In The Division, we take a closer look at submachine guns (SMGs). With these mods, armor pieces, and talents, you can get the most out of them.
Currently, the top-tier weapons in PvE and PvP are assault rifles. The best stats can be seen from the Urban MDR, although the M4 assault rifles are also very competitive.
In the first months after the launch of The Division, however, SMGs, especially the AUG and the Vector, dominated. With later patches, these were significantly nerfed and stripped of their strong bonus: instead of crit chance, they received a bonus to crit damage.
With update 1.6, the submachine guns regained their old strength: with the return of critical hit chance, SMGs are again a viable weapon class. By the way, the maximum roll for crit chance on SMGs is 22%.
MarcoStyle has taken a closer look at the numbers for SMGs and found the best mods and talents that help you get the most out of your submachine guns.
Use these weapon mods for SMGs
Each weapon mod comes with three stats: One high roll stat and two lower roll stats. An exception is the Ti-RANT suppressors, which additionally have a bonus to reduced threat.
An example: For an extended magazine, the high roll stat is the magazine size (around 110%), while lower stat rolls could be fire rate or crit damage, which only deliver 4 or 5%. Here is an overview of the values that are possible at high and low rolls:
Since crit damage (x5.1) can reach significantly higher values at high rolls than crit chance (x2.4), you should always focus on critical hit damage for high rolls. Additionally, the high magazine size value is outstanding, which is why it is indispensable for SMGs. SMGs do not really need higher precision and stability, as they are naturally easy to control. Crit chance and headshot damage are the exciting stats for the low rolls.
To benefit from the crits, these are the optimal mods for SMGs:
- PRO Red Dot Sight with crit damage, crit chance, and headshot damage
- Extended Magazine with magazine size, crit chance, and fire rate
- Small Grip with crit damage, reload speed, and precision
- Loud Vent Brake with crit damage, crit chance, and headshot damage.
Use these armor pieces and talents for your submachine guns
Now you have high crit damage values, but the crit chance is only about 30%. To increase this further and to greatly benefit from the high crit damage, you need the right gear. Bonus to crit chance can be found on:
- Mask (4%),
- Gloves (6%) and
- Holster (4%) come.
If you also have Wild Gloves (7%), the crit chance from your gear increases by an additional 21%, giving you a total of over 50% crit chance. The cap for crit chance is actually 60%.
Since you reach high values for critical hit chance, it is hardly worth it to aim for crit chance as a higher roll on the weapon mods. Rather, take crit damage here.
For the weapon talents, talents like Deadly are obviously beneficial, as they further increase critical hit damage. However, MarcoStyle recommends other talents that allow for a higher damage output in practice. These include:
- Receptive: Damage is increased by 15% when within 10 meters of the target.
- Vindictive: Damage is increased based on missing health: 1 missing segment +10%; 2 missing segments +25% (instead of 5-10%, 15-25%).
- Competent: Weapon damage is increased by 10% for 15 seconds after using a skill.
- Accelerated: The more critical hits you achieve, the faster you reload. 10% per hit up to a minimum reload time of 1 second. (This talent can be transferred with AlphaBridge, it appears on the PP19 as the third talent).
Additional tips:
- With the Impulse Generator, you can further increase crit chance and crit damage.
- The best submachine guns are considered to be the MP7 in PvP and the PP19 or Full-auto MP5 in PvE.
The best weapons in The Division 1.6 for PvE and PvP are presented here.
