Skill trees
This article details the changes to skill trees added by Total Crackdown.
Why we made new skill trees
Most of the player-side balance issues in Payday 2 stem from the interactions between skill trees that produce unbalanced effects. To address this, the Total Crackdown skill trees are focused on being self-contained and leaving little room for cross-tree interaction, but powerful enough to be worth investing heavily in. This also makes them easier to balance: if one particular skill tree happens to be overperforming, adjusting it should have little to no impact on other playstyles. Lastly, the skill trees are grouped by function into new class categories that make parsing their intended effects more straightforward, making Total Crackdown easy for new players to get into.
Crackdown player skill classes
Soldier
Marksman: Focused on Precision Weapons and stacking bonuses for not missing.
Gunner: Focused on Critical Hits for Rapid Fire Weapons.
Heavy: Focused on Heavy Weapons and Ammo Bags.
Thug
Dealer: Focused on Melee Weapons and Throwing Weapons.
Shotgunner: Focused on Shotguns and granting them Body Expertise.
Fixer: Focused on the OVE9000 Saw. Do you like hurting other people?
Technician
Engineer: Focused on Sentry Guns.
Sapper: Focused on Drills and Breaching charges.
Demolitions: Focused on Trip Mines, Grenades, and Specialist Weapons.
Support
Taskmaster: Focused on adding functionalities to Hostages.
Medic: Focused on Healing Deployables.
Chief: Focused on Jokers.
Professional
Runner: Focused on going fast and doing things while going fast.
Thief: Focused on stealing things and not getting caught.
Assassin: Focused on Quiet Weapons and Poison.