‘Destiny’ Sunbreaker Titans Receiving Nerf, All Titans Get T-Rex Melee Fix

Woe, to be a Titan in Destiny. The first year of the PlayStation and Xbox online shooter saw Titans mocked for their “T-Rex arms” with an incredibly short melee distance and lack of a Super offensive punch compared to Warlocks and Hunters. The Sunbreaker sub-class was introduced with The Taken King expansion and suddenly Titans were offending Hunters and Warlocks with their hammers. Bungie announced on Friday it is taking the first steps to re-balance the Titan class by toning down the Sunbreakers while also boosting up Defenders, Strikers, and overall melee range.

This marks the first time Bungie has attempted to re-balance an entire class in Destiny. There have been slight tweaks and fixes in the past to individual sub-classes, but this is closer to a major overhaul for all three Titan sub-classes.

Senior Design Lead Sage Merrill explained that their initial play tests showed the Sunbreaker Titan was strong, but not wildly unbalanced. Things changed once Destiny‘s newest Solar class entered the hands of millions of gamers and the favored perk tree of “Forgemaster,” “Flameseeker,” and “Cauterize” became popular. This particular perk selection frustrated opposing PVP players with a torrent of heat-seeking flaming hammers that gave the Sunbreaker class an unusually high kill-to-death ratio of approximately 1.06 with 19 percent of kills coming from the sub-classes’ “Hammer of Sol” Super ability.

Attention all Titans! https://t.co/x8BewWBPBj pic.twitter.com/9eGZn5gZZ1

— Bungie (@Bungie) December 4, 2015

A number of tweaks are on their way for the Sunbreaker to bring its overall kill-to-death ration down to approximately 1.0 and to encourage players to try out other perks. This will be done through a combination of reducing the speed and tracking ability of the Hammer of Sol, reducing splash damage, and reducing the character’s resistance to damage while the Super is active. Additionally, other perks are being massaged to spread out recovery and agility bonuses.

The Sunbreaker isn’t the only one to be touched, however. Defender and Striker Titans are being tweaked to try to bring up their overall kill-to-death ratio with Strikers in particular being pushed more toward the “charge in” role while Defenders double-down on their support role.

Striker Titans will damage increased across their melee damage perks plus additional damage resistance added to “Unstoppable” and “Juggernaut.” Additionally, Strikers will be able to sprint faster with the “Headstrong” perk. Meanwhile, Defenders will see their Grenade and Melee ability recharge instantly when the Ward of Dawn super is cast.

Additionally, all three Titan sub-classes will see their melee range increased from 4m to 4.5m. For comparison, Warlocks enjoy a range of approximately 6m.

No changes are being made to the Warlock or Hunter sub-classes in Destiny with the planned December update for next week. You can see the complete breakdown of all the Titan sub-class changes posted by Bungie below.

Sunbreaker

• Melee
  • Titan Melee: Extend Titan Melee range (+12.5%)
  • Sunstrike: Decrease DOT Time (6.5s ->5.5s)
• Super
  • Hammer of Sol: Reduce Damage Resistance during Super (-9.09%)
  • Hammer of Sol: Slow Hammer travel speed by (-1.32%)
• Passives
  • Forgemaster: Reduce Splash damage detonation radius multiplier (-20%)
  • Flameseeker: Turn down Hammer tracking bonus (-25%)
  • Flameseeker: Remove +1 Recovery, and +1 Agility stat bonuses
  • Fleetfire: Added +1 Agility stat
  • Firekeeper: Added +1 Recovery stat
  • Cauterize: Added cooldown (0s -> 3s)
• Movement
  • Catapult Lift: Faster Initial velocity (+5%)

Striker

• Melee
  • Titan Melee: Extend Titan Melee range (+12.5%)
  • Storm Fist: Increase base damage (+18.2%)
  • Overload: Now also provides faster melee recharge (+50%)
  • Discharge: Additional Damage (+7.69%)
  • Discharge: Changed AOE to spherical shape
  • Amplify: Increased Super energy bonus (+30%)
• Passives
  • Headstrong: Now also provides Faster Sprint
  • Transfusion: Improve cooldown(5s ->3s)
  • Unstoppable: Now provides a total of +2 Armor (+1 additional)
  • Unstoppable: Increased damage resistance (+25%)
  • Juggernaut: Improved Shield health (+14.3%)
  • Juggernaut: Now works when airborne
• Movement
  • Catapult Lift: Faster Initial velocity (+5%)

Defender

• Melee
  • Titan Melee: Extend Titan Melee range (+12.5%)
• Super
  • Ward of Dawn: Recharge Grenade and Melee Abilities on Super cast
• Movement
  • Catapult Lift: Faster Initial velocity (+5%)

[Image via Bungie]