Pet Training Gurus (or not!) Unite! Double Points!

Now this is truly EPIC (if you are a member that is...)!

If you are anything like me, you travel the Spiral, hatch with friends, have a hatching focus for a while, fight some bad guys...and the result is 5 pages of pets!  Even when I went through and pruned the ones I really didn't want, or didn't have a chance of giving me the talents I wanted, I still had 3.5 pages of pets!

At 8 items per page, that is 28 pets!  Insane - especially as many of them hadn't been trained often, if they had even been trained at all!

Then there are the Snacks.  When you garden as much as I have, I have well over 300 Fancy Yoghurt, Golden Wheat Bread, Pixie Sticks and others with more than 1500 Mega Snacks all up.

That is a lot of snacks!

Training, however, is something I have put on hold for a while.  It is something I do when I have some spare time - but the guys at KingsIsle have found a way to tempt me back...

..Double Experience, and Double Rewards!

Yes, you heard (read) it right.  For a perfect score (or over a certain score), you can earn +8 points for training, and up to +100 points for the right snack!! That is +108 points for a single run!!!

Initially, my goal was to rip King Pepper to Ultra.  About 20 mins later I was at 1987 points...and I stopped.  13 short...but I couldn't bring myself to wasting another snack (and another 10 Energy) to get those 13 points when I could have used them to get 108 points somewhere else. Hmmm...that got me thinking.  What is the best way to use this points earning power bestowed on us?

Well, it clearly wasn't to waste it on 13 points.

If I can early 100 points with every Fancy Yoghurt eaten, the best way to take advantage of 50 free points per training run is to make as many runs as possible!  My initial thought of pushing through that long slog to Ultra was probably a little misguided (although it *was* fast!).

Oh, BTW - for those who don't know, don't expect a talent or extra Gem slot for Ultra (as at Dec 15 anyway)...it will just let you use an Ultra pet Gem.

So, back to the challenge at hand.  I have 157 Energy when I have my Energy Set on.  To put this in perspective:

To get to

  -  TEEN: 2 games, 4 points
  -  ADULT: 4 games, 12 points
  -  ANCIENT: 9 games, 42 points
  -  EPIC: 17 games, 108 points

I could keep going, but these are the important ones for me. I can get, on one day, 3 pets to Ancient on one full use of Energy.  This reveals 3 out of their 5 possible talents, so it provides a great return on the time and energy it takes to get there.

So, I don't know about you, but I am off to train some pets!  I train to fight, not race, and Lady Ellie just got Fairy Friend, Spell Defy and ... Pierce Train.  Hmm...

Next Pet Please!!

And if you are interested, I still believe in this post I posted ages ago on how to level quickly - now even more relevant while these double points last.
http://our-wizards-keep.blogspot.com/2014/01/pet-training-perfect-tip.html

Good luck, have fun and...

...See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

Tempest Pet 2.0

I have decided to come back to my side project of replicating my once perfect Penumbra Drake pet (perfect until KI released Ultra :P) except as a Tempest! (which I absolutely love the look of).

I began this little Tempest quest quite a while ago but stopped because (somehow) I ran out of Mega Snacks. It has been quite a while since then however, and thanks to my Couch Potatoes and EMPs I've built up quite a stockpile of Megas and this will hopefully give me some good talents fast!


The talents I believe I'm going to be aiming for are (no particular order):

1. Death Dealer
2. Pain Giver
3. Fairy
4. Spell Proof
5. Spell Defy
6. ?

I'm not yet sure what I want as my 6th talent for my Perfect Pet so any recommendations, I am happy to take into consideration. Anyway, I started training the newly hatched Tempest and these are the talents I've gotten so far...

Not too shabby! I'm definitely happy with these talents and will get back to training once I have the energy.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

Until next time!
- Blaze

I Love the Look of that Pet!

After achieving what was considered by me to be the perfect pet on most occasions, I hadn't done much pet training up until now.

I didn't think there was much reason to train and use energy when I have the pet I want but I soon came to realise.. I didn't! And this is even excluding the new talents that KI keep releasing!

