Destiny 2: Best Crucible (PvP) Armor For Each Class

Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss

Human Made

I've been playing video games pretty much nonstop ever since I got my first 360. I love racing games, MMOs, and shooters, but I'll play just about anything.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu

PvP is a major part of Destiny 2, and so are Exotics. By combining the two, you get some of the most fun gameplay and interactions in the entire game. As you head into the Crucible to take out as many Guardians as possible, it’s important to have good Exotics to back you up. To help you with that, we’ll check out the 3 best PvP Exotic armor pieces for each class in Destiny 2 and give a rundown of them! Let’s get started with an overview of armor in PvP, then we’ll get into the main part of the list.

Armor in PvP – Overview

The Exotic armor you choose will have a major impact on any PvP match you play in Destiny 2. Unlike Legendary armor, Exotic armor pieces can only be used on a single class. As such, you won’t see any Warlock Exotics on Hunter or anything like that.

You’ll want to pick an Exotic that has two traits: it works in PvP and is good in PvP. The majority of this game’s Exotic armor pieces are designed more with PvE in mind, and some of them don’t even work at all in the Crucible. Just make sure not to bring those with you into PvP, and you’ll be one step closer to winning more games!

There are tons of Exotics to choose from for each class, but we’ve narrowed it down to our top 3 picks. We won’t waste any more of your time before going into it, so let’s get started with our picks for Hunter!

Best PvP Exotic Armor for Hunters in Destiny 2

Hunters are the most mobile (quickest) class in Destiny 2, and they also have some of the most effective PvP Exotics. From Exotics that keep you in the fight for long periods of time to ones that provide explosive damage, there’s a little bit of everything for Hunters.

Young Ahamkara’s Spine

How to Get: Exotic Engrams and Xur

Young Ahamkara’s Spine is one of the most popular Hunter Exotics for PvP. This armor piece is strong because it improves the effect of Tripmine Grenades, making it far easier to land kills with them.

Specifically – It increases the duration of Tripmines you throw, and more importantly, increases the blast radius. The blast radius increase is great in any situation, but it makes multi-kills far more frequent. For example, where previously you could get an easy kill by throwing Tripmines on walls near objectives (especially capture points), now you can get even more! It’s simple and easy to explain, so it’s not hard to see why we love it.

Additionally, don’t forget about the ability regeneration Young Ahamkara’s Spine offers. Whenever you get a kill with a Tripmine Grenade, this Exotic gives you back a nice bit of ability energy. There’s no better feeling than landing a multi-kill via Tripmine in Trials or Competitive, only to get a ton of energy back and do it again shortly after.

Hunters are known as an annoyance in the Crucible thanks to how quickly they can take you out, and Exotics like this are why. It’s incredibly fun to use, and what’s better than going Flawless while also having fun? Nothing!

Knucklehead Radar

How to Get: Exotic Engrams or Xur

Knucklehead Radar is a neutral Exotic, which isn’t actually a bad thing. All that means is that it doesn’t require you to use a specific subclass or strategy to use it. The Knucklehead Radar gives several benefits, all of which make your life infinitely easier in PvP.

The first thing you’ll probably notice when using it is that it allows your radar to stay active while aiming down sights. It sounds simple, but this is actually one of the strongest bonuses to have in PvP. Your radar is your greatest asset in PvP, as knowing the location of your enemies is crucial. Having it active while aiming down sights allows you to more easily predict when enemies will peak and prevents you from getting caught by surprise by Shotgun users while aiming.

In addition to the radar, this Exotic also marks targets you aim at. The mark follows Guardians as you aim at them, even allowing you to see their position through walls sometimes. It’s hard to overstate how good this ability is, as it’s almost the same effect as a wall hack.

Knucklehead Radar works great for mid-range weapons, like Hand Cannons or Auto Rifles, where you can get close enough to make use of the marking effect. However, you can also use it for Snipers or other weapons where knowing your enemies’ locations is essential.

Just don’t use Ace of Spades with this Exotic, since it passively gives the radar bonus. With Ace, you’d be better off with an Exotic that gives different effects. Also don’t use the Radar Tuner mod, as it also effects the radar and ADS, so it doesn’t do anything here.

Wormhusk Crown

How to Get: Exotic Engrams or Xur

Wormhusk Crown is a very simple Exotic, so it shouldn’t take long to explain why we like it so much. The Crown improves the Hunter’s class ability (dodge) by increasing the effects it gives.

