In The Division, the developers discuss the public test servers of 1.6: Major changes are coming.
The State of the Game just aired on January 26th. In it, the developers spoke exclusively about the PTS phase, which has been running since the beginning of the week. They admit that there is currently no “meta”, as the entire build is “broken”—essentially unplayable.
The Valkyria weapon set, Hungry Hog, and SEEKR are primarily responsible for this, as they currently provide excessively high buffs and are bugged. Thus, the second phase of the PTS for 1.6 will bring some necessary changes.
When this second phase will begin is still unclear. Once there is a date, Massive will inform everyone. However, they will not refer to it as “PTS week 2”, but rather “PTS Phase 2”. It will not be the case that PTS updates come weekly on a fixed day. Because the second phase is supposed to bring a comprehensive update and not just fix isolated issues. And that will take some time.
Changes in “PTS Phase 2”
Keep in mind that on the current PTS build, the feedback and suggestions from the ETF are not effective. Massive has not yet had time to implement all the changes. These are “large and numerous changes” that agents can expect. However, the developers were not specific about this.
What changes:
- Valkyria: The weapons will be correctly named Eir and Hildr—currently one weapon is still called Valkyria. Additionally, the talent is supposed to work as intended. The maximum buff will no longer be at 100% but at 30%.
- Hungry Hog: Will be weakened.
- SEEKR: All bonuses will be changed. The talent is supposed to result in an increase in headshot damage (by 200%) after two body hits, rather than increasing crit damage. The buff remains until a headshot is landed. With two set pieces, there is a “Resist All” buff, and with three pieces +6% body hit damage.
- MDR receives a 65% damage buff.
- Showstopper: Also receives more base damage.
- Historian: The sound of explosions will be fixed.
- Hipfire: Especially in PvP, agents are dissatisfied with hipfire. The spread and recoil will be reworked. However, hipfire still needs further adjustments in the future. It is currently too strong.
- NPC Precision: There are currently cases where the precision of NPCs is at 100%. There is already a fix for this.
- Banshee set receives new bonuses: If you are killed by a rogue, you deal more damage to rogues for 10 minutes—so you can get your revenge. Banshee is useless in the “Last Stand” mode.
- Further adjustments, such as to legendary difficulty, skill power, and the support station.
Moreover, significant changes to gear stats are coming: Each agent will receive a base health of 80k. Stamina and hit points remain important stats; however, it’s no longer as crucial to rely solely on these bonuses. Other stats are also intended to become significant. Massive desires more diversity in the gear stats that agents can choose. Damage against elite will be a lesser stat, while enemy armor damage will be a higher stat.
Last Stand and Normalization Are Coming
The next PTS phase will bring the “Last Stand” mode. Currently, this mode is inactive. For this mode, all your gear will be adjusted and balanced because skill should take precedence, not optimized character builds. This “normalization” only occurs in “Last Stand”, not in the Dark Zone.
During normalization, all agents will first be brought to 256 gear score (those who were not before will reset to their original score after the “Last Stand” session). Additionally, the main attributes (firearms, stamina, electronics) will be maximized, and other stats will be leveled across all agents. Other stats will remain as they are. Weapon mods or gear set bonuses will also remain unchanged.
Normalization will likely be revised more frequently until “Last Stand” and 1.6 are released. Community feedback is important. The PvP mode is also being tested without normalization to have comparative values. Once the patch notes are released, we will know the exact adjustments.
By the way: Loadouts will not be included with 1.6. Massive intends to implement this idea in the future.
