The Strand subclass in Destiny 2 is designed to make Guardians more agile, and the Hunter will probably benefit the most from it. Armed with abilities to manipulate the threads of reality, with the Hunters on the prowl, the enemy won’t even know what hit them.
The latest trailer revealed the abilities that all the subclasses will be able to wield. Interestingly enough, the entire Strand arsenal that a Hunter has at his disposal focuses heavily on aerial and ranged combat.
Exploring the Hunter Strand Abilities in Destiny 2
As mentioned in the blog post by Bungie, Strand will allow the Hunter to move faster and strike harder once it goes live in Destiny 2 Lightfall. While there’s no information about the class ability, you will be able to play with a new melee ability and new grenades. Here’s everything you need to know about the Threadrunner Hunter:
- Melee: Hunters will have a new ability known as ‘Threaded Spike’. When triggered, Hunters will throw a Rope Dart, bouncing it off enemies, while damaging and severing them before returning to the wielder. For every enemy hit, you will receive a chunk of melee energy. If you manage to catch the dart on time by pressing the powered melee button, you will receive additional melee energy.
- Grenade: Strand will introduce two new grenades. The “Threadling Grenade” splits into three separate projectiles and then weaves into Threadlings the moment it strikes a target. The “Shackle Grenade” works like a bola and upon detonation, sends out smaller bolas. The Grapple mechanic falls under the grenade ability as well, so there’s a high chance you might have to choose between being able to grapple and use a grenade.
- Super: The new Hunter super is being called the Silkstrike. When activated, Hunters will be able to use their grapple and move around the world freely. While in the air, Hunters will also be able to use their rope dart to target and damage enemies. Now, this rope dart attack can be used both in the air and on the ground and will feature both light and heavy attacks. With light attacks, Hunters will be able to chain their light attacks between targets. Hitting an enemy with the tip of the dart will deal additional damage while defeating them with it will cause them to explode. When the heavy attack is triggered, Hunters will spin the entire rope dart in a whole 360-degree circle, damaging every enemy in the radius.
Aspects
Just like the Warlocks and the Titans, Hunters will receive two new Aspects as well. These are as follows:
- Ensnaring Slam: While in the air, press the air-move input to slam downward, suspending all nearby enemies.
- Widow’s Silk: This Aspect grants an additional grenade charge. The Hunter’s grapple ability creates a persistent grapple Tangle when it latches, which fully refunds grenade energy when grappled to. Hunters can use this ability to set up chains of grapple points that their entire team can use, greatly enhancing their ability to quickly move around in combat and/or traverse the environment.
Fragments
For now, Bungie has revealed only four fragments. However, there are bound to be more fragments, some of which will go live once the Destiny 2 Lightfall Raid race concludes. The fragments that have just been revealed are as follows:
- Thread of Ascent: Activating your grenade ability reloads your equipped weapon and grants increased weapon handling and airborne effectiveness for a short time.
- Thread of Fury: Damaging targets with a Tangle grants melee energy.
- Thread of Finality: Finishers generate Threadlings.
- Thread of Warding: Picking up an orb of power grants Woven Mail.
While Strand will make Hunters agile, Titans and Warlocks will turn into deadly damage-dealing machines. Apart from that, some new Strand-related buffs and debuffs will also be introduced in Destiny 2 Lightfall.
Destiny 2 is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC.
