Some Wise Words about Wild Bolt

Now that Wild Bolt is a Rank 2, 70% accurate 'Wild' Damage spell, there is a LOT of bickering going on about WHY they had to change it. Well, let's see:
10% Base
+30% Unstoppable = 40%
+25+% Gear boost = 65+%
+10% Infallible Aura = 72-75+%
+10% Lightning Strike = 79-82+%
+10% Precision = 86-90+%
+10% Guidance = 94-99+%

Now, yes, we have people complaining 'But 10 and 100 damage is too weak'. Add Gargantuan. +225 for the Trained, +250 for the Treasure. Now Bolt reads: 235, 325, or 1225 OR it reads 260, 350, or 1250.
235 - 10 points weaker than Weak Lightning Bat
325 - 50 points weaker than Weak Storm Shark
1225 - 195 points Stronger than Leviathan

So next time you think about 'But it's not fair to storm anymore' - Remember, you can still Boost it.

Recent Activity of the Legendary Theurgist

So I'm sorry I wasn't updating for a few months... Real Life issues, and a temporary Cease of gameplay for a couple of months will do that. Well, here's the lowdown on what I've done over the last month in-game:
Logan Soulsinger has completed every available quest in the Spiral
Talon Ravenbane is Level 56 and about to start the Survey Camp once Celestia Furniture hits Live from Test.
Valerian DreamDreamer is out of the Krokosphinx and is Level 40.
I have farmed out 3 Sea Dragons, and done a bunch of Hatching, with mixed results.
Received a Massive Fantasy Palace from a friend for a late birthday / early Yuletide present
Helping friends through Briskbreeze and Spiral Geographic Warehouse
Crafted a Cosmic Kris and Stellar Signet (each have 208 health, 16% Pip chance, 21% Incoming boost, 20% outgoing boost, Level 58+) requiring having to harvest over 2,400 stone blocks.

Today, I was in Test realm. I finally got to Intermediate Gardener! But I noticed, sadly, my King Parsley plant was no longer with me... No, it hadn't died... The Gnomes ate it and left NOTHING behind! My friend, Anna Rainblossom, reported to me her Silver Trumpet Vine (a Rank 1 Crowns Plant) had FINALLY hit mature, and been able to be Harvested. Her MATURE Harvest for this plant was 300 XP! It took about 5 Days for the Silver Trumpet to go from Seedling to Mature, which means in about a Week (assuming Test is still up) it will be an Elder Plant, ready for her to make the BIG harvest. If the math holds solid, that means in a week or so when the thing hits Elder, she'll get 3,000 XP from it! Total Blades I've received from my HoneySickles: 47.

Tonight, I farmed Cuthalla a bit (Stormriven Pylons), then went to help a friend with the Warehouse. While I was in the Warehouse with Logan and Talon, I was also playing Plants VS Zombies (Epic way to pass the time between rounds if you don't want to watch the animations of the spells!). We slaughtered the enemies, and then I went and filled my potions. Had a conversation with The Pet Master, discussing this and that, and letting him know of my 47 Test Realm Treasure Blades. :) All in all, a good night's work.

Guide to Getting Pearls in the Grotto

Everyone wonders 'Where are the Pearls', so I decided to make a little map to my 6 Pearl Spawn Points in the Grotto.

Now, as you can see, the Map shows you where each pearl is at, and shows you my path that I take. This route takes about 1 minute 15 - 1 minute 30 each time, depending on dodging enemies in a couple areas. Perfect for running one way, changing realms, and running the opposite way.

Well, that's all for now.

Gardening, Energy Concerns, and PVP does it AGAIN!

Well, sorry for being absent recently. Logan Soulsinger is back again.

Today, we talk about W101's latest Test Realm: Gardening. Gardening is an interesting addition to Wizard101 where you can raise plants in your Dorms and Houses. Level 12 and higher can participate in this new expansion. Plants can give various rewards, and come in a variety of types and sizes.

So far, my favorite plant is Honey Sickle. Honey Sickle take about 1-2 days to Mature, and when you Harvest them, they give Blade Treasure cards. Another 2-3 days to Elder and they give a lot of blades. Honey Sickle give 5 Gardening XP at Mature harvest and 50 at Elder harvest.

