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