Are you still troubled by some tough bosses in Elden Ring? Are you looking for a powerful build to dominate in the upcoming Shadow of the Erdtree DLC? If yes, then don’t miss this guide!
Today I’m going to show you an overwhelming Strength build. This build requires a significant investment in strength, but is easy to get started early in the game. Not only that, but players can transition from a pure strength build to many other variants later, making it an excellent starting build for Elden Ring DLC.
So, what does our build require? For weapons, we choose Executioner’s Greataxe. It has a solid 115 critical damage followed by strong strength scaling.
In addition, we need Ash of War Cragblade, brew Flask of Wondrous Physick, and obtain three Insignia Talismans each: Axe Talisman, Blue Dancer Charm, and Ritual Sword Talisman.
Don’t forget that the most important thing is to prepare enough Elden Ring Runes, whether it is to equip weapons or upgrade stats, this is crucial.
First, let’s start with the basics of farming Greyoll Dragon. But before we head to the dragon, let’s quickly get Lordsworn’s Greatsword, which we’ll later upgrade with Ash of War Sacred Blade to easily use our primary weapon.
On the way to Baron, we naturally grabbed the two halves of Dectus Medallion, all Souls, and other fun stuff at each campfire. For example, while riding to reach the first half of Fort Haight, we can grab Axe Talisman in Mistwood Ruins, which increases the damage of charged attacks. Just nearby, close to the gigantic tree, we can also find Crystal Tear.
In addition, we have to smash the lowly dung beetle north of Third Church of Marika to get Ash of War Sacred Blade.
Once we find Greyoll, quickly grab the back half of Medallion and take him down the usual way. You then need to divide your hard-earned Souls as follows: 20 for Vigor, and the remaining Souls for one real stat, Strength. Don’t forget to continue collecting Boss Souls during the rest of your journey.
Now we are ready to start farming our weapons. Imprint Ash of War on Greatsword, then travel to Liurnia of the Lakes. Ride past Stormveil Castle on the right and reach the first bonfire in Liurnia.
From there, you can already see a church, behind which the thugs with Executioner’s Greataxe are waiting. We can defeat him with Ash of War until he drops our axe. This enemy has a 5% drop chance, which may sound small at first, but it never took me more than 15 minutes.
We now have a coveted weapon that only requires the necessary leveling materials. Well, head to Liurnia of the Lakes and quickly get the key from the dragon, then head straight to Raya Lucaria Crystal Tunnel where we’ll get Smithing Miner’s Bell Bearing [1] and upgrade our Greataxe to +6.
When we were done, we could beat the crap out of our opponents. But we also need a proper Ash of War.
To the southeast of Fort Gael, at the bottom of Caelid, we will get Ash of War Cragblade, which gives our weapons 15% more poise and 10% more damage. This also makes this Strength build even crazier.
Also, don’t forget to upgrade your axe to heavy immediately for better strength scaling.
Now, there is another Talisman that is very important. It is a Blue Dancer. Head to Stormveil Castle, ride east to the bridge next to Mad Pumpkin Head, and cross the vortex into the depths. In the cave, after defeating the boss, we will find Blue Dancer Charm, which increases our damage at a low equipment weight.
Another high-level Medallion is Ritual Sword Talisman, which gives us an additional 10% damage when the health is full. Take the grand elevator to Altus Plateau. From there, head north to Lux Ruins, briefly applaud Queen, and pick up this gorgeous piece of gear from the chest.
We are far from done. From the ruins, enter Sealed Tunnel, go through the gate and climb the stairs, where you can obtain Smithing Miner’s Bell Bearing [2]. Now you can upgrade your axe to +12 and you will have B-scaling in strength.
Now that everything is ready, here comes the slightly tricky part. We will return to the bonfire in Fort Faroth and defeat Putrid Avatar under the tree. He’s a bit tricky in my opinion, but with focus, it can definitely be done.
It only took me about three or four charged attacks to break his stance, and after about two or three turns, he would die and drop Crystal Tear. Together with the previous one, we will brew a Flask of Wondrous Physick. It further increases the charged attack and stance damage dealt.
Now we want to bring the weapon up to A-scaling. We can find many Smithing Stones in Caelid’s Sellia Crystal Tunnel and Altus Tunnel. Once you have all Smithing Stones, you can upgrade your axe one last time to +18, with A-scaling. Now you are ready to start a glorious adventure!
These are all the tips you need to know to complete this Strength build. What do you think of this build? What do you think was helpful? In this spirit, my brave heroes, have a great time and have a great day!
Greetings, fellow Exiles! Allow me to introduce you to an exciting build in Path of Exile 3.24 - the Summon Reaper Juggernaut. The Summon Reaper spell brings forth a formidable minion, and the recommendation lies with the Reaper of Eviscerating variant.
Among ascendancy classes, the Juggernaut offers notable advantages in durability, standing as one of the sturdiest options available. Let's take a closer look at this build!
The Reaper of Eviscerating is designed to serve as the primary damage dealer in any minion-oriented build, significantly impacting and consuming other summoned minions. With a base 50% chance to inflict bleeding, amplified to 95% with 20% gem quality and a Vulnerability curse on enemies, the Reaper proves formidable.
While the build stands as one of the sturdiest options available, its slow clear speed may prove frustrating for some. Nonetheless, its single-target damage output remains commendable, with bleeds lasting for 6 seconds, and the encouragement to attack frequently to roll superior bleeds via Volatility Support.
To ensure your build's effectiveness, it's crucial to acquire specific unique and rare items that cost some POE Currency. We suggest prioritizing unique items for most slots, reserving only the ring for a rare piece. Rarity considerations heavily influence your choice, particularly for the ring and jewels, including Cluster Jewels.
Place your 3 most costly mana-reserving skills in the Devouring Diadem.This setup switches your energy shield to apply to mana, a vital aspect for casting skills effectively. Then, utilize 2 Cold Iron Points, along with a Level 21 Summon Reaper awakened and Level 5 Minion Damage Support gems. To reach gem Level 30, incorporate a corrupted unique body armor.
Combine the Fourth Vow with Divine Flesh and Unbreakable for optimal defense against elemental and physical damage. The Fourth Vow requires high chaos resistance, so consider corrupting it with a +2 to socketed minion gems modifier. The Tempest Rising amplifies your minions' damage against stationary targets, enhancing overall effectiveness.
Address bleed Vulnerability by utilizing items like Asenath's Gentle Touch gloves to curse opponents with temporal chains and cause them to explode on death. Aim to become bleed immune, either through specific item affixes or Watcher's Eye modifiers. Extend your curse limit with amulet anointment for added flexibility.
Equip at least 5 Ghastly Abyss Jewels, leveraging the Darkness Enthroned belt for additional Abyss sockets. These jewels can significantly enhance your build's power, particularly when socketed strategically. Cluster Jewels offer valuable support gems, providing considerable benefits to your build's performance.
Prioritize defensive layers such as armor, maximum life, and resistances across your gear. Seek out items that offer chaos resistance, elemental resistances, and maximum life to bolster survivability. Consider modifiers that enhance minion damage and provide increased durability.
Focus on optimizing Mana Reservation Efficiency for skills, particularly through Abyss and Large Cluster Jewels. Allocate passive nodes to enhance minion damage, attribute bonuses, and resistance bonuses. Utilize rare items to supplement attribute requirements and maximize gem levels for key skills.
The Progenesis proves highly effective in mitigating significant hits, particularly when paired with substantial life recovery, so I highly recommend acquiring one if you utilize Defiance of Destiny. In addition to Progenesis, consider obtaining Granite, Basal Silver, and Sulphur or Quicksilver Flasks.
Opt for suffixes that bolster your armor, diminish the effects of shock and curses, and provide life regeneration. To round out your flask setup, include a life flask equipped with poison or bleed removal if you have yet to achieve immunity to bleeding.
For the Summon Reaper of Eviscerating, constant manual command is necessary, but its damage output is remarkable. With high accuracy and a 95% chance of causing bleeding when coupled with Vulnerability, it proves formidable. Link it with Minion Damage, Brutality, Deadly Ailments, Melee Physical Damage, and Swift Affliction Support, and if available, Uul-Netol's Vow with Volatility Support.
Gems socketed in the Devouring Diadem include determination for additional armor, pride to amplify enemies' physical damage taken, and Skitterbots to chill and shock nearby opponents, bolstering your damage. Link these auras with Enlightened Support. Additionally, socketing Vulnerability in your Profane Proxy increases the likelihood of bleeding and physical damage inflicted on enemies.
Allies within the Malevolence's range benefit from increased damage over time and skill effect duration. Link it with Divine Blessing Support and Generosity Support gems for enhanced potency. Immortal call reduces elemental and physical damage taken, consuming endurance charges for extended duration and damage reduction.
The Enduring Cry generates endurance charges, regenerates life, and enhance their effectiveness, while Whirling Blades enables faster movement. Link it with Faster Attacks Support and Momentum Support for increased attack speed.
Skeletons serve to support your Reaper, possessing excellent base cast speed and summoning multiple units simultaneously. Aspect of the Spider debuffs nearby enemies, hindering them and amplifying the damage they receive. While less crucial, it's a mana-reserving skill that complements your build's effectiveness.
Killing all the bandits in Act 2 is the best way to deal with them. The Soul of Arakaali reduces damage over time taken. The build is durable enough against hits, but Damage over Time can still be a problem. The Soul of Gruthkul is one of the best minor gods. It reduces physical damage taken per hit taken. Alternatively, choose the Soul of Abberath to reduce the ignite duration on you.
Move on to the passive skill tree, select a lot of maximum life and Mana Reservation Efficiency. Armor, minion damage, Elemental resistances, and endurance charges are of considerable value. For keystones, go for Divine Shield and maybe Resolute Technique if you don't want to miss with Whirling Blades.
