If I wanted to look through every single squad, every team, and every league on FIFA, it would take me hours. Sure, it can be tempting to do this when you’re trying to pick your next career mode save. But what if I told you there was an easy way to always get the best team with just four simple steps?

Here, I’ll be showing you my step-by-step guide to help you choose the ideal Career Mode save every single time. Of course, if you want to dominate FC 24’s Career Mode, you still need to prepare a large amount of FUT 24 Coins to upgrade your players.

Just like everyone else, I used to start dozens of saves. I would play one preseason game, then get bored with playing Career Mode. Since I started thinking a little more about what I actually wanted to do in my save rather than just picking the first one, I thought of my saves are now averaging closer to a full season.

Step 1: Choose Your Playing Location

The first thing you need to find out is the general area of the world you want to play in.

If you’re totally unsure, this could be a continent. But if you’re a bit more confident, then it could be a specific nation. Each continent on FIFA has different strengths and weaknesses.

Europe offers a fully licensed Cup Competitions with the Champions League, the Europa League, and the Conference League as well as having the biggest selection of leagues to choose from. The sheer amount of teams and leagues here means there’s always going to be multiple options that meet the criteria you’re setting.

North America only features one league, but the MLS is a totally unique experience. Annoyingly, they don’t actually have any Cup Competitions here and this can make the journey a little less fun.

South America also only has one licensed league, but you can play in Brazil if you don’t mind the fake players. You do get to play in a license continental Cup Competitions with teams from leagues that aren’t actually playable in Career Mode and it does provide a chance to explore football in a totally different culture.

Finally, we have Asia, which is probably the most underrated Career Mode continent. Asia includes an unlicensed continental competition and features a surprising amount of leagues, including the Saudi, Indian, and Korean leagues, which I barely ever see anyone doing saves in.

Hopefully, at least one of these regions sounds like exactly what you want in your next save. When you’ve decided on a continent, drill down and have a look at some of the nations inside it. Each nation has a different feel. They’ll play in different ways and they have different atmospheres. This can make neighboring countries feel unique on the pitch. 

Belgium, Holland, and Germany are totally different in Career Mode, despite having very similar cultures as nations. Throughout this guide, I’ll give you some examples of the system working. 

So, let’s say that I wanted a fairly long save. I think Europe has the deepest league structures on the game, so that’s the ideal location for this first step of our example.

Also Read: EA FC 24: 3 Most Promising And Exciting New Dribbling Techniques!

Step 2: Define Your Desired Save

The second and probably most crucial step in selecting the perfect Career Mode save is to decide on the type of save your most interested in doing.

You can generally categorize teams into one of these four main groups. 

On FIFA, I’d say every single league has at least two teams who are capable of winning the championship who call these the Championship Contenders. These teams are instantly competing for league titles in cups in Season 1. They typically feature the best players and are considered the top teams in that nation. Bayern München, Ulsan Hyandai, and Inter Miami are examples of this kind of team.

The majority of leagues also have a selection of Historic Teams. These are the teams that might have experienced success in the past, but are not currently at their peak. They often have large fan bases, maybe even impressive stadiums. But they also usually have a squad of very average and very overpaid players. I would say that D.C. United, Everton, and Rosario Central are all Historic Fallen Giants.

The majority of the rest of the teams that aren’t Championship Contenders or Historic, I would call Middle Of the Road Teams. These teams are maybe a few strategic signings here and there from becoming title contenders. While they may have a couple of top players in their team, usually up front to be honest, they usually lack the overall quality usually in defense to compete for the title. Think of Crystal Palace, Al shabab, and Orlando City. That’s three good examples of teams that are fairly average, but are very close to being very good.

Finally, the most common type of team to use on FIFA is the Road To Glory Teams. This option usually is a longer term challenge where you have to rebuild an entire squad. Typically, Road to Glory saves involve a newly promoted team or someone who’s looking to establish themselves in a higher division. This generally includes the two or three worst teams in every single league.  

If you like the sound of one of these four categories, then that’s great because now you’ve got a location and you’ve got a career path.

Let’s go back to our Europe save example. I said I want it to be long, so surely a Road To Glory Team would be ideal for us here. We’ll be taking over one of the worst teams in the nation that we pick.

Step 3: Determine Your Team’s Level

For step three of our system, we also need to determine what kind of team rank we want to be using.

If you’re someone that doesn’t enjoy using 50 rated players in the lowest leagues of island, you might be looking for a 3-star team here. If you want to be trophy hunting, you also want to be in a really bad league. You might be interested in trying to find a 1-star title contender. 

Have a think about how good you’d like your starting point to be because this will easily narrow down the amount of teams and the amount of leagues you can use from the continent you’ve picked.

You’ll never ever get a 5-star Polish team in Career Mode or a 0.5-star French team, so this is the step that will filter out most of the teams in this system.

I could easily pick a 4-star team for my European Road to Glory save. There are loads of teams around that rating in Germany, Spain, England, and Italy. If I wanted a long Road To Glory though, I’m going to pick a one and a half star team, which means we’re going to have a team from League 2.

Step 4: Utilize SoFIFA for Team Search

Now, let’s round off our system. If you’re struggling to find the team with the in-game tools, you can have a quick search on SoFIFA. 

You can easily search for teams with certain overall ratings and you can also check things out like the squad’s average age or the amount of potential that every single team has if that’s important to the kind of career mode you’re looking to do.

Back to our example. It looks like AFC Wimbledon could be the ideal save for me. It’s in Europe. They’re at the lowest level in the country and they’re the right star rating to match with everything that I’m looking for. They definitely seem like the perfect save for me to start. 

So, let’s quickly run through two other examples of using this system just so that you understand exactly how it works.

I said Asia is fun, so let’s try and find a cool team from there. I fancy playing with a Historic Fallen Giant save, so that’s a team that’s around two and a half stars in Asia. Last year, we could have picked Guangzhou Evergrande who actually spent £1.7 billion on a new 100,000 seated stadium that they never finished. But they’ve actually been relegated on FIFA 24.

Suwon Bluewings is the team we probably go for then: four Korean titles, two Asian Champions Leagues between 1997 and 2008, but nothing since. They have a decent squad. Some of our players are in the 70s, but the majority are in the 60s, so they are actually going to be able to be fun inside Career Mode.

Let’s do one last example. How about a 3-star Middle Of The Road Team in South America? I want to use licensed clubs with real players, so we only have Argentina to choose from. This makes it super easy to see that we actually have several options here. I guess I’d have to just pick on the history kits and stadium I like the most. 

We actually have some pretty big teams for a save in this kind of area. We have Newell’s Old Boys, Rosario Central, Banfield, Unión de Santa Fe...... There’s so many choices. So again, one of these is likely to be the perfect Career Mode save for me on my next go. 

Hopefully, you can now understand how the system works that I use for every single save I do.

Here’s a build guide for my Minion Life Stacking SRS Guardian. This is not a zoom build, but can clear all contents comfortably.

Our main map clearing skill is the Summon Sentinel of Radiance, the RF 2.0 minion. Though it lacks in mobility, its fire aura is nothing to scoff at. 

For single target, we use our Summon Raging Spirits with Minion Instability to boost our DPS.

Ascendancies

For the ascendancies, allocating Radiant Crusade is a priority as it is a very powerful skill when clearing the campaign.

The Sentinel combined with Convocation and the increased cooldown of Convocation can carry you to early yellow maps with little to no investment. It’s so powerful that I recommend getting this, even if you’re playing other Templar ascendancies and just change to your needed ascendency afterwards.

It takes 20% of the hit damage you get. Only downside is that it’s very slow moving and it has a 20s-base duration, so you need to keep resummoning it once in a while.

Next one we get is Bastion of Hope as it can greatly help us in maxing out our attack and spell block. We trigger the attack block using Shield Charge and the spell block using any of our spells.

