Best Destiny 2 Warlock Strand Build For PvE and PvP (Season 23)

The dust has settled a bit following the release of Lightfall, Destiny 2's latest expansion. Now that it's been out for some time, we can finally take a look at the revamped mod system and put together what we consider to be top-tier Meta builds. 

What makes a build good? It all depends on what you want to do. If you're a PVE fanatic, you might find more value in builds that are better for burst damage and survivability. PVP players might need faster recovery and snappier movement options. Things that don't necessarily hit hard, but certainly hit fast. Let's get down to brass tacks and take a look at the best PVE and PVP builds for Strand Warlocks in Destiny 2.

Best Strand Warlock PVE Build: Minion Madness 2.0

Season of the Witch has brought a brand new StrandAspect for each Class and we're going to use ours for this build. Weavewalk allows us to do some pretty fun stuff so we're going to take full advantage of it. While I know the Grapple can be a lot of fun, we're going to abandon it for this build. Instead, this build is all about creating Threadlings. A lot of Threadlings. Here, we're going to be consuming our grenades, casting our Rifts, and raining Minions down upon the enemies of the Traveler. Let's get into it. 

Required Gear

• Exotic Armor: Swarmers (Legs)

This exotic pair of boots makes it so that whenever you destroy a Tangle, you spawn a Threadling. All of your Threadlings also Unravel targets, which is going to make your enemies take more damage. 

Class Setup

• Super: Needlestorm
• Grenade: Threadling Grenade
• Class Ability: Healing Rift
• Melee: Arcane Needle
• Jump: Burst Glide

Aspects

• Weavewalk grants an airborne dodge ability that allows us to enter the weave, graining damage resistance from combatants and players. Reactivating the air dodge or casting Rift causes us to exit the weave. While in the weave, we generate perched Threadlings over time.
• Mindspun Invocation makes it so that you can consume your Threadling Grenade and generate 5 perched Threadlings. 

We're replacing Weaver's Call with Weavewalk due to the insane amount of damage reduction it offers and the fact that it will grant us more Threadlings than Weaver's Call. This is a win-win, minus the fact that we do lose a Fragment slot in exchange. 

Fragments

• Thread of Warding grants Woven Mail upon Orb pickup. 
• Thread of  Evolution makes Threadlings travel farther and deal additional damage.
• Thread of Generation generates grenade energy when dealing damage. 

Armor Mods

Outside of Stat Mods, you'll want to min/max for ability uptime to further lean into the grenade, melee, and rift spam that this build is all about. 

• Head Mods: I recommend Harmonic Syphon x2 and Heavy Ammo Finder for more orbs and heavy ammo
• Arm Mods: I recommend Grenade Kickstart x2 for more grenade energy
• Chest Mods: I recommend Charged Up and a damage reduction mod of your choice. We want more Armor Charges for more Damage output here since we're constantly attacking with Strand. 
• Leg Mods: I recommend Stacks on Stacks and Innervation x2 for additional stacks of Armor Charge and significantly more grenade energy on Orb pickup. 
• Bond Mods: I recommend  Reaper and Distribution for faster Class Ability regen. Grenades and Class Ability are what we need the most for this build and these will do the trick. 

Weapons

• Kinetic Slot: I recommend a StrandPrimary such as Rufus's Fury or Quicksilver Storm. While not required, we're leaning hard into Strand Damage types, so this is going to be an excellent option for quick DPS as far as primaries go. If you have a Strand special weapon that you feel that you can get more DPS out with, then roll with that, but Rufus's Fury is my go-to right now. 
• Energy Slot: The choice here is yours, but I do recommend a grenade launcher that can clear adds in case your Threadlings die down and you need to get some heat off of you. I personally am rocking a crafted Forbearance that I love, but you can get creative!
• Heavy Slot: Again, this is completely up to you. Right now, there aren't a ton of Strand options in the heavy slot, but either Koraxis's Distress or Circular Logic will do wonders here. I would lean more toward Circular Logic, but either is a good choice. 

Stat Distribution 

For these, you'll want to focus on 100 Resilience and at least 90 Recovery for both survivability, but also Rift uptime. Next would be a minimum of 70 Discipline, but anything higher is obviously better. The rest of the stats are completely up to you. Mobility isn't that important overall for Warlcok and I constantly run 20, 10, or even fewer stat points in Mobility. 

Conclusion

This build might not take you through a GM or Master Raid without sweating, but it's a ton of fun to get out of the comfort zone that Starfire Protocol provided for so long. This is an offensive class and doesn't offer a ton in the way of team support, so just keep that in mind. Now get out there and make some Minions! 

Best Strand Warlock PVP Build: Spider Monkey

This build is going to borrow a lot of what we had in the Minion Madness build, but this is going to lean more into the Grapple and Aping your opponents. We're going for a close and personal type of run-and-gun PVP experience, so grab your Transversive Steps and get sprinting, Guardian! 

Required Gear

• Exotic Armor: Transversive Steps (Legs)

Sprint. Shotgun. Rinse and repeat.  That's the name of the game here, and Transversive Steps make it so that you can close that gap faster than anyone else in the match!

Class Setup

• Super: Needlestorm
• Grenade: Grapple
• Class Ability: Healing Rift
• Melee: Arcane Needle
• Jump: Burst Glide

Aspects

• Weaver's Call
• Mindspun Invocation

Again, these are the only Warlock Strand Aspects in the game right now, so we're going to use them!

Fragments

Unlike in PVE, your PVP fragments likely won't have a great effect on your build. That said, I do have some recommendations that should help you get the edge over your opponents. 

• Thread of Isolation makes it so that your opponents emit a Severing burst when landing rapid precision shots.
• Thread of Ascent reloads your weapons and grants some airborne effectiveness after using your grenade (or in this case, your Grapple!)
• Thread of Evolution will make Threadlings travel farther and deal extra damage.
• Thread of Generation for more grenade energy while dealing damage.

Armor Mods

Outside of Stat Mods, you'll want to min/max for weapon steadiness and handling. These are all pretty straightforward and grant bonus weapon stats and ability recovery. 

• Head Mods: I recommend Kinetic OR Energy Targeting (and a siphon mod for fun!) 
• Arm Mods: I recommend Grenade Kickstart and Reloaders of your choice.
• Chest Mods: I recommend Unflinching mods of your choice.
• Leg Mods: I recommend Innervation x3 for grenade regeneration.
• Bond Mods: I recommend Bomber x3 again, for grenade regeneration. 

Weapons

• Kinetic Slot: I recommend something with some range like the No Time To Explain or a similar Pulse Rifle of your choice. Pulse Rifles continue to absolutely dominate in PVP and that won't be changing any time soon.
• Energy Slot: All Shotgun, all the time. I use a Mindbender's Ambition that I love. Auto-Loading Holster is going to make you very happy when you're sprinting and swinging over Special Ammo and you have to switch to a CQB weapon in a pinch.
• Heavy Slot: This is completely up tp you. Personally, Rockets are always a go-to in PVP due to their wide blast radius, making it tough to miss an opponent. 

Stat Distribution 

For these, you'll want to focus on high Resilience and Recovery for both survivability, but also Rift uptime. Next would be Discipline for maintaining Grapple refresh time.  

Conclusion

This build isn't wildly different from your PVE build that I put together in this guide as well, but that's because creating Threadlings is a ton of fun. Coupling that with Grapple and Grapple Melees and you have some silly Shotgun Aping on your hands. I wouldn't run this in Trials, but the next time Iron Banner swings around, you can too! 

These are the best Strand Warlock builds for PVE and PVP right now. Make sure you save them in your new Loadout slots before you start moving on to your next build!