The Division 1.8.3 Guide

This guide is intended to bring new players up to speed on game knowledge and mechanics, as well as inform experienced players of changes to the game.

This guide covers OPTIMAL builds, weapons, and talents for efficient PvE and PvP play styles. However, one of the biggest part of the game is its build diversity, so if you have an off-meta build that you find works well, feel free to share and discuss it in The Division Discord.

Links

Here are some links that are useful to all players, whether veterans, new, or returning:

Website where users can create and share builds, by GrimRReaper

Classified/exotic drop rates info, by Ahmad

Weekly vendor reset info, by RubenAlamina & Co

Spreadsheet with all weapon/gear stat roll ranges, made by Ahmad

Skill calculator spreadsheet, by Spydr101 and Compass

Reset timer for weekly rewards, by Compass

Map with LZ boss locations

Survival map that shows loot locations and points of interest

DZ map that shows loot/boss locations/division tech locations 

Interactive Map of Survival, DZ, LZ, and Last Stand

Glossary that explains common words and phrases

Map of all WSP phones

Abbreviations

Throughout this guide, I have often used abbreviations of phrases commonly used in game and in the community. Read this list if you are unfamiliar with them to better understand the guide.

Optimization Tips

The optimization station is a great addition to the game, allowing you to max out the stats on every weapon and gear piece in the game. However, if used incorrectly, it can be a major division tech drain. Here are some tips to get the most out of the station early in the patch.

• Do not worry about the armor roll on gear. Maxing this can take significantly more division tech than anything else, while doing next to nothing for your character. Armor should be the lowest priority at the optimization station.
• Focus on optimizing major attributes and important minor attributes such as damage to elites. These percentage increases max out very quickly and are the most noticeable of all the stats you optimize.
• If you can spare the recalibration, recalibrate low main stats higher. This is a good way to save division tech by not needing to optimize more times than the other stats require.
• Instead of selling items, break them down for a chance to get division tech. Don't leave drops in the LZ on the ground, you can pick them up and break them down on the spot.

PvE

Where to Farm

If you are below level 30 or world tier 5, reaching that is your #1 priority. Don’t bother to minmax any gear before that as it will be obsolete in WT5. You can get to world tier 5 easily solo by clearing daily HVTs and killing open world bosses for easy gear.

World Bosses 

LZ bosses are a good classified and exotic gear and weapons farm, They can easily be done solo, and each boss respawns 4 hours after being killed.

Weekly HVTs

Weekly HVTs are a good source of loot and  PxC while being one of the easiest things to do on this list. The only catch is that you can only run them once per week each per character, and that you need target intel to do them.

Incursions

Running heroic incursions guarantees an exotic cache per incursion once per week, as well as a lot of loot per run. Clear sky is a great farm if you have a really good team, as it can be done in about 5 minutes. Incursions can be tricky without a good team and communication, especially if you are unfamiliar with the mechanics.

Legendary Missions 

The 5 legendary missions also guarantee an exotic cache on the first completion of each mission each week, as well as a lot of loot, including a 20% chance at a classified drop. However, they are the hardest mission type in the game, and they are not recommended to try unless you have a good team.  

Dark Zone

The DZ is a low effort farm that is good for classified gear pieces and exotics. Running the northern DZ is optimal, as the high landmark density allows for rapid boss kills and higher chances of the exotics and classifieds. On top of the plentiful loot, the DZ drops division tech, which is used in the optimization station. Keep in mind this is also a PvP zone where you can get killed for your loot, so running with a team for security is not a bad idea.

Last Stand/Skirmish

If you enjoy PvP, you can play Last Stand or skirmish to get caches, which drop a high amount of loot, with a low chance of classifieds and exotics. For every 5 PvP ranks after rank 40, you are guaranteed a classified cache as well.

Underground

Underground is another good all around farm, dropping weapons, gear pieces, and PxC with a chance at classified gear and exotics as well. There is now also a weekly UG assignment which guarantees an exotic.

West Side Piers

If you don't want to risk getting killed by rogues in the DZ, WSP is another good division tech farm. The bosses that roam there also have a chance to drop classifieds and exotics.

Resistance

While  farming resistance “traditionally” (clearing waves until failure) is not an efficient farm, as until you are able to consistently reach wave 40+ the rewards are lackluster, farming until wave 10 and buying the resistance reward crate as many times as possible is a good way to get classifieds and exotics.

Shields

 For easy classified gear, division tech, PxC, and vanity in TD2, complete shields. New shields will be released monthly until February and can be found in the shields tab in the character menu.

Weapons

This section covers each weapon archetype, its strengths and weaknesses, and names the best weapons from each class to be using.

Assault Rifles

Assault Rifles are a staple weapon for PvE, as they combine good damage and RPM with a strong native talent. The Urban MDR exotic has some of the best burst and sustained damage in the game, making this a very strong option if you like semi-automatic weapons.  Despite the 4% damage nerf in 1.8, the Lightweight M4 and LVOA-C are still very strong as well. The G36 is a good option as well, boasting high handling stats with a high base damage. Because acquiring a G36 with good talents can be hard, an ACR is a good replacement if you want a gun with less recoil than the M4s.

Submachine Guns

SMGs are the weakest primary weapon archetype for PvE, as their good handling does not make up for the lack of range or damage. Their native bonus of CHC is also quite weak compared to other weapons’ bonuses. If you insist on using an SMG, the House exotic SMG is best for its highest damage and RPM.

Light Machine Guns

LMGs are an underrated weapon archetype, as their native OoC damage bonus is multiplicative with AWD and other damage increases, like DtE and EAD. They also have a high native HSD bonus, sitting at a base 100% HSD.  Their base stats are quite good as well, as they become more accurate and stable the longer they are fired, and come with high optimal range. Their larger magazine size makes them good for sustained damage and suppression. Use the Black Market RPK-74  if you want an LMG similar to an assault rifle, or the MG5 or Big Alejandro exotic if you want a slow-reloading LMG with high RPM.

Marksman Rifles

MMRs are very strong weapons if you can hit headshots, as they boast a very high HSD bonus as their native talent. Their high optimal range makes them perfect for players who enjoy sitting back. The SVD is the best semi-automatic MMR due to its great handling, and the M700 Carbon or Custom M44 are the best bolt action snipers, depending on whether you want to use the elevated talent or not. The Devil and Heel are decent as part of a Sentry’s Call build, but their heavy bloom can make them unreliable.

