We hope everyone missed the Intelligence Annex, as we are returning today to discuss the remaining skills categories in The Division 2 as well as introduce a new system—skill modding.
If you missed the first Intelligence Annex dedicated to skills, you can read up on the details here. Let us begin with the last three skill categories that will be featured in The Division 2:
PULSE
A very popular skill from The Division is making a return for the sequel! At its core, the Pulse skill category scans the surrounding area when activated to provide useful feedback to the player.
Scanner
- This category of the Pulse skill functions similarly to the basic Pulse in The Division—it scans the player's surroundings for hostiles and marks enemies with a visual highlight. The most notable difference here is that the Scanner Pulse is explicitly used for Intel. There are also talents that trigger when shooting pulsed enemies!
Remote Sensor
- This iteration of the Pulse works exactly like the Scanner Pulse but offers more flexibility as a throwable option. The Remote Sensor Pulse continually scans a location after being thrown. Players must be conscious of their target location, as this Pulse can be destroyed by enemies.
Jammer
- The Jammer Pulse acts as an EMP, disrupting hostile electronics as well as other player skills in an area. Players can press and hold the skill to activate an EMP with a larger radius.
SHIELD
Also returning in The Division 2 is every frontline's favorite accessory for battle. This time around, there are more Shield options available to cater to more granularity in gameplay styles.
Ballistic Bulwark
- Returning from The Division, this Shield category provides full-body coverage for players. Due to its size, only side arms can be used while the Ballistic Shield is equipped.
Crusader
- In contrast to the Ballistic Shield, the lighter Crusader Shield exposes players' legs and head but allows the use of primary weapons. Note that this does not include LMGs and sniper Marksman rifles.
Deflector
- The smallest of all the Shields, the Deflector has a coating of micro-actuators that causes incoming bullets to ricochet to a nearby highlighted target with a clear line of sight to the Agent. Though not a full-body shield, the attention required to re-target means that only a sidearm may be used alongside the shield.
FIREFLY
Entirely new to The Division 2, the Firefly is a throwable device with a propulsion unit that targets a number of enemies to provide unique types of crowd control in the field.
Blinder
- The Blinder Firefly flashes targeted enemies, leaving them blind and unable to function at full combat effectiveness.
Demolisher
- The Demolisher Firefly destroys enemy weak points, skill proxies, and even environmental objects.
Burster
- The Burster Firefly tags enemies with metallic shrapnel as it passes from one to another. If these hostiles get too close to one another, the Burster Firefly triggers a chain reaction causing devastating explosions. Killing a tagged hostile also sets of the explosion in the nearest other tagged enemy.
SKILL MODDING
We are also happy to introduce the skill modding system in The Division 2! In addition to picking your skills and respective skill categories, you will also have the option to customize specific details of each skill using two slot options:
- Gameplay slots—Similar to weapon attachments, skill attachments are placed in these slots. These grant bonuses to the skill but require a certain number of Skill Power to operate. These mods are earned as loot and will be available in different rarities. Unlike weapon attachments, skill mods are not static. Examples include cooldown reduction or bonus damage.
- Cosmetic FX slot—provides alternative effects and visuals to skills that are purely cosmetic. Skill statistics are not affected by this slot. An example includes changing the color of the Incinerator Turret's flame.
We not only wanted to offer an entirely new level of customization into the Division 2, but we also wanted to offer visibility into that customization. As a result, any changes made using your skill mods will be directly reflected in the skill-sheet in real-time.
Thank you for reading up on the remaining skills and mods in The Division 2! Be sure to join us over on the Official Forums or on the community Reddit to discuss today's article; we would love to hear your thoughts!
We will be releasing these articles regularly, so remember to keep an eye out!
/The Division Dev Team
We hope everyone missed the Intelligence Annex, as we are returning today to discuss the remaining skills categories in The Division 2 as well as introduce a new system—skill modding.
If you missed the first Intelligence Annex dedicated to skills, you can read up on the details here. Let us begin with the last three skill categories that will be featured in The Division 2:
PULSE
A very popular skill from The Division is making a return for the sequel! At its core, the Pulse skill category scans the surrounding area when activated to provide useful feedback to the player.
Scanner
- This category of the Pulse skill functions similarly to the basic Pulse in The Division—it scans the player's surroundings for hostiles and marks enemies with a visual highlight. The most notable difference here is that the Scanner Pulse is explicitly used for Intel. There are also talents that trigger when shooting pulsed enemies!
Remote Sensor
- This iteration of the Pulse works exactly like the Scanner Pulse but offers more flexibility as a throwable option. The Remote Sensor Pulse continually scans a location after being thrown. Players must be conscious of their target location, as this Pulse can be destroyed by enemies.
Jammer
- The Jammer Pulse acts as an EMP, disrupting hostile electronics as well as other player skills in an area. Players can press and hold the skill to activate an EMP with a larger radius.
SHIELD
Also returning in The Division 2 is every frontline's favorite accessory for battle. This time around, there are more Shield options available to cater to more granularity in gameplay styles.
