Destiny 2 Best Class in 2026

Guardians, welcome to the ultimate Destiny 2 best class tier list for 2026. In this guide, we’re going to outline which classes perform best across all major types of content and activities. While Destiny 2 has only 3 core classes, each one branches out into multiple subclasses based on five elemental types. These subclasses offer distinct playstyles and are either extremely strong or situational depending on the activity. This tier list aims to help you choose the best class and subclass for your needs—and when to switch things up for a strategic edge.

Before diving into our rankings of the Destiny 2 best classes, we’ll explain the structure of the tier system and the criteria used for evaluation. After that, we’ll move on to the top-performing classes overall. Since this can be a bit subjective and debatable, we’re dedicating a fair amount of time to exploring which class truly dominates in Destiny 2. Following that, we'll present our tier lists and go over each subclass to explain why it lands where it does. Finally, we'll close with practical advice on how to pick the right class based on the type of content you want to play. Let’s get started!

Destiny 2 Class System

At first, the class system in Destiny 2 seems fairly straightforward. When creating your first Guardian, you’re presented with only 3 options:

• Titan – A tanky powerhouse who charges in with melee attacks, heavy weapons, and protective shields.
• Hunter – Agile and fragile, Hunters thrive on precision weapons, mobility, and throwing knives.
• Warlock – A spell-wielding class that floats through the battlefield and supports allies with auras and energy-based skills.

What adds depth is the elemental system that overlays the base classes:

• Player Abilities: Each class has several subclasses tied to elemental types: Arc, Solar, Void, Stasis, Strand, and now Prismatic. These affect your grenades, melee, super abilities, and more.
• Enemy Shields: Many enemies feature elemental shields. Matching your damage type to the shield type ensures maximum efficiency in taking them down.
• Weapon Damage Types: Weapons can have elemental effects as well. Matching your subclass to your weapon’s element can greatly enhance your combat effectiveness.

These elements play a crucial role in gameplay. When paired with the unique strengths of each class, they create 15 unique subclasses. If you're on the hunt for the Destiny 2 best class in Lightfall or future content, understanding these mechanics is essential. Here’s a quick overview of each element:

• Arc: Prioritizes agility and electrifying damage in fast-paced combat.
• Solar: Focuses on fire-based AoE damage and heavy offensive tools.
• Void: Offers control, debuffs, and team utility with dark energy effects.
• Stasis: Adds freezing and slowing mechanics for crowd control.
• Strand: Introduced in Lightfall, it manipulates threads of reality, combining mobility and control in one.
• Prismatic: A hybrid subclass combining Light and Darkness abilities for high-end custom builds and flexibility.

Therefore, each class has 5 subclasses aligned with these elements. Before jumping to conclusions about the Destiny 2 best classes, here are the 15 subclass combinations you need to know:

Class Archetype	Element	Subclass Name	Description
Titan	Arc	Striker	Unleashes devastating electrical melee attacks and powerful, area-of-effect supers, emphasizing high mobility and close-quarters combat.
Hunter	Arc	Arcstrider	Masters the Arc staff, providing quick and agile melee strikes and dynamic supers, suitable for agile and evasive combat styles.
Warlock	Arc	Stormcaller	Channels Arc energy to summon devastating lightning storms and unleash electrical powers, excelling in crowd control and ranged combat.
Titan	Solar	Sunbreaker	Summons a powerful, throwable hammer and unleashes fiery attacks, combining high damage output with ranged capabilities.
Hunter	Solar	Gunslinger	Wields a Golden Gun, a high-powered, precision firearm, for accurate, long-range attacks, perfect for precision shots and solo playstyles.
Warlock	Solar	Dawnblade	Takes flight with a flaming sword, delivering aerial strikes and unleashing fiery projectiles, offering versatility in combat engagements.
Titan	Void	Sentinel	Equips a Void shield for defensive purposes and deploys a Ward of Dawn, providing protective bubbles and suppressing abilities.
Hunter	Void	Nightstalker	Masters the Void bow for precise, long-range attacks, and deploys traps to control and manipulate the battlefield with stealthy tactics.
Warlock	Void	Voidwalker	Harnesses the power of Void energy to unleash devastating Nova Bombs and manipulate space, providing utility and destructive capabilities.
Titan	Stasis	Behemoth	Transforms into a mighty glacier, creating Stasis crystals and unleashing freezing melee attacks, excelling in crowd control and defense.
Hunter	Stasis	Revenant	Wields Stasis shurikens and a powerful staff, providing agile and stealthy abilities with freezing and slowing effects on enemies.
Warlock	Stasis	Shadebinder	Summons Stasis staff for freezing enemies and creating icy projectiles, combining offense and defense with strategic freezing mechanics.
Titan	Strand	Berserker	Manifests large claws for slashing enemies, with a powerful double-handed uppercut and a Super called Bladefury.
Hunter	Strand	Threadrunner	Creates a rope dart for extended Grapple use, quick jabs, and a powerful, long-ranged spinning attack, with a Super called Silkstrike.
Warlock	Strand	Broodweaver	Telekinetically pulls matter to form projectiles that unravel upon impact, creating aggressive threadlings, with a Super called Needlestorm.
Titan	Prismatic	Prismatic Titan	The Prismatic Titan is adept at disabling enemies for powerful follow-ups. Using Drengr’s Lash, Shackle Grenade, and Diamond Lance, they set up for devastating attacks like Consecration and Thunderclap. Their initial build freezes enemies with Diamond Lance and unleashes fully charged Thunderclaps to swiftly eliminate threats.
Hunter	Prismatic	Prismatic Hunter	The Prismatic Hunter excels in agility, using grappling and leaping abilities to quickly reposition. Their initial build enhances this with Winter’s Shroud for debuffing enemies and Stylish Executioner, which grants Invisibility when defeating debuffed enemies, ensuring safe movement around the battlefield.
Warlock	Prismatic	Prismatic Warlock	The Prismatic Warlock excels in summoning minions like Bleak Watchers, Hellions, and Threadlings to dominate the battlefield. Their initial build uses Bleak Watcher turrets and Penumbral Blast to control entire rooms. The damage from these abilities, including shattering frozen targets, activates Feed the Void, which regenerates grenade energy, allowing the cycle to continue efficiently.

This is the basis for the tier list that follows. We’ll now explore how we rank subclasses and assess their PvE and PvP viability.

How The Tier List Works

To give you the full picture, we’ll provide two tier lists—one for PvE and one for PvP. Since these parts of the game offer very different experiences, we have to use different criteria when evaluating performance. Also, simply ranking the 3 base classes wouldn’t be useful; the real impact lies in the subclasses. Even then, ranking can be tricky because a subclass’s performance is often heavily tied to its build. So, while some subclasses are S-tier on paper, they still require optimized builds to truly shine. With that in mind, let’s take a deeper look into how each subclass holds up.

PvE Tier List

PvE involves facing AI-controlled enemies, typically with a fireteam. Activities include campaigns, strikes, dungeons, raids, Nightfalls, and seasonal content. Subclasses strong in PvE usually offer good AoE damage, crowd control, healing, and synergy with teammates.

• Best (S Tier): These subclasses excel in late-game PvE and are the most efficient for farming and progression. They’re staples for raids and high-difficulty activities.
• Strong (A Tier): Reliable choices that might be slightly behind S-tier due to recent nerfs or lack of utility, but still very effective.
• Average (B Tier): Good for casual content or experimenting, but they don’t stand out in endgame scenarios.
• Weak (C Tier): These need a buff or rework. They may struggle to hold their own in challenging PvE content.

These PvE rankings provide an overview of the current meta for co-op and endgame content. Take them as guidance rather than absolutes.

PvP Tier List

PvP is where Guardians go head-to-head in modes like Crucible, Trials of Osiris, and Iron Banner. Here, raw skill, reflexes, and map knowledge matter just as much as subclass choice. Effective PvP subclasses typically offer burst damage, good neutral-game tools, and powerful supers for swinging momentum.

• Best (S Tier): The go-to picks for competitive PvP, Trials, and high-stakes matches. These subclasses dominate the current Crucible meta.
• Strong (A Tier): Viable in nearly all PvP scenarios, though slightly less oppressive than S-tier options.
• Average (B Tier): Solid for quickplay and casual matches but may not compete well in sweaty environments.
• Weak (C Tier): Often overlooked and typically underperforming without a very specific strategy or map.

This PvP tier list breaks down where each subclass currently stands in the 2026 Crucible and Trials landscape. If you're aiming to climb or just want the best setup, these insights will help you find the Destiny 2 best class for PvP.

Whether your goal is to dominate raids, crush Trials, or just enjoy casual runs, choosing the right subclass is all about understanding your personal playstyle, the current meta, and how well each subclass fits the activity. There’s no single answer to the Destiny 2 best classes debate—but this tier list will bring you closer to finding yours.

