Arc

Reign Havoc — Shinobu's Vow + Thunderlord (Arc Hunter)

Pure Bolt-Charge engine — Thunderlord's lightning strikes flood Bolt Charge that Shinobu's converts into Skip-Grenade energy, constant team heals, and intrinsic Overload

Shinobu's Vow on light.gg

Centerpiece: Shinobu's Vow (Gauntlets) · Subclass: Arcstrider (Arc) · Role: Pure Bolt-Charge engine — Thunderlord's lightning strikes flood Bolt Charge that Shinobu's converts into Skip-Grenade energy, constant team heals, and intrinsic Overload Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Thunderlord's kills call lightning down from the sky, and every strike is a Bolt Charge stack. Shinobu's Vow turns Bolt Charge into Skip-Grenade energy and a team heal. So the machine gun feeds the grenade and the grenade feeds the machine gun — a self-topping Bolt Charge loop with Overload baked straight into the Heavy. No trace bridge needed; this one runs on raw Bolt Charge.

The exotic

New Tricks: Gain an additional Skip Grenade charge. Skip Grenade damage grants Bolt Charge and gaining Bolt Charge grants Skip Grenade energy. When Bolt Charge is ready, you heal nearby allies and enhance your next Skip Grenade.

Reign Havoc (Thunderlord): Final blows with this weapon generate stunning lightning strikes from above. Lightning strikes grant a stack of Bolt Charge. Strong against [Disruption] Overload Champions.

Shinobu's Vow is the anchor: it doubles your Skip Grenade charges and wires a two-way circuit — Skip damage builds Bolt Charge, Bolt Charge refunds Skip energy, and whenever Bolt Charge is ready you heal nearby allies and enhance the next Skip with extra bounces and seekers. A single Skip can cap Bolt Charge on its own, but the real fuel is the paired Heavy: Thunderlord is a 450-RPM Arc machine gun whose final blows summon lightning strikes, and each strike is another Bolt Charge stack — plus intrinsic Overload. With two Bolt Charge sources feeding one converter, "New Tricks" is permanently lit: you are always healing on the cue and always topping Skip energy, just by mowing a pack with the Heavy.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider (Arc)	The only class with Bolt Charge, jolt, and Ionic Traces to close the Skip loop.
Super	Gathering Storm	Wide pack jolt plus the single-target burst the kit otherwise lacks; jolted kills backfill traces.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Melee energy near enemies for Combination Blow sustain; arms Tempest Strike's slide window.
Movement	Triple Jump	Air control to reposition over packs while the Heavy calls strikes (flex slot — swap freely).
Melee	Combination Blow	Neutral-game sustain between Thunderlord bursts and Skip volleys.
Grenade	Skip Grenade	The Shinobu's engine — two charges, and Spark of Shock makes the seekers jolt the room.
Aspect 1	Tempest Strike	Slide-melee uppercut that jolts a line — an AoE jolt source seeding Ionic Traces and the Bolt-Charge payoffs.
Aspect 2	Flow State	Jolted kills make you Amplified; while Amplified you dodge faster and reload far quicker (Thunderlord's reload is real).
Fragments	Shock · Discharge · Ions · Resistance	Jolt on grenades, Arc traces, trace generation off jolt/Bolt-Charge kills, and DR while surrounded.
Exotic armour	Shinobu's Vow (Gauntlets)	The centerpiece — the Bolt-Charge ↔ Skip converter and the team-heal cue.
Weapons	Thunderlord (Heavy) + Arc primary + special	Thunderlord is the Bolt-Charge firehose and Overload breaker; the other two cover the remaining champions.

Fragments

Spark of Shock Arc grenades jolt targets — the Skip seekers debuff the room
Spark of Discharge Arc weapon final blows have a chance to create an Ionic Trace — Thunderlord is Arc, so its kills feed this
Spark of Ions defeating a jolted target or a target with Bolt Charge creates an Ionic Trace
Spark of Resistance more resistant while surrounded — survivability under the constant Bolt-Charge heals

Why it works (the mechanics)

Thunderlord is a Bolt Charge firehose. Machine-gun final blows call lightning strikes, and each strike grants a stack of Bolt Charge (Clarity lists ~232 damage in a 5 m radius per strike). Shinobu's "New Tricks" converts that Bolt Charge to Skip energy and fires the heal cue, so you cap Bolt Charge just by holding the trigger on the Heavy.
Skip Grenade closes the other half. Skip damage grants Bolt Charge and gaining Bolt Charge grants Skip energy — a closed loop the exotic states outright. Two Skip charges plus Thunderlord's top-up mean a Skip is always ready, and Shinobu's enhances the next one with extra bounces and seekers each time the cue lights.
Champions fall to the kit. Thunderlord is intrinsically Anti-Overload, so it stuns Overloads on its own. Defibrillating Blast (artifact) then turns any Champion stun into maximum Bolt Charge — a full Skip refund plus a jolting heal-bolt — so a stunned Champion immediately eats two loaded Skips.
Heals are constant. Shinobu's heals nearby allies every time Bolt Charge is ready, which under two sources is effectively always, and Defibrillating Blast's bolts heal on top. Spark of Resistance adds flat DR while surrounded, so the loop is a survivability floor as well as an offence.
The trace layer is gravy. Skip seekers (Spark of Shock) and Tempest Strike jolt the room; jolted or Bolt-Charge kills mint Ionic Traces via Spark of Ions and Discharge, refunding ability energy. Even with Thunderlord stowed, the grenade half self-sustains off jolt and traces.
Flashover keeps you Amplified. Sitting at maximum Bolt Charge triggers Flashover for permanent Amplified plus bigger lightning bolts, and Flow State grants Amplified on jolted kills too — Amplified's reload buff directly tames Thunderlord's sluggish reload.

