[Megathread] The Division 2

[SirCowdog]

.

you mean previous global event was even worse???.

Westside league was just timed runs and setting outcasts on fire in creative ways. No game altering rules like polarity.

- - - Updated - - -

I did most of the things on challenging+3 directives because of the nice xp boost .

I've been catching up my specializations while farming challenging. That added 5 stack of polarity damage is super nice. Cleared a few heroics solo with it too.

[Witchblade77]

on a plus side, looks like specialization points are back to 3 points per level up. so that's nice

[Coldkil]

not talking about manhunt. talking about global event. I'm having some issues with getting the rogue down, but i'm a baddie so its expected, just need to get my positioning better and I'll chip away at him. I've used 3 directives as well, and did ok (I usually go for special ammo on npc's, less ammo for me and skill cooldown after using a skill. even though I play skill build, that cooldown is not too bad and I usually circumvent it by pre-casting and then it ends up meshing with my standard skill cooldown, so i barely even feel it)

yeah, i was talking about that aswell. i liked that, the additional tactics needed. Plus it gave apretty goood dmg buff and i managed to solo a timed in 11 minutes.

- - - Updated - - -

I've been catching up my specializations while farming challenging. That added 5 stack of polarity damage is super nice. Cleared a few heroics solo with it too.

I don't mess with Heroics solo because one stupid death means restarting and it's just lost time. Difficulty wise is fine, the no checkpoints is frustrating.

[Torched]

With a full red dps built with fox prayers, contractor gloves and the sacrifice (perfect glass cannon) heroic feels like I'm playing on normal. Tested out how fast I could do Roosavelt Island on heroic and did it in 18min 11 sec.

[SirCowdog]

I don't mess with Heroics solo because one stupid death means restarting and it's just lost time. Difficulty wise is fine, the no checkpoints is frustrating.

There was a really good suggestion on the ubisoft forums to remove the no checkpoints from heroic, and turn it into a directive that could be applied to ANY difficulty.

I hope the devs do that.

[Coldkil]

There was a really good suggestion on the ubisoft forums to remove the no checkpoints from heroic, and turn it into a directive that could be applied to ANY difficulty.

I hope the devs do that.

That would be a great thing. I would use that all the time for XP farming in Challenging.

After 100-ish hours in the expansion this is my feedback.
- story was cool, season thing is really cool, overall i find myself wanting to play more and more.
- solo players are just screwed. either you go riflecrit or damage tech if you want to do anything in reasonable time. Makes sense generally but given how everything is just lethal independently from the defenses you can stack, you just go glass cannon so at least you can kill things (1.7million armor gets shredded by red mobs even on challenging).
- fucking status effects and fire that goes over covers. there's no defense for that since you either stack status resistance or damage, and the latter is much more important especially in solo.
- most talents are just underpar. exotics are meh for the most part. i know there are buffs in the pipeline but it's useless when the playstyle is just BLAM BLAM BLAM because it's so much more effective. Like, the exotic holster gave your pistol penetrating bullets. Now it stacks a buff when you are not using a pistol (DUH) so once every 30 seconds you can shoot a big number (if you don't miss it and waste it completely).
- overall difficulty is fine. the challenge is there, and i like a lot how different roles can all be useful in a 4 man group. But in the end, if you all just go rifle/revive hive you'll zerg through stuff. Notable exceptions are the healer which is overall useful and pretty strong and fire builds because they offer a very good control, that makes things much more bearable especially in Legendary.

Basically, it's a hit and miss. There's definitely some very good stuff going and being "forced" into builds is kinda expected when endgame content is designed around 4 man groups and requires enough damage/defenses/etc. It's shit that most of the things are just less (like x1000) effective or just more complicated to deal with. It's back to square one, when the game released and everyone was p416+chemheal+autoress because why going with other things that are worse.

- - - Updated - - -

With a full red dps built with fox prayers, contractor gloves and the sacrifice (perfect glass cannon) heroic feels like I'm playing on normal. Tested out how fast I could do Roosavelt Island on heroic and did it in 18min 11 sec.

I have one in stash but i don't like glass cannon at all. I have still some pieces that are not perfect rolls (so much for loot 2.0, it's the same as before where if you don't get 3 out of 4 stats right the piece is useless). I'm trying the focus/shield one but i don't like it very much, though it supposedly does even more dmg.

