Energy ... it comes all too slowly and it goes all too fast

Energy is the thing that you never really notice until you start to look at Pets or Gardening seriously.  KI are kind in allowing each Wizard to have just that little bit more every time they level up...but the process is frustrating as there never seems to be quite enough to keep that garden going strongly, or to get your pet to that next level.

So, what can you do about it?

There are a few traps and tricks that I'll go through in this post, and when I have a little more time, I'll go into this a little further.

As a member, energy comes back a little quicker.  If you aren't a member, then you are stuck to a very slow renewal and that means every drop of energy counts.

A few Traps to watch out for:

Trap 1 - Don't think that making another Wizard and passing your pet to them will let you level it up more quickly. This little bit of lateral thinking first was raised in our team by Blaze, but the reality is very different.  Once that pet goes into your Shared Bank, you will lose ALL of your energy when you try to remove it.  Not only is there no energy to improve your pet, but that Wizard now also needs to have their energy renewed!

Trap 2 - Gardening as soon as you get a 'need' on your plant is a real Energy killer.  Your plants will keep growing for a while, even with needs. It is only if you leave them too long that you will get the "Progress to Dead" message.  Once you see this, you need to clear all needs to allow the plant to grow again.

Trap 3 - Don't clear pests until harvest time.  I have not found any seed that deteriorates with pests.  Using your before harvest time is just a waste, but you will need to clear that pest when it is time to harvest.

And a few Tricks to try:

Trick 1 - Every time you level up your character, you get your energy refilled, so make sure you use all of your energy just before you level up.  Once you level up, you energy is refilled - It's like getting a free Energy Elixir!

Trick 2 - Don't spend your Energy until you have all (or close to all) of the needs on your plants, and (normally) once every 24 hours is enough.

Trick 3 - Keep similar plants together.  Plants with the same needs can be all serviced at the same time.  Check the needs for your seeds at Wizard101Central and it will save you a lot of Energy.

This is one of my Fiery Boom Shrooms at the farm.  I don't actually harvest this guy, but more on that in another post.  (and yes, that is a dead plant, and it is dead for a reason!)

There are lots more, but for now, see how you go conserving your Energy.

See you round the Spiral,

Morgrim

Alia's Sightseeing through the Spiral - C

C is for Chess Board

Anyone for a game of Chess?

I thought this was wonderful when I first saw it, but very hard to get all the pieces.  I was slowly picking them up from the Bazaar when I saw them there.  I then found out that they could all be purchased in Marleybone, so the process became a whole lot faster :)

Forest Lord smashes the birds

Ok, I'm a level 86 Life Wizard, at Azteca and have just started questing in Mangrove Marsh.  I haven't been questing much lately but back into it tonight.    Needed 3 birds called "Left Talon of the Sky" and as always they are impressive to look at.  4250 health so I needed a couple of blades and vengence, but Forest Lord smashed it.

  

SMASH !!

Always fun :)

Alia

Gardening Update

Thanks for the tips Morgim. I am finally getting the hang of the uses, but it is so frustrating to run out of energy so much!

Over the last week I have been planting various items, seeing what rewards I get, learning lots. And then I went back to one of Morgrim's older posts (Red Barn Farm), and re-read it. I wanted to find out more about the likes. You see I had a pixie appear on my Tiger Lilly's one day, and I already knew that certain plants liked each other, while others did not. I had been saving Gold for a while, thinking about upgrading a house, my first house only allowed 50 items outside and I very quickly hit that limit because I had decorated the outside area. With very few empty spots left for plants it was time to get serious! So I bought it. Yep.... Red Barn Farm is my new home, and I guess I am a little hooked on the gardening but still annoyed at how quickly my energy levels disappear!
So here are some of the pics from the last week or so:

Gardening also showcases the sense Wizard101 Sense of humour..... The couch potatoes are hilarious, but I have not harvested yet..... hoping for Mega Snacks from these little guys. I did have a couple of Bread Fruit Trees, which were lucrative, giving me Golden Wheat Bread - a nice level 9 snack which was worth 40xp for my new pet.

