Best Class Builds for Tom Clancy’s The Division: Tank, Medic, Sniper, and more

Tom Clancy’s The Division has deliberately been built without locked in classes, so you can respec your role and fit in with whichever team has a free slot for multiplayer. “How can I respec?” you cry, most likely anguished. Well, by changing your weapons, active abilities and gear, that’s how. Changing the gear you have equipped is what changes your attribute score, so look out for the ones that boost your preferred class the most.

For the most effective team you’re going to want a tank, a medic, and a couple of damage classes, and we’ve set out the basic builds for these below. There are no hard and fast rules, of course, but these should give you a strong jumping off point for you to customise to your own play style.

The Medic

No matter what everyone else is playing as, every squad needs a healer, and good healers are hard to find, mostly because in a lot of RPGs they’re a boring class to play. However, given the versatile nature of character building in The Division, you can play as a medic and do a lot of damage at the same time.

Main Weapon: Assault rifle or LMG. This will allow you to stay at a medium range, so you (hopefully) won’t get taken out yourself, but are still close enough to deploy your support skills effectively and heal the squad. A shotgun is a good back up, since it can stagger enemies away from yourself and anyone you’re emergency healing. Try to mod your weapons for a low threat score, which will stop you drawing as much aggro.

Skills: First Aid or Pulse, Support Station, Recovery Link. These are med-heavy skills which will heal injured and downed comrades, and can buff healing as well. Pulse is useful if nobody else is using it, because you can see the enemy in advance and plan accordingly. If these leave you feeling like you don’t have any cover (and you don’t entirely trust your team to get your back) then you can switch in a more defensive or offensive skill for one of the others, depending on your style of play.

Useful Talents: Combat Medic, Battle Buddy, Triage, Evasive Action

Primary Attributes: Electronics

The Tank

Good tanks, like medics, are hard to come by, and, also like medics, every team needs one. Always remember the job of a tank is to draw fire rather more than it is to kill fools, so you’re building for stamina rather than damage.

Main Weapon: Any machine gun, depending on your preferred range. LMGs have longer range and can be use really well to suppress enemies and herd them away from your allies. SMGs are shorter range but are a lot of fun to spray. When you’re behind your Ballistic Shield you’ll be using your sidearm, so learn to love it.

Skills: Ballistic Shield/Mobile Cover, First Aid, Survivor Link. Ballistic Shield allows you to move up while firing a pistol, taking the fight to the enemy and making you their new priority. You can instead use Mobile Cover to dig in where you want to, laying down a high rate of fire to cover your mates while they heal up. First Aid is useful for a tank because you’ll definitely need a backup to your health and the medic might be elsewhere. You can then use Survivor Link when you need to drop back.

Useful Talents: On The Move, Repo Killer, Strike Back, Desperate Times, Adrenaline

Primary Attributes: Stamina, Electronics

The Survivalist

This build is a good floating agent for the rest of the group, sweeping up abilities that aren’t clearly defined but are useful to have as part of a squad. You can also run this build pretty well on your own for the PvE sections of the game.

Main Weapon: Assault rifle or LMG (light machine gun). This LMG can be used well at range, to suppress enemies behind cover, as well as at closer distances. The high rate of fire and ammo capacity make it both versatile and practical. Assault rifles come in all shapes and sizes, so you can pick one that best suits how you like to play.

Skills: Pulse, Turret, Survivor Link. Having Pulse means you’re less likely to be caught unawares by groups of enemies, and will stop you getting flanked. It’ll also pinpoint enemies through walls if you’re in a firefight inside a building. The Turret is good to throw out as an extra gun, and will draw some of the enemy aggro away from your own sweet self. Survivor Link will help you get up and out of a sticky situation if it proves too sticky to handle.

Useful Talents: Shock and Awe, Tech Support, Tactical Advance, Police Up

Primary Attributes: Firearms, Electronics

Explosives Expert

Sometimes you just want to deal as much damage as you can in as loud a way as possible. This character build isn’t great to run solo; you definitely need another player to back you up, but if you have that then it can be really effective as well as fun. Tool up with some grenades, and remember you can mod the explosive skills for different kinds of damage. Get creative.

Main Weapon: Assault rifle. It’s a good all rounder, and while the shotgun or LMG suit a damage build thematically speaking, you might not want to risk getting that close if you’re not built for stamina. Send in your explosives and use that as cover to run in, do damage up close, and run back out again if you really need to.

Skills: Sticky Bomb, Seeker Mine, Tactical Link. Sticky Bomb and Seeker Mine are your go-to versatile explosives, and you can mod them to do status effect damage like bleeding, which is really useful in a fight with a lot of enemies. Try to stagger usage of the two explosives, or you’ll be stuck with both of them in their cool down, and you’ll be no good to anyone. Tactical link buffs everyone’s damage and critical hit chance, and you’re a high damage build.

Useful Talents: Demolition Expert, Chain Reaction, Shrapnel, Death By Proxy, Fear Tactics.

Primary Attributes: Electronics, Firearms

The Sniper

In the Division you’re almost always on the move together, so you won’t typically be be set up miles away on a rooftop like actual snipers are. That doesn’t mean, however, that it isn’t useful to have a man a bit further back taking pot shots at the enemies’ craniums.

Main Weapon: Marksman Rifle. The Division doesn’t have sniper rifles per se, but for the designated marksman in your life a marksman rifle does increased damage with headshots and has higher accuracy at range than other rifles. Think about modding it for decreased threat, because that way you can camp for longer before you’re noticed and get a grenade lobbed in your nest. You’ll probably want something like an SMG as a support weapon, in case things get messy up close.

Skills: Pulse, Smart Cover, Tactical Link. Pulse will locate your targets with more accuracy, so you can aim at them with ease. Smart Cover will reinforce your position while you’re taking those headshots, and Tactical Link increases everyone’s damage as well as your own, so said headshots will count for even more.

Useful Talents: Steady Hands, One is None, Precision, Stopping Power, Tactical Advance

Primary Attributes: Firearms