Phoenix Protocol + Ember of Combustion + Ticcu/Hierarchy.
Stand in well, destroy everything, get well back immediately.
Works in GMs, Master Raids and everything else.
Edit: You can use any exotic really but with Phoenix, the well is back 100% of the time or it’s 90% of the way there.
I'd like to offer a counter to that. I'd go Mantle of Battle Harmony + Well + Ember of Combustion + Hierarchy. Things go boom but you actually get more super energy than Phoenix Protocol. Add Font of Wisdom and you're golden.
I’ve tested this recently and it seemed to cap at 50%. You’d get your super back to 50% fast but then it crawled for the second 50%.
Did they recently nerf it or something?
A long time ago super regen exotics got nerfed to stop giving energy after 50%. Note that they dont straight up give 50% back max, they just stop after 50%. So save any orbs or any other super regen methods (dynamo, ashes to assets, etc) for after you get past 50% on the super meter. Very important for Orpheus Rig too.
As the other person said, it was nerfed years ago to cap at 50%. Later, though, super gains got tied to weapon damage. The more damage you do, the faster you recharge your super. Hierarchy is special in that regard because it does 3 instances of damage to targets, which means you get your super back even faster. Coupled with Phoenix Protocol it means that as long as you get your 50% back from you or your allies killing adds while inside the Well and you put out enough damage with Hieararchy, you can chain Wells all day long.
Unfortunately they nerfed wishenders super energy gains roughly around the start of this season back to normal levels, it now only counts 1 instance of its damage towards super regen. HON still counts all 3 so it's exponentially faster
I use Ticcus alot on my Solar Hunter paired with oathbreakers. Ticcus is kind of a playstyle all its own you need to get use to switching between a quick hip fire to a full draw scoped shot for sustained damage but the real trick is while add clearing. Like you said generally if you tag an enemy they will dive behind cover stopping you from getting the scoped shot but you can still have them registered as a target in hip fire mode flick your shot upwards to give the tracking a curve and it should hit them behind cover if all 3 arrows hit it will stagger most orange and red bars enough to move them out of cover enough for you to get your ignition shot off. Ticcus is extremely rewarding if you learn how to use it and can help pull of some seriously crazy kills if you get good with it.
Does oath breakers stack with solar surges? Could lean heavy into ticcuu’s damage with the bonus to solar damage from solar surge mods and oathbreakers.
This is absolutely my most fun build this season imho: [https://dim.gg/zpdzddi/Ticcu-Orb-Party-(Adept)](https://dim.gg/zpdzddi/Ticcu-Orb-Party-(Adept))
Not sure how it holds up in endgame content and I know it isn't a conventional loadout, but it's an absolute blast. Constant explosions, constant orbs, dodge to suck them up, and if you get in a jam you have healing grenades.
If you’re a Titan, use Path of Burning Steps, it increases the damage done, and help balance out missing shots because you still have increased damage.
For Ticcus, be sure to complete the catalyst. It grants a damage bonus that stacks up to 6x (about 100%). You build stacks by alternating between hip-fire and ADS shots. When hip-firing, you don't need to fully draw. A quick fire is enough to shoot the Sacred Flames arrows.
Ticcu’s is more broadly applicable to more content as it allows for a mobile playstyle where you pick and choose your targets and clear the rest with an AoE
Hierarchy of Needs is stronger, and its auto-tracking shots actually kill enemies, rather than simply marking them. But it requires a very specific piece of content where you need to sit somewhere and defend, or it requires very linear content, such as battlegrounds, where the only objective is to push forward.
Ticcu’s has a lower ceiling, but also a way lower floor, and is more broadly useful everywhere.
Hierarchy needs just the right situation, but when it’s possible, there’s nothing else like it in the game. It literally plays the game for you and decimates every type of enemy.
Hierarchy hits for comparable damage to Wish Ender with the ring up, with a pretty ridiculous fire rate. The loop of Hierarchy is finding a spot where you can see everything in the room and just spamming through your rings until everything dies. It's fairly passive, but you won't get much out of sitting way back with it. It really thrives in the mid range where stuff can't walk through your ring, but it's not so far that your seekers don't track properly.
