While weapons usually get most of the attention, your choice of armor plays a crucial role too. This is especially true for Exotic armor as that one single piece of equipment can elevate your playstyle and lethality to new levels. Destiny 2 is all about finding synergies within your gear and Exotic armor is often the first piece of the puzzle.
This guide covers every Warlock Exotic in Destiny 2. We’ll rank them from best to worst, and explain how to use them for maximum lethality.
Destiny 2 Warlock Exotics Tier list
The Tier list below includes every Warlock Exotic armor piece in the game. It starts with the S Tier weapons and moves down from there:
| Name | Type | Rank | Excels | Subclass | Source | Requirements | Armor | Tier | Excels in | Subclass? | Final Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boots of the Assembler | Legs | S › Best | PVE | Neutral | Lost Sectors | Beyond Light |  Boots of the Assembler |
Best ❘ S |
PVE |  Neutral |
Source: Legend/Master Lost Sectors Exotic Perk: “Standing in a healing rift creates Noble Seekers that seek out allies that are not in a rift and heal them. Standing in an empowering rift creates Noble Seekers that grant both you and your ally a damage bonus. Each time a Noble Seeker finds one of your allies, the duration of your rift is briefly extended while you are standing in it.” ► Pairs well with: “Child of the Old Gods” Aspect (Voidwalker). This exotic can grant a powerful healing effect or damage buff to your allies, depending on your rift choice. If you add on the Child of the Old Gods Aspect, your rift will also grant you tons of ability energy, health, and even the ability to weaken combatants around you. |
| Lunafaction Boots | Legs | S › Best | PVE | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Lunafaction Boots |
Best ❘ S |
PVE | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Your Rifts gain the additional ability to increase weapon reload speeds. Empowering Rift makes weapons effective over longer ranges.” ► Pairs well with: Middle Tree Dawnblade (Grace). This exotic is so good that it is difficult to find a raid group who doesn’t have a member of their team wearing them. They work with Well of Radiance, which means you can place it down to grant your team healing, bonus weapon damage, and now max reload speed as well. |
| Ophidian Aspect | Arms | S › Best | PVE + PVP | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Ophidian Aspect |
Best ❘ S |
PVE + PVP | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Weapons ready and reload very quickly. Melee range is extended.” ► Pairs well with: Anything. These exotic gloves see most of their usage in PVP, but are also not bad options for PVE. The buffs they give are always active, and they’re extremely noticable, making them a great pick if you have nothing else to run. |
| Phoenix Protocol | Chest | S › Best | PVE | Solar | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Phoenix Protocol |
Best ❘ S |
PVE |  Solar |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Kills and assists you make while standing in your Well of Radiance return Super energy.” ► Pairs well with: Middle Tree Dawnblade (Grace). Giving you more uptime with one of the strongest supers in the game, Phoenix Protocol is simple but powerful. |
| Transversive Steps | Legs | S › Best | PVE + PVP | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Transversive Steps |
Best ❘ S |
PVE + PVP | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Sprint speed increased. After a short time sprinting, your currently equipped weapon is automatically reloaded.” ► Pairs well with: Anything. The movement speed buff that Tranversive Steps gives is super potent, and the reload ability can be useful at times. If you are looking for a great neutral exotic to run in any activity, this exotic is one of the best options out there. |
| Karnstein Armlets | Arms | A › Strong | PVE + PVP | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Karnstein Armlets |
Strong ❘ A |
PVE + PVP | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Melee kills instantly restore a large amount of health and continue to restore health afterwards for a short duration.” ► Pairs well with: Projectile Melee Subclasses (Voidwalker, Shadebinder, Top Tree Dawnblade). This exotic is extremely good for any type of solo PVE content, and is even good in PVP. It is amazing with any subclass or melee you choose, but projectile melees are the best option because it makes the exotic perk safer and easier to trigger. |
| Mantle of Battle Harmony | Chest | A › Strong | PVE | Neutral | Lost Sectors | Beyond Light |  Mantle of Battle Harmony |
Strong ❘ A |
PVE | Neutral |
