Text bug and how to get around it

Lately there have been some additional issues with porting acting as if a friend has porting turned off. I don't have a solution for this yet but I do have a work-around for the texting bug.

What is the texting bug?
When you click on a player's name in your friend list the chat/text option is gone.

How to work around it.
1) Close the friend window if you have it up already.
2) Hit enter as if you were about to text someone (this gives you the new line in the chat window)
3) Click on your friend list and pick the friend you want to text.
* the text/chat option will be enabled again for the moment *

Arena -1 bug is back

A spontaneous new -1 bug is in effect right now not unlike the one you use to be able to create... (see our investigative piece on that in our archive).

This -1 bug seems to happen randomly to a player who joins a multi player PVP. The net effect is that the team who happens to get the -1 bug can win points from noob teams. A sad example was 4 of us level 50 who won 24 points from a team of level 20. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

A new irritating feature that has been reintroduced also is the loss of your pips if you cast a multi-hit on someone who just got killed in the same turn as your cast. Ex: storm person tritons the guy you cast on and they die and you lose all your pips you saved to cast Frost Giant. This had been in effect previously and then was went away for a few months and now is back.

Thankfully the texting bug where the text option disappears for friends until you hit enter and then bring up their friend profile is now fixed or so it appears.

Vale

New Year and Resolutions

I challenge you, my amazing readers... to set a resolution to make a difference in the life of someone on the game.

I think when I started the game I was thinking I wanted friends to have fun with and chat with. Recently I've found greater joy in trying to make a difference for people having known me. I hope it's working for my friends but I know has helped me with deeper frienships and a greater appreciation for the amazing people I know.

Vale

Buy a white tiger and support charity

The following is a quote from the Wizard101 site.

"Wizard101 Unveils New Mount to Raise Money for Children’s Charities
Sales of “Meowmodon” to support Child’s Play and the Austin Children’s Shelter

We are proud to give our players and their friends a unique way to support children this holiday season. The purchase of an in-game mount, the “Meowmodon”, will benefit the Austin Children’s Shelter and Child’s Play. The Austin Children’s Shelter provides emergency shelter and care for abused and neglected children and Child’s Play is a game industry charity dedicated to providing games and toys to children in hospitals worldwide.

The black and white Meowmodon resembles a large tiger and sells for 7,500 in-game Crowns per mount. For each Meowmodon mount sold, KingsIsle will donate the full amount (a retail value of approximately $15) to the two charities, divided equally. The Meowmodon is available for purchase through the in-game Crown Shop from December 14, 2009 through January 5, 2010.

“We have an opportunity to give back by tapping into the power of our Wizard101 community – our 5 million players can make a real difference to deserving children,” said Elie Akilian, CEO of KingsIsle Entertainment. “We chose these organizations because we wanted to support the communities that we are a part of – one located in the same city as our design studio and another with global reach, just like Wizard101.”"

A gift if you are not yet a wizard member or you want to open a new account

Sign up with my friend code and get a free dragon pet.

Click here to create a new account and redeem the wizard101 special holiday pet gift.

Fan Blog and Ideas

A fan of the site is starting his own blog. wiztips Check it out. He's got some good stuff.

Some random wizard ideas:

I think school pets should be available to ride...
Ice Wyvern,
Hydra,
Kracken or Stormzilla
Fire Dragon or Firezilla etc...

I also think there should be a crown shop that allows you to mutate cards to your school so you could make a Fire-Giant, Ice Dragon, Myth Lord etc.

I think that you should be able to spend 2 training points and learn a spell from another school that would employ your power pips. So learning by spending 1 training point things would work as they do and use a power pip as = 1 pip, but if you spend 2 training points to learn it, it should use your power pips as = 2 pips for that learned spell. (you would learn fewer spells that way but it would add a whole new dimension to dueling and questing)

Also I think there should be a new school (Technology). Technology would be the opposite of balance and use spells like robot-spiders, clockworks, fire-belly's etc.

If you have any cool ideas post them here or on wizard101mythology

New Houses Coming to Wizard

I popped over to the test realm and tried out the new school based housing options. They are pretty awesome...

Check out the following videos:

Balance House


Death House


Fire House


Ice House


Life House


Myth House


Storm House

"Valerian's School" for Arena

I indicated a while ago that I would post about a new "school" fashioned after my own which at times I've called "shield school" or "arena school" but I'll refer to from now on as "Valerian's School". I had held off posting about this until I had a) proof that it worked and b) the street cred to convince you I know what I'm talking about. Now that I'm safely into high Overlord range I'm ready to spill knowing full well that by doing so I'll make my future battles much more difficult. However maybe I'll have some measure of satisfaction knowing that skill-less wild bolters will be disappointed by a well prepared adversary and therefore may stop relying on bolt as a crutch for their weakness as a duelist.

When playing a serious amount of arena and adventuring a lot one thing will become apparent... second school spells are almost useless. They take lots of pips, usually fizzle, they don't take advantage of your power pips and they are usually shielded against by whoever you are fighting. You will find your own school spells can be used twice as often and thus removing shields you can still generally get the same bang from your pips as you would by throwing another school's spell.

What does that mean for arena?

It means you want to learn how your school removes shields and use that to your advantage. It also means that you'll save a boat-load of room in your main deck for some nasty school-based hits AND SHIELDS. (this is critical)

What is Valerian's School?
Valerian's school is aritificial Balance school or quite literally a mixture of all schools.

What spells do I want to learn for Valerian's School? (arena and high level questing)
a) Always get ice up to tower shield
b) Life up to at least pixie
c) Always learn all of the shields from each school with the exception of life absorb (you probably won't have enough training points)
d) Double up on storm shields if you have enough training points (IE: learn Ice's storm-fire shield and learn Fire's storm-ice shield)
e) Learn your elemental or spirit tri-blade from the tree Niles in Krokotopia
f) Learn spells from Gretta Darkette's hidden school

Optional
g) Death up to feint
h) Satyr if you're willing to give up a dispel
i) and remaining shields to round out your collection and
j) any remaining dispels

If you follow Valerian's school you will be a shieling monster... I believe that shielding is the key to winning duels and flying through high level quest and boss battles. Adequate shielding gives you time to build the pips you need to employ actual strategy in arena. Without good shielding and yes, occasional, judicious use of dispel (a learned spell therefore not cheating) you will find yourself getting nuked in short order.

Valerian's school is the school of finding balance through learning a little of everything and finding the strengths and value in your own school.

Enjoy,
Vale

How to build a good arena deck for Balance

A friend of mine asked me for a suggestion about how to compose a deck for balance for 1-vs-1 in the arena.

While I have driven a balance wizard before I don't yet have one myself. So I'd be interested in hearing from my readers about good ideas.

My suggestion given what I know from fighting balance wizards would be: (please note this setup is not optimal for multi-player pvp but should do ok in 1v1)
Main Deck
---------
1) Shields (max # you can fit)
2) blades (both standard bladestorm blades)
3) black mantle (3-4)
4) weakness (3-4)
5) feint (2-3)
7) 30% tough trap (4)
8) fire elf (3 or 4)
9) Nova (2)
10) reshuffle (2)
11) a few heals

Treasures
---------
Judgement
3-4 nova
emergency heals
1 or two treasure fire elf

That's pretty much it. I'm not going to lay out the strategy for you to win with this setup. (It won't take you long to find it yourself)

Enjoy,
Vale

When Fire Elves Attack

While waiting for arena i got attacked by fire elves


So I joined them and we attacked some people in the commons.

