Deathbringer — Death From Above (Hunter)

Centerpiece: Deathbringer (Rocket Launcher · Heavy · Void) · Subclass: Nightstalker (Shadowshot: Deadfall) · Role: Add-clearing / miniboss-deleting Void rain that feeds the whole kit Sandbox: 9.7.0 · Updated 2026-07-03

Fire it high, hold the trigger, let the rocket hang, then release over a pack and rain Void death down. The higher and longer the projectile falls, the harder its raining orbs hit — so the iconic play is to take the high ground, lob it, and detonate. On Void Nightstalker every orb-kill is Void damage, so the gun isn't a damage button bolted onto an ability build — it is the engine: weaken the pack with the tether, drop the rain on the weakened, and the kills hand you orbs, breaches, Devour and invis.

The weapon

Dark Deliverance (intrinsic): "Fires remotely detonated projectiles that drop Void orbs on combatants. [Shoot]: Fire; release to detonate."

Dark Descent (perk): "The further a Void orb falls, the more powerful its detonation becomes."

Catalyst — Dead Weight: "Increases how quickly Dark Descent reaches its full potential."

What it does: you hold the trigger to launch and hold the projectile in the air, then release to detonate — at which point it drops a cluster of homing Void orbs onto everything beneath it. The orbs' damage scales with Dark Descent: the further each orb falls (the higher you fire it from, the longer it hangs), the more lethal the rain. The catalyst (Dead Weight) ramps Dark Descent to full faster, so you don't need a sniper's nest of altitude to get full-power orbs — a normal arc over a pack is enough. It's a single-trigger AoE delete that you aim by positioning, not by leading the target: put yourself above the pack, lob, hold, release, and the Void rain sorts the rest.

Loadout

Slot	Pick	Why
Subclass	Nightstalker (Void)	Deathbringer's orbs are Void — the whole debuff/orb economy is native, not bolted on.
Super	Shadowshot: Deadfall	Anchoring tether suppresses + weakens the pack and holds it still — a perfect, stationary target cluster for the orb rain.
Class ability	Gambler's Dodge	Refunds melee near enemies; keeps Snare Bomb up for invis + weaken between rockets.
Movement	Triple Jump	Sustained air control to reach and hold the high ground Dark Descent rewards — more fall distance = harder orbs.
Melee	Snare Bomb (Smoke Bomb)	Weakens on hit and goes invis — applies the elemental debuff Stylish Executioner and Echo of Harvest pay out on.
Grenade	Vortex Grenade	Lingering Void well that weakens (via Undermining) — a second debuff source between rockets.
Aspect 1	Stylish Executioner	"Defeating a target affected by any elemental debuff grants invisibility and Truesight." Orb-kills on weakened targets = free invis + Truesight, every rocket.
Aspect 2	Trapper's Ambush	Air-dive that damages a pack on impact, "greatly increased if striking while you have any Void status effect" — sets up the weaken from the air before the rain lands.
Fragments	Undermining · Harvest · Starvation · Reprisal (+Instability)	Weaken-in, orbs/breaches/Devour/Super-out — the whole payout chain off the orb-kills.
Exotic armour	Orpheus Rig (Leg Armor)	"Provides ability energy for each target tethered by Deadfall anchors." Turns a fat tether into a near-instant Super refund, so you spend Deadfall liberally to weaken-and-hold for the rain.
Weapons	Kinetic Primary (Barrier) + Void Special (Unstoppable)	Deathbringer eats Heavy; the other two slots carry the champion stuns the subclass can't and the single-target the orbs aren't for.

Why it works (the mechanics)

