WARLOCK

WARLOCK

Savants, scholars, masters of their own minds, wielding forces so powerful they can sunder reality on the battlefield. Warlocks have a deep understanding of their Light, and their manipulation of it borders on the mystical.

They wield Void and Solar forces, bombarding their foes with crushing Void energy or infusing their bodies with raging Solar power.

Warlocks begin with the Voidwalker specialization, unlocking Sunsinger at level 15.

Voidwalker

The Warlocks’ Voidwalker specialization grants you access to the mighty Nova Bomb super, a concentrated explosion of Void energy that can annihilate your enemies. The Voidwalker is also heavily focused around a Class-specific mechanic known as “Energy Siphon,” a special boost to your grenade recharge times granted by the Warlocks’ melee attack, Energy Drain.

Energy Siphon opens the possibility for a very grenade-focused build that isn’t simply high Discipline, as it can pair Strength and Discipline, or even ignore Strength and trigger the siphon effect from grenades exclusively when certain passive talents are selected. And, of course, your Nova Bomb super gives you a ranged explosive attack that can wipe out entire groups of hostiles from a distance.

Grenades

Vortex Grenade

A grenade that creates a vortex that continually damages enemies trapped inside.

A short-range, high-damage area denial grenade, the Vortex grenade creates a globe of damaging Void energy. It deals damage in extremely rapid pulses, with up to 100 damage per second if a target stays inside the blast zone.

Vortex grenades do not have damage falloff, but they do have a fairly small radius, so dealing the full damage amount to a target is unreliable.

These grenades work quite well for area denial, especially with the Vortex Mastery talent, giving you a very long-lasting and highly damaging Void field to guard an area.

Scatter Grenade

A grenade that splits into many submunitions and covers a large area with explosions.

The Scatter grenade is an unusual explosive that releases a cluster of Void “bomblets” when it impacts a target.

The damage dealt depends on how close the target is to the bomblets when they go off, as there are several miniature waves of explosions after the Scatter grenade impacts.

The bomblets that appear drop toward the ground, so it is possible to throw the Scatter grenade against a wall or ceiling and hit a target behind cover when the bomblets fall.

In general, to maximize damage, you want to land the grenade squarely at your target’s feet. Rapidly moving AI combatants or enemy players who are fully aware of you may be difficult to hit.

Axion Bolt

A bolt of Void Light that forks into smaller bolts on impact, which seek toward enemies.

Axion Bolt is a seeker grenade, launching two bolts of pure Void energy that deal 90 damage each to any target within 10 meters of the impact site. This grenade is excellent for locating targets behind cover, or for use in PvP when you are aware of a hostile opponent on the Motion Tracker but uncertain of their exact position.You can also use an Axion Bolt to finish off a fleeing target. While these grenades deal less damage than other types, their homing capability is fast and accurate.

Abilities

Glide

Jump and then press Jump again while in the air to activate Glide.

Glide is the Warlocks’ special movement mode. Triggered by pressing Jump a second time in midair, you can double tap Jump to quickly launch yourself upward, or you can perform a normal jump and then Glide from an elevated position across the landscape.

Glide has some of the easiest aerial control of the three Classes, but the tradeoff is vulnerability. You move slowly and gracefully through the air, which is nice and easy to control, but also nice and easy to shoot.

When there are no enemies around, feel free to use full-length Glides, but in PvP or PvE, don’t float around in the open with foes nearby, as you make a very easy target. Get in the habit of cancelling Glides early, and learn how to use your initial boost of momentum to get where you need to go without a long hangtime. Quickly double-tap Jump for a fast Glide (even better with High Agility).

Focused Control

Upgrades Glide for better directional control while you’re in the air.

Focused Control greatly improves your air control, giving you very precise mobility while levitating.

Focused Burst

Upgrades Glide to provide an initial boost of speed.

An excellent choice for PvP, Focused Burst gives you speed when you need it, which is immediately as you trigger the Glide. You can use this to reach elevated positions more quickly or escape behind cover from a bad situation. Focused Burst is also a good choice in PvE if you care more about rapid mobility than fine control.

Blink

A short-distance teleport that replaces Glide.

Identical to a Bladedancer Hunter’s Blink, this gives the Void Warlock a very useful evasive ability in both PvE and PvP. All of the same advice that applies to a Hunter applies to a Warlock: Blink requires practice to master, but it rewards you well for doing so.