Allocating Radiant Faith next gives us a lot of Armour and Energy Shield.

Last, take Time of Need to help us with Curses and Elemental Ailments and regenerate one 100% of our life every 4 seconds.

Also Read: How To Climb The Ranks In POE 3.22 TOTA? - 8 Tips

Passives

For the passives, focus on pathing to the minion damage and minion life nodes on the left side of the tree.

When you get the Sentinel, allocate Convocation Cooldown Recovery Rate in the Minion Defense Mastery and the Minion AoE in the Minion Offense Mastery.

Next, we get the Reservation Efficiency nodes so that we can fit our defensive auras and path to Eldrich Battery to help with our Mana costs, all the while allocating Life, Minion Life and Minion Damage nodes along the way.

After that, we focus on maxing out our block chance by allocating shield nodes and using a Rumi’s Concoction Granite Flask. For the low-budget version, we can take Death Attunement. If you still can’t reach level 25, take Raise Spectre and Whispers of Doom for the double cures.

The next big upgrade would be getting an Elegant Hubris Timeless Jewel with two minion notable (Axiom Warden), either for minion life or minion damage. 

Amanamu’s Gaze is a big boost to our DPS, but it is quite expensive. 

Equipment

For our equipment, Tavukai is a required unique that damages our SRS to trigger Minion Instability.

Remember to get one with a negative Chaos Resistance to speed up the death of our SRS.

You can also use Noxious Catalysts to further speed up the process if you’re using an uncorrupted amulet. We use a Replica Siegebreaker so that any minion that dies leaves a burning ground for 20% of their life.

You can resummon the Sentinel to trigger this effect and since it’s our minion with the highest life, this would be a big boost to our damage.

Weapons

For our wand, we use the Rapture Edge Convoking Wand with plus one to all minion skill gems and a free suffix to craft our trigger mod.

For our shield, we use a shaper influenced shield (Havoc Sanctuary Archon Kite Shield) with the recovery percent life when you block. This is one of the most important mod for our defense because of our max block. You can push getting a Fossilised Spirit Shield with plus one to all minion skill gems and other minion modifiers if you have the POE Currency to spare.

The helm (Carrion Veil Hubris Circlet), gloves (Rune Grip Crusader Gloves), boots (Ambush Hoof Crusader Boots), and body armor (Gale Suit Saintly Chainmail), are pretty standard rares with the reservation and block chance mods, only required for the high budget version.

Rings

For our rings, we use bone rings (Mind Eye) and prioritize getting minion life and damage mods. Don’t forget to max out your resistances, reach your attribute requirements, and try to get as much chaos resistance as you can fit in.

Flasks

For our flasks, Progenesis is a great addition to our defenses but is not required. You can replace it with a Rumi’s Concoction for the low-budget version and an Amethyst Flask or a Bottled Faith for the high-budget flasks version.

A quartz flask (e.g. Masochist’s Quartz Flask of the Lynx) is a must, since we’re always diving in the center of packs. Try to get immunity to bleeding and corrupted blood in your life flask (Chemist’s Divine Life Flask of Assuaging). For the last two flasks, we use a basalt flask (Transgressor’s Basalt Flask of the Tortoise) and a quicksilver flask (Masochist’s Quicksilver Flask of the Bear).

For the animated Guardians equipment, we use Dying Breath to increase our minions DPS, Legacy of Fury to scorch nearby enemies, Eye of Malice to further decrease the enemy’s resistances.

Try to get a helmet with a life region corrupted mod: Gravebind in combination with a Crusader armor (Saintly Chainmail) with explode mod to further improve our clear speed.

The specters we use are Pale Seraphim for its increased damage taken to buff, Xoph’s Loyal to cover enemies in ash, and Tukohama’s Vanguard for the 25% fire exposure.

Gem Links

For our gem links, we use SRS, Awakened Burning Damage, Unleash, Minion Life, Predator, and Empower.

We put Flammability and Elemental Weakness in our trigger wand (Rapture Edge Convoking Wand). 

Remember to put your Animate Guardian linked with minion life in the shield so we can easily swap it out when our AG is in danger.

We link our specters in Stone Golem with Feeding Frenzy and Combustion.

For our auras, we use Malevolence, Summon Skitterbots, Tempest Shield, Determination, and Defiance Banner. We use Flame Dash and Shield Charge for our movement skills. We use Molten Shell to boost our defenses and Convocation to recall our Sentinel. We have an extra slot in our trigger weapon, which you can use with a minion or spell of your choice.

For the low-budget version, you can swap out Burning Damage and Empower with a concentrated effect in Hypothermia and link Malevolence with Divine Blessing.

Conclusion

This build’s standard gameplay is popping our flasks, then summoning the Sentinel. Use Shield Charge to place yourself in the center of a pack and Convocation to recall your Sentinel and watch everything around you die use your SRS and Signal Prey for tanky rares and bosses.

Remember to resummon your Sentinel every 20 seconds or you could end up dying when you dive in a pack and your Sentinel is not up. Also remember to Shield Charge once every 4 seconds to keep your block chance maxed.

Do you want to get that Level 40 mount by the time you actually hit level 40 or get that Epic Mount at level 60? If you do, you must have enough WOW Classic Hardcore Gold. Here is a guide to help you obtain raw gold, specifically while leveling.

Intro

I’m doing this mostly from a Solo Self Found perspective. Because I believe that even if trading is allowed, some players will play on a Solo Self Found basis. And for raw gold, most of it comes from vendoring items anyway, so you can do it completely without having to rely on other people to buy whatever you are selling. 

Having access to raw gold early will also be incredibly valuable as the purchasing power of each individual gold is at its absolute peak early in a server’s lifespan. And the purchasing power will go down every single day as more and more people get access to raw gold. 

What I mean by purchasing power is that 100 gold will get you more stuff in Week 1 than 100 gold will in Week 2, due to how inflation works. This is important because of, for example, investments or if you just want to stack up on some materials, you might want later and get them while they’re cheap. 

Get Skinning

Advice number one is to grab Skinning. 

Skinning is an insane profession to have while leveling. Because it simply benefits everyone in terms of increasing the amount of gold you get while leveling up. 

Skinning also allows you to skin beasts for additional materials. And although they do not give the most amount of additional to begin with, this scales incredibly well with your level. 

By level 10, you might have gained a couple extra silvers. But, by level 40, you will most likely have obtained anywhere between 10 and 40 extra gold, depending on how you level. 

Some of the locations where you can farm for the most raw gold per hour, you actually end up killing beasts. In that case, having Skinning will further increase your gold per hour from those locations, pushing you closer to that 40 gold extra by level 40, which is basically half of your level 40 mount. 

And especially on Hardcore Servers, many people will choose professions that benefit their profession in terms of survival. Two big professions here are Alchemy & Engineering. 

Alchemy is mainly supported by Herbalism, and Engineering is mainly supported by Mining. This means the most popular professions on these servers will be Alchemy, Engineering, Herbalism and Mining. 

This is important. Because that means while everyone is leveling up, there will be a lot of skinnable mobs just laying on the ground giving you free skill-ups & free Hardcore Gold. And there are many locations you will find during your Hardcore Journey where you can just sit in one location and skin other people’s mobs, like, for example, the Yeti Cave in Dun’Morogh. 

So seriously, if raw gold is something you’re looking for, I always recommend Skinning. Even if you want to have Herbalism & Mining eventually, I would use Skinning while leveling up to 60, then swap professions & farm herbs and mining veins with that level 60 mount. This is also because Herbalism & Mining nodes will be incredibly competitive at launch and will slow down your leveling process, while Skinning you can pretty much always keep up with your level. 

Now, when farming raw gold, there are mainly 2 different farms you want to think about: Humanoid Farms & Beast Farms. 

