Knowing what's coming to the game and what's changing before embarking on the journey is essential for any game, and this is also true in Elder Scrolls Online.

Since 2017 Morrowind expansion, Elder Scrolls Online has been recognized as one of the most popular modern MMOs. Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Road marks the eighth chapter of this fantasy MMO game, which has been launched for 10 years since 2014. Gold Road offers some exciting features that fans have been craving since Elder Scrolls Online was first released.

This article will show you what new content Gold Road has in store for us in 2024 to help you prepare for the start of the game in advance.

Gold Road is one of the largest Chapters for Elder Scrolls Online to date, second only to Craglorn and Vvardenfell in size.

Gold Road retains some iconic locations from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, such as the city of Skingrad in the southwestern region of Cyrodiil. However, not only has the previous content been retained, but some new locations have been added as well.

The latest Chapter takes place in the West Weald, which is made up of three different sub-regions. The southeastern region makes up the Autumn Gold Road, whose capital is the city of Skingrad. The southwestern region is the newly emerged Dawnwood jungle, bordering the Valenwood province and some Wood Elf settlements. The northern region is home to the Colovian Highlands, which is dotted with Ayleid ruins and Imperial settlements. There is also the mysterious Wildburn region where brand new creatures and plants grow, influenced by the magical creations of the Dawnwood jungle.

Gold Road is a direct sequel to the last Chapter for Elder Scrolls Online, Necrom, and the second part of the seventh main story. Elder Scrolls Online generally takes place in Second Era, before the events of Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim.

Mirrormoore Incursion is a dynamic world event caused by the mysterious Daedric entity Valkynaz. These Daedric entities attempt to invade West Weald through Oblivion Portals created by Ritualists.

You will encounter waves of Daedric Occultists in West Weald to prevent further invasions. Six Valkynaz boss battles will bring rich rewards and lore details.

You can enhance your game strength through $1, increase the chance of winning battles against enemies, and make it easier to level up in the game.

Through Mirrormoore Incursions that appear in the area and the dialogue between NPCs discussing new threats, we can feel the presence of the main villain, the forgotten Daedric Prince Ithelia. But Gold Road does not just deliver the classic Oblivion atmosphere, the mysterious Dawn Forest jungle also appears in the southwest. Unprecedented turmoil and mysterious subversion in the wilds of the West make the journey full of mystery and turmoil.

Scribe is the biggest game change in Gold Road Chapter. If you have the patience to complete the lengthy tutorial, Scribe will satisfy your desire to create your own spells in Elder Scrolls Online like in other Elder Scrolls games.

Scribe includes a Grimoire (skill type) and a Script that defines the skill parameters. There are 11 Grimoires to unlock in the game, as well as Focus Scripts that define the main function, Signature Scripts that add unique effects to skills, and Affix Scripts that add unique Buff/Debuff to skills.

You need to put in a lot of effort to unlock the various Scripts required in the 11 skill Grimoires. You can unlock Scribe through multiple multi-part quest chains involving Mages Guild. We strongly recommend that you complete Scribe multi-part quest chain in Gold Road Chapter first, as its components are only unlocked when the quest is active.

In Gold Road you can further customize your skills through Skill Styles. You can unlock most Skill Styles through level achievements and quests. In total, Gold Road includes 22 Skill Styles, which will allow you to customize the aesthetic characteristics of various Scribe and non-Scribe skills. More Skill Styles may appear in future updates. Aesthetic options range from colors to different animations, although customizing sound effects is not possible at this time.

Gold Road finally implements a feature that veterans of the decade-old MMO have been asking for. The new feature is the ability to inject status effects into light and heavy attacks.

Gold Road actually includes 10 new item sets for you to find and craft, but Threads of War is the one that players should be most aware of, as it adds status effects directly to attacks.

Trials are essentially Elder Scrolls Online's ultimate raid dungeon content for teams of 12 players. Lucent Citadel is said to be the most difficult and complex 'trial' dungeon yet, and is located in Daedric vault on Fargrave Oblivion Plane.

