More and more agents of The Division 2 are reaching max level with the new expansion “Warlords of New York” and are noticing the significant impacts of the changes. The state of the exotic items is not being received well.
What happened to the Exotics? The loot shooter The Division 2 entered its “Year 2” with a major expansion and brought with it “Warlords of New York“, which included extensive changes, a new open-world area, and a lot of new gear.
The exotic items also received a complete overhaul. Whether weapon or armor: nothing remained as it was, and not every agent likes the latest adjustments. Many players find the exotics to be weak and interchangeable now. Almost as if they are just “better skins” for the respective weapons.
Exotics clearly lose value with Warlords
What is the problem? Before the big Title Update 8, exotics were often the salt in the build soup. Almost all good gear combinations could be improved by an exotic item, and the special talents of the coveted items were even the basis for some good builds.
Even if the exo weapons were in the holster, they granted strong bonuses to the main weapon and could elevate the specialization of the builds to the maximum together with other talents.
After the extensive changes of TU8, things look different now. The weapons come with normal attributes and the special talents seem to many players more like specific talents that only exist on this item, but are hardly stronger than the normal ones on backpacks or vests.
Do you have an example? Let’s take one of my favorite exotics before the expansion, the Whispering Determination. This SMG was the perfect companion for me to boost the damage of my assault rifle builds with an increase in fire rate. Builds that focused more on critical hits were also well served here.
These were the old talents:
- Rising Whispers – Every shot that hits an enemy grants them 1% fire rate up to a maximum of 60%. Resets on reload.
- Duck’s Magazine – Kills with this weapon refill 75% of the magazine and grant a boost for 10 seconds. While the boost is active, each successful shot increases the magazine capacity by 3 up to a maximum of 60. Killing a target consumes the boost and fully refills the extended magazine.
- Chatterbox – As long as it is in the holster, reloading the weapon within 5 seconds after a kill grants 15% fire rate for 10 seconds.
Here in comparison is the new talent:
- Unceasing Chatter – When reloading, the fire rate for this magazine increases by 20% for each enemy within 20 meters, maximum 5 stacks. Kills refill the magazine by half.
The complexity has been significantly reduced and the popular holster talent has also disappeared. While the new talent still seems strong, it cannot compete with the cool old abilities of the weapon, which increased fire rate and magazine size.
What results from this? The exotics are losing significant value and status. The Raid Assault Rifle “Eagle Bearer” has also been hit hard. With the new talents, the raid-exclusive weapon only strengthens defense and provides no bonuses to DPS (damage per second). “kvrreddy1605” says on reddit: “It’s just another assault rifle with a better skin”.
Many other exotics have had similar experiences. “Sawyer’s Kneepads” no longer generates an EMP, but instead makes you invulnerable for a few seconds when shooting from cover. “Liberty“, the exotic pistol, could previously push the pistol damage on critical hits to unbelievable heights. Now it provides armor on headshots.
Players are upset, want the old exotics back
What do the agents say about this? Players are discussing this on reddit in two larger threads that have collectively gathered around 800 comments (March 4, 3 PM).
Some comments suggest that while the changes are significant, the weapons still do their job. With their individual talents, they give the builds a special touch without breaking balance.
However, most comments agree with the thread creators who are not at all satisfied with the changes:
- Neon_Red_Nights on reddit: “The first thing I checked after logging in was the changes to my exotics. I have to say, I’m quite disappointed. I’m not looking forward to getting them back, let alone using them.”
- Agent_Xhiro on reddit: “I’m enjoying this game, aside from some minor technical issues. I love the atmosphere and I’m enjoying the story even more now than before. But these changes were inappropriate, and I know I’m probably not the only one who thinks so. The exotics went from “great” to trash in one day, and that needs to be reverted immediately. Unacceptable, especially after the lessons they should have learned from the first game.”
Will it stay like this? We’ll have to observe this in the coming weeks. The developers do respond more often on reddit and are also quite active on Twitter, but they tend to steer clear of such “rant threads” where players are mostly complaining.
The extensive exo changes are part of the Gear 2.0 system, and a major overhaul or reset of the talents should not be expected here. Together with the infinite progression system and the amount of new gear, the developers are apparently looking for other ways to allow agents to create special builds.
However, the responsible parties emphasized repeatedly last year that the exotics should feel powerful and strong. If the opinion about the exotics spreads in the community, it could well be that the developers react to it.
Which exotics have you already obtained at the new max level? Do you also think that the exotic items are now too weak?
