As we all know, Diablo 4's Season 1 was successfully released last week and has received good player feedback. The new season is called Season of the Malignant, and I think Necromancer is the most powerful class in this season.

Malignant Hearts are completely broken and more powerful than you ever thought possible. Let me give you an example of Decrepit Aura, when you have at least five enemies nearby you get an aura that automatically curses enemies with Decrepit Aura for 5 - 15 seconds.

This is Caged Heart of Decrepit Aura item power 608, so not Ancestral, not 800 item power, even there's only a level three Heart, When at least two enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses nearby enemies with enfeeble for 15 seconds, up to a maximum of 21 seconds, helps you get some Diablo 4 Items faster. This is not the strongest version of the Heart can this potentially go down to one single enemy and then it just works perfect on bosses.

Necromancer In Season 1

This is not the only thing, in Diablo 4 Caged heart of the Sacrilegious, we know that walking near Corpse automatically activates an equipped, equipped it needs to be in your skill bar, warp skill every second dealing 36% reduced damage. This works bonus to what you actually do, but the question was does this use your cooldowns. For those wondering Diablo 4, this Heart for Necromancer will trigger Corpse Explosion, if on your bar every second and Corpse Tendril every three seconds roughly, without triggering the cooldown of it.

There's one important key part that a lot of people seem to have missed in the patch notes, the stats you see reflect what a level 20 character would receive as a drop. So each of these is essentially one of the weakest versions, for example the 20 damage reduction right now, I mean that was five enemies close by, this 20 damage reduction could even be more.

We see the absolute basic weakest version, Tempting Fate with 60% Critical Strike damage, how high can this actually go. Now seeing how absolutely overpowered these Hearts can be, maybe the nerfs were warranted to a degree. Obviously Eternal realm players in Diablo 4, but then again that's the way how arpgs go, I'm sorry you bought a live service game.

Blood Summoner Stronger Than Ever!

Knowing now how broken the Hearts actually are, may I present you a potential Blood Summoner build, that will get super duper charged. Because Sacrilegious is now triggering Corpse Explosion every second and every third second Corpse Tendrils. Absolutely super charges our Blood Surge Summoner, why Blood Surge Summoner? Because you truly will never run out of essence again, we are using cool Mages to generate Essence in Diablo 4.

This build usually doesn't run Corpse Explosion, but if we actually now put Corpse Explosion into our skill bar, that's an equipped skill, and we can move Decrepify out. Why can you move to Decrepify out, well that's simple we play Decrepit Aura and Decrepit Aura works on two or less enemies, I mean we might get the one enemy Decrepit Aura so it's a free Decrepify cast without asking everything to do anything, we can move Corpse Explosion in the bar and then in the skill tree as we see here, you have Grim Harvest for consuming Corpses Grand 6 Essence plus Fueled by Death will constantly actually work.

Not only that in Paragon Board, we can go for the flesh eater Note 2 consuming 5 Corpses around 40% increased damage for six seconds, because we constantly automatically consume Corpses, without having to do anything. If you don't know how to build it, Diablo 4 Boosting Service can help you.

Which grants us, bonus Essence the whole time with a Skeleton Mage, followed up with bonus Essence constantly for consuming Corpses, and if we're running out of Corpses we can make bonus ones with Ghastly Blood Mist in Diablo 4, and then at the same time just Blood Surge everything around as the whole time, our Skeletons will mitigate a little bit damage that way we be taken, will fortify with ourselves with our Blood skills and Skeletons.

Eternal Realm Got Shafted

A lot of you were not so excited about Season of the Malignant, but I always expected these Hearts to be absolutely overpowered broken bonkers. It stinks for the Eternal Realm players, but this is how life service goes this is how Seasons go? Maybe just just make this season is for free, give it a try, have some fun, experiment with the hearts, play some new things and even if you only level up to 50. Maybe it brings you some joys and smiles in your face to experiment with all these crazy things.

Playstyles are brand new for FC 24 and look like they’re going to have a great impact on gameplay.

Here, we’re going to break down each individual playstyle and talk about what they are and what they’ll do. You’re going to want to stick around to hear about some of these playstyles because some of them do actually grant unique abilities to players.

What Are Playstyles?

First, what are playstyles?

They are essentially replacing the trait system that we’ve seen in Ultimate Team. Playstyles are going to give players extra abilities that go beyond just upgrading attributes. Besides, upgrading attributes is actually not easy, because you need to prepare a lot of FC 24 Coins.

Playstyles +

There are also playstyles + that in EA’s own words enhance their signature abilities Playstyles to a world-class standard.

Think of Howland’s Power Shot or Sam Kerr’s Finesse Shot, reflecting elite players’ abilities to play at a level that few others can reach. With that in mind, let’s now break down each playstyle.

Power Shot

Up first, we have the Power Shot. This, when applied, is going to do pretty much what it suggests it will do improve the power over short and the speed in which it’s performed.

The upgraded version of of it, Power Shot + will mean a strike is produced in even quicker time and with more power. This will be given to a player who is known for taking powerful shots outside the box.

Dead Ball

Next up is the Dead Ball playstyle.

This will be given to players who are known for being set piece specialists. When applied, this will allow a player to deliver a ball with increased speed, curve, and accuracy, and also the ball trajectory preview line will be increased.

For the playstyle plus version of Dead Ball, the speed, curve, accuracy will improve further and the trajectory on will actually be at maximum length.

Chip Shot

The Chip Shot is the next playstyle to discuss.

This will allow the shot type to be performed quick and with great accuracy. If you have the Chip Shot + version, the EA website says Chip Shot will then have exceptional accuracy.

Finesse Shot

Now, we come on to the Finesse Shot.

We all know how Finesse Shot overpowered they have been over the years. Players who try and place the ball when shooting a girl will have this and the playstyle will increase the accuracy and add a small curve. Also, the shots will be produced much quicker.

The upgraded version will see shots perform significantly faster and with maximum curve and accuracy.

Power Header

Players who are known to strike with power with headers could have the Power Header playstyle.

The gameplay effect is pretty much as you’d expect. A more powerful and accurate header will be produced with the post version, having maximum power and accuracy.

Pinged Pass

Those were the shooting themed playstyles. Now, we move on to the passing ones and we’re going to begin with Pinged Pass.

This will increase the accuracy of through balls. Swerved passes will have more care and Precision passes will travel even faster.

The upgraded version will allow for far more accurate through balls. Swerved passes will have maximum curve and Precision passes will travel at top speed.

Honestly, this playstyle sounds amazing. It’ll be given to players who are known for splitting defenses with a pass.

Incinsive Pass

The Incinsive Pass playstyle will be given to a player who is known for making high-speed ground passes. And the gameplay effect is passes will travel faster along the ground without impacting the trapping difficulty of the receiver.

The playstyle plus here means that the ball will travel even faster.

Long Ball Pass

Now, we have the Long Ball Pass to discuss.

This, like it suggests, helps with lobs and lofted through passes. They become more accurate and travel even faster.

The effect of the Long Ball Pass + here is that they’re even more accurate and faster and ultimately become hard to intercept. A player who is known for performing such passes will have this.

Tiki Taka

The Tiki Taka playstyle will help with first-time ground passes and even use Back Heels when appropriate to distribute the ball.

The upgraded effect will mean they have even greater accuracy and short distance ground passes become exceptionally accurate.

Whipped Pass

The final passing themed one is called the Whipped Pass.

This is for players known for making high-speed whipped crosses into the box. The gameplay effect is that crosses will have higher accuracy, travel faster, and come with more curve.

The Whipped Pass + means that they’ll be even more accurate and faster, have more curve and driven crosses come with exceptional power.

First Touch

The next section is Ball Control playstyles. First Touch is the name of the first one. This is for players who are known for an accurate First Touch in difficult situations.

The playstyle effect has reduced error when trapping the ball and is able to transition to dribble in faster with greater control.

And the plus version of this has minimal error when trapping the ball and then is able to transition into dribbling with much faster and greater control.

Flair

The Flair playstyle will be for players who are known to try flamboyant moves.

The effect that this has is fancy passes and shots are performed with more accuracy. And that Flair animations will happen when appropriate.

Playstyle plus for Flair means fancy passes and shots have even greater accuracy.

Press Proven

The Press Proven playstyle is for players who are known for keeping possession under physical pressure from an opponent.

And the gameplay effect here is that the player keeps close control of the ball when dribbling at jog speed and can shield the ball more effectively.

The upgraded version has the player keep the ball exceptionally close when jogging with the ball and allows them to shield the ball even more effectively against stronger opponents.

