The Division 2 was no small game when it first launched, but it’s been growing even further for the better part of two years now thanks to a fairly frequent stream of updates. For the latest update, Title Update 12, Ubisoft has been letting players try it out on the PC Public Test Server, and today sees the introduction of a slew of balance tweaks and bug fixes for players to preview.
Last week saw Phase 1 of the testing period take place, allowing players to try out some of Title Update 12’s upcoming features like the ability to re-roll a weapon’s stats. Today, Ubisoft has kicked off Phase 2, which is now live and will be available on the PTS until this Wednesday, December 2. During this time, though, players on the PTS will not be able to access Season 4 content as well as the new Global Event and its accompanying shop.
According to Ubisoft, the changes that Phase 2 brings to Title Update 12 focus on tweaks to general game balance for both PvE and PvP. Among these changes are tweaks to the optimization materials introduced in Phase 1 to make Rogue Agents drop them more frequently. A few of The Division 2's weapons have also received noticeable changes, with the PDR assault rifle receiving a damage buff while the Bighorn and Capacitor Exotics get increased magazines. Meanwhile, the Repair Trap skill has had its base healing, buff radius, and cooldown time improved.
As for bugs, Title Update 12 brings dozens of fixes to issues ranging from progression-breaking glitches to various issues with The Summit and weapons like the Scorpio Exotic. It should be noted that since these changes are part of a developer build, it’s possible that these and the rest of the changes Ubisoft introduced today won’t be fully representative of the changes that will eventually be added to the full game.
With that in mind, here are the full patch notes for Phase 2:
Balance
Optimization Station
Optimization Material drops for Rogue Agent Encounters:
- Rogue Agents now drop a random stack of weapon or gear optimization materials.
- The final rogue will drop a random stack of Tactical Assessment materials and a stack each of gear and weapon optimization materials.
Gear
Weapon - PDR (AR)
- Buffed damage to be more competitive within the Assault Rifle category
- This applies to all PDR variants (including Test Subject and Capacitor)
Exotic - Capacitor
- Increased magazine size to 41 (from 30)
- Adjusted to be 40 stacks of 1.5% Skill Damage (from 50 stacks of 1% Skill Damage)
- Increased weapon damage per skill tier to be 7.5% (from 5%)
Exotic - Bighorn
- Increased magazine size to 40 (from 30)
- Buffed Talent - Big Game Hunter:
- When scoped, switches to semi-automatic fire mode, dealing 450% weapon damage with each shot.
- Headshots grant +2% headshot damage. Stacks up to 50 times. Once at full stacks, 10 stacks decay every 4 seconds until all stacks have been removed. Headshots delay decaying of stacks.
- This change to how stacks decay should reward players who are able to continue getting headshots by allowing them to maintain their damage bonus because of their accuracy.
Exotic - Scorpio
- Adjusted Talent - Septic Shock:
- Shooting a target applies stacks of venom, which last for 10s. Increasing stacks adds more severe debuffs to the target.
- Duration of Status Effects is based on percentage of pellets hit on applying shot.
- PvE Debuffs:
- 1 - Poison
- 3 - Disorient
- 6 - Shock
- 7 - Target takes 20% damage (from all sources)
- PvP Debuffs:
- 2 - Bleed
- 4 - Disrupt
- 7 - Ensnare
- 8 - Target takes 20% damage (from all sources)
Skills
- Repair Trap
- Buffed radius to be 0.75m (from 0.5)
- Increased base healing amount by 25%
- Reduced base cooldown to 40 seconds (from 60)
- Reduced PvP damage of the Shrapnel Trap.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed the “Protect the hostages” objective not updating after all enemy NPC’s were eliminated, blocking completion of the objective.
- Fixed missions on high difficulty at level 30 not dropping gear above 504 gear score.
- Fixed Empress International targeted loot selection not functioning in The Summit.
- Fixed open world loot reward quality on heroic difficulty not scaling properly to the difficulty.
- Fixed players being able to bypass legendary level enemies on Legendary difficulty in The Summit.
- Fixed The Summit challenges not progressing the first time a player enters the game mode.
- Fixed The Summit challenge Skill Demolitions not progressing.
- Fixed The Summit challenge Skill Demolitions not progressing with Shrapnel Trap kills.
- Fixed The Summit challenge Excessive Force not progressing under certain circumstances.
- Fixed The Summit challenge Directives Dabbler not completing.
- Fixed The Summit challenge Exceptional Accuracy not completing.
- Fixed The Summit challenge Oppressive Suppression not progressing with grenade kills.
- Fixed The Summit directive Ragers remaining active if the player switches directives in the lobby.
- Fixed multiple The Summit ascent challenges incorrectly completing despite group members being downed.
- Fixed an issue causing flamethrower kills not always progressing the ‘Crowd Control’ challenge in The Summit.
- Fixed an issue causing loot chests to not spawn loot for all players if some group members were more than 2 floors behind.
- Fixed the Scorpio Exotic debuff UI not refreshing when the player reapplies with subsequent pellets.
- Fixed the Scorpio Exotic poison effect incorrectly affecting turrets.
- Fixed the Scorpio Exotic not refreshing the debuff duration if a second player already applied it to the target.
- Fixed issue where the named Chest and Backpack from Empress International had the wrong core attribute.
- Fixed the Scorpio Exotic incorrectly applying venom stacks to neutral players or group members in the Dark Zone or Conflict.
- Fixed the Tend and Befriend buff only staying active for 4 seconds in the Dark Zone when using the Firestarter or Oxidizer chem launcher skill.
- Fixed the “Symptom Aggravator” talent activating under certain circumstances without the required gear.
- Fixed Achilles Pulse showing incorrect results for Cooldown when Skill Haste mods were attached.
- Fixed the Rigger backpack not being craftable.
- Fixed the Kendra’s Liberty exotic pistol not being craftable.
- Fixed missing muzzle flash VFX for the Capacitor Exotic.
- Fixed placement of the Demolitionist and Technician signature weapons on the Empress International backpacks.
- Fixed placement of the Capacitor Exotic and PDR weapon on the Empress International backpacks.
- Fixed placement of various Chem Launcher variants on the Empress International backpacks.
- Fixed sidearms clipping through the Rigger holster.
- Fixed occurrences of elbow pads appearing twisted when combined with specific apparel items.
- Replaced a number of incorrect voiceover lines in the Japanese localization.
- Fixed a missing voiceover line in the Brazilian Portuguese localization.
- Improved various localizations in multiple languages.
- Fixed the respirator mask remaining on the agents face when switching the gear dye multiple times.
- Fixed the PC Benchmark feature incorrectly skipping to the end screen without providing any information.
In addition to the changes being tested out in the PTS, Ubisoft is offering players new content to take on in the main game. Season 3 of Warlords of New York has entered its final chapter with the introduction of the Belfry League. The hunt for the season’s last Rogue Agent, former army retiree Skyler "Belfry" Williams, comes with several new time trials which will reward players with a new arm patch, Exotic cache, and backpack trophy. The League will run until December 8, with all challenges resetting on December 1.
The Division 2 is available for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
Source: Ubisoft, Ubisoft Forums