Then we fought our cousins and chased noobs through the streets.

What will happen next time fire elves attack?

Zeke Quest Names An Evil Plot? You Decide...

Are the Zeke quest names merely random or some maniacle plot? Follow me for a moment on a journey into the bizzare mind of a game producer and make up your own mind.

If I was sitting in that game designer's chair with my feet up on my cluttered desk covered in half eaten cheetos bags, chocolate death candy bar wrappers and bottles of Heart Attack Cola, feeling devious and subtle to boot, I might choose names for things in the game that came from things I was familiar with. Like names of cats or dogs that I had once cherished or people I knew that were sweet or thoughtful or maybe even that cute girl from highshcool that I had a crush on. Those would make good game names, fun little anecdotal tidbits of trivia to foist upon some poor unsuspecting game player in a football-like "hail Mary" pass thrown toward winning the superbowl of trivia immortality. That would be if I was normal...

It takes quite a different strain of evil genious, and Dr Who-like 'devil-may-care' smugness to do what the game designer did that named the Zeke Quests.

Pretend for a moment I'm Morpheus, we're in the matrix and I'm offering you the red pill. Swallow it and let's see how far down this Rabbit hole goes...

* insert timewarp here with sound effects*

Wizard City circa 1985 the height of the Waver movement:
The Smiths turn out their first album called The Smiths
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Smiths/_/Cemetry+Gates?autostart

* insert "hmm i'd forgotten about the waver movement" *
Krockotopia circa 1960 the Beatles rock the pyramids with the British invasion which we see some evidence of with all beetles and the british fellows standing around in their safari outfits.

* insert "well, yeah, that's gotta be coincidence, it's not even spelled the same way" *
Marleybone 1979 the Stray Cats "rock this town"
http://www.last.fm/music/Stray+Cats/_/Rock+This+Town?autostart

* insert "I'd forggoten about them too" *
Mooshu is littered with Blue Oysters after the Blue Oyster Cult tours Mooshu.
http://www.last.fm/music/Blue+%C3%96yster+Cult/_/Godzilla?autostart

* insert "well that's getting kinda spooky" *
Dragonspyre pays homage to the 1984 waver/alternative rock group The Stone Roses
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Stone+Roses/_/I+Wanna+Be+Adored?autostart

* insert twilight zone music here *
Grizzlehem is attacked by the 1960's rock band The Yard Birds, leaving little litter of carved birds that are dang hard to find.
http://www.last.fm/music/The+Yardbirds/_/For+Your+Love?autostart

* insert a suspenseful and scary "dun dun duuhhhhhh! " here *
All of them with the exception of the Blue Oyster Cult are either from England or moved to England and were considered to be part of the British invasion! *GASP*

What kind of evil plot is it to get us to figure all of this out, and to go and listen to old music! What kind of under-handed scheme to take over the world is being woven into the fabric of what should be otherwize mindless time wasting game of hide-and-go-seek? OOh, or perhaps worse yet what kind of nefarious villainy to play upon the obsessive compulsive nature of pathetic bloggers who will take hours writing about all this and bubbling it up on Google and memorializing the fame of one's taste in music?

The world may never know....

Well KingIsle? I for one would like to know who's brilliant idea this was. It's my kinda crazy.

ThanX :D

Cody Skyrider's Wizard101 Mythology

Check out Cody's new blog which is intended as a repository of ideas for the creators of Wizard101.

Post your fun idea and maybe KI will incorporate it :)

Here's the link: http://wizard101mythology.blogspot.com/

Forgotten Passwords

Jacob Goldgrove asked a question about how he could find his password again.

The way to do this is to go to http://www.wizard101.com/ and just under the login area on the web page is the word "forgot". (see the picture) Click on Forgot and enter your username. After you enter your username you should get an email soon after with a new password for you.

Hope this helps,

Vale

Poll Results for Wild Bolt

So it turns out that 58% of you think that wild bolt should be banned or restricted in some way. After I was fighting a storm wizard the other day and I could see him continually attempting to cast bolt on me, a realization struck me about the same time his wild bolt did. That lightening never strikes twice right? If true that means that wild bolt should never be more accurate than 10%. Countess Shadowbane is correct... the solution is to ensure that wild bolt cannot be made into treasure. That would keep wild bolt at 10% (acceptable in my book and I think in keeping with the intent of the spell) and it would be the easiest programmatic change for KI. It would also keep people to competing primarily with their school spells as it should be.

In my opinion that would bring the fun back to arena and reduce the number of arguments and subsequent reporting of people all of which contribute to a more civil and enjoyable arena experience.

Frienship Limited to the Game?

I have been playing the game for some time and have become very close to a number of friends. I even keep a presence on diaryofawizard.ning.com to keep in touch with game buddies. But what is there to do beyond questing together, dueling together and the occasional email?

Inspired by my friend's real-world effort to help a wizard neighbor with physical needs...I resolved to help that friend in return in real life also. I didn't have the money to help or anything to give but I contacted some people and convinced them to take action on her behalf. Amazingly my effort paid off and some significant hope resulted from my small effort. I'm not trying to brag about this or get patted on the back for it but I'm in a challenging mood today...

I want to challenge those of you who have close friends on the game to not just help each other in the bits-and-bytes world of the game but to reach out a little extra where possible and lift someone's spirits even if it's nothing more than a compliment or a note. If you know a friend has needs beyond that, or really could use help in some real-world way, I challenge you to find a way to make their life better for having known you. Maybe in that way you can "earn your wings" in a different way :)

If you have such a story, feel free to comment and I'll include it. If you feel insecure about bragging you can be vague or you can say "I know someone who...". I want to collect some inspiring examples of people that make a difference in their friends lives in a positive way.

If you have an angelic friend you want to nominate for an honor I would be interested in doing a post about them and possibly an interview video.

thank you,
Valerian

Chain Bolting Revisited

Yesterday again saw another loss at the hands of chain bolters. After the first round of play my storm friend had been bolted twice by two balance wizards. I wasn't far behind lasting only 3 casts before i was bolted. When I asked them to bolt me and finish the last 600 of my health they responded that they needed to save some for the next battle. (Thanks Amy Iceblood and Hunter D.)

A couple comments were left on my last post that I want to respond to. Why should I try to change arena? Why shouldn't I just quit arena?

I want to respond to those questions with questions of my own.

For the enjoyment of thousands of Wizard fans why should I NOT try to get arena to be made more fair?

When arena is one of the more interesting aspects of the game after level 50, and the only way to earn respect now that grand master points never increase, why should I leave considering that I probably would no longer play?

Lastly to those who are wild bolt fans:

* Does the spell wild bolt increase your skill as a wizard?

* When you use it to kill a more skilled wizard does it make you feel good?

* When you have to use it to win, why then do YOU play arena?

* Why exactly do you need wild bolt in order to win?

