Challenge of Elders Guide (Week 6)

Count Your Bullets

This week’s Challenge of Elders is an exercise in ammo management and careful shooting. Fresh Troops adds more enemies (meaning more points, too!), and Juggler means you need to be swapping back and forth between your Primary and Special Weapons frequently, scoring Precision Kills at every opportunity.

Fresh Troops, Juggler, & Precision Kill Bonus
Fresh Troops, Juggler, & Precision Kill Bonus

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Gear Recommendations

The following suggestions are equally valid for all Guardians, no matter what subclass you’re going to use.

First off, Armor: Helmet-wise, look for perks that charge your super and/or provide healing on Orb pickup. All your arms can really do for you this week is speed up your reload, so look for that as well. Chest and legs both provide reserve ammo boosts, especially important with Juggler in play, so make sure you’re matching those perks and your weapon choices up if possible.

Finally, artifacts are always helpful if there’s an Orb generation perk that supports your strategy, although having 3 different enemy types this week doesn’t help us out. Precision Kills perks will be very helpful, but will also require using your Special a lot.

Weapon recommendations this week will have to start with No Time To Explain from the Primary Exotics – there’s nothing quite like getting ammo back on every Precision Kill. And then there’s Bad Juju for free ammo, plus extra super recharge. Can’t argue with that, unless you’re an idiot and forget how it works. Don’t know who would forget that, though… (awkward cough)

The First Curse also shines, with massive Precision Damage, its signature perk granting free ammo on the first precision kill of each magazine, and Triple Tap granting a few extra rounds as well. If you’re going Legendary, look for perks like Rescue Mag (decent) or Replenish (better) in addition to the classic Triple Tap. High ammo capacity Scout Rifles will be ideal here, but Hand Cannons also work well for this kind of thing.

For Special Weapons, Sidearms are the clear winner – lots of ammo, free ammo on respawn, easy precision shooting in the chaotic confines of the Prison. Shotguns and Fusions are obviously out, and Snipers are going to be hard to use in the cramped quarters of the arenas – plus the recent ammo nerf means Juggler will really hurt.

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Scoring Chart

Kill Type Score
Non-Melee / Non-Grenade / Non-Precision / Non-Super Kill +25
Melee Kill +35
Grenade Kill +40
Precision Kill +45
Super Kill +50
Assist +25
Orb(s) Created +20
Boss Kill +500
Variks grows impatient… (who cares) -50 / 45 seconds

Remember to double the points for each Kill / Modifier in the second round, and triple them in the third round. 

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How to Dominate with Any Subclass

Titans

#1 – Defender
Perks Suppressor Grenade, Blessing of Light, Gift of Light, Gift of the Void
Exotics The Armamentarium, Twilight Garrison, Helm of Saint-14
Stat Ranks Int 5 Dis 1 Str 5

Suppress enemies, make lots of Orbs by punching things, shoot everything for massive points. Go either way on the Exotic Body armor – the main point is just to guarantee you have a Special Ammo perk here. Even run the Helm if you have a Sidearm ammo boost elsewhere, and then your bubble is even better.

#2 – Sunbreaker
Perks Suncharge, Fleetfire, Cauterize
Exotics Crest of Alpha Lupi, The Armamentarium, Twilight Garrison
Stat Ranks Int 5 Dis ? Str ?

The Suncharge super is potent here because the Melee+Super+Orb bonuses make it essentially equivalent to getting Precision Kills. Beyond that, make sure you have a Special Ammo booster and kill everything. Simple.

#3 – Striker
Perks Flashbang
Exotics The Armamentarium, Twilight Garrison
Stat Ranks Int 5 Dis 5 Str 1

Striker has nothing special going for it this week, although Flashbang is nice for pulling in assists and blinding groups of enemies. The Armamentarium is probably your best Exotic for that plus the Special Ammo, but honestly I’d pick a different subclass.

Warlock

#1 – Sunsinger
Perks Song of Flame, Brimstone, Sunburst
Exotics Light Beyond Nemesis, Starfire Protocol
Stat Ranks Int 5 Dis 1 Str 5

Sunsingers take the first place among Warlocks primarily for having less useless subclass abilities in this challenge. Song of Flame can be useful for supporting Defenders and Gunslingers, whose melee’s are useful (plus other Sunsingers) and the Brimstone / Sunburst combo is solid among melee options. Exotic-wise, decide if you’d rather have a extra Orb per Super use or guaranteed Special ammo; so assess your options.

#2 – Voidwalker
Perks Surge / Life Steal
Exotics Light Beyond Nemesis, Starfire Protocol
Stat Ranks Int 5 Dis 1 Str 5

The Exotic discussion is basically the same here as for Sunsingers. Surge and Life Steal both have a place, although I think Surge is slightly better, and enough to make this class the tiniest bit better than Stormcaller.

#3 – Stormcaller
Perks Pulsewave
Exotics Light Beyond Nemesis, Starfire Protocol
Stat Ranks Int 5 Dis 1 Str 5

Just copy and paste the exotic advice from above here – there’s nothing particularly to say about a subclass that has literally no meaningful abilities for this challenge.

Hunter

#1 – Gunslinger
Perks Knife Juggler, Gambler’s Dagger, Scavenger

(Gunslinger’s Trance), (Chain of Woe)

Exotics Skyburner’s Annex, Crest of Alpha Lupi
Stat Ranks Int 5 Dis 1 Str 5

Yet another challenge that plays to the Gunslinger’s strengths, you’ve got multiple solid build options here. Throwing Knife continues an epic run as one of the best subclass abilities in CoE, continuing to stack up Melee + Precision kills for mad bonus points. If you prefer to turn your weapons onto easy mode, use Gunslinger’s Trance and Chain of Woe to boost Stability and Reload Speed – but I’d stick with those incredible Throwing Knives.

Skyburner’s Annex shines against Juggler, gobbling up Orbs for Special Ammo and making it the easy choice this week. All-in-all, not hard to call this the best subclass for the challenge.

#2 – Nightstalker
Perks Black Hole, Light of the Pack
Exotics Skyburner’s Annex, Crest of Alpha Lupi
Stat Ranks Int 5 Dis 1 Str 5

The perfect support class, Nightstalker makes a great choice for keeping the Orb Train rolling. Black Hole + Light of the Pack generates a ton of orbs and makes other supers or Precision Kills that much more valuable – just make sure to coordinate its use for maximum effect. Smoke is also very useful for gathering assists and slowing enemies, whether you go with invis or Envenomed. Skyburner’s Annex makes Juggler much more bearable, but CoAL is a classic choice for a reason.

#2 – Bladedancer
Perks Fast Twitch, Quick Draw, Encore
Exotics Skyburner’s Annex,

ATS/8 Tarantella + Mask of the Third Man

Stat Ranks Int 5 Dis 1 Str 5

A strong individual contributor, especially in a world with limiting ammo and lots of targets. You’ll want to maximize the effectiveness of your Arc Blade, as it combines the Melee and Super Kills bonuses for strong scoring and add-clearing (plus a few Orb drops). However, you do contribute less to a team than the Nightstalker does, so YMMV on this one.

 

So there you have it – our best advice for crushing skulls in this week’s Challenge of the Elders! Are you using an alternative build? Do you think we missed a key connection? Which Subclass do you think is best? Let us know in the comments!