Path of Exile 2 has revealed new gameplay, a boss fight, and a new class called the Mercenary.

Additionally, new features of the game include changes and new additions to the combat. This is really looking like a straight-up improvement to the isometric genre.

Let's go through the cool new things coming in Path of Exile 2.

New Controls

Firstly, let's go over the confirmation of the new changes to how you can control your character and this applies to any class and any weapon type.

You can now use WASD movement to control and move your character, allowing you to move separately while aiming. You can still use traditional click-to-move if you want to.

On top of this, there are changes to many character skills whereby you can move while casting, increasing the pace and intensity of combat.

Honestly, these changes together are great news to me, and it really does impact how the game will feel to play.

Mercenary Class

Regarding the Mercenary class, then we got a really good look at the new Mercenary class, which is a new crossbow-wielding character.

This class comes with unique crossbow options, mimicking a variety of different firearm types but in crossbow form.

They wanted this class to feel both responsive and snappy when firing the crossbow, similar to how shooting in first-person shooter games feels. So, they've gone deep into making different crossbows that function kind of like a sniper rifle, a shotgun, and even assault rifles.

These crossbows are layered on top with different elemental ammo types and even attachments that all synergize together in different ways.

New Weapon Types

For your character's equipment, you can only equip 2 crossbows at a time, and there are 3 different types to pick from:

Burst Crossbow: Functions like a shotgun, firing a burst of arrows dealing little damage individually but packing a punch if they all connect to a single target. Power Shot Crossbow: Functions like a sniper rifle, dealing high damaging slow lower hits. Rapid Shot Crossbow: Very fast shooting with a high magazine capacity, allowing for chasing and evading enemies while keeping up the damage.

All Ammo Abilities

There are also ammo skills, which add another layer of depth on top of how these different types of crossbows function. There are slight differences in how they work across the different types, so let's go through them all.

Ammo abilities include Armor-Piercing Ammo, which makes your hits pierce through enemies, good for taking on a group at once.

However, for the Rapid Shot crossbow, each hit will erode an enemy's armor, eventually breaking it, negating the Burst Shot crossbows' drawback against armored enemies.

Meanwhile, for the Power Shot crossbow, if an enemy's armor is broken, you can then pull out your power crossbow to shoot them, triggering a special weak spot hit dealing massive extra damage and high stun on the enemy.

Then, you have Incendiary Ammo. This is good against single targets as it ignites them. With the Burst Shot crossbow, the more projectiles that connect to a target, the more damage it deals per hit, making it great for super close-range situations.

For the Rapid Shot crossbow, the incendiary ammo charges up before firing. As you continue to shoot, it heats up, dealing more damage per shot. Moreover, it boosts the fire damage of any grenades you launch and automatically ignites oil grenades.

Moving on to the Power Shot crossbow, this ammo transforms into a pseudo-rocket launcher, creating an explosive blast on impact for AOE damage. It synergizes with grenades, causing any fired on the ground to instantly explode.

Permafrost Ammo slows enemies by chilling them and has a chance to freeze them in place. Frozen enemies are vulnerable to a special effect of the armor-piercing ammo, making them explode for huge AOE damage nearby.

The rapid-fire crossbow can also shoot the ground with this ammo type to create ice crystals. These crystals act like mines, exploding when enemies touch them and applying chilling to slow them down. It helps set traps and establish a safe area before engaging in a fight.

The Power Shot crossbow creates ice walls on impact, blocking off areas in corridors and alleys to control enemies. These walls explode when broken by enemies, synergizing with Burst Shot crossbows' armor-piercing ammo for extra damage on Frozen targets.

New Grenade Gear Slots & Types

Additionally, there are new grenade gear slots and types.

The attachment slot in your crossbow is where grenades come from. It functions as a grenade launcher. It allows you to fire different grenade types with varied effects upon explosion.

These attachments function as skill gems, providing extra skill slots for your character and can be augmented with support gems. Grenades are fired separately from your crossbow's primary shooting and explode after a short delay, based on the type chosen.

There are 3 known types of grenades:

Explosive Grenades deal massive damage with a delayed explosion. Flash Grenades deal slight damage but cause massive stun on enemies. Oil Grenades slow enemies by covering them with oil, leaving patches on the floor.

These combinations allow for interesting build potentials. The different crossbow types, ammo types, and grenade varieties synergize in unique ways. Witnessing a character utilizing these synergies against a boss was impressive. The boss fight showcased these strategies in action.

