The division

[Speckle]

Flat-out said:

Went to a safe house and turned the PS4 off. If it is like before, I should spawn in there with those gloves. I'll wait until the squad are online before trying to extract.

Heart was pounding. All for a pair of pixels resembling bloody gloves.

Xtya1001 and his buddies are still waiting for you outside the safehouse

[Flat-out]

Dude, you ain't kidding.

I'm working from home today so decided to give it a go. Yes, I'm impatient. Managed to make it a few steps out before rogues blipped on the radar. Back in the safe house and try later

I may just have to run with the Nomad gloves that I dropped earlier and optimised up. I wanted to have a bespoke LZ and DZ loadout though and not mix. That is just the OCD in me.

[Speckle]

See, all you needed was a Speckle to chaperone you though the big, bad Dark Zone

Good fun last night, not that the rewards were anything other than mediocre. I realised after I travelled back to base that I may have had something you'd find useful - nothing I picked up was an upgrade for me, sorry.

Underground was good fun, mostly because it was something a bit different. The PP-19 is proving to be a very decent addition to my DN3 build. I have 110 in the mag now, which is very useful against the yellow bars! Tempted to optimise it (well, as much as I can with my meagre amount of D-tech anyway!)

Has anyone done the West Side Pier missions? I tried them the other day, I was heading towards the 3rd objective I think, clearing some NPCs along the way and, it told me I'd failed. I guess it must have been on a timer or something as I hadn't hurried at all and had done a bit of exploring on the way. The rewards are supposed to be decent for the time investment so, I'm keen to give it another crack.

Edited by Speckle on Thursday 18th January 10:00

[Flat-out]

Thank you Sir.

...ironically, I dropped a MUCH better pair of gloves from a LZ after you'd all logged off

Realised the folly of optimising gear which is not top tier. Won't be doing that any more.

Also dropped the Showstopper exotic shotgun last night. It isn't something that will replace my Heel marksman rifle, but jesus it is a lot of fun! May switch to it when up the stairs in Resistance. Found this vid of it:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sb2a3niN1Y

Anyway, the lady, hound and baby crota are away from Saturday through to Tuesday () so I'll be about to do those missions. Think I've done a couple but not sure.

[Speckle]

I thought the whole point of optimisation was to turn something into top tier gear - or do you mean, don't optimize something with cr@ppy perks?

I can't remember the roll on my PP-19 but, I think it was decent. I may need to re-roll one of the talents but I'd like to have at least one fully upgraded bit of kit and a weapon seems like a more sensible option than armor at this stage, given that I'll likely use it with multiple gear sets.

WSP missions are apparently a good source of divtech (and for speed & efficiency of farming, I'm guessing you could drop to a lower world tier an still get the div-tech?). Rewards would be useless obviously, other than to dismantle for resources.

(I honestly thought you referred to your wife as the Lady Hound when I first read your post!)

[Flat-out]

Yeah, I meant good perks and decent (high-ranking) attributes. It just isn't worth optimising a piece which has x+ skill haste when you can roll a piece with better items (unless going for a skill build).

Mrs Hound is probably about right. She rules with an iron fist.



Edited to add case in point- she's just text to say the hound is bricking himself under the kitchen table having helped himself to a bread bun on the edge of the work-top. This is a 49kg German Shepherd. He knows the house alpha

Edited by Flat-out on Thursday 18th January 12:37

[Speckle]

I just wish there was some kind of online inventory manager so that I could check out my stuff whilst I've got the time to look online and asses it properly.

[Speckle]

So, my first legitimate incursion done and dusted. That was certainly tough going, how we managed it on heroic on pretty much the first attempt, I'm not entirely sure! Especially as none of us knew anything about it before going in. Top healing chaps

So, I was saying that I'd only had a single classified drop since returning to the game....actually, I have about 5. They really do need to make them stand out more! Bet I've deleted a few without realising it too!

Edited by Speckle on Saturday 20th January 10:05

[Speckle]

Looks like I have the thread to myself again!

So, the Global Event is well underway now. I must have run Lexington 60 or 70 times at least! Seems to take anywhere between 5 and 8 minutes depending on the team (I once got matchmade with a guy with a GS of only 28! The other two left and I didn't have the heart to leave him alone. Got him through the mission and dropped all my stuff for him (checking closely they weren't classified first!). Seemed like the right thing to do.

I was running Lexington with randos this morning and the game disconnected me just as we finished rooftop. Annoyed at the wasted time, I reconnected to the game (which as you know, usually takes several minutes) and it put me back on the rooftop with the same team. They were in the final room and, no sooner had I spawned in, I was awarded my 750 GE credits - nice when the game works for you instead of against you, eh?

Currently, I have 4 Alpha classified pieces, 4 Tactician, 3 Firecrest and 4 Hunter's Faith. Obviously, the further we get into the week, the more likely duplicates become (no more Alpha holsters, please! I also opened 3 superior caches this morning and didn't get a single classified piece!! II'm not that interested in Hunters Faith but, the other 3 sets I'm quite keen to try out.

Lots more grinding ahead this week

[VEA]

I've only got about 4 hours gameplay so far but I have to say whilst I like it, and I like the concept. It isn't half complicated!

[Speckle]

You'll get no argument from me on that...I spend most of my time in the Division utterly confused!!

[Duke of Kidderminster]

I love this game, best shooter on XBOX by far. Completed it a year ago and put it aside. I tried the Dark Zone a few times but got sick of dying continuously from attacks by groups - i'd go through the door and it seemed that there was almost always a group waiting the other side. Or, I'd call in the helicopter to take away my winnings only to be jumped by a group at the last minute as that's easier than working for it!

