Best Destiny 2 Hunter Arc Build for PvE and PvP

Are you a Hunter main and want to take your game to the next level? These are the best Hunter Arc 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.

Updated as of Episode 3: Heresy.

Top Hunter Arc builds

--	Name	Class	Area	Subclass	Excels in	Element	Status
	Combination Gambler	Hunter	PvE	Arc	Endgame	Arc
	Jolting Resolve	Hunter	PvE	Arc	Endgame	Arc	Top 3

Best Hunter Arc build for PvE

Jolting Resolve

Excels In: Endgame (Dungeons, Raids, Expert content)

Goal of the Build: Use your Prismatic abilities to take down enemies and fuel your damage resistance while also using your weapons to get kills.

Mandatory Gear: Gifted Conviction. A strong Kinetic weapon such as the Multimach CCX is also recommended.

Name: Gifted Conviction

Class: Hunter Slot: Chest

Source: Master Rahool Requires: The Final Shape

Exotic Perk: Activating Ascension or Tempest Strike throws bouncing explosives at nearby targets that jolt and damage them. Jolting nearby targets grants you damage resistance.

Multimach CCX

Submachine Gun

Primary

Kinetic

Iron Banner

Kinetic Tremors

• Aspects: Ascension and Stylish Executioner
• Fragments: Facet of Hope, Facet of Purpose, Facet of Protection, Facet of Dawn, and Facet of Solitude
• Abilities: Silktrike or Silence and Squall, Grapple, Threaded Spike, Gambler’s Dodge
• Stats Priority: Max Resilience 🡒 Discipline🡒 Recovery.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Siphon matching Primary ammo weapon, Heavy Ammo Finder, and Heavy Ammo Scout
  • Arms: Loader matching Primary ammo weapon, Focusing Strike, and Bolstering Detonation
  • Chest: Stat mod and damage resistance mods matching your enemy’s damage type
  • Legs: Weapon Surge matching your weapon type, Recuperation, and Better Already
  • Class Item: Stat mod, Time Dilation, and Font of Restoration

Gameplay Loop

As evidenced by the name of the build, the primary function of this build is to Jolt enemies using Gifted Conviction and gain damage resistance from it while also using your Threaded Spike to Sever combatants on top of your Facet of Solitude Sever.

Typically, pairing a good Kinetic weapon such as Multimach, Midnight Coup, or Unloved with this build is best, but you can choose anything. This allows you to compliment your ability kills with standard weapon kills to help build your Transcendence bar, granting you even more damage resistance and some bonus damage.

Collecting Orbs of Power is crucial, so ensure to generate as many as possible; an Attrition Orbs + Kinetic Tremors Multimach is incredible for this, as with a Kinetic Siphon, you can generate a ton of Orbs. This allows you to activate Facet of Purpose as often as possible, granting either Woven Mail or Frost Armor for a short duration, which massively boosts your survivability, especially when paired with Recuperation and Better Already.

This build is perfect in endgame scenarios where there isn’t a boss to defeat, allowing you to run mini-boss-killing weapons such as a Fusion Rifle and a Machine Gun or even options such as Ergo Sum to build your Transcendence bar further.

Combination Gambler

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

Goal of the Build: Stack up Combination Blow and slay with your Arc abilities while striking from the shadows.

Mandatory  Gear: Assassin’s Cowl. A One-Two Punch shotgun is recommended.

Name: Assassin's Cowl

Class: Hunter Slot: Helm

Source: Exotic Engrams Requires: 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.

Dead Weight

Shotgun

Special

Arc

Playlist: Gambit

• Aspects: Lethal Current and Flow State.
• Fragments: Spark of Resistance, Spark of Feedback, and Spark of Shock.
• Abilities: Gathering Storm, Gambler’s Dodge, and Combination Blow. Storm Grenades and Pulse Grenades are both strong.
• Stats Priority: Max Resilience 🡒 Discipline.
• Mods:
  • Helmet: Hands-On, Heavy Ammo Finder, Dynamo.
  • Arms: x2 Heavy Handed and Impact Induction.
  • Chest: Resistance Mods based on your enemies.
  • Legs: Weapon Surge Mods matching your equipped weapons.
  • Class Item: Powerful Attraction, Bomber, Distribution.

Gameplay Loop

This gameplay loop is relatively simple on the surface. However, as you weave more techniques and abilities into the Melee>Dodge>Melee combo, it becomes slightly more complex.

Stacking Combination Blow to x3 is your main goal. Once you do this, you will be able to 1-punch all squishy enemies and will be able to 1-2 Punch Shotgun all other enemies besides bosses.

Due to the insane number of Orbs of Power you will be making, equipping the Hands On mod will help you generate your Super very quickly, allowing you to rip through minor and major enemies alike.

This build is quite tricky to use, especially for a less experienced player in higher-level content. However, mastering it will allow you to take on practically all types of content, regardless of the difficulty.

Don’t miss our: Top Destiny 2 Hunter Solar 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.

Arcstrider

Arcstrider has quite a few unique parts of its kit, built-in damage resistance, blink, and some blinding potential with Disorienting Blow; it makes Arcstrider quite the all-rounder.

Pros:

• Excellent super. Lasts long and can outduel any other melee supers with skill and timing.
• High Jolt potential with Disorienting Blow.
• Solid neutral game with high mobility.

Cons:

• No game-changing qualities that the other 3 subclasses have (Freezing, Invisibility, Radiant, or Restoration)
• Super can be outmaneuvered by ranged supers such as Golden Gun, Dawnblade, or Hammer of Sol.
• The All-rounder kit makes it a bit of a ‘jack of all trades master of none.’

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	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	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	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.

Before you go…

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