Operation Iron Horse in Division 2 is not like Operation Dark Hours where everyone could equip DPS builds and go, Iron Horse requires a bit more strategy and build variations from different players to be successful. The builds, for the most part, will still be DPS, but there will be instances where a tank build, healer build, and status effect build will be needed. We'll go through each of the builds but also advise where they will come in most handy during the raid.
The builds don't have to be completely perfect to be working which is nice, but they do have so have some baselines to be functional. For example, the tank build in the Fieser fight needs to have specific thresholds for hazard protection to be viable. The healer build has to be able to handle multiple teammates at once during the Williams fight as another example. We'll put builds here that are proven to work in the raid, and we'll also show some variations. Now, these are not the only builds that can be made but are recommendations, and other builds will probably be different based on different play-styles, but if players want to beat the raid, these will work for sure.
DPS builds for Operation Iron Horse in Division 2
Since a DPS build was the standard for most players in Operation Dark Hours, they will still be viable here but, there's an added twist for this raid. Here, players need to worry more about surviving and staying alive than taking enemies down. There are a lot of mechanics to deal with, and anyone delegated to being a DPS player should have a standard three-piece providence build with the Fox's Prayer Kneepads, Contractor's Gloves, and the Coyote's Mask. A change from the previous iterations is that the M1A was the gun to use for DPS. For Iron Horse, a Bullet King is going to be useful for many of the encounters of the raid. Another variation is that Glass Cannon was pretty much the be-all of builds, but now Unbreakable is more useful in this raid than in Dark Hours. The specialization used for this build is going to be the Demolitionist because of the Incombustible talent.
Healer Builds for Operation Iron Horse in Division 2
For Iron Horse, old healer builds might not be strong enough anymore because of the non-stop healing required, such as the control room for the Fieser fight, keeping the tank alive against Williams,or when the teams split up to tackle Morozova. A big recommendation as far as a healer build goes is to have four pieces of Future Initiative and have Alps and Murakami for the backpack or chest. It doesn't matter which one goes in which slot, but the reason for those two is the 20% Skill Duration on Murakami and the 20% Repair Skills in Alps. The attributes need to be geared towards Repair Skills whenever possible. After that has been added, skill duration is next to keep the Healing Hive and Chem Launcher Heal going as much as possible. The talents necessary to make the build work are going to be Safeguard for the backpack, and Empathic Resolve on the Chest Piece. These talents boost both the heal itself and weapon damage for the team. For the guns, a few options are available but there isn't as much emphasis on killing enemies. A great talent that is useful with this build is Future Perfect to keep getting the overcharge on the skills. Other talents could be Preservation and Reformation to keep the healer at 100% armor which affects healing others, and In Sync for damage purposes. For the specialization, using the Technician is preferred because it has Emergency Patch and Enhanced Diagnostics for all that extra healing. Survivalist can be used as well for the Triage Specialist Talent.
Tank Builds for Operation Iron Horse in Division 2
A solid tank build will be necessary for all the boss fights except against Lieutenant Gray which is a DPS check for the team. The tank needs to have a lot of armor, a lot of Hazard Protection, and using a Bulwark shield is a must. Doing weapon damage is negligible for the tank as they're not doing a lot of damage, but having talents like Preservation will be very valuable to keep repairing while tanking. For doing damage, since a Bulwark shield will be used, a Liberty is useful because of its stackable talent to give more damage with a headshot at max stacks. This build revolves around having a three or four-piece Bulwark set with a Yaahl piece for the chest and either one or two Gila pieces. The Yaahl is needed for the extra Hazard Protection, and the Gila is for the extra armor. Another option is going for the Tardigrade chest piece because its talent can help other players out but at a cost of losing out some Hazard Protection. Some players have been switching between one or two Gila as they're finding the four-piece Bulwark ability isn't working as expected, but that could get tweaked in the future. For the talents, Vanguard, Adrenaline Rush, or Protector have been the preferred talents because of the extra armor they provide. As for the attributes, it's going to be Hazard Protection and afterword, armor regeneration if possible. Players should be looking to get 1.7M armor and 60-80% Hazard protection to have good survivability. With 80% Hazard Protection, tanks can last up to approximately 240F in the crucible room with Fieser before taking actual damage. For specializations, Firewall has Bull Rush that can be an interesting option to give some bonus armor, but Demolitionist is the go-to because of the Incombustible talent.
Status Effect Builds for Operation Iron Horse in Division 2
Crowd control isn't tremendously necessary in the Iron Horse raid, but it does serve a few functions that might not be readily apparent. To make this build work, we're going to be working around the Vile mask which is an exotic mask that is gotten by getting to level 90 in the Season 2 rewards. The strength of this mask is that when the player who's wearing it applies a status effect that does damage over time to NPCs that have the debuff. In other words, the higher the status effect percentage then the more damage a player can do. The build also revolves around the Eclipse set with a piece of Golan gear mixed in to get the extra status effect percentage. The chest and backpack pieces are going to be Eclipse, but the backpack can be switched for a Golan piece with Creeping Death to add a bit more survivability to the build. All pieces should have Status Effects rolled on and after that Skill Haste to maximize the usefulness of the Vile mask. The skill that will take advantage of the mask is going to be the Jammer Pulse, where its ability is far-reaching and causes a status effect. There is a bit of crowd control that can be used here with either a Burn Sticky Bomb or Airburst Seeker Mines, but they are a bit more cumbersome to use. The guns will be the Everlasting Gaze for its Perfect Perpetuation talent that will up the status effects damage by 50% and also increases the duration of the effects. The other talent should be Future Perfect to keep giving the overcharge ability to have skills out continuously. The Specialization can be the Demolitionist for the Demolitionist Tactical ability or the Survivalist for the Survivalist Tactical ability.
Division 2 is available for PS4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC