Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Darkmoor Philharmonic

Posted on by

In the first Wizard101 arc we learn the story of Malistaire and Sylvia. Even in death their love holds them together. A dark and mysterious man in a supernatural castle who goes too far. In Gothic literature this is a common theme. This is only fitting for our Phantom of The Opera esq love story. Let’s us take a look at the magic behind the music in the haunted sequel of this epic love story.

Main Theme

The orchestration begins with an eerie celesta solo accompanied by a shrill violin. The bass instruments soon follow, supporting the established sound. This theme calls and responds throughout the ensemble. It travels to the oboe and harp then follows to the flute and pizzicato strings soon after.

The choir and chimes enter at 00:39 seconds in. They trade off beats as the brass and strings emphasize the modulation of a minor chord to a major chord. This repetition develops into a different minor chord. This sets the mood of the dark essence of a Gothic castle.

We continue with a waltz which uses the same texture as before until timestamp 1:13. This is where we enter a Marleybone style orchestration with more organic sections. A change from the block-style Darkmoor tends to use. Then we jump back into the familiar melody introduced at the beginning. The orchestration lightens with several solos before its return to the start.

Tense Theme

The timpani, contrabass, and bassoon begin this section in a low rumble. They solo before the harp’s tone cluster 00:10 seconds in that introduces the high strings.

The alto flute introduces a maniacal theme, doubled by the grandiose pipe organ. This instrument is a familiar feature in pop culture when exploring the Gothic era and its music.

Timestamp 00:27 surprises us by clustering the tones within its chord progression. In the midst of this dissonance, a waltz occurs. The melody is a whisper, stressing tension on the non-chord tones. The bass line becomes overpowering. This reflects the feelings of our Wizard in the quest to conquer Castle Darkmoor.

The next section sneaks in, with arpeggiation in the woodwinds, celesta, and pizzicato strings. The music sneaks around the castle in espionage and exploration. The beginning theme returns in solo instruments, like a hollow echo of what came before.

Reunited Theme

A short piece plays in the Darkmoor reunion scene when Malistaire and Sylvia reunite. This is where they may finally be at rest together.

At timestamp 00:15, the upper strings enter the scene with the first violin sustaining a high note. This reminds us of the start of the main theme. The second violins and violas harmonize on the offbeats, swelling into them. We progress into a major modulation before the music halts into silence.

We continue as before, except now moving onward to a darker minor chord. The timpani interrupts, crescendoing into a tutti section of the ensemble. The great pipe organ swells in a twelve-tone row. In this form atonality all twelve keys are equally presented.

The romantic music begins at 00:58. The romance derives from tension tones added to chord. This makes us feel that we are wanting resolve. It is this tension that makes us expect something brilliant to happen at the climax of the music. Often, it’s a kiss. Here, it’s the finality of death as Malistaire and Sylvia cross to the other side of the veil. Together forever.

Large brass fanfares and orchestral jubilation continue as we say goodbye to Malistaire. Third times the charm, am I right?

Thank you, Starlights, for venturing with me through the Gothic music of Castle Darkmoor.

Click here for our selection of Music Guides

Disclaimer

Please note: I transcribed the music from the original/classic mode music scrolls. Not all of my transcriptions are 100% accurate, but they are close and the rhythm is properly notated

Petmaking 101

Posted on by

Where to Start

The first step of the hatching process is to determine what your end goal is. If you don’t have specific talents in mind, it will be hard to know when you have finally trained your dream pet. If this is your first pet, I recommend going for what is known as a triple/double. The talents for this type of pet will be 2 universal resist talents, 1 universal damage talent and 2 school specific damage talents.

I like to start with this type of pet for a few reasons: First, it’s the most versatile pet. It helps you while questing at any level and can also be used in PvP. Second, it causes you to build base pets along the way that can be useful for creating other pets later on. Here are examples of a myth triple/double and an ice triple/double, the type of pet the talents are on doesn’t matter, as long as it has these talents, it is a triple/double.

The Pet Tab

If you view a pet on the pet tab, there are few different sections to look at. I’ll try to break down the important parts to look at and what they mean.

