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The Group Finder has been released again today, coinciding with the Year of the Dragon event in New World Season 4. So I am going to provide a concise summary to help you know eveything about this system.
The system primarily aims to facilitate group formation for low level mutations, tailored to new players. It offers greater flexibility compared to the OPR system. While M3 isn't included due to gear and gem requirements, the goal is to attract more players to M3 by simplifying group finding.
Although the old Lobby Finders system, their lack of Cross World functionality poses a significant drawback. A more balanced approach integrating Cross World features into the existing system would have been preferable.
Trading is disabled while you are in Cross World, so you can’t just influence other servers’ economies by trading through the Group Finder. And let’s dive a little bit more into what the Devs had to show us.
So, first of all, you have the activity finder system, where you can see all of the options, all of the activities, for the modes tab, there are the new screen which gathers all of any world’s instant content in one place for easy access, similar to Outpost Rush.
Any player from any world within the same region can be matched together to form a new instance. This means significantly less time spent finding groups and more time running Expeditions.
You also no longer need to build your own group by hand. These new activity screens finally allow you to view any Expedition entrance screen and Lobby Finder from a single list instead of the map, also very convenient.
You can also just random queue on the side here or select specific Expeditions. And what you also notice on the right side here is the allow in-progress joining, so participating in an Expedition that has already started.
They do also mention us that you can still build your own Expedition group and Expeditions manually and use the Lobby-based Group Finder if you prefer.
The next point here is how to play Cross World Expeditions. If you’re playing solo or in a group of 4 or less adventurers, you can enter the Cross World Expedition Group Finder in one of 2 ways: either you click random to enter a queue for every Expedition you can currently access, this is the quickest way to find a group and grants a bonus up in completion twice daily, or use the checkboxes on the left of each Expedition to make specific Expedition lists and then click the queue button.
There’s no daily bonus for this option, but you will have more control over the selected Expedition. This is what that selection would, for example, look like. Before you can enter the Expedition queue, you need to choose a role.
We introduced group roles along with our Lobby-based Group Finder, but they were optional. Now, they are mandatory since Expeditions are designed around the classic Trinity of DPS, Tank, and Healer, and there is no group leader to enforce this balance in the new system.
This means that each Expedition must consist of 3 DPS, 1 Tank, and 1 Healer. Any player who signs up as a Tank, go Healer will receive an additional role bonus when finishing the Expedition. In order to sign up as a Tank, go Healer, you must pass a requirement check. These vary depending on the Expedition.
When entering a group, all players must choose a role. The role selection screen will display each player’s selection. They have the DPS with any weapon, you have the tank with any weapon with a Corleone gem, and then you have the healer with a Level 9 Life Staff and 220 Focus. This varies depending on the Expedition.
In normal Expeditions, players receive Expedition bonus cash twice daily. Below Level 65, they obtain 50% XP of their current level upon completion, along with 3 ASO. At Level 65, they earn 125 gold and 2,500 Faction Tokens. Additionally, there's a roll bonus of 50 gold and 500 Faction Tokens, also available twice daily.
Mutated Expeditions offer more lucrative rewards: a daily mutator bonus of 150 gold and 10,000 Faction Tokens, a mutator roll bonus of 100 gold and 1,000 Faction Tokens, and a mutator carry bonus of 100 gold. Considering the potential rewards, especially the 350 gold and 11,000 Faction Tokens from a mutator run, it may be worthwhile depending on the speed and level of mutation.
As for improvements, adding M3 Cross World functionality to the old Group Finder system seems crucial. While the developers hinted at possible Cross World integration for different modes, like Arenas, the feasibility of such changes, particularly for modes like Wars, remains uncertain.
Today we’re going to talk about Whitestrake’s Mayhem Event in Elder Scrolls Online.
Whitestrake’s Mayhem is a PVP-focused campaign that takes place in Cyrodiil, Battlegrounds and Imperial City. The event was formerly known as Midyear Mayhem Event and will officially be renamed Whitestrake’s Mayhem Event in 2022.
In order to participate in this event, you need to be at least level 10 to enter PVP area. Typically, Whitestrake’s Mayhem Event is active twice a year. The first time was in the spring and the second time in the summer.
This year, the event will be held for the first time in February and will be held again in summer 2024. The event is open to everyone. You can pick up Imperial City DLC for free in Crown Store. Both Cyrodiil and Battlegrounds are part of the base game.
Starting in 2024, 100% of Alliance Points and Experience gain will automatically activate during Whitestrake’s Mayhem Event. This means you’ll earn double XP in all Cyrodiil, Battlegrounds and Imperial City, and double Alliance Points while the event is active.
Before this change, we had to use Scroll of Pelinal’s Ferocity every two hours, which you could get from Predicant Maera.
To participate in the event, pick up the free event quest starter in Crown Store, or speak to Predicant Maera directly.
You can find Predicant Maera in any Battlegrounds tent in Tamriel, or at the main entrance to Alliance War faction in Cyrodiil. Talk to Predicant Maera to complete the quest and receive Pelinal’s Boon Box.
Additionally, players can earn 100% Tel Var Stones during the event. This buff automatically activates during Whitestrake’s Mayhem Event. But you won’t get double Tel Var Stones by defeating other players.
During the event, you can earn special rewards and collectibles.
You can get the new Mayhem Victor’s Laurel Wreath here. To obtain this headdress, you must unlock Star-Made Knight Achievement by completing seven Achievement:
During Whitestrake’s Mayhem Event, you’ll also receive regular rewards of Pelinal’s Boon Boxes, as well as valuable supply crates.
Additionally, you can earn Boon Boxes from Cyrodiil’s repeatable Town, Battle, Bounty, Conquest, Scouting, Warfront Quests. You can also complete Imperial City district and Battlegrounds repeatable quests to earn Boon Boxes.
Items in Pelinal’s Boon Boxes include:
In addition, you can also get Sancre Tor Sentry Armor Style Pages and Gloamsedge Style Pages during the event. These pages may also be dropped from bosses in Imperial City and Imperial City Sewers.
During Whitestrake’s Mayhem Event, all nodes in Cyrodiil and Imperial City will drop double the regular resources. In addition, special legendary quality necklaces and rings will also be sold by the special Golden Vendor, Adhazabi Aba-daro during the event.
You can complete a variety of daily repeatable tasks in Cyrodiil. Besides PVP related quests, there are also PVE daily repeatable quests available in Cyrodiil. You can complete Settlement Quests in Bruma, Cheydinhal, Chorrol, Cropsford and Vlastarus.
In Imperial City, you can complete up to 6 Imperial City daily repeatable area quests.
In your Alliance base, you’ll find a room with a lot of ladders. Climb each ladder to find the daily quest giver for a specific Imperial City district.
You can talk to Battlemaster Rivyn in any Gladiator’s Quarters to accept Battlegrounds daily repeatable quests. To complete the game’s start mission, you must participate in 5 Battleground matches.
You can also earn 3 Event Tickets per account per day during the event period. Earn two Event Tickets by completing any Cyrodiil or Battlegrounds daily repeatable mission. And earn the third Event Ticket by completing any Imperial City district daily repeatable mission.
Of course, Impresario Event Merchant will also open her shop during the event. She offers a variety of unique items for each event, including:
Some rewards from previous Whitestrake’s Mayhem Events can no longer be found in Pelinal’s Boon Boxes. But you can now find them in Bag of Veteran’s Glory. You can purchase this bag from Impresario for 2 Event Tickets.
In Bag of Veteran’s Glory you’ll also find:
Indrik Vendor will open her store during the event, where she offers in the first quarter of 2024:
Impresario’s Assistant Philius Dormier, will also be opening his shop during the event. He offers in Q1 2024:
The above is all the information you need to know about this Whitestrake’s Mayhem Event, come join us now!
In today’s guide, we’ll be focusing on the upcoming Season of Discovery Phase 2 and giving you some Rogue leveling tips. Learn how to prepare for the next phase and stay ahead of the competition with this guide!
We’ll start with profession. Ideally, it would be very convenient if you want to choose Skinning for leveling. It earns you extra WOW Classic SOD Gold and gives you something to do during the downtime before the next mob arrives. You’ll regain some health and energy while making a profit.
Personally, I would give up Skinning at the highest level and pursue Engineering. I have prepared all the materials for a quick upgrade for the second profession. I recommend you not to upgrade immediately after choosing Engineering because it will take some time to master these professions.
If you want to get ahead of other players and level up in a less competitive way, the profession you can take is First Aid. Since we don’t have a cure, First Aid is ideal for a quick cure while on the run. This way, you can maximize the time you spend killing mobs.
Cooking is also a suitable profession, but I would wait until the highest level to upgrade it.
For leveling, there are two viable builds, Combat build and Hemo build. I prefer Combat build because it’s easy to get started. And I prefer faster monster kill times to being a PVP winner.
Honestly, if you level up a little slower, Hemo build will do better. Because you will have more utility to protect yourself in PVP.
Let’s start with Combat Rogue, since that’s how most players will approach it.
First, we need to talk about the current runes, and we’ll start with Shadowstrike. It’s a great rune and one of the best ways to mark creatures in the game. Therefore, you need to get this rune quickly.
When you get Saber Slash, higher-level mobs will have a huge health scaling if you can kill them quickly. So eventually Saber Slash will get better around level 20 once we get Cheap Shot.
I think Saber Slash would be better for the leg slot, but the best is still Between the Eyes. And you have an optional Chest Rune, Blade Dance. I like using Rune of Quick Draw. It has a decent AoE damage output and, despite being slow, is especially useful in PVP.
And Rune of Deadly Brew will eventually give you more raw DPS. You don’t need to worry about that, and your poison will clear some of your back space. So if you don’t have any competing factions when leveling, I would go with Between the Eyes and Saber Slash, and Deadly Brew once you complete the runes.
Let’s review talents. First, you could invest two points in Improved Sinister Strike. You can then also invest two points into Remorseless Attacks for an additional 40% critical chance. Just remember that you need to land a critical hit on the target to trigger this talent.
Since I prefer to focus only on Combat Talent Tree, usually we’ll take Improved Gouge. Since we have Bleed and Deadly Poison, I recommend you only take the 3% extra dodge. This will make you better here and take less damage.
The next talent points will depend on the weapon you use. Besides a lot of swords, there are also some Maces that are easy to get. So you can choose Dual Wield Specialization or choose a specific Weapon Specialization based on your weapon. I would choose Aggression, and finally Weapon Expertise and Adrenaline Rush.
For Hemo builds, Rogue leveling requires more skill. Because you will have Weapon-swap Macro to use Ambush on the dagger and Stealth on the slow main hand weapon.
If you get two good daggers, as well as Mutilate, you can choose Saber Slash or even Mutilate, so you will need less weapon swapping. For the leg slot, Between the Eyes is still your best rune. For the chest, I would actually choose Quick Draw over Deadly Brew.
The talents here are all optional. You can choose any talent you like, but I recommend you choose some utility talents at the beginning so that your Stealth will be better.
When choosing a weapon, you’ll usually choose a slower weapon. This is because your skills, like Backstab, Sinister Strike, Saber Slash, Mutilate and more, all deal damage based on weapon damage, and your weapon damage is obtained by multiplying your DPS by your attack speed.
So more DPS on a weapon does not mean more weapon damage, which is the most important stat in these types. A good main hand dagger will have an attack speed of 1.8 and a good non main hand dagger will have an attack speed of 2.6.
When it comes to dealing with elites, there are going to be some problems if you can’t deal with them face to face. If Elite is dealing with too much damage, you can swap your runes for Just a Flesh Wound and Blade Dance.
All you have to do is kite the elite. You’ll reengage as it slows and bleeds, then your stun cools down and your energy regenerates. You will slowly eliminate dangerous monsters.
But if you plan to level mainly through dungeons, then I recommend you to use Backstab build. Because the normal build dies too quickly here, and you can’t increase the damage with Saber Slash and Poisons. If you want to focus on dungeon farming while leveling. I recommend balancing these abilities.
If I have good gear, I rarely use Slice and Dice because I usually kill the monster in three Sinister Strikes. But if my gear is a little low or the mob’s health is too high, I will definitely use my Slice and Dice at the beginning. It all depends on the mobs and how fast I kill them.
