Live Warehouse Run with the Ravenwood Radio Crew!

Here we go!



This is going down in about 30 minutes from the time of this posting. WOOT! We put away Malistaire and Briskbreeze pretty easily, but this is our biggest challenge yet for the Death Students. :-)

Click here to head to Ravenwood Radio's page where they have all the details.

Hopefully many mythbats will save the day!

Happy Dueling!

BenReeves.com for the win!

Heya all,

I have to share this site I stumbled across the other day! It’s www.benreeves.com! Ben works at Kingsisle and is responsible for a lot of the flash/HTML work done on their website.

So, you know those fun firecat and beetle animations that used to dance and play across the screen at Wizard101.com? That’s totally his awesome work, and he even talks about it on his site:

This is a remnant of a task that I was given when I first started at KingsIsle. They were for very long animations that would stretch across the entire page and would interact with the elements on the page. They were very difficult and I'm very proud to have come up with a working framework that met those requirements.

While you’re there be sure to check out his flash game, Sorceress.


This freaky man/snake mouth thing was harshing on me, but a couple sword swipes did the trick.


Fun! Ben, if you’re reading this, I had fun playing through your game! Nice work on the crazy creatures therein! You should get the sword sound effect from the Wizard101 sound guys and put that in your game for the sword swing! (although it would kind of interfere with the Castlevania-esque music ;-))

It looks like he's also added a new game called Blobaggedon! I got 130,000 something on it and then my blobs just couldn't keep up with the onslaught.

What do you guys think? I'm totally digging his site! There's lots of Wizard101 Information and a lot of excellent Ben Reeves art!

Happy Dueling!

FW: Wizard101 - Latest Celestia Reveal Wallpaper!

WOOT! There it is! Wallpaper 9 just came through the wire from Kingsisle!

*insert western accent* Well that there new Marleybonian has got himself
some nice sized jowls he does!

Hmmm.

I don't think I see anything else here besides that fellow. What about you
guys?

Happy Dueling!

I'm 50!

. . . and I can KICK, and STRETCH, and KICK!







That’s right Friendly Fans, I have a new Grandmaster to add to the bunch. Molly Earthsong has graduated to the top of the class. WOOT! That makes 3 grandmasters that I can solely call my own. (Although, really, I’ve leveled 5 characters to GM now since I’m the one that played Amber and Kyle up . . .’jus sayin’). This brings the Friendly Necromancer family of accounts up to a total of seven Grandmasters. 2 Life, 1 storm, 1 death, 1 balance, 1 fire, and 1 ice GM wizard! WHERE’S THE MYTH WIZARDS FRIENDLY?



Don’t you worry . . . they’re next.

Here’s Molly dinging 50 in the Crystal Grove.





And here’s Molly back at her place throwing on the level 50 gear she’s been saving.





Yeah, she still needs the hat.



Thanks to all those who helped Molly hit Grandmaster, especially UBER WIFE, Cassandra G, and others. Molly just started out as a support character for Bailey as she experienced the game and now she’s developed into a force to be reckoned with on her own.



Happy Dueling!

Ranked Derby Ending Early for People? No Rewards? (Guest Blogger Response)

I had a question from Disgruntled Diana.

Since I know you don't have a lot of time on your hands I'll try to make this quick. I have two questions: One I heard that you're over loaded with questions so could you send some people to me? I have a blog as well and hope to start answering people's question if I can find any.

Also I read your post about "spiffy pop no longer spiffy cheat" and I must say that while I agree with you about the fact that this is an awesome ability if used correctly I feel the need to state (rather bluntly I might add)that KI appears to have either over looked my computer/account or not realized that there was another ability which has a rather similar bug attached. Today I was Racing with my Danger Hound King Roscoe. I was in 2nd maybe 3rd place and all of a sudden the race end as if I had finished the 2nd lap when in fact I was in the middle of it however in stead of showing everyone on the steps it just showed the winner (a Blood- er, MythBat). whats more this was a Ranked Match and yet i saw no rewards even for the MythBat that cam in first place. I hope that KI addresses this matter immediately as I have enjoyed the Pet derby and had this problem twice (the second time however it was a Death Troll not a MythBat)and have decided not to play the P Derby anymore.

*shakes fist at Death Trolls and Mythbats*

I turned this question over to Ms. Heather Emeraldflame, and she did an excellent job answering this question even though she lacked experience with ranked derby.

Thanks for the help, Heather, and thanks for the question, Diana!

Happy Dueling!

Can you help me pick between Diviner, Necromancer, or Sorcerer? (Guest Blogger Response)

I got this question from Mike over on Youtube the other day:

I know you probably won't read or respond to this, but if you do, I would be very happy for your time and help. I am a level 27 Thaumaturge, but am not enjoying it. I figured I would make a new character, either as a Diviner, Necromancer, or Sorcerer. I was wondering if you could help me pick, and also help create a deck for the character.

This time I turn to The Active Necromancer, Mr. Sloan Shadowstaff, to help me answer this question:

He did an excellent job delivering a response! Check it out!

Sloan battles Sammy O'Leary three times (once in each of the classes listed above) and shows some basic differences between them all. He uses short decks and gives some excellent strategy to use.

Nice work!

Which gives more experience? Sunken City or Colossus Boulevard? (Guest Blogger Response)

Anna Lifeblossom has a question:

hey friendly i was wondering what gives you more xp sunken city or colossus thanks in advance

I turned this question over to Brian Titansword to answer, and this is what he had to say:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well Anna, both places are side quests in Wizard City, and the Wiki will give all the info needed, so I'll post it right here.

The opening quest is Finding a Way. That quest will give 75 Xp when done.

The next quest is Open Sez Me. You get 115 xp from it, plus the xp you earn in battle, but we are going with the quest xp here.

Project Mayhem is next on the main storyline. It gives 97 xp and plus the xp from battling Paulson.

Under lock and Key is next. It gives 125 xp, plus the xp from all the battling in Norton's Tower.

Fight Grubb quest please. 125 xp from it, plus the xp from Grubb and the minion.

After all that questing in Sunken City, you get a nice and big 30 xp, and for finishing up the quest Delivering the Proof you get another 230 xp please.

Add up the totals:
230
125
115
97
75
30
______
672 total xp

Not really worth it in my opinion.

