Best Destiny 2 Warlock Strand Builds for PvE and PvP

Are you a Warlock main and want to take your game to the next level? These are the best Warlock Strand builds in Destiny 2, including builds for endgame and Solo players. And by the way, as any top-tier Warlock build, these will guide you every step of the way, including essential Exotics, Mods, and more.

Updated as of Episode 3: Heresy.

Top Strand Warlock builds

--	Name	Class	Area	Subclass	Excels in	Element	Status
	Mindspun Suspender	Warlock	PvE	Strand	Endgame	Strand
	Masked Navigator	Warlock	PvE	Strand	Endgame	Strand

Best Warlock Strand builds for PvE

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).

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.

	Refusal of the Call	Glaive	Special	Strand	Heresy Activities
	The Call	Sidearm	Special	Strand	The Pale Heart

• 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.

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.

Don’t miss our: Top Destiny 2 Warlock Strand Builds

Warlock Strand PvP build

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.

Subclasses

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

Broodweaver

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

Best PvP Warlock Exotics

General Exotics

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Ophidian Aspect	Warlock	Arms	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 2	Free-to-Play	Weapons ready and reload very quickly. Provides a small benefit to the airborne effectiveness stat of all weapons.
Transversive Steps	Warlock	Legs	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 1	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).

Before you go…

You can find all the absolute best builds for Titans, Warlocks, and Hunters here.