LOL I need to open them now to get myself up to 225.  Been good so far and went from 181 to 206 with The Underground.  Tried a few hard missions last night but I kept getting cleaners and that stupid boss always kicks my ass in tight quarters...

Doing the missions with FoW does what for the final drops exactly?  I've not tried it yet.

Adding directives increases the multiplier for experience and increases the guaranteed loot drop.  We were running 3 directives the other night and I think the reward was a guaranteed set piece.

Each directive costs intel, however, so running more than 1 will eventually reduce you to zero intel so they are best done with a group so you can rotate the leader position and everyone can take turns paying for the missions.

Anyone know the level of the elites in the underground missions versus the level of the elites in Clear Sky? Last night I was mowing down the purple elites in the underground on hard mode, but earlier today ran a hard mode Clear Sky and it was taking me a full mag to kill the purple elites. Felt like I was using a BB gun in clear sky.

If I had to guess, it would be 32s with a 33 boss.  I think the heroic mode has L35 mobs in it.

On a tangental note, I'm not sure if they stealth buffed the underground but I ran some hard mode solo missions (with and without directives) and the mobs felt tougher.  The one I ran with the skill/ammo directive I finished the final fight with 21 rounds left in my G36C.

Anyone (PC) unable to log into UPlay? Says log-in service not available at the moment.

I saw you log on for a second and disconnect.

I just for disconnected leaving the underground and can't get back in now.

Thanks. Seems servers might be down at the moment. Think I will take that as a sign to head to bed early tonight.

 

Yeah...they are down. I can't login on either platform right now. MIKE error on PS4 and UPlay won't even start...

Yup...agreed...might be a sign!

ETA: co-worker just got the "character locked" error so tread carefully fellas if ur trying to login!

I got that error last night when the servers went down too.  I was able to log in this morning without any issues. (on Xbox)

On a side note, this is what I meant about getting stupid numbers with Firecrest.  I have been "blessed" by RNGesus and haven't gotten a G36 in 17 caches

If I had gotten one with a decent roll my DPS would be over 300k.  I can't complain too much though I crafted a brutal/deadly/responsive LVOA-C



I could get another 100+ firearms from a better roll on my mask, and 100+ in each stat from a 268 holster.  It's crazy how high of base stats you can get now with the 268 gear.  I've also been able to swap out a few +armor mods for ones with skillpower.

That's impressive.  I haven't tried to max stats with all the 268 gear, as I don't care for the FC/BLIND talents, so I'm still running 3/3 striker/sentry.  250/405/14 is where I'm at, I think.

I'm not a huge fan of it either, but the increase in main stats outweighed the bonuses that I was getting when I used 240 sentry/striker.  I think that the 100% reload speed from Firecrest is kind of like accuracy mods.  It "fluffs" your dps a bit more than it should, assuming that you will hit all of your shots.

Perfect world I'm either going to use 4 Predator's mark/2 Final measure or 5 sentry/savage gloves.  It's all going to depend what I can get.  Did the last weeks and this weeks HVT's last night and got 5 pieces of 268 lone star.  YAY!

I was thinking of 4 PM/2 something else and realized I didn't have 4 good pieces of PM gear.

I also don't have any Savage gloves because I sold 4 good pairs of them before they decided to fuck around with the 2/3/5 pc set bonuses.    I just didn't have the space to keep all that gear.

I must have just missed you.  I got on and ran all three hard/challenging missions plus a few underground missions and then logged when no one was on.

I'm trying to go 4 Predator's Mark and 2 of something else but don't know what the 2 is going to be.  I originally wanted 2 Striker but that was before the nerf.

I'm having trouble getting anything good out of the DZ.....every time I get something good, I lose it to rogues at the extraction point.   Usually I get killed, but last night 4 guys ran up, cut the rope and didn't even fire a shot.    We (4 of us) shot up the guy cutting the rope and didn't even scratch him.   The other 3 guys didn't even shoot at us.   They just healed.  

They fucking walked in, cut the rope and ran away with our shit.   We couldn't do ANY damage to them and we were all 230-248 gear score.   Well the bright side is that they didn't kill us ( for once).



