Seattle Mariners 2023 Season Comes to Disappointing End

The Mariners disappointing season came to an abrupt end. The Mariners, once again, got eliminated from post-season contention in the final week of the regular season, after their promising 2022 season and anticipation from fans to return to playoffs.

Last season I was very critical of the team's bad coaching, ownership, and management. I still feel the team is winning despite the coaching and team management. The obvious holes from last season were not addressed at all and the Mariners decided a few bad free agent signings in the off-season, and a very bad mid-season trade, would somehow improve the team's chances. Instead it completely killed the morale of the fans and players.

I still believe the Mariners need to bring in an actual manager with actual championship coaching experience. For instance, Kris Negron won a championship as the head coach of the Rainiers and should be given a chance. I believe he understands how to build a lineup, how to position the defense on every play, when to pull pitchers, and who to put in for key situations. I no longer believe the team supports Servais. As the season was nearing an end several players came out against the coaching in frustration to some questionable calls, mostly involving pitching decisions. The one thing he had going for him was being a players coach, but if he's no longer that either I'm confident that he needs to go.

Credit: MLB.com

Last year I focused on relief pitching, defense, coaching, and finding an all-star middle infielder in free agency as target areas for the Mariners to focus on. I saw the Mariners actually regress, and that is not want you want to see as a fan whose team made the post-season the year before. Instead of signing a big name middle infielder and bat to be DH or corner OF, they signed a handful of washed up players in Wong, La Stella, and Pollock. By the end of the season none of those guys were still on the team because of how awful they were. Additionally, they traded their closer Seawald to a team who is now in the World Series. If they simply kept their closer they most likely would've made the playoffs. 

Let's dig in to how the Mariners can shake off a bad season and make a championship caliber team in 2024. 

1) Getting On Base and Moving Base Runners

In 2023 the M's improved from .230 to .242 and were middle of the league on OBP. While this is an improvement from the previous season, but it's still not good enough to be a playoff contender. They had the second most strikeouts in the league and the plate discipline needs to be an off-season target. Additionally, the Mariners were horrible at sacrifices and lost multiple extra inning games because they were unable to score the free runner on 2nd. 

2) Coaching

Coaching comes down to developing the talent, improving the team, and making the right decisions during key moments. I believe the Mariners have done a very good job at developing their talent and a horrible job at improving the team and making good key decisions. 

Like I say every year, Servais has a history of making bad decisions when it comes to starting lineups, defensive substitutions, sacrificing runners over, defensive alignments, and management of pitchers. 

The team's struggles against better teams, lack of consistency, and inability to manufacture runs when they need to, really comes down to the manager. Servais needs to focus more on small ball. Good teams know how to get on base and move runners, which is 100% on the coaching staff who'd rather lead the league in strikeouts just to have a few home runs. 

3) Roster Improvements

The Mariners need to replace a couple key positions and bolster their bullpen for next season. They have key decisions to make in corner OF as well as 2B. They also have a couple RP spots to consider, along with needing a reliable closer. 

I'm skeptical that the Mariners will make any big moves after hearing Dipoto tell fans that we are lucky to win 53% of our games and insinuated that he has no consideration for making big acquisitions. Dipoto says the same thing every year and it scares any potential major players from signing with Seattle, which is why they always have to get players via trades.

Players Who are Free Agents: Who to re-sign and who to let go

• Teoscar Hernandez - starting RF, Teo was one of the best hitters on the team but given how expensive he is ($14M), the amount of strikeouts he has, and the fact he's UFA, I'm shocked the M's didn't trade him mid-season for someone with team control. - (should let go)
• Tom Murphy - backup C, Murphy is injury prone and streaky. The M's can find a better backup C. - (should let go)
• Didi Gregorious - backup SS, he hardly plays and is barely major league quality. - (should let go)
• Tommy Milone - SP, Milone is more of a AAA player and should be let go. (should let go)
• Dominic Leone - RP, Leone is a terrible relief pitcher that you only want to use in blowouts to eat up innings. - (should let go)

What should the Mariners do to replace the few pieces that are leaving, as well as bolstering their lineup to be more successful and make a championship run? Here's a few areas they can look at: 

Weak or Missing Positions: 

• 2B/SS: The Mariners don't really have an all-star middle infielder. J.P. is teetering on the edge of being an all-star and opposite of him has been a revolving door of sub-par players. The Mariners need to serious look at signing a major middle infielder or trading one of their many SP's for one.

• RP: The Mariners had a top 5 bullpen in 2022 and then lost multiple big arms in the off-season and via trades. for the second straight season and will be keeping a majority of their relievers if they want. The M's are now lacking good consistent arms outside of Munoz and Brash who are incredibly overused.

• Corner OF: The Mariners are most likely losing Teoscar and don't have any suitable backups in the corner OF outside of a couple mediocre players in Kelenic and Canzone. There will be a bunch of good OF free agents and potential trades available should the M's finally be willing to pay some big name hitters. 

• DH: I have to admit the M's revolving door of below average hitters at DH needs to stop. They need to find a big bat in free agency who can hit in cleanup. No more experiments like Mike Ford. They need an every day bat who's either a solid DH, or is a very good hitter at a position where the M's have better defenders. 

In a nutshell, the M's need a new coach, they need a couple good bullpen arms and a couple big bats, and ownership/GM needs to utilize the plethora of extra SP's they have to go get some of those solved if they can't find it in free agency.

Diablo 3 Game Review: 11 Years Later

This is my review and personal thoughts on my time playing Diablo 3 in 2023, over 11 years since launch and 1000 hours of game time.

Credit: Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 3 launched with huge sales, but was not received well by most of the player base. Sounds familiar to Diablo IV doesn't it? Fans of Diablo 2 hated that the game got away from the dark, gritty, and slow paced action of D2. 

Casual players hated how grindy it was initially, especially with the bad itemization and difficulty of enemies compared to builds that relied heavily on mana generation spells that hardly did any damage. After a while Blizzard released an expansion, Reaper of Souls, which completely changed how the game plays and re-worked its itemization. This really saved the game and made it from a boring dumpster fire into a fun playable game. 

Since then Blizzard also released the Necromancer pack, further improving the game. Now the game is in a very good state that is fun to play for a week every few months. It's unfortunate that new content and patches won't be coming ever again, but I've had a blast playing this game in 2023 with the new seasons. 

Overall here's the general review I have of the game...

Look and Sound: A-

The game looks and sounds really good, even though it's a bit brighter and more "cartoony" compared to Diablo 2. When I compare it to other games, even 11 years later, the graphics and sounds of the game still hold up. The effects can be a bit much but can also be adjusted. 

Character Customization: B-

When it comes to character creation, you're stuck with a very specific looking hero (male or female) for each class. This is why I rank customization lower but D3 makes up for it with cosmetics. The cosmetics system in this game are pretty good for an 11 year old ARPG and are on par with WoW's. The game unlocks every item's cosmetic look when acquired and you can pay a small sum of gold whenever you want to change the look of all your weapons and armor. You also have the choice of a few different colors dyes so you can mix and match how you look.

Progression: B

Progression is an interesting topic and I rated it middle of the field because this game is very easy to progress in. The base game progression takes a few hours to level (or minutes to power level) and from there it's very easy to acquire gear and paragon ranks to become very powerful on day 1. However, it's nice to have a clear path towards progression, unlike D4 which is a complete mess when it comes to player progress. Additionally, the seasonal progression is laid out for you so you have the exact path to progressing your seasonal journey every 3 months. The game rewards you with gear and cosmetics as you achieve each rank of the seasonal journey and it forces you to play just about every piece of content the game offers. I hope other games learn from this if they plan to achieve a decent seasonal model.

Gameplay: B+

At this stage in the game there's very few bugs, very little lag, and the game works near flawlessly. The gameplay is very smooth and every class has about 5-6 viable builds that all look and feel different. Overall the gameplay is just a fun run and destroy ARPG, but also has the ability to push harder content (enemies with more health that deal more damage). The downside is the game can be too easy in the early end game and there's nothing mechanics wise in the game that make it interesting, other than gear up, mash buttons, and everything on screen dies.

User Interface: A

The UI is very good. The character screen, inventory screen, skills screen, skill bar, health and mana globes, buffs/debuffs icons, etc.. are all very excellent. It's a very clean UI that's easy to understand and use. This is the best UI that I've experienced out of all Diablo games.

Endgame: C

There's no real end game in Diablo 3 other than greater rift pushing. You essentially run rifts to get keystones to run greater rifts. The goal is to get the perfect gear and higher paragon level so you can keep pushing GRifts up until 150. It is cool that there's leaderboards though, and the start of every season has a race to specific achievements, which can be fun. I also applaud Blizzard for adding a few new end game pieces of content in the last couple years with echoing nightmares, visions of enmity, and Rites of Sanctuary. They should all stay in the core game after this last season is over.

Monetization: A

Monetization is something I give credit for. This was truly Blizzard before Activision took over. You buy the game and expansion and you get access to everything. New seasonal content has been completely free every few months for years now. There's no battlepass, cash shop, or loot boxes. This is truly the last Blizzard game I can think of that had no monetization beyond buying the game.

Overall Grade: B+

Diablo 3 is one of my favorite ARPG's of all time but I tried to be less biased in this review as I understand the ease of leveling and gearing, along with the lack of a real end game, has turned off a lot of hardcore ARPG players. If you're looking for a fun week of hack and slash gameplay every few months then this is a great game. If you go in with higher expectations than that, then you'll be very disappointed. However, it's currently way better than Diablo 4.

My Favorite Diablo 3 Builds and Plans for Season 29

I have been playing Diablo 3 religiously since the disastrous launch of vanilla D3 and Deckard getting killed offscreen by a butterfly. After the expansion and seasons became a thing, I have loved this game and the variety of builds and itemization it brings, even though it's a much more casual experience compared to other ARPG's, which I also love. D4. PoE, and Last Epoch will eventually take over my play time for D2 and D3 which have been my primary ARPG's for the last decade. 

Credit: Diablo 3 blizzard.com

For Diablo 3 season 29, the final new season in the franchise 😔, I will be playing wizard. Wizard is the first class I ever played in D3 so it's a got send off to the franchise for me. However, I've played every class multiple seasons as outlined below: 

Crusader: 5 seasons 

Monk: 5 seasons 

Wizard: 4 seasons

Barbarian: 4 seasons

Witch Doctor: 4 seasons 

Necromancer: 3 seasons

Demon Hunter: 3 seasons

With all that said I wanted to break down my favorite build for each class. These will not necessarily be the best builds but are still viable and fun. Keep in mind top end builds vary depending on the season but any viable build can clear any season journey. I'll be using Icy-Veins build guides as the closest guide to how I usually build my characters, although I always use my own builds that vary slightly from the websites and ladder ranks.

• Crusader - Akkhan thorns bombardment build: This was a tough choice but the downside of the hammer build (the one I want to like more), the mobility of the hammer crusader sucks in D3 and this game is all about speed. The Akkhan bombardment build is literally sprinting around on a horse non-stop dragging enemies and dropping bombs from the sky. This is a very trivial but fun play style. 
• Monk - Sunwuko's Wave of Light build: Monk has 3 really good top tier builds with mystic ally, wave of light, and tempest rush. I enjoy all of these but my favorite season was when Sunwuko wave of light was top tier. In that build you got to drop flaming bells that exploded on packs of enemies. It was really fun and a lot less boring from mystic ally (where the summons do all the work) and tempest rush (where you hold down one button and run around). 
• Wizard - Tal Rasha's Meteor build: Wizard is tough because there's been some good builds, but most of them were newer and centered around legacy of dreams. Firebirds was my go-to most often but I dislike how disintegrate specific it is. Tal Rasha's got big lately because you can essentially spam meteors non-stop and it's fun to watch the destruction. 
• Barbarian - Might of the Earth Leap Earthquake build: Barbarian has a lot of fun builds, especially Raekor's where you can just zoom around shoulder charging non-stop. However, I always enjoyed the Might of the Earth play style where you leap from pack to pack summoning an earthquake and slamming enemies. It's a very fun build with lots of AoE damage. 
• Witch Doctor - Arachyr's Corpse Spider build: Witch Doctor has a lot of the same features with spirit walk, soul harvest, locust swarm, piranhas, and voodoo. However, there's 3 builds I've enjoyed with zuni's darts, jade harvester, and mundunugu's stand there while spirit barrage does the work for you. However, Arachyr has the right amount of ease and mechanics to make it feel like you're still doing something while your queen spider destroys everything you throw your jar of spiders at. 
• Necromancer - Rathma Army of the Dead build: Necromancer was added as a mini-expansion which brought the highly sought after minion, blood, and bone master that witch doctor wasn't quite good at. My favorite is controlling an army of skeletons and occasionally summoning hoards of them. 
• Demon Hunter - Unhallowed Essence Multishot build: Demon hunter actually has a cool variety of builds from arrows, to pets, to turrets, to daggers. I don't think there's a DH build that I don't like but by far the best to me is the multishot build where you can clear the entire screen by spamming a fan of arrows in front of you. 

In summary Diablo 3 has 3-6 viable builds for each class which brings over 20-40 different build combos to try out. Between the easy leveling, raining legendaries, the seasonal journey every 3 months, and build variety; this is why the game has been so popular for over 8 years. 

Season 29 Visions of Enmity: I'm looking forward to playing demon hunter this weekend and beating my final seasonal journey in the game. The seasonal mechanic looks fairly basic as enemies randomly spawn portals and portals within portals to kill increasingly harder enemies for more loot and xp. This feels like the old PoE mapping system where you can do a map within a map (I think it was the old way Kirac's missions worked). 

For the season I will always run the challenge rift first to get the crafting materials and currency. 

I then focus on leveling first and ignore the journey. For leveling I often change difficulty and run rifts at the maximum possible difficulty I can handle, upping and lowering it as I go. I will use a makeshift build based on whatever legendaries I can find, as well as anything Kadala drops for me based on the shards I get from the challenge rift. 

I then craft a 2 handed weapon for my class that has level requirements -20 so I can cheat with damage and jump up into higher torment for quicker XP. That's because you're doing level 70 dps at level 50. 

The first thing I focus after hitting 70 is getting the Kanai's cube and then focusing on the seasonal journey. 

I want to get haedrig's gift as soon as possible so I have a full 6 piece set to make a build around. This season for demon hunter is shadow's mantle, which is my least favorite set for DH, but I'll make do with it. Keep in mind there's a seasonal challenge to solo rifts using 6 different sets so you'll want to collect all of them and their corresponding legendaries that make them good. 

Another hint is to utilize nightmare essences to satisfy getting 3 gems to 55. For some reason the game counts completed essence of nightmares as leveled legendary gems, so as long as you can get 3 essences above 55 (super easy barely an inconvenience) then you will satisfy this requirement. 

I am super hyped this season because they got rid of my least favorite challenge, mastering a set dungeon. You have no idea how many times I rage quit day 1 when this journey milestone got in my way. 80% of the set dungeons are incredibly annoying to master and there's usually only 1-2 sets per class that are worth trying without wasting your time. 

Path of Exile: All My Builds So Far, Oldest to Newest

As indicated in the last article I have played 10 leagues of PoE and have learned a lot. My last build is by far the best I've played; as I have a much better understanding of the game, but I have 10 builds here that have different levels of playability. With some tweaking, some of these could potentially turn into a good build for others in future leagues. 

1. Blazing Salvo - Fireball - Elementalist (5/10): In my first ever PoE league (Ritual) I decided I wanted to make a fire sorc, but couldn't find a legit build at the time, so I tried to make my own. It was a harsh reality check due to my ignorance about the game and how it works. I struggled through the campaign and early mapping, before asking friends to power level me, so I could try to fix my build. I was able to somewhat salvage it as I learned how spellslinger worked, but I was so defeated that I gave up on this league. I do believe there's still a way to fix this build, but never wanted to re-visit it. Here's the PoB for those interested: https://pobb.in/Yw4Z0HlnVVYm

2. Essence Drain (ED) - Contagion - Trickster (7/10): In Ultimatum a friend highly recommended I try ED contagion. Typically you'd see this build on something like an occultist, but at the time Trickster seemed like a more survivable version. Back then occultist wasn't that great and trickster was pretty good with the ghost shrouds. I wouldn't say this exact build is still viable after the trickster re-work in 2022, but PoE-Vault recently created a viable version. Clear speed was decent but boss damage sucked.  Here's the PoB I used for anyone interested: https://pobb.in/eFgYsqQXWTQI

3. Arc Miner - Saboteur (6/10): In Expedition I decided to run an arc miner. My friend and I had a competition to each make our own version of a mines/traps build to see whose was better. I think mine ended up going further, but his was an easier and smoother experience, especially during leveling. For me this miner was VERY clunky. Having to stop for a couple seconds to toss all your mines and then detonating them twice was a bit annoying. The great part about expedition was I could setup my mines around the bombs and then detonate them once the enemies spawned. Since then saboteur has been re-worked and is arguably worse. Here's the PoB: https://pobb.in/1gfxrzhoujzH

4. Toxic Rain - Champion (9/10): Toxic rain is one of the most popular skills in the game, especially for leveling any bow build. In this instance I watched Zizaran and Asmodeus play this and decided to play it. I always tweak my builds to my playstyle for the way I play, and also for the items I know I can find/afford compared to what a streamer uses or crafts. This was a fun build and an easy league to use it in. Toxic rain has very good clear, and ok boss damage; while champion is incredibly survivable. Here's the PoB: https://pobb.in/bmX6X2jvqLHh

5. Absolution - Necromancer (8/10): In Archnemesis I wanted to play a minion build and I heard GhazzyTV is the minion master of PoE so I checked out some of his builds. I landed on Absolution, which is a very good build for league start and bossing, perfect for archnemesis. I played a tweaked version of Ghazzy's build because I couldn't afford the exact items and doryani's is a weird playstyle to understand with the lightning resist. I also swapped in a vaal summon skeletons over animate guardian or raise zombie. I had no major issues with this build and played through the game just fine with it. Here's the PoB: https://pobb.in/9gc45sY-V0m_

6. Lightning Strike - Raider (8/10): In Sentinel league I wanted something tanky with good single target DPS. I decided to try a lightning strike raider build and it didn't disappoint. I was able to carry my friend through the campaign and mapping with this build. It is a bit annoying to play a melee build in PoE, but this one was probably the least annoying one I have experienced. However, it took a little bit to understand how trinity and nightblade worked at first. Fuzzy Duckzy has a decent guide and here's the PoB I used: https://pobb.in/i9MmAkcIU3kp

7. Purifying Flame - Inquisitor (5/10): For Lake of Kalandra I wanted to theory craft my own build. People kept trying to push me to a Pohx righteous fire build, but that seemed boring to me and it's just way too popular. As a result I went all in on a high life regen concept where I'd maximize my use of consecrated ground for damage and healing. Overall I could survive and tank anything in the game without taking any damage but I struggled with DPS. If you want to be unkillable and do very slow DPS then this isn't such a bad build, but you could build into a slightly less tanky build and blow through content faster. Here's the PoB if interested: https://pobb.in/u3hGGEFY-oAG

8. Herald of Agony - Juggernaut (9/10): In Forbidden Sanctum I chose an interesting combo of storm brand and herald of agony. This is a very safe, very tanky, and great DPS choice. I completely destroyed all content in the game ONCE I FIGURED IT OUT. If you do not understand how HoA works let me explain it. You need a chance to poison enemies to be able to spawn your scorpion. You also have to have your herald active, which reserves a ton of your mana. Then your damage over time (poison damage, chance to poison, and poison length) needs to be very high. This ensures you can always spawn your agony and it does max DPS. The storm brand is just an easy and safe way to apply a poison. Zizaran gave me this idea in his build guide here. Here's the PoB I used: https://pobb.in/L8mv8UvqS4k5

9. Holy Relic - Scion (4/10): For Crucible league I wanted to play a Scion. I heard it's complicated and there's not many guides for it. One build I wanted to try was a cast when damage taken ice spear build that looked awesome. However, the build was nerfed into the ground and required very expensive gear to keep it working (guess I missed it by a league). Instead I tried to make my own build based on a variation of CaptainLance9's build. The leveling experience with righteous fire actually worked great, until Scion's ability to maintain life regen hits max and then you can't maintain it and RF kills you (happened around lvl 40-50 to me). Once I swapped to the holy relic cyclone portion of the build it was clunky. The sound effects are cool but the build is slow and requires being in melee range with a class not very well suited to be in melee range. I also topped out in red maps as the damage was very good but survivability sucked. When you're stuck spinning in cycle there's not an easy time reacting to major potential damage. There's a huge budget to do well in end game. Here's the PoB for those interested: https://pobb.in/XJ2XgfnhaO37 

10. Impending Doom - Occultist (10/10): In the current league, Challenge of the Ancestors, I decided to try an impending doom occultist. This was a build I almost ran during crucible but didn't. I wish I discovered this sooner because this is by far the best build I've run. It has enough survivability that you get a second to react to damage but the DPS output is huge and safe. You can spam your curses from range safely, you can flame dash everywhere, and you can allow your DoT do the work for you while you stay safe. With this build I destroyed every map in the game through T16 and killed Eater and Exarch. The only content in the entire game I struggled with was expedition because it has immune to curses as a modifier sometimes and you literally can do nothing against it. I must admit I'm still piecing together how to gear it in the end game but here's my current PoB: https://pobb.in/xKRLBCEUmGUd 

Path of Exile (PoE) Leveling & League Starting Guide

I'm a no name person who doesn't stream and I'm no PoE expert. However, I have successfully navigated the PoE campaign and early mapping in every league since 2020. 

There's been 10 leagues I've participated in now starting from Ritual and I've learned A LOT about the game and how it works since then. This guide is intended to help you get through the campaign and leveling process efficiently, without the need of a carry, and will follow the logic that I use every league start. In a future post I plan to highlight every build I've used so far and what I find easier to play. 

Let's get started! 

                Credit: Grinding Gear Games pathofexile.com

1. Path of Building: Pick a build ahead of time and plan it out in Path of Building (PoB). Whether you're making your own build, or following a build guide to the letter from a popular streamer (Zizaran, Fuzzy Duckzy, crouching_tuna, etc) or website (Poe-Vault or Maxroll); PoB is going to be very helpful for you as you level and you can always update it on the fly as needed. I always use the Notes section to write my campaign guide below, what skills I plan to use along the way, and any typical leveling uniques that I might want to trade for.

Additionally, if you want to know when you get access to certain skills and items poe-roadmap is a handy tool that you can paste your PoB link into and generate that info. Simply use your PoB import/export button and at the bottom click generate and copy to get your PoB code.

2. Loot Filter: Download a loot filter. I use filterblade's default softcare semi-strict filter. Simply download the file, drop it on your Path of Exile folder in Documents. Then go into the game settings and enable it. This will prevent you from being overwhelmed by loot dropping as it'll only show relevant items to your character level and will highlight items that are valuable.

Note that as you play the game more and understand loot better you can tweak the filter settings to your desire. You can also download specific filters based on whatever activity you're doing and switch between them in game.

3. Create your character: It's important to understand that most builds are based on an ascendancy name so understanding the core class for that ascendancy is key. For instance, a Witch can be an elementalist, an occultist, or a necromancer. 

Ensure you're selecting the correct check boxes when starting. Generally you want Softcore and the league name. Hardcore, Solo Self-Found, and Ruthless won't be for anybody reading this guide. 

4. World Map and Overlay: There is no world map technically but when you click the button next to a quest it'll bring up the map of the zones in the Act. The orange line shows the path to get to that quest. Filled in dots means there's a WP that you have, an open circle is an area without a WP, a circle with a dot in the middle has a WP you haven't found yet. Note that 99% of these zones are worth going into to complete missions, grab WP's, and to do trials. 

Additionally, you'll notice zones have a branch from the previous zones. The branch isn't entirely accurate but is somewhat accurate. For instance, in Act 1 you'll notice on the map Tidal Island is down and right of The Coast.  The Coast, the WP will always be at the end of the zone before the entrance to the Mud Flats and the entrance to Tidal Island will always be slightly down and right from that WP. 

I highly recommend almost always having the overlay on (tab button). It helps you with understanding where you're at in a zone and where quest items are. If it's too much you can change the size and transparency in settings. 

5. Understand Skill Gems, Sockets, & Links: I'm not saying you need to be an expert in how all the support gems work but understanding socket colors and links is key as you level your character. You don't want to be in a situation where you have a skill setup you wish to use but don't have the gear to equip it properly. Ensure you read an article or watch a quick video explaining this if you're new. 

6. Resistances (resists): I'll point out gear checks throughout the campaign and resists is the #1 driver for this. As you play through the campaign you'll hit 2 checkpoints that lower your resists by 30%, after the first and second kitava fights. Resists always max out at 75%, anything beyond that requires specific passives to increase it beyond. 

To check your resists press C then click on the defense tab. Ensure that your resists are never negative (unless you have a build that allows for it) and as close to max as you can get them. A1-A5 don't worry about chaos resist or maxing out your resists, but A6-A10 you'll want all positives and as close to max as you can get. 

7. Campaign: Now the TLDR campaign playthrough. 

Act 1:

Get your starting weapon and gem on the beach. Set your left click skill to move instead of default attack.

Use movement skill (dash or frostblink) from Tarkleigh after first missions. 

After getting the Lower Prison WP make sure to grab skill gems from Nessa. 

Lower Prison has first trial and Brutus. Brutus rewards flame dash which is the most popular movement skill in the game.

After Fairgraves get to Merveil's Cavern WP and head back to town to get quest rewards and any skills you may want from Nessa. 

Kill act 1 boss Merveil who has high cold damage. Avoid the pillars of water. A sapphire ring is good here due to its cold resist. If one hasn't dropped, isn't at the vendor, then sell an iron ring + blue skill gem to a vendor to make one, this is called a vendor recipe.

Act 2:

Note: Ensure you know which bandits to kill before you get to any of them. Killing all of them gives you 2 passive points which is typically what you want but some builds are better when you save 1 of them.

Do north route from town. Great white beast first. Find crossroads WP and go back to town. 

Get quicksilver flask from Yeena. This is the best utility flask in the game as it gives you a burst of speed to get out of tight situations, or to get through zones faster.

Find Chambers of Sin. Chambers of Sin 2 has second trial. Do intruders in black here too. 

Get Arctic armour from Greust for use until Siosa in A3 where you'll get access to better defensive abilities. 

Do south route next. Go south and find weaver's chambers to complete sharp and cruel. 

Complete deal with bandits (kill all or save 1). Return to town for reward and back to Lionseye to turn in a quest completed in A2. 

Complete third trial in The Crypt. Kill A2 boss in vaal ruins. This is an easy fight, just avoid the big slam. 

Act 3: 

On your way to Sarn, kill guard captain, talk to clarissa for lost in love quest. 

Get Tolman's bracelet and complete fourth trial in city of Sarn crematorium. 

Clarissa gives you keys to a sewer in Sarn. Buy any gems from her that you may need. 

Do fifth trial in Catacombs. 

Do Victario's, Ribbon, and Gemling quests. Pick amulet with stats you need as reward. 

Go to library and get fixture of fate 4 pages. Siosa will sell you any gems you need up to this point so bring your currency with you to fill out your leveling build here.

Do sixth trial in Imperial Gardens. 

Kill act boss Dominus. This is a long fight against multiple enemies but when he becomes a cockroach ensure you get in his bubble when it's raining corpses and blood. 

First real gear check, get resists 50+%, get life, get gem sockets, should be lvl 30+ by now. If not then go back to some higher areas to clear trash to level up. You can reset zones by holding cntrl + clicking on them and choosing a new instance.

Do your first labyrinth, Normal Lab. Select your ascendancy. The labs are accessed in A3 Sarn Encampment up top. You need to do all 6 trials first to access. Poelab will give you guides and maps to get through this if you don't know how. 

Act 4: 

Do Breaking the seal. Complete Indomitable spirit and grab Crystal Veins WP. Do eternal nightmare daresso and kaom. 

Kill piety. She's easy as long as you are ready for her spinning beam. Simply run ahead of it in a circle while she does it, don't try to tank it.

Kill act boss Malachai. Piety will help you in the first part. When she yells kill me attack her instead of him. When you drop down ensure you kill the hearts on the sides when they're up.

Act 5: 

Sail to Oriath and talk to Lani. Choose a 2 stone ring needed the most for resists. 

Do in service to science & key to freedom. Reach chamber of innocence, WP to town and get a flask from Lani (choose what's most helpful to your build). 

Complete death to purity, ravenous god, and kitava's torments. Ensure you're level 40+, have 70+% resists, and have your first ascendancy. 

Act 5 boss, kill kitava. You won't win this fight. Avoid the AOE, attack the heart when it pops out. Eventually Sin flies in to save you after a big blast from kitava. 

Act 6: 

You have now lost 30% to all resists. Second gear check, redo resists to 50+% including chaos, get life, get gem sockets, should be lvl 40+ by now. 

Grab Coast WP, go to mud flats, do father of war. 

Go to Ridge and grab WP and go back to Coast for Bestel's epic. 

Portal scroll from bestel's epic and do fallen from grace. Talk to Lilly for gem reward. Note Lilly now sells gems. 

Reach lower prison. Complete seventh trial in Lower Prison. 

Kill Brutus & Shavronne, grab crafting item. Go to prisoner's gate to kill abberath. 

Grab WP in riverways, go north to wetlands for ryslatha. 

Select first minor pantheon node. Press Y if it doesn't popup. You get to select 1 major (top) and 1 minor (bottom) nodes on this tree for a free passive effect. These get unlocked as you do specific quests in the game. 

Complete remaining quests and go kill A6 boss, brine king. Avoiding touching water and avoid aoe lightning strikes, otherwise fight is easy. Select first major pantheon node.

Act 7: 

Do silver locket quest first and find the crypt.

Eighth trial is in The Crypt, along with map for essence of artist. 

WP to crossroads, go to chamber of sins for web of secrets. 

Ninth trial is in chamber of sins 2. Do master of million faces too before leaving. 

Go to dread thicket, gather 7 fireflies and kill Greust. 

Travel to the causeway for kishara star. Get WP in vaal city. Go to town for rewards. 

Now that you have done 9 trials you can do CRUEL LAB. From any WP you can travel to the Labs WP on the right side of the screen. 

Should be level 55-60 by now. 

WP back to vaal city get to temple of decay 2 then navigate the temple to kill act boss arakaali. This boss is easy if you avoid the purple lasers. Note it does high chaos damage. 

Act 8: 

Immediately do essence of the hag and kill doedre. Go to the quay. 

Complete love is dead. Ensure you grab the Ankh on left side of map before you head down to Clarissa. Go to grain gate do gemling legion. 

Go to solaris temple and grab WP in level 1. Complete solar eclipse and return to town. 

Go back to sewers to do left side of the map. 

Tenth trial is in the bath house. Reflection of terror is in high gardens. 

Go to lunaris concourse then lunaris temple level 2 and do lunar eclipse. 

From lunaris or solaris concourse head towards harbour bridge to find the act bosses. 

Kill act bosses. The sun and moon fight each other and they fight you. Just avoid their aoe and take the fight slow and easy. 

Should be level 60-65ish by now. 

Act 9: 

Go to vastiri desert and get WP. Do storm blade quest first. 

Complete queen of sands off vastiri desert WP. 

Go to boiling lake for basilisk quest. 

Complete fastis fortuna. 

Do eleventh trial in The Tunnel.

Do ruler of highgate then back to town. 

Kill act boss depraved trinity. Nothing fancy about this fight but the electrified books can hit hard, especially if your lightning resist isn't max. 

Act 10: 

Kill plaguewing and do safe passage. 

Put a portal scroll down middle of ruined square. Grab WP in control blocks left on the map. WP back to town for flask reward. 

Go back through portal and head right to Ossuary. Do no love for old ghosts and twelfth trial in ossuary. 

Back to town and do death and rebirth quest to kill avarius. Finish off control blocks and ravaged square. 

Should be lvl 65-70 by now.

DO MERCY LAB BEFORE KITAVA. This is important because you'll lose 30% resists after kitava so mercy lab is far easier before kitava fight, and also makes the fight much easier. 

Kill campaign boss Kitava. Same mechanics as before. Avoid aoe and slams, kill heart when it pops out. 

This is your final gear check for your league starter. Redo all resists (jewelry and belts are common for resists), get end game capable gear, and gem sockets/links for your build. At this point your main attack skill needs to be at least a 5 link, if not a 6 link.

If you need to farm up currency you can go engage with other league mechanics (delve and heist) to farm up some gear and currency. You can also engage in the trade site and do some bulk currency exchange to exchange some of your lesser used currency for chaos orbs, which are the most common form of trade currency.

8. Early Mapping: 

For maps ensure you are doing maps you haven't done before so you can get Atlas passives. Ensure you build your Atlas tree to maximize your build's potential. You can select passives for specific activities but most people go up the middle and select all the map drop passives to maximize new maps. 

For "white maps" (the logo and circle in the middle is white) you'll want to ensure they're all magic rarity (blue text). Use orbs of transmutation on them to make them magic. 

For "yellow maps" ensure they are rare by using orb of alchemy. If a "yellow map" is magic rarity (blue text) you can use a regal orb or an orb of scouring to make it normal then you can use an alch on it.

Diablo 4: Arc Lightning Sorceress That Destroys While Leveling

Are you looking for a build that can unleash a stream of lightning that deals massive damage and chains between nearby enemies and you? Do you want to combine the amazing AOE from Chain Lightning with the high damage basic skill Arc Lash to destroy your enemies? Do you want to take advantage of Frost Nova, Ice Armor and Teleport as your main defensive skills? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this guide is for you!

In this guide, I will show you how to level up and gear up a Chain Lightning Sorcerer in Diablo 4. This is one of the best leveling builds for any class, and it can also transition smoothly into the endgame. You will learn how to use your skills, modifiers, enchantments and aspects to maximize your damage and survivability. You will also learn how to deal with the long cooldowns of Unstable Currents and how to optimize your mana management. 

Credit: Activision-Blizzard Diablo IV

Skills

Your core skills are Chain Lightning and Arc Lash. Chain Lightning is a Destruction Lightning spell that unleashes a stream of lightning that deals 42% damage and chains between nearby enemies and you up to 4 times, prioritizing enemies. Arc Lash is a Basic Lightning skill that lashes out with a whip of lightning that deals 30% damage and hits all enemies in front of you.

You will also use Unstable Currents as your ultimate skill. Unstable Currents is a Destruction Lightning spell that creates an unstable current around you that deals 60% damage per second for 10 seconds. Enemies hit by this current are also hit by Chain Lightning.

Your defensive skills are Frost Nova, Ice Armor and Teleport. Frost Nova is a Control Cold spell that creates an explosion of frost around you that deals 20% damage and freezes enemies for 2 seconds. Ice Armor is a Utility Cold spell that surrounds you with a barrier of ice that absorbs 20% of incoming damage for 10 seconds. Teleport is a Utility Arcane spell that teleports you to a location within 15 yards. 

Leveling Skill Tree

• Arc Lash (5/5 points)
• Devastation (3/3 points) 
• Elemental Dominance (3/3 points) 
• Chain Lightning (5/5 points) 
• Teleport (5/5 points) 
• Ice Armor (1/5 points) 
• Frost Nova (1/5 points) 
• Align the Elements (1/3 points) 
• Mana Shield (1/3 points) 
• Protection (1/3 points) 
• Icy Veil (1/3 points) 
• Prime Unstable Currents 
• Coursing Currents (1/3 points) 
• Electrocution (1/3 points) 
• Convulsions (1/3 points) 
• Vyr's Mastery

Once above level 40 you can finish off some of the masteries/passives that only have 1 point in each. 

Once you hit 50 and get end game gear you can also swap to the fire enchanted arc lash build that most sites recommend (maxroll.gg, icy-veins, wowhead, etc) but I've been sticking to this leveling build and having no issues in T2/T3 content.

Modifiers

You will use the following modifiers for your skills:

• Enhanced Chain Lightning: Chain Lightning bounces to 1 additional enemy.
• Greater Chain Lightning: Chain Lightning deals x5% increased damage per enemy hit.
• Flickering Arc Lash: Arc Lash grants you 10% movement speed for 3 seconds.
• Mystical Frost Nova: Frost Nova applies Vulnerable to enemies, increasing their damage taken by 15% for 4 seconds.
• Enhanced Ice Armor: Ice Armor grants you 10 Mana per second while active.
• Shimmering Teleport: 5% chance of getting ice armor when hit.  

Enchantments

You will use the following enchantments for your skills:

• Chain Lightning Enchantment: Chain Lightning forms automatically after spending 100 Mana.
• Ice Armor Enchantment: Fire Bolt forms automatically after spending 100 Mana.

These enchantments will give you free casts of Chain Lightning and Fire Bolt, which will help you deal more damage and trigger more bounces of Chain Lightning.

Aspects

You will use the following aspects for your gear:

• Recharging Aspect: Each time Chain Lightning bounces off you, gain 4 Mana.
• Amplifying Aspect: Each time Chain Lightning bounces off an enemy, gain 5% Spell Damage for 3 seconds.

These aspects will help you regenerate mana and increase your spell damage as you cast Chain Lightning.

Gameplay

Your gameplay revolves around casting Chain Lightning as much as possible, while using Arc Lash as your filler skill. You want to position yourself in a way that allows Chain Lightning to bounce off as many enemies and yourself as possible. This will maximize your damage, mana regeneration and spell damage buff.

You also want to use Frost Nova whenever it’s available, especially on elite packs and bosses. This will freeze them, apply Vulnerable to them, and allow you to deal more damage with your spells. You can also use Teleport to reposition yourself, escape danger, or take advantage of the Critical Strike Chance buff. You can use Ice Armor whenever you need some extra protection or mana regeneration.

You should only use Unstable Currents on big elite packs or bosses, since it has a long cooldown of 70 seconds. This skill will create an unstable current around you that will deal massive damage over time and also trigger Chain Lightning on enemies hit by it. This will create a devastating chain reaction of lightning that will obliterate anything in your vicinity. 

My typical playstyle revolves around gathering up a large pack of mobs, teleport to mid, cast frost nova to freeze, pop unstable currents and spam chain lightning until freeze wears off. Then use ice armor for protection and mana regen. Continue to spam until unstable currents ends, then teleport out of the pack and alternate chain lightning and arc lash until you're done. By the next big pack you will have everything off cooldown again.

Conclusion

The Chain Lightning Sorcerer is a fun and powerful build that can level up and gear up quickly in Diablo 4. It has great AOE damage, mobility, and utility. It also has some challenges, such as managing your mana and cooldowns, and dealing with melee enemies. However, with the right skills, modifiers, enchantments and aspects, you can overcome these challenges and electrify your enemies with ease.

I hope you enjoyed this guide and found it useful. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below. Thanks for reading and happy hunting! ⚡

The Current Best PvE Builds for Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2 is a popular MMORPG with a variety of classes and builds to choose from. In this post, we’ll be discussing some of the best builds for PvE and instanced content. 

Credit: ArenaNet Guild Wars 2

According to a list by GAMERS DECIDE, some of the top PvE builds in Guild Wars 2 include the Power Mechanist, Condition Mirage - Mesmer, Power Reaper - Necromancer, Power Renegade - Revenant, and Power Deadeye - Thief1.

Another source, UTPLAY, lists the Renegade as an S-tier build for PvE grinding, with other strong options including the Firebrand, Scourge, Soul Beast, Mirage, Spellbreaker, and Deadeye2.

It’s important to note that these are just suggestions and what works best for you may vary depending on your playstyle and preferences. It’s always a good idea to experiment with different builds to find what works best for you. 

DPS: 

There are several classes in Guild Wars 2 that can be built for high DPS. Some of the top DPS builds include the Virtuoso (Mesmer), Bladesworn (Warrior), Spellbreaker (Warrior), Scourge (Necromancer), and Catalyst (Elementalist)1.

The Virtuoso is a mesmer specialization that focuses on ranged damage and crowd control. It has high burst damage and can provide quickness to its allies1.

The Bladesworn is a warrior specialization that focuses on melee damage and mobility. It has high burst damage and can provide might to its allies1.

The Spellbreaker is a warrior specialization that focuses on melee damage and control. It has high sustained damage and can provide boon removal to its enemies1.

The Scourge is a necromancer specialization that focuses on condition damage and support. It has high sustained damage and can provide barrier to its allies1.

The Catalyst is an elementalist specialization that focuses on melee damage and support. It has high burst damage and can provide might to its allies1.

Support: 

In Guild Wars 2, support classes can be divided into two types: those that provide boons and those that provide healing. Boon supports focus on providing buffs to their allies while heal supports focus on healing their teammates1.

Some of the best support classes for PvE content include the Druid-Ranger, Firebrand-Guardian, and Scourge-Necromancer2. The Firebrand (Guardian) is also considered one of the best boon support classes, along with the Catalyst (Elementalist), Mirage (Mesmer), and Renegade (Revenant)1. 

Credit: GW2W

The 2 most important boons requested in instanced content will be Quickness & Alacrity. 

The Renegade (Revenant) is considered one of the best alacrity support builds in Guild Wars 2. This build provides its subgroup with permanent alacrity, 25 stacks of might, and fury while dealing as much power damage as possible1.

Another option for an alacrity support build is the Druid (Ranger). This build provides its subgroup with alacrity, 25 stacks of might from Grace of the Land, healing, frequent condition cleanse, and permanent fury and regeneration2.

The Firebrand (Guardian) is considered one of the best quickness support builds in Guild Wars 2. This build provides permanent quickness and high fury and might uptime to its subgroup. It also brings a massive amount of healing and a wide range of defensive utility including aegis, protection, resistance, resolution, stability, heavy condition cleanse, and projectile destruction1.

Another option for a quickness support build is the Scrapper (Engineer). This build provides good DPS along with 100% quickness and superspeed uptime to five targets. It fills the role of quickness source for its subgroup and can generate some protection with Reconstruction Field2.

If you're looking to make a DPS or support build for PVP or PVE then I highly recommend MetaBattle and Hardstuck. While most build guides will provide you the optimal gear and skills, it's worth noting that you need to find a build that suits your playstyle, is fun, and that you're good at. I typically choose slightly different weapons/stats/passives than what's shown in most build guides because they suit my playstyle better while still being viable.