The Division 2 Episode 1 expansion is now live for season pass holders and it packs the largest list of changes and additions to the title yet. First, a trailer of what to expect:
Here’s a full summary of what the expansion offers players. You can also find the full details from Ubisoft here.
New Main Missions:
- Manning National Zoo : Emeline Shaw, the leader of the Outcasts, has fallen back from her defeat on Roosevelt Island and barricaded herself deep in the Manning National Zoo. To get to her, you will need to fight through the blockades and the Outcasts who protect her to put an end to her violence.
- Camp White Oak : The Black Tusks and their leader have set up a strategic position close to an estate nestled deep in the woodlands, and your assignment is to take them down and capture him in the new Camp White Oak mission.
New Game Mode:
- Expeditions : Expeditions are free events that bring players to unexplored locations around D.C. to discover new narrative and gameplay opportunities. These sites offer unique challenges and lore not found anywhere else: new collectibles, treasure rooms, environmental puzzles, unique boss mechanics, and more await every Agent who embarks on our Expeditions!
New Classified Assignments:
- Central Aquarium
- NSA Site B13
Shepherd Reward System:
- Added the ability to earn the “Shepherd” title by responding to call for backups and earning endorsements. An agent who received help will be able to endorse the helping agent.
New Exotics:
- Diamondback Exotic Rifle
- BTSU Exotic Gloves
New Weapon Types:
- Carbine 7 Assault Rifle
- Stoner LMG
Skills
Developer Comments: We took a hard look at the current meta. The builds that are fun, effective and popular. We knew that skill builds, while it being something people want to play with, was nowhere near competitive. We knew there was an explosives damage build that was on the fringe of popularity, but none that actually relied on really good skill mods driven by skill power.
We analyzed the best damage builds and survivability builds out there and looked at their efficiency – how fast they kill, how fast they can clear content, how fast they can take down enemies – and mapped that to our skills. How much more power do skills need to get from 3K skill power (our current maximum requirement on skill power mods) to compensate for all the damage bonuses the player is “giving up” on gear to reach that skill power?
Then we looked at each skill and what it should be good at (burst, sustain, single target damage, survivability etc) and went to work tuning the mods to make a skill build approach the efficiency of a “red” damage build or a “blue” tank build. To that effect, here are the current changes to skill mods power levels, and in some cases base numbers, on skills.
Skill Haste
Cooldown Reduction has been replaced with skill haste. Skill haste works equivalent to speed. So 100% skill haste reduces cooldown by 50%, like a car speeding up by 100% getting to it’s destination in half the time. This means that the player can invest in more than 100% Haste and still get something back. It also means there’s a diminishing return to Skill Haste, as opposed to cooldown reduction where each point was actually worth more than the last one. This allows us to have a good amount of Skill Haste possible from gear, but even larger amounts granted by high skill power Skill Mods, granting skill builds more frequent access to their souped up skills.
To that effect, these are the changes to Haste (formerly Cooldown Reduction)
- Removed the 90% Cooldown Reduction hard cap
- Lowered the minimum Cooldown cap for all skills from 10 seconds to 3, except for the Chem Launcher which is now 8
- Renamed all instances of Cooldown Reduction on existing gear to Skill Haste, with a 50% increase to their base values
- Eg: +10% Cooldown Reduction will become +15% Skill Haste
- Increased Surge talent Skill Haste bonus from +10% to +20%
- Increased Alps Summit Armament 1-piece Skill Haste bonus from +10% to +20%
- Increased China Light Industries Corporation 3-piece Skill Haste bonus from +10% to +30%
- Increased Petrov Defense Group 3-piece Skill Haste bonus from +10% to +30%
- Increased Tip of the Spear 3-piece Skill Haste bonus from +20% to +40%
The remaining list of skill changes and updates is far too long to list here so please visit the official Ubisoft blog to see them all!
Our Take
We’ve spent many, many hours on Division 2 and have truly enjoyed our time with it. This update looks to address some of the issues hardcore fans have been clamoring for, particularly with regard to skill builds. There’s a lot of content to consume here and can’t wait to jump back in!