Dendro completely changed the way we look at Kokomi’s teams and builds. So, today we’ll cover everything you need to know from her best artifacts and weapons to general playstyle and team compositions.

The Jellyfish That Does It All

Kokomi’s biggest strength revolves around her elemental skill.

Her skill simply summons a jellyfish to heal surrounding allies and deal hydro damage to surrounding enemies. The hydro damage is very weak, but more importantly, the jellyfish will apply hydro onto enemies with every tick of damage it deals.

Since the jellyfish lasts for 12 seconds and hits with 2 second intervals, that means you get a total of 6 hydro applications and 6 heals, not including the initial cast, which is extremely strong.

Even though Kokomi’s elemental skill has an 18 second cooldown, you can actually have 100% uptime on her jellyfish thanks to her first ascension talent.

After using her elemental burst, the 12 second timer on her jellyfish will immediately refresh and allow its uptime to extend all the way past the 18 second skill cooldown.

Other things that Kokomi’s burst does is give her attacks and elemental skill max HP scaling, as well as extra healing for the party every time you normal or charge attack an enemy, similar to the way that Barbara functions.

With all that information in mind, I’m sure you can envision two different playstyles for Kokomi. The first playstyle is an off-field support where Kokomi only swaps in to place her jellyfish and refreshes its timer with her elemental burst to support your main DPS. The second playstyle is an on-field driver where Kokomi spends time on-field with the effects from her elemental burst to apply extra hydro to enemies to support reactions for characters off-field, and even deal some of her own damage with an invested build.

These two different ways of playing Kokomi have clear differences in build options, so let’s walk you through how to build your Kokomi for the situation that fits your team.

Off-Field Kokomi Build

Kokomi’s supportive build is very cheap and accessible to all players.

For artifacts, you’re almost always going to want the 4-set Tenacity of Millelith because her elemental skill can keep 100% uptime on the 20% attack buff for the team.

In the cases where you’re running a bloom team that’s not dependent on ATK%, such as using Thoma for burgeon or Kuki Shinobu for hyperbloom. You can also choose the 4-set Deepwood Memories for dendro resistance shred, which increases the damage from bloom-related reactions.

Artifact stats are always energy recharge or HP% in the sands, HP% in the goblet, and healing bonus in the circlet to maximize her burst uptime and her healing potential.

Since this Kokomi playstyle, I usually have her off-field most of the time. Her energy recharge requirements are high. Getting as close to 200% energy recharge is recommended, so usually the sands slot will run an energy recharge sands without extremely efficient artifact substats.

Aside from as much energy recharge as possible, other substats to focus for Kokomi are just HP%, flat HP, and elemental mastery if you run her with Nilou Bloom teams. So, she ends up being an extremely cheap character to build for off-field support.

To hammer that nail even further, Kokomi’s best weapon for off-field support happens to be a 3 star catalyst that all players can easily get to R5.

That catalyst is, of course, the Thrilling Tales of Dragon Slayers. Not only does it provide a good HP% stat for Kokomi’s healing, but the passive provides a 48% attack buff to the character switching in after Kokomi, which is an absolutely insane damage buff for ATK scaling characters.

There’s really no other reason to run any other catalyst with an off-field Kokomi. The only exceptions are if your team cannot utilize attack buffs, or if you really prefer to rely on having 100% uptime with Kokomi’s burst, then an R5 craftable Prototype Amber is also a viable option for the extra energy it gives to Kokomi.

Regardless, both options are completely F2P friendly and players should have no issues with building Kokomi for off-field support.

On-Field Kokomi Build

Kokomi’s damage build is a bit more expensive in terms of investment, but still simple to understand.

Unlike the off-field build, Kokomi’s best artifact set is now the 4-set Ocean Hued Clam. This set will convert all of Kokomi’s healing into a bubble that deals physical damage every 3 seconds, where an invested on-field Kokomi can easily hit the 30,000 damage cap per bubble before resistances.

Artifact stats to focus for an on-field Kokomi also have slight changes, where now you always want to run an HP% sands, a hydro damage bonus goblet, and a healing bonus circlet. Because Kokomi is on-field with this playstyle, she’ll directly absorb energy particles and naturally have a lower energy requirement.

Instead of the 200% that I described for the off-field build, 160% energy recharge is the sweet spot for any on-field Kokomi, which is a lot more attainable with an HP% sands.

Hydro damage and healing bonus are mandatory for Kokomi’s damage. Hydro damage in the goblet is pretty self explanatory. But the healing bonus also increases Kokomi’s damage while she’s empowered by her burst thanks to her other ascension talent, which grants extra scaling on her enhanced attacks based off her healing bonus.

This extra bonus scales much better than HP%, meaning you’ll always lose both damage and healing power by running an HP% circlet over a healing bonus circlet.

The usual energy recharge, HP%, flat HP, and EM for electro-charged or Nilou Bloom teams is the standard substat focus.

While the Thrilling Tales of Dragons Slayers catalyst can be good for an on-field Kokomi as well, it’s usually outclassed by two weapons. The best weapon for an on-field Kokomi is, of course, her signature weapon Everlasting Moonglow. But generally, this catalyst is not worth your primogems unless you’re a whale or a diehard Kokomi fan like I am who has R5 Moonglow just to flex on the haters.

