Destiny 2 Best Warlock Builds

Welcome, Guardians. In this guide, we’re showcasing the best Warlock builds for Destiny 2: Edge of Fate. Warlocks have a lot of healing and buffing abilities in certain sub-classes, but also a huge amount of elemental DPS being it strand, void, arc, stasis, or solar. Rest assured that these builds have it all.

Each of the Destiny 2 Warlock builds in this list features a fully detailed loadout: exotic armor, weapons, subclass setup, aspects, fragments, and the exact armor mods you’ll want to run. We’ll walk you through the loop, explain how the synergy works, and show you how to make the most of each build’s potential.

If you're missing any exotic armor or weapons required for these builds, we recommend checking out SkyCoach’s Destiny 2 Exotic Items Carry section. Their team of seasoned Guardians will help you secure what you need fast—so you can skip the grind and start melting enemies.

Check out our other Destiny 2 guides:

• Best Titan Builds
• Desrt Perpetual Raid Guide
• Best Edge of Fate Exotics
• How to Get Graviton Spike
• How to Get Tier 5 Gear
• Armor 3.0 Guide

 

 

Best Solar Warlock Build in Destiny 2

This is the absolute meta Warlock build Destiny 2 that revolves around ability spam, Radiant uptime, and grenade-fueled damage loops. Thanks to Starfire Protocol and the revamped Armor Charge system, this Warlock setup excels in burst DPS, healing support, and ad-clear potential. The fusion grenade regeneration loop is fueled by Radiant-powered weapon kills, and your survivability is maintained by Phoenix Dive, Heat Rises, and Restoration x2. Once this engine starts, it barely stops, allowing you to rain down double-exploding grenades non-stop in strikes, dungeons, raids, and solo content alike.

Loadout Overview

This setup combines high Discipline with strong Orb generation and healing tools. Every element works together to maximize grenade uptime, Radiant buff extension, and support capabilities. Here’s the full loadout:

Each component is selected to reinforce the core loop: grenade → Radiant kill → grenade refund → class ability refund → Orb pickup → loop continues. Now let’s break it all down.

Core Loop & Strategy

This is a grenade-centric engine that doesn’t slow down. You start by activating Heat Rises by consuming a grenade, giving you aerial control and access to Restoration via Phoenix Dive. BLOG20

Then, hit a target with Celestial Fire to apply Radiant and begin the loop. Your next kills with empowered Solar weapons or Fusion Grenades will rapidly refund grenade energy. Once you get a Fusion Grenade kill, you’ll also get your Phoenix Dive back instantly, which feeds Reaper mod and Bomber mod effects, extending both healing and grenade energy.

Here's the loop in action:

• Eat grenade to activate Heat Rises
• Phoenix Dive to trigger Restoration
• Use Celestial Fire to become Radiant
• Spam Fusion Grenades on grouped enemies
• Kill with Solar weapons or grenades to maintain Radiant and Restoration via Ember of Empyrean
• Repeat Dive to trigger Reaper and Bomber for Orbs and grenade energy
• Pick up Orbs to gain Armor Charges (via Harmonic Siphon, Firepower) and Solar Weapon Surges
• Grenade Font and Solar Surge activate, boosting damage and cooldowns

This loop gives you Restoration x2, Radiant, and two Fusion Grenades nearly on-demand. With high grenade stat, your damage scales absurdly well. And you better believe it, this could also be the best PvP Warlock build Destiny 2 if you learn this loop until it becomes your muscle memory.

Exotic Armor: Starfire Protocol

This exotic is the foundation of the entire build. It does two things that matter more than anything else: gives you two Fusion Grenades, and refunds grenade energy when dealing empowered weapon damage (which includes Radiant damage and kills from Well of Radiance).

