Ever since the game was announced to have a Switch port coming soon, many who have previously never heard of Genshin Impact grew intrigued. The open world in particular peaked the interest of many, especially after comparisons to Breath of the Wild were drawn. In anticipation of the port, I’d like to give a brief rundown on what the game is, and how aspects of it work. While the game is free, so there is no harm in trying it out, I’m hoping this post will serve as a guide for anyone on the fence about giving it a shot.

What exactly is Genshin Impact?
Genshin Impact is a fantasy open world action RPG from Chinese developer studio miHoYo, responsible for a couple prior games, notably mobile game Honkai Impact 3rd. Though they aren’t strangers to games, Genshin Impact is their latest, and by far most successful title yet.
The game is set on the continent of Teyvat, a vast, completely open world consisting of 7 nations associated with a different element, and a god-like figure of said element. You play the role of a traveler from a far away world, sealed in Teyvat following a confrontation with a powerful entity who separates you from your sibling. Your main driving goal is to reunite with said lost sibling. On your journey you are accompanied by a strange floating fairy thing which accompanies you and serves as both a guide as well as a quirky sidekick.
Important thing to note at this point is that the game is not currently finished. Genshin Impact is a live service game, receiving continuous content, story, and event updates every 6 weeks. At the current point, with everything there is to do at the moment, the story is less than a quarter of the way finished. The story is expected to develop over time via game updates. Currently, only 2 of the 7 regions are available to explore. As this implies, Genshin Impact isn’t the type of game you blast through in a week. It’s a long term commitment.

What is the gameplay?
Being an open world game, a big emphasis on exploration is present in the game. Several markers exist within the world that encourage travelling across the world to discover them all and have constant access to the entire world by warping to these markers. Materials from the world itself are everywhere, and are actually critical in the upgrading and improving of of your party members. In this regard, running around gathering any harvestable materials you see is highly rewarded. The world itself is vast, full of everything ranging from sheer cliffs, to dense forests, snowy mountains, beaches, and plains.
Domains, which are basically this game’s version of dungeons, are present, only unlike BOTW, they are almost entirely combat trial based, either having you defeat a certain amount of enemies, of defeat all enemies within a set amount of time, usually with sort of restriction or challenge aspect to them. Completion of these domains rewards loot such as weapons and artifacts (equippable items to make your party members stronger), which you can either use to improve your team, or upgrade your existing weapons/artifacts by infusing them into them. World bosses also exist in addition to regular enemies, which drop special materials required for upgrading your characters, Safe to say, you’ll be fighting these world bosses a lot.

What About the Combat?
Combat in this game is very much team focused. Don’t expect to have success by relying on one overpowered party member destroying everything. You have 4 party member slots, and each character in the game has a unique element associated with them. Those being Pyro (fire), Hydro (Water), Cryo (ice), Geo (earth), Anemo (wind), Electro (electricity), and Dendro (nature/plants, no current playable character has this element). Switching in and out between party members in battle to cause elemental reactions of the various elements is a huge part of the game’s combat, and thus a balanced team composition of characters of varying elements is encouraged to maximize damage potential. This might sound a little confusing, but in practice it becomes much clearer. In addition, the combat isn’t turn-based. Everything happens in real time, so you’ll need to rely on quick thinking and maneuvers in combat.
Every playable character in Genshin Impact has unique attributes and skills that set them apart from the rest, all with varying playstyles and roles. This means you have lots of freedom in terms of how you set up your party based on how you like to play or what role you want someone to fill. There are four different weapon types as well, being swords, bows, polearms, claymores, and catalysts (basically ranged magic), further increasing potential avenues for teambuilding.
Now while all this may seem like a lot of work and things to keep in mind, it’s important to remember that...

Genshin Impact is a PVE Game
You can play co-op with your friends and explore and beat dungeons together, but there is no PVP in this game at all. None. This, in essence, means there is little pressure to actually grind and make your team as good as it can possibly be. Genshin Impact isn’t a particularly difficult game. If you want, you can play with your favorites only and you’ll do fine. There’s no need to stress about using the very best characters with the very best equipped artifacts or the very best weapon. This much freedom in how you chose to build your party, and no pressure to compete in some sort of meta ultimately results in a refreshingly laid back experience, allowing one to truly experiment and see what style fits them best, at least for me.

Unfortunately, I’d be hard pressed to not mention Genshin Impact’s big catch. I’ve been painting it in a pretty positive light thus far, but now comes the time where I talk about the thing that will unfortunately put many people off of this game.

If Genshin Impact is free, how is it monetized?
Put bluntly, Genshin Impact uses a gacha monetization system. For those unfamiliar, gacha is a system where resources are spent on random items in a store. If it sounds like I’m describing a lootbox, it’s because I am.
Assuming you start playing right now, you’re only going to get access to 5 playable characters. You, 3 other party members to start you off, and another one you get by completing a challenge. Every other character in the game, of which there are 20 and counting, are only available via “wishes.” Wishes are the lootboxes. They take an ingame form of currency known as “primogems” which are trickle fed to the player via completing tasks in game, and in special events. They also just so happen to be in the store, purchasable with real money. Unlockable characters are categorized into 4 stars and 5 stars. 4 stars you can expect to obtain roughly every 10 wishes. 5 stars are much more rare, with less than a 1% chance to get one until you hit 75 wishes, in which case your odds increase until you roll one. Keep in mind, you have absolutely no control over what you get when you wish. This system exists for 4 and 5 star weapons as well, with the same system.
It’s gambling. Plain and simple. Please, do not play this game if you have an addictive personality and are the type to impulsively spend large amounts of money on games like this.
The other notable form of monetization is the resin system. Resin is essentially energy. Many things in this game cost resin to complete, such as domains and bosses. And given that domains and bosses drop essential materials for improving your team, you’ll be doing them very often. Resin regenerates over time, or is able to be purchased via the game’s aforementioned premium currency, primogems. As you can probably guess, the game artificially limits what you can do every day in order to keep you consistently playing day by day, in an attempt to get you addicted to the point where you’re more comfortable spending real money. Such is the sad reality of many games, and Genshin is not immune to these monetization tactics. The sliver lining is that money only accelerates the process or ensures you can get a character or weapon you want from a lootbox. As I mentioned, you get the premium currency just by playing the game, only they are very stingy with it.

TL;DR
If you go into Genshin Impact expecting a game that provides a story you can blast through in a week, and gameplay that respect’s the player’s time, you will be disappointed. However, if you can accept the free-to-play monetization tactics, are intrigued by the battle and exploration systems I’ve described, and just want the type of game you can play for about an hour every day, give it a shot. It’s free, so it couldn’t hurt.
I hope this post helped anyone with any doubts or concerns. I have over 100 hours into the game myself, so you have any questions, I’ll be happy to try and answer them!

$ACAC Merging w/ Playstudios - Undervalued MGM-Backed Online Gaming/Gambling/Return to Normal Play?

[Guide] Raid Shadow Legends - Level 43

Overview

This game was surprisingly interesting - for an offer anyways. In this game, you will have a bunch of champions which you will create a team out of and progress through combat stages. You have an energy bar and almost every action will require you to use energy or some other time-regenerated item. Progressing was very straightforward, and I didn't feel like there was any hidden tricks I needed to know in order to complete the offer in a decent period of time. The only things I really didn't like was how fast your energy filled up. It takes 3 minutes per 1 energy, so even when you're near the end of this offer and you have 100+ energy, it will reach the cap in about 5 hours. Of course, you won't generate more energy while it is at or over your maximum amount. That means if you want to be efficiently using your energy, you need to check in very frequently.

^{Note: This guide is only for completing the offer. If you might be interested in playing the game beyond this, I REALLY don't recommend following this guide. There are a lot of decisions I chose to make that will only help you in the beginning, but may significantly harm you if you choose to play beyond what is required.}


Offer Name	Raid Shadow Legends
Offer Wall	None. I found it on the Swagbucks front page.
Device Used	I used my desktop.
Amount	$60 using Swagbucks
Time Limit	28
Time Spent	13 days. I was level 22 the first day, 27 the second day, 38 the 6th day. I finished it on the 7th day.

^{Note: This offer goes to pending for 3 days.}

Starting Off

I highly recommend starting this game when you have a couple hours you can dedicate to it. When you start off, you are given an absurd amount of energy, and you quickly gain more. Your energy can safely go over the cap, but you will not regenerate any more when it is. I was level 26 before I got through all of the energy
You will be given a few champions to choose between at first. I highly recommend choosing Elhain. She has two good aoes, and she's an absolute beast for farming campaign - which you will be doing a lot of. I've seen some people recommend Kael, but I didn't particularly like him. He's better for bosses and arena, but your campaign is what is the most important.
When you first start off, you are given a short tutorial to complete. Make sure to put your battle on auto and put the speed at 2x. On occasion you may want to fight manually, but I only found it useful during certain bosses in the early stages and occasionally in an arena battle. After your tutorial, start working your way through the Missions as much as you can until you get the gem rewards for completing all of the ones in the first stage. If you get stuck, you can go ahead and start progressing further in the campaign; however, you will end up doing a lot of back tracking if you do. Once you get the 300 gem reward, don't bother doing them anymore (unless it's something easy). The rewards aren't really worth it. Also try to coordinate the Challenges when possible. Most of them just give silver so it's not really worthwhile, but some give energy or other useful rewards.

Things To Know

You should aim to get 3 stars in your campaigns when possible, but don't waste energy over it. You do this by completing a campaign with 1-2 champions without any of them dying. Getting a certain amount of stars will give you goodies like gems - so try to use 2 characters and get 3 stars when possible, but when you start getting 1 star, switch to using 4 champions for better exp distribution. Don't forget to equip/upgrade your equipment!
To get the most out of your battles, you want to be leveling as many champions as possible. EXP is split between all champions, even if they are already at max level. Most of the time that you are leveling champions, you will want to use one main fighter and fill the rest of the slots with Champions that need leveled up.
Save all of your gems at the start. Once you get to 800 gems, buy all of the Masteries you need for Elhain. This will give her a huge boost which will push you through the higher difficulties. This is the setup I chose. After you get her Masteries, all of your gems should be spent on energy. Do not unlock your gem mine, it's a complete waste.
One of your missions will require you to upgrade the great hall, so be sure to save your bronze metals! When the mission finally has you upgrade something, upgrade the ATK for the blue meteorite. A mission later on will have you upgrade the ATK for the elements except the purple triangle.
This game revolves around upgrading your champions. You do this by leveling them up and then upgrading their rank in the tavern. In order to upgrade their rank, they must be at max level and you must sacrifice other champions at the same rank. For example, to take a Champion from 2 star to 3 star, you will need the champion at level 20, and you will need 2 other 2 star champions. To get to 3 star, it needs to be level 30 and have 3 other 3 star champions. So on and so forth. Each time you upgrade their rank, their base stats will increase and they will be reset to level 1. The sacrificial champions can be any level, and there is no benefit to increasing their level before sacrificing them.
Your goal is to farm Brutal stage 12-6. Once you get to this point, you no longer need to upgrade any Champions - just focus on clearing it quickly. This stage seemed to be the best exp to energy ratio. I tested nightmare, to an extent, but I did not feel that it would be worth trying getting to stage 12 in nightmare since you should be fairly close to completing the offer once you get to Brutal 12-6. The first 5 or so sections in each difficulty give less exp than the 12th of a lower difficulty, but the later ones will more than make up for the exp loss. Never farm the bosses though - they use more energy and give less exp than the regular stages!

Dailies

The game resets at 7PM EST. Make sure to restart your game at this time, because some things won't track properly. The clan stuff doesn't reset until later on though.

Daily Login Reward & New Player Rewards - These usually pops up when you start the game, but you can also hit the 3 dashes on the left hand side.
Quests - Make sure to complete all of your daily quests every day! Do your Weekly and Monthly as well. Once you unlock the Advanced quests, do them if it seems worthwhile. Completing all of them gives you an energy refill, but you might not always be able to complete them all. If you can't, just do the ones that give you energy, gems, or silver.
Playtime Rewards - You will get a bunch of rewards for leaving your game running up to 3 hours. You should aim for at least 60 minutes to get the energy refill. These rewards need to be collected in the bottom right hand corner. The timer will continue even if you don't pick up the previous reward, so you can just leave the game running.
Market - This resets every 60 minutes. Unlock the first two extra slots which can be unlocked with silver. Always buy all of the Mystery Shards. If you desperately need more champions, you can buy those too. I didn't see any artifacts that were worth buying.
Progression Rewards - These aren't exactly dailies, but you should check them every 5 levels.

Events / Tournaments

These are mostly a waste of time, but make sure to collect any rewards if you happen to meet the goals. The only one to really look out for is the Artifact Enhancement event. When this one is up, it's good to waste some silver upgrading your Artifacts (Champion gear) - even if it's gear you won't use. The higher stars the gear, the more points you get for upgrading it. So make sure to upgrade the highest star gear you have when possible. Just be sure to save a few 100k silver for general purposes, but otherwise dump your silver into upgrading your artifacts so you can get some of those energy/gem rewards.