Rapid

Players who are known to use speed and knock the ball ahead of their opponent could have the Rapid playstyle.

This effect allows them to reach a higher sprint speed when dribbling and has a reduced chance of error when performing knock-ons.

The upgraded version will allow them to reach an even higher speed and the chance of an error is even more reduced.

Technical

Now, we come on to the Technical playstyle and this is for a player who regularly uses technical dribbling to beat an opponent.

The gameplay effect is that a player will reach a higher speed when performing a controlled sprint and will dribble with more Precision when performing tens.

The Technical + version will allow a player to reach an even higher speed and be even more precise.

Trickster

Next, we come on to the fun one, the Trickster.

We’ve seen Vinícius in action in the video trailers using this playstyle. It’s for players known for performing skill moves in 1v1 situations. The Trickster playstyle grants an ability to perform unique flick skill moves.

And the upgraded version grants the ability to perform more unique ground and flick skill moves and also makes the player more significantly agile when strafe dribbling. I get the feeling that this playstyle will be pretty popular.

Block

Let’s now talk about some defensive playstyles and the first one sounds pretty amazing. It’s called Block. And it’s for a Block player who is known for performing elastic and overreaching blocks.

The effect that this will have is it’ll increase the reach when performing blocks and improve the ability to make a successful one.

And then the place that I’ll post variant here is that you’ll have an even greater reach when performing said blocks and also improve the ability to make a successful one.

Bruiser

Then, we have the Bruiser.

This is for a player who is known for winning possession by just being physical in general. The playstyle effect is that it’ll give player greater strength when in those physical tackles. And the playstyle put here is even greater strength when in those physical battles.

Also Read: Things You Might Have Overlooked In The EA FC 24 Gameplay Deep Dive

Intercept

The Intercept playstyle helps with what you’d expect it to. It increases the reach and improves the chances of returning possession when performing interceptions.

The Intercept + gives an even greater reach and an even more improved chance of returning possession. This is for players known for performing interceptions and keeping the ball.

Jockey

The Jockey playstyle is the next one to talk about. And this is for a player who is known for being successful in 1v1 situations.

And the gameplay effect here sounds very good. It increases the Max Speed of sprint jockey and improves the transition speed from jockey to sprint. So, it’ll definitely help out in those defensive situations.

The Jockey + here is increased Max Speed even more, and it also greatly improves the transition speed from jockey to sprint even further.

Slide Tackle

Another playstyle that I’m definitely interested in is the Slide Tackle.

This grants the ability to stop the ball directly at their feet when performing a Slide Tackle.

The Slide Tackle + version gives improved Slide Tackle coverage. This will be for players who are known for often performing Slide Tackles.

Anticipate

The final defensive one to talk about is called Anticipate. This is for a player who is known for having a high success rate get in ball position on tackles with a low foul win rate.

The playstyle effect here is going to be improved chances of a stand tackle success and also grants the ability to stop the ball directly at their feet when performing a stand tackle.

The upgraded version of this playstyle significantly improves the chances of stand tackle success.

Acrobatic

It’s time to talk about physical playstyles.

Acrobatic is the first one, and this is for a player who tends to perform Acrobatic passes, clearances, or shots. This playstyle will allow players to perform volleys with improved accuracy and also gives them access to more acrobatic volley animations.

The upgraded version here means that volleys will be performed with more accuracy and there is also more unique acrobatic volley animations available.

Aerial

The Aerial playstyle is for players who are known for having a high success rate when in Aerial battles both offensively and defensively. This one’s going to allow players to jump higher and also improve their aerial physical presence.

And the upgraded version here means that they’re going to be able to jump even higher.

Trivela

I feel like we’re all still recovering from the Trivela meta of FIFA 23. But Trivelas are going to have their own playstyle in EA FC 24.

They’ll be for players who are known for passing, crossing, and shooting with the outside of the foot. The effect this playstyle will have is contextually triggers outside of the foot passes and shots.

And the Trivela + here is that there’ll be a reduced error on outside the foot passes.

Relentless

The Relentless playstyle sounds very good for box-to-box Midfielders because that is going to reduce fatigue locks during play and increase fatigue recovery during half time.

The effect of Relentless + sounds pretty interesting:

• Greatly reduces the long-term fatigue effects on attributes, reaction time, and defensive awareness
• Reduces fatigue loss during player
• Significantly increases fatigue recovery during half time

So, like I mentioned previously, for Midfielders who are running a lot, this is going to be great. This is for players who are known for covering a greater area of the field compared to other players in the same position.

Quick Step

For those of you who love to sprint, the Quick Step playstyle might be of interest to you. Because the gameplay effect here is that a player will accelerate faster during an explosive sprint.

And the upgraded effect means that they’ll actually accelerate significantly faster during said explosive sprint. And this is obviously for players who are known for having that quick best of speed when running on and off the ball.

Long Throw

The final of the physical playstyle is called Long Throw and you’ll never guess what this does.

Of course, it allows players to perform throw-ins with increased power to cover more distance.

The upgraded playstyle plus version does allow them to cover maximum distance. This will obviously be given to players who are known to throw the ball favor then the average player.

Far Throw

We’re going to end by talking about the Goalkeeper playstyles, which are a little different to the others. And a couple of the Goalkeeper playstyles are actually be a Goalkeeper exclusive. So, we’re gonna focus on the others. We’re going to start by talking about Far Throw.

If a Goalkeeper has this, they can target players further away with front passes.

Footwork

If they have the Footwork playstyle, a Goalkeeper will perform saves with their feet more frequently.

Cross Claimer

If they have the Cross Claimer playstyle, a Goalkeeper will try to intercept across if they can get to it slightly before the opponent.

Rush Out

And if they have the Rush Out playstyle, a Goalkeeper is more aggressive when coming out the box to gather those loose balls, whether they be over the top three balls or long through balls.

Blade is probably one of the biggest surprises when it comes to the meta. So, here, I am going to talk about his place in the meta, things that you need to know about him, whether you have him or not, as well as cover some important questions, like how game-changing some of the build decisions are. And most importantly, I will showcase the most insane teams you can build him.

New Teams

Let’s first talk about some amazing teams you can build with Blade and how unique some of them are.

Now initially, you might think that Blade has access to limited amount of team mates he can utilize. But surprisingly enough, quite a few characters work well with him.

*So, the first team that’s really strong is made up of Welt, Dan Heng, Blade and one of the healers. What’s great about this comp is that Welt boosts Dan Heng’s damage by consistently applying Speed debuff. Dan Heng can do that himself by using his skill, but it might not land due to the enemy’s effect resistance. So, it’s easier to apply Speed debuff with Welt since you build him with Effect Hit Rate.

But not only this, Welt can also equip on himself Pearls of Sweat and reduce the enemy’s defense in addition to increasing the damage they take by 12% thanks to his Ultimate’s trace. So, both Dan Heng and Blade can dish out some nice damage.

And what’s even better, you only need to use Blade’s skill every 3 turns. You literally cannot use it until the buff runs out. So, it’s easy to manage the skill points in this team.

*Now, the next team is an F2P variation. Pela, Natasha and Fire Trailblazer or any damage dealer is the way to go here. Pela works as an excellent DEF debuffer, so Blade can hit for big damage, while Natasha puts in the work as a freeby unit to keep Bladie alive.

But you might be wondering: Why use Fire Trailblazer? Isn’t he a shielder and that works directly against Blade’s whole purpose of losing HP against enemy attacks and building up his talent to deal damage?

The thing is, Trailblazer’s shields are paper thin, so even if Blade gets hit, he will very likely get damaged as well. So, someadditional damage mitigation won’t hurt him, since you do need to consistently keep an eye on his health.

But either way, you can just replace the main character with any other damage dealer or even support. The purpose here is to utilize an F2P team. However, we did get the final Eidolon for the fire version and it gives a nice 30% DEF boost, which works both for shielding and damage.

*Next, let’s talk about his top meta team, which is made up of Luocha, Silver Wolf and Bronya. Obviously, Luocha is the best healer for him due to how the auto heal works if Blade drops below 50%, which is convenient when he uses his ultimate.

But the character I wanna talk about here is Bronya. No joke, this team is disgusting when it comes to clearing hardest challenges and Bronya helps here big time. By himself and using my build, which I’ll talk about in a moment, Blade hits for 62k damage with his ultimate, 67k with follow-up from the talent and 30k with Enhanced Basic Attack. Really amazing numbers considering he is unbuffed. But when you plug in Bronya, his damage increases from 40% to all the way to 70%. That’s insane if you think about it.

