Division 2 | TU15 | Pestilence Brand Set Damage Build Solo Heroic PvE Gameplay

Expand for loadout and Notes on Build:

Mask - Overlord | Weapon Handling / Crit Chance | Crit Chance mod
Chest - Petrov | Obliterate | Weapon Handling / Crit Chance | Crit Chance mod
Backpack - Ceska | Vigilance | Weapon Handling / Crit Chance | Crit Damage mod
Glove - Contractor's Gloves - Damage to armor / Weapon Handling
Holster - Overlord - Weapon Handling / Crit Chance
Kneepad - Fox's Prayer - Damage to Targets Out of Cover / Weapon Handling

Primary: Pestilence
Specialization: Gunner

Skills: Fixer Drone

How & Why:
Biggest issue I have with the Pestilence is the Reload. The LMG itself is a lot of fun when you get the Pestilence Plague Damage going. The way I wanted to reduce the reload was through weapon handling. I chose to lean into gear attribute rolls and brand sets that provided it and also helped boost the Plague damage to Pestilence's Ticks.

Braced is an easy option to gain a lot of weapon handling and if you are a lower SHD level without prettty good weapon handling rolls, I would suggest going that route and roll Crit Damage in place of the Weapon Handling rolls. But what rolling Weapon Handling on the gear allows for is to use Obliterate on the chest. I essentially trade Crit Damage for Obliterate's Total Weapon Damage. Crit helps with the main weapon damage, while Obliterate helps with the main weapon damage as well as increasing the damage for the Pestilence Ticks. This also frees me from cover so I can find better angles and reload quickly on the move.

Other multipliers that also help boost Pestilence's Exotic Talent Damage is Damage to Armor and Damage to Targets out of Cover which are Contractor's Gloves(Petrov) and Fox's Prayer(Overlord). Petrov and Overlord brands also have bonuses to Handling which is why I went with the other 2pc of Overlord and the 2nd piece of Petrov; to gain the additional accuracy and weapon handling. I do lose out on Crit and some additional weapon damage and damage to armor. However, I personally, liked the increase to accuracy and weapon handling as it allowed me to more easily land shots from further out and reload quicker which in turn leads to quicker stacks and damage so it kind of evens out.

Pestilence feels great in tigher areas where Plague effect can spread easily. But for times where that doesn't spread, the weapon handling helps land shots easier to get the Plague Effect going again.

Went with Vigilance on the backpack because it also boosts the Pesty Tick damage and if I get shot, I just have to sit for 4 sec. Once I get the full stacks going, I almost don't need to shoot except to keep Obliterate up.

I decided I still wanted some decent main weapon damage so I went with Crit Chance and a bit of Crit Damage to boost it a bit. Also why I have the single piece of Ceska. Skill Repair and Armor Regen can be some good choices too if you want some more sustain and replace the Ceska with something like Belstone or Walker or Alps.

For my sustain, I went with Gunner's Armor on Kill and Fixer Drone. It's just enough to keep me going, but like I said, Skill Repair or Armor Regen can be an option if you don't want the bit of additional Crit Damage.

I have the Explosive Seeker mine in the clip just because. It's not the best option, but I can level it's expertise. Decoy is probably better as in groups I found at times I drew a lot of aggro and that would help take some of that pressure off.

With all buffs up, I top out at around 1 to 1.1 million Tick Damage. Pretty much everything boosts both my Main Weapon damage and Pestilence's Exotic Damage. Weapon Handling provides better accuracy and reload while all the talents boosts both the main weapon damage and the Tick Damage.

This is what I like, there's plenty of other builds shared already that have better Tick damage and less handling or better handling and less damage. I found this to be a nice balance of everything. And if you don't have a Pestilence, this setup can be used with any LMG.

My build Playlist:
   / @syngeist  

Timestamp:
0:00 Intro
0:05 Build Snapshot - Detailed Loadout in description
0:12 Gameplay Starts Glowy Cube Section - Gear Loadout in Description
1:07 Underground Bay - Gear Loadout in Description
2:25 Control Room
3:05 Powerplant - Short Hallways
3:44 Generator Room
4:56 Cafeteria Room
5:20 Archive/Fire Room
6:29 Boss Room
7:49 Boss Breaks Through
8:18 Outro