The 3 Best Titan Builds for PvE
With recent changes to exotic armor, weapons, and more, many builds have gotten better, worse, and stayed the same.
This series aims to give a breakdown of the best builds for each class which should be saved in your loadout slots.
These builds are the best of the best in all end game content, but may require small tweaks to handle certain champions or modifiers in some activities.
The builds are in no particular order, and each build will have a base form based on the subclass, exotic, and/or weapons used accompanied with various versions of the builds and reasoning as to when and where to use the alternative forms of the build.
Now live in Destiny 2, The Final Shape expansion brings a new Prismatic Subclass. Discover our meta Prismatic Hunter builds, Prismatic Warlock builds, and Prismatic Titan builds.
Build 1 – Solar Bonk Titan
This is the hottest build for Titan at the moment, pun intended. This build has fantastic survivability, making it almost difficult to die. It is also capable of putting out good damage that isn’t ammo dependent. The primary components of the build are as follows:
- Sol Invictus Aspect
- Makes solar ability kills create a Sunspot and makes Sunspots heal and improve ability regeneration
- Roaring Flames Aspect
- Solar ability kills will build stacks increasing the damage of abilities
- Throwing Hammer
- The primary means of creating Sunspots and building Roaring Flames stacks and the hammer can be continuously picked up and used repeatedly
- Synthoceps
- Increases the damage of Throwing Hammer when surrounded by 3 or more enemies
- Heavy Handed Mod
- Throwing Hammer kills will create an Orb of Power
- The vast majority of kills will be with Throwing Hammer, from there various mods utilizing Orbs can be used based on preference
- Hands-On Mod
- Gives bonus super energy on melee kills which will be the vast majority of kills
Some other components that have flexibility are the weapons and grenade. Tractor Cannon is common to have with this build to apply a 30% weaken to high health targets.
The grenade is flexible and Healing Grenade can be used for more survivability or any damaging grenade for single target damage such as Fusion Grenade or Solar Grenade.
The build is simple to play and the only thing you need to think about is using your Throwing Hammer repeatedly.
Throwing Hammer kills will create a Sunspot that’ll damage enemies, heal you, and increase ability regeneration. Red bar enemies will die in one or two hits depending on the power level of the activity, and with Synthoceps yellow bar enemies will get taken down fairly quickly.
If using Tractor Cannon, apply it to any higher health target to weaken them for extra damage with Throwing Hammer.
This build can play up close due to the survivability it has with Sunspots. If you are in a bind you can activate Hammer of Sol which will create a Sunspot and give damage resistance for extra survivability, use Healing Grenade if equipped, or find a red bar enemy and kill it with a Throwing Hammer to make a Sunspot.
Even though this build plays up close and personal it does well in content at a light level deficit. This is the best build for solo content and is a very popular build for solo flawless runs in dungeons due to its survivability and not being ammo dependent.
Otherwise, this build can be used anywhere with comfort. The only downside is its boss damage potential in group activities is outmatched by builds utilizing top DPS weapons.
Here are example Bonk builds to try out:
Build 2 – Infinite Suspend Abeyant Leap
Strand Titan is a top build in the game due to how well it abuses the suspend mechanic which circumvents any champion. Between Barricade and Shackle Grenade this class can keep a target suspended indefinitely.
The other very strong mechanic is Woven Mail which gives 60% damage resistance. With the Abeyant Leap exotic boots Woven Mail is given every time an enemy is suspended which gives this class durability on top of its best in-game crowd control.
The required components of the build are:
- Shackle Grenade
- One of the two means of Suspending targets
- Barricade
- The second means of suspending targets and either option works. Towering Barricade is safe due to the height, but Rally Barricade has the benefits of a lower cooldown and the weapon buffs it provides when standing near it
- Drengr’s Lash Aspect
- This aspect is what allows barricade to suspend targets
- Abeyant Leap
- These exotic boots give Woven Mail on suspensions and allow you to suspend more targets when casting barricade
- Thread of Continuity Fragment
- Increases the time in which an enemy is suspended which gives enough time to keep a high priority target suspended indefinitely between cycling barricade and grenade
- Thread of Mind Fragment
- Defeating a suspended grants class ability energy which lets barricade contribute to its own cooldown
- Thread of Generation Fragment
- Dealing damage grants grenade energy which is how this build refreshes grenade energy quickly by just playing the game
- Bolstering Detonation and Bomber Mods
- Makes grenade hits lower barricade cooldown and makes using barricade lower grenade cooldown
The build is quite easy to play and only involves cycling Barricade and Shackle Grenade to suspend high priority targets such as majors or champions.
