SMGs are one of the six weapon types in the game and making The Division 2 SMG build can turn you into an unstoppable force. SMGs usually have a high rate of fire and shot range so using it in up-close combat can give you an advantage. Depending on the talents, weapons, and cores you are using, the build can crit at more than a million at max stacks. The damage of this build will keep on increasing the more you kill. The Division 2 SMG build is a short-range build so shotgun is the weapon of choice as a secondary weapon. It will also crowd control enemies in front of you through confusion. The build can be used in both PVP and PVE modes. It can also become your go-to Dark Zone build. The amount of DPS it inflicts is insane.
Pieces You Need for The Division 2 SMG Build
The build is made up of 4 pieces of Hunter’s Fury, A chest piece with Intimidate talent, A bag pack with Adrenaline Rush Talent, or any talent that gives you bonus armor. You can also use Memento as a backpack since it gives you bonus armor on kill. Bonus armor will activate Intimidate talent giving you 35% weapon damage. You have to decide if you want bonus armor on kill or though getting near enemies using talents on the build.
4 Pieces of Hunter’s Fury
Most of the damage that The Division 2 SMG build inflicts will come from Hunter’s Fury gear set. It is a green gear set so you have to use 4 of them to unlock everything that it has to offer. Using 2 Hunter’s Fury pieces would give you 15% SMG damage and 15% shotgun damage. Using 3 pieces would give you 15% SMG damage, 15% shotgun damage, 20% armor on kill, and 100% health on kill. 4 pieces will give you 15% SMG damage, 15% shotgun damage, 20% armor on kill, 100% health on kill and unlock Apex Predator talent which will make it a high DPS build.
Apex Predator
Four Pieces unlocks Apex Predator and this talent will make you unstoppable. Enemies within 15 meters radius of you will receive a debuff amplifying your weapon damage by 20% against them. It is multiplicative damage so it’s more than just raw weapon damage. Killing a debuffed enemy would disorient other enemies within 5 meters radius. Each kill would increase weapon damage by 5% for 10 seconds and stacks up to 5 times. Killing even a single enemy would refresh the stack duration. So you can keep up the stacks in the entire combat as long as you are killing enemies. At max stacks, the talent will give you 45% weapon damage.
Chest Piece with Intimidate Talent
There is no specific chest piece that you have to use in The Division 2 SMG build. As long as it has a blue or red core on the chest piece you are good to go. I use Grupo Sambra S.A. because it gives me 15% critical hit damage. You can use any gear piece that gives you damage or protection. When you have bonus armor, your weapon damage will amplify by 35% (40% for Perfect Intmadate found on Hunter-Killer chest piece which is a named Golan Gear Ltd piece) against enemies that are in the 10 meters radius. Intimidate gives you multiplicative damage so the damage is more than just base damage. This works perfectly well with Adrenaline Rush since it gives you bonus armor whenever you are within 10 meters of enemies. So you will have bonus armor all the time to activate Intimidate talent.
Memento Backpack or a Backpack with Any Bonus Armor Talent
You can use any backpack, as long as its talent can give you bonus armor. You will need bonus armor to activate intimidate talent and get the weapon damage from it. The talents that can give you bonus armor include Blood Sucker, Protector, and Adrenaline Rush. The talents that can help you get bonus armor through your teammates are Vanguard and Galvanize.
Adrenaline Rush
The talent that works well with The Division 2 SMG build is Adrenaline Rush because it gives you 20% bonus armor (23% for Perfect Adrenaline Rush found on named Walker, Harris & Co. backpack called Matador) as soon as you are within 10 meters radius of enemies. This buff lasts for 5 seconds and stacks up to 3 times. At max stacks, you will have bonus armor of 60% (69% for Perfect Adrenaline Rush). The cooldown of Adrenaline Rush is 5 seconds and it is separate for each stack. So basically you will have bonus armor all the time unless enemies end your bonus armor before you can get it back.
