Because his wife wrote nasty tweets, the Hearthstone professional Savjz was excluded from events.
When it comes to Hearthstone, Blizzard has often made a rather poor showing in communication in recent months. Many still think back to the Blitzchung scandal. Now, due to another issue, the professional player Savjz (Janne Mikkonen) has also been affected. He was excluded from future tournaments and events – because his wife wrote nasty things on Twitter.
What happened? When Blizzard cut 800 jobs last year, Savjz’s wife, Christina Mikkonen (known as “ZerinaX” on Twitter), was among those laid off.
In July, Chris Attalus, one of Hearthstone’s community managers, wrote that one should try to apply for a job at Blizzard.
ZerinaX responded to this offer with quite harsh words: “Do you really mean that, Chris?” and later explained that the pay in that job was “shit.” The entire “Commercial department is currently a disaster.”
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Chris Attalus and Savjz apparently had a conversation afterwards. The professional player was told that he was “a burden” for such events due to his wife. At least, this is how Savjz explained it in a tweet.
Blizzard apologizes – NDA was supposed to be the real reason
This is how Blizzard has responded: In a more recent tweet, Savjz explained that Blizzard has lifted this ban. He received an apology from the community lead – he could also continue to participate in future events or attend them as a guest.
He thanks everyone who stood by him.
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Savjz further states that the reason for his exclusion was not his wife’s tweets, but that he was not willing to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Savjz explicitly states here that this had never been a topic before, and a NDA had never been mentioned.
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In another tweet, he explained that “Christina’s ban was never a matter for the company, and the employee who said that had neither the authority nor the power to enforce [the ban].”
Finally, Savjz states that he still has the impression that he and his wife were treated unfairly. Ultimately, however, he wants to “leave it behind.”
Which side is telling the whole truth here, and whether a NDA was really the reason for the (very short) ban, is probably not so easy to determine.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
If you play the online shooter Stalker Online, known locally as Stay Out, you might be affected by a hacking attack. Over a million account data has been stolen and offered for sale.
What has happened? Due to a hacking attack on the online shooter Stalker Online (Stay Out), more than 1.2 million account data has been stolen. The hacker also possesses 136,000 user data from the forum.
The data includes usernames, passwords, email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, and residential addresses of the affected players.
Subsequently, the hacker published a threat in the official forum of the online shooter with survival elements. If the developers do not contact within 24 hours, the data would be made publicly available.
Then the hacker offered the data for several hundred Euros in Bitcoin for sale via the dark web.
Over a million customer data from the online shooter Stalker Online/Stay Out has been stolen.
The data is real
Were the data sold? Cybernews monitors the dark web and regularly checks corresponding markets. This way, they aim to quickly report sales of user data from hacking attacks to initiate appropriate countermeasures promptly.
Cybernews purchased the offered datasets to verify them. After tests, it was confirmed that they indeed contained user data from the online shooter Stalker Online.
Following that, Cybernews contacted the developers and demanded the platform that offered the stolen datasets take them offline. The sale was thus halted. At least on this market. It is unclear whether the hacker might still offer the data somewhere else.
It is also not known whether anyone else besides Cybernews has purchased the data.
What can buyers do with the data? According to Cybernews, buyers can do a few things:
Fill out credentials to hack players’ accounts on other gaming platforms like Steam
Demand ransom for players’ game accounts
Utilize the data from the database to conduct targeted phishing attacks
Spam the emails and phones of the victims – brutally extorting the passwords of the email addresses
What should players do now? Cybernews advises everyone who plays Stalker Online to change their password immediately. And if this password is still used for other games or websites, it must be changed there as well.
Destiny 2 introduced 5 new weapon perks with Season of Arrival. MeinMMO looks at what the perks have to offer and on which weapons you can find them.
These are the new perks: With the start of Season 11, Destiny 2 received five new weapon traits. The abilities do not rely solely on sheer damage but bring interesting new possibilities.
In this article, we take a look at the functions of the new perks, which weapons you can find the traits on, and provide a brief conclusion.
These new perks have enriched the sandbox since Season 11:
Unrelenting
Killing Wind
Sympathetic Arsenal
Iron Gaze
Iron Grip
Currently, the fresh traits are only rolling on a handful of legendary guns, but in the future, we will see the perks on significantly more weapons. This was also the case with the perks that Season 9 introduced.
Unrelenting
This is what the perk can do: The official description of Unrelenting states:
Defeating targets rapidly triggers health regeneration. Guardians and powerful combatants count as more than one kill.
However, the perk understates its effect; it not only starts the recovery, but you also receive a significant amount of health as soon as the perk activates – similar to how Hunters experienced it with the exotic Wormhusk Crown before its nerf.
For the perk to activate and heal you, you need to fill an invisible meter. You need a total of 3 “points” to trigger the perk. Each enemy gives you the following points:
+1 for enemies with red health bars (adds)
+2 for enemies with orange health bars (majors)
+3 for enemies with yellow health bars (ultras and bosses)
+2 for guardians in PvP
The new fusion rifle comes with Unrelenting
Unrelenting can be found on these weapons:
False Promises (Pyramid Auto Rifle)
Empty Words (Pyramid Fusion Rifle)
Whispering Plate (Pyramid Bow)
Cold Denial (Pyramid Pulse Rifle)
Conclusion on the new perk: Unrelenting offers very strong advantages in PvE. All guardians can now enjoy the healing power of the Voidwalker or the exotic effect of Crimson on their legendary weapons.
In PvP, you essentially need 2 kills, as one guardian grants “only” 2 points. Bold players can emerge from team fights strengthened and immediately attack the third victim.
Killing Wind
This is what the perk can do: In-game, Killing Wind is described as follows:
Final blows grant increased mobility, weapon range, and handling for a short time
The effect lasts for about 5 seconds. If you continuously secure kills, you can even extend the bonuses – if you defeat enough enemies, theoretically indefinitely.
Killing Wind is a real feel-good perk
Killing Wind can be found on these weapons:
False Promises (Pyramid Auto Rifle)
Empty Words (Pyramid Fusion Rifle)
Whispering Plate (Pyramid Bow)
Cold Denial (Pyramid Pulse Rifle)
Conclusion on the new perk: With Killing Wind, you have a real feel-good perk on your weapon. The gun is quicker to the hand, you are faster on your feet, and benefit from increased range.
The range increases depending on the weapon by several meters. However, with the range increase comes better aim assist and reduced bloom. So, you suffer less from the notorious ghost bullets. The effect can be compared to a slightly trimmed version of “First Shot”.
Once you get used to the noticeable bonuses, you’ll want to quickly secure the next kill to avoid trudging through Destiny again.
Sympathetic Arsenal
This is what the perk can do: Destiny 2 itself displays this perk ability for Sympathetic Arsenal in-game:
Reloading after a final blow also reloads the stowed weapons
The perk works exactly as described. If you reload after a kill, your two stowed weapons also reload completely. A Hunter dodge after a kill, for example, benefits the entire arsenal.
Sympathetic Arsenal has a lot to offer on the new Pyramid Bow
Sympathetic Arsenal can be found on these weapons:
Particularly strong is the perk on the new bow from the Umbral Engrams. Here, reloading counts as soon as a new arrow is in your hand. A bow hit on a smaller enemy thus quickly reloads your power and special weapon. This way, you can hack at major bosses almost without interruption.
Iron Gaze
This is what the perk can do: Currently, no weapon with Iron Gaze is playable, but according to the description, this will be the ability:
Significantly improves weapon targeting but reduces weapon range
The perk passively gives you a +20 boost to aim assist. With this comes the “stickiness” of the reticle and bullet magnetism. You can even feel this with the mouse on PC, albeit not as intensely as with a controller.
The significantly improved aim assist is, however, paid for with -40 range.
Iron Gaze significantly reduces range but increases aim assist
Iron Gaze can be found on these weapons: The new perk will find its way into the game with the Iron Banner of Season 11. However, in the databases and the collection in-game, it is already evident that two weapons can roll with Iron Gaze:
The Savior (Iron Banner Hand Cannon)
The Forward Path (Iron Banner Auto Rifle)
Forecast for the perk: Practical tests will still have to show how rewarding Iron Gaze will be. Considering that a weapon can receive a maximum of 100 range, the -40 seems to be quite a steep price. But who knows, perhaps melee monsters can be created this way. We are curious.
Iron Grip
This is what the perk can do: Currently, you still cannot try out Iron Grip yourself, but you can already see the perk details:
Significantly improves weapon stability but reduces reload speed
The perk provides a +20 stability boost. In exchange, the reload speed is reduced by -40.
