Since Path of Exile 2 has solved a series of issues with the new season Dawn of the Hunt, new race events will be launched.
This race event is free and open to players on PC and console platforms, and will also give some rewards to those who actively improve themselves and challenge others.
The main purpose is to let players enjoy the fun of the game and compete with others to see if they are the best players.
TimeThis time is divided into three games, each one week apart, and all players participate in the event at the same time, which means that if players in other time zones want to participate in the event, they need to adjust their time to ensure that they don’t miss it.
The specific times of the three races are as follows:
Race 1: May 25, 2025 1:00 PM (PDT) Race 2: Jun 01, 2025 1:00 PM (PDT) Race 3: Jun 08, 2025 1:00 PM (PDT) Race RulesAll players can try it. Players will create characters and register according to the link released by POE 2. After creating the character, they cannot drive the character until the start of the race.
Participants compete to be the first to defeat Doryani in Act 3.. This is a standard Solo Self-Found, so players need to be prepared, and if they die, they will be penalized for one minute, during which you will not be able to move.
And this competition has a ranking mechanism. At that time, Path of Exile 2 will release a ranking link, which will facilitate players to check their respective rankings during the game, or to see who took the shortest time after the game.
Reward MechanismCurrently, there are seven classes in POE 2, including the newly added Huntress. The highest ranking person in each class will receive Demigod’s Virtue Unique, which means that there will be 7 chances to get this reward in one game.
There will be 3 games in total, so there are 21 chances in total. If you want to have a chance to win the prize, it is best to be careful not to die.
And there is no limit on the number of times a player can participate in the game. That’s mean that players have a chance to get multiple Demigod’s Virtues.
At the same time, the player who completes the race the fastest in each class in the three games will receive any table mat printed with POE 2 game content; and the fastest player among all players in the three games will receive a Divination Card.
With the increase in future competition activities, POE 2 will cycle all Demigod’s items in a loop. In the end, it will be combined into an armor set, including a weapon, so if you are very good, you may be able to collect the entire set of armor.
The competition will be broadcast live on the video platform, and all participants can choose whether to broadcast live by themselves.
At the same time, the items won by players can be traded, which means that even if you don’t win the game, you can use $1 to get prizes.
The main purpose of Path of Exile 2 launching this event may be to keep players enthusiastic about the game, test and optimize new game mechanisms that may be launched in the future, and the launch of new activities can effectively stimulate players’ discussion about the game.
In the recent release of Diablo 4 Season 8, the most discussed point among players, in addition to the changes to the boss, is the changes to Battle Pass.
D4 has been thinking about Battle Pass for a long time. This S8 finally solved the problem of the difficulty in obtaining Battle Pass rewards by introducing new Reliquary System to replace the previous Battle Pass, but new Reliquary System itself also has some problems, which makes players feel dissatisfied.
In April, the game content of both Path of Exile 2 and Last Epoch was significantly updated. However, since Diablo 4 decided to postpone the release of the second expansion to 2026, the 2025 roadmap for Diablo 4 looks a bit boring, with only one joint news in the second half of the year.
So combined with the above reasons, this time, Battle Pass was replaced with new Reliquary System, caused a lot of discussion in the player community.
More ChoicesThe most obvious difference compared to Battle Pass is that new Reliquary System provides players with more paid options. New Reliquary System no longer provides a single pass that includes free and paid appearances and premium props, but is more finely divided.
There is a free route and three paid routes for players to choose from. Players can choose one or more of the three appearance props according to their needs and use Platinum to obtain prop and also can get some $1.
The price of each appearance prop is different. Take S8 as an example:
Belial’s Return - Free Weapons - 200 Platinum Beasts - 500 Platinum Armor - 800 PlatinumPreviously, all paid appearance props only required the get of a Battle Pass, and the price of a Battle Pass was 1000 Platinum. Players can still use 1000 Platinum to get three reliquaries. But for players who only want one or two, it may be more cost-effective to get them separately.
It should be noted that once you get a reliquary, you can no longer get all reliquaries on 1000 Platinum. So players need to consider whether they want those reliquaries carefully to ensure that they don’t spend more Platinum.
More Complicated ProcessAlthough D4 S8 provides players with a wealth of choices, the way to unlock reliquaries has been redesigned, making the process of the entire season more cumbersome. Before S8, you only need to play specific games in the game to earn XP and upgrade Battle Pass.
But, in S8 players must complete the season quests to obtain unique Favor Tokens to obtain the reliquary and obtain the items in it.
In addition, the past season completed the season quests to obtain Favor to increase reputation, and now this system seems to have been integrated into new Reliquary System.
Due to the introduction of the new Reliquary System, players who are used to the old process may feel confused and need some time to adapt to the new process, which is troublesome. Perhaps Diablo 4 will take some measures to solve this problem.
Gillette is one of the brands under P&G dedicated to shaving, body care, and cleaning. The brand announced that it will join forces with EA FC 25 to jointly work to bring players a better experience inside and outside the game.
For more than a hundred years, Gillette, as the world's leading men's care expert and EA Sports FC 25, a leader in sports entertainment with a long history, have both created a high reputation in the global field.
Today, the two brands announced a partnership, which is undoubtedly an unexpected surprise for players and consumers who love and follow FC 25 and Gillette. That's because both parties, as leaders in their respective fields, are now jointly committed to providing gamers, football fans and athletes with innovative and authentic gaming experiences.
Specific Content Of The CooperationThe cooperation between the two parties began in January this year, with Gillette appearing as part of an advertising banner in EA Sports FC 25 game. Now, the cooperation between the two brands has gone a step further and launched EA Sports FC Ultimate Team gift pack, which can be redeemed in the game.
Each pack for FC 25 contains 12 Rare Gold Player Items with an overall rating of 80 or higher, and 2 of them are guaranteed to be rated 88 or higher. Please note that all items are not tradeable. If players want to get more items, they need to complete the goals and challenges that are regularly updated in the game to obtain $1.
Gillette is no latecomer in the sports field. The recent partnership with UEFA Champions League and the jersey sponsorship for New England Revolution further prove Gillette's position in the sports field. At the same time, these partnerships also lay a solid foundation for Gillette to further expand its influence in the gaming and football fields.
Some Views On The Cooperation Between The Two Parties"The cooperation with FC 25 is a very critical and historic decision for Gillette. We cheer and celebrate the continued growth of the Gillette brand in the football field." "As we strengthen our commitment to the sport, we are excited to deepen our roots, connect with the next generation of men, and interact with the global football community in an authentic way." Gillette's Vice President of Global Brand Franchise said.
Gillette's creative spirit is reflected in its sophisticated design, which aims to provide users with a better care experience. This cooperation shows that Gillette's excellence is not only reflected in providing comfortable cleaning and care services to consumers, but also in helping the majority of male players of FIFA 25 when playing games. When players are in the best gaming state, Gillette's role will also be maximized.
Regarding this cooperation, EA Sports FC 25's senior director of franchise marketing operations also said, "I am very happy to work with Gillette, because EA Sports FC 25 is very authoritative in the field of football. For this cooperation, it can add a force to the passion of world football and create more real global community interaction."
The Impact Of The CooperationEA FC 25 connects tens of thousands of football fans through the Internet and e-sports products, and has a huge audience. Therefore, this cooperation is undoubtedly a very strategic move for Gillette. It will use the loyal fan community of FC 25 to connect with players. Gillette is also taking this action to integrate resources in the sports field and enhance its influence in the sports field, constantly innovating new products and experiences for consumers.
Recently, with everyone’s attention, the joint cooperation between Monopoly GO and Star Wars has been smoothly launched. This linkage will last for two months, mainly about the characters related to Skywalker Saga and The Mandalorian in Star Wars. Monopoly GO will also provide Star Wars-related characters, themed emoticons, dice and shields for players to collect.
Since its release in 2023, Monopoly GO has developed rapidly and achieved high profits in a very short time, making it one of the most successful mobile games in history. And its extremely high game update frequency and continuous linkage with other brands has always attracted the attention of players.
At the end of September 2024, the most popular event among players was the collaboration between Monopoly GO and Marvel. The event lasted from September 26 to December 5, and players could unlock content related to Marvel heroes in the game. So this collaboration between Monopoly GO and Star Wars also attracted much attention from players and is regarded as a very “groundbreaking” collaboration.
The collaboration has been online since May 1, and players can enter the game and unlock Skywalker Saga in Star Wars series and The Mandalorian in Disney+ series. Interestingly, in this collaboration, players can see the game character Peg-E watching “Star Wars” in Mr. Monopoly’s cinema in Monopoly GO. The most unexpected thing about this collaboration is that the world of Monopoly GO will also be rebuilt based on Star Wars.
In this collaboration, players can log in to Monopoly GO and complete activities to earn Star Wars-related stickers. In addition, those who log in to the game on May 4 will receive a special token “in honor of all Star Wars fans.” to commemorate this collaboration.
Collaboration Content And The Possibility Of Multiple CollaborationsHolding Tycoon Racers multiplayer events with Pod and Rebel Racers at iconic locations such as Mos Espa Grand Arena and Hoth; teaming up with friends to participate in cooperative activities such as building statues and starships; and participating in special excavation activities on Tatooine to potentially earn Star Wars souvenirs.
In this event, collecting $1 also rewards a large number of Star Wars-themed emoticons, dice, and shields in the game for players to collect.
If both parties are absolutely satisfied with this collaboration between Monopoly GO and Star Wars, then Monopoly GO may have a second or third collaboration with Star Wars. After all, Fortnite has reached many collaborations with Star Wars, and Star Wars’ film and television dramas, video games, and novels will be released one after another. Future cooperation should be more distinctive.
This offense has explosive one play touchdowns, an elite running game, and domination all over the field. So, we will be using the playbook called Spread, running the formation Tight Slot Open.
This formation is unique and hard to defend because it has one receiver and a tight end lined up tight to the line, and two receivers on the opposite side lined up near the slot. Which means defenses will need to guard a tight offensive look, and a spread offensive look, which can be very difficult for your opponent.
PA ReadThe first play we will go over to Tight Slot Open is PA Read. This is one of the most underrated plays in Madden 24, simply because this stock play can destroy man coverage or zone coverage.
In the stock play, you have this glitch bending, vertical route that absolutely fries man coverage, a zig route that puts man coverage in a blender, the tight end crossing route that creates a ton of separation, and a backside post that takes the lid off the defense. But make sure you are running this play with the zig and the streak to the far side of the field.
In the play, your reads will be low to high. So, when you snap the ball, your first read will be the zig route. If the zig is open, which it usually is, hit it quickly for an easy gain.
Your second read will be the vertical route, if you see that there is no help over the top, and he could beat his man of the line, free form pass the ball to lead the receiver by holding the left trigger and the left stick up. This will help to hit the receiver in stride for an explosive play.
What makes this vertical route so good is the way it bends to the outside. Because of this, if a corner is pressing in man coverage, you will sometimes get this cool press beating animation where the receiver practically runs through the defender and leaves him stranded behind. That’s what makes that route so deadly.
Your third read is the crosser ran by Tight End. This route takes a little more time to develop, but if you have time in the pocket, he will create a lot of separation by the time he hits the other side of the field.
Your last read is the backside post. This route works best against a 0 Man Blitz, simply because there will be no help over the top. With enough time in the pocket, you will hit the post for one play touchdowns against all out blitzing players.
Another way you can set this play up against man coverage is by putting the zig receiver on a slant. This will keep the defense on their toes because there will be two man beating routes crossing the field.
So, your read in this setup is to wait and see what route gets open first, the slant or the tight end crosser like you see here in this play.
PA Read against zone coverage is as deadly as it is against man coverage, all because it works as a delayed flood concept.
And if you don’t know already, flood concepts destroy every zone in Madden. Flood concepts overload a side of the field, so generally, there will be a deep route like a vertical, a medium route like a corner, and a quick route like a flat.
The reason most zone defenses struggle with this concept is because there are not enough zones on one side of the field to defend these routes. So, the reason PA Read is a flood concept is that there is a deep route, a quick route, and a medium route coming across the field flooding one side.
But for this play against a zone, you just want to be sure to run it on a Hash Mark.
Your reads will go from high to low. So, when you snap the ball, you will first look at the crossing route to see to see if you can hit him quick. If not, you will want to take a brief look at the zig.
If you see that this low zone defender crashes to the zig, you will have the crosser wide open behind him towards the numbers. If the zig is wide open off the bat, though, you can give it to him for some easy yards.
But a great offense will throw the ball to the sidelines and attack the middle of the field. So we are going to use this post route.
To get this post route open against any zone defense, all you’re going to do is put the tight end on a streak. This streak will pull any of the deep zone defenders away from the post route.
So when we snap the ball your read will be the deep safety on the post side. If he backs up to defend the vertical, throw a bullet pass to the post, aggressively catch it away from the safety and you’ll be throwing dots all over the field.
Bench SwitchThe next play we are going to go over is Bench Switch.
The first setup is an ultimate zone beater. But make sure you run this play to the short side of the field.
What you’ll want to do is put A on a streak, then motion the running back to become a receiver, and put him on a curl route.
On the backside, leave the receiver on a corner and put the tight end on a drag. Your first read here will be C route by the outside wide receiver. If Streak by A pulls the deep defenders, the drag keeps the short zone low, and the curl route occupies the user, C route will be wide open near the sidelines.
If for some reason C route is not open because the user guarded it or the short zone backed up to defend it, you will either have the drag or the curl route in the middle of the field for a quick check down.
Another way to run this is to put A on a streak, the running back on a table route to the right and the tight end on a streak. Your first read in this setup is the same, C route and then, if that is guarded.
The second read will be the flat by the running back. One thing to look out for, though, is the streak by Tight End. Many people will not be ready to defend quick streaks from this position, so you can surprise your opponent with a quick snap and throw the streak quickly in the middle of the field.
And if the defense is in a man's coverage when you thought they were in a zone, look at the corner route's backside. This corner does a great job of creating separation over the top of the defense.
BenchThe next play we will go over is called Bench. And We will have 2 setups to beat man coverage for one play touchdowns and short yardage situations.
For the first setup, what you’ll want to do is put X on a drag and A on a zig, then you can leave everything else. Make sure you run the zig and drag to the far side of the field. Your main read is the zig route.
This concept is meant to clear out space for the zig and setting up a natural pick by the drag to create even more separation for the zig. This setup is great for the red zone or if you need short first downs.
For the one play touchdown setup, you will want to be sure to be on a Hash Mark, and then put B on a drag, A on a zig, and the running back on a wheel.
On the backside, put an X on a streak. Your main read here is the running back, but if that is guarded, shift your focus to the corner route by the tight end. If he has a step on his defender, high ball the throw using L1 or LB to throw over the defender for a deep ball dot. If the deep routes are guarded, though, you can look at your short routes for a check down.
PRO Zone WeakThe last play we will go over is PRO Zone Weak. This is one of the best RPO’s in the game. What you’ll want to do is read the slot corner.
If the defender crashes towards the run, throw the ball to the flat. This will put you in a position to make moves in the open field for huge gains. If the slot corner stays with the flat, give the ball to the running back for an outside zone run.
In short, it is important to read how your blocks develop so you can make the right cuts to optimize this run.
In this guide, let’s talk about the Blood Magic Firestorm Inquisitor build in Path of Exile 3.23. The Infernal Mantle, is a unique body armor that’s used only in certain builds. The fire spell can greatly benefit from the Critical Strike Chance because of its immense power. However, because of the 100% increased spell damage taken while on low mana, none of the conventional builds use it. Blood Magic gets rid of your mana completely, so this downside will never apply. It also forces you to make some atypical choices.
How It WorksIt encourages accumulating tons of maximum life that can be used to gain damage via the Rathpith Globe. Creating a lowlife hybrid build seems like the most sound option. Infernal Mantle is a very common unique that you can buy in bulk and corrupt for an additional increase in the socketed fire skill gems. It alone can grant you an extra 5 or even seven levels to selected fire area of effect or duration skills, one of which is Firestorm of Pelting.
Reaching a 100% Critical Strike Chance is rather easy for an Inquisitor with Righteous Providence and a lot of Strength and Intelligence. It is nearly guaranteed the inevitable judgment makes your critical strikes treat enemy Elemental resistances as they're 0%. We have used Firestorm of Pelting, which has a delayed damage delivery, making it rather clunky for clearing maps.
The ability to summon up to 10 Firestorms at a time combined with intense specificity support and concentrated effect will, however, more than make up for it in terms of damage output against bosses. The build is durable with its vast maximum life and ES. It has a high block chance, life and ES Leech Regeneration, and even life gained on hit, which is very desirable with this type of skill. It also has nearly capped block chance and Frost Shield but low physical damage mitigation.
Clear speed is not that good unless you’re willing to expand on your Righteous Fire setup. Single Target damage is extremely high after it ramps up, but it’s mostly against stationary targets. The relatively low cost is what makes this build so good. One can say the Infernal Mantle is the unique selling point of this build.
Unique ItemsIt’s a hybrid build with tons of maximum life and some energy Shield. Aim to maximize your overall life total, ideally reaching around 10K. This life results in a lot of damage after equipping the Rathpith Globe Shield. The remaining damage is sourced from the gem level of Firestorm, which can easily be increased with Infernal Mantle and Replica Dragon Fang's Flight.
Rathpith Globe increases your maximum life, crit chance, and spell damage by a lot. You should be able to withstand the life drain with consecrated ground Life Regeneration and Life Leech with life gained on hit. Infernal Mantle socket your Firestorm setup here. When searching, prioritize a relatively inexpensive corrupted Infernal Mantle with implicits for increased AOE duration or all socketed gems. A perfect double corruption may grant your Firestorm seven additional levels, but settling on the inherent + 3 is good for a start. It increases your crit chance, ES, and converts a small portion of fire damage to chaos.
Replica Dragonfang's Flight amulet will grant you another 3 levels to your Firestorm skill with some attributes, resistances and reservation efficiency on top of that. Hands of the High Templar could be a better option for you if you don't require any of the mods typically found on rare gloves. Try to gain extra crit chance for spells, increased maximum life, maximum ES, and cast speed as corrupted implicit mods.
The Glorious Vanity will get you the corrupted soul for more energy Shield. It is somewhat beneficial with Pious Path and a lot of both maximum life and ES, but it can be dangerous too with Rathpith Globe. Too much of your life is being drained, which may kill you. On a Watcher's Eye, most Zealotry modifiers are good enough, but the best addition to a build will be instant life gained on hit from Vitality’s mod pool.
Rare ItemsA lot of DPS is provided by Righteous Fire, but to withstand the burning damage, you will need a source of Life Leach found on gloves, ES Leech from Ethereal Feast notable, or a flask modifier and basic Life Regeneration from POE Items. It’s also possible to gain life on hit mod. Firestorm of Pelting's rapid hits is fantastic. Other than that, get the regular life, crit multiplier, and cast speed. Try to get over 100 maximum life with some resistances on a helmet. When searching for Eldritch mods, prioritize mods that provide physical damage taken as fire damage and increased cast speed.
The weapon should provide you with a lot of increased damage Critical Strike modifiers, especially crit multiplier, +1 to fire skills, added fire damage to spells, and increased cast speed. If you’ve chosen a rare amulet, get as much maximum life and Critical Strike multiplier as you can. Resistances, attributes, and cast speed are valuable too.
Rings should be used for a lot of maximum life, resistances, especially Chaos Resistance, and Attributes like Strength and Intelligence to boost your crit chance with Righteous Providence. Maximum life and ES rare boots with Life, Resistances, movement speed, and Attributes are enough. Acquire the maximum number of these modifiers that you can afford.
For Eldritch implicits, seek maximum fire resistance, action speed, Life Regeneration rate, or brittle ground. If you need extra crit chance, focus on maximum life, Resistances, and Strength on the belt. You can also find large amounts of Life Regeneration here. Gloves are quite simple as well. Just get the usual maximum life and resistances. For the Eldritch mods, try to get unnerve on hit and fire damage leached as life.
On Jewels, get the increased maximum life with increased Critical Strike multiplier, resistances, or attributes. Progenesis is an expensive flask that’s great on its own but here, combined with Petrified Blood and rapid life recovery, it’s even better. You may be able to cap your spell and attack block chance with Rumi's Concoction. The consecrated ground created by Bottled Faith will increase your DPS and Critical Strike Chance. There are also some magic flasks you shall be equipped with. Silver Flask with increased cast speed is the most important. Diamond Flask with increased crit chance, Ruby Flask with Life Regeneration, or Basalt of quick silver flasks with movement speed or increased armor will be worth consideration.
