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With the release of Season of Plunder in Destiny 2, Arc subclasses finally got the 3.0 update treatment that Solar and Void got in Season of the Haunted and the Witch Queen, respectively. While Warlocks got the short end of the stick with this subclass update, Titans have all sorts of fun new abilities to incorporate into the various builds that are possible with the Arc 3.0 update.
This guide for Arc 3.0 will cover what is new for Titans, explain what the Arc keywords are, and go over some popular builds that will turn Destiny 2 players into fast-paced and unstoppable damage-dealing machines.
Arc 3.0 Titan Build Guide
Before focusing on builds, it is important for players to know the keywords for arc. Introduced in the Witch Queen with Void 3.0, keywords help players understand what the various subclass buffs and debuffs do so that they can be better informed when experimenting with builds.
Just like Solar has its own keywords, Arc has them as well. Listed below are the keywords for Arc 3.0 and what they do. Keeping these keywords in mind will be very helpful for Destiny 2 players, as they will see them often on mods, Exotic weapons, and various abilities in the Arc 3.0 subclass menu.
- Blind (Debuff): Combatants are disoriented and cannot fire their weapons. Opposing player's HUD is removed, and their vision is obscured.
- Jolted (Debuff): The target is charged with destructive Arc Light. As they take additional damage while jolted, they chain lightning to nearby enemies.
- Amplified (Buff): Your movement speed and weapon handling are greatly increased. After sprinting for a short time, your movement speed is further increased. Rapidly defeating targets with Arc damage makes you amplified.
- Ionic Trace (Buff): A bolt of pure Arc energy that travels along the ground, seeking its creator. When picked up, Ionic Traces grant ability energy.
What's New For Titans
As mentioned earlier, Titans did get a few new abilities for their Arc subclass. The first one is the charged melee ability called Thunderclap. For this ability, players hold down the melee button and begin to charge up an attack. Upon releasing it, the attack unleashes a blast of Arc energy that annihilates everything in front of the player.
Titans also got a helpful new class ability called Thruster that allows them to quickly dodge to the side as opposed to summoning a giant wall of light to hide behind. This new form of mobility can be very helpful for Destiny 2 players, especially when they need to put some distance between themselves and an enemy that is going after them. Titans also got some new grenade choices, which will be discussed below.
Melee Options
Aside from Thunderclap, Titans also have Seismic Strike and Ballistic Slam to choose from when picking a melee ability. One thing Destiny 2 players should keep in mind is that in order to use these other two melee abilities, they will need to be sprinting for a short duration beforehand. Ballistic Slam also requires players to be airborne before they can activate the ability. So while both are very fun to use and can easily destroy a bunch of weak enemies in one strike, they are very situational.
Grenade Options
Just like with the 3.0 subclass updates for Solar and Void, all Arc subclasses now have access to the same types of grenades. Titans have access to seven different types of grenades to choose from. However, players will not have all of them right out of the gate. In order to unlock the rest, Destiny 2 players will need to visit Ikora in the Tower and purchase them from her. Below is a list of the grenades and what they do.
- Lightning Grenade: Sticks to any surface and emits bolts of lightning.
- Storm Grenade: Calls down a focused lightning storm on the spot where the grenade landed.
- Pulse Grenade: Periodically damages targets within the explosion radius
- Flashbang Grenade: Damages targets within range and then blinds them.
- Skip Grenade: Splits upon impact and creates multiple projects that seek targets.
- Flux Grenade: Attaches to a target and then explodes.
- Arcbolt Grenade: Chains bolts of lightning to nearby targets.
While this does give players a bunch of options for grenades, this can be enhanced even further for Titans thanks to the Arc Aspects.
Arc Aspects for Titans
Just like with Solar and Void, Destiny 2 players will have three Aspects to choose from when customizing their Arc builds as a Titan. The first is Juggernaut, which creates a frontal shield that blocks incoming damage when the player is sprinting.
Class ability energy will be depleted once the shield sustains enough damage and breaks. The amount of damage that can be absorbed by the shield increases if players are amplified.
The second fragment is called Knockout and increases melee range and damage for a short time after critically wounding a target or breaking their shield. In addition, defeating targets with melee attacks will trigger health regeneration and makes players amplified. The final aspect is called Touch of Thunder, and adds additional features to Flashbang, Pulse, Lightning, and Storm Grenades.
Fragments and Builds
A lot of variety in 3.0 builds comes from the sheer amount of Fragments that are available. The amount of Fragment slots that Destiny 2 players will have access to is determined by which Aspects they have equipped, as different Aspects have anywhere from one to two Fragment slots. Since there are a lot of Fragments available, this guide will focus on ones that are used in really strong Arc 3.0 builds.
When it comes to builds with Arc 3.0 in Destiny 2, Titans can do some crazy amounts of damage. A good example of this is in one of NickTew's videos where Seismic Strike can do absurd amounts of damage that are comparable to using a super like Fist of Havoc or Thundercrash. This build requires a combination of the Titan Exotic Synthoceps and a shotgun that has the One-Two Punch perk on it. Listed below are the Fragments that are used in this build and what they do.
- Spark of Resistance: Increases Strength by 10, increased damage resistance when surrounded by enemies.
- Spark of Shock: Arc grenades Jolt enemies.
- Spark of Amplitude: Rapidly defeating targets while amplified creates an Orb of Power
- Spark of Feedback: Increases Resilience by 10, taking melee damage briefly increases outgoing melee damage.
Destiny 2 players should also make sure to have their Strength and Resilience stats as high as possible (but not higher than 100 since that is the cap), as this will allow Seismic Strike to get off cooldown faster.
All Grenades All the TIme
Aside from super-powered punches that do colossal amounts of damage, players have other options when it comes to their abilities. To be more specific, Destiny 2 players should not sleep on Storm Grenades.
With the right combination of Aspects, Fragments, and mods, this grenade can basically be turned into a pocket-sized lightning storm that players chuck at their foes. A good example of this kind of build is shown in one of Aztecross's videos where Storm Grenade recharges really fast, tracks down enemies, and does a large amount of damage at the same time.
This particular build is possible with Aspects like Touch of Thunder and Knockout (which makes Storm Grenade track enemies and strike them down with lightning). The fragments will be similar to the build mentioned above, but the difference is that the Spark of Feedback will be replaced with Spark of Magnitude, which extends the duration of Storm Grenade.
So not only will Storm Grenade last longer, but also it will apply the Jolt debuff on tougher enemies that might survive the initial damage and then turn them into walking lightning bombs that will kill enemies around them simply due to proximity. This is one example of how class abilities and fragments can pair together very effectively.
Don't Forget the Mods
While having Aspects and Fragments is very important, Destiny 2 players should make sure to not forget to equip mods to their armor. As far as non-seasonal mods go, having elemental well mods is highly recommended since combining them with Arc damage kills will result in more Arc wells spawning, which means that abilities will be off cooldown a lot faster than they would be without those wells.
While players don't need to match all their weapon damage with their subclass, it can help to have more than one if ammo becomes an issue.
Though they will only be around for a few months, seasonal mods can open up all sorts of new and interesting build options. For example, Bad Amplitude can apply the Jolt debuff on a Champion simply by damaging it with an Arc ability. If it happens to be an Overload Champion and you have the Surge Detonator mod equipped as well, players can stun them and have them blow up everything around them. So it doesn't hurt for Destiny 2 players to experiment and play around with mods to see what will work with their build.
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