What my pet lacked and could never achieve was...

The Look!

I never realised until I saw it, but my favourite looking pet is the Tempest!!

Now let's be serious. What Death Wizard would NOT want this pet? It's basically a death seraph and there is even a spell on this pet!

After a generous hatch from a friend, I had obtained my own and have been hatching vigorously with myself to get the same talents onto it. Wish me luck! :)

Thanks for Reading!

- Blaze

Mastering Mega.....

You know Winston has been my choice of pet recently.... above Patch. And the reason is Pain Giver. Patch had Vengeance, Winston has Pain Giver..... but more importantly Patch is Mega and Winston is not. It's a funny thing - Winston has been my garbage collector. He has eaten all the stuff that flows out of my backpack and my bank - most notably all the Key Limes I had over in the challenge with Morgrim.

I never really trained him.... it was clear that had to change. Now Winston was already Epic, so it is time to start the journey to MEGA!!!
My game of choice is the Dance game, and as you can see it costs 10 energy everytime I play at this level. I had already completed my gardening, and had no desire to fish right now, so all energy reserves would be used for the game. Thanks to my Greenwarden's gear I have a starting position of 130, and I used 33 for gardening earlier. It wouldn't be enough to go to Mega, but let's see how I track!


You only need to get 3 our of 5 correct to win each round, but I still like to get it perfect :)

Each time I feed Winston Fancy Yoghurt. My gardening of EMPs takes care of my snacks, and as you can see I do have a few in my backpack. I choose the Yoghurt as they give Winston 50 XP each round. The other snacks are slightly lower.
Pretty soon I get my energy warning - not enough energy to play the game..... But I am not concerned! Grub Guardian takes care of both my Energy Elixirs and Moolinda Green Thumb Packs. So I redeem one of my Elixirs and get straight back into Dancing!

I play the dance game with the music on. I find that if I forget one of the latter steps remembering the music will often unblock the memory and help me get it right.

Now Winston started at a little over 200, and Mega needs 2000. Even at an average of 80% correct, that means each dance is worth 53. So I need something like 33 games to finish this. Yes, it can get boring - let's just hope the outcome is worth the time investment!

At this stage I need 2 more points until Winston is Mega. I know that I will not need any more Mega Snacks to complete this - one more game is required :)

What am I hoping for? I really don't know. I do know that I don't want to see any Pet Abilities...... so.... it is nice to see another May Cast spell. Winston now has Incredibly Infallible. This trait was my first ever May Cast spell back when my little Green Frog, Murphy, was at my side. It's definitely not a bad outcome.

Looking at his over stats - it's pretty good, but I need to hatch with some different pets. I'd like to trade Spritely for something else, and just have Fairy Friend for healing. But for now, with almost perfect stats and a good mix of spells behind him, I'm happy to have Winston at my side for a while longer!

 If any of you have suggestions for a hatching partner then please let me know, or ideas as to what in the mix would improve my hound.

Have fun, until next time!
Tabitha

Winston in the Limelight!

Hey Everyone!

Well I finally got round to some pet training. Poor little Winston has been hanging around for a while now. He only ever gets trained when I feed him seeds and household items!

Much like Morgrim and Alia, my favourite Pet Training game is the dance game. It is very quick to play and relatively easy with a little concentration!

As you can see Winston is already more than half way to Epic. So I decided it was time to take him to Epic and see what talent he has been hiding all this time.

I have a lot of Mega snacks - all from gardening, mostly from EMPs and only have two gardens on the go right now so I also have plenty of energy to play with.

Time to get on with it. If you know your Mega snacks, then you'll know that some give you more XP than others. The best in my pack is the Fancy Yoghurt - worth 50 each time. Getting Winston to Epic isn't going to take long at all.

In fact it will take a mere 9 Mega Snacks.

As it gets near time to level, I use other snacks as I don't need the 50. Winston doesn't 'like' any of the snacks so he doesn't score extra XP from the snacks. Not that that matters with Mega snacks.

