Blizzard hosted a Diablo 4 Season 3 Midseason campfire discussion on February 29th, featuring Adam Fletcher, Adam Jackson, and Joe Piepiora. They provided a glimpse into the upcoming midseason content release.

Among the updates, we can expect the introduction of the Gauntlet leaderboard system, the return of Vampiric Powers, and various adjustments to classes including buffs and tweaks. Additionally, they elaborated on PTRs and shared insights regarding Season 4. This article serves as a concise overview of the key points discussed in the livestream. Without delay, let's delve into the details.

Vampiric Powers Are Making A Comeback

Commencing with Season 3, the Vampiric Powers are making a comeback. This thematic element constitutes the core of the season's mechanics.

During the questline involving Eris, players get bitten by a vampire, enabling them to acquire Vampiric Powers for character advancement. These powers are leveled up using Potent Blood and can be slotted into specific abilities to gain predefined benefits. However, the handling of these powers differs slightly this time around.

In Season 2, the Malignant Hearts mechanic from Season 1 was reintroduced through a unique ring. In Season 3, it takes the form of a legendary aspect:

Aspect of Accursed Touch Blood Boiling Offensive Aspect Undying Defensive Aspect Aspect of Metamorphosis Offensive Aspect of Moonrise Hectic Utility Aspect

Players can extract and place these aspects into any item in their character's inventory. 6 Vampiric Powers are returning:

Accursed Touch Blood Boil Hectic Metamorphosis Moonrise Undying

The developers mentioned that these Vampiric Powers will function similarly to before, with the addition of a "kiss-curse" effect on certain abilities. This means that while they grant bonuses, they also impose minor penalties. For instance, using Metamorphosis will increase the cooldown rating of the evade ability.

Regarding this format, I'd like to share my thoughts. Instead of reintroducing Season 2 mechanics or any seasonal mechanics as aspects, it could have been an opportunity to implement a new player progression system. This could provide additional content to farm or grind for, enhancing character abilities. For example, a talent tree system or a new glyph format applied to the Paragon Board system could have been beneficial. With aspects, there's a risk of them conflicting with other aspects desired for a build, potentially leading to their underutilization.

Snapshotting, Gauntlet Leaderboards & Rewards

Transitioning from Vampiric Powers, let's discuss snapshotting, an issue that many players have raised concerns about.

Snapshotting involves exploiting buffs gained from certain abilities while swapping out $1 mid-action to stack buffs and achieve exceptionally high damage output, essentially breaking the game. Blizzard has taken steps to address this by removing snapshotting mechanisms and plans to eliminate them entirely in the future.

To prevent snapshotting in the Gauntlet leaderboard system, Blizzard has implemented a restriction. Once players enter the Gauntlet, they cannot swap out equipped items, selected skills, or Paragon Board allocations. This measure aims to prevent abuse of snapshotting mechanics during Gauntlet runs.

Furthermore, they provided a demonstration of the Gauntlet leaderboard system, featuring three developers playing different classes—a Necromancer, Sorcerer, and Barbarian. Commentary was provided by two content creators known as Annacakelive and Macrobioboi. Each player had an 8-minute timer to accumulate the highest number of points. It was intriguing to observe their approaches and strategies with their respective classes.

Proof of Might was collected by defeating monsters or obtaining keys from mobs to unlock specific chests scattered throughout the dungeon. The layout, mobs, and pylon arrangements remain consistent each week, ensuring a level playing field for all players. However, these aspects change weekly, allowing players to continually attempt and improve their scores. Players can strategically manage their resources, such as pills, which multiply scores or reset monster respawns, to maximize their points.

The Gauntlet leaderboard system is set to a difficulty equivalent to level 70 rather than a level 100 nightmare dungeon. This decision broadens the scope for diverse abilities and builds, as lower-level enemies enable the utilization of less conventional but potentially effective skills. The dynamic nature of the Gauntlet introduces new possibilities and adds freshness to the gameplay experience.

Rewards in the Gauntlet include gear and cosmetics. Players can earn up to four caches per week based on their performance tier—Seal of the Blooded, Seal of the Steadfast, Seal of the Iron-Willed, and Seal of the Worthy. These caches contain gear with item levels of 925 and may include unique items. Additionally, players can earn cosmetic character portraits and, for the top 100, a trophy to adorn their mounts.

Lastly, the Hall of the Ancients showcases the top 10 players in each class category for the week. This serves as a platform for recognition and bragging rights, emphasizing the focus on displaying class proficiency and builds rather than solely farming gear.

Class Buffs & Changes

Now, let's delve into the class buffs and changes. I won't delve into extensive details. Instead, I'll provide a general overview of the adjustments slated for patch 1.3.3.

Barbarians and Druids will see enhancements to their basic skills, particularly focusing on early-game resource generation. Specifically for Druids, improvements are planned for companions like wolves and Necromancer minions, along with movement speed upgrades for Necromancers.

Sorcerers will witness enhancements to certain paragon nodes, as well as adjustments to abilities like Incinerate and Conjuration. As for Rogues, there's a focus on refining ranged abilities, with changes made to skills such as Heartseeker and Barrage, alongside adjustments to specific aspects.

Overhauling The Seasonal Mechanics: Changes To The Center Shell

In addition to class adjustments, significant changes have been made to the Center Shell, which encompasses the entire seasonal mechanic in Season 3.

These adjustments include tweaks and some nerfs, likely implemented to maintain balance ahead of the introduction of the gauntlet leaderboard system. Modifications have been made to various aspects, including Tuning Stones, Poison Support, Bleeding Support, and Burning Support, with even the Governing Stone, like Tempest, receiving adjustments.

Community Feedback On Diablo 4's Seasonal Content Approach

This next topic is closely related to class adjustments and enhancements.

The developers sought feedback from the Diablo 4 community regarding the focus on introducing new legendaries and unique items for various builds. Historically, at the onset of each season, every class would receive a new aspect or legendary item, along with a unique item, alongside alterations to abilities, potentially fostering new viable builds.

Now, the community was asked whether they favored continuing this approach. One drawback is that sometimes these additions render certain builds nonviable compared to top-performing ones. The proposed alternative is to concentrate on one or two classes, akin to the approach seen in Diablo 3. This would involve significant buffs to specific skills and abilities, accompanied by the introduction of legendaries or uniques tailored to enhance these builds. This strategy could inject more excitement into the game, providing players with more meaningful choices and fostering a sense of progression.

While specifics regarding the implementation timing were not provided, it's plausible that these changes could be introduced midway through the season. This approach could enhance the game's ongoing appeal, ensuring a steady stream of content throughout each season, rather than waiting until the season's conclusion to introduce new features.

Anticipating Season 4

Following the Q&A, the final segment of the campfire discussion centered on Season 4. The developers provided some insight into the direction they intend to take with it.

It appears that substantial changes are in store, reminiscent of Season 2's adjustments to vulnerability, critical damage, and overpower, but on a larger scale. Concerns about potential delays, particularly with the Gauntlet, seem to have been addressed, as everything appears to be progressing smoothly.

Season 4 promises to bring significant positive changes, with PTRs allowing players to preview and test the season before its official release. This serves as a sort of beta test for Season 4, enabling players to provide firsthand feedback and fostering better communication between the community and developers. This announcement has generated considerable anticipation among players.

I’m here to provide you with my review of some mastery classes that you will play in the early game phase of the Last Epoch 1.0. If you’re are interested in exploring this topic, let’s delve into it together.

Preparing some $1 can improve your gaming experience and make it easy to get through the early stages of the game.

Bladedancer

First, let's talk about the Bladedancer. It boasts remarkable speed, owing to Shift's significantly low cooldown. This allows you to swiftly navigate from one pack to another. Moreover, its AOE capabilities are impressive, effortlessly clearing groups of enemies with custom skills.

Bladedancer also excels in dealing substantial damage to bosses. In its current state, I consider Bladedancer to be among the top classes for leveling.

Shaman

Shaman is a choice that stands out among classes. With an array of powerful skills, it can effortlessly clear and move swiftly. Its effectiveness doesn't rely on waiting for minions or other prerequisites.

Moreover, the Shaman inflicts significant damage on bosses, making it a formidable choice for early-game progression.

Sorcerer

The Sorcerer is truly amazing at the moment. With its abundance of AOEs, you can effortlessly clear while on the move. The Teleport skill adds an extra layer of mobility, allowing you to swiftly navigate between fights and breeze through the campaign.

While there may be some minor mana issues, these are easily mitigated, especially as you progress and optimize your gear. Overall, the Sorcerer stands out as a top-tier build, capable of completing tasks quickly and efficiently.

Lich

The second class I've extensively played and want to discuss is the Lich. It's currently quite remarkable, particularly due to the minimal mana issues it faces. However, since you may need to pause briefly to defeat monsters and its movement spell isn't as effective compared to other options.

While Lich is highly versatile, there are still some limitations, especially if you opt for a version with fewer projectiles. Additionally, using the crit version might pose challenges, particularly during the leveling process.

Necromancer

Moving on, let's discuss the Necromancer class. I find the Necromancer to be incredibly impressive because minions can effectively carry you through the entire campaign. Necromancer can be compared with the Lich class because of its outstanding performance.

Minions effortlessly eliminate enemies for you. However, the Necromancer has some issues with movement, requiring a brief pause for minions to engage enemies, as they can be somewhat slow and not always tactically astute. Its overall performance remains exceptional, and it's a highly effective choice.

Beastmaster

Delving into the Beastmaster, I find its potential intriguing. I believe the Beastmaster will shine brilliantly in the endgame, its journey to that point presents considerable challenges. The pace is sluggish, lacking the swift movement of other classes like the Necromancer.

Its minions, though faithful, pale in comparison to the Necromancer's army. Thus, the Beastmaster falls short in terms of speed and efficiency during the leveling process.

Spellblade

Let's delve into the Spellblade class. Spellblade presents a compelling magical archetype with the potential for considerable strength. However, it currently grapples with certain issues. Notably, when assuming the role of a Spellblade, one must engage enemies primarily through melee attacks.

This approach, particularly during the leveling process, can prove cumbersome and frustrating. Despite these challenges, Spellblade boasts high damage output and offers teleportation capabilities. Nevertheless, the inherent difficulty of consistently landing melee hits remains a significant concern.

Druid

The Druid occupies a unique position, blending elements of the Shaman's swiftness with the Beastmaster's versatility. While it requires less setup to become effective and boasts an impressive swarm form for clearing, its speed falls short of the Shaman's pace.

Its single-target damage output doesn't match that of the Shaman. The Druid offers a balanced progression path between the faster-paced Shaman and the more gradual Beastmaster.

Runemaster

Next, I delved into the Runemaster class, facing a challenging decision between it and the Sorcerer. Ultimately, I found the Runemaster to be exceptionally impressive. It boasts capabilities comparable to the Sorcerer, excelling in various scenarios.

With its array of AOEs, potent boss damage output, and swift mobility facilitated by teleportation, the Runemaster emerges as a formidable contender in all aspects of gameplay in Last Epoch.

Marksman

The next class is going to be Marksman. Currently, Marksman is in a pretty special position. You can clear a lot with Marksman, but it still needs a few different bonuses to work properly. Both Multishot and the version of Rain of Arrows works well, but it just requires a little more setup.

So while you’re running through the campaign and preparing for early leveling and the early game phase by itself, I think Marksman should be somewhere in between. It can still be powerful, and it has Shift the same way as Bladedancer has it, so it will come online but later on.

Paladin

Let's discuss the Paladin, a class currently positioned quite favorably. With its remarkable Shield Rush skill boasting an impressively low cooldown, the Paladin effortlessly traverses through hordes of enemies.

Additionally, the Javelin skill proves highly effective in dealing damage. Renowned as one of the strongest half-mill classes alongside the Bladedancer, the Paladin possesses all the necessary tools to navigate the early game effortlessly.

Void Knight

Void Knight presents a conundrum for many players. While I appreciate the unique character gimmick, its reliance on Damage Over Time zones poses challenges, especially when rushing through the campaign or seeking swift completion.

Although it may seem unfavorable at present, Void Knight holds promise for formidable strength in the endgame, offering a different gameplay experience once fully developed.

Forge Knight

Forge Knight stands out as another intriguing class worth highlighting. Presently, Forge Knight holds a sturdy position in the latter stages of the early game. However, initiating as a Forge Knight can prove challenging. It necessitates around 30 to 40 passives to truly shine, delivering significant damage and functionality to the build.

This requirement adds complexity to the early game experience, making it more arduous than some other classes. While not as problematic as the Void Knight, Forge Knight still grapples with various issues.

Here, I want to review my favorite AFK spots when I’m in New World and want to rest or do other things, or in OPR/3v3 Arenas. This way I can come back every 15 to 20 minutes and collect easy gold and resources with minimal effort. Let’s get started now.

How To Improve AFK Farming Efficiency?

Whenever you have other things to do or just need a break from New World, but still want to earn some $1 at the same time. Then it can be very beneficial to stop your game and strategically place your character in a quiet area with a lot of resources.

In the long run, this allows you to accumulate large amounts of gold, Aptitude, and resources with little effort. But instead of being AFK for 20 minutes, run an OPR/3v3 Arenas and then collect all the resources between matches to make yourself super efficient.

If you want to really maximize your efficiency, you can create a second account on the same server and raise it to a high enough level to collect resources in one of these locations where you want. 

Then it stays there all the time and you just switch from the main node to the alternate node every 20 minutes or so, collect all the nodes, and then go back to the main node and transfer all the profits over.

This will even allow your alt to eventually reach level 65 and also open up more possibilities for additional gold crafting activities.

General Spots

I’m going to categorize them all into areas that have a variety of different resources next to each other, and other areas that are more dedicated to specific types of top-tier ores.

For the first type of general area, one of my favorites is this little area in Cutlass Keys. A total of 4 Runewood Trees, 8 Wyrdwood Trees, 4 Wirefiber Plants, 10 Spinfiber and 9 Silkweed are generated in this area.

Also, there are some Cougars and Boars roaming the area, which you can eliminate as well. If you need some Thick Hide, there’s a lot of potential here for you to make some serious money with AFK.

If you want to shorten your AFK time and add some ores to your grind. You can even go around to Fort to the north and grab all Starmetal and Mythril from there, which can be done in about 2 to 4 minutes. There are a lot of decent chests out there, and the mobs are only level 40. So they are easy to deal with.

I also like that there is a Spirit Shrine here that is very close, so you can quickly run over and check it out.

Anyway, I sat here AFK for 30 minutes and got some loot. If I sell it and multiply that number by 2, that means I get 4,860 gold per hour for very little effort.

I didn’t even go to Fort to hunt for ores during this period to keep my AFK time as high as possible. Overall, this is a great place.

For the second general location, we will stay at Unbound Island. This small island is close to the fast travel point and has many Runewood Trees and Mythril. All of this is in a small circle where you can do a quick lap on your mount, grab all the resources, then AFK on some rocks for 20 minutes, then come back later to repeat the process.

Mythril Ore Spots

Next, we’ll take a look at some AFK locations for those looking for specific ores.

We’ll start with Mythril Ore. Unbound Island, mentioned earlier in the general section, is a great place to farm Mythril Ore. Alternatively, you can camp outside the cave mentioned in the first general location and obtain the ore resource.

However, when you want to get a lot of Mythril, another excellent area to camp in is Brimstone Sands. It’s close to a fast travel point and has five Mythril Veins, so a lot of Mythril Ores will spawn. There are also some Sandstone Blocks around here, which will only increase your profits if you head here. Be sure to grab two Elite Chests along the way, though, for a chance to easily earn some Scarabs.

Another really cool place to farm Mythril Ore is Mourningdale. Since the fast travel point is far away, it takes a while to reach it. But because of this, there’s usually no one here, and it’s a great place to get Mythril Ore, and there’s some Orichalcum in there, too. So in the long run, sitting here will give you a ton of benefits when you run here from fast travel.

Orichalcum Ore Spots

If you want to focus on farming Orichalcum, there are plenty of great AFK locations here too.

First, there is an area in Brimstone Sands that you can combine with monster grinding to get Ancient Glob of Ectoplasm, which can make you a lot of money.

There’s also a bunch of Orichalcum and Starmetal Veins in there, but if you combine that with monster grinding, it’s not too AFK. One thing to note is that there are often many people farming here, so be prepared to grab ores.

I dare say that the best AFK place to farm Orichalcum has ended at Edengrove. There are large numbers of Orichalcum and Starmetal on the cliffs of Edengrove. But be warned, this is a very popular place, so you have to be lucky to get it.

But if you’re on a less popular server or go during off-peak hours, you can manage to get the spot yourself. You can run up and down the edge of the cliff and then come back and repeat the process when they spawn again.

Starmetal Spots

Finally, if you prefer farming Starmetal Ore, there’s a nice AFK location here as well. But in most cases, it’s usually cheaper than Orichalcum or Mythril. So if you really need it, it’s better to sell the other two and buy Starmetal on Trade Post.

But the location I chose was Cutlass Keys in Rothoard Hollow cave on the outskirts of the capital. It’s a quick trip from the city and contains many Starmetal Ores, as well as some Gold and Silver Ores.

Note that there are some pirates in there, but they are very low level so they are easy to deal with.

When you’re done mining, you can jump onto the rock and wait for the vein to regenerate. Since this is a low-rise area, no one usually camps in the area.

Conclusion

All in all, this guide covers the best places to farm resources in AFK so that you can get a lot of gold with very little effort. Not only will you get tons of loot if you do this, you’ll also get tons of Aptitude Crates and skill line upgrade materials from them, which will only increase your profits.

Also, if you’re not on a low-popular server and you find some locations occupied when you go there to try it, try grinding during off-peak hours, it will help a lot. Good luck!

I'm excited to present to you a Double Swing Twister Barbarian build. This iteration brings a fresh perspective for this Diablo 4 Season 3 - super fast and incredibly powerful. While there's a reduction in cooldown upon killing enemies, it doesn't significantly impact the build's effectiveness since we primarily rely on Double Swing with minimal skill casting.

How It Works

In this build, there are absolutely no Uber Uniques included. If consider adding one, my choice would probably be a Shako. While a Ring of Starless Skies may seem appealing, Shako is the only option I would consider for this setup. Besides, we need the Tibault's Will. The reason being, it’s a lot harder this season to sustain unstoppable. So before we had Metamorphosis power, which would allow you to just continuously proc Tibault's Will.

One nice thing about this build is that it’s movement speed capped while Berserking, which is absolutely insane. Another little cool thing that you can do with this build as well is just swing at thin air to keep your Berserk buff up. So every time I swing, I get 2 extra seconds, so I can just maintain it. I can keep my damage boost from wrath, and I can also maintain my movement speed as well. 

Gear

So let’s quickly go over our Diablo 4 Items. First, I really recommend the Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty, this is not necessary but definitely nice to have. I just kind of wanted to illustrate like Fortifiy damage reduction doesn’t actually do anything while you’re using a barrier. For the ring, I choose the Bold Chieftain's Circle, Ring of Unrelenting Fury and Windlasher Chain. They’re all really low item power, and the roles on some of these are excellent.

There’s a lot that can be improved, but the key component is urity. Your main DPS boost is Ramaladni's Magnum Opus, so this is really important.  But check carefully as to the stat requirements because you know these are not the best representation for that, you want crit chance where you can get it, and damage while Berserking, and resource regen, and Maximum Fury.

Skill Tree

Then as for skills again, you want to go for Furious Double Swing . This is what gives us our basically infinite Fury. We are using Strategic Rallying Cry. Now I know I said like fortified damage reduction doesn’t really apply from behind barrier and it doesn’t.  However, we want the damage boost from counteroffensive. So just having this alone, one Rallying Cry will get you to the fortifier requirement in order to allow you to get this damage boost which we want. 1 point again in Charge, this is just for breaking CC. You can use it if you want to move faster.

Healing is very important to this build. And then of course we need Invegrating Fury, more healing but this is just passive. You know this you have to wait for Shouts. This every 4 Double Swing s, and we have insane attack speed, will just be a fat heal, which will keep you sustained forever. Unconstrained, this is a Berserk build.

Seneschal Constructs

As for the pet, I didn’t use any of unique stones either. However, if you wanted to use some, you would definitely want to play Genesis on Flash of Adrenaline, and then you’d want to play Evernight on Tempest. It is up to you. And we can get a lot of resource from this, which is quite important for us, and then just damage and DR, which is very nice to have.

Paragon Board

Then the last part I just want to talk about is the paragon board. I have to compensate for my lack of resistances on those really low item power rings. There’s some sort of fundamentals that will remain. We’re going to have Blood Rage, lots of damage while Berserking. Then the glyphs we will get is still the Wrath. this is for Fury regen. Ambidextrous powers up all the blue nodes, also increases our damage of dual-wield weapons.

Exploit is our main, if not our only source of vulnerability, but nothing really ever flips over 3 seconds, that’s not a problem. A because it’s a Berserk build and Twister, which is just a really fun thing to use. So we get a nice little 133% multiplicative damage bonus after creating a Tornado or some others, but also it’s just a really cool like gimmick almost. It’s cool to see the Tornadoes go around and kill stuff. They do quite a bit of damage when you max this out, and I really like how it plays.

So other than that, Carnage, lots of attack speed with stacking that Decimator just for Flat Damage. We don’t have Warbringer in the build that you see will quite likely going to have Flawless Technique in it as well because that’s the one thing I would, take these points that are in resistances and I’d go get that legendary node.

EA FC 24’s Career Mode provides players with an exciting football gaming experience. Whether you manage an existing club or create a new one from scratch, finding the right players to strengthen your team is crucial to success. While chasing top talent is exciting, sometimes the best deals are found in Free Agent Market.

These players can strengthen your squad without affecting your transfer budget, as you don’t have to worry about release clauses or additional transfer fees. In this guide, we will list the five best Free Agents in EA FC 24 Career Mode that are worth signing, all of whom have a combination of experience, versatility, and skills.

Xeka

Miguel Angelo Da Silva Rocha, also known as Xeka, is a skilled Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder.

His football career mainly started in France. He showcased his talent in Ligue 1 with famous clubs such as Lille, Dijon, and Rennes, making an impressive 145 appearances in total.

Xeka played a key role in Lille’s 2020-2021 league victory, achieving the highest level of achievement. However, injuries hampered his run and ultimately made his return uncertain.

After five years, Rennes released him this summer, leaving him currently without a club. Nonetheless, Xeka will definitely strengthen your midfield significantly in EA FC 24.

Santi Mina

Santiago “Santi” Mina Lorenzo is a talented Spanish professional player who is well-known in the football world for his outstanding performance as a forward on the field.

While the majority of his career was spent at Celta Vigo, where he made 163 appearances and scored 42 goals, Santi Mina also left his mark in La Liga. However, in August 2023, his contract with the club was terminated.

He spent four seasons in Valencia jersey before rejoining Celta in 2019 for a transfer fee of €10 million. Meanwhile, he played a crucial role in the club’s 2019 Copa del Rey victory.

Therefore, Santi Mina is definitely a strong contender as a potential goal threat in your EA FC 24 lineup.

Jesse Ellis Lingard

Jesse Ellis Lingard is a versatile English professional footballer known for his abilities as an attacking midfielder or winger.

Lingard holds many famous championship titles, such as UEFA Europa League, FA Cup, FA Community Shield, and EFL Cup. What makes him even more special is his remarkable feat of scoring in the finals of all three domestic competitions, which is very impressive.

When he played for Manchester United for more than ten years, he was often loaned out to different clubs. He enjoyed a stunning loan spell at West Ham, where he scored a career-best nine goals in a single season. Moreover, he accomplished this feat in just 14 appearances.

However, his future at Manchester United still looks bleak. As a result, he was offered the opportunity to move to Nottingham Forest at the time. Unlike his time at West Ham, his performances during this period were disappointing, and the club released him at the end of the season.

Nonetheless, Lingard is also currently a coveted free agent who could provide a wealth of talent and experience to any future team. The English midfielder will definitely expand your attacking opportunities in EA FC 24.

Eden Hazard

Eden Michael Walter Hazard is a talented Belgian professional footballer known for his versatility as a winger or attacking midfielder. He has already risen to the top ranks of football.

Eden Hazard’s reputation as a creative genius, coupled with his dribbling skills, precision passing, and remarkable vision, has cemented his status as one of the best players of this generation.

Hazard’s impressive career tally of 170 goals in 622 games is testament to his enduring excellence.

His talent is unparalleled, and his time at Chelsea is proof of that. However, things turned around when he realized his dream of moving to Real Madrid. Despite his obvious potential, injury ended his Real Madrid career. Fans only saw him 54 times during his four years at the club.

Ultimately, the club had to part ways with him, leaving him as one of the most talented Free Agents. Eden Hazard is bound to give an outstanding performance in EA FC 24 lineup.

David De Gea

David De Gea is a highly regarded Spanish professional goalkeeper who has left an unforgettable mark at the club and international level.

During his time at Manchester United, De Gea etched his name in the club’s history. He racked up over 500 appearances and collected a host of trophies. Despite his outstanding performance, the club decided not to renew his contract for the 2023/2024 season.

His outstanding performances earned him the prestigious Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year Award, a title he held for an unprecedented three consecutive seasons from 2013 to 2016. This makes him the first player in the club’s history to achieve this feat.

In addition, De Gea was selected to PFA Team of the Year four consecutive times from 2015 to 2018. In 2018, he also earned a spot in FIFA FIFPro World 11.

With his contract expiring in 2023, De Gea is now a Free Agent, ready to offer his incredible goalkeeping skills to any team lucky enough to secure his services. In EA FC 24, a goalkeeper with this potential will always be a solid defender in front of your goal.

The above are 5 Free Agents that I think are most worth signing in Career Mode. Obtaining them will definitely make your team better and have more chances to win the game!

Here, we’ll talk about the upcoming Guilds and Glory Celebration Event for the Elder Scrolls Online.

What Is The Guilds And Glory Celebration Event?

The Guilds and Glory Celebration Event is a remembrance of ESO content of the Guilds and Glory DLC pack.

During this event, you can earn unique rewards by participating in various activities in Orsinium, Imperial City, Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild DLC and as well from the Imperial City Prison dungeon, White Gold Tower dungeon and the Maelstrom Arena.

When Is The Guilds And Glory Celebration Event Active?

The Guilds and Glory Celebration event is for the first time hosted in January 2024. It will be active from January 18th until January 30th 2024.

Which ESO DLC Do You Need To Join In The Guilds And Glory Event?

To be able to particpate, you need to own the Orsinium, Imperial City, Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild DLC.

If you have an active ESO Plus subscription, you can access all event related zones.

Don’t forget that you can claim for free the Imperial City DLC via the crown store.

How To Start The Guilds And Glory Celebration Event?

To start the event, you can directly travel to Orsinium, Imperial City, Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild DLC. Or, you can start the event tutorial quest for free from the crown store.

Earn Double Rewards During Guilds And Glory Celebration Event

During the event, you can earn double rewards, Wrothgar, Imperial City, Gold Coast and Hew’s Bane from the following activities:

For defeating World Boss, Delve Boss enemies For completing daily repeatable quests Wrothgar, Imperial City, Gold Coast and Hew’s Bane For defeating Bosses within the Maelstrom Arena For defeating bosses within the Imperial City Prison and White Gold Tower dungeons For defeating Bosses within the Mawe of Lorkhaj Trial and Double yield from harvesting nodes in Wrothgar, Imperial City, Gold Coast and Hew’s Bane Earn Glorious Zone Reward Coffers And More

During the Guilds and Glory Celebration, you can earn Glorious Coffers and regular reward Coffers.

Completing your first daily repeatable quest in Wrothgar, Imperial City, Gold Coast and Hew’s Bane will award a Glorious Coffer

Earn Glorious Dungeon/Arena Reward Coffers

And you can earn a seperate bespoke glorious coffer once per day by defeating the final boss of the Imperial City Prison dungeon, White Gold Tower dungeon or the Maelstrom Arena.

Of course, you can also earn more reward coffers if you want to complete the dungeons or arena multiple times.

Note, if you defeat the final dungeon boss on veteran difficulty, you will get 2 reward coffers. If one of these would be eligible for a glourious coffer, you will get 1 glorious coffer and 1 regular coffer.

Earn Glorious Imperial City Reward Coffers

Furthermore, you can obtain a third glorious coffer once per day by completing an Imperial City daily repeatable quest or defeat bosses in the Imperial City or Imperial City Sewers.

That means we can earn three glorious coffer per day, per account.

Collect Regular Event Reward Coffers

Additionally, you can find sometimes regular coffers by completing more daily repeatable quests and participating in activities within Orsinium, Imperial City, Gold Coast and Hew’s Bane.

Other activities are, for example, killing delve, world, public dungeon bosses, random enemies, treasure chests and safeboxes, resource nodes, thieves troves or by pickpocketing NPCs.

Please note that regular reward Coffers have a reduced chance of providing special rewards.

Guilds And Glory Event Rewards

You have a chance to find inside Glorious Coffers and reward Coffers:

Crafting Materials Set and style items from overland zones Set and style items from dungeons Treasure maps or survey reports Furnishing recipes Saleable treasures Companion gear Bristleback Hunter Style pages Style pages from the Wrothgar, Imperial City, Gold Coast and Hew’s Bane Which Styles Can You Find In Guilds And Glory Reward Coffers?

You can find following styles in the guilds and glory reward coffers: Assassin’s League, Minotaur, Dark Brotherhood, or Order of the Hour from reward coffers obtained in the Gold Coast.

Outlaw, Thieves’ Guild, or Abah’s Watch from reward coffers obtained in Hew’s Bane.

Ancient Orc, Malacath, or Trinimac Style is found in reward coffers from Wrothgar Xivkyn, Aldmeri Dominion, Daggerfall Covenant.

Ebonheart Pact Style pages are obtained from reward coffers dropped in the Imperial City.

All reward coffers have a small chance to include a Bristleback Hunter Style page.

Orsinium DLC Daily Repeatable Quests

Now, we will talk about the Daily Repeatable Quests in the Orsinium DLC.

In Wrothgar, you can find Delve and Group Boss Daily repeatable quests.

Guruzug in Morkul Stronghold will offer you one of 6 delve daily repeatable quests.

Arzorag in Skalar’s Hostel will offer you one of 6 group boss daily repeatable quests.

You can pick up only 1 delve and 1 group boss daily per character per day. But it is possible to complete all 6 delve dailies and all 6 group boss dailies if you group up with other players and ask them to share the quest.

Dark Brotherhood Daily Repeatable Quests

Next, I will explain where you can find the Daily Repeatable Quests in the Dark Brotherhood DLC.

Speaker Terenus in the Dark Brotherhood Sancutary will offer you Dark Brotherhood Sacrement Quests, which send you to an instanced area to assassinate specific targets.

Follow the Dark Brotherhood Questline to unlock the Dark Brotherhood Sacrement Quests. Dark Brotherhood Sacrement Quests can be obtained once per day and cannot be shared with others.

You can also find delve and world boss daily repeatable quests at the Gold Coast.

At the Bounty Board in Kvatch, you can pick up world boss daily repeatable quests. At the Bounty Board in Anvil, you can pick up delve daily repeatable quests.

You can pick up only 1 delve and 1 group boss daily per character per day. But it is possible to complete all delve dailies and group boss dailies if you group up with other players and ask them to share the quest.

Thieves Guild DLC Repeatable Quests

Now, we will talk about the Daily Repeatable quests in the Thieves Guild DLC.

At the Heist Board in the Thieves Den, you can pick up the Heist Daily Repeatable Quests, which send you to an instanced area to obtain stolen goods. These quests can be obtained once per day. You may group with other players to obtain the other 4 Heist quests.

Heist Quests can be completed alone or in a group. Note that you need to complete Partners in Crime, Cleaning House, the Long Game and Master of Heists Quests of the Thieves Guild storyline to unlock the Heist Dailies.

Furthermore, you need to have rank 3 with the thieves guild.

At the Reacquisition Board in the Thieves Den, you can pick up delve daily repeatable quests. You can only pick up 1 daily quest per day, but you may group with other players to obtain the other 3 daily repeatable quests.

Note that you need to complete the Partners in Crime Thieves Guild Story Quest and speak to Spencer Rye to unlock the delve daily repeatable quests.

Maw Of Lorkhaj Trial Weekly Repeatable Quest

You can also complete 1 weekly trial repeatable quest in the Thieves Guild DLC.

Adara’hai offers you the quest into the Maw for the Maw of Lorkhaj Trial. When you enter the Trial, you will find the weekly quest giver at the entrance area.

Imperial City DLC Daily Repeatable Quests

In the Imperial City, you can complete up to 6 Imperial City Daily Repeatable District Quests.

