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?

Season of Mastery 2 is something that has been pretty much confirmed considering Blizzard said when launching Season of Mastery that there would be multiple seasons. 

Season Of Mastery 2 Concept Examples

Considering Blizzard closed the Season of Mastery servers over a month ago, I would say Season of Mastery 2 is right around the corner and will probably be announced any day now, and beta testing or PTR testing should be underway shortly. 

Considering the name Season of Mastery, that “of Mastery” part kind of hints towards every season focusing on something different, and the next season will most likely have a different name than Season of Mastery, and here are a couple of examples: 

Season Of Hardcore

This would be an entire season focused on the current Hardcore Challenge on Classic Era, aka one-life servers. 

Season Of Victory

This is a season focused on PvP with improved PvP Systems, maybe even improved PvP Rewards that would get better with every content phase based on your rankings, and a PvP System that gives you gear & rank based on your skill rather than time spent doing battlegrounds. 

This season would also include Rated Battlegrounds & Arenas, keeping in that PVP Season Theme. 

Season Of Mastery 2 Wishlist

With that in mind, I want to take some time and talk about what I would personally want to see in Season of Mastery 2. 

Increased Raid Difficulty

*More difficult raids. Season of Mastery was great, and the new mechanics they put into raids were actually pretty cool. However, many of them were pretty easy to work around, and especially in Molten Core. They didn’t actually make that big of an impact, except for Baron Geddon, which took down a couple of pugs for sure. 

Personally, I really enjoy when raids provide an actual challenge rather than just being loot-pinatas, so the more difficult they can make the raids, the more fun I think it would be. 

More Loot From Raids

*With increased raid difficulty, I would also like to see an improved amount of loot dropping from each boss. The reward should be worth the effort, so if you’re making raids more difficult, there should also be more loot involved. 

This is also very much due to the fact that these seasonal servers are exactly that, they are seasonal, and Season of Mastery 1 lasted just around a year, a little longer, but let’s use 1 year as the benchmark here: If every season is supposed to last roughly a year, instead of Classic WoW’s, almost 2 year life-span, we obviously need to obtain loot quicker in order to get the items we want. 

Now, you could use the argument that if we obtain less gear, future raids will by default be more difficult because we have less gear, but I would much rather like to see increased raid difficulties plus increased loot drops, because if we need to feel weaker just to make the raids feel more difficult, that is usually not the correct way to go as people enjoy striving to obtain their best-in-slot items and being as prepared as possible. 

When you’re doing a raid, you obviously want the best items you can get in order to parse as high as possible, so having the opportunity to get the best raid items possible is a must. 

Rated Battlegrounds & Arenas

*This is something I personally want to see in the next Season regardless of whether or not the season is actually focused on PVP. 

The simple fact is: Rated Battlegrounds & Arenas would add a lot of content to these Seasonal Servers, making them more enjoyable overall, and it gives you a way for your team to measure your skill against other teams of equal skill-ratings. 

New PVP System PLs

*While we are on the topic of PvP: Remove the old PvP System. In seasonal servers, nobody has time to quit their jobs & divorce their wives & abandon their families just to grind Alterac Valley 16 hours a day for weeks on end. Also, remove or time-gate the acquisition of Grand Marshal or High Warlord items. 

Timegated PVP Rewards

*Speaking from experience on the first run of Season of Mastery, the people that were actually trying hard and wanted to clear the first few raids quickly, had to grind Alterac Valley and get that gear as soon as possible because you could start getting it right out of the gate, and that Rank 14 gear is stupidly overpowered to have during Molten Core Progression. 

Increased Leveling Speed

*This is something Season of Mastery did actually do quite well in my opinion: it gave you a pretty significant & noticeable increase in experience, while also making sure it still felt like Vanilla WoW. 

The way it worked in Season of Mastery was you got an additional 40% experience from quests, and even more from Dungeon Quests, and honestly this is exactly what I was looking for, as it enforces questing & doing each dungeon at least once with quests, which I personally think is fantastic. 

This way you see people out in the open world actually doing quests rather than just mindlessly grinding mobs or AOE farming or doing dungeon cleaves. However, even with this 40% buff to quests, in many cases, grinding mobs were still faster, especially if you were a Mage or a Paladin, and even in certain level brackets it was faster to do Dungeon Cleaving in order to level up. 

Personally, I would like to see the experience from quests increased even further, once again improving the amount of experience you get from quests and further emphasizing that people should be questing rather than dungeon farming or AOE farming. 

And this is not to force people to quest, it’s more-so the other way around, because with the current minimax mentality a lot of people have, we take the path of least resistance & whichever path will get us to our goal faster. 

So, if questing is fun but grinding is faster, a lot of people tend to go for grinding because again it is faster. This has in the past led to people feeling forced to grind mobs or dungeons when they actually would much rather just do quests, and this time around I would like to see the actual speed leveling meta change to where questing is number 1. By the way, if you want to quickly complete your quests, using WoW Classic Gold will help you a lot.

Here’s what I would like to see: +50% experience from quests, and add another +10% every week starting after 4 weeks of the Season. This gives everyone 4 weeks of “even grounds” when it comes to leveling, but it also gives newcomers a catch-up mechanic so people that want to join the season later on. Don’t have this massive barrier-to-entry. 

The simple fact is: Leveling is more fun when there’s other people to level with, and the later we get into the season, the fewer people will be leveling, so we need to give new players some incentive to actually join, otherwise these Seasonal Servers will always be going downhill in population. 

Related: WoW: What Blizzard Should Do To Make Season of Mastery 2 A Successful Launch?

Additional Information

*Now one more thing I want to talk about is class changes: I’m going to keep this very simple and to the point: I want to see class changes from either TBC or Wrath, put into this Season. 

The simple fact is, even in Season of Mastery where people were raiding without World Buffs, Warriors & rogues were topping those damage meters, and this led to an enforced meta for the endgame. 

Even if you maybe did not want to play a Warrior or a Rogue, if you wanted a melee DPS raid spot, you had to. Giving us some Class Changes that we are already familiar with in the Classic WoW Universe, AKA either the Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King, I think would really help spice things up, and to top it all of: Give us the current Wrath of the Lich King Talent System & Talents, but scaled down to level 60 obviously. 

*One more thing worth talking about here: these Season of Mastery Servers could even run into the Burning Crusade, considering we don’t have any TBC Classic or TBC Era Servers at the moment, and there is a pretty solid player base that enjoys TBC, so it might be worth exploring the option of these Seasonal Servers actually progressing into TBC and becoming TBC Era Servers, eventually. 

As we all know, when we are exploring in Elden Ring or fighting the boss, if there are not enough Elden Ring Items as a supplement, it will be difficult to start a persistent battle with it and it will be difficult to harvest rare materials or weapons in the end.

