There’s a lot of exotics, in Destiny 2, and with the new DLC Beyond Light just over the horizon, we’re sure to have many more to come. But for now, it almost feels right to make an “End of Year List” of the Top 10 Titan exotics, before the next year in Destiny history begins!
Before we start, you should know that while this list is my opinion, I will be judging on some very specific criteria. Does the armor work for just one subclass, or all of them? Does it fit a specific niche or a general role? Is it good in PvP or PvE? Both? And of course, this is Destiny so let’s not forget how cool it looks!
10. Hallowfire Heart
“The Fire Burned within us, not by choice, not because we sought the flame. But because there was no other way.”
So people who don’t use this exotic are probably very curious as to why it made the list at all, even if it is just at the bottom. Well, honestly, this thing can be a beast. It gives titans an extremely strong neutral game, reducing your ability cooldown times by a whopping 75% with its Sunfire Furnace perk.
The caveat however is that you can’t use your super to have this ability, which is a big drawback yes, or at least it was back when supers were used for boss damage phases. The Meta now and has been for a long time to debuff the boss, buff yourself, and go to town with heavy weapons and big damage exotics. And this exotic allows super-fast cycling of the Hammer Strike, a 50% damage increase debuff on the enemy.
Cycling that, plus grenades are great for PvP, and the melee alone is enough to carry this exotic in PvE against bosses. On top of that, it looks great and fits shaders very well with its sleek metal design. This is all around a solid exotic if you're a Sunbreaker, and aren’t going for any specific build.
How to Get: World drops and Xur
HallowFire Heart Full Details: https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/458095282-hallowfire-heart
9. Citan Ramparts
“Anyone else?”
This exotic has the unique ability Assault Barricade, which allows you and your allies to be able to shoot through your barricade, at the cost of both health and duration. This sounds like a very useful perk and in truth, it is. It is, however, a kind of niche where you need it; but oh boy where you need it, it excels.
My initial thought playing with this exotic is to use it for boss damage, but any boss that you need the protection of a barricade from will crumple this barricade like tin foil. You’re much better off with a Titan Bubble or Well of Radiance. PvP is a different story altogether and really where this armor shines.
In a regular PvP match, it works great for laning, controlling whole points, and bottlenecks. But you might run into the same problem as PvE, it can get destroyed easily with some team shooting. In competitive and Trials, however, even with team shooting you should have enough time to get one or two snipes off though. And if you're a skilled sniper, those two shots could be two kills, a tide changing move to be sure!
So this is a great but niche exotic that truly shines in a more skilled player's hands.
How to get: World drops and Xur
Citan Ramparts Full Details: https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/1190497097-citans-ramparts
8: Wormgod Caress
“You seek power? I will give you power beyond measure. The power of life renewed.”
This exotic is a personal favorite of mine. No, we all know not because of how it looks because it severely lacks there, but in the feeling. Being a true titan causes you to radiate an aura of “I cast Fist” all the time. And this exotic will capture that feeling beautifully.
It’s Burning Fist perk will allow you to increase the damage of your melee with every melee kill, up to five stacks; allowing you to hit massive damage. It does have a short window, at only 5 seconds, and you need to keep getting melee kills to extend the timer.
The best part though? It stacks with other damage buffs built into your skill tree, like Roaring Flames, and Knockout.
The main drawback is that, well beyond being ugly, it is a melee dependent build exotic. If you’re not meleeing, it’s basically just an ugly arm ornament. But not meleeing? Are you even a Titan at that point?
How to Get: World Drops and Xur
Wormgod Caress Full Details: https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/809007411-wormgod-caress#
7: Peregrine Grieves
“I just had the best. Day. Of. My. Life. Get ready for this…”
So we obviously can’t talk about fun melee-based exotics without bringing up the Peregrine Greaves and it’s Peregrine Strike perk. This perk allows your shoulder charge melee to deal massively increased damage while in the air. Plain, simple, and fun as hell.
Unlike the Wormgod Caress, this doesn’t work for all melee abilities, just the shoulder charges, and only in the air, but that’s where the comparison ends. Peregrine Greaves gives you its full damage immediately, no stacking, and no timer to worry about. This means you can get the crispy one-hit melee on supers in PvP no problem, so long as you jump.
They’re fantastic in PvE too of course, especially in Brawler strikes, leading to some very fun, fast boss kills. It’s really a shame you can’t combine this exotic with One-Two punch shotguns, but we all love it anyway.
How to Get: World drops and Xur
Peregrine Greaves Full Details: https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/3257252969-peregrine-greaves
6. Antaeus Wards
“Perhaps you think this sounds mad. But if it isn’t true… then how do the Antaeus Wards work?”
If I were writing this list a few months ago then this exotic would absolutely take the top spot, or at least pretty close to it. But as it is right now, it’s in a good spot. A good exotic, but mostly just in skilled hands. The Antaeus Wards perk Reflective Vents allows you to reflect pretty damn much any projectile while sliding. This includes everything from bullets to Nova Bombs!
It takes some practice, however, due to the exact point in the slide that your reflective window is open. Miss your window by sliding a fraction of a second too late or early? Say goodbye!
The main drawback of this exotic now is the skill cap, which of course is a good drawback to have. Anybody can slap this armor on and slide randomly and hope for some reflected kills, as everybody used to. But there's a slight cooldown between reflections, so it requires some more thought to it, and when the best time to use it is.
In PvE, it does have some uses, but it’s mostly just funny to slide a dregs grenade back at them, or if your feeling really lucky, even a spidertanks cannon shot. But mostly it is a good neutral game PvP exotic.
How to Get: World Drops and Xur
Antaeus Wards Full Details: https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/2423243921-antaeus-wards
5. One-Eyed Mask
“They should have put a bullet in me. They should have fed me to their war dogs….. I sure as hell didn’t need no Fist of Havoc to get my hands wet proper.”
This exotic, without a shadow of a doubt, holds the most controversies of any exotic armor, across any class! It also, without a shadow of a doubt has my all-time favorite lore tab. If you haven’t read the story of this badass titan and his ghost all alone with no light, I strongly encourage you to.
So beyond how cool this helmet is, and even after all the nerfs it’s gotten since its release, it’s still a solid option for both PvE and PvP. Its perk Vengeance will highlight any enemy that dares to hurt you, and once you kill them you’ll be granted an overshield for 6 seconds. And while you can only have one enemy highlighted at once, there is no cooldown on highlighting targets. The mask lines them up, you mow them down, repeat as necessary.
While we all can rest easy knowing the days of wall hacks, damage buffs, overshields and health regen from one exotic are over, I can’t help but miss the power we once had at our fingertips.
How to Get: World Drops and Xur
One-Eyed Mask Full Details: https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/3918600864-one-eyed-mask
4. Synthoceps
“Caution, this organism has been known to develop consciousness.”
This Veiny green mess of an arm is probably my go-to neutral game exotic. It’s perk Biotic Enhancements grant you extra melee range, and when surrounded by three or more enemies you get a massive increase to both melee damage and super damage.
This can lead to some very fun PvP maneuvers, mostly I prefer on the middle tree Striker subclass. Should you use your in-air melee, and happen upon 3 enemies grouped up together, your increased melee damage will lead to a one-shot kill. This can be used on other trees as well, like with the throwing hammer in the middle tree Sunbreaker.
The reason I placed this melee exotic so much farther on the list than the other two is simply because of how encompassing it is. Any class, anywhere, you get a big range increase and with enemies nearby a big damage increase.
It’s far from the highest melee-based exotic on this list, however…
How to Get: World Drops and Xur
Synthoceps Full Details: https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/241462142-synthoceps
3. The Insurmountable SkullFort
“Your enemies do not have a SkullFortress. Their skulls are like meadows. Play in the meadows.”
Our next titan exotic is the Insurmountable Skullfort, with its Transfusion Matrix ability. This ability will fully reset your arc melee cooldown on a charged melee kill, and grant health and regen on all melee kills. It’s simple, but shockingly effective, and leads to what is one of the greatest add clearing builds in the game.
