Best Destiny 2 Stasis Warlock build: PvP and PvE

Stasis has always been the most slept-on subclass in Destiny 2, and Stasis Warlocks have always been a bit lackluster. That said, I still enjoy playing the Destiny 2 Stasis Warlock because of how fun these best PvP and PvE builds are to use.

The two Stasis Warlock builds in this guide focus on the same thing: Osmiomancy Gloves. The only difference is one build focuses all the mods, Aspects, Fragments, Seasonal Artifact perks, and weapons around PvE and the other focuses on maximizing efficiency in PvP.

Related: New to Destiny 2? Tips and tricks for new players

Best PvE Stasis Warlock build in Destiny 2

The highlight of the best PvE Stasis Warlock build is Osmiomancy Gloves. The playstyle and overall goal of the best PvE Stasis Warlock build is to freeze everything with your Coldsnap grenades. Summon Stasis turrets and toss tons of Coldsnap grenades to freeze all your opponents. Rinse and repeat while raining bullets from your best weapon and you’ve got yourself the best PvE Stasis Warlock.

Best PvE Stasis Warlock seasonal perks in Destiny 2 Season of the Wish

• From Whence You Came – Increase ability damage to Taken and Scorn combatants.
• Pillar of Ice – Defeating an encased combatant spawns Stasis crystals.
• Hail the Storm – Shattering encased targets and Stasis crystals deals increased damage. Shattering Stasis crystals releases shards of ice that damage and slow targets.

Season of the Wish has a few standout Seasonal Artifact perks that the best PvE Stasis Warlock build can utilize. You’ll want to use From Whence You Came to deal more damage to Taken and Scorn with your grenades and melee. Pillar of Ice is necessary since you’ll get even more Stasis crystals as you freeze enemies and Hail the Storm takes things to another level by allowing you to deal more damage to frozen enemies.

Best PvE Stasis Warlock Aspects and Fragments

• Aspects
  • Bleak Watcher – Press and hold the grenade button to convert your grenade into a Stasis turret that fires slowing projectiles at nearby targets.
  • Iceflare Bolts – Shattering a frozen target spawns seekers that track and freeze other nearby targets.
• Fragments
  • Whisper of Chains – While you are near frozen targets or a friendly Stasis crystal, you take reduced damage from targets. +10 Recovery.
  • Whisper of Fissures – Increases the damage and size of the burst of Stasis when you destroy a Stasis crystal or defeat a frozen target.
  • Whisper of Shards – Shattering a Stasis crystal temporarily boosts your grenade recharge rate. Shattering additional Stasis crystals increases the duration of this benefit.
  • Whisper of Torment – You gain grenade energy each time you take damage from targets.

It wouldn’t be a Warlock build if you didn’t have a little subclass buddy, right? Just like the best Warlock Void build and Warlock Arc build, the key to the best PvE Stasis Warlock is the Stasis turret you get from Bleak Watcher. It’s not super strong, but it’s a consistent way to keep freezing enemies while you’re waiting for your grenade to recharge — plus, you have two grenade charges which makes creating a Stasis turret easy.

To become the ultimate field-controlling mastermind, Iceflare Bolts is required. With this Aspect, every target on the field will constantly be frozen. Controlling the battlefield is core to this Stasis Warlock PvE build.

The biggest issue with Stasis as a whole is it doesn’t provide much survivability. To fix that, you need Whisper of Chains. Since everything will always be frozen, Whisper of Chains allows you to reduce incoming damage.

Another flaw with Stasis is it doesn’t deal much damage. To remedy that, Whisper of Fissures increases the damage done to targets broken out of a Stasis freeze. This will always be happening thanks to your Bleak Watcher and Iceflare Bolts Aspects.

The last two Fragments focus on keeping your Coldsnap grenades stocked. Whisper of Torment gives you grenade energy when you take damage. Whisper of Shards gives you grenade energy after destroying a Stasis crystal. Only use Whisper of Shards if you’re using Verglas Curve because you won’t easily get Stasis crystals without it.

