Division 2 | The META Search | Divisionalysis

[@garyschei]

Wow, Fog! I am in my mid 50's and you are only one of a handful of people who has, off the bat, pronounced my surname correctly 💯 Thank you for the mention, and I'm stoked to see that the old brain still works as it should sometimes.

[@fogowar2022]

Thanks again Gary.

[@PoisonWhisper13]

Fog, the content you create is fantastic. It helps scratch the, "I am a numbers person," itch. My buddy and I enjoy talking about your videos while we work on creating builds based around your data. We tend to branch off your data and build loadouts on what we like to call, "time to kill butt dynos (TTKBD)." Keep the content coming it is appreciated.

[@darshans6321]

Babe grab that popcorn, Fog of war just uploaded a new video!

[@the-divinehammer]

You bet your ass you've just started 😅 so many combinations, you'll end up in a looney bin. But seriously, I'd change coyote to ninja backpack. Change the whole structure of builds with that backpack. I haven't been able to stop building with it. It's a do it all so to speak. The fact that the juiciest talents are usually second on the gear piece. Thats why I said Picaro's. Because that skill tier is wizard. But you have to be on a build that's amplifying each other piece. Like I said I'm mainly solo, so I'm not really paying attention to just what kills, but also what doesn't kill me. Great video as usual. I'm here for the rabbit hole.

[@danmccarthy305]

Great stuff dude. So many videos out there claiming 'best this' or 'best that' but is it really! Stumbled across your channel and am hooked. Way more informative than someone going nuts in the firing range with just raw DPS numbers. Watched a lot of Vash Cowaii vids for similarly detailed breakdowns in the maths involved for Remnant 2, but doesn't take suggestions constructively as in this video. More content like this please!

[@rabey4296]

This is why I appreciate your channel. Other content creators will say they want suggestions on a build they're showcasing for discussion value, only to then be seemingly offended and take it personal if you suggest another option. (Really I think they're just looking for validation, as well as ego stroking, and feel challenged if we disagree). Build theory is so vast in this game there are hardly any simple answers to it. Especially when you factor in play style, preference and skill level. Anyway this is a long way to say I appreciate what you do. Even though numbers don't tell the whole story, they definitely don't lie. I always wanted to know, statistically, the value of the forge and how much that 50% shield health actually equates too. Or if bonus health from it has diminished returns on an all blue build? I know forge with foundry set a bulwark is practically indestructible, but there is a lot of good synergy happening there tho

[@ryant32u]

You should be the most popular D2 YT’er. Vids are awesome!

[@33TimberWolf]

Great breakdown of the hidden math for DPS. My favorite build is: Vile mask, 4pc executive, BP with perfectly wicked; Pestilence as the primary and Dark Winter as secondary. The combination of hollow point ammo + pestilence plague allows for quick wipes with status effect. Secon favorite is: Chill Out mask, 3pc empress, 1pc fenris, and BTSU gloves. St Elmo as primary, stinger hive and seeker mines. Using skill haste gives almost non-stop hive / seekers for taking out multiple targets simultaneously.

[@fogowar2022]

How are you finding the changes to Plague?

[@33TimberWolf]

@@fogowar2022 I'm still experimenting with Anarchist Cookbook vs Ongoing Directive as Backpack; and mixing in Contractor's gloves. Pestilence is definitely a favorite, but I honestly haven't noticed a major difference in gameplay. DarkZone will be the final tie-breaker, but PVP isn't my forte.

[@edbryant5819]

This series is so informative! Thanks!

[@haydenchavez8074]

Personally I like a cheska chest with obliterate just for the faster ramp up for most gameplay

[@fogowar2022]

For Heroic, Obliterate is hard to pass up.

[@its_Page]

Based off the information from last video I now use 2 blue cores since I like running a weapon with a damage talent

[@fogowar2022]

If I'm not running the Elmo, I'll take Preservation most often for the weapon.

[@its_Page]

That’s a good point, I’ll have to try that

[@RaulNigli]

Use the new gearset, Palisade. Runs with a blue core by default. Easy to farm all reds. With Preservation, plus, gunner, plus Palisade, minimum 30% AOK. ❤20% immediately and 10% over 5 seconds. It's almost like armour regen. A bit of overkill if you have a shield though. Rather just put a damage talent on the gun. 20% from gunner and Palisade should be plenty. Especially since you'll be near 1 million.

