Strand

Decoy — Balance of Power (Strand Hunter)

Off-radar decoy control / tanky Threadling add-clear

Your gear best achievable Class 155 / 100 target — gear ready

Health 73 · Melee 54 · Grenade 41 · Super 8 · Class 155 · Weapons 74 · armour only; stat mods + fragments add more

Centerpiece: Balance of Power (Legs) · Subclass: Threadrunner · Role: Off-radar decoy control / tanky Threadling add-clear Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Throw your class ability down and walk away. The decoy soaks the room's attention while you vanish from radar beside it; every hit it eats bleeds Threadlings, and Balance of Power makes the clone tankier, longer-lived, and a bigger seeker-factory than anyone shooting it expects. You are never where the fire is — the fight is happening at a Strand puppet you left behind.

The exotic

Double Down: Your Threaded Specter has increased duration and durability, and damaging it releases additional Threadlings. While near your Threaded Specter, you do not appear on radar.

Grants the following to Threaded Specters: 50% [25%] Damage Resistance (bypassed by damage from you); 34% increased duration; 2 Perched Threadlings. Perched Threadlings are released when the Specter takes 40 damage. Destroying the Specter releases both Threadlings. Being within 15 meters of your own Specter grants the 'Hidden' buff which removes you from enemy radar. Decreases Class Ability Regeneration Speed by 50% for 19 seconds upon Class Ability usage.

Three changes, one fantasy. Increased durability (a flat 50% damage resistance in PvE, bypassed only by your own fire) means the decoy survives long enough to keep absorbing, and 34% increased duration keeps it planted as the room's focus instead of a flicker. While it lives it carries 2 Perched Threadlings that fire off every time it soaks 40 damage — so the harder enemies commit into it, the more seekers spawn back at them, and destroying it dumps both remaining Threadlings at once. The 'Hidden' buff within 15 metres pulls you off enemy radar, so both the AI's aggro and a rival player's tracking anchor to the clone, not to you. The cost is a -50% class-ability regen for 19s on cast — the decoy is durable, not spammable, so lean on Class stat to claw the cooldown back.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Threadrunner (Strand)	Strand Hunter — the only subclass with Threaded Specter, the decoy this whole build is built around.
Super	Silkstrike	Strand's roaming rope-dart whip; the panic button for when a room gets ahead of the decoy loop.
Class ability	Marksman's / Gambler's Dodge	Activating the class ability is what spawns the Threaded Specter — this is the build's trigger; Gambler's for the melee refund, Marksman's for the reload.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra mid-air adjust to peel off the decoy and reposition into the quiet; swap to High/Strafe to taste.
Melee	Threaded Spike (Rope Dart)	Catching the returning dart grants Woven Mail (9.7.0) — a second DR source independent of the fragment loop.
Grenade	Threadling Grenade	More Threadlings in the air, stacking on the decoy's seeker flood; Grapple is fine if you'd rather have the mobility.
Aspect 1	Threaded Specter	Class ability leaves a Strand decoy that draws aggro and detonates into Threadlings when damaged or approached — its damage scales with Class stat at 100+.
Aspect 2	Whirling Maelstrom	Destroying a Tangle weaves a writhing Strand mass that seeks, kills, and sprays Unravel — a second autonomous killer fed by the Tangles the loop makes.
Fragments	Warding · Generation · Continuity · Transmutation · Rebirth	Woven Mail engine, grenade economy, longer Unravel/sever, Tangle generation, and free Threadlings on Strand kills.
Exotic armour	Balance of Power (Legs)	Makes the decoy tanky, long-lived, and a Threadling fountain while hiding you on radar beside it.
Weapons	Strand primary + open special/heavy	A Strand primary feeds Rebirth and Transmutation; the decoy and Threadlings carry add-clear, so bring a special for majors and a heavy for bosses.