Skill GemsFirestorm of Pelting summons multiple small meteors dealing fire damage every 0.15 seconds for 2 seconds. The maximum number of firestorms you can summon is 10. This spell has a basic fire duration and AOE, making it ideal for a corrupted Infernal Mantle. Link it with Elemental Focus, Intensify, Increased Critical Damage, Concentrated Effect, and Spell Echo support gems.
Storm Brand spell is used to apply shock and with added fire damage from items, it will also ignite for more damage from fire. Link it with Overcharge, Power Charge on Critical, and Unbound Ailments support gems. Replace Unbound Ailments with Combustion support if you have no ignite chance whatsoever.
Immortal Call reduces physical and elemental damage taken for a brief moment. Frost Shield drains your energy shield to form a protective bubble, causing you to take less damage and gain extra crit chance. Link these 2 to Cast When Damage Taken to activate them automatically after taking enough damage and Increase Duration to make them last longer.
Use Zealotry for more spell damage and critical strike chance. If you have no mana reserved, you’re allowed to host one blessing Aura for free if it’s linked to the Eternal blessing support. You don’t have mana, so it’s a no-brainer. Flame Dash is a simple mobility skill that is used to ignite enemies and travel with greater haste. You can link it to Faster Casting for slightly better mobility, but that’s not necessary.
Petrified Blood redistributes a fraction of the incoming damage from direct hits into a damage-over-time effect, a feature that synergizes well with a rapid life and Energy Shield recovery rate. This effect is limited to the lower half of your life pool. Tempest Shield grants shock immunity and substantial spell block chance. Vitality regenerates your life over time, which is very important, especially with the corrupted Soul. It also has good modifiers to get on a Watcher's Eye.
These 3 auras shall reserve half or more of your total life: Assassins Mark marked enemy is more likely to be hit with Critical Strike, which deals with increased critical damage. Enduring Cry regenerates a lot of life and ES on use and grants endurance charges to mitigate physical damage. Set it up as your movement key. Righteous Fire grants more spell damage. It has also quite high damage on its own because of your maximum life. If you want to improve your clear speed, you can link it up with additional support gems, but that would require you to abandon some of the previously mentioned.
Bandits & PantheonIn Act 2, kill all the bandits for 2 additional passive skill points. For a major God, you can pick pretty much anything. Solaris is good if you’re up against pinnacle bosses, and Brine King good for freeze immunity. For a general-purpose major God, we recommend Lunaris. It improves your clear speed and protects you from projectiles. Minor God should improve your physical damage mitigation. That’s Tukohama or Gruothkul. Both are decent.
Passive TreeThe passive skill tree should provide you with a lot of maximum life, spell and fire damage, cast speed, block chance, or Asylum for chaos resistance and reduced effect of curses should be allocated to pick up Iron Will, Blood Magic, Call to Arms, and Pain Attunement keystones. Allocate all 6 Life masteries, Shield Mastery for Critical Strike multiplier per energy shield on a shield, Fire Mastery for increased damage against ignited enemies, Reservation Mastery for Life res conservation efficiency, and Caster Mastery for one additional maximum Intensify.
We'll be discussing the various buffs and nerfs that went into effect on January 11th. These buffs and nerfs are going to be affecting 2 main classes. That’s going to be our Beast Mastery Hunter and our Priest. I’m going to share with you some tweaks that you can make to your Beast Mastery Hunter that might counter some of the craziness that Blizzard is going to nerf in this upcoming update in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. We have a lot need to be covered, so let’s get started.
Buffs & Nerfs UpdateIn a recent January 10th post, Blizzard stated: We intend to make the following adjustments via hotfixes for hunters:
Chimera Shot weapon damage is increased to 100%, was 85%. Explosive Shot base damage increased by 25% before any attack power modifiers. Mana cost of Chimera Shot, Explosive Shot, Carve, Kill Command, and Flanking Strike is reduced by 50%. Beast Mastery rune bonus health and damage provided to the hunter's pet is reduced to 20%, was 30%. Beast Mastery rune bonus Focus regeneration provided to the hunter pet is reduced to 50%, was 80%. (That’s a 30% nerf to the amount of focus our pets receive, and that’s definitely going to change up what pets I use post nerfs. We’ll talk more about that here shortly.)In the developer notes, they put, 'We remain concerned that hunter pets are still too powerful and believe that the best way forward is to reign in the Beast Mastery rune while compensating via the Hunter's main spells.' I guess they’re trying to get more and more Beast Mastery Hunters to go Marksman.
Runes ChangeBeast Master Hunters are going to take a hit in DPS once these nerfs go into effect. Now, here are some of the changes that I’m going to make to my Beast master Hunter that's going to help me to counter some of these nerves. Let’s first discuss the runes. So before this update, I was running hard of the line Beast Mastery rune, and I’d switch back and forth between Flanking Strikes and Sniper Training. I wasn’t using the Kill Command cause my primary pet that I was using was a Wind Serpent.
Now, post-January 11th update, I’m going to be running a hard of the line Beast Master rune and Kill Command cause I’m going to be switching out my primary pet. Additionally, if you don’t have access to a harded line, you could always use the Master Marksman. And if you’re one of those Hunters that really enjoy weaving in and out, you can always interchange between Kill Command and Flanking Strike.
New Talent TreeSo as far as the talent tree, my primary build is going to be 2 in Improved Aspect of the Hawk, 5 in Endurance Training, 3 in Thick Hide, 5 in Unleashed Fury, and 1 in Ferocity.
