Necrotic Grips Strand Warlock Build

Welcome to the Necrotic Grips Strand Warlock build! This build combines highly effective crowd control through Suspend, with damage over time effects from Unravel, Necrotic Grip and Osteo Striga. During ad dense activities and encounters, you're able to show just how strong the Strand subclass is.

The Necrotic Grips Strand Warlock build focuses on the Exotic armor piece Necrotic Grip and it's synergy with Osteo Striga. Additionally, this build can generate Tangles by defeating targets affected by Unravel. These Tangles are used to in junction tandem with your aspect The Wanderer to further Suspend your enemies.

The build's biggest drawback is a lack of self healing, so you will need to play safer by putting range between you and your enemies. Shoot your Tangles instead of picking them up, especially during harder content. Once you understand how all of your fragments synergize with the rest of the build, the high uptime on your abilities allows you to keep your enemies left hanging helplessly.

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.
Bullet travel time with Osteo Striga.
No self healing outside of Healing Rift.
Harder content reduces your Tangle Creation.

Gameplay Loop

Suspension is what this Necrotic Grips Warlock Strand build does best. Start off by consuming your Shackle Grenade as it allows for more opportunities to Suspend enemies than just throwing the grenade alone would. This gives you the Weaver's Trance buff from Mindspun Invocation which causes a suspending detonation on all final blows while active. Throw your Arcane Needle into a crowd of enemies to start the Unravel fireworks.

The secondary focus of the build is spreading your poison, which Osteo Striga and Necrotic Grip both do effectively. Necrotic Grip modifies your Arcane Needle to help spread this poison at the same time as Unraveling enemies. Each time an enemy is killed by the poison tick damage, the poison spreads to other targets. An added benefit to this is reloading the magazine for Osteo Striga. The magazine can be overfilled and potentially never has to be reloaded.

Targets that are afflicted by Unravel spread the effect when they are damaged. When enemies are killed by Unravel, a Tangle spawns in whenever the cooldown has cleared. The Wanderer aspect lets you utilize these Tangles in multiple ways. You can either pick them up and throw them at an enemy or shoot them to create a suspending burst after a short delay.

While your only source of self healing comes from Healing Rift, it can be used more like a cooldown to activate Outreach and Bomber. You should have plenty of class ability and grenade ability regeneration from Thread of Mind and Thread of Generation respectively. Picking up an Orb of Power gives you melee energy from Invigoration and activates Font of Vigor, giving you 3 free tiers of Strength. The Necrotic Grips Strand Warlock build combines these interactions for a near permanent uptime on your abilities.

Ability Breakdown

Super

Needlestorm
- Conjure a hail of deadly woven needles. After embedding themselves in the environment, the needles reweave into a host of Threadlings. This super ability is used to deal with an unruly group of ads, or thrown at a boss for a 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 Suspend 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 at the cost of Discipline.
Thread of Wisdom - Defeating targets under the effect of Suspend drops an Orb of Power.
Thread of Continuity - Suspend and Unravel have an increased duration when applied to targets.

Gearing

Required Gear and Weapons

Necrotic Grip - Damaging combatants 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:

Farm the expert lost sector on Arms armor days.
Complete the Vex Strike Force Public Event on Neomuna.

Substitution: Swarmers - Destroying a Tangle spawns a Threadling. Your Threadlings apply Unravel to targets that they damage. 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 the Lightfall DLC to unlock the Swarmers armor piece.

How to acquire:

Farm the expert lost sector on Arms armor days.
Complete the Vex Strike Force Public Event on Neomuna.

Stat Priorities

Resilience > Discipline > Recovery
Resilience is always the most coveted stat when in a PVE environment. It increases your damage resist and your shield capacity. Your goal is 100 Resilience.
Discipline significantly reduces the cooldown on your Shackle Grenade.
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

Helmet
- Kinetic Siphon - Rapid Kinetic weapon final blows create an Orb of Power.
- Heavy Ammo Finder - Increases the drop chance of Heavy ammo on kill.
- Heavy Ammo Scout - When one of your ammo finder perks creates a brick of Heavy ammo, it also creates bricks for your allies. Use when in a fireteam.
Gauntlets
- Font of Vigor - You gain a bonus to Strength while you have any armor charge. Causes armor charges to decay over time.
- Impact Induction - Causing damage with a powered melee attack reduces your grenade cooldown.
- Focusing Strike - Grants class ability energy when you cause damage with a powered melee attack.
Chest
- Charged Up - Increases the max number of armor charges you can carry by 1.
- Resist/Reserve mods of your choice - Choose for the activity you are going into!
Leg
- Innervation - Reduces grenade cooldown each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
- Invigoration - Reduces melee cooldown each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
- Kinetic Weapon Surge - Your Kinetic weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any armor charge. Causes armor charges to decay over time.
Bond
- Time Dilation - Your decaying armor charges have a longer duration.
- Outreach - Reduces melee cooldown when using your class ability.
- Bomber - Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.

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

Artifact Mods

Unstoppable Sidearm - Gives you an always active stun for Unstoppable Champions with Indebted Kindness.
Anti-barrier Submachine Gun - Gives you an always active stun for Anti-Barrier Champions with Osteo Striga.
Elemental Siphon - Create a Tangle with rapid final blows from your Kinetic or Strand weapons and further your ability to Suspend enemies.
Press The Advantage - When breaking an enemy's shield, your weapons gain additional stability, handling and reload speed.
Prismatic Transfer - When you cast Needlestorm, all allies not using a Strand Super ability gain a bonus to weapon damage.

Kinetic Weapon: Osteo Striga - An incredibly powerful primary weapon when combined with your Exotic armor of choice. Poison final blows overfill the magazine for longer times in between reloads.
- Osteo Striga requires access to The Witch Queen DLC to unlock after campaign completion.
Energy Weapon: Indebted Kindness - Strong special weapon with even stronger ammo economy. Indebted Kindness is a solid choice in any loadout.
- Indebted Kindness requires access to the Lightfall Dungeon Key to unlock from the Warlord's Ruin Dungeon.
Power Weapon: Cataphract GL3 (Adept) - Heavy grenade launchers are in a very good spot right now in the sandbox. Good for short or long damage windows with its burst capability and deep ammo reserves.

Variants

Swap Osteo Striga 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. Thorn requires access to the Forsaken DLC Pack to unlock.
Swap Thread of Wisdom for Thread of Warding.
- You lose the ability to generate more Orbs of Power from suspended targets, but Woven Mail offers very strong damage resistance when picking up Orbs created from other sources.
Replace Heavy Ammo Scout with Kinetic Siphon for increased Orb of Power generation.
- When you are solo, you don't benefit from Heavy Ammo Scout.
Feel free to utilize other weapons in the Energy and Power slots, as they do not make or break this build. Use what works for you!

Summary

Strand is an incredibly powerful Warlock subclass offering ample crowd control, this Necrotic Grips build does it easily and effectively. While manipulating the Weave, hordes of enemies crumble beneath the spreading fallout of Unravel and poison. Master this Strand Warlock build, and string your opponents up with the threads of psychic energy interwoven with reality!

Credits

Written by: SquirrelyDan

Reviewed by: ShieldMaiden, Tenkiei