Fall 2019 Test Realm: PvP Update

The Fall 2019 Test Realm has been out for a couple weeks with many exciting new features and changes!

We now have a new dungeon in Wizard City for Gear Farming!

A new Backpack Butler (to help us find items)!

Upgrades to the Pet Hatching Kiosk!

Spellwrighting is a new option for your spells!

New Castle Magic spells have arrived!

They have also done expansions to Beastmoon Hunt and the Deckathalons!

(You can read all about these updates on RA right here)

November 2019 Update Notes Wizard101

Fall 2019 PvP Updates

In the Fall 2019 Test Realm PvP Update, there are some changes made to several spells in an attempt to rebalance PvP. In this article, we will look at the proposed changes to the spells. I’ll be talking about how they will impact PvP, if they go live, and my personal thoughts on these changes.

Guardian Spirit

Guardian Spirit is one of the most powerful and controversial utility spells for the Life school. The way it works is, you cast it on yourself or an ally. When you die, you come back with 15% of your health.

You can increase how much health you come back with, in many ways. You can have it boosted by landing a critical when you cast it, by having a Sanctuary dome up when you die, by having a high healing boost on the gear you’re wearing, or having an aura that increases outgoing heal. All of these will boost the healing percentage of Guardian Spirit. This spell can be cast an infinite amount of times during a battle. When you die with a Guardian Spirit up, you will come back to life. Then you can cast another one so you come back to life again, and again.

For schools other than Life, you can receive 1 Guardian Spirit card from the Mandolin of Evermore.  This wand is available in the Hoard of the Hydra Pack, in the crown shop. The Mandolin of Evermore is a popular wand for low level defensive setups in PvP.

There are no changes to the mechanics of Guardian Spirit in the test realm as of right now. However, the card is now flagged with a no-PvP symbol.

Many higher rank PvPers, between the levels of 50-90, resort to Turtling with Guardian Spirit. That’s because they can’t survive long enough to kill due to the significantly higher pierce, damage, and health of their opponent. It’s an uneven match-up in these situations, and taking away Guardian Spirit would cap these players at a lower rank.

In PvP, at level 100 and beyond, players can get high amounts of pierce in addition to shrike and shadow spells. This makes high level PvP extremely fast-paced and offensive. The removal of Guardian Spirit would perpetuate the high amount of offense in high level PvP even more.

We must take into account that aggressive Life at higher levels isn’t in the best place because Scion of Life is a healing spell, and the last particularly strong hitting spell the Life school has had is Hungry Caterpillar.

Guardian Spirit is a bandaid to these issues. In no way am I saying it’s fair and balanced, because it’s not. The main problem with Guardian Spirit, are the massive resists and heal boosts that are available for the caster. To address that issue, I would change the amount of healing boosts and resists that you can get in PvP.  I would then buff Guardian Spirit to a revival of 25% of your health regardless of stats, aura, or bubble. You would also not be able to land a critical on a Guardian Spirit. To ensure an even amount of offense and defense in PvP, there would also need to be an update on pierce.

Loremaster

Loremaster is one of the strongest spells available in PvP. According to game developer and designer, Matt, Loremaster is the second most used spell in PvP. The first being Tower Shield! Loremaster costs 4 pips, deals 390-470 damage, and leaves both a -20% Weakness and a -35% Black Mantle. That makes it a decent move in almost any situation, at all levels of PvP, Magus and beyond.

In the test realm, Loremasters damage is lower at 235-315 with the Weakness reduced to 15%, and the Black Mantle reduced to 25%. Higher-level Balance Wizards will now become more dependent on reacting to their opponent with Mana Burn or Supernova. (excluding shadow hits)

Balance at Grandmaster and below will be using more strategies that involve masteries for secondary schools.

Legendary balance will feel the effects of this change. They will have to level to Transcendent for trained Mana Burn and Supernova. Even with the trained spells they will still face defeat by Exalteds with Shadow Magic at a lower rank. This may seem like a significant damage nerf, but KingsIsle did it that way to maintain it as a two-utility hit. But, I would have gone about it differently and lowered the damage to 395 (balance damage per pip is, on average <100, so I’ve lowered it to that amount to be consistent with that), removed the mantle, but kept the weakness the way it is at -20%.

Burning Rampage

Burning Rampage is one of the strongest PvP spells, available to the Fire school today. It’s a 5-pip DOT (damage over time) spell that does 70 damage for the initial hit, then 700 base damage on the ticks for two rounds after it’s cast.

Burning Rampage is especially strong in PvP below level 100 because it can easily one-shot your opponents with all the damage the ticks do. You can follow it up with other spells, including a Fire Beetle or two, a Brimstone Revenant, or you can summon the Fire Elemental Minion and cast Burning Rampage the same round the minion casts a DOT (damage over time) spell .

In high level PvP, it’s more situational, but it can be strong when you pull off combos like Rampage then Fire from Above, which is one of the most difficult combos to counter.

