[Top 5] Destiny 2 Best Endgame Classes That Are Powerful

Updated:

13 Jan 2023

After weeks of hard work, countless hours grinded just to get to a high Light Level, there remains only a few things left to do: the End Game content. Whether it be grandmaster nightfalls, raids, or master dungeons, the only guaranteed way to get some of the best gear is to work through these near impossible tasks. In order to defend yourself and take down the enemies of light at their strongest, you need to make sure you have equipped the most powerful subclasses you can get your hands on. More so, you need to be smart and understand in endgame content, you need to rely on your Fireteam.

Plenty of people often get to a max level on their own, getting their weekly pinnacle gear and completing bounties, but the best - and often time only - way of getting through the endgame content of Destiny 2 is through working closely with your Fireteam to make sure all of you are succeeding. It’s for this reason that the tier list not only focuses on subclasses that prioritize DPS, but also subclasses that are incredibly useful for aiding a team of 3-6.

1. Dawnblade

Guardians coming together under the Light

If you go and watch any Raid or Grandmaster Nightfall run through, 99% of the time there is at least one member of the team running Dawnblade. More specifically, a Guardian running Well of Radiance. While Dawnblades themselves are not exceptionally powerful, receiving the short end of the stick after Solar 3.0, Well of Radiance is still an absolute must have.

The reason for this is simple; with a well placed Well, Guardians can get the absolute maximum damage output possible while being able to withstand almost any attack that gets thrown at them. Specifically, Well of Radiance provides about 50% buff to Damage Resistance and a 25% buff to Weapon Damage. These buffs are provided to any Guardian standing within the Well’s radius, and can quickly turn what was an otherwise hard boss into ash in no more than 1 or 2 damage phases. It’s important to note that the effects of Well do not stack, so there is no point in a fire team having more than 1 other than for the reason of having a second activate immediately after the first one is done.

What Makes Dawnblade Powerful

Can keep a whole Fireteam alive even in the toughest of situations
Maximizes the possible DPS on a boss if placed at the start of a Damage Phase
Useful in every sort of situation, regardless of position or amount of enemies in the area

Choose Dawnblade if

You don’t have many DPS - strong weapons
You’re relatively low in power when compared to the rest of your team (it’s okay)
You enjoy being the support main of the team and can reliable have a Well on hand at any time

2. Shadebinder (or any Stasis)

A Trio of Stasis wielding the darkness

Stasis is a bit of a confusing class when it comes to PvE endgame content. None of the supers are particularly amazing for boss DPS, and their ad clearing ability usually is very similar or even worse than the Light subclasses of their respective class. The main reason why you might consider a Stasis subclass is due to how handy the Freezing ability can be when done well.

More relevant in activities like the Grandmaster Nightfall, when you get to this level of PvE content, you are guaranteed to come into contact with Champions. Champions are powerful enemies that come with a certain buff that makes them harder to kill - the most common being the Barrier Champion. Barriers, after taking a certain amount of damage, summon an impenetrable barrier that they hide within to heal. The only way to damage them in this state is with weapons that have Anti-barrier mods active, but Stasis can actually be useful in the sense that you can freeze a Champion before they’re able to pop their Barrier. And with freezing having a debuff, killing them before they thaw is also made much easier.

What makes Shadebinder Powerful

Shadebinder is preferred for freezing opponents because of the number of ranged abilities they have to freeze
While only lasting a few seconds, the debuff added to opponents is substantial and makes taking them down easy
Incredibly versatile and is a stellar choice in high level PvE & PvP content

Choose Shadebinder If

You don’t have the necessary mods for certain champions
You would rather use a different weapon than the one applicable to the anti-champion mod
You struggle to stun/pierce a champion and would rather stop them entirely

3. Sentinel

Sentinel protecting his Fireteam

Sometimes it’s hard to stay alive in endgame content. You love the look of your gear, your firetime’s hyped you up, and next thing you know, you’re getting one shot by a vandal with a sniper. Bungie likes to open these activities to light levels far below what the enemies are at and it’s definitely something you feel in combat. To avoid dying instantly, the Sentinels Ward of Dawn might be your best friend.

