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Destiny 2: Best Titan Strand Builds for PvE

Strand is the newest subclass in Destiny 2. It was introduced in the Lightfall expansion, and while it’s only been about a month, we’ve already seen how powerful it can be. Titans, specifically, got an amazing Strand subclass. In this article, we’ll look at two of the best Titan Strand builds in Destiny 2, focused around the Exotic armor pieces Abeyant Leap and Helm of Inmost Light.

Let’s get started!

Titan Strand Build #1 — Abeyant Leap with Suspend and Woven Mail

We’ll begin by looking at the Abeyant Leap build. This build is all about using Abeyant Leap to help suspend targets and gain Woven Mail. Woven Mail grants damage and flinch resistance, which plays into the whole “Titans are tanks” mentality. This build will keep you alive and all the enemies around you suspended, so you’ll be able to tank your way through any room you want.

Exotic Armor — Abeyant Leap

The first of our Titan Strand builds uses the Abeyant Leap Exotic armor.
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss

Abeyant Leap is the newest Titan Exotic, designed all around Strand. It changes the effects of Drengr’s Lash, the Aspect that causes Barricade to suspend enemies. Instead of the one suspending line/ripple, Abeyant Leap gives you three. It triples the effect of an already strong ability, which makes it even easier to synergize with.

This Exotic also grants Woven Mail whenever you suspend a target. Since that’s easier than ever with the improved Drengr’s Lash, it makes keeping Woven Mail up an easy premise.

Grenade

Use the Shackle grenade to suspend enemies.
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss

Shackle Grenade is the easy choice for this build since it suspends enemies. Suspend is at the core of this build, so of course we want the suspend grenade, too. Shackle is an all-round solid grenade that helps if you need to suspend an enemy quickly. Since popping your Barricade takes a second and won’t be possible all the time, having Shackle as a backup works quite well.

Aspects

  • Into the Fray: Gain Woven Mail by destroying a Tangle or using your super ability. Gain increased melee regeneration while Woven Mail is active.
  • Drengr’s Lash: When you use your class ability (Barricade), a pulse of suspending energy shoots forward on the ground. It suspends any targets it hits.

Both Titan Aspects are relevant to what this build is centered around — Woven Mail and suspend. Into the Fray helps keep Woven Mail up more often and also grants melee energy whenever it’s active (so quite often). Drengr’s Lash is the most important part of this build, however, since it allows us to suspend enemies with ease with class abilities.

Essential Fragments

You'll need a few essential fragments for these Titan Strand builds.
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss
  • Thread of Mind: Defeating suspended targets grants class ability energy.
  • Thread of Transmutation: While you have Woven Mail, weapon final blows create a Tangle. (+10 Strength)
  • Thread of Continuity: Suspend, unravel, and sever effects applied to targets have increased duration. (+10 Strength)
  • Thread of Generation: Dealing damage generates grenade energy. (-10 Discipline)

These are the best fragments to use with this build. Thread of Mind allows you to make a loop out of suspending targets with your class ability, then regaining class ability energy by killing them. Thread of Transmutation only works if you have Woven Mail, but luckily that’s easy with this build. It causes you to spawn Tangles from weapon kills while Woven Mail is active, which then allows you to maintain your Woven Mail longer since you can just shoot the Tangle to regain it thanks to Into the Fray.

Thread of Continuity is the simplest fragment to explain, as it just improves the effects of suspend and other Strand keywords. It’s great in many builds, so don’t forget about it. Then there’s Thread of Generation, which grants grenade ability energy when dealing damage. That means more Shackle Grenades and more suspended enemies, so it’s perfect.

Weapons

Strand weapons will work best for these Titan Strand builds.
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss

You’ll need a Strand weapon to shoot Tangles with (this gives improved effects thanks to Artifact perks), but not much else. Other than your Strand weapon, you’re free to use whatever weapons you want for this build. Void weapons are great this season thanks to the Artifact, but whatever you like should work fine.

