Destiny 2 has changed considerably in the lead-up to The Witch Queen and even more after its release. Recent updates have buffed certain Exotics, while others nerfed, and following various 3.0 subclass reworks, the whole landscape of weapons and gear has evolved.
With all the sweeping changes the viability of some Destiny 2 builds and what’s important, has shifted dramatically throughout 2022. To help you cut through the noise, we’ve broken down the DNA of the best Destiny 2 builds, with some suggested loadouts and a breakdown of what each offers.
How to use stats to create the best builds in Destiny 2
Stats are the starting point of all great builds in Destiny 2. Stats govern everything in the game, from your run speed, how fast your abilities regenerate, and your maximum health.
Stats start at 0 and go up to 100, a threshold that signals the maximum cap. For every 10 points in a stat, you gain what is known as a tier. As a result, not landing on a multiple of 10 could be considered a waste of stats. Tiers also cap out at 10, meaning anything above this threshold is also considered a waste of stats. The Base Cooldown of all stats displayed starts at Tier 3, leaving some stats under 30 a little underpowered.
While stats are relevant for all characters, each class has a specific stat that governs its Class Ability. These Class Abilities form the basis of the Class identity. For Hunters, it’s Mobility; for Warlocks, it’s Recovery; for Titans, it’s Resilience. By focusing on this stat, your Class Ability can be used far more frequently, alongside whatever additional attributes it provides.
It’s often best to have 100 stats, also known as Tier 10, in your Resilience and whatever stat governs your class ability. This provides benefits related to damage resistance and your Class Ability in all game modes.
For instance, in the case of my Hunter, I typically have Tier 10 Mobility and Tier 10 Resilience across all of my builds, regardless of their overarching game plan. The armor and mods are where each differs, either bolstering other stats or providing different uses for abilities.
Where to get armor to create the best builds in Destiny 2
Armor is one of the primary places you’ll find and obtain stats. Each armor piece that drops in Destiny 2 has a spread across the six potential stats.
On Legendary-tier armor, the most likely type of armor you’d wear, each item has a minimum value of 2 in each stat. The highest possible stat value available on a standard legendary armor piece, excluding your Class Item, is reportedly 68 stats. Class Items will always drop with 0 in each stat. It is possible to increase the number of stats on a piece or armor by masterworking it or adding mods.
Masterworking should be reserved for the best pieces of armor, the type you know will guarantee you high stats in desired areas, as it can cost a lot of resources per item. Masterworking a piece of armor adds two extra stats to each category, and in the case of your Class Item, which has no stat values by default, two stats are added to each category.
With this knowledge, you can theorycraft and begin to understand what “good armor” looks like. This often involves centering your build toward your desired stats. Using the example of how I build my Hunter, I typically aim for a minimum of 23 in Mobility and 23 in Resilience when it comes to pieces I’d like to masterwork. Given that each stat also has to roll with a minimum of 2 in each category, you can deduce that a good piece of armor can have an overall stat value of 54, which will have a stat value of 66 after masterworking.
If I was able to masterwork and equip armor with these stats in the chest, gauntlet, legs, and helmet slot with the stats above and masterwork them, I would have Tier 10 in both Mobility and Resilience and 18 stat points in every other category if you include a masterworked Class Item.
However, these are only the basics of armor. Each piece of armor can equip mods that can alter the value of stats, both positively and negatively. Every item wields an energy type, be it Solar, Arc, Void, or Stasis, and these dictate what mods can be used on that armor and the available energy on the armor itself.
Important Mods in the best builds for Destiny 2
Now that you have identified what good armor looks like and, hopefully, managed to find yourself some, it’s time to talk about making the most of your armor.
The starting point of making the most of your armor is to look at the type of energy your armor has and what mods are available on this armor. If the armor is not your desired energy type, you can switch the energy type for an Upgrade Module and up to 20,000 Glimmer. This depends on the energy currently on your armor and its rarity.
Once you’ve scoped out the energy types you need across your desired mods, it’s time to masterwork your armor. Armor can be upgraded to have a maximum of 10 energy points. Each mod will use this energy. So, the higher the energy, the more mods you can slot overall.
Every standard piece of legendary armor has four mod slots: General, two Armor Specific, and Combat Style. These slots allow you to place different mods. However, exceptions, like Artifice and Raid armor, provide a fifth mod slot. Raid armor will allow you to equip Raid-specific mods, and Artifice provides an additional mod slot to fit extra seasonal mods.
The General mod slot is focused on stat-based mods. These can offer 5-10 stat points in each of the six categories and cost anywhere between 1 to 5 energy, with a +10 Intelligence mod costing the most at 5 energy. None of the mods in this slot require a specific energy type to equip.
The Armor Specific slot has the wider array of mods as it contains both energy-specific and armor-specific mods. Due to the large assortment of mods, it’s impossible to sum up the total spread. These mods will rarely define a build, but they are critical in enabling it.
The final core Mod Slot is the Combat Style slot, which is what you should focus your build around. These mods offer keywords like Charged With Light, Warmind Cells, and Elemental Wells. While they don’t require a specific type of armor, they do require a particular energy type. There are synergies within and across the Combat Style Mods, the most popular of which is a combination of Charged With Light and Elemental Wells.
