The best Destiny 2 Warlock PvP build

While you can go into a mission in Destiny 2 with your favorite stuff and mostly be fine, having a proper build will take your performance from good to great. The right mods, armor, and weapons can make all the difference in the world, and this is no truer than in PvP, especially when playing Warlock.

As a Warlock, your options may seem a little confusing. Alas, we’re here to help. Here’s the best build to rock in Destiny 2 for PvP as a Warlock.

The best loadout for Warlocks in Destiny 2 PvP

Let’s kick things off with the simple stuff, weapons. For this, we’re going to run the following weapons:

• Primary: Khvostov 7G-0X Auto Rifle
• Secondary: Your choice of Shotgun
• Heavy: Your choice of Grenade Launcher

The Khvostov 7G-0X is an incredibly strong auto rifle in PvP right now. Its perk allowing it to ricochet can help a ton for 1v2s or 1v3s, while its stats all around make it well worth it. As for your Power and Energy weapon, we’re looking for your best shotgun and grenade launcher to help fill some niches that the Khvostov is less than great on. Your shotgun will be great for dealing with enemies who are far too close, while the grenade launcher can pick up some sweet multi-kills when you score the ammo for it.

The best subclass setup for Warlock PvP

Moving over to the subclass setup, we’re going to run Prismatic with the Song of Flame Super. This combo is incredibly strong in both PvP and PvE, with the latter letting you weave in weapon attacks between ability usage and having a ton of damage resistance. For the rest of the setup, we want the following:

• Abilities
  • Class Ability: Phoenix Dive
  • Jump: Personal preference
  • Melee: Penumbral Blast
  • Grenade: Healing Grenade
• Aspects
  • Hellion
  • Bleak Watcher
• Fragments
  • Facet of Blessing
  • Facet of Ruin
  • Facet of Purpose
  • Facet of Protection
  • Facet of Command
  • Facet of Dawn

Phoenix Dive with Hellion is an excellent combo, letting you use it either to engage or to get some health back behind cover before returning with a little Solar mortar. The same goes for a grenade and Bleak Watcher thanks to the invincible turret, but Healing Grenade can make for a good burst of HP in a pinch. As for the Fragments, the Fragments Blessing, Purpose, Protection, and Command all provide us with increased survivability in fights. Facet of Ruin improves Penumbral Blast and Phoenix Dive’s Solar mortar, which is insignificant but a nice touch. Finally, Facet of Dawn gives you and your allies Radiant, which can improve weapon damage. This won’t be a massive increase, but it’ll be enough for you to notice and for your teammates to appreciate.

The best armor setup for Warlock PvP

Our armor choices are mostly personal preference, though ideally with 100 Resilience along with other stats if you can help it. The main armor of note is the Ophidian Aspect exotic gauntlets, which improve weapon reload and ready speed. This makes it quite good for PvP, and can genuinely turn some engagements. For armor mods, we’re looking at the following:

• Helmet
  • Kinetic Targeting x2: Provides better handling for the Khvostov
• Gauntlets
  • Arc Dexterity: Improves special and/or heavy weapon ready and stow speed.
  • Kinetic Loader: Improves the Khvostov’s reload speed.
• Chest
  • Unflinching Kinetic Aim: Improves ADS stability for the Khvostov.
  • Unflinching Arc Aim: Improves ADS stability for special and/or heavy weapon.
• Leg
  • Recuperation: Gives HP on Orb of Power pickup.
  • Arc Holster: Reloads special and/or heavy weapon over time.
  • Better Already: Regenerates health on Orb of Power pickup.
• Warlock Bond
  • Reaper: Drops an Orb of Power when killing an enemy after using Phoenix Dive
  • Distribution: Reduces ability cooldowns when using Phoenix Dive near enemies.

Before we wrap up, there are a few things worth noting. For mods like Arc Holster, Unflinching Arc Aim, and Arc Dexterity, you’ll want to change these to whatever element you have on your shotgun or grenade launcher. If they’re Kinetic Weapons, you can simply add more Kinetic mods and improve all three weapons. Otherwise, be sure to add some stat mods with whatever mod capacity you have left. These should focus your Resilience and Recovery first, followed by Discipline if you have both at 100 already.