There have been several change-ups to the Solar Warlock meta which means the best PvE build in Destiny 2 is up for debate again. In this article, I’ll use my personal experience and research to guide you through how to create the best Solar Warlock for PvP and PvE.
Starfire Protocol used to have a chokehold on the PvE Solar Warlock meta, but since Well of Radiance got nerfed, it’s just one of many good options. Some really great Solar Warlock builds include using Starfire Protocol, Sunbracers, and even Apothesis Veil which everyone is hyped about thanks to its new buff, but this build focuses on Dawn Chorus for PvE. For PvP, I was going to recommend a Wings of Sacred Dawn build, but after all the time I’ve had to play with it, I’ve decided it’s fun but it’s not that good.
Best PvE Solar Warlock build in Destiny 2
Of course, you can’t go wrong with the Starfire Protocol Well of Radiance build, but since it’s not as good as it was, it’s time for the Dawn Chorus Solar Warlock build to shine. You can always switch your Super to Well of Radiance in higher tier content although Dawnblade is more effective with Dawn Chorus.
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The play style of this Solar Warlock PvE build is to Scorch and Ignite literally everything. The loop is to consume your grenade to get Heat Rises, Restoration, and Cure, and then fly over the enemies, using your melee, which recharges extremely quickly, and Solar weapon to eliminate all enemies with Scorch and Ignite all while keeping Heat Rises active. When you’re taking too much fire, use Phoenix Dive to gain Restoration and spread more Scorch. You need a Solar weapon with Incandescent to make the most of this build and I highly recommend Dragon’s Breath as well.
Best PvE Solar Warlock seasonal perks in Destiny 2 Season of the Wish
- Flint Striker – Rapid Solar weapon precision hits and rapid Solar final blows grant Radiant.
- Kindling Trigger – Radiant causes Solar weapons to apply scorch to unscorched combatants.
- Heart of Flame – Casting your Solar Super grants nearby allies Radiant and increases the damage of your Super for each nearby ally.
- Revitalizing Blast – Causing damage with a Solar ability weakens Champions and bosses for a short duration.
- Rays of Precision – While Radiant, Solar precision final blows cause combatants to Ignite.
The reason why this PvE Solar Warlock build is insanely good is because of the numerous Season of the Wish seasonal perks that buff Solar and pair extremely well with Dawn Chorus. First, we have a consistent way to become Radiant, which makes our weapons hit a lot harder, thanks to Flint Striker.
After we become Radiant with Flint Striker, Kindling Trigger applies scorch to unscorched enemies which triggers Dawn Chorus to start dealing damage. Heart of Flame gives your allies Radiant and makes your Dawnblade deal a lot more damage, which also combines nicely with Dawn Chorus’s buff to Dawnblade.
Revitalizing Blast weakens Champions and bosses when you use your Solar grenade and melee, and Rays of Precision Ignites enemies on Solar precision final blows. All of this synergy paired with Dawn Chorus is complete madness.
Best PvE Solar Warlock Aspects and Fragments
- Aspects
- Heat Rises – You can fire weapons, melee, and throw grenades while gliding. Consume your grenade to gain Heat Rising and release a burst of healing that Cures you and nearby allies. The strength of the burst is increased when it’s a Healing Grenade. Final blows while airborne increase the duration of Heat Rises and grant melee energy.
- Icarus Dash – Double tap your Rift button to Dodge in the air. While Heat Rises is active, you have an additional dodge. While airborne, rapidly defeating targets with your Super or weapons Cures you.
- Fragments
- Ember of Tempering – Solar weapon final blows grant you and your allies increased Recovery for a short duration. Up to three stacks. While Emper of Tempering is active, your weapons have increased airborne effectiveness, and your Solar weapon final blows create a Firesprite. -10 Recovery.
- Ember of Torches – Powered melee attacks against combatants make you and nearby allies Radiant. -10 Discipline.
- Ember of Ashes – You apply more stacks of Scorch to targets.
- Ember of Searing – Defeating Scorched targets grants melee energy and creates a Firesprite.
Heat Rises and Touch of Flame are the go-to Aspects for this PvE Solar Warlock build. Heat Rises is the bread and butter of the build; consume your grenade to heal and give you melee energy while you’re in the air eliminating enemies. Personally, I don’t love using the Icarus Dodge for dodging, but getting Cure when rapidly defeating targets while airborne is too good, and it’ll happen often and ultimately increase your survivability.
If Heat Rises and Dawn Chorus alone weren’t giving you enough melee energy, the Fragments will. Also, you’ll constantly be making Firesprites which, on pickup, grant grenade energy, so this build truly allows you to spam melee and grenades all the time.
