[2019] The Division 2 - PTS Title Update 6 - Patch Notes | The Division 2 Dev Tracker

Below you find a first version of the Patch Notes for PTS Title Update 6.

For this PTS, we will not include any narrative content of Episode 2 and the Patch Notes will therefore not mention them.

Our development team is also still working on this patch, which is planned to release in October.
This means that there are a lot of game and balance changes still going to be added to this list of changes, both more nerfs and buffs to items, gear sets, gear brands, weapons, etc.

You might also find different numbers on the PTS than in the Patch Notes below, but we’ll make sure to iron these out the best we can for the final release of TU6 / Episode 2.

Gameplay changes

Blueprints

Added a missing blueprint for the Aces & Eights kneepads.
Removed 3 blueprints from the blueprint collection as they were not obtainable in the game.

PVP

Dark Zone

Gear Normalization

Player stats will no longer be normalized, and agents will receive their full recalibration bonuses at end game.
Players below Gear Score 500 will still receive stats boost to allow an easier entry into the Dark Zone.
Talents continue to have PvE and PvP versions.
- The UI will now automatically change the talent text inside and outside normalized PvP.
- We’re working on displaying all PvP modifiers in the UI.

Developers Notes: We heard player feedback that normalization can be too punishing, especially when you’re trying to min/max your agent as much as possible, just to learn that when entering a Dark Zone, the effort was not worth it.
Supply Drops

Added more variety of the types and locations of supply drops.
Supply drops can now drop in inactive landmarks.
- These encounters can have multiple bosses or faction fights.
Supply drops will occasionally drop in the Occupied Dark Zone.
- Black Tusks will make sure to guard the precious drop.

Updated Thieves Den Vendor

The Thieves Den Vendor has now setup a proper store and accepts DZ resources.
The Thieves Den Vendor stock will rotate regularly – We’ll have more information on the stock and rotation at a later point.
Added an indicator on the World Map which displays the specific Dark Zone in which the Thieves Den Vendor is located.
- At end game, the Thieves Den Vendor will move between the two non-occupied DZs.
Normal vendors outside each Dark Zone’s main gate now accepts DZ resources with reworked stocks.

Dark Zone matchmaking

We’ve made changes to matchmaking for Dark Zones which should ensure higher populations in all zones.

Developers Notes: In the past, one of our biggest goals with the DZ was for it to always feel like a fully seamless experience with the open world. This led players, depending on which server they were assigned to, going into empty DZ phases. In Episode 2, we now make an effort to place you onto a server that will help ensure you’re playing in a full zone. The server transfer can happen when players first walk into a DZ checkpoint.
General changes

Dark Zone extractions now have a chance to be ambushed by NPC's.
Hacking a Dark Zone Terminal will temporarily highlight DZ resources around you.

Conflict

Added new sound effects for the countdown in Conflict.
End of match rewards.
- Players will now always earn a reward for playing a match.
- Additional rewards will be given for ranking up and winning.
Added new loading screens.
Added new match start sequence.
Updated boost signs and feedback.
Updated Victory/Loss presentation.
- Added new music for the winning team.
Reworked end of round screen
- Will emphasize on each earned reward.
Added PvP projects in Conflict.
- Daily DZ Projects now rotates between a Conflict project and a DZ project.
Added visibility of the area of effect range of Skills.
- Only shows when players are in the affected area.

Control Points

Control Point Officers will now revive all downed players, instead of only reviving the player that was downed last, in co-op sessions.

UI

Added a bonus armor visualization on enemies.

Loadout selection

Players can now choose loadouts from the map voting screen.

Loot targeting

Loot targeting is a new feature introduced with Title Update 6 / Episode 2. When reaching World Tier 5 players will be able to see Named Zones and Main Missions now have icons to reflect a higher drop chance for specific items. This allows agents to target specific brands, weapons and mods in these missions and zones. A detailed article about this feature can be found here.

Recalibration

We have made several changes to recalibration for this update:

New recalibration interface.
Players are now able to recalibrate stat types over each other, for example Offensive (Red) attributes over Defensive (blue) attributes.
- This still only applies to stats on gear pieces of the same category.
It is now possible to recalibrate items that are located in the Stash.

Brand sets

Brand sets now have an item available on every slot, Mask, Backpack, Vest, Gloves, Holster and Kneepads.
The only exception to this is the “511” brand, as the real-life version doesn’t cover all slots and we’re happy to stick with that.