Best PvE Stasis Warlock Abilities

• Super – Winter’s Wraith
• Jump – Whatever jump you want
• Class Ability – Whatever class ability you want
• Melee – Penumbral Blast
• Grenade – Coldsnap Grenade

Stasis has a lot of problems, ones that could be solved if Bungie implemented this incredible fan-made Stasis rework, but one of the reasons why I avoid Stasis is because Winter’s Wraith, the Stasis Warlock Super, is very weak. It’s slow, it doesn’t deal much damage, but it’s what we’ve got.

As always, use whatever jump and class ability you want, although I recommend Strafe and Healing Rift. Penumbral Blast isn’t a bad melee, but it’s not the highlight of this build. Everything about the best PvE Stasis Warlock build revolves around Coldsnape grenades.

Best PvE Stasis Warlock Exotic Armor, weapons, and mods

• Exotic Armor
  • Osmiomancy Gloves – Your Coldsnap grenades have an additional charge that recharges quicker on direct impact. The seeker spawned from your Coldsnap grenades travels further.
• Weapons
  • Verglas Curve, Ager’s Scepter, or any weapon with the Headstone or Chill Clip weapon perk.
• Mods
  • Helmet – One Heavy Ammo Finder, one Kinetic Siphon, one Harmonic Siphon
  • Arms – Three Impact Induction
  • Chest – One Melee Damage Resistance, one Sniper Damage Resistance
  • Legs – Two Recuperation, one Stasis Weapon Surge
  • Class Item – One Reaper, two Bomber

Osmiomancy Gloves are the way to go for the best PvE Stasis Warlock. While other Stasis Exotic Armor exists for Warlock, these remain king. With Osmiomancy Gloves and the two Aspects of choice, you’ll constantly be freezing everything in your path.

I like using Veglas Curve, the Stasis Exotic Bow, the most with this build as it gets me Stasis crystals and is fun to use. Many people love Ager’s Scepter, the Stasis Trace Rifle, and I admit it’s a good option. For Legendary weapons, use anything with Chill Clip or Headstone as those are two Stasis weapon perks that synergize well. Though it works well on every build since it is one of the highest damage-dealing weapons in the game, the Cold Comfort Rocket Launcher works well with this build.

For PvE mods, Heavy Ammo Finder is always nice to have. The Kinetic and Harmonic Siphon mods help you spawn Orbs of Power often. Usually, I recommend Firepower for Warlocks, but since Coldsnap grenades hardly ever get final blows, Impact Induction is your best bet to get more grenade energy after using your melee.

For the chest mods, select whatever damage resistance mods make sense for the activity you’re doing. As a default, I use the Melee Damage Resistance and Sniper Damage Resistance because those are the two worst ways to go in Destiny 2.

Two Recuperation mods are great to help with survivability and Stasis Weapon Surge helps you dish more damage. Lastly, you can’t go wrong with the two Bomber, one Reaper combo.

Best PvP Stasis Warlock build in Destiny 2

The goal for the best PvE Stasis Warlock is shared by the best PvP Stasis Warlock, but it’s more dialed down and locked in because Guardians are tougher than adds. We’ll still be using Osmiomancy Gloves to freeze our enemies, but we’ll need to rely on solid weapons first and foremost. There’s only so much you can do for one of the weakest PvP classes and subclasses in the game.

Best PvP Stasis Warlock seasonal perks in Destiny 2 Season of the Wish

• Flint Striker – Rapid Solar weapon precision hits and rapid Solar weapon final blows grant Radiant.
• Torch – While Radiant, deal increased weapon damage to combatants affected by Strand and Stasis debuffs.
• Pillar of Ice – Defeating an encased combatant spawns Stasis crystals.
• Hail the Storm – Shattering encased targets and Stasis crystals deals increased damage. Shattering Stasis crystals releases shards of ice that damage and slow targets.

While you should use Pillar of Ice and Hail the Storm in PvP, there is an interesting interaction you can achieve through the Season of the Wish Seasonal Artifact perks that’s worth mentioning. With Flint Striker and Torch, if you use a Solar weapon and get rapid precision hits and/or final blows, you’ll become Radiant. While Radiant, you’ll deal increased Stasis weapon damage. This combination is worth experimenting with in PvP and PvE.

