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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As we anticipate the release of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC on June 21 and the arrival of formidable new bosses, it's safe to assume that summoning Spirit Ashes will be a popular strategy for some players. There are some Spirit Ashes in Elden Ring are worth your attention, so I put together a list of the top 10. Let's get started!

I want to start with a marine summon that most people like to use - Spirit Jellyfish Ashes. Now this ash is almost no FP cost and will continually shoot poison at your enemy from range as long as it's available on the Battlefield. It does have some melee capabilities, and they aren't incredibly strong.

Its main advantage, especially at the early stage of the game, is that it is very durable, especially in the first battle against Margit, the Fell Omen. If you're finding him to be a big challenge, you can actually use Spirit Jellyfish Ashes and tank that boss. However, in some case, I like to use this Spirit Ash to poison enemies from afar so I can move away from him while he's still doing damage.

This ash is useful against bosses, and in the open world, it also does well and you can minimally tank with him if you need to. The reason I highly recommend using this ash is that you can get him so early in the game as well as the skill cap for using him being fairly low, making it accessible to most players.

Perfumer Trisha is next up on this list. She's an absolutely phenomenal support summon, and she uses her Aromatics to give you buffs as well as spreading flames around the entire Battlefield with a decent FP cost of 78.

You're definitely getting your bang for your buck, because she's not only going to help you with her Shield and Dagger. But as I said before, she's going to be able to buff you over and over again anytime you take damage on the Battlefield.

The buff that she does apply is Uplifting Aromatic, which is going to boost all ally attack power and reduces incoming damage. I think Perfumer Trisha is a must have, anytime you're just running through Lands Between and you're in the open spaces. She can definitely greatly improve your survivability.

Then, we have Mausoleum Soldier Ashes. Typically, Soldier Ashes like this, that have multiple parties within this ash, aren't very good. However, Mausoleum Soldier Ashes are amazing. They are an absolute unit of chaos and destruction and they also teleport around like Lhutel the Headless does. They're definitely something I'd like to try out, especially in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

If you take them to an open space where you are allowed to summon them, they will destroy the entire Battlefield, and the actual core units are made up of several soldiers giving them a lot of variety, with a fairly low FP cost of 75, and a wide variety of Shields, Greatswords, and Straight Swords. You are definitely going to find that this ash will steamroll everything.

Now because this is an underrated list of ashes, they won't be able to fight 1v1 with a boss, but they are a great summon to have if you want to play with them against bosses and speaking of playing with your summons instead of relying fully on them.

Next one is Latenna The Albinauric Ashes. Although it can't move, this is still an excellent support ash for you. You can go out on the Battlefield and start killing, and then you will see arrows just flying over your head, knocking enemies to the ground and doing a ton of damage. And with some $1 this would be even more powerful.

Place her in a good location. Her health pool is incredibly low and will very quickly be 1 or 2 shot by most bosses, especially if you're a New Game Plus. It is also very important with this particular summon that you keep aggro the entire time. This is definitely not a tank summon for you.

Next up, we have the Giant Rat Ashes, and this one is awesome because they don't take any FP or any health to cast. The coolest part about this type of ash is that there are 5 of them summoned, and they can swarm and stun lock small and medium-sized enemies. It can bring more chaos to the Battlefield while doing some damage of your own and keep the enemy from attacking for a long time.

And like I said before, there's no cost to summon them in the first place. They should be used more, especially with their stun lock capabilities. But the one weakness that many of these ashes have that are multi-as summons is the fact that if they go up against something that has an area of effect damage, they are going to get absolutely wrecked.

Next up, we have Redmane Knight Ogha. This Spirit Ashes is underrated because I think a lot of people see the combination of Bow and Sword and just wish that it was one or the other. This summon can be incredibly good at range, just like Latenna, and it also has a few different options when it comes to buffs.

It has a roar attack, giving it more extra attack power. It also has a bow attack that's going to be a charge attack, almost like Radahn does, to take out multiple enemies at once. You will also see Redmane Knight Ogha Ashes using Ash of War: Lion's Claw to absolutely obliterate the enemy.

Now, this ash is kind of a jack of all trades when it comes down to it and is not as good as some of the other Knight ashes in Elden Ring. However, I definitely think it's worth leveling up because if you just want something to support you and deal with damage, this ash is definitely for you.

Oracle Envoy Ashes is really fun to use. I think their request for FP cost is acceptable. They have a mixture of melee attacks as well as the bubble-blowing attack that the Envoy's Long Horn has. And the exciting thing is that you get 5 at once.

This ash will allow you to maintain all the aggro while they just shoot bubbles onto the Battlefield, staggering enemies, doing damage, and overall causing a lot of confusion. If you have Envoy's Long Horn, then you can have your own army. These are by no means the best summon in the entire game, but I found them incredibly fun to use.

Next up is Rotten Stray Ashes, with a low FP cost of 35 and the ability to proc Scarlet Rot on any enemy, he is absolutely incredible. I think the only thing that makes it bit rough is the fact that his health pool isn't a ton, but it has an agile fight style. After about 2 to 4 hits, you are definitely going to want to use this in your repertoire of summons.

I think the way you definitely want to use this summon is you want to tank the boss, and you want him to come and dart in and out and do his attacks, allowing him to proc Scarlet Rot so your boss will slowly whittle down while you maintain all the aggro. This is going to make overall your boss fights easier.

Kaiden Sellsword Ashes is very interesting. If it does start doing his combo attacks on enemies and he is landing them, he absolutely knock out all of them. He has a roar attack as well that's going to buff his damage, and the survivability is decent with the low FP cost.

You still need to do the majority of the damage, take the majority of the aggro from this ash. But if he is attacking the boss while you have the aggro, he's going to do some great damage, he's going to stick around for a while. All in all, it provides really fun time to play when you're in a situation with a ton of enemies around you.

The last one we have Fanged Imp Ashes. Imps are horrific to fight in general if they're in number in one of the random dungeons you go through, but when you have them on your team, they are amazing. Their health pool is not massive, but their FP cost is low, and because you get multiple of them, I think this is really worth using.

The other thing I want to mention real quick about Fanged Imp Ashes is typically if they're at range, they will throw Magic Pots. They will also take turns throwing Magic Pots, meaning one will stand behind the other one, throw the Magic Pot, and the one in the front will attack and proc bleed, and it's a good combination.

These are all the Spirit Ashes that are incredibly fun to use in Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. I hope you will find this guide helpful!