[@brassbat]

Momento, ceska chest w/ Obliterate. Shield and fixer drone (hands free healing), chem heal (most potent). Technician spec. Swap Elmo's for an ACR w/preservation.

[@fogowar2022]

I like it Brass but if you had to choose 1 x change??

[@brassbat]

@fogowar2022 Momento, hands down, it's the one piece that brings everything you need.

[@Orudaiken]

​@@brassbatIt really does. 30% skill efficiency means more shield health and regen, faster skill cooldowns. Double shield cores. Added armor regeneration and bonus armor. Extra damage when stacked and claiming trophies.

[@brassbat]

@@Orudaiken Yep. Momento is BiS.

[@AlfaStation1]

- Assault turret instead of hive. (Draws enemies attention / high healthpool / high damage / long lasting) - Memento bp to replace Coyote's. (Best exotic in game: 3 cores / 30% extra damage + skill / 3% regen, not to mention bonus armor for out of cover gameplay. 😊)

[@fogowar2022]

I have looked at your first suggestion in "Adding Skills". Turret gets destroyed at 0 skill tiers a little too often. Second suggestion, duly noted.

[@scooternut7198]

@@fogowar2022 with all the changes and playing around with things im wondering if the memento has been affected when at full stack longterm buff i get one body crit figure on my build is around 660k if pick up further trophies when shows bonus armour active ,so long and short term buff active i get 728K body crits tested on open world activities and missions .so the weapon damage component of memento's talent must be more than just the 30% AWD active maybe another mis-described or not working as intended talent ?? i would say with 2 skill cores eg memento and technician spec plus memento skill efficiency at max the assault turret stands up well plus kard custom if need to keep head down a bit adds further skill tier while use armour kit or wait for regen to kick in. with changes to Reanimated GE 1 headshot kill can deliver multiple trophies as the green head jizz wipes out complete spawns , which is nice ! i prefer tech spec for legendary cancels out disrupt from shock or disrupt from dogs exploding nr you or spec ammo and shock nades and stops shield being instantly downed by these effects.

[@fogowar2022]

@@scooternut7198 I'll look into the Memento and see if I can notice any changes.

[@masturone8257]

I still get alot of mileage from 2 peice Brazos one blue one yellow for the 3 skill tiers and future perfect on the weapon. Its a very powerful combo when it comes to all arpund up time. You can always swap a blue for for a red jusy as long as u keep a yellow since yellow and blue benefit the shield the same. Running striker like this I feel is the optimal combo and allows u too have OC every 3 kills and extremely powerful skills. A tier 3-6 with oc attack drone will add way more overall damage or turret then an additional few more weapon dps and little more crit aswell as the huge amount of uptime u gain with survivability. It makes stinger hive viable with a striker build or cc available way more and it even allows u to have 3 pulse options that give a huge dps buff to u or ur group evey 3 kills.

[@fogowar2022]

Brazos is strong.

[@stuartholcroft7703]

Love these videos! I’ve actually gone for a ninja backpack, providence mask and picaro with 3 striker (2 red, 1 blue) for a 6red/3blue/2 yellow build. Put it together straight after watching the last video. Thought I’d run that with the shield and healing drone to get the flawless no med kit incursion done.

[@fogowar2022]

Build sounds balanced Stuey but I wouldn't be taking it into the Incursion.

[@stuartholcroft7703]

Noted!

[@Paradox__YT__]

4 piece all red hunters fury, all red groupo chest w/intimidate, all red matador(if you play hyper aggressive you get more uptime with adrenaline rush than bloodsucker), firewall shield(extra 11% amp) Yes one or two blue give you more “survivability” but depending on your play style it doesn’t always work out like that. I’ve tried the two blue cores and died more often. Sometimes that small amount of TTK you gain with reds is the difference between 1 maging a chunga or not. Just my 2 cents. Keep up the good work, love the videos.

[@fogowar2022]

I've never fallen in love with HF. With a decent AR build, I can generally kill every enemy in the same time it takes you to run to get within 15m of them, without exposing myself to the increased danger. Just my 2 cents.

[@RogalD0rn]

This is so good. How about ceska with oblitorate as the chest piece? Ive always been told and notice with my build that running the Strikers chest is only really for legendary content due to the buff struggling to stay upwards of 100 stacks for most content.

[@fogowar2022]

I did cover the difference in my "Build the Meta" video. For Heroic content, it's personal choice, probably favouring Obliterate in TU20, due to the extension to the buff time.

[@Orudaiken]

Technician hive is fantastic. Personally I started with a different objective. Because damage doesn't win games. Being alive at the end does.

[@fogowar2022]

Yep, looks like this one will definitely have to be investigated.

[@angelicslayer192]

Great to see so many viable build combinations....however I need Countdown to have a 10x weekend or month. I had farmed up over 300 Exotic components before Project Resolve dropped and I'm already out. Elmo, Ouro, Chatter, Chameleon, Capacitor and then start working on New Reliable, Lady Death, Dark Winter, Tactical 45 Vector and others. Gonna take me a while to get everything to level 25. Be nice to be able to take away expertise from something I'm not going to use and put it towards something else.

[@fogowar2022]

My advice is to focus on weapons you use on Tank builds and Skill builds first, they will get the most benefit from Expertise. I'd then look at dropping the coin on skills (with good Expertise bonuses) that you use most often.

[@Arioly88]

I thought having fox's prayer would output more dmg instead of the ceska in that striker build. Isnt fox's prayer best in slot anymore?

[@tear3746]

8% DTTOOC doesn't win out over 10% CC and the 12% CD you get from the second attribute on the Ceska piece~ DTTOOC will only apply to enemies that actually are out of cover, so half the time you won't be getting the buff anyway; CC always applies and makes you crit more, meaning all that 150%+ CD gets applied more often to every target~

[@fogowar2022]

Tear3746 is spot on.

[@stuartholcroft7703]

Is this universal across all modes? I wouldn’t dream of stepping in the dz without my foxes prayers but will have to rethink that if this is the case!

[@clos1991j]

@@stuartholcroft7703we’ll dz totally diff thing right since most players are out of cover

[@hectordelarocha10]

But what about an LMG build with the Bullet Queen?

[@WhiskeyTango0420]

I don't have any kids, but I'm awake. When I raided in WoW as a mage, my Raid leader taught me you don't do any DPS when you are laying on the ground.

[@fogowar2022]

This WoW mantra gets mentioned all the time.

[@PninjamonkeyJ]

Technician, picaros with skill tier, emperor's guard knees with weapon core, ninjabike bag, three piece strikers. That's 6 red, 4 yellows and a blue core all on one build. Plus 1% armor regen, skill duration and repair skills from emperor's paired with ninja. This build won't get you the perfect crt chc/dmg ratio but with a shield and healing skill should offer the best damage output vs survivability ratio.

[@Knurrfaucher]

Capacitor? Would bring DTA (because of no W&H) and +30% weapon damage (because of the 4 yellows) and some crit... the weakness of that build

[@fogowar2022]

Solid but if you could only make 1 x change??

[@Knurrfaucher]

@@fogowar2022 If I could make one change... Tbh, I would speed up the release date of The First Descendent and no longer bother with The Division 2. Too cynical? 🥺

[@PninjamonkeyJ]

​@@fogowar2022 Personally, the one thing I'd change, is strikers. I honestly would much rather not even run the striker's gear set. I'm sure I'm in the minority or alot of people will call me crazy but I hate striker's.

[@PninjamonkeyJ]

​@@Knurrfaucher The capacitor is my all time favorite weapon used on probably 90% of my builds and St. Elmo's is my least favorite, I very rarely ever use it. With that being said, I think the St. Elmo's would be more beneficial for the build I mentioned. It has decent crt chc/damage already on the weapon to make up for the deficit on the build and the shock ammo will stagger enemies, mitigating even more incoming damage, adding even more survivability to the overall build.

[@Roysef-PS5]

What about just run mechanical animal or any AR with future perfect, increase skill tiers as you kill ?

[@fogowar2022]

I will definitely be diving into this one in the future. Future Perfect is one of the only talents I run, if I'm not using an Exotic.

[@wkrick]

5 yellow, 5 red, 1 blue plus 50% Magazine Size and 30% Reload Speed... Technician + NinjaBike backpack + 2 Brazos (w/Picaro's Holster) + 2 Palisade Steelworks + Fenris chest w/ Obliterate

[@fogowar2022]

Kricky, your love of balanced sets has not gone unnoticed. Give the build a chance to get there - 1 x change, what would it be??

