The latest character in Honkai Star Rail is the 1.1 version of Silver Wolf. But the game has actually revealed a lot of new characters. Today, we are going to list all 15 currently known new characters that are likely to be playable in the near future.

It should be noted that all of the characters listed in the article have officially appeared in the game, with the exception of the Dragon form Dan Heng.

1. Luocha

Everyone knows him from the second half of 1.1.

He can heal, cleanse, and deal damage at the same time without consuming skill points, and can be fully functional at E0. And he is a super OP must-have unit. If you want to experience Luocha as a character as soon as it goes live, you might as well just buy a Honkai Star Rail Account with Luocha.

2. Yu Kong

Yu Kong is a 4-star imaginary harmony support.

She comes with the event banner of Luocha, who can buff ally’s ATK, Crit Rate and Crit Damage. You can also get her free at the 1.2 event.

3. Kafka

Kafka is a 5-star Lightning Nihilist. She is also the leader of the Stellaron Hunters who push the Stellaron Core into your chest, affectionately called “Mom” by all the Trailblazers.

Everyone tried Kafka in the tutorial, and her skill animations were just too good to be ignored. Kafka is the synergy core of a continuous damage team and works well with Serval and Sampo.

4. Blade

Blade is a 5-star wind destruction damage dealer.

He has an immortal body in the story, a terrifying Stellaron Hunter. His skills are all blood related. By burning it and healing it back, he can not only tank damage, destroy the enemies but also support more skill points to the team.

5. Luka

He is the handsome guy on the popular Light Cone Resolution Shines as Pearls of Sweat.

As the underground king of the fighters in Boulder Town, Luca is a 4-star physical nihility carry, more suitable for an F2P team.

6. Fu Xuan

She is the head of the Xianzhou Alliance’s Divination Commission, who is good at fortune telling.

She always wanted to be the general of Luofu, but Jing Yuan does not give it up easily. Based on the information we have, Fu Xuan will be a five-star quantum preserver.

7. Yin Yue

Yin Yue, who is the dragonborn of Dan Heng, is a 5-star imaginary DPS.

Dan Heng’s past is probably the most mysterious plot in the game, and HoYoverse is doing its best not to spoil it, even though his animation has already been leaked for a long time. So, we will not talk too much about him, but we know he will be with us soon.

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail: A Complete Guide To Arlan! - Builds & Skills & Teams

8. Jing Liu

Jing Liu was the former general of Xianzhou, Jing Yuan’s master, but lost herself in the cursed body.

In the animated film, Jing Yuan killed her in tears with his ultimate. However, in the promotion video for 1.1, she came back again and fought Yanqing, who is the disciple of Jing Yuan.

From the scene, we can guess that she is an ice-type damage dealer, most likely a 5-star. But her path is unknown. Some people speculate that the body in Luocha’s coffin was Jing Liu, and Luocha managed to help her resurrect, leading to the scene in the PV.

9. Gui Nai Fen

She is the pretty girl on the Light Cone Subscribe for More! That also says like before you leave!

She’s Sushang’s best friend, with an optimistic and positive character, possibly a fire type. She likes to fool around, like live streaming crushing rocks on Sushang’s chest.

Although the light cone is for the hunt, we cannot tell her path yet because Sushang is also on it.

10. Lynx

Lynx is the other girl on the Light Cone Warmth Shortens Cold Nights.

She’s the younger sister of Serval and Gepard, who is very thoughtful and caring for others. To match the light cone’s type, she should be on the path of Abundance.

11. Screwllum

Screwllum is the new character who debuted in the 1.1 event and is an important figure at the space station.

He fought Sliver Wolf both on the Light Cone We Will Meet Again and in the 1.1 event. So, he might as well be a nihility character.

12. Ruan Mei

There are 3 characters on the Light Cone Geniuses’ Repose: Herta, Screwllum, and Ruan Mei, who together built the Simulated Universe.

From her appearance, her path is more likely to be either harmony or abundance.

13 & 14. Xueyi And Hanya

Xueyi and Hanya are the sisters on two light cones: Under the Blue Sky and Return to Darkness.

Xueyi is older, and Hanya is younger. Xue Yi has been transformed into a puppet lying in Hanya’s arms. We can assume that one is the Hunt, most likely Hanya, and one is destruction based on the types of their light cones.

15. Topaz

She is the character on the Light Cone Trend of the Universal Market, who is the manager of the Pan-Galactic Commercial Enterprise.

Even though the light cone is for preservation, there are rumors that Topaz has been designed to be a damage dealer. So, let’s wait and see.

The Other Three

In addition to that, there are three characters that have not yet appeared in the game, but are already of great interest to the community.

The first is Black Swan. She showed up in one of the official trailers, but we know nothing about her identity. She looks like a nihilist to me, but we will have to wait for more information.

Finally, people are hyped about the possibility that two of the most popular swords women in Honkai Impact, Raiden Mei and Yae Sakura. They may both join the Honkai Star Rail as 5-star carries of the hunt. There are no visuals yet for their models, but we hope to see them soon.

I’m going to share with you 10 productive ways you can spend your time in FFXIV while waiting for the queue to pop. And these suggestions are very valuable because they will either save you time in the future or they have worthwhile rewards.

1. Island Sanctuary Gathering

My first suggestion is to gather materials on Island Sanctuary, such as Island Laver or Island Sap.

Island Laver seems to be a popular ingredient needed every single week. And I can sit all of my granaries on it all week long and still never have enough. It’s irritating to have to gather them myself, but what else can I do?

It’s a great idea to gather any materials you are low on on the island during queue. This way, you don’t have to waste your time on it later.

2. Crafting & Gathering

Talking about gathering on the island gave me another brilliant idea: gathering and crafting in general. Both of these can bring you some cash or materials you need to craft things that you want for yourself.

If you’re unsure about what to gather or craft, I would suggest doing a little market research by using websites like Universalis or Saddlebag Exchange. The latter even has a search function that can show you the best-selling furnishing items. For gathering, you can filter your search by materials even down to the material type.

Another reason to gather while you queue is to fill out your logs. This way, if you have a retainer that is a gatherer, you’ll have a wider variety of Ventures you can assign to them. You can actually make a solid income by just sending your retainer out for materials and then selling them on the market board. But if you have not gathered something, then your retainer can’t get it either. So, it’s definitely worthwhile to spend your queue time completing those logs.

3. Shadowbringers & Endwalker Fates

My next suggestion is doing Fates, specifically those in Shadowbringers and Endwalker. Because completion of them rewards you with Bicolor Gemstones.

The Bicolor Gemstones are the main reason to do this as they can be used for a variety of desirable items, such as crafting materials, Orchestrion Rolls, Furnishings, Glamours, and even Minions. Some items also don’t become available until you have capped your shared Fates for a particular region. So, that’s just one more reason to farm this during queue.

Fates will also provide XP for any jobs you’re leveling. And if you do enough of them, you’ll also get an XP bonus through the weekly challenges log. So, be sure to do your 5th and 10th fates on the jobs you want XP on the most.

4. Beast Tribes

Speaking of leveling, Beast Tribe quests are a fantastic way to do so as they often give a pretty sizable chunk of XP upon completion.

Another reason to complete Beast Tribe quests is because they offer cool rewards, like Materia, Dyes, Glamours, Housing Items, Mounts, and Emotes.

Pre-shadowbringers, maxing out each tribe, also allows you to do an Allied Tribal Quest for even more rewards, like the Gratuity Emote, for example.

You can do up to 12 Beast Tribe quests per day and it typically takes 10 minutes or fewer to complete three quests from a tribe. It’s so worthwhile and a great way to spend your time while waiting for the queue to pop.

Also Read: Final Fantasy 14 Dungeon Guide

5. Levequests

Going along with the leveling theme still, let’s talk about levequests.

Levequests are an easy way to level battle, crafter, and gatherer jobs. For the latter two, you can often just buy stuff on the market board to turn in. So, if you hate crafting as much as I do, you can level up without having to actually do that much crafting at all.

Levequests can also be used to make FFXIV Gil. Once upon a time, you could just make coffee biscuits and turn them in. Now, it takes a bit more effort on your part. You will need to do the math yourself. Find something that is being sold for cheap on the market board, especially if it’s high quality, and then turn it in and reap the profit.

6. Hunt Marks

Sitting there constantly clicking is pretty boring, but what else do you have to do while you queue?

My sixth suggestion is hunting marks. you guys know how much I love hunt trains, but unfortunately you can’t really do trains while you queue as hunt trains require you to be in a party. However, you can do Overworld hunt marks.

There are different types of seals you can get depending on what expansion you’re hunting in. And, of course, different types of rewards, such as minions, mounts, furnishings, and more.

I would suggest checking out the rewards for each expansion and seeing what you want. Lots of people like to hunt for Centurio Seals because with them you can buy Aetheryte Tickets and save a lot of money on teleportation.

7. Blue Mage Spells

Speaking of hunting mobs, if you’re interested in playing Blue Mage, there are a number of mobs in the Overworld that drop Blue Mage spells.

So, if you don’t have them all, you can farm them while waiting for queue. There are lots of guides online for where to get each spell.

8. Gold Saucer

My next idea is to hit up the Gold Saucer.

Unfortunately, you can’t do any of the gates or your queue will stop. But you can do the mini cact pot or any of the other mini games. If you’re farming MGP, you’re going to want to complete as much of the weekly log as you can, and doing mini-games is part of that.

9. Triple Triad

Speaking of the Gold Saucer, collecting all the Triple Triad cards up to I think Shadowbringers will get you a cute little flying card mount, so you can play Triple Triad with the NPCs in the Gold Saucer or in the Overworld to work on your collection while you wait for queue.

10. Practice Your Rotation

Finally, my 10th and last idea is to practice your rotation.

Lots of players are interested in doing higher difficulty content like Extremes or even Savages. But they often feel hesitant for many reasons. And one of them is often a lack of experience and skill level.

Therefore, you can take that extra time waiting for queue to visit resources (like the Balance or YouTube), figure out what your rotation should be, and test it out on a Training Dummy.

You can start to build muscle memory for this rotation so that once you’re in encounters that require you to dodge mechanics, it’ll be a lot less overwhelming since you’ve built up that memory of where your buttons are and what to hit next.

We’ll be going over the various things that Honkai Star Rail does better than Genshin Impact. I’m not trying to figure out which game is better or make comparisons. Both games have their pros and cons and this article is supposed to be fun and educational.

Many of the things I point out can be implemented Genshin. So, this can also be a way to encourage HoYoverse to make positive changes. A lot of these differences range from small quality of life changes to substantial overhauls in certain mechanical aspects of the game.

To start things off, one of the most convenient changes in Honkai Star Rail is the streamlining of the many different daily activities players have to complete. Daily missions in Honkai Star Rail are much easier to complete as they consist of various tasks that you could do while farming for relics or materials.

Honkai Star Rail still has quests like commissions. But these quests are usually much easier and most only require you to talk to NPCs. My favorite change personally is that I don’t have to walk to Catherine every single time I finish my dailies to collect my rewards.

Assignments, which are equivalent to Genshin Expeditions, also can be pulled out via the menu instead of talking to Catherine. Another way they also made the daily logins much more bearable was by allowing you to teleport directly to farming locations. This saves you so much time compared to teleporting to a nearby waypoint and then walking over to the location, which could sometimes take a minute or more.

On top of that, you save even more time and energy with the Auto Battle and two times speed in Honkai Star Rail. Farming your Honkai Star Rail dailies is mindless. Because you could just click the Auto Battle and literally do anything else: eat food, watch anime, talk to your friends to make the process even faster. You can farm Calyxes in multiple ways instead of doing them one at a time. This extra convenience is great. And you’ll suffer less burnout as opposed to playing Genshin Impact.

Not only that, the Relic farming process specifically is also shortered by a significant amount. In Genshin Impact, you have to walk to the center of the stage and activate the domain. Once you’re done killing the monsters, you have to walk all the way up the stairs, and then talk to the tree for your artifacts. However, in Honkai Star Rail, all of those things are cut out. All you do is start the fight, kill the enemies, and rewards pop up on your screen. No more pointless walking is required for your daily equipment grinding in Honkai Star Rail. How wonderful is that!

In addition, you don’t have to teleport to a certain statue to change your main character’s element. All you have to do is pull up the menu and click the Switch button. For those of us with terrible luck, HonKai Star Rail lets us pick any standard band character we want after 300 pulls. So, even if you pull to your heart content and still didn’t get that Bronya you wanted, you could forcibly bring her home with the guaranteed select.

Even if we’re free to play, this edition is very beneficial. You might think 300 summons is a lot. But I think you could achieve this easily after half a year or so. The game has only been out for a couple of weeks and now I already have 92 pulls and 68 of them were given to me completely for free.

Continuing on with the gacha system, the weapon banner for Honkai Star Rail is significantly improved. First of all, the exclusive light cone for the current character only features one light cone instead of two weapons, like in Genshin Impact. This greatly increases the odds of getting your ideal light cone and encourages more player to roll on the light cone banner.

Spenders also require less currency if they are pulling for an S6 light cone. Overall, this change was well needed, considering how frustrating Genshin’s weapon banner was. Additionally, Honkai Star Rail is way more generous with the amount of light cones you can get.

Unlike Genshin Impact, you can unlock 5-star light cones from the Starglight Exchange. The Genshin’s equivalent to this is the Starglitter Exchange, which only sells 4-star weapons. This change is amazing for free to play players who rarely spend on weapons and often never get the ones they want for their main characters.

The weekly bosses in HonKai Star Rail also drop entire 4-star light cones compared to Genshin bosses only dropping Prototypes for craftable weapons. Herta’s Store also has three 5-star light cones that you can farm and they even have currency for you to superimpose the light cones to level 5.

Switching between various quests is also much easier in HonKai Star Rail because characters aren’t locked to quests like they were in Genshin. Usually, Genshin quests would keep certain NPCs locked into that quest until you finish them. This prevents you from completing another quest that uses the same NPC. Because they can’t be in two places at the same time. In Honkai Star Rail, they made it so that NPC’s moved to whichever quest you have currently active, which allows you to complete quests in any order you want.

Loading times in HonKai Star Rail are also significantly better. This is because of how each area is separated into several maps as opposed to Genshin loading in entire worlds. Device performance has also improved because of this. And Honkai Star Rail is also a much smaller download compared to when Genshin first came out.

Trailblaze Power is capped out at 180 and regenerates every 6 minutes compared to Genshin’s Resin capping at 160 and regenerating every 8 minutes. Therefore, it will take you only 18 hours to fully regenerate your energy in Honkai Star Rail compared to 21 hours and 20 minutes for Genshin.

Lastly, my favorite change is the increased importance of a character’s element in Honkai Star Rail. In Genshin Impact, elements were only necessary for breaking Shields from mobs, such as the Abyss Mage. Other than that, elements do not matter and you can run the same team for pretty much any boss. In Honkai Star Rail, enemies have Weaknesses in certain elements and attacking an enemy with their Weakness would reduce their Toughness. Without breaking their Toughness, you would deal very low damage.

This makes the character’s element much more important in gameplay. Because of the importance of elemental coverage on teams, this encourages players to use more diverse team comps and makes use of the giant character roster in Honkai Star Rail. As a result, collecting characters becomes much more rewarding and fun for the player base.

Whether you like Honkai Star Rail or Genshin Impact, you will always encounter 5-star characters or weapons that are very difficult to pull. If you want to save time and effort, you can directly purchase a Honkai Star Rail Account or a Genshin Impact Account with the character or weapon you want.

No doubt you guys have heard of Elder Scrolls Online at some point. Maybe you gave it a try back in the day and you’re probably sitting there wondering why is this game still so popular even to this day? 

If you haven’t tried it, maybe you’re sitting there thinking: what makes this game special? Why do people play this instead of playing World of WarCraft, Final Fantasy, Guild Wars or another MMO? Let’s go over the several points that differentiate ESO as an MMO and what makes the game just so good.

1. Rich Lore

If you’ve ever played an Elder Scrolls game, whether it’s Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, it doesn’t matter. You know that the Elder Scrolls Universe has a massive amount of lore going on for it. Each race, location, deity and hero has these extensive backstories behind them and Elder Scrolls Online is no different.

This game has a massive amount of rich and extensive lore. That’s been built up over the course of the game’s lifetime and of course this lore draws from the previous Elder Scrolls games, taking inspiration, but it also has introduced a ton of new stories, characters, and locations to the Elder Scrolls Universe.

One of the main reasons why people play this game so much is because it is so story driven because of the lore of Elder Scrolls Online. And if you’ve never given gaming lore a chance, Elder Scrolls is a great place to start, whether it’s this game or the single player games.

2. Level Scaling 

This is something that’s either you love it or you hate it when it comes to MMORPGs. But Elder Scrolls Online uses a level scaling system instead of a traditional MMO, where you level up a character, you ultimately out level zones and you sort of end up at the end of things in a select couple of zones that are the max level areas.

Elder Scrolls Online doesn’t do this. Instead, they have a level scaling system that allows their players to explore any part of the game world regardless of their level and it keeps every corner of the game relevant. This means that you can always find a challenge regardless of where you are in the game. 

If you’re a completionist or an explorer or whatever, this game is definitely right up your alley because it keeps things interesting with its scaling technology. Not everybody is a fan of horizontal progression, but in regard to the world, ESO does it very well.

3. Massive World

If you’ve ever played a previous Elder Scrolls title, you know that this is the kind of game that goes out of its way to be big and detailed and Elder Scrolls Online is no different.

The game world of ESO is massive, and players are free to explore it at their own pace. There are no level requirements for the zones either because of the scaling, so players can explore wherever they want. If you’re somebody that you want to quest and level up in Morrowind because that was your favorite game in the Elder Scrolls series, go over there and explore it or go to some of these regions where Bethesda hasn’t made a single player version of The Elder Scrolls at yet.

It’s completely up to you wherever you go. Across these zones, you’ll find everything from dragons attacking some areas to Oblivion Gates opening in others...... There're tons of stuff to find in each zone. Each zone has its own unique personality. It’s a world worth exploring. 

4. Player Choice 

Elder Scrolls is not a game where you just choose a class, level up the class and you’re stuck in that particular play style.

When it comes to ESO, you can play this game however you want. In Elder Scrolls Online, if you want to be an Argonian Thief, who wears heavy armor or who runs around healing people while also poisoning them with your daggers, you can do that. If you want to be a Necromancer who uses a bow and poisoned arrows, you can do that, too. 

You really can create whatever character you want in Elder Scrolls Online, which can lead to a little of a learning curve. But as you go through the game and as you gather points from leveling up or discovering Skyshards, you can spend them however you want in your skill trees that you unlock as you play the game. It makes the replayability of this game really good.

It also is cool because you’ll probably get to max before even exploring a fourth of all the zones in this game. So, going and checking out new zones and trying out new builds and new styles of playing your character. It’s awesome. 

5. Player Housing 

Player housing is a thing in Elder Scrolls Online and it is very expansive and it is very immersive. In this game, you can purchase tiny houses. You can purchase massive homes and with whatever your creativity desires. 

I’ve been in player homes that are completely vampire themed homes that are all like hunting with animal heads and stuff everywhere to even homes that are pretty much like entire castles that players have made within the giant landmass that you can purchase to customize your home on. It’s pretty wild how in-depth the player housing system is within ESO and I feel like I only scratched the surface of it despite my hundreds of hours in this game. 

6. No Subscription Required 

Unlike a lot of other MMOs, ESO does not require a monthly subscription, and the game is in no way paid to win.

When it comes to this game, if you play it, you can play it as much as you want or as little as you want without having to worry about any sort of recurring fee. 

The only thing really that you get from subscribing monthly to Elder Scrolls Online is you get points to spend in the Cosmetic Shop. You get an infinitely deep crafting bag, which some people would say it’s a little unfair. But it’s just a crafting bag. If you don’t care about crafting, it’s not a big deal. You also get access to all the content and all the expansions up to whatever the current expansion is whatever that might be. 

My first 100 hours in this game or so, I played completely for free with no subscription and I loved the game so much that I did ultimately subscribe to it. But it’s a hundred percent not necessary to progress in this game and to have a good time.

7. World PVP 

If you ever played Elder Scrolls Oblivion, you might remember Cyrodiil, a big landmass with the city in the center. 

In Elder Scrolls Online, the three factions are all fighting for control of that city. The massive scale world versus world combat in ESO, the moment that you try it, you’re going to get hooked to it: catapults and battering rams in all manner of fire and magic and fortresses...... It is wild that all of the this fortress besieging and stealing and whatever to claim the capital city right in the center of Cyrodiil and to claim an emperor for your faction.

Imagine a Classic World of WarCraft High Warlord or Grand Marshal. Because the emperor gets their own unique skill tree and abilities that they can use to dominate on the PVP Battlefield. It’s great. The world PVP in this game is so much fun.

8. Living World 

Something that I think a lot of RPG or immersive MMO gamer enthusiasts will enjoy about ESO is how interactable the world is and how immersive it can be.

In Elder Scrolls Online, if you’re walking along and you see a sword on the ground, you can pick it up. You see a potato, you can pick it. NPCs will lock the doors of their homes and you can break in. You can murder NPCs in this game. You can and get a bounty put on your head where guards will kill you on site unless you pay the fine.

If you are particular classes like a Necromancer and you were to use a Necromancer ability in the middle of town, people will freak out and try to attack you because you’re a freaking Necromancer. You’re raising the dead in the middle of the Town Square. 

So many people love this about ESO just how interactable the world is and how you can really play out whatever sort of fantasy that you want. Whether you’re a warrior, that’s going around and killing dragons to being some cutthroat rogue, who breaks into people’s homes and steals ESO Gold out of their treasure boxes, whoever you want to be, you can be that person.

Also Read: Elder Scrolls Online: The Unique Mechanics Of Arcanist Class Will Have A Big Impact On Game’s Resource System

9. Rewarding Exploration

Exploration is rewarded tremendously because Elder Scrolls Online is not a linear MMO. You can just kind of go wherever you want.

This is one of my favorite ways to play Elder Scrolls Online: just abandoning the quest that’s right in front of you and just wandering out into the world to see what you find.

As you explore, you’ll find more quests to take part in. You will find world bosses scattered throughout the world that you can fight. You can find delves, which are like these single player dungeons that you can go into. Fight the boss at the end and get an awesome piece of gear, possibly even a set piece of gear. There’s a ton of sets in Elder Scrolls Online that can all do unique things, like making your abilities poisonous, or you can summon like a Daedra. There are lots of stuff in this game in regard to sets.

You can find Skyshards out in the world, which you can collect to get more skill points. You can meet different guilds and factions. There’s a lot in Elder Scrolls Online in terms of exploration. It’s one of my favorite parts of the game.

10. Constant Updates 

Maybe a lot of you reading this article right now play World of WarCraft or Final Fantasy, which are some really large MMO today. And when you hear the term Elder Scrolls Online, you just think: it’s a dead game. It probably gets no content. Nobody really plays it...... 

You would be surprised to discover that a lot of people play this game. No matter where you go in the world, you’re going to be running into players. 

And in regard to the company behind the scenes making the content for this game, they are constantly pumping out updates whether they are new story chapters, dungeons, delves, zones, expansions, new ways to play the game like getting a follower introducing dragons and elsewhere. Whatever you want, these guys are just constantly pumping out new content into this world.

So, there’s always something to look forward to. Even right now in June, the newest Elder Scrolls Online expansion is coming out Necrom with a brand new class. Because the game has this constant steady stream of content, it does not get boring. And even when it does and you decide I’m going to take a break for a couple of months, when you come back, there’s always plenty more to do and plenty more to explore. 

EA Sports have lost the FIFA naming rights, which means it’s no longer going to be releasing FIFA 24. Instead, it is going to be EA Sports FC. So, in this article, we will discuss five new things that have already been confirmed for the new game.

1. There Will Still Be Women In Ultimate Team

*First, we do have women in Ultimate Team. This is something which caught absolutely everybody off guard, but we should have probably seen it coming. We have had the option for quite a while now in FIFA to play with them in kickoff. Also, we did see Sam Kerr on a FIFA cover. I heard the rumor a long time ago and now EA Sports has decided it is going to be happening in EA Sports FC.

So, we are probably going to be seeing both mixed men and women in Ultimate Team. I don’t see how we’re going to be having a separate mode just for women and men. It would be too much for EA Sports to handle, having to release promos new Team of the Week every single week, separately. I don’t see that happening. It’s definitely going to be in some way mixed in.

And, we have seen this tweet of course by Fut Sheriff leaking this and we do have EA Sports on their website, the EA Sports FC announcement page. We do have the UEFA Women’s Champions League that has been confirmed. We do also have the National Women’s Soccer League, which is the equivalent of the MLS. And we also have the Women’s Super League that is the equivalent of the Premier League. All of these are going to be coming.

Fut Sheriff is also confirmed that we’re going to be getting Women Icons and Marta Brazilian is a prediction. So, again, it will be interesting to see how it’s all going to be playing out.

2. Brand Promos

*Next, we do have brand promos in Ultimate Team. Adidas Numbers up was a promo we did see in FIFA 22. That was obvious with the Adidas brand. We have also seen collaboration with the Marvel brand in FIFA 23. Of course, we had Marvel FUT Heroes. And you can get them by using your FUT 23 Coins.

Vincent on Twitter has confirmed that we’re going to be seeing more of these and we do have many announcements already by different brands, for example Pepsi on Twitter. They did confirm that they are partners with EA Sports FC, so I feel like we could maybe see a Pepsi promo and I did make this a concept with Messi.

We could also see perhaps something with PlayStation. PlayStation did also tweet on other social media as well that EA Sports FC and sort of their partnership is going to be continuing. So, I do think that we’re going to be seeing something like this. What impresses me the most is the PlayStation Pack that appeared in FIFA 22. This was given out for free to all PlayStation Plus Members. So, I do think there is going to be a cross with more brands, for example Pepsi, PlayStation and even more brands that we haven’t even seen announcements from.

Also Read: FIFA 23: Best Tips For The Start Of TOTS Weekend League

3. Academy

*The next thing confirmed in EA Sports FC is for the Academy. Now it’s unclear whether this is going to be a separate mode or if this is going to be somehow integrated into objectives. Maybe it could just be a different tab on the objectives page, but this is essentially going to be allowing you to choose a player and then level him up. So, maybe this is going to be working just over time. Every single season, it just going to be upgrading automatically or maybe it could be you’re involved in the progression.

But it will be quite interesting to see how this is going to be working. It should be similar to Future Stars Academy, so it will be quite cool. Obviously, those objectives used to be very popular and I do think now it is going to have that sort of uniqueness. Everybody is going to be able to choose their own player and everyone’s going to have something different. It’s not just going to be everyone’s forced or if they want to participate, they are forced to have this one player. This is going to be quite cool.

Maybe they could also do something different with the Moments mode. I do think that was quite a waste this year. So, that’s going to be revamped if this is going to be involved with that somehow because that we did have a sort of Moments Tokens. Anyway, we’ll see more information from EA but FUT Academy is going to be an EA Sports FC.

4. New Icons

*Next, we do have new icons. This is something which we do see. Every single year, a few new players are added. And women this year in Ultimate Team will also get icons. There’s going to be more leaks and even more announcements, obviously for that.

But we do already have two new icons that have been confirmed. Fut Donk has said that they are in the code and also he mentioned them being in the trailer. I’m not too sure which trailer he is referring to. But Gento is going to be coming. I do believe he’s going to be Spanish. They have given him a left-wing position, and he does look quite decent.

We do also have Di Stefano. This is going to be a huge icon, which is very popular. And he is either going to be Spanish or Argentinian. We’re not too sure. I think maybe he played for both countries or something like that. But this has been going on for a while now. Everybody on Twitter is just debating which country he is going to be representing. Obviously, it’s only possible to represent one, but whichever one it is going to be, I do think Di Stefano should be a very solid icon.

One thing I want to mention here is that the Barcelona Stadium Camp now is going to be coming into EA Sports FC. But unfortunately, according to Fut Donk, this isn’t going to be happening. There were actually some rumors that this was going to be happening. There have been a lot of false rumors, including the Transfer Market being removed or things like that. Do not believe anything until you do see a reliable source and also confirmation from EA Sports.

5. Release Time For EA Sports FC

But the last thing which has been confirmed is the release date by Fut Sheriff. He has said that we are going to be getting EA Sports FC on September 29th and I do believe this is going to be the standard worldwide release date.

Usually, we see Ultimate Edition getting three days before that, so Ultimate Edition will potentially release on the 26th. And then, we do usually get Early Access or EA Play, which includes the 10 hours of the free trial. I mean, you don’t have to actually pay for it.

But there is going to be some sort of something similar to EA Play, but Fut Sheriff did say it’s going to be a little different this year. So, that’s going to be quite exciting and don’t forget: we are going to be seeing more official information from EA Sports in July.

Path of Exile is an action RPG that markets itself as being the best ARPG on the market in terms of character customizations. If you have ever played Diablo 3 and thought that it’s very simple or straight up just looking for a serious game to play for the next couple of years, then keep reading as today we will go over the top 10 things that you must know in detail before thinking about making Path of Exile the next big thing in your life.

1. Monetization

First, we got monetization. Most of you already know that you can basically boot up Path of Exile and start playing for free. But is Path of Exile really free to play any sense where you can continue playing without spending any money and compensate for that with your skills?

In your first 50 to 100 hours, you won’t feel the need to purchase anything. That’s until you realize that you are running out of space. Path of Exile gives you four generic Stash Tabs. This can hold pretty much anything. The problem is simple things like POE Currency are more than enough to eventually flood these Stash Tabs.

There are also maps and a bunch of other league specific currencies like Fossils, Catalysts and Scarabs and many others that you have to store. Of course, that’s aside from the rest of your items. In a few words, the game becomes unplayable at some point unless you purchase Stash Tabs.

The bare minimum amount of in-game currency that you have to spend in order to get essential Stash Tabs are: 75 points on a Currency Stash Tab, 150 points on a Map Stash Tab and another 150 points on one Premium Quad Stash Tab, which is required if you wish to participate in the item market.

All of that is going to cost you close to 40 US dollars, which is what I think is the bare minimum that you have to spend in order to keep playing for almost ever.

So, is Path of Exile really free to play? The short answer is no.

2. Complexity

The second point we want to talk about is complexity.

Path of Exile complexity is not actually as hard as people make it out to be. It’s just filled with so much information and details that you have to memorize. If you wish to play the game properly, just to put this into perspective. I spent over 10,000 hours playing this game. More than half of that time is spent on learning. Even today, I still get to learn something now and then.

Path of Exile is not difficult. It just needs lots of time to learn and it only becomes fun once you learn it. Unless you are seriously considering pouring multiple thousands of hours into this game, I don’t recommend playing it.

3. Grind

The third point that you must know in detail before playing Path of Exile is the grind.

Simply learning the game isn’t enough to make POE Currency. If you wish to play it properly, then you should know that: in order to keep up with seasonal players in competitive environments like League, then you have to play no less than 8 hours every day. Some people even play up to 15 hours a day on league launch.

The reason why this matters is that only those who reach endgame early are the ones who make the most amount of currency and those who make the most amount of currency controls the economy. It is basically like real life. It seems unfair, but that’s one of the things that makes Path of Exile the unique game it is and on top of this, it’s possible for you to spend an entire day playing without getting a single good drop.

Path of Exiel is a very RNG heavy game. If you hate feeling unrewarded for your time sometimes, then Path of Exile is simply not for you.

4. Difficulty

The fourth point we have is difficulty. Not to be confused with difficulty or complexity, it is one thing to understand the basics of a game and it’s a completely different thing to learn how to play it.

If you are literally coming from any other ARPG, then you need to know that Path of Exile weakest aspect is visual clarity. Both monsters and players deal with an extremely high amount of damage compared to their respective life poles. And what ends up happening as a result is that you either one shot everything or everything one shot you. You will be in an extremely chaotic atmosphere where you don’t realize what’s happening before it actually happens.

It is the least engaging combat style out of any other ARPG out there and journey Path of Exile biggest downside. It is for this specific reason why Path of Exile is considered difficult. No matter how cautious you are, you will eventually find yourself in a situation where you died and there is nothing you could have done to prevent that.

5. Endgame

For our fifth point, we are going to talk about the endgame.

Path of Exile’s endgame is where it is at. There are so many things you can do and so many endgame bosses to challenge for their loot. There are also so many league content for you to engage with, from many previous updates to enough content to keep you occupied and engaged for thousands of hours. You can go Delve, you can farm Legion, you can do Harvest, you can do Blighted Maps and more.

Best part of it is that every different league mechanic has its own target load to aim for. Basically, Path of Exile’s endgame allows you to specialize in whatever you want. The game even has its own separated passive tree that its sole purpose is to allow you to customize your endgame experience. No other game comes even remotely close to Path of Exile in that regard.

6. Crafting

The sixth important point that you need to know is crafting. In Path of Exile, you build a strong character by purchasing items for it from other people with your currency.

Most of this currency will come by crafting your own items and sell them to these people for profit. Learning how to craft is detrimental to progressing in this game and I’m not going to lie crafting is like a vast ocean.

Now, I know that the landing speed of one person differs from another, but as for me, it took me over 2,000 hours to master crafting in this game. And I did take the game seriously. As for a more casual player, it’s going to take them even more. That being said, don’t let that discourage you from getting into crafting, as you don’t need to learn everything to get started.

7. Multiplayer

Our seventh point is multiplayer. I want you guys to know that aside from the ability to chat and trade with other players, Path of Exile isn’t really a multiplayer game.

Sure, you can invite people to a party and go kill a boss with them or something like that, but you almost never want to do that in 99% of content you go through in Path of Exile with some very few exceptions.

Party play is generally something that people avoid as it slows down their progress. Unless you are XP farming for level 100, odds are you will be playing solo simply because party play doesn’t actually reward you with anything that you can’t get by playing Solo.

In fact, recently, the game developers killed party play by heavily reducing the load that they generate with 3.19 patch. That’s the more reason for you to be playing Solo.

You May Interest: Best Righteous Fire Juggernaut Build In POE 3.21! - Beginner Friendly

8. The Developers

Speaking about the developers, it is the next thing that we are going to talk about.

GGG Dev Team, the creators of Path of Exile are well known for their vision, a vision that’s all about slowing down Path of Exile as much as possible. Now, I’m not talking about gameplay. I’m talking about character progression.

The dev team has been doing nothing but nerfing every possible avenue for players to attain power because they believe that the more you have to grind every day to get what you want, the longer you will be sticking around playing a league. This helps to improve player attention numbers at the cost of every individual player's experience. You are expected to play no less than 10 hours a day to experience everything that this game has to offer.

Basically, the developers want Path of Exile to become a second day job for you, one that doesn’t pay you anything. If you are a busy person with important things to do in real life, then unfortunately, you are not the target demographic for Path of Exile and its developers.

9. The Community

However, with that being said coming, we have the complete opposite of the dev team, which is the community. Allow me to say that despite the inconveniences that come alongside playing such a complicated game like Path of Exile, you get a bunch of people who are willing to sacrifice their time to help the community by making some useful tools to save time.

One good example is Craft of Exile, a website that shows you the possible odds of spawning every single modifier in the game on an item. It also allows you to simulate your next crafting project without having to waste currency on it inside the game.

You can also plan your next build with another useful tool called Path of Building, an application that tells you which passives to allocate in order to better boost your damage and survivability without having to go through trial and error inside the game and more.

10. Future Game Support

Now, for our final point, we are going to talk about future game support.

Path of Exile is an ever-growing game in terms of league mechanics. The gaming graphics even becomes noticeably better with each update.

In the future, GGG is planning on releasing Path of Exile 2. It is not a separate game, but a major expansion to an already growing Path of Exile. This is big because you can start playing Path of Exile now without having to worry about changing games anytime soon.

Path of Exile 2 is an ambition project to expand the main game. It will improve graphics and simplify some complicated game mechanics, like gym linking.

In short, it’s worth diving into Path of Exile now, but only if you are willing to take it seriously. This means having no real life commitments preferably for the next couple of years and yes, this does include marriage anyway.

We’re going to be looking at three awesome places to grind out rabbit kills so you can get your Easter event rewards as fast as possible before we get into that

Rabbit’s Revenge Event - Release Time & Rewards

The new Easter Event Rabbit’s Revenge starting on April 12th and going until April 26th. There are a couple of really cool rewards to look forward to. All the rabbits in New World during this period will be transforming into these bigger corrupted versions and have a chance of exploding when they die. This will be very similar to the event they did for Easter last year, but with a couple of new rewards and added lore.

The main two items you want to look out for from these new rabbits are the Defiled Storage Chest of the Hare, which is the same from last year and a pretty cool new mask skin called a Corrupted Rabbit Mask.

Last year, the chest was a big cause of pain for many users since some people killed thousands of rabbits without it. But thankfully this year, you’re guaranteed this chest after 400 kills if you have not gotten it already. You can hold 1050 weight in this chest, so it’s pretty great, and it looks awesome as well.

How To Get These Rewards?

The mask is purely cosmetic and is guaranteed after 200 kills if it hasn’t dropped for you yet, but I can see some very interesting transmog options with this mask. Along with these two items, you’ll be getting your daily gypsum from rabbits up to a total of six per day and up to five Defiled Rabbit’s Feet, which can be consumed for increased luck. So, even if you already got your two drops, it’s worth getting a few rabbit kills per day for these items.

It’s worth noting when going after these items, luck gear will have no effect on your drops. But if you want to kill two birds with one stone, you might as well throw on some Skinning Luck gear while killing the rabbits for better odds at rare rabbit meets.

Also, since these rabbits are so easy to kill, ranged weapons are best to be most efficient, especially the Musket due to its long range. And, if you’re having issues find any rabbits in certain areas, don’t forget to use your compass at the top of your screen to locate them. Sometimes, they are hidden in a bush right beside you.

Three Spots To Grind Rabbits

Next, let’s go over the three spots I like to use to grind out my rabbit kills.

*The first location we’re going to be looking at is over in Brightwood. You can teleport into the main city and then head north along the path up to the Tempest Valley Shrine and then further along to the Imperial Shrine. There're tons of rabbits spawning along this path, so be able to get tons of kills up here.

*Next up is Everfall. You want to be teleporting into the main city and slowly making your way down to the Excavated Shrine, weaving side to side, keeping an eye on their spawn location map and trying to stay in the areas most populated. Because this is such a low level zone, though, I could see a lot of people using this area and bots as well, just because any roaming monsters won’t be of much thread.

*The third and final spot is over in Ebonscale Reach. If you're a high level player, this will be a perfect spot for you since the higher level mobs will scare away the newer players. Simply teleport into the main city and follow the path on the screen just outside the city, killing all the rabbits in your path. Then, head back to the city when you have killed enough.

New World Map

If you tried all these locations and there are too many people taking all the rabbit spawns, then you can check out a really cool resource called New World Map. But if you hide all the things on the map and only show rabbits, it'll show you all the places they spawn on the map and simply go to any area very populated by rabbit spawns and grind until your heart is content.

Related: New World: What’s New For Season 1?

More Tips

Now, let's go over a couple more tips and tricks to maximize this event for you. For starters, when hunting for rabbits in an area, I like to move my camera from side to side, keeping an eye on my radar as I'm running the routes, so I don't miss any of the rabbits. Because sometimes they're hidden by the vegetation.

Also, when it comes to event items like the Defiled Rabbit's Foot, if you're not interested in the love benefits from this item, still hold on to them for a few months because after the event has finished, the prices will just go up and up as time passes. That means you have to spend more New World Coins later.

The same applies for any rabbit related food like the Sumptuous Rabbit meat because so many people will be hunting these rabbits. Prices will drop like crazy. So, for any of these items you gain during this period, hold on to them for a while until prices go back up. If you want, you can even purchase tons of them while prices are at all time lows and eventually sell them on for crazy profits.

This is my opinion. Here’s my subjective take on the best and worst parts of Diablo 2, Diablo 3 and Diablo 4.

Best Part Of Diablo 2

Starting with the best thing about Diablo 2, I just love the itemization in this game. Unique Items can be really powerful and so can rare items. Even certain magic or blue items have the ability to be best in the slot, the wide range of low to high-level set.

Items have bonuses that in niche cases can be really strong or I might craft myself a pair of orange gloves to get a crushing blow and then you even have gray items with open sockets.

It’s even worth picking up wide items as I can potentially turn them gray for a Runeworld base and a Helm. It’s not just a Helm. There’s like a hundred different Helm types that have different requirements and potential bonuses.

My point is pretty much all items have the potential to be useful in Diablo 2 and don’t get me started on Runewords. And D2R items can roll with plus skills on them from other classes, so my Assassin can all of a sudden use the Sorceress teleport because I found his staff with plus teleport charges.

Or I can use the Druid’s Spirits summoned via this ring, so my Paladin gets more life. I mean that’s just really outstanding in my opinion and makes building and designing your character really satisfying both through the skill tree and stats that you carefully choose, but especially through the itemization.

Best Part Of Diablo 3

On to the best thing about Diablo 3, I love how fun clicking buttons and killing Demons is in Diablo 3 like there’s a casual, like Arcadey feel to this game, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The satisfying spells along with the simplicity and accessibility make this an amazing couch Co-op like console experience, perhaps with your kids or your girlfriend who’s new to gaming or even on PC with your online friends pushing the limits of the game.

I also love how Diablo 3 has come so far since its release pretty messy with a lot of systems that didn’t work at all back then. But I feel like they’ve really cleaned it up and really doubled down on its strengths.

Now, it’s got this fun farming simulator vibe to it where I can just jump in and feel like I’m an overpowered God and at certain times of the month, I enjoy that.

Best Part Of Diablo 4

What I think is the best thing about Diablo 4 after playing the beta is the freshness, a new Diablo game, a new story, new end game, the community hype. It’s intriguing and really sparks my curiosity and hunger to play the game.

Building up my character in Diablo 4 is like a new problem to solve and you’re not to crack, so to speak. Therefore, in the early game, you need to prepare enough Diablo 4 Gold to improve your character.

Read More: What You Need To Know About Diablo IV End Game Modes?

The foundation of the gameplay feels incredible to me, like just killing the first wolf at level one. I already had fun and I love that feeling of exploring a new game that I’m passionate about.

Now, I’ve only played the beta, so I’m expecting to have a lot more thoughts on this once the game is out.

Worst Part Of Diablo 2

Onto the worst things about these games, Diablo 2 absolutely lacks of in-game content. Like after playing this game for thousands of hours, there’s not much left to do. Besides, doing it all over again and it can get a little repetitive.

Even now with Diablo II: Resurrected, I’m a little disappointed with how minor changes they’re making to this game, like adding a few new boring items per season just isn’t enough to make me want to play it. I’d really love to see them be more brave and make more bold changes to really shake this game out.

Other than that, the depth and the complexity of this game isn’t that obvious and can be hard for new players to appreciate. I’ve found that my friends who tried for the first time often find the gameplay slow and unengaging coming from other more fast-paced modern titles, which is understandable since the game is 23 years old (release time of Diablo 2: June 28, 2000).

To me, it’s only once you know a lot of the ins and outs of Diablo 2 that it becomes the awesome and fun game that it is and even when you think about everything, there’s still more to discover. But a lot of people never get there. So, I’d say it’s almost too complicated and non-user friendly.

Worst Part About Diablo 3

The worst part of Diablo 3 I’d have to say is just the scaling of everything. I mean, what are these numbers? What’s going on on my screen? And sometimes it just makes me sick.

I’d much more appreciate and savor the whole experience if it was stripped down a bit. The minor change I want is like Diablo 2, where your items rather than give you ten thousand percent extra damage, you get a slight increase to your cash rate and your teleporting feels much better.

I personally prefer that system of slightly tweaking and fine-tuning different aspects of my character.

Worst Part Of Diablo 4

Finally, the worst thing about Diablo 4 I have to mention is the exact same thing as Diablo 3.

The scaling, especially the item affixes just stacking percentage bonus damage: 10% to crowd controlled mobs and 12% overpower damage.

Just this one aspect of the game feels a little chaotic to me and doesn’t feel as satisfying as a system like Diablo 2 where my Sorcerer steals two and a half thousand damage just from being the level she is. And with full gear, the damage doubles.

In summary, I have a love hate relationship with all three of these games for different reasons. Do you agree with my pros and cons of each Diablo game?

Here are some huge World of Warcaft private server news. It’s not often we get a high quality, fresh TBC server. I’m going to be checking out and playing in Netherwing. This is a brand new server by Stromforge and a fresh server that just launched only one day ago.

Intro

I’ll be talking about the servers’ massive and successful launch, and a bit about the servers’ unique features. I’m talking about increased exp rates and going over the incentives the developers are offering players in the hopes of creating healthy faction balance.

If you plan on rolling Alliance this time around in the Burning Crusade, then you’re going to love some of these new changes.

Start

The private server scene had been popping off the last few months, we have a few vanilla plus servers pulling huge player numbers, like Turtle WoW or Duskhaven, and then there are what I would consider more molded versions of WoW, like Ascension: Classless WoW. Now, we have a server that is, a little more old school and a little more like what we in the private server community are used to.

Stormfordge’s new fresh TBC Server Netherwing launched with a massive 4700 players online. That is pretty good for private servers in 2023.

Now, TBC isn’t my favorite expansion, but a lot of people really enjoy it. I will admit that the Burning Crusade is absolutely stacked with PVE content. You have Karazhan, Gruul’s Lair, SSC, Tempest Keep, Black Temple and Sunwell. Not to mention, this was the first expansion that arena was introduced, and although I don’t think it was the best in terms of balance, there are of people that like the fast-paced TBC PVP meta.

TBC isn’t without its flaws, however, private servers have been plagued with awful faction balance, because with arena, the Horde racials like Will of the Forsaken and ORCs stun resist are OP to say at least. Players generally don’t like playing sub optimally, so it’s not really the players’ fault for not choosing Horde over Alliance.

Racial Swap

But this is where Netherwing had been some really nice changes. You now have the ability to racial swap, any race can not learn any other races’ racial abilities.

You can be a Gnome with Will of the Forsaken, or a Dwarf with the Troll berserkers’ ability. Thus goes a long way in balancing the server out, but the devs didn’t stop there.

Server Features

They added unique incentives to alliance players. For example, you get your lv 60 ground mount for free and dual spec (free for alliance).

• Battle-tested Core: Netherwing will once again be powered by AtlantissCoreTBC with two successful realms and years of development put into it!
• Proven Developers: Stormforge Team is composed of Atlantiss and Tauri members with years of experience under our belts!
• Helpful Support: Our support team is here to assist you with any issue you might have!
• Faction Balance: Additional balancing measures to ensure the game isn’t one-sided.
• Racial Swap: Play the race you want, pick the racial abilities you want.
• Dual Talent Specialization: Extra talent tree for those willing to take multiple roles or experiment!
• Dynamic Quest Item Drops: Each time a quest item fails to drop, your chance of getting it from the next enemy mob increases until your bad streak is over!
• Shared Quest Items: Majority of quest items will drop for the entire group, making leveling with friends and all these changes seems to have worked, so far.

The faction balance, as of now, is roughly 50/50. The server is also 3x leveling speed, which has its advantages and disadvantages. It can be difficult to get the required WoW 10.0 Gold for mounts and talents while leveling, but leveling up quickly through the old classic content is nice. There were a lot of people looking for group, and it seems like 5 man dungeon grinding is the fastest way to level up. There are at least a few people who have already reached level 70, which is impressive.

The server has been remarkably stable for a fresh launch, there really haven’t been any crashes or roll backs so far. Which has been great!

Server Issues

My only real complaint or issue I’ve had while playing is that I had to disable my second monitor to adjust the screen resolution to 1920x1080 or get it to switch to windowed mode. So, that’s a quick tip if you’re having the same issue.

My other complaint is that the general chats, like trade, world of general have not been very active, I’m not sure if thus is because it’s a more international community, but there isn’t a lot of talking going on, for 4700 people online, this just seems odd for me. Or maybe I’m just spoiled, as I’ve been playing on Turtle WoW recently and have really been enjoying newcomers chat.

I think Vanilla Plus and Hardcore have ruined playing on regular Classic Era servers for me, at least for a while. But playing on Darkhaven or Turtle WoW, with all their changes, and quality of life improvement has made much of the Classic Era servers feel a bit stale.

Conclusion

Now, if you want a stable, fresh TBC server, run by a professional and competent veteran development team, then Netherwing is for you.

There aren’t many complaints I have, it is what it is, I’ll be checking it out in the future, to see how it’s doing, but I don’t have any plans on leveling to 70.

I think it’s moving towards classic or Vanilla Plus. Netherwing has made some significant changes, but there isn’t any new content that I’ve heard of and it’s just not enough for me to give up my time on other more interesting and new servers.

If you’ve been following the classic scene, you’ve definitely noticed that private servers are making a big comeback as the major way to play the game and it’s really easy to see why. 

What Are Private Servers?

People love classic fresh and Blizzard’s been way too slow rolling out Season of Mastery 2. But if you’re an official Server Andy Detected, you may not realize what these servers are doing and why they’re so popular. 

I’ve been researching as much as I can and I’ve been talking to friends who love these servers, so I can tell you the five reasons why private servers are the future classic at least unless Blizzard gets their act together. 

Private Servers Are Better At Classic Plus

*First up, private servers are just doing the plus experience better. If you’ve been looking for the Classic Plus experience with new Zones quests and Dungeons. Servers like Turtle WoW are just doing it better and faster than Blizzard.

My personal favorite Classic Plus system might just be the glyph (Glyph of War) system. That system enables distinct challenges, like the hardcore mode where your character actually gets deleted if you die and we might see that we get some small tweaks here and there on classic servers, we’ll never get Classic Plus the level of Turtle WoW.

*Private server developers have so much more freedom to innovate and actually do what people want and that’s one thing private servers are just doing so much better right now - Innovation.

Innovation In WoW Classic

Isn’t it weird that every made major private server aims to improve and innovate to make the classic experience better? Getting a really simple feature like cross realm battlegrounds took nearly four years from Blizzard and while the popular Cataclysm server Whiteman already offers new features like cross-faction gameplay, Solo Arena Queue and even a PVP Spectator Mode.

And Turtle WoW offers new dungeons that perfectly fit into the leveling experience and that’s on top of the new zones, professions, titles and even music. The simple features like dual spec are no-brainers for Turtle WoW while Blizzard might think about adding them in some sex and this complete lack of short-term innovation is really going to hurt Blizzard long term. Think about how much more interesting Classic Cataclysm would be if Blizzard was committed to innovation as much as they were back in 2004.

Players Are Calling The shots

*But that leads to my third point with private servers. Actually, players are making all the decisions. 

If you’re looking to maximize profit, it’s really easy to lose sight of what’s good for the players. Unfortunately, private servers have really exposed how out of balance things have gotten. Things like the massively imbalanced servers leading to the paid faction transfers and, of course, there’s been the massive rising popularity of GDKP.

Even though I do run a few and I personally suspect they left the about wrath racial, just so they could sell a few race transfers. But on the other hand, you can easily find private servers like Maelstrom where GDKP is banned. Racial can be swapped in an NPC and the idea of a Pay to Win cash shop is absolutely laughable.

*Really, just imagine how fun classic could be if you could implement Turtle Wow’s Turtle mode. It all comes down to the fact that these new private servers have developers like Turtle WoW Shang, a long-time fan of Hardcore WoW and a classic WoW addict.

I played hardcore for three months straight in Season of Mastery and all I got was an icon. But since the developers of Turtle WoW love hardcore, they implemented a title, a tablet and a mount for hitting 60. And having long time WoW fans like Shang as your administrators helps a whole lot with the sense of community.

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

*I see somewhere along the way Blizzard forgot how passionate GMs’ excellent support is and events can make the in-game experience so much more special.

If you read the pitches from recent and upcoming private servers, there’re no coincidences community. It’s all about how there are real humans that will assist you with your issues within 24 hours. If you make a mistake getting the wrong item, they’ll help you. If you’re hosting a big server event, GMs will actually help you to spawn mobs and objects in the game and turtle wow even offers custom Guild Housing if your Guild’s been active for at least three months.

Blizzard has left some massive holes where private servers are taking over. The private server community has happily gone ahead with new expansions and even new game modes. And servers like Turtle WoW thriving with the Classic Plus model peaking at over 4,700 players. Within the next few years, if you want to play Classic Plus, you’ll have to play it on a private server and that’s why unless something changes, private servers are the future of Classic WoW. Though the short-term future of Classic WoW is Season of Mastery 2.

I’m playing on the Turtle WoW, a vanilla + private server and having a blast leveling up my Shaman Raid Tank, which is a thing on Turtle WoW and the servers has been crazy now, with a server population hitting hundreds of thousands of players online on weekends.

While leveling, I’ve been thinking a lot about what would the ideal Classic Era timeline would even look like? What and when should Blizzard release - things like official hardcore servers, classic + or vanilla + servers, classic cataclysm? And more importantly, what do we as a community even want to see? Because now’s the time to let Blizzard know what we want from them. So, today I thought we can talk about what the timeline for Classic Era and WoW could end up being in the next few years.

Classic Era has been exploding the last few months, we have Classic Era Hardcore getting super popular, there’s even Hardcore PVE Races now, like real Competitions with actual prize pools, we have Classic Era servers growing month after month, WotLK Classic is well... It’s currently in between major patches, then there’s classic vanilla + servers like Turtle WoW and Duskhaven reaching all-time high populations.

