What Class Should I Play? - A Guide to D2 Classes for n00bs and n0bs. [Quasi-Spoilers within]

SpoilerGuide

[A note on the "Spoilers": This guide has no plot info. It does, however, say quite a lot about the classes and subclasses, based on a combination of the Beta and last week's leaks. Some of that stuff was clearly intended to be something of a surprise, but on the other hand was in promotional materials, so... it's up to you on whether to read on. I have not covered new subclasses with spoiler tags.]

Are you new to Destiny, and wondering what class you should play in D2? Are you an experienced Destiny player who is that strange combination of hyped and bored that leads you to click stuff like this two days before the game comes out? Then this is the guide for you!

First, a quick disclaimer: this decision, while ultimately revealing about your character and quality as a human being, is not actually that important. You can have more than one character as soon as you like, switching between subclasses (and probably skill trees) can be done on the fly, and in all seriousness, you're missing out if you don't at least give them each a try.

Destiny also isn't like true RPGs like World of Warcraft or even some RPG-shooters like Mass Effect, in that the classes are not terribly distinct in how they play. Almost all weapons can be shared between classes, and the overwhelming majority of your encounters will be solved by shooting these guns. Besides aesthetics, the most important difference in the "feel" of classes is their jumps, as will be detailed later. While I do note the "dominant stat" for each class, your gear is much more important to your stats. While a Hunter can achieve the highest possible mobility, it's easy to make a Titan that has more than most Hunters, etc.

This guide is (obviously) pre-release, and therefore will inevitably be both wrong and incomplete. If people actually like it, maybe I'll update it as we learn more.

TITAN

Overview: Though all guardians are charged by the Traveler with the protection of humanity, Titans have historically been the most strongly attached to the defense of the Last City. The Titan orders of the distant past built the wall that surrounds the city, and were central to the city's most important defenses, like the Battle of Six Fronts or Twilight Gap. Because of their relatively aggressive and militant nature, as well as their emphasis on punching, titans are often depicted as simple-minded meatheads. But as in any military, there are plenty of pragmatic and intellectual Titans who have masterminded the city's greatest victories. In game terms, Titans have slightly better defenses than the other classes, but actually can move the fastest with proper jumping technique. Their abilities emphasize their defensive natures, but they are just as capable of an aggressive frontal assault.

Nicknames: Bubble bro/boy/babe/bitch/buddy, Punchbro, Hammerbro, Slambro, MC Hammer, Thor, T-Rex Arms

Famous Titans:

Appearance: Titans sport relatively bulky armor, blending the classic space marine aesthetic (think Master Chief from Halo) with medieval plate mail. Their "class item" is a Titan Mark, generally a sash or belt, most often with a trailing "butt cape" on the right side (though sometimes centered as a "dick towel"). Titan armor animal motifs have typically been tough creatures like Rhinos, Bulls, or the motherfucking Darkblade.

Dominant Stat: Resilience - Each point of this stat grants guardians a small amount of extra HP.

Class Ability: Barricade - By holding the crouch button, the Titan drops a wall that slows and damages enemies that pass through it and stops bullets.

Towering Barricade is taller than a guardian, completely protecting him or her from damage. This barrier is probably more useful in PvP, to either close off an entrance or cover a hasty retreat.
Rally Barricade is waist-height. By crouching behind it, guardians take cover and will automatically pop up when holding the aim button. Ducking back down will instantly reload the equipped weapon. This barrier is the preferred option for PvE, where an entire fireteam can get the sustained damage crucial in boss fights.

Class Jump: Lift - Titans effectively have a form of jetpack built into their armor, enabling them to boost themselves to great heights. Timing plays an important role, as the jump depends on the player's movement to determine speed and direction. Double-tapping will give the greatest vertical boost, while timing the boost right upon descent will generate forward momentum, a technique known as skating. In the Beta skating was weaker than D1, but was still faster than sprinting.

Skating is best done with the Strafe jump, and is therefore the recommended choice.
Catapult ostensibly provides a more immediate boost regardless of momentum, but actually just feels weird.
High does exactly what it says, but the extra height is almost never useful.

Arc Subclass: Striker

Super: Fist of Havoc - The Titan leaps and slams the ground, creating an explosion of lightning that destroys anything within its radius. He then gets to sprint around and do it a few more times. This ability has been nicknamed the "Fist of Panic" for its ability to quickly bail the Titan out of dangerous situations.

