Ubisoft Massive is releasing a new title update for The Division 2 but it doesn’t have any major new content. Instead, the purpose of the update is to adjust several Exotics and Named Items along with the difficulty of some activities. The update will go live later today when server maintenance begins.
As for what’s changing, Sawyer’s Kneepads has been reworked to negate staggering from explosions entirely. Furthermore, players now gain 3 percent increased weapon damage each second while standing still, which stacks up to 10 times. Then there’s the Diamondback which now turns each shot into a guaranteed critical hit upon hitting a mark. The effect only lasts for five seconds though.
Unfortunately, it seems that PvP balancing has negatively impacted PvE again. The True Patriot gear set has been nerfed so that it’s armor repair function now only grants 2 to 3 percent armor per second. You can check out some of the patch notes below with full notes here for more details. Stay tuned for later when the update goes live.
Game Balance
Exotics, Talent, Named items
Exotics
Sawyer’s Kneepads – Reworked
- Cannot be staggered by explosions.
- Increase total weapon damage by 3% each second you are not moving. Stacks up to 10x and stacks are lost when moving
- This exotic only provides defensive attributes and no brand bonus, so now has potential for high damage and makes it appealing to both red and blue builds.
Developer comment: The old version didn’t provide enough engaging gameplay; this change should help with that.
Imperial Dynasty – Buff
Reduced cooldown to 35s (down from 40)
Developer comment: This buff is to better compensate for the lack of brand bonus.
Dodge City Gunslinger
Reduced charge up time 30s (from 50s)
Developer comment: This buff is to better compensate for the lack of brand bonus.
Diamondback – Reworked
Now Grants all shots guaranteed crits for 5s after hitting a mark
Developer comment: The Diamondback is underperforming, and this change should make the bonus a bit more exciting.
Merciless/Ruthless – Buff
Explosion damage increased to 1200% (up from 900%)
Developer comment: Explosion Damage doesn’t scale with crit stats, so boosted to compensate.
Lady Death
No longer enhances Turret Skills.
Bullet King
Base damage is now the same as the non-exotic LMG version.
Exotic attribute roll quality
- All exotics will now roll at the highest possible minimum roll regardless of the difficulty they are obtained in.
- Exotic items can still roll higher than the minimum but minimum rolls are now higher.