Champions

This game allows you to use 1-5 champions per battle, depending on what you're fighting. Each champion has an element, and is weak against one element and strong against another. Elhain is strong against the green lightning bolt, and weak against the red skull. She is neutral towards the blue meteorite-thing and the purple triangle.

The "Best" Champions

There are so many champions, and so many potential enemies, that it really isn't possible to say which ones you want to use. In general, you will want Elhain since she will likely be your strongest fighter. Don't ever use brews on your main fighers - you will end up maxing them out just by using them normally.

Elhain will be your main fighter, and you should prioritize her for everything. This includes upgrading rank, skills, ascending, gear - EVERYTHING. In the beginning you'll want to put Offense artifacts on her. Once you're able to, switch that to on 4 pieces of Lifesteal and 2 Offense Artifacts and she'll carry you through everything. Try to get her to level 60 ASAP. After Elhain is 4 or 5 star, you can upgrade your Warpriest (or one other DPS) to 4 star, but otherwise save everything for her. Spend your first 800 gems on masteries for her.
Warpriest is a decent healer, and she helped pushed me through some boss fights I otherwise wouldn't have made it through. I'm not sure how exactly I got her, but I recall getting her early on. Put on as many sets of Immortal as you can (when you get them), and use Life for the rest. Note: Each set requires 2 Artifacts. I got her to 4 stars, and it was sufficient for most of the game.
Diabolist is a great support. You get her as a drop in the 12th campaign. I didn't get her until I was farming brutal, but she became a huge game changer. Put 6 pieces of Speed Artifacts on her, and prioritize Speed substats (and primary stat on the boots).
Others - Pick whatever champions you can get that have AOEs or can buff your team. Speed is great for any buffers. Perception or Speed is good on any aoe debuffers. (4) Lifesteal and (2) Offense are good for any other DPS. Generally speaking, the higher the rarity, the better the champion, but pay attention to the skills.
If you get a champion with a purple triangle element - KEEP IT! These champions are extremely hard to get, and you will occasionally get quests that require you to use one.

Team Composition

Non-boss campaigns - In general you will want to use one main fighter and 3 champions that need leveled. However, if you find yourself stuck on a battle with a lot of red skull enemies, you will want to use more of your "good" champions. Campaigns 5, 7, and 11 will likely give you trouble- so go ahead and use more of your good fighters here if you can push through the stages. If you are unable to push through the stage even with a team full of your best champions, switch to a weaker stage or up to a full level down and use 1 main fighter. If you still cannot do one level weaker with one main fighter, use two fighters for now.

Once you complete the 12th section in campaign, you can change the difficulty. The first few sections will give you less exp, but it is worth it to go through them. Once you get to around stage 6, the increased energy cost seems to be worth it for the player exp. If you get stuck before then, it may be worth going back to an easier difficulty and completing 12-6. Once you get to Brutual 12-6, stop.

Boss campaigns - You will likely want a secondary fighter for bosses, if not a full team. Boss campaigns cost more energy and give less exp, so just focus on getting through the stage. It may be worth turning off auto battle for certain fights if you see your team struggling unnecessarily (ex: Using aoes on one enemy, fighting enemies that respawn instead of hitting the boss, etc)
Arena & Clan Boss - Use your best team - there's no exp here.
Dungeons & Faction Wars - Choose a pretty good team for these. There is exp, but it's very little.
Doom Tower - Don't worry about this. You might be able to work your way through near the end of the game, but it isn't really worth it by then.

Should you spend real money?

I don't think it's worth it.
They have an offer for 1,150 gems for $30. This would give you ~3,100 energy. If you are doing Brutal 12-6, you will be able to complete around 388 runs, and each run gives you around half of a percentage. That means you would get around 2 levels worth for $30, which might save you 2-3 days if you purchased it near the end.

Other tips/notes for this game:

Reload the game when the dailies reset. Some of them don't reset right until you reload.
Each time you level up you will get a full energy bar worth of energy.
If you don't have enough space for more heroes and receive one in a campaign, it will go to your mailbox with a 99 day timer. This can be a useful way to store heroes. It also happens with equipment, so make sure to sell your equipment from time to time or you'll have a lot of mail to go through. Make sure to keep some 4* and all 5* or higher equipment for the events.
Any time you accept an energy point reward, it will immediately fill up your bar. On occasion it will be sent to your mailbox if it's from a daily reward. Arena refill items always go to your mailbox.
Change your name and avatar to complete a couple quests.

Common Questions

Can I do this if I already completed it on another offer wall or played the game before on my own?

Generally, no. Almost all of these games state that it's for new users only.

What if I do it on another site?

No.

I don't see the offer! What do I do?

It's possible it simply isn't available for you. I'm from the USA, and many offers are not available outside the USA. If you are from the USA, try checking on the site I did the offer on or on a different site. Sometimes they're only on certain sites. It's also possible that the offer is no longer available.

What do I do if the mobile shortlink isn't working? What does ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED mean?

First off, try using a different browser. I have had issues with Chrome opening links before. If you are still getting an error, it's likely that your device isn't eligible for this offer. Even if it might be able to run the app, sometimes the offers put in specific requirements for devices. In this case, the only thing you can do is try a different device.

I completed the task but I didn't get credit for it! What do I do?

First, wait 24 hours. Most of these games credit within a few minutes, but they may take up to a day sometimes.
Next, check to see if the offer has been completed through the offer wall. If it has not, you must contact the specific offerwall that you completed the task on. For example, if you do this task on Site-xyz through AdGate you have to contact AdGate. If the offer shows as completed but you did not get your points, then the points may have been held and you will need to contact the specific site.

This takes so long! Why would you waste your time for a couple bucks?!

I play these games in between other work or on the weekends. I don't do them instead of better paying work, but rather along side it in my down time or while I'm watching TV. I'm also a gamer, so I enjoy playing games.

Have any more tips? Let users know in the comments!

As always, this is my first time playing this game. I have a lot of experience playing these sorts of games, but each one is a little bit different. All advice is based on my personal experience and my playstyle.

Looking for more ways to get paid to play games? Take a look here.

^{Is there a certain game you're interested in seeing a guide for? Let me know in the comments! Be sure to include the offer name, which offer wall it's on, what site you found it on, and approximately how many points it's worth.}

Diablo Immortal AMA with Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer) and Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer)