The nights that I get nothing but performance mods I extract no problem.   But any time I get good stuff, the rogues get it.  

Us PS4 guys are finally getting 1.3 during the update tonight.

What should we do first?

Underground. If at all possible, equip enough gear to get a GS of 225+ when you open your underground caches (which you get each rank) and you should be guaranteed all 229 weapons and 268 set pieces. You can make rank 5 in the first hour and 10 in a couple more.

Underground is part of the dlc which drops in August for PS4, not the 1.3 patch.

I had an opportunity to run Dragon's Nest last night in a coordinated group (most were gear score 220-230) and we completed it on HM. Here are some tips from what I learned running it:





1) Everyone on your team must, let me say that again, must have at least 2 pieces of Final Measure gear for the +50% exotic damage resilience (if you have other gear giving this resilience it will suffice). Additional exotic resistance or fire resistance beyond the +50% the two-piece Final Measure set provides would be helpful, but not necessary, on hard mode especially if you are running an immunizer healing station. I was wearing the two-piece Final Measure gear, and another gear item I had on gave me an additional +25% fire resistance, and even with that much fire resistance and an immunizer on the ground I still died to all the fire (and there is a ton in phase 2). The added protection from elites with 3 pieces of Final Measure gear could be helpful also.





2) While there are probably many different skill configurations your group could run with, we had all four of us running first aid (lots of healing is needed), one guy had smart cover, two ran immunizers (this is a must for phase 2) and one had a pulse.





3) Phase 1, IMO, is the most difficult, but there is a trick to making it manageable. First, kill all the trash mobs when you fist get in. The engineers launch little remote controlled bombs that explode then do AOE fire damage, so kill the engineers first. Once the trash mobs are dead the four horsemen spawn. While each has a metric ton of health, and does big damage, their range is limited and they walk slow. So you can kite them around the map. Where most groups fail on this round is after they kill one of the horsemen the trash mobs respawn. The trick is to not kill them one at a time, but instead get one down to very low health then move on to the next, and so forth, until all four are at very low health. Then, kill them. This way you don't get overwhelmed by trash mob respawn.  


4) There are only two real challenges in phase 2 - when the fire truck launches its missiles (and sets the entire room on fire), and the snipers. The missiles phase is easy to overcome with the smart cover and two immunizers, which is why each should be ready for this phase. If someone's taking damage from the fire, just toss a first aid heal. The snipers are the final spawn stage, and if you all stay in the rear of the room with smart cover on you can just methodically kill them.





5) If you want to farm this incursion leave up one or two mobs then take out the firetruck, your gear will drop, and you can then let the remaining mobs kill you and you respawn at the checkpoint after phase 1 and just before phase 2. The gear on HM is 214, so no real point to do this other than to run it a few times for the experience so you know what to do on challenge mode.





6) Challenge mode - After running the HM a few times (we got it down to the point we ran the last one with pistols only and it was easy) we tried challenge mode. Nope, no way. Could barely clear the trash in stage one to spawn the four horsemen. What is the killer here are the remote control car bombs. They one-shotted us easily and our level of exotic/fire resilience, DPS, and toughness simply was not sufficient. The worst part was the explosions would drop you, then the fire would about instantly kill you, so your teamates couldn't quickly rez you. Turrets also did nothing to deter the agent-homing remote control car bombs. I would say to do this on challenge mode you will want (unbuffed) around 300 DPS and 300+ toughness and 75% or more exotic/fire resilience.




7) 4-piece Reclaimer Set bonus is amazing right now, and totally OP. I suspect it will be nerfed soon. If you have 4 pieces of Reclaimer there is a macro you can bind to a key that will, in effect, give you and everyone in your group all the consumables and special ammo at once. And is procs a lot. We used this on one of our runs (guy had 4 set pieces and wanted to try it with the macro) and it was so grossly OP, but fun. If you can get this set and want to run some of the more challenging stuff in the game, Heroic modes, challenge modes, etc. it will greatly help.




Overall phase 1 of the incursion is kinda fun with the four horsemen mechanic, but phase 2 is very boring and similar to Falcon Lost with a stationary vehicle shooting missiles that intermittently you need to click on something to "damage" the vehicle, all the while fighting off waves of attackers.