Now for Colossus Boulevard:

Pixiecrown Project 35 xp
Invasion 185 xp
Strange Brew 80 xp
Doctors Orders 220 xp
Let's Make a deal 275 xp
A Foul Decree 255 xp
Seal the Deal 355 xp
New Neighbors? 355 xp

Side quests:
Longspear is late 40xp
Stop, Thief 80 xp
Cleaning Up 220 xp
A helping hand 275 xp

Now to total the main quest xp:
355
355
275
255
220
185
80
35
_____
1760

Shmowzow!

Only the main storyline and you have double the xp of Sunken City!

Now total the exp from side quests:
275
220
80
40
_____
615

again, SHMOWZOW! That's almost as much as Sunken City!

Now to add it together:
1760
615
_______
2375

Holy Sock Puppet in a Sausage Factory! 2375 xp!

Sunken City= 672 Total xp
Colossus Boulevard= 2375 xp

Colossus Boulevard is definitely worth the purchase.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks, Brian. The only thing you forgot there was that you get half experience of the quests within Sunken City when you run the instance again, which only amounts to another 206 experience or so. /shrug

To see the value of Sunken City though, you really need to look beyond just experience points IMHO. There's some cool pets and housing items in there that you just can't get anywhere else. Plus the difficulty is kind of fun! Where else in Wizard City are you going to find yourself forced to fight at least three bad guys at once? :-)

Colossus is fun too though. Good times, loot, and pets are to be had there as well. If it really just comes down to experience points for you, then perhaps Colossus really is the way to go. (Not to mention the cool spells you can get there, but those spells on Colossus are definitely worth the price of admission.)

Happy Dueling!

FW: Extended Wizard101 Maintenance

This just came across the wire from Kingsisle.

-----Original Message-----
Extended Wizard101 Maintenance

As part of our ongoing effort to improve Wizard101, we will be performing
extended maintenance on the game several times over the next few weeks.

Starting Wednesday July 28th, Wizard101 will be offline for 1 hour; from 3am
to 4am Central US Time.
Once the game is back online, Paying Players* will be able to log in
immediately and Free to Play players will have intermittent access.
Throughout the day, all players may experience delays logging their
characters in to the worlds.

Thank you for your patience while we continue to improve Wizard101 for all
our players.

*paying players include those who are currently subscribed, or have
purchased $10 in Crowns or more in the last 30 days.

-------------------------

I asked Professor Greyrose what this was all about and she said, "Ongoing
server maintenance to improve the performance of the game over the long term
and to prepare ourselves for the ever-growing number of Wizards entering the
Spiral." I think I heard a silent "Duh" at the end of her sentence too, but
that may just be me. ;-)

Happy dueling!

New class spells past 60? (Guest Blogger Response)

James Griffenflame has a question:

This is James Griffinflame, level 44 necromancer, thanks for answering my last question. But, I have a new one! OK, here it goes: With the new level cap becoming 60, will the regular schools( Myth, Death, Life, Balance, Storm, Fire, Ice) get new spells? A new special level 60 spell? Like will Ninja Pig become a card for level 60 Myth people? Well there is my question, hope you will be able to answer and post

I had turned this one over to Blaze before I went on vacation, so many of you may have already seen the answer. If not, click me!

