What’s the point of doing damage if there’s nothing to kill?

I’ve been around gaming for way too long and the best groups always have somebody in a role when we’re trying to push harder content. We saw this in Diablo 3 even when it wasn’t really intentional by the designers, players still just figured it out. So, while everyone was worried about all the juicy info that Rhykker got from the dev talk and the service land weekend, I honed in on the subtle drop that supports are going to be required for Diablo 4 endgame.

Let us start with limited deaths and Nightmare Dungeons. The Sacred Nightmare Dungeons will have a death limit of 12. And the Ancestral Nightmare Dungeons will have a death limit of four. Four deaths per run. That’s going to be rough. Who doesn’t die in Diablo 3? They are the guys who use zBarb builds.

What is zBarb? It is also called the support Barbarian and is one of the strongest supports in the game and the addition of Crowd Control Resistance. By the way, if you want to improve your Barbarian, then you have to prepare a lot of Diablo 4 Gold in advance. In the meantime, you can also build more powerful builds.

But here’s the thing and I’ve been playing Rhykker’s video since right after beta weekend because I saw how much damage some people can do and there’s just not enough mobs for everyone to be killing 100% of the time.

Also, from Rhykker’s video, we learned that monsters are going to hit really hard. So, if you don’t spec into defense or some kind of utility, you’re going to die. It is one of the reasons we have zero damage builds in Diablo 3. Speaking of DPS, you’re going to need a Barb to group things again. Here is a side note: I’m very happy about that because I love being a zBarb in Diablo 3.

Then, that’s kind of my next point. Some people just enjoy playing support roles. It’s what I like to do, and this is also a way for casual players or players that just don’t have time to provide their skills to join endgame content. This allows everyone to provide value and play with friends and enjoy the game.The difference is that Diablo 4 supports are going to do more than just buff the party. I’ve been calling them S-Builds (Support Builds).

Let’s get a little deeper into that. The support classes are going to have different roles. It’s really impossible to say which class will have which role because there’s going to be a lot of synergy to figure out with the endgame.

One of the main things is Crowd Control. We know monsters will get CC immune just like in Diablo 3. And just like in Diablo 3, we can’t have everyone trying to CC everything. We’ll end up with a ton of unstoppable monsters coming after us and running all over the place. Veiled Shot just dropped the video on this topic, but he just barely scratches a surface that will need support builds. If you are interested in it, you can check it out.

And then, we’ll have to complete objectives. There’s a lot of endgame to do in Diablo 4. Unless you’re on a mount, you move pretty slowly between objectives and running around maps. So, if an objective focused support role comes in, he can grab the idle. He can run back and put it on the pedestal or whatever you got to put it. That means that we’re just going to be doing boss fight after boss fight and if you want farming, that’s farming.

Also Read: Everything About Diablo 4 Co-op, Open World, PVP & Strongholds

This is going to be the most useful for leveling glyphs. If this works right, we can just form the bosses and clear dungeons a lot faster and while we’re trying to kill stuff, vulnerability is just too powerful not to take advantage of. But if a DPS has to spec into it, then they miss out on more damage. So, if a support class can cause almost constant vulnerability, then they’ll provide more value than trying to do damage. And with all that, the supports are also going to be there for typical reasons: buffing and debuffing monsters. Some can do this better than others. But that’s going to be something to look at once these rolls start to flush out a little better.

As far as the classes go, I love the Barbarian and it has a lot of options for support classes and for damage, there’s a lot of a lot to work with there. Rogue is also going to be probably something to look at. Necromancer has a lot of opportunities with Bone Prison, which I think causes vulnerability. The Sorceress does a lot of CC with her ice build, so that might be a great option for like taking out the world boss.

All in all, we’re going to see supports playing a huge role in the meta for Diablo 4.

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

1. Monetization

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Complexity

The second point we want to talk about is complexity.

