My Favorite Destiny 2 Warlock Builds That Don’t Use Getaway Artist

Key Takeaways

• Getaway Artist is a top pick for a Warlock Prismatic build – easy to use, great for clearing adds, but can get boring.
• If Getaway Artist isn’t your style, try the Ice and Fire Explosions Warlock build for more control and intense gameplay.
• Looking for a different playstyle? Consider the Combat Medic Solar Warlock or Jack of All Trades Void Warlock builds for unique experiences.

Ever since Destiny 2‘s The Final Shape came out, a lot of players flocked to Prismatic builds for their favorite class, and for Warlocks, one big winner emerged – Getaway Artist. I, too, have been using Getaway Artist as my go-to easy Prismatic build because it’s pretty amazing. Getaway Artist is great for clearing adds, it has incredible survivability, it’s super easy to use for all levels of play, it’s quite reliable for all kinds of content, and…it can be pretty boring, not gonna lie. Or, at least, it was and still is for me. To be honest, one of my main beige flags is that I’m always rooting for the underdog, and in video games, that translates into me forgoing the comfort of the beaten path. Meta Destiny 2 builds? Cool, but not my jam (unless it’s Raid DPS time).

Destiny 2‘s Prismatic subclasses are not too different for me, to the point that I started using Getaway Artist immediately, gave it an Artifact armor slot, and then forgot about it relatively fast. And I don’t even have a lot of Exotic Cyphers. The thing is, Getaway Artist plus Bleak Watcher can be fun and it can be very strong, but it’s a bit passive – especially when combining it with Outbreak Perfected. I like interactive builds more because they’re harder to master, and I also like giving underrated combinations their time in the limelight.

If not Destiny 2‘s Getaway Artist powerhouse build, then what should you use? The truth is, you should probably play what you enjoy, but if you want ideas, I’ve got some. And before we get going, the first will suggest Exotic class items. I know, I know. Trust me, after 56 duplicates and 40 unique combinations, I still don’t have Spirit of the Assassin and Spirit of Synthoceps or Spirit of Inmost Light and Spirit of Synthoceps on my Titan, and those were the only rolls I wanted. Big sad. But I do have options for you regardless of Exotic class items, and even then, you don’t need specific god rolls.

Ice and Fire Explosions Prismatic Warlock Build Explained

The first Destiny 2 Warlock build is my creation. My baby. It came to me in a time of need (not really, but let’s pretend so for dramatic effect), and it’s all about Stasis and Solar damage – more specifically, shatter explosions and ignition explosions. This is not hard to achieve on Prismatic, luckily. The gist is to have more control over which targets you freeze and incredible uptime on Coldsnap Grenade, so you can freeze more often and increase your overall survivability in add-dense encounters by making sure enemies are very dead. Losing Amplified and Galvanic Armor from Getaway Artist is not amazing, but having a ton of explosions between shatter and ignitions is not only oddly satisfying, but also quite potent in terms of actual gameplay usage.

For this build, you need:

• Prismatic subclass on Warlock with additional abilities unlocked
• An Exotic of choice between Osmiomancy Gloves and an Exotic class item (Solipsism) with Spirit of Osmiomancy, and possibly Spirit of the Claw or Spirit of Harmony

This build will not function the same with Spirit of Inmost Light on Solipsism, and Spirit of Osmiomancy or Osmiomancy Gloves are “required” for Coldsnap to feel good.

Ice and Fire Explosions Warlock Build – Abilities, Aspects, Facets, and Setup Explained

• Phoenix Dive (Healing Rift in harder content like Destiny 2‘s GM Nightfalls or Master Dungeons and Raids because if you’re like me you hate dying left and right)
• Incinerator Snap
• Coldsnap Grenade
• Feed the Void
• Hellion
• Song of Flame
• Facet of Command (this is a big one, I promise)
• Facet of Courage
• Facet of Balance
• Facet of Ruin
• Facet of Protection

Phoenix Dive is here for the short cooldown, making Hellion more frequent in terms of uptime. I don’t have a lot of friends, so having a buddy on my shoulder as I play is cute. Yes, even if it’s the souls of Cabal soldiers reduced to ash and flames. Incinerator Snap is the bread and butter of the build alongside Coldsnap Grenade, as the former scorches and ignites and the latter freezes and shatters. The Final Shape’s Song of Flame is simply the best Super for this setup because of its length, synergy with ignitions, and amazing 90% damage reduction while active.

