Destiny 2’sEpisodeHeresybrings a new story and an extensive catalog of tweaks and additions. Among these changes,the game has introduced three new subclass Aspects, one for each class: Storm’s Keep for Titans, Ionic Sentry for Warlocks, and On the Prowl for Hunters.
While these Aspects might not seem impressive at first, they offer new playstyles and avenues for Guardians to completely change their playstyle and continue to enjoy the power fantasy. As with many Guardian-related items, these Aspects can be acquired by speaking to Ikora in the Tower.
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We’ll be looking ata build for each class that best synergizes these new Aspects,along with potential alternatives in exotic armor.
If you don’t have any Exotic armor featured, you may focus on an Exotic engram with Master Rahool in the Tower to acquire the armor piece you want. That will most likely cost a rank reset and an Exotic Cipher.
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Now You See Me…
The newVoid Aspect, On The Prowl, leans heavily into theassassin power fantasy that Void Hunters have been dying to experience, prioritizingstealth in a chaotic gunfight. With this build, you’ll be able to slip in and out of sight,giving you and your teammates ample breathing room to burn down your target before searching for your next prey.
When On the Prowl is equipped,a nearby enemy is marked as a priority target for you and your team. Killing that target creates a weakening cloud (the same as the smoke bomb) that makes you and your allies invisible when passing through it.
On top of that, killing the target gives you and nearby allies increased ability energy, plus reload speed and stability for a short duration.
To trigger On The Prowl, you’ll need something to activate your invisibility in the first place.While Trapper’s Ambush and Vanishing Step are easy tools to trigger invisibility, we’ll be using Stylish Executioner, which renders you invisible when killing any Void-debuffed enemy (Weaken, Suppressed, Volatile).
You’ll then have the following Fragments to supplement your assassin playstyle:
In terms of abilities, any grenade will do, butScatter Grenades deal the most burst damage out of all of them.Smoke Bomb is the only melee ability, so you’ll be mainly using that to begin engagements. Make sure to equip Gambler’s Dodge to ready your Smoke Bombs as often as possible.
You may use whatever variant of the Shadowshot, but I prefer Deadfall as it lasts longer and tethers more enemies; Moebius Quiver is only best used for DPS.
… Now You Don’t
All these elements tie neatly into the Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk exotic chest piece, one of the best exotic armor pieces for Hunters. It grants your Void weapons Volatile Rounds when you manually end Invisibility. Not only that, but Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk gives you and your teammates bonus damage and overshields when finishing an enemy off while invisible.
Letting Invisibility run out will not give you Volatile Rounds. You must attack to break out of Invisibility to get Volatile Rounds.
This is a Void-focused build, so you’ll need to find the best Void weapons that you can find. Hard Light is the star here, as its perk “The Fundamentals” increases your damage whenever you apply any Void debuff or pick up a Void Breach, which is almost always. With that said, you’ll have an almost permanent buff to your damage while using Hard Light.
Thankfully, Hard Light isn’t a difficult find, as you can get it from Xur when he’s selling it on the weekends, or random rare drops.
With all these abilities, armor, and weapons,you’ll be opening engagements with a well-placed smoke bomb, weakening an enemy and defeating it to get the ball rolling.Now you’re invisible.
Then, an enemy gets marked. It doesn’t matter which one, because once you kill it, it’ll dropa smoke cloud that weakens nearby enemies.Even if you don’t weaken any enemy, you still have your Volatile rounds, which still procs Gyrfalcon’s intrinsic perk., making you Invisible.
This creates a feedback loop of Void-debuffs and Invisibility,making you an untouchable specter on the battlefield. Combined with the increased ability regen from Devour, On The Prowl, and Gyrfalcon, you’ll always have smoke bombs, dodges, and grenades ready.
Alternatives
Of course, you might not have Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk, nor Hard Light, and might require some other options.
If that’s the case, then Omnioculus or Orpheus Rig might be better alternatives for you.
Hard Light also isn’t a difficult find, but if you want to try another weapon, then perhaps the following Void weapons might be just as good:
If you are a beginner and do not have any of these weapons or armor, then I would suggest sticking to whatever gear you’re most comfortable with.Prioritize using Void weapons, and you should be able to still experience the assassin Hunter life.
Nightstalker
Shadowshot - Deadfall
Scatter Grenade or Suppressor Grenade
Smoke Bomb
Class Ability
Gambler’s Dodge
Stylish Executioner, On the Prowl
Echo of Obscurity, Echo of Harvest, Echo of Starvation, Echo of Persistence, Echo of Undermining
Exotic Armor
Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk. Alternatively: Omnioculus, Orpheus Rig
Any Void weapon. Ideally Hard Light, Graviton Lance, or Collective Obligation
Unlimited Power!
Arc Warlocks have always severely lacked survivability and variety. Thanks to the Ionic Sentry though, you canlock down a select area while disabling your enemies, chaining abilities and attacks that will leave them stunned.
In a nutshell, Ionic Sentry is a newArc aspectthat is essentiallythe Warlock version of the Hunter’s Gunpowder Gamble: defeating targets with Kinetic or Arc weapons or Arc abilities charge up a meter (up to 6). Once filled, it replaces your grenade with anIonic Sentry that can be deployed to blind and then periodically chain lightning to nearby enemies.
