Title: Division 2 - Warlords Of New York (Expansion + Title Update 8)
Platforms: PC/Xbox One/PS4
Release date: Monday, March 2nd (PC), Tuesday, March 3rd (Consoles)
Developer: Massive
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Looter Shooter
Distribution: Digital
Pricing: $29.99
Welcome back, agents! The Division 2 is launching its first major expansion, promising a return to unfinished narrative threads from the first game, a level cap increase and a new endgame focus along with Title Update 8, an update that features fundamental changes to the game's core systems, most notably Gear 2.0. Gear 2.0 will featured a complete re-work of weapons, gear and talents.
PATCH NOTES
If you'd rather comb through the very detailed patch notes for Warlords/Title Update 8, please visit this excellent post by JokerUnique over on the Division 2 Reddit.
WARLORDS OF NEW YORK: NEW CONTENT/FEATURES EXCLUSIVE TO THE EXPANSION
- New open world map roughly 1/4 the size of the Division 2's map
- A return to New York! While it isn't in the wintertime, agents will be exploring a brand new section of New York, Lower Manhattan, created on a 1:1 scale
- Level cap increase (from 30 to 40)
- New near infinite progression system allowing players to incrementally improve their character after reaching max level. SHD levels can be gained in place of Field Proficiency Caches allowing for permanent, small increases in things like Weapon Damage/Armor/Health/Handling etc. maxing out at 10-20% on average. These gains are account wide and applied regardless of gear worn
- New narrative campaign revolving around the hunt for Aaron Keener and his 4 lieutenants. This is 5 main missions and a plethora of open world content and activities
- New skills (including the return of the Sticky Bomb and Shock Turret from the first game), each dropped upon defeating one of Keener's lieutenants
- New, stronger gear (level 31-40)
- New gearsets (2), new exotics (10), new named items (19), new weapons (2), new brands (4)
- Seasons: 3 month long seasonal content framed around Seasonal Manhunts with season tracks (a free base track and a premium track). No rewards affecting power level earned via the tracks are unobtainable by simply playing the game - it mostly revolves around cosmetics, guaranteed drops and caches
- New factions, including the return of the Cleaners
- Global difficulty level: agents can now set a difficulty level (Normal/Hard/Challenging/Heroic) not just for specific missions, but for every activity and open world NPC. Players who choose to play on harder difficulties will receive better chances for better loot
- Legendary difficulty: a brand new difficulty level featuring new Black Tusk variants and AI programming. The hardest challenge yet for Division 2 players
- Level 40 version of the Raid, Operation Dark Hours, with a new Level 40 Eagle Bearer
- Ability to instantly boost your character to level 30 to take on the new content
- Global events: lifted from the first game, Global Events will modify the core gameplay loop and reward system for a period of time
- Directives: lifted from Division's Underground mode, players will be able to toggle on or off specific Directives that change the core gameplay loop, making it harder, but more rewarding
- Apparel events: completing tasks/gaining experience will unlock brand new cosmetic items
- New full gear dyes (covering the entirety of a piece of gear instead of the current system)
- New hunter encounters
- After completing the expansion, players can freely roam back and forth between DC and New York, engaging in all of the open world activities, bounties, etc.
Essentially, we're on the hunt for Aaron Keener (finally!), the late-in-the-game reveal as the big, big bad from Division 1 that ended up getting away. If you'd like to get a bit of a back-story, watch the videos below and play the new missions (now in game) taking place on Coney Island.
- Warlords of New York: Prologue
- Warlords of New York: World Premiere Cinematic Trailer
- Warlords of New York: Story & Character Trailer
- Warlords of New York: Official Gameplay Walkthrough
- Warlords of New York: Gameplay Overview Trailer
- Warlords of New York: New Expansion Gameplay Preview
GEAR 2.0 EXPLAINED (FREE TO ALL DIVISION 2 PLAYERS, NOT JUST THOSE WITH THE EXPANSION)
- Every weapon and piece of gear is being re-worked, including exotics
- A re-work of the game's UI, immediately showing a player how high a piece of gear or weapon's roll is compared to the max (indicators in the inventory screen and also god roll indicators out in the open world)
- Talents will no longer drop on every piece of gear, but only on backpacks and chest pieces. To compensate, talents are being re-worked to be more powerful and build-defining.