This Trial dungeon follows the lost Daedric Prince Ithelia as she launches a frantic search for a mysterious relic called Arcane Knot, which causes untold trouble for your old ally Keshargo.

Elder Scrolls Online developers say Lucent Citadel is their most experimental dungeon yet, with obstacles that go far beyond combat, and even hints at levitation effects in promotional materials.

Elder Scrolls Online is one of the most welcoming MMOs to new players. As encouraged by Elder Scrolls Online's level scaling system, Elder Scrolls Online's entire library of Chapter content can be completed in any non-linear order you can imagine, regardless of player level, making revisiting previous areas engaging and fun. With the introduction of Scribing and the addition of the West Weald region, now is the best time to experience Elder Scrolls Online.

Elder Scrolls Online itself lacks a comprehensive story summary of events. If a new player is not already aware of Necrom's ongoing storyline, it will not be able to understand the plot sequence of Gold Road and review events. After all, Gold Road follows the cliffhanger at the end of Necrom. Even though the game can read the lore book, we still recommend that you first understand the comprehensive timeline of events of all Chapters in Elder Scrolls Online.

Like the previous major Chapters of Elder Scrolls Online, the story of Gold Road takes about 15 hours to complete. However, there are also Mirrormoor Incursions, Lucent Citadel, Side Dungeon, Quest, 6 World/Delve bosses and 10 sets of items, as well as numerous other collectibles to discover. As mentioned earlier, the new Scribe system brings new grinding in the form of Grimoires and Scripts, and if you get them for multiple created characters, the time they take will increase.

After reading this article, you have some understanding of the new content of Gold Road. On this basis, you should also make a choice whether to experience the new game. I hope that our display of the new content of the game can help you get a head start in the game.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm expansion was a significant change for Azeroth and the people who live there, and the release of Cataclysm Classic gives players a chance to revisit the glory days of 14 years ago. While the most obvious changes to Cataclysm are the reimagined zones and new quests after Deathwing, the most significant is the overhaul of the player guilds system, which now has its own leveling system, perks, and guildwide achievements.

WoW Cataclysm Classic makes some changes to the guild perks and leveling system compared to the original version. Today we spoke to lead software engineer Nora Valletta and principal game designer Kris Zierhut to talk about why the team wanted to make the change.

They told us before the conversation that one of the main reasons was that the original guild system encouraged players to join super guilds, which actually went against the original spirit of the guild and needed to be urgently resolved.

In the early days of World of Warcraft, players were advised to join a guild because the sense of community is a huge draw in MMORPG-style games. Recognizing this, Blizzard wanted to improve the game’s guilds system and introduced a leveling system for guilds to encourage players to join.

At first, it seemed like a good idea to allow players to level up a guild together to earn rewards, thereby strengthening the community. But this approach has led to the destruction of smaller guilds.

The leveling system for guilds encourages you to build a guild with numerous members, because the size of the guild does not change the experience rewards you can get. This means that a large guild will give you the same rewards as a small guild, but a small guild will be difficult to level up, and a large guild will be easy to fill up.

After the release, Nora said that she found that some players in small guilds would quit their guilds and join the large guilds to get more rewards. And those newly formed guilds could not find people to join. They were very sorry for the demise of these small guilds, which prompted them to want to change.

Nora sighed and told us that they knew very clearly that this was a problem for players and would bring some difficulties and unhappiness to players, so they couldn’t make the same mistake again.

With mounts, pets, and transmogrification appearances, World of Warcraft players go to great lengths to get them. But because some of these items are locked into a leveling system for guilds, it creates a lot of impersonal, large guilds. New players invite a lot of players to join for these rewards, which attracts more players with similar requirements.

So in WoW Cataclysm Classic, the leveling system for guilds was changed to a guild reputation system. Players can earn a reputation in a guild just like any faction in the game, and rewards are awarded based on reputation. This will not only allow smaller guilds to survive, but also prevent players from joining and leaving to retain their reputation.