And what I want to talk about today is Rune Arcs, which is valued by many people but has not been able to find the correct way to use it. If you can tap into the potential of this item, it's likely to work wonders in battle, and you can even Farm Rune Arcs when you're offline.

What do Elden Ring Rune Arcs do?

According to the background of the game, we can know that Rune Arcs is a piece of debris that fell from the shattered Elden Ring. It can add various buffs to our class as a consumable, such as increasing the maximum life value. Each player can carry up to 99 Rune Arcs, and no more. If you happen to collect more than this number of Rune Arcs, you can store them in your own warehouse for later use. It’s just that it’s useless to own that much, because you only need to spend 200 Elden Ring Runes to get 600 Rune Arcs.

So what are the specific uses of Rune Arcs? We all know that Great Runes, another famous item in the game, is one of the loot we usually collect after killing monsters in Divine Tower, and its function is to help us go beyond the limit, but we must need many Rune Arcs to activate Great Runes. When your class dies, repeat the above process to start the battle again.

Where To Find Elden Ring Rune Arcs?

All Maps, Chests, Around You and more.

Elden Ring Rune Arcs Easy Farming Method

• Kill the boss in multiplayer mode;
• Kill Giant Rats.

There may be more ways to get Elden Ring Rune Arcs yet to be discovered, but if you want to learn about related guides, you can also visit the famous Elden Ring free guides provider IGGM to learn more. There, you can also buy the related Elden Ring in-game currency items with code “CSCCA” (5% off), just try it, may be it will be helpful for you.

A week ago, the game director of Last Epoch, whose name is Judd Cobler, brought us the highlights of our long-awaited multiplayer update patch 0.9 - Convergence. Next, let’s take a closer look at what he said.

Convergence drops on March 9th. For the first time in Last Epoch you’ll be able to adventure through time with up to four players in your party. Adding friends and grouping up is easy, and you can start playing together right from the start of the campaign.

Developers have upgraded all in-game content, including the Arena, Dungeons and the Monolith of Fate to ensure that group play feels great. *For example, in the Monolith, they’ve introduced a new Echo completion system that ensures fair rewards for the full party.

*And in the arena, they’ve introduced a group ready check to allow parties to strategically proceed to the next Arena wave set when the entire party is ready.

*In multiplayer, the loot you find drops per player. So, you’re not having to compete for the same items (which you can get by using Last Epoch Gold) on the ground.

Related: Outstanding Build Guides for Beginners in Last Epoch

*Additionally, if you find an item that would help your allies, you’ll be able to gift items to your party members, who are fighting alongside you.

“With multiplayer dropping on March 9th, we are looking forward to seeing what powerful team compositions you put together with your party. We hope you enjoy slaying the enemies of a Eterra with your allies,” Cobler said.

While you’re crushing enemies alongside other Travelers, you will notice a whole host of upgrades developers have made to increase the impact and polish the feel of combat in Last Epoch. They’ve added a new win hid visuals to enemies.

Visual impacts now have directionality carrying the weight through from your swing or spell cast. Death effects have been updated to correspond with the elements that are used on the killing blow. Elements applied to enemies displayed nicer on enemy models and many enemies have had death and stun animations significantly improved. All of these updates combined make slaying enemies in a Eterra feel much more satisfying.

“If you are returning to a terror from our last update, prepare to see the world come to life like never before. Our team has been hard at work and there is an overwhelming amount of new visual upgrades coming to Convergence.”, the director said.

For example, the dialog system has been updated across the game to include better ux and beautiful new NPC portraits, allowing you to get to know the iconic cast of characters a little better. Many environments across satara have received new tech that makes their visuals come to life and this new tech will continue to be extrapolated in future patches.

In addition to the many new environments and visual updates, they’re introducing 15 updated or newly added enemies, tons of skill VFX improvements and 14 entire new gear set visuals across all classes.

There are also new player summon models and animations in addition to completely updated animation kits for both the prime list and acolyte.

“All of this together results in the Last Epoch gameplay feel that you’ve never seen before and one that we’re all very excited for our players to experience,” he said.

Convergence will also be bringing a number of new powerful build shaping uniques for you to hunt down, including the Harbinger of Stars. This new unique belt enables any class to have the chance to cast Meteor when landing a Critical Strike. We’ve already seen some very interesting builds created with this belt in early testing, like Meteor.

The new Hand of Judgment gloves can bring holy Justice into the palm of your hand, giving your unarmed Paladin Divine strength, allowing you to slam your fist into the ground to cast Judgment, which will scale area and damage by stacking Attunement.

Finally, Jelkhor’s Blast Knife captures the power of the Rogue’s Detonating Arrow ability and infuses it into a melee strike, transforming your Marksman into a bomb slinging assassin.

Ailments have undergone significant changes that will make them more easily understood and bring their effectiveness against bosses and packs of low-held enemies more in line. Namely, by reducing the duration that the full effect would take place over and will now display the full amount of stacks applied to enemies.

The balance of all elements has been updated in a number of ways. “Since our last release Depths of Eterra, we’ve put a significant amount of work into improving performance across the game,” he said.

Baseline frame rates in zones and performance when using abilities have been greatly improved, especially among stabilities that were noted as poor performing in earlier patches. While this update does bring significant improvements to performance will continue to make improvements to performance in future patches, as well.

They’ll also be shipping an early version of the MTX system with this update. While you won’t be able to purchase anything new or access the shop just yet, you’ll finally be able to equip cosmetics that you own through previous supporter pack purchases.

“I’ll also take this opportunity to reinforce our commitment that Last Epoch will never sell items that grant player power. We’ve taken a hard stance against this and will continue to champion that stance into the future with that said if you have fun ideas for how certain skills pets or armor could be re-skinned we’d love to hear them”, he emphasized.

On February 28, we finally have news about Elden Ring DLC, a full expansion titled “Shadow of the Erdtree”

All we have right now is this one image, but they didn’t go with 1080p, 1440p or even a 4K resolution. And they made this teaser at 7500p. To put that into perspective, you’d need 336 SpongeBob-themed 13-inch televisions to display every pixel here. With all that space to work with, FromSoftware had plenty of room to hide some nice details in here, a lot of which can help us guess what this expansion will be about.

Shadow Of The Erdtree

First, let’s not discuss the details that can be seen at a glance for a moment. The Erdtree is not looking too hot. I mean, you’d expect that given the title, but there’s a bit more going on here. It’s visibly mangled, blackened, and dripping what looks like some kind of sap, but it also looks like there might be two trees here. One of which is very straight and lines up pretty much exactly with the Erdtree seen in-game, while the other is twisting around it, almost like a hand choking out its life.

