Destiny 2 has seen some major changes over its lifespan, and as such, there are more Guardians than ever learning how to wield the Light and Dark. Warlocks are a special breed in the realm of Destiny 2, with the ability to mend their team's wounds or warp the elements into devastating abilities.

Related: The Best Exotics For Titans In Destiny 2, Ranked

With such versatility and diverse playstyles available, Warlocks have been the favorite class of many Guardians, but the choices don't stop at the subclass menu. Exotics can shape a build as much, sometimes more, than any subclass or mod could. For those looking to make the strongest Warlock, here are ten Exotics you should consider using in Destiny 2.

Updated September 12th, 2022, by Charles Burgar: Season of the Plunder introduced all Warlocks to Fallen Sunstar, an Arc-themed Exotic helmet that has proven itself to be a great choice for all Stormcaller mains. We've updated this list to include Fallen Sunstar, discussing its potential in both PvE and PvP.

10/10 Karnstein Armlets

Vampire's Caress: Melee kills instantly restore a large amount of health and continue to restore health afterwards for a short duration.

Karnstein Armlets cause all melee kills to grant a large chunk of health and a buff named Vampire's Caress. While active, this buff will grant a constant, uninterruptible health regeneration effect.

PvE

Health regeneration is an incredibly hard effect to find in Destiny 2. Karnstein Armlets not only make this effect easy to trigger, but the health regeneration itself is immense. With Celestial Fire or Ball Lightning, this effect is surprisingly easy to activate, giving you constant health regeneration for six seconds. If you can build your character to have short melee cooldowns, you can maintain this effect for a rather long duration, making you significantly harder to kill. When paired with Protective Light, you can survive an onslaught of projectiles in dungeons, raids, and even Master Nightfalls.

PvP

You'll have to use a subclass with a good melee ability to get the most out of these gloves. Fortunately, Dawnblade is a meta choice and has some of the strongest melee abilities in the game. The heal this grants can come in clutch in 3v3 playlists such as Trials of Osiris, allowing you to win 1v2 and even 1v3 engagements with a well-timed melee attack. Don't underestimate this Exotic.

Pros Cons
  • Allows for aggressive play
  • Works in PvP
  • Pairs well with Dawnblade
  • Tough to activate in Master content
  • Opportunity cost in PvP
    • Doesn't improve movement

9/10 Verity's Brow

The Fourth Magic: Weapon final blows with a damage type matching your subclass energy grant Death Throes, which provides a bonus to the damage of your grenades and grants you grenade energy. When you have Death Throes and throw a grenade, nearby allies gain greatly increased grenade regeneration for a short time.

Verity's Brow can provide one of the most powerful builds in the entire game if used correctly. This Exotic grants increased grenade energy and grenade damage whenever a weapon that matches your subclass element kills an opponent. Your allies also gain increased grenade energy, which makes this a perfect Exotic for six-player activities.

PvE

Death Throes is a fantastic buff in PvE, granting a dramatic boost to your grenade regeneration rate and grenade damage. Warlock grenades are already quite powerful, so this Exotic is great for giving them more uptime.

The bonus damage is 100% at x5 Death Throes, allowing overcharged grenades from Voidwalker to deal a ludicrous amount of damage. Most will use this helmet for the grenade regeneration boost, allowing you to summon multiple Bleak Watchers as a Shadebinder or throw multiple overcharged greandes as a Voidwalker. With how grenade-centric some Warlock subclasses are, these helmets serve as a perfect complement to a Warlock's overall kit. Just be sure to use a weapon with either Osmosis or a Stasis weapon if you're going to play Shadebinder.

PvP

Similar to Nezarec's Sin, Verity's Brow is somewhat tough to maintain in PvP. This buff lasts ten seconds, so it is possible to chain its effect in 6v6 playlists. Even then, you'll need to be on your A-game and rely exclusively on your Energy weapon. If you can maintain Death Throes, prepare to frustrate your opponents with constant Bleak Watchers or enhanced grenades.

Pros Cons
  • Up to a 100% grenade damage buff
  • Drastically lowers grenade CD
  • Works with any Energy or Heavy weapon
  • Tough to maintain in PvP
  • Weapon has to match your subclass element type
  • Highly limiting on Shadebinder

8/10 The Stag

Dearly Departed: Your Rift provides damage reduction to allied Guardians standing in it. Grants Rift energy when you are critically wounded. On your death, creates a healing rift on your corpse.

