Welcome to the Fallen Sunstar Arc Warlock Build Guide! This build harnesses the raw electrical power of the Arc subclass, supercharging your abilities and movement speed to make you an unstoppable force on the battlefield.
The centerpiece of this build is the Exotic helmet Fallen Sunstar, which significantly boosts Arc ability regeneration and grants additional energy to your allies through the collection of Ionic Traces. With this helmet, Ionic Traces move towards you faster and grant additional ability energy.
Jolt and Blind your enemies while zooming around the battlefield, chaining lightning strikes to control the crowd and keep your team ready for action.
Arc Warlock builds in Destiny 2 have often been overlooked, but the artifact perks from Episode 1, Act III breathe new life into this subclass, turning it into an ad-clearing powerhouse with solid damage resistance. The Shock and Awe mod unleashes a burst of lightning that damages enemies and applies Jolt, chaining electricity to nearby foes for even more crowd control. Meanwhile, Targeting Autoloader keeps your Centrifuse fully loaded while providing up to a 20% damage increase, ensuring you maintain consistent DPS while on the move.
Together, these mods enhance both your offensive and defensive capabilities, elevating the Arc Warlock to a formidable force in any PvE activity.
WARNING: You must own The Witch Queen DLC to unlock the Fallen Sunstar Exotic helmet armor piece.
- High ability uptime.
- Fast and satisfying playstyle.
- No self healing outside of Healing Rift.
- Super ability has low damage output and long cast time.
Gameplay Loop
Fallen Sunstar enhances the effectiveness of Ionic Traces, causing them to move significantly faster towards you and grant you additional ability energy upon collection. While the primary benefits go to you, your fireteam also gains 10% ability regeneration when you collect an Ionic Trace. This Exotic helmet enables an aggressive, ability-focused playstyle, letting you frequently use your abilities without worrying about downtime.
- Start by casting your Healing Rift to activate Arc Soul, which summons a ball of Arc energy that automatically targets and fires at enemies. Allies passing through your Healing Rift gain an Arc Soul as well. When you or your allies defeat enemies with Arc Soul, or any other Arc abilities, it activates your second aspect, Electrostatic Mind.
- Each defeated enemy generates an Ionic Trace—a bolt of seeking Arc energy. Collecting these traces provides a substantial boost to ability energy for your Pulse Grenade, Chain Lightning, and Healing Rift, while also making you Amplified, increasing your movement speed.
- While Amplified, any Arc kill—whether from weapons or abilities—activates Shock and Awe, unleashing a burst of lightning that damages and Jolts nearby enemies.
- To bolster your survivability, use Centrifuse; its continuous fire grants damage resistance through Sustained Fire. Additionally, with Targeting Autoloader, your Centrifuse reloads automatically and gains up to 20% increased damage, allowing for relentless assault while minimizing downtime.
Ability Breakdown
Super
- Chaos Reach
- Charge up and channel a long-range beam of concentrated Arc energy. When damage is sustained on a single target, this Super ability applies Jolt. You can cancel the cast and receive a partial refund of Super energy. The amount of energy you get back depends on how early you cancel your Super. Expend the entire duration on a Boss, or use partial charge to stun and defeat Champions.
Abilities
- Healing Rift - When inside of the rift, you and allies are healed for 40hp per second. When you are at full health, it converts the healing into an over shield.
- Burst Glide - Your jump ability is up to you.
- Chain Lightning - A short range melee ability that applies Jolt and chains lightning to nearby targets. Being Amplified creates an additional set of chains.
- Pulse Grenade - This grenade periodically damages targets within its radius and damaged enemies are Jolted with the Spark of Shock fragment.
Aspects
- Arc Soul - Modifies your Healing Rift to summon a ball of Arc energy that fires projectiles at nearby targets. Allies can pass through your Rift to gain an Arc Soul. While Amplified, these turrets are supercharged and gain an increased rate of fire.
- Electrostatic Mind - Defeating targets with Arc abilities or defeating Jolted targets, creates an Ionic Trace. Collecting an Ionic Trace makes you Amplified.
Fragments
- Spark of Shock - Pulse Grenade applies Jolt to damaged targets.
- Spark of Ions - Create an Ion Trace when defeating a Jolted enemy.
- Spark of Resistance - Receive damage resistance when surrounded by enemies.
- Spark of Discharge - Arc weapon final blows have a chance to create an Ionic Trace, which are enhanced with Fallen Sunstar.
Gearing
Required Gear and Weapons
Fallen Sunstar - Ionic Traces move faster and grant additional ability energy. Nearby allies also gain ability energy when you collect an Ionic Trace.
