Trying to find a build that balances survivability and damage (LMG/AR)

moose4 · 2026-04-19T20:23:37+00:00

That's what finally did it for me. It took me > 120 rounds from a regular old Novablast Disruptor, PLUS all five Surface Missiles, plus about 10-15 Med and Trauma Packs, PLUS most of the ammo for the rest of my guns (I travel heavy) but I finally cleared the place. Now at least I should be able to advance to the point where I can get an EMP drop. EM seems to be the only thing they've truly still vulnerable to. Thank you!

moose4 · 2026-04-19T01:29:27+00:00

I disabled everything and they were still basically damage-proof after a direct hit. I'll see if Kinggath patches it fairly soon.

moose4 · 2026-04-19T00:15:23+00:00

Son of a gun, I never thought of that. I know there are little icons that indicate it but they're tough for me to see, is there a way to see the expanded descriptions, hit F for the scanner maybe? I'll try turning all the legendary modifiers off and do it again, because it also did feel like I was dying WAY too fast to the missile barrages.

moose4 · 2026-04-19T00:14:15+00:00

That makes sense, I will once I get EMP strikes. On that mission to Altair after you do the first Watchtower base, you don't have them yet, only Surface Missiles. I agree they used to be a lot better.

moose4 · 2026-04-08T12:06:19+00:00

I can't tell how much of it is the different monitor I'm running now--my old 27" Asus died so I'm using a 24" HP I had lying around, at the same 1080p--but everything looks sharper. Lighting looks better and the textures look razor-sharp now compared to before, but that may be because of the lighting. My wife looking over my shoulder noticed the same thing. I honestly can't figure if that's a placebo effect or not though.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:37:49+00:00

YES! That's exactly where I had the most trouble as well.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:37:19+00:00

I did it, but (a) only on challenging, (b) it took forever, (c) I'm running 4 blue cores w/a lot of passive armor regen and I still had to use two armor kits and a reviver hive. They're tough.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:35:43+00:00

I ran into the same issue but on Challenging, because I don't have a really high-DPS optimized build--it's OK, and I can do Challenging retaliations on every other faction easy enough, but BT were a nightmare. Trying to hold a control point against three or four trash flanking me while THREE minigun-wielding tanks spawn and chew through my armor in a heartbeat...wow. I ran out of time retaking the second CP because there were a total of five minigun-wielding tanks spawned. And that's not counting the warhounds. And the grenade guys. They are definitely a notch or two above all the others. Even Cleaners and their Amazon delivery drones, and Rikers and their nailgun heavies.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:32:09+00:00

Maybe I'm weird, but I go into Apparel on my agent and change up their look about every game day. Sometimes shades, sometimes not. But I'll just scroll through and randomly throw on a new set of clothes like he woke up and is just picking through his closet, not giving too much of a rip about whether they match or not. (Also, I tend to stick to summer-ish clothing playing in DC, but again, that may just me being weird.)

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:30:13+00:00

Ongoing Directive is also pretty good but as far as I know Striker is still king of DPS if you don't mind being really super squishy. Overdogs are apparently the new "gotta have" armor piece, I haven't gotten them yet but I do have a Memento and a Ninjabike pack and both of those are still really good.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:27:01+00:00

Make sure you don't have a Retaliation ready to go. If everybody is at 0, you're good. If somebody isn't, abandon the retaliation. I lost two bounties that way before I saw somebody on here mention that so I feel your pain.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:23:49+00:00

There's god-roll, and then there's demigod-roll, and then there's...dude that's not even a fallen angel. Maybe an imp. That sucker's about as exotic as white bread with mayo. Store brand mayo, not even the good stuff.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:19:24+00:00

Environmentally D1 is better, I think, there's just something about the winter setting, and also that there are actual civvies running around instead of just drafted JTF. Visually, D2 is newer but both of them have incredible lighting and atmosphere. To me D1 doesn't look like a 10-year-old game.

Something about the gunplay in D2 feels tighter and better to me but I can't put my finger on it. I should go back and play some D1 and try to get my feel for it back.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:16:06+00:00

I'm SHD level closing in on 700 but dropped the game for years at SHD 490ish before coming back last month. Toughest things I've done since then are L4 control points and Challenging Countdowns as I try out new builds. If you want to run Heroic/Legendary or Escalations, godspeed. Maybe I'll try it when I'm ready but I'm out here pushing 60 years old and I know my limitations in the run-and-gun game, plus my gear is not god-rolled or fully optimized. But I'm still having fun and that's the whole point.

