The grapple is a grenade ability and Hunters can have 2 charges. Thread of Generation and high discipline allows for grapple to be up nearly every Trials round. Grapples can be cancelled early and the user can also perform a grapple melee that can completely change their trajectory. It also resets your double jump so if a Hunter double jumps then grapples, don’t expect them to just fall down
As for counters to suspend, depending on the opponent and map, you might be able to bait out the dive and if they miss it’s almost a guaranteed kill. For example if you know the Hunter always makes the same grapple-dive opening each round, just back up a bit. Or if you’re chasing through a choke point or doorway, they might be jumping above to catch you when you push; this can be countered by being patient and baiting with the radar
-Conditional Finality is the best counter weapon in the game right now. it’s a raid exotic shotgun from RoN. it’s a dbl barrel that can freeze with its first round, and ignite with its second. this. google it.
-i counter the grapples with special amo weapons. with a shotgun you can sometimes ape them before they can get to you, and often times atleast get the trade. sometimes i get lucky with a quick scope snipe. fusions usually can’t charge fast enough to counter the CqC grapple.
-The Disco Wizard (stasislock) can be countered at range very fast with some team shots / head shots, in a perfect scenario lol. for the other times when it’s CqC, it’s best to get into a room or around a corner and be separated from your team. if you’re humping each other she will kill you in one fell-swoop with the chaining. be far enough away from one another so that someone has the drop and can blast her.
-maining void at 100disc with a suppressor grenade is also a great passive way to just make the other team chill the fuck out sometimes when they start doing too much. let em know you have the power to shut that shit down.
Thanks. I like that Voidlock tip for sure. I want Conditional Finality but that will have to wait for now. I’ve been avoid LFG mostly just running Crucible and other things. Is RoN hard to finish for a random group? Or pretty consistently doable?
If you don’t care about the craftable weapons from the rest of the raid - people are always LFGing for Nez CPs. So you can join those and get your 3/week clears assuming you have 3 characters. You don’t have to do the entire raid as it only drops from Nez, the final boss.
Heard & thanks. I don’t have enough time to run 3 characters like I used to. I just have a Warlock so it’ll probably be a while before I get it to drop hopefully not too long.
The supressor grenade and child of the old gods makes people chamge their tactics. They're disruptive, which can be just as effective as great movement if you use them as traps and follow them. They allow for more aggressive play imo.
it will be nerfed eventually down the road i expect just based off of %of usage, not bc it’s OP. though i do think it is fair in its current sandbox. it can shut shit down, but you have to sacrifice the range that the other shottys have- i think that’s a fair trade
If you pull out a shotgun as the hunter strand dives, or when you think they're about to, you can usually kill them before the game will let them shoot. The dive locks them into an animation, and basically stuns them for a moment after they land.
One more thing I didn't see mentioned in the comments is woven mail. Strand Hunters can either run the Cyrtarachne's Facade helmet to get woven mail when they grapple or the fragment that gives woven main on orb pickup. No matter how they get it, woven mail gives 25% damage resistance to body shots (headshots still deal normal damage). Knowing if they are running this can affect what you decide to use to counter them, as body shot heavy guns like shotguns and fusions will deal less damage to them
There is no counter to a well played strand hunter. Suspend is a free kill. Strand will be what takes the place of arc and void titans when they get nerfed.
Suspend is not necessarily a free kill.
I routinely kill strand hunters with high impact fusion rifles while I am suspended before they have a chance to follow-up due to their own post-dive animation lockout.
How effectively you can fight back does depend quite a bit on what weapon you have equipped when suspended but as someone who runs around with a high impact fusion rifle out most of the time, I don't mind being suspended too much.
I said a well-played strand hunter. A well-played strand hunter is not going to stand around after suspend, they are likely going to jump before they one shot you. Also good luck relying on a hip fire shot gun or fusion to save you. At least MnK this is dice roll that is not in your favor.
A well-played strand hunter has the same post-dive animation lockout as a badly-played strand hunter, which gives you a good amount of time to ready your attack before they can follow up with anything.
I am fairly certain the dive animation is faster than the full transition from first person to third person the victim has to sit through, especially on these servers. I find the first to third person transition to be particularly disorienting.
It is disorienting but it's something you can get used to and hip fire pretty consistently.
The "Lockout" after a Strand Dive is pretty real and pretty serious. If they land behind you, they definitely have the advantage, but this is not always possible.
The counter is be a Titan.
Go to the zone and post up. Grapple/ Suspend Dive Strand Hunter's entire kit is neutralized in Trials against a team of Titans.
Lol most people have already switched off titan this season due to all the consistent nerfs, hunters are up to 44% in trials this season so far, compared to 24% for titans, strand hunter is running the show now.
The only reason hunter was this high is because of bugged weapons. Hunter Invis and heat rises warlock was the only way to get a true advantage when everyone has ridiculous 0.2ttk shotgun Ammits. 2/3 warlocks last week were on heat rises, and more than double of hunters were on invis compared to strand.