But the irony here is that Bronya is Blade’s best Harmony support because the majority of his damage scales with HP. So, Bronya’s DMG boost works super well for him, unlike other damage boosters.

For example, if I use Tingyun instead of Bronya, she is nowhere close to the Guardian of Belobog. Bronya ends up as a better booster than Tingyun by almost 25% on average. In fact, Tingyun’s skill boost is really weak on Blade. Unless I am missing something here, it boosts by like 10%.

But the number is kinda inflated because all of my damage comparisons so far have been tested against 3 targets, which is the ideal amount for Blade. And it only gets worse with a single target. However, her Ultimate boost is great for him but it’s not consistent compared to Bronya’s skill.

So, while Bronya is the best Harmony buffer for Blade, Tingyun kinda works, same for Yukong, who can boost Blade’s Crit values.

And as for Asta, she’s just not worth it for him, unless you have no other better option. But, this meta team with limited 5-star units is insane although we’re obviously looking at a premium comp here.

However, the thing that I love most about Blade, aside from his edgy approach to life, would be the fact that he works as an amazing sub-damage dealer for any team. If you have no idea who could fill the last slot when building a team, you can just add Blade and put him to work.

I think that’s the best-selling point about him. He has a pretty self-contained playstyle. He doesn’t ask for too many skill points and he delivers amazing AoE damage.

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail: Everything You Need To Know About E0 Blade - Relics, Planar Ornaments, Light Cones & More

Meta Analysis

So, Blade is a strong and versatile damage dealer. What about his place in the meta?

First of all, we have to look at the upcoming Memory of Turbulence changes. The first one that’s coming up will make Blade pretty tanky and after each cycle he will unload damage. The stacks he gains here will require him to get hit or consume HP. So, without a doubt, this next Memory of Chaos cycle is going to be tailor made for him.

Afterwards, later in August, when using follow-up attacks, all resistance of the hit enemies will be reduced by 30%, which is huge and Blade’s damage will increase significantly, helping you end the fights with more cycles left.

Now another cool thing that was added in 1.2 update is the new Forgotten Hall made up of 6 stages. Two most prominent bosses here are Yanqing, who has a weakness to Wind and summons a lot of these annoying but squishy swords.

So, Blade can easily take care of them while in the last stage, Kafka who is also weak to Wind, has 2 of these enemies that keep respawing. But 3 targets total, the most perfect amount for Blade to unload all of his damage.

Basically, the new Forgotten Hall is going to be super easy with Blade, while the next two upcoming Turbulence changes are going to help him big time in clearing Memory of Chaos.

Right now, if you care about his pull value and you are still in the process of building a 2nd team, he is perfect for clearing the hardest content.

Build Considerations

Now, one more thing I wanna talk about would be Blade’s build considerations. I won’t delve deep here and instead.

Maybe you’ve noticed that he has dual scales with both ATK and Health. The thing is ATK is much more inferior compared to HP. And so, when it comes to picking a Rope, hands down HP mainstat is his best option.

And as for the rest of the relics, there’s a lot of talks going on whether it’s better to go for HP or SPD boots. And the truth is, if you have SPD boots, use them, and try to aim for 134 Speed, which is the breakpoint against the current highest level enemies in Memory of Chaos. And this allows Blade to act twice quite often, assuming he doesn’t get debuffed or frozen.

However, HP boot isn’t that far off from SPD boots. They provide a sizeable damage increase. So, if you don’t have SPD, then definitely go for HP.

And as for the rest of the stats, you can see them here:

• Body: Crit Rate / DMG
• Boots: SPD / HP
• Sphere: Ele DMG
• Rope: HP

Substats: Crit Value > SPD > HP% > ATK%

However, what I really wanna talk about would be the new relic set. I honestly didn’t expect it to be so good for him because essentially Blade can easily maintain the 16% Critical Rate from the new set and it’s literally achievable on turn 1. It’s by far his best relic set and everything else wane’s in comparison.

However, you still need to farm for it. In the meantime, Musketeer or the Wind sets, whether 4-sets or double 2-sets are good substitutes. Like, I have a pretty mediocre build here due to how much unluck loves me and it still works out super well for him.

Still, not everything is sunshine and rainbows with this guy. Unfortunately, Blade has some of the worst Light Cone options. I mean, it’s not that they are bad, but only a few are worth mentioning. Mutual Demise, a 3-star cone is a great option if you need a ton of Critical Rate, although he needs to stay below 80%, which isn’t always easy to utilize.

Then, there’s Herta’s shop 5-star cone. But since ATK isn’t that valuable to him and weakness break takes time to inflict, it’s a good but not an outstanding option.

But here’s where things get interesting. His best 4-star light cone has to be A Secret Vow, already at Superimposition 1. It catches up to S5 Herta’s shop light cone, assuming the enemy has more HP than Blade. But at S5, this light cone is by far the strongest thing you can equip on him. That is, until you get his signature cone, which outperforms S5 Secret Vow, although by not that much. So, if you have the 4-star Secret Vow, you’re good to go with just that, since eventually at some point you will get more copies of it.

But don’t take my word for it. I’ve heard some people haven’t managed to get a 2nd copy of Sacrificial Sword since Genshin’s launch. Still, these are basically the standout light cones. Everything else falls either below or somewhere close to these. But keep in mind, Secret Vow and the signature light cone are basically the best options to have.

Initial Thoughts

So, what do I think about Blade?

He is hands down the strongest damage dealer when it comes to 3-targets scenario. He easily outdamages Jing Yuan, which makes me feel kinda sad since I didn’t expect the power creep to show up so soon. And the fact that with 1.2, he also got an insanely good relic set is just a cherry on top.

Now, while he does have a simple playstyle, he only consumes a skill point every 3 turns, which is a godsend when it comes to managing them. And so, he becomes a really good sub-damage dealer whenever you need to fill out that last spot for any team.

Still, he does suck at early game because keeping him alive is a burden that will befall one of the healers and his best team is really limited. Like literally, you need 2 limited 5-stars and Bronya. It also doesn’t help he has a weak selection of Light Cone options.

Also, I mentioned that he only consumes 1 Skill Point. But at the same time, his enhanced basic attack does not recover SP, which was a bit of a surprise to me. But it’s not the end of the world, truth be told.

All in all, Blade is an exciting damage dealer to say the least. If you have a character like him on your Honkai Star Rail Account, that’s great! I am actually surprised that a big amount of his damage comes from the follow-up attack, which is his talent. So more than anything, make sure not to use tanks like Gepard and March 7th with him, since you want this guy to lose health and use that talent as often as possible.

But otherwise, I am satisfied the way he turned out, although I kinda wish he can get another damage booster similar to Bronya because she does improve his damage massively.

Today’s topic will be Diablo 4 mechanics. We will be talking about damage buckets, damage, how to calculate damage increases and defenses.

Additive VS Multi

Starting off, we’re just going to quickly go over additive and multiplicative stats. You’ll see stat lines aspects things in your skill tree and your Paragon Board that either have a ‘+’ or an ‘X’ by them.

‘X’ will be better at 99% of the time. There are some instances where it’s not. But it’s safe to think that stats with an ‘X’ will be better than with a ‘+’.

Damage Buckets

This is where people seem to get confused, Damage Buckets.

We have four main damage buckets in Diablo 4:

• Main Stat
• Crit Damage
• Vulnerable Damage
• Additive Damage

Each of these buckets multiplies with each other to get your final damage output. The most confusing bucket is the Additive Damage bucket. If it’s not Crit, Vul, or Main Stat 99 of the time, it goes into this bucket. So, things like core, close, healthy, injured, damage, and so on all go into this bucket.

This is because you have 0% close damage and you get 100% close damage somewhere does not mean you’re now going to double your damage against close targets. It gets put into the added a bucket with the other Additive Stats.

Keep in mind there are hidden stats that go into these buckets that will not show up on your stat screen. For example, Critical Damage against Crowd Control targets gets put into the Critical Damage bucket, but it does not show up as Critical Damage in my character screen.

It’s important that you balance out your damage buckets. If you have 600% Critical Damage but only 200% in your additive bucket, a 25% additive roll would be better than getting a 50% critical damage roll.

Also Read: Diablo 4 Shadowmancer Necromancer Build: Season 1 Endgame Guide

How To Calculate Damage?

How do we calculate our damage increases? I’ll be using my character stats in these examples.

