In this guide, I’ll focus on the best Strand Warlock PvP build which revolves around Weavewalk, and the best Strand Warlock PvE build which revolves around Threadlings.
Let’s get to it.
Best PvE Strand Warlock build in Destiny 2
I’ve experimented with a lot of Strand Warlock PvE builds and none of them feel as fluid and effective as this one. The best PvE Strand Warlock build is all about Threadlings. This build’s playstyle is centered around generating a lot of Threadlings with Mindspun Invocation, getting close to enemies, and deploying your Threadlings with Weaver’s Call. You’ll get Woven Mail by picking up Orbs of Power which will help keep you alive, and your Threadlings will do all your dirty work.
The Weavewalk build works well as a get-out-of-jail-free card. The Cenotaph Mask and The Navigator build is amazing for endgame support. But this Threadlings build is generally the best in all situations.
Related: Best Destiny 2 Void Warlock build: PvP and PvE
Best PvE Strand Warlock perks in Destiny 2 Season of the Witch
Like the seasons before it, Season of the Witch has great perk options for Strand users. There are only four Season of the Witch perks you need to focus on for the best Strand Warlock PvE build.
- Void/Strand Siphon Combo – Combines Void and Strand Siphon mods into one.
- Thanatotic Tangles – Strand weapon final blows have a chance to generate a Tangle.
- Refreshing Pickups – Picking up a Tangle or Elemental Orb grants energy to your least-powered ability.
- Elemental Munitions – Combatant final blows with Tangles or Elemental Orbs have a chance to drop Special or Heavy ammo.
Luckily for Strand, every Siphon Combo mod includes it, so go with Void, Arc, or Solar — your choice. Thanatotic Tangles makes more Tangles which, thanks to Swarmers, creates even more Threadlings. Refreshing Pickups and Elemental Munitions is the reason you should pick up and get kills with Tangles.
Best PvE Strand Warlock Aspects and Fragments
- Aspects
- Weaver’s Call – Cast your Rift to weave three Threadlings and deploy any Threadlings you have perched.
- Mindspun Invocation – Hold to consume your Threadling Grenade and immediately generate five perched Threadlings.
- Fragments
- Thread of Evolution – Threadlings travel farther and deal additional damage. +10 Intellect.
- Thread of Generation – Dealing damage generates grenade energy. -10 Discipline.
- Thread of Rebirth – Strand weapon final blows have a chance to create a Threadling.
- Thread of Warding – Picking up an Orb of Power grants Woven Mail. -10 Resilience.
The playstyle of this amazing Strand Warlock PvE build focuses on Weaver’s Call and Mindspun Invocation. By consuming your Threadling Grenade, you immediately get five perched Threadlings which launch when you shoot enemies. Then, use your rift to spawn three more Threadlings, for a total of seven if you haven’t released any perched Threadlings yet, and deploy them all at once.
When Mindspun Invocation and Weaver’s Call are on cooldown, throw your Threadling Grenade whenever you can to send three Threadlings at enemies. You’ll earn tons of grenade energy thanks to the mods and Thread of Generation.
Thread of Evolution is a must to make Threadlings better, Thread of Rebirth is a great option to get even more Threadlings (because why not), and I highly recommend Thread of Warding because you’ll generate a lot of Orbs of Power. Woven Mail is extremely good and the only way to give yourself extra protection with Strand.
Best PvE Strand Warlock Abilities
- Super – Needlestorm
- Any jump you want
- Any Rift you want
- Melee – Arcane Needle
- Grenade – Threadling Grenade
Unlike other Warlock builds, every ability in this Strand build focuses on the objective: create more Threadlings. Needlestorm is very powerful and creates Threadlings and your Threadling Grenade obviously creates Threadlings. In this build, Arcane Needle isn’t too important, but it’s a good tool to get a final blow on enemies and Unravel enemies.
Best PvE Strand Warlock Exotic Armor, weapons, and mods
- Exotic Armor
- Swarmers – Destroying a Tangle spawns a Threadling. Your Threadlings unravel targets that they damage.
- Weapons
- Any Strand weapon. I prefer Quicksilver Storm.
- Mods
- Helmet – Three Harmonic Siphon
- Arms – One Firepower, one Grenade Kickstarter
- Chest – Any subclass damage reduction mod
- Legs – One Insulation, one Recuperation, one Strand Weapon Surge
- Class Item – One Distribution, one Reaper
Swarmers is currently the best exotic for Threadlings. Unraveling targets is great for dealing more damage and creating more Threadlings from destroyed Tangles is great.
For weapons, you can use any Strand weapon you like to synergize with the rest of the build and the mods. Personally, I love using Quicksilver Storm with the Catalyst which makes it a Strand weapon. It’s really fluid and powerful.
For the general armor mod slot, I recommend +10 Recovery or Resilience. It requires four energy, but it’s worth it to stay alive for longer and get your Rift back quicker.
Our main way of generating Orbs of Power is with three stacks of Harmonic Siphon. This allows rapid Strand weapon final blows to generate Orbs of Power which, thanks to Thread of Warding, grants you Woven Mail.
The arms mods have one Firepower which generates Orbs of Power only when you actually throw your grenade and get kills with it, not Threadlings. Grenade Kickstarter helps you regain your grenade even quicker so you can spam it.
