Aegis Weave — Silkstrike (Strand Hunter)

Anchor: Cyrtarachne's Facade · Subclass: Threadrunner · Role: Fireteam Woven Mail tank/support — grapple-fed permanent DR for the whole team — dual-exotic with The Navigator Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Built 2026-06-27

Paint the fireteam with Woven Mail straight off the Navigator's beam, then keep it on yourself by grappling on a loop — Cyrtarachne turns every grapple into more Woven Mail, and Tablet of Ruin's To Shreds re-broadcasts it from every severed kill. The result is three independent Woven Mail sources feeding a team that almost never drops out of damage resistance, while you tank the room. This is the support half of Cyrtarachne (the Widowmaker build is the brawler half).

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Super	Silkstrike	Strand rope-dart Super — room clear + grapple-cancel reposition. Not the damage core; severed/Strand kills refund it via Elemental Supercharger.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge (flex)	Dodge isn't the loop — grapple is. Gambler's refunds Threaded Spike (which severs → feeds To Shreds / Harsh Refraction). Marksman's is fine too (Navigator self-reloads via Ammo Generation).
Movement	Triple Jump (flex)	Player choice; not load-bearing.
Melee	Threaded Spike	Returning rope-dart that severs and ricochets — a free Strand debuff to feed the sever loop.
Grenade	Grapple (required)	The whole loop's trigger: every grapple procs Cyrtarachne's Woven Mail and (Widow's Silk) drops a Grapple Tangle.
Aspect 1	Widow's Silk	+1 grapple charge and your grapple creates a Grapple Tangle — doubles the grapple economy and seeds the Tangle engine. The keystone.
Aspect 2	Ensnaring Slam (champions/tank) / Whirling Maelstrom (add-clear swap)	Air-dive suspends the room (Unstoppable lock) and grants Woven Mail — fits tank + covers the artifact's champion gap. Swap to Whirling Maelstrom in add-dense content to cash the Tangle surplus into a Strand mass.

Exotic — Cyrtarachne's Facade (Helmet) + The Navigator (Energy)

Dual-exotic (one exotic armour + one exotic weapon is legal). Cyrtarachne's Facade (Helmet — Acrobat's Focus): using a Grapple grants Woven Mail for 10s and restores 10 HP; while Woven Mail is active you gain flinch resistance and kills with it active restore 10 HP (Clarity). The Navigator (Strand Trace Rifle, Special, Energy slot):

• Protective Weave — scoring 8 hits on an ally within 1s grants you 5 ammo + 10s Woven Mail and grants the ally 60 HP + 10s Woven Mail + health/shield regen. While you have Woven Mail, the Navigator deals +25% damage [+5% PvP] and gains 40 Ammo Generation (Clarity).
• Weft Cutter — 20 direct hits on one target within 1s applies Sever for 10s (15s with Thread of Continuity) and grants Woven Mail for 10s (Clarity).
• Catalyst (Gordian Knot) — hold [Reload] to enter Grapple Tangle mode: fire a floating grapple point ~23.5 m out, 30s cooldown (resets only once grounded). On-demand grapple → on-demand Cyrtarachne Woven Mail without spending grenade energy.

