Crest of Desire is a very interesting unique helmet. It has almost no stats in just one socket for a gem, which will be upgraded by up to eight levels, 50% in quality and will deal double damage. We’re putting Herald of Thunder there. Spells like these benefit greatly from extra gem levels.

Build Overview

Elementalists ascendancy offers some great offensive and defensive keystones. Mastermind of Discord and Heart of Destruction will increase your damage, especially if you can reliably apply exposure. Bastion of Elements provides a defensive layer against elemental and reflected damage.

To further enhance damage of the Herald, use medium cluster jewels with Dark Messenger and Empowered Envoy, two Storm Secret rings, Lone Messenger keystone and good staff. Your Herald of Thunder skill gem should reach level 30. Note that spell damage and cast speed have no effect on your DPS.

Your character will need a lot of lightning resistance as Storm Secret deals lightning damage to you. You can also use it to your advantage and hook up multiple spells to cast when damage taken. You will also need Life Leech, E.S Leach and Recoup to survive the self-inflicted damage.

DPS Skills

As you kill shocked enemies, a storm attached to you is created, hitting enemies and dealing lightning damage. With Shaper of Storms, all your hits will cause shock. So, that’s one less thing to worry about.

Note that Herald of Thunder cannot inflict Shock by itself. You will use other skills for that.

Defenses

It’s a build that uses maximum life and Energy Shield. Your total health pool should reach 5k or more. Get the Corrupted Soul keystone. It grants ES based on your maximum life. These resources should be leached and recouped back. You won’t be able to use auras. But you can use Arctic Armour.

Clear Speed

Clear speed is good with Storm Secret rings for more frequent hits and Inpulsa’s Armour for explosions.

Single-Target Damage

The damage against bosses is not high enough to take on Uber Bosses but enough for most content in the game.

Budget

All the unique and rare items are extremely cheap. Good flasks and cluster jewels may be the most expensive. So, if you want to make this build, you’d better prepare enough POE Currency.

Gear, Jewels, Flasks

Around the time you finish the Acts, you should already be able to equip most of the unique items. Be wary, with two Storm Secrets and no Agnerod South. You will take a lot of lightning damage unless you plan to mitigate it in some other way. There are a lot of unique items that are best-in-slot. In our case, we’ve used only rare boots, a belt, and an amulet.

Mandatory Uniques:

• Crest of Desire
• Inpulsa’s Broken Heart
• Strom Secret (2x)

Recommended Uniques:

• Agnerod South
• The Annihilating Light
• Storm’s Gift
• Algor Mortis
• Voice of the Storm

Crest of Desire is where you should put your Herald of Thunder to squeeze all the potential this single skill gem has to offer. This is the build defining helmet that boosts the DPS of socketed skills significantly.

Agnerod South pushes your required strength to 158. But it’s the best weapon for this build due to the increase in maximum lightning resistance, level of lightning spell skill gems, lightning damage, lightning penetration, and intelligence.

The Annihilating Light triples your damage. It is the most powerful staff that introduces a few problems that you’ll need to solve - Reduced Elemental Resistances and no extra Lightning Resistance.

Inpulsa’s Broken Heart as a body armor that grants shock immunity, maximum life, increased damage and the effect of shock and makes enemies explode.

Storm's Gift is a nice boost to Lightning Resistance and Energy Shield. It inflicts shock on more enemies, making them good for clearing maps. The Synthesized Implicit mods could be really useful, too.

If you can consistently create chilling areas via skills like Cold Snap, you can use Algor Mortis gloves. These perform better against bosses.

You will rarely deal any Critical Strikes. Combined with a huge range of lightning damage hits, it makes the "Lightning Damage With Non-Critical Strikes Is Lucky" modifier very good. You can get it on the Voice of the Storm amulet.

Storm Secret rings are absolutely required although you will take a lot of lightning damage as hits. It enables your build to have few CWDT setups with a reliable cast frequency. Your Herald of Thunder is vastly improved, striking more often, and creating more storms.

Lone Messenger is a keystone from Calamitous Visions that disables your auras but enhances the effect of the one single Herald you're using.

Put three of the Grand Spectrum jewels in your sockets for 135% increased elemental damage. With the Doryani version of Glorious Vanity, you can transform a keystone into Corrupted Soul for more Energy Shield.

There shouldn't be any issues with getting the required attributes. You don't need to look for Spell Damage, Critical Strikes, or Cast Speed on your gear. Seek Lightning Damage and Penetration instead. Your defense will consist of both maximum life and Energy Shield. Focus on maximum life, it's more beneficial. Get some life in Mana Recoup and have an item with one free suffix, so you can beast craft Aspect of the Spider.

Elemental Resistances, Maximum Life and Increased Movement Speed are the most important mods to look for on your boots. Maximum Life and Elemental Resistances will be the stats that you should aim to get a lot on a belt.

Crusader's Amulet has a prefix, which makes you penetrate lightning resistance. Look for this specific mod. The rest of the mods should be maximum life and Elemental Resistances.

