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For whatever reason, the developers seem to have a special preference for Druid class. It has been strong for several seasons, and it is still doing very well in The Pit in Season 7.
When players reach the endgame, powerful monsters make it necessary to have a truly powerful build to make players unstoppable in the endgame and have fun. There are many powerful Druid builds, but the most powerful is Cataclysm Druid Build.
Required Aspects: Stormshifter’s Aspect
Required Uniques: Tempest Roar, Mjölnic Ryng, Airidah’s Inexorable Will
Because Cataclysm is a powerful ultimate damage-dealing skill, the idea of this build is to minimize the cooldown of Cataclysm. Airidah’s Inexorable Will and Stormshifter’s Aspect can both reduce the cooldown of your ultimate skill, so these two items are essential.
If you want to farm gold happily in the endgame, then these items are almost essential.
The basic skill of Druid is Maul, which can enhance Druid’s Spirit. At the same time, you also need to point out Enhanced Maul. It can increase your maximum health percentage. This can increase the tolerance in battle. When you are besieged by a group of enemies, more health can keep you fighting longer.
Pulverize is a core skill. When other skills are on cooldown, using Pulverize allows Druid to continue to deal area damage to the enemy. Maul and Pulverize can work together to not only continue to cause damage to the enemy but also protect Druid to a certain extent.
Debilitating Roa can apply debuffs to surrounding enemies. This skill can not only reduce the damage you receive but also provide a certain degree of assistance in the team.
Earthen Bulwark can provide a barrier for Druid when activated. This barrier can make some damage in a short period. How much can be absorbed depends on Druid’s maximum health? The higher the health, the more it absorbs. At the same time, enhancing this skill can also make Druid unstoppable, which is conducive to Druid getting rid of control and moving to a suitable output position.
Hurricane can continuously deal damage to the surrounding area. You can enhance Hurricane with Enhanced Hurricane and Savage Hurricane. Endless Tempest is a must-have skill because it can extend the duration of Hurricane and Cataclysm.
Occult Gems are new gems in Season 7. Each gem can give the character armor and additional special powers.
Witch Power is the theme of Season 7
Unique Power: Vengeful Spirit
Normal Powers:
Purging Touch and Voice of the Stars can work together to allow your Cataclysm to do more damage.
Mercenaries can provide players with an extra boost, don’t ignore their help in the game. Players can hire two types of mercenaries with Gold.
Main Mercenary:
Varyana, Berserker
Skills: Cleave, Recklessness, Whirlwind, No Escape
Reinforcement:
Raheir, Shieldbearer
Both of these mercenaries can be of great help to Druid when facing a group of enemies
Cataclysm Druid is very powerful. When Druid releases Cataclysm, all enemies will be crushed by the powerful damage. Cataclysm Druid also performs well when facing bosses. But you can’t think that Cataclysm Druid is invincible. You still need to pay attention to the order of skill release. When your health reaches a dangerous value, release defensive skills to recover in time.
In general, the feature of Cataclysm Druid Build is simplicity. When the player completes this build, there is almost no difficulty in operation. Just wait for the cooldown of Cataclysm to end, and then release it. Cataclysm Druid allows players to enjoy invincible fun in The Pit, seasonal quests, and nightmare dungeons.
S-Game recently released a demo video about the boss battle, which aroused the strong interest of all players. Below I will share some information about Phantom Blade Zero with you based on this video.
The conventional offensive means of the game are the light attack and heavy attack of the main weapon. Taking PlayStation controller as an example, the corresponding buttons for light and heavy attacks are the square button and the triangle button. Players can use the combination of light and heavy attacks to perform combos, cause damage, and reduce the enemy’s health.
There are two main defensive means in the game:
L1 defense is divided into continuous defense and perfect defense. Press and hold the L1 button. The character will take a defensive posture and defend against the enemy’s attack at the cost of consuming Sha-Chi. If the protagonist’s Sha-Chi is exhausted, there will be a big stiffness, and he will be unable to move for a short time, allowing the enemy to attack.
In contrast, pressing L1 at the moment before the enemy attacks can achieve perfect defense, which will not only not consume your own Sha-Chi, but will reduce the enemy’s Sha-Chi. If the timing is not accurate and perfect defense is not achieved, a certain amount of Sha-Chi will be consumed. Perfection can be judged by the orange sparks of the weapon collision during defense. If the enemy’s Sha-Chi is exhausted, of course, it will enter a big stiffness, and this is the best time for the protagonist to attack.
The slide dodge of the R1 button is a relatively safe defense method in the game. It does not consume any resources and can handle almost all attacks of the enemy in the game.
Among the many enemy attack methods, there are two special attacks that require extra care, namely red light attack and blue light attack.
It is not difficult to see that the core combat system of the game is centered around Sha-Chi.
Different from the defensive system in Sekiro, Sha-Chi is both a defensive resource and an offensive resource. The player’s Sha-Chi can be used for defense or to launch a heavy attack with the triangle button to perform a combo. The enemy can also defend your combo, but it will reduce the enemy’s Sha-Chi.
In summary, the most basic combat strategy of the game is to use L1 to defend perfectly and use the triangle button to perform a heavy attack at the right time, while guarding against the enemy’s undefended red light attack and using R1 to resolve it. For players with a basic understanding of action games, the basic combat mode can be mastered in about ten minutes.
