Stasis

Frostblade — Mask of Fealty (Stasis Hunter)

Withering Blade spam — self-sustaining crystal-and-shatter melee engine

Anchor: Mask of Fealty (Helmet) · Subclass: Revenant · Role: Withering Blade spam — self-sustaining crystal-and-shatter melee engine Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Created 2026-06-16

One melee that never runs out. Every Withering Blade hit and bounce plants a Stasis crystal and refunds melee energy; using the next blade to shatter that crystal (or any frozen target) sprays a fan of more Withering Blades. So the first throw pays for the second, the shatter pays for the third, and the crystal field you leave behind is both your ad-clear and your Frost Armor. You are throwing knives the whole fight and the melee bar barely moves.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Super	Silence and Squall	Freeze kama + roaming shatter-storm — every freeze it lands is a Mask of Fealty shatter-trigger. (+63% vs combatants since Renegades.)
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Melee refund (scaled by Melee stat, doubled near enemies) + Winter's Shroud slow on dodge.
Melee	Withering Blade	Mandatory — the bouncing Stasis shuriken the whole exotic is built around.
Grenade	Glacier (or Coldsnap)	Free crystals to shatter with a blade for the spread; Touch of Winter makes Glacier spawn extra crystals.
Aspect 1	Grim Harvest	Stasis shard pickups grant Frost Armor (DR), and with Frost Armor your Stasis/Kinetic kills can chain-shatter — free survivability and extra AoE layered under the blade loop.
Aspect 2	Touch of Winter	Enhances Stasis grenades (Glacier → extra crystals, Duskfield larger + pulls in) — more shatter fuel for the blade spread. (Shatterdive is the aggressive alt: dive to shatter a crystal field on impact.)

Fragments (5/5)

Whisper of Rime Frost Armor duration + max stacks — the DR backbone
Whisper of Fissures bigger/stronger shatter burst → bigger blade spread triggers
Whisper of Shards crystal shatter → grenade regen, refills your crystal-maker
Whisper of Conduction nearby Stasis shards track to you — funnels Grim Harvest shards into Frost Armor
Whisper of Fractures shattering a frozen target with melee → a stack of Frost Armor — your blade shatters are melee

Exotic — Mask of Fealty (Helmet)

Null Factor: Withering Blade hits and bounces create a small Stasis crystal and refund a portion of melee energy. Using Withering Blade to shatter crystals or frozen targets releases a spread of Withering Blades.

Two clauses, one engine. Clause one makes Withering Blade self-funding — it pays back melee on every hit/bounce and litters the floor with crystals. Clause two turns those crystals (and any frozen target) into a damage multiplier: throw a blade into a crystal and you don't get one knife back, you get a spread. The loop is throw → crystal + refund → throw into crystal → shatter → fan of blades → each of those makes crystals + refunds. It compounds.

Why this works (the mechanics)

The melee economy is a closed loop with three feeds. Mask of Fealty refunds melee on every hit/bounce (feed 1); Gambler's Dodge refunds melee, doubled near enemies and scaled by the Melee stat (feed 2); the Heavy Handed mod returns melee on every melee kill (feed 3). Three sources against one cheap ability means Withering Blade is effectively always available — the build is melee. (Grim Harvest contributes survivability, not energy: its shard pickups grant Frost Armor, not melee.)
Crystals are stored AoE that the exotic lets you detonate with the same button. Normally you shoot a crystal to shatter it; here a blade does it and you're rewarded with a blade spread. Whisper of Fissures makes that shatter burst bigger and harder-hitting, so the same throw clears more and re-seeds the field. Each crystal is a grenade you didn't spend.
Slow is a stacking threshold that turns the field into freezes. Withering Blade and Winter's Shroud apply slow; enough slow = freeze, and frozen targets are also a shatter-trigger for the blade spread. Frozen/slowed kills drop Stasis shards, and picking them up feeds Grim Harvest's Frost Armor (DR) — so killing closes back onto your survivability, not your melee bar.
Frost Armor is the survivability, and the blade loop builds it for free. Whisper of Fractures grants a Frost Armor stack every time a blade shatters a frozen target; Whisper of Rime extends duration and raises the cap (7 stacks, 50% DR). Because you shatter constantly, DR refreshes faster than it melts (Frost Armor now decays one stack at a time, ~35% at 5).
Champions fall out of the same chain. 9.7.0 reverted Stasis shatter to stun Unstoppable, and slow/freeze handle Overload behaviour — both are things you produce non-stop. Cover Barrier with a Precision/Adaptive frame.

