Arc

Vanishing Act — Assassin's Cowl (Arc Hunter)

Infinite-invis self-healing melee assassin

Your gear best achievable Melee 130 / 200 target — 70 short — needs better rolls

Health 67 · Melee 130 · Grenade 14 · Super 36 · Class 40 · Weapons 73 · armour only; stat mods + fragments add more

Centerpiece: Assassin's Cowl (Helmet) · Subclass: Arcstrider · Role: Infinite-invis self-healing melee assassin Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Every powered-melee kill does three things at once: it heals you, it cloaks you, and — because the melee is Combination Blow — it makes your next punch hit harder. Cowl pays the survivability, Combination Blow pays the damage, and Gambler's Dodge refunds the fist so the loop never stalls. Kill, vanish, reposition, kill — no downtime and no health bar to watch.

The exotic

Vanishing Execution: Powered melee final blows grant invisibility and restore a portion of health and shields. Finishers and final blows against more powerful targets increase the duration of the invisibility and the amount of health and shields restored.

The whole build hangs on one clause: powered melee final blows. Combination Blow's killing punch is a powered melee, so every link in the chain procs Cowl — invisibility plus a heal — for free. Clarity pins the restore at 67 HP and the invisibility duration to enemy rank (7 seconds off a minor, more against tougher targets), so the build gets safer as the content gets harder: majors and champions extend the cloak and enlarge the heal, and a finisher is a guaranteed full-strength proc whenever you need to top off. Because the melee heal and the Cowl heal fire off the same kill, you never trade damage for survivability — you collect both on every punch, and the invisibility hides the most dangerous moment in melee combat, closing the gap to the next target.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider	Arc is the only subclass whose melee (Combination Blow) heals and stacks damage, so Cowl's heal layers on top of a snowball no other element gets.
Super	Gathering Storm	Throw-and-embed staff that jolts a wide area, seeding jolted kills for Flow State and Spark of Ions when a room is too dense to open with a fist.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Dodging near enemies refunds the melee, so a used or whiffed Combination Blow charge is never dead time; it also arms Lethal Current.
Movement	High Jump	Free pick — vertical reposition to reach the next target or break line of sight while invisible; swap to Triple Jump for air control if preferred.
Melee	Combination Blow	The build: chained melee final blows heal you, refund your dodge, and stack a damage buff, and each kill also triggers Cowl's invisibility + heal.
Grenade	Arcbolt / Flux	Cheap Arc grenade for a jolt proc (with Spark of Shock) when you want one; mostly a stat dump — you live on the melee, not the nade.
Aspect 1	Lethal Current	After dodging, your next melee jolts, blinds, and drops an aftershock — free crowd control and a jolt proc baked into the dodge you already spend.
Aspect 2	Flow State	Jolted kills make you Amplified; while Amplified your dodge regens faster, you tank more mid-dodge, and reload speeds up — all of which feed the loop.
Fragments	Resistance · Ions · Amplitude · Frequency	Two aspects at 2 slots each = 4 fragments: layered DR, Ionic Traces, Orbs, and reload/Bolt-Charge uptime.
Exotic armour	Assassin's Cowl (Helmet)	Vanishing Execution turns every Combination Blow kill into invisibility + a 67 HP heal, scaling up against powerful targets.
Weapons	Arc primary + close special/heavy	An Arc primary keeps Spark of Frequency/Amplitude and the Surge live; a shotgun/glaive covers ranges the fist can't and buys a panic beat before re-cloaking.

