Published , by Sam Chandler
Published , by Sam Chandler
The armor in Destiny 2 has grown in complexity since the game first launched in 2017. Back then, players barely had any late-game stats to chase outside of armor perks. Now, there are six main stats on every piece of armor, which go into affecting your Guardian’s speed, defences, as well as their cooldowns.
Before we get into the meat of the stats, credit goes to the work of Serena_Altschul over on the Destiny subreddit. This user has managed to collate the information from various sources, including user doormango and other YouTube channels, while also putting in their own research and suggestions. Make sure you check out Serena_Altschul’s post for their perspective of chasing gear.
Armor in Destiny 2 is broken down into six key stats, with classes benefitting from one specific area for its Class Ability. These stats are as follows:
As for the stat that benefits each of Destiny 2’s classes, they are:
What this means is that if a Hunter improves its Mobility stat, the cooldown of its Class Ability will be improved. Titans will need to improve Resilience and Warlocks must improve Recovery for their Class Ability cooldowns to be shorter.
Now we’re getting to the bulk of the mechanic. For the uninitiated, each piece of armor in Destiny 2 comes with points in the above stats (Mobility, Resilience, Recovery etc). The distribution of these points is random.
The points from your Helmet, Gauntlets, Chest, and Boots are added together and displayed to the right of your Guardian on the character screen. These points have a direct impact on the efficiency of the stats. For every 10 points in a given stat, that stat is increased one tier, from Tier 1 through to Tier 10. At 100 Points, a stat will be at Tier 10, so any points over 100 are excess and a waste.
The following are the stat tiers in Destiny 2 for each of the three classes. Note that each class also benefits from a stat in one specific area. This stat will improve the cooldown time of its class ability (Dodge, Barricade, or Rift).
| Hunter armor stat tiers | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Stat | 0-9 | 10-19 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80-89 | 90-99 | 100+ |
| Mobility | 0% | 4% | 8% | 12% | 16% | 20% | 24% | 28% | 32% | 36% | 40% |
| Resilience | 0% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 13% |
| Recovery | 0% | 3% | 6% | 9% | 11% | 14% | 17% | 23% | 29% | 34% | 43% |
| Discipline | 1:43 | 1:33 | 1:25 | 1:22 | 1:08 | 0:59 | 0:51 | 0:45 | 0:41 | 0:37 | 0:32 |
| Intellect | 7:12 | 6:22 | 5:43 | 5:00 | 4:45 | 4:31 | 4:18 | 4:07 | 4:00 | 3:52 | 3:48 |
| Strength | 2:00 | 1:49 | 1:40 | 1:36 | 1:20 | 1:09 | 1:00 | 0:53 | 0:48 | 0:44 | 0:37 |
| Mobility (class ability cooldown) | 0:28 | 0:26 | 0:25 | 0:24 | 0:22 | 0:20 | 0:18 | 0:16 | 0:13 | 0:11 | 0:09 |
| Titan armor stat tiers | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Stat | 0-9 | 10-19 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80-89 | 90-99 | 100+ |
| Mobility | 0% | 4% | 8% | 12% | 16% | 20% | 24% | 28% | 32% | 36% | 40% |
| Resilience | 0% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 13% |
| Recovery | 0% | 3% | 6% | 9% | 11% | 14% | 17% | 23% | 29% | 34% | 43% |
| Discipline | 1:43 | 1:33 | 1:25 | 1:22 | 1:08 | 0:59 | 0:51 | 0:45 | 0:41 | 0:37 | 0:32 |
| Intellect | 7:12 | 6:22 | 5:43 | 5:00 | 4:45 | 4:31 | 4:18 | 4:07 | 4:00 | 3:52 | 3:48 |
| Strength | 1:43 | 1:33 | 1:25 | 122 | 1:08 | 0:59 | 0:51 | 0:45 | 0:41 | 0:37 | 0:32 |
| Resilience (Class Ability Cooldown) | 0:52 | 0:46 | 0:41 | 0:37 | 0:33 | 0:30 | 0:28 | 0:25 | 0:21 | 0:17 | 0:14 |
| Warlock armor stat tiers | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tier | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Stat | 0-9 | 10-19 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80-89 | 90-99 | 100+ |
| Mobility | 0% | 4% | 8% | 12% | 16% | 20% | 24% | 28% | 32% | 36% | 40% |
| Resilience | 0% | 1% | 2% | 3% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 8% | 10% | 12% | 13% |
| Recovery | 0% | 3% | 6% | 9% | 11% | 14% | 17% | 23% | 29% | 34% | 43% |
| Discipline | 1:43 | 1:33 | 1:25 | 1:22 | 1:08 | 0:59 | 0:51 | 0:45 | 0:41 | 0:37 | 0:32 |
| Intellect | 7:12 | 6:22 | 5:43 | 5:00 | 4:45 | 4:31 | 4:18 | 4:07 | 4:00 | 3:52 | 3:48 |
| Strength | 1:43 | 1:33 | 1:25 | 122 | 1:08 | 0:59 | 0:51 | 0:45 | 0:41 | 0:37 | 0:32 |
| Recovery (Class Ability Cooldown) | - | 1:43 | 1:31 | 1:22 | 1:15 | 1:08 | 1:03 | 0:59 | 0:51 | 0:46 | 0:41 |
This is where a lot of subjectivity and preference comes into play. In saying this, there are some gold standards when it comes to sorting the wheat from the chaff. Building a set of armor with a Tier 10 slot and another that is above Tier 5 is going to take a lot of work.
In terms of curating the perfect set of armor for your build, well, that’s going to come down to sheer luck and determination. Serena_Altschul has given an entire rundown that includes theorycrafting what a perfect build might look like and what it could be in reality. I implore you to read the full post, as it goes into a whole lot of detail about chasing a Tier 26 build (one stat at Tier 10 another at Tier 6), but the golden piece of advice is to keep any armor that has two stats, one stat at 20+ and the other at 15+.
As for where to begin, first of all, you will likely want to focus your efforts on armor that has a point total of 60 or more. This often allows enough room for one stat to have 20 points in it and another to have 15. This also ensures that there are at least some points in the other stats so you’re not neutered in one area.
As an example, on this Holdfast Vest from Season of Arrivals below, you can see it has 67 total points, with 19 Intellect and 16 Mobility being its two highest stats. It’s not perfect, but it’s coming close. On the other hand, this Reverie Dawn Hauberk is has a total of 60 with a 20/20 point split in Mobility and Resilience (thanks to it being Armor 1.0). It also has no points in Recovery, which could be an issue depending on what you’re aiming for.
You will also need to take into account a piece of armor’s maximum Power. This will limit how long it will be viable for use in PVE end-game content. For those that are only concerned about cooldown timers for Crucible, this won’t be a problem, unless you’re playing something that relies on Power.
Understanding the stat and tier system of the armor in Destiny 2 is going to greatly help you reach a whole new end-game. Once this system does click, you will find yourself looking at the point breakdown of armor first, before you even consider its Power. Take some look over the Shacknews Destiny 2 guide for even more tips as well as assistance from the community at large.