The Division 2’s 1.04 update goes live tomorrow, bringing with it several new endgame features. According to Ubisoft, the update will also make some welcome changes to the game’s skill and weapon mod systems.
The Division 2 Skill and Weapon Mode Changes
In a recent ‘State of the Game’ livestream, Ubisoft Massive outlined how it’s tweaking The Division 2’s mod systems. Overall, the changes should benefit players who felt they needed to micromanage their characters’ endgame stats and weapon loadouts.
For skill mods, Ubisoft is lowering the required skill power to activate mod perks across the board. Currently, it’s just a bit too hard to reach the necessary skill power to activate skill mod perks. The change will consequently lower some players’ current skill power, but activating mod perks should be easier in update 1.04.
As for weapon mods, they’re getting an even more substantial rework. In the current system, every weapon mod has both a positive and negative effect. After update 1.04, each weapon mod slot will have at least one mod with no negative effects. Even better, the negative effects themselves will also be toned down, though only be a small degree. Ubisoft hopes that this will encourage players to try out more mod combinations for specific weapon types.
Ubisoft made it clear during the livestream that balancing isn’t the main focus of the 1.04 update. The update’s main draw is its endgame feature suite which includes World Tier 5 and the Tidal Basin Stronghold. Once players have had time to experience these endgame features, Ubisoft will focus more on making in-depth balancing changes.
The Tidal Basin Stronghold will act as a sort of gateway to The Division 2’s World Tier 5 endgame. In World Tier 5, players can bump their gear score up to a maximum of 500. The final World Tier also includes Heroic difficulty missions, repeatable Strongholds, named gear sets, and more. Certain Division 2 Exotic weapons might even drop in World Tier 5 as well.