New World is a MMORPG that’s had an interesting lifespan so far. During the beta phase, the red flags were obvious. The game released on September 2021 and was insanely fun until level 30 or so. Then, it fell off a cliff with many people discovering game breaking bugs turning the game into a meme goldmine overnight.

The devs didn’t give up. They went away and started addressing issues one by one, leading to the game having a major resurgence in player numbers for its first major update: Brimstone Sands in October 2022.

Since then, New World has been rather quiet. Over the course of the past year, it’s been losing players again month on month, which is mainly due to no new big content, other MMO releases, and players just running out of stuff to do.

Recently, New World has announced its first real expansion “Rise Of The Angry Earth”, which will bring massive fundamental changes to the game, increase the level and gearscore cap as well as finally add mounts to the game.

Here, I’m going to discuss everything you need to know about the new New World expansion as well as jump into the game now in its current state to prepare my character for the new content. Also, I will also show you what other cool changes have been added to the game over the past year.

Some Surprises About Returning To New World

The last time I played New World was during the PTR of the Brimstone Sands expansion. I didn’t actually play the game when the expansion fully launched because my main server was dead due to everyone playing fresh start and I really didn’t want to start again. I log into the game and I immediately see people spamming X EGG in chat, so I did the same thing and got invited to a 20 player raid group.

If you played more than a year ago, you’d know that you couldn’t make raid groups in New World previously. The max group size was 5 players, so straight away I was surprised and happy with this change. We basically went around the map in this group and did some seasonal daily event called the Siege of Sulfur where you protect eggs from waves of mobs and get good rewards.

Pretty cool and I’m a fan of any kinda content that brings players together in an MMO. Basically, within minutes of logging in, I was in a massive group of players doing massively multiplayer things.

Next, I wanted to finish getting all weapon masteries to level 20 to prepare for the new expansion. I only needed to level the Greatsword and Blunderbuss, so I looked online for the best strat. And the current best method is to go do a repeatable Thorpe event at the area in Great Cleave.

It was here where I stumbled upon another new addition to New World, Augments, which are basically boosters that you can buy off the cash shop. The most significant ones in my opinion are the Weapon XP and Gathering XP boosters, which basically double your XP. You’ve also got Season XP and Territory standing boosters, which do a similar thing and a proficiency booster, which increases your gathering yield by 10%.

If these boosters were in the game at launch, everyone would be complaining that they are pay to win and rightly so, I guess the games been out long enough at this point that most people have capped gathering and weapon masteries, anyway. So it’s not a big deal. Either way, I popped the weapon XP booster and got both weapons to 20 mastery super fast at the Thorpe spot.

Another nice change, if you hold control + C and left click, you can spam click to very quickly salvage all your crap. You’ll be doing this a lot during your time playing New World.

The next amazing change made to the game since the last time I played is the addition of multiple gear set loadouts. This was one of the most requested features to be added since launch and I’m happy to say it actually works very well except for one caveat.

The thing I love about New World’s gear set system is storing gear in these templates actually removes it from your inventory, which is nice because if you’ve got 3-4 different gear sets your bags would be an absolute mess otherwise. The caveat here is that if you want more than 2 gear set storage, you need to buy it off the cash shop for roughly $5.

I started working my way through the Brimstone Sands MSQ and realized I was earning Season XP, basically a Battle Pass you can work through, which gives various rewards such as furniture, skins, gypsum, currency and so on. Your typical battle pass, love it or hate it, it is what it is, at least it gives players at end game something to work through when they’ve completed everything else.

As I was questing through Brimstone Sands, there was a few things going through my mind:

1. The Greatsword feels way more fun and better designed than every other weapon in the game.
2. Visually, this game is still one of the best looking MMOs out and the sound effects are best in genre.
3. The general movement in New World feels so fucking scuffed at times that the game feels like it’s in alpha in some places.

Like you still can’t swim in New World, your attacks will very frequently just not register when hitting mobs. Relentless Rush with the Greatsword is a great example of this. It’s a double hit ability where 50% of the time only one hit will register.

Any form of slightly elevated terrain in a combat area will make your character desync and the actual running animation in this game feels so scuffed to me. The run animation looks faster than the speed you actually run, idk what it is, but it just looks off. Also, when you log into the game after playing other third person RPGs, you just feel like New World should have a sprint but it doesn’t. I kinda wish it did have a sprint, to be honest.

Right now, my biggest issue with the game is definitely movement, inconsistent combat, desync and certain animations. I continued questing through the Brimstone Sands, eventually fully completing every quest in the zone, including the side quests.

And I have to say that when it comes to questing, New World has come a very long way. This was notoriously dogshit for questing back at the game’s launch. Every quest was “Go to this POI, Loot Crates, Get Item, Run Half Way Across The Map and Repeat”.

But now, it’s much more varied. There’s some actual story and narrative interwoven into it. There are puzzles, climbing quests and more varied enemies. Quest rewards are actually decent now. The difference is night and day from launch and I actually consider New World’s questing to be pretty good nowadays.

Next, I did the Ennead dungeon and was quickly reminded that I do actually enjoy Dungeons in New World and think that in terms of visuals they’re some of the most epic looking dungeons in the MMO genre. I spent some time sorting through my storage and selling some stuff to free up space for the new expansion. If you haven’t played since launch storage in New World is all connected now rather than local to each town and city, which means storage management is much less of a pain in the ass nowadays.

Bags and tools now go up to legendary 600 GS and will probably go higher for the new expansion. So, I replaced my old blues with legendries, got a full set of instruments, made a gear set for healer, strength, dex and mage, then checked out another highly requested feature that’s finally been added to New World…...

A full transmog system comparable to games like Guild Wars 2 and World Of Warcraft, where you unlock the appearance of all dropped gear. Basically, to actually transmog gear, you need transmog tokens, which can be bought off the cash shop, 5 Tokens costs like $10. So, if you’re constantly changing your outfit, it’s not cheap. Just to clarify once you’ve unlocked something. Once you don’t need to spend more to reapply it again, it is permanently unlocked for you to use as a skin at any time. But for additional skins, you’ll need more tokens.

Something that instantly pissed me off with this system is that the preview window to actually view your appearance is dogshit and depending on the time of day like night time, for example. You can’t actually see the colors properly, which is annoying because you definitely want to get a good look at how your character will look before committing to spending New World Coins. AGS please improve the transmog character preview window.

After that, I solo queued some 3v3 PVP arena and despite never doing it before it was surprisingly less try hard and more fun than I expected. I’m glad I was able to solo queue this rather than manually find other players. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. It was enjoyable and rewarding enough that I’d definitely play it again. I spend a bit of time levelling up my music skill, which seems to have had the experience required per level reduced heavily since the last time I played the game.

And finally, I took on a seasonal 10 player boss, which wasn’t overly difficult. But it was fun because the rewards were good. The boss had a few mechanics, and it was easy to join a group for by Xing up in recruitment chat. It seems like New World is actually making a bit of a push to more traditional MMO style raid content.

As aside from the 10 player seasonal raid boss, there’s also a 20 player instanced Sand Worm raid boss that is the hardest boss in the game. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to do it yet as I can’t find a group. But it looks super cool, regardless.

New Upcoming Expansion - Rise Of The Angry Earth

Next, let’s discuss all the info you need to know about New World’s new upcoming expansion “Rise Of The Angry Earth”.

First of all, this expansion will release on October 3rd alongside Season 3 and will be a paid expansion costing $29.99. New players will be able to buy the base game + the expansion in a bundle for $69.99

This new expansion comes with a new zone. Remember “First Light?”, the zone south of windsward? Yeah, that zone no longer exists. It’s fallen to the angry earth and will be transformed to the Elysian Wilds, completely unrecognizable from the place it was before.

Mounts are finally being added to New World and come with a new trade skill called riding, which you’ll be able to level up for upgrades to speed, buffs and higher tier mount consumables. Mounts will come in the form of horses, dire wolves and lions initially, with more likely to be added over time. You’ll be able to name your mount and also deck it out in with customizable equipment, which will probably be sold on the cash shop.