Recommended Annoitment:

• Persistence
• Circle of Life
• Melding
• Whispers of Doom

Recommended Affixes:

• Increased Maximum of Life
• Increased Maximum Energy Shield
• Increased Elemental/Lightning Damage
• Strenth or Dexterity

There are a lot of affixes to choose from on jewels. Aim for maximum life and lightning damage. Corrupting one might result in an implicit mod that makes you immune to Corrupted Blood.

Recommended Affixes:

• 1 Added Passive Skill is Doryani's Lesson (Mandatory)
• 1 Added Passive Skill is Supercharge (Just One, High Priority)
• 1 Added Passive Skill is Storm Drinker
• 1 Added Passive Skill is Scintillating Idea
• 1 Added Passive Skill is Prismatic Heart
• 1 Added Passive Skill is Widerspread Destruction

Large cluster Jewels with the base for increased lightning damage with eight passive skills and two or three of the listed notables should be implemented. You should use two or three of these. Doryani's Lesson is mandatory here. Supercharge is great, too.

Recommended Affixes:

• 1 Added Passive Skill is Dark Messenger
• 1 Added Passive Skill is Empowered Envoy

4 medium cluster jewels with two specific notables listed here are the best way to enhance the build.

With properly adjusted Elemental Resistances, the Wise Oak offers a lot of lightning penetration, which is impactful.

Rumi's Concoction is a great defensive flask that boosts your chance to block spells and attacks.

Bottled Faith increases your Critical Strike Chance that is somewhat irrelevant here and increases damage taken by enemies on Consecrated ground. Don't prioritize it.

Progenesis is the most effective defensive flask in the game, especially when combined with Life Recoup. However, it is very expensive.

Use one magic life flask that would stop bleeding and replenish your life instantly. And depending on your preferences, a Silver or Basalt Flask for more mobility or armor.

Also Read: How Exactly The New Skill Gem System Is Going To Work In Path Of Exile 2?

Skill Gems And Sockets

The build has three fully automated CWDT setups as you're constantly hitting yourself. You can keep them at a low level if you have good Mana recovery.

The first one is a Storm Brand great for applying shock quickly to enemies all around you and triggering Herald of Thunder's Storms.

Conductivity is the recommended curse for this build. It reduces the monster's resistance to lightning damage.

Storm Brand & Conductivity are supported by:

• Cast When Damage Taken
• Hextouch (Optional)
• Culling Strike
• Energy Leech

Link these with Hextouch so that you can increase the gem level of the curse. If your Storm Brand has a high level, link it with energy leech support and abandon Hextouch; if not, just Culling Strike support.

The second setup hosts many various gems. Cold Snap will allow you to generate frenzy charges by killing enemies in the chilling areas it creates.

It's also good with Alger Mortis gloves. Purifying Flame creates Consecrated ground by releasing a wave of fire and physical damage that after its initial burst creates another one. Get a Divergent version for increased damage.

Wave of Conviction applies lightning exposure to enemies hit, reducing their lightning resistance.

Cold Snap (level 1), Purifying Flame (level 1) & Wave of Conviction (level 1) are supported by:

• Innervate
• Life Leech
• Cast When Damage Taken (level 1)

You could implement life leech support for a small portion of the damage to be leached back to you.

The third setup has three spells:

Immortal Call briefly decreases the damage you take from physical and elemental hits.

Phase Run grants you phasing, which increases your movement speed for a duration.

Shock Nova spell deals lightning damage around you, shocking many enemies at once. This skill has a second stage that is similar to the first one.

Shock Nova (level 1), Phase Run (level 1) & Immortal Call (level 1) are supported by:

• Cast When Damage Taken (level 2)

Since you can't use any auras and have a lot of unreserved Mana, Arctic Armour is one of the best spells you can have. It chills attackers and grants you freeze immunity.

Flame Dash allows you to dash to the targeted location, leaving a path of burning ground behind. It will also shock. So, use it to initiate the loop after entering a map.

Flame Dash are supported by:

• Acane Surge (low level)
• Second Wind

Keep Arcane Surge at a low level to make the Arcane Surge buff trigger after a single Flame Dash cast it grants more cast speed and Mana regeneration.

Second Wind support stores an additional charge for Flame Dash and makes it more expensive.

Herald of Thunder is the most important skill gem. Make sure it has high quality and level, which can be done by corrupting it. It adds lightning damage to your skills and creates storms, which are the main source of DPS in this build.

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.

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

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

1. Luocha

Everyone knows him from the second half of 1.1.

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

2. Yu Kong

Yu Kong is a 4-star imaginary harmony support.

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

3. Kafka

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

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

4. Blade

Blade is a 5-star wind destruction damage dealer.

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

5. Luka

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

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

6. Fu Xuan

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

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

7. Yin Yue

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

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

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

8. Jing Liu

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

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

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

9. Gui Nai Fen

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

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

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

10. Lynx

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

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

11. Screwllum

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

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

12. Ruan Mei

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

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

13 & 14. Xueyi And Hanya

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

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

15. Topaz

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

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

The Other Three

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

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

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

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

1. Island Sanctuary Gathering

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

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

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

2. Crafting & Gathering

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

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

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

3. Shadowbringers & Endwalker Fates

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

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

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

4. Beast Tribes

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

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

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

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

Also Read: Final Fantasy 14 Dungeon Guide

5. Levequests

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

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

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

6. Hunt Marks

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

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

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

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

7. Blue Mage Spells

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

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

8. Gold Saucer

My next idea is to hit up the Gold Saucer.

