Destiny 2: The 3 Best Warlock PvE Builds for Episode: Heresy

Bungie / Brett Moss

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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 Benjamin Barr

This season has a really fun meta thanks to some Artifact mods that are actually fun to use, new Arc aspects, and some fun Exotic options. For Warlocks, most of the best builds center around Arc and Prismatic subclasses, but Solar is also great in certain activities. In this article, I’ll cover three of the best Warlock PVE builds for Episode: Heresy, including aspects, fragments, and everything else you need to know!

Note: For all of these builds, certain things like melee, grenade, and fragment choice are ultimately up to you. If any of them are required for any build to work, though, I’ll let you know. I’ll give recommendations for melee and grenade, and I’ll list off the best fragments with the best synergy as well, but feel free to change them where needed. I’ll also give a couple recommendations for Artifact mods to use with each build, but I’m only going to mention ones that directly synergize with the build, and the rest is up to your preferences.

Best Warlock Heresy Arc Build – Ionic Traces

Arc build for Warlock — *Bungie / Brett Moss*

Super: Chaos Reach
Melee: Chain Lightning (preference)
Grenade: Pulse Grenade (preference)
Aspects: Ionic Sentry and Electrostatic Mind
Best Fragments: Beacons, Discharge, Ions
Exotic Armor: Geomag Stabilizers
Best Artifact Mods: Overclock and Load, Dielectric, Flashover, Defibrillating Blast

With the recent buffs to Ionic Traces, they’ve never been more powerful. This is, in my opinion, the best build for most PVE activities right now, with the exception of the harder ones where you might need more survivability. The new Ionic Sentry aspect is great for both blinding enemies and taking out ads, which pairs perfectly with creating a ton of Ionic Traces. Geomag Stabilizers is a requirement on this build because of how strong it makes Chaos Reach. With Geomags, your Chaos Reach is significantly improved and becomes one of the best super abilities in the entire game. This whole build basically centers around casting your super, then creating a ton of Ionic Traces and being able to cast it again. The Traces give so much super energy that I’d be surprised if they don’t get nerfed sooner than later, but for now I highly recommend taking advantage of them.

For your Exotic weapon, my favorite right now is Delicate Tomb. It’s an Arc-energy Fusion Rifle that generates bonus Ionic Traces, with guaranteed ones whenever you kill a powerful enemy. It’s the most consistent way to generate them and makes this build even better. You could also use any other strong Arc Exotic, but that’s my pick for this season. I feel like Thunderlord also works well on this build, though, and so does Coldheart.

Best Warlock Heresy Prismatic Build – Devoid

Prismatic build for Warlock — *Bungie / Brett Moss*

Super: Nova Bomb
Melee: Penumbral Blast
Grenade: Storm Grenade (required for Getaway Artist)
Aspects: Feed the Void and Bleak Watcher
Best Fragments: Sacrifice, Awakening, Hope
Exotic Armor: Getaway Artist
Best Artifact Mods: Volatile Marksman, Hold the Line, Maligned Harvest, Particle Reconstruction, Heavy Ordnance Regeneration

Devoid is one of the strongest buffs right now since it gives back health upon getting a kill, and this build makes it easier than ever. The featured Exotic here is Getaway Artist, which allows you to consume your Arc grenade to spawn an empowered Arc Soul which attacks nearby enemies for you. Plus, with the Bleak Watcher aspect, consuming your grenade to spawn the Arc Soul will also spawn a Stasis Turret, so it doubles the amount of passive damage you can do. Kills with either the Arc Soul or Stasis Turret will then trigger Devoid, allowing you to heal for all of the kills either one gets (or any other kills), while also extending Devoid’s duration. This build allows you to survive easily, does a ton of damage on top of your weapon damage, and clears rooms with ease. It’s the most synergistic build right now, and it’s extremely good in any kind of activity regardless of difficulty.

For your Exotic weapon, you can use just about any with this build. I personally think that legendary Void Machine Guns are the best heavy for this build thanks to the Volatile Marksman mod in the Artifact, so you can use an Exotic Kinetic or Energy weapon. Using a Fusion Rifle in the Energy slot works really well with the Particle Reconstruction mod in the Artifact, and the best of those are mostly legendaries (or an Exotic like Telesto). For the primary slot Exotics, I like Outbreak Perfected, Malfeasance, Revision Zero, and several others. This build is extremely flexible, so go about it as you wish.

Best Warlock Heresy Solar Build – Well of Radiance

Solar build for Warlock — *Bungie / Brett Moss*

Super: Well of Radiance
Melee: Incinerator Snap (preferred)
Grenade: Healing Grenade (required for Speaker’s Sight)
Aspects: Touch of Flame and Icarus Dash (Icarus Dash is replaceable)
Best Fragments: Solace, Torches, Char (Char is really only if you need the Discipline boost)
Exotic Armor: Speaker’s Sight
Best Artifact Mods: Volatile Marksman, Hold the Line, Dreadful Finisher, Particle Reconstruction and/or Heavy Ordnance Regeneration

Then here at the end, we have a classic Warlock build. Well of Radiance is always useful in some activity, even though they’ve nerfed it several times. This build excels at supporting your team, and will be at its best in Raids, Dungeons, or other activities where you’ll want to stand in a Well to survive or do optimal boss DPS without running around or dealing with ads. Outside of Well itself, the Speaker’s Sight helmet gives you even more ways to support your team. With Speaker’s Sight, your Healing Grenades turn into turrets that continuously heal your allies and grant them Restoration. This is obviously great, but also pairs with fragments that support Restoration even further. With this build, you’ll have no problem staying alive and taking out bosses (mostly) unbothered.

Exotic weapons for this build depend entirely on what activity you’re doing. Since it excels in boss phases, I like The Queenbreaker, Thunderlord, and Grand Overture a lot. They all pair well with the Artifact mods this season which prioritize Fusions and Machine Guns, and Well makes it extremely easy to generate Orbs to fuel your weapon buffs as well. You’ll also want good ad-clear weapons in general, but that’s really easy to come across this season. I also like Support Frame ARs with this build since they fit the theme. Just make sure and try to have a Void weapon to work with the Volatile Marksman Artifact mod and/or a Fusion for Particle Reconstruction.

Destiny 2: The 3 Best Warlock PvE Builds for Episode: Heresy

Three new must-try builds for Warlocks in Heresy.

Best Warlock Heresy Arc Build – Ionic Traces

Best Warlock Heresy Prismatic Build – Devoid

Best Warlock Heresy Solar Build – Well of Radiance

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Destiny 2: The 3 Best Warlock PvE Builds for Episode: Heresy

Three new must-try builds for Warlocks in Heresy.

Best Warlock Heresy Arc Build – Ionic Traces

Best Warlock Heresy Prismatic Build – Devoid

Best Warlock Heresy Solar Build – Well of Radiance

Destiny 2 Navigation

Visit the HGG Shop, Traveler?

Join the Discussion

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Destiny 2 – New and Best Weapons in Episode: Heresy

Destiny 2: Sundered Doctrine Dungeon Loot Table and Guide

Destiny 2: How to Get Slayer’s Fang

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