Shotguns

Shotguns are strong close quarters weapons, as their native stagger talent allows you to stun enemies to avoid damage. They can also be used to quickly stack striker. The showstopper exotic is best for stacking striker stacks, as it has best in class RoF, as well as range and magazine size. If you are looking for a semi automatic shotgun with higher per- pellet damage, use the super 90 or tactical/ black market SASG-12.

Pistols

Your choice of pistol does not matter most of the time, as you will very rarely be using them. If you are using sentry, pick up the First Wave X-45 to have a secondary which can be used to quickly build up stacks. If you are looking for utility, get any pistol with the coolheaded talent to reduce skill cooldowns and toxic for fast CC. A double barrel sawed off shotgun is a good choice as well due to the fact that it comes with three talents.  

Despite the damage buff many exotics received since being added to the game, most of them remain niche picks over their high end counterparts because the exotic talent cannot be rerolled and is usually not as good as a flat damage talent that could have been taken in its place. The  powerful exotic weapons are covered in the description for each archetype.

Weapon Talents

This section will go over the handful of good talents in the game for PvE, based on their utility or damage bonus. This list does not include exotic talents as well, as the talent is tied only to the gun.

Competent-This talent is very reliable as it provides a 10% AWD buff that works against all enemies, at all ranges, for 15 seconds.

Destructive-Most enemies in endgame content have armor, and this talent provides a potent 15% EAD increase to help kill them faster.

Ferocious- This talent is very strong in content with a lot of elites, such as incursions or challenging missions, granting 10% DtE.

Responsive- This talent is great for aggressive playstyles, as the 10% damage increase it provides at close range is multiplicative with AWD.

Prepared- If you like to fight from range, this 15% multiplicative damage increase to targets past 30m  is very strong.

Predatory- The best healing talent in the game granting 35% HP over 20 seconds. You can refresh it multiple times, so chaining kills with this talent is a great way to have high sustain without a strong heal.

Determined- This is a fantastic talent for reducing signature and skill cooldowns. You can additionally pair it with skilled and/or coolheaded for maximum CD reduction.

Talented- Good SP increasing skill for electronics builds. Pair it with the death by proxy player talent for a whopping 35% on skill proxy kills.

Elevated- This talent is only found on m700 sniper rifles, but it is a strong weapon talent because is it multiplicative with AWD. It isn’t as hard to proc as many people think, as sitting on top of a car will grant the 1.2m needed for it to activate.  

Commanding- This talent is only useful on solo signature skill spam builds , as it allows you to keep your ult up for the duration of a room/wave. It loses value rapidly in a group or on other builds where you don’t have your signature up very often.

Disciplined- This talent is weak on the SVD it comes with, but it is good on one shot bolt action sniper builds. It makes speccing into crit damage worth it on the sniper, as it takes the unreliability of crit out of the equation.

Balanced- Useful for increasing the handling on your bolt-action MMR if you don’t need more damage.

Damage Stats to Look for

Headshot damage- This is a reliable way to boost your damage, as landing headshots on npcs isn’t difficult. Take this on weapon mods whenever possible, assuming you don’t need handling attributes. However, going for talents such as brutal or 3 piece sentry/hunter’s faith to increase your headshot damage aren’t good options, as there are more potent way to increase damage, namely all weapon damage and other multiplicative damage sources.

All Weapon Damage- This is a powerful damage source, as it is multiplicative with headshot damage and the other damage sources on this list. Because you can stack it without much investment, be sure to grab it often. Popular sources include: Skulls MC gloves, 3/5 piece gear set bonuses, booster shot, competent, and % weapon damage glove rolls.

Multiplicative Damage Sources- Like AWD, these damage sources are very powerful, as they are multiplicative with each other along with the other as well as the other damage sources, but many of these require more investment or the use of a particular gun or gun archetype. Sources of it include: responsive, prepared, elevated, and distracted..

Enemy Armor Damage- Because most enemies in endgame content have armor, this is a powerful damage source, as it is also multiplicative with the other damage sources listed here.

Damage to Elites- Like EAD, this stat is useful because most enemies in endgame content are elites. This stat also requires very little trade-off to stack, as it is available as a minor attribute on the mask and kneepads.

Out of Cover Damage- This is a good damage stat, as killing enemies before they can run and take cover is crucial to fast mission clearing. It is not as common as the other damage sources on this list, coming as a passive on LMGs and on the Banshee 3/5 pc set bonuses.  

For an in-depth explanation on how multiplicative and additive damage bonuses work, watch this video by MarcoStyle: https://goo.gl/9pMNjW 

Damage Stats to Avoid

Crit Chance/Crit Damage- These two stats are very inefficient to get for PvE, as they depend on each other to be good, which means you are forced to invest into two stats to make your crits strong, as opposed to just one with the other sources listed above. In the places where crit does roll, it rolls in very low amounts, meaning you will be sacrificing a lot of good stats to build crit. Finally, crit damage is additive to headshot damage, meaning that it does not have as large of an effect on your total damage output, like the other damage sources. Do not stack it outside of the precision talent, pulse, or weapon mods.

Weapon Mods

For weapons that can fit large scopes and muzzles, I prefer to use scopes and suppressors with HSD as their major attribute, and CHC and CHD as their minor. On weapons that cannot fit large attachments, I would use crit damage  major scopes and muzzles on SMGs, and accuracy scopes on shotguns. The extended magazine is the best magazine for almost  all situations, giving you up to 120% more bullets per mag, but for Lone Star builds a high velocity magazine with an RPM major attribute would work better, as it would allow you to proc berserker faster. The underbarrel is mostly personal preference and oftentimes depends on the weapon, depending on how you want to bolster it. I usually take reload speed, accuracy, or stability on ARs and LMGs, as landing more headshots or more sustained damage is more important to me, but crit damage is a good option if you don't need any handling stats. Optimal range is good on shotguns to make them more versatile, accuracy is good on MMRs to reduce bloom, and crit damage is good on SMGs since they come with high native crit chance.  

Best in Slot Guide

This section covers the optimal major and minor attribute rolls for each piece of gear. This can be flexible depending on the set you are using, so I highlighted several good options to consider.