From the Crowns Plants I've received, I'd have to say Pink Dandelion is great. It's worth the extra time these guys take for their rewards. A Pink Dandelion takes on average 4-5 days to hit Mature. At Mature, each harvest nets you 20 Gardening XP and usually a High Level Reagent such as Blood Moss or Black Pearls. If they are like other plants, these guys will give 200 Gardening XP at Elder, which is 10 times their regular harvest reward. Crown Seeds can be won from various mobs and bosses around the spiral. I won mine from Maglump (while farming for Sunstone).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The big concern about Gardening at the moment is that it uses a very LIMITED resource: Pet Energy. At Grandmaster you have 48 Energy, at Legendary 53. Of course, with the Beastmaster Set for 3,500 Crowns, you can get an additional 18 Energy raising your Legendary Energy to 71, but only while equipped. If Energy is going to be used for both Pets and Gardening then perhaps KingsIsle could add some Craftable Athame and Rings to Support Gardening. I could imagine one set of them already:

Green Thumb's Trowel
+16 Energy
-2 Minutes Energy Regen Time
Level 55+ Only

Beastmaster's Signet
+16 Energy
-1 Minute Energy Regen Time
Level 55+ Only

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
PVP did it again... Ruining another fine addition. Low Level PVP has been abused by Polymorph Treasure Cards, and so KingsIsle, in an attempt to stop this Low Level abuse, is doing the following:
1) Polymorph Treasure cards are now No Trade, No Auction
2) Polymorph Treasure cards will not be received as Duel Rewards
3) Astral Archivist Polymorph Treasure cards have a LEVEL REQUIREMENT for purchase.
4) Unstoppable and Gargantuan cannot be Traded

Well, wizards of the spiral, that's all for now. I'll let you get back to your regularly scheduled programs

Cannibalizing Your Fansites

Dear KingsIsle Entertainment,
As you well know, it has been a fun time playing Wizard101, but with the new crackdown on Central, I'm getting concerned.

You claim to have our safety in mind, but what is the point of Open Chat, let alone your own forums (which pose a greater risk of account theft, btw) if you cannibalize your Fansites? Your fansites are the BIGGEST source for New PAYING Players!!! Its through fansites and the community on them that people decide if a company and its games are worth continued support.

This banning of Players for stating their Central Names is an even bigger foolhardy move than what you had done in the past with following a Big Announcement statement with a pathetic Teaser! Players should have a right to be addressed by WHATEVER handle they decide to go by, be it Central UserName or some abbreviation of their wizard name! You owe your community an apology for the insult you have given us!

By your logic, anyone who has ever used the 'Subscriber Benefit' of posting on YOUR forums should receive a Permanent Ban because of Sharing Account Information (Username)! Grow up, and use some Intelligence, KI! You partnered with Central last November for the Facebook Fan Danger Hound giveaway and now you slap it in the face!!! I'm ashamed of you!

You have crossed the line of 'Safety' into 'Hypocrisy'. Buckle down on the Moodha be cursed spammers, Boyfriend/Girlfriends, and Scammers, fix some bloody bugs if you've got that much time to be 'worrying' about people using a W101 Approved Fansite user name!!!

I am also posting this on the following thread of Central:
http://www.wizard101central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64467

Know that I am still a paying player, but more and more your actions are driving me towards the desire to quit your wonderful game due to Lack of proper management.

Kindest regards and Warmest wishes that I can give right now,
Wizard101 Central User: Ask Johnist

Fruitless Farming

Okay, so we have all experienced this, Fruitless farming.

What is 'Fruitless Farming'? Its where you farm, and you farm, and don't get what you want.

I farmed Oakheart for a while, but the pet only dropped to my baby. Then I farmed Oyotomi (looking for Lifebane) and that was fruitless. My main did get a Sword though...

Lost the Late Nite Wizards (LNW) Scavenger Hunt. Congrats to Autumn Stormblade.

Friday Night

Last night, CKGWoof, SimplyBill, and Myself were doing Tree of Life (Power leveling CKG's baby death). Bill won a Dire Ghoul.

Nothing really impressive on my part.

Then I helped Bill get his Dryad. Tomorrow's another day...

Events of the last few days...

Sorry all for not updating the last couple of days...

So, lets go down the list: 3 days ago: Downloaded all housing object data from Bazaar (BIG MISTAKE!!!) and saw Gavvin's house.

2 days ago: had huge lags on logging in due to patching the Housing Object Data, helped a friend (Alura DragonCaller; CKGWoof on Central) with Helgrind Warren and Hall of Valor (Got a RuneWarden Deck, saved 8607 Gold)

Last night: Helped Woof Power Level her baby Necro (2nd Account) and helped Gavin get a shot at the Firewing w/ Card... Finally redeleted the Housing Object world data wad file... faster loads, still annoying though

Overall, a busy week, what with Mundane Work, and what not.

Sorta Productive Day

So, for the most part, Yesterday was unproductive, although I have to say I got Baby Myth to Level 21, and discovered that you cannot take the MB Zeke quest until you are Level 20.

At the end of the Day, Audi (Aaron Sunfist) was farming Snowcrusher, and after about 8 battles with Snowcrusher, not only did I get a spare Fire GM hat, but I finally managed to get myself some Balance GM boots (Lenora RainbowSword won't need to farm ANYTHING now!) and finally, just as I was going to call it quits, got my GM life boots! Booya! Stitched them quickly into my empty Pilgrim shoes, but I prefer my Dark Purple & Dark Orange Sleuth-stitched Overlord Set more.

So overall, I'd say the day was a success, as I now have over 20k gold on my main Life again.

Wow, Saturday was Busy (and Productive!)

So, Productive:
Faced Akuji (x 3, then encore of x1)
Faced Youkai (Minotaur pet dropped to Baby Myth on first shot)
Finished Tree of Life (Baby Myth hit 18, so did Spell Quest)
Faced Bristleback, Shadowcrown, Property Master (no good drops for
Either account)
Faced Gallium Paladin, then again (there are 2 Paladins back there).
Got my Life Deck! Finally yeah!

Taught a new friend a lot about the game, and then did an Ironworks run for LNW dungeon running. After that, I swapped over to Valerian DragonPyre for the Firepower needed in The Spyre.

Baby Myth scored himself his robe from Malistaire this time (now only need 32 Levels for him lol)! YEAH!!!

April 9th, Day of Arena

Alright, so I log in, and decide to see what my friends are up to. Turns out Gavin Ironblade needed 300 more Arena Tickets. So, it was off to the Arena for me!

I picked up 40 Tower Treasures for him (Later picked up another 75). We did 4 2v2 and 2 3v3 (with Liam Stormcatcher). All of them were in our favor, although 2v2 number 2 was against a Storm Pair that were bolt-happy (Mary Rosepetal & Wolf Thundercloud - Warlord Grandmaster bolters), and 2v2 number 3 was against a pair of annoying Ice GMs (who didn't seem to be packing ANY healing spells other than Pixie, and had very foul language). A lucky little Ressurection Bug on me saved the day for us, so I could heal myself.

Lucky for us, despite facing 2 pairs of 3v3 2 storm, 1 ice, neither Purposefully or accidentally Chain Stunned us! I give mad props to those Wizards, despite having forgotten to copy down names.

All said, we carried the day completely, and Gavin now needs 240 tickets.

Also, I am at 784 rank and saving up for my Commander boots :)

Wha!? Inverted Sky Bug!?

So, last night, I had the oddest thing happen to me. I was helping with The Great Spyre, and brought myself (Logan Soulsinger) and my Myth baby (Valerian DreamDreamer).

Inside Malistaire's Lair, my Main Account had a heart attack! White Sky in DragonSpyre! (Not a new bug for me, just annoying). However, the bad thing about Inverted Sky: Uber Lag! If Logan was Superman, this would be Enhanced Kryptonite! I did RAM refresh (enable/disable full screen), I tried Log Out, I tried 'Go to Commons', and the time the Inverted Sky bug kept coming back immediately. I even swapped Wizards to my GM Pyromancer, and was truly shocked! White Sky had infected GrizzleHeim!

So, by this point it became clear there was only one solution: Restart Main Account. Instead of waiting the nearly ten minutes, Gavin, Roslyn, and Baby Valerian went into battle with a GM Life henchman. The day was carried and Baby Myth had some great loot for the Shared Bank:

1 x Snowcrusher's Mantle of Embers (Level 50+ Fire Hat)
1 x Gurtok Mortis Seal (Level 50+ Death Ring)
1 x Gurtok Everthorn (Level 50+ Life Ring)
1 x Malistaire Drake's Ebony Robe (Level 50+ Death Robe)

Sigh, no Myth gear... Oh well, Baby Myth also now has his Legend Shield and his Tower Shield. Level 16 baby!

As they say: Tomorrow's another day.

Why are some Badges bugged?

This is a simple answer, although Complex in its own nature.

Badges become 'Bugged' (unobtainable) when their 'Requirements' cannot be met.

Some wizards have heard of rare, and no longer obtainable badges like 'Master of the Oasis', 'Savior of Marleybone', 'Emerald Champion', and 'Savior of DragonSpyre'.

These badges are 'bugged' because some side quests in the worlds were ELIMINATED (made unavailable) as a method of culling Excess XP. More XP was culled by decreasing the Rewards from certain Quests and Instances. And yet more was culled with the change of the Battle XP Formula.

