Best and worst exotics for Hunters in Destiny 2

Hunters in Destiny 2 are the powerhouse of the fireteam in terms of dealing damage to bosses. As per class in the game, Hunters have four elemental subclasses: Arc, Solar, Void, and Stasis, further branching to different skills and trees.

Every skill functions differently, and with the right exotics, players can tweak these skills just right to suit the needs of a fireteam.

Best and worst exotics for the Hunter class in Destiny 2

Worst exotic helmet

Knucklehead Radar

This exotic helmet from Destiny 2 grants users a radar on the minimap while aiming down sight. Additional improvements to the radar will be provided if crouched.

Knucklehead Radar's perk doesn't provide anything essential to users or the entire fireteam when it comes to PvE activities in Destiny 2. It doesn't synergize with any skill available to the Hunter class, nor does it provide anything useful to the fireteam of 3.

The only merit this exotic gear can provide is additional time to view an enemy radar while aiming down, which proves to be quite useless since there can only one piece of exotic armor equipped at a time.

Best exotic helmet

Celestial Nighthawk

This exotic headgear is not only one of the most-used exotics by Hunters in-game, but it is essential to deal massive damage to bosses. The Celestial Nighthawk's armor perk is as follows:

"Modifies Golden gun to fire a single high-damage shot. EnemGun eliminated by the shot explode and grant you super energy."

Destiny 2's Celestial Nighthawk (Image via Bungie)

Hunter's bottom tree in the solar subclass adds bonus precision damage to the Golden Gun ultimate. Combining this armor with the bottom tree of Hunter's solar subclass grants additional precision damage to bosses or enemies.

Destiny 2's Hunter Gunslinger subclass (Image via Bungie)

The Celestial Nighthawk allows weapons targeting and ammunition finder modifications.

Worst exotic gauntlet

Mechaneer's Tricksleeves

This piece of exotic gauntlet increases the reload and ready speed of the sidearms, boosting the weapon's damage if users are critically injured. Although some sidearms stand out for add-clearing, it doesn't fit the role of a hunter when it comes to forming a fireteam.

Also, as sidearms have been out of meta for quite a while now in Destiny 2, Mechaneer's Tricksleeves and its role can't be filled in any way when it comes to a primary damage-dealing Hunter.

Best exotic gauntlet

Shards of Galanor

Shards of Galanor is one of the essential exotic pieces of armor for the Hunter class that can quickly fill the role of add clearing and boss damage.

Synergizing with the middle tree of the Gunslinger subclass, Shards of Galanor was first introduced in the Year 2 expansion: "The Forsaken."

Destiny 2's Shards of Galanor (Image via Bungie)

Shards of Galanor has an exotic perk, where it returns an amount of super energy to the user based on the damage and kills made with the ultimate skill "Blade Barrage." This allows a Hunter to create a loadout based on the reduced uptime of the ultimate, also for both dealing damage to bosses and killing adds.

Worst exotic chest armor

Lucky Raspberry

Lucky Raspberry in Destiny 2 is an exotic piece of chest armor. This exotic forces a Hunter to choose arc grenades in a specific subclass.

Arc grenades, however, are a type of grenade selected in the arc subclass. It chains bolts of lightning, dealing damage to enemies. Lucky Raspberry enhances the damage of arc grenades and grants a chance to recharge it every time it deals damage to enemies.

Destiny 2's Lucky Raspberry (Image via Bungie)

This exotic perk isn't that viable when it comes to high-power pinnacle activities, and there are better exotic chest armors that go well with other essential skills of Hunter.

Best exotic chest armor

The Sixth Coyote

To understand The Sixth Coyote in Destiny 2, Hunters have to understand how the top and bottom tree of the Void subclass works.

Both provide invisibility, with the top-tree requiring a Hunter to dodge to become invisible. The Sixth Coyote allows the second dodge charge for longer invisibility.

Destiny 2's Nightstalker subclass (image source bungie)

The bottom tree requires a Hunter to throw a smoke bomb, with an ally inside turning invisible. However, there's a catch. A Hunter has three skills in each subclass: a type of grenade, a type of dodge, and a type of melee.

The bottom tree melee provides an AOE smoke bomb as a melee skill. One of the dodges, if made near an enemy, removes the cooldown of the smoke bomb. This provides longer invisibility to the user along with the fireteam.

Worst exotic leg armor

The Bombardiers

The only perk of the exotic leg armor, the Bombardiers, leaves a small AOE after dodging, damaging the enemy after a short delay.

This exotic doesn't synergize with any of Hunter's skills, nor does it amplify the damage of any specific type of weapon.

Best exotic leg armor

Star-Eater Scales

Star-Eater Scales is an exotic leg armor introduced in Destiny 2 with the Beyond Light expansion.

This armor piece can work with every ultimate skill of Hunter. The exotic perk of this weapon is called "Feast of Light," which is stated as:

"You gain additional Super energy from Orbs of Power you pick up. While your Super energy is full, picking up an Orb of Power overcharges your Super, causing you to gain a burst of healing when cast and a bonus to your Super damage. At maximum overcharge, you also gain an overshield."

Star-Eater Scales is one of the most used exotic armor pieces of the Hunter class. From healing the user to providing overshield and granting bonus super damage, this exotic piece of leg armor can do it all and make the presence of a Hunter in a fireteam very essential.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the opinion of the writer.

Edited by Ravi Iyer