Best Hunter Subclass in Destiny 2: Ranked for PvE and PvP

Destiny 2 is a complex game with buffs, nerfs, and an ever-changing meta. And since Abilities and Supers are so strong, Subclasses are a crucial part of the game. With the right combination of Aspects, Fragments, and Exotics, the right Subclasses can take your game to the next level, allowing you to create some of the most powerful Hunter builds.

Today we review and rank each Hunter subclass for PvE and PvP. More importantly, we cover each subclass’s strengths and weaknesses and tell you how to optimize them. (PS: These are the best Warlock Subclasses).

Updated as of Season of Defiance (S20).

Best Hunter Subclasses for PvE

--	Subclass	Element	Tier	Trend	Area	Rank
	Nightstalker	Void	Best ❘ S	-	PvE	S › Best
	Arcstrider	Arc	Best ❘ S		PvE	S › Best
	Gunslinger	Solar	Strong ❘ A	-	PvE	A › Strong
	Threadrunner	Strand	Average ❘ B	-	PvE	B › Average
	Revenant	Stasis	Weak ❘ C		PvE	C › Weak

1. Voidwalker (Void 3.0)

• Ranking: S Tier (best in class for endgame content)

Nightstalker has it all. Potent invisibility, powerful aspects, and synergistic fragments, as well as some of the best exotics in the entire game. Options like Omnioculus and Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk are some of the best Hunter exotics around and can really increase Nightstalker’s potential as a subclass. Gyrfalcons provides you with one of the strongest builds in the game, chaining Volatile and Invisibility constantly, and Omnioculus is still one of the strongest ‘carry’ exotics in the game as you can constantly make your fireteam invisible.

Ignoring exotics, Nightstalker still has a very strong kit. Invisibility is a powerful tool, and with your Smoke Bomb and Supers like Moebius Quiver and Deadfall, you can have high debuff uptime on a target.

Preferred Exotic: Omnioculus is generally the best option; Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk is good for DPS situations.

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Gyrfalcon's Hauberk	Hunter	Chest	The Witch Queen	Lost Sectors	Season 18	The Witch Queen	Exotic Perk: "Your weapons gain a bonus to damage briefly after you emerge from being invisible. When you are invisible and defeat a combatant using a finisher, you and your nearby allies gain a reserve overshield and improved class ability regen. These reserve overshields can be deployed by using a class ability."
Omnioculus	Hunter	Chest	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 13	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "You gain a second Smoke Bomb charge and have damage resistance while invisible. When you make an ally invisible, they gain damage resistance while invisible and you gain melee energy."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Vanishing Step is by far the best aspect. Stylish Executioner and Trapper’s Ambush can be swapped depending on your needs/playstyle.
• Fragments: Echo of Persistence, Echo of Starvation, Echo of Undermining, and Echo of Cessation/Obscurity.

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility and 100 Resilience are highly recommended. High Discipline and Recovery are also good.
• Abilities: Moebius Quiver Super for boss damage, Deadfall Super for ad clear/debuffing, Vortex Grenade, and Gambler’s Dodge when using Omnioculus, Marksman’s Dodge when using Gyrfalcon.

2. Arcstrider (Arc 3.0)

• Ranking: A Tier

Arcstrider went from arguably the worst subclass in the game to a brilliant ad-clearing and damage-dealing subclass with an engaging combat loop. Out of all of the Arc subclasses, Arcstrider has some of the easiest paths to Jolting enemies and becoming Amplified. The synergy of Combination Blow, Lethal Current, and Flow State makes Arcstrider ridiculously potent if you get a nice build going.  Arcstrider is so strong that some players have even been able to basically speedrun Grandmaster Nightfalls solo.

What makes Arcstrider truly remarkable, though, is its survivability with an exotic like Assassin’s Cowl with its Invisibility and healing, or even Liar’s Handshake with its health restore on Cross Counter melee. On top of this, Combination Blow also heals you on powered melee kill, making Arcstrider one of the tankiest subclasses in the game.

