Currently, The Division 2 is struggling. Our author Tarek has identified several issues that Massive needs to address for it to become a better game.
What’s happening in The Division 2 right now? In the past few weeks, my motivation for The Division 2 has significantly decreased. I’m visiting Washington D.C. less frequently these days. I’m not alone; many other players feel the same.
There isn’t much to do at the moment, and the game is facing some difficulties. Therefore, I want to show you issues that, in my opinion, Massive needs to fix so that The Division 2 can become a better game.
The Division 2 needs new content outside of the raid
Although The Division 2 received some improvements with Title Update 3 and also the new raid, many find it too difficult. Ubisoft has made it clear that they are closely examining feedback and are open to changes.
The raid is meant to serve as the toughest challenge for players. It’s also not uncommon in games for raids to only be completed by a smaller subset of players.
Why new content is important: However, players who are not interested in the raid have been waiting for new content since Title Update 2 on April 5. So, nothing has happened for almost two months.
Moreover, other players may not have the time or inclination to exclusively run the raid. But currently, there’s no other way to obtain new gear, such as the exotic assault rifle.
Are new contents in sight already? According to the roadmap, the next one will be the fourth specialization. This will bring a new, unique weapon and a new skill tree. While this would be a start, will it be enough?
Hardcore players can of course use that time to optimize their builds. But that leads us to the next problem.
We need a greater build diversity
While you can technically play and experiment as a tank or with skill builds in The Division 2, these playstyles are currently rather inefficient.
The meta is clearly geared towards pure DPS builds that deal the highest possible damage. To build halfway usable skill and tank builds, one has to invest quite a lot and be lucky with the gear.
Overall, it’s much easier to choose the offensive path. Consequently, there is currently almost no build diversity.
While Massive has already tried to make players “tankier” and introduced new mods that improve skills, these changes are by no means sufficient.
How could we solve the problem? Massive should rethink the functionalities of skill mods. One popular suggestion among players is to scale the skill mods with skill power. That would be a first step towards significantly improving skill builds.
But how can we strengthen tanks? If Massive strengthens armor and hit points too much, the issues from the first game will return. There, PvP battles turned into face-to-face encounters, where players took a long time to take each other down.
Therefore, in my opinion, it would be better to focus on enhancing defensive talents and skills. Instead of simply being able to take more damage, there should be ways to block it.
Additionally, the specializations should be improved and have a greater impact on the various builds.
Make crafting useful again
At the moment, crafting is hardly worth it. Manufactured high-end equipment cannot be calibrated and cannot even reach the maximum gear score of 500.
At World Tier 5 and the highest workbench level, high-end equipment can be crafted to a maximum of 490. Gear set pieces can reach 500 with some luck, but also cannot be calibrated.
How could we solve the problem? First, equipment at the highest workbench level should be able to be crafted within a range of 490-500.
Additionally, crafted equipment should also be able to be recalibrated. Because without the chance of recalibration, one is even more dependent on luck when crafting.
With so many different talents and stats that equipment can have in The Division 2, it is a pretty expensive affair that consumes a lot of collected materials.
Save the Dark Zones and PvP
I haven’t been in one of the Dark Zones for weeks, and it’s been even longer since I played Conflict. Currently, both areas are simply not very motivating to play.
- You always encounter the same DPS sets, which brings us back to the issue of build diversity.
- The rewards in Conflict are very low for the time invested.
- There’s currently no reason to farm in the Dark Zone since the new gear sets and the exotic assault rifle can only be obtained in the raid.
So why play PvP or enter the Dark Zone when it’s currently not fun and doesn’t pay off?
How could we solve the problem? Many fans have been calling for alternative, pure PvE Dark Zones for years. These would be for players who don’t want to engage in PvP.
However, in my opinion, this would ultimately make the normal Dark Zones pure PvP areas, rendering them almost unnecessary.
I think rather that if the grind becomes worthwhile again, more people would be willing to venture into the Dark Zone. A new objective would motivate players to take the risk.
PvP is generally a difficult topic. With the last update, Massive has already made some changes and slightly increased the TTK (time to kill).
I still don’t have a comprehensive impression of the changes, but if they manage to optimize PvP balancing and normalization (equipment adjustment for players), things could improve here as well in the future.
What do you think about these points? Have you identified other issues that you find equally important?