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

9. Triple Triad

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

10. Practice Your Rotation

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

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

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

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

Silver Wolf quite literally has made a huge impact on the meta. So, here, I am going to talk about her place in the meta, things that you need to know about her, whether you already have her or not, as well as cover some important questions like how game-changing her first Eidolons are. Most importantly, I will showcase the most insane teams you can build with her.

New Teams

Let’s first talk about the new amazing teams you can build with Silver Wolf and how different they are from what we’re used to.

I won’t be delving too deep into Silver Wolf’s kit, since there’ are already a lot of guides about that. Instead, I want to show you something different.

The biggest thing about Silver Wolf is her ability to implant a weakness type to an enemy that doesn’t have it. This one mechanic alone allows you to build more than 5 new teams and all of them are interesting in their own way.

*So, the first team is Mono Fire, which is made up of Asta, Himeko and Fire Trailblazer. The survivability here goes out the window without the healer. But, because of the upcoming changes to Memory of Chaos, this team is going places already. So what’s so great about it?

First of all, Silver Wolf can easily implant Fire Weakness on enemies who don’t have it, even though there is a 50/50 chance. It could be also Quantum, if the enemy doesn’t have it. It is a bit of a bummer. You have to flip a coin and hope this works out, since it doesn’t matter how many team mates you have from the same element in the team. The game’s programming basically just weighs the two elements and considers one of the two before implanting the enemy. Of course, if the enemy has Quantum Weakness but doesn’t have Fire, then it’s a 100% guarantee that Silver Wolf will just be able to keep applying this weakness.

Now, Fire Weakness matters a lot to Asta. Her whole schtick is to boost the team’s ATK when she damages an enemy. But, if the enemy has Fire Weakness, she gains an additional stack. This allows you to rapidly build those stacks, boost everyone’s ATK and in addition, she also provides 18% Fire Damage increase for the whole team from one of her major traces. I cannot tell you how good this is when Silver Wolf can literally implant Fire Weakness on any boss who doesn’t have it. And this makes the team super consistent with Asta’s buffing.

Also, breaking enemies’ weakness is Himeko’s bread and butter. The more you break, the more she unleashes her strong follow-up attack. And you will have an easy time doing this, thanks to Silver Wolf’s Fire Weakness Implant. But with that being said, I would say this is the weakest team out of the all I am going to show you. But, it couldn’t exist right now without the Wolf.

*The next team I am really excited to talk about is Mono Ice, which is made up of Gepard, Pela and Yan Qing. Probably the most amazing thing here is the absolutely disgusting amount of DEF shred you can achieve with both Pela and Silver Wolf.

All of their DEF shredding stacks together. For example, you can see Pela’s burst DEF reduction. She’s also equipped with the Pearls of Sweat Light Cone, which shreds DEF. Then, we have Silver Wolf’s Ultimate and Bug Implant, both reducing defense. All of this totaling up to 96% of reduced DEF. That’s almost attacking an enemy without any DEF at all.

And my Pela’s traces aren’t even leveled. So you can imagine what a field day Yan Qing gets to have when he delivers insane single target damage. And what’s also great is that Gepard can actually keep the team alive pretty well. So, this is legit an amazing team you can go for if you wanna build a Mono Ice team comp.

*Moving over, there’s also Mono Lightning with Jing Yuan, Tingyun and Bailu. I am sure you saw this team already, so not much needs to be said here. Thanks to Silver Wolf’s Bug Implant and the ability to reduce the enemies’ Elemental Resistance, Jing Yuan’s damage actually gets boosted by quite a lot. I don’t even have to tell you how much stronger Lightning Lord strikes become.

*Now one other great team is Mono Physical with Clara, Natasha and Sushang. Thanks to Clara’s pseudo tanking and Natasha’s healing, I can actually use this team really well in Memory of Chaos. And Sushang actually shreds the weakness bar by a lot. So, once the enemy gets Physical Weakness implant, the team’s performance skyrockets.

*And then, of course, we have Quantum. Currently, I see a lot of people running double Lightning/Quantum with Tingyun/Bailu and Seele or QQ. Honestly, this is my new team for farming Simulated Universe and thanks to Silver Wolf’s debuffing, I almost doubled Seele’s damage output going from 90k to 170k with her ultimate.

*Finally, one last bonus team to showcase. You could also go for Seele, Silver Wolf and QQ together with either Natasha or Bailu. Just so you can keep those Quantum maniacs alive while they are busy decimating the bosses. But this is just the tip of the iceberg of what potential teams you can build with Silver Wolf. And her ability to enable so many different Mono teams is actually quite staggering.