• +1 Fusion Grenade charge (from 1 to 2)
• Grenade energy from empowered weapon damage, on hit and kill
• Fusion grenade kills refund class ability energy

You’ll use Fusion Grenades almost endlessly with this setup. Pairing them with a Radiant buff or stepping into your Well of Radiance super means you can throw grenade after grenade. On top of that, each kill with those grenades instantly refunds your Phoenix Dive, which you can then use to trigger more Orbs and grenade energy via mods.

Weapons

Your weapons need to synergize with Solar and Radiant mechanics. Ideally, run a Solar primary with Demolitionist to get bonus grenade refund on top of the empowered weapon refund.

• Primary: Zaouli’s Bane (Solar Hand Cannon) with Explosive Payload + Demolitionist
• Special: Flexible — use a Solar shotgun or Fusion Rifle for burst damage
• Heavy: Anything high-damage — Solar Machine Guns or Rockets benefit from Surge mods

Your primary does most of the Radiant proccing and Orb generation through Harmonic Siphon. Demolitionist helps with extra grenade refunds, especially when empowered by Radiant.

Abilities

Every ability slot in this build has purpose and synergy. Phoenix Dive is central to healing and Orb generation, while Fusion Grenade is your core damage engine.

• Super: Well of Radiance

Provides empowered damage and healing to you and your team

• Grenade: Fusion Grenade

Double-exploding thanks to Touch of Flame; refunds energy through exotic

• Melee: Celestial Fire

Ranged melee that applies Scorch and procs Ember of Torches

• Class Ability: Phoenix Dive

Cures allies, triggers Bomber and Reaper mods, refunds energy

• Movement: Burst Glide

Best mobility for fast repositioning

This combination gives you constant Restoration, Radiant uptime, Scorch stacking, and Orb generation.

Aspects

Your two chosen Aspects both contribute directly to the build’s loop and effectiveness. One boosts grenade lethality, the other makes Restoration easier to maintain and grants passive melee energy.

• Fusion Grenades explode twice, making them lethal and highly consistent
• Also buffs Healing and Solar Grenades, but Fusion is core to this build

• Grants Restoration on Phoenix Dive when Heat Rises is active
• Final blows while airborne extend Heat Rises and grant melee energy

These two Aspects allow you to constantly restore health, refund melee, and spam high-damage grenades.

Fragments

Each Fragment is selected to support one part of the loop: Radiant uptime, Restoration extension, Scorch for Ignitions, and melee energy for Celestial Fire. Here’s how they break down:

Together, they ensure you never run out of your buffs and always have melee and grenade abilities available when you need them.

Armor Mods

These mods are selected to maintain Orb generation, Armor Charge uptime, and grenade stat boosts. Everything feeds the core loop: grenades, class ability, Radiant uptime, and weapon damage boosts. BLOG20

Here’s the mod breakdown:

These choices maximize Orb drops, keep your Armor Charge stacks full, and extend the duration of those charges. Grenade Font gives you +40 grenade stat when charged, boosting grenade damage significantly. Solar Weapon Surge adds bonus weapon damage when charged. Reaper and Firepower keep you stocked on Orbs, while Bomber and Innervation keep grenade cooldowns fast.

Stat Priorities

The goal here is very simple: reach 200 Discipline as fast as possible. This is your main damage stat—at 200, your grenades deal +65% bonus damage. You’ll feel the difference immediately.

1. Discipline (Grenade): Max this first. Aim for 200.
2. Strength or Recovery (Weapon/Survivability): Weapon stat helps with uptime on Radiant triggers (Celestial Fire), Recovery gives passive survivability if Restoration drops
3. Resilience/Super stat: Not necessary. You don’t rely on Barricade or constant Super uptime.
4. Class stat (Phoenix Dive): Not critical. It gets refunded by grenade kills.

Hitting 200 Discipline is your #1 priority. Everything else is secondary and can be flexed depending on available gear or preferred playstyle.

