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Destiny Build: The Gunstalker

Tags: #Dragonborn1721  #Destiny 
  • August 8, 2017

    So, with Destiny 2 coming out, and the fact that Destiny is by far one my favourite games to play over the last year, I decided to go ahead and start working on another build that I've been playing around with. At first I thought it was going to be kind of gimmicky, with very little substance and an unclear ability to take down enemies but after playing through the main chunk of the game, I realized that she was actually pretty  viable and at Level 28 was capable of dealing better PvE damage then some Level 40 characters (ones that weren't support-oriented either). 

    The trick behind the build is to combine Shadowshot (the Nightstalker Super Ability) with Hand Canons, Sidearms and Machine Guns to create a character that can mow down hoardes of enemies or stagger-lock stronger enemies and take them down with massive blows. I do however have an alternate version of this build (built with the same character, but more oriented for early-game play) that focuses more on High-Output Impact Damage, focusing on Sniper Rifles more than anything else, but that's a seperate build. 

    The Build

    Race - Awoken or Human (but let's be real, it doesn't matter that much)

    Gender - Female (Again doesn't really matter).

    Class - Hunter

    Subclass - Nightstalker

    The Nightstalker is a key component to this build, and it's mostly because of it's unique combination of Support and DPS based abilites that allow it to kind of...support itself to deal more damage, which is kind of rare in Destiny (most subclasses are suited for one or the other). 

    Weapons:

    So here is where my build get's really, really tricky for me to make a reality. I'm actually aiming to get a single item that will benefit the entire build and kind of make it 'perfect' by enhancing everything from my casual damage output, to my Super's strength to even the abilities and upgrades that I select along the way. Because of this, I'm going to have to grind the ever-living shit out of the game or pray that Xur sells it at some point in the next week (and that by then I've ammased enough Strange Coins to buy it).

    Hand Cannon - Rather than submit an individual item at the moment (because I haven't found one that's relatively easy to find yet), I'm instead going to suggest looking out for Hand Cannons with high Impact, large magazines and hopefully Intellect/Stability modifiers to make it easier to use and reduce the cooldown of the Shadowshot. 

    This allows for a slightly more rapid approach to combat, being able to snap shots off a lot faster and for longer without reloading which ultimitely ups our damage output (and allows for some crazy precision shots if done right). 

    Sidearm - Vestian Destiny is the sidearm of choice for...welll basically until you get something that can double it's base damage. Basically, the Vestian Dynasty is insane, with an incredibly high stability, rate of fire, larger than normal magazine and the ability to potentially supress the abilites of Fallen Captains (as a sidearm, it also doesn't trigger the shield's of Hobgoblin's which is kind of cool.). Basically it's one of the best early-mid level weapons that is better than a lot of 250 (ish) damage sidearms in the game.

    Machine Gun - Just like my Hand Cannon I haven't found one that's unique really, but we'll be using one of Machine Guns with a smaller magazine (basically you get the ones that have 70+ ammo and the ones that are closer to 30 and we're going with the latter). They tend to be a bit more stable in my opinion which is always good but it's mostly because I've found 12 of them in a row and I'm kind of used to having the lower ammo clips. 

    Armour: 

    Helmet - Graviton Forfeit is kind of perfectly made for any Nightstalker considering...okay considering it's one of the only items made purely for the Nightstalker class. What it does is give the player access to the Shadowstep Perk/Modifier for free, basically allowing for the Nightstalker to evade attacks rather easily. Honestly I'm going to test it out before signing on to that, at the moment but for now it definitely seems like an interesting enough perk to make hunting down this helmet worth it. Now don't assume that's the only benefit, Graviton Forfeit also has the potential to provide massive boosts to Intelligence, and has the Heavy Lifting perk which means we gain more Super Energy from using Heavy Weapons (always a plus).

    Armour - We're going to mainly focus on High Intellect (for that reduced Shadowshot cooldown) but anything that helps Hand Cannons or Sidearms is going to be appreciated. Sadly Armour mainly focuses on incresing the EXP gain, so it's not perfect but some Legendary armour pieces will have better effects so really as long as it boosts something we're already focusing on (Super, Sidearms, Hand Cannon or Machine Guns) then your set.