In the test realm right now, Burning Rampage does 70 for the initial hit then does 700 base damage after three rounds instead of two. Fire may become even more powerful with this spell, because it gives you more time to stack two traps before the tick goes off, or to cast a Fire Elf or a Link to prevent the opponent from reacting.

I would suggest making the DOT (damage over time) spell go off after two rounds, but redistribute the damage to be close to even, but still a bit on the back-loaded side.

What do you think?

These spells may change, because as the Test Realm notes state, they have them this way for now for testing purposes and to see what the community thinks. With that said, what do you think of the Fall 2019 Test Realm PvP Update? Do you have any alternative ideas you would do with these spells? Let me know in the comments!

Best Levels for PVP

Today we’ll be looking at what levels are the best for PvP for each school. Doing PvP at these levels for the specific schools will make your best chance of Arena success, as that is where they naturally perform the best.

While writing this article, I took these factors into consideration:

  • Least amount of thinking required to make effective moves
  • Hardest to counter
  • The potential to get high rank.

Exalted Fire

Fire is one of those schools that can be done well at most levels, but at a high level it’s very easy. Especially if you’re first,you can pull off so many different options for combos. I suggest you do a lot of trap stacking with spells like Fire Beetle, Brimstone, and at level 100, you get Fire from Above, which does mass damage and adds three more traps! A Shrike attack, with all these traps up, pretty much nullifies any shield and is very hard to counter. You also have King Artorius at this level which comes into play when your opponent doesn’t stun block.  


Why Exalted and not max? You don’t gain a whole lot going to max besides scion and the 4-pip shadow spells from Mirage, you lose crit percentage with similar gear, and it’s harder to rank up due to the fact that at max, you can only queue high ranked exalts or maxes around your rank, while at Exalted, you get high ranked legends and lower ranked maxes.

Exalted Ice

Ice is naturally good at PvP due to their high health buffer. At level 100, they learn Abominable Weaver. This spell is very good in that it does massive damage (950-1150 base) and leaves a -75% shield for the cost of just five pips and a shadow pip! If you’re Ice and don’t get a shadow pip, Lord of Winter also does a hefty amount of damage and Mana Burns the target! Ice school damage and pierce are pretty good along with impressive resist and health with typical gear at this level.

Legendary Storm

Storm generally isn’t a first choice in PVP, because it revolves around luck and their health is usually low. However, at Legendary, they’re very strong. A “lucky” Insane Bolt or max Wild Bolt does incredible damage at that level. An Infallible used with Queen Calypso deals massive damage, and can combo with other spells like Storm Lord or Thunderbird. I have a Legendary Storm that I got to 1400 rank with ease. If you’d like to know more on Legendary Storm PvP, read this article about it on RA  right here.

Legendary Myth

Myth performs very well in PvP, especially at lower levels with their double hits, stuns, and all the different minions. At Legendary, they have Talos, which is a powerful minion with 1,000 health. It can do a variety of things including stun,trap, and hit with useful spells like Minotaur, and Earthquake! At this level you also have the advantage of trained, Sun School enchanted Medusa. Myth has all kinds of options for getting around shields such as Shatter, Earthquake, Minotaur and Basilisk. This makes them a useful school, especially for countering defensive strategies, which is a prevalent strategy in mid level PvP.

Legendary Death

Death is a school that performs well in low level PVP due to their health draining spells and options for utility. This is especially prevalent at the Legendary level. Headless Horseman with an Infallible can do massive damage at Legendary. Put a myth mastery amulet on a Legendary Death and you’ll have Earthquake for blade-stackers and Medusa for all sorts of possible combos. I have a Legendary Death that I got to 1500 rank, and it was probably one of the most enjoyable characters to rank up. For more info on how to do Legendary Death PVP, read RA’s guide right here.

Archmage Life

Life heal spam strategies work well at any level, but Archmage is the best. The Cosmic Kris and Stellar Signet combined with Jade gear really allows you to maximize your heal boost. You get Guardian Spirit in Avalon at level 75, which is the backbone of Archmage Jade Life. At level 80, you get paired against Legendary Warlords who can’t hurt you much with all your resist and your heal boost, and higher levels who have shadow magic, but not the skills or sufficient stats to beat a jade. All your heal boost will ensure that your heals do a ton and that you’ll also come back with a lot if you do happen to die with guardian spirit up. If you want to learn how to do archmage angel life PvP, there is a guide on RA (also written by me) right here.

Legendary Balance

Balance is an overall very strong PvP school throughout all levels with all their utility and relatively high resist. This is especially true at Legendary. Loremaster is widely considered to be one of the strongest PvP spells because it does a good amount of damage while also leaving a -20% Weakness AND a -35% Black Mantle. If you use different enchants on Loremaster, the weaknesses and mantles will stack, making it hard for your opponent to deal damage. In addition, Loremaster does so much damage at that level, especially with an Infallible Aura, which gives 15% pierce and an additional 15% accuracy for 4 rounds. They have also just learned Availing Hands at level 55, which is a useful heal over time spell. It is pretty easy to get a high rank on a Legendary Balance with all these tools. It doesn’t even stop once you face people with Shadow magic! At that point, Balance can go Jade with a Life Mastery Amulet and make it against opponents 40 levels higher with Availing Hands, Spirit and Elemental diffuse for getting around dispel shields in Shrike, and weakness stack with Loremaster and individual Weaknesses.

