Cross-Counter — Gathering Storm (Arc Hunter)

Anchor: Liar's Handshake · Subclass: Arcstrider (Arc) · Role: Infinite Arc-melee brawler — Monte Carlo refills the punch, Liar's lands the +400% counter-heal — dual-exotic with Monte Carlo Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Built 2026-06-27

Spray Monte Carlo to top off your melee, throw a Combination Blow, and Liar's Handshake hands you a free +400% Cross Counter punch that heals 40 HP on hit. Every kill feeds the next: Monte Carlo's bullets and kills refund melee energy, melee kills refill Monte Carlo's mag, and Gambler's Dodge fully recharges the melee near a pack. The gun is the battery; the fist is the gun. You never stop punching.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Super	Gathering Storm	Throw the staff → a wide jolt that seeds the Amplified loop (Flow State) and the artifact's jolt payoffs. Arc Staff is the alt if you'd rather keep brawling through the Super.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Dodging near enemies fully recharges your melee — the on-demand reset that re-arms Combination Blow when Monte Carlo hasn't topped it yet. Also triggers Lethal Current.
Melee	Combination Blow	Required. The Arc melee that satisfies Cross Counter's "Arc Melee Ability equipped" clause. Chained melee kills heal, refund dodge, and stack damage (to x3).
Grenade	Flex (Arc — Arcbolt/Flux)	Not load-bearing; pick for Spark synergy and chip jolt. Dump stat.
Aspect 1	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target makes you Amplified; while Amplified you get faster melee/reload/dodge regen + a DR cushion — keeps the punch loop fast and survivable. 2 fragment slots.
Aspect 2	Lethal Current	After dodging, your next melee gains lunge range, jolts, and drops an Arc aftershock. The jolt feeds Flow State (kill jolted → Amplified) and the artifact's Dielectric/Blinding Jolts/Tazer Tag. 1 fragment slot.

Exotic — Liar's Handshake (Gauntlets) + Monte Carlo (Kinetic — verify slot)

Dual-exotic (one armour + one weapon is legal). Liar's Handshake — Cross Counter: while you have an Arc melee ability equipped, receiving melee damage or scoring an Arc elemental melee hit grants the Cross Counter buff for your next melee within 3s. That punch deals +400% additional base melee damage, restores 40 HP on hit, and deals Arc damage (Clarity). Monte Carlo — Monte Carlo Method: dealing damage grants 2% melee energy per hit; kills have a 25% chance to fully charge your melee (Clarity). Its Markov Chain trait stacks weapon-kill damage (+13/26/39/52/65% PvE at 1–5 stacks, 4.5s) and — critically — melee kills instantly refill Monte Carlo's magazine and grant all 5 stacks. The gun batteries the fist; the fist re-batteries the gun.

Note — Monte Carlo is Kinetic, not Arc (manifest `weapon_facts`: Kinetic / Primary / 600 RPM Auto Rifle). The brief's "Arc Auto Rifle" framing is off, but the build is unaffected: Monte Carlo's melee-refund intrinsic is element-agnostic, and the build's Arc identity comes from the Arcstrider subclass + Combination Blow + Cross Counter (all Arc). See Notes for the catalyst caveat.

Why this works (the mechanics)

