Wizard101 Year In Review

2014 wasn't the most eventful year in my gaming career. But it was all worthy enough for a blog post, especially since I'm still catching up. :P

Note: Dates come from the day I took the screenshots, not when I actually included them in certain blog posts.

January 1st, 2014: Ghost Dog goes down to ring in the new year. A brief wait for Khrysalis pt. 2 begins.

February 14th: On Valentine's Day, the Sirens were serenading Warehouse baddies. Many levels later, I effectively earned my revenge against a 2010 archenemy.

February 24th: The Sirens got even more action when Mycin and Sophia began Azteca. It's been fun, dinos.

April 25th: A day after Khrysalis pt. 2 opens, Arlen crossed the sea on a giant bug.

Annoyed by the lack of trees on the other side, Arlen then turns his farm into a strange forest of everything from pines to palms.

April 30th: Five days and many boss battles later, Arlen hits the level cap!

May 3rd: Morganthe goes down! And Old Cob does something weird. Nevertheless, only joy is felt when the Spider Queen plummets into space.

July 11th: Mycin and Sophia wrap up Azteca with their new level 88 spells! It's the end of the world, but they're feeling fine.

July 22nd: Chase impersonates another Ravenwood student and almost gets away with it (if it weren't for those meddling noobs...)

August 7th: A month after wizards started casting their reels, Tarlac finally finds that last pesky Silver Streak for his collection.

October 3rd: The BOXES make a sudden appearance around the Spiral, and Arlen gets to save Halston from a life in Newgate -- over stolen jewelry (surprise surprise).

October 26th: Dugan blazes through Wintertusk and sends honorable bear warriors to... somewhere over the rainbow, presumably.

November 24th: Mycin and Sophia begin Khrysalis with a surprising amount of allies -- namely, Mary and Morgrim Dreamshade and Dyvim doppelgangers.

December 26th: In the House of Scales, being turned down results in an afterlife of misery, but that doesn't stop Arlen and Mary from going all "turn down for what" to the new member emotes.

December 31st: More dancing highlights the New Years Eve festivities as the Commons celebrates the coming of 2015!

Here's hoping there's a lot more to dance for in 2015.

Happy Resolution-breaking!

Nightmare After Christmas

Since I didn't have time before winter break (hence the lack of posts), this week has had me catching up a bit -- a la spooky quests in December.

The overly philosophical vampires and werewolves certainly made an impression...

Per Katherine Light of Mercenaries101: "The lungs are the tastiest part". I did not ask why she would know that.

Mutated spells are getting a little unusual. I did not come in expecting Obelisk Lords. :P

Yay, refractory light bending and optics and physics..............

Sorry, I'm boring myself. Moving on to the Upper Halls!

As you can see, even the lung-hungry werewolf was a little easier to bear than my own guide.

That's not very appetizing either...

The relentless cheating was rather tiresome, but the upside of that was getting to see some of the new spells in action!

 Yes, I was hit by a Mythic Colossus before getting my own. :P

Here are all of them if you haven't seen them yet:

            courtesy of Heather Shadowslinger, Duelist101

In terms of animation time, Call of Khrulhu appears to be the longest-lasting, while Glowbug Squall is the shortest. Coupled with the Sirens-like effects, Glowbug appears to be the most convenient of the seven spells.

Anyone could (again) lament at how OP the Storm attack is, but each spell appears to be appropriate for the school. Personally, my favorite animation is Fire From Above. It's a little long, but as a recreation of the Khrysalis kermes fire scene, it's awesome. Plus, it reminded me of Snoopy and the Red Baron.

The difference being, of course, that the lovable mice actually hit their target. ;)

Some of the others are just plain weird. Where did Gaze of Fate come from? What crazy, nightmarish creature does the Caterpillar turn into? Did Yeti really need to be turned into a spider? ... Features aside, though, they're all pretty exciting.

Of course, I have to go in-depth on Mystic Colossus. It does over double the damage of Humongofrog (even factoring in adding a Colossal), and remains a very viable option for mob battles with the low 5+1 pip cost. Granted, shadow pips are not so easy to come by, but I can see myself using MC -- my future shorthand for the spell -- just as often as Humongofrog. Finally, a break from,
um, tossing his cookies all over enemies. Kudos to Kingsisle for giving us Conjurers another AoE that we'll actually use in mob battles.

