With the last major patch, some weapon talents have been revised in The Division 2 . We show you which weapon talents are now among the best.
This talent was previously on the throne: Before Title Update 3, the “Optimist” talent was particularly popular among weapons as it significantly increases damage the emptier the magazine is. However, with the balance changes, the Optimist was weakened.
The talent is still one of the more popular DPS talents and is regularly used in builds. You can see which talents have been revised in the patch notes.
In this guide, we want to introduce you to the talents that are now among the best after the update.
Measured (Measured)
What can the talent do? The description reads:
- “The upper half of the magazine has +20% rate of fire and -15% weapon damage. The lower half of the magazine has -20% rate of fire and +30% weapon damage.”
- “Measured” can only roll on assault rifles, SMGs, and LMGs.
What makes the talent so good? “Measured” is one of the talents that has been significantly improved with the update. The damage buff for the second half of the magazine was increased from +15% to +30%.
In principle, the talent can be combined with any weapon. Furthermore, it is active regardless of your builds, as the talent has no requirements you need to meet.
If you also carry an exotic Chatterbox as a secondary weapon, its holstered talent can nearly negate the negative effect of “Measured”.
Unhinged (Unhinged)
What can the talent do? The description reads:
- “Weapon damage is increased by 20%, but weapon handling is negatively affected by -25%.”
What makes the talent so good? “Unhinged” was already one of the most popular talents before the update, which is why the damage bonus was toned down.
Nevertheless, it is still a strong talent. For a +20% bonus, you have to deal with a worsened handling. This particularly affects your precision and stability.
However, this can at least be partially countered. You can improve weapon handling a little with gear and weapon mods. With the Precision Shooter skill tree, it is also possible to significantly improve your weapon handling for all weapons.
Ranger (Ranger)
What can the talent do? This is the description:
- “For every 5 m you are away from the target, gain +2% weapon damage.”
- Requires 4 additional attributes or less.
What makes the talent so good? “Ranger” is especially suitable if you play at medium to long distances. This talent works best on rifles and sniper rifles.
However, it can also be well combined with assault rifles and LMGs, as those weapons also have a higher range. Already from 25 meters, you have a buff of 10%.
For shotguns and SMGs, “Ranger” is rather unsuitable, but there is another talent that is more suitable for this.
Close & Personal (Close & personal)
What can the talent do? This is the description:
- “Killing a target from a maximum distance of 7 m grants +50% (PvP: +35%) weapon damage for 5 seconds.”
- Requirements: 5 attack attributes or more.
What makes the talent so good? This talent is essentially the counterpart to “Ranger”. It increases your damage when you take down enemies from short distances.
Especially with SMGs and shotguns, this can be well combined, but assault rifles, LMGs, and rifles can also be used in close combat.
However, the buff is bound to a countdown. However, the overall weapon damage is significantly higher. Keep in mind that close-range combat can be quite dangerous.
Strained (Strained)
What can the talent do? This is the description:
- “You gain +5% damage from critical hits for every 10% of your armor that is destroyed.”
What makes the talent so good? “Strained” works especially well in combination with builds focused on high crit chance and crit damage.
The more your armor is destroyed, the more damage you deal with critical hits. Submachine guns are among the categories with the highest crit chance, but you can combine “Strained” with all weapon types.
Still one of the best talents: Optimist (Optimist)
What can the talent do? This is the description:
- “Weapon damage increases by +3% (PvP: +10%) for every 10% (PvP: 2%) of ammunition missing from the magazine.”
- Requirement: 5 attack attributes or less.
What makes the talent so good? You basically don’t have to do anything to benefit from Optimist.
For the damage bonus, you just need to fire your weapon. The emptier your magazine, the higher the damage. This bonus works best with large magazines, as every single shot benefits from the buff.
So you should use assault rifles or LMGs. However, the talent works with all weapon types. The downside to this talent is the requirements.
Due to the limit of 5 attack attributes, you are somewhat restricted when building a DPS build.
Are there any other talents missing from this list? Let us know in the comments.