Humanoid Farms will give you raw gold by itself through looted silver values, and it will give you Cloth, which you can either sell for vendor loot, or turn into Bandages for even more gold before selling it. 

The bonus of Humanoid Farms is that they also have a bigger drop rate on Grey, White & Green items, specifically grey items like Weapons, which can vendor for about a gold per piece (plus / minus). This means in some cases, Humanoid Farms can be better in terms of gold per hour, but they also rely more on RNG because a lot of gold comes from those Grey weapon drops. 

From Beast Farms, you will get a very steady amount of gold per hour due to your gold value being derived from what the mob actually drops on a regular basis. Whiskers from Cats, Mane’s from Wolves, Crocodile Pelt and so on, even Gorillas drop a lot of good vendor value items. 

For Beast Farms, you can also obviously increase that gold amount by having Skinning, like we just talked about earlier. 

Also Read: WOW Classic Hardcore: How To Make Gold From Level 30-40?

Raw Gold Farming Locations

So with this being said, let me show you some of my favourite locations for where to farm for raw gold in Classic WoW.

First off, let’s cover 4 different farming locations I personally use in order to farm enough gold for my level 40 mount, all of which are beast farms and you want to have Skinning.

You have the Tigers in Swamp of Sorrows. Now, I say Tigers here because they will usually give you the most valuable items, but the tigers are also found throughout the entire zone, where you will also find crocodiles & spiders, which are definitely worth killing. 

You also have the Gorillas in Stranglethorn Vale. And here, I will show you 2 different farms that are pretty close to each other, giving you 2 different places to farm. 

These Gorillas have a pretty lucrative loot-table and will give you the best raw gold you can get at this level, especially if combined with Skinning. 

And the farm I personally do the most: Tigers in Badlands. 

This one is incredibly slept on and I don’t see many people farming here, which is why I personally really like it here. Because there’s almost never any competition, and they can drop really good vendor-value items, like Long Soft Tails, Bristly Whiskers, and Wicked Claw. 

You also have some farms past level 40. For example, my personal favourite is this one killing Steeljaw Snappers in Tanaris.

This one is very known from farming Turtle Meat and as a pretty decent experience farm. But these turtles also drop pretty good vendor loot, even better if combined with Skinning. 

How To Maximize Your Raw Gold?

With farming covered, there are a couple more steps you can take to maximize how much raw gold you make and how to make sure you can afford your level 40 mount and get closer to that level 60 mount.

First off, you can save a lot of gold by not training all of your class abilities. Let’s be real, in Classic WoW you get way more abilities than you actually need, at least while leveling. And many of your abilities are only useful in very niché situations, in which case I rather not learn them until I have to and save my gold instead. 

Exactly what you should and should not train depends on each individual class. But personally, I only train spells I use on a regular basis, plus any class-buffs I get access to and any defensive abilities I get. 

As a Warlock, for example, I can opt not to train Soulstone, I can also choose one or two demons and therefore only train abilities for the demons I actually use. I can also save gold by not training every single curse I get access to. Because personally, I don’t use all of them until very high levels, anyway. 

Plus, some classes get a free level 40 mount, like Warlocks & Paladins. But, pick and choose which spells to actually train and upgrade, and you can save a lot of gold while leveling. 

When questing, if the quest doesn’t offer an upgrade, pick the item with the highest vendor value. This sounds obvious. But some leveling addons have auto-complete enabled where they automatically pick items in slot 1 or slot 2 or anything your class can use, or maybe you personally also always choose whatever Cloth Item you get from the quest if you play a Cloth Class. Then, check if it’s an upgrade atferwards. 

So my advice here is, check if the quest offers an upgrade before accepting a quest reward. And if there are no upgrades, choose whatever has the highest vendor value. 

Of course, if you want to involve trading and using the Auction House, you can also make a lot more gold. 

In this leveling guide, we’ll be exploring the most effective strategies for leveling up in Diablo 4. We’ll dive into various methods to rapidly advance your character during the early stages, and how to optimize your late-game progression with different activities. I’ll even share tips on how to quickly level your alts. 

Additionally, we’ll take a look at bonuses that can further enhance your experience points. Stay tuned as we go over the path to getting to level 100. 

Intro

Leveling up from 1 to 50 can be a breeze, especially for your first character, as you’ll naturally progress through the story. However, if you’re looking to power-level an alternate character, I’ve got some practical strategies to share.  

First, consider selecting the ‘Skip Campaign’ option when creating your alt. Once you’re in the game, focus on completing Whispers. Instead of rushing through objectives, take the time to clear out groups of mobs you encounter along the way. 

Here’s the key: prioritize Whispers that lead to dungeons. Why? Because not only will you earn experience points from the dungeon mobs, but you’ll also receive a substantial bonus upon completing it. 

Don’t forget to turn in your completed Whispers at the Tree of Whispers for even more experience points. 

If you’re playing during Season 1, your best bet is Dindai Hollow. It offers straightforward objectives and plenty of elite enemies. After finishing the dungeon, simply exit, open your map, and select ‘Reset Dungeons.’ Repeat this process until you reach levels 20 to 30. These practical tips will have your alternate character leveling up efficiently in no time. 

Also Read: Diablo 4: Top 7 PvP Tips Everyone Should Know

Level 20-30

If you find yourself in the level range of 20 to 30 and are eager to optimize your leveling experience, turning your attention towards strongholds is the way to go. 

Among the top recommendations, I’d suggest exploring Kor Dragan northwest of Kyovashad, Onyx Watchtower southeast of Ked Bardu, and the Temple of Rot directly south of Ked Bardu.  

In Kor Dragan, our primary focus will be on these specific circular objectives. As you venture into these areas, be on the lookout for tumors that need to be destroyed. Each tumor is surrounded by elite enemies, and upon destroying a tumor, another elite will emerge. To sweeten the deal, as you reach the end of Kor Dragan, a challenging boss encounter awaits, promising you a substantial boost in experience points. 

To maximize Stronghold grinding, it’s crucial to understand how to reset a Stronghold. Instead of wrapping up with the final objective after defeating the boss, simply access your menu and select ‘Leave Game.’ Upon logging back in, you’ll find yourself right at the entrance, with the Stronghold reset to its initial state.  

Level 50

Once you’ve reached level 50, it’s time to do a capstone dungeon. To gain access to the Cathedral of Light, you’ll need to transition to World Tier 2. You’ll find this cathedral in the church in Kyovashad. The initial phase of this dungeon follows a standard pattern: gather animus and confront a boss at the end. 

However, unlike most dungeons, there’s one more section to conquer. In this new stage, you’ll have to eliminate all enemies and conclude the dungeon with a final boss. While it’s possible to attempt the Cathedral of Light before hitting level 50, exercise caution as it poses a considerable challenge compared to earlier dungeons. 

The smoothest way to do a capstone dungeon is to get the assistance of a high-level friend to guide you through it. 

Level 50-70

Leveling 50 to 70 is all about Nightmare Dungeons. 

To enter a Nightmare Dungeon, you first need a Nightmare Sigil, which would be located in your consumables tab. 

To get your first Nightmare Sigil, I recommend doing whispers until you get a nightmare sigil from opening a whispers cache. 

Here’s how to read nightmare sigils. At the top, we have the name of the dungeon. In Season 1, the fastest nightmare dungeons for leveling are: Uldur’s cave, Sarat’s Lair, Mariner’s Refuge, Hoarfrost Demise, Immortal Emanation, and Domhainne Tunnels.  

The level of the mobs is determined by the sigil tier plus 53 in World Tier 3 and plus 54 in World Tier 4. Nightmare Dungeons contain random benefits and detriments known as dungeon affixes. 

The best benefits are reduced cooldown on kill, magic find, Diablo 4 Gold find, battle hardened, quick killer, and increased critical strike. The worst detriments are Drifting Shade, Lightning Storm, Stormbanes Wrath. 