So, we have 285% Critical Damage, 275% Vulnerable Damage, 800% in the Additive Damage, and 900 Dex in this current setup. You can calculate each of these buckets the same. When we’re representing these stats, we start from one for Critical Damage. The 285% would be represented as 3.85 when we’re doing our calculations.

Let’s say we get another 50% Critical Damage somewhere. We would now have the 335% Critical Damage versus the 285% we had before. We then take 4.35 divide that by 3.85. That would give us 1.129. That would mean that we get roughly a 13% damage increase. For our main stat, calculations 100 Main Stat equals 10% damage increase. So, when you’re calculating your Main Stat, make sure to convert it into the damage increase percentage and not the total amount of dexterity, strength, willpower, or whatever stat it may be.

So, say we have a crossbow with Crit Damage, Bone Damage, and Dex. And we’re trying to decide on what roll to get next. We can either go for a 70 all-stat damage roll or a 40% core damage roll. So, our Dex before is 900 and after it’ll be 970. So, we would take the after being a 1.97 and divide it by 1.9 to get a 1.036 or roughly a three and a half percent damage increase. For the additive, we would take the 800% before and the 840% after.

So, 9.4 divided by 9 gives us 1.044 or roughly a 4.4% damage increase. So, we have 3.5% versus 4.4%. If you are needing to get the all-stat roll to hit some Paragon node bonuses, it’s not going to be a huge damage loss.

To sum it up, you take what your stat will be after and divided it by what it was before. So, ‘X’ divided by ‘Y’ equals your damage increase.

Item Power

On to Diablo 4 Item power, how do we calculate our item power damage increases? Suppose you have an 818 sword and an 810 sword. Assuming both stat rolls are the same, you take the average of the damage per hit of both those weapons and divide the larger number by the smaller number, like we did with the damage buckets.

So, our 818 damage range is 989 to 1483. Add those numbers together. Divide them by two to get your average. Do the same with the other weapon. And then, we’ll take the average of both being 1236 for the 818 and 1198 for the 810. Divide 1236 by 1198 to get 1.0317 or roughly at three percent damage increase.

Armor

And lastly, are defenses. For our defenses, we have armor and resistances as well as damage reduction rolls.

Starting off with armor, this reduces physical damage taken from monsters on your level. What this means is that as a level gap between you and monsters increases, the amount of damage reduction you get from your armor is reduced.

In this chart, you can see how much armor you need in order to get the maximum damage reduction against X level of mobs.

The maximum damage reduction you can receive from armor is 85%. So, if you are fighting mobs that are level 154, don’t go over 1300 armor as you’ll be overcapping.

Resistances

Resistances are non-physical resistances damage reduction. So, for every two percent of a resistance stat, you get one percent damage reduction for that element.

If you get hit by a fire attack and you have 20% fire resistance, you have another 10% damage reduction against that attack. This additional 10% is then multiplied with all your other damage reduction rolls that apply to that attack if they were close distant poison, etc.

However, resistances don’t seem to be near is important in Diablo 4 as they are to a game like Path of Exile. I have pretty much completely ignored resistances, and it hasn’t seemed to affect me at all. Maybe down the road with seasons, resistances will become far more important. But for now, don’t stress and worry about how much resistance you have.

Damage Reduction

Finally, we’ll talk about damage reduction.

It’s important to note that damage reduction in Diablo 4 is multiplicative and not additive. So, you can never have a hundred percent damage reduction and be invincible.

If you have two sources of damage reduction, giving 50% damage reduction each your final damage reduction would be 75%. Suppose you get hit by an attack doing a hundred damage you would reduce that 100 to 50 and then you would further reduce the leftover 50 by another 50%, meaning you only take 25 damages. And if you had another 50% damage reduction roll somewhere, it would take the leftover 25 damage and put it to 12.5 and so on.

Recently, we saw many videos talking about why people quit playing Lost Ark. We heard many complaints about Lost Ark users since it was released. But nowadays, they’re a lot more serious than we think.

Population is massively reduced in global and there are not enough users inside the game. There was a region emerge with various updates, but still Lost Ark does not seem to improve in ways players want. That’s why we thought of some solutions.

1. One Chaos Dungeon & One Guardian Raid Per Character

Normally, we run two Chaos Dungeons and two Guardian Raids per character. It takes almost 30 minutes to finish it. If you only have one or two characters, there is no problem.

However, Lost Ark users are recommended to raise 5 more alts instead of the main. It means that three hours are needed for daily homework. That’s a lot for dailies. So, it must be reduced at least half.

Plus, it’s better if players can choose between Chaos Dungeon and Guardian Raid. Chaos Dungeon is a solo content and Guardian Raid is a co-op. Solo content is fine, but new players can easily get rejected finding a party for the Guardian Raid. If it’s allowed to earn all rewards only by running Chaos Dungeon, it will be less stress-consuming for new players who need to spend time finding a party.

2. Adding Roster Bound Rest Gauge

Roster Bound Rest Gauge is a same concept of Rest Gauge that can be shared between characters.

Let’s pretend that you only do dailies for your main character and have several alts. Then, you can get additional bound rest gauge for not playing your alts.

When you have enough roster bound rest gauge, you can decide to apply all at one character. As a result? Plenty of honing materials for your main. This is important because adding a roster bound rest gauge can provide players a chance to focus on their main.

3. Light Of Salvation Rental Service (18 Awakening)

What is the most problematic component for gatekeeping in Lost Ark? Absolutely, cards.

DPS classes need a lot of Light of Salvation to enter higher end contents, but new players need to spend a lot of time to get them. If they don’t want to spend their time, they need to spend lots of money. But that’s pay to win.

Some can say there are new player’s cards, but nobody wants new player’s cards. Players want Light of Salvation, so why not rent them?

Let’s make players spend Lost Ark Gold and rent Light of Salvation (18 awakening) weekly. Then, new players can buy their time until they collect Light of Salvation for themselves.

4. Selectable Legendary Card Packs For Clearing End Contents

This one is also for lowering the difficulty of collecting cards. Lost Ark legion raids are really well made, but rewards are not satisfying.

To make players challenge more, motivation is a must. When they clear the raid for the first time, why not give them selectable legendary card packs? In this way, players can be motivated as they can get legendary cards they need.

5. Change Of Pheons

Pheon system is very complicated because it’s related to monetization of Lost Ark.

So, I want to compare the needs of users and corporations to find an adjustment. In the aspect of Lost Ark users, Pheons are nothing but a taxation of the company. The best way is to get rid of Pheons.

However, in the aspect of Smilegate, Pheons are their monetization model. Players can exchange gold to blue crystals, but it’s more efficient to just buy the blue crystal package they sell. It’s also important for them to make a profit.

As an adjustment, I suggest one solution. Pheons should not be applied on stones and tripods. Unlike accessories, Pheons that can be spent are Limitless. We only need to buy five accessories for our setting, but we don’t know how many Pheons will be spent on stones and tripods.

6. Adding Mechanics That Can Recovery Mistakes

In Lost Ark legion raid, one player’s mistake can kill everyone, and the raid becomes more difficult as they move on to the next legion commanders.

However, we think that’s not a great solution. We don’t want to spend 20 minutes per gate again and again until no one makes a mistake. We think it’s better to add some mechanics that can recover mistakes.

For example, let’s pretend that we are in Brelshaza gate 6. Players get killed when over four floors are destroyed. When someone made a mistake and accidentally destroyed one more floor than it should be, the stagger bar appears below the boss for once. Then, they should stagger the boss and the floor resurrects as soon as the boss gets staggered.

In this way, every try will be more meaningful.

7. No More Meaningless Grinding

In Lost Ark, there are lots of collectibles we need to farm: Island Souls, Mokoko Seeds, Masterpieces, Giant Hearts, Skill Points and more.

We personally think collectibles in Lost Ark are very well designed compared to other games. However, there is a worthless grinding content in Lost Ark. It is the Tower.

Tower is a grinding content, which you need to clear every single floor until you reach the top. It’s not fun at all. Survival mission gives so much stress to players. Then, do rewards worth it?

No. Rewards are not enough to replace our time. And can we ignore them? Of course, no. There are skill points are runes we need as a reward. To sum up, Tower is not enough meaningful content we must do.

Fortunately, Smilegate changed the number of floors of towers. Now, the Tower of Shadow and Tower of Fate (tier 1&2) only have 20 floors. It is a great change.

However, the Tower of Destiny, which is tier 3, still has 50 floors. Some of the floors in the tier-3 tower have difficult missions to solve. But they are not rewarding enough.

Therefore, we believe the tier-3 tower must be changed to 20 floors, giving all previous rewards.

