In The Division 2, you can build your builds in three basic directions – damage, armor, skills. Here you will find a powerful damage build that provides a lot of bonus armor and uses its skills to become even stronger.
What kind of build is this? This equipment combination combines high damage with a lot of bonus armor, making every bullet sponge look foolish, no matter the difficulty level.
The Division YouTuber “Patrick Wolf”, who remained loyal to The Division 2 even during the long content drought before “Warlords of New York“, built this build and swears by its devastating effect – both for PvP and PvE content.
In his English video, he shows scenes right at the beginning where he makes short work of his defenseless opponents in PvP:
TU8 DPS Build for Assault Rifles and LMGs
How is the build structured? Every good build in Division 2 should connect three elements:
- Good damage
- Survivability
- Meaningful use of skills
“Patrick Wolf” manages to create a good balance between the three pillars, dealing incredibly high damage without neglecting his armor.
Where does the build get its damage? He relies on weapon and headshot damage and further buffs his values with talents. Additionally, he includes some “Critical Hit Chance” in the build, which he would swap out for headshot damage if his rolls allow it. This enhances his damage:
- 6x core attribute “Weapon Damage” on the armors
- Exotic weapon Pestilence
- Brand sets “Fenris” and “Petrov” for single weapon damage
- 3 pieces of the Striker set for +15% rate of fire
- Focus on the attribute “Headshot Damage”
- Also works with “Critical Hits”
- 3 talents working together
- Assault Rifle: Close & Personal – Eliminating an enemy within 7 meters grants +30% weapon damage for 10 seconds
- Vest: Intimidate – Bonus armor increases weapon damage taken from enemies within 10 meters by 35%
- Backpack: Bloodsucker – Eliminating an enemy grants 10% bonus armor for 10 seconds, up to 10 stacks
He recommends upgrading the attribute “Headshot Damage” as you can get the biggest bonuses with the two weapon classes Assault Rifle and LMG. He also has quite a lot of “Weapon Handling” in the build to ensure he can reliably land his headshots.
The YouTuber shows a scene from the shooting range in his video and achieves a DPS (damage per second) value of over 30 million against elite enemies with headshots. A really strong value that makes the yellow bullet sponges suffer, and the build is not even fully completed yet.
How else can the build be constructed? If you find it too stressful to consistently land headshots, you can also work with critical hits. Swap your assault rifle for an SMG and take “Crit Chance” and “Crit Damage” instead of the handling and headshot values that “Patrick Wolf” uses.
For the SMG, you should have at least 20% critical hit chance and, with the rest of your gear, come to a total of 50 – 60%. 60% is the maximum you can achieve. Once you are above 50 – 55%, you can focus on “Crit Damage” with the rest of the damage attributes.
Focus on Damage – But Bonus Armor and Support Skills Help
How does the build help with survival? “Patrick Wolf” states that the enemies in Division 2 quickly wear down the agents’ armor, making high armor values not really worthwhile. There is hardly any difference whether you have 600,000 or a million – the enemies will take you down in no time.
This is why for this build, offense is the best defense. With the talent “Bloodsucker”, you build bonus armor on kills while also increasing your damage dealt. With the “Defender Drone”, you protect yourself from nearly a million damage.
In addition, he uses the specialization “Sniper”. The repair kits also grant bonus armor for 10 seconds and increase the damage taken from nearby enemies by 35% thanks to the talent “Intimidate”. Additionally, the sniper returns 5% armor for each defeated enemy.
He also mentioned that the build itself does so much damage that he could probably invest a bit more in armor. He already has damage protection on the gloves and could see himself investing even more in protection.
One of the newer armor exotics from Warlords could be one possibility. In total, 10 exotics were added with the major expansion.
What do the skills provide? To support his playstyle, he uses the following skills:
- Defender Drone – Absorbs about 1 million damage at Skill Tier 1
- Shock Trap – Can shock 6 enemies
With the Defender Drone, you can distract damage in critical situations or when launching a frontal assault for a moment, allowing you to fire longer at the enemies. Once an enemy goes down, you receive bonus armor, significantly increasing your weapon damage against nearby enemies.
With the Shock Trap, you immobilize enemies, making them more vulnerable to your headshots. Hardly any enemy survives a longer burst to the head when you have the bonuses from the talents activated. Not even the most absorbent bullet sponge or stubborn Hunter can withstand that.
Build for PvE and PvP after the 2020 Expansion in Detail
This is the complete build:
- Specialization: Sniper
- Weapons
- Assault Rifle with Close & Personal
- Exotic Weapon Pestilence
- Armor Talents
- Vest: Intimidate
- Backpack: Bloodsucker
- Brands / Sets
- 3 pieces of Striker
- 1 piece of Petrov
- 1 piece of Fenris
- Core Attribute: Weapon Damage
- Attributes
- Headshot Damage
- Critical Hits
- Weapon Handling
- Skills
- Drone: Defender
- Trap: Shock Trap
How do you play the build? You are at the front line, fighting the enemies face to face. The build rewards aggressive play, as you need to be close to the enemies to trigger some talents.
Apply pressure and remember to activate your bonus armor repeatedly. If you have taken a lot of damage, use your repair kit and the 10 seconds of extra damage on nearby enemies to eliminate threats. If you play in a team, ask your comrades if they can use talents that also provide you with bonus armor from time to time.
Switch to the “Pestilence”, shoot a few bullets at nearby enemy groups, and switch back to the assault rifle. This way, you distribute the extra damage from the Pestilence talent across the entire group. If you don’t have the exotic, try an LMG with strong reload talents.
How does the build advance me in PvP? Even here you quickly take down your opponents. Get close to the enemies, activate your drone, and land headshots wherever possible. Occasionally heal yourself with a repair kit and take down nearby players, thanks to the extra damage.
What special feature does the build have? The YouTuber takes a named weapon that you can specifically obtain for yourself – “Wild Glutton”. At level 4 of the field research for the “Firewall” specialization, you receive the blueprint for this powerful AR with the perfect version of “Close & Personal”.
To be able to land headshots accurately, “Patrick Wolf” focuses on weapon handling and uses the Striker set. Here, with 3 pieces, you not only get better handling but also a 15% increase in rate of fire, which significantly increases the damage.
If you prefer the supporter role, you can find a healer build for legendary missions here.
With this build, you clear away everything that isn’t behind a wall. What focus do you prefer – damage, armor, or skills?
