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  1. #1

    Some Tips/Suggestions to those who have problems with survivability and difficulty

    This contains some basic rules and suggestions, not meant to pros This is for those who are struggling with the game in challenge difficulty or have problems with capturing lvl4 control point, or even lvl3 in solo. Perhaps this helps you, perhaps it's not. But that's sure you won't have less success. Making it clear in solo the enemies are weaker than in groups. In groups they are scaling up. If the group focuses on 1 target, they can die relatively quickly, but if everyone shoots different targets, it takes long to kill one. But in groups you can have much more aoe cc as well, and revive by others also exists. So group play is harder and easier as well in different terms in my opinion. (My group play is mainly with friends and clanmates though with voice)

    I read a lot of threads about staying alive is impossible for some people and they start hating everything in the game, begging for making the enemies easier, etc, etc... Perhaps there are some people who don't know or don't use the mechanic in the game correctly.

    First of all this game isn't easy (fortunately I think), not a braindead shooter where you just walk through a map in the middle of a street shoot everything what moves meanwhile watching your favourite series in your TV (like Division 1). You need to learn to play the game. Sometimes you die. But it's nothing you have to worry about. I've already played 226 hours (at least half is on WT4, and challenge missions) with the game doing a lot of currently hardest content, but sometimes I make mistakes and I die...it happens.

    The tips, suggestions start here:

    - This is a cover based shooter game. Covers have very important role. Going to cover and deciding when to leave it needs some practice and knowledge of enemies. But staying out of cover is not working in this game (you can't play this game like a Battlefield-type game). There are some rare situations where you don't have to go into cover, or you have to solve a situation without cover - probably with sidestepping in a door for example, like in a normal fps game -, because there is no good cover in the situation. But in general this game is about using covers. So always try to use covers.

    - And you can't always use the same cover all the time in an encounter. You have to reposition sometimes, or often...depends on the type of enemies or the area. If you die in a mission and you start it again from a checkpoint, the enemies can be different. Not the main ones, the bosses, but the adds. There can be more grenadiers or less...if there are more grenadiers for example, probably you have to reposition more frequently.

    - Repositioning with cover to cover movement is better, than simply standing up from cover and running to another cover and going into the cover. Sometimes you have to do it in this worse way, but basically cover to cover movement is better. You get less damage then and your movement is faster than normal sprint. If you don't know what cover to cover movement is, this is when you already aim your next cover and just pressing space. Check it on youtube, if you're not sure.

    - Choose good covers. Covers can be shot through so you get damage. They can be too low, so the top of your head still visible. Be careful with that when there is lower and higher cover and you stand against the higher cover instead of crouching against the lower. This needs practice and knowing the maps/areas.

    - Use 'hipfire' a lot from cover, if enemies are close and the angle allows you to do it. It's not a classic hipfire from fps games, but it's similar to that. It's shooting from cover without using the right click (aiming) at all. It works very well, it worked in Division 1 and works here. Sometimes I feel it's too good, too accurate, but this is a key thing to get a lot less damage.

    - When you ADS (Aiming down sight - using right click from cover to aim) use it for a short time. You don't have to stay in ADS while you kill your target completely. The longer you're in ADS, the longer your upper half body and your head is visible to the enemy. And they hit hard.

    - The next key thing is you always have to be careful and decide in a very short time which danger is the most threatening to you. And this is one of the most challenging thing, but it's a tactical game. You have to make decisions quickly:
    1; keep in mind you always have to look for grenadiers in fight and try to interupt them when they try to throw the grenades. If it wasn't successful, you can still shoot the molotov-like fiery grenades, if you want to, because they fly very slowly, or you can reposition with dodge or cover to cover movement depending on the distance of flying grenade. You can try shooting normal flying grenades as well, but they fly much faster.
    2; you always have to focus on rusher enemies with their crowbar who can one-hit you in melee. But they are very easy targets. Never shoot their head. They have helmet, but they are very vulnerable to stomach shots. And they are also easily get disoriented by shooting their red bag on their right side. Shooting their legs is also good. Also closer targets should have priority on your target list, to prevent getting completely cornered.
    3; Focusing the weakspots, mostly red bags, is basically a good thing and helps a lot. It can cause aoe explosive damage, aoe root, aoe disorienting (depending on who your target is). Also the map is full of objects which can be blown (red fuel tanks, bottles, fire-extinguishers, etc...), these help a lot.
    4; When you see enemy with WIFI sign above them, they always control the little explosive cars. You have to keep in mind, if you see this enemy, there will be a car you have to one-shot before reaching you.
    5; Engineers place turrets. You can kill the ammo rack of turrets so it doesn't shoot anymore. Engineer runs there and tries to repair. So you can kill engineer if you want to. You can kill turrets directly if you want to, but sometimes making them disabled and dealing with higher threats is better. If you kill the enginner, the owner of turret, the turret will blow up automatically.
    6; Laying down LMG enemies have a very good helmet and have a lot of damage and since they lay down you can see their helmet mostly. When they are laying, above their left shoulder (right side to you if you look at him) there is a weak spot, if you hit it, he's standing up while being damaged for some secs and they don't shoot. (They are slow to stand up by the way, so your grenades are also good)
    7; Healer enemies are not a big threat, but they keep reviving the mobs you killed. So they shouldn't do their job for long. Their back has a weakspot which stun/EMP them.
    8; Minibosses, or something like that (like minigun guy, guy with two handed hammer and guy with chainsaw) they are tough. But you can always disable the minigun guy with shooting his ammo on his right side (left to you) and while he's repairing you can deal your damage to one armor part. It's important to deal your damage into one armor part of 6 (head, body, 2 hands, 2 legs). Once you penetrate it, it dies very quickly. Against the hammer and chainsaw guy you have to move and dodge. You can't really run from them. They have a quite slow swing you have to dodge when they start the animation. If there are some enemies with a 2-handed-hammer guy, always kill all the other mobs, and then kill the hammer guy (unless you have a really good damage to burst it down)