A few popular Combat Style Mods choices in builds are as follows:
Charged With Light
These builds focus on the generation of Orbs of Power and casting supers to become Charged With Light. This is enabled by orb generating Helmet mods like; Harmonic Siphon, Kinetic Siphon, and the energy-based orb generation mods combined with the Taking Charge Combat Style Slot mod. It is also achieved by other means, such as killing enemies in rapid succession with specific weapons, thanks to mods like Sustained Charge, or through casting a super while you have mods like Powerful Friends or Radiant Light equipped.
After becoming Charged With Light, these charges are used to deal extra damage or provide additional resistance. Mods such as High-Energy Fire, Argent Ordnance, and Lucent Blade increase damage based on the weapons you are using, while Heal Thyself and Protective Light offer additional sustainability in more challenging scenarios.
There is a lot of flexibility currently available in creating Charged With Light synergy — but a personal preference uses High-Energy Fire combined with Taking Charge, Radiant Light, and Kinetic Siphon. This range of mods requires one Arc Energy piece of armor and one piece of Void Energy armor but is flexible across a full range of builds.
This build aims to create a series of orbs by killing enemies with your primary weapon. Upon picking up the orbs or casting a super, your damage output will be increased through High-Energy Fire. If you are in a survival situation, you will gain extra damage resistance after losing your shield. You will lose your charge and seek to generate further orbs in both scenarios.
Elemental Charge
Elemental Charge is currently the most malleable Combat Style to toy around with and the cheapest. You can create wells off any part of your arsenal, be it kills or simply using your class abilities. When the wells spawn, you will need to collect them. This, in turn, will replenish your abilities faster or even power up weapons with an energy type that matches your subclass.
While solely running Elemental Wells is weaker, some builds are currently bolstered by the Season of the Risen’s Volatile Flow mod and reduced cost Font of Might. These two mods, combined, have resulted in several builds. My current preference is to utilize a Void subclass accompanied by the following elemental mods; Well of Tenacity, Font of Might, Volatile Flow, Reaping Wellmaker, and Elemental Ordnance. As such, you will need three pieces of Void armor and one piece of Solar armor.
The result of this, when used in tandem with a Void energy subsecondary weapon, is a build that shreds enemies, big and small. Kills with your grenades or void weapons, spawn wells that regenerate your Void grenades, and empower your weapon for a short period. You will also gain four seconds of increased resistance for each well you pick up, which improves your sturdiness in prolonged fights. In the right circumstance, this build can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Warmind Cells
The intention of Warmind Cells is to use particular weapons, namely Seventh Seraph and Ikelos weapons, to generate large glowing cells. Killing enemies with these weapons, or some abilities, has a chance to create these cells upon death.
When a cell spawns, you can pick it up or shoot and destroy it. It might even have an area of effect. This can range from healing teammates to weakening enemies or even setting everything on fire. It all comes down to the mods you have selected.
Due to the inconsistent nature of the cells spawning, as well as a few nerfs, the builds have largely fallen from grace. But, a popular use of strictly Warmind Cells could look like; Global Reach, Burning Cells, Rage of the Warmind, Cellular Suppression and Warmind’s protection. This armor requires two pieces of solar armor, a piece of arc armor, and a piece of void armor.
By combining these mods, while using a weapon that can generate Warmind Cells, a successful kill should create a Warmind Cell that weakens the enemies surrounding it upon its creation. Upon its destruction, the Warmind Cell’s explosion will suppress enemies, deal additional Solar Damage, and set enemies alight. Its primary purpose is clearing small-medium enemies and is not appropriate when it comes to focusing on damaging a boss.
That’s not to say that these builds are the only possible builds, in fact they are just the start. Across the three core mechanics of Combat Style Mods, there is a lot of crossover. Thanks to Elemental Charge, you can use the well mechanic to become Charged With Light and use something like Argent Ordnance or High-Energy Fire. The same can be said of Warmind’s Light, which allows you to become Charged With Light and implement similar Charged With Light functionality into a Warmind Cell build. It’s all about considering what suits your weapons and playstyle. The more you experiment, the more fun you will have.
There are some other mods we have not touched upon, Ghost Mods. Unlike other mods, Ghost Mods focus on rewards received from various activities or locations throughout Destiny 2. The most important are the Armorer subset of mods and the XP mods. These mods are not classed as part of any build, but slapping them on your Ghost to gain a few extra levels or even tailor the stats your armor will drop with are a surefire way to get the most out of your experience.
Purpose of builds
On top of all that, you also need to consider the purpose of your build and which specific armor mods to use. While the overall goal is to basically kill things, different builds are effective in different areas. You have to think about enemy density, if you will encounter a boss, are you locked at a certain Power Level, or if you are participating in a PvP activity. Thankfully, there are some constants across these objects.
For those looking to build towards a competitive loadout, it’s important to consider the weapons you are using above all else in relation to mods. Due to changes in abilities and supers, you’ll see them a lot less in competitive modes. As such, you will get more literal bang for your buck by prioritizing weapon mods. This means that equipping; unflinching mods on chest armor, dexterity mods on gauntlets, targeting mods on helmets, and a scavenger mod for the secondary ammo weapon you are using. You’ll also want to consider Recovery instead of IIntellect in these builds, especially when it comes to Trials of Osiris, where you may not have enough time to build super energy.