 

Best Prismatic Warlock Build in Destiny 2

This best Warlock build Destiny 2 PVE is Prismatic. It brings together the elemental might of Solar, Void, Arc, Strand, and Stasis into one cohesive powerhouse. By pairing Getaway Artist with Feed the Void and Bleak Watcher, you gain constant Devour uptime, area denial, and Arc Soul support. Song of Flame offers team-wide buffs and Scorch spam, while the build’s synergy with Orb generation, Transcendence bonuses, and subclass keywords like Woven Mail and Frost Armor creates a flexible, survivable, and deadly loadout for all high-end PvE content.

Loadout Overview

This build emphasizes hybrid elemental synergy, Orb-triggered defenses, and rapid grenade regeneration. Here's the full loadout overview:

The above pieces all play into your ability loop: empowering Arc Souls, maintaining Devour, freezing mobs, and igniting waves of enemies.

Core Loop & Strategy

This build excels at area control, burst healing, and multi-elemental power scaling. Each ability and interaction is chosen to reinforce a continuous combat loop:

1. Begin each encounter by consuming your Arc grenade with Getaway Artist to summon an Arc Soul and become Amplified. This Arc Soul shoots autonomously and benefits from any Radiant or Orb-based effects you pick up.
2. Drop a Bleak Watcher turret using your grenade button when crowd control is needed. It slows enemies and sets them up for shattering or explosive combos.
3. Use Arcane Needle against priority targets to apply Unravel and open them to secondary damage sources. It recharges quickly through Orb interactions and ability use.
4. Maintain Devour with Feed the Void: any ability kill will trigger it, feeding back health and grenade energy.
5. Pop Song of Flame when Transcendent to enable Radiant weapon buffs, ability spam, and Scorch effects. It supercharges your entire kit while providing team support and AoE pressure.
6. Pick up Orbs to cycle Bolt Charges, gain Frost Armor, Overshield, Restoration, or Woven Mail through Facet of Purpose.
7. Repeat the loop by rotating abilities and weapon kills to keep Transcendence, Devour, and Radiant up at all times.

This loop allows you to play aggressively with layered survivability, which is not something a best Warlock dps build Destiny 2 can do. You’ll be constantly feeding energy back into your system with minimal downtime.

Exotic Armor: Getaway Artist

Getaway Artist is the lynchpin of this build’s Arc synergy and Transcendence fuel. It provides a powerful Arc Soul, contributes to Amplified status, and has perfect timing with Orb-based stat loops.

• Consumes Arc grenade to create Arc Soul
• Instantly makes you Amplified
• Arc Soul deals bonus damage and fires automatically
• Great for constant pressure and passive support

With the Arc Soul firing alongside your Void and Solar weapons, this exotic turns you into a mobile turret—even while your Super is recharging.

Weapons

This build combines weapon types for precision, Orb generation, and heavy-hitting combos. Each weapon reinforces a different part of the loop.

Mint Retrograde

• Void Pulse Rifle with rocket-assisted AoE bursts
• Procs Void Siphon for Orb generation
• Good primary weapon that plays into Unravel and Orb creation

Choir of One

• Auto Rifle with high-precision single-shot capability
• Scales well with Radiant and Arc Soul support
• Ideal for mid-range mob clearing

The Slammer (Adept)

• Void Vortex Sword for ad-clear and burst on-demand
• Works well with Devour for safe close-range aggression
• Pair with Void Scavenger for maximum uptime

Together, these weapons allow you to contribute steady damage, generate Orbs, and handle Champions with artifact perks like Anti-Barrier Pulse.

Abilities

This hybrid build pulls in elements from multiple Light and Darkness abilities for aggressive and supportive playstyles:

• Song of Flame

Boosts Radiant, ability recharge, and Scorch. Launch flame wisps to chase and explode enemies.

• Storm Grenade (converted)

Becomes Arc Soul when consumed; grants passive firepower and Amplified.

• Arcane Needle

Applies Unravel, chains into additional hits, and recharges quickly with grenade support.

• Healing Rift

Passive healing; scales with Devour and Facet pickups.

