As with any properly designed looter-shooter, gear in The Division 2 allows for an immense variety of character customization. While exploring the Dark Zone, players will likely encounter gear with the Skill Haste bonus. What is Skill Haste in The Division 2, and what sort of buff does it provide? Read on to find out.
The Division 2 | What is Skill Haste?
Skill Haste in The Division 2 is a gear bonus that reduces skill cooldown times. It serves to replace the Cooldown Reduction bonus following the release of the Warlords of New York expansion. Items with Skill Haste will allow you to use your abilities more frequently.
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While Skill Haste and Cooldown Reduction seem to do basically the same thing, the two buffs work a little bit differently. Unlike Cooldown Reduction, Skill Haste works on a percentage system: A 100 percent bonus provides a 50% reduction in cooldown times. The developers describe its effects with an analogy involving a speeding car: A 100 percent increase to speed will cut the time to reach its destination by half.
To put it another way, a two percent bonus will reduce the cooldown on your abilities by one percent. The higher you stack these percentages, the further your cooldown times will be reduced. The idea was that players could not only stack several pieces of gear with the cooldown bonus, but also combine those effects with some of the game’s high-power Skill Mods. This method will allow them to get more use out of their most powerful abilities.
Though they work differently, Skill Haste and Cooldown Reduction are effectively the same thing. The more gear you stack with the bonus, the more frequently you’ll be able to use your abilities. Paired together with the right mods, you’ll be able to turn your character into quite a formidable opponent.