It is clear that a little thought goes a long way when it comes to pets and gardening, and it's a bit of fun to see what the daily harvest will bring. Talking of which, time to go...... 

Until Next Time,

Tabitha

Some tips for gardening

Hey Tabitha, I'm glad you have started with gardening and I have to say, your first garden is much neater than mine was.  It is kinda amusing watching new wizards start their gardens.  Usually it is the "I'll plant all the seeds in my backpack" approach.  This can be fun, and can lead to some unpredictable results...usually it is when the high rank pests drop by and kill your plant - sounds like that might have happened to you as well Tabitha?

Well, before I get into some tips, I just wanted to say, I was with Robert Shadowgem when he captured those pictures, and he really did an incredible job.  I have been a fire wizard for a long time now, and I hadn't ever realised that the meteor could be seen without its blazing trail!  Fantastic spell shots Robert!

But for now, back to gardening.

The key thing for any new wizard is to understand why you garden.  For me, it is simple, reagents and mega-snacks.  Wizard101Central (as usual) has all the information you need to know what to plant and how to care for it.

For now, I'll leave you with this simple tip.  Plant 'needs' will really suck up your Energy.  Only plant seeds with similar needs and you should have enough Energy to service them - and if you plant them close to each other, you should be able to deal with multiple plants at once.

More on gardening later - it is complex and very beneficial part of mastering Wizard101.

See you 'round the Spiral.

Morgrim

Spells look EPIC!

The thing I love most about Wizard101 is the EPIC spell animations they have, so I went around and took some pictures of the spells. I took so many that I had to make a slideshow of them to fit them all in. Here it is.

I hope you like all my pictures and take note of the cool animations in battles.

Robert ShadowGem

Day 2 in the Garden

The thing about gardening is that you need to make sure you go there everyday to check how the plants are going. Just something to remember..... so I popped over to my garden this morning to check on progress.

Had to use a couple of spells to keep the plants happy, so took the opportunity to capture it on video today. Plants are all now happy and  have a harvest to look forward to tomorrow.

Until next time,
Tabitha

Inspired by Mogrim!

I have been questing and exploring in Wizard, pretty much ever since I started. There is a lot to learn and a lot to explore so I have not really done anything else. Reading Mogrim's posts though, I know there is a lot more Wizard101 than just questing, so I decided last night to try my hand at gardening. I have to admit that I have planted something in the past.... and well, let's just say it was very unsuccessful. Unless you call getting pests and ultimately dying successful of course! And the problem was that I had not collected the spells, or maybe that was when gold was a lot harder to come by and I couldn't part with the 500 or so coins needed to get the necessary spells!
Gardening all starts with Farley, who I first met in Wizard City some time ago with this little quest:

So last night I made another visit to Farley, collected my spells and then went home to do a spot of gardening. I cultivated 9 small plots and planted the following:

6 Pink Dandelions
1 Boom Shroom
2 Desparagus

So let's see how this goes..... Day 1 and all is well. We have had some growth, and none of the plants require any attention. I'll keep you updated, maybe keep your fingers crossed that I am rather more successful than last time :)

Thanks Mogrim, for the inspiration, this is fun and a welcome break from questing!

Until next time,
Tabitha

Loving the new Minion!

KI - Great work.  A remake of the minion!

I have always had a soft spot for my 3 pip, 400 point Minion.  He is annoying in PvP and heals at just the right time.  Still, the 400 points was always a big of a challenge.

What's this?  A new quest!  And ... the prize is a new minion - in my case Sir Lamorak.  He is a mean looking dude and packs a serious punch.  At 1700 points and starting with 6 pips, he can wreak some serious damage too.

A serious minion for a serious job.  Kicking bad-guy butt.  He has some great spells, including Fire Dragon, and the only thing he is missing is a simple healing spell.  Still, I'm not complaining!  Just gives me a reason to keep the old minion around :)

(BTW - Only one minion at a time still counts - if you try to cast a new minion with one already on the field, the new minion will replace the old one).

I haven't had him in a 1v1 yet, but I reckon he'll do just fine.

