Why are Stats important?
Stats determine several things in the game.. They affect how long it takes to regain your Super, Melee, Grenade, and Class abilities, as well as how much damage you take from combatants and how quickly you recover your health.
There are three main ways to spec into stats: the first one is to obtain armor with a high value on the spec you want to focus on, the second is to use Aspects or Fragments to increase or decrease your stats, and the third one is to use armor mods to increase a Stat.
When looking for high-stat armor pieces, keep in mind that you can use a Ghost mod to influence which stat you want, with a guaranteed stat of at least 10. When you masterwork a piece of armor, you will also gain 12 total (2 per stat) points.
List of Stats:
Hunter's new exotic: Gyrfalcon's Hauberk.
First, let’s go over what each stat does so we can decide which ones to focus on. Each Stat has ten Tiers, and you can see the level of each Stat in your build on the Character Page menu. You can also select whether to see the Build Stats or the Gear Stats on each armor piece.
- Mobility increases your movement speed and maximum jump height. This is also the Hunter’s Class Ability cooldown.
- Resilience increases the amount of damage you can take before dying and increases your shield capacity. Reduces the damage taken from combatants. Also reduces the amount of damage you take when breaking out of Stasis. In the Crucible, it reduces flinch.
- Recovery increases the speed at which you regain lost health.
- Discipline decreases the cooldown time of your grenades, allowing you to use them more often. Stasis abilities have longer cooldowns than Arc, Solar, and Void abilities.
- Intellect decreases the cooldown of your Super ability, allowing you to use it more often. Stasis abilities have longer cooldowns than Arc, Solar, and Void abilities.
- Strength decreases the cooldown time for your melee ability allowing you to use it more often. Stasis abilities have longer cooldowns than Arc, Solar, and Void abilities.
What Stats should you Prioritize?
When working on a build, it is important to consider which Stats will be the main ones you want to focus on. On a standard build, you should aim for three stats above 70. It is possible to get a maximum of 3 to 100 points, but getting the correct distribution requires some luck.
1. Resilience (Best)
Liar's Handshake helps you survive with its exotic perk.
Resilience was once the least important Stat for all classes. However, following the 3.0 Reworks, the ability has become the most important and desired in the game. Previously, the effect of the stat was negligible at best, but having a 100 stat now grants you up to 40% PVE damage resistance.
Resilience is now so powerful that you can use it for any build and stay alive for longer. You should make it a priority to increase your Resilience to 100 for each build.
In the Crucible, where you don’t get damage resistance, the Stat is less useful, but it does help reduce flinch. While it is desirable, it is not required if you are attempting to create a PVP build for your character.
Tip: Each Subclass has a Fragment that grants +10 Resilience as well as another effect that can be used to create builds. This will also free up at least one mod for use with other Stats or in your build.
2. Mobility
Gambler's Dodge gives you back your Melee ability when dodging near enemies.
Mobility is the Hunter’s Class Ability stat, and it determines not only your speed and ability to jump, but also how quickly your Dodge replenishes. Doge is very important to Hunters, especially in this meta, and having a high Mobility will help you regain your Dodge and proc invisibility or replenish your Melee ability frequently.
Even if you are not using an exotic or an ability that instantly recharges your super, having the Stat at 100 will give you a low cooldown. Another option is to use The Sixth Coyote exotic, which grants you a second dodge, allowing you to have one up at all times.
Tip: Powerful Friends is an essential mod that grants +20 Mobility if another Arc mod is equipped on the same piece of armor.
3. Discipline
Healing Granade helps you survive longer.
This is my recommendation for the third ability to prioritize; you don’t have to aim for 100, but anything above 70 should suffice. Discipline will help you recover your grenades faster, and they can be used in a variety of builds, such as healing you with Healing Solar Grenades.
A good Discipline build is to use the Shinobu’s Vow exotic arms to improve your skip grenades and give you a second charge. If you have a high Discipline Stat, you will almost always have your grenades ready to use.
Tip: The Ember of Char Solar Fragment increases your Discipline by +10 and causes your solar ignitions to spread scorch to affected targets. This should be combined with Gunpowder Gamble for an explosive combo.
4. Intellect
The addition of Aspects and Fragments make Intellect a less desired Stat.
Intellect was very important in previous metas because subclasses worked a lot around their supers. However, with the expansion of the subclasses’ toolkits in the form of aspects, fragments, and new abilities, you are probably doing a lot of damage and clearing out adds and can leave your supper for a more strategic situation or a boss, making it less important for it to always be up.
Following the most recent changes made by Bungie, Intellect may require a rework. It’s not a priority right now to always have your super up, and even in the Crucible, you have other options, as the recent changes make the super recharge more slowly.
Tip: Starting with this Stat, you should not invest or strive for a high level in the following stats. It is preferable to concentrate on three main Stats rather than have Stats distributed evenly.
5. Strength
Combination Blow and Gambler's Dodge make the Strenght Stat obsolete.
This Stat is rendered obsolete by one of Hunter’s Class Abilities, Gambler’s Dodge, which replenishes your Melee ability when you Dodge near enemies. You can also combine it with Combination Blow, which replenishes your class ability when you defeat enemies, creating a very fun loop.
While not everyone enjoys “risky” styles, using Gambler’s Dodge with the Void Vanishing Step Aspect, allows you to instantly become invisible, which is great for survivability. It is not at the bottom of the list because there are some builds that you can work with strength. Even so, you can improve your grenade recharge rate with Aspects and Mods, so putting a lot of points in your Strength Stat isn’t required.
Tip: If you want to make a build for your Hunter with high Strength, you can swap this Stat for Discipline in the priority order. In this case, I strongly advise you to use Marksman’s Dodge, which reloads your weapon.
6. Recovery (Worst)
The Vanishing Step Aspect gives you time to recover by becoming invisible.
In theory, not prioritizing Recovery could put you in a vulnerable position. There are several tools in the current meta that render this Stat irrelevant. Combination Blow, an Arc melee ability, restores some health after killing an opponent, Solar Hunters have healing grenades, and Void Hunters have invisibility, all of them allow you to regain your health by disengaging from encounters.
There are also two very strong exotics for this meta. You can use the Assassin’s Cowl exotic helmet to become invisible after fully charged melee final blows; or the Liar’s Handshake exotic to regain health after being hit by an opponent or using your Arc melee ability.
Tip: While this Stat should be at the bottom of your priority list, you should aim for Tier 2 (20-29 points) to have some survivability in the Crucible.
