Build Design for Beginners: A Checklist and Guide

[CA$H THE GREAT]

So this thread is more geared towards beginners, but input from intermediate and expert players is welcome too so feel free to chime in! So reading all these posts asking simplistic questions like, "Which gun is the best" or "Which is better?" really got me thinking about creating this thread. There are a lot of factors when it comes to build/loadout design and the answer isn't always cut 'n dried. You could hand the exact same loadout to two skilled players and they could get totally different results.

So here's a process that I go through when I theorycraft and these lists are not definitive at all. I'm just posting factors to brainstorm and help explore the options.

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1) What is your role within the group?
(Ex: Combat medic, engineer, damage dealer, tank, objective runner, etc)

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2) Within that role, what type of playstyle would you prefer?
-Aggressive
-Balanced
-Defensive

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3) Which type of mission is this build intended for?
a) Stealths (requiring only a few or up to all of the following):
-Saws
-Drills
-Transporting lots of bags
-ECM Jammers
-Lockpicking

b) Louds
-Close quarters
-Gauntlets requiring ammo/health endurance on-the-move under heavy fire
-Open areas with snipers and longshots
-Fortified buildings which will need to be defended for an extended period of time
-Buildings with doors, safes, turrent defenses which need to be breached
-Transporting lots of bags under fire
-Interacting with many objects

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4) Balance These 3 Elements (Combat Effectiveness, Survivability, and Utility)
Every build is different and certain missions or difficulties may require more skill points to be spent in some areas than others

a) Combat Effectiveness
-Playstyle is probably the biggest factor here
-Your role within the group (How much combat do you *need* to engage in?)

b) Survivability
i) Perk Decks - (Can be done in different ways but primarily the first 3 bullets)
-Armor (Anarchist, Armorer, Sociopath)
-Health (Grinder - Active Regen OR Muscle - Passive Regen)
-Dodge (Rogue or Sicario)
-Combination of these (Biker, Ex-President, Crook, Kingpin)
-Damage Reduction (Maniac, Infiltrator)

-Team-Oriented builds (Crew Chief, Gambler, Maniac)

ii) Skills
-Armor regen rate increases %
-Revenant skills
-Tank skills
-Resilience Aced
-Parkour Aced
-Basic Second Wind

c) Utility - This is directly dependent on your role within the group
-Drill skills
-Saw skills
-Inspire Aced
-Turrets
-C4: Shaped charges and trip mines
-Transporter (for loot running)
-Deployables

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5) Finding the Right Weapon(s)
a) What types of enemies will this build target?
-This will be determined by your role within the group and will affect how much damage needs to be done
-This also will be determined by your preferred playstyle
-The games gives you two guns for a reason...Each weapon has a job and all weapons have strengths and weaknesses
-Would you rather have two weapons which share the same skills for skill point efficiency?
-Would you rather have two weapons from dissimilar weapon familes to cover more threats?
-How ammo efficient do you need each weapon to be?

b) Build Synergy
-Do your weapons have great synergy with your perk decks?
(Ex: High rate-of-fire weapons are excellent in aggressive Grinder, Anarchist, Maniac, etc decks which require you to actively deal damage)
-Do the weapons have sufficient concealment to meet the 25 detection requirement for:
Crit builds (Aced Low Blow skill) and/or Dodge builds (Aced Sneaky ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ skill)
-Can you bolster stats by weapon modding instead of using skill points to do it?

[Torque]

When did pd2 became like lol and dota with builds?

[Meredith K Pseudonym]

Ever since it had skillpoints.

[DatMageDoe]

A couple to add under Finding the Right Weapons:
-Would you rather have a general purpose weapon paired with a niche/utility one?
-Where are your weapon choices weak? How can you alter your build or weapons to better counter this?

[Sep]

There is no such thing like best weapon in pd2, your gun is good to go as long as it have the breakpoint damage for the difficulties you are playing.

[Torque]

Originally posted by Zimos:

There is no such thing like best weapon in pd2, your gun is good to go as long as it have the breakpoint damage for the difficulties you are playing.

[CA$H THE GREAT]

Originally posted by Zimos:

There is no such thing like best weapon in pd2, your gun is good to go as long as it have the breakpoint damage for the difficulties you are playing.

I agree, but there are other benefits to a weapons such as AoE, AP, and cleave abilities.

Maybe you can elaborate on the breakpoint argument I keep seeing people make. Of course, enemies have a certain amount of HP and you want to make sure when you increase weapon damage by whatever means, you reach the next breakpoint to reduce the # of shots required, otherwise the extra damage has no practical benefit.

However, if the gun is not ammo-efficient and you are flooded with enemies, despite killing them effectively, your ammo pool will drain if the ammo pickups are insufficient to keep up, correct?