Destiny 2 Warlock Builds: Strand Necrotic Grips and Solar Starfire Protocol Loadouts

While Destiny 2: Lightfall has had time to settle, Guardians have been out there doing their best to figure out which Warlock build excels in the sandbox. Don’t worry, we’ve got suggestions for the best loadouts and a Strand build to get you slaying out in the universe.

Introduction

Buildcrafting has seen a total upgrade in Destiny’s most recent expansion, Lightfall, and there are plenty of rebalances to mods and systems for you to get your head around. While it’s much friendlier now, it’s still a lot to learn (or relearn). It’s understandable if you’re feeling a little lost with what is currently doing best in Destiny 2 right now.

The Strength of Warlocks in the Current Meta

If you’re a Warlock, we’ve got a couple of build recommendations for you to check out in the game. While Warlocks have felt a little weaker over the last year, in Lightfall, the class is arguably the strongest.

If you want to harness that power, here are our favorite Destiny 2 Warlock builds, including one for Strand, as you’ll undoubtedly want to play with the new subclass.

Strand Necrotic Grips Build

Strand has entered Destiny 2 very strongly. Like Hunter and Titan classes, Warlocks have a very strong Strand build that is excellent at dealing with most combat situations (although it will struggle in pure boss damage per second). You’ll want to use what’s new and exciting, and luckily this Strand build is one of the strongest in the game currently.

Unfortunately, while Threadlings are the major focus for many of the Warlock’s abilities with Strand, including a new Exotic to make them better, they are inconsistent, and unpredictable, and you have to play around them in different ways.

Instead, this new build is all about suspending, unraveling, and poisoning enemies, giving you complete control of any room.

Here’s how to make the Warlock Necrotic Grips Strand build in Destiny 2, from the Aspects and Fragments to the armor mods and weapons to use.

Warlock Strand abilities, Aspects, and Fragments

• Class ability: Healing Rift
• Jump: Player choice (but I’m a big Strafe advocate)
• Melee: Arcane Needle
• Grenade: Shackle Grenade

Aspects

1. Weaver’s Call: Your Grapple, Shackle Grenade, and Threadling Grenade have enhanced functionality. Your grapple melee spawns three Threadling eggs. Consume your Shackle Grenade and activate Weaver’s Trance. Final blows, while Weaver’s Trance is active, create a suspending detonation. Consume your Threadling Grenade and immediately generate five perched Threadlings.
2. Mindspun Invocation: Cast your Rift to weave three Threadlings and deploy any Threadlings you have perched.

Fragments

1. Thread of Mind: Defeating suspended targets grants class ability energy.
2. Thread of Warding: Dealing damage generates grenade energy. (-10 Discipline)
3. Thread of Generation: Dealing damage generates grenade energy. (-10 Discipline)
4. Thread of Continuity: Suspend, unravel, and sever effects applied to targets have increased duration. (+10 Strength)

Warlock Strand Weapons and Exotic

Osteo Striga has always been good, but it might be the best primary in the game now.

• Primary: Osteo Striga
• Secondary: Your choice. We recommend a Void weapon though, so you can make use of the Volatile Flow artifact mod.
• Heavy: Your choice. Adapt to what you need for the situation, but again, if it is Void, it can make use of the Volatile Flow artifact mod.

Warlock Strand Armor Mods

The mods make this build go wild and one of the strongest in the game.

Helmet

• Stat mod of choice: Up to 4 cost
• Kinetic Syphon: 2 cost
• Kinetic Syphon: 2 cost
• Radiant Light: 1 cost

Note: You may want to trade one of the Kinetic Spyphons for a Heavy Ammo Finder for content where you need more heavy ammo.

Necrotic Grips

• State mod of choice: Up to 4 cost
• Focusing Strike: 2 cost
• Font of Vigor: 3 cost
• Impact Induction: 1 cost

Chest

• Stat mod of choice: Up to 4 cost
• Font of Endurance: 3 cost
• Charged Up: 3 cost

Legs

• Stat mod of choice: Up to 4 cost
• Kinetic Weapon Surge: 3 cost
• Kinetic Weapon Surge: 3 cost

Note: If you can get away with not using a stat mod here, you may find more value in swapping it out for Stacks on Stacks, which will make many of your other armor mods more consistent.

