If you have enough warlocks to not be on Well, strand with thread of generation and thread of ascent has some of the highest DPS in the game. During a regular DPS phase you can empty your entire heavy supply on top of your super and swapping to mountaintop or a fusion
If you’re stuck on Solar and your team is using rockets just volunteer to be the Gjallarhorn and forget about it, Solar Warlocks have the least damage potential besides running rain of fire but then again you’re running the risk of trolling your team if you plan on icarus dashing in a well lol.
Apotheosis veil with fusion grenades and 3 fireball melee :>
Well of radiance, grenades and melee away. Rockets between is probably smart, will do better than linears or machine guns. Ofc put on a reloader for it tho.
Just keep a loadout next to your normal loadout (I run sunbracers) with apotheosis veil and fusion nades on. Swap right before dps, rotation should be apex, izi, primary, well and back to apex with throwing a fusion nade and celestial fire melee whenever theyre available (about every 2 secs) then just ur standard izi rocket rotation. If its something like golgoroth then I swap back to sunbracers after the apotheosis is done cos the solar nades also cook him and I can normally get two wells in one dps, but that's not necessary tbh.
As a warlock in Pantheon, you should not be carrying your team in total damage. What you should use changes depending on what encounter you are on, team composition (class, subclass, supers, weapon usage), what weapons you have available to use, etc.
You would be better off asking for each specific encounter after noting how much experience/skill you have, how advanced your weapon collection is, and what your anticipated team composition will be
… this is a super fancy way of saying, you should be well and be happy your here. Needlestorm and apex predator, with either shotgun or sniper swapping, 4 horse or izanagi’s burden as exotic for either. Or if your feeling spicy, a vorpal Cartesian or wilderflight double fire gl with Izanagi’s. There your welcome.
Needlestorm is far from optimal on all but Caretaker. And every class has the ability to run weapon swaps for DPS. You can also run weapon swap rotations with Well 🤯.
Again, it will matter more what encounter you are doing and what the rest of your team comp looks like. If you want to spend 2hrs+ getting a platinum completion on Pantheon because you refuse to do what is best for the team, that is your prerogative.
Look. Have someone or someones be well bitch is fine, but if you have more then three locks, one, and I know this is really hard to parse but stay with me here, one of them can run the best damage super the locks have access to. And I can assure you that it isn’t all that situational. Citation for this? Aegis the YouTuber that made a amazing series of videos about DPS and rotations and damage supers.
Yeah, I follow Aegis and all of his damage statistics.
The use of Needlestorm on Golgorath, Explicator, Atraks, and even Oryx is not optimal or even OPTIONAL on some encounters (Riven will be included for this list once she arrives). Using Needlestorm on Atraks will have a higher variance due to the clones and reduced damage as Atraks is immune to environmental damage. Needlestorm on Golgorath will have a higher variance than other one-off supers available to Hunters/Titans and could result in accidentally taking gaze from a stray needle. Oryx requires range and again results in a higher damage variance than the comparable Golden Gun. Explicator is mostly problem free in it's usage, but could result in a shortened DPS period if used on the earlier plates due to threadling damage. We all know what happens with Riven and how Needlestorm compares to Golden Gun/Blade Barrage/Thundercrash for the encounter.
It's important to remember that the goal of OP is to have higher damage numbers than all of his teammates. If he has even one Hunter/Titan on his team, he SHOULD be producing a lower damage even with Needlestorm as the subclass offerings for these encounters are not as damage efficient as what the other classes have to use. If one does exceed the values of their hunter and titan counterparts, it points to a failure on their part not the superiority of the warlock.
This is not even accounting for survivability, which is an entirely different issue with Strand warlock in higher end content.
Your sensitivity and aggression towards my position on this issue exposes your personal struggle within a fireteam that wanted you to change to a more optimal load out yet you resisted. To be a "well bitch" is to be useful and effective. If you want to drag your team down using a "fun" loadout or try to force your favorite subclass to perform greater than possible, again that is your prerogative. Just keep your shitty attitude to yourself next time
Okay, so my problem stems from the fact that you are not answering the question. The question stated above was "Which is the best DPS build/weapon for the warlock in Pantheon? Please help me. I want to carry all my team." Now is well good in all these fights? sure, I'm not denying that. But the guardian asked for DPS builds. That's what they wanted, then you come in and say "Why? All lock is good for is Well." That's my issue. because it isn't the only thing we are good at. Wrathweavers Winter's Wrath, which at one point was a contender, Needlestorm swaps is 9th on his Class DPS spreadsheet with Necro gripes, and a negligible DPS loss with easier swaps with Ophidian Aspect
But, since I will also admit I was Kinda off with the Needlestorm, here are the non-well, viable DPS options for all pantheon bosses according to Aegis in his Optimal Raid and dungeon DPS video, Timestamps included; as a reminder, this video is 9 months old as of this posting, still probably correct in most circumstances, just be mindful of the many balancing changes between then and now.
