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After entering the 21st century, the development of technology has been so rapid that it is beyond imagination, and the benefits brought by this development are reflected in all aspects, not only making your life more convenient but also making your entertainment more diverse. Take playing video games as an example, in fact, it might be hard for people 20 years ago to imagine that there are now six or seven choices of gaming devices alone!
Among all gaming devices, PCs and various controllers that need to be connected to the display are more troublesome and cannot be carried around for experience, while mobile phones, iPads and handheld game consoles are more convenient because of their smaller size - if you are a game fan, you must know that Nintendo Switch is the most popular handheld game console.
At present, some games on the market are designed specifically for Switch, while some games are first supplied to other devices and then logged in to Switch. This means that if you are a fan of both the latter game and Switch, you may always be looking forward to their early cooperation, and one representative of this type of game is Genshin Impact.
When Genshin Impact was first released in 2020, it could be experienced on mobile (Android & iOS) PC and PlayStation 4, and it was announced that it would land on Nintendo Switch in the future. However, it is now 2025, and although Genshin Impact has been launched on PS5 and Xbox Series consoles before, the Switch plan of Genshin Impact has not yet been realized. However, the recent release of Switch 2 information seems to allow you to see the dawn of this plan.
Like its predecessor, Switch 2 is a hybrid game console that can be used as a handheld game console or connected to a TV or monitor. It is similar in appearance to Switch 1, but the screen size is expected to increase by about 33%, and other hardware details will be fully upgraded.
There have been many rumors about the specific launch date of Switch 2, and it has not been determined, but at least you can be sure that it will be better than the first generation in all aspects. In addition, although Nintendo has not yet announced which RPGs will be first launched on Switch 2, and HoYoverse has not announced the next plan for Genshin Impact and Switch 2, if the two are still planning to cooperate, then Switch 2 is definitely better than 1.
The first generation Switch was released in 2017. Although it was evaluated as one of the most innovative game consoles ever at the time, it was eight years ago, after all. Nowadays, Switch 1 cannot compare with PlayStation 4&5 or Xbox series game consoles in many aspects, so the birth of Switch 2 is inevitable.
In addition, devices are improving, and games are expanding. Compared with five years ago, Genshin Impact now has higher requirements for devices in terms of memory and performance. Perhaps this is why Genshin Impact was not finally released on Nintendo Switch - the rapid expansion speed of releasing patches every six weeks makes it increasingly unlikely that Genshin Impact will be ported to Switch 1.
You might be thinking that even without a Switch, playing Genshin Impact on PC is also great, after all, the bigger screen will make the experience better, but you only need to check the number of characters in your Genshin Impact Account to dispel this idea - the high storage requirements brought by the growing number of characters means that the PC may also experience lags. However, as the latest game console to be born, the Switch 2 is expected to introduce modern hardware, allowing popular Gacha games such as Genshin Impact to run smoothly.
If the Switch 2 can really achieve hardware advancements, it will not only run the current Genshin Impact smoothly but also adapt to the frequency of future updates of the game. In fact, there are rumors that the Switch 2 will even be able to run large games such as Metal Gear Solid Delta and Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
Since its launch, Genshin Impact has been compared by players with Zelda: Breath of the Wild developed by Nintendo, because the two games have many similarities in open world design and exploration. Even though Genshin Impact focuses more on Gacha elements and becomes more and more different from Zelda as it develops, some people still suspect that Genshin Impact is a copycat.
Regardless of the credibility of this suspicion, the combat, character development and narrative structure of the two games are now very different, which has completely opened up the own fan base of Genshin Impact. Therefore, Nintendo can completely regard Genshin Impact as a strong competitor to its own Zelda series - Genshin Impact is even completely free outside of Gacha elements, while Zelda is not.
In this way, whether Genshin Impact can be logged in to the Switch series is actually not related to the performance of devices, but involves intellectual property disputes. If so, then you may not have the opportunity to play this RPG developed by HoYoverse on any Switch.
But you don’t have to worry about it. After all, there are many game choices now. In fact, you can play Zelda on Switch and Genshin Impact on other devices to fully experience their different charms, give your own game review, and make your gaming experience more meaningful.
In the upcoming version 0.2.0 patch update in late March, the developers will add a series of new content to the game. These include new support gems, new unique items, and even there will be a high probability of releasing a new class.
However, among the adjustments announced by the developers for POE 2, there is one point that is controversial among players, that is, the adjustment to Lost Towers. They added the mechanism of Lost Towers to make it have richer content for players to explore. But not all players are satisfied with this.
In the preview of the 0.2.0 patch, the official said that they will change the mechanism of Lost Towers in the next update, so that players can encounter random rare enemies or even BOSSes in the process of exploring the tower. At the same time, the next version of Lost Towers will also be affected by Precursor Tablets, changing the distribution of monsters. That is to say, Lost Towers will give birth to more monsters for players to sweep.
It is not possible to judge whether this change is good or bad. Let’s take a look at how Lost Towers perform in the endgame of the 0.1.0 patch.
In the endgame, players explore Lost Towers basically to open up new maps, and then insert Precursor Tablets on Lost Towers to affect the appearance of modifiers.
If players have Waystones with very bad attributes, or Waystones that become worse under the influence of Vaal Orb, then players usually choose to use these Waystones on Lost Towers.
Because Lost Towers have very low returns, and basically no rare items will be dropped. And there are no activities. Therefore, there is no loss in dropping Waystones in Lost Towers.
If players have Precursor Tablets with very good attributes, then players can insert these Precursor Tablets into nearby towers. The influence areas of these towers will overlap, and the overlapping areas are the areas with the best farming currency. When several excellent attributes overlap, the probability of rare enemies appearing in this overlapping area will be much higher, so you can get good benefits in these locations, such as many POE 2 Divine Orbs or even unique items.
This method is also effective in 0.2.0. This is a very timesaving method. But players still hate Lost Towers very much and even think that Lost Towers ruined the entire POE 2 endgame experience.
Mainly because the rewards players can get in Lost Towers are very rare, and the interior of Lost Towers is very complicated, like a maze. And the interior of Lost Towers is very narrow. When players fight inside Lost Towers, the skills they release are often blocked by walls, so the experience inside Lost Towers is very poor.
However, the developers also made some changes to Lost Towers in 0.1.1. In version 0.1.1, the developers added 5 new types of towers to the game:
Each of these towers has a different terrain and monster distribution. The best tower for players is basically Bluff, because the exploration route in this tower is basically a straight line, allowing them to complete the tower the fastest.
Since Lost Towers introduced more points of interest in 0.2.0, players have to spend more time than usual to fully explore the entire tower. This is unbearable for some players, mainly because the complex and narrow terrain of Lost Towers makes every minute of fighting in it full of torture. Even worse, players sometimes cannot defeat the boss in the tower, which may cause players to have to challenge these bosses repeatedly or waste one of their Waystones to reset the tower.
In addition, since the 0.2.0 patch, towers will also be affected by Precursor Tablets. When players use Breach tablets and encounter a Breach encounter in a tower, the battle will become very difficult.
After the update, players can no longer throw Precursor Tablets or Waystones with disadvantageous entries into Lost Towers at will, because towers will now also have various monsters and rewards.
But such changes are not all bad. At least after the update, Lost Towers will become the same as ordinary maps and can also bring rich rewards to players. Compared with previous versions, players now have more opportunities to encounter Ritual events, Breach events and Delirium mirrors on the map. Therefore, towers will become another place to choose to farm currency.
Lost Towers will also be affected by Precursor Tablets on other Lost Towers, so you can also control the drops or enemies in the tower to a certain extent.
Read More: Path Of Exile 2 0.2.0 Patch: This Patch Will Have A Great Impact
Most players may be dissatisfied with the changes to Lost Towers in the 0.2.0 patch. This is because Lost Towers is not what they are interested in. The process of exploring the tower is depressing and disappointing. Even after the changes, most players are probably still not willing to fight in such a complex terrain as Lost Towers. Players are more looking forward to developers bringing some real new content. For example, new bosses, new activities, new unique items or classes, etc.
This guide is about the new Righteous Fire skill for a Hierophant in Path of Exile 3.23. The build uses Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion skill, in contrast to regular RF, not only sources its damage from maximum mana instead of maximum Life but is also affected by all modifiers to spell damage, including increased spell damage from the Indigon helmet. It’s one of the most potent sources of damage that’s rarely explored in dot builds, as the dot damage doesn’t scale with it unless it’s specifically stated.
To get more damage from Indigon, get a lot of maximum unreserved mana and then spend it very quickly with Arcane Cloak to recover all this mana back. Use Armageddon Brand of Volatility with Brand Mastery that recovers 10% of your maximum mana after the brand expires, which happens after merely one activation. When mapping, there's no need to do it since you'll also gain mana on killing with Thrill Killer and/or Mind Drinker.
Hierophant is the ascendancy that specializes in mana, with passives such as Divine Guidance and Sanctuary of Thought. These nodes grant mana damage, reservation efficiency, area of effect, and energy shield, which the build heavily relies on. The damage is sourced entirely from the Indigon. It has a damage cap that you’re able to reach with enough mana, which is sourced from items and passives.
The fire damage over time can be improved with burning damage or dot multiplier modifiers on a weapon. It’s a durable build with over 10k energy shield, a lot of evasion, and reduced Elemental damage taken. It has a low block chance and almost no armor, but the high ES pool combined with Arcane Cloak guard spell will protect you from getting killed in one hit.
Clear speed is great and restricted only by your movement speed. To reach meaningful single-target damage, you will need to spend some POE Currency. The price is high, as expected from an intelligent stacking build, but it can be assembled on a moderate budget.
The build requires a lot of unique POE Items. Your focus is on mana and intelligence. Intelligence grants mana and energy shield, making it important with Shaper’s Touch gloves. It grants Evasion. mana will affect your damage with the Indigon helmet. Transfiguration of Mind adds AOE due to the Sanctuary of Thought. Strength grants mana and energy shield. Indigon increases energy shield and your spell damage alongside mana spent recently, which is the main reason to stack mana and use Arcane Cloak.
