The guys from the Planet Destiny podcast played bunches of The Taken King and explained it all in an hour and a half. Here was the info on the new subclasses they experienced. It seems that my prediction was more or less correct and each class gained a subclass that was previously missing. Not just in element type, but also in its specific role. Mind you that not all trees were completely unlocked at E3, so the intricacies of each class remain a bit vague. Additionally, this E3 demo is apparently already dated, as changes to these classes are already made.

Sunbreaker

Incendiary siege engines of war, Sunbreaker Titans hammer and shatter their enemy’s ranks from afar, raining cleansing fire down upon fortified defensive positions.

Super - Hammer of Sol
Summon a flaming hammer and wreak destruction down upon your enemies.

Grenade - Thermite Grenade
Grenade explosion sends a line of fire toward your target.

Melee - Sunstrike
Ignite your enemies with a heavy solar strike.

Skill - Fire Keeper
Hammer of Sol lasts longer and you gain an overshield while standing near a Sunspot.

The subclass the Titan lacked up to this point. A duration-based Super with ranged attacks. When activated, Hammer of Sol ignites the Titan in flames and summons a flaming hammer that can be thrown at enemies. The hammer will return to the Titan, ready to be thrown again. It sounds like only one hammer can be thrown at a time. It appears to be slower than a Bladedancer, due to the lack of being able to use attacks for movement speed, but it is similar in style but has range.

The grenade is apparently a mini-Razor's Edge. Unsure what the damage on it is. The basic melee obviously does damage over time as it ignites enemies. Didn't hear about any of the upgrades on it.

Nobody got to play around with Fire Keeper yet as Sunspots were not encountered yet. These are apparently specific points in the world where the Sunbreaker's power will increase when near. As we all know how annoying the free Sunsinger shield is, this is bound to be powerful though.

What isn't listed here is one of the other skills. There is one where the Titan does AOE damage in a small area around him while Hammer of Sol is active. Didn't sound like it was a lot of damage though. Also increased the duration of the Super if I remember correctly.

It seemed like one of the more powerful subclasses in PvP. Will probably not replace the Defender in high level PvE events, but is preferable to Strikers at least. Personally made me wonder about Striker's viability in the future. Death From Above is still fantastic, as is Shoulder Charge, but other than that it sounds like Sunbreaker is widely preferred, and Strikers seemed near pointless in PvE, except the rare combo of Airborne and Brawler comes into play. Then it's aerial shoulder charge with Peregrine Greaves all day.

Nightstalker

All Hunters master the frontier, but none claim territory quite like a Nightstalker. Shadowshot binding may seem more merciful than gun or blade… until the feeding frenzy begins.

Super - Shadowshot
Tether a large group of foes to a Void Anchor, slowing and suppressing them for your Fireteam.

Grenade - Voidwall Grenade
Grenade explosion creates a horizontal wall of burning Void Light.

Melee - Smoke
Throw Smoke to slow and disorient those within its cloud.

Skill - Shadestep
Gain an evade to avoid damage.

The missing class Hunter's really needed: support. It can be argued Bladedancer's were supportive as they realistically could go invisible whenever they wanted to move around to secure objectives or revive team members. Very useful of course, but the lack of orb generation and helping control mobs made it not very supportive either way. Nightstalker's fill that void (pun, yeah). Shadowshot does massive damage if it connects directly. Otherwise, it creates an orb of void light that tethers to any enemy that comes near it. Once tethered, enemies are slowed and suppressed, similar to the Defender's Suppression Grenade. In case you do not know what this means, it means all your abilities cannot be used. All of them. That includes your heavy melee, grenade, Super, even the double jump. It sounded very powerful in PvE encounters as Hunter's really needed. Additionally, yes, if someone is using their Super in the Crucible like a Bladedancer, it will cancel them out of it if it tethers. It also sounded like it pops quickly.

The grenade is mostly tactical, to block off pathways. You can kill with it, but similar to the Vortex Grenade, enemies aren't stupid enough to stay in the damage radius. The melee is replaced with a second grenade type that does no damage, but disorients targets similar to the Flashbang Grenade. Useful for controlling crowds.

Nobody got around to playing with Shadestep. Unsure how it procs. Doubtful it is the jump though.

Stormcaller

Stormcallers directly manipulate Arc energy, focusing body and mind to channel and chain the lightning. Their enemies are given fair warning— flee from battle, or face the storm.

Super - Stormtrance
Chain Arc Lightning from your hands.

Grenade - Storm Grenade
This grenade calls down a localized lightning storm.

Melee - Thunderstrike
Deliver an electrocuting melee strike at extended range.

Skill - Perpetual Charge
Getting a grenade kill recharges your melee. Getting a melee kill recharges your grenade.