I challenge those of you who use wild bolt to stop carrying it. Just go 1 week without it in your treasures and let me know how things went. Either you will realize you don't need it or you'll develop empathy for those who lose to it.

That is my challenge to you :)

Valerian

Chain Bolting and Wall of Shame

Arena on Saturday brought lots more of the same this time both chain bolting and also some fun chain stunning. *sigh*

Surprisingly Cody gave me another chance to duel with him after our amazingly sad run the day before. After one good match we again ran into chain bolters. We were matched against a storm and ice wizard. As one might expect we were anticipating a Storm Lord followed by Frost Giant etc. To our surprise what we got was constant shield removal and bolts by the storm wizard followed by wild bolts from the ice wizard! After three of these hit and cody was dead and I barely alive I asked the other team why they do that. The answer was "It's what I do." (Pretty self explanatory I guess.)

A question for you readers:
Until a fix from KI is available... is it ethical to make a database of chain bolters and chain stunners to allow people to search them up in a duel and get their MO? Or should they be given a second chance in hopes they will see the error of their ways?

Please comment with your opinion.

thanks,
Vale

Arena has come to this?

After Cody and I were wild bolted to death in each round of arena today including a solo match I did afterward for a grand total of 4 times in a ROW! This last time by Chris Boomslinger (myth) who took the time to quake, then put on storm blade and carefully remove each shield that i pu on. Finally he could use his precious bolt even though he had 7 power pips by that point and i had no shields. Because of this growing insanity which seems to have taken everyone by "Storm" in just this past couple days... I have been wondering is arena even worth it? When one spell (wild bolt with sniper on it) cast over and over and over again (chain bolting) decides the match?

One duo we played against were Life and Death school wizards. After shielding up it became apparent what their strategy was: using storm swords and NO native school spells besides healing, they just used minor strike to take off our storm shields and wild bolted us over and over until two hit in the same round, they even went so far as to put storm traps on us including treasure and elemental traps. Only twice in the match were other non-school spells thrown and probably out of nothing but sheer desperation because their wild bolt wouldn't show.

What can you do?

If you want to join with me in the cause of eliminating wild bolt from arena, please add to the comment thread and take the poll. King Isle needs to hear us loud and clear on this particular problem which is becoming increasingly more common.

Do they want us all to become single spell wizards? Is that what arena is about? Or do they want us to be creative using more than just one play?

I think, and back me up if you agree, that people that win with a wild bolt should earn no more than 1 rank point, if that, and no more than 3 tickets.

Vale

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

It's the age old story. Friends meet in the arena. One side uses wild bolts constantly. Complaints are made, accusations are made in return. Frustrations grow and insults begin to be hurled. Darker histories of the friend and their buddies ganging up on the friend who you are teamed with are revealed. After the duel insults become darker and pleas to calm down and attempts at dismissing hurtful comments with humor are turned back into increasingly cruel retorts.

Finally a name and its star are removed from a long time spot. Gone is the friend that once taught me to duel. Those memories replaced by the tragic comedy of last nights duel.

I would like to think there was more to you than that. I wanted to find in my memory, an example of something redeeming, something good to hang on to that would allow me to overlook the hardness I saw in you last night.

There are so many wonderful people on my list and so many turned down because my list was full. I will not hurry to fill that spot.

Vale

Tips for Boss in Colossus Blvd Tower

For those of you level 50 who are thinking of trying the tower in Colossus blvd. Here are some tips that should help.

1) 4 people is best for doing this tower
2) You likely will want a life wizard (not necessary but nice)
3) When you get to the middle boss on the 5th floor you want to be absolutely certain you kill his minion before the minion gets 4 pips.
** yes the final boss definately cheats **
4) When you fight the final boss, don't bother with feints... he'll interrupt your turn and remove them anyway.
5) Lastly the final boss will generally pick one person and hit them really hard. They'll need lots of shielding.

Tradeable Goods

It took me a while to catch on but if you haven't noticed already... let me pass along the good news: stuff is tradeable now! This means that you can trade your favorite outfits, and pets (even school pets) to your other wizards of the same school! For example if you had a second ice wiz, you could trade your Ice Colossus pet to your ice noob.

Unfortunately I found some few items are still not tradeable (*sad*) If there's something interesting you can't trade post it by way of comment. TY

Have fun!

Vale

A specific response to a couple commenters:

Someone commented on the codes that no longer work on Wizard101. While I normally would have published the comment it contained a few choice words. I feel the poor guy's pain. It's frustrating that all the codes have been sunsetted (removed) from the game. I hope to get new codes and post them up but I think all the previous codes no longer work.

If I hear of new codes I'll forward them on right away.

So to commenter #1, sorry buddy, the codes used to work.

Commenter #2, I don't mean to pick on giving away balance wizards secrets in arena but I do admit I find it frustrating that Balance wizards are automatically the defacto winners in 1vs1 pvp. So I'm not so much showing others how to kill you so much as how to survive more than one cast. Even with the tips I have given it is unlikely that most arena goers, no matter their skill, will surive :) Don't worry, you'll still rock in arena when you get Judgement.

Vale

Arena Tip #9 Converts and Shields

Imagine a scenario like this...

You're shielding up during arena and you put a storm shield on just to have a Convert Storm to Myth put on you... what do you do?
-------
You may be tempted to immediately shield against myth but that would be wrong. Once a convert is put on you shielding against the school of the convert type will not save you from getting hit. You must put ANOTHER storm shield (or tower shield) on. This is the only way to stop the strike from getting through completely.

In this example, if you're fighting storm, put a myth shield on fairly early, you can discard some after that but not all.

Arena Tip #8 Ignore People

Talking in arena generally gets you in trouble...

1) Trash talking - this often leads to bad play if you let yourself get sucked into it. Someone will say a rude thing for which there is no come-back. While we all get angry now and again it's not worth saying anything because people's inevitable rude response usually will just make you more upset... *AND* if you end up swearing you may get reported and muted.

2) Talking gives away what school you are (the other side can click on your name in the text box and get your profile and see what your defenses are and what equip you have)

3) Don't debate the use of treasure cards with people. If treasure cards weren't allowed how would those Warlords ever heal or get the big hits. This is a false argument. Don't fall into thinking you can't use treasures even when you're a noob. If someone is calling you a cheater for using them just ignore them because they are flat wrong. By the time they realize it's wrong you'll be a Commander and they'll still be a Private. With that said... don't go chain-bolting people or chain stunning... those things will leave you friendless, disrespected, and people would have a real reason to complain about you.

4) Don't spam-talk during an arena battle. This is where you say the same thing over and over or fill up the screen with word balloons. Not only does this distract you from battle but annoys everyone including those watching and on your own team.

Arena Tip #7

When fighting balance wizard don't use your tower shields too early.

Balance wizards have an insanely nasty advantage in arena. Basically all a balance wizard needs to do is put weakness on you, shield up and do Judgement (which never fizzles) and you're dead. That's why there are so many balance wizards in the top spots in arena 1vs1 and 2vs2. To kill a higher level wiz, a balance wizard needs to have full pips and have a blade to ensure that you actually die. Sometimes they also require a feint or a plus or two.

I recommend in order of importance:
1) weakness to put on a balance wizard when they start putting blades on
OR a steal charm (storm spell) to take their blades away
2) tower shields (as many as you can carry including some in treasures)
3) having an absorb in treasures (these help but aren't fool proof)

When do I put on my tower shield?
Try to draw one as soon as you can. Once you have it in hand keep it for when the balance wizard has nearly full pips and a blade on.
Once you put one on you'll want to get another ready because very often a good balance wiz will try to fire elf you or something and then hit within two turns. Basically they can't allow you to have a tower shield on.

If you're a death wizard wait for them to hit first. If you are fully pipped and they are not cast a minion and wait. If both of you have full pips... your ideal hand should have a wraith, a heal and a tower shield. With those cards in hand wait for Judge and then retaliate with a strong wraith immedately after or with a heal depending on how badly hurt you are.

If you have weaknesses on you, use a minor strike to take them off or a low pip alternate school spell to take them off if you have blades on. Weakness spells stack up and cause your hits to be really... well, weak. So if you have blades on and a weakness you are just wasting your blades to use a school hit.

Balance generally will kill you with one spell so you might as well throw a doom and gloom early because balance usually keeps a side-board full of heals.

Let me know if you have any success with this.

Thanks,
Vale

Taking a Night Off

In over a year I haven't had a day completely free of playing Wiz. Tonight is my first intentional night off.

It's not easy. Wish me luck.

Vale

p.s. thanks to the amazing people that read my blog, my blog has been visited over 20,000 times! Time to celebrate! I'm putting together a treasure hunt with crown/pet card prizes. So watch in the next couple days and I'll post the contest criteria.

Test Realm Available

The new test realm is out! For those of you who have previously downloaded the test realm program you can just log into it and it will update itself. For those of you who haven't downloaded it you can log into (with your username and password) http://www.wizard101.com/ and click on the red ribbon at the top right side of the screen.

Some things that are available to test are:

A new crazy boss tower
A tower in Colossus Boulevard that has bugged-Malistaire like crazyness like multiple spell casts per turn, interrupts etc. This is a completely optional tower and is accessable to Level 50 players.

Mounts that you can ride on
Horses, Dragons, Brooms, etc. that you can buy or rent. (See the new crown shop icon on your screen to purchase)

Elixirs that you can purchase to help with battles
You can buy power-pip or health or accuracy enhancing elixirs among other things. These wear off after a while and while they are awesome they don't help you in PvP.

Buy a Minion or (Buy a Buddy)
For crowns you can purchase helpful minions to get you through tough instances.

Exchange Clothing Enchancements to Other Cloths you like
Visit the lady standing beside Zeke. She will create your new cloths with the qalities of your favorite gear but in the style and look that YOU choose. (Zeke no longer sells crown gear, he sold out to the big retail crown store) I was able to transfer my Zeke cloths stats over to a nice marleybone outfit. Now that is sweet! The only downside is that the original cloths you transfer the power from disappear. But your new styling outfit is all buffed out with your best clothing stats.

Reduced Crafting Requirements
Many crafting quests that required 5 items will now require 2. (maybe I'll actually get past the first crafting quest finally)

Many boss drop items changed or enhanced

Many clothing item properties have been changed

New equipping level requirements are set for some gear

For more detail check this link out
http://www.wizard101.com/game/community/patchnotes

Halloween Updates for Wizard101

Talk to the new Scarecrow in the commons and he will give you quests for Halloween.

One of the more interesting is a new instanced tower in Ravenwood.

Jacob Goldgrove

I'll pass on your spell ideas on. THX

On a totally different note:
If you want to see what the new horse mounts look like go to:
http://commonsensegamer.com/?p=1492

Ever Wanted to Ride or Fly Instead of Walking?

Well Wizard101 makers are realeasing "mounts" in October! There are four types: Brooms, Horses, Cats, and Dragons!

• They will be male and female styles.
• They can rented for a day or up to a week. Permanent ones can be purhcased with crowns.
• Ones purchased with crowns are faster than rented ones.
• Mounts can be purchased from a new thing called a Crown Shop or from Zeke.

And for those of you who are "arena rats" Wallgreens is selling defender pig again in October. (woot!)

Have fun!
Vale

Arena Rank Cheat

I posted a comment about this cheat to Central and their system would not allow me to post with a link in it so I will go about informing them yet again today if time permits.

I had recorded video of the arena setup to duplicate this cheat. But I'm going to add only one video as the others require editing for length and this story needs to get out for the sake of all arena goers.

Backstory:
This that came to light courtesy of the two wonderful guys (previously posted about) who first gave my team an in-your-face "taste" of the results and had a good laugh at our expense. Many of my friends had reported to me significant point losses in some battles. I wasn't sure what to make of it until I saw it first hand and my internal cheat-meeter went clear off the charts.

The use of this cheat has become so prolific as to catch nearly everyone during an evening dueling in the arena on a nightly basis. The fact that it was becoming more and more common made me realize it was more than just a random bug.

For Clarification:
This is NOT the rank "borking" that Overlords do to get matches where they have one of their buddies lose all their points and average their team down lower so they can get matches. (Which some say is neccessary but still suspect) I'm talking about an actual cheat that doesn't involve dropping your rank of your dueling character at all.

Theory:
Arena is now set to average players ranks that are playing in the same battle and try to match them with similarly ranked players.

How It's Done:
Note this is not to explain how its done so you can do it... this is an explanation of the bug so that KI can reproduce and fix it. Hopefully sooner than later. If the bug/cheat is public then it should motivate them to fix it sooner than later.

1) make a noob on a separate account
2) battle the noob and purposely lose until their rating is close to or exactly Zero
3) have the noob make a multi-player battle for your super high ranked buddies
4) as your friends begin to join your noob leaves the battle
5) you log in as your grand master and join the battle as well
6) wait for your victim team to join
7) try to beat them so you will gain 20+ points, but losing is no big deal since you lose maybe 4 points
8) do this for a couple days, beating up on low ranked teams and pick up your Wings or your Cape that you "earned" by "working your way to the top"

Below, notice the whopping 21 points awarded for beating a similarly ranked team during our test to confirm the existence of the bug... Also notice that our competitors had their buddy "bork" his rank so they could play down and get matched with noob teams for the same effect. Little did they know that we had done them one better by not having to give up one of our ranks in this test of the cheat.


Thanks go to a friend who will remain anonymous. She confirmed the extistence of the bug and got the details from someone in the know. Thanks go to Shannon and Morgan for helping set up and test this exploit.

Thanks most of all to Kevin Rubyhunter and Nathaniel Mythshade who so brazenly boasted about this bug and took great delight in torturing us over the points we lost, and dared me to post about it on Central. Well, Kevin and Nathaniel... I now have a great deal of satisfaction knowing that soon you will have to earn your rank like everyone else.

See you in arena. :D
Valerian

Arena Cheats

A reliable source confirmed what some of our commenters believed... the arena rank cheat is done handily with the help of a noob character.

I'll post video later of this being set up and the results.

The next time when you drop 20+ points by losing to "privates" wearing full Commander gear you'll know why...

Vale

More and More and More Arena Bugs

So I've complained about the Zombie bug and other bugs affecting arena. Last night however I got proof of the worst yet.