Source: Legend/Master Lost Sectors Exotic Perk: “Takedowns with weapons that have a damage type matching your subclass element grant you Super energy. While your Super energy is full, you instead gain a temporary bonus to weapon damage of the type matching your subclass element.” ► Pairs well with: Anything. This exotic grants you super energy (or a damage bonus) just by killing enemies, making it a great part in any build. It does require a bit of planning prior to using it, but after figuring that out, this chestpiece is very powerful. |
| Aeon Soul | Arms | A › Strong | PVE | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Aeon Soul |
Strong ❘ A |
PVE | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Aeon Exotics have an additional mod socket which is used for Aeon Cult mods.” ► Pairs well with: Stasis (Shadebinder) and Void (Voidwalker) subclasses. Provides variety with the 3 different mod options, all of which are powerful. Nice to use on subclasses that don’t have a good subclass-specific exotic. |
| Felwinter’s Helm | Helm | A › Strong | PVE | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Shadowkeep |  Felwinter’s Helm |
Strong ❘ A |
PVE | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Powered melee final blows create a burst of energy that weakens nearby targets. Finishers and final blows against more powerful targets increase the radius of the burst and the length of the weakening effect.” ► Pairs well with: Voidwalker. As long as you have something to keep you alive (like Devour via the “Feed the Void” Aspect), this exotic can debuff and blind any enemy in sight in PVE. |
| Crown of Tempests | Helm | A › Strong | PVE | Arc | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Crown of Tempests |
Strong ❘ A |
PVE |  Arc |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Arc ability kills increase the recharge rate of your Arc abilities and extend the duration of Stormtrance.” ► Pairs well with: Top Tree Stormcaller (Conduction). Paired with Arc Web, this exotic can give you high ability uptime. Despite that, Stormcaller isn’t a popular pick in most activities. |
| Contraverse Hold | Arms | A › Strong | PVE | Void | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Contraverse Hold |
Strong ❘ A |
PVE |  Void |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Resist incoming damage while charging your Void grenade with Chaos Accelerant, Feed the Void, or Handheld Supernova. Charged Void grenades return an amount of grenade energy on a hit.” ► Pairs well with: “Chaos Accelerant” Aspect and Vortex Grenade (Voidwalker). The damage resistance while charging grenades is nice, but the main focus of this exotic is the returned grenade energy. Pair with “Echo of Undermining” for frequent grenades that can weaken enemies. |
| Nezarec’s Sin | Helm | A › Strong | PVE | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Nezarec’s Sin |
Strong ❘ A |
PVE | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Void-damage kills increase ability energy recharge rate.” ► Pairs well with: Voidwalker. This exotic works as long as you are doing void damage, regardless of where it comes from (abilties or weapons). It provides great regeration to all of your abilities (including super), even if you aren’t using Voidwalker. |
| Sunbracers | Arms | A › Strong | PVE | Solar | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Sunbracers |
Strong ❘ A |
PVE | Solar |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Increases the duration of Solar Grenades. Solar melee kills grant unlimited Solar Grenade energy for a brief time.” ► Pairs well with: Top Tree Dawnblade (Sky). Giving you tons of grenades, this exotic provides great ad clear. Has amazing synergy with Attunement of Sky, allowing you to chain abilties over and over. |
| Osmiomancy Gloves | Arms | A › Strong | PVE | Stasis | Lost Sectors | The Witch Queen |  Osmiomancy Gloves |
Strong ❘ A |
PVE |  Stasis |
Source: Legend/Master Lost Sectors Exotic Perk: “Your Coldsnap grenades have an additional charge that recharges quicker on direct impact. The seeker spawned from Coldsnap grenades travels further.” ► Pairs well with: Bleak Watcher (Shadebinder Aspect). Even though Coldsnap Grenades aren’t currently very good, being able to have two stasis turrets at a time (using Bleak Watcher) makes this exotic a good choice in harder PVE content. |
| Dawn Chorus | Helm | B › Average | PVE | Solar | Lost Sectors | Beyond Light |  Dawn Chorus |
Average ❘ B |
PVE | Solar |
Source: Legend/Master Lost Sectors Exotic Perk: “Your Daybreak projectiles cause targets to burn on contact and deal more damage to them. All of your burn effects last longer, and you gain a small amount of melee energy each time one of your burns damage a target.” ► Pairs well with: Bottom Tree Dawnblade (Flame). The part of Dawn Chorus’s perk that affects you outside of super isn’t that useful as combatants usually die too quickly to be burned for a significant amount of time. Despite this, it noticeably buffs the Dawnblade super, making it an average exotic. |
