The Warlock class in Destiny is fairly different from the Titans and Hunters. While weapons of the future involve ranged firearms and sophisticated technology, the Warlocks use arcane-like power to decimate and (literally) incinerate their foes.
For more help on Destiny, read our Glimmer Farming Guide.
Destiny Warlock Class Tips
The Warlock class is ideal for those who prefer to play as wizards and sorcerers in RPG games, and have always opted for destruction through forbidden powers.
While the Titans excel at frontal assaults and rock-solid tanking defense, and the Hunters excelling at infiltration and stealthy assassinations, the Warlocks have mastered the powers of the Void and Light, crippling their foes not with conventional weapons, but with arcane secrets that only they hold the knowledge of.
The two specializations for the Warlock are Voidwalker and Sunsinger. Voidwalker is available from the start, while Sunsinger is unlocked at level 15.
Voidwalker
The Voidwalker specialization for the Warlock class is centered on its powerful signature spell Nova Bomb, and the utilization of Energy Siphon to use grenades more frequently.
Voidwalkers will take on enemies in an unorthodox way compared to the Hunters and Titans, using grenades and power spells as their main source of collateral damage. This makes the Voildwalkers a challenging specialization at the start, but once mastered it offers a lot burst power that you can use for massive impact in both PvP and PvE.
The ideal stats to focus on for the Voidwalker are Strength and Discipline, the latter aiding a lot in Energy Siphon.
Grenades
Vortex Grenade
The Vortex Grenade is a powerful but concentrated grenade that leaves a vortex of Void energy. Enemies inside the vortex will take a lot of damage in rapid pulses that can go up to 100 damage per second.
The Vortex Grenade compliments the Voidwalker’s destructive AoE capability and almost arcane-like powers.
Vortex Grenades don’t have any kind of damage fall-off, though they have a rather small radius of 4 meters. Using the Vortex Mastery talent will further make this grenade even more powerful, allowing for up to 600 damage within 6 seconds.
Scatter Grenade
The Scatter Grenade breaks up into smaller shrapnel after the initial blast, with the shrapnel further exploding to create scattered collateral damage. Using this grenade in tight corridors is useful, though the shrapnel can actually harm you if they bounce towards your position.
The damage of the Scatter Grenade varies with the proximity of the effected targets. On average, it can deal around 120-160 damage in an 8 meter radius (approx.).
Axion Bolt
The Axion Bolt is a grenade that unleashes two bolts of lightning that seek anyone within its 10 meter blast radius. Each bolt does 90 damage.
While the overall damage is less than most grenades, the ease of use and surprise element associated with the Axion Bolt allows you to quickly dispatch weakened enemies, as the bolts rapidly home towards foes within its 10 meter radial range.
Abilities
The Voidwalker utilizes powerful spells as the primary method of dealing damage instead of using conventional firearms. They can Glide, use the powerful Nova Bomb, or initiate their Energy Drain to empower themselves. There are also plenty of other upgrade abilities that are associated with these three core skills.
Glide
Glide is the signature movement skill for the Warlock class. It is quite different from Lift and Double Jump, as pressing jump again after performing one will allow you to smoothly glide around in midair.
Glide can be very useful in directing yourself while jumping down from an elevated platform, and is the easiest jump technique of the three classes to master.
However, its downside is how vulnerable it leaves you midflight – you’ll be exposed and gliding smoothly and slowing, making you an easy target. For this reason, you don’t want to be gliding while there are enemies around in PvE and PvP, and you should get into the habit of cancelling your glides midway.
Focused Control
This ability will modify Glide to give you extra control while you’re gliding.
Focused Burst
Focused Burst gets rid of the slow gliding and actually gives you a speed boost when you start gliding. This is an excellent choice for PvP as an escape or surprise infiltrating tool.
Blink
The Warlock’s Blink is quite identical to the Bladedancer’s (Hunter) Blink, replacing your second jump with a teleportation instead of a glide. You will teleport a few feet in front in the direction you are facing. Blink is extremely useful in both PvP and PvE, but needs to be mastered in order to be used effectively in battle.
Nova Bomb
The Nova Bomb is the signature Voidwalker ability. It releases a powerful blast of Void energy in the direction you are facing, which is instantly fatal to anyone within its effective 9 meter radius in PvP.
The ability is very simple to use mostly, but you can add to it if combined with Blink or Glide to get a proper angle to shoot your Nova Bomb. Note that Nova Bomb does have damage fall off, but in PvP that will be hardly noticeable as across the radius it is more or less lethal (except for maybe Titan Defenders).
In PvE, you want to make sure the blast epicenter is on the target enemy to guarantee maximum damage. Nova Bomb like other signature abilities has a recharge time of 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
Vortex
Vortex will add a field of Void energy to the Nova Bomb that continuously damages enemies inside it over time. This attack deals damage in a similar way to the Vortex grenade, lasting for 6 seconds and dealing 100 damage per second.