The Ward of Dawn, or “bubble” as it’s lovingly called, is essentially an impenetrable shield that protects all Guardians inside of it. This differs from Well of Radiance in that within Well, you do still take damage and are impacted by the effects of flinch. Ward of Dawn makes it impossible for an opponent to attack you from the outside, and even if they make their way in you’re granted a powerful overshield with a pretty sizable boost to your damage output. It is very important to note that this also goes both ways, and you cannot shoot outwards when you are inside of the bubble. The weapon buff does stay for a few seconds once you step out, but if you want to stay alive it’s best to stay inside.

What Makes Sentinel Powerful

100% Unkillable while standing inside
Ward of Dawn lasts for a considerable amount of time, allowing guardians to recollect themselves before engaging in combat again
Gives a pretty considerable buff to damage as well as an overshield if you decide to step out of the bubble

Choose Sentinel if

You are struggling to stay alive for even a few seconds
You need small breaks every now and then for you to recollect yourself
You like the idea of poking out of the bubble just slightly and immediately running back in after landing a shot

4. Nightstalker

Nightstalker taking down the Taken

For pretty much all the same reasons Nightstalker is useful in solo gameplay, it’s just as powerful when playing with a full Fireteam. Alongside Well of Radiance, Nightstalker is one of the must haves for any successful runs of endgame content for the sole fact that the debuff potential is insane. Nightstalker grants a debuff of about 30% for all weapon types.

The best usage of such an ability would be to shoot the boss as soon as the damage phase is initiated, this will give you the most amount of time with the debuff active and also stuns the boss so they struggle to deal as much damage back to you. It is crucial to note that the debuff is only active while the boss is in range. In some situations that’s alright, such as with Golgoroth is King’s Fall, but for example in the newest dungeon, the final boss moves a significant amount so it’s hard to have them tethered for a long time.

What Makes Nightstalker Powerful

The amount of debuff added to enemies can either make or break a run of endgame content.
The Tether you shoot is not restricted to one opponent, and can actually attach itself to multiple enemies giving them the same debuff.
Some variants of the tether allow you to shoot multiple arrows, which can be handy in situations where you may want to debuff multiple Champions

Choose Nightstalker if

You enjoy the invisibility granted through its melee ability
You and your Fireteam can use a bit of an extra kick to make encounters with bosses go by a little faster
Even in a damage phase, enemies are just too aggressive and you need a serious debuff to hinder them in their tracks.

5. Voidwalker

Voidwalker wielding the void's pure energy

Sometimes the best way to stay alive is to just annihilate anything that stands in your way. For similar reasons to Ward of Dawn & Well of Radiance (but with entirely different approaches), the Voidwalker’s Novabomb is a personal favorite to use in endgame PvE content. While for Solo I usually recommend the Cataclysmic variant of Novabomb, with the recent buffs in Season 19 I highly recommend giving the Vortex variant a go.

Creating a large vortex that continuously deals damage to enemies inside (including being able to kill champions in one go per my own testing) Vortex has been brought up to a level similar to its older brother. More impressive than the damage is the pull that Vortex has, grabbing enemies from across the room and pulling it into its deadly hold. With the recent speed boost too, you can shoot Novabomb an incredible distance, making it easy to eliminate tough opponents before they get a chance to land a shot on you. If you and your fireteam are ever being pushed too hard and defense isn't an option, Novabomb is more than capable of clearing every ad away.

What Makes Voidwalker Powerful

Vortex pulls in enemies from great distances and kills them overtime
Works wonderfully with Voidwalkers Devour ability to grant you health restoration, keeping you alive
Immense amounts of damage are enough to seriously wound, or even kill, Champions in Endgame content.

Choose Voidwalker If

You’d rather stay alive by killing than by defending yourself (Devour)
Shooting once to end all your problems is the way you like to go about things
Your weapons just aren't enough for optimum DPS, and Novabomb is more than capable of filling in the gaps.