This main weapon is actually the two weapons held by the protagonist in both hands. The short knife in the left hand is Crimson Viper, which is mainly flexible and maneuverable, mainly used in light attacks; the long sword in the right hand is White Serpent, which has large and long attack movements and is mainly used in heavy attacks.
The biggest feature of White Serpent & Crimson Viper is flexibility and maneuverability, and it can execute enemies from a distance.
In the first stage of the boss battle, the player needs to fight seven enemies at the same time. Obviously, the chief is our main target.
If you only attack the chief, you will find that when his health drops to a certain value, a companion will use silk thread to replenish his health. At this moment, you realize that you also need to reduce the number of enemies on the battlefield as soon as possible, and don’t give the chief a chance to recover.
The snake-shaped long sword White Serpent is swung wide, and the action often rotates in a circle, which is very suitable for dealing with multiple enemies. More importantly, the short knife Crimson Viper can trigger the execution action at a distance without getting close to the body, which is very useful for quickly clearing the field.
This weapon’s combo often has a small stiffness when closing the move, and it can stop at any time. When attacking, you can immediately press the perfect defense when you close your hand, and the attack and defense switch is extremely fast.
The feel of Soft Snake Sword is completely different from that of White Serpent & Crimson Viper. When you first use it, it is just like it looks, soft and weak, with low damage and poor ability to reduce Sha-Chi.
The hidden mechanism of Soft Snake Sword is: after holding down L1 to defend, press the triangle button to initiate a new parry action. If you have resources (the points below the weapon icon), consuming one grid of energy to parry the enemy’s blue light attack perfectly can almost instantly clear the enemy’s Sha-Chi value and derive a new combo move.
This demonstration is one-to-many. In action games, one-to-many is not a well-designed battle scene, or it is not compatible. Friends who often play action games must have a deep understanding: the one-to-many in Ninja Gaiden is very fun, but the one-to-one boss battle is not so refreshing; the one-to-one duel in Sekiro is very exciting, but it is easy to be killed by attacks from all sides when it is one-to-many. One-to-one and one-to-many are not easy to balance.
Just like in action movies, if the villains rush forward, two fists cannot beat four hands. Even if the protagonist has a lot of skills, he will probably lose. If the villains stand aside and watch, it is too fake, and anyone can see that it is acting.
The soldiers can neither rush in all at once and beat the protagonist so that he can’t fight back, nor can they just stand by and watch indifferently. These seven brothers have provided a new solution.
When there are many people on the scene, the seven will frequently set up formations and attack together. This not only resets the battlefield situation and prevents the player from being surrounded for a long time, but also gives the player a good time to cause damage, because this move is easy to resolve and can immediately make a set of heavy damage.
When there are not many people on the scene, his companions will take the initiative to adjust their position, surround the protagonist, and attack in turn. This method seems to surround the player, but because the attack and defense speed of the game is very fast, the enemy’s movement time is completely enough for the player to deal with the enemy in front of him, which actually gives the player time to defeat them one by one.
At the end of the demonstration video, the protagonist uses a giant axe to end the chief. It should be noted here that when this giant axe is activated, the protagonist is not invincible and will stop moving when hurt. The video demonstrator is obviously very familiar with this move, so he confidently uses this move to end the battle.
Phantom Blade Zero will announce its release date this year, and you must be impatient! Let us wait for new news about this game together.
When delving into mutations and seeking thrilling PVE experiences in the New World, my preferred choice is the Rapier Bleed build.
Enhancing its potential further elevates the overall performance, enabling players to push the boundaries and extract maximum efficiency. This optimization particularly caters to those striving for high-scoring runs. Without delay, let's delve into the intricacies of this formidable build.
Rapier: The most important part of this build is the Rapier. Without a doubt, the best Rapier for this is the finisher as it provides a huge amount of damage to bleeding targets for the last perk on it.
Keenly Empowered is the best option as it greatly increases bleed damage and is incomparable to any other perk, the skill tree for Swordsman should be like this, the main ability is still the same.
Ice Gauntlet: To optimize our build, allocate points across the skill tree to bolster both our primary Rapier damage and secondary Ice Gauntlet prowess. When wielding the Ice Gauntlet alongside the Rapier, passive skills synergize to augment our overall damage output.
There exist 2 distinct builds tailored for different purposes. The first emphasizes Pylon Burst in conjunction with Ice Storm, amplifying AOE damage against clustered enemies. The second prioritizes maximizing Gauntlet damage potential, particularly beneficial in high mob density environments such as dungeons. This build necessitates investment in Ice Spikes, Ice Storm, and Pylon Burst.
For the latter build, selecting Keenly Empowered allows for seamless weapon swapping without losing the effect, facilitating optimal damage output with Ice Spikes. Vicious Ice Spike and Keenly Empowered emerge as the optimal choices. As for crowd control, Void Gauntlet users, typically healers, can provide crowd control support, while spear or great axe users employing Vines can also assist.
Musket: The Musket serves as another valuable weapon choice, proving its usefulness in various dungeon scenarios. Its long-range capabilities enable players to pull enemies from a distance, although it's important to note that its scaling parallels that of the Rapier, relying on both Intelligence and Dexterity for damage output.