A new weapon will be added to the game in the form of the Flail, which can be used either one had or with a shield. The flail will scale with strength and focus and had abilities that debuff and absorb ally damage, making it a solid choice as a secondary for both tanks and healers, from the sounds of it.

Progression in New World will also be changed quite a bit. You’ll be able to level up your character to 65. Gear score will now go up to item level 700, trade skills up to 250 and the devs are completely removing the expertise system, which means that there’s no tedious barrier to entry grind that new players will need to go through to get decent loot. The new zone will straight up drop gear that’s 625 or higher and the hardest content will drop the best gear, as it should.

There’s also going to be a new tier of faction gear, new faction questline and a new rarity of gear called “Artifacts”, which will need to be awakened via a questline up unlock up to 6 perks with one of them apparently being playstyle defining, which is quite interesting.

There’s also going to be a few revamps to the game. The most impactful one long-lasting one will be the removal of Ward, Bane and resilience stats on gear, which just wasn’t fun and I think this is an amazing change. And the main storylines of both Edengrove and Great Cleave will also be revamped.

Aside from that, the expansion brings with it a new level 62+ expedition, a new heart rune ability, a new season with events, such as nightveil hallow and the turkey terror and a bunch of other stuff.

Overall, after revisiting New World for a bit to prepare for the new expansion as well as looking into all the positive changes that will come with the expansion, I really think New World is heading firmly in the right direction and I’ve actually had a decent time so far returning to the game.

My main issue with New World is still that the movement and animation feels off sometimes as well as the inconsistency with attacks registering and the game still not having swimming.

But almost every other issue I’ve had with the game over the years has been resolved. And now, with the addition of mounts, improvements to progression, large-scale groups and transmog, the game seems better than ever. So, I do think it’s worth jumping back in for the New Expansion because even if you don’t stick around long term, you’ll likely get a few weeks of fun out of it at the very least.

Starfield’s massive open world has a lot going on with vast numbers of systems and mechanics constantly working together in the background, which in typical Bethesda Game Studios’ fashion, allows for an excellent sandbox playground that emphasizes freedom above all else.

From exploring uncharted planets and surveying alien flora and fauna to building outposts and more, there are numerous sandbox activities to dive into that let you have fun of your own making and at your own pace beyond the Frameworks of the game’s plethora of handcrafted content.

Space Piracy Intro

But out of all of those activities, the one that’s probably the most enjoyable is space piracy.

Being a pirate tends to be a blast in games more often than not, obviously. And stormfield puts very little restrictions on you if you aspire to be a ruthless pirate in space, leaving chaos in your wake as you fly out of a system with your cargo bay full of valuable Starfield Items that you’ve just acquired through less than legal means.

There are, of course, plenty of ways to be a rogue in the settled systems. But if a space pirate is specifically what you want to be, there are several things the game lets you do to that end.

Different Ways to be a Space Piracy

*The most obvious one and one that you’re likely going to end up doing anyway if you intend to do the faction quest lines is to join the Crimson Fleet, which is literally a faction of space pirates.

You do have to jump through some hoops before you’re formally inducted into the fleet. But once you do become a member and gain access to the full facilities on offer in the key, the Crimson Fleet’s headquarters, a lot of avenues open up for your space piracy goals.

Like smuggling Contraband for instance, that’s something that you’re going to want to do a lot of because of how profitable it tends to be. You can, as an example, head to Neon and buy large quantities of Aurora, a substance that’s illegal to possess in every place throughout the settled systems, except Neon itself. It can, however, also be sold for hefty amounts of Starfield Credits, especially if you sell in large quantities.

You always run the risk of getting caught by the authorities, of course, but the risk is often worth the reward. And if you do plan on hauling large amounts of illegal cargo to sell for large payouts, you should also be investing in the payload skill in the tech skill tree to increase your ship’s cargo capacity.

And this is where having access to the key comes in handy, because it allows you to evade the law much better. Anytime you enter a star system that’s in United Colonies or Freestar Collective territory, your ship will be scanned for Contraband and you can’t land your ship on a planet until you’ve cleared that scan.

Those scans are, of course, mighty effective and scarily efficient, which means you need to equip your vessel with certain shady equipment to help you evade those scans.

Installing a Shielded Cargo hold, for instance, will automatically boost your chances of evading scans. Meanwhile, you can also install Scan Blockers. Each of which gives you a further 10 boost. Both Shielded Cargo and Scan Blockers can be purchased and installed only at the key.

Also Read: Starfield: How to Quickly Obtain Razorleaf & Mantis Armor Set Early in the Game?

*Something else that you’ll want to invest in for your ship if you’re committed to a life of crime of piracy is a good grab drive.

If you’re hopping from system to system, even if you don’t intend to land on a planet in a system that’s just a stopover, you’re still going to be scanned as soon as you enter, which means that you’re going to need to initiate your next grab jump as quickly as you can.

Before you have a chance to fail the scan and turn the authority’s attention, a better grab drive that you can pump more power into lets you initiate a jump much quicker. So, definitely make sure you install one of those.

*And if you’re looking for opportunities to engage in some good old space piracy fun, there’s plenty of that to be found in Starfield.

For starters, you can pick missions from the Mission Board in the key, all of which are procedurally generated quests that task you with less than legal objectives, whether that’s destroying United Colony ships or stealing from civilian vessels.

Beyond that, you can just do that stuff yourself. Anytime you encounter a ship while flying out in space, you can inhale it to initiate a conversation, after which you get the option to demand them to empty their cargo hold. How things go from that point will depend entirely on how you handle the conversation that follows.

Though, by investing in the deception skill in the social tree, we'll make enemies much more pliable to your piracy demands. Additionally, this skill also makes Contraband scans less effective. So, it's definitely worth spending skill points on for all would-be space pirates.

Of course, it also goes without saying that as a space pirate, you'll be engaging in your fair share of dogfights from time to time. And beyond the obvious stuff, like installing better Shields or more Firepower, you can also invest in plenty of skills to give yourself the edge in ship combat, all of which are found in the tech tree.

There is the Targeting Control System for instance, which unlocks the ability to target and lock on enemy ships, making your missiles deadlier and more effective, while the Shield System skill increases your ship's shield capacity and at the highest rank occasionally also lets you resist 100 of all damage taken from an attack.

The Ballistic Weapon Systems and Energy Weapon System skills are also useful skills that you can unlock early on, while on the steeper end by which point you'll probably be much deeper into the game. You can also upgrade your Automated Weapon Systems, Electromagnetic Weapon Systems, and Missile Weapon Systems.

*If you're just looking to engage in some light space piracy, then you're going to be able to get by without spending skill points in most of these. But if a life of crime is something that you intend to dive headfirst into, you're probably going to be locking horns with plenty of beefy heavily armed vessels, in which case these upgrades are going to be massively useful.

Ultimately, one thing that cannot be stressed enough is that Starfield works overtime to let you live out your space fantasy. And if your space fantasy is to be a ruthless thieving law violating pirate, there are plenty of tools at your disposal here to do just that.

Recently, I have made guides for Path of Exile 3.22’s Ruthless mode. And here, I want to teach you how to create a different version of the Hinekora Righteous Fire build.

When I was mapping on my Hinakora Righteous Fire building, I came to realize that I had invested so much POE Currency into making Righteous Firework that it was unnecessary.

The build felt like it was an actual caster build and that Righteous Fire was just a meme that I’d added on top of it. So, instead, I designed and created this Hinakora Shaman.

Hinekora Shaman

This build is so solid that you can even play it as either cold or lightning. I wanted to push it as far as I could, so I experimented by leveling it up using Wintertide Brand. And even then, the leveling experience was a breeze.

However, due to the resistance ignoring power of the Ramako Ascendancy in the end, it’s far better to keep the build this fire, so that’s what I’m showing you today.

It will work if you want to do something else. But your ability to progress deep in maps will be limited unless you can find relevant support gems that will penetrate for whatever your Elemental Damage type is.

You also can play the build with just Fireball and Flame Wall. But you’ll likely find that your AOE clear speed will be lacking. I would recommend using your first Uncarved Gemstone to pick up either Firestorm, Incinerate, or Flame Blast as a complement to both Fireball and Flame Wall to make your AOE clear speed as fast as possible.