Yes, if you’re in a raid situation where you know that your pet’s going to be taking a lot of damage and dying a lot, then I would definitely recommend taking the 2 points out of Improved Aspect of the Hawk and getting Improved Revive Pet. Because, as we know, with a dead pet as a Beastmaster Hunter, that’s going to take out a gigantic chunk of our DPS. But when I’m out in the world soloing and whether it be experience farming or gold farming, my pet really doesn’t die that much. So it makes no sense to waste 2 points in the Improved Revive Pet.
And additionally, in the raids I’ve been in, my pet hardly ever dies. So it just felt like a waste of points to put into Improved Revive Pet when I just improved my all-out DPS so much more by putting those extra 2 points in Improved Aspect of the Hawk. So I would definitely recommend that you try both ways to see what fits your playstyle better. If you lean towards having that extra DPS and Improved Aspect of the Hawk, or if you just need that Improved Revive Pet because your pet keeps on dying.
New Hunter PetNow that we talked about runes and talents, let’s talk about pets. Before this update, I was using a Wind Serpent. And Wind Serpents are also awesome pets. That Lightning Strike is just catastrophic. But it came at a price of 50 focus and getting nerf 30% in our Focus regeneration for our pets and 10% for damage. Doesn’t make sense to continue using a Wind Serpent.
So what I’m going to end up doing is switching back to my Ghost Saber, which is a 2.0 attack speed cat. That’s going to do really nice damage in conjunction with that Kill Command rune. And if I ever switch out with a Flanking Strike rune, that 2.0 attack speed is going to give me more attack damage. Therefore, I’m going to be able to pull out more damage by using a 2.0 attack speed cat.
The highly anticipated item faction system is coming to the full release of Last Epoch, on February 21st.
With this innovative new way, players can participate in the deep and rewarding item hunt that Last Epoch offers, in a way that they like to play.
IntroBy joining the Merchants Guild, you will be able to buy, sell, and trade items through the bustling bazaar. Or, if you choose to join the Circle of Fortune, you’ll set your sights on the stars and be able to bolster your item acquisition through Prophesies and increased item drop rates. So, this faction system is the result of many years of debating what the ideal trade system should look like in a loot-based ARPG.
If you have observed carefully, you will know that players of ARPGs are split nearly down the middle when it comes to those who want their experience to heavily trade and an economy, and those who want to focus on finding items themselves or, with close friends. So, it would be great if the developers of Last Epoch could provide players from both factions with a tailor-made and exciting path to finding top-tier items through the item faction system!
Item Faction SystemIn Last Epoch 1.0, you will join a faction once you reach the great mercantile city of Maj’Elka.
When you select to join the Merchants Guild or the Circle of Fortune, a new interface will become available that will let you access details about your current status with your faction (known as reputation), how much Favor you currently have and what benefits your faction is currently providing you. Let’s talk about these briefly.
ReputationReputation within a faction is a core part of how a faction is going to be benefiting you on your journey. As a representative of that faction, you will continue to increase your reputation by killing enemies and completing quests.
For the Merchants Guild, this includes participating in the bazaar and completing trades at your current level. And for the Circle of Fortune, this means completing prophesies that will divine certain items after fulfilling the foretold conditions.
Through earning reputation, you will ascend ranks within your faction, earning your unique benefits and options. Once you have earned reputation within a faction, that reputation stays with your account, in that game mode. This means, if you rank up a cycle character, all of your other cycle characters will have that rank when they join the same faction, and contribute to that faction’s reputation gain. You may switch factions and earn and maintain reputation with them with no penalty to your earned reputation with the other.
There are currently 10 ranks to achieve in each faction. With the later ranks requiring quite a bit of commitment in order to obtain. So, while you have the freedom to change your faction at any time, you will want to pick a faction and stick with it to reach the most powerful benefits that they have to offer.
It is important to note that you can only be a member of one faction at any given time per character. And items earned with the benefits from those factions will require that you are aligned with them in order to use them. So, most players will want to stick to a faction that rewards their preferred playstyle.
FavorNext, let’s talk about Favor. Favor is the currency you will earn while slaying enemies or completing quests for each of the factions.
Favor is separate from reputation. This currency can be used to either complete trades with the Merchants Guild or acquire new prophesies from the Circle of Fortune. And if you find yourself with excess favor, you can always spin the wheel with the faction gambler.
Item GiftingItem gifting to party members has been in the game for a while now and it isn’t going anywhere.
However, it’s important to note that once you have joined a faction, items will start being tagged with the faction you are a part of when they dropped.
This means, that while questing if you are a member of the Merchants Guild, and an item drops for you that item will still be shareable with anyone who was in the party like always, and be available to be sold provided that you meet the rank requirements in the Merchants Guild bazaar.
Just be sure that the person you are trading it to also meets the same faction requirements.
ResonanceThe last use case developers wanted to solve for, are friends who choose to play together and just want their own little trade group.
To solve this problem, developers introduced Resonance, which is a new type of item that can be found when you are questing with your friends or party members. This item can be used to enable an item to be gifted specifically to the player you have a Resonance with, even if they weren't there when the item dropped.
A lot of times, players will play with their friends and then later, you'll be soloing a piece of content and the perfect item drops for your buddy. Thanks to the new Resonance system, you will be able to give them that perfect item, the next time you see them.
