These are all the differences between Path of Exile 1 and its independent sequel, Path of Exile 2 that we know about after the conclusion of ExileCon 2023.

Crafting In POE 2

As it currently stands, crafting is entirely different in Path of Exile 2.

Firstly, the Crafting Bench no longer exists unless there is a replacement that has not been detailed yet. This means you can no longer add an extra affix to your gear with ease, whether it’s Fire Resistance, a bit of Maximum Life, or a few points of damage.

Additionally, metacrafting might be gone with this removal, too. This means all the metamods like suffixes cannot be changed that enable players to craft powerful items might no longer be accessible. This system was originally added to Path of Exile 1 in 1.2 Forsaken Masters and was seen as a good update by many. It’s going extinct in POE 2.

Alongside the removal of the Crafting Bench, multiple crafting currency items have been changed or removed in POE 2. Orbs of Alteration, the POE Currency that allow you to re-roll the affixes of magic items are gone completely. So are Orbs of Scouring, the POE Currency that allow you to transform a rare or magic item into a normal item. Chaos Orbs have also been changed.

Now, they randomly remove one affix and add another. Essentially, they’re re-rolling a single affix on a rare item, not all of them as they used to. As you’ve seen in the picture below, every currency item is getting a facelift with the sequel. The art looks objectively incredible.

Vendors & Gold

Sticking to the currency subject, vendors will not trade you shards or full-on currency orbs in Path of Exile 2. When you sell them items, they will give you Gold.

This Gold can be used to purchase POE Items from various vendors who are supposed to have well stocked actually decent items in their shops.

Plus, you’ll be able to use Gold to gamble for items, even unique items. It’s a bit like POE 1’s Gwennen Gambling system in Expedition.

Flasks are getting a major shake-up in POE 2. Normal monsters will no longer grant flask charges instead, only magic, rare, and unique mobs will. This drastically decreases the rate at which your flasks recharge.

Plus, flasks will no longer fill entirely upon visiting a town. You must use a well in the town to refill them. Utility flasks are also catered to be reactionary, not enhancements.

We don’t exactly know which flasks will remain in POE 2. But we do know Quicksilver Flasks currently do not exist in the sequel to POE 1. These are the flasks that increase your movement speed.

Big Boss Changes

The core mechanics surrounding boss fights are also updated in POE 2.

Corpse rushing or the act of respawning and rushing an already injured boss, is dead. If you die during a boss fight, you’ll need to begin the fight from the beginning. In the same vein, logging out midfight will no longer save you from Deadly Strikes. When you log back in, you’ll zone in to the moment you left. The boss will have no mercy on you. This kills the log out macro used by many hardcore POE players.

Unlike POE 1, every single area in the game will have a meaningful boss encounter. Most are as in-depth as the present-day Pinnacle Bosses. This will lead to POE 2 to launch with at least 100 distinct bosses in the campaign. This doesn’t account for a new endgame or Pinnacle Bosses.

Bosses are also integral even to base POE 2 character power progression. Certain optional bosses and core bosses will reward statistical character-based passive bonuses upon killing them. This function is in a similar vein to the current kill or ally with the bandits questline in POE 1 Act 2, except it appears the bonuses are varied and far more frequent.

For example, one boss might grant +5% Fire Resistance while another might increase your Maximum Life by 50%. Additionally, bosses will now be a good source of great items the first time you kill them. In the campaign, the first time you kill each boss, it will have a huge bonus to rarity, encouraging you not to skip them.

Those aren’t the only big boss changes. You are also able to stun and freeze bosses in POE 2. Each boss has a custom stun animation. Many bosses and creatures, for that matter, can now be much larger too as they’ve redone how hitboxes work. All hitboxes in POE 1 are square, but in POE 2, they can greatly customize that and allow for huge encounters.

Skill & Gem Updates

As discovered in 2019, we no longer socket gems into our gear. We socket support gems into skill gems.

A further difference between POE 1 and POE 2 revealed in Exilecon 2023 is that we initially find uncut gems and then can choose what gem to transfer support those into, selecting from dozens of scales.

Uncut gems are various tiers, which allow access to each different tier of skill gems. Firestorm might be a tier 2 skill and always begin as a fifth level gem while Fireball might be a tier 1 scale and always begin at first level.

POE 2’s new gem system will not be brought into POE 1. The system shall remain distinctly different. Many skill gems are also hyper fixated on a specific situation or use, as you can have up to 9 six-Link skills in POE 2.

Touching on support gems briefly, many don’t add raw damage anymore and instead focus on adding quite specific mechanics to your skill gems. Pure damage adding supports do still exist, but they’re fewer in number.

Unlike POE 1, weapon swapping will be important and consequential in the sequel in POE 2. You can tie specific clusters of your passive skill tree alongside specific skill gems to either of your weapons.

For example, you can have a fire damage ax and a cold damage ax. When you use a certain slam scale tied to fire damage, you will pull out the attached fire damage ax and use a passive skill tree tied to dealing more fire damage. When you use a different slam skill tied to cold damage, you will automatically swap to the cold damage ax and the version of your skill tree tied to enhancing cold damage.

This could allow characters to actually build out a weapon and skill specifically for bossing accompanied by another set catered to clearing huge packs with the ability to swap seamlessly between. The two the possibilities here are absolutely ridiculous.

Layered on top of these gems and weapon differences is the fact that GGG is designing many skill gems to be tied to specific weapons, an amount far larger than in POE 1.

The most prominent example at Exile Con was the Warrior demos, using the two-handed mace. Many of the skills used were either tied explicitly to maces or, even more specifically, two-handed maces. This is intentional, meant to give each weapon an identity.

Additionally, weapon implicits are going to be far wilder. For example, a mace implicit might destroy enemy corpses if they are killed with a critical hit, while a dagger might break an enemy’s armor by a certain amount upon crit. This is far more very than POE 1 where, for example, sword implicits are all tied to accuracy rating.

Also Read: Everything We Know About Path Of Exile 2 So Far - 11 Points

POE 2 Character Classes

In Path of Exile 2, there are 12 character classes. The only class missing from Path of Exile 1 is the Scion, which wouldn’t mesh well with the new class identities GGG is going for with the sequel.

The six new classes are the Warrior, the Sorceress, the Mercenary, the Monk, the Huntress, and the Druid.

Like the initial six, each is tied to a specific attribute or attribute combination. Each of the matched classes starts at specific points on the new massive passive skill tree. But they all have unique gem rewards and a set of three new ascendancy classes attached.

Each of the 12 POE 2 classes has their own batch of three ascendancies, stacking up to a total of 36 total ascendancy classes. All of these ascendancy classes are different to the ones in Path of Exile 1.

For example, the Ranger in POE 2 can ascend as a Beastmaster, a Tactician, or a Survivalist. But in POE 1, she can become a Deadeye, a Pathfinder, or a Raider. These sets of new ascendancies will greaten the divide between the predecessor and its sequel.

As will the fact that you do not ascend via the Labyrinth, there is a new Ascension mechanic in POE 2.

Lots Of Small POE 1 & POE 2 Differences

Now, here’s a barrage of miscellaneous differences between the two games.

Passive skill tree masteries will not be in Path of Exile 2. They’re a POE 1 only feature for now.

Portal Scrolls now have about a 2.5 second casting animation during boss fights, only you can be knocked out of the animation. This is similar to how the Portal gem in POE 1 functions.

Many league mechanics are unlocked by specific quests. For example, the revamped Delirium mechanic is unleashed upon interacting with a quest involving the strange voice. In POE 1, most league mechanics just occur randomly at first.

The world map is massive, sprawling, and far more detailed than Path of Exile 1’s.

Player characters, our Exiles, speak much more and dynamically adjust choices we make during our playthroughs. For example, if we zoom past NPCs without speaking, they’ll remark to us and will retort.

Fewer items drop from monsters. Vendor shops are more incentivized. Perhaps this is a campaign-only concept with loot becoming a bigger slice of the pie in the late game.

Area maps are much larger and they feel much larger due to the lower overall speed of movement. Fortunately, they do appear to be swarmed with monsters and boss fights.

All item icons will have a consistency between them, unlike in POE 1, wherein some icons might be cartoony or just enhanced pictures. Iconic unique items, like Headhunter and Chaperone’s wrappings, will be in POE 2.

Staves as a weapon will always include a mana free spell skill attached as implicits, while Quarterstaffs will fulfill the melee staff experience.

Resistances no longer go below zero. The new resource Spirit is used for all skills that usually dealt with Mana Reservation. There will be new support for it on the passive skill tree and items.

Scepters are extremely minion and aura focused weapons now. Additionally, Traps and Mines are now actual weapons, not skill gems.

Complete Wrap-Up

Overall POE 1 and POE 2 are both ARPGs set in the world of Wraeclast developed by Grinding Gear Games.

They do appear to have fundamental differences, especially when it comes to maintaining resources. But I’m confident both will be excellent games to play and I plan on continuing to play and cover both of them as long as I’m having fun.

Today, we will be looking at how damage works in Honkai Star Rail.

So first, an in-depth guide on the damage formula, and then we will go through all the ways we can boost this damage, as well as how effective these boosts are.

For example, we will see how strong DMG% is versus ATK%, including any additional DMG% if you already have a ton. We will also look at how efficient crit ratios are, and how speed substats fare versus crit substats, as well as how well defence shred and resistance shred boost our damage, and much more.

The Damage Formula

First, let’s look at the good old classic damage formula.

It is composed of 7 different elements, but some formulas also show 8. We have 3 elements that we can affect by boosting our characters, and 4 elements that depend on the enemies and how we affect them.

So, for character dependent elements, we have our Base Damage, the Crit Multiplier, and the Damage Boost Multiplier.

Base Damage Explanation

First, we have our Base Damage, which is the skill multiplier multiplied by the scaling stat, plus any additional damage.

Seele’s ultimate at level 10, for example, does 425% of her attack, meaning her ultimate’s base damage will be 4.25 times her total attack, which at 3k attack would be 12750 damage.

If it scales off HP or Defense, or anything else, you use those values instead, multiplied by their respective skill multiplier.

How Do CRITs Work?

We then have the Crit Multiplier.

If you crit, your base damage will be multiplied by the crit multiplier, which is equal to 1 + your crit damage percentage. So, if you have 100% crit damage, your crit multiplier is 2, and your base damage will be doubled upon critting.

To find your average damage, you multiply your base damage by your crit rate and your crit multiplier, and add it to your base damage multiplied by 1 minus your crit rate.

You’re adding the damage of a crit with the damage of a non crit, respectively multiplied by their chances to happen.

At a crit ratio of 80 to 160 with our same ultimate damage from before, we do the following calculation, giving us an average damage of 29070.

How Does DMG% Boost DPS?

We then have the Damage Boost Multiplier.

Any damage% bonuses are totaled up and added to the base multiplier of 1, which will then multiply your damage again.

You have general DMG% bonuses that work on all attacks, like Bronya’s DMG% boost on her skill, then you have specific DMG% bonuses, like Subscribe for More, which are only taken into account on Basic Attacks or Skills. Or, another example is Elemental DMG% bonuses, which only work when said attack is of the corresponding element.