Moonglow is usually not worth your primogems because Prototype Amber is more than enough for Kokomi, and usually only gets 5-10% less personal damage compared to Moonglow depending on the refinement situation. Not only is this craftable your best F2P option for on-field Kokomi, but its energy passive allows you to ease your energy recharge substat requirements if you have some pretty garbage artifacts.

To summarize, the weapon order for an on-field Kokomi is Moonglow if you have it, and if not just run Prototype Amber. If you’re also out of catalyst billets, then Thrilling Tales is also a viable option for those looking to stay stingy and build the cheapest on-field Kokomi possible.

Freeze Support

Kokomi is such a flexible and universal healer with the utility that she brings to the table that she can practically be used in any team.

However, just to get you started, if you don’t know where to begin, I’ll outline a few teams where she shines in. Of course, it's even better if you have five-star weapons suitable for Kokomi. The way to get it is actually very simple. You just need to buy a Genshin Impact Account.

The first of a few teams that we’re going to talk about today is a freeze team. Off-field Kokomi support is a backbone of many freeze teams. Because she provides outstanding hydro application and her build with both Tenacity of the Millelith and Thrilling Tales can buff your cryo DPS.

Running Kokomi allows you to run two offensive cryo characters as opposed to running a defensive cryo character, like Layla or Diona. So, a team usually has double cryo damage dealers, Kokomi, and an anemo support.

For the cryo slots, you can pick any of the two between Rosaria, Kaeya, Shenhe, Ganyu, and Ayaka as these characters either deal a ton of cryo damage, buff the cryo damage of your team, or do both at the same time.

The anemo support can technically be most anemo characters as long as they have the 4-set Viridescent Venerer equipped. The best option by far is Kazuha, for his elemental damage buffs. But other options, like Venti and Sucrose for grouping, or Jean and Sayu for even more healing, also exist.

Hyperbloom & Burgeon

While freeze teams are strictly for an off-field Kokomi, both an off-field and on-field Kokomi can function in a hyperbloom or burgeon team.

For the on-field Kokomi variants, the team consists of Kokomi, a dendro applicator, and either Kuki Shinobu or Raiden Shogun for hyperbloom or Thoma for burgeon.

The dendro applicator needs to be a consistent off-field option to allow Kokomi the freedom to stay on-field. So, your best options are Nahida for players who have her, or Dendro MC, for the best F2P option.

Collei and Yaoyao also work in this slot. But their abilities don’t last nearly as long as the Dendro MC’s burst. So, they are like tier 2 options if Nahida and Dendro MC are considered tier 1 options.

The final slot can be either Xingqiu or Yelan for powerful single target hydro damage, or a second dendro character from the ones listed before.

Options like C4 Kirara and Baizhu are also viable in the last slot for a second dendro option. But keep in mind that they lack AoE dendro application and cannot be used as solo dendro characters to create dendro cores.

For the off-field Kokomi variants of hyperbloom and burgeon teams, a dendro character, like Nahida or Alhaitham are fantastic for operating as solo dendro characters and easily allow you to run the usual Xingqiu or Yelan in the final slot for a team maximized for damage.

Also Read: Genshin Impact: How To Create The Best Yelan Build? - Artifacts, Weapons & Teams

Taser

The one team that is usually limited to the on-field Kokomi build is a taser team.

This is Kokomi’s classic team composition before dendro took the teambuilding scene by storm, and got significantly better with the introduction of the Ocean Hued Clam set. The team consists of Kokomi with two off-field electro damage dealers, and then either Sucrose to buff the EM of the team, or Kazuha to buff the elemental damage of the team.

For the two electro damage dealers, you can pick any off-field character between Fischl, Beidou, Raiden Shogun, or Yae Miko. The premise of the team is extremely simple, so nothing much really needs to be said about the team.

Kokomi, in particular, not only provides the ability to run two off-field electro characters, but she also consolidates the role of healing and hydro application.

Prior to Kokomi’s release, your only options to use were Barbara for healing, who does significantly less damage compared to Kokomi, or to use Xingqiu and live with the fact that sometimes his rainswords aren’t enough to sustain the entire team’s health bars.

Nilou Bloom & An Entirely New Build

Last but not least, the final team that Kokomi really shines into is a Nilou bloom team.

The introduction of dendro survivability options, like Yaoyao, Baizhu, and Kirara, definitely brought more flexibility to Nilou bloom teams. But Kokomi still remains a staple partner for Nilou.

As an off-field healer, Kokomi can keep her cheap build and sustain the team while Nahida, Alhaitham, or Kirara bear the burden of providing on-field dendro.

For the last slot, usually with Nahida and Alhaitham you want to run triple hydro characters, meaning Xingqiu or Yelan are again the options for the final slot.

In the case of on-fielding Kirara, you cannot use Xingqiu or Yelan while she runs around as a package. So, a second dendro character that applies dendro off-field like Dendro MC, Nahida, Yaoyao, or Collei can go in the final slot.

While the off-field playstyle is a little unassuming, Nilou really changed the way we can build Kokomi as a driver for bloom teams. If you want to play Kokomi on-field within a Nilou team, then an entirely new build path opens up.

Building Kokomi with the 4-set Gilded Dreams or the 4-set Flowers of Paradise Lost and triple EM in the sands, goblet, and circlet actually becomes viable, since Kokomi can become the “owner” of bloom reactions.

In hyperbloom and burgeon teams, Kokomi never focuses on elemental mastery because the reaction damage always depends on the EM of your electro or pyro characters that turn the dendro cores into hyperbloom or burgeon reactions.

