The Division patch 1.6 launched on public test servers today, and the changes that could potentially come to the game are enormous. The complete patch notes are hefty and, unless you’re prepared to read a Harry Potter length book – we’ve got you covered. Ubisoft will be bringing in a freight of new changes. Some of these changes includes adjustments to the the northern front, contamination events, dark zone leaderboards, legendary difficulty, exotic items and new gear sets, gear set changes, armor, resistances, power skill and skills changes, PvP balances, economy changes, an in-game store front revamp, and more. It’s an enormous overhaul, free for all current platforms – PC, XBox One, and PlayStation.

The Northern Front

• The Dark Zone has been expanded with three new areas, Dark Zone 7-9, north of Dark Zone 6 and Midtown East.
• New Landmarks feature waves of enemies.
• Landmarks award you with additional loot placed directly into your inventory.
• Fast travel between Dark Zone checkpoints has become available.

Contamination Events

• Contaminated body bags have been piled up in parts of the subways below the Dark Zone, increasing the strength of the virus in those areas. The Cleaners have started sweeping these locations, burning everything in their path – including civilians who happen to get in their way.
• New Contamination Events have been added to the Dark Zone.
• Approximately every hour, elite Cleaners will spawn in the Dark Zone underground. Contamination in those areas will reach lethal levels, so your virus filter will not be able to resist it.

Dark Zone Leaderboards

• Leaderboards have been added to the Dark Zone, tracking a wide range of different activities both in PvP and PvE. All tracked activities will be turned into a total score.
• Leaderboard rankings are divided into three tiers and will give out rewards when they reset on a weekly and a monthly basis.

Legendary Difficulty

• All the previous content has been taken out and replaced with new, powerful and much smarter LMB enemies that use more advanced tactics against you and your team in the Division patch 1.6
• The enemies you’ll face will be a mix of normal, veteran and elite enemies. The main challenge in Legendary is not from the amount of health the enemies have, it is about learning how to deal with their tactics and strategies
• Legendary difficulty mode has been added to Times Square, WarrenGate Power Plant and Napalm Production Site and features new, powerful and smart enemies.
• Legendary difficulty is the most challenging content in the game and is intended for organized groups.
• Legendary difficulty rewards you with unique vanity items not available elsewhere in the game, on top of the regular rewards.

Exotic Items and New Gear Sets

• Named gear pieces and weapons are now called Exotics and have been given their own color in your inventory.
• Exotic weapons all have their own unique talent. This change is retroactive.
• Exotic weapon sets have been introduced.
• Exotic Caches are available as a weekly reward from Legendary difficulty missions.
• The Hungry Hog, for example, will now come with the Glutton talent (“Killing a target increases your damage dealt by 20% until you stop firing”) while the Tenebrae will have Lights Out (“Destroying an enemy weak point resets skill cooldowns for you and nearby group members”).
• All the changes in the Division patch 1.6 will be retroactive to prevent legacy weapons remaining in the game.

Gear Set Changes

• Alphabridge 4-piece bonus now shares the free talent from your weapons instead of all three.
• Frontline’s 4-piece no longer removes the critical hit chance, instead it removes the effect of any mods you have applied to the shield.
• The Reclaimer set focuses on the Support Station. Its 4-piece bonus activates all Support Station mods simultaneously. It no longer has an effect on consumables.
• Tactician’s Authority’s buff only disappears after you use a skill.
• A new Gear Set, SEEKR, has been added to the game.

Armor and Resistances

• Armor has been removed as a major bonus and replaced with Health. Gear still comes with base armor and some talents will still give bonus armor.
• Health and stamina are your primary means of toughness.
• Current Health rolls have been turned into the new stat Resist All.
• Resistances have become analogue instead of binary.
• Diminishing returns have been added to status effects.
• Other parts of the game have been rebalanced as a result, to make sure Time to Kill and Time to be Killed stay balanced.
• All changes are retroactive in the Division patch 1.6

Changes to Skill Power and Skills

• Skill Power has been moved to a system similar to armor, where each new World Tier you reach will demand more Skill Power to reach the same effectiveness of your skills.
• There’s a bigger difference in skill efficiency between low and high Skill Power builds.
• Changes have been made to Sticky Bomb, First Aid and Shock Turret.
• We’ve rebalanced Signature Skills and made it impossible to trigger a Signature Skill when you’re already suffering from its immunity debuff. Tactical link’s damage bonus has been lowered in PvP.

PvP Balancing

• Hip fire stability while moving has been decreased and a new hip fire camera has been added.
• The damage gap between body damage and headshots has been lowered.
• When combat rolling, there’s now a one second delay before you can roll again.
• You can no longer reload your weapon while sprinting.
• Medkits can now be used at full health and remove certain status effects.
• The Rejuvenated talent has been changed to give additional resistance to status effects.
• Adrenaline no longer gives an overheal from medkits, instead it will give a heal over time.
• Your enemy’s health bar will flash whenever they use a medkit.
• Survivability talents like On the Move, Battle Buddy and Critical Save have seen some balancing changes.

Economy Changes

• Unlimited recalibration has been introduced. The price increases each time, capping out at five recalibrations.
• Helping civilians reward Intel.
• High End pistols in Survival no longer costs Division Tech.
• Scavenger Box now scales with World Tier.
• Some item prices have been tweaked.

In-Game Store

• Revamping the in-game store, adding a new currency and extending the range of items available for purchase at a special vendor – including new emotes, weapon skins and other vanity items in The Division patch 1.6

Other Changes

• All activities now reward their own separate experience points and award their own caches.
• In Survival, solo players can no longer end up in games with players queuing as a group.
• Grouping up while in a PvP Survival game has been disabled.
• Reviving a downed player in Survival always costs a medkit.

There you have it! Hopefully, some much needed changes from the PTS will make it over to the actual game. Based on their efforts for the Division patch 1.6, Ubisoft has taken in a lot of player feedback and criticism to heart. Want to take a look at the official patch notes yourself? Check it out here! What do you think of all these changes? Will you be participating in the PTS? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below!

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