Stats & mods

Grenade 200 → Weapons → Health. Grenade is a damage stat here — Skip damage scales with it and the loop supplies the energy for free, so you are buying the Champion two-shot rather than cooldown, which sidesteps the 9.7.0 grenade-cooldown nerf. Lean Grenadier / Demolitionist / Siegebreaker on the armour archetype, with Gunner / Powerhouse rolls filling Weapons for Thunderlord and Arc-primary throughput; Health backstops survivability under the constant heals.

Mods:

Boots: Machine Gun Scavenger + Arc weapon surge for Thunderlord reserves and damage.
Arms: Machine Gun Loader (Thunderlord's real reload pain) + Grenade Font.
Chest: Arc/concussive resistance mods for the surrounded-and-healing playstyle.
Class item: Weapons Font + Orbs of Restoration to convert orb pickups into ability uptime.
Surge: Arc Weapon Surge ×2 — both the Heavy and the primary are Arc.
Anti-Champion: Overload is intrinsic on Thunderlord; bring Barrier / Unstoppable archetype frames on the primary/special for the rest.

Artifact — Tablet of Ruin

Picks (2/3/2):

Tier 1: Dielectric · Hold the Line
Tier 2: Flashover · Gold From Lead · Harsh Refraction
Tier 3: Defibrillating Blast · Heavy Ordance Regeneration

Dielectric grants Bolt Charge for defeating Arc-debuffed targets and spawns an Orb plus a heal on rapid kills — the room is permanently jolted, so this never stops feeding the converter.
Hold the Line gives Machine Guns increased reload and stability while surrounded and heals you on final blows — a direct Thunderlord buff that stacks with the exotic's survivability.
Flashover makes you Amplified at maximum Bolt Charge and boosts lightning-bolt damage; you sit at max constantly, so you are effectively always Amplified.
Defibrillating Blast converts any Champion stun into maximum Bolt Charge plus a jolting, healing bolt — your Champion-to-full-Skip-and-heal converter.
Gold From Lead lets special-ammo pickups grant Heavy, keeping Thunderlord fed between strikes.
Heavy Ordance Regeneration turns sustained Heavy-machine-gun damage into DR and grenade/melee regeneration, directly topping the Skip engine, and disorients nearby rank-and-file on powerful-combatant kills.
Harsh Refraction is the one soft, theme-fill pick (bonus Trace-Rifle damage into the elementally-debuffed room).

Where it shines

Endgame add-clear (GMs, Legend/Master content): a jolted, healed pack with a Heavy that never runs dry — Bolt Charge tops Skip energy for a two-shot delete on demand.
Team survivability content: Shinobu's heals nearby allies on every Bolt-Charge cue, so the build passively sustains a fireteam while it clears.
Boss/miniboss windows: Gathering Storm plus loaded Skips give the single-target burst the neutral loop lacks.
Champion coverage: Thunderlord breaks Overload intrinsically; bring Barrier and Unstoppable archetype frames (or matching artifact anti-champ) on the primary/special to cover the other two.

Verify notes

Shinobu's "New Tricks" and Thunderlord "Reign Havoc" quoted from `docs/encyclopedia/exotics.md` — the manifest text has typos ("Bolt Chargeand", "lighting strikes") which are normalised in the quote here; wording and mechanics are otherwise verbatim.
Thunderlord = Arc · Heavy · Machine Gun · 450 RPM · intrinsic Overload confirmed in `data/weapon_facts.json` / `docs/encyclopedia/weapon_facts.md`.
Lightning-strike numbers (~232 [65] damage, 5 m radius, x1 Bolt Charge per strike; catalyst refills 13 ammo per strike) are from `docs/encyclopedia/clarity_build_numbers.md` — treat the exact damage/stack figures as Clarity/manifest tuning, confirm the per-strike stack count in-game.
Aspect class-check: Tempest Strike + Flow State are Arcstrider (Hunter) aspects, and the fragments (Shock/Discharge/Ions/Resistance) are Arc — all verified vs `docs/encyclopedia/aspects.md` and `fragments.md`. See [[reference_d2builds_aspect_class_gotcha]].
Artifact 2/3/2 verified vs `docs/encyclopedia/artifacts_structured.md` — Tablet of Ruin: T1 Dielectric + Hold the Line, T2 Flashover + Gold From Lead + Harsh Refraction, T3 Defibrillating Blast + Heavy Ordance Regeneration (manifest keeps the "Ordance" spelling). Exactly 2/3/2, all real pool mods.
Skip Grenade's ~200-Grenade Champion two-shot is creator-testing / tuning, not a manifest figure — flagged unconfirmed, verify in-game.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

Piece	Mod · cost	What it does
Helmet (7/10)	Arc Siphon 3e fill	Rapid Arc 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 (5/10)	Grenade Font 1e	You gain a bonus to your grenade stat while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge decays over time.
	Grenade Font 1e	You gain a bonus to your grenade stat while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge decays over time.
	Grenade Kickstart 3e fill	When your grenade energy is fully expended, your Armor Charge is consumed and you gain grenade energy for each Armor Charge used.
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)	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	Your Arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge. Your Armor Charge now decays over time.
	Arc Weapon Surge 1e	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.
	Bomber 1e fill	Reduces grenade 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). Flex/loadout-dependent: the primary are Arc. - **Anti-Champion:** Overload is intrinsic on Thunderlord; bring Barrier / Unstoppable archetype frames on the primary/special for the rest.