Destiny: Titan Tank/Support Class Build

Destiny lets you choose how you build your character. This allows for several options, like the tank/support build this guide goes over. It uses the Defender subclass for Titan.

One of the best parts about this game is how easy it is to understand stats and choose which you want. Most classes can benefit from any stat, you decide which you want more.

This build will be most effective in PvE scenarios, specifically heroic strikes and raids. Feel free to check out my Quick and Dirty Beginner’s Guide for the basics of the game and links to other guides relating to Destiny.

This guide will cover my PvE tank build for Titans including:

• Skill Choices – Which skills I chose and why.
• Gear and Stat choices – Which faction gear I chose, the stats I chose, and why.

Skill Choices – The Pillar of your team

Let me go over the list of skills I chose. They will all center around supporting your team and staying alive above all else.

Grenade

• Suppression Grenade – Stops enemies from using abilities for short amount of time.

I go with this one most of the time because it’s a decent damage burst grenade in an area. The spike grenade is great, but it is stationary so enemies have to be still for it to be most effective. The ability suppression could be useful in certain situations as well.

• Magnetic Grenade – Sticks to enemies and explodes twice.

Now this is my favorite grenade. I don’t use it as much in a group because it is only useful for single target. That being said, when fighting bosses, I would switch to this grenade.

Jump Ability

• Increased Control – Better control while in air.

This is more of a personal preference and won’t impact your role as support tank much. I picked this because it increases Agility, which makes you move faster.

Ward of Dawn Upgrade

• Blessing of Light – Passing through the Ward of Dawn grants you and your allies a temporary shield.
• Weapons of Light – Passing through the Ward of Dawn grants you and your allies a temporary increase to weapon damage.

This is the core of the build. The ward of dawn is the main thing that makes you a tank and support class. These upgrades are the focus because they grants epic boosts for both you and your team. Which one you choose depends on the situation.

If you want more defense and survivability for your team, choose Blessing of Light.

If you need more damage output, choose Weapons of Light.

Melee Ability Upgrade

• Gift of Light – While Force Barrier is Active, all your melee kills create orbs of Light.

I went with this one because it is the most beneficial for your team. Whenever you kill someone with your melee ability you get a temporary shield for a limited time.

This ability lets you create orbs of light while melee killing enemies during this time. This helps your team use their Super abilities more often.

Titan Codex

• Titan Codex I – Increases Battle Recovery and Toughness.

This is the best choice because it gives you more armor and lets you recover health faster.

Ability Upgrade

• Bastion – Increases the duration of Ward of Dawn.

I chose this because this build centers around supporting your team with Ward of Dawn. What better way to do that than to increase how long it lasts?

Titan Codex

• Titan Codex IV – Increases all attributes.

I went with this one to get the extra armor increase, plus a little more speed. The health recovery could be useful, but I want a lot of armor for this role.

Ability Upgrade

• Illuminated – Increases the benefits granted from Blessing of Light and Weapons of Light.

This decreases armor, but the effect is worth it. To give you an idea of how good it is, I’m passing up the first ability that not only reduces cooldown of Ward of Dawn, but also gives more armor.

This build is more for support with tanking mixed in, so getting extra benefits from the central purpose of this build is better.

Gear and Stat Choices – Be a strong, wise leader

Stats

The most important part of this build is knowing the stats choices. You want to focus on Strength and Intellect.

• Strength reduces melee ability cooldown.
• Intellect increases Super ability cooldown.

This is important because it lets you use these abilities more often. The more you can use your melee ability, the more shields you’ll have on yourself and the more Orbs of Light you can create. This helps your team a lot.

Also, the more you can put your Ward of Dawn up, the more time your allies can get shields or weapon damage increases.

Gear

The faction that gives Strength and Intellect gear is New Monarchy. Be sure to buy and equip their Titan Mark when you reach level 20. This allows you to get rep for that faction when doing any activity that gives rep. Check out my Guide to Life After 20 for more details.

The Titan Vanguard also gives some Strength and Intellect items, so get Vanguard rep as well.

Considering you can only get 100 Vanguard and Crucible marks a week, getting both reps helps you. This lets you get a piece from both vendors instead of just 1.

I suggest you only focus on New Monarchy until you reach rank 2 and can buy armor. By this time you should be around light level 24.

This is important because you’ll be able to do the level 24 Strike playlist, which gives double the rep and Vanguard marks of the level 22 playlists. This means you can get rep and marks a lot faster and gear up faster using this method.

That wraps up my Tank/Support Defender Titan build for Destiny. Feel free to let me know of your own build suggestions. If you’d like more tips and guides, visit my Quick and Dirty Beginner’s Guide.