The loop in one line: Navigator beam → fireteam Woven Mail (Protective Weave) → +25% Navigator damage on you → grapple (Cyrtarachne) → personal Woven Mail → kills make Tangles (Transmutation) → sever/unravel → To Shreds re-broadcasts Woven Mail to allies → grapple again before it drops.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• The weapon is a fireteam buff dispenser. Protective Weave means you don't need a kill to hand out Woven Mail — 8 hits of the beam on a teammate paints them with 10s of Woven Mail plus 60 HP and regen. Sweep the beam across the fireteam and everyone is in DR on demand. That is the build's whole reason to exist and it is unconditional.
• Your own Woven Mail is near-permanent. Three stacked timers refresh it: every grapple (Cyrtarachne, 10s), every Orb pickup (Thread of Warding), and Weft Cutter sustained fire (10s, →15s sever with Continuity). Grapple supply is huge — Widow's Silk (+1 charge) + Thread of Generation (the Navigator's continuous trace damage refills the grapple grenade fast) + the catalyst grapple point every 30s — so the 10s Cyrtarachne timer effectively never lapses.
• A third fireteam Woven Mail source on top. Tablet of Ruin's To Shreds turns every severed kill into a Strand hotspot that grants nearby allies Woven Mail. You generate Sever constantly (Weft Cutter, Threaded Spike, Vile Weave Tangles), so severed kills are routine — allies get Woven Mail even when they're out of the beam.
• The Navigator is always in its damage window. It hits +25% harder while you have Woven Mail (always), and Harsh Refraction adds bonus trace-rifle damage vs targets carrying a matching elemental debuff. Unraveling Orbs (Tangle/Orb → Unraveling Rounds) + To Shreds' unravel keep the pack Strand-debuffed, so Harsh Refraction is live on every beam.
• The Tangle economy self-sustains. Thread of Transmutation (Woven Mail kills → Tangle) + Widow's Silk grapples + Elemental Siphon (Strand/Super-element kills → Strand pickup) flood Tangles; Vile Weave severs anything they touch and refunds Tangle cooldown on pickup, while Unraveling Orbs converts them into the unravel rounds that feed Harsh Refraction and Horde Shuttle.
• You tank while you support. Layered DR (three Woven Mail sources) + Cyrtarachne's flinch resistance (keeps the beam steady so Protective Weave doesn't break) + Ensnaring Slam suspending the dangerous group. You stand in the open dealing buffs; the room can't shift you.

Weapons

• Energy: The Navigator (Exotic Strand Trace Rifle, Special) — the engine. Never really stops firing: Protective Weave + Ammo Generation keep it fed, and it both buffs the team and out-damages its tier while you're in Woven Mail. It is add-clear / sustained support, not boss DPS — bring a Heavy for damage phases.
• Kinetic: flex Strand primary with Slice (or any Strand primary) — Slice severs on dodge, feeding To Shreds / Harsh Refraction / Vile Weave when the Navigator is reloading. A primary with an anti-Barrier or anti-Overload origin trait also patches the champion gap (see below).
• Power: flex boss-DPS Heavy — a Strand LMG/Sword/GL for damage phases, since the Navigator carries adds but not single-target. Element-match Strand to share Surge legs if you like.
• Champions: Tablet of Ruin carries no anti-champion mod, so champions are handled by the kit, not the artifact. Unstoppable → Suspend (Ensnaring Slam dive; suspend hard-locks them). Barrier / Overload → a flex legendary with the matching anti-champion intrinsic, or lean on the fireteam (this is a support build). Verify the current 9.7.0 champion-stun mapping in-game — pull it from the live sandbox, not old seasonal mods.

Stats & archetypes

Grenade → Health → Weapons → dump Super / Class / Melee. Grenade drives grapple uptime (the loop trigger), Health is your tank stat (more EHP under Woven Mail), Weapons feeds the Navigator's damage/handling and rides on top of the +25% Woven Mail bonus. Lead with Siegebreaker (Health/Grenade) pieces and slot a Gunner/Powerhouse (Weapons) for the third stat. A workable spread: Grenade ~150, Health ~130, Weapons ~100, everything else dumped — Thread of Generation + the continuous beam mean even a moderate Grenade stat keeps grapple online.

Set bonus (none required)

No armour set bonus is needed — the Woven Mail economy comes entirely from the two exotics + the artifact, so any archetype-correct legendary pieces work. A 4pc that adds Health, grenade regen, or class-ability uptime is free garnish but never the driver.