Grenades:

Lightning grenades were arguably the best of Destiny 1. After sticking to a surface, the grenade delivers an enormous cone of damage, then pulses for more over the following few seconds. In D2 they take a moment to arm, so they're not instant death-machines, but the range, sheer damage, and lack of visibility between pulses remain devastating in both PvP and PvE.
Flashbangs blind opponents caught in the area of effect. It's not hard to imagine the PvP implications, and in PvE they also afford the ability to escape dangerous situations or take advantage of helpless opponents. In practice these were rarely used in Destiny 1, and are probably still outclassed by the alternatives.
Pulse grenades were perhaps the weakest in Destiny 1, but were my favorite of the D2 beta. They do major damage in quick pulses, instantly hitting anything in the blast radius for several seconds. In PvP it's difficult to get out of a pulse grenade's radius before it delivers a second (often lethal) blast, and in PvE it will usually strike an enemy several times.

Skill Trees:

Code of the Earthshaker has one of the single best perks in the game, granting Strikers an extra grenade charge (once one is charged, the second charges slower, but still amounts to more grenades). Sprinting activates "Seismic Strike," where the Titan's charged melee turns into a shoulder charge that does AoE damage, while also recharging your grenade. This isn't lethal in PvP, but combined with a quick punch can still be a strong manuever. Fist of Havoc slams also leave AoE aftershocks similar to a pulse grenade.
Code of the Juggernaut is more narrowly melee focused: melees give you bonus reload speed and weapon stability, melee kills trigger health regen, and breaking enemy shields briefly gives additional melee range and damage. Fist of Havoc kills extend its duration, though based on similar skills, likely not the total number of slams.

Review: The Striker subclass is built for an aggressive, mobile, melee-intensive playstyle, sprinting and skating around the battlefield at max speed before crashing into enemies with devastating effect. They are terrors in PvP, and in PvE they've gotten a big bump with the ability to deliver multiple Fist of Havoc slams, allowing them to clear groups of enemies at will. They come with the best grenade options in the game (and maybe two of them!), and can really deliver some AoE if you go with Code of the Earthshaker. Of course, you could also just go straight punch machine with Code of the Juggernaut. I was never much of a Striker fan in D1, but in the beta this subclass was straight-up fun to play, and remains the truest expression of Titandom.

Choose this Subclass If: You got a little twinge in your loins when I used words like "max speed" "crashing" and "devastating."

Void Subclass: Sentinel

Super: Sentinel Shield - The Titan summons a shield made of void light. Melee attacks lunge with the shield, holding the "aim" button blocks all incoming attacks (at the cost of duration), and the "grenade" button does a Captain America shield throw, which can deflect to additional enemies.

Grenades:

Magnetic grenades are sticky grenades that do additional damage when stuck to a target. After a moment they detonate a second time to do extra AoE damage; this secondary effect distinguishes them from other stickies, but often PvP enemies will be moving fast enough to avoid the second blast.
Voidwall grenades create a line of purple flames on the ground that do considerable damage over time to those standing in them. These are decent in both modes as area denial.
Suppression grenades are arguably the best in the game for PvP. When an enemy is hit by the effect, they lose all of their special abilities, including jumps, grenades, and Super. Hitting an enemy already in their super will end it instantly, which is both disorienting and incredibly demoralizing. Not recommended for PvE, you'll suppress yourself more than the Cabal.

Skill Trees:

Code of the Protector uniquely offers an alternative Super option; holding the button down plants a stationary Ward of Dawn (also known as the "Bubble"). The bubble protects against any incoming damage, and grants a very strong shield to teammates inside it. The Sentinel's charged melee activates on kill instead of on hit, and creates an overshield for you and nearby allies; that shield also increases melee damage and reload speed. All melee kills restore your health and nearby allies'.
Code of the Aggressor provides the Sentinel a second shield throw per super, and provides a Striker-like shoulder charge after sprinting. Kills while surrounded by enemies reduces super cooldown, and grenade kills reduce grenade cooldown.

Review: The amount of tools that Destiny 2 has provided the Sentinel is incredible. The Super has two forms, includes a potent ranged attack as well as melee, and can block opposing attacks, including Supers. Plus they have Suppression grenades to nullify opposing Supers in another way, and a powerful melee ability that can boost the whole team. Some of these are tradeoffs, of course; the Sentinel must choose between the highly defensive and team-oriented Protector, and the more aggressive damage-dealing Aggressor. Either way, the Sentinel offers an impressive array of potential tactics. In PvE, Protector will probably be the most popular, with the team-boosting abilities and the obvious utility of a bubble. In PvP, Aggressor may prove more popular if for no other reason than a second shield throw, which in my experience is an all but guaranteed extra kill.

Choose this Subclass If: You have a thing for Chris Evans, cage fighting, and ruining other people's fun.

Solar Subclass: Sunbreaker

Super: Hammer of Sol - The Titan conjures a series of flaming hammers to throw, which explode on contact.

Grenades:

Fusion grenades are like the "Magnetic" grenades described under Striker, but without the second explosion. They do great damage to that single target but will rarely earn multikills; they are no longer one-hit kills in PvP, so as of the D2 beta they are underwhelming.
Incendiary grenades have a traditional blast radius, but also ignite enemies to take further damage over time. In D1, these did the most damage of any AoE grenade, and are suitable for both PvP and PvE.
Thermite grenades are similar to Voidwall in that they drop a line of flames on the ground, but these appear in pulses instead of a consistent wall. Strong in PvE, almost never seen in PvP.

Skill Trees:

Code of the Fire-Forged is the side of the Sunbreaker tree that grants a shoulder charge, this time called "Hammer Strike." Kills with it or any other solar ability grant you and your allies bonus movement and reload speed. Enemies killed by the Hammer of Sol explode, and on impact hammers shatter into "explosive molten embers," probably cluster-bomb like effects.
Code of the Siegebreaker is based around "sunspots," which are glowing circles on the ground that do damage to enemies but empower the Sunbreaker. Hammers create sunspots on impact, and kills with grenades or charged melees create them as well. When standing in the sunspot, hammers can be thrown faster, your super lasts longer, and abilities recharge faster. Instead of a charging attack, the melee does an AoE explosion that sets nearby enemies on fire for damage over time. Most importantly, all solar ability kills restore the Titan's health.

Review: When Sunbreakers were introduced in Taken King, they were positively terrifying in PvP. For many people (me) it was actually standard policy to hear the distinctive CLANG that announced the Hammer of Sol and either sprint away like a coward, or leap off a ledge rather than allow the inevitable kill. They were subsequently nerfed, but remained a very fun option for crowd control and PvP team-clearing. In D2 they should step right in where they left off as a fun ranged alternative to the more defensive sentinel and melee-based Striker. Code of the Fireforged should be a PvE staple, as it makes the hammers into AoE bombs, exploding enemies are always awesome, and ability kills will benefit the entire team. In Destiny 1, sunspot-based builds were ineffective; the game is movement-intensive, so staying in one place is usually not a great move. But giving Siegebreaker the crucial health regeneration and faster ability recharge are big incentives... if you can make it work.

Choose this Subclass If: You're a pyromaniac, in House Baratheon, or always liked these assholes.

HUNTER

Overview: Hunters represent the "rogue" or "ranger" archetype in RPG terms, a class built around cunning and speed. While the Titans defend the Last City's walls, Hunters range beyond it, helping humanity's desperate survivors and engaging enemies where they least suspect. Hunters are notoriously independent and resistant to control; even their representative in the Vanguard, Cayde-6, serves because he lost a bet rather than his desire to lead. Hunters are the gamblers and the outside-the-box thinkers of Destiny, the ones to hatch a crazy scheme but with skill enough to see it through. In game terms, Hunters specialize in graceful movement, marksmanship, and trickery, and uniquely possess the ability to use their charged melee attacks as a ranged weapon (as well as an invisibility perk!).

Nicknames: Pole dancer, Arcstripper, Space Ninja, Space Cowboy, Goldeneye, Bowguy, Tiny Hands

Famous Hunters:

Appearance: Hunters wear light, form-fitting outfits, usually with knee-high boots. Their aesthetics vary widely, from Han Solo style jackets to Space Western apparel to medieval jerkins or chainmail. Their helmets often have prominent optics or feature gas masks. Their "class item" is the Hunter Cloak, a hood that extends into a frabjous cape. Cloak lengths range from the upper back to nearly the feet; a few rare cloaks have retracted hoods to show the entire helmet. Hunter animal motifs have typically been associated with swift or sneaky animals like wolves, cats, and hawks.

Dominant Stat: Mobility This stat increases your jump height, walk speed and acceleration.

Class Ability: Dodge By double-tapping the crouch button, the hunter will leap in the direction chosen. It's safe to say that, while useful, this is the weakest of the three class abilities.

Marksman's Dodge does a sidewise jump that keeps the hunter upright, and instantly reloads the equipped weapon.
Gambler's Dodge is more of a dive-roll that makes for better evasion, and will instantly recharge the melee ability when in proximity to an enemy.

Class Jump: Double Jump - Hunters can jump again while in midair; unlike the Warlock or Titan jumps, this is independent of momentum, and thus can be triggered at any point in the hunter's trajectory with predictable, springy results.

Increased Height makes the second jump more powerful, and is generally regarded as the worst jump in the game.
Strafe Jump allows the hunter to completely change direction in mid-air, which is pretty nifty, especially in PvP.
Triple Jump simply allows a second mid-air jump. Since triple jump allows you to reach huge heights and somewhat adjust your direction, this is recommended over the two alternatives.

Solar Subclass: Gunslinger

Super: Golden Gun The Hunter draws a gun of pure solar energy that does ludicrous damage with each of 3 or 6 shots. Two shots will kill an enemy in their super, or one headshot from the 3-shot variety. It cannot be overstated how fun this is, especially if you grew up on Goldeneye.

Grenades:

Tripmines are a Gunslinger-unique grenade that stick to walls and floors. They remain for 15 seconds, and will explode when someone runs past them. They aren't instant kills and can be shot off the wall, but do a lot of damage. Primarily useful for PvP, where they are tremendously fun and will often get you accidental or postmortem kills.
Incendiary are the same as Sunbreakers' above: great initial damage plus a damage over time effect.
Swarm grenades are an oddity that leaves a group of mini-explosives floating at the point of detonation. If an enemy wanders too close, these explosives track and hit that enemy. In practice, these grenades are relatively easy to evade are not commonly used.

Special Melee: Throwing Knife The hunter throws a knife, which can do bonus damage if it hits the head (or weak point). The knife moves pretty fast and has some aim assist, but it travels in an arc and is not easy to use on mobile enemies. Killing someone with a knife to the head is easily the coolest feeling in Destiny.

Skill Trees:

Way of the Outlaw provides one of the few team-boosting Hunter abilities, giving faster reload speed to all allies after precision kills. The Golden Gun gets six shots with boosted accuracy, but they must be fired in a shorter duration. The throwing knife now explodes a moment after impact.
Way of the Sharpshooter is based on precision hits, which reduce the Golden Gun's cooldown, and precision kills with the throwing knife immediately recharge it. The Golden Gun can only fire 3 shots, but it rewards precision hits with increasing damage, orb of light production, and extended duration.

Review: Gunslinger has long been my favorite subclass in PvP. The ability to instantly kill opponents at any range with Golden Gun is very strong, throwing knives are cool as hell, and I cackle with delight at every tripmine kill. More than most subclasses, gunslingers had a very particular "sharpshooter" feel to them that will definitely resonate with a lot of people. Gunslingers used to be much weaker in PvE, but in D2 they've received major improvements. Way of the Outlaw actually boosts teammates, gets some AoE from the knives, and can murder up to six tough enemies with the Super. Game director Luke Smith called "Way of the Sharpshooter" the best PvE Hunter yet, most likely based on the orb production from precision hits. The ability to do precision damage that increases on successive shots also considerably boosts the boss damage potential of the subclass.

Choose this Subclass If: You like Firefly, darts, and the feeling of finding $5 you forgot about in your pocket.

Arc Subclass: Arcstrider

Super: Arc Staff - The Arcstrider summons a staff which they use to beat the snot out of anything nearby. The Arc Staff is unique in that it actually affords the user sick combo moves that have different animations and areas of effect, like helicoptering upward or shooting force in a forward wave. While almost purely melee, Arc Staff users have unlimited dodges to help close the gap and are ludicrously powerful in close range.

Grenades:

Arcbolt grenades first establish a large circular tracking radius on detonation, then instantly hit anyone within range with a bolt of lightning. Because of their ease of use and near-instant effect, they are very useful in both PvP and PvE.
Flux grenades are practically identical to "Fusion" as described under Sentinel or Sunbreaker: sticky, high single target damage.
Skip are a very powerful option that break apart on impact into several aggressive seekers. These are great options in PvP even against mobile enemies, and can do good damage to small groups of PvE enemies as well.