If you get bad Nightmare Sigils, salvage them at the occultist. Then, use the sigil powder to craft new Nightmare Sigils. 

In a recent patch that increased the mob density, Nightmare Dungeons are by far the fastest way to level.

The key to efficiently leveling in Nightmare Dungeons is finding the sigil tier that you can complete the fastest. Get your clear times somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes. If you find yourself dying or taking longer than 5 minutes to clear a Nightmare Dungeon, try doing a sigil with a lower tier level. 

Gearing yourself appropriately, choosing the right build, efficiently using paragon points, and getting better legendary aspects are all ways to boost your clear speeds. Faster clears equals more experience points. 

To break away from the grind, do some Hell Tides. Hell Tides offer plenty of elites just like Nightmare Dungeons, the drawbacks not being able to choose the levels of the mobs you fight. 

Leveling with Hell Tides isn’t as efficient as leveling with Nightmare Dungeons, but you do get some awesome Diablo 4 Items and equipment opportunities with Hell Tide chests. Running too many Nightmare Dungeons in a row can lead to fatigue and burnout. 

World Tier 4

To get into World Tier 4, you’ll need to clear the last capstone dungeon. Set your world tier to World Tier 3, and head east of Kyovashad to the Fallen Temple. The recommended level to take on this challenge is level 70. You’ll either need to be well geared or have a high level friend to carry you through this capstone. 

The last boss is Elias, and this is definitely one of the hardest bosses I’ve encountered in Diablo IV. Unfortunately, the best way to level in World Tier 4 is still Nightmare Dungeons. It is currently the fastest way to gear, level up, and the only way to level glyphs. 

Eventually, Diablo 4 will have a World Tier 5, which hopefully comes with new content to grind with. 

Level 70 - 100

Leveling from 70 to 100 is going to take substantially longer than anything we’ve done so far. 

Lastly, to boost your experience points even higher, be sure to use potions during dungeons, this offers a 5% bonus, party up with someone for an extra 10% bonus, and don’t forget to use your seasonal blessings for a 20% bonus.  

New World is a MMORPG that’s had an interesting lifespan so far. During the beta phase, the red flags were obvious. The game released on September 2021 and was insanely fun until level 30 or so. Then, it fell off a cliff with many people discovering game breaking bugs turning the game into a meme goldmine overnight. 

The devs didn’t give up. They went away and started addressing issues one by one, leading to the game having a major resurgence in player numbers for its first major update: Brimstone Sands in October 2022.

Since then, New World has been rather quiet. Over the course of the past year, it’s been losing players again month on month, which is mainly due to no new big content, other MMO releases, and players just running out of stuff to do. 

Recently, New World has announced its first real expansion “Rise Of The Angry Earth”, which will bring massive fundamental changes to the game, increase the level and gearscore cap as well as finally add mounts to the game. 

Here, I’m going to discuss everything you need to know about the new New World expansion as well as jump into the game now in its current state to prepare my character for the new content. Also, I will also show you what other cool changes have been added to the game over the past year. 

Some Surprises About Returning To New World

The last time I played New World was during the PTR of the Brimstone Sands expansion. I didn’t actually play the game when the expansion fully launched because my main server was dead due to everyone playing fresh start and I really didn’t want to start again. I log into the game and I immediately see people spamming X EGG in chat, so I did the same thing and got invited to a 20 player raid group.

If you played more than a year ago, you’d know that you couldn’t make raid groups in New World previously. The max group size was 5 players, so straight away I was surprised and happy with this change. We basically went around the map in this group and did some seasonal daily event called the Siege of Sulfur where you protect eggs from waves of mobs and get good rewards. 

Pretty cool and I’m a fan of any kinda content that brings players together in an MMO. Basically, within minutes of logging in, I was in a massive group of players doing massively multiplayer things. 

Next, I wanted to finish getting all weapon masteries to level 20 to prepare for the new expansion. I only needed to level the Greatsword and Blunderbuss, so I looked online for the best strat. And the current best method is to go do a repeatable Thorpe event at the area in Great Cleave. 

It was here where I stumbled upon another new addition to New World, Augments, which are basically boosters that you can buy off the cash shop. The most significant ones in my opinion are the Weapon XP and Gathering XP boosters, which basically double your XP. You’ve also got Season XP and Territory standing boosters, which do a similar thing and a proficiency booster, which increases your gathering yield by 10%.

If these boosters were in the game at launch, everyone would be complaining that they are pay to win and rightly so, I guess the games been out long enough at this point that most people have capped gathering and weapon masteries, anyway. So it’s not a big deal. Either way, I popped the weapon XP booster and got both weapons to 20 mastery super fast at the Thorpe spot. 

Another nice change, if you hold control + C and left click, you can spam click to very quickly salvage all your crap. You’ll be doing this a lot during your time playing New World. 

The next amazing change made to the game since the last time I played is the addition of multiple gear set loadouts. This was one of the most requested features to be added since launch and I’m happy to say it actually works very well except for one caveat. 

The thing I love about New World’s gear set system is storing gear in these templates actually removes it from your inventory, which is nice because if you’ve got 3-4 different gear sets your bags would be an absolute mess otherwise. The caveat here is that if you want more than 2 gear set storage, you need to buy it off the cash shop for roughly $5. 

I started working my way through the Brimstone Sands MSQ and realized I was earning Season XP, basically a Battle Pass you can work through, which gives various rewards such as furniture, skins, gypsum, currency and so on. Your typical battle pass, love it or hate it, it is what it is, at least it gives players at end game something to work through when they’ve completed everything else. 

As I was questing through Brimstone Sands, there was a few things going through my mind:

1. The Greatsword feels way more fun and better designed than every other weapon in the game. 
2. Visually, this game is still one of the best looking MMOs out and the sound effects are best in genre. 
3. The general movement in New World feels so fucking scuffed at times that the game feels like it’s in alpha in some places. 

Like you still can’t swim in New World, your attacks will very frequently just not register when hitting mobs. Relentless Rush with the Greatsword is a great example of this. It’s a double hit ability where 50% of the time only one hit will register. 

Any form of slightly elevated terrain in a combat area will make your character desync and the actual running animation in this game feels so scuffed to me. The run animation looks faster than the speed you actually run, idk what it is, but it just looks off. Also, when you log into the game after playing other third person RPGs, you just feel like New World should have a sprint but it doesn’t. I kinda wish it did have a sprint, to be honest.

Right now, my biggest issue with the game is definitely movement, inconsistent combat, desync and certain animations. I continued questing through the Brimstone Sands, eventually fully completing every quest in the zone, including the side quests. 

And I have to say that when it comes to questing, New World has come a very long way. This was notoriously dogshit for questing back at the game’s launch. Every quest was “Go to this POI, Loot Crates, Get Item, Run Half Way Across The Map and Repeat”. 

But now, it’s much more varied. There’s some actual story and narrative interwoven into it. There are puzzles, climbing quests and more varied enemies. Quest rewards are actually decent now. The difference is night and day from launch and I actually consider New World’s questing to be pretty good nowadays. 

Next, I did the Ennead dungeon and was quickly reminded that I do actually enjoy Dungeons in New World and think that in terms of visuals they’re some of the most epic looking dungeons in the MMO genre. I spent some time sorting through my storage and selling some stuff to free up space for the new expansion. If you haven’t played since launch storage in New World is all connected now rather than local to each town and city, which means storage management is much less of a pain in the ass nowadays. 

Bags and tools now go up to legendary 600 GS and will probably go higher for the new expansion. So, I replaced my old blues with legendries, got a full set of instruments, made a gear set for healer, strength, dex and mage, then checked out another highly requested feature that’s finally been added to New World…... 