However, Nilou’s Bountiful Cores do scale off Kokomi’s EM if she creates them with her attacks or elemental skill. So, that’s why building full elemental mastery is viable on Kokomi.

Not only does Nilou allow you to switch your artifact set, but new catalysts like A Thousand Floating Dreams, Sacrificial Fragments, and Fruit of Fulfillment can be used if you don’t need a catalyst focused on healing.

Of course, if players want to keep their Kokomi build flexible for other teams, you can still on-field Kokomi with Ocean Hued Clam and elemental mastery substats in a Nilou team, or off-field Kokomi with the 4-set Deepwood Memories.

Although you won’t be seeing a flurry of huge green numbers with just elemental mastery substats compared to the triple EM build, Kokomi will still retain solid personal damage with her Ocean Hued Clam numbers.

If you’re on-fielding Kokomi with Nilou, then you’re going to need to pick two dendro characters between Nahida, Dendro MC, Yaoyao, and Collei for the final two slots since all these characters have some sort of AoE dendro application.

Since Kokomi is so flexible, there are definitely other teams, such as a general on-field Kokomi, to drive vaporize, or even specialized teams, like the “Sukokomon” team.

…

Here, we’ll be talking about seasons.

What Are Seasons?

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

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

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

Diablo 4 Season 1 - Season Of The Malignant

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

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

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

Seasonal Questlines

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

Fresh Gameplay

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

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

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

Quality Of Life Changes

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

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

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

Battle Pass

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Will Characters Look Like In Diablo 4 Season 1?

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

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

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

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

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

"What about my Eternal character?"

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

…

Here is a guide on Luocha, the newest 5-star in Honkai: Star Rail. He is a 5-star imaginary abundance unit, and has really shown us what a limited abundance can do. He easily outheals his competition and has incredible utility.

Just to preface, multiple enemies hit won’t heal multiple times. They removed it due to the new AoE heal he provides. Nevertheless, this doesn’t change his synergies, and I have some new information and takes on Luocha, including number and eidolon reviews.

He is very versatile and an awesome unit to have, an amazing pick up for any Honkai Star Rail Account, even better if you lack Bailu and Gepard.

I will discuss his stats, abilities and how they work, traces and eidolons, and then his pros and cons. We will then discuss his best relics and light cones, as well as his best rotations where we will discuss how to have perfect talent uptime, and then team synergies and compositions.

Stats & Comparisons

Luocha is a 5* imaginary unit, and part of the limited banner 5 stars. He follows the abundance path, a dedicated healer class, but he provides more than just heals as we will see.

At level 80, he has a high base HP of 1280, a very high base attack of 756, and a low base def of 363.

His base speed is 101, and he has an energy cost of 100.

As an abundance unit, he has a taunt value of 100, equal to 23% chance of being hit in a standard team.

His health is thus the 5th highest in the game.

He shares the highest attack in the game alongside Himeko, but he has the third lowest defense in the game to compensate.

His speed is average but his energy cost is a nice low 100.

Basic Attack

Let’s review his abilities and how they function.

Thorns of the Abyss is his basic attack, doing a standard amount of imaginary damage to a single enemy, dealing 30 toughness damage, regenerating 20 energy for Luocha, and 1 skill point for the team.

How Does His Talent Function?

Let’s talk about his talent first, as his skill and ultimate will activate it.

Cycle of Life will activate after reaching 2 stacks of Abyss Flower, deploying his healing field. When any enemy in the field is attacked by an ally, they will restore a percentage of Luocha’s attack alongside a flat bonus as health. It will last for 2 of Luocha’s turns, so any ally that spams turns before him can heal more. But it doesn’t mean you should build him no speed, it’s just a bonus.

At great investment, this will heal 1k health to the attacker per attack, which is pretty insane for an off field heal. This talent will not gain stacks when it is active. So, any skill or ultimate when the field is up will not contribute stacks for the next field.

Luocha's OP Skill

His skill, Prayer of Abyss Flower, is a restore skill. It will immediately restore an ally’s hp by a percentage of his attack plus a flat bonus. Then, he will gain a stack of abyss flower. This will regenerate 30 energy, and consume 1 skill point.

When an ally hp drops past 50% of the health, from anything including damage over time during their turn, Luocha will cut in and heal them with the skill, an emergency skill use. This emergency skill consumes no skill point, but still regenerates the 30 energy and gains the stack of abyss flower.

At great investment, this can heal 4000 HP, which is more healing than you’ll need right now.

Ultimate

His ultimate is Death Wish, and has an energy cost of 100.

It will remove 1 buff from all enemies, and deal imaginary damage to all enemies, and gain a stack of Abyss Flower. This will deal 60 toughness damage to all enemies, and refund 5 energy.

Technique

Finally, his technique is Mercy of a Fool, and is a buffing technique. So, you can stack buffs and use attacking techniques afterwards.

After using it, his talent will be activated instantly at the start of the next battle. So, you get a free two turns of his off field healing and prepare for the next rotation.

Game Changing Traces

Let’s see his traces, which completely buff his kit.

Cleansing Revival is his A2, and when the skill is triggered, emergency or manual use, it will cleanse 1 debuff from a target ally. It’s already insane to have cleanse and even off field cleansing.

Sanctified is his second section passive. And when any enemy in his talent field is attacked by an ally, all allies apart from the healer will restore 7% of Luocha’s ATK plus 93. This is actually a great amount of healing, about 400 per ally. So, now every attack will heal 1k for themself, and 400 for each ally.

His final section is Through the Valley, and will give a 70% chance to resist CC (Crowd Control) debuffs. This is different to eff res.

Just like enemies at max level have 40% effect resistance, enemies have 32% effect hit rate. This against Luocha’s 70% cc debuff is a 40% chance of being cc’d by an enemy at 100% base chance. It’s a very strong trace.

The only way to get a 0% chance is 100 eff res, which we aren’t building.

Trace Bonuses & Level Priority

His trace bonuses are in attack%, perfect, and hp and def%, which are also really nice to further boost his tankiness as a support.

For trace priority, level his skill and talent, and his basics and ultimate don’t need investment. He doesn’t do much damage, even with investment.

Eidolons

Now, let’s see his eidolons, which completely shift his character identity.

His E1 will give all allies a 20% attack boost when his talent is up. This is about half a main stat for all allies, and is a decent boost. It’s a good starting eidolon, but nothing amazing to go for if you’re a low spender. This does turn him into a pseudo harmony unit now.

His E2 will give his skill two effects depending on the target ally’s HP%. Under half HP, he gets a 30% healing boost, which is unneeded due to his already high healing, but maybe good on super high HP units. Over half HP, he gives the ally a shield equal to 18% of his attack plus 240, hitting nearly 1k of a shield at good investment, which is really not bad. The thing with this eidolon is you don’t manually use skill often in his rotation. So, you won’t see the shield much, and the healing% is overwhelming.

It’s a nice buff for when you do though, for example cleansing, or if an ally goes under 50% and somehow heals up before Luocha emergency skills.

Also, a big note is that this is anti synergy with Blade, who he normally has amazing synergy with. If he ever heals Blade when above 50% HP, which can happen if Blade’s Counter happens before Luocha’s emergency heal, then Blade will get a shield and lose DPS output if we follow his pre release kit where he needs to take damage.

Anyway, at E2, Luocha becomes a pseudo preservation unit.

At E4, enemies have a weakened multiplier that only Sampo and Natasha could apply until now. They will deal 12% less damage to you, which is awesome for more survivability.

Finally, at E6, when his ultimate is used, all enemies type res will be reduced by 20% for 2 turns. At E6, you’re probably geared towards a 2 turn rotation. So, this is kind of a 20% permanent res reduction. It’s about a 1.2x to 1.33x damage increase for the whole team. It’s an OP buff but requires 7 Luocha’s to get to. And remember, Silver Wolf pretty much has this at E0.

Anyway, Luocha becomes a pseudo nihility unit with this and E4. So, at E6, he gets a harmony buff, a preservation shield, a weakened debuff, and a nihility all res type debuff.

Luocha’s Pros & Cons

So, let’s talk about his pros and cons.

First, we have the best healing output in the game. If you’ve played with him or even attempted healing calculations, his healing beats Natasha and Bailu.

Next, we have immense utility. Cleansing allies on and off field is already crazy, and then you insert an aoe buff removal that beats Pela’s secondary role by far.

Next, we have the easiest build requirements in the game in my opinion. You only need to invest in his healing, as his damage is subpar, and even then, experience has shown that his healing doesn’t even need maxing.

To follow with easy build requirements, we also have great versatility on top of F2P Friendly light cone options. We will discuss this later in the light cone section, but he can run a ton of different ones.

Amazing base stats are another one. He’s somewhat tanky and having the highest base attack in the game is another reason why his healing is so damn good.

Next, we have imaginary type, now we are at 3 imaginary type units and he provides a decent amount of toughness damage due to his skill point positive playstyle and low energy cost, which are also pros.

He can also be a solo sustain as predicted, meaning you don’t need a preservation unit and can bring pure damage.

Finally, we don’t need to pull his signature. It is not as OP of an increase as Seele and Jing Yuan’s cones.

For cons, we unironically have too much healing. He provides so much healing that it’s difficult to decide where his stats should go into.

We also have restrictive and clunky rotations. If done right, his rotation is clean and juicy. But if you desync and have an emergency skill, go off during his talent uptime, you’d need to skill outside of his talent alongside his ultimate.

This means that using his skill and ultimate during his talent uptime is usually a bad idea. But if you really need that heal or cleanse or buff removal, it’s allowed.

Finally, we have a weird speed problem. We want him to be fast for SP Generation, but not too fast that his downtime affects our allies. We want him to be fast for emergency skills, but not too fast that he does no heals. But healing power shouldn’t be a problem, anyway.

Luocha’s Best Relics

As for his best relics, it’s difficult. But all of these sets work, and they are 4-piece musketeer, 4-piece healer, and a 2 pc combo of both.

In my opinion, when well built, he doesn’t need the 10% healing from the healer set, and the 4 piece bonus is a drop in the ocean for skill points, which he will generate a ton of. The 4-piece musketeer boosts his speed to 107, and provides him with some extra damage, though negligible. We’d run it for the speed, and the attack% benefits his heals.

For planar ornaments, you’ll want to go to the Fleet of the Ageless set.

Space Sealing Station also works for more heals and damage.

Sprightly Vonquack can allow a very quick talent activation, but is not needed for the energy part.

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail: Ranking Of Playable Imaginary Characters - Yukong, Welt & Luocha

Main Stats And Substats

For main stats, outgoing healing% or attack% for the chest. It depends if you care about the extra healing or extra damage, as healing% will always be better for healing.

