Man almost every Super-focused Exotic really needs a passive ability so they're not useless when your Super isn't up. At least Star-Eater's gives you extra Super energy.
I find Star-Eater's is very nice for the strand super. also yes, something like how Mantle gives you a damage boost to weapons matching your subclass would be nice
I agree, Star-Eater's is a great example for this! I really hope they change those exotics because I feel like it could make a lot of builds more viable, if still niche
100% agree. the only one i can kinda see an argue against is phoenix protocol but that’s more so due to well being the best super in the game rather than the exotic perk
There’s two ways to do this. Either they give a benefit outside of Super, or they return up to 50% of your super back with super kills like Stormdancer’s Brace. This way you are in your super more often and therefore your exotic is actually helping you most of the time. Either one works but Bungie messed up introducing yet another Super exotic for Warlocks that doesn’t do either of these things.
You’ve really gotta give Caliban’s a shot. I can’t really see it being a top tier GM melting exotic, but the ignitions are really reaaaally fun (although I do wish the exotic removed the self damage from the explosions. It can activate ignition related fragments super easily and the whole battlefield will just explode with a single knife throw
Fun is not the same as actually being good... which hes explained at the start. Calibans is fun but its not exactly good. Anything above strike and patrol dregs they suck as they cant 1 shot and renew their charge
@@bananaboatspf3030 i think people underestimate their damage I used it in the master raid and it was one shoting cabal (with solar burn tho) which are tankier than other minor enemy units. I’m personally curious to see how it goes without solar burn on -20 though so idk. But it’s def not just C I’d give it A or B
Calibans is nuclear ad-clear. Unfortunately it doesn't help much against bosses or champions so it's not the best pick for GMs or Master raids- but it is great for regular raids, dungeons, and anything below master nightfall. By far my favorite exotic for gambit, wipes entire enemy spawn locations out with 1 knife.
Just want to point out that Assassins cowl can also be used with any subclass - not just arc. People prefer arc because it works so well but you can use it with solar causing ignitions and going invisible, or pepper an enemy and finish him with melee or a finisher and your back at full health. There are many ways to use the assassins cowl which makes it S tier
I was using it in the Legendary Campaign with Strand Hunter. Grapple Melee kills would proc invis and it made the ads in Calus much easier to deal with.
So a note on oathkeepers, they have a few effects that aren’t listed on the exotic. For one they do increase draw time (albeit its so small you need to measure frame by frame to see it) with a single reloader perk in your arms it enables the fastest ttk for bows. Always having perfect draw is far more valuable than people give credit. Spoilers from leaks below Finally, they are getting a buff next season(according to leaks) to increase the damage of bows in pve according to how long a shot is held.
On caliban’s hand, the explosion on detonation is is freaking crazy. In fact, you can get a symphony of explosions using a single knife. It’s with using in the Solar hunter kit because you get your Knife back on explosive kills not just the knife kill. So it procs easily and you get it back without having to kill enemies with the knife directly. The damage is also no joke. Give it a try and you will see why so many made caliban hand build videoes.
This is nothing you couldn't do without Calibans hand. The damage isn't increased at all and doesn't scale well either. You also don't get anymore knife refund back than normal.
Shinobu's Vow is a sleeper. It takes 1 or 2 Skip projectiles will proc a Jolt, causing massive clear. Instant Overload stun, Throw and Punch method for Unstoppable, pairs stupidly well with Joltshot weapons like POLR or Tarnished Mettle
You sacrifice survivability to run Shinobu's Vows on Arc Hunter. While the new artifact mod that gives grenade energy may make the build competitive in nightfall content. However there's nothing like dodge punch for instant health Regen (Liars) or invisibility (Assassin's Cowl). Personally I think liars is better for harder content where the kill isn't always guaranteed and you aren't required to run a one two punch shotgun with it.
Skip grenades are so horrendous though...you could just take the jolt nade fragment and take the 10s slower nade regen and call it a day than using the nades with crap dmg and crap homing
I love Caliban’s, and not just for pushover content. My favorite part of a Caliban’s build, and what I think Mactics should consider, is that it’s perhaps the best Hunter solar build where survivability is concerned. It basically combines the effects of a melee and a grenade into a single super-nuke, allowing one to run healing grenades without feeling like you’re giving up a piece of offensive power. You still have crazy add-clear with infinite-loop ignitions, but can also have pretty much on-demand healing for you and your fireteam by building into grenade regen on melee hits, orb pickup, firesprites, etc. I’m guessing Mactics is going to dismiss it because of the fact that the loop requires a proximity knife kill, which means it shuts down a bit in super-high-end content, or when fighting one or two tanky targets. But the utility and survivability is fantastic if you know how to play around it in literally everything below GMs and master level stuff. And I kinda dig that it puts an emphasis back on gunplay in those instances where you’re fighting a couple yellow bars and have to chill on your knives for a sec.
The one thing I'll say for Liar's Handshake over Assassin's Cowl is that LH allows me to face tank Legend LS bosses. I've been a Warlock main for 3 years and just started Hunter 2 weeks ago.
Yea I feel like he should have at least put Liars in A tier and his arguments about GMs and higher end content, if your running T10 res, and the two arc fragments that reduce dmg taken when enemeis are close and dealing more damage to enemies that melee you makes you un-killable. You just keep on punching.✨
I know it's not covered since this was a pve focused teir list, but Bakris is so dang fun in pvp. With practice you can totally skip past opponent encounters and dodge supers. I can't even count the times it's saved me from blade barrages and nova bombs
Caliban's is the best hunter add clear exotic in the game up until it doesn't one shot adds. Infinite knives that ignite on every kill. Super fun in raids.
yeah thats legend and up, one of my favorite exotics but i only run it in normal content, even hero is a stretch at times sadly. I wish it buffed the prox knife damage like Athrys's does for weighted. Such a fun exotic. Run gunpowder gamble with ticuu's and you can really clear because the hip fire can lock onto the canister so you can always hit your shot on it while its in the air. Super super fun but jesus the amount of times i've dropped myself from point blank prox knives to a war beast or thrall or shooting the canister a little early or my personal favorite. When it sticks to the boss and right as i loose my arrow they leap at me and i blow myself up lol. A lot of fun but the exotic really struggles in legend content theres just better alternatives that dont require the set up that caliban's does in harder content. Prime example of a build that can do the same with less set up in end game content is Ophedus Spathe, Weighted Throwing Knife, and Skyburners Oath. Just hipfire to apply scorch, hit them with weighted, and boom they ignite dead or alive and you have two knife charges of a knife that hits much harder on average and it can also get your class ability back if you get a headshot kill with it. Skyburners hipfire aoe scorch is just too good and run the ignition fragments and firebolt grenades and you can just ignite everything with very low effort. Where Calibans you have to do enough damage before throwing the knife to get their health low enough for prox knife to kill them to get the ignition so if you're just slightly off they wont ignite. Yeah you can argue that you can just get them to finisher health then throw the knife as that should do the job but at that point you could of already ignited multiple enemies with the other build mentioned. Plus Gamblers dodge gives you both knife charges back so its just calibans but better. No self damage, easier ignitions, but less fun in my opinion
@@mkman9530 yeah this. Caliban was a lot of fun in the Solar 3.0 season with the ignition artifact perk, but it just doesn't hold a candle to OS and Skyburner
This list is pretty spot on. The one that stood out to me as underrated is Ophidia Spathe, which allows you to ignite on demand with knife trick! And a gamblers dodge refunds both melee charges instantly!