Given our heavy investment in New World Coins in Intelligence and Dexterity, our Musket can deliver substantial damage. As for its skill tree, a quick reference to the one displayed on your screen suffices. To maximize damage, initiate with a sticky bomb shot followed by a Powder Burn shot, then swiftly dodge to trigger a passive skill for instant reload.
Furthermore, the Musket can serve as a primary damage dealer in certain situations, providing both survivability and added safety. For instance, it proves effective against the final bosses in dungeons like Depths or Dynasty. Since this is an ability, that’s why I recommend going with the Vicious.
Since we took a fast look over the weapons, let’s go over the armor perks and check what is necessary to get the best gear possible.
The Nimble Coat is our best pick from the armor artifacts because of the extra cooldown. There is currently no better option for the Rapier Bleed build. For the last perk on it, I always go with Flurry, as it will give me the necessary life and invulnerability in tough situations. The other perks which we want to have are the 4 refreshing, so we can guarantee the maximum cooldown reduction.
We also want to have as many as possible Enchanted Ward and heal perk, and everything else can be justly considered as a bonus. This is not always possible and not everyone has that much of resources to invest into a PvE build.
For jewelries, after extended testing, I found out that the flurry increases the duration of all previous bleeds and not only on itself. Therefore, you can actually hit the maximum of 20 seconds just by finishing your 3 combo bleed with a Flurry. With that in mind, we can already look to replace the Blood Letting from the ring with something more useful.
The best ring I use in this build is the Soulpollen, which would be a party for the extra stamina Thrust damage so we can gain that extra 7% of Empower and Leeching, so we can make sure that we maintain the full HP. So our diamond on the weapon will be in use.
For amulet, I choose the Waterlogged Amulet. I still consider health and Elemental protection, depending on the type of the mutation, to be the most important 2 perks. For the third one, you can choose from Refreshing, Empower or even Divine, but I personally like to go with refreshing as it will give me another open slot for defensive perk on the armor.
For earring, you can easily go with Endless Thirst and choose for last perk either Refreshing Toast or Refreshing. However, if you are missing this artifact. You can just aim for a normal earring that contains Refreshing, Toast Refreshing, and Empowering Toast Hearthrune.
Going forward into the build, we cannot pass another damage source, and this is our Heartrune. Even after many nerves, I still believe that detonate is one of the best choices for Rapier Bleed players because while charging and using the Heartrune, you can still do damage with your Rapier.
This is not the case with some other runes such as Vines, Fire Storm, Cannon and others, and therefore I always go with the brutal Heartrune of detonate. Keep in mind that with this variation of the rune, you will deal extra percentages of damage, but during the time of charging, you will have your armor values reduced by 50% because of the attributes.
I'd like to delve into another crucial aspect of the build: the attributes we'll be focusing on. My preference is to allocate 25 points to Focus for the additional cooldown reduction, 350 points into Intelligence to benefit from the various passives provided by Intelligence, and the remaining points into Dexterity. This distribution ensures that our secondary weapon also maximizes its damage potential, yielding even better results.
It's worth noting that investing only 5 points into the Constitution carries significant risk. For newcomers to the build or the game, I recommend starting with a higher value, such as 50 or 100. With time and experience, you can gradually reduce the Constitution level to achieve the desired balance.
I believe many players know that Genshin Impact 4.5 will be released on March 13th. As always, the new patch brings a bunch of new content and new characters. If you are confused about which character to choose in 4.5, then don’t miss this guide.
In this guide, we will explain the pros and cons of each character in Genshin Impact 4.5 and rate their pull value. If you are interested in a character, you can buy the corresponding Genshin Impact Account. Without further ado, let’s get started!
Let’s start with Kazuha, which is also the most worth pulling character in Genshin Impact 4.5.
He can join any team except Mono Geo & Anemo teams and some restricted teams like Nilou Bloom or Chevreuse Overload teams.
Besides his Viridescent Venerer Set, he also gives you an elemental damage boost. You can swirl multiple elements and gain multiple damage bonuses.
He also provides good crowd control. Depending on the situation, he may have better crowd control than Venti. The fact that he doesn’t lift enemies above the ground allows him to synergize with more characters.
What’s more, his build is also F2P friendly, as his second-best 4-star weapon is the craftable Iron Sting. If the team has energy issues, he can use Favonius weapon. Freedom-Sworn or Xiphos’ Moonlight are the best choices, as he uses these free weapons to great effect.
Overall, this is an amazing character, 10/10 pull value.
Next we have Neuvillette. After Kazuha, the best pull was Neuvillette. The reason Kazuha is above Neuvillette is that Kazuha is a support, making him more flexible.
Neuvillette is one of the best DPS in the game. He can self-sustain because he has a lot of HP and can do huge sustained damage with charged attacks, and he also has a lot of AOE. His damage without buffs is pretty good, so he can clear Abyss on his own.
For weapons, the craftable Prototype Amber is very useful for him. I’d give him a 10 as well, but I’d lower it to a 9.5 because he’s still a bit inferior to Kazuha.
Arataki Itto is a Geo DPS that deals good enough damage to allow you to clear Abyss easily.
However, his team lineup is very limited as his best team is Mono Geo and he needs Gorou to achieve better results. And he relies on a burst, but that’s not a big deal since he’s used in a Geo team and you can give Favonius to his teammates. So 120-130% ER is enough for him.
