State of the Game patch notes - The Division 2

Today, a brand new State of the Game dropped for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, bringing with it a variety of changes and balance adjustments for players to enjoy. Among the balance adjustments are notable changes to the Dark Zone as well as PVP. Additionally, it was revealed that the upcoming Raid and Title Update 3 have been delayed until May in order to fully correct some of the issues brought up by the community.

With that out of the way, here’s a full recap of the State of the Game patch notes courtesy of the official subreddit for The Division 2!

State of the Game Patch Notes - The Division 2

Normalization Changes

• Changes planned for normalization that will be tested on the PTS.
• Changes are only for PVP content and will apply to Conflict, Normalized Dark Zone, and Occupied Dark Zone.
• Equipment and weapons will be normalized to GS 500 (even if your GS is higher).
• Skill Power will be respected, and when the mods are active in PVE, they will also be active in normalized content.

Global PVP Modifiers

• PVP damage modifier will be reduced from 70% to 40% in order to bring the Time to Kill down to what’s experienced in PVE.
• Skill Damage modifier will be increased from 20% to 25%.

Occupied Dark Zone PVP Modifiers

• Added a specific ODZ PVP damage modifier which also sits at 40% same as the normalized DZ.

PVP Modifiers for Weapon Archetypes

• Specific PVP modifiers will be added for specific weapon types.

Hip-Fire Changes

• In PVP content, you will not be able to crit when you hip-fire. PVE will remain unchanged.

Dark Zone

Loot Changes:

• NDZ and ODZ will drop less clean loot and more contaminated loot.
• Named bosses guarantee contaminated loot and higher leveled landmark bosses have the ability to drop multiple items.

Landmark Cooldown:

• Landmarks have a cooldown now once they are cleared before they activate again (about a minute).

Dark Zone NPC Balancing:

• The NPCs in the Dark Zone will be less lethal, but will also have more armor.

Rogue Loop Changes:

• Rogue Cooldown removed when you die.
• Rogue-Toggle cooldown will stay.
• Dark Zone perk changed so that it will no longer reduce the Rogue Timer cooldown, but you will lose less XP when you die as a rogue.

Dark Zone Pouch Increased:

• You will be able to carry more Contaminated items with default at 6 items per bag.
• Character Perks also changed with the Tier 1 Perk increasing your bag size to 8.
• Dark Zone Perk will increase bag size to 10 total.

Preventing Empty Dark Zones:

• Changes planned to “guarantee” that you encounter 12 players in a Dark Zone Session.
• Reducing the amount of Dark Zone Brackets to 2.
• Everyone below Character Level 30 and everyone in Endgame.
• Note that not all changes will be implemented in Title Update 3 as more are in the queue later down the line.
• No player count increase in Dark Zone planned.

Occupied Dark Zone Changes:

• ODZ specific damage modifier.
• Lowering the XP loss when you die in ODZ.
• GS 515 Items will drop in the Dark Zone.

Thieves Den Changes:

• When you get special ammo in the Thieves Den, you are now allowed to weapon swap.
• Future Changes to Occupied Dark Zone: More changes planned, but will not be implemented with Title Update 3.
• Changes include Rogue and Manhunt Loop to be added to ODZ (no grey rogues).
• NPC-Patrols will also be lowered and more or less limited to the Landmarks.

Conflict

UI Change:

• The UI will now display the real value of the armor and not a standard value.

Boost Change:

• Boosts (damage and armor) that become active over the course of a match will be lowered by 50%.

Synchronizing Team Spawns:

• The chance that you spawn with a teammate is increased.

Skill Cooldown Respected:

• Skill cooldown will be respected after you die.

Exotic, Talents, Gear

Exotics:

• Exotics should feel special.
• They are not always centered around raw DPS.
• Will buff the damage of Exotics across the board.
• Pestilence will be buffed specifically and will be even more effective in PVP.

Buffs:

• They are in the process of aligning the game, items, activities, and talents so that it is fun to play.

Talent Changes

• Unhinged: Will have damage bonus reduced to 20% and handling reduced to 20%.
• Strained: Will have its missing armor requirement increased to 10%.
• Frequency: Will get 20% weapon damage when reloading weapon from empty in PVE and a 15% rate of fire for 3 seconds. In PVP, 15% weapon damage and 15% rate of fire for 3 seconds.
• Preservation: Will get 10% armor repairs over 5 seconds when killing an enemy in PVE. Headshots improve the repair to 20%. In PVP, 5% armor over 3 seconds and headshots to 15% (requires 7 defense attributes).
• Spike: Now gets 35% Skill Damage for 20 seconds when you snag a headshot (requires 5 utility attributes).
• Reformation: Now gets increase in healing and skill repair by 15% when you get a headshot (requires 9 utility attributes).
• Safeguard: Has its healing bonus reduced to 50% and reduced duration to 5 seconds (less than 4 defensive attributes).
• Clutch: Has its health gained per critical hit increased to 20% and reduced armor gained per critical hit to 1%.
• Surgical: Has its critical hit chance bonus reduced to 5%. Spotter has its weapon damage to pulsed targets increased to +20% (increased requirements to 5 utility attributes).
• Kneecap: Now offers 15% chance to apply bleed when shooting an enemy in the legs.
• Entrench: Increases repairs to 10% of your armor when earning headshots from cover.
• Patience: Increases armor repairs by 5% every 1 second after being in cover for 5 seconds (requires 9 defensive attributes).
• Unbreakable: Changes to 70% of max armor repaired when your armor is depleted in PVE. Armor kits used within the next 7 seconds are not consumed. PVP it is 20% of max armor and 7 seconds (requires 11 defensive attributes).
• Bloodsucker: Changes made with depleting enemy armor adding a stack of 25% armor bonus for 10 seconds in PVE. Max stack is increased to 6. In PVP, 20% armor bonus for 5 seconds, max stack of 5 (requires 11 defensive attributes).
• Berserk: Changes made where you receive 10% weapon damage for every 20% armor depleted in PVP (requires 11 offensive attributes and AR LMG or SMG equipped).
• Bloodlust: Changes made where swapping weapons within 3 seconds of a kill grants 35% weapon damage for 5 seconds in PVE. In PVP, it’s 20% weapon damage for 5 seconds (requires 9 offensive attributes).
• Blacksmith: Now set so that killing an enemy with your sidearm repairs 50% of your armor once every 15 seconds (requires 11 defensive attributes).

Other Changes

• Reduce critical hit damage bonus to 5%.
• Other quality of life changes made, including players being able to toggle personal and group loot drops.
• Text chat will now lose focus after sending a message.
• Group tab will be populated with all raid members.

Now that you know some of the changes and balance adjustments addressed in the latest State of the Game for Tom Clancy's The Division 2, be sure to check out some of our other features including info on why the latest Raid in Tom Clancy's The Division 2 has been delayed until May, details on how you can enter the Dark Zone in Tom Clancy's The Division 2 for 515 gear, and how to get all 12 Hunter Masks in Tom Clancy's The Division 2.

Morgan Shaver

Writer

Morgan is a writer, indie game lover, and socially awkward coffee addict. Need something? Morgan can be reached at morgan.shaver@allgamers.com or if you like, you can say hello using GIFs on Twitter.