Ember of Tempering increases your and your allies’ Recovery after getting Solar weapon kills which is extremely good. Not only that, but you have increased airborne effectiveness which is very good for us since we’ll always be in the air and we’ll create even more Firesprites. Ember of Ashes creates more Scorch which works great with Dawn Chorus.
Ember of Torches is amazing since it makes use Radiant and we’ll, almost immediately after using it, get our melee back. Ember of Searing grants even more melee energy and Firesprites after defeating Scorched enemies which will happen a lot.
Best PvE Solar Warlock Abilities
- Super – Daybreak
- Jump – Strafe Glide
- Class Ability – Phoenix Dive
- Melee – Celestial Fire
- Grenade – Fusion Grenade/Healing Grenade
Since Dawn Chorus makes Daybreak stronger, we’re going with that super to make this build a solid DPS option. The only time I’ve ever recommended Strafe Glide is with this build because it’ll help you navigate the air with Heat Rises active. Phoenix Dive is really good for more Scorch with Heat Rises and is amazing for survivability. Plus, it’s fun to do something that isn’t Rift.
For the melee, I highly recommend Celestial Fire because it’s way easier to proc than Incinerator Snap in my opinion and the range is really useful when flying around with Heat Rises (which is going to be always). The cool thing about this build is Dawn Chorus and Heat Rises is you’ll get your melee back extremely fast so you can spam it to Scorch enemies.
For the grenade, I highly recommend using the Fusion or Healing Grenade. I use Healing Grenade in higher-tier content, and it synergizes with Touch of Flame and Heat Rises. However, I love Fusion Grenade since it has a lower cooldown time, pairs well with Touch of Flame, and is extremely effective at add clear and dealing damage to bosses — you have constant healing with this build anyway so Fusion Grenade is a great choice.
Best PvE Solar Warlock Exotic Armor, weapons, and mods
- Exotic Armor
- Dawn Chorus – Your Daybreak projectiles deal more damage and Scorch targets on impact. Your Scorch is improved and you gain a small amount of melee energy when your Scorch damages a target.
- Weapons
- Any Solar weapon with Incandescent. Ammit AR2, Calus Mini-Tool, Dragon’s Breath Exotic Rocket Launcher, Sunshot Exotic Hand Cannon.
- Mods
- Helmet – Two Harmonic Siphon, one Heavy Ammo Finder.
- Arms – Three Impact Induction.
- Chest – Any subclass damage reduction mod.
- Legs – One Innervation, one Recuperation, one Solar Weapon Surge.
- Class Item – One Reaper, two Bomber.
We’ve been talking about it enough; Dawn Chorus is the Exotic Armor of choice as it makes the Daybreak super more powerful and improves Scorch. For weapons, you need a Solar weapon and preferably one with Incandescent. Lucky for those who don’t have that, you can get a good one with Adhortative which is one of the better Season of the Wish weapons. Dragon’s Breath is also insanely good with this build this season.
Did someone order more ways to get grenade energy? The Armor Mods for this build start with two Harmonic Siphon mods which generate Orbs of Power on Solar weapon kills and Heavy Ammo Finder to help you keep Dragon’s Breath locked and loaded. Then, Arms has three Impact Induction which gives you grenade energy after causing damage with a powered melee.
For the Chest, use any damage reduction mod you need at the time. I always prefer Sniper and Melee Damage Resistance because those are the two sources of damage I hate taking the most. One Innervation helps us get our grenade back faster, Recuperation helps us heal, and Solar Weapon Surge is amazing to help our Solar weapons hit harder.
To top it off, Reaper ensures we spawn an Orb of Power and Bomber helps us get our grenade back after using Phoenix Dive. This is essential because we need our grenade for Heat Rises which kickstart this build’s loop.
Best PvP Solar Warlock build in Destiny 2
For the best Solar Warlock PvP build, mirror the PvE build but replace Dawn Chorus with Ophidian Aspect.
The play style for the Solar Warlock PvP build is to use Heat Rises and Icarus Dash to float around and deal damage both from long range and short range which is aided by Ophidian Aspect’s boost to airborne effectiveness. Pretty simple, and very fun since you usually have the element of surprise since not many people expect floating Guardians.
Best PvP Solar Warlock seasonal perks in Destiny 2 Season of the Wish
- Flint Striker – Rapid Solar weapon precision hits and rapid Solar final blows grant Radiant.
- Kindling Trigger – Radiant causes Solar weapons to apply scorch to unscorched combatants.
- Heart of Flame – Casting your Solar Super grants nearby allies Radiant and increases the damage of your Super for each nearby ally.
