Stormswarm — Shinobu's Vow + Ex Diris (Arc Hunter)

Centerpiece: Shinobu's Vow (Gauntlets) · Subclass: Arcstrider (Arc) · Role: Dual-exotic Arc engine — Skip-Grenade Bolt Charge single-target fused to Ex Diris moth-blind crowd control through one Ionic-Trace economy Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Two Arc exotics that turn out to run the same loop. Shinobu's Vow makes Skip Grenades build Bolt Charge and Bolt Charge refund Skip energy; Ex Diris floods the room with blinding moths that need no aiming. The bridge is one Ionic-Trace river: a jolted kill mints a trace, a blinded kill mints a trace, and every trace collected both pours energy back into the grenade and stacks Bolt Charge. Blind pacifies the room, Bolt Charge heals you and cracks the champion, and you walk out with both Skip charges topped.

The exotic

Shinobu's Vow — 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."

Ex Diris — Corrupted Nucleosynthesis (intrinsic): "This weapon enrages when dealing or taking sustained damage, gaining increased rate of fire while enraged." Loyal Moths (trait): "Final blows and rapid direct hits with this weapon create a loyal moth. The moth will seek out nearby targets and detonate, damaging and blinding them." Berserk Rush (catalyst): "Weapon enrages faster while amplified. Final blows with this weapon make you amplified."

The gauntlets are the loop's flywheel: a single Skip caps Bolt Charge on its own, so "New Tricks" is up permanently — you always throw Enhanced Skips, always heal on the Bolt-Charge cue, and always top grenade energy back. Two charges means a Skip is almost always ready for the next pack. Ex Diris is the missing crowd-control layer Shinobu's lacks: Loyal Moths spit seeking detonators that blind on contact with no aim, and the catalyst makes every kill amplify you, which accelerates the enrage ramp (effectively always on) and arms Spark of Beacons so one shot double-blinds. The two never compete for a slot — Shinobu's is the gauntlets, Ex Diris the Special weapon — and they feed one shared Arc verb economy.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Arcstrider (Arc)	Arc supplies jolt, blind, amplified and Bolt Charge — the four verbs both exotics trade in.
Super	Gathering Storm	A sticky lightning rod jolts a whole pack and gives the single-target/boss burst neither exotic carries; jolt kills backfill the trace river.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Melee energy near enemies keeps Combination Blow up and arms Lethal Current; Flow State refunds the dodge faster while amplified.
Movement	Triple Jump	Extra mid-air adjust to reposition and stay out of the pack while the moths and Skip seekers do the pacifying.
Melee	Combination Blow	Best neutral melee — heals and hits hard at 3 stacks, your sustain between grenade volleys; with Lethal Current the post-dodge hit also jolts and aftershocks.
Grenade	Skip Grenade	The whole Shinobu's engine; seekers tag everything and Spark of Shock makes them jolt.
Aspect 1	Lethal Current	After dodging, your next melee attack has increased lunge range, jolts the target, and creates a damaging aftershock. Turns the dodge → Combination Blow rhythm into an on-demand jolt + AoE — a melee trace source.
Aspect 2	Flow State	Defeating a jolted target makes you amplified. Second amplified source (arms Spark of Beacons) plus a huge reload boost on Ex Diris's one-in-mag.
Fragments	Spark of Shock · Spark of Discharge · Spark of Ions · Spark of Beacons	Jolt the grenade, bridge Arc kills to traces and traces to Bolt Charge, mint traces off jolt, and double-blind off Ex Diris while amplified.
Exotic armour	Shinobu's Vow (Gauntlets)	The centerpiece — extra Skip charge + the Bolt-Charge ↔ Skip-energy conversion + the heal-on-cue.
Weapons	Ex Diris (Arc GL, Special) · Arc primary (Voltshot/Jolt) · Heavy (boss/champion DPS)	Ex Diris is the blind engine; the Arc primary feeds Discharge/Ions traces; the Heavy carries the boss window neither exotic deletes.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• One trace river, several feeders. Skip seekers jolt (Spark of Shock); Ex Diris moths blind (Loyal Moths). Jolted kills mint Ionic Traces via Spark of Ions; jolted or blinded kills mint them via the artifact's Trace Evidence; any Arc-weapon kill can via Spark of Discharge. Traces fly to you, pour ability energy into all three abilities, and — per Spark of Discharge — each one collected is a Bolt Charge stack.
• The two exotics share that river. Ex Diris's blinded kills make traces (Trace Evidence + Discharge); the traces refill Skip Grenade and stack Bolt Charge; Shinobu's "New Tricks" converts that Bolt Charge back into Skip energy. The weapon literally pays the grenade's bills and vice versa, which is why both Skip charges stay topped between fights.
• Bolt Charge is the heal and the single-target. "New Tricks" heals nearby allies whenever Bolt Charge is ready, and a high Grenade stat makes the Enhanced Skips hit hard enough to break a champion. The constant healing plus Flow State's amplified damage resistance is your survivability — no defensive super needed.
• Blind is the room control and the Overload answer. Three-to-four blind sources (Loyal Moths, Spark of Beacons explosions, the artifact's Retinal Burn, optional Disorienting Blow) pacify packs on approach, and Blind stuns Overload champions — so the build's identity is its Overload coverage.
• Amplified is permanent and free. Berserk Rush amplifies on Ex Diris kills; Flow State amplifies on jolt kills. Permanent amplified means permanent Beacons blinds, permanent fast reload (huge on a one-in-mag GL), and the enrage ramp always on — the weapon's worst trait (slow enrage build-up) inverted into free uptime.
• The melee closes the neutral game. Gambler's Dodge near a pack arms Lethal Current, whose post-dodge hit jolts and drops an aftershock, while Combination Blow heals and hits hard at three stacks — a self-contained jolt-and-sustain cycle that keeps the trace river fed even when the grenade is mid-cooldown.

