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Season of the Plunder

Warlock Arc 3.0 Build with Winter’s Guile in Destiny 2

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Normally Warlock’s are known for their Space Magic, Well of Radiance, Nova Bombs or firing electricity out of their fingertips like Emperor Palpatine. They are not normally known for their melee abilities, and for using their fists in a fight to punch enemies to death. Today that is all going to change as I put together this Warlock Arc 3.0 build with Winter’s Guile. With the right perks, mods and weapons, we’re going to turn our Warlocks into a prizefighter in Destiny 2.

Without further delay let’s dive into the build.

Arc 3.0 Setup

Super: Chaos Reach
Grenade: Skip Grenade
Melee: Chain Lightning
Class Ability: Healing Rift

Aspects

Arc Soul – Cast your Rift to create an Arc Soul that fires at targets in front of you. Allies can pass through your Rift to get an Arc Soul. Your Rift charges faster when allies are near. While amplified, your Arc Souls are supercharged and gain an increased fire rate.

Electrostatic Mind – Defeating targets with Arc abilities or defeating jolted or blinded targets creates an Ionic Trace. Collecting an Ionic Trace makes you amplified.

Fragments

  • Spark of Frequency – Melee hits greatly increase your reload speed for a short duration.
  • Spark of Feedback – Taking melee damage briefly increases your outgoing melee damage.
  • Spark of Recharge – While critically wounded, your melee and grenade energy regenerate more quickly.
  • Spark of Resistance – When surrounded by enemies, the player has increased damage resistance.

Exotic Armor – Winter’s Guile

Winter’s Guile are Exotic Warlock Gauntlets and come with the perk Warlord’s Sigil.

  • Warlord’s Sigil – Eliminating enemies with melee attacks increases your melee damage.
  • Mobility Enhancement Mod – Increased mobility.

Weapons

Kinetic – Reckless Endangerment

Reckless Endangerment is a Legendary Kinetic Shotgun with a Lightweight Frame meaning it has superb handling. Move faster with this weapon equipped. This one comes with One-Two Punch which impoves melee damage. The perk reads, hitting an enemy with every pellet in a shot increases melee damage for a short duration. This one is going to complement the build very nicely. If you don’t have Reckless Endangerment, then another Shotgun with One-Two Punch would be great.

If you are planning on taking this build into endgame content then you may want to swap out this shotgun for a Pulse Rifle, or something that can take on Unstoppable Champions. This season that’s Pulse Rifles, but that may change in the future.

Energy – Shadow Price

Shadow Price is a Legendary Energy Auto Rifle which has a Precision Frame meaning this weapon’s recoil pattern is more predictably vertical. I have a version with Swashbuckler. This weapon gains increased damage from melee kills and kills with this weapon. This is also good because it’s an arc weapon, plus it can deal with Anti Barrier Champions.

If you don’t have Shadow Price, then another energy weapon with Swashbuckler would be good. Bonus for it being able to take on Champions e.g. Scout, Pulse, Bow or Sniper this season.

Power – Planck’s Stride

Planck’s Stride is a Legendary Power Machine Gun with a Rapid-Fire Frame meaning deeper ammo reserves. Slightly faster reload when the magazine is empty. This comes with the Origin Trait Right Hook, where dealing melee damage gives the weapon increased target acquisition and range for a short period of time. Dealing with melee damage again extends the effect. Again, I have one with Swashbuckler, where this weapon gains increased damage from melee kills and kills with this weapon. Therefore Swashbuckler and Right Hook are going to support the melee-focused build nicely.

Mods

  • Melee Wellmaker – Powered melee combatant final blows spawn elemental wells matching your subclass energy type.
  • Bountiful Wells – Elemental well mods that cause you to spawn elemental wells can now stack, spawning additional wells for each additional copy of the mod you have equipped.
  • Font of Might – Picking up an elemental well that matches your subclass energy type grants a temporary bonus to weapon damage
  • Anti-Barrier Auto Rifle
  • Overload Machine Gun
  • Unstoppable Pulse Rifle (optional)

Gameplay Loop

This build is all about powering up melee damage, so you can get up-close-and-personal with enemies in Destiny 2 as a Warlock. This build revolves around Winter’s Guile, which has the perk Warlord’s Sigil. Eliminating enemies with melee attacks increases your melee damage.

I’m also going to be using a combination of perks to improve melee damage. These perks are optional to the build, if you want to take this into Nightfalls or Raids, then I would focus on weapons that can take out Champions, however, the option is here if you want to use these perks. First, Swashbuckler is weapon gains increased damage from melee kills and kills with this weapon. I’m using this on my energy and power Arc weapons. Also, in my kinetic slot, I am using a shotgun with One-Two Punch, and this is where hitting an enemy with every pellet in a shot increases melee damage for a short duration. These perks combined with Warlord’s Sigil is going to make your Warlock very effective at attacking with their fists and punching most enemies to death.

Then I am using some of the Arc 3.0 benefits on this warlock build. Spark of Frequency is where Melee hits greatly increase your reload speed for a short duration. Given we’re going to be punching enemies a lot, this is going to allow us to be ready with weapons, in case our very overpowered melee shots don’t take out enemies with one punch.
Spark of Recharge is then going to help us recharge melee energy nice and quickly allowing for more charged melee attacks. This is further supported by Electrostatic Mind where defeating targets with Arc abilities or defeating jolted or blinded targets creates an Ionic Trace. Collecting an Ionic Trace makes you amplified. Finally, we’re using an Arc Soul, and this is going to support us in a tight spot.

Finally, I’m using Elemental Well Mods to power up my damage output through Font of Might. This is going to give us a 20% increase to damage output. I’m using melee wellmaker, given I am running around and punching things anyways. Combined with Bountiful Wells, then I am going to get 2-3 wells each time I punch an enemy, meaning an almost constant 20% buff to damage. When combined with the perks for my exotic armour and weapons, this is going to overcharge my warlock, making him very difficult to stop.

Let me know in the comments what you think of the build and let me know if you have any improvements.

That’s it for this guide for Amplified Artist Endgame Warlock Arc 3.0 Build with Getaway Artist in Destiny 2. For more Destiny content like this check out This Week In Video Games on YouTube and subscribe today.