Fragments

Thread of Warding · Thread of Generation · Thread of Continuity · Thread of Transmutation · Thread of Rebirth

Why it works (the mechanics)

The decoy is a damage sink that pays you to be shot. Balance of Power gives the Threaded Specter a flat 50% damage resistance (bypassed only by your own fire) plus two Perched Threadlings that release every time it eats 40 damage, and both remaining ones dump on destruction. Enemy fire is literally converted into your seekers — and the tankier the exotic makes it, the longer that conversion runs before it pops.
Radar denial is a real defensive layer, not a gimmick. The 'Hidden' buff within 15 metres of the decoy removes you from enemy radar, so hostile players lose your track and the PvE crowd's aggro stays anchored to the clone. Combined with not being the thing under fire, it is positional invisibility — you reload and reposition in the quiet while the decoy holds the line.
Class stat is the real scaling knob, and it fights the exotic's downside. Threaded Specter's own text: "This ability's damage increases with your Class stat when your Class stat is 100 or higher." Past 100 Class the detonation hits harder. Class stat also drives class-ability regen, which matters here because Balance of Power decreases class-ability regen by 50% for 19s on cast — so stacking Class both sharpens the decoy and claws back the cooldown penalty.
Woven Mail from two independent sources keeps your own DR up. Thread of Warding (Orb pickup) and the Rope Dart catch (9.7.0) both grant Woven Mail, so your survivability doesn't ride on the decoy. Even when the Specter expires you keep the Strand mesh DR running in parallel and don't fall off a cliff.
Two autonomous killers, not one. The decoy spews Threadlings; Whirling Maelstrom turns destroyed Tangles into a roaming Strand mass that seeks and kills on its own, emitting Unravel. Thread of Transmutation (Woven Mail up → weapon kills create Tangles) feeds the Maelstrom, and Thread of Continuity stretches the Unravel it sprays. The field fills with things attacking for you while you sit off radar.
The economy is self-feeding. Kills make Orbs → Thread of Warding Woven Mail; dealing damage → Thread of Generation grenade energy → another Threadling Grenade; Strand weapon kills → Thread of Rebirth Threadlings; Woven Mail → Transmutation Tangles → Maelstrom. Nothing in the loop requires you to stand in the danger zone to keep it turning.

Stats & mods

Class 200 → Grenade → Weapons. Class is non-negotiable — it is both the decoy's damage multiplier (100+) and the counter to the exotic's -50% regen penalty. Grenade fuels the Threadling-grenade economy; Weapons rounds out damage. Health is the safe dump: you already stack Woven Mail (two sources), radar denial, and a decoy soaking aggro, so flat Health DR is your least-needed layer. Archetype lean: Specialist (Class/Weapons) or Grenadier (Grenade/Class).

Mods:

Boots: Strand Weapon Surge; Orbs of Restoration to keep Thread of Warding's Woven Mail fed.
Arms: Grenade-kickstart / Momentum Transfer to loop the Threadling grenade faster.
Chest: Concussive Dampener or resist mods — cheap insurance for when you're briefly off the decoy.
Class item: Bomber / Distribution to shave the class-ability cooldown against the exotic's regen penalty.
Surge: Strand surge to match the primary and the seeker economy.
Anti-Champion: covered by weapon archetypes (Anti-Champion 2.0) — no artifact anti-champ mod needed.

Artifact — Tablet of Ruin

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Unraveling Orbs · Elemental Siphon
Tier 2: Vile Weave · Horde Shuttle · Gold From Lead
Tier 3: To Shreds · Elemental Supercharger

The Strand-native artifact, and the only pool that actually speaks this build's language — Tangle, Sever, Unravel and Threadling all have dedicated mods here, and its Strand Super-energy and weapon-economy mods keep the off-radar control loop fed. Champions are handled by weapon archetypes (Anti-Champion 2.0), so these picks amplify the seeker engine rather than chase stuns.

Unraveling Orbs — the Orbs and Tangles this build floods both grant your Strand weapon Unraveling Rounds, opening the door for Horde Shuttle and To Shreds.
Elemental Siphon — Strand-matching (Silkstrike-element) kills make Strand pickups, feeding the Orb → Woven-Mail economy.
Vile Weave — your Tangles now sever on hit and refund Tangle cooldown, turning the Maelstrom/Transmutation Tangle flood into a sever engine.
Horde Shuttle — damaging unraveled targets spawns severing Threadlings — pure seeker synergy with the decoy.
Gold From Lead — special pickups have a chance to grant Heavy, keeping your boss/major weapon stocked while the decoy clears.
To Shreds + Elemental Supercharger — close the chain: sustained damage on severed targets unravels them and drops a Woven-Mail hotspot, and severed kills with Strand weapons return Super for the next Silkstrike.