All spell damage modifiers affect the damage over time of Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion. You can’t reserve mana, but you can reserve life, and the Prism Guardian Shield is the most efficient way to do so. Socket your most expensive and important auras here. The Ivory Tower protects you from chaos damage and grants tons of energy shield regeneration, intelligence, and mana.
There is no replacement for this armor. Legacy of Fury boots will significantly improve your damage with powerful Scorch and Explosions on killing. If you can't find any resistances, mana, or intelligence, consider replacing them with rare boots. Use Shaper’s Touch gloves to gain tons of mana with energy shield from strength and evasion from intelligence. Cyclopean Coil is a reasonably priced belt with a lot of maximum mana, attributes, and freeze immunity. Use it before you’re able to afford a better one.
Astramentis is the amulet with a lot of attributes that we recommend using in this build. Eyes of the Greatwolf with suitable rolls will undoubtedly be very expensive. You’re looking for increased intelligence, strength, or all attributes with life regeneration, global defenses, fire damage, or maximum mana. Put Shavronn's Revelation on your right finger to gain tons of maximum mana and energy shield regeneration. Since you don't regenerate mana, the downside won't be a problem. Socket Healthy Mind Jewel near Cruel Preparation to gain much more mana, intelligence, and mana on Split Personality.
A rare amulet can be an excellent option. Look for maximum mana, attributes, and resistances. The best ones will have a synthesized implicit or shaper suffix for increased attributes. On a ring, you shall get the usual mana and attributes, especially intelligence. You will probably need some dexterity too for the Grace skill gem. You can obtain mana, energy shield, attributes, chaos resistance, and Elemental spell damage from Jewels. Use large cluster Jewels to create a suitable environment for 2 of your Split Personality jewels. There are quite a few notables to look for. Most importantly, Scintillating Idea from a lightning cluster Jewel for a 20% increased maximum mana.
Mana and intelligence from Clarity are the best modifier to get on a Watcher’s Eye. Another great one is the Malevolence dot multiplier. Excellent additions may manifest as Clarity, Discipline, Grace, and even Purity of Fire. It may be hard to cap your resistances after you put most of your resources into intelligence, strength, and mana. It can be done with Ruby, Topaz, and Sapphire flasks if you’ve opted for the Traitor Keystone. While searching for burning damage modifiers on your items is an option, prioritize mana and intelligence instead.
Life regeneration will affect your ES with Zealot's Oath and is very important. You need a weapon with a lot of maximum mana and various types of fire damage over time modifiers, attributes, and dot multipliers are too very valuable. We can craft some of these modifiers. Look for boots that offer attributes like movement speed, mana, and resistances. For Eldritch mods, seek life regeneration per endurance charge and maximum fire resistance. On a belt, you can increase your attributes via Hunter or Elder suffix. Try to get some intelligence from the crafting bench. energy shield, maximum mana, and resistances are good too.
Ivory Tower protects you from chaos damage until you have no mana. Use Coruscating Elixir flask to shift incoming chaos damage to affect energy shield if your mana has been depleted and to take less fire damage. You may also use a regular Ruby flask if your chaos resistance is high and you don’t run out of mana. For other flasks, get a Topaz flask with bleed immunity and a Sapphire flask with increased movement speed if you’re using the Trader Keystone for permanent flasks. These are your 3 flasks. If not, you should also get a Forbidding mana flask with a crafted mod for life regeneration during flask effect and a Quicksilver flask with increased movement speed.
Righteous Fire of Arcane Devotion deals damage based on your maximum mana to your character and enemies around you in the form of fire damage over time. Link it with Burning Damage, Swift Affliction, Controlled Destruction, Elemental Focus, and Arcane Surge support gems.
It’s important to use some kind of channeling skill with Armageddon Brand of Volatility. Scorching Ray is the top choice because of its powerful fire exposure. Armageddon Brand of Volatility is supposed to recover 10% of your maximum mana when it expires, which it does after activating once. Allocate the specific Brand Mastery to achieve it. It’s a substantial source of mana recovery during boss fights. Link these 2 with Cast While Channeling and Infused Channeling support gems.
The following 3 auras shall be socketed in the Prism Guardian Shield:
Malevolence makes you deal more damage over time and increases your skill effect duration if you have no mana reserved. Eternal Blessing support allows you to have one permanently blessed aura of charge with an increased aura effect. Link Malevolence to it. Clarity does nothing with Shavronn's Revelation, but it unlocks some of the best mods on a Watcher’s Eye. If you don’t have it, use Vitality instead or alongside it if you have enough life. Link it with Arrogant support.
Your entire mana pool has to remain unreserved. Activate Arcane Cloak to spend 64% of your current mana and gain up to 2,000% increased spell damage from Indigon. Spending a minimum of 16,000 mana in just 4 seconds is necessary to reach this aspirational cap, but it's not practical to attempt with any other skill. Link it with Less Duration and Swift Affliction to use it again sooner. Flame Dash's ability is the curse that lowers the fire resistance of your enemies. If you don’t want to cast it, get a slightly worse Elemental Weakness on hit as a corrupted glove implicit, as we did. You can link your curse gem to Hextouch support to proliferate the Hex.
Shield Charge is simply used to travel faster. Spending mana within Sigil of Power enhances its strength, leading to reduced damage from enemies.
