Welcome Warlocks! Here I wanted to make a thread that focused on the talent selection for [u]VOIDWALKERS[/u] that players use in both PvP and PvE. Feel free to also include a key exotic armor or weapon choice that may play into your talent selection, as I'm sure many people will be interested in some unique combinations they may not have tried yet! I'll start with my 2 current setups and so we can utilize a format throughout these posts that stays consistent and easy to understand by both veterans and newcomers alike. [b]PvE:[/b] -Scatter Grenade -Blink / Burst (only if absolutely necessary) -Shatter -Surge (Life Steal in Raid) -Arcane Spirit -Annihilate -Divine Order -Bloom / EtV [i]Notable Exotics[/i]: Obsidian Mind / Nothing Manacles The goal here with this build is summarized in one word: EXPLOSIONS. Just take your pick if you want it to be from an abundance of Nova Bombs, or an endless cycle of Scatter grenades. [b]PvP:[/b] -Axion Bolt -Blink -Prefer Vortex (but this is personal preference) -Soul Rip / Life Steal (leaning back to LS since update to on hit) -Arcane Spirit -Annihilate (for Lance or Vortex) / Angry Magic (for Shatter) -Divine Order -Bloom / Vortex Mastery (for Vortex) [i]Notable Exotics[/i]: Voidfang Vestments, Skull of Dire Voidfang for guaranteed grenade for harassment every spawn, or Skull for a little toughness and to help speed up my grenade cooldown, since I generally stack Int/Str. **Also Nothing Manacles can be very fun to use, just swap to Scatter grenade, and more likely that you'll want to use Bloom. Let the discussion begin! I will be more than happy to share any reasoning behind my choices, or some healthy debate as to what you think would work better if I made some changes. Fight on, Guardians! Spoiler window contains all edits prior to Rise of Iron for consolidation purposes. [spoiler] [b]Edit[/b]: Love all the input so far from everyone! Thanks for keeping up the convo! I'm also going to leave this link here that I found to help clarify some of the details in regards to [i]ENERGY DRAIN[/i] and how it functions. http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2lzh0r/energy_drain_the_effect_in_detail_and_in_numbers/ [b]Edit[/b]: Just wanted to summarize a little bit here on a recurring suggestion. Many of you seem to love the use of both Vortex grenade and the Vortex Nova Bomb. Now while I see the utility in both of these skills for PvP in locking down choke points, etc, I must respectfully disagree with their usage for PvE (unless the argument is the same as Solar grenades as places to hide inside and remain enemy-free). I find far more often in PvE that these effects will push enemies away, often times without killing them. Now in turn, if you were to use Scatter/Axion paired with Bloom and Annihilate, I think you will be far more pleased with the raw killing power and amount of chain reaction explosions you experience. Just food for thought. [b]Edit[/b]: I now also always use Bloom in PvP. Always. (Unless using Vortex Bomb) Have already lost track of the extra kills in Crucible due to the explosions. [b]LATEST CHANGE[/b]!: I have taken out Life Steal in favor of Soul Rip. This is because I was not finding many situations where Life Steal actually saved me, where as even if I get the kill and die when using up the charge, I'm getting the bonus to Nova Bomb. More Nova Bombs is always a good thing, and since I do not use Obsidian Mind this makes up for some extra gain to Super, while I also still gain bonus from my grenade kills due to the perk on my helmet and always having a new grenade with Voidfang. Killer combo feedback loop. [b]4/6: [/b]More changes to PvP setup to increase agility, and trying out Lance to speed up kill time on Nova Bomb. [b]6/19, the one about HoW:[/b] Nothing Manacles have proven Scatter grenades to be a lot of fun in PvP now as well. I try to use them with Annihilate and Bloom, but the more I think about it I may try out The Hunger + EtV just so I can have basically endless grenades since the charge rate should be extremely fast. The Ram seems nice if you're really always an in your face type Warlock, which many are given our strength with melee. The extra armor is the real bonus here though. To me anyway, The Ram shines in PvE. You gain so much Life Steal and can then also keep Surge up, that you are just as fast or faster than a Hunter on the battlefield, with much more destructive weapons at your disposal. The extra armor again, now coupled with blink, should have you easily able to take on large groups of enemies with no fear. [b]TAKEN KING (11/24)[/b]: This update ended up being a shorter one than I originally expected, but most likely due to the lack of new exotic choices at our disposal. Despite that though, I'll quickly break down my new PvE and PvP choices, with some extra detail. PvE: I alternate between Obsidian Mind and Claws, but only due to Light level boost until I can infuse OM higher. 310 Raid helmet and 310 Claws just push me higher at the moment, and tbh, having 2x Lifesteal for Hard Mode is not a bad thing. For almost all other areas of play though, Obsidian Mind still takes the cake. With Nothing Manacles soon to be back, I will likely explore them as another high DPS possibility for PvE, but I actually have moved to enjoying Axion Bolts in PvE. When paired with Bloom they can still do huge destructive power, and spread to an even wider AOE than Scatter grenade will give you. PvP: Voidfang, Voidfang, Voidfang. Stack Int/Str and throw on these bad boys for a great time. No other exotic will have a larger impact on your PvP play than having a new grenade guaranteed every spawn for Axion Bolt harassing. Again, paired with Bloom, and you should net quite a few double kills off an opening break just by your team shooting primaries into oncoming enemies to knock shields down before everyone dips for cover. Toss an Axion as the follow-up and watch the purple explosions. Only other real choice I see is Light Beyond Nemesis for game modes with revive, however, I still choose Voidfang so when my teammate gets me up I can immediately throw another grenade. Nothing Manacles PvP will soon be another option, but can't say much else about it just yet. [b]2016:[/b] Just now realized the attributes in my build list were out of date. I now use Arcane Spirit and Divine Order to max recovery and armor. [b]Goodbye Guardians:[/b] Destiny has worn thin for me (played since Beta) with Bungie's lack of transparency and inability to understand balance and player needs. I understand lots of behind the scenes and politics go into this and I hope to be back one day for D2 if they add dedicated servers and start doing right by their player base. Until then, fight on Guardians, it's been fun.[/spoiler] [b]Rise of Iron:[/b] Excited to be back. Having a lot of fun with my Voidwalker again. Will update soon.