WARNING: You must own The Witch Queen DLC to unlock the Fallen Sunstar Exotic helmet armor piece.
How to acquire:
- Farm the expert lost sector on Helmet armor days.
- Complete the Vex Strike Force Public Event on Neomuna.
Stat Priorities
- Resilience > Discipline > Recovery.
- Resilience is the most crucial stat to focus on. Aim for 100 Resilience to maximize your damage resistance and shield capacity, ensuring better survivability in challenging encounters.
- Discipline decreases the cooldown on your grenade ability, allowing it to charge faster.
- Recovery governs the cooldown on the Warlocks class ability and decreases the time it takes to regenerate your health and shields.
Learn more about the Stats available to you in Destiny 2 with our dedicated guide.
Armor Mods
| Item | Slot | Mandatory Mods | Supporting Mods |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fallen Sunstar | Helmet | Harmonic Siphon Harmonic Siphon | Heavy Ammo Finder |
| Deep Explorer Gloves | Gloves | Impact Induction Momentum Transfer Bolstering Detonation | |
| Deep Explorer Vestments | Chest | Charged Up | Harmonic Resistance |
| Deep Explorer Boots | Legs | Arc Weapon Surge Arc Weapon Surge | Recuperation |
| Deep Explorer Bond | Class Item | Powerful Attraction Bomber | Time Dilation |
- Optional Mods:
- On your Chest, replace Harmonic Resistance with the appropriate resistance for the activity.
Armor Mods are unlocked by progressing your Guardian Rank. Check out the Guardian Ranks Guide for more information.
Artifact Perks
- Elemental Siphon - Just in case you weren't already creating enough Ionic Traces, Elemental Siphon creates one with rapid final blows from either your Kinetic weapon or an Arc weapon.
- Galvanic Armor - Since you're almost always Amplified, you can take full advantage of this mod giving you a 30% damage resistance while you have the buff.
- Shieldcrush - Gain a 25% damage and 25% recharge rate buff to your Pulse Grenade while Amplified.
- Shock and Awe - Arc final blows while you are Amplified summon a burst of lightning that damages and Jolts targets.
- Targeting Autoloader - Defeating enemies reloads your equipped auto rifle and temporarily increases weapon damage.
- Sustained Fire - Adds more damage resistance to this build while continuously damaging enemies with an Auto Rifle.
Recommend Weapons
Kinetic Weapon: The Call - This fresh take on the newly introduced rocket frame sidearm is a powerhouse in the Kinetic slot. With its high damage output and excellent ad clear, this is an easy choice for your special weapon. The Call is locked behind The Final Shape DLC.
Energy Weapon: Centrifuse - An Exotic auto rifle to synergize with this season's artifact perks. Centrifuse requires access to the Lightfall DLC to unlock.
Power Weapon: Crux Termination IV - A powerful Rocket Launcher with Reconstruction and Explosive Light perks that can be enhanced with Glimmer and Enhancement Cores.
Variants
This Fallen Sunstar Arc Warlock Build is very easy to gear up as a New Light player, assuming you have already acquired the Fallen Sunstar from the Witch Queen DLC.
Gear Swaps
- Equip the recommended Armor Mods you see on the right if you haven't masterworked your armor yet. These only require 4-5 energy and help with this Arc Warlock build.
- Swap Centrifuse for Coldheart which you can acquire from Xur or Exotic Engrams. This Trace Rifle outputs more damage the longer you hold it on a target and will generate Ionic Traces through Spark of Discharge.
Gear Swaps
- Swap Centrifuse for Delicate Tomb or Coldheart.
- Both of these special weapons fit perfectly into this Arc Warlock build, creating Ionic Traces. These weapons would be preferred in a Season with no Auto Rifle artifact mods.
- Swap Chaos Reach for Stormtrance.
- As a roaming Super, Stormtrance is better suited for clearing larger waves of ads if a particular encounter or activity calls for it.
Summary
This Fallen Sunstar Arc Warlock Build turns you into a high-speed powerhouse, capable of clearing enemies with quick charging Arc abilities. At the core of this build is the Exotic helmet, Fallen Sunstar, which boosts Arc ability regeneration for you and your allies when collecting Ionic Traces. Apply Jolt and Blind frequently to maintain control of the battlefield. Artifact perks Shock and Awe and Targeting Autoloader further enhance this build, making it capable of chaining lightning strikes and maintaining high DPS.
Credits
Written by: AbbyHour
Reviewed by: Tenkiei