 art

Rain of Fire

WarlockLegsThe Witch QueenLost SectorsSeason 17The Witch Queen Destiny 2 icon
The Witch Queen
Air dodge reloads all of your weapons and improves the airborne effectiveness of Fusion Rifles and Linear Fusion Rifles; final blows with these weapons make you radiant.

As for subclass-specific exotics that you can build into, Osmiomancy Gloves are one of the stand-outs. Coldsnap Grenades are already extremely strong, and the increased travel distance and extra charge make for an unparalleled shutdown option. Rain of Fire, the Season of the Haunted exotic, is highly beneficial when using a Solar subclass and a fusion rifle (especially Vex Mythoclast). Boots of the Assembler also isn’t a terrible option to run on Dawnblade, allowing you to embrace the support role.

You can find more complex and in-depth builds online with niche exotics such as Verity’s Brow. My favorite two content creators for PvP builds are Coolguy and Apathettic, but you can find numerous fantastic community members creating builds frequently on all social platforms.

Before you go…

The new Warlock Exotic is definitely worth chasing this season. We cover how to get the Briarbinds in Destiny 2 here.

See latest Updates

We keep our content up to date! These are the latest changes made to this guide:
  • March 4, 2025: Updates based on Episode 3 (Heresy).
  • July 5, 2024: Updates based on The Final Shape meta and inclusion of Prismatic.
  • December 18, 2023: Updates based on the Season 23 meta.
  • September 11, 2023: Updates based on the Season 22 meta, the addition of the Void Caster build (replaces Radiant Timestrider) and Blinding Stormbringer (replaces Sorcerer of Swarms).
  • June 8, 2023: Updates based on the Season 21 meta
  • July 30, 2022: The guide is published for the first time.

Stay tuned, and don’t forget to bookmark this page for next season!

About The Author

Andrew Sideris
Andrew Sideris
With my over seven years of game knowledge, six months of writing experience for Blueberries.gg, and hundreds of Blueberries already guided through endgame content, I hope to allow newcomers to have the same great introduction I had all those years ago. You can find Andrew on Twitter.
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11 Comments
  1. Boom

    DIM links would be appreciated

    Reply
  2. jediD

    Why use solace and empyrean on the first build if you have no way of getting radiant or restoration?? Is there something I am missing?

    Reply
    • Xorrof

      When you have Heat Rises, your Phoenix Dive grants Restoration x2, as for radiant it would be season 23’s artifact mods where multiple precision hits with a solar weapon grants Radiant.

      Reply
  3. ODIN

    At the very top of the page the warlock in the title picture looks awesome, what armor is that?

    Reply
    • billy bob bays

      its old Garden of Salvation raid armor

      Reply
  4. Abn0

    The Nobel Assembler PVE build appears to be mislabeled. It says it excels in ‘solo content’, yet the entire build (both exotic weapon and exotic armor) requires a fireteam to be of any utility.

    Reply
    • Ric Molina

      Agreed, that was an editing mistake from me…. Corrected, thanks for the heads up!

      Reply
  5. Tjusarn

    i can’t find any pvp builds, is this something that is coming in the future?

    Reply
  6. Nemo

    I’ve been trying out No Time to Explain with the Getaway Artist/Bleak Watcher setup – BW inflicts Stasis, so NTtE can stack its thing. Once NTtE gets its stacks, it manifests a Kinetic turret to match the Arc Soul. For extra nonsense, use Hellion alongside Bleak Watcher – five sources of damage simultaneously.

    Not sure if it’s better than the Khvostov, of course, but for sheer dakka, it’s good.

    Reply
  7. Wachapak

    You might want to fix the 2nd build it says its stasis but its prismatic.

    Reply
    • Ric Molina

      Good catch, that was my bad when editing… Corrected!

      Reply
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