It's a fantastic exotic, the fact that it not only gives you 2 melee charges but it gives you both back per cooldown is incredible, it's very good paired with knife trick and when brawler is active in strikes. I've run strikes using it without firing a weapon. Very fun and very effective.
Fun fact that people seem to forget about orpheus is that when on deadfall tether, each enemy tethered will also give you 10% ability energy (grenade, melee, and class ability) which is a bit silly.
I’m saying, I swear this dude doesn’t play the game. Also putting athrys on D tier is crazy. It has really good utility in lost sectors with being able to one shot champs if you pair the raid shotty with it.
Athry's Embrace is actually pretty alright. Wouldn't take it to GM level content but for everything else you can combine it with a one-two punch shotgun and do a ton of burst damage. Also IMO the best part of AE is that you can run healing grenade and get infinite restoration. With YAS you have less survivability but a better damage loop. IMO Dragon's Shadow and Speedloader Slacks are pretty close in terms of value but DS is edges it out. SS seems to be good but the limited range on the buff makes it kind of meh. DS does what SS does but way better just without buffing allies. You get maxed out reload and handling with a scalar and it reloads your guns. It's not fantastic but it does let you burst champions down. Shinobu's Vow is really unfortunate because it absolutely slaps in low-mid level content since you can pretty much infinitely spam grenades that jolt but like you said in the video, arc hunter is kind of meh. I think the issue with arc is it doesn't really have anything to help you in endgame in terms of survivability. Solar has restoration and cure. Void has invisibility and devour. Stasis has freezing. Strand has suspending. Arc has blinding but you can already do that with blinding grenades and the blinding requires kills to work.
I don’t think you’re giving Ophidia Spathe enough credit. It’s 2 knives per charge, not 2 knife charges. That means anything that refunds a knife charge (Gamblers Dodge) will give you two knives. That’s really good with Knife Trick which will cause an ignition on two throws, or Weighted Throwing Knife which will auto ignite anything that is scorched
To clarify, Caliban's doesn't mention how it ignites upon hitting an enemy with it. Basically infinite knives with radiant-upon-powered-melee Ember and a back-up knive charge with Gambler's.
hope this dosent get drowned by other comments, athrys is insanely powerful, next season it’s getting buffed so where precision hits refund your knife, the buffed knife does around 80k+ in nightfalls, but if it’s a frozen target that gets hit i’ve seen 200k damage in gms, it’s very powerful especially when precision hits refund class ability, kills refund knife, intrinsic unstop, good damage and ignitions if you can scorch an enemy
You should really try calibans hand. They are very fun in mid tier content. You should just use knock ‘em down and radiant to get the knife back on kill instead of letting the knife sit there. What you do is use the knife to either outright kill the enemy or finish off the enemy and trigger an ignition. YAS is 100% better for boss fights and GM’s but Calibans is crazy good if you build into ignition chains.
Oathkeepers are actually gonna be pretty nice next season, the longer you’re holding the string the more damage it will increase, so imagine this exotic with Leviathan’s Breath which already hits like a truck.
I disagree with Strand helmet exotic being D tier. Having free woven mail on demand is huge especially that you can set a tangle point and camp in it. You don't always have to commit for grapple melee and you can use it for movement or as said before camping for reapplying woven mail. Combine with thread of ascent that reloads your gun which makes it a really nice combo. Also it frees up a fragment slot which is super nice. In higher end, yes, shackle grenade is waaaay better than grapple but for general content, a lot of times you don't need them. It's a really good exotics for strand hunters to have. Definitely recommend.
To me star eaters is the goat. Everyone knows it for the super damage buff, but its real strength is the increased super energy on orb pickup. It just allowed you to spam supers all the time
I run trinity ghoul with arc siphon which just gives me a stupid amount of orbs. Combined with star eaters I've got the super dps buff/ casting supers within such a short time. Is insane
I’d like to see an exotic weapon tier list after all of the changes in the last few months. I’m interested to see your opinion and value your input as opposed to a lot of other channels.
That’s just jolt tbh. Melee arc hunter does the same thing. Assassins for safety or liars for 1 shotting champs more consistently (use conditional finality instead of 1-2 punch)
Assassins cowl on soler hunter with an ignition build is so good on add clear in lower end content. It sounds weird, but I found a build with it that just vibes so well together. Free ignitions, free grenade energy, free explosions, good damage. Although Ahamkara is probably better for DPS. When done right its just better.
Shards of Galanor imo is very slept on for GM’s specifically. Getting a super every 2 minutes roughly with even a tiny bit of orb generation into a build and you’re set to use blade barrage on almost all champions in a nightfall and you’ll get a super for every damage phase on almost every boss.
I would advice you to try out a build with Shinobu’s vow and actually take it to GM. The other day a friend told me to try it and I was skeptical at first but after using it in GM I was shocked how good they actually performed. Specially if you are running it with something like Insidious Demo and Adrenaline. I get the argument that the damage of Skip Grenades are not that high, but you are throwing so many of them with this exotic that it doesn’t even matter.
Really like the list placements and the detailed talk through! Love the content! If you are looking for new builds, I would take a look at the Caliban’s Hand. Honestly, it surprised me and is one of my main dungeon/raid go-to’s. The combat loop of constant knife kills and ignitions is really good for ad clear. It has good survivability paired with healing grenades/emperian.
Ophidia Spathe isn't two Melee Charges over-all. It's two THROWING KNIVES per charge. It, specifically, only works on Solar Hunter. You're thinking Claws of Ahamkara which is a Warlock Exotic that grants two Melee Charges to any Subclass.
I’m really glad someone finally acknowledged the bug with Liar’s Handshake and Lethal Current. I used to love that exotic. It was so fun and satisfying back when it worked. Just another thing the poorly thought-out 3.0 updates took from us 😔
Haven't played consistently clearly, nighthawk has phased in and out over the years, sometimes being meta. It was nerfed around witch queen and doesn't keep up as much now. The main benefit now is not needing to worry about missing one of the shots, but star eaters is definitely wayyy better
Looking at Shinobu’s on their own I can understand why they’re C based on Skip Grenade damage but when you consider the bigger picture (like spark of shock) they put in some serious work. You can jolt multiple enemies at a time whilst refunding your grenades. You can easily throw 3 back to back and when built with grenade kickstart that can become even more, you will never not have a grenade charge. Easily A tier in a complete build.
I LOVE young ahamkara spine, it's my favorite exotic in the game, and for certain bosses where you want precision damage, I will hot swap to celestial nighthawk for a dps phase. Could I do more damage with star-eater? Sure, but then I would have to run star eater for at least a little while before dps phase to stack up feast of light. And I just want to run YAS as much as possible. This is how I soloed the first boss on spire.
Cyrtarachne's needs to be B tier, it used to be much better but the grenade kickstart nerf made it a lot worse. Caliban's hand is also probably B tier, great ad clear it just falls off once melee kills are harder to get, and it doesn't have easy pre-kill ignitions like the snap does for sunbracers. Athrys also needs to be higher than D, it can put out a lot of damage it is just a bit pointless with ignitions being a thing now, they have the damage and unstop stun that athrys has.
@@reventon_4442 exotic primaries provide the largest super energy gain and Wish Ender hits 3 times. You can easily chain supers with it. If you Tether a big group of enemies and throw a Vortex grenade with double Ashes to Assets, Wishender can easily top of your super before your current tether expires.