But, the thing that caught everyone’s attention is this character riding what looks to be Torrent down here, since their hairstyle matches the one seen on Miquella in Elden Ring’s intro sequence. To keep things relatively simple, let’s just assume this is actually Miquella.

Beyond that, we also see a bunch of spectral graves and monuments, which all hold secrets of their own, but let’s back up and see what this could be setting up. The title “Shadow of the Erdtree” makes it pretty clear that whatever is going on back here will be central to the plot. The “O” in the word “shadow” looks like two branches wrapping through each other, and there’s probably a bit of Berserk World Tree inspiration in there, so I think this is a separate tree.

Perhaps it’s another version of the Haligtree, since the in-game Haligtree was planted and watered by Miquella himself, but there’s also a case for it being related to the Helphen lampwood, since that’s associated with the spirit world and there are a lot of weird spirit-y graves in this image. But, I don’t think the branches look enough like how they do on the Haligtree, and we really have little to go off of for the Helphen, so I think the strongest case is that it’s made of deathroot.

While not technically a separate tree, it’s important to note that deathroot is made of the Erdtree’s own roots, and the branches are similar enough to what we can see in deeproot below the royal capital. And this might be a bit of a stretch, but it almost looks like the second tree has the same texture and eye-like growths as what we see in deeproot. So, that’s my guess for the premise, but where is this all taking place?

Miquella/Trina’s Dream

The location in the image can’t be found anywhere in-game, but judging by the Erdtree’s angle it seems like this shot was taken in the far south.

The problem with that is the landscape looks nothing like what you’d expect it to from that location. Therefore, I think Miquella being in this shot is so important. So I’m sure you’ve heard this before… I’ve said it, other people have said it, everyone’s saying it, but there’s a lot of stuff about Miquella’s world of dreams that was either left open to interpretation or removed during development.

I don’t know if they’ve been planning to make this DLC since the start, but focusing on this dream world could fill in a lot of the gaps of what we don’t know. And, not only would this explain the bizarre landscape, it would also shed some light on pretty much everything else shown in this picture. I’m not a botanist or anything, but I think this is meant to be a vast field of domesticated wheat, which isn’t really something that happens in nature.

But, an unused twinblade claims that Miquella possesses the “rune of abundance,” and what better way to reflect that concept than his dream world being just endless grain? These taller monuments also look like the ones from Dark Souls 3’s Crucifixion Woods, and while crucifixion is an important concept in Elden Ring, their designs are just different enough that I don’t think they’re related.

You could also say these monuments resemble the Cleanrot Knights’ Halo Scythes or Torrent’s Whistle, but my current guess is that they’re modeled after Miquella’s great rune, since we don’t know what that looks like yet and you could easily make that shape out of the Elden Ring.

A lot of this might also be inspired by Greek mythology… “ZEUS!!!”… Especially Miquella’s connection with the gods of sleep, trade, and harvest is closely related to the underworld, so I think there could be a sort of Hades or afterlife theme to all of this. As for these coffins, archways, and ruins, I’ve got nothing.

Interlude From Future-V

While editing this, I noticed that the arches have that Caduceus spiral that FromSoftware loves so much, and the coffins remind me of the ones used to travel through the underground, which, kind of reminds me of the ferryman of the greek underworld, who is already associated with deathroot with stuff like the tibia mariners. Just a few more points for the greek symbolism thing.

Conclusions & Predictions

So, with all of that in mind, here are my predictions: This expansion will be about a world where deathroot has grown out of control and is strangling the Erdtree. This doesn’t happen before or after the game, but instead takes place in Miquella’s dream, and either Miquella himself or his alternate persona known as St.Trina will be a major character. We actually see a glimpse of the dream world in the main game, being at the end of Fia’s questline in deeproot, and the deathblight curse seems even more pronounced than usual here.

If these are the same world, maybe the true source of deathblight is currently inside the world of dreams, which you might already know is actually Godwyn, the half-dead demigod. His physical corpse is still in deeproot, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he could be found in the dream world as well. Miquella, being the half brother of Godwyn, likely wants him to die a true death both for his sake and for the well-being of this world of dreams.

After you defeat whatever is spreading this infection, which I imagine could include a fight with Godwyn himself, you’ll receive some kind of Elden Ring Runes and make your way back to the real world. Of course, this is all wild speculation.

In this article, we're going to be discussing which class is right for you in the upcoming open beta this March. If you're excited to get your hands on Diablo 4 and you want to know somethings about each class some things maybe you don't know then watch on to find out.

Diablo IV's beta will feature all five classes namely the Barbarian, Sorceress, Rogue, Druid and Necromancer. Each of them focuses on distinct damage type, specific playstyle stats and attributes as well as unique class mechanics, all of which we'll discuss in this guide.

Barbarian Class

The Barbarian class issuitable for players, who wish to deal massive destruction melee range while being able to seamlessly switch from one weapon type to the next. They're much more physical damage oriented than any other class in Diablo 4 and are pretty straightforward when it comes to dishing out offensive and defensive moves.

Due to their unique class mechanic, which is known as the arsenal system, Barbarians can equip and swap about four weapons at a time, allowing for better customization. These include the main hand, off hand, bludgeoning and slashing weapons. Doing so allows you to freely assign specific equipment to certain skills based on your needs.

For instance, bash, which lets you stun and heavily damage targets is well suited using a bludgeoning weapon. But if you wish to raise this ability's stun duration even more then you should opt to switch to a two-handed bludgeoning weapon instead. It's also worth noting that upon the skills activation, you'll instantly equip the best weapon in your loadout. By the way, if you don't have enough Diablo 4 Gold to equip yourself , you can click this link to have a look.

Furthermore, every weapon the Barbarian uses has a corresponding expertise stat thereby leveling up their ranks accordingly. For example, if you wish to boost your Critical Strike chance, then wielding a one-handed ax will come in handy. Because of this, it's highly recommended to collect and prepare a wide variety of melee weapons in order to take advantage of this class's build diversity and itemization progression.

In terms of stats, you'll mainly want to invest in Strength, Amplify Damage, Willpower for improved Fury generation and Dexterity to increase the chances of Landing Critical Hits.

Sorceress Class

The Sorceress is your typical high-risk high reward type of class because although they are very fragile, they deal excellent Elemental Damage by casting fire, cold and lightning spells.

Fire spell synergize well with the burning status effect when click damage overtime, but beyond this, they aren't able to control the battlefield as effectively in the early game.

The same couldn't be said for cold spells where crowd control abilities shine the most. What you have here is a variety of skills that will either chill or completely freeze your enemies making it exceptionally potent against bosses. Not only will you slow them down but you can potentially freeze them in place when enough Stacks are accumulated.