Guild perks are more valued by players than mounts, tabards, and pets. Likewise, guild perks are only available in large guilds. These perks can increase the speed of a player’s mounts, allow them to bank or send messages to members of their own guild as needed.

Zierhut told us that many perks are now granted to players immediately when they join any guild, and one of them is the removal of Cash Flow perk. In original Cataclysm, when you had Cash Flow, every time you defeated an enemy, you would receive an additional 10% of $1, which would be automatically deposited into your guild bank.

This idealistic view does sound good, but some opportunistic players will take these extra rewards directly from the guild leader. Zierhut explained that the original intention of creating guilds was to be a place for communication, not this. The change they are making is to make guilds a means for teams to move towards one or more common goals.

In addition to the removal of Cash Flow perk, “Have Group, Will Travel” was also changed. This perk was also very bad in terms of player response, as it made summoning stones completely useless and would teleport the entire group to the location you needed.

This caused some players to be interrupted immediately while doing their own quests, interrupting their game progress. The perk was eventually removed from the WoW Cataclysm Classic world after one expansion, which was good news for many players.

Although some players may not be used to these changes, they should not feel pressured. The creative team has been working hard to make the most appropriate changes to the guild since the release of World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic, and they also hope to see more posts on social media from players praising this change. Finally, I wish you have a merry game with them!

Digital Theater is a growing field in online games, especially in FFXIV. From Curtain Call Theater to A Stage Reborn, the culture of Digital Theater is growing stronger and stronger. Of course, it is not just FFXIV that is doing it. Fallout 76 is also inviting Wasteland Theater Company and others to participate.

At this stage, FFXIV players have established a relatively complete community, which includes sports events, community festivals, museums, etc., and the most important thing is that there is a theater club covering many performing companies. This is what we call a Digital Theater.

Today, let’s talk to several experts in the FFXIV theater community: Stanzek Rosyasch and Soso, to learn how these virtual companies prepare and rehearse, and how to adapt real stories into the settings of Etheirys.

Recently, a Sherlock Holmes classic, A Scandal in Bohemia (localized in Etheirys as A Scandal in Aldenard), was performed at Firebird Theater in FFXIV. Stanzek Rosyasch plays an assistant named Watson in it. Coincidentally, we’re going to be discussing how they’re going to prepare for the role in a digital theater roundtable.

Interestingly, we entered the chat room in advance. Rosyash entered the chat room, and his first words were: “Sorry, I’m late!” The quiet chat room suddenly erupted in laughter and the atmosphere became lively. He explained that out of respect for everyone’s attention, the chat room is usually very quiet, but this does not mean that it is always so serious. So Rosyasch often acts as the one who makes jokes, and small mistakes will become inside jokes, which will be easier to accept.

When rehearsing, you may have a wire on your head at any time, which will be very stressful. Rosyasch also said that this kind of fun helps to relieve the pressure of rehearsal. For Rosyasch, rehearsals are done on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday afternoons and evenings. However, he also explained that the most important step in balancing the focus of the production and his own work is to group the scenes to be performed. In order to give the actors a place to rest for the night, they may not be performed in the order they will be performed on stage.

Rosyasch also gave an example of sometimes asking what rehearsals involve. Someone would jokingly tell him to wear a skirt, and then on the day of the performance, all the actors would show up wearing the same skirt. This is a bit ridiculous! Besides this vignette, performers can obtain more equipment by trading $1, making their outfit closer to the character.

As for the content of rehearsals, their nature is obviously different from that of real theater rehearsals. Although it is less nervous to face a large audience, it is still much more difficult in other aspects. One of the biggest challenges in FFXIV is cues and timing. In the real world, this kind of drama performance is usually logically understood by the actors and involves a certain element of natural movement in the timing. Performances in Etheirys require super densely choreographed time precision, and there is no logical or natural instruction that can be easily remembered. So let’s throw the next question: what is it based on?

