I've mained Warlock for years now and there are definitely more good builds out there than Starfire. Warlocks are crazy. Two that I personally use to destroy all kinds of stuff at multiple levels in content are the Necrotic Grips with Strand, and the Nezarec Helmet. I use Fallen Sunstar less, but more because I got a roll with 20 points in Mobility and Strength that ruin it than the exotic itself. That exotic also gives constant ability uptime, while giving teammates a little energy, and is incredibly solid. It also looks like a super dope Kabuke mask. Necrotics send cascades of exploding poison in groups, and all of my weapons are area affect. I regularly run Graviton Lance, Sunshot, Hung Jury with Kinetic Tremors, Retrofit Escapade, the Stasis Glaive (I forget the name), Le Monarque, and Outbreak Perfected. My setup works fantastically for me, through all classes with the only adjustments being if I choose a different grenade or weapon surge. Solar lacks a bit, but Dawnblade is probably the weakest super in the game, and for some reason getting nerfed next season while all other supers get buffed, and Well is just something more for high end content. I use it less often than all the other classes as I generally focus on area damage and managing groups with freezing or suspending, then exploding everything, everywhere. Void and Arc are pure damage output, especially Arc. Don't underestimate those classes. With any class I'm up there in damage, though the tradeoff is that focusing on area effect does mean I generally do less boss damage, though Retrofit with Enhanced Target Lock can melt whatever it touches almost😂. Warlocks are very strong through all subclasses in PvE, but it is work put in for sure. PvP end they aren't bad, but not great either. Good area control though, and that wins matches. I'm not sure how much of this you have, as you did mention just getting back into Destiny. I assume its been some time at least, so there might be a bunch of stuff that makes less sense since Lightfall was some pretty huge changes to the armor mod system. Now its alot more user friendly being more generalized, and less specific so we've got alot more flexibility. Anyone coming in after taking a break before that could easily be lost, I feel, and its understandable. Nezarec's has been insane. Equip that with a Void subclass and some good mods with abilities recharging each other its great. When paired with Aspects that make enemies turn Volatile and explode from abilities you can basically use back to back abilities because its constantly recharging just by doing damage. I've had so many grenades and melee blobs going off my whole screen is just purple and its hard to see😂, and there's nothing left after, save for enemies spawning in, but they don't get far. Its pretty crazy, especially if you don't mind running Void weapons with all that, running a monochromatic tyrant. [b]Now the Bungie side... Ignore if you'd like[/b] I do feel like Bungie could do less nerfing on the PvE end. It really doesn't affect anyone but ourselves in PvE, so if we build into something super powerful, that maybe seems overpowered, well that's supposed to be part of the fun, and part of what makes it build crafting. If everything is just average or low damage, why even touch it? Why even make any effort to build, if not to be overpowered to some degree? It certainly does feel like they just want to punish players with all these PvE nerfs. Generally its because Bungie isn't happy with how fast people can complete stuff. The reason they increased difficulty for Lightfall was specifically because Bungie decided players were running things too fast and they wanted us to slow down. Its pretty ridiculous how much they feel they need absolute player control. Who cares Bungie? That's our choice. We don't need a developer telling us that we're doing things the wrong way, just because the developer doesn't like it. We're just using the tools we were given, making them all powerful is fantastic. I do understand though, that people get overzealous and then ruin it for themselves by building something crazy, then demanding more because they're bored. That's not the developer's problem. That's just not accepting self-accountability. Its a problem in more than gaming. If they don't want to finish it so fast then they should build less into it. Big thing is, the job is development, not micromanaging the player's free time and how we choose to spend it. Part of the fun of MMOs is that we can be as crazy as we can think of with what we've got. If the developer doesn't like it, then maybe they shouldn't develop MMO style games then. The only things that ever need to be touched is if they're malfunctioning in some way, causing issues in coding, or they become useless due to evolution or previous adjustments. That's it. PvP is completely understandable to nerf anything overpowered as that literally is nothing but affecting other players, so everything requires absolute balance or there is no PvP because nobody would tolerate it. Unfortunately the only answer for PvP is really to allow all of the crazy things, or none of them, but that depends on developer skill, and what they can handle.

People were using this build to solo a raid boss. In fact, it is the only build that can, as far as all testing has gone. It is immensely overpowered. What investment did you put into a build? Did you watch Rick Kackis make a video on how to adjust your fragments when you put the chestpiece on? It takes like a day of grinding at worst to get all of that. Also, with how easy GMs are this season, shards are not a problem whatsoever.

The 20% is just moved to Weapon kills. So it's back to a crowd clear exotic really. Additionally... Those warlocks who never cared for Starfire because we rain death from Above with Sunbracers and Dawn Chorus.. well, sucks for you Starfire locks.

Nobody batted an eye at the HOIL nerf This is deserved, if we must suffer, all must suffer

Me too. I feel like they don't want me to play anymore. Titans have been nerfed into the ground.

Right? 2.5% from 20% is crazy. I think at least 5 would've been fine. Well back to Nezy build the hunters can pop well instead.

Just use another build my dude. Nova is getting a 20% buff and you can have unlimited devour. I always outdamage starfire users with my warlock strand super and grenade and then weapon because unravel deals a good amount of damage. Also...chaos reach getting a buff and arc souls add A LOT to everyones DPS. Chaos reach was already the highest damage instant super after blade barrage and pole throw.

Other strong builds exist for warlock so its a non issue. If your issue is about acquiring high stat gear for builds that has room for improvement. Outside of that metas shift all the time in every game.

The whole season, just defeated. Nothing but terrible news.

the nerfs are beyond dumb and I'll hardly play the next season and most likely be the last time i pay $99 i love destiny 2 but these nerfs are getting out of control and will just go back to playing destiny 1

Yeah welcome to the club pal (Titan Main).

I mean, there was some buff in there as well, open diversity

Honestly, Starfire should be pretty usable. The only thing that I see that sucks for my playstyle is that you now get energy on kills instead of hits. No more infinite healing I guess. Otherwise, if you want a backup, Phoenix Protocol is always a plus. It sounds simple, but having a Well at almost every encounter is pretty awesome.