Overall, Melee Haste will significantly increase your damage whenever the fight lasts longer than a few seconds.
Another tip is that if you’re fighting mobs in Stealth and don’t use Shadowstrike, always use Pickpocketing. You’ll get some extra coins and an Iron Lockbox. These Lockboxes are cool because they contain the potions and powders required for Blind and Vanish, and disappear at level 26.
In the end, your rotation should look like this. The first step is to approach the mob. Step two, distract it if necessary. Make sure you are at 100 energy and have your dagger equipped, then approach the next tick. The third step is to pickpocket the poor NPC. You can use your Sinister Strikes to deal a little extra damage, and the monster will die at any time.
Experience the Lunar Awakening, a time-limited event amplifying Shrines in Diablo 4 Season 3.
Running from February 6th to the 20th, Lunar Shrines grant 50% XP per monster kill, a 30% movement speed boost, and an extra modifier beyond their usual effects. For instance, Lethal Shrines, in their Lunar New Year variant, provide a chance for instant enemy execution alongside critical strikes. Lunar-variant Shrines feature distinctive dragon skins for easy identification.
This guide delves into all Lunar additions and more.
Once the event is active, fast-travel to Ked Bardu and head to the northern section of town. There you'll meet Ying-Yue, who runs the Lunar Night Market, your main event hub for Lunar Awakening.
You can ask her about some interesting lore, check your Ancestral Favor reputation, and claim some sick rewards. There are 10 reputation levels to earn and 6 different Lunar-themed rewards to unlock.
The weapon skins for the event are the Lunar Scepter Wand, the Dragon's Courage Two-Handed Axe and the Moonshot Bow. If you're a fan of markings, there is a Dragon's Tapestry marking to unlock, as well as a Moon's Bounty mount trophy and the Moonborn Stallion mount.
Lunar Shrines are spread throughout Sanctuary, so just play as you normally would. You can find them in the overworld Vaults, Whisper bounties, and dungeons.
Speaking of dungeons, during the event, Nightmare Sigils have a chance to roll an Ancestor's Favor Dungeon Affix. This guarantees extra Shrines can spawn for that dungeon, and you will receive 10% bonus Glyph XP once complete.
Remember, you can only earn Ancestral Favor reputation while the Lunar Shrine effect is active, so make sure to rack up as many kills as you can before the time runs out.
Lunar Awakening Shrines are enhanced versions of regular Shrines, offering bonus XP, increased movement speed, and all the familiar powers along with an additional ability. Here are some examples.
For the Lunar Awakening Event in Diablo 4 Season 3, you must master these 2 tips.
Engage in the Lunar Celebrant local event for a classic monster-defense experience. Completing the Mastery objective triggers a bonus frenzy wave, making it more efficient than regular Shrines.
Earn bonus Glyph XP with Lunar Affix Nightmare Dungeon Sigils. Guaranteed Lunar Affix Nightmare Sigils in reputation reward tiers make the reputation grind self-reinforcing. Optimize efficiency by completing Whisper bounties parallel to events.
In summary, play Diablo 4 Season as you wish, reinforcing your preferred gameplay loop. Efficiently tackle Lunar events and dabble with Shrines for a rewarding experience.
There are some interesting lesser-known nuances with the Shrines in Diablo 4 Season 3.
Explore these lesser-known nuances with Shrines for an enhanced and strategic gameplay experience in Diablo 4 Season 3.
Here are some tips on how you can optimize Shrines and get more rewards.
Slay demons swiftly to align with the pace of conversation.
Personally wait for a good monster density before popping a Shrine for optimal impact.
Miserly Spirits contribute as a bonus to the local event Mastery objective.
The focus is on maximizing player enjoyment through rapid monster shredding.
Stockpiling Nightmare Sigils with Ancestor's Favor Affix is viable for post-event use.
Bonus Glyph XP remains on crafted Nightmare Dungeon Sigils even after the event concludes.
Inspired by the popularity of Gileon's Brew from Midwinter Blight, rewards are designed to persist.
This encourages players to stockpile for future use, ensuring rewards endure beyond the event.
Go ahead and stockpile for doomsday.
Occultist, as an Ascendancy class, is mainly related to Explode construction in Path of Exile. The monster actually explodes and does considerable damage to nearby enemies. In POE 3.23, however, Occultist reaches new heights, thanks to the new Transfigured Gem: Penance Brand of Dissipation!
Here I’m going to share our build guide for Penance Brand of Dissipation Occultist! If you’re interested in creating this character, don’t miss this build guide!
Our skill choice is Penance Brand of Dissipation. You create a brand, which will connect to an enemy and start collecting energy, dealing more and more damage per energy. When the maximum energy is 20, the brand will deal maximum damage until the end or the target dies and jumps to another target.
But to be honest, I don’t think the build will ever reach max stack because in Sanctum, most people will die after the first damage. Even the supreme boss will die after 2 seconds. But we can use the new Specters added to the game in this patch.
So why am I not using any Specters in Affliction League? Since I always try out some Uber Boss content, and Specters die easily on the map, it’s annoying to buy new ones every time. What’s more, if they weren’t in Sanctum, they were zero threat.
However, in Sanctum, the effect of Specters is completely different. So we use Specter, Perfect Spirit of Fortune. It will bring us Wrath Aura.
Another Specter is Perfect Hulking Miscreation. This gives us 20% of physical damage as bonus lightning damage. This is a big damage buff for this build.
To further increase our damage, we will use Animate Guardian in a basic setup, with Dying Breath as a weapon, which will give us more damage and also increase the aura effect used by Guardian.
Because we use Guardian’s Blessing, and select Haste Aura, we will move faster and cast spells faster.
We also use Leer Cast as a helmet, which also gives us more damage. Gruthkul’s Pelt acts as body armor, which will give him health regeneration. Southbound Gloves will also increase his maximum health.
To keep Specter and Animate Guardian at their best, we’ll use Convocation on left-click. This way they will transfer to us every few seconds and gain life regeneration.
Because this build is focused on critical hit damage, we’ll be using a lot of unique items that will give us more and more damage.
But I want to talk more about body armor, Dialla’s Malefaction. We need 2 red sockets because red sockets increase the gem level by 2. We insert Penance Brand and Empower here.