Macros in games allow players to coordinate actions, lines, expressions, and other personalized performances. If performers in Etheirys were to work together like in the real world, the timing would become very tight. Without precise timing, the desynchronization of macros would become more and more serious until the next macro appeared. This is what Soso explained to us. From this, we can see that macros are one of the most important tools for performers in the game.

Ordinary players may use macros when they want to do two actions together, such as Swiftcast and Resurrection. But performers who use macros to achieve three synchronizations of lines, expressions, and actions, Digital Theater also takes the use of macros to a new level.

Each macro can only have 15 lines, and at least half of these 15 lines are used to control expressions. In addition, actors may use some macro instructions to start a countdown so that their actions can be performed correctly. Some echoes are also used to help actors remember their next step or remind them to perform an action outside of the macro.

This means that FFXIV often needs dozens of macros for a full performance. This is also a problem if people leave macros for HUD features or other conveniences for players. A player can use up to 200 macro slots, so this is very limited for performers in FFXIV. Soso emphasized that this is not just a problem for actors, but also for writers to adapt to the limitations of the macrosystem.

Ultimately, rehearsals are about preparing performers to be watched by an audience. Although there is no similarity between this and real-world performances, the rehearsals of FFXIV performers are also a full reflection of their own technical knowledge or skills.

Fallout 76 Skyline Valley is set to be released in a few days in June. It will be added as part of Expeditions: Atlantic City and will bring a lot of new content to the game, including some new weapons and armor. These new pieces of gear have some amazing properties that will enhance your gaming experience.

This guide will detail all the new $1 introduced in Fallout 76 Skyline Valley update. Come with me!

The first new weapon in the update is Ticket To Revenge, a Railway Rifle with twice the bullet capacity of the standard version. While the standard Railway Rifle is powerful, it is often hampered by its limited ammunition capacity. If you don’t have Quad effect equipped, it’s difficult to deal with maximum damage.

Railway Rifle with Ticket To Revenge changes this situation. It can hold 20 Spikes at a time with base damage of 223. Compared to the standard Railway Rifle, it can greatly reduce the frequency of reloading.

Ticket To Revenge’s legendary effects are V.A.T.S Enhanced, Lucky, and Bloodied. Bloodied will increase your damage as your character’s health decreases, while the V.A.T.S Enhanced will increase your chance of hitting the target. Lucky can help you maintain AP.

Overall, Ticket To Revenge is a pleasant alternative for players who want to try Bloodied builds but don’t need those expensive Bloodied weapons.

V63 Shock Baton is also relatively simple to obtain. You only need to complete Housekeeping for Higher quest. This melee weapon in Fallout 76 has powerful anti-armor properties and can also apply electric shock effects to enemies.

Besides Armor Penetration and 50% Limb Damage to enemies, V63 Shock Baton also has an AP cost of 30 and a medium swing speed.

Shattered Ground is an Automatic Assault Rifle in Fallout 76 that you can obtain by completing Double-Cross Wires quest. It not only has high damage and a fast rate of fire but also supports your own customization into a single-shot or Automatic Rifle.

If you want to have this weapon with Demolitionist perk, you can maximize the potential of this weapon. The most notable effects of Shattered Ground are Junkie’s, Explosive, and 90% Reduced Weight.

V63 Zweihander is an electrical two-handed weapon that you can obtain by completing Eye of Storm. Non-automatic two-handed weapons are not popular in Fallout 76 because of their limitations. However, V63 Zweihander is a special case, with powerful Power Attack Damage, Defender’s, and Executioner’s effects.

The advantage of this weapon is that it has a very high energy damage. With the right method, its damage will increase.

After talking about the new weapons in Fallout 76 Skyline Valley expansion, let’s take a look at the new armors.

Both the outfit and hat are crafted at an armor workbench after learning the respective plans called Vault 63 security outfit burnt and Plan: Vault 63 security helmet burnt, which are given as rewards for completing the event Dangerous Pastimes.

Crafted at an armor workbench after learning the respective plan called Plan: Lost burnt Vault jumpsuit, which is given as a reward for completing Calm Before quest .