With Wormhusk Crown, every time you dodge you get a small amount of health back and some shielding. It makes recovering from a lost dual or bad engagement a breeze, and reminds us a lot of that one season where Bungie let us start our healing by just using a class ability. (Let us stand in Empowering Rifts while still healing again, please).

If you want to play a fast style where you don’t have to worry so much about taking some damage here and there, Wormhusk Crown is perfect. It allows Hunters to take on risky fights with the assurance they can heal quickly, which you’ll need in competitive game modes (including Trials).

A lot of people are so used to the amount of shots they need to land that they’ll forget about something like the Crown’s health regeneration, so it’s great for catching others off guard. Wormhusk Crown is simple, effective, and one of the strongest Hunter Exotics for PvP!

Best PvP Exotic Armor for Warlocks in Destiny 2

Warlocks are known for two things in PvP: gliding around and constantly healing. And Well of Radiance as well, now that Bungie only ever uses Dominion for Trials. Warlocks are an annoying class to fight sometimes (as are all three), and that’s largely thanks to Exotics like these!

Getaway Artist

How to Get: Exotic Engrams or Xur

Getaway Artist provides so many bonuses that it would be hard not to recommend here. Arc Warlocks are already very strong (as all Arc subclasses are right now), but Getaway Artist puts it over the top. Its perk allows you to consume your Arc grenade to spawn an extra-powerful Arc Soul on your shoulder.

This Arc Soul functions the same as the normal one you can get from your Rift, but it’s more powerful. The Arc Soul is great for defending yourself from enemies you don’t see, and it also serves as an alarm of sorts against enemies. If someone is near you, you’ll know long before they get to you thanks to the Arc Soul firing at them.

But while Getaway Artist is mostly known for how annoying the Arc Soul can be to play against, that’s not all it does! When you consume your Arc grenade, you’ll also become Amplified instantly.

Being Amplified has many uses in PvP, but the most notable one is the speed boost. Between this speed boost, the empowered Arc Soul, and all the other bonuses that come with being Amplified, this is easily one of the most well-rounded, powerful PvP Exotics for Warlocks.

Ophidian Aspect

How to Get: Exotic Engrams or Xur

Ophidian Aspect is another general/generic Exotic that allows you to play (mostly) however you want. The benefits it gives are good for any build, and they’ll give immediate effects that you’ll be able to notice and start adapting to.

With Ophidian Aspect, the main boost you get is an increase to both weapon ready and reload speed. It’s a very significant boost, so it’s something you’ll easily notice the effects of and be able to utilize. Readying weapons faster allows you to be more efficient with close-range weapons like Shotguns that need to be readied at an instant sometimes. More importantly, you don’t need to have a specific playstyle to optimize it. Having a nice reload speed boost is just the cherry on top, as it’s always going to be helpful for getting back into fights as soon as possible.

Realistically, there’s never a situation where Ophidian Aspect is bad. Exotics which give such well-rounded bonuses are always near the top of the list in Trials, so they’re definitely worth using.

You can slap this Exotic on and completely forget about it, so you’ll be able to focus exclusively on winning fights. And while that might sound like it doesn’t matter, it’s not unheard of to get so caught up in what cool stuff your Exotic does that you end up playing poorly because of it. That won’t happen here, as all you’ll be incentivized to do is handle your weapons faster.

Rain of Fire

How to Get: Legend Lost Sectors

Rain of Fire has a lot of text, but it’s pretty simple once you start using it.

The first bonus it gives is the ability to reload all of your weapons by using your air dodge (Icarus Dash). Since Icarus Dash is already helpful in PvP as a movement ability, giving it even more value is great! There will likely be times where you want to dodge around during a fight anyway, and this just makes those moments even better.

The second bonus Rain of Fire gives involves making you Radiant. All you have to do is get a final blow with either a Fusion Rifle or Linear Fusion Rifle to become Radiant, which increases weapon damage. The Linear/Fusion requirement is a bit restrictive, but it’s worth it. Especially since there are plenty of good PvP Fusion Rifles out there. You could even use a weapon like Vex Mythoclast, which is technically a Fusion but feels like an Auto Rifle.