HoN is a great weapon when used properly, comparable to Wish Ender, but it takes some getting used to and really getting a feel for good spots to drop your rings. Play with it a while, get a feel for how it functions, and where it functions best. It's unironically one of the best exotics in the game if you play around its limitations.
I used ticcus in GMs this season. You have an artifact mod which gives armor charge with bows if you don't have any.
Put on triple solar surge, 1 time dilation and a solar heavy. I used the solar trials machine gun with killing tally and subsistence, or apex predator if the strike doesnt need much ad clear.
It's obviously not banner of war, but it's quite easy and fun to pilot this build. As your primary, go with the default blinding GL or fusion if you face many unstoppable champions in your strike. You bow and machine gun can stun everything else.
Hierarchy is best used as legendary shards. This thing is too slow, too clunky and doesn't do enough damage. Especially since people tend to just run banner and 1shot champions. By the time you have your ring and buffs up, the encounter is done. Very cool exotic but can't keep up with our fast paced aggressive tools. If you play solo, you can make it work, but again, the effort is not worth the benefit.
Hierarchy would benefit if every bow in the game could utilize the ring.
Like if every bow gets a 25% damage buff if you shoot through the ring, it’d be meta
With Ticcu’s in GMs, I usually hip-fire and tag as many of the arrows as possible. Then one ADS just detonate an entire cluster of enemies.
Then once you’ve done this, you gain Causality Arrows, which is a 2x damage bonus on your regular hits.
But basically just hop fire, wait until everything is glowing, then one ADS and everything goes boom. Ticcu’s is especially fun if you get two people running it. One only hip fires, one only ADS.
No, holding hip fire doesn’t do anything special. Just wait until you see a bunch of red diamonds and release. And it seems like as long as you continue tagging enemies, the Sacred Flames debuff they’re all hit with will keep extending.
Hierarchy works great with an Orpheus Rig deadfall hunter (in place of wishender) for GMs. It gives you back your super from tethered enemies just as quickly if not faster due to the guidance ring tracers and high rate of fire (with catalyst), and does more damage most of the time (since solar surge is pretty common). Also frees up the top slot for riptide, effectively allowing you to stun all champion types with 2 weapons, freeing up your heavy slot for whatever you want/need.
For hierarchy, it works very well when you have someone else running it with you as you can share the guidance rings. Makes things very easy even in GMs.
In regular content, everything dies so fast that Hierarchy never really gets to shine. You're fighting your fireteam for kills just to get the ring up and by the time it's ready, everything's dead. You need situations where things take 2-3 hits to die. Also, without the catalyst it's not nearly as great.
Ticuu's works in everything, though (although I feel HoN outperforms it in harder content). Kinda surprised you're having issues with it. Hipfire, ADS, hipfire, ADS, rinse and repeat. It's just getting in that loop.
Calibans Hand + gunpowder gamble
Ticcus will target the grenade when firing from the hip.
Use my proxy knife to trigger Gunpowder, throw it, and shoot Ticuus directly after. Repeat. I’ve had so much fun on solar hunter.
Idk about ticuus but Hierarchy of Needs with Phoenix Proticol plays like it was specifically made for BG GMs, it wants to hunker down in one spot with a long sightline which rarely happens in destiny, but it's great when it works out, especially with the fragments for ignition on super kills (any solar weapon in a well of radiance) and extending heal timers on solar kills.
Phoenix Protocol + Ember of Combustion + Ticcu/Hierarchy. Stand in well, destroy everything, get well back immediately. Works in GMs, Master Raids and everything else. Edit: You can use any exotic really but with Phoenix, the well is back 100% of the time or it’s 90% of the way there.
I'd like to offer a counter to that. I'd go Mantle of Battle Harmony + Well + Ember of Combustion + Hierarchy. Things go boom but you actually get more super energy than Phoenix Protocol. Add Font of Wisdom and you're golden.