Talk about a 180. The Stag was considered by many as the worst Warlock Exotic in the game just a season ago. With Season of the Lost, Bungie made one change to this Exotic that made it extremely powerful in PvP: it now gives damage resistance while in a Rift. You and allies in your Rift will gain a 15% damage resistance buff.

PvE

The Stag's benefits in PvE are rather lackluster. A 15% damage resistance buff is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, yet you can use The Stag to retain stronger DR sources like Protective Light. If you're playing difficult content and need to stay alive, consider pairing The Stag with Protective Light to give yourself constant 50% damage resistance while in a Rift. This can be incredibly useful in Grandmaster Nightfalls or Master raids. For more casual content, however, The Stag is lacking.

PvP

This is why The Stag made the list. A Healing Rift, The Stag's DR buff, and Bottom Tree Stormcaller's Arc Soul all work together to create one of the strongest defensive playstyles you can find in Destiny 2 currently. Constant healing and 15% damage resistance allow you to win virtually any Primary duel.

But it gets even better. You can pair The Stag with Shadebinder's Whisper of Chains Fragment, granting another 7.5% DR buff while near a Stasis crystal. Throw a Glacier Grenade near your Rift to become a tank in PvP. Smart use of this Exotic can let you swing 1v2 or 1v3 duels in your favor, and the constant Rift energy you'll be getting will help you and your entire team. This is a fantastic PvP Exotic that more defensive players should consider using.

Pros Cons
  • Grants a 15% damage resistance buff while in a Rift
  • Have constant Rift energy
  • Works with all subclasses
  • Insignificant DR buff in PvE
  • Discourages moving

7/10 Fallen Sunstar

Ionic Conductor: Ionic traces you create move faster and grant you additional energy. Nearby allies also gain ability energy when you collect an ionic trace.

All Ionic Traces you create move about twice as fast and give double the energy. Allies close to you will also gain 12.5% ability energy when you collect an Ionic Trace, acting as a roundabout way of giving allies Ionic Traces you create. This Exotic works for all Ionic Traces created and has no cooldown.

PvE

Fallen Sunstar is arguably better than Crown of Tempests for most Arc 3.0 Warlock builds. Creating Ionic Traces is quite easy in the current sandbox, so the double energy received by traces is something you'll benefit from dozens of times in a given mission. And since your allies get this buff as well, Fallen Sunstar is an excellent pick for all content. Spec for Ionic Traces in your build, and enjoy the infinite ability energy.

PvP

Stormcallers can benefit from stronger Ionic Traces in the Crucible, although it's somewhat tougher to make traces in PvP. Since most Ionic Trace sources are from slain targets, you won't have the same uptime as in PvE unless you're a good Crucible player. Even still, getting faster Ionic Traces and increased energy is only a good thing. Does it make Stormcaller the best PvP spec? No, but it's more than capable.

Pros Cons
  • Doubles Ionic Trace energy
  • Gives your allies energy
  • Allows for high ability uptime in PvE
  • Can be troublesome to use in competitive PvP modes
  • Only works for Stormcaller and a select few Exotic weapons
  • Ionic Traces can sometimes fail to track

Related: Destiny 2: The Best Warlock Builds For PvP And PvE

6/10 Boots Of The Assembler

Blessing of Order: Standing in a Healing Rift creates Noble Seekers that seek out allies that are not in a Rift and heals them. Standing in an Empowering Rift creates Noble Seekers that grant both you and your ally a damage bonus. Each time a Noble Seeker finds one of your allies, the duration of your Rift is briefly extended while you are standing in it. Lumina also gains increased Airborne Effectiveness while this Exotic is equipped.

That description is absurdly long, so let's break it down:

  1. Your Rifts spawn Noble Seekers, tracking allies and applying a certain buff to them.
  2. Healing Rifts cause Noble Seekers to heal allies.
  3. Empowering Rifts cause Noble Seekers to grant a 35% damage buff for 5 seconds. You gain the damage buff as well.
  4. When a Noble Seeker affects an ally, your Rift's duration is slightly extended if you're standing in it.

In essence, these boots infuse your Rifts with Lumina's Noble Rounds. These orbs behave exactly the same as Lunina's Noble Rounds. If you're playing a Dawnblade, your Noble Seekers also activate Ember of Benevolence when they buff an ally. Either buff will activate Benevolence.

