If you’re a The Division 2 player on PC, and you test out the new stuff in the PTS (Public Test Server), you’ll want to check out this new update Ubisoft Massive has rolled out for Title Update 6 (TU6), which is now live in the PTS! There are a ton of new changes listed in this The Division 2 PTS TU6 patch notes Wave 2 roll out, which you will want to read below, since most — if not all — of the changes here will be released in TU6!

Remember that NO narrative content included in Episode 2 (which will roll out with TU6) is included in the PTS or in the patch notes. The stuff listed below are mostly for gameplay changes and whatnot.

Shepherd and Call for Backup

• Shepherd rank now rises automatically.
  • Filling the shepherd meter now triggers an automatic endorsement. The host may still grant an additional endorsement.
  • Due to this additional available endorsement, Shepherd ranks now require 15 endorsements for the first rank and 7 endorsements for each additional rank. (Up from 10 and 5, respectively.)

 

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Skills

 

Hive:

• The Stinger hive now applies the Bleed status effect on hit.
• Can now be picked up and placed down elsewhere.
  • The charges that remain when picked up are saved.
  • No longer uses a cooldown, but instead uses a charge-up mechanic similar to chem launcher.

 

Chem Launcher:

• Repair cloud no longer repairs a hostile players armor.

 

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Stash

• Increased Stash space by 150 slots. The player starts with 200 and can upgrade to 300 slots total through perks.

 

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Options & Controls

• Fixed Reload issues in shooting range when key was mapped to mouse wheel.
• Reload is now buffered if pressed during weapon switch.
• Added autolookcenter and 180 turn settings to consoles.
• Added option to take cover on long press, this is for people who really dislike being ‘sucked into cover’ when they roll.
• Grenade aim assist implemented.
  • Can be disabled in options.
• Improved visual hit feedback responsiveness.
• Hipfire now forces the character to walk.
• Hive skill can be picked up now.
• Improved responsiveness of traversing cover and moving around corners.
• Reduced time to recover after a drop, players should get control back quicker.
• Improved visibility of all enemies when aiming.
• Fixed weird stairs.

 

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Balancing changes

PVP

Skills have been individually tuned for PVP. Any value adjustments will be displayed in the skill information panel.

• Damage adjustments only affect damage dealt to players in Conflict and all Dark Zones. NPCs within Dark Zones take un-modified skill damage.
• Status effect duration adjustments only affect status effects dealt by skills to players in Conflict and all Dark Zones. Status effects durations are unmodified to NPCs within Dark Zones.
• Shield damage taken adjustments only affect damage dealt to shield from players. NPCs deal unmodified damage versus player shields.
• Healing adjustments affect all healing within conflict and Dark Zones
• Cooldown adjustments affect usage of skills within conflict and all Dark Zones.

 

• Damage Adjustments (Buffs):
  • Pulse – Jammer: 0.16 -> 5
  • Turret – Sniper: 0.12 -> 0.4
  • Turret – Artillery: 0.16 -> 0.45
  • Chem Launcher – Firestarter: 0.16 -> 0.5
  • Chem Launcher – Oxidizer: 0.16 -> 0.35
  • Firefly – Burster: 0.16 -> 0.35
  • Firefly – Demolisher: 0.16 -> 10
  • Seeker Mine – Explosive: 0.16 -> 0.22
  • Seeker Mine – Airburst: 0.16 -> 0.4
  • Seeker Mine – Cluster: 0.16 -> 0.25
• Damage Adjustments (Nerfs):
• Turret – Assault: 0.12 -> 0.1
• Drone – Striker: 0.12 -> 0.1
• Shield – Bulwark: 1.82 -> 5
• Shield – Crusader: 1.82 -> 5
• Shield – Deflector: 1.82 -> 5
• Hive – Restorer: 0.64 -> 0.5
• Chem Launcher – Reinforcer: 0.64 -> 0.5
• Seeker Mine – Mender: 0.64 -> 0.5
• Drone – Fixer: 0.64 -> 0.5
• Pulse – Scanner: 1 -> 5
• Firefly – Blinder: 1 -> 2
• Firefly – Blinder: 1 -> 0.3
• Damage Taken Adjustments (Nerfs):
• Healing Adjustments (Nerfs):
• Cooldown Adjustments (Nerfs):
• Status Effect Duration (Nerfs):

 

Exotic Holstered Talents

Chatterbox (Nerf):

• While holstered, reloading your weapon within 5s after a kill grants 15% (down from 20%) rate of fire for 10s.