Ballistic Bulwark
- Returning from The Division, this Shield category provides full-body coverage for players. Due to its size, only side arms can be used while the Ballistic Shield is equipped.
Crusader
- In contrast to the Ballistic Shield, the lighter Crusader Shield exposes players' legs and head but allows the use of primary weapons. Note that this does not include LMGs and sniper Marksman rifles.
Deflector
- The smallest of all the Shields, the Deflector has a coating of micro-actuators that causes incoming bullets to ricochet to a nearby highlighted target with a clear line of sight to the Agent. Though not a full-body shield, the attention required to re-target means that only a sidearm may be used alongside the shield.
FIREFLY
Entirely new to The Division 2, the Firefly is a throwable device with a propulsion unit that targets a number of enemies to provide unique types of crowd control in the field.
Blinder
- The Blinder Firefly flashes targeted enemies, leaving them blind and unable to function at full combat effectiveness.
Demolisher
- The Demolisher Firefly destroys enemy weak points, skill proxies, and even environmental objects.
Burster
- The Burster Firefly tags enemies with metallic shrapnel as it passes from one to another. If these hostiles get too close to one another, the Burster Firefly triggers a chain reaction causing devastating explosions. Killing a tagged hostile also sets of the explosion in the nearest other tagged enemy.
SKILL MODDING
We are also happy to introduce the skill modding system in The Division 2! In addition to picking your skills and respective skill categories, you will also have the option to customize specific details of each skill using two slot options:
- Gameplay slots—Similar to weapon attachments, skill attachments are placed in these slots. These grant bonuses to the skill but require a certain number of Skill Power to operate. These mods are earned as loot and will be available in different rarities. Unlike weapon attachments, skill mods are not static. Examples include cooldown reduction or bonus damage.
- Cosmetic FX slot—provides alternative effects and visuals to skills that are purely cosmetic. Skill statistics are not affected by this slot. An example includes changing the color of the Incinerator Turret's flame.
We not only wanted to offer an entirely new level of customization into the Division 2, but we also wanted to offer visibility into that customization. As a result, any changes made using your skill mods will be directly reflected in the skill-sheet in real-time.
Thank you for reading up on the remaining skills and mods in The Division 2! Be sure to join us over on the Official Forums or on the community Reddit to discuss today's article; we would love to hear your thoughts!
We will be releasing these articles regularly, so remember to keep an eye out!
/The Division Dev Team
Obviously we all came to part 2 for a new experience, and that is what we are getting for sure! The open world in the division has drastically changed. Long gone are the towering skyscrapers and AI who don't miss a shot .. just kidding, they are still there. I am only level 8 and am already enjoying myself. The new landscapes are a welcomed changed to say the least. With only being 8 levels in my first Knee-jerk reaction was what you did to the pulse. Easily most people's favorite skill. The low range and removal of the +crit has made the community a little sad. Everyone I talk to in-game or Discord hasn't had any good feedback on that decision. The only benefit I can see from removing this is for how people build their gear sets. I'll explain. If you were like me in D1, you eventually found out that adding +skill would increase the effect of the skill you used, in this example I'll use pulse. My team and I in the DZ had a guy who built his gear around +skill +Damage or something like that, with +pulse skill mods. However, this left him a little weak without his OP pulse effect up. So with this change, I am wondering if I can look forward to more straight forward builds , instead of all these Hybrid builds we came up with, that's is probably the only light I see at the end of the tunnel here. Otherwise #Freethepulse.![]()
skill mod values seems dont work as intended, i and my friend have same cooldown values besides he run one set with 12% haste and my set have 23% plus damage seems similar besides his set had 50% of my set.
i got these values on skill selection and character perks etc on skills tab (total skillpower, cooldown, drone power, hive power etc)
also, how i supossed to get 7200 skillpower? running 5 batteries icon on my set i barely have 2200 skillpower, im sure that when RNG bless me will be hard or impossible reach 6000.
Yeah, your implementation of this doesn't make any sense at all. Specifically the skill power requirements. Why is that even a thing. In the early game when my friends and I were first getting these mods we we're getting mods with a requirement of 300. The most skill power we were able to get with our gear at that point was around 30. It seems to me that the skill power requirements have been incorrectly scaled by a factor of ten. This needs to be re-balanced majorly. In any discussion I've seen on this people have claimed that they weren't able to actually use any of these mods until they reached World Tier 2 at least. Why even have these mods drop before world tier 2 if mods of your same character level can't be used before then anyway?
Skills are pieces of garbage. Why is Skill Power NOT boosting skills? Whoever got this bright idea should (1) play the game to understand why (2) he got fired!
Skills late game are useless. You only will use the reviver hive because yes, it revives.. and the healing skills (that barely heals honestly but can be a replacement for when you run out of armor kit). Other than this, everything else barely tickles enemies even with the highest skill power and best gear mods equiped.
Can Massive aknowledge the problem and make an official announcement saying that this will change and that skill power will soon affect skill damage/healing accordingly so we can finaly build something else than the VERY ONLY VIABLE critical hit damage/chance build?