Destiny 2: Best Warlock Solar 3.0 Builds for PvE and PvP (2024)

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Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu

The Solar Warlock can fill multiple different roles on any Destiny 2 fireteam. Just because you’re the team’s designated Well dropper doesn’t mean you can’t also deal a bunch of damage. If you prefer to spend your time in the Crucible instead, you deserve a build to help you find victory. Whether you’re in it for PVE or PVP, we’ve got you covered with the best Warlock Solar 3.0 builds in Destiny 2.

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Best Solar Warlock Build for PvE

Next up on our recommendations for the best Warlock Solar 3.0 builds in Destiny 2 is our PVE setup. This build’s focus is on clearing mobs quickly while also recharging our Super and abilities really fast. Unlike the PVP build, this build’s armor exotic is mandatory. When played right, you should be spamming grenades, melee attacks, and Supers multiple times throughout a single activity. This build will help you both carry your team in terms of damage, healing, and utility!

Required PvE Exotics

Most PVE builds that are equipped to tackle endgame content make use of an exotic armor piece and an exotic weapon. PVE exotics are typically chosen for their mob clearing abilities, high single target damage output, or how well they augment your Guardian’s abilities.

PvE Exotic Armor

This build’s required exotic is the Sunbracers Gauntlets. These gauntlets have an ability that allows the wearer to throw up to five additional grenades for a limited time after getting a kill with their powered melee attack. As for exotic weapons, it’s completely up to the user’s playstyle. So long as you have a powerful solar weapon that can spread scorch you should be fine.

PvE Exotic Weapon

This exotic isn’t required, but if you’re looking for a powerful exotic weapon to run on this build, Witherhoard is a great choice. It may not be a solar weapon, but its usefulness definitely makes up for it. This weapon is great for both mob clearing and boss fights due to its AOE and damage over time effects. The best part is that it’s a kinetic weapon, so you can run a legendary solar energy weapon like the Retraced Path alongside it.

PvE Aspects and Fragments

These Aspects and Fragments were chosen because of their synergy with this builds Exotic gauntlets. We want our solar abilities to apply plenty of Scorch and trigger lots of solar Ignitions. This build is also designed to make dealing with Unstoppable Champions a bit easier through solar Ignitions.

PvE Aspects

Touch of Flame is the highlight Aspect of this build. This enhances all of our grenades by giving them additional effects. The second aspect used for this build is Heat Rises for its increased airborne mobility and melee recharge off airborne kills.

PvE Fragments

We will start with The Ember of Wonder. This Fragment generates an Orb of Power whenever you kill multiple enemies with solar ignitions. Orbs of Power are very useful to this build, so this Fragment is a must-have. 

The next two fragments are The Ember of Char and The Ember of Searing. Char grants the user plus ten discipline and allows for your solar Ignitions to spread more scorch stacks. Searing generates a Firesprite after killing a Scorched target. It also grants plus ten to recovery.

Finally, we have The Ember of Ashes as our last Fragment. This simply makes all of our abilities apply more stacks of Scorch to targets. With this combination of Exotic, aspects, and fragments, our Solar Grenades will be spreading Scorch stacks to lots of targets, and the resulting Ignitions will spread even more Scorch stacks to nearby targets, making our Solar Grenade an add-clearing machine!

PvE Abilities

The loadout here is going to be a bit different from the PVP build, since our focus is on maximizing the effectiveness of our Solar Grenades and Exotic Gauntlets.

PvE Grenade

As mentioned above, we are running the Solar Grenade for this build, since it’s the only grenade that works with Sunbracers Gauntlets. These grenades linger in their thrown spot, dealing damage and applying scorch stacks to nearby enemies. Thanks to Touch of Flame, this effect also shoots out blobs of lava and lasts longer.

Other PvE Abilities

For all other class abilities, you can pick by preference. We do recommend using Incendiary Snap for this build since it procs the Sunbracer’s ability more consistently than Celestial Fire. The class ability Phoenix Dive will apply scorch stacks to targets if used while Heat Rises is active, so it has fairly good synergy with this build.

PvE Super

Our class Super of choice is Well of Radiance. Well grants the user and any of their allies that stand in its light the Restoration and Radiant buffs. Those inside the Well are also protected against the effects of stasis abilities. Well doubles as both an offensive and defensive Super, and can help your fireteam survive higher-end content like Raids, Dungeons, and Nightfalls.

