The Final Candle

So the last candle has been lit, and it is the gift of CROWNS!

Use the link to find out how many crowns you have been allocated in the last of the awesome Birthday give-a-ways!

Each account will get a surprise Crowns amount ranging from 250 to 30,000 Crowns! I claimed mine this morning and am now 500 Crowns richer, which is great. How about you, were you one of the lucky 30,000 winners?

Please note the following (taken from Wizard101.com)

This code is good for 48 hours only and expires at 9:00am US Central Time on Wednesday, October 1st 2014. Hurry and get your FREE Crowns now!

In order to be eligible for the FREE Crowns giveaway, your account must have been created prior to 8:59am US Central Time on September 29th, 2014. No new accounts created after this time will qualify for the FREE Crowns giveaway.

Keep in mind, there is only one redemption per account and these Crowns are non-transferable.

And just in case you haven't already got into the Birthday Spirit and claimed the previous Birthday Gifts - here they all are!

Don't forget to try your hand at securing the Birthday fish before it leaves the shores of the Spiral!

Have fun!

Tabitha

What year would you Pick?

Hey everyone!

Top stories this week.....

• Theurgists's Notes 
• Old Memories  
• Favourite Year 

Over on Duelist, there is more strategising..... Life Wizard with Myth Mastery Amulet in PvP, while Blaze takes an amusing trip back to Unicorn Way. And looking back really is the way of the Spiral at the moment - KI have called for Blog posts on your favourite year in the game - some great posts are discussing various happenings over the past 6 years.
As always, to catch up on all the other stories shared by Wizards around the globe, click on the paper.

Hope you enjoy and we'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

Bringing Back Old Memories! (and showing off a little)

Today, I decided to head back to the first dangerous area of Wizard101... The name brings shivers to the hearts of many... The place that must not be named, is... Unicorn Way! 

Because of the terrifying danger this place first struck into me, I decided to go all out with my deck setup.

What followed this was a series of what I would like to call, successful duels.

Those 90+ levels of experience gained from first experience must have made this terrifying place a little less so.

Showing the new, young wizards, my developed spells and smashing those lost souls. I made the decision that it wasn't as tough as first thought.

I did, however, come up with a good way to help those that would have been as terrified as me.

I SMASHED the life out of those dead lost souls and helped my fellow wizards!

The most useful spell from a pack!

Let's play 'Spot the Wizard on the Beach'

My secret Catalan

Good old Fossil, never let's you down

Hopefully I helped out a few fellow wizards and they were encouraged to keep playing after seeing my, (I think) amazing spells.

Thanks for reading,

Blaze

Pack Analysis: The "Wyvern's Hoard" Pack

Pack Name:                      Wyvern's Hoard
Pack Type:                       Gear
Number of Cards:            7
Total Number of Items:   143
Cost:                                   399 Crowns, on special from time to time and up to 50% off
Availability:                       Currently in Crowns Shop

Description

Now this one, for me, is pretty special.  While I got my robe from the Raven's Hoard pack, I got my mount from this one.  I love my big, beautiful Cloud Wyvern.  He was brutish to ride at first, and got me into no end of trouble in Dragonspyre, but once you master the sway of the beast, it really is a great mount.

Then, of course, is the Energy.  I consider this pack the "Energy Pack" as it has the best drops to send your Energy into overdrive - but more about that later - or just read my eBooks, click on the links on the side of this blog if you haven't read them,

This is predominantly a Life focused pack, but it really does have something for everyone.

OK - Let's check this pack out and see what wonders it contains...

Pets - 6
Given the age of this pack, there are a couple of good pets in here.  Out of the six pets, two of them, the Earth Walker and the Pixie Queen are both high stat, high pedigree 1st Generation pets.

The Pixie Queen that comes with this pack is an incredibly rare drop.  You can tell the difference between this pet and the normal Fairy Queen, as it is a pedigree 57 pet with a Fairy card.