Finally, you have lightning spells that are well balanced in terms of dealing a decent amount of damage and controlling encounters to your advantage. Some abilities that are attacked as crackling energy leave behind a ball of energy that either inflicts damage against enemies or replenishes your own Mana.

When it comes to stats, you'll want to allocate points into intelligence to boost the damage of your spells dexterity to raise mana recovery and lastly willpower to improve your critical chance.

The Sorceress's unique class mechanic called the enchantment system changes how a skill works. In total, there are several active abilities slotted together with dedicated enchantment slots. Should you decide to place a skill in an enchantment slot? It can no longer be activated and will instead transform into a secondary passive bonus. For instance, you're able to trigger meteor to blast multiple targets with heavyfire damage while momentarily setting the ground on fire.

Rogue Class

The Rogue is a stealthy assassin, who's adept at moving swiftly, so they can choose to reposition themselves to gain the upper hand in combat or retreat when things get too precarious.

Unlike Barbarians, they can quickly switch between melee and ranged weapons, such as dagger's swords and foes making them extremely versatile. Although at the start bows don't deal as much damage, they will allow you to stay at a safer distance with respect to your foes thereby lowering the chances off requently getting hit. You can think of Diablo 4's Rogue as a combination of Diablo 2 and Diablo 3's Amazon and Demon Hunter respectively.

Your primary stats for this class include dexterity to amplify skill damage and improve dodge ability, strength to enhance your energy regeneration rate and intelligence to improve your critical chance and overall assistance.

The Rogue's unique mechanic is known as talent specializations, which are divided into combo points intersight and preparation, each with its own questline.

Remember though that there is no confirmation yet, if you can activate all three specializations simultaneously or if they can only be used one at a time. Additionally, preparation hasn't been tested since it becomes available upon reaching level 30 and the max level for the beta is level 25.

Combo points are accumulated by activating basic Rogue skills. You'll then be able to consume these points with core skills to trigger additional effects. Meanwhile, intersight allows you to fill up a gauge by attacking marked enemies. Doing so will allow you to make use of unlimited energy for a brief period of time and has proven to be effective against bosses.

The Rogue's versatility doesn't end here however since they can also imbue other attacks with specific effects, such as Poison, Shadow and Coal. These are usually applied to core skills and abilities that deal damage against multiple enemies, such as Rapid Fire.

Druid Class

The next class we're going to take a look at is the Druid, who has the Uncanny ability to change their physical form from a human to that of a werebear or wearable.

Compared to Druids and Diablo 2 Druids can now instantly transform when using their beast themed skills prior to executing the corresponding actions.

Do note that your new form will only last for a short duration until you execute another move. Moreover, this class is also an adept wielder of magic except that they specialize in casting Earth and Storm Spells to disable enemies while slaying the forces of evil. For instance, you're able to execute crushing below to damage a target by a certain percentage of their total light.

Unlike Diablo 2, Druids have companions that do not need to be summoned but are automatically called out to attack on their behalf. However, they do have respective attack companion skills to deal damage on certain targets.

In terms of stats, not much is currently known for this class as well as the Necromancer. Initial information suggests that the Druid's unique class mechanic is tied to requiring special loot, which should be offered to spirit animals.

Doing so will grant different passive bonuses based on the spirit's type. It hasn't been revealed how many types are available, but each of them will grant up to six offensive and defensive passive effects.

Necromancer Class

Final class in Diablo 4 is the Necromancer, who is a renowned Summoner often resurrecting corpses to fight with him in battle.

Like Barbarians and Rogues, a wide variety of weapons are available to them, such as swords, daggers, wands and more importantly sides, which only they can wield.

Diablo 4's Necromancer will remind veterans of the Necromancer in Diablo 3 because of the essence resource to activate potent skills.

Another useful resource is corpses, which are created from the remains of Fallen enemies or other spell effects. In fact you can even make use of the fan favorite corpse explosion.

Necromancers have four distinct played styles, namely Bone, Darkness, Blood and the Army. Bone skills primarily focus on dealing physical damage while consuming the Essence resource. One of the most notable spells is Bone Prison, which ensnares multiple enemies that can be used in conjunction with offensive based skills.

Next is Darkness that makes use of dealing damage over time making it the ideal choice for those, who intend to torture foes who dare to fight them.

Next is Blood, which allows the Necromancer to become a bloodthirsty vampire to restore their own life. One notable spell is Blood Surge, which not only absorbs the HP of enemies but also gains their strength an explosion will soon follow to deal additional damage.

And last but not least is the Army, which lets you bring skeletons back to life as well as constructed Golems. The necromancer's unique class mechanic is the Book of the Dead. This lets them further customize their Undead armies, such as Skeleton Warriors, Skeleton Mages and Golems.

For instance, Skeleton Warriors can become Skirmishers, who deal greater damage, but at the expense of maintaining a lower health pool or Defenders, who inflict lesser damage but are expert tanks.

What's more is that you can choose to sacrifice a specific minion to gain a permanent buff to further improve your build.

Today, we’re looking at 17 Furniture Series in the Animal Crossing franchise that were simply deemed not worthy of a place in New Horizons.

1. Astro Series

First up, we have the Astro Series, which is a futuristic space-themed series. This furniture set defaults in Orange and White but can be customised in Blue and Black, and Black and Red.

If Nintendo ever released DLC Furniture Packs, like the Sims, this would be perfect for a Space Pack.

Anyway, villagers including Mira, Chadder and Cheri all own several items from this series. It’s pretty cool.

2. Balloon Series

Second, we have probably the ugliest Furniture Series known to Animal Crossing, and that’s the Balloon Series.

As you can see, it’s made up entirely of Balloons. It’s pretty difficult to look at. These are typically got from Balloon Presents, which is probably why they never returned, given we now get Recipes from Balloons…

Despite that, the option to use them would have been cool. You have probably guessed by now, but Pietro owns several of these items in New Leaf.

3. Blue Series

The third Furniture Series missing from New Horizons is, of course, the Blue Series. This interior Furniture Series is perfect for those who like to decorate a simple-looking house with all the necessary furniture pieces.

It comprises mostly Blue-coloured wooden items, and I’m pretty sure is a fan favourite. Plus, it can be customised into a variety of blue-shades.

I can only assume this never returned because the Simple Series, that’s actually the Minimalist Series in previous games, can be customised into a Blue-theme, kind of making the Blue Series redundant.

Anyway, several Animals across the series own items from the Blue Furniture Series, including Bluebear, Jeremiah and Sydney, amongst others.

4. Card Series

Next up, we have the Card Series, that you’ll either consider genius, or as ugly as the Balloon Series.

Anyway, this series is of course furniture made up of playing cards, and exclusive to GracieGrace. Which means every piece is expensive to purchase with limited availability.

