Join a Team Kiosk! Marleybone & Mooshu

Hey everyone! I'm back today with another Join a Team Kiosk post, this time helping out in Marleybone and Mooshu.

So, I hopped into the Kiosk and joined the first dungeon I saw which just happened to be Counterweight East. I hadn't done this dungeon in a long time and I remember it looking very nice and also enjoyable. The young wizard I was helping in this dungeon was Isaac TitanRider (remember that, it's important).

Anyway, up the tower we went (fairly quickly thanks to deer knight) until we finally reached the top! This fight was obviously a little bit harder comparatively but still fairly easy considering it's Marleybone. Anyway, a few blades and a deer knight later and the fight was over,

Next up in Mooshu (several hours later mind you) I joined a Crimson Fields dungeon with... the very same Isaac TitanRider!! And this was several hours later!! I personally found it amazing as I didn't check to see who it was beforehand and... what are the chances?

Anyway, this dungeon was fairly long but again, deer knight helped us through all the fights relatively quickly. As we progressed through this large dungeon, we were beginning to find our stride taking out enemy after enemy and finally completing the dungeon!

Well, that's all for today and I hope you enjoyed!

Until next time!

- Blaze

The Exhilaration of Losing ?!?

Clemente Moraga.  Another fight I was warned about.  Both Alia and Blaze had said it was a tough fight, with Clemente and the Ortiz brothers taking them out first and sometimes second time around.

It was my turn and I soon discovered the problem.  Fire, all of them.  Hmm...this might be tricky.  Still, I had survived the Storm Caiman and I do enjoy a tough battle.  Time to get battle ready.

King Pepper is the main change.  He is a good Pet to help with damage, but no good in a dogfight (interestingly he is an Ianthine Hound lol).  In a hard slog my 'go to' Pet is Miss Callie.  She uses her triple heal well and often.

Hmm...3 fights later and I am reeling.  I haven't lost like this for... for a LONG time.  Time to rethink my strategy.  Checking out my deck, it is designed to deal a lot of damage quickly, but against a pretty resistant opponent, that potent edge is considerably dulled.

Time to prepare.  I wasn't going to lose again.  Let's see...Shields in main and side decks.  Smoke screen, steal charm and a cleanse charm wouldn't hurt.  More Prisms and less Dragons, only really need one - not that useful in this fight.  My deck size increased to give me the flexibility I knew I was going to need.

It's go time.  Come on you sneaky monkeys - let's try this one more time.

First down is Primo.  Actually, it was an accident. The Prism on him was meant for Clemente, but I won't complain.

Segundo was next in my sights after being softened up by the Dragon that took out Primo.

The boys were really working me over, and once again the green-eyed tree lady was on hand to help out. She used her life power (and my pips!) to the fullest and it gave me the strength I needed to continue.

A Rain of Fire was next to remove the final Ortiz brother, but Clemente was still holding strong.

8 power pips and another Dragon is coming my way, my Efreet just one round too late.

Power Pips have all but completely deserted me.  I have a raging hound ready to unleash and a hand full of noob pips.

Right - life minion to the rescue! She'll chew up a few pips and heal me as well :)

What?  She starts with an Imp, and followed it up with a Pass?!?  I think she may have forgotten her role in this battle!  Oh great - here comes the Dragon to take her out...<sigh> thanks for the Imp I suppose.

LOL - Hang one, this ain't over yet as Callie casts a timely Unicorn and my Life friend is back from the dead!

Thanks to the return of my assistant, I am now back to near full health.  Next round she is gone for good but has made a great contribution and I thank her for her help.

A Reshuffle and a few minor cards later to clear out the noob pips, and the heavy piercing dog is released to feast on my foe.

Feeling like I finally have the upper hand, sanctify the arena knowing the power of the Sanctuary might just be the final key to close out this fight.

A big Prismed Backdraft goes on now, with the knowledge this fight is mine.  Now it is just a waiting game.

There it is.  The final pip and my old mate, the supercharged Efreet is ready to pound.

Bang.  You is dead little monkey!!

Yes, losing can be exhilarating.  I have say, that was one of the most enjoyable fights I have had for a long time.  It forced me to think instead of bludgeon and reminded me of the versatility of my school.

Thanks again Wizard101 and Kings Isle.  What a great game :)

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

The Storm Caiman

I haven't quested for some time, and I was getting the itch to get back on the trail again.  I had been in the jungles of Azteca for some time, bashing small monkeys and spooky wraiths (and who doesn't love the snake bridge!)