For masteries, get 30% of mana cost shifted to life and +50 to maximum life as 2 Life Masteries. 12% increased Mana Reservation Efficiency as the Mana Mastery. Minions increased the Area of Effect (AOE) as Minion Offense Mastery. And 10% of physical damage from hits taken as chaos damage, that's armor and Energy Shield Mastery.
Occultist, as an Ascendancy class, is mainly related to Explode construction in Path of Exile. The monster actually explodes and does considerable damage to nearby enemies. In POE 3.23, however, Occultist reaches new heights, thanks to the new Transfigured Gem: Penance Brand of Dissipation!
Here I’m going to share our build guide for Penance Brand of Dissipation Occultist! If you’re interested in creating this character, don’t miss this build guide!
Our skill choice is Penance Brand of Dissipation. You create a brand, which will connect to an enemy and start collecting energy, dealing more and more damage per energy. When the maximum energy is 20, the brand will deal maximum damage until the end or the target dies and jumps to another target.
But to be honest, I don’t think the build will ever reach max stack because in Sanctum, most people will die after the first damage. Even the supreme boss will die after 2 seconds. But we can use the new Specters added to the game in this patch.
So why am I not using any Specters in Affliction League? Since I always try out some Uber Boss content, and Specters die easily on the map, it’s annoying to buy new ones every time. What’s more, if they weren’t in Sanctum, they were zero threat.
However, in Sanctum, the effect of Specters is completely different. So we use Specter, Perfect Spirit of Fortune. It will bring us Wrath Aura.
Another Specter is Perfect Hulking Miscreation. This gives us 20% of physical damage as bonus lightning damage. This is a big damage buff for this build.
To further increase our damage, we will use Animate Guardian in a basic setup, with Dying Breath as a weapon, which will give us more damage and also increase the aura effect used by Guardian.
Because we use Guardian’s Blessing, and select Haste Aura, we will move faster and cast spells faster.
We also use Leer Cast as a helmet, which also gives us more damage. Gruthkul’s Pelt acts as body armor, which will give him health regeneration. Southbound Gloves will also increase his maximum health.
To keep Specter and Animate Guardian at their best, we’ll use Convocation on left-click. This way they will transfer to us every few seconds and gain life regeneration.
Because this build is focused on critical hit damage, we’ll be using a lot of unique items that will give us more and more damage.
But I want to talk more about body armor, Dialla’s Malefaction. We need 2 red sockets because red sockets increase the gem level by 2. We insert Penance Brand and Empower here.
Other sockets need to be green. In green slots, they will gain +30% quality. This is the biggest damage increase and is much better than gem levels.
With all this, our gemstones will have 50% quality and Penance Brand will also reach level 27.
We’re going to convert all damage to lightning, and then convert it to cold with Call of the Brotherhood. This is because we can deal with cold damage better than lightning damage. And we can also freeze enemies so we can reduce the risk of getting hit in Sanctum.
Since this build has such high cold damage, we can also use Heatshiver. Based on cold damage, we take additional fire damage. We also take more damage if we hit a frozen target.
Malachai’s Loop deals with more spell damage and also grants 2 additional Power Charges. We can also use Badge of the Brotherhood to increase our maximum Frenzy Charges to 10.
Also, we cannot ignore Ralakesh’s Impatience, which will give our character Power Charges. So all 10 Power and Frenzy Charges will be activated and it will also give us Endurance Charges.
In this build we also use some unique items which will give us extra damage.
Next, let’s take a look at some of the important flasks you’ll need in this build.
Then I would like to highlight some key points from Penance Brand of Dissipation Occultist on Passive Tree, as well as some of the unique jewelry used.
Each Frenzy Charge deals with damage at 2% movement speed and penetrates elemental and all elemental resistances.
Watcher’s Eye takes additional physical damage as lightning damage while affected by Wrath. We get Wrath Aura from Specters, so it’s always active. And its movement skills have a good cooldown recovery rate when affected by Haste. This will give our Flame Dash a very short cooldown.
Militant Faith Timeless Jewel with carved to glorify a new faithful converted by high Templar Dominus. Note that we assign Inner Conviction here because it may convert the node you are using into a bad node.
Green Dream Viridian Jewel will give us extra cold damage.
We use Occultist as Ascendancy.
There is no doubt that Penance Brand of Dissipation Occultist is one of the best builds in Path of Exile 3.23 in terms of bosses and maps. While this build feels clunky at first, it gets better later on, especially if you’re already equipped with everything mentioned in this build guide!
Finesse Shot and Controlled Sprint are both old meta on FC 24, so what is the new meta on FC 24? That’s exactly what we’re going to learn today. In this guide, we’ll take a look at 4 game-changing new meta Skill Moves. Without further ado, let’s get started!
First, there is a new Skill Move introduced at FC 24 this year, and that is Flair Nutmeg. Even at the highest levels of the game, Flair Nutmeg and Flair Nutmeg Pass are the most impactful weapons.
I’m talking about Pro vs Pro gameplay, but not many people are using it in their games. I rarely encounter players using Flair Nutmeg Pass. As a new meta-Skill Move, this is definitely worth learning.