Gathering Storm is also an excellent burst damage super, only being outmatched by Blade Barrage, and when combined with Star-Eater Scales, Arcstriders can deal outrageous damage.

Preferred Exotic: Liar’s Handshake for more damage (better for easier content), Assassin’s Cowl for more survivability (better for harder content).

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Assassin's Cowl	Hunter	Helm	Shadowkeep	Exotic Engrams	Season 8	Shadowkeep	Exotic Perk: "Powered melee final blows grant invisibility and restore a portion of health and shields. Finishers and final blows against more powerful targets increase the duration of the invisibility and the amount of health and shields."
Liar's Handshake	Hunter	Arms	Forsaken Pack	Exotic Engrams	Season 6	Forsaken Pack	Exotic Perk: "Using your Arc melee ability or being hit by a melee attack will allow you to follow up with an extremely powerful melee counterpunch that will heal you."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Flow State and Lethal Current.
• Fragments: Spark of Resistence, Spark of Shock, Spark of Ions, and Spark of Feedback

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Resilience and 100 Mobility are highly recommended
• Abilities: Gathering Storm Super, Pulse Grenade or Storm Grenade, Combination Blow, and Gambler’s Dodge.

3. Gunslinger (Solar 3.0)

• Ranking: A Tier

With buffs to Blade Barrage and the ability to easily make yourself and your Fireteam members Radiant, Gunslinger is in a good place. That said, it does lack the raw survivability and neutral game of Arcstrider with Assassin’s Cowl or Nightstalker with Devour, which is why those two subclasses are slightly superior right now.

Solar Hunter does quite a lot and has perhaps some of the best synergies with certain Aspects and Fragments out of all of the classes. The combination of Knock ‘Em Down and Ember of Torches is ridiculously potent, as infinite throwing knives are nothing to scoff at. This, combined with the already powerful Radiant, Restoration, and Cure effects that all Solar Subclasses have, makes Gunslinger quite powerful, even ignoring the Supers and exotic combos.

Since Season of the Haunted, Blade Barrage has been at the top of the pile when it comes to single-target burst damage, and when combined with the likes of Star-Eater Scales, Blade Barrage can delete a massive chunk of a boss’s health bar.

Preferred Exotic: Star-Eater Scales for boss damage, Assassin’s Cowl for solo content, and Young Ahamkara’s Spine/Caliban’s Hand for general play.

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Assassin's Cowl	Hunter	Helm	Shadowkeep	Exotic Engrams	Season 8	Shadowkeep	Exotic Perk: "Powered melee final blows grant invisibility and restore a portion of health and shields. Finishers and final blows against more powerful targets increase the duration of the invisibility and the amount of health and shields."
Caliban's Hand	Hunter	Arms	The Witch Queen	Lost Sectors	Season 17	The Witch Queen	Exotic Perk: "Your Proximity Knife scorches targets it damages with its explosions, or ignites targets on a direct hit. After throwing a Proximity Knife, you gain increased melee regeneration until the knife explodes."
Star-Eater Scales	Hunter	Legs	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 14	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "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."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Knock ‘em Down and On Your Mark
• Fragments: Ember of Torches, Ember of Singeing, Ember of Empyrean and Ember of Ashes

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility and 100 Resilience are highly recommended.
• Abilities: Blade Barrage or Marksman Super, Healing Grenade or Tripmine Grenade, Knife Trick or Proximity Explosive Knifes, and Gambler’s Dodge

4. Threadrunner (Strand)

• Ranking: B Tier

Threadrunner is an ‘okay’ subclass. It doesn’t have the destructive power of Solar, nor the survivability of Arc and Void, but it does have excellent crowd control which can be just as valuable in high-end content. However, compared to the other Strand subclasses, Threadrunner feels quite weak. There aren’t too many situations where a Threadrunner is exactly needed. In solo content, other subclasses like Nightstalker and Arcstrider will simply be stronger, and in team-based, high-level content, there will likely be a Strand Warlock or Titan on the team which can fill the crowd control role much better than a Threadrunner can, making the subclass slightly redundant in some people’s eyes.