Furthermore, because it takes so long to upgrade Nooks in New Leaf, and in turn unlock Gracie, this set isn’t available for months when first playing… making it even more exclusive.

So much so, no villagers use these items in their homes. We can only assume it never returned, because Gracie didn’t either.

5. Gorgeous Series

Speaking of GracieGrace exclusives, we have the Gorgeous Series. Probably one of the most gorgeous Furniture Series in the Animal Crossing Franchise.

This is again exclusive to GracieGrace, so takes months to unlock, and is exclusive to winter. It’s also one of the most expensive Series in the game, costing 2.1 million Bells to purchase 1 of every item in the Series.

The Gorgeous Series can’t be customised, although it doesn’t really need it. Being such an expensive Series, villagers only ever own 1 or 2 of these items, including Claudia, Elvis and Nan, amongst many others.

6. Gracie Series

Moving on, but keeping with the Gracie-theme for now, we have the wonderful Gracie Series.

This Furniture Series is, of course, inspired by Gracie’s fashion, featuring their trademark pattern of Green and Orange circles on Blue backgrounds.

The Gracie Series is the Summer exclusive items that, of course, take months of playtime to unlock. Furthermore, the Gracie Series is the most expensive Furniture Series in the entire game, costing a whopping 2.6 million Bells to purchase…

Despite the cost of items, Moose and Robin each own 2 pieces from the Gracie Series.

7. Green Series

Here, we have the Green Series. This Furniture Series is incredibly similar to the Blue Series, because it contains simple and minimal interior Furniture items.

However, they are, of course Green, instead of Blue. Much like the Blue Series, we can only assume this never returned because the Simple Series exists in New Horizons, and can be customised to closely resemble the Green Series.

Never the less, it’s a very common Series in previous games, with several Animals owning Green items, including Chuck, Drift and Goose, amongst others.

Plus, it’s great for Feng Shui, and can even be customised into other shades of green.

8. Modern Series

Possibly my favourite Series of all time, is the Modern Series. It features a Black and White Checkered-board design, making it look minimal but modern. At least in the older games.

This series is always popular, because like all other Furniture Series, excluding the likes of the Gracie items, the Modern Series can be customised into an array of styles and themes, including other colours, as well as Ore-variations, giving them a crystal finish.

This Furniture Series has featured in every Animal Crossing game, so it’s a shame it never returned to New Horizons. Given its popularity, a bunch of Villagers used these items in their homes, including Ed, Roscoe and Savannah. I‘’m still holding on hope that one day Nintendo will release DLC furniture packs, and bring this series back!

9. Modern Wood Series

Next, we have the Modern Wood Series. This Series features outstanding wooden Furniture Items, made up of various types of wood. It’s fairly abstract and modern and, of course, has several customisation finishes, including Simple and Diamond styles.

Similar to the Blue and Green Series, we can only assume this beautiful Furniture Series was cut from New Horizons, because the Wooden-Block Series exists, and has a Mixed-Wood customisation option, that sort of resembles these items.

Cally, Bonbon and Deirdre own the most items from this Furniture Series.

10. Polka-Dot Series

Another Furniture Series, that is almost certainly an gained taste, is the Polka-Dot Series. As you can see, its primary design is of course Red and White Polka-Dot, surrounded by Yellow Backgrounds.

Like many other Series, it features all the typical interior items a player needs to fully furniture a home. Similar to the Modern Series, it has an insane amount of Customisation options, both with Colour and Ore-variations.

Fortunately, Frobert, Rosie and Apple enjoy this Series and own the most Polka-Dot items in the game.

11. Princess Series

Heading back to GracieGrace furniture, we have the Princess Series. This is another high-end Furniture Series that’s fully decorated with white wood and light-blue fabrics.

Like the other Gracie items, it’s seasonal, being available only during the Spring, takes months to unlock, and is incredibly expensive. Honestly, I do not know why this didn’t return to New Horizons. It would have been perfect.

Anyway, the Princess Series is the third-most expensive Series, after the Gracie and Gorgeous Series, costing 1.9million Bells to purchase.

Again, a handful of villagers own Princess items, such as Chèvre, Chelsea and Étoile, but are limited to only 1 or 2 items, and can’t be customised.

12. Regal Series

Moving on, we have the Regal Series, which has featured in every game, except New Horizons. This furniture series is known as the Royal Series in Japan, made up of creamy white items, with gold finishings.

Like most of the furniture we’ve mentioned, the Regal Series can be customised into several variations, changing the gold-features into many other designs.

It’s owned by several Snooty villagers, including Friga, Olivia and Pecan, which makes sense given the nature of the inspiration behind this series.

13. Robo Series

Now the Robot Series, is at this point an iconic Furniture Series, after being introduced in Wild World and returning to every game since…Well, until New Horizons.

As you can tell, the Robo Series comprises futuristic items, each with a Robot design. Many items have antennas, arms and even Robot eyes. And of course, can be customised into several finishes. It’s pretty cool.

Again, I do not know why this couldn’t have returned to New Horizons. But maybe Nintendo will pack it in a DLC pack one day, with the Astro Series.

Anyway, this Series is often hard to come-by, but is owned by many villagers, including Cube, Del and Chief, to name a few.

14. Rococo Series

Next, we have another wonderfully detailed Furniture Series called the Rococo Series. This Series is inspired by an 18th-Century French style of Architecture, and looks amazing.

Of course, if you’re not fond of the default design, it can be customised drastically into 1 of 4 other variations, including Gothic Brown, Yellow, Black and White.

This series debuted in New Leaf, and of course never returned. In New Leaf it’s owned by the likes of Muffy, Beardo and Pashmina… And suits their aesthetics perfectly.

15. Snowman Series

The Snowman Series is a classic Furniture Series and again debuted in the original Animal Crossing, and then featured in every game until New Horizons. It’s primarily made up of Snowman features, and mostly, got from members of the Snowfolk family.

It’s a pretty playful and cheeky series, with many cute items, so I can only assume Nintendo decided against bringing this to New Horizons, because it doesn’t look as realistic as other furniture.

Technically, the Snowman Series is a limited-time Furniture Series, so no villagers own any of these items.

16. Stripe Series

Next up, we have a very satisfying Furniture Series, called the Stripe Series. I’m sure you can tell where it got its name from.

This Series is of course made up of Horizontal Blue and White stripes, but as you’d expect can be customised into 6 other colourful variations, making it a great Series to work with.

It debuted in New Leaf, but of course never returned. Villagers including Henry, Hamlet and Moe own most items from this Series.

17. Sweets Series

And finally, we have the Sweets Series, and the final Gracie Grace Furniture series that seemingly never returned to Animal Crossing New Horizons. This Series is the Gracie Furniture available during the Autumn, or Fall, and looks super tasty, the more you look at it.