Other sockets need to be green. In green slots, they will gain +30% quality. This is the biggest damage increase and is much better than gem levels.
With all this, our gemstones will have 50% quality and Penance Brand will also reach level 27.
We’re going to convert all damage to lightning, and then convert it to cold with Call of the Brotherhood. This is because we can deal with cold damage better than lightning damage. And we can also freeze enemies so we can reduce the risk of getting hit in Sanctum.
Since this build has such high cold damage, we can also use Heatshiver. Based on cold damage, we take additional fire damage. We also take more damage if we hit a frozen target.
Malachai’s Loop deals with more spell damage and also grants 2 additional Power Charges. We can also use Badge of the Brotherhood to increase our maximum Frenzy Charges to 10.
Also, we cannot ignore Ralakesh’s Impatience, which will give our character Power Charges. So all 10 Power and Frenzy Charges will be activated and it will also give us Endurance Charges.
In this build we also use some unique items which will give us extra damage.
Next, let’s take a look at some of the important flasks you’ll need in this build.
Then I would like to highlight some key points from Penance Brand of Dissipation Occultist on Passive Tree, as well as some of the unique jewelry used.
Each Frenzy Charge deals with damage at 2% movement speed and penetrates elemental and all elemental resistances.
Watcher’s Eye takes additional physical damage as lightning damage while affected by Wrath. We get Wrath Aura from Specters, so it’s always active. And its movement skills have a good cooldown recovery rate when affected by Haste. This will give our Flame Dash a very short cooldown.
Militant Faith Timeless Jewel with carved to glorify a new faithful converted by high Templar Dominus. Note that we assign Inner Conviction here because it may convert the node you are using into a bad node.
Green Dream Viridian Jewel will give us extra cold damage.
We use Occultist as Ascendancy.
There is no doubt that Penance Brand of Dissipation Occultist is one of the best builds in Path of Exile 3.23 in terms of bosses and maps. While this build feels clunky at first, it gets better later on, especially if you’re already equipped with everything mentioned in this build guide!
Greetings and welcome to the latest guide for WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 2, with a primary emphasis on the Feral Druid within PvP.
I've labeled it as speculation due to the uncertainty surrounding the runes scheduled for the upcoming phase. Thus, our discussion will revolve around the runes speculated on forums and the essential abilities that Feral Druids urgently require for improved playability in PvP.
Phase 1 was and still is very rough and unfair for Feral when it comes to PvP. We are forced to play every kind of hybrid build with Cat Form kiting and Sunfire spams. But that’s not the cat we want. I mean, we are not even using Feral abilities and Feral talents, so we can’t really consider it as a Feral. On the other side, if you try to use cat abilities as the main source of DPS, we still run the balance tree to get the clarity and pray for it to proc for the instant Shred because it’s unusable with 60 energy and not so good DPS. The only good thing is the Feral talent that allows us to refresh 40 energy instantly whenever we shape-shift, but that’s also limited because of mana problems.
Our other spells are Rake and Shred. Rake has so low DPS even with Savage Roar and Mangle bleed buff, and it costs the same as Mangle but does less DPS. Feral is almost made as a one-ability class in this phase, which I can’t accept.
But before we jump into runes’ prediction and the things we hope we get in the next phase, let’s talk about abilities and talents.
At Level 40, there is some fantastic news for new abilities. We are finally getting our stealth opener ability, Pounce. So, we don’t walk cluelessly around in stealth just to hit a Mangle. Pounce allows us to hit 1 free ability, get 2 combo points, and hit a couple of auto attacks while our target is still stunned. However, we still have energy issues.
Another opener ability we got between Levels 20 and 40 is Ravage, which actually deals with some nice damage but costs 60 energy and doesn’t stun the target. So, we need Pounce to get actual opening damage with these 2 different abilities. Having in mind that with Pounce, we deal with a couple of auto attacks while the target is stunned.
Next, the brand-new ability is finally another combo point finisher called Ferocious Bite. It deals instant damage, unlike Rip, which deals damage over time. However, the use of these 2 is situational, but Rip still remains the best DPS finisher with numbers.
But it’s not always about the numbers in PvP. New levels don’t bring us just attacking potential news but also defensive ones. At Level 40, we are getting Dire Bear Form and Frenzied Regeneration, which boosts our defensive capabilities a lot. A Level 40 Druid with proper PvP items and the talent Survival of the Fittest had some insane HP, like 4,500 health and about 40% to 50% reduced damage. And when we add Frenzied Regeneration on top of that, that makes Druids insanely hard to kill in Phase 2 in Bear Form.
Next to offensive and defensive capabilities, we also have a Cat Form Dash and Travel Form so we can actually close the gap with enemies or kite them and heal. But wait, a lot of shape-shifting also requires a lot of manas. But there is also a solution for that. We are getting innervate at Level 40, which regens our mana on some insane scales, so we can actually shape-shift and heal in the middle of the fight.
These abilities and possibilities bring Feral Druid surely onto another level when it comes to PvP. We are not a one-ability spec anymore.
For talents, we can finally spend our points where they belong - in a Feral tree. Some of the important and matchable talents would be Sharpened Claws, which increases our crit chance in Cat Form by 6%, and Blood Frenzy, which adds another combo point whenever we make a Critical Strike with an ability. This is one of the game-changers and the start of the better times that will come for Feral Druids.
On top of that, this talent will make Druids actually stack agility instead of strength because now we have direct advantages for our Critical Strike, which wasn’t the case in Phase 1. Strength still gives us 2 points of attack power, while Agility gives us 1 point and gives us bonus armor, dodge, and crit. For every 20 points of Agility, we get 1% of critical chance.
The next important talent we are getting is Improved Shred, which reduces its cost by 11 energy. And by the time we hit level 40, we will have a Level 3 Shred with some increased damage, plus a 30% bonus scale from Mangle bleed effect. So prepare yourself in case these crits.
Other mentions would be Savage Fury, which finally boosts our Rake damage and will probably make it worth with Savage Roar and Mangle bonus, like in Phase 1, where damage sucked hard. But this talent also increases the Claw damage, which means our Mangle is getting buffed once again for the same energy cost.