- Rays of Precision – While Radiant, Solar precision final blows cause combatants to Ignite.
Again, Solar is incredible this season thanks to the Season of the Wish perks. The best PvP Solar Warlock build benefits not as much as the PvE build, but all of these seasonal perks are great to have. With these perks, you’ll become Radiant more consistently and be able to Ignite and Score enemies faster.
Best PvP Solar Warlock Aspects and Fragments
- Aspects
- Heat Rises – You can fire weapons, melee, and throw grenades while gliding. Consume your grenade to gain Heat Rising and release a burst of healing that Cures you and nearby allies. The strength of the burst is increased when it’s a Healing Grenade. Final blows while airborne increase the duration of Heat Rises and grant melee energy.
- Icarus Dash – Double tap your Rift button to Dodge in the air. While Heat Rises is active, you have an additional dodge. While airborne, rapidly defeating targets with your Super or weapons Cures you.
- Fragments
- Ember of Tempering – Solar weapon final blows grant you and your allies increased Recovery for a short duration. Up to three stacks. While Emper of Tempering is active, your weapons have increased airborne effectiveness, and your Solar weapon’s final blows create a Firesprite. -10 Recovery.
- Ember of Torches – Powered melee attacks against combatants make you and nearby allies Radiant. -10 Discipline.
- Ember of Solace – Radiant and Restoration effects applied to you have increased duration.
- Ember of Searing – Defeating Scorched targets grants melee energy and creates a Firesprite.
Heat Rises and Icarus Dash are the two best PvP Solar Warlock picks because they allow you to do shenanigans in the air. Dodge whenever you’re hit by enemies and use Heat Rising to get your melee back sooner.
For the Fragments, the only one we’re changing is Ember of Ashes to Ember of Solace because stacks of Scorch don’t matter as much here and we want to have Radiant and Restoration for as long as possible.
Ember of Tempering is great if just for the extra airborne effectiveness, Ember of Torches allows you to become Radiant more often with a powered melee, and Ember of Searing is great to get melee energy and Firesprites since almost all enemies you attack will be Scorched.
Best PvP Solar Warlock Abilities
- Super – Daybreak
- Jump – Strafe Glide
- Class Ability – Phoenix Dive
- Melee – Celestial Fire
- Grenade – Fusion Grenade
Daybreak is best in PvP because Well of Radiance doesn’t allow you to deal damage. Strafe Glide and Phoenix Dive are both great with this build and Celestial Fire is my recommended pick again because it has a better range and is more reliable.
I highly recommend the Fusion Grenade in PvP because it attaches to your target and deals good damage while Scorching them. It has a surprisingly low cooldown time too which makes it a great pick for secured grenade kills.
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Best PvP Solar Warlock Exotic Armor, weapons, and mods
- Exotic Armor
- Ophidian Aspect – Weapons ready and reload very quickly. Provides a small benefit to the airborne effectiveness of all weapons.
- Weapons
- Any Solar weapon with Incandescent. Ammit AR2, Calus Mini-Tool, Dragon’s Breath Exotic Rocket Launcher, Sunshot Exotic Hand Cannon.
- Mods
- Helmet – Three Harmonic Targeting.
- Arms – Three Harmonic Reloader.
- Chest – One Melee Damage Resistance, one Sniper Damage Resistance.
- Legs – Two Solar Holster, one Harmonic Scavenger.
- Class Item – One Reaper, two Bomber.
Ophidian Aspect is arguably the best Warlock Armor Exotic for PvP. It’s not flashy or exciting, but it delivers and pairs best with Solar because of the added airborne effectiveness.
Weapons are the same story for PvP as they were for PvE. Use a Solar weapon with Incandescent for the best results. I also suggest having a mid to long-range weapon paired with a short-range weapon to cover all your bases while gliding around.
As for the best Armor Mods for this Solar Warlock PvP build, we’ll start with three HArmonic Targeting mods. We aren’t too concerned with Orbs of Power in PvP; we just want to secure kills and Harmonic targeting gives our Solar weapons better accuracy and target acquisition.
Stacking three Harmonic Reloader mods paired with Ophidian Aspect is great since you’ll be able to reload your weapon extremely fast. You know me, I recommend the Melee and Sniper Damage Resistance mods because those are what I face the most in PvP.
Two Solar Holster mods allow you to switch between your Solar weapons quickly. The Harmonic Scavenger grants more ammo in your magazine and is especially good for Special Weapons. Lastly, Reaper is always good to obtain one Orb of Power after using Phoenix Dive and Bomber is great to get grenade energy after using Phoenix Dive.
