In order for any real build to function, you need to have the skill set to get things going.

Simply copy the skills shown here, and below i'll explain why these are so useful for the goal result.



Immediately, you'll notice that not many skills were used in the Mastermind tree. We decided to grab some small assault rifle specific things like Aggressive Reload to boost general shooting vs reloading time. We also grabbed the ties skill mostly as a dump point.



Now this is the skill tree we really start spending points in. For Tank, our chosen perk deck, which we'll get to in a bit, is mostly about armor, so we grab some of this stuff. We don't go for maxing out Iron Man, because we'll be using a medium class armor vest to get a great balance between speed and armor survivability. We get a lot of ammo skills as we'll be using some high powered guns and want to have a reliable ammo economy to avoid the annoying moments of scrounging around for scraps.



The skills we grab here are entirely to boost our Eagle Heavy Rifle's performance. We won't be grabbing Body Expertise, as we'll be going for headshots anyways with our precise weapons. We get armor piercing and reload speed to prevent garbage situations screwing us over, as you can't only get headshots and it's better to deal some damage than none at all.



We grab only the bare essentials that you should always grab in this tree, as we have much more important things to spend our remaining points on.



What we are going for in this tree is maximum damage and some melee feedback. Whether you ace Bloodthirst or Pumping Iron is entirely personal preference, but I like the extra reload speed. We don't care too much about health in this build but everyone always cares about damage, so we pick up frenzy to combine with Beserker for straight out of the box good damage. We also grab the first pistol skill as a dump point and to boost our Deagle performance a little bit.

Now we continue on to the bread and butter that all your enemies shall fear... your weapons.

First thing's first, the main big boi of your arsenal:

This is what most of your damage will come from, as this baby is a b e a s t.
The mods you'll use ordered left to right are:
The Long Barrel,
Competitor's Compensator,
Auto Fire,
Rail Extension,
LED Combo,
Pro or Contractor Grip,
Any Sight,
and the Sniper Stock.

The secondary you will be using is obviously:

This secondary is handy for small swat you really want to flex on.
The mods you'll use ordered left to right are:
The Hurricane Compensator,
An Optional Gadget,
Ergo Grip,
Extended Magazine,
An Optional Sight,
and the Custom Milled Barrel.

For our melee of choice, to keep the tactical feel in play I recommend using any sort of knife. This isn't required however, you do you.

Our throwable is perferably going to be the Incendiary Grenade, as it is guaranteed to kills whatever non-dozer enemies are hit by it. You can still use whatever you please for this though.

There is of course still stuff we need to discuss, stuff that doesn't really fit into a certain category but is still just as crucial.

First off, our perk deck we are using is Sociopath, as I feel it's the single best balance perk deck for cqb, and it lets us use melee effectively without Blood Thirst.

Our armor of choice will be the Heavy Ballistic Vest, as it provides the best balance of speed and protection, allowing you to survive many more situations and not be slow as a slug.

Our equipment will be Ammo Bags, as we put points into them anyways. Good for team and the off chance that you get low on ammo.

The playstyle isn't that complicated besides the normal stuff, play the game, go for headshots and stay low when you ARE low. This build allows you to be brash, rash, and bash people's brains in, so don't hide behind cover all the time like a little ♥♥♥♥♥. If you stay focused and do your part in killing off the endless hordes of pigs, you'll be just fine.

I also have a little video for ya'll to watch if you need a better idea of what all to do and what the build is like. It's a little choppy at parts but it's still better than nothing.

You've made it through the build of combat mastery and are now ready to take on the world of Payday with new style! It's time to take it to the pigs and show em who really holds all the power.

Good luck everybody, and as Bain would've said...

Let's do this!