His build is also F2P friendly, as Whiteblind is a very powerful weapon choice for him. But compared to other top DPS like Neuvillette, he feels a little underwhelming. I give him a pull rating of 7.5 out of 10. Mind you, his team could use some improvement with Chiori.
Chiori is a Geo Sub-DPS. She is an upgraded version of Albedo, as she can deal with more damage. And unlike Albedo’s flower, her doll can’t be destroyed, and it won’t interrupt you by lifting you into the air between battles.
At C0, Geo teammates limit her team, and she can summon Geo constructs like Geo Traveler, Ningguang, Zhongli, Itto to unleash her maximum potential.
However, on a team like Navia-Furina that doesn’t have Geo constructs, Chiori is not an upgrade from the old Navia-Furina team, although it does work well here. With the limitations of Geo construct removed, her C1 becomes more flexible.
Overall, Chiori is an upgrade for Geo teams, especially teams with Geo constructs. But it’s too early to judge her value because she hasn’t been released yet. If you already have Albedo, then I think you should skip Chiori unless you really like her.
Additionally, as part of Genshin Impact 4.5 update, a new Event Wish called Chronicled Wish will debut.
Chronicled Wish is a new Event Wish that lets you wish for a specific replay weapon or character. What makes it different from other Event Wishes is that the pool includes 5-star weapons and characters, as well as many wish-exclusive items.
This banner can only be pulled if you have enough ability to reach Double Banner Pity.
First, we have Albedo. Albedo is a Sub-DPS, but as I mentioned before, Chiori is an upgrade from Albedo. So unless you like his character, there’s no reason to root for him over Chiori.
Eula is a Physical DPS. She can deal a lot of PP damage with bursts, and decent damage with basic attacks and elemental skills.
However, Physical DPS’s status is not good in the current meta, and his play style is too slow and boring. So unless you’re an Eula advocate, don’t go for her.
Next, we have Klee, who poses the biggest threat. She’s very cute, but as a DPS, she’s pretty lagging behind. She deals good damage, but her play style is very clunky and slow. We have better Pyro DPS characters to choose from, such as the free Hu Tao, Yoimiya, or Xiangling. So if you want cute characters, then you can choose Klee.
Remember, you can clear Abyss with any character as long as you build it correctly. So even with a character like Klee or Eula, you can clear your Abyss. However, they require more investment than a top player like Neuvillette to perform well.
So overall, Kazuha and Neuvillette are the best pulling options. Among them, Kazuha is relatively better because he is a support character. Chiori is a Sub-DPS who is especially good on teams with Geo builds. So if you’re a Geo main, she can give your team a pretty enormous boost. As for the other characters, you can pull them if you really like them.
Are you interested in the concept of having multiple builds but find the process of swapping out your gear and skills too cumbersome? In this guide, I'll demonstrate how to utilize the Alpha Gear addon to seamlessly switch gear, skills, and appearance with just the push of a button. This addon provides greater control over your builds and enhances optimization in the Elder Scrolls Online.
With Alpha Gear, you can effortlessly adjust your gear and skills between encounters, enhancing your performance in various roles such as DPS, healing, tanking, and thieving. Let's grab enough ESO Gold and explore Alpha Gear and its capabilities for managing multiple builds in the Elder Scrolls Online.
As a default feature, Alpha Gear enables users to store gear and skills in various configurations.
Subsequently, users can allocate a gear configuration and two skill configurations to a specific build. Additionally, outfit assignment is possible for each build. Hotkeys can then be designated for each configuration, facilitating the instantaneous application of the associated gear, skills, and outfit upon activation.
Some individuals may inquire about the similarity between Alpha Gear and ESO's Armory system. While there are parallels, the vanilla Armory system permits the preservation and interchange of builds, albeit with some limitations. Access to the Armory station or an Armory assistant is required, and navigating through the dialogue swiftly, especially in group dungeons, can pose challenges.
Notably, Alpha Gear surpasses these restrictions by offering unrestricted build creation, allowing users to generate numerous configurations according to their preferences.
Let's begin by delving into the settings.
Firstly, in the profile and builds section, I opt for a streamlined interface by disabling "Show Build Buttons" and "Show Equipped Build". While we'll configure hotkeys for our builds, if you prefer manual swapping via clicking, ensure "Show Build Buttons" remains enabled. As for the remaining settings, I leave them unchanged.
Moving on to the gear section, I deactivate all three options. I find additional interface icons unnecessary, and since I utilize the Auto Recharge (and repair) addon to mend my gear with repair kits, I prefer not to incur expenses on automatic repairs at stores.
Concerning weapons, I also disable both options. The weapon charge icon isn't essential for me, and my weapons already undergo automatic recharging. However, if you're not utilizing the Auto Recharge (and repair) addon, Alpha Gear can manage this task for you.
Regarding the equipment panel, I maintain the default user interface settings. Personally, I prefer to disable "Show UI Button" as I assign a hotkey for opening the window. Nonetheless, if you prefer using buttons for navigation rather than hotkeys, it's advisable to retain this option enabled. Additionally, the UI button is relatively small and blends well with the default interface, making it inconspicuous in my view.
So, those are the settings, but we need to configure keybindings.
I prefer to set up keybindings, or at least that's what I'd recommend. By default, Alpha Gear doesn't have any keybindings assigned, but I suggest adding some.
