Destiny Orb Defender Crucible Guide

Destiny Orb Defender Crucible Guide by SirSpiffyson

Defenders, man. They’re amazing.

So over the last few days I got 3 Unbroken Medals with this Defender build. I think Ward of Dawn might just be the best super right now. I’ll break it down later. Here’s a DestinyDB link to the build.

If the link doesn’t work on mobile:

• Suppressor Grenade (pivotal)
• Increased Height (personal preference here)
• Armor of Light
• War Machine
• Titan Codex I
• Gift of the Void (team only, pivotal) (Relentless in FFA)
• Titan Codex IV
• Untouchable

An aside on Crucible and using this guide:

Your job as Orb Defender is to win the orb game. You make orbs and stop the other team from making orbs. More orbs = more supers for your team = more death for their team = more winning. In order to do this, you want to avoid death. Play safe. Check your radar. Don’t drink and drive. If a little voice in your head tells you “you know, I’ll probably die if I sprint through this door”, listen to it! Wait for your opponent to ignore make that decision for you and then deliver on their expectations. If you can learn to play smarter and safer (which, I suppose, is a guide all in itself), you’ll do better with this guide.

In the beginning of the game I use very few abilities – staying back I don’t use melee much and suppressors don’t have a great blast radius so it’s mostly a support grenade. You want to hold on to your grenade when you’re about to get your super back; you might need it to ward off the evil spirits that threaten the sanctity of your bubble. It’s not that great at killing, but the look of dumbstruck terror on a Hunter’s face when you end their Bladedancing prematurely is worth it. Trust me. Also, Radiance becomes something of a joke, and your fist is the punch line. When the bubble is good to go, find a part on the map that’s becoming a bloodbath (in Control, look for the middle zone or any contested zone you want to own) and deploy the thunderdome. It’s time to win the game.

First you should do a little spring cleaning; mop up anyone foolish enough to walk inside the bubble with without a super of their own. I’d recommend punching at least one poor sap to death to proc your Force Barrier (unless an angry mob is descending upon your bubble – then you may want to consider a shotgun if you have it). I prefer melee because I don’t use shotguns much at all, most of my PvP helms have Rain Blows and the opportunity to punch space wizards in the face is not one I like to pass up. Unless around 3-4 players simultaneously rush your bubble with shotguns, you should be able to kill any non-super wielding guardian alone and with your fists. If you have a spare moment, quickly step out then back inside of your bubble to refresh the overshield. Once this cleaning is done (it should only take a second or two), keep an eye out for people who might super your bubble. Look for the glow above their name to indicate if they have supers up. Stand near the back edge of your bubble. Prepare to stuff an enemy super.

Here’s how I deal with each of them:

VS. Fist of Havoc: This one is easy. If a Titan charges you with Fist of Panic ready, just jump up and away from your bubble. The bubble contains the blast and you can kill him during his ending animation. Be careful of shockwave, though.

VS. Ward of Dawn: Punch him to death or shotgun. Most players won’t do this for good reason – the bubble already placed means that the Titan already in residence gets to punch first and win. If other players dogpile you want to sit in a part of your bubble that he didn’t overlap. If that can’t happen, it usually becomes a mosh pit. Good luck! Remember to refresh the overshield if you get low.

VS. Bladedancer: This one is tricky. If he takes around 70 damage before coming inside, you can usually punch them to death. If not, toss your suppression nade inside as he’s about to jump in then kite him for a second. If you timed it right, he’s now out of super and in your bubble. Punch his face in.

VS. Golden Gun: This is really tricky and usually ends in your death. You probably want to abandon the bubble and save your skin. Toss a suppression nade if you can, just as the bubble is going down (after he shoots it twice). Bonus points if you use the bubble to block his shots just long enough to find more permanent cover – you may be able to run out his Golden Gun or retaliate. In any case, you still made 5 orbs. Not bad.

VS. Nova Bomb: If they try and Nova Bomb from inside the bubble, defend against it like you would a Fist of Havoc. If they fire from outside, you should survive and then have a relatively even fight with them UNLESS they use Shatter. Shatter has a different startup animation. If you know or suspect they have Shatter on, try to abandon the bubble, as the third bolt from Shatter will kill you if you were inside the bubble. Yeah, this depends on context clues. Sorry.

VS. Radiance: Super easy. If they pop your bubble,with nades, you should be a safe distance away and can suppress them easily. You can tank one grenade and live, so trading grenades ends their super and is totally worth attempting. If they come inside your bubble without destroying it, shotgun them to death or toss a nade against the side of the bubble like you would stop a Bladedancer. In any case, it takes them a few seconds to kill you so you have time to ready your suppression grenade.

Now in all of these cases, your bubble takes damage and/or you end their super. That’s amazing. With Gift of the Void, your bubble generates an extra 3 orbs if it takes significant damage. Rockets, supers, grenades and even extended small arms fire can cause the extra orbs to drop. If you do this, your entire team gets 5 ORBS. That’s at least half of a super for every member of your team. In addition, when played correctly the Defender can tank an enemy super and survive, burning one of their supers and generating 5 orbs for everyone on the Defender’s team. This snowballs your team’s supers and allows them to take control and generate even more orbs, which you can use to put another bubble up quickly and continue this tactic. You can take out so many supers and generate so many of your team’s very easily. It wins games and lets you survive more.

Hope this helps Guardians! This post is kind of long, so thanks for sticking with it if you’ve read this far. If you read it and have any questions or comments, I’ll do my best to answer.