This also begs a question. Will all of our future spells start using a combination of normal and shadow pips? After all, the maximum number of pips could very well have a set cap at 14 (7 power pips), and we're up to 10 by now. Hmm. Shadow magic appears to be evolving both as an alternative and as a complement to the other schools. Swordroll has a more analytic look into each spell if you're interested in learning more.

In any case, I finished the Upper Halls - thanks again, Mercenaries101 - and got my Mystic Colossus!

Speaking of horrors, I've heard a lot of griping about Darkmoor's final dungeon -- it sounds like P101's Moo Manchu tower, except runs are still taking upwards of 3 hours. I'll probably do it at some point before break is over, but I don't want to save it for this post (especially since I already have my spell, woo).

Of all the new areas, though, my favorite was Kembaalung -- basically a mini Wizard101 version of Tibet. It finally offers a glimpse into the mountains of Mooshu and into the Moodhist ideology, complete with the removal of a demonic spirit. If you've played Pirate101, think of a mountainous Paths of Penance.

Oh, and the scenery is a desktop background made in heaven... or Shangri-baa.

Chillin' and dancing with the Dalai... and the Queen :P (with a nod to long-retired blogger Mary Dreamshade for putting up with me)

I ended up getting a Ninja Piggle as my Hamakala reward. Pretty much a tie between this guy and the Dapper Corgi for cutest new pet. :D

I'll be back within a couple days. Enjoy the new year, wizards and pirates!

Happy Questing!

..And A Happy 2014

As 2013 comes to an end, I realized that I never posted my romp through the Floating Lands on Christmas Day. I should probably include something else as well, since I just took pictures of Tarlac killing bad guys ...

That was fun. I did most of it while watching Hawaii Five-O, too. Extra Tropical Christmas points!

On a more productive note, to finish 2013, I completed a long sought-after resolution.

3 awesome talents, on the same pet.

I would like to thank my new Yuletide Spirit for the Unicorn gene, to my Couch Potato/EMP garden for excess pet snacks, and to the Cannon Game for easy training.

Here's for 4-5 awesome talents on a pet during 2014! I'd make more resolutions, but meh. Who remembers those?

Happy New Year!

Valid Until July

Happy 2012!
And, fittingly, we go back to July 4th, with my Half-Year Goals needing an update---

1. Finish 4-5 houses

• Welllll....... I kind of slacked on housing..... save a couple items, I have improved and sort of completed several houses, though.

2. Get Balance & Death duo to Legendary

• Balance duo = Level 60, on top.. complete!
• Death duo = Well.. I just finished Krokotopia on them.. :P

3. Get a "perfect pet"

• I have several pets with 2 of my dream stats, so this is half-complete but little progress since July. My dream pet would probably have: Spritely, MC Unicorn, Spell-Proof, ? undecided

4. Become Warlord in PvP

• Tristan actually became a Commander only 2 weeks later, but I stopped and figured I'd get him to Warlord at Legendary.. which I didn't. Permission to kick 1/2 year old self?

5. Transcript at least 5 RR episodes

• Well, I think KBB and the Crew suspended this project due to difficulty and increased business IRL, but I did get 1 done-though I forget which :P. Also, their first 2012 show is tonight, here's to a great new year for RR!

6. 70s song music video!

• Ok, that was mostly a joke, but maybe one day! I actually got a Queen and Pink Floyd poster for Christmas, so my interest is still into the 70s, lol

7. All best gear for Legendaries

• All except for Tarlac's boots and 2/3 of Dugan's gear, this was complete before ZF came out. And now ZF doesn't really have any better gear, so I could continue to work on this, but I feel ok with the gear they have :)

And, there's your update. Not too much success in following up on all of them, but oh well. Time for Beginning of 2012 Goals! (valid until July 1, 2012 :P)

1. Get Death duo to Transcended, maybe another character to at least Grandmaster
2. "Perfect/Dream pet" goal again. Its worth a shot!
3. Complete at least 2 relatively new houses (maybe the Sun Palace I just got?)
4. 5+ Grandmaster Artisans
5. Get most of the Music Players... become a Warlord in Derby/PvP on 3 characters

Hope everyone had a happy holiday. I know my trip to my Aunt's farm and New Years was fun! Most importantly, here's hoping 2012 gets more goals done and is even better (despite the fact its an election year and has an extra day, right?).