| Necrotic Grip | Arms | B › Average | PVE | Neutral | Lost Sectors | Beyond Light |  Necrotic Grip |
Average ❘ B |
PVE | Neutral |
Source: Legend/Master Lost Sectors Exotic Perk: “Damaging combatants envenoms them with poison that deals increasing damage over time. Defeating a poisoned combatant spreads the condition to nearby targets.” ► Pairs well with: Projectile Melee Subclasses (Voidwalker, Shadebinder, Top Tree Dawnblade). Necrotic Grip gives great ad clear in easier PVE content, but has little to no place in PVP or harder PVE activities. Projectile melees make this exotic’s perk significantly easier to proc, but it still is usually used just for fun. |
| Nothing Manacles | Arms | B › Average | PVE + PVP | Void | Lost Sectors | Beyond Light |  Nothing Manacles |
Average ❘ B |
PVE + PVP | Void |
Source: Legend/Master Lost Sectors Exotic Perk: “You gain an additional Scatter Grenade charge. Enables tracking for Scatter Grenade projectiles.” ► Pairs well with: Scatter Grenades (Voidwalker). Before Void 3.0 when you could use Handheld Supernova with any grenade, this exotic was great. However, now that Supernova can’t be used with Scatter Grenade, this exotic feels like a worse version of Contraverse Hold. |
| Astrocyte Verse | Helm | B › Average | PVE + PVP | Void | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Astrocyte Verse |
Average ❘ B |
PVE + PVP | Void |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Blink further and more frequently. Weapon readies quickly out of Blink and Radar remains up.” ► Pairs well with: Blink (Voidwalker Jump Ability). This exotic makes Blink significantly more user-friendly, and is a great option to run while having fun on Voidwalker. Despite this, using Blink usually isn’t worth the hassle, and most people settle for a different jump ability and exotic. |
| Claws of Ahamkara | Arms | B › Average | PVE + PVP | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Claws of Ahamkara |
Average ❘ B |
PVE + PVP | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Gain an additional melee charge.” ► Pairs well with: Projectile Melee Subclasses (Voidwalker, Shadebinder, Top Tree Dawnblade). While on a subclass with a strong melee ability, this exotic is pretty good. Despite that, this usually doesn’t see too much use, as there are more powerful options out there. |
| Eye of Another World | Helm | B › Average | PVE + PVP | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Eye of Another World |
Average ❘ B |
PVE + PVP | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Highlights priority targets and improves the regeneration speed of your grenade, melee, and Rift abilities.” ► Pairs well with: Stasis (Shadebinder). This exotic is best on Shadebinder (Stasis) because of its powerful abilities. Good option if you have nothing else to use, but most of the time there’s something more powerful that can replace it. |
| Getaway Artist | Arms | B › Average | – | Arc | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Getaway Artist |
Average ❘ B |
– | Arc |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Convert your Arc Grenade into a supercharged Arc Soul. The Arc Soul functions as an autonomous turret.” ► Pairs well with: Middle Tree Stormcaller (Control). Arc Souls aren’t very powerful, so this exotic doesn’t see much use. However, it can be alright in PVP, as it’s simply an extra thing shooting at the enemy you want to kill. |
| Verity’s Brow | Arms | B › Average | PVE | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Verity’s Brow |
Average ❘ B |
PVE | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Weapon final blows with a damage type matching your subclass energy grant Death Throes, which provides a grenade damage bonus and grants you grenade energy. When you have Death Throes and throw a grenade, nearby allies gain greatly increased grenade regeneration for a short time.” ► Pairs well with: Scatter Grenades (Voidwalker). While allowing you to do some amazing grenade damage at max stacks, this exotic’s perk is hard to keep triggered for long periods of time. |
| Secant Filaments | Legs | B › Average | PVE | Void | Lost Sectors | The Witch Queen |  Secant Filaments |
Average ❘ B |
PVE | Void |
Source: Legend/Master Lost Sectors Exotic Perk: “Casting an empowering rift will grant you Devour. Damage dealt by you and your allies from within your empowering rift will disrupt combatants.” ► Pairs well with: Voidwalker. While on Voidwalker, this exotic allows your Empowering Rift to also grant you Devour, which can be very helpful while trying to survive in harder content. In addition, giving you and your allies the ability to stun Overload Champions with any weapon allows for a wider range of weapons to be used in some activities. |