Where it shines

Add-dense PvE and survival content — the decoy anchors aggro while Threadlings and Whirling Maelstrom clear the room; you play the fight from off radar, ideal for holding rooms and staying alive in higher-difficulty add waves.
PvP / Gambit chokes — the radar-denial bubble plus a bullet-soaking clone makes the decoy a genuine mind-game tool: opponents burn ammo into a puppet while you flank unseen.
Champion coverage: none intrinsic to the exotic. Stuns come from weapon archetypes under Anti-Champion 2.0 (Aggressive/High-Impact → Unstoppable, Precision/Adaptive → Barrier, Lightweight/Rapid-Fire → Overload); a suspend source (Threadling/Grapple Tangle plays, or a suspend swap) helps disable Overloads. Bring two archetypes that cover the activity's champions.

Verify notes

Exotic text is verbatim from `exotics.md` (Balance of Power — Double Down). The exact numbers — 50% [25%] DR, 34% duration, 2 Perched Threadlings, 40-damage release threshold, 15 m 'Hidden' radar buff, and the -50% class-ability regen for 19s — are from `clarity_build_numbers.md`. The regen penalty corrects the earlier draft's "decoy comes back fast" claim: high Class stat offsets it rather than the exotic granting fast regen.
Threaded Specter and Whirling Maelstrom aspect text, plus the Class-100 scaling line, are verbatim from `aspects.md`. Whirling Maelstrom carries +2 Aspect Energy Capacity; Threaded Specter carries +3 Aspect Energy Capacity per the manifest text. The decoy spawns on "activating your class ability" (manifest wording), not specifically dodging.
All five fragments (Warding, Generation, Continuity, Transmutation, Rebirth) are verbatim from `fragments.md`, including stat deltas (e.g. Warding -10 Health, Transmutation +10 Melee, Generation -10 Grenade). The set is one valid Warding-for-Woven-Mail configuration; the subclass is swappable around the mandatory Threaded Specter.
Silkstrike super text is verbatim from `perks.md`. Weapons are generic (Strand primary + open special/heavy) — no exotic weapon centrepiece, so no `weapon_facts.json` lookup applies.
Woven Mail grants ~5s on Strand triggers per `clarity_build_numbers.md`; the exact DR % is not stated in our docs (community figure ~45%) — treat as unverified. Rope Dart Woven-Mail-on-catch is a 9.7.0 behaviour carried from the Silkstrike build doc, not re-confirmed against this manifest snapshot; the Warding source carries the loop regardless.
Artifact 2/3/2 is audit-legal against `artifacts_structured.md` (Tablet of Ruin): Unraveling Orbs + Elemental Siphon (T1), Vile Weave + Horde Shuttle + Gold From Lead (T2), To Shreds + Elemental Supercharger (T3) — all exact real mods, exactly 2/3/2.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (5/10)	Strand Siphon 1e fill	Rapid Strand weapon final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Ashes to Assets 3e fill	Gain bonus Super energy on grenade kills.
	Heavy Ammo Finder 1e fill	Increases the effect of all contributions towards the Heavy ammo meter.
Arms (6/10)	Momentum Transfer 2e	Causing damage with a grenade reduces your melee cooldown.
	Utility Kickstart 3e fill	When your class ability energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain class ability energy for each Armor Charge used.
	Fastball 1e fill	Increases grenade throw distance.
Chest (6/10)	Concussive Dampener 3e	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
	Strand Resistance 2e fill	Reduces incoming Strand damage from combatants.
	Sniper Damage Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming damage from combatants that are at long range.
Legs (7/10)	Strand Weapon Surge 3e	Your Strand weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Orbs of Restoration 1e	Picking up an Orb of Power grants a small amount of energy to your ability with the least energy.
	Strand Weapon Surge 3e fill	Your Strand weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
Class Item (5/10)	Distribution 3e	Reduces all ability cooldowns when using your class ability near targets.
	Bomber 1e	Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.
	Reaper 1e fill	Shortly after using your class ability, your next weapon final blow spawns an Orb of Power.

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: the seeker economy. - **Anti-Champion:** covered by weapon archetypes (Anti-Champion 2.0) — no artifact anti-champ mod needed.