Out of all the Gracie items unlocked months into the New Leaf game, the Sweets Series is the cheapest to purchase, with the entire Series costly around 1.5million Bells.

Being a limited-time Series, it’s not customisable, however, many villagers own 1 or 2 items from this Series, including Chai, Merengue and Apple… Which are of course all food-related Villagers, which is pretty neat.

So, there we have it. 17 complete Furniture Series removed from the Animal Crossing franchise, and have yet to return to Animal Crossing New Horizons.

Thinking about subscribing to ESO+, but you're not sure whether it's worth it? Well, you've come to the right place! With the recent ESO+ free trial coming to a close a week ago, I thought it might be helpful to provide a breakdown of all the benefits and drawbacks of the service, as well as some examples of when it might not be needed.

Now, if you're not familiar with ESO+, it's a subscription service offered on top of the basic price of the game. The subscription provides several perks that, if I'm being honest, I don't think I could live without at this point in my ESO career. With that said, I can see how some players wouldn't get enough use out of the features of the service to justify the cost.

Drawbacks Of Subscription

And that leads me into what I want to discuss first—the drawbacks of subscription, of which there is really only one—the cost. ESO+ is going to run you $14.99 per month, or $139.99 if you choose to pay annually. While some might not bat an eye at these prices, I know people who are on a tight budget and would have to cut something else out to afford the service. If you're in that boat, I hope my explanation of the benefits and use cases helps you make an informed decision about whether to pay.

Benefits Of Subscription

Next, I'll go over each of the benefits. There are several features of ESO+, but they come in varying degrees of relevance for the everyday player. The benefit that is probably the most valuable for most players is full access to all DLC packages. This doesn't include the most recent chapter, but all prior chapters and DLCs are included. The current chapter of my screen is High Isle, so that means that everything before High Isle is included with the subscription.

You could essentially buy a copy of the base game and, through ESO+, get access to everything up through Blackwood and its associated DLCs. You even get access to the most recent DLC, Firesong. We're talking about Imperial City, Wrothgar, Vvardenfell, Summerset, Murkmire, Northern and Southern Elsweyr, Western Skyrim, the Reach, Blackwood, the Deadlands, Galen, and everything in between. These storylines equate to hundreds and potentially even thousands of hours of playtime.

Additionally, you get access to all the sets introduced through the previous chapters and DLCs, which is a huge benefit. That means fantastic sets like Pillar of Nirn, Drake's Rush, False God's Devotion, Spell Power Cure, Elemental Catalyst, and the list goes on. While you can absolutely do just about anything in the base game without these sets, the added damage and survivability you'll get from some of these DLC sets can really make things a lot easier when you get to harder content.

Next up on the list of benefits, and one of those perks I couldn't live without in ESO, is the craft bag. The concept of the craft bag is pretty straightforward. It's a separate storage area outside of your regular inventory that holds all of your crafting materials.

Mats go directly into the craft bag when you gather them, and the bag's storage is infinite. The craft bag doesn't just store materials related to the crafting skill lines, it also holds all of your bait, furnishing materials, style materials, and trait items. Materials are accessible any time you need them, and you don't have to withdraw mats from the bag when crafting, as they automatically get used as you make items. You can also easily retrieve materials from the bag if you ever want to donate some mats to a friend or sell them in a trader.

If you like purchasing items from the crown store, you're in luck, as the ESO+ subscription also includes an allotment of crowns. You get 1650 per month if you pay the monthly pricing, or 19,800 per year if you pay annually. You also get periodic deals on various items in the crown store, as well as a free statuette or painting from time to time. If you're keeping score, you can buy 21,000 crowns for about $150.00, so the crown allotment you get with the subscription is worth the annual cost of ESO+ if you would end up buying the crowns, anyway.

One thing to note is that the annual allotment is deposited into your account all at once, so you'll need to have a bit of self-discipline if you want to have a few crowns leftover for anything you might be interested in later in your annual cycle. Next up on the list are the various increased storage perks that come with the subscription. You get double furnishing and collectible space in your player homes, double bank space, and double the currency cap for transmute crystals. I consider inventory management to be the bane of my existence, so these are a few more of the ESO+ benefits I personally cannot live without.

The penultimate perk of ESO+ is increased progression speed. Ten percent boosts to ESO Gold, XP, crafting inspiration, and research timer speeds don't seem like much, but they really make a difference. For example, your last traits on each piece of gear will take three days less to complete with ESO+ active.

And finally, the last benefit on the list, and the least useful from my perspective, is costume dying. I typically choose to dress my characters with styles from various motifs, so I get little use out of this feature myself, but I'm sure other players really love customizing the costumes they collect. It just goes to show that everything is a matter of perspective.

Why You Might Not Need ESO+?

Now that I've gone through all the benefits the subscription has to offer, I'll discuss some reasons you might not need ESO+. Maybe you're a brand new player and you're still trying to learn the ins and outs of ESO. The game can be a little overwhelming when you're just getting started, so you might not need access to all the DLC content while you get acclimated to ESO's core mechanics.

Also, if you've purchased a newer version of ESO, such as the High Isle chapter, for example, you'll get access to all previous chapters and the base game, anyway. That'll give you plenty to do even without DLC access. To this you might say, “but Trav, what if I want to learn to craft? Won't it be impossible without the craft bag?"

And to that, I say absolutely not! It will take a significant amount of additional effort, but you can be a successful crafter without the craft bag. Non-ESO+ crafters will typically max out their bank slots and inventory capacity, at least on their main character, then create several alternate characters on which they'll store all of their excess or less-used crafting materials. I've seen some players create a spreadsheet to keep track of which character has what materials.

Then, when the free trial of ESO+ comes along, which happens about every six months, you can offload all your mats into the craft bag for easy use after your trial is over. You can't put things into the bag after your subscription ends, but you can take items out and/or use the items as you wish. For non-crafting items, you'll definitely need to find ways to add storage to make up for the double bank capacity of ESO+. To achieve this goal, you have several options.

As mentioned earlier, a quick way to increase your storage is to max out your bank slots. You can buy bank upgrades with ESO Gold at any banker. Each upgrade is 10 slots, and the cost goes up every time you purchase. Maximizing your bank slots is quite expensive, with the total cost of all upgrades coming in at a whopping 769,200 ESO Gold. I'd recommend purchasing the slots gradually instead of all at once, as your storage needs will probably increase gradually as well. At the end of your bank upgrading journey, you'll have 240 slots to enable that inevitable hoarding habit that we all experience at some point in ESO.

