New World: Frigid Inferno Build (Heavy FS/SnS Flamethrower) Season 4

 With the 4.0.4 patch in New World the Frigid Dawn armor became craftable in the gypsum kiln and I was able to finish out the gear set I've been wanting to try for a while with my heavy armor firestaff + sword and shield (FS/SnS) build.

 New World Buddy Link: Click Here

 Build summary: high defense with high damage (relative to heavy armor builds) focused on the use of Flamethrower to pressure opponents.  High CON combined with lifesteal, improved potion healing, and fortify.

 How I play it:

 PvE: flamethrower on.  Repeat.  It's that simple.

 PvP: the key to success with the build is understanding how your opponent feels pressure.  Stacking up 5x burn stacks + landing a big fireball at point blank range can make folks panic.  Burn out and leaping strike let's you close in for the kills.  However, getting to the point where you can stack that pressure takes some practice.  

 This build is not going to net a ton of solo 1v1 kills unless you have a stubborn opponent that sticks around.  This build however will win a surprising number of 1vX situations because enemies often have a level of comfort in having you outnumbered but flamethrower and fireball let you hit multiple targets.  I've had multiple fights in Outpost Rush (OPR) where it started 1v1 and I could not close the kill out only to have it turn into a 1v2 and get both kills because players stop trying to run away until its too late.

 However, solo is not where this build shines.  It works best in group play; whether just 3v3 or in war or OPR.  The best strategy is to follow close behind other heavy players; especially those that lay down a lot of crowd control, stuns, or disruption.  You don't want to be directly in the clumps but just on the edge flamethrowing in.

 Another strength of this build due to it's defense and high health pool is pushing through frontlines into backlines.  In OPR fights emerge on the roads often and can stalemate if no one pushes the other sides backline.  Unlike light ranged builds that tend to skirt the sides to get at the backline the heavy flamethrower can burn out through the frontline right into the backline.  This will end in death if your team doesn't follow but many times the initial burn out damage is enough to get backline players to scatter like cock roaches.

 With firestaff remember that Inferno does extra damage up close so while its enticing to lob that fireball at a distance to start a fight it is much better to save that fireball to get a quick burst of damage up close.  Many of my kills come from turning off flamethrower and sticking a fireball in their face.  Fireball is also great for getting folks running away at low health. 

 Since we have lifesteal and divine to improve it you can "race" other flamethrowers.  Heavy, medium, and light flamethrowers are all over the place and nothing is more satisfying than winning that race.  Flamethrower enjoyers are a stubborn lot; we always assume we're going to win the flame race.

 Don't underestimate the sword either.  A well timed leaping strike can change a fight or get you out of a sticky situation; just keep in mind it will track to the nearest enemy and not always just leap where you expect it to.  Leading off with a shield rush and three light attacks can stack debuffs in your opponent before pulling out the flamethrower.  A rended target from the light attack chain can be cleaned up quick with a big ole' fireball and some flamethrower action.

 The bane of the build is anything that has multiple interrupts.  If you can't keep flamethrower going you are at a disadvantage.  In group combat you have to be aware of disrupt builds which will shut you down. If you are expecting to get disrupted make sure to end flamethrower so you don't get interrupted with it active and suffer the cooldown.  You can end flamethrower by dodging or other actions and then turn it back on.  It takes practice; the transition to on/off with flamethrower is not as smooth as other abilities in the game.

 Attributes: 300 INT / 300 CON - due to so many magnify pieces this is the only stat split possible.

 Gear (see screenshot for full details)

• Armor
  
• Void Darkplate chest (artifact)
  
• Frigid Dawn for head, legs, hands, and feet
• Key armor perks
• Critical Retribution
• Accelerating Flamethrower
• Fortifying Burnout
  
• Weapons
• Inferno (firestaff artifact)
• Upgraded perk is Flame Attunement; may try a full Lifesteal build in the future with leeching on it
  
• Sword / Shield
• Empowering leaping strike
• Ruby conversion gem (otherwise damage is super low)
  
• CON or INT depending on other pieces
• Jewelry
• Amulet perks: Divine and Health are key
  
• I opt for Fortified to maximize fortify duration from the rest of the build.  Fortify goes a long way in this game.
• Ring perks: Fire damage
• The rest is open to your playstyle; I prefer the leeching for the extra health back.  Invigorated Punishment I am not sold on but I spent A LOT of gold on this ring so I'm using it!
• Earring: Endless Thirst (artifact) with Regenerating upgrade

 

Embedded build from NW Buddy

New World Frigid Dawn CRAFTING!

 Hallelujah! Frigid Dawn armor is now craftable in the Gypsum Kiln in New World as of the 4.0.4 patch today (2/7/2024)!  It costs 3500 dense mutator materia per piece.  Enjoy!

There it is!

So... about the ad spam on the blog

Step 3: Profit?

