Mystic Worlds

Back in WOW: The Entrenched Gorilla

While it needles me to find myself back in WOW, that’s what I’m playing.  I enjoyed my stint in W101 and even spent some quality time doing the PVP Arena.  Balance + Death + trickles of Storm are a fun combination to play in a team.  My only suggestion for KI in regards to PVP is please set a timer for when the match should end as a draw.  I was in a 2 v 2, where the system had matched two Life players against two Balance players that went on for 2+ hours!  OMG that’s way too long for a match.  Everyone was complaining but didn’t want to be the team to throw the match.  We would have been more than happy with a draw after 60 minutes!!!!  Trying to avoid the long drawn-out matches I started doing 1 v 1 and those can easily reach 45 to 60 minutes too. Yikes.

This time last year, I was doing a tri-box experiment in WOW.  My objective was to 5-box TBC content that I hadn’t seen - almost all of the instances.  When multi-boxing, a good percentage of 5-box teams are all of the same class or at least 4 of the same class.  My plan was to have a Paladin tank and 4 shadow priests.  Not an obvious choice, I did some research that showed Shadow Priest were workable because of their mana and health regeneration talents.  Fights that required burst damage could however, prove tricky.  The only caster classes I was interesting in playing were Priests or Warlocks.  Although I have a Druid, Boomkin isn’t a spec that’s ever appealed to me.

Ultimately, I decided on priests to avoid soul shard and pet management times 4.  Mage was also an early consideration.  I put a Mage in my trio but I quickly learned that I can’t stand Mage play-style.  And I do mean, I HATED IT!!  You couldn’t pay me to play a Mage as a main, that’s how much I dislike the class.  The plan was to ditch her ass in Outland for the Warlock.  I kept the Mage in the trio even once I realized how much I disliked it, as an option for certain encounters.  That decision necessitated she be moved off being a main account, to being included as a bundle so she could be swapped out as necessary or shelved altogether.  I transferred her to the account with the 70 Druid and Warlock.  Those three on an account would give me nice flexibility in slot 5.

Vacationing in Wizard101

Hello Dragonspyre
A post by Ravious on Kill Ten Rats brought back fond memories of Wizard101.  It’s funny how things turn out.  I expected to dislike Marleybone because of its perpetual nighttime but it ended up being my favorite zone by a landslide.  I was sure I’d adore Mooshu because of is bright zones, flowered landscapes and oriental styling but it was the zone I detested.  It also was taking too long to complete and felt significantly more repetitive than the previous zones.  I eventually gave up and unsubscribed.  The bad press coming out about Dragonspyre, the next zone I'd hit, didn’t help.

With nothing else on my horizon and an urge to play something, I decided I’d rather give my money and micro-transaction purchases to KingsIsle than the Robber Barons of Allods.  After re-subscribing it only took two short playing sessions to finish off Mooshu and depart that zone forever.  What I liked about W101 still stands.  I can jump on and only do a couple of quests or take on some instanced bosses when I have more time.

Bosses everywhere
A lot of new content and features have been added since I last played.  For one, every fight in Dragonspyre is like a mini-boss encounter.  I was VERY surprised the first time I stepped off the side walk to pick a fight.  No matter, I’ve adjusted my short deck accordingly and I’ve yet to die or use paid Henchman.

Wizard 101 - Downtime Friday April 24

Wizard101 Downtime
Wizard101 the game will be offline on Friday April 24 from 3:00am to 4:00am Central US Time. During this downtime you will not be able to log in to the game, and players in the game will be prompted to log out.

The website will also be unavailable during this downtime. Thank you for your understanding while we continually improve the game and the website for all our players.

Wizard 101 - Player Housing on Test Realm

Woot, news from the Wizard 101 Community Management staff...

Test Realm Opens to Preview Housing in Wizard101

To our Subscribers and players who have made a Crowns purchase in the last 30 days, we invite you to test out some of our new features on the Wizard101 Test Realm.<br /><br />

We will be looking to you to test out the following additions to Wizard101:

• Housing - Housing and housing item vendors can be found in all the worlds of the Spiral. Decorate your house or your Dorm room!
• Voice-overs have been added for Marleybone, MooShu and Dragonspyre
• Tips will appear to alert you to any items you have received as a reward.
• Run Speed modifiers can be found on Crowns items and as boss drops.
• Markers can now be placed that will allow you to recall back to a marked location.
• New messaging for Dungeons when you enter and if you log out while inside.
• New messaging for Quest drops such as 'Collect Armor'.
• Boat and Balloon rides are now optional.
• Friend Requests show more information about the character.
• The ghosts have fled from Firecat Alley and Triton Avenue to be replaced with different creatures.

If you see any issues with these or other features on the Test Realm, please use the Bug Report button in the game to let us know.

For more information on how to participate in the Test Realm, please see our Sneak Peek Page.

Wizard101 – Balance + Death = Traps + Feint + Leech Heals = Talent Respec FTW

The recently deployed Training Points reset micro-transaction feature inspired me to play Wizard 101 over the weekend.  I knew that I would drop Storm as my secondary and choose Death in its place.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted instead of Fire but I was certain I didn’t want it.  After gnawing on my choices for a long time – normal behavior on my part, I decided that Balance and Death would be best complimented by Ice for me.