Crafting

Enemies will no longer drop crafting materials that the player is currently capped out on.
Deconstructing gear and weapons have a chance to provide Polycarbonate.
- The chance to gain extra materials from deconstructing stays the same.
Lowered crafting costs. When crafting fewer grey and Brand materials will now be required.
- At Gear Score 500 base materials required are now 60 (down from 85)
- At Gear Score 500 Brand materials required are now 5 (down from 8).
Enemies will now drop higher amounts of crafting materials.
- Green materials up to 12 (from 6).
- Blue materials up to 9 (from 4).
- Named enemies drop larger quantities than before.
Crafting material containers will now drop one green and one blue material, instead of just one of either.
Blueprints that haven’t been acquired yet will now be visible in the crafting bench interface with hints on how to acquire them.
Added a notification to the crafting interface that increases clarity when an upgrade to the Crafting Bench is available.
The crafting vendor Inaya now sells a perk that allows a player to share materials between all their characters.
Increased perks for upgrading the material inventory size:
- Base materials cap with all perks unlocked now 2000 (up from 600).
- Green and blue materials cap with all perks unlocked now 1500 (up from 400).
Increased material caps for rare materials:
- Purple cap now 300 (up from 100).
- Orange cap now 80 (up from 50).
- Hard Wired base materials cap now 50 (up from 30).
- Hard Wired components cap now 10 (up from 5).

Stash

Increased Stash space by 150.

Balancing changes

Brand Sets

Alps Summit Armament:

2-Piece set bonus is now +10% Skill Power (up from 5%).

China Light Industries Corporation:

3-Piece set bonus is now +20% Skill Haste (down from 30%).

Petrov Defense Group:

3-Piece set bonus is now +20% Skill Haste (down from 30%).

NPCs

Rebalanced Hard, Challenging and Heroic difficulty.
Black Tusk War Hounds and Mini Tanks will now feature red, blinking lights before they perform their on-death explosion.
- This is now consistent with how all other NPCs signal that they explode.
Black Tusk Mini Tank now has a short wind-up before its on-death explosion.
Fixed an issue that prevented the Black Tusk War Hound’s turret from not being able to rotate beyond a certain threshold when moving.
- Developer comment: This means the War Hound will be able to hit a target more frequently when moving which was always intended.
Decreased effectiveness of the Black Tusk Mini Tank after its Controller has died.
- Increased wind-up time of LMG greatly.
- Decreased accuracy significantly.
- Enabled friendly fire.
Removed Explosive Ammo from Elite Black Tusk War Hound and replaced it with “Triple Shot”—three successive shots after a short delay between each.
- Developer comment: Bleed was too punishing when applied by the War Hound.
NPCs are now more aggressive when entering combat with the player.
- Assaults now provide cover-fire for their allies when entering combat if a Heavy Weapons is not present in their fireteam.
Decreased Outcasts Tank and Underground Tank health by 12.5%.
Increased movement speed of Underground Tank slightly.
Decreased crowd-controlling effectiveness against Tank NPCs slightly and in a number of different ways:
- Shock duration decreased by 50% for Tanks.
- Ensnare duration decreased by 50% for Tanks.
- Burn no longer staggers or affects the behavior of Tanks.
- Blind causes Tank NPCs to stand still and shoot wildly (with friendly fire turned on).
- Blinded Melee Tanks slowly move to the player’s last known position but will not attack.
- Confuse causes Tank NPCs to walk around randomly while shooting wildly (with friendly fire turned on).
- Confused Melee Tanks slowly move towards the player but with a decent amount of delay.
Player Turrets are now more likely to be targeted by enemy NPCs.
- This is especially true if the player is hiding in cover or not doing anything particularly threatening.
- The hitbox size has also been increased slightly and we fixed some issues so enemy NPCs will now hit turrets a bit more easily.

Skills

Seeker Mine

Increased damage of Explosive Seeker Mine by 20%.
- Now applies Bleed status effect.
Increased damage of Cluster Seeker Mines by +30%.
Increased cooldown of Cluster Seeker Mines from 40s to 60s.
Lowered quantity of Cluster Seeker Mines from 4 to 3.
Increase cooldown of Blinder Firefly from 60s to 90s.

