
Stasis Hunter: Is It Worth It in Destiny 2? A Deep Dive
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Yes, Stasis is absolutely good for Hunters in Destiny 2, especially for players who appreciate unparalleled crowd control and a strategic, methodical playstyle. While it may not be the top damage-dealing subclass, Stasis Hunter’s ability to freeze and slow enemies makes it a potent tool for high-difficulty PvE content and a tricky opponent in PvP. Skilled use of Stasis Hunter unlocks tactical advantages and can carry teams to victory.
Understanding the Strengths of Stasis Hunter
Stasis Hunters, known as Revenants, excel at manipulating the battlefield with ice and frost. Their core strength lies in controlling enemy movement and disabling threats, which is invaluable in challenging activities like Raids, Dungeons, and Grandmaster Nightfalls.
Here’s a breakdown of what makes Stasis Hunter a valuable choice:
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Exceptional Crowd Control: This is Stasis Hunter’s bread and butter. Freezing enemies solid completely removes them from the equation for a short duration, buying you and your team valuable time to reposition, recover, or focus on more pressing threats. Slowing enemies drastically reduces their movement speed and fire rate, making them significantly less dangerous.
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Defensive Capabilities: Stasis offers several ways to enhance survivability. Fragments like Whisper of Rime provide overshields upon collecting Stasis shards, granting crucial damage resistance. Aspects and Exotic armor pieces can further amplify these defensive capabilities, creating a resilient and hard-to-kill Hunter.
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Synergy with Team Play: While Stasis Hunters can hold their own, they truly shine when coordinating with their fireteam. Freezing enemies creates opportunities for teammates to unleash powerful attacks and shatter frozen targets, resulting in devastating bursts of damage.
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Strategic Depth: Stasis requires more than just mindlessly spamming abilities. Effective Stasis play involves understanding enemy behavior, predicting their movements, and strategically deploying freezes and slows to maximize their impact. This makes Stasis Hunter a rewarding choice for players who enjoy a more tactical approach to combat.
Building a Powerful Stasis Hunter: Essential Components
Crafting a successful Stasis Hunter build involves carefully selecting Aspects, Fragments, armor mods, and weapons that synergize with the subclass’s strengths.
Essential Aspects
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Shatterdive: Allows you to dive in mid-air and shatter nearby frozen targets upon impact. This is a core component of many Stasis Hunter builds, providing burst damage and a way to quickly clear groups of frozen enemies.
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Touch of Winter: Alters your Stasis grenades to provide additional crowd control effects. Duskfield Grenades become larger and pull enemies in, Glacier Grenades create a wall of Stasis crystals that can be shattered for massive damage, and Coldsnap Grenades seek out and freeze multiple targets.
Key Fragments
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Whisper of Rime: Collecting Stasis shards grants a temporary overshield. This fragment is crucial for survivability, providing consistent damage resistance in the heat of battle.
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Whisper of Conduction: Stasis shards track to your location. This fragment ensures that you consistently collect Stasis shards, maximizing the benefits of Whisper of Rime and other shard-related effects.
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Whisper of Chains: While near frozen targets, you take reduced damage. This further enhances your survivability in close-quarters combat.
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Whisper of Shards: Shattering Stasis crystals grants grenade energy. This fragment helps to maintain a high uptime on your Stasis grenades, allowing you to constantly freeze and control enemies.
Recommended Exotic Armor
- Fr0st-EE5: Increases grenade, melee, and dodge regeneration while sprinting. Dodging further enhances the regeneration speed. This Exotic is fantastic for builds focused on ability uptime.
- Renewal Grasps: Improves the radius and damage reduction of Duskfield Grenades. While technically not a direct buff to freezing, the damage reduction is significant and makes your team harder to kill.
- Bakris Mask: Replaces your Hunter’s dodge with a longer range, faster-moving shift. After shifting, your Arc weapons deal increased damage and you gain a brief period of increased damage resistance.
Weapon Choices
Due to the Stasis subclass’s lower damage output, selecting strong weapons is crucial.
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Ager’s Scepter (Stasis Trace Rifle): A powerful Exotic that synergizes perfectly with Stasis builds. It generates Stasis shards and can be overcharged for increased damage and slowing effects.
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Riptide (Stasis Fusion Rifle): A versatile Special weapon with the potential for excellent add-clearing and burst damage.
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Deliverance (Stasis Fusion Rifle): Another excellent Fusion Rifle option, particularly for endgame content.
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Cold Comfort (Stasis Rocket Launcher): A strong heavy option with good perks.
Sample Stasis Hunter Build: The Endless Freeze
This build focuses on maximizing ability uptime and freezing as many enemies as possible.
