10 Standout Builds in Path of Exile 3.29 Curse of the Allflame

This isn't necessarily the most popular or the most meta but these are the 10 builds from 3.29 that stood out.... 

Credit: pathofexile.com

1. Winter Orb Elementalist / Occultist

• Playstyle: Fast-paced auto-targeting mapping with icy explosion chains.

• Key Mechanics: Winter Orb received strong base crit and projectile buffs in 3.29, making it a top tier mapper and all-rounder.

• Guide: Fubgun or Zizaran

2. Cyclone Slayer

• Playstyle: Melee whirl-wind with high passive mitigation and block chance.

• Key Mechanics: Stacks max block via Warstaff and leverages new Runegraft mechanics for mana retention and Phase Shift upkeep.

• Guide: Follow Ronarray

3. Kinetic Fusillade Totems / Ballista

• Playstyle: Ranged totem placement with rapid projectile coverage.

• Key Mechanics: High single-target shotgunning and safe mapping for bossing content.

• Guide: Follow Palsteron

4. Strength-Stacking Juggernaut

• Playstyle: Ultra high-budget boss deleter and T17 map runner.

• Key Mechanics: Stacks Strength and Accuracy. Multiple variations including Heavy Strike, Molten Strike, and Static Strike

• PoB Link: Follow Ignatius for Static Strike. Follow Altek2k for Molten Strike. Follow ConnorConverse for Heavy Strike.

5. Ethereal Knives Ignite Elementalist

• Playstyle: Screen-wide explosion mapping.

• Key Mechanics: EK fired in all directions procs ignite which does screen wide wipes for amazing clear.

• PoB Link: Follow Ronarray

6. Frostmage Mana-Stacker Hierophant

• Playstyle: High energy shield spellcaster.

• Key Mechanics: Uses the Frostmage Support to gain massive added Cold damage from reserved mana, combined with Sanctuary of Thought.

• PoB Link: Follow Jungroan

7. Endurance Charge Static Strike Slayer / Juggernaut

• Playstyle: Auto-attacking movement melee.

• Key Mechanics: Scales endurance charges to extreme caps for passive lightning arcs that clear whole screens while running.

• PoB Link: Follow UberDan

8. Penance Brand Ignite Elementalist

• Playstyle: Brand attachment with high-yield damage-over-time ignites.

• Key Mechanics: Places brands on bosses and rare monsters for massive prolif burns across whole packs.

• PoB Link: Follow Goratha

9. Luminary Mercenary Support / Bot

• Playstyle: Minion / Mercenary buff commander.

• Key Mechanics: Flame Link: Leverages the new Luminary ascendancy and Flame Link to scale mercenary damage and light radius modifiers into game-trivializing stats.  

• PoB Link: Follow CaptainLance9

10. Poison Shotgun Fireball Trickster

• Playstyle: Projectile spam applying rapid poison stacks.

• Key Mechanics: Uses Ephemeral Bolts jewel to overlap multiple fireball explosions onto single targets for exponential poison scaling.

• PoB Link: Follow Jungroan

The Amalgamation of a Video Game Made Using Aspects of Games You Love

I posed this question to friends who play video games, "what would your perfect game be if you could combine the best aspects of the games you love into 1 game." For me, this is my ambitious answer but I'm sure everyone has their own. 

This will be an open world survival crafting first person shooter multiplayer, similar to something like...

1. Character creator of Korean MMOs (like BDO, Aion 2, Vindictus, etc...)

2. Gunplay, abilities, strikes, and raids of Destiny 2 (looter shooter FPS with open world and instanced content). 

3. World generation and exploration of Valheim and NMS (open world being procedurally generated seeds with lots of variety and exploration being immersive for replayability). 

4. Seasonal events, challenges, and boss fights of Diablo and PoE games (new content on a cadence, with challenges that reward cosmetics, and interesting mechanics based pinnacle boss fights along the way). 

5. Base building and resource harvesting of Palworld and Enshrouded (a game that allows you to gather resources, build a base, automate production in some way, and crafting of components for the base and gear). 

6. Holiday events and cosmetic systems of DRG, Guild Wars 2 & WoW (if this is a live service game adding themed events around the holidays would be ideal). 

7. Story and character choice of BG3, RDR2, and E33 (game having tons of depth to characters and their stories and having player choice impact the overall experience).

8. Loot filter, crafting, and stash of Last Epoch (best in game filter and stash organization of any game and crafting can utilize components made from #5 above).

9. PvP of Halo/Desitny with some hints of GW2/WoW. (arena style pvp similar to Halo and Destiny but also large open world team based pvp as its own game mode similar to gw2 wvw and wow bg). 

10. Vehicle play similar to Halo, Ghost Recon Wildlands, and Battlefield. (would be interesting to introduce vehicles you can unlock as you play through which adds to the overall open world experience). 

11. Itemization of Diablo, PoE, Destiny, and Borderlands. (most loot should be totally random with only weapon bases being static but what attachments, affixes, and damage types roll on them would be random. Also bring in runewords and sets to give more static player power routes while they search for their perfect randomly generated items while also giving the ability to craft and modify items like Last Epoch, PoE, and other games allow for).

Overall would love this to be a semi-live service open world first person looter shooter like Destiny but pulling in aspects of other popular games. Once Human is probably the closest to all of these but it falls short in many aspects. 

Seahawks vs Broncos 10/15/2026: A Breakdown of the Offense's Worst Plays

This is my second official breakdown of the Seahawks bad offensive play in another loss due to turnovers.

My process: pause the film pre-snap, check the down, distance, situation, where you're at on the field, what the personnel and formation is for both teams, and then what happens post-snap.

TLDR once again is Fleury needs to be better, Oline needs to be better, and Darnold's decision making and throws need to be better.

1 fumble on Shaheed, 2 picks on Sam, 2.5 sacks on Oline, 1 sack on Fleury, 1 near sack on Fleury, 1 near sack on Oline, 2 near picks on Sam, and 1 near pick on Fleury.

Sack #1 (Fleury): 2nd & 4. 1 TE, 3 WRs, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgun.

On this play Broncos have 2 down linemen and both DE's standing looking to rush. 1 LB is lined up off the TE on the right. 1 LB middle playing zone/run. Corners are all playing off-man, especially the corner on JSN who is 7 yards off. 1 Safety is deep.

On snap Darnold goes to play action to the RB on his left. The CB covering Kupp on Darnold's left blitzes. At the same time Zabel pulls out of his slot and runs to the right leaving Cross to take on the DE, the RB to take on the blitzer, and Zabel to block all the way across on the right side DE.

Kupp is open immediately on a short out route to the left due to his corner blitzing, while the other corner and safety both take Shaheed, but then Kupp pulls a double move and runs the same route as Shaheed causing him to be covered. JSN is against soft single coverage, a quick stick route would've had him open for an easy first down. Barner is also open on a deep crossing route as his LB trails him and JSN's route takes him into a position where the throwing lane is blocked. The RB doesn't even try to block the blitzer on the left so he comes in free against Darnold. Also Zabel's block due to running all the way across the formation causes him to lose ground immediately. This led to 2 Broncos meeting at Darnold and sacking him within 2 seconds of the snap.

Looking at it from Sam's POV, I chalk this up to bad play design because against this soft coverage the route combos and blocking scheme make no sense. Kupp and Shaheed initially had a great route combo, followed up immediately by getting themselves covered by the same corner. JSN against very soft coverage would've been open immediately as well but then runs a deep post route that takes him into the safety over the top. Pulling a guard on a playaction pass also makes no sense and not adjusting your RB over to take on the blitzer makes no sense.

Sack #2 (Oline): 3rd & 10. 1 TE, 3 WRs, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgun. Same personnel and formation as the previous sack but this time RB is to the right of the QB.

On this play Broncos have 2 down linemen and 3 rushers standing at the line looking to rush the QB. Shaheed's corner is playing press-man. Kupp's corner is playing off-man 5 yards away. JSN's corner is playing off-man 8 yards away again. 1 safety is deep over the middle.

On snap the Broncos rush 6 on a safety blitz but then 1 rusher backs out to cover the middle of the field. This means initially each corner is in cover 0 with no help, and single coverage across the board. JSN is open for a free 5 yards and if he breaks the tackle he scores. Kupp and Barner both run to the same spot in the middle of the field taking themselves out of the play as Sam hits his hitch. JSN is wide open deep right. On this play Abe and Haynes both block the same guy leaving a free rusher on the right side who sacks Sam within 2 seconds. I chalk this up to the Oline not knowing who to block.

Near Sack #3 (Fleury): 2nd & 10. 2 TE, 2 WRs, 1 RB - Darnold under center. WR on each side and each TE in-line on each side.

On this play Broncos have 4 down linemen, 1 LB walking up to blitz, 1 LB middle of the field, 3 corners playing off-man 5+ yards away, and 1 safety deep.

On snap Sam fakes the handoff and the back runs out left. Both TE's stay in to block. Both receivers run deep routes against a 6 man zone. Eventually Haynes lets his man go and is standing around looking confused. Darnold has no viable targets at this point and has to throw it away as he's getting hit. I chalk this up to bad play design. A quick throw to the receiver when corners are 7 yards away would've yielded 5+ yards.

Near Pick #1 (Sam & Fleury): 3rd & 10. 2 TE, 2 WRs, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgun. WR on each side and 1 TE is out wide right.

On this play Broncos have 7 men at the line, 4 of them on the weak side, 2 corners are playing press-man, and 1 corner is playing off-man, 1 safety is deep.

On snap Broncos only rush 5 and drop 2 back into zone. This seems to confuse Sam who's expecting JSN to be wide open middle of the field. Since a LB dropped back into this zone it forced Sam to throw it around him which caused the ball to land in the lap of the safety playing behind JSN. Luckily he dropped it. I chalk this up to bad decision making by Sam and also bad play calling by Fleury. This is the wrong personnel in on this obvious pass situation. He only had 2 legit route runners.

Fumble #1 (Shaheed): 2nd & 10. 3 TE, 1 WR, 1 RB - Darnold under center. WR on right side, 3 TE's on left.

On this play Broncos have 5 down linemen, 3 LB middle of the field playing zone, 1 corner playing press-man, and 2 safeties deep.

On snap Shaheed takes the jet sweep from Sam. With 3 TE's in front of him it's well blocked initially but eventually Shaheed gets tackled. For some reason Shaheed didn't tuck the ball and is flailing it out wide. Unlucky for him the ball hits the knee of the tackler and pops free. I chalk this up to poor ball security by Shaheed.

Near Sack #3 again (Oline): 2nd & 7. 2 TE, 2 WRs, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgunr. TE in-line on each side and both WR's to the left.

On this play Broncos have 5 down linemen, 2 LB's middle of the field in zone, 1 corner playing off-man on JSN, and 3 safeties deep.

On snap every eligible receiver runs a route and Broncos only rush 4. Within 2 seconds Cross gets beat badly on a spin move causing Darnold to get flushed and throws it away narrowly avoiding a sack. I chalk this up to bad Oline play by Cross.

Sack #3 (Oline): 3rd & 7. 1 TE, 3 WR, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgun. WR on right side, 1 TE and 2 WR to the left.

On this play Broncos have 6 down linemen, no LB in the middle, 1 CB playing press-man on JSN, 2 CB playing off-zone, 2 safeties deep.

On snap Broncos only rush 4 and drop 2 LB's back into zone. all corners and safeties stay deep zone 10+ yards, except JSN's corner who's pressing. Kupp and Barner are immediately open for 5 yards but unfortunately Sam is staring down JSN's route instead. By the time Sam sees who's open Abe is getting beat on his block within 2 seconds. Sam is able to dodge that sack and flushes to his right and Holani is wide open in the flat for the emergency dump off but he's not looking. Holani then runs his route inside away from Darnold eliminating the only option Darnold has and he takes the sack. I chalk this up to bad blocking by Abe but Sam did have a good early option to throw if he was looking at it. If Sam threw this away Myers would've had a shorter FG attempt from the hash he prefers.

Sack #4 (Sam): 3rd & 6. 1 TE, 3 WR, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgun. 2 WR on right side, 1 TE and 1 WR to the left.

On this play Broncos have 5 down linemen, no LB in the middle, 2 CB playing press-man, 2 CB playing off-man, 2 safeties deep.

On snap Broncos rush 4 and Holani leaks out right into the flat uncovered. Sam is staring to his left at Shaheed and Barner. Barner comes open immediately for 5 yards and Sam looks away to JSN and Kupp who are both well covered. At this point Holani is available for an easy toss to the right and has a shot to run for the first down. Instead Sam holds the ball until Abe loses his block and Sam is run down for the sack. I chalk this up to poor decision making by Sam because he had 2 easy completions and didn't take them.

Sack #5 (Sam & Oline): 3rd & 11. 1 TE, 3 WR, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgun. 2 WR and 1 TE on right side, 1 WR to the left.

On this play Broncos have 5 down linemen, no LB in the middle, 1 CB playing press-man, 2 CB playing off-zone, 3 safeties deep.

On snap Broncos blitz 1 safety and drop a LB out of the blitz so 5 rushers total. Seahawks initially look to go max protection and leave TE's and RB to block, 7 blockers vs 5 rushers but the TE and RB leak out on routes leaving 5 blockers vs 5 rushers.

JSN and Kupp were both open early for 5 yards as Sam hit his hitch but he didn't throw it. Stephens loses on his block within 3 seconds and Sam is sacked. I chalk this up to poor decision making by Sam and bad blocking by Stephens. Although to be fair on Stephens they expected him to block a blitzer on the other side of the center from him and the RB should've stayed in to help block.

Near Pick #1 again (Sam): 1st & 10. 1 TE, 3 WRs, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgun. 2 WR right, 1 TE and 1 WR left.

On this play Broncos have 4 men at the line, 2 LB middle of the field playing zone, 3 corners playing off-man, 2 safeties deep.

On snap Broncos only rush 4. Both TE and RB chip and run routes left. WR on each side run deep routes while Kupp runs a shall out to the right. As Sam hits his hitch he has TE on his left open and Kupp on his right open on shallow out routes. Instead Sam is staring down Horton on a deep cross and forces a throw to Horton in double coverage. The throw is high and behind of Horton and nearly picked by the deep safety. I chalk this up to poor decision making by Sam.

Pick #1 (Sam): 3rd & 1. 1 TE, 3 WRs, 1 RB - Darnold under center. WR on each side, TE in-line on right, Kupp motions left to right behind the line.

On this play Broncos have 6 men at the line, 3 corners playing off-man, 2 safeties deep both shaded to JSN's side.

On snap Broncos rush 6 assuming it's a run as the middle 4 guys all dive in. Darnold doesn't even fake the handoff. Immediately Horton and Kupp are open for first downs and Sam doesn't throw it to them despite hard staring at them. Holani misses his block on the blitzer causing Sam to panic and throw it to Horton. The throw is behind Horton and picked off. I chalk this up to poor decision making by Sam because Sam saw the blitz in his face, had multiple first down throws and didn't take them, and then he made a bad throw behind Horton. He could've also audibled to a run but clearly he wanted the big play instead of the easy first down.

Credit: NFL on Youtube

Pick #2 (Sam): 3rd & 7. 1 TE, 3 WRs, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgun. 3 WR left, TE in-line on right,

On this play Broncos have 6 men at the line, 3 corners playing off-man, 2 safeties deep.

On snap Broncos only rush 3 and drop everyone else into zone. Kupp is wide open to the left initially. RB stays in to chip Abe's rusher before leaking out right and Sam has a very clean pocket. For some reason Sam throws immediately to the left despite Shaheed being double covered. Shaheed was still running his route when the ball was picked underneath him. I chalk this up to bad decision making by Sam. He clearly didn't see the defender but he should've. Also if he throws this ball deep down the sideline then Shaheed may have a touchdown because the deep safety was cheating to JSN's route.

Credit: NFL on Youtube

Seahawks Loss to 49ers 10/112026: A Breakdown of the Offense's Worst Plays

I wanted to breakdown the worst plays by the Seahawks offense because that was the biggest difference in this game.

My process: pause the film pre-snap, check the down, distance, situation, where you're at on the field, what the personnel and formation is for both teams, and then what happens post-snap.

TLDR is Fleury needs to be better, Darnold's decision making needs to be better, and our RB coach should be fired for not teaching guys how to secure the ball better.

2 fumbles on Holani, 1 fumble on Wilson, 2 sacks on Fleury, 1 sack on Cross, 2 sacks (almost a third) on Darnold, and 2 picks on Darnold.

Sack #1 (Fleury): 2nd & 3. 2 TEs, 2 WRs, 1 RB - Darnold under center, quick 3 step drop, 2 WR and 2 TEs are running 4 out routes at the same depth of 5 yards, 2 to each side, and Holani stays in backfield to pass pro but then runs forward. 2s after snap Abe gets horribly beat by his man and Darnold is sacked.

Credit: NFL on Youtube

On this play Niners had 4 down linemen, 1 out wide blitzing on Abe, corners are in press-man, and 3 LB's middle of the field at the first down marker. The Niners were in the right defense to shut down this play, whether it was a run or short pass. A counter run to the blitzing side would've gone for at least 2 yards as the blitzer went very wide.

Looking at it from Sam's POV you have 4 guys running the same route at the same depth, all out routes, so nobody in the middle of the field or deep. Nobody was open. Kupp and JSN were the best options as the far outside receivers and it would've been a contested throw to either side. I chalk this up to bad play design because even if Abe gets his block for 3s, by that time the receivers are done with their routes and it would've been an off script play from there.

Pick #1 (Darnold): 3rd & 10 shadow of your own end zone. 1 TE, 3 WR, 1 RB - Darnold in shotgun. On snap Holani rolls out right, nobody follows due to blitzing LB and the other LB stays middle of the field. Darnold has a clean pocket.

On this play Niners have 4 down linemen and a blitzer standing up in front of Zabel. 1 LB middle of the field, 2 shell safeties. Only 1 CB in press-man on Kupp in the slot. JSN motions to the far right of Kupp and a DB in off-man moves over with him. Shaheed's corner was playing 9 yards off of him and never moves up. Overall the Niners were looking to put Sam under pressure to make a quick throw and the Niners were conceding 4-6 yards but protecting anything deeper.

A quick toss out to Holani on the right or Shaheed on the left and you get 5 yards easily. A broken tackle would've gone a long ways. Instead Darnold forces a throw to JSN who's not open at all and it gets picked. I chalk this up to poor decision making by Darnold. Also worth noting Seahawks were misaligned on this play so any positive gain would've pushed them back.

Sack #2 (Darnold): 2nd & 10 deep in your own territory. 2 TE, 2 WR, 1 RB. TE's lined up wide in a stack with JSN and Kupp. On snap Wilson leaks out left and nobody follows as the LB and CB both playing zone on that side follow Kupp and Barner. Arroyo is wide open on a 5 yard out route on the right if Darnold throws in rhythm. JSN and Kupp run deep routes with 2 deep safeties playing over the top. The o-line holds their blocks for 3 seconds until Darnold literally walks right into the sack. This was the cleanest looking pocket he had all day.

On this play Niners have 4 down linemen, corners play off, 3 LB's middle of the field 5 yards back playing zone. The Niners were again conceding a 5 yard gain.

A quick toss out to Arroyo or Wilson gets you 5 yards here and eventually even Kupp and Barner beats their men. Unfortunately Sam is locked in on JSN's route and never looks away until he literally walks into being sacked. I chalk this up to poor decision making and bad pocket awareness by Darnold.

Fumble #1 (Wilson): 1st & 10 shadow of your own end zone again. 2 TE, 2 WR, 1 RB. Hawks overload right side of the line making it the obvious direction of a run. Wilson runs away from his blockers in traffic flailing the ball at his side with one arm making it ripe for punching out.

On this play the Niners had 4 down linemen, 1 standing blitzer on the side opposite of the run, 2 LB's middle of the field playing zone, 1 CB in press-man against JSN and the other CB playing off-man with Kupp. 2 deep safeties over the top.

This was actually the perfect play call against this defensive alignment but unfortunately our new RB coach is bad at teaching ball security. Also worth noting Wilson took a very bad angle on the handoff and missed his initially blocked gap which is why he ran into a sea of Niners instead of behind his blockers. I chalk this up to bad running back play and ball security.

Fumble #2 (Holani): 3rd & 7 near the redzone. 1 TE, 3 WR, 1 RB. Darnold in shotgun. Holani motions to the left behind JSN and Kupp.

On this play Niners have 3 down linemen and a LB out wide blitzing. 3 LB's are 5 yards back middle of the field playing zone. Corners are off-man and 2 deep safeties at the sticks. The Niners are clearly expecting pass and are trying to keep the receivers short of the first down. Warner was caught looking at the QB staring JSN middle of the field and he fell out of position as Holani was his man on this play.

Darnold sees the Niners have nobody covering Holani in the flat and checks it down. Holani breaks what could've been a TD run after the catch but forgets to secure the ball as he runs and drops the ball. I again chalk this up to bad running back play and ball security.

Sack #3 (Cross): 1st & 10 at the edge of redzone after the fumble. 2 TE, 2 WR, 1 RB. Darnold under center. 2 WR's off to the right. This reads like an RPO pre-snap.

On this play Niners have 4 down linemen and one standing LB blitzing on the offense's left against the TE. 3 LB's are again middle of the field 5 yards away in zone. Corners are off-man and 2 deep safeties at the sticks.

Post snap this looks like a play action pass but unfortunately Cross got completely schooled on this play. Darnold probably should've dumped this one off because the blitzer was not fooled at all by the play action and the whole secondary dropped leaving a ton of running room. I chalk this up to bad blocking and bad decision making.

Sack #4 (Darnold): 2nd & 19 backed up after previous sack but still in FG range. 1 TE, 3 WR, 1 RB. Darnold in shotgun. This is right after the previous sack.

On this play the Niners are in the exact same look as last time but no blitzer this time and only 4 DL rushing.

The play design looks to be a WR screen to the right to Shaheed who doesn't run a route and just turns around. Darnold looks right at him immediately and chooses not to make the throw. Blockers are ahead of the play and Shaheed is wide open. Shaheed then starts running back towards Darnold with his hands up in confusion, now the blockers are out of position and the OL wasn't expecting to hold this long. Holani comes wide open on the left in the flat but Darnold doesn't even look his way, he's locked in on JSN downfield who is triple covered and then he takes the sack. I chalk this up to bad decision making by Darnold.

Fumble #3 (Holani): 1st & 10 at your own 4 and 21 seconds to go. 2 TE, 1 WR, 1 FB, 1 RB. Darnold under center in off-set I-formation. Barner comes in motion to the strong side.

On this play Niners have 4 down linemen, 4 LB's 5 yards away in zone, 1 corner off-man, and a deep safety.

In hindsight a quick out to JSN (whose corner is 7 yards away) gets him 3+ yards and keeps the clock running. You don't want to risk the incompletion and have to punt so you hand off. Sundell gets completely beat by his man and even Abe is pushed back 3 yards into the play. If Holani cuts it outside, or spins back the other way, then there's zero Niners there to tackle him and it's an easy run for a few yards, instead he pauses while in the end zone and not securing the ball. The man who beat Sundell dives at the ball and knocks it out easily and what's hilarious is the ball pinballs back to Holani who doesn't see it and it bounces off him back into the endzone. I chalk this up to bad running back play and ball security.

Pick #2 (Darnold): 2nd & 8 near midfield after halftime. 2 TE, 2 WR, 1 RB. Darnold under center and Kupp motions into the backfield to the left of center.

Niners have 4 down linemen, 3 LB's 5 yards away in zone, 2 safeties playing up in the box, and 1 corner in man-press. The Niners look like they're playing the run here pre-snap.

On snap, 7 Niners drop into coverage and aren't fooled at all by the play action. The Seahawks fell for the trap. The O-line holds up and gives Darnold a huge pocket and plenty of time to make a decision. This unfortunately fools Sam into not taking his checkdown because Wilson is open underneath for a 5 yard gain. Also Kupp is open in stride on an out route on this play if Sam is looking at him immediately. Instead Sam throws to Arroyo who's double covered. I chalk this up to poor decision making by Sam.

Near Sack #5 (Darnold): 1st & 10 4th quarter down 3 near midfield. 2 TE, 2 WR, 1 RB. Darnold under center. Saubert motions into the backfield at FB.

Niners have 4 down linemen, 1 LB standing at the line on a blitz to the strong side. Corners are in man-press, 2 LB's are 5 yards back in zone leaning forward and 2 safeties are very deep middle of the field.

Pre-snap this looks to be a run. Every indication points that way. Post snap Sundell pulls and runs to the strong side to take on the blitzer leaving his DT completely unblocked and Kupp is blocking his corner. This is obviously a run right? Nope Darnold goes play action and the unblocked DT nearly sacks him. He has to shake off the sack to make a crazy throw on the run to the only WR who runs a route which is JSN. This could've easily been a sack and it would've been on Darnold for not handing it off on a play where his center is pulling. Despite the gain I chalk this up to poor decision making by Darnold.

Actual Sack #5 (Fleury): 3rd & 5 in the redzone. 1 TE, 3 WR, 1 RB. Darnold in shotgun. Holani is out wide and JSN is in the backfield next to Sam.

Niners have 4 down linemen. 1 corner is press-man against Holani and opposite side both corners are off-man against Shaheed and JSN. 2 LB's middle of the field, one is shaded over to Kupp. 2 safeties are very deep near the end zone.

Typically JSN in the backfield means the play is designed to go to him. Post snap in rhythm Sam has a very clean pocket and everyone is blocking fine. Receivers are all running deep routes. Only Holani stops and turns at the sticks and his route was not very good, the corner stays on him. Everyone else runs beyond the sticks. There's no outlet here, no short routes, nobody in the flat to dump to. JSN is doubled in the end zone and Darnold takes a coverage sack. I chalk this up to bad play design by Fleury.

Final Play Turnover on Downs (Fleury): 4th & 10 at midfield. 1 TE, 3 WR, 1 RB. Darnold in shotgun. JSN & Kupp stacked to the right.

Niners have 4 down linemen and 1 LB up the middle at the line showing blitz. 2 corners in press-man against JSN and Shaheed. 2 deep safeties. Other LB is shaded over doubling JSN so nobody is in the middle of the field.

Post snap blitz coming, Cross misses his man, Holani picks his up. JSN runs into double coverage, Barner runs into the flat, Shaheed runs into double coverage. Kupp comes free due to his corner running into someone. Had Darnold hit him sooner maybe he gets the first down. Chalk this up to bad play call against the situation needing 10 yards and only running 2 routes deep enough for a first down against cover 2.

Aion 2 - Review After Completing the Free to Play Campaign - Overall B

As an MMO fan who doesn't have the time to grind them anymore I was genuinely interested in Aion 2. Even though it looked like a fairly average KMMO during marketing, I still wasn't turned away since it was free to play.

Credit: aion2.ncsoft.jp

Here's my assessment of Aion 2 after a little time in the game. 

Look and Sound: B+

This is another UE5 game so overall it does look and sound pretty good. The sound choices are very interesting, almost reminds me of phantasy star in a way. The only way I'd rate this an A is if things were just more immersive. Overall it just looks, sounds, and feels like a generic RPG without too much interesting or amazing to it.

Player Design: A-

As a modern KMMO this game is exactly what you'd expect. The character creator is not quite at the BDO level but it's still very good and you can make some interesting and good looking characters. Actually it reminds me of Elyon quite a bit if you played that before it died. The wardrobe system is also pretty good but overall there's just not enough good cosmetics in the game to give this a higher rating.

Weapons/Attacks: B

There's not a lot of variety when it comes to weapons. Each class is set in what it gets and they aren't too interesting looking yet. However, there's plenty of attacks and spells that make the weapons a little more interesting. Each class definitely has its own identity when it comes to weapons and attacks and there's plenty of variety in the animations despite the weapon choice itself being locked to the class.

Gameplay: B 

The gameplay certainly feels like an MMO. It reminds me a lot of BDO and Elyon once again (2 prior KMMOs I've already referenced). You run around, grab quests, completely side quests along with story quests, do open world events, do dungeons, etc... This game isn't really innovative when it comes to gameplay but it certainly automates a lot of its gameplay because it was originally designed for mobile. The biggest downside is you can't play through the main story in a party, which is a horrible design decision, but the dungeons and open world events are really fun, and the glider flight system is amazing.

1) Health and Death related: This game gives you many ways to recover health, mana, stamina, and flight energy. Overall I really like that as I never feel too starved, even as a free to play player. Death doesn't feel too punishing either as it basically just lets you respawn from your last checkpoint BUT only if you have a resurrection stone. For the people who run out of those, you could wait upwards of 20 minutes to respawn which would be an instant uninstall for me if they didn't give me enough free resurrection stones and/or if I died often.

2) Movement: The movement in this game is one of its best features. You can sprint, climb, dodge, glide, fly, swim, and use a mount. Overall I love the movement system and the variety that comes with it. It reminds me of guild wars in this way and I love it.

3) Map Design: The map design doesn't feel as great as it should. For a UE5 game and a big new MMO I was expecting to be wowed and I feel very underwhelmed. Everything is so bland and generic looking. Every zone looks and feels the same and even though there's some variety, it's not enough. I don't find myself enjoying going around the map and often just let myself autopath and look away from my screen while I do it.

4) Objectives: The objectives are all typical and fine. You talk to people, you explore new areas, you kill some guys, interact with some crates, fetch some items, and run some dungeons. Overall it's your typical MMO questing experience.

User Interface & HUD: A

Ok this is where I was expecting to really hate the game. I have bad experiences with KMMOs having completely cluttered HUDs and UI. I have to hand it to the NC team because they did a fantastic job removing all the bs and showing you what you want to see, where you want to see it. This is one of the cleanest designs I've ever seen in an MMO, especially a Korean one.

Monetization: C

I'm greatly disappointed in the monetization of this game. Even though they scrapped a lot of the crappy stuff that Korea got, it's still heavily p2w and pay to play. Yeah you can play for free, and basically play a solo run through the story in about 30-50 hours, but beyond that it's basically pay to play. So much content and progression is locked behind a paywall and people can purchase gold for money to get an advantage. Overall it could've been worse (like retail wow) but I still don't necessarily like everything being locked behind a subscription. The C seems like a fair grade given you can play it for free, but it's super restrictive.

Overall Grade: B

I had no expectations of wanting to like this game but I found myself coming back everyday until I was done with the main story. Overall the game itself definitely looks and feels like just another Korean MMO on the surface, but they did make a lot of good design choices in this game that hopefully other games take note of. That being said, it's not something I plan on spending anymore time and money on, unless there's a substantial content update in the future.

Seattle Mariners 2026 - One of the Biggest Let Downs in Franchise History

 Last season the Mariners finally went all in on winning. They put together a playoff caliber roster and made a deep push into the playoffs. The 2025 Mariners were the best post-season team in franchise history and they were only a few innings away from a world series trip. Sadly the Blue Jays won the ALCS due to some bad managerial decisions and bad pitching/defense, which are issues that continued to plague this team heading into 2026. 

Unfortunately this off-season Dipoto did very little to fill the gaps the team needed to make another playoff push. He wanted to run it back with mostly the same roster and coaching staff, with a few tweaks. One would think heading into 2026 the expectation was world series or bust and winning the division would be a no brainer. Sadly the season unfolded differently. The season was plagued with injuries, poor pitching, horrible managerial decisions (in and out of games), and a GM who refused to make the necessary mid-season changes the team needed to compete. That left the Mariners 10 games below .500 and missing the playoffs, in what was one of the easiest divisions to win in MLB history. 

Credit: mlb.com

Normally I compared the current season to the last and what the Mariners did right and wrong compared to what I thought they should do. However, given the news of Dipoto firing the entire coaching staff, I thought I'd do a comparison of the last several years of the Mariners to see how they stack up over time and how they've trended and then we can dive into what they should do next. 

The goal here is to look at major facets of the team as a whole and assign a score between 1 and 10 (10 being best). We will look at the team over the last several years, look at how they did and what they should've done and assign a value to how they did or didn't achieve that improvement. The stats are real but the number evaluations are my personal opinion. 

As you can tell in the last 6 seasons the Mariners have been consistently up and down. It's almost like this org is on a pendulum. 

2021 was the rebuild year and the introduction of a lot of new players and coaches. The surprising part of that year was the defense and bullpen were decent, and the runs per game were also great given how poorly they got on base. 

In 2022 the team started showing improvements for hitting, defense, and starting pitching. The pen regressed a bit but overall the team did well and even made the playoffs for the first time in over 20 years. Unfortunately bone headed decision making from Servais cost them the series vs the Astros. The same type of bad decision making that would eventually cost him his job. However, at this point things were definitely looking up in terms of expectations going forward. 

In 2023 the team improved dramatically in all facets of the game but it was also the beginning of poor decision making from coaching and the front office. I'll never forget the mid-season trade when the team was humming on all cylinders. Jerry offloaded the best pitcher in the bullpen (Sewald), who happened to be a fan and clubhouse favorite. This completely killed the mojo of the team and cost them a trip to the playoffs. It did bring over Canzone, Bliss, and Rojas, all of whom have made contributions to the team since. Rojas being a starting 3B for a half season, Bliss being a call up utility guy when players get hurt, and Canzone having the best season of his career in 2026. They also got Bazardo during this season who became the bullpen workhorse since. 

In 2024 the team started to regress and eventually this led to the firing of Servais. Overall this was a good firing at the time. Servais had lost the support of the fans and clubhouse due to his bizarre in-game decision making, his whack a mole lineups, and inability to win the big games. The org decided to replace him with a legend in Dan Wilson, a guy with zero coaching or managerial experience at any level. The fans were ok with this as it felt like a temporary move; someone who could just finish the season. The team actually rallied around this management change and won 60% of their remaining games, which was one of their better finishes in years. 

In 2025 Dan Wilson was oddly named the starting manager. There was no selection process, no additional interviews, or anything. He was simply named the manager on a secret contract that even the media never got ahold of. On top of this, Dipoto decided to do his new manager a favor and make some tremendous moves in free agency and in the trade market to really fill out the 2025 Mariners roster before and during the season. These were the moves fans had been begging him to make for years. The team was stacked in all facets of the game and won the division for the first time in 24 years and made a championship caliber playoff run. Unfortunately they fell short but expectations were sky high in 2026. 

In 2026 the unexpected happened. The team had playoffs hangover, yet again another years where management and the org were on a pendulum but it felt different this season. The players all looked depressed, the coaches seemed to not really care, and the front office did nothing to improve the roster. It was almost as if they wanted to see if Dan could run it back another year with mostly the same team and coaches. Overall we saw a very unmotivated team and coaching staff, which ultimately led to the team regressing in all categories. The defense was one of the worst in franchise history, the bullpen fell off (mostly due to bad pen management and a weird trial of a 6 man rotation), and the offense was one of the worst all time. This consequently has led to the firing of just about every coach in the org and 2027 will be a fresh start. 

WHAT'S NEXT???

Well now the coaching search begins. The Mariners need to find a manager with actual experience and success at managing a team. It doesn't necessarily have to be another MLB manager (although it could be), but they do need someone with experience and success. Personally I hope Negron gets a call to be manager or assistant (to the) manager. He won a championship as the manager of the Rainiers and without him on the staff this year, the energy on the team seemed to die. Whoever comes in will have to replace an entire coaching staff. They really need to get back to some fundamentals. Motivating the players, focusing on defense and hustle, playing good complimentary baseball, manufacturing runs, and not mismanaging the pitchers. 
Here are some names already rumored to be interested: 

Torey Lovullo - current dbacks manager with some success but overall a middle of the road career record. 

Stephen Vogt - former A's catcher, M's bullpen coach, and Guardians manager who was manager of the year and most likely won't leave unless it's for a sum of money the M's wouldn't want to pay.  

Kris Negron - former Rainiers manager who won a AAA championship, M's assistant coach, and current Pirates bench coach. He is my personal front runner. 

Rocco Baldelli - former Twins manager with a middle of the road career record but many years of experience playing and managing. 

Kai Correa - a Tacoma hometown hero and current Mets bench coach who has had a meteoric rise in the MLB ranks from a D3 head coach to interim manager at one point.

Chris Woodward - former M's infield coach and Rangers manager who is currently a Dodgers assistant and also had a long MLB career. Had a mediocre career as a manager though. 

Brandon Hyde - former Marlins hitting coach and Orioles manager who rebuilt the Orioles and won coach of the year winning 101 games. He was fired prematurely by the Orioles and is currently in a front office role on the Rays. 

Andy McKay - former M's assistant GM and current Guardians front office advisor. This is a bit of a stretch but he could come back to Seattle in some type of capacity due to his wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to player development and setting up a franchise for a pipeline of success. 

Alex Cora - former player, Astros bench coach, and Red Sox manager. He set the franchise record for wins for Boston and won a world series. He was fired due to differences of opinion on using analytics to make decisions. This makes me love Alex as a personal selection but I fear he would hate Jerry's folks being over involved in gameday decisions like what happened in Boston.

Roster Gaps

The Mariners already have roster gaps on their 2026 roster and it'll get even deeper this off-season with many notable players who will become free agents and most likely won't be coming back. 

1) LF - Randy Arozarena (UFA - let go): projected 3-5 year at $20-25M per year contract. The M's will definitely allow him to walk given his selfishness and lack of caring. He did put up a monster season at the plate though and will definitely find a job elsewhere. 

2) SS - JP Crawford (UFA - let go): unfortunately it appears JP's career is coming to an end. Maybe the M's can bring him back on a minor league deal or bring him into the minor league org as a coach of some type. JP is a fan and clubhouse favorite but his best years are behind him. He was the worst defensive SS in the league, struggled to stay healthy, and was hitting poorly at the plate. 

3) LF - Taylor Ward (UFA - let go): Ward was a mid-season rental when the team needed a good RH bat. Unfortunately he struggled in Seattle and never really fit in. He will find a job elsewhere as he still has value as a middle of the order bat. 

4) OF - Victor Robles (Club Option - let go): Robles is a fan favorite but at this point in his career he's simply a backup and doesn't play well enough to be an every day guy. You can find his type of production anywhere. I highly doubt the club will exercise their $9M option on him as a backup. 

5) SP - Bryce Miller (Conditional Option - keep): Miller had a very rough year. He had some amazing stretches but due to injury and sharing the 5th/6th slot in the rotation really got to him this season. The club has a very affordable $6.1M conditional option they can exercise to keep him. He still has a ton of upside and should remain for now. The 4th and 5th spots in the rotation are still up for grabs between Miller, Hancock, and Anderson.

6) RP - Andres Munoz (Club Option - keep): Munoz has a $9M club option which is very affordable for a closer. Personally I would've liked to have traded for an elite closer and move Munoz to a setup role, which he seems better suited for. Unfortunately he had an up and down season but this option is a no brainer for someone with his upside. 

7) RP - Hoby Milner (UFA - let go): Milner wasn't much of an impact in the bullpen. It's easy to let him walk this off-season. 

Given this pretty deep list of players, plus existing holes, the Mariners have their work cut out of them this off-season, but luckily there are plenty of options to consider given free agency, potential trades, and young talent they have available. Let's hope Dipoto makes some good moves! 

The Mariners will be in another position of having 6 potential starters and a 7th in waiting in the minors. The team really should use this as trade bait instead of having too many starters again. The 6 starter rotation this season did not work well because the pitchers weren't bought into it. 

The Mariners bullpen regressed a lot this season. Munoz was up and down, multiple others were injured, and Bazardo was overused again. The Mariner should think about some trade targets to improve the pen instead of running back the existing guys.

The defense and lineup really needs some work. We can't run back with Wilson, Willson, Rodden, Rivas, and Donovan. These guys are often hurt and aren't that good anymore. The team should really target a 3B and LF this off-season. They have plenty of trade bait if they aren't interested in the UFA list.

For fun here's the currently projected 2027 depth chart based on the current roster: 

SP Rotation: Gilbert, Woo, Kirby, Pick 2 of Hancock/Miller/Anderson. 

Bullpen: Munoz, Brash, Speier, Bazardo, Vargas, Dominguez, Ferrer, Criswell, Wilcox

C: Raleigh/Pereda

1B: Naylor

2B: Young

3B: Donovan (FA or trade target because Donovan can't be counted on)

3B options: Bichette (UFA) or Bohm (trade) or Sato (international)

SS: Emerson

LF: Arroyo (FA or trade target this position because Arroyo is currently better as a utility bench option)

LF options: Varsho (UFA), Suzuki (UFA), Happ (UFA), Mullins (UFA), Dubon (trade)

CF: Rodriguez

RF: Canzone/Raley

DH: Montes

Wardogs Closed Beta Impressions & Review - Overall C+

Now that the NDA is lifted I can put out my thoughts about this game. As a lover of FPS games and competitive shooters I thought that maybe this would be the next big thing. Afterall everyone is hyping it up to be the next big FPS game that people should jump to. 2 of my favorite military-esque shooters of all time are BF3 and CS. Unfortunately I do not think this game lives up to the hype and I'll try to explain why.

Credit: Bulkhead & Team17

Here's my assessment of Wardogs after a little time in the closed beta. This may feel like a UE5 hate fest and I didn't intend for it to be that way, but if you've played any UE5 shooters then this just fits right into that bucket unfortunately.

Look and Sound: B+

As a UE5 game of course this game looks and sounds pretty good. However, it also just feels generic and not very unique or any kind of wow factor. I'm not saying it's bad, it's actually decent, but for a new game that's being so hyped I was expecting more out of the graphics and sound design of the game. It just looks and sounds like another UE5 FPS game and for that reason I give it a B+. It's good but not great or amazing.

Player Design: B+

Again this is a UE5 FPS game and because of that the characters in the game all look and sound fairly generic compared to other shooters on the market. However, they aren't overly flawed or anything so a B+ is a fair rating. Players look and sound good but not great.

Weapons: C+

The look, feel, weight, and variety of weapons are all middle of the road for a game like this. I had much higher expectations. Overall the weapons and the weapon systems, gear, tactical loadouts, etc... are just super generic to me. Even so, the variety feels lacking compared to games we've had for decades and the overall design of everything just looks and feels bland. The positioning, moving, and magnetism of crosshairs (even on MnK) is also extremely annoying making the weapons feel worse. The ammo and inventory management is also the worst I've seen in any FPS game I've played. I find myself spending too much time in my inventory and in vendor inventories trying to manage my guns, ammo, and equipment instead of just playing the game. This feels like they took the worst of extraction and battle royale games and combined it into the worst possible outcome. Overall the look, feel, design of weapons and the management of your ammo and inventory needs a major overhaul to convince me that this game is worth my time. Otherwise it just feels like another UE5 shooter.

Gameplay: B- 

Gameplay has its ups and downs. I'm trying not to pull too many other categories into this one but there is certainly an impact on gameplay when other facets of the game aren't designed properly. 

The biggest problem with gameplay is the look, feel, and movement of this game just doesn't feel good. I don't really feel like I'm in a FPS battlefield type game. I wanted that Warzone or BF1 type feeling too it.

1) Health and Death related: Time to kill is too fast, time to respawn is too slow, and health management is annoying to deal with. Along with all the other annoyances of managing my inventory, having to deal with revives and med packs is super annoying. I like how battlefield and cod solved this decades ago but people just have to be different. Also the revive mechanic without a resuscitating device is downright hilarious. You stand there for an entire 60 seconds just rubbing your hands together and then your teammate is magically revived.

2) Movement: Movement just doesn't feel great to me. Sprinting feels ok but most the movement in the game just feels slow and clunky. Want to strafe to the side? Sure your character suddenly has concrete blocks for feet and moves super slow. Want to crouch? Sure your guy takes his time like he's in a squat rack. Want to go prone? Sure your guy has to come to a complete stop, losing all momentum, crouch slowly first, then get onto the ground. Overall the movement system is just slow and clunky for a competitive FPS game. We need more speed and momentum to the movement. Also white boy can't jump is a reality. You get about 2" of hop.

3) Map Design: The map design feels ok. There's a large variety of buildings vs terrain but it also just feels like generic UE5 assets copied and pasted over and over. There's not a lot of detail here and everything just looks bland. The ability to shoot through and ricochet off things is great, but where is the detail? Where is the destruction? Where is the gore? The maps are just generic trees, grass, buildings, concrete copied and pasted over and over with no true feel to them.

4) Aim assist: I mentioned this earlier but want to mention it again. There's some weird shenanigans going on with aim assist, reticle stickiness, and overall gunplay. It just feels bad for some reason. I've had this issue in every UE5 FPS game though so it's not surprising.

5) Vehicles: the current vehicles system feels bad to me. I was excited for a battlefield type game but this system just doesn't feel right to me. You have to buy vehicles which you can only do with money which you only get if your team is winning which essentially just snowballs the winning team's chances of winning further. You also lose the vehicles, which is just odd. Basically this feels more like Battlefront or CoD kill streak awards instead of like Battlefield where you have a set of naturally spawning vehicles that anyone can go grab. The vehicles themselves also aren't that great but even BF6 couldn't get vehicles right so maybe it's a modern game design issue.

Objectives: The objectives don't necessarily feel immersive to me but I do like the system of a moving secondary hot zone that funnels players into a specific area of the map. Rewarding people for playing the objective is a gameplay decision I can support. I just would like to see more styles of objectives in a game like this, including some of the classic ones.

HUD: Not too many complaints for the HUD. It has a decent enough info and doesn't look or feel cluttery. There's also many other visual customization options in settings to help. I just think some things need to be moved around like money next to team score so you can watch both at the same time instead of in opposite corners which makes it impossible to see both at once.

User Interface: B-

The menu UI is ok and has all the settings and info you want but the player inventory and vendor UI are a mess. It's very difficult to understand where everything is and isn't intuitive at all. It's pretty clear the people working on this just slapped some inventory screens together like it was windows forms and called it good enough. I also hate playing tetris with my inventory for gear and ammo.

Monetization: TBD

Right now the game is buy to play with no cash shop or monetization beyond this. However, they are working on figuring out their live service monetization strategy. It feels unfair to rate this aspect right now but they did say they never want the game to be p2w so at least that's a win.

Overall Grade: C+

I was cautiously optimistic about this game. The hype felt too out of no where for a random game and studio nobody has heard about before. The gameplay footage at gaming conventions just made people think we're finally getting the Battlefield game we all wanted but after putting time into the closed beta this just feels like a UE5 diet version of Tarkov instead of Battlefield. Overall if you're a fan of a more mil-sim tactical cash based inventory management completive FPS game and you can get over the generic UE5 stuff, then you may like this game. If you're looking for the CoD or Battlefield experience you can easily skip this one.

Diablo 2 Resurrected - Ladder Season 15 Patch Notes & Holy Fire Grenadier Paladin Build Guide

It's been a while since I've posted and I wanted to talk about the next ladder of D2R as well as the build I plan to play, which is the holy fire bow/crossbow build aka the grenadier. 

Credit: Blizzard Entertainment

Ladder Season 14 ends - Monday, 8/17, 11 a.m. PDT

Season 15 Patch begins rolling out - Tuesday, 8/18

Ladder Season 15 starts - Friday, 8/21, 5 p.m. PDT

Previous ladder only items will be available in Non-Ladder with the new season: (this is a cool if it allows you to also create these in non-ladder).

• Mania
• Hysteria
• Metamorphosis
• Ground
• Temper
• Hearth
• Cure
• Bulwark

Items that have been changed will ONLY be available in Ladder. (these are pointless changes that won't really move the needle on any of these items). 

Bloodletter

Added 20% Faster Run/Walk.

The Battlebranch

Reduced base Item level from 34 to 30.

Reduced Required Level from 25 to 17.

Rogue's Bow

Added +[1-3] to either Cold Arrow or Fire Arrow (Amazon Only).

Pluckeye

Added +25% Increased Attack Speed.

Bane Ash

Removed +20% Increased Attack Speed.

Removed +[50-60]% Enhanced Damage.

Added +20% Faster Cast Rate.

Gravenspine

Added +10% Faster Cast Rate.

Blinkbat's Form

Increased +10% Faster Run/Walk to +30%.

Added +1 To Mana After Each Kill.

The Ward

Added Socketed (1).

Manald Heal

Added +10% Faster Run/Walk.

Angelic Raiment

Angelic Sickle

Added Damage +6 (3 set items).

Angelic Mantle

Added +100% Damage to Undead (3 set items).

Full set bonus

Added +1 to All Skills. 

Sunder Charms: no longer can drop in nightmare (rip NM TZ farming) and reduced drop rate of sunders through the use of magic find (RIP finding a sunder the first weekend of ladder). 

Worldstone Shards & Statues: reduced drop rates but an additional magic item may drop with shards now. 

Now the fun part! Grenadier Paladin.  

Maximize points in the following order: 

• Holy Fire
• Resist Fire
• Salvation
• Holy Freeze (you may want to prioritize this to deal with fire immunes)
• Resist Lightning
• Resist Cold 

Put 1 point into each of the following (optional): 

• Smite (won't use)
• Charge (for movement)

Attributes: 

Strength - enough points to equip gear (~145 str incl str from gear)

Dex - enough to get hit chance to 50+% (~150-180 dex incl dex from gear)

Vitality - all remaining points

Energy - 0 points ideally unless early on if struggling with mana sustain. 

Leveling/Budget Gear: 

• Helm: Rockstopper or Peasant's Crown or Lore (ort sol) or +2 skills circlet or Hellwarden's or Horazon's
• Gloves: Bloodfist or Lava Gout or LoH or Magefist or crafted blood gloves
• Boots: Any unique, set, or well rolled rare. (look for Goblin Toe or Hotspurs or Tearhaunch or Horazon's)
• Bow/Crossbow: Ravenclaw or Kuko Shakaku or Hellcast 
• Backbar (paired with holy freeze): witherstring, wizendraw, witchwild, buriza
• Chest: Stealth (tal eith) or Que-Hegan's or Silks of the Victor or Spirit Shroud or Vipermagi or Templar's Might (end game budget) or Principle
• Belt: Any unique, set, or well rolled rare or crafted blood belt 
• Amulet: Any +skills
• Rings: Any well rolled rare with life and resists
• Horazon's boots/gloves/helmet could be a good budget option for AR + fire damage.

End Game Gear: 

• Helm: 2/20 diadem socketed with fire facets OR flickering flame (nef pul vex)
• Gloves: LoH or Lava Gout
• Boots: War Travs or Aldur's (to offset fire sunder) or Gore Rider
• Crossbow: Demon Machine (upgrade lum+pul+Pemerald, socket with 15ias/40ed or fire facet)
• Backbar: CtA + Spirit
• Chest: Treachery (shael thul lem) until Enigma (jah ith ber)
• Belt: Razortail (for pierce)
• Amulet: +2 skills rare or Highlord's
• Rings: Opalvein (for fire) or Bul-kathos (for skills and life) & Raven Frost (for freeze immunity) 

Mercenary: 

A2 Blessed Aim merc will help out with hit chance by a lot. You could also try A3 enchant merc to help with fire damage, especially if you swap out Lava Gout for LoH in the later game.

Best All-Around Builds In Guild Wars 2 (GW2) In Early 2026

I have over 5k hours in GW2 and have played since a year before it came out (yeah I was a secret QA tester, shhhh don't tell anyone). 

Credit: guildwars2.com

The one thing I love about this game is the ability to solo any content because the game allows you to build your character in any way you wish (dps, support, or hybrid). This is something I rarely get in other MMOs because they really love their trinity system. Lately GW2 has fallen into a similar community pushed trap where certain roles are required for end game content. However, I do not subscribe to that thinking!

The one question I get the most from friends and I see often online is "what build should I play" and generally I also see "what's the best build/spec that can do any content solo" which is a loaded question. 

These days I'm the type of player who likes to casually jump into GW2 every now and then. Gone are the days of chasing the S-tier meta because it usually changes in-between logins for me. Now I embrace the all-arounder casual approach to builds because it allows me to jump into whatever I want to complete dailies, weeklies, and any seasonal activities that are happening. 

These are the builds that I take into just about any content and can verifiably say they're safe to play for anyone whether solo or in a group. 

• Elementalist 
• Dagger/Warhorn Celestial Tempest: Support High, DPS Low, Survivability High
• Fire: 1/2/2, Earth: 3/1/1, Tempest: 3/2/2. 
• You can also use Water over Earth if you prefer healing over defense.
• This is my go-to support/open world elementalist. There's tons of utility, boon support, and healing in this build, but you can also change things slightly to specialize in doing more dps or more heals, which makes it a decent all-arounder. It's also a very easy play style. Spam skills, use attunement overload skill, move to next attunement.
• Spear or Dagger/Dagger or Scepter/Focus Celestial Toad Evoker: Support Medium, DPS Medium, Survivability High
• Fire: 1/1/1, Earth: 1/2/3, Evoker: 2/1/1
• Scepter/Focus Power Fire Evoker is very good DPS, but survivability and mobility suck. I only recommend it for instanced boss fights.
• Support tempest is still better than support evoker so don't waste time on it.
• This is my new favorite elementalist build. I prefer Spear for open world and easy instanced content. I swap to dagger/dagger for pvp and wvw.

• Warrior
• Hammer & Longbow (Hambow) Power Berserker: DPS Medium, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Defense: 3/3/2, Discipline: 2/3/3, Berserker: 3/2/3.
• This is a fun action playstyle. Keeping your zerk going basically requires you to constantly spam skills in combat, and using your Burst every time it's full. You will be jumping around spamming aoe skills. Bow burst puts down a fire build, hammer burst does an aoe slam in that field giving you might. You just basically repeat this as using burst skills protect you and does AoE damage.
• Dagger/Mace or Shield & Hammer Power Spellbreaker: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability High
• Strength: 2/1/1, Defense: 1/3/2, Spellbreak: 1/3/3
• This build has good burst dps and insane survivability. It's great for pvp and dueling and decent in open world. I won a 2v2 tourney with this build. Instanced content isn't as great for this build.
• Spear & Dagger or Axe/Mace Power Paragon: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Strength: 3/3/1, Arms: 2/2/1, Paragon: 1/2/1
• This is my new favorite warrior build. It's super easy, high dps, and plenty of utility. This is basically a signet and spear spam build. 

• Guardian
• Mace/Shield & Pistol or Sword/Torch Celestial Firebrand: DPS Low, Support High, Survivability High
• Radiance: 1/2/1, Zeal: 2/3/3, Firebrand: 1/2/2
• This is a great all around build and has a ton of utility so you can go into more of a support/heal role or a dps role. There's also many weapon combos that work with it. The downside is you have to have deep knowledge of all of this to customize it and it's a very high apm build. You're constantly managing your Tome skills and Mantras but you get nearly infinite stability, quickness, and burn up time.
• Sword/Sword or Torch or Pistol & Pistol/Pistol or Torch Power/Condi/Celestial Willbender: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Radiance: 2/3/3, Virtues: 1/2/3, Willbender: 3/3/2.
• This is a high mobility, high damage, high action build. It has lots of mobility and is good in open world, wvw, and pvp. It's not as great for instanced content.
• Greatsword & Longbow or Spear Power or Celestial Dragonhunter: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability: Medium
• Zeal: 2/2/3, Virtues: 1/1/3, Dragonhunter: 3/2/2.
• This is a super easy high DPS build that's good for all content. The DH skills are good at single target and traps are great for AoE and boss DPS. One of the easiest and strongest all-around builds in the game.

• Engineer
• Pistol & Shield or Pistol Condi Mechanist OR Rifle Power Mechanist: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Condi - Explosives: 3/1/2, Firearms: 1/2/3, Mechanist: 1/1/3
• Power - Exposives: 3/1/3, Firearms: 3/3/1, Mechanist: 3/3/1
• Mechanist is the easiest GW2 build to play. No weapon swap, low apm, and a tanky companion who holds aggro. There's even a support version of mechanist (2/2/2). Overall condi is best for survivability and longer fights. Power is better for burst DPS. All are incredibly viable in any content.
• Shortbow or Hammer Celestial or Harrier/Wanderer Scrapper: DPS Medium, Support High, Survivability High
• Inventions: 2/2/3, Alchemy: 3/1/2, Scrapper: 3/2/2
• This is a very easy build. Toss out gyros, spam weapon and toolbelt skills. You can use mortar or supply crate elite for more dps or support. The boon up time is basically unlimited but the DPS is slower.

• Mesmer
• Staff or Spear & Scepter/Focus Celestial Chronomancer: DPS Medium, Support High, Survivability High
• Inspiration: 1/2/2, Chaos: 2/3/3, Chronomancer: 3/3/1
• This is my favorite mesmer build and I call it the condi chronobunker. You throw down wells, spam weapon skills, keep your clones up and use your shatter skills. If your continuum split right, it will allow you to double your skill usage. This is a strong support build, a strong pvp point holder, and works fine in the open world. There's a power variant with sword and greatsword that has insane burst dps but it's squishy and has long cooldowns so I don't recommend it.
• Dagger & Pistol or Sword Condition Virtuoso: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Dueling: 1/2/1, Illusions: 1/3/2, Virtuoso: 3/1/1.
• This is a different playstyle for mesmer. You produce blades above your head and use your shatter skills to shoot them at enemies. This can provide insane burst DPS but the playstyle takes some getting used to.

• Ranger
• Longbow & Axe or Mace/Warhorn Power Soulbeast: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Beastmastery: 3/3/3, Skirmishing: 2/2/1, Soulbeast: 2/2/1.
• This is a fun DPS build and my go-to for wvw roaming. I call it the walking arrow cart because your longbow can be used for long range engagements in pvp/wvw but you can swap to your backbar and smokie companion to absolutely reck someone in melee range with a very high burst DPS. This is a great dueling spec in pvp/wvw but also has viability in pve. You can get dps over 20k in instanced fights.
• Axe/Axe or Axe/Warhorn or Greatsword or Hammer & Mace/Mace Power Untamed: DPS Medium, Support Low, Survivability High
• Skirmishing: 2/2/3, Wilderness: 3/2/1, Untamed: 3/2/1.
• This is a decent option for any content. It has a mix of survival utility and dps. Players can use just about any utility skill and primary weapon they want with it. However, it's a jack of all trades master of none type situation. It doesn't excel at anything that I could find.

• Necromancer
• Pistol or Dagger or Scepter/Warhorn or Dagger or Torch & Staff Celestial or Plague Doctor Scourge: DPS Medium, Support Medium, Survivability Medium
• Blood: 1/2/3, Soul: 2/2/1, Scourge: 1/3/3.
• This is a master of all for necro. It provides a little of everything and can do any content at a medium level (B tier). However, it's just not quite good enough at everything right now to be used much for me.
• Pistol or Scepter/Warhorn & Staff Celestial Harbinger: DPS Medium, Support Medium, Survivability Medium
• Soul: 1/2/3, Curses: 2/2/1, Harb: 2/2/2.
• This is another jack of all trades necromancer build. Scourge specializes in barrier defense while harbinger specializes in boons. 
• Greatsword Condi or Power Reaper: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• I'm not giving a specific build here because I don't recommend this build for anyone who isn't an expert. I will say the damage on reaper is S-tier but the survivability sucks if you don't know what you're doing.

• Thief
• Scepter/Dagger Celestial or Plague Doctor Specter: DPS Medium, Support High, Survivability Medium
• Deadly Arts: 3/2/1, Trickery: 3/2/3, Specter: 3/1/1.
• This is a fun build that can do just about anything in the game. You only need 2 weapons too because you equip one in main hand front bar and one in offhand backbar. Reason being is you use initiative instead of cooldowns to use skills but can still take advantage of weapon swap sigils. This is a great support/dps build.
• Spear or Shortbow & Pistol/Dagger Condi Deadeye: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Low.
• Deadly Arts: 3/2/1, Trickery: 3/1/3, Deadeye: 3/3/3.
• This is a more DPS focused version of a condition thief compared to specter which is a better all-arounder. Deadeye is better for condi damage and boon uptime but worse at surviving or supporting others. Surviving is your traditional thief stealth gameplay which I don't care for.
• Revenant
• Don't bother. Every revenant spec requires a very complex rotation of managing a resource that literally every weapon, attunement, and utility skill uses. If you mess up your rotation or timing once, you're basically bricked for a bit.

    

Diablo 2 Resurrected - Ladder Season 14 on 5/22/26 & Miasma/Abyss Warlock Build

 Diablo 2 Resurrected has its 2nd ladder reset coming since RotW has come out. This should be an interesting ladder given Warlock is getting some nerfs and the new end game is also getting changes. Overall I feel the Warlock changes are mostly good and align with my feedback in an earlier post I made on the PTR. I still think Warlock is going to be very powerful and could use future tuning but this is a good start. I also feel like the changes to the Sunder drops and the new Herald system should hopefully be great. We will see when the ladder starts. 

Credit: blizzard.com

Now my plans for the ladder. Given I don't know if future changes are coming to existing D2 classes, nor how the Sunder drop rates will work, I'm putting off my plans to play anything but Warlock. I haven't truly played the magic damage build for Warlock so this feels like a great opportunity to play it and I'm happy to play a magic build that isn't hammerdin. Here's how I plan to build it with some options for ways to tweak it to how you want it. 

Skill Points: Max out these skills in this order

20 Miasma Chain: Primary DPS (up to 10 chains with DoT damage).

20 Abyss: Main boss damage/AoE clear.

20 Miasma Bolt: Mostly for synergies.

20 Enhanced Entropy: Maximizes overall damage.

Remaining Skill Points: 

• 1 Sigil: Death
• 1 Blade Warp
• 1 Psychic Ward
• 1-10 Demonic Mastery (if you want 1 or 2 demons)
• 1 Blood Oath
• 1-5 Defiler or Tainted
• 1-5 Bind Demon (optional)

The last 20 points are flexible for how you want to build your minions but for me I want Blade Warp for quick repositioning, Sigil of Death to finish off enemies, Psychic Ward for extra damage reduction, and Defilers or Tainted to help with clear. Bind Demon is optional, depending how nerfed they feel this ladder, but they seem less useful as a 1 point wonder now so I'd prefer more points invested in a different summon. 

Stats: enough points in Strength and Dexterity (more dex for 75% block chance is optional) to equip gear and everything else into Vitality.

Leveling Gear: 

• Helm: Lore or Cure or Coven or Peasant's Crown or Rockstopper or Horazon's
• Gloves: Trang's or Magefist
• Chest: Stealth or Authority or Viper Magi or Que-Hegan's or Skullder's or Spirit Shroud
• Boots: Caster crafted boots/demonhide or any good Rare or any Unique/Set
• Weapon: Spirit in crystal or broad sword
• Offhand: Spirit in Monarch, any +skills grimoire with Rhyme, Splendor, or Vigilance in it
• Belt: Any Magic/Rare/Unique until Crafted Caster 
• Rings: Any Rare or Crafted Caster or Unique (life, resists, fcr, mana)
• Amulet: Any crafted Caster or Magic/Rare +Warlock skills or +Chaos skills
• Charms: small charms with life/resists can help while leveling

End Game Gear: aim for 125% FCR

• Helm: Harlequin Crest Shako or Hellwarden's Will or 2/20 diadem
• Gloves: Trang's or Magefist
• Chest: Enigma or Chains of Honor or Fortitude
• Boots: War Traveler's or Wraithstep (+1 chaos)
• Weapon: Heart of the Oak or Void in dagger with +2-3 to Abyss/Miasma
• Offhand: Spirit in Monarch
• Belt: Gheed's Wager or Arachnid's
• Rings: SoJ, Opalvein, Sling, or well rolled 5+ point FCR ring
• Amulet: Mara's or very good crafted Caster
• Charms: Renewed Black Cleft, Annihilus, Torch, Gheed's, Chaos Skillers, life/resist small charms. 

Gameplay loop: Keep your Psychic Ward active, Summon your 1-2 defilers, Toss out an Abyss, Hook your chains to enemies, Blade warp around to avoid damage until you get Enigma to TP, Engorge corpses to heal your demons. 

Overall the DPS here should be solid and tops out pretty close to where hammerdin is. Leveling looks like a smooth experience as well.