Fragments

Spark of Resistance · Spark of Ions · Spark of Amplitude · Spark of Frequency

Why it works (the mechanics)

One kill, three payouts. A Combination Blow final blow simultaneously heals + cloaks you (Cowl), heals you again + stacks melee damage (Combination Blow itself), and refunds your dodge. Cowl and the melee heal fire off the same trigger, so the restore is doubled and the invisibility is a bonus on top — you get damage and safety from one punch, not one at the cost of the other.
Invisibility closes the gap safely. You vanish on the kill, then walk or dodge to the next target off-radar and untargetable, and open with another melee. Enemies can't track an invisible Hunter, so the riskiest part of a melee build — closing to punch range — happens while nothing can shoot you.
Gambler's Dodge makes the chain self-sustaining. Combination Blow's damage stack decays if the chain breaks, but Gambler's near enemies refunds the melee and Flow State's Amplified state regenerates the dodge faster. The cycle — dodge → empowered melee → kill (heal + invis + dodge refund) → dodge — holds the buff at max across a whole room.
Lethal Current weaponises the dodge you're already spending. The dodge you throw to refund the melee also makes that next melee jolt, blind, and drop a damaging aftershock — crowd control and a jolt proc for free. Jolt chains the damage, so a single empowered punch can clear a cluster.
Jolt → Amplified → everything faster. Flow State turns jolted kills into Amplified, which speeds dodge regen and reload and makes you tankier mid-dodge, feeding straight back into step 3. Spark of Frequency and Spark of Amplitude both upgrade while Amplified, so the Arc loop pays you for staying in rhythm.
The economy tops abilities up for free. Spark of Ions turns jolted kills into Ionic Traces (ability energy on pickup); Spark of Amplitude turns amplified-kill streaks into Orbs (Super energy). You generate ability and Super energy just by running the kill loop, so Gathering Storm returns fast for a big jolt reset when a room is too dense to open with a fist.

Stats & mods

Melee 200 → Health → Class. Melee 200 is non-negotiable — it's the cooldown of the ability the entire build is, and it scales Gambler's refund and bonus melee damage past 100. Health next because you fight in melee range even with the heals; Class to feed Gambler's/Flow State dodge uptime; Weapons and Super are dump stats. Lean into melee-forward archetypes (Brawler / Reaver) so drops carry Melee natively.

Mods:

Boots: Recuperation + Better Already — orb-pickup healing layered under Cowl's heal so a missed melee still tops you off; add Melee Kickstart if you want a whiffed-melee refund.
Arms: Heavy Handed — melee kills return melee energy and drop Special ammo, feeding both the loop and the close-range special.
Chest: Arc/melee resist mods — flat mitigation for the moments you're visible and surrounded in punch range.
Class item: Powerful Attraction — auto-vacuums nearby Orbs on dodge, so Spark of Amplitude's Orbs feed Super without breaking the rhythm.
Surge: Arc Surge — matches the Arc primary/special that keeps Spark of Frequency and the Amplified economy live; pair with Arc Siphon on the helmet for extra Orbs.
Anti-Champion: none needed against Overload — Jolt stuns it intrinsically off Lethal Current / Gathering Storm; bring weapon archetypes for Barrier + Unstoppable.

Artifact — Tablet of Ruin

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Dielectric · Photonic Flare
Tier 2: Flashover · Harsh Refraction · Gold From Lead
Tier 3: Defibrillating Blast · Elemental Supercharger

Dielectric turns the Arc kill loop into Bolt Charge, and rapidly defeating Arc-debuffed (jolted) targets spawns an Orb + a small heal — a second economy stacked on the Combination Blow chain.
Photonic Flare releases a blinding burst when you kill an exhausted/severed target with Arc damage, layering more crowd control onto Lethal Current's blind.
Flashover makes reaching maximum Bolt Charge also make you Amplified — a second on-ramp into Flow State's Amplified state independent of jolted kills.
Defibrillating Blast is the champion answer Jolt can't cover: stunning a Champion floods you with max Bolt Charge, and those bolts jolt targets and heal you — a Barrier/Unstoppable stun that feeds straight back into the jolt-and-heal loop.
Elemental Supercharger grants Super energy for defeating exhausted/severed targets with Arc-matching weapons, recharging Gathering Storm for the next big jolt reset.
Gold From Lead gives Special pickups a chance to grant Heavy, sustaining the special/heavy that covers ranges the fist can't reach.