!!Update!! Thanks to our good friend Scarlet Frogslinger, I have been informed that the Pixie Queen can now be purchased from the pet vendor, Kellen ForestTail, in Khrysalis for 10,000 Gold.  It seems that she just won't be that rare anymore!!!

Mounts - 11
Ahhh, the mounts.  There are five wyvern mounts in this pack, and I have four of them  The Night Wyvern still escapes me.  My favourite two are the Cloud Wyvern and the Night Wyvern, so I can see that I'll be buying a few more of these packs as time goes on!

Other than that, there are some pretty Fairy Wings...not really my thing, but a lot of people do like them.  There are 3 different types of these wings, and they in both Permanent and 1-Day options.

The mounts are a big part of this lucky dip, and you never know what you are going to come up with...

Snacks - 0
OK, probably best to know that if you are after Snacks, don't buy this pack!!

Treasure Cards - 18
The Treasure Cards that come with this pack are top notch.  From Baby Sunbirds to Rebirth, from the Massive Pest Zapper to Satyr, the only poor card is Leprechaun.  Not bad when there are 18 cards to potentially drop!

Seeds - 21
Now for the seeds.  When you take out the ones that you can buy from the various gardeners, there are 9 seeds left, slightly less than half.  It is when you see what seeds they are that it is pretty impressive.

My favourite seed, the Couch Potato, is in there, as is the Evil Magma Pea - considered by some as
the best seed in the game.  There is the King Parsley - useful in large numbers for Amber, and Key Limes, the best seed to level up quickly in Gardening (just ask Tabitha!).  I often call these two "the gifts that keep on giving" as they multiply rapidly, but can be used to level up your pet if you feed your surplus to it.

There is even the DHE or Deadly Helephant Ears, and the (potentially buggy) Silver Trumpet Vine.

An amazing array of high quality seeds in a single pack.

Reagents - 7
Every pack has its weakness.  For the Wyvern's Hoard pack, that weakness is the Reagents.  You really don't want to get these after spending your hard earned Crowns.  Probably the less said about these the better!

Clothing - 9
This pack was one of the 'transitional' packs where the different items started to be grouped together. In this case, it is the "Brilliant", "Energetic" and "Peaceful" sets of Greenwarden's clothing.

There are some upsides and some downsides with this clothing as there often is with any item.  The main downside is that it looks terrible unless you are a tree!  Also, given it is an older pack, some of the critical / block combinations are a little different.

Greenwarden's Brilliant Gear - This gear is pretty balanced.  It is a good generic set of gear.

Greenwarden's Peaceful Gear - This gear is not bad, a little bit of Energy, and some attack, some defense, some accuracy.

Greenwarden's Energetic Gear -  Now this is the good stuff.  The real gold. I don't know how many packs I purchased for this.  It is *easily* the best Energy gear in the game.  At level 100, this gear adds a mighty 69 points of Energy to your total.  Amazing stuff.  With the extra emphasis on Energy for Fishing, this is even more valuable now!

Wands - 11
The wands continue the naming trend and are all pretty similar.  The Brilliant Wand ends up with a nice big Block, while both the Energetic and Peaceful have both Critical and Block, with the Energetic with a bit more Critical and the Peaceful with a bit more Block...as you would expect.

Housing Items - 60
The housing items are largely focused on trees.  There are lots of them!  Most of these you can get from the Bazaar, along with many of these housing items.  That said, there are even great housing items in this pack! The Porters drop pretty regularly and it certainly saves crafting or buying them in the Porter Pack.  Great when you start to have a few houses!

Morgrim's Verdict

Low Level Wizards
Buy this pack! The pets can give useful cards for low level Wizards, the mounts are impressive and the gear is excellent.  The treasure cards are powerful, and even the potential seed drops are first class.

As an all-rounders pack, this is arguably the best.  A low level life Wiz casting a Rebirth is always great fun - especially if it is their first time!

High Level Wizard
If you need Energy, buy this pack!  It is just amazing the difference it can make to your overall energy.  Mega-snacks, this pack can ensure you have a never-ending supply! Graceful mounts? Yep. Even looking for a rare pet? ...got that too.

You may have guessed by now, I am really impressed with this pack, but that is because it drops the things that I value.  What do you think?  Are these things useful to you too?

Let me know if you agree with my Verdict!

See you 'round the Spiral.

Morgrim

(This post is accurate as of September 2014)

Lighting the Fifth Candle

Drum Roll!!! We are nearly there... the fifth candle has now been lit!!!

And the prize being revealed today is a Major Fishing Elixir. For a whole hour you get 50% more chance of getting those fish you are after! Which is a great gift as we all received an Aquarium as part of this give-away and, of course, there is that Birthday Fish waiting to be found if you haven't secured yours yet! Time is running out as the end of September is drawing close now!

The other Birthday news is that a new set of items in the Crown Shop are now half price:

• Regular Keeper Aquariums Set
• Evil Magma Peas
• Mega Snack Pack
• Gold-Wrought Eagle
• Fennec Fox
• Red Barn Farm

Now I know a few of you will rejoice because the Mega Snack Packs are half price, but I would say "Don't go rushing in to buy these packs!". The reason is one a few will probably know well if you keep up to date on our Blog.... the Evil Magma Pea. Now these great little plants are a steal when they are half price. 

They reward you in different ways, but always with a Mega Snack Pack at elder. They are easy to look after and their life-cycle is pretty short if you have all their likes in place (one of which is the Red Farm Barn, which is also half price at the moment!). During that short life-cycle, you will get a host of Pet Snacks, Treasure Cards and Reagents. These are all good too - things like Aether and Sunstone. 

For me the TCs are great because I get my supply of Feint and Poison cards. Although I have these in my deck too, the TCs are just a little better and you can never have too many Feint cards imo!

Then at Elder you get a Mega Pet Snack. 

So you can buy 2 EMPs for the same price as the Mega Pet Snack is at the moment. That means that every few days you will get 2 Mega Snacks (in addition to some seriously good reagents!). And these are the gift that keeps giving. You get a seed back every harvest so you can continue to reap the rewards forever. If you want more information on gardening, see Morgrim's 1st Gardening Book which covers everything you need to start this worthwhile activity (top left on the blog).

Would love to hear what you decide to buy, and I hope the Gift today helps you to snare that Birthday Fish!

Have fun, until next time,

Tabitha.

Looking Back and All New x 2

Hey everyone!

• Professor Greyrose...  - a retrospective on 5 years as a Wizard
• Morgrim's Page -  It's all about the Packs!
• KI Live! - First ever live-stream event!

The birthday celebrations continue, and the awesome people that help keep the Spiral alive are continuing to share their personal recollections on the last 5 or 6 years. This week Professor Greyrose shares some of her insights. Here at The Keep we decided that Morgrim's Pack posts deserved their own space so you can find them straight away. He will continue to update and provide some great analysis work so we can be sure to buy the right pack! And a BIG first this week was the KI Live Streaming. The feedback on Twitter was that it was awesome and Wizards everywhere can't wait for the next one. Great work KI!

As always, to catch up on all the other stories shared by Wizards around the globe, click on the paper.

Hope you enjoy and we'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

Lighting the Fourth Candle.....

As you can see the fourth candle has now been lit and the gift is the gift of building! So for all you Wizards that have yet to try one of the new pastimes in the Spiral, here is your chance!

KI are celebrating their birthday with great give-a-ways, and the latest awesome freebie is the "Build a Castle Medieval Set"!

And if you are unsure of what that actually means then don't forget to check out Morgrim's page as he has started analysing the packs, so you can check out what random items you can expect.






Don't forget you can still pick up your other gifts while the Birthday Bonanza is still on (during September). The links are here:
Free Pet Snack
Free Gazebo
Free Gold

Have fun building.... until next time,
Tabitha

Mirror Lake Buddies

Hey Everyone!

