Just a few weeks after the announcement of Shadow of the Erdtree - Elder Ring’s first DLC coming sometime unknown, we have patch 1.09, which has balancing to PVP and general gameplay balancing. 

Ray Tracing Update

The first thing obviously is that Ray Tracing was added to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC. I can’t really notice too much of a difference between the two versions.  

And Elden Ring isn’t like the most graphically advanced game I’ve ever played, either. So, I can’t really notice much of a difference. Maybe you guys can. I will say it did feel like my performance took a bit of a hit with it on, so you might want to be careful exactly what your settings are.

General Gameplay Adjustments

Next, let’s talk about the general balancing changes to the game before we get into PVP. This is going to apply to everyone that’s not in PVP mode of the game, which is single players and cooperative, so let’s talk about that first.

*The first thing on the list is that they’ve increased the scaling of the following attributes when infusing weapons with certain Ashes of War, magic, fire, flame art, lightning and sacred.

I’m assuming this means that those weapons are going to have more damage when using very specific Ashes of War. I’m assuming it’s magic, fire, framework, lightning, sacred, Ashes of War ones that would default give you those types without using a knife of some kind.

So, we’ll have to see what those are that are very vague. I’m not exactly sure like how much we’re talking either in terms of like the value of the scaling of weapons. This will probably take some time to get sorted out what exactly that means. That generally means probably that you’re going to have more damage with these infusions than it you did before with most weapons.

*The next point is “increased the attribute scaling of the following weapon types: Colossal Swords, Great Axes, Hammers, Flails, Great Hammers and Colossal Weapons.” These are primarily strength based weapons, so it seems like the strength scaling is being improved on these weapons.

My guess is that the difference between two-handing and one-handing these weapons when it came to strength scaling wasn’t that great. And maybe they’re trying to improve that to incentivize people to use strength builds more, although strength builds are already wildly popular. 

*Next is “increased the speed range and recovery time of some attacks from the following weapon types: Great Hammer, Great Axe, Great Sword and Curved Greatsword.”

This is really interesting because I think Greatsword is a very popular weapon type in this game. Maybe Great Axes, Great Hammers and Great Swords are not. I’m not exactly sure, but it seems like this weapon group is getting buffed again. This weapon group seems to keep getting buffed or some variation of this weapon group. So, these weapon types are going to be even stronger.

Flails are also getting a buff, increasing the speed of some of their attacks, reducing the attack recovery time and increasing their poise when two-handing through. So, they can two and through attacks, I guess.

Not too many people use Flails. I know that some people have very specific builds but this is obviously not a super popular weapon. There’s only four Flails in the game, anyway. So, it seems like they need a buff here.

*Increased running attack speed and reduced attack recovery time for the following weapon type: Straight Sword, Curved Sword, Katana, Twinblade, Ax, Hammer and Halberd.

Apparently, their running attacks of these weapons are getting faster. I didn’t think they’re that slow to begin with. I guess the Straight Sword and Katana have a bit of a delay before they attack. I wouldn’t call it the delay exactly, but it’s a little slower than you’d think. 

Maybe they’re speeding that up. But I mean Curved Swords running on attacks with curve starts is what people spam already. That’s crazy. It’s hard to say exactly.

*Increased the first attack speed for the falling weapon type: Straight Swords, Curved Swords and Whips.

This is interesting because I always felt like Straight Swords were in a bad place. They didn’t exactly have the best damage, and they didn’t have very good status effects compared to other weapons. 

I guess the same is happening for Curved Swords and Whips. Obviously, this is probably applying to R1 attacks in that dual wielding with Curved Sword. So, this is really interesting. They’re crawling to entice people to probably one-hand these weapons more.

*Increased the speed of guard counters with the falling weapon types: Straight Swords, Great Swords, Colossal Swords, Great Curved Swords, Katanas, Twinblades, Axes, Great Axes, Flails, Great Hammer, Spears, Great Spears, Halberds.

That’s like half the weapon types in the game. Guard counters have had slow follow-ups on just about every weapon type save a few in this game, mostly like Straight Swords, which is weird why they’re getting a buff here.

I guess because everything else is I don’t know. But that’ll make block counters a lot more viable, which is great. So, hopefully, people will use them more. I mean, block counters are fantastic, so maybe that’ll make them more viable with these weapon types.

Again though, I’ve sort of given a feeling that’s in a change that’s probably supposed to be aimed at PVP even though it’s a PVE change since they’re nerfing basically jump attacks and bleeds I think they want people to use block counters more. And obviously, it’s nearly impossible to land on the block counter with some of these weapon types. So, maybe they want people to use that play style more in PVP. 

*Reduced the attack recovery time for Whip weapons.

*Increase the damage of Claw weapons.

*Added Holy damage and Faith scaling to the Great Club. (So, that weapon now has holy damage and Faith scaling that’s interesting.)

*Increased damage negation when blocking Holy damage and decreased damage negation when blocking damage from other affinities.

So apparently, you’re able to block holy damage more easily now with shields or weapons, but you’re not able to block other affinities as easily again. These feel like changes that are aimed at PVP. They want people to use other damage types rather than just like believe, etc. So, maybe this is the whole change this whole patch is really aimed at PVP even though it looks like a PVE patch.

*Increased the effectiveness of the Twinblade Talisman.

I literally know nobody who uses this in a build, so that’s probably good that got buffed. 

*Slightly, reduced roll traveling distance for light equipment weights. 

They just made light rolling better in like the last patch, if I’m not mistaken. The fact that they’re nerving it here seems weird again unless they’re nerving it for PVP purposes.

*And finally decreased the hitbox size for some attacks of the falling weapon types: Thrusting Sword, Heavy Thrusting Sword, Spear, Great Spear and Halberd.