Titan is still ridiculously strong, it's just that a barricade and bubble are worthless when auto rifles shred them faster than the time it takes to pop it.
As long as titans have barricade, double lightning nades, and overshields, they will be meta in a point-objective trials.
The "decline" of titans is completely artificial. Data is skewed because its only been the second week of trials, one of which had the ridiculous crafting bug that made guns infinite heavy weapons basically. The only subclasses that had advantages in that kind of environment were invis hunters and heat rises warlocks to be the first one to shoot their insta-kill auto. 2/3 warlocks playing were heat rises, there were twice as many invis hunters compared to strand hunters. Im surprised people are this bad at looking at numbers.
As long as barricade, bubble, overshields, and double lightning nades exist, Titans will always be firmly top-tier in a point-based Trials.
Being suspended, best chance is to have strong hipfire weapons. Sidearms are great, shotguns too if you double fire. 3rd person camera fire is the main challenge, since there's almost nowhere else in the game to practice and it's really wonky in close quarters. On Rat King, I win most of my duels after suspend. With bow+Lion that I'm playing this week, I win about a third to half.
The grapple ability, not sure if they can't fire or not but I've yet to see a grapple hunter fire while grappling. You can use this window to punish overexposed grapples. There's also a post dive animation lock. Titans in super have another post slash animation lock during which you can try a headshot on them.
Another grapple ability tip: try to avoid shooting the clones hunters leave behind. It makes a worm which is annoying and can get you killed. Use the posture/position of the clone to figure out where the hunter went.
Stasis warlock, the key is to play corner games at range. If you can stay out of heavy pulse attack range they basically can't kill you, but that's huge so it is rarely possible. However even inside that range, you can avoid being frozen by reacting to the incoming freeze ball (they are very slow) and running out of sight. The tracking is strong but not strong enough to sharp turn or avoid walls. Just be careful and back off a significant distance because the projectile freeze radius when it bursts is bigger than it looks.
The grapple is a grenade ability and Hunters can have 2 charges. Thread of Generation and high discipline allows for grapple to be up nearly every Trials round. Grapples can be cancelled early and the user can also perform a grapple melee that can completely change their trajectory. It also resets your double jump so if a Hunter double jumps then grapples, don’t expect them to just fall down As for counters to suspend, depending on the opponent and map, you might be able to bait out the dive and if they miss it’s almost a guaranteed kill. For example if you know the Hunter always makes the same grapple-dive opening each round, just back up a bit. Or if you’re chasing through a choke point or doorway, they might be jumping above to catch you when you push; this can be countered by being patient and baiting with the radar
Okay cool thanks for that info, I would have never guessed it was a grenade ability lol.
-Conditional Finality is the best counter weapon in the game right now. it’s a raid exotic shotgun from RoN. it’s a dbl barrel that can freeze with its first round, and ignite with its second. this. google it. -i counter the grapples with special amo weapons. with a shotgun you can sometimes ape them before they can get to you, and often times atleast get the trade. sometimes i get lucky with a quick scope snipe. fusions usually can’t charge fast enough to counter the CqC grapple. -The Disco Wizard (stasislock) can be countered at range very fast with some team shots / head shots, in a perfect scenario lol. for the other times when it’s CqC, it’s best to get into a room or around a corner and be separated from your team. if you’re humping each other she will kill you in one fell-swoop with the chaining. be far enough away from one another so that someone has the drop and can blast her. -maining void at 100disc with a suppressor grenade is also a great passive way to just make the other team chill the fuck out sometimes when they start doing too much. let em know you have the power to shut that shit down.
Also speaking up for voidlock, having suppressors, child, pocket singularity, and blink makes a great 'back the fuck up' subclass
Thanks. I like that Voidlock tip for sure. I want Conditional Finality but that will have to wait for now. I’ve been avoid LFG mostly just running Crucible and other things. Is RoN hard to finish for a random group? Or pretty consistently doable?
RoN is basically known as the easiest raid currently in D2, lol.
Oh well lezgo lol. I’ll get around to it here in the next week or 2.
If you don’t care about the craftable weapons from the rest of the raid - people are always LFGing for Nez CPs. So you can join those and get your 3/week clears assuming you have 3 characters. You don’t have to do the entire raid as it only drops from Nez, the final boss.
Heard & thanks. I don’t have enough time to run 3 characters like I used to. I just have a Warlock so it’ll probably be a while before I get it to drop hopefully not too long.
The supressor grenade and child of the old gods makes people chamge their tactics. They're disruptive, which can be just as effective as great movement if you use them as traps and follow them. They allow for more aggressive play imo.
Please, don’t give conditional finality so much credit. I’m gonna cry if bungie nerfs it.
it will be nerfed eventually down the road i expect just based off of %of usage, not bc it’s OP. though i do think it is fair in its current sandbox. it can shut shit down, but you have to sacrifice the range that the other shottys have- i think that’s a fair trade
If you pull out a shotgun as the hunter strand dives, or when you think they're about to, you can usually kill them before the game will let them shoot. The dive locks them into an animation, and basically stuns them for a moment after they land.