[@wkrick]

@@fogowar2022 if I'm only allowed to change one piece, then it would be the Memento Backpack. Memento makes everything better.

[@conversefall5928]

Hello, does any of this change when using the Chameleon instead of St. Elmos? I remember in your Chameleon video, it was a noticeable improvement in dps once you had some of the buffs up

[@fogowar2022]

Hello, it does change with the Chameleon. With the added 90%WD talent, your last few damage cores are providing even less meaningful effect.

[@JuanMartinez-lk6zl]

If one blue is better because of diminishing returns, then wouldn't 3-3 minimize that? Or even try a 3-3-3 or 3-3-4 with Ninja/Momento and with/without Technicians.

[@fogowar2022]

It's possible Juan but there are tipping points. Each red taken away is a larger % of your damage. I'll work towards finding that tipping point.

[@BowieCat5000]

Your one change should be Technician + Artificer, as mentioned.

[@fogowar2022]

Definitely have to look at this one.

[@kobythompson3206]

I know I’m a little late but it would be great if you could do a little complete build winner and the stats for it so the newer folks know what you got as secondary attributes

[@fogowar2022]

I do have to get back to the Meta series.

[@kobythompson3206]

@@fogowar2022 yeah I found this video really nice 🙏🏼gained a sub from me, from what you remember was it straight weapon damage and crit damage for the cores and attributes?

[@kobythompson3206]

Or is this build even the dps king anymore ?

[@fogowar2022]

@@kobythompson3206 The build is still the highest "damage", so far. For "damage", yes, the attributes are all crit. I did show in my "less is more" video that 1 blue core produces more damage at Legendary level. But the investigation is an ongoing process.

[@kobythompson3206]

@@fogowar2022 cool cool keep up the great work !!

[@SaltyOldBaldurian]

OK.... I made it to 9:28 this time. Seems like progress! (Let's title this comment "Engagement Distances") If you look at that "No Ceska, Coyote's Options", specifically the "48/161" and "54/149" lines, I would bet a couple juice boxes that the majority of players would lean heavily into that "54/149" line, regardless of the benefit presented here (myself included). But as I tried to rationalize why, considering things like weighting the averages for the distance modifiers to say 25, 50, 25, or even just 30, 40, 30 (vice even 33% across all three)... it occurred to me while roughing the numbers out, that the "48/161" favors the 16-25+m range, while the "54/149" favors the 0-25m (just by knocking off whichever line has 89% as its lowest outlier). (As a caveat, if you look at "42/173", it heavily favors the 25m+ range (103.8), but there are other factors that gain more precedence at that point.) But looking at this simple difference, there could be a point for either build depending on the missions current checkpoint, and specifically its average or possible engagement distances. I think overall, I would still lean toward choosing the "48/161" as distance to target (and also distance from incoming damage) plays a substantial impact upon survivability. The purpose of these overall builds/discussions are geared toward Legendary/Incursion level difficulties, once you drop back to Heroic, etc, other builds and play styles become potential options as other weapons gain in their ability to swing from single to multi target, and damage at distances

[@SaltyOldBaldurian]

14:23, yah, that's what I said... "Legendary". Glad you're tracking Fog. ;D

[@SaltyOldBaldurian]

21:21 ....just want get ahead of you here and mention the new Palisades +10% AoK piece. Just saying - my finger may be on the 'delete comment key', or maybe it's not.

[@SaltyOldBaldurian]

The crux of this entire conversation and ultimately where it (the 'meta' build) falls apart for 99% of players, is that the damage output is rarely linear or 'continuous' on a routine basis throughout any Legendary mission - at least not compared to the incoming damage. With the admission that at certain points throughout a mission breaks will be taken, armor will applied, skills will be on cool down, other brands start to have viability in assisting the sub 1% in staying in the fight. One piece of Bellstone with 1% armor regen can save a player a trip or two back to a safehouse or the BOO for more armor kits. ...for me, a big assist against white tusk is running a decoy, simply to suck up those damn explosive drones. If you can drop that 800K/s (19:25) to 650-700, AND keep your shield a little longer, that's a substantial advantage.