For boots, I recommend going speed.

For planar sphere, attack% or a DEF% piece.

For rope, energy rope is recommended, but attack% rope can be used with certain rotations and light cones.

For subs, attack%, speed, defense% and effect resistance are all great.

I don’t recommend going crit on his stats, as they’ll provide barely any damage increase for a loss of any defensive stats or healing, and we will start getting chunkier characters with the appearance of Blade and endgame health pools.

Without any crit, and only versus at least 3 enemies, his damage over 13 turns is equal to 1.5 Seele skills.

Luocha’s Light Cone Paths

For light cones, we have multiple paths he can go.

First, you decide between energy for himself, healing, and team utility. If you choose energy for himself, you’ll want to grab his signature or post op conversation.

At S4, post op becomes equal to his signature for the energy generation, but pales in comparison to the rest of the benefits. Though this means you don’t need to pull his signature. These two light cones can promote a 2 turn rotation if lucky, and we’ll go over that in a bit.

If you choose healing, you’ll need an energy rope. Perfect Timing is great for him and promotes eff res substats to further decrease the chance of being cc’d and debuffed.

If you choose team utility, you choose between team energy and team skill points. And team utility light cones will require an energy rope. So, for team energy, you’d go for Quid Pro Quo.

And with good speed, he’d be generating a lot of free energy for the squad, nearly 2 ultimates worth. Shared Feeling is bad for him. His emergency skills won’t trigger the energy from its passive, but maybe this gets fixed.

For team skill points, you’d go Multiplication, which I’ve been quietly shilling since the start of the game. It is a 3 star light cone, and will advance you forward by 20% each basic, which he will be doing a ton of.

The 3-star stats are not much to worry about due to his high base character stats, but he might need some more defensive substats. This light cone is very underrated, and in a basic spamming playstyle is very strong.

For Luocha, in a two basic 1 skill rotation, multiplication is equivalent to a speed boost of 16, and at 120 speed, will grant him 2 more turns and thus 2 more skill points for the team.

Optimal Luocha Rotations

For rotations, you want to minimize your talent downtime.

If you want to have near perfect uptime, S4 Post op Conversation or S1 Echoes and an energy rope are required. You can do two basics, and skill outside of the talent duration, into an ultimate to get it back up. If you can get an emergency skill off outside of your field’s duration, even better.

Echoes only need one target to work, as if Hoyoverse calculated it perfectly.

Apart from that, 3 turn rotations will be the way, and work on any light cone provided you have an energy rope.

If you get an emergency skill, which is incredibly easy as a solo sustain unit, you can do two basics during your talent, and then basic again and you’ll have your ultimate up.

If you get the emergency skill during your talent, you will skill instead after your talent is finished, and this requires no energy rope. But for reliability, we go energy rope.

Some Synergies

For synergies, we have anyone that can cheat turns and attack multiple times.

Seele’s Resurgence, Yanqing’s follow ups, Clara’s counters, Jing Yuan’s Lightning Lord, Sushang’s ultimate push up. Let’s just say Luocha might be a bit too good.

Note its per attack instance, and not per hit, that you’ll get heals.

Team Composition Discussion

For team compositions, he will provide an insane solo sustain role. You plop him down, and you build your desired team. So, you can go for risky hypercarry teams without worrying about sustain.

This, for example, can be a Hunt with two harmony. Two teams I’ve been loving are mono imaginary and a jing yuan hypercarry setup. Mono Imaginary performs so nicely due to Yukong and Luocha just coming out, and the damage from Welt carry is pretty decent, and all the tools to deal damage in general alongside Silver Wolf can perform well in the high tier Memory of Chaos.

The second team is Jing Yuan Hypercarry. Now, the problem he had is the lack of Luocha pretty much. His major problem is cc, and the problem he used to have with this team was the current solo sustain units.

Gepard or Bailu can sustain, but what happens when Jing Yuan gets cc’d? Natasha can cleanse, of course, but it requires a skill point and you have to wait for her turn.

Luocha can cleanse and fully heal Jing Yuan if he faces tanks a strong cc hit like from the Sanction Robot. Using Asta and putting Jing Yuan at about 117 speed, allows him to run attack% boots, increasing his damage over the normal 141 speed Jing Yuan when not running Bronya or Asta.

With Tingyun on a 3 turn ult rotation, Jing Yuan can easily get tons of Lightning Lord attacks, with high damage buffs from the team. This team is very fast with Asta’s ultimate, the musketeer sets, and potentially an Echoes Light Cone on Luocha. You’ll be spamming attacks and Lightning lords like crazy and not be dying, even Tingyun won’t.

…

Brackenhide Hollow makes its Mythic Plus debut in Dragonflight Season 2! So, in this guide, I’ll walk you through the dungeon to help prepare you to take on the Gnolls and stave off the Decay!

By the way, some bosses have lots of high damage in this dungeon. You’d better use WoW Dragonflight Gold in advance to buy some good weapons and armors to equip yourself.

Dungeon Start

You’ll start by freeing captive Tuskarr. You’ll need to release 5 from their cages before you can progress to the dungeon. But there are more than 5. So, you can pick and choose how you want to path through the start of the dungeon.

Watch out for Bracken Warscourges, as these have an AoE fear that needs to be kicked, and they passively increase the damage and reduce the cooldowns of other nearby Gnolls!

