6 Years Young!

Over here in the Southern Hemisphere, the arrival of September means it's Spring!(I know it's not quite here, but Wizard101 have called early on September, so I am too!). The morning chill is fast disappearing and the temps everywhere are in the increase. So it's a great time to celebrate, and what better way than to have a party? Of course, the great news is that September is also the Birthday month for Wizard101, and that means cool giveaways, more sales and more celebrations!

It seems the birthday candles will reveal a cool giveaway each week. Candle number ONE is super awesome, and something I can't wait to place this in one of my gardens - 

Birthday Gala Gazebo Housing Item!

September is a month long celebration in the Spiral, so make sure you check back throughout the  month for special birthday deals and offers!

Oh - wait.... there's more!! What celebration would be complete without a special new fish reveal? Yes - there is a birthday mystery fish!

There's a rare new fish in town creeping in the waters of the Spiral. It's only here during the Wizard101 birthday celebration month... can you catch it?

I sent out the spies and this rare fish can be found in Unicorn Way - which is great because it means Wizards of all levels have a chance of snagging one. If you don't want to find out what the fish is then look away now - or don't scroll down....!

Be on the lookout for a Balance fish that bubbles more than other fish. You can catch this beauty throughout the month - good luck.

Thanks to KI for letting us enjoy their Birthday with them :)

Have fun, until next time,

Tabitha

And the Second Spring comes again...

As many of you would know, once I got past my 'block', I have always enjoyed gardening - so much so I wrote two books on it!! LOL! (shameless plug time - You can download them by clicking on the links on the right!)

When the spell "Second Spring" first came out, I was around there in a flash to learn it.  It is pretty expensive to buy (unless you know our mate Halfang), and it is pretty expensive in Energy to cast, but its affects last forever...

Have a look at my latest two masterpieces.  Only simple, but tasteful (I think).  It is the beautiful Moon Flower.  This is a classic application for Second Spring.  The plant looks great in it natural colour, but once it hits Elder, it just loses some of that beauty.

The same can be said for the Clockwork Flower.   They are kind of similar, but still very different.  Here is one I have had floating around for some time now.

As you can see, it really is 'floating' around.

I guess, for me, that is the real power of Second Spring.  When you find a plant that you do like the look of, you can build it into the design of your entire house.  Once it has reached Elder and no longer needs your help to stay alive, a little Energy and it is sealed, preserved forever in all of its glory - and your design stays consistent.

Here are a couple of my other plants, frozen in time forever, just adding their natural beauty to the house that they live in.  Yes, they are similar, but I just wanted some Boom Shrooms around the place to liven it up a bit!

BTW - Don't get me wrong, there are times when the Elder version of the plant is really the one to keep.  Look at these beautiful, but deadly, women, guarding the entrance to another house.

In fact, there is only one thing wrong with Second Spring.  Your plant is still 'officially' Elder.  This means, that one wrong click of a button can end your plant's life and you are forced to start again.

This little guy greets me (then turns his back) every time I go HOME.  The only trouble is, if I want to use the World Gate, I have to take a step backwards away from him, or when I hit 'X', instead of spinning me around and opening the door, instead, my rude (and slightly sickly-looking) plant gets snuffed out and he vanishes.

Then I have to start again to grow a new one... :(

So, Second Spring is a great spell, one of my favourites.  Just use with care and be careful once done...

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

ALS Ice Bucket challenge reaches the Spiral!

Hey everyone!

• FrostCaller -  celebrate the awesome talents over at WU
• ALS Ice Bucket Challenge -  hits the Spiral
• Malduit - Tabitha's new minion

It has been a slow week at the Keep. We've had wizards away and wizards ill, so stories and time in the Spiral has been rare. While we recover and recoup, at least we have the Wizard101 Weekly to keep us up to date with what everyone else has been up to. For those of you who know and love FrostCaller, you'll be pleased that he has teamed up with Wizards Unite to give away some of his awesome graphics. If you don't know of his talents yet, then open the paper and follow the link. You'll see this image and more are available to download and use! And it was one of those weeks, when an excellent cause that has taken the world by storm made it's way into the Spiral. I have noticed a few Twitter challenges, and Paige Moonshade has recorded her Ice Bucket debut on YouTube! For this and all the other stories shared by Wizards around the globe, click on the paper.