Nemesis (Nerf):

• While holstered, gain +15% (down from +25%) headshot damage when scoped with your current weapon.
  • PvP version remains unchanged at +10%.

Merciless (buff):

• While holstered, landing a shot has a 5% chance to deal +100% (up from +20%) damage as explosive damage.

 

Exotic Talents

Chatterbox (Buff):

• Every shot landed grants 1% rate of fire to a max of 60%. This resets on reload.
• Kills with this weapon refill 75% (up from 20%) of its magazine and grants a buff for 10s.
• While the buff is active, every shot landed increases magazine capacity by 3 (up from 1) to a max of 60. Killing a target consumes the buff to fully refill the increased magazine.

Sweet Dreams (Added Functionality):

• Landing a melee attack on an enemy after swapping to this weapon grants 60% (up from 35%) bonus armor and applies the Sandman debuff.
  • PvP bonus armor remains at 35%.
• Killing an enemy with the Sandman debuff reapplies the bonus armor.
• This debuff prevents the enemy from using armor kits and from receiving healing from any source.
• While equipped, dodging reloads 25% of your current weapon’s magazine.
• And if drawn, dodging grants +50% weapon damage for 2s. (added functionality)

Pestilence (Buff):

• After hitting the same enemy 10 times, that enemy is inflicted with Plague of the Outcasts for 10s.
• Whenever an enemy with Plague of the Outcasts is killed, they leave a toxic cloud for 10s that deals 1200% (up from 400%) weapon damage per second to anyone inside and inflicts them with Pestilence.
  • PvP version remains at 500%.
• This debuff reduces healing received by 50% for 10s.
• Whenever an enemy with Pestilence would be downed, they are instead instantly killed.
• Pestilence is removed if the enemy is repaired to full armor.

Merciless (Buff)

• RPM increased from 260 to 400.
• This weapon is equipped with a binary trigger that fires on trigger pull and release
• Pulling the trigger fires primer rounds that stay embedded in an enemy. Releasing the trigger fires detonator rounds that detonate all primers on the enemy it hits.
• Each primer detonated gains +100% (up from +75%) damage per primer detonated.
  • PvP version remains at +75%.
• Only one enemy can have primers and at most 5 primers can be embedded.

Eagle Bearer (Adjustment)

• Base Damage Reduced by 15%.
• Accuracy increases as you continuously fire, up to +100%.
• Headshot kills grant +100% reload speed, +50% (up from +35%) damage, and the tenacity buff for 10s.
  • PvP version remains at 35%.
• The strength of Tenacity is increased by 1% for body shots and 5% for headshots.
• 40-80% (up from 20-80%) of the damage taken is delayed until the buff expires.
• All the total delayed damage is reduced for each enemy killed while the buff is active, up to 100% with 3 (down from 5) kills.

Diamondback (Buff PvE)

• Diamondback randomly marks an enemy.
• Hitting that enemy consumes the mark, guaranteeing a critical hit with +20% total damage. A new random target is marked afterwards and whenever you reload.
• After hitting 5 marked targets, gain +50% reload speed, +20% total damage, and all shots fired are guaranteed critical hits for 10s 15s.
• While drawn, each time a round is loaded, gain +20% (up from +15%) bonus armor for 3s.
  • Although current live version text says 20%, this was bugged and only did 15%, it now grants 20% instead of 15%.

Diamondback (PvP – New Functionality)

• Headshots against players are guaranteed to critical hit and provide a stack of Deep Fangs.
• Non-player Enemies such as NPCs and player skills will still be marked randomly by the Diamondback and also provide stacks when hit.

 

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Balance Adjustments between PTS Wave 1 and Wave 2

Talents

New Talents

• Spark:
  • Damaging enemies with skills or grenades grant +15% weapon damage for 15s.
    • Spark can be found on backpack items. (new) Requires 9 offensive attributes.
• Vigilance:
  • Gain +25% weapon damage. Receiving damage disables this buff for 5s.
    • Vigilance can be found on chest items. (new) Requires 7 offensive attributes.
• Concussion:
  • Headshots grant +20% headshot damage for 2 s, 5s with marksman rifles.
    • Concussion can be found on mask items. (new) Requires 7 offensive attributes.
• (new) Composure:
  • While in cover, grants +10% total weapon damage.
    • Composure can be found on kneepad items. Requires 11 offensive attributes.

