Awesome Thing #18 -- Two-boxing

I don't know how many players run multiple accounts at the same time like I do, but Wizard101 is just one of those games where it accomodates "two-boxing" very well. 30 seconds is ample time to make two decisions. In fact, 30 seconds is ample time to make four decisions as long as your deck is set up correctly, but it's much more enjoyable for me to only control two accounts at once (less teleporting around and set up time).

I first heard the term two-boxing back in the days of Everquest when people would play two accounts at the same time on two different computers (there was no way a single computer could handle the processing needed to play two instances of the game at the same time) . . . this was usually done with a dps class or tank paired with a healer. It was very easy to put your healer on auto-follow, set your dps to attack, click the heal button on your cleric, and continue to grind something down until you won!

It seems a bit anti-social in a social game to play two accounts by yourself, but a lot of times the difficulty of social games are tuned to encourage playing with others, which makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately in real world situations you don't have the luxury of a time zone that allows friends and not everyone is willing to assist you at the drop of a hat. Two-boxing overcomes that and two-boxing a storm wizard with Tempest with any other class in Wizard101 is pretty amazing.

. . . and because Wizard101 accomodates two-boxing so well . . . it's awesome!

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #17 -- Finally Getting that Piece of Gear

Heh. I haven't had this feeling lately since I haven't really farmed for anything in a while (although if I ever get back to Aquila in my adventures, I hear there's a few things there I will want to pick up). BUT, I'm digging back into ancient history here for this Wizard101 example:


It says it all at 2:08 seconds . . . then, like a light at the end of a dark tunnel . . . MY HAT! I think the next time I really felt that same pull to farm an area over and over like that was when Waterworks gear came out. But, really, winning that coveted prize from the depths of a loot table is really what keeps a lot of MMOs going. There are many items that I wanted in certain games that I never got and they STILL haunt me. There was a hammer in Everquest . . . Vander's Bane. Never got it. Or the Blackblade of Shahram in World of Warcraft. Never got it.

Eventually it's all very meaningless, but at that moment where you've worked hard trying for that one thing . . . and you finally get it . . . AWESOME!

Happy Dueling

Awesome Thing #16 -- Daily Presents

So, there are a few houses out there in the Spiral that have a special feature that gives a free loot roll on a daily basis, like the Minotaur at the end of the maze in the Aquila Palace or the Genie from the Sultan's Palace . . . or my favorite:

I love that Gorilla! I don't know where he gets these presents from, and I don't know if I want to know!

But, because that free daily loot roll exists in Wizard101 . . . it's awesome . . . and since housing tours came along, I'm pretty sure you'd be able to find a house with a loot roll every day of the week, even if you didn't buy the house yourself (granted the owner didn't selfishly block it off or anything like that).

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #15 -- Brand New Characters

I've played through the starting area of Wizard City what seems like countless times now, but still there's nothing quite like starting it all up again with a new character!

Yup! Taking Unicorn Way by the single horn and BAM! next thing you know you're through Triton Avenue and moving through all of Wizard City. :) There's a certain inescapable charm to the first few levels of Wizard101, and it's something I reminisce about often -- even if it's for work reasons. (I'll never forget my random assignment last year to play through Unicorn Way again LOL.)

This character here is my youngest's new character. I sat back and watched him play -- amazing how sticking to the sidewalk is so foreign to a four-year-old. he's like . . . what? Sidewalk? ME NO WORRY!

If you've forgotten what it's like, take a moment and make a new wizard today for fun. I hope you feel as much awesomeness about it as I do. :)

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #14 -- Allan Ghostdust

In case you missed this, Allan Ghostdust is a new NPC in Khrysalis who gives you a fourth potion bottle. (Yesterday's post about Potion Motion jogged my memory about this.)

You can read more about the real life Allan's visit to KingsIsle on this Facebook post here.

This was again, very touching, and it was my privilege to meet Allan and talk with his family briefly. Although I wasn't as heavily involved with this Make-A-Wish visit as I was when Ryan visited us, I did get a chance to introduce myself as "The Friendly Necromancer" and show off the promotional Pirate101 map we sent out to all Wizard101 players back when Pirate101 launched.

Experiences like these are really once in a lifetime and very heartbreaking and fulfilling at the same time . . . meanwhile all those who have at least done the first few introductory quests in Khrysalis get an extra potion bottle in Wizard101! :)

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #13 -- Potion Motion

I've been playing all the minigames again lately because the 4-year-old has been interested in them when we play Wizard101 together. Although I wouldn't say Potion Motion is the most fun game of them all, I will say it remains the quickest way to return to the fun of questing in Wizard101, right? Although these days Wizards usually are swimming in cash to the point that they'd rather just talk to Hilda Brewer and refill with gold, but the speed at which you can fill your potion bottle with this minigame remains really good.