Also, having Spirit of the Claw on Solipsism gives you two Incinerator Snap charges in Song of Flame as well. As for Coldsnap Grenade, Osmiomancy Gloves give us two grenade charges and improve the freezing cascade’s tracking, as well as regenerate grenade energy on hit. Spirit of Osmiomancy does the same, minus a second Coldsnap charge. Spirit of Inmost Light is also a good option in place of Spirit of Osmiomancy, but it changes the pace of the build a little, which I’m not too comfortable with. Plus, it’s cool to hit enemies on the head with a Coldsnap Grenade before it detonates, it’s unfittingly funny.

While Bleak Watcher may seem like an obvious choice, Hellion is a much more aggressive option and allows you to deal significantly more damage to bosses. Furthermore, Bleak Watcher’s freezing rate is much slower than regular Coldsnap Grenades, hence why it’s less desirable.

It’s worth noting that both Osmiomancy Gloves and Spirit of Osmiomancy on Exotic class items give Coldsnap Grenades another overlooked buff, which is to regenerate grenade energy if the grenade lands on an enemy before proccing its freezing cascade effect. This means that aiming at the floor will provide no noticeable extra bonuses, but aiming at enemies will replenish grenade energy on a single throw, provided that a few enemies are around. Also, shatter kills count as ability kills, meaning that using a weapon to shatter enemies will still proc Devour if the shattering explosions get at least one kill.

Additionally, Hellion helps with Devour as well, and one might argue that Feed the Void is not even mandatory as an Aspect due to how much grenade energy this build regenerates on its own. However, I have to disagree because Devour on Prismatic is not exactly like Void Devour. I mean, it is, but also not. But also yes. On Prismatic subclasses, Devour is the pre-nerf version of the original Feed the Void Aspect, meaning it’s a full 200-HP heal for each kill, rather than a 100-HP one. This is hard to pass up combined with incredible grenade energy recharge on kills. Speaking of shatter damage, in my experience, it’s best not to use Incinerator Snap on targets frozen by Coldsnap Grenades unless they are big, beefy enemies like Champions, as they may die to the shatter and thus not proc ignitions. Instead, you can alternate between the two for a smoother loop, especially since melee energy is not as easily available.

Lots of weapons can work with this build, but anything with Incandescent is perfect due to how strong ignitions are in Destiny 2‘s Echoes Episode with Solar Fulmination from the artifact. Aberrant Action with either Heal Clip or Pugilist and Incandescent is amazing here (though it’s super meta and it kind of defeats the purpose of off-meta builds, sorry). The same goes for good Solar Snipers, like Ikelos_SR_V1.0.3 (mostly because it’s a rapid-fire frame). Weapons with Headstone also work, and since we need a good Primary anyway, it’s worth using one of those. My most recommended weapon is the Dragon’s Breath Exotic rocket launcher, as it builds into those sweet, sweet ignitions for massive AoE damage, and it can really carry you in solo Dungeons and GMs. Plus the Ornament makes it purple. Purple is cool.

Another cool interaction I want to point out is that Prismatic’s Facet of Command is not in the build to reload weapons. It helps, but not that much. What we really use it for is the part about Stasis Shards, as generating them when killing frozen targets has no cooldown, meaning a shatter explosion can create a cascade of Shards for us to pick up. Why? Well, because each Stasis Shard grants us melee energy, further feeding into the build’s loop. Ability spam is fun to me, so I’m trying to convince you here, ok?

The main problem with this build is that it’s amazing solo, but it falls short when other players use ignitions. Only the strongest instance of scorch damage will be applied onto enemies, so stacking Solar ignitions doesn’t really work in Fireteams.

