In case you missed it, Ubisoft announced Project Resolve, which is a huge undertaking that affects the future of the game. One of the key components of that initiative is live now, as The Division 2 Title Update 20 PTS patch notes are here as the testing phase begins today!
Note that while these should be the patch notes we are getting when the update is released sometime in February, there is a chance that a few items could be changed, removed or whatnot, so bear that in mind before diving in.
The Division 2 Title Update 20 PTS Patch Notes:
PATCH SIZE:
~ 90GB
START DATE:
Friday, December 15th, at 1:00 PM CET, 7:00 AM ET, 4:00 AM PT
END DATE:
Monday, December 18th, at 1:00 PM CET, 7:00 AM ET, 4:00 AM PT
Please note that these proposed changes are not final, and we may decide not to implement some of them in the game based on your feedback.
PTS Phase 1 build won’t include:
- Year 5 Season 3 Weapons, Gear and Talents
- Global Events changes
- Some Inventory quality of life updates
- Tinkering menu
All these features will be made available in the future tests.
PVP IMPROVEMENTS
DARK ZONE
Our objective is to create a more distinct contrast between invaded and uninvaded Dark Zones, allowing players to customize the intensity of their gameplay experience. We anticipate that this approach will attract a larger player base to the Dark Zone.
Rogue Status
- Going Rogue has a 5 second activation time. Previously, 0.75s.
- First Rogue rank time duration increased from 20 to 30 seconds.
- Players with the Rogue status will be unable to switch loadouts or individual gear pieces for the duration of the Rogue status.
STATUS EFFECTS
❗ These adjustments prioritize the PVP experience.
The proposed changes focus on reducing the impact of Status Effects and introducing counterplays. The intention is to make Status Effects in PVP more manageable and provide players with additional options to counteract when under a Status Effect. The changes are primarily aimed at the PvP experience, but we will continue to monitor the PVE impact.
General
- Added diminishing returns* for all Status Effects based on two categories:
- Crowd Control: Shock, Ensnare, Blind
- Damage Over Time: Bleed, Burn, Poison
*Diminishing returns means that each subsequent application of the Status Effect of the same category will have a reduced duration until full immunity is reached. Diminishing Returns will not apply in PvE.
- Plague of the Outcasts is now affected by diminishing returns with stacks being halved on each transfer. PVP only.
- Status effects are removed if the effect source is killed (after a short delay) PVP only.
Immobilizing Status Effects
- Reduced severity of immobilizing Status Effects
- Ensnare: The player will receive a 10% damage reduction to incoming body shots.
- Shock: The player will have slower movement and is prevented from shooting. PVP only.
Burn
- While burning, rolling in any direction will apply a bonus of 10% burn damage resistance for 5 seconds, up to a maximum of 30%.
- Rolling 3 times maxes out the bonus.
Bleed
- Not moving grants 10% bleed damage resistance for the duration of the effect.
Repair Skills
- All repair skills (Mender seeker, Reinforcer Chem Launcher, Fixer Drone, Restorer Hive) now give a 50% hazard protection bonus for 5 seconds, only the first time that the agent comes in contact with that instance of the skill_._
Booster Hive
- Added Poison to the list of effects that the Booster Hive cleanses.
- Boost duration now scales with tiers (from 5s to a maximum of 6.5s at skill tier 6).
- Increased maximum range up to 50%.
- Increased drone speed by 20%.
Sticky EMP
- Reduced EMP explosion damage in PvP.
- Lower Skill Tier players will not apply Disrupt to higher Skill Tier players if the difference between them is bigger than 3 (same as jammer EMP).
CONFLICT
Our objective is to differentiate Conflict from other PVP experiences by placing a stronger emphasis on shooting and item selection, rather than relying heavily on SHD level bonuses.
SHD and Expertise Normalization
- All players joining Conflict will have their Expertise and SHD Watch bonuses removed.
Spawn Area
- Turrets were added to all spawn points to prevent spawn camping.