Whereas those looking to slay out against the enemy AI will want to maximize their ability use and make the most of their heavy weapons wherever possible. This means that PvE builds will often have; double heavy or secondary ammo finders on helmets, anti-champion mods on their gauntlets, resistance or ammo scavengers mods on chest armor, and heavy or secondary weapon scavengers on chest armor.
And then there are ability-based builds that carefully tread the line between PvE and PvP content. Ability-based builds are neither here nor there in reference to differing objectives. Their focus is predicated on the ability you want to use. These can be grenade-based builds or melee-based builds. These builds may want to use orb-generating mods on their helmet, cooldown reduction mods on their gauntlets, Absolution or other orb-based cooldown reduction mods on their legs, and a further set of cooldown reduction mods on a class item. You might even want to consider matching the purpose of this build in tandem
Much like the Combat Style mechanics and composition, there are also some builds that walk the tightrope between build purpose and carefully considering both the PvP and PvE elements could lead to greater success in a game mode like Gambit.
Best builds for Warlock
Warlock has traditionally played a support role. Their healing ability is a selling point of the class, and as there are no others that offer such a benefit, you’ll find that the placement of healing rifts or even a Well of Radiance is often the most common approach to a Warlock. That’s not to say they aren’t capable of dealing damage or clearing waves of enemies, but there is always a focus on the healing rift as a base.
That’s why, as a general rule, the assumption throughout these builds will be that you should aim for 100 Recovery prior to addressing the additional priority stats. This rule also extends to Resilience. Resilience is the most important stat in the game and, in PvE content, it will often be the difference between surviving busy or end game content and dying.
Stasis Osmiomancy Warlock Build
As far as solo Warlock builds go, the combination of Osmiomancy Gloves and No Time To Explain is one of the most potent combinations when you go it alone. Even by yourself, the ability to consume a grenade and summon a Stasis turret with the Bleak Watcher Aspect and make the most of the support afforded with No Time To Explain’s Time-Slip trait, feels like all the backup you will ever need.
Thanks to the Osmiomancy Gloves you’ll want to select the Coldsnap Grenade as it will give you a second charge, which is another Turret when consumed. That’s why all of your mods should be tailored towards grenade regeneration. With mods like Grenade Kickstart, Bomber, and Firepower to ensure that your grenade generation is so high that you can always drop an extra turret.
While turrets are placed, they will be slowing and freezing targets with their bullets which feeds No Time To Explain’s Rewind Again perk. These frozen enemies can also be used to generate a large number of Stasis Shards with the Glacial Harvest aspect. You then convert these Stasis Shards to Elemental Wells with Elemental Charge that will allow you to use Firepower to further increase your Grenade Generation or your damage with High-Energy Fire. Depending on the enemy density of the activity, you can even run both.
When managed correctly, this build’s ability to throw a Stasis turret and sit in its own well while whittling down waves of enemies is unparalleled. With the right positioning, there’s an added level of survivability as you will not need to collect Stasis Shards as Whisper of Conduction will make them track to your position, Whisper of Rime will then provide you with an overshield too, and any enemies that are frozen in your proximity will provide additional resistance thanks to Whisper of Chains.
| Subclass | Shadebinder (Stasis Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Player’s Preference |
| Melee Ability | Penumbral Blast |
| Grenade | Coldsnap Grenade |
| Super | Winter’s Wrath |
| Aspects | Bleak Watcher and Grim Harvest |
| Fragments | Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Chains, Whisper of Rending or Whisper of Torment, and Whisper of Rime |
| Key Exotic(s) | Osmiomancy Gloves and No Time to Explain |
| Weapons | No Time to Explain and Stasis weapons with either the Chill Clip or Headstone perk |
| Priority Stats | Discipline, Recovery, and Resilience |
| Suggested Mods | Grenade Kickstart, Bomber, Elemental Time Dilation, Elemental Shards, Elemental Charge, and either High-Energy Fire or Firepower |
Solar Support Warlock
Warlocks are renowned for their ability to support their peers. As far back as Destiny 1, the Well of Radiance has been a staple Super in a Warlock’s kit and Destiny 2 is no different. What has changed is how we build around the Well of Radiance providing teammates with the extra health and damage they need to survive end game content.
When it comes to weapons and super generation, the build is as simple as it gets. You want to use your Solar weapons to generate Orbs of Power through the Siphon mods, as well as using Solar abilities or weapons to generate Elemental Wells that will increase your Super regeneration through Font of Wisdom.
The build is incredibly simple and flexible in terms of its Aspects as you mainly run Touch of Flame to improve your Healing Grenade and Icarus Dash is interchangeable with Heat Rises.