Some badges that were bugged previously have had their 'Requirements' modified to allow them to be available (Removing flags that look for completion of quests that are no longer capable of being done). Badge such as 'Tomb Raider', 'Krokosphinx Delver', and 'Secret Shopper' are among those that have had their requirements changed to be available.

Perhaps we will one day see the return of the 'Master of the Oasis' (Completed all KT Quests), 'Savior of MarleyBone' (Completed all MB Quests), 'Emerald Champion' (Completed all MS Quests), and 'Savior of DragonSpyre' (Completed all DS Quests), as well as the release of GH Badges and a special Badge for Obtaining all Mob & Secret Boss Badges.

But, then again, Boss Badges are currently worthless if not tied into Access / Level requirements, and Badges could be so much COOLER if they had Effects.

The Old XP Formula vs The NEW XP Formula

Alright, Topic of the Day, something that's been driving me nuts, is how they've changed the XP Formula!

For those who aren't familiar with the changes to the XP formula, I'll tell you the old formula, and then I'll tell you the NEW formula.

Old Formula:
3 XP per Spell you cast
3 XP per Spell cast by your Minion

New Formula:
3 XP per 0, 1, and X Ranked Spell you cast
3 XP per Pip for 2-7 Ranked Spell you cast
0 XP per Spell cast by your Minion

What does this mean?

It means that while under the Old System, Conjurers and those who used their minions more often would gain more XP / battle than most others.

Under the New System, you get more XP as you progress (Storm Lord is 21 XP per Cast, even if fizzled).

Under the old Formula, I and my Sprite wracked up over 200 XP in the Sokkwi Keymaster battle (she was attacking and I was healing as my Attacks were hiding!). Under the new system, I'd be lucky if I get even 87 XP for the same long, drawn out battle.

Anyways, the Formula wasn't really broken, but they 'fixed it' anyways.... *sigh* my baby Myth needed the XP from the Minion... he would have gotten well over 100 XP in the Yakedo battle alone if the old System still worked... instead? He got 30 XP.

Happenings of April 7th

Well, yesterday was actually a very good day. I made some Satyr and Regenerate cards for my Noob Myth, watched Saffron Skycatcher practice for her Head of Class: Fire battle against Nick (... Sorry, Saff, you're gonna end up losing to Nick... after all, He's a Tournament Master.... and vicious with his fire).

Then, I went on a Labyrinth run with my Noob Myth and Roslyn Hawkstone. I need more RAM!!! Both accounts crashed twice, and then I decided it wasn't worth it to log my noob back in. He did however get the Bristleback Thundersword (yeah! Too bad he needs another 30 levels to equip it).

My main account and I got the Singed Deck (FINALLY!) and a second Shadowcrown's Icy Blade. The rest of the drops were Junk. Went to the Bazaar, and bought my Fire Salamander! Yeah me! One less pet to farm for!

And then I realized: It's Midnight!? Gotta be up in 6 Hours, so I went to bed.

Greetings and Salutations

Greetings and Salutations. My name is Johnist. Many people know my Wizard101 'Heal Tank' named 'Logan Soulsinger'. Well, on March 12, 2010, Logan, my 2nd Wizard, dinged Grandmaster.

Some people are wondering 'What sort of gear is required to be a 'Grandmaster Heal Tank'?' I'm sure. Well, this is the Gear I use:
Cap of the Frontier (Overlord Set)

Raiment of the Judge (Overlord Set)

DuneStriders (Overlord Set)

Malistaire Drake's Deathedge (Dropped by M. Drake, The Great Spyre)

Malistaire Drake's Ruby Signet (Dropped by M. Drake, The Great Spyre)

Runewarden's Deck (Dropped by Ullik, Helgrind's Warren / Hall of Valor; Purchased at Bazaar)

Troll Ear's Pendant (Dropped by The Great Troll, Colossus Boulevard; Purchased at Bazaar / Marleybone Pendant store)

Cerulean Edge wand (Crown Shop)

Defender Pig ($20.00 Protector's Set Rite Aid gift card)

Now, with all that equipped, you've got yourself a Marvelous 10% Accuracy boost, 11% Damage boost, 33% Resistance to All, 20% Power Pip chance boost, 15% Incoming heal boost, and 15% Outgoing heal boost.

Now, you're ready to Tank! But now your thinking 'But Tanks are supposed to hold the Aggro'... Well, in W101, there is no better way to hold the Aggro than entering battle first so you're alone for a round with the bosses, and/or healing. I do both, being a Grandmaster Theurgist. I have rather good health, and with the 10% accuracy boost on my Gear, I am Fizzleproof without an Accuracy Debuff.