The high stability from Iron Grip makes your weapon controllable, but be cautious when reloading
Iron Grip can be found on these weapons: With the start of the first Iron Banner event of Season 11, you have a chance to get the new perk on:
The Savior (Iron Banner Hand Cannon)
The Forward Path (Iron Banner Auto Rifle)
Forecast for the perk: The drawback here may not weigh as heavily as with the perk relative. While it remains a game of chance, the large boost in stability could allow guardians to create precise killing tools.
What do you think about the new perks from the Season of Arrival? Have any of them already earned a permanent place? Do you think the traits will only reach their full potential when they become available on a wider range of weapons? Let us know in the comments.
In recent days, accusations against Twitch streamers have emerged. The CEO of the streaming platform, Emmet Shear, has taken a stance on this. However, he is now also under fire. Streamer Devin Nash even calls for the resignation of the Twitch CEO. In case of doubt, Amazon should fire him.
What has been happening on Twitch since June 20: We reported on MeinMMO that since June 20, women have been coming forward and speaking about their experiences with “powerful men” in the gaming industry. Some men have allegedly used their positions in the gaming industry over the past few years to make inappropriate sexual advances in a professional environment.
This is how Twitch reacted: The platform Twitch issued a statement on June 21. It states that they take these accusations very seriously and are reviewing them.
They express gratitude to the women who were brave enough to come forward.
The CEO of Twitch, Emmet Shear, published an email on Twitter on June 23 that he had sent within the company.
In the email, Shear explains that he wishes for Twitch to be the safest place on the internet to create content. This is something the company needs to work on.
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This is the criticism of Twitch: Following Emmet Shear’s statement, some have come forward saying that they had already raised issues on Twitch in the past, but their statements were dismissed.
The music streamer Starling says she addressed the issue at a partner meeting: men are sexually harassing women on Twitch.
In response, Shear allegedly only laughed and said: “Wow, the things happening on our platform, I can’t really comment on.”
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This is the call for resignation: Streamer Devin Nash even demands Shear’s resignation. Nash read the CEO’s email during a stream. He describes his statements as “PR bullshit without real action plan.”
Furthermore, Nash makes a clear demand:
Emmet Shear should resign. I’m tired of him just standing by during these events. It’s obvious that he can’t lead the company as it is right now. Amazon needs to step in and fire him if he doesn’t resign.
Devin Nash
Devin Nash mentions Justin Wong, a key former employee of Twitch. He had also stated that there are serious issues in Twitch’s management circle. In the past, such allegations were handled too leniently.
Twitch continued to invite men accused of sexual misconduct to events and did not address the issue.
For Nash, these are clear signs that there are serious problems at Twitch under Shear.
According to him, Shear has now demonstrated that he is unable to address the platform’s issues.
A Twitch clip showing Nash’s statements has already received over 160,000 views.
Who is Devin Nash? Streamer Devin Nash is known for commenting on such meta-topics about Twitch and streaming. He has around 100,000 followers on Twitch and is an established figure within the Twitch community as a marketing expert and former head of the e-sports organization Counter Logic Gaming.
The Twitch CEO Emmet Shear often has to deal with bans.
Until a few days ago, the hottest topic at Twitch was who gets banned and who doesn’t. There were fierce discussions about why one female streamer was banned for just a few seconds of something that shouldn’t have been seen, while other women seemingly got away with everything. Emmet Shear issued a statement on this:
The MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria is not coming, at least not as it was originally planned. Therefore, the development studio Soulbound Studios has been sued. The situation is slowly escalating now as there are issues with refunds.
What kind of MMORPG is it about? It is about Chronicles of Elyria, a sandbox MMORPG where your hero was supposed to age and die. With descendants, you should be able to continue playing and, for example, establish a trade empire or further expand the rule over an entire kingdom.
However, the disappointment of the Kickstarter backers and supporters of the MMORPG was significant. Some demanded their money back. A class-action lawsuit was even sought.
The MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria sounded exciting, but then the developers ran out of money.
Where are the refunds?
What has happened now? Currently, there are increasing reports from players on Discord, talking about issues with refunds. Those who used the Xsolla service for payment seem to be hitting a wall when inquiring about refunds.
Specifically, it concerns purchases made in the three months prior to the announcement of the cancellation of Chronicles of Elyria. The question arises whether Xsolla already knew during that time that things were going downhill with Soulbound Studios and should not have accepted any payments.
Xsolla refers to the terms and conditions (via xsolla). Since refunds can only be made if nothing has been delivered at all. This is not really the case with Chronicles of Elyria. A pre-alpha demo of the parkour gameplay has been released. Also, maybe a game could still emerge. Xsolla seems to be operating in a legal gray area here.
Refunds for crowdfunding games are generally somewhat problematic. There is basically no guarantee that a project will come to fruition. However, there is a workaround if the payment service provider offers refunds. This is the case with Xsolla – with limitations.
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What does the situation look like? In the Discord discussion about the refunds, the following can be read:
Despite the CONSTANT and CONSISTENT communication with Xsolla over the last 3-4 months, they have constantly made excuses and hidden behind the worst customer service I have ever seen a company fall back on. You just have to look at the countless screenshots being shared over the #RefundStatus channel to see the stone wall Xsolla has continually fallen back on, in direct disregard to both their own rules and regulations and the law itself.
Whether the money is now gone or whether a refund will occur cannot currently be said. We have followed up with Xsolla and will update the article accordingly when we receive a response.
Besides Chronicles of Elyria, there are other MMORPGs that could be very interesting. If you want to know which MMORPGs we believe are the most promising in 2020, then read the MeinMMO article These are the 8 most promising titles for 2020, in our opinion.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The roadmap for Season 2: There is a compact overview of the new Season 2 in this roadmap:
The Season 2 roadmap
Below are more detailed details about the respective contents.
New Manhunt – The story continues: There will also be a new seasonal manhunt in Season 2, advancing the story of The Division 2 after the events of the Warlords expansion.
The new season is called Keener‘s Legacy and that’s exactly what it’s about. You need to hunt down and eliminate a new cell of 5 rogue agents. They are some of Keener’s most loyal followers and want to complete his plan around the Eclipse Virus that we thwarted.
As in Season 1, there are now 4 targets that will unlock every 3 weeks. Once you have found and eliminated Termite, Luna, Huntsman, and Titan through a series of tasks, the leader Hornet will be unlocked – the ultimate goal of the Season 2 Manhunt. You will receive a special reward from him.
The new seasonal targets
New Season Pass: There is a new Season 2 Pass that comes with 100 seasonal levels. You level the pass with XP and earn new rewards, such as new gear, cosmetics, gear sets, or exotics, level by level.
There is a free rewards branch available for all players, but also a paid premium branch. The Season 2 Pass itself is free, but accessing the premium branch costs €10. The premium branch offers more rewards, but all gameplay-relevant content is also available through the free branch.
New Leagues: As part of Season 2, there will be 4 new leagues that allow you to put your skills to the test and compete with others in various activities.
Climb the leaderboards, rise in league ranks and earn special rewards like exo-boxes with strong rolls on the gear. Each league lasts for 2 weeks.
The Polarity Switch event
New Global Events: There will also be global events in Season 2 again. These last for one week each, change gameplay with various modifiers, and aim to provide more variety with their unique effects.
They can optionally be turned on or off – they are not mandatory. In these activities, you can also earn special rewards. There is a brand new event called Hollywood, along with the already known events Polarity Switch, Revived, and Guardian.
New Apparel Event: In the so-called apparel event, you can traditionally earn or buy various new cosmetics with a specific theme over the course of 3 weeks through XP.
The new apparel event of Season 2 is called Phoenix Down and takes place from July 14 to August 4. Every few SHD levels, there will be a key that allows you to open an event apparel container. From this, you will get unique new weapon skins or clothing items in the respective event look.
The new gear set
New Rewards: The new season also brings several new prizes. These include:
Repair Trap – A new skill variant earned by eliminating the new seasonal main target Hornet
The new gear set Eclipse Protocol
New exotics: the exotic mask Vile and the exotic sniper rifle Mantis
New brand set: Walker, Harris & Co.
2 new named weapons
2 new named armor pieces
Eclipse outfit (through the Season 2 Pass)
and more
Season 2 in the trailer:
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Bonus – New Raid: On June 30, the 2nd raid of The Division 2 will launch – Operation: Iron Horse.
This is officially not part of Season 2 content, as it is essentially a Year 1 content added later, but since it is starting during Season 2, we have included it here.
In this 8-man PvE peak activity, the True Sons have taken over a metal foundry to manufacture new weapons. They threaten to destroy everything the agents have worked so hard for, and that is what you are supposed to prevent there.
As a reward, there are two more new exotics and two new gear sets.
Is it worth checking in with Season 2 (again) in The Division?
Whether it is worth checking in with The Division 2 with the new Season 2 depends entirely on how you have played The Division 2 so far and what expectations you have for the new season.
For new players: If you are just starting with The Division 2 or have not been playing for long, the new season is definitely worth it. You can earn additional seasonal rewards through playing the regular content and even get some variety in the form of new events.
In short: As a new agent, you really can’t go wrong with the Season 2 Pass – not even with the premium branch access for €10. It is a good complement to the regular content of the game.
For returnees and veterans: For returnees and veterans, it heavily depends on what expectations you have for the new season.
If the regular content of The Division 2 can still keep you entertained and you enjoyed the seasonal model in Season 1, you will have fun in the current Season 2 – especially considering the many meaningful changes from Title Update 10, which make the game noticeably better in some areas. Basically, you get the same system as in Season 1 with some new content presented to you.
However, if you are tired of the regular content of The Division 2, then Season 2 may not make you very happy. Because it essentially builds on the previous content and only serves as a supplement. You will search in vain for substantial new content here. And if the other content does not convince you, the many changes from TU10 will have relatively little impact on your enjoyment of the game.
What could entice players to check in might be the new raid, which does not actually belong to Season 2 – even if it falls within its timeframe.
In short: If you still enjoy the content of The Division 2 and liked Season 1, feel free to check into Season 2. With TU10, The Division is now noticeably better in parts. If you are tired of the previous content, it is worth it at most for the new raid. But even then, you should already go hunting for bandits in New York and Washington beforehand. Your old builds may have lost some of their accustomed strength due to the TU10 adjustments.
Pokémon GO has reactivated its Battle League. However, there have been some changes in the PvP battles. We will show you what’s new.
What’s new? Niantic announced on the evening of June 23 that the GO Battle League is back. This is the PvP mode of Pokémon GO, where trainers compete directly with three Pokémon each.
More daily sets: Instead of 5, you can do 6 sets per day. This change will remain throughout Season 2.
Improved rewards for one week – From June 23 at 10:00 PM until June 30 at 10:00 PM
The Pokémon encounters will change in the basic and premium paths. Serpifeu, Floink, and Ottaro are no longer available as encounters in the GO Battle League.
On the premium path, the special candies will be available as early as the fourth place of the rewards, instead of the fifth.
In addition, the ranking of the GO Battle League is now deactivated and will remain so. The developers are keeping an eye on the league. After the recent exploit issues, they likely do not want to reactivate the ranking too early.
The new schedule of the PvP League in Season 2
This is changing as well: Besides the in-game changes in PvP, the dates have also been adjusted.
The Hyper League runs until July 6 at 10:00 PM.
The Master League and the Premium Cup run from July 6 at 10:00 PM until July 20 at 10:00 PM.
All leagues and the Premium Cup run from July 20 at 10:00 PM until July 27 at 10:00 PM.
When does Season 3 start? Right after the last league event, Season 3 will start. On July 27 at 10:00 PM, the new season begins for you.
In Dead by Daylight you can now earn halos. They don’t help with hiding, but they look very stylish.
Dead by Daylight is currently officially celebrating its fourth birthday. The 4vs1 horror game has made a huge development in recent years and brought numerous innovations. These include not only new killers, maps, and survivors, but also meaningful features like the endgame collapse or a kind of battle pass.
Now, for the birthday, there are plenty of rewards to grab.
How to get the golden crown: On every map, you can find a gift pillar during the event. A player can interact with this pillar and earn a golden shimmer. As a killer, you just need to finish the match while the shimmer is active. Survivors must escape with this shimmer.
You need to find this pillar on the map – and then survive!
As a reward, you unlock a golden crown (which resembles a halo). This is available for all original characters from Dead by Daylight – that is, all except the licensed ones (like Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, or Ash).
Crown fits “Pay 2 Lose”: As usual, the reward is a cosmetic item that is not particularly helpful. Instead of making the character darker and thus harder to notice, the crown adds a glowing effect. It’s certainly no help to hide from the killer skillfully – but those who still manage it can be proud of themselves. Dead by Daylight generally leans towards “Pay 2 Lose”. Skins that can be purchased for real money are usually lighter or brighter, making them a disadvantage. This way, no one is forced to buy skins from the shop.
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What else can you get for the 4th birthday? There are a whole range of rewards that you can earn during the event. A large part of them you get simply by logging in. The following rewards are available:
Good time to get started: By the way, the birthday is also a perfect time to get into Dead by Daylight. Because in the next two weeks, there are particularly many offerings that increase the gain of blood points by 104%. This effect is stackable and can lead to you receiving up to 520% more blood points from individual matches – allowing you to quickly level up all desired characters to level 50 and gear them well.
This week’s playlist update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare & Warzone is out and brought back some missing fan favorites. MeinMMO provides an overview of the currently active modes and what they offer.
What does the playlist look like this week? This week’s highlight is a brand new mode for the multiplayer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2019 – All or Nothing.
Additionally, there were a few favorite modes that had disappeared from the rotation for a while. For players of the Battle Royale Warzone, there is the BR-4 mode, which was replaced by a realism version. In multiplayer, finally the “Boots on the Ground” mode is back on the list, a “Ground War” variant without tanks.
Here is the announcement from Infinity Ward on Twitter:
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What are these modes? Especially in multiplayer, the modes differ significantly from last week’s. Additionally, one mode is premiering in the current CoD. So here is a brief overview of what you can play this week:
Modern Warfare
Realism Moshpit – Many maps, many modes, little HUD
What’s going on with CoD?Currently, a controller adapter is plaguing fair players. The device is originally designed to make devices compatible with each other. Now, clever cheaters are using it to reduce their recoil. With stable weapons like the Grau 5.56, the aim point hardly moves.
However, players are also finding cool tricks. Under the right conditions, you can organize a recon drone until the match ends in Warzone. Depending on how much cash you collect, you can rely on the help of a UAV for up to 10 minutes or more.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The Weekly Reset brings players fresh weekly activities today, June 23, in Destiny 2 , new Nightfall Strikes, and a new Flashpoint. What else do the Guardians have to do?
What’s happening in Destiny 2? The new Destiny week starts with Update 2.9.0.2 and the mandatory maintenance which should be completed by 11 PM.
The new patch is supposed to resolve controller issues and allow Guardians to sprint and jump properly again.
Additionally, clever Guardians have found a hidden boss waiting for players.
There is also news about the Season 11 Exotic “Withered Image”, which should be available soon.
The rifle Ruinous Effigy
But what else does the new week have to offer?
The essential information on weekly activities from June 23 to June 30.
These Nightfall Strikes are available: In the regular Nightfall (Power Level 820), you can choose from these Nightfalls:
In Strikes and Story Missions the following modifiers are active:
Arc Singe
Blackout
Grenadier
Note that the modifiers change every day. Only the Singe modifier remains the same for the entire week.
Crucible: These playlists and modes are available in PvP:
Private Match (Core Playlist)
Rumble (Core Playlist)
Control (Core Playlist)
Supremacy (Rotation Playlist)
Lockdown (Rotation Playlist)
Elimination (Core Playlist)
Survival (Core Playlist)
Survival: Freelance (Core Playlist)
Classic Mix (Core Playlist)
Nightfall: The Drifter sends you into the Nightfall with the following modifiers:
Arc Singe
Grenadier
Escalation Protocol: In the current version with additional perks and mod slots, you can find the weapons of the Escalation Protocol at the Contact Event and the Prophecy Dungeon. The armor is still only available through the activity on Mars, but for some time now also in the “Armor 2.0” variant.
The current Flashpoint can be found on Mercury.
Petra Venj can currently be found (Curse Week 1) at the Pavilion in the area “The Shore”. Additionally, you can undertake the 5th Ascendant Challenge .
These are the sources for Powerful Loot in Season 11 of Destiny 2
This is how Powerful Loot is structured in Destiny 2: Powerful Loot comes in several tiers, granting you various power boosts. Accordingly, higher tiers also grant you larger power boosts.
Tier 1 (up to +3 above the current power level)
Tier 2 (up to +4 above the current power level)
Tier 3 (up to +5 above the current power level)
Peak Gear (+5 or more above the power level. The only gear that goes above 1050 and up to a maximum of 1060)
For your information: Power levels gained additionally through the new Artifact “Seed of the Silver Wings” are not considered for the calculation of the power levels of your drops. Here, the average of gear and weapons is crucial.
Sources for Powerful Loot in Season 11:
Tier 1:
Weekly Flashpoint
Primus Engrams
Gunsmith Bounties – Complete 8 of his bounties
Weekly Story Mission: Luna’s Call from Eris
Complete 3 Nightmare Hunts
Zavala’s Vanguard Bounties – Complete 8 of his bounties
Complete 5 Nightfall: The Crucible. Higher difficulty levels grant greater progress
Crucible for 4 matches in a rotation playlist
Shaxx’s Crucible Bounties – Complete 8 of his bounties
Gambit Bounties from the Drifter – Complete 8 of his bounties
Amazon’s MMO New World follows a path where typical classes are not in the foreground. The developers have now explained in more detail what options you have to develop in the game.