Best Armor Mods

Armor mods will be helpful for this Titan Strand build.
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss
  • Heavy Ammo Finder (Helmet)
  • Siphon Mods (Helmet)
  • Dynamo (Helmet)
  • Bolstering Detonation (Arms)
  • Loader Mods (Arms)
  • Damage Resistance Mods (Chest)
  • Better Already (Legs)
  • Insulation (Legs)
  • Weapon Surge Mods (Legs)
  • Distribution (Class Item)
  • Utility Kickstart (Class Item)
  • Time Dilation (Class Item)

You don’t have to have all of these, but they’re a good place to start. Of all of them, the best for this build are Dynamo (gain super energy when casting class ability near targets), Insulation (reduce class ability cooldown when you pick up an Orb), and Utility Kickstart (gain some class ability energy back when using your class ability).

Best Artifact Perks

Best Artifact Perks for the Titan Strand build
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss
  • Untangler: Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon suspends targets damaged by the explosion.
  • Allied Unraveling: Rapid final blows with a Strand weapon grant your weapon Unraveling Rounds, with a longer duration near allies.
  • Counterweave: When you or a member of your fireteam stuns or defeats a Champion, you gain energy for your least-charged Strand ability.
  • Threaded Blast: Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon creates a larger and more damaging explosion.

Almost all of the best perks for this build require Strand weapons to work. That’s why we mentioned Strand weapons in that section, since they’re so essential to the back-end of the build. Untangler and Threaded Blast both improve the effects from destroying a Tangle and synergize with everything else this build does, so they’re no-brainers. Counterweave is a must-have in endgame content with Champions, since it’s literally just free energy for your abilities. And Allied Unraveling gives Unraveling Rounds, which just help with damage.

Titan Strand Build #2 — Heart of Inmost Light Build

The second of our Destiny 2 Titan Strand builds uses the Heart of Inmost Light Exotic armor. Heart of Inmost Light (HOIL) has always been a reliable Titan Exotic. And since we only have one Strand-specific Titan Exotic so far, this second build will feature HOIL as a general use Exotic. For this build, you’ll just want to utilize HOIL’s perks to improve your class abilities while you spam them like crazy. Let’s take a look at HOIL first for a detailed rundown.

Exotic Armor — Heart of Inmost Light

Our second build uses the Heart of Inmost Light Exotic armor.
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss

With Heart of Inmost Light, whenever you use an ability, your other ones become empowered. Use one ability and all your other ones get a limited-time boost. It’s great value and it’s always good, so you don’t have to worry about only using it for certain activities. You can use HOIL on any subclass, but since Strand has so many opportunities to spam abilities, it’s even better.

Grenade

This loadout works best with the Grapple grenade.
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss

Grapple is the best “grenade” for this loadout. Yes, it is weird that they made the grapple a grenade, but that’s just how it is. However, while the grapple itself is considered a grenade, the grapple melee at the end is not. That means you can use Grapple to empower the melee you were already going to use anyway. Since Grapple is already linked to other abilities, it’s the obvious fit for this type of build. It’s also got the lowest base cooldown, so you can spam it more often.

Aspects

  • Into the Fray: Gain Woven Mail by destroying a Tangle or using your super ability. Gain increased melee regeneration while Woven Mail is active.
  • Drengr’s Lash: When you use your class ability (Barricade), a pulse of suspending energy shoots forward on the ground. It suspends any targets it hits.

Since HOIL doesn’t require you to do anything other than spam abilities, both of the Strand Aspects are equally good. Into the Fray grants Woven Mail and improves melee regeneration when it’s active, which helps spam abilities quicker. Woven Mail is also strong with this build, so having that up more often is great. Drengr’s Lash doesn’t really matter much for this build, but it doesn’t hurt. The suspend effect is one of the most useful in endgame content since it can stun most Champions, so remember to utilize it.