You can pair this coat with a Lost Burnt Vault suit. However, note that the lab coat is different for female and male characters. The outfit also comes with an optional pair of scientist goggles.

Both the outfit and hat are crafted at an armor workbench after learning the respective plans called Plan: Cultist monarch outfit and Plan: Cultist monarch mask, which are given as rewards for completing Oldest Trick in Book quest. Also note that Alex Guerra is wearing a non-playable version, so don’t confuse them.

It is a one-piece suit designed to mold to the body shape of the user. It is made up of various biometric sensors integrated into the suit, connecting with the Vault’s system. The iconic yellow strip on the front is made of gold foil, not dyed material, and in the suit acts as a heat sink and antenna for the integrated biometric sensors.

There are still some unknown variables waiting for players to explore in this Fallout 76 Skyline Valley expansion. There is a lot of new content to look forward to in the update, and new players should not feel intimidated.

Besides some new items, the southern part of the map has been opened, allowing players to roam the rolling hills of Shenandoah. In addition, there are some new enemies, new NPCs, and recent activities waiting. Let us look forward to this update together!

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is approaching and will be released on June 21. As we all know, there are over 300 weapons in Elden Ring, but today I will pick out 10 of the best secondary weapons that you can bring into Shadow of the Erdtree DLC to take on various challenges. This list includes Staffs, Seals and more, and I'm sure at least one of them will be crucial for you.

If you want to craft a Faith build, I have some best seals for you, with no particular order. If you want a seal that only scales with Faith, you can look for the Erdtree Seal. This is found on a corpse in a cell near Omenkiller enemy in Volcano Manor. This is in the town just below Prison Town Church Site of Grace.

This one is fantastic for hybrid builds. It only requires you to improve your Faith stat to get the most efficiency out of it, meaning this is an absolute favorite for Strength or Faith builds. One thing to note is that this is definitely not for early game as you probably won't have the stats to use it once you do get to it. But it's an all-around solid seal with high levels of Faith, it is very powerful in its own right.

Golden Order Seal is absolutely amazing if you are using Prince of Death's Staff and going for an Intelligence or Faith build. So, if you have 80 Intelligence or Faith, you can rock this Seal, and you can have the absolute most powerful Staff and Seal in Elden Ring simultaneously, making you a powerhouse of magic.

On top of that, Golden Order Seal will also increase the damage done by Golden Order Incantations by 10%, and some of them, like Triple Rings of Light, are already pretty devastating. So, with a pure spellcaster build, this really can make you a force to be reckoned with.

The final one I've put on this list is Frenzied Flame Seal. This boosts the damage of all Frenzied Flame Incantations by 20% and it scales with Faith, Intellect, Strength, and Dexterity. So, you can use it somewhat efficiently with any build.

On top of that, it also has zero stat requirements, so every single character of every single level can use this seal. And on top of that, it causes slight madness buildup, so it is absolutely top tier and everybody should grab this, even if you're not planning on using it, because you can fit it into every single build in some way or another.

However, obtaining it is a bit more of a challenge than any other weapon we've listed so far because it does mean you need to reach the end of Hyetta's questline. So, you need to have given her all of Shabiri Grapes along with Fingerprint Grape and make the horrible journey down to Three Fingers. Of course, don't forget to bring enough $1 along with you.

Next, we go the exact opposite route and get Meteorite Staff. This is probably the easiest weapon to get in Elden Ring, as you can find it from the start, without even having to kill a single enemy. It's in the southwest building of Street of Sages Ruins in Swamp of Aeonia in Caelid. This staff is on a corpse hanging from a ledge.

What makes this staff so powerful is that it doesn't need to be upgraded, Intelligence starts at S tier, and sorceries is high as well. This is great for hybrids who just want to try out Intelligence without spending too many points. You do need 18 Intelligence to use it, but that's really all you need, and with that alone you can use quite a bit of powerful sorceries.

Also, this staff does boost the power of Gravity Sorceries by 30%, so you could get the Rock Sling in the same area as getting this staff and it would be powerful enough to melt early game bosses. However, the next 2 staffs are definitely more focused on spellcasting builds and are much more powerful at higher levels.

