re: Any of you guys getting The Division 2?

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Stronghold was a little longer, a few more mobs than we are used to. Overall very easy though

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Agree here. Once you figure out the very simple mechanics in some of the fights, it is easy, but fun. Chem launcher solves this without needing to leave cover too :) Great for challenging mode.

I changed builds now that they screwed with large radius fire launcher. Went all explosion damage and my cluster seekers do 245k damage per mob hit on an 11 sec cool down. Paired with the oxidizer launcher to force guys out of cover or deny flanks or stack 3-4 on a single tank for stupid damage. I figure they will never really mess with skill cooldown or explosion damage stacking, so this build will always be viable in theory.


Sometimes will switch to the standard seeker and it does 430k damage, which is pretty nice for taking out a single elite once every 12-15 seconds in 4 man challenging, but normally the cluster is better because it hits so many mobs, I rarely start shooting an enemy that hasn't had a lot of his armor or health removed.

I have 30% bonus LMG damage and 30% damage to elites even with stacking the explosive damage perks, so my 497 M60 does 20k base damage with a 120 round mag. I do plenty damage with guns.

People saying skill builds don't work aren't building right IMO. It takes a lot of investment, but damn if it isn't effective or viable. I ran 5 challenge missions in a row last night, never had one team wipe and have to respawn.

Once my build gets fleshed out just a bit more, I'll start trying heroic difficulty. Currently 488 gear score.

The patched changed a lot, but the game is still really really fun.

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The abilities you can stack for weapon damage are much more efficient in terms of overall DPS.

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Agreed, and I didn't argue they weren't. But I don't find not using skills fun. The CC of clusters (popping them out of cover / stagger) and oxidizer (area denial, popping out of cover / interrupting abilities) are super useful as well in reducing damage incoming and increasing opportunities for teammates to damage enemies, increasing DPS.

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No matter how low you get your cool down times, that is still time that is wasted that you could have been shooting with a build focused around weapon damage.

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Guns don't CC. No matter how much damage you can do, your time is wasted while you wait for enemies to get out of cover. If I am not deploying a skill, I am constantly firing a 120 round M60 that does 20.2k base damage, plus my 30% DTE, plus the 35% damage and ROF from Frenzy after a reload. On the ropes also offers 25% gun damage when skills are on cooldowns.

I know it isn't optimal or most efficient, but is it effective? You bet your arse. Can I solo level 3 control points? Yep. Can I play in challenging with zero issues? Yessir. Am I utility asset to a team increasing overall effectiveness? uh-huh. Most importantly.... is it fun? Hell yes.

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For anyone worrying about gear score, don’t. Your perks and talents are much more important than gear score. Like I said above, I’m GS 501, but my mask is a 473 mask. I won’t stop using it though because it grants 41% DTE. The only items where gear score matters are weapons since base damage is dependent on GS.

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This 100%. My backpack is still 447. Gives 15% cooldown and 320+ Skill Power. I'm much more effective with it vs anything else I have looted.

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I’m sure i’ll get a wake up call come the first challenging

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Yes, when a yellow bar grenade thrower decides that he is going to run straight at you, full speed, and hop over YOUR cover and kill you in 1 sec from behind, you'll wake up lol. Getting CC and area denial skills out at the beginning of an engagement is key, while always being on the lookout for a random yellow bar to go all YOLO on you or a teammate.

I’ve done nothing but farm missions and control points.

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challenging

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Starting to flesh out my CC build for challenging, heroic and the raid.

Survivalist offers a lot of skill based bonuses in regards to status effects, so I started there.

10% damage to enemies with status effects
10% Skill cooldown while in cover
15% AR Damage
fire nades
15% protection from elites

Those things plus the "wicked" talent on my gloves (10% damage to enemies with status effects) and "ignited" on my weapons (20% damage to enemies on fire) and 47% damage to elites means a whopping 87% bonus damage to an elite tat is on fire, which with this build, is most of the time I'm shooting. So I have the DPS on my AR covered. Not sure If I want to put a shotgun or not for oh shite moments, but I have 25% damage bonus to them I am not using right now, plus the 9% all weapon damage. I probably should just because I can hit for 150k+ with them.