This is a build guide that can help you gain infinite heals and stamina PVP in New World Season 4. I’m going to keep it short for you.

Weapon Artifacts

For weapon artifacts, I’m running Finisher Rapier mainly because of its 15% permanent damage buff, which affects both of your weapons, and you can keep it up with the Keenly Jagged on your bow. I’m still using Refreshing Move on it.

I’m also using Energy Aura as the third perk on my bow, but you can use Enchanted if you really want to. This is a stamina surplus build, as you’ll see in a second, so it’s all up to personal preference. I just end up preferring the stamina.

For gems, I’m choosing to split my damage 50/50, as it’s the best of both worlds and has the least amount of counters. The 8% damage over time (DOT) is mandatory, but make sure the element of that DOT is different on both your weapons because they don’t stack.

Armor And Jewelry Artifacts

Regarding armor artifacts, I like Tumblers because it’s a 600 heal on no cooldown. The reason I prefer it over Featherweight is that of the potential it has. Featherweight offers around a 5% extra effective hitpoints (EHP) difference, which is around 900 health. So if I proc Tumblers at least twice in a fight, it’s automatically better than Featherweight, and any proc behind that just makes the gap bigger.

For accessories, Endless sounds good on paper, but you can’t put Healthy Toast on it, which is really, really bad. Ankh is nice, but it makes you pick between protection or stamina recovery, and obviously, you have to pick stamina recovery, so you’re going to miss protection. I like the universality of having different protections, so I’d rather not use Ankh.

Armor And Jewelry Perks

The actual perks on my ring and earring are the exact same as they usually are. Everything here is pretty self-explanatory. Gear we’re looking at 5 Shirking Heals. The buff to 7 seconds turned it from a good perk to an almost mandatory perk, but you’ll find a lot of people don’t agree with that because they’re stubborn and invested a lot of their money in a build that’s not good.

For my secondary perk, I’m running Fortify, and the rest is just normal stuff: one skill perk (Siphoning Energy), and then the random perk that Tumblers have. In whatever leftover slots I have, I put Health on, which in this case amounts to two health.

For armor gems, I’m running 4 Opal and one Onyx with full Energizing Runes. The Rune choice is a bit up to personal preference, but I highly recommend using at least one Energizing Rune, mainly because there are lots of clutch scenarios where you’re one stamina away from stamina-ing yourself out. The rest you can put range damage, but I would definitely not recommend Leeching Damage unless you’re using Boltcaster. The Leeching version is a flat 18% damage reduction against Boltcaster, Fire Staff, and other fully Elemental range weapons, and it’s a 9% damage reduction against bows, muskets, and B-buses who use a split gem. My Opals additionally cover 8% less damage from all Elemental sources.

Damage Resistance

Regardless if it’s melee or ranged, that’s 8% less damage from weapons like Abyss, Boltcaster, Firestaff, and 4% less damage from weapons that have split gems. The 3 Onyx I have covered some additional defense against melee players. This is purely optional and up to your playstyle. If you’re fine with playing super defensive and ratty, you can drop the Onyx for some thrust and lightning resist instead.

For the necklace, I’m obviously going with fire resist because that’s the easiest range weapon to get hit by. You can do movement tech or whatever movement cancels you want against other bows and muskets, and they’ll end up missing 90% of their shots. But it’s hard to do movement tech against Firestaff when they have a hitbox of a Boeing 747. Plus, the fire resist also reduces explosive shot damage from bows.

My completely honest recommendation is to have a set of amulets and maybe even some accessories that you can easily swap in and out. This way, you have the freedom to swap to another resist if you’re ever when there is no Firestaff. For example, let’s say you’re getting hunted by a melee assassin squad. Then, you should obviously switch to your slash necklace. Let’s say the enemy team has 10 Boltcaster players. Obviously, switch to a lightning or thrust necklace.

If your build is threatened by a simple swap of a necklace and maybe a ring or accessory, then maybe you should reevaluate your build.

Attributes

Moving on to attributes, this does get a little interesting. 25 and 50 strength are still bugged but no longer in a good way. 50 strength doesn't do anything, and 25 strength, on the other hand, previously boosted heavy damage by 10% and light damage by 5%. Now it only boosts both damages by 2%. Classic AGS, honestly. But anyways, because of that, I'm dropping 25 strength and then also dropping 35 con to get 50 focus. This 10% extra healing affects all the pots I use and even tumblers, and I can justify the 900 Health loss from going to 240 to 2115 con with that 10% extra Health. As long as a fight lasts long enough where you go through two rotations of pots, then this 10% prevails, not even accounting for any sharing or tumbler procs.

