Destiny 2: The Best Buffs In PVE, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• Amplified buff enhances movement speed and weapon handling in Destiny 2, aiding in neutral gameplay strategies.
• Frost Armor adds stacking damage resistance in Stasis builds, providing healing and melee energy per stack.
• Invisibility disrupts enemy lines of sight, which is crucial for Void Hunter builds in PVE.

Destiny 2, like many MMO and RPG games, is all about buildcrafting. If a player wants to maximize their time with Destiny, they must learn to optimize every stat, weapon set-up, armor load-out, and subclass build. A huge part of these builds is the various buffs available from different sources, offering increased damage, speed, survivability, and more.

Each subclass has a host of unique ways to empower a player, and this list looks at the ten most popular buffs available in the game. While there is a mixture of neutral game boosts, super abilities, and straight damage-boosting powers, what they all have in common is their ability to push a Guardian that little bit further, maximizing their power potential.

10 Amplified

It’s All About Speed

• Source: Arc and Prismatic Subclasses

Amplified is the main Arc subclass keyword that directly applies to the player. It boosts movement speed, jump height, slide distance, and weapon handling speed. While not buffing damage or resistance like many other entries on this list, Amplified is a useful neutral game boost that can make long platforming areas feel a little less frustrating.

There are also a few exotic weapons and legendary weapon perks that benefit from the player being Amplified, so it can be an easy enough buff to build an entire loadout around, should a player wish to do so.

9 Frost Armor

Become An Icey Tank

• Source: Stasis Subclasses

Frost Armor is the newest of the buffs on this list, added with the Stasis rework in The Final Shape. This buff is a stacking system that slowly adds an increasing damage resistance with each stack, up to a maximum of 5 stacks, which gives a 22.5% damage resistance. The main way to add stacks of Frost Armor is to pick up stasis shards, which also offer a small amount of healing and melee energy on pick-up.

While this stacking damage reduction is nice, and offers several build opportunities for each class, it is hard to argue that it alone offers enough strength for endgame PvE. But as an addition to a potent stasis build, like an Osmiomancy Gloves Warlock, Frost Armor is a welcome buff.

8 Invisibility

Disappear From The Battlefield

• Source: Void and Prismatic Subclasses

Invisibility is unlike anything else on this list. It doesn’t boost stats, heal, increase weapon damage, or give damage reduction. Rather, it simply makes the player invisible, breaking the enemy’s lines of sight and making the player a much harder target to kill.

Many players have come to adore Invisibility in PvE, especially on a Hunter using Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk or Omnioculus, and many builds rely on going invisible to activate specific Exotic armor or weapon perks, making risky revives a little less scary.

7 Warlock Empowering Rift

Increased Damage On Demand

• Source: All Warlock Subclasses

The debate between Warlocks who use Healing Rift and those who use Empowering Rift is a fierce one. However, with all the available methods of healing currently in the game, Empowering Rift has a clear-cut place in high-end PvE activities.

Simply dropping the rift on the ground gives the whole team access to a 20% damage boost for all their weapons, which can be vital when fighting a boss or a room full of very healthy enemies. Add in the exotic helmet The Stag, or the Secant Filaments boots to further empower the rift with a damage resist, or give the caster Devour, and survivability becomes no problem.

6 Devour

Heal From The Deaths Of Enemies

• Source: Void and Prismatic Subclasses

Speaking of Devour, here it is. A void subclass ability, available on Prismatic as well, Devour allows the player to heal upon each kill, and provides some grenade energy, all while extending the duration of the buff. It is an incredibly strong ability, making each kill feel life-saving, and allows the use of a grenade without worrying about its cooldown.

The only major drawback to using Devour in higher-end PvE content is that it requires kills to activate, meaning that if the player is unable to kill an enemy before the buff runs out, it simply goes, leaving them in a tough spot.

5 Warlock Song Of Flame

A Roaming Damage Boost

• Source: Solar and Prismatic Warlock Subclasses

The newest Warlock super, Song of Flame offers a whole heap of benefits to both the caster and their nearby allies. As a roaming super, Song of Flame grants the wielder 90% damage resistance, as well as a dramatically reduced melee, grenade, and class ability cooldowns, and the ability to apply scorch with both solar and kinetic weapons.

Any nearby allies are also granted a 30% damage resistance, scorching rounds, and a 15% per second ability cooldown rate. It’s a lot, but as a super, this is to be expected. It’s a very powerful weapon in any Warlock’s arsenal, but doesn’t quite fit the bill as the best of their supers when looking purely at the buffs they provide.

4 Radiant

Quick And Easy Increased Damage

• Source: Solar and Prismatic Subclasses

Radiant is a very strong buff available to all three classes, provided they are using either Solar or Prismatic subclasses. Through several means, the player can become radiant, which gives a 25% damage increase, as well as allowing all weapons to pierce the shields of Barrier Champions.

There are very few players who would argue against the use of Radiant in all aspects of PvE, as it is an all-around powerhouse when used in damage rotations, and makes dealing with champions a lot easier. Any solar or prismatic build will benefit from the inclusion of this buff and requires very little input to utilize it.

3 Warlock Well Of Radiance

The Original Form Of Radiant

• Source: Solar Warlock Subclass

Well of Radiance has gone through several changes since it was first released back in Forsaken, and is arguably a shell of its former self. Despite this, it is still one of the most powerful endgame PvE supers in the game and provides some of the best buffs to both the user and their team.

Not only does everyone in the well automatically get a 25% damage boost, but the well also provides a 20% damage resistance, immunity to stasis effects, 50 health-per-second healing, and the same shield piercing rounds given by regular radiant. On top of this, upon leaving the well, a player will have radiant for 8 seconds. It is also very easy to get wells back to back with the simplest of builds, making it an easy first choice for many Warlock players.

2 Blessing Of The Sky

For Players Who Really Want To Be A Support

• Source: Boots of the Assembler and Lumina Exotics

This is a hugely under-appreciated buff by a majority of players, only truly utilized by speedrunners and those attempting the hardest of challenges Destiny has to offer. Both the exotic hand cannon Lumina and the exotic Warlock boots, Boots of the Assembler, are able to provide the Blessing of the Sky buff to both the user and allies.

This buff restores 90 health as well as providing a 35% weapon damage increase, for simply tagging an ally with this weapon, or dropping a rift with the boots equipped. Purely based on the numbers, this is the second-highest damage-increasing buff in the game and is incredibly easy to use, only requiring one player on a team to run either of these exotics.

1 Titan Sentinel Shield

The Best Buff, According To The Numbers

• Source: Void Titan Subclass

The final buff on this list is, once again, a super, in the form of the void Titan’s Sentinel Shield. By simply activating the super and holding the block button, all allies shooting through the shield get a 40% weapon damage buff, as well as being protected for the duration of the super.

There was a time when chaining these supers back-to-back was the only way to beat some of the hardest content in the game. While that may not be true anymore, this is still an incredibly powerful buff that is often overlooked in raid groups because of the fact it takes one player’s damage out of the equation.