The redesign of the solar subclasses in Destiny 2Haunted season has had its ups and downs, but Hunters have seen one of the biggest power boosts in the class in recent memory. Often behind in the ability regeneration and super damage departments, Solar 3.0 gave hunters a taste of that power they’ve been missing through a host of powerful builds.
From harnessing the maximum damage potential of the new and improved Blade Barrage Super to igniting groups of opponents in the Crucible with a well-placed throwing knife, there’s a build for every type of hunter. You might succeed at a lower difficulty without giving too much thought to the shards and aspects you bring, but certain combinations will be critical to your survivability and effectiveness when integrating Solar 3.0 into endgame content.
Aspects and Fragment Locations
It’s important to start this build discussion with a conversation about Gunpower Gamble. One of the most exciting new aspects introduced with Solar 3.0, Gunpower Gamble gives hunters the ability to use an Improvised Solar Explosive after charging the aspect through other Solar damage. This explosive is incredibly powerful, causing flare-ups when it detonates for devastating crowd control abilities.
But Gunpower Gamble has a fatal buildcrafting flaw that prevents it from appearing in the majority of builds here. While Knock Em’ Down and On Your Mark, the other two hunter aspects, grant two and three additional shard slots to work with, respectively, Gunpowder Gamble only grants one. With Knock Em’ Down perks for Supers and melee energy refunds making it a necessary aspect in every build, pairing it with Gunpower Gamble would only give the hunter three shard slots in total.
It’s not the death of a build, but far more limiting than the five total shard slots when pairing Knock Em’ Down and On Your Mark. In an effort to maximize passive perks and stat boosts from shards, Solar 3.0 builds lean here to avoid Gunpowder Gamble. But if the fun factor and its inherent power as a tool is too big to pass up, it can still be a good option.
Best Solar 3.0 builds for PvE
The infamous Blade Barrage build
Blade Barrage is back in full force this season in Destiny 2. After never having found a healthy place in the meta since its introduction in the Forsaken expansion, new shards, aspects, and an old Exotic have breathed life into it. In fact, with the right build, Blade Barrage is currently the most powerful Super in Destiny 2 for single target damage. If you want to make farming the new Duality dungeon a breeze, this is the build for you.
The key building block is his Exotic: Star-Eater Scales. These Hunter pants have been in and out of the meta since their release in Season of the Splicer, but their ability to increase the damage of any Super, through the acquisition of Orbs of Power, makes all the difference with Blade Barrage this season. Earning all eight stacks of Feast of Light can put a single use of Blade Barrage into territory for 600,000-700,000 damage, staggering numbers compared to other Supers in the game right now.
This build doesn’t require much engineering to make it work, but you can make the Feast of Light stack collection loop much easier with the proper mods. A Siphon mod of a certain description is mandatory on your helmet, but using Solar weapons in your loadout will allow you to specifically use the very cheap Harmonic Siphon mod. Stacking two of these will also increase the potency of the Power Orbs you spawn. If the Sun weapon you are using is an Exotic primary, such as Tommy’s Matchbook or Sunshot, you can increase your chances of finding Special and Heavy ammo to also compensate for the lack of Ammo Finder mods.
Great
Aspects
- Knock ’em down
- On your marks
fragments
- Ember of Beams
- Embers of torches
- Ember of Comfort
- Eruption Ember
- Burning embers
Mods
- Helmet Armor: Harmonic siphon or kinetic siphon
- Leg armor: Recovery or better already
- Sun armor: Abundant wells
- Elemental armaments
- melee wells
- Basic ammunition
- power font
Exotic
The ultimate support fighter build
It’s not often that hunters play a supporting role in a fireteam when titans and warlocks have access to all sorts of utilities in their kits. However, when Solar 3.0 introduced universal keywords to the subclass, hunters had a number of opportunities to play the role of facilitator in endgame content.
A new class ability, Acrobat’s Dodge, allows hunters to consistently apply the Radiant effect to themselves and their allies. This dodge has a considerably longer cooldown than its traditional counterparts, but using The Sixth Coyote Exotic and its two class ability charges can give you significantly more uptime. Hunters also now have access to the Healing Grenade, previously only available to Warlocks.
If you like playing a supporting role in your squad, this is the build for you.
Great
Class ability
Grenade
Aspects
- Knock ’em down
- On your marks
fragments
- Ember of Benevolence
- Singing Embers
- Embers of torches
- Ember of comfort
- Quenching Ember or Burning Ember
Mods
- Class Item Armor: Sustainability, Distribution or Utility Kickstart
- Void Weapon Armor: Focused Strike or Enhanced Detonation
- Void Helmet Armor: Dynamo
Exotic
Best Solar 3.0 builds for PvP
A build for hunters with a stylish twist
Athrys’s Embrace has been both loved and rejected by different parts of the playerbase since its introduction to the Hunter Exotics collection in Beyond Light. It’s also easy to see why, when its perks apply to the Weighted Throwing Knife, a melee choice that many players tend to avoid for fear of missing the shot. But Athrys’s Embrace does a few things to make choosing the knife that much more appealing: increased snapping, bouncing, and damage.
One of the core flaws holding it back so far was the need for headshots to refund melee energy and get your knife back after a successful kill. This somewhat thwarted the point of performing Athrys’s Embrace, which could kill any opponent with a single hit when its damage boost for the Weighted Throwing Knife was fully charged. With Solar 3.0 however, new shards allow Athrys to shine.
The combination of the Knock Em’ Down aspect and the Ember of Torches shard is key to this build, making you Radiant when you hit an enemy with your throwing knife, then restoring your melee energy if that throwing knife is kill. Even without hitting the precision shots needed to increase the damage of the knife, the passive perks of it can shine in the Crucible environment.
Great
Class ability
Aspects
- Knock ’em down
- On your marks
fragments
- Embers of torches
- burning embers
- Ember of comfort
- Burning embers
- Ember of Beams
Mods
- Stasis Arm Armor: Melee Kick
- Class Item Armor: Perpetuation or radiation
Exotic
A build for hunters with an explosive personality
It often seems like a secret that Hunters actually have access to builds, like Warlocks and Titans, that can give their abilities a lot more impact in the field. Young Ahamkara’s Spine is an Exotic that has been around for Destiny 2of the Red War campaign, but it’s only now starting to get some well-deserved attention with the improvements made to Solar with the 3.0 revamp.
Young Ahamkara’s Spine specifically increases the strength of the Tripmine Grenade, increasing its duration when planted, but more importantly, its explosion radius when detonated as well. With the Exotic Arms helping to further reduce grenade cooldown via ability damage regeneration, this can be a perfect build for taking on unsuspecting enemies in close quarters environments.
Great
Grenade
Aspects
- On your marks
- Knock ’em down
fragments
- ember of ashes
- Burning embers
- Char’s Ember
- Embers of torches
- burning embers
Mods
- Stasis Arm Armor: Grenade Kick
- Class Item Armor: Bombardier or Distribution
Exotic
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