@@reventon_4442 yep just throw on a few fragments and you’ll literaly have full hp all the time, or even a weapon with repulsers brace and you’ll not only have 100% uptime on devour, but an over shield too. It’s insane I soloed legendary lightfall with that build and never changed a thing about it except that I sometimes switch between graviton forfeit (more survivability) and orpheus rig (more dmg)
Yes, it's actually super slept on. I pretty much use it 100% of the time in pvp but people don't seem to realize how strong it is in pve too, maybe not for high end content but it puts in work everywhere else.
I feel like radiant dance machines are going to be really good next season for strand hunters for add control. Façade in D tier is a spit in the face. Woven mail on demand is not the same as having to pick up a orb. Its S tier
Facade is incredible, I use it a lot in pvp, not so much pve. On hunter you have 2 grapple charges so I just hit the grapple, immediately cancel and I've got the buff then you're not killing me.
One thing with Oathkeepers Mac is they do decrease Draw Time by i believe 2-3 frames so the only use I find for them is with Leviathan's Breath and it's catalyst cus it all stacks.
With radiant dance machines, you could get some of the highest DPS in the game, especially with rockets and if you get at least one kill upon dodging. That’s 10 seconds of unlimited marksman dodge. Think about that.
Mask of Bahkris with thunderlord is pretty good. Throw in arc weapon surge and use your infinite ability stasis build, you'll probably put it up at least a tier higher. the dodge is also good in PVP. It is not S tier, but it is A it B tier depending on your build and activity.
If you like using Le Monarque then Oathkeepers isn't a bad choice. Le Monarques poison arrows require a perfect draw to proc but if you have Oathkeepers the poison arrows will proc regardless of how long you draw the arrow.
Goes to show how badly Blight Ranger needs a rework. Hell, I think it's one of the few Exotics whose identity can be safely destroyed in order to make it better. Focusing not only on a certain Super but a certain _aspect_ of a Super but then giving the reflected projectiles a +600% damage increase belongs in the "Naruto OC drawn up by an emo high-schooler with failing grades who's only power is nuking entire cities at the cost of breaking three-billion of their own bones" tier of atrocious designs.
Little side note on bombardiers - they are basically a worse version of gyrfalcons and were used pre-nerf gyrfalcons when Hunters didnt have many keyword based void exotics
Calibans hand is one of the best things you can use in a dungeon setting. Especially with healing nades. The constant ignitions can keep restoration up and get you your grenade back extremely fast.
Great video, no disagreements really, except I see Omni as the best team play exotic, and Graviton as the best solo exotic because of the extended duration. I think that overshield and boosted recovery are a wash
+1 for taking a closer look at Caliban's Hand. What's unique about it is that it creates a CHAIN IGNITE on a kill - meaning that enemies that die to the explosion from the initial ignite, well they all ignite upon death too! So much fun in mid to high tier content, and a BEAST at ad-clear. Running with ember of empyrean and healing is god-mode.
Just figured I say this for the ophedia you get two knives per charge which means you recharge one knife get 2 which allows for initiate spam but great video
I think by far the warlock has the best overall exotics of all the characters. I play all 3 but mostly Warlock and have all the exotics. I just feel like the warlock has the most useful exotics with Titan coming second.
A lot of people are talking about Calibans hand but I want you to take a closer look at celestial nighthawk, particularly stacked with multiple nighthawk hunters
Orpheus Rig doesn't only give you Super energy. It gives you ability energy. So yes, with good use, it gives you some ability spam possibility too. Not a big thing, but for accuracy it's good to point out it's not just Super for Deadfall. Also - when clearing even stronger enemies in GMs, this exotic will refund your 50% of the Deadfall super VERY quickly. And since you're attacking debuffed targets, so a lot of damage, you're often getting 75% of your super back by the time it ends. It's VERY good for crowd control and just some additional orb generation for your teammates.
It's easily one of my favorite builds in mid to lower difficulty content, and I'd love to test it out in GMs! I built it to abuse Ashes to Assets and spam Vortex grenades. Fairly sure it's 10% ability energy per tethered target. 👍
Gemini's disorient range is larger than you think, and lasts a good while, it's a great escape ability that works perfectly with gamblers dodge allowing arc and solar hunters to get void hunters stun
Would love to see a re-rank with the updates. Radiant Dance Machines are absurd. You can build them to spam melees, spam wave-frames or breach-loaders, activate Reaper constantly, kill an ad and have 10 seconds of dodges to spam rockets for boss dps, etc. Absolutely better than Wormhusk or Liar's Handshake for PvE. Wormhusk is comedically bad in PvE relative to many other options and Handshake is basically unplayable in anything difficult.
Specially for PvE, oathkeepers aren’t useful. However, in PvP, Oathkeepers are goated. They allow you to walk with full draw indefinitely and if you use Le Monarche, it preserves the poison charge Indefinitely too.
Nighthawk in D tier just breaks my heart. They didnt even bother to do anything with it when Solar 3.0 came out. I still use it tho as a quick swap exotic in my loadouts for damage phases.
Honestly it’s C or B tier, definitely not D. There are tons of times where you just want that quick 1 high burst shot over the longer 3 shots of star eaters like with certain raid bosses
Calibans is in fact S tier. You get a knife kill, you instantly get the knife back, so you dont have to intentionally miss. but if you accidentally miss you get it back reallll fast. the explosions are massive, you can wipe crowds of ads in seconds
Oathkeeper's does in fact increase the damage of the arrow the longer it's drawn so it actually can be really good in situations like trying to solo a raid/dungeon and you can have the arrow drawn behid cover, get a large damage increase to hit then hit the boss.
a lot of other commenters already said it but I think you absolutely nailed the tier-list with the exception of caliban's hand. you're right that YAS probably beats it out in high end content, but mid and low end it is an absolute monster, straight up forbearance level ad-clear potential edit: okay actually the only other thing I might disagree on is I would also put assassin's cowl in the GOAT tier, especially after the minor omni nerf. just depends on the content you're running as to which is better
Feels like he just glossed over how weird Radiant Dance Machines can get. Putting them in C tier just shows a lack of imagination. I don't know if I'd call them S Tier but they are very good. Firstly the infinite dodges for 5 seconds can actually be extended for more free dodges, which is great, but it also allows you to constantly get your melee back if your running gambler's dodge, combine that with Knife Trick on Solar Hunter and you have a ton of Radiant uptime, which is like a 25% damage boost. Things get even funnier when you put on Marksman Dodge, overlooking instant reload of whatever heavy your using (Hint: Use a Rocket Launcher) and you have insane dps potential as long as you've got heavy ammo. Granted, it isn't quite as straight forward as some exotics, but it's defs an A tier if you're being creative. Edit: Also, Gyrfalcon's should be at least on par with Omnioculus, if you pair it with literally anything that has repulsor brace you have near constant void overshield up. Making it both an amazing offensive exotic, but a defensive exotic too.
Caliban's is fun when there's a bunch of adds hugging a boss/champ, all adds killed by the explosion from the explosive knife create an ignition so you can get like 4-6 instant ignitions hitting the boss. pair it with healing nade for survivability. Arthy's can oneshot a lot of enemies inc. champs(does more dmg than nighthawk gg) so it does deserve a bit more credit imo
One situation where you would use celestial golden gun over star eater's blade barrage is against kali and shuro chi. Small hitboxes makes them hard to hit with all of the blades from BB and I might be talking out of my ass on this but I believe they have a higher crit multiplier than any other bosses so goldy is just better there anyway. but yeah celestial just isn't that great anymore. Edit: also I believe the garden/spire harpy boss is easier to hit with a goldy rather than BB so I'd probably use it there
Caliban's can be just as addictive as Ahamkara's Spine for solar ability spam. Set your fragments up so that knives get refunded when radiant, and make sure the knife gets the final blow. On lower difficulties it'll clear a room all on its own when you catch an Acolyte in the head, but even on higher difficulties making sure to finish the enemy with the knife is easy mode to setting up chain ignites with the increased ignition range and ignitions spread scorch aspects. The only time they falter a little is vs. bosses, but they can still do work if there are adds close enough for the ignitions to catch. (and it's still fire and forget add clear) Best part, if you do miss with the knife and dodging near an enemy is a death sentence, 500% regen gets it back quick.