Artifact — Tablet of Ruin

Picks (2/3/2): Unraveling Orbs + Elemental Siphon — Harsh Refraction + Vile Weave + Horde Shuttle — To Shreds + Elemental Supercharger

Tablet of Ruin is the Strand/Tangle/Woven Mail artifact and it carries the only trace-rifle damage mod in the pools. Harsh Refraction (T2) is the centrepiece — bonus Navigator damage vs Strand-debuffed targets, which the build keeps applied permanently. Unraveling Orbs (T1) turns your flood of Tangles/Orbs into Unraveling Rounds (the debuff Harsh Refraction wants) and Elemental Siphon (T1) makes Strand/Super-element kills drop Strand pickups to keep the Tangle engine fed. Vile Weave (T2) severs everything your Tangles touch and refunds Tangle cooldown on pickup; Horde Shuttle (T2) spawns Threadlings off unraveled targets that sever in turn — both pour Sever into To Shreds (T3), the third fireteam-Woven-Mail source. Elemental Supercharger (T3) refunds Silkstrike off severed/Strand kills to close the Super loop. Everything here is a real Tablet of Ruin mod and the section is exactly 2/3/2 (verified by `artifact_parser.py --audit`).

Loop

• Grapple into the pack — Cyrtarachne grants Woven Mail + 10 HP; Widow's Silk drops a Grapple Tangle. (Hold-Reload the catalyst when grounded to plant a fresh grapple point.)
• Beam the Navigator: sweep 8+ hits across each teammate to paint them Woven Mail (+60 HP + regen); sustained fire on a target severs (Weft Cutter) and, with Unraveling Rounds, unravels. Your own +25% damage + Harsh Refraction shred the now-debuffed pack.
• Tangles appear from your Woven Mail kills (Transmutation) + Elemental Siphon. Grab them → Unraveling Orbs (unravel rounds) + Vile Weave (sever + Tangle cooldown back).
• Severed kills → To Shreds hotspots broadcast Woven Mail to allies, and Elemental Supercharger feeds Silkstrike.
• Re-grapple before the 10s Cyrtarachne timer drops — Thread of Generation has already topped the grapple grenade off the continuous beam. Loop maintains itself.
• Ensnaring Slam dive to suspend (and grant yourself Woven Mail) when a dangerous group or an Unstoppable champion needs locking down. Pop Silkstrike to reset a room; severed/Strand kills refund it. (Swap to Whirling Maelstrom in add-dense content to convert the Tangle surplus.)

Notes

• Premise check (adapted): Cyrtarachne's Facade is a Helmet (Acrobat's Focus), and The Navigator sits in the Energy slot (Strand Special trace) — both confirmed in the encyclopedia. The Navigator's "Tangles on demand" is specifically its catalyst (Gordian Knot grapple-tangle mode: hold-reload → grapple point ~23.5 m, 30s cd once grounded). Pre-catalyst the on-demand half of the loop leans on Widow's Silk grapples + Thread of Transmutation + Elemental Siphon for Tangles.
• Clarity numbers: Navigator Protective Weave = +25% weapon damage [5% PvP] + 40 Ammo Generation while you hold Woven Mail; 8 ally-hits/1s → both gain 10s Woven Mail (ally +60 HP + regen, you +5 ammo). Weft Cutter = 20 direct hits/1s → Sever 10s (15s w/ Continuity) + 10s Woven Mail. Cyrtarachne Acrobat's Focus = grapple → Woven Mail 10s + 10 HP; kills under Woven Mail restore 10 HP. Thread of Continuity = Strand debuffs +50% duration.
• Verify in-game: Cyrtarachne's flinch-resistance value isn't published by Clarity (the trait text reads "%? Flinch Resistance"). Woven Mail itself has no Clarity entry (buff-verbs aren't covered) — it's commonly cited as a large flat cut to incoming combatant damage; confirm the exact % live.
• Champion caveat: Tablet of Ruin has no champion mod — Unstoppable comes from Suspend (Ensnaring Slam), the rest from a flex legendary's intrinsic or the fireteam. Re-check the 9.7.0 anti-champion mapping in-game.