Related: Best Destiny 2 Strand Warlock build: PvP and PvE

Best PvP Stasis Warlock Aspects and Fragments

• Aspects
  • Bleak Watcher – Press and hold the grenade button to convert your grenade into a Stasis turret that fires slowing projectiles at nearby targets.
  • Glacial Harvest – Freezing targets creates Stasis shards around the frozen targets. Higher-tier combatants create more shards.
• Fragments
  • Whisper of Hedrons – Dramatically increases weapon stability, weapon aim assist, weapon airborne effectiveness, mobility, resilience, and recovery after freezing a target with Stasis.
  • Whisper of Rending – Primary Ammo Weapons deal 100% increased damage against Stasis Crystals and 50% increased damage against frozen enemies.
  • Whisper of Conduction – Stasis shards within 15 meters are slowly pulled to you after a one second delay.
  • Whisper of Rime – Collecting a Stasis shard grants a small amount of overshield, which falls off after 10 seconds. Collecting additional shards adds to the overshield and refreshes the timer.

The two best Aspect options for the best Stasis Warlock PvP build are Bleak Watcher and Glacial Harvest. While the Stasis turret fires very slowly, it can be helpful to slow and freeze enemies. Once enemies are frozen, you’ll get Stasis shards which proc your Fragments.

Whisper of Hedrons is arguably the best Stasis Fragment in the game for PvP because it gives you plus 60 to Resilience, Recovery, and Mobility, plus 30 to weapon stability, plus 20 to airborne effectiveness, and plus-15 to aim assist.

Whisper of Rending is another great PvP Stasis Fragment because it makes your weapons deal more damage to frozen enemies. Whisper of Rime offers a tiny bit of extra protection and Whisper of Conduction helps proc Rime easier.

Best PvP Stasis Warlock Abilities

• Super – Winter’s Wraith
• Jump – Whatever jump you want
• Class Ability – Whatever class ability you want
• Melee – Penumbral Blast
• Grenade – Coldsnap Grenade

The exact same PvE Stasis Warlock abilities are chosen for PvP. There’s not a lot of creative freedom when it comes to making a good Stasis Warlock — the entire subclass desperately needs a 3.0 rework.

Best PvP Stasis Warlock Exotic Armor, weapons, and mods

• Exotic Armor
  • Osmiomancy Gloves – Your Coldsnap grenades have an additional charge that recharges quicker on direct impact. The seeker spawned from your Coldsnap grenades travels further.
• Weapons
  • Ager’s Scepter, Prolonged Engagement, or Wicked Implement
• Mods
  • Helmet – One Harmonic Siphon, two Harmonic Targeting
  • Arms – Two Harmonic Reloader, one Harmonic Dexterity
  • Chest – One Melee Damage Resistance, one Sniper Damage Resistance.
  • Legs – Two Kinetic Holster, one Recuperation
  • Class Item – One Reaper, two Bomber.

While there are great PvP Warlock Exotic Armor choices like Ophidian Aspect or Transversive Steps, Osmiomancy Gloves work well. The weapon you’ll want to pair with it is Ager’s Scepter or Wicked Implement if you want an Exotic that synergizes well, or Prolonged Engagement if you want an SMG that synergizes with Stasis.

As per usual, the PvP armor mods focus on making your weapons more efficient. The Harmonic Siphon will allow you to find more Orbs of Power and the Harmonic Targeting will help you ensure steadier shots. Harmonic Reloaders help you reload faster and Harmonic Dexterity improves the read and stow speed.

As always, use any damage resistance mod you want, but I recommend Melee and Sniper. Having two Kinetic Holsters helps keep your Kinetic weapons reloaded. Last but not least, two Bombers are great to get your Coldsnap grenades back faster and one Reaper ensures you’ll get an Orb of Power here and there. Overall, all Warlock PvP builds are nothing compared to the best Solar Hunter PvP build.