That's some pretty good theorycrafting, Blaze!

~~~~~~~~~~

I've seen some other predictions over at central. Here's another link. and another. I'm sure there are a few more there. :-)

My guesses? It'll all be humongofrog mutates . . .

Fire - Humongoburp - humongofrog that spits meteors instead of barf.

Ice - Humogobreath - humongofrog that chews a piece of gum and blows on everyone with his icey breath. Bonus points when barfing humongofrog is followed by this spell version.

Storm - Humongotears - It's like a tempest, only with more humongofrog!

Life - Humongoangel - humungofrog with angel wings that pretends it's a seraph and attacks everyone.

Myth - Mini-mungos - it's a swarm of tiny frogs that flood out and damage all opponents.

Death - Zombiemungo - zombiemungo wants brains.

Balance - Humungotango - Humongofrog does the tango and smashes into all opponents.

yeah . . .

yeah . . . I think it's a good thing Blaze handled this one. ;-)

Happy Dueling!

Princess Ben, FATEZILLA!

There's another hybrid pet in the Friendly Necromancer Family! It's Princess Ben the fatezilla!


So awesome looking. Uber Wife had Kyle's stormzilla combine with Destiny Mistshard's Hydra and bing bang boom, hybrid! (Both Kyle and Destiny got hybrids from what I understand . . . gratz, Destiny!)


Since Kyle doesn't really have a use for "yet another" hybrid, we put that in the bank.


And now it's property of one Rowan Ravenshard!


I can't wait to see Princess Ben in action! WOOT!

Happy Dueling!

Worst. Vacation. Ever.

. . . so you all may be wondering why I only posted twice last week. Yeah, I WAS ON VACATION!

LAS VEGAS BABY!

WOOT!

It pretty much was the worst vacation ever. Let me break it down for you:

1- I get a one-way ticket to Las Vegas with my company to do some training for a week. Yeah, it's a vacation in disguise: it's a work-cation. Work-cations are kind of like when you smell BO through the body spray. nasty. Anyway, my plan is that I have the family drive and meet me while I'm there, we have fun during the evenings, and I buy a couple extra days for the weekend at Circus Circus since it's the closest thing to "family friendly fun" that Vegas seems to offer.

2- I get sick the moment my boss and I land in Vegas. I come down with some kind of head cold that causes me to have a runny nose the first few days and then eventually a pretty steady cough the last part of the week. I, of course, tried to treat it with all kinds of medicine, and you know what that does. No? It works, but it makes it very hard to concentrate on the training course I'm taking . . . which is dry . . . it's dry dry dry dry dry material. Dryer than Las Vegas in July heat.

This was my view for pretty much the whole week from the back of the classroom.


Yup, not fun, but dry. Did I mention it was dry? It was dry.

3- A trojan virus of some sort attacks the homebase computer while I'm away. HOORAY! That's right, someone at homebase surfed around enough to pick something up and then every person in the world gets spammed by the trojanized version of me, who is trying to politely sell them all cheap electronics in broken english. It even forwards to my blog and posts itself. LOL. Nightmare. I can't do anything but sit in Las Vegas and feel hopeless about trying to cure the problem at homebase. /shrug . . . what you gonna do.

4- The family does in fact head to Las Vegas in the car and meets up with me while staying overnight at the Monte Carlo. Diapermancer has a surprise for us though! He's brought with him the gift of the 24-hour stomach flu. Apparently, three hours from Vegas, this "friend" turned the family bat-mobile into the family barf-mobile.

And, yes, this evil friend of Diapermancer begins to slowly work its way through our family one person at a time until the trip ends. I get it last of all . . . on the way home in the car. This evil friend stopped us from doing many of the fun things we wanted to do, including the Tournament of Kings at Excalibur and the roller coaster at New York New York. But it did lead us down the road of discovery as we hunted down local grocery stores and pharmacies. All was not lost!

5- Our time in the Monte Carlo was ok, but when we shifted to Circus Circus for the weekend, we experienced all the dirt and grime an old Las Vegas hotel has to offer. In retrospect I should have complained to the hotel management about not removing the crime tape and leaving the blood stains on the carpet for us, but we suffered through it. OK, maybe it wasn't that bad, but I swear someone must have died in that room before us. I should have listened to what the evil Circus Circus clown was whispering to me in the lobby, "hissss, this place is evil . . . hisssss, you will leave here feeling like our all you can eat buffet just kicked you in the stomach, hissssssssss."


I didn't heed his warnings. /sigh I should have also listened to Zoltar, the evil gypsy in a box who told me not to ride on the slingshot ride, but no . . . I kept on trying to make it work out.



6- I feel bad for the people who found my decapitated head on the ground after riding the slingshot. Thankfully I reattached my head to my body and was able to recover from the freak-spinal-cord-severing injury. Sorry I didn't listen to you, Zoltar, evil gypsy man in a box.


7- It cost a lot of money.

8- No, I didn't gamble to lose more of it.

ANYWAY, we're back home (feel lucky that I'm skipping the sordid details of Bailey accidentally slashing her leg with a razor and the traffic jam horror), and my mailbox is "besmashed" with messages. I've got a lot of cool Wizard101 stuff to talk about, so . . . sorry about the delay . . . hope that explains it. :-)

All's well.

Happy Dueling!

New Spell Ideas for Sun and Moon Magic

I re-listened to the now infamous Ravenwood Radio 19 broadcast, and I was trying to get clues about the new secondary schools of magic that are going to come out . . . specifically Sun and Moon. I liked what was said about these systems of magic being completely new and affecting combat in new ways. So it got me to thinking what types of spells we haven't seen in Wizard101 at this point.

For the sake of idea farming and discussion spawning . . . let me see if I can borrow some of my MMO knowledge and fill in the gaps here for Wizard101. Here's a set of "ideas" of spells that maybe could manifest.

(Let me apologize for the lack of pictures in advance. INCOMING WALL OF TEXT!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damage Shield ~ Looking at the objects that spin around us, we have seen blades, traps, shields, DoTs, HoTs, stun shields, Accuracy Debuffs (like smoke screen), Damage Debuffs (like weakness), and healing debuffs (like infection). Right? I don't think I've missed any there. I don't think we've seen "Damage shields."

A damage shield isn't something that "shields" "damage," it's something that does damage when you are attacked. So to paint this with words, it would be the opposite of a trap. Instead of a shield with spikes pointing inward, it would be a shield with spikes pointing outward. you with me?

So, let's say I cast a 50% damage shield on myself with sun magic. This means if I'm attacked with any spell, 50% of the damage done to me is dealt back to the person delivering the hit.

You could even take the Damage shield idea and add something as cool as a series of swords floating around you that if attacked would reach out and deal a static amount of damage. for Instance, I cast "sun sword" on me and I am protected by three swords that float around me. If I am attacked, one of the swords will fly out and attack the attacker for 200 points of damage. However, if three rounds expire, all remaining swords fly out for 100 points of damage each.

~~~~~~~~

Healing Shield ~ this would be opposite of a damage shield. Whenever a player is hit, they're also healed. So, in essence, you could be dropped to 0 health, and then a healing shield would heal you 200 points, allowing you another round or two of combat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Invisibility ~ KI keeps bringing up that percentages to hit are capped. A spell to bring those down beyond something like choke could be applied. What if moon magic could cast a "dark side of the moon" spell on you, doesn't affect a players chance to hit, but instead a player's chance to miss! It's like a spell that isn't cast on an opponent like choke, but a spell that's cast on you to make you more difficult to hit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Float/Levitate ~ This is building on the chance to miss idea. If a player is floating and invisible, then the chance to miss would be even greater.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blind ~ This would be a spell to once again affect chance to hit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Haste ~ This type of spell would add a chance to interrupt combat. At the start of a round, a player would choose two cards to play instead of one: a primary and a secondary card. If Haste is successful, then the player casts both cards. If not, they only cast one card. The effect could last anywhere from 1 to 3 rounds perhaps.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Morph ~ During combat, if someone casts Morph, they turn into a sun or moon creature who has their own unique set of cards already assigned to them. The deck wouldn't be controlled by you, but you would be like playing cards from an elite enemy monster.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Wipeout ~ this would be a "do or die" type of spell. A "rage" type of spell. A character would be granted a bonus to damage and accuracy for a number of rounds, but after a set number of rounds the rage expires and a severe weakness penalty comes over the player instead.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Enchant party ~ This spell would raise the innate level of the party by a certain number. As we all know, when we level up, we get more hitpoints, more mana, more stat increases. Obviously the effect wouldn't be permanent and it wouldn't do things like grant you cards from your next level, but it would be a kind of a temporary power boost to party members.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Timing Spells ~ This kind of spell would add a ticker to the playfield. If you could last the amount of rounds on the ticker and deliver a spell when the ticker was done, your spell does more damage and has more accuracy to hit. It's a timer basically. When the timer is done, you attack for a huge boost.

~~~~~~~~~~

Teacher ~ This would be a spell that "teaches" those around you your spell class. Let me give you an example, say my primary is Death and your secondary class is death. If I cast the teacher spell, then you get to cast your death spells as a primary class, taking full advantage of power pips.

~~~~~~~~~~

Switch resist ~ When a "switch resist" spell is cast, it moves your greatest resist percentage from it's current state to that corresponding the caster. For example, if I cast a switch resist spell and we're facing Malistaire, then everybody in the party gets to take advantage of death resists because I've changed whatever their primary resist percentage from 35%-whatever-their-class-is to 35%-whatever-my-class-is.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It'll be interesting to see what really happens.

