The Best Division 2 DPS Builds for 2023 - Ricky Spears (2024)

Division 2 offers players tons of gear and build options to create powerful DPS (damage per second) builds. With the new Title Update 12.1, there are many ways to build a strong DPS character perfect for solo and group play.

In this guide, I‘ll cover the top DPS builds that maximize your damage output, allow you to melt enemies quickly, and clear challenging content smoothly.

Overview of The Top 5 DPS Builds

Here‘s a quick overview of the best Division 2 DPS builds I‘ll cover:

1. Full Red Core Critical Hit Build: Focuses purely on weapon damage and critical hit chance/damage. Extreme glass cannon build.

2. Explosive Skill Damage Build: Relies on skills like the Artillery Turret to do explosive damage. More balanced survivability.

3. Eclipse Protocol Status Effect Build: Spreads burn and other status effects. Excels against groups.

4. Hunter‘s Fury Intimidate Build: Aggressive build for close quarters combat.

5. Heartbreaker Armor Regen Build: Provides bonus armor and sustain through damage. New gear set.

Now let‘s dive into the details and stats for each build.

1. Full Red Core Critical Hit DPS Build

This build focuses purely on maximizing weapon damage and critical hit chance/damage at the expense of armor and sustain. It‘s an extreme glass cannon build with insane damage potential.

Core Stats and Attributes

• 6 Red Cores
• Critical Hit Chance: 60%
• Critical Hit Damage: 180%+
• Headshot Damage: 150%+
• Weapon Handling: 50%

Gear and Weapon Talents

• Mask: Walker, Harris & Co. – Critical Hit Chance + Critical Hit Damage
• Backpack: Provident – Critical Hit Damage + Perfect Vigilance
• Chest: Sacrifice – Critical Hit Chance + Perfect Glass Cannon
• Gloves: Contractor‘s Gloves – Critical Hit Damage + Damage to Armor
• Holster: Ceska – Critical Hit Chance + Critical Hit Damage
• Kneepads: Fox‘s Prayer – Critical Hit Damage + Damage to Targets Out of Cover
• Weapons: M1A Classic + Damage to Targets Out of Cover + Boomerang/Ranger

This build amplifies damage through critical hits and long range engagement. It has no defensive layers though, so you‘ll need to play smartly in cover.

With Perfect Glass Cannon and Vigilance active, you get a huge 55% amplified weapon damage. Combined with max critical hit chance, you‘ll constantly see big damage numbers popping up.

Overall an incredibly powerful but risky build for those who enjoy sniping enemies from behind cover.

2. Explosive Skill Damage DPS Build

This build utilizes the Artillery Turret skill to bombard enemies with deadly explosive mortar shells. It offers a bit more survival than a full red build.

Core Stats and Attributes

• 4 Yellow Cores, 2 Red Cores
• Skill Damage: 120-140%
• Skill Haste: 80-100%
• Explosive Damage: 40%

Gear and Weapons

• Mask: China Light – Skill Damage + Skill Haste
• Backpack: Force Multiplier – Skill Damage + Perfect Combined Arms
• Chest: Glass Cannon – Skill Damage + Damage to Armor
• Gloves: Wyvern Wear – Skill Damage + Skill Haste
• Holster: Hana-U – Skill Damage + Skill Haste
• Kneepads: China Light – Skill Damage + Explosive Damage
• Weapons: Capacitor + Test Subject/Harmony (In Sync)

This build dishes out extreme damage safely from behind cover by marking targets for the devastating Artillery Turret. With high explosive damage and skill damage/haste, you‘ll be unloading nonstop mortar barrages.

Glass cannon provides a big skill damage boost at the cost of more incoming damage. Play smartly behind cover and you shouldn‘t have issues though.

Overall a very fun, explosive build that can clear out big groups easily.

3. Eclipse Protocol Status Effect DPS Build

This build capitalizes on spreading devastating burn status effects rapidly using the Eclipse Protocol gear set. It demolishes groups of enemies with all the fire effects.

