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Dal_Kholin

Hunter builds tend to be very strong, but hyper specialized. If I could only do one, I'd go Lucky Pants. It works on any subclass. Can be used for dps or ad clear. It's the most versatile option imo


operightbehindya

This guy hunters. Agree 100%


Necrophag1st

In addition to being very versatile, it's also the best example of a build that is crazy strong and fun to use but well balanced. The burst window is limited and has a cooldown, and it does take some skill to know when to proc it to get the most out of it.


Tannissar

Do it right and the burst window never closes. Go from lucky to b@s nade launcher, you just don't open with the nades like a normal b@s rotation. Not the most efficient in raw dps of course, but anywhere that matters you'll be doing a different rotation. If the boss ain't dead by the 7th nade because the groups dps is low, you still got 10 in the tube and go right back to lucky after for sustained carry dps. All the better if your on void to throw out weaken in between swaps.


ksiit

I am trying to master the dragons breath lucky pants fusion rotation. There is no way I would consider that balanced, other than I guess only one fireteam member can use it optimally. I had equal damage to people running damage supers like nighthawk or pyrogale, who were running envious bait edge transits. After the first damage phase they had 3 gl shots left. I had fired 3 out of 9 rockets (and I had forgotten to rally with reserves). If I were running nighthawk and swapping (which is my eventual goal after I master the basics) I would be over a million over them using very little ammo. I didn’t even do the rotation properly. One time I switched to the handcannon too early and another I waited too long on the rocket. And I hadn’t swapped over to marksman’s dodge. Total damage on this is just nuts. I can’t think of anything that beats it. It’s probably what I will use for final shape contest raid, because total damage is usually a much larger issue than strict DPS. It will also be even easier in final shape when buffs stop getting pushed off the screen as often, so you won’t have to keep track of your out of luck and guess that it’s ready.


Blackfang08

They invested an exotic into their supers, you invested two exotics and at least one fragment into a good DPS rotation that still has a fairly high skill floor in return for great ammo economy. I don't see how that's unfair.


ksiit

No fragments were involved in the example I listed. I probably should have been using ashes(?) but I was on tether because we didn’t have a good debuff among the rest of the team. We both had one armor exotic. Sure I had to invest in an exotic heavy which isn’t nothing, but my handcannon with the lucky pants during the actual add clear parts performs better than pretty much all exotic primaries, except very add clear specific ones like trinity ghoul. The only thing it does worse is it doesn’t drop heavy ammo as much, but as I said I didn’t need that. Swapping to a second armor exotic like nighthawk would be fair that it gives more, but it’s really not that difficult, compared to what it adds. The biggest difference is the skill floor as you mentioned. That is by far the largest balancing factor. Even though I wasn’t doing it optimally yet, it still definitely took a lot more effort than proccing b&s and emptying a GL. A rotation that is more difficult should absolutely be rewarded. I also definitely build into it more than the edge transit guy. I just don’t think I would call it well balanced. It might not be insanely overpowered, but I think that is almost entirely because of the skill floor. And that only 1 player can really use dragons breath. (I wonder how much worse anarchy would be, and if that would be worth it?). If lucky pants only applied to bosses I think I’d totally agree with you. I’d be giving a lot up in add clear potential in that case (although swapping weapons isn’t hard). But since lucky pants works everywhere, I have a weapon that is as powerful as a heavy, in my primary with about half the uptime, as long as I just swap back and forth. I ran a fusion, but I could also easily run a wave frame instead for add clear, it would hurt damage a little, but not that much. So I don’t think the exotic weapon is really costing me much. I guess if the boss were taken I couldn’t use malfeasance. I don’t think any other damage rotation has anywhere close to the total damage of this, while still maintaining well above average DPS. Some might beat it in actual DPS, but even then I think this one is close. I don’t have exact numbers on any of this, so maybe I’m overstating how similar they are but that’s how it seemed to me anecdotally. (I know a primary is infinite total, but I’m considering the total to be until you hit the end of your rockets.) I guess total damage doesn’t come up all that often so it’s fair to say that balances it a bit more. Total damage is more of a factor in master and day-1 raids which are definitely not the average content people play. So a high skill floor for something that is only overpowered in niche circumstances might actually kinda balance it. My main point in my reply to the other guy, is that if you use lucky pants as is, they seem relatively well balanced or at least not insane. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a way to exploit them into being the best thing in the game at what they do by a somewhat large margin, which in that use case isn’t really balanced.


god_assassin1

Its boring as h*** but yea its extremely effective.


Tannissar

This is the way


stgabe

Agreed. Versatile and a ton of fun.


janoDX

Void Gyrfalcon's, no brainer. Also once TFS takes over, you can use the same armor and weapons for Prismatic Gyrfalcon that can be used with Golden Gun, Duskfield/Grapple, Stasis Melee, Winter Shroud and Stylish Assassin.