Personally, I utilize the "T" key to toggle the interface, and then I assign the numpad keys for each of my builds. If you prefer not to set up keybindings for each build, you can keep the UI button or build buttons enabled and simply click to swap.
Additionally, if you intend to use it, make sure to enable the Style Manager in Alpha Gear 2 Integrations.
Now that Alpha Gear is installed and we've configured the basic settings to our liking, let's begin creating some builds.
For this character, I aim to develop three straightforward builds. One for swift traversal around town and the Overworld, one focused on maximizing AOE DPS for handling trash pulls and dungeons, and another tailored for optimal DPS during boss encounters. In both DPS builds, I intend to utilize five pieces of the Order's Wrath set. However, in the around-town build, I'll make space for the Ring of the Wild Hunt and adjust the sets accordingly. Though this entails carrying extra gear, the flexibility to switch builds seamlessly justifies the minor inconvenience.
To initiate a new build, it's necessary to equip all desired gear and skills. For instance, I'll equip the Order's Wrath set, five pieces of Swamp Raiders, and the two-piece Veiled monster set for the AOE-focused build. Using Alpha Gear, I'll right-click on the Gear bar to save the current gear set and repeat the process for the skill bars.
Alpha Gear facilitates the independent saving of gear sets and skill bars, allowing for effortless customization when creating new builds. After saving a gear set and skill bars, proceed to edit a build slot by selecting the gear set and assigning a name. Additionally, options for outfit or Alpha style customization are available, offering versatility in appearance customization.
Following this, let's adjust gear and skills for the second build. I'll maintain the Order's Wrath set and incorporate Sheer Venom as the second five-piece set, along with Arena weapons in lieu of another monster set. Once adjustments are made, save the updated gear set and skill sets, and create a new build accordingly. With both DPS builds established, switching between them during dungeon runs becomes effortless, optimizing performance for different encounters.
Moving on, let's establish the third build, tailored for enhanced movement speed during urban traversal. This build typically complements Legerdemain focus sets, ideal for thieving activities within towns. Incorporating Night's Silence and Night's Tear sets, along with the Ring of the Wild Hunt, enhances speed while Armor of the Trainee provides additional health and armor. Skills can be tailored for combat or enhanced movement as desired.
Similar to previous steps, save the gear set and skill sets and allocate them to the third build slot. Now, an optimized build is available for daily tasks, pickpocketing endeavors, or swift point-to-point travel.
Initially, Alpha Gear does not include functionality for saving Champion Point loadouts. However, an extension called Champion Point Slots addresses this limitation.
While I've found the Champion Point Slots extension somewhat challenging to navigate, I rarely find the need to switch combat Champion Skills on the fly. Nevertheless, I highly recommend utilizing the Jack of all Trades addon developed by Cyber on ESO.
Jack of all Trades simplifies the process by automatically adjusting your green craft Champion Skills based on your current activity. This eliminates the need to create additional builds or manually swap craft skills.
I mention this addon because it complements Alpha Gear effectively. Particularly, it ensures your character remains optimized outside of combat, especially as you attain higher champion levels and unlock multiple slottable Champion Skills from the craft constellation. Unlike combat skills, I prefer having craft Champion Skills adjusted according to my activities, whether it involves thieving, crafting, gathering, or fishing, given their significant impact.
Now that you're familiar with Alpha Gear, your possibilities are virtually limitless.
I've personally saved 8 builds on my Warden. These include my Falinest Scout solo build, which adeptly combines speed and damage to swiftly defeat overworld mobs and facilitate travel.
There's also my Dark Ranger AOE poison build, optimized for clearing both trash mobs and dungeons.
Additionally, I have a Marksman build centered around the Relicin set, specifically tailored for maximizing single-target damage output.
Another build focuses on solo survivability, finely tuned for conquering Veteran Maelstrom Arenas.
My Battleground Warden PVP build is designed for intense player versus player combat.
Similar to the around-town build we previously discussed, there's also my Turbo Rogue build.
Additionally, there's my Forest Guardian tank build, equipped with 64 points in stamina and suitable tank gear and skills, making even this Bosmer proficient in tanking various content. For quick random normal dungeon runs, I utilize this build with great efficiency.
Lastly, there's my stamina healer build, which boldly combines stamina-based healing with group buffs, enabling effective healing in challenging situations.
Alpha Gear is particularly useful for experimenting with new builds since it allows you to save your work in progress, ensuring you don't lose track of the skills or gear you were using. While this approach may not suit everyone, especially newer players who are still refining their first build, it's only a matter of time before you find yourself considering whether one set might outperform another, or perhaps you're drawn to trying out a more thematic build or simply craving speed at times.
It's worth noting that there are alternative addons offering similar functionality. Although I recently made the switch from Dressing Room to Alpha Gear, Wizard's Wardrobe is another viable option. All three operate in a comparable manner, allowing for exploration of various options. My preference for Alpha Gear over Dressing Room stems from the latter's apparent lack of updates. While Dressing Room functions adequately in its current state, there's uncertainty about its future compatibility, unlike Alpha Gear, which continues to receive regular updates and maintenance, making it a safer recommendation.
Hello, gamers! Welcome to this new build guide for Last Epoch! We’ll be diving into an amazing build centered around a unique helmet known as Wraithlord’s Harbour. I’m sure the in-game capabilities will be outstanding, and its playstyle will be equally engaging.