However, just because other classes are stronger does not mean Threadrunner is bad. Strand Hunter does provide solid crowd control with exotics like The Sixth Coyote, and the Silkstrike Super is incredibly powerful at dealing with high-health targets, like Champions in Grandmaster Nightfalls, especially with Star-Eater Scales.

Preferred Exotic: The new Mothkeeper’s Wraps (we cover how to get the Mothkeeper’s Wraps here), can vastly improve most grenade-based builds. Alternatively, these are the best Strand-based Exotics right now:

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Star-Eater Scales	Hunter	Legs	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 14	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "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."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Ensnaring Slam and Widow’s Silk.
• Fragments: Thread of Mind, Thread of Wisdom, Thread of Generation, Thread of Continuity.

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: Focus on Resilience, Discipline, and Mobility is best.
• Abilities: Silkstrike Super, Shackle Grenades, Threaded Spike melee, Marksman’s Dodge.

5. Revenant (Stasis)

• Ranking: C Tier

With the release of Strand, Stasis subclasses have seen a general decline in usage, as their strengths pale in comparison. Suspend is simply stronger than Freezing, and Woven Mail is superior to Whisper of Rime’s overshielding capabilities. Plus, if you truly want to use Stasis, a Shadebinder Warlock can do everything a Revenant Hunter can do but better.

Many claim that Strand is basically an improved version of Stasis, which is unfortunate as the Stasis kit can be quite fun. Exotics like Renewal Grasps and Fr0st-EE5 can massively improve your Duskfield Grenade game, and Mask of Bakris can provide a solid damage buff while also being fun to use.

It is unfortunate that Stasis is where it is right now, but with a couple of changes, Revenant could be back on top soon enough.

Preferred Exotic: Renewal Grasps and Mask of Bakris.

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Mask of Bakris	Hunter	Helm	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 12	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "Replaces your Stasis subclass Dodge ability with a longer range, faster moving shift that partially cloaks you during use. After shifting, your Stasis and Arc weapons deal increased damage for a short time."
Renewal Grasps	Hunter	Arms	The Witch Queen	Lost Sectors	Season 16	The Witch Queen	Exotic Perk: "Your Duskfield grenades have a much larger effect radius. Allies inside the Duskfield take reduced damage and targets inside the area deal reduced damage."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Touch of Winter and Grim Harvest.
• Fragments: Whisper of Chains, Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Shards, Whisper of Torment, and Whisper of Rime.

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility and 100 Resilience are highly recommended.
• Abilities: Silence and Squall Super, Duskfield Grenades, Withering Blade melee, Gambler’s Dodge.

Best Hunter Subclasses for PvP in Season 20

--	Subclass	Element	Tier	Trend	Area	Rank
	Gunslinger	Solar	Best ❘ S		PvP	S › Best
	Threadrunner	Strand	Strong ❘ A	-	PvP	A › Strong
	Revenant	Stasis	Strong ❘ A		PvP	A › Strong
	Nightstalker	Void	Average ❘ B		PvP	B › Average
	Arcstrider	Arc	Weak ❘ C		PvP	C › Weak

1. Gunslinger (Solar 3.0)

• Ranking: S Tier

Gunslinger in PvP is in an excellent spot right now as it boasts some of the strongest ability-altering exotics such as Young Ahamkara’s Spine and Athrys’s Embrace. Young Ahamkara’s Spine can be an absolute menace in practically anyone’s hands as they are incredibly easy to use and kill any enemy that has taken even a tiny bit of damage.

Athrys’s Embrace provides very annoying one-shotting Weighted Knives, which can make for easy and cheesy kills as their tracking is turned up to 11 with the perk activated. This build also received a buff with Solar 3.0 with the Knock ‘em Down aspect refunding your melee while Radiant, so simply running Ember of Torches can give you infinite 1-shot knives that can take down any enemy with a body shot.