As those of you who love loot-based ARPGs know, trade and economy is a very complex and divisive issue to solve for when catering to a large player base and different play styles, while keeping the item acquisition hunt feeling great.
There is so much more to explore with the item faction system. Let's wait for February 21st. All the mysteries about the item faction system will be revealed during the search!
I’m going to bring you a quick Shaman tank in-depth guide about everything we need to know in WoW Classic Season of Discovery. It includes races, runes, what you want to use on certain bosses, rotation, and just kind of further information into the builds.
Hope you like this build and have a try. Now, let's just dive into this guide.
RacesWith Shaman tanking, there are only 3 races you can play as: Troll, Orc, and Tauren. Each has special racial or special things that make them better than others.
If you’re looking for more stamina and more survivability build, you’re going to go Tauren. This brings the Racial of Endurance, giving you more health pull. It also has War Stomp, which is great for AOE pulls. Stomp shock everything. It basically stuns every target for 3 seconds so you get all the aggro on them and pull them towards you.
If you’re going Orc, which has Axe Specialization, giving you a couple more points into using axes. You also get Blood Fury, which provides a damage boost but with a 50% less chance of healing for 25 seconds. So some bosses it might cost you your life.
Trolls, the last race, brings a great racial called Berserking. This increase your attack speed for some time. The other downside of it is they bring Beast Slaying, currently not very useful in BFD.
RunesNext, we’re going to look at what type of runes you want to be running as a Shaman tank. There’s a different variety. You’re going to want to have the Way of Earth on. It’s very easy to obtain in the Barrens. This one turns your abilities, such as Earth Shock, into a taunt for you. It also gives you, on top of that, a 30% more health pull.
Other things you’d like to run for survivability include Shield Mastery, throwing on a shield, giving you 15% extra block chance without any other bonuses. So, it might be useful for you.
If you’re not getting hit much or hard in BFD, I would recommend running Dual Wield, using double Rockbiter Weapons to get an increased amount of threat. However, you would also have to run Dual Wield Specialization on your chest piece rather than Shield Mastery since you’re not using a shield.
For the hands, these are runes that I swap on each different boss in the BFD. Some bosses, I’ll throw on Molten Blast for AOE.
For single-target bosses, I’ll throw on Lava Lash.
For bosses like Ghamoo-ra, I’ll throw on Lava Burst with Overload on my chest for an increased chance of procing and doing more damage. You’ll still hold the number 1 threat, no matter what.
The runes are up to you, whichever way you like to play the game. If you want to go Shield Mastery or try new things that Shaman has offered in SOD, it’s up to you.
Stat PrioritySomething thorough that we go over doesn’t have to be crazy right now is the stat priority for Shaman tanks. You do want stamina, but it’s not something you’re going to get right away since bosses aren’t hitting that hard. So, focus on agility into strength, then into stamina. These 3 boost your threat, damage, and help you DPS.
Then focus on intellect for mana, and armor and hit rating. Currently, you don’t get a lot of armor rating since we’re on the 25 brackets, and hit rating is obtained from BFD Boon and epic gear from professions. These are quick notes about stat priority and what to look for in a Shaman tank.
RotationI want to get into the quick rotation. When you pull a boss, pop Flame Shock right off the bat and then cast Molten Blast because, with Flame Shock up, there’s a 10% chance that this resets the cooldown of Molten Blast. So, you can keep pressing Molten Blast, generating more threat as you go in. If you don’t have another Shaman in your group, drop the right totems.
Strength of Earth Totem and Fire Nova Totem seems to be the only 2 because your mana pool isn’t crazy high. Dropping totems like Fire Nova Totem repeatedly might not be worth it because you’ll go out of mana. Strength of Earth Totem stays up for 2 minutes, so you drop it. Most bosses last 30 seconds to 45 seconds or maybe longer, which might last a minute 30.
You can also apply Frost Shock if all the targets have Flame Shock on them, and if you have enough mana, you can throw in Lightning Shields. Again, it’s situational, depending on your mana. If you have extra mana to spend, throw on Lightning Shield, Frost Shocks, or keep throwing Molten Blast.
The rotation is situational, so if your rune swapping, you might not be running Molten Blast. You might run Lava Lash, Lava Burst, or different things that are good for different bosses. But you’ll still Flame Shock, drop the same totems, and look out for those things. The rune is the biggest thing on whether you’re casting Molten Blast, Lava Lash, or Lava Burst.
Finally, I want to get into professions and maybe some consumables for the Shaman tank. Currently, there aren’t professions that increase your threat besides maybe engineering for Heavy Dynamite, but it’s for AOE damage. Most bosses in BFD are single tank bosses, so professions are up to you. I would say run Leatherworking. You get gloves that give you a hit percentage and increase your attack speed for a certain duration when you pop them.
ConsumablesWhen it comes to consumables for tanks, Strong Troll’s Blood Potion for health regeneration throughout the raid, Elixir of Defense for armor that reduces all damage by boss melee attacks, stacking with some runes like Way of Earth for armor. Elixir of Firepower is good for abilities like Lava Burst and Molten Blast. Elixir of Lesser Agility is excellent for agility, our number 1 stat priority.