However, there are a couple of different ways to playing this build. This playstyle is where you have 2 minions and have them fire necrotic beams in succession. You may encounter some difficulties against large groups of enemies because of the relationship between the casting attack speed and the number of projectiles he can actually fire or the number of targets he can hit per cast, making it easy to get surrounded by enemies or overwhelmed.
This playstyle also offers some advantages compared to other styles. You can achieve a better layer of defense by using a one-handed weapon and a shield to compensate for the lack of a multitude of minions to block the enemy's aggro.
The other 2 playstyles involve using Aberrant Call. Aberrant Call is a rather impressive item. It allows you to have a maximum of 12 wraiths, potentially granting you 20 in total. While it provides some benefits, your minions will now lose 6% of their current life per second and gain minion melee damage following a recent nerf. The 2 playstyles involve summoning Flame Wraiths with this item.
The third playstyle is which I'm presenting today - Melee Necrotic. This build primarily focuses on minions. If your Wraithlord happens to perish, you can simply summon a new one, attach a new Dread Shade, and continue uninterrupted. The process is largely automated and provides a comfortable gameplay experience.
Before diving into the in-game demonstration of this build, I'd like to address a few important points. Firstly, the Wraithlord’s Harbour helmet is an essential unique item that enables this build. Acquiring it is crucial. You can obtain it by farming in the Black Sun area, finding Ascendance runes, or through prophecies if you're playing Circle of Fortune. Alternatively, if you're adept at trading, you can just use your Last Epoch Gold to get it.
Given its significance, I recommend consulting a leveling guide before reaching the point where you can utilize it effectively. Additionally, I strongly advise to opt for a low-life approach with this build. However, this comes with its challenges. You'll need an Exsanguinous, preferably a good one. Obtaining a Frostbite Shackles would be advantageous, but it entails acquiring extra cold resistance to maintain the ward effectively.Having Last Steps of the Living or the Experimental gloves will enhance your survivability by converting health into the ward.
Nonetheless, acquiring Last Steps of the Living can be challenging and may require multiple attempts. Last of the Living has a 50% drop chance from Formosus, which is very easy to farm. And in the same area, you drop the Frostbite Shackles. In the same area, you farm the Exsanguinous.
While the gear isn't optimal and lacks complete resistance coverage, we need to focus on acquiring one modifier with the minion health region and prioritize minion health, minion damage or intelligence on other pieces, such as rings. However, it's crucial to consider health rolls on rings without compromising resistances, alongside incorporating crit avoidance modifiers.
Transplant: Adopt a generic approach with Reign of Blood, Doom Bringer, and Acolyte's Fervor. Prioritize haste and frenzy for improved clear speed, alongside cooldown reduction and Bone Armor for added protection.
Summon Wraith: Prioritize Covenant of Souls for +2 extra maximum wraiths, achieved by speccing into necrotic damage with Reapers. Ensure some leech for faster casting, with 1 point in Wraith Bringer being sufficient, followed by Fallen Reclamation investing in movement speed for adequate mobility. Focus on critical nodes to maximize crit chance for the wraiths, then allocate additional points into melee attack speed.
Redirect any excess points into the Grave Reality due to the Relic possessed, offering sustainable benefits every 2 seconds, albeit with a cooldown. While not tanky, this provides reasonable sustain, particularly beneficial for higher corruption levels despite subpar gear.
Bone Curse: This skill should focus on Necrotic Damage, including Armor Shred, additional damage, and a Kill Threshold.
Dread Shade: It serves as a straightforward buff for missing HP and AOE effects, with the lone watcher node being essential.
Harvest: It requires careful handling, avoiding direct confrontation with enemies. Emphasize investing 2 points in Finality and use Leigin of the Lich once you've crit with Harvest. Leverage shared minion crits and self-crit modifiers to empower minions with 250% crit chance, while directing them with the Undead Harvest to prioritize targets and inflict additional damage. This synergizes with gaining ward upon hitting enemies and enhanced crit chance for Harvest.
By carefully optimizing skill allocation and leveraging synergies, the build can effectively navigate challenging encounters and excel in combat scenarios.
When it comes to idols, it's essential to prioritize those that grant 'mark for death on hits', considering the significant number of minions involved in combat. For stat distribution, prioritize HP, with the rest being allocated to HP and Ward Retention, particularly on this larger idols.
Having a secondary idol with 'mark for hit' is beneficial, but one should suffice. For the Stout Idols should prioritize double HP, albeit with superior stats.
Blessings are tailored to enhance Void Resistance, with the first one focusing on critical strike avoidance Reign of Dragons, alongside lightning and cold resistance, and increasing minion damage.
Greetings and welcome to our introductory guide on Skull and Bones. Whether you are a newcomer or embarking on your journey in Skull and Bones, you are in the appropriate location.
Within this guide, we will comprehensively explore all the fundamental elements necessary to commence your adventure, ranging from essential ship components to valuable trading strategies.
Before delving further, it's worth noting that some readers may not be familiar with Skull and Bones and may be curious about its premise.
Skull and Bones is an action-adventure pirate game developed by Ubisoft Singapore. In it, players navigate the treacherous waters of piracy, forging their own path to ascend from obscurity to the pinnacle of pirate dominance.
Initially, upon embarking on your pirate journey and assuming command of your humble vessel, the Dauntless, following the game's introductory sequence, you'll gain the freedom to navigate around The Exeter Shipwreck.