The reason why is that the "three in a row" you have to connect doesn't need to be "in a row." You just have to make three similar potion bottles touch, which is easily done by the quick random dragging across the screen technique. You'll have the needed score in no time flat -- like 15 seconds or so . . . maybe less. :) By the time the difficulty ramps and new potion types like the heart bottle start appearing on the screen, You've well exceeded the threshold here.

Which makes Potion Motion awesome!

Happy Dueling

Awesome thing #12 -- The Christmas Tree in the Commons

Merry Christmas to all the people out there who continue to love and play Wizard101.

You all know how awesome this tree in the Commons of Wizard City is. No need to explain. :) The real question is, how many Christmas photos have been staged here? I'd say thousands!

Hope you all have a happy holidays and get lots of evil whippings from Krampus . . . er . . . presents from Santa Frog! ;)

Merry Dueling!

Awesome Thing #11 -- Blade Stacking

Hehe. Really there's no need to rehash blade stacking, which has been done exhaustively in every venue of Wizard101 . . . and it's that exact thing that makes it marvelous. Remember that moment when you first started playing the game and you realized that . . . HEY . . . these percentages of blades and traps really stack up the damage!!! I think most players experience that somewhere in Krokotopia--probably the moment you talk to Niles, the Balance tree. (OH DANG IT! I just realized that I need an awesome thing post on Niles! LOL.)

I guess my real first attempt at explaining Blade Stacking happened here on this post.

I loved making that video:



MAN! Those were the days! Then came the era of 1,000,000 hits with crazy low damage spells like wand strikes.

Yup, blade stacking and Wizard101 go hand in hand . . . which definitely makes it an awesome thing! I'd wager overkill has never been finer in any game. :)

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #10 -- Housing Statues

Sure, they may not have much color to them, but who hasn't spent time searching the bosses of the Spiral for that perfect statue (or I suppose the Bazaar for the more common ones)? I'M GUILTY OF THAT!

I've seen some people do amazing things with their statues (far more amazing than I ever have) and in fact I've seen a lot of people start up a huge collection of statues! It's too bad there isn't a badge in game for statue collecting, right? Well, I'm sure we'd do it anyway because the right housing statues make the house in Wizard101.

Housing statues, yup, pure awesome!

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #9 -- Casting with Class Symbols

Some things happen in game just for fun like this:

There's really no difference in any of the outcomes and after all these years, I'm pretty sure we all know that a blood bat is a myth spell or an evil snowman is an ice spell, but it just wouldn't be the same without that magical swirl of the spell that happens the moment before. It's like you're saying, yes, you waved the wand or wiggled your finger in this pattern and cast the spell that's entered the battle circle. Take it away and it's like taking the pokeball out of Pokemon (unless you're Pikachu and Ash or a wand spell that takes you to the center of the battleboard). :)

And because they exist, they are awesome.

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #8 -- Sun Magic on Low Level Spells

Ever since Sun Magic came out circa, what, 2010, it's been the hottest hot sauce of them all.

What I especially love about Sun Magic is that you apply it to a card like a treasure card and suddenly that spell takes on a new life, and there's nothing more awesome than applying a Colossal Card to a low-level spell along with a Sharpened Blade on a regular blade charm and WHAM!

. . . all of a sudden a wimpy little Vampire card is hitting in the thousands. If you would have shown me fast hits with Sun magic cards back in 2009, I would have been blown away . . . and I think we all were and still are in love with these cards. Using those little four pip AOE spells like meteor combined with all that Sun Magic goodness are a favorite trick of Uber Wife. :) And because of that alone, Sun magic on low level spells gets the official stamp of awesomeness from me!

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #7 -- An Undead Stegosaurus

You know it as "Avenging Fossil," but I know it as Herbie!



Just kidding, I don't have a name for my Avenging Fossil, but ever since I was a kid if you asked me what my favorite dinosaur was, I would say Stegosaurus . . . wait a second, I think I may still have an old pop up book from when I was a kid laying around here that has a cool Stegosaurus in it! *hunts*

YES! DINOSAURS!


This book has to be circa 1970-1980. There's no copyright notice on it with a date, so who knows.


Nostalgia wins!

Anyway, I totally love casting up my stegosaurus. It's a pretty cool spell, but more than that . . . he's a freaking undead Stegosaurus. It doesn't get more awesome than that.