    Challenge missions are easier than lvl 4 control points in solo. For capturing control point I would advice 2 things: Try to go in with your npcs you recall with your flare. Don't mind if they die, but if you can, you can revive the leader. Different control points have different difficulty to capture them, because of the buildings, covers, location. Sometimes you have to retreat after engaging them, because they come and come. You have to reposition/retreat often and then shooting back. If you can neutralize the control point in first attempt and your npcs die, it's a good checkpoint. You can flare them again and then the counter attack starts. Don't try to defend the neutralized control point in a closed area. You need space to reposition. Don't forget if npcs arrive again and you die, you can fast travel to neutralized control point. (Neutralized when its color is white, not red and not green yet). I could never defend a lvl4 control point in a closed room (for example close the supply room), because without npcs I'm the only target.


    There are different builds, around different weapons. But this isn't the game where you can progress only with your skills (of course not when a skill has 240 base cooldown, though the talent which decrease the cooldown by 20% with every kill is nice, but still). You can be stronger in skills, than others, and it's good in pve, especially vs group of enemies. You can be a good CC dealer and make the life of the group much easier, while keeping the enemies in CC a lot. Or you can deal nice amount of damage as well with lot of explosive damage increase talents and higher skill power where you can apply 80-90% bonus dmg to certain skill. But you can't play a build where your weapon damage is nothing. (in Anthem if I remember well, weapons have much less role, and there the skills were really strong. In Division 2 you can't ignore your weapon damage). And perhaps some people don't want to hear that, but Elite to damage is important in every build. You have to think of as basic as armor stats. In skill builds as well. The harder the content the more elites there are, and Elite To Dmg affects everything (your weapon, your skill explosive dmg, your burn, bleed, your chem launcher toxic damage over time, turret damage, everything)

    By the way: I built a damage dealer build around a weapon type I like and I use 1700 skill power to be able to apply some lower level skill mods (2X50% radius on chem launcher for example, which is very useful). I can melt a small elite mob (like a grenadier, or rusher) down in 2 sec. LMG enemies, healers are around 3 sec. Miniboss-like enemies are 6-8 sec. Sometimes veterans take longer or same, because of not affecting by elite to dmg. One of my friend plays with 8000 skill power and keeping the enemies burn almost permanently and still having weapon damage because built around that (with burning damage, + dmg to cc'ed target, low crit chance -> increased damage talents, weapon damaged in attributes, etc...), which is quite fun.


    It's long, but I hope this will help for some people who are struggling. And of course the game is not perfect, everybody knows. It isn't 1 month old yet For example smg enemies with shield are way too accurate indeed from distance, and smaller but still similar issue with shotgunners from distance. Perhaps they'll change it.