This colossal wreck, marooned upon the rocky shores, presents a trove of salvageable materials including broken planks, salvaged metal, and weathered nails. While not particularly remarkable, these resources hold practical value. Upon reaching Sainte Anne, it's advisable to store them in your Warehouse for future utilization.
Now, let's delve into one of the game's focal points: ships.
At the outset of your pirate escapade, you'll find yourself aboard the Dauntless, an exceedingly modest vessel with limited offensive capabilities and customization options. Equipped solely with spears, this vessel lacks versatility. However, it boasts an endless supply of spears—a small consolation.
As you progress through the game's narrative, you'll embark on the journey of crafting a superior vessel. This entails exploring various ship options, such as cannons and furnishings. Take your time familiarizing yourself with shipbuilding, ensuring all available cannons are equipped to enhance your maritime combat prowess. Additionally, don't overlook the significance of furnishing your ship, as it can bolster specific statistics.
Furthermore, prioritize equipping ship armor, which provides a foundational armor statistic along with damage mitigation against specific threats like fire damage.
In addition to combat considerations, managing your ship's cargo is crucial. You can allocate cargo storage between your vessel and the Warehouse, with each ship offering a finite storage capacity. To avoid inventory congestion, carry only essential supplies such as food, repair kits, and cannonballs during voyages.
Reserve the Warehouse for bulkier crafting materials like planks and metal. It's advisable to conduct this inventory management routine upon docking at a den or outpost to prevent missed opportunities due to storage limitations while at sea.
When it comes to acquiring loot, it's important to remember: avoid sinking enemy ships.
I understand the temptation to unleash all your firepower and revel in the spectacle of ships ablaze, but in Skull and Bones, there's a more lucrative approach.
As an alternative, consider boarding enemy vessels once their health reaches a certain threshold. Boarding offers a guaranteed method to secure additional loot without risking any loss to the depths of the sea.
Boarding ships may present some challenges, particularly if your vessel is sailing at high speeds, causing you to bypass your targets. However, perseverance pays off. When you're not engaged in plundering and destroying adversaries, I recommend prioritizing the discovery of fast travel points.
Skull and Bones boasts an expansive map, and unfavorable winds can significantly prolong voyages across its expanse. Unlocking fast travel points streamlines your travels, albeit at the cost of a nominal fee in silver with each use.
In addition to the ship-related aspects we've discussed, it's important to monitor your vessel's stamina bar. Yes, your ship possesses a stamina bar, which is where food becomes crucial.
As you navigate the seas, your stamina depletes gradually. The swifter your journey, the quicker your stamina diminishes. To address this, consuming collected food items becomes necessary. However, there are strategies to optimize food utilization. Take the coconut, for instance. Even in its raw state, it restores a modest 10% of your stamina over 30 minutes.
Yet, grilling the coconut enhances its effectiveness. After grilling, you'll obtain a surprising outcome: a Grilled Coconut, providing a 30% stamina regeneration rate.
As a final food-related tip, I strongly recommend assigning any food items to your quick slot. This facilitates stamina replenishment with a simple click, ideal for moments when you're occupied with sailing or battling at sea.
Now, let's delve into the practice of scouting other vessels. While navigating, you'll notice the availability of a spyglass. This tool allows for closer observation of neighboring ships, enabling a rudimentary assessment of their capabilities and potential threats.
Analyzing factors such as the vessel's size, firepower, and perceived threat level can prove invaluable, preventing hasty engagements that may lead to unfavorable outcomes. Furthermore, this scouting method aids in identifying valuable cargo aboard rival ships, allowing for strategic decision-making regarding which vessels to engage or avoid.
Let's delve deeper into the significance of resources. Understanding their role is paramount as they are integral to crafting, quest fulfillment, and silver acquisition.
Resources serve as the foundation for crafting armor, weapons, and tools. Accumulating these Skull and Bones Items enables the creation of stronger equipment, enhancing your effectiveness at sea.
Moreover, resources are essential for completing quests, which often involve gathering specific materials and delivering them to NPCs. By fulfilling these objectives, you not only earn rewards but also increase your Infamy, bolstering your reputation in the pirate world.
As an additional perk, upon reaching Sainte Anne, proceed directly to the mailbox where you'll find a message from an anonymous Son of Liberty.
Along with a few other items, you'll receive 5 repair kits, which can prove instrumental in ensuring your ship's survival during intense battles. Remember to periodically check the mailbox as you level up for further rewards.
Now, let's explore how to maximize your gaming experience.
Skull and Bones places a strong emphasis on multiplayer gameplay. Based on personal experience, engaging with friends or fellow players in the world significantly enhances the enjoyment of the game.
Beyond the added fun, teaming up can mitigate the challenges of high-level contracts and allows for the sharing of loot among all party members.
When it comes to contracts, they serve as an excellent method for accruing experience, or as termed in Skull and Bones, Infamy. Accumulating Infamy is crucial as it unlocks various items, including weapons, ships, and other valuable resources.
Lastly, prioritize completing the main questline. While it may be tempting to wander and explore the vast seas initially, advancing through the John Scurlock story offers the swiftest route to boosting your Infamy rank and obtaining new ship designs.