[KrayZ33]

- solo players are just screwed. either you go riflecrit or damage tech if you want to do anything in reasonable time. Makes sense generally but given how everything is just lethal independently from the defenses you can stack, you just go glass cannon so at least you can kill things (1.7million armor gets shredded by red mobs even on challenging).

This is the most annoying thing ever and needs to be adressed asap.
It's absolutely a joke, the only time where that should happen is if you run glass canon and no armor.

But right now, everyone runs glass canon and no armor, because it doesn't make a difference. (only 4 man run dedicated CC builds, but that dude will feel horrible because he's barely doing enough damage, nor does he have enough survivability either)
Even the shield is mainly run for a DPS boost (Focus talent), not for protection.
I've seen so many "tank build" videos and whenever I watch them playing shield - all I think about is: "Dude... you are fucking useless, you aren't tanking anything, the enemies just gnore you".

The amount of bonus armor you grant your team is irrelevant. Chip damage doesn't exist in this game.
It's just like in Division 1 again.... I remember the first "raid" (or whatever they were called back then) when it came out... oh how I remember.
You could clear it, 1 simple mistake, one hit would instantly drop you.
You had to cheese the shit out of it with stacking smartcover etc. just to survive a shot.

[SirCowdog]

- solo players are just screwed. either you go riflecrit or damage tech if you want to do anything in reasonable time. Makes sense generally but given how everything is just lethal independently from the defenses you can stack, you just go glass cannon so at least you can kill things (1.7million armor gets shredded by red mobs even on challenging).

There's a shield build using the technitian's hive and a few other talents to basically become nigh unkillable unless you get exploded or hit by fire or something. Doesn't do the most damage as a full glass canon, but allows more time to think and react.

There's also a pretty crazy LMG build that I've been meaning to try.

Honestly, I don't really view that as screwing solo players. Solo players have always had to adapt and adjust their tactics in order to get through content that was generally intended for multiple players. Having the option of at least one viable build from each of blue/red/yellow to choose from is pretty good, IMO.

- fucking status effects and fire that goes over covers. there's no defense for that since you either stack status resistance or damage, and the latter is much more important especially in solo.

Agreed. Fire is the great destroyer. Eats your armor, your health, then your revive hive. And the elite outcast rushers, RC cars, and nade-launcher guys that explode you THEN set you fire? That's just too much.

Of note, in that same vein: The Shield+Nailgun guys who can snipe you with near perfect accuracy. You get that bleed....it's game over on heroic.

- most talents are just underpar. exotics are meh for the most part. i know there are buffs in the pipeline but it's useless when the playstyle is just BLAM BLAM BLAM because it's so much more effective. Like, the exotic holster gave your pistol penetrating bullets. Now it stacks a buff when you are not using a pistol (DUH) so once every 30 seconds you can shoot a big number (if you don't miss it and waste it completely).

I'm mostly ok with the array of talents and exotics. There are some duds, to be sure. But there's enough effective uses for different situations that I think it's in a pretty good spot. Wouldn't mind seeing more talents added to the game though.

- overall difficulty is fine. the challenge is there, and i like a lot how different roles can all be useful in a 4 man group. But in the end, if you all just go rifle/revive hive you'll zerg through stuff. Notable exceptions are the healer which is overall useful and pretty strong and fire builds because they offer a very good control, that makes things much more bearable especially in Legendary.

Rifle zerg is a lot of fun. But that shield build I mentioned makes the whole group much harder to kill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmmz...g&index=3&t=0s

Basically, it's a hit and miss. There's definitely some very good stuff going and being "forced" into builds is kinda expected when endgame content is designed around 4 man groups and requires enough damage/defenses/etc. It's shit that most of the things are just less (like x1000) effective or just more complicated to deal with. It's back to square one, when the game released and everyone was p416+chemheal+autoress because why going with other things that are worse.

I think that....given the overall smoothness of gameplay and the dynamic of combat being as enjoyable as it is...that it's ok for Heroic and Legendary to narrow down the viable builds. It's MEANT to be the hardest stuff in the game, after all. Performance is going to dictate builds, and players seeking to challeng the upper difficulties are going to naturally optimize. I think it would be a mistake to try and make EVERY build viable at the upper end.

And after all, if you want to use a casual build just for fun, turn the difficulty back down to challenging, or hard, and go raging through the levels like a bull in a china shop.

[Coldkil]

-snip-

I tried those build, you're not unkillable. Especially in heroic, when someone can get behind you if you don't kill them all fast enough and destroys your 1.7 million armor. I've been there, done that. It's not a matter of "going fast", it's a matter of "since heroics makes you restart everything each death, i'll just go full offensive so it takes less time".