A full transmog system comparable to games like Guild Wars 2 and World Of Warcraft, where you unlock the appearance of all dropped gear. Basically, to actually transmog gear, you need transmog tokens, which can be bought off the cash shop, 5 Tokens costs like $10. So, if you’re constantly changing your outfit, it’s not cheap. Just to clarify once you’ve unlocked something. Once you don’t need to spend more to reapply it again, it is permanently unlocked for you to use as a skin at any time. But for additional skins, you’ll need more tokens.

Something that instantly pissed me off with this system is that the preview window to actually view your appearance is dogshit and depending on the time of day like night time, for example. You can’t actually see the colors properly, which is annoying because you definitely want to get a good look at how your character will look before committing to spending New World Coins. AGS please improve the transmog character preview window. 

After that, I solo queued some 3v3 PVP arena and despite never doing it before it was surprisingly less try hard and more fun than I expected. I’m glad I was able to solo queue this rather than manually find other players. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. It was enjoyable and rewarding enough that I’d definitely play it again. I spend a bit of time levelling up my music skill, which seems to have had the experience required per level reduced heavily since the last time I played the game. 

And finally, I took on a seasonal 10 player boss, which wasn’t overly difficult. But it was fun because the rewards were good. The boss had a few mechanics, and it was easy to join a group for by Xing up in recruitment chat. It seems like New World is actually making a bit of a push to more traditional MMO style raid content. 

As aside from the 10 player seasonal raid boss, there’s also a 20 player instanced Sand Worm raid boss that is the hardest boss in the game. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to do it yet as I can’t find a group. But it looks super cool, regardless. 

New Upcoming Expansion - Rise Of The Angry Earth 

Next, let’s discuss all the info you need to know about New World’s new upcoming expansion “Rise Of The Angry Earth”.

First of all, this expansion will release on October 3rd alongside Season 3 and will be a paid expansion costing $29.99. New players will be able to buy the base game + the expansion in a bundle for $69.99 

This new expansion comes with a new zone. Remember “First Light?”, the zone south of windsward? Yeah, that zone no longer exists. It’s fallen to the angry earth and will be transformed to the Elysian Wilds, completely unrecognizable from the place it was before.

Mounts are finally being added to New World and come with a new trade skill called riding, which you’ll be able to level up for upgrades to speed, buffs and higher tier mount consumables. Mounts will come in the form of horses, dire wolves and lions initially, with more likely to be added over time. You’ll be able to name your mount and also deck it out in with customizable equipment, which will probably be sold on the cash shop. 

A new weapon will be added to the game in the form of the Flail, which can be used either one had or with a shield. The flail will scale with strength and focus and had abilities that debuff and absorb ally damage, making it a solid choice as a secondary for both tanks and healers, from the sounds of it. 

Progression in New World will also be changed quite a bit. You’ll be able to level up your character to 65. Gear score will now go up to item level 700, trade skills up to 250 and the devs are completely removing the expertise system, which means that there’s no tedious barrier to entry grind that new players will need to go through to get decent loot. The new zone will straight up drop gear that’s 625 or higher and the hardest content will drop the best gear, as it should. 

There’s also going to be a new tier of faction gear, new faction questline and a new rarity of gear called “Artifacts”, which will need to be awakened via a questline up unlock up to 6 perks with one of them apparently being playstyle defining, which is quite interesting. 

There’s also going to be a few revamps to the game. The most impactful one long-lasting one will be the removal of Ward, Bane and resilience stats on gear, which just wasn’t fun and I think this is an amazing change. And the main storylines of both Edengrove and Great Cleave will also be revamped.

Aside from that, the expansion brings with it a new level 62+ expedition, a new heart rune ability, a new season with events, such as nightveil hallow and the turkey terror and a bunch of other stuff. 

Overall, after revisiting New World for a bit to prepare for the new expansion as well as looking into all the positive changes that will come with the expansion, I really think New World is heading firmly in the right direction and I’ve actually had a decent time so far returning to the game.

My main issue with New World is still that the movement and animation feels off sometimes as well as the inconsistency with attacks registering and the game still not having swimming. 

But almost every other issue I’ve had with the game over the years has been resolved. And now, with the addition of mounts, improvements to progression, large-scale groups and transmog, the game seems better than ever. So, I do think it’s worth jumping back in for the New Expansion because even if you don’t stick around long term, you’ll likely get a few weeks of fun out of it at the very least. 

Starfield’s massive open world has a lot going on with vast numbers of systems and mechanics constantly working together in the background, which in typical Bethesda Game Studios’ fashion, allows for an excellent sandbox playground that emphasizes freedom above all else.

From exploring uncharted planets and surveying alien flora and fauna to building outposts and more, there are numerous sandbox activities to dive into that let you have fun of your own making and at your own pace beyond the Frameworks of the game’s plethora of handcrafted content.

Space Piracy Intro

But out of all of those activities, the one that’s probably the most enjoyable is space piracy.

Being a pirate tends to be a blast in games more often than not, obviously. And stormfield puts very little restrictions on you if you aspire to be a ruthless pirate in space, leaving chaos in your wake as you fly out of a system with your cargo bay full of valuable Starfield Items that you’ve just acquired through less than legal means.

There are, of course, plenty of ways to be a rogue in the settled systems. But if a space pirate is specifically what you want to be, there are several things the game lets you do to that end.

Different Ways to be a Space Piracy

*The most obvious one and one that you’re likely going to end up doing anyway if you intend to do the faction quest lines is to join the Crimson Fleet, which is literally a faction of space pirates.

You do have to jump through some hoops before you’re formally inducted into the fleet. But once you do become a member and gain access to the full facilities on offer in the key, the Crimson Fleet’s headquarters, a lot of avenues open up for your space piracy goals.

Like smuggling Contraband for instance, that’s something that you’re going to want to do a lot of because of how profitable it tends to be. You can, as an example, head to Neon and buy large quantities of Aurora, a substance that’s illegal to possess in every place throughout the settled systems, except Neon itself. It can, however, also be sold for hefty amounts of Starfield Credits, especially if you sell in large quantities.

You always run the risk of getting caught by the authorities, of course, but the risk is often worth the reward. And if you do plan on hauling large amounts of illegal cargo to sell for large payouts, you should also be investing in the payload skill in the tech skill tree to increase your ship’s cargo capacity.

And this is where having access to the key comes in handy, because it allows you to evade the law much better. Anytime you enter a star system that’s in United Colonies or Freestar Collective territory, your ship will be scanned for Contraband and you can’t land your ship on a planet until you’ve cleared that scan.

Those scans are, of course, mighty effective and scarily efficient, which means you need to equip your vessel with certain shady equipment to help you evade those scans.

Installing a Shielded Cargo hold, for instance, will automatically boost your chances of evading scans. Meanwhile, you can also install Scan Blockers. Each of which gives you a further 10 boost. Both Shielded Cargo and Scan Blockers can be purchased and installed only at the key.

Also Read: Starfield: How to Quickly Obtain Razorleaf & Mantis Armor Set Early in the Game?

*Something else that you’ll want to invest in for your ship if you’re committed to a life of crime of piracy is a good grab drive.

If you’re hopping from system to system, even if you don’t intend to land on a planet in a system that’s just a stopover, you’re still going to be scanned as soon as you enter, which means that you’re going to need to initiate your next grab jump as quickly as you can.

Before you have a chance to fail the scan and turn the authority’s attention, a better grab drive that you can pump more power into lets you initiate a jump much quicker. So, definitely make sure you install one of those.

*And if you’re looking for opportunities to engage in some good old space piracy fun, there’s plenty of that to be found in Starfield.

For starters, you can pick missions from the Mission Board in the key, all of which are procedurally generated quests that task you with less than legal objectives, whether that’s destroying United Colony ships or stealing from civilian vessels.

Beyond that, you can just do that stuff yourself. Anytime you encounter a ship while flying out in space, you can inhale it to initiate a conversation, after which you get the option to demand them to empty their cargo hold. How things go from that point will depend entirely on how you handle the conversation that follows.

Though, by investing in the deception skill in the social tree, we'll make enemies much more pliable to your piracy demands. Additionally, this skill also makes Contraband scans less effective. So, it's definitely worth spending skill points on for all would-be space pirates.

Of course, it also goes without saying that as a space pirate, you'll be engaging in your fair share of dogfights from time to time. And beyond the obvious stuff, like installing better Shields or more Firepower, you can also invest in plenty of skills to give yourself the edge in ship combat, all of which are found in the tech tree.

There is the Targeting Control System for instance, which unlocks the ability to target and lock on enemy ships, making your missiles deadlier and more effective, while the Shield System skill increases your ship's shield capacity and at the highest rank occasionally also lets you resist 100 of all damage taken from an attack.

The Ballistic Weapon Systems and Energy Weapon System skills are also useful skills that you can unlock early on, while on the steeper end by which point you'll probably be much deeper into the game. You can also upgrade your Automated Weapon Systems, Electromagnetic Weapon Systems, and Missile Weapon Systems.

*If you're just looking to engage in some light space piracy, then you're going to be able to get by without spending skill points in most of these. But if a life of crime is something that you intend to dive headfirst into, you're probably going to be locking horns with plenty of beefy heavily armed vessels, in which case these upgrades are going to be massively useful.

Ultimately, one thing that cannot be stressed enough is that Starfield works overtime to let you live out your space fantasy. And if your space fantasy is to be a ruthless thieving law violating pirate, there are plenty of tools at your disposal here to do just that.

Recently, I have made guides for Path of Exile 3.22’s Ruthless mode. And here, I want to teach you how to create a different version of the Hinekora Righteous Fire build.

When I was mapping on my Hinakora Righteous Fire building, I came to realize that I had invested so much POE Currency into making Righteous Firework that it was unnecessary.

The build felt like it was an actual caster build and that Righteous Fire was just a meme that I’d added on top of it. So, instead, I designed and created this Hinakora Shaman.

Hinekora Shaman

This build is so solid that you can even play it as either cold or lightning. I wanted to push it as far as I could, so I experimented by leveling it up using Wintertide Brand. And even then, the leveling experience was a breeze.

However, due to the resistance ignoring power of the Ramako Ascendancy in the end, it’s far better to keep the build this fire, so that’s what I’m showing you today.

It will work if you want to do something else. But your ability to progress deep in maps will be limited unless you can find relevant support gems that will penetrate for whatever your Elemental Damage type is.

You also can play the build with just Fireball and Flame Wall. But you’ll likely find that your AOE clear speed will be lacking. I would recommend using your first Uncarved Gemstone to pick up either Firestorm, Incinerate, or Flame Blast as a complement to both Fireball and Flame Wall to make your AOE clear speed as fast as possible.

How to Acquire Skill Gems?

If you want to create a Hinekora Shaman, your first task is to make a farm Witch and take her as far as finishing the ‘Breaking Some Eggs’ quest in the mud flats.

This will give you Fireball, Flame Wall, and your choice of either Raise Zombie or Freezing Pulse is temporary filler spells. You also get the extra POE flasks I see a lot of players forgetting.

Please remember that you can sell three small life flasks for one medium life flask and start using it as soon as level 3.

Once you’ve transferred everything to your stash, go ahead and create your Hinekora Shaman Marauder.

Intelligence

You may remember that there was some real nasty pathing that you had to do in order to get your Marauder enough intelligence to use his skill gems.

While it is still slightly beneficial to transfer a Lapis Amulet, in this build, it’s unnecessary. You’ll eventually need to find about 40 intelligence from your gear, but that’s not until the endgame.

And if you want, you can instead spend three passive points to, take the notable skills: Deep Wisdom and Deep Thoughts. This will help your Mana, but it will more importantly solve your intelligence problem entirely for just the cost of three additional passive points and that can all be done after you complete the campaign.

In this build, your intelligence problem completely goes away.

Related: My Ruthless Starter Build for Path of Exile 3.22 - Slam Duelist

Passive Tree

Leveling with the Hinekora Shaman, you take a different approach to solving the intelligence problem as you level.

Early on, you’re simply gonna head straight to Templar college and then keep going to which grad school. With this method, you’ll have far more than enough intelligence to use and level up your skills.

The only annoyance is that you can’t equip Flame Wall until about level 10. That’s it.

This build is a full league starter build that works great as your first character if you want to try out Ruthless mode in POE 3.22.

Eventually, around level 60 or so, you will need to fix your early pathing. When you first level up and you path up to the Templar area, you’re going to use the path on the left. But in the final build, you want to be using the path on the right instead.

All this means is that starting around level 55 or so, you’ll want to double up your pathing on the left, connecting the Devotion cluster to the Barbarism cluster.

Once you are connected on both the left and the right, you’re going to use the passive refund points earned through the campaign to refund the leveling pathing that you used and then you’re done with your pathing.

Ascendancies

For your ascendancies, you’re going to be using Hinekora, Tesalio, and Ramaco.

I tried taking Hinekora first and while it did help, I ran into resistance problems in Acts 6 and 7. I would recommend taking to Tesalio first, then Hinekora with your second ascendancy and then Ramaco before you hit the endgame.

If and when you can finish the Eternal Labyrinth, you would take Valako, Storm’s Embrace.

Endgame Progression

As you progress into the endgame on your Hinekora Shaman, you have three choices.

Choice number 1 is to use this cluster jewel socket that would be best, but of course requires that you have a cluster jewel.

Choice number 2 would be to focus on your offense, developing upward into the Templar area so that you can take Holy Fire and Purity of Flesh.

And choice number 3 instead is to focus on your defense and your life where instead of developing up you’re going to develop downward into the Marauder area so that you can take Bloodless and Soul of Steel.

Conclusion

If you wish to unleash the power of Hinekora, you can play this Hinekora Shaman and become the erupting volcano. You will engulf rayclast in flames and purify everything in the names of your ancestors. And when you hit the endgame, you won’t just work on the atlas, you’ll burn through it.

In this guide, we’re going to be looking at the mechanics behind the Ghost King boss fight and what you need to do to survive them.

This main game boss has the most health of the current three, can deal heavy True Magic Damage, and has an instant kill mechanic. So, it’s recommended that on your first fight, you bring along a team healing class, such as a Cleric or Bard.

Abilities

Let’s jump right into the boss’s abilities.

The Ghost King has a total of 5 damaging moves and a stacking debuff called the Curse of Chilling, which you’ll need to pay attention to throughout the fight.

1. Orb Attack

The first ability we will look at is the Orb Attack, which may be used at any time.

During this fight, the Ghost King will wind up shortly, then send out a fan of five orbs in the direction of the targeted player. Each of these orbs will deal 30 True Magic Damage and apply one stack of Chilling. This attack may be dodged by circling closely around the Ghost King or even ducked under.

If you’re at longer range, you can stand in between the projectiles or try to time your jump to jump over them since they’re affected by gravity and will arc downwards.

The orbs will also be blocked by the environment features. So, with correct positioning, you may hide behind the entrance walls. If a player does happen to get hit by the Orb Attack, the Ghost King will heal for 30 health and spawn a fight-long curse pool at the player’s location.

Standing in this pool will quickly give you stacks of chilling, so try your best to avoid entering them.

2. Teleport Attack

The second ability we will look at is the Teleport Attack.

The Ghost King will teleport to a player and spawn a curse pool at the arriving location. If you’re standing at the arrival location, you’ll take 20 True Magic Damage, be knocked back, and gain one Curse of Chilling stack.

Again, these curse pools will last the entire fight. Do your best to group them and keep the arena open.

Also Read: Dark And Darker: A Solo Cleric PVE Gold Farming Build Centered Around Holy Purification

3. Earthquake Slam (Slam)

The next ability is the Earthquake (Slam).

