The dust has settled a bit following the release of Lightfall, Destiny 2's latest expansion. Now that it's been out for some time, we can finally take a look at the revamped mod system and put together what we consider to be top-tier Meta builds.
What makes a build good? It all depends on what you want to do. If you're a PVE fanatic, you might find more value in builds that are better for burst damage and survivability. PVP players might need faster recovery and snappier movement options. Things that don't necessarily hit hard, but certainly hit fast. Let's get down to brass tacks and take a look at the best PVE and PVP builds for Strand Titans in Destiny 2 Season of Defiance.
Table of Contents
Best Strand Titan PVE Build: Suspended Animation
Strand Titans lean into Suspending their opponents super hard. This is great for things like Champions who require specific weapons or abilities to stun because no matter what Champion it is, you can suspend them, leaving them vulnerable to attack. This build is going to be built around Suspending enemies and regening abilities. Let's dive in!
Required Gear
- Exotic Armor: Abeyant Leap (Legs)
This exotic pair of boots relies on Drengr's Lash, improving it by casting two additional Suspend Seekers that are more aggressive and travel farther. It also grants you Woven Mail when you Suspend targets.
Class Setup
- Super: Bladefury
- Grenade: Shackle Grenade
- Class Ability: Towering Barricade
- Melee: Frenzied Blade
- Jump: Catapult Lift
Aspects
- Drengr'sLash makes you spawn a Suspending wave when casting Barricade.
- Into the Fray gives you and your teammates Woven Mail when you destroy a Tangle or cast your Super. It also makes it so that your melee regens faster when you have Woven Mail.
These are the only two Aspects available for Strand Titans right now, but we do know that a third is coming in Season 21. We'll have to see if it is strong enough to take the place of either of these, but for now, this is what we have so this is what we'll use!
Fragments
- Thread of Transmutation which creates Tangles when defeating enemies will wearing Woven Mail
- Thread of Warding grants Woven Mail upon Orb pickup.
- Thread of Evolution makes Threadlings travel farther and deal additional damage.
- Thread of Fury grants melee energy when damaging targets with a Tangle.
Armor Mods
Outside of Stat Mods, you'll want to min/max for ability uptime to further lean into the grenade, melee, and rift spam that this build is all about.
- Head Mods: I recommend Harmonic Syphon x2 and Heavy Ammo Finder for more orbs and heavy ammo
- Arm Mods: I recommend Grenade Kickstart x2 and Heavy Handed for more grenade energy and Orbs
- Chest Mods: I recommend damage reduction mods of your choice.
- Leg Mods: I recommend Better Already x2 and a Surge mod of your choice for added survivability when picking up Orbs.
- Bond Mods: I recommend Bomber, Outreach, and Time Dilation for ability uptime and to extend your Armor Charge duration
Weapons
- Kinetic Slot: Strand Primary such as Rufus's Fury. While not required, we're leaning hard into Strand Damage types, so this is going to be an excellent option for quick DPS as far as primaries go. If you have a Strand special weapon that you feel that you can get more DPS out with, then roll with that, but Rufus's Fury is my go-to right now.
- Energy Slot: This is a freebie, but I think running Vexcalibur to gain an Overshield while you have Woven Mail is silly fun that will make you feel like a god on the battleground.
- Heavy Slot: Again, this is completely up to you. Right now, there aren't a ton of Strand options in the heavy slot, but either Koraxis's Distress or Circular Logic will do wonders here. I lean more toward Circular Logic, but either is a good choice.
Stat Distribution
For these, you'll want to focus on as much Resilience and Recovery as possible for both survivability, but also Barricade uptime. Next, focus on Discipline if you want more Grenade energy or Strength for more Melee energy, but it's dealer's choice. The rest of the stats are completely up to you. Mobility isn't that important overall here and I constantly run 30, 20, or even fewer stat points in Mobility.
Conclusion
Grabbing this setup and taking it into a Legend or Master Lost Sector, GM, or Master Raid is a ton of fun. There's just nothing that poses much of a threat unless you make a mistake and need to wait for your abilities to recharge. Get in there and go crazy, Titan!
Best Strand Titan PVP Build: Shaxx's Bane
This build is going to be extremely similar to the PVE Strand Build above, but this is going to lean more into the Grapple and Aping your opponents. We're going for a close and personal type of run-and-gun PVP experience so grab your favorite shotgun and get ready, Titan!
Required Gear
- Exotic Armor: Dunemarchers (Legs)
Sprint. Melee. Shotgun. Rinse and repeat. Dunemarchers increase your sprint speed and build up a charge when you sprint. Meleeing an enemy will chain that charged damage to nearby enemies. Perfect for teams stacked up on capture points!
Class Setup
- Super: Bladefury
- Grenade: Grapple
- Class Ability: Towering Barricade
- Melee: Frenzied Blade
- Jump: Catapult Lift
Aspects
- Drengr'sLash makes you spawn a Suspending wave when casting Barricade.
- Into the Fray gives you and your teammates Woven Mail when you destroy a Tangle or cast your Super. It also makes it so that your melee regens faster when you have Woven Mail.
Again, there are only Two Strand Aspects right now, so we'll stick to these two.
Fragments
Unlike in PVE, your PVP fragments likely won't have a great effect on your build. That said, I do have some recommendations that should help you get the edge over your opponents.
- Thread of Isolation makes it so that your opponents emit a Severing burst when landing rapid precision shots.
- Thread of Ascent reloads your weapons and grants some airborne effectiveness after using your grenade (or in this case, your Grapple!)
- Thread of Warding grants Woven Mail when picking up Orbs
- Thread of Generation for more grenade energy while dealing damage.
Armor Mods
Outside of Stat Mods, you'll want to min/max for weapon steadiness and handling. These are all pretty straightforward and grant bonus weapon stats and ability recovery.
- Head Mods: I recommend Kinetic OR Energy Targeting (and a siphon mod for fun!)
- Arm Mods: I recommend Reloaders of your choice.
- Chest Mods: I recommend Unflinching mods of your choice.
- Leg Mods: I recommend Innervation and Invigoration x2 for grenade and melee regeneration.
- Bond Mods: I recommend Distribution, Bomber, and Outreach for more ability energy.
Weapons
- Kinetic Slot: I recommend something with some range like the No Time To Explain, Dead Man's Tale, or a similarly ranged Primary of your choice. Pulse Rifles continue to absolutely dominate in PVP and DMT is just fun to use.
- Energy Slot: All Shotgun, all the time. I use a Mindbender's Ambition that I love. Auto-Loading Holster is going to make you very happy when you're sprinting and swinging over Special Ammo and you have to switch to a CQB weapon in a pinch.
- Heavy Slot: This is completely up tp you. Personally, Rockets are always a go-to in PVP due to their wide blast radius, making it tough to miss an opponent.
Stat Distribution
For these, you'll want to focus on high Resilience and Recovery for both survivability, but also Rift uptime. Next would be Discipline for maintaining Grapple refresh time.
Conclusion
This build is going to make you enemy number one. Getting suspended in PVP isn't as bad as getting frozen by Stasis, but it's still fairly frustrating. Good. Go and make the enemy team hate you. I might not run this in Trials, but the next time Iron Banner swings around, you can too!
These are the best Strand Titan builds for PVE and PVP in Season of Defiance. Make sure you save them in your new Loadout slots before you start moving on to your next build!
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