u/josh49127

Name seemed fitting for a sidearm shotgun with 3 in the mag, but honestly why not? It's unique itself and been awhile since we had any love to double barrel sawed-offs added to the pool to mix things up a bit.

Obviously you'd have to tone down either damage or reload speed to avoid overshadowing the others but having 3 in the mag with certain close quarters engagements could be a lot of fun.

Is Division 2 the only looter shooter without melee weapons or unique melee abilities per specialization?

One thing I've always found strange about The Division 2 is that despite having one of the deeper build systems in the looter-shooter genre, melee is almost completely absent from its specialization identity.

I'm not talking about whether Agents can physically melee an enemy. Obviously they can. I'm talking about dedicated melee weapons, melee-focused abilities, or specialization-specific melee mechanics that meaningfully contribute to buildcrafting. And when you compare The Division 2 to other games, the difference becomes pretty noticeable.

Destiny 2

Destiny 2 treats melee as an actual part of subclass identity. Bungie explicitly separates charged melee abilities from the basic uncharged melee, with different subclasses/classes receiving their own melee abilities. These can be ranged attacks, movement attacks, elemental attacks, debuffs, buffs, or major sources of damage.

For example:

Titans can build around things like Shoulder Charge, Hammer Strike, Shield Bash, Consecration, etc.

Hunters have things such as throwing knives, Smoke Bomb, Combination Blow and other subclass-specific melee abilities. Warlocks have their own specialized melee abilities as well. And this isn't just cosmetic. Bungie has repeatedly designed entire build interactions around melee damage and melee ability energy. Their current systems even have dedicated melee-stat and melee-damage interactions.So in Destiny, your subclass can fundamentally change what your melee actually is.

Borderlands 4

Borderlands approaches the concept differently, because its characters are Vault Hunters rather than Destiny-style subclasses. But it still demonstrates the same basic philosophy: your character's abilities are supposed to give you another layer of combat beyond simply shooting guns. That's important because Borderlands has historically been willing to turn melee into an actual build archetype rather than treating it as nothing more than the emergency attack you use when someone gets too close. The broader point is that modern looter shooters increasingly give players ways to build around something other than their primary firearms.

Call of Duty: DMZ

Even Call of Duty's extraction-shooter version of the formula has dedicated melee weapons.

Modern Warfare II/DMZ introduced melee weapons as actual secondary weapon options, including weapons such as the Pickaxe. Activision described it specifically as a melee weapon and referred to it as the fourth secondary melee tool available at that point.

That is particularly interesting because DMZ isn't even primarily a traditional looter shooter.Yet it still allows the player to say: "I want this particular piece of equipment to be my melee weapon." That gives melee an actual place in the player's loadout.

So what about The Division 2?

This is where the comparison gets interesting.

The Division 2's Specializations were specifically designed to provide a distinct playstyle. Ubisoft describes them as giving Agents a unique Signature Weapon and additional skills.

And we've gotten:

Sharpshooter → .50 caliber sniper rifle

Demolitionist → grenade launcher

Survivalist → crossbow

Gunner → minigun

Firewall → flamethrower

Technician → missile launcher

The Firewall specialization, for example, was explicitly built around getting up close and personal and received the K8-JetStream Flamethrower as its Signature Weapon.

So why shouldnt there specialization specific melee or melee attacks that are BUILT into the actual specialization trees (that obviously need work and expanded on but this would kill two bandits with one mortar assault (iykyk).

Just something I'm delving and curious about with this recent update given some of the spoilers and contact made with our guardian and a certain entity by the shard of the traveler.

​

Anyone?