Just last week, we reported that Ubisoft Massive has targeted a mid-late May release for The Division Title Update 9.1. Today, during the latest State of the Game devstream, the studio announced The Division 2 Title Update 9.1 release date is set for May 12!

Aside from The Division 2 Title Update 9.1 release date, a patch preview (not the complete patch notes) have been revealed as well.

The Division 2 Title Update 9.1 release date and patch preview:

Title Update 9.1

Release Date: Tuesday, May 12th

Patch Notes: Next Monday

Highlighted Changes

• Framerate drops in the Dark Zones.
• Friendly Oxidizers damaging ally Skills.
• Recommended Activity tab not closing.
• The Frenzy talent staying active when swapping weapons.

 

NPC Balancing

Title Update 9.1 will also include balance changes for NPCs, addressing enemy Skills, weapons, and abilities that stand out as causing difficulty spikes. The developers are still looking at further changes and adjustments, and the first pass includes the following:

There will be an overall balance pass with Title Update 10 that expands on that.

 

• Nerfed damage and out-of-cover accuracy of the SMG used by red-bar Hyena Assault

 

• Status Effect from NPCs
  • Reducing the damage that burn applies
  • Reducing the damage that bleed applies
  • This will also affect PVP
  • Duration will stay the same in TU9.1

 

• Grenade Accuracy will be nerfed for NPCs
  • Accuracy is reduced further based on the distance to target.
  • Less accuracy for Hyena Thrower
  • Less accuracy for Black Tusk Minitanks
  • Less accuracy for Cleaner Napalm Turrets
  • Elites have better grenade accuracy
  • Hunters and Rogues and Legendary NPCs have better accuracy than elites but you should still feel a difference

    The throwers of the different factions have different throwing ranges. The Outcast thrower has an optimal range of 20m, so you will notice it earlier, while the Hyena Thrower has a 30m optimal range.

 

• NPC Blindfire accuracy will be reduced. That will be especially noticeable for Legendary NPCs (but while they start inaccurate, after 5 or 6 seconds they are also semi-accurate again).
  • NPCs will no longer blind-fire with a shotgun or sniper rifle; instead, they will switch to a pistol to blind-fire. Hunters, Rogue Agents, and some bosses are an exception and can break this rule. Also, Tank archetypes will no longer blind-fire.

 

• NPC Aggressiveness
  • Causes
    • There is no easy global fix for that
    • There were no intentional changes for that in TU8
    • It was a combination of changes and also increased difficulty that highlighted some underlying issues.
    • More changes are still being worked on
  • Changes
    • Reduced the frequency and aggressiveness of NPCs to advance towards hidden targets. (when you were hidden for a longer period of time (8s), factions like the Hyenas would advance towards your position. They now wait longer and it was changed how they advance towards you)
    • Hyena / Cleaner / Outcast Assault had a bug that when you were closer than 5 meters they would start circle around the player. That would cause an aggressive loop until you would run away from them. That will no longer happen and they will back away.
    • Non-Tank NPCs under status effect like Blind or Burn will no longer run towards the player but hold the position or back away.

 

• Cleaners Tank flamethrower range was reduced

 

• Hyena RC Car
  • explosion damage was reduced
  • the lingering fire duration was reduced
  • how often they spawn was reduced
  • How long burn / confuse status is applied to the player

 

• NPC Skill Balancing
  • Black Tusk Drones do less damage and it was lowered how often they are deployed.
  • Black Tusk Support Station will no longer heal mechanical NPCs (Warhounds and Minitanks and items that should be destroyed)
    • The Legendary version of the Support Station now has healing cap amounts like normal version.

 

• Armor kits from NPCs have been changed that they are no longer completely heal them. That change was not applied to bounties and few bosses in the last update. So they only heal to 80% or 70% / 60% when they have multiple armor kits. (Hunters still heal completely)

 

• New Status Effect Priorities for NPCs: Ensnare is now more important than blind or burn. Ensnared NPCs will no longer run around when they were burning first.

 

• NPC Fireflies of NPCs will no longer do an extensive amount of damage. (it should not one-shot player anymore)

 

• Further lowered likelihood of Tank archetypes rushing toward player hives or turrets to stomp them.

 

Player Balancing

• Reduced how much damage player Skills take from NPCs

 

• Player Status Effect buffs (only PVE)
  • Increased damage of bleed, poison, napalm ensnare against NPCs

 

• Reduced the size of player hitboxes (against NPCs) when players are blind-firing from behind cover. This should make it feel less risky for players to blind-fire at NPCs.

 

• Reduced Burn and Bleed damage against players in PVP

 

The goal is not to make it too easy but address the mentioned outliers that can cause frustration.

Title Update 10 will look into more global changes (might not even be necessary after the TU9.1 changes) and then take it from there. (Loot will be a topic for TU10)

 

Other Possible Changes

Some other WIP changes that are currently being worked on are:

• Negotiators Dilemma
• Rogue Agents no longer spawning during League Events (scheduled for TU10)

Same as always, once the patch is out, we’ll let our readers know ASAP.

Source: Reddit