Past Destiny 2 expansions have introduced new subclasses such as Beyond Light's Stasis and Lightfall's Strand, but for The Final Shape DLC, developer Bungie has done something entirely different. Instead of giving Guardians a fresh set of powers to play around with, the studio has created Prismatic — a subclass featuring a wide variety of different abilities and Aspects from all five of Destiny 2's other subclasses. Under Prismatic, all of these options have been tweaked so they synergize in powerful ways that Bungie wants to feel a little "broken," with a suite of new Fragments allowing for plenty of creative buildcrafting. You'll even be able to enter a new state called Transcendence by filling Light and Darkness meters with those damage types, giving you temporary access to a unique grenade, extra damage resistance, and very fast ability regeneration.
With so many different subclass ability combinations available, Prismatic's buildcrafting potential feels limitless — and we don't even have access to The Final Shape's new Exotic class items yet, which will feature two randomly rolled perks inspired by pieces of previously released Exotic armor. And as you unlock the subclass and its various options throughout the DLC's campaign and post-campaign content, you'll no doubt be wondering what some of the best Prismatic builds are.
While there's no way to know for sure what the best setups are until the community spends at least a few weeks experimenting with Prismatic, I've put together some combinations that are all-but-guaranteed to be strong. You'll find one of these builds for each Destiny 2 class below, including each one's abilities, Aspects, Fragments, Exotics, weapons, and armor mods. Note that some of these Aspects and abilities won't be available to use until you make progress in the campaign, so keep that in mind.
Destiny 2: Best Prismatic Hunter build
- Abilities: Golden Gun: Marksman, Gambler's Dodge, Combination Blow, Grapple Grenade
- Aspects: Winter's Shroud, Stylish Executioner OR Threaded Specter
- Fragments: Facet of Dawn, Facet of Protection, Facet of Purpose, Facet of Ruin
- Exotic: Liar's Handshake OR Assassin's Cowl
- Exotic class item: Spirit of Caliban OR Spirit of the Assassin / Spirit of Synthoceps OR Spirit of the Liar
- Armor mods: Weapon-matching Siphon, Hands-On, Heavy Handed, Stacks on Stacks, Recuperation, Innervation, Reaper, Explosive Finisher
- Important stats: Resilience, Discipline, Recovery OR Mobility
- Weapons: Shotgun w/ One-Two Punch, Swashbuckler weapons
The pairing of Combination Blow and Gambler’s Dodge is a fan-favorite Hunter ability combo, and with Prismatic, you can take it to an entirely new level. By pairing Winter’s Shroud with Stylish Executioner, you can dodge near enemies to Slow (and eventually Freeze) them, then proc Invisibility by killing those enemies with a Combination Blow melee. Then, while invisible, use a Gambler’s Dodge to apply more Slow and get your Combination Blow back before punching and killing another foe, starting the cycle again. Whenever enemies are far away, use Grapple Grenade to quickly close the distance.
If whatever you’re hitting doesn’t die to your first melee, it’s very likely another will finish it off thanks to the fact your first melee while invisible will debuff your target with Weaken and your follow-up will get a huge damage buff from Liar’s Handshake. You can also boost the damage of your punches even higher with a One-Two Punch shotgun; don’t forget Combination Blow has a damage buff of its own that will stack up to three times as you perform your core combo, too.
The build is rounded out nicely by the chosen Fragments that allow melee kills to give you the Radiant weapon damage boost, give you damage resistance when surrounded by enemies, give you Restoration healing when you pick up Orbs of Power (since Golden Gun is your Super), and buff the damage caused when your melees shatter mobs frozen by your Winter’s Shroud dodges. With these armor mods, you’ll also be generating plenty of Orbs of Power with melee kills, getting additional healing from Recuperation, and gaining lots of Armor Charge you can convert into Grapple Grenade charges with Explosive Finisher (Gambler’s Dodge handles your melee).
For a safer, but lower damage alternative to the build, you could use Assassin’s Cowl and Threaded Specter instead of Liar’s Handshake and Stylish Executioner; Assassin’s Cowl will give you healing and Void Invisibility on each melee kill, while Threaded Specter makes a decoy each time you dodge that draws enemy aggro and explodes into Strand Threadlings when destroyed. The original build would also be very strong with an Exotic class item with a Caliban / Synthoceps or Liars roll, while this one would perform better with Spirit of the Assassin instead of Caliban.