As for exotic armor pieces, you will want to equip Lunafaction Boots to improve your team’s reload speed and thus damage when it comes to boss fights or you can equip Phoenix Protocol to turn your build into a battery that has less time between its Supers and provides addition Orbs of Power for your team.
| Subclass | Dawnblade (Solar Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Healing Rift |
| Melee Ability | Incinerator Snap |
| Grenade | Healing Grenade |
| Super | Well of Radiance |
| Aspects | Touch of Flame and Icarus Dash |
| Fragments | Ember of Torches, Ember of Singeing, Ember of Searing, and Ember of Solace or Ember of Empyrean |
| Key Exotic(s) | Lunafaction Boots or Phoenix Protocol |
| Weapons | Solar weapons with the Incandescent Perk |
| Priority | Resilience, Recovery, and Intellect |
| Suggested Mods | Utility Kickstart or Perpetuation, Radiant Light, Kinetic or Solar Siphon, Font of Wisdom, High-Energy Fire, and Elemental Armaments or Elemental Ordnance or Melee Wellmaker. |
Nezarec’s Sin Void Warlock
When it comes to making the most of the Void 3.0 abilities that were introduced with The Witch Queen, nobody does it better than Warlock. Warlock already had a Void focused exotic with Nezarec’s Sin, but the ability to customize your Subclass just made it that much better.
No matter what weapons you are using, they’ll generate additional ability regeneration thanks to Nezarec’s Sin’s Abyssal Extractors perk. And, as your ability regeneration is already improved with the helmet, you’ll want to make the most of your abilities with mods like Elemental Ordnance to generate a copious amount of wells through your grenades and then converting all your grenade kills into Super energy with the Ashes to Assets mod. We even go one step further in ability generation with Child of the Old Gods. Child of the Old Gods allows us to place a well and send out a Void Soul that weakens targets and drains grenade and melee energy as we are using the Healing Rift in the build.
Due to the benefits of Void weapon kills, we also chose to include High-Energy Fire. This results in even more Void based kills that make it easier to extend your Devour perk through the Feed the Void Aspect.
If you combine all of the different parts of the build together, you’ll basically be unkillable and generate super at an alarming rate, in spite of what your Intellect may be. And while its potency might drop off the less Void weapons you use, it’s still an exciting and fulfilling build to play with.
| Subclass | Voidwalker (Void Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Healing Rift |
| Melee Ability | Pocket Singularity |
| Grenade | Vortex Grenade |
| Super | Nova Bomb: Vortex |
| Aspects | Child of the Old Gods and Feed the Void |
| Fragments | Echo of Leeching, Echo of Persistence, Echo of Remnants, and a final Echo of the player’s preference |
| Key Exotic(s) | Nezarec’s Sin |
| Weapons | Void Weapons |
| Priority Stats | Discipline, Recovery, and Resilience |
| Suggested Mods | Ashes to Assets, Elemental Ordnance, Elemental Charge, High-Energy Fire, and Grenade Kickstart |
Ionic Trace Arc Warlock
With all of the 3.0 updates, abilities have become all the rage. Grenades, melees, and even your class abilities are all pivotal in creating an ecosystem where your builds truly flourish. When it comes to Arc 3.0 and Ionic Traces, nobody does it better than a Warlock. Which is pretty fighting considering it used to be the only Class to be able to generate Ionic Traces when using the Arc Subclass.
It’s also a build that makes use of both the new Season of the Plunder exotic Fusion Rifle and the new Warlock Exotic, Fallen Star. Combining these two with Electrostatic Mind and all of the Fragments basically means that this build infinitely spawns Ionic Traces from nearly every interaction in your kit. Although, for those looking to adjust the build, you can switch out Arc Soul for Lightning Surge to create a faster paced build or you can switch Spark of Beacons for Spark of Brilliance to emphasize Arc weapon kills and Blinding Explosions.
This flexibility also extends to the mods too. If you are more likely to spec into grenades, you can opt to have more Bomber mods and supplement them with Ashes to Assets to generate more super energy or a more melee focused build could look at Focusing Strike mods and Hands-On to perform in the same way but optimize the build for a melee and close ranged combat. As for Supers, the choice will fall to the activity you play. Stormtrance is a great Super for clearing loads of small enemies and Chaos Reach is predominantly used to melt bosses.
And, as the build is focused on Arc damage and Arc weapons, I also opted to use orb generating mods, like Harmonic Siphon, and Orb ability regeneration mods, like Absolution, to emphasize the weapons I used and double down on their damage with Font of Might too.
| Subclass | Stormcaller (Arc Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Healing Rift |
| Melee Ability | Chain Lightning |
| Grenade | Storm Grenade |
| Super | Stormtrance |
| Aspects | Electrostatic Mind and Arc Soul |
| Fragments | Spark of Beacons, Spark of Shock, Spark of Ions, and Spark of Discharge |
| Key Exotic(s) | Fallen Sunstar and Delicate Tomb |
| Weapons | Primary Ammo Kinetic and an Arc Heavy Weapon |
| Priority Stats | Recovery, Resilience, and Discipline |
| Suggested Mods | Harmonic Siphon, Elemental Armaments, Elemental Ordnance, Melee Wellmaker, Font of Might, Bomber, Focusing Strike, Impact Induction, and Absolution |
Warlock PvP Build
While they aren’t the most exciting exotic in Destiny 2’s history, the malleability of Ophidian Aspect means that it works with whatever Subclass is the most potent in PvP and allows you to gain an edge when it comes to using your weapons, which is currently the most important aspect of The Crucible currently. For the purposes of this build, we’ve opted for a Void PvP loadout.
As far as our Fragments go, I actually went with the fragments that provided a boost to my priority stats – which were Resilience, Recovery, and Discipline. This is because our main PvP benefits are derived from the Aspects we use, which are Child of the Old Gods and Chaos Accelerant.