It’s not something we’re used to and even though you do have to play the coin flip game if the enemy is missing both of the weaknesses. It’s a gamble that you can live with, especially if you strategically build teams against enemies who have the Quantum weakness if it’s not a Mono Quantum team. If that is the case, Silver Wolf will never implant her own weakness.

Meta Analysis

What about Silver Wolf’s place in the meta?

*First of all, we have to look at the upcoming Memory Turbulance changes, since they warp the team building in a significant way. The first one that’s coming in June 12th will reduce enemies’ damage by 4% up to 5 times when they get debuffed.

Basically with Silver Wolf, you will be able to maintain at least on one target all 5 stacks, which is 20% reduced damage and if it’s 2 bosses or elite enemies. The other one will probably have around 3-5 stacks as well. This is a huge change for teams like Mono Fire or Mono Ice where you don’t have a healer and want to sustain the damage with shielding.

*Now the next Turbulence after this, will shred the enemy’s DEF by 6% for each debuff up to 5 times for a total of 30% reduction. For teams without Pela, this is straight up an amazing damage boost for damage dealers when you combine this with Silver Wolf’s DEF shred from her bug and ultimate.

*And finally, the last turbulence is not really important because it mostly has to do with Luocha. From June 12th to July 10th Nihility but mainly Silver Wolf is going to be dominating the Memory of Chaos in an almost unfair way.

Now even if we take out these Memory Turbulence changes out of the equation, the other major buff Nihility or for the most part any debuffer has received has is that every enemies’ Resistance to Effects have been nerfed. This change alone has easily made it possible to build Silver Wolf as a sub-dps instead of just pure support, which I’ll talk about in the next segment.

But the most important thing here to understand is that you no longer need to aim for 120% Effect Hit Resistance with her. And instead, roughly 96% is enough to achieve a guarantee you will land her skill debuff, while the Talent which allows her to implant bugs will have around 85 to 99% success rate depending if the enemy has 40 or 30% Effect Resistance and not many have 40% thanks to these changes, like Cocolia or Svarog.

Honestly, to me this last-minute change HoYoverse did to enemies feels eerily similar back when Kazuha first got released. Back in 1.6, Transformative Reactions received a massive damage boost right when Kazuha’s banner became available. So, I guess it’s pretty clear HoYoverse saw that Silver Wolf needed this in order to allow players to have more freedom with her builds.

All in all, with these additions in mind, Silver Wolf lands herself easily in a top tier spot in tier lists. Because she simply brings so much value from enabling new meta teams or remixing older ones, to providing an insane amount of debuffs her team can work with and utilize.

Right now, if you care about her pull value and Memory of Chaos, she is absolutely worth getting for the simple fact alone. She can manipulate the weakness type, even if it can be random at times, which I’ll admit. This can feel punishing if you put her into the 2nd side of Memory of Chaos. Because you might have to waste time and restart the run if she doesn’t apply the weakness you need, especially since finishing in a limited amount of cycles is really crucial right now to get all 3 stars.

Related: Honkai Star Rail: Everything You Should Know About Silver Wolf - Skills, Talent, Ultimates & More

Build Considerations

Now, one more thing I want to talk about are her build considerations. I won’t delve deep here. And instead, maybe you saw how much Effect Hit Rate she needs and became discouraged for pulling for her or you’re in the process of gearing her up. Either way, here’s what you need to think about.

Because of the Effect Resistance nerf that was made to enemies, the golden sweet spot for Silver Wolf, assuming her traces are maxed out, is 96% or about 105% if you have level 7 skill.

For ultimate and talent the numbers will differ, you will need a lot less for the ultimate and a lot more for the talent because of its low base chance. However, what matters the most is the skill.

Now, getting 96% can basically be achieved with Effect Hit Rate body, the new F2P event light cone and then 18% you get from her traces.

But here’s the thing. Effect Hit Rate body massively reduces Silver Wolf’s potential as a sub-damage dealer and instead she kind of acts like a support with some damage.

So, what’s really going to happen with her and what I am also working towards right now, is to actually use Critical Rate body and to obtain the remainder of 38% Effect Hit Rate from the subtats and if needed, the Pan-Galactic planar ornament set.

With the planar set, you only need 28% Effect Hit Rate or if you just go with the substats, you will need to roll on average 9 times on Effect Hit Rate substat to achieve this 96% threshold. This might sound like a lot. But think of it like you would normally chase Critical Rate or Critical Damage substats. It’s definitely achievable in the long run and it is something I highly recommend working towards, instead of just relying on the Effect Hit Rate Body, which is a massive DPS loss for Silver Wolf. That can otherwise be achievable with the Critical Rate Body instead.

Of course, I understand you could be using a light cone that’s not from the current event, which means you’ll need more of Effect Hit Rate it, unless you max out the 5-star options shown here. But for the most part, building her as a hybrid sub-damage dealer and debuffer is going to be your long-term goal.

Broken Eidolons

The 1st one allows her to essentially regain 35 energy after using her Ultimate, which is fine and dandy. Because now you can get rid of the need to have Energy Regeneration Rope and this allows you to increase her damage by even more with ATK or Break Effect rope instead.

