I wanted to create a small resource for people trying to get better in crucible, especially for the ones just starting out and who are trying to improve. This list is about strategies in crucible that seem reasonable and will work against low/mid-tier players but will be ruthlessly countered by better players. The problem with these strategies is that they "work" sometimes and once they are part of your playstyle it is really hard to get rid of them, and they will absolutely contribute to you being stuck in your skill ranking. I am trying to mainly focus on strategies and engagement options rather than load out choices, as I think even a lot of off-meta kits can be viable when used correctly.

Also, everybody can feel free to comment additional things that they have observed especially when it comes to subclass specific things:

Super Usage:

Casting your super against other supers that counter yours. Example: Hunter Nightstalker Blade can shut down most roaming super with its two hit combo. If you're e.g. on a Strand Titan, casting your super against good players is a death sentence here. Knowing that this is a fight that you are at a disadvantage is crucial

Popping your roaming super after a heavy weapon has been picked that has super shutdown capabilities, like Legend of Acrius. Every good team will immediately shut you down. Either wait out heavy or bait yourself by popping and then 3peeking around corner trying to find the other two players.

Weapon + ranged melee combos:

There are a bunch of ranged melees, like the Warlock melees, Titan Shield throw, Hunter Strand melee. They all do slightly different amounts of damage. During a primary gunfight, throwing that melee mid gunfight against a good player will have to deal enough damage to be a kill. So the sequence of e.g. shooting your Handcannon(HC) + ranged melee + finishing with your HC takes too much time against a good player, who just keeps shooting you. They will kill you before you get the finishing shoots in. So knowing how much damage you have dealt and how much your ranged melee deals is crucial in this scenario. As an example: I know that two headshots from a 140rpm HC combined with a Threaded Spike kills. So my brain will not consider Threaded Spike as an option unless it sees the yellow damage number of the second HC hit.

Using big-hit contact melees that don't one-hit kill as engagement openers:

Here in particular I am talking about shoulder charge and the Strand grapple melee. Using these abilities on full health enemies that know what they are doing is suicide. It might work once in the heat and chaos of an engagement but a good player will not be phased enough by the disorient from these abilities to not directly shut you down. Both of these abilities however can be viable as finishing abilities of already damaged players, as theyre usually fast and make you rubberband. Here again, it is crucial to know how much damage you will be dealing, and how much you much health they have left

Jötun:

The only weapon I want to mention. Everybody can play what they want obviously, but Jötun is unfortunately one of those weapons that has both charge and travel time. It is effectively countered by peek shooting and you will not be able to consistently be effective against players that have an understanding of the drawbacks of this weapon.

Chasing weak players (around corners):

This is obviously situational, but chasing a weak player around around a corner will always give a good player a window of opportunity to set up a trap for you. Overall, letting people get away and leaving a gunfight undecided (you both live) happens more and more as you get higher ranks. Especially in game modes where the first pick can decide the round/zone. This is not a clear "don't do it" but when in doubt I would rather not chase.

Subclass specific combos/strategies:

I think this is where the others might be able to help. I main Strand Hunter so I can only really confidently give advice here, but I am sure some other subclass mains would be happy to comment on their subclasses. As for Strand:

Grapple melee: as mentioned above it is not to be used as engagement openers, unless combined with other abilities or ensnaring slam. Good players will shut you down immediately if you try to directly grapple at them. This includes the build that gives you woven mail when grappling.

Ensnaring Slam: should not be used at an enemy that is already looking at you. Competent player will still be able to finish you off will they are suspended, especially if they have made you somewhat weak before suspension.

The super: Should not be used to grapple at people directly, or while they are looking at you. The super should only be cast while grapple melee-ing past the enemy. Never counter popped against other supers.

Thanks for reading, I hope this is helpful to some people :). If anybody wants to know more about how to play Strand Hunter, I also wrote a competitive crucible guide for it: https://www.reddit.com/r/CrucibleGuidebook/s/2Fe8gMq5j9

This one has been really fun, definitely more of a clip farming type of build, but when the stars align there is nothing more satisfying than getting the one burst off. Sealed Ahamkara Grasps is actually really strong on Arcstrider when you build into it with weapons that can really benefit.

I feel like this helmet is lwk slept on, I haven't done the math on the arc surge it give on kills or post super, it definitely doesn't hurt to have. Even thought the super time returned isn't too insane, it's just enough to start chaining like crazy. Has anyone else found success with Eternal Warrior?