This dungeon is full of nasty diseases, such as the Witherbolt cast by Trickclaw Mystics. Luckily, they only cast this ability if there is a Rotchanting Totem nearby, and the bolt can be kicked.

If all else fails, you can dispel the disease. And if you have an Alchemist in your group, they can add an extra safety net by purifying any of the Decaying Cauldrons found around the dungeon.

After the cauldron is purified, everyone can click on it to get a 5 minute extra action button that can be used to cleanse themselves once.

Hackclaw’s War-Band

After you’ve freed five Tuskarr, you’ll get to fight the first boss.

During which, everyone should try to stay as high health as possible since the bosses gain haste based on the group’s missing health. Gash Frenzy is also removed by being healed above 90% health, so you’ll want to do this, anyway!

The nasty combo on this fight is when your tank gets hit by a disorient at the same time your healer gets CC’d by hextrick totem. Break this totem quickly so that your tank can get dispelled since they need to get in front of Rira Hackclaw before Savage Charge goes off and kills someone else in the group!

The other bosses all have other abilities you’ll need to look out for, but most are pretty straightforward. Kick the Greater Healing Rapids to avoid the bosses healing, for instance.

After the boss goes down, you’ll get to head left or right! The left path is a little less kick intensive and is my recommendation for most groups. Though it does feature a lot of group damage from Bone Bolts from the Rotbow Stalkers, which also have a few other nasty abilities, such as the same buff aura as the Warscourges had at the start of the dungeon.

They’ll also throw meat at players in your group, causing nearby animals to fixate them!

Gutshot

Gutshot is the next boss you’ll fight. She’s basically a Beast Mastery hunter, and frequently summons Hyenas and throws traps.

The Hyenas should be picked up by the tank. But they also will fixate on the players that Gutshot throws meat at. You can kite these Hyenas over the traps to root them. You’ll also want to kick Master’s Call to stop the boss from freeing her pets!

After Gutshot goes down, head back across the bridge. Watch out for Stinkbreath’s Stink Breath, which will disorient and damage whoever gets hit. This is a pretty quick cast and will track whoever it’s targeting.

So, if you can react fast enough, you can make sure it only hits one person.

Treemouth

Treemouth is up next, and this boss’s bark is definitely just as nasty as its bite!

The big mechanic to understand on this encounter is the Grasping Vines phase, which works a little differently than it does on Normal and Heroic!

The boss will cast Grasping Vines and pull all players towards it. When the cast finishes, all players within 10 yards get Consumed, which deals some nature damage and locks you inside the boss. If nobody is within 10 yards, the boss gets a massive enrage. So, make sure someone stays in!

Any players who get eaten get the Partially Digested debuff for the next minute, which makes the Consume much more lethal if it happens to them again. So, you’ll want to alternate who gets Consumed each time.

Trash Gauntlet

A final gauntlet of trash stands between you and the Decatriarch after Treemouth falls.

Waves of small adds will spawn routinely until you get to the top. But take your time and make sure to kick the Filth Callers to bring them into the fray.

During this gauntlet, you need to make sure to swap to the summoned totems, as they empower the Fetid Rotsingers to cast Burst of Decay and put a disease on your whole group.

There are some of the Alchemy cauldrons in this gauntlet, too. So, make sure to use these if you can, especially if you don’t have a Disease Dispeller in your group like a Paladin, Monk, or Priest.

The Vile Rothexer is another important mob towards the end of this gauntlet. Stay spread because Withering Contagion will spread if you’re too close to one another, and use your Cauldron or other Disease dispels on this if you can!

Also Read: WoW Dragonflight: How To Unlock The Ability Of Mining And Herbing On Your Dragonriding Mounts?

Decatriarch Wratheye

Decatriarch Wratheye is the last boss, and you’ll need to make sure that you avoid the Choking Rotcloud or else you’ll get a nasty DoT.

If that’s not enough to convince some of you DPS players to dodge it, it also silences you while you’re inside and reduces your damage dealt afterwards!

Make sure to quickly swap to the Rotburst Totem, especially if it shows up in the middle of a Rotcloud. Because if it finishes its cast, you’ll take a bunch of damage and also get a stack of that nasty DoT / Damage Reduction effect.

Brackenhide Hollow is a fearsome dungeon. But I hope this guide will help you tackle its challenges!

…

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

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

Gearing Max Level Alts For Heroic ++

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leveling Up Alts

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

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

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

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

Professions

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

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

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

Try New Specs / Classes / Roles

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

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

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

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

Play Other Games (Avoid Burnout)

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

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

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

Outro

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

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

…

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

1. Must Do Content

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Most Common Noobtrap

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

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

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

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

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

3. Aspect Imprinting Tips

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Leveling Approach

For tip number four, plan out your build.

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

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

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

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

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

5. Maximize Your Enjoyment

And tip number five is having fun.

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

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

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

…

2023 for Elder Scrolls Online is going to be a very interesting year indeed. Every year, ESO will release four DLCs with big game-changing updates and will release within each quarter of the year.

This year, however, ESO is breaking tradition, but in my opinion, for a very good reason. As much as I love ESO and have done for the eight years I’ve played it, it has its issues. I think anyone who has played the game for longer than two years can agree with me on that. These issues have divided the community and have left some feeling ignored by ZeniMax Online Studios.