I'm just trying to spawn some discussion. :-)

What do you think, readers?

Happy Dueling!

Mission Complete!

HI y'all! Bailey here again, well for the second time I think ;-)

Well, I just thought I would invade the blogosphere today and share my delight with the rest of the spiral! I have been hard at work over the past couple weeks crafting all the pieces needed for my new house! The Watchtower Hall! And late last night I finally finished farming up the gold needed to buy the recipe! WOOT!



Isn't that crafting station Awesome!
And with the click of the create tab my house was built! Voila!



I really have to thank John Lifeglen for challenging me to do this cause I really wouldn't have otherwise. And thanks to Heather Emeraldflame for the help with treasure cards! Also Blaze and Destiny who helped me farm A LOT! And who were also my first house guests! YAY!



Now to decorate!



I'm gonna need more than that rug there! But once I get it all decked out I should have a slammin' Wiziversary party for myself don't ya think? Even though it would be a little late. Remember when Heck froze over... lol! Well that was on the 25th of July and I had created lil' Bailey Skystaff a couple weeks before that so HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

And Happy Dueling to You!

What's the Deal with Swiftbranch? (Guest Blogger Response)

I got a question from Duncan Dragonblood of Necromancer Nation (I think it is at least, I'm on my laptop right now and can't verify that at the moment):

Hi Friendly,

There is a NPC called Swiftbranch (located in Savarstaad Pass, Grizzleheim) near one of the Yard Birds. I have a grand master in each school now, and this is the first time I've seen Swiftbranch. What is he there for? I know of no quest he's associated with, so is he a new introduction for Celestia's pre-quest? Just curious. Thanks.

I turned this one over to Fist of Fire to answer since he's awesome like that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Swiftbranch made his home in Grizzleheim with the recent pet update. Only recently with the release of the warehouse did he have a purpose. He is part of a side quest chain starting with Snorri Oysterbloom (part of the Blue Oyster Cult),


and leading you to Hagen Shieldbreaker, Swiftbranch, and Wildroot.


Swiftbranch's part in the quest is answering one of Snorri's questions. It's an intresting storyline, and the best part is you can get a good amount of exp from it, about 1200 per quest for a good 2400-3600 exp.

To sum it all up, Swiftbranch is a new npc, part of Snorri's questline, and is not part of Celestia or it's prequests(as far as we know of).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks Fis'o'fi' (that's my new cool name for Fist of Fire . . . Fis'o'fi', rhymes with TESTIFY, which I do, 'cause Fis'o'fi' is awesome like that. word.)

New information for me here was the experience from the quests. WOOT! I can't wait to do that quest with my life alt, Molly. She needs some Exp for level 50.

Hope that helps!

Happy Dueling!

Translating Nidellvir Runes? (Guest Blogger Response)

Dylan Ravencloud asked me this question:

Hello Friendly,BalanceBoy101 here.I noticed how you translated the Celestian writing and was wondering if you could translate the ruibs in Nidellvir in Grizzleheim.If you can please PM me back.Thanks ~Dylan Ravencloud

I turned it over to Cody Shadowstrider and he answered it over on his blog.

LOL, Cody. *shakes head* It was a good effort. I give you an A for effort. Let's hear it for Cody!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, here's what I could find out. These runes have been translated a couple times over at Central.

There's this thread from Samoorai. And there's this thread from Sillystud who gathered some of these from around the central messageboards.

Of those, my favorite is the tombstone from Samoorai:

Rhea
Artie
Jason
James

I'm thinking that would be possibly Rhea Shelley, Artie Rogers, Jason Durall, James Nance from Kingsisle? Maybe that's a hidden shoutout to some instrumental people who helped design, produce, etc. for Grizzleheim? Or maybe they lost in a 4v4 match and thereby had to have their names immortalized as the losers of the match forever? Only Kingsisle knows.

Interesting. :-)

Happy Dueling!

Is there going to be a new storyline?

Sean Fire has a comment/question:

so here was my thought ... as you know celestia has been talked about before in game, like in wiz city and marlybone.so i was thinking why did they mention celstia then it hit me NEW STORYLINE like the first 5 worlds were all about malistare now celestia and ( hopefuly) more on this mora... person so yea i might be right, yea more worlds , yea new story line , but boo that i have had this idea for i while and wont get full credit :( so do you think i am crazy or might be on to some thing

If you haven't listened to Ravenwood Radio 19, please go do yourself a favor and check it out. The interview with J. Todd Coleman and Josef Hall is amazing!

In that episode you'll find out about Morganthe the Spider Queen, who seems to be our new Malistaire. J. Todd Coleman uses the phrase, "new story arc" in the interview, which definitely indicates that we will be thinking about Morganthe for a long time to come.

In regards to the idea of getting "credit." Yeah, that won't ever happen unfortunately . . . even if you were the first to think of this idea, which you probably weren't. (Just being honest.) I've tried to go down that road before with trying to say "IT WAS MY IDEA!" And it's a road that leads to a town called disappointmentville because, well, nobody cares.

The important thing is that you enjoy it when it comes out. And hopefully KI will surprise you with how it all unfolds so that when it's all said and done you say to yourself, WOW, I NEVER WOULD HAVE GUESSED THAT!

There's nothing worse than figuring out a movie's ending after watching the first five minutes. I hate that. So enjoy the ride!

Happy Dueling!

Why won't my pet cast death ward?

Hunter Wildthorn has a question!

Hey friendly. Its Hunter Wildthorn, and I've got a question. Question: My Skeletal Warrior will NOT cast a spell even though he has the chance to cast a death ward. I use him in EVERY battle, including malistaire, yet not a single cast. Do I have to do something to trigger it? Or is my pet stubborn? Thx!

I've been hearing this (and preaching this) a lot lately, so I asked Professor Greyrose for you to see if she had any insight. Greyrose took your question to the designers, and this was the response she got . . .

We’re actually reviewing a lot of this stuff right now. :-)

So I guess we can take heart that the designers are looking at "a lot of this stuff," um "right now." And they're using a smiley, so um, we should be too?

I have a minotaur that should be interrupting combat a lot more and casting myth traps on baddies. My myth character would LOVE for this to be improved. Right?

At first I thought it was the Power statistic that influenced these types of things, but it doesn't seem to make any difference whatsoever at this point. It's just a random proc/interrupt and the chance must either be non-existent or incredibly low.