When you first open your pet tab, I recommend clicking the Full Talent View at the bottom to show you all of your pet’s talents as opposed to just the manifested talents.

This tab shows you everything you need to know about your pet. You can click on “Talents” and “Derby” to change back and forth between combat talents and pet derby talents.

Pedigree – the pedigree is the rarity of all of your pet’s talents, normal and derby combined, + 1 per talent. Unfortunately, it doesn’t tell you much about the pet, because a higher rarity talent isn’t necessarily a better one.

Manifested pedigree – this is like regular pedigree, but its only for your manifested talents. Also like regular pedigree, its not very useful except that this is how the hatching kiosk organizes pets. More on this later.

Stats – stats are determined when the pet is hatched. Each stat influences the final value each different talent can give you. For instance, damage talents such as pain-giver are calculated using this formula (2*strength + 2*will + power) * 2/400. Each talent has its own formula, but certain types of talents are always calculated using the same stats. Selfish talents are talents that increase the maximum value of your pet’s stat(s). The maximum stat values without a selfish talent are 255 strength, 250 intellect, 260 agility, 260 will and 250 power. Pets with these max stats are known as 2.0 pets.

The Hatchmaking Kiosk

The first place you should go to look for a pet to hatch with is the hatchmaking kiosk located outside of the hatchery. This kiosk allows people to put their pets inside for others to hatch with in return for hatching peppers. It’s unlikely to find the perfect pet you’re looking for in the kiosk, but it’s a great place to start. It still costs the same amount of gold for you to hatch through the kiosk and it functions identically to hatching with another player directly. The easiest way to find the pet you’re looking for is to enter the kiosk, go to “Browse Pets”, and find the type of pet you’re looking for. In this example I selected a clockwork paladin, so the kiosk will display all of the clockwork paladins it has at this time.

The kiosk organizes the pets in descending order by their manifested pedigree. Things worth looking at are the item cards the pet gives, the stats the pet has and the talents in the pool both manifested and unmanifested. Some pets give cards innately, these are known as item cards and function identically to cards given by other pieces of gear. Some pets give their cards at baby while others require you to level up the pet to unlock the cards. These cards are tied to the type of pet. So, all clockwork paladins, for instance, will give the clockwork minion spell. Certain pets can be put in the kiosk but will require crowns to hatch with unless you already own that pet. Some other pets aren’t available for hatch making at all, these pets will have a corresponding tag on them. I recommend avoiding crowns pets if you can or just hatching with these pets directly through a player.

Hatching Your Own Pet

So at this point, you should have an idea what kind of pet you actually want. Assuming you do, now it’s time to start looking to hatch. Look through your pets to see if you have any that have one or more of the talents you are looking for manifested already. If you do, look for either the pet with the most ideal talents manifested or the pet with the highest stats. If not, I recommend starting with a Wizard City first generation pet. First generation pets are pets obtained in the world that have never been hatched. These pets will always have the same talent pool and stats but do not always manifest the same talents. These are nice for a few reasons. For starters, you know exactly what talents are in its pool and where they are located which makes them easy to track. In addition, most of these talents are much easier to replace because very few pets you’ll be hatching with have them already in the talent pool.

Hatching The Other Pet

The best-case scenario would be to find the exact pet you’re looking to get to hatch with. However, that’s not always available when you aren’t lucky enough to have a helpful friend. So, the next best thing you can do is find a pet that has at least some of the talents you’re looking for. The tricky part is, you also want to make sure it has none of the talents you don’t want. Otherwise, those talents will be more likely to manifest in future generations. So, for example, if you wanted to make the triple/double from before you could look for a pet that has pain-giver and spell-proof to start. Once those talents manifest you could then look for a pet that has some of the other talents you are looking for. Continue doing that until your pet has all the ideal talents within its pool.

Pets in the hatchmaking kiosk go on cooldown for one hour when hatched with and are completely removed from the kiosk after they’ve been hatched with 10 times. Players whose pets are hatched with through the kiosk receive one hatching pepper reagent each time someone hatches with one of their pets.