    Legs - Hmm, well at the moment I'm running with the High Command Boots, which can be bought if you join the New Monarchy. The main bonus they provide is increased Agility whenever you get a Void Ability Double Kill but I'm not entirely sure if that's a random perk. Anyway, it's also a high Intellect pair of boots so it's generally ratehr useful for this character. Any will do, but I personally went with these since I ran into them rather early. 

    Hands - Just focus on the same kind of things as the Armour and Legs really, all our armour will pretty much boost the same things since we have a kind of narrow focus on Pistols, Machine Guns and Intelligence. 

    Cloak - Personally I'd go with any of the Nightstalker based cloaks. I ran the Nightstalker Cloak for most of my journey but that's an exclusive item you get for purchasing The Taken King Collector's Edition and I managed to get that for about $40 or so back around Christmas so I'd probably consider something else unless your buying that (which I'd half-recommend if it's on sale). So yeah, really any Cloak, again keep an eye out for Intelligence, Sidearms and Hand Cannons mostly. 

    Here's the link to the images that I took inspiration from to create this little perk spread, but I tried for my own little twist.

    Combat

    Combat for the Gunstalker is really, really fun in my opinion. Hand Cannons are a rather interesting type of weapon in the game, mostly because they work on a really weird basis for a pistol. They revolve around the idea of doing large amounts of damage in a single shot, and providing high stagger rates which the (generally) larger impact ratings. This, more or less is the opposite of how most pistol-based weapons function in games, and I wanted to test this awesome weapon. Basically, my research told me that there are very few weaknesses to the Hand Cannon, and thus it became my prime method of fighting.

    Most of the time your going to want to start out combat with either the Sidearm or Machine Gun to deal damage to larger groups of enemies rather quickly rather than the slower pace of the Hand Cannon. As soon as you've run out of ammo, or the remaining enemies are too strong for your weaker weapons, switch to the Hand Cannon and just blow pieces out of the remaining enemies. Their high Impact, decent Stability and rather insane Damage makes it easy to finish enemies off, and makes it perfect for staggering stronger enemies.

    The Fallen and Vex are rather easy, with obvious weak points (the Vex even have a glowing one for f**k's sake), with the Cabal and Taken being somewhat harder because they've got better/more shielded units that this character can really struggle with. Just remember the two golden rules of critical hits (If it's a head, hit it and if it glows it'll blow up :P). 

    Closing Notes

    It's uh, somewhat shorter than I thought, and I'm sure I missed something now that I think about it, but this is the gist of the build, but nope I've got it all really. Perks (or whatever they're called), Class, Equipment, can't think of it. Anyway, thanks for reading guys, I'll have the alternate version of this build posted within the next couple of decades, it's mostly focused on Sniper Rifles, giving a bit more range to the build and making it a little more interesting as a potential PvP character (of course, I play Solo only, so I've got no idea). 

  • Member
    August 8, 2017

    No idea of that game but there's something new in the rpg group so whats not to like.

    I'd suggest pics with a small black border over plain stuff, tho.

  • Member
    August 8, 2017

    So I'm not really well informed about how RPG Builds and Destiny operates, but is there even a tiny chance some roleplay could find its way in here, or perhaps a ittle backstory? Maybe I'm just too set in my Skyrim build ways, but a little personality on top of gameplay goes a long way in my eyes :) Obviously if this isn't possible then just ignore me.

  • August 8, 2017

    It's not impossible, but it is very difficult to Roleplay in Destiny, there aren't really conversation paths or anything like that (you know the sort of thing you find in Dragon Age or Mass Effect), there's no quests and while you could probably end up doing some RP with other people it'd be very limited. I was originally going to write a story for the character, but unfortunetly, you know, the game is just rather set in stone in regards to the Backstory.

    Thanks for dropping in Zonn, Relycs, much appreciated :D