Without a new State of the Game episode on Thursday, October 13th, the final week of The Division’s Public Test Server has begun. That being said, it’s time for the developers to put all the things and final tweaks together for the upcoming release of Update 1.4, which is still scheduled for the end of this October.

Difficulties

Many changes regarding the armor and health of enemies from PTS 3 have been reverted to the state those things had in week 2. Lots of players complained that the game became too easy with the latest added changes from week 3, especially the Underground.

There are several videos of YouTubers and streamers out here who shared their opinions on this topic and it almost started to get a bit exaggerated at some point.

Overall, the discussion highlighted one important thing: the definition of “fun”, “difficulty” and “rewarding” are very subjective and everybody has their own view on them… Our goal is to find a solution that should satisfy everyone, with the right middle ground between these two opinions.

Anyway, the developers have listened and changed the group scaling in Underground missions in terms of enemy health and damage and not longer is based on their quantity. For solo players or those who are playing in a smaller group, more enemies in Underground Challenge Mode can be expected than in the past.

Health on Kill

Based on players’ feedback, the Health on Kill gear attribute became too strong which why Nomad’s bonus has been reduced from 20% to 14% and the chance of a roll on items has been reduced by about half.

Ballistic Shield

Also a number of bugs with the Ballistic Shield Skill have been fixed in the newly deployed build. It’s crucial for the developers that this skill is working as intended, especially with the overhauled Threat mechanic which is available since last week.

Double XP

The developers will unlock a Double XP option on the PTS this weekend to test this mode over a certain period of time. Such events will probably be hosted from time to time in the future once the new patch is live, like many other games are already doing it to reward their players even more.

Get in game, get XP, earn Field Proficiency.

Don’t forget that the developers are still working on Update 1.4, so your feedback is still highly appreciated and can be submitted in the official PTS forums.

Changelog

Game changes

Gameplay

  • Underground Challenge Mode will now scale to group size in terms of enemy health and damage, but no longer in enemy quantity. This means that when playing solo or in a smaller group, you will face more enemies in Underground Challenge Mode than in the past.
  • To go with this change, chances to drop items from random enemies in Underground have been slightly lowered to ensure that an increase of enemies does not lead to even more loot.
  • Fixed a bug where NPC damage was reduced by an extra 15% leading to a total 30% reduction in PTS 3 instead of the 15% announced. Their damage is now correctly reduced by 15% compared to PTS 2, and thus increased by 21% compared to PTS 3.
  • Reverted change done in PTS 3 to Elite and Named NPC Armor, to bring it back to its level of PTS 2. This equals an increase of 20% armor compared to PTS 3.
  • Path of the Nomad
    • 2 pieces: Reduced Health on Kill bonus from 20% to 14%
  • Reduced Health on Kill rolls on items by about half
  • Robust Chest piece bonus reduced from 30% armor to 10%

Bug fixing

  • Fixed a bug where Armor Damage Mitigation was capped at 60% in World Tiers 2 and above. It will now correctly cap at 70% in all World Tiers.
  • Fixed a bug where players were unable to equip sharable mods.
  • Fixed a bug where named bosses respawn time in the Open World was not correctly set to 4 hours.
  • Fixed a bug where characters could be stuck on ladders when jumping on it after sprinting.
  • Fixed a bug where some weapon skins would not be correctly converted to vanity items, and thus be lost.
  • Fixed a bug where Underground Operations may not start correctly when interaction with the train.
  • Fixed a bug where using AlphaBridge Gear Set could result in UI issues.

Skills

  • Fixed several instances of Ballistic Shield becoming unusable for the player.
  • Fixed a bug where First Aid could not be self-cast when the player was about to receive fatal damage.
  • Fixed a bug where Smart Cover would be destroyed by friendly or enemy explosions. Smart Cover can now only be destroyed by enemy Sticky Bomb (Flashbang) and EMP grenades.
  • Fixed a bug where the Support Station Ammo Cache bonus could be lost if another Support Station with the same mod was destroyed in the vicinity.
  • Fixed a bug where Mobile Cover Blast Shield damage was not calculated correctly and resulted in ridiculous amount of damage.