How to Acquire Skill Gems?

If you want to create a Hinekora Shaman, your first task is to make a farm Witch and take her as far as finishing the ‘Breaking Some Eggs’ quest in the mud flats.

This will give you Fireball, Flame Wall, and your choice of either Raise Zombie or Freezing Pulse is temporary filler spells. You also get the extra POE flasks I see a lot of players forgetting.

Please remember that you can sell three small life flasks for one medium life flask and start using it as soon as level 3.

Once you’ve transferred everything to your stash, go ahead and create your Hinekora Shaman Marauder.

Intelligence

You may remember that there was some real nasty pathing that you had to do in order to get your Marauder enough intelligence to use his skill gems.

While it is still slightly beneficial to transfer a Lapis Amulet, in this build, it’s unnecessary. You’ll eventually need to find about 40 intelligence from your gear, but that’s not until the endgame.

And if you want, you can instead spend three passive points to, take the notable skills: Deep Wisdom and Deep Thoughts. This will help your Mana, but it will more importantly solve your intelligence problem entirely for just the cost of three additional passive points and that can all be done after you complete the campaign.

In this build, your intelligence problem completely goes away.

Related: My Ruthless Starter Build for Path of Exile 3.22 - Slam Duelist

Passive Tree

Leveling with the Hinekora Shaman, you take a different approach to solving the intelligence problem as you level.

Early on, you’re simply gonna head straight to Templar college and then keep going to which grad school. With this method, you’ll have far more than enough intelligence to use and level up your skills.

The only annoyance is that you can’t equip Flame Wall until about level 10. That’s it.

This build is a full league starter build that works great as your first character if you want to try out Ruthless mode in POE 3.22.

Eventually, around level 60 or so, you will need to fix your early pathing. When you first level up and you path up to the Templar area, you’re going to use the path on the left. But in the final build, you want to be using the path on the right instead.

All this means is that starting around level 55 or so, you’ll want to double up your pathing on the left, connecting the Devotion cluster to the Barbarism cluster.

Once you are connected on both the left and the right, you’re going to use the passive refund points earned through the campaign to refund the leveling pathing that you used and then you’re done with your pathing.

Ascendancies

For your ascendancies, you’re going to be using Hinekora, Tesalio, and Ramaco.

I tried taking Hinekora first and while it did help, I ran into resistance problems in Acts 6 and 7. I would recommend taking to Tesalio first, then Hinekora with your second ascendancy and then Ramaco before you hit the endgame.

If and when you can finish the Eternal Labyrinth, you would take Valako, Storm’s Embrace.

Endgame Progression

As you progress into the endgame on your Hinekora Shaman, you have three choices.

Choice number 1 is to use this cluster jewel socket that would be best, but of course requires that you have a cluster jewel.

Choice number 2 would be to focus on your offense, developing upward into the Templar area so that you can take Holy Fire and Purity of Flesh.

And choice number 3 instead is to focus on your defense and your life where instead of developing up you’re going to develop downward into the Marauder area so that you can take Bloodless and Soul of Steel.

Conclusion

If you wish to unleash the power of Hinekora, you can play this Hinekora Shaman and become the erupting volcano. You will engulf rayclast in flames and purify everything in the names of your ancestors. And when you hit the endgame, you won’t just work on the atlas, you’ll burn through it.

In this guide, we’re going to be looking at the mechanics behind the Ghost King boss fight and what you need to do to survive them.

This main game boss has the most health of the current three, can deal heavy True Magic Damage, and has an instant kill mechanic. So, it’s recommended that on your first fight, you bring along a team healing class, such as a Cleric or Bard.

Abilities

Let’s jump right into the boss’s abilities.

The Ghost King has a total of 5 damaging moves and a stacking debuff called the Curse of Chilling, which you’ll need to pay attention to throughout the fight.

1. Orb Attack

The first ability we will look at is the Orb Attack, which may be used at any time.

During this fight, the Ghost King will wind up shortly, then send out a fan of five orbs in the direction of the targeted player. Each of these orbs will deal 30 True Magic Damage and apply one stack of Chilling. This attack may be dodged by circling closely around the Ghost King or even ducked under.

If you’re at longer range, you can stand in between the projectiles or try to time your jump to jump over them since they’re affected by gravity and will arc downwards.

The orbs will also be blocked by the environment features. So, with correct positioning, you may hide behind the entrance walls. If a player does happen to get hit by the Orb Attack, the Ghost King will heal for 30 health and spawn a fight-long curse pool at the player’s location.

Standing in this pool will quickly give you stacks of chilling, so try your best to avoid entering them.

2. Teleport Attack

The second ability we will look at is the Teleport Attack.

The Ghost King will teleport to a player and spawn a curse pool at the arriving location. If you’re standing at the arrival location, you’ll take 20 True Magic Damage, be knocked back, and gain one Curse of Chilling stack.

Again, these curse pools will last the entire fight. Do your best to group them and keep the arena open.

Also Read: Dark And Darker: A Solo Cleric PVE Gold Farming Build Centered Around Holy Purification

3. Earthquake Slam (Slam)

The next ability is the Earthquake (Slam).

The Ghost King will teleport back to the center of the map and rise to the ceiling. After a brief moment, the Ghost King will then slam into the ground and spawn three skull bats. Any players that fail to jump when the Ghost King slams will be killed.

To properly dodge the Earthquake, pay attention to the slight hop that the Ghost King performs while in the air and jump immediately after that. Do not attempt to anticipate the jump. Just react as you’ll not need to worry about any other fight mechanics during this move.

4. Ghost King’s Scream

Next, we have the Ghost King’s Scream.

This is where the Curse of chilling stacks come into play. The Ghost King will pause all moves, hunch over, and let out an arena wide screen. That will deal 10 True Magic Damage. Each Curse of Chilling stack that you have will multiply this value.

So, you’ll need to pay close attention to your status effect icon bar throughout the fight.

The duration of the Curse of Chilling is only 8 seconds long. So, if you’re picking up stacks, just stow your weapons away and keep dodging around until the debuffs expire.

As a general rule, avoid going past four stacks and you’ll be fine. If you’re above 10 stacks, be prepared to leave the arena or ask for help from your Cleric as a Curse of Chilling may be cleansed.

The Ghost King’s Scream ability will be activated at every 20% hp loss from the boss or immediately after a player is killed. So, back-to-back screams may occur.

5. Eating (Feast)

The final ability is Ghost King's Eating or Feast move.

Here, the Ghost King will gain a temporary shield and pursue a player. If they catch their target or any player that walks in front of them, they'll inflict a route and deal 10 True Magic Damage per second. This move in particular would not apply any Curse of Chilling stacks, but still should be avoided as this move alone may be lethal.

If you do have a Cleric on your team, they may cleanse you out of this ability.

Here is a small tip: weapon on hit slows will still apply to the Ghost King during this move. You can use Dark and Darker Gold to buy a good weapon to help you deal damage. So, you can help out your teammate by attacking the boss while they're getting chased.

Conclusion

In summary, we have the Orb Attack that applies the Curse of Chilling and spawns a curse pool on hit.

We have the Teleport Attack, which knocks back applies Curse of Chilling and also spawns a curse pool at the location.

We have the Earthquake (Slam), which has a 60 second cooldown and must be jumped to survive on this one. Just remember to look out for the in-air hop.

We have the Ghost King's Scream, which deals in arena wide 10 True Magic Damage and is increased by each Curse of Chilling stack. This particular move is triggered at every 20% hp lost or one of our players killed.

And finally, we have the Eating or Feast ability in which the Ghost King will chase a player and deal a damaging route if they are caught.

Just a final reminder: this route as well as any number of Curse of Chilling stacks may be cleansed.

On high roller mode, all abilities will deal an initial 50% damage. Now, you know all the Ghost King's moves and abilities.

Are you ready to unleash the fun in FIFA 23’s Player Career Mode? You’re in the right place. Because today, we’re going to show you how to become the ultimate Goalscoring Striker.

We’re talking about netting, those beautiful goals that make the crowd go wild. Whether you’re a seasoned FIFA player or just starting out, we’ve got some expert tips that will help you improve your game and have more fun while doing it. So, grab your controller and let’s dive right in.