Weapons

Stasis primary with Headstone — precision kills plant more crystals, feeding the same shatter-spread loop without spending a blade. The cleanest weapon synergy with Mask of Fealty.
Chill Clip special (e.g. a Stasis fusion/glaive) — on-demand slow/freeze to manufacture shatter-triggers when the field runs dry.
Champions (Anti-Champion 2.0): stun is intrinsic to weapon archetypes now. Stasis shatter stuns Unstoppable (the blade spread does it); slow/freeze covers Overload behaviour; bring a Precision or Adaptive frame for Barrier.

Stats & archetypes

Melee 150+ → Health → Class. Melee is the keystone (uptime and Gambler's refund both scale off it); Health rides the permanent Frost Armor; Class feeds the dodge that refunds melee. Archetypes: Skirmisher (Melee/Weapons), Brawler (Melee), Reaver (Class/Melee). Mods: Melee Font, Heavy Handed (melee kills → melee energy), Stasis surge, Recuperation, Bomber on the class item.

Set bonus (optional)

House rule — garnish, not the driver; the loop is complete without one. The on-theme pick is Crystocrene: 4pc From the Storm slowly grants Frost Armor while out of combat, topping up the same DR your blade shatters build in combat (2pc adds an Orb + ammo on re-engage). Slot it only if your Skirmisher/Brawler stat rolls happen to land on Crystocrene pieces.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (5/10)	Stasis Siphon 1e fill	Rapid Stasis 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 Font 1e	You gain a bonus to your melee stat while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge decays over time.
	Heavy Handed 3e	Your powered melee final blows create Orbs of Power.
	Melee Kickstart 1e fill	When your melee energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain melee energy for each Armor Charge used.
Chest (5/10)	Stasis Resistance 1e fill	Reduces incoming Stasis 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)	Stasis Weapon Surge 1e	Your Stasis weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Recuperation 1e	Replenishes health each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
	Stasis Weapon Surge 1e fill	Your Stasis weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
Class Item (3/10)	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.
	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).

The loop

Throw Withering Blade into a pack → hits/bounces plant crystals + refund melee.
Throw the next blade into a crystal or a frozen target → shatter → spread of blades → each makes crystals + refunds, Fissures makes the burst hit harder.
Slowed/frozen kills drop shards → Conduction pulls them to you → Grim Harvest converts them to Frost Armor; melee shatters grant additional Frost Armor (Fractures + Rime). Melee energy comes from the exotic refund + Gambler's Dodge.
Glacier when you want a guaranteed crystal cluster to detonate; Silence freezes the room and Squall's storm chases survivors — every freeze it lands is one more shatter-trigger for the next blade.

Verify notes

Aspects/fragments confirmed against the manifest: `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md` now lists the Stasis Hunter aspects verbatim — Grim Harvest (l.84: "Picking up Stasis shards grants stacks of Frost Armor… Taking damage while you have Frost Armor generates class ability energy" — note: Frost Armor + shatter-on-kill, not melee energy), Touch of Winter, Shatterdive, Winter's Shroud — and `docs/encyclopedia/fragments.md` lists the "Whisper of…" fragments (Rime l.116, Fissures l.108, Shards l.117, Conduction l.106, Fractures l.109). Melee energy on this build comes from the Mask of Fealty exotic refund + Gambler's Dodge + Heavy Handed, never from Grim Harvest.
Mask of Fealty numbers are undescribed in the manifest: the portion of melee energy refunded, the crystal size ("small"), and the count of blades in the spread are not quantified — confirm in-game.
Whisper of Chains in the knowledge doc reads "Defeating targets while you have Frost Armor has a chance to create a Stasis shard" (a shard-generation fragment), not the near-frozen DR effect an older build cited — swap it in over Fractures if you want more shard throughput; verify its current tooltip.
Whisper of Hunger boosts melee energy from shards but carries −20 Melee — avoid on a Melee-stat build (the stat penalty costs you more uptime than the shard bonus returns). Listed only as a "do not take here."
Frost Armor: ~35% DR at 5 stacks, 7-stack cap with Rime = 50% DR; decays one stack at a time (9.7.0). Stasis shatter stuns Unstoppable (9.7.0 revert).
Silence and Squall's +63% vs combatants (Renegades) — verify it's still live on the frozen 9.7.0 build.