Developer Notes: We've seen an overall positive reception from the community in regard to the improvements to skills and skill haste in TU5, and it's been great to see players theory crafting and using their new and improved builds. With skill-based builds becoming more and more common at the end-game however, it was clear that some combination of skills had become overly disruptive to the intended experience. In particular, the generous increase to skill haste on gear coupled with the reduced base cooldown of Cluster Seekers meant achieving a very short cooldown was relatively easy. While we're happy with the damage output of the Cluster Seeker itself, the skill does more than just blow things up, as it effectively causes NPCs to panic; frequently flushing them out of or away from cover, leading to even more damage received. For this reason, the Cluster Seeker can be seen as a significant force multiplier, especially in group content. Because encounter balance and cadence is important for creating not just challenging combat, but a satisfying overall experience, we felt it necessary to increase the cooldown of Cluster Seekers to 60s (still remaining 30s shorter than its TU4 counterpart) and lower the number of mines deployed by 1, while giving it a boost in damage to compensate; ensuring it remains your best choice when it comes to eliminating multiple spread-out targets at once. The increase in damage and the addition of the Bleed status effect to the Explosive Seeker Mine should also increase its attractiveness and make choosing between it and the Cluster variant a more meaningful choice.

Firefly

All Firefly variants can now be quick-deployed and will rapidly seek out the nearest target(s).
Increased cooldown of Blinder Firefly from 60s to 90s

Developer Notes_: Similar to what was outlined above, generous skill haste from gear and the addition of the exotic BTSU gloves meant players could achieve both very frequent and very long blind durations on NPCs. Coupled with something like an equally short cooldown on Cluster Seekers, it was possible to crowd-control an entire wave of 10+ enemies while simultaneously dealing tens of millions of damage with ease and at very little risk. We like seeing powerful combinations of skills being used together and want to encourage clever use of game mechanics, especially in terms of group synergy, but it should come at the cost of investing in highly specialized gear. With these changes, it is still possible to achieve a 10s or lower cooldown on both the Blinder Firefly and Cluster Seeker Mines, however it will require a more significant investment in Skill Haste to achieve such a powerful force-multiplier.

Turret

Assault Turret and Sniper Turret damage is now affected by the Damage to Elites attribute.
Increased drain on Incinerator Turret active duration when firing.

Drone:

Striker Drone damage is now affected by the Damage to Elites attribute

Eagle Bearer

Lowered Eagle Bearer Damage by 15%

Talents

New talents:

Spark: Damaging enemies with skills or grenades grant +15% weapon damage for 15s.
- Spark can be found on backpack items.
Vigilance: Gain +25% weapon damage. Receiving damage disables this buff for 5s.
- Vigilance can be found on chest items.
Concussion: Headshots grant +20% headshot damage for 2 s, 5s with marksman rifles.
- Concussion can be found on mask items.

Talent changes:

Gear:

On The Ropes: Nerf
- Weapon damage is increased by 15% (down from 25%) while all skills are on cooldown.
Critical: Buff
- +15% (up from 5%) critical hit damage
Mad Bomber: Buff
- Removed attributes requirements.
- Riot Foam Grenade radius is now correctly modified.
Unstoppable Force: Nerf
- Killing an enemy grants 1% (down from 2%) weapon damage for every 20.000 (down from 25.000) max armor.
Creeping Death: Buff
- Status effects spread to the nearest enemy within 25m (up from 10m). Can occur every 5s (down from 15s).
Trauma: New functionality
- PVE: Once every 30s, an enemy hit with a headshot is blinded for 5s.
- PvP: Once every 40s, an enemy hit with a headshot is blinded for 2s.
Centered: Buff
- Headshot kills grant status effect immunity for 30s (up from 10s).
Dialed In: New functionality
- While Aiming, gain 15% weapon stability.
Spotter: Nerf
- +15% (down from 20%) weapon damage to pulsed enemies.
Wicked: New functionality
- Whenever you apply a status effect, gain +15% weapon damage for 20s.
Compensated: Nerf
- Weapon damage is increased by 10% (down from 15%) when your critical hit chance is below 20%.
- Now correctly removes the buff if critical hit chance is increased when the buff is active.
Obliterate: Buff
- Depleting an enemy’s armor grants +30% (up from 25%) critical hit damage for 15s (up from 5s).
Opportunistic: New functionality
- Enemies you damage take 10% more damage from all sources for 3s.
Kneecap: New functionality
- Shooting an enemy in the legs applies bleed to them for 10s. This can occur once every 30s.
Bloodlust: New functionality
- Swapping weapons grants +15% weapon damage for 5s. The buff is lost for 5s when you swap a weapon while the buff is active.
Gunslinger: Buff
- Swapping to your sidearm within 10s (up from 3s) of a kill refills the sidearm’s magazine and grants +30% (up from 20%) weapon damage for the entire magazine.
To Order: Added functionality
- Grenades can now be “cooked” by holding the fire button, making them explode earlier. Gain +15% bonus armor while aiming grenades.
Surgical: Buff
- +10% (up from 5%) critical hit chance
Entrench: Buff
- Headshots from cover repair 15% (up from 10%) of your armor.

Weapons:

Naked: New functionality
- Whenever your armor is depleted, gain +50% damage for 20s.
Breadbasket: Buff
- Landing body shots adds a stack of bonus +50% (up from 5%) headshot damage to the next headshot for 10s. Max stack is 3 (down from 10).
Boomerang: Buff
- Critical hits have a 50% (up from 20%) chance to return the bullet to the magazine. If a bullet is returned to the magazine the next shot has +50% (up from 20%) increased damage.
Close & Personal: Buff
- Killing a target within 7m grants +50% weapon damage for 10s (up from 5s).
Near Sighted: Adjustment
- Receive a +80% (up from 35%) stability at the cost of -30% (up from 20%) critical strike range and -30% optimal range.
Finisher: Added functionality
- Swapping from this weapon within 10s (up from 3s) of killing an enemy grants +30% Critical Hit Chance and +30% Critical Hit Damage for 15 (added).
Frenzy: Buff
- For every 10 bullets in the magazine capacity, gain +3% (up from 2%) rate of fire and +3% (up from 2%) weapon damage for 5s when reloading from empty.
Killer: Buff
- Killing an enemy with a critical hit grants +50% (up from 30%) critical hit damage for 15s (up from 5s).
Lucky Shot: Buff
- Magazine capacity is increased by 20%. Missed shots from cover have a 100% (up from 25%) chance to return to the magazine.
Outsider: New functionality
- After killing an enemy, gain +100% optimal range, +100% critical range and +100% accuracy for 10s.
- Removed attributes requirements.
Unwavering: Modified functionality
- Swapping to this weapon grants +200% weapon handling for 5s. Kills refresh this buff. Swapping away disables this buff from all weapons for 5s.
Sadist: Added functionality
- Deal 30% weapon damage to bleeding enemies. After 3 kills, applies bleed to the next enemy you hit.
Eyeless: Added functionality
- Deal 30% weapon damage to bleeding enemies. After 3 kills, applies bleed to the next enemy you hit.
Ignited: Added functionality
- Deal 30% weapon damage to bleeding enemies. After 3 kills, applies bleed to the next enemy you hit.
Overwhelm: Buff
- Suppressing an enemy grants +10% (up from 5%) weapon damage for 10 seconds. Max stack is 5.
Ranger: Adjustment
- Removed attributes requirements.
Reformation: Buff
- Headshot kills increase skill repair and healing by 150% (up from 50%) for 25s.
Rifleman: Buff
- Stacks are no longer removed on missed shots and bodyshots.
Premeditated: Nerf
- Weapon damage is increased for every shell loaded to a maximum of +40% (up from 35%). If all shells are reloaded the weapon damage is increased by an additional 10% (down from 50%). Buff lasts for 10 seconds.
Pummel: Buff
- 2 (down from 3) consecutive body shot kills refills the magazine and grants +50% weapon damage for 10s (up from 7s).
Vindictive: Added functionality
- Killing an enemy with a status effect applied grants all group members within 15m +20% critical hit chance and +20% critical hit damage (added) for 20s (up from 10s)
Measured: Modified functionality
- The top half of the magazine has +20% rate of fire and -15% weapon damage. The bottom half of the magazine has -20% rate of fire and +30% total weapon damage (modified).
Steady Handed: Buff
- Landing a shot adds a stack of bonus 3% (up from 2%) weapon handling. Max stack is 10 (down from 15). At max stacks each shot landed has a 5% chance to consume the weapon handling bonus and refill the magazine.
Fast Hands: Buff
- Critical Hits add a stack of 15% (up from 3%) reload speed bonus. Max stack is 10 (down from 20).

UI changes

The order of mod slots has been rearranged on several gear items. Dye slots are now always shown at the bottom of the mod slot list.
Added Bleed status effect UI info to Explosive Seeker mine.
Added Bleed status effect UI info to Stinger Hive
Added Bleed status effect UI info to Artillery Turret.
Apparel
- Added a menu that shows all collected skins and dyes in one menu.
- Added the option to add a dye to all armor pieces.
Inventory
- Added a menu that allows sorting of gear-mods in several ways.
- Added grid view for mods to sort them by category.
- Added more flags for items:
  - Mark for Donation
  - Mark for Recalibration
- Added gear menu to sort all gear by brand, item type and several other options.
Character UI
- DMG, RPM and Skill Power is now visible and can be compared on the main inventory screen.
Loadouts
- Added 12 Loadout slots

Bugfixes continue in the official forum (too many characters)

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[2019] The Division 2 - PTS Title Update 6 - Patch Notes