The Division 2 will receive new server maintenance that’s going to probably fix a couple of known issues. This was first announced on today’s State of the Game. While its content is kept in secret, we know that the developers behind Massive and Red Storm are thoroughly working on dissolving all of the current problems before the release of the raid.
The server maintenance will start on Thursday, May 9th, at 09:30 AM CEST / 03:30 AM EDT / 00:30 AM PDT. Downtime expected for 2 hours.
The Raid, Operation Dark Hours, from which a lot of activities and mechanics have already been leaked, will be released with the Title update 3. That is not the update tomorrow, and we’ll have to wait 1 more week before its official kickoff.
To find out what else was discussed on today’s State of the Game, make sure you visit the official The Division 2 Reddit thread, which also holds information on the next Title 3 Update. Overall, The Division 2 has a lot of content that offers an absolute joy. Not only for casuals, but also for tryhards, as its difficulty level can be elevated and suited for all types of players.
It was also noted that the PTS will officially close tomorrow, preparing the Title 3 Update to release on the live servers. Even though this is an event 1 week away from now, the Title 3 patch notes can be found below as available on the PTS:
Title Update 3 – Changes
These are some of the highlighted changes – the PTS Patch Notes are linked at the bottom for the complete list.
The final patch notes will drop next week.
Matchmaking in Down Under
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They have a data center in Sidney
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The goal is that they can play together
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There are not as many players there than in other areas and therefore the chances that you find other players that are doing exactly the same activity on the same level etc is therefore smaller.
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They made many changes to the matchmaking in that area since launch – first they matchmade players to Asia, but then there were language barriers, then they matchmade them to America.
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But the feedback was, that the Australian players prefer good performance over fast matchmaking, so they reverted that change, so now the matchmaking focuses back on the Australia servers – but it can take longer until you find a group.
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This is the solution at the moment – but they continue to improve the situation.
GS 500+ Topic
There has been a lot of discussion about how the next higher Gear Score will be added to the game. You can read * about it in the “Developer Update: Gear Score in Title Update 3” below.
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TLDR: It is not the right time now.
GS 500 Farmlocations
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Contaminated Loot in the Dark Zone (once you have reached GS 500)
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Heroic Difficulty Mission Bosses, Stronghold Bosses, Bounty Bosses and Control Points Level 4 will give you containers that will guarantee GS 500 drops when the player has reached GS 500.
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The Daily Mission will also guarantee GS 500 items (once the player has reached GS 500).
Some time-sensitive Commendations have been removed / New ones added
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The Commendations “Consecutive Days Playtime” and similar ones have been removed
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They did not provide a good player experience and they did not want to force players to play the game with requirements that are also difficult to track because of timezones etc.
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Unlocked commendations will stay visible
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A vanity patch will be added to compensate for lost time.
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They will add other commendations where you can prove your dedication to the game without the login-requirement. (30-day playtime in total etc)
Crafting
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Increased the base cap for Receiver Components and Protective Fabric crafting materials by 200, meaning that their caps now start at 350 and end at 600 with all material capacity perks.
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Inaya al-Khaliq in the Base of Operation is now a Crafting Vendor, she can be found next to the Crafting Bench in the White House.
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The goal is also to make blueprints more accessible.
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Crafted Exotic weapons will now always upgrade to the maximum Gear Score of the World Tier they are crafted in, when the Upgrade Blueprint is used.
Gear Changes
Among other things, they want to make the Gear Sets a more viable choice and also that players are able to invest in armor and also feel tankier than they are now.
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Gear will now include better defensive rolls.
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Gear sets
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Hard Wired
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Now grants Skill Damage instead of Shock Duration.
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Ongoing Directive
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Now grants special ammunition into any weapon, including the weapon currently equipped.
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Now grants special ammunition on any kill, not just weapon kills.
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True Patriot
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Decreased debuff cycle from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.
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Increased damage dealt to nearby targets when Full Flag is active to 50%.
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Loot Changes
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Improved quality and quantity of Drone Helicopter loot.
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Slightly reduced the maximum available loot from Clan Caches.
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Increased ammunition drop chance from enemy NPCs to decrease situations where players would run out of ammunition during prolonged fights on higher difficulty activities.