As I mentioned in my last battle post, I am left with battles that need friends. The final one for Zafaria, means that Mirror Lake is one is want to finish so I can move on. Although I have really liked this world, and it has come to an end rather too quickly for my liking.

Back to Mirror Lake. I need friends, and probably four of us should do it.... hmmm who to ask?  Not that I had to think too hard about it.... I called on the help of my fellow blogging wizards, Morgrim, Alia and Blaze. It is a LONG time since we were all in a battle together so it made a nice change!

Actually, to be honest, being in a battle with 3 friends was a challenge... I had not been in a battle with 2 let alone 3 for ages. I kept putting my Death Blades on Morgrim. Completely useless to our resident Fire Wizard! 

Morgrim asked if I wanted to hit fast and hard, or take it a bit slower. I was happy to just blast through this time.... I know it will not be the last time I take this dungeon on. 

Morgrim, Blaze and Alia have set way of approaching battles.... Blaze provides the Blades, Alia keeps everyone's energy up, and Morgrim makes the damage hit. Choosing to go fast meant that I was a little redundant in this setup, but Curses, Feints and Dragon Blades were still of use.

After defeating Tse-Tse for the final time, we chat to Morganthe. In this dungeon Morganthe tries to tempt you over to the dark side. When you say no, she takes none too kindly to it, is full of threats as usual, then summons the Spectral Spirits in her usual show of power.

There is also a cheat in play using a 90% Tower Shield. Alia informed me that the Elephant Spirit will continue to place this annoying Shield while the other Spirits are alive. An all out assault was needed.

But there was another cheat in play too. After round 3 someone gets  marked with a STUN shield. You need a charm in place on the next round or it's time to suffer the consequences. My team were all over this cheat, so I didn't get to find out exactly what those consequences were - I'm quite happy with that outcome to be honest!

Morgrim got ready, had a stack full of Blades and played his hand - consistent hits except for Fire due to the Tower Shield. It took a second spell to defeat him, and thanks to Alia the spell was a stunner. That Elephant could not withstand the power of the enormous Gnome lol!!

Thanks to some bizarre words by Morganthe - "Ah'nahl Nathtak", "Uth Vas Bethad", "Do-Hiel Dienveh", a Tower has appeared and we are instructed to follow Morganthe.... back to the bottom of the Lake.

Next up are 4 Goliath Bruisers. They are all Ice I notice with some dismay. That was short lived though - Morgrim was here so Ice would not stand a chance! No cheats in this fight. We applied the same strategy, build up the Blades, Feints etc and let Morgrim take them out.

This battle leads to the Spiders. Two exchanges took place as we entered this area and saw our foe:
Tabitha - Yuck, Storm!
Alia - Yuck, Spiders!
They had an obscene amount of power pips at the start of the battle. This is more of a problem as I wonder through the Spiral, although I guess there is more gear for Power Pips out there.

These guys are Rank 11 bosses and have 6,470 Health each. Adopting the same strategy we settled in to give Morgrim the power behind his hit. Not getting them all in his hit, once again Alia comes to the rescue, with Morgrim providing the narrative!

I managed to catch a stunning shot of Alia as she cast the final spell in our dungeon. And what better way to finish? I love this spell, I think I have probably mentioned that before in an earlier post.

The dungeon didn't take long at all. I wonder how many of you have solo'ed it? I popped in there before asking my fellow bloggers just to see what the deal was. I had often seen Wizard's locations marked as Mirror Lake, and I know that it is one of the farming dungeons. I got as far as the 4 ice minions and pretty much quit at that point. I still have trepidation when faced with 4 ice enemies!!

Of course, Morganthe is not happy with the outcome of this dungeon. Risking 7 years bad luck she breaks Mirror Lake and it's all over.

We didn't get to battle her in this fight, though I am sure that day draws ever nearer. I know this is my final dungeon in this world. I am not sure if it is my favourite as I really liked Grizzleheim, although not the Ice parts so much (that blue hurt my eyes!).