Keep in mind that bank space is account-wide, so all of your characters will share those 240 slots. Increasing your character's inventory or bag space is another great way to add storage, especially if you can do so on several alternate characters. Similarly to bank slots, you can increase your bag space by 10 spaces per upgrade at increasingly expensive rates. The maximum 140 slots you can get to through a pack merchant will run you a total cost of 180,600 ESO Gold, but you can increase your space even further through mount training with the stablemaster.

The additional 60 slots from the stablemaster will only cost 15,000 gold, but it'll take you at least 50 days to get all the upgrades, even if you train your mount capacity every 20 hours on the dot. You can have up to 8 characters without purchasing additional character slots through the crown store, and up to 18 if you choose to buy those additional slots. Even with just the base 8 characters, once you get to the maximum of 200 carrying capacity on each, you'll have access to 1,600 inventory slots!

See Also: How To Prepare For Arcanist Class Release In ESO?

If that's still not enough for you, your last option, other than subscribing to ESO+ or buying additional character slots, is getting all the various coffers you can put in your player home. You can gain these coffers through completing master writs or by purchasing them in the crown store. To purchase all available storage coffers and have 330 storage.

If Illidan Stormrage's words were to describe the present, it would be "you're not ready." But, to be fair, there have been plenty of people who have known about heroic dungeons and the bonus event of the iconic expansion's Black Temple raid over the years. Currently, the event has already started, so if you are a WoW player who is playing Dragonflight, then you can participate in the Burning Crusade Timewalking bonus event.

Next, I'll tell you about the Burning Crusade Timewalking bonus event in WoW Dragonflight, including when it starts and ends, how to join the bonus event, quests, rewards and Heroic Dungeons.

When And How To Join The Bonus Event?

The latest WoW Burning Crusade Timewalking bonus event has started on Tuesday, 14 February 2023, at 08:00 PST, and its time is US Pacific Standard. For the European event, it it has already started on Wednesday, 15 February 2023.

If you're a WoW player in the US, the Burning Crusade Timewalking bonus event will end on 21 February at 07:00 in Pacific Standard. If you are a European player, the bonus event will end on Wednesday, 22 February 2023, at 03:00 UTC.

How to join: First, you need to open your Group Finder. Then, select Dungeon Finder. Finally, search for Timewalking to join the bonus event.

Quests And Rewards

In this World of Warcraft bonus event, you can get a quest from Kazra in Valdrakken. However, if you don't like traveling, you can also just explore your Adventure Guide. In order to open it, you need to hold down "Shift+J".

• Task: You need to complete the Timewalking dungeons, there are 5 in total.

• Reward: Cache of Vault Treasures, which also has a non-level equipment. Also, the equipment comes from Normal Vault of the Incarnates.

When you activate Burning Crusade Timewalking, you'll be able to earn a 50% bonus from reputations. And these reputations are what you get from creature kills and quests.

Read More: What Blizzard Should Do To Make WoW Classic Season of Mastery 2 A Successful Launch?

Heroic Dungeons And Related Content

I think you'll be able to sense that what makes Burning Crusade Timewalking in WoW Dragonflight so appealing to you is that it's where you get to experience the iconic Black Temple raid that the Illidan awaits. And the reason why you can't do it through Raid Finder is because the raid setting is Normal.

No problem though, head over to Group Finder for Premade Groups who want to venture into Black Temple just like you. Alternatively, you and your guild members or friends team up with about 10 to 30 players. However, one thing you need to remember is that when you are in the Timewalking event raids, your level and equipment will decrease. So, you can use WoW Gold to get more advanced gear that will improve your strength. In this way, even if your level and equipment drop a little during the Timewalking event raids, it will not have much impact on your fight.

Furthermore, during the WoW Burning Crusade Timewalking bonus event, you can indulge in six heroic dungeons inside. Here's a brief introdction of the six heroic dungeons in Burning Crusade Timewalking:

• Magister's Terrace:

After Kael'thas Sunstrider's defeate in Tempest Keep, he announced that he had allied himself with the ruthless Burning Legion. Kael'thas returned to the Isle of Quel'Danas to summon the demon lord Kil'jaeden. And, he has to make final preparations for the arrival of his master.

• Mana-Tombs:

In Draenor, the original exiles discovered one thing that the unfortunate and disturbing consequence of life is death. So, in the catacombs of Auchindoun, the draenei buried their dead in this place. And this catacombs, located beneath the forests of Terokkar, is a labyrinthine wonder.

• The Blood Furnace:

The Hellfire Citadel, is a fort so strong that it is almost indestructible. It is located in the center of Outland's barren Hellfire Peninsula, and was used as Horde's base of operations during the First and Second Wars. And the second wing of Hellfire Citadel is The Blood Furnace.

• The Botanica:

The mysterious naaru created the mighty Tempest Keep, who had Burning Legion's sworn enemies and beings of pure energy. Not only is this Naaru's base of operations, but the structure allows one to travel from one place to another in an instant, a technology of traveling across dimensions.

• The Shattered Halls:

The headquarters of Fel Orcs of Outland is Hellfire Citade. As the third wing of Hellfire Citadel, The Shattered Halls are often referred to as "SH." Here, Kargath Bladefist and his Fel Orcs now reside in Hellfire Citade. And, the the last boss is Kargath Bladefist.

• The Underbog:

One name is Coilfang Reservoir, which is the name of the naga-based compound. And, these compounds lurk in the deepest waters of Zangarmarsh. Pistons and huge open pipes run through Coilfang Reservoir, which is almost as big as it could hold an army. However, the purpose of Coilfang Reservoir is not really a military one.

I think this time you'll have some exciting and enjoyable challenges in the Burning Crusade Timewalking bonus event. Because this bonus event is very similar to the Black Temple raid, when you are in heroic dungeons, your items and levels will be scaled down.

After reading the above, I believe you already know something about World of Warcraft's Burning Crusade Timewalking bonus event. Hope that can provide some help for you to participate in the bonus event.

There's nothing quite like a first playthrough in a game. You enjoy time feels like it doesn't exist and nothing else matters, but the memories we make along the way.

The First Experience

So, why do we want to forget them so badly? It sounds absurd at first. But, wanting to erase memory of a game and replay it as one of the most common wishes you will find on the internet and it makes sense. There are so many different things coming together to make a first playthrough special that you just won't be able to match anywhere else and there are not a lot of games that did it as well as Elden Ring did.

The Community

I'm warning you it's gonna get nostalgic here. Elden Ring has been out for almost 1 year now. Most people have beaten the game at least once and an overwhelming majority of those people would call their first playthrough special.

There are thousands of reasons in these commons as to why this game was so unforgettable yet? All of them boil down to three major reasons. But what even is the point of trying to find out all of this? Well, for one it might help some people relieve that experience. But mainly, I want to figure out why this game left such a lasting impression on me and clearly a lot of other people, as well.

