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Alongside Destiny 2's Season of Plunder, Bungie released the highly anticipated Arc 3.0 update, which completed the cycle of the Light reworks ahead of the Lightfall expansion. Much like the Void and Solar updates before it, Arc 3.0's philosophy lies on multiple keywords that make for the classes' identities and also on a vision Bungie has about what players can achieve with each of them. This guide covers the best Destiny 2 build options for Hunters, spanning the various playstyles that Arc 3.0 created.
Best Arc 3.0 Hunter Build - Aspects
Because one of the principles of Arc 3.0 is that players should be able to cross distances relatively easily to get in melee range and unleash devastating blows, Bungie designed Arc Hunters with the concept of the "monk" in mind.
This means that Arc Hunters are meant to be the Destiny 2 equivalent of the fantasy trope of monks, who usually deal massive melee damage and whose movements are quick and acrobatic.
In terms of gameplay, this is achieved by using the Flow State Aspect, which makes Hunters take less damage when dodging and makes dodges recharge faster while Amplified, which is a buff obtained by default when rapidly defeating targets with Arc damage.
To make melee attacks more powerful, Arc Hunters can use Lethal Current as their second Aspect, as it increases the lunge range of the next melee attack after dodging, and it also makes it jolt enemy targets.
Lethal Current also creates an aftershock that damages enemies caught in it, and further melee attacks against jolted targets apply the blind debuff, which in Destiny 2 is very valuable in higher-end content.
Best Arc 3.0 Hunter Build - Abilities and Fragments
The best class ability for this build is Gambler's Dodge, as it allows players to keep up their melee combo with Combination Blow, a powered melee that deals more damage based on its stacks.
Combination Blow then deals progressively increased damage whenever players kill a target with it, up to a maximum of three stacks, which also stack with other bonuses to melee damage used in this build.
The best Fragments to use are Spark of Feedback and Spark of Resistance.
The former increases outgoing melee damage when taking melee damage, and the latter reduces the amount of damage taken when surrounded by enemies.
The two remaining slots can be filled according to personal preference, but great choices are Spark of Recharge, Spark of Magnitude, Spark of Discharge, Spark of Shock, Spark of Ions, and Spark of Amplitude.
This Destiny 2 Hunter build can also make great use of grenades, and players have two great choices in the form of Pulse Grenades and Storm Grenades, with the former dealing more damage overall on a longer cooldown.
The best Super to use in this build, and for Arc Hunters in general, is Gathering Storm. This has a lower cooldown than Arc Staff, deals more damage overall, and can be effectively used for both clearing adds or increasing boss DPS.
Best Arc 3.0 Hunter Build - Exotics
The best Exotics to use in this build are two, and they serve different purposes.
The first is Liar's Handshake, a Hunter Exotic that lets players deal enormous amounts of melee damage if they either take melee damage or if they deal melee damage with a first punch, increasing the damage on the next one.
Liar's Handshake is an ideal choice because it increases outgoing melee damage at all times, and its counterpunch also heals players to help them remain in the fray of battle. However, the healing is not enough to sustain players in endgame Destiny 2 content in most cases.
The second Exotic to pair with this build is Assassin's Cowl, which doesn't grant extra melee damage, but it makes players invisible and heals them after scoring a melee kill or using a finisher.
Assassin's Cowl makes this build tankier and provides a layer of strategic thinking thanks to the invisibility, but it can suffer from low melee damage to defeat tougher combatants.
Best Arc 3.0 Hunter Build - Mods
The best mods to pair with these Exotics are Melee Wellmaker and/or Overcharge Wellmaker, Elemental Charge, Striking Light, Powerful Friends, and Well of Ions.
Because the build mostly sustains itself thanks to the Gambler's Dodge and Combination Blow loop, mods are not strictly necessary.
However, Well of Ions is a great one to have due to it increasing melee damage for several seconds when picking up an Arc Elemental Well. Combined with Melee Wellmaker, it's very easy to never run out.
Overcharge Wellmaker is a better Destiny 2 mod to use with Assassin's Cowl, as using finishers often is already encouraged by the Exotic's perk. In this case, another mod called Reactive Pulse can be used to gain an overshield when using finishers, although it's often not necessary.
Striking Light serves the purpose of further lowering incoming damage when sprinting, making Arc 3.0 Hunters quite resilient at all times.
Lastly, Powerful Friends can be used to increase one's Mobility stat by 20 points, which helps speed up the cooldown of Gambler's Dodge in case its charge is lost.
Best Arc 3.0 Hunter Build - Weapons
The only weapon players should always have in their loadout for this build is a Kinetic or Energy shotgun with the One-Two Punch perk, as it increases melee damage dealt for the next two punches.
This works perfectly in Season of Plunder, thanks to Unstoppable Shotguns being a seasonal mod, which makes the One-Two Punch shotgun not only great for the build but also turns it into a way to deal with Champions.
There are currently two craftable shotguns in Destiny 2 with One-Two Punch: Dares of Eternity's Wastelander M5 and The Witch Queen's Ragnhild-D.
Other great weapons to pair with this build are Season of Plunder's Tarnished Mettle to help deal with long-range targets and apply jolt to enemies or Trinity Ghoul for add-clearing with Arc damage.
The Power weapon slot is up to players' preference, but three great Exotics to use here are the newly buffed Legend of Acrius, Tractor Cannon for extra melee damage, and Thunderlord for intrinsic anti-Overload rounds and decent damage across the board.
Best Arc 3.0 Hunter Build - Endgame
The problem with this build is that it could incur dangers and issues in Destiny 2's Grandmaster Nightfalls, and it has not much going for it when it comes to dealing continuous damage to targets like Raid bosses.
In GMs, Assassin's Cowl will be the better choice between the two thanks to the free invisibility on melee kills and finishers, as it's an additional layer of protection that can save players and their allies from a potential wipe.
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In Raids, while chaining melee hits against rank-and-file enemies is feasible and even helps in many encounters, it could be a good idea to bring along a pair of Star-Eater Scales for bosses and DPS phases, as they will increase the damage of Gathering Storm.
It's worth noting that Star-Eater Scales require players to pick up four Orbs of Power before reaching full stacks now, which means that one could potentially even throw them on right before DPS phases, provided that allies cast their Supers first.
Destiny 2 is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.