Seasons is of course the next big thing on the horizon for Diablo 4. And we previously knew that Season 1 is coming in mid to late July. That was announced in a recent Developer Campfire Livestream.

However, we now have more specifics, including when Season 1 will be starting, which was revealed by Rod Fergusson on Twitter. A user asked when the announcement will be so that they can start planning their vacation leave. And Rod Fergusson, the Franchise General Manager of Diablo, replied announcing next week.

This is further backed up by Adam Fletcher, the Global Community Developer Director, replying to another user on Twitter, asking them when they can expect the next Dev update or Camp livestream. And Adam replied more news on that later this week.

New Dev Update - Next Week

So, it’s really looking like another Campfire Livestream will probably be happening next week, which will offer us the release date for Season 1.

We also have a bunch of details on the changes and tweaks and new things coming in the next big patch and the seasons as well as some juicy behind-the-scenes details.

That will give us a better understanding of how things work in the game, where different quality of loot and gear comes from, and just general things that you’ll want to know if you plan to play Diablo 4 Seasons.

Season 1 Details

So, if you want to know these juicy details, then let’s get started with what will be included in Season 1 in Diablo 4. Here’s a rundown of what you can expect.

Each Season Makes New Characters Starting Level 1

In Seasons, you’re going to create a new character starting from level 1. So, your Eternal Realm characters will not go into the season servers.

That’s because a seasonal character will basically be on a standalone version of the game with other seasonal characters with their own standalone bank stash, which is separate from eternal.

Seasonal Theme & Loot

There will be a season-specific theme that will be announced probably in this next update and within the season, we can expect to get new loot that will be powerful and probably build defining.

Hopefully, this will give us some good variety and freshness to the gameplay and our classes.

Season Duration - 3 Months

Seasons are expected to last roughly three months long. So, that’s how long you have to level up and get the gear.

Once this period ends, the seasonal characters will become Eternal Realm characters. So, you’re not going to lose your characters that you already have and you’re not going to lose the characters you make in Seasons.

But you might be wondering what exactly carries over in case you haven’t been keeping up to speed.

Also Read: Diablo 4 Tornado Druid Build: Fastest Druid Leveling Build (Level 1-50)

What Carries Over?

If you’ve already finished the campaign, then you will be able to skip the campaign on your seasonal characters.

In terms of your Renown, the maps Fog of War and your Shrines of Lilith will carry over. That means you will get the stats from those Shrines of Lilith. So, that’ll be a good early game boost.

If you’ve completed all the map Fog of War and got every Shrine of Lilith, you can expect to have around the first two renowned reward levels per zone.

Other tasks like side quests, strongholds, and dungeons will need to be redone, and that’s where you’ll make up the rest of the renowned levels.

Season Journey

Along with Seasons, the Season Journey, which has chapters in it, will also come. That will basically act as our guide to track seasonal objectives that give us various rewards, including legendary aspects and caches.

So, think of this like a journal with different quests and tasks that you’re going to want to complete in the season.

Battle Pass

On top of this, the Battle Pass will come with seasons. It’s estimated that it will take around 80 hours to complete and this is actually more than other games, such as Warzone and Overwatch, which take around 50 hours.

The good news is there’s meant to be no pay to win aspects on the Battle Pass and there is a free version. This will be leveled up by gaining favor, which you get by completing various objectives. That apparently includes things like strongholds, dungeons, and side quests.

Smoldering Ashes System

But along with this will come the Smoldering Ashes system that’s tied to the Battle Pass. This system is a new currency that we will gain by completing levels in the free part of the Battle Pass.

This currency of Smoldering Ashes can then be used to trade for Blessings that will boost our XP gain from monster kills, our gold earned from vendor sale amount, get more materials when salvaging gear, and increase the duration of our Elixirs.

Overall, this is meant to be a system that will ease the grind relating to getting more XP, materials, and Diablo 4 Gold.

If you’ve already leveled up a few characters, the idea of leveling up another one from Level 1 in Seasons might be a bit overwhelming. But systems like this are here to basically smooth that over for us.

Increased Mob Density

Outside of this, we also know from the last patch that the next one will come with an increased amount of mob density and Elite mob density. This is what a lot of players have been wanting since experiencing those dungeons that had tons of Elite groups in them, which gave loads of drops on XP.

Of course, they have since been hot fixed. But having enemies spread out in a dungeon just isn’t as fun as wiping out waves of dense mobs. And the XP and loot are more efficient in that as well.

So, we can expect this change to come in early Season 1 and that’s something to look out for and that they’re aware of.

Balance Changes

Also, after the recent class buffs, many people have been feeling a little lackluster. Because these buffs didn’t really make meaningful big changes for our classes and the issues that people have with them. It’s good to know that the developers are aware of these issues, such as build parity. And in their own words, they’re heavily monitoring discussion based on this topic.

