Our author Tarek believes that the specializations in The Division 2 currently have a lot of room for improvement. Why this is the case and how they could be improved.
For me, specializations are actually one of the best features in The Division 2. They offer a good way to customize your playstyle and experiment with different setups, at least on paper.
Unfortunately, they turned out to be quite nice as the game progressed, but in my opinion, they have much more potential.
I want to explain why I see it this way and how they could be improved.
The 3 Specializations
What are the specializations anyway? They are additional progression trees.
Each progression tree has its own perks that can be unlocked. Additionally, there is an individual or “Signature” weapon that thematically fits the respective specialization.
Currently, there are a total of 3:
- The Demolitionist – Grenade Launcher
- The Survivalist – Crossbow with Explosive Bolts
- The Sharpshooter – .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle
You can unlock these specializations as soon as you reach Level 30. After that, you can freely switch between them.
The individual weapons also have special ammo that is very limited.
Cool idea, but there’s room for improvement
I think the idea behind these specializations is great. In addition to weapons and gear, skills, talents, and various factors that determine a build, these progression trees come into play.
This actually gives agents even more room and customization options. I especially liked the idea of individual weapons. But after testing all the specializations, I must conclude: The impact on my builds is rather minimal.
I don’t even choose my specialization based on role or Signature weapon anymore, but simply based on which buffs are best for my weapons.
For me, there are 2 fundamental problems:
- The individual weapons are significantly too weak or offer no added value compared to normal weapons.
- The perks of the progression trees are hardly useful. All specializations have useless perks.
In total, there are many small things that, in my view, limit the potential of the system.
An Exotic surpasses all Signature Weapons
I most often play the Sharpshooter. He matches my playstyle, and I mainly play with the combination of Rifle + Sniper Rifle.
How weak the individual sniper rifle of this specialization is became clear to me only when I got my hands on the Nemesis Exotic.
This exotic, but still regular weapon surpasses the Sharpshooter’s rifle by far. It not only has a significantly higher base damage but also uses regular ammunition.
Standard-wise, you have over 100 rounds with a sniper rifle available. The individual precision rifle only has a maximum of 8 rounds!
Nemesis feels in combat exactly as the Signature rifle should feel. It is powerful, and a charged headshot usually means death for the opponent if no helmet protects their head.
What is the consequence? The Sharpshooter is almost redundant as a specialization because you can now combine the most powerful precision rifle with one of the other specializations. That’s why many already suspect an upcoming nerf for the Exotic.
But even if the Nemesis is weakened so that the individual weapons are stronger on paper again, I still believe that there is still a lot of room for improvement with these weapons.
The Signature Weapons need to be improved
The grenade launcher and the crossbow are also lagging behind compared to the Nemesis. With higher gear and appropriate optimization, strong sets can be created.
This allows for high damage numbers to be achieved even with regular weapons. Overall, you can destroy an enemy’s armor faster with the magazine from an assault rifle than with the grenade launcher.
And faster than the explosive bolts of the crossbow, which usually explode when the opponent is already down, anyway.
These changes I would wish for:
- The base damage of the individual weapons should either be significantly increased,
- or scale with the world tiers. This can prevent them from being too strong right at level 30.
- The sniper rifle should be able to shoot through simple cover and mark targets. Also, its handling should be improved. Currently, this weapon has hardly any added value compared to other sniper rifles. However, it plays much clumsier.
- The bolts of the crossbow should explode faster. Too often, one bolt is wasted on enemies that die too quickly.
- The grenade launcher should deal more damage against enemy armor.
In my opinion, the Signature weapons should already be the strongest weapons in the game due to their limited ammunition. This alone would make the specializations play a much larger role.
There would be much more that could be improved with the specializations.
- The medkit of the Sharpshooter is rather useless.
- Each of the 3 progression trees has individual perks that can be skipped without noticing a difference in gameplay.
It will also be interesting to see how the new specialization will play. Its individual weapon will be a minigun, as a trailer has already revealed.
What do you think about the specializations? Do you see potential for improvement as well? Or are you fine with it as it is now?
