This is a guide on the Stasis Warlock kit in PvE, and an overview of the tools you have at your disposal when creating a Stasis Warlock build.
How-To Guide: Stasis Warlock
The goal for this guide is to explain all of the possible options you have, and what’s required to make the most of them. It’s up to you to decide what’ll work best for you, rather than me just telling you what to use.
Aspects
Iceflare Bolts: Everytime you shatter a frozen enemy, this will spawn a seeker that’ll go freeze a nearby enemy. If nothing else is nearby, this has the potential to re-freeze the same target that you shattered! Iceflare is quite powerful as a way to spread your freezing capabilities across an entire room, very rapidly.
Bleak Watcher: Consuming your grenade will throw out a turret, which fires 3 bolts periodically that apply slow stacks. Bleak Watcher is an excellent way to have a passive source of slow (and freeze), and can assist in both controlling adds and passively stunning champions, if you need to take cover for a sec.
Glacial Harvest: Freezing enemies will spawn Stasis Shards (on a cooldown after you generate 6). Warlocks have the strongest Stasis Shard generation method, as all it requires is freezing enemies. This is a required aspect if you want to build into a Stasis Shard playstyle.
Frostpulse: Your rift will freeze nearby enemies. This isn’t the best aspect to use in PvE as it requires being quite close to enemies, and doesn’t offer the same amount of utility that the other 3 aspects do. On the flip side, it’s a pretty nice aspect for use in PvP but this guide will focus on PvE. It can be a niche pick, and can synergize with something like Vesper of Radius if you want to mess around with an off-meta build.
What should you run? Well, any combination of Iceflare Bolts, Bleak Watcher, and Glacial Harvest will work. It’s up to you!
Grenade
- Coldsnap Grenade: Coldsnaps are what you want to use on Warlock 99% of the time. They apply instant freezes to enemies they hit, and are extremely powerful at controlling groups of enemies, especially when paired with Iceflare Bolts and/or the exotic Osmiomancy Gloves. Since the Warlock kit is geared towards freezing, you generally want to use these grenades over the other two. I’ll briefly mention them below:
- Glacier Grenade: This is alright as a source of Stasis Crystals, which can enable you as a Warlock to play a bit more into Stasis Crystals, such as the fragment Whisper of Shards. However, Titans have a kit that plays more with Stasis Crystals so these grenades aren’t too useful on Warlock.
- Duskfield Grenade: While Glaciers can have some use, I’d argue that Duskfields are pretty much pointless on Warlock. They’re primarily a Hunter grenade, with the main use case being Renewal Grasps, since that exotic specifically buffs them (and Hunters have an Aspect that involves them as well). The field it generates applies Slow to enemies within, but it’s not really anything amazing to justify using over Coldsnaps.
I’ll get to the fragments after this section – I feel like it’s worth going over what Exotic Armor and what weapons you could use with a Warlock Stasis build, since the fragments will reference back to these quite a bit.
You’ll also find the required DLC listed next to the names of each exotic.
Exotic Armor
Osmiomancy Gloves
Not many Exotics synergize with Stasis, so there’s a clear best exotic: Osmiomancy Gloves.
Osmiomancy Gloves (Witch Queen): These gloves are unbelievably strong. They buff your Coldsnap Grenades to give them two charges, improve their tracking, and grant a huge chunk of grenade energy when Coldsnaps directly hit a target.
When paired with Iceflare Bolts, they’ll wreak havoc as you throw Coldsnaps everywhere, gaining grenade energy for free, and spawning additional seekers with each grenade, freezing entire rooms. And, Glacial Harvest follows very nicely from this, as you’ll get large amounts of shards very frequently, and easily.
Osmiomancy synergizes nicely with Bleak Watcher as well. While you may be tempted to only use the turrets, and not your Coldsnap grenades, there’s a small caveat here: turrets won’t proc the grenade regen effect that Osmiomancy has. This could be effectively ignored prior to Lightfall due to the existence of the Firepower mod, but now that it’s gone, it’s more important to play with this in a methodical manner. The playstyle I’d recommend is as follows:
- If you’re near 2 full grenade charges, or above 50% in your second charge, use Bleak Watcher.