Sorry for the no pictures post, I'll try to get some in-game updates next time. My death-duo is progressing well and just finished Hyde Park :) finished Emperors Retreat/Tomb of Storms over Winter break. Also, Final Exams and the end of the semester are coming up, so don't expect much W101 progress on the weekdays for the next several weeks.

Happy Questing!

Happy New Year!

Posting this RIGHT at Midnight, woot! I'm way too busy to put pictures saying "Happy New Year" or anything right now, so I hope you can read through a long post with just text everywhere (I find myself nodding off reading things with just plain text sometimes, lol). ANYWAY, I'm back from Arizona, which was awesome.

Day 1: 5-hour flight, read Hunger Games the whole way, which is a great book, can't wait till I get the second. So, arrive at 9-something MTN time, forced into a huge family gathering at Uncles small house (lets call him Bob), watch people open a ton of presents, have a good time, find self nodding off, go to sleep at Midnight in hotel (which feels like 2AM EST, jet lag).

Day 2: Sleep late, watch A Christmas Story on TV and old Rose Bowls on ESPN Classic, go to other Uncles huge $Mil-dollar house (lets call him George), climb a small mountain by the house (great view) make Gingerbread houses (our group made a Tiki Bar with a drunk person throwing up outside (purple candy). The other made a church. Kinda different...), ate a fancy dinner, endless family chatter, go home tired again and fall asleep at 11-ish MTN time.

Day 3: Hotel TV watching, sad Christmas is over and, to be honest, I don't remember anything else that happened that day :P

Day 4: Go out for lunch, soon off to Uncle Bobs, watched TV there, then off on a long drive to some mountain near Tucson, many car games and chatter. Off on a 2-mile dirt road which feels like 1/2 an hour, arrive in the middle of nowhere, meet family friends. Arrive, wait for others who are murdering a duck, unload truck with chairs and stuff. Everyone is back, snacks finished, others off to murder multiple doves, I learn how to shoot a BB gun, pretty cool. Gets dark, I watch Bobs dog seek out the dead doves, who is gobbling a decapitated dove-head in the process ._. Next, its dark, very good stargazing available, family gathers to talk and eat, drive home, smells of smoke because of campfire, goes to sleep.

Day 5-8: Uncle George goes to the Alamo Bowl in Texas to eventually watch Arizona get beat up in a bowl game, me and mom get his HUGE house (woot!) to ourselves, I pig out on the endless snacks and watch huge TV for 3 days. Bowl games and Criminal Minds (creepy...), basically. Go to Bobs house on one of those days, have fun with cousins and with hyper-active dog. Today, woke up at 9 MTN (jet lag gone), off to a pit stop at a breakfast place (Cinnamon roll and sausages :D), say bye to Aunt, go through security, wait at gate for an hour, 5-hour flight (magazine and book reading), baggage claim, long Metro ride, walk home and now I've been up here for a couple hours catching up on the Wizzy blogs and watching ABC New Years thingy (I just learned Ke$ha is my least favorite singer). Popcorn, tweeting, watching, waiting, and its 2011!!! Lastly, here's what I got for Christmas...

• Wireless indoor helicopter (toy, mind you. Not very mature, but I've always wanted one xD)
• $30 Gamestop gift card and $20 Wizard101 gift card, going to pay the extra $10 for the Epic $40 Gamestop gift card soon ;)
• $10 and $20 Target/Walmart gift card (you know what I'm buying with those :D)
• Bible literacy book (you know what the TRUE meaning of Christmas is, right?)
• Sweatshirt
• Huge Peanuts 60 anniversary book, and soon a new backpack
• Gravity ball that supposedly looks like its floating with certain tricks. I'll watch the DvD with it and get the hang of that tomorrow

I also have a few more from my grandma which I'm waiting to open tonight (dad gets home later from a party) which I'm pretty sure are comic books, hehe.

New Years resolutions...

• Cut down the tweeting a little
• Spider Golem pet ('nuff said)
• All furniture for my MB house acquired
• Dugan and Tarlac = Legendary
• Get to be a little more techy with computers

Writers Block at the moment on other stuff, but anyway, have a great 2011 and let it not be filled with war and disasters. 358 days till Christmas!

Happy Partying and post-holidays depression havings! (well, it happens to me, lol)