Angus vs. The Labyrinth -- Ding 48

It's true! Angus bested The Labyrinth! He also dinged 48 out of the whole business as well.Woot! Stormlord here I come!

Was it easy? HECKHOUND NO! The Labyrinth alone for a regular character is a tedious experience. Any dungeon that warns you it's going to be a two-hour experience at the get-go is basically telling you to clear your schedule--this is going to be a while. Well solo on a no clothing storm wizard was . . . extremely long and, yes, painful. I think it took me a total of 3-4 hours to complete. I was sitting on the ground playing on a laptop for the entire time, and I was ready to be done by the end. MORE than ready to be done. Here's a quick breakout of how the instance played out:

I wasn't having too much difficulty at first. The Silver Sentinel went down easy, and I crossed the lava with no difficulty.

The next duel with Zora seemed likewise just as easy, which is strange. I figured her balance minion would give me more issues with shields, weakness, and traps, but my Storm minion played exactly as I wanted it to and life was easy.

Then came Andor Bristleback . . . let me tell you, he was truly a jerk to Angus. Look at him, thinking he's all super suave and stormy!

He didn't take it easy on me, and it took me four tries until I could finally overcome him. I totally felt like Ash getting rejected and made fun of by a Pokemon Connoisseusse (Burgundy is so sassy). Painful.

Since Andor is storm and he's paired with a myth minion, it's an insanely difficult fight for Angus due to the shields and damage output. He was relentless as well with his damage. What finally saved the day was a fortify treasure card played at exactly the right time after a lucky streak of pips helped me take out Andor's sidekick before he could play a storm shield. Fortify helped me withstand the relentless onslaught of storm spells from Andor until my storm minion buddy could grab agro. In essence, it was almost the fight that stopped Angus in his tracks.

BUT THE SHOW MUST GO ON!

Devora was a pushover (as always).

The Property master . . . made me fight him twice. A storm boss paired with a balance minion. yeesh.

The Gallium Paladin . . . made me fight him twice in two long battles. He plays defensively (like Angus) and is also paired with a myth minion, so the shields made for a battle that by the end had Angus earning 240ish experience points just for casting so many cards. LOL.

The Dean . . . made me fight him twice. I shouldn't have had as many problems with this fight as I did, but he has a surprisingly high damage output for a death boss, and at 8k hit points, it's a long fight. I can attest that his natural attack is pretty painful, and especially for a character sporting 1100 health.

It was worth it though because he dropped a Boss Banshee for me WOOT!

That'll go nicely in the shared bank!

I was so exhausted by the whole experience that I'm going to have to probably recruit uber wife's help to get back in to the instance to get the chest for Ashley's follow-on quest. I usually have someone sit in the instance and hold it open so I can finish grabbing that obsidian chest in the Dean's cell, but Angus takes too long to get things done, and I was done for the day. I'll make it happen :)

So this seems crazy, but Malistaire truly is just a couple zones away now! Will that finally be the instance Angus can't overcome? I don't know . . . Angus always seems to have a treasure card up his sleeve that makes the difference. :)

Happy dueling!

TFN Jaguar Mount Giveaway!

Hey again gang,

It's Bailey Skystaff, and KingsIsle has been kind enough to pass along some codes for a shiny new Jaguar mount! Did you get a chance to see these on the test realm? They're awesome!

It's like I'm riding a BMW with Jaguar interior ... only it's Jaguar exterior!

Wanna know something about Jaguars? Jaguars have a strong enough jaw they can bite through a human's skull. (Um, Amber told us that. She's a master of useless factoid knowledge.)

All you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter entry below (which includes tweeting a special message to get you entered into the contest) by Monday and we'll pick the winners on Tuesday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Thanks everyone!

Happy dueling!

Angus -- Ding 47

Angus dinged 47 this morning!

Yeah, I've been playing him again. :) Angus is currently hanging out in the Cruicible in Dragonspyre . . . still no clothes on . . . still holding a starter wand and starter deck . . . still throwing out hits like this:

Back in March I was playing Angus a lot and he got put on the shelf while I started my new job and played through Avalon. Now that we're in between projects (tons has happened btw . . . Purreau's Plentiful Pet Provisions Pack, Mega Pets, new PVP arenas, etc . . . jus' sayin'), and I have a little bit of time. I think I'll be playing just a touch more of Angus. (Although, GuildWars 2 is really wanting to suck away all my time like a Vampire bat spell on a mander in Krokotopia--thanks, I just came up with that one.)

Oh Dragonspyre . . . your towers are grueling--even though they were gimped a bit a couple years ago; here in 2012, Angus likes that they were gimped a bit. ;)

I still have a few nasty fights ahead of me in the Labyrinth that I'm not looking forward to, and that will definitely be the next newsworthy blog post you'll hear from me about Angus.

Wish me luck!

I'm gonna need it.

Happy dueling!

House-a-Palooza 2012 Raffle!