Flair Nutmeg is a new 5-star skill in EA FC. This means you can only use it on players with a 5-star Skill Move. To get the most out of Flair Nutmeg, it is necessary to spend FC 24 Coins on explosive players such as Kylian Mbappé, Marcus Rashford, or Ousmane Dembélé.
In fact, executing Flair Nutmeg is actually pretty simple. All you have to do is hold down L1/LB and R1/RB, flick the right analog stick to cancel the movement and rush in the specified direction. While we recommend using Flair Nutmeg to get into the side areas, you can go wherever you want.
So what is Flair Nutmeg Pass? It’s best used on wings. While we’re doing Flair Nutmeg, I’m going to press X, which will cancel Nutmeg animation. Then I’ll pass the ball to the excellent players. It’s a game-changer!
When you go down the side, your opponent may expect you to go straight in this game, but you have to surprise it. At this moment, the best way to surprise him is to use Flair Nutmeg Pass. This way, you can take a clever shot when your opponent isn’t expecting it. Now you have a new weapon to use on Wings.
One way to defend against Flair Nutmeg is to take a few steps back and hold L2 in line with Skill Move to make a tackle. However, be careful with this strategy, as missed tackles can leave a lot of room for the opposing striker.
Next on our list is Inverted Trivela. This Trivela technique involves hitting the ball with the outside of the foot, creating a turning effect. Use this technique during a match to surprise your opponents.
The goal is approached from that corner based on the player’s dominant foot. For example, if you are a right-footed football player, run towards the goal from the right side. Make sure to stay diagonal to the goal; otherwise, you won’t be able to get the shooting angle Trivela needs.
Before shooting, press and hold L2/LT button on your gamepad. Aim for the far post and keep shooting.
The far post detail is crucial here. The goal is to use the outside of your foot to shoot the ball into a corner that the goalkeeper cannot reach. So, no matter which corner you attack from, aim in the opposite direction of the goalkeeper on your gamepad.
Shooting ability is also something to pay attention to. It is crucial to adjust the power based on the distance from the target. Failure to do so could result in a shot being deflected or leaving it too easy for the goalkeeper to catch the ball.
Next we have Crossing. Crossing is the best trick we’ve seen since FIFA 19. And FC 24 Crossing is crazy and you really need to master it. Even at the highest levels of play, it’s the most threatening skill.
Classic Crossing in EA FC 24 is one of the best ways to get the ball into the box, especially when the forward is in a suitable position. However, it is important not to use too much force when passing the ball, lest the ball fly over the player’s head. Before you pass the ball, make sure your attacker is ready to receive the ball and shoot to complete the move.
There are many players in the game who can fill this role for you. As you can see, we have Ronaldo as RF and RAM, and what you want to do is you want to use L1 Square Cross. You can use it once you are in and around the area, or even inside the box. It will increase the force by 1 to 1.5 bars, making it more difficult for the goalkeeper to catch crosses.
The last one on the list is Player Lock Fake. Player Lock Fake is a game-changing move that you really need to master.
So how to implement Player Lock? You just need to hold down L3 and R3, then flick the right stick toward the player. So how do you fake it? You can cancel it by pressing R3 and L3 again.
Just like you can see in the example. If you’re running down the wing and a player moves inside. After you do this, most opponents will try to track the run. Then you just cancel it and choose another option directly. It’s all about finding space, utilizing space and creating space.
That’s it for the four new meta Skill Moves we’re talking about here: Flair Nutmeg Pass, Inverted Trivela, Crossing and Player Lock Fake. These are powerful skills that can change the rules of the game, so come and try them out!
Talking about defending in FC 24, there are 3 types of defending, which are Legacy, Tactical, and Advanced Defending. However, you can’t use Legacy Defending in competitive mode, meaning you can’t use it to play online games.
So, if you want to learn how to defend in FC 24, Tactical and Advanced Defending is what you need to learn.
In Legacy Defending, by holding X, your player will press the ball holder.
But that’s not how it works in Tactical and Advanced Defending. This is what will happen if you hold X or A to contain in Tactical and Advanced Defending: observe the behavior of the player with the indicator.
Instead of the player standing in front of the attacker and challenging him, he will just run beside him. That means, in Tactical and Advanced Defending, you need to be the one to control the behavior of your defenders.
Jockeying is crucial to control the behavior of your players when defending.
Whenever your opponent is approaching, instead of holding X or A to press the attacker, what you need to do is hold L2 or LT button. By holding the L2 or LT button, your player will stand in a good shape to defend.
Then, use your left analog to move your player while holding the L2 or LT button.
Whenever you’re using the Jockey, your first objective is to deny him of free passage. Your second objective is to place yourself in a position to block any shot he plays. Your third objective is to wait for him to try and dribble past you. But since you’re standing in front of him, you will win the ball.
The last thing is to wait for the perfect time to use Stand Tackle to win the ball.
To use Stand Tackle in Tactical or Advanced Defending, press the button you used to shoot.
You can also use Hard Stand Tackle. This is more effective than a normal Stand Tackle. Hold R1 or RB, then press Circle to use this.