If, for example, we have a Quantum DMG% orb on our Seele, and our talent at level 10, we have a DMG% boost of 118.9%, and we thus multiply our previous damage by 2.189, giving us 63634.23 damage.

Next, we are onto the enemy multipliers: the DEF Multiplier, the RES Multiplier, the Vulnerability Multiplier, and finally the Broken Multiplier (this is part of a Universal DMG Reduction Multiplier that enemies have).

How OP Is DEF Reduction?

The DEF Multiplier is first.

It is calculated by a division. The numerator is your character’s level plus 20. The denominator is the enemy’s level + 20 multiplied by 1, minus any defence reduction or ignore effects. And this is then added onto your character’s level again plus 20.

What this basically means is your DEF multiplier depends on two things: the level difference between you and the enemy, as well as any defence reductions or ignore effects.

At the same level as your enemy, you are dividing your level by your level times two essentially, so your defence multiplier is 0.5, and your damage is halved.

As the enemy’s level increases, the denominator increases and your multiplier drops. This is why we calculate with a defence multiplier of 0.476, because we are level 80 versus level 90 enemies.

As we include defence reduction, the enemy level is multiplied by a smaller and smaller number, increasing our division’s final multiplier, until we hit 100% defence reduction, where we will now be dividing your level by your level, giving us a defence multiplier of 1. And Defence Reduction doesn’t go further than 100%.

Versus a level 90 enemy with a level 80 Seele, equipped with the 4 piece quantum set, we will ignore 20% of their defence and multiply our damage by this long number, dropping our damage to 33848.

Why To Fight Weak Enemies?

The second multiplier is the Resistance Multiplier.

You have the base resistance multiplier of 1, and then you subtract the subtraction of the enemy resistance with your resistance reduction or penetration. So, if the enemy has 20% resistance, you get a resistance multiplier of 0.8. If they have 40%, 0.6, etc.

If you have resistance reduction, you are removing this resistance, and any further reduction still counts towards your resistance multiplier, now boosting your damage. If you have 20% resistance reduction on an enemy with 20% resistance, they now have 0% resistance, and your multiplier is back at 1. If they have 0% resistance, your multiplier is at 1.2, and so your damage is increased.

This is why we generally bring DPS to an enemy with a weakness corresponding to our DPS’ type, since any enemy that is weak to an element has 0% resistance to that element, and so your base resistance multiplier is 1.

Including Seele’s A4, which gives us 20% RES PEN, versus a Quantum Weak enemy, we now have a resistance multiplier of 1.2 on our damage, increasing our damage to 40617.6.

Vulnerability Modifiers

Next up is a very simple one, the Vulnerability Multiplier, which is indicated by text saying increased damage received or increased damage taken by enemies, like Welt’s A2, or Silver Wolf’s signature Light Cone. By the way, if you haven't pulled Silver Wolf by now or find some of her Light Cones too hard to get, buying a Honkai Star Rail Account would be a good option.

You have a base multiplier of 1, and any vulnerability modifiers will increase it by their respective percentages. Say we have Welt on the team with his 12% vulnerability, we multiply our damage thus far by 1.12, increasing our damage to 45491.7.

Why Breaking Is Important?

Finally, we have the Broken Multiplier, which is part of enemies’ total damage reduction, and is dependent on the toughness bar. The broken multiplier is 0.9 when the enemy has a toughness bar, and 1 when they don’t.

So, you gain a 1.11x damage increase if you hit a broken enemy, meaning if you can save that juicy ultimate for when the enemy is broken, it’ll give a final nice boost.

TLDR On Boosting Damage

Now, onto how we boost our damage.

For an easy summary, we boost our damage by boosting each of these multipliers. So, we increase our trace level or scaling factor for our base damage, then we increase our crit ratio for our crit multiplier, and add DMG% buffs for our damage.

Applying def reduction debuffs or gaining def ignore will boost our def multiplier, the same with resistance reduction for our resistance multiplier. Inflicting vulnerability will boost our damage too. And finally, breaking an enemy’s toughness bar will grant us more damage.

But then come the questions of balancing stats. How much attack% I should have? How much crit should I have? Is DMG% better than ATK%? What if I have 100 DMG% already? And that is what part 2 of this guide will explain.

DMG% VS ATK%

Our first comparison is DMG% versus ATK%. This also works for any other scaling factor, like DMG% vs ATK HP% on Blade. At no buffs DMG% beats ATK%, due to characters and light cones having a base attack, and the gloves relic piece having a flat 352.8 attack.

For example, 10% of damage is worth a lot more than 10% of attack. This only further increases as we add ATK% buffs and main stats to our units. Adding an ATK% main stat skews the difference in favour of damage% even more. If we only add a damage% orb instead, ATK% becomes a bit stronger than damage%.

However, we will naturally be building a lot of attack%, and damage% only comes from the orb, set bonuses, and ally buffs. Attack% can be on the chest, boots, orb, rope, and also comes from a ton of set bonuses and ally buffs.

So, as you can see, two attack main stats make DMG% very favourable even with a DMG% orb. Even with a 66% buff from Bronya’s skill, it still comes out ahead.

DMG% VS CRIT%

DMG% versus CRIT% is similar, except they are both multipliers onto your base damage. CRIT also has the problem of only being valuable if you have enough of it.

For example, from no DMG% or crit buffs or pieces,100% damage is equal to a crit ratio of 55/110 in boosting your damage. Getting a better crit ratio improves the damage boosting capabilities of more crit, but it also doesn’t mean DMG% should be wasted. With a lot of DMG%, crit becomes very valuable, but so does crit with a lot of extra damage%.

ATK% VS CRIT%

Finally, in this three way match up, we have ATK% vs CRIT%, which is compared in increments of 2 substats, so 2 ATK% subs versus 1 crit rate and 1 crit damage sub. This is considering a base crit of 5 to 50.

For example, crit stats without initial crit are useless, and attack% is favoured even after two main stats. Now if we have a favourable crit ratio, any additional crit stats are worth a lot more.

So, don’t go adding some crit to a unit when you won’t hit a high enough ratio for it to be worth it. This also shows that DPS does want crit, as ATK% is pretty saturated, and it’s why we go crit chests on our DPS to avoid any DPS loss.

The Perfect CRIT Ratio

Now, onto Crit Efficiency, this one is a classic from Genshin Impact, and just shows, depending on your crit rate or crit damage, how effective extra crit damage or rate is to the perfect 1 to 2 ratio.

This shows that, for example, 50 crit rate to 100 crit damage is a nice ratio, but having 15 extra crit rate, or 30 extra crit damage, won’t impact your ratio too much, and you shouldn’t get too worked up over the perfect crit ratio.

We can also see this in the average Crit Multiplier, which is how we find our average damage dependent on our crit rate and crit damage. We used this earlier in the Seele calculation to find our average ultimate damage.

At the base 5 to 50 crit ratio characters have, our average damage is not increasing by much at all. But we also see that whilst the perfect ratio will boost our damage by the most amount, not having a 1:2 ratio is still great for damage.

Speed Breakpoints

Now, we are onto speed and their comparisons.

Remember, speed varies a lot, and speed can make tuning buffs better, or worse, and this is just showcasing how effective speed is for DPS turns and damage gain.

We first have the standard speed breakpoints. You have probably already seen this from Grimro. It shows how to get additional actions per cycle in the first 8 cycles.

For example, if we want 10 actions by the 6th cycle, we need 154 speed. This also shows the infamous 134 speed breakpoint. That gives us an additional action every 3 cycles, including the first cycle.

So, we get 2 actions in our first cycle, and then 6 in our 4th, and so on so forth. As for effective damage gain, we compare how many actions we get to the standard 1 action per 1 cycle.

So, getting two actions by the first cycle is a 100% damage gain. But 3 actions by the second cycle is only a 50% damage gain, since you’re already supposed to have 2 actions. This doesn’t mean you should just go for 161 speed breakpoints for damage gain. It just shows the potential.

SPD% VS ATK%

To further showcase that just going for speed is bad for DPS, we now have two comparisons: speed substats versus attack subs, and speed versus crit. These are my favourite comparisons, since they show the breakpoints really well.

SPD versus ATK shows 1 minimum sub of speed versus 1 minimum sub of attack. Obviously, having more attack will win until you hit a speed breakpoint. And having stats is important too.

Going for just speed for more turns won’t give you much gains, unless you have the stats to do damage. This also shows how important speed boots are for DPS gains. But that too much speed is unneeded as well.

With attack% buffs and a mainstat, getting an additional attack main stat does not prove as significant as speed boots, since we get our damage multiplied by more than 8 cycles, and we are closer to a future breakpoint for even more damage.

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail 1.2: 5 Things You Need To Know About Imbibitor Lunae - Stats, Ultimate, Skill, Technique & Gameplay

SPD% VS CRIT%

SPD% versus CRIT% is the same concept, but with the added nuance of crit needing a good ratio to be worth in the first place.

If you hit breakpoints, it’s great, but so is the value of the crit for your damage. You will be needing a good crit ratio in the first place, but getting extra crit is very valuable for damage.

DEF% Reduction

Now let’s look at the defence shred.

As we saw with the formula earlier, and as we can see in this graph, it’s an exponential DPS increase as you stack more and more defence shred.

Pela’s ultimate will give us a 26.5% damage boost, Silver Wolf’s talent and ult 38.4%, but combined they give us a 95% damage boost.

RES Reduction

Resistance shred gives us a linear boost instead. But we can see the value of the resistance shred for our Resistance Multiplier.

The more resistance the enemy has, the more gain we get from the resistance shred. But since we aren’t bringing our DPS to a fully resistant enemy, this doesn’t mean much to us.

We want to be fighting enemies of our elemental weakness for the most damage.

DEF VS RES Reductions

Next, let’s compare defence reduction and resistance reduction in their effect on multiplying our damage.

Versus a weak enemy, defence shred comes out ahead of course, but takes time to ramp up versus resistance shred, which is linear.

Also remember, defence shred can max out, and resistance shred doesn’t. So, having a combination of both will improve our damage a ton.

We can also see, for example, how effective Silver Wolf is in boosting our damage. Versus a non weak enemy, we get a 95.53% damage boost to our damage, which can boost our whole team’s damage.

Combined with Seele’s A4 and the quantum set, our damage goes insane.

Vulnerability

Adding Vulnerability is an additional multiplier, and very simple.

Every % of vulnerability multiplies our total damage by an additional %. It is linear and having it on the enemy is great for damage boosting.

Broken Multiplier

We then have the Broken Multiplier and its effects on our DPS. It’s even smaller than vulnerability in its complexity.

You either gain 11% DPS from attacking a broken enemy, or you lose 10% potential DPS by not attacking a broken enemy.

So again, try to hit them when their toughness bar is broken. But it’s okay if you don’t. It’s just an additional boost of DPS.

Break Damage Boosts

So that’s all the damage multipliers for standard damage, and how they fare versus each other. Let’s also quickly look at break damage and how it scales on our level.

So, Break Damage scales exponentially on our level, and is why it was so slept on in the past. It still won’t beat out standard DPS builds unless you break a lot, which is always tricky to calculate, or unless you are a support like Asta that doesn’t traditionally do a ton of damage.