Above is a picture of the guys admitting that they were gaming the arena system in order to gain 25-21 points per win and only losing 4 points for a loss. If you note their ratings below you will see that they are above 1000 (Overlord) and yet their rank in arena was "Private". Hmm, how does that happen? They won, twice, legidimately, and this good team lost a total of 21 points per game (42 total) losing to people ranked 300 points higher. (see below)

So we have a means by which super-high ranked people can bum free points off of lower ranked people and continue to move up and up and up with no end in sight. And with their ranks lowered to Private in the arena pool there's no end of victims that they can bum points off of.

If you see these guys Kevin Rubyhunter and Nathaniel Mythshade on the 2vs2, 3vs3 or 4vs4 board do NOT accept a match until they are gone. You will lose HUGE points to their "bug" or will win nothing worth while.

Is this something that K.I. needs to fix? ... Likely

But is it something people like this are taking advantage of you over? Yes! I managed to talk to Kevin Rubyhunter and Nathaniel Mythshade and they simply defended themselves by saying "everyone else does it".

While I have my theory on how this is done, please let me know if you've seen or know how this is done and I'll report on it.

Valerian

Wizard 101 Party

Log into the Wizard101.com web site using your game username and password. Goto enter codes and use the code Party
for a free party hat.

Wizard101 Official Contest

King Isle is having a contest for best pictures of the spiral worlds (not housing not included) You can read more about the contest here.

Link To Wizard101 Contest Info

My two cents again on arena issues...
K.I. Please fix the active arena bugs listed previously and the actual stats for vampire which is 56% for 24 casts in my test thus far.

Danger Hound Challenge Continues!

Link to contest and Birthday activities for wizard101

The following post is duplicated from the Wizard101 main site.

"The Wizard101 Central / Facebook challenge continues into September and getting the Danger Hound pet is easier than you think!

Step 1. Make sure you are a registered member of Wizard101Central. http://www.wizard101central.com/

Step 2. If you are over the age of 13 and have a Facebook page, go to facebook.com/wizard101. If you are under the age of 13, ask a family member to invite their friends.

Step 3. Click the Suggest to Friends link on the left hand side of our Wizard101 Facebook page.

Step 4. Select all your friends and invite them to become Fans too!

The more people you invite, the closer you get to the Danger Hound! Hurry this contest closes Sept. 16, 2009! The only way to get the prizes is to reach the goals, so tell everyone you know about this amazing challenge!"

Arena Tip #6

Beguile and multi-strike spells

Death wizards have a spell called beguile which typically will force you to cast your spell on yourself or on your team mates.

Beguile only works when used with multi-strike spells. To me this seems to be a change from what it used to be. Whether this is old or new it appears to be the case for arena battles.

Vale

p.s. KI, the list of arena bugs/frustrations is growing:
1) Zombie Bug (coming back from dead is not cool)
2) Extreme point losses from a single battle (use chess USCF rating formula for this)
3) Minus one rating bug (can't confirm if this has in fact been fixed or not)
4) Extreme low point gain from winning battle (related to #2 again use USCF rating formula?)
5) Consistently drawing second cast against higher ranked teams (higher rated teams should be given second cast just as in chess where higher ranked player typically plays black against underdog)
6) Matching noobs against warlord/commander level grand masters if noob is commander rank. (This never has a good ending for the noob no matter what their rank is. The noob never has the pips, deck, clothes, spells, or hitting power to compete against a full grand master)
7) Warlord grand masters playing down in an effort to level up their noob buddy. (I'll write more about this shortly - by doing so WL, work the system to get their friends arena gear with almost no effort of their own)

Arena Zombie Bug Still Active After PVP Fix

As a friend and I got to witness first hand last night the Zombie bug is still alive and well along with dead wizards and their pips.

Depsite saying "defeated" and having their head wobble uncontrollably, a wizard we had defeated came back from the dead 1 full turn later with all her original pips plus new pips for her "turn" while dead.

Let's hope this bug is actually fixable.

Valerian

PVP Bug to be fixed tonight... is it THE BUG?

Wizard101 the game will be offline during an extended maintenance period of 3am to 6am Central US Time on Thursday August 27th 2009. During this time, players will be unable to log in to the game, and players who are in the game will be prompted to log out. This maintenance allows us to repair a PvP bug. Thank you for your patience while we continue to improve the game for all of our players.

Arena Tip #5

Keep a reshuffle in your treasure cards just in case your duel goes on and you run out of cards.

Codes

According to the Wizard101 main site the only active code right now at this very moment is the one that gives the storm snake. If i recall it's "magic" without the quotes. All other codes are either not active or are one-time codes that you have to buy and bought codes work only once for a single person.

Anyone looking for a pet code will have to buy one from the store. A list of the pet/crown cards and the stores that sell them are available on the main Wizard101 site.

** p.s. ** K.I. please fix the arena zombie bug!

Vale

The OTHER Arena Bug

Last night I got to see first hand what is commonly referred to by arena goers as "THE Arena Bug" in Wizard101.

My friends and I were enjoying a nice battle against a group of Warlords when we did a spellwave leaving only two alive followed by doom and gloom, sealing their fate or so we thought. With their healer and another dead and the last two with only a few hundred health left our victory was assured right? WRONG.

No less than 3 times we killed their healer and EVERY round he came back, pips intact ready to heal his team mates. After spending our pips round after round trying to kill a dead player we succeeded with each round only to see him return and cast Rebirth and Dryad multiple times until our spells did nothing due to the plethora of shields. Round after heart breaking round we had to watch helplessly while he came back from the dead time after time healing and re-healing many times over dead players. Worse was watching him wait a round while "dead" gathering power pips while we could do nothing.

Eventually we lost the battle simply because we could not kill a dead wizard. Not only do I feel bad for my team mates, who would have been almost to their wings had we earned the points we deserved from what was otherwise a resounding victory but I feel bad for the team who won by "arena bug". I know they felt embarrassed.

If there ever was a need to "adjust" arena points for unfair point allocation, this would be the shining example.

Not only is there an issue with the percentage spell casting of late (for death in particular) but that the latest update either did not address the zombie Arena Bug or simply made it worse.

I'm extremely disappointed for my friends, who even as underdogs, deserved that win. I am determined to keep posting regularly about this issue until it is fixed.

Valerian

Arena Fizzles Part II (K.I. - Fix This!)

I kept track of fizzles the other day in arena. My death noob fizzled on Vampire (an 85% spell) 4 times out of 9 casts (65% actual performance). He also tried to heal himself with a 90% treasure life spell which fizzled no less than 3 times IN A ROW before it finally cast. (1 out of 4 casts is 25% not 90%)

On my ice wizard I fizzled twice on Frost Giant (an 80% spell) out of about 6 casts which would seem to be passable IF my clothes didn't give me an additional 6% accuracy. So that's a 66% performance for an adjusted 86% spell.

I did however cast a 70% Triton 3 times without a single fizzle (100% actual performance).

When you're casting death spells and you're holding your breath because you're expecting them to fizzle... there's something seriously wrong.

I'm asking KingsIsle to fix the spell percent performance. At this point the higher the percent spell the more likely it is to fizzle in arena. Either that or actually adjust the numbers on the cards so that they reflect reality.