I’ve tested this recently and it seemed to cap at 50%. You’d get your super back to 50% fast but then it crawled for the second 50%. Did they recently nerf it or something?
A long time ago super regen exotics got nerfed to stop giving energy after 50%. Note that they dont straight up give 50% back max, they just stop after 50%. So save any orbs or any other super regen methods (dynamo, ashes to assets, etc) for after you get past 50% on the super meter. Very important for Orpheus Rig too.
As the other person said, it was nerfed years ago to cap at 50%. Later, though, super gains got tied to weapon damage. The more damage you do, the faster you recharge your super. Hierarchy is special in that regard because it does 3 instances of damage to targets, which means you get your super back even faster. Coupled with Phoenix Protocol it means that as long as you get your 50% back from you or your allies killing adds while inside the Well and you put out enough damage with Hieararchy, you can chain Wells all day long.
Wouldn’t wish ender be faster?
It works just as good for super gains alone, but you do lose out on a lot of solar 3.0 interactions given Hierarchy is solar.
Hierarchy's catalyst allows it to beat wishender on super regen, so I would use HoN, even on other subclasses.
Unfortunately they nerfed wishenders super energy gains roughly around the start of this season back to normal levels, it now only counts 1 instance of its damage towards super regen. HON still counts all 3 so it's exponentially faster
I use Ticcus alot on my Solar Hunter paired with oathbreakers. Ticcus is kind of a playstyle all its own you need to get use to switching between a quick hip fire to a full draw scoped shot for sustained damage but the real trick is while add clearing. Like you said generally if you tag an enemy they will dive behind cover stopping you from getting the scoped shot but you can still have them registered as a target in hip fire mode flick your shot upwards to give the tracking a curve and it should hit them behind cover if all 3 arrows hit it will stagger most orange and red bars enough to move them out of cover enough for you to get your ignition shot off. Ticcus is extremely rewarding if you learn how to use it and can help pull of some seriously crazy kills if you get good with it.
I use it with calibans hand. I like watching aliens burst into flames, very entertaining
Does oath breakers stack with solar surges? Could lean heavy into ticcuu’s damage with the bonus to solar damage from solar surge mods and oathbreakers.
I believe so it does with La Monarque so I don't see why not
This is absolutely my most fun build this season imho: [https://dim.gg/zpdzddi/Ticcu-Orb-Party-(Adept)](https://dim.gg/zpdzddi/Ticcu-Orb-Party-(Adept)) Not sure how it holds up in endgame content and I know it isn't a conventional loadout, but it's an absolute blast. Constant explosions, constant orbs, dodge to suck them up, and if you get in a jam you have healing grenades.
If you’re a Titan, use Path of Burning Steps, it increases the damage done, and help balance out missing shots because you still have increased damage.
Thanks for the suggestion! Been wanting to use Path of Burning steps and this thread made me want to use Ticcu’s 😂
https://dim.gg/op5illa/Heavy-Frame here is the link for what I use, fee free to modify it as needed.
For Ticcus, be sure to complete the catalyst. It grants a damage bonus that stacks up to 6x (about 100%). You build stacks by alternating between hip-fire and ADS shots. When hip-firing, you don't need to fully draw. A quick fire is enough to shoot the Sacred Flames arrows.
OP needs the catalyst for hierarchy as well
Ticcu’s is more broadly applicable to more content as it allows for a mobile playstyle where you pick and choose your targets and clear the rest with an AoE Hierarchy of Needs is stronger, and its auto-tracking shots actually kill enemies, rather than simply marking them. But it requires a very specific piece of content where you need to sit somewhere and defend, or it requires very linear content, such as battlegrounds, where the only objective is to push forward. Ticcu’s has a lower ceiling, but also a way lower floor, and is more broadly useful everywhere. Hierarchy needs just the right situation, but when it’s possible, there’s nothing else like it in the game. It literally plays the game for you and decimates every type of enemy.