- Loadout switching and individual pieces of gear will be allowed only once per spawn before exiting the spawn area. Once out of the spawn area, the player is no longer allowed to swap.
Rewards Buff
- Extended loot pool.
- Dropped items are now of Legendary Difficulty quality equivalent.
- Cache now gives 2 items, with the possibility for an additional 3rd one.
XP Gain
- Significantly boosted XP gain to align with other game modes.
TALENTS
These changes aim to make specific Talents more viable for PVP and address some balancing issues.
Weapon Talents
- Doctor Home: change proc condition to “target headshot”, instead of “target killed”.
- Actum Est: 50% of the next magazine filled with shock ammo, instead of 100%. PvP Only.
- Future Perfection: Weapon kills grant +1 Skill Tier for 15s. Stacks up to 4 times. Weapon kills at Skill Tier 6 grant Overcharge for 15s. Overcharge cooldown: 90s.
- Before: Weapon kills grant +1 Skill Tier for 19s. Stacks up to 3 times. Weapon kills at Skill Tier 6 grant Overcharge for 15s. Overcharge cooldown: 90s.
- Swift (The Stinger): Performing a cover-to-cover grants +20% Weapon Damage for 20s.
- Before: Performing a cover-to-cover grants +20% Weapon Damage for 15s.
- Thunder Strike: Deals +20% Weapon Damage to shocked enemies. After 4 kills, applies shock to the next enemy you hit.
- Before: Deals 30% extra Weapon Damage to shocked targets.
- Perfect Thunder Strike: Deals +25% Weapon Damage to shocked enemies. After 3 kills, applies shock to the next enemy you hit.
- Before: Deals 40% extra Weapon Damage to shocked targets.
- Big Game Hunter: Headshots grant +4% Headshot Damage. Stacks up to 25 times.
- Before: Headshots grant +2% Headshot Damage. Stacks up to 50 times.
- Breathe Free (Lady Death): When moving, gain 4 stacks per second or 8 stacks while sprinting. Max stack is equal to the weapon’s Mag Size.
- Before: When moving, gain 4 stacks per second or 8 stacks while sprinting, up to 32 total.
- Flatline: Deals 15% Weapon Damage to pulsed enemies. After 4 kills, applies pulse to the next enemy you hit.
- Before: Amplifies Weapon Damage by 15% to pulsed enemies. After 3 kills, applies pulse to the next enemy you hit.
- Perfect Flatline: Deals +20% Weapon Damage to pulsed enemies. After 3 kills, applies pulse to the next enemy you hit.
- Before: Amplifies Weapon Damage by 20% to pulsed enemies. After 2 kills, applies pulse to the next enemy you hit.
- Perfect Preservation: Killing an enemy repairs 15% armor over 5s. Headshots kills improve the repair by an additional 15%.
- Before: Killing an enemy repairs 12% armor over 5s. Headshots kills improve the repair by an additional 12%.
Gear Talents
- Intimidate: gain 3 stacks per second up to a max of 9 and each stack increases total weapon damage by 4% to enemies within 10m.
- Before: 1 stack per second to a max 7.
- Perfect Intimidate: gain 3 stacks per second up to a max of 10 and each stack increases total weapon damage by 4% to enemies within 10m.
- Before: 1 stack per second to a max 8.
- Makeshift Repairs (Foundry Bulwark): Whenever you or your shield take damage, 25% of that amount is repaired to both over 10s.
- Before: 20% and 15s.
- Process Refinery (Foundry Bulwark): increases Makeshift Repairs from 25% over 10s to 35% over 10s
- Before: 20% to 30%.
- Improved Materials (Foundry Bulwark): Decreases time taken for Makeshift Repairs from 10s to 5s.
- Before: 15s to 10s.
- Obliterate: Critical hits increase total weapon damage by 1% for 10s.
- Before: 5s
- Unbreakable: 40% Armor repaired. PvP Only
- Before: 50%
- Perfect Unbreakable: 50% Armor repaired. PvP Only
- Before: 55%
Other
- The Technician’s Linked Laser Pointer Pulse Duration was reduced from 20 to 6 seconds.