Kill all the bandits in Act 2. You will need the two extra passive skill points the most. For a major God, we recommend the Soul of Arakaali to take less damage over time and less chaos damage over time after an upgrade, which is good if your chaos resistance is not yet capped. The selection of minor Gods offers a variety of bonuses. We recommend something to take less physical damage or less damage over time against the type of damage you struggle with the most. We have picked Shakari for better protection against poison.
The passive skill tree resembles an S shape to squeeze out more mana and intelligence from forbidden jewels. So if you don’t have them, opt for a more optimized shape. Aim mostly for maximum mana, some energy shield, and intelligence. Fire damage and damage over time are less important. Eternal Youth will be transformed into the Traitor Keystone. Allocate also Zealot Oath, Iron Will, Pain Attunement, and a single brand cluster. Get passive energy shield regeneration and shift the stun threshold to ES. Two energy shield masteries lessen damage taken. As for mana recovery after using Guard skill, as mana Mastery, increased attributes as attribute Mastery, and mana recovery when brand expires as Brand Mastery.
Here, we’ll discuss the latest changes to Uber Unique drop rate in Diablo 4 and how it affects the game.
I feel like many of you are probably not fully up to date on every latest change to the game. Since it’s the end of the season, there usually aren’t vast changes at this point.
And Christmas event that just released is boring and uninspired, to say the least. So you have good reason not to listen closely to what’s going on with Diablo 4 right now, at least until they start announcing details about Season 3.
That being said, one recent change to the game that you may have noticed is that the drop rate for Duriel’s Uber Uniques has doubled. That’s what I want to talk about here, because this change has serious implications for both future and past events.
Hardcore Diablo fans should be very aware that doubling things in a game rarely has the desired effect. Before we talk about this change, we also have to talk about Uber Uniques’ system of dropping a boss throughout the game. Because the system itself is highly questionable, to say the least.
Everyone praised the developers for their decision when they announced that Uber Uniques would be more suitable for the average player. Because the drop rates for these items have been so low since the launch of the game that only a handful of players in the world are lucky enough to get them.
Anything is better than this system, so that’s why everyone cheered when Duriel could drop Uber Unique items with about a 2% drop rate.
But little did we know it was another horrible system that players grew to hate over time. In order to fight Duriel and have a 2% chance of receiving one item, players must go through a heartbreaking grind.
The time varies depending on the class you play. But I think it’s safe to say that summoning Duriel at a time requires at least an hour of farming time.
Now, if a player kills Duriel in a group, it can increase the number of summons by 4x. But the problem remains: long hours of soulless grinding with a slim chance of getting really good items.
Trust me, 2% chance is small, especially if you want a specific Uber Unique. You can easily kill between 5 and 800 Duriel without dropping your target Uber Unique. And you can get multiple other unique items that are actually useless to your class.
It filled Reddit with posts, complaining about how many times they ran it without getting Unique drops they wanted. Other types of posts are where players post screenshots of the items they ultimately earned as proof of some kind of achievement.
But is beating a simple, easy-to-kill boss repeatedly really a tremendous accomplishment? Players are frustrated, and rightfully so. Wouldn’t it be better if it could drop Uber Uniques from any mob, but the chance of a drop didn’t limit them to a handful of players in the world?
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the addition of Uber Bosses is completely useless. They serve their purpose well by letting players aim to farm regular unique items, such as Tempest Roar and Malignant Rings. But bundling Uber Unique items with Duriel is a huge mistake in my opinion.
Now let’s get back to the present and look at the recent changes to Uber Uniques drop odds. The fact that the developers made such a change, especially in the middle of the season, upset more people.
First, this doesn’t solve the problem of Duriel being a single semi-reliable way to get Uber Uniques. But that’s not the only problem. Let’s see how some player groups react to this change.
Players who have gotten Unique items they wanted despite tedious grinding without buffs may feel betrayed by the developers. Because it takes new players half the time to get the same items.
The second category of players are those who obtained Unique by purchasing Duriel summoning materials using Diablo 4 Gold or even real money. I personally see nothing wrong with using gold to purchase materials. But since duping is available to certain groups, material prices can become very low due to the excessive number of duped items being sold.
So, while buying with gold isn’t inherently a bad thing, duping is questionable. As for paying real money to get summoning materials, I do understand the reasoning: people want to skip dozens or hundreds of hours of grinding to reach Duriel by paying. I understand the motivation, but it’s still bad for the game as this is clearly a case of pay-to-win and will ruin the game in the long run.
So, the target group that should benefit from the double drop chances are players who have never obtained unique items and plan to get them later in the season. However, at the end of the season, the number of these players was not as high as the developers thought.
It’s entirely possible that some players who never got Uber Uniques evaded this chore, and they still have to do it after the change. At least the price of summoning materials is expected to drop due to increased drop rates.
So, overall, the developers made a controversial change to an objectively terrible system. They could have redesigned the entire system, or at least they could have waited until next season to introduce the change.
Regardless, this is yet another in a long line of terrible decisions from Diablo developers. Looking at this trend, they really have to do better to compete with the upcoming Path of Exile 2. What are your thoughts on this topic? Are you planning to take advantage of Uber Uniques? See you next time!