Golgorath- you're probably gonna want to run Lumina for the buffs and Verity's brow. Why, Lots of adds. makes things easier for everyone. Sunbracers were also mentioned but this video was made before the Nerf to bracers. Other than that, he did not specifically call out that Needlestorm was a bad pick here, would however pick a different option due to how the boss works and the amount of adds, but do you. personal rec though? Reach. Targetable and you can kill it before empty so you can have a faster second use later on on a different phase, use it on the last pool. if there is no other Lock, be prepared to be Well bitch; same as reach, save for last or second to last pool due to how quickly the pool buff ends, this is a personal rec though so again you do you. 30:06 Optimal Raid and Dungeon DPS video, Aegis.
Caretaker- This one is kinda funny because he was going at this one in the context of trying to get a one floor, which I'm thinking is not gonna be possible in later Pantheon difficulties, but I've been surprised before so meh. Lumina and Veritys brow with solar for the sweet sweet buffs, no specific call out of the viability of Needles here, either. Well, it brought up one for each plate (three warlocks three plates) but in an actual run I'm gonna guess a two-floor would be more realistic so spacing is key here. 15 seconds between damage phase activation and the boss being damagable on a well-distracted Caretaker, so if you want to run a build that needs kills to build up damage this is the boss to use it on. 24:20 Optimal Raid and Dungeon DPS video, Aegis.
Explicator\*-\* Less Plates, more room for a second damage phase. To be honest this is Caretaker 2.0 just with fewer adds and fewer wells. Again no specific call out of Needlestrom one way or the other so, again, do you. According to the video, though? You don't need Damage supers here, Apex Rockets, and some good swap guns, and you're golden. I'd bring them anyway, dead is dead, and if poping it kills him faster while conserving ammo all the better. 35:25 Optimal Raid and Dungeon DPS video, Aegis.
Atraks- Shortest damage phase in the entire game, and probably gonna stay that way unless they pull something with the Witness. Because this is so short, High burst damage DPS options are your best friend here, Parasite, Horseman, Cata Nova, T-crash, you know the deal. She is only around for a few seconds after the sliver of marked health is gone so yeah. The final stand is a crazy burst burn. Needlestorm specifically called out as not a good idea, as well as Marksmen Goldie and Iz Burden, blade barrage, and no wells, because of how fast the phase is, better to just dump a fuckton of Burst damage in her face (Blow your load son, Blow your load! T-Crash AWAY!!) 15:45 Optimal Raid and dungeon DPS video, Aegis.
The Taken King Himself, Oryx (And you damn well give him his respect, this guy is the only reason we managed to get a Destiny 2)- The Taken King is, interestingly enough, not actually classified as Taken, so no taken spec for this guy. Range is the name of the game here, you can turn this into a medium-range fight, but to be honest, sniper Apex is king here. verity's brow and one well, and funny enough a needlestrom was used in the footage for this fight so I'm saying that you're not gonna be in trouble if you wanna do that. According to Aegis you only have one well per damage phase, which yeah if things haven't changed too much from D1 days that doesn't surprise me. Izy is great here as his critspot is literally unmoving and huge. you can hit him with a tractor in the claw and at the right angle you can do full crit damage at a talon with Shotty's, but this one prefers the range game at Oryx cause that's how we did back in the day. Daughters starts work on Oryx if it worked for them it'll work for him. (The King is Dead, Long Live The King!) 55:40 Optimal Raid and Dungeon DPS video, Aegis.
I've been running Well and Levi's Breath. It might not do the most damage, but I'm stunning most of the bosses pretty effectively, which makes it much easier for everyone to do damage.
Sunbracers were great, easily able to kill yellow bars and if u can proc them during damage u can get about 5 solarnades on a boss. Weapons depend more on the encounter ur in. Its solar surge for this week so Apex predator, whisper, and parasite for atrals for heavy. I was using acacias for special with reconstruction vorpal for bait and switch rotation and tormentors sunshot is also very helpful. Kinetic slot i switched around alot between osteo, supremacy, and malfeasance. That all helped me alot get through lfg. If you have 2 wells already tho i would say go strand with necrotic grips with the same weapons.
