Interesting. First, great advice on the healing chem launcher, I’ll equip that right away.
I’ll try using an AR/LMG loadout for a while. I’m really spoiled with the MM because when i enter a room and someone is using a sniper rilfe on me or some kind of massive auto fire, I can take them out with one or two shots with my MM. I’ll have to play around and see how it feels with a good AR to go with my LMG (gotta find one again, I deconstructed or sold all of mine!)
Counter POV: The first time I used the sniper turret, my reaction was “five shots? That’s it?” followed by “wait, it takes how long to cool down?”
In groups, it works for taking out big guys fast, but for solo, I like how the assault turret is constantly harassing guys until it either gets taken out, manually dismantled or runs out. It seems pretty dinky, but it regularly takes out red and purple guys and either greatly weakens or takes out a couple of yellows for me nowadays. Sustained fire and drawing aggro helps me when soloing versus targeting five dudes.
You can definitely keep using a MM rifle if you like it, don’t get me wrong. I have a Covert SRS as one of my two secondary weapons I like to use (the other is the Chatterbox exotic SMG, mostly for the passives it gives my AR). I like having one available, mostly for taking out distant snipers and whatnot.
I just don’t recommend one as a primary weapon, as it’s not something I’d ever use just for primary damage dealing due to its’ drawbacks.
The benefit of the assault turret is the harassment, more than anything else. I actually usually use the flame turret myself, but I also typically run missions in matchmade groups.
When I’m solo, the AT is much more useful. Sure it might take out a guy or two, if you’re softening them up, but the advantage is that it functions like another player for the AI to account for, and can suppress them behind cover.
The sniper turret is interesting, but I haven’t really figured out a solid everyday use for it in any scenario.
This is all great stuff, and I’m copying and pasting to my brother (I need to just get him to register here. Today I had about an hour or so free so I switched from my MM to an AR (I had two, on with a bit higher DAM and a bit lower RPM, so I went down to the shooting range, modded them the same and tested - the difference was pretty remarkable, the one with 2,3KDAM/750 ROM did an average with the mods I had on it of about 50K DPS, the 2.1K/850 did an average of about 30K DPS. I would not have predicted that. I find the shooting range to be very helpful figuring out which gun is more effective as well as which mods.) I also equipped the assault turret and the chem launcher healer. Solo.
Walked from the White House to a friendly control point because there always seems to be a battle going on there. The AR was effective but it took longer to, e.g., take out a purple with what must have been an LMG than it would have with the MM. But I can see if you have a lot of people around you and you’re having to move a lot why the AR is more effective. My style when possible is find a good spot, kill as many as I can, then move when I have to. I’ll do a side mission solo next with this loadout. I so wish I had a third weapon slot other than the handgun (which I never use.)
Yeah the sniper turret packs a punch but the cooldown is a long time. So I’m going to go back to the assault turret. The game changer, though, is that chem launcher healing skill - it’s like having almost unlimited healing. Haven’t tried it with my brother to see how hard it is to aim and get near him, but the ability to just double tap and get healing with extremely low cool down is great.
I went vanilla and eventually owned PvE. Accuracy enhanced AR + mix-and-match rifle… not marksman rifle. Steady, punishing fire on mobs was more important to me that high-risk, high-reward marksman rifles. LMGs can be useful in some missions where you just don’t got time to reload; accuracy + reload speed mods a must.
And vanilla on skills, too: shooty turret as a distraction/flank cover, shooty drone to get those annoying gits who refuse to move out of cover (heavy use of retargeting is a must for the shooty drone to get the most out of it).
Wearing a piece of +skill active & +skill cooldown helps, too.
And I love the crossbow. It’s great for whittling down or even 1-shotting annoying yellows
Crossbow is great, but if I haven’t missed something, the grenade launcher is still the best for bursting down single targets or groups with?
Currently trying to get my sniper to 160. Hadn’t played for 2 weeks, turned out there was some event now… dont think i’ll manage to complete it within the time limit, so rip. The curse of full inventory.
