Vanishing Act — Assassin's Cowl (Arc Hunter)
Anchor: Assassin's Cowl (Helmet) · Subclass: Arcstrider · Role: Infinite-invis self-healing melee assassin Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16
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, with no downtime and no health bar to watch.
Loadout
| Slot | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Super |  Gathering Storm | Throw-and-embed staff; jolts a wide area → jolted kills feed Flow State/Spark of Ions and seed the next melee chain. (Arc Staff if you want a roaming melee Super.) |
| Class ability |  Gambler's Dodge | Dodge near enemies refunds the melee — refills Combination Blow so a missed/used charge is never dead time. Scales with the Melee stat. |
| Melee |  Combination Blow | The build. Chained melee final blows heal you, refund your dodge, and stack a damage buff (×3). Each kill also triggers Cowl's invis + heal. |
| Grenade | Flux / Arcbolt | Cheap Arc grenade for a jolt proc (with Spark of Shock) when you want one; mostly a stat dump — you live on the melee. |
| Aspect 1 |  Lethal Current | After dodging, your next melee jolts + creates an aftershock and blinds jolted targets. Dodge → empowered jolting Combination Blow → CC + jolt feed. 2 frag slots. |
| Aspect 2 |  Flow State | Jolted kills → Amplified; while Amplified, faster dodge regen, more resilient mid-dodge, greatly increased reload. Amplified ↔ dodge ↔ melee all reinforce. 2 frag slots. |
Spark of Resistance DR while surrounded, +10 Melee
Spark of Ions jolted kill → Ionic Trace → ability energy
Spark of Amplitude rapid kills while Amplified → Orbs- Spark of Frequency (melee hits boost reload/stability; enhanced while Amplified). *(5th slot only if an Aspect with a 3rd slot is chosen — both picks here are 2-slot, so 4 fragments.)
Exotic — Assassin's Cowl (Helmet)
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 — invis + a heal — for free. Against majors/champions the invis runs longer and the heal is bigger, so the build gets safer as the content gets harder, and finishers are a guaranteed full-strength proc when you need to top off.
Why this works (the mechanics)
- One kill, three payouts. A Combination Blow final blow simultaneously: heals you + cloaks you (Cowl), heals you again + stacks melee damage (Combination Blow's own effect), and refunds your dodge (Combination Blow). Cowl and the melee heal off the same trigger, so the heal is doubled and the invis is a bonus on top — you don't trade damage for safety, you get both per punch.
- Invis closes the gap to the next kill safely. You vanish on the kill, walk (or dodge) to the next target unseen and off-radar, and open with another melee. Enemies can't track an invisible Hunter, so the dangerous part of melee range — closing in — happens while you're untargetable.
- Gambler's Dodge makes the chain self-sustaining. Combination Blow's stack decays if the chain breaks, but Gambler's near enemies refunds the melee, and Flow State (Amplified) regenerates the dodge faster. So the cycle is dodge → empowered melee → kill (heal + invis + dodge refund) → dodge again, and the damage buff holds 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 an aftershock — free crowd control and a jolt proc baked into the refund. Jolt does the chaining damage so a single punch can clear a cluster.
- Jolt → Amplified → everything faster (Flow State). Jolted kills make you Amplified; Amplified speeds dodge regen and reload and makes you tankier mid-dodge — which feeds 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 the rhythm.
- The economy tops up abilities 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're generating Super and ability energy just by running the kill loop — Gathering Storm comes back fast for a big jolt reset when a room is too dense to open with a fist.
- Survivability is layered, not single-point. Cowl heal + Combination Blow heal restore HP per kill; invis removes you from targeting; Spark of Resistance adds flat DR while surrounded; Flow State adds resilience mid-dodge. Four overlapping layers off one playstyle — this is what lets the melee assassin survive in melee range in hard content.
Weapons
- Primary: any Arc weapon to extend the Amplified/jolt theme and stay on the Spark of Frequency/Amplitude triggers, but element is free — your damage is the fist. A fast-handling primary to swap to when a target is out of punch range.
- Special/Heavy: whatever covers the ranges Combination Blow can't reach; a close-range special (shotgun/glaive) doubles as a panic button before invis re-cloaks you.
- Champions (Anti-Champion 2.0): stun is intrinsic to weapon archetypes now — Aggressive/High-Impact → Unstoppable, Precision/Adaptive → Barrier, Lightweight/Rapid-Fire → Overload. Jolt covers Overload, so Lethal Current + Gathering Storm + Spark of Shock handle Overload behaviour off the kit itself; pick weapon frames that cover Barrier + Unstoppable.
Stats & archetypes
Melee 200 → Health 150 → Class 100+. 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 150 because you fight in melee range (even with the heals). Class to feed Gambler's/Flow State dodge uptime; Weapons/Super are dump stats.
- Archetypes that favour these pairs:
Brawler (Melee), Skirmisher (Melee/Weapons), 
Reaver (Class/Melee), 
Bulwark (Health). (Original-six names may differ in-game — verify against the manifest.) - Mods: Melee Kickstart ×2 (refund on a whiffed melee), Recuperation / Better Already (orb-pickup healing layered under Cowl),
Heavy Handed (melee kills → Special ammo + extra melee energy), 
Arc Siphon (Arc kills → Orbs to feed Spark of Amplitude's Super economy).
Set bonus (optional)
The build is complete on stats + mods + Cowl alone — no set bonus required (house rule: garnish, never a driver). If you want one, a melee- or Arc-leaning 2pc (e.g. a set that boosts melee energy or grants an Amplified/Bolt-Charge bonus on melee kills) reinforces the loop; slot it only if your pieces already carry Melee 200 / Health 150. Tier-5 gear (all exotics are Tier 5) makes those stat targets easy without chasing a set.
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 (5/10) | 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. |
| 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. | |
| Heavy Handed 3e | Your powered melee final blows create Orbs of Power. | |
| 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 fill | 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) | 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. | |
| Powerful Attraction 2e fill | Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate 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).
The loop
- Open from stealth or with a dodge. Gambler's Dodge into the first target → Lethal Current makes the punch jolt + blind.
- Combination Blow the jolted target → kill. Cowl cloaks + heals; Combination Blow heals + stacks damage + refunds the dodge; the jolt kill makes you Amplified (Flow State) and drops an Ionic Trace (Spark of Ions).
- Stay invisible, walk to the next target, repeat. Dodge again to re-arm Lethal Current and keep the stack alive; Spark of Frequency/Amplitude pay out while Amplified.
- Reset with Gathering Storm when a room is too dense to open with a fist — the wide jolt seeds a fresh chain and Spark of Amplitude orbs have it back quickly. Finish a champion/major to bank Cowl's longest invis + biggest heal.
Variants (other powered melees)
Cowl reads any powered melee final blow, so it ports cleanly:
- Strand (Threadrunner): Threaded Spike severs and ricochets — kills proc Cowl; pair with Into-the-Fray-style Woven Mail for a second DR layer (verify aspect).
- Void (Nightstalker): Snare Bomb / a charged Void melee procs Cowl, and the weaken/invis overlap stacks with Stylish Executioner. Arc is the headline build because Combination Blow's own heal + damage stack layers on top of Cowl — the others get invis + heal but not the snowballing melee buff.