So, hopefully, the next set of balance changes will address these issues with certain classes and their build diversity being very limited in higher-level content.

World Tier 4 Loot

Another upcoming interesting change is the type of loot you get in World Tier 4.

As you may know, upgrading to World Tier 4 allows ancestrals to start dropping that offer a big bump in item power, which levels up your sub stats quite a bit.

In World Tier 4, Sacreds are still dropping abundantly while Ancestrals are more uncommon or rare in comparison.

A user asked Adam Fletcher about this on Twitter and now basically we have confirmation that they are going to adjust this by Season 1. So, it’s not too long to wait. And if you’re yet to get to World Tier 4 to farm ancestrals, this will make your life so much easier as being fully kitted out in ancestrals is a big power bump.

Good Insights Into Farming Cellars

On a slightly different note, I just wanted to highlight a really awesome Reddit post that offers some really good insights into farming cellars in the game.

User MrFrodoBeggins tested 1270 cellars over a three-day period and recorded all of their findings and what’s an absolute MVP.

From their testing, which included between 230 to 290 cellars across the Fractured Peaks, the Dry Steppes, Scosglen, Keanjistan and Howezar, they counted their Obols, XP, gold, legendaries, uniques, and even Treasure Goblins and Butcher encounters. And it’s actually quite interesting seeing all of the stats.

But the overall conclusion is that cellars just kind of suck to farm specifically. They don’t yield as much XP or loot as more efficient activities compared to the time spent doing the cellars. But he does say they are good for getting materials since you are running from cellar to cellar, anyway.

However, I would be very interested to see the results of doing cellars by resetting instances instead of running from one to another. In the early game, farming cellars next to World Events was a very efficient farm to run between the two back to back. But it seems safe to say that at high levels, it’s not worth targeting cellars specifically.

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

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

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

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

Stats & Comparisons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Basic Attack

Let’s review his abilities and how they function.

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

How Does His Talent Function?

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

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

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

Luocha's OP Skill

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

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

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

Ultimate

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

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

Technique

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

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

Game Changing Traces

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trace Bonuses & Level Priority

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

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

Eidolons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Luocha’s Pros & Cons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Luocha’s Best Relics

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

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

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

Space Sealing Station also works for more heals and damage.

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

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

Main Stats And Substats

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

For boots, I recommend going speed.

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

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

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

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

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

Luocha’s Light Cone Paths

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Optimal Luocha Rotations

For rotations, you want to minimize your talent downtime.

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

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

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

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

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

Some Synergies

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

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

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

Team Composition Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dungeon Start

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

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

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

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

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

Hackclaw’s War-Band

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gutshot

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

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

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

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

Treemouth

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

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

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

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

Trash Gauntlet

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

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

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

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

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

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

Decatriarch Wratheye

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

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

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

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

Recently, I have often been asked how do I find Shockwave Aspect or Aspect Of the Trampled Earth and so on. And most of the time, it’s kind of just luck. But there actually is a method that is faster than others to find legendary items very fast. That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Helltides Overview

The fastest way to get lots of legendaries is by doing Helltides properly and there are a lot of tricks to make the most out of a Helltide.

Now, Helltides last for exactly one hour. And during that time, events are actually going to occur more frequently. They’re going to reset faster. Monsters are going to be dropping Aberrant Cinders, which can be used to open Helltide chests. Besides, the monsters are higher level than you, which means great XP and Diablo 4 Gold gains.

Not only that, but Helltides are the only place where you can obtain Forgotten Souls, which are a crafting material needed for fifth and final level upgrades for your gear.

Remember that Helltides only occur in World Tier 3 or 4. So, if you aren’t there yet, you’ll need to unlock it first. And it is worth mentioning you lose half your Cinders if you die, so try not to do that.

Now, it will occasionally rain meteors during Helltides and that means there’s a chance to spawn an Elite after the rain is over in close proximity to you. These Elites are pretty tough but are definitely worth fighting for their drops of Cinders and other Diablo 4 Items.

There’s also an Elite monster called Kixxarth, the Helltide assassin, who wanders the Helltide. Slaying him rewards a high amount of Forgotten Souls. So, it’s absolutely worth trying to take him out if you can.

Within a Helltide, there are ore nodes and plants that drop Aberrant Cinders and Forgotten Souls, which are called the Fiend Rose and the Screaming Hell Veins. Both of these are worth harvesting if you see them, especially since Fiend Roses can only be found within Helltides.

Finally, there are mystery chests. This is a special type of Helltide chest called the Tortured Gift of Mysteries, which always contains at least one legendary item, but can drop four or more, depending on your luck. These chests require 175 Aberrant Cinders to be opened and will not show up on the global map, but instead appear on your mini-map when you’re in close proximity. And it is a guarantee that there will be at least one in every zone.

How To Get The Most Out Of Helltides?

The trick to getting the most out of these Helltides is to open up an Interactive Map on your second monitor and hide everything besides mystery chests, shrines, and events.