Put any damage resistance mods you want in the chest, but I recommend Concussive Dampener since you’ll be close to enemies. For legs, Insulation helps you get your Rift back sooner, Recuperation helps you regain health when you pick up an Orb of Power, and Strand Weapon Surge helps your Strand weapons hit harder.
Having one Reaper is another surefire way to generate Orbs of Power and Distribution is great to get ability energy back when you use your Rift near enemies which will happen often because you’re using Weaver’s Call to send seven Threadlings right at nearby enemies.
Best PvP Strand Warlock build in Destiny 2
The best PvP Strand Warlock is actually fairly competitive. While Warlocks aren’t known for their amazing PvP builds, this Strand Warlock build has turned some heads. The bulk of the build focuses on being great at PvP and the support comes in with Weavewalk.
The playstyle with this build is to use Weavewalk before entering a skirmish. Generate your Threadlings as you push the enemy. When you are close but still a safe distance away, use Weaver’s Call to deliver seven Threadlings to the enemy. That is the main loop, and when it’s on cooldown, you can dominate PvP in the usual ways.
Best PvP Strand Warlock seasonal perks in Destiny 2 Season of the Witch
Similar to PvE, the best PvP Strand Warlock has a good amount of Season of the Witch perks to use that enhance the build. There are four perks I would recommend using.
- Void/Strand Siphon Combo – Combines Void and Strand Siphon mods into one.
- Thanatotic Tangles – Strand weapon final blows have a chance to generate a Tangle.
- Refreshing Pickups – Picking up a Tangle or Elemental Orb grants energy to your least-powered ability.
- Rapid-Fire Ranger – Rapid precision hits against distant combatants weaken them for a short duration.
Though it’ll be rare to get and use Tangles, they will appear and be useful to use. Rapid-Fire Ranger is a great one to eliminate enemies faster.
Best PvP Strand Warlock Aspects and Fragments
- Aspects
- Weaver’s Call – Cast your Rift to weave three Threadlings and deploy any Threadlings you have perched.
- Weavewalk – Dodge while airborne to consume your melee energy and enter the weave. gaining damage resistance from enemies and players. Reactivate your air dodge or cast your Rift to exit the weave. While in the weave, your melee energy drains and you gain up to five perched Threadlings.
- Fragments
- Thread of Evolution – Threadlings travel farther and deal additional damage. +10 Intellect.
- Thread of Ascent – Activating your grenade ability reloads your equipped weapon and grants bonus airborne effectiveness and handling for a short duration. +10 Mobility.
- Thread of Isolation – Landing rapid precision hits emits a severing burst from the target.
Weavewalk is great in PvP as it makes it very difficult for enemies to defeat you. The only downside with selecting Weavewalk is you only get three Fragments, but it’s okay since there aren’t any amazing PvP Strand Fragments.
Related: Best Strand Fragments in Destiny 2, ranked
The three Fragments I suggest for this build are Thread of Evolution to make your Threadlings stronger, Thread of Ascent to give you a unique way to reload (which works especially well with Grapple), and Thread of Isolation to Sever nearby enemies as you land precision hits. The most important part is none of these Fragments have downsides, so your stats should be good.
Best PvP Strand Warlock Abilities
- Super – Needlestorm
- Any jump you want
- Any Rift you want
- Melee – Arcane Needle
- Grenade – Threadling Grenade/Grapple
The best PvP strand Warlock has the same abilities as the PvE build, but you can experiment with Threadling Grenade and Grapple. Personally, I love using the Grapple since it is a lot of fun and it’s really effective in PvP, but the Threadling Grenade is really solid as well.
Best PvP Strand Warlock Exotic Armor, weapons, and mods
- Exotic Armor
- Ophidian Aspect – Weapons ready and reload very quickly. Provides a small benefit to the airborne effectiveness stat of all weapons.
- Weapons
- Any Strand weapon. I prefer The Immortal and Quicksilver Storm.
- Mods
- Helmet – Two Strand Targeting
- Arms – One Kinetic Loader, One Kinetic Dexterity
- Chest – One Melee Damage Resistance, one Sniper Damage Resistance.
- Legs – Two Strand Holster, one Harmonic Scavenger
- Class Item – One Reaper, two Bomber
When it comes to PvP and any Warlock subclass, Ophidian Aspect is S-tier. It’s a neutral Exotic that just works. Having faster ready and reload speeds is always good in PvP.
The Immortal is notoriously the best PvP SMG in Destiny 2 and it’s also a Strand weapon. You can only get it through Trials of Osiris which is a bummer because I’m not the biggest fan of that game mode, but having The Immortal is more than worth it. Statistically, it has the fastest TTK in the game.
The general armor mod choices are generally the same — go with the ones that give you high Resilience and Recovery. From there, go with two Strand Targeting mods so that your Strand weapons have faster ADS and better accuracy and target acquisition.
One Kinetic Loader and one Kinetic Dexterity can be replaced with Strand if you are using Strand weapons. Either way, both of those mods are great for PvP because you get faster reloading and increased ready and stow speed. The same can be said for the leg mods. Use two Holster mods for gradual reloading and a Scavenger mod to get more Special and Heavy ammo upon pickup.
For PvP chest mods, I recommend one Melee Damage Resistance and one Sniper Damage Resistance — both are pretty self-explanatory. Having one Reaper is good to get an Orb of Power after casting your Rift and casting your Rift reduces the grenade cooldown with Bomber.
