The Division 2: Changings for Tanks and why nobody wants to play them

In The Division 2, the defensive skills are apparently too weak, as Massive now admits. Therefore, hardly an agent plays a so-called “tank.” Massive wants to change that with the next patch.

That’s what it was meant to be: The build variety in The Division 2 should actually be the strength of the title: The Division 2 should become a feast for build-hobbyists.

The title should be characterized by the fact that as many different builds are used, which then grant different advantages. Loot should feel meaningful and bring a lot of variety to the gameplay.

These should be the three “main builds” of The Division 2:

  • Players can prefer to go for weapon damage (the red talents) to do the most damage to their weapons like a classic shooter, like a sniper build
  • Agents may prefer to use items that increase skill (the yellow talents), and then use their skills to excel, restrict opponents, or heal comrades – a kind of tech specialist
  • and players can go on defensive (the blue talents) to catch fire, endure a lot, and create spaces – these are the tanks

That was at least a theory: within these three main areas, there could have been different forms.

The Division 2Offensive is the best defense

Massive says this to the tank problem: In practice, “tanks” are too weak, as Massive now admits.

The developer here agrees to complaints from the fans that “tank builds” in The Division 2 are currently not worthwhile. There would not be enough benefits to getting life and armor.

Massive says: The problem is that the best way to avoid damage in The Division 2 is to kill the enemy as fast as possible:

  • Whoever is dead does no harm
  • if the enemies are dead, they do not fire at you, you do not have to squat in cover and can do more damage yourself
  • the problem gets worse as you get further into the endgame – the damage that you inflict on yourself becomes more important

However, Massive does not want to do “tanks” by simply increasing opponents’ health and prolonging battles. Because that would cause the opponents feel like ball sponges again – Massive wants to avoid that.

After all, it was one of the big criticisms of Part 1, why a guy in a hoody can withstand eight shots from a machine gun.

So The Division 2 wants to solve the problem: In further patches one wants to revise the talents altogether. Defensive abilities on equipment should become significantly stronger, so that each “defensive” roll also feels important.

Massive wants to look at the overall balance and adjust it so that more builds in The Division 2 play a role.

Especially on higher difficulty you want to adjust the deadliness of the opponents to provide a better experience. So the healing should also be more important.

It will be interesting to see how The Division 2 will change its balance in the coming weeks and months.

Written by: Dom

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