First, I'm not about to defend the Sunbreaker by telling you that their super isn't as good as you think it is. It is, in fact, probably better than you think it, because players keep getting better at using it.

Instead, I'm going to defend it a different way. But before I do that, some background on myself.

I've always been a conservative player, and have preferred games that punished people that rushed in, and benefited those with a more methodical pace. See Quake 3 vs Halo for an example. Of course, it's also fine if a game supports both and balances them well, just don't expect me to play anything but Protoss.

Now we have Destiny, which while not being anything like Quake, still more often than not has good benefits for people that mindlessly rush towards the enemy. Unless some event is about to happen behind you (heavy amo, flag capture) it's generally a simple choice between sprinting forward to passage A or passage B. Besides environmental effects, there was historically one guardian induced event that would give you pause: the sound of a golden gun.

Fast forward to present day Destiny and playing with a team, and suddenly my fireteam is making frequent calls like:
"Golden gun on C"
"Stormcaller moving towards A"
"Sunbreaker on heavy amo"

With the only difference being that the sunbreaker call usually includes more expletives.

And you know what? I LOVE IT. I love that my team needs to communicate more. I love that there are supers that cause a change in plan or direction (Seeing a super .3 seconds before it kills you leaves little room to react). I love that if you charge headlong into the enemy all day, that you're now more likely to die to a super than you used to be. Yet conversely, if you're smart and have your ear to the ground and your team talks, it's now possible to avoid more supers than it used to be. Imagine facing a team full of Void Walkers and Strikers where the only way you avoid their super is if they miss. But the Sunbreaker, GG, and Stormcaller are all potentially avoidable because you hear them coming.

So, there is my defense of bastard Titans. The other defense that has been brought up as plausible is that the non-super game of some Gaurdians just isn't as good, and their super makes up for it. I'm okay if that's the case, and it wouldn't surprise me if Bungie comes out and says that, followed by a 0.0001% nerf just to make people shutup about it.

So what do you guys think? Do you think the dynamic of the game has improved, even if you think some of the supers are under/over powered? Or do you generally dislike these super-over-time abilities?

Cheers,
Earendil / Finwe of Noldor

Well, it's like this:

Striker, Voidwalker, Nightstalker: The supers fire and are done. Nothing to run from and no warning that their super is ready before it gets used. Once the quiver perk is fixed, treat nightstalkers just like golden gunners (just shoot them).

Defender: Just don't go in the bubble. I guess you can run from it, but it ain't exactly chasing you around corners.

Bladedancer: Why run when you have a shotgun? Alternately, why shotgun when you can outrun it?

Sunsinger: An argument can be made to run from one, but really they aren't that hard to kill, you have time to keep shooting after they stick you with the grenade, and the odds are a sunsinger is saving his super for longer than anyone else, so you run into them less often than sunbreakers.

Golden Gun: No point in running, he'll die from a shot to the dome just like any other man. Seriously, always shoot a GGer.

Stormcaller: I'd say to run from them, but they're faster than bladedancers and have a ranged attack, so you're pretty F'd. Shoot instead, they don't get much (any?) damage resistance and their health doesn't recharge.

Which leaves us with... Sunbreakers: Ranged attack, normal movement speed, high damage resistance, regenerating health, tracking shots, AoE dot... run like hell!!!

--

So yeah, I don't mind that running from a super is a viable strat, but Sunbreaker is the only super where running is the optimal strat. Also, it's grossly overpowered compared to other supers. Even stormcaller, which (with landfall) is like a striker titan that morphs into a faster bladedancer, is not nearly as overpowered as a sunbreaker.

Similar to using the blink ability while in Stormtrance, throwing a hammer should consume a portion of the remaining super duration. Now the Sunbreakers still get to feel like the Aesir but instead of spamming hammers absolutely everywhere, they need to actually place their throws.

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Maybe they should consume more super energy so you only get a maximum of five?

Seriously. There is no reason that one class should get 7 shots which also do splash damage and leave a dot on the ground while simultaneously regenerating health and having an overshield while the other class gets only 3 shots with none of the other bonuses.

Seriously. There is no reason that one class should get 7 shots which also do splash damage and leave a dot on the ground while simultaneously regenerating health and having an overshield while the other class gets only 3 shots with none of the other bonuses.

Yeah, I really don't know what sort of mental math occurred to make that okay.

It's like Sunbreakers were designed at 4:30 on a Friday, they said, "Fuck it, we'll tweak it on Monday," and then they forgot about it or something.

Keep in mind, I actually don't care, and I can't really say that they're broken, as I don't PvP, but on paper it just sounds bad.

Technically you do, if you have over-penetration as a perk, and your targets all line up juuuuuuust right.....

:P

Combustion makes it so that they only have to be standing right next to each other.

Combustion makes it so that they only have to be standing right next to each other.

But that also works for Sunbreakers, thanks to splash damage... Which all Sunbreakers have, unlike combustion which is a perk that must be selected at the expense of other abilities ;)

Maybe they should consume more super energy so you only get a maximum of five?

They get 7 because they chose a certain perk. If they don't choose that perk (which is basically a no brainer) then they get 4-5 shots I think.

Combustion makes it so that they only have to be standing right next to each other.

But that also works for Sunbreakers, thanks to splash damage... Which all Sunbreakers have, unlike combustion which is a perk that must be selected at the expense of other abilities ;)

Sunbreakers also have an ability that makes guys killed explode and thus chain to another close by Guardian :-) But that's more of a PvE ability

Seriously. There is no reason that one class should get 7 shots which also do splash damage and leave a dot on the ground while simultaneously regenerating health and having an overshield while the other class gets only 3 shots with none of the other bonuses.

I REALLY don't think Golden Gunners need a buff. I think SunBreakers just need a nerf. Golden Gunners are powerful enough. As the OP said, it's a viable strategy to run from a SunBreaker. I know, I've had to deal with that MANY times and it's annoying as hell. Most of the time these days if I don't pop my ultimate at the right time, which is close to multiple enemies that won't be able to mow me down, I have to chase a single guy across the map and hope that I get one kill.

Sometimes I wish I had a silent ult. But that is one of the reasons they made it so loud is because it's powerful. I really hope that if they really nerf the SunBreaker that they at least make the ult less noticeable to EVERYONE in the game.

I'm saying this in defense of Sun Breakers because I'm not that good with it. I'm sure there are Sun Breakers that are actually good and get a kill for everyone on of their hammers. There is also a misconception that Sun Breakers can use all of their abilities at once? I've heard multiple times that people think that Sun Breakers can use multiple abilities... which is not true.

There is no reason that one class should get 7 shots which also do splash damage and leave a dot on the ground while simultaneously regenerating health and having an overshield.

For example, Sun Breakers have the ability to increase their shot count to 7 and increase splash range OR They leave leave a DoT on the ground and they get overshield when standing on it.

Yes, Sun Breakers need a nerf, but they can't use all of their abilities at once even if it seems like they are.

Golden gun is, afaic, mostly fine. It's sunbreakers that are broken as hell. The only change I'd like to see to GG is that if you get murdered during your activation animation, I'd really like to still have my super when I respawn. Sunbreakers, on the other hand, need massive nerfs.