Electric Airship

Endgame Spirit Walker feels a bit odd at first, because you're not trying to be the hero with the biggest hit. You're the one steering the mess. Once Red Maps start pushing back, the Zookeeper setup becomes much cleaner if you build around physical scaling, minion levels, and the right PoE 2 Items instead of chasing random damage rolls. The star is the Bleed Bird. It's huge, it bumps into doorways now and then, and yes, it can be annoying in narrow tiles. Still, when it connects, packs fall apart and bosses start bleeding through phases faster than you'd expect.

Why the Bleed Bird takes over
The early Ice Yeti can carry you for a while, but it doesn't keep the same pace once armour, boss health, and map pressure climb. The Bleed Bird wins because its physical hits cover space and scale well with attack speed. Rapid Attacks keeps it moving. Feeding Frenzy makes it more aggressive. Muster helps the army stay active, while Heft and Incision push the bleed plan harder. You're not stacking clever little tricks here. You're making one brutal companion hit often, hit wide, and leave enemies losing life while you stay out of trouble.

The support army matters more than it looks
A good Zookeeper doesn't just summon a big bird and hope. Skeleton Snipers are there to shred armour with poison through Corrosion, Multishot, Deadly Poison, and Bidding. Skeleton Mages bring another key layer: electrocution. If you can reserve enough Spirit for two mages, your companions gain a massive damage window against affected enemies. Skeleton Clerics are less flashy, but you'll miss them the second they're gone.

Use Vulnerability before hard rares and bosses, not after the fight has already turned messy.
Keep Pain Offering ready for burst windows when the bird is already attacking.
Don't over-chase damage if your Clerics are dying too quickly.

Passive choices that make the build feel stable
The left side of the tree keeps you alive with Evasion and Deflection, because standing still in high maps is how you lose portals. The right side is where the setup starts to feel like a real endgame build. Trusted Kinship is the big one, since it lets you run two companion types together. After that, reservation efficiency becomes almost as important as damage. More Spirit means more utility, more mages, and fewer awkward compromises.

Build pieceMain jobWhy players care
Bleed BirdPhysical bleed damageClears packs and pressures bosses
Skeleton MagesElectrocution setupBoosts companion damage windows
Skeleton SnipersArmour breakingHelps physical hits land harder
Skeleton ClericsMinion sustainKeeps the army alive in long fights

Gearing the commander
For gear, start with a strong physical spear. A high-roll Broad Spear with heavy physical damage gives the bird plan a real backbone, and added lightning is a nice extra. A sceptre with plus minion skills and attack speed fits well in the off-hand. Helmet and amulet slots should aim for more minion skill levels, while armour pieces need life, resistances, and evasion. Don't ignore attributes either. Level nineteen gems can be greedy, so a ring with strong all-attribute rolls saves a lot of frustration. If you'd rather skip some of that hunt and buy PoE 2 gear for the missing slots, focus first on minion levels, resist caps, and the attribute piece that lets the whole setup actually function.

Ask ten players how to hit better in MLB The Show 26 and most of them will start talking about PCI size, camera angles, and tiny stick movements. Fair enough. Zone hitting is popular for a reason. Still, there's another way to build a serious offence, especially if you'd rather read pitches than chase a moving cursor. Directional Hitting lets you keep your head clear, time the ball, and use the hitter's strengths. If you're grinding lineups, saving for cards, or managing MLB 26 stubs, it's a style that can make every good swing feel a lot less wasted.

Why Directional Hitting Still Works
Directional Hitting isn't just the "easy" setting people like to dismiss. It changes what you're responsible for at the plate. You're not trying to drag a PCI to the exact spot of a cutter diving late. You're watching the pitch, choosing whether it's worth swinging at, and timing your input. That sounds simple, but simple doesn't mean weak. A lot of players lose at-bats because they panic with the PCI, jam it too far, or miss a pitch they already guessed correctly. Directional removes some of that noise. If a pitcher hangs a slider over the middle, you can punish it without fighting your own thumb first.

Hitting Style
Main Focus
Best For

Directional
Timing and pitch selection
Patient hitters who want cleaner swings

Zone
PCI placement and timing
Players with fast stick control

Timing
Swing timing only
Casual play and lower-pressure modes

Patience Is The Whole Trick
The catch is obvious once you've used it for a few innings. You can't swing at junk and expect magic. Directional Hitting leans more on player attributes and swing timing, so bad decisions still get punished. Chase a slider in the dirt and you'll roll it over. Reach for a fastball above the zone and you'll probably pop it up. The best approach is boring, in a good way. Take pitches. Make the other player throw strikes. After a while, they'll miss their spot, because everyone does. That's when Directional starts to feel nasty.

Small Habits That Make A Big Difference
You don't need a complicated plan, but you do need a repeatable one. I'd keep it clean and stick to a few habits every game.

Look for one area early in the count, not the entire strike zone.
Use power swings only when you're ahead and sitting on a mistake.
Push or pull the ball based on the hitter, not just the pitch location.
Stop swinging at borderline pitches with runners on unless you have to protect.
Pay attention to patterns, because most online pitchers repeat themselves under pressure.

Once those habits settle in, the mode feels much less random. You'll start noticing which pitchers live low and away, who spams inside sinkers, and who gets nervous after a long at-bat. That's where wins come from. Not from mashing the button. From making the other person uncomfortable.

A Smarter Way To Score Runs
Directional Hitting won't turn every weak-contact batter into a legend, and it won't save you from awful pitch selection. But it can make your offence steadier. Fewer missed meatballs. Fewer strikeouts caused by overcorrecting the PCI. More hard contact when you actually get the pitch you wanted. For players building a squad, testing new cards, or deciding where to spend MLB stubs, that reliability matters because a clean approach at the plate can be just as valuable as another power bat in the lineup.

You don't really feel the pressure of the Ever After album until the gaps get tiny. At first, stickers fly in from green packs and random rewards, and it feels easy. Then you're staring at one missing gold card and three awkward four-stars, wondering where all your dice went. That's why players who treat the album like a plan, not a side task, tend to do better. The same mindset helps during the Monopoly Go Partners Event, where saving resources and picking the right moment matters more than simply rolling because you're bored.

Wild Stickers Are Worth Planning Around
If you're one or two cards away from closing a set, a Wild Sticker is the prize you should be watching for. It lets you choose the exact sticker you need, which is a massive deal when packs keep handing you duplicates. Dig events are often the best route. You collect pickaxes, clear boards, and push through stage after stage. It can feel slow, especially in the middle levels, but the top reward is often where the real value sits. Don't burn dice chasing every tiny prize, though. Check how many tools you need, how far you are from the next milestone, and whether the main reward actually helps your album.

Use Dice When The Board Is Paying Back
High multipliers can be great, but only when the event tiles make sense. Rolling at x100 just because you've got dice is how people end up broke before the next good tournament. A better move is to wait for top-bar events that reward the tiles you're already likely to hit. If railroads, pickups, or corner spaces are scoring points, adjust your rolling around that. Some players like to roll low until they're six to eight spaces away from a target, then raise the multiplier. It's not magic, but it keeps your dice from vanishing in ten minutes.

Album GoalBest MoveWhy It Helps
Missing one rare cardSave for a Wild StickerYou avoid relying on random packs
Need several mid-tier stickersTrade daily duplicatesSteady progress without spending dice
Need more packsPlay during strong eventsMilestones often give better rewards
Low on diceSkip weak tournamentsYou protect resources for better windows

Wheel Boosts Can Quietly Carry You
Sticker hunting isn't only about dice. Cash matters too. When a Color Wheel Boost is active, building at the right time can turn your saved money into extra spins and, with luck, more sticker packs. A lot of players waste this by upgrading landmarks as soon as they can. I'd rather hold cash, wait for the boost, then build fast across several boards. It's a bit risky because shutdowns can hit your bank, but if you're active and paying attention, the payoff can be much better than opening a few basic packs from normal play.

Trading Fills The Gaps Packs Won't
Random packs will not be kind every day. That's just how Monopoly Go works. Trading groups help smooth out the bad luck, especially when you've got spare four-star or five-star stickers sitting there doing nothing. Post clearly, name the set, and don't make people guess what you need. Fair trades move faster, and daily trade limits mean you should use them with care. Players who mix trading, event rewards, and smart dice use usually finish stronger. If you're also watching resource-heavy events such as buy Monopoly Go Partner Event, it's even more important to pace yourself, keep useful duplicates, and save your biggest pushes for rewards that actually close album sets.

The first stretch of Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5.0 has been messy in the best way. Players aren't just following one script; they're testing, failing, swapping gems, and checking what the ladder is actually proving. Early trade-league data from high-experience characters shows a clear lean toward fast, safe starters, especially for anyone trying to farm maps and build up PoE 2 Items before prices settle. Spears sit way out in front, while bows, crossbows, and quarterstaffs all have real numbers behind them. This isn't a perfect picture of the whole league, of course. Day-one ladders always reward builds with good guides and simple gearing. Still, when more than eleven thousand level 70-plus characters point in the same direction, it's worth paying attention.

What the ladder is showing
The weapon split tells the story pretty quickly. Spears are the big winner, used by close to 29% of the tracked upper-level players. Bows and quivers follow at about 18.5%, then crossbows at 15%, with quarterstaffs sitting near 11%. Ascendancy choices are just as telling. Spirit Walker is leading at a little over 21%, Deadeye is right behind, and Martial Artist has landed in third with roughly 17.5%. That last number is interesting because Martial Artist is everywhere in the lower brackets, but it starts losing ground once characters push into the tougher middle stretch.

CategoryEarly 0.5.0 TrendWhat it means
SpearNearly 29% usageThe safest meta weapon so far
Bow and QuiverAbout 18.5% usageStill strong for ranged progression
CrossbowAround 15% usageGrenade setups are carrying hard
Spirit WalkerOver 21% of high-level charactersBest fit for the current top spear build

The spear build everyone noticed
Whirling Slash paired with Twister is the build people expected to be good, and it didn't disappoint. More than 2,700 players have already taken it beyond level 70, with nearly 500 pushing past level 85 in the first day's data. It's almost always tied to Spears, and Spirit Walker is the cleanest home for it. You can run it on Martial Artist or even Deadeye, and some players are doing just that, but the numbers favour Spirit Walker. The build has speed, damage, and enough control to keep moving when the campaign and early endgame start hitting back.

Crossbows and the Martial Artist wall
Grenade Crossbow builds have been the quieter success story. They didn't get the same pre-patch noise, yet over 1,000 players have reached level 70 with them, and around 170 have crossed level 85. The best part is flexibility. Witchhunter is popular, sure, but Gemling Legionnaire, Deadeye, Tactician, and Amazon all show up with solid results. Martial Artist feels different. It's fun early, and people clearly wanted to try it, but the class hits a rough patch near level 65. Common pain points include.

Interlude monsters dealing more damage than many fresh setups can handle.
No single agreed-upon meta build for players to copy.
Too much experimentation slowing down efficient levelling.
Only a little over 1% of level 50 Martial Artists reaching level 85 so far.

Plant Mage is still alive
Plant Mage hasn't taken over the league, but it's doing better than some expected. The setup plays like a physical spellcaster, leaning on Entangle, Thrashing Vines, and Thunderstorm to lock packs down and chip them apart. More than 400 players have pushed it past level 70, which is enough to call it real, not just a novelty pick. It used to be tied more closely to Disciple of Varashta, but in 0.5.0 the stronger results are coming from Lich and Oracle. If you're planning a second character or saving currency for Path of Exile 2 Items, this archetype is worth watching because balance shifts could push it higher.