Destiny 2
Build Guides
Swarmers Prismatic Warlock Build
The Final Shape
Welcome to the Swarmers Prismatic Warlock Build Guide! Become the Broodweaver you always wanted to be on Strand. This build focuses on throwing out as many Threadlings as your heart desires, entirely fueled by Devour. This gives you a much stronger minion style build than ever achievable with just Threadling Grenade and Weaver's Call.
If you weren't already spawning enough Threadlings with your abilities alone, Euphony is a high damage special weapon that allows you to create even more of these Strand creatures. This build can struggle a little with Light Transcendence energy gains, but you fill that out by using Facet of Devotion and Arcane Needle. By utilizing Swarmers, you have a second way to spread Unravel and spawn even more Threadlings every time you destroy a Tangle.
Since Devour only gives you grenade energy, you need another way to recharge your other abilities faster than just off cooldown. Facet of Hope and Facet of Balance both provide some gains to class ability and melee ability energy respectively, along with some mods in your leg armor every time you pick up an Orb of Power.
This build gives you the perfect balance of sustainable boss damage, high amounts of ad clear, great ability spam capability, and some of the best self healing in the game. However, it is not New Light friendly so it does take some putting together to unlock its full potential.
WARNING: The Prismatic subclass and Euphony requires The Final Shape DLC to unlock. The Swarmers Exotic leg armor requires the Lightfall DLC to unlock.
Pros
- Strong self healing.
- Very high ability uptime.
- Burst damage super for bosses or ads.
Cons
- Exotic Raid weapon.
- Threadlings struggle in difficult content.
- May struggle with Light Transcendence energy.
Gameplay Loop
The aim of the Swarmers Prismatic Warlock build is to create Threadlings by using your grenade and class ability whenever they are up and keeping Devour active at all times.
- Throw your Arcane Needle to spread Unravel and activate Devour if you score a kill.
- Throw Threadling Grenade to spawn 3 Threadlings. If you did not get Devour from your melee, the Threadlings should help.
- Use Phoenix Dive to spawn 3 more Threadlings, thanks to Weaver's Call. This aspect also sends out any perched Threadlings you have on you and you can hold up to 5.
- Sustaining damage on any bosses or majors with Euphony allows you to spawn EVEN more Threadlings.
- Activate Transcendence to refill your ability energies and transform your grenade into a Freezing Singularity. You also gain increased ability regeneration while in this form.
- Cast Needlestorm during boss damage phases or to handle large groups of unruly ads.
- Threadlings should help you create more than enough Darkness Transcendence energy. Use The Recluse and take advantage of Facet of Devotion to fill the Light side.
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. This also spreads Unravel on a Prismatic Warlock with Swarmers equipped.
Abilities
- Phoenix Dive - Jump in the air and activate your class ability. You and surrounding allies gain 2 stacks of Cure. Creates more Threadlings as well as sending out any you have perched.
- Burst Glide - Jump while airborne to activate. Continuously hit the jump button to get a speed boost in the direction you are looking. Strafe Lift is also a good alternative.
- Arcane Needle - Taking this melee ability gives you three charges, allows you to spread Unravel and a way to gain Devour.
- Threadling Grenade - Throwing this grenade spawns 3 Threadlings that seek out and attack your targets. This is a Threadling build after all.
Aspects
- Feed the Void - You're going to have a lot of abilities to throw at your enemies. Scoring a kill with any of them activates Devour, giving you full health and Grenade ability energy after each kill that follows.
- Weaver's Call - When you activate Phoenix Dive, spawn in 3 Threadlings along with sending out any you may have perched on you, potentially sending out 8 total minions per cast! The Swarmers Prismatic Warlock creates a ton of Threadlings, so you should see max minions very often.
Fragments
- Facet of Sacrifice - While Devour and Radiant are active, ability final blows grant Darkness Transcendence energy. This fuels one side of your Transcendence activation.
- This fragment gives you 10 Discipline.
- Facet of Devotion - Defeating enemy targets afflicted with Unravel, Slow or Freeze grants bonus Light Transcendence energy fueling the other half of Transcendence.
- This fragment gives you 10 Strength.
- Facet of Hope - While you have Devour and Radiant active, your Phoenix Dive ability energy regenerates more quickly.
- Facet of Balance - Rapidly defeating enemies with Light damage grants you Arcane Needle energy and Dark damage grants Threadling Grenade energy. You're more interested in the first half as all the Grenade energy you need comes from Devour.
- Facet of Awakening - Rapid defeats from either Light or Darkness damage or Super final blows create an elemental pickup of the same type. For you, this means Tangle and Void Breaches.
- This fragment gives you 10 Resilience.
Gearing
Required Gear
Swarmers - Destroying a Tangle spawns a Threadling and your Threadlings Unravel any target that they damage. You are going to create a lot of Tangles with the Swarmers Prismatic Warlock build because of all the Unraveled targets.
How to acquire:
- Complete the Lightfall campaign on Legend difficulty.
- Decrypting exotic engrams at Rahool if unlocked.
- Farm the expert lost sector on legs Armor days.