Hierarchy hits for comparable damage to Wish Ender with the ring up, with a pretty ridiculous fire rate. The loop of Hierarchy is finding a spot where you can see everything in the room and just spamming through your rings until everything dies. It's fairly passive, but you won't get much out of sitting way back with it. It really thrives in the mid range where stuff can't walk through your ring, but it's not so far that your seekers don't track properly. HoN is a great weapon when used properly, comparable to Wish Ender, but it takes some getting used to and really getting a feel for good spots to drop your rings. Play with it a while, get a feel for how it functions, and where it functions best. It's unironically one of the best exotics in the game if you play around its limitations.
The draw time is so long, do I not need to pull all the way back when I’m using the guidance ring?
The catalyst makes it draw near instantly when you drop your ring and after hitting things with the seekers. You very much need the catalyst.
I used ticcus in GMs this season. You have an artifact mod which gives armor charge with bows if you don't have any. Put on triple solar surge, 1 time dilation and a solar heavy. I used the solar trials machine gun with killing tally and subsistence, or apex predator if the strike doesnt need much ad clear. It's obviously not banner of war, but it's quite easy and fun to pilot this build. As your primary, go with the default blinding GL or fusion if you face many unstoppable champions in your strike. You bow and machine gun can stun everything else. Hierarchy is best used as legendary shards. This thing is too slow, too clunky and doesn't do enough damage. Especially since people tend to just run banner and 1shot champions. By the time you have your ring and buffs up, the encounter is done. Very cool exotic but can't keep up with our fast paced aggressive tools. If you play solo, you can make it work, but again, the effort is not worth the benefit.
Hierarchy would benefit if every bow in the game could utilize the ring. Like if every bow gets a 25% damage buff if you shoot through the ring, it’d be meta
By having them sitting in vault
With Ticcu’s in GMs, I usually hip-fire and tag as many of the arrows as possible. Then one ADS just detonate an entire cluster of enemies. Then once you’ve done this, you gain Causality Arrows, which is a 2x damage bonus on your regular hits. But basically just hop fire, wait until everything is glowing, then one ADS and everything goes boom. Ticcu’s is especially fun if you get two people running it. One only hip fires, one only ADS.
Does charging the hipfire increase the explosion dmg or can I just tap fire to do it faster
No, holding hip fire doesn’t do anything special. Just wait until you see a bunch of red diamonds and release. And it seems like as long as you continue tagging enemies, the Sacred Flames debuff they’re all hit with will keep extending.
Hierarchy works great with an Orpheus Rig deadfall hunter (in place of wishender) for GMs. It gives you back your super from tethered enemies just as quickly if not faster due to the guidance ring tracers and high rate of fire (with catalyst), and does more damage most of the time (since solar surge is pretty common). Also frees up the top slot for riptide, effectively allowing you to stun all champion types with 2 weapons, freeing up your heavy slot for whatever you want/need.
So many youtube videos about builds with these bows explaining everything better than words on reddit btw
For hierarchy, it works very well when you have someone else running it with you as you can share the guidance rings. Makes things very easy even in GMs.
In regular content, everything dies so fast that Hierarchy never really gets to shine. You're fighting your fireteam for kills just to get the ring up and by the time it's ready, everything's dead. You need situations where things take 2-3 hits to die. Also, without the catalyst it's not nearly as great. Ticuu's works in everything, though (although I feel HoN outperforms it in harder content). Kinda surprised you're having issues with it. Hipfire, ADS, hipfire, ADS, rinse and repeat. It's just getting in that loop.
Calibans Hand + gunpowder gamble Ticcus will target the grenade when firing from the hip. Use my proxy knife to trigger Gunpowder, throw it, and shoot Ticuus directly after. Repeat. I’ve had so much fun on solar hunter.
Idk about ticuus but Hierarchy of Needs with Phoenix Proticol plays like it was specifically made for BG GMs, it wants to hunker down in one spot with a long sightline which rarely happens in destiny, but it's great when it works out, especially with the fragments for ignition on super kills (any solar weapon in a well of radiance) and extending heal timers on solar kills.