 

Talent Changes

Basic Gear Talents:
All Basic Gear Talents are changing to be “Unique Equip”, meaning they will not stack with duplicates of themselves on other pieces of gear. This means players will have to compose builds of unique talent combinations instead of stacking one talent on all pieces. To compensate for this, all of the basic talents have gotten boosts to their power level.

• Critical: Buff
  • +20% Critical Hit Damage (up from +15%).
• Surgical: Buff
  • +15% Critical Hit Chance (up from +10%).
• Devastating: Buff
  • +10% Weapon Damage (up from +5%).
• Empowered: Buff
  • +20% Skill Power (up from +10%).
• Hard Hitting: Buff
  • +25% Damage To Elites (up from +10%).
• Vital: Buff
  • +25% Health (up from +20%).
• Hardened: Buff
  • +20% Armor (up from +10%).
• Insulated: Buff
  • +30% Hazard Protection (up from +10%).
• Restorative: Buff
  • +30% Health On Kill (up from +10%).
• Self Adjusting: Buff
  • +30% Armor Regeneration (up from +20%).
• Destructive: Buff
  • +40% Explosive Damage (up from +20%).
• Capacitive: Buff
  • +50% Skill Duration (up from +20%).

 

Gear Talents:

• On The Ropes: Nerf
  • PvE: Weapon damage is increased by 15% (down from 25%) while all skills are on cooldown.
  • (new) PvP: Weapon damage is increased by 10% (down from 25%) while all skills are on cooldown.
• Creeping Death: Buff
  • PvE: Status effects spread to the nearest enemy within 25m (up from 10m). Can occur every 5s (down from 15s).
  • (new) PvP: Status effects spread to the nearest enemy within 10m. Can occur every 5s (down from 15s).
• Spotter: Nerf
  • PvE: +15% (down from 20%) weapon damage to pulsed enemies.
  • (new) PvP: +10% (down from 20%) weapon damage to pulsed enemies.
• Kneecap: New functionality
  • PvE: Once per 30s, shooting an enemy in the legs applies bleed to them for 10s.
  • (new) PvP: Once per 30s, shooting an enemy in the legs applies bleed to them for 5s.
• Tech Support: PvP Buff
  • PvE: Unchanged
  • PvP: Kills by active skills grant +50% (up from 25%) Skill Damage for 15s (up from 10s)
• Unbreakable: PvP Nerf
  • PvE: Unchanged
  • PvP: 20% (down from 25%) of max armor is repaired when your armor is depleted. Armor kits used within the next 7s are not consumed.
• Bloodsucker: PvP Nerf
  • PvE: Unchanged
  • PvP: Depleting an enemy’s armor adds a stack of +15% (down from 20%) bonus armor for 5s. Max stack is 2 (down from 5).
• Terminate: PvP Buff
  • PvE: Unchanged
  • PvP: Depleting an enemy’s armor grants +50% (up from 35%) skill damage for 30s (up from 15s).
• Reassigned: PvP Buff
  • PvE: Unchanged
  • PvP: Killing a status effected enemy adds 3 rounds of a random special ammo into your sidearm. Can occur once every 30s (down from 45s).
• Calculated: PvP Buff
  • PvE: Unchanged
  • PvP: Kills from cover reduce skill cooldowns by 20% (up from 10%).

 

Weapons Talents:

• Breadbasket: Buff
  • Landing body shots adds a stack of bonus +50% (up from 5%) headshot damage to the next headshot for 10s. Max stack is 3 (down from 10).
  • PvP now uses PvE values
• Close & Personal: Buff
  • Killing a target within 7m grants +50% weapon damage for 10s (up from 5s).
  • PvP now uses PvE values
• Rifleman: Buff
  • Stacks are no longer removed on missed shots and bodyshots.
  • PvP now uses PvE values
• Spike: PvP Buff
  • PvE: Unchanged
  • PvP: Headshot kills grant +70% (up from 35%) skill damage for 20s.
• Perpetuation: Buff
  • PvE: Unchanged
  • PvP: Kills grants +50% (up from 5%) skill duration, sniper ammo, mortar ammo and charges to the next skill used. Max stack is 2 (down from 10).
• Premeditated: Nerf
  • Weapon damage is increased for every shell loaded to a maximum of +75% (up from 35%). If all shells are reloaded the weapon damage is increased by an additional 10% (down from 50%). Buff lasts for 10 seconds.

