Destiny 2 Hunter BuildWhirling Slam Autoplay Strand RDM Hunter

Although this build is boosted a lot by the artifact this season, it should remain strong for at least the next half year or so as the Edge of Fate artifact also focuses around Strand and its various debuffs and this build inflicts all of them. Barrow Dyad is also a 'featured' Exotic in the Edge of Fate, giving it the same 10% damage buff received by new DLC weapons.

This build is an ad clear monster, easily clearing rooms full of enemies with pretty minimal setup. When your gameplay loop gets rolling, every pack of enemies you encounter will be hit by every single Strand debuff in the game: Unravel, Suspend and Sever. The duration of all these debuffs is extended by 50% by Thread of Continuity. Sever in particular is boosted this season by the artifact perks Vile Weave, Disruptor Spike and To Shreds. Vile Weave makes all our Tangles inflict sever on any enemies hit, which is an improved version of Sever that reduces enemy damage output to 52% from the base 40% thanks to the next column's perk Disruptor Spike. In the last column, To Shreds makes it so that repeated damage to severed targets unravels them and creates a hotspot where Woven Mail is granted for yourself and fireteam upon killing a severed enemy.

Should probably talk about how the build works now.

Radiant Dance Machines have a really simple gameplay loop: kill enemies with a Primary weapon to gain additional dodge charges (up to 3 in total). Specifically, 3 red bar kills or 1 yellow bar kill will give a dodge charge. We can then utilise these 3 dodges to spam Ensnaring Slam to suspend all nearby targets. Barrow Dyad is the perfect weapon for the build as we really want to make use of a Strand primary weapon and in my opinion Barrow Dyad is the best in the game and well worthy of this build's Exotic slot. I crafted mine with the Hatchling refit to fully lean into the autoplay/AFK/brain off side of this build, but feel free to swap it out for One for All if you prefer the flat damage buff for harder content. The important thing is that you have the Taken Ambition Exotic perk equipped as it is just flat out better than the Resolve alternative. You'll also be getting constant Unraveling Rounds due to Unraveling Orbs in the artifact for more free damage (for a longer time thanks to Continuity in our fragments).

Our other aspect outside of Ensnaring Slam is Whirling Maelstrom, making any Tangles we throw or detonate turn into a Spinny Tangle that tracks targets to repeatedly damage them in a large AoE, releasing Unraveling projectiles on kills. I'm not exaggerating when I say this build sh*ts out Tangles. You could scratch your balls or rip a massive fart and probably make a Tangle on this bad boy. Jokes aside, as Tangles are spawned from any enemies that were aflflicted by any Strand debuffs (on a 12 second cooldown), we will naturally be making plenty without even having to think.

Gameplay wise there's really not much more to it. Let your Barrow Dyad go to work to stack up 3 Ensnaring Slams. Blow up Tangles to spawn Strand deathballs that Sever on hit and Unravel on kill. Concerning your other two weapons, I highly recommend a Rocket sidearm and a Heavy Machine Gun. Specifically, Indebted Kindness and Pro Memoria. Indebted gets us easy access to Amplified and Bolt Charge for more damage and damage resistance through the Dielectric and Flashover perks respectively. Voltshot gives it anti-Overload capabilities and adds to our immense levels of CC, cleaning up anything left alive at the end of our ability spam. It also takes care of any Barrier Champion shields this season and is overall just a fantastic weapon (you can collect a free god roll of it from Banshee for free!). Pro Memoria is an amazing craftable Strand MG that has a host of great perks to choose from, I opted for Reconstruction / Bait and Switch for no more reloads and an easily activated 30% damage buff for 11 seconds - also benefits from Unraveling Orbs and any other Machine Gun perks in this season's artifact. Deals with Overload Champions. To round out our Champion stunning capabilities, we can use Ensnaring Slam to stun Unstoppable Champions.

Armor mods are relatively basic. Harmonic Siphon and Heavy Ammo Finder on the helmet for easy orbs and ammo (boosted by the fact we're running an Exotic primary). Heavy Handed and Impact Induction on the gloves for orbs on Grapple melee and Threaded Spike kills and Grapple energy on Threaded Spike damage.Rainbow resists on the chestpiece for safety. Recuperation, Absolution and a Strand Weapon Surge for health, ability energy and a 10% Strand weapon damage buff on orb pickup. Powerful Attraction, Reaper and Bomber on the class item to collect all orbs within 12.5 metres when we use Ensnaring Slam, generate an orb when we kill something after using Ensnaring Slam and some Grapple energy when we use Ensnaring Slam. Worth noting here that Ensnaring Slam (I am sick of typing it now) activates all class item armor mods, unlike its slightly disabled older brother Ascension, so don't feel like you're missing out when spamming your Ensnring Slm.

Just realised I haven't even covered most of our fragments. Outside of Thread of Continuity, we take Thread of Generation for Grapple energy when dealing any damage, Thread of Fury for Threaded Spike energy on Tangle damage and Thread of Warding for 5 seconds of Woven Mail on orb pickup.

With the way the fragments, aspects and Exotics synergise in this build, it functions similarly to a Inmost Light build as in one way or another, ability usage will start a chain of ability regen without you having to think too hard or do anything in particular. This, combined with the crazy amount of crowd control offered by Strand debuffs and Whirling Maelstrom and Ensnaring Slam aspects creates a build that just does the work for you. Recuperation paired with Powerful Attraction and Ensnaring Slam, Thread of Warding, To Shreds and Amplified gained from Voltshot kills due to Dielectric will easily keep you alive whilst your Strand verbs wipe up the battlefield. Very low skill floor to get a lot out of this build but it definitely has a high ceiling if you can juggle your abilities right and perhaps squeeze some more min-maxxing out of fragments and weapons.

Put your feet up, crack a few beers and let the little green space Flubber clear your screen - it's as fun as it sounds.