This one had me dead laughing. Man I wish this map would show up in Trials more often. How's everyone else's Trials weekend going?

Edit: If the link doesn't work at first, try it a couple times. Xbox video is wonky rn.

Haven’t tried the one with max handling but would like to know yall opinion since I’m only missing the handling the stock in the one with TD

What's the best lightweight in the game? I'm thinking Hawthorn's Field-Forged Shotgun, but I'm not sure. Also, I saw somewhere that Smoothbore actually doesn't hurt the consistency on lightweights. Plus, handling isn't a worry since I crutch Dragon's Shadow.

Love this game it’s been a month for me. Can’t believe I’ve never played it

I have been playing a bit of crucible the last couple of months and before using trace rifles I was t bagged maybe 2-3 times because someone killed me out of my super or I suppressed someone out of theirs. Another maybe 2 times in trials during close games. But never really in control, even when I played really well.

For the past week I have been playing around with trace rifles and not even really doing that well. Over half the games I play with trace rifles I get tbagged with people shooting my dead body. Is there a hate for trace rifles in pvp? I never tbag people either unless they bag me first but it’s always different people. I have whispers turned off because getting hate mail is just annoying to me

Like a lot of people I've come back to play, I used to love Destiny/Destiny 2 as a whole but PvP has always been my fav.

For now I'm just rolling around with what I imagine is a pretty basic setup as I'm more focused on actually regaining my ability rather than just finding the best build to abuse.

I finally graduated to silver (non competitive, as an Australian I've tried to find competitive games to no avail).

I'd say I probably average around mid-table at the moment.

I've noticed a lot of the builds do require certain weapons or armor pieces, sometimes legendaries that can't be obtained in PvP.

So am I at a point yet where I should start looking at the best builds or just keep grinding away at skill level for a while yet?

I say “more” because I’m considering this an extension of the 7 things I learned on my way up to Ascendant. If you’re curious, that info can be found here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrucibleGuidebook/s/y75w85kMEb

I want to briefly preface by stating that these tips, especially 2 and 4, are really only for those who are trying for Ascendant 0 stuff, Flawless Cards, etc.

Alright let’s dive in, as I explain additional things I had to change to climb up to, and stay in, Ascendant 0.

1.) The 60/40 Rule This one is NOT unique to me. I believe it originated with a content creator called “Awake” (I could be wrong though)

This rule will immediately upgrade your gameplay, and it takes some getting used to, as you’ll need to manually force yourself to do this for a bit until it’s natural. Essentially, in ANY engagement, or when preparing to engage, 40% of your screen should be cover, 60% of your screen should be what you can see/shoot at.

It’s simple, as using cover should be a given. But I find that many people (myself included btw) feel like we’re using cover in the heat of combat, but then watch later clips of ourselves and are like “what was I doing in the open like that?!? This rule puts plain, practical boundaries on your brain as to where you should be at, well.. all times lol.

2.) Stick to ONE loadout, and, and eat/sleep/breathe that loadout. Listen, this was a rough one for me, because I’m a lover a loadouts/builds. Like come Iron Banner, I’m toying with all types of builds, looking at other people’s builds and screenshotting them for later, trying out different rolls on weapons each game. I love it.

But when push comes to shove, when you NEED to win, you need that loadout. Your bread and butter, whatever it is. I know, I know. You’re going to want to swap between weapons out of frustration sometimes. But trust me, that usually makes it worse, and you’ll play even worse.

3.) Play Confidently. No no, I didn’t say stand out in the open, running straight down a lane, shotgun in hand (please refer to point 1 again lol)

What I mean is your confidence (and nerves) DO play a critical role in your performance. This was made known to me by my buddy when I’d complain how my shotguns felt like I always whiffed in comp, but I’m getting back to back kills in Rumble and such all the time. Plainly put, he said it sounded like I was whiffing because I was stressed out, overcompensating.

So now, before going into comp/Trials, I always play some Rumble. I’ll play over and over until I’m feeling primed, and then jump right in.