Fun fact: you can press your reload button to reset your bow string so it doesnt fire. Makes the oathkeepers quite good cuz you get infinite truesight in pvp
Been using FrostEEs for Strand Hunter in casual content to make sure I'm regenerating my grenade energy even faster and it's been nice. Nothing fancy, but for casual strikes or at-level raids, it helps bridge the gap.
Im sorry your starfire warlocks weren't actually shooting the boss them. Im an avid shinobu's lover but even im not full copium that you are outdamaging actual starfire users
Def better than the tier listing I’ve been seeing lately SHEESH. I’m about to make a tier list of tier lister’s LOL you’d get an A right next to Aztecross. I’d put anyone in F tier with shards of ghallahorn as S tier
ATHRYS'S EMBRACE - can 1 shot champs with right guns that can freeze( new raid shotgun, some fusion rifles with chill clip perk) BAKRIS - top exotic for pvp, especially for stasis freeze build with CRYOSTHESIA (go watch some other youtubers to see it in action) so, this tier list is not accurate
Agreed. Athrys, Bakris, Renewlas and Cyrtarachne’s Facade all should be at least A tier imo. Yes, you need to build into them but that's the whole point of a build right? You can do some crazy stuff with these exotics and I feel like they deserve to be higher.
I'd argue against renewal grasps. I don't think the benefit is good enough to justify the slot. The problem is that against most enemies, there isn't a benefit. If an enemy is in the duskfield, they'll freeze and it won't matter how much damage they're doing. So is extra DR really a big deal against anything other than a boss, and does that justify the cooldown penalty for that small fraction of enemies?
Oathkeeper is my go-to in PvP. S-tier for me with Le Monarque. Yes, I can hit reload to keep the uptime going, but I like to jump around a lot and play peak-a-boo, not having to worry about losing the poison bonus whilst having quality of life is super helpful. The person aiming at me on the other end doesn't need to fiddle with an extra key or button, I think it's QoL in PvP is underrated, but only with Le Monarque. Perfect draw is underrated as hell in PvP.
@@MacticsG1 Okay? I wasn't arguing against you, just stating that for PvP I'd rank it differently. I too believe Oathkeeper isn't in a good place PvE wise.
agreed, a lot of the lower niche exotics he kind of glossed over, Shinobu is defs a powerful exotic and is very easy to use when you set the build up. A lot of the ones he ranked lower he's probably not really used, they can be a lot better than they appear on paper. Shinobu's Vow, Radiant Dance Machines, The Strand Exotic Helm with the impossible to pronounce name, hell, even Bakra's isn't bad at all. The blink dodge is actually pretty nice, and if you're using Thunderlord the DPS boost is definitely worth it.
The more mainstreamers, sweats, elites, pros and cool dudes dismiss my precious Shinobu's, the longer I have to enjoy its absurd levels of grenade spam before Bungie gets the wiser to how much add clear I've been abusing it for. I might have been salty that folks keep passing it over, but I delight in usurping others' expectations with near-og Titan Storm Grenade levels of making Shaxx happy. So I guess ... cheers, thanks, and keep being the most chill dude in Cross' friends group!
I like nighthawk as an easy swap exotic with cowl for boss dps - very nice for stuff like solo dungeons, but way worse than star-eater if you're just going to wear it all the time.
For Ophidia Spathe it's worth mentioning, that Gambler's Dodge refunds both of the charges for this one, not the usual one. That's a good deal. Doesn't skyrocket the exotic into top tier, but it's a neat feature.
Calibans you just throw it at the enemy. If the knife itself kills or the explosion kills the enemy then it ignites and you get a full refund on the melee(if using the fragment). It is amazing for clearing out an entire room for 1 melee. If you whiff your throw then yeah you get the 500% recharge rate. It does lack in end game (master/gm) and that is only because you have to weaken the enemy first before you kill it with the proximity knife.
Man almost every Super-focused Exotic really needs a passive ability so they're not useless when your Super isn't up. At least Star-Eater's gives you extra Super energy.
I find Star-Eater's is very nice for the strand super.
also yes, something like how Mantle gives you a damage boost to weapons matching your subclass would be nice
I agree, Star-Eater's is a great example for this! I really hope they change those exotics because I feel like it could make a lot of builds more viable, if still niche
100% agree. the only one i can kinda see an argue against is phoenix protocol but that’s more so due to well being the best super in the game rather than the exotic perk
great point. i think they need a passive, maybe a buff while you’re super is charged.
There’s two ways to do this. Either they give a benefit outside of Super, or they return up to 50% of your super back with super kills like Stormdancer’s Brace. This way you are in your super more often and therefore your exotic is actually helping you most of the time. Either one works but Bungie messed up introducing yet another Super exotic for Warlocks that doesn’t do either of these things.
You’ve really gotta give Caliban’s a shot. I can’t really see it being a top tier GM melting exotic, but the ignitions are really reaaaally fun (although I do wish the exotic removed the self damage from the explosions. It can activate ignition related fragments super easily and the whole battlefield will just explode with a single knife throw
Fun is not the same as actually being good... which hes explained at the start. Calibans is fun but its not exactly good. Anything above strike and patrol dregs they suck as they cant 1 shot and renew their charge
They were really good in just about anything but the removal of explosive well maker really hurt them
@@bananaboatspf3030 i think people underestimate their damage I used it in the master raid and it was one shoting cabal (with solar burn tho) which are tankier than other minor enemy units. I’m personally curious to see how it goes without solar burn on -20 though so idk. But it’s def not just C I’d give it A or B
I love calibans hand. Especially rainbow knives.
Calibans is nuclear ad-clear. Unfortunately it doesn't help much against bosses or champions so it's not the best pick for GMs or Master raids- but it is great for regular raids, dungeons, and anything below master nightfall. By far my favorite exotic for gambit, wipes entire enemy spawn locations out with 1 knife.
Just want to point out that Assassins cowl can also be used with any subclass - not just arc. People prefer arc because it works so well but you can use it with solar causing ignitions and going invisible, or pepper an enemy and finish him with melee or a finisher and your back at full health. There are many ways to use the assassins cowl which makes it S tier
Correct
I was using it in the Legendary Campaign with Strand Hunter. Grapple Melee kills would proc invis and it made the ads in Calus much easier to deal with.
yep the finisher, full-heal gameplay loop has carried me through so many GM's I can't even describe it
I like using it with Stasis, your melee ability is ranged and it will still heal/ make u invisible.
Actually really good on solar with weighted knife.
So a note on oathkeepers, they have a few effects that aren’t listed on the exotic. For one they do increase draw time (albeit its so small you need to measure frame by frame to see it) with a single reloader perk in your arms it enables the fastest ttk for bows. Always having perfect draw is far more valuable than people give credit.
Spoilers from leaks below
Finally, they are getting a buff next season(according to leaks) to increase the damage of bows in pve according to how long a shot is held.
*decrease draw time
(sorry, not trying to be nitpicky but just clarifying in case somebody unfamiliar with oathkeeper's gets confused by the typo)
In regard to shooting your arrow or sprinting to reset it, you can also just tap reload and it will undraw your arrow when it is being held.