You know I was determined to get through one week without mentioning Fishing.......!! Hope you enjoy and we'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

Ch-ch-ch-Changes!

Hey Everyone,

Been away for most of the week, so it's a little slow over here at the Keep. Just to make sure I hadn't missed anything, I thought I would pop over to the Monthly update on wizard101.com. I don't do this often enough, and lo and behold there was an update there that I had not yet seen. Just in case you guys have missed it too, I have posted it here. This is not a game change, but worth watching this space to see what Leala and Tom have in store :)

Community Management

We’ve got a really important announcement this month about some changes in Community Management at KingsIsle! There’s a new face and an exciting announcement about Kiersten Samwell pursuing her dreams as a game designer. While it’s sad to say goodbye to a valued friend to the Community, read on and you’ll see that the Old Professor Greyrose isn’t moving far at all. Tom Purdue (also known as One-Eyed Jack on the Pirate101 Message Boards) will also be pitching in to assist Wizard101 players as “Dworgyn” on Social Media and elsewhere. Exciting times are upon us! Read on!


 New Opportunities

I’ve been on this magical adventure with all of you for a little over six years, as your Wizard101 Community Manager. In that time, it’s been my privilege to be a part of this amazing community and now a rare opportunity has come along that allows me to better serve the community and the game as a whole, as a Game Designer on the Wizard101 team.

But don't worry, I'm not that far away (really only about 20 feet!) and I’m leaving you in the best hands, with our new Associate Community Manager; Leala Ulrich.

"I will not forget one line of this. Not one day. I swear. I will always remember when Professor Greyrose was me."

Kiersten Samwell - Game Systems Designer - Wizard101

Introducing New Faces!

Greetings young Wizards,

“Does anyone know how to fly this thing?”

Some of you may know me as Leesha Darkheart from Ravenwood Radio, but all of you will soon get to know me even better as your Associate Community Manager and the shiny new (still not ginger) face of Professor Greyrose. As Kiersten moves on to make amazing content for Wizard101 as a game designer, she has passed down her famous wand to me. While these are some big (or actually quite tiny) shoes to fill, I hope to be up to the task. I'm excited to get to work with such an amazing community and teammate in Tom aka Dworgyn!

My love of KingsIsle games goes back many years, to 2009 when I discovered Wizard101. I enjoyed playing the game so much that I wanted to share it with everyone! So with the help of my friend Stephen Spiritcaller, we started Wizard101's first podcast, Ravenwood Radio. Through running an official fansite I got to meet so many members of Wizard101's helpful and welcoming community. It was such an exciting and educational experience. It changed the way I thought about video games and started me down the path to becoming a Community Manager. Getting to share your enthusiasm for the KingsIsle games that we all love is an amazing job, and I can't wait to get started!

Tom and I have some great ideas for fun events to share with the community. So keep an eye out as I hope you'll be seeing more of the both of us, as we strive to serve the KI community even better!

Leala (Leesha)

Hope you found this of interest!

Tabitha.

Major Minion - Malduit

Hey everyone!

Leveling up to 75 sent me over to the Storm school, and as I ported over I wondered what was in store for me. New spells usually occur on the '8' levels, so I wasn't expecting anything at 75. It was a nice surprise to see that I was in for a new minion. I must admit that I simply don't use them, but a higher level one? Will be good to check out their usefulness.

 First I was sent over to Crab Alley, where my first encounter had health of 220, seems a long time ago when the street fights were like that. The street fights in Zafaria can be over 3,000 and I'm guessing that number just gets higher as I level up.

Crab Alley sent me to the Professor in Marlebone. As a big Dr Who fan I had to take a pic of the Spiral's take on the Doctor and the Tardis. Interestingly that Doctor is my original favourite :)

FrostCaller picked up on the fact that the Red Tardis has moved. Since the fishing update, the Red Tardis is no longer on the grass, it has moved to the cobblestone road! Will keep an eye on this turn of events for sure!

The Doctor, oops Professor, sends me off on the quest "Bad Schooling" over in Zafaria. I took a snip of the quest itself, because I was amazed at how much XP was on offer. In fact all up this quest gives around 100,000 XP - bonus!