Chest

Any two of:

+skill haste (skill/hybrid builds) OR +health (damage/hybrid builds) OR +enemy armor damage (damage builds) OR +health on kill (solo builds)

+ammo capacity

Mask

+skill power (skill builds) OR +enemy armor damage (damage builds) OR +health on kill (solo builds)

+damage to elites

Kneepads

+health  OR +skill power (SP for skill builds, otherwise personal preference)

+Damage to elites

+2 resistances of your choice

Backpack

+health OR +skill power (SP for skill builds, otherwise personal preference)

+ammo capacity OR resistance of your choice

Gloves

+weapon damage % of your primary

+enemy armor damage

+weapon damage % of your secondary (damage builds) OR +skill haste (skill builds) OR +health on skill (solo builds)

Holster

+health OR +skill haste (SH for skill builds, otherwise personal preference)

Gear Mods

+health OR +skill haste OR +skill power (SH/SP for skill builds, otherwise personal preference)

Alternatively, you can also get superior gear mods with +DtE if you want to maximize your damage.

Gear Set Builds

This section covers the most optimal way to run each build to clear PvE activities as fast and efficiently as possible, and cover which ones are best for general use.

Reclaimer 

6 piece reclaimer is the best support set in the game, with bonuses that provide huge buffs to the support station, giving it increased range and duration, as well as all the mods for the station simultaneously. The 6 piece is where the set truly shines, granting 50% support station health and 100% support station healing speed, essentially doubling the station’s healing per second. This set is the go-to when trying to carry a team through difficult content. Run this set with at least 7k electronics to have a strong station and have a high chance to reset the cooldown if it is destroyed by an NPC. 

Sentry’s Call

Sentry’s Call is a very strong damage buffing set, as the marks it applies give bonus damage to you and your teammates. The 6 piece bonus increases the max amount of marks to 6, making this set great for taking down priority targets quickly. On top of this, applying a mark to a target has a chance to apply one mark to all nearby enemies as well. This set works best with high RoF semi-automatic weapons such as the Urban MDR to build up stacks ASAP.

Final Measure

With the recent buff, 6 piece Final Measure now provides a whopping 40% AWD, armor, or SP increase depending on the type of grenade defused, making it too good to pass up for missions that feature a lot of grenade spam, such as incursions. If you’re building this set, the 6 piece is recommended, as the rest of the set isn’t as impressive, but 5 pieces and vigorous also works in team play.

Lone Star

6 piece lone star has emerged as one of the top DPS sets in the game, having a high chance to automatically reload your gun and grant a 30% damage and RoF boost. The set is best used with LMGs and shotguns, as the 3 and 5 piece bonuses combine for a total of 20% bonus damage for the two weapon types. It is not recommended to use this set with other weapon types, as it is a big investment for the 6 piece if you are wasting the LMG and shotgun damage bonus.

Striker

Provided you can land your shots, striker is one of the best solo gear sets, with the 4 piece granting 1% bonus damage for every consecutive hit, which is bumped up to 2% with the the classified 6 piece bonus. The 6 piece bonus also grants healing per second for consecutive hits on an enemy. This means this set can cover the weaknesses of many solo players, not having enough damage or sustain to tank large groups of enemies. Stacking stamina on this set is highly recommended, as your healing per second increases for every 3000 stamina you have. While this set can definitely work in a group, I think it shines for solo players as is makes up for not having healers or damage buffers to help you. I recommend running 6000 stamina if you want use out of the 6 piece bonus, as well as having a lot of main stat flexibility for talents, or 9000 stamina to get the maximum effect from the 6 piece.

Nomad

Nomad is a good tank set, as the 6 piece classified bonus gives you the chance to reset Path of the Nomad with no cooldown. Not only that, when it does proc, you receive 60% ADR for 10 seconds. While the 5 piece healing is still not very significant on combat, it lets you start every fight with an overheal. The 25% bonus health on kill is huge for sustain, especially for solo players. This set makes carrying fuses in Clear Sky or planting explosives in Falcon Lost a breeze, as well as staying alive in general.   

Tactician’s Authority

Tactician’s Authority makes the list due of the raw skill power you can stack with it. The 2 and 3 piece bonuses for 15% skill haste and 10% skill power are some of the best in the game, and the 4 piece bonus gives 30% more skill power when stacked. Run this build if you want to maximize the strength of your defibrillator heal or pulse. I do not recommend running the full 6 piece classified set, as it has very restricting limitations for skill usage. Instead, I would opt for the 4 piece paired with inventive and nimble, or vigorous and inventive when running as a healer. Remember to not pass the 450k SP soft cap when using this set, as past that amount SP scaling has harsh diminishing returns.

High Ends/Exotics 

High end pieces are still viable for PvE, as several pieces grant strong bonuses. For skill builds, a combo of vigorous and inventive/specialized is a very reliable way to gain a lot of tankiness and bonus SP. The skulls MC gloves grant 16% AWD, letting an all HE/exotic build compete with many DPS sets. My personal recommendations for an all high end/ exotic build are: vigorous/Barrett’s Bulletproof for the extra tankiness/ utility, refreshed for the extra healing, specialized for the bonus SP, skull MC gloves for the high AWD bonus, accomplished/Shortbows for extra field proficiency caches/ quick CC, and nimble for the extra healing. Some people choose to swap out the holster and kneepads for classified gear pieces, but I find the marginal main stat increases are not worth the utility you lose.

FireCrest

If you are going for a support CC build, FireCrest is a good option. The set greatly improves the flame turret’s damage and range, and the 4 piece increases damage to burning targets. The 6 piece grants a chance for each bullet to get a target on fire, as well as increases the time targets burn for. The Urban MDR pairs incredibly well with this build, as its exotic talent synergizes very well with the constant CC the sets pumps out. I recommend running around 4k main stat into firearms and stamina, and the rest into electronics to max out the turret’s damage while still having the flexibility to choose the weapon talents you want.

NinjaBike Builds

NinjaBike builds make for great hybrid builds, as they allow you to stack several set bonuses more effectively. Some options to consider when running this build are: tactician’s Authority 2/3 piece, Nomad 2 piece, Striker 4 piece, Final Measure 3 piece, FireCrest 3 piece and D3-FNC 2 piece.

Hunter’s Faith

If you are a fan of bolt action rifles, hunter’s faith is a good set to reward you for hitting your shots with high bonus damage. Run this build with 2 bolt action snipers of your choice, and 9k firearms to get the most bonus damage from the classified 6 piece. Because of the heavy firearms investment, this set requires a healer to be most effective. Overall, I think Sentry’s Call is a better set for accurate players as it increases the damage of the whole group instead of just the user.

D3-FNC

D3-FNC is a good support tank, as you can absorb damage for your teammates using the ballistic shield, while granting powerful AWD or armor bonuses. The set also greatly increases the HP of the shield as well as 15% protection from elites. If the threat mechanic is ever fixed, this set will be great, but for now it is still good thanks to the high survivability and buffs for your team.

