Ehroar is a member of Clan Redeem, and has won multiple world’s first raid titles. He specializes in making cracked builds that use mods and Exotics in cool ways.
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(Image credit: Bungie)
For the launch of Beyond Light we’ve partnered with Bungie to create a series of guides and explainer videos. These are being made by some of the best known Destiny 2 content creators and experts. For full disclosure anything published as part of this program will include this panel.
This week saw the introduction of an entirely new element type to Destiny, for the first time in the series’ history. Joining Solar, Arc and Void comes Stasis, and, along with it, a trio of new Subclasses—the first to be added to each class since The Taken King back in Destiny 1. Here I’ll be showing you how to get the most out of the new Warlock subclass, Shadebinder.
You’ll need to complete the Beyond Light campaign to unlock the new subclass, but that’s just the beginning. From there, you’ll want to unlock the weekly Aspect and your choice of two Fragments to further tweak your build. You can access these through questlines that unlock after the end of the campaign.
Now that you have your Shadebinder, and all the unlocks currently available for the subclass, you can start gearing up for the absurd build shown in the video above. Here’s a list of the weapons, armor and mods you’ll need, plus alternatives in case there’s anything from past seasons that you’ve missed.
Subclass: Shadebinder
Complete the Beyond Light campaign.
Grenade: Glacier Grenade
This is the grenade type you get by default, also by completing the Beyond Light campaign.
Aspect: Iceflare Bolts
First complete the Born in Darkness questline given after finishing the campaign, and then do the quest Aspect of Control. To finish Aspect of Control, you’ll also need to complete the Exotic quest The Stasis Prototype.
Fragments
Once you’ve finished the Aspect of Control quest, return to the Exo Stranger to pick up two of the three Fragment quests, each focused on Strikes, Crucible or Gambit. Complete these for a Memory Fragment that you can bring to the Exo Stranger to unlock the Fragments of your choice.
- Whisper of Hedrons: Gain bonus weapon damage after freezing a target with Stasis.
- Whisper of Shards: Shattering a Stasis crystal boosts your grenade recharge rate; shatter additional crystals to increase the duration of the effect.
Exotic Weapon: Traveler’s Chosen
Earned via the Exodus Evacuation questline from Season of Arrivals. While it’s no longer available, it should be added to the Exotic Archive in a future season.
Energy Weapon: Martyr’s Retribution
A Season of the Dawn grenade launcher that was also available in Season of Arrival’s Umbral Engrams. If you don’t have it, Truthteller or any energy grenade launcher will also work.
Heavy Weapon: Fallen Guillotine
A Season of Arrivals sword, earned via the Season Pass and Umbral Engrams. If you don’t have it, any sword will do—they’re all strong.
Exotic Armor: Verity’s Brow
This is a random drop, but can be farmed from Legendary Lost Sectors.
Mods
If you don’t already have the following mods, you’ll need to buy them from the Gunsmith. He sells one armor mod that rotates daily, so check back often to pick up any you’ve missed.
- Blast Radius: Become Charged with Light by rapidly defeating multiple combatants with Grenade Launchers and Rocket Launchers.
- Heavy Handed: While Charged with Light, regain half of your melee energy when you use a charged melee ability, consuming one stack of Charged with Light.
- Wrath of Rasputin: Solar splash damage final blows have a chance to create Warmind Cells.
- Global Reach: Warmind Cells you create affect and damage targets at a greater distance.
- Lucent Blade: While Charged with Light, dealing damage with a Sword gives you bonus Sword damage for 5 seconds, consuming one stack of Charged with Light.
This build has a lot of moving parts, but in practice is simple to use. First, throw your glacier grenade at a group of enemies to surround them with Stasis crystals and freeze them. From there, use Martyr’s Retribution to shatter them, proccing a list of buffs. You’ll get both Fragment buffs, including a 25% damage boost for all of your weapons and improved ability regeneration to boost your grenade recharge rate. On top of that, if you have the Demolitionist perk on your Martyr’s Retribution, you’ll get an additional chunk of grenade energy back.
The final buff you’ll receive is Death Throes from Verity’s Brow, which will enhance your grenades even further. Plus you’ll become Charged with Light from Blast Radius, which will allow you to take advantage of both Heavy Handed and Lucent Blade. The former returns 50% of your melee charge when you use it, while the latter increases sword damage by 35% and lets you use your heavy attack more frequently. The upshot is infinite grenades and melees to freeze anything and everything that comes your way.