Destiny 2 players have been keeping a close eye on the Fallen Sunstar Exotic, with many people believing it would rise to prominence this season thanks to changes to the game. Season of the Deep has really supercharged this spikey helmet, allowing Arc Warlocks to make a name for themselves again.
With this build, we can take advantage of synergies between Aspects, Fragments, Exotics, and Mods to turn us into a moving generator, throwing out Arc damage, healing our allies, and surviving the kind of incoming damage that would have sent old Arc Warlocks to the respawn screen.
Best Arc Warlock with Fallen Sunstar Build in Destiny 2
In this build, the weapons are pretty much up to you, to a degree. I would strongly suggest leaning hard into an Exotic that will do heavy single-target damage, however. I’m falling in love with an option that might surprise some people, but we will cover that later.
If you already know a lot about Destiny 2 build crafting and don’t need to run through the reasons and mechanics behind any of my options, you can just jump to the end for a quick summary of everything I have chosen. Just click the Take Me To The Summary link below.
Build Breakdown
The central element of this build is that we are aiming for high up-time on our abilities and managing to do it while maintaining a surprising amount of survivability, thanks to Ionic Traces. This build has been through some pretty tough content, and it has managed to stay right in the middle of the fight and pull off some clutch saves for my team.
We’ll be using healing rifts, smart use of resistances, and clever healing mechanics to survive big hits while also ensuring we are constantly putting out plenty of damage with a rotating cycle of abilities. Prepare to spam your rifts to keep your team safe, and you’ll be locking down the map with plentiful grenades, and wiping huge groups of enemies with ease thanks to Jolt. We’ll also be taking advantage of Amplified to give us more survivability and more damage. We’ll also be making plenty of Orbs of Power to keep our team topped up with their own Supers.
- Exotic Weapons and Armor
- Legendary Weapons
- Super and Abilities
- Aspects
- Fragments
- Artifact Mods
- Armor Mods
- Take Me To The Summary
Exotic Weapons and Armor, Legendary Weapons
Exotic Armor – Fallen Sunstar
The Fallen Sunstar comes with the perk Ionic Conductor. This improves Ionic Traces, making them travel faster toward you while also giving you far more ability energy from them. Each Ionic Trace (they look like little slivers of Arc energy crawling across the ground toward you) will give you 25% of your melee energy, 25% of your grenade energy, and 30% of your class ability energy.
Exotic Weapon – Activity Dependant
The Exotic you use should really lean into single-target damage. Your overall kit and ability uptime means that mobs are not going to be a problem, but you will want to be able to turn up the damage against a Champion or boss if you need to. I have been using Grand Overture, an Arc Slug Heavy Machine Gun that you can charge with up to 20 projectiles and then instantly dump them all into a target.
The slow rate of fire seems to put people off, and agile enemies can dodge a few rounds, but the damage potential from this thing is tremendous. I like to charge it up on the yellow bars that I run into, easily melting them, then I set up the volley and just stow the weapon until I need it.
Legendary Weapons
An Arc Legendary weapon is quite important, and I have once again been relying on my Ikelos SMG with Voltshot, an easy way to Jolt enemies, create Orbs thanks to my Siphon Mod (more on that later), and just generally take advantage of Arc surges that might be on during certain playlists. I would strongly advise that if you haven’t used your Exotic for high single-target damage, you add something to your loadout now to do it. A Rocket Launcher might just do the trick, or a Linear Fusion Rifle if you have something that hits hard enough.
I have also been running a Special weapon, giving me an easy way to quickly take out some enemies and maybe even force some Heavy Ammo drops if I need them. Shotguns have fantastic ammo economy for making this happen, and running something with the Lead From Gold perk will help keep your Special Ammo topped up every time you get Heavy Ammo.
Super and Abilities
Super – Chaos Reach
Chaos Reach got a 25% buff moving into Season of the Deep and gives us another part of our kit that can chunk tougher targets. Combine this with the Thunderous Retort mod from our Artifact that gives us a huge damage boost while Amplified and Chaos Reach can really get it done. I’d only switch to Stormdancer if you really needed to be able to perform a miracle on the ad clear front.
Abilities
- Class Ability – Healing Rift: Constant healing AND an Arc Soul because of one of our Aspects. If you manage to get all five other members of a Fireteam to run around with an Arc Soul, that is considerable additional damage you are adding to the mix.
- Jump – Burst Glide: It is simply better than the rest. No arguments.
- Melee – Ball Lighting: A literal ball of lighting you can throw across a room, doing damage from afar, general ability energy for yourself, and it will also do additional damage via extra explosions when you are Amplifed—the superior choice for the discerning space magician.
- Grenade – Pulse Grenades: Decent area of effect damage that plays out over time. Our build is designed to extend the duration and give our grenades the Jolt effect, really making them hugely valuable for dealing with mobs and Overload champions.
Related: The Best Titan Arc Heart of Inmost Light Build in Destiny 2
Aspects
For aspects, we will be running Arc Soul and Electrostatic Mind. They will play very nicely into our choices so far and will also allow us to pick four Arc Fragments to really perfect our build.