FIXES
PVP
- Fixed the issue that allowed agents to aim from cover without being seen and exposed to enemy fire with the Striker Ballistic Shield active while using C79 scope.
- Fixed the issue that allowed agents to shoot using any scope while their hitbox is being fully protected by props when using any shield.
- Fixed the issue that allowed keeping the increased magazine size from the True Patriot Gear Set even after swapping loadouts.
- Fixed the issue that allowed glitching through a ladder when entering cover directly behind it.
KNOWN ISSUES
- Talents: Breathe Free and Thunder Strike/Perfect Thunder Strike – the Talent descriptions have not been updated, but their functionalities will reflect the ones in the Patch Notes
- The Ravenous has +10% Weapon Damage instead of +25% Weapon Damage
- 3pc Petrov gives +25% Ammo Capacity instead of +30% Ammo Capacity
- Iron Lung: Doesn’t have the +10% Weapon Damage increase
- Bluescreen: Doesn’t have the +20% Weapon Damage increase
- Murakami Industries: 2pc bonus gives +20% Repair Skill instead of +30% Repair Skill, 3pc bonus gives +10% Skill Damage instead of +30% Skill Damage
- Walker, Harris & Co: 3pc bonus gives +5% Damage to Health instead of +10% Damage to Health
QUALITY OF LIFE UPDATES
- Scaling open-world loot crates with world difficulty.
- This change is designed to increase the quality of gear and the stats it has across the board, especially for Challenging & Heroic difficulties.
- Capped SHD watch HP bonus to LVL 2000 and increased the HP gain.
- LVL 1 to 1000: no changes.
- LVL 1001 to 2000: changed HP gain from 0.3 to 30HP per level.
- LVL 2000 and beyond: at the moment Agents will only get scavenging materials each level.
Inventory
- Added new menu called Tinkering, which combines the features of Optimization and Recalibration.
- Recalibration Station has been renamed into Tinkering Station, but the functionality is not available for testing yet.
Armor kits
- Ability to instantly use an armor kit to replenish 25% armor (5 second cooldown), in addition to holding the button to replenish 100%.
Gear Combat Lock
- While in combat, players will no longer be allowed to swap individual gear pieces or loadouts.
EXPERTISE
Our intention is to prioritize the player’s time by implementing this change, which aims to make Expertise upgrades more easily attainable and ensure that the costs of upgrading are in proportion to the benefits gained.
- Expertise reduction to make upgrades more accessible. This is the first look at new costs:
PROJECTS
We are investigating some changes and additions to completion conditions and rewards to make projects more interesting and worthwhile.
Season Pass Daily Project
Conditions: To complete a mission on a hard or higher difficulty.
Rewards:
- (Change) XP (Equivalent to one level up)
- (New) Optimization Materials Cache
- (New) Challenging Bounty – Black Tusk
- (New) 1 x Crafting Blueprint
- (New) 1 x Equipment Item
- (New) 1 x SHD Calibration Point
New Missions in Pool:
- Potomac Event Center
- Federal Emergency Bunker
- Grand Washington Hotel
- Camp White Oak
- Jefferson Plaza
- DCD Headquarters
Daily Projects
BOO: More rewards have been added to make the project more appealing.
Conditions: To complete activities, neutralize Named Enemies, Resupply CP or complete a mission in a specific NZ.
Rewards:
- (Change) Challenging Bounty
- (Change) XP (half of a level up)
- (Change) 5 x Specialization Points
- (Change) 2 x Equipment Item
- (New) Recalibration Cache
- (New) 1 x Crafting Blueprint
Dark Zone and Conflict: Some objective goals have been made easier since not all players want to spend time doing PvP content or are not proficient enough to reach the goal.
Conditions:
- (Change) Dark Zone: All conditions that require killing Agents have been removed, being replaced by PvE-oriented ones (extract items, clear landmarks, etc.)