    UPDATED: I don't know if this thread belongs to here or to general discussion. I put it here, because there were a lot of thread in this category about the game is difficult and impossible, etc.
     2 people found this helpful
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  2. #2
    i like medics pro-tip: "try avoid bullets next time"
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  3. #3
    I don't have nearly the hours played you do (only 60-70) but everything you mentioned is consistent with what I've learned playing so far. I started playing TD2 like TD1 and just kept dying... after a few hours I started to learn and process the vast differences. It took time but now, like you, I still die on occasion but it is 95% of the time because of my own mistakes (or alcohol... that definitely doesn't help).
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  4. #4
    Originally Posted by Bigwhitepaw Go to original post
    - Repositioning with cover to cover movement is better, than simply standing up from cover and running to another cover and going into the cover. Sometimes you have to do it in this worse way, but basically cover to cover movement is better. You get less damage then and your movement is faster than normal sprint. If you don't know what cover to cover movement is, this is when you already aim your next cover and just pressing space. Check it on youtube, if you're not sure.
    This is really important. The amount of dmg, if any at all, you get from moving around this way plays a huge part in your survival when enemies starts to surround you. Always be aware of your surroundings so that you can quickly move about if needed. Works well for retreat as well, but you might have to vault over, and into cover again making it a bit risky, but still a lot safer than just leaving cover and trying to using your regular movement keys
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  5. #5
    UbiSc0ttie's Avatar Community Representative
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    Oct 2018
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    Originally Posted by Bigwhitepaw Go to original post
    This contains some basic rules and suggestions, not meant to pros This is for those who are struggling with the game in challenge difficulty or have problems with capturing lvl4 control point, or even lvl3 in solo. Perhaps this helps you, perhaps it's not. But that's sure you won't have less success. Making it clear in solo the enemies are weaker than in groups. In groups they are scaling up. If the group focuses on 1 target, they can die relatively quickly, but if everyone shoots different targets, it takes long to kill one. But in groups you can have much more aoe cc as well, and revive by others also exists. So group play is harder and easier as well in different terms in my opinion. (My group play is mainly with friends and clanmates though with voice)

    I read a lot of threads about staying alive is impossible for some people and they start hating everything in the game, begging for making the enemies easier, etc, etc... Perhaps there are some people who don't know or don't use the mechanic in the game correctly.

    First of all this game isn't easy (fortunately I think), not a braindead shooter where you just walk through a map in the middle of a street shoot everything what moves meanwhile watching your favourite series in your TV (like Division 1). You need to learn to play the game. Sometimes you die. But it's nothing you have to worry about. I've already played 226 hours (at least half is on WT4, and challenge missions) with the game doing a lot of currently hardest content, but sometimes I make mistakes and I die...it happens.

    The tips, suggestions start here:

    - This is a cover based shooter game. Covers have very important role. Going to cover and deciding when to leave it needs some practice and knowledge of enemies. But staying out of cover is not working in this game (you can't play this game like a Battlefield-type game). There are some rare situations where you don't have to go into cover, or you have to solve a situation without cover - probably with sidestepping in a door for example, like in a normal fps game -, because there is no good cover in the situation. But in general this game is about using covers. So always try to use covers.

    - And you can't always use the same cover all the time in an encounter. You have to reposition sometimes, or often...depends on the type of enemies or the area. If you die in a mission and you start it again from a checkpoint, the enemies can be different. Not the main ones, the bosses, but the adds. There can be more grenadiers or less...if there are more grenadiers for example, probably you have to reposition more frequently.

    - Repositioning with cover to cover movement is better, than simply standing up from cover and running to another cover and going into the cover. Sometimes you have to do it in this worse way, but basically cover to cover movement is better. You get less damage then and your movement is faster than normal sprint. If you don't know what cover to cover movement is, this is when you already aim your next cover and just pressing space. Check it on youtube, if you're not sure.

    - Choose good covers. Covers can be shot through so you get damage. They can be too low, so the top of your head still visible. Be careful with that when there is lower and higher cover and you stand against the higher cover instead of crouching against the lower. This needs practice and knowing the maps/areas.

    - Use 'hipfire' a lot from cover, if enemies are close and the angle allows you to do it. It's not a classic hipfire from fps games, but it's similar to that. It's shooting from cover without using the right click (aiming) at all. It works very well, it worked in Division 1 and works here. Sometimes I feel it's too good, too accurate, but this is a key thing to get a lot less damage.

    - When you ADS (Aiming down sight - using right click from cover to aim) use it for a short time. You don't have to stay in ADS while you kill your target completely. The longer you're in ADS, the longer your upper half body and your head is visible to the enemy. And they hit hard.

