Big changes are coming to The Division 2’s loot and skill systems beginning with the upcoming Title Update 5, the devs revealed in yesterday’s State of the Game stream. For starters, the devs acknowledge that players “aren’t very satisfied” with the game’s current loot system, and they agree that the system could use some work. Although they’re still working on coming up with satisfying solutions to the issue, Title Update 5, which will be hitting the public test server next month, will take some first steps toward rectifying the situation by allowing players to earn exotics — including crafting- and world drop-exclusive ones — as loot drops from heroic bosses.
The idea is to provide players with “a clearer path to max gear score exotics.” In addition, after the update, exotics that are increased to 500 gear score will always “roll to max,” meaning that they’ll always have identical stats at max level, thus reducing reliance on RNG for good stat rolls. Crafters will also be getting the ability to upgrade their workbenches, allowing them to craft 500-gearscore items. And for those with neither the luck for drops nor the dedication for crafting, Cassie Mendoza will begin selling 500-gearscore items, including select exotics and named items.
Title Update 5 will also bring with it some massive adjustments to skills that aim to bring “100% dedicated skill builds” up to par with weapon-focused builds. Although the devs stress that weapons will still remain “the kings of sustained, single-target DPS,” they’re making skill power mods much more potent. As an example, currently, a turret mod at 3000 skill power increases the turret’s damage by around 25-30%, but after the update, that same mod will buff the damage by up to 150%.
The devs also feel that the current implementation of the cooldown-reduction stat makes it a bit too easy for players to hit the 90% cap and reduce their cooldowns to 10 seconds, which is “a problematic situation,” so they’re replacing it with the new skill haste stat. Although it will be slightly less powerful than the current cooldown-reduction, it will ultimately allow players to reduce their cooldowns significantly further and create “a healthier system for the overall integrity of the game.” For all the details about the upcoming skill changes (and everything else coming with TU5), you can check out the full State of the Game stream just below or skim the handy TL;DW summary over on the game’s subreddit.