AlphaBridge

While alphabridge is not an optimal set for difficult content, as you will not be consistently getting enough kills for it to work well, as well as not being affected by your teammate’s signature skills, it is a fun set for soloing easier content. Run balanced main stats for maximum signature skill duration, and two of the same primary weapon archetypes to share the free talent between them via the 4 piece bonus.

Predator’s Mark

This set is not very good for pve, as most enemies die before the bleed can deal most of its damage. Running 9k stamina to maximize the bleed also means that your regular bullet damage won’t high, and your skills will be weak. The only potential use for this set is high levels of resistance, where enemies are extremely tanky and the bleed will be used to its full potential.

DeadEYE

DeadEYE is another weak set for PvE, as giving up all headshot damage for crit damage results in a big overall damage loss. Run Sentry’s Call or Hunter’s Faith if you want much better MMR builds.

Banshee

This is another bad PvE set, as its bonuses are tailored for Dark Zone PvP. There is no reason to use this build in the LZ or even DZ PvE farming.

Optimal Main Stat Distribution

With the stamina buff in 1.8,  firearms is once again the worst main stat to heavily spec into for value gained. Here is an outline of the optimal main stat distribution for each role. Exceptions to these distributions for specific builds are covered in the analysis for the set.

Damage Builds

Because firearms is largely ineffective at boosting your overall damage output, speccing more than 6000 main stat into firearms means you are sacrificing too much utility or survivability for a small damage gain that is simply not worth it, even on damage builds. I recommend investing 6000 or less stat into firearms, and splitting the remaining main stats between stamina and electronics. Instead of adding more firearms, augment yourself with a damage gear set such as Sentry’s Call, Strikers, or Lone Star, as well as damage increasing weapon talents to up your damage output.

Skill Builds

Skill power is the best scaling main stat until the soft cap of 450k, so investing a considerate amount into electronics is vital for any skill oriented build. I recommend speccing at least 7000 main stat into electronics. From there, you can decide to spec the rest into firearms and stamina to unlock raw damage talents like destructive and ferocious, or you can choose to opt for talents like competent, talented, and determined and spec even more main stat into electronics. Whatever you do, calculate your SP with buffs active to make sure you aren’t going above the soft cap of 450k, as after that SP is largely wasted. The best gear sets to pair with high electronics are Tactician’s Authority or Reclaimer.    

Hybrid Builds

Hybrid builds consist of a generally even distribution of main stats to have decent damage, health, and skills. Speccing rather equal points into each main stat is a good choice, as you will be very versatile in all situations. The best gear sets for hybrid builds are Final Measure, Nomad, Striker, or a high end/ exotic build. The best stat allocations for hybrid builds are: 5k firearms/4k stamina/6k electronics or 4k firearms/5k stamina/6k electronics, depending on the talents you have to unlock.

I did not include tank builds specced heavily into stamina in this guide, as I don’t think they are very useful for PvE at the moment, as there is no reliable way to draw aggro that works consistently. Hybrid builds using nomad can be very hard to kill without the need to spec very high into stamina, making it great for situations that require tanking.

Skills

For clarification, “low” SP refers to around 90k-135k SP, “average” SP refers to 130k-200k SP, and “high” SP refers to 200k-450k SP.

Pulse- Pulse reveals all nearby enemies to your entire team through walls and on the minimap, and debuffs them by granting you bonus CHC and CHD to pulsed enemies. The best skill mod for it in PvE is the tactical scanner mod, as it increases damage done to pulsed targets by 5% in addition to the CHC and CHD. Pulse is best when used at average or high SP, as low SP users would be better off running precision instead.

First Aid- An absolutely essential skill, it is recommended that everyone in the squad runs their own first aid, even with a healer. For high SP healer builds use the defibrillator mod, if you have average or low SP and want a strong self heal use overdose, and if you have average to above average SP or want a damage and ADR buff from your heal, use booster shot.

Support Station- This skill is by far the most powerful when combined with the reclaimer gear set, as it unlocks all the mods for free and provides several stat increases to the station. Without reclaimer, you can run the life support mod if you are in a weak team that needs to be revived often, ammo cache for the ammo and skill haste buffs, or immunizer to counter enemy CC. Run this skill with at least above average skill power to get a decent heal from it.

Sticky Bomb- The flashbang and BFB stickies are best, as the flashbang sticky bomb leaves the NPCs motionless and unable to shoot back at you, making this a strong CC skill. The BFB sticky is powerful when used with high SP and  tactician build to one shot enemies. The flash sticky can be used at low SP, as it has a short base cooldown and is meant for CC.

Turret- The shock and flame turrets can be used for CC, but overall I prefer the gas seeker mines or flashbang sticky  for more reliable CC. The recon turret is not very good, as the damage is low and using your weapons is much more efficient for stacking tactician stacks. The CC turrets can be used at low SP.

Seeker Mine- The cluster mod does decent damage at high skill power, but the bleed effect does not provide much CC, as well as taking a lot of time to do its full damage. The airburst mod got heavily nerfed in previous patches, and does not deal a lot of damage anymore. The fire CC is provides is also lackluster, making this an undesirable mod. The gas charge mod is the best CC option of the three, as the gas leaves most enemies motionless for a long period of time. The gas seeker mine is a good CC option at low SP.

Ballistic Shield- This skill should only be used with a D3-FNC build. The shield HP no longer scales with electronics, meaning that shield HP is much lower than it used to be. The only way to boost the shield HP is to use D3-FNC. Use the Kinetic breaker mod for D3 because it comes with the highest base HP and the other stats

Smart Cover-This is a useful skill if you plan on staying back in one spot, as it provides stability, accuracy, and ADR. Use the recharger mod to gain 15% SH as well as a bit of healing from the skill. The skill is best used at medium to high SP, as it isn’t very strong at low skill power.

Mobile Cover- This is a very niche skill, as most of the time there is ample cover in every activity you are doing. The only real use this skill has is on sniper builds, where you are mostly sitting in one spot. The mobile cover can be used to provide added security to proc talents like prepared and elevated. Run the countermeasures mod to give yourself a nice 10% AWD increase. Because you are mostly going to use it away from fire, you can get away with running mobile cover at low SP.