Situational consumables like Free Action Potions are invaluable against bosses and enemies with stuns. If you pop it at the beginning of Lady Saravess, you won’t get frozen arrowed and can stand in her pool without getting chains in Phase 2. Shadow Protection potions are solid against Kelris.
TalentsFinally, for the last part of this guide, we’re getting into the talent tree for Shaman tanks. You’re going to want to go right into the enhancement tree, going 5 out of 5 in Shield Specialization. It increases your chance to block attacks with the shield by 5% and increases the amount blocked by 25%. This is up to you.
If you’re running a shield, it’s worth it. If not, and you’re dual-wielding, Ancestral Knowledge might be better, increasing your maximum mana by 5%. Going down, you want Thundering Strikes, improving your chance to crit with your weapon by 5%. If you’re dual-wielding, you have a double chance to crit.
Anticipation, going 5 out of 5 increases your chance to dodge by an additional 5%. You want to dodge and parry to tank less damage for a smoother raid.
Finally, since you get 16 points, we’re going to put 1 into Flurry, increasing your attack speed by 10% for the next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike. This works well with Thundering Strikes. The more you crit, the more Flurry procs you get, making you swing faster and output more threat. It’s better for you to be tanking any boss.
Have you made any progress on FC 24? A lot of players lately have been complaining that they’re playing a lot but not seeing any improvements, which is frustrating them.
It’s time to change that. Because from my experience as a coach, I know that all you need is some focused practice and you’ll get better. If you know what to focus on, develop a proper training plan and practice accordingly. In this guide, we will show you 3 key points to becoming a good player.
Learn The MechanicsThere are many aspects to FC 24, and you can’t learn every aspect at once, which is why you have to set some small goals by sorting out the mechanics.
You need to practice prioritizing them and plan focused workouts for each one during the week. Winning one-on-one Tackles, Player Switching and Skill Moves are probably the best examples.
So tell yourself, today I’m going to focus on Stepovers and how to perform them cleanly, and do about 60 minutes of focus training. The next day, you can do the same thing with another mechanic, such as Player Switching.
Focusing on just one mechanic of the game will allow you to improve at this point and take a step forward. Because improvements to a specific mechanic or skill are more important than winning the game.
If you don’t know which mechanics to focus on, you need to have this mindset and don’t worry. Because we have a series of guides for you here, plus we have many in-depth tutorials that may give you ideas for training in the different major categories.
Focused TrainingWe want to take the next step and train on almost every mechanic of the game. There is a different type of training section here. Let me give you a personal example in FIFA 19.
I’m one of those players who never reaches for the right analog stick to perform some skill moves. But that time I felt like I was missing something in the game, and it stopped me for a while. Then I prioritize learning important basic and advanced Skill Moves.
All I did was go into Practice Arena, where I could actually perform specific Skill Moves. Let’s take Elastico as an example. After learning input, I told myself that this Skill Move is directional. Since the input always changes based on which direction my player is facing, I have to practice it everywhere.
I’ve invested some time and FC 24 coins to complete a basic build. Then, when it was enough, I jumped into a squad battle game against AI first before trying to train against AI with actual players. This is the perfect tool for your daily training because you can test everything without having to deal with too much stress.
Once I get a good feel for it, I move to the online portion and start trying out Skill Moves against real opponents. FIFA players just focus on that specific set of skills and try it out in different situations, showing me when and where it works, and when it doesn’t.
So you have to experience the positive and negative results of the execution mechanism. So when you embrace this mindset, you will feel it clearly. You won’t force yourself to learn all the mechanics, but once you’re done training, they will actually come naturally to you.
Remember, winning or losing doesn’t matter when training. If you focus on winning or losing situations, you can easily fall back into your bad habits. So just focus on clean execution of the mechanism. That’s the only way you can achieve your goal.
Analyze Your GameplayNow I want you to listen to me carefully here, because this is the most important practical part: watching and analyzing your own game, even if it’s a painful defeat. That’s not only why I’m a good player, but also what makes me a successful coach.
During your game, you may not realize what mistakes you are making in the heat of the game, and you will repeat them and possibly blame them on the game. Therefore, please observe your performance on time.
Let me tell you a brief but very important story from my coaching experience. When I send introductory emails to my students, I ask them what their strengths and weaknesses are. Sometimes I get responses like: I’m great at building, but I can’t beat the script for this game very well.
When I watch them play, I take notes and analyze their games. The funny thing is that in some cases, I don’t have to tell them anything. Because when I ask if you see the question here, they insert the correct answer into the reply and tell me what they should have done instead of what they did.
So after losing a game, make sure to use the recording option from the console and watch yourself, even if you win and it was a hard to win, do it again. Because winning a game doesn’t mean you’ve done everything right, there’s always room to correct mistakes or improve.
So you need to take that step, watch your own games, recognize your mistakes, take notes, gain focus, and retrain to be reminded again.
Finally, let’s wrap it all up with an example session. You start in Practice Arena, practicing a specific mechanic for 20 to 30 minutes. Then you go and play three or four online matches. At this point, your primary focus is on clean execution of the mechanic, not on achieving victory.
Here you can improve yourself immediately after recording a game or two and spend the rest of the course of analyzing your own games. This will make you realize what you did wrong, what you did right, and push you in the right direction of learning.
That’s it for today’s guide. We really want you to have the right training plan and the right mindset to push you in the right direction and become a better player!