In your Alliance Base, you can find a room with many ladders. Climb up each ladder to find a daily quest giver for that specific Imperial City district. You can complete:

The Dousing the Fires of Industry Quest in Elven Gardens District The Historical Accuracy Quest in Arboretum District The Lifeblood of an Empire Quest in Arena District The Priceless Treasures Quest in Temple District The Speaking For The Dead Quest in Memorial District The Watch Your Step Quest in Nobles District Guilds And Glory Celebration Event Tickets

During the Guilds and Glory Celebration Event, you can earn 2 Event tickets per day per account from the following activities:

Completing your first daily delve or world boss repeatable quest in Wrothgar, Imperial City, Gold Coast and Hew’s Bane. Killing and looting the final boss of the White-Gold Tower or Imperial City Prison dungeons. Killing and looting the final boss of the Maelstrom Arena. Defeating and looting Patrolling Horrors in the Imperial City or Coldharbour Elite Guards in the Imperial City sewers Completing the weekly repeatable trial quest for the Maw of Lorkhaj trial

This means this time you can choose which activity you like the most to obtain your Event Tickets each day.

Impresario Event Merchant

As always, the Impresario Event Merchant will open her shop during the Guilds and Glory Celebration event.

This year she is offering the Molag Bal Illusion Imp pet fragments, the first fragment for the Planemeld’s Master Markings, Bristleback Hunter Style pages and more.

Indrik Mount & Pet Vendor

The Indrik Vendor will also open her shop during the Event.

She offers during the first quarter of 2024, Nascent Indrik feathers, Dawnwood Indrik berries and Spectral Indrik berries.

You can also purchase the Springtide Haunting Indrik Pet and Haunting Indrik Pet.

Philius Dormier

Philius Dormier, the Impresario’s Assistant, will also open his shop during the event.

He offers during the first quarter of 2024, Unstable morpholith pet fragments and Doomchar Plateau House fragments.

This offense has explosive one play touchdowns, an elite running game, and domination all over the field. So, we will be using the playbook called Spread, running the formation Tight Slot Open. 

This formation is unique and hard to defend because it has one receiver and a tight end lined up tight to the line, and two receivers on the opposite side lined up near the slot. Which means defenses will need to guard a tight offensive look, and a spread offensive look, which can be very difficult for your opponent. 

PA Read

The first play we will go over to Tight Slot Open is PA Read. This is one of the most underrated plays in Madden 24, simply because this stock play can destroy man coverage or zone coverage. 

In the stock play, you have this glitch bending, vertical route that absolutely fries man coverage, a zig route that puts man coverage in a blender, the tight end crossing route that creates a ton of separation, and a backside post that takes the lid off the defense. But make sure you are running this play with the zig and the streak to the far side of the field. 

In the play, your reads will be low to high. So, when you snap the ball, your first read will be the zig route. If the zig is open, which it usually is, hit it quickly for an easy gain. 

Your second read will be the vertical route, if you see that there is no help over the top, and he could beat his man of the line, free form pass the ball to lead the receiver by holding the left trigger and the left stick up. This will help to hit the receiver in stride for an explosive play. 

What makes this vertical route so good is the way it bends to the outside. Because of this, if a corner is pressing in man coverage, you will sometimes get this cool press beating animation where the receiver practically runs through the defender and leaves him stranded behind. That’s what makes that route so deadly. 

Your third read is the crosser ran by Tight End. This route takes a little more time to develop, but if you have time in the pocket, he will create a lot of separation by the time he hits the other side of the field. 

Your last read is the backside post. This route works best against a 0 Man Blitz, simply because there will be no help over the top. With enough time in the pocket, you will hit the post for one play touchdowns against all out blitzing players. 

Another way you can set this play up against man coverage is by putting the zig receiver on a slant. This will keep the defense on their toes because there will be two man beating routes crossing the field. 

So, your read in this setup is to wait and see what route gets open first, the slant or the tight end crosser like you see here in this play. 

PA Read against zone coverage is as deadly as it is against man coverage, all because it works as a delayed flood concept. 

And if you don’t know already, flood concepts destroy every zone in Madden. Flood concepts overload a side of the field, so generally, there will be a deep route like a vertical, a medium route like a corner, and a quick route like a flat. 

The reason most zone defenses struggle with this concept is because there are not enough zones on one side of the field to defend these routes. So, the reason PA Read is a flood concept is that there is a deep route, a quick route, and a medium route coming across the field flooding one side. 

But for this play against a zone, you just want to be sure to run it on a Hash Mark. 

Your reads will go from high to low. So, when you snap the ball, you will first look at the crossing route to see to see if you can hit him quick. If not, you will want to take a brief look at the zig. 

If you see that this low zone defender crashes to the zig, you will have the crosser wide open behind him towards the numbers. If the zig is wide open off the bat, though, you can give it to him for some easy yards. 

But a great offense will throw the ball to the sidelines and attack the middle of the field. So we are going to use this post route. 

To get this post route open against any zone defense, all you’re going to do is put the tight end on a streak. This streak will pull any of the deep zone defenders away from the post route.

So when we snap the ball your read will be the deep safety on the post side. If he backs up to defend the vertical, throw a bullet pass to the post, aggressively catch it away from the safety and you’ll be throwing dots all over the field. 

Bench Switch

The next play we are going to go over is Bench Switch. 

The first setup is an ultimate zone beater. But make sure you run this play to the short side of the field. 

What you’ll want to do is put A on a streak, then motion the running back to become a receiver, and put him on a curl route. 

On the backside, leave the receiver on a corner and put the tight end on a drag. Your first read here will be C route by the outside wide receiver. If Streak by A pulls the deep defenders, the drag keeps the short zone low, and the curl route occupies the user, C route will be wide open near the sidelines. 

If for some reason C route is not open because the user guarded it or the short zone backed up to defend it, you will either have the drag or the curl route in the middle of the field for a quick check down. 

Another way to run this is to put A on a streak, the running back on a table route to the right and the tight end on a streak. Your first read in this setup is the same, C route and then, if that is guarded.

The second read will be the flat by the running back. One thing to look out for, though, is the streak by Tight End. Many people will not be ready to defend quick streaks from this position, so you can surprise your opponent with a quick snap and throw the streak quickly in the middle of the field. 

And if the defense is in a man's coverage when you thought they were in a zone, look at the corner route's backside. This corner does a great job of creating separation over the top of the defense. 

Bench

The next play we will go over is called Bench. And We will have 2 setups to beat man coverage for one play touchdowns and short yardage situations. 

For the first setup, what you’ll want to do is put X on a drag and A on a zig, then you can leave everything else. Make sure you run the zig and drag to the far side of the field. Your main read is the zig route. 

This concept is meant to clear out space for the zig and setting up a natural pick by the drag to create even more separation for the zig. This setup is great for the red zone or if you need short first downs. 

For the one play touchdown setup, you will want to be sure to be on a Hash Mark, and then put B on a drag, A on a zig, and the running back on a wheel. 

On the backside, put an X on a streak. Your main read here is the running back, but if that is guarded, shift your focus to the corner route by the tight end. If he has a step on his defender, high ball the throw using L1 or LB to throw over the defender for a deep ball dot. If the deep routes are guarded, though, you can look at your short routes for a check down. 

PRO Zone Weak

The last play we will go over is PRO Zone Weak. This is one of the best RPO’s in the game. What you’ll want to do is read the slot corner.

If the defender crashes towards the run, throw the ball to the flat. This will put you in a position to make moves in the open field for huge gains. If the slot corner stays with the flat, give the ball to the running back for an outside zone run. 

In short, it is important to read how your blocks develop so you can make the right cuts to optimize this run.

We'll be discussing the various buffs and nerfs that went into effect on January 11th. These buffs and nerfs are going to be affecting 2 main classes. That’s going to be our Beast Mastery Hunter and our Priest. I’m going to share with you some tweaks that you can make to your Beast Mastery Hunter that might counter some of the craziness that Blizzard is going to nerf in this upcoming update in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. We have a lot need to be covered, so let’s get started.

Buffs & Nerfs Update

In a recent January 10th post, Blizzard stated: We intend to make the following adjustments via hotfixes for hunters:

Chimera Shot weapon damage is increased to 100%, was 85%. Explosive Shot base damage increased by 25% before any attack power modifiers. Mana cost of Chimera Shot, Explosive Shot, Carve, Kill Command, and Flanking Strike is reduced by 50%. Beast Mastery rune bonus health and damage provided to the hunter's pet is reduced to 20%, was 30%. Beast Mastery rune bonus Focus regeneration provided to the hunter pet is reduced to 50%, was 80%. (That’s a 30% nerf to the amount of focus our pets receive, and that’s definitely going to change up what pets I use post nerfs. We’ll talk more about that here shortly.)