The battles throughout this quest were fairly standard. The health levels were all reasonable and there were no cheats. It took a bit of time from start to finish, and it wasn't all battles - you had to collect some items too.

And before I knew it I was back off to the Doctor, sorry the Professor and he was handing me my new minion - MALDUIT. Rank 7, she looks like she means business and I will definitely be taking her for a spin to gauge her usefulness to me for future battles.

And of course, my encounter with the Professor leaves me with a Jellybean snack - love the attention to details. Tom Baker always had that bag of jellybeans on him :)

I'll let you know how I go with the minion!

Oh and Morgrim reminded me that our very own Blaze had posted his story around this quest, back in September of last year. You can have a read of his adventure here.

Have fun, until next time!
Tabitha

Shark Alert - Predictions - Energy

Hey everyone!

• Shark Week -  and the release of the Warhammerhead shark
• Energy Elixirs -  Grub Guardian can help
• Seeing the Pattern? - Future Predictions?

So this was the week that House-A-Palooza drew to a close and Shark Week was once again with us. Exciting that a new shark was released for this week only, so if you haven't got yours, you haven't got much time left to snare one! Frostcaller has put up some tips on getting Energy Elixirs using Grub Guardian - these things are like gold dust with all the energy needs around the Spiral. And one of those past-times is of course fishing. It is still hard to go any length of time without another style of fishing post. For this and all the other stories shared by Wizards around the globe, click on the paper.

We'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

School Battle Strategy

I've been thinking a bit about how I approach battle quests recently. Certain schools definitely cause certain decisions.

For instance, my first thought when fighting Storm is to get the Storm shields into my deck. Then make sure my Myth cards are in and my Amulet is on. I actually trained in the Storm shield - it is the only school I did that for.

Fighting Death is just about having those Prisms in the deck, along with a few Humungofrog cards just in case those Prisms don't appear quickly.The other problem with Death enemies is that they replenish their health constantly, which I love for me - but not my enemies! For this reason I now include Feints in the side deck. I prefer the TCs because the hit on me is 20%  instead of 30%. I put everything in place to defeat them in one hit. There is nothing worse than getting a good hit in, waiting on the pips only to find that they have taken the opportunity to replenish their health!

When I see an Ice fight I always get a little nervous. Prolific use of Tower shields has defeated me many a time. Strategy wise I always load up on Tower shields and Poison. The hope is that a powered up Poison will take care of those Tower shields while I get ready for a big hit.

Balance and Fire I really don't have any strategy in place yet. Neither of them cause a big problem in the way they use spells in a battle - so far anyway! So I just have a standard deck. If the Fire fight is a boss fight then I usually add some Volcanic shields, but that is about it.

Then there is Myth. I really do not like fighting Myth. They have 2 spells that irk me - Earthquake and Myth Imp. Strategy for Earthquake is not to use blades, but use Feints to get extra damage. If the Earthquake spell is cast at the right time, then then 20% or 30% self hit disappears, which is fantastic! Unfortunately there is little I can do about the Myth Imp. Dispel Death - a terrible thing for a Death wizard! I make sure I have a Death wand on, so I can use the zero pip hits if that nasty little Imp has me cornered. It also dispels Life, but I rarely use Life spells, it affects Patch or Winston sometimes though.

How about you guys? How do you approach the different Schools? Would love to hear from you.

Have fun, until next time,
Tabitha

Pack Analysis: The "Build-a-Castle Medieval Set" pack

Pack Name:           Build-a-Castle Medieval Set
Pack Type:            Housing
Number of Cards:  7
Cost:                      249 Crowns, 225 on special during House-a-Palooza

Description
Well, wouldn't you know it?  As soon as I write a post about Packs, a new Pack comes out this week with the latest House-a-Paloosa.  The "Build-a-Castle Medieval Set" pack.  That, and another 2 Aquarium packs, brings the total Pack count to 58!

This pack is a pretty logical follow up on the 'build it yourself' theme that Kings Isle have been promoting lately.  It gives (according to the hover over) 7 cards from the Build-a-Castle Medieval Set.  The pack contains all the different blocks needed to build your Castle.