Tip 1: The Art Of Finishing

Our first tip is all about mastering the Art of Finishing.

This is the key to scoring in any situation. It’s not just about getting the ball on target, but knowing how to outsmart the Goalkeeper and put the ball in the back of the net.

Driven Shots

One of the most effective ways to finish is with a Driven Shot.

This is a low hard shot aimed at the corners of the goal. It’s particularly effective when you’re one on one with the Goalkeeper.

To execute a Driven Shot instead of filling up the power bar, you just give the button to shoot a little tap. This will keep the ball low and increase the chances of it finding the back of the net.

Finesse Shots

Next, let’s talk about Finesse Shots. These are perfect for when you’re in front of goal and need to curl the ball around the Goalkeeper.

To execute a Finesse Shot, you’ll want to hold down the Finesse Shot button while powering up your shot. The key here is to aim for the far post, curling the ball around the keeper.

Power Shots

Finally, if you find yourself with some space in the Box, don’t be afraid to unleash a Power Shot. This is a high risk high reward strategy. But when executed correctly, it can result in some spectacular goals.

To execute a Power Shot, you’ll want to power up your shot. And then, when your player is about to hit the ball, press the button again.

Remember, timing and accuracy are crucial here. Manual aiming also comes into the equation here. So, aim carefully.

Remember, practice makes perfect spend some time in the Practice Arena, working on these shots from different angles and situations. Before you know it, you’ll be scoring goals like a pro.

Tip 2: Positioning

Our second tip is all about Positioning.

Being in the right place at the right time can make all the difference when it comes to scoring goals. It’s not just about being near the goal, but understanding the flow of the game and anticipating where the ball is going to be.

Know When To Stay Away

Sometimes, the best thing you can do as a Striker is to stay away from the ball. This might sound counter-intuitive, but by doing so, you can create space for yourself and your teammates.

This is especially effective when your team is in possession and building an attack. By staying away from the ball, you can draw Defenders away creating gaps for your teammates to exploit.

Know When To Go And Get The Ball

On the other hand, there are times when you need to go and get the ball

This is especially true when your team is on the counterattack or when you see an opportunity to exploit a gap in the defense. In these situations, making a well-timed run to get the ball can put you in a prime position to score.

Well Timed Runs

The key to good positioning is anticipation and awareness.

Keep an eye on the ball, but also pay attention to the movement of your teammates and the Defenders. Look for gaps in the defense and make your move at the right time.

And remember, practice makes perfect. Spend some time in the Practice Arena, working on your positioning and making runs from different angles and situations.

Also Read: Everything You Need To Know About EA Sports FC 24 - Questions Answered

Tip 3: Long Shots

Our third tip is all about Long Shots. These are the goals that really get the crowd on their feet.

But scoring from outside the Box requires a good understanding of when to go for power and when to go for finesse.

Go For Power When In Space

When you have a clear sight of goal and some space, going for power can be a great option.

To execute a powerful Long Shot, you’ll want to power up your shot to three quarters of the power bar and aim for the top corners of the goal.

Remember, timing and accuracy are crucial here.

Go For Finesse From Angles

On the other hand, when you’re at an angle or the Goalkeeper is off his line, a Finesse Shot can be the better option.

To execute a Finesse Long Shot, you’ll want to hold down the Finesse Shot button while powering up your shot.

The key here is to aim for the far post, curling the ball around the keeper.

Power Of The Outside Of The Foot Shots

And let’s not forget about using the outside of the foot. This is a very useful technique in FIFA 23, especially when you’re at an angle to the goal.

To execute an outside of the foot shot, you’ll want to aim your shot at the far post.

Using the outside of the foot will give the shot an incredible curve and dip. This will catch goalkeepers off guard and result in some spectacular goals.

Tip 4: Understanding The Goalkeeper

Our fourth tip is all about understanding the Goalkeeper knowing how they react and position themselves can give you the upper hand when it comes to scoring goals.

Near Or Far Post

One of the most important things to pay attention to is the positioning of the Goalkeeper.

Are they standing near the near post or the far post? Are they off their line or hugging the goal line?

On Goal Line Or In Front Of Goal Line

Recognizing these situations can help you decide what type of shot to use.

For example, if the Goalkeeper is standing near the near post, a Finesse shot to the far post can be a great option. On the other hand, if the Goalkeeper is off their line, a Chip Shot can catch them off guard. And, if the Goalkeeper is hugging the goal line, a powerful shot to the top corner can be hard to stop.

Tip 5: Scoring On The Counter

Finally, we're going to talk about scoring on the counter.

Fast break goals can be a game changer, but they require quick thinking and understanding the qualities and skills of the player you control.

Know Your Qualities

If you're controlling a fast player, your best bet is to go deep and ask for the ball. If you don't have this kind of player yet, you can use FUT 23 Coins to purchase one.

Use your speed to get behind the defense and create a one-on-one situation with the Goalkeeper. To ask for the ball, you'll want to press the appropriate button on your controller.

If you're a good passer, you should focus on setting up the counter. Look for your teammates making runs and try to play them in with a well-timed pass.

Remember, a good counterattack is all about speed and precision. And if you're a little slower but a great finisher, you should stay away at the setup of the counter and just make sure you are there to finish it off. Position yourself in the Box and get ready to receive the ball.

When the ball comes your way, use your finishing skills to put it in the back of the net.

With the launch of Official Hardcore Servers on Classic Era, I think it’s time to cover what’s different on these Official Hardcore Servers, compared to the version of Hardcore we have been playing in the past with the addon.

So, here, I will cover the major differences between the addon and the official hardcore servers, as they do not follow the same rules and are actually very different from one another.

Grouping

Let’s start with Solo / Duo / Leveling in a Group.

With the Hardcore addon, if you wanted to be in a duo or a trio, you had to be online at the same time, and level together from start to finish. There were several rules in place such as you’re not allowed to be in different zones, basically meaning you had to duo with the same person from level 1 to level 60 and always play together.

On the Official Hardcore Servers, you are free to Solo, Duo, or Trio whenever you want. You can invite whoever you want to your group whenever you want. You could, for example, group up in a 5-man group from level 1-10 and just focus on kill-quests, then split up at level 10 and then solo the rest of the way until level 60. And if you suddenly meet someone you want to duo with for a couple of hours, you can do that as well.

Basically, you are no longer locked into being a Solo, Duo or Trio Character upon starting. Because with the Addon, if you chose to be in a Duo, you were stuck in that Duo. On the upcoming Hardcore Servers, you’re more free to pick and choose throughout your journey.

So basically, Grouping was very restricted before, but now you’re free to group up when you want to.

Dungeons

Now, let’s talk about Dungeons.

With the Hardcore Addon and the Solo Self Found Ruleset, we were only allowed to do one singular run of every dungeon until we hit level 60. This could be very annoying, as a singular mistake, and losing one person could mean you miss out on the entire dungeon. Because if you lose 1 person in, for example, Zul’Farrak or Maraudon, finishing such a high level dungeon with only 4 people can be incredibly difficult and is often a risk not even worth taking on Hardcore.

This could mean you miss out on an entire dungeon because of a mistake someone else makes. And not only that but some dungeon quests were borderline impossible to do with only one run: Like for example the Stormwind Stockades Bandanas Quest, or the Zul’Farrak Mojo Quest, basically quests where you loot mobs for an item with less than 100% drop chance, and even Wailing Caverns with the Deviate Hides, though those could be farmed on the outside.

In these cases, players would literally /roll for who got to complete their quests. And if you lost the roll, you would not be able to complete your quest, which feels kinda weird.

On top of that, you also have dungeons, like Uldaman, which heavily encourages you to do multiple runs of the dungeon in order to complete every quest, although it is technically doable in one instance-run if you time it to perfection.

On the Official Hardcore Servers, all of this annoyance is removed, as we can now do several dungeon runs while leveling, although there has been one modification in order for people not to just spam Dungeon Cleaves like they did in 2019 when Classic WoW came out.