In this guide, we will deep dive into WoW Dragonflight Season 3 crafted gear.
Crafted gear is still a force to be reckoned with in Season 3, despite a slight nerf. The max item level caps at 486, just 3 levels shy of the highest Myth gear.
But don’t let that deter you. It’s still a solid choice. For Stardust, no RNG headaches here, as crafting gear allows you to target specific slots and items, offering a strategic advantage to your gearing journey. So, you can plan ahead and farm the Reagents needed.
Speaking of Reagents, let’s take them one by one and go over the changes this season brought.
Each crafted gear piece requires an Enchanted Crest crafted by Enchanters through the work order system. Or if your main character has enchanting, you’re in luck. It can save you some WoW Dragonflight Gold there.
Enchanted Crest Recipes are found in the Emerald Dream from outdoor activities like rares, treasures, and the Superbloom Event. The drop chance is quite high as well.
Same as last season, we have 3 Enchanted Crests:
The Whelpling crest is utilized for lower-level blue gear, providing an item level of up to 447. Although this is fairly low considering it can drop from outdoor activities as well, it can prove very useful for solo players. On the flip side, the Wyrm and Aspect crests are reserved for epic-quality gear. This is the most powerful gear you can craft, but you also need another Reagent for that.
In WoW Dragonflight 10.2, all crests go directly into the currency tab rather than your bags. Due to this change, an item had to be implemented to convert the crest into a Reagent, allowing for easy transfer to the crafters. This is done by the Nascent Wyrm’s Dreaming Crest, and there are 3 kinds of them: one for each type of crest. All can be purchased from the enchanting vendors throughout the Dragonflight zones.
For example, to craft the highest crest, you need to purchase the Nascent Aspect’s Dreaming Crest by handing in 60 normal Aspect’s Dreaming Crests. To put things in perspective, gathering this amount is equivalent to completing 5 level-16 keys in time or taking down around 6 Mythic bosses. It does take some effort and time, but the high item level makes it worthwhile.
Additionally, you can obtain a free Enchanted Wyrm’s Dreaming Crest through specific milestones. One is rewarded for defeating Fyrakk as part of the main campaign, including all the difficulties. While the other is granted upon reaching Renown 20 with Dream Wardens.
So far, we have covered the enchanted crests. Now, the second reagent that you have to provide for high items is the Spark of Dreams.
This item is basically replacing the old sparks that we had in Season 1 and 2. You can create it by combining 2 Splintered Sparks of Dreams and 250 Flightstones.
There are 2 known ways to earn a half spark. The first way is by completing the “A Worthy Ally” weekly quest offered by the Renown keeper. It requires farming 1,500 reputation with Dream Wardens. The second way is by completing any of these 2 quests offered by Malicia for PVP players. You can find her in the Valdrakken’s PVP Hub.
As you may anticipate, you can generate a spark weekly by receiving one half spark per week. However, there is a unique opportunity to earn an extra spark through the one-time quest “Dreams Unified” offered by Lady Moonberry. Upon completion, you’ll have 2 sparks. But keep in mind, this occurs just once per character.
If you join in later in the patch, you do not need to fret. There’s a catch-up mechanism in place. Splintered Spark of Dreams can be obtained from raids, dungeons, PVP, and weekly activities until you reach the current spark count.
Since we pretty much cover all the universal Reagents across crafted pieces, let’s see how it works in practice.
Firstly, you need to reach out to an enchanter, open a work order for your chosen Enchanted Crest, and find a crafter for your desired gear piece. Consider the cost, quality, and Reagents needed. Many people in trade chat or your guild can help, so don’t be shy.
Besides the spark and the crest, the other Reagents vary depending on the item, and it’s not necessary to provide them yourself. The crafter can also contribute, but take that into consideration for the payment.
The quality of the Reagents is also very important, as it can help to make it faster. The ingredients can be gathered throughout farming, or you can purchase them directly from the Auction House.
So, the consistent Reagents are the Spark and the Enchanted Crest, and these will determine the final item level. If you provide only the spark, then it will be between 450 to 463, depending on its overall quality. However, it’s best to save your spark and enhance the piece further by cooperating crests. The Wyrm crest elevates it from 463 to 476, while the Aspect crest achieves levels from 473 to 486, making it very powerful.
Crafting weapons requires 2 sparks instead of 1, translating to approximately a month’s effort. Hence, it’s crucial to be strategic about the items you choose to craft, considering the sparks don’t come in as quickly.
Aside from that, crests also have a weekly cap of 90 per week, which, of course, increases every week. A good approach is to take notes from the best-in-slot gear guide for your class and spec.
Don’t forget that you can also add Draconic Missive of the Fire Flash for your preferred stuns and Embellishments for some extra Flare, providing fun effects on the piece.
Some items come with building Embellishments, such as the Elemental Lariat, and are so totally worth a look.
All in all, Embellishments give a powerful touch to the gear, and you should always utilize them, but you cannot equip more than two at a time.
Also, keep in mind that if you’ve got any crafted gear from Season 1 or 2 lying around, you can give it a refresh by adding the new Reagents.
