Thursday, July 15, 2010

What if I'm feeling conflicted over my class choice?

Question here from Sapphire Eyes 4 u:
"How can I continue being in a school that I hate.

I have been playing wizard101 since last year and I don’t have one single grandmaster and I see that many people have a lot like MiltonTS and others that I have seen on wizard101central. I Feel like a failure and a loser for not having one GM. I love the storm school the spells are powerful and I want a powerful school , but I hate storm because of the low health and accuracy, and I hate when I lose to 135 health creatures in Unicorn Way.

I tried being life and ice and realize I only choose the school because they can be my security blanket ( life can heal and ice has tower and ice armor and can help me to not be defeated and feel like a loser.

Now when I fail I delete my wizard and create a whole new account and I have over 15 accounts ( some are old and some are new).

I Love Storm and I Hate Storm and I don’t think I can be in a school that gets defeated easily and I don’t know what to do.

How can I be in a school that I hate and love ?

I need your advice.

Here's the best advice I can give to you: If you're struggling, then team up with a life wizard.

The second best advice I can give you: With Storm wizards, +accuracy% items are going to be a better choice than +damage% items when selecting gear.

The third best advice is go ice to tower shield and go life to satyr for your secondaries. It sounds like you like the life saving skills of both of those classes, so use those to your advantage then! You can be a storm wizard and save your own behind.

Fourthly, you'll get some people who will say that the +10% accuracy boost to storm spells from Lightning strike is no good, but I don't subscribe to that, it's a great spell. (and if you team up with a Life Wizard, perhaps you won't have to cast that spell and instead they'll cast their +10% accuracy Guidance spell on you. I used to have Amber cast Guidance on Kyle all the time. Sometimes I'd even double up! Guidance + Lightning Strike).

Fifth, as for dying on Unicorn Way, don't worry, it happens. I've played both a storm wizard and an ice wizard up to GM. Comparing the two, I have to say that ice was more of a challenge than storm. The low damage output was killing me at first.

It's kind of funny, sometimes I think Wizard City is harder than any of the other worlds. Mobs are casting 1 and 2 pip spells over and over at you when you have low life to begin with. It's just a constant barrage unlike some of the other worlds where you have a round or two to build a defense, and under eighth level you're lacking shields. It can be especially brutal if you're the first in a circle, almost ready to finish your fight, and two or three more wizards join in. If you heal up, it's very easy to grab the attention of the new mobs and then it can mean defeat.

In other words, I think the game actually gets easier until you hit Dragonspyre (which now they've gimped a bit). Meh. I digress. (If you can suffer through Wizard City, I think you'll like Storm a bit better.)

Sixth, I mentioned those shield spells above . . . don't forget those shield spells! If you're going ice to tower shield, you'll also be picking up Volcanic Shield along the way. That's a great one. You'll also have thermic shield at level 8 from your class too.

Seventh, please don't compare yourself to MiltonTS. haha. That's a little unfair. Milton is an expert on leveling a wizard and is therefore the extreme example. I know of a few wizards who have been playing since beta and haven't hit Grandmaster yet because they like to take things slow and really get to know the particulars of the game. Matthew from Wikia is a good example of that. He's helping the community through information gathering. Truly noble in his own right, and AFAIK not one GM (he might be getting close now). But, it's by his own rules. So, please, try not to compare yourself to the extremes.

You know, there's a weird thing that happens when a person plays an MMO where they start to feel respected and powerful as they climb to the top. You've got to realize that this is all an illusion. A very strong illusion when you're playing the game, but an illusion nonetheless. When you turn off the computer, I hope you realize what a strong and powerful person you are in the real world and don't need to be a GM to feel awesome about yourself. If not, you may need to work on that first. Not saying that you do (since I really don't know you), it's just . . . if you're awesome in real life, it doesn't matter what you're like in game. You're just here to have fun. Enjoy the challenges!

word.

Lastly, 15 accounts? You sound like maybe you're becoming an expert on Wizard City. :-) Defeat happens. This isn't like DiabloII hardcore rules or anything. Just focus on one and take the good with the bad. There would be a lot less GM's if we all deleted our characters upon defeat. I don't think I'd have a single GM. ;-)

I'm sure my readers will have more insights on this one. To the comments with you!

Happy Dueling!

10 comments:

Fist of Fire said...

Wizard city and krok aren't very nice places to be a storm wizard. In those worlds, try and get lots of health, resist, and accuracy. Try and do all the side quests possible.

When you get to marleybone though, everything changes. At level 30, get the best health, damage, and accuracy gear from the bazaar. Get lots of power pips and damage. Change your strategy from trying to survive, to kill everything before it can kill me. You've got spells like tempest and kraken, so you can deal out quite a bit of damage.

M.W.S said...

Gotta agree with Friendly, don't hate your school/class.

Blaze Deathcaster said...

I think Friendly and First of Fire are spot on but I'll add my experience too. I got so frustrated with my storm wizard fizzling (6 times in a row?!) that I abandoned him as soon as he got to Krokotopia and created a death character that is now in Dragonspyre. I eventually went back to that storm wizard though and learned a lot as I got him to Mooshu. And once I got some level 30 or 35 gear that improved accuracy, everything changed. Now I have the power of storm with 82% accuracy and the Tempest spell (at level 28) is just amazing.

