Hunters are increasingly being excluded from the endgame of Destiny 2. Why is that?
Recently, the Leviathan raid has also been made available in its hard variant, which Bungie calls “Prestige” difficulty. This is meant to represent the ultimate PvE challenge in Destiny 2.
A group of players is not welcomed in this activity. Posts are increasingly appearing in Destiny forums that explicitly exclude Hunters. Why is this the case? We are on the hunt for answers!
The class ability of the Hunter
The three Guardian classes (Titan, Warlock, Hunter) have class abilities that grant them various advantages:
- Titans can deploy a barrier that protects them and team members from incoming enemy fire. For example, when a Titan deploys the gunfight barrier, all Guardians behind the barrier can automatically reload their weapons simply by crouching.
- Warlocks are able to deploy a Rift that increases outgoing damage or even has a healing effect. All team members within it benefit from it.
While Titans and Warlocks provide a useful contribution to team play with their class abilities, the Hunter can only dodge every few seconds.
Especially in the most challenging PvE content, the Hunter’s dodge ability is not required because it does not offer any useful effects for the entire team.
Otherwise, the Hunter only has few support abilities that benefit the entire fireteam, such as:
- The Chain of Woe (reload speed) of the Gunslinger
- The Heart of the Pack (orbs of light and stat increase) of the Nightstalker
The Heart of the Pack is, in conjunction with the exotic Orpheus Rig boots, a fantastic ability in PvE content, as it generates vast amounts of orbs of light from many enemies, which benefit the entire team. However, the perk is only helpful when you are surrounded by many enemies.
The focus on mobility
Unlike Titans (Focus Resilience) and Warlocks (Focus Recovery), Hunters always come with an affinity for the stat Mobility. This is particularly a problem in high-level PvE content. Because mobility is the worst stat.
Yes, your initial jump is improved, and dodging while aiming is enhanced. However, these are qualities that are mainly sought after in the Crucible. When facing hordes of PvE enemies, you want to be able to withstand a lot and regenerate quickly.
While you can achieve acceptable values for Recovery or Resilience with the Hunter, you will have to make massive sacrifices in other stats.
Particularly when holding or defending strategically important points (for example, at the baths in the Leviathan raid), the Mobility stat is by far the worst. Warlocks and Titans will manage such phases more easily, whether through their different stat distribution or their special class ability.
The Hunter also suffers from nerfs in Destiny 2
All classes have undergone extensive tweaks and revisions in Destiny 2. Focuses have been replaced, and super abilities have been significantly adjusted in some cases. The Chaos Reach of the Striker Titan is now much more mobile and has improved significantly. You can activate the super multiple times after activation, receiving the speed boost and increased armor as a bonus.
The Hunter has also been changed compared to Destiny 1. Instead of the Blade Dancer, you can now slice with an Arc Staff (which is not a very big change), and the Gunslinger and Nightstalker have been adjusted. The Nightstalker has, however, been significantly weakened:
- The perk Grappling Scout only marks tethered targets now. To get the same effect as in Destiny 1, you need to equip the exotic helm Enemy Finder, which then works across all subclasses
- The Shadow Step could be executed every few seconds in Destiny 1, but now it has become the class ability of the Hunter – with a base cooldown of 30 seconds. A massive nerf. While the class ability allows for equipped weapons or melee to reload, that’s all there is to it. No healing or at least a significantly increased armor. The dodge is too weak, especially compared to the support character of Titans and Warlocks.
- The perk combination of the two skill trees Path of the Pathfinder and Path of the Trapper raise eyebrows. In Destiny 1, you could choose depending on the situation whether to use the smoke offensively (Toxic Smoke) or defensively (Invisibility). You can still do that now, but you have to endure all the other perks in this skill tree. The Path of the Trapper is THE build for strong area control and eliminating tethered enemies. Why the invisibility smoke bomb was assigned to this skill tree is unclear to me and diminishes this skill tree.
Conclusion / Summary
The Hunter is not a bad class:
- The Nightstalker with the Orpheus Rig boots is one of the strongest combinations in the game. Unfortunately, it only works when many enemies are clustered together.
- The Arcstrider with the Raiden Flux chest piece can significantly extend the duration of its super and stun bosses.
- The Gunslinger is a true boss killer with the Celestial Nighthawk.
Unfortunately, the Hunter relies on certain exotic gear for all these things. Furthermore, their class ability is a cheap knockoff from Destiny 1, and is not useful in team play. The focus on mobility does not enhance their survivability in the toughest endgame content.
Excluding the Hunter from the Prestige raid, I believe, is wrong despite the points. The Nightstalker can be extremely useful in some situations, providing its teammates with damage buffs and orbs of light.
Bungie needs to and will revise some of the Hunter’s abilities. The class ability is too weak. The Moebius Quiver doesn’t work with the Orpheus Rig boots, and the sixfold perk of the Gunslinger has more disadvantages than advantages.
What do you think of the Hunter? What combinations do you play with it?