Stats & mods

Grenade 200 → Weapons → Health. Grenade is unusually a damage stat here — the loop supplies grenade energy through traces and Bolt Charge, so you stack Grenade for Skip damage (Shinobu's makes Skips hit hard), which dodges the 9.7.0 cooldown-scaling nerf. Then Weapons 100 for the first-100 PvE damage bonus + Ex Diris handling/reload, Health for the survivability floor, Class ~60 to keep the dodge → melee → blind cycle turning. Archetype lean: a Grenadier / Demolitionist / Siegebreaker chest or class item for the Grenade stack, Gunner / Powerhouse for Weapons; put the exotic gauntlets in a Grenade archetype.

Mods:

• Boots: Orbs of Restoration ×2 — convert the orb flood (Siphon + Beacons + Curative Orbs) back into ability energy.
• Arms: Grenade Launcher Loader ×2 — faster Ex Diris reload for the windows you are not amplified.
• Chest: Arc Resistance + Concussive Dampener — the survivability floor alongside Flow State DR and Shinobu's heals.
• Class item: Harmonic Siphon + Bomber — Arc-kill orb generation + grenade energy on dodge.
• Surge: Arc Weapon Surge ×2 — flat Arc damage for Ex Diris, the primary and the super.
• Anti-Champion: Overload covered by Blind (intrinsic to the loop); Unstoppable covered by the artifact's Kinetic Impacts; bring an anti-Barrier frame on the primary or Heavy.

Artifact — Slayer Baron Apothecary Satchel

The Arc-native artifact, and it reads like it was written for this loop: it pays off Blind, Jolt, Ionic Trace, Orbs and the Grenade Launcher, and supplies the Unstoppable stun Ex Diris can't carry.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Trace Evidence · The Thick Of It
• Tier 2: Retinal Burn · Weakened Clear · Curative Orbs
• Tier 3: Arc Compounding · Kinetic Impacts

• Trace Evidence generates Ionic Traces from rapid precision hits or final blows on Jolted or Blinded targets, and trace pickup grants Armor Charge — the build's blind→trace bridge, the part a Hunter can't get from an aspect, layered on top of Spark of Ions and Discharge.
• The Thick Of It grants Armor Charge on surrounded final blows — the fuel Retinal Burn spends, and this build is always surrounded.
• Retinal Burn consumes an Armor Charge on rapid Arc precision hits to trigger a blinding burst — a fourth blind source, delivered off the Arc primary.
• Weakened Clear reloads your stowed weapons and weakens when a GL damages a boss/Champion or breaks a shield — huge on a one-in-mag Ex Diris, and free weaken on champs.
• Curative Orbs makes an Orb of Power on the first shield break and heals off elemental pickups/orbs — backfilling the Super and the amplified streak.
• Arc Compounding makes Arc sources deal bonus damage to Blind targets; the whole room is blinded, so it amps every Arc shot (Ex Diris, primary, super).
• Kinetic Impacts boosts GL reload and triggers a Kinetic shockwave on sustained GL damage that stuns Unstoppable — Ex Diris's Unstoppable answer.

Where it shines

• Endgame ad-density content — GMs, Master Lost Sectors, dungeon hallways: blind pacifies whole packs on approach while the trace river keeps grenades and Bolt Charge perpetual.
• Sustained survival — the constant Bolt-Charge heal + Flow State amplified DR carries rooms that would punish a squishier Arc setup, no defensive super required.
• Champion coverage: Overload — broken intrinsically by Blind (Loyal Moths / Beacons / Retinal Burn). Unstoppable — broken by the artifact's Kinetic Impacts (Ex Diris GL damage). Barrier — not covered by the kit; bring an anti-Barrier frame on the primary or Heavy.

Mod selection (masterworked — full allocation)

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; the super. - **Anti-Champion:** Overload covered by Blind (intrinsic to the loop); Unstoppable covered by the artifact's Kinetic Impacts; bring an anti-Barrier frame on the primary or Heavy.