Recently, there’s been rumors that Blizzard is releasing dedicated Hardcore Servers for Classic Era, and we just don’t know what form these servers are going to take, what the rule set is going to be, how integrated the achievements are going to be, is the server rule set going to be more like the original solo hardcore challenge we are all familiar with, or will Blizzard go for a more fun, group oriented hardcore experience like Turtle WoW.

Will there be titles, mounts for any rewards? Will the hardcore experience last past 60? These are all questions that need to be answered and quickly. I think Blizzard needs to release these hardcore servers as soon as possible, as the demand for them is only continuing to grow,

And it’s these hardcore challenges that are probably the main reason why we have seen a revitalization of the classic era servers. It’s not the only reason, of course. Vanilla has always held a special place in my heart just like a lot of people, and I think there will always be a population of players willing to play on classic era servers, but let’s be honest, if Blizzard released FRESH Classic Era Servers, that progressed from vanilla, to TBC to WotLK Classic all over again, 10,000s of people would dive into Classic Era again.

And I could see Blizzard doing just this at the end of WotLK Classic. Which brings us to what Blizzard should do after WotLK Classic ends. For me, it’s a no brainier that Blizzard is going to add classic cataclysm. But, it is a big decision point. I don’t think WotLK is that popular in terms of numbers, there just isn’t that much to do, it’s essentially an ICC waiting room. So, it’s possible Blizzard might just think the hype is over and move into a Classic, TBC, WotLK Classic maintenance mode.

But from a business perspective I think cataclysms success is already baked in, most of the Classic WoW player base is already expecting the classic experience to last until mists of pandaria and will happily sub just to enjoy the PVP alone as the two expansions are largely regarded as some of the best Arena ever, as well as some of the hardest most challenging classic PVE, at least in cata with some of the introductory raids being well… impossible for most guilds.

I know this would split the classic player base, but I think Blizzard should release a classic era fresh, that progresses all the way to WotLK Classic and beyond, and release Classic Cataclysm at the end of WOTLK. It’s unfortunate, but only from the perspective that fewer people might be playing in Cataclysm, so who cares, people will play classic era, they will play cata, they will pay, retail season of mastery, and hardcore, and private servers, let’s be honest, it’s all a bit of a mess for Blizzard right now.

So, just release it all and let the players decide where they want to play. After Cataclysm and a potential Mysts of pandaria, Blizzard needs to seriously consider a classic + server. The success or private servers like Turtle WoW, and Duskhaven has shown that the demand for classic + is very real and it’s doesn’t take a while a lot of effort to add basic things like new quests, items, zones. Duskhaven is being developed by literally ONE person and has dozens of awesome changes. Blizzard just needs to hand over development to a group of passionate creative people, that can make some changes and keep Classic WoW fresh.

Blizzard could even release the initial changes in a Season of Mastery style server to test and see the reaction of the player base. If they don’t release something like Classic +, Classic Era will eventually fade into irreverence and worse, go down in history as being one of the biggest wastes of an excellent opportunity in history.

In short, blizzard should first release a dedicated hardcore server as soon as possible, and with the end of Classic WOTLK, release classic cataclysm while offering FRESH Classic Era Servers, later develop classic +, even if it ends up being in a season of mastery style server.

I fully expect something like this to unfold over the next 4 years. It’s a very exciting time to be a World of WarCraft player, never before has the player base been so divided because there has never been so much different content, but that’s a good thing, Blizzard should embrace this fact, and not be afraid to release even more.

Animal Crossing Pocket Camp on Smart Devices is of course still going strong 5 years on… But something pretty big is affecting the gaming industry right now in Austria, and if the history of Animal Crossing is anything to go by, Pocket Camp could be in trouble, and could potentially be Banned or Removed from the App Stores altogether, at least in parts of Europe…

Now, something pretty significant has just happened in Austria surrounding Sony and FIFA… Don’t worry, this will completely loop back round to Animal Crossing, I promise, just bear with me. In the last couple of weeks, in a case against Sony, regarding FIFA, courts have decided that Loot Boxes, in one form or another, violate the Gambling Laws in Austria.

This is essentially because in certain instances, players are of course paying (such as spending money to get more FUT 23 Coins) for random drops and not necessarily knowing the outcome, or what they’re actually purchasing. Specifically, I believe where certain rewards hold a monetary value, and therefore almost certainly fall under the gambling umbrella.

Anyway, the court ruled in favour of FIFA players, and to cut a long story short, have ordered Sony, the Platform, rather than EA, the publishers of FIFA, to pay out these claims, and pay back Loot Box charges to the Players. It’s a pretty complex issue, so if you want to learn more about that specific case, definitely google it.

Now, despite this specific case affecting FIFA and PlayStation, it’s likely going to have an impact on Loot Boxes and gaming in general, as it’s set a new precedent in Austria, surrounding this type of monetisation.

Anyway, I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, but Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, which is still played by millions all around the world, including a Loot Box mechanic very similar to this. If you head to the Market Place in Pocket Camp, you can, of course, spend Leaf Tickets, which is Pocket Camp’s Premium Currency on a Fortune Cookie, that once opened awards a random ACNH Items.

In many instances, players can even spend real-life money to obtain these Fortune Cookies. Now whether or not, new laws come in (because of the Sony Case) to prevent this type of monetisation surrounding Loot Boxes and alleged gambling violations, it’s likely to become a bigger issue in Austria and surrounding regions and create a bit of a grey area for games like Pocket Camp.

And I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo are already looking into this further… With this in mind, there’s every possibility that Pocket Camp, or any game that includes Gacha Mechanics or Loot Boxes like Fortune Cookies, could be banned in European Regions. And even if they don’t, Nintendo could decide they don’t want to risk it, and pull the game down anyway and remove it from App Stores…

Now, I know what you’re thinking, this is all speculation, I’m jumping to conclusions, and leaping to the worst-case scenario… Now whilst I am speculating here, we have seen this exact situation occur in the past in Belgium in 2019, again in Europe, when Nintendo literally removed both Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and Fire Emblem Heroes from the App Stores in that region.

This happened when Belgium introduced anti-gambling laws, creating a grey area for Loot Boxes in video games, and then led to new laws being passed that banned Loot Boxes altogether in video games. Interestingly enough, Belgium’s governing bodies at the time, also ordered the likes of FIFA to removed Loot Boxes from their games in the Region… which I believe they did, with the understanding that if they didn’t they’d face millions in fines and even prison time.

However, even now, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp cannot be downloaded or played legitimately in Belgium and some neighbouring counties. And rather than removing the Fortune Cookies when this happened in 2019, Nintendo removed the entire game.

So, with new headlines surrounding Loot Boxes in Austria, with all eyes on Loot Boxes in a new region, and the likely hood of new laws coming in, it’s possible it’s only a matter of time until history literally repeats itself 4 years later, in another European country, and Pocket Camp is removed. Of course, this is a worst-case scenario.

There’s every chance Nintendo would simply remove Fortune Cookies this time around, rather than the whole game, especially now the game includes even more Monetisation models, but who knows, maybe this particular issues starts and ends on PlayStation, and Pocket Camp continues to thrive.

Since Chris Wilson announced Path of Exile 2 on the stage at ExileCon back in 2019, it's been nearly four years. Where has the time gone? With ExileCon 2 just around the corner, here's everything you should know about Path of Exile 2.

Campaign, Engine Upgrades & MTX

Path of Exile 2 will be a massive expansion of Path of Exile one rather than being a new stand-alone game. It will introduce a new 7x story campaign that can be played alongside the original campaign to access a shared endgame, the Atlas and mapping system we know and love.

We'll also be getting some juicy graphics updates in part from engine upgrades and back-end optimizations which will make the game look more like this - 16 times the detail.

There'll be plenty of new animations and environmental effects, too. And character models will be getting some updates, as well. But fear not, all of the MTX you've invested your hard-earned cash into over the years will still work in Path of Exile 2.

New Skill Gem And Socket System

One of the biggest changes coming to the game with Path of Exile 2 is the complete overhaul of the Skill Gem and Socket System. And Path of Exile 2, instead of socketing your support gems into linked sockets in your gear, you'll instead socket them directly into the active skill gem itself, which itself is then socketed into predetermined sockets in your gear.

There'll be a flashy new skill gem interface to support this change. Orbs of Fusing will be no more as the sockets and skill gems will always be linked and you'll be able to find up to three linked skill gems from item level 1 to 19: 4 linked skill gems from item level 20 onward, 5 linked skill gems from item level 35 onward and fully six-linked skill gems starting at item level 50.

Also did you spot that multi-colored socket? That's a new addition with the predetermined gear socket system and Path of Exile 2. Gear will always drop with the same number and color of sockets based on type, like this hybrid armor evasion helmet with a hybrid red and green socket which means it can be socketed with either color of gem.

Two-handed weapons will have four sockets. One-handed weapons and off hands will have two sockets each. Body armors will have two sockets and helmets, gloves and boots will have one socket each.

You will still be able to modify the color of sockets on gear with a new in-game currency and you will also be able to use Chromatic Orbs and Jewels to modify the sockets on skill gems. If you find a skilled gym with more links than the one you are using, you'll be able to destroy your current gem to apply the level and experience to the new gym to obtain more links.