Destiny 2: Best Prismatic Warlock build
- Abilities: Needlestorm OR Song of Flame, Healing Rift OR Empowering Rift, Arcane Needle, Coldsnap Grenade
- Aspects: Bleak Watcher, Feed the Void
- Fragments: Facet of Ruin, Facet of Balance, Facet of Dawn, Facet of Purpose
- Exotic: Osmiomancy Gloves
- Exotic class item: Spirit of Inmost Light OR Spirit of Osmiomancy / Spirit of Starfire
- Armor mods: Stasis Siphon, Dynamo, Heavy Handed, Grenade Kickstart, Charged Up, Stacks on Stacks, Recuperation, Innervation, Reaper, Bomber
- Important stats: Resilience, Discipline, Recovery OR Strength
- Weapons: Stasis primary w/ Headstone, Light (Arc, Solar, or Void) special and heavy weapon
Since they were added in Beyond Light, Shadebinder Warlock’s Stasis Bleak Watcher turrets have been a mainstay in endgame PvE — especially when paired with the Osmiomancy Gloves Exotic that gives you two grenade charges to use. With Prismatic, you can use them (and Osmiomancy) alongside the Feed the Void Aspect that gives you Devour, a special Void buff that gives you chunks of health and grenade energy every time you get a kill while it’s up.
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Devour refreshes itself on all kills once it’s active, but to first proc it, you’ll need an ability kill; this is what you’ll use ranged Arcane Needle melees for, as they deal fairly high damage and have three charges. Then, once you have Devour, you can easily keep it up as you take out all the foes frozen by your Bleak Watcher turrets, and all of the grenade energy it gives will help you spam more turrets.
The Fragments I’ve chosen augment the build by making enemies take more damage when they shatter or are hit by shattered Stasis crystals and giving you additional grenade energy from Darkness kills, which is why I recommend a Stasis primary with Headstone. You’ll also get Radiant when you use your Arcane Needles and Woven Mail damage resistance from Orbs of Power. Speaking of Orbs, you’ll be making a ton with Arcane Needle and Stasis weapon multikills thanks to your armor mods, and the subsequent Armor Charge will fuel Grenade Kickstart procs to boost your grenade (turret) regen further.
While you could use an Exotic class item with Spirit of Osmiomancy, it doesn’t give you a second grenade charge for your turrets. On top of that, the only second column perk that synergizes with this build is Spirit of Starfire, which would require using Empowering Rift (Healing Rift is much better in PvE). For those reasons, I recommend sticking with Osmiomancy Gloves.
Destiny 2: Best Prismatic Titan build
- Abilities: Hammer of Sol OR Bladefury, Thruster, Frenzied Blade, Glacier Grenade
- Aspects: Consecration, Knockout
- Fragments: Facet of Balance, Facet of Dawn, Facet of Purpose, Facet of Ruin
- Exotic: Heart of Inmost Light
- Exotic class item: Spirit of Inmost Light / Spirit of Synthoceps
- Armor mods: Hands-On, Heavy Handed, Invigoration, Recuperation, Reaper, Bomber, Explosive Finisher
- Important stats: Resilience, Discipline, Recovery OR Strength
- Weapons: Balance of Light (Arc, Solar, or Void) and Darkness (Stasis, Strand) weaponry
Between the Consecration and Knockout Aspects and the use of Frenzied Blade and Glacier Grenade, this build combines some of the best elements of Solar, Arc, Strand, and Stasis into one cohesive ranged melee setup. At its core, it takes advantage of using Consecration to Ignite enemies and proccing Knockout health regen and Amplified off of those kills, with Frenzied Blade giving you three melee charges to use Consecration with.
Though the build is simple, it’s also incredibly powerful, especially with these Fragments that give you melee energy from Light kills (AKA, Consecration is feeding into itself), Radiant from your Consecration blasts, Restoration (Hammer of Sol Super) or Woven Mail (Bladefury Super) from Orbs of Power, and bigger Solar ignitions. Facet of Ruin also improves Stasis crystal explosions, which is why Glacier Grenade was selected; with it, you can Freeze a group of mobs with a wall of crystals before using Consecration to Ignite them and shatter the crystals.
The use of Heart of Inmost Light will help you get your melees and other abilities back faster as you cycle through them, as will a suite of armor mods that generate Orbs of Power from melee kills and give you both melee and grenade energy. Once Exotic class items can drop, try and get one with Inmost Light / Synthoceps to work a sizable melee damage buff into the setup.
Get buildcrafting, Guardians
All three of these Prismatic builds are very powerful and show off just how strong the subclass can be when using different Aspects and abilities together in synergistic ways, but I'm certain that Destiny 2's community will figure out even stronger combinations in the days and weeks to come. As it does, I'll be sure to update this guide with the best builds I see so you can bring the full power of both the Light and the Darkness to bear on the Witness and its forces.
Of course, you should also endeavor to experiment yourself, as you may come across some unique and effective combos that other players haven't thought about yet. This will be especially true in Week 2 (starting June 11), as this is when the activity that drops Exotic class items will unlock.
The Final Shape itself is officially available to play, so as long as you've purchased a copy, you can journey into the Pale Heart of the Traveler and challenge the Witness now. Just be aware you might have to deal with a queue whenever you log in during the first few days of the DLC, as hundreds of thousands of players are doing the same.
Destiny 2 is one of the best Xbox games and best PC games for fans of multiplayer and looter shooters, and The Final Shape — the final expansion in the Light and Darkness Saga — is finally here and available to play now.
