True Meta Stoic - Hotline Miami Experience {No DLC + DLC variants}

A thick skinned stoic build that shreds zeals as if they were russian mobsters from Hotline Miami. This is as strong as you can get. This is meta in its final form.

Mastermind and Ghost infamy reductions are required.

Mastermind Skills

Medic - Inspire is a crucial skill if you want the highest possible success rate as everybody makes mistakes and tasers/cloakers exist. The speed and reload bonus of the basic version is also very handy. If your team plays extraordinarily well, you can trade inspire ace for unseen strike ace. Always keep the basic version!

Controller - Joker skills are on par with Inspire, likely even better than it; they take heat off you and deal significant damage. That combined with the speed, hp, and hp regen bonuses makes them important.

Enforcer Skills

Shotgunner - Without those, your shotguns become useless peashooters. Underdog ace for extra 11% EHP and shotgun Impact basic in conjuction with shark teeth nozzle to hit breakpoints.

Tank - You become near invulnerable when interacting with anything while having a flask, and the +20 HP is noticeable.

Ammo Specialist - If you use the HE Judge variant, get scavenger instead of equilibrium.

Technician Skills

Breacher - Depending on the heist, you might want to sacrifice a few points into drill skills or faster drill repair. Perhaps get rid of equilibrium for faster repairs or underdog ace for faster repairs and +15% speed.

Ghost Skills

Artful Dodger - Speed and concealment, nothing to say here.

Silent Killer - Low blow and unseen strike are the bread & butter of this build. Get hit to trigger the 4s countdown, wait for the DoT heal, and obliterate medic bulldozer trios in mere seconds. With stoic, you generally run from cover to cover and wait for DoT heals, so unseen strike will be active throughout the heist. You can also trigger the countdown via harming yourself with the HE Judge. If you trade inspire ace for unseen strike ace, you'll have significantly less crit downtime and can play even more aggressively.

Fugitive Skills

Gunslinger - Equilibrium is a handy skill when dealing with shields, the 33% increased swap speed lets you play more aggressively. If you use the DLC variant with HE Judge, get scavenger instead of equilibrium.

Revenant - After you get used to this build, you'll hardly ever get downed twice per heist. If you tend to get unlucky with tasers and green dozers, sacrifice underdog ace and equilibrium/scavenger for nine lives ace.

Equipment

Primary:
Akimbo Goliath // 000 Buckshot // Short Barrel // Shark Teeth Nozzle or Donald's Horizontal Leveller // Concealment Boost

Secondary:
5/7 AP Pistol // TiN Treated Barrel // Champion's Suppressor // Concealment Boost // Extended Magazine
or
The Judge // HE Round // The Silent Killer Suppressor // Concealment Boost

Dual Goliaths are by miles the strongest and most versatile weapons; they delete crowds, annihilate bulldozers, and can easily deal with most sniper spots in the game while having decent ammo pickup; however, they struggle against turrets. The 5/7 AP pistol compliments them greatly as shields are their only other weakness, and the ability to kill enemies through walls can be lifesaving. In the case that you have DLCs, HE Judge is a much stronger secondary due to the ability to self-trigger unseen strike on demand; you can have a permanent 65% crit chance.

Armour: HBV
Deployable: FAKs
Throwable: Stoic's Hip Flask
Melee: Electrical Brass Knuckles or Buzzer


This build is a part of the true meta team loadout: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2235516545

Videos of solo variants of this build:

[BreadCat]

Yo this build really helped me hotline miami is so easy now Thank mate!

[Alric]

They have significantly higher DPS and better ammo management. Nevertheless, that may not be the case anymore because I haven't played PD2 in a while. Grimms should be viable too though! Good for when you don't want to spam click

[Drnkspwn]

Excuse me, why not the Brothers Grimm instead of Goliath, if I may ask?

[gibus]

Fair

[Alric]

It's not crucial but it reduces accuracy so you can have better spread and thus better crowd control (the horizontal leveller is even better for this)

[gibus]

Curious, why is shark teeth necessary? Without it you can get full 30 crit from LB aced

[Alric]

Armour or health decks take more effort to be proficient with, but they are fully consistent unlike dodge based decks. Stoic, kingpin, and crew chief are no doubt the top 3. Anarchist and hacker are the next best thing.

[McGarnagle]

i haven't played in forever but it seems like armor builds are dead?

[Alric]

Thank you :D I appreciate it

[[SINS] Butthead]

i have rewarded ya a uh idk what i pick but your welcome