I retried it again over Christmas and it now seems so complicated!

Has the Dark Zone been improved or is it still a playground free-for-all? I'd like to get into that area more but immediately dying does take it's toll after a while.

[Speckle]

Duke of Kidderminster said:

I love this game, best shooter on XBOX by far. Completed it a year ago and put it aside. I tried the Dark Zone a few times but got sick of dying continuously from attacks by groups - i'd go through the door and it seemed that there was almost always a group waiting the other side. Or, I'd call in the helicopter to take away my winnings only to be jumped by a group at the last minute as that's easier than working for it!

I retried it again over Christmas and it now seems so complicated!

Has the Dark Zone been improved or is it still a playground free-for-all? I'd like to get into that area more but immediately dying does take it's toll after a while.

The Dark Zone is still the Dark Zone and I can't see that changing. Your best bet is either to go in with a group, accept that none of your loot is yours until you extract it or just avoid the place altogether (which is what I do!) The good news is, there really isn't any requirement to go into the DZ if you don't enjoy the PvP aspect of the game.

All rewards can drop from pretty much any activity, divtech is available outside the DZ, there are even open world bosses to farm outside the DZ (they respawn less frequently than landmark bosses but, still way better than we had before)

There are so many activities to do now, I'm often spoilt for choice (apart from this week, when Lexington is the only sensible option!)

[Duke of Kidderminster]

Speckle said:

The Dark Zone is still the Dark Zone and I can't see that changing. Your best bet is either to go in with a group, accept that none of your loot is yours until you extract it or just avoid the place altogether (which is what I do!) The good news is, there really isn't any requirement to go into the DZ if you don't enjoy the PvP aspect of the game.

All rewards can drop from pretty much any activity, divtech is available outside the DZ, there are even open world bosses to farm outside the DZ (they respawn less frequently than landmark bosses but, still way better than we had before)

There are so many activities to do now, I'm often spoilt for choice (apart from this week, when Lexington is the only sensible option!)

Good to know, cheers. The PvP doesn't interest me too much but I was under the (wrong it seems) assumption that I needed to gorge myself in the DZ to get decent equipment and also to be able to finish* the game.

• For my sins I'm a little obsessive with achievements...

[Speckle]

There are probably still occasional blueprints or weapons which can be bought from a DZ vendor but, it sounds like you will have already accumulated some DZ funds for those.

Most of the achievements will revolve around the PvE activities like Resistance, Underground, the Incursions and Survival. Oh, and the collectables of course.

I've only set foot in the DZ once since picking the game back up and have no plans to return. Even those friends of mine who enjoy that side of the game have been staying away so far as they are still under-geared to compete with the rogues.

[MissChief]

The DZ is a bit different in that no one can go rogue in the blink of an eye anymore. You need to press and hold a button and everyone around you can see you're doing it. No more 'insta-gank-squads' roaming the DZ.

[Mikeyjae]

MissChief said:

The DZ is a bit different in that no one can go rogue in the blink of an eye anymore. You need to press and hold a button and everyone around you can see you're doing it. No more 'insta-gank-squads' roaming the DZ.

I have not played it in a while but im thinking about giving the game another go. The whole suspense of the DZ about who, if anyone was going to go rogue was what made the whole DZ experience great in my opinion. I wasn't to keen on the update that changed the extraction from getting your kit on to the chopper and thats it (hard enough), to then you had to also defend your kit from agents cutting the rope. That new rogue change you mention seems to have removed all the suspense.

I have heard good things about all the updates and even though I have the annual pass I have not played it since underground.

[Speckle]

MissChief said:

The DZ is a bit different in that no one can go rogue in the blink of an eye anymore. You need to press and hold a button and everyone around you can see you're doing it. No more 'insta-gank-squads' roaming the DZ.

That's true but, you really don't get much of a warning even now. A split second, maybe time to pop an ult but, people with bad intentions can still ruin your day...

Presumably, this means you can't go rogue by accident anymore?

Edited by Speckle on Tuesday 30th January 13:14

[Moog72]

Speckle said:

Presumably, this means you can't go rogue by accident anymore?

Correct, no more accidentally (or deliberately!) walking into gun fire to force someone rogue. Now you have to press and hold the down D pad button (on PS4) to toggle rogue status

Hasn’t eliminated all the DZ knobs though sadly. I was in there killing purples for the weekly when I got ganked by two people who seemingly appeared from nowhere. No real point as I didn’t have anything on me at the time, was just annoying and unnecessary really, but hey if that’s your thing crack on I suppose

[Speckle]

Moog72 said:

Correct, no more accidentally (or deliberately!) walking into gun fire to force someone rogue. Now you have to press and hold the down D pad button (on PS4) to toggle rogue status

Hasn’t eliminated all the DZ knobs though sadly. I was in there killing purples for the weekly when I got ganked by two people who seemingly appeared from nowhere. No real point as I didn’t have anything on me at the time, was just annoying and unnecessary really, but hey if that’s your thing crack on I suppose

Oh, that's good then, I was caught out by that a few times. More often than not, people would understand it was an accident and just let the timer run out but, on the odd occasion, people just saw 'rogue' and killed me anyway.

I don't bother with the DZ at all now, don't care about the weekly cache, as there is plenty of loot to be had everywhere else. Makes the game much more enjoyable not feeling that I have to participate in an element I don't enjoy.

I've noticed the game has been a bit deserted since the grind of GE week. Don't think I've seen anyone on my friends list playing all week. I've only really been farming bosses and daily missions but, I've had classified armour drop for both lone star and D3 for my efforts