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.
Tweaking my short and long decks to incorporate the new cards took a little bit of time to finesse. How I fight when I’m doing ordinary mobs 2v1, compared to a boss or elite encounter that is 2v1 is very different. Tweaking the decks to get my critical cards in my hands early took a few fights. I did several quests in Mooshu. Once a new boss encounter was unlocked I farmed it a few times until I liked my deck composition. My youngest daughter happened to stop by while I was playing and thought the game looked fun. She’s going to download the client and give the game a whirl. It would be sweet fun if she ends up liking it.
I've been meaning to try a balance character (if for no other reason than that a lot of badass level ten balance gear is sitting in my shared bank), but I haven't been able to decide what secondary to focus on with it.
I tried Wizard 101 based mainly on the positive buzz about it in the blogosphere, and I'm glad that I did. Quite refreshing.
Posted by: Yeebo | April 20, 2009 at 06:44 PM
Eerie, how you read my mind on build strategy, Saylah. Balance/Death/ice for me as well, for the same reasons. I've played that from the outset for that character, though, and I've loved it.
...of course, now I do have to wonder if the game is a bit imbalanced. Death in particular just seems a bit overpowered. I don't particularly mind that, but I'd be curious to see some data mining on the numbers behind the scenes over at KI. Things like how many people play what school, damage averages between schools over time, damage taken between schools, that sort of thing. I get the sense that the "fizzle rate/power" ratio that gave Storm big punches actually winds up getting its students killed more often than other schools, meaning more frustrating running around. Group composition might be interesting, too. A Storm student hiding behind an Ice student would play differently than a Balance/Life pair. Looking at those numbers would be interesting, too.
Posted by: Tesh | April 20, 2009 at 07:16 PM
TO be fair, though, I started my current main wizard after seeing how much fun you had with Balance. (I played Balance in the beta, then tried Myth on live for a change of pace... only to go back to Balance.) I'm just noting how our thoughts on secondary and tertiary classes lines up.
Posted by: Tesh | April 20, 2009 at 07:18 PM
@Yeeboo - I tried based on the buzz to and am so glad that I did. It's interesting, refreshing and has lots of opportunity for strategic play for adults.
@Tesh - I'd like to see the numbers too. But I expect that there are a lot of Storm players because it's the big damage school. Like me, they wouldn't have known how unreliable it can be or the amount of work/time needed to keep the 3 to 5 PIP spells configured as Treasure Cards to improve accuracy. So they'd have been stuck with Storm like I was until now.
Death might be a tad OP since it's non-leech cards do decent damage on top of having the leech heals. All of the schools can solo well so it's hard to tell. Tipa (Life) and Capn John (Death) had a little less trouble than I did soloing some of the epic storyline bosses like Katz and closing out Kroko. Where as Balance/Storm had some really close calls and inopportune fizzles back-to-back.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | April 21, 2009 at 09:17 AM
Yeebo, did you say "shared bank"? When did W101 implement shared banks? I assume this is just between characters on the same account, yes?
Saylah, I originally stayed away from Feint because I mis-interpreted it to mean I'd take the same amount of damage as I dished out, but then I realized just how devastating a buff/debuff spell it is, especially when used in conjunction with Vampire and Wraith Life-Drain spells. Mwah hah ha!
Maybe I should start playing W101 again :P
Posted by: Capn John | April 21, 2009 at 10:34 AM
@Capn John: I assume it's just between characters on the same account. It's in the chest in your personal house (which functions largely as a bank as near as I can tell).
Posted by: Yeebo | April 21, 2009 at 10:50 AM
@Capn - Doh, you're further behind in the game news than I was. Yep shared bank across accounts came in a couple to three patches ago. Player housing isn't far behind. They will soon be adding the actual NPCs to the game that will be selling the homes in the various worlds. This means it's CLOSE AT HAND. Oh my!
You're not alone in that misinterpretation of Feint because the text that flies up when you're in battle flashes 70% on you when you cast it. I think it's the 70% plus damage buff but many players have misinterpreted it as 70% damage trap on you AND the mob. They need to fix it to be clearer.
Feint + any blade or trap had me doing 1600+ damage from Ele Spectral which was sahweet!
Posted by: Saylah | April 21, 2009 at 12:34 PM
I think I have some screenshots of 2,000+ hits on Mooshu Mobs that were susceptible to Death Damage (or Life, when I converted my damage via Death Prism).
2K+ hit = death to my opponent, plus 1K+ heal to me. The Necromancer class is very cool ;)
Posted by: Capn John | April 21, 2009 at 04:06 PM
Okay, so it was a little more than a 2K Feint-enhanced Wraith hit. In fact, it was 3,459 to be precise. And here's a picture ;)
http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/4233/wraith3459.jpg
Posted by: Capn John | April 22, 2009 at 12:00 AM
@Capn - Whoa, that's sweet. Isn't big pew-pew fun! LOL After a hard day at work running around beating stuff up feels relaxing.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | April 22, 2009 at 09:59 AM
As you can see from my health pot in the bottom left of that screen shot my total health is probably about 2K or so. Not only is the big pew-pew fun, but for Necromancers like myself, it's delicious and nutritious! :D
Posted by: Capn John | April 22, 2009 at 02:51 PM