Then, you’re going to want to locate a cluster of shrines and events somewhat near a mystery chest. And your ideal path will lead you to first pick up a shrine and then start an event and then immediately go to another event and so on.

And events are going to be refreshing really fast. I actually found that I did an event, walked away for probably 60 seconds, and then came back and the event was already refreshed with a different event. So, it’s actually really great if you can find a cluster of events to just go back and forth between.

Also Read: Diablo 4 Pure Minions Summoner Necromancer Build: Necromancer Endgame Build

Tricks For Doing Helltides

The reason events are so important during Helltides is that the density of monster spawns, which means you’re going to be farming more Aberrant Cinders. Also, the Obols you’ll acquire from the events can be used to gamble at the Purveyor of Curiosities for yet another chance at more legendary items and the aspects you’re looking for.

But keep in mind that the mystery chests marked on the Interactive Map are only potential spawn points. And that it’s not guaranteed that there will be a chest there. So, always leave yourself some time before the end of the Helltide to ensure you can use all of your Cinders. Because they will be lost at the end of the Helltide.

Now, the mystery chests are the most expensive chests requiring 175 Aberrant Cinders and accordingly offer the most loot. Another trick you can use if you’ve unlocked World Tier 4 is to gather Aberrant Cinders in World Tier 3. Then, once you’ve found a mystery chest, Town Portal and change to World Tier 4. Then, return to the chest using your Town Portal and open the mystery chest for World Tier 4 loot, using World Tier 3 Aberrant Cinders you gathered.

One last thing to keep in mind is that shrines take a lot longer to refresh than events. So, once you pick one up for the first time, I wouldn’t worry about going out of your way to get to that same shrine again. Because it’s probably not refreshed. Just look for another nearby shrine along your path.

Personally, my favorite shrine is Channeling. You get unlimited resources and shortened cooldowns. And for some reason, Conduit doesn’t always feel like it’s helpful. So, if I were you, I’d probably avoid that one. Because you also can’t mount up either and I haven’t found a way to turn off Conduit Shrine.

So, those are my tips for getting the most out of Helltides. And in my opinion, this is the fastest way to get all of your legendary aspects. These mystery chests drop lots of legendary items, which you can then extract or potentially even use. And the high frequency of event refreshes will give you the highest amount of Obols basically in the game that you can find, which you can then go to use at the Purveyor of Curiosities for even more chances at finding that legendary aspect you’re after.

The Dragonflight dungeon Halls of Infusion is now part of the Season 2 Mythic+ pool. So, here I will go over the most important mechanics to watch out for in this dungeon!

Dungeon Start

At the beginning, you will encounter Primalist Ravagers and Geomancers, Refti Defenders and Containment Apparatus.

The Apparatus seems to be one of the most dangerous enemies, because it continuously casts Containment Beam onto random players. This cast does heavy damage and can only be disrupted.

Additionally, it also casts “Expulse”, which is a heavy AoE damage ability that should be interrupted. A good strategy would be to avoid pulling too many Apparatuses simultaneously and focusing them down quickly if you do!

Outside of the Apparatuses, you should also try to interrupt the Defenders' Demoralizing Shout. It will reduce your groups damage done by 25% if not interrupted.

Moving into the first room, you can either go left or right. Both paths will lead to the first boss. But you unlock different perks, depending on which path you choose to clear.

If you go left, you will reach a Limited Immortality Device, usable by Dragonflight Engineers with skill 25 or higher. Activating this will give everyone in your group a 1 hour buff, preventing one death (similar to a Rogue's cheat death ability). If you go right instead, you will clear the path for a shortcut that opens up later after you kill the 2nd boss and a 2nd shortcut will open in the same area once you kill the 3rd boss.

Watcher Irideus

But before you can make use of these short cuts, you have to defeat Watcher Irideus.

During the first phase of this encounter, 3 players in your group will occasionally be debuffed by Power Overload, a magic debuff ticking for nature damage and leaving behind a puddle underneath the player on removal or expiration.

It might be best to have the 3 debuffed players stack up and then either mass dispel the debuffs or dispel none of them to make sure the puddles all spawn simultaneously and on the same location, to lessen the area of denial.

The boss will also cast Static Surge, a heavy unavoidable AoE damage channel on the group.

Tanks additionally have to watch out for a frontal attack, doing damage and stunning in a cone in front of Watcher Irideus.

Once the boss reaches 15% health, he will become immune to damage and Siphon Power from the facility itself, increasing his nature damage done by 2% every 1 second until canceled.

To interrupt his cast, you have to kill 3 of the 4 Nullification Devices close to the boss. They will explode and remove his barrier.

In phase 2, the Power Overload debuffs will do increased damage and also drop bigger puddles, so watch out for that!

After you have defeated Watcher Irideus, you can choose to either go straight forward, or you can take the stairs to a different area. Both paths will ultimately lead to the same location.

