The Division’s Best Skill and Mod Builds for Perfecting Your Agent

Signature Skills

Before we get into each individual play style’s best skills, let’s talk about the three Signature Skills in the game first. As you probably know by now, there are three wings to your Base of Operations. Each one has upgrades that will unlock different abilities, mods, and perks for players to use. If you purchase the most expensive upgrade for each wing (1000 Supplies each) you’ll get that wing’s Signature Skill.

Each of these takes its specific tree’s main focus and puts it into overdrive. The three are:

• Recovery Link (Medical Wing) – Cures, heals, and revives any allies nearby as well as providing an “Overheal.”
• Tactical Link (Technical Wing) – Up the damage output and critical hit chance for yourself and nearby allies.
• Survivor Link (Security Wing) – Extra damage resistance plus increased speed for yourself and nearby allies.

When deciding on your build, it’s a good idea to mix and match the Signature Skills. Having a singular focus may seem much “easier,” but it never hurts to have a varied fallback. Even if you want to be a medic, Survivor Link will keep you alive so you can continue helping your allies.

Field Medic

If you’re the type who likes to hang back and cover your teammates rather than be on the front-lines, you may want to consider going the healer route. Being able to keep allies alive is an important responsibility that someone should carry on every team. This does mean, however, that you’ll sacrifice two of your valuable skill slots for abilities that don’t do damage to the enemy. In the long run, it’s worth it to be a team player, especially XP is shared and you’ll be doing just as much good as that player lighting everyone on fire.

The Skills you’ll want to focus on for this particular build are:

• Support Medic with Ammo Cache or Immunizer – This is a bit different from the First Aid, but the fact that it lasts for a longer period of time is very useful, especially when moving as a unit. The mods that really make this a standout are Ammo Cache and Immunizer. Being able to restore ammo to your comrades, as well as keep them from obtaining any nasty status effects is crucial. Life Support will auto revive any fallen teammates who crawl into or fall within its range. But since you can only pick one mod, make sure your team is good at staying alive so you can utilize either Immunizer or Ammo Cache.  Purchasing all upgrades in the Medical Wing will earn you the Discharge skill, allowing for a last ditch effort to top everyone’s health off.
• Pulse with Tactical Scanner – Pulse doesn’t provide any healing at all, but it is useful for keeping your team alive. Being able to pinpoint threats is just as important as healing allies after the fact. If you throw on the Tactical Scanner Mod, you can even enjoy increased damage against marked enemies. Threat Detector (obtained by purchasing all Medical Wing upgrades) is even better since it keeps you aware of whether or not you’ve been scanned. Scrambler is very useful in the Dark Zone, but if you’re focusing on PvE, don’t waste a slot on it.
• First Aid with Booster Shot – While the Support Station is easily the best for managing your squads health, First Aid with Booster Shot is one of the best skills available to a healer who also wants to help with the fighting. If other members of your team have a pulse mod on one of their abilities, you should replace your pulse with this. You’ll get the quick healing effect, as well as increasing the damage output of anyone who receives its help.

You can wrap up your Field Medic with some solid talents to make you a fool-proof doctor with a gun. Battle Buddy lowers all incoming damage by 50% after a revive. Combat Medic allows a single Medkit to be used on a group, making this one of your most valuable skills as a Field Medic in The Division. 

Gunner

Eschewing defensive capabilities and self healing for DPS-focused skills will make you a force to be reckoned with, if not a bit of a glass cannon. The Tech tree is perfect for one of these builds, with its focus on dealing large amounts of damage and forcing enemies out of cover. This particular build meshes well with both healing and tech builds.

It requires a bit of support if you want to survive tougher challenges, so don’t have everyone in your squad play a gunner. The best skills to focus on here are:

• Turret with Active Sensor – The Turret is your buddy. It isn’t the strongest skill, but its ability to pull enemies out of cover, suppress others, and even down weaker opponents is very useful. The Active Sensor mod sends out a Pulse when this ability is triggered. So, as your turret seeks out targets, you’ll be able to pick off some at the same time. Obtaining the Scorched Earth Master mod will also turn it into a remote detonated bomb.
• Sticky Bomb with Proximity Fuse- Since a gunner is low on defensive abilities, being able to set traps is very useful, especially one as powerful as a Sticky Bomb.

Talent skills will help do a lot of the heavy lifting for this play-style. Tactical Advance increases weapon damage for successfully moving between covers. Evasive Action goes well with Tacticial Advance, reducing damage by 30% as you move between cover. Tech support allows for longer skill duration, perfect for your Turret. Simply kill an enemy while your Turret is deployed and it will be extended by 10%. 

Tank

A tank is able to man the frontlines and take a lot of damage. While you can never become a huge, armored behemoth, you can make it so that you last a lot longer than your fellow Agents. All of the skills you’ll want can be found in the Security Wing. They provide a mix of damage buffs, damage resistances, and a lot of cover.