Level is very important for break damage. Going from level 40 to 50 gives us a 113% damage increase on our break damage at level 40, which is compounded onto future levels.

So, even though from level 70 to 80 we get another 41.66% increase, that’s a 41.66% increase on our break damage from level 70, which is a 62% increase over the break damage from level 60, and so on.

With future break effect supports and buffs, the break effect will be very strong.

Here, we’ll be talking about seasons.

What Are Seasons?

It’s basically an update mode on top of the base game that brings about new and exciting ways to play the game. Seasons will last for approximately three months.

For those unfamiliar with the way action RPGs typically do seasons, think of it like new content based around a theme, similar to expansions, but on a smaller scale, that sticks around for a few months.

After a season ends, a new season starts after a short break to replace the previous one, creating long-term replayability.

Diablo 4 Season 1 - Season Of The Malignant

The first Diablo IV season, Season of the Malignant, begins on July 20th.

You’re going to want to make sure you complete the Campaign with at least one character before Season of the Malignant begins. Then, you can create a new character in the Seasonal Realm and skip the Campaign to access the new questline and more.

Here are a few things you can expect to see in seasons.

Seasonal Questlines

These are storylines separate from the Campaign that guide you through the new seasonal theme, introducing new characters and quests as you are adventuring.

Fresh Gameplay

Each season introduces new gameplay mechanics that go beyond just balance changes, that will change the way you approach your abilities.

Much like the Season Journey from Diablo III, Diablo IV brings back the Season Journey where you can complete a variety of objectives as you progress, split into different chapters to earn rewards, which can help the leveling process or further boost your character.

You can even earn new Aspects, separate from the ones you’d find in the Codex of Power, that can spice up your builds, as well as earn Favor, which is used to progress your Seasonal Battle Pass, offer boosts to speed up your leveling experience, and additional character-customization options.

Quality Of Life Changes

In addition to balance changes, each season will bring about quality-of-life changes that will give you a better Diablo experience.

Also, expect new transmogs from items, as well as the new cosmetics in the shop, to really give your character a look to set yourself apart from the rest of the adventurers.

Also Read: How To Fully Prepare For Diablo 4 Season 1? - Season Of The Malignant Details

Battle Pass

One of the biggest things you will come across in seasons is the new Battle Pass.

As you play and progress in Diablo 4 Season 1, you’ll gradually receive rewards from the Battle Pass, such as cosmetics and premium currency. It’s important to note that these cosmetics do not affect your character stats in any way, meaning you will not miss out on any armor or weapons.

Completing objectives in the Season Journey allows you to earn Favor, which progresses you through the Free Battle Pass.

As you progress, you collect Smoldering Ashes, which can be used to boost the rate at which you gain experience, Diablo 4 Gold, resources, and more in game.

As for the Battle Pass itself, there are three versions: Free, Premium and Accelerated.

The Free version has 27 tiers and rewards players with cosmetic items and Smoldering Ashes, a resource that can be spent on experience, Gold boost, and other bonuses for your seasonal character. However, you should note that you can only get these boosts through the Free Battle Pass, and you must first meet certain level requirements.

The Premium Battle Pass has 63 more tiers, which reward you with cosmetics unique to that season, and Platinum currency that can be spent at the game shop.

The Accelerated Pass is the same, but allows you to skip through 22 tiers and comes with a special cosmetic. While the Accelerated Battle Pass allows for tier skips, you still have to meet the required character level to access Smoldering Ashes for bonuses towards your seasonal character. In short, you cannot simply pay for a boost.

These seasonal offerings are great and do a good job of spicing up the base game. But to partake in the full experience of each season, you'll need to create a seasonal character.

What Will Characters Look Like In Diablo 4 Season 1?

Some players new to action RPGs and Diablo may be asking: "Why do I have to make a new character? And what about the work I just put into this character?" I also had these questions when I first started playing Diablo III and made a lot of mistakes because of it.

And honestly, I regret being so stubborn and missing out on some amazing Diablo III seasons. Creating a new seasonal character allows for the game to feel new and exciting more often, with everybody starting fresh to experience the new features at the same time.

I forgot what it was like to find upgrades on a regular basis, as my Eternal character was already fully geared and upgrades came once in a blue moon. It was fun to use skills that I never thought I'd use again simply because they didn't scale well in a previous build, and it was a blast to use throughout the leveling as I found Legendaries to complement their power.

Additionally, it will be easier to level and acquire loot this time around, because now you have the experience that you did not have before when you were first leveling up.

In addition to the boost provided through Smoldering Ashes and the new powers you will unlock, map discovery and Altars will not need to be collected again if you've already done so. This is as easy as it gets when it comes to starting a new character for a Seasonal Journey.

"What about my Eternal character?"

Any characters you've created will never be lost. Each character you've created, including your current characters, will always be playable in the Eternal Realm after a season ends. You can play at any time you please, you just won't be able to interact with the seasonal content. Eternal Realm characters will still benefit from all the game's balance changes and quality-of-life updates, just like the seasonal characters.

Since Diablo 4 is out, the Diablo 2 Resurrected’s servers are much emptier. And I found that the update frequency of many Diablo 2 Resurrected content creators is also significantly reduced.

Given the status quo, some people are wondering how things will continue and if Diablo 4 will even replace Diablo 2 Resurrected. I can clearly answer this question with a no.

Of course, Diablo 4 is just new. Not even a month has gone past since release, so there is much new content. But in this article, I have 7 points for you why Diablo 4 will not be a replacement for many Diablo 2 Resurrected players in the long term.

1. Items

Number one, the item system in Diablo 2 Resurrected is a class for its own.

There are many different affixes and host mechanics you have to understand, such as Open Wounds, Crushing Blow, or Deadly Strike. Also, the player must pay attention to certain breakpoints and there are the various popular Runewords.

In Diablo 4, the complexity develops on a completely different level. The legendary and unique aspects make a lot of difference and there are many different types of damage to understand.

2. Trading

Point number two is related to the first point - trading.

In Diablo 2 Resurrected, a gigantic market has developed. It’s hard to find the comparison for this. I can’t think of any other game where trading with other players is such a factor.

In Diablo 4, the trades are currently limited to very few goods, such as rares and Diablo 4 Gold. And even if something changes, I think items that are bound to your account will remain an integral part of the Diablo 4 mechanics.

3. Speed

Under point number three, I list the game resume and speed.

In Diablo 2 Resurrected, you teleport through the maps in no time and make high frequency runs or farm many different spots one after the other.

In Diablo 4, everything takes much longer. If you want to run a dungeon, you have to ride there first and, in the worst case, you get involved into fights on the way.

4. Skill Trees

Point number four is the Skill Trees.

The skill system is very good in both games but also completely different. Both offer the base for a great variety of characters. And even though I can’t assess the whole potential in Diablo 4 yet, I dare to say that the variants in D2R are a bit greater. I can certainly think of over 20 different builds just for the Paladin.

In any case, the build possibilities in Diablo 2 Resurrected are unique in some respects.

In Diablo 4, it will probably be difficult to build an efficient build where the Sorcerer strikes with a sword.

5. Optic

As point number five, I would like to mention the beautiful graphics of Diablo 2 Resurrected.

Diablo 4 doesn’t look bad either, but the engine is completely different. In Diablo 2 Resurrected, however, the new detailed implementation of the classic look has become so ingenious and makes the heart of an old Diablo 2 Resurrected player beat faster.

6. PVP & Speedruns

Point number six in Diablo 2 Resurrected various disciplines have been established that have kept many players happy for years, such as Speedrunning or PVP. Even though there may be both in the far as well, it will be completely different.

In Diablo 2 Resurrected Speedrunning, I loved the mechanics of how the game generates the maps and how you can read the maps to progress faster.

In Diablo 4, on the other hand, the entire outside world, as well as the specific dungeons in the main storyline, are always exactly the same. PVP is also something completely different in Diablo 2 Resurrected.

This, of course, already results from the engines and game mechanics we have already discussed. Every enthusiastic Diablo 2 Resurrected PVP player will definitely understand what I mean.

7. Offline

Last but not least, we have point number seven and that is the fact that there is an offline mode.

Diablo 2 is a game that has been modded a lot in the past and there are already some mods for Diablo 2 Resurrected, too. In addition, there is also a group of players who like to play the Solo Self Found.

In addition, it should also be mentioned that Diablo 2 has survived for so many years, although there was a long break. Without new content with Diablo 2 Resurrected, cool new content was added, and the graphics were brought to a good new standard. So, it would surprise me if there would be a sudden finish soon.

A certain car of players to which I also count myself will certainly still play the game for a long time. I also have a lot to do, so, for example, only two of my PVP charts are level 99 yet and the equipment I also have to optimize.

Diablo 4 is also pretty cool. But it’s a different grind. You have the open world and the complexity develops in a completely different direction, which also has its charm but is just no replacement. It is rather an additional offer variety. I could imagine that Diablo 4 will replace the third part, but for judging, I have played too little Diablo 3.

In any case, I'm looking forward to many more D2R content since the hype of Diablo 4 will not be forever.

The Dragonflight dungeon Halls of Infusion is now part of the Season 2 Mythic+ pool. So, here I will go over the most important mechanics to watch out for in this dungeon!

Dungeon Start

At the beginning, you will encounter Primalist Ravagers and Geomancers, Refti Defenders and Containment Apparatus.

The Apparatus seems to be one of the most dangerous enemies, because it continuously casts Containment Beam onto random players. This cast does heavy damage and can only be disrupted.

Additionally, it also casts “Expulse”, which is a heavy AoE damage ability that should be interrupted. A good strategy would be to avoid pulling too many Apparatuses simultaneously and focusing them down quickly if you do!

Outside of the Apparatuses, you should also try to interrupt the Defenders' Demoralizing Shout. It will reduce your groups damage done by 25% if not interrupted.

Moving into the first room, you can either go left or right. Both paths will lead to the first boss. But you unlock different perks, depending on which path you choose to clear.

If you go left, you will reach a Limited Immortality Device, usable by Dragonflight Engineers with skill 25 or higher. Activating this will give everyone in your group a 1 hour buff, preventing one death (similar to a Rogue's cheat death ability). If you go right instead, you will clear the path for a shortcut that opens up later after you kill the 2nd boss and a 2nd shortcut will open in the same area once you kill the 3rd boss.

Watcher Irideus

But before you can make use of these short cuts, you have to defeat Watcher Irideus.

During the first phase of this encounter, 3 players in your group will occasionally be debuffed by Power Overload, a magic debuff ticking for nature damage and leaving behind a puddle underneath the player on removal or expiration.

It might be best to have the 3 debuffed players stack up and then either mass dispel the debuffs or dispel none of them to make sure the puddles all spawn simultaneously and on the same location, to lessen the area of denial.

The boss will also cast Static Surge, a heavy unavoidable AoE damage channel on the group.

Tanks additionally have to watch out for a frontal attack, doing damage and stunning in a cone in front of Watcher Irideus.

Once the boss reaches 15% health, he will become immune to damage and Siphon Power from the facility itself, increasing his nature damage done by 2% every 1 second until canceled.

To interrupt his cast, you have to kill 3 of the 4 Nullification Devices close to the boss. They will explode and remove his barrier.

