With “Warlords of New York”, new Brand Sets are meant to expand the equipment variety of The Division 2. This allows players more options to create builds for their agents. Here, we present 4 of these new Brand Sets.
What is the new expansion about? Recently, the Episode 3 DLC along with Title Update 7 for The Division 2 was released. But already on March 3, the major expansion “Warlords of New York” will follow. This not only brings various changes, but also many fresh content such as a unique open world in New York.
Also included are new Brand Sets, meaning equipment that allows for different specializations of agents. We take a closer look at the properties of the new Brands.
These are 4 new Brand Sets from Warlords of New York
These are the sets: So far, 4 Brand Sets are known to be coming with the new expansion. These are equipment from:
- Golan Gear Ltd
- Česká Vyroba s.r.o.
- Grupo Sombra S.A.
- Hana-U Corporation
What are Brands anyway? Brands are essentially nothing more than labels or manufacturers of certain equipment. Many (but not all) pieces of equipment that you encounter in the world of The Division 2 come from such a brand.
In addition to Gear Sets and exotic items, they are supposed to provide greater build variety with their special additional bonuses.
How do the Brand Sets work? Each brand provides you with up to three bonuses, which differ from brand to brand and focus on different play styles and tactical priorities.
The more parts of a single brand your agent has equipped, the more of the 3 bonus effects will be activated. If you equip 3 pieces of one brand, all 3 bonuses are active. However, there are more than just 3 pieces of a Brand.
These Brand parts can be freely combined, allowing you to, for example, activate 2 effects from 2 different Brands while still utilizing the talents of an Exotic.
What the new sets can do in detail: The new Brands offer your agents the following bonus effects:
Golan Gear Ltd:
- +10% Status Effects (1 piece)
- 1% Armor regeneration per second (2 pieces)
- +5% total armor (3 pieces)
Česká Vyroba s.r.o.:
- +10% Chance for critical hits (1 piece)
- +10% hazard protection (2 pieces)
- +8% health points (3 pieces)
Grupo Sombra S.A.:
- +15% critical hit damage (1 piece)
- +15% explosive damage (2 pieces)
- +10% headshot damage (3 pieces)
Hana-U Corporation:
- +20% skill haste (1 piece)
- +20% skill damage (2 pieces)
- +5% weapon damage (3 pieces)
How good are these new sets? It is currently difficult to assess. With Warlords of New York, a multitude of changes will come into play, including to the old Brand Sets. Therefore, it is hard to say where the new Brand Sets will place in the meta.
It is also still unclear whether the +10% Status Effects refers to damage or duration of these effects, and how useful things like 1% Armor regeneration or +8% health points will be after all the changes.
However, first conclusions can already be drawn. None of the 4 shown sets require all 3 bonuses to be viable. In combination, loadouts featuring Grupo-Sombra pieces and Česká-Vyroba items could enable some interesting builds.
Because to increase critical hit chance or critical hit damage, previous Brands required at least 2-3 pieces. Here, the bonus is available from the first Brand item.
And for those who focus on skills in their builds, pieces of the Hana-U set may become interesting.
Will there be more new Brand Sets? Currently, it’s not known. So far, only these 4 have been discovered in gameplay materials. However, it is quite possible that more new manufacturer Brands with special bonuses will be added.
Do you need the expansion for the new sets? The sets will likely come with the new expansion and the accompanying update. However, it is not yet known whether they are necessarily tied to the expansion.
What about the existing Brand Sets? These are set to be revised with the new expansion. Some will receive new talents, or old ones will be adjusted. It will also be exciting to see how the Brand Sets in general will change with the new Title Update in the context of Warlords of New York and what impact they will have on the gameplay.
What do you think of the 4 new Brand Sets? Is there anything that already piques your interest?