Again, this seems like this is aimed at PVP. These weapons aren’t really considered busted in DB. I mean, they’re good weapons in PVE. But I don’t know why would the developer nerved them. This seems like a PVP nerf as well. So all in all, a lot of changes that change the gameplay for everyone, but that seemed mostly aimed at PVP.

Ashes Of War Adjustments

There are also some Ash of War adjustments. I’m not going to go through all this. You can see them on the screen if you want to go through them. Great Oracular Bubble increased the projectile generation speed and reduce recovery time, that makes this very viable even more viable in PV than it already was. So, that’s really good. 

Shriek of Milos increased the close range Poise damage. This is good for this ability because it’s hard to get this ability off. So, I’m glad they added that.

Spearcall Ritual will increase projectile generation. This ability was already busted, so it seems like that’s making it even more busted.

Cursed-Blood Slice increased the projectile generation speed and reduce recovery time.

I Command Thee, Kneel increased attack generation speed. This is good because it’s hard to get off because of how long the wind-up takes.

Starcaller Cry increased the speed of the follow-up attack. The follow-up attack for that takes forever. I’m glad to see that is sped up, too.

Bug Fixes

I’m going to go through some of the bugs. I’m not going to go through all of them.

But the first one I know people will be interested in, which is a fixed debug where the Scarlet Rock buildup was not properly reflected when giving the Antspur Rapier a Cold Affinity. This has been bugged since like launch. So, this is like a huge change here or not launched, but like patch 1.03 or something like that. It’s been bugged for a very long time, so just get that fixed.

Finally, I’m sure people will be thrilled about that another bug similar to this was that the Scarlet Rock status was not properly reflected when giving the Rotten Greataxe of a Blood affinity. So, those two have now been patched.

Another one is that fixed a bug where the Roar Medallions Talisman didn’t affect the increase in power of some incantations. Dragon communion spells are now affected by the Roar Medallion Talisman. This is a huge change. 

Those are the main ones. There are other bug fixes and performance improvements of the game you can read through them if you want to see them all.

PVP Exclusive Adjustments

When it comes to the PVP exclusive balance adjustments, even though it feels like the PVE balance adjustments were really for PVP. If you look through the list here, you’ll see there’s a decrease in effectiveness in Lord of Blood’s Exultation and the White Mask. There’s a decrease in the effectiveness of the Claw Talisman. There’s a decrease in the effectiveness of two-handed jump attacks and the power of heavy and heavy running attacks of Fist and Claw weapons. 

So, I feel like generally speaking here, the nerf to PVP is nerving jump attacks and nerving blood. I feel like this is going hand in hand with them, buffing the other infusions of other elements in the regular balancing changes.

Also, they decrease the damage buffs of the tires that you could use with your flasks because, obviously, those were probably very deadly in PVP. I’m not a huge PVP player. 

Other things that were nerved: Raptors Black Feathers, the jumping attack damage again affecting jump attack damage and then waves of Gold were also nerved. And Founding Rain of Stars has had its attack power reduced as well.....

Last month was a pretty big month for Nintendo. They dropped a whole new direction for us of all kinds of fun new reveals. But nothing too out there. What’s weird is that the leak I mentioned in the title actually comes from the Pokemon Presents that happened about a week ago.

Now, when I hear the word leak, I’m thinking fake instantly and I know a lot of you feel the same. This is true for so many leaks out there. But this one actually seems to be accurate. For a start, they correctly shared pretty much everything. That was going to happen within the Pokemon Presents days before it actually happened and that’s not the interesting part. It’s what they shared at the very end of this leak that concerns all of Nintendo and especially their biggest games like Animal Crossing.

This supposed leaker works at an outsourcing company for Pokemon and they’ve been working on the latest DLC, which we’ll be releasing this year for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. At the very end of their league, they mentioned that they’ve been working on a graphics enhancement patch for new Nintendo Switch models, which will release alongside the second DLC.

Then, in a follow-up reply, they actually elaborated on this, showing that this would be Nintendo’s next gen console, which is a successor to the Switch. If this is true and it’s seeming like it is. Then, it’s an enormous piece of news, which will affect a lot of different Nintendo games, which have been waiting for new releases. Think about the new Metroid game and maybe the sequel to Super Mario Odyssey and of course potentially a new Animal Crossing release, as well.

Now, there’s a lot of speculation about what this new model would be. Nintendo Switch just celebrated sixth anniversary, so we’re definitely heading to the end of this particular console I feel.

Of course, a big thing that a lot of Animal Crossing fans know is that Nintendo doesn’t really release two main Animal Crossing games on the same system. But if a new system or effectively a new improved version of the Switch is arriving sometime in 2024, then the opportunity for a new Animal Crossing game would become available. After all, it’ll have been four years at that point since New Horizons, which is a standard amount of time the Animal Crossing games usually release in with the exception of New Horizons itself.

Given that Animal Crossing is a major system seller and New Horizons is one of Nintendo’s biggest games of all time, it seems fairly likely that they would want a new one to release alongside a new console as that would boost sales drastically. Even if it doesn’t release in 2024, I think we’d start seeing teasers and trailers for the future for sure, like they did with New Horizons to build excitement with the huge crowd of people, who brought the original switch purely to play New Horizons.

I’ve seen a lot of you saying that 2025 would be a good year for a new Animal Crossing game. Maybe in that year you will experience more game content and interesting ACNH Items. And honestly, I think this makes a lot of sense. So, we definitely learn about it alongside a new model of the Switch in 2024 or whatever this successor is.

Now, if this is effectively an upgraded Switch and they’re working on a graphical enhancement patch for existing games like Scala and Violet. It’s possible New Horizons could get the same treatment, which might be interesting too personally at that point into 2024. I just prefer a totally new game.

