The new online shooter The Division 2 has been out for about 2 weeks now, and our author Schuhmann has reached the endgame. He had a very different expectation of the “World Rank” system.
This is what I thought the world ranks would be like: I must admit, I followed The Division 2 beforehand, but I didn’t inform myself about one aspect, because I was sure I already knew what it was.
When I read, “A world rank system is coming to The Division 2,” it was clear to me what that would be:
In the endgame of The Division 2, there would be different “rank” levels, actually difficulty levels – similar to the “Grandmaster” systems in Anthem or the torment levels in Diablo 3.
I thought world ranks were like in Diablo 3 or Anthem
A single level would certainly keep me busy for a long time:
- I would do the same content for a long time as with normal leveling
- and would painstakingly farm gear until I am strong enough to move to the next world rank
- then it would start all over again
- that would mean hours of farming the standard content
At least, that’s what I thought, without further informing myself.
This is how it actually is: In fact, a rank level in The Division actually corresponds to just 3 missions and 50 gear points.
It is about taking a “stronghold” – each of the 3 “end-missions” of the campaign is also an “end point” of a world rank, in a new version.
To unlock the stronghold, you have to run two specific “group contents” beforehand and acquire a certain amount of gear.
On World Rank 4 in about 14 hours
This is how it is in practice: In fact, the progression through the world ranks in a group is fast. Even with random players, I breezed through the content effortlessly:
- I spent about 3 or 4 hours on a world rank level, I didn’t rush too much
- I ran a few random instances to farm gear
- then specifically in two new main missions via the direct group search
- and then I tackled the stronghold – also that in the group.
Since matchmaking in The Division kicks in quickly, there is hardly any downtime between missions. I couldn’t find major reasons to play other content before reaching max level 450.
In the group on “normal”, the strongholds and main missions are not a big deal – in contrast to solo play, where I struggled a lot at the end of the normal campaign.
Equipment is abundant in The Division 2 anyway.
Only at 450 do you have to really think about what to equip and which sets and rolls to focus on – at least that’s how I play.
With 450, I will also start to deal with hunter masks and look for exotics.
This is how I liked it: I found the world ranks to be significantly “more linear” than I had originally thought.
Actually, I have no problem with the regulation – I just expected something different under the term “world rank”.
Basically, the world ranks 1 to 4 are just brief stops on the way to actual endgame. This comes with world rank 5 quite soon.