There are also Predatory Strikes and Heart of the Wild for Faerie Fire (Feral), and even Feral Aggres sion in case we decide to go for Ferocious Bite damage.
As I mentioned because there are a lot of variations we can try, and all that still depends on runes we are actually getting in Phase 2. And with runes being mentioned, let’s see what we had on the runes’ wishlist: Eclipse, Berserk and Tree of Life. So, they are more or less aiming for each spec to have their ultimate rune. These 3 would be surely the game-changers in both PvP and PvE.
Berserk would surely make a big difference, especially in PvP, where we could hit 5, 6, or 7 Mangles in a row, which on this damage scale would be probably absurd. While in PvE, Berserk is already decent with DPS, so getting this ability would be a blast. But I don’t think we are getting Berserk in this phase. I think that’s an ability saved for later phases.
Still, it’s not impossible because we don’t know what runes other specs are getting. So, I would rather talk about realistic things that Feral lacks at the moment and the runes that would be nice to get for a much better experience in PvP.
The first thing that comes to my mind, thinking about PvP and PvE, is a Tiger’s Fury. This ability is completely useless at the moment. With a 30 energy cost, this energy cost should be zero, or even better for Feral, would be something like a talent from the Cat called King of the Jungle to make our Tiger’s Fury restore 20, 30, or 40 energy when used and keep the ability damage bonus. That would be a blast in both PvP and PvE, especially in PvP because now we got Pounce opener, and this would lead to instant 3 to 4 combo points in the opener without our enemy moving at all.
While we still talk about offensive runes, I have to mention Primal Gore. This one would be amazing, but I think it’s less likely to happen, and we would probably need to sacrifice one of the other PvP runes we are talking about now if we want to use it. Probably, this one would be used much more in PvE.
The next game-changing rune for PvP would surely be Predatory Strikes. With 5 combo points, we get an instant ability, which we can use either for Entangling Roots to kite or instant healing like Healing Touch. This rune would improve survivability and stability in fights, so we don’t need to constantly shift into Travel Form and waste tons of mana on shape-shifting. I don’t even think this is something unfair when I compare it to the Priest survival ability and damage in Phase 1, which is insane.
And the last thing Feral Druid needs is some kind of slow to control the fight and make Shreds easier to land. A perfect solution could be Infected Wounds with a 50% movement speed reduction debuff from Mangle. But this one wouldn’t be a game-changer to actually waste 1 whole rune on this. For example, a combination of 70% from agility into healing done and a 50% slow on Mangle should be a nice combination for just 1 rune, which would add much more stability in our fights.
Something that could also be considered adding in Phase 2, for example, Apex Predator’s Craving, where our Rip has a chance to proc Ferocious Bite. Because I feel that Ferocious Bite won’t be used much since we have so much bonus bleed damage, and Rip just outperforms it for pure numbers. This free Ferocious Bite damage doesn’t need to be at maximum 5 combo points.
Leveling with Druid has never been better. In Diablo 4 Season 3, we managed to combine poison with lightning to create one of the best hybrid builds that lets you level with ease. This build has insane AOE damage, raining lightning from the sky continuously, all the while spreading poison, which infects the entire screen.
Unlike other early-level Druid builds, this one has absolutely no issue with Spirit, as we have 2 skills that instantly give us large chunks of spirit, again and again. There are absolutely no items or RNG aspects that are required for the build. Everything is obtained from the Codex or very early in the seasonal quest line.
If you have zero or low amounts of spirit, the first 2 skills you want to use are Blood Howl and Trample. Blood Howl provides you with 20% Health instantly, and then, thanks to Innate Blood Howl, you also gain a chunk of spirit. Trample is a great movement tool and good for burst damage, but thanks to Savage Trample, it now also provides a large amount of spirit on the cast.
The first attack you want to use in a pack of enemies is Rabies, which spreads poisoning damage to them. This season, we also have the Virulent Aspect, which is unlocked from the very first chapter of the season and will cause your Rabies cooldown to significantly lessen, which means you can use Rabies more often, and that is absolutely huge for that damage boost.
With Envenom, you’ll deal much larger crits against enemies that are poisoned, and thanks to Neurotoxin, any poisoned enemies are slow, which is important because Nature’s Reach, another passive, causes you to deal double the damage bonus against slowed enemies.
Poison Creeper is another ability you want to pop early on, as it immobilizes enemies, meaning Nature’s Reach is active, and thanks to Brutal Poison Creeper, your Critical Strike Chance goes up by a whopping 20%. Now, you can use your Lightning Storm ability, which can cause massive crits.
With the combination of abilities and passive stacking, clearing out large enemy packs will be a breeze. Thanks to Enhanced Blood Howl, once you start killing enormous packs of enemies, Blood Howl’s cooldown will be significantly reduced, and then you should use Blood Howl to constantly get your spirit and health back whenever it’s off cooldown.
If Trample and Blood Howl are on cooldown and you need Spirit, then we can use our Wind Shear basic attack, which is the best basic attack for Druid because it causes enemies to become vulnerable and increases your movement speed, which makes Druid much more efficient at speed leveling.
To summarize, use your spirit generators, then pop Rabies and Poison Creeper whenever off cooldown, then spam Lightning Storm. Then, pop your spirit generators again whenever they’re off cooldown. And if they’re on cooldown, you need to chuck in a few Wind Shears for that spirit.
The same rotation applies to bosses. This build may not have the best single-target boss damage, but because of the constant healing, you’re not going to struggle at all. It’ll just take slightly longer than some of the other classes out there.
So, let’s go over the skill tree in more detail. The priority when you’re leveling is to unlock a new skill on the toolbar rather than upgrading an already existing ability, and some of the earlier passive packs we actually get later on as we’re leveling. So, put one point into Wind Shear, which is our main spirit generator, and then one point into Enhanced Wind Shear and Fierce Wind Shear.
1 point into Lightning Storm, 1 point into Enhanced Lightning Storm, and then 1 point into Primal Lightning Storm, so we can immobilize enemies and take advantage of the several damage boosts. This build provides. You’ll want to max out Lightning Storm to 5 out of 5 ranks pretty quickly, as it’s your main DPS option. Along with unlocking new skills, side by side, unlock Blood Howl, along with Enhanced and Innate Blood Howl as soon as possible, so you can get healing and spirit more efficiently.
Then go for Poison Creeper, alongside Enhanced and Brutal Poison Creeper. Once Lightning Storm is 5 out of 5, put 1 point into Rabies, then go and put 1 point into Trample, which will help with mobility and burst damage. 1 point into Enhanced Trample and Savage Trample so you can then have another ability which generates spirits.
Then go back and get Enhanced and Natural Rabies, which will make the skill much more efficient. Eventually, you’ll want to get Rabies to 5 out of 5. Now, the rest of the skill tree focuses on passives. Put 1 point into Neurotoxin, so you can put 3 points into Envenom, 3 points into Nature’s Reach for more damage against crowd-controlled enemies, 3 points into Defiance for more damage against elites, 3 points into Circle of Life for constant healing whenever you cast Lightning Storm or Wind Shear.
Thanks to Circle of Life, whenever we cast Lightning Storm, we gain back even more healing. So just combined with Blood Howl, you’ll never need to pop a potion. All this healing is great because it means we can use our key passive, Ursine Strength, and deal 25% increased damage whenever we have more than 80% Health, which seems to be nearly all the time, thanks to the constant healing.
Put 3 points into Natural Disaster, one point into Heart of the Wild, so you can put 3 points into Wild Impulses, and 3 points into Abundance. 3 points into Predatory Instinct for more Critical Strike chance, and finally, 1 point into Elemental Exposure and 1 point into Charged Atmosphere, so you can put 3 points into Electric Shock, which can further increase damage against immobilized enemies.
Let’s go over the aspects I recommend while leveling. Every single aspect comes from the codex or seasonal quest line early on, so you aren’t at the mercy of RNG. For offensive aspects, Edgemaster's Aspect is good at increasing damage based on how much spirit you have when you cast Lightning Storm. Aspect of Inner Calm boosts damage for each second you standstill, which is because you’re channeling Lightning Storm and getting constant healing, is very much possible.
Shepherd’s Aspect increases your damage by 6% for each companion. Poison Creeper is a companion, so that does count for that little boost. Nighthowler's Aspect boosts Critical Strike chance whenever you use Blood Howl. For Utility or resource aspects, the Virulent Aspect, as I mentioned before, is very good as it reduces Rabies cooldown as it spreads.
And then, Aspect of the Umbal is another one I’d recommend to maybe put on one of your rings, as it will boost spirit generation quite a bit, as we constantly slow or immobilize enemies with this build, which all counts as crowd control. There are no defensive aspects that are a requirement, but Aspect of Disobedience to boost armor and Aspect of Might for easy damage reduction are beneficial aspects. But trust me, you won’t need these because of the constant healing the build provides.
There’s not much to say for gear. You’re going to be constantly out leveling gear, so keep on replacing it. This especially applies to your weapon, which you want the highest GPS weapon for.
If you’re playing on the seasonal realm, you’ll have the Seneshcal Construct. There are obviously some very strong legendary and unique stones, but these are dropped much later on in the game, so you won’t encounter a lot of them early on while leveling.
Early on, for leveling, I found the Utility Aspects more useful. Reconstruct helps even more with healing and survivability, while Protect gives you a barrier on top to help with survivability. If you don’t have these, then an attacking skill with Poison support can help to poison more enemies and apply slow to them through Neurotoxin. You’ll deal more damage efficiently. Support boosts Critical Strike Chance even more, and Slowing support adds even more slow to the mix.
If you do have Arcing support alongside an attack, you can use Resource support. You can gain back massive amounts of spirit. Unfortunately, I don’t have this combo unlocked, but if you do, by chance, get these stones, do use them, as that will help your spirit generation a lot. Have a play around with the combinations. There are some useful ones, but don’t get caught up too much on this while leveling. Most of the power from this comes from the endgame.
So there you have it, my Poison Lightning Hybrid build for Level 1 to 50. It’s faster, stronger, and just better than all previous Druid leveling builds, and you’ll be level 50 in no time.
Are you ready for Diablo 4 Season 3? This guide provides a comprehensive overview of everything you need to know before diving into the new Diablo 4 season, Season of the Construct, including insights into leveling characters, completing the season quest, and understanding the mechanics of this season.
Let's first explore the new Diablo 4 Seasonal content, featuring the Companion, Arcane Tremors, and Nightmare Vaults, before delving into some leveling tips for returning players or those aiming to reach World Tier 4 swiftly.
The Season of the Construct centers around The Loom, an ancient technology crafted by the founder of the Horadrim and his companion Ayuzhan.
Stolen by the demon Malphas, this loom becomes the focal point of your battle against his minions, the Constructs. The town center under Kehjistan, known as Gatehall, acts as the new seasonal hub area, providing access to the fresh seasonal dungeons, Vaults.
To aid you in the fight against Malphas, you'll have a new seasonal Seneschal Companion, also known as the robot spider pet. Acquired during the Seasonal Quest, the Seneschal is a Construct that you repair to become your own companion.
It's crucial to acquire the Seneschal quickly, as it's a permanent pet capable of dealing damage, crowd control, and even healing you – overall, a valuable ally. The companion levels up with your progression in the game and comes with its own customizable skills.
These skills are equipped through Tuning and Governing Stones, obtained from Arcane Tremors, Vaults, and crafting from Shattered Stones dropped by Constructs at the Jeweler in Gatehall. You have 2 slots for Governing Stones, dictating your Seneschal's abilities, and 6 slots for Tuning Stones to enhance those abilities.
Once you have the Seneschal, your focus shifts to obtaining these stones.
Begin by clearing Arcane Tremors found across Sanctuary. In these events, you must locate Cores from Constructs or Towers, place them in a brazier to summon Malphus’ Heralds. Defeating these constructs has a chance to yield stones and shattered stones. Importantly, when you defeat the Heralds, you earn the seasonal Rare Currency, Pearls of Warding. These function as a form of currency for "gambling" in the new vaults, offering more Governing and Tuning Stones.