• The melee never runs dry — three batteries. Monte Carlo gives 2% melee per hit (a full auto burst is a big chunk) and 25% melee-full per kill (Clarity); Combination Blow kills refund dodge + a slice of melee; and Gambler's Dodge near a pack fully recharges the melee on command. You are never more than a trigger-pull or a dodge away from the next punch.
• Cross Counter is a free, repeatable +400% punch. Landing a Combination Blow is "scoring an Arc elemental melee hit" → it arms Cross Counter for the next melee. So punch → next punch is empowered (+400% base, +40 HP) → that kill arms the next → loop. You don't need to get hit; the Arc-melee trigger keeps it cycling on offense alone.
• …and when you do get hit, it doubles up. An enemy melee that lands on you triggers both Cross Counter (+400%) and Spark of Feedback (+100% base) on the same next punch — roughly +500% base melee damage plus the 40 HP Cross Counter heal. Tanking a melee is a reward, not a risk.
• The gun is also a real gun. Markov Chain stacks to +65% PvE weapon damage off weapon kills, and every melee kill refills the mag and slams it to x5 — so Monte Carlo deletes the trash you're not punching, between punches, at full damage.
• Healing is layered, not single-source. Cross Counter (+40 HP/hit) + Combination Blow's on-kill heal + Spark of Resistance (25% DR in a crowd) + Flow State's Amplified regen keep you upright in the middle of the pile where a normal Hunter would die.
• Jolt closes the subclass loop. Lethal Current jolts on the post-dodge melee, jolted kills make you Amplified (Flow State), Amplified speeds the whole loop and boosts the fragments — and the artifact's Tazer Tag / Dielectric / Blinding Jolts all pay out off that jolt for free chip, Bolt Charge, and blind.

Weapons

• Kinetic: Monte Carlo (Exotic Kinetic Auto Rifle, 600 RPM) — the engine, in the Kinetic slot. Run the catalyst for the Markov Chain economy, but do not lock the bayonet (see Notes) — Combination Blow must stay your melee or Cross Counter turns off.
• Energy: an Arc Special (Shotgun / Glaive) — close-range burst for the brawl, and Arc special kills while Amplified proc Spark of Beacons-style blind if you slot it; a Glaive also keeps you in punch range.
• Heavy: an Arc Sword or LMG — Sword keeps the melee fantasy and rides Amplified; an Arc LMG covers boss/burst that a primary-melee build otherwise lacks. Flex to the activity.
• Champions: Unstoppable is covered by the artifact's Kinetic Rupture — Monte Carlo is Kinetic, so sustained Monte Carlo fire on a powerful combatant spawns the staggering shockwave. Overload/ Barrier aren't natively covered by this artifact; bring an anti-barrier/anti-overload flex weapon mod on the Arc special/heavy when the activity demands it. (Jolt does not stun champions on its own.)

Stats & archetypes

Melee 200 (hard requirement) → Health ~100 → Class ~100 → Weapons as able → dump Super/Grenade. Melee at 200 cuts the Combination Blow cooldown and (Armor 3.0) scales powered-melee damage, multiplying under the Cross Counter +400%. Health ~100 buys the survivability to fight at point-blank. Class ~100 keeps Gambler's Dodge online as the melee-reset/Lethal-Current trigger. Weapons is the secondary — it lifts Monte Carlo's damage and ammo, but the gun is mostly a battery, not the kill source. Super and Grenade are dump stats; the build doesn't lean on either.

Set bonus (none required)

No set bonus is needed — the loop is driven by the two exotics + the subclass, not gear. A 4pc that adds melee damage, melee regen, or class-ability regen (or weapon/Health survivability) is a free garnish but never the driver. Run whatever Tier-5 rolls hit the Melee → Health → Class stat plan.

Artifact — Encrypted Data Disk

Picks (2/3/2): Kinetic Synthesis + Fierce Proxemics — Dielectric + Armorsmith + Blinding Jolts — Tazer Tag + Kinetic Rupture

Encrypted Data Disk is the cleanest fit — its theme is literally Arc + Kinetic, matching the Arc subclass and Monte Carlo's real Kinetic element. Tier 3 carries the build: Tazer Tag (Arc-powered melee hits jolt + deal bonus damage — every Combination Blow / Cross Counter punch) and Kinetic Rupture (Monte Carlo's Kinetic damage on powerful combatants → staggering shockwave = Unstoppable coverage). Tier 2 pays out the jolt and props up the melee: Dielectric (Arc-debuffed kills → Bolt Charge + Orb + heal), Armorsmith (shield break → DR + increased melee damage), Blinding Jolts (final blows on jolted blind nearby — crowd control while you punch). Tier 1 feeds the gun and the fist: Kinetic Synthesis (Monte Carlo's sustained Kinetic fire spawns an ammo brick → kinetic + special/heavy ammo) and Fierce Proxemics (finisher final blows grant grenade + melee energy — a fourth melee battery).