    - The next key thing is you always have to be careful and decide in a very short time which danger is the most threatening to you. And this is one of the most challenging thing, but it's a tactical game. You have to make decisions quickly:
    1; keep in mind you always have to look for grenadiers in fight and try to interupt them when they try to throw the grenades. If it wasn't successful, you can still shoot the molotov-like fiery grenades, if you want to, because they fly very slowly, or you can reposition with dodge or cover to cover movement depending on the distance of flying grenade. You can try shooting normal flying grenades as well, but they fly much faster.
    2; you always have to focus on rusher enemies with their crowbar who can one-hit you in melee. But they are very easy targets. Never shoot their head. They have helmet, but they are very vulnerable to stomach shots. And they are also easily get disoriented by shooting their red bag on their right side. Shooting their legs is also good. Also closer targets should have priority on your target list, to prevent getting completely cornered.
    3; Focusing the weakspots, mostly red bags, is basically a good thing and helps a lot. It can cause aoe explosive damage, aoe root, aoe disorienting (depending on who your target is). Also the map is full of objects which can be blown (red fuel tanks, bottles, fire-extinguishers, etc...), these help a lot.
    4; When you see enemy with WIFI sign above them, they always control the little explosive cars. You have to keep in mind, if you see this enemy, there will be a car you have to one-shot before reaching you.
    5; Engineers place turrets. You can kill the ammo rack of turrets so it doesn't shoot anymore. Engineer runs there and tries to repair. So you can kill engineer if you want to. You can kill turrets directly if you want to, but sometimes making them disabled and dealing with higher threats is better. If you kill the enginner, the owner of turret, the turret will blow up automatically.
    6; Laying down LMG enemies have a very good helmet and have a lot of damage and since they lay down you can see their helmet mostly. When they are laying, above their left shoulder (right side to you if you look at him) there is a weak spot, if you hit it, he's standing up while being damaged for some secs and they don't shoot. (They are slow to stand up by the way, so your grenades are also good)
    7; Healer enemies are not a big threat, but they keep reviving the mobs you killed. So they shouldn't do their job for long. Their back has a weakspot which stun/EMP them.
    8; Minibosses, or something like that (like minigun guy, guy with two handed hammer and guy with chainsaw) they are tough. But you can always disable the minigun guy with shooting his ammo on his right side (left to you) and while he's repairing you can deal your damage to one armor part. It's important to deal your damage into one armor part of 6 (head, body, 2 hands, 2 legs). Once you penetrate it, it dies very quickly. Against the hammer and chainsaw guy you have to move and dodge. You can't really run from them. They have a quite slow swing you have to dodge when they start the animation. If there are some enemies with a 2-handed-hammer guy, always kill all the other mobs, and then kill the hammer guy (unless you have a really good damage to burst it down)

    Challenge missions are easier than lvl 4 control points in solo. For capturing control point I would advice 2 things: Try to go in with your npcs you recall with your flare. Don't mind if they die, but if you can, you can revive the leader. Different control points have different difficulty to capture them, because of the buildings, covers, location. Sometimes you have to retreat after engaging them, because they come and come. You have to reposition/retreat often and then shooting back. If you can neutralize the control point in first attempt and your npcs die, it's a good checkpoint. You can flare them again and then the counter attack starts. Don't try to defend the neutralized control point in a closed area. You need space to reposition. Don't forget if npcs arrive again and you die, you can fast travel to neutralized control point. (Neutralized when its color is white, not red and not green yet). I could never defend a lvl4 control point in a closed room (for example close the supply room), because without npcs I'm the only target.


    There are different builds, around different weapons. But this isn't the game where you can progress only with your skills (of course not when a skill has 240 base cooldown, though the talent which decrease the cooldown by 20% with every kill is nice, but still). You can be stronger in skills, than others, and it's good in pve, especially vs group of enemies. You can be a good CC dealer and make the life of the group much easier, while keeping the enemies in CC a lot. Or you can deal nice amount of damage as well with lot of explosive damage increase talents and higher skill power where you can apply 80-90% bonus dmg to certain skill. But you can't play a build where your weapon damage is nothing. (in Anthem if I remember well, weapons have much less role, and there the skills were really strong. In Division 2 you can't ignore your weapon damage). And perhaps some people don't want to hear that, but Elite to damage is important in every build. You have to think of as basic as armor stats. In skill builds as well. The harder the content the more elites there are, and Elite To Dmg affects everything (your weapon, your skill explosive dmg, your burn, bleed, your chem launcher toxic damage over time, turret damage, everything)

    By the way: I built a damage dealer build around a weapon type I like and I use 1700 skill power to be able to apply some lower level skill mods (2X50% radius on chem launcher for example, which is very useful). I can melt a small elite mob (like a grenadier, or rusher) down in 2 sec. LMG enemies, healers are around 3 sec. Miniboss-like enemies are 6-8 sec. Sometimes veterans take longer or same, because of not affecting by elite to dmg. One of my friend plays with 8000 skill power and keeping the enemies burn almost permanently and still having weapon damage because built around that (with burning damage, + dmg to cc'ed target, low crit chance -> increased damage talents, weapon damaged in attributes, etc...), which is quite fun.


    It's long, but I hope this will help for some people who are struggling. And of course the game is not perfect, everybody knows. It isn't 1 month old yet For example smg enemies with shield are way too accurate indeed from distance, and smaller but still similar issue with shotgunners from distance. Perhaps they'll change it.

    UPDATED: I don't know if this thread belongs to here or to general discussion. I put it here, because there were a lot of thread in this category about the game is difficult and impossible, etc.
    I'd say this is more so like a mini-guide. Very helpful by the way
    I'll move this thread so it can get some better visibility.

    - Scottie
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  6. #6
    Great post. Everything you said here is spot-on. I think I've had an easier time playing this one than a lot of players coming from Div 1 because this is basically how I naturally play...which made me not that great at Div 1, but gave me a head start on Div 2.
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