Once I had defeated the last of them, and performed some skillful stone masonry on some ancient columns, it was off to take on the Storm Caiman.  Aha!  Into a dungeon!

First, I had to don the robes and appearance of one of those wraiths and drift into the pyramid.

The first few fights were pretty typical, although Agnes was a bit of a handful, she wasn't unusually difficult.  From there, a quick glance at the Codex and I knew something was wrong!  I hadn't gotten there in time! No!  She had already summoned the Storm Caiman!

It was up to me to stop him.

I raced into the next chamber and Blaze realised what was going on.  He told me that the Caiman was a crafty fellow and had defeated him when they initially met.  Hmm...I know how well Blaze can fight...those are words I need to heed.

A quick glance through my gear and I knew I had to do something.  I switched into my "I hate fighting Storm bosses" gear and I was ready.

"Arrrgghhhh!!" I charged into the fray ready to take out this evil spirit at all costs!

The battle was intense.  It started hard, with me going second.  A quick early Medusa from a minion and a Storm Owl from the boss and I was immediately on the back foot.  Thanks to Blaze's tips, it wasn't too bad, but the fight was definitely on!

I settled in, and in true Fire form, I nailed the pesky minions and it was time to take the Caiman down, but he certainly wasn't giving in without a fight.

Wow...all of a sudden I'm brimming with pips and extremely low on health.  Do I go for the killer hit, or do I heal?  Going second...well, let's just say, I'm glad I went with healing!

Fortunately, the lady of the tree worked her magic and got me back from 4 health to a point where I was ready to continue this battle to the death.

The struggle continued, with each of us scoring big hits, and then...no!  I was nearly dead again!  54 health!  Bugger!

Fortunately, my backflipping, hooved companion jumped in (literally!) to save the day.

Well, that was enough.  I was able to then finish the job and the world of Azteca breathed easier now that the threat had been neutralised (they just had to worry about a whopping big meteor instead lol!)

But you know?  Even once defeated, the Storm Caiman chose to be rude.  Look at this guy shouting...I don't think I have seen any other character speaking in all caps?  If I have missed one, let me know so I can go back and check it out.

Someone really should show him the CAPS LOCK key!  

How did you go against this guy?  I know I appreciated Blaze's tip - just in time!

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

Trial of Spheres - going Solo!

Hey everyone,
 
After my recent lack of solo success with Hexfin, I felt I needed to redeem myself somewhat. So when the Trial of the Spheres appeared on my timeline, I subconsciously decided that this battle I would do alone.

I have to say of all the dungeons, this one is pretty good. There are a few 'tests' along the way, and you do have to put a little thought into them, and concentrate on the messages - as they tell you what you need to know! Once you have worked out how to align the moons to open the paths to each of the mini battles, you can literally blast your way to collecting the Lunar chests and the Shields within. Completing four of these will take you to the first of the bigger battles.

At the start I had no idea what I was letting myself in for, and a couple of times I gave up on the Astraeus battle. I'm sure quite a few of you have been there, when the 3 minions appear just one time too many and the battle has been going for an hour, and you really just don't seem to be getting where. I changed my deck around a few times before I found I had something that worked.
 The minions are life, as you can see, so you really don't want them to hang around too long and giving life back to Astraeus. Beware, this is another battle where you can fall foul of the Tower Shield too

.

You'll find it is easy to get rid of the minions, with that 500 health, but you need to be smart with what you have left in your deck when they are gone. You'll get a few rounds when the dastardly Tower shield is missing and that's when you need to get in your best strikes. I found the best thing was to load up on power pips, have a Bone Dragon and Blades ready, and then strike. Timed well the first strike will hit with no shield and the extra damage for those 3 rounds makes the whole battle a lot easier.

Also, because I loaded up on Power Pips, it meant I could continue to play the big spells while the Bone Dragon worked it's magic. By the time the Tower Shield appeared and the minions were back, Astraeus had gone from 7,230 to 2,450 health. And then I did a similar thing again. I did encounter a 'slight annoyance' in that the last strike - 'my kill' strike - didn't quite work. When the deck was back for me to choose again I found he had 1 health. ONE!!! Seriously ? 

One more spell and I was off to the Lunar Sanctum. Another series of tests to complete before the portal to the battle opens. These are a bit different, but once again the words tell you what you need to know.

Onto the next battle, and this time it is against Ptolemos. Only one minion with him, so you may be excused for believing this one to be easier. Word of warning.... it is not. For me it was a long battle. The first time I tried I literally ran out of cards and had to flee. I had right-clicked my 'Reshuffle' card right at the start, you see I never dreamt the battle would last as long as it did. Another prolific use of Tower Shields, but not the normal ones... no that would be far too easy! Ptolemos uses the 90% shields, rendering any spell useless when it is in play.