Blood Sucker
Blood Sucker can give you “armor on kill” but this talent need kills for bonus armor. There is also a perfect version of it on the named backpack called Liquid Engineer. Blood Sucker can give you 10% armor and 10% bonus armor on kill (12% for Perfect Blood Sucker). The 10% bonus armor on kill only lasts for 10 seconds and it can stack up to 10 times. Each new kill will refresh the stacks. So as long as you can kill enemies in 10 seconds, you can take your bonus armor up to 100% (120% bonus armor for Perfect Blood Sucker).
Protector.
Protector can also give you 5% bonus armor when your shield takes damage. All other allies will get 15% of that armor as bonus armor for 3 seconds. The cooldown of this talent is 3 seconds. Protector will give you bonus armor to activate Intimidate talent.
Memento Bag pack
Memento is an exotic bag pack and is also the most versatile gear piece in the game. It has one skill core, a weapon damage core, and one armor core. Equipping it can give you two shield tiers from a single piece. You can max out your shield skill tier with Memento while still retaining two three red cores through Technician specialization.
When you kill enemies they will drop the trophy. Picking up a trophy would give you 5% weapon damage for 10 seconds for each red core, 10% Bonus armor for 10 seconds for each armor core, and 5% skill efficiency for 10 seconds for each skill core. Since you will be close to enemies you can pick up the trophy as soon as one of the enemies dies. This will give you bonus armor to The Division 2 SMG build which will activate Intimidate talent.
There is also a long-term buff along with this short-term buff. Each trophy you pick up will give you 1% weapon damage, 1% skill efficiency, and 0.1% armor regeneration. This stacks up to 30 times and lasts for 300 seconds (5 minutes). Picking even a single trophy would refresh the duration of stacks. At max stacks, you will have 30% weapon damage, 30% skill efficiency, and 3% armor regen. Memento is the only gear piece that will give you both bonus armor and weapon damage. You will do far more damage with this gear piece but it is not viable for PVP since you lose all the stacks upon death.
You can keep it throughout the session. There is a bug in the game that won’t let you refresh the duration. So you might need to pick more than one trophy to refresh the duration in case the bug is active.
Weapons
Since it is The Division 2 SMG build, you will need SMG. Using SMG would do more damage because Hunter’s Fury gives you 15% SMG damage and 15% shotgun damage. The Division 2 SMG build is meant to be used for close-quarter combat so shotgun is the obvious choice as a secondary weapon. The amount of damage that you would inflict on enemies is quite high. Use InSync talent if you are using a striker drone or any other damage skill because it will keep the talent active. If you are using non-damaging skill then use any other talent on SMG that give you damage. You can also use exotic SMG or exotic Shotgun.
Specialization
You can use any Specialization as long as you are satisfied with it. Each specialization is good for The Division 2 SMG build because they all have their own advantages. Gunner will increase armor-on-kill from 20% to 30% along with increasing RPM upon each kill. Technician specialization can give you one skill tier, 10% skill damage or 10% repair skill, and Artificer Hive that can make your shield more efficient. Fire Wall will give you Striker Shield that can increase your damage to a great degree. You can use any other specialization as long as it suits your needs.
How to Make The Division 2 SMG Build?
Hunter’s Fury is a red core gear set. You would need at least two gear pieces with critical hit damage or critical hit chance as secondary attributes. With such gear pieces, you can swap red core to blue core. If you have at least two blue core then it will increase your shield tier and armor. You can also use all red cores or a single blue core on Hunter’s Fury gear set and use armor cores on chest piece and backpack. Use Intimidate talent on your chest piece. You can use any talent on your backpack if it is giving you bonus armor. The talent that works best with The Division 2 SMG build is Adrenaline Rush. With Adrenaline Rush you will have bonus armor every time you are close to enemies.
Use shield as one of your skills and use any other skill as per your requirement as a secondary skill. You can still get bonus armor on kill through Memento and activate Intimidate talent. If you use 3 armor core then you can max out your Shield tier by using Technician Specialization and Memento. If you want to use this build in both PVP and PVE, then Adrenaline Rush is the way to go.
Build In Action:
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Is this a typo, ‘Memento is an exotic chest piece’?
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