Skill Trees:

Way of the Warrior is heavily based on melee attacks. Melee kills recharge the dodge ability, dodges increase melee range, and the charged melee triggers health regeneration and increases melee damage. The Arc Staff leaves damaging aftershocks on dodge, allowing the Arcstrider to light up a large area of ground with lightning.
Way of the Wind is more mobility-oriented. Sprinting reduces the dodge cooldown, dodging reduces incoming damage, and when critically wounded melee and grenade cooldowns are reduced. The charged melee disorients the target and nearby enemies. I speculate this will be similar to the flashbang effect.

Review: Arcstrider's predecessor, Bladedancer, was rather notorious for its vulnerability to bad hit detection, lack of verticality, and lack of damage in PvE. Arcstrider addresses most of these problems with sweeping strikes that are harder to miss, infinite dodges, and different combo moves that can attack in different dimensions. The ability to dodge+melee+dodge+melee means the Arcstrider can do good work on weaker PvE enemies, but the reality is that getting right up into an enemy's face in is rarely a good strategy, and against bosses is literally suicidal. So most likely Arcstriders remain mostly a PvP force; I particularly imagine Way of the Wind's sprint speed to close gaps and Disorienting Blow will make Arcstriders extremely irritating opponents.

Choose this Subclass If: You like fighting games, that one scene from The Matrix: Reloaded, and, uh, poles.

Void Subclass: Nightstalker

Super: Shadowshot The Nightstalker shoots a bow of void light, creating a Void Anchor on impact that automatically tethers any nearby enemies. In Destiny 1, this effect slowed enemies, limited their abilities, and left them vulnerable to extra damage. It's pretty handy.

Grenades:

Vortex grenades are similar to Pulse (see Striker), except instead of quick pulses they do continuous damage for a few seconds after detonation. The total damage can be very good against slow-moving single targets or groups in PvE, and provide area denial in PvP.
Voidwall grenades are identical to those of the Sentinel (see above), dropping a line of flames on the ground.
Spike grenades are analogous to Striker lightning grenades, in that they stick to a wall and then produce a damaging cone. Unfortunately, instead of it being a pulse of damage, it's a continuous flow that is very obvious visually.

Special Melee: Smokebomb - The Nightstalker throws a smoke grenade that explodes on contact. Depending on the tree, this either forms a damaging smoke trap, or can make teammates invisible.

Skill Trees:

Way of the Trapper has the aforementioned smoke trap ability, and also converts the Shadowshot into a trap that will wait for enemies to activate. The tethers also have longer range and duration. Using the Hunter's Dodge ability grants brief invisiblity. Trappers also sneak and sprint faster, have a more detailed radar, and can track damaged enemies through walls.
Way of the Pathfinder has the invisibility smokebombs, and grenade and smoke effects last twice as long. Shadowshot can now be fired "multiple times" (based on D1, best guess is three), each doing increasing damage to tethered enemies. Killing tethered enemies creates orbs of light and boosts nearby allies' mobility, recovery, and resilience.

Review: Of the three "Taken King" subclasses, Nightstalkers were the most important to the class as a whole. As you may have noted, Hunters are not especially oriented to boss fights or teamplay, which made them the least useful class in a raid setting. The arrival of the Nightstalker was thus revelatory: Shadowshot was so potent for crowd control, orb of light creation, and boss damage that it became all but mandatory. As an added bonus, the smokebomb's invisibility allowed for safe movement and daring rescue efforts. In PvP the bow was not as useful, but damaging and disorienting smoke grenades coupled with the original Hunter dodge, "Shadestep," gave them arguably the best neutral game in Destiny 1. While the other Hunter subclasses have improved relative to the Nightstalker, I think it probably remains the king of PvE. In particular the Pathfinder will likely predominate, as the tether's ability to boost allies' stats, and produce orbs, AND do boss damage, AND the invisiblity grenades is pretty hard to beat. The trap abilities are more useful in PvP, where surprise and quick responses are crucial.

Choose this Subclass If: You like ninjas, Hanzo mains, and actually helping your team.

WARLOCK

Overview: The truest expression of Destiny's "Space Magic" aesthetic, Warlocks are the closest thing the game has to a "mage" class. Warlocks are academics and mystics, curious about the nature of things like Light and Darkness, where guardians came from, and how their powers interact with the Traveler and mundane physics. The jokes generally center around Warlocks as impractical nerds or cryptic weirdos, and Warlocks certainly tend to carry themselves with a sense of superiority over their less intellectual counterparts. That said, if anybody is going to figure this crazy-ass universe out, it'll be Warlocks, and they've typically been the masterminds behind the Guardians' most unlikely successes. In game terms, Warlocks are the least mobile class, but have hugely damaging ranged Supers, and the most potent class ability in the Rift.

Nicknames: Space Magician, Voidlock, Palpatine, Pikachu, Human Torch, Raiden, Ticklefingers

Famous Warlocks:

Appearance: Warlocks wear long flowing robes over pants, often featuring ornate patterns. Though they have fewer silouettes than other classes, they have the most variety in their helmet styles, from streamlined space helmets to extravagant domes and even animal skulls. Their "class item" is the Warlock Bond, a decorative band worn around the left upper arm, usually lit or projecting an image of some kind. Warlock animal motifs have varied widely, from birds to snakes to jackals to deer.

Dominant Stat: Recovery - This stat reduces the delay for health and shield regeneration, and increases its speed.

Class Ability: Rift - By holding the crouch button, the Warlock places a circular rift on the ground around them. Both versions are extremely strong in both PvP and PvE depending on the circumstances, and combo well with the Titan Rally Barricade (by simply dropping the rift right behind the wall).

Empowered Rift causes any teammate standing within it to do 20% extra damage
Healing Rift continuously heals and eventually grants "bonus HP" in the form of an overshield.

Class Jump: Glide - Also referred to as "floofing," glide (like lift) pushes the Warlock along whatever momentum it already had. Triggering it on the way down from a jump will make the warlock fly mostly downward, while double-tapping will be straight upward. This jump lasts longer than Lift and permits Warlocks to stay in the air longer and travel further than any other class. However, this movement is slow, and can make the Warlock an easy target, particularly in PvP. Like Lift, tapping the jump button again will cancel the jump and cause the Warlock to fall.

Burst Glide makes it somewhat faster with a burst of momentum, and is thus recommended.
Strafe Glide provides extra directional control, which is sometimes helpful, particularly in jumping puzzles.
Balanced glide is a middle ground between the two, but doesn't really do enough of either.

Solar Subclass: Dawnblade

Super: Daybreak Fiery wings erupt from the Warlock's back, and a flaming sword appears in his hands. The sword can then shoot flaming projectiles that explode on impact. It is critical to note that this looks totally fucking sweet.

Grenades:

Fusion grenades are "stickies"; see Sunbreaker above.
Firebolt grenades are functionally identical to the "Arcbolt" described under Arcstrider above.
Solar grenades are functionally identical to Vortex grenades (see Nightstalker), except they have a much cooler-looking miniature sun effect.

Skill Trees:

Attunement of Sky is centered on aerial attacks. While normally Guardians immediately begin to fall to the ground while aiming, shooting, or throwing grenades, the Dawnblade instead continues to fly (which can be very far with Glide). Kills while airborne grant additional grenade and melee energy, and the Dawnblade can do a midair dodge similar to the Hunter's class ability. Melee attacks give the Dawnblade extra movement and reload speed.
Attunement of Flame empowers the Dawnbreak super. The projectiles now track enemies and leave a streak of flames on impact, and kills during Dawnbreak extend its duration. Dawnblades can also hold crouch to "Phoenix Dive" to the ground, escaping enemy fire, restoring health, and doing AoE damage in Daybreak. Charged melee kills cause enemies to explode, which is always cool.

Review: Dawnblades are a new arrival in D2, and while visually amazing, did not really stand out in the Beta. The many mid-air abilities are very cool in theory, but because the Dawnblade does not receive any bonus midair stability or accuracy, even well-aimed shots are likely to miss. Daybreak is fun, but flying makes the Dawnblade vulnerable, and the relatively limited number of projectiles (around 6) are not easy to use in comparison to alternatives. Attunement of Flame can help those issues with tracking projectiles and the Phoenix Dive to heal, and is probably the superior option in PvE as well, as exploding enemies and AoE Daybreak attacks will do well on crowds.

Choose this Subclass If: You're into angels, R'Hllor the Lord of Light, and three-point landings.

Void Subclass: Voidwalker

Super: Nova Bomb - The Voidwalker throws a giant fucking bomb. This bomb explodes and does many hurties to bad people.

Grenades:

Vortex Grenade is functionally identical to other AoE grenades like Solar (see above).
Axion Bolt is an interesting tweak on Firebolt or Arcbolt; after the initial "targeting" circle goes out, the grenade creates a seeker that will chase several targets and then explode for big damage. This can kill many things in PvE if they cluster properly. It's disruptive in PvP, but the trackers can be outrun.
Scatter are a twist between Swarm and Skip; they explode and then create a few cluster bombs that hit around the area. They track if empowered, but otherwise fall behind the alternatives.

Skill Trees:

Attunement of Chaos allows Voidwalkers to overcharge grenades by holding the button, which draws from their Super energy. The effect varies based on grenade, but makes them do some interesting things. Nova Bomb travels slowly but will track enemies over crazy distances, and when it hits something (or when you shoot it), it bursts into multiple trackers akin to Axion bolts. Charged melee attacks recharge your grenade, and any ability kill will make the enemy explode, which is awesome.
Attunement of Hunger is based around an effect called Devour. Devour can be activated by holding down the grenade button, which consumes some grenade energy to regain health, or with a charged melee kill. While in Devour, all kills regenerate additional health, grant grenade energy, and extend the duration of Devour. Instead of being a slow bomb that tracks and bursts, Nova Bomb explodes into a very large version of a Vortex Grenade on impact.

Unique Jump: Blink The Voidwalker subclass opens up an extremely powerful jump option: a short-range teleport that instantly shoots the Voidwalker forward along their current trajectory. This jump does come with the drawbacks of temporarily decreased recovery, weapon ready time, and HUD, but it's tough to beat the confusion it can cause in PvP, and really brings home the space magic feel.

Review: Voidwalkers are true oddballs. They are the only subclass to have a unique jump, and the "hold grenade to do something neat" mechanic is also totally unique. Stealing health or energy from enemies is a fun mechanic, and to top it off they retain the premier team-clearing super in Novabomb. They've also got two very fun thematic options in the two skill trees. Chaos' emphasis on grenades and explosions makes it the more tempting PvE option, while Hunger is the better PvP choice because of the faster Nova Bomb. More than most subclasses, Voidwalker feels like something you should pick and stick to until you've really mastered the many possibilities, particularly in the Attunement of Hunger. If you do, Voidwalker could become a self-sustaining murder-machine.

Choose this Subclass If: You're into vampires, Nightcrawler, and blowing up doorways.

Arc Subclass: Stormcaller

Super: Stormtrance The Warlock starts floating just off the ground and shoots lightning out of their hands that can chain to multiple enemies. This is exactly as rad as it sounds.

Grenades:

Arcbolt grenades are identical to those described under Arcstrider.
Pulse are the same as those available to Strikers.
Storm grenades are unique to Stormcallers. On impact they do some arc damage in an area, and a second or two later, a more powerful series of lightning strikes hit. While this is a ton of damage over a relatively large area, it's easy for your enemies to escape the area of effect.

Skill Trees:

Attunement of Ions grants both the Stormcaller's distinctive long-range charged melee and their grenades chain lightning. If you can exercise enough patience to allow both your melee and grenade to be charged before you hit your Super, Stormtrance lasts considerably longer and instantly refills your health. Stormtrance also comes with an extremely powerful "Ionic blink," which allows the Warlock to do a short teleport that makes it very difficult to track.
Attunement of the Elements has more team-oriented abilities. Rift now charges faster when near allies, and when used grants anyone in it an "Arc Soul" (some sort of auto-firing drone). Casting Stormtrance now emits a powerful shockwave (called "Landfall") that in D1 was lethal even in PvP. As an added bonus, the use of the charged melee ability now grants super, grenade, and melee energy.

Review: Stormcallers are the undisputed champions of trash enemy clearing. Their ability to chain lightning through multiple enemies over an extended period is absolutely devastating. In PvP Stormtrance is very strong if you can get to enough enemies, as you are very hard to kill (especially with Ionic Blink) and can strike from surprising range. Stormcallers' extreme melee range is also a huge advantage, and now that ability comes with additional benefits. Weak grenades used to be the check on their kit; with the improvements to Pulse grenades, they will contend for the strongest PvP subclass. How useful they are in a boss battle remains the biggest question-mark; if the mysterious "Arc Soul" is powerful, that would make a huge difference.

Choose this Subclass If: You soul is filled with hatred for the Jedi, and aiming your melees.

TL;DR - For real, it doesn't matter that much; the decision is more about aesthetics and fun than anything meaningful in-game. Try them all out, and see what you like.

Posted Sep 4, 2017, 4:34 PM UTC · edited

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