Without synthos or wormgods, it was not ridiculously powerful. It was never meta for gms, and if you also take away loreley, it wouldn't have even been used in day 1 raids or master content.

Solo flawless dungeons.

Dungeons are just at level content. And synthoceps and loreley are what have always made solar titan so broken in solo dungeons, and that hasn't changed at all after the nerf, it's still just as good in at level content with those exotics asides from soloing Eckthar in the GOTD dungeon but that would've been solved by just taking away synthos. Throwing hammer with synthos or wormgods are still very strong in harder content too but without these exotics, the hammer sucks in master and higher content now. It's these exotics that are and have always been the issue

The base throwing hammer is very serviceable without those three exotics. If any other class had something that lets you spam restoration, cure, and radiant while still doing decent damage with no investment from other abilities or your exotic or even armor mods, it’d get nerfed in a heartbeat. It’s just that solar Titan crutches on throwing hammer because the rest of the subclass is mediocre. Comparing it to other unmodified melee abilities, it is obviously way above average.

Do you even realize that solar titan was never frequently used in gm content before this nerf? Even at the height of its power and before all the restoration nerfs. And in master content and day 1 raids, it was only ever used with synthos or loreley, without those exotics, it wouldn't have ever been very useful outside of normal mode/at level activities, and even then it would've had to crutch hard on healing nades. It isn't very strong anymore without synthos or wormgods in master or higher content. With the delay, the cure is almost worthless if you cant kill the enemy in front of you fast enough, which you often cant in harder content without a melee buffing exotic. The restoration is only after a kill and after the nerf to resto x1 down to only 35hp a second, you still die very quickly in master+ content.

Expecting a melee spam build to be good in content where things one shot you is a problem with your expectations, not the strength of the ability.

Im not expecting it to excel in that level nor am i asking it to but since it was never a problem at that level of content by itself then it shouldn't have been nerfed so hard across the board. Just taking away the buff from synthos/wormgods would've solved the problem of it dpsing bosses and insta killing most enemies and then if bungie still felt that loreley provided too much survivability then they should just rework that exotic at this point tbh. Honestly a big issue is also just the potency of healing grenades as well which is what allowed for so much face tanking in even master content. I really liked using underperforming sunbreaker exotics like ashen wake or phoenix cradle and i felt that with these exotics, the throwing hammer was never at all too strong, it greatly helped the usability of these less potent exotics. Now, the throwing hammer isn't good enough to make these exotics work well enough in harder content. But combined with synthos + healing grenades, yeah it was obviously an issue, i just hate how it effected the entirety of the subclass because you are right, it is overly reliant on the throwing hammer but id argue that's also the case for all the best subclasses in the game, they all usually have one ability/aspect that holds them up; touch of flame for solar warlocks, banner of war for strand titans, lethal current for arc hunters, invis for void hunters, etc.

Yeah, but I think saying most of those other classes are really reliant on one part of their kit is a little reductionist. Like Solar Titan is REALLY REALLY bad without throwing hammers. While you’d definitely be amiss without something like Banner of War or Touch of Flame, you can also make a somewhat serviceable build without them: even if they’re not the same strength. You’re forced to run invis on void hunter no matter what you choose so I guess that’s true but it’s not an active choice you make. But I will definitely agree arc Hunter is 100% also a one trick pony: like your next best stuff is probably Shinobus or Lucky Raspberry grenade spam? Yeah… fun but not practical😭 I think my point is that throwing hammer nerf was justified BUT the rest of the subclass needed some tuning to make it less reliant on it before they pulled the trigger. The exotics ARE very strong and do carry a lot of the subclass’s viability at very high end, but really, they’re the only natural fit for the subclass given all of the strength that is already inherently in the melee (and restoration in the case of Loreley), despite other options being theoretically quite good (I quite enjoy Phoenix Cradle personally). I’d say it’s equal parts the exotics being very strong, and the throwing hammer being the only notable tool in Solar’s kit that makes it like this. They can nerf the exotics down more, but people would probably continue to use them because buffing your restoration uptime and/or your melee damage is literally the only sensible thing to do with the subclass. One ability is the subclass’s entire identity and I believe that’s the problem. Tuning down how strong throwing hammer is and redistributing that power elsewhere in the kit is the most sensible solution imo.

You can still make a consecration build work on solar titan and never really have to use throwing hammer, even in master content, i just think consecration is annoying to use. But combine it with loreley or even hoil and it will work, especially so with monte carlo. Healing grenade + ember of empyrean makes solar on every class viable in pretty much all content, moreso than throwing hammer on its own ever did for titan. My issue is, i dont want to use healing grenade with every solar build, it's boring. It makes me wish solar 3.0 never even happened