PvE

Boots of the Assembler might be the strongest PvE Exotic that Warlocks have. They can heal your allies mid-fight, grant you and allies a damage buff on par with Weapons of Light, and it can activate Benevolent Dawn every time it buffs someone. When paired with the extended Rift duration, these boots are nothing short of S-tier.

PvP

There isn't anything more terrifying than facing a team of Guardians that are all buffed by a 25% damage increase. These boots let you one-tap Guardians to the body with an Aggressive Frame Sniper Rifle, one-shot enemies with a Grenade Launcher, two-tap Guardians with a 120 RPM Hand Cannon or Dead Man's Tale, and it lets slug Shotguns one-tap to the body.

If you aren't an aggressive, movement-centric Warlock, you should seriously consider giving these boots a try. They can single-handedly swing games in your team's favor.

Pros Cons
  • Grants allies HP or a damage buff
  • Absurdly strong in PvP
  • Allows for minute-long Rifts
  • Activates Benevolent Dawn
  • Discourages movement in PvP

5/10 Rain Of Fire

Soaring Fusilier: Air dodge reloads all of your weapons and improves the airborne effectiveness of Fusion Rifles and Linear Fusion Rifles; final blows with these weapons make you radiant. Provides a moderate benefit to the airborne effectiveness stat of Fusion Rifles and Linear Fusion Rifles.

The description of this Exotic can be broken down into three parts:

  1. Icarus Dash reloads all of your weapons.
  2. Final blows with Fusions/LFRs make you Radiant for seven seconds.
  3. Your Fusions have increased Airborne Effectiveness.

PvE

Rain of Fire lets you share a few qualities of the Hunter's Gunslinger class. Your Icarus Dash becomes a better Marksman's Dodge that can be used in-air every four seconds, reloading all of your weapons. The Radiant buff you get from these boots works on all weapons, although you must land a Fusion kill to trigger the Radiant buff. It lasts only seven seconds instead of ten for the sake of balance, but that hardly matters in PvE.

The DPS combos you can achieve with this Exotic are nothing short of absurd. You can fire a rocket, dash, fire another rocket, switch to your Special weapon, and repeat. More importantly, the Radiant effect procs on any subclass, not just Dawnblade. This gives Warlocks access to a 25% damage buff on every subclass. If you aren't playing a support or ability-centric build, use Rain of Fire.

PvP

Getting a Radiant buff so easily inside the Crucible is quite useful. You'll have great uptime on this buff in PvP. Far more important is the auto-reloading aspect of this Exotic. If you're tired of having to reload your Special or Primary in duels, just dash. It's game-changing just how much more aggressively you can play.

A clear pairing with these boots is Vex Mythoclast, an Exotic Fusion Rifle that uses Primary ammo. Use that weapon with Rain of Fire, Quick Charge, and High-Energy Fire for a rather potent 6v6 build.

Pros Cons
  • Absurd DPS potential in PvE
  • Lets you play more aggressively in PvP
  • Great synergy with Vex Mythoclast
  • Requires you to use Icarus Dash
  • Radiant has a shorter duration than usual

4/10 Contraverse Hold

Chaotic Exchanger: Resist incoming damage while charging your Void grenade with Chaos Accelerant, Feed the Void, or Handheld Supernova. Charged Void grenades return a random amount of grenade energy on a hit.

Contraverse Hold is a criminally underused Exotic in PvE. These gloves provide a random amount of grenade energy every time your grenades damage a target. They also provide 20% damage resistance while you're overcharging a Void grenade.

PvE

Every tick of damage provided from a Vortex Grenade procs Contraverse Hold's regeneration boost. Warlocks can have an infinite supply of grenades if they can land their Vortex Grenades, allowing for a consistent boost to your damage output in any activity. Pair this with Attunement of Chaos and the Ashes to Assets mod to make every pinnacle PvE activity a complete joke.

PvP

These gloves aren't as strong in PvP as in PvE, although they still have use. Voidwalker pairs surprisingly well with these gloves, giving you enough damage resistance to absorb a few shots while you release a charged grenade. If you make a build around using grenades in PvP, these gloves might prove useful. For most, Contraverse Hold isn't strong enough to warrant using over meta Exotics currently.

Pros Cons
  • Infinite Void grenades
  • S-tier for Master/GM content
  • Mediocre for PvP
  • Much less powerful for non-Vortex Grenades

Related: Destiny 2: A Complete Guide To The Vault Of Glass Raid

3/10 Transversive Steps

Strange Protractor: Sprint speed increased. After a short time sprinting, your currently equipped weapon is automatically reloaded.