Plus, it might even save you a bit of gold, especially if you reach out to the PvP same crafter. That’s all good and well for the PvE players. Now, let’s go over to the PvP side.
Honor and Conquest vendors offer items that let you convert professionally crafted gear into PvP gear. You can find them both in the Valdrakken’s PVP Hub. There are 3 (Greater Verdant) Crests of Honor, which will increase specific slot item levels to 476 PvP item level.
They are sold by Seltherex and they cost different amounts of Honor, depending on the slot you want to use them for. Honor is obtained from doing all types of PvP activities, ranked or unranked.
For the advanced players, there are 3 (Lesser Verdant) Trophies of Conquest, which will increase the gear’s level to 489. These are sold by Calderax and they cost different amounts of Conquest again, depending on the slot item.
Conquest is only earned from rated PvP activities and it has a weekly cap. Season 3 started with a 1,350 limit and it keeps increasing by 550 every week.
Don’t forget that the PvP item level is only enabled during Arenas and Battleground matches. In the Outdoor World, then it’s the actual item level on the piece that counts.
WOW Classic Season of Discovery has started for a few weeks. Currently, almost all Warlock Runes have been discovered. Some you just click on an item, but some are more difficult to complete, like Metamorphosis Rune.
So, in this Warlock Runes guide, I want to review the five most important Runes of Warlock, which are Runes above level 15.
So let’s get down to business first. The Incinerate Rune deals fire damage and increases the fire damage you deal by 25%.
They dropped Rune of Incinerate from Incinerator Gar’im. This is a level 23 elite found in a cave in Render’s Valley, which is located in the southeast corner of Redridge Mountains, approximately around coordinates [77, 85].
Keep in mind that Redridge Mountains are a contested area, so rival factions on PVP server will attack you here. You’ll also have to deal with other Blackrock orc monsters in the area.
So if you’re at a lower level, you may need a friend. You just have to fight him, knock him down, and then you can loot Rune of Incinerate from him, which is actually pretty easy to get once you get to that level.
In Season of Discovery, one of the most valuable Runes you can get as Warlock is Lake of Fire.
This spell is powerful in a fire-based Warlock build. Because it leaves an area on the ground beneath your target, causing all other targets within that AOE radius to take increased fire damage from you and your demons.
To get this Lake of Fire, you first need to find Zixil, a goblin merchant. After finding Zixil, purchase Demolition Explosives from the merchant for a total of 1 WOW Classic SOD Gold. This reagent will be the key to obtaining Lake of Fire Rune later.
Next, head northeast in Hillsbrad Foothills to Durnholde Keep reaching coordinates [79, 40]. There, you’ll find a pile of rocks and debris labeled “Rubble.”
Stand directly on the rubble and use Demolition Explosives purchased from Zixil. If done correctly, you will destroy the rubble and a locker will appear containing Lake of Fire Rune.
If you miss the rubble or stand in the wrong spot when detonating the explosives, the locker containing Lake of Fire Rune will not appear and you cannot get explosives there.
You only have one chance to get this rune, and if you mess up, you’ll have to return to Zixil and drop another gold piece before you can try again.
It can engrave rune of Everlasting Affliction on Legs slot and allow Warlock’s various abilities to refresh the duration of your applied Corruption.
We should note that Alliance and Horde players get Rune of Everlasting Affliction differently.
To get Rune of Everlasting Affliction, Alliance players need to turn in Waylaid Supplies until you gain a Friendly reputation within Azeroth Commerce Authority faction. You can then purchase Rune of Everlasting Affliction from the same Supply Officer for 2 WoW Classic SoD gold.
Horde players who want to get Everlasting Affliction need to turn in Waylaid Supplies until you gain Friendly reputation in Durotar Supply and Logistics faction. You can then purchase Rune of Everlasting Affliction from the same Supply Officer for 2 gold.
Shadow Bolt Volley is a Gloves Rune that enhances Warlock’s classic skill, Shadow Bolt. When this rune is activated, your Shadow Bolt can attack chain enemies within up to 10 yards, but 20% reduce the damage dealt.
In a raid or dungeon situation, Warlock can easily top the damage charts with Shadow Bolt Volley. While your single target damage may suffer as a result, Warlock still has plenty of other damage options, including pet damage and DOT spells. I highly recommend this rune to anyone running a burst damage Warlock build.
To get Shadow Bolt Volley Rune, travel to Beren’s Peril in the southeastern Silverpine Forest. The entrance to this cave is around coordinates [60, 74], which is a bit hidden. We can find it by following the road south and then northeast into the mountains below Ambermill.
You will then need to kill Ravenclaw Guardians and Ravenclaw Drudgers until one of them drops a Tortured Soul.
To use this item, you must lose some health. Use Life Tap or Health Funnel if needed. Then right-click the item to summon a level 20 elite ghost of the same name. Kill it to Shadow Bolt Volley Rune.
Finally, Metamorphosis offers the biggest overhaul to traditional Warlock gameplay by transforming spellcasters into melee tanks. This Rune increases Warlock’s armor by 5x, reduces their critical chance, increases their overall Threat generation by 50%, and doubles Life Tap’s mana regeneration.
