It seems to me that the reason so many people complain about Sunbreakers is because they're all trying the same strategies that they know damn well won't work, but they continue to use them anyway in hopes that maybe this time will be different.
And then of course you come to the forums and oh look there they are complaining that they've tried the same thing over and over and over again and it still won't work, which apparently means the super needs a nerf.
That or they just simply haven't taken the time to figure out any strategies that don't involve rushing and praying it works or just simply running away and hiding.
So here's a few tips from me (a Titan main) that might help you deal with myself and other members of my preferred class
(notice I said "class" not "subclass". I'm a Titan through and through and still use all 3 subs. Defender in Mayhem is OP as -blam!- btw).
In case you're thinking of creeping on my k/d searching for some "ammo" to use against me in some way to discredit my advice, I hover between 1.4 and 1.6 on all 3 of my characters and for about a month I held a 2.0 on my Hunter (then I played a really shitty couple of weekends in trials as a level 31... didn't go so well. Barely, BARELY went flawless. But I digress.).
Regardless of any of my stats you might be looking for, take the advice for what it is. If you've got better stats than me, cool, good for you. But if you're better than me and are still having frequent issues in areas that I'm not (in this case, dealing with Sunbreakers) then what's that really say about you?
Now, I don't have a Warlock (used to) and I don't use Bladedancer so my suggestions regarding their supers and their abilities are based on what I've seen used and what has been effectively used against me.
Some of these suggestions require that you caught the Sunbreaker off guard, but most of them are assuming face to face encounters. And, let's face it guys, Sunbreakers in super think they're invincible. They're almost ALWAYS off guard because they don't think they need to be. But against aware players, we definitely do.
We'll start with the supers....
Supers:
1. FoH
2. Nova Bomb
3. GG (fire, jump, jump, fire). The "jump, jump" is to avoid the inevitable panic hammer that's thrown your direction when they're hit with a GG. The hammer will be especially inaccurate if you happened to catch them looking another way. They're just gonna turn and throw hoping for a hit.
4. Stormtrance (use blink to get behind or around him and proceed with the kill) This. Shit. Works. Like a -blam!-ing charm. We're slow, guys. Use that to your advantage. I know, I know "Titan skating" "fastest class". Let's be real here. How many Titans you see in PvP that have mastered skating? Be honest.
5. Arc Blade (use blink to get behind or around him and proceed with the kill). Again, we're slow. This seems a bit more difficult to pull off that the Stormtrance version. But damn is it surprising. First time I got rekt by a Bladedancer that did this I went "No. -blam!-ing. Way. Dude." Lol. I was pissed.
6. Radiance (2 Fusion Grenades). Pretty self explanatory. Stick, move, stick, kill.
7. Shadowshot (fire, jump, jump). As with GG the "jump, jump" is hammer avoidance. Shadestep will do you good here too but panic hammer throwers aim at ground level so your best bet is to get airborne after your shot.
8. Ward of Dawn (weapons of light sniper headshot, or weapons of light + fusion rifle, weapons of light + shotgun, weapons of light + continuous primary fire). Oh and like I said.. Defender in mayhem... OP as -blam!-. Bring it Sunbreakers.
9. Another Sunbreaker (duh)
Non-super:
1. Suppressor grenade, finish with weapon damage. Best counter available imo (biased. I'm a titan, remember?). Not much explanation needed here. If you know how to place a suppressor, you know how to place a suppressor. If you don't, keep reading.
2. Smoke Bombs (disorienting, DoT prevents health regen, disables radar. Follow with a shadestep or two to not be where he thinks you are, finish with gunfire). Having 2 melee charges helps. When I first posted this in a reply on a different thread, someone actually asked that I remove this one so you guys wouldn't realize how awesome these little "wizard farts" are. Seriously though. Use the -blam!- out of these. If you like Monte Carlo, you'll have a shitload of these babies to toss around and piss people off with.
3. Sticky grenades + gunfire. Not the greatest counter ever and more often than not requires a fair amount of hammer dodging to pull off. But it can be done and it's happened to me a fair number of times.
4. DoT grenades (such as incendiary) effectively limit health regen so they don't get their shield back when killing a member of your team. If you're a Sunbreaker, this shit is -blam!-ing irritating. There's nothing worse than being hit with an incendiary, killing one opponent and then being gunned down by his buddy because your health didn't regen.
5. Blink + High RoF shotgun (2 shots, get behind or around them. Blink still has an immunity clip). You can still be a bilnky little asshole you know... The perk ain't -blam!-ing dead, guys.
6. Flashbang + gunfire (this is pretty self explanatory yes?)
7. Shadestep, fire, repeat until they're neutralized (scout rifles and hand cannons work well here as they do the most damage per shot and you'll only have time for 1 or 2 shots between dodge rolls). Can also be done with Blink.
8. True high impact sniper rifles (like Black Spindle) will 1shot headshot. We've all got one... come on now.
9. Heavy MG fire kills quickly. May need to dodge a hammer or two. MGs in year 2 are a much more effective option than rockets for pretty much everything imo.
10. 2 rockets. Yes, 2. Just fire another -blam!-ing rocket. You know it takes 2, stop acting surprised when they don't go down with 1. Other supers can tank rockets too in case you weren't aware.
There are more ways to effectively handle a Sunbreaker in super but this ought to get you started. Really one of the biggest things is learning how to dodge the hammer throws. A lot of Titans will just spam hammers at people while they run around without much thought. To be fair it doesn't take much thought... but still. Only the stupid ones actually get their max 7 hammers off. Because if they got 7 hammers off it means they just wildly spammed the trigger til their super ran out.