So this is another one where you need to be careful of timing, and the real trick is to use Blades. If you use a Blade he finds you 'Charming' and all the shields disappear. My tactic for this battle, was not to rush. Pass or Shield up when there was nothing useful in my deck. Power up any spells with Gargantuan or Monstrous, get Vengeance going, then Blade, then hit. It worked a dream! But it still took a while. 

And I ran through my whole deck before I was eventually able to defeat him. As you can see, the Reshuffle is sitting there just in case. As it was the last few cards I had were awesome, so it was over, and onto the next one!

The Solar Sanctum.

I liked the look and feel of this place. You know Morgrim once said to me that Celestia was one of the most visually stunning parts of the whole Spiral.

And when I first saw the blue areas I thought WOW! But there were so many of then, the blue started to wear a bit thin, lost it's shine so to speak. The Solar Sanctum takes it right back up there. It does help that my favourite colour is yellow, so I am a little biased here :)
Again, there is a puzzle to solve before the portal opens to allow you to face Mithraya. It is not too difficult, take care when reading the words - they tell you what to do, in a round a bout way. You collect the sun chests in this one.

Mithraya is a bit different to the other bosses. I have heard others say the she is a favourite of theirs, and I can see why. Ablaze with flames, she does have a certain reverence about her.

I started this battle in completely the wrong way. I had been leaving one mana bottle in case I needed to fill up, and it just so happens that I did. Phew!, right? With just over 1700 health left, it was a far cry from my usual 3100. Unfortunately I was more concerned with checking my deck that I completely forgot. As soon as I entered the battle I realised my mistake - I sincerely hoped that it would not be my downfall!

And just like the other battles, this one is all about timing. When you see the phrase "The Cards Align! Now's Your Chance!" - you need to be ready. It may take you a couple of rounds to figure that out, but once you have that strategy this battle if fairly quick. It is by far the easiest of the 3 battles.
Try and take time to admire the graphics here. They are pretty awesome!


And it wasn't long until it was all over. Victory was mine, and with it a shiny new badge!

So I believe I have redeemed myself. Third time was a charm for me, although it took around 2 hours to complete end-to-end.  And with it came another bonus.... I am now level 70!

Cyrus Drake wants to have a chat, some sort of challenge. Looking forward to that, but for now I will take a certain amount of pride in the completion of this battle solo!

Until Next Time,
Tabitha.

Hexfin Horror Averted

Hey everyone,

As you can see from the rather sorrowful picture, I am continuing to have problems defeating Acastus Hexfin. Even Patch looks a little dejected right now.

This continuing rate of defeat has meant that I have made good use of the one of the new features.... The one where you can teleport back to the battle you just failed at. I'm guessing that we must be in the realms of 14 or maybe more defeats. So I have made very good use of this feature.

Back to the battle. I got close a few times.
In fact one of my defeats was down to pure bad luck and a dodgy internet connection. Imagine my frustration when the boss is dead, minion 1 is dead and minion 2 has 146 health left. And take a look - I have full health of 3162. A great position to be in......
Victory is within my grasp - one little spell and I will succeed. But the screen does not refresh - I'm just standing there..... the internet connection has failed. How quickly can I reset and log back in?
Well the answer is - not quickly enough. By the time I am back on I am back at base camp and my health is 35.
Persistence is one thing. Patience is another - and right now I am running out of both.

I know as long as I start the battle I have a good chance. My deck is working pretty well, and I have been crafting the Gargantuan treasure cards to increase my hit. But I am getting rather tired at this stage.... so I call out to a certain Fire Wizard I know to see if he could help.

I had a feeling that once Morgrim was in the mix this battle wouldn't last long..... Fire against Ice... and Fire with a good level of damage..... let's just say I wasn't proved wrong! I had a tactic to defeat the boss first. He doesn't generally use the Tower Shields until he is very low in health, and it was working well for me.... but no such tactic needed in this battle. Round by round their Shields were shattered and their health depleted.

And this battle finished perfectly. With one left to defeat, Morgrim casts first, and I cast second. Morgrim doesn't quite take him out, so it's all down to me. With everything crossed that I don't fizzle at this crucial stage.... Phew.

It was done. After an embarrassing number of defeats, one round with Morgrim and the deed is done. I still feel the need to get through this battle on my own merit.... but in reality that can wait till another time. I am happy to get through and not to have to face Hexfin again for some time to come.