I suggest you stick with one character that you like the most and just keep working toward your goal. Do every side quest for the experience points and try to enjoy the journey.

I tend to prefer soloing but am learning that teaming with even one more person really helps a lot, especially for the more extreme schools like storm and life. Don't be afraid to ask to join others or to have them give you a hand with a quest. Lots of us don't mind spending a few minutes to help someone else with a quest.

Blaze Deathcaster (Level 48 Death)
Blaze Windrunner (Level 36 Storm)

Kevin BattleBlood said...

A small tip to consider for the letter writer: With MMO games, before I choose a class that I think is "powerful" or "cool," I sit back and think about what role I would feel more comfortable in: someone others can depend on? (healer, tank, support) Someone who ends combat? (high damage dealer?) Someone who plays a vital part in turning the tides of combat around? (disabler, status modifier).

Keep in mind that all strengths and weaknesses of every school change as you go further and further into the game, but their responsibilities are strongly consistent. Storm has very low accuracy and health at first, but as they become Grandmasters, fizzling becomes more of an annoyance than a battle-changing burden...but they are still speedy killers, no matter their level.

Thus, do not let the beginning of the game intimidate or influence your decision about your school. Choose what you -want- to be, and commit to that. Also, ask around for tips from higher levels of that same school on how to overcome obstacles!

With Ravenwood Radio's Study Hall segments, you have an additional source of information from experienced users of each school (Ice, Myth, and Life are out so far, so only 4 more to go!), and you even get to hear more of what the class does at later levels!

Good luck in your pursuits!

person said...

I know Matthew from Wikia as I work on the site as an editor (though lately I have been lacking)and I can tell you not even a week ago on Twitter he posted he finally got to Grandmaster after over a year of playing. Don't worry bout leveling and being powerful so much I have only one GM and currently am working - very slowly on a Storm wizard who I've had for a few months and he is only level 16 just enjoy the game heck if you need a questing friend send me an E-mail I'm always glad to help someone or request assistance from a group like Mercenaries 4 hire.

Alric Ravensinger
bersrkdragon@yahoo.com

The Ravenhunter said...

As everyone else has stated, not everyone has a Grand. Heck, I started playing 2 weeks after the game released and I still don't have a GM!(But I'm getting close though)

1. Don't compare to the extremes. Period.

2. 15 Accounts?!?

3. I agree with Fist of Fire.

4. I may be of assistance if you need someone to help you with your wizards. (Not all 15 accounts worth)

A. said...

Oh no! MiltonTS left 101!

Autumn HexRider said...

Here is my advice (if you have subscribe or you bought a part of the game)

Try to find someone that has reached Moo Shu, and is willing to help you. Ask him or her to take you to an instance (like Tree of Life, it's short) and, for example, my storm wizard which was level 1 became level 13 just by doing Tree of Life or Crimison fields (i don't exactly remember). Now it's easier to finish Wizard City and i have a higher health and powerful spells that help me in some of the fights. Hope that helps. ^^

Johnist said...

wow... 15 Accounts? Why not just run 2 of them at the same time, a Life and Storm wizard?

Also, while Friendly is correct that the +10% accuracy spells are nice and useful and they do stack, you need to realize some things about Charms VS Gear in the Accuracy Department.

Gear Accuracy increases the SOLID NUMBER on the Card, much like Keen Eyes, etc. Charm Accuracy increases/decreases based on a scale of the current % on the card.

Example: Life wizard uses Guidance, then Fizzles Satyr the next round. How is this? I had +10% Accuracy on 90%! Well, that +10% was 10% of 90, which put it to 99%.

This is, of course, compared to the Overlord Set which gives +10% Accuracy to everything. The Overlord Set raises that Satyr to 100% and makes it unable to be fizzled without an Accuracy Debuff such as Black Mantle.

Now that the lesson on Charm VS Gear % is over, I'd like to say that yes, it is possible to run multiple wizards on 1 computer. I run 3 at once on my new computer. It's a Dual Core 2.5 GHz AMD Athalon II with 5 GB RAM (broken into 2.5GB Video and 2.5GB System). I'm able to run 2 in LIVE and 2 in TEST at the same time with this machine, which means you could in theory work 4 wizards in LIVE at the same time... be your own '1-man-band'... Of course, I run my game in Window mode (Full Screen OFF).

Again, don't hate yourself or your wizards. When i first started my pyromancer on my first account, I sometimes got defeated. Now, I've got 2 GMs (not trying to make you feel bad) and a bunch of Low levels that I'm working up.

Good Luck on your adventures in the Spiral. Loremaster out.

Autumn said...

I'm the girl who wrote friendly and this goes to fist of fire and mike.

Fist of fire - if i cant stand to be a storm wizard and i cant take being defeated i will never make it to level 30. so don't tell me to wait to marleybone. I cant make it out of unicorn way without giving up.

Mike - All i want is one character now and i want to put all my time into this one character but i cant decide what school i want to be and i cant be storm i cant get defeated by enemies in unicorn way.
Its embarrassing and i just cant do it