• Burst Glide

Excellent air mobility, useful for repositioning while your turrets and souls do the work.

The synergy between Arc, Void, Solar, and Strand sources makes every slot in your ability bar feel powerful.

Aspects

Your chosen aspects drive the Devour loop and area control features of this build. Let’s take a closer look:

• Grants Devour after any ability kill
• While active, ability kills restore more health and grenade energy
• Enables a nearly infinite sustain loop

• Holding grenade creates a Stasis turret that Slows and controls rooms
• Great against mobs and fast-moving enemies
• Can be used between Arc Soul activations for dual pressure

These aspects give you incredible control over every encounter, feeding healing, freezing, or buffing tools on demand.

Fragments

Fragments here serve multiple roles: healing, buffing, weakening, and elemental scaling. Each choice enhances a different part of your kit:

These Fragments ensure that Orb pickups always provide something meaningful—whether survivability, offensive buffs, or ability recharge.

Armor Mods

Armor mods here are focused on Orb usage, ability cooldowns, and ammo sustain. Here's a breakdown of how each slot is configured:

Each mod helps reinforce one or more core effects: Orb generation, grenade spam, class ability uptime, and weapon utility. BLOG20

Stat Priorities

The build’s function depends on feeding your ability loop while maintaining consistent defenses. These are the stat targets to aim for:

1. Discipline – Primary focus. Fuels grenade (Arc Soul/Bleak Watcher) usage.
2. Recovery – Supports Rift uptime and survivability.
3. Strength – Useful for Arcane Needle loops, especially when Devour is active.

If possible, aim for 100 Discipline, 70+ Recovery, and 50–70 Strength. You’ll naturally get Intellect and Resilience through mod synergies and artifact perks.

Best Strand Warlock Build in Destiny 2

This Strand build is among the top Warlock builds Destiny 2. It turns you into a Threadling summoner and grenade machine. Using Verity’s Brow and the Grapple grenade, you’ll constantly generate Threadlings, charge up powerful grenades, and use your movement and utility to dominate the battlefield. Thanks to Weavewalk and Weaver’s Call, you can go invisible, create Threadlings on command, and get out of danger while empowering your team with grenade energy. Whether you're unraveling targets with Arcane Needle or suspending mobs with crowd control, this build is durable, versatile, and lethal in all types of PvE content.

Loadout Overview

This setup leans into high Threadling output, Orb-driven grenade economy, and Strand debuffs for control and survivability. Every element contributes to fast ability uptime, Tangle loops, and AoE burst.

This build combines Verity’s Brow grenade buffs with Threadling swarm pressure. You’ll be throwing out empowered grenades nearly on cooldown while sending a flood of Strand creatures at your enemies.

Core Loop & Strategy

The goal of this build is to weave together grenade buffs, Strand debuffs, and Threadling pressure for constant control and wave clear. Here’s how the core gameplay loop plays out:

1. Use Strand weapons (like Unsworn) to get final blows and trigger Verity’s Brow, gaining Death Throes stacks that empower your next grenade.
2. Throw a Grapple grenade with full stacks to benefit from high damage and restore grenade energy—while buffing ally grenade regen.
3. Use Healing Rift to spawn Threadlings via Weaver’s Call. If none are perched, the rift spawns three instantly.
4. Enter Weavewalk to escape or reposition, creating perched Threadlings over time.
5. Use Needlestorm to summon a devastating wave of Threadlings. Threadlings perch and launch as you deal damage.
6. Keep Arcane Needle and Tangles in rotation to apply Unravel, gain melee energy, and force debuffed enemies to spawn more Tangles.

This loop keeps you flush with grenades, constantly outputting Strand debuffs, and surrounded by Threadlings that do your dirty work.

Exotic Armor: Verity’s Brow

This helmet defines your playstyle by turning you into a grenade engine. Weapon kills with matching damage types (in this case, Strand) grant Death Throes, which dramatically improve grenade strength and recharge speed.