Anyway, here we are with one more game to go. This is also a good time to check out the stats here. Winston is pretty close to perfect with 4 of his stats at the maximum 250, and just Intellect letting him down with a 248.

Lets get this last game out of the way!

Well done Winston - EPIC at last!

Pain-Giver - 6% extra damage to all schools, which isn't too bad. I know I need to move away from the purely healing pets and this is a good start. Winston's full Talents to EPIC are:


Not looking too bad. Think I may need to find a hatching partner and see if I can get those stats to 250 all round.

Hey Morgrim - how many of your pets have the full 250 for all stats? And what other talents? Just a thought :)

That's all from me for now.

Have Fun, until next time,

Tabitha

SOO CLOSE!

Princess Cleo is just about Mega! She will be my second pet to get to Mega and hopefully won't fail.

The first pet I got to Mega was a pet that absolutely utterly failed. After doing reasonably well through teen to epic, I managed to do so well and got Mana Gift at Mega (yea, don't know how I did it). I was completely devastated and didn't train pets for a while after that.

Well now the time has almost come! Princess Cleo has 1840/2000 xp and should be Mega very, very soon. I will keep you posted and expect a post from me in the coming days. Wish me luck for not failing!

- Blaze

Random Hatching

Hey everyone,

As you know I have been over at (and enjoying) Celestia recently - specifically The Floating Land.

As usual I was solo questing and had only seen one other Wizard in the immediate area. I checked to see if this Wizard was going OK and then carried on with my quests - clearing some of the bosses in this region. The other Wizard was obviously just behind me in his quests, and he soon came over and asked for help in the boss fights. He was a Storm wizard, David, and wanted help with a Storm boss. I had recently completed this fight and knew it was no drama, so agreed to help him.

Patch, my Ianthine Hound was in good form during the battle. I was constantly ablaze with the yellow dome of Vengeance, coupled with a helping of Balance Blades and some largely un-needed Fairies. The Storm Wizard was impressed and asked if I would hatch.

To be honest I really wasn't bothered either way. I was happy with Patch, although I knew it was time to start thinking a new pet talents, I wasn't in any real hurry. I had lots of Gold, so I said 'Sure'. As soon as the battle was done we headed over to the Pet Pavilion Hatchery. David was really very pleased with the result, and it felt good to help out, so a win win situation. I didn't even look at the Pet I acquired. After 5 minutes I saw the little Pet indicator telling me my Pet was ready, and that it had some odd name - as always it seems! I just carried on doing what I was doing and didn't give it another thought.

Today I logged on and I thought I would check out the Pet. I had loads of Mega Snacks thanks to Couch Potatoes and Evil Magma Peas, and loads of energy as I am only growing 12 EMPs at the moment. Anyway, the Pet was Enchanted Armament. I had no clue whether this was good, bad or otherwise! The stats were all above 240 and I knew that was a fair start. The Pet comes with a Sharpened Blade at baby, which I thought may be pretty useful. Everything falls into place sometimes I guess, and I thought I had might as well do a bit of Pet training - see what this random hatch has produced.

My game of choice is always the Dance Game. It is quick and fairy easy. The first Talent reveal after 3 Mega Snacks is "Incredibly Infallible". I knew this spell well from my storm Toaddle, so I was encouraged to continue to Adult to see what would happen. Next up was "Ace Avenger".... hmmm two Astral MC Spells - this was new.

At this point I've still got heaps of energy and heaps of Mega Snacks left, so I decided to carry on through to Ancient - chasing a MC healing spell which I like to have in the mix. Lucky the whole process doesn't take long when you are feeding Fancy Yoghurt for each game....

And now I'd like to introduce "Lady Cleo", my latest Ancient Pet - complete with 2 Sharpened Blades and three May Cast Talents!

A totally unexpected result - a pet I was going to ditch to be honest. I've never used the sharpened blades before, but an extra 10% sounds pretty handy. Being a Death wizard with our own style of healing, a MC Healing pet isn't really necessary - although sometimes they can be very useful. At least I can be of use to others with the MC Unicorn.