- If you’re below that, use a Coldsnap. This way you’ll be able to cycle back a good chunk of grenade energy, and with additional boosts from mods you’ll be back up into Bleak Watcher range in no time.
- Playing this way avoids the scenario where you’ve used up nearly all your grenade energy with Bleak Watcher, and now are in an awkward state where you’re out of your most powerful ability until at least one charge comes back. Cycling abilities this way (and with the help of mods) allows you to keep churning out Bleak Watcher turrets.
Alright, well what if you don’t have Witch Queen? Unfortunately Osmiomancy is so good that the other Stasis options aren’t nearly as powerful, but they are viable options if you don’t have access to Osmiomancy Gloves.
Honorable Mentions
Mantle of Battle Harmony (Beyond Light): Mantle is a super spam exotic. You could use it to spam Winter’s Wrath, but frankly there’s a better option: Ager’s Scepter. The catalyst for this trace rifle sends it into overdrive, and you’re essentially firing a massive ice laser freezing literally everything. It’s also not a bad amount of damage, so it can take out rogue yellow and orange bar enemies that are unfortunate enough to be there. The catalyst consumes super energy, and Mantle gives back super energy on kills, so it’s like a perfect combo. And, if you don’t think that’s enough super energy, the fragment Whisper of Bonds generates orbs on frozen target kills.
- Mantle recently got buffed to give an x4 Stasis Surge (+25% damage) upon gaining your super. It’s not anything revolutionary, but it’s a nice chunk of damage to boost Ager’s Scepter.
- You could use Mantle with Verglas Curve or Wicked Implement for a super spam build, but I think the Ager’s Scepter combo is more powerful. Also, it’s part of the same DLC so you can very easily pick it up from the Monument to Lost Lights.
Verity’s Brow (F2P): Verity’s isn’t a terrible exotic – you can accrue a considerably fast grenade regeneration rate and spam your Coldsnaps to your heart’s content. Using Verity will require a Stasis weapon, which I’ll touch on in the weapons section. Ager’s Scepter or Verglas Curve would pair perfectly. The catch here is that you’re only going to be able to make use of half of Verity’s exotic perk. The helmet also boosts grenade damage, but Coldsnaps don’t do damage (ok they do, but it’s so small that it might as well be nonexistant), so this part of the exotic goes to waste.
Eye of Another World (F2P): Eye’s basically the “last resort” exotic for Warlock. It just provides a 50% bonus to all your ability regeneration, which isn’t terrible, but isn’t anything amazing either. I normally recommend this to free players, but if you’re reading this guide, you own Beyond Light anyways. Eye can be a good stand-in until you’ve acquired the exotics listed above, if nothing else.
Ballidorse Wrathweavers (Lightfall) | Vesper of Radius (F2P): I wouldn’t recommend these two, but I figure it’s worth mentioning them since they have some Stasis synergy potential. They can be fun, but I wouldn’t call them effective. Ballidorse buffs Winter’s Wrath to make it more…wintery, and Vesper can pair with Frostpulse to create a build where you use your rift offensively.
Weapons
With armor out of the way, let’s get to weapons!
Note: You don’t need to run a Stasis weapon. Any weapon combination will work fine (take your fragments into consideration however)! I’ve used Witherhoard plenty of times on Stasis, for example.
Ager’s Scepter (Beyond Light): Ager’s is a perfect match for any Stasis build, especially on Warlock, since it’s all about freezing everything. The catalyst gives it a huge boost and it really starts to freeze things then. Ager’s generates Stasis Shards for you like crazy, and combined with Iceflare Bolts it can be an add-clearing menace.