Also Read: Lost Ark: Fastest Way To Get 20 Island Souls In 2023

8. Livestream Communication

Since we played Lost Ark in both KR and Global, we noticed that Lost Ark Global does not communicate with users often.

For better communication, Amazon should create a team, which can deliver important notices or discussions they had with Smilegates. Then, Global users can know what’s going on between Amazon and Smilegate.

9. Additional Honing Support For Global Server

Between Lost Ark KR & Global, content gab is one of the big complaints.

To solve the problem, Amazon released so many main contents in less than a year. And we all know, when there’s a new legion raid, we need time to progress our gear to reach the given item level.

However, the time was too short. People had to do dailies again and again and create several alts to catch up. In other words, there was no support of Amazon to provide additional ways to help them catch up main contents in a short period.

We think there should be an increase of honing chance and more horizontal contents, such as islands and summer events for extra hunting materials. Maybe secret merchants can sell honing materials, too. There are plenty of ways that can back up the speed of content release. Don’t make Chaos Dungeon and Guardian Raid the only method to obtain honing materials.

That’s all we wanted to talk about Lost Ark Global. We just want to see the game changing positive ways so that more gamers can jump in.

Genshin Impact has been out for a few years now. There’s a ton of characters to choose from and some are more popular than others. But here, I want to talk about characters that are underrated, although in my opinion still relevant and strong in 2023.

1. Noelle

The first one I wanna talk about is Noelle.

She definitely has gotten the short end of the stick over the years. Because just to start with, Geo doesn’t have that many characters or team comps and no new Geo support units have been released during Sumeru’s cycle. And what’s even worse, when Itto showed up, she basically got overshadowed by him due to how similar both are.

And if that’s not enough, one of her biggest problems is that she doesn’t generate energy from her skill. But it’s 2023 right now and we’ve honestly seen worse energy problems. The thing is Noelle is like a puzzle you need to solve. But once it’s done, you can sit there and admire the result. In her case, you will need to use Favonius weapons on at least 2 team mates if not all 3 of them. By the way, some 5-star weapons are very difficult to obtain. At this time, directly buying a Genshin Impact Account is a good choice!

Gorou is also amazing for her, not just because he boosts Geo damage, but also he can generate a good amount of Geo and Favonius particles for her, which you can catch by swapping to her.

But the saving grace here is that her burst costs 60, which is not the worst thing in the world to have. And also, if you didn’t know, by doing normal attacks, there’s an increasing probability that will let that character generate 1 energy and it just so happens claymore and catalyst users have the best probability chance. So, doing some slashing with Noelle gets that energy restored.

But honestly, the thing I love most about her is that when there are multiple enemies, especially if they hit hard, her team wide healing by using the skill is kinda amazing and gives you a nice amount of team options you can go for when she’s taking care of the survivability.

And truthfully, it’s not the energy problems that’s holding her back, but her final constellation. If you don’t have it, a good chunk of damage will be missing.

However, this is also a bit of an outdated statement because it’s been around since Genshin’s launch. And these days we have her dedicated artifact set. We know how valuable Benny boy is, and Gorou is also there to help her out.

All in all, Noelle’s mono geo teams still hold up really well these days. Sure, she has her some problems. But as time went on, in my opinion, she is still relevant even till this day.

2. Heizou

It’s no secret that Heizou has been often compared to Sucrose or even Kazuha. And things like his underwhelming crowd control or short range normal attacks make him inferior.

But honestly, if you can get behind his playstyle, he is an extremely fun to use character. One punching enemies with his skill that scales extremely well or kicking enemies with a burst that has a low 40 energy cost is one of few things that makes him a great unit.

And the thing is because of how fast and fluid his animations are, he is a superb quickswap unit for teams like Freeze or Vape. At the same time, he is also a great driver for comps like Electro-charged due to the low charged attack stamina cost. And as you know it, charged attacks have no ICD, so you can always create reactions with his sweeping kick.

And after making guides on complex characters for a few years now, you gotta appreciate his simple yet strong passive. punch an enemy with his skill and everyone besides him gets 80 Elemental Mastery boost.

Also, if you are invested into Wanderer or Xiao and have obtained a C6 Faruzan, she is honestly amazing with him and only turns him into an even stronger damage dealer. And don’t forget, he is an Anemo catalyst, which means you can just slap on him Viridescent and Thrilling Tales and he can still land some quick punches before swapping out and buffing the main damage dealer, which works out super well in quick swap teams.

Now, I do have to be honest with you here because my Heizou is C6. However, when he first got released, I had him at C0 for a pretty long time. But I will admit, his constellations, especially C4 and C6, are amazing. But without them, he still works as a great unit for many team comps.

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

3. Yae Miko

In the past, I really didn’t know how good Yae Miko was. That was me before Sumeru update. And now that we have Dendro reactions, she’s actually really good.

I think Hoyoverse should honestly stop with releasing characters whose potential is not yet unlocked. Because Yae Miko and Kuki Shinobu are the perfect examples here. Not sure about Thoma, though, they probably didn’t plan him to be a pretty good Burgeon enabler.

Still, the reason why I mention this is that a lot of people think Yae Miko is not that great. She looks amazing and has some of the best voicelines. But when it came to her damage, it just didn’t feel satisfying, especially when Hoyo went back and forth trying to quote unquote fix her and afterwards rolling back the changes.

However, the change that she did need the most was the Dendro element. Here is a funny fact: Aggravate and Spread reaction damage works better when characters can do many little hits which can cause reactions. And because of this, Yae Miko’s totem damage has completely changed after putting her into Dendro teams.

And what’s also great is that her burst isn’t that super mandatory. You could skip the burst in one of the rotations if she didn’t have enough energy for it. What’s most important here is to maintain the totems on the field at all times, so that they can relentlessly attack enemies.

Overall, I think Yae Miko has been underrated for a while now, even after the Dendro element, and I gotta confess. I also didn’t think much of it before I tried her out in Dendro teams. She’s kinda like Keqing to me. Because of Dendro reactions, both of them are now my go-to characters I like to use everywhere.

4. Kaeya

Going back to the classics again, I feel like Kaeya doesn’t get enough attention when it comes to the new Dendro team comps.

First of all, he is a great option when you’re playing a Freeze team. I especially love the fact that even after game’s launch: his damage numbers are pretty respectable, especially when you build him with a Blizzard Strayer set and slap on him one of the premium 5-star swords.

And of course, who could forget the Reverse Melt teams that you can run with him? But what really has set him apart after the Dendro changes were the Fridge team variations. The most prominent one is Hyperfridge. And it’s pretty simple. You build him as a damage dealer. You use either Kuki or Raiden to trigger Hyperblooms and then someone like Alhaitham or Nahida can act as the driver so that there’s enough Dendro application.

You will then choose between several Hydro options so that there are Freeze reactions happening because hitting enemies with Hyperblooms while they are frozen is really a one-of-a-kind satisfaction you’ll get.

Honestly, I am just happy to see Kaeya doing so well after all this time. I know some content creators love to showcase him and that makes me happy. But at the same time, I can see a lot of times people forget he exists and always focusing on the next shiny character. When in reality, you’ve got a cool starter character that you can build and use in many teams, including the new Fridge comp.

5. Collei

I probably haven’t seen this much injustice when it comes to a character getting overshadowed. And it was Dendro Traveler out of all people who did this to our Collei, who we must protect from the world’s harm.

No, but seriously, she obviously has some problems like her skill collision with enemies acting weird or the fact Hoyo decided to put a special limiter on her Burst’s ICD.

But with these problems out of the way, I actually love using her in various Dendro teams, especially when she is equipped with the Sacrificial Bow. This allows her to do her skill twice and if you have at least a few of her constellations unlocked, there’s some good synergy you’ll get out of those.

But even then, she is massively underrated when it comes to Nilou bloom teams. I am honestly still trying to wrap my head around her playstyle in this team. But I am having a blast using her with Nilou. Because after playing this game for so long, getting to experience a pretty unique playstyle is something else.

She’s one of the best choices to go for if you want to have a strong Nilou bloom team. Otherwise, you can still use Collei in Quicken teams or even Burgeon. She’s obviously going to require more focus than when you play DMC, who just drops his flower and switches out.

There’s a couple of important things that need to be addressed when it comes to summon in 1.2 update. These are the 5 considerations you don’t want to miss out on.

Consideration 1: Blade’s Damage

It’s probably safe to say that Blade is definitely one of the more interesting damage dealers, although the fact that he sacrifices his own health to deal better damage is not that ground-breaking. Because Arlan can do it as well. Still, there are a couple of things about Blade that really stand out and we need to talk about.