I'm super excited to mess around with leviathan's breath next season if the leak is accurate, sounds like a super fun one shot
Pssst, they also gives bonus in-air accuracy if I'm not mistaken
Also if you're using it with Le Monarque, it will always have the poison effect when shooting, not just when you shoot it at the right moment.
On caliban’s hand, the explosion on detonation is is freaking crazy. In fact, you can get a symphony of explosions using a single knife. It’s with using in the Solar hunter kit because you get your
Knife back on explosive kills not just the knife kill. So it procs easily and you get it back without having to kill enemies with the knife directly. The damage is also no joke. Give it a try and you will see why so many made caliban hand build videoes.
This is nothing you couldn't do without Calibans hand.
The damage isn't increased at all and doesn't scale well either. You also don't get anymore knife refund back than normal.
Shinobu's Vow is a sleeper. It takes 1 or 2 Skip projectiles will proc a Jolt, causing massive clear. Instant Overload stun, Throw and Punch method for Unstoppable, pairs stupidly well with Joltshot weapons like POLR or Tarnished Mettle
You’re so right that they are being slept on. B tier at least & A tier for me. Underrated for sure.
They are held down by how bad skip nades are
You sacrifice survivability to run Shinobu's Vows on Arc Hunter. While the new artifact mod that gives grenade energy may make the build competitive in nightfall content.
However there's nothing like dodge punch for instant health Regen (Liars) or invisibility (Assassin's Cowl). Personally I think liars is better for harder content where the kill isn't always guaranteed and you aren't required to run a one two punch shotgun with it.
Skip grenades are so horrendous though...you could just take the jolt nade fragment and take the 10s slower nade regen and call it a day than using the nades with crap dmg and crap homing
I love Caliban's so much. I run it in any regular dungeon. Would love to see you play around with it and try a build.
Also rainbow knives.
@@DARTHRULER1 rainbow knives??
@P.J. Kehres Photon finish shader adds rgb effects to light sources in armor. The knives count as that thus rhb knives on arms.
I love Caliban’s, and not just for pushover content. My favorite part of a Caliban’s build, and what I think Mactics should consider, is that it’s perhaps the best Hunter solar build where survivability is concerned. It basically combines the effects of a melee and a grenade into a single super-nuke, allowing one to run healing grenades without feeling like you’re giving up a piece of offensive power. You still have crazy add-clear with infinite-loop ignitions, but can also have pretty much on-demand healing for you and your fireteam by building into grenade regen on melee hits, orb pickup, firesprites, etc.
I’m guessing Mactics is going to dismiss it because of the fact that the loop requires a proximity knife kill, which means it shuts down a bit in super-high-end content, or when fighting one or two tanky targets. But the utility and survivability is fantastic if you know how to play around it in literally everything below GMs and master level stuff. And I kinda dig that it puts an emphasis back on gunplay in those instances where you’re fighting a couple yellow bars and have to chill on your knives for a sec.
The one thing I'll say for Liar's Handshake over Assassin's Cowl is that LH allows me to face tank Legend LS bosses. I've been a Warlock main for 3 years and just started Hunter 2 weeks ago.
That’s the biggest advantage of Liars is that stand there and keep punching for health. Cowl has to have kills to feed the heals. I love both of them.
Yea I feel like he should have at least put Liars in A tier and his arguments about GMs and higher end content, if your running T10 res, and the two arc fragments that reduce dmg taken when enemeis are close and dealing more damage to enemies that melee you makes you un-killable. You just keep on punching.✨
@@Dragongaming-ws7bm exactly
@@Dragongaming-ws7bm Assassin’s Cowl is nice for invisibility in high tier but I’d rather just kill things with Liar’s.
Hunter who identifies as a Titan
I know it's not covered since this was a pve focused teir list, but Bakris is so dang fun in pvp. With practice you can totally skip past opponent encounters and dodge supers. I can't even count the times it's saved me from blade barrages and nova bombs
Caliban's is the best hunter add clear exotic in the game up until it doesn't one shot adds. Infinite knives that ignite on every kill. Super fun in raids.
yeah thats legend and up, one of my favorite exotics but i only run it in normal content, even hero is a stretch at times sadly. I wish it buffed the prox knife damage like Athrys's does for weighted. Such a fun exotic. Run gunpowder gamble with ticuu's and you can really clear because the hip fire can lock onto the canister so you can always hit your shot on it while its in the air. Super super fun but jesus the amount of times i've dropped myself from point blank prox knives to a war beast or thrall or shooting the canister a little early or my personal favorite. When it sticks to the boss and right as i loose my arrow they leap at me and i blow myself up lol. A lot of fun but the exotic really struggles in legend content theres just better alternatives that dont require the set up that caliban's does in harder content. Prime example of a build that can do the same with less set up in end game content is Ophedus Spathe, Weighted Throwing Knife, and Skyburners Oath. Just hipfire to apply scorch, hit them with weighted, and boom they ignite dead or alive and you have two knife charges of a knife that hits much harder on average and it can also get your class ability back if you get a headshot kill with it. Skyburners hipfire aoe scorch is just too good and run the ignition fragments and firebolt grenades and you can just ignite everything with very low effort. Where Calibans you have to do enough damage before throwing the knife to get their health low enough for prox knife to kill them to get the ignition so if you're just slightly off they wont ignite. Yeah you can argue that you can just get them to finisher health then throw the knife as that should do the job but at that point you could of already ignited multiple enemies with the other build mentioned. Plus Gamblers dodge gives you both knife charges back so its just calibans but better. No self damage, easier ignitions, but less fun in my opinion
@@mkman9530 yeah this. Caliban was a lot of fun in the Solar 3.0 season with the ignition artifact perk, but it just doesn't hold a candle to OS and Skyburner
That's not sunbracers
Best add clear exotic in the game? Bro stop talking 💀💀
@@marceletta I mean hunter exotic since this is a hunter video.
This list is pretty spot on. The one that stood out to me as underrated is Ophidia Spathe, which allows you to ignite on demand with knife trick! And a gamblers dodge refunds both melee charges instantly!
this is a good point, I've run ophidia in GM's and found it very useful actually
It's a fantastic exotic, the fact that it not only gives you 2 melee charges but it gives you both back per cooldown is incredible, it's very good paired with knife trick and when brawler is active in strikes. I've run strikes using it without firing a weapon. Very fun and very effective.
Doesnt Oathkeeper's make Draw time and fire speed faster on Bows too? I know its noticable on like, Monarch and Leviathans
Fun fact that people seem to forget about orpheus is that when on deadfall tether, each enemy tethered will also give you 10% ability energy (grenade, melee, and class ability) which is a bit silly.
Wait actually? Orpheus is like one of my two main hunter exotics and I always run deadfall with it and I never knew that
@@Jufjuf01 yes. I use it for that reason alone.
Liar Handshake is at least A tier smfh
I’m saying, I swear this dude doesn’t play the game. Also putting athrys on D tier is crazy. It has really good utility in lost sectors with being able to one shot champs if you pair the raid shotty with it.
@@MW-tq6wd Yeah its definitely not D tier lol
Athry's Embrace is actually pretty alright. Wouldn't take it to GM level content but for everything else you can combine it with a one-two punch shotgun and do a ton of burst damage. Also IMO the best part of AE is that you can run healing grenade and get infinite restoration. With YAS you have less survivability but a better damage loop.