Thanks for coming to my rescue Morgrim, I really hope the next battle is not so time consuming to complete!

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

Still Learning

Hey everyone,

I had a revelation this week. A revelation about my Wizard 'style' or maybe a characteristic I have unwittingly adopted... It is complacency.... I am too complacent.

You see, as a Death Wizard I have become so used to coming back from the brink.

My damage|health spells always seem to be there just when I need them. Or I play a Sacrifice Spell that goes critical. Oh, and as an aside note, when you are Death, go critical on Sacrifice, then block it - it's just awesome. Rebuilds almost all your health in one fell swoop!

So what happened? In a word - Ice. A fight with 3 Ice enemies of which one is a boss to be precise. I knew I would need to deal with the Tower Shields. They are always prevalent in an Ice boss fight. So I packed Poison to counteract that one. Tower Shields are an issue, but one that a bit of thought can overcome. Oh and I made sure that my wand was Fire. That way I could do maximum damage and another way to get rid of those annoying Tower Shields.
There are three main problems with this particular boss fight:

1. Prevalent Tower Shields
2. Stun
3. Starting second in a battle of 3 against 1

I am embarrassed to admit they are defeating me..... truth be told, they have defeated me 3 times so far!!! I cannot remember the last time that happened! It's time to think up a better deck strategy, in that respect I am still very much the student.

I will let you know how I go on this one....

Until Next Time,

Tabitha

Nastrond!

I am a level 94 death wizard. I only just finished Nastrond.

I know, I know, it's pretty bad that I hadn't even finished the last dungeon of Wintertusk, but the thing is... There just isn't enough experience available in the whole world of Grizzleheim (COMPARED TO MAIN STORYLINE WORLDS).

Anyway. I decided to knock out all of the quests from other worlds before finishing Azteca and starting Khrysalis. First on the list was Grizzleheim. I checked the quests that I had to finish for Nordrilund and started.

 Grizzleheim is mine, and Morgrim's favourite looking worlds in the spiral. These are the sorts of things that you can find while questing through Wintertusk.
I had lots of fun collecting the seal from Nordri (even though it was relatively easy considering that I am such a high level) and was ready for Nastrond!

I went to the tree under Grandmother Raven (my all-time favourite NPC so far) and asked a friend to help me with the dungeon.

My friend was also high levelled and we breezed through. It was still an incredible storyline though. We were racing against time to stop the Coven from awakening the Ice Titan.

We came to the final boss room... There stood all four of the brothers. Austri, Vestri, Sudri and Nordri.

They weren't overly powerful our levels and we did it! We saved the world from Eternal Winter!

Thanks for reading and I hope that you have enjoyed!

See you next time!

Blaze

Hades Vs. Waterworks

Most of you would probably know of the level 90+ dungeon in Aquila, Tartarus. Tartarus is probably the most frustrating thing in Wizard, even more so then Waterworks (WW) or Tower of The Helephant (ToTH). It drops some of the best gear in the game from the final boss fight which is why so many people do it.

With a good team, you can finish Tartarus in just over or under an hour. The bad bit is, unless you have 3 other people you know and can communicate well with AND are over level 90 it's much harder and longer. Most of the people awaiting outside Tartarus for a team have some knowledge of the cheats and the way the dungeon works.



Waterworks, however, is much shorter but still very hard, and gives you gear that I still use at level 93! Waterworks drops 1 set of gear for each school, whereas Tartarus drops 2 sets per school.

The question is... Which one to use?

Hades first gear type is the 'offensive' set. This set gives no universal resistance but lots of damage and lots and lots of critical. Besides that, it gives you pierce to go through resistance! With all the storm set of Hades offensive gear, you can get up to 30% pierce!

The choice, obviously, is up to you. I personally am trying for the Hades resistance helmet and robe (I have the robe) and high-block (Azteca Crafted) or the Hades resist boots (I have both).

Trust me though, WaterWorks gear is still being used by me as a lvl 93 Death Wizard. The hat's universal resist is just really helpful as Death (when in teams) usually doesn't do the hitting.

There you have it! I will be doing more Tartarus runs now that I have the goal of getting the hat back in my mind (finally my pet didn't fail) so expect to be updated.

Thank you for reading and I wish you good luck choosing between the two!

Blaze

Time to go see Harold again!

Hey everyone,

Looks like the Lost Pages are back in town for another round. I have still yet to complete this particular side quest, I never seem to complete it before it disappears again! Maybe this will be the time to do it!
This is taken from the Wizard101 site:

And a few notes:

Please remember that if you've completed his task already you will not be able to take the quest again. Participating in the Lost Pages Events can potentially yield great things for your Wizard...