First of all, we know that the skill consumes Blade’s HP and increases his damage output. It’s not an attack, but more like taking a turn to buff him up. However, he does gain a new turn, although I am not sure how that will work out with supports like Yukong or Bronya. Hopefully, this skill won’t waste their buffs.

Also, unlike Arlan, who doesn’t consume a skill point, Blade unfortunately does use it up. So, if you’re using him in your team, you will need to be aware about the skill point economy, which was one of the best-selling points about Arlan when you didn’t have to care about it so much.

But the biggest thing about him has to be the ultimate. No matter how much HP Blade has, he will set his own health to 50% and deal massive damage. We still don’t know officially how good his damage multipliers are.

Still, what’s exciting here is a strong synergy with Luocha. It just so happens that Luocha triggers his skill’s auto-heal when an ally drops below or to 50%, which is just perfect for Blade’s ultimate.

What’s even better, since Blade also consumes his health with the skill and then attacks afterwards, Luocha’s healing from the field will be amazing for this. Basically, the coffin courier is best buddies with this immortal Stellaron hunter.

Honestly, I could go on and keep delving deeper into Blade’s kit. But it’s pretty much clear that he will excel best when his health is constantly getting reduced. And Hoyo made sure to include a new relic set with the 1.2 update, which is basically tailor made for him. I am not sure how big the Critical Boost is going to be from the 4-set bonus. But hopefully, it’s enough that you can put on Crit DMG body on him and fish for the Critical Rate substats instead.

But what I care about the most right now is how useful Health stat is going to be to Blade. There were some hints that he might scale with it in some way. I am a bit worried when it comes to split scaling characters. It doesn’t always work out for the best, although I am basing this on my Genshin experience. But it will be interesting to see how important HP is going to be when it comes to building Blade.

Otherwise, he seems like a unique damage dealer you could go for, if you’re still in the process of building teams for Memory of Chaos.

Consideration 2: Kafka’s Team

With Kafka, a new team is going to be rising to the top if everything goes well.

Her entire kit is based around Shock damage over time. And there’s quite a few synergies you could pull off with a team like Sampo, Kafka, a healer and another flexible character, who could be Serval as well.

Now, Sampo is probably going to be one of the key team mates for Kafka because this guy’s ultimate boosts DoT damage by up to 30% if it’s raised as a level 10 ultimate.

This is pretty huge. Because both Sampo and Kafka specialize in unloading lots of DoT damage and this debuff on enemies is going to be amazing. I mean, it’s no secret that Sampo has been talked about a lot in the community as one of the best team mates for Kafka. Although even if things sound good in theory, it’s always the damage numbers that bring the clearest results.

And the thing is, from what I understand, Kafka applies Shock DoTs in an interesting way. I am specifically talking about her talent, which will trigger a follow-up attack from her when any other ally in the team attacks an enemy. That same enemy will then get attacked by Kafka and, at the same time, Kafka will also apply Shock DoT.

First of all, in order for Kafka to utilize her kit efficiently, you will need to adjust her speed so that somebody else can attack an enemy before her. And once that is done, when you use her skill, if the enemy is already afflicted by DoTs, they will receive additional damage.

For example, Sampo would need to go before Kafka, apply his Wind Shear on the enemy. Then, if you also have Serval, she would need to go next and then afterwards Kafka could benefit from all those DoTs placed on the enemy.

Obviously, there’s also Ultimates we need to keep in mind. Honestly, I really like a team that’s focused on dishing out tons of damage over time and Sampo is already a beast by himself in Simulated Universe. So, imagine how easy the runs are going to be with Kafka and Sampo together. I mean, I know Simulated Universe isn’t that challenging compared to Memory of Chaos. But even then, this new team is going to be definitely interesting when Kafka comes out.

And the funny thing is, all the DoT characters are going to be available on Kafka’s banner. So, it’s going to be extremely easy to assemble this new team if you’re going for Kafka. And what’s even better, snagging a couple of Eidolons for someone like Sampo is going to be amazing if you can get his 1st, 4th and last Eidolons.

Consideration 3: Luka’s Bleed

Speaking of Kafka’s banner and damage over time, Luka is the new 4-star Physical Nihility character who specializes in Bleeding his enemies.

His whole schtick is playing around the Fighting Will stacks. He will gain after using attacks or when entering the battle by using his technique. And just like Fire Trailblazer, he will consume his stacks and deliver an enhanced Basic Attack, which will deal increased damage against an enemy who has Bleed DoT.

But unlike the Fire Trailblazer, we can see Luka only consumes 2 stacks to deliver the Enhanced Basic Attack, which is great. Because that means he can use this attack more often and unload a lot more damage.

Still, the biggest thing about him has to be the ultimate. First of all, he will gain Fighting Will stacks. But more importantly, the enemy will receive a debuff that increases their damage taken, similar to Welt’s ultimate. And then, of course, he will do some damage.

I am not sure how good he is going to be with Kafka compared to Sampo. We still don’t know officially what his Traces or Eidolons will do. But if his damage multipliers are solid, he could be a great replacement for Serval. Because he does increase the damage the enemy takes, which hopefully also means that he helps increase the DoT damage.

Luka, Sampo, Kafka and a healer could be an interesting team to try out when the banner drops and it’s going to be exciting to see how that works out.

Consideration 4: Banner Value

Now, when trying to evaluate the banners, Blade’s featured banner is pretty decent. Although if you’re thinking of building a team with him, then it’s mostly Natasha that matters here.

However, if you do have Luocha, then you will want to pair him with Blade. So, Natasha would be used in another Memory of Chaos team.

But as for Arlan and Sushang, they don’t really have any synergy with Blade. Arlan has been notoriously nerfed before the launch. So, even if he has a similar kit to Blade, he would be better off in a team that’s built around him. Sushang is a pretty strong physical hunt unit. But all in all, this banner isn’t really that great if you’re pulling just for Blade specifically, unless you still need one of these 4-stars for your 2nd Memory of Chaos team.

Still, Natasha’s Eidolons are pretty good, especially the 2nd and 4th Eidolons. Providing some decent healing for badly damaged allies and gaining energy on hit allows her to maintain everyone’s health easily, especially since her Ultimate only costs 90. It’s the cheapest ultimate in the entire game.

And as for Kafka’s banner, as I already said it, it’s an extremely valuable banner for anyone who wants to build a DoT focused team with Kafka. Sampo’s 4th, 5th and 6th Eidolons are all really good. The 5th one allows him to raise his ultimate beyond level 10, which means more DoT damage boosting on enemies. While Serval’s 2nd and 6th Eidolons are incredibly good for improving her energy and damage output, especially the 6th one. If you’re going to be using her with Kafka, this means it’s going to be extremely easy to maintain Shocked debuff on enemies and enable extra 30% damage for her.

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail 1.2: Why Kafka Is The Next Character Worth Pulling?

Consideration 5: Future Warps

When it comes to picking which banner to wish on, honestly it really depends on you, although Kafka’s banner definitely has more synergetic 4-star units that she can utilize.

But we still don’t know much about Luka’s performance and, more importantly, we don’t know how good Blade or Kafka is going to be, despite the rumors about them.

Also, let’s not forget that 1.3 characters have been teased as well. Dan Heng’s new powerful form is going to be a 5-star Destruction Imaginary unit, so I can imagine this guy is going to be a damage dealer. If you don’t have this character in your Honkai Star Rail Account, you have to find a way to get him as soon as possible. And that’s pretty interesting since we’re finally going to be getting a dedicated damage dealer from the Imaginary element.

Fu Xuan is another unique unit we’ll be getting in version 1.3. She’s a 5-star Quantum Preservation unit, which means a new tank is joining the ranks of Gepard, Fire Trailblazer, and March 7th. To me, this is very exciting if you have Silver Wolf, because we can get one step closer to a true Mono Quantum team.

In fact, we will be able to build a Mono Quantum team thanks to Lynx, who is a 4-star Quantum Abundance unit. So, Lynx, Silver Wolf, Seele and Fu Xuan is probably going to be the ultimate Mono Quantum team, you can play in places like Memory of Chaos.

All in all, I would say that Blade’s banner is for those who want to use a cool damage dealer but are fine with 4-stars that have very little to do with him on his banner, while Kafka’s banner is for those who want to build a DoT team.