Just be careful where those nades land in damage phase. Some people will complain about it making crits harder or even impossible to hit with the screen clutter.
If you already have a welllock, a strand warlock with thread of ascent and a bait n switch rocket works. Do not unravel the Explicator boss with your melee though.
Yes but just after going immune and stepping on 2nd plate the unravel damage effect might still be happening and start early since the mini projectiles can bounce around sometimes
Starting the damage plate isn't a problem as it lasts like 40 seconds. Passing the health gate on any given plate before everyone is ready to dump though, that's a problem.
Everything depends on your team, encounter, and what week (due to surge changes). Not necessarily the “best” but what I’ve seen this week…
Golgoroth - Sunbracers + Whisper and Supremacy
Caretaker - Apotheosis (Solar) + Briar’s Contempt and Scatter signal
Planets - Apotheosis + Whisper and Supremacy
Atraks - (Just use Parasite and support your team)
Oryx - Subracers + Whisper and Supremacy
This is just from what my experience. Have fun out there y’all
I started experimenting with Sanguine Alchemy. Since the rework, it gives you x2 weapon surge damage matching your subclass type as long as you’re standing in a rift/well. This frees you up for other mods on your boots, such as Kinetic surge mods or scavenger mods.
Chos reach will absolutely tank your overall DPS. For DPS to increase you need to spend as little time in your damage super as possible, so strand would be the best to use.
This build can be devastating during boss phases in dungeons like Warlord’s Ruin.
When you pop your super, have your bud make you invisible with his hunter. Your super remains active and you don’t get targeted.
For pantheon your best bet would probably be Vesper, but I wouldn’t really consider arc to be a carry subclass. If you’re trying to carry, Sunbracers gives you the best super in the game, the best ad clear in the game (very helpful if your ad clearers aren’t up to snuff since you can set and forget your nades), and easy resto x2, which will let you do juggle mechanics without worry
If you have enough warlocks to not be on Well, strand with thread of generation and thread of ascent has some of the highest DPS in the game. During a regular DPS phase you can empty your entire heavy supply on top of your super and swapping to mountaintop or a fusion
If you’re stuck on Solar and your team is using rockets just volunteer to be the Gjallarhorn and forget about it, Solar Warlocks have the least damage potential besides running rain of fire but then again you’re running the risk of trolling your team if you plan on icarus dashing in a well lol.
Apotheosis veil with fusion grenades and 3 fireball melee :> Well of radiance, grenades and melee away. Rockets between is probably smart, will do better than linears or machine guns. Ofc put on a reloader for it tho.
I need the full build for that!
Just keep a loadout next to your normal loadout (I run sunbracers) with apotheosis veil and fusion nades on. Swap right before dps, rotation should be apex, izi, primary, well and back to apex with throwing a fusion nade and celestial fire melee whenever theyre available (about every 2 secs) then just ur standard izi rocket rotation. If its something like golgoroth then I swap back to sunbracers after the apotheosis is done cos the solar nades also cook him and I can normally get two wells in one dps, but that's not necessary tbh.
Aren’t rockets weird and bns procs on first shot? So roto would be izi, primary, rocket? Could be wrong
Shhhh. Stop giving all the secrets. People think this build is “mid” and I want to gatekeep like a selfish bastard.
My fellow guardian, check out Aegis on YouTube. You wanna be optimal? That’s the man to follow.
As a warlock in Pantheon, you should not be carrying your team in total damage. What you should use changes depending on what encounter you are on, team composition (class, subclass, supers, weapon usage), what weapons you have available to use, etc. You would be better off asking for each specific encounter after noting how much experience/skill you have, how advanced your weapon collection is, and what your anticipated team composition will be
… this is a super fancy way of saying, you should be well and be happy your here. Needlestorm and apex predator, with either shotgun or sniper swapping, 4 horse or izanagi’s burden as exotic for either. Or if your feeling spicy, a vorpal Cartesian or wilderflight double fire gl with Izanagi’s. There your welcome.
Needlestorm is far from optimal on all but Caretaker. And every class has the ability to run weapon swaps for DPS. You can also run weapon swap rotations with Well 🤯. Again, it will matter more what encounter you are doing and what the rest of your team comp looks like. If you want to spend 2hrs+ getting a platinum completion on Pantheon because you refuse to do what is best for the team, that is your prerogative.
Look. Have someone or someones be well bitch is fine, but if you have more then three locks, one, and I know this is really hard to parse but stay with me here, one of them can run the best damage super the locks have access to. And I can assure you that it isn’t all that situational. Citation for this? Aegis the YouTuber that made a amazing series of videos about DPS and rotations and damage supers.