Mods (by slot)

• Helmet: Hands-On ×2 (melee kills → Super energy — Gathering Storm uptime), Kinetic Targeting/flex.
• Gauntlets: Heavy Handed (powered-melee final blows make Orbs — feeds Recuperation/Reaper), Momentum Transfer / Impact Induction (grenade↔melee cooldown trades). All melee-economy.
• Chest: Concussive Dampener + an elemental Resist ×2 — flat survivability for the brawl.
• Legs: Kinetic Weapon Surge ×2 (+Monte Carlo damage while you hold Armor Charge), Kinetic Scavenger / Kinetic Loader (Monte Carlo reserves + reload).
• Class item: Powerful Attraction (vacuum Orbs on dodge), Reaper (Orb on the kill after a dodge), Recuperation (heal on Orb pickup — stacks with Cross Counter's 40 HP).

Loop

• Tag the pack with Monte Carlo — bullets pour 2% melee/hit and the kills roll 25% melee-full; Markov Chain climbs toward +65% weapon damage.
• Punch (Combination Blow). The Arc melee hit arms Cross Counter and (post-dodge) jolts via Lethal Current. The kill refills Monte Carlo's mag and refunds dodge.
• Punch again — now empowered: Cross Counter +400% (and +40 HP), +100% more if an enemy just meleed you (Spark of Feedback). Jolted kills make you Amplified (Flow State).
• Dodge near the next pack (Gambler's) to instantly re-arm the melee and re-trigger Lethal Current; collect Orbs (Powerful Attraction → Recuperation heal). Repeat from step 1.
• Champions: hold Monte Carlo on the Unstoppable to pop Kinetic Rupture; punch through the rest. Drop Gathering Storm when a room over-fills — the wide jolt re-seeds Flow State / Amplified instantly.

Notes

• Premise adapted: Monte Carlo is Kinetic, not Arc (manifest `weapon_facts` — Kinetic / Primary / 600 RPM). It sits in the Kinetic slot. The build's Arc element comes from Arcstrider + Combination Blow + Cross Counter, so the thesis (Monte Carlo batteries the Liar's punch) holds intact.
• Subclass choice — Arcstrider over Prismatic. Cross Counter requires an Arc melee ability equipped; Arcstrider's Combination Blow is the strongest one and unlocks the full native loop (Combination Blow's heal/dodge-refund/damage-stack + Flow State Amplified + 3 fragment slots for Resistance/Feedback/Frequency). Prismatic can run Combination Blow, but the existing Counterpunch King already covers Liar's on Prismatic — this is the dedicated pure-Arc Arcstrider brawler, and distinct from Sleight of Hand (Assassin's Cowl + Monte Carlo).
• Catalyst caveat (Clarity): Monte Carlo's catalyst lets you hold Reload at 5 Markov stacks to lock the bayonet, replacing your melee with a glaive stab (2,772 dmg, 7 m, +50% melee energy on hit). Do not lock it for this build — locking it overrides Combination Blow, which turns off Cross Counter (no Arc melee equipped). Run the catalyst for the Markov Chain damage/mag economy only.
• Clarity numbers used: Cross Counter = +400% base melee dmg / +40 HP on hit, trigger window 3 s. Monte Carlo Method = 2% melee/hit, 25% kill→100% melee. Markov Chain PvE = +13/26/39/52/65% (max 5, 4.5 s; melee kill = mag refill + all 5 stacks). Spark of Resistance = 25% PvE DR (3+ enemies, 15 m, 2 s linger). Spark of Feedback = +100% base melee on being meleed (next melee, 5 s, not refreshable). Spark of Frequency = +50 reload / 0.8x reload duration on melee hit (5.25 s) + extra Bolt Charge while Amplified.
• Verify in-game: Gambler's Dodge melee-refund radius; that your chosen Arc special/heavy actually procs Spark of Beacons (Arc Special/Power kills while Amplified); and the exact Combination Blow on-kill heal scaling (manifest text only — no Clarity entry).