• The orbs are Void, so the whole subclass amplifies the gun. Deathbringer drops Void orbs, and weakened targets take more damage from everything — so tether-weaken (Deadfall) → the orb rain hits a debuffed pack for bonus damage. Most "gun + ability" builds run the gun's element separate from the subclass; here they're the same, so the debuff stack is free.
• Dark Descent rewards exactly how you'd want to use a Heavy AoE rocket. "The further a Void orb falls, the more powerful its detonation becomes" — so take the high ground, lob it over the pack, hold to charge the fall, release. The catalyst (Dead Weight) ramps Dark Descent to full faster, so a normal arc over a pack already gets near-full-power orbs.
• Stylish Executioner converts every rocket into invisibility. The orbs kill targets that are already weakened (tether / Snare / Undermining-Vortex) → that's an elemental-debuff kill → invis + Truesight. You delete a pack and vanish in the same trigger pull, so the safety comes from the damage itself.
• Echo of Harvest makes Deathbringer an orb fountain. "Defeating weakened targets creates an Orb of Power and a Void Breach." The rain kills weakened adds in bulk, so one rocket over a tethered pack can drop a half-dozen orbs and breaches at once.
• Starvation closes it into self-healing. "Picking up a Void Breach or an Orb of Power grants Devour." The orbs and breaches you just made hand you Devour — full heal on kill, plus the grenade-refund cadence. The gun that does the killing also does the healing, with no extra inputs.
• Orpheus Rig + Reprisal makes the Super nearly free. The tether refunds a big chunk of Deadfall energy (Orpheus), and killing the surrounded tethered pack with the rain refunds more (Reprisal: "Final blows when surrounded by combatants grant Super energy"). Deadfall stops being a cooldown and becomes the targeting reticle for the rocket — fire it whenever you want a stationary, weakened cluster.

Stats & mods

Super 200 → Health → Class. Super is the headline: it's the priority target for Orpheus-fuelled Deadfall uptime, and more tethers = more weaken = more orb-rain damage. Health next to sit on the front line lobbing rockets; Class to keep Gambler's Dodge (melee refund + Snare uptime) flowing. Melee/Grenade ride along off Echo deltas and font mods.

Archetype lean: lead with Super-favouring pieces (Brawler / Powerhouse spread), paired with a Health- and Class-leaning piece so the dump stat (Weapons) doesn't gut survivability.

Mods:

• Boots: Heavy ammo economy — rocket reserves + faster Heavy bricks so the rain stays fed.
• Arms: loader / reserves support for the Heavy and the Void Special.
• Chest: resist mods for lobbing rockets in the open on the front line.
• Class item: Bomber / Distribution to keep Deadfall churning, plus Reaper / Powerful Attraction so every dodge scoops the flood of orbs you generate.
• Surge: Void weapon Surge ×2–3 to push the orb rain's damage.
• Anti-Champion: none from the rocket — Overload via Deadfall suppression; Barrier/Unstoppable come from the other two guns' archetypes.

Artifact — Slayer Baron Apothecary Satchel

The Void column on this artifact mirrors the build's loop exactly — Weaken in, Devour and Void Breaches out, then those Breaches pulse back into more Weaken. It adds no champion coverage of its own — the pool's only breaker (Kinetic Impacts → Unstoppable) is a Grenade Launcher mod this build doesn't run — so champions stay on the subclass and the other two guns.

Picks (2/3/2):

• Tier 1: Power From Pain · Total Carnage
• Tier 2: Void Renewal · Curative Orbs · Debilitating Wave
• Tier 3: Supernova · Old God's Rite

• Power From Pain rewards rapid final blows on weakened targets with Devour and a Void Breach — Deathbringer kills tethered packs in bulk, so this is the loop's primer.
• Total Carnage turns a finisher into damage resist and a heal — a front-line safety net for lobbing rockets in the open.
• Void Renewal spawns more Void Breaches from Devour-active Void kills, multiplying the Harvest/Starvation flood the rain already generates.
• Curative Orbs drops an Orb of Power on shield break — extra orb fuel for the dodge-scoop.
• Debilitating Wave emits a Void wave on finisher matching the equipped Super — bonus weaken and AoE off any finish.
• Supernova makes your next Void damage after picking up a Void Breach a large weakening pulse — turns the breach flood straight back into pack-wide Weaken for the next rain.
• Old God's Rite rains seeking Void projectiles after a Breach pickup — stacks its own rain under Deathbringer's.

Where it shines

• Add-dense PvE — Vanguard Ops, Battlegrounds, the clear phases of dungeons and raids, Nightfall trash waves. Tether → rain → invis → repeat is a pack shredder, and the orb/breach flood keeps Super and Devour permanently lit.
• Minibosses / orange-bar majors — a fully-charged Dark Descent rain on a weakened major chunks it hard; this is where the high-ground lob pays off.
• Boss DPS — not its lane. Deathbringer is an AoE crowd weapon; on a single boss the orbs scatter and you lose most of the value. Carry it for the rooms, not the damage phase.
• Champion coverage: Deathbringer stuns no champion intrinsically (manifest: no champion breaker). Overload is covered by Deadfall's suppression; Barrier and Unstoppable must be supplied by the archetypes of your two other weapons.

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).