So I'll keep this pet for a while, try it out on a few quests and then have a think about what to do. If I keep then I will definitely rename, though what to name a floating sword and shield? I'll miss having Patch at my feet though.... really do not like flying/floating pets at all.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

How To Choose Your 'Perfect Pet'

A 'perfect pet' is a pet that manifests all the talents that you want and that has good stats (usually I go for 240+ to make sure I get the highest possible percentage for the talent revealed).

To make your 'perfect pet', ask yourself 2 questions... What talents do I want and how can I get them? & How high do I want my stats to be?

Some talents that I would suggest trying to get would be:

 Spell Proof & Spell Defying. These talents both give Universal resistance which is really useful for taking big hits. With a total of up to 15% Universal Resist together, it's a pretty good thing to have!

 Fairy Friend/Unicorn/Spritely/EB. Fairy Friend is the obvious first choice out of these healing talents, as it provides you pet with a chance to cast Fairy. The others aren't as good but aren't far behind. I would get Unicorn if you're a team player but otherwise, EB (Energizing Battery) and Sprite are useful too. Energizing Battery (may cast Healing Current) is also useful for a 1000 health heal a third of the time so choose wisely.

The Dealers & Givers. The Dealers are school specific damage talents that solely boost one schools base attack damage by up to 9%. The tricky bit is getting the right talents but once you've got it, 9% extra damage is really helpful! The Givers are very similar but only give a maximum of 6% damage to specific schools, however! Pain Giver is just like a normal giver talent except instead of giving 6% damage to one school, it gives 6% to EVERY school.

That pretty much sums up the talents I would usually go for but there are others that some people may choose. For example. I might be working on a Death Damage pet (which I kind of am now), I want maximum damage from my pet. I would choose Death Dealer, Pain Giver, Death Giver and maybe something like Spell Proof or Fairy since there are only 3 damage talents.

Keep experimenting and researching and see what you find.

Thanks!
Blaze

Feb was Fantastic!

You know, it seems like only yesterday when we were welcoming in 2014, now, we are well into it with March kicking off and the year is simply flying past.

Here at the Keep, it has been a big month.  The opening of February was the announcement of our secret project that we had been running for more than 6 months - the Manual of Mastery.  HERE and HERE).  With a few people now owning their own version of the software, it is starting to get people excited at that it can really do!
With that first post, followed by a little more of an explanation of how it worked, we ended up with the most comments we have had on any post!

It was a month when Pack-a-Palooza was back, we started our series on Grub Guardian, and Tabitha's Bazaar stalking started becoming a little bit creepy!   (only kidding of course Tab, we all do it!)

I had a rant at one stage about the joys(!) of being a Fire wizard. and even KingsIsle had some challenges on their hands with pets not casting Fairy!

Absolutely everyone (at high levels) has been waiting patiently - or not so patiently - on the Test Realm being opened again to see more of Khrysalis Part 2, and when it finally arrived, no update was forthcoming, although the updates with the Test Realm were very, very handy!  :)

During February, Tabitha got her first Mega Pet, Valentines Day came and went with some great, although sometimes a little confusing, specials in the Crowns shop and Tabitha also showed a hint of her competitive side, challenging Galen to a 'Buy Off' in the Bazaar on her quest for more Jade Chairs.

The Lost Pages event was back in the Spiral, and there was a little post in there to help people know what to do if their backpacks started filling up with gear they couldn't Sell.  I even ventured back into Wizard City to see if I could inspire some of the young magicians to taking their Wizards on, in the same way I was inspired all that time ago...

Interestingly, and what was very important for us, was the renewed focus in the Wizard101 Weekly.  This newsletter (free!) goes out each week chock full of useful Wizard101 facts etc.

The last big item of note is the introduction of a new Keep member this month. I am looking forward to his contribution and I hope it continues to be worthwhile for you, the reader.

So, that's it for February.  It was a big month!

As ever, feel free to leave some feedback on the kinds of things you would like to know more about, and we'll look to getting some Blogs up for you.

I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to March.  It should be a great month!