The completion of Zafaria is a task I will take on myself, and then I will take the High Road to Avalon. I have 2 tapestries for Avalon, so have been over there a few times. Not sure how I will find questing there... but there is a spell I want badly over there!

Have fun, until next time!
Tabitha

Pack Analysis: The "Raven's Hoard" Pack

Pack Name:                    Raven's Hoards

Pack Type:                     Gear

Number of Cards:           7

Total Number of Items:  166

Cost:                              399 Crowns, on special from time to time and up to 50% off
Availability:                    Currently in Crowns Shop

Description

Ahh, the Raven't Hoard pack.  Often thought of as an Ice themed pack.  As a low level Wizard this was undoubtedly my favourite pack. Interestingly, it was also the pack that set up my 'look'.  It was the one bit of gear that had exactly the right look for me, once I saw the Armor of Many Winters...at level 91, I'm still stitching that one!

It was also the first time the previously rare bow wand was available and I carted it everywhere. After a while, it became more common and became a wall feature for me.

BTW - many of the items from this pack can be obtained as drops in Winterbane Hall. (the biggest issue here for me is more people running around with my armour on!! lol)

Pets - 12
Out of the pets on offer, I guess the Dark Crow is the pick if you are Death, or perhaps the Icebat if you are Ice.  If you are Storm, then Storm Bird would be drop for you.

Probably nothing really special here.

Mounts - 2 x Permanent, 0 x Temporary
The Raven mount is a great looking mount. Blaze got one with his first ever pack! Me? I have never gotten one :)  The only challenge with it (and all flying mounts) is that your view is a little obstructed.  It is a one person mount.

The Blood Raven looks amazing.  It is a 2-person mount and the tinge of red really does look great.


Snacks - 27
Some nice Level 8 snacks in this pack, 8 different types as well as a range of Level 7 and below. These are always handy, but I still prefer to farm for my snacks - more certainty that way.

Treasure Cards - 24
The original Treasure Cards have been beefed up with the Woolly Mammoth, but for me, I have always loved the Thunderbird, and being Fire, I will make this spell - love the look of it.  Other than that, most can be obtained in the Bazaar.

Seeds - 6
Ah, one of my favourite seeds is available in this pack.  The WTL or White Tiger Lily.  While it doesn't replenish itself, it is the seed with the greatest chance of dropping Amber.  There is also the beautiful Moon Flower seed, which I have a few on Second Spring.

Other than that, most of the seeds are pretty stock standard.

Reagents - 3
For the junior wizard, Diamonds can be handy, but you don't buy this pack for the reagents :)

Clothing - 9
When reviewing these packs, especially the older ones, the stats are kind of scattered in a different way to the newer gear.  This is where (for me) the Manual of Mastery is very handy as I can see how these combinations might come together with other gear (like crafted stuff).

There are basically 3 different 'sets', but not really in the way we think of sets nowadays.  The names are different, but you can see the intent of what they are trying to achieve, mostly by the complimentary design.

The first two sets are a little unclear, although one tends to lean towards attack, and the other leans towards defense.  The third one, however, is very interesting.  Where else can you get 50% Stun Block in gear at Level 70?  A combo of the Ravenking's Battle Story Armor, the Thought and Memory Helm and the Boots of Whispered Flight will give you exactly that.

For me, despite the unusual stats, the real thing for this Gear is the look - this pack is worth it for that reason alone!

Wands - 9
The wands range mostly carry Critical and Block, with a 65/65 and a 50/95 being the pick of the bunch.

Again, the look here is pretty impressive.
Housing Items - 74
Lots of housing.  Some of it is OK, but for me, I tend to 'select' the housing items that I want. There is a lot of it in this pack and it can be a fun lucky dip. You can expect to get a few of these with every purchase.

Morgrim's Verdict
This pack is a tricky one.  I really like the look of the gear, and if you are into Stun Block, it is quite an interesting option.

The mounts are good, and both are permanent.

The wands aren't bad and there is always the White Tiger Lily.  

