Build crafting is one of the joys players have in Destiny. Apart from all the cool weapons, there is something about putting together a set of armor and it performing at its very best. With that being said, it is often difficult to know which ones to pursue just before a new expansion launches.
In this list, we’ll go through some Hunter Exotics that might be worth having in your vault, ready for all the new content season. This will also have some consideration for Strand but we’ll hold true judgment until we actually put them to the test.
Best Hunter Exotics you need to Get Before Destiny 2 Lightfall
FR0ST-EE5
Hydraulic Boosters: Increases sprint speed and slide distance. Improves High Jump, Strafe Jump, and Triple Jump. The airborne effectiveness stat of all weapons receives a large penalty.
The first Exotic on this list, the FR0ST-EE5 is your best friend in every jumping puzzle in Destiny 2. You’ll want to have this during the jumping puzzles of the Lightfall raid. You can also have this on in PvP, provided you go in knowing that you’ll be shooting almost entirely on the ground.
Lucky Pants
Illegally Modded Holster: When you ready a fully loaded Hand Cannon that deals Kinetic damage or a damage type that matches your subclass energy type, each hit from that Hand Cannon increases the damage of the next shot for a short time against a combatant. Hand cannons ready faster and are more accurate immediately after swapping to them. Provides a small benefit to the airborne effectiveness stat of Hand Cannons while the buff is active.
The Lucky Pants works well with Exotic Handcannon in the game, and trust me, there are a lot of them. Although it works particularly well with Malfeasance. With these two, you are almost always dealing extraordinary amounts of damage. At hand cannon range, of course.
If you really love using hand cannons, you will want to have a good pair of this when the need arises.
Assassin’s Cowl
Vanishing Execution: Powered melee final blows grant invisibility and restore a portion of health and shields. Finisher and final blows against more powerful targets increase the duration of the invisibility and the amount of health and shields restored.
The idea here is simple. With Strand grapple hook, you can essentially do a Spider-Man on a group of unsuspecting enemies. You grapple in, do a powered melee blow, go invis, and run towards the next group of enemies. Rinse and repeat for as long as possible. It all sounds good on paper. Let’s see if it holds up.
Renewal Grasps
Depths of Duskfield: Your Duskfield grenades have a larger effect radius. Allies inside the Duskfield take reduced damage and targets inside the area deal reduced damage.
So Bungie is to drastically change the way the Light subclasses are going to work. This leaves the Stasis as being the stable class for a least a little bit. And the best Hunter Exotic for Stasis has got to be Renewal Grasps. Use this against the boss in the Raid and you are free to smack them around Lament in hand.
Mask of Bakris
Light Shift: Replaces your Stasis subclass dodge ability with a longer range, faster-moving shift that partially cloaks you during use. After shifting, your Arc weapons deal increased damage to combatants for a short time, and you deal increased damage to all slowed or frozen combatants.
Continuing on the Stasis train, the Mask of Bakris is a solid option for those Stasis Hunters that can handle what it’s offering. The phase dodge is a powerful tool but your room for error is tiny at best, especially in PvP. If you’re rocking this, you better have the confidence to boot.
Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk
See Me, Feel Me: Your Void weapons gain volatile rounds after you emerge from being invisible. When you are invisible and defeat a combatant while using a finisher, all of your weapons gain bonus damage you and your nearby allies gain a reserve overshield and improved class ability regeneration. These reserve overshields can be deployed by using a class ability.
You want to have this Exotic in your vault for its synergy with volatile rounds. Bungie may have nerfed this Exotic to the ground in PvP but it is still strong in some situations. It has, however, gotten a sizeable buff in PvE, making it a must-have for any raid content.
Mechaneer’s Tricksleeves
Spring Loaded Mounting: Increases Sidearm ready and reload speed. While you’re critically wounded, swapping to a Sidearm increases its damage. Provides a large benefit to the airborne effectiveness stat of Sidearms.
This pick goes specifically with the new Sidearm, Final Warning. The best thing is, the Hunter class makes the most use of sidearms. And with the amount of jumping around they do on a regular basis, airborne effectiveness is second nature. As long as enemies are within kill range.
The Bombardiers
Parting Gift: Dodging leaves behind an explosive that detonates after a short delay, damaging targets around it and creating a secondary effect based on your subclass energy type:
- (Arc) Blinds targets
- (Solar) Scorches targets
- (Void) Suppresses targets
- (Stasis) Slows targets
The Bombardiers is an underrated Exotic that not many Hunters use in PvP. The biggest problem with it is that once opposing players know that you are leaving bombs on dodge, they tend to keep their distance.
What’s curious to me is what the Stand grenades are going to be like. It’s going to leave behind tangles, that’s for sure. But we don’t know in what form that’ll take until the Exotic gets updated. And with Bungie nerfing abilities in PvP, this might be a cheeky way of making the most out of that restriction. In any case, the Exotic alone is worth it for the fun factor.
Star-Eater Scales
Feast of Light: You gain additional Super energy from Orbs of Power you pick up. While your Super energy is full, picking up an Orb of Power overcharges your Super, causing you to gain a burst of healing when cast and a bonus to your Super damage. At maximum overcharge, you also gain an overshield.
From what I know, the Strand Hunter starting in Season 20 will have the ability to create Woven Mail by picking up Orbs of Powers. Why not go all in on the idea and have a build that revolves completely around Orbs of Power. If this works, it can be the next meta Exotic right beside Gyrfalcon’s Haulberk.
Also, with the buff coming to roaming Supers and their damage, having a Super in your pocket faster than anyone else will get you the advantage in most situations.
Wormhusk Crown
Burning Souls: Dodging gives a small health and shield bump.
A staple for both PvP and PvE content, the Wormhusk Crown has been described by many as the clutch Exotic that saved many a hunter’s life from certain death. I figure that coming into Season 20, that remains unchanged. Even after many years, Wormhusk Crown doesn’t appear to be going away anytime soon.
And that’s it for this list of Hunter Exotics you may want to have ahead of Lightfall. You might want to have others depending on your preferred playstyle but just know that abilities are going to be greatly nerfed in PvP. So, you might not find a use for a grenade build when grenades don’t come back as often.
As a final word, just like the Witch Queen expansion before it, we don’t really quite know what’s going to be “good” until the season starts and everyone has formed an opinion on the changes to Exotics.
Check out this video from Youtuber Aztecross where he lists down all the Exotic that could potentially synergize with Strand.