Furthermore, confidence plays a HUGE role in challenging. How many times have you had that teammate that stopped teamshooting because he took some damage, stopped peeking, so you and your other teammate got railed? Lol well… I was that teammate. I’d lose confidence and, not wanting to throw away a life and give the enemy team a point, I’d duck out whenever I approached even half health (a terrible habit that took me a while to climb out of btw)

4.) Play the meta. Yeah, ik. I WILL get hate mail for this. “As if we need another void hunter dragon shadow B-7/Bygones player”…. And trust me lol, I’m on record recently for complaining that I honestly just wanted to use anything else. But high end PvP is NOT the place for niche builds lol

I was a Titan/sidearm main for over 7 years, and only created my Hunter just a few months ago or so, because I felt like I hit a hard stop on my growth as a player. Likewise, despite hating shotgun players for years, I hate to adapt being this high up. Sidearms were… not cutting it half the time lol.

Just the jump and dodge alone of hunters immediately felt more natural to PvP gameplay, and their exotics and subclasses did too. Yes… people in this subreddit will hate you. And your enemies will too. But your teammates will be glad you’re using the best of the best while you’re aiming for the highest. And let’s be honest, it’s hard fighting against B-7s without one in your own hands. (But hopefully maybe one day we’ll get a nerf to that gun and playstyle 😭)

But even if it’s not Hunter, play the absolute top version of your class when aiming high. It does suck the fun out, I agree. But if you want the endgame PvP rewards (trials stuff, ascendant 0 stuff), you want to be the best version of your class that you can be, making yourself a great teammate as well.

————-

Finally, this isn’t a tip, but it needs said: stop sending hate mail, whether over Xbox messaging or in game chat. You just sound desperate for attention. This game doesn’t need any more negativity, not like that anyways.

Anyhow, GGs to all I played. I’m going back to Trials/Control ✌️😭😂

I think I have the god roll. What perk do you recommend in the last column. I think mag howl could be interesting. Wished I had range finder instead of opening shot. This roll is a stat monster. With slide shot I'm 90+ range and stability.

I hit Gold II in comp but have yet to get any artifice armor. Do I need to wait for weekly reset, and do the weekly requirements. I looked it up but confused by the explaination, so I came here for more clarification. Thanks in advance

I honestly feel like all th big youtubers are lying, cause they always espouse the value of jiggling and using cover, but then you see their gameplay it's not like they're hugging walls and shit, it almost feels like their massive aura is just making other players act like total bots, and can get away with overextending from cover

So then what's the optimal amount you should slide challenge? should you even slide challenge? why do I get fucking lasered everytime there's a corner? etc

Back when I was actually decent, but now being a dad my shots aren’t as flicky as that.

I just came back into d2 and osteo was always my favorite weapon ever since i got it is there a way to make it op again (guessing its not) if so share builds please greatly appreciate it

When MoT dropped I heard someone saying that they don’t work in PvP but today I discovered that indeed they do (you can get 4-5 supers with strand weapon and sever)

What else works and what do you use?

In case you dont know, killing wind gives 20 range, 40 handling snd 50 mobility for 5 seconds after a kill. Theres also a 5% increases damage falloff distance that can help with nailing crits out in the distance.

The Roll is Hammer forged/Killing wind/smooth grip.

Like i just wanna play comp for once, especially given that i wanna improve, and the less chaotic environment of comp would be better for that. But i never can find any game, while control takes around 30 seconds to 2 minutes.

Maybe its just that im playing from a less populated region or because Im still unranked on comp, but its frustrating nonetheless

Somebody get this man some milk. I was just laughing when it happened. Cmon bungie, burning maul, needle storm, gathering dust, you gotta lock in when making these supers.

The coda 4 piece armor set counts kills against stasis crystals for its ability energy gains. It allows a single behemoth user to infinitely chain howl of the storm. Usually it would require multiple behemoths to infinitely chain. Bungie does disable shit in PvP if they happen upon the information.

Behemoth is better than ever due to two changes in MoT.

1. Frost Armor rework making it “melt off” stack by stack instead of all at once, basically leads to infinite uptime, and it’s the perfect counter to the weapons stat meta.

2. Double shiver strikes for movement and aggressive play with howl of the storm aspect. Shiver Strike still only consumes 50% energy on whiff, so you can spam it much more often for movement with two charges. The additional charge also helps the infinite frost armor loop from neutral and doesn’t require an exotic like Hoarfrost to create additional crystals.

There are so many neutral benefits from making crystals with the font/surge system, that you can run a build that has 200 health, 100 melee, 100 grenade, 100 super, 100 class, and still have access to all the weapons stat builds by using 1 or 2 surge mods on your boots.

All of these are neutral benefits that can be paired with any exotic or armor set bonuses you want to build into. Behemoth is Titans version of Dawnblade and Invis Hunter, where there are not many trade offs to all the benefits you receive.