| Sanguine Alchemy | Chest | C › Weak | PVE | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Sanguine Alchemy |
Weak ❘ C |
PVE | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Weapon kills while standing in any rift pause the rift’s countdown, extending its duration. Further kills maintain and extend the length of the pause.” ► Pairs well with: Anything. While highly effective at what it is supposed to do, being locked to one position to kill people in is never a good (or fun) idea. |
| Starfire Protocol | Chest | C › Weak | PVE | Solar | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Starfire Protocol |
Weak ❘ C |
PVE | Solar |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Fusion Grenades have an additional charge and recharge from empowered weapon damage. Fusion Grenade kills grant Rift energy.” ► Pairs well with: Middle Tree Solar (Well). This exotic can give two healing grenades, which sounds powerful on paper. Despite that Warlock’s Solar subclass is full of other options that tend to perform way better in most instances. |
| Stormdancer’s Brace | Chest | C › Weak | PVE | Arc | Exotic Engrams | Shadowkeep |  Stormdancer’s Brace |
Weak ❘ C |
PVE | Arc |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Each target you defeat with Stormtrance increases the damage you deal with it and refunds Super energy when Stormtrance ends.” ► Pairs well with: Top or Bottom Tree Stormcaller (Conduction or Elements). While this exotic is powerful, the Stormcaller roaming super just isn’t meant to do damage to a boss, resulting in Crown of Tempests being the better pick. |
| Winter’s Guile | Arms | C › Weak | PVE | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Winter’s Guile |
Weak ❘ C |
PVE | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Eliminating enemies with melee attacks increases your melee damage.” ► Pairs well with: Anything. When stacking the buff all the way up to x5 and using a shotgun with “One-Two Punch” on it, Winter’s Guile can deal some pretty good damage. Despite that, it is extremely hard to get to five stacks of the buff, and generally isn’t worth running into melee range and risking your life for. |
| Chromatic Fire | Chest | D › Worst | – | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Chromatic Fire |
Worst ❘ D |
– | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Precision final blows with your Kinetic weapon create an explosion in the element of your subclass.” ► Pairs well with: Anything. This used to be alright, as it allowed any kinetic weapon to make Warmind Cells with certain mods; however, now that Warmind Cells have been nerfed, this exotic is nothing more but a fun option to run while doing easy content. |
| Promethium Spur | Legs | D › Worst | – | Solar | Exotic Engrams | Shadowkeep |  Promethium Spur |
Worst ❘ D |
– | Solar |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Defeating combatants or Guardians while Daybreak is active creates a healing and empowering rift at their location. While standing in any rift, [Solar] Solar weapon final blows grant Rift energy. When your Rift energy is full, final blows consume your Rift energy and create a healing and empowering rift at the target’s location.” ► Pairs well with: Top or Bottom Tree Dawnblade (Sky or Flame). While sounding cool on paper, these boots don’t have a practical use in most areas of the game. |
| The Stag | Helm | D › Worst | – | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  The Stag |
Worst ❘ D |
– | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Your Rift provides damage reduction to allied Guardians standing in it. Grants Rift energy when you are critically wounded. On your death, creates a healing rift on your corpse.” ► Pairs well with: Anything. Because you need to be critically wounded or dead to trigger its perk, The Stag doesn’t see much use, and doesn’t feel very powerful. |
| Vesper of Radius | Chest | D › Worst | – | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Vesper of Radius |
Worst ❘ D |
– | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Rifts release an Arc shockwave when cast. Rift energy recharges faster when you are surrounded by enemies.” ► Pairs well with: Anything. To make Vesper of Radius work, you need to be in an extremely high-risk area, and you end up getting barely any reward. Unless these robes get changed in some way, this exotic is sadly not worth running in most activities. |