Player Talents

These are mainly personal preference, and depend on your build and how you want to augment it. The best solo talents include Critical Save, Strike Back, Steady Hands, Precision, One is None, and On The Move. The best support/ medic talents include Combat Medic, Triage, Battle Buddy, Death by Proxy, and Tech Support. The best DPS build talents include Tactical Advance, Steady Hands, Precision, One is None, and Stopping Power. Useful CC talents include  shrapnel, wildfire, and fear tactics, and talents that work well for damage skill builds such as the seeker mines and BFB sticky are demolition expert and chain reaction.                

PvP

Weapons

This section covers each weapon archetype, its strengths and weaknesses, and names the best weapons from each class to be using.

Assault Rifles

Assault Rifles are a strong weapon for PvP, despite the EAD native talent doing very little to boost your damage. The Urban MDR offers best in class burst and sustained damage, but can be tricky to use since it is semi-automatic. Despite the 4% damage nerf the M4 category received in 1.8, the Lightweight M4 and LVOA-C still have the best burst damage of all fully-automatic assault rifles,making them a great option.  The G36 does not have the same burst damage potential of the M4, but can still be used effectively due to its great handling. The other assault rifles fall behind in terms of burst damage output.

Submachine Guns

Most SMGs have less base damage and burst potential than the M4 assault rifles, but their native bonus of CHC is better suited for PvP then EAD. The exception to this is the House exotic SMG, which has the same RPM and slightly higher base damage than an M4. This makes the House a great weapon for close range PvP. The MP7 and AUG are the best SMGs apart from the House, but they are noticeably worse.  

Light Machine Guns

Light machine guns are mediocre in PvP with no gear sets, as their base damage and RPM are not impressive. However, they have the best PvP native bonus of OoC damage, along with a the second best base HSD multiplier in the game. 6 piece classified Lone Star makes LMGs very viable, as it adds a lot of much needed burst damage  to the weapon, making it a formidable choice, especially for longer range PvP where SMGs and ARs experience damage dropoff. I recommend using the MG5 for this loadout, as it has the best base burst potential and it benefits a lot from the set dropping the need to reload.

Marksman Rifles

Due to the 0.8x multiplier to HSD in PvP, headshot focused MMR builds aren’t particularly effective for the skill required to land headshots consistently, so I do not recommend using an MMR headshot build. Instead, you can run the DeadEYE gear set aim aim for the body with 100% crit damage while in cover, which works much better and is also much easier to do. If you want a high RPM MMR for this build, use the SVD for its great handling. The M700 Carbon or Custom M44 are the best bolt action snipers if you are focused on a single shot build.

Shotguns

Shotguns are lackluster weapons to use, as many do not do enough burst damage to down a player before they can heal, especially with everyone’s health pools increasing due to the stamina buff. Because of the high mobility nature of PvP in this game, consistently landing all of your pellets can be rather difficult as well. If you want to use a shotgun, I would recommend the Lone Star gear set, as it greatly increases their damage and removes the long reload speed, a drawback of many shotguns. They can also be used to quickly build up striker stacks.

Pistols

Your choice of pistol does not matter most of the time, as you will very rarely be using them. You can instead opt for a pistol with utility talents than can help you mid fight for finishing off an enemy, such as predatory, determined, and talented.

Exotic Weapons

Despite the damage buff many exotics received, most of them remain niche picks over their high end counterparts because the exotic talent cannot be rerolled and is usually not as good as a flat damage talent that could have been taken in its place. Here is an overview of all the exotic weapons in the game for PvP:

Urban MDR- This a strong weapon to use for PvP due to its damage potential, and its damage talent is very strong if you are using a CC skill or build. Keep in mind that that it is semi-automatic, which is a turn off for many players.

Liberator- This weapon seems really strong on paper, as it is an M4 variant, and the exotic bonus does not take up a weapon talent slot. In reality, because it shares the recoil pattern with the police M4, it is very hard to control, and the exotic bonus is mostly useless, it is worse than a good lightweight M4 or LVOA-C.

Caduceus- While this weapon seems like an ideal weapon for a healer, as the exotic talent heals the entire team for every crit landed, the weapon is very weak, as the heal is not noticable and requires you to spec for crit chance to have a high chance of it activating. On top of that, the accuracy of the weapon is really poor, making it hard to use past close range, which is undesirable for an assault rifle.

Warlord- This is a decent weapon to use for tanky builds, as the exotic talent will allow you to reduce the amount of burst damage taken and last longer in a fight. However, it has the classic AK recoil pattern which pulls sharply to the side, making it difficult to control. The AK class in general is also not the best in terms of burst damage, which is important for PvP.

Bullfrog- With the M4 receiving a nerf in 1.8, this weapon’s damage output is now very similar to that of the M4. It also comes with a strong damage increasing talent, making it a very solid full auto assault rifle of you can manage the recoil.

Pakhan-After receiving a sizable nerf in patch 1.8, the Pakhan ‘s base damage is only very slightly higher than a high-end RPK. The exotic talent is useless in PvP, so I recommend using an MG5 or Big Alejandro over this gun.

Hungry Hog- Like all belt-fed LMGs, this weapon has low bust damage, making it undesirable for PvP. The exotic talent is difficult to proc and maintain, so only use this weapon for the commendation.

Big Alejandro- A new exotic, this LMG boasts the best base RPM in the entire game, at a whopping 1000 rounds per minute. This makes it great for classified Lone Star builds, giving it some of the best damage in the game. However, the exotic talent requires you to sit in cover, which is not smart in PvP, as you will be easily flanked and are easy to hit headshots on.

The Showstopper- After receiving a whopping 32% damage buff in 1.8, the showstopper is a strong option for close quarters PvP, especially when paired with classified Striker’s. However, the exotic talent is pretty much useless, as in CQC accuracy is less important and it only kicks in in the bottom 3rd of the magazine.  

Medved- This is a very weak weapon, as despite being a slug shotgun with very high, the accuracy is terrible. The damage is also lower than that of a regular SASG, meaning that it is outclassed by regular shotguns and SMGs at close range and MMRs, LMGs, and ARs  at long range. 

Cassidy- This weapon’s only use is with a Lone Star build, where is can pump out high burst damage. Keep in mind this build heavily relies on good accuracy, and is not always reliable.

Tenebrae- This weapon is useless for PvP, as players do not have weak points.

Historian- This weapon is difficult to use, as the low accuracy makes it hard to land consistent shots. The exotic talent damage is negated that is comes with significantly less base damage than a regular M1A, and also does not allows for an underbarrel mod. I would rather use an SVD for a DeadEYE build over this weapon.