However, where things get absolutely bonkers is her second eidolon. You might look at this and think “wow, that’s such a boring upgrade. All enemies have their Effect RES reduced by 20%. It is a big deal”.

Yes, it is actually a big deal. To the point that I think, this eidolon even surpasses Raiden’s 2nd constellation, which is well known in Genshin community as the most powerful upgrade in the game you can get for a character.

And here’s the thing. With this upgrade, you now only need 47% Effect Hit Rate for Silver Wolf to have a guarantee she can apply her skill debuff on all enemies in the game. And it’s going to be 85% chance to apply her bugs. Not only that, all enemies have their Effect Resistance reduced. That means anyone who can apply in the team with Silver Wolf debuffs benefits from this. For example, Gepard’s skill to Freeze becomes easily guaranteed with some Effect Hit Rate built up and so are others will massively benefit from this.

I am honestly shocked how good this Eidolon is and compared to her signature weapon, I would basically just save up my Warps until her Rerun if you want to have her absolutely cracked. Because this 2nd Eidolon is just a gamechanger overall.

And what’s even crazier is her E4 and her E6, which basically turns her into a mini-Seele. There’s already footage showing her E6 potential, and it’s crazy how strong she becomes of a damage dealer.

Initial Thoughts

All in all, its pretty clear Silver Wolf absolutely changes the meta, and she’s easily one of the strongest characters in the game right now. from manipulating the elemental weaknesses to unleashing tons of debuffs, including a massive DEF shred she can apply. She’s just too good right now. But obviously, this only applies if you care about the meta.

Otherwise, she’s a strong and fun character to use in Simulated Universe, I know I’ve had my own fair share of fun by using her in a few of the runs already. And I can only imagine she’s going to be even deadlier and versatile once those Turbulence buffs arrive.

Still, it is a bit of a greedy move by HoYoverse with the way they tempt you with that sexy 2nd eidolon. But I can assure you, she’s busted even at E0. So, don’t go spending your money unless you’re financially secure.

Since Silver Wolf is a new character, it won’t be easy for you to get her. However, if you directly purchase a Honkai Star Rail Account that includes Silver Wolf, you can easily experience her.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

After playing the Diablo 4 betas, I was pretty surprised by how it all felt. And the more I played it, the more I enjoyed it. But I kept noticing features that seemed very familiar from other games, primarily MMOs.

The long travel times between side quests, the huge open world that you can freely explore, even seeing other players walking around helping me do random events.

It felt a bit odd because it felt like I was playing an MMO within an ARPG. The combat feels great, the esthetic is dark and gritty again and we were blessed with a new antagonist that everybody seems to love - Lilith.

But as much as I love the idea of these new MMO like systems, such as World Bosses, Diablo 4 is taking a huge risk here and at the end of the day, put simply, Diablo 4 may not be for you.

Feel More Like An MMO Than ARPG

This is all from my time from the Diablo 4 betas. So, take this all with a grain of salt. But the reason why I say Diablo 4 may not be for you is because Diablo 4 feels more like an MMO than it does an ARPG.

In other games like Path of Exile or Diablo 2, you have one town that acts as a Quest hub, and from that one point you go on to different areas, usually on a linear path, killing monsters and hunting for that sweet loot.

In Diablo 4, however, you are left to your own devices. The main focus will always be the story line. But aside from the main quests, you can level how you want. If you want to farm dungeons all day, you can do that. Or, if you’d rather hop from quest hub to quest hub, doing side quests or exploring the world, you can do that.

There’s this weird sense of freedom that is present when playing Diablo 4, which is a refreshing feeling but alien at the same time.

Also Read: Diablo 4: 5 Things You Need To Know! - Status Effects, Save Gold, World Tiers, Paragon Boards and Level Up

Getting Stronger Feels Punishing

There are a few problems with this because with the freedom to play how you want, there are also additional systems now that you may not enjoy. For example, as you level throughout the world, monsters and areas will scale along with your level, which means getting stronger may feel a bit punishing.

There will be power spikes along the way whenever you get a key legendary or rare item. But that quickly diminishes once you start to out level your gear and scaling starts to catch up with you again.

One of the positives of a scaling level system is that you can just hop into a friends’ world and just play with them. There’s no big power difference between characters like in Diablo 3, because everything is scaled down to your individual levels.

My only concern with this system is that the process of slowly seeing my character become stronger and stronger is one of the reasons I love playing ARPGs. And the silver lining here is once you hit max level, scaling doesn’t matter anymore.

New Timed World Events

A big concern of mine is world bosses, simply because of how the world boss system is being implemented. Personally, I enjoyed the world bosses and I think they are a great overall addition to the game. But the bosses themselves are on set timers.

They will only spawn at certain times of the day and you will only have 15 minutes to kill the world boss. If you fail to kill the world boss within these 15 minutes, they just walk away. Literally, just that’s it. Leaving you with nothing and just wasting 15 minutes of your time.

There may be situations where halfway through the fight, people just start to leave. This is another system taken from MMOs like World of WarCraft, where you’re now being forced to do an activity you may not want to do.

