All Destiny 2 Builds (+Some Build Crafting Tips)

Build Guides by Class

Use these tables to quickly jump to the build that interests you as you seek to optimize your Guardian’s potential — or simply to try out a new playstyle.

New Prismatic Builds (Work In Progress)

• Best Prismatic Titan PvE Builds
• Best Prismatic Warlock PvE Builds

TITAN BUILDS

HUNTER BUILDS

WARLOCK BUILDS

7 Tips to Help You Master Build Crafting

Build crafting is at the heart of endgame Destiny 2 content. 

The right combination of stats, mods, weapons, fragments, and aspects makes all the difference. 

And there are SO many articles, videos, and guides out there about game-breaking builds that you HAVE to try. I’ve even written a few (years ago…).

But there’s more to build crafting than copying recommendations.

To help you get the most out of creating builds in Destiny 2, here’s my approach to creating functional, fun, and diverse builds.

1. Bank High Stat Armor

Builds typically revolve around ability uptime—i.e., how quickly your class, grenade, and melee regenerate. While Mods provide boosts to this through picking up orbs of light, getting kills, etc., your base armor stats are where it all starts. 

Ideally, your armor stats add up to 3 stat lines that hit close to 100. This will open up more opportunities for your abilities to work together and improve uptime. At a minimum, it will give you higher resilience and recovery along with a high core build stat.

Speaking from experience, the worst thing is when you’re trying to create a build and don’t have armor with the right stat combinations. 

So, keep grinding for high-stat armor. 

Pop on a Ghost mod (I recommend focusing on Discipline) and stack up vendor engrams. Look for armor with two spikes of 20+ to start and then Masterwork. 

You can also grind the weekly rotator Dungeon on Master difficulty to get what’s called Artifice Armor. These include an additional mod slot where you can add +3 to any stat.

Unfortunately, it’s all RNG and a real slog. If you’re just starting, go for the easier options to grind out basic armor with decent stats. Then think about going after some Artifice Armor.

2. Pay Attention to Updates and the Current Meta 

Remember when Heart of Inmost Light was the only Exotic armor worth running as a Titan? 

I sure do. Then they nerfed class ability regen and the length of time you could hold stacks. It was still usable, but it wasn’t the easy go-to Exotic to build around anymore.

The point is that you need to pay attention to the sandbox, Exotic, and weapon updates announced in the TWID (This Week in Destiny). Remember that larger changes often occur before new expansions and, to a lesser extent, new seasons.

On a similar note, there are times when game-breaking changes occur. Like when you could combine weapon perks from different guns and make an Aggressive Frame Grenade Launcher, among other monstrosities.

Things like this happen constantly, and they’re worth taking advantage of. Don’t bank your build on it lasting; be sure you have a backup to revert to.

3. Keep Your Playstyle in Mind

One of the most backward things about build crafting is when players chase a current meta that is the opposite of how they play. 

Yes, you should experiment. 

But if you’re the type who often keeps your distance and suddenly thinks you’ll be great with a close-range Shotgun Melee combo, you’ll be in for a rude awakening. 

Stick to how you like to play and create a build around it. For a leg up, take the time to craft the weapons to ensure you can customize stats and perks. You may miss some benefits, but it won’t disrupt your core strengths or make you play with something you don’t typically enjoy.

4. Review Exotic Enhancements

Aside from base stats, you’ll likely choose an Exotic armor piece to build around. It’s not a requirement, but you should use an Exotic anytime it amplifies the purpose of your build.

For example, if you’re creating a healing-oriented support build as a Titan, the Precious Scars supports this thanks to the Kintsugi armor perk. To make it work, you need to run weapon damage to match your subclass and must invest in resilience to ensure you can revive teammates with a lesser risk of dying.

Pay attention to these perks and check that the rest of your build actually causes it to prop. Otherwise, you’ll run an Exotic and never get the real benefits.

5. Coordinate With Your Fireteam

An often overlooked aspect of build crafting is synergy with other players. To be fair, it often doesn’t matter unless you’re playing Nightfalls, competitive PvP, and Raids.

To keep this simple, chat with your Fireteam and decide on roles. Determine who will focus on DPS, ability enhancement, healing, splash damage, etc. What each person does will fully depend on the activity.

Then chat through your current builds and look for opportunities where benefits overlap. Maybe everyone needs orb generation, or running Void will take advantage of a specific enemy debuff. 

There are literally hundreds of possible benefits, but the point is to connect, choose specific roles, review builds, and make adjustments to complement one another. 

6. Try Build Recommendations

While I wouldn’t just copy build recommendations, it’s worth finding creators you like and trying their builds. These folks often spend far more time developing and testing combinations than you’ll ever get to.

So, take their recommendations and adjust them to fit your needs. A few I recommend checking out are Plunderthabooty and Divide. Sure, they’re a bit click batey but they’re also thorough and very good at explaining why they use certain builds.

7. Test, Test, Test

You typically won’t get a build just right on your first try. You need to take the time to test, review, and adjust your setup.

Maybe a mod or fragment needs to be switched out, or your weapon selection doesn’t pop specific buffs like you expected. 

Pick an activity with a ton of ads and go to town (unless it’s a PVP build, then you know, have fun working that out). Pay attention to ability uptime, how often buffs appear, and your damage output to determine if your build is working as expected.

As you get closer, hop into the activity you built it for and try it again.