 

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Weapon Balancing

We wanted to make sure that more weapons were viable choices. We have both used mathematical modelling but also player feedback to inform our adjustments.
We focused on buffing underperforming weapons and lift them up to ones that felt good. There were a few outliers that did need to come down a touch, but we tried to be as gentle as possible with reductions in damage. For the weapons that did get reduced in damage to make sure other weapons could be competitive, we tried to look at the other aspects of those guns to give them some other upside. For instance, the performance at long range of the M60 got an improvement while it’s max damage got a slight reduction.

Notable categories that got the most buffs are SMG’s that we felt were underperforming overall in the end game. Part of this has to do with crit builds not having quite taken off, so this is something we will be looking at going forward. Most notably, we are looking at removing critical strike range from the game. For now, most SMG’s get a healthy buff in damage. Rifles too were not as popular in end game as they could be, and see a marked improvement.

Shotguns are not in this round of adjustments, but will also get improvements, especially in end game. This will be accomplished by changing shotguns to start rolling “damage to armor” instead of “melee damage” in TU6, as well as adjusting individual underperforming shotguns damage to be more competitive. This is not yet on the PTS.

 

Assault Rifles:

• ACR: Buff
  • 3% damage increase
• AUG: Buff
  • 3% damage increase
• Carbine 7: Buff
  • 8% damage increase
• F2000: Buff
  • 5% damage increase
• FAL: Buff
  • 3% damage increase
• G36: Buff
  • 3% damage increase
  • Less damage drop-off past optimal range
• M4: Buff
  • 10% damage increase
• P416: Buff
  • -5% damage decrease
• TAR-21: Buff
  • 8% damage increase

 

Light Machine Guns:

• HK121: Buff
  • 9% damage increase
• KAG: Buff
  • 5% damage increase
• M249: Nerf
  • -4% damage decrease
• M60: Nerf
  • -10% damage decrease
• RPK: Buff
  • 5% damage increase
• SA80: Buff
  • 6% damage increase

 

Marksman Rifles:

• M700 Tactical: Buff
  • 19% damage increase
• M700 Carbon: Buff
  • 19% damage increase
• Classic M44 Carbine: Buff
  • 14% damage increase
• Hunting M44: Buff
  • 8% damage increase
• Custom M44: Buff
  • 19% damage increase
• SRS: Buff
  • 11% damage increase

 

Rifles:

• ACR SS: Buff
  • 19% damage increase
• M16: Buff
  • 68% damage increase
• Classic M1A: Buff
  • 39% damage increase
• SOCOM M1A: Buff
  • 30% damage increase
• M1A CQB: Buff
  • 30% damage increase
• Lightweight M4: Buff
  • 11% damage increase
• LVOA-C: Buff
  • 12% damage increase
• SIG 716: Nerf
  • -7% damage decrease
• 1886: Buff
  • 20% damage increase
  • Less damage drop-off past optimal range
• MDR: Buff
  • 16% damage increase
  • Less damage drop-off past optimal range
• MK17: Buff
  • 17% damage increase

 

Sub Machine Guns:

• AUG: Buff
  • 15% damage increase
• MP5: Buff
  • 13% damage increase
• MP7: Buff
  • 7% damage increase
• MPX: Buff
  • 38% damage increase
• P90: Buff
  • 25% damage increase
• SMG9: Buff
  • 6% damage increase
• T821: Nerf
  • -8% damage decrease
• Thompson: Buff
  • 12% damage increase
• Tommy Gun: Buff
  • 6% damage increase
• UMP45: Buff
  • 14% damage increase
  • Less damage drop-off past optimal range
• Tactical Vector SBR: Buff
  • 21% damage increase
• Vector SBR 9: Buff
  • 17% damage increase
• Vector .45 ACP: Buff
  • 25% Damage Increase

TU6 is set for release this October. Once we know more details regarding that, we’ll be sure to let our readers know.

Source: Ubisoft forums