My concern is that world bosses might just be the beginning. Seasonal content, such as the Seasonal Journey, which was teased earlier in the development cycle, might include daily or weekly tasks later down the road. I want to log in and play Diablo 4 when I want to, not when I feel like I have to.

Concerns About Hardcore

One thing that I think deserves a mention here is how these systems may affect hardcore players. Because it seems like they’re getting the short end of the stick.

Since Diablo 4 is now going into this MMO like direction, hardcore players are forced to try and kill a world boss that can potentially one-shot people. This could easily be a one-way ticket back to the main menu. Another option would be just to ignore the world bosses altogether, but where’s the fun in that?

There’s also a high probability that hardcore players can be lured into a death they can’t avoid, since there are now other players walking around in an open world environment and there’s no grace period for loading screens or dungeons. It would be pretty easy for players to accidentally or even on purpose kill other hardcore players by luring monsters over by a dungeon entrance, especially now that monsters and areas scale with players levels.

Final Thoughts and Concerns

Overall, I feel like Diablo 4 has a bright future. But at its core, it may not appeal to some past Diablo fans with its time gated content and open world MMO like features.

If you enjoy MMO games in general, I feel like you’ll enjoy Diablo 4 as much as I have. And now you can start preparing for Diablo 4 Gold. After all, Diablo 4 will be officially released in a few days.

However, if you’re looking for a spiritual successor to Diablo 2, I would probably suggest playing Last Epoch or maybe giving Path of Exile 2 a chance.

This all might change post-launch, but it seems like Diablo 4 is walking down a slightly different path compared to previous Diablo games.

After the recent livestream, Hoyoverse has finally revealed 5 new exciting features that are coming to the latest Honkai Star Rail 1.1 Update.

1. New Stories

When it comes to new content, we are getting 4 new Story Quests. We will learn more about Silver Wolf, Yanqing, Bailu and Luocha. Nothing has been revealed in this stream about the main story, so maybe we’ll learn more about this when the game goes live, otherwise, these 4 new quests will be featured in 1.1.

2. New Events

As for the events, there’s lots of them with amazing rewards. The main event featuring Silver Wolf is going to have an interesting activity where you go around and look for grafittis, take photos of them and then use special currency to redeem rewards, including a free 4-Star Nihility Light Cone, which is pretty awesome.

Another event based on the Belobog Museum will have an activity where you manage it and work with artifacts, not the artifacts as in from Genshin but like museum specimens. And the biggest thing about this event is that we will be able to get Self-Modelling Resin for free as a reward. This is a super rare resource and you can use to create a relic with any kind of main stat you want.

Also, a quick look at some other rewards reveals where gonna get a ton of Credits, which I am really looking forward to. I am constantly running out of them. Then, there’s going to be a special combat event, which is similar to the Forgotten Hall. Except here, you can also use trial characters and there will be some special combat bonuses and rules you’ll need to work around. And as you can see from the rewards, we will get materials to craft relics, which are always nice.

Next, similar to Genshin, there will be double Calyx drop rewards and I believe it will be Golden and Crimson Calyx that will have an improved drop rate. There’s also an event focusing around Herta’s Space Station, where we will need to go and help out with various problems that have arisen there and it seems like a new recipe among few other things will be rewarded to you for doing this.

3. New Characters

The next one I’m going to cover is probably the most exciting part of the update. We’re getting 3 new characters in 1.1.

*Let’s start with Silver Wolf. She’s a 5-Star Quantum Nihility character that we got to play for a few moments during a tutorial. We now got an official look at her kit and it seems like she’s going to be a debuffer for the team.

So, her skill deals single target damage and then it applies 1 Weakness of an on-field allies type to an enemy. Not only that, but she will also reduce the Elemental Resistance of that element.

As an example, if you have a Fire ally in your team and no enemies have Fire Weakness, Silver Wolf will make it so that these enemies are weak to Fire element, which sounds amazing.

Now, the ultimate deals with single target damage and then reduce’s enemies DEF, which again, helps everyone deal more damage to that enemy. But what’s really interesting is her talent. Each time Silver Wolf attacks, she will implant one of three bugs, which will either reduce ATK, DEF, or SPD.

Basically, Silver Wolf is going to be an insane debuffer, but of course, until we can actually see her performance on the field, we don’t know how strong she is going to be.

*Another 5-Star that’s coming in 1.1 is Luocha. He is a 5-Star Imaginary Abundance healer and his skill will restore health to an ally which seems pretty boring, but this skill is also like a reactive ability, so when anyone in the team drops down below 50% health, he will immediately heal them.

Now, his ultimate deals damage to everyone and removes 1 buff from each enemy, which is pretty amazing because only Pela was able to do that before, so now we’ve got another buff remover.

Finally, his Talent will deploy a field when he reaches 2 stacks of Abyss Flower. This field heals allies when they attack enemies and you can obtain 1 Abyss Flower by using his skill and ultimate.

Honestly, while Luocha doesn’t seem to have an AoE Heal, the fact that he can keep healing in several ways is pretty interesting and also, since he can remove buffs, I think he will be a strong healer in the game.