Hello folks,
Today folks who are part of the technical alpha for Diablo Immortal had the opportunity to ask questions in an AMA style format for Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer) and Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer). Below is the full text of the AMA. Enjoy!
sVr: Will there be seasonal buffs or events ? (RedDragonFlayer)
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): So we are definitely looking to have a variety of cool events. There's actually one event in the game right now which is the Challenge Rift Event. You can see this on the left side of the main menu. The backend that drives that event can and will be used to run new events in the future. Maybe we'll make Halloween a special thing?
sVr: Will PvP have a reward system? (RedDragonFlayer)
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We have more plans for PVP that we can't talk about just yet. But I hope you guys have been able to check out the Bilefen Zone Trial. One thing I can say now is that none of our PVP plans are going to move the game towards an eSport. What we want is a fun place that players of all types can gather and have a good time killing each other.
sVr: We have runes, however, they are just materials currently. What about Runewords and what made you "not include" them? (Swootcandy)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): No current plans for Runewords. Runewords are super cool, but their functionality overlaps a bit with Legendary items. We wanted to include runes as a consistent thematic element so using them as a reagent in the crafting recipe seemed cool.
Leviathan: Can you speak towards Hardcore and if it will be in? If not, philosophies on why?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Levi. Not only does Diablo Immortal extend character progression, but it is also an inherently social experience, in that we want to encourage players to join guilds and build in-game friendships. Having your buddy permanently disappear from your guild because their character died in an unfortunate and gruesome way could be a fun idea for some, but it's not the experience we're looking for, so we do not currently have plans for Hardcore mode.
MuggleMama: Is there a reason some legendary gear needs to be identified but some does not?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Sometimes we identify the gear when you get it from somewhere like the free track on the Battle Pass, but the legendary drops from the rest of the game should be unidentified. Right now there's actually a bug in the game that makes this inconsistent, and we'll be fixing that in the future.
Leviathan: Some of the people on my stream notice (and love) that many of the sounds are from old Diablo games. Are they placeholders or there to stay? Great nostalgia.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): All the sounds you hear are intended to stay unless we have a reason to change it. Personally I love the nostalgic sound of gold falling on the ground.
Leviathan: Will there be a transmog system or ways to customize characters so that people can differentiate themselves from one another?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We are not currently looking at a transmog system but we do have a couple things which are similar. The first is that we are looking at a way for your to manage your legendary powers more easily. No details to share about this right now but stay tuned.
The second is that we are planning to have full body cosmetic outfits. These will be available as a real money purchases in addition to being on the paid track of the Battle Pass.
sVr: What are your plans to "circumvent"/"restrict" the continuous powercreep inherent to ARPGs (with each major content patch)? (Demonic Eevee)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey sVr. I'll answer in two parts. We plan to cap Paragon progression and gradually raise that cap with each new content update. Legendary powers are designed to scale and will carry forward to higher level versions after content updates as well. Gems and Legendary Gems can also be unsocketed and carried into a new sweet item in the future. The second part would be with regards to the numerical tuning. Without diving too deep into the math right now, one of the reasons we have both "Attack" and "Offense Rating" as well as "Life" as well as "Defense Rating" is so that these attributes can scale linearly over time, while still making you feel more powerful. Normally you need exponential numerical growth to really feel the power difference, but the dual-attribute system should allow us to avoid crazy large damage numbers over time.
Leviathan: Will the Bestiary have statistical details on enemies (like if they have Armor and such - could help with gearing/more info) or be more flavorful/lore based?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): The Bestiary entries are going to show more about the lore of the creatures than gameplay related details. We want to reveal more of the world every time you get a new page.
Leviathan: How is the Power stat on items calculated? What does it take into consideration?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Power is calculated from all the stats on your item. The attributes on your item (strength, int, fort, spirit, willpower) are all 15 points each. Your particular build might value one attribute over another, but we didn't want to try and guess which ones you are looking for so they are all weighted equally. Then there are extra points added for magic and legendary properties. Again, we try not to make judgement calls on which property you might want for your character, the points added varies with the level of the item but not with the property itself. Finally, sockets are given a base score (I believe it's 48? Don't quote me on that) to make the socket appealing. Ultimately the "Power" of an item is supposed to give a rough gauge of which item might be better for somebody who doesn't want to do a lot of math but the actual best item might differ for somebody who wants to do a lot of min/maxing.
Dredscythe: Reforge seems to be unlocked at 45 (current level cap). Is that the plan when 60 is the new level cap, or can we get access at lower level 30, 45, etc.?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Reforging is available when you get a Legendary item to Rank 6, not when you reach a certain level. It might not be common to get to that point before max level due to the amount of crafting materials needed to rank up your items.
Dredscythe: The XP to level ramps up after 30 quite a bit, what’s the plan going forward looking at 60. Aimed for play time in hours range?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): I can't give any specific time amounts because we'll be analyzing data and feedback from the Tech alpha to possibly go back and make adjustments to the 1-45 experience as well. However, a few high level goals: (1): The amount of XP and time required to level post 45 continues to increase in the same way that things increased after 30. (2): We like the way level 1-20 feels in that it's very fast which is great for getting people into the game. (3): As a singular data point the last level from 59 to 60 should be about 2.5 hours for most players.
Neinball: Is it possible to use the phasing tech when interacting with quest givers/story points so that we don’t get swarmed with mobs while unable to control our characters?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): In Technical Alpha we have an issue where sometimes you are attacked by mobs while you are in a dialog sequence with an NPC. We definitely will be fixing this in the future.
echohack: Upgrading individual items and gems is a major shift for Diablo Immortal from previous games. We currently know about several upgrade systems: Gems, Legendary Gems, Charms, Reforging, and Salvage. What limits are being put into place to prevent Pay2Win from dominating these upgrade systems? Are there some upgrade systems that will be driven by gameplay only, and never influenced by monetization (such as the current Blacksmith / Salvage system)? (Chaosteil)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Echohack, great question! When we set out to make Diablo Immortal one of the first "tentpoles" we laid down is that the gear should be earned strictly through gameplay. I think the question understates just how important gear is (and by extension salvage/rank up) and how it affects gameplay... it's the majority of your power. I think it's worth noting that I don't think the "hunt" part of the item hunt feels strong enough yet and we hope to tune it more after the Tech Alpha. sVr alluded a bit to this in feedback he gave relating to the stats on items (still waiting for you to send over your details sVr!!!) The "magic" attributes that roll on items such as "+3% damage for your primary attack" don't feel impactful enough yet, and the attributes that initially appear on an item might be a bit light compared to the attributes gained from rank-up. Beyond items, Paragon is another example of a system you use to upgrade your character solely by playing the game. We don't have XP boosts and that was a conscious decision. At its core everything you do in Immortal is tied to gameplay: how you progress, acquire gear, earn various items, etc. all have to be done by actually playing the game, there's no way to bypass that.
echohack: Will bluetooth controllers, or other mobile phone controllers such as the PS4 / PS5 / Xbox / Nintendo Switch Pro / Razer Kishi be supported?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We get this question a lot! During Technical Alpha we're focused on making the best mobile experience for our players. However, because it's been such a common request from the community we hope that we can test controller support in the future.
Lord Fluffy: It seems pretty clear that a lot of assets were reused from Diablo III? I assume work wasn’t done to actually recreate these assets exactly as they were in D3. So, assuming you’re somehow importing them... why not import everything to give us a a way bigger pool of Elder Rift maps?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We are still in active development on the game, so the assets in Technical Alpha now will not necessarily be the versions we ship with. I'll talk about environments for a second because you brought up Elder Rift maps. The game engine for Immortal is in many ways capable of higher quality in art than we were able to achieve in Diablo 3. On top of that, we have a large talented art team that have their own creative ideas on how Sanctuary should look in Immortal. So between the tech and the team we have invested a lot in making new zones that have never been seen before, but also recreating zones you have seen so they are fresh and reflect our commitment to quality.
echohack: Can you talk in more detail about rewarding players for exploration? Specifically, can you talk in more detail about Lairs and "Legendary Monsters" (name?) -- these seem very interesting!
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): The Lairs are intended as fun side dungeons that are rewarding to explore when you come across them but not quite common enough to explicitly farm. Ideally when you're out in the world for other reasons, like main questline, a Zone Trial, or doing bounties you see a Lair and think "ooooh! Shiny!" and jump in, but we don't necessarily want you to wander the world aimlessly looking for them as your top priority. With regard to Legendary Monsters, they're a bit similar to Lairs in this regard, but with the possiblity that you may or may not ask some guild mates to come and join you if they're online. I'd love to know if you all think we're close on these goals.
echohack: Is the current hub-and-spoke model for towns similar to what we will see at release? (ie: Westmarch the main hub with minor towns in other zones)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Yes - the way the minor towns are set up with Westmarch as the capital city is the plan for release.
Lord Fluffy: Would Blizzard ever consider a pay to play server of Diablo Immortal where you couldn’t pay to win?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Fluffy! We really want to introduce Diablo to as many players as we can around the world, and we believe the best way to do that is with a free to play game. It's also important for us to make one shared experience and not split up the community. I was watching your stream when you were pushing Challenge Rifts and I know some concern was brought up that this wouldn't be as enjoyable for you when the Crests are ultimately purchasable in the future. In that regard, I think an important note is that Challenge Rifts are not going to be the ultimate end game that Greater Rifts are in D3. I don't want to spoil anything right now, but I will say it includes both PvE content and activities for larger groups of players. Grats on getting #1. BTW, in Australia there's a Barbarian who cleared 40. :wink:
sVr: For the remaining 15 levels to 60, is each class going to see new skills? (or are the current skills stretched over to 60)?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): The tech alpha does not include all the skills characters will be able to learn when the final version of the game is released. There are 2 additional skills per class and we are hoping to add more skills to each class post-launch as free expansion content.
Mugglemama: Will phasing be used to reduce the number of people you see in places like Westmarch? Or will it become overloaded with players?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): There are a few things we're doing to help combat having too many players on screen. First, when many players are in the same zone at once we do spin up a second copy of that zone and divide the players between the different areas. Secondly when a large number of players are on the screen at once we do some dynamic culling of players who may be farther away from you to help performance. Even right now we are hanging out in Westmarch and you can see how characters fade in and out depending on their proximity to you. We will continue to tweak and improve this system so that points of interest in Westmarch are not overcrowded.
ECHO Gaming: How will the battle pass work across multiple character accounts. If you purchase the pass will it only work for one character per account or across all characters on that account.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Echo. The current plan is that you purchase the Battle Pass once and it unlocks the benefits and paid reward track on all of your characters. Pretty sweet right? While we're on the subject I want to clarify that we are currently thinking of a monthly battlepass that starts at the beginning of each month and ends at the end of the month. During tech alpha the duration is set to 2 months only because we didn't want the battlepass to reset partway through the tech alpha in the event it goes past Dec 31 (duration of tech alpha still TBD. We are getting lots of good data and fixing bugs on the backend as it relates to server stability and other behind-the-scenes stuff).
Orelus: Will there be additional zones with upcoming patches once released or any plans for another classes joining the roster?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Yes! We are planning for more of everything. New Zones, new Dungeons, more legendary items, quest lines and bounties. We will even be working on new Classes to add. All of this will become a part of the game for everyone to enjoy for free without purchase.
Raxxanterax: How will the sharing of resources (if at all) be implemented into the released version of immortal? Currently our paragon levels seem to carry over to other characters, will anything else? Shared stash? Any other shared resources?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Raxx, I lurked in your stream on Saturday, it was nice to see you enjoying the game. Right now most of the progression is done on a per-character basis. Before I dive in I want to caveat that this is definitely an area of design that might change (or might not). We would love for more things to be shared between characters but the problem we ran into is that we also have bonuses (such as bounties, first kill of the day, battlepass) that reward you for activities on a daily/one-time basis. We don't want the best way of progressing your main to be rolling up a stable of alts and then funneling all the resources into your main.
Neinball: So after starting up a new character: is it meant to be a whole new experience (no shared currency, completely reset battle pass, etc) per character or a limitation of the alpha? And do paragon levels on those new character only unlock at max level?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Paragon is shared across characters but only unlocked when those characters reach max level. We did this to have a more meaningful leveling experience similar to World of Warcraft when your main character is the primary focus. We wanted to to make sure that a level 33 Demon Hunter and a level 34 Wizard had reasons to group and tackle hard challenges and create a social environment that is beneficial to the game. If that level 33 Demon Hunter had 300 paragon points to spent they would not need to engage in leveling the same way.
Leviathan: Has there been anything from the reports, videos, streams, that has surprised you in the alpha whether pleasantly or unpleasantly?What do you think of the alpha thus far, community reaction, etc.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): I'm really overwhelmed by the positive reception. It's definitely been a busy two years and it's very rewarding to be able to "show don't tell". I think one moment that gave me a chuckle on Sunday was opening two streams at once (I think it was Gregg and Raxx?). The two of them were partied up. I was on my anonymous-smurf account and joined them in the party. But then Gregg booted me from the party! LOL. Fortunately I could hear Gregg talk in stream about how I think he was poking around the UI.
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We've been saying that "playing is believing" mantra for a long time. It's great to finally see you all play the game and hear their reaction. I've been watching multiple streams constantly for days and it's only made me more excited about making this game! Also I really thought I was good at CR pushing until a few days ago :frowning:
Lord Fluffy: Will there be end-game currency conversion? hitting that arcane dust blocker on the alpha right now and the progression slow down feels pretty bad. Just playing for rare drops and having thousands of reusable parts.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Tuning the materials is one of the areas we're looking at for technical alpha. Things are constantly in flux during development, and the ratios of crafting materials is an area we wanted to learn more from this test. I don't know if running out of Arcane Dust feels any better than running out of Scrap Materials (you're always going to be blocked by /something/). One solution is to provide a conversion mechanism, but another solution is to provide different activities for different resource types. Maybe activity X is good for parts, activity Y is good for gold, and Z is good for Arcane Dust. All that said, it's awesome to see people getting to this part of the game, and this will definitely help inform decisions for the next phase of development.
Raxxanterax: How important are clans going to be? In Diablo 3 theyre mostly just another looking for group channel. Are clans in Diablo Immortal going to have more importance?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Guilds in Diablo Immortal are a great way to group up with like-minded players and we have achievements to help guide some of the activities. But I have to say that we have larger plans for social groups beyond what Guilds are in Technical Alpha. Can't say more than that today but we are excited to share more in the future.
Megax: What information do you intend to add to the bestiary? I couldn't find a way to decipher what power each rare and elite monster brings with it. The icons help but it is still not the complete information
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): The Bestiary will contain lore information on the many enemies to defeat in Immortal, but will not contain gameplay details. The Elite monster powers are dynamic every time they are spawned in the world. I think it's a good point of feedback that we should make sure that these powers are easily understood by our players.
Wudijo: Do they plan on trying to do a low config version for like 2-3 years old phones?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): During Technical Alpha we intentionally have a pretty narrow list of supported devices that help us test compatibility, performance and stability. At ship our game will support as many devices as possible. And even after installing the game, you can customize the graphics quality to suite your preferences.
Wudijo: Items being the root of Diablo, will they add primal kinds of items in DI?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): There are no current plans to have Primals (or Ancients) in the game. That said, we do want to add more content after launch and Primals and Ancients are certainly on the table. However, I think systems like that are more interesting when they are also tied to new content (new ways to interact with the game).
Wudijo: At BlizzCon they said a fully fledged mobile game with no PC version, is it still the case or will this change?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We are focused on creating the best mobile Diablo experience. We are excited to bring the epic action rpg elements to Diablo veterans and newcomers alike on their mobile devices.
Wudijo: If there are no primals, what would be the other version, like uniques kinda replacing legendaries in D4, but for DI?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): For launch I feel the item system we have with game-changing legendaries and the rank up system is fairly robust. We do need to examine and tune the numerical values on attributes but no major changes planned right now. (but this is tech alpha, so things are always subject to change)
Wudijo: Considerations for another skill slot for movement or utility skill only?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): We have explored that but no current plans. We're pretty happy with the control scheme right now and want to avoid adding too much more complexity.
NotPatrick: What is the design intent, pacing and soft limits for your gameplay and paid systems? For example, gear upgrading and the amount of crafting material, paragon, and how to engage with the market?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): The short answer is we want the game experience to be enjoyable for both players who want to remain free and those who choose to spend money. How all of these systems interact with the player experience is something we're paying close attention to, and tuning them will be important to get the balance right.
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Hey everyone I'm going to sign off for now. It was great hanging out and getting to answer all of your questions. I just want to say that this Technical Alpha is just a part of the game we are making and have much more to reveal in the future.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Thanks for all the great questions. A few extra tidbits of information that I picked up from watching videos and streams over the past few days.
Auto-navigation is unlocked for a zone when you complete the main questline for that zone. That's why it's not obvious at first, but then available later (most often when a bounty sends you back to a previous zone). We could do a better job communicating this.
I don't know how many of your found Guild Achievements, but I've already made a note that we need to iterate on the UI here. If you open up your guild page and hit the arrow to expand to full screen, there's a UI for guild achievements.
Thanks again for all the great questions and I'll see you around!

This game is so dull

Suggestions Mega

A "Quick" Intro to AR Guide - v2 (post-5.0.0 update)

The original post was months ago and AR has seen some major changes - so time for v2.
This guide is aimed for those who are looking to start taking AR seriously. It is generally focused at anyone working to reach T21, but might also be helpful for those in the lower T21+ as well. I'll cover the way scoring works, the major team architypes, building priority, and just a bit on defense.
The recent 5.0.0 update made some significant changes to scoring, bonus units, and team sizes. For this guide, I'll be assuming you have the "standard" 5 offense and 6 defense heroes (after reaching T19) - so you may need to tweak things if you haven't unlocked the slots yet. If you have Reginn or any mythics released after her, then you'll be able to unlock an extra attacker or defender based on which season the mythic is in. I won't assume you have it, so consider using an extra dancer, support, tech slot, or mythic there.

Offense

Offense is the place to focus. You can earn a lot more lift on offense than you'll lose on defense. You can make tier 21 with a solid offense and NO DEFENSE - so while climbing, it is much more important to focus your resources on your offense teams. Having a bit of a defense will make things easier on your offense, but a good defense only becomes super important when aiming for T25+.

Scoring

The first important thing to understand is scoring. Feel free to double the math for playing 100 aether games.
Each game has a base 100 lift that you're playing for. Winning earns you 100 lift. But for each unit you lose on offense, you lose 20 lift.
You can increase your score ceiling by 20 if you use a bonus unit. There will always be an appropriate (light/astra) mythic as a bonus - and using the bonus mythic means that you can lose 1 unit without it counting against you. Having a copy of every mythic in a season means that you will always have a bonus unit (until a new light/astra mythic comes out).
You can also increase your score by using both offense mythics (light or astra depending on the season) and appropriately blessed allies or in-season legendaries. You get 10 extra lift per mythic per blessed unit/legendary. Just to make it clear, if it is Light/Dark/WateEarth season - you need LIGHT mythics and either LIGHT-blessed heroes or WATEEARTH legendaries. Fjorm counts. L!Eliwood does not.
100 + (20 if bonus unit) + (10 x (# of mythics) x (# blessed units or in-season legendaries))
You can also get 1 extra point per merge that you have on your mythics. Since this is a beginner guide, I won't go into it, but the wiki link covers the details. I'll just note that you want 2 mythics rather than a single +1 mythic.
Finally, using post-5.0.0 mythics will grant you access to an extra offense slot. Currently, everyone gets a free Reginn, so everyone will have access to this slot in astra. This final slot does not count towards lift calculations, but a unit can only be used if they are the proper season offense mythic, a properly blessed unit, or an in-season legendary. So you can't bring a defense mythic or out-of-season legendary. Bringing another astra mythic does grant mythic bonus stats though - so they are a solid option to give your units 5 extra HP and other stats. Since this unit doesn't count for score, we'll just focus on the usual 5 offense slots.
So given that scoring equation and our 5 units, we want 2 or 3 mythics. The calculation comes out to be the same (10 x 2 mythics x 3 blessed heroes) vs (10 x 3 mythics x 2 blessed heroes). Given we are just starting, we'll settle on 2 mythic heroes. Triple mythics means more mythic stats - but is mostly a higher level strategy for when you have mythic merges and are pushing for high rank above T27/T28.
So our starting teams are going to be 2 mythics, 1 bonus hero (either a mythic or properly blessed), and 2 blessed/legendary heroes. These restrictions are for optimal scoring, but in lower tiers, you can certainly skip on the bonus unit - especially if you would win more games without the bonus unit.

