Major Minion - Malduit

Hey everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have fun, until next time!
Tabitha

Shark Alert - Predictions - Energy

Hey everyone!

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

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

We'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

School Battle Strategy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have fun, until next time,
Tabitha

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Let me know if you agree with my verdict :)

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

The Warhammerhead Shark - Scored One Yet?

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

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

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

              



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

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

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

Hope you have fun, until next time,

Tabitha

Builder, Decorator or just making a Comeback?

Hey everyone!

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

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

We'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

The Scavenger Hunt by Paige at Wizard101Central!

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

Click HERE to jump directly to the Hunt!

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

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

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

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

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

Good Luck.

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

Source of Corruption - Solo?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And that was when something curious happened....

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, that's it from me for now.

Have fun, until next time,
Tabitha

Decorators Delight!

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

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

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

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

Have fun, until next time,

Tabitha

Wizard101 Treasure Cards you've never heard of (...maybe!)

(OK, I concede you may well have heard of these, but hey, they are pretty rare!)

Recently, Tabitha has mentioned her Bazaar stalking and her timing that allowed her to pick up a number of higher level Astral spells.  For those Wizards in Azteca, this isn't really something unusual (assuming you have the available Training Points!), but for those who are not there yet, this is a way to access to these higher value spells.

Well, as any long-term readers would know, I also frequent the Bazaar.  Today, it was a good day for it, and as you can see there are a number of these higher level Astral spells available.  Furnace is clearly my weapon of choice, but I don't need the tc seeing as my level is high enough and the fact I spent one of my training points on it .

When you remember that there are only 7 Wizard schools, and that Balance gets two of these spells, to have 6 spells out of the 8 spells possible appear in the Bazaar at the same time makes it what it was...it would be a great day for people that use these tcs.

However, I don't believe these are not the unknown tc you may be looking for!

For me, the best Treasure Cards to get, (and I am ALWAYS on the lookout for more) are those that can surprise your opponent, and these two cards do exactly that.

Of course, I am talking about the elusive "Simplify" and its big brother "Elucidate".

These two cards have a very specific purpose - to reduce the pip cost of a spell.  Simplify takes one pip off the cost of a Spells, and Elucidate takes off 2 pips.  That means that a big scary Efreet (worth 8-pips) can win a fight when you only have 6 pips! (normal Efreet = 8 pips, Efreet with Elucidate = 6 pips)

This is a hugely powerful part of the game, especially PvP.  This is where you can hope your opponent is watching your pips and trying to guess your cards.  All of a sudden you are playing a game with someone who throws up a buff after seeing you still have one more round to to really hurt them.

So yes, I will confess, I am often stalking for these two cards.  It is interesting, but I hadn't seen them in the Bazaar for such a long time, I was wondering if they still existed as an Auctionable item!   Still, I thought it would be worth trying again...and...SUCCESS!  I couldn't believe it, but there were some on my second refresh...and on my 5th.  It was great!

When you can pick up both of them on the same day, and a few of each at that...it is a good day!

Oh, and before I sign off - the most interesting part of all of this was that there was another Wizard stalking for these cards too - but for a very different reason!  I did capture the conversation, but I don't think I'll post it.  Let's just say, he was after 700!  The reason for his passion was driven by Crowns!  It seems he has a benefactor that would pay 60K in Crowns as a reward for his efforts.

From experience, I know this will take some time.  I have about 30 of each card, and a number of 6-pip Efreets and 6 pip Fire Dragons in my side deck - but 700?!?  I wished him luck on his mission (but I'm sorry to say, I was too selfish to share any lol).

So, do you use these rare cards?  They can really change the course of a fight...let me know if you have any tactics you want to share :)

See you 'round the Spiral!

Morgrim

A Plethora of Prizes

Hey everyone!

• More Cheating Bosses -  I face Belloq solo
• The Future and a Dr? -  Frostcaller discusses a possible future in the Spiral
• Happy 6th Birthday to Wiz Central! -  Birthday Raffles galore!

For this and all the other stories shared by Wizards around the globe, click on the paper.

You know I love publishing the weekly. It gives me a chance to check up on the stories that I have missed. Such as the Birthday celebrations going on over at Wizard101 Central. I popped over there as they have some awesome competitions going on, and logged in for the first time in a while (I usually research more than post over there). Immediately a message pops up telling me I'm a winner.

That's always cool to hear, so I open the message to check what I won - a Bazaar Tapestry!! Looks like the lucky wizard is back again, this is the second time I have won a Bazaar Tapestry in a random draw.  This one will take pride on place in my Barn.
Pop over there yourselves and enter some of those competitions. There is a plethora of prizes on offer. Good luck to you all, and thanks to Central for  my Tapestry. Happy 6th Birthday guys :)

We'll be back with another copy next week.