PvE Armor Mods

The armor mods in this build are designed around gaining benefits from our grenade kills, whether that be increased melee ability recharge or increased Super ability recharge. We also want to augment our Guardian’s stats and abilities while armor charged.

PvE Helment Mods

Our helmet mods are Ashes to Assets, Kinetic or Solar Siphon depending on your weapon load out, and Radiant Light. Ashes gives us Super energy off grenade kills. The Siphon mods allow us to generate orbs of power more consistently, and Radiant Light gives our nearby allies armor charge whenever we cast our super near them.

PvE Gauntlet Mods

Momentum Transfer, Fire Power, and Font of Vigor are the mods of choice for our gauntlets. Momentum Transfer reduces your melee cooldown whenever you get a grenade kill. Fire Power generates an Orb of Power on grenade kills, and Font of Vigor restores your melee energy over time while you have at least one stack of armor charge.

PvE Chest Mods

Once again, our chest mods are dependent on the activity being done and our other stats. You should always be running some kind of elemental resistance mod that matches the activity you’re running. Solar Reserves is also a great choice since it increases the amount of ammo your solar weapons can hold. Finally, you’ll want Font of Endurance to give your resilience stat an extra boost while you have armor charge.

PvE Leg Mods

We are running Solar and Kinetic Weapon Surge for the increased damage while armor charged, as well as Invigoration, which gives us some melee energy back after picking up an orb of power.

PvE Class Item Mods

Once again, our class item is running Time Dilation and Font of Restoration. Considering how often we generate Orbs of Power with this build, both of these are a must-run. Restoration is just as important in PVE as it is in PVP so getting it as high as possible is definitely a priority. Feel free to run Out Reach as well if you have the spare energy.

Best Solar Warlock Build for PvP

PVP is one of the most challenging activities for Destiny 2 players to get into. The first of our Solar 3.0 Warlock builds is focused on movement and efficiency. It’s all about being able to create off angles during firefights, dodge quickly around the battlefield, and regenerate your abilities at an improved rate.

Recommended PvP Exotics

Your exotic weapon and armor piece can mean the difference between winning and losing a firefight in the Crucible. These two exotics should help you compete with even the toughest of Guardians.

Recommended PvP Exotic Armor Piece

While Ophidian Aspect is not required to make this build function, it is highly recommended. These exotic gauntlets grant your Guardian improved weapon ready and reload speed, as well as an extended melee range and improved airborne effectiveness of all weapons. Feel free to run your choice of exotic weapon.

Recommended PvP Exotic Weapon

While some may consider Witherhoard to be an exotic best used for PVE, many Guardians are finding out that it works surprisingly well in PVP too. Its lingering AOE effect can block off pathways on many maps, and placing this shot on a flag or point makes it a death zone for any enemy Guardian foolish enough to stand in it. It does use special ammo, so you’ll have a limited number of shots per life. Make them count!

PvP Aspects and Fragments

The two Aspects used for this build are Icarus Dash and Heat Rises. Both grant the user two fragment slots for a build total of four equippable Fragments. Both Fragments in turn augment our movement abilities while in and out of our super form.

PvP Aspects

Icarus Dash grants your Guardian a mid-air dodge. If Heat Rises is active, your Guardian is granted an extra dodge while in the air. Icarus Dash also grants your Guardian the Cure Status effect whenever you rapidly defeat enemies with your Super or weapons while in the air. The Icarus Dash also grants us the ability to chase down enemies while in our Super. 

Heat Rises grants your Guardian the ability to fire their weapon, throw grenades, and use their melee while gliding. It also allows your Guardian to consume their grenade in order to activate the Heat Rises status buff. This status buff grants you better mid-air control and weapon accuracy. Getting kills while gliding will extend the effects of Heat Rises and restore melee energy. 

PvP Fragments

Now for the fragments, debatably the most important part of the character-building process. Our Fragments for this build are focused on making our Guardian and their supporting fire team Radiant, as well as increasing the effectiveness of our Daybreak Super.

First up is The Ember of Searing. This fragment grants melee energy whenever you defeat scorched targets. Defeating scorched targets also generates a Firesprite. Firesprites will restore grenade energy when collected. Firesprites are exceptionally good during the Season of Defiance, thanks to a seasonal mod that grants your Guardian armor charge whenever they pick up a Firesprite. This Fragment also increases your Guardian’s total recovery stat by ten.