Thanks for the question!

Happy Dueling!

Deck tips for a level 29 Life Wizard? (Guest Blogger Response)

Question here from Ben

hi Ive had to change my secondary school SOO many times but i just keep dieing i am now a life and death wizard have anytips for my deck? (I am level 29)

I've handed this question over to Connor Mistblade from The Myth Wiz, who provides this answer for us all:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am assuming you are in Marleybone right now which is a nice world, but it does have some tough battles. Now for your deck I think you should put a few Life Blades and Life Traps in which will give a nice boost to your damage. The Life trap is found at the secret trainer in Colossus Boulevard, Mildred Farseer. After reaching Mindy Pixiecrown, look to your left and you should see a little path leading down to a house Mildred is in the house.

Also save up two training points to get the spells Spirit Blade and Spirit Trap. These will provide an extra punch to seraph. These will also work on the death spells you have. If you have Feint, put that in too; Life is a school that can handle the extra 30% trap on yourself.

For attack spells Seraph is one of your best choices. Vampire and Skeletal Pirate would help you as well, but with Seraph you can use power pips, which gets a quicker kill. A seraph with a Life Blade and Spirit Blade on should kill most mobs in Marleybone, doing between 656-774 damage. If you get power pips, you can pull of the attack even quicker. You can do the same with Nature's Wrath, which packs a good punch with 470-588.

If you encounter bosses you have to solo, go to the Library and buy some toughs, which will add another boost to your attacks. When encountering bosses, use those traps to get the kill. It might not be big and flashy like storm, but it will still work.

Remember that you are Life and what Life is famous for, healing, use those healing spells. Pixie is great for quick heals because it comes at only 2 pips or 1 power pip. Satyr is great when your health is down. 860 is a really good amount, and if you have a good power pip percentage you should be able to cast it in two turns. Unicorn is a great attack for group heals so use that if you are playing in a group. Since you should have Regenerate use it, it gives a nice heal at 5 pips or 3 power pips. I don't suggest using this for mob battles as it does waste some good pips. Lastly don't forget to shield shield shield with Legend Shield and Absorb. If you need anymore help, click on this link. Thanks for your question!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks Conner! Great tips there.

Deck building can be an art. You don't want too many cards in your deck for PvE or you could find yourself discarding all the time to find what you want, but you want enough cards in your deck to kill what you're facing and then a little extra just in case you mess up or someone joins your battle, etc.

Thanks for the question!

Happy Dueling!

War Helephant? Ice Hound? Hybrids? (Guest Blogger Respose)

Question here from Jason,

how do you get the war helephant and where does the ice hound come from?

I've handed this question over to Soulrider at Diary of a Lone Wolf. Go check out his answer.

He answered the question, he linked to the source material . . . what more could you want? Maybe a war helephant chew toy for an ice hound? You got it!


Great job Soulrider!

Happy Dueling!

Where do the Valkyrie and Beastmaster items drop? (Guest Blogger Response)

Question from Nicholas Battleshard:

Dear The Friendly Necromancer,

Your blog is awesome! I love Wizard101! I have 2 questions.

1. Who do I farm for the Valkyrie Set? The hat is Headdress of the Heavens, Robe: Robe of the Deep, Shoes: Sandles of the Snowdrift. I'm level 22 but I want to know for when I reach 45.

2. Who do I farm for the Beastmaster Set?

Please answer!

And since it's a Guest Blogger Bonanza here today, I asked Noah DreamBlood of Wizard101 Magic, Ice, and Everything Nice to do the honors and take on this question since he volunteered his services. Here is his response:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. The Valkyrie Set you say?


Robe of the Deep would be Gurtok Piercer (Ice Helephant in Malistare's dungeon), and Sandals of the Snowdrift also seem to be from him too. I'm sorry but I don't think the Headdress of the Heavens has been found yet.

You can look at these two links for updates in this matter though:
Link one to Wizard101 Central
Link two to Wizard101 Central

2. Sorry Nicholas, I can't help with the Beastmaster part.


That set is very new so I don't think anybody knows if it's farmable or now. But I'm sure even if the set isn't farmable now, when Celestia comes out, it will be.

Good luck, and happy farming! ~Noah DreamBlood~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks, Noah!

It really does seem like the best place to farm all the high level crown gear is from the Gurtoks, doesn't it? I know I've gotten a few nice pieces of random crown gear stuff there.

Happy Dueling!

Pet Hatching--What's up with the pedigree numbers? (Guest Blogger Response)

Noah DreamBlood has a question/tip:

You can tell normally if its a hybrid or not depending on time it takes to hatch. School pets are 18 hrs i believe hybrids are 24 or so. ANd i mixed a colossus that had 54 with a stormzilla that was 53 and got another colossus that had 55, whats up with that? lol

I decided to forward this one on to Ms. Kandy over at Through the Spiral Gate, since she was one of the ones who offered to help me with a question or two.

Please go read her answer! She's got a couple of great links in there. And we made the college student study a bit on this one.

She also gets bonus points for the MCP picture.

:)

Happy Dueling!

p.s. re: the 55 . . . tip, go add up the dots in your talents field of your pet info, it should equal your pedigree. Probably just means one parent passed on one more ultra rare talent instead of a rare talent . . . or even better, an additional epic talent instead of an ultra rare talent!

Is the firewing fight a cheat fight? (Guest Blogger Response)

Question/Observation from Zachary Skywielder:

I was just in the grand arena fighting the wild firewing and it seemed to me that the fight was different than most, for example, I have around a 20% power pip chance, and I got 9 power pips out of 11 pips, which is certainly not 20%, also, I fizzled 4 vampires and 7 skeletal pirates in a row, with minimal accuracy increasing gear, before I finally got a vampire out and was promptly defeated. Was this just luck, is the fight supposed to be like this, or was this part of some other plan for the spiral?

Also, I just wanted to mention that the ice armor spell (125 absorb per pip, self only) does not defend against death drains, one more reason to have a couple in your deck.

Keeping with the guest blogger theme here, I asked Duncan Dragonblood of Necromancer Nation to take this one on since he volunteered his services for Question answering.

Here is Duncan's response:

~~~~~~~~

Okay, so I was fighting the wild firewing in the grand arena (now by the way I have 42 percent power pip chance and I am level 38). So out of nine pips I only had two power pips and no fizzles so I guess it just wasn't your day. For proof this screen shot was one of the vampires I casted.