[@fogowar2022]

Re: 1st comment. I've discussed this before. You have to shift the significant majority of engagements away from the 15-25m range to accept any other setup option. You could make the qualitative argument for "closer enemies are more dangerous", which is fair but if you're going to do that, for solo play, IMO you might as well just run Grupo instead of Coyotes.

[@fogowar2022]

So Salty, is your one change Bellstone? or the decoy?

[@AKThompson]

If were running booster hive giving it 4 more charges so it has higher uptime and slightly stronger buffs might make the skill tier competitive with the blue core If we are running a different kinda skill(like decoy) then the skill tier falls off

[@fogowar2022]

The skill tier increases the threat level of the decoy. Maybe not enough to justify the skill tier but the Booster hive definitely has potential to warrant the yellow, exactly as you point out.

[@CCM1199]

Booster Hive with Max Stim charges, Max Stim Efficiency and Max Health. Thats my Booster hive setup. However If you plan on using the Artificer hive Keep the stim and stim efficiency charges on there and dont dismount the articifer since you want it to constantly heal you every 5 seconds

[@fogowar2022]

@@CCM1199 The video on the Artificer is coming soon but spoiler alert, it doesn't heal every 5 sec.

[@ir3d3y3i8]

I’d like another version to this build with a grupo and coyotes and getting as close to 50 for example the 30%cc from Elmo’s and watch and two rolls on 6% putting you at 42% with one mod getting you as close to 50% but also gaining you 3% crit damage as you get the grupo buff rather than the 12% crit damage mod

[@fogowar2022]

I broke down the Coyote's buffs for the St Elmos in "Coyote's Part 2" video, including Grupo options. Not much difference, barely noticeable, if at all but the current setup is technically the best.

[@ir3d3y3i8]

@@fogowar2022 I definitely agree with the original setup, I’ve been running that for pve ever since the changes to striker were made a few seasons back. People were running coyote fenris but I soon realised that 24%cd gave more output than 10 weapon

[@juanward6250]

What if you used cyotes mask and 1 piece palisade for 10% armour on kill and swapped to technician for +1 skill tier for your shield and maybe artificer hive. Or maybe roll it to a yellow to keep your shield the same and boost the hive or use the ST2 fixer drone with the 10% healing from the specialisation

[@fogowar2022]

All good ideas Juan. If you had to choose one??

[@juanward6250]

@@fogowar2022 I would be interested to see how a yellow palisade piece with technician would do. Keeping the 10% armour on kill with a ST2 shield, You'd lose the 187k armour but maybe the extra core on the shield would be make up for it. Use whatever other skill you would like but maybe the ST2 artificer could be worth it idk

[@fogowar2022]

@@juanward6250 Technician and the Artificer has been a popular choice.

[@juanward6250]

@@fogowar2022 I finally found a double crit piece to roll to a yellow. I've messed around with blue (24% repair every 5s) and yellow (36% repair every 7s) they both seem viable I guess it depends if you wanted more armour or repair for the hive. Sitting on 48% and 160%

[@fogowar2022]

@@juanward6250 I think the next vid will be comparing Technician vs Gunner.

[@garyschei]

Gee, you couldn't have picked a better thumbnail, I wonder how deep the "Rabbit Hole" really is 🤔 I really like the Picaro's Holster, but i always use it with the NinjaBike backpack, those two pieces alone give you a total of six cores on their own , two of each.

[@Spirallingdown23]

Thanks Fog

[@Matt-x6c]

What about the fox prayer/contractors

[@fogowar2022]

I looked at those in the Coyotes series. Marginal difference but Ceska is best.

[@Matt-x6c]

@fogowar2022 I'm new to the channel but I did love you breakdown. I'll definitely check out some of your other videos

[@OpenWrldHeadHunter]

The only thing I would change is replacing elmos with eb for heroic content. For legendary I would keep it the same.

[@fogowar2022]

EB? Hmm. I'm putting together another AR ranking video and it will be interesting to see how everything plays out with the changes.