 

I must have horrible luck.  I opened 5 caches at 225 and got ZERO 268 and 229 items.

ETA the caches i had saved up prior to 225 did not seem to give 229 and 268.

Once I earned another cache, while wearing 225 gear, or having a 225 gear score, boom two 229 weapons with crappy talents..yay!

I'm curious how 1.3 is going to go for us on PS4, considering we won't get Underground. The DZ is probably going to be crazy!

Wait PS4 doesnt get underground?  WTF did I pay for the gold edition for then?

Doh, that sucks.

That sucks to hear!  It worked for my friend to equip the gear and then open the cache.  I started 1.3 at GS 225 and have not opened anything but 229/268.

Not until August 2nd. Microsoft paid for a month of exclusivity for new expansions.

Downloading 1.3 now. 10.041GB's!

Here's what's going on for tonight's update:

• Deployment of Content Update 1.3 for all PlayStation 4 players. This does not enable the content of Expansion I: Underground which is scheduled for release on August 2nd.


• Fixed a bug where High Value Target NPCs were capped at level 30 maximum. This will also fix the issue where they were not dropping any Target Intel.


• Fixed a bug where players that died after defeating the final encounter would be able to repeat it and gain loots again.


• Fixed instances of server instability that could lead to players being disconnected from the game.

For those of us who are just now getting 1.3, here's what's included:

• 1 new gear set: AlphaBridge


• 9 new weapon types: 3 G36 variants, 2 SVD variants, 2 PP-19 variants, 2 X-45 variants


• 1 new High-End named weapon: The Showstopper (full-auto shotgun)


• 2 new Challenge modes: Hudson Refugee Camp and Queens Tunnel Camp


• All missions/incursions that have Challenge mode now also have Heroic mode


• BoO Extension: The Terminal. Contains new equipment vendors and HVT contractors


• You can now re-calibrate a Weapon Talent at the re-calibration bench


• Added 231+ GS DZ bracket


• Player stash size increased to 70


• Level 30 players will now only encounter level 30 or higher enemies in Free Roam


• Reduced PC costs of 204 high-end and 240 gear set items/blueprints


• You can no longer kick a group member during or up to a minute after a boss fight


• Exotic Damage Resilience is now capped at 90%


• LMG's do increased damage to targets out of cover


• Shotguns can now stagger NPC's and base damage buffed


• Assault Rifles have an added enemy armor damage bonus


• SMG's bonus changed from increased crit chance to increased crit hit damage


• AUG and Vector damage nerfed


• M1A accuracy reduced when shooting consistently


• Explosive bullet dmg reduced


• Incendiary bullet effect reduced against players


• Sentry's Call and Striker's Battlegear sets have been adjusted, and both now have a 5-set bonus.


• DZ 5-6 in DZ bracket 201-230 now drops 229 High-Ends and 268 Gear Sets


• Weapons now have a base weapon damage value that makes it easier to compare them


• Gear mods and weapon mods are now combined in the same inventory display


• New misc inventory slot


• And lots of bug fixes...

Tried my first Heroic with Lincoln Tunnel Checkpoint. Couldn't tell the difference between that and Challenging, except the rushers were a little tougher.

Did a round of Falcon Lost on Hard with a PUG for shits and giggles... got a 204 G36! You guys weren't kidding about its DPS being high.

What level of missions were your caches from?  My friend and I have been duoing Hard missions and I make sure to equip all my high GS items.  I think i get my GS up to 243.  I have yet to get a 229 weapon or 268 piece from caches.

I'd like to get back into this, but it's more fun playing with a dedicated group of guys.

Platform?

I've done everything from normal to hard with 3 directives.  Only 229/268.

Someone on Reddit posted that in the State of the Game Hammish said cache contents are determined when they are created, not when they are opened.  So that would make sense in my case.

Interesting, as my friend dinged his rank at GS 217 and then equipped to GS225 to open and got a 268 set piece.

Clear as mud.

235+ is unfucking playable without a teammate or 3 with atleast 40+k skill power and high electronics, constantly spamming smart cover.

I'm shooting fucking marshmallows, and my 449k toughness is about as tough as wet tissue paper.

Plus my build sucks now... 155k dps (98XX damage even though my firearms number is well over 3000), 449k toughness, and 25k skill power.

1.3 might be my breaking point

Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile

I agree. Might have to go back to the 201+

What level are the 235+ enemies, 35? I read somewhere that there's a big design flaw with the current expansion because the game is designed in a way that  enemies 5 levels or more above the player's is meant to be basically impossible to kill (which is why you get a warning/tip when you die to an enemy 5 levels above you). So they should have increased player level cap to 31 to prevent it.

Eta: found it
https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/4re5gn/anyone_notice_the_message_after_you_get_killed_by/?

It does seem strange they skipped level 33 enemies.  Seems like an oversight.

Hey guys, I absolutely loved the Division, but hated the fuck out of the community (that is THE nicest way I can put my reaction to the majority of Division players) Now that the vast majority of those players are gone, how is it? I've been planning on putting it back into my rotation

I just cant win.  So of the 8 caches I've opened since 225 only 1 has been an armor piece.  The other 7 have been 229 G36's and SVD's....which would be great except I DONT NEED ANYMORE WITH SHITTY TALENTS!!!

Damn, not a single G36 with deadly or brutal and I';ve got 4 of them....  All I want is some damn armor upgrades

I feel you.  I have 6 or 7 G36s without deadly or brutal.  One I rerolled 4 times and didn't get anything worthwhile.

It took me 19 caches to get a G36, but it had deadly/responsive and I rolled brutal on it.

I hate you.

Well they are getting whacked 15%, so now it's really not better than my LVOA-C

Yep! I lost about 1700k dmg on mine. Still better then everything else though IMHO.

and is it me or do the UG missions seem a bit harder after this recent patch?

I haven't seen mine yet, but I said that about the last mini-patch.

ETA - I'm down about 38,000 DPS on my G36C.

So that means my DPS is going to be crap again...YAY

Haven't been on yet today due to work.  As far as I know there were no mention difficulty increases.  Maybe it's harder because your G36 got nerfed?  15% less damage is a lot.

I have such a weird feeling about this game right now.  I still love it and want to play, but lately I get so annoyed every time that I do.  I tried playing last night for about an hour and it just wasn't enjoyable.  NPC's have made PVP more about pinching your enemy between you and them then actually fighting each other.  At some point I'm going to try discord and see if that works for getting a group to do things like FL Heroic.  I tried that with PUGs last week and it was a nightmare.

Recently got 7 Days to Die, that game is bugged out too but at least it's not broken on some fundamental levels like The Division is.

Is that map issue actually fixed?

It's not my damage output it's the NPC damage output I was wondering about. I got owned last night by an LMB Grenadier in 1-shot. I had 1/2 of an overheal left and I am currently at 370K toughness with 75% mitigation.

This!!

And why the fuck do they keep nerfing weapons?  They are literally killing off any type of fun left.  No fucking body to team up with anymore so Im soloing everything, but hey, lets keep making enemies spongier and nerf the fuck out of any decent weapons.

Agreed. I can configure my armor to reach ~ 400k toughness, but then my offense goes to crap. Most everyone is using the waste not want not (or whatever its called) directive in the Hard UG missions, and in this configuration, i pepper away at the NPCs with minimal effect and frequently run out of ammo.  I have 3 pieces of Sentry's Call that are workable, so If I select those, my toughness drops to ~275k, but at least I can contribute with a 204 G36 and a 183 M1A with brutal. I just have to be careful when maneuvering to not get in a bad situation and go down. I haven't played since the patch, but with the G36 nerfed 15%, I'm sure I'll be back to ineffective again.

Also, last time I played I picked up something that raised my gear score to 201, and that puts me in the higher DZ bucket. I pretty much cannot even venture into the DZ anymore without being 1-shotted, so any DZ grinding or objectives are pretty much unobtainable now.

There's lots of things I like about this game, but the negatives are mounting up quick. And with the ever changing environment with nerfing, it can be discouraging. I'm getting really close to putting this game aside.