Balance has my wonderful traps, de-buffs and reliable damage.  Death would bring Feint and damage with leech heals, two of which I always purchased as Treasure cards into my main deck.  Ice brings more reliable damage than Fire.  Like Fire, Ice also has the potential of capitalizing on a spare Element Blade after I’ve cast Spectral Blast.  I’ll equip a Fire wand to get a 0 PIP damage boost from the other EB buff versus using an Ice wand.  I dropped Fire because of the elevated failure chance and to stop the extra work of buffing them with + Accuracy cards.  Ice also brings a nice 50% damage reduction shield - Tower Shield.

W101: Training Points Reset Arrives!!!

If you’re like me and haven’t been keeping up on the recent patches this little bit of news might have escaped your notice.  The game patch released on April 13th added a Training Point reset option.  O-M-F-G!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This is a new lease on life for fans of Wizard 101.  Thank you so very much!

Selecting secondary and tertiary magic schools when you’re very new to the game is difficult.  You don’t even know the abilities of your primary school, let alone choose a complimentary secondary school of magic.  Moreover, you don’t know enough about your preferred play-style and combat strategy to make such choices.  Unfortunately, until now those choices were permanent. 

I agonized over my choices as I do in all games.  I played the ones that were of interest to me to level 10 and then created my main character.  For my secondary, I used the knowledge gained from testing the various classes and asked around.  That’s still not enough to make those choices that early in the game.  It was MANY levels later when my personal combat style emerged and when it did, I knew that I’d made the wrong choice for how I preferred to play.

Wizard101: Downtime April 16th @ 3AM Central

Just received via email from KingsIsle Community Management...

Wizard101 the game will be offline on Thursday April 16 starting at 3:00am Central US time and lasting for approximately one hour.

During this time players will not be able to log in to the game, and players who are in the game at that time will be prompted to log out.

During this downtime we are addressing the issue with players who found their Crowns items were not granting the health bonus that they previously gave.

Thanks to all our players who alerted us to this discrepancy.

Wizard101 Hits 1 MILLION PLAYERS - free drinks for all!

Wow, this is great news for KingsIlse and Wizard101.  They are very thankful for players continuing to spread the word about this great game.  I know several bloggers who just adore the game, myself included, who are happy to see other MMO lovers giving this would-be child's game a try.

To celebrate this milestone, they have given all accounts free crowns to spend.  I'm looking forward to purchasing some Valentine's Day fluff!!  This is one of the things I love about this game.  I'm more excited about the no stats fluff items than I am "real" gear.  If you haven't played this week (me) make sure to log-in and claim your gift of appreciation.  Be prepared for a download/patch.

I was going to predict something in a later post and still will do it.  Based on the quality, fun-factor and relative polish of these new F2P/RMT games, I believe that Runes of Magic is going to dwarf this number, and I do mean active account/characters.

Perfect Storm and Ding 40!

As much as I’d love to believe that there’s another game waiting in the wings with the exhilarating combination of light-hearted fun, white-knuckle encounters, challenging quest chains, engaging storyline, grind-optional content and grind-optional gear, all rolled into casual friendly package like Wizard101, I’d be a happy gamer.  But there isn’t.  W101 isn’t perfect but man it’s hitting my sweet spot these days.

In how many other MMOs have I had this much fun leveling?  How many opportunities have I had to pick out clothes and run around looking like this?  Don’t let the cute looks fool you.  My Balance Wizard kicks ass and doesn’t bother with taking names.  And so does this supposedly, kid-targeted game.

W101 - Meeting Friends

I really hope that adding people to your Friends List is made less annoying some day.  A ton of people I don't know and don't want on my list, are free to plague me constantly with requests.  While adding the people I want on my list is this huge outside of game coordination plan.  This is the first game I've played where you actually have to be able to select the person and them confirm the addition, before someone can be added to your list.  What about holding the confirmation until the next time they log in or something like Windows Instant Messenger?  I know that would be code heavy so maybe some unique key that I can give someone that would allow them to add me without requiring me to be present?  I don't know but something other than this having to use blogs and emails to coordinate when and where to hook-up just to exchange Friends Lists.

I can understand the confirm part - to a small degree.  I'm sure it's there to protect children but you could have a control to flat-out disable them from exchanging lists if their parents are concerned.  And honestly, I don't think it's protecting anyone.  Kids are running around spamming strangers with Friends List invites all day long anyway. 

Anywho, Winged Nazgul aka Warrender aka Ronan and I, met up in game the other night to exchange lists.  We're not leveling in the same zone but much like when I first hooked up with Capn John, it's just nice to have another adult to IM with occasionally while questing.  Hopefully, we can coordinate a Sunken City run soon.  It's one of the few instances that absolutely can't be soloed.  Maybe at the new level cap it can but even that might not be possible.  Tipa came to help me do it.  Capn John hasn't seen it yet either so we'll need to find a mutually convenient time.

I laughed inside when I saw Ronan.  Having played WAR with him, I know that he's a great in game companion and considerate player.  I've heard him on vent too where he is very unassuming.  I was surprised to see him turn up looking all evil-emo.  I know this game won't be for everyone but it's so cute and refreshingly fun - as in drama free fun.  Kiddie game or not the mostly drama-free part really hit the spot.