Nova Bomb

Hurl an explosive bolt of Void energy at the enemy, disintegrating those caught within its blast. Has a recharge time of four minutes and 30 seconds.

Nova Bomb launches a devastating blast of Void energy, targeted where your camera is aimed. When the blast hits, it is instantly fatal to nearby opponents in PvP, and it deals heavy damage to enemies in PvE. Note that you can launch Nova Bomb while in midair. Using Glide or Blink to gain elevation before you launch Nova Bomb can give you the angle required to nail a group of targets behind cover. Be careful with elevated Nova Bomb launches in PvP. Players expect Warlocks to use them, and it is possible to get shot out of the sky before (or after) you throw your Nova Bomb. Nova Bomb is deadly in PvP against clumped opponents on objectives, and it is similarly effective against groups of enemies in PvE. Nova Bomb’s damage is similar to Fist of Havoc. It lays down a 9-meter radius blast that does have damage falloff away from the blast epicenter.

Vortex

Nova Bomb creates a Vortex that continually damages enemies trapped inside.

Vortex adds a lingering field of Void energy that continuously damages foes within. This attack deals its damage in rapid pulses the same way as a Vortex grenade, lasting for six seconds for a potential total of 600 damage.

As opponents in PvP are exceedingly unlikely to survive a Nova Bomb in the first place, you can use the aftermath to keep nearby hostiles off of a key objective or out of a doorway or hallway.

In PvE, Vortex can add significant damage to your Nova Bomb, because tougher enemies in PvE can survive a direct impact from the blast, and Vortex adds a substantial lingering damage boost.

Shatter

Nova Bomb splits into three projectiles.

Shatter splits your single mighty Nova Bomb into three smaller, but still lethal, projectiles. Shatter trades focused blast damage for wider area saturation. Especially in PvE against more scattered targets, and even more when paired with the Angry Magic talent that makes your Nova Bomb seek targets, Shatter can allow you to clear a wide area of weaker enemies.

In PvP, any of the smaller explosions are still likely to be fatal to any opponent caught in them. A nasty trick is to take Angry Magic, aim Shatter up and over cover, and let the tracking seek out and kill adversaries for you.

Lance

Nova Bomb travels farther and faster.

Lance speeds Nova Bomb up and gives it a straight trajectory. It also gives you precise targeting that aims exactly where your crosshair is pointed. It is ideal for targeting vehicles in PvE or PvP, as you can hit even fairly nimble targets with pinpoint accuracy.

Lance can also be a nasty surprise in PvP for players who expect you to use Nova Bomb at a close to medium distance. Lance allows you to bombard a target area from a great distance, delivering a full-strength explosion on impact.

This attack does have a slightly smaller radius than the normal Nova Bomb, but the tradeoff in speed and accuracy can often be worth it.

Energy Drain

A powerful melee attack that drains energy from enemies and uses it to reduce the cooldown of your grenade.

Energy Drain triggers the Energy Siphon effect when you hit an opponent, multiplying your grenade recharge speed by 1.6x for five seconds. Your Discipline score boosts this multiplier further, so despite its short duration, Energy Drain can give you a significant increase of grenade energy every time you melee an enemy.

Surge

Damaging an enemy with Energy Drain increases movement speed for a short time.

Surge causes Energy Drain to max your Agility and Handling stats, greatly increasing your mobility and improving your gun-handling ability. It lasts for 15 seconds, giving you plenty of time to make good use of its benefits. On a Strength-focused build, you can get good uptime on Surge, significantly improving your overall speed. This attack is useful in both PvE and PvP, as a good Agility score is always important in combat, and Handling improves weapon responsiveness in all situations.

Life Steal

Killing an enemy with Energy Drain immediately restores a significant portion of your health.

Life Steal requires you to score a kill shot with Energy Drain, but the tradeoff is an instant 10 point heal and 1.5 seconds of health regen, even if you are taking damage. Particularly helpful for improving your durability with a Strength-focused build, Life Steal can be useful if you find yourself fighting at close-range frequently.

Soul Rip

Killing an enemy with Energy Drain reduces the cooldown of Nova Bomb.

Soul Rip gives an impressive 10% bonus to your super meter when you kill an adversary with Energy Drain. If you are focused on Strength and Intellect, Soul Rip can improve your Nova Bomb frequency significantly as long as you are aggressive about downing weak foes with Energy Drain.

Ability Modifiers

Tier 1

Annihilate

Increases the size of explosions created by Nova Bomb and grenades. +1 Agility.

Annihilate increases the radius of all of your explosives by 10%, and this includes the detonations triggered by the Bloom talent. In any grenade-focused build, Annihilate can improve your overall damage output in PvE or PvP.

Angry Magic

Nova Bomb tracks enemies. +1 Armor.

Angry Magic gives Nova Bomb target tracking, causing it to automatically seek out the closest hostile target as it travels.

Angry Magic is especially nasty with Shatter or Lance. Shatter can give you three separate seeking projectiles, and Lance gives you an extremely fast-moving and hard-to-dodge Nova Bomb that is very useful against distant nimble enemies.

The Hunger

Increases the duration of the Energy Drain effect.

The Hunger increases the duration of Energy Drain by three seconds. This is a very significant bonus, especially if you have a good Discipline score.

This is a very useful talent for increasing your overall damage output in PvE. In PvP, pairing this talent with Embrace the Void gives you the ability to trigger a long-lasting Energy Siphon from any grenade hit—not a difficult task.

Tier 2

Vortex Mastery

Increases the range of Axion Bolt seekers and the duration of the Vortex effect of Nova Bomb and Vortex grenade.

Vortex Mastery doubles the range of Axion Bolt seekers and adds 2.5 seconds to both Nova Bomb’s Vortex and the Vortex grenade’s damaging fields. If you want to focus on area denial in PvP, this talent is extremely useful.

In PvE, Vortex Mastery is often a straight damage increase. You can often damage enemies with the lingering fields, particularly in enclosed areas.

Bloom

Enemies killed by any of your abilities explode.

Bloom causes any foe killed by any of your grenades, Nova Bomb, or Energy Drain to explode, dealing an impressive 140 damage blast in a 5-meter radius.

Bloom is generally more useful in PvE than PvP, where it can cause devastating chain explosions in groups of clustered adversaries.

Embrace the Void

Damaging enemies with Nova Bomb or any grenade triggers the Energy Drain effect.

Embrace the Void is an extremely powerful talent that causes all of your Nova Bomb and grenade hits to trigger the Energy Siphon buff, refreshing your grenades faster. This talent is unquestionably strong. However, it has less raw burst damage potential than Bloom and less focused area denial than Vortex Mastery.

Still, if you are focused on overall sustained damage-per-second (DPS) output, Embrace the Void can give you very rapid grenade recharge times in PvE or PvP.

Passives

Tier 1

Arcane Wisdom

Training focused on battle Recovery and speed.+2 Agility, +2 Recovery

Arcane Spirit

Training focused on battle Recovery and toughness.+2 Armor, +2 Recovery

Arcane Force

Training focused on toughness and speed.+2 Armor, +2 Agility

Tier 2

Ancestral Order

Training focused on all attributes.+2 Armor, +2 Agility, +2 Recovery

Chaos Order

Training focused on raw speed.+5 Agility

Divine Order

Training focused on toughness at all costs.+4 Armor, +2 Recovery

Sunsinger

Sunsingers are Warlocks who channel Solar power through their bodies, embracing the pure energy to infuse themselves and their allies with rejuvenating power…and burn their foes to the ground. A Sunsinger’s Radiance is a unique super ability that provides you with powerful offensive and defensive bonuses. It can even bring you back from beyond the grave! A Sunsinger also has several talents focused on igniting his or her foes—everything burns.

Given Radiance’s unique power, focusing on Intellect or splitting Intellect is often a wise choice, but you can also focus on Discipline and spreading burning damage with your array of Solar grenades.

The Sunsinger’s ability to revive after death can also save your Fireteam from a wipe in a Nightfall mission, giving this specialization similar PvE mission importance alongside Defender Titans and Bladedancer Hunters. And, of course, surprising someone who thought they had you down in PvP is always satisfying…

Grenades

Solar Grenade

A grenade that creates a flare of Solar Light that continually damages enemies trapped inside.

Essentially identical to a Voidwalker’s Vortex grenade, the Solar grenade projects a continuous raging inferno, burning enemies within for 100 damage per second.