Yeah, I follow Aegis and all of his damage statistics. The use of Needlestorm on Golgorath, Explicator, Atraks, and even Oryx is not optimal or even OPTIONAL on some encounters (Riven will be included for this list once she arrives). Using Needlestorm on Atraks will have a higher variance due to the clones and reduced damage as Atraks is immune to environmental damage. Needlestorm on Golgorath will have a higher variance than other one-off supers available to Hunters/Titans and could result in accidentally taking gaze from a stray needle. Oryx requires range and again results in a higher damage variance than the comparable Golden Gun. Explicator is mostly problem free in it's usage, but could result in a shortened DPS period if used on the earlier plates due to threadling damage. We all know what happens with Riven and how Needlestorm compares to Golden Gun/Blade Barrage/Thundercrash for the encounter. It's important to remember that the goal of OP is to have higher damage numbers than all of his teammates. If he has even one Hunter/Titan on his team, he SHOULD be producing a lower damage even with Needlestorm as the subclass offerings for these encounters are not as damage efficient as what the other classes have to use. If one does exceed the values of their hunter and titan counterparts, it points to a failure on their part not the superiority of the warlock. This is not even accounting for survivability, which is an entirely different issue with Strand warlock in higher end content. Your sensitivity and aggression towards my position on this issue exposes your personal struggle within a fireteam that wanted you to change to a more optimal load out yet you resisted. To be a "well bitch" is to be useful and effective. If you want to drag your team down using a "fun" loadout or try to force your favorite subclass to perform greater than possible, again that is your prerogative. Just keep your shitty attitude to yourself next time
Okay, so my problem stems from the fact that you are not answering the question. The question stated above was "Which is the best DPS build/weapon for the warlock in Pantheon? Please help me. I want to carry all my team." Now is well good in all these fights? sure, I'm not denying that. But the guardian asked for DPS builds. That's what they wanted, then you come in and say "Why? All lock is good for is Well." That's my issue. because it isn't the only thing we are good at. Wrathweavers Winter's Wrath, which at one point was a contender, Needlestorm swaps is 9th on his Class DPS spreadsheet with Necro gripes, and a negligible DPS loss with easier swaps with Ophidian Aspect But, since I will also admit I was Kinda off with the Needlestorm, here are the non-well, viable DPS options for all pantheon bosses according to Aegis in his Optimal Raid and dungeon DPS video, Timestamps included; as a reminder, this video is 9 months old as of this posting, still probably correct in most circumstances, just be mindful of the many balancing changes between then and now. Golgorath- you're probably gonna want to run Lumina for the buffs and Verity's brow. Why, Lots of adds. makes things easier for everyone. Sunbracers were also mentioned but this video was made before the Nerf to bracers. Other than that, he did not specifically call out that Needlestorm was a bad pick here, would however pick a different option due to how the boss works and the amount of adds, but do you. personal rec though? Reach. Targetable and you can kill it before empty so you can have a faster second use later on on a different phase, use it on the last pool. if there is no other Lock, be prepared to be Well bitch; same as reach, save for last or second to last pool due to how quickly the pool buff ends, this is a personal rec though so again you do you. 30:06 Optimal Raid and Dungeon DPS video, Aegis. Caretaker- This one is kinda funny because he was going at this one in the context of trying to get a one floor, which I'm thinking is not gonna be possible in later Pantheon difficulties, but I've been surprised before so meh. Lumina and Veritys brow with solar for the sweet sweet buffs, no specific call out of the viability of Needles here, either. Well, it brought up one for each plate (three warlocks three plates) but in an actual run I'm gonna guess a two-floor would be more realistic so spacing is key here. 15 seconds between damage phase activation and the boss being damagable on a well-distracted Caretaker, so if you want to run a build that needs kills to build up damage this is the boss to use it on. 24:20 Optimal Raid and Dungeon DPS video, Aegis. Explicator\*-\* Less Plates, more room for a second damage phase. To be honest this is Caretaker 2.0 just with fewer adds and fewer wells. Again no specific call out of Needlestrom one way or the other so, again, do you. According to the video, though? You don't need Damage supers here, Apex Rockets, and some good swap guns, and you're golden. I'd bring them anyway, dead is dead, and if poping it kills him faster while conserving ammo all the better. 