- (Change) Conflict: Removed the “Win Match” requirement, players will now only require to complete matches and kill other players. Also, condition difficulty was lowered overall.
Rewards:
- 1 x SHD Calibration
- Crafting Materials
- (Change) Dark Zone XP if Dark Zone Project
- (Change) Conflict XP if Conflict Project
- (Change) 2 x Equipment Item (Previously 1)
- (New) 1 x Weapon Crafting Cache
Weekly Projects
Invasion Project: More rewards have been added to make the project more appealing.
Conditions: To neutralize named enemies, faction activities, faction bounties, complete Invaded Missions on certain difficulties and complete invaded Strongholds on certain difficulties.
Rewards:
- 5 x SHD Calibration
- Heroic Faction Bounty
- 2x Equipment Item
- Crafting Blueprints
- 5 x Specialization Points
- (Change) XP (Equivalent to one level up)
- (Change) Heroic Bounty (All Factions)
- (New) 1 x Named Item Cache
- (New) 1 x Weapon Crafting Cache
Weekly Legendary Mission: More rewards have been added to make the project more appealing. It relates to some of the hardest content in the game, and it should be rewarded accordingly.
Conditions: Complete one of the Legendary Strongholds.
Rewards:
- 1 x Exotic Cache
- (New) 1 x Optimization Cache
- (New) 2 x Recalibration Cache
- (New) 1 x Gear Crafting Cache
SHD Requisition – Slight buff to rewards to encourage more engagement
Conditions: To donate resources to CP or NPCs.
Rewards:
- 1 x Exotic Cache
- Crafting Blueprints
- 5 x Specialization Points
- (Change) XP (One Level Up)
- (New) Named Item Cache
Weekly Dark Zone / Conflict Project
(Change) Conditions: Regardless of its DZ or Conflict focus, the player had to do activities related to both game modes. Now, the conditions have been split depending on the project’s focus, and were made easier to achieve (e.g., Conflict Player Kill from 20 to 10, Conflict Match Win from 2 to 1, etc.)
Rewards:
- 5 x SHD Calibration
- Dark Zone XP if Dark Zone
- Conflict XP if Conflict
- (Change) 2 x Equipment Item (Previously, some only awarded 1)
- (New) 2 x Named Item Cache
- (Removed) Recalibration Cache
Weekly Summit Project
(Change) Conditions: Complete 15 (instead of 30) Summit floors in Hard/Challenging difficulty.
Rewards:
- 1 x Exotic Cache
- Crafting Blueprints
- 5 x Specialization Points
- (Change) 2 x Named Item Cache (Previously 1 x Named Item)
- (Change) XP (One Level Up)
- (New) 1 x Recalibration Cache
WEAPONS BALANCING
Exotic Weapons
- All Exotic Weapons’ third attribute will be reconfigurable.
❗This is a general buff balance pass to make all the less popular weapons more interesting.
Assault Rifles
- ACR, ACR-E: +10% Weapon Damage
- CTAR-21, The Railsplitter: +10 Mag Size
- F2000, F2000 Replica, Shield Splinterer: +50 RPM, +10 Mag Size
- FAL, FAL SA-58, FAL SA-58 Para, FAL SA-58 Para Replica: +5% Weapon Damage
- Military G36, G36 C, G36 Enhanced, G36 Enhanced Replica, Born Great: +50 RPM
- Honey Badger, Savage Wolverine: +5 Mag Size
- Mk16, SOCOM Mk16, Tactical Mk16, Tactical Mk16 Replica: +10% Weapon Damage
- Military P416, Custom P416 G3, Glory Daze, Eagle Bearer: +50 RPM
Submachine Guns
- AUG A3 Para XS, Enhanced AUG A3P, Tactical AUG A3P, Tactical AUG A3P Replica: +25 RPM, +10% Weapon Damage
- **CMMG Banshee, The Grudge: +**50 RPM, +5% Weapon Damage
- MP5 ST, MP5 ST Replica, MP5A2, MP5-N, Cabaret: +6 Mag Size
- MP7, Swap Chain : +50 RPM, +5% Weapon Damage
- Police T821, Black Market T821, Black Market T821 Replica: +10% Weapon Damage
- Converted SMG-9, Converted SMG-9 A1, Converted SMG-9 Replica: +50 RPM
- M1928, Tommy Gun, The Sleigher, Grown Great: +10% Weapon Damage
- Police UMP-45, Tactical UMP-45, Tactical UMP-45 Replica: +10% Weapon Damage
Light Machine Guns
- Iron Lung: +10% Weapon Damage
- All other LMGs: +20% Weapon Damage.
