Destiny 2 Season of the Splicer is here and it’s time to elevate your fashion game. Along with new weapons, a 6 player activity, armor, story missions, and season pass, the heavily requested armor transmogrification feature is finally arriving. In this season, players will team up with the Fallen Captain Mithrax to stop the Vex from plunging Earth into total darkness. If you’re looking to hop into some endgame activities, it’s critical to have some semblance of a build if you want to survive. There are a few options for Hunters, but one exotic that’s garnered a lot of attention is the Star-Eater Scales.
Despite receiving a nerf earlier this season, this is still a very potent exotic that allows you to deal a lot of burst damage to a single target. This makes it ideal for Grandmaster Nightfalls or raids where you’re dealing with Champions or bosses. Grabbing an Orb of Power while you have your Super will increase the damage to a maximum of 90% if you pick up eight orbs. Now, this is a little unlikely to consistently do, so you’ll often beverage between 30-50% increased damage if you are picking up Orbs of Power. If you’re looking to still make use of this new exotic, here’s a good starting point for a potent endgame Hunter build.
Star-Eater Scales Build
Weapons
- Kinetic – Anything (Masterworked)
- Energy – Salvager’s Salvo
- Heavy – Anything
When it comes to weapons, this build is extremely flexible which makes it ideal for running in raids where you’re changing your loadout often. I strongly suggest making sure your Kinetic weapon is masterworked, as this will allow you to consistently generate Orbs of Power to fuel your exotic boots. What the gun is entirely up to you, but I have been having a lot of fun with the Fatebringer with Firefly. Not only is the weapon quite strong, but the solar explosion makes getting multi-kills a little easier.
As for your Energy weapon, I really recommend using Salvager’s Salvo. Not only is it one of the best mob clearing weapons available but it comes masterworked so you can make a ton of orbs. Plus, this weapon works with the Breach and Clear mod, which allows you to debuff any boss or Champion hit with a grenade launcher. Not only will this increase your damage, but it synergizes beautifully with Star-Eater Scales. Finally, the Heavy slot can really be filled by any solid endgame Exotic like Anarchy, Xenophage, or Deathbringer if you have its catalyst.
Additionally, for your stats, you’ll want to prioritize getting 100 Intellect if possible. Our entire build revolves around getting and abusing our Super as much as possible, so 100 Intellect is key. Other stats to prioritize for endgame content are Recovery and Resistance, which gives you a bit more survivability in PVE content.
Core Mods
Core Mods are simply the modifications I highly urge you to try and incorporate into your build. Yes, they aren’t entirely necessary, but they can make a big difference in your overall performance.
- Breach and Clear (Any Element, 9 Energy): It’s literally the best mod available right now. For 9 Energy, you will have the ability to debuff any bosses or Champions for a short duration when they’re hit with a grenade launcher.
- Taking Charge (Any Element, 3 Energy): Since we are focusing on picking up Orbs of Power, we will want to get as many benefits as possible from nabbing them. Enter Taking Charge, a mod that gives us Charged with Light stacks whenever we grab an orb. This will be our main way to get Charged with Light stacks for this build.
- Protective Light (Void, 2 Energy): Protective Light is a fantastic failsafe mod for endgame content. Enemies can hit very hard in raids and Grandmaster Nightfalls, so being able to reduce incoming damage when your shield breaks can, quite literally, be a lifesaver. You will need to be able to obtain stacks of Charged With Light, so keep that in mind.
- Better Already (Void, 1 Energy) or Recuperation (Solar, 1 Energy): Speaking of surviving, Better Already can make gathering orbs a little less risky. While you can use Recuperation to instantly get a chunk of health back, I personally prefer Recuperation since I have a decent Recovery stat on my Hunter.
Additional Mods
These are simply some armor mods to consider running if you need to use up additional Energy. None of them are key to the build, so don’t feel forced to hunt down and run them.
- Argent Ordnance (Any Element, 1 Energy): This is for only those deciding to run a rocket launcher in their Heavy slot. Argent Ordnance will consume a Charged With Light stack and give you a Godslayer Warhead. This missile does increased damage and can actually stack so if you need to fill a slot on a piece of armor consider running 1-2 of these.
- Energy Converter (Void, 4 Energy): The power of this mod entirely depends on how frequently you can get your grenade back. When applied, this mod will consume all Charged with Light stacks whenever you throw your grenade. This then rewards you with Super energy, allowing you to charge your Star-Eater Scales faster. Just remember, it gives a -10 to Discipline, so only wear this if you’re not absolutely nuking this stat.
- Glacial Inheritance (Any Element, 6 Energy): Given how strong the Hunter’s Stasis Super is in Grandmaster Nightfalls, this mod might be worth considering. Being refunded Super energy based on how many you kill can help ensure you’ll always have this crowd control option available. Plus, it works nicely with Star-Eater Scales since it will buff the damage of the tornado.