It's the same as any other loot based game. Most people play solo, and the "difficulty" or "designed for group" are just excuses. It just shows that feedback is not received, because most people i see around (forums, reddit, people that i play with) has my same opinions about the game. If such content is designed around groups, then half the game must be played in groups. They could just state that, instead they balanced things so challenging is even easier but. heroics are actually worse than before. Which doesn't make any sense.

The point is, that some challenges are just badly designed. Heroic is a massive waste of time. Restarts and loots that's just RNG makes it a no-go for solo, and when i play in 4 and it's a cakewalk because 2 people come with their rifles and i could even go headless chicken. I want to do legendaries and that is clearly group content, i'm fine with needing specific builds there as i was fine with the raid when it was lvl30.

There are so many options that just aren't on par with the few that excels. Is it wrong to want actually more builds that can tackle decent challenges? I've checked stuff around and i'll try different things, but atm i have to use a playstyle that i don't like because it's the only way i have to farm stuff so i can try things that end performing worse.

Just my opinion though. Game is still good enough to keep me playing, i like the season and events and all these things as they divert me from the fact that i'm farming usless junk for the most part to make builds that are not good as my rifle.

[SirCowdog]

it's a matter of "since heroics makes you restart everything each death, i'll just go full offensive so it takes less time".

That's a fair point, and something I really hope the devs consider. I hadn't actually thought about how the respawn restrictions effect build diversity in that way.

Is it wrong to want actually more builds that can tackle decent challenges?

That seems highly subjective. What do you consider to be a "decent challenge"?

Obviously there's the disparity between group and solo play in heroic, but that seems like it could be addressed by adding additional objectives for groups. Taking a page from some of the MMOs, where you need people to be in certain places at certain times. IIRC Destiny does this in their raids. Although I'm not sure how they would design things to do that with a group, but not while solo.

I've checked stuff around and i'll try different things, but atm i have to use a playstyle that i don't like because it's the only way i have to farm stuff so i can try things that end performing worse.

Just my opinion though. Game is still good enough to keep me playing, i like the season and events and all these things as they divert me from the fact that i'm farming usless junk for the most part to make builds that are not good as my rifle.

I guess I'm fortunate in that I really like the rifle playstyle. I was very disappointed in The Division 1 when it was all about the AR and the Marksman rifle. Shield + Pistol and now Shield + Rifle are my favorite styles. Although I've been experimenting with skills builds, which is something I've never done before. I cleared a challenging Potomac Event Center in 22 minutes on my first try with Sniper Turret/Seeker. I think if I refine it that time will drop.

What plystyle would you prefer to be using instead of a rifle?

[Coldkil]

That's a fair point, and something I really hope the devs consider. I hadn't actually thought about how the respawn restrictions effect build diversity in that way.

That's my biggest gripe honestly. I'm well aware i'm not the best player and probably i'll die less if i played better, just for now the gap between solo challenging and solo heroic is completely out of bounds. Before the nerf challenging solo was annoying but doable, and going in 2 Heroic meant the whole thing was a cakewalk (like it is now in 4). The idea of putting the no respawn rule as a directive would be awesome - more people can play heroic consistently and people who already do it right now get a 25% xp buff for free basically.

That seems highly subjective. What do you consider to be a "decent challenge"?

Farming heroic is a decent challenge, as it's the base to get the gear needed for the optimized builds you'll need for Legendary and raid later on. As for now, Challenging drops are mostly worthless (but imho it's more about gear design that's still hoping for at least 3 out 4 right rolls, though slightly easier than before) and heroics doesn't give that net "good rolls chance advantage". There's always the "get used to play more difficult things to make you better".

Making more options to do that doesn't seem bad to me. Again, fine with optional more difficult activities to need a specific setup.

What plystyle would you prefer to be using instead of a rifle?

Shield for once is something i'd really like to use, especially reflector. The full one is superb but boring imho and the others are useless given how mob damage is too high to be sustained even with full armor. I tried a build like that but you have basically no cover and you get just shredded (obv. tried to make use of standard covers for protection). I like chem launcher aswell but damage wise only fire is good, but mostly for the additional control and not the damage itself. The acid one is useless unfortunately.