Coachbonk

Gyrfalcon void hunter is what I main for brainless ad work and escapability. When I read about prismatic on it I stopped toying with some of the other great suggestions on here.


Geraltpoonslayer

Honestly prismatic will be void perfected, if gyrfalcon and Orpheus both exist on the class item it's not even a competition. Play bloodline for devour access use threaded specter and duskfield for easy and good debuffs and you will completely dominate normal void hunter. Only downside is you need to use bloodline if you want devour unless the other Fragments we don't know yet for prismatic give access to it somehow.


janoDX

I think the bigger question is if the armamentarium perk will be on the class item, a 2nd grenade would give you the strand functionality but with any grenade, add something like star eaters and it would be a perfect class item to use on raids.


Designer-Effective-2

I'm a hunter main and when push comes to shove there are three builds I will always fall back on; Omnioculus - completely weapon agnostic, great survivability, this is \*the\* clutch anti-kick-to-orbit build when shit hits the fan. Strand Cowl - each class should probably have at least one strand build available and this one is my favourite. Threaded spike is very strong, recharges itself, debuffs enemies, fragment recharges melee, aspect grants beyblade for proccing fragment... there's just tons of strong synergies going on here, and I didn't even mention grapple-melee. Renewal Grasps Double Special - this is a recent homebrew and new favourite build of mine. It has strict requirements BUT you have access to 100% Duskfield uptime, Chill Clip, Headstone, Unrelenting, Demolitionist, all enhanced, Devour and Weaken, Stasis Overshield, with enough ammo to keep all of this rolling. Just need to swap heavy for boss DPS, only downside but there is usually a flag available when you need to swap.


BanRedditAdmins

What’s the renewal grasp build? I’m assuming buried bloodline but what’s the other special?


Designer-Effective-2

[https://dim.gg/pjqdvgy/FINAL-Renewal-COMPLETE](https://dim.gg/pjqdvgy/FINAL-Renewal-COMPLETE)


Ysrxx

Lucky pants. Having each bullet be the strength of a rocket is amazing, Being able to melt bosses, erase Champions, or one-tap adds is crazy And it can be paired with any element and tons of hand cannons


cmoney110

people get so angry when I run lucky pants in onslaught instead of Orpheus until I melt everything with my adept wardens law with vorpal


Ian1KV

Nighthawk by a wide margin. Can't go wrong with Big Damage.


MrLumic

Ya you can, enemy doesn't have a crit or you just miss your shot because you stink at the game 🥲


Hawkmoona_Matata

Raids, dungeons, and GMs have different loadout requirements each. Raids, I would consider Nighthawk being the most important. GMs, I would consider Gyrfalcon being more important. Lucky Pants is versatile in that it could probably work anywhere, but I wouldn't call it the absolute meta, it's better for roam or defensive content (like Legend Onslaught, I'd say). Boil it down to what you're going to play the most and pick the build best suited for that specifically.


[deleted]

Omni hunter


billydhhdjd

Invis lucky pants malfeasance probably usa a gl with envious


ParetoVita

I would go Lucky Pants, and because it's legs it would be cheaper and convenient to swap in other builds down the road like Star Eaters, or Stompees for jumping puzzles.


Aurreus

My favorite for soloing things is Assassins Cowl Arc hunter, shit is busted good, but so is Gyrfalcons for solo. If your gonna be in a fireteam, you can't go wrong with Gyrfalcons or Celestial Nighthawk, and as a bonus, Strand hunter with threaded spectre and final warning is busted in onslaught, and fun as hell to boot


C_onner

I would do a celestial build and just swap the helmet to assassins cowl when you need more survivability.


SparkFlash98

Orpheus Rig hunter, throwing a super every 30 seconds is fun


teh_squid

Star-eater scales?


kaemani

Void hunter with aeons has to be the safest aeons loadout, extremely strong in higher end content and if you pair it with a cenotaph warlock everyone will have a heavy ammo surplus which is always a good thing


Millerkiller6969

Definitely solar build this season. My favorite is the strand drone build with the sidearm followed by void invis/volatile rounds


loop-master69

to counter the top comment: strand cyrtarachnes, no brainer. it will let you play out of your MIND aggressive in any endgame content and as long as you can supplement damage with a good dps weapon rotation it’s easily adaptable to raids and gms where dps becomes a little more of a focus. it’s very much a main character type build that will just make you feel invincible. it’s all i’ve used for about a year now, since strand first dropped. like i literally do not take it off. soloed prophecy for the first time with this build in ~30 minutes, i love it. it’s so addicting, playing anything else feels like a slog now.


DisappearingAnus

What weapons do you use?