| Wings of Sacred Dawn | Chest | D › Worst | – | Solar | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Wings of Sacred Dawn |
Worst ❘ D |
– | Solar |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “When Dawnblade is equipped, aiming weapons while you’re midair suspends you there for a short time, improving airborne accuracy, reducing incoming flinch, and granting damage resistance. Weapon hits extend this effect’s” ► Pairs well with: Top Tree Dawnblade (Sky). While this exotic is fun, it isn’t very good as it locks you in one place, allowing your enemies to easily kill you. |
| Apotheosis Veil | Helm | Swap | – | Neutral | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Apotheosis Veil |
Swap | – | Neutral |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Immediately regenerate health, melee, grenade, and Rift energy upon activating your Super. Nearby allies recharge class abilities faster.” ► Pairs well with: Middle Tree Dawnblade (Grace) and Stasis (Shadebinder). Giving your abilities back can be nice on some subclasses, but this exotic is very lackluster and is usually considered a swap exotic. |
| Geomag Stabilizers | Legs | Swap | PVE + PVP | Arc | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Geomag Stabilizers |
Swap | PVE + PVP | Arc |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Damaging targets with Chaos Reach extends its duration.” ► Pairs well with: Middle Tree Stormcaller (Control). Only extending your Chaos Reach super, this exotic is usually just swapped to when using Middle Tree and you have your super. |
| Skull of Dire Ahamkara | Helm | Swap | PVE | Void | Exotic Engrams | Free-to-Play |  Skull of Dire Ahamkara |
Swap | PVE | Void |
Source: Exotic Engrams Exotic Perk: “Provides additional damage resistance during Nova Bomb. Nova Bomb kills grant Super energy.” ► Pairs well with: Nova Bomb (Voidwalker Super). Because Nova Bomb usually isn’t used as an ad clear super, this exotic sees little use. Those who do run it usually just swap to it once they get their super. |
These are the different Tier levels used for our list:
- S Tier – Best: Highest ranking weapons in our Tier List.
- A Tier – Strong: Very strong weapons, but not on the same level as S Tier Choices.
- B Tier – Average: Decent choices that can be lethal in the hands of a skilled player.
- C Tier – Weak: The middle of the pack, somewhat mediocre.
- D Tier – Worst: Lagging behind the competition, these don’t have much to offer.
Swaps: You’ll see a couple of armor pieces ranked as “Swap“. Swap refers to those armor pieces that are generally not great but can be excellent in very specific situations, namely when using your Super. For that reason, these deserve a different ranking as they still have a place in your loadout.
More Destiny 2 Exotic Armor Tier lists:
Best Destiny 2 Warlock Exotic armor in 2022
This section not only covers the top Exotic armor pieces for Warlocks currently in the game, it also tells you where you can find them. On top of being top-tier options for PvE and PvP, some of them look great. So much so, that they are often seen in Destiny 2 fashion contests.
Overall, these are our Top 10 favorite Warlock Exotics for PVE and PVP.
10. Aeon Soul
Excels in PVE
For most of their life, the Aeon Cult exotics have been extremely lackluster. However, they got a substantial rework in Season of the Chosen, allowing the user to benefit both their fireteam and themselves in various ways.
Aeon Soul doesn’t have a normal exotic perk. To replace it, it has three different unique mods you can select. These allow you to customize what the exotic does for you and your team, while also staying as powerful as any other exotic.
The most popular of the three mods is “Sect of Insight” by far. This mod allows you to generate ammo for the rest of your fireteam (not yourself) by finishing different types of enemies. Finishing Elites (things like Honored Legionaries or Quantum Goblins) gives special ammo, and finishing minibosses or bosses (like Champions) gives heavy.
While Sect of Insight is widely regarded as the strongest of the three mods, each one is extremely unique and can benefit your team in a variety of ways. Overall, this exotic gives strong benefits to the rest of your team and is a great option to run in any team-based PVE activity.
How to get it: Aeon Soul can be acquired via Exotic engrams, Xûr, or farming Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aeon Soul |
Warlock | Free-to-Play | Exotic Engrams | Exotic Perk: “Aeon Exotics have an additional mod socket which is used for Aeon Cult mods.” |
9. Crown of Tempests
Excels in PVE
Crown of Tempests is very simple, mainly giving you arc ability energy when you get arc ability kills. In addition, it gives you more time in your super after getting rapid kills with it.