Until Next Time,
Tabitha

Frozen in Time

Hey Everyone,

Just popped on quickly to show you the frozen version of my Yuletide garden:

It took longer to go to Elder than I anticipated, and it was very surprising the difference in the life-cycle stages of the plants. They were all planted within a 5 minute window, and were all looked after the same. Yet there were days between the first Elder, and the last.
So what do you think? Better a frozen yuletide paradise, or better red and white? I'll stick to my red and white, I think. After all, you can hardly make them out in this next one.

Oh and in case you are wondering. I have another 46 Happy Holidaisy seeds in my bank and backpack. Not bad for that 2 seed crown purchase eh?

Have fun, until next time!

Tabitha

You BIG Cheat!

Hey everyone,

Meanwhile, away from my festive garden, I am still working my way around Zafaria. Today was the day I would face Belloq.

• Defeat number 1 - I wonder what on earth happened. 
• Defeat number 2 - To be honest I am really none the wiser. 
• Defeat number 3 - I know I am doing something wrong. 
• Defeat number 4 - I think I have some insight... maybe.

Now, if you haven't succumbed to this particular quest yet, then you may wonder what on earth is happening too!! Time to meet Belloq, who should really be known as Belloq the Cheat.

First up, this is what we are dealing with in this battle:

A rank 10 boss, but you know - 6,335 health? Not a huge fight compared to some of the others I had overcome. And there be the lesson..... do not be complacent.... things are never quite what they seem, and I was about to learn that.

So I start the battle with a plan to defeat the minion first. I have fought a few of these Greyhorn's and I know they are quite liberal with balance trio shields, and didn't want to see too many Death-Myth-Life shields in play. The weird thing was that Belloq kept saying "I thought you were here to hurt me". I came to realise that meant that Ra would be played. Ra hit me for anything from 1200 to 1600 each time.

He seemed to play it alot - so I knew this was a fight that I needed to concentrate on. Sadly it did take quite a few re-starts to realise exactly what was going on. I came to dislike Ra very much in that time - two hits in amongst the other spells and I was done. They made it look easy. I was defeated around 7 times after round 3. This was embarrassing to say the least.

Then I realised how to approach this battle. I had tried a couple of changes, and each one had failed. I knew I had to attack, but I had not realised the extent of that until after a friend had ported in and played some of the spells I thought would work. They didn't - and we were both defeated.

I re-thought my deck. This new deck was something I had never played with before. But I knew that something radical was in need. Here is the deck I went forward with:

There are a few things to notice here:

• There are no blades
• There are no traps or curses
• There are no prisms
• There are no Vengeance cards

Treasure cards were a mix of Feint, Gargantuan and Poison only. Nothing else at all. My theory was that I need to attack. If I don't attack then he plays Ra. And I already know that 3 times Ra and I am defeated.

But the question is - what is an attack? I knew a Feint worked, and that was great. Being death I had enough in my deck, and gardening is a big help with this card. Traps and Curses though? I really wasn't sure. But I know that at this point, he has defeated me 12 times too many and I needed to get this battle done!

My new deck is all about the pure attack apart from the Feints. No curses. No Traps. I was taking no chances!

 So I started my considered attack. My theory was that I should keep Poison running continuously so there was an attack every round. I hoped this would work because 1. it is a low level pip spell and 2. it was a three round attack card. And the good news is that it did what I wanted. Gradually I whittled down the health of Belloq. I played nothing on the minion. And as you can see - it is successful......



It was fairly easy from this point on. Patch helped my every now and then - and as you can see my incoming health is very high at 48%, and this was the only fairy he was willing to give in this particular battle :)

But you know what?

It didn't matter. I kept playing those Poison Cards - obviously I used a Gargantuan on them first, and sometimes Patch gave me Vengeance, to increase the chance of critical.

Before I knew it I had him on the back foot :). Every card I played was an attack on Belloq. If I didn't have an attack card then I prepped - Poison gave me three rounds :)

And I didn't worry about the Greyhorn. Sometimes you just need to concentrate on the boss and then deal with the minion. This was definitely one of those times.

It was nice to get this particular victory. I think it is great that you are lulled into a false sense of security with a low health boss. But seriously, if you are faced with a cheat you need to watch very closely for the triggers.

Just take a look at my health - completely full at the end of the battle - I love being a death wizard!!

So it was Poison that helped change this battle in my favour. But you are not all Death Wizards... so I would love to hear what you used against Belloq!

Have fun, until next time,

Tabitha