Essential Fragments

Destiny 2 Titan Strand Build | Essential Fragments
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss
  • Thread of Generation: Dealing damage generates grenade energy. (-10 Discipline)
  • Thread of Ascent: Activating your grenade ability reloads your equipped weapon and grants bonus airborne effectiveness and handling for a short duration. (+10 Mobility)

You’ll want all the grenade energy you can get with this build. Thread of Generation gives grenade energy just for doing damage to enemies, so it’s probably the best one. Thread of Ascent reloads your weapon when you cast your grenade ability (Grapple) and also gives a bonus to airborne effectiveness and handling after doing so. More Grapple charges and an airborne effectiveness bonus to go with it is just too perfect to pass up.

Other Fragments

  • Thread of Continuity: Suspend, unravel, and sever effects applied to targets have increased duration. (+10 Strength)
  • Thread of Mind: Defeating suspended targets grants class ability energy.
  • Thread of Warding: Picking up an Orb of Power grants Woven Mail. (-10 Resilience)
  • Thread of Transmutation: While you have Woven Mail, weapon final blows create a Tangle. (+10 Strength)

These are the rest of the fragments that work well with this build. Thread of Continuity is strong since Titans get built-in suspend with the class ability, and Thread of Mind works well with that since defeating those targets will then give back some class ability energy. Thread of Transmutation causes Tangles to spawn from kills while you have Woven Mail, so you can utilize Into the Fray’s bonuses more easily and maintain your Woven Mail. However, if you don’t feel like your Woven Mail is active as often as you want, you could take Thread of Warding. It grants Woven Mail on every Orb pickup, so it’s easy to utilize.

Weapons

Weapons aren’t specific for this build, but as with the other one, you’ll want to play according to the Artifact. For this season (S20), that means Void and Strand weapons. The best way to do this is a Strand kinetic weapon and a Void heavy weapon (preferably a Void heavy machine gun). This obviously changes depending on what kind of activity you’re running, and sometimes you might have to prioritize something else thanks to Overcharge, Champion modifiers, or other effects/requirements.

Best Armor Mods

You'll want to equip a few armor mods for the Heart of Inmost Light.
Image: Bungie via HGG / Brett Moss
  • Dynamo (Helmet)
  • Siphon Mods (Helmet)
  • Heavy Ammo Finder (Helmet)
  • Impact Induction (Arms)
  • Grenade/Melee Kickstart (Arms)
  • Damage Resist Mods (Chest)
  • Better Already (Legs)
  • Innervation/Invigoration (Legs)
  • Weapon Surge Mods (Legs)
  • Distribution (Class Item)
  • Bomber (Class Item)
  • Utility Kickstart (Class Item)

Since this build is so spam heavy, any mods that reduce melee/grenade cooldown are optimal. Impact Induction, Grenade/Melee Kickstart, Innervation/Invigoration, Distribution, Bomber, and Utility Kickstart all help regenerate abilities. The rest are generally helpful mods, with the most important being the Siphon Mods to make sure you can generate Orbs easily. Try out however many mods you want to figure out what works best for you.

Best Artifact Perks

  • Authorized Mods: Grenades: The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your grenades are significantly discounted.
  • Untangler: Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon suspends targets damaged by the explosion
  • Threaded Blast: Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon creates a larger and more damaging explosion.
  • Counterweave: When you or a member of your fireteam stuns or defeats a Champion, you gain energy for your least-charged Strand ability.

For the “best” Artifact perks, you’ll want the ones which affect Strand weapons (or at least some of them) and definitely the Authorized Mods: Grenades perk. Since we included several Grenade mods in the mods section, it’s only right that this perk makes it into this section. The Void weapon perks like Volatile Flow and Bricks From Beyond can also be good if you want to use Void weapons. You can mix and match and do whatever you want here since this build is so flexible.

Join the High Ground!

That’s it four our breakdowns of the best Strand builds for Titan in Destiny 2 — thanks for reading! Titan players have truly been blessed with Strand, and there are tons more builds you could come up with in addition to these two. Let us know your favorite in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for more Destiny 2 guides!

Happy gaming!

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