With further expansions for Ubisoft's The Division being held off until the base game could be fixed or improved, the fruits of that labour can now be felt with the substantial new 1.4 Patch. And with the introduction of a new World Tier system, UI and gameplay improvements including enemies no longer being extra-absorbent bullet sponges, an overhauled loot and gear system, plus many more tweaks and additions, you'll be left wondering if the patch notes were written by a late 19th century Russian writer.

In that they're super long and detailed. Here are a few of the main changes. And by main we're not sure if the AusGamers site could handle a list that big, so we cut it off.

New Feature: World Tiers

• Upon reaching level 30, players are now able to select a World Level Tier that controls the level of enemy NPCs encountered and the quality of the loot they drop
  
• There are a total of 4 World Level tiers:
  
  • Tier 1: enemy lvl30, gear score rewards 163
    
  • Tier 2: enemy lvl31, gear score rewards 182, unlocks Challenge difficulty, unlocks Incursions
    
  • Tier 3: enemy lvl32, gear score rewards 204
    
  • Tier 4: enemy lvl33, gear score rewards 229
  
  
• Activity difficulty in a same World Tier (Normal, Hard, Challenging) will provide more rewards

UI Improvements

• Added a player reporting interface for PC users.
  
• Players now have the “mark as junk” option when equipping mods.
  
• Players can now mark weapon and gear items as “favorites” which locks them in their inventory. Locked items cannot be sold, shared or dismantled.
  
• Added a buyback option to vendor’s inventory. Players can now recover items they have accidentally sold.
  
• Added Quick Nav option to vendors and menus allowing players to quickly select item types they want to display.
  
• Weapon skins no longer take inventory space.
  
• Equipped items are now always displayed at the top of the inventory list.
  
• Recalibrated items now have an icon displayed next to their recalibrated stat/talent.
  
• Crafting materials can now be converted in bulk at the Crafting Station.
  
• Players can now deconstruct items from the Stash.
  
• Players now have an option to find a better server if they are currently on one that is not their best option. They can do so from the Group Management menu.
  
• Players are no longer able to open their inventory while under status effect.
  
• Recalibration bench now opens instantly instead of waiting for watch tapping animation.

Gameplay Changes

• Time-to-kill enemy NPCs has been lowered.
  
• Many improvements were made to enemy AI.
  
• Player ammo capacity has been increased by 50% after level 30.
  
• When matchmaking the game will now attempt to refill empty slots if the group privacy allows it.
  
• Incendiary and Explosive Rounds will no longer apply status effects like Stagger and On Fire.
  
• Accuracy will now be lowered for a short duration after performing a combat roll.
  
• Added a delay between leaving a group and signing up for matchmaking.
  
• Weapon magazines are now refilled when restocking from an ammo crate.
  
• The crafting material drops from the Base of Operations will now reward High-End quality after level 30.
  
• Removed scavenging from the game. Scavenging is removed as a secondary stat on all gear pieces. New gear pieces can no longer roll scavenging.
  
• The Map indicator for Rogue players now increases in size the closer they are to the player.
  
• Player grenade damage now scales with the current World Tier to ensure consistent efficiency against NPCs across World Tiers.
  
• Shotgunner NPCs: their damage falloff and accuracy have been slightly reduced. This should limit their range and lower their lethality in long to mid-range combat.
  
• Several improvements to NPC AI.
  
• Player health will now progressively regenerate to full when out of combat.
  
• Updated the ways NPCs react to Player Threat, now allowing players to more predictably manage enemy agro

Activities, Loots, & Rewards

• All NPCs will now have chances to drop High-End and Gear Set items, tougher enemies (veteran, elites) have higher chances to drop.
  
• Removed Gear Set Weighting from all activities except Incursions. Any Gear Set can now drop from any activity.
  
• Weekly and Daily assignment loot caches now drop items scaled with the players current gear score.
  
• Added new blueprints for Level 33 mods and Gear Score 229 High End.
  
• Added Field Proficiency: Players can now gain experience past level 30 and earn loot caches.
  
• Updated Vendor Stocks:
  
• Items quality will adapt better to the player level during the 1 to 30 progression.
  
• Vendors now sell items Gear Score 163 to 229 as soon as the players reaches level 30.
  
• Added more High End items for sale in all currencies.
  
• Added more Gear Set items at Phoenix Credits and Dark Zone Vendors:
  
• Phoenix Credit Vendor sells 1 random slot of each Gear Set
  
• Dark Zone Vendor sells 1 random Gear Set for each slot
  
• Vendors will now sell Sealed Cache for all currencies.
  
• Marksman Rifles, ARs and Shotgun prices have been lowered.
  
• Gear Set items now cost as much as a high end gear piece, resulting in a large price reduction.
  
• Item prices in DZ Funds have been adjusted. Gear score 182 item prices went slightly up, as gear score 204 items got a small price decrease. These changes were made for a more normalized, fairer price increase of items with gear score.
  
• Items priced in Phoenix Credit gear score 182 went down in price slightly, whereas items gear score 229 went slightly up. These changes were made for a more normalized, price increase of items with gear score.
  
• Drop rates have been modified for all named NPCs encountered during missions and incursions outside of the actual boss. They will no longer guarantee High-End drops. Instead, they will guarantee crafting materials and have a chance to drop a High End or Gear Set item.
  
• The Phoenix Credit Vendor has been removed from the Tech Wing in the Base of Operations.
  
• Division Tech has been removed as a requirement from all High End and Gear Set blueprints.
  
• Open World Roamer NPC groups and bosses are now back in the open world. They now respawn every 4 hours.

Plus, a whole bunch more.

Although the patch does add some new things here and there, it's pretty light on new content. For that we'll probably have to wait until the next expansion.