While this empowers the Nova Bomb even further, you will find it redundant in PvP as Nova Bomb alone can completely disintegrate opponents. However, it does have its uses in PvE against beefier enemies.
Shatter
Shatter will split your Nova Bomb into three smaller projectiles that produce smaller yet still lethal explosions. Apparently, it is only the blast radius that is reduced, and in PvP each of these three mini Nova Bombs will still one-shot opponents.
If you combine this with Angry Magic, the three NBs will home towards enemies and wreak havoc. This is a very useful ability for both PvP and PvE – in the latter you’ll be able to deal with large hordes of enemies easily through Shatter.
Lance
Lance will add further range to your Nova and make it travel much faster, making escape for a target (or set of targets) pretty much impossible.
Lance is deadly in PvP as you can hit unaware opponents from a good distance and without allowing them a change to react; though it can be useful in PvE, you’ll generally find it easy even without Lance to target a set of AI foes.
Energy Drain
This powerful melee ability will trigger an Energy Siphon, draining energy from the target and using it to recharge your grenades much faster. Thanks to this skill, you’ll be able to use powerful grenades like the Vortex grenade and Axion Bolt much more frequently.
The recharge time of the grenades is accelerated by 1.6 times for 5 seconds.
Surge
Surge will increase your movement speed after damaging an enemy with Energy Drain. Once again, this is a fantastic ability for PvP as you can melee an enemy, then move back and toss your recharged grenades, which should take care of your opponent.
Life Steal
The name of this ability says it all; Life Steal will regenerate a bit of your health whenever you kill an enemy with Energy Drain. Life Steal will instantly regenerate 10 points to your health after a kill, followed by 1.5 seconds of regeneration even if you are being fired upon.
Soul Rip
Whenever you kill an enemy with Energy Drain with this ability on, the cool-down on your Nova Bomb will be reduced. Investing in your Discipline and utilizing Soul Rip simultaneously will make Nova Bomb even more powerful.
Ability Modifiers
Tier 1
Annihilate
This modifier will increase the radius of the explosion of Nova Bomb and your grenades.
Angry Magic
Nova Bomb with Angry Magic will track enemies. Combine this with Shatter and you’ll be the most feared combatant in a PvP game.
The Hunger
This modifier will increase the duration of your Energy Drain effect. This is an excellent modifier especially when combined with Tier 2’s Embrace the Void.
Tier 2
Vortex Mastery
This will increase the range of the Axion Bolts and increase the duration of the Nova Bomb and Vortex grenade vortices.
Bloom
This modifier will make enemies explode whenever they are killed by any of your abilities. It sounds nice, but it is usually more useful in PvE than PvP, as in the latter opponent players don’t tend to cluster together the way AI do.
Embrace the Void
With this modifier active, damaging enemies with Nova Bomb or any of your grenades will trigger Energy Siphon. This can be mighty useful, especially since the Voidwalker is heavily grenade dependent.
Passives
Tier 1
Arcane Wisdom
+2 Agility, +2 Recovery
Arcane Spirit
+2 Armor, +2 Recovery
Arcane Force
+2 Armor, +2 Agility
Tier 2
Ancestral Order
+2 Armor, +2 Agility, +2 Recovery
Chaos Order
+5 Agility
Divine Order
+4 Armor, +2 Recovery
Sunsinger
Sunsingers are basically the closest thing you’ll get to a pyromancer in Destiny. These guys wield the power of Light and use it to ignite foes, and can energize themselves to cast abilities with twice the effectiveness.
The Sunsinger is essentially a pyromaniac’s way of playing Destiny, sitting back, relaxing as you watch foes burn around you.
In addition to the extra bit of heat, as a Sunsinger you’ll also have the unique ability to revive yourself, which can come in extremely handy during PvE Nightfall missions, and also in PvP to surprise your opponents.
The Sunsinger overall best utilizes Intellect and Discipline because of the emphasis on the abilities and grenades.
Grenades
Solar Grenade
The Solar Grenade is quite similar to the Voidwalker’s Vortex grenade, except that instead of a Void vortex you’ll have a raging area of inferno that burns enemies within its parameters periodically.
The Solar Grenade is a great tool for denial in PvP and mighty useful in PvE to deal large amounts of damage to slower enemies. The Solar Grenade has a radius of 4 meters, dealing 100 damage per seconds in rapid pulses that last for 3.5 seconds.
Firebolt Grenade
The Firebolt Grenade is a seeker explosive that launches Solar projectiles that seek up to 4 different targets within their 8 meter radius. Each one of these projectiles deals 80 damage.
The Firebolt grenades can be further amplified with Touch of Flame, allowing you to ignite enemies through this explosive.
Fusion Grenade
Fusion Grenade is one of the several sticky grenades in the game. The Sunsinger’s sticky grenade will deal normal 100 damage in a blast when attached to the wall or non-opponent object, but when it does stick to a foe it will deal an additional 65 damage, leading to a total damage of 165.