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

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

3. Grind

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

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

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

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

4. Difficulty

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

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

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

5. Endgame

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

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

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

6. Crafting

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

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

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

7. Multiplayer

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

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

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

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

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

8. The Developers

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

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

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

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

9. The Community

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

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

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

10. Future Game Support

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With the AI advancing more and more, we wanted to ask ChatGPT how to play FIFA 23 better. As I asked my questions about it, I was completely shocked by how much information it had to offer. So, if you’re curious about it, keep reading!

Attacking Tips

Let’s start with attacking. I asked the AI how I can improve my attacking in FIFA 23 without knowing what to come. But as it started explaining, it gave me seven unique tips that are too much. Let’s test a couple of them to see if they are correct or wrong.

Quick Passing

The first tip is about passing. “Good passing is the foundation of any successful attack. Use short, quick passes to move the ball up the pitch and create space for your attackers”.

I can agree with this one as it’s one of the most important parts of the attacking. Short passing seems to be working in most of the situations. However, I struggled a bit when I tried to do it in a quick way, as the AI mentioned. Especially when you’re facing good Defenders, they might punish you for the careless quickness while passing.

So, on top of what the AI told me to do, I also paid attention to a couple of factors: the direction that my passer faces, the availability of my receiver, and the behavior of the opposition defense played a huge role with it.

As long as those three conditions were optimal for me, I was able to create space for my Attackers with short passes, as the AI told me to do so. It’s a very nice tip.

Crossing

Next up, crossing. The AI says “crossing the bolt into the box is a great way to create scoring opportunities.” Correct until this point. “Use the right stick to control the direction and height of the cross, and aim for your target player.” Obviously, this is wrong.

I guess the AI might get confused sometimes. Anyway, the initial idea is correct as crosses could be powerful situationally. Use the left analog stick to select their target and power up the cross regarding the distance. The power level of the cross will be decisive on how far it will go.

As I was trying to work with the crosses, I realized that they are powerful like the ChatGPT mentioned, especially when I get on the counter with a man's advantage. As I was exploring the side with my Winger, there has been always one player going into the box and crossing the ball to him allowed me to get dangerous without putting too much effort.

Even though the AI messed up with the controls, the initial idea allowed me to have better attacking options. These are the part of the FIFA fundamentals.

Defensive Tips

But what about defending? Can the AI teach me how to get better in defense? There were again a lot of tips. I am going to choose two of them and see what I can do with them.

Jockeying

First off, it starts with jockeying. “Jockeying is an essential defensive technique in FIFA 23. Use the left trigger/L2 button to slow down and position your Defender in front of the Attacker. This will make it harder for them to get past you”.

That is 100% accurate, as jockeying saves you most of the time. Jockeying allows me to have a very special defensive stance against my opponents and sometimes allows me to retrieve the ball without doing anything else.

However, I’ve seen that only worked out once I positioned my player directly in front of the opponent. If I position my player a bit towards this side or don’t have a strong stance against the opponent, he was able to go through.

So, remember what the AI says. Position your Defender in front of the Attacker while jockeying.

Tackling

Moving on to the next step, we got tackling, which is “another important defensive technique”, according to the AI. “Use the right trigger/R2 button to make a strong tackle or the B/Circle Button to slide tackle. Make sure you time your tackles correctly to avoid giving away fouls”.

With the default configuration, Circle Button allows you to go for a standing tackle and square button for a sliding tackle. That was a bit misleading.

However, the second tip is golden. We can only benefit from the tackles at the right time, which is when the opponent pushes the ball out of his feet for a brief moment.

If you try to tackle in a position where you don’t have the opportunity, you will probably get yourself in disadvantage. So, what I did was to wait for the perfect moment to get a tackle in as I waited for the opponent to make his move while pushing the ball away and made the fitting tackle to win the ball.

Related: FIFA 23: How To Master The Art Of Defending? - Complete Guides On Jockey

Tactics Tips

At the end, we wanted to ask a very controversial question to the AI, which divides FIFA community by far every year. And the question is: what is the best formation to play in FIFA 23?