Then, we will talk about Demi-Human Queen's Staff. This one is nearly as easy as the Meteorite Staff to grab, dropped by Demi-Human Queen in Weeping Peninsula. This is the best all-around staff in Elden Ring for a low-Intellect build at a high upgrade level.

In the early game, the Meteorite Staff will be more powerful, but when you're getting to around 30 Intelligence and you've got your Demi-Human Queen's Staff at +10, this becomes significantly more powerful than the Meteorite Staff while requiring low numbers of Intellect.

So, this is really great for hybrid spellcasting builds where you're willing to pump a bit more Intellect into your build but would still like to focus more on something like Strength or Dexterity, for example.

Then, we'll discuss Lusat's Glinstone Staff. This weapon is easy to obtain as you can loot it from a treasure chest once you defeat Nox Swordswoman and Priest in Sellia, Town of Sorcery. While it may seem insignificant, it has one very important advantage that it can increase the amount of FP you spend by 50%. This is definitely more niche than the other 3 staffs on this list as you need very high FP to build.

This staff is for use if you want absolute damage out of your Intelligence build. However, if you can live with the damage not being that high and your spells don't need to use a lot of FP, then the other 3 staffs on this list will be better suited for you.

The last staff on the list is Prince of Death's Staff. This can be the most powerful staff in the game, but it does require you to be a pure spellcaster unless you have a very high character level, as this scales with both Intellect and Faith. If you level both to 80, it will far outperform every other staff in the game. On top of that, it will also boost the damage of Death Sorceries by 10%.

For our final weapon category, as we move into ranged weapons, our first one is Pulley Crossbow. What attracted me to try it was the fact that it can shoot 3 bolts at once, so I thought this must be crazy for applying status effects. But it's actually much more than that. You can grab the crossbow from next to Craftsman's Shack Site of Grace.

Firstly, it has absolutely no weapon scaling, so all of the power comes from the bolts and the upgrade level of the weapon. This means that as long as you meet the minimum stat requirements of 16 Strength or 12 if you are two-handed, and 16 Dexterity, that's all you need.

You can then fit this weapon into any build you want, and it will still do maximum damage because you're not losing out on any scaling. However, the raw damage output combined with how quickly it can apply status effects make the Pulley Crossbow such a powerful weapon that can easily slot into any build and just give you slightly more ranged capabilities than you had before, allowing you to exploit enemy weaknesses from a very safe distance.

Next up is Black Bow. It's the fact that you inherently have Barrage on a longbow. Barrage is really the only reason to use a shortbow. They're fast, move set, and that weapon skill in particular means that you can inflict status effects at lightning speed.

Combine this with the fact that it does share certain moves from Shortbow Moveset, so when you jump and shoot, you can then shoot again immediately upon landing, allowing for quick shooting after rolling and from a sprint. It has a slightly lower damage output than other longbows, but these other perks, more than make up for it. And fully upgraded, it's going to be reasonably powerful.

The Black Bow is found on a rooftop in Leyndell, Royal Capital. Though that being said, almost all ranged options in Elden Ring so far are still pretty lackluster as opposed to spells or their melee weapons. So hopefully, we'll see some more powerful ranged weapons in Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC.

Now, for the last weapon, we have Lion Greatbow. This can get a 20% boost to its damage when using and its unique skill is an improved variation of the skill 'Rain of Arrows', which is incredible against big targets when most of them arrows are going to hit. This can deal insane amounts of damage without the need to be anywhere near your target.

If you were to hold Lion Greatbows in both hands and then just two-hand one of them, you will get the 20% damage bonus from both, meaning that Radahn's Spear will then get a 40% damage increase. It might even be slightly more than that.

There you have it, all 10 secondary weapons that I think are worth bringing into the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. What do you think?

Is Season 4 Loot Reborn what Diablo 4 needed to be a great ARPG? Or is it perhaps another lackluster attempt by the developers to save a bad game? Here we’ll look at the problems that have plagued D4 since its release. Then we’ll discuss how the game is doing now with Loot Reborn season.