Class Item

• Stat mod of choice: Up to 4 cost
• Time Dilation: 3 cost
• Reaper: 3 cost

Warlock Strand Stat Priority

Strand is excellent out there, though expect some tough stat penalties. Resilience, despite getting nerfed in Lightfall still remains a very important stat. Your Woven Armor will help here too, but still — being tough to kill will serve you great. After that, Recovery is always important for Warlocks. It will help you get your Rift back quicker — which will make you even more survivable, as well as top your health up quicker. On top of that, Discipline is also important as you will want to eat your grenades on cooldown to activate Weaver’s Trance, which will string up enemies.

Warlock Strand Build: How to Use

There is a fairly simple rotation here, and once you’ve got it going, it will chew through enemies largely without your input. In order to maximize this, the rotation looks like this:

1. Press and hold your grenade to consume it.
2. You will then use Weaver’s Trance for a whopping 25 seconds.
3. Use your Melee on a low-level enemy to start Unravelling, which spreads on kills.
4. Shoot your Osteo Striga to spread the poison.

That’s it. As things die, everything will start to cascade. The Poison from your Necrotic Grips, the Unravelling from your Melee, and the Weaver’s Trance will deal immense damage to surrounding enemies and string them up aggressively. Just keep all of these abilities procced, and you will bring rooms of enemies crashing down.

Warlock Solar Starfire Protocol Build

New fragments make the already great Starfire build even better in Destiny 2 Lightfall. The Starfire Protocol Solar build has dominated the Warlock class for a while now in Destiny 2. So much so it became quite oppressive, muscling out many other builds due to its absurd power. For those hoping the build would get a nerf so they might consider something else, bad news — it got stronger.

FAQs

1. What are the recommended abilities for the Warlock Necrotic Grips Strand build?

• Class ability: Healing Rift
• Jump: Player choice (but I’m a big Strafe advocate)
• Melee: Arcane Needle
• Grenade: Shackle Grenade

2. What are the recommended aspects for the Warlock Necrotic Grips Strand build?

• Weaver’s Call: Your Grapple, Shackle Grenade, and Threadling Grenade have enhanced functionality. Your grapple melee spawns three Threadling eggs. Consume your Shackle Grenade and activate Weaver’s Trance. Final blows while Weaver’s Trance is active create a suspending detonation. Consume your Threadling Grenade and immediately generate five perched Threadlings.
• Mindspun Invocation: Cast your Rift to weave three Threadlings and deploy any Threadlings you have perched.

3. Which armor mods should I use for the Warlock Strand build?

• Helmet: Stat mod of choice (up to 4 cost), Kinetic Syphon (2 cost), Kinetic Syphon (2 cost), Radiant Light (1 cost)
• Necrotic Grips: Stat mod of choice (up to 4 cost), Focusing Strike (2 cost), Font of Vigor (3 cost), Impact Induction (1 cost)
• Chest: Stat mod of choice (up to 4 cost), Font of Endurance (3 cost), Charged Up (3 cost)
• Legs: Stat mod of choice (up to 4 cost), Kinetic Weapon Surge (3 cost), Kinetic Weapon Surge (3 cost)
• Class Item: Stat mod of choice (up to 4 cost), Time Dilation (3 cost), Reaper (3 cost)

4. What is the rotation for the Warlock Necrotic Grips Strand build?

1. Press and hold your grenade to consume it.
2. Use Weaver’s Trance for 25 seconds.
3. Use your Melee on a low-level enemy to start Unravelling.
4. Shoot your Osteo Striga to spread the poison.

5. What are the recommended stats for the Warlock Strand build?

• Resilience: Important for survivability.
• Recovery: Helps get your Rift back quicker and tops up your health.
• Discipline: Important for activating Weaver’s Trance.