It's about time. I look forward to going back to rocking my Striker Titan, which is my Titan of choice. The Defender class is still underserved in a lot of ways, but hey.

My one concern is the Defender's Disintegrate is very underpowered for Crucible work. If you get into a melee battle and punch first and third (thus winning) you've lost ~75% health and only gained a 15-25% shield. If you punch second you die without getting Force Barrier at all. And if you're up against a Warlock you might even punch first, third, have them get an overshield or regenerate health and survive you second punch, then they kill you with melee four of a battle you started with an advantage... :(

I'm of the opinion that the warlock & defender titan's force barrier trigger should be swapped.

Warlock: more range, shields on hit
Defender: shortest range, shield on kill

Defender has the worst in both categories, Warlock best in both. If it were swapped it would look much more even.

Warlock: more range, shields on kill
Defender: shortest range, shield on hit

Lets look at some scenarios...

Swapped hit/kill buff: (sorted in least to most likely scenario, IMHO)
1- defender punches, gets overshield
2- warlock punches
3- defender punches, KOs warlock

1- warlock punches & backs up
2- defender punches, misses, t-rex arms
3- warlock punches, KOs defender

1- warlock punches
2- defender punches, gets overshield
3- warlock punches, (?)
4- defender punches, KOs warlock

Maybe swapping would cause too many warlock tears over their new nerfed melee that (still) wasn't as bad as what the Titans had for all of Y1. Perhaps we should just give both classes shields on hit.

Change defender to shield on hit: (sorted in least to most likely scenario, IMHO)
1- defender punches, gets overshield
2- warlock punches, gets overshield
3- defender punches
4- warlock punches
5- defender punches, KOs warlock (?)

1- warlock punches & backs up, gets overshield
2- defender punches, misses, t-rex arms
3- warlock punches, KO's defender

1- warlock punches, gets overshield
2- defender punches, gets overshield
3- warlock punches,
4- defender punches, misses, t-rex arms
5- warlock punches, KOs defender

1- warlock punches, gets overshield
2- defender punches, gets overshield
3- warlock punches
4- defender punches
5- warlock punches, KOs defender (?)

I would have liked to try leaving the range of the titan melee alone, which probably would have been unpopular.

I would have liked to have seen a bit more tweaking, but it sounds like there may be future changes on the way, so that's good. :)

Anyway, I'm super excited for the changes and can't wait to try them out and hope to find Bungie did a better job than my over inflated self ego would have tried. :)

I look forward to trying out some of those Striker changes. The Juggernaut shield not dying when you jump (or go over a itty bitty bumb) will be nice. Better melee range is good. So is the refresh of a Defender's abilities upon Supering.

My one concern is the Defender's Disintegrate is very underpowered for Crucible work. If you get into a melee battle and punch first and third (thus winning) you've lost ~75% health and only gained a 15-25% shield. If you punch second you die without getting Force Barrier at all. And if you're up against a Warlock you might even punch first, third, have them get an overshield or regenerate health and survive you second punch, then they kill you with melee four of a battle you started with an advantage... :(

Getting grenades and melee back with my bubble in PvE will be pretty sweet though. With some strategic power use you might even be able to chain Force Barrier, Ward, Force Barrier for quite a while if any ally generates you some orbs. :)

I'm picturing tossing 2 nade with armamentarium, popping bubs, and having 2 more immediately :)

Other than that, defenders still need some love. I disagree that it's acceptable for defenders to have a sub 1.0 k/d just because they are a support class. My defender keeps a k/d around 1.3-1.4 though :)