Dungeons now have a 24 hour reset timer from level 1 to 59, meaning this timer is lifted once you hit level 60, so you can freely farm dungeons. But this means while leveling, dungeons will have a daily lockout and you can run every dungeon once per day.

One more change they have made to dungeons is that mobs inside dungeons give 50% less experience, but bosses give a lot more experience than usual.

Basically, they have taken 50% of the mob experience throughout the dungeon and put it into bosses, which is done for two main reasons: Mobs inside the dungeons do reset over time, but bosses have a 24 hour reset timer. And it also encourages people to focus on killing bosses and doing the higher dungeon rather than just AoE farming mobs inside dungeons for experience.

Trading

Next up then, the use of Mailboxes, Auction House and Trading. I’ve chosen to throw all of this into one place, as it all pretty much boils down to one thing: Trading.

Sending a mail between players is essentially trading something, you’re just doing it via mails. Same thing with the Auction House, so it’s all Trading.

On Classic Era with the Hardcore Addon, Trading was not allowed, even for things, such as Mage Food or Mage Water, or Warlock Healthstones. Basically, no trading whatsoever.

On the Official Hardcore Servers, this rule will be lifted and you are free to Trade, use the Auction House, and use the mailbox. I think this is a good thing, because you have another way to make WoW Classic Hardcore Gold.

But what I will say is, all the rules we had in place with the Hardcore Addon, made it so you were pretty much forced to play in one very specific and restrictive way.

And without being allowed to Group, Trade, send mails or use the Auction House, it is a very “Solo” experience. It is definitely more challenging, but is also a lot less social, and Blizzard have verbally stated they want to focus more on the Social Element than the Challenging Element, which I think is great.

The essence of these servers being Hardcore already is quite challenging in itself, and too challenging for most people, considering if they lose a level 60 character, a lot of people simply won’t bother going again.

Also Read: WoW Classic Hardcore: An Elwynn Forest Survival Guide

Class Abilities

There are also a couple of small changes, such as Class-Abilities, which were previously prohibited or the use of certain items.

Number one here would be the Paladin Bubble-Hearth, which was technically not allowed with the Hardcore Addon, but there were a couple of work-arounds. But on the Official Hardcore Server, there will simply be a restriction in place to where Paladins physically cannot use their Hearthstone while under the Protection Effect.

However, nothing has been stated about the Light of Elune plus Hearthstone, so there might be a big favor for the Alliance here.

With the Hardcore Addon, we were also not allowed to use the Auto-Unstuck Features in order to Teleport to Major Cities, and this restriction will not be there on Official Hardcore Servers.

For most people, this won’t really matter much. But for example, as a Night Elf, this means you can use the Auto Unstuck Feature to teleport to Ironforge instead of having to walk through Wetlands, or swim to Westfall, so it definitely has some practical uses.

Minor Changes

Now, let’s talk about some minor things that might not directly impact your gameplay, but are pretty huge changes overall.

- With the Hardcore Addon, we had an Appeal System. On the Official Hardcore Server, we will not have an Appeal System. This means if you die because of a disconnect, your run is over. But, Blizzard have done a lot of work in the back-end to atleast make it so you disconnect as little as possible from the game itself. But if you have terrible internet connection, there’s really not a lot Blizzard can do.

A lot of people have speculated that they could have added a disconnect-protection-mechanic where if you disconnect, you get a protective bubble around your character until you come back in. But believe me, that could be abused and would be just as terrible as anything else.

Imagine if we had such a system, I could just install a flip switch for my internet router next to my PC on a foot-pedal and if I’m ever close to die or in an oh-shit situation, I could just hit that switch and disconnect and get a protective bubble around my character.

- There will be a lot less griefing on the Official Hardcore Server than we had on Classic Era with the Addon. With the Addon on Classic Era, we had people stand on flightmasters with PVP enabled players naming themselves after mobs and forcing you to target them. Basically, people just forcing you into PVP combat then griefing you.

On the Official Hardcore Servers, you have to physically opt in to PVP by typing /pvp in order to get PVP flagged, so that the entire category of griefing is now disabled.

We also saw people drag elite mobs such as Teremus all the way to Stormwind and Elwynn Forest, and mobs will now have a kite-leash-cap, meaning if you try to kite a mob more than 500 yards away, it will reset. So, in this example, kiting Teremus out of Blasted Lands would end up resetting Teremus.

On the other hand, there is a new category of griefs, which Blizzard really can’t to anything about, and that is “Social Griefing” by players pretending to be your friend, joining your dungeon group or raid, then wiping the entire group.

The TGP Dragonflight Season 2 has concluded and Echo won the Global Finals with a phenomenal performance. Here, I will be going over the Highlights of their World Record 31 Freehold run.

You can learn some tactics through my commentary, so that you can deal with some bosses in WoW Dragonflight more easily and farm more WoW Dragonflight Gold or loot.

Dungeon Start

Right before the key starts, the players without stealth or invisibility use an Invisibility Potion to skip past the first few trash packs, so they can commit bloodlust and all CDs for the double Irontide Enforcer pull.

This pull is very dangerous on a high fortified key because of the Enforcers Shattering Bellow cast, one shotting players from 100% to 0 if they don’t use strong defensive CDs.

After they’re done with this pull, they backtrack and pick up another few trash packs to recover their offensive and defensive CDs for the boss. They focus down the Crackshot, because it’s a hunter-type mob that is very hard to move.

Once it’s dead and their CDs are back up, they drag the rest of the trash with them and engage the boss.

Skycap'n Kragg

Skycap’n Kragg is the most volatile boss in this dungeon for this keylevel.

The main problem is phase 1, which lasts until they pushed the boss to 75% hp.

In this phase, the boss is mounted on his parrot Sharkbait and casts Pistol Shot on random players in the group. This ability does around 720000 fire damage on this key level. It is not telegraphed and it can hit the same player multiple times in a row.

Without multiple defensives, the players get one shot from 100 to 0. Additionally, players have to be healed back up to 100% hp immediately after a shot, otherwise they will die to a follow up shot.

Phase 2 is a lot easier for them, but they still have to make sure to not have multiple players get hit by Azerite Powder Shot. And Zaelia is baiting Sharkbaits Vile Bombardment away from the group, while also avoiding the initial damage from the ability with Blessing of Freedom and movement speed abilities.

After the boss is dead, they skip the Irontide Enforcer at the start of the bridge with a pretty cool trick. Gingi mounts up on a 3 seater mount, both Meeres and Zaelia jump on the mount and Clickz is rescuing them onto the bridge, past the Enforcer, while Naowh is using wild charge and stealth to skip the mob.

Next, they gather up a lot of neutral mobs and the trash packs in the next boss area. They focus down the Bilge Rat Brinescale because it’s a caster and they don’t want to deal with it during the boss fight.

Council o' Captains

Once it’s dead, they drag the rest of the trash on top of Eudora and Raoul.

The start of this fight is pretty difficult for them because they still have trash mobs up, one of them being a Trapper. So, they have to deal with rat traps being thrown onto them periodically, while also worrying about Eudoras Powder Shot and Grapeshot.

The rat traps can be cleared by Naowh, because bear form makes him immune to the root, but Naowh has to prioritize the bosses and trashes positioning, because he wants to move them into Caustic Freehold Brew, which is the “green swirly” applying a heavy dot to all enemies or players standing within it.

Eudoras Powder Shot does physical damage and can be pretty dangerous for the cloth wearers in their comp, so they have to space out their defensive cds really well or utilize the pillars in the room to line of sight the ability. Zaelia is using his Blessing of Freedom to remove the Blackout barrel from whomever it lands on.

Also Read: WoW Dragonflight 10.1.5: How To Master The Shadow Priest? - Stats, Talents, Rotation & Enchants

Once Eudora is dead, they are chaining more mobs into Raoul, because the boss isn’t as dangerous anymore and they want to utilize the Brews to finish off more enemy forces.

Clickz is using rescue to jump up the hill and pull a trash pack, while Gingi is moving to the back and adding another 2 trash packs.

The boss dies after 5 mins and 22 seconds. They dealt with 27% enemy forces and the boss within that time.

Now Gingi is moving towards the Ring of Booty to talk to the NPC to activate the RP. While Gingi is on his mission, Naowh is preparing for one of the biggest trash pulls of their run. Naowh is gathering 29 total mobs for this pull, the rest of the team jumps up on a building to avoid getting hit by Duelist charges and Oarsman Sea Spouts.

This strategy was first used by NA’s Last Hope, the 2nd place team, and then adopted by the other TGP teams. They commit their 2nd Bloodlust of the dungeon for this pull. It’s very difficult for Naowh to survive the insane amount of damage all of these mobs do to him and the rest of the team has to worry about the Plague Step from the Bilge Rat Padfoots. They do heavy initial dmg and leave a disease on the players, doing nature damage and reducing healing taken by 25%.

Even though they have both Zaelia on the paladin and Meeres on the Priest that can dispel disease on a short cd, they also have to worry about dispelling the afflicted affix. This is why they are committing Dwarf Racials and heavy defensive cds for this pull.

Ring of Booty

Once they're done, they move to the Ring of Booty.

They catch the pig and gather up 3 Crushers while waiting for Ludwig to spawn.They pull another trash pack into the boss but still focus Ludwig to make sure Trothak spawns faster.

There is a lot to dodge for the players, as they have to avoid getting hit by the Shells from Ludwig, the Crushers Ground Shatter and Boulder Throw while later also kiting the Sharks on Trothak.

They then finish off Trothak and are ready to move to the final boss area. Meeres uses Mind Soothe on a couple of packs so they can walk up the bridge, while Naowh stealths ahead to get into position to pull a trash pack onthe boss.

They then use the 3 seater mount and rescue-tech again to skip the last trash packs. While Naowh is pulling the last enemy forces they need, Gingi pulls the pack that is linked to the boss. Then, Naowh engages the boss and Gingi uses Invisibility to reset the trash they don’t Harlan Sweete want to fight.

Harlan Sweete

Phase 1 of isn’t as difficult as the later phases, so they can finish off the trash without having to worry too much.

Once the boss enters phase 2 at 60%, they have finished off all the mobs except the Oarsman that dies shortly after. Now they have to space out their defensive CDs properly to survive the Whirling Daggers and the Cannon Barrage being applied to the whole group.

They also saved their Bloodlust for their last set of 2-minute CDs to finish off the boss and time the 31 Freehold as the only team to do so in the Dragonflight Season 2 TGP Finals!

Of course, these strategies are incredibly risky and really well executed, so huge shout out to Echo for pulling off the victory this weekend, amazing job!

Here, I want to go over everything we currently know about the mechanic and rewards of Path of Exile 3.22 Trial of the Ancestors League, as well as the implications this league mechanic will have on, what build you should play, the league’s economy, and Atlas strategies.

That way, you can jump into the league with everything you need to hit the ground running!

Matches & Tournaments

First up, let’s go over everything we know about the league mechanic.

Trial of the Ancestors, which I’ll be referring to as “Trials” from now on, is an autobattler-inspired league mechanic. You’ll be recruiting and upgrading Warriors over the course of a tournament, strategically placing your team at the start of each match to counter the enemy team.

Each position you can play a Warrior has an associated role, which determines how that Warrior behaves in battle. Some will have them on the offense, others on the defense, as well as other specialized roles.

Unlike a traditional autobattler, you will fight alongside your team, much like how Blight is a tower defense game where you fight alongside your towers.

Each Warrior, including the player, has a totem that they revive at a short time after being defeated. If a totem is destroyed, that Warrior instantly dies, and will no longer respawn for the duration of the match. The goal of each match is to destroy all of the enemy team’s totems before your totems are destroyed.

Each match represents a single game in a larger tournament. These tournaments are double elimination. You can lose once without getting knocked out. But after two losses, you have to start over in a new tournament.

Before each match, you’ll get to view each team and what the reward for beating that team is. You then pick your opponent, and pay the entry fee – one Silver Coin, per match.

In addition to the rewards you get from winning each match, you get additional rewards for successfully winning the entire tournament.

Many of the best rewards seem to be exclusively available from tournament wins, so you definitely want to make sure you’re winning the whole thing!

Every time you win a tournament, your ranking will increase. The better your ranking, the higher the difficulty and the better the rewards of future tournaments.

It’s likely that consistently winning and being able to do extremely high-ranking tournaments will be the most profitable way to farm Trials.

Favour & Teambuilding

In between matches, you will get to spend tribe-specific Favour that you receive from winning matches, to recruit new Warriors for your team, and to purchase Equipment and Field Items.

There are a total of 10 different tribes, and each has a different selection of Warriors and Equipment for sale. Mixing and matching will probably be key to creating a strong team.

Field Items can be placed on the battlefield the same way a Warrior can, and serve as single use consumables that you can activate by clicking on them, to get a beneficial effect when you need it most in a match.

Equipment is given to your Warriors, to enhance their abilities. Based on the Equipment GGG has previewed, these POE Items are not simple stat boosts, but are often transformative in nature. For instance, the equipment Dying Roar makes your Warrior explode on death.

Figuring out what Equipment to buy, and what Warrior and Role to use that equipment on will probably be key to victory. For instance, the explosion on death equipment probably combines well with a tanky character, perhaps on a defensive role where they will be fighting enemy Warriors

All of these progression mechanics - Warriors, Field Items and Equipment, are tournament-specific progression only. None of them carry over. You start every new tournament from scratch.

Skill Point Tattoos

So, what are the rewards from doing all this, anyway?

Well, the Trial of the Ancestors League has some pretty spicy new rewards. The first of which are Tattoos.

Tattoos are a new consumable item, which can replace attribute passives on your Skill Tree.

So, for instance, you can overwrite a +10 strength travel node with one that gives 8% Fire Resistance, or another that gives 1% Mana Reservation Efficiency.

These tattoos are permanently applied to the skill point, unless you use an Orb of Scouring or overwrite them with another tattoo. These tattoos offer an incredible amount of power to min-max your character build to levels never seen before!

Every single build needs to take some number of travel nodes. In the past, there really hasn’t been anything you can do about that. But now, you’ll be able to turn all of those travel nodes into far more useful stats. I expect some of these tattoos to be very pricey.

Also Read: 10 Easy Ways To Make Currency On The First Few Days Of POE 3.22 Trial Of The Ancestors League

Omens

Another new type of consumable item available from the Trial of the Ancestors League is Omens.

Omens are automatically triggered and consumed from your inventory upon meeting some trigger condition. For example, one of the Omens previewed creates a portal on death, and another gives you Soul Eater upon leveling up.

While some of these seem marginally useful for mapping, the real money here is in the rare ones, such as the Omen of Fortune, which guarantees your next orb of chance will upgrade an item to a unique.

In order to prevent players from feeling like they need to fill their inventory with Omens, there’s a restriction of only one Omen being able to trigger per zone.

Hinekora’s Lock

The final reward available is a powerful new endgame crafting currency, Hinekora’s Lock.

Hinekora’s Lock has a very unusual effect. It allows you to “foresee” the result of the next currency item used on it.

It’s unclear exactly what this means, and people have different interpretations. Some claim that you have to actually use the currency item, like an Eternal Orb, whereas others believe you’ll be able to see what the outcome would be without actually using it.

Regardless of how it ends up working, one thing is clear: this is an incredibly powerful crafting option that rivals the power of the Eternal Orb. And the Eternal Orb was removed from Path of Exile for being simply too powerful at crafting.

Hinekora’s Lock will end up having a very similar effect. With enough Hinekora’s Locks, you will be able to deterministically craft, getting the exact outcome you want at every step. If it foresees an outcome you don’t like, you simply change the item’s quality, use another Hinekora’s Lock, and check again.

I expect that all of the most powerful items created in the Trial of the Ancestors League will rely heavily upon the use of Hinekora’s Lock. Regardless of how rare or common it ends up being, this will be a chase reward worth many Divine Orbs.

Build Considerations

So, now that you know everything there is to know, the question remains: what should you do to best prepare for the Trial of the Ancestors League?

Well, as far as builds go, it’s likely that strong, single target ranged DPS builds will be king in Trials tournaments. Being able to quickly burst down Warriors and Totems will allow you to simply delete the enemy team, without having to overly rely on the rest of your team.