The exotic perk stacks up to x3, and you gain one stack for each kill. This buff lasts 5 seconds and resets with each kill you get. The higher stack of buff you have, the faster your abilities recharge. This applies the same way in your super, but extends the duration instead of granting you ability energy.
This exotic is mainly good in PVE, allowing you to chain abilities over and over. The Arc Web perk on Top Tree Stormcaller (allowing your abilities to chain lightning) makes this exotic even easier and better to use. It also extends Stormtrance, allowing you to kill significantly more ads with it.
This exotic can also be alright in PVP as well, but there are better options. Arc Web can provide some great moments, but it was nerfed recently, so it is significantly worse now.
Overall, this exotic is a great ad clear pick in PVE and can be a good pick in PVP too.
How to get it: Crown of Tempests can be acquired via Exotic engrams, Xûr, or farming Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Crown of Tempests |
Warlock | Free-to-Play | Exotic Engrams | Exotic Perk: “Arc ability kills increase the recharge rate of your Arc abilities and extend the duration of Stormtrance.” |
8. Contraverse Hold
Excels in PVE
Contraverse Hold is a great choice for any Voidwalker 3.0 build with the “Chaos Accelerant” Aspect. Other than needing to run Voidwalker and Chaos Accelerant, you can mix this exotic with anything you’d like, allowing it to excel is many different situations.
In addition to granting 20% damage resistance while charging your grenade, damaging a combatant with your charged void grenade will refund grenade energy back to you. While this amount is random, it is always fairly substantial (usually around 20-40% of a charge). You can also use Vortex Grenade to trigger this part of the perk twice per grenade throw, allowing you to regain an entire grenade charge in a matter of seconds.
This exotic’s main power comes from the fact that with Void 3.0, you can do so many different things with your grenade. Some examples of this include: “Echo of Undermining” Fragment (15% debuff to enemies), “Echo of Provision” Fragment (giving melee energy), “Echo of Instability” Fragment (grants volatile rounds to void weapons), and “Feed the Void” Aspect (grants Devour).
Overall, these exotic gauntlets are a staple in any Voidwalker build. Grenades can be extremely powerful, and Contraverse Hold allows you to use them more frequently and in a safer way.
How to get it: Contraverse Hold can be acquired via Exotic engrams, Xûr, or farming Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Contraverse Hold |
Warlock | Free-to-Play | Exotic Engrams | Exotic Perk: “Resist incoming damage while charging your Void grenade with Chaos Accelerant, Feed the Void, or Handheld Supernova. Charged Void grenades return an amount of grenade energy on a hit.” |
7. Mantle of Battle Harmony
Excels in PVP
Mantle gives tons of extra super energy and gives a damage buff once your super is full, two things that are extremely valuable. Plus, it works with any subclass element, making it even more powerful.
This exotic can be a little annoying to set up, but after matching your weapon and subclass elements, all you need to do is get kills to start seeing the effects.
Each kill will grant you super energy (with a cooldown of 3 seconds between kills), allowing you to get your most powerful ability before any of your opponents. In addition, once at full super energy, kills with your matching weapon instead grant a 20% damage increase for 10 seconds. This is useful in any activity and can stack with debuffs to enemies, increasing your damage even more.
Overall, this chestpiece gives you two of the most valuable things in the game for minimal cost. This makes it extremely powerful in both PVE and PVP, and extremely easy to craft builds around.
How to get it: Mantle of Battle Harmony can only via acquired via solo Legend/Master Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Mantle of Battle Harmony |
Warlock | Beyond Light | Lost Sectors | Season 13 | Exotic Perk: “Takedowns with weapons that have a damage type matching your subclass element grant you Super energy. While your Super energy is full, you instead gain a temporary bonus to weapon damage of the type matching your subclass element.” |
6. Ophidian Aspect
Excels in PVP
Ophidian Aspect provides a simplistic neutral buff to your gameplay, which makes it a great option to run if nothing else fits what you’re looking for.