Core Stats and Attributes

• 4 Yellow Cores, 2 Red Cores
• Status Effects: 90-100%
• Skill Haste: 80-100%
• Skill Duration: 50%

Gear and Weapons

• Mask: Golan Gear (Status Effects)
• Backpack: Eclipse Protocol (Skill Damage)
• Chest: Eclipse Protocol (Status Effects)
• Gloves: Eclipse Protocol (Skill Haste)
• Holster: Eclipse Protocol (Skill Duration)
• Kneepads: Eclipse Protocol (Status Effects + Burn Resistance)
• Weapons: Everlasting Gaze + Pyromaniac (Ignited)

This build spreads burn status effects easily between groups using the unique Eclipse Protocol gear set talents. With high status effects investment and skill haste, burn lasts a long time.

You can constantly bombard enemies with fire, whether from the Firestarter Chem Launcher or your Pyromaniac assault rifle. Everlasting Gaze marks enemies, helping apply even more burn effects.

Enemies affected burn for massive amounts of damage over time. Combine with oxidizers or other skills to dish out a fiery demise.

4. Hunter‘s Fury Intimidate Build

An aggressive build for close quarters combat utilizing the Hunter‘s Fury gear set to amplify weapon and bonus armor. Great for quick bursts of damage.

Core Stats and Attributes

• 4 Red Cores, 2 Blue cores
• Critical Hit Chance – 60%
• Critical Hit Damage – 150%
• Weapon Handling – 50%

Gear and Weapons

• Mask: Hunter‘s Fury (Critical Hit Chance)
• Backpack: Hunter‘s Fury (Critical Hit Damage) + Bloodsucker
• Chest: Hunter‘s Fury (Critical Hit Damage) + Intimidate
• Gloves: Hunter‘s Fury (Weapon Handling)
• Holster: Hunter‘s Fury (Critical Hit Chance)
• Kneepads: Hunter‘s Fury (Critical Hit Damage)
• Weapons: Lady Death + The Mop (Close and Personal)

This build boosts your weapon damage significantly within 15m range due to the Hunter‘s Fury 4-piece gear set talent. Combine with Intimidate chest talent for even bigger multiplicative damage.

The Lady Death exotic SMG gets stacks based on movement speed, letting you quickly blitz enemies. The Mop shotgun then finishes off anyone close by, refreshing Intimidate‘s buff in the process.

With max critical hit chance and high damage, this extremely aggressive CQC build can burst down veterans and elites with ease when played properly. It struggles at long range though.

5. Heartbreaker Armor Regen DPS Build

A versatile build providing weapon damage, bonus armor, and armor regen using the new Heartbreaker gear. Become an unstoppable tank through sustained damage.

Core Stats and Attributes

• 4 Red Cores, 2 Blue Cores
• Critical Hit Chance – 55%
• Critical Hit Damage – 150%
• Weapon Handling – 50%

Gear and Weapons

• Mask: Heartbreaker (Critical Hit Chance)
• Backpack: Heartbreaker (Critical Hit Damage) + Opportunistic
• Chest: Heartbreaker (Weapon Damage) + Obliterate
• Gloves: Heartbreaker (Weapon Handling)
• Holster: Heartbreaker (Critical Hit Damage)
• Kneepads: Heartbreaker (Critical Hit Chance)
• Weapons: Carbine 7 + Rock n Roll/Mop (Preservation)

Unlike the previous glass cannon builds, this set provides sustainability through bonus armor given when you deal damage. After a killing shot, you also get a full armor repair.

Combined with High rolls into critical hit and weapon handling, you get a perfect balance of damage and tankiness. Both Obliterate and Opportunist offer amplified damage to keep your Heartbreaker stacks up.

With an assault rifle and shotgun combo, you can steadily engage enemies at any range. Constantly refresh bonus armor through damage to become an armored juggernaut.

Final Thoughts on Best Division 2 DPS Builds

Hopefully this breakdown gives you some ideas on potential high DPS builds for patching 12.1 endgame content. I wanted to provide a mix of burst damage options and tankier sustain builds.

Let me know if you have any other great builds not mentioned! I‘m always trying new setups and theorycrafting the next meta.

The key is utilizing all the multipliers tied to critical hits, skill bonuses, damage amplification effects, and weapon talents. Combining several of these can result in extreme damage never thought possible.

Make sure to share any awesome builds you come up with!