But if New Horizons got some love again, I don’t think that would be a bad thing. It seems likely from this league that we’d be able to play Switch games on this new system, so New Horizons would be included in that even if it’s not graphically improved. I’m sure in some way, the experience would be better though on a new system. I think it’s safe to say that from a business point of view Nintendo would do something to encourage the New Horizons crowd to purchase their new console, even now they still use New Horizons to sell their online services.

They could also use this as a way to tide Animal Crossing fans over until the next main game, just like they did with the huge welcome Amiibo update for New Leaf back in the day.

Right now, this is all speculation in terms of Animal Crossing and the other major Nintendo games. But this leak about a new Nintendo system seems fairly certain at this point. I know a lot of you will be skeptical, especially after all the switch pro rumors that kind of went nowhere.

But given this person accurately sheds so many details from the new Pokemon DLC without anyone else knowing at all, it seems like at the very least Nintendo is planning what they have shared. We’ll just have to see if it actually comes to fruition or not.

The Meta, a term that has shaped the FIFA community and often divided it throughout the past few years. Using and abusing the game's most broken formations, mechanics, skill moves and finishes to play as good and efficiently as possible and to win.

What if I told you there was another way to be a good player and another way that's going to allow you to win most of your matches comfortably and climb all the way up into the elite division by playing simple and beautiful football? Today we say goodbye to the meta and we go back to the fundamentals of FIFA.

Today, I'm here to teach you old school FIFA, one fundamental skill for defending, build up and attacking each. Let's start off with defending.

Defending - Defend Multiple Options

When it comes to defending, one of the most important things is to be ready for anything the opponent is throwing you away. That's why a fundamental defensive skill lies in positioning yourself in a way that allows you to defend multiple options at once.

When you get better at anticipating, it can happen quickly that you fully commit towards one side because you think the opponent is going there. And if you're right, that's great because you're most likely going to win the ball. However, if you're wrong then you got a problem.

So, what you need to do is quickly analyze the different options your opponent has and take a position from which you can impact each single one. We are in a little bit of a tricky spot here as the opponent is able to play forward with tempo.

If we pause the scene here, there are two major options for the opponent. He can either pass the ball onto his other Striker, who's in a promising position or he can try and go into a dribbling himself to push inside the Box.

Our job is to position in a way that allows us to cover the passing option, but at the same time also keeps us in reach to a potential dribbling move. That's what the opponent decides for in the end as he pushes forward with a heel to heal. That's no problem though because we are ready for this option and so by cutting him off we are able to win the ball back. You just never want to leave one door wide open for the opponent and invite him to walk through.

Instead, keep both doors half open and close them right. When the opponent tries to walk through. It can be situations as simple as this one. The opponent has a passing option on the wing and we control our Center Back and instead of committing to covering the through ball or covering the short pass we just position in the middle of the two and this way temp the opponent.

He tries to go for the through ball and we intercept it easily. You're going to be surprised how often opponents play into your cards If you defend like this.

To make the most out of your positioning, it's also important to watch the opponent's ball contacts and to defend proactively. These are two more fundamental defending skills.

Related: How To Use German Cross To Score Easy Free Goals In FIFA 23?

Buildup - Watch Opponents Defender

Now build up is pretty much the other side of the metal compared to defending. When you defend, you try to figure out what the opponent is up to in his attack. When you're the one attacking, then you need to figure out what the defending opponent thinks you're up to.

How do you do that by watching his selected Defender? This is the fundamental skill for build up and many players have not mastered it yet. You can't be fully occupied by looking at your player when dribbling or looking at your teammates to scout good passing options. Of course, if you use FUT 23 Coins to get some good players, along with some strategy, you'll have a much easier time winning games.

The most promising passing opportunity does not mean anything if the opponent is selecting a close by Defender and covering it. So, make a habit of always having vision on that little white triangle above the defender's head, which player does the opponent have selected and how is he moving, what is he trying to defend... This will make it much easier to counter him.

In this clip, we win the ball in our own half and play our first pass forward right away. We can see that the selected Defender is aggressively pushing towards us and we're about to get pinched by just letting the ball bounce back first touch. We can get away from that pressure easily.

Now, the defender close to us gets selected and so we take the ball away with a ball roll upwards and then pass to our full back. We would like to continue the play forward but the opponent selects his Winger and covers that pass because we see that early. It's no big deal. We just turn around and pass back to our Center Midfielder.

Now, we are getting aggressed on once again and so we turn away in time and play back on the wing. And the opponent this time switches early and heavily commits to covering the next natural pass for us, which is towards our Striker. You can see though how a little bit later it comes back to the player because we don't fall for a strap as we are watching what he's doing with his selected Defender.

Our Striker now makes a run into the open space behind the fullback and that's the pass we play. You can see how easy it really is to counter your opponent by simply knowing what he's up to, so make sure to enter internalize this concept and you're going to lose the ball much less in build up.

Attacking - Increase The Speed Of Your Attack

I will say one thing right away for attacking. It is definitely the most meta dependent aspect of FIFA. Because without the strongest skill moves mechanics and finishes, you're going to have a harder time. It's as simple as that.

However, there is an important fundamental skill that has nothing to do with those. Increasing the speed of your attack when you're trying to create a chance, this has to do with passing, simple passing. And what you need to understand is that the more time you're giving the opponent to react to your latest action, the easier it's going to be for him to get into a good defensive position and correct mistakes.

So, when you do see an attacker being free in a good position and a passing combination opening up then play one touch football. Two touch is as slow as you can get. But one touch is still much better.

Here, we have a typical spot in which we're able to play from outside towards inside. As soon as I see my Winger coming back and then my two Strikers in the center being somewhat open, as well. I know right away that that is going to be our passing combination.

Now, it's time to execute quickly to make the opponent fumble his player switching and positioning, so we play two one touch passes and as you can see the opponent is still trying to defend against our first Striker while we are already one step ahead and have enough space to finish the chance with CR7.

In this Wo Long Fallen Dynasty guide, we'll be covering the unparalleled spear build, which is a tank build. This is a very forgiving build, making it perfect for newcomers that want to go through history without having to worry too much about getting killed in a single strike.

For this build, we'll be focusing on the Wood Virtue, which significantly increases our health in combination with heavy armor to greatly reduce the physical damage we take. In addition, we'll be adding some healing spells and a Divine Beast that heals us to make us even tankier.

The negative aspect of this build is its lack of mobility and rather low damage. We'll mitigate that though by equipping the unparalleled spear, which has a unique Martial Art called Whistling Vortex. When you use this martial art, it helps you spin forward and automatically track enemies you mark.

We'll also be using the Inner Breath spell to increase the accumulation of Divine Beast gauge and Absorb Vitality to heal while we attack.

Attributes / Virtues

When it comes to the stats for this build, this build focuses on the Wood Virtue as I mentioned earlier but it's also necessary to assign some points into Earth and Fire Virtues.

You should first focus on Wood and then assign enough points into Earth to adjust your weight proportion. At level 72, your stats should look something like this:

• 50 Wood Virtue. This is our main stat, which gives a huge health boost and increases our weapon damage and lightning damage.
• 8 Fire Virtue. This is required to unlock the amplify damage spell.
• 14 Earth Virtue. We need just enough to maintain our weight proportion just below 100 percent.

This will depend on the armor you're currently wearing, so you may need to move a point or two in either direction.

Unrivaled Spear Spells

Next, we'll take a look at what spells we use for this build.

First is lightning weapon. For a certain period of time, enchant your melee weapon with lightning. By the way, you can use Wo Long Fallen Dynasty GQ to help you. This scales with the Wood Virtue greatly increasing our damage output and helps us deal Elemental Damage that goes through enemy guard.

The accumulation of Divine Beast gauge has increased by Inner Breath increases during a certain period of time. This spell greatly increases the amount of Beast gauge you gain when dealing damage to enemies or when getting hit. Make sure to keep it active at all times.

Absorb Vitality. You and nearby allies gain HP when you damage enemies. This spell allows us to be more aggressive since we'll be healing back a portion of the damage that we deal.

Finally, Amplify Damage for a certain period of time increase both the damage you deal to enemies and receive from them. This is specifically useful before Fatal Strikes. Here's a small window before the enemy recovers you can use that time to cast the spell and then perform the Fatal strike for better results.

Unrivaled Spear Divine Beast

Next, we'll take a look at the Divine Beasts we use for this build and we use Qinglong as our Divine Beast, which you can obtain fairly early on in the game.

Qinglong's favor increases your HP by plus 18 and provides plus 2.4 HP restoration, which works perfectly in combination with her Absorb Vitality spell. You also get reduced spirit consumption to cast Inner Breath spells.

The Divine Beast summon creates a pool on the ground that will heal you while you stand over it. The pool lasts a very long time and will keep you at full health even if you're getting hit. It is helpful when you want to reduce the amount of dragon pot uses and is very useful when you are in boss fights.

If you want to play more offensive, you can use the Divine Beast restoration instead of summons, which provides lightning damage and damage reduction, allowing you to go all in without hesitation.

Unrivaled Spear Equipment

Moving on to the equipment section.

First, we'll take a look at our main weapon, which is the Unparalleled Spear. As previously mentioned, the Whistling Vortex Martial Art found on it will be our main way of attacking enemies and it compensates for a lack of mobility.

You can acquire the sphere by increasing your relationship with Zhao Yun to sworn brother. If you don't have the spear yet, you can also use any other spear that has the Monkey's Wisdom martial art, which acts similarly to Whistling Vortex.

For special effects on your weapon, you'll want to slot lightning attack power to further increase Elemental Damage and Divine Beast gauge gain to further increase how quickly we can cast Qinglong and damage dealt your backup melee weapon will be the curve-headed glaze.

We're only really interested in wheeling this weapon to gain all the set bonuses together with the complete Dauntless Tiger Servant Set. But other than that, it's not even important to use this weapon in combat. When it comes to ranged weapons, you can basically use any ranged weapon you want to use. But you can still get good use out of ranged weapon special effects. Equip your ranged weapon with the following special effects.

Enemy Detection. It is very useful to see enemies on the minimap and track them flag detection great for finding flags and increasing your fortitude, lightning attack power and damage dealt. All these will benefit your character, so try and put these on your ranged weapon if possible.

When it comes to armor, you can equip any type of heavy armor you want. Just make sure you keep your weight proportion below 100, so you're still mobile enough to be efficient in combat.

I personally recommend the Dauntless Tiger Servant Set as it provides very high physical resistance and great set bonuses. You can acquire this set by increasing your relationship with Han Dang to sworn brother while using its corresponding pieces. You'll get the Unflinching Bravery Set Bonus providing the following benefits, minus damage received, guard spirit consumption, power gain upon martial arts and damage dealt in perfect condition.

When it comes to the special effects, you want to add to your armor. You'll want to include martial arts damage to increase the damage of Whistling Vortex. You'll want lightning attack power in order to increase your damage with lightning and Divine Beast gauge gain in order to be able to use your Divine Beast more frequently.

As it is the build is fairly complete, so you can use any accessory you want from main and secondary. Just consider trying to gain any benefit for the build, such as spirit gauge, gain martial arts, damage, etc.

Why don’t you get sent to Azkaban in Hogwarts Legacy for using the Unforgivable Curses? That’s the whole point of them calling them unforgivable. You go straight to Azkaban one-stop trip. Also, why can’t you go to Azkaban at all unless you’re playing as a Hufflepuff?