These gauntlets improve your weapon ready speed (how quickly it takes to pull out your gun), reload speed, and melee range. All three of these are great buffs, especially in PVP, and you can feel all three of them working all the time.
This exotic is mainly used to help you get back into the fight quicker in Crucible, but can also be used in any PVE activity to give you basic passive stat buffs. Overall, Ophidians are great gauntlets that you can’t go wrong with.
How to get it: Ophidian Aspect can be acquired via Exotic engrams, Xûr, or farming Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ophidian Aspect |
Warlock | Free-to-Play | Exotic Engrams | Exotic Perk: “Weapons ready and reload very quickly. Melee range is extended.” |
5. Boots of the Assembler
Excels in PVP
These exotic boots provide your allies with your rift benefits on the run, making them a key piece of gear in any support player’s arsenal.
While running healing rift, you can stand in your rift to send out small healing orbs that automatically track nearby allies. Once they reach them, it will give them a bump in health to aid them in battle. This is great in PVP to keep your team alive, but is also good in PVE, allowing your fireteam to play more aggressively without a worry of death.
Rather, while running empowering rift, you send out small orbs that buff your teammates’ damage by 35% (20% in PVP), which is higher than supers like Well of Radiance or Ward of Dawn. This is once again a great buff in both PVE and PVP and is usually even more useful than its healing counterpart.
Overall, this is a great exotic that is simple to use and very powerful in both PVE and PVP. Any warlock who enjoys playing a support role while also not wanting to be restricted to Well of Radiance should have this in their kit.
How to get it: Boots of the Assembler can only via acquired via solo Legend/Master Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boots of the Assembler |
Warlock | Beyond Light | Lost Sectors | Season 14 | Exotic Perk: “Standing in a healing rift creates Noble Seekers that seek out allies that are not in a rift and heal them. Noble Seekers from Empowering rift grant both you and your ally a damage bonus. Each time a Noble Seeker finds one of your allies, the duration of your rift is briefly extended.” |
4. Phoenix Protocol
Excels in PVE
Phoenix Protocol allows you to chain your Well of Radiance super back to back, making it a great pick to increase your team’s survivability in PVE.
This exotic gives you super energy for every kill you or your allies get inside of your well. While Phoenix did get nerfed recently, now only giving you up to 50% of your super energy back, it is still an amazing choice for both solo and group play.
Phoenix isn’t the best pick in PVP just because the super isn’t the best, in addition to it being hard to get enough kills in your well to make it worth it. Despite that, where this exotic falls short in PVP, it goes above and beyond in PVE, making it one of the most useful exotics outside of Crucible.
The amount of extra super energy you can receive is insanely useful, and with the super ability itself being as powerful as it is, Phoenix Protocol can help your team survive and kill combatants way easier.
How to get it: Phoenix Protocol can be acquired via Exotic engrams, Xûr, or farming Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Phoenix Protocol |
Warlock | Free-to-Play | Exotic Engrams | Exotic Perk: “Kills and assists you make while standing in your Well of Radiance return Super energy.” |
3. Transversive Steps
Excels in PVP
Transversive Steps are the default exotic for most Warlocks. While they don’t do anything fancy, the buff they give is extremely valuable and passive, resulting in it being one of the best exotics to run when nothing else suits what you’re using.
These exotic legs do two simple things: make you move faster and reload your weapon after sprinting for a short time.
The movement speed buff is very substantial, allowing you to traverse any PVP map, jumping puzzle, or PVE activity quicker than ever before. In addition, the reload speed buff is a nice cherry on top, giving you one less thing to worry about.
While these boots can mainly be seen in PVP, you can also easily find use in them in PVE if nothing else fits the playstyle/subclass you are running. Transversive Steps are neutral and simplistic, but amazing at what they do, making them a great pick for any Warlock player.
How to get it: Transversive Steps can be acquired via Exotic engrams, Xûr, or farming Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Transversive Steps |
Warlock | Free-to-Play | Exotic Engrams | Exotic Perk: “Sprint speed increased. After a short time sprinting, your currently equipped weapon is automatically reloaded.” |
2. Karnstein Armlets
Best PVP Warlock Exotic in Destiny 2
Karnstein Armlets are one of the most powerful exotics in the game, allowing you to get constant healing. While these gloves excel in PVP, they are also amazing in PVE and can keep you alive in moderately challenging content.