Where it shines

Melee-forward add-clear and survival content — dense rooms of minors and majors are fuel: every kill re-cloaks, re-heals, and stacks damage, so the build snowballs through hordes that would grind a gun loadout down.
Endgame where you'd otherwise die in melee range — the "gets safer as it gets harder" scaling (longer invis + bigger heal off powerful targets) makes this a genuine melee-assassin option in high-tier content, not just low-level farming.
Champion coverage: Jolt (Lethal Current + Gathering Storm, optionally Spark of Shock) breaks Overload intrinsically; Defibrillating Blast turns any champion stun into a Bolt-Charge heal proc. Bring weapon archetypes that cover Barrier and Unstoppable (Aggressive/High-Impact → Unstoppable, Precision/Adaptive → Barrier under Anti-Champion 2.0).

Verify notes

Cowl restore = 67 HP and invisibility duration by rank come from `clarity_build_numbers.md`, which enumerates the duration fully: minors 7s, elites/enemy players 10s, minibosses/bosses 13s (finisher invis +3s). The manifest text (`exotics.md`) gives behaviour only, not the numbers. What Clarity does not break down by rank is the heal — it lists a flat 67 HP, while the manifest's "larger restore against more powerful targets" is unquantified, so confirm the heal uplift live.
Combination Blow per-kill heal, the damage-stack magnitude (commonly cited ×3), and stack duration are not an enumerated manifest perk — sourced from `knowledge/subclasses_and_aspects.md`, which confirms only the behaviour (chained kills heal + refund dodge + stack damage). Confirm the exact values in-game/light.gg.
Flow State / Lethal Current quoted verbatim from `aspects.md` (both `[+2 Aspect Energy Capacity]`, i.e. 2 fragment slots each → 4 fragments total). Gathering Storm text from `perks.md`.
Fragments (Resistance +10 Melee & DR-while-surrounded, Ions → Ionic Trace, Amplitude → Orb while Amplified, Frequency → reload/stability, enhanced while Amplified) verbatim from `fragments.md`; Spark of Frequency's numbers (15 Stability / 50 Reload Speed / 0.8x for 5.25s) from `clarity_build_numbers.md`.
Harsh Refraction — manifest correction: the real mod (`artifacts_structured.md`) reads "Trace Rifles do more damage to targets afflicted by elemental debuffs matching their element type," NOT a generic Arc-damage boost. It only pays out if you run an Arc Trace Rifle into your jolted targets; slot an Arc Trace to justify the pick, otherwise it's an idle Tier-2 mod. Flagged for the loadout — picks preserved as-is (audit-legal 2/3/2).
Stat targets (Melee 200 priority) assume the 9.7.0 cooldown curve (active ability-cooldown bonus capped at 125%) — Melee 200 remains strong but with steeper diminishing returns than at launch.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (7/10)	Arc Siphon 3e	Rapid Arc weapon final blows create an Orb of Power.
	Hands-On 3e fill	Gain bonus Super energy on melee kills.
	Heavy Ammo Finder 1e fill	Increases the effect of all contributions towards the Heavy ammo meter.
Arms (6/10)	Heavy Handed 3e	Your powered melee final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Melee Kickstart 1e	When your melee energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain melee energy for each Armor Charge used.
	Momentum Transfer 2e fill	Causing damage with a grenade reduces your melee cooldown.
Chest (5/10)	Arc Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming Arc damage from combatants.
	Concussive Dampener 3e fill	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
	Sniper Damage Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming damage from combatants that are at long range.
Legs (3/10)	Better Already 1e	Your health begins to regenerate immediately after picking up an Orb of Power.
	Recuperation 1e	Replenishes health each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
Class Item (4/10)	Powerful Attraction 2e	Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate your class ability.
	Reaper 1e fill	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.
	Outreach 1e fill	Reduces melee cooldown when using your class ability.

All 15 sockets used, 10 energy per masterworked piece; costs from the manifest. Core mods are the build's engine; fill mods are strong defaults — swap freely (chest resists should match the activity's damage types). Flex/loadout-dependent: drop Special ammo; feeding both the loop; the close-range special. - **Chest:** Arc/melee resist mods — flat mitigation for the moments you're visible.