With Chaos Accelerant, our grenade ability is much stronger. As Axiom Bolt gains an additional seeker with Chaos Accelerant, it allows us to place grenades to catch Guardians hiding out of sight or fleeing for cover. This is also supported by Child of the Old God’s Void Soul, which tacks enemies after we place a rift and weakens them, keeping them out of the fight longer and granting us more grenade and melee energy when we use our Healing Rift.
| Subclass | Voidwalker (Void Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Healing Rift |
| Melee Ability | Pocket Singularity |
| Grenade | Axiom Grenade |
| Super | Nova Bomb: Cataclysm |
| Aspects | Child of the Old Gods and Feed the Void |
| Fragments | Preference based on required stat buffs |
| Key Exotic(s) | Ophidian Aspect |
| Weapons | PvP preference |
| Priority Stats | Resilience, Recovery, and Discipline |
| Suggested Mods | Mods to support your PvP weapon preference and grenade cooldown mods like Bomber. |
Best builds for Hunter
If there’s one thing Hunters love, it’s rolling in the dirt. Getting a good coating of mud often comes with a quick weapon reload, the instant regeneration of an ability, or a brief period of invisibility. Hunters are also the only class you cannot consider for a support role, but might opt for thanks to their survivability. In the wild, you’ll most likely find that Hunters are part of your team to clear small enemies or deal massive amounts of damage. They are also a dab hand at Crucible too.
In terms of stats, that means Mobility is key. Unlike our recommendations for the Warlock, it’s not always necessary for a Hunter to aim for 100 in Mobility, in fact the Powerful Friends mod means you can often safely aim for 80 in Mobility and end up maximizing mods to achieve 100 regardless. What’s not negotiable is the Resilience stat. So, the following builds always assume that the base is to have at least 80 in Mobility and 100 in Resilience as standard.
Omnioculus Void Huter
Of all the builds in this guide, the Omnioculus Void Hunter is by far and away the best when it comes to Grand Master Nightfalls. Its survivability, resistance, and effectiveness are unrivalled.
The main goal is to utilize Omnioculus’ armor perk, Beyond the Veil. Beyond the Veil grants Hunters a second melee charge that, when combined with Trapper’s Ambush Aspect, will allow Hunters to make themselves and allies invisible. While invisible, you all gain damage resistance and each Guardian that is made invisible replenishes your melee energy.
This invisibility is then extended for your Hunter thanks to the Echo of Persistence Fragment. As a failsafe, we also use the Vanishing Step Aspect and Gambler’s Dodge Class Ability, which refreshes your Snare Bomb when done near enemies. Effectively ensuring perpetual invisibility.
Due to the sheer volume of dodges you will perform, our mods are catered almost entirely to Class Ability regeneration and Elemental Well generation. This further cements how invisibility focused the build is and allows your Hunter to generate well for High-Energy Fire to increase their overall damage output.
| Subclass | Nightstalker (Void Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Gambler’s Dodge |
| Melee Ability | Snare Bomb |
| Grenade | Player’s Preference |
| Super | Shadowshot (either) |
| Aspects | Vanishing Step and Trapper’s Ambush |
| Fragments | Echo of Persistence and two Fragments of your preference |
| Key Exotic(s) | Omnioculus |
| Weapons | PvE weapons of preference |
| Priority Stats | Strength, Resilience, and Mobility |
| Suggested Mods | Perpetuation or Utility Kickstart, Reaping Well Maker, Radiant Light, Elemental Charge and High-Energy Fire |
Renewal Grasps Stasis Hunter
This build might look familiar. For a short period it dominated in PvP. Although, following some nerfs, the Renewal Grasp build was nowhere to be seen. But these nerfs only applied to PvP, and what was left was an incredibly potent Stasis build in PvE.
The entire build is centered on creating Stasis crystals and how these are used to provide mobile coverage and additional damage resistance. Thanks to the Depths of Duskfield perk on the Renewal Grasps, Duskfield Grenades cover a larger area, create a larger stasis crystal, and reduce enemy damage in a plethora of ways.
To emphasize the build, you include a Stasis shard generator with the Grim Harvest aspect and combine it with Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Chains, Whisper of Shards, Whisper of Fissures, and Whisper of Rime. This will result in additional damage resistance when you stand in the aura of your Duskfield Grenade and next to Stasis crystals created by killing enemies with weapons using the Headstone perk.
And, as grenades are a core focus of the build, you add Elemental Shards, Elemental Charge, Bomber, and Firepower to ensure that you maximize your ability to place grenades tactically. This is also emphasized by Whisper of Shards which enhances your grenade recharge rate by destroying Stasis crystals.
| Subclass | Revenant (Stasis Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Player’s Preference |
| Melee Ability | Withering Blade |
| Grenade | Duskfield Grenade |
| Super | Silence and Squall |
| Aspects | Grim Harvest and Touch of Winter |
| Fragments | Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Chains, Whisper of Shards, and Whisper of Fissures |
| Key Exotic(s) | Renewal Grasps |
| Weapons | Any Stasis weapon(s) with the headstone perk |
| Priority Stats | Discipline, Mobility, and Resilience |
| Suggested Mods | Elemental Shards, Elemental Charge, Firepower, Elemental Time Dilation, and Bomber |
Young Ahamkara’s Spine Solar Hunter
While Solar builds have started to drop off in terms of popularity following the demise of the Classy Restoration Seasonal Mod, the Young Ahamkara’s Spine version of a Solar Hunter is still up there when it comes to damage from a distance.
