The Division Time Sqaure Screenshot
A Division agent in Times Square Ubisoft

The first major patch for Tom Clancy's: The Division aims to balance the PvP within the Dark Zone, while also fixing a multitude of bugs and patching the gear drops from named enemies.

The patch is being implemented during routine service maintenance today (22 March) which started at 8am GMT (1am PST, 4am EST) and is scheduled to run until 11am GMT (4am PST, 7am EST).

Update: It appears the servers have gone back down for a further 15 minute period as per the below tweet (patch changes discussed below):

Twitter / TheDivisionGame

The most noteworthy fix within the update sees the short-lived 'Bullet King Loot Cave' exploit receive a swift Dark Zone-esque elimination, as named boss characters will no longer respawn in the open world after death, putting paid to the rinse and repeat cycle near Autumn's Hope Safehouse that dominated The Division this past weekend.

Alterations are also being made to the drop rate of High-End weapons, gear and tech materials from level 31 and 32 named 'bosses' (although Phoenix Credit quantity changes have unfortunately been delayed due to "stability issues"), as players will now be more likely to find Gold gear in lieu of having to kill the same enemy over and over again. The Dark Zone chests are receiving a similar buff, with keys chests now possibly offering up an elusive High-End item as well.

IBTimes UK will be updating its Phoenix Credits guide to take account of the new changes.

While smaller fixes to weapons like the Midas and the welcome introduction of a fast travel system for entering the Dark Zone, balancing the PvP appears to be the main focus of the patch, with the 'going Rogue' option now appearing far more viable as a way to garner experience points and supplies.

You can find the full list of changes in patch 1.0.2 on the The Division website, but the main fixes and alterations can be found below:

GAMEPLAY

  • Named enemies. will now drop better loot in Challenge mode than in Hard mode.
  • Added a cooldown period for the Static Turret stun attack in order to avoid a stunlock in PvP and PvE game modes.
  • Named NPCs will no longer respawn after being killed in the Open World. This will prevent situations where players were able to kill a same named NPC over and over again.
  • Modifications to the weapon talent: Trained.
    • It can now only be rolled on Shotgun, Marksman rifles and Pistols
    • Its bonus has been reduced from 1%-5% to a constant 0.1%
    • For the Midas SMGs, Trained Talent has been replaced with Responsive Talent which increases damage when getting closer to the target. This applies to existing weapons as well as newly acquired ones
    • For all SMGs, LMGs, and Assault Rifles, it will be replaced with another randomly picked weapon talent. This applies to existing weapons as well as newly acquired ones
  • Fixed a speed run exploit for the Rooftop Comm Relay mission
  • Fixed an issue where weapons dealt no damage if the reload animation was interrupted by an agent's skill
  • Fixed an issue where players became stuck in an emote animation if activated via chat while auto running
  • Fixed a bug where skill power would be increased permanently while using the Death by Proxy talent
  • Fixed a bug where experience was not being awarded for completing all side-missions in the Midtown East safe house
  • Fixed instances where the Seeker Mine with Airburst / Multi-mine mod would detonate too soon, miss targets or cause no damage
  • Fixed a bug where grenades would sometimes not display the blast radius warning before detonating
  • Fixed an issue where some NPCs in low cover would not react to being shot by the player
  • Fixed issues where emotes would cause the player model to behave oddly (missing guns, player stuck in emote animation, etc)
  • Fixed a bug where weapon mods and weapon skins would not show up on other players in the game world
  • Fixed an issue where DPS would not be calculated properly when purchasing a new weapon mod

DARK ZONE

  • Players can now heal other neutral players in the Dark zone, by using First Aid and Support Station skills
  • Players are now able to fast travel to Dark Zone checkpoints, but only when coming from outside the Dark Zone
  • The Dark Zone disconnect timer has been increased to 30 seconds, meaning players will remain in the game world longer when logging out while in the Dark Zone (this applies while not in combat)
  • Items extracted from the Dark Zone are now properly marked as "new" items when moved to the players inventory
  • Players killed in the Dark Zone now drop ammo, medkits and grenades. This loot is generated and not taken from the dying players' inventory
  • Players killed in the Dark Zone will lose less Dark Zone Funds and Experience (Rogue and non-Rogue)
  • Dark Zone Funds and Experience rewards for surviving Rogue status have been improved
  • Dark Zone Funds and Experience rewards for killing Rogue agents have been improved
  • Increased drop rate of High-End items from lvl 31 and 32 named NPCs in the Dark Zone.
  • Increased drop rate of High-End Division Tech Material from lvl 32 named NPCs in the Dark Zone.
  • Improved Dark Zone Chests items quality:
    • Rank 30 chests will now drop Superior (Purple) items instead of Specialized (Blue)
    • Keys chests now have a chance to drop High-End (Gold) items
  • Dark Zone Funds drop rates and quantity on NPCs has been reduced.
  • Fixed a bug where the Wildfire and Fear Tactics talents were affecting neutral players in the Dark Zone.
  • Fixed instances where players would receive a DELTA error message when entering the Dark Zone
  • Fixed a bug where sometimes players could not loot anything after returning to the game following a network disconnection
  • Fixed Stage 1 Rogue timers not displaying correctly when Rogue players receive damage from another player

UI

  • Added more information for Daily missions on the Map
  • Tutorials have received some UI polish
  • The Matchmaking menu now displays the mission difficulty rating more prominently
  • The mini-map mission tracker has been optimized to be less confusing to players
  • Fixed a bug where some of the attributes for high-end equipment were cut-off in the recalibration menu
  • Fixed a bug where the Matchmaking menu for a mission would not display correctly or kept disappearing
  • Fixed missing item icons in the Reward Claim Vendor's inventory
  • Fixed incorrect side-missions being displayed in the Map legend

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