The Ghost King will teleport back to the center of the map and rise to the ceiling. After a brief moment, the Ghost King will then slam into the ground and spawn three skull bats. Any players that fail to jump when the Ghost King slams will be killed.

To properly dodge the Earthquake, pay attention to the slight hop that the Ghost King performs while in the air and jump immediately after that. Do not attempt to anticipate the jump. Just react as you’ll not need to worry about any other fight mechanics during this move.

4. Ghost King’s Scream

Next, we have the Ghost King’s Scream.

This is where the Curse of chilling stacks come into play. The Ghost King will pause all moves, hunch over, and let out an arena wide screen. That will deal 10 True Magic Damage. Each Curse of Chilling stack that you have will multiply this value.

So, you’ll need to pay close attention to your status effect icon bar throughout the fight.

The duration of the Curse of Chilling is only 8 seconds long. So, if you’re picking up stacks, just stow your weapons away and keep dodging around until the debuffs expire.

As a general rule, avoid going past four stacks and you’ll be fine. If you’re above 10 stacks, be prepared to leave the arena or ask for help from your Cleric as a Curse of Chilling may be cleansed.

The Ghost King’s Scream ability will be activated at every 20% hp loss from the boss or immediately after a player is killed. So, back-to-back screams may occur.

5. Eating (Feast)

The final ability is Ghost King's Eating or Feast move.

Here, the Ghost King will gain a temporary shield and pursue a player. If they catch their target or any player that walks in front of them, they'll inflict a route and deal 10 True Magic Damage per second. This move in particular would not apply any Curse of Chilling stacks, but still should be avoided as this move alone may be lethal.

If you do have a Cleric on your team, they may cleanse you out of this ability.

Here is a small tip: weapon on hit slows will still apply to the Ghost King during this move. You can use Dark and Darker Gold to buy a good weapon to help you deal damage. So, you can help out your teammate by attacking the boss while they're getting chased.

Conclusion

In summary, we have the Orb Attack that applies the Curse of Chilling and spawns a curse pool on hit.

We have the Teleport Attack, which knocks back applies Curse of Chilling and also spawns a curse pool at the location.

We have the Earthquake (Slam), which has a 60 second cooldown and must be jumped to survive on this one. Just remember to look out for the in-air hop.

We have the Ghost King's Scream, which deals in arena wide 10 True Magic Damage and is increased by each Curse of Chilling stack. This particular move is triggered at every 20% hp lost or one of our players killed.

And finally, we have the Eating or Feast ability in which the Ghost King will chase a player and deal a damaging route if they are caught.

Just a final reminder: this route as well as any number of Curse of Chilling stacks may be cleansed.

On high roller mode, all abilities will deal an initial 50% damage. Now, you know all the Ghost King's moves and abilities.

Are you ready to unleash the fun in FIFA 23’s Player Career Mode? You’re in the right place. Because today, we’re going to show you how to become the ultimate Goalscoring Striker.

We’re talking about netting, those beautiful goals that make the crowd go wild. Whether you’re a seasoned FIFA player or just starting out, we’ve got some expert tips that will help you improve your game and have more fun while doing it. So, grab your controller and let’s dive right in.

Tip 1: The Art Of Finishing

Our first tip is all about mastering the Art of Finishing.

This is the key to scoring in any situation. It’s not just about getting the ball on target, but knowing how to outsmart the Goalkeeper and put the ball in the back of the net.

Driven Shots

One of the most effective ways to finish is with a Driven Shot.

This is a low hard shot aimed at the corners of the goal. It’s particularly effective when you’re one on one with the Goalkeeper.

To execute a Driven Shot instead of filling up the power bar, you just give the button to shoot a little tap. This will keep the ball low and increase the chances of it finding the back of the net.

Finesse Shots

Next, let’s talk about Finesse Shots. These are perfect for when you’re in front of goal and need to curl the ball around the Goalkeeper.

To execute a Finesse Shot, you’ll want to hold down the Finesse Shot button while powering up your shot. The key here is to aim for the far post, curling the ball around the keeper.

Power Shots

Finally, if you find yourself with some space in the Box, don’t be afraid to unleash a Power Shot. This is a high risk high reward strategy. But when executed correctly, it can result in some spectacular goals.

To execute a Power Shot, you’ll want to power up your shot. And then, when your player is about to hit the ball, press the button again.

Remember, timing and accuracy are crucial here. Manual aiming also comes into the equation here. So, aim carefully.

Remember, practice makes perfect spend some time in the Practice Arena, working on these shots from different angles and situations. Before you know it, you’ll be scoring goals like a pro.

Tip 2: Positioning

Our second tip is all about Positioning.

Being in the right place at the right time can make all the difference when it comes to scoring goals. It’s not just about being near the goal, but understanding the flow of the game and anticipating where the ball is going to be.

Know When To Stay Away

Sometimes, the best thing you can do as a Striker is to stay away from the ball. This might sound counter-intuitive, but by doing so, you can create space for yourself and your teammates.

This is especially effective when your team is in possession and building an attack. By staying away from the ball, you can draw Defenders away creating gaps for your teammates to exploit.

Know When To Go And Get The Ball

On the other hand, there are times when you need to go and get the ball

This is especially true when your team is on the counterattack or when you see an opportunity to exploit a gap in the defense. In these situations, making a well-timed run to get the ball can put you in a prime position to score.

Well Timed Runs

The key to good positioning is anticipation and awareness.

Keep an eye on the ball, but also pay attention to the movement of your teammates and the Defenders. Look for gaps in the defense and make your move at the right time.

And remember, practice makes perfect. Spend some time in the Practice Arena, working on your positioning and making runs from different angles and situations.

Also Read: Everything You Need To Know About EA Sports FC 24 - Questions Answered

Tip 3: Long Shots

Our third tip is all about Long Shots. These are the goals that really get the crowd on their feet.

But scoring from outside the Box requires a good understanding of when to go for power and when to go for finesse.

Go For Power When In Space

When you have a clear sight of goal and some space, going for power can be a great option.

To execute a powerful Long Shot, you’ll want to power up your shot to three quarters of the power bar and aim for the top corners of the goal.

Remember, timing and accuracy are crucial here.

Go For Finesse From Angles

On the other hand, when you’re at an angle or the Goalkeeper is off his line, a Finesse Shot can be the better option.

To execute a Finesse Long Shot, you’ll want to hold down the Finesse Shot button while powering up your shot.

The key here is to aim for the far post, curling the ball around the keeper.

Power Of The Outside Of The Foot Shots

And let’s not forget about using the outside of the foot. This is a very useful technique in FIFA 23, especially when you’re at an angle to the goal.

To execute an outside of the foot shot, you’ll want to aim your shot at the far post.

Using the outside of the foot will give the shot an incredible curve and dip. This will catch goalkeepers off guard and result in some spectacular goals.

Tip 4: Understanding The Goalkeeper

Our fourth tip is all about understanding the Goalkeeper knowing how they react and position themselves can give you the upper hand when it comes to scoring goals.

Near Or Far Post

One of the most important things to pay attention to is the positioning of the Goalkeeper.

Are they standing near the near post or the far post? Are they off their line or hugging the goal line?

On Goal Line Or In Front Of Goal Line

Recognizing these situations can help you decide what type of shot to use.

For example, if the Goalkeeper is standing near the near post, a Finesse shot to the far post can be a great option. On the other hand, if the Goalkeeper is off their line, a Chip Shot can catch them off guard. And, if the Goalkeeper is hugging the goal line, a powerful shot to the top corner can be hard to stop.

Tip 5: Scoring On The Counter

Finally, we're going to talk about scoring on the counter.

Fast break goals can be a game changer, but they require quick thinking and understanding the qualities and skills of the player you control.

