The Division 2 - Make Washington D.C. Great Again

Hefty patch just dropped to add a bunch of new content, including some quality of life stuff. I’m still annoyed that their loot philosophy is “more is better” but I’m happy to have additional story bits.

IKR? It’s like nobody learned from Diablo 3. I think that’s a problem with the game industry in general.

When it comes to loot, I like the mix-and-match approach, but really I dislike the RNG-based assignment of numbers. Just give me static numbers and let me optimize my mix-and-match combinations and I’d be happy.

Jumped back in after a pause due to “life stuff” and got my GS up to 499. I play mostly solo when not playing co-op with my brother. A question on solo play loadouts:

I’ve tried a lot of gun loadouts and always end back up with a MMR and a LMG. It works for me, as much as I want it to be a combo of an AR and something. For my skills, for solo, I use the healing chem and the assault turret. The assault turret makes a great companion when I am solo especially after they tweaked it to last longer and reset quickly. But I do wonder about whether the assault drone would be better? The one advantage I see with it is that it will seek out bad guys, vs. the turret which has to have a line of site.

Thoughts on the assault turret vs. drone?

For the most part, everything in the game is a tradeoff of some sort. Even the silly RNG-based gear stats are just different ways of dividing up some total number of available points. The math-nerd part of me appreciates that it’s numerically “balanced” that way, but the player experience is still pretty tedious because I have to swap screens and do a bunch of excess math to figure out if the RNG distributed the numbers in useful (to me) ways.

So more specifically, turret generally has more durability, duration, and damage output at the cost of mobility. Drone is fragile and short-lived, but it can flank and pursue. Turrets also have a tendency to draw more aggro, which is a plus or minus depending on your playstyle.

I see gear score added to attachments, for instance I have a turret attachment Which extend the duration and it has a gear score. However, I very much prefer the other “magnetic” attachment which has no gear score. Does the attachment score contributes to the general Gear Score?

I’ll probably just stick with the assault turret for my solo play, as I’ve learned how to optimally use it for my play style. For example, I was doing a mission solo, LMG and MMR. Can’t remember the mission name, but late in the mission there was a hall that opened up into what looked like a theater, with windows into the theater on my right. All the bad guys, including a boss, were in the theater. I put the turret in the hall, facing the door, at the end of the hall, and I got cover on the entry to the hall with shots through the window into the theater, using my MMR to pick them off. The turret did a great job of non stop firing into them, and if anyone tried to rush me, they had to go right at the turret, which would have them hurt bad enough I could easily put them down. When the boss tried to come after me, the turret harassed him the entire way as he made his way to enter the hall, then the turret and I both (switching to my LMG) finished him off in the hall. The turret seems to last forever and recharges in about 25 seconds.

I would be tempted to load out both the turret and the striker drone, but playing solo, I really rely on my chem launcher for healing (I rarely use up armor inventory unless it’s a really fast paced close in battle.)

I’m at 499. What’s the most effective way to get that last point? And I’ve never quite understood if a weapon that is high (or low) GS has the same impact on your score if it’s your selected weapon or just in your inventory - what’s the effect?

Skill mods (e.g. for the turret) do not contribute to your gear score, and really that score is meaningless. Actually, that’s not entirely true–it’s sometimes better to keep some low-score mods around, since they often have lower requirements to equip. (I think it’s a bad design choice.)

You gear score is an average of the other 9 items you have equipped (6 armor, 3 guns). Yes, this includes your sidearm slot.

Theoretically, anything above 490 Gear Score is effectively at its maximum value, so don’t worry too much about that last point. The score tells you how many “bonus” points are available to modify that gear, and at that point, it’s more about where the numbers are randomly allocated.

Of course, I have so much random gear now that I just deconstruct/sell anything that isn’t at 500.

So weapons not equipped don’t count toward the GS?

Only stuff you’re actively wearing counts towards displayed GS. I think it uses “highest GS ever seen” to determine what level things drop at, but even then, there’s a range.

Cool. I’m now up to 500 though the MMR I want to use is only at 497 so I’m using the one I have that’s 500. I suppose no way to get a 497 rifle up to 500?

No only upgrades of exotics can do that. Find a new 500 weapon to replace it.

Ok have the complicated instructions for how to get the exotic MMR changed? The ones I’m reading say get to WT5 (done) then do the Capitol stronghold which should let you do the Tidal Basin stronghold and that’s where you find the first item. But it appears the requirement for the Tidal Basin stronghold is now the District Union Arena so I’m wondering if everything has changed.

Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, so apologies if so.

The Division 2 is 70% off on uplay right now. Plus they’re having a play for free weekend.

Base game - $21
Gold Ed - $30
Ultimate Ed - $36
Year 1 Pass - $23.99 (included with Gold or Ultimate which seems like more great savings)

These are in USD obviously.

The order of the Strongholds is random after you unlock them the first time. But otherwise, the instructions are the same.

The exotic MMR is generally one of the better ones, although it’s difficult to use and mostly valuable for the passive talent that boosts headshot damage while holstered (equipped but not active).

So the pieces are still in the same strongholds as the guides say?

How in the world did they ever expect anyone to get this without a guide? (Or maybe they didn’t. )

A guide is not actually necessary; it’s only needed if you want to be efficient about the unlock instead of just stumbling upon the parts at random. Theoretically the item descriptions also give you hints about how to find the correct parts, so all of that information is available in-game, but you’d have to decipher the puzzle yourself.

Well, without a guide it would have never occurred to me to deconstruct a named sniper rifle that I found in an out of the way location.

My google-fu is weak: Is there a list of the weak spots on the big yellow boss guys? I found one but they basically said just shoot until you get their armor down.