In the developer notes, they put, 'We remain concerned that hunter pets are still too powerful and believe that the best way forward is to reign in the Beast Mastery rune while compensating via the Hunter's main spells.' I guess they’re trying to get more and more Beast Mastery Hunters to go Marksman.

Runes Change

Beast Master Hunters are going to take a hit in DPS once these nerfs go into effect. Now, here are some of the changes that I’m going to make to my Beast master Hunter that's going to help me to counter some of these nerves. Let’s first discuss the runes. So before this update, I was running hard of the line Beast Mastery rune, and I’d switch back and forth between Flanking Strikes and Sniper Training. I wasn’t using the Kill Command cause my primary pet that I was using was a Wind Serpent.

Now, post-January 11th update, I’m going to be running a hard of the line Beast Master rune and Kill Command cause I’m going to be switching out my primary pet. Additionally, if you don’t have access to a harded line, you could always use the Master Marksman. And if you’re one of those Hunters that really enjoy weaving in and out, you can always interchange between Kill Command and Flanking Strike.

New Talent Tree

So as far as the talent tree, my primary build is going to be 2 in Improved Aspect of the Hawk, 5 in Endurance Training, 3 in Thick Hide, 5 in Unleashed Fury, and 1 in Ferocity.

Yes, if you’re in a raid situation where you know that your pet’s going to be taking a lot of damage and dying a lot, then I would definitely recommend taking the 2 points out of Improved Aspect of the Hawk and getting Improved Revive Pet. Because, as we know, with a dead pet as a Beastmaster Hunter, that’s going to take out a gigantic chunk of our DPS. But when I’m out in the world soloing and whether it be experience farming or gold farming, my pet really doesn’t die that much. So it makes no sense to waste 2 points in the Improved Revive Pet.

And additionally, in the raids I’ve been in, my pet hardly ever dies. So it just felt like a waste of points to put into Improved Revive Pet when I just improved my all-out DPS so much more by putting those extra 2 points in Improved Aspect of the Hawk. So I would definitely recommend that you try both ways to see what fits your playstyle better. If you lean towards having that extra DPS and Improved Aspect of the Hawk, or if you just need that Improved Revive Pet because your pet keeps on dying.

New Hunter Pet

Now that we talked about runes and talents, let’s talk about pets. Before this update, I was using a Wind Serpent. And Wind Serpents are also awesome pets. That Lightning Strike is just catastrophic. But it came at a price of 50 focus and getting nerf 30% in our Focus regeneration for our pets and 10% for damage. Doesn’t make sense to continue using a Wind Serpent.

So what I’m going to end up doing is switching back to my Ghost Saber, which is a 2.0 attack speed cat. That’s going to do really nice damage in conjunction with that Kill Command rune. And if I ever switch out with a Flanking Strike rune, that 2.0 attack speed is going to give me more attack damage. Therefore, I’m going to be able to pull out more damage by using a 2.0 attack speed cat.

I’m going to bring you a quick Shaman tank in-depth guide about everything we need to know in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. It includes races, runes, what you want to use on certain bosses, rotation, and just kind of further information into the builds.

Hope you like this build and have a try. Now, let's just dive into this guide.

Races

With Shaman tanking, there are only 3 races you can play as: Troll, Orc, and Tauren. Each has special racial or special things that make them better than others.

If you’re looking for more stamina and more survivability build, you’re going to go Tauren. This brings the Racial of Endurance, giving you more health pull. It also has War Stomp, which is great for AOE pulls. Stomp shock everything. It basically stuns every target for 3 seconds so you get all the aggro on them and pull them towards you.

If you’re going Orc, which has Axe Specialization, giving you a couple more points into using axes. You also get Blood Fury, which provides a damage boost but with a 50% less chance of healing for 25 seconds. So some bosses it might cost you your life.

Trolls, the last race, brings a great racial called Berserking. This increase your attack speed for some time. The other downside of it is they bring Beast Slaying, currently not very useful in BFD.

Runes

Next, we’re going to look at what type of runes you want to be running as a Shaman tank. There’s a different variety. You’re going to want to have the Way of Earth on. It’s very easy to obtain in the Barrens. This one turns your abilities, such as Earth Shock, into a taunt for you. It also gives you, on top of that, a 30% more health pull.

Other things you’d like to run for survivability include Shield Mastery, throwing on a shield, giving you 15% extra block chance without any other bonuses. So, it might be useful for you.

If you’re not getting hit much or hard in BFD, I would recommend running Dual Wield, using double Rockbiter Weapons to get an increased amount of threat. However, you would also have to run Dual Wield Specialization on your chest piece rather than Shield Mastery since you’re not using a shield.

For the hands, these are runes that I swap on each different boss in the BFD. Some bosses, I’ll throw on Molten Blast for AOE.

For single-target bosses, I’ll throw on Lava Lash.

For bosses like Ghamoo-ra, I’ll throw on Lava Burst with Overload on my chest for an increased chance of procing and doing more damage. You’ll still hold the number 1 threat, no matter what.

The runes are up to you, whichever way you like to play the game. If you want to go Shield Mastery or try new things that Shaman has offered in SOD, it’s up to you.

Stat Priority

Something thorough that we go over doesn’t have to be crazy right now is the stat priority for Shaman tanks. You do want stamina, but it’s not something you’re going to get right away since bosses aren’t hitting that hard. So, focus on agility into strength, then into stamina. These 3 boost your threat, damage, and help you DPS.

Then focus on intellect for mana, and armor and hit rating. Currently, you don’t get a lot of armor rating since we’re on the 25 brackets, and hit rating is obtained from BFD Boon and epic gear from professions. These are quick notes about stat priority and what to look for in a Shaman tank.

Rotation

I want to get into the quick rotation. When you pull a boss, pop Flame Shock right off the bat and then cast Molten Blast because, with Flame Shock up, there’s a 10% chance that this resets the cooldown of Molten Blast. So, you can keep pressing Molten Blast, generating more threat as you go in. If you don’t have another Shaman in your group, drop the right totems.

Strength of Earth Totem and Fire Nova Totem seems to be the only 2 because your mana pool isn’t crazy high. Dropping totems like Fire Nova Totem repeatedly might not be worth it because you’ll go out of mana. Strength of Earth Totem stays up for 2 minutes, so you drop it. Most bosses last 30 seconds to 45 seconds or maybe longer, which might last a minute 30.

You can also apply Frost Shock if all the targets have Flame Shock on them, and if you have enough mana, you can throw in Lightning Shields. Again, it’s situational, depending on your mana. If you have extra mana to spend, throw on Lightning Shield, Frost Shocks, or keep throwing Molten Blast.

The rotation is situational, so if your rune swapping, you might not be running Molten Blast. You might run Lava Lash, Lava Burst, or different things that are good for different bosses. But you’ll still Flame Shock, drop the same totems, and look out for those things. The rune is the biggest thing on whether you’re casting Molten Blast, Lava Lash, or Lava Burst.

Finally, I want to get into professions and maybe some consumables for the Shaman tank. Currently, there aren’t professions that increase your threat besides maybe engineering for Heavy Dynamite, but it’s for AOE damage. Most bosses in BFD are single tank bosses, so professions are up to you. I would say run Leatherworking. You get gloves that give you a hit percentage and increase your attack speed for a certain duration when you pop them.

Consumables

When it comes to consumables for tanks, Strong Troll’s Blood Potion for health regeneration throughout the raid, Elixir of Defense for armor that reduces all damage by boss melee attacks, stacking with some runes like Way of Earth for armor. Elixir of Firepower is good for abilities like Lava Burst and Molten Blast. Elixir of Lesser Agility is excellent for agility, our number 1 stat priority.

Situational consumables like Free Action Potions are invaluable against bosses and enemies with stuns. If you pop it at the beginning of Lady Saravess, you won’t get frozen arrowed and can stand in her pool without getting chains in Phase 2. Shadow Protection potions are solid against Kelris.