IMO Dragon's Shadow and Speedloader Slacks are pretty close in terms of value but DS is edges it out. SS seems to be good but the limited range on the buff makes it kind of meh. DS does what SS does but way better just without buffing allies. You get maxed out reload and handling with a scalar and it reloads your guns. It's not fantastic but it does let you burst champions down.
Shinobu's Vow is really unfortunate because it absolutely slaps in low-mid level content since you can pretty much infinitely spam grenades that jolt but like you said in the video, arc hunter is kind of meh.
I think the issue with arc is it doesn't really have anything to help you in endgame in terms of survivability. Solar has restoration and cure. Void has invisibility and devour. Stasis has freezing. Strand has suspending. Arc has blinding but you can already do that with blinding grenades and the blinding requires kills to work.
the athyrs embrace does crazy dmg with the raid exotic. think my throwing knife can hit for like 350k with radiant and shatter
Radiant doesn’t buff ability dmg but shatter dmg with a melee kinda double the dmg
I don’t think you’re giving Ophidia Spathe enough credit. It’s 2 knives per charge, not 2 knife charges. That means anything that refunds a knife charge (Gamblers Dodge) will give you two knives. That’s really good with Knife Trick which will cause an ignition on two throws, or Weighted Throwing Knife which will auto ignite anything that is scorched
To clarify, Caliban's doesn't mention how it ignites upon hitting an enemy with it. Basically infinite knives with radiant-upon-powered-melee Ember and a back-up knive charge with Gambler's.
hope this dosent get drowned by other comments, athrys is insanely powerful, next season it’s getting buffed so where precision hits refund your knife, the buffed knife does around 80k+ in nightfalls, but if it’s a frozen target that gets hit i’ve seen 200k damage in gms, it’s very powerful especially when precision hits refund class ability, kills refund knife, intrinsic unstop, good damage and ignitions if you can scorch an enemy
You should really try calibans hand. They are very fun in mid tier content. You should just use knock ‘em down and radiant to get the knife back on kill instead of letting the knife sit there. What you do is use the knife to either outright kill the enemy or finish off the enemy and trigger an ignition. YAS is 100% better for boss fights and GM’s but Calibans is crazy good if you build into ignition chains.
Calibans Hand is really good with knock em down! cuz it is lktterally a grenade uncan spam as long u do kills with it
Oathkeepers are actually gonna be pretty nice next season, the longer you’re holding the string the more damage it will increase, so imagine this exotic with Leviathan’s Breath which already hits like a truck.
This comment didnt age well :C
I disagree with Strand helmet exotic being D tier. Having free woven mail on demand is huge especially that you can set a tangle point and camp in it. You don't always have to commit for grapple melee and you can use it for movement or as said before camping for reapplying woven mail. Combine with thread of ascent that reloads your gun which makes it a really nice combo. Also it frees up a fragment slot which is super nice.
In higher end, yes, shackle grenade is waaaay better than grapple but for general content, a lot of times you don't need them. It's a really good exotics for strand hunters to have. Definitely recommend.
30:54 crack me up 🤣 that "dooo" is priceless
To me star eaters is the goat. Everyone knows it for the super damage buff, but its real strength is the increased super energy on orb pickup. It just allowed you to spam supers all the time
It's so good on Strand, the grapple melee counts as both grenade and melee kill so you can create 2 orbs per kill and get you super back stupid fast
I run trinity ghoul with arc siphon which just gives me a stupid amount of orbs. Combined with star eaters I've got the super dps buff/ casting supers within such a short time. Is insane
I’d like to see an exotic weapon tier list after all of the changes in the last few months. I’m interested to see your opinion and value your input as opposed to a lot of other channels.
Maybe re think Shinobu, you get the jolt fragment from grenade it straight ripped through last week's gm
That’s just jolt tbh. Melee arc hunter does the same thing. Assassins for safety or liars for 1 shotting champs more consistently (use conditional finality instead of 1-2 punch)
@@SpyroThunder Key word: Melee.
@@TheMarine0333 yeah but assassin’s makes melee safe and liars is just nobody can kill you if they’re dead.
@@SpyroThunder it's a good build to :) but jolt or not it's apart of the kit and endless tracking grenades is good
Gyrfalcon’s with Fighting Lion is a one hit barrier. Don’t forget volatile rounds also work for barrier. Very iffy on special, 100% a go on heavy
Assassins cowl on soler hunter with an ignition build is so good on add clear in lower end content. It sounds weird, but I found a build with it that just vibes so well together. Free ignitions, free grenade energy, free explosions, good damage. Although Ahamkara is probably better for DPS. When done right its just better.
Shards of Galanor imo is very slept on for GM’s specifically. Getting a super every 2 minutes roughly with even a tiny bit of orb generation into a build and you’re set to use blade barrage on almost all champions in a nightfall and you’ll get a super for every damage phase on almost every boss.
I would advice you to try out a build with Shinobu’s vow and actually take it to GM. The other day a friend told me to try it and I was skeptical at first but after using it in GM I was shocked how good they actually performed. Specially if you are running it with something like Insidious Demo and Adrenaline.
I get the argument that the damage of Skip Grenades are not that high, but you are throwing so many of them with this exotic that it doesn’t even matter.
Really like the list placements and the detailed talk through! Love the content! If you are looking for new builds, I would take a look at the Caliban’s Hand. Honestly, it surprised me and is one of my main dungeon/raid go-to’s. The combat loop of constant knife kills and ignitions is really good for ad clear. It has good survivability paired with healing grenades/emperian.
Kinetic surge mods apply to Celestial Knighthawk, can do some significant damage.
Ophidia Spathe isn't two Melee Charges over-all. It's two THROWING KNIVES per charge. It, specifically, only works on Solar Hunter. You're thinking Claws of Ahamkara which is a Warlock Exotic that grants two Melee Charges to any Subclass.
I’m really glad someone finally acknowledged the bug with Liar’s Handshake and Lethal Current. I used to love that exotic. It was so fun and satisfying back when it worked. Just another thing the poorly thought-out 3.0 updates took from us 😔
Haven't played consistently clearly, nighthawk has phased in and out over the years, sometimes being meta. It was nerfed around witch queen and doesn't keep up as much now. The main benefit now is not needing to worry about missing one of the shots, but star eaters is definitely wayyy better
Looking at Shinobu’s on their own I can understand why they’re C based on Skip Grenade damage but when you consider the bigger picture (like spark of shock) they put in some serious work. You can jolt multiple enemies at a time whilst refunding your grenades. You can easily throw 3 back to back and when built with grenade kickstart that can become even more, you will never not have a grenade charge. Easily A tier in a complete build.
Yes! Another Shinobu's fan who knows the delight of unnerfed grenade spam!
Ik people sleep on Shinobu so bad😢. They do not do a crazy amount of damage, but when you can throw like 5 in a row, it makes up for that.
I LOVE young ahamkara spine, it's my favorite exotic in the game, and for certain bosses where you want precision damage, I will hot swap to celestial nighthawk for a dps phase. Could I do more damage with star-eater? Sure, but then I would have to run star eater for at least a little while before dps phase to stack up feast of light. And I just want to run YAS as much as possible. This is how I soloed the first boss on spire.
Cyrtarachne's needs to be B tier, it used to be much better but the grenade kickstart nerf made it a lot worse. Caliban's hand is also probably B tier, great ad clear it just falls off once melee kills are harder to get, and it doesn't have easy pre-kill ignitions like the snap does for sunbracers. Athrys also needs to be higher than D, it can put out a lot of damage it is just a bit pointless with ignitions being a thing now, they have the damage and unstop stun that athrys has.
You need to try Orpheus+Deadfall+Wishender. It's WILD.