[@Knurrfaucher]

I don't know man... the scorpio (now with dttooc) is a very strong "oh shit" secondary. I would prefere a decent non exotic AR just for that. But, if you don't like to swap... I guess St.Elmo or EB are fine

[@OpenWrldHeadHunter]

@@fogowar2022 long time eb main. So there’s some bias but the aggressive playstyle eb enables imo is extremely potent. Being able to face tank on a mostly red (I play full red) strikers clears content so fast. It kinda breaks the rules. The game is balanced in a way where a squishy dps build shouldn’t be able to do what eb lets you do, but the success of using it requires some getting used to though. If the player can’t reliably keep tenacity up and making sure they only headshot kill after stacking properly it won’t work. Eb takes a lot of micromanaging but imo it’s the most effective ar.

[@OpenWrldHeadHunter]

@@Knurrfaucher if we’re talking pure effectiveness. Scorpio cannot stop you from taking dmg, neither can any high end ar. If playing eb properly 80% dr on a full red striker kinda destroys everything imo. Like I really believe it’s by far the strongest shit in the game and it was like that even before eb got its buffs.

[@Knurrfaucher]

@@OpenWrldHeadHunter Under certain circumstances, the Scorpio is the epitome of "can stop you from taking damage". But aside from that you could be 100% right. I have 3 EBs in the storage and apart from a little petting on the shooting range, they are all still virgins... never really touched. But hey, upgrading weapons has never been cheaper...maybe I'll give it a (serious) try.

[@ADway-hn7qu]

still gonna have to say keep the red on ceska and Swap Coyote's for Catharsis.

[@fogowar2022]

I was going to include your suggestion but the video was already creeping in length. We'll see if you get any supporters for the idea.

[@dh1380]

It's still striker in various combinations there ya go saved ya half an hour

[@fogowar2022]

I think most people realise this but which combination and why, is what we're on the hunt for.

[@dh1380]

​​@@fogowar2022sure but it really doesn't matter unless you wanna do solo legendary. I guess live and let live but I mean come on.... game is not that complex

[@fogowar2022]

@@dh1380 I think the game is very complex but it doesn't require an understanding of the complexities to have success. Trial and error is the best teacher.

[@KaNe-007]

My new build for pvp is so good it's a six red 1 blue 1mill armour, 1.6 million health ouro buros burst monster it hits so hard and has great survibilty and it destroys the meta builds

[@fogowar2022]

Haven't played PVP since they changed Clutch.

[@paulocarvalho1982]

Dude, "Rabbit hole" much...? 😂

[@fogowar2022]

It's kind of my thing.

[@neilryan4924]

Sh#t...my head hurts now....

[@DanielGarcia-jv8lf]

This ia for PVP or PVE?

[@fogowar2022]

PVE

[@tear3746]

if you start adding more yellow cores to the build, you shud look into possibly swapping St. Elmo's for Capacitor, that way u still get 7.5% wpn dmg from each yellow core while they still buff all ur skills~ and even more than that, at some point u might be able to argue for a dmg skill instead of the booster hive, like a turret~ 60% skill dmg from Capacitance and 3+ yellow cores will prolly add a lot of extra dmg on top of the shield and wpn dmg benefits~ but ofc u'll lose out on a decent chunk of CHD 'cuz of St. Elmo's' insane mods, so lots of math to be done in that case~ that being said, Capacitor also got a decent buff with the latest update~

[@fogowar2022]

Lots of variables. Stacks building and degrading is another one for the Capacitor. On a skill based build, the Tech Subject is probably the only competition.

[@Offc0nstantly]

This is the same thing ive said about meta PvP builds. Now do groupo kneepads vs Foxs. Its harder to get results sometimes because playera are out of cover and if you rush npcs they come out of cover. But if they are in cover groupo wins

[@fogowar2022]

I've looked at this before for PVE. Grupo, Fox's, Fenris, Ceska; they're all within a few %. Fenris has gotten worse with the addition of Expertise but Ceska is best for Striker, just.

[@arieldavid8669]

Try coyote and contractor's

[@fogowar2022]

Thanks for the suggestion but Black Tusk are the most Health-heavy faction, around 70% health. And given we're using an AR, the wasted brand set bonus is a killer.

[@sixeightwhiskey0627]

these videos do alot to reinforce the intuition that the game will feedback through gameplay. Some of these differences in ttk are not as meaningful as the build variety that can be used in game. IMO

[@fogowar2022]

Most players work out this stuff through intuition. I have to try to find ways of extracting the reasons and maths of why.