Talents

Finally, for the last part of this guide, we’re getting into the talent tree for Shaman tanks. You’re going to want to go right into the enhancement tree, going 5 out of 5 in Shield Specialization. It increases your chance to block attacks with the shield by 5% and increases the amount blocked by 25%. This is up to you.

If you’re running a shield, it’s worth it. If not, and you’re dual-wielding, Ancestral Knowledge might be better, increasing your maximum mana by 5%. Going down, you want Thundering Strikes, improving your chance to crit with your weapon by 5%. If you’re dual-wielding, you have a double chance to crit.

Anticipation, going 5 out of 5 increases your chance to dodge by an additional 5%. You want to dodge and parry to tank less damage for a smoother raid.

Finally, since you get 16 points, we’re going to put 1 into Flurry, increasing your attack speed by 10% for the next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike. This works well with Thundering Strikes. The more you crit, the more Flurry procs you get, making you swing faster and output more threat. It’s better for you to be tanking any boss.

Here, we are ranking our favorite young Central Midfielders in FC 24. We’ve only selected players whose primary position is Central Midfielder. Anybody who has it as a secondary position or plays out of position is left out of this list.

9. Gabri Veiga

Kicking off with our number 9, Gabri Veiga.

Veiga currently plays for Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia. After transferring over from Celta in the summer of 2023. 

He boasts a 78 overall at just 21 years of age and has a potential of 89. In the game, he is a very strong box-to-box midfielder who is able to take on defensive duties as well. He is at his best with the ball at his feet. He has great passing ability and is strong in front of the goal. 

However, in the game, Veiga feels a little stiff and slow. He is not able to easily win one-on-one and isn’t able to break away with speed. 

At the end, Gabri Veiga is ninth on our list because he just lacked a little of the “wow” factor.

8. Joao Neves

Number 8 on our list is Joao Neves, the 18-year-old Benfica prodigy. 

He is currently rated at 73 with a potential of 87, and he feels like a work in progress but with a major upside. He is a great passer and finds his teammates time and time again. 

What jumps out most is his agility and ball control, creating space by turning away from a defender is a breeze and comes very naturally. 

His finishing is rated quite low. However, with his composure rated at 77, he’s still able to score some good goals from our experience.

7. Enzo Fernandez

Continuing to number 7 on our list is Enzo Fernandez, already rated 82 with a potential of 88. 

Fernandez has one of the higher starting overalls on our list. In the game, he is a really strong box-to-box midfielder with stamina rated at 84. His aggression makes him great for defensive duties, as he is able to use his aggression to dispossess opponents. 

When on the ball, his main qualities are in his passing. His ball control is great, but he misses some skill in dribbling and agility to be useful as a dribbler. 

However, when using his passing qualities, he’s very useful to set up teammates. And with his shot power and composure, he is actually quite a good finisher as well. 

When looking purely at his stats, he feels a little underwhelming in the game, but he is very functional when used correctly.

6. Pablo Gavi

At number 6, we have our first Barcelona midfielder, Pablo Gavi, who, unfortunately, in real life is out for the season. 

At 19 years old, Gavi is already rated 83 overall and has a potential of 90. In the game, his defensive skills are what surprised us at first. Of course, we expected a technically gifted player, but Gavi is actually also really good at dispossessing opponents, with his aggression being rated 85 and standing tackle at 78. 

Now, with the ball at his feet, is where Gavi shines. His first step is amazing, and he turns on a dime, leaving behind defenders left and right. He is able to complete any pass you can imagine and gets himself in the right areas to score goals. 

His finishing, however, is a little underwhelming, but he does have the outside of the foot trait, which is a little bonus.

When taking Gavi into account, keep in mind he only has 3-star skill moves and weak foot, which might be an issue for some.

5. Pablo Barrios

Number 5 on our list is Atletico midfielder, Pablo Barrios. 

The 20-year-old is currently rated 76 overall with an 86 potential, but in the game, he plays way above his rating. Playing with Barrios is just super fun as he is super dynamic. His passing is excellent, and he is a great technical dribbler as well, even though his stats might not suggest this. 

What also surprised us in playing with Barrios is his ability to dispossess an opponent, especially when the team just lost the ball on the opponent’s half. Barrios is perfect for the Gigan pressing tactics. When the team loses possession, with Barrios, you’re able to immediately pressure the opponent and try to recover possession. 

Now, you may ask why Barrios is higher on our list than players like Gavi and Fernandez. The main reason is expectations versus how they actually felt in the game. 

With Barrios, we were able to almost execute the same things we could do with Gavi and a lot of things even better than we could do with Fernandez.

4. Pedri

With number 4 on our list, we have our second Barcelona midfielder, Pedri. 

He has the highest overall out of all the players on our list, with an 86 overall and 92 potential. In the game, Pedri feels very similar to his Barcelona companion but just a little better in every offensive aspect. 

Pedri has an incredibly quick first step and cuts and turns on a dime. His passing is on point, and when on the ball, he’s a dream to play with. 

But the reason he is only number 4 on our list is that with his 86 overall rating, that is exactly what you expect from him. 

Higher on our list are 3 players who not just have great potential but felt a lot better than their current overall would suggest.

3. Ryan Gravenberch

So, with that, we introduce our number 3 young Central Midfielder, Ryan Gravenberch. 

The 21-year-old Liverpool midfielder is currently rated 79 overall with a potential of 87. Gravenberch has 4-star skill moves and a 4-star weak foot, which makes gameplay a whole lot of fun. Even though he is 6’2", he is still very agile and a very good dribbler. This is also what makes him so fun to play with. 

Besides his dribbling skills, Gravenberch also has a little poacher in him. He times his runs well, and his finishing is rated 76, which makes him higher rated at finishing than a lot of strikers. 

With a potential of 87, Gravenberch will certainly continue to develop in Career Mode, which makes for an exciting perspective. 

2. Warren Zaïre-Emery

Before we reveal our final 2 players, we must say this was a very close call between the 2, and this was purely based on the fun we had playing with each player.

With that said, at number 2 on our list, we have 17-year-old Warren Zaïre-Emery, who recently has taken the world by storm. 

He is the youngest player on our list and already rated 78 overall with a 90 potential. Zaïre-Emery has everything you could want from a Central Midfielder, and he is only just 17 years old. He is quite fast and already has some strength to him. He is capable of going end to end for the full 90 minutes with both attacking and defensive qualities. His defensive vision is great, and his tackles are strong. 

In attack, his main quality is his passing and ball control. He’s able to make every pass you could wish for, and he’ll always be in control in every situation. 

What stands out when dribbling is his balance, rated 84. When getting past defenders, he’s very difficult to knock over, which compensates for a lack of agility. 

If you want somebody who can cut and turn on a dime, Zaïre-Emery might not be the one for you, though this might change once he develops to a higher level overall.

1. Fabio Miretti

That takes us to number 1 on our list, Fabio Miretti, the 20-year-old Italian Juventus player. 

He is currently rated 75 overall with a potential of 88, and he has 3-star skill moves and a 4-star weak foot. In the game, Miretti plays way above his 75 overall, and that’s exactly why he is first on our list. 

You don’t expect this quality of play from a 75 overall player, which makes him great value when playing Manager Career. Overall, he is a very well-rounded player, being able to make an impact both on defense as well as in the attack. 

His standout skills are his dribbling and passing. The way you can cut and turn with him in the game just gives lots of joy. The more you play him, the more he surprises you with his abilities. 

Whether you’re into player Career or Manager Career, Miretti should be on your radar. 

Path of Exile 2 has revealed new gameplay, a boss fight, and a new class called the Mercenary.

Additionally, new features of the game include changes and new additions to the combat. This is really looking like a straight-up improvement to the isometric genre.

Let's go through the cool new things coming in Path of Exile 2.

New Controls

Firstly, let's go over the confirmation of the new changes to how you can control your character and this applies to any class and any weapon type.

You can now use WASD movement to control and move your character, allowing you to move separately while aiming. You can still use traditional click-to-move if you want to.

On top of this, there are changes to many character skills whereby you can move while casting, increasing the pace and intensity of combat.

Honestly, these changes together are great news to me, and it really does impact how the game will feel to play.

Mercenary Class

Regarding the Mercenary class, then we got a really good look at the new Mercenary class, which is a new crossbow-wielding character.

This class comes with unique crossbow options, mimicking a variety of different firearm types but in crossbow form.

