How do I obtain good rank as a grandmaster ice wizard?

Question from Blaze: MistShard

Hey Friendly,Blaze MistShard here, I was just wondering how to become a GOOD Rank Arena Master in the Arena as a Grandmaster Ice such as myself. Hope to hear a answer soon, Cya! ~Blazey Lazy~

I don't know if I have a good answer for you, but I do have a story!

Gather round, kids! It's story time from Friendly!

*pops popcorn*

Today's story is a scary tale of how I was soundly defeated in a 2v2 battle by a pair of grandmasters.

It was a good day in Wizard City (they're all good days in Wizard City) and I was out and about just doing my thing . . . being friendly . . . dancing for people . . . hanging out. When all of a sudden some purple text floated across my screen. It was an invitation to duel with an inexperienced grandmaster friend of mine who was a fire wizard. I said, "okies!" and she said, "OKIES!" and we went down to the arena, skipping and laughing the entire way. That's what you do in Unicorn Way . . . you skip and you laugh.

Anyway, we entered the arena and the mood was definitely different there. You know how it goes when you're sitting in front of the arena guards and everyone standing in there thinks they're number one and you're thinking, "NO! I'M NUMBER ONE!"

Anyway, we signed up for a duel and were whisked away to an available arena. Our opponents were an ice wizard and a fire wizard. Both had multiple pvp stripes by their names and we . . . we had none. My friends, this was to be a lesson in fast food service.

"Fast food service?" you ask? Yes, our team was the customer and we got served . . . and quickly. It was actually very pathetic. Here's what I remember of the duel.

(a stage hand in the distance whispers "CUE DREAM SEQUENCE" *FOG MACHINE*)


The other team had a "strategy." (I've preached the use of strategy before.) In other words, they had planned out a method of attack beforehand and used it on us. It was possibly the most beautiful execution of "win" I had ever seen before in Wizard101.

Now, I must remind you that this was back in the days where you could stun lock your opponents. So, the rules have changed a bit now . . . but I think you'll see where I'm going with this story.

1- The ice/fire combo began alternating shielding themselves and buffing their attacks. One round blading/trapping. One round shielding. over and over until they both had a full row of power pips.

Meanwhile my partner, the fire wizard, was doing things like wasting pips by casting vampire and I'm fumbling around only casting blades and traps, no shields. You can see where this is going, right?

2- The fire wizard unleashed a smoke screen spell (this minuses a ton of accuracy, so that you will most likely fizzle).

3- The ice wizard unleashed a Frost Giant (this does damage and stuns us)

we pass . . . because we're stunned.

4- The fire wizard unleashes a fire dragon (this does damage and puts a big 3 round DoT on both of us)

we try to cast, but we're debuffed with smoke screen and fizzle.

5- The ice wizard unleashes another Frost Giant (once again this does damage and stuns us) . . . it doesn't quite kill us because this time it's unbuffed . . . but it stuns us.

The DoT ticks away.

6- The fire wizard stuns us . . .

We are defeated from the DoT while we were stunned.

"Would you like fries with that? Thanks and come again!"

Nowadays there's something called stun block, so you can't be stunned twice in a row like that, but I have to tell you that there's a lot still to be learned from these guys.

What I liked about being served like this is that it was so beautifully executed. Casting smoke screen back to back with a frost giant meant that we had two rounds where we could basically do nothing but fumble around. The DoT from the fire dragon ticking away at us while we were stunned was brilliant. It was like you could do nothing but sit there and watch as you were soundly defeated.

Take from the story what you will (alternating buffs and shields . . . using stuns and chokes), but my main suggestion to you is find a partner and work out a strategy. I think ice wizards do best when they're paired with someone else.

My friend and I talked after our defeat and we decided to try a different strategy next time we dueled since we had seen that excellent service there.

If you want to become good at pvp, probably the best thing you can do is get out there and learn from what other people are doing.

I can't comment specifically on ice wizards too much, but I can tell you that you have all the right spells and EXCELLENT defensive powers to win a 1v1 easily. It's all in the execution. Your spell list seems tight from a distance: Ice armor, steal ward, minion, frost bite to break shields, colossus, tower shield, volcanic shield . . . ice wizzies have all the right stuff . . .

Feel free to comment and add your two cents my ice wizard friends!