In this guide, I want to talk about everything I do to maximize leveling speed, and what you can apply with the new 100% XP bonus. Including how to maximize the world buff Sleeping Bag, how to maximize your enchantments, your gear, and how to take advantage of large open world quest changes.
If you follow this guide, you will be able to easily level up from level 1 to level 40 in 2 hours. So we’ll start by discussing everything you need to do to increase your leveling speed.
Let’s get into an optimal buff strategy. In Season of Discovery Phase 2, buffs are a huge game-changer.
We have three main buffs: Spark of Inspiration, Boon of Blackfathom, and Darkmoon Faire.
Spark of Inspiration and Boon of Blackfathom will actually only drop during peak hours, so you have to make sure to plan accordingly. I think BFD Buff is the most valuable. So I usually put my Hunters in Thunder Bluff to get the buff more often. Darkmoon Faire 10% Buff is also reliable, but can only be obtained once every four hours.
Overall, my goal is to go from level 1 to level 20. Above level 20, I selectively decide when to buff based on the area. For example, I usually use buffs in places like Ashenvale. Also, Thousand Needles is one of my top choices, as I know I tend to be safer in Horde area.
Next, let’s get into optimal rune strategies. This is truly the most important part of the upgrade guide. You must have at least three major runes that you are really sure of to increase your level to 40.
For my Hunter, I chose Master Marksman, Flanking Strike and Beast Mastery. Once you identify the three main runes you want to carry with you, you need to plan when to get them on your route.
After all the runes are sorted, we have to discuss the best gear strategy. The first thing I did with my gear was head to the auction house and I got the full 12 slot bag to store all my quest items in Waylaid Supplies. I also bought the best gear I could find for different levels.
As a Hunter, I just go for maximum agility gear, and I also get new bows every few levels. Overall, I recommend checking Auction House every six to eight levels.
Then, for Enchant, you can get powerful enchants, like +5 Agility Gloves, all the way up to level 40. This feels great on the way to the level cap. Of course, don’t forget some less obvious enchants, such as Scopes on the bow to increase damage.
For consumables, my chief priority is just Elixir of Agility that is a must for my Hunter. But you can go out and get Defensive Potions, Elixir of Ogre’s Strength, and Engineering Dense Dynamite. Everything you get increases your kill time and leveling speed.
The most important consumable you can get is from Sleeping Bag quest line. Student Fodder you get will give you 20% of Rested XP bar, but they do have a 30 minute cooldown.
Most people would recommend saving them until level 38. But honestly, basically every hour between level 35 and 40, you get a huge mental boost. So I’ll pop one in and it really helps me get to the top level all the time.
Don’t forget the agility potions, they can be helpful if you don’t have Aspect of the Cheetah.
Finally, let’s talk about our leveling tips.
I recommend completing the missions with friends to keep things fun and fresh. And you’ll both get a Rested XP bar until level 22, and then split it up from there.
One of the best reasons I level with friends is that I probably won’t be very strong until I get at least three runes. Having a partner to level with me really speeds up leveling. Then, when I became an unstoppable killing machine, I could also get back to solo leveling.
Another early leveling tip I have is to use Rank Sentinel to make sure you don’t mess up skill ranks. I’ve had some wrong ranks of abilities for a long time, but if you have this add-on, you’ll never let that happen.
I definitely recommend completing Sleeping Bag quest line at level 14 when you head to the historic areas. Most servers have someone who can summon you to each Sleeping Bag location for about 15 WOW Classic SOD Gold, which will save you almost an hour of travel time.
Sleeping Bag itself should be used during rest periods. Once you’re exhausted, just jump in for 3 minutes. You can simply jump in for 1 minute to refresh it though, so never let the buff wear off.
Once you reach level 22 or so, you can use Rested XP bar. We have three different options when it comes to applying this XP buff.
Option one is the one I chose. It’s pre-questing. you’ll probably get ganked about 30 times. But starting on Tuesday, completing quests does provide more gold. Also, Waylaid Supplies dropped by mobs are very profitable for me, especially when I start killing mobs at level 34 to 40. I usually get 12 gold boxes, which also gives me 3,400 XP.
The second option is to lock yourself in a dungeon, starting with Shadowfang Keep around level 22, and then either Stockade or Razorfen Kraul, depending on Alliance or Horde.
You will also need to have your BFD removed every 3 days. You originally earn 23,000 XP per clear, but this will be doubled on Tuesday, essentially maxing out every time you raid. The most important thing is that you have a high chance of getting the relevant Pre-BiS Gear.
The third option is to do quests while mixing SM spam at levels 22 to 40. Surprisingly, the gap between open world leveling and questing isn’t as big as I thought. The real benefit of doing this is that you’re a level or two ahead on the quest route and you can get everything done faster. In most cases, you can earn more XP per hour.
So I’m just saying quests and dungeons are not far off in XP. For example, I’ve been hit by Horde a lot more than other areas, mainly Hillsbrad Foothills and Stranglethorn Vale. So next time my quest route sends me to these two areas, I’ll replace them with dungeons.
So now you should have a pretty good idea of how to deal with all the new mission changes coming, and how to maximize your leveling speed and profits.
I’m wondering which upgrade method you prefer after the big changes to Waylaid Supplies and the 100% XP bonus. Do you still prefer dungeon leveling in those mind-numbing dungeons for 20 hours straight, or maybe you’re starting to get a kick out of some open world leveling?