It seems strange the developers would make these kinds of decisions, seeing as though they go so against the in-universe lore. We saw that all throughout the Harry Potter series, anytime, an unforgivable curse is used. It’s a direct trip to Azkaban, so why isn’t that the case in Hogwarts Legacy?

There is only one mission in the game which allows you to go to Azkaban and to go there you need to be playing as a Hufflepuff, which is a kind of funny seeing as though Hufflepuff are the least violent and most pushover house. It’s almost like a reward for playing as a Hufflepuff. It’s like you get the trip to Azkaban and no one else does.

But even when you get to go to Azkaban, there’s not really that much to do. You get to walk around a little to see some creepy people and some cells experience, such as a Patronus Spell, which you don’t even get to cast since casting a Patronus Spell is another thing you can’t do in Hogwarts Legacy.

As said by Professor Moody at the time in the Goblet of Fire, those three curses: Avada Kedavra, Imperio and Crucio are known as the unforgivable curses. Using any of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. These three dark arts curses were classified as unforgivable in the year 1717.

Now, Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the 1890s, meaning that by this point these curses are classified as unforgivable when you have already been using them and learning them or even you were supposed to be sent straight to Azkaban over in Hogwarts Legacy.

You can even use these spells in front of your professors, in front of your teachers, in front of your fellow peers, and there will be no consequence. Nothing will happen. You’ll cast a spell and everyone goes about their merry day.

Honestly, I don’t think this is an enormous problem from a gameplay perspective. But when it comes to an in-universe lore perspective, it completely screws everything up. The fact is that there is no consequence at all. You can basically learn the dark arts in Hogwarts Legacy at little to no cost. This completely goes against the lore of the dark arts and the entire purpose of Azkaban.

Now, I’m surprised that using these spells in the game has no consequence at all. There could be some GTA style wanted level where the Dementors potentially come after you. The more curses you use, they join the fight and you have to use a Patronus to fan them off.

I feel like the developers of Hogwarts Legacy are leaving this open to future DLC ideas. They’ve clearly built Azkaban as part of the story. It exists in some form in the game. You can go there even though it’s kind of brief and you don’t get to see much of the prison. But I feel like they’re leaving this open as an option for future DLC to go there as other houses to experience the prison first hand and to not have to replay the game as a Hufflepuff.

I think it’s likely that down the track they could also introduce the Patronus Spell just as the Quidditch field is still in the game. Even though there’s no Quidditch, that could be out of down the track as well. The same goes to the Great Lake, a giant open area in the game where there’s not really that much to do apart from flyover and swim. It’s possible in future they’re going to add DLC, which allows you to dive down and explore, potentially using Gilly Weed to breathe. Then, there’s also the chance.

The developers just ran out of time and resources. That’s why you can’t cast a Patronus. That’s why you can’t actually fight Dementors. That’s why there’s no Quidditch. That’s why there’s no explosion of the Great Lake. Because the game is already too big and there’s already way too much to do as fun as it is using the unforgivable curses. I know for some players this is immersion breaking. Being able to use these on other characters right in front of your professors just seems dumb.

Even if Hogwarts Legacy gets DLC, there’s likely never going to be any consequence for using these spells as that would change the way the game is built. But that said, I think we could make our way to Azkaban at some point, just like we’ll hopefully. Also, we could play Quidditch at some point.

I’ve experimented with all the weapons and abilities throughout my Atomic Heart play through and there are some that I found to be much more useful than others. The correct answer is bucket. Just use the bucket. But just in case that doesn’t work, I’m going to break down all the active abilities you can use. Instead, I’m also going to give you some of my personal picks for the best upgrades to slap onto yourself and give a few combat tips along the way.

Ability: Polymeric Jet

What is slightly more deadly than vanilla soft serve? It’s the Polymeric Jet. This will spew out its fluffy globules wherever you aim it at and those can adopt any properties of elemental effects.

You can use other abilities or elemental cartridges. You can slap onto your weapons to ignite these spots with either electricity, fire, or ice. Enemy attacks can also influence the effect that these take on. Usually, that’s purely by accident, though Polymeric Jet is a favorite of mine since there are so many other gameplay mechanics that synergize with it.

You can use it to create tactically placed barriers that daisy chain the effect along the path or spray it all over the place. Hoping someone just wanders into your death trap. There’s no enemy around for this place, so use your imagination.

In the upgrade tree, there are a few things I highly recommend you focus on, which will improve the potency of the Polymeric Jet. Mixture Efficacy will make those elemental effects applied just overall more effective. Environmental Resistance will increase the time that will stay active and Neuro-polymer Air Defense will make it. So, you can instantly take down those annoying flying bots that are kind of all over the place.

I almost always had Polymeric Jet equipped during my play through and it’s one of the more fun ones to just mess around with and not practical ways. The Polymeric Jet combined with elemental effects is one of the best abilities, since it handles crowd control defense and offense.

Ability: Mass Telekinesis

The next ability is Mass Telekinesis, which lets you dangle your victims up in the air. While holding this effect, you can still be one-handedly firing your guns since, thankfully, your right hand is a beefcake.

You can also unlock the ability to slam airborne enemies back down into the ground by hitting the telekinesis input again after you see your hand do this. If you don’t wait for that, you’ll just let the enemies nicely fall back to the ground and they definitely don’t deserve that upgrade for Mass Telekinesis.

I suggest grabbing Forced Fall Acceleration, and that’s the ground slam. Move Amplified Modulator will increase the Telekinesis’s area of effect and increased power, which will let you levitate even the larger chunky enemies.

Weapon: Zvezdochka

Now, let me shift for a moment and talk about a weapon combo real quick.

After you get the blueprint to craft the Zvezdochka, I recommend seeking the reverse shot attachment, which can be grabbed out of a gold chest in the Polygon 1 area. This will make the alternate attack for this weapon arrange swirly blade thing. But if you also grab yourself the Lower Blade attachment, this adds what you might just assume is visually another blade to the weapon.