Like other sticky grenades, aiming your Fusion explosive accurately can be a challenging task – it’s best to use this grenade for tactics and denial purposes.
Abilities
The main abilities of the Sunsinger are Glide, Radiance, and Scorch, with the remaining being upgrades.
Glide
This is pretty much the same Glide used by the Voidwalker.
Focused Control
This ability will modify Glide to give you extra control while you’re gliding.
Focused Burst
Focused Burst gets rid of the slow gliding and actually gives you a speed boost when you start gliding. This is an excellent choice for PvP as an escape or surprise infiltrating tool.
Balanced Glide
Balanced Glide is a mixture of Focused Control and Focus Burst, giving you a mixture of speed boost and control, though the bonus isn’t as great as either individual talent.
Radiance
Radiance is the signature ability of the Sunsinger. It is a powerful super-move that strengthens all the other Sunsinger abilities significantly for 13 seconds. While active, you are also granted damage resistance, faster recharge times for all abilities, and a melee attack that is lethal to anyone in PvP, and highly damaging in PvE.
What makes Radiance such a fantastic ability is that the recharge boost granted by it scales with your Discipline and Strength, allowing you to use grenades and abilities far more often than any other class or specialization.
Radiant Skin
Radiant Skin will further amplify the damage resistance while Radiance is active. This is very useful in both PvP and PvE – particularly the former as you can abuse your lethal melee strikes and earn a quick set of kills through it.
However, the other options are more optimum when you are playing with a team.
Song of Flame
Though Radiant Skin is a pretty attractive upgrade for Radiance, it is a bit self-centered, which may not be ideal when you’re playing in a team. In such cases, the wiser choice is Song of Flame, particularly for PvP, as while in Radiance mode the cooldowns of all the abilities of all allies near you will be reduced.
Basically, you’ll be giving off an aura of benevolence that your allies can benefit from. Of course, you could also use this in PvE to give your allies plenty of benefit, but Fireborn is actually more beneficial in team PvE.
Fireborn
Fireborn is a unique ability in Destiny as it has the sole power to resurrect you from the dead.
Once you succumb to the inevitable, you can actually use Radiance to revive like a Phoenix from its ashes. This ability is great in both PvP and PvE, but the latter really takes advantage of it, in particular difficult Nightfall missions where survival is an absolute necessity.
In PvP, players will start expecting you to use Fireborn to revive yourself after gunning you down, so while it may be effective once or twice in a match, this ability will be rendered useless for the remaining bit once the word is out that you are using it.
Scorch
Scorch is a powerful melee strike that burns enemies. The melee damage is immediately followed by 25 burning damage over 2.5 seconds.
Flame Shield
With this upgrade, killing an enemy with Scorch will reduce incoming damage for a short duration. Warlocks in general tend to have lower armor, so using Flame Shield in PvP along with Radiance can help you survive for long periods of time.
Solar Wind
Solar Wind is pretty simple: it will add a strong knockback effect to your Scorch melee attack.
Brimstone
Brimstone is a lot like the Bloom modifier for the Voidwalker, causing enemies to explode for 70 damage in a 5 meter radius whenever you kill them.
The only difference is that instead of them exploding with any ability, they will explode with Scorch melee strike only. It’s unlikely that you’ll find clustered enemies in PvP to take full use of Brimstone, meaning it is more naturally suited to PvE.
Ability Modifiers
Tier 1
Radiant Will
Radiant Will boosts the duration of Radiance by 2 seconds to a total of 15 seconds.
Sunburst
With this modifier active, killing enemies with Scorch will have a chance to generate Orbs of Light. Yes, this is pretty much a pure support modifier.
Viking Funeral
Viking Funeral is an upgrade all pyromaniacs will want. It will boost all the burning abilities and their damage, making them burn longer and take more damage. Not a nice experience for those poor PvP opponents.
Tier 2
Touch of Flame
As if things weren’t heated up enough, Touch of Flame will add burning damage to all your grenades. Your Solar Grenade will already have it, and it will simply get boosted, but the other grenades will benefit largely from this.
Gift of Sun
This modifier will allow you to use a second additional grenade. The recharge time of this grenade will speed up after you use your primary grenade.
Angel of Light
This is a very weird and unique modifier. While in the air, aiming down the sight of your gun will suspend you midair. This can be stupidly annoying for opponents in PvP, as they’d often expect you to land on the ground, only to see you floating and readying a critical headshot.
Passives
Tier 1
Arcane Wisdom
+2 Agility, +2 Recovery
Arcane Spirit
+2 Armor, +2 Recovery
Arcane Force
+2 Armor, +2 Agility
Tier 2
Ancestral Order
+2 Armor, +2 Agility, +2 Recovery
Chaos Order
+5 Agility
Divine Order
+4 Armor, +2 Recovery