Base Pets

Now while it might be tempting to hatch with the pet you want and train it straight to mega that’s a risky plan of attack. There is a “strategy” for creating pets known as base pets which make excellent checkpoints along the way. A base pet is a pet that has some of the talents your ideal pet wants with no bad talents manifested. This allows you to always have a pet to hatch with without introducing bad talents to the pool. If you were to train your base pet further, and it manifested a talent you didn’t want, you wouldn’t be able to hatch with it without risking the newly manifested talent showing up in the offspring.

If on your journey to creating a triple-double, you train a pet to ancient and it manifests three talents you want, it would be wise to not train that pet any further. Instead hatch with it again as an ancient base pet. Then, if that offspring makes it to epic with four ideal talents, you could either hatch again or train it to mega. If the newest hatch fails, you can go back to the ancient base pet and hatch again.

This could seem like a waste of resources at first because there’s a chance that ancient pet could have just been perfect had you trained it to mega. Let’s look at energy cost to show why I recommend this method.

To train a pet it costs:
baby to teen
2 energy per game and 125xp
to adult
4 energy per game and 250xp
to ancient
6 energy per game and 500xp
to epic
8 energy per game and 1000xp
to mega
10 energy per game and 2000xp
to ultra
10 energy per game and 2000 xp

As you can see, not only does the energy cost go up, but the amount of xp you need goes up too. This means training a pet from epic to mega is significantly more expensive than training a pet from adult to ancient. This is why I recommend having at least an ancient base pet before pushing to mega, some people like to be extra safe and use an epic base instead.

Becoming Self Sufficient

While the hatchmaking kiosk I mentioned earlier can be a great way to get started on your perfect pet, I wouldn’t suggest relying on it entirely. Since pets go on cooldown every time they’re hatched with and get removed after 10 hatches, you’re banking on the fact that you’ll get all the hatches you need to complete the project. Because of this, your goal should be to become self-sufficient as soon as possible.

This means getting all of your ideal talents manifested on two base pets. Ideally both ancient, the older the better. Once you do this, you can self hatch instead of using the kiosk. This way you are no longer at the mercy of the owner of the pet you desire, so you can hatch anytime. Another benefit is that your pets will have very similar pools. This makes preserving both stats and talents much easier and reduces the risk of accidentally introducing new talents to your pool.

The safest way to use this method would be to have two epic bases. They should both have three of the same talents you want, then each should have one of the last two talents you want. For example, if you were making the myth triple-double from before, one epic base might have spell-proof, spell-defying, myth-giver and myth-dealer. The other base might have spell-proof, spell-defying, myth-giver and pain-giver. As you can see, ¾ of the talents overlap between the pets, making them likely to manifest in the offspring which reduces the risk of a bad talent manifesting.

Pet Jewels

Once your pet reaches ancient, it unlocks a jewel slot. Pet jewels, or star jewels, in most cases just function as a sixth talent. While the jewel slot unlocks at ancient, different jewels require your pet to be different ages to socket them. For example, a Wisp Bonus Opal only requires ancient+ while a Spell-proof Opal requires ultra+. You will not be able to socket a jewel if your pet already has the same talent manifested.

Most Wizards don’t socket an ultra jewel, because training a pet to ultra does not grant you an additional talent, it only allows ultra jewels to be used. If you socket a jewel and then the pet manifests the same talent, the jewel will remain on the pet but you will not get the effect it provides. When this happens you have to shatter the jewel to place a useable jewel in the socket. There are many places to get jewels, but most school specific jewels can be crafted using the crafting recipes from Lowe Springfield in the Pet Pavilion. Opals, special jewels that give universal talents, are dropped from enemies or gathered from Jewel Blossoms. Kroger jewels have unique talents and give two talents per jewel, but can only be obtained by a select few Wizards.

Clean Pools

The bare minimum you would want to do before training a pet to mega is getting 5 ideal talents in the pool. There is something called a “clean pool.”  A clean pool means introducing talents that would allow you to make a different pet accidentally. For example, in your triple double pet’s pool, you may want to include pain-bringer, mighty or piercing talents. While manifesting those talents wouldn’t necessarily give you the pet you want, you could accidentally make a quad/proof or a piercing pet. Going for clean pools usually takes a lot more time and effort but a single clean pool can allow you to create a handful of pets using the same base.