In addition, POE 3.22 marks the return of the Sanctum league mechanic, which is a league mechanic, and also incentivizes strong single-target DPS builds.

Another consideration is that you may want to pass on playing a stat-stacker. Stat stacking builds won’t be able to take advantage of tattoos in the ways other builds will, and might end up falling short in terms of character power this league. Or at the very least, you’ll miss out on the fun of playing with the new character progression mechanics.

Atlas Considerations

As far as your Atlas and Farming strategies go, it’s worth noting that the new Maven keystone also incentivizes single-target DPS. Boss killers may find that they thrive in this league.

Other than that, something I want to highlight is the way that you interact with the league mechanic. You spend Silver Coins to play matches, but these Silver Coins are just regular POE drops.

As far as we know, they aren’t limited to one per zone or come from special league chests, or anything like that. It’s worth emphasizing just how unusual this is.

GGG hasn’t done a league mechanic like this in years. The last time they had a league mechanic that you started through regular drops off of enemies was Legacy league in 2017, over 6 years ago.

The reason why they normally don’t do this and what makes this so interesting is that it means the amount of Silver Coins you find will scale with player and area Item Quantity, as well as pack size. This means that you have the ability to specialize in farming Silver Coins by magic finding. And some players will be able to farm Silver Coins at absolutely obscene rates.

My understanding is that the current go-to strategy for magic finding is to use the strongbox sextant with the Wandering Path.

It’s worth noting that even though Strongboxes aren’t on the map device this league, the new “Seventh Gate” keystone will allow you to add strongboxes to the map device. And if you go for this niche strategy, you may be able to farm a fortune in Silver Coins, even if you don’t engage with the league mechanic directly.

Other than that, my last observation is that because Hinekora’s Lock only works with crafting POE Currency, other crafting methods that aren’t currency may be far less valuable than usual this league, as players look to craft endgame items via means they can use deterministically.

These would be things, such as Aisling T4 in Betrayal, Harvest, and possibly even fossils.

The Aeromancer is a DPS sub-class of the Specialist. Depending on your Class Engraving, she can be a melee-type or caster-type damage dealer.

Skills

The Aeromancer only has two types of skills. For melee combat, she uses Umbrella Skills. For casting and meter generation, she uses Weather Skills.

Typically, Umbrella Skills have all the utility: Stagger, Weak Point or Party Synergy. Although Weather Skills have utility options, they’re less preferred compared to Umbrella Skills, so Weather Skills are mainly used for damage.

Identity

As for her identity, Sun Shower, you can activate it once you fill up the Raindrop meter. Sun Shower does AOE damage to nearby enemies until the gauge runs out.

While inside Sun Shower, all enemies, including raid bosses, receive an attack damage reduction, which can help mitigate some damage every time it’s up.

Two Class Engravings - Wind Fury & Drizzle

Aeromancer has two Class Engravings. The first one is called Wind Fury, which primarily uses Umbrella Skills. The Wind Fury Aeromancer is very flexible in terms of raid mechanics, such as Stagger Check or Weak Point Check.

The other one is called Drizzle. Drizzle increases your Sun Shower duration by 100% and also increases your Weather Skills damage up to 30% when Sun Shower is active.

So, Drizzle is recommended if you would like to play the Range Caster style of Aeromancer or use Weather Skills as your main damaging abilities.

Let’s start with Wind Fury.

Instead of attack damage reduction to enemies, your Sun Shower will give bonus attack speed and movement speed to your party members inside the AOE circle. On top of the identity changes, you gain bonus Crit chance based on your movement speed and Crit damage based on attack speed.

If you choose this Class Engraving, you would want to have at least a little of Swiftness in general. On the other hand, you don’t want to go Mass Increase, because it would reduce the Crit damage provided by your Class Engraving.

The Wind Fury Aeromancer uses Swiftness and Crit as their main combat stats with a lot of play style variations. This Class Engraving mainly uses Umbrella Skills. They can also use a few Weather Skills as DPS or to generate identity gauge.

However, Umbrella Skills are your primary abilities. The core gameplay pattern of the Wind Fury Aeromancer is to use your preparation skills with the Current Occurrence tripod, then use spender skills with the Reversal tripod. Her preparation skills with the Current Occurrence tripod will give you a very special shield called Current Shield when you successfully land a hit with them.

The majority of the Wind Fury Aeromancer’s damage comes from the Reversal tripod. You need to make sure you always have a Current Shield from the Current Occurrence tripod before you use your spender skills.

Only if you have the shield from the Current Occurrence tripod, do you have a chance to trigger Reversal tripods? This shield is classified separately from any other shields, so you can’t trigger the Reversal tripod with a Protection Rune or shield effects from your support.

Looking a little deeper, you can’t use the Barricade Engraving, because the Reversal tripod consumes the Current Shield before it does damage. But Barricade needs you to be shielded for it to apply.

As for the Engravings, she typically uses Wind Fury, Grudge, Raid Captain, Adrenaline and Hit Master. None of her primary damage skills are positional, so it’s ideal to use Hit Master.

Relic Set

When it comes to the Relic set, the Wind Fury Aeromancer has multiple options depending on your playstyle. Of course, you need to prepare a lot of Lost Ark Gold, so that you can choose the Relic set you want.

Usually, Hallucination with high Swiftness is recommended, since it’s very agile and performs well in almost every situation.

Option two is the Dominion Set. You can go six Dominions or mix with two Nightmares for less mana consumption. The Dominion Set technically does more damage than the Hallucination Set. But it’s not always preferred since it’s a hassle to maintain the set buff.

The final option is the Nightmare Set. Crit will become your primary stat to cover the lack of Crit chance. This option is going to make you slower than the other two options. However, it does the most damage in a shorter damage window.

Gems

As for gems, all you need is to make sure you have Attack and Cooldown gems on your Reversal spender skills.

Then, it varies based on whether you use three spenders or four spenders, one Weather or two Weather Skills.

There are only minor differences among the variations, so the best way to figure out what to use is for you to try it yourself.

Also Read: A Summary Of Recent Lost Ark Updates And Improvements On KR Server- New Contents & Class

Wind Fury Aeromancer

The Wind Fury Aeromancer doesn't rely on many Runes unless you're looking to run a Dominion Set, which will require you to proc Conviction and Judgment before you cast your Awakening.

Since the Aeromancer is a very mana-hungry class, Conviction, Judgment and a few Focus Runes are great for her regardless of the Relic set.

Drizzle Aeromancer

Moving on to Drizzle, if you're looking for a more skill-shot-based and less spammy class so you can focus on your positioning and decision making, then Drizzle is the path you'll want to follow.

Unlike Wind Fury, Drizzle relies on Weather Skills to do damage, while Umbrella Skills take care of utility, like Party Synergy or Counter.

As an Engraving, Drizzle increases your Weather Skills up to 30% while your identity, Sun Shower, is active.

So, your goal as a Drizzle Aeromancer is simple. All you need to do is build the Raindrop meter as fast as you can without using your primary Weather Skills, which are Wiping Wind and Scorching Sun.

When Sun Shower is active, you want to use everything on cooldown.

Standard Stat Distribution

As for the Drizzle Aeromancer's combat stats distribution, she uses Specialization as her primary stat, because her weather skills scale with Specialization and it helps with Raindrop meter gain.

She doesn't have any sort of Crit modifier outside of her Awakening and Party Synergy, so Crit is recommended for her secondary combat stats.

Most of her damage comes from two skills, Wiping Wind and Scorching Sun, during the Sun Shower state. You can squeeze them in two times each in a single Sun Shower once you achieve a certain amount of cooldown reduction.

Gem Setup

As for the gem setup, the Drizzle Aeromancer needs damage and cooldown gems on both Wiping Wind and Scorching Sun. Unless you can cast these two skills twice in one Sun Shower, otherwise you should give priority to the Cooldown gems of these two skills.

Then, all you need to do is place a damage and cooldown gem again for Whirlpool and Rainstorm.

Similar to the Wind Fury Aeromancer, Drizzle also uses Conviction, Judgment and Focus Runes. It's easy to proc Conviction and Judgment with Weather Skills for extra cooldown reduction and mana regen.