Given that I have purchased all of the recipes from Lloyd FallingWater in the Shopping District, I was curious to find out whether these items were new ones or whether they were existing ones - if they are, that would mean I didn't need to actually craft Castle pieces.

Let's see, I got 5 common items (to be expected, they are "common" after all!) and 2 rare.

A quick review of my recipes and it was a little disappointing, although fully expected, to note that all of these items, even the rare ones, were listed in my recipe list.  Basically, this meant that I had spent Crowns where I could have spent gold.

While I haven't been able to find a complete listing of what is contained in this pack, it is pretty clear that this pack is to help people with building their own castles, and because of that, it is a useful pack, especially for new wizards who have the creative flair needed in order to construct their own wonderful castle creation.

Morgrim's Verdict:  
High Level Wizards:  If you can craft, craft.  For me, Crowns are too hard to come by and are kept for the lucky dip of items you cannot find, buy or craft that can only be found in other packs and Crowns Shop categories.

Low Level Wizards:  If you love to build and create, this isn't a bad pack to buy.  It will take a lot of time to obtain the gold needed to buy the recipes and a lot more time finding all of the reagents needed to craft the items.  Although it is random, this should be a great start for your Castle Creating Career!

Let me know if you agree with my verdict :)

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

The Warhammerhead Shark - Scored One Yet?

Continuing this somewhat busy time of the year, it's Shark Week in the Spiral.

Of course, the guys at Wizard101 have planned some fun things to do!! There is a rare fish to be on the lookout for, and of course it is a shark.... the Warhammerhead no less.

So far this rare catch has been found on Triton Avenue, and you might want to know that they are Storm School.

              



And there is yet another free item for you to claim, so what are you waiting for? 

Your free mystery gift could be a Swift Shark Permanent mount!!  This free gift only runs until 27th August so get yours today! I didn't score so well with my gift - did you do better?

There is a new Shark Trivia page to earn you crowns, over on the Trivia pages, and heaps of interesting Shark facts on the Discovery Kids Shark Week website.

Hope you have fun, until next time,

Tabitha

Builder, Decorator or just making a Comeback?

Hey everyone!

• Source of Corruption -  Another solo cheating boss battle
• Comeback Tips -  Been away, read on to find tips to make your comeback
• Building Castles -  Swordroll's building castles - take a look!

So this was the week that House-A-Palooza made it's return to the Spiral. Best time of the year to get your next house and many other housing items. I was busy against more cheating bosses, while Swordroll has really got his building vibe going. For this and all the other stories shared by Wizards around the globe, click on the paper.

We'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

The Scavenger Hunt by Paige at Wizard101Central!

Have you seen the Scavenger Hunt over at Wizard101Central?  It is a part of their massive birthday celebrations, and the amazing Paige Moonshade has put together a challenging hunt through the Spiral for 20 different items!

Click HERE to jump directly to the Hunt!

A long-time friend of mine, Alia Stormsong asked me if I had been hunting around the Spiral for any of the items, but I had forgotten all about it!  Alia Starshade, Blaze and I have plunged into it with passion, and we have nailed one quickly.  Blaze had the idea, and Alia and I locked in on the target.

No. 19 is locked in, screenshotted and filed away.

Here is an example of one of the items - in fact is it No. 19...

As I write, we have 4 down, 16 left.  Let's see how we go with the rest of them - no hints now!

How are you going with the Scavenger Hunt?  Have you found them all yet?

Good Luck.

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

Source of Corruption - Solo?

So I'm down at the Waterfront, and quite enjoying it in this part of Zafaria. Actually, truth be told I like all of Zafaria pretty much. And there are plenty of different areas to explore. Even better when I come across a dungeon that is more than one fight to win. And that is when I was led to the "Black Palace" quest - defeat the Source of Corruption. Expecting to go into a fairly standard sort of fight, I was happy to see this one had slightly more meat to it.

Unfortunately the first effort ended in failure, no converts and the many death enemies in here meant that it was probably a foregone conclusion! Easy to know when a dungeon is more than a small battle - time to port back in differs significantly. In this case I had 30 minutes.... and I knew that going solo in this one might take a bit of time.

