Division 2: Did You Know? Hard Wired vs Rigger 

One thing I forgot to mention in the video: If you are wanting to run a Skill build, based around damage, I do not recommend either Hardwired or Rigger. Rigger is just straight up bad, Hardwired is a bit of a ball ache to use.

You are correct if total damage is the only consideration. I use rigger specifically for the backpack talent. Being able to cancel your drone/turret and then immediately re-position or re-deploy them is where the rigger set finds their niche. I think of hardwire more for one and done skills like mines but rigger is for skills that linger like turrets.

Before watching your video, I never realized Hardwired is Total skill dmg not just add more skill dmg. Good video!

Rigger was my OG build go to when I would run 5 directives in open world and sometimes summit , it would bypass the cool skills / scavenger skills since you could consistently keep breaking down your skills and they’d be up again instantly. My OG convoy farm build .

I use my Hard Wired set as a seeker spammer. Throw seekers wait 6 seconds drop chem heal throw seekers again.

I always crushed rigger pieces. Thanks for confirming that as the appropriate choice.

Your videos are very informative. Thank you

Rigger is a ... decent enough skill set AND really really easy to get (think this is a big plus here) for newer players who are in love with turret&drone until they either give up on being killed by rushing enemies and going 3 empress, 2 brazos + 1 whatever and ditching the stupid stupid stupid low damage piece of garbage drone for artificer hive. Sadly many people stop here, and they go "oh I can get TWO stats on the yellow pieces" and they grab skill damage & skill haste and they still get murdered by rushing enemies instead of going skill damage + crit chance. They also tend to forget that picking up the damn turret is better than destroying it (unless ofc you use rigger). Rigger teachers players to pay attention to more things than just unga bunga, hold mouse 1 and stuff dies. Where is your skill? how much hp has it got left? is the duration running out et.c. AND just for giggles it actually totally bypasses the directive with "skills require pickups" (scavenged skills) since you can alternate dropping and removing your skills.

i did not know hardwired was multiplicative !! that's great to know, and yes rigger is so trash, a lot of things need a check up in this game like exotics and a few gearsets since they are utterly useless

First thank you for the dedication to the game. Second I did ask about rigger but only because I heard off the infinite mortar spam build. I think it’s a POS set I tried when it first came out didn’t like the fell went back to my high end setup and never looked back. It’s now just a meme with some the Pepe’s I play with about watching your language. And thanks again for going in to it

The only time I used rigger is when I need shrapnel traps, sniper-flame-demolition turret. Nothing more.

Definetly people must watch more of Ronon's stuff. The Sleigher DUA videos are some of the best things my eyballs have ever been allowed to witness.

I have always found that the old 3 Pc empress gold build with waveform to just be reliable, casual and effective. I can increase damage thru weapon perks as well. I have used it religiously basically since launch and then added waveform. It should be a standard in every agents loadout library for turn off your brain gameplay

I don't use Hardwire at all. I'm not a fan of the "rotation" to utilize it. For me, that defeats the whole versatility of using a skill build to begin with. I use Rigger for sniper and mortar turrets. I use a piecemeal all yellow focusing skill damage and haste for everything else. Works great with a general assault turret and drone loadout, as well as any other skill I want to switch around.

I only use rigger with the backpack for instant flame turret spam as thats always got like a 40+ second cooldown , I don't see why people use it with mortar turret as you can get that to about 9 seconds on a normal yellow build

Awesome vids Hard Wired was fantastic on the Pts, we were all so happy. When it came to the live game they nerfed the crap out of it with it not triggering on the initial deploy and doubled the cool down from 5sec to 10sec. I've tried it a few times and realised calculated is far more efficient. 2 back to back seekers is more damage than on buffed by glass canon. Hard Wire is still mostly useless. As a returning player I've always been a skill player since D1 now skills are in such a poor place I've converted to dps.

Future Initiative made them both obsolete

Multiplicative in calculating skill damage may be deceptive. Formula I have tested for Turret/Drone is: Base Damage x (1+All Skill Damage) x (1+Skill Damage) x (1+Total Skill Damage) x (1+ Amp 1) x (1+ Amp 2).... where: Base Damage: Damage of a level 40 skill, without watch points or expertise. I have identified the Drone has having 16591 and Turret as 26545 All Skill Damage: Includes skill damage from Brand Sets and Gear Sets, Watch points, Technician skill damage and minor attributes. Also includes talents like the Capacitor, In Sync, Spike or the Memento long and short-term buffs. Skill Damage: Skill specific damage which includes damage given by skill tiers, mods and expertise. Total Skill Damage: Talents that act as their own multiplier of all skill damage, some tested include Kinetic Momentum, Tech Support, Combined Arms and Ground Control. Unlike amplifiers these add within the same pool, that is if using kinetic momentum and perfect combined arms you will have a total of 60% and not 69% (1.3*1.3-1) Amplifiers: Only tested glass cannon and perfect glass cannon but others like opportunistic, true patriot, sledgehammer, Scorpio and the ones currently bugged could be applied (OD, Flatline and HF's stacks) Hope this helps

I use rigger to run for xp grinding in The open world. Kinetic momentum and capacitor. The damage is nothing crazy but being able to destroy and redeploy drone and turret is pretty nice. I wouldn't use it for anything else though. The hardwire on harder content with a group can actually put out alot of dps. Cluster mine and a shield , it does ok damage and acts like a soft cc making enemies constantly move. Neither one are dps machines but there is a play style that works well for each. Both B tier though.