Why specifically wish-ender?
Use le morq with that build and everything blow up in a void purple explosion
@@reventon_4442 exotic primaries provide the largest super energy gain and Wish Ender hits 3 times. You can easily chain supers with it. If you Tether a big group of enemies and throw a Vortex grenade with double Ashes to Assets, Wishender can easily top of your super before your current tether expires.
@@inner_arts762 That's insane, I have to give it a shot now
@@reventon_4442 yep just throw on a few fragments and you’ll literaly have full hp all the time, or even a weapon with repulsers brace and you’ll not only have 100% uptime on devour, but an over shield too. It’s insane I soloed legendary lightfall with that build and never changed a thing about it except that I sometimes switch between graviton forfeit (more survivability) and orpheus rig (more dmg)
Doesn't Mechaneer's Tricksleeves give 100 handling and reload to sidearms at all times? It's only the damage boost that triggers on critical health.
Yes, it's actually super slept on. I pretty much use it 100% of the time in pvp but people don't seem to realize how strong it is in pve too, maybe not for high end content but it puts in work everywhere else.
Bakris and Thunderlord is pretty good for master nez. You get more damage and the shift is actually pretty useful for breaking the bosses ankles
I feel like radiant dance machines are going to be really good next season for strand hunters for add control.
Façade in D tier is a spit in the face. Woven mail on demand is not the same as having to pick up a orb. Its S tier
Facade is incredible, I use it a lot in pvp, not so much pve. On hunter you have 2 grapple charges so I just hit the grapple, immediately cancel and I've got the buff then you're not killing me.
One thing with Oathkeepers Mac is they do decrease Draw Time by i believe 2-3 frames so the only use I find for them is with Leviathan's Breath and it's catalyst cus it all stacks.
With radiant dance machines, you could get some of the highest DPS in the game, especially with rockets and if you get at least one kill upon dodging. That’s 10 seconds of unlimited marksman dodge. Think about that.
A way more accurate tier lost compared to aztecross lol crazy
Mask of Bahkris with thunderlord is pretty good. Throw in arc weapon surge and use your infinite ability stasis build, you'll probably put it up at least a tier higher. the dodge is also good in PVP.
It is not S tier, but it is A it B tier depending on your build and activity.
If you like using Le Monarque then Oathkeepers isn't a bad choice. Le Monarques poison arrows require a perfect draw to proc but if you have Oathkeepers the poison arrows will proc regardless of how long you draw the arrow.
Goes to show how badly Blight Ranger needs a rework. Hell, I think it's one of the few Exotics whose identity can be safely destroyed in order to make it better. Focusing not only on a certain Super but a certain _aspect_ of a Super but then giving the reflected projectiles a +600% damage increase belongs in the "Naruto OC drawn up by an emo high-schooler with failing grades who's only power is nuking entire cities at the cost of breaking three-billion of their own bones" tier of atrocious designs.
Didn't know about the consuming of cross-counter through the arc aftershock with Liar's handshake. Really useful info!
Found the assassin cowl build vid randomly and tbh caught me off guard how good it was. 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
Little side note on bombardiers - they are basically a worse version of gyrfalcons and were used pre-nerf gyrfalcons when Hunters didnt have many keyword based void exotics
btw oathkeepers still give the draw time decrease. LB/Cat/Oath = dummy damage numbers
Its tiny tho, barely noticable
Calibans hand you nailed on the head, solid in low to mid like you said. Best used to ignite enemies but it has to kill them
Calibans hand is one of the best things you can use in a dungeon setting. Especially with healing nades. The constant ignitions can keep restoration up and get you your grenade back extremely fast.
Dance machines in the same tier as bakris. Nighthawk in the same tier as knucklehead. Cyrtarachne in the same tier as oathkeepers. Crazy
Great video, no disagreements really, except I see Omni as the best team play exotic, and Graviton as the best solo exotic because of the extended duration. I think that overshield and boosted recovery are a wash
+1 for taking a closer look at Caliban's Hand. What's unique about it is that it creates a CHAIN IGNITE on a kill - meaning that enemies that die to the explosion from the initial ignite, well they all ignite upon death too! So much fun in mid to high tier content, and a BEAST at ad-clear. Running with ember of empyrean and healing is god-mode.
Not really good at higher tier content can’t kill a harpy in legend lost sector
Slacks are usually referring to pants that are usually worn with a formal shirt without the jacket.
Just figured I say this for the ophedia you get two knives per charge which means you recharge one knife get 2 which allows for initiate spam but great video
I think by far the warlock has the best overall exotics of all the characters. I play all 3 but mostly Warlock and have all the exotics. I just feel like the warlock has the most useful exotics with Titan coming second.
A lot of people are talking about Calibans hand but I want you to take a closer look at celestial nighthawk, particularly stacked with multiple nighthawk hunters
Orpheus Rig doesn't only give you Super energy. It gives you ability energy. So yes, with good use, it gives you some ability spam possibility too. Not a big thing, but for accuracy it's good to point out it's not just Super for Deadfall.
Also - when clearing even stronger enemies in GMs, this exotic will refund your 50% of the Deadfall super VERY quickly. And since you're attacking debuffed targets, so a lot of damage, you're often getting 75% of your super back by the time it ends. It's VERY good for crowd control and just some additional orb generation for your teammates.
It's easily one of my favorite builds in mid to lower difficulty content, and I'd love to test it out in GMs! I built it to abuse Ashes to Assets and spam Vortex grenades. Fairly sure it's 10% ability energy per tethered target. 👍
Dude, oathkeeper and le monarque is with strand suspend build is strong.
I only recently started playing Hunter again since very early D1, so this list is useful.
Gemini's disorient range is larger than you think, and lasts a good while, it's a great escape ability that works perfectly with gamblers dodge allowing arc and solar hunters to get void hunters stun
Would love to see a re-rank with the updates. Radiant Dance Machines are absurd. You can build them to spam melees, spam wave-frames or breach-loaders, activate Reaper constantly, kill an ad and have 10 seconds of dodges to spam rockets for boss dps, etc. Absolutely better than Wormhusk or Liar's Handshake for PvE. Wormhusk is comedically bad in PvE relative to many other options and Handshake is basically unplayable in anything difficult.
On oathkeepers: they also shave 6 frames off your draw time. that definitely justifies taking up your exotic slot
Specially for PvE, oathkeepers aren’t useful. However, in PvP, Oathkeepers are goated. They allow you to walk with full draw indefinitely and if you use Le Monarche, it preserves the poison charge Indefinitely too.
They also made it usable in pve
Nighthawk in D tier just breaks my heart. They didnt even bother to do anything with it when Solar 3.0 came out. I still use it tho as a quick swap exotic in my loadouts for damage phases.
Honestly it’s C or B tier, definitely not D. There are tons of times where you just want that quick 1 high burst shot over the longer 3 shots of star eaters like with certain raid bosses
Calibans is in fact S tier. You get a knife kill, you instantly get the knife back, so you dont have to intentionally miss. but if you accidentally miss you get it back reallll fast. the explosions are massive, you can wipe crowds of ads in seconds
You can also tap e or r or square or X to just reset your bow charge
Oathkeepers do let you draw your arrow faster
Oathkeeper's does in fact increase the damage of the arrow the longer it's drawn so it actually can be really good in situations like trying to solo a raid/dungeon and you can have the arrow drawn behid cover, get a large damage increase to hit then hit the boss.
i would like to see this revamped with the new prismatic subclass, especially considering the nerfs to star-eaters and the insane builds using liars
a lot of other commenters already said it but I think you absolutely nailed the tier-list with the exception of caliban's hand. you're right that YAS probably beats it out in high end content, but mid and low end it is an absolute monster, straight up forbearance level ad-clear potential
edit: okay actually the only other thing I might disagree on is I would also put assassin's cowl in the GOAT tier, especially after the minor omni nerf. just depends on the content you're running as to which is better
Feels like he just glossed over how weird Radiant Dance Machines can get. Putting them in C tier just shows a lack of imagination. I don't know if I'd call them S Tier but they are very good. Firstly the infinite dodges for 5 seconds can actually be extended for more free dodges, which is great, but it also allows you to constantly get your melee back if your running gambler's dodge, combine that with Knife Trick on Solar Hunter and you have a ton of Radiant uptime, which is like a 25% damage boost.