So let’s start with the past. Usually I would install the game at the start of a season, level up one or two characters to level 50, sometimes even 70, and then immediately get bored with the game. The seasonal content and patch changes were so lackluster and the core endgame loop was non-existent.

Diablo 4 Season 3 didn’t even get me that far. I uninstalled the game at level 20! This situation was caused by many of the problems I had with the game before Season 4.

The first problem I encountered was the overly complex stats design. Diablo 4’s stats pool is bloated with a lot of useless affixes. I’m reminded of “Damage on Tuesdays” meme, which results in most gear drops being garbage.

Then its skill system is also very bland and basic. Most skill modifications actually come from Aspects in Diablo 4, not the skill system itself. As a result, the skill tree feels very bland, with only two choices per skill at most, and those choices rarely matter to how you play your build.

Paragon Board is also just boring and simple stat boosts that don’t offer any interesting choices.

The power and build diversity in Diablo 4 actually comes from legendary powers, aka Aspects. But the problem with Aspects is their scarcity. A really good Aspect can only be imprinted on gear once. This has made me accustomed to hoarding powers instead of using them freely in the game. I often finished my seasonal play through and never actually used that cool power because I was still waiting for the right parts to imprint it.

Also, despite the fact that these Aspects are very important and build-determining, the developers somehow managed to make the loot boring most of the time. I rarely get excited when $1 drops. Because unique items tend to feel very bland, and Uber Uniques are so rare that you can play for hours without seeing one.

So in summary, the developers have retained the worst skill tree system in the genre, and in addition, boring loot and ability design prevents players from using said abilities. This is a recipe for disaster in ARPGs.

On top of that, Diablo 4’s gameplay is extremely boring. The game feels like the developers are constantly trying to prevent you from having fun in the game. You want to use some cool skills? Then let your mana-starve bottom out.

There’s also too much running around and too few monsters to fight, especially in the open world. Enemy density on the map is low. And then when you do find enemies, they either die quickly after a few hits, or if not, you’re left with deactivated skills or no mana left, using basic filler skills instead of having fun.

Many classes feel unsatisfying while leveling, as it takes a long time to start feeling the power fantasy coming and your character’s build becoming complete.

Its build variety and flexibility are also pretty bland for an ARPG. This is most noticeable with classes like Barbarian or Sorcerer. Most of their builds use the same support skills, like Shouts or Defensive abilities.

Finally, Diablo 4 has no endgame, aside from running Nightmare Dungeons repeatedly. That might be fine if the dungeons were actually fun, but their maps are often boring, require a lot of backtracking, and there’s a lot of downtime without fighting monsters. All of these issues have led to Diablo 4 being an extremely disappointing game since its release.

As hopes for a true Diablo game slowly faded, so did players’ excitement for each new season. After all, even diehard fans of the series have limited patience for their beloved game.

Now let’s turn our attention to the present. Season 4 is called Loot Reborn, and it’s a season filled with hope and anticipation, but also doubt and anxiety.

Fans of Diablo series have been wondering: will this game finally become a quality action-RPG worthy of Diablo name? Or will the developers continue to make lackluster attempts to fix symptoms rather than deal with underlying problems? So how good is this update?

Well, there are a lot of improvements to Loot Reborn. First, while not perfect, the stats system in the game is better than before. While some conditional stats are still there, overall, the game offers a more streamlined and straightforward pool of item stats than before. There’s less bloat, resulting in more items with actual value and the potential to upgrade your character.

In addition, the game’s stats customization and variety have been improved with the new mechanic, Tempering. Tempering adds extremely powerful stats to your gear, and the 100% damage boost to your character in particular is an absolutely game-changing buff.

The addition of Tempering makes loot more fun because it elevates the power fantasy and gives us the delightful fun we all crave.

But Tempering also brings a problem. Unique items are weak by comparison. This is because unique items can’t be tempered, which is frustrating, especially since Ancestral items only allow two Tempering stats on one item.