For whatever the reason, the majority of these issues have never been addressed or fixed. But, let’s look on the bright side that will all change within 2023.

The first half of this year will remain the same as any other. We have already received our first DLC, the Scribes of Fate, which added two new dungeons to the game: Scrivener’s Hall and Bal Sunnar. Along with that, we have new item sets and of course the usual update, which buffs, nerfs and changes parts of the game.

In June, we can expect to see a chapter. As usual, this year is taking us back to Morrowind with the Telvanni Peninsula, focusing on the city of Necrom and the Daedric Prince, Hermaeus Mora.

Following on from that, in the third and fourth quarter, we won’t receive any new DLC for ESO. We were told that something secret is being planned for the end of the year, something to do with an endless dungeon experience.

However, we are breaking norms and are not receiving another dungeon DLC or Zone DLC. Instead, ZeniMax Online Studios has promised to tackle the many issues plaguing ESO and focus entirely on fixing and updating instead of adding.

Personally, I think this is a great idea. I’ve always said that it’s better to stop adding content and fix what already exists within the game rather than continue adding to what’s already broken. Although I think so, I am also very curious about your thoughts. You can try to answer the following questions. How you feel about the change coming to this year? Do you think it is a good idea or a bad idea? Are you looking forward to the fixes and updates or are you worried that it may be made worse by the plan for 2023?

Now, I want to talk about Necrom. The Necrom Chapter for ESO will be releasing on June 5th for PC and Mac and then June 20th for console. Now, although the year's plan is different. This chapter, in comparison to others, is no different.

Related: Elder Scrolls Online: How To Prepare For Arcanist Class Release?

This chapter will take place in the Telvani Peninsula in Morrowind. Our main city is Necrom, which is where the chapter gets its name and is heavily focused around the Daedric Prince, Hermes Mora.

The chapter will allow the player to explore this magical and fungi-infested part of Morrowind, but also have access to Apocrypha - Hermaeus Mora’s realm of Oblivion. Whether Apocrypha will be like the deadlands in regards to size and exploration is yet to be revealed.

However, we know for a fact that we will be able to see a good portion of that realm. What attracts players most in this realm is, of course, is the new class we will be receiving along with the chapter.

Now, a big disclaimer: you must own the chapter in order to be able to play as this new class. The class in question is The Arcanist, a class that heavily revolves around using spells and attacks in the design of our Daedric Lord, Hermes Mora.

Sadly though, unless you’re able to access the private test servers on PC, ZeniMax Online Studios haven’t released anything about this new class as yet. But if your curiosity is getting the better of you, you actually fight and go up against enemy Arcanists in the new dungeon, Scrivener’s Hall. Anyway, if you like this new class, you can prepare lots of ESO Gold in advance to make more powerful builds for this class.

Not only are we getting a new class, but we are also welcoming two new companions to the game. We have Azandar Al-Cybiades, who was an Arcanist Redguard and also Sharp-As-Night, an Argonian Warden.

Companions are a great addition to ESO and I’m sure these two won’t disappoint. Just a shame that ZeniMax Online Studios skipped over Necromancer for a companion.

Tales of Tribute is also receiving a new Patron, which has been revealed as Almalexia, Morrowind’s Healing Mother. Apart from this, we have no information in regards to what she brings to the table quite literally on that one.

All in all, I think this is going to be a very interesting year indeed, with big changes and updates coming later this year and a great-looking chapter coming very soon.

…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

…

Today, we’re talking about everything you know in Noblegarden.

Why Do This Event?

The Noblegarden Event is going to give you a bunch of different rewards, mostly Cosmetics as well as the Noble Title. The main reason we’re doing the event is because we’re nearly done with the “What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been” meta achievement.

Of course, I’ve met an achievement will give us the Violet Proto-Drake, which is one of the best mounts in Wrath of the Lich King.

But be careful, the Noblegarden Event only runs from April 9th to 16th. So, you don’t want to miss it.

Where To Go First?

If your Horde head to either Bloodhoof Village, Razor Hill, Brill or Falconwing Square and if your Alliance had to either Goldshire or Kharanos, Dolanaar or Azure Watch, you’ll definitely want to pick up the daily intro crafts from the Spring Gatherer. That quest is called "The Great Egg Hunt", and it requires you to bring 20 Shell Fragments.

While we’re in the area, we should also head to the spring vendor of the merchant. At the merchant, you can pick up the quest at “A Tisket, a Tasket, a Noblegarden Basket”. That quest rewards an Egg Basket, which increases your movement speed by 60% near the aches.

But weirdly enough, the quest giver actually gives you this basket when you get the quest. So, I wouldn’t even do this quest until way later while we’re at the vendor, though you should definitely check out all the potential Noblegarden loot you can get. Everything from the Noblegarden vendor requires chocolates as a currency.

In fact, in order to get all the different items, you’ll need 465 total chocolates. But don’t purchase a single thing yet. I’ll explain in a second.

The main thing we’re going to be doing for the next couple of hours is collecting as many eggs (Brightly Colored Eggs) as we can. The egg spawn at approximately a two to three-minute timer all around the starting areas. Inside the eggs, you’ll be getting chocolates. You’ll be getting the shell for the daily quest and random items you could get from the vendor.

So, I’m going to get started with my egg collection. I’m aiming for at least 250 eggs. But you may need way less than that if you get lucky with drops.

