[Megathread] The Division 2

[Edge-]

So as i found out today, Skill power isnt actually making the skills do more damage, heal more etc, it's just a requirement gating for skill mods, find that kinda bad. No wonder my shield gets shredded at lvl10 with 100+ skill power in mere seconds.

Wait, really? That's gotta be a bug, otherwise that kills scaling for ability based builds.

[Tekkommo]

So as i found out today, Skill power isnt actually making the skills do more damage, heal more etc, it's just a requirement gating for skill mods, find that kinda bad. No wonder my shield gets shredded at lvl10 with 100+ skill power in mere seconds.

Wait, really? That's gotta be a bug, otherwise that kills scaling for ability based builds.

Seems intended to me, you get mods for your skills that increase the stats of it. However I never had enough Skill Power for any of the mods to work while levelling. They really need to lower the requirements on low level mods.

[Cairhiin]

Wait, really? That's gotta be a bug, otherwise that kills scaling for ability based builds.

It has to scale or else the whole stat is more or less useless bar being able to use mods (all ability mods have skill power requirements) on them.

[SirCowdog]

After playing anthems fast paced and frantic guns and abilities gameplay, we just can't get into TD2.... Leveling is just a god awful slow mess and the story is forgettable at best. I don't even know why I'm going somewhere half the time, they're so disconnected.

TD2 has a LOT more end game, but IDK if I'll get there, probably just wait for Anthem to patch up and leave TD2 alone.

The Division 2 is more of an open world game than many other shooters. You have an overarching goal: "Save the Whitehouse and surrounding settlements". But how you do that is largely open to however you want to approach it.

There are main story missions marked with a Hexagon on the map. These are going to fill you in and progress the core of what happens over the course of the game.

There are side missions marked by a Pentagon. You don't have to do these, but they fill in some of the background, environmental lore of what's going on in each part of the game world.

The rest of the open world is open for exploration. There are random events which are self-contained and do nothing to advance the story, but are just ways to gather experience, materials, or gear. There are cell-phones to find which carry audio-logs of things that happened in the recent past, and give some ambient information about how the DC area got where it is.

All in all, you have to use the map to navigate where you want to go, and set your own goals. Click a spot on the map and run there, or use the closest fast-travel location(Entrances to main missions, strongholds, Dark Zone entrances, or safehouses).

There's a LOT to do, and sometimes on the way to your goal you'll run into things to distract you. It's up to you to decide if you want to do it or not.

[GoKs]

Well I finally got time to finish the main campaign and advance to world tier 1. I have to thank massive for the skill bug, since it meant I could place my skills every 15 seconds and get the rewards from them instantly. I used the seeker mine (the one that splits into a bunch of them) and the repair drone. The seeker mine I tried to throw it once and saw that it didnt allow me to throw it, then I double tapped the button and dropped it at my feet, it proceeded to the targets and promptly dis appeared. At that stage my skills went on 15 sec cooldown and I realised the bug hit me. While panic set in at first I quickly learned to use it to my advantage since I depleted all my armor kits and grenades. When some one was close to me I could reliably drop my seeker mine and it would hit them before it dis appears and have a 15 second wait time to do it again. The drone lasted only a couple of seconds but did the full repair in that couple of seconds so it was spammed as I needed it. So in short, even if it doesnt do what you want it to do, it can be used to your advantage. I am not saying it is right that the bug is there, I just point out it can be benificial aswell.

In world tier 1 the enemies are allot stronger then before. And there is many many more of them around. I captured 2 control points and decided to give the first invaded mission a try with matchmaking..... man did that go fast. I was at gearscore 258 before the mission and ended the night after I finished the mission and equiped my drops and rewards at gearscore 283.... so that is an insane jump for one mission. I must point out that I am not focussed currently on trying to min max my gear sets or talents since the gear will get replaced too quick to worry about it now (for me at least it is how I feel). I did get a sweet 293 Military MK17 that is just what I was looking for.

So now I need to do one more invaded mission and the stronghold to advance. I am not gonna bother with the rest of the map and just going to go for the next world tier as fast as possible, since I am already above the required gearscore of 275 to do the stronghold and I will propably be above 300 gearscore once that is done. I will do the rest once I hit world tier 4.

[SirCowdog]

Wait, really? That's gotta be a bug, otherwise that kills scaling for ability based builds.

It has to scale or else the whole stat is more or less useless bar being able to use mods (all ability mods have skill power requirements) on them.

Do guns scale? Does any of your gear? Not that I've seen. Everything has modifiers to increase damage or effectiveness via gear. Like 5% weapon damage, or +500 armor, and whatnot.

As far as I can tell, skill power is how they're limiting what equipment you can use. Some traits on gear also require a number of total Red/Blue/Yellow marks in your loadout. I'm not sure if this system is good or not yet, but I don't think gear or abilities scale at all, but rather have set power based on your level+ any % or flat-number modifiers from gear.

