The official Destiny 2 Twitter account shared a video post. In a ranked Nightfall mission, a Guardian, a Titan, appears. The caption really summarizes the whole situation: ‘GM mission, last guardian standing, no revives left. Strongholds don’t fail me now.’ Then just… ‘Pure cinema.’ The Titan, having auras of benevolence and auras of power, is shown in the footage wearing the Stronghold exotic gauntlets, and holding a sword that looks very much likelike a lightsaber—seriously, when did Star Wars come to Destiny??—while just… blocking. There is a gigantic, unbreakable wall of defense, and a tide of enemy fire is just washing over him. His health bar? It’s hardly moving. It’s a showdown moment, something you see in movies. And the Destiny social team calls it cinema. But oh boy, the comments? They are telling a completely different story.
Let’s explain for those who haven’t been following the neck-breaking tour of the Crucible the last few seasons. Strongholds are an exotic armor piece for Titans. The most exciting feature of them is the fact that you become a god-level player when it comes to sword blocking. You get to heal, you get damage resistance, and if you are doing your blocks right you are practically immortal. If you have the right sword—especially the new ‘lightsaber’ style ones from the last update—you can face-tank the incoming damage that would otherwise burn down any other setup. The player in the video, credited as u/King_Throned on Reddit, is showcasing this in the highest-end content of the game. It is a great technical display. He has a build that lets him solo clutch moments when his team is all dead. That’s fantasy power right there!
Now things get complicated again. The community’s response is a … mixed bag. Actually, the opinions of the players are divided pretty much right in the middle. On one side there are players who totally accept the situation. The user d_jedi1 says, ‘NGL, I’ve tanked my fireteam through some nonsense like this,’ which indicates people like the indestructible anchor. Another player, ueki49, even begs Bungie: ‘Please don’t nerf this exotic. I’m a hunter main and still think strongholds are so cool.’ That’s really high praise coming from a class that usually prefers Titans to shut up and sit down.
On the other hand, however, are the loudest players. Many replies are synonymous with ‘this is such uninteresting gameplay’ and ‘the same clip over and over again’. User ItZClapp said very clearly, ‘Same clip over and over again with the same boring ass stronghold build….. 🥱’ The criticism is not really about the build’s strength—there is a consensus that the build is powerful—it’s more about the non-display. Or lack thereof. Watching a player stand still and block for 30 seconds isn’t the same as a thrilling event. As user son_of__zeus straightforwardly put it, ‘This is such boring gameplay.’
The debate is even more passionate when it comes to the topic of coordination. One user called Jaffamuncher17 opened a whole discussion by stating that these setups can be a hindrance in coordinator’s duties. ‘This needs to be nerfed,’ they stated, ‘strongholds can be very strong but mostly it’s just a trivial blocking action doing nothing and turning the boss’s crit spot away from the fireteam.’ Ouch! That’s a practical concern. If your invulnerable Titan is doing nothing but taking damage and not actually killing anything, plus he might even be blocking your team’s shots, then, are they really supporting you? Another user, NunyabusinessYY, reasoned from an equilibrium standpoint: ‘I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, strongholds shouldn’t work with the lightsaber to provide immortality.’
However, the proponents of the playstyle do not retreat. User Riven_117 replied, ‘If you know your teammate has Strongholds why would you not let him take all the aggro lmfao… you’re just throwing atp if you aren’t letting him do his job.’ It becomes a strategic discussion. Is it the Titan’s role to be the invulnerable decoy so the other classes can do their damage safely? In a very coordinated team, that might be a genuine tactic. In a random matchmade group? It might just look like someone is afk.
And then the meta-humor kicks in. It looks like people are already tired of seeing this exact clip over and over. ‘Wasn’t this posted 2 weeks ago?’ wonders BatmanSpartan23. User snowytiaa got straight to the point: ‘same clip we’ve been uploading for weeks.