*Finally, there’s also a new 4-Star Imaginary Harmony character. Yukong seems pretty similar to Tingyun and not just because they both have a tail.

So, her skill boosts everyone’s ATK while her ultimate increases everyone’s Critical Rate and Damage, which seems pretty insane. Not only that, but the ultimate also deals damage to a single enemy, so there’s a great way to reduce some toughness as well.

In fact, her talent improves her Basic ATKs damage and Toughness-Reducing. So, she’s going to be excellent against enemies with Imaginary Weakness.

Finally, her Technique is pretty noteworthy since it boosts movement speed when used in exploration and when you enter combat, she will immediately boost ATK of everyone.

By the way, if you want to get the two 5-Star characters mentioned above directly, then buying Honkai Star Rail Accounts directly will be a good choice!

Now is the most important part of this feature, the banners.

In the first phase, Silver Wolf, along with Asta, Dan Heng and Serval, will be on a featured banner while in the 2nd phase, Luocha, along with Pela Qingque and Yukong will be available to summon. Also, Luocha and Silver Wolf will be getting their own signature Light Cones that you can pull for.

First of all, I am really surprised they revealed all the 4-Stars here. That’s not something we see when we play Genshin, so it’s good to know we can plan around this. I think both of these banners have their pros and cons.

One thing I also want to mention is that during the Chinese livestream, I am not sure if I understood this correctly but Yukong will be given away for free in 1.2 update, not 1.1 but please make sure to double check this once the global livestream goes live. Either way, that sounds pretty good if it’s correct.

Also Read: Honkai Star Rail: Everything You Should Know About 7 Main Paths

4. New QoL

There’s a couple of great Quality of Life changes coming in this new update.

First of all, the materials that drop from roaming enemies in the world required us to run around the map and locate them but with this new change, you can immediately teleport to the enemy by just clicking on the material in the menu, which is really nice.

Obviously, there’s still a daily limit of enemies for before the server reset but this makes farming this stuff a lot more convenient.

Now this next one, I am not super sure if I got this correctly, but we will be able to encounter Warp Trotters on the map. I don’t think they are the same kind as the ones you would find when trying to complete the whole map, as in, they would drop 60 jades when defeated. I believe these ones will spawn randomly and drop more materials than the usual roaming enemy, which seems nice.

Finally, we’re also getting chat function in the game, so anyone who is on your friend list, you can now send messages to each other.

5. Free X10 Summons

The fifth feature is probably the most awesome thing. That’s coming with 1.1 and requires the least effort. A 7-day login reward will be available for everyone by just logging in and claiming the summons.

I am honestly amazed this is happening so soon after the global launch. But to quickly summarize, we’re getting 4 new story quests in 1.1 update featuring these characters.

As for the events, there’s a lot of them, but the main rewards to look out for would be a free 4-Star Nihility Light Cone, Self-Modelling Resin and tons of credits from the museum event. The main event featuring Silver Wolf will explore her story and introduce us to some new things about her.

And as for the banners, in the 1st phase Silver Wolf along with Asta, Dan Heng and Serval will be on a featured banner while in the 2nd phase, Luocha along with Pela Qingque and Yukong will be available to summon. Also, Luocha and Silver Wolf will be getting their own signature Light Cones that you can pull for.

Finally, we’re getting a couple of great quality of life changes, including an instant teleportation to roaming enemies on the map by clicking on the material you want to farm for, as well as a chat function you can use with your friends.

Today, we’re breaking down all the changes and new additions we can expect to see throughout the month of June. We’ll be looking at Events, Limited-time items, Seasonal Changes, Weather Phenomena and everything in between.

1. Wedding Event

Now, June is a super busy month, primarily because June also marks the start of the Wedding Season in Animal Crossing New Horizons, honouring Reese and Cyrus’s Wedding Anniversary.

Beginning June 1st, and running through to the end of the month, the Wedding Season Event takes place on Harv’s Island and players are given the task of decorating the Venue each day. This is probably the largest event in the game, offering up the most rewards and furniture items for taking part.

The objective is to decorate the venue with the chosen theme that day to unlock items. The more you take part, the more ACNH Items you unlock and the more Heart Crystals you earn. These are used to purchase Wedding Furniture to keep for yourself.

Alongside the Wedding Season Event, the Able Sisters also stocks several special wedding-themed clothing items. And additional wedding-themed seasonal items are also available from the Nook Stop and are not to be missed.

2. Seasonal Items

Speaking of Seasonal Items, June is packed full of limited-time items that are only available throughout the month of June in honour of real-world events.

These include the Dragon Boat Festival and the Dano Festival, International Children’s Day, Father’s Day, the Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice, depending on which Hemisphere you’re in, and of course, the Wedding Season we already mentioned.

The Dragon Boat Festival and the Dano Festival are typically celebrated in China and South Korea respectively and introduce the Festival Zongzi and Surichwi Tteok items, which are now both edible food items.

International Children’s Day is a celebration honouring good health towards children, and introduces the Handmade Cape and Handmade Crown. Both are really cool items. These are only available for two weeks, unlike at launch.