- Note: This Exotic is locked behind the Lightfall DLC.
Stat Priorities
- Resilience > Recovery > Discipline.
- Resilience is always the most coveted stat when in a PVE environment. It increases your damage resistance and shield capacity. The goal is 100 Resilience.
- Recovery governs the cooldown on the Warlock's class ability and decreases the time it takes to regenerate your health and shields.
- Discipline decreases the cooldown on your grenade ability, allowing it to charge faster.
Learn more about the Stats available to you in Destiny 2 with our dedicated guide.
Armor Mods
- Helmet
- Ashes to Assets - Gain bonus Super energy on Grenade kills.
- Void Siphon - Rapid Void weapon final blows create an Orb of Power.
- Gauntlets
- Momentum Transfer - Causing damage with a grenade reduces your melee cooldown.
- Bolstering Detonation - Grants class ability energy when you cause damage with a grenade.
- Firepower - Your grenade final blows create Orbs of Power.
- Chest
- Charged Up - Increases the maximum number of Armor Charge stacks you can carry by 1.
- Resist/Reserves mods of your choice - Choose for the activity you are going into!
- Leg
- Invigoration - Reduces melee cooldown each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
- Insulation - Reduces class ability cooldown each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
- Strand Weapon Surge - Your Strand weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have an armor charge. Your armor charges now decay over time.
- Cloak
- Outreach - Reduces melee cooldown when using your class ability.
- Time Dilation - Your decaying armor charges have a longer cooldown.
- Powerful Attraction - Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate your class ability.
Armor Mods are unlocked by progressing your Guardian Rank. Check out the Guardian Ranks Guide for more information.
Artifact Mods
- Anti-barrier Submachine Gun - Gives you an always active way to break Barrier Champion's shields and stun them with your SMG.
- Elemental Siphon - Rapid final blows with your Strand weapons creates a Tangle. You are taking advantage of these Tangles with Swarmers.
- Press The Advantage - Gain a boost to your weapon stability, handling and reload speed when you break an enemy's shield.
- Threaded Blast - Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon creates a larger and more damaging explosion. Since you are creating so many Tangles, this is an easy pick up.
- Radiant Orbs - Between The Recluse and Firepower you're going to create a ton of Orbs of Power making Radiant nearly always active.
- Shieldcrush - While you have Overshield, your Arcane Needle has a 25% increase to recharge rate and damage output. While you are Radiant, Threadling Grenade has a 25% increase to recharge rate and damage output.
- Prismatic Transfer - When you cast Needlestorm, your fireteam members gain a boost to weapon damage when they do not have a Strand Super ability equipped.
Recommended Weapons
- Kinetic Weapon: Euphony - A very powerful linear fusion weapon that uses special ammo and synergizes with your Threadlings. With the amount of Threadlings you are going to spawn in, Spindle stacks should be near max all the time. Euphony requires access to The Final Shape DLC to unlock.
- Energy Weapon: The Recluse - A classic SMG making a triumphant return and free for all players. Take this for the roll specifically, keeping up Overshield as much as possible to feed Shieldcrush.
- 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
No Raid Exotic
Solipsism
Best in Slot
Gear Swaps
- Swap Euphony for The Call.
- We all know raid Exotics are hard to come by if your RNG just isn't there. The Call offers you one of the strongest special type weapons in the game with incredibly deep ammo reserves.
- The Call requires access to The Final Shape DLC to unlock.
- Swap The Recluse for Sunshot.
- Sunshot is arguably the best primary in the current sandbox. Since your Exotic slot is no longer filled, Sunshot is an easy pick.
- Swap Void Siphon for Solar Siphon.
- You are no longer using a Void weapon here, so take the Solar Siphon to create Orbs of Power with Sunshot.
Gear Swaps
- Swap Swarmers for Solipsism with Spirit of the Swarm.
- This swap removes your ability to spread Unravel with your Threadlings.
- Pair this with something like Spirit of Inmost Light for added ability regeneration or Spirit of the Necrotic to add in some poison damage.
- Solipsism is locked behind The Final Shape DLC. Is earned from Dual Destiny, Cooperative Focus campaign missions, or rarely from opening chests on The Pale Heart.
This is already the best in slot version of the Speaker's Sight Solar Warlock build. Artifice armor can be earned from Crucible in the Competitive playlist as well as any master difficulty dungeon. The Echo set shown drops from Grasp of Avarice which is locked behind the 30th Anniversary DLC.
- Euphony is earned from the Witness in the Salvation's Edge raid. Requires The Final Shape DLC to unlock.
To unlock Solipsism, you need to complete Dual Destiny. Check out our dedicated guide.
Summary
The Swarmers Prismatic Warlock build gives you a generous amount of ad clear, boss damage, survivability and ways to spread debuffs to your enemies. Your ability spam is through the roof thanks to Feed the Void and provides you with more Threadlings than a normal Strand build ever could. Become the Broodweaver you were meant to be and wreak havoc with your minions all over Sol!
Credits
Written by: SquirrelyDan
Reviewed by: ShieldMaiden