Thanks to Wish-Dragon Teeth on your Gauntlets providing additional Tripmine Grenade energy from ability damage, as well as adding a bit of extra spice to the grenade itself, you can generate near infinite grenades when you build in an infinite melee ability loop on small enemies.
To achieve this, we combine Ember of Torches, which makes you Radiant every time you hit an enemy with a melee ability, with Knock’ Em Down to ensure that our Throwing Knives, which is Knife Trick in this build, automatically replenish with each final blow when we are Radiant. You then ensure that your melee ability has a failsafe with Gambler’s Dodge and carefully alternate between melee kills and grenade kills to maximise your regeneration across the board.
You then add this on top of Gunpowder Gamble, which creates a large additional bomb after a set of solar ability kills, and you’ll notice that the damage capable with this build is through the roof. The cherry on top is utilizing all of the explosive kills to fuel a weapon damage engine through Elemental Ordnance, Elemental Charge, and High-Energy Fire and getting oodles of Super energy through Ashes to Assets.
| Subclass | Gunslinger (Solar Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Gambler’s Dodge |
| Melee Ability | Knife Trick |
| Grenade | Tripmine Grenade |
| Super | Player’s preference |
| Aspects | Knock ’em Down and Gunpowder Gamble |
| Fragments | Ember of Torches, Ember of Solace or Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Singeing, Ember of Wonder, and Ember of Searing |
| Key Exotic(s) | Young Ahamkara’s Spine |
| Weapons | Solar weapons with Incandescent perks |
| Priority Stats | Mobility, Resilience, and Discipline |
| Suggested Mods | Elemental Ordnance, Perpetuation or Utility Kickstart, Ashes to Assets, Elemental Charge, and High-Energy Fire |
Shinobu’s Vow Arc Hunter
You might remember Shinobu’s Vow from way back when it was a terror in the Crucible. Those days aren’t all over yet, but it certainly isn’t where Shinobu’s Vow is performing at its peak. Shinobu’s Vow is now a pretty effective PvE exotic.
The purpose of this build is to use the Hunter’s Skip Grenades, which receive an additional charge thanks to Shinobu’s Vow, to Jolt enemies and make the most of the Amplified mechanic to dodge more frequently thanks to Flow State and combine it with Lethal Current to increase melee damage to Jolted targets.
As you want to save your Charged with Light stacks for Firepower, we have opted not to use High-Energy Fire in this build, but instead went with Font of Might to get extra damage out of our Arc weapons.
This is a straightforward build. The core approach is to throw grenades to Jolt enemies, dodge to reload your weapons and increase your grenade recovery, and harvest all the Ionic Traces and Elemental wells to perpetuate the game plan endlessly.
| Subclass | Arcstrider (Arc Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Markman’s Dodge |
| Melee Ability | Combination Blow |
| Grenade | Skip Grenade |
| Super | Gathering Storm |
| Aspects | Flow State and Lethal Current |
| Fragments | Spark of Ions, Spark of Discharge, Spark of Shock, and Spark of Feedback |
| Key Exotic(s) | Shinobu’s Vow |
| Weapons | Arc Weapons with Demolitionist |
| Priority Stats | Mobility, Resilience, and Discipline |
| Suggested Mods | Bomber, Bolstering Detonation, Firepower, Elemental Ordnance, and Font of Might |
Hunter PvP Build
For a brief moment, there were a lot of invisible Hunters in Destiny 2’s PvP modes. It was so dominant that Bungie started swinging the nerf bat and damn near killed Omnioculus in The Crucible. But, with its last dying breath, Omnioculus let out a whisper. A whisper would taint The Crucible once more in that which cannot be seen. And thus, Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk was born. AKA the inverse Omnioculus.
See Me, Feel Me is the new plight of PvP. Hunters hide around the corner, waiting for you to rear your ugly head before decloaking and obliterating you with the increased damage See Me, Feel Me affords for a brief period.
Combine this with Echo of Persistence and Echo of Dilation and you will have Hunters that move faster while crouched and remain invisible longer. As back up, you also make the most of Suppressor Grenades and your Snare Bomb to trigger Stylish Executioner and gain additional invisibility and Truesight to give you an additional edge. However, if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, you can also use Trapper’s Ambush and lose a fragment in favor of a more easily accessible invisibility proc through your Snare Bomb.
When it comes to weapons, you cannot use single-shot weapons to maximize your damage boost, as the damage buff is applied after decloaking. So, while you can be flexible with your preference, multi shot weapons do benefit the build more. The only exception being weapons with charges, like Fusion Rifles, or slow moving projectiles, like Rocket Launchers, also benefiting from the damage boost.
| Subclass | Nightstalker (Void Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Marksman’s Dodge |
| Melee Ability | Snare Bomb |
| Grenade | Player preference, |
| Super | Player’s preference |
| Aspects | Vanishing Step and Stylish Executioner or Trapper’s Ambush |
| Fragments | Echo of Persistence, Echo of Dilation, Echo of Leeching, and Echo of Domineering |
| Key Exotics | Gyarfalcon’s Hauberk |
| Weapons | Preference of PvP weapons |
| Priority Stats | Mobility, Resilience, and Discipline or Strength |
| Suggested Mods | Mods to support PvP Weapon choices and Utility Kickstart or Perpetuation. |
Best Builds for Titan
Titans, much like Warlocks, can be perceived as support classes. They put up barricades and drop big bubbles. Unlike Warlocks, however, they haven’t always played a traditional support role. At times Titans have been relied upon for damage or terrorized the Crucible. Regardless of where you’ve found them, they’ve always had a use for their barricade – even if it’s just for corralling a few enemies.
