Destiny Gunslinger Guide

Destiny Gunslinger Guide by Zerox10

This will be aimed towards new and old players alike hopefully some people find it useful. Everything is based on my own opinions which have been formed by playing since day 1 and completing all the challenges available whilst also competing at a high level in PVP.

The Gunslinger

The role of the Gunslinger is to stay back and do as much damage as possible, using the right perks our class should out damage any others with similar weaponry due to the amazing reload speed and stability buffs.

Skill Tree

Skill Tree Destiny DB link

Explanation of the choices

1. Tripmine – This is by far and away the best grenade for hunter and one of the best in the game. Learn to use this as soon as it unlocks. The main tip I can offer which applies to both PVE and PVP is that you should always look to plant the grenade on a wall rather than the floor/ceiling as the Cone AOE seems to be much more effective this way(or if you’re really good stick them in the face!).
2. Triple Jump – Once you use the triple jump you’ll never go back! That said I think this is mostly down to personal preference. The double jump with extra height can be useful to get to those hard to reach places.
3. Combustion – The AoE damage provided by combustion turns the hunter super into a PVE workhorse and also gets you some free kills in PVP.
4. Circle of Life – This one will seem a bit weird but honestly all these perks are quite lackluster. I generally use the circle of the life as it provides bonus armour. The other perks can have niche uses. burn for PVP or to stop shield regeneration and the knife reset for getting those bounties done.
5. Path Unknown – Battle recovery and Toughness are the most important stats making you more durable and giving you less downtime by way of a faster shield recharge.
6. Gunslingers Trance – Amazing perk that shouldn’t be overlooked at any cost. This will turn even the most inaccurate guns into pinpoint laser beams assuming you can get 3 stacks (by way of precision kills).
7. Way of the Fearless – Toughness above all else – a dead hunter does no damage. In PVP this lets you survive quite often with just a sliver of health and stops many things from oneshotting you (e.g. tripmine grenades)
8. Chain of Woe – Another amazing perk which increases your reload speed to phenomenal levels by getting precision kills. Must have.

Armour

Focus on trying to get maximum intellect and discipline (Future War Cult sells all pieces of armour with these stats) as these will allow you to use your super and grenades much more often. Strength is less useful as it only decreases the cooldown of your throwing knife.

Exotic Armour Two words – Achlyophage Symbiote – The only exotic worth considering for Gunslinger, having 4 golden gun shots is amazing in PVP and PVE.

Weaponry

Primary Weapon – Your main focus here should be to get a good hand-cannon and/or scout rifle

Recommendations

Hand-cannons

1. Fatebringer – Amazing damage and perks Firefly for massive AoE on headshots and Outlaw for insane reload speed. Only 300 damage but does Arc damage – Get this from the Templar Boss on VoG Hard
2. TFWPKY 1969 – Easy to acquire from the crucible vendor with good damage and clipsize and maxes to 331
3. Thorn – Uses an exotic slot but is an absolute beast in PVP and holds it’s own in PVE too.

Shout out to The Last Word – incredibly strong hand-cannon for PVP

Scout Rifles

1. The Satereinne Rapier – Easy to acquire from the crucible vendor, has firefly and outlaw which are both really nice perks.
2. Vision of Confluence – Only 300 damage but does solar damage on primary, acquired from killing Atheon on the VOG.
3. Vex Mythoclast – OK this isn’t a scout rifle but it’s almost like one… Godlike damage but uses an exotic slot. Acquired from killing Atheon on VoG Hard.

Shout out to the Suros Regime – although this is an Assault rifle it’s very much like a full auto low impact scout rifle. It’s very strong in PVP and PVE due to its damage per clip.

Special Weapon – The main focus here is sniper rifles, I rarely use any other weapons. Hunters get outclassed up close with shotguns (titans and warlocks have shields and 1 hit kill melees), and fusion rifles don’t get precision damage (wasting your perks for stability and fast reload) and require you to be closer to the action and more at risk.

1. Icebreaker – Exotic but easily the most useful weapon in the game with an automatic refill of ammo every 5 seconds holding up to 6 rounds. Not good for PVP due to recoil but insane for PVE. To Acquire complete the nightfall and raids and pray for a drop or hope Xur sells it at the weekend.
2. Praedyth’s Revenge – The best PVP sniper, max stability 6 bullets and short range scope. Acquired via VoG
3. Black Hammer – Insane sniper which refills the magazine if you can hit 3 precision shots quickly (don’t upgrade hive disrupter as it’s currently bugged) acquired from Crota in the Crota’s end Raid.

I would recommend trying to get a sniper for each damage type as this can really help in the nightfall and against shielded enemies. The current vendor snipers aren’t amazing but will do the job if you can’t get any of these three. Patience and time is also a very nice sniper for PVP and does a good job in PVE also when arc damage is needed.

Heavy Weapon

These guns are really situational but I would recommend trying to get a heavy weapon of each damage type if possible as these will help you burn through any shield type and destroy the nightfalls.

The best rocket launchers should have at 2/3 in the clip and ideally tracking rockets. The best Machine guns are generally the slower firing but higher impact ones which means you can get a lot of precision damage at range.

PVP Tricks and Tips

The Gunslinger is weak in close quarters so your main aim is to engage people in ranged combat and pick them off, the hand-cannons and scout rifles are perfect for this role as long as you can land those headshots.

I also consider the Suros and Vex Mythoclast strong candidates for use in PVP as they have good range whilst also competing in close-medium range.

Grenade usage – The tripmine can easily net you 5+ kills a game with good placement, always try to plant them out of sight (walls/ceilings) but in high traffic areas (like doors in and out of B on Firebase Delphi) use them like claymores.

Super – Never pop your golden gun under fire and try to avoid using it when you’re low shields. Ideally use your super when you know that some enemies are nearby (e.g. taking a capture point) and storm in for multi-kills try to be aware that combustion can net you AoE kills thus try not to wasteshots on targets that are already dead.

Heavy Ammo – Heavy is extremely overpowered in PVP – many spawns can be overwatched by sniper and you can easily net multi-kills on people trying to pick up the Heavy. Machine Guns will net you more kills if you can stay alive but Rocket launchers counter them – I find this to be very map dependent. Larger more open maps like Shore of Time or Rusted Lands may favour a Machine Gun whereas close quarters maps like Firebase or Twlight Gap generally favour a Rocket Launcher. Unless you have an increased Heavy Ammo boot/chest then I would recommend Machine Gun most of the time as only having two rockets is weak.

Heavy Ammo Spawn Times are around 9:00 and 6:00 into the game. Learn where they spawn on each map and try to maximise the amount of team mates that grab the ammo with you. Killing other players who have heavy will also drop heavy ammo so be aware of this yourself and try not to die with heavy so as to avoid giving the enemy team ammo drops.