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

Grub Guardian - A Beginner's Overview

One of the things that Blaze has often enjoyed was Grub Guardian.  He would constantly work on us to get over there and play it with him.  For me, this was always a challenge of benefit versus time spent.  Honestly, Wizard101 takes a lot of my free time, I just didn't know how much time I would have left to play this thing called Grub Guardian.

Well, now I am a convert, and I admit, I do play Grub Guardian on a semi-regular basis.  Why? What changed my mind?  Two things - First: free Energy Elixirs, Second: Unique housing items!

Some of these are very unique. I thought I had every rug in the game...boy was I wrong!  There are at least 7 unique rugs available.  Add to that packs, elixirs ... the list goes on.  This is a treasure trove of Wizard101 items.  For a reasonable list of what is available, click here to go to Wizard101 Central.  From experience I have found that it is not 100% accurate, but it is a great start.

So what is it really?  At its heart, Grub Guardian is a classic TDG - A Tower Defense Game.  This means, you have something you need to protect ("Grub for your Pet", or "10 items of Pet food") from the numerous waves of bad guys who want to eat your pet's grub all for themselves.  The way you protect them is with your Pet (yes, your actual pet from the Wizard101 game), and a series of Towers that each represent a different school.  Each Tower has its own unique ability that can be used to defend your bowl of Grub.

Normal Towers
These are the normal Towers in the game that everyone can use.  Not all Towers are available to be used in every Map.  On the map in this image, the Myth Tower cannot be used, much to many people's annoyance!

• Myth - A cheap, fast, single shot at a time Tower.  Quite effective upgraded to Level 5 with a Life Tower boost.  A useful Tower in almost all occasions.
• Fire - A burning flame to keep up the pain for the hoards over time.  Can attack multiple targets simultaneously, but takes time to deliver the full impact of the blow.
• Ice - A freeze Tower specifically designed to slow the approaching hoards.
• Storm - A lightening bolt designed to take out anything in its path.  Can be quite useful, but fire rate is a little slow.
• Death - A very handy Tower that can instantly kill a bad guy.  Very useful in numbers!
• Life - A boost Tower.  All Towers within range of the Life Tower will have increased fire rates.
• Balance - A great multi-hit Tower that can also 'chain' the attack to all bad guys in the immediate vicinity, even if they are beyond the actual range of the Tower. Can be very helpful against large numbers of low level targets.

Crowns Towers
There are few Crowns Towers to choose from.  These include:

• Star Guardian - If you want to spend Crowns on a Tower it is hard to go past this one!
• Sun Guardian - Opens a crater that burns and slows the enemy when they pass through it.
• Moon Guardian - Generates extra cash if bad guys are killed near it.
• Avalon Guardian - A chain attack that uses lightening, fun and effective.

Each Tower can be upgraded during normal game play.  Just click on a Tower and the following will appear (unless it is full upgraded!)

From the image here, you can see that there is useful information about upgrades and what they will do for you.  To upgrade, simply click on the bar at the top (with the images in it).

There is one word of caution though.  If you have two Towers, one in the square directly below another, it is easy to accidentally sell the Tower at the top.  You think you are switching to the Tower at the bottom, when actually you click on the Sell coin!  Poof!  There goes your Tower!!

Pets
When selecting your pet, your choice will make a huge difference on your game!  Choosing your highest level Pet is a definite advantage as it adds to both its ability to help you, but also the Tower value, calculated at the end of the game and one of the factors in calculating your total Score.  I use a Mega Coldfire Dragon.  Miss Ellie can hit and burn bad guys from almost anywhere on the screen, making her a deadly weapon against the waves of lower level enemies that will try to distract your other Towers.

How to Play Grub Guardian in Simple Terms

When you first start playing Grub, it will ask you to sign into Wizard101.  This will allow the game to know who you are, what pets you have and how much Energy you have available.  You can now select your Pet, and then, once you are at the first map, decide whether you want to use your Energy to actually train your Pet (yep, you can train your Wizard101 pet in Grub) or whether you want to play for prizes.  For me, it is easy, prizes EVERY time!