The last bonus you’ll get from Rain of Fire is an increase to your airborne effectiveness stat on Fusions and Linears. Airborne Effectiveness isn’t the most important stat, but it’s always helpful to have. If you’re someone who likes to jump around a lot, it becomes even more important. Either way, the amount of bonuses and the strength of them makes Rain of Fire an easy armor pick for Warlocks in PvP!

Best PvP Exotic Armor for Titans in Destiny 2

Titans have access to some of the most insanely powerful Exotics for PvP, so it’s no surprise why the class itself is so popular. If you want to be the menace of the Crucible, you’ll want to be a Titan with a crazy Exotic armor piece. Here are some options for you to do exactly that!

ACD/0 Feedback Fence

How to Get: Exotic Engrams and Xur

If you want to get up close and melee, ACD/0 Feedback Fence is the perfect Exotic. Let’s breakdown what all it does, because there’s a lot.

The first thing to know here is that whenever you melee someone, ACD/0 gives you a stack of Armor Charge. Then, whenever you have Armor Charge stacks, you take reduced melee damage. To get the maximum use out of this part of the Exotic, make sure to land a melee hit on your enemies before they get one on you. This allows you to get the Charge for your follow-up hit and reduces the damage they’ll do to you!

Next, be aware of the burst of Arc damage you’ll emit whenever someone melees you. This damage burst can sometimes kill low-HP enemies if they try to melee you, and it also Jolts the target as well. The more Armor Charge stacks you have, the more damage the burst will do. It’s easy to run up to a group of people, Jolt all of them when one attacks you, then unleash a nightmare of Arc melee attacks on all them. Just remember that you lose your Armor Charge stacks when the Arc damage burst happens.

This Exotic is specifically designed for people who want to run constantly and only stop to Shoulder Charge enemies. It protects you, buffs your melee damage, and allows you to pick up multi-kills easier than normal when meleeing. It’s very niche and not great for every single map, but for the ones it’s good on, it’s near perfect.

Armamentarium

How to Get: Exotic Engrams or Xur

Thankfully, Armamentarium is another simple Exotic. All this Exotic does is grant you an additional grenade charge, which is actually very strong in PvP. Grenades are an easy way to grab kills in any PvP mode, so having an extra one is always useful.

You can do a lot of things with an extra grenade, but no matter what you do, it’ll always help. You could use both to secure an area for capture, clean out groups of enemies, trick people into dodging one way then throw the second at them, etc. The options Armamentarium opens up are endless (as long as they all involve a second grenade).

You can utilize any playstyle along with Armamentarium, which is another bonus. If you want to play aggressively, you could take the more short term grenades that quickly explode, or you can use the longer-lasting ones like Void Spike or Vortex Grenade to hold down an area on the map.

Experiment with a bunch of different ways to utilize this Exotic, because every grenade is different. There are a bunch of fun strategies you could try out, so don’t miss out on them!

Peacekeepers

How to Get: Exotic Engrams or Xur

If you like SMGs, there’s no better Exotic armor than Peacekeepers. And since SMGs are so good right now, it seems like we see these things a lot these days. Peacekeepers allows you to ready SMGs instantly and reloads them while they’re stowed. This effect is great, allowing you to switch to your special weapon for a short time while it gets ready.

Due to this, we do highly recommend having a second weapon for longer range that you can rely on. Something like a Sniper Rifle is perfect here, but even a Scout or Pulse Rifle could do if you like double primary weapons.

Peacekeepers also increase the speed at which you move while holding an SMG. Anytime you have an SMG or other close range weapon, your movement speed is going to be important. Peacekeepers keeps you on the move, keeps your SMG ready, and allows you to be more efficient in close-range fights.

For SMG users, they might feel like a generic Exotic since the bonuses aren’t necessarily in-your-face or extreme. However, the consistency they offer is absolutely top-notch, so we can’t recommend these highly enough.

Just don’t forget to take them off if you switch weapons, otherwise you’ll get some really mean messages in team chat.

Join the High Ground!

Picking the best Exotic armor in Destiny 2 is hard sometimes, especially since there are so many to choose from. Hopefully, this article will help you as you go into your next Crucible matches.

What are your favorite pieces of PvP armor to use in Destiny 2? Are there any that you think deserve being included on our list? If so, make sure to leave a comment below. And don’t forget to subscribe to the High Ground for more articles and guides on all your favorite games!

Happy gaming!

Destiny 2: Best Crucible (PvP) Armor For Each Class

Armor in PvP – Overview