As for armor mods, I use the following:

• Helmet: Harmonic Siphon (for Solar weapons), Special Ammo Finder, Heavy Ammo Finder (though you can swap one of the Finders for Hands-On)
• Gloves: Momentum Transfer (three copies, which means hitting targets with Coldsnap Grenades grants us 20% melee energy on a 7-second cooldown)
• Chest: Resists based on the activity, usually a mix of Solar, Void, and Arc for general play
• Legs: Invigoration (for more melee energy), Solar Scavenger, Solar Weapon Surge (more overall damage and ammo for Solar guns)
• Class Item: Outreach (again, MOAR melee energy), Time Dilation, Powerful Attraction

The seasonal artifact for Echoes has a few must-have perks, including:

• Elemental Siphon (kills with Solar weapons will generate Firesprites, which give us grenade energy)
• Incendiary Rifle Rounds (this is only to be used if you like Solar sniper rifles and have good ones; I personally don’t love them, but the August 6 patch reduced flinch in PvE, which could make me like them more)
• Radiant Orbs (more consistent Radiant with Orb pickups)
• Solar Fulmination (more ignition damage and AoE)
• Shieldcrash (increased grenade recharge and damage while Radiant; it would be nice to have melee buffs as well, but we can’t gain Woven Mail, Frost Armor, or Void Overshields here. Sad.)

Combat Medic Solar Warlock Build Explained

For the second build, let’s start with a question: have you ever wanted the raw power of Solar Warlock Sunbracers builds with the survivability of Void Titan’s Overshields and healing? If the answer is yes, then you’re in for a treat. This build lets you live the power fantasy of the combat medic, essentially. The setup is amazing in endgame content or harder content in general, ranging from GM Nightfalls to Expert runs of Onslaught to farm Brave weapons – and it can do well even solo. I know that because, again, I don’t have a lot of friends. But I’m rambling.

For this build, you need:

Solar Combat Medic Warlock – Abilities, Aspects, Fragments, and Setup Explained

• Phoenix Dive
• Incinerator Snap
• Healing Grenade
• Song of Flame
• Heat Rises
• Hellion

Before discussing Fragments, it’s important to talk Aspects and abilities. Healing Grenade is a given because we want to heal, obviously, but there’s a lot more to it when used with Heat Rises. Normally, one’s first instinct could be to use Touch of Flame for extra Restoration, but Heat Rises provides way more benefits here. For example, Heat Rises has a great combo with Song of Flame, as the Super provides incredible grenade energy regen, so you can consume those damage grenades to summon an army of healing turrets. More friends, yay! On top of that, Heat Rises is a great Solar 3.0 Aspect to pick because it gives us melee energy when we kill enemies while in the air, essentially allowing us to spam Incinerator Snap.

The Final Shape’s Hellion Aspect is a big boost here because while Touch of Flame would be great, once again, we can use something else in this slot to help with the power fantasy of the combat medic. Hellion has a 20s uptime, and since we want to spam Phoenix Dive anyway (which, by the way, grants us Restoration x2 for 3 seconds on top of the Cure x2 to allies, meaning we can keep it going for more with Ember of Solace or Ember of Empyrean), it becomes a huge asset. Also another friend, like the previous build. Don’t judge me.

As for the Fragments, you need these for fireteams:

• Ember of Solace
• Ember of Empyrean
• Ember of Benevolence (which is a huge 500% increase in ability energy gains in groups)
• Ember of Torches or Ember of Ashes, based on preference

For solo play, instead, I recommend:

• Ember of Solace
• Ember of Ashes
• Ember of Searing or Ember of Singeing
• Ember of Empyrean or Ember of Char

I like to use this build with the Until Its Return Strand shotgun paired with Overflow and Trench Barrel. While using Song of Flame, you can use your melee, pop three shots of Until Its Return, and use the melee again – all while having Radiant at all times thanks to the Super itself, making up for a ton of damage if up close with a big enemy. Ergo Sum with The Perfect Fifth and either a caster frame or vortex frame can also be an exceptional weapon for this build, though it means having no Solar add-clearing weapon, so I’d recommend using it on bosses for Dungeons or Raids, for example. Otherwise, Dragon’s Breath all the way. But I do love Ergo Sum, and I’m one of its biggest stans.

Legend of Acrius is also a good alternative for boss damage, though Until Its Return is a Special Legendary weapon, and you can use Dragon’s Breath as your Exotic this way.