Finally, 1.3 characters I just talked about will probably have their own 2 separate banners. Hopefully, Fu Xuan and Lynx are going to be on the same banner, so those who already have Seele or QQ and Silver Wolf can build their dream team of Mono Quantum.

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.

We are taking a look at WoW Dragonflight patch 10.1.5, which we’ll be launching on the 11th of July for NA servers and the 12th of July for EU. The new patch is bringing with it lots of new endgame content, new features, additional systems, and quality of life updates.

New Spec: Augmentation Evoker

Let’s dive straight in with probably the most highly anticipated new arrival Augmentation Evoker.

In Patch 10.1.5, Evokers will gain access to a third spec called Augmentation, which is an entirely new style of spec that focuses more on support.

Augmentation Evokers still count as DPS. But a lot of their damage will come indirectly from buffing the damage of other players. Addons like details that can track DPS will soon have new hooks integrated into them to allow for more accurate recordings of augmentation of Okra damage based on this unique play style.

The new spec makes use of mostly black and bronze magic. But they still share a few similarities with the other two Evoker specs. In that, they also use Mana and Essences as resources. They have empowered abilities and they have strong mobility, too.

A couple of their new abilities that make up part of their core rotation are Ebon Might, which buffs up to four players to increase their primary stat by a percentage of their own and buffing their damage for a short time.

There are also then a handful of abilities that can be used to extend the duration of Ebon Might without the need to recast it:

• Eruption is the only new Essence spender augmentation will see, which deals volcanic damage to enemies within its radius and extends the duration of Ebon Might.
• Upheaval. This is an empowered ability that also deals AOE damage and extends Ebon Might.
• Fire Breath. This is the regular Evoker Fire Breath. But it will also extend Ebon Might’s duration when used in augmentation spec.
• Shifting Sands. In terms of buffs, Augmentation of Evokers can make use of Shifting Sands to grant a strong versatility buff to a player, preferring damage dealers whenever they use an empowered ability.
• Prescience. They can also grant Prescience to multiple allies at once, which gives them a quick buff for a short time.

New Mega-Dungeon: Dawn of the Infinite

The next addition to patch 10.1.5 is the new eight-boss Mega-Dungeon called Dawn of the Infinite.

Players will work with the Bronze Dragonflight to fight an array of bosses, including a Iridikon, Mochi, the Infinite, or evil version of Chromie and Chrono-Lord Deios who players also fight in Uldaman: Legacy of Tyr. Each boss is very unique in design and the environment and art of the dungeon are visually stunning, too.

Blizzard have said that there won’t be a hard mode version of this dungeon. Unlike Mechagon from BFA or Tazavesh from Shadowlands as they have tuned it to be in line with hard mode on Mythic difficulty, anyway. And for an easier time, the heroic version of the dungeon will be released in patch 10.1.7. They have also confirmed that the Dawn of the Infinite will inevitably be split into two halves for the sake of entering them into the Mythic + Dungeon pool.

Reins Of The Quantum Courser

Players will also have a chance to loot a new item called the Reins of the Quantum Courser from the new Mega-Dungeon, which when used will give the user a random mount from the game.

As of the time, we don't yet have a confirmed list of all the mounts that could drop from the Quantum Courser. But recent data mining has suggested a list of possible mounts, which include both dungeon and raid mounts from previous expansions.

• Deathchargers's Reins
• Reins of the Raven Lord
• Swift White Hawstrider
• Reins of the Blue Proto-Drake
• Reins of the Drake of the North Wind
• Reins of the Vitreous Stone Drake
• Armored Razzashi Raptor
• Swift Zulian Panther
• Reins of the Infinite Timereaver
• Midnight's Eternal Reins
• Sharkbait's Favorite Crackers
• Mummified Raptor Skull
• Underrot Crawg Harness
• Mechagon Peacekeeper
• Marrowfang's Reins
• Cartel Master Gearglider
• Mimiron's Head
• Flametalon of Alysrazor
• Experiment 12-B
• Reins of the Blazing Drake
• Life Binder's Handmaiden

Note that this list is completely speculative and nothing is confirmed just yet. We also don't know yet what the drop chance is of the Quantum Courser or if it is possible to give you a mount that you already have on your account. But nonetheless, it's a nice addition for mount collectors and may potentially eliminate the need for mount farming in old content in some rare cases.

Infinite Dragonflight Drake Customisation Manuscripts

Speaking of mounts, the Dawn of the Infinite will also allow players a chance to loot new customization manuscripts for their dragon riding mounts, adding a new Infinite Dragonflight skin color to each of the dragons, including the Winding Slitherdrake from patch 10.1.

Quantum Gear

The last cool thing you can get from the Mega-Dungeon are Quantum Gear items that are similar to the Quantum Courser will give the user a random appearance in that slot from a previous expansion.

Much like the mount version, we don't yet know about which items will be eligible in the loot table and which ones won't. But we can confidently assume the transmog items will drop much more often than the Quantum Courser. So, it's a good day to be a transmog collecto.r

New World Event: Time Rifts

Another new addition to patch 10.1.5 are the Time Rift world events. These events spawn at the top of every hour and they can be accessed by heading to the Tyrhold Reservoir in Thal dresses.

Once there, report to Soridormi to get started. You'll be given objectives to complete within a time limit. And the more you complete, the better your reward will be, similar to how the Researchers Under Fire weekly event works in the Zaralek Cavern.

Once the timer is up, a portal will spawn in the Tyrhold Reservoir that will take you to the final boss of the event. I tested a couple of these Time Rifts on the PTR and each one is dedicated to a specific expansion and some bosses are currently much more difficult than others.

For example, I managed to solo Freya in my first Time Rift but during the second, I had to fight the Lich King and I barely lasted 10 seconds. These events are designed for large groups to work on together, again much like the Zaralek Cavern weekly or the Primal Storms from patch 10.0.5.

Completing a Time Rift will grant you a bunch of rewards, including:

• A rep token for reputation with Sorodormi (which is new to the game).
• A Dilated Time Capsule and 1,000 Paracausal Flakes (which are two new currencies and can be exchanged at the vendors in the Tyrhold Reservoir for item level 402 catch-up gear and a ton of cosmetic rewards, including mounts, pets, and transmog)
• You can also loot an item called Encapsulated Destiny (which guarantees loot from completing a Time Rift independently of the reward cash you earn).

Once I had the Encapsulated Destiny active and completed a Time Rift I was given the Reins of the Scourgebound Vanquisher, a new mount that is otherwise available for Paracausal Flakes.

If you want more of these guaranteed loot tokens, you can complete a daily quest with Chromie in Temporal Conflux. Her daily is super simple to complete and rewards another Encapsulated Destiny along with Sorodomi rep and some more Paracausal Flakes.

New Gear Upgrade Track: Myth

Patch 10.1.5 is also introducing another track for the gear upgrade system we were introduced to in patch 10.1, allowing players to now increase the item level of gear pieces up to 447 as long as the gear piece falls in the Myth level upgrade track.

You can get Myth level gear from Mythic raid, Mythic + dungeons at a level 16 or higher. And the very rare loot drops from the raid on Heroic Difficulty will also fall into the new Myth track, allowing you to fully upgrade these items to 447. The Myth track upgrades will cost you Flightstones and Aspect's Shadowflame Crests, which are the highest quality crests you can get from higher-level endgame content.

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

Warlocks for All Races

Moving on, Warlocks are getting a lot of love in patch 10.1.5, starting with the class itself becoming available to every race in the game. This means that Night Elves, Draenei, Lightforce Draenei, Pandaren, Kul Tiran, Tauren, Highmountain Tauren, Mag'har Orc and Zandalari trolls will all be able to be Warlocks when patch 10.1.5 launches.

In terms of law, there is some controversy among the player base about certain races becoming Warlocks, namely, Lightforge Draenei and Mag'har Orc. But at least in terms of gameplay, Warlock mains will now have full reign over which racials they prefer for a given spec and the content they like to play.

Warlock Demon Customisation Options

Warlocks are also going to be able to customize the various demons they can summon after completing a new Warlock specific questline in patch 10.1.5.

You can gather more customization options for each of your minions by collecting Grimoires from various types of content. Some Grimoires are simply replacing the old glyph versions and offer the same skin for their corresponding demons. But others may come from a drop from a vendor, from time walking, from an event, or from a quest. And there's lots to choose from.

Kalimdor Dragonriding

The rest of the new features in patch 10.1.5 are mostly quality of life improvements. But I did want to give an honorable mention to the Kalimdor Grand Prix, which will unlock dragonriding races throughout Kalimdor zones.

