Update 1.4 for The Division is still in development, and Massive has some huge plans for it. It’s going to be larger than other updates, and it’s going to practically revamp all character balancing in the game. Their biggest focus is closing the gap between optimized characters and non-optimized characters. They also want to create more options for when players do build characters and add more variety. In addition, they want to “bring back the shooter feeling.” I haven’t tapped into The Division in awhile, so I want to ask where it went.
For patch 1.4, they have the following changes planned, but this is not the final list. A more extensive set of patch notes will release when the update goes live next month.
- All gear in World Tier 2 and higher will have all three base stats – Firearms, Stamina, Electronics – on them, one of these stats will be higher than the others.
- Other bonuses, like crit chance and headshot damage, will be scaled down to fit the new game balance.
- Gear will lose their skill bonuses, but backpacks, holsters and knee pads will gain new performance mod slots, making them easier to customize to fit your build.
- Gear Sets will have their Gear Score adjusted to the same levels as High End gear.
- Stat overlaps between Gear Scores have been removed.
- High End gear talents have been rebalanced.
- Scavenging has been removed from the game.
- We want to return The Division to feel more like a shooter, similar to the experience during the 1-30 game.
- New DPS formula on weapons has been introduced, but is a work in progress and will change over the course of the PTS.
- The damage and roles of certain weapons have been changed. Some weapons have seen a damage increase; others have had their damage lowered.
- Named weapons will not be changed in this update.
- Weapon mods will now come with one major bonus and an amount of smaller bonuses, depending on the quality of the mod.
- Damage bonuses are now additive instead of multiplicative, reducing the current spikes in damage which made the game hard to balance.
- The Firearms stat will become a much more significant source of damage output, leading to more decision making when building your character.
- Weapon talents have been rebalanced; some have been buffed, others have seen their numbers reduced.
- The identity of your gear will remain the same, even if the scale of stats and bonuses might change.
- Stamina will be the main source of toughness.
- Armor value will have different results of damage mitigation depending on the World Tier you are in.
- The four-piece bonuses of Gear Sets have been rebalanced.
- Two-piece bonuses will focus more on utility instead of stat bonuses.
- Five-piece bonuses have been removed from the game.
- Reclaimer and BLIND have their four-piece bonuses inactive on the initial PTS version while they are being worked on.
- Electronics will be the main source of Skill Power.
- Skill Power will not scale linearly anymore, instead it will follow a curve of diminishing returns.
- Certain skills are currently much more popular than others. Some skills are overpowered, others underpowered or bugged.
- Skills have been rebalanced to fit the new game balance or to bring them up to par, in the hopes of creating a more varied meta.
- First Aid no longer allows for multiple heals, since those happened due to a bug. First Aid’s healing has been increased to make up for this fix. It will now heal instantly.
- Smart Cover and Pulse have been reworked. Smart Cover is now more defensive and Pulse’s high damage boost has been lowered to make it balanced with the new enemy health.
- Ballistic Shield and Support Station have been given more health. Support Station’s healing has been increased.
- Many bugs associated with skills have been fixed.
Special ammo will also be changed to convert bullet damage to exotic damage reduction. For example, instead of setting enemies on fire with incendiary bullets, the bullets will add on fire damage. All three Signature Skills will additionally experience changes, with buffs added to Recovery Link and Tactical Link. Update 1.3 has made Survivor Link overpowered, so that will be taken down a notch.
No definitive release date yet for The Division 1.4 update, but it will roll out in October.
[Source: The Division Blog]