Valerian

Arena Fizzles

Lately a VERY noticeable phenomenon has been happening in arena... the fizzling of 80-100% spells. In one single battle yesterday three 85% death spells fizzled just for ME! And others of team mates spells in that same range failed as well. Out of a cast of 6 of those spells total I experienced a fizzle ratio of 50%. I know I'm not the only one to notice as other players had their high percentage school spells fizzling as well. This is even with the enhanced accuracy that comes from clothing items etc which would have had the actual accuracy of the spell to over 90% base.

When, the other day I saw a shield fizzle without the aid of any kind of minus or additional charm I had to wonder how many others are seeing this as well?

However I'd venture to say that low chance spells such as fire and storm (i know because my storm noob has had virtually 100% success with triton, kracken and shark) and others (including wild bolt) have been working remarkably well.

I have to wonder if KingsIsle tweaked spell accuracy settings in arena and if so they are NO WHERE NEAR what is written on the card as far as actual accuracy. I know about randomization, and probability calculations etc, being a developer who does significant work in statistical analysis and probability. What I can say for certain is that high accuracy spells in arena no longer reflect their stated accuracy. At this point in time the higher accuracy spells are actually much lower than their stated rate.

I'll gather some data on this and I'd like for those of you arena goers to also track the number of fizzles per times cast for your specific hitting spells.

Thanks,
Valerian

Arena Tip #4

When up against Warlords who think it's fun to equip treasure pets as a way of keeping you guessing on their school and thereby having an advantage for the first hit.

You will notice their names which sometimes give you a hint. Or their health...

For full warlord gear and reasonably equipped athame, ring etc...
Storm will be about 1540
Fire will be about 2200-2500
Myth 2300-2600
Balance 2300-2600
Ice 2700-2800

I reserve the right to adjust these numbers. They'll never be 100 percent predictive but Ice is usually a giveaway and storm are fairly easy to predict.

Arena Tip #3

Buff up...
Instead of always hitting immediately when you have an attack card. Put blades and traps on or put up a dome at least. If you're fighting a Myth wizard who has earthquake, you may want to rely more on traps then on blades.

The idea is to get maximum bang for the pips you have. This requires you put some blades in your deck and shield yourself adequately to keep yourself alive.

Arena Tip #2

* note: This is an old post and many things have changed including pets giving balance blades or available treasure ones.  Also note in the comments how you can tell a wizard's school from the battle orders menu now *

Keep tower shields handy... tower shields are your ONLY defense against Balance wizards using Judgement spell. If you are unsure who a Balance wizard is in the arena you can tell either by:
a) the saving up of tons of pips (not always certain)
b) the balance blade (crossed swords)
c) or if they in a single cast put three shields up.

However in any case the advice still stands... If your opponent has 6 or 7 pips you know you need a tower shield asap.

Tower shields also reduce death heart spells by half and any other school spell by half so they're all around good one to carry.

Since balance wizards already have a distinct advantage in the arena both in shields and pure spell hit strength with Judgement you would be well advised to carry some tower shield with you if you expect to survive long in arena.

Arena Basics, Tip #1

A friend of mine asked me to post tips on Arena battling. In honor of that request I'm going to disclose some interesting things that will help anyone improve at arena. I'm going to start small and work up to better and better tips as time goes on. If you do use them and they work for you let me know.

Arena Basic #1
- When battling 2 to 4 pvp -
Equip a sword or wand that is the same school as the person you're battling with and have your friend do the same. So if you are death and your friend is ice... then the ice wizard should use a death sword or wand and you should use an ice sword or wand. This allows you to remove an opponents shield with a minor strike so that your friend doesn't have to use up their blade with a minor strike.

My advice about lonely wizards

I'm readjusting this post a little:

I had one of those lonely times on the game the other day when I wanted company and all my friends were busy. In times like that when things just don't go your way friend-wise and it's lonely, there's not much to be done but to try not to let it get to you, come back another day and hope for better.

Vale

Cure for lonely wizards?

While loneliness is something even wizards with a lot of friends feel from time to time, some wizards are more lonely than others. While nothing I can say will change how you feel, I want to share some things that should help one at least gain a few friends or perhaps help keep the ones that a wizard has.

While I'm not always the best of friends to my friends I hope this advice may do some good. (And I'm hoping for comments here so help me out with any good ideas)

1) Help more than you are helped

2) Whether asking to help or asking for help... Don't hassle. Ask and then let it go.

3) Be honest. If you put someone else off due to helping another friend don't try to make excuses or hide it. Just find a nice way to tell them you're helping a friend and miss them.

4) Don't say bad things about a friend to another person. They will worry that you may say bad things about them when you're not around. Not to mention that sometimes texts can be sent to the wrong person and you may offend your friend in an effort to try to make someone else feel better.

5) Don't be crude or use bad language. We wizards come from all walks of life and some have had their fill of yuck and won't want to be around it while they're getting away from real life.

6) (This last one we all have trouble with from time to time) Don't get too desperate. Desperate drives people away so just be cool.

New Wizard Social Networking Site

You can join myself and other wizards on http://diaryofawizard.ning.com/

This site basically has all of the functionality of MySpace but for Wizards only! It is moderated and set up by my friend Fallon Shadowblade. It provides a safe way for wizards to connect online without having to let relative strangers into your personal facebook account. (nice for me as my family tends to post personal and potentially embarrassing stuff ... like random family gathering snapshots of people stuffing their face. ew! ...) I'm sure none of you have that problem though!

Anyway, it has an awesome set of groups, allows you to keep up with blogs (like mine), your buddies, your music, videos, email, and start your own blogs right from one single site. I highly recommend it.

However if you are young you should get your parent's permission before signing up of course!

This is an amazing tool for Wizards to connect and I would love it if each of you added me as a friend on there when you do get in. Even if my friend list on the game isn't big enough I want to be connected to all of you who find some value in what I write.

Thanks!

Valerian Nightbringer

Group Chat for Arena and Instances

Group-chat is a feature of Wizard101 that is underapperciated. Group chat shines when you are in arena discussing your next move with your team. Group chat is also helpful in an instance when you need to keep your group with you or give instructions to team members.

Once you have joined a group your chat messages go to the group automatically. Your chat will appear in blue letters in group mode. Regular chat will appear in white. To change from regular bubble chat to Group and back you hit the Enter key (like you do when creating a new chat line) and clicking with the mouse either the "single-happy-face" icon for standard bubble chat, or the "double-happy-face" icon for group chat. Using these icons you can switch back and forth fairly easily.

Once you're done the activitiy you will likely want to leave the group.

Happy dueling,
Valerian

Some Miscellaneous Tourist Pictures

I was going through my blog photos directory and found the following pictures that I thought I'd post because some of are of good friends, others are just plain cool and others are kinda silly.

The first "almost cool" one is me riding the dragon to Malistaire's hide out. What makes this picture funny to me is my character's pose... he's got his fists balled up and is looking like he's spoiling for a fist fight and then there's Rocky my pet who's trying to look cool but isn't even in the basket. The following picture is me as a noob facing an ice golem. He's casting an ice spell as you can tell from the ice school rune.

This is me as a death noob hanging out at Grace's place.

