Balancing News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Residual damage effects are bugged in Awakened Raids causing them to deal about a quarter of their expected damage. This makes Evokers and Rogues do less damage than expected. If you're doing Awakened Raids, there's a large bug with «Residual» damage spells reducing their damage by about 75%. These spells are ones that deal «X% of Y's damage» and largely affects some of the following items:

Alright, so Best Buy just happened to drop an insane deal on the WD Black SN770 (2TB variant) out of nowhere. This beast of an SSD, which usually goes for around $240 a pop, is now available for just $140. Yep, a whopping $100 right off the top.

Our next Developer Update begins on May 2 at 11 a.m. PDT and will give you a look into what the team has in store for the launch of Season 4 along with system features, balance updates, and learnings from our recent Public Test Realm period.

Residual damage effects are bugged in Awakened Raids causing them to deal about a quarter of their expected damage. This makes Evokers and Rogues do less damage than expected. If you're doing Awakened Raids, there's a large bug with «Residual» damage spells reducing their damage by about 75%. These spells are ones that deal «X% of Y's damage» and largely affects some of the following items:

is the latest indie release from developer and publisher, Aggro Crab. In this Soulslike crab game, players will take on the role of Kril the Hermit Crab as he embarks on a life-changing journey across a polluted ocean to get back his home, encountering over 50 shells and various referential costumes. Though the enemies are tough, Kril will face an even greater struggle in comprehending the state of the world around him and his role in it.

Gunfire Games has released a new Remnant 2 update, adding support for NVIDIA DLSS 3.7, and Intel XeSS 1.3 alongside support for the Forgotten Kingdom DLC and more.

A Helldivers 2 developer has addressed questions surrounding theoretical bigger player squads, saying that it would "require a lot of work."

Pokemon has been gradually adding to its Squishmallows collection two plushes at a time, and Dragonite and Marill will be the next Pokemon to get the Squishmallow treatment as they have now been confirmed to release this summer. While it seems to have a handle on the stock/demand balance now, Pokemon didn't anticipate just how popular its Squishmallows would be to begin with. That's why the original four are still hard to find, but two of them are not only back in stock at Walmart, but they're half price.

PUBG’s original Erangel map is returning with “nostalgic” graphics and old-school balancing for two weeks only, Krafton has announced.

Naguura interviewed Michael Bybee and Sean McCann about End-Game in the War Within covering Delves, Mythic+ Affixes, raid buffs, encounter difficulty and more! We've summarized some of the biggest points, but please check out the full video for full context and additional questions!

Our class guides are now updated for Dragonflight Season 4! Our update includes a summary of everything you need to know to start Awakened Season, the best items to chase after with Bullions, and the best builds to run in every content type.

No Rest for the Wicked developer Moon Studios has released the biggest update yet for its action role-playing game as it battles to improve its ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam.

Blizzard has announced that starting tomorrow, April 23, free character transfers will be periodically opening from PvP to PvE realms in Season of Discovery for both US and EU players. Citing player satisfaction, these transfers seem to be a limited-time event — while an official end date was not specified, Blizzard stated «throughout the rest of the week,» so make sure to take advantage of the character migration if you want it!

The hype around PSVR 2 has largely died off just a year after its launch, though there’s no denying it’s a cool piece of tech. Making big strides from the original PSVR, the latest headset from Sony offers better graphics, improved tracking capabilities, and introduced the world to the sleek new Sense controllers, which make it easier than ever to interact with your virtual world.

Who hasn’t spent sleepless nights pondering what would happen if we applied Vilfredo Pareto's (the early 20th-century Italian economist) theories to Mario, the Mushroom Kingdom’s Italian high-jump champion and part-time elephant cosplayer? Data scientist Antoine Mayerowitz, PhD, tackled that age-old question, and the resulting work provides an objective way to tell us the best Mario Kart 8 racer combinations. Hint: It sure as hell ain’t Koopa Troopa.

Today, we are looking at the DPS balance on Amirdrassil during the week of April 16th. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Raid statistics for Dragonflight Season 3. Mythic Amirdrassil Statistics Page

The home loan you secured when you purchased your property may not be the most optimal option in the long run. Interest rates can fluctuate and your financial situation may evolve. This is where transferring your home loan balance to another lender can be helpful.

Stardew Valley’s 1.6.4 update is now live on PC, bringing with it an impressively long list of bug fixes, quality of life improvements, and fresh content, along with the mysterious removal of two ‘inappropriate names’ from the game’s random name generator.

I love whenSpy x Family veers into slice-of-life drama. I like seeing super duper capable spy Loid Forger and lethal assassin Yor navigate mundane activities like cooking dinner or planning date nights. I’m giddy when telepathic Anya uses her powers in a dodgeball match. I’m sure there are fans that prefer the more action-heavy, spy-thriller episodes, but I like when studios Wit and Cloverworks keep it chill. With 20 episodes a season, the anime has the space to deftly balance these two tones.

It’s never been easier to play Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, especially for those with an Xbox and Game Pass. Benefits like FPS Boost – which makes games that traditionally run at 30 frames-per-second run at a smoother 60fps – and native 4K are possible on Xbox Series X and S thanks to backwards compatibility enhancements, but it’s not quite so straightforward if you’re playing on PC.

The Rising Tide, the second and final expansion for Final Fantasy 16, is set to feature some of the game's most challenging combat scenarios. That's according to DLC director (and a lead combat designer for the base game) Takeo Kujiraoka, who, in an interview with Push Square, told us that the addition of DLC has allowed the development team to push the title's combat system.

Despite having said a couple of times now that Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone is ready to start concentrating on Haunted Chocolatier, he's still working away at improving his baby Stardew Valley. Lots of fixes and new content have been added in the last few months, and Barone has now announced that patch 1.6.4 is now out for PC.

Blizzard has posted the very first The War Within Alpha development notes and includes major class reworks!

Blizzard has released all the Druid class changes alongside developer notes for The War Within Alpha, noting that they are reducing melee range talents across the entire game. Balance Talent CalculatorFeral Talent CalculatorGuardian Talent CalculatorRestoration Talent Calculator Experiment with these changes for yourself using our updated talent calculators!

Classic Senior Game Producer Josh Greenfield recently took to the Paladin Class Discord to discuss Paladin tweaks, class balancing, and the concept of Hope in Season of Discovery. As reported in screenshots on Reddit, Greenfield, better known as Aggrend, had some interesting notes and thoughts to share with the players in a conversation regarding overall balance and Paladin gameplay.

Today, we are looking at the DPS rankings during the week of April 9th for Phase 3 of Season of Discovery in Sunken Temple. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Sunken Temple statistics. Warcraft Logs' Sunken Temple Statistics

Today, we are looking at the DPS rankings during the week of April 9th for Wrath of the Lich King Classic in Icecrown Citadel. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Icecrown Citadel statistics. Warcraft Logs' Icecrown Citadel Statistics

Taylor Stewart and Andy Grush have been scoring movies together as the Newton Brothers for 15 years. They’ve worked with contemporary greats like Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman, they composed the scores for Five Nights at Freddy’s and The Fall of the House of Usher, and they just spent who knows how long marinating in the music of X-Men: The Animated Series in order to craft the music for its sequel, X-Men ’97.

A highly ambitious Dragon's Dogma 2 mod is attempting to make the RPG far more challenging on New Game Plus mode.

11 Bit Studios has become reliable since initially jumping onto the scene with Anomaly: Warzone Earth. The outstanding This War of Mine gave them that broader appeal, followed four years later by Frostpunk. The excellent reception of Frostpunk, critically and commercially, with over three million copies sold, meant a sequel was inevitable. This brings us to Frostpunk 2, which will be released later this year and is currently in an open beta.

Blizzard has announced upcoming class tuning for Dragonflight Season 4 which includes healer nerfs!

Today, we are looking at the DPS balance on Amirdrassil during the week of April 9th. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Raid statistics for Dragonflight Season 3. Mythic Amirdrassil Statistics Page

Fire is out of control in Helldivers 2, but thankfully Arrowhead knows this and is working on a fix.

Since its release almost five years ago, Marvel Champions has put out a near-constant stream of new content. As of this list, there are a whopping forty-one different scenarios among the core set, campaign expansions, and one-off scenario packs, with another five to be released in the upcoming Age of Apocalypse box. Impressively, almost all these scenarios are good—some are better than others, but I would happily play almost all of them. With so much available content, I thought it would be fun to rank my favorite scenarios in the game, from the core set to the latest campaign release (NeXt Evolution at the time of writing this article).

Swedish games firm Avalanche Studios Group is entering into a collective bargaining agreement with local unions.

The full patch notes for the Final Fantasy XVI 1.31 patch going live later this week were shared online, detailing balance changes, quality of life improvements, and more.

Pandaria Timerunning is bringing a ton of new recolors to old gear, including several sets of leveling cosmetic lookalikes — check out these models for robes, pantsuits, and more!

In the Public Test Realm for Patch 1.4.0 of Diablo 4, countless items, skills, and stats were heavily altered to prepare the game for its fourth Season, as well as to pave the way for the upcoming Vessel of Hatred expansion. In addition to many of these changes, Implicit Affixes on Weapons have been adjusted as well. These are the fixed Affixes that are tied to the Weapon Type that cannot be altered, such as Vulnerable Damage on Crossbows and Critical Strike Damage on Swords. Many of these Affixes have been reduced significantly, and while it hurts to lose damage output from a change like this, it is a necessary change. Reducing these values along with other changes in Itemization will go a long way toward reducing the bloated damage values that affect the game negatively. By allowing players to deal millions upon millions of damage in a single hit, the sense of scale and player power is lost. On top of that, balancing gameplay becomes much more challenging — thus, it's only natural that Implicit Affixes receive some tweaks at the same time as the rest of the Itemization rework.

Warhorse Studios' new game will be revealed next week on April 18th, the Kingdom Come Deliverance developer has announced.

Season of Discovery hotfixes have been released for April 11, including Darkmoon Card balancing, Class tweaks, and Dreamscythe & Weaver no longer evading if a player falls in the Pit of Sacrifice!

Blizzard has released Patch 10.2.6 hotfixes for today which includes Balance Druid bug fixes and Augmentation Evoker Log Hooks when buffing Feral Druids.

Invincible’s reputation for hyper-violence is well earned. The Prime Video show’s season 1 massacre of the Guardians at the hands of Nolan/Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) is harrowing, and it sets the tone for the show’s commitment to realistic superpowered gore and destruction. And few scenes in television history are as gnarly or horrifying as the destruction of a train and everyone on board in the first season’s finale.

Today, we are looking at the DPS rankings during the week of April 4th for Phase 3 of Season of Discovery in Sunken Temple. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Sunken Temple statistics. Warcraft Logs' Sunken Temple Statistics

Today, we are looking at the DPS rankings during the week of April 2nd for Wrath of the Lich King Classic in Icecrown Citadel. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Icecrown Citadel statistics. Warcraft Logs' Icecrown Citadel Statistics

Today, we are looking at the DPS balance on Amirdrassil during the week of April 2nd. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Raid statistics for Dragonflight Season 3. Mythic Amirdrassil Statistics Page

The upcoming season of Diablo 4 has implemented changes in everything from itemization to class balance, and crafting systems are no different. Elixir changes were revealed on the PTR, and we're seeing a big upgrade to existing Elixirs and two brand-new Elixirs! All previous versions of Elixirs have been replaced with versions that provide materials on use (such as Potent Elixir of Cold Resistance), and there are now just two tiers per Elixir (i.e.

Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that’s why I poop on company time. This statement has become a well-worn mantra of the working man, but a recent indie game challenges its wisdom. Please Leave Me Alone, I Need To Poop is a game about balancing biological needs with the demands of the workplace, but it takes a quick hand at some WarioWare-style minigames to meet both urgent needs.

I don’t envy anyone who sets out to make a roguelike. The genre presents a wide range of challenges that can make or break a game. How long should a run take? What’s the right amount of challenge? How do you keep people coming back for one more run? The answer to one of those questions could be the wrong solution for the others. It’s the most delicate of digital balancing acts that only a handful of studios have down to a science.

It's been nearly a week since the last Helldivers 2 balance patch, and players are still voicing their displeasure at the changes made to fire damage.

The year long roadmap for city builder Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles has been released by Tomas Sala, confirming what players can expect to see coming to the Ursee. The roadmap includes a number of updates and additions that will keep content in Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles fresh for those who engage with it.

Earlier this year, ZeniMax revealed Elder Scrolls Online had registered over 24 million accounts since its launch. The game is also closing in on $2 billion in customer spending. It was nominated for a BAFTA award last year, and the studio says it is the largest cross-platform RPG on consoles.

Using one of the best Helldivers 2 weapons is a necessity in your quest to defend Super Earth, especially as you reach the highest Helldivers difficulty levels.

Connections is the latest puzzle game from the New York Times. The game tasks you with categorizing a pool of 16 words into four secret (for now) groups by figuring out how the words relate to each other. The puzzle resets every night at midnight and each new puzzle has a varying degree of difficulty. Just like Wordle, you can keep track of your winning streak and compare your scores with friends.

Once Upon a Tavern, there was a new Battlegrounds season, filled with updates for Traditional Battlegrounds and a magical new Mode, Battlegrounds Duos! Jump into the fray with new fairy-tale themed cards and rewards. Whether you’re playing on your own or with a partner, a new chapter in Battlegrounds unfolds on April 16! 

Dragon's Dogma 2 creates 'fake' players to rent your Pawn if no one actually wants to hire them.

Today, we are looking at the DPS rankings during the week of March 26th for Wrath of the Lich King Classic in Icecrown Citadel. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Icecrown Citadel statistics. Warcraft Logs' Icecrown Citadel Statistics

Today, we are looking at the DPS rankings during the week of March 26th for Phase 2 of Season of Discovery in Gnomeregan. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Gnomeregan statistics. Warcraft Logs' Gnomeregan Statistics

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Season 3 kicks off today, April 3, and Activision has released patch notes revealing what to expect.

In, players can unlock Avatar Korra and themed cosmetics from. Korra is available to Battle Pass owners as part of the Avatar Set, but her quests will challenge even the most skilled and experienced players. To unlock the Avatar in, players must approach their matches with an aggressive playstyle geared towards fast-paced play.

Helldivers 2 has taken a new patch on PS5 and PC that adds new weather effects to the popular shooter and triples the maximum level. Having downloaded update 01.000.200, you'll have the chance to encounter blizzards and sandstorms while out on missions. Also, you can now grind your way up to level 150 while getting used to some balance changes across various mission types, weapons, and enemies.

Just when you think the Helldivers 2 Automaton warfront can't get any worse, the bots bring not one, but two new menaces to the battlefield. As flying Gunships shred players from the skies, new machine walkers called Factory Striders are also flattening democracy enthusiasts down on the ground. 

A new patch for Overwatch 2 rolled out Monday that promises a “really, really, really balanced” version of the game. That patch landed on April Fools’ Day, of course, bringing back googly-eyed heroes and a sweeping set of changes to characters’ abilities. It’s a chance for Overwatch 2 players to have a week’s worth of chaotic fun, and for Blizzard to test out some secretly very good tweaks to the game.

The minimalist roguelike “The Last Game” dropped a content update recently, bringing fresh faces, frosty foes, and fiery fun to your next playthrough.