These will only be available during the Grand Prix event and players can earn exclusive rewards by farming the Grand Prix for the new currency called Riders of Azeroth Badges.

UI Changes & Quality Of Life Updates

Finally, patch 10.1.5 is introducing a whole host of UI changes and quality of life updates, starting off with the new in-game micro menu now being in color rather than the previously grayscale menu.

There's also an updated graphic for the Rested buff. Players get when inside a Rest area shown in the corner of their unit frame.

During combat your abilities on your action bar show new graphics for cast time and will also glow differently when the game is prompting you to press them, such as when you get a proc.

Personally, I found this feature a little distracting. But hopefully it's helpful for new players or players learning a new spec.

We will also be getting a "sell all junk" button in the default vendor window. This feature will automatically sell any poor quality items in your inventory, which are the gray items. You'll earn a sum of WoW Dragonflight Gold for it. But anything that is uncommon or higher will be kept.

Hopefully, this feature will eventually have some player-based configuration involved to let each player specify what constitutes junk and what doesn't.

The core of Path of Exile is character customization. Most expansions introduce new ways to play the game, sometimes including brand new skill gems. Path of Exile 2 will be no different.

What’s Definitely Coming In POE 2?

In fact, it will be the single largest drop of new skills into Path of Exile in the game’s history. Between introduced skill gems, the concept of skills attached to ascendancy classes, and weapon implicits granting skills as well, once POE 2 hits will be inspired to craft a plethora of brand new builds with a batch of visually pleasing new skills.

We are less than a month out from ExileCon 2023 and the total reveal of everything related to Path of Exile 2. Let’s hop on the hype boat and explore what we do know about all the new skills arriving in this big content drop.

Defined New POE 2 Skills

The long-awaited shapeshifter archetype finally enters Path of Exile with Path of Exile 2. Presently, we’re aware of at least three different shapeshifting forms: the Werewolf, the Werebear, and the Werecat.

The Werewolf will be accessible via a skill gem and function much like an aura. This is probably the case for the other two forms, too. Werewolf users focus on speed, attacking fast and moving fast. The form can be transitioned to and from seamlessly. Inside the form, you will be able to use any skill that makes sense.

The two examples GGG used were Leap Slam and Cleave, although I’m sure many other melee skills will be usable, too. And spell skills are probably not usable in the Werewolf form, although we could be surprised. Similar to the Werewolf gem, the Werebear is also stored within a skill gem, although we never saw it in action. While a Werebear will probably focus on tankiness, its functionality should be the same as the Werewolf.

Personally, I think this will be a form we can briefly swap to and gain major defenses inside. Think of an emergency Vaal Molten Shell or something similar. A huge boss strike is incoming. So, we quickly swap to Werebear form before dancing back to Werewolf or Werecat form.

Unlike the other two former shapeshifting forms, the Werecat form can only be accessed through the Beastmaster ascendancy class, one of three new ascendancies. Due to this, there will probably be more power packed inside this form than the latter two. Plus, it’ll have a specialization in Critical Strikes.

Don’t worry about scaling, either. In POE 2, skills granted by ascendancy classes will scale with the character’s level and not remain static. I’m hoping for a variety of new play styles enabled due to shapeshifting. In addition to adding this entirely new archetype, I really hope it’ll introduce a shift dancing playstyle, incentivizing players to swap between multiple forms and prolonged fights.

The new crossbow weapon class will add a variety of new skills to the game in the form of weapon, implicits, and actual skill gems. Power Shot is a high damage single target attack skill granted by a crossbow implicit, which can be modified by bolt skill gems. In order to have a better gaming experience, I recommend that you prepare enough POE Currency. In this way, you can buy the skill gems you need at any time.

We know of three bolt types: Permafrost Bolt, Armor Piercing Bolt, and Incendiary Bolt. Permafrost deals cold damage and conjures a big field of ice and can freeze enemies. Armor Piercing deals extreme damage, breaking through the armor of enemies. Incendiary sparks a field of fire and can leave corpses burning.

Again, these bolt skills are like auras and can be swapped between to change how your crossbow attack skill of choice functions. They don’t seem to reserve mana, and swapping between them doesn’t have any associated cost.

The Siege Cascade Skill is granted by the Siege Crossbow and essentially acts like the current day's Rain of Arrows skill. You shoot a bolt into the air and it slams down on enemies. Again, your various bolt skills modify how Siege Cascade works.

The second new weapon class coming with POE 2 is spear. Spears boast a host of brand new skills found both on skill gems and on the weapons themselves as implicit modifiers. Every single spear in the game will grant Exiles at least one mobility skill with some granting, too.

One of the spears we’ve seen came with both an engage and disengage skill. The former skill grants increase damage for a short time once used, while the latter unleashes a flurry of projectiles upon use.

Another new skill is Whirling Slash, which creates a sandstorm, which grows each time you use it then explodes when you leave it, dealing huge damage to monsters.

Yet another spear skill gem is Rapid Assault, which does three rapid stabs, then a fourth that does more damage and can possibly stun, rewarding those who position themselves well.

Spearfield creates an area of spears on the ground, which deals bleeding damage to monsters who walk through it. It’s basically a damaging area control skill gem.

Storm Spear fires a lightning projectile, which splits on contact. It is kind of like Lightning Strike.

Related: Will There Be Three New Weapon Types In Path Of Exile 2?

Finally, we have Blazing Lance. Blazing Lance creates a trail of fire on the ground, which can be hit again to Fan the Flames for a burst of damage. All in all, these seven new skills introduced from Spears are absolutely wild.

Path of Exile 2 shall bring a new gem type into the game - Meta Gems. These gems accomplish a niche purpose or enact an odd design pillar, functioning differently from other gems.

Renowned examples are the proficiency, cast on crit, and spell totem support gems. The former can hold all your auras inside it, allowing them to be activated with the click of a button. The latter completely revamps the current spell totem support gem, allowing you to socket multiple intelligent gems into the meta gem itself. For example, you can socket an elemental curse and an elemental skill into the gem and it will know to use the curse first and the spell skill second.

Even though the developers have been steadily revamping and sometimes merely updating the visual effects of existing skills, it’s evident more drastic changes shall arrive at the momentous release of Path of Exile 2.

Some of the speculation we’re about to undergo might be revamped to existing scales or these might be new skills entirely. We’ll have to wait for the end product to see. But there’s sure to be an absolute ton of other visual and animation updates on release, especially with the updated Exile models and bar advanced rigging technology GGG has developed.

Speculated New PoE 2 Skills

Both the Ngamakanui and Aggorat teasers showcased a rapid fire barrage of potentially new Elemental Skills. The Exile in the jungle ruin seems to use a revamped spark skill, curving her hand toward the floor and conjuring a small lightning projectile that randomly zips along the ground.

Afterwards, she either uses a new cold damage skill or gets another revamp skill gem Ice Nova. Finally, the Exile finishes off a group of the infected creatures with a brand new cold damage skill - a meteor of ice. If I were to guess, its name is probably an ice meteor.

Then in the Aggorat teaser, we see the monk Exile use his staff to twirl around another new skill, create a ground targeted arc of lightning and a cone of ice. Both look like completely new scales. Unlike anything else we’ve seen in the melee right now, the monk is also using lots of skills, which could mean a few things.

GGG might have just wanted to show off all these skills and animations. Because they look cool or they could be hinting toward a combo system of sorts with this class.

What if there are new abilities or support gems that incentivize using a variety of skills or damage types to build up for a huge payoff? A combo system of sorts. It’s definitely a possibility, especially for the monk, an archetype known for their wild combo potential.

We’ve seen a dodge roll in the two most recent snapshots of Path of Exile 2. So, how will a tumble like ability enter POE? I’d gander it’s a new skill gem or a basic movement skill, like our basic attack skill. If it’s a new skill gem, we would likely get it very early as a way to introduce new players to Path of Exile’s method of dodging big boss attacks. Roll would be a precursor to Flame Dash and Frostblink, maybe.

Option 2 roll is our new basic movement skill and one of our only movement skills. There is a small possibility we’re about to see a major shift in the way movement skills function in Path of Exile.

Imagine this: we get Roll as a basic movement skill or one of a few movement skill jumps. Instead of having individual hyper focus skill gems, GGG adds the ability for a variety of support gems to modify these new basic movement skills.

Thusly, we could form our own movement skills and save a fair wealth of Flame Dash. But with Flame Trail support and Insta Phase support mixed with the Dash skill gem, you’d have your own with three more supports to use and modify it with. I could see four based move skills possible: Roll, Dash, Charge, and Blink.