Sharrrks In Arrrgust

Thanks to the Discovery Channel and the weird tradition they started, Wizard101 and Pirate101 celebrated Shark Week in their own way. On the Pirate side, shark-related items were put on sale... including the Cutthroat Bundle.

So, with last week's deal going on, I went ahead and purchased my first Pirate101 bundle. That meant looking through the Cutthroat's Cove house for the first time. I'm pretty out of the loop when it comes to these things..

It's certainly spacious, but I feel like Pirate101 doesn't have enough furniture to work with right now. That, and I'd like to make the house a mix of Robinson Crusoe and Jurassic Park, but I've never seen the movie :P

Meanwhile, the PvP area is pleasantly useful for open-air dueling. Me and Ma1kavian may need some practice for the upcoming P101 Central Tournament.

CHOMP! Now onto the Wizard101 side of Shark Week, where the Warhammerhead Shark made its introduction.

The 64th fish -- and first seasonal one -- is swimming around most of Grizzleheim for another week. They're actually easy to catch for Epic fish; I've caught 50 (across four characters) so far. In pursuing the unusual Warhammerhead Shark, here are a few things to remember:

Although classified as an Epic fish, Warhammerheads behave more like Rare fish. They reside in four areas: Vigrid Roughland, Northguard, Helgrind Warren, and Triton Avenue. Being the only Storm species in Grizzleheim, it isn't difficult to locate one.

Warhammerhead Sharks also fetch a high price at fishing vendors. They're always worth upwards of 2,000 gold.

Don't forget to catch one before they're gone! I'm still trying to catch a Whopper for my little Aquarium Project, personally. I've crafted homes for 20/64 species, and have a loose goal to catch a Whopper or Small Fry of every fish.

Getting there, one Dekoi at a time.

Happy Fishing!

Nefarious Update Notes

The 10-story Dojo towering over the Paths of Penance is no longer a mystery. Yesterday's Update Notes in Pirate101 headline the new Nefarious Tower, along with many other *mostly* good changes. Overall, from Trading to Team Up, it seems like many of Wizard101's mechanics have been introduced in P101. Even the new Ship Emblem service is a direct inspiration from Stitching. Of course, it's best that the two games not get too similar, but the borrowing of certain aspects makes things easier for pirates and wizards alike. We all know someone with a poor flag design, after all ;)

As my Witchdoctor slowly inches towards Cool Ranch, I definitely look forward to the Stagecoach and quests/dungeons that have been shortened. The only unfortunate thing I can see here is the possible loss of Charlie Goodnight in Miranda. Whoever voice-acted "Alright, varmint... drawww!" deserves a bonus :P

Meanwhile, the buffaloon-led Stagecoach basically functions as a Transportaler inside Cool Ranch, which has five skyways to venture through. Cost isn't an issue, either -- it's 15 Gold a ride! That's a huge savings on time and/or gold (if you regularly use Speed Boost in going to other Skyways).

Getting back to the major focus of this post, however: the Nefarious Tower! The minimum level for entry is effectively around 50, as pirates need only complete Mooshu and the previous Moo Manchu side quest (also given by Lord Chagatai).

Pirate101's Mooshu borrows some area templates from Wizard101, but much of Subata Skyway is specially unique and awe-inspiring. The Paths of Penance is one of these areas -- diverse enemies with a snowy backdrop. The Nefarious Tower is also visible from any corner of this large setting, and blows everything out of the water when it comes to difficulty.

For my inaugural run, I decided to join one group of #twizards -- Chrissy, Kristen, and Seth. From the start, it was clear this was going to be a long run. As the Privateer, Chrissy was set to heal us all, and throw in a firebomb or two. Two Swashbucklers and a Buccaneer typically make short work of opponents, but there were hordes of them from the start (18 in the above picture). Musketeers and Witchdoctors are better AoE-based schools, and we had none of those.

With fires slowing things down, everyone had a headache even before the 5th floor reprieve. Mythical creatures and Samoorai then took their turn before some very interesting foes awaited us.

Apparently, five pirates who strangely found their way into Mooshu were duped into taking the powerful Manchurian elixir. Yes, it did make them stronger... but with evil after-effects (including their demonic glowing eyes).

To take the elixir, or to not take the elixir? That is the question.

I felt bad going against El Toro ... and my whole team ... but hey, I wanted possessed red eyes!

(Also, in my defense, I did it near the end of the battle :P)

 And in that weird twist, Seth had to kill me. No hard feelings. In fact, the Nefarious Five battle was probably the coolest part of the Tower, especially with only five enemies.

Eight lengthy battles later, our group topped the tower. Of course, there was one more half-hour+ battle with the deviant Moo Manchu.

That's a nice carpet to get defeated on.

