New gear sets have been introduced to the Division agents following the release of World Tier 5 and Tidal Basin. Unlike the 'Brand Sets' that the agents have been grinding prior to WT5, gear sets require all 6 pieces equipped to activate its unique ability.

Although cool in theory, the consensus from the Division community is that the new gear sets are simply too underwhelming to compete with the general high-end builds, as you'll have to sacrifice a number of great talents to reach that 6 piece gear bonus. If you're going for these sets, be mindful that your DPS will most likely see a drop.

The following is a list of all gear sets and a brief review of each one. 

Ongoing Directive

True Patriot

Hard Wired

How to obtain Hard Wired Gear Set

From the three newly introduced gear sets, there is one particular set that you can't just simply grind for. Unlike the Ongoing Directive and True Patriot, two sets that you can grind off of Black Tusks, Hard Wired requires you to complete a project - a quite long one at that - for you to acquire them. 

After you enter World Tier 5, open your map and click on the 'Projects' tab.

Once you open up the menu, you'll notice that a goal project called 'Hard Wired Prototype' has been added to your available projects. Upon finishing this project, you'll become able to craft the Hard Wired set.

The project will require you to run specific missions, defeat the area's bosses, and gather the Hard Wired set's components from them. Keep in mind that the components aren't guaranteed drops, so you may have to repeat certain missions a number of times to acquire the component that you need.  

Once you gather all the components and turn the project in, you'll receive 6 blueprints for each armor piece of the Hard Wired set. You'll then need to gather the same components again through the same method to craft your armor.

Set Reviews

True Patriot: Weaken your enemy

The True Patriot is a very interesting set in that it doesn't really power you. Instead, it weakens your enemies. This set is supposed to shine in PvE group play, as your debuffs will benefit your teammates who are shooting your marked targets. Your gear set will heal your allies' armor and give a boost to their cooldown reduction.

Once you have the entire set equipped and aim down sights, you'll see either a red, blue, or white flag above your shoulder. That flag represents which debuff you will apply to your enemy when you start firing, and the color will switch to another every 4 seconds. Another thing to note is that your debuffs will last forever until your target dies. That'll allow you to spray your gun and apply the Patriot debuff to all of your enemies without having to worry about the debuffs wearing off. 

As good as that sounds, however, the True Patriot's practicality in actual gameplay is pretty underwhelming. To begin, the blue debuff's heal to your allies is very abysmal - your teammates will hardly notice that they're actually healing. As for the red debuff, the enemies in WT5 are very strong, so the debuff's damage reduction sounds very good in theory. However, the damage reduction won't be potent enough to stop the WT5 enemies from shredding you apart - you'll hardly notice the debuff when fighting in close quarters. That leaves us with the blue debuff, and surprisingly, it's actually quite useful... but do note that you only have 4 seconds to make good use of it before it goes away for the next color. 

All in all, the True Patriot is a very underwhelming gear set that just doesn't have the numbers to compete with the high-end builds. But if you enjoy playing a supportive role for your squad, it's worth trying the set for yourself.

Ongoing Directive: Master of elements

The Ongoing Directive gear set looks very unusual and underwhelming on paper. The 5 set bonus increases your pickup radius so that you can pick up ammo, grenades, and armor packs around you without having to go near it. This will allow you to turtle safely in prolonged firefights without having to run around scrounging for ammo. 

What really makes this gear set interesting however is its 6 set bonus. After killing an enemy, special ammo will be loaded to one of your other two weapons. The added bullets could either cause bleed, shock, or burn to your target. This could be used as a good method to control your enemies if you don't have any other form of CC. But this gear set isn't recommended for PvE, as the special ammo doesn't quite make up for the loss of DPS from having to switch out your high-end armor. 

In PvP, in theory, this gear set could be very strong. If you manage to load in shock bullets, you can pretty much stun a player and kill him or her guaranteed. However, do note that you need to kill a target first and hope that you get the shock bullet. 

Hard Wired: Is this worth that long project?

The Hard Wired gear set revolves around skill power. 

The 5 set bonus, Tamper Proof, will electrify your hive, turrets, and pulse sensor, causing any enemies wandering too close to get shocked. As for the Hard Wired's 6 set bonus, it'll remove the cooldown of one of your skills if you manage to kill someone with the other one. 

Like the other two sets on this list, the Hard Wired set suffers from low practicality. To begin, the Tamper Proof ability has an extremely small range; so in PvE, its only real use will be that the shock will buy you time for you to dismantle your skill before it's destroyed. As for PvP, the shock emitted by your skills are very easy to spot - so other players could simply avoid walking into its small range. 

Hard Wired's 6 set bonus has three parts to it, and they all play around your skill cooldowns. The first one is a "kill-to-proc" ability. Once you secure a kill with a skill, your other skill that's on cooldown will be refreshed immediately. Like most kill-to-proc talents, this ability is very inconsistent in group play, as landing the final blow yourself - hell, with a skill at that - could be very difficult when there are 3 other players shooting right beside you. 

The other two perks of the Feedback Loop could be quite useful. But like the other two gear sets, the bonuses simply doesn't compensate enough for the big drop in DPS.