Best Destiny 2 Hunter Strand Builds for PvE and PvP

Are you a Hunter main and want to take your game to the next level? These are the best Hunter Strand builds in Destiny 2, including builds for endgame and Solo players. And by the way, as any top-tier Hunter build, these will guide you every step of the way, including essential Exotics, Mods, and more.

Top Strand Hunter builds

--	Name	Class	Area	Subclass	Excels in	Element	Status
	Threaded Maelstrom	Hunter	PvE	Strand	Endgame	Strand	Best in Class
	Suspending Coyote	Hunter	PvE	Strand	Grandmasters	Strand

Best Hunter Strand builds for PvE

 Updated as of Season of the Wish (S23).

The Threaded Maelstrom

Excels in: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Legend content)

Goal of the Build:  Utilise your Strand Weapons and Abilities to generate Tangles and weaponize the Maelstroms to add to your DPS or help in ad-clear.

Mandatory Gear: Cyrtarachne's Facade. Strand weapons are recommended (a One-Two Punch Shotgun can also work).

Name: Cyrtarachne's Facade

Class: Hunter Slot: Helm

Source: Lost Sectors Requires: Lightfall

Exotic Perk: Gain Woven Mail when activating grapple. Increased flinch resistance while Woven Mail is active.

	Dead Weight	Shotgun	Special	Arc	Playlist: Gambit
	Quicksilver Storm	Auto Rifle	Primary	Strand	Exotic Kiosk

• Aspects: Widow’s Silk and Whirling Maelstrom.
• Fragments: Thread of Ascent, Thread of Generation, Thread of Transmutation, and either Thread of Isolation or Thread of Binding.
• Abilities: Gambler’s Dodge and Shackle Grenade or Grapple Grenade. Shackle is better in higher-level content, but Grapple is more fun.
• Stats Priority: Resilience 🡒 Mobility 🡒 Discipline.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Heavy Ammo Scout, and Heavy Ammo Finder.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Focusing Strike, and Harmonic Loader.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Recuperation, 2x Strand Weapon Surge.
  • Class Item:  Powerful Attraction, Bomber, and Proximity Ward.

Gameplay Loop

The loop for this build revolves around Woven Mail. Keeping Woven Mail active is necessary for your survivability, as well as generating Tangles as Thread of Transmutation is one of your primary sources of Tangle generation.

Grappling from place to place, keeping your Woven Mail active will allow you to stay on the move while also continuously spawning the Threaded Maelstrom Tangles. These maelstroms, on top of the damage from Quicksilver Storm or a Grapple Melee, allow you to wipe any non-boss enemy off the map with ridiculous speed.

Overall, look to keep Woven Mail active through your Grapple, generate as many Tangles as possible, and let your Threaded Maelstroms roam the battlefield while you pummel enemies with your weapon of choice and Grapple melees.

Suspending Coyote

Excels in: Grandmaster Content

Goal of the Build: Utilise the Strand keywords, especially Suspend, to take down groups of enemies and crowd-control everything.

Mandatory Gear:  The Sixth Coyote. Strand weapons are recommended.

Name: The Sixth Coyote

Class: Hunter Slot: Chest

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: Forsaken Pack

Exotic Perk: Gain a second dodge charge.

Wish-Keeper

Combat Bow

Primary

Strand

Exotic Quest

• Aspects: Widow’s Silk and Ensnaring Slam.
• Fragments: Thread of Continuity, Thread of Generation, and Thread of Warding. The last Fragment is up to you (Thread of Isolation is solid for general survivability, but Thread of Wisdom increases your Orb of Power generation).
• Abilities: Marksman’s Dodge, Threaded Spike, and Shackle Grenade.
• Stats Priority: Max Resilience 🡒 Discipline 🡒 Mobility.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Harmonic Siphon, Heavy Ammo Finder, Heavy Ammo Scout.
  • Arms: Impact Induction, Grenade Kickstart, Fastball.
  • Chest: Charged Up and Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your weapons.
  • Class Item: Time Dilation and 2x Bomber.