- The way the base game worked was that gear had a budget system. If one attribute was rolled high, by definition, the other one would drop low. With re-calibration, players could artiificially add a single better roll to a piece of gear. Gear 2.0 allows all attributes to drop with god rolls (though rare), which should contribute to a better, more consistent build progression system
- Because of this, the developers can now ensure that higher difficulties reward higher chances for better overall rolls on gear. While you will still have a chance to drop god rolls on Normal Difficulty, the chances to drop those more consistenly increase the harder the level you play on
- The game is introducing a Re-calibration library, essentially a Pokedex, allowing players to store god rolls for re-calibration later. Not only is this another form of progression (fill your library with god rolls), but it takes pressure off of the player's inventory and stash, holding onto gear for fear they may one day need to deconstruct it in a re-calibration
- The skill system is being completely re-worked, with Skill Power being exchanged for Skill Tiers. Previously, Skill Power only determined what level of skill mods players could equip. A person with maxed out skill power build, but without a mod that took advantage of that skill power, was no stronger than one with 1/2 as much skill power with the same mod. Now, Skill Tiers directly influence stats such as Skill Duration, Radius, Healing and Damage power, with certain gears allowing for overcharge effects
- Brand and gear set bonuses are being re-worked
- An increased max gear score of 515 (this is essentially high rolled level 30 gear, which pales in comparison to level 40 gear)
- Gear 2.0 (see above for a full breakdown) - the game-changing overhaul
- Players who choose not to play the expansion will cap out at Level 30/Gear Score 515. If level 40 players are invited to their game, the level 30 player will scale up to be able to play content together, but still be capped at Level 30 drops
- Heroic difficulty for all missions (currently there are only a handful of missions that can be tackled on heroic with a weekly rotation of rewards)
- Dark Zone re-tools - while there are still three separate zones for the DZ, and no new area in New York, the devs are tweaking the experience's loot and core gameplay loops to encourage more PVP
- New character heads for new players
- New hunter encounters in Washington
- Bounty system overhaul
SEASONS (ONLY AVAILABLE TO WARLORDS OF NEW YORK EXPANSION HOLDERS)
- A brand new focus to the endgame
- Begins one week after the expansion's launch
- First season and its premium track are free with the purchase of the expansion. Subsequent seasons will be free but their premium tracks will cost 1,000 premium credits or about 10 euros
- Will last for 3 months each
- Include seasonal manhunt targets - a narrative thread for the season involving tracking down one key target, which will drop a new skill variant
- Seasonal Tracks, both base and premium, rewarding the player for playing during a season. These won't be pay to win rewards, but cosmetics or additional guaranteed drops that can still be randomly earned in game in non-seasonal content
- The Seasonal Tracks are expected to take 50-100 hours, depending on how much a player focuses on the specific challenges
- These tracks can be purchased outright towards the end of the season for those who don't have the time to invest
- Will include new gear sets, though players will be able to acquire these gear sets outside of the seasonal content too, just perhaps at a slower rate
- Reimagined Global Events, taken from the first game - while these haven't been fully revealed yet, expect gameplay modifiers and exclusive cosmetics (first one is Polarity Switch, enemies are colour coded, your weapon is colour coded, reloading changes the colour of your weapon - match colours of your gun to the enemy for increased damage, shoot the wrong colour, get shocked)
- Leagues - basically leaderboards and more skill-intensive challenges that can direct a player's end-game experience and reward specific caches/apparel items
- Apparel and Season events
RELEASE SCHEDULE
NEW PLAYERS/REFERRAL LINKS
Xbox: If you're just starting out Division 2, maybe accept my Uplay referral link? If you do, and play 3 missions with me, you'll get some sweet reward including a black/yellow Hunter outfit.
Referral Link!
Anyone on PS4/PC wanna put their referral here?
CLANS
Any active clans needing players? If so, just tag me with Clan name and joining instructions.
XBOX:
Kneel And Flex (KNF) - a mix of hardcore and casual players. The clan is open to join, just search for it.
PC:
Rogue Ones - pm astro for a clan invite.
PS4:
Cobra Command
DISCORD
Division Era discord link:
(If not immediately visable, post in the main thread first, then check)
Quote for Discord Link!
Hidden content
WHAT HAS CHANGED SINCE THE DIVISION 2 FIRST LAUNCHED THAT STILL APPLIES?
While the game launched to strong reviews, many ended up being critical of the gear system and endgame progression. Beyond the overhaul included in Gear 2.0, the game has already had massive changes to its core loops including everything from adjustments to time to kill to the introduction of Targeted Loot. Targeted Loot is a filter on the map which allows you to target specific weapon types, mods, brand sets or gear sets. Essentially, it fast tracks a build if you know what you are looking for. While all drops are bonus drops on top of the regular drops, they are still determined by RNG.
CONTENT MATRIX
If you'd like to see an overview of what content is available exclusively with the expansion, or through the free Title Update 8, please visit the Division 2's excellent community Reddit post.
Content Matrix
WHAT'S TO COME?
While the devs haven't hinted at what lies ahead for The Division 2 beyond this update, the now Seasonal Content drops already mark a plan for the future with constant change-ups to the overall gameplay experience, gear options and cosmetic rewards.
We also already know a 2nd raid is near completion. That is expected to drop in early Spring and will likely be the hardest content level 40 players can face.
PS: This is my first OT, so if you'd like to see changes, just tag me in here and I'll do my best. I'm a pretty active Division 2 player and poster, so hoping this helps get more folks back into the game.
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
Here are some of the most useful links the community has put together:
Interactive New York Map: Can toggle on/off all kinds of things, from collectibles to echos to named enemies and more.
Interactive DC Map: Same as above, but for, uh, DC!
Gear Attribute Sheet: All brand bonuses, gear set bonuses, what attributes can drop on each, max attribute rolls, mods, Named Items, Exotic weapons and gear bonuses, weapon talents, etc.) - basically, the all-in-one guide to what you can get in Division 2 loot.
Vendor Reset: Updated weekly with all new items on sale. Check the Reddit post for recommendations each week.
Exotics Drop Locations And Rates: Find out where to get all of the exotics in the game.
New Hunter Locations: An in-depth guide to finding all of the new Hunters/Masks in the game.
Snitch Locations: Finding the snitch locates the rotating Cassie vendor.
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