This is frosty finishing up death Oni. This is where I met my friend Julia (you can just see her) in the lower left.

I can't remember who's house this is but I got messaged that there was a tent party so I ported to check it out. I'm standing at the back wall taking a picture of the group and it looks like someone is claustrophobic.

This is me and Haley taking the traditional Malistaire picture just before killing him.

Anyway, I need to start taking more pictures so expect to see more friend photo ops coming soon :)

Valerian

Arena Points Reset

Last night Wizard101 developers reset arena points to make up for some points being awarded too quickly. Instead of resetting all to 500 like they did last time they are bumping everyone Warlord level and above down to base Warlord level so it won't affect their ability to purchase those items that require the status level.

Also they fixed a bug at the bazaar where sometimes you'd get ripped off on selling prices of things. (hmm, like this has never happened at a bazaar in real life)

Now if they'll just retrospectively adjust Grandmaster points like they do arena points a lot of us long-timers will be happy.

~Valerian

Students, Friends, and Families of Wizard101,

Are you a single mother who is deployed or has returned from deployment and plays Wizard101 with a child? If you are, we would love to hear from you! We’d like to share your story with others who are looking for ways to connect with children over long distances.

To participate, send an email message to press@kingsisle.com and tell us a little about yourself and your child. Don’t forget to tell us how best we can get in contact with you.

Thank you for staying connected with us!

*** newsletter request by KingIsle.com ***

A Social Experiment

I have a theory about friends in virtual settings. I want to take a quick poll and ask for general comments.

I'll hold off on commenting until the results of the poll are in but I think you'll see something interesting happening in the poll numbers. So please leave comments and vote in the poll in the right column.

Valerian

Starting Your Own Blog

This seems to be a recurring topic in my comment trail so I want to mention it briefly.

I like http://www.blogger.com/ because it's easy.

Setup and Getting Started
1) Create an account. (you may or may not need a parent's help)
2) Pick the style and color you want
3) Go to Layout and drag the squares into the position you want if you want anything different than the default. In layout you can add video players, follower modules and other add-on items like games and ads.
4) When ready start click on the Posting tab, add your title and start writing. Use the toolbar on the posting area to add pictures and video. When you're done, click publish post.
5) To moderate comments... Click on Post, then on the Comment Moderation link and approve the comments you find acceptable.

What Your Blog Should be About
Wizard101 wants original content and some significant amount of posts before they'll add your blog to their site. Original content simply means that they want to hear what's important to you. What they DON'T want is the same content as someone else. So resist the temptation to post about the same things others do.

Tips
Write every day if you can so you build content quickly and so you have something new for your readers. Lastly, post comments on others blogs so they'll return the favor and visit yours.

Happy Blogging,
Valerian

Thank Goodness for Good Friends

The other day on Wizard I got a wake-up call. And I need to thank my good friend Scarlet for having the courage to confront me with reality.

While is was commiserating with Scarlet, about what I viewed as the possible ending of a friendship I was woken up by the very direct response that she missed the old days when I was a better friend to her. She described how she felt worried to talk to me too much or visit for fear of me being too busy particularly when I missed messages from her. In a few words, she described exactly the same scenario that I had been fearing meant the end of my other friendship. What surprised me most perhaps was the fact that I do care about Scarlet a lot and greatly value her friendship and yet I had been so casual and thoughtless about it expecting that it would always be there.

I just want my friends to know that everyone in my full list means something to me and if I'm ever wanting to be alone I'll turn porting off! So never feel like you can't just visit. I love and value directness and will never be upset with you for telling me the truth, whether it's getting after me for something, or letting me know that you need time with other friends or time with me.

To all the friends I have taken for granted I apologize. As often as not I'm trying to find something to do and even if I'm helping a friend please feel free to join me, you never need to ask, it only makes me feel loved.

Good friends are worth their weight in crowns!

Thanks,
Valerian

p.s. I have so many alternate noobs on my list now that if you're playing one of yours I may not remember who your "super" is! (yikes, I know... bad memory for name changes)

The Blogger Battle

A few of us (Fallon - http://www.diaryofawizard.com/, Amanda -http://talesofthecountessshadowbane.blogspot.com/, Joseph http://eviltheurgists.blogspot.com/ and myself ) were hanging out in the arena area and joined a 4x4 battle together. It wasn't until we got in there that we realized that we were a team of all bloggers. It was kind of a strange experience realizing that each of the others were probably hatching writing ideas from it and taking pictures.

Evil Theurgist is about to die as he goes to "check" his site. (was he scooping us and posting already? all those unused pips look very suspicious)

Sven trying to buy a little time for a much needed recovery.

Amanda saving Evil from an eternity of head-wobbling humiliation.


Fallon delivering the final "touch" on the battle.

Response to Cyrus Drake's Message About Level 50 Wizards

Part of the appeal of the game is the aspect of experience, capability and legend. Without these elements there is nothing special about being a level 50 wizard for example. Wizards who have been at level 50 for a long time have no advantages or respect versus someone who achieved level 50 just days ago. Again to quote Syndrome from the Incredibles movie: "when everyone is special, no one will be."

To address this and the time it takes to prepare a new world etc, I have a proposal that I think would be reasonable to level 50 wizards and achievable from a technical standpoint on the KingIsle development side. Simply create a SQL statement that calculates the time between achieving level 50 in the game and now (using one of the timestamp fields in the game database), split the difference across some ratio of training points and award wizards that many XP. New spells and could come before or after the release of a new world (like the stun shield distro) and I think at least level 50+ would be happy simply to be recognized as long timers whether or not the new world was out with new quests.

By doing this a long-time level 50 wizard would have at least the advantage of respect while vying side-by-side for quest-experience-points in a newly released world. Another minor placation would be the addition of a badge indicating that the wizard was of a higher status level-wise.

While I know you have excellent people on staff already to work on these kinds of things I would not want to miss the chance to humbly offer my free assistance working with your people on developing this kind of update as it's what I do on a daily basis IRL using the same dev environments and technologies.

Valerian Nightbringer

Note From Cyrus Drake About Level 50 Plus Experience

Wizard101 friends, fans, and customers,

When we first envisioned our sixth world we saw it as a world Wizards would experience after Dragonspyre. This world would have increased the maximum level beyond 50 and the supporting content (new spells, equipment, etc) necessary for the max level increase. However, when we dug into the overall Wizard101 game play and what would best serve our community we decided to launch Grizzleheim, a world that created a parallel experience and offered new content and experiences as players leveled thru the entire game and the other five worlds. While we hope that high level characters find the content enjoyable and engaging the immediate downside to this decision was that no level increase was introduced with this world.

Our decision to launch Grizzleheim also afforded us the ability to address several features that you, our community, had asked for. Features like the ability to group with other Wizards, control friend requests, trade request and new systems like crafting and the bazaar. We felt they were good, valuable additions, and so we made a decision to include them for all players new and old to enjoy.

That said, we did mention to our highest level players that the level cap would be raised this summer and we were not able to make that goal a reality. We apologize for that and would like say that we are continuing forward with plans to release new worlds that do push Wizards beyond level 50. In order to accomplish it, we need to make sure there are new opponents, quests, worlds, spells, and more.

