The Titans possess one of the most powerful builds currently found in the PvE meta of Destiny 2. Bungie knows this and in order not to make this class too powerful in ‘The Final Shape’, the famous ‘Nerf Hammer’ will be applied.
What kind of build is this? It is the War Banner build for the Strand Titan. The aspect ‘War Banner’ transforms the Titan and turns him into a strong supporter with the potential to even melt bosses in a matter of seconds.
This build creates a green, pulsating aura around your Titan when he defeats an enemy with his melee attack, finisher or sword. The pulses that come from the War Banner heal all players and the user in the area of effect and increase melee and sword damage.
If you or your teammates nearby defeat more enemies, the tempo of the pulses increases, and thus also the healing. The banner lasts for 30 seconds and can be activated again after the duration has expired.
While many see the Titan as a support, with the right equipment, the class could even defeat many tough bosses as a solo player within the 30-second time window. Bungie saw this and had to put an end to the Titan’s exploits.
Swinging Tanks become Falling Boxes
What will change? Bungie has also looked at the Titans and their War Banner in their blog post (via bungie.net) regarding subclasses. The combination of grappling paired with a ‘double-punch’ shotgun and the exotics ‘Synthoceps’ or ‘Wormgod’s Touch’ was simply too powerful.
With the right rotation, bosses in the heavy Raid mode ‘Pantheon’ were melted. Bungie could not assess how powerful this aspect would become at the release, but after thorough investigation, Bungie now has the nerfs ready. Here’s what you should know:
- War Banner
- The maximum timer has been reduced from 30 seconds to 24 seconds.
- The damage bonus from melee attacks, glaives, and supers now decreases with ‘Synthoceps’ as follows:
- The melee bonuses have been reduced from 1.4x to 1.15x.
- The glaive melee bonuses have been reduced from 1.25x to 1.125x.
- The super bonuses have been reduced from 1.4x to 1.2x.
- Melee and glaive melee damage bonuses now also decrease with ‘Wormgod’s Touch’.
- The melee bonuses have been reduced from 1.4x to 1.1x based on the number of stacks.
- The melee bonuses from glaives have been reduced from 1.4x to 1.05x based on the number of stacks.
Grappling has now also taken a hit and can no longer be abused for DPS:
- Grapple wires:
- The duration is no longer fully refreshed when used.
- The duration now increases by a maximum of 5 seconds per grapple and reduces to a maximum of 1 second after the same grapple wire has been used five times in a row.
Is the build now bad? We cannot say that yet. The numbers that Bungie cites show that especially the strategy with the pump shotgun and Titan arm exotics have lost significant strength. The fact that the grapple points also have a guaranteed decay, no matter how often you use them, limits your tactics in DPS.
Unfortunately, we currently do not have concrete numbers on how severe the nerf will be in combat, but we can at least reassure you that the support aspect of the banner has not been completely ruined. You can still provide strong healing in the team with your green pulses; it will just now be shortened by 6 seconds.
What do you think about the nerf of the banner in combination with the exotics? Do you think it was absolutely necessary or did the build make you enjoy the game? Bungie is taking some content away from Lightfall again. What those are, you can find out here: Destiny 2: All content that will disappear with the release of ‘The Final Shape’
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