Preferred Exotic: Young Ahamkara’s Spine with Tripmine Grenades, Caliban’s Hand with Proximity Explosive Knives, Athrys’s Embrace with Weighted Knives or St0mp-EE5 for overall gameplay

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Athrys's Embrace	Hunter	Arms	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 12	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "Weighted Knife gains a second bounce. Rapid precision hits with your weapons grant Weighted Knife a significant damage bonus, bonus strength, and the ability to stun unshielded combatants for a short time. Empowered Weighted Knife is strong against Unstoppable Champions."
Caliban's Hand	Hunter	Arms	The Witch Queen	Lost Sectors	Season 17	The Witch Queen	Exotic Perk: "Your Proximity Knife scorches targets it damages with its explosions, or ignites targets on a direct hit. After throwing a Proximity Knife, you gain increased melee regeneration until the knife explodes."
St0mp-EE5	Hunter	Legs	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 1	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Increases sprint speed and slide distance while your dodge energy is full and improves High Jump, Strafe Jump, and Triple Jump."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Knock ‘em Down and On Your Mark.
• Fragments: Ember of Torches, Ember of Combustion with Deadshot, Ember of Solace, Ember of Beams.

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility and 100 Recovery is best.
• Abilities: Deadshot Super, Healing Grenade/Tripmine Grenade/Solar Grenade, Weighted Knife/Proximity Explosive Knife, Gambler’s Dodge.

2. Threadrunner (Strand)

• Ranking: A Tier

Threadrunner has incredible potential. With tons of movement tools, Threadrunner can take over a lobby in the right hands. The Ensnaring Slam dive can devastate players, even suspending Thundercrashing Titans out of their Super. The grapple and grapple melee damage can be woven into flashy Shotgun push plays, and the mobility can help you escape or chase down low-health enemies. Threaded Spike is a solid melee, it isn’t anything too special, but it can secure a kill and has self-refunding potential, which is good.

Where Threadrunner is disappointing, though, is in the Silkstrike Super. This Super is unwieldy and horrible to use. While you can chain together kills across the map by grappling from place to place, the damage resistance is very low, and the accuracy of the rope dart attack can be incredibly difficult to use as the Super doesn’t offer an actual crosshair. On top of this, Silkstrike struggles to take down enemies on a different elevation. Enemies playing by stairs or on a slope will be practically unkillable with the main attack, and the heavy attack is useless as it can’t even one-shot a guardian.

Despite this, Threadrunner is still a solid PvP subclass and has a challenging yet fun skill ceiling to climb towards.

Preferred Exotic:

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
St0mp-EE5	Hunter	Legs	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 1	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Increases sprint speed and slide distance while your dodge energy is full and improves High Jump, Strafe Jump, and Triple Jump."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Ensnaring Slam and Widow’s Silk.
• Fragments: Thread of Mind, Thread of Generation, Thread of Continuity, Thread of Ascent

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility and 100 Recovery are best.
• Abilities: Grapple “Grenades”, Threaded Spike, Gambler’s Dodge.

3. Revenant (Stasis)

• Ranking: A Tier

Revenant has basically one thing going for it, and that is the Touch of Winter Duskfield Grenades. Thankfully, these can be extremely potent in the right hands and can secure kills with ease. Revenant also has access to a number of exotics that synergize nicely with the subclass, like Frostees or Mask of Bakris.

Where Revenant can be let down, though, is in the Super and melee. Silence and Squall is one of the worst shutdown supers in the game, as it has a ridiculously long cast time compared to options like Blade Barrage. The melee is somewhat pathetic in terms of damage, but it does have the utility of slowing targets.

Revenant, overall is a solid pick, but it is outpaced by some of the most potent and oppressive subclasses that Hunter has to offer.