If you decide to go straight, you will see some Primalist Shocktroopers first. Make sure you interrupt their Elemental Focus cast. Otherwise, they will gain an instant Chain Lightning ability doing a lot of unpreventable damage to the group.

The Dazzling Dragonflys cast a frontal disorient. This can either be interrupted, sidestepped (even by the tank) or magic dispelled if anyone gets hit by it.

Additionally, there are Skulking Zealots patrolling this area in stealth, so watch out for them!

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

Once you cleared all the trash in the room, the door behind you will close and a small event starts. Waves of curious Swoglets will spawn and randomly fixate players. If they successfully melee attack a player, they will stack up a poison debuff, instantly killing the player if it stacks up to 10.

After the event, the door will open and you can clear the path to the 2 minibosses, Flamecaller Aymi and Squallbringer Cyraz. If you decide to take the other path after the first boss instead, you will encounter the same type of mobs. But there won’t be a Swoglet event and additionally you will be able to access Infused Mushrooms.

Any player with Dragonflight Herbalism skill 25 or above can activate the mushrooms, giving everyone in your party a 30 minute buff, curing 1 poison or disease effect every 15 seconds. This might be useful for the next boss coming up if you don’t have anyone in your group to dispel Poison effects!

Both paths now lead to the minibosses. The more dangerous of the 2 is Flamecaller Aymi. She occasionally roots a random player with a magic dispellable debuff and then spawns a big swirly underneath that player you have to move out of. Once she is low health, she will attempt to cast Cauterize, healing her if not interrupted.

Squallbringer Cyras, on the other hand, will spawn several small Zephyrlings. But they don’t do anything other than attack their aggro target. He will also sometimes cast a whirlwind around him. So, move away from him to avoid damage.

Gulping Goliath

Once you finish off the minibosses, the door to the next boss will open.

The Gulping Goliath will spawn Swoglets on players’ locations. They will fixate players and apply the same poison debuff as the trash mobs before. So, watch out to not reach 10 applications or you will instantly die.

Once in a while, the boss will cast Gulp. It’s an AoE damage ability indicated by a circle around the boss. Any Swoglets inside the circle will be destroyed and any player in the circle will take damage and gain 3 poison applications. If no player is hit by Gulp, the boss will enrage.

Once the Gulping Goliath is defeated, you can make your way to the 3rd boss. Here you will encounter Primalist Galesingers, Icecallers and Earthshakers, as well as Glacial Proto Dragons.

Galesingers will occasionally spawn a thunderstorm underneath a player. Glacial Proto Dragons cast a frontal breath towards the tank and apply a magic debuff to the whole group, slowing and dealing damage to players. Icecallers cast a heal and it can only be disrupted, so be ready for that!

Khajin The Unyielding

Up next is Khajin the Unyielding.

One of her main abilities is Hailstorm. To avoid the damage, you will have to hide behind one of the ice blocks located around the room. The ice blocks crack if they get hit by any of her abilities (including hailstorm) and if a cracked ice block gets hit again, they will get destroyed and do AoE damage around them.

To not get damaged by a dying ice block, you should make sure you are hiding behind a fully in tact block. Keep in mind some of the blocks are already cracked as you start the encounter!

Additionally, she will cast Glacial Surge, creating rings of frost moving outward, starting around the boss. And it is similar to Kurog Grimtotem’s ability in the Vault of the Incarnates.

Once in a while, a player will be targeted by Frost Cyclone, indicated by an arrow on the floor. Make sure to move out of it and keep in mind, any ice blocks hit by the cyclone will either get cracked or be destroyed.

Once you defeat Khajin, you can move onto the bridge leading to the last boss Primal Tsunami. You will encounter some enemies you’ve already seen before and additionally there are Aqua Ragers, continuously spawning until you defeat Infuser Sariya at the end of the bridge.

Aqua Ragers cast an enrage, but it can be interrupted or soothed and at 20% health, they will attempt to split into 4 smaller mobs. This can also be interrupted.

While on the bridge, you continuously have to dodge circular water waves coming from either the left or the right. If you get hit, you get knocked and take damage. You can line of sight these circles by standing really close to the pillars on the opposite side of where they are coming from.

Infuser Sariya will be attackable once you kill the last 4 Aqua Ragers standing at the end of the bridge. Watch out for her Aqua barrier. Interrupt this cast to make sure she doesn’t shield herself.

Primal Tsunami

Now, you can start the fight against the Primal Tsunami.

In phase 1, you have to dodge a lot of swirlies and moving water bubbles while the tank has to watch out for Squall Buffet: a tank attack that knocks you back.

At 100 Energy, the boss becomes immune and players are thrown away to one of three bridges. The tank and the healer both get paired with 1 damage dealer each and the 3rd damage dealer gets sent by themselves. Everyone has to attempt to run back towards the boss while dodging waves and water bubbles.