Another concern I have about Tempering is that while the system is fun, the stats from Tempering are ridiculous! This makes their importance disproportionate to anything else on the item. It reminds me of how powerful set items were in Diablo 3, where they increased the damage of certain abilities by 1000%, making sets a must-have for many builds.

Loot Reborn also improves the feel of the early leveling experience in Diablo 4. Thanks to the introduction of Iron Wolves, whose rewards are seasonal items in Loot Reborn, which give you nice Legendary and Unique items early on, making early leveling smoother and faster than before.

Leveling up your alts in particular is especially easy and fast, and this is because Tempering Manuals are available account-wide, which can give your alts a huge boost in stats. For example, you can put a few thousand Thorns on your set and make enemies one-shot kills.

There are now more ways to earn resources like mana, making leveling more fun than before. Unfortunately, early leveling isn’t smooth sailing for all classes. Some classes, like Necromancer, level up easily, while others still struggle to generate resources and end up relying on frequent casting of basic skills.

Overall, for leveling, I hope the developers can balance the flow of the game by balancing classes. As it stands, your leveling experience will be very different depending on the class and build you decide to use.

Now let’s talk about the flow of the game in Loot Reborn. It flows much better now, and the density of enemies has been greatly improved, both in the open world and in Nightmare Dungeons. On top of that, Helltides is now basically a continuous activity, and it also applies to World Tier 1 and 2. This makes the open world more interesting, diverse, and intense in both the endgame and leveling process.

Nightmare Dungeons seem to have a better design now, with less backtracking. Additionally, side events and Corrupted Shrine challenges are now worthwhile activities to do, offering a ton of Diablo 4 Gold and XP as rewards.

It’s worth noting that this season also saw a much-needed redesign of how Codex of Power works. Extracted legendary powers are finally no longer a onetime consumable item! Now, when you extract power from an item, it’s added to Codex of Power at the highest value you extracted, for you to use infinitely.

Honestly, this change might be my favorite part of the entire season. Unlimited use of extracted power promotes experimentation and actually using those powers! The game doesn’t make you question using those powers; it tells you that you can use it as you please.

Finally, the endgame in Season 4 feels better for one simple reason: it now exists as Pit.

Pit is similar to Greater Rifts in Diablo 3, with short instanced dungeons with theoretically infinite scaling. The goal of Pit is one thing: kill enemies.

But is Pit enough to make Diablo 4’s endgame interesting for years to come? I don’t think so. Adding features similar to what the series already had a few years ago doesn’t seem like an achievement worth celebrating. And Pit system is nowhere near as deep as the endgame in Path of Exile, or even as robust as the one in Last Epoch.

But the addition of Pits is certainly a step in the right direction. It adds something worth pursuing, especially for those who like to push their builds to the limit.

Pit also adds an element of variety to the endgame gameplay loop. As it stands, we essentially have three major activities in the endgame: Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, and now Pit. So far, these are a good number of activities, but who knows how we’ll feel in a few weeks when we’re doing the same three repeatedly?

So is Diablo 4 now an ARPG worth playing in 2024? The answer is: kind of? Objectively speaking, it’s a better game now. But Diablo 4 isn’t the best in the industry in any way.

None of Loot Reborn’s changes sound particularly impressive if taken in isolation. Pit is not a revolutionary endgame system for ARPGs. Tempering and Masterworking don’t make loot in Diablo 4 the most fun in the genre. And the changes to how Legendary Powers work and the number of powers available don’t make build crafting the deepest on the market. They didn’t even address the flaws of the skill trees in Diablo 4.

But when you look at the big picture, when you put all of these additions and changes together, the improvement in the flow of the game and the increased fun it provides is pretty clear.

Loot Reborn is the biggest step the developers have taken since the release of Diablo 4, and it’s a step in the right direction. It moves their game toward better stats, loot, and tons of QOL changes. As a result, Season 4 is definitely the most fun I’ve had playing the game since the release of Diablo 4. What do you think? See you next time!