Ideal for area denial or for heavily damaging clumped or slow-moving targets, the Solar grenade is also an easy way to set multiple adversaries on fire if placed at a chokepoint when you are using the Touch of Flame talent.

Firebolt Grenade

A grenade that unleashes bolts of Solar Light at nearby enemies.

Firebolt launches Solar seekers at up to four targets within its 8-meter radius, dealing 80 damage to each target. Like the other seeker grenade types, Firebolt is ideal for locating foes behind cover and finishing off running targets.

Unlike other seeker grenade types, Firebolt can be amplified with Touch of Flame, allowing you to light enemies on fire with incredible ease.

Fusion Grenade

An explosive grenade that causes bonus damage when attached to its target.

Fusion is a “sticky” grenade, dealing only 100 damage in a small blast radius normally but dealing 65 bonus damage when stuck to a target. This amount is enough to be fatal to all but heavily armored Titans in PvP.

In PvE, if you choose to use Fusion grenades, be sure to stick them to high-priority targets. Otherwise, you’re better served with Firebolt or Solar grenades.

Abilities

Glide

Jump and then press Jump again while in the air to activate Glide.

Focused Control and Focused Burst are identical to a Voidwalker’s Glide upgrades.

Focused Control

Upgrades Glide for better directional control while in the air.

Focused Burst

Upgrades Glide to provide an initial boost of speed.

Balanced Glide

Upgrades Glide to provide bonuses to both speed and control.

Balanced Glide gives you a bit of a boost to both air control and initial aerial speed. The bonus isn’t as great as either individual talent, but providing a balanced boost gives you a very flexible upgrade to Glide.

Radiance

Fill yourself with Solar Light, dramatically increasing the effectiveness of all your abilities. Four-minute recharge.

Radiance is a powerful super move that infuses you with Solar Light for 13 seconds. While active, you are granted damage resistance to all incoming damage, your grenades and melee abilities recharge much faster, and your melee strikes become highly damaging in PvE and lethal in PvP.

The recharge bonuses to grenades and melee also scale with your Discipline and Strength scores, potentially giving you incredibly fast recharge times. Whenever possible, use your grenade and melee strikes before you trigger Radiance to obtain the maximum benefit from the recharge bonuses. Radiance’s damage resistance, combined with its boost to your melee damage, can make you a lethal threat in close quarters in PvP, and that’s ignoring your ability to burn everything with a firestorm of Solar grenades in PvE or PvP.

Radiant Skin

While active, Radiance reduces incoming damage.

Radiant Skin increases the damage resistance of Radiance further, making you even tougher to take down while it is active. This is the most selfish of the three upgrades to Radiance, making it a good choice when you’re soloing in PvE or PvP.

Song of Flame

While active, Radiance reduces all cooldowns for nearby allies.

Song of Flame is a powerful support upgrade for Radiance, granting your allies a huge bonus to their grenade and melee recharge times. This attack has a radius of around 10 meters, just beyond the edge of the center of your Motion Tracker.

Any ally in range gets a 10-second buff from Song of Flame. Even if they move out of range, they retain the recharge benefits for the duration of the buff.

When playing with a Fireteam, you should definitely call your Radiance use. If you coordinate a grenade barrage and activate Song of Flame, you can cause a huge spike in your party’s damage output.

Fireborn

Radiance can now be activated from beyond the grave. Doing so returns you to life.

Fireborn gives you the ability to resurrect from beyond death, reviving like a Phoenix exactly where you fell.

This is a very powerful ability in both PvE and PvP. In PvE, it can save your Fireteam from a wipe on high-difficulty or Nightfall missions. In PvP, the ability to revive and ambush nearby enemies can be decisive.

However, be careful with Fireborn in PvP while playing the smaller game modes. In a Salvage or Skirmish match, skilled opponents will mark your use of Fireborn and expect your revival after you use it once.

Scorch

A powerful melee attack that ignites enemies, causing damage over time.

Scorch is a blazing Solar melee attack that ignites foes and burns them for 25 damage over 2.5 seconds, on top of the damage from Scorch itself.

Flame Shield

Killing an enemy with Scorch reduces incoming damage for a short time. +1 Armor.

Killing an adversary with Scorch maximizes your Armor and grants you a 55 health shield.