Verglas Curve (Lightfall Annual Pass (S20)): Verglas takes kills, and turns them into icy arrows that can either insta-freeze enemies (on direct hits), or spawn up to 5 Stasis Crystals in the environment. This weapon is one of the reasons I find using Glacier Grenades to not be worth it – Verglas gives you a source of Stasis Crystals (for the purpose of a specific fragment which I’ll touch on later), and doesn’t require sacrificing the all-powerful Coldsnap Grenade. It’s a very nice addition to any Stasis build. Plunder showcases Verglas nicely in one of his videos.
Winterbite (Lightfall): Winterbite can pack a punch, and it can zap lines of adds with its freezing bolts. It falls behind Ager’s Scepter in terms of applying freeze, and, more importantly, it’s taking up your heavy slot. I wouldn’t call it effective (especially in tougher content), but it can be fun to mess with and build around.
Wicked Implement (Lightfall Annual Pass (S21)): This scout is alright. It has synergy with Stasis for sure, and with the catalyst giving it Headstone, it can also be a source of activating Whisper of Shards. However, I don’t think it’s worth your exotic slot (especially considering the first two exotics I’ve mentioned above), but it can work.
Legendary Weapons: It’s not really required to run a Stasis weapon with a Stasis build. If you want extra synergy, the main thing I’d look for on a Stasis weapon is anything with Headstone. Why? – Warlocks don’t have a source of Stasis Crystals outside of Glacier Grenades (and I’ve mentioned why I don’t think it’s a great idea to sacrifice Coldsnaps for it), so Headstone lets you get crystals. It’s also great for activating Whisper of Shards, which I’ll explain more in the fragments section.
There are two other Stasis perks: Chill Clip and Cold Steel. Chill Clip is very useful for taking out champions, but neither perk is a necessity for a Stasis build.
Fragments
It’s time to discuss the Stasis fragments! These will heavily depend on your build, so this section more than the others I’d recommend using as a guide, rather than a “this is what you should run” resource. I will be listing them in order based on how potent they are in my opinion, but again, it depends on your build so it’s not a strict ranking.
(1) Whisper of Chains: 40% Damage Reduction when near frozen targets or Stasis Crystals
This one’s a no-brainer for me on any Stasis build. As a Warlock, your entire kit revolves around freezing targets, so you should always be receiving the damage reduction from this fragment. Additionally, if you run Verglas Curve, you can use the crystals as a source of DR if you’re not near any enemies.
(2) Whisper of Shards: 500% Additional Grenade regeneration rate upon shattering a Stasis Crystal
Shards requires the use of Verglas Curve, a weapon with Headstone, or Glacier Grenade. It will not activate upon shattering a frozen target. The fragment is an excellent way to spike your grenade energy, and it does not require much to activate – simply break a Stasis Crystal! It can be handy in situations where you’re out of grenade energy, or if you want to lean more heavily into Bleak Watcher and need extra grenade regen to support your turret addiction playstyle. Also, this fragment pairs quite nicely with Whisper of Rending, allowing you to break crystals more easily.
(3) Whisper of Fissures: Increases the damage and size of the burst of Stasis on shattering
Fissures just makes your shattering more explosive. You will be shattering plenty of enemies as a Warlock, so this fragment supports that very nicely and makes things just a little more satisfying. I particularly like using this with Ager’s Scepter, since it makes the trace rifle even better.
(4) Whisper of Torment: Gain grenade energy when taking damage
Torment is a nice source of grenade energy, since you’ll always be taking damage. I’d be careful with it – don’t rely on the grenade energy (i.e. don’t purposely take damage in order to get grenades back), but it is a great passive source of energy so you can be a bit more relaxed with your Coldsnap and turret usage. This fragment does get riskier (and less effective as a result) the tougher the content is.
(5) Whisper of Conduction: Stasis shards track to you
Conduction requires Glacial Harvest for obvious reasons. It isn’t a massive change, but it’s always nice to have your Stasis shards track to you, rather than you needing to seek them out. Paired with Rime, you’ll have a more readily accessible source of healing without worrying about tracking your generated shards manually.