Preferred Exotic:

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Fr0st-EE5	Hunter	Legs	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 3	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Increased grenade, melee, and dodge regeneration while sprinting. Dodging increases your sprint speed."
Mask of Bakris	Hunter	Helm	Beyond Light	Lost Sectors	Season 12	Beyond Light	Exotic Perk: "Replaces your Stasis subclass Dodge ability with a longer range, faster moving shift that partially cloaks you during use. After shifting, your Stasis and Arc weapons deal increased damage for a short time."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Touch of Winter and Winter’s Shroud.
• Fragments: Whisper of Chains, Whisper of Durance, Whisper of Torment. The remaining 2 are up to you.

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility and 100 Recovery are best.
• Abilities: Duskfield Grenades, Withering Blade, Gambler’s Dodge.

4. Nightstalker (Void3.0)

• Ranking: B Tier

Nightstalker has been falling down the rankings due to the recent nerfs to Invisibility, Omnioculus, and Khepri’s Sting. Void Hunter currently lacks something truly powerful compared to the other subclasses. Invisibility is more detectable now, the Exotics now provide weaker effects, and the Supers are somewhat lacking, making Nightstalker a middle-of-the-road subclass these days.

Despite this, Nightstalker is still great for getting the drop on enemies, as the actual Invisibility effect can be quite difficult to see, especially in areas with poor lighting.

Preferred Exotic: Omnioculus or Gyrfalcon’s Hauberk for general gameplay. Khepri’s Sting for setups with Snipers/Linear Fusion Rifles.

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Gyrfalcon's Hauberk	Hunter	Chest	The Witch Queen	Lost Sectors	Season 18	The Witch Queen	Exotic Perk: "Your weapons gain a bonus to damage briefly after you emerge from being invisible. When you are invisible and defeat a combatant using a finisher, you and your nearby allies gain a reserve overshield and improved class ability regen. These reserve overshields can be deployed by using a class ability."
Khepri's Sting	Hunter	Arms	Forsaken Pack	Exotic Engrams	Season 7	Forsaken Pack	Exotic Perk: "Punching someone with full melee energy will instantly cast Smoke Bomb. Gain Truesight while in your own Smoke Bomb effect. Your smoke bombs deal increased damage."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: Vanishing Step and Trapper’s Ambush are the best here.
• Fragments: Echo of Persistence, Echo of Leeching, Echo of Remnants.

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility is key. A mix of high Recovery, high Resilience, and high Discipline is recommended.
• Abilities: The Super is up to personal preference; however, we recommend Spectral Blades,  Vortex or Voidwall Grenade, and Gambler’s Dodge.

5. Arcstrider (Arc 3.0)

• Ranking: B Tier

Arcstrider is a solid subclass that can be devastating in skilled hands. Its tools like Amplified, Disorienting, and Arc Staff can be incredibly powerful. However, compared to other Hunter subclasses that offer abilities such as invisibility, freezing, or damage buffing, Arcstrider is lacking in that special “X factor.”

Nevertheless, skilled players can still take advantage of Arcstrider’s neutral game and powerful melee abilities. It’s worth noting that there are no exotics that have massive synergies with Arcstrider, unlike other subclasses. As a result, it may not be the most popular choice for PvP players right now. However, don’t be discouraged – with practice, dedication, and a willingness to learn, any subclass can be a viable option.

Preferred Exotic: St0mp-EE5 for higher movement potential.

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
St0mp-EE5	Hunter	Legs	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 1	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "Increases sprint speed and slide distance while your dodge energy is full and improves High Jump, Strafe Jump, and Triple Jump."

Preferred Aspects and Fragments:

• Aspects: All are viable.
• Fragments: Spark of Resistance, Spark of Shock, Spark of Recharge, Spark of Magnitude, and Spark of Momentum (if not using Lightning, Pulse, or Storm Grenades).

Preferred Abilities and Stats:

• Stats: 100 Mobility and 100 Recovery are highly recommended
• Abilities: Arc Staff Super, Arcbolt Grenade/Lightning Grenade/Storm Grenade, Disorienting Blow, Gambler’s Dodge.

Your turn

What is your favorite Hunter Subclass right now? Let us know in the comments below!