Arrowhead Game Studios has released a new Helldivers 2 patch, which makes significant balance changes and adds two new planetary hazards.

The latest update for Helldivers 2 is here, and it ought to shake up the game in a fairly significant way. The big news is that the level cap is increasing from 50 all the way to 150. Meanwhile, Arrowhead Studios have also added a couple of new planetary hazards (blizzards and sandstorms), rebalanced a long list of weapons, tweaked the specifics of how certain missions work, and more.

There’s a big new update for Helldivers 2 with patch 1.000.200 out now on PS5 and PC and bringing a sweeping set of balance changes to missions, stratagems, weapons, enemies and Helldivers.

As if in reward for players’ victorious effort to liberate Malevelon Creek from the Automatons on Monday, Arrowhead Game Studios dropped a fairly significant patch for Helldivers 2 on Tuesday morning with a greatly raised level cap, new planetary hazards, and some significant across-the-board balance changes.

Helldivers 2 releases a new and bigger update for players which brings new gameplay elements, balancing to missions and weapons, as well as general adjustments and quality of life tweaks. The live service shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios continues to evolve since its launch back in February. Helldivers 2 has managed to achieve this through a combination of new updates and a dynamic world that is constantly in flux thanks to the push and pull of the players and enemy factions across the map.

Helldivers 2’s latest patch makes some significant changes to the game balance and adds more planetary hazards for players to contend with.

I, a fool, created my Dragon's Dogma 2 character with the aim of being a wizened wizardly type, focused on the mysterious Trickster build. Since then, however, I've come to the conclusion that I should have been an archer, a decision cemented by the existence of one particular ability - the Martyr's Bolt.

Senior Game Producer for World of Warcraft Tom Ellis has recently shared Blizzard's ideas on Wrath Classic realm consolidation ahead of Cataclysm Classic. They are looking for player feedback, and started out with explaining an idea they are toying with: Combining Faerlina-US and Benediction-US, two high-populated servers that are both weighted 99% in favor of one faction. «One Horde, one Alliance, and almost equal in player size.» In the very next paragraph however, Tom notes that there is a real problem in players on those two realms not necessarily wanting that kind of PvP experience. So the question is: what do the players on those servers want?

Today, we are looking at the DPS balance on Amirdrassil during the week of March 26th. For this analysis, we will use data provided by Warcraft Logs Raid statistics for Dragonflight Season 3. Mythic Amirdrassil Statistics Page

Blizzard has announced that there will be FCM from Chaos Bolt (US) to Crusader Strike (US). In addition, new players may not create new characters on Chaos Bolt. The move is not currently available as Blizzard investigates a bug with the system.

Stellar Blade is Sony’s big release for next month, but if you don’t want to wait, you can get a taste of the game today as a demo has just dropped (after being accidentally released for a minute earlier this month). The demo lets you experience the first chapter of the game or around one to two hours of gameplay. Check out a teaser trailer and a bit more detail, below.

The world of competitive Pokémon gets all the more exciting when you know which of these creatures together make the best teams. Have you mastered the skill of forming a squad that strikes fear into the hearts of opponents yet?

When Polygon asked Cody Ziglar for his favorite Deadpool story, he mentioned writer Fabian Nicieza’s foundational series Cable & Deadpool, naturally. But where he really waxed eloquent was when he talked about one single Deadpool scene in one single issue of Uncanny X-Force.

With the regained interest in completing Primal Storms due to the new A World Awoken meta-achievement, many players are finding themselves frustrated with a key component of this achievement, which requires them to complete Primal Storms in different Dragon Isles zones. The achievement in question is Storm Chaser, which is part of Into the Storm, which is part of Across the Isles, which is part of A World Awoken. This achievement, as we highlighted earlier this week, requires you to complete sixteen different Primal Storms, four different types of storms in the four original Dragonflight zones. In itself, that's an okay task. However, two issues are currently making this achievement exceedingly harder than when Dragonflight launched—the number of storms and their distribution.