An incredible combination using an overlooked Destiny 2 Exotic allows Hunters to one-shot enemy Guardians with a single melee attack.
The class has been dominating PvP in The Final Shape, with 54% of Trials of Osiris participants playing Hunter for the weekend beginning July 26, as tracked by Trials Report.
However, it turns out meta Hunter builds are even deadlier than first believed, with Khepri’s Sting proving incredibly potent when coupled with Grapple and Smoke Bomb using the Prismatic subclass.
As detailed by Destiny expert Aztecross, “When we Grapple and Melee, the moment we make contact, we deal a tremendous amount of damage, but punching someone with full melee energy also instantly casts Smoke Bomb,” which is extremely strong as the Smoke Bomb will “finish the enemy off.”
In practice, this results in a “one shot” kill, with the Smoke Bomb’s AOE damage leaving Guardians no time to escape their inevitable death. Being able to Grapple and Melee for an instant Final Blow provides a lethal attack, giving Hunters yet another great option to use in PvP.
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Even better, Final Blows using Grapple always spawn a Tangle. When coupled with the Threaded Blast Echoes Artifact mod, this Tangle can also one-shot Guardians, with an effective range of seven meters.
To make this as powerful as possible, it’s recommended to use a Strand primary weapon. This allows you to instantly destroy the Tangle, rather than having to fire several shots to do so. Some of the best PvP Weapons for Strand right now include Aisha’s Care, Better Devils, and Glissando-47.
This strategy proved particularly effective in Trials of Osiris, with Aztecross going 5-0 in his first game using Khepri’s Sting. The competitive mode’s smaller 3v3 format plays to the Exotic’s strengths, with a single kill often turning the tide of an entire match.
While Khepri’s Sting is very good, there are some caveats. Most notably, when meleeing an enemy against a wall, Grapple doesn’t deal bonus damage. Additionally, the Hunter Exotic is much more consistent if you Grapple an enemy directly, which considerably raises the skill floor to use this combination properly.