Skills:

-Air Burst Seeker, 10 sec cooldown. Applies Fire in a pretty big area. Switch to Fire Turret depending on the mission. Great for pushing guys out of cover and CCing them with fire, lining them up for the whole team to hose them down. Not as effective as the turret, but it is on demand every 10 sec and can be directed around cover and up stairs and whatnot.

-Chem Launcher Firestarter, Fire. Yeah. Waiting for at least a 35-40% radius increase mod but for now it is still super useful. Initial explosion scales with explosion damage bonuses and the gear I have now has 50% bonus to explosions so extra damage is gravy.


-72% Skill cooldown permanent, plus 10% while in cover. Turret cools down in about 18-20 sec if I remember right, so I can use it multiple times per fight if needed. get a chem shot and a new seeker every 10 sec.

The best part of this build is the versatility in my opinion. If the team is sucking butt, I can switch to a revive hive or heal seeker while keeping the ability to CC with fire. If someone else is laying fire down everywhere, switching to the oxidizer can stack damage pretty well on bosses and tanks and push guys out of cover / area denial to avoid flanks.

With the game going the way it is, it appears a pure skill build will never be viable like it was in D1, so you have to find a way to use skills, but also find enough damage from your guns to make an impact. Stacking cooldown and using skills often seems like the way to go. It allows you to be versatile in what skill you use for the team or situation you are in, and you can find enough ways to damage guys with guns to not be a gimp.

My buddy created a clan called the DZ Tigers on Xbox for anyone that would like to join. My gamer tag is RF Zeus if you need me to send an invite. I believe it is set to open tho so you should be able join.

We plan to do end game content, but there are no requirements to join and we have plenty of knowledgeable folks that are willing to help out new players.

Finally got to WT1 this week. Didn't get a chance to complete the Apparel Event project before it reset though.

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Anybody on their second character

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Don't see the point honestly. I mean yeah I have a mule for carrying extra gear, but not a full fledged character. I can hold multiple builds and really don't have time than making 2-3 builds anyway.

On another note, I got enough skill power to have 12 shots on my oxidizer launcher, 13 on Firestarter and 14 on healer. With a 13 sec cooldown per shot, I can literally pump out shots almost nonstop. I shot 10 last night without stopping, to test it, when I was done I still had 7 ready to go. Took it into challenging and was flinging fire clouds everywhere, and my team wrecked the TV studio mission very easily. No wipes, only one time on the boss stage where we had any sort of trouble.

Well, I solo'd all the way to 30. About to knock out the last stronghold.

GS 502 hit last night. I can solo challenging content now with my "useless" skill build. Ran Jefferson trade center challenging in 15-20 min solo on challenging.

I'm now at 160% bonus explosive damage. Merciless Rifle at 500gs (which get sthe benefits of the explosive damage), cluster seekers hitting for 290k each and bomb drone 490k / bomb with 9 bombs dropped per drone. Both skills at 10 sec cooldown.

L82 LMG with jazz hands and Frenzy, so I dump a mag quick already, then the reload comes in 2.4 sec and dump another 35% faster with 35% damage. Huge damage spike basically doubling the DPS on the gun for 7 seconds.

Even running 0% bonus elite damage, shite just melts and even quicker because usually 40% or more of their armor is already gone because of the booms dropped on them already.

I know DPS gun builds are "better" as in more efficient, but this build is so satisfying to run. Merciless and all exotics are getting a damage buff in the next update so I assume it'll get even better from a gun perspective.


Went to Division tracker and found out I am top 3% on PS4 for skill kills and top 0.6% for demolitionist kills. I might have a problem lol.