It’s quite satisfied me with the answer. “There is no ‘best’ formation to play in FIFA 23 as it largely depends on your playstyle, the team you are using and the opponent you’re facing”.

This has been probably our argument for a very long time. Most of the players copied informations that pros or content creators offer without knowing or thinking about how to play with it, just because others get successful with it. That doesn’t mean you will do the same with it.

As the ChatGPT dictates, the best formation for you will depend on your playing style and the players you have available. Experiment with different formations and find the one that works best for you.

For starters, I recommend playing with 4-2-2-2, 4-2-3-1, or 4-4-2. Those are the classic formations which are suitable for every year. But like mentioned, try them out one by one and see if they work out for you. Of course, if you can add more strong players to your team by using FUT 23 Coins, it will be better!

To be honest, although the AI’s answer surprised me, it also worried me a lot. I am afraid that my job will be replaced by it in the future. So I reluctantly asked AI another question: “What do you know about the best player instructions and custom tactics in FIFA 23?” To my delight, AI doesn’t have a definitive answer to this question. Now I don’t have to worry about losing my job.

Anyway, the player instructions should be also set on the purpose. I am going to give you an example of it. Whenever I play with affirmation, which contains a CDM in it, I give that CDM three instructions: Cover Center, Stay Back While Attacking and Cut Passing Lanes.

The reason I put him on Covering Center is that mostly, I have side players to cover the wing and if my CDM also goes towards the wing, the center will be wide open. Putting him to cover Center defines his area to defend.

Cutting Passing Lanes let them move towards the potential passing targets. Even if I don’t control them, that will help me to switch to my intended Defender in the right position and just because he got close to the passing lane by himself, it makes me win the ball easier.

Staying Back While Attacking is often misunderstood. My CDM also joins the attack, but with this instruction, he remains closer to the Midfield. And he doesn’t rush inside like the box. So, whenever you get stuck on the wing and need to reset your attack, you can use the players with these instructions as your target and change the side of the ball. Pretty smart, right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Is Final Fantasy 14 is still worth playing in 2023? Why we’re still playing and loving it in 2023? Most of all, if it’s still worth to start your own adventure?

The first big positive of this game is something that is really hard to keep fresh because it totally leaves the traits of the MMO genre, but still is one of my biggest selling points for the game and that is the first time playing experience.

It’s really hard to take yourself back in time and remember all the good moments you’ve spent with things that are long gone. But if you do so for Final Fantasy, it had been the best moments of my game alive as a long time console player and single player game enjoyed. Even though back in 2014 where I came to Eorzea for the first time, it offered way more MMO aspects forced onto the player, but more to that later.

However, what really stands out in this game is not even compared to other MMORPGs on the market, but basically all single player games as well is how much this world makes sense to itself. And the developers created a universe that drags you in with every new character you meet or places you travel to. It is insanely immersive. And the laughter details references to the franchise or writing of the story’s plot are in a class of its own. Even starting into A Realm Reborn made perfect sense for me and I absolutely enjoyed the story with classical Final Fantasy elements, especially on the antagonist side.

Nonetheless, Heaven’s Ward, like for many players, was that expansion and moment in time where the game developed into an absolute masterpiece. Gameplay became complex, smooth, and much more entertaining and the story around each God and the Dragonsong War was just beautifully written.

While still having the ongoing light motif develop that leads to its conclusion in the recent and WarCraft expansion, so there had always been a lot of planning to make the whole world and story fit while still developing each expansion’s topic around it.

But even apart from all the story driven content, up to that point, there’s already so much to do in this game: so many outfits and weapons (which you can get by using FFXIV Gil) that are worth collecting, trials and raids to participate in and even the brand new crystalline conflict PVP mode is already available at that point. Crafting, Gathering, house building, Gold Saucer...... It’s crazy how much content this game is offering that even a player like Asmongold was totally stuck in Heaven’s Ward as there is so much content to tackle already.