- Arc Soul – This will create a glowing, floating Arc Soul that sticks to anyone who passes through your Rift and gives you an improved class ability recharge rate when allies are close. Best of all, when Amplified, it will fire faster, doing more damage.
- Electrostatic Mind – Electrostatic Mind means that when we defeat targets with Arc abilities, affected with Jolt, or affected with Blind, we will make an Ionic Trace. Collecting an Ionic Trace will also make us Amplified
Fragments
Now, the Fragments. These can be purchased from Ikora in the Tower if you do not have access to all of them yet. Some of them will be optional, meaning you can pick whichever one suits your needs.
- Spark of Resistance – You will take less damage when surrounded by enemies. This is a great option if you are struggling with staying alive in content.
- Spark of Shock – causes your Arc grenades to Jolt targets. Remember, Jolt will stun Overload Champions. Regular enemies take more damage when Jolted, and they will chain lightning to nearby enemies. This increases the Pulse grenade’s already impressive wave clear potential.
- Spark of Magnitude – Your Pulse grenade will have an extended duration. This means the damage will continue to ramp up, and even more chance of Ionic Traces.
- Spark of Ions – Defeating a Jolted target creates an Ionic Trace. This can really amp up your ability feedback loop against trash mobs.
Artifact Mods
Our Artifact Mod choices will be pretty self-explanatory, leaning hard into the Arc mods. Other than that, make sure you have any Champion Mods that you need.
- Authorized Mods: Arc – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your Arc weapons are significantly discounted.
- Authorized Mods: Melee – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your melee are significantly discounted.
- Electric Armor – Stay amplified longer while your Arc subclass is equipped.
- Thunderous Retort – Grants bonus Arc Super damage if cast while critically wounded or while amplified. Lasts until the end of the Super activation.
- Amped Up – Gain damage resistance while amplified.
- Shock and Awe – Arc final blows, while you are amplified, summon a burst of lightning that damages and jolts targets.
- Lightning Strikes Twice – After throwing an Arc grenade, gain increased grenade recharge for a short time. Arc final blows extend the duration of this benefit.
Armor Mods
The armor mods are what really tie the build together, so newer players should be prepared to put some time into upgrading and even Masterworking their armor.
- Helmet
- Arc Siphon – Rapid Arc weapon final blows create Orbs of Power.
- Heavy Ammo Finder or Dynamo – If you are struggling with Heavy Ammo, run that mod. If not, you’ll be spamming your class ability near enemies, so run that instead.
- Ashes to Assets – Grenade kills provide Super Energy.
- Arms
- Bolstering Detonation – Causing damage with a grenade gives you class ability energy.
- Grenade Kickstart – Fully using your grenade energy causes some of that energy to be refunded. Pick up an Orb of Power will give you a temporary Armor Charge, and Armor Changes will be spent to refund even more grenade energy.
- Firepower – Grenade final blows create an Orb of Power.
- Chest
- Resistance Mods – pick the Resistance Mods that suit the activity you plan on playing.
- Legs
- Recuperation – Picking up an Orb of Power gives back health.
- Insulation – Picking up an Orb of Power reduces class ability cooldown.
- Absolution – Picking up an Orb of Power reduces all ability cooldowns. You can swap this out with Better Already if you are struggling on the survivability front, as you’ll heal instantly from Orb pickups.
- Class Item
- Bomber – reduces your grenade cooldown when using your class ability (Thruster).
- Outreach – reduces melee cooldowns when using your class ability.
- Reaper – the first weapon kill after using your class ability generates an Orb of Power.
Feel free to select any additional Stat mods for your first column. Ideally, you’d get as close to 100 in Resilience and 100 in Discipline as you can. Resilience allows you a degree of damage reduction, while Discipline cuts down your Grenade cooldown.
Build Summary
- Exotic Armor – Fallen Sunstar
- Exotic Weapon – Grand Overture
- Legendary Weapons – Arc weapon of choice
- Super – Chaos Reach
- Abilities – Healing Rift, Burst Glide, Lightning Ball, Pulse Grenade
- Aspects – Arc Soul, Electrostatic Mind
- Fragments – Spark of Shock, Spark of Magnitude, Spark of Ions, and Spark of Resistance
- Artifact Mods – Authorized Mods: Arc, Authorized Mods: Melee, Electric Armor, Thunderous Retort, Amped Up, Shock and Awe, Lightning Strikes Twice
- Armor Mods
- Helmet – Arc Siphon, Heavy Ammo Finder or Dynamo, Ashes to Assets
- Arms – Firepower, Heavy Handed, Grenade Kickstart
- Chest – Resistance Mods
- Legs – Recuperation, Insulation, Absolution
- Class Item – Bomber, Outreach, Reaper
And, that’s it. This build has managed to survive the new dungeon with flying colors. In fact, I only ever died to mechanics such as the air running out or the bosses. I never went down to the mobs, no matter how fierce things got.