Devil/Heel- This exotic weapon combo can be tricky to use, as their low stability and accuracy make is difficult to land consistent shots. Using 2 MMRs will make you an easy target in close range encounters as well. Again, I would pass on them for an SVD.

Hildr/Eir- This is not a good weapon set to be using, as it locks you into using 2 SMGs, meaning that your long range damage is severely crippled by using this weapon set. The bonus is not very strong, as the SMG-9 SMGs do not allow for an underbarrel attachment, so the weapon set is just a gimmicky way to make up for that considerable weakness. The House is a much better SMG to use.

Midas- If you are running as the healer in a group, with a build that is not optimized for damage at all, using the Midas to debuff enemy team’s DPS players can be a good option. Never use this exotic as a DPS or hybrid build, as the damage you lose is not worth the debuff.

Tommy Gun/ Thompson M1928- Due to hipfire being nerfed to the ground in 1.8, these weapons have a useless exotic bonus. Again, the House is a much better SMG to use.

The House- By far the best SMG in 1.8, the House’s base damage and RPM surpass that of the Lightweight M4 after its nerf. The exotic talent is incredibly strong as well, giving 20% AWD to half of the magazine. It is one of, if not the best weapon for PvP in the game currently.

Weapon Talents

This section will go over the handful of good talents in the game for PvP, based on their utility or damage bonus. This list does not include exotic talents as well, as the talent is tied only to the gun.

Competent- This is a good talent as you can reliably keep it up for most of the engagement, and 10% AWD is a strong damage increase.

Prepared- If you fight at range, this is a great talent, as 15% multiplicative damage past 30m is super strong.

Responsive- Since most PvP engagements are in close range, this 10% multiplicative damage increase is essential for most builds.

Unforgiving- Because health pools have significantly increased, you can keep this talent up more with less risk of getting bursted down before you can heal. 25% AWD is very strong, and can be the difference between getting a kill or dying.

Determined- Having a secondary weapon with determined is super useful for getting your signature skill back between fights. Killing a pack of red mobs with a determined weapon is oftentimes enough to get it back. Pair it with skilled and coolheaded (when available) to get your signature back in 5 kills or less.

Predatory/Talented- Running these talents on a secondary or sidearm that is used to finish people off during a fight is a good way to get an edge on your opponent. Be sure to only use this when you know you will get the kill, as risking a revive for these buffs might not be worth it.

Deadly/Adept- If you are using a build that doesn't allow you to unlock the talents above, such as a 9k stamina 6 piece Predator’s Mark, or if your weapon cannot roll certain talents, like responsive on an LMG Lone Star build, these are in the next tier for damage talents. If you can unlock them, responsive, unforgiving, and competent are much better.

Damage Stats to Look for

Headshot damage- Hitting your headshots is still key to winning your PvP engagements, despite the 0.8x multiplier headshot damage receives against players. If you have good aim, take it on your weapon mods if possible, but going for HSD from sources that require more investment such as brutal, or Sentry/ Hunter’s Faith set bonuses are not worth it.

All Weapon Damage- This is a great source of damage as it applies to both headshots and bodyshots, and is available in many places. Stacking AWD is key to killing players fast. Popular sources include: Skulls MC gloves, 3/5 piece gear set bonuses, booster shot, competent, unforgiving, and % damage glove rolls.

Multiplicative Damage Sources- These are the most powerful damage buffs, but are not as plentiful as AWD. Sources of it include: responsive, prepared, elevated, and distracted.

Out Of Cover damage- Because almost all PvP engagements are out of cover, this is a strong damage bonus. It comes as a passive on LMGs and on the banshee 3/5 piece bonuses.

For an in-depth explanation on how multiplicative and additive damage bonuses work, watch this video by MarcoStyle. 

Damage Stats to Avoid

Enemy Armor Damage- Because players have a lot armor amount, and the effect of EAD being much weaker in PvP compared to PvE, this is a weak damage stat you should avoid in favor of other stats.

Damage to Elites- Players are not elites, so this stat is completely useless.

Overinvestment into CHC/CHD- Crit is overrated in PvP, as the adept nerf made the talent unable to stack, making crit chance a lot harder to come by, which makes crit damage weaker. CHD rolls in laughably low amounts, such as 9% CHD on the backpack and kneepads. Other weapon talents provide a much larger damage increase than crit talents. Like I said before, you need two stats to make crit good (CHD and CHC), so you are forced to make poor investments into two seperate to make this stat usable. You can’t rely on pulse CHC because most players run conceal. Even on SMGs with a base crit chance roll, I wouldn’t recommend going for crit anywhere except potentially the gloves, mask, and weapon mods as you lose out on other valuable options, unless you have a very good healer than you can rely on.

Weapon Mods

The scope and muzzle attachments mainly depend on your ability to hit headshots. If you can reliably hit the head,  you can use headshot damage major attachments with CHC and CHD as minors, or if you cannot, use CHD as the major and CHC and HSD as minors. An extended magazine with CHC and RoF minors is the best for almost all builds, while a high velocity magazine with RoF as the major being best for a Lone Star build.  I usually take CHD as a major on the underbarrel since the extra bit of burst damage is more important in PvP than in PvE, but definitely take a handling attribute here if you feel like you need it.  

Best in Slot Guide

This section covers the optimal major and minor attribute rolls for each piece of gear.  

Chest

+health

+skill haste (most builds) OR +exotic damage resilience (If you have a strong healer)

+ammo capacity

Mask

+Skill power OR +crit chance (SP for skill builds, otherwise personal preference)

+burn resistance OR disrupt resistance

Kneepads

+health  OR +skill power (SP for skill builds, otherwise personal preference)

+burn resistance

+shock resistance

+disrupt resistance

Backpack

+heath OR +skill power (SP for skill builds, otherwise personal preference)

+burn resistance OR +disrupt resistance OR +ammo capacity

Gloves

+primary weapon damage %

+skill haste

+secondary weapon damage % OR +crit chance OR +crit damage (Take one of the two crit stats if you don’t use your secondary/ it’s the same type as your primary)

Holster

+skill haste (most builds) OR +Health OR +crit chance (if you have a strong healer)

Mods

+Skill Haste (most builds) OR +Health (if you have a strong healer)

Gear Set Builds

This section covers the best gear sets for organized PvP, aimed at maximizing survival time and kills.

Reclaimer

Again, this is arguably the best support set in the game, as the healing bonuses this set gives the support station are unmatched by any other gear set on the game. It also allows the support station to reach much further, making it more versatile. Having a healer with 6 piece classified reclaimer will be key to surviving long manhunts or dominating in Last Stand or Skirmish. Running 9000 electronics on a reclaimer build will ensure that your box cooldown will reset whenever it is destroyed by an enemy, so keep that in mind when building this set.

