Necrotic Grips Strand Warlock Build

Heresy

Last Updated:February 9, 2025|Changelog

Welcome to the Necrotic Grip Strand Warlock build! This setup masterfully combines the potent crowd control of Suspend with devastating damage-over-time effects from Unravel and Necrotic Grip. When faced with ad-heavy encounters, this build showcases the true potential of the Strand subclass, letting you dominate the battlefield with relentless efficiency.

The Exotic armor piece Necrotic Grip pairs seamlessly with all Weapons of Sorrow—Necrochasm, Osteo Striga, and Thorn—to spread poison through enemy kills. The optimal weapon for this synergy is Necrochasm, as its Cursed Thrall Explosions spreads poison and deals substantial damage.

This build excels at generating Tangles by defeating enemies affected with Unravel. These Tangles synergize with your aspect, The Wanderer, Suspending enemies more effectively. The second Aspect, Mindspun Invocation, amplifies your Shackle Grenade, causing it to release a suspending detonation upon enemy defeat. This effect is also triggered by poison kills, creating a powerful chain reaction.

The Final Shape expansion introduced a slight nerf to Osteo Striga, the previous go-to weapon for this build, adding a 4-second cooldown to its poison burst on kill, which diminishes its effectiveness in this build. However, with the introduction of Necrochasm from the Crota's End raid, the Necrotic Grip Warlock build remains incredibly fun to use and stands out as one of the few damage-over-time builds in Destiny 2. With high ability uptime, you can leave your enemies helplessly Suspended and Toxic, ensuring control of the battlefield.

WARNING: You must own the Lightfall DLC and complete the campaign on any difficulty to have access to the Strand Subclass.

Pros

High ability uptime.
Great crowd control.
Multiple Exotic weapon choices.
Burst damage super for bosses or adds.

Cons

Cooldown dependent.
Harder content reduces your Tangle Creation.

Gameplay Loop

This Necrotic Grip Warlock Strand build excels at Suspension and Poison damage, creating a deadly combination that keeps your enemies in check.

Begin by consuming your Shackle Grenade to trigger Mindspun Invocation's Weaver's Trance buff, which causes suspending detonations on all final blows. This significantly increases your ability to Suspend enemies compared to just throwing the grenade.
Unleash your Arcane Needle to poison and trigger a chain reaction of Unravel explosions. Necrotic Grip enhances your Arcane Needle, allowing it to simultaneously spread poison and Unravel enemies. Each poison tick kill triggers a chain reaction, spreading the poison further.

Targets afflicted by Unravel spread the effect when they take damage. When enemies die while Unraveled, a Tangle spawns. The Wanderer aspect allows you to use these Tangles in various ways—either pick them up and throw them at enemies or shoot them to trigger a suspending burst after a short delay.

While your only source of self-healing comes from Healing Rift, it can also be used to activate Reaper, dropping an Orb of Power on your next kill. Thread of Mind and Thread of Generation generate plenty of ability regeneration for your class ability and grenade. Picking up an Orb of Power triggers Kinetic Weapon Surge for Necrochasm and further enhances ability regeneration with Distribution. The Necrotic Grips Strand Warlock build combines these interactions for near-permanent ability uptime.

Ability Breakdown

Super

Needlestorm
- Conjure a hail of deadly woven needles that embed themselves in the environment, transforming into a swarm of Threadlings. This Super ability is perfect for clearing out unruly groups of ads or hurling at a boss for a powerful burst of damage.

Abilities

Healing Rift - Use Healing rift to overcome the build's innate lack of self healing.
Burst Glide - Your jump ability is up to you, but the example setup uses Burst Glide.
Arcane Needle - Arcane Needle is the only melee ability available to Strand Warlock. This is how you initiate Unravel.
Shackle Grenade - Consume Shackle grenade to activate the Weaver's Trance buff from Mindspun Invocation.

Aspects

Mindspun Invocation - All 3 grenade types have enhanced functionality. Since you are using Shackle Grenade, you consume this to activate Weaver's Trance.
The Wanderer - Destroying a Tangle creates a burst of Suspending energy after a short delay. You can either throw them or shoot them to trigger this burst.

Fragments

Thread of Mind - Defeating targets under the effect of Suspend grants class ability energy.
Thread of Generation - Dealing any damage generates grenade energy.
Thread of Warding - Picking up an Orb of Power gives you Woven Mail.
Thread of Continuity - Longer duration for Suspend, Unravel, and Sever effects.

Gearing

Required Gear and Weapons

Necrotic Grip - Damaging enemies with a melee ability poisons them. Defeating an enemy affected by poison spreads the condition.