In phase 2, the Power Overload debuffs will do increased damage and also drop bigger puddles, so watch out for that!

After you have defeated Watcher Irideus, you can choose to either go straight forward, or you can take the stairs to a different area. Both paths will ultimately lead to the same location.

If you decide to go straight, you will see some Primalist Shocktroopers first. Make sure you interrupt their Elemental Focus cast. Otherwise, they will gain an instant Chain Lightning ability doing a lot of unpreventable damage to the group.

The Dazzling Dragonflys cast a frontal disorient. This can either be interrupted, sidestepped (even by the tank) or magic dispelled if anyone gets hit by it.

Additionally, there are Skulking Zealots patrolling this area in stealth, so watch out for them!

Also Read: Things Blizzard Can Do to Make WOW Dragonflight Better

Once you cleared all the trash in the room, the door behind you will close and a small event starts. Waves of curious Swoglets will spawn and randomly fixate players. If they successfully melee attack a player, they will stack up a poison debuff, instantly killing the player if it stacks up to 10.

After the event, the door will open and you can clear the path to the 2 minibosses, Flamecaller Aymi and Squallbringer Cyraz. If you decide to take the other path after the first boss instead, you will encounter the same type of mobs. But there won’t be a Swoglet event and additionally you will be able to access Infused Mushrooms.

Any player with Dragonflight Herbalism skill 25 or above can activate the mushrooms, giving everyone in your party a 30 minute buff, curing 1 poison or disease effect every 15 seconds. This might be useful for the next boss coming up if you don’t have anyone in your group to dispel Poison effects!

Both paths now lead to the minibosses. The more dangerous of the 2 is Flamecaller Aymi. She occasionally roots a random player with a magic dispellable debuff and then spawns a big swirly underneath that player you have to move out of. Once she is low health, she will attempt to cast Cauterize, healing her if not interrupted.

Squallbringer Cyras, on the other hand, will spawn several small Zephyrlings. But they don’t do anything other than attack their aggro target. He will also sometimes cast a whirlwind around him. So, move away from him to avoid damage.

Gulping Goliath

Once you finish off the minibosses, the door to the next boss will open.

The Gulping Goliath will spawn Swoglets on players’ locations. They will fixate players and apply the same poison debuff as the trash mobs before. So, watch out to not reach 10 applications or you will instantly die.

Once in a while, the boss will cast Gulp. It’s an AoE damage ability indicated by a circle around the boss. Any Swoglets inside the circle will be destroyed and any player in the circle will take damage and gain 3 poison applications. If no player is hit by Gulp, the boss will enrage.

Once the Gulping Goliath is defeated, you can make your way to the 3rd boss. Here you will encounter Primalist Galesingers, Icecallers and Earthshakers, as well as Glacial Proto Dragons.

Galesingers will occasionally spawn a thunderstorm underneath a player. Glacial Proto Dragons cast a frontal breath towards the tank and apply a magic debuff to the whole group, slowing and dealing damage to players. Icecallers cast a heal and it can only be disrupted, so be ready for that!

Khajin The Unyielding

Up next is Khajin the Unyielding.

One of her main abilities is Hailstorm. To avoid the damage, you will have to hide behind one of the ice blocks located around the room. The ice blocks crack if they get hit by any of her abilities (including hailstorm) and if a cracked ice block gets hit again, they will get destroyed and do AoE damage around them.

To not get damaged by a dying ice block, you should make sure you are hiding behind a fully in tact block. Keep in mind some of the blocks are already cracked as you start the encounter!

Additionally, she will cast Glacial Surge, creating rings of frost moving outward, starting around the boss. And it is similar to Kurog Grimtotem’s ability in the Vault of the Incarnates.

Once in a while, a player will be targeted by Frost Cyclone, indicated by an arrow on the floor. Make sure to move out of it and keep in mind, any ice blocks hit by the cyclone will either get cracked or be destroyed.

Once you defeat Khajin, you can move onto the bridge leading to the last boss Primal Tsunami. You will encounter some enemies you’ve already seen before and additionally there are Aqua Ragers, continuously spawning until you defeat Infuser Sariya at the end of the bridge.

Aqua Ragers cast an enrage, but it can be interrupted or soothed and at 20% health, they will attempt to split into 4 smaller mobs. This can also be interrupted.

While on the bridge, you continuously have to dodge circular water waves coming from either the left or the right. If you get hit, you get knocked and take damage. You can line of sight these circles by standing really close to the pillars on the opposite side of where they are coming from.

Infuser Sariya will be attackable once you kill the last 4 Aqua Ragers standing at the end of the bridge. Watch out for her Aqua barrier. Interrupt this cast to make sure she doesn’t shield herself.

Primal Tsunami

Now, you can start the fight against the Primal Tsunami.

In phase 1, you have to dodge a lot of swirlies and moving water bubbles while the tank has to watch out for Squall Buffet: a tank attack that knocks you back.

At 100 Energy, the boss becomes immune and players are thrown away to one of three bridges. The tank and the healer both get paired with 1 damage dealer each and the 3rd damage dealer gets sent by themselves. Everyone has to attempt to run back towards the boss while dodging waves and water bubbles.

Back in the boss room, there are now 4 Primalist Infusers channeling Infuse. This gives the boss a stacking damage increase. If the Infusers are interrupted, they instead start attacking the players and cast “inundate”, an AoE damage cast similar to Infuser Sariya. This cast can be disrupted.

Once the Infusers are dead, you can finish off the Primal Tsunami to end the dungeon and collect your loot! That means you’ll get a lot of WoW Dragonflight Gold. Hope you can learn a lot from this guide!

Phase 3 of Wrath Classic – The Call of the Crusade is finally upon us. This penultimate patch will see a brand new raid tier, updates to dungeons, new items for collectors, a fresh PVP season and much more.

Today, I’ll be taking you through what to expect from the Call of the Crusade Patch, talking over what’s new, and how things may be a little different this time around compared to the original release.

1. Trial Of The Crusader

Let’s start off with the big one, the upcoming raid, Trial of the Crusader.

This is the first raid ever in WoW’s history to adapt the “heroic or normal” format, where players can choose to modify the level of challenge they want before engaging in the content.

This raid has such a legacy for many reasons. Jaraxxus, who is, of course, everyone’s favourite Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion. It’s the only raid ever, with no trash at all. It’s a “PVP in PVE’’ encounter in the faction champions.

This encounter definitely shows you who has their defensives to hand, and who doesn’t, and a surprise entrance from a certain Lich King to introduce us to the final boss deep below the tournament grounds. It’s very much expected to be a fairly short, but sweet addition to Wrath Classic’s raiding content.

And to that end, several changes have been made to how the content will work. Each difficulty will now share a lockout. So, originally you could run ToC 4 times per week, now it’s only 2. So if you did 10 player heroic, you cannot do 10 player normal that week, and vice versa. Same goes for 25 player.

Also, some of the previously stackable items are now uniquely equipped. Think of the big trinkets, such as Death’s Verdict. So, you don’t feel the need to run normal to try for this 1 item, as it would also cost you your heroic lockout for the week.

Finally, to offset there being less overall lockouts to do, bosses on both difficulties will drop additional Emblems of Triumph. And on 25-player raid, bosses will drop an additional Trophy of the Crusade. This should all add up to making ToGC (Trial of the Grand Crusader) as a raid feel a good source of upgrades, without feeling as though you are missing out due to there being fewer lockouts to do as a whole.

2. Onyxia’s Lair Returns

But that’s not all the raiding content as Onyxia will be making a return in Dustwallow Marsh.

Originally, this was for WoW’s 5 year anniversary event, but it will be available alongside Call of the Crusade this time. A new feature to this is an NPC outside of her lair named Zidormi. She will allow you to toggle between the old level 60 version and the new level 80 version of this encounter.

This time around, no attunement needed, like Vanilla. So, don’t worry about that. The fight itself is just like it was in Vanilla: apply dots, more dots, handle many whelps and see who can dodge a deep breath.

Onyxia will drop items very reminiscent of her Vanilla drop table, but with updated itemization for Wrath Classic. If you are particularly lucky, you might even see the Reigns of the Onyxian Drake. This super rare mount has the same model as Onyxia herself and boasts a premium 310% flight speed.

Finally, raid wise, the VoA (Vault of Archavon) gets a new addition, Koralon the Flame watcher. He will drop Tier 8 equivalent tier gear and Season 7 PVP gear.

3. Dungeon Updates

Dungeon content will also be seeing updates in Call of the Crusade.

The new difficulty, called Titan Rune Beta, is an amped up version of the previously available Titan Rune Alpha dungeons. Enemies will have additional health and damage, but players will also get new tricks to deal with this challenge. This will vary from dungeon to dungeon.

But for example, in the Nexus dungeons or VH (Violet Hold), defeating a mirror image will give the player a stacking haste buff. And in the CoS (Culling of Stratholme), players can now find holy hand grenades to deal with powerful undead minions.

The reward from TRB (Titan Rune Beta) dungeons is a brand new currency called “Sidereal Essence”. This can be spent at the living constellations where your factions, emblem vendors, are found in Dalaran.

Rewards on offer are 10 player Ulduar hard mode items, including those from Algalon. These dungeons should be both a great option for players looking to gear up an alt or a fresh character, and for mains who have been getting unlucky on getting a certain item from Ulduar 10 hard mode so far.

Related: WOTLK Classic: 10 Last Minute Tips To Prepare For Phase 3 Call Of The Crusade

4. Trial Of The Champion

Alongside Trial of the Crusader, will also be a new dungeon, the Trial of the Champion as a 5-player counterpart to the raid.

This features some good old-fashioned horseback jousting, a variety of bosses and, of course, a showdown for the Black Knight right at the end.

This dungeon will also be available on TRB difficulty, where the crowd gets quite a bit more involved than normal by throwing both buffs and debuffs into the arena to help or hamper players.

The remainder of the content surrounding the Argent Tournament Grounds will also release with the update. This includes several new reputation vendors, such as the Sunreavers or Silver Covenant, depending on your faction, as well as the Crusader quartermaster in the western pavilion. These will offer new companion pets, mounts, toys, heirlooms and more.

You can also earn more Champion’s Seals as all remaining tournament daily quests have been added into the game. So, you can work towards the various rewards that little faster.

5. Epic Gems

Another new feature to expect in the patch will the inclusion of Epic Gems.

These provide more stats than the rare quality gems, and should be something that you look to place in your new gear where possible. Fortunately, there are many ways to get your hands on these new gems. So, if you like to play the game, you should pick them up.

At 450 Alchemy skill you can transmute a rare gem and an Eternal into an Epic Gem once every 20 hours.

There will also be a quest at the Alchemy shop in Dalaran called Cardinal Ruby, where, after doing 5 of any other Epic Gem transmute, you will learn how to transmute cardinal rubies. These are the red gems and will be the most in demand by far.

At 450 Jewelcrafting, you can prospect Titanium Ore. This will give uncommon and rare quality gems, Titanium Powder, which can be turned in at the Jewelcrafting shop for Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens and a chance at epic quality gems.