To actually play Grub Guardian is pretty straightforward.  Milo will take you through the basics at the start.  Unicorn Way is a nice simple map to get you started.  You really only need one Tower to complete it, depending on the type of pet you have.  I'll overview that for now, and Blaze might post a few of the trickier maps in some later posts.

For Unicorn Way, place your Pet somewhere central, then place a Fire Tower as per the image below:

Before you click on GO, select your Fire Tower and upgrade it.  It will turn into a Spiral.  Now click on GO.

You can upgrade your Tower once more when you have the available funds.  That should be enough for you to survive Unicorn Way and come away with a Gold Medal!  If you do not, it will be your choice of Pet.  Upgrade your Tower again and you should cover it :)

Once you have collected a heap of prizes for the day, the game will tell you you have hit your limit.  Now it is time to enter the Wizard101 Spiral and claim your rewards!

One key point to note - you cannot be logged into Grub Guardian and Wizard101 at the same time.  You will be kicked out of one if you start playing the other.

I hope this has been helpful.  We'll start posting more blogs on Grub Guardian over time.  If there is any map in particular that you need help with, just leave us a comment.

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

Khyrsalis Part 2 - getting close now!

I imagine there is much excitement out there in the Spiral right now... the news we've all been waiting for is here:

The following little snippet from KI promises much:

Khrysalis part 2 is shaping up to be a fitting culmination to Morganthe's chapter in the story of the Spiral, and watch for news on this upcoming world expansion.

If you head on over to the Wizard101 News page, there are details of other bug fixes and specifics that KI would like the community to test. I hope they have fixed the stitching bug, as I have been very frustrated with that one! Also the rules for the Test Realm are there.

Was chatting to Morgrim about the test realm yesterday, and he told me some people train their pets over in the test realm so they can preview talents without using 'Live Snacks'. As I am training at the moment, I like the idea of this. Last night I trained Lexi, one of my Ianthine Hounds up to Epic, and the talent reveal was Pip o' Plenty of 4%. Not what I wanted. My other hound, Winston requires training so maybe I'll head over and do that in preview mode....


So are you planning to go over to the Test Realm, or do you prefer to wait for everything to be Live?

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

Alia's Sightseeing through the Spiral - H

H - is for Hatchery

Basics for Hatching - 

The Hatchery is the only place you can go to hatch two adult pets together to get a new pet.  You can either hatch with another wizard or hatch using two of your own pets.

The Hatchery is located in the Pet Pavilion. This area is where you can buy and sell pets, and train your pet to get them to be an adult.

You begin by getting a pet (egg) from either a drop, a quest or buying one.  After this pet has hatched you will be able to start to train it.

You train your pet by playing games.  I have tried all of the games but have found my favourites are the maze game and the dance game.  The maze game is a bit like pac-man where you just eat the treats around a maze.  If you get more than 70 snacks then you score a perfect round.  You have 60 seconds but can add to this time by eating the clocks.  The ghosts will try to freeze you if you are just in front of them, although you can also get speed bonus and anther bonus where you can eat the ghosts for a limited time.

Scoring a perfect round gives you 4 points for the game.  Then you are able to feed your pet a snack.  This is where having mega snacks can be handy.  The snacks are worth 1 to 50 points so always try to feed your pet the biggest snack so you make your way to the next level quicker.

You need 125 points to advance your pet to teen, then a further 250 points to train your pet to adult.  Now that you have an adult pet you are able to hatch with other people.  You do this to either get a new type of pet, or to increase your stats and talents.

This is a picture from inside the hatchery. Once inside, you can hatch by selecting the wizard you wish to hatch with and selecting hatch from the menu or you can stand on the blue lit up area, with them next to you.  The orange lit up sigils are for standing on if you wish to hatch two of your own pets.

There are many different types of pets and talents available so have fun.  If there are no wizards you wish to hatch with, or the Hatchery you are in is a little quiet, just keep changing realms until you find the pet you wish to hatch with.

There are other posts on our blog about pets, training and talents when you have mastered the basics.

Enjoy :)
Alia