The Division (Tom Clancy's) - Catch All

My understanding is that they're normalizing gear stats Destiny-The-Crucible style for Last Stand to force some kind of meaningful balance in it.

Hmm... if that's the case maybe I'll give it a try.

A lot of the finer details like that are in flux. It's all dependent on what happens with the PTS.

I'm late to the party, but extracting successfully in survival for the first time is one of the best feelings ever. I enjoyed my first few runs at the mode, but I wasn't expecting that rush of euphoria. So good!

Yeah, They are doing a massive PvP Changes in normal game. Last Stand will then have additional balancing similar to Crucial or maybe more like Iron Banner. Probably be another couple weeks until we have exacts.

Any gear recommendations for a shield build?

mindset.threat wrote:

Any gear recommendations for a shield build?

1.5 (current patch out) You will want to use 4 pieces of the D4 gear set that allows you to Sub machine gun while shield is out. If you use that you really can be free on other things to do. The SMG though makes the shield much more viable certainly for solo play.

However optimal would be to use Barrets chest piece (pain in ass to get) and the I think backpack (might be holster) that adds x% of Firearms/Stamina to Skill Power. This will allow you to still stack firearms/stamina do a bunch of damage and live long (even if hit by side) while having your shield still be super strong. The other thing to note is on the SMG using mods that increase optimal range is pretty big with the D3 build.

If you check Youtube fair amount of D3 builds out there for optimal.

escher77 wrote:
mindset.threat wrote:

Any gear recommendations for a shield build?

1.5 (current patch out) You will want to use 4 pieces of the D4 gear set that allows you to Sub machine gun while shield is out. If you use that you really can be free on other things to do. The SMG though makes the shield much more viable certainly for solo play.

However optimal would be to use Barrets chest piece (pain in ass to get) and the I think backpack (might be holster) that adds x% of Firearms/Stamina to Skill Power. This will allow you to still stack firearms/stamina do a bunch of damage and live long (even if hit by side) while having your shield still be super strong. The other thing to note is on the SMG using mods that increase optimal range is pretty big with the D3 build.

If you check Youtube fair amount of D3 builds out there for optimal.

I pair Barret's and Specialized backpack (the backpack Escher was speaking of), prior to Barret's I ran Specialized and Savage gloves (+Crit Hit chance to targets out of cover).

Use D3 while you can, when 1.6 patch hits it is taking a severe nerf hit in that the 3 "mods" you can apply to your shield skill will no longer apply while using that set. Honestly it needed to be toned down, by far the best PvE build in 1.5, only set that I can guarantee to finish all the challenging missions with while soloing.

can't remember the name of the talent but there's one you can get on pistols that increases damage for each headshot along with gloves that do the same. I ran a 3 piece Tactician with the 93R and it worked out pretty well with the shield.

Redhwk wrote:
escher77 wrote:
mindset.threat wrote:

Any gear recommendations for a shield build?

1.5 (current patch out) You will want to use 4 pieces of the D4 gear set that allows you to Sub machine gun while shield is out. If you use that you really can be free on other things to do. The SMG though makes the shield much more viable certainly for solo play.

However optimal would be to use Barrets chest piece (pain in ass to get) and the I think backpack (might be holster) that adds x% of Firearms/Stamina to Skill Power. This will allow you to still stack firearms/stamina do a bunch of damage and live long (even if hit by side) while having your shield still be super strong. The other thing to note is on the SMG using mods that increase optimal range is pretty big with the D3 build.

If you check Youtube fair amount of D3 builds out there for optimal.

I pair Barret's and Specialized backpack (the backpack Escher was speaking of), prior to Barret's I ran Specialized and Savage gloves (+Crit Hit chance to targets out of cover).

Use D3 while you can, when 1.6 patch hits it is taking a severe nerf hit in that the 3 "mods" you can apply to your shield skill will no longer apply while using that set. Honestly it needed to be toned down, by far the best PvE build in 1.5, only set that I can guarantee to finish all the challenging missions with while soloing.

You're thinking of alphabridge, not the d3 set. Haven't seen anything about d3 being nerfed.

I really need to stop hitting quote instead of edit...

double post fail

ukickmydog wrote:

You're thinking of alphabridge, not the d3 set. Haven't seen anything about d3 being nerfed.

They did say they had changes planned for it. They were going to remove the "your weapon can't crit" part, because it was confusing in that it didn't always apply depending on what else you were using, but my understanding was that allowing it to crit at normal rates meant something else needed to be tweaked down.

Never heard any details beyond that.

Thin_J wrote:
ukickmydog wrote:

You're thinking of alphabridge, not the d3 set. Haven't seen anything about d3 being nerfed.

They did say they had changes planned for it. They were going to remove the "your weapon can't crit" part, because it was confusing in that it didn't always apply depending on what else you were using, but my understanding was that allowing it to crit at normal rates meant something else needed to be tweaked down.

Never heard any details beyond that.

The patch notes called the set the 'frontline' set, but it's definitely the D3 set. I run with the 4(?) offensive bonus option. After the change I'd lose those stats but regain crit chance and some shield health. It seems like a nerf, but given how they're changing how the armor stat works I'm not even sure how it'll affect how long the shield lasts anyway. Hopefully they'll fix the +shield damage gear mod, which would mitigate the problem somewhat.

It's been referred to as the Frontline set for ages because that's what they called it before they'd ever even added it to the game.

As for the nerf, the current nerf is that they removed the abiilty for the Shield ability to use any of its mod bonuses. If like most people you're using Assault Shield, that's a loss of over 20% damage and likely over 20% damage resistance as well on top of a loss of knockback, accuracy, and reload speed.

