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!

Test Realm Eclipse

As with the lunar eclipse last Tuesday, the Kingsisle games have converged their test realms. The sun and the moon will eventually return to their different places in the sky, and so shall Wizard101 and Pirate101. For now, though, we've got just a little more waiting to do.

The much anticipated KR-2 update is out! Not many new thoughts about this, as I will have to wait for the live release to try it all out. However, there are a couple of other items - some good, some meh.

The Good:

Crafting: A new crafting quest, new craft-able items, and reagent bundles. It's a good time to be a crafter. Some other things also caught my eye:

New School Pets: Medusa is sweet, but offhand I'd have to go with the Leviathan and Sabretooth as my favorites.

Shadow-Forged Weapons: Swords acting like pets?!? It appears that the Enchanted Armament pet may have acted as a sort of teaser here. What's next, weapon training? (Seriously though, there are some sweet possibilities when you give a sword a mind of its own.)

Shift Spells: Those are some pretty big 3-pip attacks, but I suppose that advantage is offset by having to waste a round casting the transformation spell. Still, one round transformations aren't a terrible idea.

Global Spells: Don't see myself taking out the two-pip global spells for these, especially with the four-pip cost. These would be really useful in a boss battle... but most bosses have unrelenting critical block rates. If those are toned down, I would use 'Saga of Heroes' regularly. Also note the new cinematic effects on the two-pip ones - some of them actually look pretty cool, notably less distracting.

The Meh:

Shadow Creatures: Inevitably, there are more shadow magic spells. The new 'creatures', however, come with a twist. Using spells they like will increase their effectiveness and vice versa. My only qualm with this involves how complicated these guys will be. Even the most experienced duelers have a lot to process when going into a battle -- adding a whole new element of battle is one thing, forcing wizards to remember when to cast what is another. Maybe I'm skeptical about shadow magic, but I just don't know whether they are making battles fun or over-complicated. Swordroll's recent guide expounds on how to use them. Dark Shepherd seems to be based on Life/Death, Dark Nova/Fiend being more damage-based. Interesting. Of course, the main thing to remember: Use Shadow Magic wisely, and you will be rewarded.

Miscellaneous:

•  Players no longer able to teleport into the Hall of Valor: How is this dungeon a task "a wizard must face alone"? Jotun and his brothers were once the hardest (non-cheating) battle in the game. I don't understand the logic here :P
• Creatures patrolling farther from sigils: If I recall, this was especially a pain in the Stellarium. Thanks Kingsisle!

Moving on to Pirate101's huge Advanced Pets/mechanics update. Soooo much stuff that I'll just outline what I think is "good" and "meh", apart from the main things.

Advanced Pets: More powerful armadillos, anyone? Although the update seems to borrow from Wizard101 (as cleverly admitted in the puppet show intro), there are a couple big distinctions. In the place of the Pet Derby is Pet PvP, which has raised some concerns about the parallels to illegal sports like dog/cockfighting. I'm fine with it, though. Activities are also not tied to mini-games, meaning less wasted time in the Cannon or Dance game, thank goodness. Similarities include the hatching system - what new talents will combine to form P101's "dream pet"? Is the ostrich the new piggle? Overall, it will be a very intriguing system that may take some time to get used to, but one that really helps a big part of the game.

Advanced Companions: Already a unique Pirate101 feature, companions are getting a major change. I like the new management and lowly companions being kept busy, but not really the fact that randomness of selection won't factor into it any more. However, giving orders to lesser guys in order to get pet items, nautical EXP or even companion EXP is a great idea. I'm relatively conservative with training tomes and don't level on ships much, so getting this without using free time or gold is just great. I think the new companion system is a little better than the old, and not too complicated, so I'm looking forward for this to go live. Also eager to get Fan Flanders on my Swashbuckler -- how awesome is a Marleybonian convict?! A kooky monkey who wants the proletariat to rule is also a great touch for Privateers :P

Intro Expansion: This doesn't sound anything like Unicorn Way - crazy new areas for low level pirates is a boon to explore even for those with all level 65 pirates. There's even some new crazy good gear! Nothing wrong about a much roomier Avery's Court, either.

Doubloons: Uh... treasure cards for Pirate101? Odd. I've heard these special talents are pretty powerful and rare, though, coming mainly from the new Group Plunder chests. Interesting to see how these will work out.

For the many other updates . . .

The Good:

• Mark and Recall: Sure, it's a direct influence from W101, but this will make travelling across the skyways so much easier.

• Interface Changes: The game suggesting things for us is actually really cool, particularly the weapon notification. And the swashbuckler effects (pictured)? Awesome.
• Damage Changes: Damage bonuses now scaling at percentages is big, but actually a big help when leveling up. It will mean, for instance, that using an 100 Will spell now results in 20% more damage (for Privs & WDs) instead of +20 damage, which would have a less effect when damage is over 100. Nice.