The other big thing is map awareness. You won't be much good at dealing with hammers if you don't know ow where to go on the map or never paid much attention to the layout/design. Stay the -blam!- out of choke points and small rooms. I'd think this was fairly obvious but... you know.
Stick to open areas, avoid walls and obstacles to your side and back (using obstacles for cover would be the only reason to be near one)
Even the smallest maps have more open areas. When you hear the hammer activate, get to those areas to drastically increase your chances that the above strategies will be successful.
And let me say this... I am not opposed to a slight nerf in damage resistance and other small fixes. You wanna bring us down to 50%, I'm cool with that. If I have to kill trade with GG face to face so be it (armor with solar resistance should still allow a tank though).
But let's not do this thing where we beg for nerfs until the subclass is completely useless in super which is basically its only saving grace. We had an entire year of holding our supers just to use them on other class mains so they didn't wipe our whole team in one go (hey Nighstalkers... that shit isn't much fun is it?).
Anyway, that's all I got. If you've got your own effective counters feel free to share (or keep them to yourself. I wouldn't blame you). Kinda seems like there's plenty of people that could use the help (no offense intended).
Edit: Certain weapons will give you an edge as well. Such as...
Fourth Horsemen
Suros (with spinning up)
Thorn (DoT stops health regen)
Sleeper Simulant (one shots. How did I forget about that?)
Edit: For the naysayers that doubt the validity of these strategies... I didn't just pull these counters out of my ass. I've either used them effectively myself or have observed the tactics used effectively against me when I'm in super. I'm not the best player in the world, but as so many people like to say "it takes no skill to use a Sunbreaker", so clearly that's not a factor anyway.
Edit: OK, since some people can't be bothered to read and just simply assume what my stance is, let me make this perfectly clear... This post is not intended to defend the super itself. I'll say it again just for clarification in case reading it the first time didn't stick... THIS POST IS NOT INTENDED TO DEFEND THE SUPER ITSELF. I made this post purely as a means to assist other players who are struggling and to offer some of my own strategies on how I effectively deal with Sunbreakers. I am aware the super is OP, I am aware that Bungie is likely going to nerf it, and I am aware that some fixes are necessary to balance the subclass.
Tl;dr - There is no tl;dr for this post. Read it through or disregard it. Up to you.
English
#Destiny
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1 ReplyIt's not wether you can counter it or not, it's the fact you had to make a post to teach people how to counter it.
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22 RepliesI would also add that sunsinger angel of light and that titan helmet are both really good ways to avoid hammers from HoS titans whi would just spam hammers at the ground. Great post btw :)
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9 RepliesI just turn and run unless I have a clear as day shot on them and they don't know I'm there. My K/D thanks me for it.
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3 RepliesProps man...I knew several of these already. People just scared to adjust their play style to the situation (they wouldn't last five minutes in battlefield). Silly people runnin around like headless chickens.
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2 RepliesAwesome post! That d.o.t advice is something I am going to remember. Even though I still think the titan needs a slight nerf (i.e. slower health regeneration, or a little less armor against solar damage), you give enough pointers to at least have a fighting chance against HoS instead of running away.
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1 ReplyMap awareness and the right mindset will make you run faster than anything you've ever seen. Titan, Hunter, Warlock, know the Map and you'll live 50% more often. Especially if it's the ever popular Black Shield or Theives Den with all its twists and turns and doors and caves.
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1 ReplyFR sniper. Damage bonus on critical? Hell yes
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4 RepliesTl;dr
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3 RepliesBlack spindle is the only sniper that one to heads a hammer bro. [spoiler]trust me I have an rr4[/spoiler]
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1 ReplyOr just run
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5 RepliesExcpept when 1 hammer reks almost everything
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2 RepliesHammerbro? Don't you mean Sunbro!!!??? PRAISE THE SUN!!!!!!!
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2 RepliesMost of your up close solutions don't work because all they have to do is smash their toes with a hammer and everything around them dies
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1 ReplyLost it at wizard farts. <3 you, OP.
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6 RepliesWhat setup do you use as a defender in mayhem?
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Clever balance work by Bungie. /thread.
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2 RepliesI have a couple hammerbro kills here... black spindle to the head seems to work well
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be friends with him. nothing is stronger than the power of love and good intentions
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Edited by iMoto Bro: 10/25/2015 3:21:02 AMDon't forget [b]Invective[/b] is also effective for taking them down in close quarters. I used to kill Blade Dancers with it back when everyone cried about them being OP. I'm on Xbox so I didn't have 4th Horseman in year one.
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3 RepliesI main a titan but have all 3 and HoS is op anyone saying something else just wants to keep their crutch the super needs tweaked on Shields hammer blast radius and health Regen and Bungie is going to fix out no matter what anyone thinks so its just a matter of time
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1 Replyim tempted to run nighthawk in crucible just to counter those bastards. after i pop a three of coins first 😂
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1 ReplyYou know a class is op when every one of them has to come on the boards with their ways of beating themselves.
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Never stop jumping. I have evaded quite a few hammers just by jumping irregularly
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Edited by Joorak: 10/25/2015 2:12:09 AMSee? Even a flaming thor agreed their armor is a bit too much. But from the shit I've pulled off, I can do this one. Blink behind, flux, and unload my sidearm into the back of his head. Works [u]half[/u] of the time. Or, use silver ahamkera things and have backstab equiped. Or 007 his ass with the Celestial Birdy helmet (I forgot the name, okay!)
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It's called a fire flower or a star power up
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Edited by SiKoMaNTiS: 10/25/2015 1:51:49 AMLiterally melted one with a side arm