[Edge-]

Seems intended to me, you get mods for your skills that increase the stats of it. However I never had enough Skill Power for any of the mods to work while levelling. They really need to lower the requirements on low level mods.

Ah, so it's just the power gate and there are specific buff stats on gear. That's fine then, basically treading power as a baseline "stat" with minimum requirements. I'm alright with this if that's the case.

[Cairhiin]

Do guns scale? Does any of your gear? Not that I've seen. Everything has modifiers to increase damage or effectiveness via gear. Like 5% weapon damage, or +500 armor, and whatnot.

As far as I can tell, skill power is how they're limiting what equipment you can use. Some traits on gear also require a number of total Red/Blue/Yellow marks in your loadout. I'm not sure if this system is good or not yet, but I don't think gear or abilities scale at all, but rather have set power based on your level+ any % or flat-number modifiers from gear.

If that's the case then the system is balls. If the only reward you get for skill power is the ability to equip mods that feels uber lackluster. I much rather prefer the Division 1 system.

[Puzzony]

Yeah, but when you need 40000 skill power for a +15% damage buff on your drone, it doesnt really feels balanced or worth it. I'd rather have crit chance instead of it and permacrit everything with talents like getting armor back on a crit.

[GoKs]

Ah, so it's just the power gate and there are specific buff stats on gear. That's fine then, basically treading power as a baseline "stat" with minimum requirements. I'm alright with this if that's the case.

Look I largely think mods on low levels is just a waste of time since the gear gets replaced so freaking fast you dont get to reap the benifits from it if you do apply them.
For me they where merely there to dismantle and get resources to upgrade my crafting bench. I will start to apply mods once I hit WT4, but for now just deconstruct them for resources. They seem to be powerfull enough, but the requirements dont really let you use them while leveling since it is soo high.

[D3athsting]

The Division 2 is more of an open world game than many other shooters. You have an overarching goal: "Save the Whitehouse and surrounding settlements". But how you do that is largely open to however you want to approach it.

There are main story missions marked with a Hexagon on the map. These are going to fill you in and progress the core of what happens over the course of the game.

There are side missions marked by a Pentagon. You don't have to do these, but they fill in some of the background, environmental lore of what's going on in each part of the game world.

The rest of the open world is open for exploration. There are random events which are self-contained and do nothing to advance the story, but are just ways to gather experience, materials, or gear. There are cell-phones to find which carry audio-logs of things that happened in the recent past, and give some ambient information about how the DC area got where it is.

All in all, you have to use the map to navigate where you want to go, and set your own goals. Click a spot on the map and run there, or use the closest fast-travel location(Entrances to main missions, strongholds, Dark Zone entrances, or safehouses).

There's a LOT to do, and sometimes on the way to your goal you'll run into things to distract you. It's up to you to decide if you want to do it or not.

The difference between anthem and td2 considering approach to gameplay is the same that there is between mhw and wow, one is lobby based, the other is fully open world

[SirCowdog]

If that's the case then the system is balls. If the only reward you get for skill power is the ability to equip mods that feels uber lackluster. I much rather prefer the Division 1 system.

Hmmm...I don't know, honestly. What's the difference between a weapon that scales up in a granular fashion with skillpower vs a weapon that has a set bonus that only unlocks when you have a certain total of skillpower on your loadout?

I think they're going to accomplish the same things, honestly. There's probably a LOT of math under the hood, but I expect that TD2's system will give them a bit more control over progressing through tiers of power increases rather than having to try to balance curves.

[Cairhiin]

Hmmm...I don't know, honestly. What's the difference between a weapon that scales up in a granular fashion with skillpower vs a weapon that has a set bonus that only unlocks when you have a certain total of skillpower on your loadout?

I think they're going to accomplish the same things, honestly. There's probably a LOT of math under the hood, but I expect that TD2's system will give them a bit more control over progressing through tiers of power increases rather than having to try to balance curves.

Well, in the case of just skill power scaling, your power scales gradually but when it's gated behind a skill power requirements, it scales in increments. You basically only get worth out of your additional skill power if you reach the requirements.

[SirCowdog]

The difference between anthem and td2 considering approach to gameplay is the same that there is between mhw and wow, one is lobby based, the other is fully open world

True enough. If all you want is to run missions via a matchmaking interface, Anthem is your game. If you want an actual open world game, TD2 beats the living crap out of Anthem.

I suppose it's a matter of preference. I've played both games, though, and The Division 2 is pretty much doing everything Anthem does, but better and with more depth.

[Onikaroshi]

The Division 2 is more of an open world game than many other shooters. You have an overarching goal: "Save the Whitehouse and surrounding settlements". But how you do that is largely open to however you want to approach it.

