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  1. #21
    Originally Posted by Natchai_Ubisoft Go to original post
    Hello Agents,

    The weapon Meta has been a huge topic of discussion within the community. Using statistical data and community feedback, we looked at what needed to be changed to help bring more variety to weapons. As the release of Update 1.3 inches towards us we want to share some more details with you.

    AN UNBALANCED META

    Selecting a strong weapon loadout is crucial to your overall effectiveness when dealing with enemies. Currently, this often revolves around the combination of an SMG with a Marksman Rifle, specifically the Aug/Vector paired with an M1A. With SMGs yielding the highest DPS at close range, and the Marksman Rifle’s power at long range, this pairing has become a staple in the current Meta. As the only two weapon families with unique bonuses, they are the most sought-after and used weapons. This has led to an unequal spread of weapon usage among players.



    From this you can see that SMGs, Marksman Rifles, and Assault Rifles are the clear favorites, with LMGs and Shotguns very far behind. Assault Rifles have a higher optimal range with higher base headshot damage, making them still effective. However it’s clear that LMGs and Shotguns need some love.

    Within the SMG weapon family, we have also seen a large disparity in weapons used.



    This difference stems from both availability and power. The AUG, Vector, and MP5 can be acquired through blueprints in the Dark Zone, making their availability much greater than others, which is one cause of the large difference. In addition, the AUG and Vector are simply the most powerful SMGs based on their stats. This is why this large descrepency exists.

    To address the current domination of the SMGs and Marksman Rifles and bring a better balance between all the weapon families, we are going to make the following changes:

    • Add unique bonuses to each weapon family
    • Increase Shotgun damage output
    • Decrease the damage of the AUG and Vector
    • Make adjustments to the M1A
    • Introduce new weapons
    • Add the ability to reroll talents on weapons
    • Make changes to Special Ammo
    • Below we will detail exactly how we are going to achieve better weapon balance.



    GIVING YOU MORE CHOICES

    New Weapon Bonuses

    Your choice of weapon has a huge impact on your playstyle. To bring more variety, we are adding unique bonuses to the weapon families that do not have them and changing the bonus on SMGs. The new bonuses are:

    • SMGs now have a crit hit damage bonus rather than crit hit chance. It is much harder to reach a higher critical hit chance now, and you will have to make more stat choices when selecting gear in order to take advantage of the new bonus.
    • LMGs receive a bonus that increases their damage to targets out of cover by about 25%. The design of LMGs is to force people into cover and control areas with their large magazine sizes.
    • Shotguns receive a stagger bonus against NPC. When shooting targets, you have a high chance of causing them to stumble and lose their balance. This will not affect other players, however. Shotguns are also receiving a buff to their base damage that scales with the weapon’s level and up to a maximum of 30%.
    • Assault Rifles receive a bonus to enemy armor damage. This allows Assault Rifles to be a powerful weapon in PVE situations.
    • No changes were made to the bonus on Marksman Rifles


    Each bonus provides an impact in a variety of situations and playstyles. Additionally, bringing up the damage on Shotguns up allows them to reach a level that is more on par with other weapons while they are in their optimal range. These changes allow you to now select your weapon loadout around your preferred playstyle rather than their DPS value.

    The AUG and Vector

    It’s clear that the AUG and Vector are two of the most sought-after weapons in the game. With a higher max damage than Assault Rifles, this desire is understandable. To address their damage level we are making the following change:

    • Reduce the damage done by the AUG and Vector by 10%.


    SMGs are meant to be close-quarter combat weapons that gain more from critical strikes and therefore rely on hitting the target with as many bullets as possible.

    M1A

    With the current Meta many players are using an M1A together with an SMG. Due to its power level and its usage level relative to other Marksman Rifles, we are making the following change:

    • Increase the minimum accuracy cap on the M1A. When you shoot consistently, the cross hair will grow to a much larger size than it previously did.


    The change allows for a slower and more controlled playstyle that is better suited to how Marksman Rifles should be used.

    New Weapons

    With Underground we are also introducing a few new weapon types. Each one will have its own balancing relative to its weapon family as well as a unique talent. The new weapons and their talents are as following:

    Named Shotgun: Showstopper (This is a fully automatic shotgun)
    Showstopper: The emptier the clip, the better the accuracy.

    Assault Rifle: G36
    Focused: When no skills are on cooldown you weapon damage is increased by X%.

    Marksman Rifle: SVD
    Decisive: Killing a target will make your next shot with the weapon be an automatic critical hit.

    SMG: PP-19
    Hurried: Each critical hit reduces your next reload time with X% to a minimum of Y seconds.

    Changes to Weapon Talents

    Weapon talents are a crucial aspects of your weapon and often the deciding factor in making a weapon powerful or not. To make the process of finding weapons a bit less reliant on RNG, we are making it possible to recalibrate a talent on your weapon. In order to do so you have to collect a new currency called Weapon Kit that can be obtained through crafting, enemy drops, and crates in the Underground. Spend them in combination some Phoenix Credits at the Recalibration bench to be able to recalibrate a talent on your weapon. All talents can be recalibrated and it works in the same way gear rerolling does.

    These changes allow you to adjust your weapon talents rather than forcing you to use a specific weapon type because of the talents it has on it.

    Special Ammo

    With a few new gear sets focused on consumables we’ve taken the opportunity to adjust them overall.

    Explosive ammo provides a huge amount of burst damage that would very often be the deciding factor in a Dark Zone fight. While it should still provide a boost in damage, we are going to significantly reduce the burst damage that players are currently experiencing in Update 1.3. The ammo will now scale linearly with the damage of the bullet. If you hit for 10,000 damage, the explosion will do the same.

    Similarly, we’ve also taken a look at Incendiary Bullets. Currently they set you on fire for a longer duration than Incendiary Grenades. With that, their duration has been reduced from a 10 seconds to 3 seconds. This change should better reflect their power.

    All in all these changes should bring more playstyle options for you to choose from. Adjusting certain weapons, adding bonuses to all weapon families, introducing new weapons and talents, and allowing a weapon talent to be recalibrated will open doors to a large variety of new play styles and allow you to further customize your loadout.

    Your feedback is invaluable to us. We can’t wait to see how you guys do with the new changes and what new weapon metas are formed. As always, make sure you keep the feedback coming!

    - The Division Dev Team

    "No nerfs only buffs" they said
    1)nerf M1A more
    2)nerf SMG's AUG and Vectors
    3)nerf sentry's and striker's.

    Are there going to be another ninja nerfs like previous patch? like cap crit damage at 200%? maybe?
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  2. #22
    Originally Posted by Natchai_Ubisoft Go to original post
    Hello Agents,

    The weapon Meta has been a huge topic of discussion within the community. Using statistical data and community feedback, we looked at what needed to be changed to help bring more variety to weapons. As the release of Update 1.3 inches towards us we want to share some more details with you.

    AN UNBALANCED META

    Selecting a strong weapon loadout is crucial to your overall effectiveness when dealing with enemies. Currently, this often revolves around the combination of an SMG with a Marksman Rifle, specifically the Aug/Vector paired with an M1A. With SMGs yielding the highest DPS at close range, and the Marksman Rifle’s power at long range, this pairing has become a staple in the current Meta. As the only two weapon families with unique bonuses, they are the most sought-after and used weapons. This has led to an unequal spread of weapon usage among players.



    From this you can see that SMGs, Marksman Rifles, and Assault Rifles are the clear favorites, with LMGs and Shotguns very far behind. Assault Rifles have a higher optimal range with higher base headshot damage, making them still effective. However it’s clear that LMGs and Shotguns need some love.

    Within the SMG weapon family, we have also seen a large disparity in weapons used.



    This difference stems from both availability and power. The AUG, Vector, and MP5 can be acquired through blueprints in the Dark Zone, making their availability much greater than others, which is one cause of the large difference. In addition, the AUG and Vector are simply the most powerful SMGs based on their stats. This is why this large descrepency exists.

    To address the current domination of the SMGs and Marksman Rifles and bring a better balance between all the weapon families, we are going to make the following changes:

    • Add unique bonuses to each weapon family
    • Increase Shotgun damage output
    • Decrease the damage of the AUG and Vector
    • Make adjustments to the M1A
    • Introduce new weapons
    • Add the ability to reroll talents on weapons
    • Make changes to Special Ammo
    • Below we will detail exactly how we are going to achieve better weapon balance.



    GIVING YOU MORE CHOICES

    New Weapon Bonuses

    Your choice of weapon has a huge impact on your playstyle. To bring more variety, we are adding unique bonuses to the weapon families that do not have them and changing the bonus on SMGs. The new bonuses are:

    • SMGs now have a crit hit damage bonus rather than crit hit chance. It is much harder to reach a higher critical hit chance now, and you will have to make more stat choices when selecting gear in order to take advantage of the new bonus.
    • LMGs receive a bonus that increases their damage to targets out of cover by about 25%. The design of LMGs is to force people into cover and control areas with their large magazine sizes.
    • Shotguns receive a stagger bonus against NPC. When shooting targets, you have a high chance of causing them to stumble and lose their balance. This will not affect other players, however. Shotguns are also receiving a buff to their base damage that scales with the weapon’s level and up to a maximum of 30%.
    • Assault Rifles receive a bonus to enemy armor damage. This allows Assault Rifles to be a powerful weapon in PVE situations.
    • No changes were made to the bonus on Marksman Rifles


    Each bonus provides an impact in a variety of situations and playstyles. Additionally, bringing up the damage on Shotguns up allows them to reach a level that is more on par with other weapons while they are in their optimal range. These changes allow you to now select your weapon loadout around your preferred playstyle rather than their DPS value.

    The AUG and Vector

    It’s clear that the AUG and Vector are two of the most sought-after weapons in the game. With a higher max damage than Assault Rifles, this desire is understandable. To address their damage level we are making the following change:

    • Reduce the damage done by the AUG and Vector by 10%.


    SMGs are meant to be close-quarter combat weapons that gain more from critical strikes and therefore rely on hitting the target with as many bullets as possible.

    M1A

    With the current Meta many players are using an M1A together with an SMG. Due to its power level and its usage level relative to other Marksman Rifles, we are making the following change:

    • Increase the minimum accuracy cap on the M1A. When you shoot consistently, the cross hair will grow to a much larger size than it previously did.


    The change allows for a slower and more controlled playstyle that is better suited to how Marksman Rifles should be used.

    New Weapons

    With Underground we are also introducing a few new weapon types. Each one will have its own balancing relative to its weapon family as well as a unique talent. The new weapons and their talents are as following:

    Named Shotgun: Showstopper (This is a fully automatic shotgun)
    Showstopper: The emptier the clip, the better the accuracy.

    Assault Rifle: G36
    Focused: When no skills are on cooldown you weapon damage is increased by X%.

    Marksman Rifle: SVD
    Decisive: Killing a target will make your next shot with the weapon be an automatic critical hit.

    SMG: PP-19
    Hurried: Each critical hit reduces your next reload time with X% to a minimum of Y seconds.

    Changes to Weapon Talents

    Weapon talents are a crucial aspects of your weapon and often the deciding factor in making a weapon powerful or not. To make the process of finding weapons a bit less reliant on RNG, we are making it possible to recalibrate a talent on your weapon. In order to do so you have to collect a new currency called Weapon Kit that can be obtained through crafting, enemy drops, and crates in the Underground. Spend them in combination some Phoenix Credits at the Recalibration bench to be able to recalibrate a talent on your weapon. All talents can be recalibrated and it works in the same way gear rerolling does.

    These changes allow you to adjust your weapon talents rather than forcing you to use a specific weapon type because of the talents it has on it.

    Special Ammo

    With a few new gear sets focused on consumables we’ve taken the opportunity to adjust them overall.

    Explosive ammo provides a huge amount of burst damage that would very often be the deciding factor in a Dark Zone fight. While it should still provide a boost in damage, we are going to significantly reduce the burst damage that players are currently experiencing in Update 1.3. The ammo will now scale linearly with the damage of the bullet. If you hit for 10,000 damage, the explosion will do the same.

    Similarly, we’ve also taken a look at Incendiary Bullets. Currently they set you on fire for a longer duration than Incendiary Grenades. With that, their duration has been reduced from a 10 seconds to 3 seconds. This change should better reflect their power.

    All in all these changes should bring more playstyle options for you to choose from. Adjusting certain weapons, adding bonuses to all weapon families, introducing new weapons and talents, and allowing a weapon talent to be recalibrated will open doors to a large variety of new play styles and allow you to further customize your loadout.

    Your feedback is invaluable to us. We can’t wait to see how you guys do with the new changes and what new weapon metas are formed. As always, make sure you keep the feedback coming!

    - The Division Dev Team


    so your idea of weapon balancing is not to look deeper into the problems you created but just nerf the s^^^t out of everything right?
    when you guys gather and have your cappuccino have ever thought that smgs dominate because YOU made them that way? 25% crit chance? really?so what do you really expect from people to use?i really like playing with assault riffles but even with the perfect roll i can't beat an smg (fact)and like this is not enough, your "weapon balance" will keep the assault riffles in their current state which is pretty much useless. M1A is the sniper riffle that provides the best balance between fire rate and dmg per bullet (as i see it) that's why people are more towards it which is again because of YOU. if you want the marksman riffles to work "as they should be" make them actual marksman riffles. increase dmg and decrease fire rate.when i need a whole clip of headshots to take down a single guy then what's the point of using it?and how do u expect from people to get on your incursions? they are nothing more than npcs with lvl advantage that swarming you and need tons of dps to be taken down.

    "Selecting a strong weapon loadout is crucial to your overall effectiveness".....really man?we can't sellect a strong weapon loadout because YOU have already chose for us.That's why everybody is running around with vectors augs and m1as. and your idea of fixing it is nerfing them so we can all have to choose between nerfed guns or useless ones.your shotguns are useless because it takes like 2-3 headshots to kill, depending your gearset and by that time well, you're dead.LMGs ? they are completely useless and crappy just like your new gearsets. really who thought of final meazure, hunter's faith etc?the only good thing he did with these gear sets is the names he gave to them.if you want to save your 2nd,3rd dlc do your job and give people the option of choosing loadouts with powerful weapons and gear sets that actually compliment them.
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  3. #23
    Massive u fail and some basic understanding how this works....

    U start of giving us (i wasent high lvl enough) to get the 204 aug blueprint and m1a in the begining.

    you then give us "random" (yeah right) the vector.

    sp OFFCOURSE people will go crazy about farming for materials and craft these items as its near impossible to get the desired weapon from a drop.

    second and most important...

    WHERE is the mp5 and mp7 204 blueprints ?

    so to conclude people have made what YOU gave them so ofc thats how the statistics are rolled out, i cant even se this as any surprise at all...

    btw dont get me started on the assault rifles...1 acr up for grasps.... no ak-74 and "randomly" a lvoa showed up ONE week before 1.3...

    again, we use what u give us the option to craft so wake up
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  4. #24
    Loving the Shotgun buffs that are going to happen. I seem to be the only one using one when I am on a team.
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  5. #25
    Ya, you are correct. The reason for the AUG and Vector usage is because they were available and drop more frequently (in my case they do) so obviously a vast majority of players will have these guns. RNG wise I get more AUG and Vectors than any other SMGs.
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  6. #26
    Rather than nerf the SMG's and M1A's why not improve the other guns? I bought the Historian because it is so stable and has great accuracy. Now you tell me after the fact that you are taking that away. The gun feels balanced as it is. For those who have fired high powered semi automatics (like a Browning 7mm mag or 300 mag) they are extremely smooth and really don't kick much at all (as compared to a 30-06 bolt action). In fact give us a BAR for a marksman rifle. It would do headshots that would insta kill a level 32 elite at 200 yards or more. Better yet give us a Barret 50 cal.
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  7. #27
    m1crobra1n's Avatar Senior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2014
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    Estonia
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    978
    Like the M1A cross hair wasnt wide enough.
    So basically if you are in close combat with it you will miss the NPC even if he is closer then 1 meters from you cause your cross hair goes so wide that it curves around the bot when shoot him.

    I like AR weapons but i dont use them cause they have not much of a damage done by bullet and there recoil is to high.
    You can spray full clip of SMG and recoil dont change much. With AR your first 5 bullets maybe get to the target but all the rest will just be shot to the sky.

    Dont nerf thing never. Make just 2 AR guns that dont have that big of recoil can can pack a bunch.
    Same thing with every other weapon class. Buff some 2 weapons on them and make them accuarate.

    Now i need to find my self a sniper that is not M1A cause it's ruined with the cross hair.
    Now that AUG is nerfed the gun that is in other games assault rifle and not small machine gun and vector, there will be MP7 the most popular SMG to go with cause of higher RPM and damage per bullets is pretty same as aug and vector.

    Thing is that every shooter game have there weapons that nobody use but none of these games nerf there good weapons just to force people use other weapons.
    Yesterday i played with one friend and we hunted a man hunt team of 4 who just camped in one corner and didnt die what ever we did and others did they just didnt die.
    They didnt even shoot back cause they were out of bullets. I tried both of the fire bullets and exploding bullets on them and even tried sticky bomb on them but nothing.

    We managed to get one killed and others run off.

    I dont have good stats cause i cant understand how to get DPS up so i have toughness and skill.
    I have 230K DPS 320K toughness and 22K skill.

    I want to get my DPS and toughness up while the skill would stay over 20K so the skills i use will make sense.
    Lime useing a over heal and it heals to. With under 15K skill this over heal will fill only two pars.
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  8. #28
    Dear Ubi/Massive,
    I have question you should answer yourself:
    Question: Why people use AUG/Vector over other SMG's?
    My answer: Only AUG and Vector have been available since 1.1 in DZ as GS204 blueprint! If we could craft MP5/7 GS204 the % of usage would be similar.
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  9. #29
    I'm looking at forums, patch notes and talk with friends and i must agree with most of ppl that ubi/massive are killing (or already killed) this game. Sorry but i dont have a clue what kind of ppl working in your studios. I cant say nothing good about this ppl. Totally lack o imagination and programming skills.

    U are keep making stupid updates. I think u doing them just to make some so no one cant say u doing nothing to improve the game. Like making scavenging useless, adding 163 drop from all dz zones than changing it but forgetting about chests, giving 100% gold divison tech drop but there is nothing to spend it for and u keep seeing whole map in gold dots. Now set nerfs adding 5th pice bonus that totally kick this set out of games. About programming skills u cant even add more space to chests because it will break whole game its just OMG !!!

    In first days u earned lots of money, but instead of investing them to hire better ppl u just wasted it for ppl without imagination and skills and u ruined the game and your future earnings. Some ppl saying that we should have positive feedback to not demotivate u but true is that we cant have positive feedback seeing what u doing.

    Start Thinking so maybe u will save the game. START THINKING Ubi/massie.
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  10. #30
    Originally Posted by Stavros Flatery Go to original post

    Just balance the game so when we're in the DZ everyone can compete with each other when players go rogue ,get rid of xp / dz funds lost on death that way it'll be so much fun and not a pain getting back your rank and dz credits .

    Massive you need to start listening to the player base like bungie did ,game is so boring now as player above said same people in same server ganking every fcuker with lower gear and rank .
    I agree here, balance the dz or get rid of the Rogues completely, give us a way to spend or convert the massive amounts of credits everyone has. We dont need to lose dz funds, xp or the dz keys upon death, losing a rank is enough.
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