Hoarfrost-Z Stasis Titan Build

The Hoarfrost-Z Stasis Titan has been an amazing option for quite awhile especially in the previous Season 23. Having access to amazing aspects that turn you into a behemoth crashing into Stasis glaciers is also a whole lot of fun. One exotic that has been at the forefront of Stasis is the Hoarfrost-Z exotic chest piece. Having your barricade turn into a wall of ice that Freezes targets is incredibly useful in most pieces of content. The rest of the setup we build around turns you into the second coming of an Ice Age!

Now let's talk about the exotic carrying you throughout this setup. Hoarfrost was added in during the Witch Queen campaign to help fill in the gap of Stasis exotics. It’s ability reads “When using the Stasis subclass your barricade becomes a wall of Stasis crystals that slows nearby targets when created. Standing behind this barricade grants you and your allies increased weapon reload speed, stability, and range.”

Pros

High ability uptime
Strong against champs
Damage reduction from Frost Armor
Multiple ways to create Stasis crystals

Cons

Boss damage isn’t top tier
Charged melee can be buggy
Damage is based around crystals and ammo

Gameplay Loop

The loop of this Hoarfrost-Z Strand Titan build is based around making plenty of Stasis crystals. These are going to help with damage reduction while also being able to nuke areas with Stasis damage. Here is a simple loop below to give you an idea of how to play:

Activate Rally Barricade to create a Stasis Crystal wall. Shoot frozen targets first then cleanup by shooting the Stasis crystals.
Use your Howl of the Storm melee ability to freeze targets while making a line of crystals. Just like the wall of ice, shoot the crystals to clean up targets.
Use Glacier Grenade at will to rinse and repeat the crystal nuke method.
If your abilites are on cooldown pull out your Salvation's Grip to Freeze targets and create crystals. No need to use your primary here, just shoot the crystals for maximum detonation.

It’s a pretty simple damage loop and is effective on bosses as well. The recent buff to crystals as well makes this endgame viable.

Ability Breakdown

Super

Glacial Quake
- This is a sleeper roaming Super that has broken many big bosses in the game. Getting to create fields of Stasis Crystal is awesome for big area damage. They can definitely be annoying for your team, but they'll thank you for all that damage.

Abilities

Rally Barricade, Rally is the only options for this setup so it's a must regardless!
Strafe Lift, Jump of choice!
Shiver Strike, Really not a fan of this melee which is a big reason why we use Howl of the Storm.
Glacier Grenade, A grenade that creates walls out of Stasis crystals to block damage and Freeze targets; these walls can be shattered for damage.

Aspects

Tectonic Harvest, This is a great option to help feed into our Howl of the Storm aspect to create more Stasis destruction.
Howl of the Storm, While sliding, activate your charged melee ability to launch a wave of Stasis energy forward that Freezes targets and creates Stasis crystals.

Fragments

Whisper of Refraction, Since you're already inflicting Slow and Freeze it helps feed into your Hoarfrost-Z.
Whisper of Shards, This is wonderful since it feeds into your grenade recharge for destroying crystals which should be happening consistently.
Whisper of Torment, This recently got a change that is perfect for this build. Getting more grenade energy just for getting shot is quite satisfying.
Whisper of Rending, Primary ammo weapons do increased damage to Stasis crystals and Frozen targets.

Gearing

Required Gear and Weapons

Hoarfrost-Z

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.
WARNING: This assumes you've purchased the Witch Queen Campaign.

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
- Heavy Ammo Finder x2 - Increases the drop chance of Heavy ammo on kill.
- Harmonic Siphon - Rapid (relevant) weapon final blows create orbs of power.
Gauntlets
- Bolstering Detonation - Grants class ability energy when you cause damage with a grenade.
- Impact Induction - Causing damage with a powered melee attack reduces your grenade cooldown.
- Firepower - Your grenade final blows create an orb of power.
  - Cooldown on Firepower is 10 seconds.
Chest
- Resist mods, your choice - Choose for the activity you are going into!
  - Recommend Arc, Void, and Solar resistance mods for general combat.
Leg
- Stasis Weapon Surge - Your Stasis weapons gain a small bonus to damage while you have any Armor Charge.
  - Having 1 of these results in a 10% strand weapon damage boost.
- Recuperation - Replenishes health each time you pick up an Orb of Power.
- Elemental Charge - Collecting a Stasis shard has an escalating chance to give you Armor Charge.
Mark
- Reaper - Use class ability, then get a kill with a weapon to spawn an orb of power.
- Time Dilation - Your decaying Armor Charge has a longer duration.
- 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

The artifact will help you here, but isn't a must for this build. Let's go over though some of the key mods that helps this build!

Creeping Chill is very nice so you can continue those Slow effects on targets. You should already be using your Stasis weapons the most so it's quite helpful.

Finally using Shieldcrush is good for keeping up your melee energy since you'll always have Frost Armor active.

Kinetic Weapon: Prolonged Engagement - This is an amazing Stasis primary that can roll with headstone for extra Stasis crystal creation. Any Stasis primary works though!
Energy Weapon: Your choice - No real preference in this spot since 90%+ of your damage comes from crystals, your primary, and Salvations Grip.
Power Weapon: Salvation's Grip - A heavy grenade launcher that has projectiles that create Stasis crystals and freeze nearby targets.

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.

Salvation's Grip - This Stasis grenade launcher is obscenely strong for this setup. The amount of Stasis crystals this creates blocks off big areas of enemies, freeze them, then shatter nuking whoever is left over. Also the fact it makes these crystals means it feeds into your abilities while doing plenty of damage. Combo this with a Stasis primary means you’ll constantly have surge activated while nuking mobs with Stasis.
Verglas Curve - This bow is a great choice for constant Stasis crystal activations. Shoot a target then hip fire an arrow to create a Stasis crystal. You can shoot multiple at once and just like Salvations Grip feeds into your Stasis abilities.

Summary

This legitimately is one of my favorite builds in the game for the sheer destruction these crystals make. The Hoarfrost-Z Stasis Titan has had some moments to shine but now is a legit contender. A very simple setup that provides a large amount of damage reduction while using cover as ammo. It’s able to take on champions with ease and bosses don’t stand a chance.

Credits

Written by: Byrdman

Reviewed by: Chunky, Dredscythe