Assassin’s Cowl Arc Hunter Build
Last Updated:February 9, 2025|Changelog
Welcome to the Assassin's Cowl Arc Hunter Build Guide! Assassin's Cowl on Arc Hunter is an incredibly powerful combination because it provides massive melee damage output, health sustain, and invisibility. This allows for melee to be used in high end difficulty content without the worry of dying often.
What is the Assassin's Cowl though? This exotic allows for powered melee final blows to grant Invisibility and restore a portion of health and shields. Finishers and final blows against more powerful targets increase the duration of the invisibility and the amount of health and shields restored. This creates a great way to stay in close and sustain health while outputting major melee damage.
This build creates dozens of Orbs of Power while providing near infinite Invisibility on top of clearing hordes in just one punch with the Jolted applied to targets. The simplicity of this build makes it very beginner friendly while also being able to tackle most content within Destiny 2.
Gameplay Loop
This build is all about getting close to start gathering melee kills, preferably starting with weaker enemies to build stacks of Combination Blow. After spending your melee energy on a kill, dodge near another enemy to regain your melee charge. This is easy to do as you are invisible due to the Assassin's Cowl activating on your melee kill. Melee kills refund your Dodge cooldown, allowing for infinite chaining of the two abilities.
From there, you add One-Two Punch shotgun shots and Tractor Cannon on larger targets to stack even more damage. Keep in mind your melees after a dodge applies Jolted to the target, so it is ideal to target the strongest enemy in a group when you are already at maximum stacks of Combination Blow. The Jolt Arcs takes care of any small targets within the vicinity. Usually, you not need to use One Two Punch or Tractor Cannon on just red bars at any difficulty; save ammo for Majors, Champions, and Bosses. From there, it is as simple as melee then dodge then repeat.
Ability Breakdown
Super
- Gathering Storm, Hurl your Arc Staff forward, embedding it into surfaces or large targets and jolting nearby targets. After a short time, a devastating lightning bolt strikes the staff, overcharging it with Arc energy. While overcharged, your staff discharges lightning at nearby foes. Since it is a passive super, this creates more time to stay in the Assassin's Cowl Arc Hunter loop.
Abilities
- Gambler's Dodge, Dodging refunds your melee energy.
- Triple Jump, Jump of your choice.
- Combination Blow, A quick strike that temporarily increases your melee damage when defeating a target, stacking three times. Defeating targets with this ability also fully refills your class ability energy and restores a small amount of health. Big part of stacking the melee damage on the build.
- Flashbang Grenade, A grenade with low damage that Blinds in a large area, helpful to crowd control enemies from a distance before you can rush to them.
Aspects
- Lethal Current, After dodging, your next melee attack has increased lunge range, Jolts the target, and creates a damaging aftershock. Damaging any Jolted target with melee attacks also Blinds them.
- Flow State, Defeating a jolted target makes you Amplified. While you are amplified, your dodge recharges more quickly, you are more resilient while dodging, and your reload speed is greatly increased. You spend a lot of time dodging so these benefits are active at all times.
Fragments
- Spark of Resistance, Grants 25% Damage Resistance while within 15 meters of 3+ enemies. Remains active for 2 seconds once the activation condition is no longer met.
- Spark of Volts, allows you to become Amplified and begin accumulating Bolt Charge with just a finisher, helping you save time when dealing with stragglers.
- Spark of Feedback, Being struck by a Melee Attack grants 75% increased Melee Damage for your next Melee Attack within 5 seconds.
- Spark of Frequency, Scoring a Melee Hit grants 50 Reload Speed and a 0.8x Reload Duration Multiplier for 5 seconds. Extremely helpful for the One-Two Punch shotgun.
Gearing
Required Gear and Weapons
Assassin's Cowl is required to provide the Invisibility to get in close to targets, and most importantly the healing after every melee kill.
How to unlock:
- Complete the Shadowkeep Campaign while owning the Shadowkeep Pack. Yes, there is no other way to get this.
Recommended Weapons
- Kinetic Weapon: Wastelander M5 - Craftable with Lead from Gold and One-Two Punch, perfect for ammo sustain and boosting the damage of your melees. Obtain it from the Dares of Eternity.
- Energy Weapon: Maahes HC4 - A World Drop Hand Cannon with the jack-of-all trades roll of Repulsor Brace and Destabilizing Rounds.
- Power Weapon: Tractor Cannon - This is the perfect exotic to pair with almost any melee build. It allows for a 30% debuff on any target it hits and can stun Overload Champions.
Stat Priorities
- Resilience > Discipline > Mobility.
- Resilience is the amount of damage you can take before dying, as well as your shield capacity.
- Discipline is what reduces your grenade cooldown.
- Mobility gives you more movement speed and jump height, and lowers dodge cooldown.
Learn more about the Stats available to you in Destiny 2 with our dedicated guide.
Armor Mods
| Item | Slot | Mandatory Mods | Supporting Mods |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assassin's Cowl | Helmet | Void Siphon Hands-On | Dynamo |
| Deep Explorer Grasps | Gloves | Heavy Handed Heavy Handed Heavy Handed | |
| Deep Explorer Vest | Chest | Resist Mods of your choice | |
| Deep Explorer Strides | Legs | Kinetic Holster Recuperation | Void Weapon Surge |
| Deep Explorer Cloak | Class Item | Reaper Powerful Attraction Bomber |
Armor Mods are unlocked by progressing your Guardian Rank. Check out the Guardian Ranks Guide for more information.
Artifact Mods
- Volatile Marksman
- Scoring rapid precision hits or kills with Void Weapons grants them Volatile Rounds, additionally giving them Anti Barrier capabilities.
- Dielectric
- Defeating targets afflicted by Jolt or Blind grants you Bolt Charge.
- Dreadful Finisher
- Finishing powerful combatants creates Special Ammo for you and your fireteam. More Ammo is generated when Finishing Subjugators, Tormentors, and Champions.
- Maligned Harvest
- Rapid Volatile application readies a Weakening burst that procs when damaging enemies with a Void Weapon.
- Flashover
- Bolt Charge deals more damage. When Bolt Charge readies, you also become Amplified.
- Defibrillating Blast
- Stunning a Champion immediately grants and readies Bolt Charge while triggering an Arcbolt which Jolts enemies and partially heals you.
- Void Flux
- Defeating Weakened enemies with a Void Weapon creates an explosion, enemies damaged by it become Volatile. Stronger enemies create a larger explosion.
Summary
Assassin's Cowl Arc Hunter is a classic and fantastic option for high difficulty Nightfalls and excels in most content. The melee damage combined with the invisibility from the exotic are a perfect match and allow for a near one hit on Legend Champions when hit with a Tractor Cannon debuff and One-Two Punch shotgun.
One of the more fun builds out there in the game right now, I highly recommend it if you want a fast paced close quarters combat feeling!
Credits
Written by: Chadly
Reviewed by: Byrdman