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Lowered the chances that the loot drops with lower GS than the average GS of the player.
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Heroic Difficulty Mission Bosses, Stronghold Bosses, Bounty Bosses and Control Points Level 4 will give you containers that will guarantee GS 500 drops when the player has reached GS 500.
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Dark Zone
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Contaminated loot will drop below the players GS and will guarantee GS 500 when the player has reached that GS.
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Exotics
Exotics are having their damage increased across the board.
Post Mission Summary Screen
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After completing a mission, players have the option to look at a mission summary and evaluate how they performed based on a variety of statistics.
New mods: Auxiliary Skill Battery
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Auxiliary Skill Batteries fit in Skill mod slots and grant Skill Power that will allow you to unlock mods with higher Skill Power Requirement.
Recalibration remake
Recalibration has been changed to allow for the majority of stats to be moved as they are, from one item to another, while making it less likely to reach the cap of the stat moved. To achieve this goal, we’re expressing the recalibrated power as a separate number, next to the gear score. As such, the recalibration will no longer increase the gear score of the item. All existing recalibrated items will have their recalibrated additional gear score converted to the new format.
Enemy NPC Changes
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Decreased damage of Veteran, Elite and Named NPCs.
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Greatly reduced the melee damage of Tank NPCs
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Moderately decreased melee damage of all other NPCs.
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Accuracy of Grenade Throwers has been reduced
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Enemy NPCs should no longer be able to stagger players with a melee attack if the player has a Ballistic Shield equipped.
Friendly NPC Changes
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Civilians now wear protective gear.
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Upgrading a settlement also increases the Civilians damage
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Civilian hostages are now more protective of their lives
Control Points
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The Alert Level impact will now be more clearly communicated (hard – heroic)
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Hostile patrols and convoys are now communicated better during takeovers
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Civilian Officers can revive you during takeovers.
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Civilian Takeover can now be used as respawn point
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You can fast travel to friendly takeovers and convoys
Skills
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Skills
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Assault Drone
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PvE: The Drone will now more actively look for a new target once it loses its current target.
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Defender Drone
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Will now drain more quickly once a shot has been deflected.
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Reinforcer Chem Launcher
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Reinforcer gas clouds do not stack anymore.
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Reviver Hive
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Fixed further occurrences of players not being revived.
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Revive time slightly increased.
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Riot Foam Chem Launcher
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Increased base duration of Riot Foam when used against an NPC.
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Scanner Pulse
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Reduced cooldown from 120 seconds to 90 seconds.
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Conflict
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Conflict
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Armor boost
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Boost provided reduced by 50%.
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PVP Balancing (Among other things)
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Players are now normalized to GS 500
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Assault Rifles have now a 1.25 PVP damage scaler applied
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PVP Damage modifier has been decreased (longer time to kill)
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Skill modifier has been increased (Skill do more damage)
Dark Zone
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Dark Zone
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Contaminated loot
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Bosses now guarantee a contaminated loot drop.
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Higher challenge landmarks can drop multiple contaminated items.
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Basic, Veteran and Elite NPCs have their drop rate lowered, but now have a very high chance to drop contaminated loot.
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Dark Zone bag size
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Default bag size increased to 6.
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Tier 1 perk Bag Space now increases bag size to 8.
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Tier 4 perk Bounceback now reduces Dark Zone XP lost on death.
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Tier 10 perk increases bag size to 10.
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Dark Zone brackets
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Reduced bracketing to:
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Level 1 – 30.
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Players in World Tiers.
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Rogue
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Removed cooldown.
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There is still a 5 second toggle cooldown.
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Occupied Dark Zone
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Damage modifiers
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Added a separate PvP damage modifier.
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XP
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Reduced DZXP loss to 35% of the XP in your current Dark Zone rank when being killed.
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Console Performance improvements
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The streaming of textures has been improved for consoles
There will also be a Gear Score changes that will most likely impact the players a lot, but will contribute for a much better in-game balance. PVE/PVP tweaks will also be a part of the Title 3 update, which in-general is expected to boost the gameplay experience for everyone.
Having a Raid Instance is probably the best end-game content a game of this caliber could ever have. Thus, it will offer rewards according to the player skill.
