Prismatic Warlock- Getaway Artist, Transcendence, Prophecy Armour. Long Breakdown/Theorycraft
I was working on this prismatic warlock build last night, and its finally done. I finished the theory crafting while working overnight, but my testing today seems to hold up. This is CRAZY long, so definitely feel free to leave suggestions or changes you would make down below. I like working through the core of the build, and theorycrafting alternative routes to take it. Its a long breakdown. BUT-
TLDR- CODA armour from prophecy is GREAT on Transcendence. This build used Khvostov and Facet of Grace to build transcendence crazy fast, while cycling through your weapons will give bonuses to melee and grenade stats and regeneration. Pop Getaway artist for your Arc soul and Bleakwatcher, buffed by all the grenade enhancements, and use Arcane needle to unravel enemies, also crazy buffed. Orbs give Radiant, Woven Mail, and super charge Khvostov on pickup.
Quick Overview:
- Needle storm or Nova (one off supers are easier to throw and forget in order to get another quick.) I like needle storm here to get woven mail with facet of purpose.
- Arcane needle
- Storm grenade (Getaway artist)
- Feed the Void- I've always liked devour over hellion or threadlings on prismatic. Devour doesn't work with sentient arc soul, but you'll have so many grenades it won't matter.
- Bleak Watcher (Buddy build + getaway)
- Facet of purpose gives woven mail on orb pickup
- Facet of balance gives melee energy on light kills, grenade on darkness kills (FLIPS the 2 piece CODA set, you'll always be getting energy and stats to BOTH abilities, no matter the weapon element)
- Facet of dominance will cause sentient arc soul to jolt
- Facet of grace for MORE transcendence.
Weapon wise, Khvostov with catalyst, (not required but really good) is my primary. I ended up with Lotus-Eater, reconstruction + withering gaze. Gaze is a good debuff to have on call, and it has good chunk damage. Finally, for heavy I was using the strand rocket Cynosure, w/Envious arsenal BnS. Any big damage weapon is good here.
LONG BREAKDOWN:
ARMOUR
REQUIRED: 2 piece CODA- light weapon kills give grenade STAT, dark weapon kills give STAT (importantly NOT energy or regen)
I would recommend going full 4 piece CODA, as you get resist X3 or ~40% DR from alternating light and dark kills, which is really easy with this set up, but there are a few other options if you want to do 2 + 2 for set bonuses:
- Dreambane 2 piece: Final blows to a challenging combatant grants Unstable Essence. When you have Unstable Essence, you receive grenade and melee stat bonuses.
- Pale Heart 2 piece: Defeating targets with unique elemental damage grants a stacking bonus to Transcendence energy gains while Transcendence is inactive. (THIS is what you do I think if you don't use a crazy kinetic weapon like Khvostov + grace)
- Last wish 2 piece: Grenade final blows temporarily reduce incoming damage.
- 2 piece SE: Defeating a powerful combatant generates Stable Resonance, which grants damage resistance and increased weapon damage for the duration.
- I actually think the Europa 2 piece is good if you need help with ammo and orbs (i.e. not using khvostov)- currently bugged (and unlikely to ever be fixed) After being out of combat for a moderate duration, your next final blow grants additional ammo progress and creates an Orb of Power.
- Hell, even the RoN 2 piece: Final blows versus subclass-debuffed targets have an escalating chance to spawn an Orb of Power.
MODS + STATS
- Roll armour for melee and grenade stats, they will do way more damage. (Doesn't have to be at 200- the armour helps us get further with extra stats) Dump extra stats into super or weapons, your pick.
A lot of this preference and what you actually have. My coda armor has NO melee stat, so that was where all my mods went to.
- Exotic armor - Getaway Artist. Still crazy. Next.
- Definitely get a siphon mod going. We'll talk weapons next, but kinetic siphon + Khvostov + it's new catalyst is a lot of orbs.
- Special finder because I can't imagine anyone using double primary in 2026. Plus you'll need to keep swapping back and forth. In my testing with khvostov tho it made sooo many bricks. Can definitely drop this if you want to.
- Ashes to assets
- Grenade/melee kickstart- I went with grenade because I alrady have 3 melee charges, plus it gets your buddies back faster.
- Firepower is banger for the buddies
- momentum transfer to help get melees back quicker
- Resists for whatever activity you're running
- Charged up for extra armor charge.
- Kinetic ammo gen is pretty good, cause Khvostov slays out. Can slot another resist if you want
- Whatever surges you want on your boots. I'd probably run one for my special here, maybe heavy if it's a good dps option. (I ended up with both, strand and solar)
- Invigoration, again, to try and keep my melee up longer.