Update July 23, 2021: In the meantime, the beta for New World has started, and we have created a guide with the best builds for PvE players.
This is what makes New World different: In New World, your character does not have a class in the strict sense. Instead, your class is determined by the equipment and skills with which you operate.
In an interview with GameSpot, the developers explained that it is precisely the classless progression system that sets New World apart from other games: “One of our goals was to give players more choices and freedoms,” said developer Dave Verfaillie: “In New World, it’s about allowing players to develop their own gameplay, and that’s possible thanks to our classless system.”
In New World, it is for example not a problem to switch from melee to ranged fighters or mages. Since there are no classes, players can now focus on other ways to develop themselves.
New World wants to give you all the freedom
New World offers five progression paths
This is how you level up in New World: To advance your character in New World, the game offers you five central types of progress that function completely independently of any classes.
On the one hand, there is progress through classic leveling. Here you can use skill points to improve various stats of your characters. Just that you are not tied to a certain class.
The second path concerns weapon mastery. This involves mastering certain skills and bonuses with the weapons of your choice by using them consistently. Each weapon has two skill trees that you can develop.
The third path concerns the “Trade Skills,” which also include options such as crafting or gathering resources. Here you can also improve and specialize. You start as a novice with each item you craft, but you will get better over time. For example, you could become the best armor smith on the server if you invest a lot of time in crafting.
If you want to specialize in crafting, New World gives you that opportunity
Additionally, there is territorial progress: you can increase your reputation in various zones of the map and thus unlock bonuses in those locations. This already works by simply playing there a lot. So, it might be worth building a house in your favorite spots.
The fifth path consists of faction progress. In New World there are three factions: the Marauders, the Syndicate, and the Covenant. Depending on whose missions you complete, you can earn special rewards and exclusive items. The more you work for a faction, the better your reputation with them will be.
New World seems to consistently pursue the path of giving you as many freedoms as possible. If you want to try it all out, you can join the preview event starting August 25.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Destiny 2, maintenance work is expected tonight on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia – including server downtime and a new hotfix – Update 2.9.0.2. Here’s everything you need to know about today’s schedule and the patch notes.
New hotfix coming today: The Season 11 is in full swing, and Bungie aims to address some annoying issues in Destiny 2 with a new hotfix. Therefore, you will need to take a brief enforced break tonight. Update 2.9.0.2 brings maintenance and a short downtime. Here’s the most important information about today’s schedule and patch.
The update is now available and can be downloaded. On PS4, it has the version number 1.54 and is about 187 MB in size.
This is how the maintenance will proceed today
Although the maintenance will take several hours today, if everything goes as planned, there should only be a brief server downtime.
The servers will briefly go offline today
These are the important times:
Maintenance starts at 6:00 PM German time
Downtime begins at 6:45 PM, and the Destiny servers will go offline. Players will be removed from their activities and returned to the login screen
Downtime ends at 7:00 PM, and the release of Update 2.9.0.2 will then start on all platforms and in all regions. After you have downloaded the update (and it has been copied), you should be able to log back into Destiny 2
Maintenance is expected to be completely finished by 11:00 PM
Keep in mind: Until Bungie is completely finished with maintenance (around 11:00 PM), there may be queues and login issues in Destiny 2.
The new control scheme with the controller brought some problems
What changes with Update 2.9.0.2 / 1.54 in Destiny 2?
What we already know: Prior to today’s patch, Bungie has already partially presented some of the changes from Update 2.9.0.2. The update addresses further annoying issues, such as with the new controller configuration or the too low power level of many rewards.
Here’s what you can expect in the new hotfix:
Repairs to controller reconfiguration.
A problem was fixed where double-tapping buttons sometimes did not trigger dodges or other abilities.
Issues were addressed where weapons would not fire when pressing the trigger.
A problem was fixed where Stormtrance sometimes did not work.
A problem was fixed where completing the prophecy dungeon solo did not unlock the associated triumph.
A problem was fixed where various sources dropped rewards at 750 power instead of the guardian’s power.
A problem was fixed where the “Tommy’s matchbook” catalyst quest was removed from player inventories.
New dungeon “Prophecy”
Note that this is not the complete list of planned changes. A full listing can be found in the patch notes.
Patch Notes for Destiny 2 Update 2.9.0.2 / 1.54
What do the patch notes say? The official German patch notes for the new Update 2.9.0.2 / 1.54 for Destiny 2 have not yet been released. They are expected to be published later this evening.
Until then, we have linked the original English change log for you here:
Many players are waiting for new information about the upcoming MMORPG Crowfall, especially regarding the launch of the new game. The Creative Director, J. Todd Coleman, introduced a new feature to MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus and editor Leya Jankowski, revealing that the beta might be closer than they think.
In the realm of MMORPGs, there hasn’t been anything new for several years now. The newest MMORPG is from 2016, Black Desert from Korea. In the West, it’s even longer ago: The Elder Scrolls Online from 2014. It’s now been 6 years since the last major MMORPG – with the exception of Albion Online from 2017, which follows a more traditional isometric sandbox approach. Crowfall is a light in the darkness.
As part of “Find Your Next Game“, the Creative Director of Crowfall, J. Todd Coleman, presented a new feature to MeinMMO: The Dregs campaign, something like the “king class” in Crowfall. This is where the competitive part of the MMO unfolds properly. I had the opportunity, together with MeinMMO editor Leya Jankowski, to ask some questions about the new feature and the future of Crowfall.
What is Crowfall? Crowfall is an MMORPG with action combat, focusing on PvP and elements of strategy games, where you decide how you want to play. The core of the game revolves around completing certain tasks in ever-emerging worlds (“campaigns”) to stand at the top of a leaderboard by the end.
However, getting to the top is not the only goal of the campaigns, but also collecting resources for your Eternal Kingdoms. These are persistent worlds that you own and manage yourself, a meeting place for players and guilds, as well as the site for player housing.
You can choose to play the game as a fighter, crafter, or explorer. This way, you as a player can dictate how the game evolves.
Furthermore, you fight for resources in procedurally generated worlds. The time you have for this is limited, as the worlds will gradually be consumed by the mysterious “Hunger,” which corrupts enemies and makes them stronger, as well as blocking access to resources.
While in that world, it will get increasingly difficult, and the fight against other players will become tougher and tougher – until the world is finally completely devoured.
This is meant to set the MMO apart from other games that lead their players more “on rails.” The focus is on competitive play.
Technically speaking, the beta of Crowfall has already been reached
MeinMMO: Can you roughly tell us when the beta and release are planned?
J. Todd Coleman: “We are still trying for a release at the end of the year [2020]. The beta is not really about a collection of features. Although… technically speaking, we have already reached it. We wanted [for the beta] this version that was on the test server and goes live today. That is the version with which players will join and which we call beta. We are still making fixes. Once we reach a point where we feel comfortable enough, we’ll start inviting players who are not backers. All backers can already play, but right now we are not letting in players who did not support us. Between now and the Kickstarter, we have received over 400,000 beta registrations.
Now it’s no longer about a specific release, we’ve already reached that. It’s about reaching a certain level of quality. I don’t have an exact date for the beta, but that’s really coming soon. […] And when we are at the point where we have checked off all the items on the list, it will be time for the launch.”
MeinMMO: What about support for the game after release?
J. Todd Coleman: “There are so many things we want to do that we had to postpone until after launch. I’m not worried that we won’t come up with new cool features. We’ve built a really solid foundation with what we have, and it’s unique. Our architecture supports millions of players, like an MMO. We have procedurally generated worlds like Minecraft with monster camps, ruins, mines… We have passive training like EVE Online, which will last for years. We have 12 races and 11 classes, and I’m sure we will increase that to 12 because I love symmetry. And we have a discipline mechanic that allows people to play multiple classes.
So many interesting directions in which we can continue to grow. I don’t think we will have issues coming up with new cool things – for years to come.”
Regarding multi-classing, you can learn more in our overview:
A sort of “roadmap” – This is what the future promises
MeinMMO: In what way will that happen? DLCs or large expansions like WoW? Free updates with cosmetic shops?
J. Todd Coleman: “I have ideas about that, but nothing I can talk about yet. We only have a few questions left to answer, and the pricing of what’s in the VIP and such things are among the last items. I want the game design to settle a bit before we tackle that and say something about it. The basic model, however, has not changed. Buy it once and play it forever. There is an optional VIP membership and a microtransaction shop that primarily offers cosmetics and housing items. Nothing that gives any power.