Our next fragment is The Ember of Torches. This makes your Guardian and their nearby allies Radiant after landing a charged melee attack against an enemy. The Radiant buff increases the base damage of all your weapons. Guardians melee a lot in The Crucible, so having a fragment that increases our weapon damage after meleeing is super useful during back-to-back firefights. Unfortunately, Ember of Torches reduces your Guardian’s total discipline stat by ten.

The Ember of Beams is our next Fragment. This increases the target acquisition of our Super’s projectiles. This makes Daybreak even more deadly. This fragment also increases our total intelligence stat by ten.

The last Fragment used for this build is The Ember of Combustion. The will empower your Daybreak Super, causing final blows with the Super to ignite targets and create a Firesprite. The ignition effect is perfect for killing enemy Guardians that are huddled together on a point. This Fragment increases your Guardian’s strength stat by ten.

PvP Abilities

These abilities were chosen based on how well they can help you win back-to-back one-on-one engagements while also consistently recharging your abilities. These abilities can also scorch targets, which can trigger ignitions to damage nearby enemies.

PvP Grenades

The grenades for this build are your choice of either the Fusion grenades or the seasonal grenades, which in this case are the Firebolt grenades. The Fusion grenades are a great choice because they have a relatively low cooldown time, deal good damage, and apply a decent amount of scorch to targets. They also have the added bonus of sticking to targets.

PvP Melee

The melee of choice for this build is Celestial Fire. This melee shoots out a spiral of three explosive fire blasts that deal damage and scorch targets on impact. This melee works great for both close and mid-ranged engagements. It also has decent tracking.

PvP Glide

You can pick whichever glide feels the best to you. Our recommendation is the Burst Glide, which gives a strong initial burst of speed when gliding. This glide helps you get around the battlefield faster and gives you more speed while Daybreak is active. 

PvP Warlock Class Ability

The Healing Rift places a circle at your Guardian’s feet that heals everyone inside, Guardians at full health gain overshield while inside the rift. This is great because it can be dropped before a firefight to give your Guardian an advantage during a fight. 

Pv Super

The Super of choice for this build is Daybreak. This makes you fly in the air while also granting you improved mid-air control. During this Super, your weapons are replaced with a sword that shoots streaks of deadly flames at your opponents.

PvP Armor Mods

No build is complete without its armor mods. Armor mods are made available to Guardians that have reached Guardian Rank 6. Players should only equip armor mods to Legendary or Exotic gear. Both gear types can have their energy and stats increased by spending glimmer and materials. All armor mods cost at least one energy to equip.

PvP Helmet Mods

Our first mod of choice is the Ashes to Assets mod. This mod grants Super energy after every grenade kill. Next up is the Hands-On mod, which grants Super energy after every melee kill. Both of these mods increase the rate at which we obtain our game-changing Super Daybreak. If you have the spare energy, we recommend equipping the Harmonic Targeting mod as well. 

PvP Gauntlet Mods

Our gauntlet mods of choice are Solar Loader, Impact Induction, and Momentum Transfer. Solar Loader increases the reload speed of all solar weapons. Impact Induction and Momentum Transfer grant increased melee and grenade cooldowns respectively when causing damage with your powered melee attack or grenade ability.

PvP Chest Mods

Chest mods are very meta and player dependent. Our recommendations are Sniper Damage Resistance because getting one-shot from across the map is super lame, and Font of Endurance, which boosts your resistance stat as long as you have armor charge. 

PvP Leg Mods

We are rocking Kenitic Weapon Surge, Solar Weapon Surge, and Solar Holster as our leg mods of choice. The two surge mods increase the damage of your Kenitic and Solar weapons respectively, as long as you have at least one stack of armor charge. Solar Holster will gradually reload the weapons we aren’t using over time, which is great for combat efficiency. 

PvP Class Item Mods

There are two big mods you can run for your class item: Font of Restoration or Time Dilation. Font of Restoration increases your Guardian’s recovery stat as long as you have armor charge. Time Dilation increases the amount of time it takes for your armor charge to decay. Feel free to run any other mods here if you have the extra energy.

Join the High Ground

That’s it for our recommendations on the best Warlock Solar 3.0 builds in Destiny 2 — thanks for reading! Looking for more build guides to help your Guardian dominate? Sign up for our newsletter today in order to stay up-to-date with all the latest Destiny 2 builds, guides, and strategies.

Happy gaming!