Ubisoft has been hard at work creating new content for The Division 2, much of which will come with Episode 1, the first of three upcoming major content updates. However, the team has also been working on balancing and changing systems that have existed in the game since launch, including skills, which will be getting a revamp and buff when Episode 1 releases to Year 1 Pass holders on Tuesday, July 23rd.

Game Rant chatted with Yannick Banchereau, The Division 2's live content manager, about what the team is hoping to accomplish with the changes. According to Banchereau, the team is focused on making skills more viable in the endgame as well as making playstyles more diverse. "We really wanted to bring the skills back into the playstyles and into the viable options that are part of the endgame," stated Banchereau. He added, " It’s really about, for us, adding much more diversity in terms of the playstyles and the ways that you can experience the game... All of this is really about adding more diversity for players to experiment with."

The changes to skills have been live in the game's PTS server on PC for some time now, and they should prove to be popular among pretty much the entire player base when they finally get implemented to the full game on July 23rd. This update should make playstyles built around the best skills in The Division 2 just as viable as ones that focus strictly on weapon damage, which, given the number of skills in the game, opens up a ton of new options for players that want to remain competitive without sacrificing fun, something Banchereau also emphasized, "We wanted to make sure that we make them fun to use and we allow all the players that just want to play with skills, we allow them to use those as a viable option, and also for those that want to compete and want to create min-max characters, they can go in that skill route now."

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These changes should help keep the game feeling fresh, especially as more specializations, like the new Gunner Specialization, and gear are introduced further into the game's lifespan. It's good to see Ubisoft taking fan-feedback into account as it continues to evolve The Division 2. There will almost certainly be more changes in the future, but, so far, everything seems to be welcome tweaks and changes.

The game had its price cut for Amazon Prime Day, so players that snagged a copy for cheap now have even more to look forward to. Plus, Episode 1 is really only the beginning, as far as new content is concerned. More will be added in the future, so it's a pretty good time to get into the game for new players.

The Division 2: Episode 1 will release on July 23rd for Year 1 Pass holders and July 3oth for all other players.