Know Your Qualities

If you're controlling a fast player, your best bet is to go deep and ask for the ball. If you don't have this kind of player yet, you can use FUT 23 Coins to purchase one.

Use your speed to get behind the defense and create a one-on-one situation with the Goalkeeper. To ask for the ball, you'll want to press the appropriate button on your controller.

If you're a good passer, you should focus on setting up the counter. Look for your teammates making runs and try to play them in with a well-timed pass.

Remember, a good counterattack is all about speed and precision. And if you're a little slower but a great finisher, you should stay away at the setup of the counter and just make sure you are there to finish it off. Position yourself in the Box and get ready to receive the ball.

When the ball comes your way, use your finishing skills to put it in the back of the net.

With the launch of Official Hardcore Servers on Classic Era, I think it’s time to cover what’s different on these Official Hardcore Servers, compared to the version of Hardcore we have been playing in the past with the addon.

So, here, I will cover the major differences between the addon and the official hardcore servers, as they do not follow the same rules and are actually very different from one another.

Grouping

Let’s start with Solo / Duo / Leveling in a Group.

With the Hardcore addon, if you wanted to be in a duo or a trio, you had to be online at the same time, and level together from start to finish. There were several rules in place such as you’re not allowed to be in different zones, basically meaning you had to duo with the same person from level 1 to level 60 and always play together.

On the Official Hardcore Servers, you are free to Solo, Duo, or Trio whenever you want. You can invite whoever you want to your group whenever you want. You could, for example, group up in a 5-man group from level 1-10 and just focus on kill-quests, then split up at level 10 and then solo the rest of the way until level 60. And if you suddenly meet someone you want to duo with for a couple of hours, you can do that as well.

Basically, you are no longer locked into being a Solo, Duo or Trio Character upon starting. Because with the Addon, if you chose to be in a Duo, you were stuck in that Duo. On the upcoming Hardcore Servers, you’re more free to pick and choose throughout your journey.

So basically, Grouping was very restricted before, but now you’re free to group up when you want to.

Dungeons

Now, let’s talk about Dungeons.

With the Hardcore Addon and the Solo Self Found Ruleset, we were only allowed to do one singular run of every dungeon until we hit level 60. This could be very annoying, as a singular mistake, and losing one person could mean you miss out on the entire dungeon. Because if you lose 1 person in, for example, Zul’Farrak or Maraudon, finishing such a high level dungeon with only 4 people can be incredibly difficult and is often a risk not even worth taking on Hardcore.

This could mean you miss out on an entire dungeon because of a mistake someone else makes. And not only that but some dungeon quests were borderline impossible to do with only one run: Like for example the Stormwind Stockades Bandanas Quest, or the Zul’Farrak Mojo Quest, basically quests where you loot mobs for an item with less than 100% drop chance, and even Wailing Caverns with the Deviate Hides, though those could be farmed on the outside.

In these cases, players would literally /roll for who got to complete their quests. And if you lost the roll, you would not be able to complete your quest, which feels kinda weird.

On top of that, you also have dungeons, like Uldaman, which heavily encourages you to do multiple runs of the dungeon in order to complete every quest, although it is technically doable in one instance-run if you time it to perfection.

On the Official Hardcore Servers, all of this annoyance is removed, as we can now do several dungeon runs while leveling, although there has been one modification in order for people not to just spam Dungeon Cleaves like they did in 2019 when Classic WoW came out.

Dungeons now have a 24 hour reset timer from level 1 to 59, meaning this timer is lifted once you hit level 60, so you can freely farm dungeons. But this means while leveling, dungeons will have a daily lockout and you can run every dungeon once per day.

One more change they have made to dungeons is that mobs inside dungeons give 50% less experience, but bosses give a lot more experience than usual.

Basically, they have taken 50% of the mob experience throughout the dungeon and put it into bosses, which is done for two main reasons: Mobs inside the dungeons do reset over time, but bosses have a 24 hour reset timer. And it also encourages people to focus on killing bosses and doing the higher dungeon rather than just AoE farming mobs inside dungeons for experience.

Trading

Next up then, the use of Mailboxes, Auction House and Trading. I’ve chosen to throw all of this into one place, as it all pretty much boils down to one thing: Trading.

Sending a mail between players is essentially trading something, you’re just doing it via mails. Same thing with the Auction House, so it’s all Trading.

On Classic Era with the Hardcore Addon, Trading was not allowed, even for things, such as Mage Food or Mage Water, or Warlock Healthstones. Basically, no trading whatsoever.

On the Official Hardcore Servers, this rule will be lifted and you are free to Trade, use the Auction House, and use the mailbox. I think this is a good thing, because you have another way to make WoW Classic Hardcore Gold.

But what I will say is, all the rules we had in place with the Hardcore Addon, made it so you were pretty much forced to play in one very specific and restrictive way.

And without being allowed to Group, Trade, send mails or use the Auction House, it is a very “Solo” experience. It is definitely more challenging, but is also a lot less social, and Blizzard have verbally stated they want to focus more on the Social Element than the Challenging Element, which I think is great.

The essence of these servers being Hardcore already is quite challenging in itself, and too challenging for most people, considering if they lose a level 60 character, a lot of people simply won’t bother going again.

Also Read: WoW Classic Hardcore: An Elwynn Forest Survival Guide

Class Abilities

There are also a couple of small changes, such as Class-Abilities, which were previously prohibited or the use of certain items.

Number one here would be the Paladin Bubble-Hearth, which was technically not allowed with the Hardcore Addon, but there were a couple of work-arounds. But on the Official Hardcore Server, there will simply be a restriction in place to where Paladins physically cannot use their Hearthstone while under the Protection Effect.

However, nothing has been stated about the Light of Elune plus Hearthstone, so there might be a big favor for the Alliance here.

With the Hardcore Addon, we were also not allowed to use the Auto-Unstuck Features in order to Teleport to Major Cities, and this restriction will not be there on Official Hardcore Servers.

For most people, this won’t really matter much. But for example, as a Night Elf, this means you can use the Auto Unstuck Feature to teleport to Ironforge instead of having to walk through Wetlands, or swim to Westfall, so it definitely has some practical uses.

Minor Changes

Now, let’s talk about some minor things that might not directly impact your gameplay, but are pretty huge changes overall.

- With the Hardcore Addon, we had an Appeal System. On the Official Hardcore Server, we will not have an Appeal System. This means if you die because of a disconnect, your run is over. But, Blizzard have done a lot of work in the back-end to atleast make it so you disconnect as little as possible from the game itself. But if you have terrible internet connection, there’s really not a lot Blizzard can do.

A lot of people have speculated that they could have added a disconnect-protection-mechanic where if you disconnect, you get a protective bubble around your character until you come back in. But believe me, that could be abused and would be just as terrible as anything else.

Imagine if we had such a system, I could just install a flip switch for my internet router next to my PC on a foot-pedal and if I’m ever close to die or in an oh-shit situation, I could just hit that switch and disconnect and get a protective bubble around my character.

- There will be a lot less griefing on the Official Hardcore Server than we had on Classic Era with the Addon. With the Addon on Classic Era, we had people stand on flightmasters with PVP enabled players naming themselves after mobs and forcing you to target them. Basically, people just forcing you into PVP combat then griefing you.

On the Official Hardcore Servers, you have to physically opt in to PVP by typing /pvp in order to get PVP flagged, so that the entire category of griefing is now disabled.

We also saw people drag elite mobs such as Teremus all the way to Stormwind and Elwynn Forest, and mobs will now have a kite-leash-cap, meaning if you try to kite a mob more than 500 yards away, it will reset. So, in this example, kiting Teremus out of Blasted Lands would end up resetting Teremus.

On the other hand, there is a new category of griefs, which Blizzard really can’t to anything about, and that is “Social Griefing” by players pretending to be your friend, joining your dungeon group or raid, then wiping the entire group.