Flame Shield can increase your durability substantially. Warlocks often run lower Armor values in favor of Recovery, so Flame Shield can help you emerge victorious in multi-target melee situations.

Solar Wind

Hitting an enemy with Scorch knocks them back.

Solar Wind gives your Scorch a strong knockback, sufficient to push away overzealous opponents in PvP and nasty melee foes in PvE.

In situations where jumping away is impossible or inadvisable, Solar Wind can give you some breathing room. Knocking an opponent away in PvP can cause them to whiff a retaliatory melee strike, giving you time to finish them off with gunfire.

Brimstone

Killing adversaries with Scorch causes them to explode.

Brimstone causes enemies killed with Scorch to detonate in a 70 damage, 5-meter explosion. Interestingly, this counts as a “grenade” for the purposes of Touch of Flame, meaning that it can ignite nearby adversaries that are struck by the blast, dealing further burn damage.

Brimstone is a solid choice in PvE, especially on missions that typically involve a lot of close-quarters fighting. It is generally less useful in PvP.

Ability Modifiers

Tier 1

Radiant Will

Increases the duration of Radiance.

Radiant Will boosts the duration of Radiance by 2 seconds to 15 seconds total. This seems like a small bonus, but remember that Radiance’s benefit to your grenade recharge rate can mean that this gives you one or two additional grenade throws. That’s a lot of potentially free damage, and if you are running Song of Flame, the bonus is extended to your Fireteam, as well.

Sunburst

Killing an enemy with Scorch has a chance to generate Orbs of Light.

Sunburst can generate Orbs of Light when you kill an opponent with Scorch. This is an almost pure support ability. Giving up Viking Funeral (or even Radiant Will) is a significant sacrifice, but if you are playing with an organized Fireteam on a high-difficulty mission, Sunburst can be worth using.

Viking Funeral

Enemies you ignite burn longer and take more damage.

Viking Funeral is a nasty upgrade to all of your burn effects, doubling their duration and damage to 5 seconds and 50 damage. On a burn-focused build, Viking Funeral is mandatory.

Tier 2

Touch of Flame

All grenades ignite enemies, causing damage over time.

Touch of Flame causes all of your grenades and the blast from Brimstone to ignite any foe they damage. This deals the normal burn damage, 25 damage over 2.5 seconds.

A Discipline-focused build can get a lot of mileage out of this talent. It is particularly effective in PvE for boosting sustained damage output, but it can also be nasty in PvP for constantly lighting the opposing team on fire. Touch of Flame pairs perfectly with Viking Funeral for even more immolation.

Gift of the Sun

Gain an additional grenade.

Gift of the Sun gives you a second grenade. Like a Gunslinger’s similar talent, this talent allows you to store a second grenade that refreshes at half speed after your first grenade is replenished.

This talent forces you to trade off two very useful talents in the same tier. But, in exchange, you gain increased burst damage, which is particularly useful in PvP. In that mode, you can often kill one or more enemies almost instantly with a pair of Firebolt grenades. In PvE, Gift of the Sun can add an amazing amount of damage output from grenades during Radiance.

Angel of Light

Aiming your weapon while in the air holds you in place for a short time. +1 Agility.

Angel of Light is a powerful and unique utility talent that allows you to suspend yourself in midair while aiming. This can give you just enough time in PvP to land a critical headshot over cover. In PvE, you can line up shots against an otherwise unreachable target.

Angel of Light significantly expands your ability to target enemies accurately. However, avoid exposing yourself to excessive danger by hovering in the open. In PvP in particular, you must be careful with how you use Angel of Light. If used properly, you can gain access to sightlines and shots that are nearly impossible for other Classes. If used unwisely, you simply make yourself a very easy target.

Passives

Tier 1

Arcane Wisdom

Training focused on battle Recovery and speed.+2 Agility, +2 Recovery

Arcane Spirit

Training focused on battle Recovery and toughness.+2 Armor, +2 Recovery

Arcane Force

Training focused on toughness and speed.+2 Armor, +2 Agility

Tier 2

Ancestral Order

Training focused on all attributes.+2 Armor, +2 Agility, +2 Recovery

Chaos Order

Training focused on raw speed.+5 Agility

Divine Order

Training focused on toughness at all costs.+4 Armor, +2 Recovery