The trouble is the fact it is fairly heavy weighting towards the Housing Items.

It is still a BUY recommendation from me.  It is still a great generic pack to purchase with a good chance of getting something worth your while.

Low Level Wizards
When I first got my Armor of Many Winters at Level 15, that Kraken card just swept away most of the bad guys.  The variety of the lucky dip was also useful when you are just starting out and you don't know a lot of about what is available and where from.

I would still say BUY for a Low Level Wizard.

High Level Wizard
My personal belief is that, unless there is something specific you are looking for, either in how the Gear looks or stats, then perhaps other packs are a better way to spend your hard earned Crowns.

Let me know if you agree with my Verdict!

See you 'round the Spiral.

Morgrim

The attack on Cronus

With Blaze's last post " The Secret Bosses of Aquila" in mind Morgrim decided to try to get the 'Blade of the Felled Titan' or the 'Exalted Amulets' from Cronus.  At 30 000 health we decided that Morgrim would hit, Blaze would boost and I would look after our health.

It was fun watching all the blades and traps go on, and with a total of 13 boosts Morgrim attacked with Sun Serpent.  

The result, as you would expect, was complete overkill and I think surprised us all with how big it ended up being.

Unfortunately, no good drops for anyone, so we will be back to try our luck again.

Alia :)

Blaze is Back!

Hey everyone!

• Secret Dungeons...  Blaze is back!!
• KI Ice Bucket Challenge -  Check out their You-Tube video!
• Hoard & Lore Pack - Check out some of Morgrim's analysis to find the perfect one!

Birthday celebrations are still going strong. The Birthday present for the week was a Birthday Snack with a chance at the Birthday Snack Pack - so it was great to win the pack! How did you go? Wonder what the next gift will be?

It was nice to have Blaze back writing again, and he introduces some secret dungeons. The Ice-Bucket challenge is still going strong, and it was a good week to re-visit one of Morgrim's posts about Pack-a-Palooza as the Hoard and Lore packs are all 199 Crowns!

As always, to catch up on all the other stories shared by Wizards around the globe, click on the paper.

Hope you enjoy and we'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

The Secret Bosses of Aquila

You may or may not be aware of the secret bosses in the 3 dungeons of Aquila, Gladiator Dimachaerus, the Sand Squid, and Cronus.

The first of the 3 secret bosses is the mighty Gladiator Dimachaerus. This mighty gladiator, is located in a seemingly closed gate which leads into the place that Zeus, Poseidon and Hades trapped him...
The Pit of the Noxii.

The Gladiator has a whopping 30 000 Health! Making him a very tough opponent even for the toughest of wizards (although, me and a 2 other level 30's got him down to less then half health).

The Gladiator is most well known for his incredible ring, the 'Alpha and Omega Ring' as well as his exalted amulet drops.




The next hidden boss is known only as the Sand Squid, the most painful boss of the 3. This massive squid has captured a crew of 2 Marleybone civilians and it is your job to rescue them.

Located in the ruins of a wrecked ship in the depths of Atlantea, the Sand Squid's Tentacle has a massive 28 000 health!

The Sand Squid is most well known for his exalted amulet drops but I do not recommend farming him for them as he is quite the tough boss fight.

The last of the 3 secret Aquila bosses, is Cronus. Father of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, in Tartarus's Cave of Nyx. Being the father of 3 devastatingly powerful sons, you would expect Cronus to be powerful. He doesn't disappoint!

With an incredible 30 000 health and cheats to top it all off, Cronus is a true challenge for even the toughest wizards.

Cronus is mostly known for dropping the amazingly powerful athame, the 'Blade of the Felled Titan' and the 'Exalted Amulets'. If you're looking for the athame then definitely put a target on Cronus, however, if you are looking solely for the exalted amulets, then perhaps the Gladiator may be a better choice.

Hopefully you've enjoyed my first post in a long time, and hopefully I will definitely be putting a lot more up for you to learn about and enjoy.

Thanks for reading!

Blaze