For such a powerful, class-changing Rune, Warlock must undergo one of the most complex missions of the season. There are four quests in Metamorphosis quest chain, starting with Orb of Soran’ruk.
To us by Doan Karhan brought this assignment to us. Doan Karhan is a neutral NPC east of Camp Taurajo in Barrens.
Karhan requires players to collect three Soran’ruk Fragments and one Large Soran’ruk Fragment. Small fragments drop from Twilight Acolytes inside and outside Blackfathom Deeps, while large fragments drop from Shadowfang Darksoul enemies inside Shadowfang Keep. Collect both, then return to Karhan.
Karhan will then ask players to collect Orb of Des and Bough of Altek, two new unique quest items.
We can find Orb of Des in Tower of Ilgalar in the eastern Redridge Mountains. Bough of Altek, on the other hand, is located at the top of Tower of Althalaxx in Darkshore. Once you’ve collected these two items, return to Karhan to complete the third part of the quest.
He then asks the player to collect ten Blood of the Legion. These can only be obtained from demonic enemies southeast of Ashenvale. Waves of demonic enemies will spawn here. Warlock must stand among Purple Runes that appear on the ground near the obelisk and use Drain Soul ability to kill these enemies. Survive here and Mysterious Traveler will appear.
Speak with Mysterious Traveler to complete Conjuring and begin the last steps of Metamorphosis quest. When Mysterious Traveler appears, he will give the quest Raszel Ander. After picking it up, return to Karhan one last time to complete the quest and get the Metamorphosis Rune.
That’s it for all the major Warlock Runes. These five Runes will make your Warlock even more powerful in WOW Classic Season of Discovery. Remember, patience is crucial when dealing with these challenges.
Path of Exile 2 has revealed new gameplay, a boss fight, and a new class called the Mercenary.
Additionally, new features of the game include changes and new additions to the combat. This is really looking like a straight-up improvement to the isometric genre.
Let's go through the cool new things coming in Path of Exile 2.
Firstly, let's go over the confirmation of the new changes to how you can control your character and this applies to any class and any weapon type.
You can now use WASD movement to control and move your character, allowing you to move separately while aiming. You can still use traditional click-to-move if you want to.
On top of this, there are changes to many character skills whereby you can move while casting, increasing the pace and intensity of combat.
Honestly, these changes together are great news to me, and it really does impact how the game will feel to play.
Regarding the Mercenary class, then we got a really good look at the new Mercenary class, which is a new crossbow-wielding character.
This class comes with unique crossbow options, mimicking a variety of different firearm types but in crossbow form.
They wanted this class to feel both responsive and snappy when firing the crossbow, similar to how shooting in first-person shooter games feels. So, they've gone deep into making different crossbows that function kind of like a sniper rifle, a shotgun, and even assault rifles.
These crossbows are layered on top with different elemental ammo types and even attachments that all synergize together in different ways.
For your character's equipment, you can only equip 2 crossbows at a time, and there are 3 different types to pick from:
There are also ammo skills, which add another layer of depth on top of how these different types of crossbows function. There are slight differences in how they work across the different types, so let's go through them all.
Ammo abilities include Armor-Piercing Ammo, which makes your hits pierce through enemies, good for taking on a group at once.
However, for the Rapid Shot crossbow, each hit will erode an enemy's armor, eventually breaking it, negating the Burst Shot crossbows' drawback against armored enemies.
Meanwhile, for the Power Shot crossbow, if an enemy's armor is broken, you can then pull out your power crossbow to shoot them, triggering a special weak spot hit dealing massive extra damage and high stun on the enemy.
Then, you have Incendiary Ammo. This is good against single targets as it ignites them. With the Burst Shot crossbow, the more projectiles that connect to a target, the more damage it deals per hit, making it great for super close-range situations.
For the Rapid Shot crossbow, the incendiary ammo charges up before firing. As you continue to shoot, it heats up, dealing more damage per shot. Moreover, it boosts the fire damage of any grenades you launch and automatically ignites oil grenades.
Moving on to the Power Shot crossbow, this ammo transforms into a pseudo-rocket launcher, creating an explosive blast on impact for AOE damage. It synergizes with grenades, causing any fired on the ground to instantly explode.
Permafrost Ammo slows enemies by chilling them and has a chance to freeze them in place. Frozen enemies are vulnerable to a special effect of the armor-piercing ammo, making them explode for huge AOE damage nearby.
The rapid-fire crossbow can also shoot the ground with this ammo type to create ice crystals. These crystals act like mines, exploding when enemies touch them and applying chilling to slow them down. It helps set traps and establish a safe area before engaging in a fight.
The Power Shot crossbow creates ice walls on impact, blocking off areas in corridors and alleys to control enemies. These walls explode when broken by enemies, synergizing with Burst Shot crossbows' armor-piercing ammo for extra damage on Frozen targets.
Additionally, there are new grenade gear slots and types.
The attachment slot in your crossbow is where grenades come from. It functions as a grenade launcher. It allows you to fire different grenade types with varied effects upon explosion.
These attachments function as skill gems, providing extra skill slots for your character and can be augmented with support gems. Grenades are fired separately from your crossbow's primary shooting and explode after a short delay, based on the type chosen.
