In a new blog post, the developers at Ubisoft Massive reveal that the popular SMG class will be seeing major changes in The Division to diminish their power.

Ever since the SMG weapon class rose to prominence in Tom Clancy’s The Division, players feared that it would one day be nerfed. Very soon that fear will be realized, as the developers at Ubisoft Massive confirmed the weapon class will be losing its power very soon.

As part of a recent blog post, the Ubisoft Massive developers detailed some of the balance changes coming with The Division’s next update. Said update will launch alongside the Underground expansion, which is set to hit Xbox One on June 28th. However, Update 1.3 will also hit PS4, even though PlayStation gamers will have to wait over a month for the expansion.

As far as the balance changes, the biggest will be the nerf to SMGs across the board. For the Vector and AUG specifically, damage will be reduced (by 10%) to better match other SMG options. Moreover, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the AUG, the MP5, or the Vector; SMGs will now trade a base critical hit chance stat for a critical hit damage stat.

Another major weapon change will be a tweak to the M1A brand of weapon in order to make it more of a marksman rifle. Post-update, the M1A reticle will expand if shots are fired in rapid succession, essentially making it so players choose their shots carefully.

For more info on the weapon changes make sure to read Ubisoft’s full blog post.

Considering the AUG, Vector, and M1A were among the most widely used weapons in The Division and key to surviving its endgame activities, it’s easy to see why Ubisoft Massive made these changes. That being said, it will be interesting to see how they go over with players, many of whom have been relying on those weapons practically since launch. Changing the meta is a part of the process for any RPG shooter, but making it seem like the developers are not punishing players is key.

There is good news for Division players, though; soon they will be able to re-roll weapon talents. Using a new item called a weapon kit (and some currency), players will be able to re-roll one of their weapon’s talents to suit their play style. According to Ubi, the weapon re-rolling will take some of the RNG out of weapon drops, which is always a welcome change.

The blog post also details four new unique weapons that will be added to The Division with the Underground expansion. Like with the other unique weapons in The Division, these new ones will offer special weapon talents to the mix, hopefully to entice players to use them. See below for more details:

  • Shotgun: Showstopper
    •  Showstopper: The emptier the clip, the better the accuracy.
  • Assault Rifle: G36
    • Focused: When no skills are on cooldown you weapon damage is increased by X%.
  • Marksman Rifle: SVD
    • Decisive: Killing a target will make your next shot with the weapon be an automatic critical hit
  • SMG: PP-19
    • Hurried: Each critical hit reduces your next reload time with X% to a minimum of Y seconds.

Overall, the changes are not unexpected for The Division, but could prove divisive for the immediate future. Hopefully the new content added in the Underground expansion – like the procedurally generated “dungeons” – will help players forget that anything has been changed.

The Division – Underground releases June 28, 2016 for Xbox One.

Source: Ubisoft