Destiny 2 Best Subclasses For PvE

This updated Destiny 2 best class PvE tier list evaluates how each subclass performs specifically in player-versus-environment scenarios. Whether you're taking on raids, Nightfalls, or seasonal content, this guide will help you identify the strongest options for your Guardian.

Tier	Subclasses
S	Dawnblade, Gunslinger, Berserker, Sunbreaker, Arcstrider, Broodweaver, Prismatic Titan, Prismatic Warlock, Prismatic Hunter
A	Nightstalker, Voidwalker, Sentinel, Revenant
B	Stormcaller, Threadrunner, Striker
C	Shadebinder, Behemoth

S Tier - Best

Dawnblade (Solar 3.0): Exceptional vertical movement via Icarus Dash and Heat Rises, alongside strong regeneration, puts Dawnblade at the top of PvE content.

Gunslinger (Solar 3.0): Weighted Knife offers high-precision kills, while its synergy with Exotics and reliable super abilities make it a powerhouse in PvE missions.

Berserker: This Titan subclass thrives in close-quarters with Woven Mail, boasting some of the best ad-clear and survivability in PvE.

Sunbreaker Titan (Solar 3.0): Packs balanced offensive and defensive capabilities. It remains a stable and effective option for all PvE modes.

Arcstrider Hunter (Arc 3.0): With speed, fluidity, and excellent Arc-based crowd control, Arcstrider is a go-to for PvE players.

Warlock Subclass Broodweaver: Its Void abilities promote strategic gameplay and offer reliable offense/defense tools for PvE engagements.

Prismatic Titan: A top pick due to its unmatched crowd control and strong follow-up damage with tools like Thunderclap and Diamond Lance.

Prismatic Warlock: Controls encounters with minions and debuffs while maintaining strong resource generation—ideal for longer PvE fights.

Prismatic Hunter: Offers stealth and mobility with Invisibility tools and grapples. Extremely effective in tactical PvE play.

A Tier - Strong

Nightstalker (Void Hunter): A strong performer with Smoke, Dodge, and Tether that disrupts and suppresses enemies. Works well with Exotics.

Voidwalker (Void Warlock): Reliable grenades and Nova Bomb give this subclass serious edge in PvE, especially when paired with armor pieces.

Sentinel Titan (Void 3.0): Shines in close-range combat and excels with Synthoceps to boost melee and Super impact.

Revenant (Stasis Hunter): Balances crowd control and boss damage well, and synergizes nicely with key armor choices.

B Tier - Average

Stormcaller Warlock (Arc 3.0): Brings Ionic Blink and group-clearing Supers to the table but needs solid positioning to succeed.

Hunter Subclass Threadrunner: Grappling adds great mobility, though its offensive power needs better synergy for top-tier PvE effectiveness.

Striker Titan (Arc 3.0): A dependable, all-around subclass that doesn’t dominate in any one area but remains viable.

C Tier - Weak

Shadebinder Warlock (Stasis): While useful in slow-paced encounters, it lacks the reactive power needed for many PvE scenarios.

Behemoth Titan (Stasis): Lags in both speed and adaptability. Requires precise timing, which limits its use in PvE.

Destiny 2 Best Subclasses for PvP

This Destiny 2 best class PvP tier list showcases which subclasses are the most powerful when facing other players. Each subclass is rated on its combat abilities, neutral game, and synergy in competitive multiplayer settings.

Tier	Subclasses
S	Striker (Arc 3.0), Dawnblade (Solar 3.0), Gunslinger (Solar 3.0), Prismatic Titan, Prismatic Warlock, Prismatic Hunter
A	Voidwalker (Void), Nightstalker (Void), Striker (Arc 3.0)
B	Stormcaller (Arc 3.0), Threadrunner (Void)
C	Shadebinder (Stasis), Behemoth (Stasis)

Keep in mind that tier rankings are based on current meta and may shift depending on patches. Experimentation remains key to finding your perfect PvP fit.

S Tier - Best

Striker (Arc 3.0): Its blend of fast Supers, mobility tools like Thruster, and deadly melees make this subclass the PvP king.

Dawnblade (Solar 3.0): Combines aerial dominance and regeneration. A top pick thanks to Icarus Dash and Heat Rises for unpredictable movement.

