Falling Star Arc Titan Build

The Cuirass of the Falling Star Arc Titan has been a consistent choice since day 1 and has only gotten better with its 3.0 update in Season of the Plunder. One build that has always been on top is Thundercrash Titan with Cuirass of the Falling Star. This build turns your Titan's already strong super into an absolute missile of damage in endgame content. The best part of this setup is you don’t need an exotic weapon to enhance anything. If you do it’s simply the sprinkles on top of your massive sunday of a build.

Cuirass of the Falling Star has the spotlight for this setup. It reads “Greatly increases your Thundercrash impact. Gain an overshield that lasts longer the further you travel before striking a target.” Now this is a simple 100% increase in damage, but for Titan that’s pretty big. The super itself is a fast rinse and repeat ability so you’re able to immediately start building super energy again. Add in there a nice little overshield to protect you from foes that lived the blast; it's a solid option for most endgame activities.

Pros

Big super damage
Great for endgame content
Damage reduction on impact

Cons

Super needed to get use
No benefits for general mobbing

Gameplay Loop

The loop for this build is mostly your decision since it depends on what gear you bring in. The entire setup is you trying to generate super energy so you can get that juicy Thundercrash off on big targets. The hands-on suggestions we give help this by ensuring the more you punch the more super you get back. Perks like Knockout help by giving damage boosts to melee while also keeping you healed as well. Your Thunderclap is extremely helpful since it can do big single target damage while clearing waves of enemies as well.

Weapon wise, we suggest an arc weapon to take advantage of the surge mods on your legs. Anything with Voltshot is nice for clearing big groups and stunning targets because of Jolted. Play around with this setup and get an idea for how fast you get your super back. If it returns quickly in a fight then use it freely as you wish. Remember that it helps get orbs for your team so they can feed into you as well.

Ability Breakdown

Super

Thundercrash
- Hurtle through the air like a missile and crash into targets to inflict meteoric damage. On it's own this is a par super, but combined with Cuirass of the Falling Star it's a massive bomb on enemies.

Abilities

Thruster, Having a quicker activation of your ability is nice especially combined with our Titan Mark mods.
Strafe Lift, Jump of your choice!
Thunderclap, Being able to take out massive groups of enemies with one punch is very helpful in big situations. Combined with our arm and helmet mods you'll have your super back quick.
Pulse Grenade, This is by far the best grenade for arc currently. Getting that added benefit of more Ionic Trace is great for energy regeneration.

Aspects

Touch of Thunder, Your grenades have enhanced functionality (we recommend Pulse) Pulse grenades create Ionic Trace periodically as it damages targets and increases in damage over time.
Knockout, This is a great option to consistently keep up health regeneration especially when there's many low level enemies alive. Also getting that constant Amplified activation is great.

Fragments

Spark of Shock, Your arc grenades Jolted targets. Great for clearing out even bigger groups of enemies.
Spark of Ions, Having your jolt effects feed into your energy regeneration is great.
Spark of Discharge, You again should have an arc weapon on, but these final blows mean more ability energy.
Spark of Resistance, Having a bit more resistance on your arc class is key since it's the one class with subpar healing.

Gearing

Required Gear and Weapons

Cuirass of the Falling Star

How to acquire:

Purchase from Xur (his loot rotates weekly).
Decrypting exotic engrams at Rahool (it will be a random exotic drop, but will prioritize exotics you currently do not have, known as the knockout system).
Farm the expert lost sector on chest Armor days.
Note: this exotic is not locked behind a DLC.

Stat Priorities

Resilience > Discipline > Recovery.
Resilience is the amount of damage you can take before dying, as well as your shield capacity.
Discipline is what reduces your grenade cooldown.
Recovery is how long it takes for your health to regenerate after you take damage.

Learn more about the Stats available to you in Destiny 2 with our dedicated guide.

Armor Mods

Helmet
- Hands-On - Reduce super cool down when getting melee kills.
- Heavy Ammo Finder - Increases the drop chance of Heavy ammo on kill.
- Harmonic Siphon - Rapid (relevant) weapon final blows create orbs of power.
Gauntlets
- Heavy Handed x2 - Your powered melee final blows create orbs of power.
  - Stacking 2 reduces the cooldown of Heavy Handed to 5 seconds.
- Impact Induction - Dealing damage with your powered melee reduces the cooldown of your grenade energy.
Chest
- Resist mods, your choice - Choose for the activity you are going into!
Leg
- Arc Weapon Surge x2 - Your arc weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge.
  - Having 2 of these results in a 17% strand weapon damage boost.
- Recuperation - Replenishes health each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
Mark
- Reaper - Use class ability, then get a kill with a weapon to spawn an orb of power
- Powerful Attraction - Activate thruster to collect orbs around you automatically.
- Bomber - Reduces grenade cooldown when using your class ability.

Armor Mods are unlocked by progressing your Guardian Rank. Check out the Guardian Ranks Guide for more information.

Artifact Mods

For your artifact the main benefits are in the 4th and 5th column. If you follow this guide and use the Indebted Kindness then the Overcharged Armory will be nice to use, but this isn't an absolute must.

Now the must in the 4th column is going to be Galvanic Armor since it reduces your damage while Amplified. Having this damage reduction is key since a good amount of your damage is within close quarters.

In the 5th it will be Shieldcrush for its cooldown reduction for your grenade while amplified.

Kinetic Weapon: Your choice - If you use our Monte Carlo suggestion, then it is your primary, otherwise it’s your choice. We recommend any of the Into the Light weapons because of their strong Origin Trait!
Energy Weapon: Your choice - If you use our Tessellation suggestion, then it is your energy, otherwise it’s your choice. Shotguns with One-Two Punch are great for big melee damage on single targets.
Power Weapon: Your choice - If you use our Thunderlord suggestion, then it is your power weapon, otherwise it’s your choice. Swords are a great option since this is already a somewhat close quarters build.

Variants

Variants of this setup are based mainly on what weapons you want to run for yourself. Note again for this build the weapons are mostly your choice, but below are some suggestions for an overall good gameplay loop.

Severance Enclosure for utility - compliments knockout, can swap back to cuirass for damage

Weapons:

Thunderlord - This classic arc machine gun is a perfect weapon to combine with this exotic chest piece. It’s great for endgame boss damage and ad-clear all at the same time.
Tessellation - If you’re someone that enjoys having a small nuke in a fusion rifle then this is the perfect weapon for you. It copies whatever your grenade element is and also increases your grenade energy on final blows. Consume your grenade to shoot a massive blast that does AOE damage.
Monte Carlo - On the flipside to Tessellation grenade energy, Monte Carlo does the same but for melee. If you want to have your melee back instantly and consistently this is the weapon for you. Damage recharges your melee faster while also increasing in damage.

Summary

Thundercrash Titan has been a great option for boss and endgame damage for awhile and tends to be forgotten. The shift in subclass metas season to season has put this great setup on the backburner even though it’s still a potent option. Activities like Pantheon have shown this is still a great option for Titans looking to edge out the damage their Goldengun Hunter friends create. Hopefully with the Final Shape we see more reasons to fly around like a missile smashing bosses.

Credits

Written by: Byrdman

Reviewed by: Chunky, Dredscythe