The Division 2 is currently nearing an end-of-life state. Title Update 12, released in December 2020, was supposed to be The Division 2's final content update. Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment changed their minds, however, and another update is planned for February 2022. On Wednesday, one of the update's biggest features was revealed, dubbed the Expertise system. Expertise will offer The Division 2 players a new system of progression that could keep players busy for a very long time.
Expertise is a system with multiple different goals. First, it's designed to empower players by allowing them to upgrade their Weapons, Gear, and Skills with permanent upgrades. Second, it's intended to encourage players to diversify their kit by creating Proficiency levels for all items. Third, it's clearly intended to give The Division 2 players a long-term option for progression that few will complete. It's truly and end-of-life progression track for players willing to stay with The Division 2 even after content stops being released.
There are two different key systems at work within the umbrella of the Expertise system. The first is Expertise itself, which is a new level associated with the player. Each Expertise level a player gains can be used to improve the base stat of an item, e.g. a weapon's damage, gear's armor value, and skills' base damage/healing/status effect duration. Players earn Expertise levels by gaining Proficiency, which is the second aspect of Expertise.
Proficiency is associated with items in The Division 2. This includes weapons, brands, gearsets, named items, exotics, skill variants, and specialization weapons. Each of these will have proficiency ranks associated with it, up to a maximum of 10 levels depending on quality and type. Players gain ranks by earning kill XP, donating matching items, or donating materials. Each rank earned contributes to a player's Expertise level. However, items can only have their base stat increased once they've reached max Progression rank.
It's a progression system designed to be simple. The Division 2 players equip items, gain Proficiency in those items, and through Proficiency gain Expertise levels for their agent. Expertise then unlocks base stat upgrades, with more Expertise leading to more upgrades.
A release date for the Expertise system in The Division 2 was not provided, but will assumedly be a part of the game's February 2022 update. One other notable detail mentioned by Massive in its Expertise announcement is that it mentions "new content being added to the game" in the future, raising the possible Expertise level cap. Perhaps next February's update isn't the last content update for The Division 2, either.
The Division 2 is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.