Guidance

Do you remember these things or maybe these chances are that after the first time you've never touched them again but in that first playthrough, they were exciting to find. I bring these up because Elden Ring has a thing for guiding the player. Be it the light from Graces or little details like these and such a vast and empty world. It's a pleasant surprise from time to time to have some form of force, wanting to guide you on your adventure. Similarly, walking into Caelid for the first time is just for a truck-sized dog. To turn you into a treat is a clear sign that you're supposed to go somewhere else.

All of this results in an unexplained yet guided adventure. You see those dogs and you want to get revenge, so it will be on your mind until you get strong enough to return. And this feeling is like you are not knowing what else that area has to offer or when you will be going back.

There leaves a lot of room for imagination. I still vividly remember being memeed on by the chest in Limgrave and ending up in Caelid's Crystal Cave just to see the empty rotten red swamp and these disgusting looking things all over the place. Walking through Caelid, I thought I had stumbled across some sort of alternate version of the lens between similar to the link to the past dark world. It felt mysterious and terrifying, but even without these magical moments of confusion, I would have loved every second of the game, because of how well the game handles quality and quantity.

Secrets and Discoveries

There's always something to do and it is always satisfying because the core gameplay is just so fleshed out by now. Stopping yourself from playing was generally the hardest challenge. All of this created a sort of childlike feeling as a kid. I had no idea about software and hardware limitations. I did not understand that NPCs have pre-written dialogue other worlds of borders. It was such a special thing, but sadly as I grew up that passion for games made me learn so much more about them that feeling mostly faded.

Elden Ring made me feel that way again. I wanted to stay awake all night, start playing as soon as I wake up and skip work for it. I can only imagine how much stronger that feeling would have been. Elden Ring had been my first souls game, so I didn't know what the weapons or items are good and what mechanics to use to make every item pickup special. Therefore, even finding out, for example, jumping can be to dodge attacks was mind-blowing to me.

None of these are really considered meta nowadays but to this day using them will always remind me of my struggles against Maliketh. I saw hundreds of new discoveries and secrets. I had no idea about how can it be so huge and filled with secrets. That's what she said. She said that even after hundreds of hours, I see and learn new things.

Circumstances

And lastly, an immersive and long game like this is a perfect way to escape many people headed rough and Elden Ring was their way of forgetting. And no matter which one of the other points applied nothing is as valuable as something to look forward to. The reason we crave to forget and relive this magical feeling is different for everyone, but I think most of us can agree that we hope the Elden Ring DLC will make us feel that way again.

In 2023, Blizzard will release Diablo 4. This hack-and-slash RPG will be a bold entry in Diablo series, transporting you back to its dark fantasy world. In order to push the boundaries of the genre, the game needs to make a series of additions, such as comprehensive progression and open world of the sequel. But these ambitions shouldn't underestimate the dungeon-crawling impact of Diablo's previous years. In fact, Diablo 4 exists, so you definitely want the game to learn from other successful titles of its kind, as well as the history of the series, and keep improving to enhance your gaming experience.

Diablo 3 is a hit game, and despite its shortcomings, it can serve as a benchmark against which to target a wider range. ARPGs have grown in popularity in recent years, with rivals like Path of Exile praising the best parts of Blizzard's classic games. As one of the most expected games of 2023, you must have high expectations for Diablo 4, and the IP can still fuel your enthusiasm. As long as Blizzard can keep adding to its groundbreaking properties, its relevance will continue. So, the game team had to consider the breadth of experience available across the genre, as well as the ongoing Diablo game.

Diablo 3 Features That Need To Return In Diablo 4

When Diablo 3 was first released in 2012, Blizzard promised you that installments would be available online in the future. For now, Blizzard has confirmed that future installments will be online-only. To keep players engaged with the sequel, the live service should justify its existence by producing a consistent cadence of new events. However, there may only be one last major update for the game, the next season of Diablo 3. Because once Blizzard takes over the game later this year, it's likely that Blizzard's priority will be post-launch support for Diablo 4. In this case, user experience is particularly critical. In order to get the next game off the ground, Blizzard is hoping to fix some of the early issues with the third game, namely server issues.

Another important factor in continuing a franchise is authenticity. In order to make you feel at home, the game needs to integrate a series of traditional elements. If you're a long-time player, in Diablo 4 you'll see the return of several original characters, which means the story should carry over from Diablo 3 and the Reaper of Souls expansion to the follow-up. While the game's lore and atmosphere are valuable for contextualizing the adventure with a uniquely grim tone, at the heart of the entire Diablo series is the gameplay.

For now, Diablo 4 has to focus not only on the core narrative, but also on the various classes and action-based abilities. While the fundamentals of the second and third Diablo games are good, Diablo 4's combat needs to balance well-balanced combos and synchronized controls that favor rewards and allow you to maneuver them flexibly. In ARPGs, your choice is often tied to the process of equipping a character with impactful swings and spells, and these skills often improve over time. In fact, the class-based mechanics of both Diablo 3 and Path of Exile's spiritual successor are deep, though many believe the latter is more involved.

Diablo 4 Should Have The Power To Compete With Path Of Exile

As one of the many games tried before Diablo 4, Grinding Gear Games' Path of Exile has been recognized by many players, because the game's ARPG design in the free online world is very good. The game's team took inspiration from Blizzard's game, developed a modern game that is enough to attract many hardcore fans, and now has a powerful community with its excellent game quality. In some ways, Grinding Gear Games' project might be seen as an extension of Diablo's history.

That kind of uncompromising gameplay in Path of Exile makes for a great experience, especially for optimizing passive stats. In addition, in order to achieve a variety of play styles, Blizzard can also design a streamlined character building system similar to Path of Exile's skill tree. Diablo 4 has an example of this customization, Codex of Power. If you want to invest the time to perfect your career, all the possible specializations might be an avenue.

In fact, Diablo 4 needs to cover its bases as an advanced ARPG offering. But there's no question that the sequel could be wide-ranging. For upcoming releases, it could have a longer lifespan if developers add new hooks or endgame content to it. Path of Exile's Ruthless Mode, which debuts in 2022, is a good example of this. In Diablo 4, if Blizzard succeeds in developing its own best version, it will leave a glorious achievement in the history of the game, and it will also leave an excellent memory in your heart.

Related: POE 3.21 Expansion Release Date Speculation, Content, Changes And More

Finally, according to reliable sources, Path of Exile 3.21 will be delayed due to the release of Diablo 4 in June. Because by convention, if Path of Exile 3.21 continues to be released in March, then Path of Exile 3.22 will be released around the second week of June, which will conflict with Diablo 4's release time.