Season 21 of Destiny 2, known as the Season of the Deep, has brought a myriad of changes to the Arc subclass and its exotics. Among the updates are the Arc Surge buff and multiple Artifact mods that significantly enhance the Arc sub-classes’ efficacy. For those looking to harness the power of the Arc Warlock, look no further. In this guide, we at High Ground Gaming have curated the best PvE build for Warlock 3.0 Arc.
Required Exotics for Warlock Arc 3.0 Build
To create this build, we utilize two Exotics, one armor, and one weapon. These Exotics synergize with each other and the Fragments and Aspects in the build, enabling you to effortlessly clear myriad enemies while protecting your fireteam.
Vesper of Radius (Chest Exotic)
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Vesper of Radius is an Exotic Chest Piece for Warlocks. It releases bursts of Arc energy from your Rifts, damaging enemies in the area every five seconds. Equipping the Arc subclass causes these shockwaves and explosions to blind enemies.
Moreover, when surrounded by enemies, your class energy recharges at an accelerated rate. The recharge bonus increases with the number of nearby enemies. At three enemies, your class ability recharges at a rate of 250%. At four enemies, the increase is 660%, and at six or more enemies, you receive a whopping 1500% increase.
Coldheart (Exotic Special Weapon)
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Coldheart, an Exotic Trace Rifle, unleashes a beam of Arc energy. The beam becomes more potent the longer it remains focused on targets. The weapon’s basic trait, Longest Winter, generates an Ionic Trace at regular intervals while dealing damage in its high damage state.
Not having the Catalyst for Coldheart won’t hinder your gameplay significantly. The Catalyst merely provides a stability and reload speed boost, which pales in comparison to the buffs offered by other Exotic Catalysts.
Arc Aspects and Fragments for Warlock Arc 3.0 Build
Season 21 of Destiny 2 introduces crucial changes to Arc Aspects and Fragments. The chosen Aspects and Fragments in this build revolve around generating Ionic Traces, maximizing Amplification, and creating powerful Arc explosions.
Aspects
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The first Arc Aspect is Arc Soul. This Aspect summons an Arc Soul whenever you cast a Rift. Allies who pass through your Rift also receive an Arc Soul. Arc Souls are floating balls of Arc light that unleash a barrage of shots at enemies in front of you.
Arc Souls become even more potent while you are Amplified, granting them a substantial increase in fire rate. Additionally, this Aspect increases your Rift ability recharge rate when allies are nearby.
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The second Aspect, Electrostatic Mind, allows you to generate Ionic Traces whenever you eliminate enemies with Arc abilities or defeat targets affected by the Blind or Jolt status effects.
Ionic Traces restore Class Ability energy when collected and grant you Amplification. Amplification enhances your Guardian’s movement and weapon handling speed, as well as grants a short burst of increased sprint speed after sprinting.
Fragments
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Our first Fragment, Spark of Shock, empowers your grenades by applying the Jolt effect to targets. Jolted targets suffer additional damage and chain lightning effects, reaching nearby enemies. Jolt damage incapacitates Overload Champions. This Fragment reduces your Discipline stat by 10.
Our second Fragment is Spark of Discharge. It grants Arc weapons a chance to generate Ionic Traces upon killing enemies. This Fragment reduces your Strength stat by 10. Alternatively, you can choose Spark of Beacons as our third Fragment, which creates a Blinding explosion with each Arc special weapon final blow while you are Amplified.
The Blinding status effect disorients enemies and immobilizes them. It removes the HUD for opposing Guardians and stuns Unstoppable Champions. Defeating Blinded targets generates an Ionic Trace with this build.
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Our final Fragment is Spark of Brilliance. It triggers upon defeating Blinded targets with precision damage, causing them to explode in a Blinding explosion. This Fragment grants a +10 boost to your Intelligence stat.
Best Abilities for Warlock Arc 3.0 Build
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Arc Super: This build features the Chaos Reach super, optimal for dealing with bosses due to its extended range. However, if you prefer mob clearing, Storm Trance can also be a viable alternative. Both supers possess the Jolt effect, making them suitable for confronting champions or bosses.
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Arc Class Ability: Players can choose between Empowering Rift or Healing Rift. For this build, Healing Rift is recommended because Arc Warlocks lack ample healing options for themselves and their team. Additionally, your Rifts generate Arc Souls, and the shockwaves from your Exotic armor deal damage, making the additional damage from Empowering Rift unnecessary. However, personal preference should dictate your choice.