In terms of your egg strategy, realistically all the different towns are viable. My personal favorites are Falconwing Square and Azure Watch. One super pro tip is to actually go to the other Faction City if you’re on an imbalance server.

Achievement 1: I Found One

The very first achievement we’ll be doing is the “I Found One!” achievement. That’s really simple. You just need to find a Brightly Colored Egg. With that out of the way, let’s scale things up with Chocoholic.

Achievement 2: Chocoholic

Chocoholic requires you to eat 100 pieces of chocolate. It is a super easy achievement, though unfortunately you’re also spending your WOTLK Classic Gold from this point forward. All these achievements require you to purchase something from the vendor. You could do these in any order you want.

Achievement 3: Blushing Bride

I’m starting with a Blushing Bride. For a Blushing Bride, you can either get the Tuxedo Pants in the shirt from one of the eggs or purchase them from the vendor.

Then, you’ve got to go to a location like Gallery and it really doesn’t matter where and you’ve got to kiss a player wearing an elegant dress. You can actually trade these items after using them, so you could do a Suave Rooney.

Achievement 4: Desert Rose

For our fourth achievement, we’re going to be doing a Desert Rose.

A Desert Rose requires you to get the Spring Robes for one of the eggs or from the vendor again. Then, we’re going to go to each of the desert zones and plant a flower in the desert. You’ll have to go to the Badlands, Silithus, Thousand Needles, Desolace and Tanaris.

For Tanaris, and a Thousand Needles, I can definitely recommend using the Caverns of Time teleport and for the Badlands as a Horde member, I like to use a Direbrew Remote you can just gain Hearth out of BRD (Blackrock Depths) and save a bunch of time.

Achievement 5: Shake Your Bunny-Maker

For the fifth achievement, we might have the stupidest named achievement I’ve ever seen. We’ll be doing “Shake Your Bunny Maker”.

This is a really simple one again. You are going to get the Spring Flowers from either an egg or the vendor. The Spring Flowers have an usability on them, so we’ll be using them on every single race in the game as long as they’re level 18 plus.

Historically, you can only do this with a female player for it to work. But I do believe they changed this recently. I definitely recommend hitting up Dalaran, but if you’re on a server like Faerlina, you can also try to win a grasp.

Achievement 6: Noblegarden

For our sixth achievement, we’ll be doing Noblegarden.

Noblegarden is actually my favorite achievement by far you’ll actually have to purchase a Noblegarden Egg since you can’t get it from one of the eggs.

Then, if you’re bored, you’ll have to hide in the Silvermoon City or if you’re Alliance, you’ll have to hide it in Stormwind. You could just put the egg on the ground somewhere in the city and then pick it up again and get a chocolate or you could make it more fun and hide it in some really weird and hilarious place for a friend to find.

Achievement 7: Spring Fling

Moving into number seven, we have Spring Fling.

For Spring Fling first, you’re going to need a Spring Rabbit’s Foot. Again, you’re either going to get this from one of the eggs or for 100 chocolates from the vendor.

Then, you’ve got to find someone else with a Spring Rabbit’s Foot and you’ve got to go to a bunch of different locations and summon your rabbits together.

Horde will be going to Bloodhoof Village, Falconwing Square, Brill and Razor Hill that Alliance will be going to Azure Watch, Goldshire, Dolanaar and Kharanos. This achievement definitely pushes you to find a friend who is guilty to help you.

What if you want to do it solo? You can actually get the Rabbit’s Foot on two different characters on the same account. Then, activate the rabbit on one character and then force log out and do it on the second character. That’s solo gaming.

Achievement 8: Hard Boiled

Our last achievement is Hard Boiled, and this is the hardest achievement by a mile. You have got to be a rabbit and go to the Golakka Hot Springs and go around. The easy way to do this is to go with a friend with a Blossoming Branch. Your friend just uses the Blossoming Branch on you. You become a rabbit. You just wait around. You lay an egg. You’re good to go.

If you’re solo, though, and you don’t have any friends to help you, it’s going to be a lot harder. First,you’ll need to set your Hearthstone to catch sand. Then, go back to one of the starter areas and elude eggs until you transform into a bunny. Then, quickly hearth the gadgets in and make a beeline for Galaka Hot Springs.

Related: WotLK Classic Phase 3 Prep Guide: How I’m Dominating Trial Of The Crusader?

Remember, if you mount or take damage, this will break the effect, so be careful. But, we just did it. All eight achievements done no problem at all. Our meta achievement is nearly done. Only a few more holiday events to go and you’ve got that Violet Proto-Drake. But in the meantime, the Trial of the Crusader is nearly here. You want to be as prepared as possible for ToC, so you should definitely read my prep guide.

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

D4 Endgame Summary

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

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

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

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

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

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

Things I Missed

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

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

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

Paragon System

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

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

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

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

Only The Beginning

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

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

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

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

Season Of Mastery 2 Concept Examples

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

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

Season Of Hardcore

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

Season Of Victory

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

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

Season Of Mastery 2 Wishlist

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

Increased Raid Difficulty

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

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

More Loot From Raids

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

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

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

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

Rated Battlegrounds & Arenas

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

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

New PVP System PLs

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

Timegated PVP Rewards

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

Increased Leveling Speed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Additional Information

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do Elden Ring Rune Arcs do?

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

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

Where To Find Elden Ring Rune Arcs?

All Maps, Chests, Around You and more.

Elden Ring Rune Arcs Easy Farming Method

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

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

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