OH, ok . . . I'll post (and answer many questions while I'm at it)

I can't believe all I stirred up into believing I might not post ever again was one person with that last post.

Here I am thinking, OH, this will get 'em going! Instead of "Happy Dueling," I'll put "The End." And I'll put, "Never heard from again." And then I will pause my daily posting and not even answer questions . . .

. . . and one anon person was all that I got to bite?

OH SURE! Thanks for the concern readers!!

I'm just messing around with you guys, but I have to admit that I really did need to take that time off from posting. Pretty much a year solid of putting up one or two posts a day can drain a guy. It's nice to actually spend a morning playing a video game instead of writing about it. This nonsense I spew actually takes time to write. BUT, most of you know that, you know, since I think a good portion of people that read my blog are bloggers themselves, right?

Seriously, I'm busy. I just got promoted at work to a lead position and those 3 kids keep me going. The only way to keep this up sometimes is to lose sleep, and that's unhealthy. I'm gonna need a break like that from time to time. ALSO, I apologize to all the people that want to be my friend or meet up in game that I haven't been able to meet up with. It's just hard to do for me. That's my reality. I do the best I can with the time that I've got, and I've had a full friends list ever since the first meet and greet.

So, while I was out, I got a number of questions . . . here we go:

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1- Isaiah writes, "hey friendly! not much, I am just trying to find a way to make possibly a new site/blog.... any ideas?"

I'm not sure, but I'm sure you have all the imagination and passion to get something awesome going! When you do, I will be more than happy to post about it.

2- Corwin GreenEyes asks, "Obsidian Chests: What's up with these? I see them at many of the boss monster's lairs but when I approach them I can't open them. Is there some secret to these or will I ebentually be able to open them at some point down the road?"

Yup, it's one of the quests right before you battle malistaire. You end up visiting a lot of the old content that you've conquered to collect those obsidian chests. When you hit the obsidian chest quest, you know you're really really close to beating the game.

3- Ryan Winterbreeze asks, "hey friendly i have a question regarding mounts. i have seen many mounts that are not avalible in the crown shop like the white tiger or the black panther can you tell me why they dont have them or is it just me"

Those are mounts that have been featured on the test realm only. They didn't make it to the game with the first patch that included mounts. The white tiger most likely WILL make it to this next patch. On the first test realm that introduced mounts, you used to be able to go into the dye shop and change the color of your mount. They opted not to do that.

4- anon asks, "Hey! I want your oppinion about the new school houses. So, in the real realm, i have 10000 crowns (just enough to get a new school house) and i want to get a big house with a reasonable outside and inside size. Which one do i pick?"

As of now, I'd say avoid death and storm. Death, just because. Storm, well, I think the long hallways are an awesome touch, but if you're looking for just space to put stuff down, meh, I'd probably avoid the storm. Even though I proclaimed with a mighty and thunderous voice that fire is the worst new house of them all, there's a good chunk of real estate to be had there for putting stuff down in the house. Ice looks to have a TON of empty landscape as well, IMHO.

Here's my final suggestion though: don't buy one of the new player houses right off the bat. Do a lot of player housing hopping and see which one really strikes your imagination. Also, be sure to check out all the "school housing" videos on youtube: click!

5- Jeffery Soulblade asks, "When is the fire house going to be updated to the LIVE Wizard 101 Realm?"

I wish I knew. /shrug I will say that a usually very fast and responsive Wizard101 staff was rather quiet last week, so I do believe they were working 100% full speed ahead on trying to do all they could to get those houses to the live realm. Part of this content being on a test server is to polish it before it goes live so there are fewer bugs to iron out at that time. They're looking to avoid wasting your time with avoidable patches and downloads. That's why it's so important as well for all of us to report those bugs when we play in the test realm.

6- Destiny Deathgem asks, "um i would like to ask if the Malistaire dungeon is just one Crowns area, or do you have to pay for each area like the Path of Scales or Dragons Maw?
i wanted to know because if its just one area my mom will buy me the crowns, but if not, she doesnt want to spend a lot, so would rather not buy the crowns for it. please and thank you :)"

Well I'm going to guess that Path of Scales and Malistaire's Lair are all wrapped into the Dragon's Maw burrito because buying those individually would be a huge ripoff. There's nothing in Dragon's Maw except for a few ghost NPCs and the dragonspyre forge.

Since the pricing chart here doesn't mention Dragon's Maw, I sent Professor Greyrose a message about it. I'll get back to you when she gets back to me.

7- Stormed Youth asks, "I just want to know say you have a hat on that does plus fire damage you go into battle and use hydra if it chooses fire damage will your fire hat make it stronger?"

I do believe the answer to your question is no. I ran a test by casting spectral blast while wearing +fire damage shoes and it had no benefit. I don't have hydra yet on my balance wizard (or my wife's balance wizard as the case may be) to try casting specifically that spell while wearing +fire damage gear, but I think they work similarly. (Correct me if I'm wrong, Sorcerers of the spiral).

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And I was never heard from again.

The End.