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Destiny class guide: Titan

Destiny has something for everyone, and if your thing is heavy armour, heavier damage and spectacular supers, the Titan is for you.

destiny_titan

Destiny is carefully balanced so you can enjoy the game solo, but if you're interested in co-op, strikes or raids you want to know as much as you can about what roles each class can play in a good fireteam.

The Titan is Destiny's core combat-focused unit. In classic fantasy archetypes, the Titan is the warrior. In the "holy trinity" of MMOs, it's the tank.

Playing a Titan is all about being the toughest guy on the battlefield. You can take more hits, get in closer and stay there longer than the other classes. This makes it an ideal class for those who like to use melee or short range weapons like shotguns, or for those who prefer to run and gun, doing splash or area of effect damage, rather than hang back in cover taking careful aim.

Titans have heavier armour than the other classes, and can dish out huge amounts of damage. Whether you build for survivability, damage or both is up to you.

Titan: Equipment

Titans are easy to spot on the battlefield because they're top-heavy; armour is thickest on the head and torso. To balance this aesthetically, the Titan wears a piece of class armour on their lower body. According to the lore, this cloth is where they record their mighty deeds.

You start with the merest little flap of fabric but before long you'll unlock long, flowing swathes printed with colourful designs.

Titan: Lift

The Titan's mobility ability is called Lift, and of the three classes its movement is the most perpendicular. You'll use this move to get high (hurh hurh), giving you ample opportunity to aim a grenade or super.

Lift makes it easy to get up onto out of reach platforms, but it's not as speedy a movement as the Hunter's - while still being quicker than the Warlock. Because it mostly shoots you straight up, it's not as good at evading enemy fire as the other classes' abilities.

The Lift upgrade tree is identical in both Titan subclasses:

    Lift
  • Jump and then press X again while in the air to activate Lift.
  • Increased Height - Upgrades Lift to travel to greater heights.
  • Increased Control - Upgrades Lift for better directional control while in the air.
  • Catapult - Upgrades Lift to provide a strong initial burst of momentum.

Titan: stat boost upgrade trees

Players can choose just one perk from each of the two stat boost upgrade trees. Although it's tempting to treat the third perk in each tree as the most powerful, which you should choose depends on your subclass, play style, equipment and build. The two stat boost perks may not seem dramatic, but you can use them to plug a hole in your build, or combine them with other choice to min-max a gameplay loop.

Many Titans may find a speed boost makes up for the class's inherent lack of agility, but battle recovery and toughness may be of more use to dedicated tanks. Remember, you can swap your perks at any time, unless locked in.

    Class Modifiers
  • Titan Codex I - Training focused on battle recovery and toughness.
  • Titan Codex II - Training focused on speed and toughness.
  • Titan Codex III - Training focused on battle recovery and speed.
    Attribute Modifiers
  • Titan Codex IV - Training focused on all attributes.
  • Titan Codex V - Training focused on maximum battle recovery.
  • Titan Codex VI - Training focused on raw speed.

Next: the Titan's Striker subclass.

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Titan: Striker subclass guide

Smash the ground and dissolve enemies in a maelstrom of Arc Light.

The Striker subclass is the more damaged-focused of the two subclasses initially available. Skilled players can use their grenades to control the battlefield, and make judicious use of melee to ensure they always have a super ready. If you bring a Striker to a raid, be prepared to be doing serious damage to your foes. Not bad choice for those looking for a role with less responsibility - and more fun.

Here are the Striker's progression trees:

    Grenade
  • Flashbang - An explosive grenade disorients the enemies it damages
  • Pulse Grenade - A grenade that periodically damages enemies inside its explosion radius.
  • Lightning Grenade - A grenade that sticks to any surface, periodically emitting bolts of lightning.
    Fist of Havoc (super)
    Smash the ground and dissolve nearby enemies in a maelstrom of Arc Light.
  • Aftermath - Fist of Havoc leaves a damage-dealing field in its wake.
  • Death from Above - After jumping, Fist of Havoc can be aimed at enemies below.
  • Shockwave - Fist of Havoc unleashes a wave of devastating energy which travels along the ground.
    Storm Fist (melee)
    A punishing melee attack that deals bonus damage.
  • Overload - Hits with Storm Fist have a chance to immediately reset its cooldown.
  • Discharge - Hits with Storm Fist have a chance to deal area of effect damage around the target.
  • Illuminated - Kills with Storm Fist significantly reduce the cooldown of Fist of Havoc.
    Synergy
  • Headstrong - Springing increases the leap distance of Fist of Havoc.
  • Aftermath - Increases the duration of Pulse Grenade, Shock Grenade and Aftermath.
  • Transfusion - Kills with melee attacks immediately trigger health regeneration.
    Uber
  • Unstoppable - You are harder to kill while using Fist of Havoc.
  • Shoulder Charge - After sprinting for a short time, press R1/RB to unleash a devastating melee attack.
  • Juggernaut - After sprinting for a short time, gain a protective shield.

Visit page two for the Defender subclass.

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Titan: Defender subclass guide

Shape Void Light into into an indestructible shield to protect you and your allies from harm.

As the name suggests, the Defender subclass turns your Titan into a classic defensive tank. The Defender's super is defensive, rather than offensive, and will give you and your fire team time a brief pause in which to reload, regenerate shields, tick through cooldown timers, or just take a breath and look around. At a raid or strike, a defender will always know where their allies are, and be prepared to hand out buffs when needed.

The Defender's progression trees follow:

    Grenade
  • Magnetic grenade: a grenade that attaches to enemies and explodes twice.
  • Spike grenade: a grenade that attaches to any surface and emits a torrent of damaging Void Light.
  • Suppressor grenade: an explosive grenade that prevents enemies from using abilities for a short time
    Ward of Dawn (super)
    Shape Void Light into an indestructible shield to protect you and your allies from harm.
  • Armor of Light: while inside Ward of Dawn, you and your allies gain significant damage resistance
  • Blessing of Light: passing through Ward of Dawn grants you and your allies a temporary shield.
  • Weapons of Light: passing through Ward of Dawn grants you and your allies a temporary increase to weapon damage.
    Disintegrate (melee)
    Killing an enemy with this powerful melee attack creates a Force Barrier around you which absorbs incoming damage.
  • War machine: while Force Barrier is active all your weapons reload and ready blindingly fast.
  • Gift of light: when Force Barrier is active, all your skills have a chance to create orbs of light.
  • Unbreakable: Force Barrier continually recharges.
    Synergy
  • Bastion: increases the duration of Ward of Dawn.
  • Relentless: increases the duration and strength of Force Barrier.
  • Gift of the void: as Ward of Dawn takes damage from enemy fire, it creates additional orbs of light.
    Uber
  • Untouchable: reduces the cooldown time of Ward of Dawn.
  • Iron Harvest: heavy weapons kills have a chance to create orbs of lights for your allies.
  • Illuminated: increases the benefits granted by Blessing of Light and Weapons of Light.

Not quite your style after all? Check out the other options in our Destiny class Guide.

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Brenna Hillier avatar

Brenna Hillier

Contributor

Based in Australia and having come from a lengthy career in the Aussie games media, Brenna worked as VG247's remote Deputy Editor for several years, covering news and events from the other side of the planet to the rest of the team. After leaving VG247, Brenna retired from games media and crossed over to development, working as a writer on several video games.

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