 I have not had a payout from Google Adsense since 2014.  That is because I stopped running ads on the blog all those years ago.  Out of curiosity after hearing about what others were making with similar traffic I wanted to test the waters again.  Here are the results from a month-ish of auto ads!

 First, I want to apologize to any visitors that felt the ads were over the top.  I did opt to use Google's "auto ads" that, to be honest, pukes ads all over the page.  I did verify with my own ad blockers that this was not skirting common ad blocks so if you block ads you were seeing the nice clean site that existed before.  If you didn't block ads... well... sorry.

 For context of how much traffic the blog sees; the blog enjoys about 600-1000 visitors a day.  New posts usually hit anywhere from 50 to 100 views in the first day.  My top performing search areas from Google and Bing are around the game New World.  For the month (and a couple days) the auto ads were on we hit 30,000 visits.  A normal month of traffic.

 Before we get to the "how much did I earn" let's look at some things I learned

• Auto ads ruins page experience.  It causes longer loading times and increased bounce rate (i.e. visitors exiting the site as soon as it opens).
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• It may have reduced visits to new posts.  I can't prove this conclusively but new posts FEEL LIKE they had fewer visits their first day than I am used to.
• Even with ads spamming the page my visitors don't click on them.  There were only a few clicks over the entire month across hundreds of thousands of ad impressions.

 So the real question: how much did I make?  The answer: $1.  I rounded down because does it really matter it was $1.47 and not just $1?  For the level of invasion the ads had it was simply not worth it.  I will also not see that dollar anytime soon because the minimum payout is $100.

 What's next?  I am actually going to keep ads on but use static placement in areas that are not obtrusive.  I will re-evaluate after a month.

Ashes of Creation PvP

  Ashes of Creation's most recent update focused on their caravan system, including PvP, and boy did it impress!

 I've beat up on past updates from Ashes for lacking in showing a cohesive game experience.  The updates were often lacking UI and failed to show complete game loops.  With this update, which was titled "the PvP update", we got to see a lot more than PvP.  We saw complete game loops with the back drop of players battling it out.

 What impressed me the most was actually the caravan and I'd argue this update was better in regards to caravans than the prior caravan update.   We got to see a caravan get ambushed and stolen.  The team showed off how caravans can be converted to barges and floated down river.  All of it worked with no issues (at least nothing obvious).

 My favorite part was watching the caravan convert into a barge.  The system seemed well thought out and featured complex visual stages for this early in the game's development.  The players had to defend the barge while it was converting and there was a sense of excitement as it pushed off just as the attackers pushed in.

 At the end of the event the caravan was back in town and stolen goods were taken care of.  I like that towns will have variety based on how they are "leveled up"; in the case of this video with a black market dealer.  This should hopefully lead to opportunities to make a niche for a town.  Hopefully there is a "if you take this; you can't take that" balance to it so towns don't become "everything".

 What I think this developer update lacked the most was the actual PvP.  We saw players slinging spells and arrows at each other but we really didn't get into the nuance of PvP.  The combat looked smooth and there was a variety of actions being taken, but no details on anything.  We saw stealth players ambushing and melee players leaping into the fight.  One poor soul was insta-gibbed.

 I'd like to have seen more around the nuance of combat; especially with PvP hot topics such as crow control, stealth, and ranged vs melee balance.  Also with the system as a whole there is going to be A LOT of questions about how griefing and exploitation will be addressed.  It was mentioned that spying on an opposing caravan's plans was a legitimate tactic they expected players to take.  

 Spying which is likely to occur outside the game... which brings into the question how are developers balancing that? What happens its the result of a hacked account? Or a hacked Discord server? Or if real life money exchanges hands for the info?  I forsee this being a huge sticking point for this game with it's desires to have PvP as a countering force in the world against other player's activities.

 The video did somewhat show that numbers will be a key aspect as well which is going to upset a lot of the PvP tryhards. Bigger forces (i.e. zergs) will smash smaller forces.  I don't see anyway around that yet in a PvP experience that is built around anyone being able to show up at any time.  Ashes is going to have to start answering these questions or it's going to be trial by fire and getting screwed over on something like this is 100% something players will quit a game over.

 While there are long standing questions on open world PvP that will need answering this update still showed a lot of promise.  Its cool to see where the game is at and where it is headed.  I did not buy into the Alpha 2 packages but I can see why players would have bought in to get early hands on with this type of gameplay.  The game is still a ways out but my interest continues to grow.

Nightingale Playtest Screenshots

 Some screenshots from the stress test for Nightingale.

Promising opening

Loading...

Bits of wood come off as you chop a tree down

Bigger tree; more chopping required

Campfire: the survival game basic

The start of a home

A bit dark but my house is in the darkness

Nightingale Playtest TODAY ONLY - DON'T MISS!

Update: 4p ET - test has been extended extra hours: Stress Test Extended Until 7 pm MST (6 pm PST, 9 pm EST, and 2 am GMT) 

Nightingale has a limited-time playtest today.  Sign up now so you don't miss.  DukeSloth covers more in the below video.