Just when I was recently playing a good variation of single player games over the past weeks, I realized how good Final Fantasy 14 is where a good old classic, like Grandia, outplayed the other new games by longshot. Even Kingdom Hearts 3 that I absolutely love for many elements didn’t come anywhere close to the shining times of old Final Fantasies. And not talking about Strangers of Paradise, that was cool but felt super repetitive and boring after a while.

On the other hand, we had the Resident Evil 4 Remake. This game was great, not from the epic story or plot, but just how well it is crafted into a very atmospheric horror show. That was the play to have fun with the absolute basics of managing your resources, hitting enemies sharply and constantly making Leon look like the badass character he is. And while the whole engine at battle system has been pushed to the next gen standards, the mechanics of the game are absolutely 2005. To be completely honest, I think this is the best remake that’s available right now.

This is where Final Fantasy 14 comes into play again. This game is not trying to reinvent the wheel, but create the whole vehicle around it. The combat system is a classical World of WarCraft Rebrand with added strategical elements and the typical Japanese rotation system. But how all this is implemented and introduced in the game is absolutely classic.

I still hope for an earlier access to job skills and the way how the game could be more fun at lower levels. But overall, I have way more fun playing these old-functioning battle mechanics than warping my main character from spot to spot to dodge my enemy attacks or start any assault. Think about why Elden Ring was so popular? It took all the good battle made mechanics and updated them by mixing in some open world elements.

The gameplay of games like Tactics Ogre or Final Fantasy Tactics, while they seem dated from a visual perspective, they’re way more fun than modern strategy games that put in real-time decisions and stuff like that.

The one exception that I thoroughly enjoyed and would rate as my personal Game of the Year for 2022 is A Plague Tale: Requiem. Here, the producers and developers of the game took the horror genre to another level and while it doesn’t feature the grotesque horror of Resident Evil, the gameplay mechanics were simply amazing. The first game in which I enjoyed the stealth parts because they made sense. And while for me personally, the story was the big selling point for the game, gameplay felt rewarding and absolutely satisfying.

Related: Final Fantasy 14: Some Players Can Get Stormblood Expansion For Free

That’s how games should be designed when the players feel rewarded for their actions and get even more when walking the extra mile. So, this leads us back to Heaven’s Ward, right? Because walking the extra mile leads you into three more expansions that develop the main plot further with the heartbreaking and genius climax in Shadowbringers and perfectly crafted conclusion in Endwalker to become one if not the best stories that any game ever created.

But it still does offer all the MMO aspects especially if you reach end game but also everything the game had in stock before that because Square Enix are insanely good at keeping old content alive and due to thinking of former content, you can always go back in time with your high-level character to relive the moments that other players felt when they played the game two expansions ago, except for some balancing changes, maybe.

I mean for example, if you don’t care about the recent Mandeville Relic weapons, you can just leave Eureka a visit, gather up some friends and try to venture as far as you can into the riddles and mysteries of that very special aisle or you could join the Bozjan Southern Front for further development of the war against galimov and how the whole all scheming and planning took place besides the big events of Shadowbringers or Endwalker.

There’s just so much content that this game is offering and only the veteran players and those that played it patch after patch will run into content draft. If you’re a new player or haven’t explored all these old forms of content, this game is a freaking must play in my opinion, especially if you like any of the main series Final Fantasies that are on par with a quality of 14 or even beaten by it. I mean, you can even treat it like a single player game with each patch more and more because Square Enix is constantly adding party support to dungeons and trials so that you’re not dependent on other players to join your efforts and story progression.

Today, we’re going to be looking at how you can get free Human Ward and Human Bane gear in New World.

Why We Need Human Bane And Ward Gear?

With the release of Season 1 - Fellowship and Fire, we got a new expedition in a world called the Empyrean Forge. In this new dungeon, there are tons of great new gear to collect and even a really powerful new Heartrune gem that everyone is after. Since this expedition can be quite tricky, everyone is after the newest Bane and Ward gear to make themselves more efficient in this dungeon, and that’s the Human Ward or the Human Bane.