After acquiring Pearls of Warding, head to one of the 3 Vaults in Gatehall. Inside the vault, you'll find the "Statue of Zoltun Kulle," allowing you to exchange Pearls of Warding for stacks of Zoltun's Warding. These stacks act as a counter for the numerous traps throughout the vault. Every time you're hit by a trap, you lose one stack, and if you reach 0 stacks by the end of the dungeon, you won't unlock the special Wardwoven chest containing valuable loot and additional Tuning/Governing Stones.
Additionally, you can turn the Vaults into Nightmare Vaults to expedite the process. These vaults feature more traps, tougher enemies, and additional Wardwoven Chests to unlock. Vault Sigils to start Nightmare Vaults drop similarly to normal Nightmare Sigils in World Tier 3 and 4.
So, the basic cycle for the season involves participating in Arcane Tremors, obtaining Pearls, entering a Vault, clearing it without getting hit by traps, enhancing the companion's skills, and repeating.
Upon completing the questline, you gain access to a fourth vault – the Uber Vault. Here, you'll face traps, enemies, and eventually, fight against Uber Malphus, a stationary boss capable of dropping two powerful Unique stones. It's recommended to tackle this challenge at some point during the season.
Now, let's discuss strategies for fast leveling in the new season.
Upon creating a new character for the season, you'll be presented with the option to skip the campaign and choose the World Tier you want to play on. If you've already completed the campaign, skipping it with a new character is the faster method for leveling. Contrary to expectations, opting for World Tier 1 is the best choice for quick leveling.
Choosing World Tier 2 offers a 20% experience and gold boost, but the enemies become more challenging, requiring more time to defeat. This makes it less efficient than selecting World Tier 1, where enemies are easier, and you can clear dungeons more swiftly.
As you progress to the mid and end game, you'll transition to World Tier 3 and World Tier 4 for increased XP.
To help you level up fater in Diablo 4 Season 3, here are some useful tips.
With no updates to experience at the Season of the Construct launch, the quickest way to level your character remains half-repeating the Domhainne Tunnels dungeon in Scosglen. However, alternative methods, including new seasonal activities, are available for leveling.
Upon spawning in, ensure you claim your renown rewards. If you've played in earlier seasons and completed renown for all regions by discovering waypoints, clearing strongholds, finding altars of Lilith, etc., you can claim the bottom rewards for all regions. These include 2 skill points, +1 Potion Capacity, +80 Maximum Obol Capacity, and most importantly, +4 Paragon Points. If you haven't unlocked these, there's no rush to obtain them immediately, but you'll want to secure these rewards later.
Firstly, progress the Seasonal Quest as much as you can until it becomes challenging or you lose interest. This allows you to obtain the Seneschal Construct Companion as soon as possible. Afterward, you can start grinding the Domhainne Tunnels. The strategy involves clearing the first section without releasing any prisoners, teleporting out to Cerrigar, sorting your inventory, resetting the dungeons via your map, and then returning. Repeat this process until around level 50, occasionally incorporating Helltide for essential resources like Forgotten Souls and Fiend Roses to upgrade your gear.
For those who prefer alternatives, Legion Events are an excellent option, spawning frequently and providing substantial XP upon completion. You'll receive an alert on the map before they spawn, and kindling the campfire at the location five minutes before it starts increases your XP gain for the event up to 15%. Engaging with other players in the world to clear the event enhances your XP gain.
Other activities include World Bosses, Whispers, and the new seasonal activities. While World Bosses spawn every 6-8 hours and offer great XP, it's advisable to avoid them in the first week of the new season when players are generally too weak to tackle them effectively.
Grim Favors present diverse quests on the map, including harvesting a zone, clearing a cellar, or the XP-rich option of clearing a Whisper Dungeon. Grim Favors can overlap with World Bosses and new seasonal activities. The new seasonal activities consist of Arcane Tremors found throughout Sanctuary and the Vault dungeons. Grinding Arcane Tremors is recommended for leveling as they provide XP and the new Rare Currency.
Mixing up these activities while clearing Domhainne Tunnels or choosing one based on personal preference is up to you. Remember to clear Helltides occasionally, stock up on elixirs to boost XP gain during activities, and engage in seasonal content. At level 15 (or 25 for necros), complete your Class Quest to unlock a special feature of your class. Later, around the level 50-60 range, attempt the WT3 Capstone Dungeon in Kyovashad to increase your World Tier, leading to leveling beyond 60.
Upon reaching WT3, the most efficient use of your time will come from Nightmare Dungeons or Nightmare Vaults, offering substantial rewards and XP. Nightmare Sigils, required to activate these, can be obtained as random drops from enemies in the game and through crafting at the occultist. To maximize XP gains from Nightmare Dungeons, it's advisable to engage enemies that are 10 levels higher than you, although tackling lower-level ones is acceptable if the higher-level ones prove too challenging initially.
While you can continue participating in the previously mentioned activities, their impact on character progression is likely to be less significant compared to Nightmare Dungeons, which become a crucial element in advancing your character. As you approach level 70, consider attempting the WT4 capstone. Following that, you can continue tackling Nightmare Dungeons and mix in other activities like completing the Seasonal Quest, addressing your renown, or exploring various in-game tasks.
Thus far, we've covered what we believe beginners should focus on at the beginning of this new season.
Looking ahead, an upcoming Gauntlet dungeon is on the horizon—a weekly rotating fixed dungeon where players compete on leaderboards, with top weekly scores earning a permanent spot in the Hall of the Ancients. While specific details about these dungeons are yet to be revealed, if you're up for the challenge, keep an eye out for this dungeon in the weeks or months to come.
What are your thoughts on the season so far? Does it pique your interest?
Welcome to another POE 3.23 builds guide. Each week I’ll choose a theme and show you my three favorite builds.
Today’s topic is for those players who like to stay and call the shots. I’m talking about Minion Builds. if you want to try any of them, then don’t miss this guide. Without further ado, let’s get started!
Let’s start with this classic minion build, like there are fireworks on the screen, Mage Skeletons Guardian with Templar class.
I’m sure you’ll remember that to turn regular skeletons into Mage Skeletons, you once needed a unique Jewel called Dead Reckoning. This all changes thanks to the introduction of the new Transfigured Gems.
Now we have Summon Skeletons of Mage Gem, which naturally summons Mage Skeletons without any mandatory unique items, and for a much lower price. This means Mage Skeletons become a better starter than before.
