Tom Clancy’s The Division 1.6 PTS/Last Stand patch notes had been revealed online via Ubisoft . It is indeed loaded with tons of information and Reddit user Spyder101 mentioned that there’s information that goes beyond even what was stated in those notes. Namely the skill modifiers that had been changed.
#TheDivision Update 1.6 and Last Stand: PTS Opening & Patch Notes Announced https://t.co/aEPsBBDdOP pic.twitter.com/zjfteHDNrg
— TheDivisionZone (@TheDivisionZone) January 23, 2017
“Super preliminary data is out for PTS GS256 gear. It is on a new tab on my gearing cheat sheet . You can find the info here.”
Ubisoft developer Yannick Banchereau gave his input regarding the difficulty in expressing these changes that weren’t mentioned in the patch notes due to making such a comparison between 1.6 and prior versions.
“You’re right. With the changes to Skillpower it would be hard to list the changes to Skills as they don’t really compare to pre 1.6 values.”
Please note, none of this is verified as this is prior to tomorrow’s release of the 1.6 PTS.
Major Gear Set Changes
Alpha Bridge
This is currently one of the strongest sets in The Division . This is due in part by utilizing talents from the categorically same weapon types. To recap what the characteristics are now, the gear set allows for 100 percent health regeneration for a two-piece set and plus 5 percent weapon damage for a three-piece. Finally, if you have all four Alpha Bridge pieces, the rule states, “If your primary and secondary weapon is of the same category, they gain all of the unique active talents.”
The 1.6 patch notes don’t state there are any changes to the first two bonuses, but it could be subject to change. The four-piece bonus in the 1.6 patch will change to the following.
“If your primary and secondary weapon is of the same category, they both gain the FREE talent.”
The free talent is the talent in the third slot that doesn’t need to be unlocked. This would mean your main weapon would have only four talents as opposed to the previous six talents that was considered to be overpowered. However, this will still allow for additional talents on your weapon compared to what other gear sets can provide.
Note that this will not apply to the newly introduced Exotic named weapons in The Division 1.6 patch.
Reclaimer Set
This is a particularly interesting change being made as it could be proven very useful to a team of people taking advantage of healing, according to The Division YouTuber Arekkz. The update will allow for a focus on the healing support station with an increase in its range under a two-piece set which can allow for team members to move around more widely under its area of influence.
The three-piece remains the same, but with an unknown percentage at this time. The four-piece bonus has a very advantageous change.
“Activate all support station mods (life support, immunizer, ammo cache) simultaneously.”
This set up can indeed be an advantage for high level players all teamed up. This would likely be particularly helpful for the new Incursion and Legendary missions coming up in The Division 1.6 /Last Stand DLC expansion. Keep in mind, focus on the skill power is highly recommended for this gear set to be optimized.
Frontline Set
There’s not much change going on with this set, but the four-piece set bonus will undergo an alteration. The ballistic shield that goes along with the usage of an SMG has a current talent with this set that reduces the critical hit chance down to zero percent, but Division agents were still able to mod upward some stats gaining critical hit chance.
The 1.6 update for the Frontline set changed that to complete removal of ballistic shield mods altogether so players won’t be able to bypass it anymore. This way players won’t have an overpowered shield and will allow them to use cautionary measures when taking on powerful opponents.
Need clarification on exotic weapons? Trust us, you’ll want to watch this video #TheDivision https://t.co/HLskE25xMm pic.twitter.com/gt73Nw61dF
— The Clancy Elites (@ClancyElites) January 23, 2017
Tactician’s Authority Set
Only a minor change in The Division’s gear set here. Basically the 10 second timer regarding the set’s bonus is removed and the 1.6 update relies on skill utilization. This eliminates the redundancy if nothing is within range for 10 seconds.
SEEKR Gear Set
The Division had also added a new gear set called SEEKR which focuses on the effects of body shots regarding the four set bonus. The two and three set SEEKR bonuses are unknown at this time, but this looks like it’ll be an interesting set piece to prepare for.
“Set Bonus (4): A guaranteed critical hit after landing two consecutive shots to the body (which can be spread out across different enemies).”
It is easier to hit the body than the head, so why make it easier on the Division player in 1.6? Perhaps there will be something in the unknown stats that will off set that? There wasn’t mentioned a weapon requirement and could very well apply to all weapons.
[Featured Image by Ubisoft]