Anyway, if you look for a pattern, you see how thing that require more "management" are just less effective and annoying to use, especially solo. Again, specific roles like medic, tank or control have their niche in party play, which is fine. But then if you want items you need to kill stuff, and if you don't kill it fast you just risk to die and you get less items. It's like gimping yourself.

I'm fine with optimization, and i'm fine with not being able to solo heroics as a medic (or at least in reasonable time since apparently you're nearly immortal), but there are some extremely wide gaps that shouldn't be here. Maybe i'm just unlucky that the things i like are the least effective.

EDIT: it's not that i dont like the rifle, it's just that's becoming boring - my soundtrack of the game is a constant BLAM BLAM BLAM.

[SirCowdog]

The idea of putting the no respawn rule as a directive would be awesome - more people can play heroic consistently and people who already do it right now get a 25% xp buff for free basically.

And I think it hits just the right note with a risk vs reward theme.

One of the suggestions I added to that on the official forums was changing Directives from a flat EXP gain, and into an item rarity increase for drops. Make those directives tempting, but again have a risk vs reward them. As it stands now, there's not much point to directives unless you just enjoy challenge for the sake of challenge(this is actually what I'm doing by trying to learn how to use a good skill build instead of Rifle/Shield).

The ammo directive is basically free exp for pistol builds tho, and really good for rifle builds, especially with boomerang on Baker's Dozen). And some of the others are far too punishing for only 25% experience, since it only results in more levels of 0.2% increases to one stat. :/

Shield for once is something i'd really like to use, especially reflector. The full one is superb but boring imho and the others are useless given how mob damage is too high to be sustained even with full armor. I tried a build like that but you have basically no cover and you get just shredded (obv. tried to make use of standard covers for protection). I like chem launcher aswell but damage wise only fire is good, but mostly for the additional control and not the damage itself. The acid one is useless unfortunately.

I feel like the Crusader Shield provides just enough extra hitpoints to survive being out in the open if you're sharp and on the ball about using Line of Sight to keep enemies from ALL shooting at you at the same time. I find myself using a cobination of regular cover and the shield. I'm very good at it. Feels natural to me. It's something I picked up in Division 1, but never really had the gear to make good. I'm loving it in TD2!

Chem launcher is ass, as far as I'm concerned. The delay in activation is too much. Enemies always move out of the effect.

EDIT: it's not that i dont like the rifle, it's just that's becoming boring - my soundtrack of the game is a constant BLAM BLAM BLAM.

Yeah, I feel that. I've been trying different guns with the crusader shield. Part of the problem is that the Classic M1A is just too good. The other guns need to be brought up in power. SMGs feel like squirt guns. Shotguns are a joke. And ARs feel like BB-guns. Marksman Rifles are decent....up until there's a robot with no head to use your main attribute on. And LMGs can't be used with a shield.

There's a distinct disparity with the guns that badly needs to be addressed. I'm just glad I like rifle gameplay.

[KrayZ33]

Fire - Chem launcher is usable in groups because teammates will ignite it instantly.
The toxic version however is pretty useless.
It moves enemies out of cover, that's about it. Doesn't help a solo player though because by the time you switch back to your weapon, they are behind cover again.

As for the shield, the Shield itself is not "fast" enough.
I have trouble going into cover with that thing.

[SirCowdog]

Even the shield is mainly run for a DPS boost (Focus talent), not for protection..

Hmm....I don't know about that. Yes, shield+focus is pretty strong. But I find that having the shield allows me just enough "armor" to be able to get out of cover and move or shoot without being 1-shot by a gang-member sticking his arm around a corner and firing blind. Or being sniped by a shotgun from 100 yards. The crusader shield lets me play "normally", and counteracts the horribly overtuned damage in challenging and heroic.

But you're right that tank builds are pretty useless most times. They're definitely not serving their purpose. You get better aggro control from throwing a turret or hive down and watching every NPC in 50 feet run to smash it.

[Coldkil]

Hmm....I don't know about that. Yes, shield+focus is pretty strong. But I find that having the shield allows me just enough "armor" to be able to get out of cover and move or shoot without being 1-shot by a gang-member sticking his arm around a corner and firing blind. Or being sniped by a shotgun from 100 yards. The crusader shield lets me play "normally", and counteracts the horribly overtuned damage in challenging and heroic.

But you're right that tank builds are pretty useless most times. They're definitely not serving their purpose. You get better aggro control from throwing a turret or hive down and watching every NPC in 50 feet run to smash it.