Looking over at Central you can easily see that there are few things to complete to earn the XP. First up are a couple of boss fights, Ice boss surrounded by 3 death minions - Oh what a joy this battle was going to be!

By the way, I didn't look up any tips or tricks in this battle. I like to try and figure it out myself, I just popped over to grab some images for the blog! The Ice boss fights were about as standard as they come. I had the added issue of all the minions being Death so plenty of converts in play in these battles.

Word to the wise though.... stick to the outside and go where the arrow tells you when you are moving around between fights. The minion battles are not required.

Once these boss battles are done you have to shatter some stones. I got caught in way too many side battles doing this part - so take care when you are finding each one!

As you move further into the dungeon, who just know that final boss fight is not too far away. I was expecting Ice, as this one had had plenty of Ice and Death all the way, but no - it was to be a Storm boss.

Time to defeat Tim-Tim-SnakeEye. Health-wise we are not talking the biggest boss, but Storm, well they have a pretty hard hits if they don't fizzle! And this is one of my favourite Storm Spells - a purple headed dragon slowly moving up out of the mist, then just staring, mocking you with the hit that is to come. I just had to take a pic!

Back to the battle, my health looked precarious fairly quickly in this one, and hits like this one didn't help. But the biggest issue was a Tower Shield. And yep, you've guessed it, not an ordinary Tower Shield - that would be far too easy! But you know what? A 90% Tower shield is bad enough, but one that is recast EVERY time you get rid of it - we had another cheating boss on our hands. So what was to be my strategy this time?

I immediately thought of Poison again. First round to get rid of the shield, then hit while it is missing. Hmmm. It didn't work. I had so many Pips spinning around me and no clue what to do. One thing that was certain, however was that I needed to heal to continue. I had packed 2 Fairy cards and 2 Sacrifice cards in my deck. I hardly ever heal myself, so don't tend to want to waste space with these cards. When the Fairy appeared I grabbed her with open arms and played a Fairy heal for probably the first time in months!

And that was when something curious happened....

Now I know enough to realise that this was a hint, and it showed when I healed (which as you can see was needed badly!). Then the best thing happened - the Tower shield evaporated. Hmmm. Time to play my 9 pip and get a real hit in.

Almost 4,000 and I'm back in the game. So healing helped me out. But I only had one more Fairy, and I need to get a boosted half-life back spell ready with as much back hit as possible ready for that Fairy. Blades and Feints were all I had, so I got them ready while I waited for that Fairy.

Getting a bit hairy now. My health is depleted and the Fairy is in hiding. But there was a Sacrifice there.
It would use my blades, it would most certainly defeat me, and bring me back losing my battle setup, but the real question is - Does it count as a heal? I had no option but to use it and see what happened - we were definitely at "Kill or be Killed" stage in this battle!

So I played it. I was defeated as expected, lost my pips, my aura and my blades, but I was healthy and that Tower shield was no more. I only needed 4-pips to run my Vampire and the result was good :)

This was a real risk to take at this stage in this dungeon, so I am really glad that it worked out well.

I love being able to do these fights solo - really makes you think through and apply a strategy, but I still have a couple of battles to do that I just can't solo. The Helephant Tower is one that I have tried solo a couple of times, but I know it is ultimately futile. I know I will need help. The other is Poseidon - the 2nd Aquila battle. I still think that maybe I can do this. I have got to the final battle twice solo'ing, just never completed that final battle. Time will tell, but I reckon I need to shout up a couple of friends for that Tower!

Anyway, that's it from me for now.

Have fun, until next time,
Tabitha

Decorators Delight!

So it's back... And better than ever by the looks of it - with the addition of the Build-A-Castle Medieval sets. I had to buy one just to see what is on offer in these packs:

Unlike many a wizard out there, I have yet to start building. I have purchased 6 of the recipes so far, so I am getting ready! Well now I have a few items, including one ultra-rare item, I may just have to start :)

There are many other items on sale in the Crown Shop though. Half price castles, reduced price Aquarium and Housing packs, even housing Elixirs! You can really make a great start on the Castle of your Dreams with these great prices.

And don't forget to claim your free item... I scored an Ambrose Bobblehead, which is cool. I have quite a collection of these now.

Have fun, until next time,

Tabitha