Back in the boss room, there are now 4 Primalist Infusers channeling Infuse. This gives the boss a stacking damage increase. If the Infusers are interrupted, they instead start attacking the players and cast “inundate”, an AoE damage cast similar to Infuser Sariya. This cast can be disrupted.

Once the Infusers are dead, you can finish off the Primal Tsunami to end the dungeon and collect your loot! That means you’ll get a lot of WoW Dragonflight Gold. Hope you can learn a lot from this guide!

The Elder Scrolls Online just got a dark, tantalizing new expansion called Necrom. If you get the expansion, you can build an Arcanist character right away.

But to help you wield their forbidden knowledge, here’s a full guide to the new Arcanist class.

What Is An Arcanist?

For starters, why don’t we talk a bit about what exactly an Arcanist is when it comes to the law?

This creepy new class draws its power from the Planes of Oblivion, known as Apocrypha. Thanks to the knowledge that they’ve acquired from the ancient tomes that they probably weren’t technically supposed to read. They can now use glyphs and runes to conjure all kinds of dark magic.

With their glowing green symbols and Lovecraftian Powers, there’s a bit of a multiverse of madness vibe to the Arcanists. But they’re not just a fun costume for players to try on. Because this new class actually offers a totally different style of combat from anything else in the game and it is proper fun.

How To Use Crux?

The Arcanist is actually the first new class added to Elder Scrolls Online since 2019 and it is a true game changer thanks to a little system called Crux.

If you’ve already made a character, you’ve probably noticed this already. But some of the abilities that Arcanists use generate this dark energy, which you can see floating around them in the form of these little green triangle runes. You can have up to three of these on the go at any given time and they’ll power up all of your skills while also activating various passive abilities.

And as nice as those boosts are, you can also just spend that Crux to unleash even more powerful attacks very handy. Basically, you’re going to want to chain your moves together in the right way, keeping a healthy supply of Crux on the go to power you up and then cash it in on a devastating attack when the time is right.

What Skills Does An Arcanist Have?

The other thing that makes the Arcanist class stand out is how incredibly flexible it is thanks to its three distinctive skill lines. You can mix and match these freely. But these mix of abilities can actually strengthen the way that you play your character.

*If you want to cause pure Anarchist Anarchy, then the Herald of the Tome skill line is the way to go. By peppering your enemies with Runeblades, you’ll be able to chip away their health while generating Crux. Remember, that’s pretty important. You can then use that to convert into a deadly beam with Fatecarver.

If you prefer to get up close and personal, you can use Tome-Bearer’s Inspiration to buff up your weapons or Abyssal Impact to give yourself a nice set of tentacle arms that can be upgraded to generate Crux while they dish out the pain.

*But for all the defensive-minded tanky players, the Soldier of Apocrypha skill line is a really good shot. There’s yet more technically fun to be had with the Gibbering Shield, which forms a Wrigley guard around the player, soaking up damage before dealing it back.

If you’re happy to be your team’s pain sponge, then Runic Jolt will draw the enemies to you with a taunt while also maiming them so that your buddies can tame them down and also it gets you even more Crux.

But to keep wrapped up even tighter Runespite Ward and Fatewoven Armor can offer you magic shields and Increase Armor respectively while Runic Defense grants Minor Resolve to your entire group, which is ideal if you’re trying to tough it out through a larger PVE sticky situation.

*Finally, we’ve got something for the healers out there Curative Runeforms, which is definitely the line to invest in if you want to do some strange doctoring of your own. By summoning Runes with Runemend, you can heal your allies while generating Crux. And after that, you can spend it on a Remedy Cascade, which will patch them up even further and also replenish their Stamina and Magicka. That is massive.

Arcanist’s Domain conjures a vortex that grants a whole range of buffs to anyone standing in it. But the real star of the show here is Apocryphal Gate, which allows you to summon a pair of portals that you and your crew can hop between. This is so useful for making quick retreats or even closing the gap on a foe.

Also Read: Elder Scrolls Online: How To Make Gold From Necrom? - Good Items To Sell

Which Skill Build Should I Use?

Thanks to these three distinct skill lines, the Arcanist class can be turned towards just about any playstyle.

The Herald of the Tome skill line is obviously the way to go for players who like to focus on dealing damage. If you want to dive in with runes scribbled all over your weapons and tentacles flying everywhere, then it pairs quite nicely with a Khajiit or Dark Elf character.

Or, those who want to focus more on the magic based skills might consider a High Elf since they take 5% less damage while channeling, allowing them to conjure all kinds of Cosmic Horrors without suffering too much.

But if you prefer a tankish build, then you’ll be focusing on the Soldier of Apocrypha line. Being an Imperial here really helps because it reduces the cost of your abilities, allowing you to keep those defensive skills and taunts flowing while you draw the enemy to you.