Clean pools will not make it easier for you to obtain a specific pet. The purpose of a clean pool is to give your fails a chance of being useful. If you are just trying to make one specific pet, clean pools will not help you. 

Snacks

Each snack gives a variety of stats and counts as experience towards your pet’s next level. The snack rank gives you a general idea of how much xp the snack gives. Snacks rank 8+ are “mega snacks” and give 25+ experience.

Each snack also has a school and type associated with it. The types are fruits, vegetables, meats, munchies, candies, desserts and cereals. If the snack school matches your pet’s school, your pet will like the snack and will gain +1 extra experience. Each pet also has a specific snack type, if the snack you feed them matches that, they will also like it and gain +1 experience. If both the snack type and the snack school match your pet’s, your pet will love it and gain +2 experience.

With pet snacks It’s usually best to focus on the xp gained and not the stats themselves. This is what makes mega snacks so appealing. Here are a few ways to obtain mega snacks:

  • Arena Tickets – you can purchase rank 8 mega snacks from Broc Connery in the pet pavilion for 50 arena tickets each, which can be useful in a pinch.

  • House Gauntlets – Winterbane and Pagoda are both decent ways to get some rank 8 mega snacks. It requires combat so you need to be a decent level or bring a friend who is.

  • Mirror Lake – the final dungeon of Zafaria, Mirror Lake gives two rank 8 mega snacks when you complete it. The dungeon also offers other loot and the snacks drop every time.

  • Gardening – by far the best method for obtaining mega snacks, but also requiring the most prep. I recommend setting up a full garden from the start so you don’t spend more time gardening than pet training. Couch Potatoes and Evil Magma Peas both give rank 9 snacks at elder which are some of the best snacks in the game.

 

Fake Stats

You may notice some stats show one thing on your character sheet but do not give the full effect in combat. This is due to “fake stats.” These occur because the character sheet adds common values and then rounds values greater than 0.5 up, but the combat calculator adds common values and then does not round.

Piercing talents are the one exception and they actually round down to the nearest whole number for combat. For example, the formula for calculating the value of armor-breaker is (2*strength + 2*agility + power) * (5/2000). Which for this pet calculates to 3.5 and shows as 4%. The formula for calculating armor piercer is (2*strength + 2*agility + power) * (3/2000).

For this pet that calculates to 2.1 and shows as 2%. However, the combat calculator adds these two values together and does not round them. So 3.5 + 2.1 = 5.6 which means in combat I only get 5% effective pierce.

For all talents other than pierce, the individual rounded talents are displayed on the pet, the rounded sum on the character sheet, and the exact decimal value is used in combat. This means the difference between 9% damage and 10% damage is often smaller than it looks. 

FAQ

  • What is pedigree and should I care about it?
    • Pedigree just tells you the rarity of the talents in the pet’s pool. However, a higher rarity talent is not necessarily better, so in most cases you can just ignore it.
  • What kind of pet should I make?
    • The most standard pet you could make is a triple/double. For pvp ward pets are popular and for pve critical pets are popular.
  • What pet should I put my talents on?
    • The safest bet is either an enchanted armament or a pet with a blade as they will always be useful.
  • How long does it take to make a pet?
    • It varies a lot depending on what your starting pet is, what the pet you’re trying to make, how much energy and snacks you have and of course luck.
  • How are stats determined?
    • When two pets are hatched, the offspring rolls each stat individually. Each stat has a 25% chance to be equal to parent A’s; 25% chance to be equal to parent B’s; and a 50% chance to be the average of both parents.
      This means the only way to get a max stat is by hatching with a pet that has a max stat and that if both parents both have max stats, the offspring will always have max stats as well.
  • How does someone’s pet have an 11% damage talent or 11% resist talent?
    • The only way to get stats that high is to have a selfish talent. If a selfish talent is manifested instead of socketed as a jewel it won’t appear but will still affect the pet.
  • Why is a max stat pet called 2.0?
    • The original max stats a pet could have were 250 across the board and that was known as 1.0. However, since then higher stats have been introduced, and the new max stat values are now referred to as 2.0.
  • What are these weird names for pets?
    • Triple/double = three damage talents and two universal resist talents
    • Quad/proof = four damage talents and one universal resist talent
    • Ward pet = any pet with ward talents, usually also paired with universal resist talents
    • Quint damage = five damage talents
    • Quint resist = two universal resist talents and three resist talents of the same school
    • Utility pet = pet that provides non-combat benefits, such as fishing and gardening talents
    • Universal pet = pet with all universal talents

Corporal Tenni’syn Strategy!