Rewards for participating in the Lost Pages Events will scale to your level and the level of the creatures you are facing. A level 90 Wizard in Unicorn Way isn't going to get high level rewards, so seek out appropriate challenges for your level.

Oh and don't forget, if you've partially completed Harold's "Carpe Diem Society" quest in the past, you should be able to pick up where you left off. Check each in game character (shown here) to see if they have the next step of the quest for you.

Have fun!!

Until next time,
Tabitha.

Slaying the Pendragon - Quick and Easy ... if you know how!

There are many fights in Wizard101 that are quite challenging.  Bosses that cheat, myth bosses (you just gotta hate Earthquake!) and minions that shield.  Some of these fights can really take ages.

I still remember my first 'hard' fight.  I was with Alia and Blaze and we were taking on Jotun and all of his brothers (although I think they have made this fight easier now - I don't really like it when they do that).  The fight took us nearly an hour - <phew> What a marathon.

Of course, now poor Jotun is easy pickings...and I know that some fights can take much longer, especially a tough PvP, depending on your level.

Still, KingsIsle keep finding ways to make fights challenging.  I like a fight where you actually might die - one that requires skill instead of simply pounding.  The Tower of the Helephant is a good example of this.

But, back to the topic today.  The penultimate fight in Avalon - the Pendragon.  The Avalon story is nearly at a close, but there is another twist...as you are about to discover!  (don't watch the video, spoiler alert!)

The Pendragon fight is an interesting one, with a cheat that you can really use against this poor boss.

As soon as you start the fight, a Fire Dragon is cast by the Pendragon (so stagger your entry into this fight if you cannot finish it quickly).  This is no ordinary Fire Dragon, this one goes for 200 rounds!  It is not particularly powerful, but it is annoying, and it just keeps going around.  Before you realise it, you can have lost a fair bit of health.

Well, thanks to the ever tricky school of Myth, combined with one of the most useless Fire spells available, there are ways and means of beating this tough guy without even breaking a sweat.

First, we make sure the Pendragon has cast his Fire Dragon spell and it is currently activate.   Then, it is a simple case of "Shift" to push the spell back to where it came from, followed by "Detonate".  This will then instantly apply all 200 rounds (or whatever is left) to his hide, and with any luck there is enough left in it for an instant kill!

Check the video to see what Blaze and I did to him while Blaze was farming for Huckleberries, with only one card in my deck :)

So there you have it.  One dead Pendragon in no time at all...

Understanding your spells and their capability is a key part of winning the game of Wizard101 - enjoy it!

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

What a Stunner!

I leveled up to 58 the other day, and with that came the promise of a new spell!! Of course spells at these levels spells need to be earnt, but they always take you to your school first. So off I go to Nightside to see Dworgyn.

I had no idea what spell would be coming my way, and that brings with it a certain anticipation.

The quest is revealed - I need to make a bone drake. Mortis tells me all about the bone drake, and what I have to do to make one.

Back to Dragonspyre I go to find the Nightreaver's Lair. Of course Osseus Nightreaver wouldn't just give those bones away - let the battle begin! And then I notice that he is a level 10 death boss. Not just any level 10 death boss - this was going to be one hell of a battle - he had 33,310 health!! The minion in the fight only had 1,055, but once again was death. I took care of him, and settled into the biggest battle my wizard had ever fought.

I pulled out the Living Puppet, with 45 health, that I get from my wand to lend a  hand. Surprisingly he managed to last the whole battle, as you can see in this shot just before the battle finished.

One other issue with this battle, is that the boss gave me a +35 trap every time I played a feint, a trap or a blade. Made a tricky fight all the more trickier!
There's no calling a friend in to help on this one either. You have to prove your worth to get this spell it would seem.
Thanks to the Living Puppet and my hound I finished the battle with pretty much full health - it's great being a death wizard!

Time to go to Grizzleheim now. This is a great part of Grizzleheim actually, I do love the ice parts.
Once in Nidavellir I take out the bones and let the magic of the place re-build the bone drake.

 How awesome! I have never seen the spell I am about to get, so looking at what has now appeared in front of I am more than a little excited.

Time for another visit to Dworgyn to let him know of my success and to collect my reward.

The Skeletal Dragon spell, otherwise know as the Bone Drake.

And it is a stunner!

Awesome to watch and a big hit that just keeps going. Looking forward to the next boss fight now!

Until Next Time,
Tabitha