Good luck getting your new minion - let me know what you think of it?

See ya round the spiral!

Morgrim

Pets, Pets, Pets

Pets - frustrating, expensive, extremely time consuming...

...but oh so very valuable when you get them right!

As mentioned previously, I'm still trying to get the perfect Coldfire, and lately, it just hasn't been working for me.  My Penumbra (Miss Callie) is a great pet, but very selfish with her genes.  Other than a few hatches at first, I cannot seem to get another Coldfire to drop from my numerous attempts.

I have attempted to do some research here and some people claim that the order of hatching is important - but it isn't.  I have tried both Penumbra and Coldfire on the left, to no noticeable affect.  It is possible that the percentages change, but even about that I am not sure.

Now, my "Pet Graveyard" is completely out of control and I have been selling pets back to the Pet Shop Boys.

Well, after yet another Penumbra to add to the mix, I am off to Halfang.  I have a different strategy in mind...I'm going to get that Coldfire.  I know it isn't going to be easy, but it is going to be worth it!

Until next time - I might see you in Vestrilund!

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

House-a-Palooza 2

Big celebrations continue around the internet, and with them come more free stuff and offers. Here is the latest one from Wizard101.... another free housing gift and reductions on house items

House-a-Palooza Link

Enjoy everyone!

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

House-a-Palooza

Hey Everyone,

Everyone loves free stuff, but even more importantly - free stuff that is useful!

So imagine my excitement at finding a free to enter House-a-Palooza competition running that would give me a new tapestry for my house. These are very special tapestries though...... they are "Teleport Tapestries"!

This is the text from the WarCry about the competition:

Our friends at Wizard101 are happy to announce that the month of August is devoted to creating the house of your wizarding dreams, so they're giving us thousands of codes to help get you started on your latest interior design project with Teleport Tapestries!

Teleport Tapestries are a decoration you can place in your Wizard101 Dorm or Castle. Besides their obvious decorative features, they are functional as well! You can use the Teleport Tapestry to be teleported to the location shown.

So I followed their information and received my new Tapestry......

And what a useful Tapestry it is - a teleport to the Bazaar. A random choice, but if I could have picked any of the teleports on offer, then this would be it. Thanks to WarCry and Wizard101 for my gift.

If I find other cool free stuff, I'll let you know :)

Oh and don't forget it is Shark Week this week - Wizard101 are giving away a free 7-day shark mount to all Wizards.

Until Next Time,

Tabitha

Strategy

Had to pop up to Mount Olympus and check out the dungeons at the weekend. I knew they would be pretty full on as they were being rented out on a 6-hour basis, but man! There are some tricky fights up there in the clouds! Had a couple attempts and didn't manage to get past the third battle. Clearly some changes to spells, decks, clothes are all in order to survive that much longer.

One of my wizard friends was on last night so we arranged another go at Zeus. Unfortunately I did not get in the battle, a Storm Wizard got into the dungeon, so my team went off without me. The new team consisted on a Life Wizard, two Fire Wizards and a Storm Wizard.

The Fire Wizards were level 37 and level 33.
The Life Wizard was level 24.
The Storm Wizard was level 57.

It was clear that the Storm Wizard owned the battle....... she packed a great deck. Two hits and the first battle was over. Same thing for the second battle. I watched in awe as she pushed the team through all the battles and come out winners. I think she could have pretty much done just as well without a team.

The spell she used more than all others was Tempest.

At this stage in the Spiral I am seeing more spells that hit all enemies and more of the ring spells, that increase the power of school. My favourite of these is definitely fire - just makes the battle seem more intense. 

This is also the first time I have seen the 'X' for pips, the ones that are affected by the number of pips you have and can be played at any time. It is becoming more and more obvious that I need to think very clearly about what spells to have and what gear to use when going into these higher level battles. Plenty to think on!

I will keep trying though. There are some awesome drops up there, so it is well worth the effort and good to try different ways of going about a battle and what affects that might have. 

See you in the Spiral...... and maybe on Mount Olympus!

Until next time,

Tabitha.