Posted on by

Corporal Tenni’syn is a Gold Skeleton Key boss found inside the Zanadu Sewers, Empyrea. He drops the best offensive robes for every school, except Storm. Storm wizards will still want to use the Malistaire robe even at level 130.

Initially, this boss seems difficult, but with enough knowledge and game sense, he is actually incredibly easy! So, here is how I killed Corporal Tenni’syn in 4 rounds!

The Cheats

Tenni’syn uses a couple of important cheats to note. They can be annoying, but there’s no way to avoid them.

Only Feint once per round

If you feint Tenni’syn more than once, you’ll activate a cheat that removes every single trap that the team has placed on him.

Natural attacks lead to random Wild Bolt spam

Whenever he uses his natural attack he will shout about how it is “time to finish this!” Now, this sounds rather silly, but what follows isn’t.

He will spam up to 7 wild bolts on a random member of the team each time this attack occurs. Be careful because he’s packing a lot of damage and pierce!

Gains 3 Pips after every turn

After every round, no matter what, Tenni’syn will gain 3 power pips. This gives him the power to spam spells such as Glow Bug Squall, Sirens and Storm Lord.

Don’t Dispel

Other sources may claim that using dispel is ok if it is only used once per round. In my experience this will trigger a cheat that clears all negative charms. A better defensive strategy is to use Juju or storm shields.

The Strategy

Now that you know the cheats, lets find out how to deal 80,000 damage in 4 turns every time. Even when blades are cleared by Glow Bug Squall, Sirens and Catch of the Day, it’s still guaranteed to work. Here are the key points.

Jade gear and Storm resist

Having a wizard that can tank all the storm hits is important. Send someone in first who has high storm resist. The battle order is decided by the order in which your team enters the key room.

Scion 

When you hit use Scion of Storm with a prism, or Scion of Myth with 2 stun blocks up. Scion will allow you to one shot Tenni’syn on the 4th round.

Feint

Have the team member with storm resist feint using Potent, regular, and a Treasure Card to make the Scion kill guaranteed, even if he clears all blades.

Critical block 

In my experience, he must not have much critical block. He has never blocked a single one of my critical hits!

The only additional note is that he may use blades, so your team will want to carry enfeeble in order to get that Scion damage doubled.

 That’s it! It’s honestly that simple. I wish you the best of luck while farming!

Mathew “Sparck” Anderson

Posted on by

Recently the Wizards of Ravenwood Academy brewed up a batch of exciting questions for our amazing, Senior Community Manager Mathew “Sparck” Anderson. Our goal was to get answers to some questions the community has been asking, and Mathew did not disappoint. So, let’s get to it, we are excited to share this exclusive interview with you!

What do you like best so far about your position at KingsIsle?  

The team and players, all-in-one! Everyone: all Wizards, Pirates, baby animal fans, etc. I haven’t been a part of such a great team and community as what I’ve experienced here at KingsIsle. Everyone on the team participates in some form in developing and promoting our community programs, which makes it faster to get fun things out to you. The best part though is working with the community on their own events and projects, so please do keep creating those! 

What can you tell us about your responsibilities at KingsIsle? 

Oh my, well, where do I begin? A nice summary is that I ‘take care of the community’. This of course means several things, but first and foremost it starts with listening to your ideas and concerns about our games, then relaying that feedback to the development team. I also help to ensure the community is a safe place to be, working with our development and customer support teams.

Other responsibilities include taking development updates from our team and putting them into easily digestible forms on public sites like producer’s letters in the forums, as well as social media posts and patch notes on the main website. I also oversee all public areas, so that means monitoring (and moderating) the forums and social media sites. 

