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Solar

Knifestorm — Blade Barrage (Solar Hunter)

Burst DPS / Super-spam

Centerpiece: Shards of Galanor (Gauntlets) · Subclass: Gunslinger · Role: Burst DPS / Super-spam Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

You vault into the air, twin fans of Solar knives fan out, and where they land the ground answers back — delayed explosions, scorching shrapnel, ignitions rolling through the pack. Every knife that connects hands you a slice of your Super back, so in a crowd the next Barrage is already charging before the last one's smoke clears. This is a loop Super, not a panic button: throw knives, feed the fan, get the Super back, repeat.

The exotic

Shards of Galanor (Gauntlets) — Sharp Edges: Throwing Knife final blows decrease the cooldown of your Super. Hitting a single target with most Blade Barrage knives in a volley causes them to release a violent Solar explosion; releasing scorching Solar shrapnel. Hits and final blows with Blade Barrage will return Super energy after the Super ends.

Galanor does two jobs at once. Between Supers, Throwing Knife final blows chip your Blade Barrage cooldown down; Clarity measures each knife kill at roughly 2.5–5% Super energy depending on enemy rank. During the Super, landing most of a volley on a target releases a bonus Solar explosion plus scorching shrapnel — a second payload stacked on top of the knives themselves. Then, once the Super ends, every hit and kill it scored refunds Super energy, up to a 50% cap in dense content. The effect is that Blade Barrage stops being a one-and-done nuke and becomes a rechargeable engine: the more targets you feed it, the faster it comes back, and the bonus shrapnel roughly doubles the volley's real damage over the listed number.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Gunslinger (Solar)	Native home of Blade Barrage, Throwing Knives, and the scorch/ignition verb chain.
Super	Blade Barrage	Twin fans of explosive, scorching knives — the payload the whole kit refunds.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Dodging near an enemy fully refunds your melee, restarting the knife loop.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra air control to line up the Barrage arc over a pack; personal preference.
Melee	Knife Trick	Throws a scorching fan of knives, feeding Searing melee economy and Galanor's cooldown chip.
Grenade	Tripmine Grenade	Flex Solar grenade; scorch-on-detonation adds another ignition source between Supers.
Aspect 1	Knock 'Em Down	Enhances Solar Supers — Blade Barrage launches more projectiles, so more shrapnel and more refund.
Aspect 2	Gunpowder Gamble	Kills charge an improvised Solar explosive for extra ignition burst between Supers.
Fragments	Ashes · Eruption · Searing · Empyrean	Scorch-stacking, bigger ignitions, melee economy, and buff extension.
Exotic armour	Shards of Galanor (Gauntlets)	Turns Blade Barrage into a self-refunding, double-payload Super.
Weapons	Sunshot or Solar primary w/ Incandescent · flex Special · DPS Heavy	Solar primary spreads scorch/ignition between casts; Heavy covers single-target boss phases.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• Galanor gives the Super a second payload for free. Landing most of a volley on a target releases an extra Solar explosion plus scorching shrapnel on top of the knives' own detonations. The Super's listed damage undercounts its real output because the shrapnel layer isn't in that number — you're getting two damage events per well-placed fan.
• The refund scales with target density. Sharp Edges returns Super energy per Blade Barrage hit and kill after the Super ends, up to a 50% cap. In add-heavy rooms that cap fills fast, so the effective cooldown collapses and the Super loops; against a lone boss it refunds far less, so you rebuild on the adds around the boss instead.
• Throwing Knives are the between-Super engine. Knife Trick final blows chip the Blade Barrage cooldown (Clarity: ~2.5–5% Super per kill by rank), and Gambler's Dodge fully refunds the melee near an enemy — so a dodge-into-fan pattern keeps both the Super charging and scorch flowing.
• Ember of Ashes turns the spread into ignitions. Ashes applies +50% scorch stacks (Clarity), so the volley's scorch tips targets into ignitions — a third damage layer that goes off after the knives and shrapnel, catching anything that survived the initial hit.
• Knock 'Em Down multiplies everything upstream. More Blade Barrage projectiles means more knives landing, which means more shrapnel explosions, more scorch stacks applied, and more hits feeding the refund — the aspect compounds all three of Galanor's effects at once.
• Searing + Empyrean close the economy loop. Ember of Searing turns scorched kills back into melee energy and a Firesprite, refilling the knife you spend chasing the cooldown; Ember of Empyrean stretches your Radiant/Restoration so the damage buff and the survivability both persist through the loop.