Rifles
- ACR SS: +10% Weapon Damage
- Ruthless, Merciless: +10% Weapon Damage
- USC .45 ACP, USC .45 ACP Replica: +10% Weapon Damage
- UIC15 MOD2: +30% Weapon Damage
- M16A2, M16A2 Replica: +30% Weapon Damage
- MDR Battle Rifle, MDR Battle Rifle Replica: +20 RPM, +10% Weapon Damage
- Resolute Mk47, Harmony: +20% Weapon Damage
- Military Mk17, Police Mk17, Police Mk17 Replica, Everlasting Glaze: +25% Weapon Damage
- SIG 716, SIG 716 Replica, SIG 716 CQB, Artist’s Tool, The Ravenous : +25% Weapon Damage
Marksman Rifles
- M700 Carbon, M700 Carbon Replica, M700 Tactical, Model 700, Model 700 Replica, Ekim’s Long Stick: +8 Optimal Range, +25% Weapon Damage
- Covert SRS, SRS A1, SRS A1 Replica, Pinprick, Mantis: +30% Weapon Damage
- SR-1, SR-1 Replica, Adrestia SR-1, Designated Hitter: +30% Weapon Damage
- Paratrooper SVD, Surplus SVD, Commando, Dread Edict: +15% Weapon Damage
- Tactical .308, Scalpel: +8 Optimal Range, +20 RPM
Other
- The Carbine 7 and Stoner LAMG will no longer drop with a preset talent.
GEAR BALANCING
Our objective is to enhance the strength of the 2- and 3-piece Brand Set bonuses in order to reward players for committing to a specific Brand Set. We want to make the 3-piece bonus more enticing, while also making less utilized mechanics more relevant.
GAME MODES
Descent
- Lowered the required heat necessary to reach the Nemesis. This will reduce the minimum loop at which Players can encounter Nemesis to 4 and the maximum loop to 9.
- Decreased the reward requirements in Descent by 1-5 loops. Players will now receive more loot caches / rewards for completing the same amount of loops as before.
- Added Exotic & Named caches within the NSA Tech store found outside the Descent entrance. The prices are placeholder.
- Added Talent pool rotations in Descent that are planned to change on a weekly basis. These pools have different thematic and consist of 35 talents and 6 exotic talents each.
Other
- Fixed the issue with the Summit LVL 100 XP.
- Various stability improvements implemented in Countdown, Descent, and Summit.
FIXES
Bugs
- Weapon & Gear caches in open world & missions were made to scale with the mission / global difficulty settings.
- There should be an increase in the quality of gear and its stats now, across the board – especially remarkable on Challenging & Heroic difficulties.
- Skill Mods of a higher level than the player can no longer be equipped.
- The scope mod from Oh Carol Marksman Rifle can no longer be applied to any weapon.
- Blueprints from the named sidearms of some specializations were dropping in Reconstructed Caches, now it’s no longer the case.
- Fixed a bug where most Named Gear Piece Blueprints gained from Reconstructed Caches did not require Brand-Specific materials.
- The Gift named backpack was in the Vests section of the Crafting Station.
- The blueprints for Big Show and Fox’s Prayer could not be found in the Crafting Station after being acquired, now they have been added.
Exploits
- Fixed the Corner Glitch.
- Fixed exploit where players could be invited at the end of the Raid to obtain Raid Specific Key without any participation.
Once the new weapons, gear, talents and other changes are revealed, we’ll let our readers know.