One of the more fun things I do is create events and contests, though we much prefer to support community-driven ones. They tend to end up being better and more fun anyway.


What has been your biggest challenge as a Community manager at Kingsisle?  

The KingsIsle community is now over 10 years old! That’s a lot of history built up that I have to understand in order to be an effective leader. This has been my biggest challenge: understanding your needs, the games themselves, and developing and supporting programs that fit those needs. I hope I’m on target so far.

What interests you the most about your position as KI staff? 

I love working with such a fun and high-spirited community! I wouldn’t have it any other way, which is why I consider myself extremely lucky to be working at KingsIsle. I also get to see the day-to-day development of the games, and I work with an extremely talented marketing team that helps to get the many promotions we have out the door. 

What has been your best experience as a community manager at KingsIsle?  

Seeing the community help each other out, especially for new players. This includes the flood of new players we got for Wizard101’s 10th Anniversary events, Pirate101’s recent 6th birthday, and even for Animal Cove upon its global launch! Anytime I see a tweet on Twitter or a post in the forums about someone helping a new player out, it truly makes my day. Please do more of that everyone; it’s noticed!


What is your goal as the community manager at KingsIsle and what are some things you yourself would like to change?  

My primary goal is to ensure that your feedback and interests are being communicated to the development team. The team reads that feedback and let me know what they are currently working on, what they will potentially work on in the near future, and what they will not be able to work on for some time. There’s a bunch more things that are in my bucket of goals as well, but communicating feedback is definitely the most prominent. 

I really want to see more livestreamers, both on YouTube and Twitch. If players are uncomfortable about streaming, I want to encourage them to seek out currently active livestreamers and get tips and suggestions on how to get started. It’s a really fun way to participate in the community. If you are a new streamer, let us know and we’ll stop by your channel to say hi! 
 
What gaming company did you come from before and how does that experience compare to KingsIsle? 

Portalarium, which also resides here in Austin, TX. It’s actually quite a parallel experience on the more basic levels of community service. Portalarium’s MMORPG, Shroud of the Avatar, has some similar concepts that Wizard101 and Pirate101 have such as housing, crafting, pets, guilds, and so on. While the game is a touch more ‘hardcore’ than Wizard101 in some aspects, these are still general concepts of all MMORPGs that I enjoy getting involved in. That’s one of the reasons why I came to KingsIsle. 

What has been one of your biggest surprises working for KingsIsle? 

We have regular monthly food days! From Cheese Day to Cake Day, it’s really exciting to anticipate a Friday afternoon snack of some kind after working hard during that morning. I’m the kind of person to nibble on sweets all day long. And I’m of course still hoping for an ice cream day.

2018 was arguably one of the best years for Wizard101, with all the member benefits, updates and additional content like bundles. Going into 2019, how does KingsIsle plan to maintain the momentum? 

We’ll be keeping up the member benefit momentum, introducing tons of additional content, and developing more opportunities to play the game with each other! I’m most excited to also be focusing on several new community initiatives yet to be announced, including several contests and events. Keep watch for those in the months ahead. And please do send us your own contests and events so we can share them on the game’s social channels. 

Will Wizard101 be receiving quality of life updates outside of the usual quarterly updates this year? 

While this question is a bit outside of my purview, I can say that we plan to stick to a stable schedule of updates. Above all else, we want to ensure we are adhering to a process and schedule that produces quality content. Changing it too much too quickly and releasing more frequent updates just to announce ‘something,’ even quality of life updates, can result in delays and unhappy community reception of the content. 

How does Kingsisle plan to further connect to and implement the players’ thoughts and wants for Wizard101? 

For 2019, Instagram is a new social media channel that we’ve quickly ramped up. This isn’t exactly a discussion platform though or one that is good for receiving gameplay feedback. For all of those needs, we’ll continue to monitor the community’s feedback in the usual channels and more actively respond to those posts. 

We are also taking a look at using new tools like Trello, which may prove useful in organizing and presenting community concerns to our team. Trello is a posterboard of sorts that can show items of interest with ease, instead of those items being buried in a calendar or a response somewhere deep in the forums. Let us know if you have ever used Trello, we’d like to know what you think of the program. 