Warlocks were the only ones that arguably didn't have a class type missing. Obviously arc was missing, but you can make an argument that Sunsinger's are as much supportive as they are duration-based offensive in nature. Yet, here we go, a duration-based offensive Super. It is different in that it actually has a Super to use, unlike the Sunsinger's who only had massive ability cooldown decrease. Stormtrance is similar to both Bladedancer and Sunbreaker. You pop it, walk around and decimate enemies Emperor Palpatine-style. It seems this feels even slower than the Sunbreaker and it sounded like Stormtrance is not as amazing early on. The later abilities in the tree make it seem very good, such as having the lightning chain to other enemies and such, but these were not unlocked at E3 and the Super apparently felt a bit dull compared to the others as a result, though it can be expected to be extremely powerful when all trees are filled out.

The grenade is similar to Arc Bolt and Fire Bolt, except it does not seek targets. Instead, it randomly does damage in a small area. Thunderstrike sounds like an absolute nightmare, since Warlocks already have the longest range on their melees.

Again, nobody played with Perpetual Charge turned on, but it sounds insane. The wording is a bit vague, but if it recharges your abilities completely, that's incredibly powerful. You're basically unstoppable if you use them right. Which makes me think it probably works more like Energy Drain, in that it recharges them faster for a short time, but not instantly, completely.

All in all, consensus was that most people were looking forward to using the Nightstalker in PvE and the Sunbreaker in PvP. Personally, I'm looking forward to all three. Yet, as Titan's are my favorite class, I'm going with the Thor on Fire as my most anticipated one.

All three subclasses look super cool and really make me want to level up a Warlock and Hunter and have them ready to go so I can play all three (I'm also a Titan guy). That Hammer of Sol super looks so badass. My favourite looking super is The Warlock's though, goddamn that thing looks insane.

Great writeup ^_^

We actually know a lot more than that. Here's a video of the full skilltree for each class. Keep in mind, some of the jumps and grenades might (I hope) be place holder:

Subclasses part of paid dlc? Or an update along side it? And if not free will they be balanced against the original classes that people we got when we bought the game,or completely OP? I can't get over that the dlc is more money than the game is now, I could have waited a year and got a full game for regular price. smfh

It seems you don't have much history with MMOs, friend

@pyrodactyl: Great post. Hadn't thought about posting those. I do believe they said anything but the unlocked abilities were far from set in stone though. So yeah, I think it's very reasonable the other two grenades are placeholders.

Great post, but I would bet my life savings that it won't recharge the abilities instantly. It'll be like the other abilities you have on weapons that just provides a tiny boost when you get a kill.

@bollard: That's what I'm thinking what it should be, but I'm afraid it won't be. But one of the Sunbreaker's abilities on the melee is to have it recharge instantly if you get a kill with it. Every time. Which is nuts, because the Striker already had an ability where it recharges instantly randomly (about a 20% chance form my experience?) when you use it. 100% chance is just nuts, although you need to kill something with it, not just use it like the Striker. But seeing as how you need kills for Perpetual Charge, I'm betting it will recharge them instantly.

These new subclasses are interesting, if not op, and I think I sense a trend here toward a bigger pvp push on Bungie's part. They're really leaning toward fantasy archetypes too...probably no big deal, but I guess I wanted more fresh sci-fi from my Destiny.

This expansion is now a full priced game btw, $59.99 on Amazon. Also, there will be a mission on Phobos against Cabal, and a show down on Oryx's ship as far as new locations go. New strikes and a new raid too. While I love how Destiny plays, this content and its price are making me really question sticking with this franchise. That and the fact that so many friends have already given up on this game.

The 59.99 retail copy includes The Taken King, the standard Destiny game, and both season pass DLC add-ons. The downloadable version is still 39.99, but requires players to own the season pass content as well. Still overpriced, but at least it's not a 60 dollar add-on.

@spaceinsomniac

Thanks for the clarification, and sorry for my confusion. That does help some then, as I have all the required content.

I doubt the grenades or jumps change from here to launch at all (sorry Titans). As for the Perpetual Charge perk on Stormlocks, they already have Purifier Robes in the game with those same perks. As it is now, its a small boost recharge rate. Having a grenade kill give instant melee and a melee kill give instant grenades would be ridiculous, I highly doubt that'd be the case. The Sunbreaker one seems a bit more broken, but even then you need a kill with a melee and we know melees don't OHKO people. It'll probably be of more use in PvE against trash mobs than it will ever be in PvP. Shadestep for Nightstalker procs on a double tap of crouch.

@two_socks: I'm still somewhat surprised Titans aren't getting Blink. It seems odd to make such a distinction. I think Catapult is really good in PvP and higher Lift is the best jump in PvE, but still. Blink. Just let me use Hammer of Sol, then Blink around and smash hammers to... Hm, I maybe see why that wouldn't be in here. I still think Scorch with Flame Shield will be the most OP melee in the game. In PvP at least. But it's about time Titans got a really strong punch. They are supposed to be the punchers, but they have the least desirable one in PvP up to this point. That is, if we're not counting Shoulder Charge.

@pweidman:It might be a bit early to say how much The Taken King is worth though. It sounds similar in size as the base game of Destiny, though not in scope. But many other things may be affected by it. Still, I would never say someone is wrong in saying they don't think this type of a price is worth it for an expansion. For myself it is, because I already love the game so much for what it is and the adding of the 3 new subclasses alone has me more stoked than any full fledged game on the horizon.