I prefer hard wired for a seeker build for for a shrapnel maybe rigger might be better for some

I use Rigger for one reason. I farm it in countdown if I need crafting materials to donate for the weekly SHD acquisition 😂😂😂

I still like rigger. I can send my drone on suicide missions and just cancel it before it dies and my turret tanks for me and I can reposition it when I want to move. It’s allowed me to solo heroic with absolute ease.

Wasn't 3 piece hardwired meta at 1 point? Might have to try a skill build even though I think their for new players. Great vid what's you thought on the new named chest?

I think we can all agree both sets need a buff. They seriously lag behind a dedicated high end build, or hell even a hybrid skill damage/critchance hybrid build with memento.

I use rigger specifically for drone and turret hardwire I use for anything reusable

I think the idea was to use rigger with fire turret and explosive trap. It is very weak otherwise

Moral of the story im going to make a 5.11 Skill set.. haha jks aside. Thanks for your efforts of testing this out.

Interesting. Rigger was my favorite until I fell in the Hunter's Faith rabbit hole. Quick off topic question though... Who is making good level 30 build videos? I don't play my level 30 toon enough to figure it out. I'd like a level 30 build that works similar to a Hunter's Faith build.

I've never had any problem with rigor use that with the assault rifle that's got perfectly in sync to give you that extra damage I've never had any problem with it

Hardwire is good for one thing for me - intsta cooldown on cheesy pulse conflict builds. Apart from that, trash trash trash. But yes it's easy to see on paper how hardwired is boss in this scenario I just don't like or see the point in skill builds

Yooo you made the video. Thanks dude!

i use my hardwired with a sticky and explosive sticky pretty fun

Rigger is good because the backpack talent and spec into all skill dmg, skill haste isn’t needed cause of the talent alone it’s best using it with turret skills like the sniper turret or mortar and pair it with decoy you get enemies off your team mates and you can use it to kite enemies to where you want, and if you can get these unicorn pieces like a the sacrifice with skill dmg and haste and a picarios with skill dmg and change its main to a skill and use tech spec use capacitor, and m1a with the spotter for head shot targeting , use a pistol that can get you into overcharged

Oxidizer cloud duration actually benefits with rigger.

Love your stuff. And yes Ronon is crazy and should do more stuff.

Death grips is the only 5.11 I use

You know how the old saying goes: If you use rigger you are a stupid .....

dyehard HW here...most versitile build imho. GG

The best thing rigger has going for it is that the difference between the best skill build and the worst skill build just isn't that big.

So with this knowledge we can now also safely say that Waveform is completely utter garabge? Cause it states 30% Skill Damage, not total....right?

Rigger exists for directives. Having no cooldown overrides cool skills and other skill hampering directives.

Duration is not small on turret and drone, as it's not a skill tier dependent attribute it's actually significant (although I don't really use it). I have never really looked into detail on attribute duration but mod duration (which should be the same) is relevant

There is open world activity that do not need to kill npc to complete and get xp.. so rigger would be useful in that kind activity...😮

Hating on 5.11: there was a time that Demo/Rapid Response with Clutch plus 5.11 and health/CHC stacking provided a surprising DZ face tank build. On that build, Fast Hands was a survival talent. As for Rigger, 4pc w backpack allowed you to chain chuck shrapnel traps and one shot any all blue build,... and you could do it after rolling the yellow cores off; the trap was only recently nerfed.

Amazing Video! If I were a developer I would rework both sets to make each "specific" to a playstyle and make their vests viable (maybe a must have) Hard Wired (Seeker Mine/Explosive Build): 2 Piece: 15% Skill Damage 3 Piece: 20% Explosive Damage and 15% Skill Haste 4 Piece: Whenever you use or cancel a skill | Your other skill cooldown is reduced by 30s | Explosive and skill damage are increased by 10% for 15s | Cooldown: 20s Chest Talent: Increases Feedback Loop explosive and skill damage from 10% to 25% for 15s Backpack Talent: Decreases Feedback Loop cooldown from 20s to 10s Rigger (Skill Build): 2 Piece: 15% Skill Duration 3 Piece: 30% Skill Health and 15% Skill Efficiency 4 Piece: Interacting with your deployed skills grants the skill 20% skill damage for 10s. Chest Talent: Increase the damage buff from 20% to 30% Backpack Talent: Cancelling your skills will reset their cooldown

As a day one player I've tried it all. Both sets are trash for use as a skill only build. My old high end from two years ago outperforms even switching to one blue core for survivability.

Hard Wire for the win in my book.

Easy deduction 😅

There is absolutely no way to outperform rigger with 511 as long as you're using the same chest and backpack talents. Although I agree Rigger is terrible

Holy hell. People still run Rigger?!?! I remember when Rigger was released. That was the gear set in this game that taught me not to get excited about new gear sets.

I think both of these are trash. Rigger is as you’ve shown is and Hard Wired is a pain to use. What annoys me most with Hard Wired is the whole “you will play this way” system the devs built in. You’re much better off making your own skill builds without either of these.

Both shit. Dont bother using these sets. Much better things to use.