There are 3 known types of grenades:
These combinations allow for interesting build potentials. The different crossbow types, ammo types, and grenade varieties synergize in unique ways. Witnessing a character utilizing these synergies against a boss was impressive. The boss fight showcased these strategies in action.
This is a build guide that can help you gain infinite heals and stamina PVP in New World Season 4. I’m going to keep it short for you.
For weapon artifacts, I’m running Finisher Rapier mainly because of its 15% permanent damage buff, which affects both of your weapons, and you can keep it up with the Keenly Jagged on your bow. I’m still using Refreshing Move on it.
I’m also using Energy Aura as the third perk on my bow, but you can use Enchanted if you really want to. This is a stamina surplus build, as you’ll see in a second, so it’s all up to personal preference. I just end up preferring the stamina.
For gems, I’m choosing to split my damage 50/50, as it’s the best of both worlds and has the least amount of counters. The 8% damage over time (DOT) is mandatory, but make sure the element of that DOT is different on both your weapons because they don’t stack.
Regarding armor artifacts, I like Tumblers because it’s a 600 heal on no cooldown. The reason I prefer it over Featherweight is that of the potential it has. Featherweight offers around a 5% extra effective hitpoints (EHP) difference, which is around 900 health. So if I proc Tumblers at least twice in a fight, it’s automatically better than Featherweight, and any proc behind that just makes the gap bigger.
For accessories, Endless sounds good on paper, but you can’t put Healthy Toast on it, which is really, really bad. Ankh is nice, but it makes you pick between protection or stamina recovery, and obviously, you have to pick stamina recovery, so you’re going to miss protection. I like the universality of having different protections, so I’d rather not use Ankh.
The actual perks on my ring and earring are the exact same as they usually are. Everything here is pretty self-explanatory. Gear we’re looking at 5 Shirking Heals. The buff to 7 seconds turned it from a good perk to an almost mandatory perk, but you’ll find a lot of people don’t agree with that because they’re stubborn and invested a lot of their money in a build that’s not good.
For my secondary perk, I’m running Fortify, and the rest is just normal stuff: one skill perk (Siphoning Energy), and then the random perk that Tumblers have. In whatever leftover slots I have, I put Health on, which in this case amounts to two health.
For armor gems, I’m running 4 Opal and one Onyx with full Energizing Runes. The Rune choice is a bit up to personal preference, but I highly recommend using at least one Energizing Rune, mainly because there are lots of clutch scenarios where you’re one stamina away from stamina-ing yourself out. The rest you can put range damage, but I would definitely not recommend Leeching Damage unless you’re using Boltcaster. The Leeching version is a flat 18% damage reduction against Boltcaster, Fire Staff, and other fully Elemental range weapons, and it’s a 9% damage reduction against bows, muskets, and B-buses who use a split gem. My Opals additionally cover 8% less damage from all Elemental sources.
Regardless if it’s melee or ranged, that’s 8% less damage from weapons like Abyss, Boltcaster, Firestaff, and 4% less damage from weapons that have split gems. The 3 Onyx I have covered some additional defense against melee players. This is purely optional and up to your playstyle. If you’re fine with playing super defensive and ratty, you can drop the Onyx for some thrust and lightning resist instead.
For the necklace, I’m obviously going with fire resist because that’s the easiest range weapon to get hit by. You can do movement tech or whatever movement cancels you want against other bows and muskets, and they’ll end up missing 90% of their shots. But it’s hard to do movement tech against Firestaff when they have a hitbox of a Boeing 747. Plus, the fire resist also reduces explosive shot damage from bows.
My completely honest recommendation is to have a set of amulets and maybe even some accessories that you can easily swap in and out. This way, you have the freedom to swap to another resist if you’re ever when there is no Firestaff. For example, let’s say you’re getting hunted by a melee assassin squad. Then, you should obviously switch to your slash necklace. Let’s say the enemy team has 10 Boltcaster players. Obviously, switch to a lightning or thrust necklace.
If your build is threatened by a simple swap of a necklace and maybe a ring or accessory, then maybe you should reevaluate your build.
Moving on to attributes, this does get a little interesting. 25 and 50 strength are still bugged but no longer in a good way. 50 strength doesn't do anything, and 25 strength, on the other hand, previously boosted heavy damage by 10% and light damage by 5%. Now it only boosts both damages by 2%. Classic AGS, honestly. But anyways, because of that, I'm dropping 25 strength and then also dropping 35 con to get 50 focus. This 10% extra healing affects all the pots I use and even tumblers, and I can justify the 900 Health loss from going to 240 to 2115 con with that 10% extra Health. As long as a fight lasts long enough where you go through two rotations of pots, then this 10% prevails, not even accounting for any sharing or tumbler procs.
This build shines in fights that last long, which is pretty much any fight against good players. It's also a very solo-centric build. The second you involve a pocket healer that lets these micro heals matter in the long term, at that point, you're better off running Featherweight and more pure damage reductions.
If you're investing in dex after 350, then I would still get 25 strength first. Simply because the 25 points here end up doing more damage than 25 dex after 350. So if your build is 400 dex and zero strength.