At the moment, you can buy land for your kingdom or houses, a manor, a mansion, but you can also create all of that in the game. There are also skins for mounts, but mounts are not yet in the game, so that won’t be purchased much. There will be microtransactions, but every item that is there will also be obtainable in the game through crafting.
Back to your question: Will we sell DLCs? We have not discussed that yet. I don’t know what we will do after release. First, we will release the game and make our backers happy. After that, we will see what our community looks like and what the right way is to come up with a fair model. We want people to keep paying so we can continue to develop and improve the game. And to have jobs, that’s nice too. At the same time, we don’t want to be whale hunters.”
Crowfall will not be a World of Warcraft and does not want to become one
J. Todd Coleman: “I don’t think Crowfall will save the MMO genre. I don’t even think the genre is dying. Gordon talked about how innovation and experimentation in the MMO genre have been killed. And WoW didn’t hit that. What happened after that is that people who funded games asked how to replicate WoW in making money. And when you wanted to stray from the path and experiment, they said: ‘No, no, don’t do that. Make it more like them, because we want to rake in billions too.’
And while the MMO genre has slowly homogenized around WoW, parts of the genre have snuck into other things. Look at Destiny, for example. If you put a checklist between that and the MMO genre, you see that a lot of the same DNA is involved. Then look at social media. Suddenly, you see MMO features everywhere: friend lists, chats, groups… The elements of MMOs have not disappeared; they have just wandered off. The term ‘MMO’ has become something specific, like FPS, Battle Royale, or MOBA.
One challenge for us is the question: Are we an MMO? Well, we have a lot of that DNA. But are we a guided experience like WoW? No, not at all. To that extent, we are in our own realm. Will we revive the genre and make billions? No, but that was never the intention. Our intention was to create something new, unique, and fresh, and find a specific kind of player who is genuinely interested in that. We want to find those guys and gals and make them incredibly happy and keep them forever. If that’s a smaller game, that’s perfectly fine.”
In the Eternal Kingdoms, you can meet with the guild.
The Eternal Kingdoms are the only worlds you permanently own. They are not consumed by the Hunger and represent your own kingdom that you can manage as you wish. Here you can build houses and markets, fight, explore, and have adventures. For these worlds, you mainly gather resources from the campaigns.
The new endgame feature explained: The Dregs
At the beginning of the interview, J. Todd Coleman gave me a detailed explanation about Crowfall and the new feature, the Dregs campaign. For your overview, we have highlighted the key points for you.
To understand this, one must know that campaigns are a crucial part of Crowfall’s concept. These are worlds that are accessible for a certain time, changing through the seasons, starting in spring and ending in winter.
The Dregs are the ultimate campaigns. Here, guilds compete against each other in procedurally generated worlds with the aim of gaining the most points in various areas: glory, wealth, and power.
For that, there are maps with tasks that you should complete in a certain area to gather points and stand at the top of the leaderboard at the end. The guilds dominate the areas of the world, ally with other guilds, build cities, and gather resources by, for instance, sending caravans through the world to collect materials. With that, you decide whether to craft weapons or prefer to build certain buildings.
Organized groups and guilds – The Dregs are aimed at these players
The dark background is that the Earth Mother, the source of all life, has died. Now you try to win the favor of the 11 remaining gods with your actions. Coleman therefore speaks of three pillars that constitute the Dregs:
Guild vs. Guilds
City building
Interaction with the gods
What is the interview about? A large part of the interview deals with the new feature of the Dregs, a new campaign aimed at endgame players, the hardest content in the game. You will get a good insight into where the journey in Crowfall is headed. The Dregs campaigns will be the activities with the highest risk and highest reward.
If you haven’t dealt with Crowfall yet or need a bit of a refresher, you can find more information here:
MeinMMO: Campaigns are consumed by the “Hunger” during their duration. Does that happen in the Dregs as well, or are they more like the Eternal Kingdoms?
J. Todd Coleman: “The Eternal Kingdoms and God’s Reach are the only worlds that are not consumed by the Hunger. That means they are more in the traditional ‘WoW style’ and are more or less safe. All other worlds have an expiration date.
The Hunger is this corruptive power that appears randomly in the world. Where the Hunger is, the resource harvest is disabled and all monsters that would appear there appear as gruesome crystallized undead creatures. Every monster in the game has its own ‘hunger-fied’ version.
Over the duration of a campaign, that is, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, more Hunger appears. The world becomes darker and more desolate towards the end of a campaign. This also means that hoarding resources at the beginning comes with certain rewards, as it becomes harder and harder to obtain those resources as the campaign gets closer to winter.”
The “Hunger” devours worlds, destroys resources, and strengthens the monsters.
MeinMMO: Should I rather gather early and stockpile or time it so that I mine something when there is still something left at the end?
J. Todd Coleman: “That’s an excellent question, which different players will answer differently. Ultimately, there are other ways to get supplies when you need them. Certain campaigns have a certain number of imports and exports. When you join them with your character, you can sometimes bring only 20 items, sometimes 50. You can decide whether to take a magical sword from another campaign or stones to build your barracks faster.
In some campaigns, there are no imports at all, you start practically naked. Many of our players enjoy these campaigns because everyone starts with the same conditions. Everyone starts with a max-level character that you can achieve in 2 hours or so. […]
MeinMMO: What scale are we talking about here? How many players are simultaneously in a Dregs campaign?
J. Todd Coleman: “At the moment, we are aiming for 10,000 players in a Dregs campaign, which corresponds to about 2,000-2,500 players simultaneously at peak times. I say this now by comparing the numbers with other games, but those may not be a good benchmark. When Shadowbane went online, we saw: When a new world goes online, we have monstrous spikes. 25-30% of the players who wanted to play there logged in on the first weekend. That’s why I’ve set it a bit higher now.
If it turns out that I’ve underestimated it and we need more, we can pack more zones into one world for more space, more resources, fortresses, monsters… more of everything. And because we have a procedural world generator, we can do that very easily. If we need three more worlds, we’ll just make them.”
There will likely be quite large battles in the Dregs.
MeinMMO: The Dregs are therefore available at the same time as other worlds?
J. Todd Coleman: “Yes, they run simultaneously. Since they are time-limited, it makes a difference when they come online and when they disappear again. […]
From a business perspective, the big problem with that is that we don’t know how many players we will end up having. We are trying to prepare ourselves so that we have a sort of factory with which we can simply create new campaigns and release them when we need them.”
Before release, the optimal length of the campaign must be found
MeinMMO: How long does a Dregs campaign last in real-time?
J. Todd Coleman: “I suspect something around a few months. Right now, we are testing in weeks, between one and four. One month seems to be a pretty good point for us. It’s enough time for players to stay engaged without getting bored. I would like to try longer campaigns, but that’s the question: How long can I hold the interest of the players? There is a tendency for players to stop when they feel they cannot win. If the game goes on too long, that can become a problem.
We will be experimenting a lot now. At the moment, many one-week campaigns are running, or four days, but a week will probably be the new standard. […]”
In Crowfall there will be a lot of fighting, but crafting and building are also important in the Dregs.
J. Todd Coleman: “That’s a challenge and we want to be honest. If you just want to dive into the Dregs and gather materials, you can do that; it will just be harder. There is also a free, protected city where you can sell your goods to participating fighters, but you still have to travel through dangerous lands.
We have purposely introduced three factions in the Dregs for players who do not belong to a guild so they can join and be part of a standard faction. You can play like that, but although you will be many players – everyone without a guild joins a faction – you won’t have organized power. We have observed that a small organized team can beat a large group that doesn’t have organized players.
I always say this with a warning: I have done everything I can as a designer to try to make it a functional experience. Nevertheless, you are in the hardest part of the game and facing very strong organized guilds. And they mean business. So be careful. And I would advise you to seek out guilds that are currently recruiting. Honestly, the game is much more fun when you are in a guild. […]”
MeinMMO: What about player groups that fall somewhere between solo players and large guilds? Ten or maybe 20 players acting as mercenary units or groups of traders offering to fight or gather resources for them? Is that an option?
J. Todd Coleman: “Yes, of course. These maps I mentioned earlier: there are some that will give you a task and the points are then divided by the number of participating players. So there are some maps designed to benefit smaller guilds. So it’s not just about getting as many players as possible into the guild. That can be a strategy, but it doesn’t have to be.”
Even smaller groups should have a chance.
The rewards: Winning is worth it… at least soon
MeinMMO: What is the goal at the end of the campaign, besides the right to brag about the victory?
J. Todd Coleman: “There are rewards. However, the reward system is not yet implemented; it’s coming between now and the launch.