This wraps up my favorite PvP levels in Wizard101. Do you agree with the levels I chose for each school? Let me know what you think in the comments!

Archmage Angel Life PvP

Welcome to Archmage Angel Life PvP! Why level 80 for the Jade Angel strategy? You can train Guardian Spirit at level 75, so level 80 is best for this strategy. At 80 you can carry many copies of Guardian per Reshuffle while also utilizing the healing boost from Jade gear.

As a level 80, I find that most of my matches are against level 60 Warlords. They are skilled, but don’t have the tools to counter your resist as a Jade at this level. I found getting Warlord as an Archmage Angel Life pretty easy. What I love about playing on my level 80 Jade is trying to outlast my opponent.

 

Statistics

As a Jade, the main stats I focus on are resist and healing boost. I have 66% universal resist and 81% resist to Balance, with 54% incoming and 66% outgoing healing. I like to have that Balance resist because you run into a lot of Legendary Balance Wizards who use Doom and Gloom and Loremaster.

Gear Setup

  • Jade Hood of Mystery (Level 80+) – Keeper’s Lore Pack
  • Spooky Carnival Robe (Level 80+) – Spooky Carnival Bundle
  • Mysterious Jade Boots (Level 80+) – Keeper’s Lore Pack
  • Golden Dragon Fear Banner (Level 80+) – Keeper’s Lore Pack
  • Myth Mastery AmuletCrowns Shop, Waterworks, Tower of the Helephant
  • Cosmic Kris (socket one +75 health jewel, one 4% Outgoing Jewel) – Crafted, Aegeus in Crustacean Empire has recipe
  • Stellar Signet (socket one +75 Health Jewel, one 4% Outgoing Jewel, one 4% Incoming Jewel) – Crafted, Aegeus in Crustacean Empire has recipe.
  • Pet with Proof, Defy, May Cast Fortify, May Cast Enfeeble, May Cast Fairy (socket a Balance Ward Jewel)
  • Virtuous Deck (socket Talos Jewel) – Crafted, Quentin Chamberlain in Floating Land has recipe (Even better option: Case of Virtuous Soul from Bellosh, but make sure it’s the one that gives the triangle socket!)

Deck Setup

My deck setup is for getting to warlord. Entire side is reshuffle so I can outshuffle other jades. When you’re higher rank and fight good exalts, you won’t need as many minion killers or fairies and you’ll need more regenerate, volcanic shields, and thermic shields. Changes in the side deck would be taking out about half of your shuffles and putting in tc towers, and some emergency satyrs. If you get to 1.2k and wish to push beyond that, balance mastery with mana burn wand is what you’ll want to use, but until then, use myth mastery for Talos and the bladestackers you'll face at low rank.
My deck setup is for getting to Warlord. The entire Treasure Card deck is Reshuffle so I can out-shuffle other Jades. When you’re higher rank, and face Exalted Wizards, you won’t need as many minion killers or Fairies. You’ll need more Regenerate, Volcanic Shields, and Thermic Shields.

There are some changes to the the side deck you might consider.
Try taking out about half of your Reshuffles and putting in TC Tower Shields, some emergency Satyrs, and maybe a Beguile or a Juju. At that point you’ll also want to use Balance Mastery and Mana Burn wand, but until then, use Myth Mastery for Talos and low rank blade stackers.
 

Strategy

The goal here is to run your opponent out of cards and have your minion kill them. I really like Talos because it’s a tanky minion who can do all kinds of things including Stun, Trap, hit, and even Earthquake. You can also cast some Luminous Weavers to lower the opponent’s health while giving them a Weakness. You’ll want to get up a Guardian Spirit as soon as you can, then keep up Sanctuary so you can maximize your heals. This way you can deny your opponent’s offense momentum, and come back with a lot of health if you die.
 
What if you’re against a Balance or a Death who can spam Doom and Gloom? With all your heal boost, it’s fine to heal even if there’s a Doom up. Make sure you always have a Guardian Spirit in your hand so if you die, you can have another one up right away. You have Minotaur for killing minions, and the cool thing about Minotaur is it gets around shields if your opponent shields the minion!
 
If your opponent gets 3 blades and your pet hasn’t Enfeebled, you’ll want to Earthquake them. From second, use Earthquake when there’s 2 blades. You have Regenerate for higher levels with Shrike. One thing I will say as well, is be prepared for your matches to last a very long time!

 

 

If you have any questions about Archmage Angel Life PvP, don’t hesitate to comment below!