The formula is simple: middle tree striker, use your melee ability to clear groups of enemies and build your super up incredibly fast. Use your super on denser, harder to kill enemies, rinse and repeat. It’s an incredibly effective strategy, especially in gambit and strike activities, although in high-tier nightfalls it falls off. Kind of hard to use this when you can’t even one-shot melee thralls right?
It’s also incredibly fun, and a very solid team supporting build too, just from the sheer number of orbs you’ll be creating. Not to mention taking care of the low and medium tier enemies, so your teammates can focus on that sweet boss DPS. It is quite a niche, but that niche is filled excellently, like almost no other.
How to Get: World Drops and Xur
Insurmountable Skullfort Full Details: https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/197761153-an-insurmountable-skullfort
2. Dunemarchers
“Whether on solid rock or shifting sand dune, the inexorable Sand Eaters never slow their pace.”
There was never any doubt that the Dunemarchers would be on the list, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some people thought they would be the number one spot. It was very loose, and interchanging in between the two would be totally acceptable. The Dunemarchers have the Linear Actuators perk, which gives both faster-sprinting speed and slightly better mobility all around.
That itself is a top tier perk, with how highly valued mobility is as a stat for most players. But that isn’t the whole exotic, it also allows you to build up an electric charge as you sprint, and unleash it when you use your melee. This charge isn’t enough to instantly kill a guardian in PvP, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t workarounds that give this exotic another edge.
Take the middle tree Sunbreaker for instance with our throwing hammer. When fully charged, a thrown hammer becomes a statically charged hammer, chaining lighting as it flies through the air towards its target. Sounds pretty cool right? That’s not all.
Going back to middle tree Striker, using your melee ability will chain lighting from one target to anyone else in an area. Combine that damage with your melee damage, you have another one-shot kill area of effect melee, and you only need two enemies to do it.
It’s the topmost tier of neutral game armor, good for any subclass, any activity, all the time. But there’s still one piece of exotic armor left on this list.
How to Get: World Drops and Xur
Dunemarchers Full Details:
https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/3790373072-dunemarchers
Honorable Mentions:
Ashen Wake
Heart of Inmost Light
Phoenix Cradle
1. Doom Fang Pauldrons
“But I’ve seen enough strange out here to know normal ain’t the norm.”
Okay okay, I know, put down your pitchforks and hear me out. First off, do you see how damn cool these things look? But I know we can’t call it the best titan exotic for that alone. In terms of how good it is, its Horns of Doom perk certainly lives up to its name.
The description simply reads “Void melee kills grant Super energy. Improves Sentinel Shield.” Sounds okay right? Wrong. One charged melee kill grants about 20 -25% of your super energy, leading to insane cycling on your super, for consistent Bubbles and orbs. Back when the Pit of Heresy was new, I and a friend of mine would run the dungeon two or three times every week by ourselves, and I believe this exotic is how we did it so easily.
So after you use your melee to get your super in a few punches, maybe with the help of Monte Carlo, that’s it, you win. The Improved Sentinel shield that the Doom Fang Pauldrons sport actually means that hitting an enemy with your thrown Sentinel shield causes it to increase the duration of your super. And unlike Strikers Trample perk or the Hunters Gwisin Vest Exotic, this exotic does not have diminishing returns. You get just as much super energy from the first throw as the twentieth, meaning, in essence, infinite super.
Now you won’t always be able to get infinite super, simply because your shield throw might not come back fast enough, but there are even ways to get around this. Bottom tree sentinel gives you a second shield to throw, on top of the Superior Arsenal ability. This ability allows you to regain grenade energy on grenade kills, and your shield throws count as grenades. So as long as you have a target, you have a steady supply of super energy.
How to Get: World Drops and Xur
Doom Fang Pauldrons Full Details: https://destinytracker.com/destiny-2/db/items/241462141-doom-fang-pauldron
Hopefully, this list helped you out in deciding what exotic you want to bring into your next Trials of Osiris Match or Grandmaster Nightfall. So what’s your favorite titan exotic? And while we’re at it, what do you think is the worst titan exotic?
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