Teams

We have 5 teams for each season (if you haven't already, hit this purple button to split your raiding parties into 5 per season). We're going to use Light season for our examples, since everyone gets a free Eir + Peony. We're assuming 2 mythic heroes and a bonus unit - so we're really only looking at two special units per team. If you have the bonus mythic, then you can use the bonus slot to bring whoever helps your team (and is blessed properly). So you could bring another mythic for extra stats, an extra dancer, or a tech option like Aversa for panic.
Your mythics will be in every team. They are going to be worth a bit of investment to help them out. Eir has a great base kit, so she really only needs reposition or smite to help clean up kills. Peony probably wants moonbow and an A slot that helps her killing potential or survival like Fury 3 or Triangle Adept. Peony can optionally run Wings of Mercy as well, though personally I like her with her native aerobatics. Reginn, our free astra mythic, has a really solid base kit as well - but you can look at running the hit and run skill so you can safely run away with canto, or galeforce + heavy blade seal for another strong set. If you have other mythics, do some research on how best to use them to best fit your team(s).
There are 4 main team archetypes - though the lines get blurry sometimes. Nearly any unit can be used in AR if built/invested properly and if they can be used in a strategy that can defeat the defense. If you aren't pushing for T27/28, then you can definitely make your favorites work.

Tanking

Tanking (or omni/omega tanking) is the easiest team to use, but can take some significant investment. The basic idea is that you build up a very strong unit that can take hits, maybe sustain themselves, and also hit back hard to get kills. You end turn in range, and let the enemy kill themselves on your wall of a unit.
But that means building a wall of a unit. They might want CC/DC to hit back on all opponents (though some ranged tanks pass on that). They probably want some form of self-sustain - generally running Noontime, Sol, or Aether for their special. They'll want a useful weapon that helps them stay alive (through extra stats, reduced damage, shorter cooldown specials, NFU, etc), and they want a lot of stats to back it up. That means summoner support, merges, and dragonflowers are going to really help out here. A good support unit will also help out. B!Lucina, M!Corrin, Flayn, Kaden, Clive, and Mathilda are some examples of support units, and are going to be ally supports with the tank. Each support does different things, and might be valued differently for any given tank. B!Lucina provides a breath effect, so she can enable different specials. M!Corrin provides more in-combat stats, but also has high stats himself to soak chills/shrines. Many supports can run fury, LnD, or fortress skills to soak for their tanks. They should also probably run drive skills or something like distant guard. You can also give them shove and a link skill for positioning and buffing. Or a dual rally+ and a ruse for buffing and debuffing.
But enough about the support - its the tanks who are important. There are many viable tanks. Some are better than others. Some require special weapons. Some work only at really high merges. Infantry tanks are most common, as they don't have common weapons that are effective against them. Your tank choice consider the season, depending on the mythics. Eir works nicely to patch up the res on many traditional tanks like B!Ike. The auto-followups from Bramimond/Yune and others mean that a NFU tank is very valuable in light season. The many debuffs in astra from Thrasir and Mirabilis mean that the ability to ignore debuffs is useful in astra.
Some notable tanks are B!Ike, B!Hector, B!Edelgard, B!Dimitri, Kris, Mareeta, F!Ike, Caineghis, Duo Alfonse, S!Idunn, Echidna, and many others. There are also ranged tanks like Brunnya, Norne, Sophia, M!Robin, and W!Cecilia - who might skip on CC to gain more stats. Each tank has different builds and concepts that make them work as tanks - so do some research before investing heavily in a unit. Some will work reasonably well at low merges like Mareeta or Kris or B!Hector - while others like Brunnya, Norne, and Echidna want merges and are easier to merge at 4 stars.

Hit and Run

Hit and Run is the simplest team archetype to build, though it isn't the easiest to pilot. I list it next since its usually very easy to put together for another viable team. The basic concept is that you use a ranged nuke to snipe an enemy, and then you dance that nuke and retreat to safety. Typically this means the nuke has draw back or reposition, so they can also bring the dancer to safety as well.
The ideal ranged nuke is going to be able to secure kills without getting counter-killed. Reinhardt is a good example of this due to his "brave" tome. B!Lyn has Sacae's Blessing in her B slot which can prevent counters. But she can also run a brave bow to try to kill the enemy in two hits before they can counter. Or even a firesweep bow to prevent counterattack entirely. Bernadetta is another great unit since her PRF gives her desperation. L!Leif is one of the best possible galeforce units with his brave weapon and "galeforce" special - however he only scores during water season. You don't need to use a cav - Ophelia with special spiral and an AoE special can be a great hit and run unit who chunks people down with an AoE special every combat. For the support unit, you can use an extra dancer, a support unit like B!Fjorm/Loki, or even a second nuke that covers the weaknesses of the first one.
For a more advanced tactic, you can use a gravity+ wrazzle dazzle staff. They won't truly be able to hit and run without reposition/draw back, but they can drop a gravity bomb and perhaps savage blow into the enemy team without getting counter-attacked, and it can solve some difficult maps. I would stay away from this as a new player - but maybe keep it in the back of your mind if you have trouble securing kills against things like armor teams. B!Camilla is a good example of this.
Another important option to note is Leila. Leila does a great job as a support unit, but she also is an amazing hit and run unit. If she pairs with Peony, she can attack an enemy without fear of counterattack, and then she swaps back to safety. Peony can use her aerobatics to jump to the far side of Leila to dance, and then Leila can repo peony to safety. Definitely worth considering if you have a copy of Leila.
So an example team might be Peony, Eir, Bernadetta, Reyson, and a bonus unit. You can also run double Peony or Peony + Mila if you have them.
Be careful when the opponents have multiple dancers, especially L!Azura. It can sometimes be hard to retreat your units to safety when the enemy team is going to get danced for a ton of range. Likewise, hit and run might not work well on open maps with long range units (for example, tibarn + naesala + reyson + leone on a very open desert map). Hit and run shines when the opponents are trapped in or have to walk a long way around buildings to get to you.

Vantage

Vantage is one of the cheaper strats to get into, mostly only requiring CC for expensive fodder. Since everyone gets one free CC fodder in the form of a free Takumi, this is often a good archetype to invest into. The basic idea is to have a unit with a very high damage who is capable of one-shotting most opponents. After getting into vantage range (<75% HP), they will get a chance to attack first when they are attacked on enemy phase. If the unit has enough killing power, they can one shot every enemy that attacks them before they get hit. Getting into vantage range is one of the tricks of using a vantage user. You can often use the enemy bolt trap or bolt tower against them. You can also initiate on someone who you can't quite kill, and take a counterattack. You can also do the math and plonk a unit in the range of an enemy. That gets easier with something like miracle, though charging miracle can be another interesting problem.
Vantage units aren't all-powerful, as any "Hardy Bearing" effect or uncounterable units (firesweep, dazzling, windsweep, etc) will prevent vantage from working properly. A good vantage player will snipe these counters, position out of range, or perhaps use miracle or natural bulk to survive.
There are multiple types of vantage units. "Bladetome" and similar effects, who get extra atk for their total buffs. "Broadleaf" daggers (including Matthew) and mages (Ursula for example), who get extra damage based on the enemy's debuffs. Infinite special users like Ares or certain carries with special spiral. There are brave weapons that work in the enemy phase like Altina, Laslow, and L!Leif. And then Kronya, who has a unique weapon effect where she gets vantage when the enemy is less than full HP.
So starting with the bladetomes. First thing - if you don't have a +10 bladetome already built, I would pass on them. Bladetomes typically will get a set of spectrum buffs, which gives them +24 damage to their weapon. On paper, thats great - however lull skills negate buffs on two stats - so now you are only getting +12 (and might be losing the attack buff on top of that). Panic is also aboslutely devastating. Panics and Lulls have become more and more common, which makes it very hard to recommend building a Bladetome for AR. If you already have one for abyssals or something - you can definitely use them in T21+, but if you haven't invested in one - then you'll get better bang for your buck with broadleaf effects. As far as bladetomes go, Nino and Tharja are the common ones. Laevatein is a melee version. And there are inheritable versions so many mages can technically bladetome. For supports, you'll want someone who can provide spectrum buffs like L!Azura, L!Eliwood, Mae/Odin or any combination of tactics/links to provide buffs. Glimmer and Miracle are the common specials. Miracle is notable at higher tier AR as it helps with the vantage counters.
Matthew and the broadleaf dagger units are a better option. Matthew is a common starting place, as he is in the 3-4 star pool and his refine is the broadleaf effect - where the real Broadleaf Fan is 5 star exclusive fodder from a seasonal unit (but you can inherit it onto any dagger unit). These units will gain extra attack based on the total debuffs on the enemy they are attacking. So for this setup, we want to ensure the enemies are spectrum debuffed. The good news is that dagger units naturally debuff def and res after attacking. So we'll pair them with an support unit who will inflict atk and spd penalties on the enemy. B!Micaiah, D!Micaiah, atk/spd smokes, and the Temari+ weapon are common options for this. Something like Aversa can also work, but they debuff every stat to -3 rather than focusing on atk/spd. Panic also counts towards the debuff totals though - so Aversa can be great if the defense uses visible buffs. Tethys is a good Temari+ user, and works particularly well in astra season when Matthew really wants a dancer if you don't have Plumeria. In light season, Eir can run Temari+ - but may want a few merges, a Res boon, or phantom res seal to make it more reliable. The combat is the same as bladetomes. Get into vantage range by taking advantage of a bolt trap or tower, by getting counterattacked on the first hit, or standing in range of enemies that you know you can survive a hit from. You'll spread that dagger debuff around and they'll have the atk/spd debuff from your support partner or smokes. You'll vantage sweep anyone who attacks you. You can also get buffed by your team for extra stats, but you can pass on that if you'll get panicked. Like all vantage users, you need to watch out for hardy bearing effects and units who prevent counterattacks. You're less vulnerable to panic/lulls compared to bladetomes, but more vulnerable to enemy dancers and rally traps. Since taking an action clears debuffs, any unit that can get danced will have an action with no debuffs - which can put Matthew/Broadleaf daggers in a pinch - so Mila or B!Fjorm can be helpful to prevent that. Again, common specials are glimmer and miracle.
I'll also note the broadleaf tomes like ursula, saias, arvis, and gunnthra. They have the same effect, but are magical damage, have to deal with the color triangle, and don't apply dagger debuffs. Duo Micaiah is also notable for the Dominance duo ability, which is similar to broadleaf, but applies true damage. Duo miccy can vantage herself, or use her ability to add a ton of damage onto nearly any ally.
I won't touch much on special spamming or melee vantage users since they are more niche. Ares, Kronya, Phina, and Y!Marth can all spam specials. Laslow and Altina are good melee units with enemy-phase brave weapons. If you have or like any of them, you can research how to build them and how effective they are.
The final option I'll cover is kronya. Kronya's PRF is different than regular vantage, letting her attack first if the enemy is not at full HP. That means Kronya pairs really well with AoE damage. She really likes your bolt tower, and will run savage blow in the C slot (and maybe seal) to further spread AoE damage. Not only does it give her the "vantage" effect, it gives +5 atk/spd - and being damaged means the enemies will be easier to kill (which makes up for her lesser attack compared to broadleafs/bladetomes). She pairs well with even more AoE damage like F!Takumi or H!Hector - who are basically mobile bolt towers and can ensure wider coverage or can overlap with the bolt tower for tons of damage. H!Hector is notable since he can use his effect on turn 1 and prevent IP chains or run the duo building to use it twice. F!Takumi is cheap from grails and also applies panic to his victims, which helps Kronya initiate safely on the rare team that runs buffs. F!Taco is also ranged and can really help clear buildings and get the pots. Like the others, Kronya hates Hardy Bearing and counterattack-preventing enemies. Unlike the others, Kronya often has full HP and decent defenses going into combat, so she can often afford to take a hit from an enemy and still live. Further helping there is Miracle, which can be run (possibly alongside the flashing blade seal) to ensure you can take even more hits from a single counter. Kronya's real enemy though, is the healing tower. A healing tower can undo some or all of the aoe damage, preventing her from getting vantage or securing kills. The success of the team often involves Kronya first taking out the healing tower, then getting danced and taking out the Hardy Bearing user (or vice versa). I'll also note Fierce stance or atk/def seals are solid options to increase her enemy phase killing power. Since she has a free B slot - she can use a number of premium skills like Disarm Trap, NCD, NFU, Special Spiral - or even Obstruct or Escape Route on a budget.
The builds for these vantage users all differ depending on the unit and your preferences - but they all really like attack to secure those kills. They can run glimmemoonbow for extra killing power, or Miracle for surviving that one unit that would otherwise kill them. Consider running a blade seal in order to charge miracle faster. Pair your vantage user with the approriate support (buffs, debuffs, aoe), snipe the HB units, and you're all set. Just be careful that you leave one unit alive so you can collect pots - usually by staying out of range of some unit, or knowing the AI well enough to let a rally trap happen so a dancer is left alive.