Things get even funnier when you put on Marksman Dodge, overlooking instant reload of whatever heavy your using (Hint: Use a Rocket Launcher) and you have insane dps potential as long as you've got heavy ammo.
Granted, it isn't quite as straight forward as some exotics, but it's defs an A tier if you're being creative.
Edit: Also, Gyrfalcon's should be at least on par with Omnioculus, if you pair it with literally anything that has repulsor brace you have near constant void overshield up. Making it both an amazing offensive exotic, but a defensive exotic too.
I think this was posted right before the season came out and RDM was updated.
Caliban's is fun when there's a bunch of adds hugging a boss/champ, all adds killed by the explosion from the explosive knife create an ignition so you can get like 4-6 instant ignitions hitting the boss. pair it with healing nade for survivability.
Arthy's can oneshot a lot of enemies inc. champs(does more dmg than nighthawk gg) so it does deserve a bit more credit imo
Man I wish I got to catch this live! I love the insights you share on this game.
One situation where you would use celestial golden gun over star eater's blade barrage is against kali and shuro chi. Small hitboxes makes them hard to hit with all of the blades from BB and I might be talking out of my ass on this but I believe they have a higher crit multiplier than any other bosses so goldy is just better there anyway. but yeah celestial just isn't that great anymore.
Edit: also I believe the garden/spire harpy boss is easier to hit with a goldy rather than BB so I'd probably use it there
Caliban's can be just as addictive as Ahamkara's Spine for solar ability spam. Set your fragments up so that knives get refunded when radiant, and make sure the knife gets the final blow. On lower difficulties it'll clear a room all on its own when you catch an Acolyte in the head, but even on higher difficulties making sure to finish the enemy with the knife is easy mode to setting up chain ignites with the increased ignition range and ignitions spread scorch aspects. The only time they falter a little is vs. bosses, but they can still do work if there are adds close enough for the ignitions to catch. (and it's still fire and forget add clear) Best part, if you do miss with the knife and dodging near an enemy is a death sentence, 500% regen gets it back quick.
Fun fact: you can press your reload button to reset your bow string so it doesnt fire. Makes the oathkeepers quite good cuz you get infinite truesight in pvp
Been using FrostEEs for Strand Hunter in casual content to make sure I'm regenerating my grenade energy even faster and it's been nice. Nothing fancy, but for casual strikes or at-level raids, it helps bridge the gap.
Athrys’ Embrace does give you the benefit or chucking a small nuclear device at the enemy’s head.
I out damaged starfire warlocks with my Shinobu build soooooo
Im sorry your starfire warlocks weren't actually shooting the boss them. Im an avid shinobu's lover but even im not full copium that you are outdamaging actual starfire users
Def better than the tier listing I’ve been seeing lately SHEESH. I’m about to make a tier list of tier lister’s LOL you’d get an A right next to Aztecross. I’d put anyone in F tier with shards of ghallahorn as S tier
I do not ever use stompees in crucible, but I do keep them in my inventory solely to help me with jumping sections of raids lol
with mechaneer's tricksleeves you can do i think 1 to 2 mill damage with forerunner
ATHRYS'S EMBRACE - can 1 shot champs with right guns that can freeze( new raid shotgun, some fusion rifles with chill clip perk)
BAKRIS - top exotic for pvp, especially for stasis freeze build with CRYOSTHESIA (go watch some other youtubers to see it in action)
so, this tier list is not accurate
Agreed. Athrys, Bakris, Renewlas and Cyrtarachne’s Facade all should be at least A tier imo. Yes, you need to build into them but that's the whole point of a build right? You can do some crazy stuff with these exotics and I feel like they deserve to be higher.
I'd argue against renewal grasps. I don't think the benefit is good enough to justify the slot. The problem is that against most enemies, there isn't a benefit. If an enemy is in the duskfield, they'll freeze and it won't matter how much damage they're doing. So is extra DR really a big deal against anything other than a boss, and does that justify the cooldown penalty for that small fraction of enemies?
Just wanted to mention that Omnioculus will be even more ultra - meta with the extra fragment !!
Oathkeeper is my go-to in PvP. S-tier for me with Le Monarque.
Yes, I can hit reload to keep the uptime going, but I like to jump around a lot and play peak-a-boo, not having to worry about losing the poison bonus whilst having quality of life is super helpful. The person aiming at me on the other end doesn't need to fiddle with an extra key or button, I think it's QoL in PvP is underrated, but only with Le Monarque.
Perfect draw is underrated as hell in PvP.
This is a PvE tier list, as the intro specifies.
@@MacticsG1 Okay? I wasn't arguing against you, just stating that for PvP I'd rank it differently. I too believe Oathkeeper isn't in a good place PvE wise.
Bakris with ikelos smg-hothead-witherhoard is great when you need to run stasis.
I'd recommend trying to learn Shinobu. I'd put it at B based on your criteria. Make a build for it, and I think you'll be surprised.
agreed, a lot of the lower niche exotics he kind of glossed over, Shinobu is defs a powerful exotic and is very easy to use when you set the build up. A lot of the ones he ranked lower he's probably not really used, they can be a lot better than they appear on paper.
Shinobu's Vow, Radiant Dance Machines, The Strand Exotic Helm with the impossible to pronounce name, hell, even Bakra's isn't bad at all. The blink dodge is actually pretty nice, and if you're using Thunderlord the DPS boost is definitely worth it.
i never took off shards of galinor for all of forsaken but they capped it at 50% at shadowkeep and i've never touched it since
The more mainstreamers, sweats, elites, pros and cool dudes dismiss my precious Shinobu's, the longer I have to enjoy its absurd levels of grenade spam before Bungie gets the wiser to how much add clear I've been abusing it for.
I might have been salty that folks keep passing it over, but I delight in usurping others' expectations with near-og Titan Storm Grenade levels of making Shaxx happy.
So I guess ... cheers, thanks, and keep being the most chill dude in Cross' friends group!
I like nighthawk as an easy swap exotic with cowl for boss dps - very nice for stuff like solo dungeons, but way worse than star-eater if you're just going to wear it all the time.
Oathkeeper is great in PVP with Le Monarque to prevent poison buff from disappearing after first second!
For Ophidia Spathe it's worth mentioning, that Gambler's Dodge refunds both of the charges for this one, not the usual one. That's a good deal. Doesn't skyrocket the exotic into top tier, but it's a neat feature.
Calibans you just throw it at the enemy. If the knife itself kills or the explosion kills the enemy then it ignites and you get a full refund on the melee(if using the fragment). It is amazing for clearing out an entire room for 1 melee. If you whiff your throw then yeah you get the 500% recharge rate. It does lack in end game (master/gm) and that is only because you have to weaken the enemy first before you kill it with the proximity knife.
THISSSS