Being that it’s a new kind of Bane, prices for any gear with this on it are astronomical at the moment on the Trade Post. So, in this article, I’ll show you a couple ways to get free Human Ward and Bane gear so that you can get through this expedition easier and start getting yourselves that new Heartrune gem.

Silvers Crows Seasonal Questline

The first and easiest way is simply to play through the Silver Crows seasonal questline. It’s all very easy and you can start by going to the Crow’s Nest hideout, south of the Brimstone Sands, and talking to Grace O’Malley.

Along this questline, you’ll get yourself a really nice light helmet called the Mask Of The Fearless, which not only looks awesome for Transmog but also has awesome Perks and the Human Ward on it as well.

Also, you’ll get yourself a pretty cool Blunderbuss, called Grace’s Thunder Pipe with Human Bane on it. So, if you’re a Blunder user, you’re already two steps closer to a full set.

There’s also some other great rewards along this questline, but these are the only ones with Bane or Ward Perks on them.

Related: New World: How To Farm Harbinger Set?

Battle’s Embrace

The next way to get yourself some Ward gear is by completing a newly added quest in Brightwood called Battle’s Embrace. It’s really easy and takes about three minutes.

Simply go talk to Gwendolyn Drake over here in Brightwood. Then, head up to Great Cleave and complete the objectives. Head back to any Forge and make the gear and then turn it back into Gwen. She will in return give you the armor, which is a full set of heavy gear with Human Ward on it.

Of course, there are some limitations to this gear though. For starters, it’s only gear score 500, so you can never bring it up to 625. Also, it’s all heavy gear. So, if you’re not a fan of heavy gear, you might only use a couple of these pieces and finally it has a Sword and Shield Perk on it and an Accelerated Resolve.

That all being said, though, it is free and can do a very good job for you until you get the best in slot Ward gear. Especially if you’re a Sword and Shield tank, this could make your run through a lot easier and can hold you over until you get the Human Ward drops from the dungeon itself or when the prices drop back down to a reasonable price.

Flame Cores

Another way to get some human gear is simply by using your Flame Cores at the forge located beside the entrance to the Empyrean Forge. This will take 10 Flame Cores to create an Unstable Cast, which can be broken open for some Umbral Shards and a random Human Bane or Ward piece.

As prices stand though, I highly recommend you do not do this method. It cost me 6K New World Coins for 10 Flame Cores. And most of the time, the gear you get is pretty garbage. Plus, eventually, when you get the Heartrune, you’re going to need these Flame Cores to upgrade it, so I would save them for that. Maybe once the prices of Flame Core go down, this method will be more viable.

Expedition Itself

Finally, you can get Human Ward and Bane gear from running the Expedition itself even in its easiest difficulty. All the Bane and Ward gear that drops from the non-stated version of this Expedition are as follows: Ranger’s Focus, Withering Gloves, Warrior’s Respite, Sparkpowder, Hunting Blade, Allegro, Heatshot and Heavy Knocker.

Maybe use the gear from the methods above to make this dungeon less difficult, but once you get good at the Imperium Forge and can consistently complete it, then just keep grinding that out until you get a full set and then from there, if you’re good enough, you can move on to the mutated version of the Expedition for a chance of the Fire Lord’s gear, which looks awesome for Transmog.

Don’t be put off if you’re not the best at PVE. I’m not the best either. I struggled with Brimstone Sand’s Expedition. But this one is a lot easier. I completed it with a random group first try with only one wipe on the final boss and it doesn’t take that long either. It’s really quick to get the hang off and there are very generous with the loot. I got seven named items on my first run through and the Heartrune as well.

Even if you don’t beat the last boss, it will still get some human being and Ward gear along the way that you can level up to make your next attempt even easier. But that about covers all the current freeways to get Human Bane or Ward gear in New World at the moment. Hopefully, this can help some of you out and you can go forth and get your gear.

Gems and links are such a fundamental part of Path of Exile that you have to understand them. By the end of this article, you may know what I mean.