In this system of divine favor, there is glory, wealth, and power as the three types of cards. After each season, each guild receives points in these three categories, and you can add them up to see how much favor you have reached with the gods. When the reward system comes, there will be rewards for the overall victory, but also individual prizes like statues for a certain amount of wealth points that I can place in my kingdom and that help me with crafting.”
These paths lead to success in the Dregs
MeinMMO: To win a Dregs campaign, do I have to collect points through the cards or are there standard points for killing opponents, conquering, or something like that?
J. Todd Coleman: “There are two tiers of points. The campaign cards exist throughout the campaign in each season. These are general challenges, for example: whoever has the most points by holding certain places gets X power points. The points are scaled. In the top 20%, I get something from the top 20% of points. These are available for each of the three types:
Glory is generally about sacrificing things to the gods
Wealth is about building
Power is about controlling land and tearing down other players’ buildings
In the campaign, there is then a generic card for sacrificing, one for building, and one for taking and owning the most stuff. Among those, there are random cards for each season. In summer, you might have to build a specific building to get bonus points.”
It doesn’t always have to be war. Those who build enough and the right buildings can also win.
PvP in Crowfall: In Crowfall, there is both PvP in the open world and dedicated sieges of areas occupied by other guilds. Much revolves around competing with other players for resources and driving them out of areas where you want to complete your tasks. Generally, larger groups face off and fight, though you will also encounter isolated skirmishes of fewer players less often.
Crowfall does not want griefers, but cunning
MeinMMO: What about griefers? It sounds like there could be groups of players actively trying to prevent others from achieving their goals.
J. Todd Coleman: “That is part of the game; I wouldn’t necessarily call it griefing when you’re playing a competitive game and everyone knows that this is exactly what it’s about. Griefing is when you force people to do something they never agreed to. Forcing people into PvP who are just logging in.
Stuff like that is then protected. The worlds where players start are completely safe. The Dregs and the deeper level areas are the competitive experience that people want who venture there.
What we’ve seen so far are small groups showing up during a siege. Their goal is not to take the castle, but just to annoy the participating groups to influence the outcome. They’re probably doing it for their own reasons. They know that one of the teams has built the same number of statues as they have, which they need for the wealth victory. They don’t care who wins the siege; they just want to destroy the statues.”
MeinMMO: Do I have to fight other guilds, or can I choose to trade instead?
J. Todd Coleman: “That is entirely your choice. Some objectives will require fights. Technically, you could conquer unoccupied areas for the power card, but realistically, that’s unlikely to happen. People aren’t just wandering around leaving areas unoccupied. For power, you will definitely have to fight.
Other things, such as wealth, can be achieved that way. You might have to defend yourself, but with the right allies, you might be able to get other people to do that for you. Glory will be what you are most likely to achieve without conflict. But even those are designed to generate conflict.
If the glory card appears that you should sacrifice the most spider eyes, you know that they can appear in three places. You’ve scouted those beforehand and know where they are. You have to go there. When the spider queen appears, providing the best eyes for the most points, a message will pop up that notifies everyone in the area. Could you then go there, grab everything, and disappear without a fight? Sure. But will that definitely work? Absolutely not.”
In safe cities, you can trade, but the Dregs remain a dangerous place.
Fair chances for all guilds
MeinMMO: Is there a danger that a single guild will lead the leaderboard for years?
J. Todd Coleman: “That is certainly a danger. We have seen many guilds that have done really well in all campaigns so far. But ultimately, the reason these guilds play is to dominate. […] However, it’s unlikely they will win all campaigns because there are so many campaigns happening simultaneously. It will be difficult to spare that many characters for it. But I expect some guilds to be highly competitive.”
If you want to see a Dregs campaign in action, come by on Thursday, June 25th, at 8 PM on the Twitch channel “Monsters and Explosions”. There, MeinMMO editor Leya Jankowski will show you together with Creative Director J. Todd Coleman how it all looks.
However, Crowfall remains optimistic as Leya asks how they view the matter regarding PvP and competitive play.
MeinMMO: Crowfall is quite centered around competition and PvP. We have seen in recent years that many MMOs that went in that direction did not perform well. The upcoming New World from Amazon, for example, has completely flipped from hardcore PvP to open-world PvE.
J. Todd Coleman: “One lesson that these people have learned is that if you want to reach the mass market, that’s the right direction. But it also means that’s one way to go. Because they leave the area where we are alone. Here it’s empty. If you are a big company, it’s hard to ignore the mass market. It’s challenging to say: ‘Hey, we are making a niche game.’ You have so much mass that you have to decide to gather millions of players. While that would be nice, and I certainly wouldn’t tell those players to leave, I also will not change the vision of what we created to chase these players.
I’ve tried to design Crowfall to be customizable enough to appeal to a wider range of players without sacrificing that. That’s why there’s God’s Reach, a fully protected area or crafting for items that can be taken into the hardest areas. I’ve tried to create really dangerous areas and make them important by placing the best resources there. I created the Eternal Kingdoms so that guilds have a real server they own. It’s not just a player’s house, but the homes of all players with a castle.
In the end, you are right, it’s a competitive game. We will definitely attract such players and want to make them happy.”
MeinMMO: Thank you very much for the interview!
Assessment from the author: I’m really looking forward to it!
Crowfall is one of the most promising new MMOs and MMORPGs from the West. I’m incredibly excited about the game, and the new info from J. Todd Coleman makes me even more impatient.
Previously, I saw great potential in Crowfall after initial tests. The idea with gods and favor looks great to me as a story; the classes play differently and fluidly, and the cooperation of fighters, crafters, and explorers is a great approach I’d love to check out all three sides.
The Dregs as “the endgame feature” sound like the right feature for competitive players like me. I can imagine I will be fully immersed in the struggle for the top – provided I find a guild. If not, I already see myself diligently expanding and decorating my own kingdom.
However, if enough players dare to tackle Crowfall and discover their way of playing there, I see a strong future for the MMORPG.
Benedict Grothaus
Freelance author at MeinMMO
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Under certain conditions, you can get an infinite reconnaissance drone in Call of Duty: Warzone. Find out here the details of this small but genius trick.
How does it work? The trick is actually quite simple. You just need to buy as many drones as your cash allows, and you will have a strong reconnaissance drone (UAV) in the sky for a long time.
The trick is little known because it was previously almost impossible to call many UAVs at once. However, it turns out that the time of the drones can be stacked. When you call multiple drones, they also last longer, and there is no fixed timer that ends the drone 30 seconds after activation.
Now, insane in-match events have been happening in Call of Duty: Warzone for some time, with which you can push this mechanic to the limit. During a “shot sale,” the killstreak only costs $800. If you catch a round with lots of cash and a late event, you can organize reconnaissance until the match ends with this trick.
Shooting Sale Allows Ridiculously Long UAV
The trick is also strong when you only have the drone in the sky for a few minutes. In Warzone, if you activate 3 UAVs simultaneously, you get a kind of enhanced reconnaissance drone, which shows all enemies on the map. The YouTuber “JGOD” shows in one of his English videos how it all works:
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He is playing with his duo partner and runs a drone for 4 minutes this way. And they only collected together. If a whole team, packed with cash, goes on a shopping spree, there’s a lot more to gain.
How can I get an infinite drone? The in-match events have a certain chance to occur during each round of Warzone BR, approximately between the 8th and 20th minute of play. If the shooting sale starts around the 14th minute, you could theoretically buy enough drones to keep them running until the end of the match:
Shooting sale starts at match minute 14
The team buys as many drones as possible in the event minute
When the minute is up, activate all drones
There are still about 10 minutes until the last circle
In the video, JGOD and his buddy need 10 drones for about a minute
That would be 100 drones for $800 each, totaling $80,000
If you are in a squad of 4, each of you would need to chip in $20,000, which is quite realistic if you are killing and looting a lot.
Since other important items at the buy station are also greatly reduced – self-revive is even free – you hardly lose anything with this method. You rarely see a better bargain in Warzone.
Even Strong Ghost Perk Partially Useless
How does the Ghost perk work? “JGOD” also observed the behavior of the “Ghost” perk, one of the strongest perks in Warzone.
This actually protects against detection by drones, but seems to work somewhat differently in conjunction with the special Warzone UAV. Because enemies with “Ghost” that are further away can now be seen on the map. As you get closer to the enemy soldiers, they disappear from your radar.
The enhanced reconnaissance drone also shows the direction of enemies.
In Warzone, there are thus two situations where the “Ghost” perk is not helpful:
Warzone UAV shows distant enemies
Ghost is briefly disabled when you fire your weapon
How can I best use the trick? If you are well-equipped, save your money as much as possible.
The mid-game in Warzone can sometimes take a long time, but it also allows time for looting. Pick up the free supply crates and don’t spend all your cash at once. Only get what you need and save a big pile in your account.
