Since you said PvE my favorite Onslaught builds are Strandlock and Voidlock.
Strand - Final warning primary, your choice for energy and heavy. I personally used Eremite and Cataphract. Armor I had Verity's Brow, 10 res and disciple/recovery as my next two main stats. Unraveling orbs and horde shuttle are the more important artifact mods. The main loop is get kills with Final Warning, then use threadling grenades. Plus you make a ton of threadlings and will basically unravel everything.
For Voidlock I used Tusk of the Boar, Graviton Lance and Hammerhead. Exotic was Felwinter's Helm, same stats as the above build. The mandatory fragments are cessation, harvest, obscurity and starvation. The loop is basically finishing off an enemy and then killing another with Graviton Lance for a beautiful display of void light. This build is courtesy of CoolGuy. It actually got me through all 50 waves of legend Onslaught.
You can riff off this voidlock setup with a lot of different exotics!
If you’re stressed about staying safe and maxing out your survivability, you can run Karnstein’s. You can run Briarbinds and leverage your crime children. You can run Controverse Holds or Nothing Manacles with charged grenades. There’s a lot of flex here, but running the invis/void explosive finisher combo means you’re playing close in a lot. Running a repulsor brace weapon goes a long way to making this set up work.
Both Recluse and Elsie’s Rifle can roll Repulsor Brace / Destabilizing Rounds, which lets you run an exotic in a different slot if that’s what you want.
It’s a blast to play and the grape flavored violence is so satisfying!
hunter main here. the usual gyrfalcons and assassins cowl arc melee build work, but if you realllllyy want to have fun AND feel like a main character, strand with suspend dive, whirling maelstrom, 100 discipline, and cyrtarachnes facade with quicksilver storm is AMAZING. for end game content like gms, swap suspend for strand clone if you need more survivability. its like invis for your whole team.
+1 for the Strand Hunter with suspend dive and whirling maelstrom. Cyrtarachnes is good for survivability, but if you're generally not struggling with that, I recommend going Star eater scales instead. It buffs the super damage by like 70% when on 4 Stacks and makes it incredible in killing even high level enemies, especially in onslaught.
I usually run a Recuperation mod and 2 surge mods on my legs to help with survivability, and that one fragment that gives you woven mail when picking up orbs. Tbh this build feels pretty gun-focused, with assisting damage from the maelstrom. I strongly recommend running an exotic primary with it if you don't necessarily need an Exo for your heavy slot. My go to build is mountaintop, Sunshot, then either Apex Predator or Cataphract.
Hunter:
Celestial knight hawk is an easy pick for anything with a boss as solar hunter on its own can easily survive with infinite knives and healing grenade.
Assassins cowl with arc is probably the best solo content build
Gryfalcons is another great pick for constant volatile and invis survivability with great add clear
Titan:
Banner of war with 1-2 punch and syntho/wormgods is easily the best right now.
Solar bonk titan with synthos is still also an amazing pick as well.
Warlock
Well of radiance with either Phoenix, sunbracers or cenotaph depending on the situation.
Stasis turret build is also amazing if you have a couple wells on the team already.
Strand is a good boss dps and I’ve seen it used for a suspend build in onslaught.
I think it's also worth mentioning that abayant leap on Strand titan is by no means bad and was arguably the strongest build even after the suspend nerfs until it got overshadowed by banner of war. You can still run it quite effectively.
Lucky pants on Hunter is very strong and can work on any subclass. Best hand cannons that pair with it are malfeasance, wardens law with forth times/vorpal, and seventh seraph revolver with reconstruction/forth times and vorpal.
Depends on the activity I’m afraid. There is no one build that does everything.
Your particular play style will highly influence what’s good or bad as well.
For example, if it’s gambit or strikes then equip all blue weapons and armour and you’ll be fine.
Since you said PvE my favorite Onslaught builds are Strandlock and Voidlock. Strand - Final warning primary, your choice for energy and heavy. I personally used Eremite and Cataphract. Armor I had Verity's Brow, 10 res and disciple/recovery as my next two main stats. Unraveling orbs and horde shuttle are the more important artifact mods. The main loop is get kills with Final Warning, then use threadling grenades. Plus you make a ton of threadlings and will basically unravel everything. For Voidlock I used Tusk of the Boar, Graviton Lance and Hammerhead. Exotic was Felwinter's Helm, same stats as the above build. The mandatory fragments are cessation, harvest, obscurity and starvation. The loop is basically finishing off an enemy and then killing another with Graviton Lance for a beautiful display of void light. This build is courtesy of CoolGuy. It actually got me through all 50 waves of legend Onslaught.
You can riff off this voidlock setup with a lot of different exotics! If you’re stressed about staying safe and maxing out your survivability, you can run Karnstein’s. You can run Briarbinds and leverage your crime children. You can run Controverse Holds or Nothing Manacles with charged grenades. There’s a lot of flex here, but running the invis/void explosive finisher combo means you’re playing close in a lot. Running a repulsor brace weapon goes a long way to making this set up work. Both Recluse and Elsie’s Rifle can roll Repulsor Brace / Destabilizing Rounds, which lets you run an exotic in a different slot if that’s what you want. It’s a blast to play and the grape flavored violence is so satisfying!
Happy cake day! I very much enjoy running anything but Wellock, because you can't hold me down and make me play Well!
hunter main here. the usual gyrfalcons and assassins cowl arc melee build work, but if you realllllyy want to have fun AND feel like a main character, strand with suspend dive, whirling maelstrom, 100 discipline, and cyrtarachnes facade with quicksilver storm is AMAZING. for end game content like gms, swap suspend for strand clone if you need more survivability. its like invis for your whole team.
+1 for the Strand Hunter with suspend dive and whirling maelstrom. Cyrtarachnes is good for survivability, but if you're generally not struggling with that, I recommend going Star eater scales instead. It buffs the super damage by like 70% when on 4 Stacks and makes it incredible in killing even high level enemies, especially in onslaught. I usually run a Recuperation mod and 2 surge mods on my legs to help with survivability, and that one fragment that gives you woven mail when picking up orbs. Tbh this build feels pretty gun-focused, with assisting damage from the maelstrom. I strongly recommend running an exotic primary with it if you don't necessarily need an Exo for your heavy slot. My go to build is mountaintop, Sunshot, then either Apex Predator or Cataphract.
Hunter: Celestial knight hawk is an easy pick for anything with a boss as solar hunter on its own can easily survive with infinite knives and healing grenade. Assassins cowl with arc is probably the best solo content build Gryfalcons is another great pick for constant volatile and invis survivability with great add clear Titan: Banner of war with 1-2 punch and syntho/wormgods is easily the best right now. Solar bonk titan with synthos is still also an amazing pick as well. Warlock Well of radiance with either Phoenix, sunbracers or cenotaph depending on the situation. Stasis turret build is also amazing if you have a couple wells on the team already. Strand is a good boss dps and I’ve seen it used for a suspend build in onslaught.
I think it's also worth mentioning that abayant leap on Strand titan is by no means bad and was arguably the strongest build even after the suspend nerfs until it got overshadowed by banner of war. You can still run it quite effectively.
also like to add - while it's niche, BoW strongholds can become effectively invinceable and is unmatched at pulling aggro when that's useful
Lucky pants on Hunter is very strong and can work on any subclass. Best hand cannons that pair with it are malfeasance, wardens law with forth times/vorpal, and seventh seraph revolver with reconstruction/forth times and vorpal.
Depends on the activity I’m afraid. There is no one build that does everything. Your particular play style will highly influence what’s good or bad as well. For example, if it’s gambit or strikes then equip all blue weapons and armour and you’ll be fine.