Gameplay Loop

The gameplay loop of this build is focused on rotating your Grenade and Dodge cooldowns to always have a method of Suspending a target available. Using your Armor Charge stacks with Grenade Kickstart, alongside Thread of Generation, will allow you to have your Shackle Grenade on a low cooldown.

Orbs of Power are also vital as they are your source of Woven Mail, granting 58% damage resistance to all attacks. Players can use this build to crowd-control a large group of weaker enemies or constantly Suspend a tankier enemy, like a Champion in a Nightfall. Having four different avenues to Suspend a target allows for incredible flexibility in your abilities.

Overall, you must keep track of your cooldowns and abuse the duration of Suspend to ensure that your cooldown rotation can fully complete.

Don’t miss our: Top Destiny 2 Hunter Stasis Builds

Best Hunter PvP builds

PvP Essentials

Step one to playing Hunter in PvP is understanding that your Dodge is the strongest ability in your kit. Because of this, maximizing Mobility is a very standard choice for the shortest cooldown on your Dodge. Making sure that you have maximum Recovery is also recommended.

Hunters come with the benefit of being able to completely ignore the Strength stat, as using Gambler’s Dodge allows you to completely refund your melee ability when dodging near an enemy. This lets you dump the rest of your stat points into Discipline and Resilience. Personally, I choose to run 100 Mobility, Recovery, and Discipline; however, feel free to adapt some stats to your own preference.

Hunter Subclasses: Ranked

There will always be a ‘meta’ option for PvP, but every Hunter subclass is viable in its own way, with its own set of pros and cons.

Strand

The brand-new subclass released with Lightfall, Strand provides unprecedented mobility, which can wreak havoc when used right. You can single-handedly initiate plays with your Grapple-Dive combo like no other class can and lead from the front in all game modes.

Pros:

• Super high level of mobility.
• High skill ceiling.
• Grappling into an Ensnaring Slam dive is a combo that, when mastered, is hard to deal with.

Cons:

• Long cooldowns.
• High-skill floor (hard to use effectively and easy to die with).
• Woefully poor super.

Best PvP Hunter Exotics

General Exotics

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."
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."
Wormhusk Crown	Hunter	Helm	Free-to-Play	Exotic Engrams	Season 3	Free-to-Play	Exotic Perk: "We strive to know infinity, and sharpen our minds on the whetstone of the impossible."

Due to a lack of prerequisites, neutral and more passive Exotics are often favored in PvP. Therefore, Stompees, Wormhusk, and Frostees always find a place in the meta for Hunters as they provide benefits while requiring nothing/very little to receive benefits from.

Stompees are still one of the most enjoyable Hunter exotics for PvP. The nerfs it received have affected viability quite a lot; however, they are still my pick if I’m playing PvP as they are just so fun to use.

Wormhusk Crown has been in the meta since it was released back in the Warmind DLC. Wormhusk provides unmatched instant value as it gives around a third of your health back for simply dodging. This allows you to take riskier engagements and get out with ease. Dodging is already a ‘get out of jail free card’, and Wormhusk takes this to another level.

Frostees are the pick for players who want high-ability uptime but don’t want to commit to a full-on build. By merely sprinting, you can increase your ability recharge rate by 100% and increase your Sprint Speed by 6.25% by simply dodging. Frostees will always serve players well when they want to maybe switch it up from the Stompees, but want to retain some movement speed and have high ability uptime.

Subclass-specific Exotics

Armor	Class	Type	Requirements	Source	Released	Requires	Exotic Perk
Cyrtarachne's Facade	Hunter	Helm	Lightfall	Lost Sectors	Season 20	Lightfall	Exotic Perk: "Gain Woven Mail when activating grapple. Increased flinch resistance while Woven Mail is active."

Cyrtarachne’s Facade is a powerful option for Threadrunners. Woven Mail is solid damage resistance. Mastering the Threadrunner playstyle with Cyrtarachne’s can make you hyper-mobile and very tanky.

Before you go…

You can find all the best builds in Destiny 2 here.