- Scavs if you need them
- Time dilation
- Outreach/Bomber, and distribution.
WEAPONS+PERKS
There's a a couple things to consider. We want abilities, super, and Transcendence as FAST AS POSSIBLE. Thresh as a perk has largely been phased out, and veeeery few weapons still have it. If they do, it's in the fourth column, which is where way better damage perks usually sit. I will mention that Submission (VOW SMG) can do kinetic tremors + thresh, not a bad combo if you want to use that (plus with enhanced origin trait the vow weapons in general are juiced).
+1 more thresh option a little later.
Otherwise, anything with perks like pugilist, demolitionist, and the two collective versions, Collective Demolition and Collective Pugilism are really good.
Primarily for weapons though, my mind goes to Attrition orbs. Attrition orbs works really well here. More orbs= more super, more armor charge, more abilities, more everything.
The best attrition orb options IMO Besides Khvostov):
- VS velocity baton- still pretty good from what I know, even after the Orb printer nerf. Or any area denial frame- Every one but the stasis one rolls attrition orbs- Festival Flight might be Best in Slot, as all you hunters know.
- Support frame ARs- healing an ally- 1 heal projectile = 2 hits for attrition orbs purposes. You make them way quicker!
- Cusp Sempiternal is the Epic DP support auto (i think?). It rolls attrition orbs in the FIRST column, so you can run that and a damage perk.
- No Hesitation (pale heart auto). You can get cure X2 with enhanced physic, and create orbs, all while healing your allies. Not to mention the origin trait!!!
Pale Heart weapons have an origin trait that give you more super energy on kill, STACKING with each weapon from the set you use- this extends to Khvostov, Still Hunt, and Microcosm. Microcosm is reallly worth mentioning, as it has fantastic anti shield utility and its new catalyst gives it Thresh, one of only a few weapons to still have it.
Last thing on weapons- Firefly + headstone will INSTANTLY trigger 4 piece CODA DR.
- Any and all Firefly + headstone stasis guns- notable mentions: Modified B7 (HC), Timeworn Spire (Pulse) Eyesluna (HC) Spiteful Fang (Bow)
- VOG weapons- Timelost Magazine origin trait gives super energy on kill, more when enhanced. Fatebringer the obvious choice here, just make sure you have facet of grace.
ARTIFACT
For a Transcendence build with Khvostov, the only option is hunters journal
- Sustained fire- dealing damage or healing with an auto rifle gives damage resist
- Elemental siphon- rapid final blows with kinetic or damage matching your super spawns a pickup of your super element
- Radiant orbs- while a solar or Transcendence Super is equipped, orb pickups grant radiant.
- Bad amplitude is ok here- mostly situational for your arc soul. Can swap to energy diffusion substrate for more element resist.
- Targeting auto loader gives autoloading to Khvostov and a stacking damage buff. Must have.
- Shieldcrush- while you have woven mail, you get MORE MELEE REGEN. while you have radiant, MORE GRENADE REGEN. Absolutely insane to stack on top of all of this.
- Transference- Gain increased grenade and melee damage while transcendent. Weapon final blows while transcendent refund Light and Dark energy after Transcendence ends.
OVERALL
Make sure you have a range of elements in your loadout. Kinetic counts as darkness damage for all the above interactions. Make sure you are swapping weapons and getting kills with dark + light damage (keeping up resist X3 if using CODA X4) That's really the only active part of this build. Consume your grenade for a jolting arc buddy and a stasis turret (that potentially spreads stasis debuff, depending on artifact choices)
Picking up orbs gives Woven mail AND radiant, + getting ability kills gives devour.
Use arms and class item mods to pump whatever ability is lacking in the stats department.
MODIFICATIONS (just what I've thought of)
You can modify this to be less of a super build and more Transcendence/ability spam. Use weapons as a dump stat, and run any weapons you want. Thats ultimately what I went with, as the Pale Heart weapons were a bit too limiting archetype-wise.
Can swap Facet of grace if necessary, but it builds Transcendence crazy fast. If not using a kinetic weapon:
- courage would have you deal more light ability damage to targets hit by stasis turret,
- facet of honor would help with Transcendence gains if not using a kinetic weapon
- facet of mending if you need help staying alive
Eye of another world would be good neutral game, no thought required to activate it, + more ability regen.
Mataiodoxia if you really like arcane needle maybe?
Necrotic + claw/syntho Solipsism good for melee focus.
Apotheosis + Star eater if you want to lean more into the super spam
FINALLY- this can be class agnostic!!! Use an exotic class item or another exotic that fits well, and tune your transcendence fragments, the core of it is still really fun.