(6) Whisper of Durance: Increases the length of the Slow debuff and some abilities
On paper, it doesn’t seem like Durance does much, but the reason it’s so high on this list is because it’ll increase the length of time Bleak Watchers are active. It’ll also increase the time turret targets are slowed (which has some niche benefits, like if an enemy gets out of sight of a turret, it’ll more often have the slow debuff still active if it re-enters the turret’s attack radius). If you’re not using Bleak Watcher, there’s not really much point to this fragment.
(7) Whisper of Rime: Gain health (overshield if full health) when collecting Stasis Shards
Rime requires Glacial Harvest for obvious reasons. With a recent patch, it now provides 50% DR while in overshield, but the overshield health got halved. It’s a nice source of healing and survivability, and effectively becomes passive healing because you generate shards so effortlessly and frequently on Warlock, but it’s not as potent as it once was.
(8) Whisper of Refraction: Killing Stasis-affected enemies grants Class Ability energy
Not much to say here as the fragment is pretty straight forward – you will always be shattering frozen targets, so this can be a nice source of getting back your rift.
(9) Whisper of Rending: Primary ammo weapons deal increased damage to frozen targets/Stasis Crystals
For obvious reasons, this will require using a Stasis primary. It helps with shattering adds faster, allowing you to add clear more effectively. I would consider using this with Verglas Curve especially, since it’ll help you accumulate Hail Barrage stacks faster.
(10) Whisper of Bonds: Defeating frozen targets creates Orbs of Power
I would use this fragment with Agers Scepter, but with how easy it is to freeze enemies it’ll work with anything. Ager’s freezes everything, so the fragment is always in use with that exotic. In general though, this fragment got hit somewhat hard and has a lengthy internal cooldown (~10 seconds), so it’s not as potent as it once was. You can use it in tandem with siphon mods, since you can never have too many orbs, and it’ll work well with Mantle of Battle Harmony.
(11) Whisper of Hedrons: On freezing, grants +60 Mob/Res/Rec
This fragment may sound good, but on Warlock you don’t have much use for Strength or Intellect, so your armor is already going to be focused on Resilience, Recovery and Discipline. It can be a nice buffer if you don’t have 100s in all 3 stats, especially since you always have something frozen, so the stat boost is nearly permanently active.
(12, 13, 14) Whisper of Fractures | Hunger | Impetus: Various melee-related effects
I’ve never used these fragments, and that’s because they all have to with the Stasis melee or melee energy. Simply put, the Stasis Warlock melee isn’t anything amazing – it’s a nice source of freeze if you’re in a tricky situation, and that’s about it. And, there’s just so many more, better, fragment options to go with.
Final Comments
Alright, now that I’ve covered all the tools that you have as a Stasis Warlock, you can pick & choose what you need for your builds!
A couple things to keep in mind:
- I didn’t go over mods in this guide. That’s because I don’t think they’re nearly as important as the weapons, armor, and aspects/fragments you’re using. Mods are quite flexible, so use what you think fits best. I’ll mention a couple notable ones below:
- Grenade Kickstart – This’ll let you get a chunk of grenade energy back on both a Bleak Watcher throw, and a Coldsnap, so it’s a nice cushion in the grenade energy economy.
- Harmonic Reserves/ Scavenger – If you choose to use Ager’s Scepter, this will help keep the Will From Given form up for longer, and just generally give you more uptime with Ager’s as your primary.
- Elemental Charge – The current iteration of this mod is nothing compared to what it used to be, but it can still be a source of Armor Charge when paired with Glacial Harvest.
- Stasis Surge – Feel free to use a Stasis heavy for damage, and if so a Stasis Surge will be nice to have. In addition, if you use a Stasis primary (or one of the exotics I mentioned), it’ll be a nice, constant damage source.
- Stasis is getting some changes in Season 23. I’ll update this guide when those changes come out, and hopefully we’ll see some more diverse build options pop up.
I hope you found this useful. Wishing you luck!
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