WARNING: You must have access to the Beyond Light DLC to unlock the Necrotic Grip Exotic armor piece.

How to acquire:

Complete the Vex Strike Force Public Event on Neomuna.
Focus it with an Exotic Engram at Rahool in the Tower.

Substitution: Mataiodoxía - This exotic enhances your capacity to Suspend targets. Defeating suspended enemies grants melee energy, allowing for rapid refueling of your Arcane Needles. This exotic can be used in place of Necrotic Grip, but you lose some of the ability to spread poison effectively.

WARNING: You must have access to T he Final Shape DLC to unlock the Mataiodoxía armor piece.

How to acquire:

Complete the Final Shape Campaign on Legend Difficulty.
Complete the Vex Strike Force Public Event on Neomuna.
Focus it with an Exotic Engram at Rahool in the Tower.

Stat Priorities

Resilience > Discipline > Recovery
In PvE, 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 significantly reduces the cooldown on your Shackle Grenade.
Recovery governs the cooldown of the Warlock's Healing Rift 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
Deep Explorer Hood	Helmet	Kinetic Siphon Hands-On	Heavy Ammo Finder
Necrotic Grip	Gloves	Impact Induction Focusing Strike Heavy Handed
Deep Explorer Vestments	Chest	Charged Up	Harmonic Resistance
Deep Explorer Boots	Legs	Kinetic Weapon Surge Kinetic Weapon Surge	Recuperation
Deep Explorer Bond	Class Item	Reaper	Distribution

Optional Mods:
- On your Chest, replace Harmonic Resistance with the appropriate resistance for the activity.
- On your Class Item, replace Distribution with Outreach for more melee cooldown, instead of all ability cooldown at a cheaper mod cost.

Armor Mods are unlocked by progressing your Guardian Rank. Check out the Guardian Ranks Guide for more information.

Artifact Perks

Unraveling Orbs
- Picking up an Orb of Power or a Tangle grants your Strand Weapons Unraveling Rounds, additionally giving them Anti Barrier capabilities.
Disruptor Spike
- Increases the potency of your Sever and Exhaustion debuffs, further lowering enemy damage (Overloading effects Exhaust enemies, lowering their damage).
Dreadful Finisher
- Finishing powerful combatants creates Special Ammo for you and your fireteam. More Ammo is generated when Finishing Subjugators, Tormentors, and Champions.
Horde Shuttle
- Unraveled enemies occasionally release Threadlings when they take Weapon damage.
Particle Reconstruction
- Dealing sustained damage to an enemy with Fusion or Linear Fusion Rifles partially reloads them and causes them to deal bonus damage to that enemy.
Defibrillating Blast
- Stunning a Champion immediately grants and readies Bolt Charge while triggering an Arcbolt which Jolts enemies and partially heals you.

Kinetic Weapon: Necrochasm - This powerful Kinetic primary weapon synergizes perfectly with your Exotic armor. Spreading poison damage through Cursed Thrall Explosions it's the best choice for this build. Necrochasm is obtained from Crota's End raid.

Energy Weapon: Any Special Ammo Weapon of your choice, we recommend Axial Lacuna - This easily easily craftable Pale Heart Fusion Rifle is always handy for chunkier targets that Necrochasm can't handle.

Power Weapon: Scintillation - with Envious Assassin and Bait and Switch pair with this Episode's synergistic Artifact Perks to make this Weapon a suitable Boss killer in any situation. This Nightfall Weapon is focusable at Zavala in the Tower.

Variants

New Light

Gear Swaps

Swap Necrochasm for Thorn.
- Thorn is another Weapon of Sorrow that synergizes with Necrotic Grips. If Hand Cannons are more your playstyle, this swap does not change the overall feel of the build.
- WARNING: You must have access to the Forsaken Pack to unlock Thorn.

Swap Scintillation with the world drop Machine Gun Marcato-45. This weapon excels at ad clear in Strand builds like Necrotic Grip Warlock.

Summary

The Necrotic Grip Strand Warlock build focuses on combining crowd control with powerful damage-over-time effects, making it a formidable choice for managing large groups of enemies. Leveraging the synergies between Necrotic Grip and Necrochasm, this build allows players to inflict poison damage that spreads among enemies, while Suspend and Unravel keep foes immobilized and vulnerable. The build is designed to capitalize on generating Tangles, which, when combined with The Wanderer aspect, significantly enhances your ability to keep enemies suspended. With high ability uptime, this setup excels in ad-clear scenarios, offering continuous crowd control and damage output.

Credits

Written by: AbbyHour

Reviewed by: Chadly, Tenkiei