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #6 -- King Artorius and his spells

So, in case you didn't know, once you get to Khrysalis, you gather up this funky bunch of peeps known as the council of light, and while on this quest you pay another visit to your old buddy King Artorius in Avalon. He sends you on to the Lady of the Lake, but in passing, he gives you a super awesome spell . . . for free . . . which (as the title of this post and whole series indicates) IS AWESOME! There's no hoops other than the 90 levels of hoops you've already jumped through . . . just, here: have this spell. I LOVE that.

The Duelist101 site put together a cool video of all the King Artorius spells (one for each class) for everyone to enjoy.


I love this spell, and although it's not a health drain spell, it's a super powerful single target hit with a couple of surprises for each class.

It's awesome . . . it's awesome thing number six!

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #5 -- A Pet with Spritely

You know, I remember (and I'm sure many of you remember) when pets in Wizard101 were nothing more than cute adornment (NOTE: well, except for those pets that came with a card *thanks anon*!). Eventually those pets became much much more. And these days, what pet is complete without the awesome pet power Spritely!?

Yup! You start to see your pet break out into a dance and the next thing you know, you're getting surrounded by healing goodness and a cute little "HAI!" and you're filled with so much win!

I don't think I could even begin to count the number of times Spritely (or Unicorn or Fairy for that matter) has saved me OR how many times I've heard the expression "Good Boy" or "Good Girl" come from a wizard whose pet when nuts and cast a Spritely spell on them. In fact, it used to happen so much that we'd complain that we needed to shorten the animation casting time of the spell.

It's a wizard's best friend's best friend -- Spritely -- a truly awesome pet power.

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #4 -- The Arcus Cloud Mount

Wizard101 is full of cool mounts in game, but the Arcus Cloud Mount is pretty new and just released this past year I believe (time just flew by in 2013).

I remember sitting around the KingsIsle offices and all the Marketing folks were talking about how awesome this new mount was, and they're totally right. Riding around on a little bed of clouds sparking out lightning is the stuff of genius. GENIUS!

I think there's maybe three mounts you ride like this in game now (flying carpet and surfboard are the other two, yes?), but I just love this thing right now. I need to get my son's character, Kyle Skystaff, one of these because a Storm wizard on a storm cloud is about as perfect as it gets for awesome style points!

Happy Dueling!

Awesome Thing #3 -- Regenerate while in Treant Form

The Treant Polymorph spell is one of my favorite spells as it is, and I probably should make an "awesome thing" post just about Treant form. Although awesome all on its own . . . Using the mega "healing touch" Regenerate spell while in treant form for some reason is so much more fun than any other time I've cast Regenerate regularly! Why is that?

And actually, it's more of a combo move . . . foot stomp for the 50% bonus healing aura, Guiding Light charm for the +30% extra boost, and finishing up with Regenerate right as the polymorph is ending so that the heal carries over into the next two rounds. THAT . . . THAT . . . is awesome! And incredibly fun as well. :)

Happy Dueling!

Awesome thing #2 -- Health Drain Spells

You can only find them in the Death school line of spells, and it's still one of my favorite things about my chosen class . . . health drain spells! From the first time I cast a Ghoul as a baby necro to just last night when I hit a mob with Dr. Von's Monster, It's a totally awesome thing about Wizard101.

It finishes off a mob and it makes sure you're at full health for the next battle.

I can't express how much that helps play this game. Overpowered? Maybe, but if it brings the happy, it brings the happy, and it's definitely an awesome spell mechanic in Wizard101.

Happy Dueling!

Intro and Awesome Thing #1 -- low-hitting Wildbolt Spells

Hey! So, I'm bored tonight, and I'm thinking of starting a new series here on TFN! What is it? Well, it's a daily list of awesome things on Wizard101. Now, to be honest, I'm sure I've already listed well over 1,000 things that I think are awesome about Wizard101 on this blog without actually listing them, but, whatever! I need a good shot of optimism every once in a while, don't you? TOTALLY

So, here we go . . .

Awesome thing #1 -- Low hitting Wildbolt spells that are cast against me!

There's something about going against a Storm Mob and they get a roll of the dice on a Wildbolt spell and lose. It's like that old feeling my dad would conjure up when "luck" would go his way -- "I'd rather be lucky than good." HA! I can actually picture my dad's smile in my mind and his kind of strut he'd do when he'd score two points over my head in Basketball. I had that feeling tonight when this spider cast a low-hitting Wild bolt against me.

That could have been painful, but instead . . . awesomeness happened and I got a lucky roll of the virtual dice versus a spell that has the potential to be very deadly.

Thank you game!

Happy Dueling!