Whenever you want to make the tackle, make sure it’s from forward to avoid any foul. If you tackle from behind, you will give away a free kick or penalty inside the box.
Also, get the timing right because if you miss a tackle, it won’t be easy to recover with that player.
Now, let’s go back to Jockey and talk about how to use Speed Jockey and when to use it.
Once you hold L2 or LT to activate your Jockey, your player’s speed will reduce. So, if the attacker is moving fast in front of you, you need to use the Speed Jockey to keep up with him.
To perform this, hold your Sprint button together with the Jockey button. There are some situations in which your opponent will get past you while using Jockey.
Then, you need to take your hands off the Jockey button and let your player run at full speed to get the ball. To do this, use your left analog and Sprint button only to control your player.
Let’s talk about how to keep a good defensive structure when playing the game.
If you use all the defensive techniques very well but can’t keep a good structure when defending, it won’t be enough. That is why I’m going to teach you how to avoid those common mistakes that always make your defense slack.
Firstly, whenever your opponent is attacking, don’t ever press with any one of your 2 center backs. Pressing with either one of them will destroy your defensive shape. If your opponent is a good attacker, he will utilize the opportunity you gave him.
To keep a good defensive shape, your right back, left back, and 2 center backs should be intact with no cursor on them. If you rush out to press with one of your center backs with no 100% guarantee of winning the ball back, you will leave your defense vulnerable.
It’s not forbidden to switch to your center backs. You can switch to your center back to anticipate and stop your opponent’s movement. Once I see his opponent making a run, I switch to the center back to stop the run. The difference here is that I switch to my center back to drop back. The other one is that I switch to my center back to press. You should know the difference and avoid making mistakes.
Anytime your opponent is attacking, press with your midfielders or any other players except the center back. Pressing with your midfielders will keep your defensive shape, and your opponents will find it hard to go through.
Of course, if you learn these tips and know how to properly invest your FC 24 Coins in your players, winning various games easily will be a piece of cake for you!
Greetings and welcome to the latest guide for WoW Classic Season of Discovery Phase 2, with a primary emphasis on the Feral Druid within PvP.
I've labeled it as speculation due to the uncertainty surrounding the runes scheduled for the upcoming phase. Thus, our discussion will revolve around the runes speculated on forums and the essential abilities that Feral Druids urgently require for improved playability in PvP.
Phase 1 was and still is very rough and unfair for Feral when it comes to PvP. We are forced to play every kind of hybrid build with Cat Form kiting and Sunfire spams. But that’s not the cat we want. I mean, we are not even using Feral abilities and Feral talents, so we can’t really consider it as a Feral. On the other side, if you try to use cat abilities as the main source of DPS, we still run the balance tree to get the clarity and pray for it to proc for the instant Shred because it’s unusable with 60 energy and not so good DPS. The only good thing is the Feral talent that allows us to refresh 40 energy instantly whenever we shape-shift, but that’s also limited because of mana problems.
Our other spells are Rake and Shred. Rake has so low DPS even with Savage Roar and Mangle bleed buff, and it costs the same as Mangle but does less DPS. Feral is almost made as a one-ability class in this phase, which I can’t accept.
But before we jump into runes’ prediction and the things we hope we get in the next phase, let’s talk about abilities and talents.
At Level 40, there is some fantastic news for new abilities. We are finally getting our stealth opener ability, Pounce. So, we don’t walk cluelessly around in stealth just to hit a Mangle. Pounce allows us to hit 1 free ability, get 2 combo points, and hit a couple of auto attacks while our target is still stunned. However, we still have energy issues.
Another opener ability we got between Levels 20 and 40 is Ravage, which actually deals with some nice damage but costs 60 energy and doesn’t stun the target. So, we need Pounce to get actual opening damage with these 2 different abilities. Having in mind that with Pounce, we deal with a couple of auto attacks while the target is stunned.
Next, the brand-new ability is finally another combo point finisher called Ferocious Bite. It deals instant damage, unlike Rip, which deals damage over time. However, the use of these 2 is situational, but Rip still remains the best DPS finisher with numbers.
But it’s not always about the numbers in PvP. New levels don’t bring us just attacking potential news but also defensive ones. At Level 40, we are getting Dire Bear Form and Frenzied Regeneration, which boosts our defensive capabilities a lot. A Level 40 Druid with proper PvP items and the talent Survival of the Fittest had some insane HP, like 4,500 health and about 40% to 50% reduced damage. And when we add Frenzied Regeneration on top of that, that makes Druids insanely hard to kill in Phase 2 in Bear Form.
Next to offensive and defensive capabilities, we also have a Cat Form Dash and Travel Form so we can actually close the gap with enemies or kite them and heal. But wait, a lot of shape-shifting also requires a lot of manas. But there is also a solution for that. We are getting innervate at Level 40, which regens our mana on some insane scales, so we can actually shape-shift and heal in the middle of the fight.
These abilities and possibilities bring Feral Druid surely onto another level when it comes to PvP. We are not a one-ability spec anymore.