And if you’re a kindly soul who just wants to keep everyone in good health, the Curative Runeforms will be your best friends. Bretons make great healers since their spells cost less. And Argonians are also effective physicians thanks to their healing bonus.

But the beauty of Elder Scrolls Online is that there are just tons of room to mix and match. So, flip open one of those tomes and just see what sort of Arcanist you want to be. No matter which build you prefer, your Arcanist will be even more powerful with the addition of ESO Gold. Because this way you can use more powerful weapons and armor for your Acanist.

Phase 3 of Wrath Classic – The Call of the Crusade is finally upon us. This penultimate patch will see a brand new raid tier, updates to dungeons, new items for collectors, a fresh PVP season and much more.

Today, I’ll be taking you through what to expect from the Call of the Crusade Patch, talking over what’s new, and how things may be a little different this time around compared to the original release.

1. Trial Of The Crusader

Let’s start off with the big one, the upcoming raid, Trial of the Crusader.

This is the first raid ever in WoW’s history to adapt the “heroic or normal” format, where players can choose to modify the level of challenge they want before engaging in the content.

This raid has such a legacy for many reasons. Jaraxxus, who is, of course, everyone’s favourite Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion. It’s the only raid ever, with no trash at all. It’s a “PVP in PVE’’ encounter in the faction champions.

This encounter definitely shows you who has their defensives to hand, and who doesn’t, and a surprise entrance from a certain Lich King to introduce us to the final boss deep below the tournament grounds. It’s very much expected to be a fairly short, but sweet addition to Wrath Classic’s raiding content.

And to that end, several changes have been made to how the content will work. Each difficulty will now share a lockout. So, originally you could run ToC 4 times per week, now it’s only 2. So if you did 10 player heroic, you cannot do 10 player normal that week, and vice versa. Same goes for 25 player.

Also, some of the previously stackable items are now uniquely equipped. Think of the big trinkets, such as Death’s Verdict. So, you don’t feel the need to run normal to try for this 1 item, as it would also cost you your heroic lockout for the week.

Finally, to offset there being less overall lockouts to do, bosses on both difficulties will drop additional Emblems of Triumph. And on 25-player raid, bosses will drop an additional Trophy of the Crusade. This should all add up to making ToGC (Trial of the Grand Crusader) as a raid feel a good source of upgrades, without feeling as though you are missing out due to there being fewer lockouts to do as a whole.

2. Onyxia’s Lair Returns

But that’s not all the raiding content as Onyxia will be making a return in Dustwallow Marsh.

Originally, this was for WoW’s 5 year anniversary event, but it will be available alongside Call of the Crusade this time. A new feature to this is an NPC outside of her lair named Zidormi. She will allow you to toggle between the old level 60 version and the new level 80 version of this encounter.

This time around, no attunement needed, like Vanilla. So, don’t worry about that. The fight itself is just like it was in Vanilla: apply dots, more dots, handle many whelps and see who can dodge a deep breath.

Onyxia will drop items very reminiscent of her Vanilla drop table, but with updated itemization for Wrath Classic. If you are particularly lucky, you might even see the Reigns of the Onyxian Drake. This super rare mount has the same model as Onyxia herself and boasts a premium 310% flight speed.

Finally, raid wise, the VoA (Vault of Archavon) gets a new addition, Koralon the Flame watcher. He will drop Tier 8 equivalent tier gear and Season 7 PVP gear.

3. Dungeon Updates

Dungeon content will also be seeing updates in Call of the Crusade.

The new difficulty, called Titan Rune Beta, is an amped up version of the previously available Titan Rune Alpha dungeons. Enemies will have additional health and damage, but players will also get new tricks to deal with this challenge. This will vary from dungeon to dungeon.

But for example, in the Nexus dungeons or VH (Violet Hold), defeating a mirror image will give the player a stacking haste buff. And in the CoS (Culling of Stratholme), players can now find holy hand grenades to deal with powerful undead minions.

The reward from TRB (Titan Rune Beta) dungeons is a brand new currency called “Sidereal Essence”. This can be spent at the living constellations where your factions, emblem vendors, are found in Dalaran.

Rewards on offer are 10 player Ulduar hard mode items, including those from Algalon. These dungeons should be both a great option for players looking to gear up an alt or a fresh character, and for mains who have been getting unlucky on getting a certain item from Ulduar 10 hard mode so far.

Related: WOTLK Classic: 10 Last Minute Tips To Prepare For Phase 3 Call Of The Crusade

4. Trial Of The Champion

Alongside Trial of the Crusader, will also be a new dungeon, the Trial of the Champion as a 5-player counterpart to the raid.

This features some good old-fashioned horseback jousting, a variety of bosses and, of course, a showdown for the Black Knight right at the end.

This dungeon will also be available on TRB difficulty, where the crowd gets quite a bit more involved than normal by throwing both buffs and debuffs into the arena to help or hamper players.