~~~~~~

Thanks Duncan. Let me just add that it does sound like your luck was just dry that day unfortunately. It's kind of like my experiments with Random.org . . . even though I had a 1 out of a 100 chance to get my number, it took me 220 tries to finally get my number. That's just kind of how percentages work.

Thanks for the observation on the ice armor spell!

Happy Dueling!

Where's the Marleybone Pet Vendor? (Guest Blogger Response)

Hiya guys! Cassandra G. here! Question comes from Duncan D. Go Double D!! :D

Where is the new MB Pet Vendor they talked about in the update notes.

Peace To Da Spiral!

The location of the MB pet vendor may not be known to everyone. He's in the Air Dales Highway where Croaky is. (And I don't mean Kayako the Croaky.) I'm talking about Croaky the trainer who gives sap minion cards to all schools.

Dunno how to get there?

1. Find a BIG sign and a set of stairs in Digmoore Station.


2. Enter the doors and TADA! You found the vendor!


Mr. Angleton sells wood golems, cat thugs (not the green ones), and brass golems!

This question has been answered by Cassandra GriffinDreamer (WitchWarrior101)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks Cass! Thanks Double D!

Happy Dueling!

Ravenwood Radio Theme Song

YO YO YO!

It's DJ Friendly here, and I've been asked to supply the .mp3 files for the Ravenwood Radio song. So, I went ahead and loaded those up to my Google Docs site.

Click here for the post-production theme song

Click here for the pre-production (no words) extended song

(Bet you didn't know there was a pre-production (no words) extended song, did ya? Well, it's just the keyboard track. :-))

Thanks for your interest!

PEACE!

Happy Dueling

FW: Wizard101 Celestia Reveal Wallpaper #8

click to enlarge

Oh oh! Fresh from the newswire! They've gone and added a "few new
mysteries" into the wallpaper!

-----Original Message-----
Attached please find the Celestia Reveal Wallpaper version 8, with a few new
mysteries to ponder!
-------------------------

Tell me what you see in there, Readers! Any more insects in our future?

Happy Dueling!

Couple of pictures I had to share

I've got a couple pictures to share with you all. :-)

1- Recently Kyle and I did a hybrid combine and BOTH of us got the Tempest hybrid. WOOT! I decided to get the kids' characters and Thomas together for a quick seraph show. Dustin Mooncatcher showed up and a couple others. Just showing off the seraph collection. hehe.



2- Ok, so recently I started a new account that I wanted to just be a free player account, right? I just wanted to experience the game as a free player and see what that was like. How they think. I'm trying to get inside their heads.

Anyway, take a look at the quest arrow down there and the quest I have active. (You may need to click on this picture to enlarge it). You can't get to the Dark Cave in the free game, so this quest usually just ends up hanging out in your quest log. I'm at 666 away from the quest. This same spot coincides with where you have to go to finish the Death Wizard Level 48 quest. SO CREEPY! I actually got creeped out by that. I wonder if KI did that on purpose. LOL.



Happy Dueling!

Ok, who wants to answer some questions?

I've got a comment/question from Noah Dreamblood

Hey friendly, if you ever have too many questions you can just forward me some of them, though I probably won't be able to pictures for all of them.

I've been getting a lot of people offering to help with the workload around here at the Friendly Necromancer. It is appreciated, y'all. I am swamped.

So, what the heck . . . if you want to pitch in and answer a question or two, leave a comment, and I'll try to contact you with a question for you to answer. I do have some guidelines though:

1- Treat the question with respect . . . even if it seems ridiculous.

2- Don't give answers like Diapermancer. One word or paragraph answers usually don't cut it. I want you to really stretch yourself and try to approach it from many angles. This is hopefully what separates a question being answered by a blogger vs. something like yahoo answers.

3- Pictures do help. Sometimes I do pictures, sometimes I don't.

4- Spellcheck, grammar check, and everything check your response. I'm not perfect, but I do strive to deliver some readable content.

I'm hesitant because some people send me questions because they want ME to answer . . . not so much to just get an answer. They want the Friendly spin on it. But, I'm willing to try it out, and I know some people on my bloggers list would love the traffic. So, let's see how the bloggers club can do here. I'll be more than happy to forward traffic to your site if you want to answer the question there.

Let's see how this goes.

Happy Dueling!

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!

Who pays more? Subscribers or Crowns Players?

Question from Jason Ashweaver:

I was just looking through the wiz101 website and found out that the game in crowns is roughly $85. I was surprised at this and so stumbled upon the question: Do subscribers pay this much? I think they pay more, but I would have no idea.

Heya Jason. Subscribers pay $60 for a year if they buy during the sale periods, but yeah currently unlocking the game for life is just about as much as a year subscription. I've attempted to answer this question before and got a little long-winded.

Basically it depends on how you play the game. If you're the type that will beat the game in three months and never play it again, then my goodness don't go with crowns. If you're the type that will play it for a year and never play the game again, probably the same (but that is where it gets a little grey).

On the other hand, if you don't have a lot of time on your hands, love this game, have multiple characters, will be dabbling here for at least a couple years, and like to take things slowly, then it's kind of a no brainer, crowns are the way to go for you. Keep in mind that when Celestia goes live, you'll have more areas to buy, so that $85 figure you cite is probably going to approach $100 I'm guessing.

So, it's up to the individual to decide which is better. It depends largely on your play style. Both have advantages. I'm just glad we have options. :-) Either way, it's pretty cheap entertainment when you consider the cost of taking the family to a movie and dinner for one night, which makes that $60 for a year subscription seem like chump change.

**UPDATE: Excellent comments on this post, you should read through a few of them. I especially like this information from Through the Spiral Gate (it was something I hadn't considered): "I actually ended up paying around twice as much as the figure Friendly gave. Rather than buying a lump sum of crowns for $80, which I know my dad would never agree to, I had to go bit by bit with gift cards from Rite Aid and Best Buy. So not only did it take me longer to unlock all the areas, but I paid more money all-around. It really just depends on how you go about buying the crowns that determines whether or not you pay more than subscribers."**

Happy Dueling!

CHECK THIS OUT (Episode 1)

So I get a lot of e-mail in the week. It's all good. Some e-mails I'd classify as complaints, some I'd classify as questions, and the third kind I'd call "Check this out."