As for armor mods, I use these:

• Helmet: Weapon Siphon mods and either Heavy Ammo Finder or Hands-On
• Gloves: Impact Induction, Heavy Handed, Focusing Strike
• Chest: Resist mods based on the activity
• Legs: Solar Surge, Solar Scavenger, and one mod of your choice between Recuperation, Absolution, Innervation, Insulation, and Invigoration (I realize five mods to choose from is a lot, but bear with me)
• Class Item: Bomber, Reaper, Powerful Attraction

Jack of All Trades Void Warlock Build Explained

Last but not least, we have a Void Warlock build that is both very simple and very effective. I think I cooked a simple yet very good build for Act 3, which just came out. Echoes Act 3 includes new artifact mods, with a bunch of them focusing on auto rifles due to the new Choir of One Void Special ammo Exotic released with its dedicated Exotic mission. This is going to be the first auto rifle of its kind since all other guns with this archetype are Primary weapons exclusively, and while Choir of One already seems like an amazing fit for this build, it’s not necessary for it to function – especially since a lot of players won’t have it fully crafted on day one (possibly no one, if the mission has Destiny 2‘s timegated quests attached to the crafting process and Legend mission completions).

For this build, you need:

• Void subclass fully unlocked on Warlock
• Contraverse Hold Exotic gauntlets (though Warlock Exotics like Astrocyte Verse, Briarbinds, Nezarec’s Sin, and Nothing Manacles can work)

Jack of all Trades Void Warlock – Abilities, Aspects, Fragments, and Setup Explained

• Healing Rift
• Pocket Singularity (just because I have to choose a melee attack with no other options and I’m stuck with this one, smh)
• Vortex Grenade
• Nova Bomb
• Feed the Void
• Chaos Accelerant
• Echo of Undermining
• Echo of Remnants
• Echo of Instability
• Echo of Expulsion or Echo of Persistence

The goal here is simple: you use Vortex Grenades with Contraverse Hold as your Exotic and a good Void auto rifle like the new Ros Arago 4, possibly with Repulsor Brace and Onslaught or Rewind Rounds and Onslaught. Destabilizing Rounds is also good, but not needed at all. Artifact mods from Destiny 2‘s Echoes Act 3 are needed here, and they are pretty incredible. You have Sustained Fire, which grants you damage resistance when continuously damaging enemies with auto rifles, then Targeting Autoloader, which makes it so having an auto rifle equipped when defeating enemies reloads your weapon and gives you a weapon damage boost. This is basically Auto Rifle: The Build. And I say this as someone who generally doesn’t love auto rifles cause they’re not great when playing far from enemies, but even when you’re close they don’t shred. I realize this is not selling the build, but I have to be honest.

I think you’re seeing where I’m getting at here, and yes, Targeting Autoloader reloads your auto rifle even if you kill enemies with other means – like your spammy Vortex Grenades. So basically you have:

• A full-on Void 3.0 Warlock build with a lot of healing via Devour
• Damage resistance with Sustained Fire
• Further damage mitigation with Void Hegemony from the artifact and regular Void Overshields via Repulsor Brace
• Crowd control and AoE damage
• Great single-target damage if paired with weapons like Edge Transit, Expanding Abyss as an artifact mod, and Nova Bomb as your Super
• Ability spam with the Exotic of choice, and Vortex Grenades also weaken enemies on hit to give us more overall damage (and apply a Void debuff for Repulsor Brace)

As for armor mods, you should use these:

• Helmet: Harmonic Siphon and two copies of Ashes to Assets for massive Super energy gains
• Gloves: Firepower, Momentum Transfer, and Bolstering Detonations (or double Firepower at the cost of Momentum Transfer)
• Chest: Resist mods based on the activity
• Legs: Absolution, Innervation, and Void Scavenger (or Recuperation, Void Surge, and Void Scavenger for bosses)
• Class Item: Bomber, Distribution or Reaper, and Powerful Attraction

Aaaaand that’s all. Three good Warlock builds for my fellow Guardians who may (or may not) be tired of Getaway Artist. Hopefully, you like them and they serve you well – I know they have for me.