It's sad that they still don't seem to realize that the answer to balancing sets shouldn't be to nerf the actual good / fun ones, its to buff the others. It took the diablo 3 guys a while, but they finally figured that out.

ukickmydog wrote:

It's sad that they still don't seem to realize that the answer to balancing sets shouldn't be to nerf the actual good / fun ones, its to buff the others. It took the diablo 3 guys a while, but they finally figured that out.

The problem is that Diablo 3 doesn't have PvP. As soon as that's part of the equation, we'll see nerfs before buffs. I still pine for a PvE DZ.

mateofalcone wrote:

I still pine for a PvE DZ.

Totally agree on this one. Also wasn't there supposed to be a full map DZ like thing (i.e. shared multiplayer space) as one of the expansions?

Rykin wrote:
mateofalcone wrote:

I still pine for a PvE DZ.

Totally agree on this one. Also wasn't there supposed to be a full map DZ like thing (i.e. shared multiplayer space) as one of the expansions?

Isn't that pretty much survival? It is 100% full map and you can play PvE. I know that it's not the same because you start over with gear and you extract caches not actual items. However, in the way they kind of kept DZ play style (at least with PvP but gave PvE Version) while fixing a lot of DZ issues.

Teaming is an issue on Survival although much less on PS4 (not sure about xbox) than PC. On PS4 I would say I run into teamers maybe one out of ever 20 survivals. It does anger me when it happens although I also love the challenge. Took out 2 of 3 of a group of 3 the other day before falling (Dead dead). I just focus on getting to DZ early so I am geared up before they get there and can fight multiple. Also key to leave a guy in landmarks when you clear them in DZ so they can't track you.

escher77 wrote:

Isn't that pretty much survival?

No. There is no gameplay equivalent to the way farming works in the DZ in the entire game. You can't just roam from landmark to landmark, cleaning them out, and moving to the next one. This could have been implemented when they added the named enemies back to the LZ as regular respawns, but instead of just adding landmark locations they put them on a three hour respawn timer.

Then there's the part where they're significantly farther apart with far less to do in between than the landmarks in the DZ.

It's a much more spread out, slower, and less consistent experience than farming the DZ is... but of course in the DZ there's solid odds at some point some group of knobs will kill you because, well, you were there.

So your choice if you want to farm is just re-run missions over and over, or do HVT's. HVT's are fun, but gathering the amount of intel required to do the weekly HVT's in particular is so very not fun and is a constant interruption to the actual fun part of fighting the HVT groups themselves. The daily HVT's you can generally run four sets of intel missions and have enough to get through them all. Fine. The weeklies... not so much. The thing that runs me off the game most often now is realizing I just did two HVT's and now don't have enough Intel to run another. Instead of going to get more I just sign off.

The best time I've seriously ever had in the game was lucking into a DZ instance that was completely empty except for my group. It's something that happens occasionally, where the server matchmaking breaks somehow and people get into an instance that nobody else ever gets matched into. It was atmospheric, creepy, and the flow of it, moving from landmark to landmark, kiting mobs into each other, etc, it was great fun.

But no matter how many times people say how much they enjoy that Massive just kinda shrugs and says no.

The PvP focused people freak out whenever the idea of a PvE checkbox option for the DZ even gets mentioned, but none of them have ever offered any kind of justification to me that doesn't just sound like a veiled version of "We like ganking people who don't want to PvP"

The PvP focused people freak out whenever the idea of a PvE checkbox option for the DZ even gets mentioned, but none of them have ever offered any kind of justification to me that doesn't just sound like a veiled version of "We like REPEATEDLY ganking people who don't want to PvP"

FIXED

Is anyone having controller issues on the pc version? Everytime I try to get into cover it opens the chat window.

Eastwardflea wrote:

Is anyone having controller issues on the pc version? Everytime I try to get into cover it opens the chat window.

Honestly, I don't' know anyone on PC that uses controller on FPS/TPS.

escher77 wrote:
Eastwardflea wrote:

Is anyone having controller issues on the pc version? Everytime I try to get into cover it opens the chat window.

Honestly, I don't' know anyone on PC that uses controller on FPS/TPS.

I do when I'm feeling lazy(cause it means kicking my feet up on the desk and reclining back). I didn't have any issues when I did play, but I haven't played in a month or so.

What controller are you using? I was using an Xbox One controller.

b12n11w00t wrote:
escher77 wrote:
Eastwardflea wrote:

Is anyone having controller issues on the pc version? Everytime I try to get into cover it opens the chat window.

Honestly, I don't' know anyone on PC that uses controller on FPS/TPS.

I do when I'm feeling lazy(cause it means kicking my feet up on the desk and reclining back). I didn't have any issues when I did play, but I haven't played in a month or so.

What controller are you using? I was using an Xbox One controller.

I'm using an Xbox One controller.

Well I was going to try to get back into this game but I can't get the controller to work properly. Everytime I go into cover it opens the chat window and if I sprint it opens the virtual keyboard. If you guys have any solutions please let me know.

Edit: Also it keeps flickering back and forth between pc control prompts and controller prompts.

Eastwardflea wrote:

Well I was going to try to get back into this game but I can't get the controller to work properly. Everytime I go into cover it opens the chat window and if I sprint it opens the virtual keyboard. If you guys have any solutions please let me know.

Edit: Also it keeps flickering back and forth between pc control prompts and controller prompts.

Don't use controller?

Sounds like you have the same bind for chat and cover. The back/forth part sounds like your controller is losing connection.

I wish I could go back to mouse and keyboard bit right now I'm I'm a space that doesn't allow it.

1.6 submitted to console review. Soon as it passes that they'll release it.