The Striker Titan is currently a very strong subclass that can do well in any Crucible gametype, especially in 3v3’s.
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Striker Neutral Game – Grenades
The Flashbang grenade is a basic nade that can bounce off of walls and deals up to a maximum of 170 damage, depending on how close the enemy is to the explosion.
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When hit with the flashbang, enemies are completely blinded for a few moments, losing the ability to even look at their radar. This is an ideal choice for players who like to rush in and fight in close quarters combat. Lead off with a grenade, then charge in and engage enemies while they’re disoriented.
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The most popular choice in the current meta is probably the Lightning Nade, which will attach to any surface and shoot out exactly 4 pulses of damage, each pulse dealing 122 damage. What makes the lightning nade so deadly is the damage cone, which is extremely large, and has the ability to hit multiple, spread out enemies from very far away.
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This is a great grenade choice for hitting enemies trying to hide behind cover/around corners, and the only real downside is that it is capable of being shot and destroyed by enemies. Even still, probably the best choice.
The Pulse Grenade emits 4 pulses of damage on any surface, at a measly 61 damage per-pulse. That’s half the damage output of the lightning grenade. The only upside of this grenade when compared to the Lightning is that the pulse CAN’T be destroyed.
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Striker Neutral Game – Melees
The Striker melee ability is Storm Fist, a basic ability which just makes your melee hit for 158 damage instead of the normal 122. While the Titans melee range has been improved a little bit since Year 1, they are still out-ranged by the Warlock melee, so be sure to keep that in mind when playing in PvP.
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Melee Upgrade Option 1: Overload
Reduces your storm fist cooldown, and makes it so that hits have a chance to immediately reset cooldown. For the basic cooldown reduction, this is how much Overload will reduce it by, depending on what tier strength you have:
As far as ‘hits have a chance to immediately reset cooldown’, I did some testing and came to the conclusion that the chance of the instant-reset happening is somewhere in the ballpark of a 40-45% chance. Overload might be a safe choice overall, depending on how much you like to punch people.
Melee Upgrade Option 2: Discharge
Makes a brief field of damage around any target you hit with Storm Fist, as well as ups the overall damage by +13, bringing your Storm Fist damage to 171. The damage dished out to nearby enemies depends on how close they’re standing to the person getting hit.
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This perk is probably a better choice for PvE, and not really recommended for Crucible, because the odds of this actually coming handy frequently in PvP are low.
Melee Upgrade Option 3: Amplify
This reduces the cooldown of your super, Fist of Havoc, every time you get a kill with Storm Fist. It’s important to know that the percent your super is reduced by is not constant. At Tier 5 intellect where the recharge time for Fist of Havoc is 3:40, one Amplify kill will reduce the timer down to 2:45, which is fantastic.
That’s the ONLY time you’ll be looking at a reduction that great – on your 1st Storm Fist kill for that particular super charge. Your second kill brings the timer down from 2:45 to 2:23…a 22 second reduction. Even though the reduction isn’t constant, this is a really great perk to take for PvP, as having your super timer potentially drop to 2:45 charge time is incredibly helpful.
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Neutral Game Miscellaneous – Titan Skating
Like all Titans, the Striker can use the ‘Increased Control’ jumping option to ‘titan skate’ aka, move around the map faster than any other subclass. This can be performed by pressing the jump button quickly/repeatedly while remaining relatively low to the ground. Titan Skating efficiently can give you the ability to close the gap on enemies very quickly, and is the hands down recommended jump choice in Crucible.
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Striker Super Game – Fist of Havoc
Fist of Havoc is a quick ground-pound that will insta-kill anyone in the “pound-zone”. Fist of Havoc is very powerful, and can be used to reliably counter almost every other Super in the game with ease, allowing you to be very defensive with it if you so choose.
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Even though Fist of Havoc is a ground pound, you’ll still manage to kill enemies above you in the air, as long as they’re not too high.
