The hub for the whole subclass suite. Pick a damage type, learn the cross-element verbs, and route into the page that goes deep. Five elements plus Prismatic — three classes each — wired the same way: Super, grenade, melee, class ability, jump, two Aspects, a handful of Fragments. This page is the map; each element and class page is the territory. Built on the Monument baseline, Destiny 2's final content sandbox; these are settled recommendations, not a rotating tier list.
One screen of plumbing, then go to your element. Every subclass — Light or Dark — is built from the same five ability slots plus an Aspect/Fragment layer. Learn the frame once; it never changes between elements.
Every subclass equips the same shape:
This is where builds are actually made:
Solar, Arc, Void. The original three. Built around burn/sustain, speed/chain-lightning, and void manipulation — they share the "3.0" Aspect/Fragment frame.
Stasis, Strand. The Darkness elements: freeze-and-shatter crowd control and suspend/grapple mobility. Same Aspect/Fragment plumbing, different verbs.
A Light + Dark blend that mixes Aspects across elements and uses its own Facet pool instead of element Fragments. The flexible endgame answer — its own deep dive.
Five elements plus Prismatic. Each card names the core verb, the class identities, and the reason to run it — then links to its full element page.
Every build is a sentence made of these words. Aspects and Fragments are shared by element; the verbs below are the cross-element cheat sheet. Learn them once and the fragment text on any page reads itself.
| Verb | Element | One-line effect |
|---|---|---|
| Scorch → Ignite | Solar | Stacking burn; at the cap a target Ignites for AoE and stuns Unstoppable. |
| Radiant | Solar | Timed weapon-damage buff; a damage bonus vs Champions, not a Barrier stun. |
| Restoration | Solar | Heal over time — keeps ticking while you take damage; heavy fire can still outpace it. |
| Jolt | Arc | Target chain-lightnings to nearby enemies when hit. |
| Blind | Arc | Flashes enemies — they can't shoot and stumble; stuns Unstoppable. |
| Amplified | Arc | Move and reload faster after Arc kills; speed becomes safety. |
| Volatile | Void | Marked targets explode on further damage; spreads Volatile only with a source. |
| Weaken | Void | Target takes more damage — the team-wide DPS multiplier verb. |
| Devour | Void | Kills heal you fully and refresh; the void survivability engine. |
| Invisibility | Void | Go unseen — reposition, revive, or break enemy aggro. |
| Verb | Element | One-line effect |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze → Shatter | Stasis | Locks a target in place; breaking the ice deals burst AoE. |
| Slow | Stasis | Stacks toward Freeze — degrades movement, aim, and ability use. |
| Stasis Crystals | Stasis | Spawnable ice nodes you shatter for damage and freeze waves. |
| Suspend | Strand | Yanks targets off the ground, helpless — soft crowd-control. |
| Sever | Strand | Cuts a target's outgoing damage — a defensive debuff. |
| Unravel | Strand | Threads tear into a target and chain to others on hits. |
| Tangle | Strand | A throwable knot that damages and feeds the Strand loop. |
| Woven Mail | Strand | Damage-resistance buff — the Strand survivability layer. |
| Grapple | Strand | Swing to a Tangle for the best mobility in the game. |
Pick by what the activity actually asks of you. Every element name links to its full page. These are PvE-first verdicts on the settled Monument baseline, so they hold rather than rotating week to week.
| I need to... | Run | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Clear adds fast | Arc, Solar, Strand | Jolt chains, Ignitions, and Unravel/Tangles all turn one kill into many. Arc is the tempo pick. |
| Stay alive solo | Solar, Void, Strand | Restoration, Devour/Overshield, and Woven Mail are the strongest self-sustain loops. |
| Do single-target DPS | Solar (Nighthawk), Void (Weaken) | Solar owns burst supers; Void's Weaken is the team-wide damage multiplier. |
| Lock down / crowd-control | Stasis, Strand | Freeze stops a room cold; Suspend lifts a pack off the ground. The Dark elements own control. |
| Support the team | Void (invis/Weaken), Solar (Well/heal) | Void brings stealth + the debuff; Solar brings the healing/empowering pool. Both are buff anchors. |
| Stay flexible end-to-end | Prismatic | Blend a buff with a control verb in one kit and build Transcendence — no subclass swap needed. |
| Win duels in Crucible | Crucible hub, PvP builds | PvP flips this whole table — survival and range beat add-clear, and the element roles shift (Solar sustain, Arc tempo/blind, Void invis/suppress, Stasis denial, Strand mobility). Start at the PvP spine, not a PvE verdict. |
Picking an element is step one. The build loop, the stat system, and your weapons are the other three — and per-class builds live in the class guides. These are the pages that turn a verb into a loadout.
How Super → ability → fragment → mod chains into a self-sustaining engine. Start here once you've picked an element.
The six-stat system, breakpoints, and how Fragment riders feed it. The math behind every "push Weapons to 200" note.
Damage types, intrinsic Champion coverage, and the one-DPS / one-add-clear / one-survival weapon triangle that backs any subclass.
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