In cleaning out some of my e-mail here, I think I'll share a few of these from my fine readers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First up is an edit of the Pet Olympics Cartoon picture into a kind of a comic strip from Blaze Duskblade.


Looks like this is Blaze's way of helping the Celestian crab into the winner's spot. LOL.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next we have a pretty sweet picture of a hydra/stormzilla hybrid from Adam (aka Leviathan--thanks Paul!).


I will get my hybrid someday I tell you! *shakes fist*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next we have a video tribute for the dads out there from my friend Brandon.



LOL. Word, dads, word. SPLISHY SPLASHY FOR AN HOUR OR TWO!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next is a guide to the warehouse as written by the infamous Cassandra Griffindreamer.

Link to Guide on Google Docs

thank you, ma'am. I shall reference from this point forward. I PROMISE! ;-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's a cool video of the runes in Grizzleheim from Anthony.



Nice. I'm pretty sure these have been translated, but I'm not sure. I'll have to do some research on that. It's definitely easier now that we have the rock at the end of the dragonspyre portion of the pre-quest to help us out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luke Goldhorn sent me some information on the "Late Night Wizards."

Late Night Wizards are a group of Wizards that mainly play in between 12:00 A.M- 6:00 A.M. We have bunches of group meetings, and a happy little community. You can check it out HERE ( latenightwizards.wetpaint.com ).

Apparently the Late Night Wizards are going to start a podcast of their own, so this is definitely a site to keep track of. I'll be keeping my eye on your guys. *eye*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And finally is a message from Duncun Dragonblood:

"Hey guys come over to the events page and rsvp and join the national blogger day event"

So it's looking like there will be some kind of celebration on 16 July in the commons at these times:

Pacific-2:30pm to 7:00pm
Mountain-3:30pm to 8:00pm
Central-4:30pm to 9:00pm
Eastern-5:30pm to 10:00pm

Sounds cool (and also kind of long LOL). ;-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for all the information my friends. This is a great community to be a part of, and I'm glad for all you do.

Thanks!

Happy Dueling!

Where's the Recipe for Tempest?

Question here from Gabriel, who is a grandmaster of balance:

Hi Friendly,

I'm having a hard time finding the Recipe Vendor who sells the recipe to craft the Tempest card. Do you happen to know and are you willing to share? Thanks much,

You, sir, shall never find that recipe unless they release it into the game sometime down the road. it just doesn't exist.

One would say, visit Torrence where all the other storm card recipes are sold! One would be wrong.



No tempest, AND this creates a problem: how do I craft a windstorm card when a tempest card is required? Correct me if I'm wrong readers, but I do believe the only answer is to use tempest cards that are dropped in the game, which, according to wikia, can be found on the following bad guys:

Grumish Greataxe
Krokenkahmen
Nirini Ancient Guard
Nirini House Guard
Nirini Quartermaster
Odji Sokkwi
Ice Weaver
Deep Woods Imp

Also, since these are rare, if you find one in the bazaar it will probably cost you around 1,500 gold.

This seems to be a problem, and KI should probably add a Tempest card recipe into the game, right? Or maybe let us use tough/accuracy enchanted cards for crafting recipes? Now that they've eliminated trading tough/accuracy enchanted cards, maybe they could consider that? (I don't think they will) Personally I'd like to see the treasure card requirement in crafting recipes go away completely. ;-)

Anyway.

Sorry, and I hope that answers your question.

Happy Dueling!

How do I Report Problems in Wizard101?

Heya all,

I'm starting to get some questions about the item loss that a few are experiencing. To be honest, there's no official word about it that's come down yet, but I suggest being proactive. And here's the best way to be proactive: Establish a ticket with support.

How do I do that, Friendly?

It's easy! Log in over at the Wizard101 website and do this:


I've actually talked through a little bit about working with customer support before. That link may have some additional information you might like to see.

So, I do feel sorry for you because I know it's not fun to lose a few crown items that you've paid good money for (believe me I know). Just get your support ticket in and see if you can get some help with your account. That's the best advice I can give at this point.

Happy Dueling!

FW: Letter To the Wizard101 Community

This letter just came across the news wire from J. Todd Coleman to all of us . . .
________________________________

To the Wizard101 Community:

As many of you are aware, we are currently experiencing some technical difficulties with the Wizard101 game service. As we work through these issues, we are temporarily limiting the number of players who can log into the game at one time. We've made this change due to the large number of players trying to log in simultaneously, which has led to noticeable delays
when connecting to the game.

We will allow more and more players into the world as the issues are resolved. Login priority will be given first to paying customers, followed by our free player community. Also note that this delay is being caused on initial login only; there are no delays once you have entered the game, and subsequent attempts to connect should be noticeably faster.

Thank you for being patient as we work through these issues. We understand that this is an inconvenience, and we are doing everything we can to address it as quickly as possible.

Thanks,

J Todd Coleman
________________________________

Thanks for the heads up, KI!

Happy Dueling!

Patience . . . Victory!

I got really really close, but I got a Failure to Upload message:


Weird. Never seen that one before. :-)

I was sensing a unicorn mount in my future, but now my spider senses are tingling yet again with a new sensation. And this new sensation is the premonition of many Kingsisle Employees slightly freaking out as they scramble to get things running again.

And now I sense they have completed their mad scramble!


MY LIFE IS NOW COMPLETE!

GETTIN' MY 'CORN ON!

WOOOOOT!!!!!!

Unicorn Mount?

OH MY GOODNESS!

This is different than what I saw in the patcher earlier this morning!


UNICORN MOUNT?!?!?!

*brings up game*

OH MAN! I'm hung up on the patcher! It's giving me that "Connecting to Wizard101. Please wait." message!

Let's see if Central has anything on this . . .

Hmmm, looks like everybody is waiting to connect. Wild, some people seem to be reporting item loss and others are reporting being able to get in and no one else being there. Hmmm. Something is strange in the spiral right now.

LOL, now Central is down.



Ok, I'll go ahead and publish this post and update it when it's all said and done.

I SENSE A UNICORN IN MY FUTURE! (If I can log on the game that is)

Happy Dueling!

Death Cyclops Pet (Duke Brandy at Ancient!)

A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to get a Death Cyclops, whom I named Duke Brandy . . . not to be confused with Mister Brandy, my wraith. Knowing that the Death Cyclops gets a cool card at ancient (due to this excellent guide), I began the leveling process.

