Me again, so, originally i wasn't going to do all 3 set, but then I remembered I am working today, and what better thing to do at work than theory craft for the division 2.


I talked about my thoughts on True Patriot already, and a bit abouton going directive , but i will go into more detail on that in another post.

Before i start, I would like to say this, hardwired is the only set out of the three, that I believe has a clear vision, that is executed well. What i don't understand is, why did you guys choose to add the most hurdles to the acquisition of this set, and ONLY this set? Is it because you guys knew it was the only one worth wearing? Anyway, on to the set:

2 - skill health
3 - shock duration
4 - skill power
5 - tamperproof, shock enemies that get close to deployed tech
6 - feedback loop, reset cool down of the opposite skill when you kill or heal from full.

Let me just say, the 5 and 6 piece bonuses are incredible, on paper. I don't have the set yet, but if I was into skill builds, would have no issue equipping this entire set. I see the point. That is the most important thing. As a veteran mmorpg gamer, i have seen hundreds of sets and set bonuses and my biggest peeve has always been lookiing at a gear set, and not being able to visualize the point, the reason i would equip all the pieces to this set. With hardwired, i see the point.

What I would change :

1. As i said in my true patriot post, i would add a one piece bonus to follow the trend of every other brand set, and i would add talents. For this set, i have a huge issue with the 2 piece bonus. Because unless i missed something , there is only one way to shock, special ammo and now this sets 5 piece bonus. It's a useless bonus.

Change - i would shuffle the bonuses around :
1 - 20% skill health
2 - 20% skill power
3 - 20% increased charges / ammo / duration of skill
4 - 20% increase shock/ burn / poison / blind duration

2 - there should be talents unique to the sets, that are rare, some examples are

Gloves :
Auxiliary protocol - when destroying a deployed skill cause an explosion 10 meters around deployed tech, damage and radius increased 20% per charge or duration remaining, tech cooldown is the same as if the item expired or was destroyed. Only affects offensive deployed skills

Triage protocol - when destroying a deployed support skill , heal all targets within the radius for 40% of the heal the remaining duration would have provided. All healing above 100% is added as additional armor.

This effect is increased by 20% per ammo, charge, duration of the skill remaining. Up to a max of 75%. Targets affected by this have the effect "triaged" applied. Targets can only be triage once every 30 seconds , and can it be affected by any other heals besides personal armor kit repairs .

Breach protocol - when destroying support hive, it's boost effects sre doubled for 10 seconds, after 10 seconds the normal effect of hive boost resumes and its duration increased to 20 seconds. The duration increases by 5 seconds and doubles the effect again, for each kill while under the effects of booster. There is no max duration, but once it wears off player is affected by "Nanite toxicity " unable to be affected by hive skills for any source for 2 minutes.

Vanguard protocol - when a defender drone or shield is destroyed due to damage, 25% chance to gain 40% additional armour and reset cooldown of the drone or shield. Allowing the use of both for an additional 20 seconds before they go on cooldown .

Bag :
Failsafe protocol - 10% chance, when a skill would be destroyed it is instead reinforced and rebooted. While reinforced , deployed skill is immune to damage but also ceaeses ti function for 3 seconds.repairing itself to full and recovering 20% of its charges, ammo and duration.

Chance to trigger is increased by 20% per charge, duration, ammo remaining up to a max of 50%.

If tamperproof bonus acquired, automatically trigger this effect.
If feedback loop bonus acquired , increase the chance for this to trigger by 20%.

This effect can only occur once per deployment.

These are just some examples i have floating around in my head. Like I said in my true patriot post , because gear sets are contained environments , devs can really get interesting with the talents. Adding a chance to gain a single talents per piece , will really improve the build diversity and more importantly , give players that much needed carrot on the stick end game is currently missing.

Let me say this, i currently abide by the grinding gear games, path of exile design philosophy of "pvp is just for fun pve is where the fun and longevity derive" which is to say, i do not care about pvp balance, these suggestions were made with pve in mind, and go towards making pve more fun and entertaining. In my experience, pvp is where creativity goes to die. It's a graveyard for build diversity and only cultivates bland, sameness as everyone chases kdr so they all use whatever someone else has told them is the best. Massive will fall into a trsp of mediocre great sets and exotics if they keep trying to create items balanced towards both sides of the coin. I would implore you to choose pve or pvp as the focus of the game, and do all balancing around making sure the items work in the chosen aspect, even if it costs the other side of the coin .

If I could speak directly to the gear design team right now i would say this , you have to keep in mind, gear sets I'm the eyes of an end game player has weight. Each piece needs to be worth that weight. There should be just as much incentive in place to go 2 pieces of a set as there is to go 6 pieces. Sets should not be about power but promoting play styles. When a set is released, you guys should have a few clear roads builds can travel along when they used these set, players should then be able to walk those roads or if they feel like it, carve out their own path when they find an unforeseen road. So going forward, when s gear set is released, always have a clear answer to the self imposed question of: "what road is this set supposed to travel along, what builds will use this collection of items?"