So, we would recommend always prioritizing your Resilience when it comes to stats, as well as Intellect for similar reasons discussed in the Warlock build section. For the purposes of the following builds, always assume that Resilience is a priority stat.
Heart of Inmost Light Void Titan
Ability spam is the name of the game when it comes to this Titan build. Not only do you spam abilities, but you spam enhanced abilities thanks to the Heart of Inmost Light’s Overflowing Light perk that empowers each ability every time you use another.
Due to the volume of abilities in use, we have opted to include all three Elemental Well generators in Melee Wellmaker, Elemental Ordnance, and Reaping Wellmaker. This helps ensure that there is at least one availability in use at all time and we then convert those wells to increased damage with High-Energy Fire and Elemental Charge.
Thanks to the focus on abilities, we have included Offensive Bulwark and Bastion as our aspects. Bastion provides an Overshield which increases your grenade recharge rate and also improves your melee ability damage. We then make the most of this buff by extending the period the Overshield lasts with Echo of Persistence.
With the remaining two Fragments, we opted to include Echo of Expulsion and Echo of Instability to further emphasize the use of our abilities as each grenade kill will provide you with Volatile Rounds for your Void weapons and any Void ability kill will result in a Void explosion.
| Subclass | Sentinel (Void Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Towering Barricade |
| Melee Ability | Shield Throw |
| Grenade | Vortex Grenade |
| Super | Ward of Dawn |
| Aspects | Offensive Bulwark and Bastion |
| Fragments | Echo of Persistence, Echo of Expulsion, and Echo of Instability |
| Key Exotic(s) | Heart of Inmost Light |
| Weapons | Player’s preference of Void weapons |
| Priority Stats | Resilience and Intellect |
| Suggest Mods | Elemental Charge, Elemental Ordnance, Melee Wellmaker, Reaping Wellmaker, and High-Energy Fire |
Hoarfrost-Z Stasis Titan
If it wasn’t for the dominance of the Titan’s Solar Subclass, Hoarfrost-Z would be the most efficient class at surviving. Instead, it was relegated to an efficient cheese method for the Solstice of Heroes.
Much like the Hunter’s Stasis build, the Titan’s Stasis build is focused on creating Stasis Crystals and using them to increase their resistance. With the Hoarfrost-Z replacing your Barricade with a series of Stasis crystals, it’s incredibly efficient. You can use the crystals for cover and shatter them when weakened, using the Tectonic Harvest Aspect to generate Stasis shards that replenish your melee ability. This is important as we also use Howl of the Storm which allows the Titan to run and slide before using their melee ability to create even more Stasis crystals.
When you combine all of the Stasis crystal generation with the Titan’s abilities and Whisper of Shards, Whisper of Conduction, and Whisper of Rime, you are able to regenerate abilities incredibly fast while maintaining an additional overshield. Which feeds into your Glacier Grenade ability to create even more crystals.
As far as weapons go, weapons with the Headstone perk emphasize the build’s strengths even further but aren’t entirely mandatory. We also go for a traditional mod loadout by including things like Elemental Shards, Elemental Charge, High-Energy Fire, Elemental Time Dilation, and Well of Restoration to increase our damage dramatically and get an extra boost to ability regeneration.
| Subclass | Behemoth (Stasis Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Towering Barricade |
| Melee Ability | Shiver Strike |
| Grenade | Glacier Grenade |
| Super | Glacial Quake |
| Aspects | Tectonic Harvest and Howl of the Storm |
| Fragments | Whisper of Chains, Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Shards, and Whisper of Rime |
| Key Exotic(s) | Hoarfrost-Z |
| Weapons | Weapons with Chill Clip or Headstone |
| Priority Stats | Resilience and Discipline |
| Suggested Mods | Utility Kickstart or Perpetuation, Elemental Time Dilation, High-Energy Fire, Elemental Shards, and Elemental Charge |
Cuirass of the Falling Star Arc Titan
So, we all know that Titan’s using Thundercrash was one of the easiest and most effective route to damaging bosses before Arc 3.0 and that hasn’t really changed. What has changed is the ability to generate Orbs of Power and get your Super even faster. So, that’s what this build is all about.
The aim is to use your enhanced Storm Grenade, thanks to the touch of Thunder Aspect, to generate Super energy from grenade kills. Combining this with Elemental Ordnance and Spark of Discharge also means that your ability regeneration should be through the roof when you are using an Arc weapon.
You then use the Elemental Wells generated from Elemental Ordnance to become Charged With Light and increase your outgoing weapon damage. You can even sneak in some Harmonic Siphons and Innervations too, if you are fully focused on dealing Arc damage, which will increase your Super ability generation even more. As an added extra, you can also introduce Bomber mods to the build and opt for the Thruster Class Ability to continuously spam thrusts for additional Grenade Energy.