19 New Ascendancy Classes

While the new socket and gem system may be the largest change that Path of Exile 2 will introduce, the addition of 19 new ascendancy classes might be the most anticipated feature.

The new ascendancies will be tied to the new campaign. So, if you want to play a Juggernaut or a Pathfinder, you will still need to play through the original campaign to reach the endgame.

The Ranger will be getting the new Survivalist ascendancy with an interesting dynamic with the skill tree having defensive options on the left side and defensive options on the right side.

One of the offensive options, Division grants you two copies of compatible skills socketed in your bow: one supported by GMP (Greater Multiple Projectiles) and the other by Barrage, potentially two seven links.

The Survivalist will also have an ascended-like choice between Fork, Pierce and Chain and the Multiplication skill that allows you to save your projectiles to build up larger bursts.

On the defensive side, we have Spell Avoidance, which convert your evasion into Spell Evasion. The Ranger will also be getting the Beastmaster ascendancy, which heavily supports the new shape-shifting abilities that will be coming in Path of Exile 2. This ascendancy will grant you the workout skill, a high crit shape-shifting ability, which you won't be able to find anywhere else.

You will also be able to spec into wild shape to massively improve shape-shifting bonuses and keep those bonuses even when you're in human form. Ally of the Wild will give you a nice little companion that will work like a Golem and provide buffs. You can even specialize into which type of companion you need.

The Rangers third new ascendancy, the Tactician, is possibly the most ambitious of them all. The Tactician will be able to continuously leave bombard areas with reigning arrows and even gain multiple uses of this skill, which will prevent enemies from attacking at range.

Meanwhile, the Siege Warfare and Siege Breaker notables will provide massive buffs to your totems like ensnaring enemies and making them take more range to attack damage and allowing the most recently placed totem to deal a lot more damage.

But the most interesting of all is the Close Combat Specialist, which will enable the Tactician to use ax and sword melee abilities with a bow. The developers did mention that they are re-rigging animations, which have made things like bows using melee animations possible and Path of Exile 2. We don't have a whole lot of information on the other ascendancies, but we do have some names and concepts.

Here's the Defiler, a new Witch ascendancy and the Arcanist, another Witch ascendancy that will have a heavy focus on lightning damage and charging up energy. There's also the Reaver, a war leader ascendancy for the Marauder, which will grant powerful bonuses to allies around him. And this, an unnamed Marauder ascendancy with a focus on Avatars and ancestral abilities.

New Weapon Types, Meta Gems, AI & UI

New ascendancies are pretty exciting. But there's also going to be new weapon tags, too.

We know of at least two of them, the Crossbow (Victory Core Power Shot Crossbow) and the Spear (Winged Spear). These new weapons seem to hint at a new direction in terms of gameplay in regards to your choice of weapon as both of them will grant new skills.

Crossbows grant implicit attack skills, such as PowerShot, a high damage single target ability. Instead of socketing attack skills, you can socket Crossbow bull types to augment the attack abilities and change what they do. We know of at least three types of bolts. Armor Piercing Incendiary and Permafrost.

Meanwhile, the Spear will allow you to use new engage and disengage abilities to provide freedom of movement and more interesting combat.

More Information

Aside from what we've already discussed in this article, there are a few more tidbits of information we have about Path of Exile 2.

We know that there will be a new gem type called metagems, which the developers described as the opposite of an active skill gem. Instead of socketing support gems into an active skill gem, you'll socket active gems into metagems. Like this Proficiency metagem for auras, which will allow you to turn all of your auras on or off with a single hotkey.

Cast on Critical Strike Support and Spell Totem Support will also be metagems. Speaking of Spell Totem, the developers also talked about tentative plans for new AI options to allow your Spell Totems to use skills in certain orders. In this example, they showcase the Spell Totem setup that will curse any uncursed enemies in the area before moving on to use other skills.

On the discussion of AI, they also mentioned that Monster Packs will have more interesting AI and Path of Exile, too, such as patrolling areas where appropriate.

Of course, you can also expect other upgrades, such as UI elements. like this new character sheet, which will provide information that is better laid out and easier to find.

During a discussion on some of the pain points of developing Path of Exile, the developers talked about having ascendancy skills, such as the pre-existing bomb armor (Bone Barrier) on the Necromancer or the new skills (Born to be Wild & Ally of the Wild) like those granted by the Beastmaster and having them scale as you progress in Path of Exile 2 instead of granting a static value like they do currently.

They weren't sure yet if this would be tied to level progress or based on when you take each ascendancy notable. The developers also talked about how the new ascendancy notables and Path of Exile 2 are designed to have far less clutter stats and instead focus on one or two impactful stats. They mentioned that the original ascendancies will need a rebalance to bring them to the same level.

We will know more information about Path of Exile 2 at ExileCon 2023 on July 29th and 30th in Auckland New Zealand.

If you’re having huge problems while defending the attackers in one versus one situation, then this is the exact guide you need to read to improve yourself. We are going to give you the core elements of one versus one defending to let you become a brick wall in the back.

Why 1v1 Defending Is Important?

Your defensive problem might already start a step earlier with understanding when you have to take charge and go for a manual one versus one defense against the Attacker. 

In my experience, there are a lot of players who hold themselves back defensively and try to cover the back area or they just try to let the AI (AI Defending) defend the Attacker. Both of these are going to give the opposition tons of space and they might do whatever they want without getting blocked.

Here as I receive the ball with my Attacker, my opponents, which is away from the player, who actually needs to defend him and he lets the AI do his work. However, with the skill move, I beat the Defender in square nice goal, which could be prevented by a manual one versus one defending. 

So, that means you have to take control, be confident, confront the opponent by yourself and try to block as many opportunities as possible. Of course, if you put the outstanding players, which you get by using FUT 23 Coins into the game, you will win the game more easily.

In a counter-attack situation, I know that I need to take responsibility as danger grows. I get close to Dribbler and also cover the passing lane at the same time. And once the other thread is over, I make my final move towards them in a one versus one and safely get the ball back.

We can safely say taking responsibility, observing what the opponent does, and taking action accordingly brings you to success in your defense. 

2. Positioning Defenders

Positioning your Defender is the most important thing in a one versus one situation. However, it is not easy since you have to watch out for different aspects.

Attackers will have different opportunities. They can dribble the ball, pass it to another teammate or even shoot it if they find the chance. Analyzing the occasion and seeing the next potential steps will decide your optimal positioning.

As a player myself, I tend to position my Defender directly in front of the opponent in a one versus one situation. You can always imagine a line between the Attacker and the Keeper and position yourself directly on it. I’ve seen that this method helped my students in my coachings a lot, so it might be also useful for you.

Instead of getting directly atom, I keep a safe distance between his Attacker and myself as long as he has the full control of the ball. This distance allows me to control all of his potential moves. 

If the Attacker tries to shoot, you are already between him and the goal, so you block it. If he tries to go left or right, the distance you gave him will allow you to do the same moment so that you can mirror his movements. 

There is one specific mechanic that will help you with the mirroring, which is to get the jockeying. Holding onto the L2 & LT button will let you go into a jockey, which is a magnificent defensive stance that allows you to keep your defensive positioning. Especially in tight 1 versus 1 situations, joking will help you avoid getting beaten by Attackers.

You can also use the jockey with the sprinting mechanic to go for a fast jokey if you see that the opponent is pacing up to things. Let’s see an example.

As the opponent approaches our box patiently, he looks for an opening, but we need to make sure that we use the imaginary line between the ball and the keeper and remain on it. 

Pressing the L2 and jockeying allows us to do little moves towards the sides, which don’t break our defensive positioning, and we remain in front of the opponent all the time, blocking every single opportunity.

Right after he decides to go in one of the directions and pushes the ball away, we chase him down confidently and get the ball away from him. 

After getting into the perfect position, it is time for you to decide when to execute a defensive mode to retrieve the ball.

3. When To Execute Defensive Moves?

In a one versus one, you will eventually have the opportunity to go for a defensive move. But if you do it too early or too late, you can give your opponent an unnecessary opening and concede to an easy goal. That is why waiting for the perfect moment is important.

But when it’s actually okay to execute the defensive moves, the answer is simple. The Attacker is most vulnerable right after he pushes the ball away from his feet. So, between two consecutive wall contacts, there is a brief moment that he’s not in full control of the ball and you need to catch this moment. Let me show you what I mean by this.

Here, as I received the ball with my Striker inside the box, the Defender positions himself in a suitable spot between me and the Keeper. However, he remains impatient with his tackling. He doesn’t pay attention to my ball contact and in the end, he goes for it in the wrong way, loses his defensive shape and concedes an easy goal.

In another scenario, I quickly take a look at the ball contacts of the opponent just because I see that he sprints and pushes the ball away. I know that this will delay his second contact on the ball, so I decide to select my Defender go on a one versus one challenge with him and retrieve the ball dominantly.

So, that means keeping your good positioning and patiently waiting for the Attacker’s vulnerable moment are the core elements of a one versus one defending position.