When the event starts, you need a reasonably safe buy station and can start your drone shopping spree. If no event occurs, blow the saved money at the next buy station. One of the most successful players in Warzone employs a strategy that has earned him over 1,000 wins, which promises a lot of cash and a higher chance of winning with the UAVs.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The rank icons in competitive mode have been redesigned
The top rank is no longer “Valorant”, but “Radiant”
Teams can now mostly be formed freely. Only extreme discrepancies between ranks prevent players from forming teams together.
Update: Unfortunately, a serious bug shortly after update 1.02 caused players to suddenly appear in the enemy spawn zone and be killed immediately. This led the developers to take the Ranked Mode offline again.
What else is in the patch notes for update 1.02?
What comes in addition to the Ranked Mode: With update 1.02, a feature is introduced that allows you to forfeit essentially lost matches. This allows hopeless matches, which in the worst case can take quite a long time, to be ended prematurely.
To forfeit, players need to simply type “/ff”, “forfeit”, “concede”, or “surrender”. For the request to go through, all team members must agree to throw in the towel. This option for early forfeiting is already known from Riot’s MOBA League of Legends.
In addition to these two options, several updates were made to various agent abilities, and they have been rebalanced. For example, Viper’s ability Toxin Screen is now stronger and can also be dangerous through walls.
Additionally, updates were made to maps, and UI & menus were revamped. A lot of bug fixes are also part of the patch, aiming to prevent many crashes. You can find the complete overview in the patch notes for the new update (via Play Valorant).
With the new update, Riot is likely to have fulfilled an important player wish. Recently, there was also discussion about the current Battle Pass. The developers explained why the pass does not include Valorant Points.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Griefers in GTA Online are annoying. The more joy it brings when they hilariously take themselves out and it gets filmed. Like in this clip here on reddit.
What kind of death is that? A griefer wanted to ruin a player’s experience in GTA Online. The player picked up a car and was supposed to take it to the workshop with as little damage as possible.
While he was waiting to lose his wanted level, the griefer crept up. With his flying “Deluxo” car, he slowly descended from the sky onto the road. He positioned himself to blow up the player’s car with the built-in rockets in the Deluxo. He thought.
But it didn’t go as planned. Apparently, the griefer miscalculated the approach to the garage.
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He shot the rocket right before the incline of the ramp, causing the explosive projectile to explode directly under the car after launch and blowing his own car up. The player suffered no damage, but the griefer died.
This was the plan: The player was on the way to the workshop. As a CEO, you can steal cars in the import/export business, upgrade them, and sell them for a large sum of money. This is one of the 12 ways to quickly make a lot of money in GTA Online 2020.
The griefer likely didn’t want the player to make any money and wanted the mission to fail for him. Because if the car is destroyed before reaching the safe garage, the mission fails.
You can earn a lot of money with the cars from the import/export missions
“Karma” – reddit laughs at the clip
Here’s how the clip is received: On reddit, the video titled “Typical Griefer” receives over 15,500 upvotes and almost 500 comments.
Players write that it brings them so much joy to watch the griefer fail.
Others also give tips. For example, Spaceman9967 (via reddit) writes: “Call Lester during import/export missions to get rid of the police. Then it’s much less likely that something like this [as seen in the video] happens.”
Even more annoying than the “regular” griefers in flying cars are so-called Godmode griefers. They make themselves nearly immortal and then annoy others in the online lobbies. But only until the “honest” players come up with good ideas.
In Fortnite Season 3, there is a new type of grenade launcher that is not explosive. Fortnite pro Ali “SypherPK” Hassan shows how to use the new weapon effectively for kills, and even in style.
What is this new weapon? The new grenade launcher is a weapon that throws shockwave grenades instead of explosive grenades.
It is one of the 6 new mythic weapons of Season 3 and is therefore found only once in a match. You obtain it by eliminating the mini-boss Kit, who is located at Catty Corner.
What are shockwave grenades? These grenades create a shockwave that either propels you or your opponents away. Players can use them either to shorten their path or to push opponents out of high buildings.
Pro finds perfect use for the grenade launcher
How does the pro use the new weapon? Fortnite pro SypherPK, who was accused by players for the return of skill-based matchmaking, has now found the perfect use for this shock grenade launcher while he was in an unfavorable position in one of the loot vaults.
There were other players who wanted to take advantage of the nice loot in the vault: They tried desperately to push the pro. However, SypherPK kept building walls in front of them until he turned around, shot the shock grenade launcher at the wall, and was propelled out by the shockwave.
This method allows him to break through the built wall and suddenly find himself behind the opponent, who is still trying to get into the vault during that time.
It happens so quickly that the opponent doesn’t even realize that the enemy is suddenly behind them. With this clever method, SypherPK manages to take out several players, and it looks really stylish.
The exact opposite happened to players who encountered enemies in the vault. They were surprised by opponents in the unopened vault because they found a glitch that allowed them to sneak into the vault without opening the vault door.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Destiny 2, the most powerful builds are hidden behind certain mods. MeinMMO explains what the Charged with Light mechanic is and why every Guardian should engage with it.
This is what the mechanic is about: For some time now, you can take advantage of the very powerful “Charged with Light” mechanic in Destiny 2. This allows you, for example, to massively increase your damage, generate ammunition, or become nearly immortal – in short: the most powerful builds are based on this mechanic.
Unfortunately, this somewhat complex mechanic is not really explained, and therefore is not used by everyone. MeinMMO shows you everything you need to know about the system behind it, the different mods, and how to use them correctly. Because no system before has brought so much fun and build diversity to the game.
These are the basics: Originally, the Charged with Light mechanic came into play with Season 9, but since then it has only been conveyed to players through (sometimes overloaded) item descriptions.
In the current Season 11, the system has received many new customization options, which is why we briefly explain the basics here.
“Charged with Light” is a two-tiered system:
First, you need to charge yourself with Light
Then you can use the Light Charge
So, we need to charge ourselves with Light and can then spend this buff (stack) for a powerful effect.
Think of your classic perks like “Rampage” or “Kill Clip”: First you land a kill, then you receive the damage buff. The Light Charge not only temporarily increases damage but is more like a resource that you then exchange for bonuses of your choice.
All about the important mods of the “Charged with Light” mechanic
The most important component of the mechanic are modifications, or mods for short. You insert these special items into your armor, thus determining what these Light Charges will be consumed for. This allows you to fully customize the system to your wishes.
In general, there are three different types of mods for your armor:
Green mods: Grant you Light Charges through certain actions
Yellow mods: Trigger a powerful bonus in exchange for a Light Charge
White mods: Grant additional bonuses for you or your team or change how you charge yourself with Light
Note: Almost all special mods go into the right slot of your equipment. Keep in mind that some mods only work with certain elements, while others are more general armor mods.
The special mods go into the right mod slot
This is how you get Charged with Light: Now it gets a bit tricky, because instead of simply landing a kill, the whole system works differently depending on the mod – meaning there is not just one way to charge yourself with Light.
Here are some examples of green mods that generate Light Charges:
Quick Charge: Several kills in a row with pulse rifles, submachine guns, or hand cannons give you a stack of “Charged with Light”
Charge Thief: Charges you up as soon as you collect a sphere of Light (also from masterwork weapons)
Shield Breaker Charge: If you break an enemy shield, you receive a charge
Empowering Finish: Deal a finisher to an enemy to get charged with Light (costs one-tenth of the Super energy)
You see, there is not just one way to charge yourself with Light. Instead, you determine which variant fits your play style and equip the corresponding mod. If you want, you can also combine the options and charge yourself with more than one variant. Don’t worry, in principle, every weapon category is taken into account with corresponding mods.
How long does a Light Charge last? Again, we use the example of classic buffs that are only active for a few seconds. In contrast, the Light Charges do not disappear by themselves.
You can switch your weapons, admire the beautiful scenery of Destiny for minutes or perform emotes – your Light Charge remains clearly visible as a resource:
In the example, we have collected 2 stacks of “Charged with Light”
You only lose the charge if you:
Die
Leave the activity or go to orbit
Consume the charge
“Charged with Light” grants the strongest bonuses in Destiny 2
This is how you use Light Charges: Once you have charged with Light, that is half the battle, but what do you do with the stack? Again, there is not one standard answer.
Depending on the yellow mod, you have access to different bonuses that handle Light Charges differently. Here are some examples:
High-Energy Fire: As long as you have at least one stack, every weapon deals 20% extra damage – only consumes a stack when an enemy dies
Glowing Blade: Consumes a stack on a sword hit and lets you deal bonus damage with swords for 5 seconds
Protective Light: Consumes all Light stacks but grants you significant damage resistance – buff lasts longer the more stacks are consumed
As you can see from the examples, some mods consume all Light Charges directly, while others remain active for as long as you are charged with Light. All effects share the characteristic that they bypass certain game mechanics or trigger extremely strong buffs that go far beyond normal weapon perks.