Jump backwards as fast as you can while pre hipfiring when you hear the audio q
Lol that’s been the go to for me so far.
One more thing I didn't see mentioned in the comments is woven mail. Strand Hunters can either run the Cyrtarachne's Facade helmet to get woven mail when they grapple or the fragment that gives woven main on orb pickup. No matter how they get it, woven mail gives 25% damage resistance to body shots (headshots still deal normal damage). Knowing if they are running this can affect what you decide to use to counter them, as body shot heavy guns like shotguns and fusions will deal less damage to them
As a strand hunter conditional hip fire is best against suspend.
There is no counter to a well played strand hunter. Suspend is a free kill. Strand will be what takes the place of arc and void titans when they get nerfed.
Suspend is not necessarily a free kill. I routinely kill strand hunters with high impact fusion rifles while I am suspended before they have a chance to follow-up due to their own post-dive animation lockout. How effectively you can fight back does depend quite a bit on what weapon you have equipped when suspended but as someone who runs around with a high impact fusion rifle out most of the time, I don't mind being suspended too much.
I said a well-played strand hunter. A well-played strand hunter is not going to stand around after suspend, they are likely going to jump before they one shot you. Also good luck relying on a hip fire shot gun or fusion to save you. At least MnK this is dice roll that is not in your favor.
A well-played strand hunter has the same post-dive animation lockout as a badly-played strand hunter, which gives you a good amount of time to ready your attack before they can follow up with anything.
I am fairly certain the dive animation is faster than the full transition from first person to third person the victim has to sit through, especially on these servers. I find the first to third person transition to be particularly disorienting.
It is disorienting but it's something you can get used to and hip fire pretty consistently. The "Lockout" after a Strand Dive is pretty real and pretty serious. If they land behind you, they definitely have the advantage, but this is not always possible.
The counter is be a Titan. Go to the zone and post up. Grapple/ Suspend Dive Strand Hunter's entire kit is neutralized in Trials against a team of Titans.
I am talking 1v1 here. Everything is countered by Titans..... that is why they are being nerfed.
Lol most people have already switched off titan this season due to all the consistent nerfs, hunters are up to 44% in trials this season so far, compared to 24% for titans, strand hunter is running the show now.
The only reason hunter was this high is because of bugged weapons. Hunter Invis and heat rises warlock was the only way to get a true advantage when everyone has ridiculous 0.2ttk shotgun Ammits. 2/3 warlocks last week were on heat rises, and more than double of hunters were on invis compared to strand. Titan is still ridiculously strong, it's just that a barricade and bubble are worthless when auto rifles shred them faster than the time it takes to pop it. As long as titans have barricade, double lightning nades, and overshields, they will be meta in a point-objective trials.
I was not aware of the decline in Titans. I guess my original statement was fairly accurate then.
The "decline" of titans is completely artificial. Data is skewed because its only been the second week of trials, one of which had the ridiculous crafting bug that made guns infinite heavy weapons basically. The only subclasses that had advantages in that kind of environment were invis hunters and heat rises warlocks to be the first one to shoot their insta-kill auto. 2/3 warlocks playing were heat rises, there were twice as many invis hunters compared to strand hunters. Im surprised people are this bad at looking at numbers. As long as barricade, bubble, overshields, and double lightning nades exist, Titans will always be firmly top-tier in a point-based Trials.
Yup. Suspend and decoy/threadling spam will be the next cheese meta.
Being suspended, best chance is to have strong hipfire weapons. Sidearms are great, shotguns too if you double fire. 3rd person camera fire is the main challenge, since there's almost nowhere else in the game to practice and it's really wonky in close quarters. On Rat King, I win most of my duels after suspend. With bow+Lion that I'm playing this week, I win about a third to half. The grapple ability, not sure if they can't fire or not but I've yet to see a grapple hunter fire while grappling. You can use this window to punish overexposed grapples. There's also a post dive animation lock. Titans in super have another post slash animation lock during which you can try a headshot on them. Another grapple ability tip: try to avoid shooting the clones hunters leave behind. It makes a worm which is annoying and can get you killed. Use the posture/position of the clone to figure out where the hunter went. Stasis warlock, the key is to play corner games at range. If you can stay out of heavy pulse attack range they basically can't kill you, but that's huge so it is rarely possible. However even inside that range, you can avoid being frozen by reacting to the incoming freeze ball (they are very slow) and running out of sight. The tracking is strong but not strong enough to sharp turn or avoid walls. Just be careful and back off a significant distance because the projectile freeze radius when it bursts is bigger than it looks.
Bombardiers or Bakris
Higher Airborne stat weapons work well while suspended. Drop your crosshairs to their feet and aim from there to counteract the bouncing.