8: Defender
Defender ranked high on our list last time, but the PvP game has changed since then. The emergence of Hand Cannons halfway through the last Trials of Osiris cycle called for more offensive based subclasses to deal with them. Rarely are you going to use a Ward of Dawn bubble to make an offensive push, because you spend more time hanging back behind cover with either a Sniper Rifle or a Hand Cannon then you are rushing in with something else. While you won’t see Thorns anymore in Taken King’s Year Two PvP game, you’re still going to want to focus on killing as efficiently as possible.
Two of the three new subclasses are offensive minded and Defender will have a hard time keeping up. Sure, Defender has two excellent PvP grenades in Magnetic and Suppressor, but that isn’t enough. Its melee needs to register a kill to activate and be useful, and its super can’t kill anyone directly. Only silly people charge into a Defender’s Ward of Dawn. The only place where Defender can really shine is in overtime, where a Ward of Dawn over the final control point can make or break a round. Still, it isn’t worth picking Defender just for that reason. Unless you’re a long time Defender PvP main and are very comfortable using it, we’d go with a different class.