Super upgrade option 1: Aftermath
This will leave a brief damage-dealing field on the ground after using Fist of Havoc. The damage zone emits 4 pulses, and each pulse does up to 146 damage.
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This can occasionally get you an extra kill every now and then, and has the potential to help you do things like briefly keep enemies off their teammates revive orb in 3v3 games, and keep enemies out of the zones for a little bit longer in Control.
Super upgrade option 2: Death From Above
This lets you do mid-air Fist of Havoc divebomb that you can aim with the control stick. Remember that you actually have to move the control stick in a direction in order to do this, otherwise you’ll still just go straight down. Take caution though, and make sure you don’t make yourself too obvious of a mid-air target when doing this.
Super upgrade option 3: Shockwave
Shoots out lightning along the ground in a straight line after using Fist of Havoc, kind of like the blade dancers Razor’s Edge. It’ll come in handy every now and then, but Aftermath and Death from Above might be more reliable.
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Other Perks
Headstrong: Makes you run faster, and increases the leap distance of Fist of Havoc.
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Not really a lot, but extra speed never really ‘hurts’, so you can always just take this perk as a fallback if you’re not sure what else to take.
Aftershocks: Extends the duration of your pulse grenade, lightning grenade, and aftermath shocks, by ONE extra pulse. Not exactly a huge help, but considering how good the Lightning grenades are, one extra pulse probably couldn’t hurt.
Transfusion: Makes kills with Storm Fist or Shoulder Charge immediately trigger your health regen. The main pull of this perk in the current meta is that it can potentially give you the ability to combat thorn. As of right now, Thorn is a Tier 1 PvP gun, and being tripled-tapped by it is usually the kiss of death. If you manage to punch out the Thorn user with Transfusion, you’ll live, even if you’ve already been triple tapped.
Juggernaut: Puts a protective shield in front of your Titan for about 7 seconds, and stays with you even if you jump into the air or Titan Skate. Easily close the gap on enemies and destroy them up close. The shield can protect from a Thousand Yard Stare, close-range blast from a high impact shotgun, and even a Golden Gun shot.
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Usually the go-to choice for Striker titans in 3v3 matches.
Shoulder Charge: Lets you do a powerful melee attack out of sprint, which has the ability to one-hit-KO almost everything in the neutral game. Standard shoulder charge duration is 5 seconds (MK 44 Stand Asides will up this to 12).
Unstoppable: Makes you harder to kill when using Fist of Havoc, and gives your Titan extra armor. Being harder to kill while using Fist of Havoc is nice, but you’re already pretty hard to kill while using Fist of Havoc. With high enough armor, you’re already able to tank a golden gun shot mid-activation.
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The main reason that people take this perk is for the extra boost to armor. At the moment, a Striker Titan with Max Armor is as strong as a Max Armor Warlock wearing the Ram, and is able to live through things that would kill every other subclass in the game (including Thorn triple-tap).
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Top Exotics for PvP
Twilight Garrison has a mid-air dodge which makes skating easier, adds to survivability, and even confuse enemies who rush. Our top pick.
The Armamentarium‘s bonus grenade charge is perfect for a Striker, who will then be able to rain Lightning grenades all over the map. Used in Control, you can essentially lock down zones by yourself with accurate grenade placement. Strongly recommended to combine with Tier 5 Discipline.
Helm of Inmost Light provides both Death from Above and Headstrong for free, allowing you to mix-and-match with other skilltree perks of your choice.
Peregrine Greaves srengthen shoulder charge x3 when activating it in the air. Strong enough to OHKO everything in the Neutral Game without question, and also shut down supers (Sunsingers, Bladedancers, Stormcallers).
Crest of Alpha Lupi will always be a viable option for gametypes where reviving plays a large part. The extra orb given to Fist of Havoc output is also welcome.
Empyrean Bellicose gives Titans the ability snipe from the skies, and in addition to floating, “Orbs collected while your Super is full will recharge your melee ability.”