The remainder of the content surrounding the Argent Tournament Grounds will also release with the update. This includes several new reputation vendors, such as the Sunreavers or Silver Covenant, depending on your faction, as well as the Crusader quartermaster in the western pavilion. These will offer new companion pets, mounts, toys, heirlooms and more.

You can also earn more Champion’s Seals as all remaining tournament daily quests have been added into the game. So, you can work towards the various rewards that little faster.

5. Epic Gems

Another new feature to expect in the patch will the inclusion of Epic Gems.

These provide more stats than the rare quality gems, and should be something that you look to place in your new gear where possible. Fortunately, there are many ways to get your hands on these new gems. So, if you like to play the game, you should pick them up.

At 450 Alchemy skill you can transmute a rare gem and an Eternal into an Epic Gem once every 20 hours.

There will also be a quest at the Alchemy shop in Dalaran called Cardinal Ruby, where, after doing 5 of any other Epic Gem transmute, you will learn how to transmute cardinal rubies. These are the red gems and will be the most in demand by far.

At 450 Jewelcrafting, you can prospect Titanium Ore. This will give uncommon and rare quality gems, Titanium Powder, which can be turned in at the Jewelcrafting shop for Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens and a chance at epic quality gems.

Epic gems can be exchanged for 10,000 Honor if you are more into PvPing for upgrading your gear. Or, you can exchange Emblems of Heroism for Epic Gems. The single color gems cost 20 each, the dual color 10. You can downgrade your emblems at this NPC in Dalaran Sewer if you wish to spend them in this way. But beware, once you downgrade, it’s permanent.

Finally, all new gem designs can be exchanged for Dalaran Jewelcrafter’s Tokens at the shop in Dalaran. They cost 4 each.

6. Season 7 PVP

A new PVP season will, of course, start, that being season 7, which will see the Relentless Gladiator’s gear become available for purchase by using your WOTLK Classic Gold. The best players will also be able to work towards titles and a mount, namely the Relentless Gladiator’s Frost Wyrm.

7. Isle Of Conquest

Finally, the Isle of Conquest will become available for play.

This 40 vs 40 battlegrounds pits Alliance vs Horde in a battle for resources against one another. It has you capture strategic points on the map, as well as build various vehicles to aid you in gatecrashing the enemies’ base. Or you know, maybe everyone will just run into each other in the middle of the map and fight for the first five minutes instead.

Either way, similar to AV (Alterac Valley), the first team to reduce the other side’s resources to 0, or defeat their general, will be declared victorious.

And that’s what to expect from Phase 3 of Wrath Classic – the call of the crusade. So, whether it’s raiding, collection or PVP, there is something for everyone here.

Do you have a plan for immediately what to do the minute Phase 3 Call of the Crusade launches? If you want to maximize the first days of the brand new Trial of the Crusader phase, I've got you covered. I'll explain the five things I'm going to do in the patches from cutting up at gyms to run a heroics and maximizing the new Ulduar Skip Runs.

Phase 3 Release Time

But before we talk about the five things, I'm going to talk about the release time. The Trial of the Crusader and Onyxia's Lair Raid are coming out at 6 PM EDT for the global release on June 22nd. However, the rest of the new content from the Isles of Conquest battleground to the new Epic Gems to the Argent tournament dailies will come out on June 20th.

Since the non-raid portions of the patch aren't on a global release, we should be on the lookout for the patch directly after your server's maintenance. On North America maintenance will be from 10 AM to 1 PM EST Meanwhile, on Europe maintenance will be from 3 AM to 11AM CEST. Phase 2 did originally release at 1:35 PM on Tuesday in North America. So, don't be surprised if things take a few extra minutes.

1. Phase 3 Epic Gems

The first thing I'm going to do immediately when the patch answers, I'm going to talk to Timothy Jones and buy the 10 most important gem recipes.

Here is my list of recipes:

• Rigid King's Amber
• Purified Dreadstone
• Brilliant King’s Amber
• Fractured Cardinal Ruby
• Quick King's Amber
• Solid Majestic Zircon
• Reckless Ametrine
• Mystic King's Amber
• Bold Cardinal Ruby
• Runed Cardinal Ruby

Of course, there are way more relevant recipes you should buy if you have the Jewelcrafting Tokens available. Primarily, I'm going to get one recipe of every gem color to cover all my bases. Also, you shouldn't neglect colors like blue. I mean tanks need stamina gems just as much as casters need spell power gems.

With my recipes in hand, I'll be heading to my factions Emblem of Heroism vendor to stockpile at the gems. I've already converted all my batches to heroism in advance using a macro. But once the patch drops, you can just shift click like any other item.

I plan to primarily buy red gems at first. But since everybody has that idea, you should diversify into other major colors as well. I'll also be heading to the PVP vendor and Orgrimmar to liquidate all my Honor into even more Epic Gems. I've got so many random characters with battleground marks that I converted using a macro. So, I'll be getting at least 100 Epic Gems across all my alts just from past PVP.