Among Others: New Accessory slot, speedier ships, Housing previews, reduced kill counts in Cool Ranch, Burly's Gold reward, updated Zeena's Rain of Fire, Skyway Chat.

The Meh:

• Wounded Companions: Pretty sure I'm going to give my Privateer's heals a little more love soon. Aside from this obvious new pay-or-wait approach to defeated companions, the pay method involves visiting a rather odd dude with a New York accent/attitude - Miracle Mitch. I understand the scaling to level, but after testing (i.e. killing off companions), the average rest time for a level 65 companion is 7 hours. Why punish higher levels so much? Additionally, the price for healing is a whopping 30,000 gold for such companions. Seriously?!? I would recommend establishing a cutoff rest point at maybe 2-3 hours and dropping a 0 from that price tag (to the tune of 3,000+ gold) instead. The approach to wounded companions is understandable given the update, but the price is just way too high in my opinion.

• Exact Damage: Eh, I just like the idea of attacks being a little inconsistent, like Wizard101 spells - it shakes things up a bit. However, everything will now do a certain amount of base damage (minus power-ups). Although most updates to the combat interface are fine, I'm just a little wary of this change in particular.

Meow! Chat Noir was a famous
Paris cabaret in the late 19th century.

• Critical Names: Uh.. why? "EPIC HIT!" sounds way better than "Super Hit!", so shouldn't it continue to reflect more damage? Then again, there is a Superman but no Epicman... yet.

• Le Chat Noire: How dare they change my badge?! Well, at least it's spelled correctly in French now, right? ;)

That's that for a monumental mechanics update in Pirate101. I've  been playing that game a lot more recently, as questing W101 alts in Zafaria/Azteca gets old fast. Swashbuckler Jacques has been questing for awhile and I now have him at the end of Cool Ranch. Look out, Mooshu! (and Khrysalis, soon enough)

Enjoy your chocolate bunnies today -- no, I didn't forget the occasion :P

Happy Easter!

Yarrr.

Test Realm Notes: Shadow Queens & Shadow Magic

These things always seems to come out around October-November, don't they?

Nearly five years after Malistaire's *first* demise, it is now about time for Morganthe to face the same fate (hopefully..) in Khrysalis! 

Presumably, it is "so epic" that it will begin on an island, not on Khrysalis, and the final part will be released in "early 2014". Looks like they're borrowing J.K. Rowling's idea, but why not?

Of course, I'm not going to spoil any other parts for myself, so I'll just have to wait until Part 1 is live-released. But from what I have seen, I have a sense it will be somewhat similar to Dragonspyre, albeit with greenish skies. Hey, not bad. Nice way to go out for Morganthe.

...And what's this? Shadow Magic? Forbidden knowledge too dangerous for old Ambrose but not for a "wise mouse"? 

The prospect of unstable spells is intriguing - it's as if you're handling or dismantling a bomb that will either go off in your own face or the enemies face. Then, there's "backlash" when a Shadow Aura expires, like getting hit by the shrapnel you blew up your enemy with. This should be fun to try out.

If that's not enough, there are also 'Shadow Pips'. Whoa. Apparently, these things feel that they should ignore all basic combat concepts in the game. We've got a lot to learn.

On a simpler note, there are also new Housing updates! 

The prospect of wide open "Castle Tours" would be freaky in real life, especially if visitors felt a need to always visit your restroom. Thankfully, the Spiral is a whole lot less awkward.

A quick random house visit can be a delightful experience.. if you're safely away from the tornado.

Great idea and a great new addition to the Commons, overall. I opened up a couple of my own houses for visiting, hopefully I'll get some random visitors.

I wonder how many of Paige Moonshade and Cody Raventhorn's houses will be among the Top Rated? Hmm..

No more "dude what's that thing". Yes, please! 

MISC:

• Gardening: New levels! It's up to twenty, I presume. Also excited to see new spells, Barley, and Khrysalis plants. Too bad my highest gardener is just Level 11.

• Weaker creatures (Avalon, Azteca): Sweet, hope some of the bosses in particular have been toned down. Battles in Azteca can be really frustrating. Kingsisle actually did a similar thing with Dragonspyre way back in the day.

• Henchmen: As the level 90 henchmen were 400 crowns, now they are 300 - and the new level 95s are 400. Plus, the level 60 henchmen are now a 75 crown steal. Nice to have lower prices for a change.

• New badge: You can bet I'll be buying up all sorts of healing treasure cards on Tarlac once the opportunity arises.

