Here’s a clip I made that shows how to level destruction in Skyrim.

Note that I have the Mage Stone buff in this video.

What you need:
• Fire Rune
• Firebolt
• A follower (Lydia, in this case)
• Access to High Hrothgar and one of the Greybeards

How it works:
• Cast Fire Rune on the floor. Hit it with Firebolt. Make sure that both your follower and the Greybeard are in the blast radius.
• Profit!
• Be careful. Blast them too often and the Greybeard will go hostile and/or the follower will quit/die.

Witcher 2 allows you to modify Geralt according to your liking. Modding his stats and abilities is a simple task thanks to an easy-to-read XML file. By the end of this guide you should become comfortable with editing Geralt to mold him to the witcher you want him to be.

Getting Started

1. Download this file. Name it as geralt_basic.xml.

2. Open it using a text or XML editor.

3. Lines in brackets like <this> are entries you can look for in the file.

4. What you’re looking at is my modified file. If you have a mod already installed it might have its own version of geralt_basic (check \<witcher 2 install folder>\CookedPC\abilities\). I recommend you edit that instead.

5. If you’re editing an existing geralt_basic then the min/max values are likely going to be different. That shouldn’t be a problem.

Editing Geralt

Let’s move on to a few notable entries:

<vitality mult="false" always_random="false" min="100" max="100"/>

The numbers determines how much health Geralt has.

Read more… »

Witcher 2 does a lot of things right. It’s a great RPG with solid combat, seamless crafting and an engaging world with its own lore and history. One of the things it does wrong is saving games. Simply put, Witcher 2 doesn’t care about hard drive space. It creates new files every time a game is saved. No overwriting is done.

Here’s the math. One save is equal to two files: a BMP picture and the actual save. Did you just quicksave five times on that mission? Congratulations. You just got ten new files. I’m not even counting autosaves yet.

There are two ways to manage your save games. The first one is obvious: browse to the save game folder and delete the files. This is certainly the recommended method if you want to delete multiple saves. However, it requires going back to Windows. Here’s something you can do in-game:

1. Press ESC and select Load.
2. Highlight the save game you want to delete.
3. Press the Delete key on your keyboard. Press Enter to confirm deletion.

This works on version 2.0 of the game.

EDIT: Quicksaves are overwritten. Autosaves are not. My bad, folks.

I’ve been working on a cheat sheet of sorts for Dragon Age 2. It contains popular, effective builds for all classes, tips and other useful information about the game. Obviously it’s simply a compilation of information. None of the actual material is mine. Credit goes to the original contributors, particularly the members of the Bioware forums.

You can view it here: http://goo.gl/k5W1j

Here’s my mage PvE build for Demon’s Souls. It borrows ideas from two existing builds: the Demon Mage and the VIT North Regalia. The concept is simple: have Magic high enough to deal decent damage on its own (without bonuses) and also have enough health to take advantage of the Morion Blade + Clever Rat’s Ring combo. The build is intended to make your toon a glass cannon.

This should bring you to SL 105. Vit 60 should give you decent health whether in soul or body form. I recommend equipping the Cling Ring in soul form while you’re getting used to the build. Int/Will 24 gives you 4 spell slots while 10 Faith grants 1 miracle, enough for Evacuate. I recommend Homing Soul Arrow and Fireball for the spell slots. HSA is your boss-killer while Fireball is for mobs. Replace the latter with Soul Ray or Flame Toss depending on the occasion, or in case you don’t have Fireball yet.

The Silver Coronet will help with the relatively low Int/Will score. I recommend you increase this once you have more souls to spare. The low score also explains why I recommend using a Wooden Catalyst. Needless to say, it’s going to be a must to boost this number further if you want to use an Insanity Catalyst instead.

As you can tell by now, the point of this build is to combine magic with the damage boost from the Morion Blade + Clever Rat’s Ring combo. For mobs, Fireball will be sufficient as your mainstay spell. Use Homing Soul Arrow for bosses. Use the Ring of Magical Sharpness and Kris Blade if you prefer to keep your health high, then reduce it with Makoto once you get to the boss. Even without the damage bonus, a score of 50 Magic is enough to cause substantial damage to your enemies.

• Until you get a good grasp of how World Tendency (WT) works, it’s a good idea to always commit suicide in the Nexus after defeating a boss. You’ll be in body form then and will cause WT to shift to black if you die in the area you’re in. To prevent this, head back to the Nexus, die there and then resume whatever you were doing. There is no WT shift if you die in soul form.

• Play offline if you’re concerned about your WT.

• While it sounds tedious to learn about WTs in a game that’s already difficult by default, it is in your best interest to strive for it as soon as possible. This is because certain events, quests, items and NPCs only appear during Pure White or Pure Black WT. Simply put, PWWT or PBWT = more loot.

• The simplest way to achieve PWWT (outside of server events, of course) is to keep killing bosses and then dying in the Nexus every time you gain body form. PBWT is even easier. Just keep dying in body form then use Stones of Ephemeral Eyes to gain it back. Note that the archstones in your menu won’t update their color until you get back to the Nexus.

[Image Source]

I’m just going to re-post something I wrote somewhere else here. It’s sort of a quick start gear guide (meaning where to find good gear early in the game) for Demon’s Souls:

• IMO, the best starting class is the Royal. Other than having an offensive spell available (Soul Arrow), you also get a Fragrant Ring (provides MP regen) by default. It makes killing even the tougher mobs possible.

• Get the Thief’s Ring ASAP. You’ll find it in the same ledge where you first find Prince Ostrava. Equip it. Mobs will have a harder time detecting you, making you less of a target.

• Buying a Heater Shield (2000 souls) from the Nexus blacksmith will let you block 100% of incoming physical damage. It’s better than most default shields. And while we’re at it, I suggest learning how to read the stats page (like knowing what the strength and dexterity requirements of a weapon are).

• After finishing 1-1 and opening the other zones, I suggest you go to 4-1 to get a Talisman of God (you’ll need it to cast Miracles AKA healing spells), a Crescent Falchion +1 (a good sword given your current level, see below) and a Regen Ring (HP regen).

• The skeleton mob in 4-1 is intimidating at first but he’s not too tough once you learn his attack. Keep your shield up, block his attack then counter with one of you own. Keep doing this (watch your stamina otherwise your block will fail when it reaches 0) until he dies. You also don’t want to get hit by his overhead swing. It’s slow, giving you time to roll out of the way. If it hits it’s guaranteed to stun you and leave you open for another attack. Just to give you an idea, the Crescent Falchion +1 you’ll get from this level should kill him in 3-4 swings (2 if you manage to land 2 R2 attacks). Read more… »