Epic gems can be exchanged for 10,000 Honor if you are more into PvPing for upgrading your gear. Or, you can exchange Emblems of Heroism for Epic Gems. The single color gems cost 20 each, the dual color 10. You can downgrade your emblems at this NPC in Dalaran Sewer if you wish to spend them in this way. But beware, once you downgrade, it’s permanent.

Finally, all new gem designs can be exchanged for Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens at the shop in Dalaran. They cost 4 each.

6. Season 7 PVP

A new PVP season will, of course, start, that being season 7, which will see the Relentless Gladiator’s gear become available for purchase by using your WOTLK Classic Gold. The best players will also be able to work towards titles and a mount, namely the Relentless Gladiator’s Frost Wyrm.

7. Isle Of Conquest

Finally, the Isle of Conquest will become available for play.

This 40 vs 40 battlegrounds pits Alliance vs Horde in a battle for resources against one another. It has you capture strategic points on the map, as well as build various vehicles to aid you in gatecrashing the enemies’ base. Or you know, maybe everyone will just run into each other in the middle of the map and fight for the first five minutes instead.

Either way, similar to AV (Alterac Valley), the first team to reduce the other side’s resources to 0, or defeat their general, will be declared victorious.

And that’s what to expect from Phase 3 of Wrath Classic – the call of the crusade. So, whether it’s raiding, collection or PVP, there is something for everyone here.

With the announcement of Phase 3 Call of the Crusade coming on June 20th and Trial of the Grand Crusader opening up on June 22nd, we are officially in the Phase 3 waiting room. With just under a month until the next phase drops, many people are wondering what to do between then and now.

Here, I am going to talk about what I am doing to prepare for WOTLK Classic Phase 3 Call of the Crusade and what you can do in Wrath to keep yourself busy between Phase 3 launch and now.

Gearing Max Level Alts For Heroic ++

The first thing that I’m doing is preparing my alts for Heroic ++ or Defense Protocol Beta.

These dungeons are going to be dropping 10 man Ulduar loot as well as badges and Sidereal Essences. Bosses in Heroic Plus Plus will be dropping Conquest tokens, making tier helm and shoulders easy to pick up as well as five Badges of Triumph per day from the daily Heroic ++. The end boss of each Heroic ++ dungeon will drop one Sidereal Essence, which you can spend to buy 10-man hard mode pieces from Ulduar.

I would suggest looking through the prices of items from the vendors and picking a few pieces to target. Of course, on your main, you probably know what pieces you’re missing like Meteorite Crystal or Dark Matter.

But what I’m doing for now to prepare my characters for Heroic ++. First, I see what BOE items are on the Auction House for cheap. BOEs will, of course, vary in price from server and day and also depending on the piece itself.

While these will vary in WOTLK Classic Gold, I still believe it is a good starting point to get you some early gear score and get you into some of these heroic plus dungeons. After this, depending on if you are in a guild or how cheap Runed Orbs are on the Auction House on your server, you can grab 12 of these and craft your Epic belt and Epic boots to give you a real step up in gearing. Some of the boots, like Footpads of Silence, end up being true BOEs for a few specs and close to this for many others.

I would again suggest you look at your best list for Phase 2 and Phase 3 to get an idea of which items are good for you so that you can get the most value out of those items. Many of these items will be replaced quickly in Phase 3. So, only go for them if they are cost effective and if they are worth it for your class specs.

My experience on the PTR the Heroic ++ dungeons was not as difficult as the Defense Protocol Alpha or Heroic Plus dungeons, the ones that were released last patch. And they offer Naxxramas gear as opposed to the new ones that are going to offer Ulduar gear.

As long as you’re following the mechanics, many of them are designed to give a damage buff and should allow a lower gear score item levels to complete them. I have heard the same sentiment from other people that they thought they were easier than actual Heroic Plus. But I will confirm this after launch when I tank a few of them on my 4k gear score prop Warrior and then start healing them on my fresh 80 Priest.

Leveling Up Alts

The next thing that I’m doing ties into the first and that is leveling up alts. I’m sure most of you are already doing this as we have the new Joyous Journeys buff out now.

I’m preparing a Priest and a Mage for Phase 3 while Joyous Journeys is active. That will leave me with just a Rogue at 61 and then a Warlock as the final two classes I have to level up on Wrath of the Lich King.

Not everyone is like me and enjoys leveling at everything. But if you do have an interest in getting another class up, now is the time. I’ve seen people level extremely fast and if you have a decent amount of time to play, you could probably hit 80 before June 22nd if you went hard. I myself use Rested XP, which I highly recommend if you just want to turn off your brain and binge Netflix. You can use the add-on for free up to a certain level.

Also Read: WOTLK Classic Phase 3: Best Gold Farming Strategy Right Now! - Runecloth Farming

Professions

The next thing that I’m doing is getting my professions up.

On my main characters like Death Knight Holy Paladin and Hunter, I already have max professions. However, my alts have been lacking for a while. Once you’ve had engineering gloves on a DPS character, or even a Healer for that matter, it’s pretty hard to go back.

I found myself playing a Shaman and Druid a lot in the last two months. But I’ve not leveled engineering on either of those characters until recently. I finished leveling up engineering on my Druid the other day and now I just need to do it on my Shaman as well as Alchemy. When the Priest and Mage get up there, I’m not sure if I’m going to have it in me to get their professions up immediately. But if I do start to play them on the regular, I will.

Try New Specs / Classes / Roles

At this point in the phase, my guilds have most of the content on farming. So, I’ve been taking the opportunity to try out some different roles, classes, and specs in Ulduar.

I mentioned that I’ve been gearing up my Druid and my Shaman. Both of those classes are now above 4,800 gear score and I’m working on gearing their other specs as well. I’ve killed 10-man Algalon with both of those classes and I am gearing Feral spec on the Druid to try out Feral DPS and Feral tank. I’ve now killed both Algalon 25-man and Yogg 0 light as both a Blood Death Knight DPS and a Marksmanship Hunter, which was a lot of fun. I do hope that Blood Death Knight DPS ends up scaling well in ICC because it is so fun to play.

I’ve also recently started to try tanking in 10-man Ulduar on Blood Death Knight as well as my tank gear has come along nicely. Your guild has flexibility for you to try other classes or specs or roles in the 10-man or the 25-man raid. I would go ahead and do so now. You may find a new alt you really want to gear in ToGC (Trial of the Grand Crusader) or even find a new man if you like it enough.

ToGC is going to be such an amazing time for gearing up characters that I think you may be missing out if you don’t have at least one max level all to play. But that’s just my opinion.

Play Other Games (Avoid Burnout)

Then the last thing I’m doing while waiting for Phase 3 is playing other games. You should, too.

It’s been a long phase in Ulduar. And although I’ve had a blast, I’m looking forward to Diablo 4 and I’ve been playing some Cyberpunk 2077 recently too. It’s good to get away from WoW for a while before a new phase drops. Just so, you don’t feel burned out on day one when ToGC drops.

Most guilds will still be running Ulduar next phase as well. So, it’s going to be good to pace yourself accordingly.

Outro

I personally think Phase 3 is going to be a blast and you can tell that I am especially excited about Heroic ++ and gearing all of my alts through that system.

Of course, everyone loves getting loot and gearing up their characters. But it will be nice to be able to world tour again with my guildies or just jump into some content that isn’t a full raid or a super huge time investment while still having it be useful to my character in some way. It’s a great time to be an alcoholic with Sidereal Essence on its way, and I cannot wait.

Diablo 4 is almost here and I’ve been non-stop absorbing every piece of content imaginable. With so much info to learn, I decided to put together five of my best tips for launch to ensure you’re not making some of the most costly mistakes and ultimately have the smoothest launch experience.

1. Must Do Content

For tip number one, don’t sleep on world content.

The world content available in the game is very important and all offer their own unique value for completion. Some of the most important World Content that you’re going to want to make sure is doing aside from main quests include Altars of Lilith, dungeons, events, and side quests.

The 160 Altars of Lilith provide you with XP, meaningful stat increases, and count for zone completion. Zone completion is required to level up your Renown for each zone and gain some of the most important benefits, which include two Skill Points, one potion charge, 80 max Obols and four Paragon Points for each of the five zones you complete.

When you finish leveling your Renown in each of the five zones, you’ll end with 10 extra Skill Points, 5 additional potion charges, 400 extra max Obols and 20 Paragon Points, which are going to be incredibly important.

As you can also see on this screenshot of the Renown page, dungeons, side quests, waypoints, area exploration, and strongholds, all additionally go towards completing your Renown in each zone.

Events, on the other hand, are important for their own reason. Not only are they a great source of consistent experience as you’re doing other content, but they also give you Obols, which are used for legendary gambling. This world content is going to be essential to ensure your character is strong enough to compete in some of the hardest endgame content, including World Tier 4 and World Tier 5 Capstone Dungeons and fighting the hardest difficulties of Nightmare Dungeons.

So, in my opinion, it’ll be best to make sure you get these things knocked out early. Because when you’re finally at the endgame in Diablo 4, you won’t want to have to circle back and do some of the more mundane and simple content.

Also Read: Diablo 4 Cold Assassin Rogue Build: A Level 50 Guide

2. Most Common Noobtrap

For tip number two, I want to touch briefly on World Tier difficulty.

World Tier difficulty has been a conversation point for almost everybody in the Diablo 4 Community. Generally, the consensus is that you should start on World Tier 1 to clear through their main story quickly.

The main difference between World Tier 1 and World Tier 2 is the fact that World Tier 2 makes enemies more difficult to kill, but only provides 15% more Diablo 4 Gold, which in the early game is really insignificant and 20% more XP for my monster kills.

On paper, that might sound good. But considering that World Tier 1 and World Tier 2 are only for levels 1 to 50 where we’re going to get World Tier 3, you should get through 1 to 50 as quickly as possible. So, considering that World Tier 2 makes content significantly more difficult but doesn’t provide additional XP for anything outside of monster kills is not worth doing if you’re looking for the fastest way to endgame.

But again, I do want to mention here not everyone is playing Diablo 4 to blast through the game and get to the endgame. So, feel free to play the game at your own pace. Everyone is different, and this game is magnificent no matter how you experience it. And while admittingly I’m not a huge lore or story guy, even I have to admit the cinematics in Diablo 4 are Immaculate and the raw production value of this game is very impressive.

3. Aspect Imprinting Tips

With that out of the way, let’s move into tip 3, talking about aspects.

As you’re navigating your way through content, you should be getting the aspects that are required for your build. Honestly, in my opinion, you should be getting any for your class or any classes you’ll be playing. Because the builds are strong on launch will not be the end-all beal.

So, preparing yourself for the inevitable balance patches is a wise idea. Anyway, with that mention out of the way, the most important thing pertaining to aspects in relation to Diablo 4’s launch is to know you shouldn’t be worried about having all the aspects for your build as you’re leveling. Let me explain that a little.

Let’s say you’re playing a Barbarian at level 15 and you find a nice sword. For the sake of keeping numbers simple, let’s say that sword has a raw DPS of a hundred. You hurry over to town and imprint your aspect on the sword. Now, from level 15 to maybe 18 or 19, you’re owning. But, at level 20, you find an even better sword that has a raw DPS of 200. Now, you have to imprint your legendary aspect again and each time you’re imprinting, that’s going to cost you gold and additional reagents to upgrade it. Now your weapon is going to be the biggest deal while you’re leveling. Because the damage increases from level to level will be substantial to your overall ability to clear content. And from my memory, it also costs more to imprint weapons as well.

