Best Hunter Strand PvE build - Destiny 2
The hottest Hunter Strand build to blast through any PvE content.
Threadrunner is a Hunter’s new best friend with its power and flexibility to suit all situations. This Strand subclass can do it all. From inflicting large amounts of damage to bosses, endgame survivability, enemy clearance, and excellent team support with its high orb generation capabilities.
There are two builds which stand out the most and these are built upon the Hunter Exotic armor pieces Star-Eaters Scales and Sixth Coyote. The former revolves around damage output and the latter can be used to immobilize large crowds of enemies with strong ability refresh time.
Please note: The Class ability usage for Ensnaring Slam does not activate mods such as Bomber and Distribution. Bungie has not yet commented on this to confirm if it is intentional or a bug.
Before diving into these builds you should check your armor stats and focus on hitting 100 Resilience. This provides 30 percent damage reduction from all sources and is key to survival in endgame content.
Strandweaver
The Strandweaver build focuses on destroying dense waves of enemies. Pairing damage with abilities, you can have near constant grenade and class ability charges to deal with all non-boss mobs. This setup has the ability to stun champions and immobilize enemies in any level of content.
Subclass configuration
- Helmet (Any) - Elemental Siphon that matches your weapon elements
- Gauntlets (Any) - Impact Induction, Focusing Strike
- Chest Armor (Sixth Coyote) - Charged Up
- Leg Armor (Any) - Weapon Surge that matches your weapon elements
- Class Item (Any) - Time Dilation x2
- Super Ability - Silkstrike
- Abilities - Gambler’s Dodge, Triple Jump, Threaded Spike, Shackle Grenade
- Aspects - Widow’s Silk, Ensnaring Slam
- Fragments - Thread of Wisdom, Thread of Continuity, Thread of Warding, Thread of Generation
- Artifact - Shatter Orbs, Counterweave, Untangler
Strandweaver works around suspending targets with your grenade and class ability then either quickly dispatching them with weapons creating Orbs of Power or your charged Melee. Using Sixth Coyote here gives you two class ability charges which pairs up with two Grenade charges perfectly.
Your weapons benefit from the Surge and Siphon mods. When you pick up an Orb of Power, this grants a 10 percent damage buff while your armor charge is active. Suspend using Grenade or Ensnaring Slam, clear adds with weapons, create orbs, become charged to deal even more damage, while also charging your abilities back up from the bonuses granted from your subclass Fragments.
Time Dilation doubled up gives your armor charge 16 seconds before it runs out. Plenty of time to Suspend and clear the next wave to keep this build going strong. Your class ability will return the quickest for the next Suspend but feel free to use all of your kit to defeat your enemies.
Any non-boss enemy can be victim to the Suspend abilities of Strand. This means this build is incredibly effective in content from regular Strikes to a high-end Grandmaster Nightfall. Even Champion enemies can be suspended and stunned while in the air, making light work of some usually tough situations.
The Super can dispatch large groups of enemies with its light and heavy attacks so don’t be shy using it when it’s ready. If in a team, its Orb generation when defeating enemies is some of the best in-game.
The Artifact is now much more interchangeable since Bungie updated it to no longer be a mod to slot in. Now if you unlock a mod it is applied at all times. The recommended ones here work well for creating Orbs for yourself and has excellent potential when paired with Strand weapons. A standout option here is Quicksilver Storm.
Threadstriker
This build focuses on damage output. You can enhance the damage solo or in a group whilst still having strong tools to deal with waves of enemies. Strand’s versatility is really on show with this build and a personal favorite of mine since Lightfall dropped.
Riskier to use than Strandweaver as you will be getting in the face of the toughest opponents but the reward can be the difference maker in endgame content.
Subclass configuration
- Helmet (Any) - Hands-On, Elemental Siphon that matches your weapon elements
- Gauntlets (Any) - Grenade Kickstart, Impact Induction, Font of Focus
- Chest Armor (Any) - Charged Up
- Leg Armor (Star-Eater Scales) - Better Already, Weapon Surge that matches your weapon elements
- Class Item (Any) - Time Dilation x2
- Super - Silkstrike
- Abilities - Gambler’s Dodge, Triple Jump, Threaded Spike, Shackle Grenade
- Aspects - Widow’s Silk, Ensnaring Slam
- Fragments - Thread of Ascent, Thread of Continuity, Thread of Finality, Thread of Generation
- Artifact - Shatter Orbs, Counterweave, Volatile Flow
Star-Eaters Scales are the heart of this build. By overcharging your super it can deal serious damage to bosses or high-end enemies in any content level of Destiny. Shining when solo or in a Fireteam, the Threadstriker loop here is all about Orb generation.
Ensuring your weapons match your Elemental Siphon is key here. The Artifact mod Shatter Orbs provides great benefits here by producing an Orb of Power when breaking an enemy shield with a matching weapon. Volatile Flow is another top-tier perk here when paired with Void Flow weaponry.
The takeaway of this build is that every action builds towards Orb generation to reach your Super and overcharge it. At maximum 4x you will deal 60 percent more damage in Super so it’s key to hit that before unleashing. Adding the Elemental Surge mods adds 10 percent damage to your weapons with a matching element when you have an Armor Charge up. This being the catalyst to chaining kills for even more Orbs. You can double or triple up on the Elemental Surge mods, increasing weapon damage to 17 or 22 percent respectively.
Use your Grenade to Suspend targets making them easier to take down to help with your Orb gathering. Gambler’s Dodge is an easy way to get two fast melee charges to access another route to Orbs when defeating targets with your charged melee. While pairing Time Dilation with Charged Up keeps your charges going for longer.
When it comes to damage in the Super, use the light attack only to make direct damage towards the main target you’re going after and get the most hits in. The heavy attack takes away larger chunks of the Super, draining it more quickly.
If you have multiple characters and finished the campaign on a different class of Guardian, you may want to take advantage of the new character boost function to unlock this top-tier Hunter build quickly.
Strand is incredibly powerful in all content levels of Destiny. Using these builds you can take your Strand game to the next level. For more build breakdowns and Lightfall guide content, be sure to check out the Shacknews Destiny 2 complete strategy guide.
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