Here's How Destiny's December Update Impacts Titans

As promised in this week's Bungie Weekly Update, the developer has provided a look at how it plans to change Titans in the December update.

Describing this as the "first time we have ever significantly touched class balance," senior design lead Sage Merrill starts out by highlighting some of the issues Bungie has seen with Titans. In short, the Sunbreaker subclass (the Solar one added in The Taken King) has proven to be overwhelmingly popular in Crucible, where it has a much higher kill-to-death ratio than the other two subclasses. While the lower ratio is deemed "actually okay" for the Defender (the Void subclass) because it's intended to serve a support role, Bungie wants to buff the Striker (Arc).

Here's how Merrill outlines its basic goals for the three Titan subclasses:

Solar Titan

Give other players a glimmer of hope standing against a Solar Titan in PvP.
Bring down the average KDR so it's closer to the ideal (1.0).
Encourage taking alternate paths through the node tree.

Arc Titan

Bring average KDR up so that they are competitive with other subclasses.
Reinforce the Striker's hard charging melee role.

Void Titan

Double down on the instant base/beady for anything combat/support role.

Bungie is toning down the Sunbreaker in part by reducing the amount of damage resistance it gets when using its Super and slowing down the hammers it throws. While it's common knowledge that the Sunbreaker's Super is incredibly powerful, the data also bears this out. While other subclasses see 14 percent of their kills come from Supers, the Sunbreaker is much higher at 19 percent.

One change being made across all Titan subclasses is to extend their melee range. It will now work at 4.5m (as opposed to 4m currently, a 12.5 percent increase), which Merrill says "should improve the feeling of having short, little, inadequate T-Rex arms." As it stands, the Titan's melee can be frustrating to use, and Merrill agrees with the belief that Titans should be the "primary melee class."

One key change to the Defender of note involves its Super: Activating it will now recharge both its grenade and melee abilities.

The December update is expected to release sometime next week. Bungie has said we'll be getting patch notes during the early part of the week. In the meantime, it's shared the Titan-centric aspect of the notes, which you can find below.

Titan Patch Notes:

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%)