Predator’s Mark

This is one of the best damage sets in the game currently, as the 6 piece bonus greatly increases the damage of your bleed procs. Run it with a healer to have a lot of sustain since because the 6 piece bonus requires a major investment into stamina (9000 stamina to reach the max bleed damage).

Nomad

With good RNG on the 6 piece bonus, nomad will render the virtually unkillable for minutes at a time, as the 6 piece bonus grants 60% ADR and a 50% chance to reset the cooldown on path of the nomad once it is used when solo. While the 5 piece healing is not significant in combat, it allows you to start fights with a full overheal without using your heal. The health on kill bonus is situational, but can make for some clutch heals in sticky situations. What this set lacks in damage it makes up for in tankiness.

Banshee

Banshee is a strong option for the dark zone, as it stacks several multiplicative damage sources for rogue hunters and improves the rewards for successful rogues, as well as making it faster to drop your rogue timer. However, it will be out-damaged by Predator’s Mark and Striker with high stacks. Do not use this set in Last Stand or Skirmish, as the enemies there do not count as rogue agents for the set’s purposes.  

Final Measure

Final Measure is another great support set, as it make the user absorb enemy grenades and provide very strong bonuses. This is especially useful in 1.8 dark zone PvP, as non rogue agents tend to toss a lot more grenades because there is no risk of going rogue. If someone on your team is running this set, your enemies are forced to stop using grenades or grants your team insanely strong bonuses of 40% AWD, armor or SP.   This set can be used as a hybrid or a secondary healer to a Reclaimer.

Lone Star

When used correctly, this set can have devastating results, as the 6 piece bonus greatly increases both your sustained and burst damage. Run this set with an LMG such as the MG5 and play more passively, destroying agents from range with huge AWD and RoF bonuses, or pair it with shotguns and rush aggressively. I find that the Super 90 is the best option to pair with the gear set, as it has both good damage and rate of fire. I do not recommend using this set with other weapon archetypes as you get nothing from the set except the 4 and 6 piece bonuses, making it an unworthy investment.

Striker

Because of the buff to classified striker’s in 1.8, hitting shots adds a 2% to your stack, while a miss only takes away 1% from it, meaning that maintaining a high amount of stacks is much easier than ever before. With high stacks, this set provides an unrivaled base damage increase, as well as a nice heal over time, allowing you to tank and face trade much better than most sets. Again, I’d recommend 6k or 9K stamina to get the most of the 6 piece healing bonus.

DeadEYE

DeadEYE is an powerful set for passive players, as it allows you to drop players from far ranges fast. I do not recommend running the 6 piece for this build, as the 6 piece bonus is lackluster in PvP. Instead, I would opt for 5 piece classified DeadEYE and reckless or vigorous, along with going high FA to maximize burst damage. Keep in mind you will need to relocate often to prevent being flanked as well as a healer to provide healing.

D3-FNC

This set can play the tank role in a coordinated group, as it grants powerful buffs of 30% armor or AWD when the shield takes damage. This is not a solo build, as you will easily get outmaneuvered without support from a team.  Hit 125k skill power using skill power rolls on gear and mods to hit the base shield HP cap, and heavily spec into stamina (6k or 9k) to scale the shield health from there.

High End/Exotic

Hexotic builds are still viable in PvP, especially in Last Stand or Skirmish, where classified builds get their main stats normalized down. Skulls MC Gloves give the set a strong damage increase, while gear pieces such as specialized (bonus SP), refreshed (bonus healing), vigorous/Barrett’s Vest (extra tankiness/utility), Shortbows (fasted grenade fuse time), and nimble/Colonel Bliss’s Holster (extra healing/damage) give the build great utility. Some people choose to swap out the holster and kneepads for classified gear pieces, but I find the marginal main stat increases are not worth the utility you lose.

NinjaBike Builds

NinjaBike builds are also still viable, with some of them producing even more raw damage  than hexotic builds. The best combos to choose from are a mix of: Banshee 3/4 piece, Predator’s Mark 3 piece, AlphaBridge 4 piece, and Tactician 2/3 piece. Be sure to use classified pieces of the sets whenever possible, as they will give you more main stat compared to the regular versions.

Tactician

Tactician is a good set to use if you want to run a support build that does not use the support station, such as using a pulse and defibrillator heal.I do not recommend running the 6 piece because it is unreliable to stack up to 60% to use the bonus. Running vigorous and inventive in the other two slots is your best bet, as it will give you more tankiness and a reliable SP bonus you will have a high uptime on. Run high electronics to have strong skills, but do not pass the 450k skill power soft cap after all your buffs are calculated.

Hunter’s Faith

This build rewards really good accuracy by allowing the user to potentially one shot players with the 4 piece bonus fully stacked. The 6 piece bonus is highly recommended, as it makes using the set much more forgiving and easier to stack. Run 9k firearms to maximize the set’s damage bonus scaling and the chance to one shot. Keep in mind you will need to relocate often to prevent being flanked as well as a healer to provide healing.

AlphaBridge

The 6 piece set is bad for PvP, as the signature skill on kill is very situational at best and prevents you from using your/ your teammate’s signature skill. The 5 piece set is pretty decent, giving a bonus weapon talent and 15% AWD. You can pair this with a high end/ exotic piece of your choice, but keep in mind this build will be easily out-DPS’ed by Predator’s Mark or Striker.

FireCrest

Unfortunately, the PvP turret damage modifier was reduced by 35% in patch 1.8, meaning that FireCrest builds are much weaker than they otherwise would have been. FOr this reason, I think investing your whole gear set into the fire turret by using FireCrest is not worth it, making this a weak set to run in PvP.

Sentry’s Call

Because the 6 piece classified bonus does not apply in PvP, this set is not worth running, as the damage buff it provides is weaker than the buffs that sets like reclaimer, final measure, or D3-FNC provide. It also requires the use of a semi-auto weapon, which can be tricky in PvP.

Optimal Main Stat Distribution

With the stamina buff in 1.8,  firearms is once again the worst main stat to heavily spec into for value gained. Because proper team composition is vital for extended manhunts and serious group PvP, I broke down the optimal main stat distribution for each role. Any exceptions to this distribution is gone over in the description of the set.