Since I do have 450 Jewelcrafting, once I've got all my Epic Gems, I'll be cutting them and selling them on the Auction House. I'm not expecting insane prices since most people will be at work on the patch drafts and the rate doesn't come out until Thursday. Though hopefully at first, they sell for a few hundred WOTLK Classic Gold each.

Also, I plan to wait to gem out my own gear since the prices should drop by raid day. After I clear out my first batch of gems, I'm going to sit down and prospect the 8,000 Titanium Ore I've saved up.

Related: WOTLK Classic Phase 3: What New Dailies Will Be Added To The Argent Tournament?

2. Start Prospecting

I already pre-cleared my inventory as much as possible. So, I'll be able to prospect without taking extra trips. I also pre-saved a Titanium Prospecting macro and I have Speedy AutoLoot turned on to make the process three times faster.

Once I finish prospecting, I'll be cutting the Epic Gems and selling the Titanium Powder on the Auction House. The Titanium Powder should have a very good value since like if they turn into dollar and Jewelcrafting Tokens. You'll also be left with tons of rare and common gems and I think it's worth cutting the rare gems before you put them on the Auction House.

Save Your Kings Amber!

Though there are two gems I’m not going to be cutting, which are the two King’s Amber I’m saving for the next step. The two King’s Amber will be for crafting the Jeeves remote banking robot.

I’ve already pre-farmed all the materials for Jeeves:

• King’s Amber x2
• Titansteel Bar x8
• Field Repair Bot 74A x2
• Field Repair Bot 110G x10
• Handful of Cobalt Bolts x30
• Scrapbot Construction Kit x 20

With Jeeves in hand, I’ll be able to do all sorts of wild and crazy exploits, like making my character insanely big during raids. It’s also just way more convenient for during my 8 million gear sets on my Druid.

3. Argent Tournament

The third thing I plan Argent Tournament to do in the patches is to head to the Argent Tournament to pick up my Argent Pony Bridle and my Argent Crusader’s Tabard.

Those will be picked up from Dame Evniki Kapsalis in the western tent. The Pony Bridle makes my Argent Squire into a second remote bank and he doesn’t require any skills like Engineering.

With my new child in tow, I’ll be finishing off the Black Knight’s quest chain for three Champion Seals. At the same time, I’m hopefully going to knock out the brand new Sunreavers and Crusader Dailies. These are even faster and easier dailies than ever before.

Also, if I get the drop of the Kvaldir Attack Plans, I’ll just knock that quest out real quick for a bonus 21 gold.

4. Daily Heroic Quest

The fourth thing I plan to do is to run the daily heroic quest for five Emblems of Triumph. Although I won’t be able to afford any new Triumph gear in time for ToC on Thursday, my alts will be able to afford one Crusader Orb each if they hit the daily until Thursday.

The price of that Crusader Orbs on the first few days should be at least 2,000 gold since there aren’t any raids for generating them yet. I’ll also be running a few world tours on my Paladin and generate some last-minute purple Sidereal Essence.

Sidereal Essence is a currency that drops one at a time from the last boss in each Heroic Plus dungeon. That takes us back to Crusader Orbs again. You can actually buy a Crusader Orb for three Sidereal Essence that makes just running Heroic Plus, an insanely good gold maker for alts.

5. Ulduar Skip Runs

The fifth thing I plan to do in the patches is Ulduar Skip Runs on every character.

These runs will be perfect for catching on my alts and for getting those last minute 252 weapons and trinkets. In Phase 3, you can teleport directly past Flame Leviathan and XT-002 to get directly to Algalon the Observer. Not only that, but the one hour timer’s been removed and Algalon now drops a guaranteed two Fragments of Val’anyr.

There’s also another skip directly after Kologarn since the Vezax store will immediately open up. This means you can go from Avalon to Vezax to Yogg and complete the raid in under 20 minutes.

Yogg even gives three fragments guaranteed if you do zero light and two fragments guaranteed if you do one light. That’s such a good deal.

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

Build Overview

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

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

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

DPS Skills

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

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

Defenses

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

Clear Speed

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

Single-Target Damage

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

Budget

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

Gear, Jewels, Flasks

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

Mandatory Uniques:

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

Recommended Uniques:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recommended Annoitment:

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

Recommended Affixes:

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

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

Recommended Affixes:

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

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

Recommended Affixes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Skill Gems And Sockets

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

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

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

Storm Brand & Conductivity are supported by:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The third setup has three spells:

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

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

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

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

• Cast When Damage Taken (level 2)

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

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

Flame Dash are supported by:

• Acane Surge (low level)
• Second Wind

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

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

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

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

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

Gearing Max Level Alts For Heroic ++

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leveling Up Alts

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

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

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

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

Professions

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

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

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

Try New Specs / Classes / Roles

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

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

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

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

Play Other Games (Avoid Burnout)

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

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

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

Outro

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

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