Highly regarded as the best Warlock Exotic in PvP, Transversive Steps provide benefits that enhance aggressive players. Not only do Transversive Steps give increased run speed for the wearer, but after a few seconds, they reload your current equipped weapon from your reserves.

PvE

Transversive Steps are admittedly not the best Exotic choice for PvE, but they still serve as a solid choice for players that hate swapping their gear around between missions. The increased sprint speed is useful for retreating into cover, and the auto-reloading effect hen your sprint is excellent for mitigating the long reload times on most Heavy weapons.

PvP

The effectiveness of these boots in PvP is why they're number one on our list. Movement king in Destiny 2, and these boots provide a means of capitalizing on that movement. You'll be sprinting quite a bit in the Crucible, something that is faster and grants auto-reloading while these boots are on. When paired with Dawnblade, your movement as a Warlock is absurd and can rival Hunters with St0mp-EE5. If you can get used to the aggressive playstyle that these boots encourage, you'll have a hard time switching to another Exotic.

Pros Cons
  • Enhances your sprint and slide
  • Allows for aggressive gameplay
  • S-tier for PvP
  • You have to sprint to auto-load
    • This can be detrimental for Master PvE content

2/10 Osmiomancy Gloves

Fervid Coldsnap: Your Coldsnap grenades have an additional charge that recharges quicker on direct impact. The seeker spawned from Coldsnap grenades travels further.

Osmimancy Gloves let you double down on using Coldsnap Grenades as a Warlock, giving you a second Coldsnap charge while refunding grenade energy for each enemy your grenade hits.

PvE

The energy regained from this Exotic is impressive, granting an entire charge if your Coldsnap chains between a group of enemies. It's important to note that direct impacts with the grenade grant a ton of energy, capable of granting a whole grenade off a single Champion. This makes Osmiomancy Gloves fantastic for high-level content.

Of course, you can use this ample grenade energy to give yourself an infinite supply of Bleak Watcher turrets. Throw a Coldsnap, create a turret, rinse and repeat. The level of crowd control you can achieve with a build like this is unmatched, making this the definitive crowd control Exotic for Warlocks. Paired with some Firepower mods, you can throw infinite Coldsnaps and Bleak Watchers with these gloves.

PvP

These gloves are a hard counter to Shotgun rushers and invisible Hunters. Throwing this grenade at someone will grant an immense amount of energy, allowing you to throw nearly a dozen grenades a game with some practice. A frozen target is incredibly easy to kill as well, making these gloves perfect for 6v6 objective modes and even Trials of Osiris. If you play Shadebinder at all, give these gloves a try.

Pros Cons
  • Allows for near-infinite grenades in PvE
  • Has excellent synergy with Bleak Watcher
  • Great for countering Void subclasses in PvP
  • Only works on Shadebinder
  • Requires a grenade direct impact to regain the most amount of energy

1/10 Ophidian Aspect

Cobra Totemic: Weapons ready and reload very quickly. Melee range is extended.

Many Warlocks mains agree that Transversive Steps and Ophidian Aspect are the best PvP Exotics, and for good reason. While it might not offer auto-reloading, Ophidian Aspect enhances your neutral game in almost every way. These gauntlets grant one meter of additional melee range, grant a major boost to handling for your guns, and increase your reload speed substantially. Your weapons are also slightly more accurate while in the air.

PvE

Increased weapon handling and reload speeds are very powerful with the right loadout. You can quickly swap to a Rocket Launcher, damage a target, then swap to your Special weapon to damage a boss or Champion. If you don't like swapping between guns for DPS, you can use Ophidian's excellent reload speed buff to unload many more rockets and Shotgun shells into bosses. It might not be as strong as other PvE Exotics, although it is by no means a bad choice.

PvP

With the nerf to Quickdraw, handling is more important than ever. Ophidian Aspect gives you a massive boost to handling and reload speed, two important stats for any gun. You can panic swap to your weapons much faster, spend less time reloading, and you can chain a Shotgun shot with a melee strike much more easily with your extended melee range. It even gives a slight bump to Airborne Effectiveness on all weapons. Simply put, these gloves are S-tier for PvP.

Pros Cons
  • S-tier for PvP
  • Massive handling and reload buff
  • Always active
  • Less impactful in PvE

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