Wizard Stalking

Oh dear. Despite having a good start to PvP, I played a couple of rounds last night and I was defeated every time. Now I know I am new to this and shouldn't be so hard on myself, but there must be a better way to know the best gear to wear to help in a PvP. Maybe the best resistance to all schools, or the biggest damage to all schools.

Last night was tough, and I do find myself almost wizard 'stalking'.... what I mean is clicking on a wizard's stats to see what they are wearing and what the end results to their stats are. But to be honest, it doesn't mean much because I don't have the same gear as them or are not the same school or are not a high enough level.

I'm sure there must be more to it than Merle's crystal ball!



Practice makes perfect..... maybe?

Until next time,
Tabitha.

Helping People Can Be Very Useful - The Loremaster

Sometimes, when you have been in the Spiral for a while, you find yourself back in the Commons from time to time...either passing through or just listening to the inane chatter.  When this happens, it is not uncommon to get help requests from people.

Today was one such day.  Just minding my own business, I was listening to the usual "Can someone gift me ...pleezah?" and some random came up to me "Morgrim?"  "yep?" "can you take me to the Loremaster?"

Now, that was a variant of the typical "please take me somewhere I can't go yet.   I was in a good mood, so I said I would, but I hadn't ever heard of the Loremaster.  While you don't remember every bad guy you meet in the spiral, most of the common ones you get to know.  The Loremaster was a new one on me.

I was told this guy was in the Library in Dragonspyre - and I couldn't even remember a Library in that world.  Nonetheless, off I went. I checked Wizard101Central and found that this guy drops crafted spells!  I have 3 crafted spells, but had to craft them myself!  Now I have got to find him!

Well, after wandering for a while through the Antheneum  got the message that it was in the hat shop, so off I went.

It was pretty obvious that I had reached the right place - there were wizards everywhere.

Well, I never...a side quest we had missed?  It must be new!


I shot a note off to Alia and, somewhat excited, in we went.

We had a few runs through and got some decent drops (if you are level 45!), but after 3 runs through, it was clear that serious farming was needed to gain access to these spells.

The Loremaster isn't that strong, but the main tactic of her minions is to weaken the party attacking.  Plague, weakness and others are used constantly.  If you are a lower level, I would suggest making sure you have an off-school wand spell.  Use it once the weaknesses start to pile up to get a good clear shot on your target.

The main job of the Boss is to showcase these spells, and some of them really do look great.

While we were not successful this time, I can see that we are going to spend more time back in Dragonspyre!

See you round the Spiral (maybe even at the Loremaster?)

Morgrim

Tabitha and Galen

You may have noticed that I have been trying out some of the other Wizard101 things to do, rather than just questing. And over the weekend I decided to have a go at PvP. I have been partnering up with a fire wizard named Galen mostly, and we have been doing quite well. Surprisingly well when I see some of the PvP stats we are up against sometimes!

One thing I have noticed are the spectators in these battle arenas. Sometimes they just like to talk! Recently we were in one, and the conversation in the background was about which team was which. Apparently one team was Death-Fire and one team was Death-Balance. They quickly decided that "Team Tabitha" (their words, not mine!) was Death-Balance. Throughout the whole game they were very confused and kept switching and were eventually proved wrong. But the constant was that Tabitha = Death Wizard. So I decided that I needed to change my gear to something that didn't scream Death! As I was partnered with a firey who looked anything but, I decided to go red. My hat and boots were already red, it was my robe that needed changing. So I found one and re-stitched so I could keep my stats.

And it worked. Our most recent PvP was against two Fire Wizards, and they were the talkers this time. As soon as we entered the battle arena, they were stoked to find themselves up against Fire wizards..... The biggest problem for them is that I am a Death wizard and I have trained my secondary school as Ice.... let's just say it wasn't long before that battle was over, and I don't think the other two wizards will trust the clothes to identify the Wizard's School again!

Maybe next week I'll Go Green! Who knows?

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

Weekly Round Up from around the Web

Hey everyone. Just wanted to let you know that the latest on-line news for all things #wizard101 has now been published. Head on over to the Weekly News page to catch up on the latest from another fun week in the spiral. A week that starts the 5th Birthday celebrations for Wizard101.