To list the pros of this build, I’ll start with its survivability. With Guardian Ascendancy, you have nearly a 75% chance of blocking attacks and spells, and massive life regeneration and the new Sentinel of Radiance can take 20% of damage for you.
Best of all, this is a very safe minion build to play. Because you stay behind your minions, they can kill enemies from a long distance. With the new Elemental Relic, you and your minions can gain 3 damage auras completely for free, allowing for massive boss damage.
Now to list the cons, the first thing I’d say is that Mage Skeletons don’t move. They feel more like totems in the build. Therefore, you need to keep re-summoning them as you clear the map.
Guardian Ascendancy also doesn’t get the speed boost from Flesh Offering like Necromancer does. So it’s a little slow.
On top of that, this build also doesn’t give you and your minions an exceptional 30% resistance to all elements compared to Necromancer. If you don’t look for minion resistance on your rare gear, this could result in your Zombies and Specters dying from elemental damage.
This build was fairly low budget. You only need about 50 Chaos Orbs to destroy the early EndGame map. To easily advance to Yellow Map, I recommend investing around 120 Chaos Orbs. If you want to complete your atlas easily, I recommend investing in 4 Divine Orbs.
For clear speed, I would give it an 8 out of 10. You have many skeletons firing many projectiles at a high cast rate. The two points I deducted are because Mage Skeletons don’t move and you need to keep re-summoning them, and also because Guardian doesn’t get Flesh Offering speed buff like Necromancer does.
Its boss damage is also amazing and deserves a score of 9 out of 10. With the new Returning Projectiles Support Gem, 100% of projectiles will hit the enemy twice. But since it’s not as powerful as the nerfed Anomalous Faster Projectiles, I removed a bit.
For this survivability, I would give it a 10 out of 10. This version has tons of defensive layers, like high armor, a 75% chance to block attacks and spells, and a minion that can take 20% off the damage for you. And since it’s a minion build, you’re always out of danger.
Now let’s take the previous build to another level and use Archer Skeletons Guardian with Templar class.
I’m pretty sure by now you all know that the very popular Mage Skeletons build nicely with the new Transfigured Gems. We also have Summon Skeletons of Archers now, so I spent the weekend trying it out and got this super fun build. So I hope you all enjoy it.
To list the pros of this build, I’d start with its balance. Unlike Mage Skeletons, this build has a smoother clearing speed and can deal more damage to bosses.
And this one isn’t complicated to build either, we just need a very cheap mandatory unique item. On top of that, as a Guardian, we still have three damage auras for free and a minion that takes 20% of the damage for us.
Now to list the cons, I’ll start by saying that while this build is still very tanky and safe, it’s not quite as tanky as Mage Skeletons staff build because it has less chance to block. But don’t worry, if you keep an eye on your position in time, you’ll have a hard time dying.
As for budget, this build is pretty cheap. You only need about 80 Chaos Orbs to destroy early endgame maps. To easily advance to Yellow Map, I recommend investing around 150 Chaos Orbs. To easily complete your atlas, I recommend investing in 4 Divine Orbs. But you can definitely do it for less money.
For this build, you only need one mandatory unique item, which is Lioneye’s Vision Armor, which already provides Pierce Support and allows us to give our skeleton one more Support Gem.
For clear speed, it deserves 9 points. We have a lot of Archer Skeletons, which fire a lot of arrows and have a high attack speed. Unlike Mage Skeletons version that uses Spell Echo Support, we can easily cast 4 skeletons at once in different locations and greatly increase their damage angle.
Its boss damage is amazing and deserves a full 10 points. It can even destroy those endgame bosses in seconds, and that’s just using Determination Aura. But if you’re playing in Affliction League, you can use Specter of the Guardian Turtle to get free Determination Aura, and Pride to deal more damage.
I would give it a 9 out of 10 for this survivability. As a minion build, you can stay out of harm’s way while they tank for you and kill everything. This is a very safe style of play.
And this build also has over 90,000 effective HP because of its high armor, block chance, and minions that take 20% of the damage for you. I’ll just point out that because we don’t use this staff like Mage Skeletons version, we end up with less chance of blocking in terms of effective HP.
Finally, we have a surprising endgame build, Poison Raging Spirits Guardian with Templar class.
This build takes advantage of the large number of Raging Spirits we can summon to stack massive amounts of poison on our enemies. Initially, I tried to make it a Necromancer. But with Guardian, we only lose a little of damage, but nearly triple the survivability.
To list the pros of this build, I’ll start with its boss damage. Once the build is complete, we’ll kill the biggest boss in just a few seconds. Survivability is also amazing, as we can have all of Guardian’s layers of defense on top of an already very safe minion build.
Now to list the cons, I’ll start by saying that this version isn’t for everyone. You’ll need plenty of POE Currency to assemble this build. Another problem is that Raging Spirits have a short duration and you have to stop frequently to re-summon them.
As for budget, this build will require at least 10 Divine Orbs to put together. Like I said, this is an expensive build.
Also, this build requires four required unique items.
The first is United in Dream Sword, which gives us Envy Aura, which deals with massive chaos damage to our minions. It also gives them a 60% chance of being poisoned on hit.
We also need a Darkness Enthroned Belt with two Abyssal Jewel Sockets so that we have a 100% chance of poisoning our minions.
Next we need a piece of Covenant Armor to provide level 29 Added Chaos Damage Support to our Raging Spirits. This means we have more chaos damage.
Finally, we need Ancient Skull, which gives our minions a massive damage and attack on speed boost.
For clear speed, I would give this a 9 out of 10. Even though we have a lot of fast minions that can destroy everything in seconds, their duration is short and they need to be re-summoned all the time, which is why I removed one point.
Its boss damage is totally worth a 10 out of 10. You can easily get over 30 million DPS, which is enough to take out every boss in the game.
This is definitely a 10 out of 10 in terms of survivability. As a minion build, you’re already out of danger. On top of that, you have a number of layers of defense from Guardian Ascendancy, which gives this build a staggering 250,000 effective HP.
That’s it for today, guys, what do you think of these minion builds? Please take a moment to tell me what you think. Have a great day and don’t forget to keep building.