• Strand weapon kills grant Death Throes (grenade buff)
• Throwing a grenade with Death Throes grants grenade regen to nearby allies
• Pairs perfectly with Grapple for frequent, empowered grenades

With constant Strand weapon kills, you’ll keep your grenade stat boosted and be feeding your team’s ability regen in group content.

Weapons

Each weapon in this build plays a role in maintaining damage uptime, feeding Verity’s Brow, or delivering utility for tough content.

1. Tractor Cannon – A strong support DPS option with suppress, debuff, and pushback. Excellent for Champion control and pairing with grenade bursts.
2. Unsworn – Void Trace Rifle for high uptime final blows that trigger Verity’s Brow. Great add-clear and Orb generation potential.
3. Without Remorse – Lightweight Solar shotgun, solid for movement synergy and backup burst damage. Can be replaced with your preferred short-range weapon.

This setup supports the grenade engine and offers flexibility for both boss DPS and add control.

Abilities

The chosen abilities complement Verity’s Brow and the Threadling loop while adding powerful mobility and survivability tools.

• Needlestorm (Super)

Summons a barrage of needles that form Threadlings. These Threadlings perch when idle and attack when you deal damage.

• Grapple (Grenade)

Grants mobility and AoE melee damage with Unravel. Grappling to a Tangle refreshes grenade energy.

• Healing Rift (Class Ability)

Heals and spawns Threadlings with Weaver’s Call. Crucial for staying alive and fueling your Threadling army.

• Arcane Needle (Melee)

Triple-strike melee that applies Unravel, feeds Tangles, and synergizes with your grenade loop.

• Burst Glide (Movement)

Keeps mobility high, essential for Grapple movement and escaping with Weavewalk.

These abilities work in tandem with your Aspects to keep your abilities up and the enemy debuffed or swarmed.

Aspects

These two Aspects define the identity of the build, allowing you to dodge into safety, generate perched Threadlings, and summon more at will.

• Air Dodge enters a damage-resistant state while draining melee energy
• Generates perched Threadlings over time
• Exit by dodging again or using Rift

• Rift summons three Threadlings instantly
• Deploys any perched Threadlings on cast
• Strand kills have a chance to generate perched Threadlings

Together, these Aspects make you a mobile summoner who can control when and how to deploy damage via Threadlings.

Fragments

These Fragments extend the build’s debuff uptime and Threadling power while adding Orb, melee, and grenade synergy.

These Fragments help you sustain your abilities, increase control, and strengthen your Threadling pressure.

Armor Mods

Your mods focus on grenade uptime, Armor Charge boosts, and Strand weapon synergy. Grenade Font, in particular, plays a major role in keeping your grenade stat high through Orb pickups. Armor charges are a must for the strongest Warlock build Destiny 2.

This setup prioritizes grenade effectiveness, Orb benefits, and some defensive utility through resistance mods.

Stat Priorities

This build leans heavily into ability uptime and Strand synergy, so your stats should support quick grenade cycling and melee resets.

1. Discipline – Top priority to fuel Grapple grenade uptime
2. Strength – Boosts Arcane Needle recharge and Weavewalk Threadling generation
3. Recovery – Helps with Rift availability and general survivability

With Verity’s Brow and Grapple loops in place, you’ll find yourself constantly resetting abilities, spawning Threadlings, and dodging through the battlefield while your army does the rest. This build is fast, weird, and deeply satisfying.

Conclusion

Each of these Warlock builds excels in different ways, giving you powerful options for nearly every PvE scenario. The Solar Warlock build is a top-tier boss damage setup with near-infinite grenades, healing, and Radiant uptime—perfect for raids and high-end PvE. The Prismatic Warlock brings unmatched versatility with every Light and Darkness effect in one toolkit, excelling at utility and survivability while still outputting serious damage. And the Strand Warlock is the ultimate summoner, flooding the field with Threadlings, debuffing enemies, and spamming empowered grenades with Verity’s Brow.

F.A.Q.