Day 2: Enshrouded

 I've continued my adventures into Enshrouded and am proud to report: I built a home... with a roof!  And I have workers!

It's not much but I built it myself!

 The core loop of Enshrouded: collect stuff, take it back home, and build stuff.  Then repeat.  Any other system is essentially a system of support to that core loop.  For Day 2 I found myself out and about gathering stone, wood logs, and .... tar? Yes, tar.

 The basic wall and floor building blocks in Enshrouded just require stone or wooden blocks; both easily attained and crafted.   I was even able to save a bit on resources by using walls with windows instead of solid walls.  Now I just needed to add a roof and to have something qualified as a roof it's a bit trickier.  As far as I could tell the most cost-efficient roofing option is tarred wood roof.  Wood? Easy. Tar? Where do I get tar?

 I had remembered that I could get tar from accidentally burning food or picking up an expired campfire but that nets one tar at a time.  That wasn't going to work for the hundreds I needed for a proper roof to my box-shaped home.

 In steps the Blacksmith.  Actually first came the Google search "where do you get tar in Enshrouded?". That lead me to needing the Blacksmith which pointed out to me that I needed to actually do some of these quests piling up in my journal.  That is a small gripe I have with the game so far; it doesn't really give me an idea of what is all possible with the building toolset.  

 Through quests or upgrading your flame alter new things become available, but until you meet those moments you don't know the possibilities.  Ideally the game would have a tech tree that I could explore that shows me all the possibilities.  It wouldn't need to explain exactly how to unlock them, but just show that they are possible and give a nudge in the right direction. 

 With my Google knowledge in hand I completed the blacksmith quest and summoned my first worker and with it unlocked new crafting stations.  Now I could set up the kiln to pump out tar in larger quantities.  A tarred roof was in sight (and in the screenshot above)!  If you wanted to see more about the crafting station a few of them are in the beginning of this Enshrouded video on YouTube.

 Knowing that NPC workers were the key to further progression I prioritized those quests.  I upgraded my armor with the blacksmith and off I went.  I now have the hunter, farmer, and alchemist.  Next up is the carpenter who I hear has all sorts of exciting stuff (like magic storage that lets you craft using items in the magic storage!).

 Also with the farmer I can take part in one of my favorite hobbies in digital form: gardening/farming!

 More screenshots:

Night time at the house!

Kiln interface

Nighttime shot overlooking an enshrouded area

House fire? Nope.  Just an eternal flame altar.

Diggin' holes.

Lions gonna Lion

 As a Packers fan there are oh so many memes fit the occasion for the Lions.  Some of my favorites:

 First time blowing a double digit lead in the NFC Championship Game?

Not gonna lie; they had me in the first half.  Premature celebration?

Lol

Go Lions!?

 Don't let the 49ers win please.  Thanks.

Day 1: Enshrouded

 I took the plunge and grabbed Enshrouded on Steam.  Here are some thoughts at initial glance (about 30 minutes of play).  Welcome to a new world heartlessgamer!

Straight out of the pot!

 The game dumped me out of a metal pot and off I went through a series of caves; well that is only if the player opts to go into the caves.  My first attempt was jumping off the cliff and enjoying my first "you died" screen.  I will have to break some habits from New World where fall damage is not a consideration!

Who knew you'd die jumping off a cliff?

 

 Once I took the subtle hint to follow the glowing sprite to the caves I hit the tutorial.  This sequence introduced inventory management, basic traversal, and combat. As far as introductions goes it didn't overstay its welcome and I left with what I needed to play the game.

 In short order I was off into the world.  While there was a quest to build my starting alter there were no guard rails preventing me from venturing off into the world.  Sure enough a goat caught my attention and off I went chasing.  I did double back and build my alter, craft a few items, and then placed a camp fire.

 I had nabbed some mushrooms and rabbit meat while venturing so I sat down to cook them over the fire.  Unlike other games with recipe screens and progress bars I was pleasantly surprised to see my character pull out a skewer and roast the food over the fire.  Even more surprising was burning my first mushroom by holding it over the fire a bit too long.  While neat to start I can imagine I'll get tired of cooking in this fashion later on.  Hopefully I can find a cook or get an automatic oven!

 After making my food was cooked I opted to run off to the next quest marker.  It took me through one of the games namesake areas cloaked in shroud.  The quest took me through the area and promptly handed me my second, third, and fourth deaths.  Wolves and other baddies are around the quest area and while they are only level 3 (I am level 2) they are not slouches and easily killed me each time.

 That is where my Day 1 ended after about 30 minutes of play.  I enjoyed the start, but felt combat was a bit clunky.  Dodge and attacks felt very unresponsive, but that may be an offshoot of playing New World which has a very responsive combat system.  I suspect that attacks/dodges get faster as well the higher level I get in the game.

 I see some promise in the game and it is a nice break from MMOs.  My oldest son is looking to play as well so looking forward to some multiplayer hijinks.  I also want to get into some building and get my "cabin with a garden".