The best skills to focus on for this are:

• Ballistic Shield with Kinetic Breaker – You may not be able to use either of your primaries while using the Ballistic Shield, but being able to advance on enemies with little risk, picking them of with your sidearm, is invaluable. The Kinetic Breaker mod just makes life a lot easier by healing you as your shield takes damage. Getting the Master perk, Self-healing Armor, is useful as well. As it will heal your shield itself as long as you avoid incoming damage for a few seconds. Now that’s a tank.
• Smart Cover with Recharger – Smart Cover is an ability applied to any cover you see in the world. Anyone who uses the now re-enforced protection will receive some added benefits, extending the tank nature of your build to others, even if it’s only for a moment. Recharger heals users and lowers their skill cooldowns, leading to more abilities able to be activated.
• Survivor Link – The Security tree’s signature skill is very useful for Tanks. While it is good to mix and match these things, you’ll want to keep it all in the family to be a true tank. Greatly increasing your damage resistance while also upping your speed will allow you to draw fire and approach tricky enemies. This will make your Gunner and Field Medic much more useful, as they can pick off anyone you draw out and keep you alive.

Like with any build, your talent Skills are just as important as your active ones. On the Move is a very useful talent for Tanks, as you’ll reduce incoming damage by a whopping 30% for 10 seconds if you kill an enemy while on the move. Throw in Steady Hands to increase weapon stability when you jump into cover. The combination of both will make you a killing machine while also keeping you alive. Chain Reaction is also quite useful, especially when tanking against Cleaners. 

Lone Wolf

Playing by yourself is much different from playing with others in The Division. There are fewer enemies to deal with, which is a good thing, but you’ll have to cover all of your needs on your own. Healing, defense, and damage will fall solely on your shoulders. But don’t worry, it isn’t impossible. You’ll just have to decide on what’s more important to you early on.

The Tech tree mixes very well with either of the other two, although it isn’t unheard of to go Medic/Security hybrid. But, if you’re new to third person shooters, and want to put things down quickly, going Tech with either of the others is the most manageable approach.

The best skills to consider here are:

• Pulse (Medic Tree) – Which mod you want to use is entirely up to what makes you feel comfortable, although Recon Pack is very useful for solo players thanks to its increased range. Being able to locate enemies before they see you will help out a lot when you’re on your own.
• First Aid with Overdose (Medic Tree) – This is a no-brainer. If you’re playing alone you cannot rely solely upon Medkits to keep your health up. First Aid is a great skill to quickly heal when in a pinch and the Overdose mod will give you some extra health so you can survive.
• Sticky Bomb with Stealthy Bomb (Tech Tree) – Unlocking the master perk for the Sticky Bomb will make it possible to use it relatively close to other enemies without alerting them. Sticky bombs are perfect for taking out small groups, so having one that can do so without drawing other groups is great.
• Sticky Bomb with Flashbang (Tech Tree) – This is for quickly dispatching a small group or getting the heck out of trouble. Blind everyone in the blast radius and then make your move.
• Turret (Tech Tree) – It really doesn’t matter what mod you use, as long as you’re comfortable with it. The Turret makes flanking much easier when you’re playing alone; it draws the attention of nearby enemies, giving you the drop on unsuspecting foes.
• Mobile Cover with Countermeasures – You’re alone, with nobody to back you up. Having cover that you can drop down in a pinch is very useful in this situation. The increased damage and pulse immunity are just added bonuses.
• Tactical Link (Tech Signature Skill) – Tacticial Link is perfect when you’re alone so you can clear out a tough, inescapable hoard.
• Survival Link (Security Signature Skill) – If cover isn’t your strong suit, the increased speed and damage resistance will keep you alive when you’re on your own.

All of these skills are perfect for Lone Wolves, allowing for ease in movement, and the ability to hold down a point. Mix and match to see which is a better fit for you. 

Dark Zone Roamer

The Dark Zone is not for the faint of heart. It is an area where anything and anyone can kill you in the blink of an eye. With the ability to lose experience, credits, and, most importantly, loot, you’ll want to have the best skills you can possibly equip.

If you’re rolling with a team, any of the builds will work well as long as you all coordinate. The Lone Wolf skill options are also quite useful in the Dark Zone. But, there are a few more skills you should consider:

• Pulse with Scramble (Medical Tree) – Scramble makes it so that you can’t be picked up by a Pulse. This is invaluable while waiting on an extraction, or just hunting for loot. People can’t kill what they don’t know even exists.
• Seeker Mine with Cluster (Tech Tree) – Oddly enough, I haven’t run into too many players who use this skill, and on the rare event when it does pop up, nobody expects it. This is actually a very good thing. Head to an extraction point, and lay down a Seeker to take out anyone guarding it. If a team is grouped up, you can down them all really quickly.
• Survivor Link – Mainly for extractions as well. Being able to take a few extra shots while stringing your loot up to the chopper is one of the best skills in the game.
• Smart Cover with Trapper – Want to piss off a Rogue? Turn their cover into a weakness so that you can take them out with ease.

These skill should make life quite a bit easier for you while your playing The Division. For more guides, tips, trips, and information on The Division, be sure to check out our wiki.