Division 2 needs a “season” system like Diablo so I can either start with a empty inventory or get extra stash space as I play… to think I paid extra for ‘more inventory’ only for it to be a rip-off by letting you ‘access’ increased inventory earlier.
I’m not going to waste special ammo on lesser mobs. I give them, as a certain Jimi sang about, the gun. And I found the grenades… disappointing against elites.
Sometimes, you really really just need a yellow to shut the hell up, and that’s what the crossbow’s good for.
There’s a crossbow?
Hit level 26. Experimented a lot on the gun range. For this level my assault rifle can do some nice damage, the assault turret does indeed keep people busy/harassed so I can shoot them, and for a second weapon I’m finding the lmg does nicely when people close in just by being able to aim and hold the trigger down nonstop for 100 rounds. I finished off a side mission today solo and it was challenging but very doable and I completed it without dying. I got hit by some flames but the chem launcher healer took care of that quite nicely. I’m better at moving around than I was. I find myself dying now mainly due to my lack of paying attention or dumb bravado.
Crossbow is a level 30 thing.
There’s a whole other aspect of the game you don’t even unlock until you hit level 30 and finish all of the strongholds, and that’s specializations - they are basically three new “tech trees”, tied to a specific special weapon you carry in addition to your other stuff. The crossbow is one of them.
That’s not even to mention the five “World Tiers” you unlock, as your gear switches from simple “levels” to a gear score number. You’re not even close to done yet.
So far I am finding a build with a good assault rifle and a LMG (which I use at close quarters - I found one with better damage numbers but only a 45 magazine, and my current one’s strength is it’s 120 mag so I can just unload forever on anyone close including a mob) with the assault turret and the healing chem launcher is a pretty good one for solo. Just finished the side mission of freeing the prisoners, and the only reason I died once at the last battle was I was overconfident and didn’t pay attention to my health and was gunning it out head to head with the Warden (I MIGHT have been shouting "Say hello to my little friend, you SOB!) When I respawned it was a good battle, took some strategy and decisions, but I had no real problems. Even better, it was very enjoyable.
I’m moving up faster than expected, at 26, probably because my wife is out of town, and even in the sub 30 level there is a TON of unexplored and incomplete missions. I just hope once I hit 30 the level doesn’t jump back up to make solo unplayable.
I’m in World Tier 4 with just Tidal Basin left to hit World Tier 5 and I’ve soloed most of the game (every main mission was soloed, and I did repeats or activities in a group) using healing chem and assault turret. Some of the missions that involve protecting things or timed elements got a bit stressful, but not unplayable.
Though, I’ve heard that the very thing I have left, Tidal Basin, is fairly difficult solo. But I’ve also played the game for like 70-something hours, so even if I stopped (which I won’t since I’ll probably play it co-op), I got a lot of time with it.
FYI I found Roosevelt Island far harder than Tidal Basin when I did all the missions solo. So don’t be too concerned about it.
This. Roosevelt Island’s final fight is a bitch until you learn the map and spawns.
Ah, this is helpful. Default/Outcast version of Roosevelt Island was the one mission I yelled “FUCK” due to the final fight with blowing up the fuel tanks and the boat. I was fine with the Invaded/Black Tusk version of Roosevelt too. Even with the other Invaded missions that had you protecting satellites or needing to turn off computers within time, I didn’t get as frazzled as that last rush of assholes and the hammer guy on Roosevelt Island.
I might try soloing Tidal Basin with my GS448 duder then.
I dread any timed versions or needing to protect x missions. In the rare sub level 30 missions like the prison break where you have to protect someone in the final fight, he stays pretty healthy and is smart enough to use cover. I hate escort and timed missions.
I finally got the Sturdy Extended 5.56 mag yesterday. What a stupid way to get blueprints and I’m glad I don’t have to log in anymore for the dailies because it was starting to feel like a job.
Ok help me understand gear mods. So I’ve got a generic system mod I can put on my knee pads that says 2% Damage to Health. I assume that doesn’t mean it will do 2% damage to my health? Same question for ones that say x% confuse duration etc.
Also I see a Classified Assignment but once I find the entrance I’m told I have to spend $40 to play it???