For all the enemies that lie within, Manchu's Nefarious Tower is bursting with really good gear. Really good. The drop rate for the best pieces is odd, however. Even after plowing through the second-chance chests, my Swashbuckler only picked up several 65+ Witchdoctor items... which were naturally No Trade/No Auction.

Yes, the gear is multitudes better than what we've seen before. However, drops are sporadic, and I think this will be updated before long. For instance, many players are comparing the new tower to W101's Waterworks. This dungeon initially had all gear dropping randomly, with No Trade/No Auction status. Thankfully, the No Trade status was dropped, and wizards were left with much less frustration (while retaining the difficulty of the dungeon). Above all, I hope the Nefarious Tower follows suit, as it will be a time-consuming dungeon to farm in. At least one guaranteed Moo Manchu item every run would be nice.

That is pretty creepy. Unless I'm fighting some Eagle Shades, I'll probably stick with my Amber Horde badge, lol.

Although the first run of a dungeon is bound to take longer than ensuing runs, the Nefarious Tower is just uncomfortably long. At this point, I think these changes should be made:

• Third floor: Reduce penalty of breaking statues, or at least prevent our pets from accidentally breaking them and releasing powerful Foo Lions.
• Fourth floor: The fire cheat isn't so bad, but at least skip the animation of a flame hitting someone. Thanks to that, this battle drags on.
• Seventh floor: Oddly, 'Double Tap' and 'Blade Storm' now activate after a critical hit. I'm not sure this was intended, but it's definitely rather overpowered. Anyone can die within any turn, even starting with full health.
• Eighth floor: As I've said before, the Nefarious Five battle was very interesting. However, it's not very fair to groups with less than four pirates. Perhaps structure it so that 1-2 pirates doing the battle would get 3 companions, 3 pirates would get 2 companions, and 4 would get 1 companion?
• Ninth & Tenth floor: Brutal Charge and Explosive for the Terror-Cotta Warriors? Really?

I could go on and on about other updates, but the Update Notes clearly lay those out. Before concluding, though, here are some helpful links that have materialized (click the words wrapped into the link):

Duelist101's floor-by-floor descriptions

P101 Central users' reactions

Loose compilation of noted drops

Beatriz Abbott's survey for those who've done the Tower

Pirate101's Test Realm Message Boards

In the meantime, I'll have to do the Moo Manchu questline on Arlen in preparation. I don't think I'll be going back in that dungeon with a melee unit (in other words, Jacques). Hopefully, some changes for the better will be implemented before Test turns into Live.

Happy Farming!

63 Fish In The Tome

... 63 species of fish. 

Take one out, put it in the Tome,
62 species of fish to go.

If you couldn't tell, this number denotes the number of fish species available to catch so far. Naturally, I've been on a mission to catch every one, and it was heating up as I got closer to the ultimate goal. As Arlen had a garden to tend, I relegated the task to Tarlac, my level 80 Life wizard. He would see a lot of action in the next couple weeks.

The fish had a propensity for blinking took when I took their picture. Hmm...

This was probably my favorite punny fish. The description doesn't lie.

For awhile, I focused on the three Grizzleheim epic fish. In rarity, the Polar Bearracuda was probably the easiest to get, although it is pretty difficult to find one ice fish right beside a waterfall.

Are you hibernating now, or..?

It's hard to get a Rune Fish to show up, but pretty easy to clear the Mirkholm Keep pond and come back. As usual, the little guy decided to fall asleep in my screenshot.

 The Boss Hog ended up being the toughest, by far. It takes a few minutes just to clear the pond after using 'Reveal Fish'. This is where I learned a useful tip: once a fish has noticed your lure, click on the 'Fishing' tab on the right side of the screen. Instead of waiting for the fish to miss, then, you can just reel your lure back in without using energy. It was a time-saver, but it would be awhile before I found that bossy fish :P

Catching at least one of the two Krokotopia epic fish was easy enough.

Jellyfish are the cutest little things.

My last real focus was on Mooshu, which has the most epic fish (four), and all of them ended up being pretty stingy aside from the Bubba Fish.

Probably my proudest catch, considering I ran through Crimson Fields 3-4 times (and did a lot of waiting) just to reach the pond. Surprisingly though, Mr. Musushi here only took second place in time spent trying to catch a fish.

I forgot to fish for the Goldfin-ger for awhile, but it didn't take too long to catch. Like many of the Water Dojo fish, the Goldfin-ger is a fire species, but it's hard to miss as this guy really motors through the water quickly.

That marked 62 out of 63 fish. The Boss Hog and the Musushi put up a real challenge, but which one was my greatest undoing?