It’s a very simple, but incredibly effective build that is incredibly generous in the amount of Orbs of Power it can generate, which will ultimately lead to dealing a chunk of boss damage – especially if you manage your Charged with Light stacks well.
| Subclass | Striker (Arc Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Thruster |
| Melee Ability | Player’s preference |
| Grenade | Storm Grenade |
| Super | Thundercrash |
| Aspects | Knockout and Touch of Thunder |
| Fragments | Spark of Amplitude, Spark of Magnitude, Spark of Discharge, and Spark of Recharge |
| Key Exotic(s) | Cuirass of the Falling Star |
| Weapons | Arc Weapons |
| Priority Stats | Intellect, Resilience, and Discipline |
| Suggested Mods | Elemental Ordnance, Bomber, Ashes to Assets, Grenade Kickstart, High-Energy Fire, Firepower, and Elemental Charge |
Loreley Splendor Solar Titan
In spite of its lackluster Supers, this Titan build is the most prominent and effective all rounder that every player should have in their arsenal. While other Hunters and Warlocks mourned the loss of Classy Restoration, Titans soldiered on thanks to the power of Loreley Splendor.
By combining Sol Invictus and Roaring Flames, players are able to roam the area and rack up damage as they slay enemies with the Throwing Hammer and utilize the Sunspots to regenerate your Barricade and grenade ability faster, which creates even more Sunspots. This also emphasizes the Ember of Torches too as melee attacks also make you Radiant, further increasing your damage.
The beauty of these Sunspots is that the Restoration they provide is also amped up by the Loreley Splendor Helm which is then extended by the Ember of Empyrean or Ember of Solace.
As far as builds go, this is one of the best in the game and its ability to perpetuate Solar Ignitions with the Sunspots and Thermite Grenade or Solar weapons with Incandescent as well the Ember of Singeing and Ember of Ashes. And we haven’t touched upon mods yet!
When it comes to mods, the Lorely Splendor build looks very much like the previous Void build and benefits most from Elemental Well generation and converts those Elemental Wells into a damage engine through Elemental Charge and High-Energy Fire. The major difference here is that we can utilize the Well of Ordnance mod to squeeze a little extra regeneration for our grenades.
| Subclass | Sunbreaker (Solar Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Rally Barricade |
| Melee Ability | Throwing Hammer |
| Grenade | Player’s preference |
| Super | Player’s Preference |
| Aspects | Roaring Flames and Sol Invictus |
| Fragments | Ember of Solace or Ember of Empyrean, Ember of Torches, Ember of Ashes, and Ember of Singeing |
| Key Exotic(s) | Loreley Splendor Helm |
| Weapons | Solar weapons with the Incandescent perk |
| Priority Stats | Resilience and Discipline |
| Suggested Mods | Ashes to Assets, Elemental Ordnance or Melee Wellmaker, Grenade Kickstart, Utility Kickstart or Perpetuation, Elemental Charge, Well of Ordnance, and High-Energy Fire |
Titan PvP Build
Titans were already a menace in The Crucible, always have been. Even when Hunters reigned supreme, there was always a time and a place for a Titan. Now, with the Arc 3.0 revamp, Titans are on the rise again.
Their ability to rushdown opponents with Juggernaut, creating an additional overshield at the cost of their Class Ability, their new movement ability, Thruster, and the speed boost granted from the Amplified buff means that they are able to get in place faster, maintain momentum when necessary, and close the gap between other combatants with improved odds.
To emphasize this new gameplan, this build focuses on close ranged combat, utilizing the Quick Charge mod that allows faster ready speeds for SMGs, Shotguns, and Fusion Rifles and the Dunemarchers leg armor to make sure you get an added speed boost that enhances your Shoulder Charge and Ballistic Slam abilities with the Linear Actuator mods.
Even in the toughest situations, a bold Titan can gain enough momentum and charge headfirst into a swarm of enemies, tagging them all with an electrifying shock, blinding them with the Shoulder Charge, and mop up with an SMG. To make sure you have that extra bit of survivability, we also added the Spark of Resistance Fragment and Touch of Thunder Aspect to make sure we tip the odds in our favor – especially with how potent and frustrating Storm Grenades can be.
| Subclass | Striker (Arc Subclass) |
| Class Ability | Thruster |
| Melee Ability | Seismic Strike or Ballistic Slam |
| Grenade | Storm Grenade |
| Super | Thundercrash |
| Aspects | Touch of Thunder and Juggernaut |
| Fragments | Spark of Resistance, Spark of Recharge, and Spark of Brilliance |
| Key Exotic(s) | Dunemarchers |
| Weapons | SMGs and a Fusion Rifle or Shotgun |
| Priority Stats | Resilience, Discipline, and Strength |
| Suggested Mods | Quick Charge, Outreach, Targeting weapon, Unflinching weapon, and Weapon Dexterity mods |
And this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to creating builds. Destiny 2 is always in a state of change. Armor and abilities can be buffed or they can be nerfed, which means today’s hot build is tomorrow’s hot trash. Evolution is always a foot. As the year continues, Bungie have already discussed the inclusion of Strand as a new Subclass for the Darkness side of our Guardians which means a whole new energy type is waiting just around the corner that could change our builds all over again!