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Arc Melee Ability: This build employs the Ball Lightning melee ability, which releases a ball of Arc energy that shocks nearby targets. While Amplified, the attack hits a greater number of targets before dissipating. Ball Lightning is preferred due to its range and ability to hit multiple enemies at once.
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Arc Grenade Ability: Unlike the other abilities in this build, the Flashbang Grenade is not customizable. This grenade applies the Blind status effect to enemies caught in its explosion, playing a vital role in the build’s gameplay loop.
Killing Blinded targets spawns an Ionic Trace, with every grenade kill generating one. Furthermore, the Blinding effect is particularly effective against mini-bosses and champions, as it mitigates their devastating attacks. Combining the benefits of Jolting targets and Blinding effects, grenades become the powerhouse of this subclass.
Best Armor Mods for Warlock Arc 3.0 Build
No build is complete without proper armor mods. Our selected mods focus on boosting stats, increasing ability regeneration rates during armor charge, expanding ammo capacity for Arc weapons, and enhancing the damage of kinetic and Arc weapons. Adapt the mods to your available armor energy and maxed-out stats in Recovery and Resilience, the two pivotal stats for PvE.
Helmet Mods
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Our preferred helmet mods are Harmonic Siphon, Dynamo, and Hands-on. Harmonic Siphon generates an Orb of Power when you consecutively eliminate enemies with an Arc weapon while using the Arc subclass. This condition is easily fulfilled, thanks to Coldheart, our exotic special weapon.
Dynamo replenishes super energy each time you use your Class Ability near enemies. Hands-on grants super energy for each melee ability kill. While the super isn’t the centerpiece of this build, our Rift and melee abilities take the spotlight, making these mods invaluable for our gameplay loop.
Gauntlet Mods
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The selected gauntlet mods revolve around our melee ability. These mods are presently discounted, courtesy of a Seasonal Perk in the Seasonal Artifact. Impact Induction and Font of Vigor stand out among the options.
Impact Induction reduces grenade cooldown upon dealing damage with your Melee super. Since Ball Lightning excels at hitting multiple targets, it’s common to instantly regain your grenade by using a single-powered melee attack against a horde of enemies. We also include the Focusing Strike armor mod, which reduces the cooldown of your Class Ability energy when you deal damage with your Melee.
Font of Vigor boosts your Strength stat by 30 points during armor charge. Since we use another Font mod in this build, we might as well leverage the bonus to Strength. If the extra Strength stat isn’t necessary, or if you aren’t running any other blue armor mods, the Melee Kickstart can be a suitable alternative.
Chest Armor Mod
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Our two chosen chest mods are Charged Up and Arc Reserves. If your Resilience stat is 70 or lower, feel free to swap one of these mods for the Font of Endurance. It provides a 30-point boost to your Resilience stat.
Charged Up increases the maximum number of armor charge stacks for your Guardian by 1. Given the frequency of Ionic Traces and Orbs of Power, this additional armor charge slot comes in handy.
Arc Reserves augments the maximum ammo capacity for your Arc weapons. This ensures you maximize the potential of Coldheart and any Arc Heavy Weapon you choose to wield. If you have enough available energy, consider running multiple copies of this mod. Harmonic Resistance is also a valuable pick for challenging Nightfalls or other endgame content.
Leg Mods
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Our first leg mod is a new addition from Season 21, Elemental Charge. It grants you an armor charge stack upon picking up Ionic Traces, FireSprites, Stasis Shards, or Void Breaches. While it doesn’t trigger every time, it serves as an excellent source of armor charge for this build.
Arc Weapon Surge and Harmonic Holster round out the leg mods. Arc Weapon Surge heightens the damage of all your Arc weapons when you possess at least one stack of armor charge. Harmonic Holster gradually reloads your stowed Arc weapons. If you have available energy, Kinetic Weapon Surge can be a viable alternative.
Class Item Mod
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Bomber is the most crucial armor mod for the class item. It reduces your grenade cooldown each time you use your Class Ability near enemies. Given the vital role both the Class Ability and grenade play in this build, this mod is a must-have.
Powerful Attraction, another new mod from Season 21, attracts Orbs of Power whenever you use your Class Ability. It greatly helps in maintaining armor charge. Lastly, Font of Recovery provides a 30-point bonus to your Recovery stat while you possess armor charge.
Join the High Ground!
By using this build, you’ll endlessly generate orbs of power, provide healing for your team through Healing Rifts, grant Arc Souls to yourself and your fireteam members, and generate an abundance of Ionic Traces. If you desire more potent build guides, consider signing up for our newsletter today and lead your fireteam to the high ground!
Happy gaming!
