Although developer Massive Entertainment has yet to release official patch notes for The Division Update 1.2, the studio is continuing to tease some major changes. During last night’s State of the Game show, the devs further outlined some tweaks and improvements to the game, including a few that may raise some eyebrows.

For those who might not already know, The Division’s next major update, 1.2, is slated to go live in the new future. We don’t have an official date, but with a new Incursion set to drop some time in May, there’s a strong assumption that 1.2 will hit at the same time.

As for what Update 1.2 will change in The Division, we already know that the patch will buff loot across the board for all major activities. That means Incursions, Challenging missions, Dark Zone, and even basic story missions will all feel more rewarding in terms of the quantity and quality (i.e. Gear Score) of the gear that they drop. And speaking of Dark Zone, the update will also add a new 200+ Gear Score bracket to the PvP area.

But, as we mentioned, those are changes we already knew about and are larger in scope. The tweaks mentioned on this week’s State of the Game, however, are smaller, but still important for keeping the game as balanced as Massive can. See below for a recap (via Lux_27 on Reddit).

  • no weapon rebalance in 1.2 (at least not directly at the weapon) the reasoning was, they dont have enough data to balance the weapons yet, cause everyone uses the same stuff brutal talent (increased headshot dmg) nerfed, now the bonus is additive not multiplicative (they stated it was never intended to be multiplicative) sentry set: 4 talent bonus now only works with semi automatic weapons (shotgun, markmansrife, pistol, etc. / burst fire weapons were not mentioned) new gear sets in 1.2 - the new sets give more power to currently underpowered weapons gear talents: reckless/balanced fixed talent stacking bug fixed performance gear mods getting buffed (allowing to improve skills further) new stat: toughness - (includes armor and health values /no protection from elites, resiliance, etc./) replaces health display in main character screen armor cap beeing increased (from 65% to 75% dmg mitigation) voice indicator in ui (you can see if you are transmitting over mic) PxC Cap increased to 2000 (from 1000) no new gearscore items (204 HE and 240 SET still highest)

Overall, the changes coming in update 1.2 are smart for the longevity of the game. There are the expected/teases changes like the Sentry Set applying its 4-piece bonus to semi automatic weapons (sorry SMG users), an increase in the Phoenix Credit cap, fixes to the Reckless and Balanced talents, and a buff for Performance Gear Mods.

Unexpected changes, however, include a nerf to the Brutal talent, which was apparently multiplicative; the addition of new gear sets; an increase in the armor cap; and a reworking of the health stat on the player info screen. Now, instead of Health, the player info screen will detail the loadout’s Toughness, which takes into account both health and armor.

Outside of the Brutal talent and Sentry’s Call gear set nerf, most of the changes should be met with a positive reaction from players. It’s been a while since any meaningful improvements have been made to the game, so anything that tweaks the game for the better is welcome.

Whether or not this is the full update list, however, is unclear. As we mentioned, there is no release date for update 1.2, which means there are no official patch notes yet.

Tom Clancy’s The Division is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.