However, they're not necessary and the heavy mana consumption can be covered with multiple Focus Runes instead. It's best to have at least two Wealth Runes for optimal gameplay since Drizzle relies on filling the identity meter.

Engravings

Drizzle Aeromancers typically use Grudge, Keen Blunt Weapon, Drizzle, Adrenaline and Hit Master.

Same as Wind Fury, none of her primary damage skills are positional, so it's ideal to use Hit Master.

Relic Set Options

The Drizzle Aeromancer uses Hallucination for her Relic set. She doesn't use Salvation since the bonus attack speed from Salvation isn't that beneficial for Drizzle.

You don't use Nightmare since the damage from her Sun Shower is a good chunk of your overall damage, but it isn't affected by the Nightmare Set, because the identity doesn't consume mana.

Hallucination is the best option here as she has a fairly low Crit rate.

A Rule To Follow As A Drizzle Aeromancer

There's a simple rule you need to follow as a Drizzle Aeromancer: hold.

You need to hold damage skills when you don't have Sun Shower active and you need to hold the meter generator when Sun Shower is about to run out. So, you can fill up the meter as soon as possible.

Usually, you should be able to fill up the whole meter with these two skills, but if anything, you can always use Whirlpool, which is another great meter generator that also does really high damage.

So, this is your emergency button if you have just a little more meter to fill up. Otherwise, you want to squeeze this skill in your Sun Shower rotation for extra damage from the Drizzle Engraving.

Drizzle's damage is heavily back-loaded. Wiping Wind and Whirlpool do more damage on their later ticks and Scorching Sun takes more than two seconds to land all the hits. So, you need to be patient and look carefully for a damage window. In other words, the better you know the fight, the more rewarding Drizzle is.

Conclusion

In closing, both Aeromancer Class Engravings can be as fun as you make it. Whether it is an unstoppable blade to slice and dice your enemy with Wind Fury or calling upon nature's power to strike your enemy with Drizzle, the Aeromancer has a little something for everyone.

I’ve spent most of the last week researching the best new items coming in WOTLK Classic Phase 4. And let me tell you something. They aren’t going to come cheap.

What I found confirmed one thing: you’ll need more WOTLK Classic Gold for Phase 4 than you needed for all the other phases combined. There are just so many big-ticket items you won’t want to miss out on, like the Deathbringers’ Will trinket, the new 264 item level BOEs, and Invincible, which is the most impressive mount in the game.

If you’re curious on exactly how much gold, you’ll need to save up you should check out my top 10 most expensive ICC items guide first. No matter what items you plan to go for, there’s no doubt the need for gold making in Phase 3 is really ramped up.

I’ve personally settled on farming 150,000 gold to get everything I need from Quel’Delar to full BOEs on every character and maybe even work on a Shadowmourne down the road.

So, here’s exactly what I’m doing to save up that gold in the next 45 days.

Making Passive Gold With Dailies

The first thing I’m doing every day is making sure not to miss out on any passive daily gold.

I do have Jewelcrafting on three characters, which means I get over 320 gold per day in just a few seconds turning in the daily. I’ve managed to pre-farm the Jewelcrafting daily, which you can do by making the items as you collect them. This is also the time where I take advantage of Alchemy transmute on my Death Knight, where you could easily fit in your Titansteel transmutes as well.

I also still do a handful of dailies for 200 more gold on my Druid per day. That’s mainly because the single best perk of dual specing Boomkin is just how quickly I can destroy an entire island of Kvaldir.

Of course, you can’t forget the Daily Heroics. I have been enchanting on my Paladin, so it feels fantastic vacuuming up all the epics.

Plus, I definitely want to keep stockpiling Emblems for Epic Gems in Phase 4.

Open World Goldfarming

The next key thing I’m doing to save up over 150,000 gold is Open World Goldfarming. There are three different fantastic spots in Phase 3 right now, all with different benefits and some small drawbacks.

1. Frostfloe Deep

My first favorite spot that I keep coming back to is the Frostfloe Deep cave in Northern, Storm Peaks. The Wailing Winds mobs here drop an insanely high amount of Crystallized Fire. That sells for three gold each on Faerlina and I know the prices are even higher on some servers.

The trick here is to bring a friend to farm the upper area while you farm the lower section. And that’s because this is a true hyperspawn where the enemies instantly respawn when they’re killed.

With a good farming class, you can easily push 700 GPA. There’s also a side benefit, which is that the Crystallized Fire can be sold instantly. That means you can immediately turn around and invest that gold or do flips with it.

2. Wetlands Gnolls

My second favorite spot is the Wool Cloth farming in the Wetlands.

This is a consistent 800 gold per hour farm because you get instant farming mobs that drop Wool Cloth at a really high rate. On my server, the wool is always worth at least 70 silver and it sells instantly. So, this just prints money.

But I do have a bunch of new optimizations to make it better.

The first big optimization is to bring Scrapbots, Jeeves, and the MOLL-E mailbox. Because this method generates so many inventory problems.

Then, I like to use Speedy AutoLoot to grab all the wool really fast. Whenever my inventory is full, I can use TradeSkillMaster to sell the trash and BOEs to a Scrapbot. I try to maximize Scrapbot usage by selling multiple times with one Scrapbot. Then, whenever my character has a lot of wool, I’ll just mail it to my Alt using the MOLL-E mailbox.

One of the big tricks I realized is that the Linen Cloth is basically worthless. So, I started destroying it. Also, having a second Alt logged out at the same location, able to drop another mailbox and more Scrapoots is a huge well.

3. Converted Heroes

The other farming spot I’ve started to really enjoy recently is the Icecrown, Converted Heroes.

These are a very comfortable 800 gold per hour. I always did this farm wrong in the past by sticking to the wall and I didn’t realize there were way more spawns throughout the entire area. This is definitely one of those farms way better on a class with AOE, like a Mage, and it’s even better with Tailoring. These mobs drop a ton of Frostweave Cloth and you get even more with the tailoring passive.

Also Read: WOTLK Classic: How To Prepare For Phase 4 Icecrown Citadel? - Investing & Goldmaking Guide

AFK Goldmaking Methods

I’ve really enjoyed doing AFK gold making methods, like Potion Crafting and making Leathers recently.

The numbers are deceiving because there’s still a lot of profit to be made on things, like Potions of Speed, Potions of Wild Magic and Mighty Frost Protection Potions. I would definitely recommend crafting everything in the process like the Pygmy Oils and also having Master of Potions.

I also like to do a lot of AFK Leatherworking, making things like Heavy Borean Leather and Heavy Knothide Leather. You can’t forget classics like Netherweave Cloth, either.

I just post a low price bait cloth and then anything under 15 silver is pure profit crafting heavy bandages. I’m not just relying on AFK gold making though since I’ve also recently begun mastering flipping.

Flipping is able to consistently generate me over 4,000 gold per day. I like to primarily do an undercut strategy with fast selling items. The main items I like to flip are things like rare and epic gems, leatherworking items, and Enchanting Vellums.

I’m using the Auctionator for these quick flips. And in order to get your Auctionator to look like mine, you’ll need to enable some settings in the options. The main settings you’ll need are the “Show Crafting Costs” and “Show Bag Items” in the Selling panel.

The main thing is to check prices using Auctionator and then craft 3-10 of any given item based on profit. Some of my favorites are the gem flips like the Runed Cardinal Ruby flip as well as the Leatherworking leg armor flips like the Icescale Leg Armor. I also love Enchant Weapon like Berserking and Mighty Spellpower, too.

The key though is that the bigger the number of profitable recipes you craft each day, the more profit you’ll make. You can even do better than me if you have one of every profession, since tailoring an Inscription is also very profitable.

From the many hours of flipping the last month, the biggest tip I can give you is that the number one spot on any item will always get 99% of the sales. Don’t be afraid to run a cancel search and then repost since it’s so fast if you have a hotkey set up.

The other tip is that raid times are when most of the sales will happen, so don’t get into undercut wars at five in the morning. Either way, if you don’t want to be up until five in the morning making gold, you should definitely switch to more profitable professions.