Each cooldown feeds into one another which allows you to cycle them faster. In general it is recommended to utilize Barricade first due to its lower cooldown and use of the Thread of Mind fragment which allows that cooldown to be more readily available.
With this setup, it is very easy to use Barricade, throw a grenade, then have Barricade ready by the time the target is no longer suspended. This has the added benefit of giving Woven Mail and creating a Tangle.
Quicksilver Storm is a common pairing with this build as it will most likely continue to be commonplace for the seasonal artifact to help strand weapons.
This build is playable in any content and works very well in content with a significant light level disadvantage and many champions because of how good its crowd control is. In all facets of the game, especially those with champions, this is undoubtedly a top tier build currently.
Here are example builds:
Build 3 – No Backup Plans
The final build leans on two recently buffed exotics in No Backup Plans and Legend of Acrius. The exotic gauntlets give a massive 35% damage bonus to shotguns when an overshield is active and a shotgun kill refreshes the overshield.
Legend of Acrius continuously receives buffs in damage and ammo capacity, making it a very good, easy to use damage source. This build can also be played with double slug shotguns which is a much harder damage strategy to master, but it is one of the highest DPS sources in the game.
The required components are:
- No Backup Plans
- The source of continuous overshields and a 35% damage buff to shotguns
- A Shotgun
- You need a weapon to take advantage of the damage buff. Good choices are Legend of Acrius, slug shotguns, and Conditional Finality
- Bastion Aspect
- This aspect grants an overshield when standing near a barricade which is the easiest means to get the damage buff from No Backup Plans
- Echo of Starvation Fragment
- Grants devour when picking up an Orb of Power or Void Breach. This lets the build have another source of survivability with healing on kill
- Echo of Persistence Fragment
- Increases the duration of overshields and devour which is great for neutral game and when using this build for boss damage as the overshield will last longer in order for the damage bonus to last longer during a damage phase
- Ward of Dawn
- This super can be casted on top of a boss or high health target as being in the bubble will grant an overshield for the 35% damage buff and gives very good survivability for damaging a target at very close range
- Siphon Mod
- Match a siphon mod with a primary or shotgun element to create an Orb of Power to activate Devour
The general loop of gameplay is to acquire an overshield by casting barricade or getting rapid shotgun kills, create an Orb of Power from a Siphon mod, and then continuously getting kills to heal and get back the overshield. When using this build for the neutral game, Conditional Finality is a great choice for the weapon due to its strength in all facets in the game.
This build can also be used for boss damage and Slug Shotguns and/or Legend of Acrius are the weapon choices if focusing around boss DPS. To best do this, cast Ward of Dawn or Barricade next to the damage target for an overshield to get the 35% damage bonus from No Backup Plans.
The overshield is only being used for the damage buff and if you take damage which rids of the overshield, step in and out of the source to refresh the shield and damage buff.
Due to the nature of this build’s playstyle it is best suited for content at the player’s light level. The area it does struggle is during large deficit light levels due to how quickly enemies can damage you down in shotgun range. In content at light level this is a very strong build for continuously clearing ads with no concern of your health and for boss damage where being up close to a boss isn’t quite as threatening.
Here are example builds:
Closing Thoughts
There are some builds for you to try out going forward. The first two builds are serious contenders for the best build in the entire game across all 3 classes.
Titan is in a very strong spot right now and is by no means dependent on seasonal artifacts for its strength. One archetype that was left out was the arc subclass which is good for spamming Thunderclap or Pulse Grenades.
Don’t miss our Prismatic Titan build for The Final Shape!