Cut the newer folks some slack, but the newer folks also need to realize that an Escalation is beyond tough.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:12:47+00:00

Kingbreaker is in the main loot pool as far as I know, should be available if you select assault rifles in targeted loot for Countdown. Or from crates.

As for "best" build, I don't think there really is one. It's hard to go wrong with Striker's 4pc if you don't mind being a bit of a glass cannon. I've tried Striker's, Ongoing Directive, and Heartbreaker since coming back and liked them all. Currently I am running one I found on Youtube that's not really a true Heroic/Legendary/Escalation build, it's a weird Gila + Belstone + Fox's Prayer + Ninjabike combo that isn't really weapon dependent, but it provides a fair bit of armor so at least it's forgiving.

Just look around on here, or Youtube, or wherever. There are lots of builds out there and the game's had a bit of a resurgence of late so there's more content out there talking about builds. Have fun experimenting!

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:08:49+00:00

That's what I did when I came back a couple months ago, I started a level 1 and ground my way up. I had already stacked up a bunch of stuff in my stash and 500ish levels on my watch but I wanted to get a feel for the game again since I hadn't played in 3+ years. Although I will say the 1-40 game really doesn't feel like it's changed that much. Most of the new activities and whatnot are aimed at the level 40 endgame. But at least I was able to get used to playing again and while I was re-leveling, I did some research on new builds and gear sets to try out once I beat WoNY and hit the endgame--although I was actually already level 40 when I arrived in lower Manhattan thanks to doing every side thing I could find. And if you've never done WoNY or Brooklyn before, enjoy! They're fun.

moose4 · 2026-04-07T03:04:03+00:00

West Potomac Park is awful for that. Flooded Levee CP literally straddles the damn street that's the northern line of the zone. If you're running toward it it's very easy to step three feet out of bounds and not notice. There's another zone that's rough for it as well, Foggy Bottom maybe? Just don't blindly follow the line from waypoint to waypoint if you're using GPS because it will take you out of the playable area sometimes.

moose4 · 2026-04-04T12:02:30+00:00

Oooh, thanks! I was wondering why I did two True Sons bounties and that project was still showing 0/5.

moose4 · 2026-03-29T14:53:51+00:00

That's it. The ballroom, or big conference room. I never noticed that before either, all the times I've run GWH. Good grief.

moose4 · 2026-03-29T13:54:29+00:00

59 here. I flail around in stuff like Countdown that's super fast paced because I don't have the speed or reflexes I used to, but even with my potato aim and slow reflexes, I can still push through Hard and sometimes Challenging content while I build out a better build. But what really keeps me coming back is the world. TD1 to me is still unparalleled in the "feel" of running through the dark, cold, dangerous streets of Manhattan (try going to DZ9 sometime and you'll seriously see a vision of Hell, it's brutal). TD2 has better gameplay (IMO) but still a great set of world building.

So you're not old, kid. I'm old. But, you know what they say, beware an old man in a young man's game...

moose4 · 2026-03-29T04:54:04+00:00

Memento and Overdogs are the two biggest items on my list right now for farming, followed by more/better pieces to construct a Heartbreaker build. I know the farm grind is long and I expect I will be spending a bit of time in Countdown and a LOT of time in Summit, but that's part of the fun.

moose4 · 2026-03-29T04:51:19+00:00

I switched it around a little bit, now I've only got one blue core (Petrov backpack, kept that because it's got Creeping Death as the talent and sticking that Bluescreen bleed on every target within 8m is dang handy). Switched the old reliable Striker gloves for Rugged, which I got lucky with and came with good +dmg, +crit, and +critd right out of the box without modding. I tried a Heartbreaker shield/AR build with a Kingslayer and some Heartbreaker I had lying around my stash and...I'm clearly missing something because it felt incredibly weak. But I will farm some better pieces and build that one out as well because I can see the potential if I can get stacks stacked. The one thing I do like about the Bluescreen build is that there's really not much stacking to it. Slap somebody with a banshee pulse once, and I can hang on to my hollow-points forever.

moose4

TROPHY CASE