There are main story missions marked with a Hexagon on the map. These are going to fill you in and progress the core of what happens over the course of the game.

There are side missions marked by a Pentagon. You don't have to do these, but they fill in some of the background, environmental lore of what's going on in each part of the game world.

The rest of the open world is open for exploration. There are random events which are self-contained and do nothing to advance the story, but are just ways to gather experience, materials, or gear. There are cell-phones to find which carry audio-logs of things that happened in the recent past, and give some ambient information about how the DC area got where it is.

All in all, you have to use the map to navigate where you want to go, and set your own goals. Click a spot on the map and run there, or use the closest fast-travel location(Entrances to main missions, strongholds, Dark Zone entrances, or safehouses).

There's a LOT to do, and sometimes on the way to your goal you'll run into things to distract you. It's up to you to decide if you want to do it or not.

I mean, I played TD1 to end game, I know how it all works, but maybe that one just seemed better cause it was really the only thing of it's kind available on PC at the time, now there's better gameplay out now.

And I really never liked open world, but that's just me. Right now it just feels like I'm leveling another character in TD1.... don't think I'll be able to get into it.

- - - Updated - - -

True enough. If all you want is to run missions via a matchmaking interface, Anthem is your game. If you want an actual open world game, TD2 beats the living crap out of Anthem.

I suppose it's a matter of preference. I've played both games, though, and The Division 2 is pretty much doing everything Anthem does, but better and with more depth.

I mean, the gameplay itself is much more faster and frantic in Anthem too, even leveling in Division it's just hide behind cover and shoot at an npc hiding behind cover with skills with (mostly, not all of them though) long cooldowns. Where is in Anthem it's all fast paced with short cd skills and running around and just... idk, more fun now that it's available.

But it lacks end game... if you could just give Anthem the endgame of TD2 it'd be the perfect game for me.

[Puri]

Well I finally got time to finish the main campaign and advance to world tier 1. I have to thank massive for the skill bug, since it meant I could place my skills every 15 seconds and get the rewards from them instantly. I used the seeker mine (the one that splits into a bunch of them) and the repair drone. The seeker mine I tried to throw it once and saw that it didnt allow me to throw it, then I double tapped the button and dropped it at my feet, it proceeded to the targets and promptly dis appeared. At that stage my skills went on 15 sec cooldown and I realised the bug hit me. While panic set in at first I quickly learned to use it to my advantage since I depleted all my armor kits and grenades. When some one was close to me I could reliably drop my seeker mine and it would hit them before it dis appears and have a 15 second wait time to do it again. The drone lasted only a couple of seconds but did the full repair in that couple of seconds so it was spammed as I needed it. So in short, even if it doesnt do what you want it to do, it can be used to your advantage. I am not saying it is right that the bug is there, I just point out it can be benificial aswell.

The hive with the resurrect ability (that works like an automatic ankh, you don't have to deploy it first. It rezzes you as soon as you are dead. We never managed to rezz it someone else but the owner even without the bug) can be exploited the same way. It rezzes you, but then despawns and goes to a 15s CD.

[D3athsting]

True enough. If all you want is to run missions via a matchmaking interface, Anthem is your game. If you want an actual open world game, TD2 beats the living crap out of Anthem.

I suppose it's a matter of preference. I've played both games, though, and The Division 2 is pretty much doing everything Anthem does, but better and with more depth.

Party chat is a blessing, you can say other ppl "let's do mission X" or "let's assault that refuge", on the other hand ppl should definitely learn to use headphones with voice chat or turn speaker volume very low, i don't want to hear mission instructions in 4 different languages simultaneously

[dope_danny]

I guess sandstorms can happen?

[stellvia]

I mean, the gameplay itself is much more faster and frantic in Anthem too, even leveling in Division it's just hide behind cover and shoot at an npc hiding behind cover with skills with (mostly, not all of them though) long cooldowns. Where is in Anthem it's all fast paced with short cd skills and running around and just... idk, more fun now that it's available.

IMHO the gameplay is what you make of it in Division. I do a lot of running around and flanking in missions. Yes, I still fire from cover like half the time but you get to eliminate people unawares a lot more if you move around bc they don't know exactly where you are anymore. Nothing funnier than leaving an LMG guy pouring lead into your old position and going around their flank and cooking their ammo pack, or having the enemy frantically sending guys around to find you and ambushing several guys in a row at a stairwell as they come around the corner.

[GoKs]

Party chat is a blessing, you can say other ppl "let's do mission X" or "let's assault that refuge", on the other hand ppl should definitely learn to use headphones with voice chat or turn speaker volume very low, i don't want to hear mission instructions in 4 different languages simultaneously

Would imagine it is quite funny the first time, but rather annoying after that lol.