If you’re close to or already at level 50, we invite you to explore Grizzleheim, the new crafting system, and the Bazaar and hope you are interested in seeing what new things we have in store for you soon.

Thank you for playing Wizard101!
Cyrus Drake
Professor of Myth
Ravenwood School of Magical Arts
En Magus Nos Fides

New Pet Code for Wizard101

brock2009

Go to Wizard101.com and log in. Click on Redeem Codes, pick the middle button, then enter your code and claim the your item.

This code gives you a death scarab :D

Wizard Graveyard

I started something for my friends as in the last week three of them lost significant friends. Even though it's a virtual thing that takes no physical effort to do on the part of the person deleting it is very real and painful. In an effort to recognize this and give people closure I decided to make a place where people could say goodbye to their good friends who deleted them.

http://wizardgraveyard.blogspot.com/

Please visit there a leave a marker if you would like to remember a past friendship.

Vale

Virtual Wedding of Paige Moongem and Valerian Legendpants

I was pleased to be able to record the wedding of Page Moongem and Valerian Legendpants (the only other Valerian that I know). The wedding took place at the home of Esmee Unicornthief. Please support this lucky couple and check out the following videos.

While I originally wanted to edit this down and make it perfect I wanted the scene as a whole with all of the setting and capturing some of the humor and challenges of putting on this kind of occasion. Special thanks go to the Wizard101 creators who listened to our request for privacy settings that allow people to put on plays or occasions like this. This wedding had most of the highlights you might expect at a real life wedding. Here, I play photographer for a couple who are married in real life and wanted to marry on the game.

The Wedding


The bride and groom drive away


Reception begins


Dinner and cutting cake

Meet and Greet

The Meet and Greet was a success despite the fact that Fallon and I were very late in arriving in the right spot. In the end I got to meet some of the big names in the wizard world and added a few friends. Hopefully I didn't remove anyone close to me. I'm always so nervous to try to find space on my list. Anyway Alia and my two friends named Grace were kind enough to stop by and share a dose of claustrophobia with me.

(if you don't believe me about the claustrophobia, check out this picture from Autumn's blog)
http://autumnaldusk.blogspot.com/2009/07/meet-and-greeoh-my-gosh.html

We should plan a get together just for Valerian's School followers. If any ideas come to mind please leave a comment.

Vale

Meet Myself and Other Bloggers Today

Blog Meet and Greet

When: Sunday, July 12 at 5pm eastern time

Where:Mooshu Jade Palace under the roof of where Mini Games are, Realm, Wu Area 1 if Area 1 is full we got to the next area down and so on

What to do: Meet other blogs, bloggers meet fans, Trading cards, and A best Grizzleheim outfit contest hosted by (Evil Theurgists)

Contest? Prize? Winner gets Rebirth treasure cards,Scarecrow,and anything else I can find lol
2 Rules
1: Must be Grizzleheim clothes

2: Have Fun

Well there you go hope to see you all there :)

I will be running a "teleport bus" service for players that haven't yet unlocked Moo Shu. Meeting BEHIND Golem Tower from 4:55 -5:10pm EST - Atumn Duskhunter

Training Point Regrets?

Have you ever spent your training points on things you realized were a mistake or changed your mind and wanted your second school to be something else? If so you're in luck!

Go to Golem Court and look up the stork. For additional crowns you can buy back your training points and have them all ready to spend at once.

Again whatever else you learn I'd recommend going to Krokotopia's Krokosphinx island and learn the blades and traps from the tree named Niles.

Let me know if you find a good combination of schools. My death wiz David Dragonheart is looking for a second school!

Enjoy!
Valerian

Second Chance for Smogger's Pet Fairy

Have you ever tried Katz Lab and fought Smogger at the end for this very rare pet?



If so you know that typically you have one shot at getting her per time through the instance. A friend Grace Dragonrider tipped me off on how you can fight him twice in the same instance.

The trick to this is that if you kill Smogger himself first BEFORE the minion then when you kill his minion, Smogger will return in a moment for a second time giving you two chances to get the pet.

And if the rare green fairy isn't enough to tempt you to try to get her she comes with a fairy card that can heal you or other team mates.

Let me know if you have any success with this tip.

Happy Smogger hunting,
Valerian

Bugged Malistaire Battle Caught on Video

Fallon and friends along with myself enjoyed a lively death at the hands of Malistaire in the bugged former tweak to bosses in Wizard101. Cyrus Drake of Wizard101 said that they bosses had been made into a puzzle with some means of defeating them being non obvious but solveable. Whatever the case might be this was our first and last stab at Malistaire before the morning updates that set him back to being a not-so-bad guy.

Note in the video his meteor strikes using ZERO pips and his 900 hit point Ice Wyvern (with no blades) and his 900 hit point minor strike. Also notice how when Sylvia Drake "helped" us it would skip all of us. My opinion is that after she gave us pips and the powerplay that she was hurting more than helping. Don't forget to check Malistaire's health too :) *That's a lot of zeros there!*

Full Instance Bug and How to Fix it

I'm sure all of you have noticed recently that most of your friends are in "full instances". This is a bug created by the new update to Wizard linked to the new privacy feature.

You can fix it by going to your game settings...

Click on the Privacy Settings

Then change your setting to not allow friends to port then repeat and set to allow friends to port to you. This will reset and allow one friend to teleport. So with each additional friend wanting to port you will have to repeat this process.

Fallon Shadowblade also posts about this same issue because it has had such a huge impact on the playability of Wizard lately. http://www.diaryofawizard.com/ Check out her site.

Boss Fixes For GH and Malistaire

If you had the pleasure of dying at Malistaire's hand or from the bosses at the end of GH you will notice a change in the game as of last night. Wizard101 patched the bosses so that they are at least defeatable now. I know that they claimed the changes were a puzzle to be solved etc. however those of us who were there, got to see the buggy zero pip spell casting that made it possible for them to do large attacks without using a single pip. I for one enjoyed the greater challenge and will be disappointed if they set them back to being easy. I simply hope that they have fixed the zero pip casts.

Let me know how you find the new Jade Oni, GH bosses and Malistaire.

~ Valerian

Friend Feature of the Week - Megan

This is the first post in a new series about my friends. In time I hope to post something about all the friends in my list. I have collected the best list of friends in Wizard :) I've known Megan for a long time in Wizard years. She's a fun and reliable friend who likes to joke around and kill things. I'm interviewing her for here for the first time. If you meet her I would of course recommend you add her as your friend.

What level are you and what is your latest school move?

I am Level 48 and the last move I learned was Storm Lord.

Do you have any particular funny story you could tell the readers that happened to you online?

A fun thing that happened to me was when me and James tried to make a play but it didn't work out well. It was about a town that was being destroyed by a dragon and the towns people put the dragon in jail.

What is your favorite world and why?

My favorite world is Mooshu because it's pretty.

What tips or thoughts do you have for new wizards or wizards of your same school?

New wizards should choose their second school wisely. Storm wizards need to wear a lot of things that give them health because we have low health.

What do you like most about the game?

The think I like most about the game is having friends and decorating my house.

What do you think should be changed or added to the game?

They should add a thing that lets you have your pets run around the house.