When you get a melee kill, you first instantaneously get a large bump in health (around 50-70% from what we’ve seen). In addition, you gain around 8 seconds of health regeneration afterwards. This health regeneration is extremely strong and even continues to work while you’re losing health.
In addition, these gauntlets work with projectile melee abilties, making the buff way easier to trigger from significantly further away.
Karnsteins can easily help you win a fight in Crucible, and can even keep you alive in PVE. Overall, these gauntlets are an amazing choice anywhere in the game and provide you with health regeneration that is unrivaled.
How to get it: Karnstein Armlets can be acquired via Exotic engrams, Xûr, or farming Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Karnstein Armlets |
Warlock | Free-to-Play | Exotic Engrams | Exotic Perk: “Melee kills instantly restore a large amount of health and continue to restore health afterwards for a short duration.” |
1. Lunafaction Boots
Best PVE Warlock Exotic in Destiny 2
Lunafaction Boots are a must-have exotic for almost every raid group out there and are extremely good in high-level PVE. Not only that, but these boots also provide a nice buff in Crucible, and are even a pretty good choice in easier PVE content.
The exotic perk is fairly simple, allowing your rifts (Healing, Empowering, or Well of Radiance) to max out reload speed for anyone inside. In addition, Empowering Rift and Well of Radiance also increase the range of guns used inside of them.
The faster reload speed is mainly what makes these good in high-end PVE activities–faster reloads generally mean more damage, which means killing bosses quicker. In addition, the range buff Lunafactions can give can be useful in PVP, and at times even in PVE.
Overall, these boots are extremely nice to have in any PVE content, and are even alright at times in PVP, making them one of the best and most well-rounded exotics in the game.
How to get it: Lunafaction Boots can be acquired via Exotic engrams, Xûr, or farming Lost Sectors.
| Armor | Class | Requirements | Source | Released | Exotic Perk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Lunafaction Boots |
Warlock | Free-to-Play | Exotic Engrams | Exotic Perk: “Your Rifts gain the additional ability to increase weapon reload speeds. Empowering Rift makes weapons effective over longer ranges.” |
Destiny 2 Warlock Exotics sources: How to get them
Unlike Exotic weapons, finding Exotic armor is a straightforward affair. This is not to say it’s easy to farm for specific armor pieces. It, unfortunately, isn’t.
To be fair, if you’re starting out and just want to find as many different exotics as possible, it can be done. Things become difficult when you are looking for good rolls of armor.
Exotic Engrams
Most Exotic armor can be found within Exotic Engrams: These can be found in the Season pass, they are sold by Xur and can also drop randomly at any time.
There isn’t much more to say about Exotic engrams, only that they have a higher chance to drop from end-game activities. If collecting exotics is your priority, Nightfall: The Ordeals are for you. And the higher the difficulty, the higher the chance to get one.
Lost Sectors
A few specific armor pieces can only be found in Legend and Master Lost Sectors when completed solo. Lost Sectors are on a daily rotation (with only one Legend and one Master available each day), as well as their rewards (one day will reward Legs pieces, the next day only Arms pieces, etc).
You can find the daily rotation and list of exclusive Lost Sector Exotics here.
If you’re still in doubt, you can always leave a comment below with your question or ask away on our Discord server.
Ranking criteria
For the record, as much as we tried to keep this list as objective as possible, it’s still based on our personal experience playing the PC version of the game.
Finally, if you’re wondering what criteria was used to build this Tier list, these are the main factors I took into account:
- Consistency: Some armor pieces may not have the highest DPS potential, but they are so consistent, they more than make up for their lower burst damage numbers.
- Ease of use: Similar to the point above, some pieces are very effective because they are easy to use and don’t require too much skill or setup. This is also rewarded with higher rankings.
- PVE/PVP Performance: High lethality in either PVE or PVP is equally valuable. However, an armor piece that is good at both PVE and PVP should rank higher than one that is slightly better on only PVE or PVP.
- Fun factor: Not the most important factor, but it also helps if the weapon is damn fun to shoot with!
If you strongly disagree with some of the rankings here, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section. By the way, what is your personal favorite?