- Subclass: Stasis (Revenant)
- Aspects: Touch of Winter, Shatterdive
- Fragments: Whisper of Rime, Whisper of Conduction, Whisper of Chains, Whisper of Shards
- Exotic Armor: Fr0st-EE5
- Mods: Focusing on Grenade Kickstart, Utility Kickstart, and Resilience.
- Weapons: Ager’s Scepter, Riptide or Deliverance, any strong Heavy weapon.
Gameplay:
- Sprint to activate Fr0st-EE5’s bonus.
- Use Duskfield Grenades to slow and pull enemies together.
- Shatterdive to freeze and damage enemies.
- Collect Stasis shards to gain an overshield and regenerate grenade energy.
- Repeat steps 2-4 to maintain constant crowd control.
- Use Ager’s Scepter to generate more Stasis shards and deal additional damage.
This build allows you to keep entire rooms of enemies frozen or slowed, making you an invaluable asset to your team.
Stasis Hunter: Not Just Crowd Control
While crowd control is Stasis Hunter’s primary strength, it can also contribute to damage in several ways:
- Shatter damage: Shattering frozen enemies deals significant damage, especially when combined with Shatterdive or Glacier Grenades.
- Weapon synergies: Certain weapons, like Ager’s Scepter, synergize with Stasis effects to deal increased damage.
- Team synergy: By freezing enemies, Stasis Hunters create opportunities for teammates to unleash powerful attacks and deal bonus damage to frozen targets.
Conclusion: A Powerful and Versatile Subclass
Stasis Hunter may not be the highest damage-dealing subclass, but its unparalleled crowd control, defensive capabilities, and strategic depth make it a powerful and rewarding choice for players who enjoy a more tactical playstyle. With the right build and a good understanding of its strengths, Stasis Hunter can excel in any activity Destiny 2 has to offer. Remember, learning is key, and resources like the Games Learning Society at GamesLearningSociety.org can provide valuable insights into the game’s mechanics and strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Is Stasis Hunter good for solo play?
Yes, Stasis Hunter can be effective for solo play, especially when using builds focused on survivability and crowd control. The ability to freeze enemies provides valuable breathing room and allows you to focus on one threat at a time.
2. Is Stasis Hunter good for PvP?
Stasis Hunter can be very strong in PvP, but requires skillful play. Freezing opponents is incredibly powerful in the Crucible, but you need to be able to quickly close the distance and shatter frozen targets or capitalize on the temporary advantage.
3. What is the best Stasis Hunter super?
Silence and Squall is the only Stasis Hunter super. It is quite strong in PvP, and can be useful for crowd control in PvE, but it’s not a top-tier damage dealing super.
4. Which is better, Renewal Grasps or Fr0st-EE5?
It depends on your playstyle and the activity. Renewal Grasps offer significant damage reduction and are excellent for team support. Fr0st-EE5 provide better ability uptime and are better suited for solo play or aggressive playstyles.
5. What are some good weapons to pair with Stasis Hunter?
Ager’s Scepter, Riptide, Deliverance, and Cold Comfort are all excellent choices. Look for weapons with perks that synergize with Stasis effects or provide good add-clearing or boss damage.
6. How do I get more Stasis shards?
Stasis shards are created by shattering Stasis crystals or freezing enemies. Fragments like Whisper of Conduction help you to collect shards more easily. Ager’s Scepter is also very good at creating Stasis shards.
7. What are the best armor mods for Stasis Hunter?
Focus on mods that enhance grenade regeneration (Grenade Kickstart), dodge regeneration (Utility Kickstart), and resilience.
8. Is Stasis Hunter difficult to master?
Stasis Hunter requires a good understanding of its abilities and mechanics, but it is not overly difficult to master. With practice and experimentation, you can become a very effective Stasis Hunter.
9. Can Stasis Hunter be used in endgame content?
Yes, Stasis Hunter can be very effective in endgame content, particularly in activities that require crowd control and survivability.
10. How does Stasis Hunter compare to other Hunter subclasses?
Stasis Hunter excels at crowd control, while other Hunter subclasses like Nightstalker and Gunslinger are better suited for damage dealing or utility.
11. Does Stasis Hunter have any weaknesses?
Stasis Hunter’s primary weakness is its lower damage output compared to some other subclasses. It also requires a more strategic and tactical playstyle.
12. What is the best way to shatter frozen enemies?
Shatterdive is a powerful tool for shattering frozen enemies. You can also use weapons with high burst damage or abilities that deal bonus damage to frozen targets.
13. How important is resilience for Stasis Hunter?
Resilience is very important for Stasis Hunter, as it provides valuable damage resistance and helps you to survive in close-quarters combat.
14. How can I improve my Stasis Hunter build?
Experiment with different Aspects, Fragments, armor mods, and weapons to find a build that suits your playstyle and the activity you are playing.
15. Where can I find more information about Stasis Hunter?
You can find more information about Stasis Hunter on Destiny 2 forums, Reddit, and YouTube.