However, that synergizes with the reverse shot attachment to launch two blades out at a time. You can find that extra blade attachment in a bronze chest in the Polygon 8 area. Also, adding an elemental cartridge slot is worth putting on this, as well.

Now, back to the Mass Telekinesis ability combined with this strong weapon build and you can pop even the larger tanky enemies into the air.

Juggle them with those blades electrified ones in this case and take them down without expending a single bullet. Normally, these guys will drain your resources because they can take quite a beating. If you’re playing on the highest difficulty, you’re going to want to be saving ammo wherever you can.

Ability: Polymeric Shield

Next is the Polymeric Shield, which turns you into a safe little Bubble Boy. When this is active, it will block some incoming attacks and after a few upgrades can even reverse incoming damage back onto the attacker. This is pretty useful for mitigating damage while running and gunning. But if you’re adopting more of a melee play style, this ability is nearly required. It’s one of the more basic abilities. But being able to attack and be redirecting incoming damage at the same time can make things drastically easier.

If you go this route, I recommend you also get the Kinetic Reflector that doubles the melee damage that’s reflected back. Neuro-polymer Reflector will also reflect back ranged attacks and Med Unit Feedback will regenerate your health when the shield absorbs damage. They are pretty useful.

Ability: Cryo Jet

With all that, you can turtle a ton of damage and greatly increase your overall survivability. Next is the Cryo Jet, which is primarily a crowd control ability that can popsicle enemies.

Mostly, this is more of a combat deterrent rather than offensive ability. If you’re going with the Cryo Jet, I suggest grabbing Intensive Spraying, which will freeze enemies faster. Absolute Zero will deal with some damage over time while they’re frozen and Careful Disassembly will increase the materials you gain from killing frozen enemies.

Overall, the Cryo Jet is another pretty straightforward ability. But if the Polymeric Jet from before isn’t enough crowd control for you, this one can more immediately limit the amount of things that actively trying to rip your face off.

And for the last main active ability, it’s actually one that you don’t have to equip at all since you’ll have it at all times. Shock will send out a short-range electrical arc, which can stun and continually damage most of the robotic enemies. This has a pretty quick recharge and is a lot more useful with a few key upgrades. I recommend you get Chain Lightning, which bounces that Shock to another nearby target Extended Topology.

Now, you’re Palpatine and Resistor Malfunction, which increases the damage enemies take while they’re electrified. Since you’re always going to have Shock on you at all times, you might as well focus a few upgrade points into it as soon as you can.

Role Upgrade

Now, before I close this out, here are a few upgrades I recommend from those other two skill trees under Character and Energy Management.

The skill Born Marksman is a must-have since it flat out reduces the spread while firing from the hit. The one on the left is without that perk and on the right is with it active. It’s a pretty big difference in that pattern. So, you should definitely get this one.

There’s a lot of scooting around on foot in this game and with no traditional sprint, you’re going to need the movement boost from Morning Exercise, which might not seem like much. But it adds up in the long run.

In Energy Management, I suggest getting both Energy Densities, which give you an extra energy bar each and Thrift, which reduces the energy drain from certain weapons.

Weapon: Dominator

The Dominator gun, for example, can become much more useful with a higher energy capacity. Its alternate fire combos really nicely with the Telekinesis ability since it can arc some extra damage to nearby enemies before it collides with something.

I love the energy weapons because they don’t cost any ammo to fire, so always feel like royalty-free murder. They’re all just a bunch of feral Amazon Alexa, though. So, it’s all good.

Those were just a few of the combat tips I had for you today, just in case the bucket didn’t do the job already.

Hello, everyone who loves Elden Ring!

You should be familiar with the MMORPG Elden Ring that has exploded in 2022, and it also has won Game Of The Year at TGA 2022. And many people may have such doubts, after nearly a year of experience,

Is Elden Ring still worth playing in 2023?

For a MMORPG, what can keep players' enthusiasm for the game itself is to continue to push fresh and interesting content and keep up with the times to update the gameplay and so on. And DLC is a good way.

It's clear to fans that Miyazaki and his team put as much, if not more, into Elden Ring DLC content as they did the base game, and the series has to deliver some of the best bosses during the add-on. Battles like Knight Gael, Artorias of the Abyss, and the Orphan of Kos have all been added to their respective titles thanks to DLC. This incredible track record should help fans remain patient as they anxiously await new content for the sprawling role-playing game. Depending on the size of the game and how long it's been since launch, it wouldn't be a shock if the game received not one but two DLC updates over the course of a year. However, this is just speculation, as there's no guarantee that even one DLC will come, even if it seems likely.

The internet is full of speculation about Elden Ring DLC, and the one-year anniversary of Elden Ring's release is less than a dozen days away. Let's wait and see if there will be a DLC release.

In addition, for ordinary players like us, if we want to get great enough achievements in Elden Ring, we must have a tough psychological quality, sufficient runes and items(consumables, materials, weapons, shields), and always keep in touch the latest developments, learning and research. After all, Elden Ring is sometimes not so easy. If you are not a firm supporter of hard games, it may be difficult to go on in Elden Ring.

When the time comes to 2023, I would like to discuss with you how you can farm more Elden Ring runes or items faster and more efficiently. Admittedly, I think that my level of competition in Elden Ring and my understanding of the game itself are not as high as you big guys, so I can't always get myself the resources I need successfully.

Free Elden Ring Runes & Items Giveaway

But it may be luck, because I am usually a person who likes to browse Elden Ring information on social platforms. I met by chance, and I saw an official Twitter account named "IGGM" posting about the tweet of "Free Elden Ring Runes" Coincided with the fact that I was desperate and I was suffering from not having enough runes in Elden Ring for my consumption, so I sent it a private message with the mentality of trying it.