For talents, we can finally spend our points where they belong - in a Feral tree. Some of the important and matchable talents would be Sharpened Claws, which increases our crit chance in Cat Form by 6%, and Blood Frenzy, which adds another combo point whenever we make a Critical Strike with an ability. This is one of the game-changers and the start of the better times that will come for Feral Druids.
On top of that, this talent will make Druids actually stack agility instead of strength because now we have direct advantages for our Critical Strike, which wasn’t the case in Phase 1. Strength still gives us 2 points of attack power, while Agility gives us 1 point and gives us bonus armor, dodge, and crit. For every 20 points of Agility, we get 1% of critical chance.
The next important talent we are getting is Improved Shred, which reduces its cost by 11 energy. And by the time we hit level 40, we will have a Level 3 Shred with some increased damage, plus a 30% bonus scale from Mangle bleed effect. So prepare yourself in case these crits.
Other mentions would be Savage Fury, which finally boosts our Rake damage and will probably make it worth with Savage Roar and Mangle bonus, like in Phase 1, where damage sucked hard. But this talent also increases the Claw damage, which means our Mangle is getting buffed once again for the same energy cost.
There are also Predatory Strikes and Heart of the Wild for Faerie Fire (Feral), and even Feral Aggres sion in case we decide to go for Ferocious Bite damage.
As I mentioned because there are a lot of variations we can try, and all that still depends on runes we are actually getting in Phase 2. And with runes being mentioned, let’s see what we had on the runes’ wishlist: Eclipse, Berserk and Tree of Life. So, they are more or less aiming for each spec to have their ultimate rune. These 3 would be surely the game-changers in both PvP and PvE.
Berserk would surely make a big difference, especially in PvP, where we could hit 5, 6, or 7 Mangles in a row, which on this damage scale would be probably absurd. While in PvE, Berserk is already decent with DPS, so getting this ability would be a blast. But I don’t think we are getting Berserk in this phase. I think that’s an ability saved for later phases.
Still, it’s not impossible because we don’t know what runes other specs are getting. So, I would rather talk about realistic things that Feral lacks at the moment and the runes that would be nice to get for a much better experience in PvP.
The first thing that comes to my mind, thinking about PvP and PvE, is a Tiger’s Fury. This ability is completely useless at the moment. With a 30 energy cost, this energy cost should be zero, or even better for Feral, would be something like a talent from the Cat called King of the Jungle to make our Tiger’s Fury restore 20, 30, or 40 energy when used and keep the ability damage bonus. That would be a blast in both PvP and PvE, especially in PvP because now we got Pounce opener, and this would lead to instant 3 to 4 combo points in the opener without our enemy moving at all.
While we still talk about offensive runes, I have to mention Primal Gore. This one would be amazing, but I think it’s less likely to happen, and we would probably need to sacrifice one of the other PvP runes we are talking about now if we want to use it. Probably, this one would be used much more in PvE.
The next game-changing rune for PvP would surely be Predatory Strikes. With 5 combo points, we get an instant ability, which we can use either for Entangling Roots to kite or instant healing like Healing Touch. This rune would improve survivability and stability in fights, so we don’t need to constantly shift into Travel Form and waste tons of mana on shape-shifting. I don’t even think this is something unfair when I compare it to the Priest survival ability and damage in Phase 1, which is insane.
And the last thing Feral Druid needs is some kind of slow to control the fight and make Shreds easier to land. A perfect solution could be Infected Wounds with a 50% movement speed reduction debuff from Mangle. But this one wouldn’t be a game-changer to actually waste 1 whole rune on this. For example, a combination of 70% from agility into healing done and a 50% slow on Mangle should be a nice combination for just 1 rune, which would add much more stability in our fights.
Something that could also be considered adding in Phase 2, for example, Apex Predator’s Craving, where our Rip has a chance to proc Ferocious Bite. Because I feel that Ferocious Bite won’t be used much since we have so much bonus bleed damage, and Rip just outperforms it for pure numbers. This free Ferocious Bite damage doesn’t need to be at maximum 5 combo points.
Leveling with Druid has never been better. In Diablo 4 Season 3, we managed to combine poison with lightning to create one of the best hybrid builds that lets you level with ease. This build has insane AOE damage, raining lightning from the sky continuously, all the while spreading poison, which infects the entire screen.
Unlike other early-level Druid builds, this one has absolutely no issue with Spirit, as we have 2 skills that instantly give us large chunks of spirit, again and again. There are absolutely no items or RNG aspects that are required for the build. Everything is obtained from the Codex or very early in the seasonal quest line.
If you have zero or low amounts of spirit, the first 2 skills you want to use are Blood Howl and Trample. Blood Howl provides you with 20% Health instantly, and then, thanks to Innate Blood Howl, you also gain a chunk of spirit. Trample is a great movement tool and good for burst damage, but thanks to Savage Trample, it now also provides a large amount of spirit on the cast.
The first attack you want to use in a pack of enemies is Rabies, which spreads poisoning damage to them. This season, we also have the Virulent Aspect, which is unlocked from the very first chapter of the season and will cause your Rabies cooldown to significantly lessen, which means you can use Rabies more often, and that is absolutely huge for that damage boost.
With Envenom, you’ll deal much larger crits against enemies that are poisoned, and thanks to Neurotoxin, any poisoned enemies are slow, which is important because Nature’s Reach, another passive, causes you to deal double the damage bonus against slowed enemies.
Poison Creeper is another ability you want to pop early on, as it immobilizes enemies, meaning Nature’s Reach is active, and thanks to Brutal Poison Creeper, your Critical Strike Chance goes up by a whopping 20%. Now, you can use your Lightning Storm ability, which can cause massive crits.
With the combination of abilities and passive stacking, clearing out large enemy packs will be a breeze. Thanks to Enhanced Blood Howl, once you start killing enormous packs of enemies, Blood Howl’s cooldown will be significantly reduced, and then you should use Blood Howl to constantly get your spirit and health back whenever it’s off cooldown.
If Trample and Blood Howl are on cooldown and you need Spirit, then we can use our Wind Shear basic attack, which is the best basic attack for Druid because it causes enemies to become vulnerable and increases your movement speed, which makes Druid much more efficient at speed leveling.
To summarize, use your spirit generators, then pop Rabies and Poison Creeper whenever off cooldown, then spam Lightning Storm. Then, pop your spirit generators again whenever they’re off cooldown. And if they’re on cooldown, you need to chuck in a few Wind Shears for that spirit.
The same rotation applies to bosses. This build may not have the best single-target boss damage, but because of the constant healing, you’re not going to struggle at all. It’ll just take slightly longer than some of the other classes out there.
So, let’s go over the skill tree in more detail. The priority when you’re leveling is to unlock a new skill on the toolbar rather than upgrading an already existing ability, and some of the earlier passive packs we actually get later on as we’re leveling. So, put one point into Wind Shear, which is our main spirit generator, and then one point into Enhanced Wind Shear and Fierce Wind Shear.
1 point into Lightning Storm, 1 point into Enhanced Lightning Storm, and then 1 point into Primal Lightning Storm, so we can immobilize enemies and take advantage of the several damage boosts. This build provides. You’ll want to max out Lightning Storm to 5 out of 5 ranks pretty quickly, as it’s your main DPS option. Along with unlocking new skills, side by side, unlock Blood Howl, along with Enhanced and Innate Blood Howl as soon as possible, so you can get healing and spirit more efficiently.
Then go for Poison Creeper, alongside Enhanced and Brutal Poison Creeper. Once Lightning Storm is 5 out of 5, put 1 point into Rabies, then go and put 1 point into Trample, which will help with mobility and burst damage. 1 point into Enhanced Trample and Savage Trample so you can then have another ability which generates spirits.
Then go back and get Enhanced and Natural Rabies, which will make the skill much more efficient. Eventually, you’ll want to get Rabies to 5 out of 5. Now, the rest of the skill tree focuses on passives. Put 1 point into Neurotoxin, so you can put 3 points into Envenom, 3 points into Nature’s Reach for more damage against crowd-controlled enemies, 3 points into Defiance for more damage against elites, 3 points into Circle of Life for constant healing whenever you cast Lightning Storm or Wind Shear.
Thanks to Circle of Life, whenever we cast Lightning Storm, we gain back even more healing. So just combined with Blood Howl, you’ll never need to pop a potion. All this healing is great because it means we can use our key passive, Ursine Strength, and deal 25% increased damage whenever we have more than 80% Health, which seems to be nearly all the time, thanks to the constant healing.
Put 3 points into Natural Disaster, one point into Heart of the Wild, so you can put 3 points into Wild Impulses, and 3 points into Abundance. 3 points into Predatory Instinct for more Critical Strike chance, and finally, 1 point into Elemental Exposure and 1 point into Charged Atmosphere, so you can put 3 points into Electric Shock, which can further increase damage against immobilized enemies.
Let’s go over the aspects I recommend while leveling. Every single aspect comes from the codex or seasonal quest line early on, so you aren’t at the mercy of RNG. For offensive aspects, Edgemaster's Aspect is good at increasing damage based on how much spirit you have when you cast Lightning Storm. Aspect of Inner Calm boosts damage for each second you standstill, which is because you’re channeling Lightning Storm and getting constant healing, is very much possible.
Shepherd’s Aspect increases your damage by 6% for each companion. Poison Creeper is a companion, so that does count for that little boost. Nighthowler's Aspect boosts Critical Strike chance whenever you use Blood Howl. For Utility or resource aspects, the Virulent Aspect, as I mentioned before, is very good as it reduces Rabies cooldown as it spreads.
And then, Aspect of the Umbal is another one I’d recommend to maybe put on one of your rings, as it will boost spirit generation quite a bit, as we constantly slow or immobilize enemies with this build, which all counts as crowd control. There are no defensive aspects that are a requirement, but Aspect of Disobedience to boost armor and Aspect of Might for easy damage reduction are beneficial aspects. But trust me, you won’t need these because of the constant healing the build provides.
There’s not much to say for gear. You’re going to be constantly out leveling gear, so keep on replacing it. This especially applies to your weapon, which you want the highest GPS weapon for.
If you’re playing on the seasonal realm, you’ll have the Seneshcal Construct. There are obviously some very strong legendary and unique stones, but these are dropped much later on in the game, so you won’t encounter a lot of them early on while leveling.
Early on, for leveling, I found the Utility Aspects more useful. Reconstruct helps even more with healing and survivability, while Protect gives you a barrier on top to help with survivability. If you don’t have these, then an attacking skill with Poison support can help to poison more enemies and apply slow to them through Neurotoxin. You’ll deal more damage efficiently. Support boosts Critical Strike Chance even more, and Slowing support adds even more slow to the mix.
If you do have Arcing support alongside an attack, you can use Resource support. You can gain back massive amounts of spirit. Unfortunately, I don’t have this combo unlocked, but if you do, by chance, get these stones, do use them, as that will help your spirit generation a lot. Have a play around with the combinations. There are some useful ones, but don’t get caught up too much on this while leveling. Most of the power from this comes from the endgame.
So there you have it, my Poison Lightning Hybrid build for Level 1 to 50. It’s faster, stronger, and just better than all previous Druid leveling builds, and you’ll be level 50 in no time.
As a Madden 24 player, my approach revolves around coverage strategies. Each year, certain metas such as corner routes and bunch trips tight formations tend to trouble many players online. I take immense pride in effectively countering these prevalent metas through strategic coverage adjustments. In this guide, I will dissect 5 tips, catering to players ranging from beginners to those seeking super-advanced techniques. These insights are designed to elevate your coverage skills swiftly.
Let’s start it off with the number 5 tip. You should be playing the game of base align auto-alignment. If you don’t play with base align, every coverage that you could call is going to come with tells. Let’s come out on Cover 1. First things first, you see that we have a single high alignment. Notice the alignment of our 2 safeties, 2 high Cover 2 Man. Now let’s audible to Tampa 2. Notice the width change in the outside corners. Now it’s audible to Cover 3, single high, but kind of looks like Cover 1.
Let’s take a look back at Cover 1. Notice the depth change of the outside corners. Let’s look at Cover 4, which just like 2-man under. Different alignment by the outside corners. The point that I’m trying to make here with this is that if you are playing anyone who knows anything about this game, you need to make sure your coaching suggestion is set to baseline.
This is going to make sure that your players are locked into a position no matter what play call you have as soon as you break the huddle. So now we can come out in that Cover 1, audible to the 2-man under, audible into the Cover 3, and audible into the Cover 2, and you’re going to see that we have the same alignment from all of our defensive backs. This is going to make it so much easier to set up more consistent blitz pressures, as well as disguising your coverage behind those blitzes as well.
Mable coverage is your friend. So many players are afraid to attack the user in the middle of the field in Madden 24 for that matter. To make sure that your opponent has to attack your user, the coverage known as Mable is very prominent. In which players will set 30 yard flats, 5 yard Curl Flats, and they will come out in some sort of Cover 2 or Cover 4 and make these adjustments. By having 2 5 yard purples and 2 30 yard blues on both sides of the field, your opponent will have to throw into the middle because the sidelines are going to be covered. You’ll note that if you actually look at this coverage, it still can be thrown to the sideline.
Then comes for our number 3 tip. Your 30 yard blues must be backed up. So whether you want to do this individually or globally, you will want to make sure that they are in an off alignment by backing them up to 12 yards off the ball. They will play the correct depth that is necessary to defend a corner route. Now, in this situation, you’re looking at interceptions instead of wondering why your coverage broke down.
A lot of players do not know the grid that deep out knockout works in this game. In fact, a lot of players in Madden 24 will actually use deep in KO when running a Cover 3 base defense after all they think that middle third defender should have that ability. The deep out KO works on the field from the hash marks all the way to the sideline on either side of the field.
So even if you are using a middle third defender, it’s better to have the deep out KO because you’re going to run more coverages in which that player can actually impact throws like corner routes to the sideline, for instance. After all, if the only area in the middle of the field that a deep out KO doesn’t work is basically roughly 10 yards between the hash marks.
Keep the play that you break the huddle in on defense in your audibles. Let’s take, for instance, that I have zone drops active. I’m coming out in Tampa 2. Maybe I fear that corner route we were just talking about, but I have that zone drop set to 30, and I’ve backed it up. But then suddenly, my opponent decides that they want to maybe audible. Now, I’m put in a spot where I don’t want that 30 yard blue anymore. So I reset my play, resetting the play when you have zone drops on changes your zones back to default setting.
As a result, I can actually be in a spot where if my opponent were to try something, maybe like an out a route from the slot, I won’t have a player in a 30-yard setting. And then they’ll audible or motion into something where you want those zone drops back. But then I want them back on.
I have covered 2 already in the audibles. Choose it from the audible menu, and your zone drops go back to where they were. So now if you want that 30-yard setting, it’s all the way reset, and you’re going to be in a spot where you can defend that route for you once again. Keep the play in your audibles. That does it for today’s list of tips that will help you in coverage, no matter your skill level.