Damage Builds

Due to firearms scaling being poor, speccing much more than 6000 main stat into firearms results in a significant loss in health or healing for a small damage output increase. I recommend investing 6000 or less stat into firearms, and splitting the remaining main stats between stamina and electronics. Instead, use damage builds like deadEYE, Striker, Lone Star, Banshee or Hexotic to boost your damage. (Classified Predator’s Mark is also a great damage build, but it requires a big stamina investment.) With good aim, a good DPS set, and good weapon talents, running more balanced main stats will allow you to beat lopsided firearms-heavy builds easily.  

Skill Builds

Skill power is the best scaling main stat until the soft cap of 450k, so having one dedicated healer on your team with a lot of main stat invested into electronics is super important. I recommend speccing at least 7000 main stats into electronics. You can then add more skill power to have as strong of a heal as possible or add some firearms for a bit of damage or stamina for a bit of survivability. Use Reclaimer or Tactician’s Authority with a skill build.

Hybrid Builds

Hybrid builds are useful when trying to fill a role that is both support and damage, or when running solo. They consist of a generally even distribution of main stats to have decent damage, health, and skills. Speccing a balanced amount of points into each main stat is a good choice, as you will be very versatile in all situations. The best gear sets for hybrid builds are Final Measure, Nomad, or the damage builds listed above. I recommend a 5k firearms/ 4k stamina/ 6k electronics or 4k firearms/ 5k stamina/ 6k electronics setup, depending on the talents you have to unlock.

Skills

This section will cover all the skills and mod in the game, recommend which ones to use, and how much SP to invest when running each skill. For clarification, “low” SP refers to around 90k-135k SP, medium SP refers to 13k-200k SP, and “high” SP refers to 200k-450k SP.

Pulse- This is a must have skill in PvP, as it provides a nice damage boost as well as marks enemy players through walls for the whole team. This skill provides a chunk of CHC and CHD for little investment, unlike the other sources in the game. Run the tactical scanner mod if you are sure that enemy players don't have conceal for the damage bonus. The scrambler pulse is the most popular choice, as it shields you from enemy pulses. Recon pulse has the shortest cooldown, but provides no other utility other than crit and marking the enemies making it not worthwhile in my opinion. Pulse is most useful at medium or high SP.

First Aid- An absolutely essential skill, it is recommended that everyone in the squad runs their own first aid, even with a healer. For high skill power healer builds use the defibrillator mod, if you have average or low SP and want a strong self heal use overdose, and if you have average to above average SP or want a damage and ADR buff from your heal, use booster shot.

Support Station- This skill is by far the most powerful when combined with the reclaimer gear set, as it unlocks all the mods for free and provides several stat increases to the station. Without reclaimer, run the immunizer mod to counter enemy player CC skills and grenades. If you plan on leaving your station up, run with at least above average skill power, so the heal will be at least decent and so that the station will not be easily destroyed. If you are only using the station to instantly blow it up with the master mod, you can run low skill power, as the heal is unaffected by SP.

Sticky Bomb- The BFB mod is ineffective, as the skill does little damage, even at very high skill power. The EMP mod is very strong, as it can be used to shut down all enemy players’ skills and prevent them from deploying more. The flasbang mod not very effective, as players can still use skills and avoid damage through the effect. Since this skill is meant for CC, you can run it at low SP.

Turret- Because the recon turret does not offer much burst damage and can easily be countered with an EMP, it is not worth running. The flame and shock turrets can be very effective CC options against disorganized teams without a immunizer, making it a good skill to use for players with low SP.

Seeker Mine- The cluster mod does not do enough damage to one shot most players, even if all the seekers target one player, making it not worthwhile. The same applies to the airburst mod, as the fire CC effect and damage are both weak. The gas charge mod is mostly useless, as tear gas is the weakest CC effect in PvP, doing very little to disrupt a player.

Ballistic Shield- Apart from not scaling with skill power, players now have a 4.6x damage multiplier when shooting at a ballistic shield, meaning that the shields are insanely easy to destroy. Avoid this skill for any serious PvP.

Smart Cover- This skill is ineffective for PvP, as most fights do not involve cover based shooting. The ADR gained from this skill is not worth the SP needed to have a noticeable effect.

Mobile Cover- This is a very niche skill, with its only use being a tool for snipers to provide more cover and to proc talents like prepared and elevated. Run the countermeasures mod to give yourself a nice 10% AWD increase and shield yourself from hostile pulses. Since you will be far away from the action, you can run this build at low SP.

Player Talents

These are mainly personal preference, and depend on your build and how you want to augment it. These are the best ones for general use:

Critical Save- A useful talent to gain ADR when in a sticky situation. Try to always time your medkits in the last segment, as this is a pretty strong buff, as well as being able to chain other talents such as strike back and triage.

Combat Medic- Allows you to use your medkit to heal allies and skills as well as yourself. It is must have for any serious squad PvP or extended manhunts.

Triage- Basically must-have for any healer build, but very useful for all builds, as healing an ally as well as yourself with your first aid is easy to do and common. The talent is also triggered by support stations, but only once, no matter how many teammates heal from it or how long they stay in the AOE.

Strike Back- A useful talent to get your skills back when your health is low. Combine it with critical save and triage for maximum skill cooldown reduction.

Tactical Advance- This is a strong damage increasing talent, but it can be gimmicky to use, since it requires cover-to-cover movement and lasts only 5 seconds. It is worth using for long range builds where you are safe from damage during the C2C, such as DeadEYE.

Death by Proxy- A good talent for skill power focused builds, as oftentimes you can destroy skills such as turrets or seeker mines for a nice SP increase.

Precision- A decent damage increasing talent, as apart from marking the enemy it gives around 12.5% CHC and 25% CHD. However, is does not stack with pulse, so do not use it if you or someone else in your squad is running pulse. Also, it is useless against players who are concealed.

On The Move- If you like to shoot downed players instead of bashing them, pick this talent up, as the 15% AWD is a nice bonus and can easily be chained with other AWD sources, such as booster shot, critical save, or survivor link.

One is None- If you are able to land headshots, this talent is great for extending your magazine, as a couple extra bullets can be the difference between a kill and having to back off and reload.

If you are running a CC skill or build, consider the talents shrapnel, wildfire, or fear tactics, depending on the type of CC you are using to have a chance to spread it to all enemies in the area.

If you are running a damage seeker or sticky bomb build, consider using demolition expert and chain reaction to buff your explosive damage.

Massive thanks to the Specialist team and  Discord users who have PMed me with suggestions/corrections, making the guide the very best it could be.