As a result, it really replied to me!!!! Wow, I asked if the event was real and if it was really possible to send me some runes for free. And it turned out, as you guys think, I really got free 50M runes and 5 items. IGGM told me I can choose any 5 items, as long as it is not a set. And, I chose Crystal Spear, Carian Regal Scepter, Alberich's Robe, Alberich's Trousers and Altus Bloom.

WTF! How lucky i am to get so much free for nothing, lol!!!

To be honest, friends, you can try it out. I even asked for IGGM "Is this event valid for a long time? It won't be a limited-time event." Then, IGGM replied to me that "Free Elden Ring Runes Event" is valid for a long time, and I also learned that they will have a corresponding share of free runes and equipment gifts every month. The same giveaway event is also available on IGGM Facebook.

Here's what I gathered when I asked IGGM on Twitter about "Free Elden Ring Runes":

• Free Elden Ring Products Include: 50M runes + 5 any items(single item only, not a set)

The specific way to get it for free is:

• Follow IGGM.com Official Twitter/Facebook and private message it

• Inform IGGM of your email address, game ID, platform (PS/PC/XBOX), the specific names of 5 items you need, and your usual online time(such as 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.)

• IGGM will send someone to contact you in the game and deliver your prize to you

Note: No platform limit, no time limit, first come first served, 15 places per week

Here's a note from IGGM.com on the delivery of Elden Ring Runes & Items:

"Please open the Multiplayer and set the password: 166928, come to church of elleh and select Duelist's Furled Finger to draw a summoning mark on the ground. We will summon you soon. Since the max capacity of the inventory is 50M, if your order more than 50M, use up the runes and continue to make new marks. Repeat the steps until you get all the runes. If you have any problems, please contact our Live Chat"

Good brothers, I have listed the social accounts of IGGM for you here, if you are interested in this, you can contact them.

• IGGM.com Official Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iggmcom

• IGGM.com Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/iggmcom

IGGM.com Affiliate Program

In addition, IGGM also has an Affiliate Program, which may have some friends who know how it works.

• You need to register and log in to IGGM.com first, then visit https://www.iggm.com/affiliate

• Submit some information on the "User Profile" page to get a promotion link

• After other people click your promotion link and successfully place an order on IGGM.com, IGGM will begin to accumulate your promotion results, and then when the amount reaches a certain amount, you can draw up to 10% commission from it

For most Elden Ring players of ordinary economic level, IGGM.com Affiliate Program may be a shortcut to profit. Because we can use the money we get from this to exchange directly with IGGM for the corresponding amount of Elden Ring Runes or the weapons, armor, consumables, etc. you need.

I don't know if you brothers can understand this principle. Let's make it simpler, that is, we use the money we earn from IGGM to get all the resources we need to play in Elden Ring for free, and IGGM can also provide us with free guides, strategies, etc. . Once the latest developments of Elden Ring are released, we can also see the relevant analysis at IGGM.com.

Oh, by the way, let me tell you last, "Free Elden Ring Runes Giveaway" at IGGM Twitter and Facebook is available every month, until March, April, May and more in 2023, which has always existed in the future. So, if you tried to get 50M runes + 5 any items for free from IGGM and succeeded, don't let it go and share this wonderful benefit with your brothers. We should share good things with everyone who plays Elden Ring.

In the end, I sincerely hope that we all have fun in Elden Ring! Best wishes to you all!

As an upstart in the Western game world in 2022, Lost Ark has made Western players fantastical, and its performance on Steam is even more impressive. Because of the great freedom of construction in the game and the different card sets that allow each player to give full play to their imagination, everyone's performance is also very different.

As the name suggests, in order to travel smoothly through “Lost Ark World”, each player needs to have the most capable person to pilot the ship. Lost Ark provides us with many crew members to choose from, and their respective specialties are different, and it is impossible to have only one crew member on a ship, such as The Estoque. So when we need to form a sailor team, we need to consider whether the players can have an appropriate chemical reaction. It will save us a lot of unnecessary troubles in the future journey.

1. Cals (Legendary)

In the minds of most Lost Ark players, Cals (Legendary) is the best Estoque crew. Cals Moronto came from a distinguished background and had reached the pinnacle of power at a young age, so he developed an aggressive attitude. When the stronghold appears, Cals will send supplies to the protagonist, and when we drive to Wavestrand Port, it's time for us to talk to Cals.

The Estoque will be more effective with the help of Cals (Legendary). Cals can increase the speed of 1.75 knots and the durability and flexibility of the ship itself, so the ship will be more guaranteed, and players don't have to worry too much about the ship's accidents due to various bad weather or other risks encountered on the way.

Price:

• 80,000 Pirate Coins in Punika Mercantile Ship

• 4,008 Arcturus Pieces in Yorn Spearship Hunting Guild Vessel

2. Cals (Epic)

When we use Cals (Epic), the speed of the ship is not as fast as when using Cals (Legendary), but the speed can also increase by 1.3 knots. While significantly increasing a ship's resilience against the Tempest Seas, it also increases its defenses against the Siren Seas and Cold Snap Seas.

At The Trusted Level in Wavestrand Port, you can exchange Cals Rapports for Epic Cals. As far as immunity goes, Cals (Epic) are pretty much invulnerable.

Cals (Epic) Attribute:

• -7 Defenses in Kelp Beds & -4 Defenses in Sandstorm Seas

• -4 resistance to Dead Waters

• +5 resistance to Cold Snap Seas

• +3 for the Siren Seas

• +8 for the Tempest Seas

Read More: Fun Lost Ark Gaming News - Go Ahead!