Today, Duke Brandy hit ancient—WOOTS! I guess that means he's the pet of the day! HAHA!



Meh, I'm not a huge fan of Musical Lane, but I'm glad he finally got a semi-decent skill to manifest, Death Giver! He has a pretty good strength too, so that Death Bringer could end up with a pretty nice boost. The only thing that would make me more happy is if Duke Brandy manifests something like Deathtrap. /shrug. I guess I should have used the test realm to see what talents Duke Brandy would have manifested since I heard that you could see what talents your pet will manifest in the live realm based on what they manifested in the test realm. oh well.


Duke Brandy is looking pretty freaking awesome when he's casting his card. My only complaint is that I wish it was a blade instead of a trap. You know? It's an expensive trap at four pips.


Either way, it's really cool to have one of the new pets at ancient.

I'm happy.

Happy Dueling!

Ahh, that's better? Ok, that's better.

So the first thing I do is run over to the hatchery and see how much a level 48 hybrid attempt is going to set me and Bailey back.


Not bad! That's pretty much half price!

OK, here comes the combine button!


Here comes the reveal at the dye shop!


awwww . . . another expensive housing item! Is that better? Yeah, that's better considering we're into this at least 200,000+ gold so far. Now it's like we're get double attempts at it, right?! It takes less time to get 50,000 gold than 100,000 gold, right?!

Ok, see you again tomorrow for another chance.

Celestia Pre-quest Goes Live!

From the looks of the patcher this morning, the new prequest is live!



Here's a cut and paste of all the changes in this game update:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Begin your journey to Celestia
An urgent message has come from a faraway world!. For those of you who have completed the Final Countdown quest in Dragonspyre, visit me, Halston Balestrom, in Ravenwood. I urgently need your assistance!

These are the Preview Quests to Celestia. The world of Celestia will be available later this year.

Note: Due to community feedback, these preview quests will not be required to gain entry to the new world of Celestia when it is released.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't Fear the Reaper
Snorri Oysterbloom in Grizzleheim wants to speak with you, but only if you've completed the quest "I'm with the Band"!

If you like these quests, you may be interested in how they were developed and designed with Eric Bloom of Blue Oyster Cult. You can read more at Massively.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Crafting Updates
Crafting comes to Grizzleheim
Torald Wayfinder finally has a new set of recipes, bringing new Grizzleheim items for you to craft. But the really big news is that he was able to find a recipe for a Grizzleheim House!

The crafted Grizzleheim house will be a definite challenge even for our Master Artisan Crafters. Please note this house can only be crafted once per character and if you already have the maximum number of houses (3) on that character, you will not be able to craft this house.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Housing Updates
We know you love your homes, but sometimes unwanted guests arrive, so we're giving our players more ways to control who is in their house.

There are now privacy options to only allow your Friends (but not their friends) to teleport to your home. Look for this in the Privacy Tab when you press ESC in the game.

The owner of a house can send guests away with the "Send Away" option. Just click on a Wizard in your Home and the Friends panel will appear, where you will see the option to "Send Away". The Wizard that was sent away will receive the message "The owner asked you to leave."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More excitement! With the supply routes to and from Grizzleheim populated with millions of Wizards, Grizzleheim housing is now available! Look for it in the Crowns Shop.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pet Updates
Some updates to pets, big and small. We listened to our players and reassessed some of the features associated with the Pet Pavilion. Details below.

- The prices for Hatching pets have been adjusted.
- The process of pet Hatching now has a confirmation window to ensure both parties agree to the transaction.
- All new level 48 quest reward pets will receive the Power Pip talent.
- Life pets such as the EarthWalker will have life boosts, not Myth like some currently give.
- IceZilla is now only available through the hatching process.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dragonspyre Updates
Changes are underway in Dragonspyre
Based on the feedback of many of our Wizards, we have taken a long look at Dragonspyre and made some minor adjustments that will ensure that the world is fun and challenging both for players who play in groups, and for those who play solo.

Living in a lava filled world has had an effect on the residents of Dragonspyre.
- the health of many creatures has decreased
- the experience rewards have been increased
- fewer creatures will need to be defeated to meet quest requirements
- fewer items will need to be collected to meet quest requirements
- several of the gauntlets have fewer rooms

We feel these changes bring Dragonspyre more in-line with the difficulty to reward balance of the other worlds of the Spiral.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Details, details, details...
Player vs Player
In the next few days we will be implementing a temporary solution to the problem of chain stunning in the Player vs Player Arena. When a player is stunned, four Stun Shields will appear instead of one. Please note this is only a temporary solution while we investigate other ways to resolve the issue of chain stunning in the Arena.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Clothing
A new Beastmaster Clothing Set is available in the Crowns Shop! It will increase your maximum Pet Energy!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Residents of the Spiral
- Old Smokey has found a new place to hang out - look for him in the Ironworks
- Dusty Shadowcloud now offers more snacks for sale.
- A new Pet Shopkeeper has arrived in Marleybone!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Badges
- The Master of the Oasis badge will once again be rewarded for completing all the Krokotopia quests. Those who have previously completed all the quests will receive the badge right away.
- The Savior of the Spiral badge will no longer be rewarded for simply participating in the duel that defeats Malistaire. Players must have and complete the quest to receive the badge from now on.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Snacks
- The Commander Canteloupe has been promoted to Captain Canteloupe!
- Pets are now able to 'love' more snacks from their school.
- The humble Tomato will remain in the veggie aisle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spells
- Third time's a charm. Feint will now correctly display the debuffs on the player and opponent, correctly reflecting what is displayed on the card.
- White squares should no longer appear around a spell when it is cast.
- Death Wizards will find their minions will cast more interesting spells.
- Earthquake will now remove prism spells and Spirit Armor created by Rebirth.
- Pets that come with a card will now appear to cast the spell when the Wizard chooses to cast that spell from their deck..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Other
- The Gift Icon and notification will now only appear when a player logs in. If you change areas, the notification will disappear, and you must log out and back in to see the notification again.
- Cyrus has been using his red corrector pen to address minor spelling errors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I can't wait to see how much a hybrid attempt is for Bailey and Thomas now! Woot! See you on the live realm!

And the big new of course is that, the pre-quest is not really a pre-quest . . . yeah, I'll have more to say about that later.

Happy Dueling!