Intro

Gems are how your character gets their abilities. These are socketed in a corresponding color socket in your gear and have stats requirements to be used. A green gem in this case, Ice Shot will fit into your green socket here, and now I can fire a single arrow.

Gems come in two flavors: active and support gems. Active skill gems give you the actual abilities, while support gems buff the active gems or instead they could change them in some way.

Sockets come in four colors: red, blue and green and much later in the game or early, if you’re really lucky, white. White sockets will house a gem of any color.

Support Gems

If we take the added cold support gem, this adds cold damage to my attacks, making it do substantially more damage. If I hover over some support gems in my inventory, then this little control comes up to indicate which of the active gems I have socketed will be supported by the gem in question.

You can also somewhat work this out by matching the keywords from the top of each gem card. For support gems to work, they must be socketed in the same piece of gear as the active gem and be linked by one of offhand gems through these bars. 

Offhand Gems

If it isn’t linked, it will do nothing. Continue to get XP. It should also be noted that gems in your offhand weapons will also continue to gain XP, so use this to your advantage as your level. 

Now, for some examples of other gems that will mutate the skill, almost changing fundamentally how it reacts. The Arrow Nova Support causes my arrows to fire up into the air, and when it lands, it spreads out to the surrounding targets. 

Greater Multiple Projectiles, otherwise known as GMP, will increase the number of arrows and Volley Support will do the same, but the arrows will come out in parallel to the original. We can also combine these together to do crazy things like this. 

Related: How I Made Tons Of Currency With Ease In POE 3.21? - Zero Investment Strategy

Gear Sockets

Gems sometimes have a drawback as well as a buff. For instance, GMP reduces the damage to the original scale whilst giving it the extra projectiles. 

Different pieces of gear have a differing number of maximum sockets. Most gear has a maximum of four except for body armor and items that go in weapon slots. Body armor as well as two-handed weapons can have up to 6-Linked sockets, whereas one-handed weapons and shields can only have three. This maximum does take a while to achieve and is based on the level of the item. Lower-level items will have fewer maximum slots.

How To Get Gear Links?

So, how do you get gear with the right sockets and links?

Initially, these will come from vendors in towns or from items that drop. If your vendor doesn’t have what you’re looking for, then check back later, as the fender will get some new items each time you’re level.

In previous leagues, this used to be a complete refresh. But as of POE 3.21, items will persist between levels, with only the oldest items being swapped out. If you’re lucky enough to drop an Orb of Binding early, this will allow you to take a normal item and turn it into a rare as well as giving it falling sockets. It will retain the colors already on the original gear and just add missing ones colored randomly. Do not use these on an item that is five or six linked or you may cry.

Later in the game, you’ll start it to have a mass enough POE Currency to be able to craft the sockets links and colors on your gear to make the gear the most optimal for your build. The Jeweler’s Orb will re-roll the number of sockets randomly. The Orb of Fusing will add random links and the Chromatic Orb will re-roll the colors.

Vendor Recipes 

There are vendor recipes for both the Chromatic Orb and the Jeweler’s Orb. 

For a Chromatic Orb, get any item that is red, green and blue linked. For the Jeweler’s orb, find any six socket item not linked and sell it to a vendor.

There are also currency vendors in Act 4 and Act 9 that will allow you to train Jeweler’s orbs for the other two. 

Later in the game, you can also drop powerful items that will have active and support gems built in. And any gems socketed in the item will be affected by or will affect them as if they were linked to them. 

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

Rabbit’s Revenge Event - Release Time & Rewards

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

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

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

How To Get These Rewards?

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

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

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

Three Spots To Grind Rabbits

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

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

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

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

New World Map

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

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

More Tips

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

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

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

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

Best Part Of Diablo 2

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

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

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

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

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

Best Part Of Diablo 3

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

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

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

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

Best Part Of Diablo 4

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

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

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

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

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

Worst Part Of Diablo 2

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

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

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

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

Worst Part About Diablo 3

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

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

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

Worst Part Of Diablo 4

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

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

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

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