I ran through Emperor's Retreat a few dozen times before the Silver Streak showed up -- and that's a conservative estimate. It's a cool dungeon, but I am definitely sick of it by now :P

A couple days ago, Wizard101 made the 'Summon Fish' spell available for Level 6+ fishers. Despite the 10 energy cost, it was very helpful, as I could just re-stock the Emperor's Retreat pond with fish without waiting a good 15 minutes or so.

Last night, after re-stocking the pond with fish once again, I finally saw the little loading spiral for the Silver Streak. I was a bundle of nerves, to say the least. Looking in the biggest Emperor's Retreat pond where they're usually found, I didn't see any fish moving with significant speed. Sure enough, I caught two Garrrfish. Had I scared the Silver Streak away?! Where was it?

In the front pond? That didn't seem right. But there was a fish moving crazy fast through those waters. Following it, I attempted to cast a lure but was met with the "Insufficient Energy" message. Drat. Waiting around had prepared me for this moment, but I wasn't just going to wait another 15 minutes. There was one more Energy Elixir in my gift list (thanks, Grub Guardian), and I used it.

Voila. On the night of August 7th, over three weeks after Fishing was launched, I was done catching all the new fish. In fact, the publishing of this post solely depended on when I caught the Silver Streak.

Finally, Tarlac Lifegiver can take a well-deserved break from fishing. That is, until I start crafting Aquariums for every fish I have. That's a lot of Lifecudas. So, take your time, Celestia and Zafaria.

Happy Angling!

From Storm Sharks to Owls

 Some years ago, I randomly made a third account and stocked it with various Doodle Dug rewards. When KI Free Games released their trivia-for-crowns, I figured, why not make use of the long forgotten newbies?

My highest level wizard was a level 5 Diviner, so I got started on him. Luckily, there was a brief zone sale going on, and I had just enough KIFG crowns to buy every Wizard City area for 375 crowns apiece.

Foulgaze and Nightshade, as always, were quite an annoyance.

Dogs and Clockworks living together? What kind of world do we live in?!

That first power pip is such a proud moment :D

Not cool, man. Houses are .. uh .. friends! Not food.

I'll probably do each area(s) after achieving enough crowns to get by, in the meantime. Looking at my trivia-roundup post two months ago, Krokotopia takes almost 4 months. Of course, I'll probably forget to do some trivia here and there, so it will probably be more like half a year until Marleybone. Good things come to those who take trivia, I suppose.

On the higher-level questing front, my other Diviner has been receiving support from my Thaumaturge. A tank and a damage-based character make for a great team, especially when deep into Azteca.

Although it was nice not worrying about dying, I had to solo for new spells eventually. Enemies ranging from Eke Chuah to Tempest Eels posed a fun new challenge. I wasn't about to try and solo Xibalba, though.

Gross name, funny musical reference :P

The final fight ended up being a vicious cycle of one wizard dying, returning, and the other wizard taking all the incoming attacks and dying. I wasn't very lucky, but thankfully finished the battle after running through several batches of potions.

This moment was just as exciting the second time around, lol.

Not sure when I'll step into Khrysalis again, although I am anxious to reach Exalted on both accounts. For now, here's the status of all 11 wizards (discounting the newbies for now) --

Exalted: 1 Myth

Promethean: 1 Storm, 1 Ice
Archmage: 1 Life, 1 Myth

Transcendent: 1 Death, 1 Fire

Legendary: 2 Balance, 1 Death, 1 Fire

All I can say is, the four wizards waiting to do Zafaria are probably in for a long wait. Sorry, Sorcerers!

Saving Pirate101 for last, I recently created my third pirate, Valkoor Vane! For the first time, I'll be going through the game on a ranged pirate (sorry future Musketeer, you're last in line :P)

Valkoor attempting to look wicked at too early a level. Apparently he forgot that the staff is what completes the outfit. 

After quickly reaching Level 5 and Lasko's new quests, I had an amusing idea. Why not go questing on Valkoor at a pace of one quest a day? Surprisingly, it's been smooth sailing (pun unintended-ish) so far, and I have gotten used to a very steady diet of pirate questing :D

It's a little early, but Mormo is the early front runner for cutest companion ;)

Although I have skipped a day here and there, I made up for it in due time. Questing once a day almost makes me nostalgic for, say, three weeks ago... if that makes sense. Everyday I catching myself thinking: "I was doing that quest in that area over a month ago?! Wow, feels like yesterday."

I'm mostly curious to see how long Cool Ranch will take (I'm guessing I'll still be there by Christmas), and where this pace will take me, really. In fact, I just found the Monkey's Paw a few hours ago. Thankfully, it looks like Monquista will *only* take a couple weeks.

It's okay Pancho, I feel the same way.

I'll be back soon for a fishing recap of my nearly complete Angler's Tome -- Until then,

Happy Questing!