• Mana bump: Less being conservative with marking spots, more teleportation fun! Yay!

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

That does it for the updates. Going through them, I was reminded of the fact that I haven't created an end-of-Azteca quest post yet. I'll get on that before the Khrysalis content comes out, so that should be the next blog post to expect. I might also re-upload some pictures to old posts still on this laptop in the coming weeks, before I get a new laptop. All of the old blog pictures got deleted after that Blogger fiasco I had several weeks ago. Annoying!

Lastly, here's the second trivia-question-for-crowns! Last post, I started a new tradition of a trivia question at the end of every post. If you comment, tweet or e-mail the answer first, you win a select prize! This week, it's 600 crowns worth of stuff - 2 Nightmare Packs, maybe?

I have also made the comments approval-based, so if you do enter by blog comment, please leave a Wizard101 TFC or your contact information (and ask your parents if you are under 13).

Formalities aside, here's the trivia question for this post:

Fill in the blank of the chant Morganthe says when she drains Mirror Lake -

"Ah-nahl nathrak

______________

Do-Hiel Dienveh."

I look forward to the correct, 600 crown answer!

Happy Testing!

Test Realm Notes: Myths, Minions & Miscellaneous

Are you ready for some new dungeons and.. stuff?!

According to the Update Notes, Aquila will be a "collection of zones within Wizard City" - like Crab Alley, just much larger and harder, it sounds. Or just a lot of places like the Waterworks. Or like Wysteria, but for higher level wizards? ..I'll stop the comparisons. Personally, I don't go into the Test Realm, but a lot of other bloggers and wizards from Twitter ('twizards') are supplying constant updates of the new content. My blogroll to the right of the screen there already has some recent posts from other bloggers about the content, in fact. I'll have to see for myself when the Aquila content comes out in several weeks, but for now I'll have to just give my first impressions of the Update Notes. Maybe if I go really fast and the Test Realm is really slow, I'll reach Aquila in Pirate101 before the content comes out in Wizard101. Just maybe.

These "Immortal Games" (hey, sounds like the Wysteria Tournament) are, as I quote from the Update Notes again, "an excellent test of determination, wit, and fortitude". Hopefully, this means there will be puzzles to go along with the combat, much like the Temple of Storms puzzles in Krokotopia, but harder. Or, maybe the battles will involve the complicated schemes of beings like those in the Warehouse or Briskbreeze Tower (I will always hold a grudge against Estrakir! hmph). There I go comparing stuff again - either way, I'm sure we'll encounter cheating bosses, one way or the other. As for where these zones are exactly, I'm guessing Cyclops Lane will be the entrance to these new dungeons. It fits very well. Enough theorycrafting for now, though, the content is already out and being tested.

As for the new minions -

The new Myth minion is 6 pips, as Talos was 5, I suppose.

Like the level 28 minion quest, these new school minions come as part of a quest, given by Balestrom. Hopefully, they'll play some more buffs and heals. Talos hitting away my traps in boss battles is annoying, but the Hex he uses can be very helpful. Higher damage attacks and more blades and traps would be optimal, in my opinion. Also, ability to critical/block wouldn't hurt. I'm excited to learn what the new minions can do, and whether they have any of the new abilities. I don't want my minions relegated to the back of my deck again, in other words. 

...Speaking of decks -

Woohoo!

Even though I don't PvP, this is really useful. I have 2 mob decks (one for myth enemies) and several boss decks which follow the same principle. Besides the Aquila content, this is definitely my favorite update. There aren't many names to choose from, of course, but they'll suffice. Other than that, there isn't much to comment on about this change, but it's a great addition that will clear up the game for anybody who uses multiple card decks.

Lastly, one can't forget the 

MISCELLANEOUS UPDATES: 

• Locks: Another very convenient update - the dreaded realization that you just sold an expensive item is all too common, and this update provides a decent solution to the problem. A post-it note to myself, if you will, that I shouldn't sell certain items.

• Silver Chests: Now available pretty much everywhere. I doubt the rewards for the WC/KT/MS chests will be large, but the wizards who come across them can get extra practice for those chests in later worlds with better rewards. Next up: Gold Chests? I wish :P

• Dragonspyre Library: Wait, what?!?

• Other: Many other minor solutions to minor problems, all of them particularly convenient.

Even though we've all had gripes with Kingsisle before, whether it be the Hoard packs or the PvP system, this Test Realm seems to be tackling minor problems that have been a problem for wizards for the last five years, and coming up with solutions that are more than satisfactory. Even though Aquila isn't even a world in Wizard101, the content promises to be exciting, and the next main world will likely be here before the year ends.

Unless developments take another sudden turn, I'll be back to post about my escapades in Azteca in another few days.

Happy Testing!