But anyway, let me sum up my two cents about aspects. First, don’t worry about imprinting aspects on your weapon every time you get a new upgrade. You’ll waste a ton of materials and ultimately, it’s just going to cost you in the long run. You can imprint on armor, rings, and amulets. But again, don’t worry about imprinting on every upgrade you’re getting from 1 to 50.

Gear power rise is quite steady from 1 to 50, so you’ll only want to start worrying about imprints as you less frequently replacing your gear later on. And if you’re following the strategy that I’m going to be following on launch, you’re not going to need best in slot gear to clear content on World Tier 1, anyway.

4. Leveling Approach

For tip number four, plan out your build.

As you’re going through the campaign for your first time, you don’t want to worry about respecting and re-gearing. Because you’re constantly flip-flopping builds.

In my opinion, you should stick with one or two builds for launch and go with them until you’re facing more difficult content in my case. When it comes to choosing a build, I recommend bookmarking d4gold.com. On this site, you can not only find various build guides but also buy large quantities of Diablo 4 Gold directly here.

For my Rogue class, I’m going to play a Flurry build for the early game and swap to TB (Twisting Blade) around level 25. Now, this isn’t at all for optimized clear speed. It’s actually because I really just enjoy the Flurry build. But I do know from number testing that the Twisting Blade build is going to be more consistent DPS. So, by having these two builds to run on launch, I’m going to set myself up with a very clear path to progress through the story and only reset my build page one time.

In my opinion, you don’t need to play the most meta build at all. With Diablo 4 still a few days away, you can just theory craft your own builds. Because you can use this time to think about what type of build you want to make, list what you need to get done, and figure out how to fill in what you’re currently missing.

But to wrap up this tip and keep it really simple, you should have a plan coming into launch, stick to it, and don’t worry too much about having a hundred percent optimal builds while you’re leveling. As long as you have somewhat of a decent build and some decent gear, you’re not going to struggle to clear content up until World Tier 3.

5. Maximize Your Enjoyment

And tip number five is having fun.

I want to stress this point for Diablo 4’s server launch. Because ultimately, with the launch of Diablo 4, you should be looking to have fun and learn as much as possible.

The launch of the game is going to be at least for myself a big testing period before Season 1. If you’ve played Diablo 3, this game is going to operate similar in relation to seasons. In each season, your non-seasonal characters won’t transfer their level and power into the season. So, don’t feel too bad if you’re not able to grind the game or stay up to date with the best gear outside of season time.

The launch is going to allow us to learn what Diablo 4 has to offer and find the best ways to level fast, gear optimally, and most importantly, allow us to get good at our classes. The only things you need to have done by the time season releases here is make sure you’ve completed the main story, understand your class, experience the Paragon Boards, and most importantly, max out your Renown for each zone.

Today, we’re breaking down all the changes and new additions we can expect to see throughout the month of June. We’ll be looking at Events, Limited-time items, Seasonal Changes, Weather Phenomena and everything in between.

1. Wedding Event

Now, June is a super busy month, primarily because June also marks the start of the Wedding Season in Animal Crossing New Horizons, honouring Reese and Cyrus’s Wedding Anniversary.

Beginning June 1st, and running through to the end of the month, the Wedding Season Event takes place on Harv’s Island and players are given the task of decorating the Venue each day. This is probably the largest event in the game, offering up the most rewards and furniture items for taking part.

The objective is to decorate the venue with the chosen theme that day to unlock items. The more you take part, the more ACNH Items you unlock and the more Heart Crystals you earn. These are used to purchase Wedding Furniture to keep for yourself.

Alongside the Wedding Season Event, the Able Sisters also stocks several special wedding-themed clothing items. And additional wedding-themed seasonal items are also available from the Nook Stop and are not to be missed.

2. Seasonal Items

Speaking of Seasonal Items, June is packed full of limited-time items that are only available throughout the month of June in honour of real-world events.

These include the Dragon Boat Festival and the Dano Festival, International Children’s Day, Father’s Day, the Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice, depending on which Hemisphere you’re in, and of course, the Wedding Season we already mentioned.

The Dragon Boat Festival and the Dano Festival are typically celebrated in China and South Korea respectively and introduce the Festival Zongzi and Surichwi Tteok items, which are now both edible food items.

International Children’s Day is a celebration honouring good health towards children, and introduces the Handmade Cape and Handmade Crown. Both are really cool items. These are only available for two weeks, unlike at launch.

Father’s Day returns to honour parents and, like the Wedding Season, runs for the entire month. This Seasonal Event introduces the Thank-You Dad Mug and Thank-You Dad Apron.

The Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice take place at the same time, depending on your hemisphere. Players in the Northern Hemisphere can obtain the Sunflower Crown, the Sunflower Rug, the Sunflower Glasses and the Maypole. And Players in the Southern Hemisphere can obtain the Midwinter Sweater, the Aurora Wall, the Bathtub with Yuzu and the Tangyuan.

All of these items mentioned here are available from the Nook Stop on the dates shown, and depending on when you started New Horizons, or if you went back to the game after a break, some of these items may be brand new.

3. Seasonal Materials

Moving on, whilst we’re talking about Seasonal Topics, it’s worth remembering both Hemispheres are approaching new seasons, which means new Crafting Materials are available throughout June.

The Northern Hemisphere will say goodbye to the Young-Spring Bamboo materials and instead begin to find Summer Shells washed ashore. These new materials will be available from June 1st through to August 31st. And of course if you’re playing through this season for the first time, you’ll now unlock the Summer Shell Boat Tour, too.

Anyway, Summer Shell recipes will also become available from Balloons and Bottles, and include recipes for items, such as the Water Flooring, the Tropical Vista and the Summer Shell Rug, amongst others.

The Southern Hemisphere will continue to encounter Acorns and Pine Cones for a couple of weeks, however as Winter begins, small and large Snowflakes can be obtained from June 11th through to August 24th.

4. Nooks Cranny

Now, given we are approaching new seasons, Nooks Cranny sees some pretty cool changes to both. It’s aesthetics and stock.

In the Summer and Winter months, depending on which Hemisphere you’re in, you’ll notice Nooks Cranny sees subtle changes to its decoration and window displays.

But, more importantly, Nooks Cranny also sells seasonal items. During the Summer, Nooks Cranny sells the Surfboard and Retro Fans. And during the Winter, Nooks Cranny sells the Round Space Heater and Celebratory Candles.

All of these items are actually locked to a specific colour, based on your island. However, now that Cyrus resides on Harv’s Island, it is possible to customise them with him for bells, even during the Wedding Season, which is super useful.

5. Weather Phenomena

Now, one of my favourite changes we see on the New Horizons Island is, of course, to the different types of weather.

The Northern Hemisphere is much the same at the start of Summer, though. However, Thin Clouds will disappear at the end of May, so it will be some time before you see these again.

In the Southern Hemisphere on the other hand, Cirrus and Cirrocumulus Clouds disappear, with Billow clouds taking their place. Players in the Southern Hemisphere will also begin encountering Aurora’s on clear nights once the snow starts to fall from June 11th.

You can only encounter these from 6 pm through to 4 am, although can be tricky to spot, as they often only appear for an hour or so. But if you’ve never seen one, definitely worth looking out for.

6. Bug-Off

Next up, we have another cool Summer activity, which is, of course, the Bug-off Season.

Starting on the 4th Saturday of June, which this year is the 24th, Flick will stop by the Plaza to host the first Bug-off of the year. For anyone new to New Horizons in the last 10 months or so, the Bug-off is a time-trial challenge that sees players catch as many bugs as possible before the timer ends.

Flick rewards players for catching bugs, so the more you catch, the more prizes you can earn. Some of the items available include the Bug Cage Bag, the Toy Cockroach and the Termite Mound, amongst others.

You also earn Trophies for taking part, so even if you took part last year, it’s a great opportunity to earn different items or a different type of Trophy.

The Bug-off is a Summer Event, so currently unavailable in the Southern Hemisphere, but you could always time travel or visit a friend’s island, if you wanted to.

Also Read: ACNH: How Could Splatoon 3 Affect The Next Animal Crossing Game?

7. Island Aesthetics

Another detail and change I like to see on the New Horizons Island is of course to the Bushes that go in and out of season as we change months and seasons.

Anyway, pink and white Azalea Bushes stop flowering at the end of May in the Northern Hemisphere, with blue and pink Hydrangeas blooming in their place. These will continue to be available through to July.

As we continue to transition into Summer, the weeds found around the island become less vibrant too, but tend to have more flowers, which personally I like.

In the Southern Hemisphere, Holly Bushes continue to flower until mid-June. However, red and pink Camellia Bushes bloom in their place from June 16th, all the way through to September.

As for the Weeds, they lose their feathery Autumn look, and become frosted and icy as the snow begins, which is to be expected.

8. Critters

As you’d expect, as we enter the Summer months here in the Northern Hemisphere, we see a huge shift in Bugs, Fish and Deep-Sea Creatures.

In total, players can expect to encounter 25 new Critters, including the Goliath Beetle, the Great White Shark and the Abalone, to name just a few. Naturally, as players enter the Winter months in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s much the same.

However, in total, players can expect to encounter only 9 new Critters, which are pretty much inline with what you’d expect from the Winter months. These include the Dung Beetle, the Stringfish and the Lobster, to name a few.

So, what are you looking forward to the most from the month of June?

The action RPG world rumbled when Grinding Gear Games announced Path of Exile 2 during the opening ceremony of ExileCon 2019.

The Announcement And Updates On POE 2

Mere weeks after Blizzard’s showcase of Diablo 4, Chris Wilson and a few other top-level GGG employees walked on stage, announced Path of Exile 2 and played the in-development product in front of the crowd. The people in the venue, Twitch chat, even Reddit, were all floored at the incredible edition and reinvention.

This huge expansion would introduce to one of the best ARPGs out there: two campaigns, one overhauled game. Even Chris couldn’t believe the reception.

The rest of ExileCon 2019 went swimmingly. Various developers spoke about their unique philosophy and development process while working on Path of Exile. The best racers in the scene competed to kill Act 5 Kitava’s first and ExileCon 2019 ended.

From November 2019 to April 2021, GGG remained silent on POE 2’s progress, continuing to release consistent expansions to Path of Exile 1.

Suddenly, in April 2021, GGG spoke out with an update on Path of Exile 2 and showcased portions of the new campaign’s second act, a desert area. Again, it looked fantastic. You can see the updated animations, the breathtaking terrain, two new weapons, the crossbow, the spear, boss, health bars, and so on. And community response to the content on display has also been very positive.

However, all POE 2 information went dark once again after this showcase. We waited for an update, but none occurred. We continued to wait and wait until in August 2022, GGG unveiled they’d be fully elaborating on Path of Exile 2 during ExileCon in 2023, which would be held on July 29th and 30th in Auckland, New Zealand.