Each enemy hit with the Ionic Sentry grants you a stack of Bolt Charge, the newest Arc buff that calls down lightning once you reach 10 stacks.
SinceIonic Traces are one of the strongest elemental pickups in the game,we’ll be maximizing them by equipping Electrostatic Mind. This creates an Ionic Trace whenever an enemy is defeated by an Arc ability, or if an Arc-debuffed enemy is defeated. You’ll be getting Ionic Traces for days.
You’ll need to have the following Fragments to supplement your playstyle:
Your grenade and melee abilities are completely up to you, but I found that Pulse Grenade deals excellent lingering damage, while Chain Lightning gives you an extra way to inflict Jolt.
Even though Stormtrance received a hefty buff, you’ll need Chaos Reach for our Exotic armor.
Ima Firin' Mah Lazer!
The best Exotic armor for this build is Geomag Stabilizers, which not only more than doubles the duration of your Chaos Reach super but allows Ionic Traces to grant you 7% Super energy when collected.
Ionic Traces also grant 12.5% grenade and melee energy, and 15% class ability energy.
This is an Arc-focused build,so you should pick your weapons with that in mind.Delicate Tombis an amazing weapon for this build, as not only does it deal tons of burst damage and add clear via Spark of Beacons and its intrinsic perk, but you’ll never have to reload thanks to its Catalyst, which partially refills the magazine when you collect an Ionic Trace.
Because of how the Fragments, Aspects, and gear synergize with each other,you’ll be an Ionic Trace factory, and practically permanently Amplified.
Two other armor options function essentially the same, but prioritize different aspects of the Arc Warlock experience.
Unfortunately, the only way to get Delicate Tomb after Final Shape is through the Exotic weapon kiosk, which requires the Witch Queenexpansion.
That said, here are some alternatives that might be more accessible for new or returning players who do not have access to Witch Queen:
Thankfully, most of the weapons and armor are easily accessible for beginners and longtime returning players. This build should still work regardless of whether you have the right gear, as long as youprioritize building around Jolt and generating Ionic Traces.
Stormcaller
Chaos Reach
Pulse Grenade
Chain Lightning
Healing Rift
Electrostatic Mind, Ionic Sentry
Spark of Beacons, Spark of Resistance, Spark of Discharge, Spark of Ions
Geomag Stabilizers. Alternatively: Fallen Sunstar, Crown of Tempests
Delicate Tomb OR Coldheart
Behold, The God Of Thunder!
Arc Titans areDestiny’s walking tanks, capable of taking damage and dishing it back out with a devastating, thunderous punch.The new Aspect, Storm’s Keep, enhances the Titan’s ability to become a walking fortress with the barricade ability.
With Storm’s Keep, casting your class ability executes a unique animation, granting a moderate amount ofBolt Charge stacksto you and nearby allies. Standing behind the barricade gradually increases more stacks of Bolt Charge.
While normally you can only discharge your max stacks via ability damage, Storm’s Keep allows you to discharge that lightning with weapon damage as well.
Depending on the type, your Barricade can also taunt enemies and draw enemy aggro, or you can receive a lot of stat bonuses when standing behind it.
To ensure you survive like the tank that you are, verify to also put on Knockout, which restores a portion of your health on melee kills as well as other benefits. Here are the fragments you should put on, which are the same as the Arc Warlock build:
You may choose to use whatever grenade and melee you like, but I find that Pulse Grenade and Thunderclap are the most fun and useful. However, with the recent Arc Titan tweaks,Ballistic Slam isn’t a bad pick, either, as it grants stacks of Bolt Charge based on targets hit.
Unless you really like Fists of Havoc, Thundercrash is the best Super to equip, as you may deal massive damage with a single attack.
Deploying Missile Barrage
The main focus of this build is your Class Ability, and what better Exotic armor to use thanHazardous Propulsion?This chest piece charges up to a maximum of six Exodus Rockets from defeating enemies,which can be fired simultaneously by casting your Class Ability.
Each Exodus Rocket landed increases the damage of any “rocket-type” damage, from 10% to 35% increase. “Rocket-type” weapons include Rocket Sidearms and Rocket Launchers.
As long as you consistently generate Ionic Traces, you’ll be just as consistently casting your Class Ability, giving you plenty of Bolt Charge stacks and opportunities to fire your missiles.
Quick add-clearing weapons like auto rifles (Khvostovis amazing) can help you clear out large groups and quickly charge your rockets before you can unload them onto a stronger enemy. You can also use those rockets in a more utilitarian way, as a means of increasing your rocket damage during boss DPS.
This build is a bit slower in playstyle; since Storm’s Keep requires you to hunker down behind your rally barricade to maximize your Bolt Charge gain, you’ll need to be smart in positioning yourself so that you don’t waste a barricade or expose yourself to too much enemy fire.
You can only acquire Hazardous Propulsion by completing the Final Shape campaign on Legendary difficulty or through Exotic engramfocusing on Rahool in the Tower. If you can’t get Hazardous Propulsion in any other way, the following may be better alternatives:
While there are no required weapons for this build,here are some other options to consider:
Thundercrash
Thunderclap
Rally Barricade
Knockout, Storm’s Keep
Hazardous Propulsion. Alternatively: Actium War Rig, Citan’s Ramparts
Any rocket sidearm (i.e. Indebted Kindness), rocket launcher, or Grand Overture
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