They wanted this class to feel both responsive and snappy when firing the crossbow, similar to how shooting in first-person shooter games feels. So, they've gone deep into making different crossbows that function kind of like a sniper rifle, a shotgun, and even assault rifles.

These crossbows are layered on top with different elemental ammo types and even attachments that all synergize together in different ways.

New Weapon Types

For your character's equipment, you can only equip 2 crossbows at a time, and there are 3 different types to pick from:

Burst Crossbow: Functions like a shotgun, firing a burst of arrows dealing little damage individually but packing a punch if they all connect to a single target. Power Shot Crossbow: Functions like a sniper rifle, dealing high damaging slow lower hits. Rapid Shot Crossbow: Very fast shooting with a high magazine capacity, allowing for chasing and evading enemies while keeping up the damage.

All Ammo Abilities

There are also ammo skills, which add another layer of depth on top of how these different types of crossbows function. There are slight differences in how they work across the different types, so let's go through them all.

Ammo abilities include Armor-Piercing Ammo, which makes your hits pierce through enemies, good for taking on a group at once.

However, for the Rapid Shot crossbow, each hit will erode an enemy's armor, eventually breaking it, negating the Burst Shot crossbows' drawback against armored enemies.

Meanwhile, for the Power Shot crossbow, if an enemy's armor is broken, you can then pull out your power crossbow to shoot them, triggering a special weak spot hit dealing massive extra damage and high stun on the enemy.

Then, you have Incendiary Ammo. This is good against single targets as it ignites them. With the Burst Shot crossbow, the more projectiles that connect to a target, the more damage it deals per hit, making it great for super close-range situations.

For the Rapid Shot crossbow, the incendiary ammo charges up before firing. As you continue to shoot, it heats up, dealing more damage per shot. Moreover, it boosts the fire damage of any grenades you launch and automatically ignites oil grenades.

Moving on to the Power Shot crossbow, this ammo transforms into a pseudo-rocket launcher, creating an explosive blast on impact for AOE damage. It synergizes with grenades, causing any fired on the ground to instantly explode.

Permafrost Ammo slows enemies by chilling them and has a chance to freeze them in place. Frozen enemies are vulnerable to a special effect of the armor-piercing ammo, making them explode for huge AOE damage nearby.

The rapid-fire crossbow can also shoot the ground with this ammo type to create ice crystals. These crystals act like mines, exploding when enemies touch them and applying chilling to slow them down. It helps set traps and establish a safe area before engaging in a fight.

The Power Shot crossbow creates ice walls on impact, blocking off areas in corridors and alleys to control enemies. These walls explode when broken by enemies, synergizing with Burst Shot crossbows' armor-piercing ammo for extra damage on Frozen targets.

New Grenade Gear Slots & Types

Additionally, there are new grenade gear slots and types.

The attachment slot in your crossbow is where grenades come from. It functions as a grenade launcher. It allows you to fire different grenade types with varied effects upon explosion.

These attachments function as skill gems, providing extra skill slots for your character and can be augmented with support gems. Grenades are fired separately from your crossbow's primary shooting and explode after a short delay, based on the type chosen.

There are 3 known types of grenades:

Explosive Grenades deal massive damage with a delayed explosion. Flash Grenades deal slight damage but cause massive stun on enemies. Oil Grenades slow enemies by covering them with oil, leaving patches on the floor.

These combinations allow for interesting build potentials. The different crossbow types, ammo types, and grenade varieties synergize in unique ways. Witnessing a character utilizing these synergies against a boss was impressive. The boss fight showcased these strategies in action.

This is a build guide that can help you gain infinite heals and stamina PVP in New World Season 4. I’m going to keep it short for you.

Weapon Artifacts

For weapon artifacts, I’m running Finisher Rapier mainly because of its 15% permanent damage buff, which affects both of your weapons, and you can keep it up with the Keenly Jagged on your bow. I’m still using Refreshing Move on it.

I’m also using Energy Aura as the third perk on my bow, but you can use Enchanted if you really want to. This is a stamina surplus build, as you’ll see in a second, so it’s all up to personal preference. I just end up preferring the stamina.

For gems, I’m choosing to split my damage 50/50, as it’s the best of both worlds and has the least amount of counters. The 8% damage over time (DOT) is mandatory, but make sure the element of that DOT is different on both your weapons because they don’t stack.

Armor And Jewelry Artifacts

Regarding armor artifacts, I like Tumblers because it’s a 600 heal on no cooldown. The reason I prefer it over Featherweight is that of the potential it has. Featherweight offers around a 5% extra effective hitpoints (EHP) difference, which is around 900 health. So if I proc Tumblers at least twice in a fight, it’s automatically better than Featherweight, and any proc behind that just makes the gap bigger.

For accessories, Endless sounds good on paper, but you can’t put Healthy Toast on it, which is really, really bad. Ankh is nice, but it makes you pick between protection or stamina recovery, and obviously, you have to pick stamina recovery, so you’re going to miss protection. I like the universality of having different protections, so I’d rather not use Ankh.

Armor And Jewelry Perks

The actual perks on my ring and earring are the exact same as they usually are. Everything here is pretty self-explanatory. Gear we’re looking at 5 Shirking Heals. The buff to 7 seconds turned it from a good perk to an almost mandatory perk, but you’ll find a lot of people don’t agree with that because they’re stubborn and invested a lot of their money in a build that’s not good.

For my secondary perk, I’m running Fortify, and the rest is just normal stuff: one skill perk (Siphoning Energy), and then the random perk that Tumblers have. In whatever leftover slots I have, I put Health on, which in this case amounts to two health.

For armor gems, I’m running 4 Opal and one Onyx with full Energizing Runes. The Rune choice is a bit up to personal preference, but I highly recommend using at least one Energizing Rune, mainly because there are lots of clutch scenarios where you’re one stamina away from stamina-ing yourself out. The rest you can put range damage, but I would definitely not recommend Leeching Damage unless you’re using Boltcaster. The Leeching version is a flat 18% damage reduction against Boltcaster, Fire Staff, and other fully Elemental range weapons, and it’s a 9% damage reduction against bows, muskets, and B-buses who use a split gem. My Opals additionally cover 8% less damage from all Elemental sources.

Damage Resistance

Regardless if it’s melee or ranged, that’s 8% less damage from weapons like Abyss, Boltcaster, Firestaff, and 4% less damage from weapons that have split gems. The 3 Onyx I have covered some additional defense against melee players. This is purely optional and up to your playstyle. If you’re fine with playing super defensive and ratty, you can drop the Onyx for some thrust and lightning resist instead.

For the necklace, I’m obviously going with fire resist because that’s the easiest range weapon to get hit by. You can do movement tech or whatever movement cancels you want against other bows and muskets, and they’ll end up missing 90% of their shots. But it’s hard to do movement tech against Firestaff when they have a hitbox of a Boeing 747. Plus, the fire resist also reduces explosive shot damage from bows.

My completely honest recommendation is to have a set of amulets and maybe even some accessories that you can easily swap in and out. This way, you have the freedom to swap to another resist if you’re ever when there is no Firestaff. For example, let’s say you’re getting hunted by a melee assassin squad. Then, you should obviously switch to your slash necklace. Let’s say the enemy team has 10 Boltcaster players. Obviously, switch to a lightning or thrust necklace.

If your build is threatened by a simple swap of a necklace and maybe a ring or accessory, then maybe you should reevaluate your build.

Attributes

Moving on to attributes, this does get a little interesting. 25 and 50 strength are still bugged but no longer in a good way. 50 strength doesn't do anything, and 25 strength, on the other hand, previously boosted heavy damage by 10% and light damage by 5%. Now it only boosts both damages by 2%. Classic AGS, honestly. But anyways, because of that, I'm dropping 25 strength and then also dropping 35 con to get 50 focus. This 10% extra healing affects all the pots I use and even tumblers, and I can justify the 900 Health loss from going to 240 to 2115 con with that 10% extra Health. As long as a fight lasts long enough where you go through two rotations of pots, then this 10% prevails, not even accounting for any sharing or tumbler procs.

This build shines in fights that last long, which is pretty much any fight against good players. It's also a very solo-centric build. The second you involve a pocket healer that lets these micro heals matter in the long term, at that point, you're better off running Featherweight and more pure damage reductions.

If you're investing in dex after 350, then I would still get 25 strength first. Simply because the 25 points here end up doing more damage than 25 dex after 350. So if your build is 400 dex and zero strength.