Also Read: My Fastest Way To Farm Blight Maps In POE 3.21

The Numerous POE 1 Expansions

Since then, we’ve heard absolutely nothing about Path of Exile 2. In fact, nothing truly new has been unveiled since the Act 2 showcase in April 2021 more than two years ago.

So, what’s the deal? For those who don’t know Path of Exile’s developers Grinding Gear Games (also known as GGG) well, you may think they’re hiding something, something negative. Likely, that’s wrong. Instead, GGG is traveling a path untraveled by many game developers. These days, they’re working, waiting, and staying silent on the Path of Exile 2 product. This way they can focus on delivering and surprising their audience they have in the past.

All the while, they’ve been dropping decent sized expansions to Path of Exile 1. Since announcing Path of Exile 2 called the 4.0 expansion by some in the community as it’s going to be a massive addition and overhaul to the main game, GGG has introduced the following 13 expansions to Path of Exile.

Please do note, every single update also includes other minor but meaningful content, such as balance changes, new unique items, new skill gems, engine improvements, divination cards, new models, updated graphics, and more. These are only the highlights.

3.9 Conquerors of the Atlas in December 2019 was the introduction of a new endgame system, involving Sirus and the Conquerors of the Atlas, multiple different crafting tools and the metamorph build a boss mechanic. It also introduced Awakened Support Gems and new bow skills.

3.10 Delirium in March 2020 added the Delirium mechanic, which changed mapping forever and let us use cluster jewels on our passive skill tree to make our own passive skill trees.

3.11 Harvest in June 2020 gave us one of the most powerful and deterministic crafting systems in Path of Exile. That still exists in the game to this day although being in a nerfed state.

3.12 Heist in September 2020 rolled out a brand new chunk of endgame in the form of Heist, allowing us to discover new forms of every single gem in the game, old and new loot, brand new item bases and upgrade a host of rogues in an endless experience similar to delving and mapping.

3.13 Echoes of the Atlas in January 2021 presented players with the maven endgame fight and the idea of capturing bosses then fighting them all at once in a Grand Arena, The Maven’s Crucible. Plus, it added the Atlas Passive Skill Tree, allowing us Exiles to customize our endgame experience to our liking, unlike any other game out there. Plus, there is Ritual, a new way to barter and earn items while killing monsters.

3.14 Ultimatum in April 2021 surprised us with an amazing risk reward mechanic overseen by the wickedly sly Trialmaster and added multiple new powerful gems to the game like Reap, Exsanguinate, Petrified Blood and Corrupting Fever. All are used to this day in a variety of builds.

3.15 Expedition in July 2021 dropped in a gripping new narrative a brand new content system called Expedition and heavily reworked numerous pieces of character power. The changes are still controversial to this day.

3.16 Scourge in October 2021 summoned forth The Scourge faction and allowed us to clear our areas a second time. But the second run was in a literal hellscape. The league also heightened the skill ceiling with new forms of Uber content for Blight, Legion, Breach and Delirium.

3.17 Siege of the Atlas in February 2022 brought forth another huge improvement to Path of Exile’s mapping system and gave us four new Pinnacle Bosses. It also added Eldritch Currency to the game, which let players of all types craft in their gear. Plus, it began the revamp of rare monsters with the introduction of Archnemesis.

3.18 Sentinel in May 2022 added new ways to buff monsters using Sentinels, completely reworked rare monsters has just alluded to before, added seven Uber versions of bosses to the game and let us play with recombination a new crafting system that smashed items together to create something new but familiar.

3.19 Lake of Kalandra, in August 2022, introduced a new map building mechanic to the game, allowing us to enter the Lake of Kalandra and make powerful rings and amulets. It also further reworked where monsters completely changed the Beyond mechanic, replaced the old monsters with the Scourge, rebalanced hundreds of unique items, swapped the value of Divine Orbs and Exalted Orbs and changed around Harvest Crafting.

3.20 The Forbidden Sanctum in December 2022 launched a roguelike dungeon into Path of Exile, added one of the first character power enhancing account bound items into the game, further reworked rare monsters and walked back on the term Archnemesis, massively buffed a set of end game unique weapons, retooled jewels, ailments and a few other systems and added Ruthless a new game mode for Path of Exile with extreme item scarcity and numerous reworked or removed mechanics.

Finally, we’ve reached the present. 3.21 Crucible in April 2023 added the Crucible weapon combining mechanic to the game, reworked two former large mechanics Breach and Abyss, did a pass on passive skill tree masteries and completely changed up to ascendancies - the Pathfinder for the Ranger, and the Saboteur for the Shadow.

Those are the 13 major expansions to Path of Exile 1 since Path of Exile 2’s announcement at the end of patch 3.8 Blight in November 2019.

Why GGG Is Staying Quiet?

Although GGG has been almost entirely silent about Path of Exile 2, they cannot stop talking about an updating Path of Exile 1 because they are the same game folks.

Path of Exile 2 is a giant expansion to Path of Exile 1. Both campaigns will lead to the same endgame. All this work they’re doing and all this great content they’re adding and iterating on will probably be in Path of Exile 2 in some form.

Us Exiles will be able to slay the Maven as a werewolf. We’ll be able to zoom through maps with a crossbow shouting about bolts. We’ll have boss bars for our favorite foes, from Sirus to the Eater of Worlds. And we will progress through the core campaign battling Merville, Dominus, Kitava and more with the updated gem system.

So, why the silence on the Path of Exile 2 from GGG they’d rather show? It’s a meme in the Path of Exile Community to answer every problem minor or massive with the line: POE 2 will fix it.

GGG stated during their initial and second announcement that Path of Exile 2 will indeed solve some things problems with this skill gem system, poor animations, outdated graphics, outdated design and numerous other areas of the game. But they’ve backed up those statements with evidence and ideas. We know how they’re seeking to improve their game. Because when they’re asked and choose to answer, their answers are concrete about Path of Exile 2 and frank about Path of Exile 1. They’re adding and experimenting in Path of Exile 1 while developing and iterating Path of Exile 2.

Otherwise, they’re silent. They don’t want to talk boldly about Path of Exile 2. They want to show us how they’re going to make an amazing expansion and overhaul to Path of Exile. They take the “when it’s ready” line very seriously when it comes to Path of Exile 2 and we’re going to witness that firsthand on July 29th of this year as we did in April 2021 and November 2019.

When Chris Wilson walks out on stage at ExileCon 2023, he may be passionate, tearful even, but he will be confident in the game. He’s about to showcase to the world as he was at ExileCon in 2019. He believes in his team of developers. Grinding Gear Games is putting in the time and effort to ensure Path of Exile 2 will outlast the competition of new and old.

Diablo 4 had a livestream today that focused on endgame content and recent patch changes to the game.

Although there was no announcement of a game launch tomorrow or a third beta this weekend, many viewers were intrigued by a surprise announcement that was teased during the showcase.

It turns out that there actually is a surprise announcement related to Diablo 4 - there will be a third beta weekend called the "Server Slam" in which players are encouraged to log in to test the game's capacity and stability before its official launch in June.

This was revealed during a lengthy livestream focused on endgame content and recent patch changes.

The Server Slam third beta dates: May 12-14.

To summarize, the third beta weekend for Diablo 4, called the "Server Slam" was recently announced during a livestream dedicated to endgame content and patch changes.

Players can expect much of the same features as previous betas, including the same classes, story and zone progression, and level cap at 20. However, legendary drop rates and Diablo 4 Gold will not be inflated this time around , providing players with a more accurate sense of what to expect at lower levels.

A world boss named Ashava will spawn 24 hours after the start of the beta on May 13 at 9 AM PDT , and will then reappear every three hours until the event ends. Players who defeat Ashava with a level 20 character before the beta ends will receive the Cry of Ashava mount trophy, which features Ashava's horn attached to their horse. It's important to note that the trophy is not the horse itself.

It will feature a few significant changes, including the implementation of a beta feedback patch that will include numerous nerfs and buffs to different character classes. In particular, the Barbarian and Druid classes will receive significant buffs to address their underperformance at lower levels.

Additionally, dungeons will be tweaked to reduce the amount of backtracking through empty areas. It's worth noting that the game's fonts have also been updated to have a more Diablo-esque appeal.

Server Slam beta weekend is highly anticipated, despite featuring largely the same beta content as previous rounds. Progress will be wiped after the beta, though certain earned trophies, titles, and baby wolf back bling will remain.

While some players may have held back during previous betas to avoid losing progress, many are eager to try out different character classes in preparation for the game's official launch. The Druid and Rogue have received a lot of attention so far, but some players may choose to try out the Sorcerer or Necromancer classes before starting fresh with the traditional Barbarian when the game is released.

To clarify, the upcoming Server Slam beta weekend for Diablo 4 will not feature any new content beyond the addition of more world boss spawns and a new patch. However, many players are still excited for the opportunity to play more of the highly anticipated game before its official launch.

Despite featuring largely the same content as previous betas, the chance to try out different character classes and earn trophies and titles is still appealing to many fans of the Diablo franchise.

According to GameSpot's interview with Diablo 4 director Joe Shely and associate director Joseph Piepiora about the upcoming Server Slam test, the pre-launch period is crucial for ensuring a stable launch. The team's plan from the beginning has been to gather feedback from players through various beta periods, such as the early access weekend and open beta.

Also Read: Diablo 4 Server Slam Beta - Class, Dungeon & Legendary Changes

This feedback has allowed them to make necessary changes to improve the game and test their servers with a large number of players. Ultimately, the goal is to make Diablo 4 as stable as possible for its official launch.

Blizzard has made changes to the server infrastructure in preparation for the launch of Diablo 4, and they want to test these changes through a Server Slam event. The goal is to stress the servers as much as possible to ensure a smooth launch. The Barbarian class will also receive buffs based on player feedback.

Blizzard has already learned a lot from the beta period, but there are certain situations that can't be simulated internally. However, by making changes and deploying hotfixes during the beta period, they were able to improve the stability of their infrastructure.

Is Final Fantasy 14 is still worth playing in 2023? Why we’re still playing and loving it in 2023? Most of all, if it’s still worth to start your own adventure?

The first big positive of this game is something that is really hard to keep fresh because it totally leaves the traits of the MMO genre, but still is one of my biggest selling points for the game and that is the first time playing experience.

It’s really hard to take yourself back in time and remember all the good moments you’ve spent with things that are long gone. But if you do so for Final Fantasy, it had been the best moments of my game alive as a long time console player and single player game enjoyed. Even though back in 2014 where I came to Eorzea for the first time, it offered way more MMO aspects forced onto the player, but more to that later.

However, what really stands out in this game is not even compared to other MMORPGs on the market, but basically all single player games as well is how much this world makes sense to itself. And the developers created a universe that drags you in with every new character you meet or places you travel to. It is insanely immersive. And the laughter details references to the franchise or writing of the story’s plot are in a class of its own. Even starting into A Realm Reborn made perfect sense for me and I absolutely enjoyed the story with classical Final Fantasy elements, especially on the antagonist side.

Nonetheless, Heaven’s Ward, like for many players, was that expansion and moment in time where the game developed into an absolute masterpiece. Gameplay became complex, smooth, and much more entertaining and the story around each God and the Dragonsong War was just beautifully written.

While still having the ongoing light motif develop that leads to its conclusion in the recent and WarCraft expansion, so there had always been a lot of planning to make the whole world and story fit while still developing each expansion’s topic around it.

But even apart from all the story driven content, up to that point, there’s already so much to do in this game: so many outfits and weapons (which you can get by using FFXIV Gil) that are worth collecting, trials and raids to participate in and even the brand new crystalline conflict PVP mode is already available at that point. Crafting, Gathering, house building, Gold Saucer...... It’s crazy how much content this game is offering that even a player like Asmongold was totally stuck in Heaven’s Ward as there is so much content to tackle already.

Just when I was recently playing a good variation of single player games over the past weeks, I realized how good Final Fantasy 14 is where a good old classic, like Grandia, outplayed the other new games by longshot. Even Kingdom Hearts 3 that I absolutely love for many elements didn’t come anywhere close to the shining times of old Final Fantasies. And not talking about Strangers of Paradise, that was cool but felt super repetitive and boring after a while.

On the other hand, we had the Resident Evil 4 Remake. This game was great, not from the epic story or plot, but just how well it is crafted into a very atmospheric horror show. That was the play to have fun with the absolute basics of managing your resources, hitting enemies sharply and constantly making Leon look like the badass character he is. And while the whole engine at battle system has been pushed to the next gen standards, the mechanics of the game are absolutely 2005. To be completely honest, I think this is the best remake that’s available right now.

This is where Final Fantasy 14 comes into play again. This game is not trying to reinvent the wheel, but create the whole vehicle around it. The combat system is a classical World of WarCraft Rebrand with added strategical elements and the typical Japanese rotation system. But how all this is implemented and introduced in the game is absolutely classic.

I still hope for an earlier access to job skills and the way how the game could be more fun at lower levels. But overall, I have way more fun playing these old-functioning battle mechanics than warping my main character from spot to spot to dodge my enemy attacks or start any assault. Think about why Elden Ring was so popular? It took all the good battle made mechanics and updated them by mixing in some open world elements.

The gameplay of games like Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics, while they seem dated from a visual perspective, they’re way more fun than modern strategy games that put in real-time decisions and stuff like that.

The one exception that I thoroughly enjoyed and would rate as my personal Game of the Year for 2022 is A Plague Tale: Requiem. Here, the producers and developers of the game took the horror genre to another level and while it doesn’t feature the grotesque horror of Resident Evil, the gameplay mechanics were simply amazing. The first game in which I enjoyed the stealth parts because they made sense. And while for me personally, the story was the big selling point for the game, gameplay felt rewarding and absolutely satisfying.

Related: Final Fantasy 14: Some Players Can Get Stormblood Expansion For Free

That’s how games should be designed when the players feel rewarded for their actions and get even more when walking the extra mile. So, this leads us back to Heaven’s Ward, right? Because walking the extra mile leads you into three more expansions that develop the main plot further with the heartbreaking and genius climax in Shadowbringers and perfectly crafted conclusion in Endwalker to become one if not the best stories that any game ever created.

But it still does offer all the MMO aspects especially if you reach end game but also everything the game had in stock before that because Square Enix are insanely good at keeping old content alive and due to thinking of former content, you can always go back in time with your high-level character to relive the moments that other players felt when they played the game two expansions ago, except for some balancing changes, maybe.

I mean for example, if you don’t care about the recent Mandeville Relic weapons, you can just leave Eureka a visit, gather up some friends and try to venture as far as you can into the riddles and mysteries of that very special aisle or you could join the Bozjan Southern Front for further development of the war against galimov and how the whole all scheming and planning took place besides the big events of Shadowbringers or Endwalker.

There’s just so much content that this game is offering and only the veteran players and those that played it patch after patch will run into content draft. If you’re a new player or haven’t explored all these old forms of content, this game is a freaking must play in my opinion, especially if you like any of the main series Final Fantasies that are on par with a quality of 14 or even beaten by it. I mean, you can even treat it like a single player game with each patch more and more because Square Enix is constantly adding party support to dungeons and trials so that you’re not dependent on other players to join your efforts and story progression.

Gems and links are such a fundamental part of Path of Exile that you have to understand them. By the end of this article, you may know what I mean.

Intro

Gems are how your character gets their abilities. These are socketed in a corresponding color socket in your gear and have stats requirements to be used. A green gem in this case, Ice Shot will fit into your green socket here, and now I can fire a single arrow.

Gems come in two flavors: active and support gems. Active skill gems give you the actual abilities, while support gems buff the active gems or instead they could change them in some way.

Sockets come in four colors: red, blue and green and much later in the game or early, if you’re really lucky, white. White sockets will house a gem of any color.

Support Gems

If we take the added cold support gem, this adds cold damage to my attacks, making it do substantially more damage. If I hover over some support gems in my inventory, then this little control comes up to indicate which of the active gems I have socketed will be supported by the gem in question.

You can also somewhat work this out by matching the keywords from the top of each gem card. For support gems to work, they must be socketed in the same piece of gear as the active gem and be linked by one of offhand gems through these bars. 

Offhand Gems

If it isn’t linked, it will do nothing. Continue to get XP. It should also be noted that gems in your offhand weapons will also continue to gain XP, so use this to your advantage as your level. 

Now, for some examples of other gems that will mutate the skill, almost changing fundamentally how it reacts. The Arrow Nova Support causes my arrows to fire up into the air, and when it lands, it spreads out to the surrounding targets. 

Greater Multiple Projectiles, otherwise known as GMP, will increase the number of arrows and Volley Support will do the same, but the arrows will come out in parallel to the original. We can also combine these together to do crazy things like this. 

Related: How I Made Tons Of Currency With Ease In POE 3.21? - Zero Investment Strategy

Gear Sockets

Gems sometimes have a drawback as well as a buff. For instance, GMP reduces the damage to the original scale whilst giving it the extra projectiles. 

Different pieces of gear have a differing number of maximum sockets. Most gear has a maximum of four except for body armor and items that go in weapon slots. Body armor as well as two-handed weapons can have up to 6-Linked sockets, whereas one-handed weapons and shields can only have three. This maximum does take a while to achieve and is based on the level of the item. Lower-level items will have fewer maximum slots.

How To Get Gear Links?

So, how do you get gear with the right sockets and links?

Initially, these will come from vendors in towns or from items that drop. If your vendor doesn’t have what you’re looking for, then check back later, as the fender will get some new items each time you’re level.

In previous leagues, this used to be a complete refresh. But as of POE 3.21, items will persist between levels, with only the oldest items being swapped out. If you’re lucky enough to drop an Orb of Binding early, this will allow you to take a normal item and turn it into a rare as well as giving it falling sockets. It will retain the colors already on the original gear and just add missing ones colored randomly. Do not use these on an item that is five or six linked or you may cry.

Later in the game, you’ll start it to have a mass enough POE Currency to be able to craft the sockets links and colors on your gear to make the gear the most optimal for your build. The Jeweler’s Orb will re-roll the number of sockets randomly. The Orb of Fusing will add random links and the Chromatic Orb will re-roll the colors.

Vendor Recipes 

There are vendor recipes for both the Chromatic Orb and the Jeweler’s Orb. 

For a Chromatic Orb, get any item that is red, green and blue linked. For the Jeweler’s orb, find any six socket item not linked and sell it to a vendor.

There are also currency vendors in Act 4 and Act 9 that will allow you to train Jeweler’s orbs for the other two. 

Later in the game, you can also drop powerful items that will have active and support gems built in. And any gems socketed in the item will be affected by or will affect them as if they were linked to them. 

The Diablo Community is not happy with the video that Blizzard released yesterday, which is titled “Diablo 4 Into The Endgame”. The video is about the endgame in Diablo 4, especially the Paragon system.

D4 Endgame Summary

I've summarized the information about the Diablo 4 endgame gameplay. You basically play through the campaign, then you get given a Capstone Dungeon to complete, which unlocks the next difficulty.

In this video, they said that dungeons have a chance to drop an aspect that you can pick up. So, unlike the beta where dungeons would have a fixed reward like you either got an Aspect (Aspect of Piercing Cold) or you didn't, it seems like some dungeons or maybe all of them will have a drop chance of an aspect instead.

I'd much prefer this randomized bonus instead of a guaranteed bonus and in the endgame, there's a Nightmare Dungeon, which lets you replay any old dungeon as long as you have found a Nightmare Sigil. This makes the dungeon more difficult, have more objectives and is similar to Elite Monsters. The dungeon itself will roll on affix and have an effect, like spawning a bunch of portals that spawn monsters. Imagine fighting the butcher next to three portals spawning demons. What I mean is that it could get chaotic in there.

They also mentioned the Tree of Whispers, which is basically a tree that gives you Bounty quests. You do the Bounty and you get a cash reward of your choice. It does seem like they've taken Diablo 3's town and just spread it across the map. I guess doing it this way forces us to use our mounts to run across the world. But they've also added two new ways to play the endgame.

On top of that, you've got Helltied. It's like a PVE event where extra powerful monsters are attacking a specific area and they drop special shards that you can use to get gear at designated stations within the Helltied area itself.

Then, there's the Fields of Hatred. It's basically Helltied, but for the PVP lovers, there are monsters, but you can also kill other players. All whilst, you try to collect shards that need to be purified before they're usable for gambling cosmetics and gear back in town. It honestly sounds pretty interesting and I can't even imagine how intense this must be on Hardcore.

Things I Missed

There were some things in the video that I missed, so you might have as well.

First, there's a Lilith looking boss, but it looks very much like the Diablo 2 version of Uber Lilith. In the beginning of the game, we can only have five potions, but it seems like in the endgame we maybe can have more up to nine.

During this new world boss, there's this invisible Rogue, who dodges the tornadoes perfectly, only to walk straight into the most obvious death ever confirming for us all that you don't want to stand inside the big scary circles. There's this floating snowflake following this Rogue player around. I'm not sure what it is. Does anyone know? Is it a skill? An item? A cosmetic? Or, is it just like a UI thing that you can enable on the menu?

Paragon System

On to the most controversial topics of the Diablo 4 endgame so far, the skill and Paragon system. I mean, we can see that we get 53 skill points and refunding one point costs over a hundred thousand Diablo 4 Gold, which seems pretty expensive. And I think that's good. You get four Paragon points per level past 50.

So, at level 100, you'll have 200 Paragon points and there are many variations of boards and each board can be spun to your preference. I'd assume you want the quickest route to the next legendary aspect, which they said is similar to Legendary Aspects in your gear.

And from analyzing the board, it seems to be about 40 steps between each legendary node, so you'll realistically be able to get like five legendary nodes in one character. So, that's like wearing an additional five items. It's not bad.

A lot of people are very disappointed to just get plus five stats for most of the nodes. But via the Glyphs, you can actually strategically boost these regular nodes, depending on what you're looking for.

Only The Beginning

So, in my opinion, all of this as a baseline system at launch of Diablo 4 actually looks to create some really fun endgame builds and customization.

And they even emphasize this in the video: the launch of this game is only the beginning. If the foundation of this game is fun, that's all that matters to me.

I'm sure they will add more advanced systems in future seasons to keep things interesting. I'm curious that are you excited about the Diablo 4 endgame or are you disappointed?