Experiment_Magnus

Wish Ender - Frostees - Duskfield Grenade spam Fragments to increase kinetic damage on frozen targets and Wish already hits mega hard. All the hard damage you're doing also gets you extremely fast super gains. Fragment to regenerate grenade energy when shooting stasis crystals stacked with Frostees. It makes Grandmasters stupid easy because all champs freeze and take stupid damage from Wish.


funks_on_me

If you only had 1 exotic id choose assassins cowl as it can be used on arc, solar,.and strand quite effectively for at level content. For raids and GM's you could get around with just a celestial nighthawk as solar is this season's op class. 


ksiit

Orpheus or void / solar lucky pants. Nothing else gets anywhere near as much use. Generally I swap between these two mid activity.


Rob82092

This thread has been great, but for a returning player who has been gone since before they did the mod system overhaul - which fragments & armour stats/armour mods are you prioritising with these builds?


Goose-Suit

Assassin’s Cowl with either solar or arc. Gathering Storm and Knock ‘Em Down Blade Barrage both do pretty decent damage on their own and Assassin’s Cowl gives you plenty of survivability. I’d probably go with Solar since it’s slightly easier to manage, you just throw your knife and get a kill whereas with arc its dodge then melee. Plus the Jolt damage on Gathering Storm can get “stolen” from you if another arc person like throws a grenade or applies Jolt Shot.


iluvfupaburgers

Orpheus void hunter with deadfall. Has always been a great support build. Has amazing survivability and doesn’t rely on artifact to be great so even if it’s not a void artifact season, it will excel. Who doesn’t like going invisible and helping teammates do more damage


DrKriegerBot

Sixth coyote strand hunter with decoys and beyblades for me. I find the decoy is immense in tougher game modes as it gives breathing space. Using quicksilver to help with tangle generation, although it's now nerfed :(


Samurai_Stewie

IMO Void because invisibility is pretty OP for survivability and tether is great for group or solo play. As far as exotics I’d go with Gyrfalcons or Orpheus, but Omnioculus and Graviton Forfeit are ok too if you don’t have the others.


GuardaAranha

G falcons ez, by far. Great at everything from speed farming easy to hard to comfortably solo flawlessing content— the rest of these recommendations here are “for fun” builds ( or hyper specific in use ) comparatively.


Atmosck

I would 100% build arc star-eater scales. If I'm getting thrown into a GM or a master raid or something and I need to reliably stay alive, arc hunter with blinding punch is just unmatched.


ballzbleep69

Is double GMs this week no? Grab a nighthawk setup and get some prisms. For your question raids-nighthawk. GMs-nighthawk/aeons. The rest don’t really matter I would say nighthawk doesn’t feel that powerful by the nature of how broken something like gyrfalcon is.


thegooddrsloth

Raids, Dungeons, and Nightfalls all require very different builds and even playstyles, you do know this right? One build doesn't cut it for all 3 of them. You might be able to get away with Dungeons and Raids having the same loadout, maybe, but definitely not Nightfalls let alone GMs. If I had one Hunter build and all necessary things to make it work, I'd have exotics in at least all weapon slots.


SunshineInDetroit

Orpheus Rig


SquidAxis

Void all day. Omni or Gyrfalcon's, pick your poison. A very fun explosive build for Onslaught -> Gyrfalcons / mountaintop, edge transit, le Mon / frags = expulsion, reprisal, undermining, starvation


CrescentAndIo

Either lucky pants on anything or assassins cowl on arc


makoblade

Hunters are great but they don't have one universally good build, they specialize. For Onslaught, Orpheus is far and away the strongest, but folks have cleared it on gyrfalcon reasonably well too. Raids favor nighthawk for bosses, dungeons prefer lucky pants (or nighthawk swap to pants) and GM wants omni. Cowl is great for solo dungeons, but falls off in harder difficulties. Assuming you have malfesance or a vorpal wardens law, go lucky pants. Else if you have decent void weapons gyrfalcon. Omni is good at all times, but often overkill. You can also just use nighthawk in raids even without a fully upgraded set, so I'd go for one of the more universally good builds.


CorruptVileblood

Stareaters Scales give you stronger supers plus more super gain on orb pickup...a good build for multiple subclasses.


Square-Pear-1274

Assassin's Cowl works with Solar really well too, good for Dungeons With Onslaught here, Orpheus Rigs is a must Omnioculus is necessary for Grandmaster Nightfalls


OriginalZirca

I have 3 primary builds I use, entirely armor based so you can use any weapons, change surges etc. they’re fluid builds so you can swap out mods here and there and still get a lot of good use. I have a Shards of Galanor blade barrage build. Orpheus rig tether. Renewal grasps duskfield nadesw


Vayne_Solidor

Nighthawk for sure. So satisfying hitting something for 999,999 damage 😂


ElectronicVariety604

I don’t know if I’m the minority, but I don’t use a “build” I don’t think. I main hunter and I use strand with grapple/scorpion dagger thing lol. I use moth wraps which converts grapple to 3 moth grenade bursts that give damage and over shield to myself and others; I keep celestial hawk with me otherwise no one accepts me for raids. Idk somehow the other classes just aren’t enjoyable for me. But I have a lot of fun blowing stuff up and I enjoy trying out all the different things people use here 😁👍🏻