Maximizing Light Charges: We have covered the green and yellow mods, so you have essentially mastered the basics. However, those who use the additional white mods correctly are true experts.
By properly using these underrated mods, you can significantly ease the daily grind of the “Charged with Light” mechanic or make it even more effective. Here are some examples of additional mods:
Stacked: For every gained Light Charge, you receive an additional charge for free – you automatically receive at least two stacks where you would otherwise only get one
Powerful Friends: When you are charged with Light, your nearby allies are also charged
If used correctly, these supplemental mods ensure that you and your team are continually charged, and thus always have access to the powerful effects.
Pay attention to these special mods: Some of the mods have a second effect. This is grayed out in the armor menu, meaning inactive, until you fulfill a certain condition.
As an example, let’s look at the mod “Powerful Friends”:
The first effect is immediately active as soon as you equip the mod
However, if you also want to benefit from the significant boost of +20 to mobility, you need to install a second Arc mod in the same armor piece
Once a second Arc mod is in the armor, you will then passively gain the mobility boost – even without a Light Charge
If you have a second Arc mod in the armor piece, you’ll receive plenty of mobility bonuses
Getting new mods is easy
You likely already have many of the mods in your collection. Other new mods currently mainly come from seasonal reward levels through focusing Umbral Engrams.
You can obtain mods from these two vendors: You can currently earn even mods from past seasons quite easily:
Banshee-44 and
the Prismatic Reformer (with the Nomad)
offer a large collection of mods. Some of the mods even rotate daily. So be sure to check back here every now and then to replenish your arsenal.
The Prismatic Reformer offers rotating mods
“Charged with Light” build for Season 11
Example of a strong build: To summarize everything again, MeinMMO provides you with a small example of how the powerful mods of the “Charged with Light” mechanic can look in a build.
In Season 11, swords are very popular. Therefore, we show you an excerpt from one of the best builds for the new contact event.
These are the mods you need:
Charge Thief: The green mod can be installed in any armor piece and costs 3 energy
Glowing Blade: The yellow mod can be installed in any Arc armor piece and costs 4 energy – additionally, you should equip another Arc mod in the same armor
Stacked: The white mod fits in any Void armor and consumes 4 energy
Charged: The white mod allows you to collect additional stacks of Light Charge – it costs 2 energy and requires the Solar element
These were the essential mods. If you also use a masterwork sword, you’ll mow through enemies like a deadly tornado, dealing bonus damage almost consistently and charging your heavy attack faster – the Light stacks will not run out.
By following our sword recommendations, you will also receive ammunition and more damage during it.
In the displayed example build, there is still plenty of room for customization.
You could also incorporate mods from the seasonal artifact. There you might find additional bonuses for swords or the powerful ability “Overwhelming Darkness”.
The great thing about most “Charged with Light” builds is that they don’t have an expiration date. All mods that do not come from the artifact remain in your collection and can continue to be used in the following seasons.
Did you find this guide helpful or do you have additional tips for this mechanic? Let us know in the comments what powerful builds you’ve crafted through “Charged with Light”.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The Bug Catching Event is the next event in Pokémon GO. Especially for Shiny hunters, it’s worth taking a closer look here.
When does the Bug Catching Event start? The Bug Catching Event starts this Friday, June 26, 2020, at 08:00 and follows after a few days of event pause after the “Solstice“. The bug event runs until Wednesday, July 1 at 10 PM.
The Bug Catching Event focuses, as the name suggests, on Bug Pokémon. Why this insect event could be worth your while, you’ll find out here.
1. Many Shiny Checks
That’s why the event is worthwhile for Shiny hunters: Since mainly bugs will be crawling across your screens during the event, Shiny hunters should get their nets ready. Because: You can encounter numerous bugs in their shining form. These include, for example:
Additionally, you will also find Lithomith for the first time in its Shiny variant. This small, hermit crab-like Pokémon will appear more frequently in the wild, in raids, in eggs, and in quests during the event.
The shiny Lithomith is just a bit darker than the usual variant
2. Targeted Bug Hunting
Complete your Bug Medal: If you are missing the Bug Medal in Pokémon GO, this event is perfect for you. You need to catch 200 Bug Pokémon for the gold variant.
Nincada is incredibly rare – usually
Here it is worth using incense, as it attracts more bug monsters than usual during the event. Additionally, you can track specific Pokémon if you use the incense at the right time:
From Friday, June 26 at 8 AM to Saturday, June 27 at 11:59 PM (local time) Nincada will appear more frequently in the incense
From Sunday, June 28 at 12 PM to Monday, June 29 at 11:59 PM (local time) Wurmple will appear more frequently in the incense
From Tuesday, June 30 at 12 PM to Wednesday, July 1 at 10:00 PM (local time) you will mainly find Scyther in the incense
Raid Day with Pinsir: If you’re missing the pincers monster, you can take advantage of the Raid Day with Pinsir. It takes place on June 28 from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM and brings Pinsir to all gyms.
Catch Shiny Pinsir in Raids
You can also catch it as a shiny there. Whether it will learn a special move is still unknown.
3. Important XP Bonus
This bonus brings the event: Even if you already know and have caught all bugs, you should catch as many Pokémon as possible. Because: During the event, you will receive double XP for every Pokémon caught.
This should be especially worthwhile for players who have not yet reached level 40. So fire up your incense and lucky eggs and catch everything that crawls in front of your net.
YouTube star Joe “Angry Joe” Vargas is at the center of a story that supposedly took place at PAX East 2018. A Twitch streamer accuses him of behaving inappropriately. The YouTube star denies the allegations. He says the woman is lying. He has engaged his lawyers.
What’s happening in gaming right now: Somehow, the release of “The Last of Us 2” has triggered a wave of allegations against men in the gaming industry. The “MeToo” movement seems to have arrived in gaming, albeit somewhat belatedly.
After this incident, many other women from the gaming industry came forward in the hours and days that followed, sharing their experiences with men who exploit their positions to make sexual advances, such as key MMORPG manager Omeed Dariani. He allegedly advised a young woman in 2014 to sleep her way to the top.
The Twitch streamer WookieMonster (Source: Screenshot from her Twitch channel)
These are the allegations against Angry Joe: The streamer WookieMonster has about 5000 followers on Twitch and plays games like SMITE, SWTOR, or Animal Crossing.
She reported in a long post about PAX East 2018 (via medium).
There, she was with her boyfriend and accidentally met the YouTuber Angry Joe at a Twitch party. The YouTube star invited her to a YouTube dinner.
This direct message was published by the streamer as proof of her interaction with Angry Joe.
What ensued was a several-hour gathering in which Angry Joe apparently thought they were on a date while she allegedly just wanted to return to her boyfriend but didn’t know how to get out of the situation.
Angry Joe is said to have done a variety of things that ultimately aimed to isolate her from her boyfriend and get her into bed. He allegedly:
briefly took her smartphone away under a pretext
pushed her against a wall
offered to shower with her
tried to impress her and get her drunk
In the end, Angry Joe allegedly angrily accused her of “only using him to gain contacts – just like every girl.”
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This is what Angry Joe says about the allegations: The YouTube star (3.24 million subscribers) denies the allegations. He states that these are false accusations. He plans to take action with his lawyers and will soon publish a long statement.
According to Angry Joe, he took her to dinner and a public party, but all her assumptions about his intentions are fabricated. Also, the actions he is accused of did not happen as she describes. Her depiction of the events makes it seem to him as if she was reading a fictional novel. He claims he also has witnesses for what really happened. She was not alone with him, but with him and a group.
Angry Joe says she accuses him of being some kind of choleric womanizer just because his name is “Angry Joe”.
The two direct messages that WookieMonster published are also the only ones he sent her. Outside of that event, he had never contacted her, she never tried to resolve things with him, and now comes on Twitter at 2 AM with such claims.
According to Angry Joe, the woman could have left at any time, but she chose to continue hanging out with him and his friends while ignoring her boyfriend. That all doesn’t make sense.
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Angry Joe says: He is a decent person. What the woman says and her accusations about what specifically happened are lies. He is appalled that he suddenly ends up on such a list of “predators.”
He takes this matter very seriously and will take action against it.
Omeed Dariani: He has stepped down due to allegations.
The incident involving Angry Joe is currently being hotly debated on social media. While Angry Joe categorically denies the allegations and receives strong support from his fans, other men have admitted to the allegations in recent days. For example, Omeed Dariani has stepped down from his job as CEO of a streaming agency:
