Solar 3.0 Hunter Builds for PVP and PVE
If you are reading this article I am assuming you play Hunter, and in that case I have good news for you!
With Solar 3.0 Hunters are so hot right now, pun intended.
Of all the classes Hunters got the most beneficial changes and have the highest damage dealing super in the game.
To finish our introduction here I want to go over a few terms that apply to the new solar subclasses which you will mention throughout this article.
Solar Subclass Terms
Cure
A quick burst of healing. This heal is an instantaneous chunk of health that is returned.
Restoration
Health regeneration that occurs over a short window of time continuously. This is like recovery, but is not interrupted by taking damage.
Radiant
A weapon damage increase, in PvP this is 10% and PvE this is 25%.
Scorch
A debuff applied to a target in which they take burn damage. Scorch stacks up to 100 stacks. As stacks of scorch increases, the damage of the burn increases until 100 stacks of scorch are reached in which a target ignites.
Ignite
A large explosion of solar damage that affects nearby targets.
Now that you have your glossary of terms let’s get into the builds.
PvE Build Recommendations
In the current state of Solar 3.0 the hunter is best for dealing damage to bosses, so this build will lean into that, but also have some of the other aspects that Solar 3.0 has to offer.
Abilities
Super
- Blade Barrage – With solar 3.0 this super can deal the most damage in the game. You can melt bosses and high health enemies with an easy to use super.
Class Ability
- Gambler’s Dodge – The effect that Gambler’s dodge has on the neutral game is a lot more beneficial than the tiny DPS gain from Marksman’s dodge. Use your dodge if your melee ability is on cooldown to get it right back to get knife chains going.
Movement Ability
- Triple Jump – Jump is mostly preference, but I recommend triple jump as it is the jump that gives the greatest ability for directional change and saving yourself in case you start to fall off an edge.
Melee Ability
- Knife Trick – This ability can hit multiple targets and applies scorched. Under most conditions you’ll have infinite knives due to aspects and fragments, and if you don’t, dodge by a target to get it right back.
Grenade Ability
- Tripmine Grenade – It deals good scorch stacks and damage. Can stick to targets to make sure you get full damage.
Aspects
Knock ‘Em Down
This aspect increases the number of knives in Blade Barrage increasing the amount of damage the super does by roughly 50%. Not only does it give a huge boost to super damage, it refunds your melee attack off a melee attack kill when radiant. This is a must-have.
Gunpowder Gamble
The only downside is this aspect only gives 1 fragment, but the ability is far better than that of On your Mark. With just a couple knife or solar weapon kills you get this overpowered grenade which is good for single target damage and clearing groups.
Fragments
Ember of Torches
Using your melee against a combatant makes you and nearby allies radiant. Note that this isn’t a kill, it’s just getting a hit with your melee. With near infinite knives you essentially have an infinite 25% weapon damage bonus.
Ember of Solace
This increases the duration of radiant, meaning you can focus more on shooting your gun rather than refreshing your radiant buff.
Ember of Empyrean: With classy restoration you can easily get restoration on dodge, this fragment refreshes restoration on a kill. Meaning if you kill enemies quickly enough you can keep restoration up indefinitely.
Stat Prioritization
Mobility
This is the primary stat to prioritize to decrease the dodge cooldown as much as possible. With the final column of the artifact is the Classy Restoration mod which will make you nearly invincible with high mobility.
Intellect
The super is still the star of the show here, and the higher the intellect, the faster the super recharge rate.
Recommended Exotics
Star-Eater Scales
This exotic can increase your super damage by a whopping 70% if it is fully charged from picking up orbs of light. This is the most recommended exotic as it maximizes your boss burst damage.
Young Ahamkara’s Spine
With this exotic you can opt to not use your guns.
You already have near-infinite knives, and with this you’ll have near-infinite tripmine grenades as they will refund grenade energy with ability damage.
Wormhusk Crown
Dodging will act as if it has cure and restoration with this exotic equipped. Nice boost to survivability.
Recommended Mods
Harmonic Siphon
Orbs fuel the exotic Star-Eater Scales for increased super damage, and this mod lets you create orbs for yourself to charge up your stacks of Star-Eater Scales.
Classy Restoration
This season 17 artifact mod is fantastic for hunters as it grants restoration on a dodge. If played right the only way you can die is getting one shot, or falling off the map.
Hands On
You get bonus super energy with melee kills. Remember how your super is really good and you can throw a lot of knives? Yeah, this mod is a must-use to get your super back very fast.
Font of Might
If using Xenophage, the solar damage match will allow you to deal bonus damage with Xenophage.
Utility Kickstart
With Classy Restoration dodging gives great survivability, this will allow you to dodge even more.
General Strategy
The boss damage portion of this build is rather easy. Once you have your supercharge up Star-Eater Scales stacks by creating orbs using the Harmonic Siphon mod or picking up teammates’ orbs.
During a boss damage phase, use your maxed out super and point and click at the boss. After using your super you can use your gunpowder grenade and weapons to deal damage.
Be sure to use your throwing knife before you start using weapons as that will apply radiant for a bonus 25% to weapon damage.
As for the neutral game knife trick can be refunded by killing enemies with it and keep up radiant to clear enemies faster. If you miss a knife, you can dodge near an enemy to get it back.
If you opt to use Young Ahamkara’s Spine, you can play with grenades as you can with knife trick. Be sure to pay attention to your grenade slot for Gunpowder Gamble to be active and to use that on cooldown as you will get it back very quickly with your abilities.
Lastly with Classy Restoration, using your dodge is a means of survivability and dodge should be used to stay alive when in trouble.
PvP Build Recommendations
In the new age of solar, the hunter doesn’t have as clear cut of a playstyle as the Void 3.0 version, but there are a lot of good neutral game elements to solar which this build will play around.
Abilities
Super
- Golden Gun – Deadshot or Blade Barrage – The Deadshot form of golden gun gets 6 shots. The super still one-shots an enemy, with the extra shots you have a wider margin of error and can counter other supers. Blade Barrage is good as a shutdown super and will be great for tiebreakers in Trials of Osiris as it can destroy a titan bubble and the cooldown is much less.
Class Ability
- Gambler’s or Marksman’s Dodge – Either option is good based on playstyle. If you find yourself using knives often, go Gambler’s, and if you find yourself using weapons in close quarter engagements, go Marksman’s. Acrobat’s Dodge has a cool animation and gives radiant, but the 10% damage bonus is not worth the much longer cooldown.
Movement Ability
- Strafe Jump – This jump gives you the most forward propulsion and makes you the fastest, speed is great to have for repositioning.
Melee Ability
- Lightweight Knife or Proximity Explosive Knife – Lightweight knife is great for a quick combo off of a shotgun or hand cannon shot and the explosive knife is fantastic for finishing an enemy behind cover who may be holding the angle with a shotgun.
Grenade Ability
- Tripmine Grenade – These grenades deal a lot of damage and are great for area denial. They can also be used as a more difficult to use Gunpowder Gamble and can be shot out mid air to kill an enemy behind cover.
Aspects
Knock ‘Em Down
This aspect increases the duration of your golden gun to help you find more targets and synergizes with Ember of Torches to get you radiant on a throwing knife hit and refund your throwing knife on a throwing knife kill.
On Your Mark
The effect of this Aspect is pretty bad in PvE, but is great in PvP. Handling is an amazing stat to have, and with this Aspect you get a massive boost to handling and reload on dodge as you can see from the ADS and weapon swap speed in the clip, as well as 3 Fragments to play with.
Gunpowder Gamble doesn’t have the same boom in PvP and is harder to get as quickly as in PvE so it is not being used here.
Fragments
Ember of Torches
This is the same as PvE where a hit, not a kill gives radiant, which in PvP is a 10% weapon damage buff.
Ember of Solace
This increases the duration of radiant, so you can take more advantage of the damage buff.
Ember of Singeing
This gives back dodge energy when you apply scorch to enemies. This can be the difference between an extra dodge or two in a damage phase for a free reload. Also lets you dodge more often to clear out lower health enemies faster.
Ember of Benevolence
Applying restoration, radiant, or cure to an ally gives you faster ability regeneration of all abilities but your super. This can be activated with an enemy near you when you get a knife hit.
Ember of Searing
This gives a recovery bonus and helps you get back throwing knife by refunding melee energy on a scorched target kill, which is essentially a target touched by your abilities.
Stat Prioritization
Mobility
Try your best to get this to 100 to get your dodge as quickly back as possible. With classy restoration and Wormhusk Crown your dodge allows you to stay in or reengage during fights very easily giving you the upper hand in a duel.
Discipline
Your grenade is the one ability you may have some trouble getting back through your build, so that can be supplemented by a better discipline stat, as it is a very strong ability in your kit.
Recommended Exotics
Wormhusk Crown
This is a top tier PvP exotic because of the quick health boost which can turn a fight around.
Young Ahamkara’s Spine
This exotic gives a large buff to tripmines increasing their ability for area denial as they have a lot of health, last longer, don’t damage you, and help refund their own energy.
The Sixth Coyote
Not as highly recommended as the others, but depending on if you are using classy restoration you get 2 dodges to use the extremely strong mod.
Recommended Mods
Classy Restoration
This season 17 artifact mod is fantastic for hunters as it grants restoration on a dodge. If played right the only way you can die is getting one shot, or falling off the map.
Utility Kickstart
With Classy Restoration dodging gives great survivability, this will allow you to dodge even more.
Fastball
This mod is preference-based, but it can make getting your trip mine into certain spots much easier due to the throw trajectory of your grenades.
General Strategy
This class has a strong neutral game and abilities that weave into gunplay seamlessly. Something to take note of is that your abilities deal a lot of damage. The trip mine grenade or throwing knife can be combined with a hand cannon body shot for a kill.
The trip mine grenade is a great way to initiate a fight when you know an enemy is rounding a corner or is behind cover. Once a fight is initiated take advantage of your dodge and high handling to heal and quick swap between weapons for burst damage.
Not only are your grenade and throwing knife a great way to initiate a fight on an enemy behind cover, but are a great way to finish a low health enemy behind cover due to their area of effect damage and because you can shoot them to detonate them quickly before an enemy can react.
Scorch is the nemesis to those with high recovery, as applying tick damage prevents an enemy from recovering, allowing you to press an enemy because you will recover your health back before they can.
Lastly, the dodge gives so much if using Wormhusk Crown and Classy Restoration. If so, dodge gives a burst heal, restoration, your melee back if close to an enemy, reload speed, and handling so high that playing other classes will feel so sluggish in comparison.
Closing Thoughts
Hunter got the best of solar 3.0 and is strong in both PvE and PvP. The classy restoration mod alone puts solar hunter at the top of content.
But even once that mod sunsets after Season 17, the class will still have strong merits due to its massive PvE damage and well-rounded kit in PvP. Be sure to take advantage of this class while it’s hot.
Thanks for reading! Check out our other Destiny 2 class guides here.