Happy Birthday!! Love finding the gift boxes littered round the spiral!!

http://our-wizards-keep.blogspot.com.au/p/weekly-news.html

Until next time,
Tabitha.

Harvesting Plants at Elder

Thanks so much for helpful tips on gardening Morgrim. I found the tip about leaving the pests to harvest time particularly useful. Pest control costs just so much energy, it is nice to service all other needs and then deal with the pests when harvesting.

Had some elder harvesting to do today, and I have been looking forward to this for my couch potatoes in particular. They already give great XP (300 per harvest) so have enabled me to level up to a rank 7 gardener. I also had a couple of bread bushes and desparagus at the same level. I took some video to show some of the rewards of getting a plant to elder and then harvesting.

Did you notice the amount of XP those couch potatoes have at elder harvest? 3000XP, so now I am a level 8 ranked gardener! From that potato harvest alone I also got:
2 golden pizza snacks – rank 6 storm snack
1 shanta pudding – rank 7 ice snack
1 captain canteloup – rank 9 death snack
1 couch potato seed

The bread fruit bushes didn't give quite as much as would have wanted, in the past these have been better for mega snacks - still this was a great harvest and the seeds have all given back, so I can re-plant without having to buy again. And it doesn't need to be the higher level or more difficult plants that give the great rewards at elder. I took some more video of the rewards of harvesting pink dandelion at elder too. Take a look for yourself!

Well I have a heap of re-planting to do now.... and King Parsley is on my shopping list for later.

Until next time,
Tabitha

Gardening and the Power of the Pixie

Continuing on the theme of Gardening and Likes, possibly the best like you can get is the Pixie.

This one Like can reduce total harvest time by 25% on many seeds, and most seeds like Pixies.

So - how can you get a Pixie?  There are some plants that can attract Pixies, and all serious gardeners have their Pixie seed of choice.  For me, it is the Fiery Boom Shroom (perhaps it is the Fire in me?).  I have never been let down by these guys and you'll always see one around my garden.  Just make sure it is a seed with a long life before Elder.  For example, Alia loves Angel Oaks, but I find that Angel Oaks mature too quickly for me.

Historically, you could plant your "Pixie seed", then, once it attracted the Pixie, you could just let it die.  This would trap the Pixie in the dead plant and all other seeds planted in the area would take advantage of the Like from the Pixie.  Well, Kings Isle decided that this wasn't really fair on the poor little Pixie, so in one of the updates in 2013, a dead plant with a Pixie was just a dead plant.  No more Pixie likes.

So, now it is important to keep your Pixie seed alive once it gets its Pixie.  But it isn't quite that simple.

Firstly, the source for my Pixie seed.  You can get the Fiery Boom Shroom from Red Huckleberry drops, fight drops, packs or from two vendors, one in Nordrilund and one in Zafaria.  The guy in Zafaria (Narley) is much easier to get to, but I like visiting Ivaldi Silverpelt in Nordrilund.  Once again, there is a chance to showcase the beauty of the game, as you need to cross a bridge that spans a river of lava that splits a snowdrift.  The snow is nicely pushed back from the boiling mass of molten rock, and you have to admit, it looks spectacular.

So, once you hand over your 3,000 gold to Silverpelt for the seed, you can take it back to you garden and place it in your nicely prepared small plot, preferably on the outside of your field.

Let your plant grow until it is mature, servicing its two needs, and (hopefully) lower level pests.  Once it gets its Pixie, no more pests will appear, so a little water and a little magic once a day keeps this little guy very happy.

No matter what your chosen Pixie seed is, watch it as it grows.  When it starts getting close to Elder, stop!  Stop servicing its needs - it cannot be allowed to mature to Elder.  Once this happens, the Pixie will leave.  Instead, monitor its progress.  Once it starts to wilt and the status changes to "Progress to Dead", then get back in there and give it some help.  Again, a little water and a little magic, and the cycle starts again.  You have kept your Pixie and plant, and all the other plants that Like that little Pixie will continue to gain value from its presence.

Happy gardening and see you round the Spiral!