Focus+shield is a bug, let's admit it. The damage bonus is high due to the 8x scoper requirement, but if you use the shield the visibility penatly is negated. I'm staying away from that because it's only a matter of time until they fix it. Anyway i find that obliterate+companion with the healing drone is a pretty good setup.

On another topic: i still have the old time issue that DX12 simply doesn't work. It crashes the game in the shortest time and DX11 performance is just so underpar. I went though all kinds of setups and workaround, by chance i also formatted the pc last week and the machine is super clean with a fresh game install. I'll check if there's a specific driver version that nets the best performances.

EDIT: i think i found a nice build to play tha revolves around shield, just stacking yellows instead of blues and use an offensive skill since the full shield offers you the cover a shield should give and with liberty you have infinite healing on that XD I'm also wondering if i could go something like full offensive with the Ongoing Directive, because why not.

[Puri]

Anyone knows what to do to make control points hostile again? Whan I played last the control points would be reconquered again within days or hours so I could do them again.
In my game pretty much all control points are friendly for over a week now - in both Washington and NY -, I'd like to farm blueprints but I am not able to as the control points don't seem to get hostile anymore. Obviously I don't supply them or anything.

[PenguinChan]

Been playing this game super casually and man, from everything I'm reading I'm glad I don't do it seriously. It seems trying to progress on the harder difficulties just pigeonholes you into a DPS oriented build. I don't have the expansion, just the base game and even at 30 with basic orange gear and weapons it feels like things die slower than they did not even 5 levels below this - and I'm dying way too fast to even try out an armor build.

Maybe it gets better somehow.

[Coldkil]

Anyone knows what to do to make control points hostile again? Whan I played last the control points would be reconquered again within days or hours so I could do them again.
In my game pretty much all control points are friendly for over a week now - in both Washington and NY -, I'd like to farm blueprints but I am not able to as the control points don't seem to get hostile anymore. Obviously I don't supply them or anything.

Just change global difficulty and the world resets.

[KrayZ33]

Focus+shield is a bug, let's admit it. The damage bonus is high due to the 8x scoper requirement, but if you use the shield the visibility penatly is negated. I'm staying away from that because it's only a matter of time until they fix it. Anyway i find that obliterate+companion with the healing drone is a pretty good setup.

On another topic: i still have the old time issue that DX12 simply doesn't work. It crashes the game in the shortest time and DX11 performance is just so underpar. I went though all kinds of setups and workaround, by chance i also formatted the pc last week and the machine is super clean with a fresh game install. I'll check if there's a specific driver version that nets the best performances.

I wonder why they removed all the useful talents on the shield.
Increased threat, increased damage, increased damage resistance.....enemies are pulsed when shooting the shield - etc. etc.

These are exactly the things a shield build needs, and they simply forgot about them.

[Coldkil]

. It seems trying to progress on the harder difficulties just pigeonholes you into a DPS oriented build.

Only if you play solo - but makes sense as you have to keep yourself up but also kill stuff, and if enemies are dead they cannot damage you. If you play in group, you have a decent range of options and only occasionally some things are frustrating so you just go zerg tactics.

Played Heroic 5 directives all last night and is was actually fun in a 4man group with an healer. The most annoying one is the special ammo thing, while the skill one can be easily countered by using skills that have a duration (like drone/turret) or semi long cd ones like seeker mines. If a skill is active and you throw the other, it doesn't go on CD (makes sense otherwise you couldn't plat a tech at all).

- - - Updated - - -

I wonder why they removed all the useful talents on the shield.
Increased thread, increased damage, increased damage resistance.....enemies are pulsed when shooting the shield - etc. etc.

These are exactly the things a shield build needs, and they simply forgot about them.

Well. there are a few good ones, especially the bloodsucker/protector+intimidate combo, or vigilance for party play. Shield is mostly made for tanking if we exclude the tech build i am doing. The problem is the the only useful shield is the full one. The others that are clearly meant for other stuff (like the reflector for my skill dmg build or the firewall one for a shotgun/support build) are just useless.

The main issue of shields is that enemies can shred you through it ignoring it completely. I have died so many times while not being flanked with my shield health basically full (wooooooo Liberty) while some random smg guy blasted my face. This sucks especially for reflector because all is strength is about enemies shooting at it and they simply don't do it.

So, you're trading off being slow and limited in weapon choice for....nothing. I think also a shotgun/firewall build is more than doable since there's a lot of things just made for it but in the end it's just not working because you die. Plus, shield scales with blues or yellows and a tier 0 one is just cardboard.