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The Division 2 puts big honking miniguns in players' hands today

It's like a revolver, but more.

Because subtlety is overrated and ammo is cheap in the post-apocalypse (so say Ubisoft), players can lug around their own rotary-barrelled bullet hose in The Division 2 now. Available immediately for Year One Pass owners or after completing a series of in-game challenges for everyone else, the Gunner is the latest Specialisation; a prestige class you pick once you hit the level cap. While defined by their weapon, the ammo will eventually run dry, but Gunners can also fall back to a bag of high-tech tricks. Below, a trailer for the new class and today's patch notes abridged.

While I'm not sure if the Gunner is enough to make me give up on the Grenadier class I know and love (and its classy Mateba-alike revolver), their Banshee ability looks fun. An aggressive version of the enemy-scanning Pulse that stuns enemies in front of you even if they're hiding behind cover. In order to hold enemies still for even easier bullet-hosing, Gunners also get riot foam grenades. Less immediately gratifying, perhaps, but good to lock down targets. The only thing I'm not sold on is that dinky little pistol. You'd think the person with the biggest gun would double down.

Cover image for YouTube video

I've not got the game installed at the moment to check, but I'm hazarding a guess that it'll take extensive grind to unlock the Gunner class if you don't own the year one pass. Better than being sealed away as DLC, I admit. Today's big patch also includes rebalancing and quality-of-life improvements for clans. Weekly projects are now easier for smaller clans, you can see who hasn't logged on in a month so you can boot them, and the clan MVP of the week will get a shiny medal for bragging rights amongst friends.

Understating things a little, Ubisoft say that "All Specializations have received a talent tree rework", which is a single-line note and a game-changing rebalance that we'll likely be picking apart a week from now. Needless to say, you may want to respec. They've also fixed some long-standing bugs with skills, reworked how the Assault Drone picks targets and made the Firefly gadget less useless. Players stomping Black Tusk in the Occupied Dark Zone should also watch their aim, as opening fire on anyone outside of your group will flag you as rogue.

All good changes for the looter-shooter, although I'm curious to see what future game modes look like. Bring back the Roguelike-like random dungeons of Underground, says I. You can read the full patch notes here. The Division 2 is currently a third off on Ubisoft's store, bringing it down to £33.49/€40.19/$40.19.

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Dominic Tarason

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