According to WastedOnDestiny.com, I've played Destiny and Destiny 2 for around 1,600 hours altogether. In that time, I'd estimate I've played as a Titan for maybe, maybe 50 hours. I was a devout Hunter main in Destiny 1, and Warlock has always been my favorite in Destiny 2. The Titan class just never appealed to me – until now. After spending over a thousand hours totally ignoring the class, one brilliant moment has so thoroughly sold me on Titan that I can't put the class down. That moment looked something like this:
Per the latest Destiny 2 patch notes, the recent Arc Week update overhauled old arc subclasses to bring them in line with the subclasses introduced in Forsaken. Stormcaller Warlock got some fantastic new treats, and Arcstrider Hunter is nothing to scoff at either, but Striker Titan is the big winner in my book. The changes made to its bottom skill tree are simple but enormous. Its melee ability, Frontal Assault, now reloads your weapon and increases weapon damage by 25% in PvE and 20% in PvP, plus the buff lasts a full 16 seconds. On top of that, its Knockout passive ability now buffs your melee damage by 60% whenever your punch critically wounds or kills an enemy, and this buff can be maintained indefinitely as long as you keep punching things.
Reader, you couldn't stop me from punching things.
This has got to be the most fun I've ever had with a melee button. I can consistently deal so much melee damage as a Titan that I hardly even need guns. Reloading? What's that? Lefty and righty don't need no stinkin' reloading. And thanks to another Striker skill which starts health regen every single time I melee kill an enemy, I can dive into a group of baddies with reckless abandon and sustain myself through sheer force of fisticuffs. It is intoxicating. That may sound like "Hey have ya'll tried oxygen? It's pretty good!" to longtime Titan enthusiasts, but I don't care. Titans are fun to play, and this update convinced me of that.
Anyway, let me cool down for a minute, because this update is exciting for many reasons and punching things as a Titan is only one of them. This subclass revamp benefited more than just Titans. Warlock arc grenades and arc buddies are now absolutely bananas, and Hunters can just about keep up with Titans in the punching department. Beyond a sheer power boost, the update gave all of these subclasses more flavorful abilities which work together.
When drawing up these arc buffs, it's clear Bungie's took cues from the Forsaken subclasses, especially the solar Hunter tree Way of a Thousand Cuts, which has one of the strongest skill combos of the lot. These Hunters can wield infinite flaming throwing knives and keep their dodge energy topped off as long as they keep getting knife kills, and their dodge can instantly recharge their knives if they ever run out. It's not the most complex build in the world, but it's damn fun to use and it creates a rare ability-based play style.
The new arc subclasses do the same thing. Just as top tree Stormcaller gets a huge grenade energy refund on multikills, bottom tree Stormcaller can spam rifts and arc buddies for days. Top tree Arcstrider can chain melees and dodges together infinitely, and bottom tree Striker gets better at punching things the more things it punches. Thanks to this update, all of these subclasses now have clearly defined styles and flow states, where before many felt a little disjointed, their abilities oddly staccato.
Naturally, these changes have unlocked an array of exciting builds using different Exotics. Raiden Flux, Crown of Tempests, and Synthoceps were already strong and continue to perform, but more excitingly, several overlooked or underused Exotics are now relevant. Warlock's buffed arc buddies make Getaway Artist way better, and you could even argue Vesper of Radius with how quickly rifts recharge now. Hunters can get a lot of use out of Liar's Handshake, and The Dragon's Shadow looks better than ever. Meanwhile, Titans can choose from An Insurmountable Skullfort, ACD/0 Feedback fence, Wormgod Caress, or even Heart of Inmost Light. And on top of Exotics, players have access to stronger synergies with neutral armor and weapon skills like Ashes to Assets, Hands-On, and Graverobber, as well as new skills like Swashbuckler.
More pertinently, this is exactly the kind of update Destiny 2 needed to support its linear subclass system which, unlike Destiny 1, uses fixed skill nodes. This system is more accessible, sure, but it means that if your preferred subclass has a stinker of a skill, you can't switch it out, which can get annoying. Among other things, this update pretty much removed all the dud skills from arc subclasses – and it did it without breaking anything because the buffs were balanced for PvE and PvP separately. For that reason alone, the Arc Week update has given me hope for an eventual Void Week and Solar Week. Titan's top and bottom void trees need a lot of help, and I think the themes in Hunter and Warlock's non-Forsaken void classes could be better defined. I can't wait to see what Bungie does to them.
That's the main point here. This random, middle-of-the-season update was impactful and exciting. It's totally changed the way I and many others play Destiny 2 by injecting fun new options, and it's perfectly set the stage for Void Week and Solar Week (though I'd like to see the event itself expanded on to better celebrate the subclass changes). I never once thought I'd main a Titan, but now I can't imagine playing anything else. Any update that can convince my stubborn ass to write that is worth its salt.