This build shines in fights that last long, which is pretty much any fight against good players. It's also a very solo-centric build. The second you involve a pocket healer that lets these micro heals matter in the long term, at that point, you're better off running Featherweight and more pure damage reductions.

If you're investing in dex after 350, then I would still get 25 strength first. Simply because the 25 points here end up doing more damage than 25 dex after 350. So if your build is 400 dex and zero strength.

Toxic Rain Pathfinder was my starter build for League and it didn’t disappoint me at all. You can easily scale into the late game while remaining tanky. You can also easily farm tier 16 empowered Legion and Expedition. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Skill Itself And Area Solution

Our skill choice is Toxic Rain. Fire a projectile with your bow, which will spawn Spore Pods where it lands. Over time, this will start to cause chaos damage in an area, and they can overlap each other.

We’ve gained huge buffs in this league, but we’ve lost gems that increase area quality. Therefore, we need a new method to reach the area threshold of 39% increase.

I’ve seen others use Searing Exarch Helmet Implicit, which increases the area. But I think giving up 15% or more of Despair Curse effect is bad.

So I came up with a simple solution, which is to exchange for a Medium Cluster Jewel. In this way, only 1% of damage is lost in exchange for 10% Area of effect and 8% life.

Clear Skill

To increase the speed of clearing, we use Caustic Arrow. When you fire a projectile, it creates Caustic Ground where the projectile lands. Over time, this can cause chaotic damage.

But it is difficult to pass the level using this skill alone. Therefore, we added Arrow Nova Support. With this combination, our clearing speed will be much faster.

Secondary Source Of Damage And Damage Scaling

Our biggest and best multipliers come from secondary sources using Ballista. We can have 5 of these and they will help stack Wither on the boss. By default increases Chaos damage by 90%.

In addition, we also get an Ascendancy node, which will increase the Wither effect and give us the chance to cause a Wither.

The other really big damage increase is skill effect duration. Because Pods will stay in the fight longer and deal damage for longer.

We can keep all the mana because we use Eldritch Battery for the build. We’ll spend our Energy Shield just like we have mana, but we can use our skills more freely because we don’t have to worry about mana.

You need at least 400 Energy Shield as I think that’s a good breakpoint for Divine Blessing to set. Even after you use Divine Blessing, you have enough Energy Shield to send Toxic Rain and still not deplete Energy Shield.

Which New Ascendancy?

We can use Charm because we selected Wildwood Primalist as our secondary Ascendancy. I also used 2 Spell Suppression Charm and a Mana Reservation Charm, so we didn’t have to use Enlighten.

Also, because I’m using a clear setup rather than a single target setup, this means the damage we take will be much higher. And POE currency cost of running the map is very high. Therefore, this build will need to continue to be updated. Of course, you can adjust it to suit your play style.

Defensives

On the defensive side, we convert 63% of physical damage into elemental damage. Of these, 50% were achieved just by using Lightning Coil. The rest comes from the helmet.

Because we treat so much damage as elemental damage, we can use all elemental damage reduction flasks to reduce converted elemental damage, such as Ruby, Sapphire, and Topaz Flasks.

In addition, we can also use Grace Aura to increase the evasion rating, so that we will almost never die from the monster’s normal attacks or projectiles.

Now that we are almost untouchable by physical attacks, the remaining danger is spell damage. Skill Tree, Gear and Charm can achieve 100% Spell Suppression.

Items

Since we’re using Eldritch Battery, you’ll need Energy Shield and Evasion Bases and the pure Energy Base Helmet.

Weapon: Our weapon is a standard crafted bow with +1 socketed bow gems that increase attack speed and cause chaos damage over time. Quiver’s life and damage overtime are mostly related to attack skills and bow damage. Quiver: Now we use Penetrating Arrow Quiver because I also use Caustic Arrow for clearing, which is why I say this is not the best setup for a single target. Amulet: Amulet is also a crafted one. You just buy an amulet with Fractured Chaos Resistance and reforge Chaos through Harvest until you deal damage over time and get +1 for all Chaos skill gems. Gloves: High life chaos resistance and attack speed. Suppression and chaos damage multi as implicit. Boots: Suppress movement speed avoids Elemental Ailments and avoids Elemental Ailments and action speed by implicit. Helmet: Life and large Energy Shield rolls, for Eldritch Battery crafting physical damage treated as fire. And improve implicit physical damage, such as Cold or Lightning and Despair Curse effects. Ring: Life and attributes and resistance and crafting lowest Frenzy Charges. Belt: Life and strength also increase Flask Charge buff and increase the effect of flasks on you.

Flask

So the flasks we use are Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz, Quicksilver and Divine Life flask. All flasks require this mod: increased effect and reduced duration.

Be careful when you roll your flask, as there are many mod combinations of the two, but it will reduce the duration even more. So your flask won’t have 100% uptime.

The sub-mod reduces mana cost, chance to avoid being frozen, and all elemental resistances. When you get into a boss fight, change your Quicksilver flask to a Silver flask with attack speed.

That’s it for my Toxic Rain Pathfinder build guide. Ready to dive into Affliction League with Toxic Rain Pathfinder build? Looking forward to seeing you in the game!

WoW Season of Discovery Phase 2 will open up with Gnomeregan for its level up raid and Stranglethorn Vale for its PVP event zone. But how has Phase 1 gone, and how have people reacted to it?

In the case of Phase 1 on Blackfathom Deeps and Ashenvale, people have loved the experience. Myself included.

Phase 1 - Breakdown

There has been a rush of people spamming Ragefire Chasm for Horde, Stockades for Alliance and Wailing Caverns & Deadmines for both to get geared up for Blackfathom Deeps.

The bosses were tougher than some people expected, with many wiping and struggling on later bosses. However, the loot experience and freshness of the content made it a genuinely pleasant experience.

Regarding the PVP event zone, people seem to be enjoying it. It’s an overall okay experience. Blizzard has been fine-tuning and monitoring player reception and feedback to the event, both raid and PVP. Overall, it’s good but could be better and not as good as people expected.

This doesn’t even account for the rush to get runes. The world feeling alive and active, seeing thousands upon thousands of players spamming these low-level dungeons because we’re stuck here for a few more weeks, and almost no one is bored yet.

Leveling has been fun. People are gearing up alts since the level cap is 25, and it’s not difficult to do. SoD Gold itself is now a valuable commodity, with people proud of their 50g. However, buying gold with real money trading is $1 per gold, which is exorbitant. But then again, if people are selling, that means some are buying.

Overall, Phase 1 is incredible and leaves people excited about what’s coming next.

PvE - Gnomeregan: Level-Up Raid

And that is Gnomeregan and Stranglethorn Vale (STV) in Phase 2.

Gnomeregan isn’t an iconic dungeon or place, aside from the fact that the Gnomes still do not have their homeland restored after 20 years.

But what are the bosses of Gnomeregan, and what kind of changes can we expect from this dungeon?

Bosses

When you go into Gnomeregan, you open up with Grubbis, a trogg that is rather brutish, but overall, a simple fight. Since this is the opening boss, I don’t think the difficulty of Grubbis will increase by much, but his loot table will definitely change.

Grubbis spawns after a short roleplay event in which you clear waves of mobs, avoiding the dynamite explosion before he comes out hollering. I wonder if they’ll keep this event or if they’ll remove it. It makes sense either way.

The second boss is Viscous Fallout, another simple boss. You simply have to clear the trash mobs around it so you can pull it without pulling extra packs, which will wipe your party. As far as being changed for a raid boss, I assume they’ll make it, so you have to fight some of these trash mobs with it. So, I expect it’ll start with some ads that pull regardless of clearing the ads around the Viscous Fallout.

Then, we move on to the third boss, Electrocutioner 6000, which is a simple boss. Most of the bosses are simple and, for the most part, spank and tank. But that’s just for Gnomeregan, the dungeon. Once it becomes a level-up raid, this will definitely change. I can assume that this mob will have a new deadly mechanic, as with most of the other bosses.

The fourth boss is also the most hated boss for Feral Druids in Classic due to the need to farm Manual Crowd Pummelers. With Season of Discovery, that is no longer the case, as we get a new and improved version of Manual Crowd Pummeler called the Automatic Crowd Pummeler. This new item is a permanent item with a 3-minute cooldown that you can use infinitely. I don’t know if they plan to remove the original version, but they likely will. As for the boss itself, the changes that’ll be implemented are likely going to involve giving it actual mechanics and things you have to keep an eye out for.

The fifth boss of Gnomeregan is the Dark Iron Ambassador, who is a rare that isn’t guaranteed to spawn. This mob will probably get turned into a named mob and given an expanded nature within the raid.

Finally, we have Mekgineer Thermaplugg, the big bad end boss of the dungeon and soon-to-be raid. This kind of boss was very likely going to be as brutal as Aku’mai has been in BFD. In the classic dungeon, like the rest of Gnomeregan, he is a spank-and-tank boss. However, for the level-up raid, expect him to have some new brutal abilities that’ll test your ability to clear this level-up raid. I don’t know what those abilities will be, but with how difficult Aku’mai has been for some people, this boss will also likely be very difficult to clear.

What Will Be Added Or Changed?

Now that we’ve covered the six bosses of the dungeon, let’s talk about what more they will add or change in the raid.

Gnomeregan is a level 30 to 35 dungeon for the most part. So, with it being turned into the endgame raid of Phase 2, that means the dungeon mobs and bosses will be pushed to level 40.

That also doesn’t account for the fact that BFD only had six bosses, and one of those bosses was just a named rare with no abilities. In contrast, BFD, the level-up raid, had seven full-named bosses with a whole loot table and abilities.

So for Gnomeregan, we can expect 1 to 3 new bosses, new events, new quests, and a massively changed loot table.

As BFD has shown us, the loot table of the dungeon versus the raid is staggeringly different.

The loot table of the level-up raid is significantly larger than the loot in the BFD dungeon. So, we can expect similar loot changes to happen to Gnomeregan, whose current loot table is rather pitiable.

I won’t guess as to what items they’ll add to the loot table. But considering the amount of insane and awesome loot that BFD got, expect a few new purple items, fantastic new gear, crafting recipes, elixir crafting recipes, a new world buff, more quests, and perhaps even more than what I’ve listed.

A great note for players is that getting to Gnomeregan for Horde will be much easier than it was in Classic. Players will be able to essentially teleport to Gnomeregan and not have to do the long and arduous trek that Horde players had to do to get to Deadmines in Phase 1.

PvP - Stranglethorn Vale

Now, moving on to the PVP content - Stranglethorn Vale, the PVP event zone.

This is an iconic zone, and one that I would wager money that most people have had a terrible PVP experience on. Either you got griefed or you were the griefer.

For anyone that played on a PVP server, it’s an absolute core in experience for not just Vanilla players but Classic players to be ganked or murdered in Stranglethorn Vale. People have been ganking and abusing low levels in this zone for a long time, and I expect this to only get worse in Phase 2 of Season of Discovery.

Between the Gurubashi Arena for the trinket, the fishing event, and the whole zone being turned into a massive PVP event zone, some of the most iconic questing in where one of the go-to zones to level up...... All of these facets coming together is going to make this place absolutely wild come Phase 2.

If you aren’t one of the first people to get to level 40 early on in Phase 2, I would highly recommend leveling up in another zone to avoid experiencing the hard ganking that will probably happen. This advice is only for people that play on a PVP server. If you play on a PVE server, have fun! It’s going to be a great experience.

I personally don’t know if there’s going to be a reputation involved with the STV PVP event similar to how you get Warsong Gold reputation for doing the Ashenvale event zone, but I would guess that even if we don’t get a reputation, there’ll be more events and things happening at the Gurubashi Arena and fishing event. Additionally, even if we don’t get a new reputation, a Wrathty based reputation will likely get earned through the PVP event zone.

Whether it makes sense or not, law wise doesn’t hold much weight. The experience is what truly matters here. Having a Trollbane murdering trolls is a beautiful concept, and I say that as a Horde and Troll main.

Blizzard’s Handling Of SoD

Now, shifting focus from PvP & PvE to Blizzard’s handling of Season of Discovery.

Buffs and nerfs have been coming out pretty quickly. Changes in the quality of life are being implemented almost instantly. They’ve been monitoring feedback and reception in Phase 1. And so far, despite Hunters being nerfed twice, the game is still balanced. Yes, Hunters remain the strongest DPS even after the 2 nerfs.

Regarding Runes and how they feel, Blizzard has done a phenomenal job. Runes feel great, especially as a Druid player. Being able to spam Wrath infinitely at no Mana cost has made leveling up and playing the game much easier and enjoyable.

However, I’m personally not fond of how quickly all the runes were discovered. Given the huge player base in Season of Discovery, it’s not surprising that all the runes were found so rapidly.

I hope that the next set of 12 runes for each class introduced in Phase 2 takes longer to discover and involve more interaction and unlocking. Considering the numerous new zones and places to uncover these new runes in Phase 2, I believe it will indeed take longer to find all the runes.

To give Blizzard credit, the decision to place the Warlock Metamorphosis rune inside BFD wasn’t the smartest, but they’ve acknowledged this mistake and stated they won’t repeat it in the future. They’ve made adjustments, allowing players to acquire said rune both inside and outside BFD.

Overall, with phases lasting 4 to 12 weeks at most, the content being enjoyable and well-positioned makes the game feel like a much-improved version of Classic.

I can honestly say that Season of Discovery is my favorite version of World of Warcraft to date. Hopefully, when they finish Season of Discovery and fully unveil WoW Classic Plus, they’ll incorporate all they’ve learned to provide us with an outstanding and long-term future for Classic Plus.

Next we will talk about the first 6 druid runes in WoW Classic Season of Discovery and where to find them. There is a good balance in these 6 early druid runes of healing, balance and feral spec. So hopefully this season of discovery druid rune guide helps you get a good range of abilities early in the game.

Fury of Stormrage

Starting out with the first Rune, the Fury of Stormrage. This Rune completely reduces the Mana cost of Wrath, and you get it from your class trainer in Teldrassil. Up in the tree at level two, they give you a quest to go out and defeat some grills. Doing so, they will drop the Luna Idol. Once you hit level four, you can equip the idol and complete its requirements, which in this case are to defeat six creatures affected by your Moonfire. So go learn Moonfire, go out and hit things with Moonfire, then defeat them six times. Click the idol again, and you’ll get the Rune, nice and easy.

Living Seed Rune

Next, the Living Seed Rune, which is a healing rune that plants a living seed on your target when you critically heal them, going off after 15 seconds for extra healing. You want to be around level seven or eight for this. Search for Glade Flowers around Teldrassil. Here’s what they look like. Keep an eye out, as they’re quite spread around. Just have this in the back of your mind while you’re doing other things.

Click on three Glade flowers, combine them to make the Glade Crown. Take it to Teldrassil at Starbreeze Village, where you can find a big Wooden Effigy. Use the crown, which you combined with the flowers, to spawn a level seven Elite mob. This shouldn’t be too hard. Once you’ve defeated it, it drops the Living Seed Rune. If there are other people, you can group up for this, but it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge.

Lifebloom

Another healing Rune, Lifebloom, a powerful heal over time, especially for the early levels. You want to be around level 9 or 10 for this. Head to the northwest of Teldrassil where the Harpies are. Once there, a skeleton can spawn. Click on this skeleton to summon a spirit. Then, you need at least one other player to help you channel a big portal that appears. Just channel the portal, and you get the Rune. It’s really as simple as that. There should be lots of people doing this quest right now, lots of movement around in this area.

If you party up with people, everyone who helps gets a copy of the Rune, so that’s really useful. You don’t have to worry about people taking it. The only hard part about this is waiting for the remains to respawn. If somebody does this quest just before you, there’ll be nothing here, and you won’t know where it spawns. Just hang around, wait for people to turn up, group up, and wait for these remains to spawn. Keep looking around; eventually, it’ll spawn. Grab it, click the portal, and get the Rune.

Sunfire

Number four, Sunfire. This is a big damage rune also located in Teldrassil. This deals big damage upfront and then damage over time as well. To get this, head to a specific tree in Teldrassil. You’ll notice a little circle at the entrance as a sign that you’re in the right spot. Look for lunar stones on the tree, cast Moonfire on each of these four stones, and a lunar chest will spawn at the base of the tree where the circle was. Open the chest to get your Sunfire Rune.

All you need for this is Moonfire. If you’ve got it, you can head here and get it, or you can just wait until the quests take you into this area. Once you have Sunfire and Fury of Stormrage, you have a huge damage ramp early on that is just so nice on a druid.

Mangle Rune

Now it’s time to get onto the feral stuff, your animal druid stuff: Mangle. Okay, this is the Mangle Rune. This replaces your Claw ability and lets enemies take additional damage from bleeds and Shred. To get this, be level 10 in Teldr Hil and go defeat Rageclaw, a level 10 normal mob in the central cave of Ban'ethil Barrow Den. Once you’ve defeated him, it drops the Idol of Ursine Rage. Equip the idol, keep Rage in bear form above 50 for 60 seconds.

The easiest way to do this is to go to the starting zone and aggro a really low-level mob, like a level one or a level two mob. Hit it once to get aggro, then turn your back to it. It will start hitting you in the back because it’s such a low level, and you’re in bear form. It won’t do much damage, so just stand there and take the hits. Your rage will grow and grow. You just have to stand there for 60 seconds.

If you’ve already moved on to Darkshore and the mobs are a bit higher, maybe find someone who can heal you while you do this, or just pop a heal over time. Go into bear form and just tank it out. Move from pack to pack to regain health, but this shouldn’t be too hard. This is a very fast way to do it, so time it for yourself, around 60 seconds. Just keep your rage above 50, and then that will complete the idol. All you do is click the idol again, like all other idols. Click the idol again once you’ve passed the requirements, and you will get your Mangle Rune.

Lacerate

Finally, Lacerate, the sixth and final early easy game Rune. That’s Lacerate, a rune for your bear form that deals bleed damage over time and also generates threat. Leave the starter zone of Teldrassil and go to Darkshore.

Now you need to collect an item here called crab treats, which can either be dropped from the fur bogs at around level 12 just south of the town Oradine or fished up right on the docks of Warden when you land. If you land, go talk to the little fisherman just south of Warden. Get a fishing rod from him and fish there. You can fish these up. Or you can go fight the fur bogs. Once you’ve done that, you’ll get crab treats. Now you need to go to the beach, which is just south of Warden.

As soon as you get here, you can do this. Look for the young Reef Crawlers. It’s important to get these and not the ones further south, which are higher level and harder to fight. Feed them the crab treats, and they will come up to you, like a little cute animation. You’ll get the Lacerate Rune, and that’s it.

That’s it. Six super easy early game runes that give a good mix of balanced healing and feral abilities and should keep you pretty comfy on period all the way up to level 20. The next runes are scattered more around the world and require higher levels to do.

Starfield has a lot of choices. Some of which are a no-brainer. While others are still being debated. And then, there are some choices that are just straight up stupid. Chances are, you probably made some of these stupid decisions during your playthrough without knowing. 

So in this guide, we’re going to be taking a look at the worst decisions you can make in Starfield.

1. Botch The Bank Heist

Early on in the main story, you’re going to find yourself in a keyless city hunting down an artifact with Sam Coe, close to its whereabouts lying in the local Galbanks Vaults. 

But there’s one small predicament: in true Western fashion, the bank is being held up by a gang of bandits. What’s worse is that there are hostages inside who are all fearing for their lives. 

Seeing as the gang is unwilling to talk to the rangers, you’ll have the opportunity to act as a mediator and negotiate with the group of deadbeats and try to resolve the situation. However, if you’re incompetent enough, then you’ll have the opportunity to completely ruin the heist. 

If you did find some way to slip into the bank without convincing the bandits to stand down, then you’ll find the crew’s leader waiting for you inside the vault with a hostage in tow. 

By now, any sane player would have killed the thief and enjoyed being brandished as a hero. But you’re not the same player, are you? 

Simply wait for the gang to give up on trying to negotiate with the Galbank employee, and he’ll kill him right in front of you. 

The funniest part of this quest, however, is Marshall Daniels’s reaction, who, despite being mortified by your incompetence, still decides that you’re Freestar Ranger material. 

With characters as stupid as this, it’s no wonder you’re the one getting everything done.

2. Let Tomisar Go

Andreja’s questline is filled with twists and turns, but it climaxes at the end when you must confront Tomisar, a high-ranking official within the House Va’ruun and Andreja’s only link to a home. 

After spending all of two minutes arguing with Tomisar, you have to choose one of 3 options: kill Tomisar, let Andreja kill Tomisar, or, for whatever reason, let him go. 

Option 3 may seem fine enough. However, it’s a choice you’re sure to regret after you make it. From a story perspective, this makes little sense. You just spent the past hour trying to avenge Andreja’s friends. Now, you’ve suddenly grown into a soft spot. 

And despite Andreja’s threat of reporting Tomisar to the High Council, for some reason, I don’t think they really care about what happens to those outside the House of Varun. 

From a gameplay perspective, well, you do miss out on some pretty sweet robes. It’s perfect for anyone trying to roleplay as a Sith Lord. 

Ultimately, the choice of whether to kill or spare Tomisar is yours, and don’t worry about upsetting our new goth mommy, as our standing with you is unchanged regardless of the choice you make.

3. Cheat On Your Spouse

Fallout 4 really spoiled us with the amount of romance options that were available to us. 

Not only did we have a greater number of potential suitors, but you were also able to flirt, develop relationships, and sleep with all of the potential partners or wanderers, so long as you keep all your lovers out of sight from each other. 

But trying to do the same thing in Starfield is a big mistake. It seems like everyone in Starfield is monogamous. And since all the characters you can woo are members of Constellation, word gets around much faster. 

Although you’re free to flirt with whoever during the early stages of a relationship, the more serious your bond becomes with a potential soulmate, so to do the consequences. 

If you’re caught chatting up other members after you’ve popped the big question, then your partner will lose your trust, and without saying the right things, you may end up in divorce court.

4. Be A Lone Wolf

Ever since their inception in Morrowind, followers have become a staple in Bethesda games and only get better with every new game. 

We’re now at the point with Starfield, where followers are pretty much a must, and going through the game as a lone wolf is less of an option and more of a hindrance. Bethesda’s companions have gone from glorified mobile storages to full-fledged characters with desires, needs, and characteristics.

In gameplay terms, your followers can also do a lot more than carry your burdens and fight mud crabs. They comment on their surroundings, engage in conversations, and can even speak on behalf of the player. 

And that’s not to mention the world of romance options, which allow you to gain your companion’s trust and get things spicy in the bedroom for those sweet buffs. 

So, as cool as you may think you are for uncovering the mysteries of the galaxy alone, the best lesson Starfield teaches is that everything’s more fun with friends, even if they aren’t real.

5. Pay For Crew Members

Now, I know that playing Starfield as a lone wolf is a no-go, but let me explain to you why spending Starfield Credits on a crew is not the best idea. 

When you reach New Atlantis, you may be tempted to recruit all the potential crew members you can find. However, if you give the game some time, then you’ll be able to recruit crew members completely for free during the main story. 

And best of all, these crew members have a personality, a trait that’s highly lacking with these random space scoundrels you can find in bars, who don’t even have a name.

What’s worse is that despite them taking up a slot in your ship, these crew members typically only have 1 or 2 skills maximum, which pales in comparison to Constellation crew members that have 4 skills with at least one maxed out. 

Worse yet, is that you can’t even sleep with any of these companions. And that’s where I draw the line and choose to leave these second-rate crew members drowning their sorrows in the bars I found them in.

6. Rush The Main Story

Starfield has more side content than any other Bethesda game to date. 

Knowing this, it may be enticing to beeline your way through the main story and play through the other side missions and faction quests after you finish the main story. And although this is a perfectly apt way of going about it, it’s not something I’d recommend.

Without going into spoilers, New Game Plus will completely reset your progress except for your skills. But that’s not all that makes your second playthrough different. Many of the quests and events are changed, so you’ll be getting an altered version of the story, and even the side missions will play out differently.

7. Choose The Wrong Traits

Traits are a new addition to Bethesda’s game design, and they’re simple enough to get the hang of. 

Unlike perks and skills, traits are a one-off effect that gives the player a buff and a debuff. But with a total of 17 traits currently in the game, you’d be correct in thinking that it’s balanced.

While all of the traits offer something to add, most offer a standard boost to health, stamina, or oxygen, with little added in terms of gameplay or story elements. And then, there are traits like Spaced or Introvert, which feel like they’re working against you rather than with you. I mean, what kind of a trait would punish you for having friends?

Thankfully, for every bad trait, there are 2 good ones. Wanted is basically a must for anyone doing a Glass Cannon build as it gives a massive 20% damage bonus while on low health. Taskmaster, as part of your ship, instantly repairs at a fee. And Empath is a trait that virtually has no faults, as it’s really hard to make your companions upset unless you blow up a colony ship or something.

Finally, those of you are more worried about the role-playing side of things, then you really can’t go wrong with Kid Stuff and Dream Home. As the former adds hours of extra content revolving around your parents while the latter gives you a sweet pad that puts anyone’s outpost to shame. 

And if you’re looking to have a human punching bag that can make every waking moment of their lives miserable, then Hero Worshipped is the trait for you.

8. Choose Terrible Skills

Your skills in Starfield are one of your character's most defining features. 

Not only will they play a role in dialogue and choices. But more importantly, they'll determine what you're best at and the style of playthrough you're likely to pursue.

Although all skills have their purpose, it's not an equal playing field. Some skills are simply not that great, while others are just plain terrible, specifically skills like Botany, Gastronomy, and Nutrition. These skills sound and play like afterthoughts that were made for no better reason than to fill up the screen.

Meanwhile, skills like Rejuvenation turn Starfield into Call of Duty with regenerating health. And Persuasion lets you avoid conflict altogether to ensure the best possible outcome.