Morgrim

Making the most of your Energy - Likes and Gardening

When I first started gardening, I thought it was a little boring and took far too long.  The rewards were kinda lame and I couldn't see the sense in it.  One day, in Celestia, I met two Wizards with very similar names.  They were farming a boss there.  After speaking with them for a while, I found out it was the same person, playing two different Wizards.  It seemed that they were looking for Amber.

That was when I started to see that gardening did more than give you Mega snacks, although that was pretty useful!!

So, back to gardening I went.  The good ol' King Parsley (KP) is a simple option for people starting on their quest for Amber.  One seed can fill a garden fairly quickly and it is the gift that keeps on giving.  But more on KPs in another post.

King Parsleys take some time to grow and it drained a lot of energy keeping them going.  I needed a better way.

So, I started to look at these 'likes' and 'dislikes'.  What did it really mean?  Well, thanks to Wizard101Central, that font of considerable wisdom, I realised that likes would really help improve the speed of my harvest.  Ever since that time, if I am planting a field of a particular seed, I'll make sure all the likes for that seed are already in place.  That saved a LOT of time and a LOT of energy.

This is my "Medium Plot" garden.  I'll cover garden planning in another post, but for now, it is important to see that this field is ready for my 3 main medium plot crops: King Parsley, Honey Sickle, and what is arguably the best seed, the Evil Magma Pea.

It is important to make sure none of the likes and dislikes clash, but as a general rule, stay away from Stinkweed!! (makes sense really).

Yep, those are dead plants in the front.  One of the good things about Likes is that, if a seed likes another seed, you simply plant that seed and never address its needs so it will die.  Dead or alive, the seed that likes will still like it!!  I find that sometimes I need to set this up prior to planting the field as servicing the needs of the field can sometimes keep these likes alive ... and you don't want to take one to Elder, accidentally harvest it, and then have to remember to plant it again.

Some of the Likes will need to crafted, and others are drops from packs etc., so plan well.  Still, once you have the Likes you need, your harvest time is considerably reduced.  You get to keep that extra energy for other things, and you get to take advantage of your harvest drops that much sooner.

It is also useful to note that Likes and Seeds are not 1 for 1.  If a seed likes a Gong, you don't need 4 Gongs for 4 seed.  Just placing the Like near the garden will be enough for the seeds in that garden to take advantage of that Like.

But how can you tell if the seed is taking advantage of the Like?  I struggled with this for a while, but simply hovering over your seed while in Gardening mode will show you what Likes that seed is using.  With the introduction of the Red Barn farm, you can have up to 6 likes per seed!

Have fun with gardening!  There is still plenty more to discuss, but knowing about Likes will make a real difference.

See you round the Spiral.

Morgrim

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

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

So, what can you do about it?

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

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

A few Traps to watch out for:

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

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

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

And a few Tricks to try:

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

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

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

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

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

See you round the Spiral,

Morgrim

Alia's Sightseeing through the Spiral - C

C is for Chess Board

Anyone for a game of Chess?

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

Forest Lord smashes the birds

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

  

SMASH !!

Always fun :)

Alia

Gardening Update

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

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

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

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

Until Next Time,

Tabitha

Some tips for gardening

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

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

But for now, back to gardening.

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

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

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

See you 'round the Spiral.

Morgrim

Spells look EPIC!

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

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

Robert ShadowGem

Day 2 in the Garden

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

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

Until next time,
Tabitha

Inspired by Mogrim!

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

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

6 Pink Dandelions
1 Boom Shroom
2 Desparagus

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

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

Until next time,
Tabitha

Loving the new Minion!

KI - Great work.  A remake of the minion!

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

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

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

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

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

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

See ya round the spiral!

Morgrim

Pets, Pets, Pets

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time - I might see you in Vestrilund!

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

House-a-Palooza 2

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

House-a-Palooza Link

Enjoy everyone!

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

House-a-Palooza

Hey Everyone,

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

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

This is the text from the WarCry about the competition:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until Next Time,

Tabitha

Strategy

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

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

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

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

The spell she used more than all others was Tempest.

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

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

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

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

Until next time,

Tabitha.