Heya readers! It's House-a-palooza week this week, and that means Friendly has turned the reins over to me, Bailey, to run a contest for him!

I've been looking at how some of the other bloggers run raffles, and it looks like the easiest way to do it is through Rafflecopter. I'm giving it a shot! *crosses fingers this works*

Here's what I've got. I've got 10 (count 'em 10!) Watchtower Hall houses to giveaway this year. Wait a second, isn't that what we gave away last year too?! Oh yeah. Well, it's still a super awesome house that's hard to craft, so I expect there to be a ton of entries. Who doesn't want a free house? Right? Best of Luck!

Just to keep things interesting, I've added a question to go along with the raffle that's going to have you hopping back to Grizzleheim to find out the answer. :) check it out!

Remember, if you're 13 or under, get your parents to help you. You need their permission! All information gathered from the raffle will be deleted after the contest.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Best of luck everyone! We'll leave the raffle up for one week and announce the winners on the morning of 21 August.

As Friendly would say . . . Happy Dueling!

Old questions revisited for Alex's Sake :)

Heya all!

Got an email from a reader:

Hey Friendly,

My name on Wizard 101 is Alex LionThief! He's a level 20 necromancer. He's my main character and I want to ask you three things.

1. Why do areas cost money on Wizard 101?
2. What's better? A membership for a month or 13,750 crowns?
3. What is the best secondary school for Death?
4. Can you please put this on your website please?!

From, Alex LionThief.
P.S. Your the best of the best in the mid-west!

1. Areas cost money in Wizard101 simply to give you options. Here's a quote from an old page from 2008.

"Online entertainment company KingsIsle Entertainment today launched a new payment option that essentially lets players of the company’s new virtual world, Wizard101 (www.wizard101.com) decide for themselves which game payment plan suits them best, whether it’s via monthly subscription or micropayment. Each of the four imaginative 3D worlds currently in Wizard101 contains zones that are now individually unlockable through micropayment. A considerable amount of game content remains free to play. "

Even though it's out-of-date (LOL @ four imaginative 3d worlds) The information on that page holds true today as well. The idea was you could either subscribe or unlock areas as you go for the lifetime of the game. Fast forward to today, it's still like that, but now you also have the European versions of the game where if you really want a free and open world, you can have that too. (It does come at the price of playing a 12+ hour difference than most of those people and in some cases a language barrier.)

2. I've actually answered this question before (a couple times actually), but it really comes down to what type of player are you? If you're the type of player who will crash your way through a game, beat it, and then never revisit it, go membership. If you're the type of player who works through a game slowly area by area, then go crowns--just try to buy your crowns on sale in a big lump to really get the most value. ;)

There's also a few things that give members a few additional perks:
- Members can hatch twice a day instead of one.
- Members can have 120 slots in your backpack instead of 80.
- Members can pvp for free instead of paying crowns per match.
- Stuff like that

To answer your question directly, however, the $20 cards you can buy have a value of 10,000 crowns or a 2-month subscription. So . . . 13,750 crowns definitely seems like more value than a 1-month subscription in that light.

3. Well, here's some old recommendations. You know, the mastery amulets have really changed the game now.

I was actually asked a similar question by a friend at work recently:

OK, imagine, if you will, a Level 36 Myth / Storm Wizard with Three Training Points.

What should they be used for, and when, for maximum game effectiveness?

(Gear is all True Silver Armor, level 30, and only a Conjurer’s Deck)

Here was my response to him:
Most min/max people traditionally throw off the chains of a “secondary” class and go two of three routes:

• Ice to Tower Shield
• Life to Satyr
• Death to Feint

Besides that, there's a few other cards people like to get:

• Pick up the Reshuffle (so you can really tweak a short deck and still have a backup plan)
• Balance to Weakness
• Max Sun Magic post-Celestia
• Sprinkle in Vengence, Amplify, and Empowerment from Star Magic.
• Polymorph Treant from Moon Magic.

The new class necklaces have kind of tweaked that though. If you’re wearing one of those, storm (as you’re doing) or life (because you can’t beat healing). The problem with Storm as a secondary is the lack of AOE skills directly in the line (the GREAT AOE spells like Tempest, Storm Lord, Sirens--although there are treasure cards). Your Humongofrog is where your real power is for killing quickly. Just make sure your sideboard is full of treasure cards that amp that damage (strong, giant, monstrous, gargantuan, colossal) and that you’re stacking blades more than traps. Get a pet that gives a balance blade (like one of the aqua dragons)

. . . something like that. :p

And I'm ABSOLUTELY SURE your mileage may vary (YMMV)--especially if you're a pvp'er. Go ahead and post your recommendations readers! :)

4. Done. :) Thanks for reading.

Happy Dueling!

Hammer Time!

And that's how we do it in The Spiral:



BOOM!

:)

Happy dueling!

oh yeah . . .

. . . and closed beta for Pirates happened . . . dot dot dot

No time to post . . . MUST PLAY!

happy dueling!