Division 2: Life Begins at 40

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The Bird: Dec 7, 2006

I haven't played since D1. Should I play through the main game content to level to 30, then do Warlords or get my free level 30, level to 40 in NYC and go back to do the DC main story content?

Is the experience different if you play through the main game as a fresh character or really not worth delaying the gear loop?

The Bird fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Sep 28, 2020

# ¿ Sep 28, 2020 20:15

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:34

The Bird: Dec 7, 2006

Kibayasu posted:

It�s fairly different. You�re slowly expanding across DC in a semi-directed manner rather than just going anywhere whenever you want. And without going around occasionally to open loot boxes you�re at the mercy of what the game gives you for gear.

There�s also a world tier/gear score system that begins once you finish the last level 30 mission. That starts a part of the the game where you do the main missions and strongholds again but against a new faction, going up a world tier once you beat one of the strongholds. Each stronghold has a minimum gear score to unlock once you also beat its attached missions. The world map also fills up again with activities and enemy control points so you can get new gear basically anywhere. You reach world tier 5 by completing all the faction strongholds which unlocks the final stronghold, beating that brings you to world tier 5 which was the former end game.

I think it�s worth it to play that part of the game normally but I�m also someone who is already at the end so if you think at any point you�d rather just skip ahead the boost will always be there.

Thanks for the reply.

If the experience changes with some kind of NG+ post 30 content, then it would be worth playing through normally the first time. It would be better than rushing 40 and burning out on the game in two weeks.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2020 21:46

The Bird: Dec 7, 2006

I'm loving the new Summit but, as a new level 40 player, it feels like a trap. I can barely eek out one watch/season level a night while doing it. If I am running CPs or Missions, I can get 2-3 levels a night.

Being able to set the target loot is really nice, though. I am really glad that they didn't make it a true replacement for the open world.

One question I have is about gear. Does the gear quality increase with difficulty? I am running Challenging right now with a skill build, (3) Hard Wired (2) Hanu-U (1) Acostas -I don't have memento-. I am using In-Sync on my pistol/rifle with a shotgun backup. I don't feel like I can take on a higher difficulty without getting some perfect-rolled gear (and going to an all-brand skill build - but that would take awhile to grind).

I can also do a HuntersFury/LadyDeath build (decent gear) and a True Patriot Build (kinda trash gear). I just don't know what is the easiest new-player build to go with for reaching higher level content/gear. Most of the things I am looting are absolute trash.

I am also wondering what to do when I run out of storage room for materials. I currently treat gear by storing library upgrades/deconstructing/selling in that order. I have reached a point where I am full-up on all the basic materials and don't know if I should be using them on something other than crafting.

The Bird fucked around with this message at 20:14 on Oct 22, 2020

# ¿ Oct 22, 2020 20:07

The Bird: Dec 7, 2006

Screama posted:

You can do Heroic missions solo with a bunch of 70% gear without issues as long as the build is decent (and you get used to playing a bit conservatively sometimes). Open world heroic is another story, you will die constantly at early levels. If you're already comfortable at open world Challenging then you're probably in a good place to start trying out Heroic on some missions you're familiar with.

People on here can probably help you farm stuff - are you on PC? There's a clan you could join, and the discord has a lot of helpful info posted there.

I did try two heroics last night on my skill build. I did ViewPoint Museum first, which was the only mission I should not do on a skill build. I quit after wiping 3x on the EMP part. It didn't help that I had a guy disconnect after the first wipe and his leaving didn't count for like 15 minutes...

THEN I played Potomac Event Center on Heroic, got 4 people with me through matchmaking, and had one of the best nights of coop I have ever had in a game. The end sequence, fighting down the hallway into the theater with the pumping soundtrack, is intense with four other people. I've never been in the middle of a videogame fight and had the thought "this is like an action movie".

I am on PS4, so I probably need to get into the goon group if it is still around.

# ¿ Oct 23, 2020 18:33

The Bird: Dec 7, 2006

So, I'm pretty good on heroics now with my skill build, both open world and missions. But it is kind of boring AF and I just end up crouched and cycling my drone/turret, popping out to refresh In-Sync.

Is there an accessible build that doesn't rely on skills+cover camping to do heroics? A run-and-gun (or even cover+gun) build that isn't dependant on god-rolled items or spamming skills?

I do have some exotics to build around: Chameleon, Lady Death, and Backfire. Acosta's Bag, Ninjabike Kneepads, Tardigarde Armor System, and BTSU Data Gloves (or whatever the hive version is).
I also have some good hunter's fury gear to play with (though I wouldn't mind grinding another set - as long as I don't have to get perfect rolls on everything).

# ¿ Oct 26, 2020 19:04

The Bird: Dec 7, 2006

ZombyDog posted:

So I'm gonna repost this one as something worth considering

It's my current go to for solo play, and is a great workhorse in groups - Damage ranges from fair to great as you start winding up your damage bonuses from Chameleon and Intimidate, with a Future Initiative healer in our group I was hitting for over 600k damage on crit, but most of the time I'm peaking at over 400k on crit hits, the bonus armour stacks up fast ( starting from a base of 1.9M ) so you can play risky, revive fallen team members out in the open and face tank rogue agents. Initially I crafted up dozens of Belstone chest pieces and backpacks until I had something approximate to what I want ( ie had reasonable rolls to so I could recalibrate the talents ), and did spend some farming up the Foundry pieces in the Summit ( you won't find Foundry chests & backpacks as they're limited to the raid ), but I haven't spent anymore time in optimising it any further, I've been busy using the set as is to farm up gear for other build experiments.

Most importantly it's a fun build to use. You still have to play cautiously, you might have a big health pool with passive regen but if you've aggroed the whole room and not close enough to exploit the bonus armour and damage boost you're going to die horribly. You get to play the clutch reviver saving those squishy dudes, you can make some reasonably big numbers with regards to damage output and I love standing outside a closet door in the Summit with flamethrower at the ready because you're applying all your damage bonuses to that as well.

I have tried it with a Memento but you don't get the damage bonus upfront like you do with Adrenaline Rush, but then once you do get the ball rolling it should be superior - that's a better option when running solo. I've tried Lady Death but the small magsize is a bit of a pain and the speed boost really isn't noticeable when you've got your shield up, and I haven't found another SMG/AR that peak as high a damage output the Chameleon.

I am going to grind for this tonight. It sounds like the playstyle I want, being more close-ranged, mid-damage with some good survivability. I was running the HF mentioned above and when it was going well it was going really well, but I did need a couple of revives from teammates. I was #2 in damage with all 1000+SHD players (Im at 85? now), so I wasn't doing too bad. But the downtime was a bummer. I think it would be an easier playstyle on the PC. It was also tough relying on that last hit for my armor stacks, when there were (3) drones and (3) turrets tagging everything. It was way more reliable when I was doing solo stuff.

# ¿ Oct 27, 2020 19:01

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 18:34

The Bird: Dec 7, 2006

Quick Question. I have some exotics to get still, namely pestilence, bullet king, and vile mask. Do I need to farm targeted loot drops for these before they will populate in exotic caches? The caches only seem to cycle through items that I already have, so I have held onto a few.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2020 20:49

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