Gunslinger (Solar 3.0): Precision kills and versatile Supers, combined with high synergy builds, make this subclass a PvP favorite.

Prismatic Titan: Controls objectives and engagements via freezing with Diamond Lance and quick eliminations using Thunderclap.

Prismatic Warlock: Area control and sustained presence through Bleak Watchers and Feed the Void makes this subclass formidable in Crucible.

Prismatic Hunter: Dominates in map control and ambushing due to superior stealth and movement from Winter’s Shroud and Stylish Executioner.

A Tier - Strong

Voidwalker (Void): Brings utility and deadly grenades. Nova Bomb can change momentum in PvP matches. Exotics boost it further.

Nightstalker (Void): Combines Tether and Smoke with good dodging for a stealth-based, strategic approach.

Striker (Arc 3.0): A solid PvP performer with melee strength and Super potential, especially when enhanced by Synthoceps.

B Tier - Average

Stormcaller (Arc 3.0): Needs careful play to avoid getting caught out. Super is great when positioned well.

Hunter Subclass Threadrunner: Offers good movement, but underwhelms in duels without Exotic boosts or coordinated support.

Striker (Arc 3.0): An average pick, solid for those comfortable with its toolkit, but outclassed in top-tier play.

C Tier - Weak

Shadebinder (Stasis): Suffers from slow casts and lack of burst options. Requires perfect timing and enemy predictability.

Behemoth (Stasis): Heavy and slow. Its Super is hard to optimize in fast-paced Crucible matches.

F.A.Q.

What Is The Best Class To Pick On Destiny 2?

The best class to choose in Destiny 2 ultimately comes down to your personal playstyle and what content you enjoy most. Warlocks provide support and ranged magical attacks, Hunters focus on agility and precision, while Titans excel in defense and aggressive frontline combat. Consider whether you prioritize PvE, PvP, or a balance of both to make the best choice.

What Is The Most OP Class In Destiny 2 2023?

The most OP class in Destiny 2 during 2023 was often debated, but Striker Titans, Dawnblade Warlocks, and Gunslinger Hunters frequently topped performance lists thanks to their synergy with current Exotics, powerful supers, and effective abilities across both PvE and PvP.

What Is The Most DPS Class In Destiny 2?

The top DPS class in Destiny 2 can shift with updates, but Gunslinger (with Celestial Nighthawk) and Dawnblade (with Well of Radiance) are standout options. They offer high burst and sustained damage potential when paired with strong weapons and optimized loadouts.

What Is The Strongest Class In Destiny 2?

The strongest class in Destiny 2 depends on the context of gameplay. Striker Titans, Dawnblade Warlocks, and Gunslinger Hunters consistently perform well across different activities due to their reliable abilities, efficient neutral game, and strong synergy with popular gear setups.

What's The Most Fun Class In Destiny 2?

The most fun class is highly subjective. Hunters are often praised for their fast movement and flashy finishers, Warlocks for their magical abilities and build versatility, and Titans for their brute strength and crowd control. Try each class to see which one feels most satisfying to play.

What Is The Highest DPS Class In Destiny 2?

The highest DPS class in Destiny 2 often includes Gunslinger using Celestial Nighthawk or Dawnblade with Well of Radiance, depending on the encounter. These subclasses offer powerful supers that contribute heavily to team damage phases in raids and bosses.

Which Is Best In Destiny 2?

There isn’t a single “best” class in Destiny 2; the ideal choice depends on your gameplay goals. Warlocks excel at support and AoE, Hunters at mobility and precision, and Titans at durability and close-range domination. Match your class to your role and content type for the best experience.

Conclusion

In conclusion, finding your Destiny 2 best class depends on your goals, whether it’s dominating PvE, climbing Crucible ranks, or just having fun with flashy abilities. The S Tier offers standout picks like Dawnblade, Gunslinger, and Striker—each bringing high value to different game modes. The new Prismatic subclass is the biggest game-changer, allowing you to mix and match powers for a fully customized build that fits your playstyle.

The A Tier provides strong and situational choices that can excel with the right gear and map knowledge. Meanwhile, B Tier subclasses are middle-ground performers that still have potential in the hands of the right player. Lastly, C Tier subclasses need buffs or major strategy adjustments to be effective.

As the game continues to evolve, so will the rankings. But for now, this list should guide you toward making the most of your class choices and enjoying Destiny 2 to its fullest. If you're looking to improve your gear or build new characters, be sure to check out what Gamer Choice has to offer.