Stats & mods

Super 200 → Health → Weapons. Lean into a Super/Health archetype (Colossus or Paragon) so Blade Barrage is always near-ready and you survive the point-blank casts; Weapons third keeps the Solar primary's scorch/ignition chip meaningful. Battery the Super with Ashes to Assets ×2 (grenade kills) and Hands-On (melee kills) on the helmet — both feed Super energy, stacking with Galanor's chip.

Mods:

• Boots: Recuperation + Absolution — health and ability energy back on Orb pickup, so the between-Super downtime stays short.
• Arms: Heavy Handed — melee final blows refund melee energy and spawn a Firesprite/Orb, doubling up with Ember of Searing.
• Chest: Solar resist + Concussive Dampener — survive the point-blank Barrage casts and add-fire while you're airborne.
• Class item: Time Dilation + Powerful Attraction — extend Armor Charge and vacuum nearby Orbs to keep the Super topped.
• Surge: Solar Surge — matches Sunshot / the Incandescent primary for extra weapon damage between casts.
• Anti-Champion: Unstoppable is covered intrinsically by scorch/ignition; bring weapon frames or artifact mods for Barrier and Overload.

Artifact — Queensfoil Censer

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Fever And Chill · Kindling Trigger
• Tier 2: Revitalizing Blast · Anti-Champion Nosecone · Perpetual Destruction
• Tier 3: Rays of Precision · Solo Operative

• Fever And Chill grants Radiant on rapid Solar hits — the loop's keystone buff, feeding both the knife damage and Kindling Trigger.
• Kindling Trigger makes Radiant Solar weapons apply Scorch to unscorched targets, so your primary fire stacks ignitions alongside the knives between Supers.
• Revitalizing Blast ignites a stunned Champion and clears your shield stun — turning Unstoppable coverage into a bonus ignition instead of a pause.
• Rays of Precision ignites on Solar precision final blows while Radiant — a fourth ignition source that a Sunshot or hand-cannon headshot triggers on demand.
• Solo Operative ramps precision-weapon damage while solo, keeping the primary relevant for the boss phases where Galanor's refund is starved.
• Anti-Champion Nosecone + Perpetual Destruction support the flex Rocket DPS slot for boss phases — extra Champion damage and self-sustaining ammo when the Super alone won't finish the phase.

Where it shines

• Add-dense endgame (Nightfalls, GM lost sectors, legend content): the refund cap fills fast, so Blade Barrage loops well under a minute and the scorch/ignition chain clears whole rooms.
• Burst DPS windows: two well-placed volleys stack knives + shrapnel + ignitions for a large, front-loaded damage spike before the phase's mechanics start.
• Champion coverage: scorch and ignition stagger Unstoppable intrinsically (reinforced by Revitalizing Blast on stun). Barrier and Overload are not covered by the kit — bring the appropriate weapon frames or artifact anti-Champion mods for those.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (7/10)	Solar Siphon 3e fill	Rapid Solar weapon final blows create an Orb 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 (8/10)	Heavy Handed 3e	Your powered melee final blows create Orbs of Power.
	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.
	Momentum Transfer 2e fill	Causing damage with a grenade reduces your melee cooldown.
Chest (6/10)	Concussive Dampener 3e	Reduces incoming area-of-effect damage from combatants.
	Solar Resistance 2e fill	Reduces incoming Solar damage from combatants.
	Sniper Damage Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming damage from combatants that are at long range.
Legs (5/10)	Absolution 3e	Reduces all ability cooldowns each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
	Recuperation 1e	Replenishes health each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
	Solar Weapon Surge 1e	Your Solar weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
Class Item (6/10)	Powerful Attraction 2e	Automatically collects nearby Orbs of Power when you activate your class ability.
	Time Dilation 3e	Your decaying Armor Charge has a longer duration.
	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: ability energy back on Orb pickup; spawn a Firesprite/Orb; Overload.