Sweeps

Sweep teams aim to take out most of the enemies on a single turn. This almost always involves galeforce for extra actions - but there are some abilities like Duo Lyn and Harmonic Tiki that can grant extra actions to help these teams clear. Sweeps typically require a tightly knit team that ensure galeforce will get enough special charges - and can require a lot of pre-planning on how to properly sweep the defense. Usually, a single unit is left alive so that your team can collect pots. Typically, sweep teams will aim to "trap" a ranged unit by surrounding them and leaving them nowhere to move, and no one in range to attack. You can also tank the final unit - which works well with armor galeforcers or units with miracle. Depending on the defense, you can also sometimes outrange the final enemy, especially if they are an armor who no longer has access to armor march or armored boots.
In addition to lots of attack actions, sweep teams often need actions to get into range of the enemy. Wings of Mercy is one of the most common ways to do this - typically one unit is smited into the enemy team and will engage them to charge galeforce and get into WoM range. Other galeforcers or dancers can then fly to that unit's side to continue the sweep. This is also the core concept behind Eirforce and similar teams, which use self-damaging skills like fury to create a reliable WoM beacon (and taking advantage of Disarm Trap to make engagements much safer). Not all teams require WoM - armorforce teams often repo/smite two armors in and will clear 4 enemies and tank the remaining two. Leila + L!Edelgard make a formidable team in fire season, and can clear 4-5 enemies and let L!Edelgard tank the rest.
Since galeforce/sweep teams take a lot of planning and prep, they aren't recommended for newer players. They can be very fun and rewarding though - so maybe keep it in mind for later.

Hybrids

I just want to emphasize that these 4 archetypes are the most common, but not set in stone. Many strategies are slightly different or blur the lines between two strategies. Some examples:

L!Leif can run vantage (without CC) for a hyrbid Hit & Run + Vantage setup. He will be able to vantage ranged enemies with his dual-phase brave bow, so he can still sweep even if he can't retreat all the way to safety.
Y!Marth has a number of builds that make use of his vantage, effective weapon damage, and tankyness. He'll often be able to take a hit to go into vantage range, and then strike first with vantage. He can even run a healing special - so he is either at high HP to take hits, or is in vantage range and will strike first (and possibly heal again).
Brunnya and Norne are examples of "hit and sit" strategies. They usually involve sniping 1-2 threats on enemy phase, and then sitting to tank the remaining units. This lets them use a damaging special since they don't need to sustain as much, and it lets them get extra stats by not taking CC - as long as some melee enemies are sniped.
Some tanks skip the healing specials for damage specials to secure kills. They rely on their bulk and/or positioning to survive hits, and then hit back hard with a special. This often involves special cooldown acceleration like special spiral, B!Lucina support, or special fighter. B!Hector can run bonfire + special fighter for 1CD bonfires. He takes a hit on enemy phase and charges bonfire, then hits back hard to secure kills. Brunnya can run special spiral and Iceberg for a similar effect. Norne with spendthrift bow and B!Lucina can run moonbow to secure key kills.

And theres many others that are slightly non-traditional and blur the lines between archetypes. Just remember that the archetypes are good places to start, but don't let yourself be bound by them.

Sacrificial Lambs

Finally, the 5.0.0 AR changes introduce a new concept and a new strategy. The core concept is that using a bonus mythic allows you to lose a unit without it affecting your score, so you can send a unit into the fray to die - a sacrificial lamb. This will start the defense moving and have them break formation. If you predict the AI well, you can keep the rest of your team safe in the backline, and then pick off the enemies one-by-one. After the unit dies and the defense starts moving - then the cleanup is often similar to a normal hit and run match.
Of course, sending in a unit just to die is wasteful. We can send in a unit who can do something useful (and then die). So perhaps this unit will attack a key building like a healing tower. Perhaps they attack enemies to apply dagger debuffs, savage blow AoE, or pulse smoke. If they can kill a unit, then that makes the cleanup easier. With galeforce or someone like duo lyn, they might even be able to take out multiple enemies.
For tank strats - you can throw a lamb in alongside your tank. The lamb can snipe a threat to make tanking easier, and as an added bonus - whichever unit kills the lamb won't be able to suicide into the tank, so its much harder to accidentally tank and counterkill the entire enemy team and miss the pots. This can work particularly well alongside non-sustain tanks like iceberg Brunnya or bonfire B!Hector - especially if they are sniping units too. Be careful when it comes to dancers though - make sure that whoever kills your lamb can't reach your support units after a dance - you can only afford to lose 1 free unit.
Vantage works in a similar way - send the lamb in with your vantage unit to snipe an extra hardy bearing or firesweep user. It makes your vantage unit less likely to die, and again can prevent accidental team clears before you've got the pots.
Sweep/galeforce teams also have a lot more leeway with the bonus mythic, even if they may not have a specific lamb. If you sweep all but 1 unit, then you don't even need to trap or have tanky units. As long as that final unit doesn't have galeforce, they can only kill one of your team - and then you can collect pots and finish off the final unit on the next turn.
Since this is only an option when you have the bonus mythic, I'd recommend not relying on it too much. If you don't have all the mythics for a given season, you'll be right back to having to do things with no unit loss the next week. But definitely keep it in your back pocket as an option if you come across a team that you can't beat any other way.

Buildings

There are lots of opinions on buildings. My suggestions are just that, suggestions - and its up to you to determine what works best for you.
My personal recommendation for new players is to only bring 4 buildings on offense. The fortress, escape ladder (if you have ladders remaining), bolt tower, and bonus building. I find this setup has the highest value buildings while also keeping 2 spaces open to let you manuever your units. The bolt tower should be in lane 3 or 4. The other buildings can placed whereever you want - I personally place them in lanes 1/3/4/6. I'll place debuff buildings like the panic manor or schools in lane 1/6 so that they are unlikley to hit someone and enable a restore trap. Otherwise I usually place the bonus building in lane 3/4 depending on the bolt tower. Here is an example setup. Remember that this is just a recommendation to get you started - as you get more experience you can look at other buildings that better compliment your teams and playstyles.
There are two currencies for leveling up buildings, so we've got two different priority lists. You get dew by spending stones, so you generally want to spend your stones - though there are times when you want to save stones when you are close to a key upgrade (saving for a high level building or unlocking the a team slot at T11/T19 for example). I'll just layout my recommended priorities first - and then go into explanations after.

Stones: Extra offense/defense slots = Bonus Buildings to lvl 1 > Escape Ladder to 2-3 > Bolt Tower > Ladder to 5 > otheniche buildings
Dew: Aether Fountain/Amphorae > Bolt Tower to Lvl 7 > Fort (D) > Fort (O)

Stones:
For stones, the first priority is going to be unlocking the 5th offense team slot at T11. If you are nearing T11, you'll want to save 300 stones so you can purchase it as soon as you can. That extra team slot is super helpful for winning games, but also increases the score ceiling to 180 if using a bonus unit and the proper buildings. There are also defensive slots at T11 and T19 (also 300 stones each) - and those are really good purchases if you have defense mythics - without defense mythics you can hold off a bit as your defense is likely to be low priority until higher tiers.
The second priority is going to be unlocking the first tier of each offense bonus building. Save 100 stones per week until you have all of the bonus buildings at lvl 1. Focus on offense bonus buildings first - but you'll eventually want to do the same for defense buildings, but again defense won't become important until later tiers.
The third priority is going to be building the escape ladder. The escape ladder will return your aether when you lose a match. Early on, its great for when you face a defense you can't beat at all. Eventually you'll be shooting for a perfect offense - so you can use the escape ladder if you would lose a single unit or miss pots. The escape ladder can currently go to level 5, but the latter two levels are expensive, so its fine to sit at 3 for a bit. You'll probably want to reach level 4 once you get close to T18+. Level 5 can be excessive, but can be useful for pushing to T27.
The fourth priority is going to be leveling the bolt tower. The bolt tower is a great equalizer. True damage doesn't care how much def/res the enemy has. It doesn't care about CC/Repel/Spurn or other damage reduction. There are no health checks like the tactics room/panic manor and no way to "soak" it like the shrines. It turns impossible maps into possible ones. Dealing 40 damage to key enemies can turn brick walls into tissues. You'll usually time your engage around the bolt tower too. Strategies that pick off units in player phase will often engage on turn 3 with the bolt tower to get a couple of key kills. Tanking strategies will often tank on turn 2. This lets your tank use healing specials on full HP enemies to survive, and also will chip down enemies on the next turn so that you can cleanup low HP enemies. The healing tower is the only other building I'd consider early on, as it can be very useful in astra if you don't run a heron or staff unit. Its also good for testing traps and healing up afterwards. Getting it to lvl 2 will negate double duma defenses - but even then it may not be worth losing the extra tile on offense.
Then to re-ephasize - after that I recommend nothing. Taking only 4 buildings is going to help a ton by providing you extra space to work with. Ranged cavs can reach the starting row, so the extra room in the building row is super useful for hiding units and for smiting carries/tanks into the fray. If you take all 6 buildings, you're going to be in trouble when you see a cavline or any defensive setup with oppresive range. TAKING 6 BUILDINGS IS BAD. Don't do it.
After leveling the escape ladder and bolt tower, you'll hopefully have a better idea of how AR works and how you and your team play. If you like falling back to your healing tower, then feel free to invest heavily into it. If you feel that the tactics room or panic manor are super important - feel free to level them. If you run H!Hector, then Duo's Indulgence can be super powerful. If you don't have something specific in mind, then look at the defense buildings.
Dew:
You get dew by spending stones. It is used for fotresses, pots, and high level offense upgrades.
The offense fort is NOT worth leveling up anymore. It used to be the highest priority building, however the 4.10.0 update changed how that worked. Now, if the defense fort is higher level than your offense fort, then your offense fort is set to the same level as the defense fort. This is applied before any bonus levels like using a bonus building or low-tier fort boosts. As long as you continue to use a bonus building, your level 1 fort will be equal to a level 5 fort. You'll eventually want to level the offense fort, as you can occasionally exceed the defense fort's level - but thats a fairly rare occurance, especially in T21+.
The aether pots are going to be the highest priority. The Aether Amphorae increases the aether cap - which means more aether at the start of the week. The Aether Fountain increases the aether returned each day. You'll need both to be maxed out in order to reach T21, so these are going to be the best use of dew. I would slightly prioritize the Aether Fountain - but spend your dew on whichever one you can afford.
After that, you'll want to prioritize your defense fort and the lvl 6/7 bolt tower (O) upgrades. After that - you can upgrade the offense fort or other high level upgrades as needed.

Defense

Defense is hard for newer players. It requires a lot of resources to level the Fort (D) and key buildings. It requires a lot of trial and error. It often involves looking at other maps for ideas, and then adapting those concepts for your own units. Its hard to suggest that new players invest a ton of time on their defense, since offense is so much more important for climbing the ranks. That being said, lots of people love building their defense up and tweaking it to try and get kills or wins. I'm not going to cover much - just scoring and how to use your mythics properly. I have a couple of posts (one and two) on AR-D if you want to dive deeper - but I'd wait until T21+ and you have the dew for a lvl 4 or 5 defense fort.
To start with, you can be attacked by anyone within ~100 lift of you (...maybe? usually? we don't know for sure...). After being attacked, you are immune for 20 hours. So in your defense results, you'll see a bunch of "Lift Loss Control Active" matches - these matches won't count against you, which prevents one player from being clobbered by RNG. You can technically get 8 defense matches per season that count - however that is extremely rare. Usually 4-6 defense matches will count.
You'll receive rewards at the end of the season based on the 3 worst losses you get. Since the max lift loss per match is -100, that means your defense reward score can be anywhere from 0 - 300. Ranks 20+ get more flowers, but operate the same way. Note that the worst 3 losses is only for scoring - if you lose more than 3 matches, those will still deduct from your lift.

Scoring

Now lets go over how scoring works on defense. As we just covered, you can lose at most 100 lift for each defense loss. For each kill you get, you prevent 20 of that. So getting 5 kills negates the loss - you get -0 lift lost, even though you still might "lose" the match if there is a 6th attacker. Mythics also can help out here, just like on offense. Your max possible loss is reduced based on the number of mythics you have (capped at 2) in relation to the number of blessed units and in-season legendaries you have. Like offense, using the bonus mythic will help you out - your worst case scenario is reduced by 20 if you take a bonus mythic. So instead of a -100, its -80 with a bonus mythic. Unlike offense, bonus units don't contribute to this score (though they do still get extra stats on defense).
So the actual equation is:
100 - (20 if bonus mythic) - (# of mythics, max 2) x (number of blessed units/legendaries) x 5
So the ideal situation is 2 mythics and 4 bless units/legendaries - which is 100 - 2*4*5 which means a worst case of -60 lift. Thats like getting a guaranteed 2 kills per game. Bringing a bonus mythic that further reduces that to a -40 worst case. Also like offense, mythic merges can reduce that further - but I'll note again that you would rather have 2 mythics rather than a single +1 mythic. See the wiki for the exact details.
I'll also note that unlike offense, you don't need mythics for max score. If you build a defense that wins without mythics, thats the same as building a defense with mythics that gets 3 kills and loses. Its generally easier to start with mythics though.
Finally, I'll note that post-5.0.0 defense mythics appear to unlock an extra slot on defense. This 7th slot does not count towards score and cannot move unless there is another defender dead at the start of the turn. They can provide the extra HP and stats if they are a mythic though.
With that scoring in mind, we come across the first and one of the most effective defense strategies.

Lift Loss

The concept here is prety simple. Basically pull for 2 dark and anima mythics, then build a defense for each season with dark/anima blessed units or in-season legendaries. It doesn't matter how bad the team is. Everyone can be level 1 with no weapons - as long as you have the mythics and blessings, the worst you can get is -60 (or -40 with the bonus mythic). Thats significant and can really help make things easier as you climb. Now, of course you'll want to actually try to build a good team with those mythics - but considering most newer players are going to have a lower level Fort (D) while they focus on offense, it isn't worth investing too much into early on. Its hard to get kills when the offense has 4 or 8 or 12 extra stats.
So in short - take the defense mythics you have, and add blessed units. Don't waste fodder or merges on defense yet. Don't upgrade the fort or buildings until you've got the core offense stuff set up. A lift loss defense will serve you until T23-26ish if your offense is solid.

Other recommendations

While I've mentioned that it isn't worth leveling your defense buildings, I would specifically avoid leveling the bolt tower and the bolt trap. They can very easily hurt if not used properly, so wait until you fully understand your defense to determine if you want to level them up. Even as a T28 player, my bolt tower(D) and bolt trap are lvl 1. There are good use cases for leveling them up eventually, but I don't run a defense that would use it well.
Screenshot interesting defenses that you come across as you play the game. See a cool formation? A nifty rally/restore trap? A cool trick? Take a screenshot or write it down. When you come back after T21+ to make your own defense, you'll have plenty of ideas.

Finally, in the wise words of u/hcw731 - sometimes you'll come up against teams that you simply can't win against. It happens. Its ok. Thats what the escape ladders are for. The worst thing you can do though, is play while tilted. If you end up losing against a cancerous team, go take a break. Playing while tilted is an easy way to make mistakes and make risky plays when you don't need to.
And that is my "quick" intro to AR. Its a lot longer than I want it to be, but thats because AR is a bit complex. But hopefully it covers the basics. I'm not hand feeding you builds and setups here - but figuring out builds, designing teams, and crafting a defense map are all part of the fun (for some people). Keep playing and building up resources. You might naturally plateau at certain points while you build up aether pots or tweak your offense teams. Feel free to head to the weekly question threads with any questions on unit builds or map layouts. Include what tier you're at so that the advice can match your tier level. People are generally a lot more willing to help if you've started building something or have a concept in mind and need help tweaking, rather than the "halp - give me a defense that wins every time and is cheap and I have all the units for" type posts.

3 Quick Tl;Dr Android Game Reviews / Recommendations (Episode 154)

Welcome back to this weekly tradition of documenting my week of mobile gaming :) These are the most interesting games I played this week.
This week, including one of the best physics-based puzzle games I’ve played this year, an open-world Maple Story inspired 2D MMORPG unlike anything I’ve ever played before, and a follow-up to one of mobile gaming’s earliest huge successes.
Disagree with my opinion? Let’s have a friendly discussion below.
New to these posts? Check out the first one from 154 weeks ago here.
The games are "ranked" somewhat subjectively from best to worst, so take the ranking for what it is.

Let's get to the games:

Legends of Idleon [Game Size: 119 MB] (free)

Genre: MMORPG / 2D / Idle / Indie / Side-scrolling - Requires Online Access
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Little (mostly idle)
tl;dr review:
Legends of Idleon is a unique open-world indie idle MMORPG with resource collection, crafting, loot, humorous NPCs, and a level-design and combat system that draws inspiration from Maple Story’s platform-based 2D world.
Arguably the game’s most unique feature is that we can control up to six characters at once, fully customizing each with unique stats and classes. This means we can turn one character into the best possible miner, while another specializes in woodcutting or Mage combat.
While we manually play one character at a time, the others continue working on the latest task we set them out to do, which is where the idle part of the gameplay comes in. Bank slots are shared across characters, but inventory slots are somewhat limited, so it's important to micromanage each character and store or sell the loot it continuously acquires. Ironically, despite the idle aspects, playing Legends of Idleon provides a much more engaging experience than all the modern “auto-gameplay” MMORPGs that populate the mobile market.
Legends of Idleon’s many gameplay systems provide a lot of depth but may also take some time to learn. Likewise, quests only give the bare minimum information required to complete them, forcing us to manually explore the world and learn by doing – something that is rarely seen in mobile MMORPGs.
The game monetizes through relatively inexpensive $1.99 to $19.99 iAPs that allow us to progress faster, acquire extra inventory and bank slots, and buy cosmetics that have bonus stats. Since there is no PvP content, however, free players are never impacted by paying players.
Google Play: Here
MiniReview link: Here

Early Worm [Game Size: 157 MB] (free)

Genre: Puzzle / Platformer / Physics-based / Indie - Offline Playable
Orientation: Portrait
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review:
Early Worm is a fun and colorful physics-based platform puzzler by Power Hover indie developer Oddrok.
Playing as a worm, our goal is to get to an apple at the end of each one-screen level by swiping and releasing to flick our worm character in any direction. Depending on how few moves we use, we can achieve between 1 and 3 stars in each level.
The 80 well-designed levels introduce a great variety of platforming and puzzle-solving elements like glue, moving objects, rotating rooms, and more, that make each level feel like a unique experience. Combined with pleasant animations, a polished art-style, and simplistic UI, it creates a fantastic indie puzzler.
Early Worm monetizes by showing ads between some levels, which can be removed through a single $1.99 iAP.
Google Play: Here
MiniReview link: Here

Fruit Ninja 2 [Total Game Size: 448 MB] (free)

Genre: Arcade / Action - Requires Online Access
Orientation: Landscape
Required Attention: Full
tl;dr review:
Fruit Ninja 2 reimagines one of mobile gaming’s earliest massive action arcade successes, Fruit Ninja, by introducing multiple new game modes, quests, events, and even real-time multiplayer.
The core gameplay remains the same across all game-modes and hasn’t deviated from the predecessor; slice as many fruits that fly onto the screen as possible without hitting the bombs. New to Fruit Ninja 2, however, is the entire progression system that allows us to unlock blades with different stats, and power-ups that we trigger during combat.
The game looks better than ever, and everything from the sound effects to the UI and art-style is highly polished. The real-time multiplayer league system lets us play versus friends or random opponents to improve our ranking and receive rewards at the end of every season. PvP is especially hectic and challenging because we see both our and the opponent’s fruit at the same time, but must only hit our own.
Fruit Ninja 2 monetizes through a $14.99 3-month battle pass, a few incentivized ads, and iAPs for an xp doubler, new powerups, and a few other items. The monetization does not impact the single-player experience, but paying players have a pay-to-progress-faster advantage in the PvP league system.
It’s clear that Fruit Ninja 2 has adopted both modern gameplay, progression, and monetization systems, but its single-player and friends-PvP still provide a fun blast to the past.
Google Play: Here
MiniReview link: Here
NEW REVIEW APP: You can search and filter reviews and games I've played (and more) in my app MiniReview: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=minireview.best.android.games.reviews
Outdated (replaced by MiniReview): Sheet of all games I've played so far: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bf0OxtVxrboZqyEh01AxJYUUqHm8tEfh-Lx-SugcrzY/edit?usp=sharing
TL;DR Video Summary (with gameplay) of last week's 3 games: https://youtu.be/pXxxm7TDxsY
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Paladin holy shock beginner guide

Hello everyone, hope you're having a fantastic day, the reason I'm making this guide is because I'm positive there are people who are completely new to action role playing games such as diablo II, they saw some articles talking about this brand new mod, they wanna play, and don't have any proper guide to help them, also I don't see many people talking about Paladins in this mod, even less people talk about non-caster paly builds, so I thought I might step in and offer some advice, during this unfortunate server downtime. Be aware though, this is all from personal experience, who knows, you might learn something new. Non the less I hope this guide will help with getting the fundamentals down, and starting your endgame grind successfully! (This guide is still WIP, and is my very first guide)

Act 1, so it begins

PD2 has changed the way melee works, all melee weapons have splash damage (except your starting weapon), which makes the early game much easier, furthermore, paladins have access to weapons and shields such as scepters which provide bonus damage to undead and add skill levels to abilities we shall be using, not to mention being able to find a 4os targe (shield) and putting 4 perfect diamonds(gems) in it helps with resistances down the line. We start in act 1, which should mostly be a breeze and here's how you should do the act.
a) Q1 - Go ahead and talk to Akara, she will give you your very first quest! Move out of the rogue encampment and follow the road/dirt path which will eventually lead you to a cave called the Den of evil(don't forget to kill some monsters along the way to familiarize yourself with the controls), the quest requires you to kill every single monster and demon there to claim your reward, while in the cave you might find some stuff, pick all of it up to further understand how the armoweapon system works, identify all the items you deem useful, and once you've killed all of the demons you should have gained a level up (you gain five attribute points and one skill point per level). Spend your first five points on vitality, and put your first point into might (go into the offensive auras category, it is the only available skill so far). Might is a great aura for your first few levels, in order to use auras, you must put them on your right skill slot. After you've done this, use your scroll of town portal to instantly return home once you've completed your quest, talking to Akara will grant you yet another skill point which you should spend on a skill called sacrifice(located in the combat skills category). Sacrifice is also a great starting skill that hits hard, and in conjunction with might should be able to kill most of the smaller demons in one hit.
b) Q2 - Now talk to Kashya, she will give you your second quest, leave the rogue encampment once again and follow the road that once led you to the den, following upon it you should leave into an area called the cold plains, there you will find your first waypoint! (clicking on it activates it and allows you to instantly move to any location you've unlocked, including your town!). Now from cold plains you can either do the second quest or proceed into the stony field, the choice is yours, although I recommend doing the second quest by finding the Burial grounds and killing Blood raven. Be warned, it is a very tough mini boss fight, and might result in your death. Be sure to stock up on supplies at Akara, also be sure to buy some town portal scrolls so that you can put a tp scroll before major fights. If you die in diablo II you drop your body, so you have to go back and grab it to regain your gear, remember this (alternatively you can leave the game and return, the body will await you in town, use this if you died in a sticky position). Once you've defeated Blood raven, you should be around level 3,4. Put another 5 points into vitality, and then 5 points into strength, also, put both of your skill points into sacrifice. By now you might have found a charm, those are helpful items which you should identify and put into your lower inventory, that's how you activate them, the lower inventory is defined with a yellowy colour and is a four square tiles tall.
c) Q3 - You should return to town, talk to Kashya, and you officially have your first mercenary! Buy her some gear and put in on her, she will aid you on your journey! Talk yet again to Akara, and she should give you your third quest to find Cain. Use your waypoint to go back to cold plains, travel to the stony field, find the waypoint (be sure to do this!), then keep going until you find some strange stones arranged in a circular fashion, kill the mini boss there (he gives lots of xp) then proceed until you find the edge of the map, somewhere around there you should find an entrance to a cave known as the underground passage, move through the cave until you reach the exit which leaves to the dark wood(alternatively you can go to underground passage level 2 for a golden chest, it might have some goodies, after that proceed to the dark wood). By now you should be level 6 hopefully, now it's time to put another 10 points into vitality, 1 point into holy fire(we won't be using holy shock yet! As it is a level 24 skill, we must be patient and use holy fire while leveling :D) and 1 point into resist fire(located in defensive auras). Resist fire is a synergy to holy fire, which means it increases the damage of it, pretty neat huh? Equip your new aura, and now you should return to town and try to shop for some scepters at Akara which have +1 or more to holy fire, these scepters greatly increase your damage, you can also try finding it, you might get lucky, anyway, walk through the Dark wood until you find the waypoint, activate it and find a big tree which will be highlited on your minimap and click on it, grabbing the scroll of inifuss, kill the mini boss near it, and return to Akara, after that go to those strange stones in stony field, click on em in the order the scroll says and off you go to Tristram! Save Cain, kill everyone there! They give tons of experience. After you've saved Cain you might want to redo Tristram a couple of dozen times for extra xp, until level 12(it's worth it). If you choose to do this your skills and points at level 12 should look like this :
Might - 1 ; Sacrifice - 4 ; Zeal - 1 ; Holy fire - 5 ; Resist fire - 1
STR - 30
DEX - 25
VIT - 65
ENE - 15 ; After this point I'll stop typing so much, by now you should know the basics of the game, so I'll add only new stuff
d) Q4 - Quest 4 is pretty straightforward, go into the black marsh from the dark wood, find the waypoint, find the tower, kill the countess and you get your hands on RUNES. The core aspect of diablo II. You should redo this encounter a couple of times as well (I highly recommend this!!!), until you get the runes TAL and ETH. After that buy an armour with two open sockets (it has to be white, remember this, on the ground it has a pale greyish colour). And then socket the chest armour by first putting TAL then ETH, this armour will be used as soon as you reach level 17. Save it in your stash for now.
e) Q5 - After making your first runeword (good job!) talk to Charsi, she'll give you your next quest. Proceed to the tamoe highland from the black marsh and move north-east until you find the monastery, open the gates, find the waypoint, and proceed to the barracks. You'll know you're close to the hammer once it pops up on your minimap. Kill the Smith guarding it and take the hammer home, now you can imbue a white item (no sockets, nothing, pure white) and make it a rare gold item. Don't do this yet, you should do it in act 2, I'll tell ya later why.
f) Q6 - Good job friend, it's your final quest of A1! Go back into the barracks and find the entrance to Jail level 1, proceed until you find the inner cloister, grab the wp, move into the big door to your right, clear out the area, and proceed to the catacombs. The catacombs have 4 levels(wp is at level 2, boss at 4). Once you reach level 4, be sure to clear out every room before facing her, you don't want any mobs ganging up on you from behind, trust me. Also before you fight her buy some antidotes at Akara (around 9,10) and drink them all, she mainly does poison dmg so this helps. After a thrilling fight you've won! She drops some goodies, you come home, ~~quest bug her,~~ talk to Warriv and head into act 2, well done!
Quick recap, you should be level 15, and even if you aren't, on level 15 your stats should look like this:
Might - 1 ; Sacrifice - 5 ; Zeal - 1 ; Holy fire - 5 ; Resist fire - 1 ; smite - 1 ; charge - 1(for mobility, fast clear speed)
STR - 30
DEX - 25
VIT - 80 ; You might have noticed a new skill in the mix, zeal, you can start using it now, it should be strong enough.
2) Act 2, cubin'
If you haven't by now, make it your priority to find a scepter with +x to holy fire (also +x to sacrifice, if possible, it is kinda expensive though..), you want to have that by now, also, buy some white boots or gloves at Elzix or Fara, and go ahead and imbue those, be sure to also buy a double belt so you get more potion slots.
a) Q1 - Nothing you haven't seen before, talk to Atma, go in the sewers, reach level 3, kill Radament, bam you get another skill point, feel free to put it into sacrifice or holy fire, your choice. Leveling goes slower in a2, I'll post how your stats should look like on the end of this act.
b) Q2 - Oh boy this is a tough one, venture out like you did from the rogue encampment, find the dry hills, grab the wp, go into the Halls of the dead, get to level 3, and you found the famous horadric cube. This cube has a number of function which I can't list here, but I'll give a link below(note some have been changed in this mod, consult the official project diablo 2 wiki for further information). http://www.d2tomb.com/horadric_cube.shtml. After that go into the far oasis, grab the wp, find the maggot lair, grab the staff, from the far oasis go into the lost city (and watch the Sun go poof), and go into the viper valley, and enter the temple, break their table, grab the amulet that dropped (hooray the Sun is back!), talk to Drognan, because this also finishes quest 3 heh, cube the amulet and staff, and you get the horadric staff.
c) Q4, Q5 - Essentially the same quest, after talking to Drognan talk to Jerhyn, enter the palace, go down, find the portal, enter the Arcane sanctuary, get lucky ;) ( you'll know what I mean haha), kill the summoner read the book, and you've got the symbol required for the final quest, go through the portal, grab the wp and go back to town.
d) Q6 - Talk to Cain, go to the canyon of the magi, find the tomb that bears the symbol you have written in your quest table, clear the tomb(you get a lot of xp). Find the orifice, put your staff there, before you face the boss buy some thawing potions as he is based around cold damage (do the same thing you did with Andariel) kill the boss (take his goodies), explore the tomb talk to Tyrael, go back to town, talk to Jerhyn, then Meshif, and off you go to A3. After this you should enter some public lobbies (if you're multiplayer) and do some tomb runes, essentially clearing every tomb in the map, in 2-3 runs you should be level 25, and very strong haha.
Quick recap, you should be level 25, and even if you aren't, on level 25 your stats should look like this:
Might - 1 ; Sacrifice - 5 ; Zeal - 1 ; Holy fire - 15 ; Resist fire - 1 ; smite - 1 ; charge - 1
STR - 45
DEX - 40
VIT - 110 ; Hopefully after all these runs, you have some decent gear and a weapon with +x to skills. Also don't forget to constantly get new gear for your mercenary, whatever it may be, if you choose to swap your merc for an act 2 merc, that's fine, but be sure to gear him properly, in normal difficulty, if your mercenary is properly geared he can even outshine you! Also, if you ever find an item you wish to use, don't be afraid to put points in whatever stat you need, forget about vitality for the time being. And from now on, this is the only thing I will bold, find an open 3 socket shield that you can wear with your stats, save it, and try to find 3 runes - ral, ort and tal. The shield is top priority, runes can wait.

Act 3, old dog, new tricks

Well this act is usually regarded as the most boring one, and for a good reason, the environments all look the same, enemies swarm you by the hundreds, also many annoying enemies are introduced in this act, welp, let's get on with it. If playing online, I highly recommend you get someone to rush you, as you will at best only gain one or two levels from it, but if you so desire, you may play through it fully.
Q1 - This quest is unique in the fact no one gives it to you, the first unique monster you kill will drop a figurine, which you bring to Meshif, then Alkor and boom you get perma 20 hp.
Q2 - Talk to Hratli, he'll give the quest, this quest is like A1Q3, in which you get only a stupid ring for completing it, the dagger is located in the flayer jungle near the place you found the flayer dungeon, press it, move a bit away to the right, come back to the left, kill the fetish, he drops it, give it to Ormus, bam, you're done.
Q3 - Just like in A2, this is a multi part quest, you gotta find the spider cavern in the spider forest, grab Khalim's eye, find the flayer dungeon in the flayer jungle, grab Khalim's brain, then in the sewers beneath Kurast bazaar you find his heart, and in Travincal the flail, cube it, break the compelling orb in Travincal, and the quest is done.
Q4 - This quest actually gives something useful, first talk to Alkor in town, then go to the Kurast bazaar where you found the heart in the sewers, in this mod, the book you need will spawn in one of the two reliquaries located somewhere in the area, it's always in the bazaar, find the book, give it to Alkor and you get 5 stat points(put them all into VIT).
Q5 - This is automatically completed upon completing act 2, you kill the dudes guarding the temple in Travincal, they drop the flail, and it's done.
Q6 - Just go down the durance from the temple in Trav, find Mephisto(he's very dangerous here, try to somehow attract only him, and bring him to the right side of the arena, then kill him while he's alone), grab his soulstone and off you go into the portal to act 4.
Honestly at the end of act 3, if you started at level 25, there's a big chance you might barely be level 26, if so just put the 5 points into vitality, one into holy fire and move on.

Act 4, swiftly now

Now you might be noticing a slight difficulty increase here, this can be quickly solved by spamming Drognan until you can buy a life tap wand, this increases survivability drastically, just leave town and reenter so his inventory restocks, once you get the life tap wand, put it in your off hand, and you're good to go!
Q1) Talk to Tyrael, head out, find the plains of despair, kill izzy, you get 2 skill points( put them into holy fire). If you maxed out holy fire by now, put your points into resist fire and get that sweet synergy bonus.
Q2) Travel from the plains, through the city of the damned, find the wp, go down to the river of flame, then find the hellforge, kill Hephasto, grab his hammer, put the soulstone on the table, smash it and enjoy your gems, after that find your wp, and proceed hero into terrors lair...
Q3) The final quest, talk to Hadriel...then go past Hadriel, enter the chaos sanctuary, open all 5 seals, kill every mini boss demon, and now it's time for Diablo. I don't have much advice at this point, you should know how to treat boss fights, he is alone, therefore you can always return to town and restock, just beware, he puts a bone cage where your tp is, be careful not to get stuck in it and killed.
After Diablo is killed you might wanna kill diablo a few times to see if he drops some cool loot or runes, this of course applies to all the bosses, if you ever feel weaker than you should be, never hesitate to redo encounters and level up, there's no shame in that whatsoever. After a couple of runs let's say you're level 30. Your Pally should look like this:
Might - 1 ; Sacrifice - 5 ; Zeal - 1 ; Holy fire - 20 ; Resist fire - 2 ; Smite - 1 ; Charge - 1 ; Vengeance - 1 ; Joust - 1(basically further improving your mobility, it's a teleport with a cooldown)
STR - 55
DEX - 40
VIT - 125

Act 5, the finale

Well you're in the endgame of normal now, by now you should have grasped the basics and fundamentals of the game, you know how enemies work, which enemies you should avoid, tactics regarding special enemies, how runes work, how the cube works, you know which items are useful to you, which synergies help you, why we put only 1 point into charge, why we put more than 100 points into vitality etc...
Q1) Simply enough, talk to Larzuk, go outside, follow the path of the stairs located on the map, they indicate the direction in which you should go, find Shenk, kill him, grab the wp located north, and you can now socket one of your items, hoozah!(save this until you get a really good item)
Q2) VERY IMPORANT QUEST - Talk to qual, then go back to the frigid highlands, find the prisoners, free them, go back to qual, and you get the runes we need, remember that shield with 3os? Now is the time to use it, put ral, then ort then tal and you got a beastly shield with around 50% all res, not bad huh?
Q3) Go back to the frigid highland, follow the stairs, find the areat plateau, grab the wp follow the stairs again, find the tunnel that looks like the underground passage, and off you go, once in the crystalline passage, find the wp, then the frozen river, in the frozen river find anya, go back to town, grab the potion from Malah, give it to anya, boom you get a shitty shield from Anya, BUT permanent 10% all res from Malah. By now you should have 75%+ all res and basically should be a god with added 150-200 fire damage, so just proceed.
Q4) Go to Anya's portal, grab the wp in the halls of the dead, proceed, kill Nihlatak, and get the worst quest reward in the history of arpgs, personalize whatever you want, and continue
Q5) From the crystalline passage enter the glacial trail then the frozen tundra then the ancient's way(all places have wps which you should grab). From the ancients way enter the arreat plateau. Be warned, this is the hardest boss fight in the game, because you CANNOT return home, or put a tp, it instantly resets the fight, stock up on potions, drink those thawing pots, and try to fight them one by one, your merc is very important here, he can draw away the ancients so you have time to take em out one by one as intended.
Q6) Getting close are we? Go to the worldstone chamber, grab the wp at 2, then go to the throne room, face off against Baal's waves(if you can't deal with one wave ~~because you didn't listen to anything I said and did whatever you wanted~~, just lure them away by putting a tp in a safe corner, dying far away from the tp, then coming back and dragging the minions as far away from Baal by going back to the enterance, do this with every wave you struggle with), then go and kill Baal, and you did it!!!! You beat the game, he prolly dropped some trash but nvm. Proceed with clearing worldstone chamber levels(whichever you can do comfortably, the throne room and Baal's waves give most xp, but they're also the hardest), and once you're level 40, it's time to respec, go to Akara, reset your skills(you can only do this once per difficulty). DO NOT ENTER NIGHTMARE BEFORE LEVEL 40
When reaching level 40 your stats should look like this(now your stats are very important).
STR - Enough for your desired gear
DEX - Enough for your desired gear
VIT - Rest
ENE - Base level;
Sacrifice - 1; Zeal - 1; Vengeance - 1; Joust - 1; Smite - 1; Charge - 1; Might - 1; Holy fire - 1; Holy freeze - 1; Holy shock - 20; Resist lightning - 14.
After this your lightning damage should be ludicrous for normal(1-2100 ish), and you should be able to farm baal, diablo, and hell cows comfortably( I recommend farming cows, as they are in big groups and have a large chance to drop goodies, also great for testing your build and survivability, they can't drop runes yet unfortunately, the treasure level is low for now, you can get up to a dol rune). In order to farm cows go into Tristram again, grab wirts leg, cube it with a town portal book and enter the red portal.
Nightmare tips and tricks;
When going into nightmare, you’re basically going through the game the same way as before with a few minor differences: You lose 40% of your resistances, but on the bright side, you don’t need to do some quests anymore (like grabbing the cube, killing blood raven, nihlatak etc.), you can skip certain areas that give low xp, you can rush through some acts and farm at key spots. The wonderful thing this mod does is that instead of making the game easier as you progress, it actually becomes more challenging but also more rewarding. Before, nightmare was more or less a drive by area, something you just wanted to get over with before entering hell and getting down to the real endgame, the only key farming spots were Andariel, Mephisto and Pindleskin, and those were mostly farmed by sorceresses. Now with the new revamped gear (basically every item has its own use), new movement skills, and the added bonus of bosses dropping essences and being able to open cows as many times as your heart desires, you can basically farm nightmare until you’re level 65-75 (and not get mega bored lol), which I strongly recommend, as hell here is no joke, it is very difficult, and you’ll need to come prepared.
a) Act I – Act 1 shouldn’t prove to be much of a hassle, you’re starting out with 2k lightning damage, all you need to do is avoid lightning immunes (sorry, you can’t break those…yet), complete the den, kill the countess, return the malus and kill Andariel, after this point you can choose to stay in a1 for a bit and farm Andy, she might drop some goodies, although I don’t recommend wasting too much time on this.
Best farming spot in A1 nightmare: Catacombs (Andariel), sorry no other area is remotely worth farming, it’s just a waste of time, and since Andariel can no longer be quest bugged, you aren’t hunting uniques you’re hunting some good armour pieces (hopefully you’ll find some dual res boots/gloves here).
I don’t think it’s necessary to talk about skill points or stat points for the rest of the guide, your remaining skill points should go into the synergies for holy shock (blessed aim, resist lightning, salvation, the order depends on whether or not you need the passive attack rating from blessed aim, or the added +% max lightning res from holy lightning). As far as stat points go, you don’t benefit from strength boosting your damage, because you do mostly elemental damage, as such all your points should go into VIT, unless you find some item that increased/boosts your stats by a considerable margin, in that case, put some points into the stats that you require.
b) Act II – Kill Radament, grab the extra skill point, proceed with the act, and when you reach the arcane sanctuary, you can choose to farm this area, it’s a good place to find a sol rune, which you can use to make a Lore helm and it will boost your damage nicely (the helm is ort-sol). After that, kill Duriel and finish the act.
Best farming spots in A2 nightmare: Arcane sanctuary (runes), Tombs (gear improvement), don’t farm Duriel, he’s way too hard and not worth it, he CAN drop good stuff, but most of the time you’ll end up dead because of his holy freeze aura and have to restart and lose xp.
c) Act III – This is the first act in which you can actually get some decent uniques by farming the end boss, do everything but the gidbinn, and from here I recommend you farm Mephisto for a while until you get at least one useful unique [vampire gaze (phenomenal for your merc), shaftstop (also great for merc), goldwrap (good for personal use), oculus (for trading if you’re online), some unique rings or amulets (also for trading or personal use)]
Best farming spot in A3 nightmare: Mephisto, undoubtedly, you might need to kill him dozens of times, but it is very much worth it.
d) Act IV – Now it’s time to test your luck, after killing Izual head over to the forge and hope for an um, you can get a rune from sol-um, if you get an um it’s time to make the best weapon for this build, the crescent moon sword – 3 open sockets (dimensional blade preferably) - Shael, Um, Tir. Godly weapon. After killing Diablo, I’d recommend staying here and farming hell until level 55-60 ish.
Best farming spot in A4 nightmare: The entire river of flame, from start to finish including the chaos sanctuary, on average this has been the place where I have found most of my best gear, hopefully you will as well, statistically you can even find an ist rune here!
e) Act V – Let’s cut to the chase, frigid, anya, ancients, baal. After that you have a choice, either start farming cows (the easier way, as cows have no elemental immunities, except for boss mobs, and there’s more of them, which means more runes, runes are based on quantity, not on magic find, so if you play solo, the more enemies the better), or farm worldstone keeps 2-4, then Baal (you need stronger gear, but it gives more xp, is more straightforward, and baal can drop a shako, and you can find up to an ohm).
By the time you finish farming nightmare your gear should look like this (some items may vary), and I highly recommend not going into hell without the items I mark as important. Hell gives another -60% to all res.
Helm – Lore (important), Griswold’s valor (you can only find this in HELL DIFFICULTY, and also only use it if going for the set bonus, the helm gives up to 25 all res)
Amulet – Either a +1-3 offensive aura/life or a good rare with nice resists
Weapon – Crescent Moon (Top priority)
Shield – Spirit shield made in a paladin shield that already has innate resistances (you don’t need the fcr, you just need the resistances)
Armour – Duriel’s shell (for the cannot be frozen mod), or Griswold’s Heart (for 2 to all paladin skills and the set bonus)
Gloves – Laying of hands or rare gloves with ias and dual res (I’d go with LoH, the added damage to demons is really, really good)
Boots – Rare boots with frw/dual res (many classes struggle in hell with resistances)
Belt – Goldwrap or a belt with good +life and resistances
Ring #1 – Dwarf star for extra life
Ring #2 – Mana leech ring
Hell – the turning point
When entering hell the difficulty really gets ramped up to eleven, you get another resistance penalty, you are at -100% all resistances now, every enemy in the game gets an immunity to at least one element (many unbreakable lightning immunes start spawning here, you must avoid them, nothing we can do about that, until we start maximizing our gear). From now on I’m going to put only the most important things about nearly every worthwhile area in the game, everything else you’ve probably understood by now.
Link to zones in Project Diablo 2: https://projectdiablo2.miraheze.org/wiki/Zones (level 85 zones are the best as they can drop all items in the game)
General advice for A1: Farming here is kinda tricky as you’ll mostly be having dark spear women, skeletons and tainted on your back at all times (they’re lightning immune…), so I find farming a1 to be more of a chore than a reward. Remember, let your merc do the work regarding lightning immunes, and keep him alive at all costs (those revive bills rack up qucikly)
Best farming spots in A1for us:
a) Burial grounds + Mausoleum: ONLY if you have a mercenary with decent damage and survivability, my mercenary does around 4-5k pure phys damage (barb mercenary), your job is to tank, kill the non lightning immunes, teleport around with joust and charge to readjust your mercenary (keep yourself in walk mode, this is a must, while running your block chance is reduced to 1/3 of its original value). In my mausoleum runs I’ve found mostly worldstone shards, hel runes and up, some useful gear, I’ve done 27 mausoleum runs so far.
b) Pits: I’m going to be honest, I haven’t done much pit runs so far, navigation is rough, too many lightning immunes, and I don’t have much luck with it (I’ve played this game for over 12 years and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten something good from pits heh). If you choose to farm here, my general advice would be to only clear unique enemies (boss mobs) and stay clear of lightning immunes. I’ve done like a dozen, nothing good so far.
c) Catacombs 2-4 + Andy: Generally a good farming spot for essences and items, not much to say really, stock up on antidote pots like always, she shouldn’t be too hard. I’ve done 21 Andy runs, got a couple of essences, I’d recommend this spot the most.
General advice for A2: I truly do not recommend farming in act 2, the areas all have strong lightning immunes, beetles (can be broken, is buggy for some reason for me), those sand cats etc…But regardless, I’ll list the areas, and how you can circumvent this
Best farming spots in A2 for us:
a) Maggot lair levels 2,3: Since Senpai improved the mobility here, you probably won’t get stuck and killed while trying to farm, my advice would be to move around killing rare packs of maggots, and killing the maggot boss in act 3, avoid the beetles, they’re a death sentence. Did only a couple of runs, got a few shards out of it.
b) Ancient tunnels: If luck is on your side, the amount of lightning immunes will be limited only to the skeleton mages there, let your merc deal with them, charge until you reach rare packs and kill only those, they drop the good stuff, find the chest at the end of the area, and hopefully in a couple dozen runs you’ll get good stuff as I did :).
General advice for A3: Be VERY cautious in act 3, dolls are introduced here, and if not careful they can insta-kill you pretty easily, my advice is simple, you might disagree but I say don’t farm here, way too dangerous, I’ve tried farming Mephisto but I end up getting killed pretty often, I’ve tried the new level 85 zones, but they’re long, dangerous and not worth the time, I’ve tried everything but it just doesn’t work for us as a tesladin.
Best farming spots in A3 for us: none
General advice for A4: This is it, the best act for us hands down, all lightning immunes (souls) can be broken, the enemy layout is generous, chaos AND river of flame are level 85 areas, it’s just a treat at this point :D.
Best farming spots in A4 for us:
a) River of flame + Chaos Sanctuary: Enter the city of the damned waypoint, enter river of flame, clear it, then chaos, rinse and repeat, I’ve done around 45-55 runs, and I’ve found an ohm, ist, um, pul, worldstone shards, duriel’s shell, griswold’s armour, superior phase blades, archon plates, the list goes on and on…
General advice for A5: For some reason I’ve struggled with cold res most, the fact that not having cannot be frozen here is basically a death sentence doesn’t help either… My advice would be to farm quick, don’t stay in place too long, and farm only these key areas
Best farming spots in A5 for us (this includes cows):
a) Eldritch, Shenk and Pindle; Enter the frigid highland wp, move up kill eldritch, go down kill shenk, go back to town and kill Pindleskin. My advice here is that you somehow incorporate this either as the beginning or the end of your farm runs, as farming only this is not worth it in my honest opinion.
b) Pit of Acheron: No lightning immunes, decent enemy density, not much to it, need to test this place more as it is kinda hard to find consistently, will keep you guys updated about this one.
c) Worldstone keep level 1- Throne room: Just when facing Baal and his waves, watch out for dolls and souls in the throne room, they might spawn sometimes. Killing Baal is highly recommended, don’t skip it, I’ve seen many people skip killing Baal.
d) Cows: Cows are a mixed bag for me, the sheer number of them warrants at least some runes or itmes, but alas I have yet to find anything good, when facing cows try to group them up and let the melee splash do the work, use your mercenary to kill the cow king and lightning immunes, the best part here is that the basic cows themselves have no immunities and go down fast when u smack em with lightning.
Endgame build – Dual Dreamer
I’ve been playing this build for a while, and I’ve also managed to do a lot of testing, I feel like this build might be the best paladin build in the game so far, capable of doing all content including ubers, the only downside is the number of high runes needed to fully maximize the potential.
A few important notes before you convert from tesladin to dual dream tesladin:
First of all, you will need to acquire both dreams, one made in a helm and the other in a shield. Do not try to play this build with only one dream, you will lose out on damage massively. Secondly, you must fully respec your character either at Akara or by farming up and using a token.
Skill tree: When converting to a dual dreamer your skill tree should look like this:
Resist lightning – 20
Salvation – 20
Blessed aim – 20
Conviction – 20 (You need to spend 5 points to get to conviction, bear that in mind)
Joust – 1 (You also need to spend 3 points to get to joust)
Holy shield – Rest of your points
Equipment:
Helm – Dream (The base in which you make dream in your helm isn’t highly important, try to get a superior bone visage with some +% to defense)
Amulet – Highlord’s wrath for the ias breakpoint, and the other useful stats
Chest armour – Either use a corrupted 3os guardian angel or the much better CoH option (this might be hella hard to get, since the Ber rune price in this current economy is insane)
Shield – Dream (This time the base is really important, try to get a sacred rondache with as much +all res you can, the bare minimum for you should be +40)
Weapon – Lightsabre with 4os, then you put ias jewels/facets, or the mega expensive last wish which is best in slot for ubers, an alternative for ubers would be death
Ring #1 – Raven frost, for the cannot be frozen and cold absorb
Ring #2 – Dwarf star, for the fire absorb and life
Gloves – Either LoH or Dracul’s grasp for the ias
Boots – I use aldurs for the fire res and i corrupted them to have more max lightning res, an option would be to use war travelers as well for the magic find
Belt – Either tgod’s for the lightning absorb, or verdungo for the pdr
This is the last update I can do on this guide, since I've reached the 40k limit, if you have any questions feel free to message me on reddit, in game or on discord, I sincerely hope this guide helped you, and may you have a fun and productive day!

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[Guide] Raid Shadow Legends - Level 43

Overview

Starting Off

Things To Know

Dailies

Events / Tournaments

Champions

The "Best" Champions

Team Composition

Should you spend real money?

Other tips/notes for this game:

Common Questions

Can I do this if I already completed it on another offer wall or played the game before on my own?

What if I do it on another site?

I don't see the offer! What do I do?

What do I do if the mobile shortlink isn't working? What does ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED mean?

I completed the task but I didn't get credit for it! What do I do?

This takes so long! Why would you waste your time for a couple bucks?!

Have any more tips? Let users know in the comments!

Diablo Immortal AMA with Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer) and Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer)

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A "Quick" Intro to AR Guide - v2 (post-5.0.0 update)

Offense

Scoring

Teams

Tanking

Hit and Run

Vantage

Sweeps

Hybrids

Sacrificial Lambs

Buildings

Defense

Scoring

Lift Loss

Other recommendations

3 Quick Tl;Dr Android Game Reviews / Recommendations (Episode 154)

Let's get to the games:

Legends of Idleon [Game Size: 119 MB] (free)

Early Worm [Game Size: 157 MB] (free)

Fruit Ninja 2 [Total Game Size: 448 MB] (free)

Paladin holy shock beginner guide

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