Father’s Day returns to honour parents and, like the Wedding Season, runs for the entire month. This Seasonal Event introduces the Thank-You Dad Mug and Thank-You Dad Apron.

The Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice take place at the same time, depending on your hemisphere. Players in the Northern Hemisphere can obtain the Sunflower Crown, the Sunflower Rug, the Sunflower Glasses and the Maypole. And Players in the Southern Hemisphere can obtain the Midwinter Sweater, the Aurora Wall, the Bathtub with Yuzu and the Tangyuan.

All of these items mentioned here are available from the Nook Stop on the dates shown, and depending on when you started New Horizons, or if you went back to the game after a break, some of these items may be brand new.

3. Seasonal Materials

Moving on, whilst we’re talking about Seasonal Topics, it’s worth remembering both Hemispheres are approaching new seasons, which means new Crafting Materials are available throughout June.

The Northern Hemisphere will say goodbye to the Young-Spring Bamboo materials and instead begin to find Summer Shells washed ashore. These new materials will be available from June 1st through to August 31st. And of course if you’re playing through this season for the first time, you’ll now unlock the Summer Shell Boat Tour, too.

Anyway, Summer Shell recipes will also become available from Balloons and Bottles, and include recipes for items, such as the Water Flooring, the Tropical Vista and the Summer Shell Rug, amongst others.

The Southern Hemisphere will continue to encounter Acorns and Pine Cones for a couple of weeks, however as Winter begins, small and large Snowflakes can be obtained from June 11th through to August 24th.

4. Nooks Cranny

Now, given we are approaching new seasons, Nooks Cranny sees some pretty cool changes to both. It’s aesthetics and stock.

In the Summer and Winter months, depending on which Hemisphere you’re in, you’ll notice Nooks Cranny sees subtle changes to its decoration and window displays.

But, more importantly, Nooks Cranny also sells seasonal items. During the Summer, Nooks Cranny sells the Surfboard and Retro Fans. And during the Winter, Nooks Cranny sells the Round Space Heater and Celebratory Candles.

All of these items are actually locked to a specific colour, based on your island. However, now that Cyrus resides on Harv’s Island, it is possible to customise them with him for bells, even during the Wedding Season, which is super useful.

5. Weather Phenomena

Now, one of my favourite changes we see on the New Horizons Island is, of course, to the different types of weather.

The Northern Hemisphere is much the same at the start of Summer, though. However, Thin Clouds will disappear at the end of May, so it will be some time before you see these again.

In the Southern Hemisphere on the other hand, Cirrus and Cirrocumulus Clouds disappear, with Billow clouds taking their place. Players in the Southern Hemisphere will also begin encountering Aurora’s on clear nights once the snow starts to fall from June 11th.

You can only encounter these from 6 pm through to 4 am, although can be tricky to spot, as they often only appear for an hour or so. But if you’ve never seen one, definitely worth looking out for.

6. Bug-Off

Next up, we have another cool Summer activity, which is, of course, the Bug-off Season.

Starting on the 4th Saturday of June, which this year is the 24th, Flick will stop by the Plaza to host the first Bug-off of the year. For anyone new to New Horizons in the last 10 months or so, the Bug-off is a time-trial challenge that sees players catch as many bugs as possible before the timer ends.

Flick rewards players for catching bugs, so the more you catch, the more prizes you can earn. Some of the items available include the Bug Cage Bag, the Toy Cockroach and the Termite Mound, amongst others.

You also earn Trophies for taking part, so even if you took part last year, it’s a great opportunity to earn different items or a different type of Trophy.

The Bug-off is a Summer Event, so currently unavailable in the Southern Hemisphere, but you could always time travel or visit a friend’s island, if you wanted to.

Also Read: ACNH: How Could Splatoon 3 Affect The Next Animal Crossing Game?

7. Island Aesthetics

Another detail and change I like to see on the New Horizons Island is of course to the Bushes that go in and out of season as we change months and seasons.

Anyway, pink and white Azalea Bushes stop flowering at the end of May in the Northern Hemisphere, with blue and pink Hydrangeas blooming in their place. These will continue to be available through to July.

As we continue to transition into Summer, the weeds found around the island become less vibrant too, but tend to have more flowers, which personally I like.

In the Southern Hemisphere, Holly Bushes continue to flower until mid-June. However, red and pink Camellia Bushes bloom in their place from June 16th, all the way through to September.

As for the Weeds, they lose their feathery Autumn look, and become frosted and icy as the snow begins, which is to be expected.

8. Critters

As you’d expect, as we enter the Summer months here in the Northern Hemisphere, we see a huge shift in Bugs, Fish and Deep-Sea Creatures.

In total, players can expect to encounter 25 new Critters, including the Goliath Beetle, the Great White Shark and the Abalone, to name just a few. Naturally, as players enter the Winter months in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s much the same.

However, in total, players can expect to encounter only 9 new Critters, which are pretty much inline with what you’d expect from the Winter months. These include the Dung Beetle, the Stringfish and the Lobster, to name a few.

So, what are you looking forward to the most from the month of June?