For a time, I was obsessed with making an Arc Hunter build work at a high-end PvE level in Destiny 2. I was an Arc main way back in the pre-Taken King days, back before Void Hunters existed and when Arc Hunters had Blade Dance. So, Arc 3.0 sort of hit a nostalgia point for me with all the melee utility.
Melee builds that aren’t Titans are notoriously bad at end-game, though, especially Grandmasters. Despite that, I’ve managed to crack the case and have personally used this build to get my Conqueror Seal. So, when I say this is the best Arc Hunter build for Destiny 2 Lightfall, I’m putting my money where my mouth is.
Destiny 2 Lightfall – Best Arc Hunter Build
Aspects
- Lethal Current.
We’re specing heavily into Combination Blow with this build, so our Aspects sort of pick themselves. Starting with Lethal Current, this gives our melees after dodging more range and makes it apply Jolt on hit.
What’s more, it’ll also makes your melee attacks against already Jolted targets Blind them. This single-handedly lets this build work on a Grandmaster level, and enables infinite stunlocks of damn near anything in the game.
Lethal Current is what gives your melee its power. It turns your punches into room-clearing fists of doom – this Arc Hunter build can’t survive without it.
- Flow State
Flow State pairs perfectly with Lethal Current and gives this build a lot of its survivability. It makes us Amplified when you defeat a Jolted target, greatly increasing your speed.
With Elemental Wells out of the picture, this build has some serious healing problems. You’ll need all the defense you can get, so take the free movement speed where you can.
As well as your two Aspects, you’ll specifically need Gambler’s Dodge and Combination Blow. This dodge and melee are needed to make this build work. Gambler’s Dodge will refund your melee, and Combination Blow only consumes its charge on kill. That melee kill will then fully refund your class ability, feeding an infinite feedback loop.
The only thing you need to watch out for is not dodging next to enemies. This won’t refund your melee and breaks your loop.
Related: The Ultimate Endgame PVE Strand Hunter Build for Destiny 2 Lightfall
Fragments
- Spark of Magnitude.
We don’t really have any Fragments that we have to spec into. All of your power is coming from your abilities and Aspects. This leaves this build pretty open-ended here, so feel free to use whatever setup you want.
Personally, I’ve decided to lean into our Storm Grenades a little bit – they’re too good to just ignore.
This starts with Spark of Magnitude, which increases the duration of the grenade. This helps round out our build as it brings our grenade in line with our melee in terms of power.
- Spark of Shock.
Continuing with that trend of grenade buffing, Spark of Shock will make your grenades Jolt targets.
This increases the power of your grenade 10-fold and again helps it to compete with the rest of our kit in terms of add-clearing capabilities.
- Spark of Ions.
Spark of Ions will make our kills on Jolted targets create Ionic Traces.
We’ve established that both our grenade and melee deal Jolt, meaning practically every kill we get will create a Trace, provided you’re using an Ikelos SMG as you should be.
- Spark of Resistance.
Last but not least, I’m running Spark of Resistance for a little help in the survivability department.
This Fragment will increase damage resistance (DR) while surrounded. This Arc Hunter build for Destiny 2 Lightfall’s entire gameplay loop revolves around meleeing, so you’ll always be surrounded – meaning this is a nice consistent DR bump.
Gear
Your Exotic choices for this Arc Hunter build are pretty cut and dry – there’s no room for negotiation here.
If you’re running an “easy” activity – really meaning anything below Legendary, you’ll want Liar’s Handshake. This fun little Exotic amplifies your Combination Blow’s damage to insane heights. Pair it with a One-Two Punch shotgun and a Tractor Cannon, and you’ll be hitting Solar Titan numbers of damage.
For any difficult content, Liar’s Handshake isn’t going to fly. You simply don’t have enough survivability in this build without dedicating your Exotic to it for high-end PvE. When you do use this, you’ll be able to run this build in Grandmasters, albeit it takes a bit of practice to get the gameplay down.
The Exotic I’m referring to is Assassin’s Cowl. This Exotic will make you Invisible and restore health on melee kill. This lets you chain red-bar kills on higher difficulties, stacking up Combination Blow to the point you can start chain-killing Majors.
Weapon-wise, Tractor Cannon is a great option. Your damage is coming from your melee so that 30% debuff is the best you’ll get from an Exotic weapon. A One-Two Punch shotgun is also an obvious choice, as is a Voltshot Ikelos SMG.
Mods
This Arc Hunter build was hurt with the removal of Elemental Well mods. It lots a lot of good utility, that we can’t really get back with the new system.
Having said that, I’m going to recommend a basic mod setup that I think is worth running:
- 1x Stacks on Stacks.
- 1x Charged Up.
- 2x Emergency Reinforcement.
This mod setup allows you to get some temporary damage resistance when your shield is broken, consuming your Armor Charges in the process.
We don’t need Surge mods because they don’t affect our melee, and we don’t need Kickstart as our abilities regenerate themselves. You could spec into Grenade Kickstart if you wanted more overall regen, but I think the defensive utility offered with Emergency reinforcement is more important.
That’s it for this Destiny 2 Lightfall Arc Hunter build. For more build guides like this, follow Gamer Journalist on Facebook. We’ll make sure you stay ahead of the Lightfall META.
Published: Mar 6, 2023 05:03 pm