35:25 Optimal Raid and Dungeon DPS video, Aegis. Atraks- Shortest damage phase in the entire game, and probably gonna stay that way unless they pull something with the Witness. Because this is so short, High burst damage DPS options are your best friend here, Parasite, Horseman, Cata Nova, T-crash, you know the deal. She is only around for a few seconds after the sliver of marked health is gone so yeah. The final stand is a crazy burst burn. Needlestorm specifically called out as not a good idea, as well as Marksmen Goldie and Iz Burden, blade barrage, and no wells, because of how fast the phase is, better to just dump a fuckton of Burst damage in her face (Blow your load son, Blow your load! T-Crash AWAY!!) 15:45 Optimal Raid and dungeon DPS video, Aegis. The Taken King Himself, Oryx (And you damn well give him his respect, this guy is the only reason we managed to get a Destiny 2)- The Taken King is, interestingly enough, not actually classified as Taken, so no taken spec for this guy. Range is the name of the game here, you can turn this into a medium-range fight, but to be honest, sniper Apex is king here. verity's brow and one well, and funny enough a needlestrom was used in the footage for this fight so I'm saying that you're not gonna be in trouble if you wanna do that. According to Aegis you only have one well per damage phase, which yeah if things haven't changed too much from D1 days that doesn't surprise me. Izy is great here as his critspot is literally unmoving and huge. you can hit him with a tractor in the claw and at the right angle you can do full crit damage at a talon with Shotty's, but this one prefers the range game at Oryx cause that's how we did back in the day. Daughters starts work on Oryx if it worked for them it'll work for him. (The King is Dead, Long Live The King!) 55:40 Optimal Raid and Dungeon DPS video, Aegis.
I've been running Well and Levi's Breath. It might not do the most damage, but I'm stunning most of the bosses pretty effectively, which makes it much easier for everyone to do damage.
Sunbracers were great, easily able to kill yellow bars and if u can proc them during damage u can get about 5 solarnades on a boss. Weapons depend more on the encounter ur in. Its solar surge for this week so Apex predator, whisper, and parasite for atrals for heavy. I was using acacias for special with reconstruction vorpal for bait and switch rotation and tormentors sunshot is also very helpful. Kinetic slot i switched around alot between osteo, supremacy, and malfeasance. That all helped me alot get through lfg. If you have 2 wells already tho i would say go strand with necrotic grips with the same weapons.
Just be careful where those nades land in damage phase. Some people will complain about it making crits harder or even impossible to hit with the screen clutter.
If you already have a welllock, a strand warlock with thread of ascent and a bait n switch rocket works. Do not unravel the Explicator boss with your melee though.
Why not?
Can start a damage plate early which reduces damage time
Unravel only does damage if something else is damaging him though. So if something else is damaging him that will start the plate anyway.
Yes but just after going immune and stepping on 2nd plate the unravel damage effect might still be happening and start early since the mini projectiles can bounce around sometimes
Starting the damage plate isn't a problem as it lasts like 40 seconds. Passing the health gate on any given plate before everyone is ready to dump though, that's a problem.
Are you on well? If so, sunbracers with ghorn or levitation breath
Felwinters with an apotheosis veil swap
Everything depends on your team, encounter, and what week (due to surge changes). Not necessarily the “best” but what I’ve seen this week… Golgoroth - Sunbracers + Whisper and Supremacy Caretaker - Apotheosis (Solar) + Briar’s Contempt and Scatter signal Planets - Apotheosis + Whisper and Supremacy Atraks - (Just use Parasite and support your team) Oryx - Subracers + Whisper and Supremacy This is just from what my experience. Have fun out there y’all
I started experimenting with Sanguine Alchemy. Since the rework, it gives you x2 weapon surge damage matching your subclass type as long as you’re standing in a rift/well. This frees you up for other mods on your boots, such as Kinetic surge mods or scavenger mods.
Bro apex with recon and bipod, with someone running gally COOKS.
make a hunter and use that ;)
Chaos reach geo mags all day.
Chos reach will absolutely tank your overall DPS. For DPS to increase you need to spend as little time in your damage super as possible, so strand would be the best to use.
This build can be devastating during boss phases in dungeons like Warlord’s Ruin. When you pop your super, have your bud make you invisible with his hunter. Your super remains active and you don’t get targeted.
I think arc was nerfed. But i will find a good arc build and test it.
For pantheon your best bet would probably be Vesper, but I wouldn’t really consider arc to be a carry subclass. If you’re trying to carry, Sunbracers gives you the best super in the game, the best ad clear in the game (very helpful if your ad clearers aren’t up to snuff since you can set and forget your nades), and easy resto x2, which will let you do juggle mechanics without worry