3. Pupuring (Relic)

He's the pistachio character who keeps weary crews and boring long voyages entertaining all the time. Pupuring (Relic) is always happy to share his interesting experiences with people and has a very amazing skill set himself. Pupuring (Relic) can provide a sailing speed of 1.3 knots, and ships with Pupuring (Relic) are almost superior to Siren Seas and Cold Snap Seas defense. It is precisely because the Pupuring (Relic) is the perfect blend of speed and resistance that it can be called one of the greatest Estoque sailors in Lost Ark.

Price: 1 Tear of the Abyss to the Mist Island Merchant

Pupuring (Relic) Attributes:

• -14 penalty to the Kelp Beds

• +10 bonus to the Cold Snap Seas

• +17 bonus to the Dead Waters

• -3 penalty to the Siren Seas

• +10 bonus to the Sandstorm Seas

• -3 immunity to the Tempest Seas

4. Pupuring (Epic)

Players using Pupuring (Epic) can increase the speed of their ships by 0.7 knots. Pupuring (Epic) improves the defense of the player's ship against the Tempest Seas and the Dead Waters.

Price: 2004 Gienah pieces in the Luterra Spearfish Hunting Guild Ship

Pupuring (Epic) Attributes:

• -8 in the Kelp Beds

• -5 in the Cold Snap Seas

• +6 in the Sandstorm Seas

• +11 to the Dead Waters

• -5 to the Siren Seas

• +6 to the Tempest Seas

5. Tasha (Rare)

Tasha (Rare) has a very tragic fate, but she has always maintained an optimistic and positive attitude. Although Tasha (Rare) can only increase the speed of the ship by 0.1 knots, she is also known as one of the most protective Estoque Crew Members due to her ability to increase resistance to various harmful waters.

Price: 6,000 Slime Coins in Atropos Laura or the Slime Island trader Yulia

Tasha (Rare) Attributes:

• +5 resistance to the kelp beds

• +5 resistance to the siren seas

• +5 resistance to the Dead Waters

• +5 is added to the area around the Sandstorm Seas

• +5 to the Cold Snap Seas

• +5 to the Tempest Seas

It's a pity that you can't directly spend Lost Ark Gold to get these Estoque Crew Members, but gold can be used as a cost to buy equipment suitable for their use. Players who are interested in this, please click here, there will be a surprise!

Amazon Games' New World has made big changes in its first year online with major updates on a regular basis that have addressed many of the issues players had at launch. Nearly every month since its release, New World's updates have introduced new content, weapons, events, system reworks, and quality-of-life changes that have significantly improved the game in many areas. As a result, leveling has become quicker, crafting is easier, combat is more fluid, the early game is more streamlined, and there's plenty of content for endgame players. While the game's population may not be what it was in its early days, current New World players seem to be growing more satisfied with the experience.

A roadmap revealing many of the biggest changes coming to New World has been revealed during the New World Dev Update for December, including some features that have long been requested by players. New World will soon be getting transmog, gear set storage, 20-player groups, changes to crafting tiers, territory wars, and some challenging new PVE content.

Let's get into it and see what they have in store for us over the next few months. First I would like to just say I really like this dev blog a ton more than usual, this one was a lot more relaxed showing out takes cracking jokes, and the best part it wasn't two hours long, it was just a nice short chat about what's coming.

Winter Convergence

So the first thing they talked about was The Winter Convergence of 2022. We can expect this to hit live in the next couple of weeks, if you guys didn't play last year, at this time let me just start by saying. This was the best event in my opinion that new world has ever had. it had different things you could do quests collecting the meteors, killing the yetis, it was just an all-around fun event, and the decorations around the settlements really gave the game a nice feeling during the holidays. This year they're adding a few new things, there will be a new world boss, a new quest associated with the winter warrior. This guy will be big, and dangerous, much like the real Halloween event boss. I'm excited to see if they will continue with last year theme and give us a bunch of new home decor and skins. One thing a bit silly with this year's event is they chose the same style of settlement Decor on Brimstone, a desert it's burning hot, but in town you're in a snow globe sort of situation. But anyway not a huge deal, it's just for fun.

Territory Control

The next thing they talked about was Territory Control, they're making three big changes in December in terms of wars and territory influence. The first change will be an introduction of a company leave cooldown, this cooldown will last 72 hours, and during that time you can participate in any activity associated with territory control, so it will become more important for people to really think before leaving a company. The next big change will be to war roster limits, they will be implementing a new mercenary limit, they wanted mercenaries to still be a thing to allow players to still participate and show support for their faction, or potentially show their ability to get recruited. But they wanted to limit it, so what they will be doing is setting the mercenary limit for a territory defense team to be 10, and the attacking teams will be set to 25 mercenary cap. They are also introducing a daily War limit, the limit will be one attack and one defense per day, and this limit will be account wide per world. So if you have multiple characters per server, you will still be locked on both.

I know these changes will piss off some players out there, but I think it is a good step. it will allow more players and more companies to get on the map, and allow people to have access to a system that before was controlled by a very small group of players.

They also emphasize that this is a December change only, not the end. They will be watching Territory Control and all those systems closely, and will continue to make changes moving forward that will improve them.

Crafting Stations

They talked about how they are changing crafting stations, what they are doing is making all procedural recipes, not have a crafting station tier requirement, stuff that has drop down menus. When I heard this a few months ago was exactly what they addressed, so that's pretty awesome, which was why would any company bother to spend going to upgrade anything. There are still huge benefits to upgrading, you will still need High tier stations for high-end specialty stuff, named items and that kind of thing but also the higher tier stations will offer lower reductions in crafting costs, as well as the new territory control.

New cinematics, quality-of-life changes, a hardcore Sandworm Elite Trial for the toughest PVE players, cross-world Outpost Rush, and a free weekend are just a few of the other things to look forward to in the near future. I do believe that more contents will released and waiting for players to explore in the New World future.