With the game reaching 11 years old this year, a lot of drive has been put forth to expand the current free to play areas to allow new players to “get into” the game more. Is this a possibility or just fantasy? 

This is certainly a possibility, one we’ll be continuing to evaluate in 2019 and beyond. We’ve seen the regular community feedback on this point. We promise, it hasn’t been lost on us! 

What led to the sudden drastic increase in member benefits throughout 2018 and can we expect it to continue? 

We wanted to test out some new processes. We quickly found that the increase of benefit offers was well received by the community, so why not continue that success? 

Can you give us any details or hints as to what’s to come in 2019 in Wizard101? 
 
 We’re working on some dev diaries on just this point, keep watch for those on www.youtube.com/kingsisle :). 

 
You’ve mentioned to the community many times that if they have any events, or livestreams going on that, and they want KI to know about it, what would the best way for them to reach you? 
 
 If the event has a definitive date and is coming up in the proceeding days or weeks, we would appreciate a direct email to [email protected] with all of the details. As the event approaches or if it’s something happening ‘now’, then a tweet and even a post on Facebook to get our attention works well. The community is also free to search for me on Discord and other channels (Sparck/Bat Masterson) to send a quick update of events and activities. 

Legendary Storm PvP

Posted on by

Hello, and welcome to Legendary Storm PvP. I know, shocking. Why Legendary Storm PvP you may ask? When I was playing Wizard101, back when PvP was popular among my friends, we all liked Legendary PvP. The not so high stats, the no use of shadow pips, the little grind we did to get House of Scales or Waterworks gear was all fun. As a Legendary Storm, it was definitely a journey. Why Storm and why not Balance though? Good question. I liked that nobody ever really chose this school to solo, nor do I need to be just like everyone else and make one. I liked Storm for its high damage and pierce and the way it handles itself.

PvP as a Legendary nowadays is easy, fun, and sometimes unpredictable. I can guarantee I don’t win every one of my matches, but most. To those reading, you have to either farm Loremaster for some spells, craft or buy packs, depending on your preference. As some spells are wanted in PvP. For example, my storm has Queen Calypso, a card I use to bring out the utility of my spells, and the Damage Per Second it provides. I suggest crafting to those who don’t want to farm or buy packs, as it is one of the fastest ways to get the spells, believe it or not.

Gear and Stats​

My Storm specializes in quick attacks, ending the rounds easily, and has high damage and pierce at 65. For a Storm, I would suggest going for high damage and pierce over critical, because of the critical nerf.

The gear that would be a good set up for Damage and Pierce would be:

  • Robe: House of Scales – Lower Zigazag Vestment
  • Hat: House of Scales – Lower Zigazag Headdress
  • Boots: Professor’s Hoard Pack – Halston’s Stormy Slippers
  • Wand: Immortal’s Lore Pack – Aquilan Velite Lance
  • Ring: Vendor: Brandon Mistborn – Duelist’s Daredevil Ring
  • Athame: Vendor: Brandon Mistborn – Duelist’s Fatal Razor
  • Amulet: Lower Zigazag – Condemned Soldier’s Charm
  • Mount: Avalon Outlaw’s Bundle – Vulpine Avenger Mount for pierce OR
  • Mount: Ghulture’s Hoard Pack – Storm Ghulture for damage
  • Pet: Any pet with all 5 talents being damage for maximum damage output, and socketing a Spell Proof Jewel

Pierce Jewels are needed on your Ring and Athame.

  • Circle Jewel: Plain Piercing Amethyst +3% pierce
  • Tear Jewel: Plain Health Opal +65 health
  • Triangle Jewel: Plain Pip Opal +6% power pip chance
  • Square Jewel: Plain Defense Opal +16 universal resist
  • Triange Jewel: Plain Accurate Amethyst +7 storm accuracy

With all the gear and jewels equipped your storm should have 125 Damage, 32 resist, 27% accuracy, 54% critical chance, 20% pierce and 79% power pip chance. We will also be using Infallible before we hit which gives an additional 15% accuracy and pierce over 4 rounds.

Spells Trained through Training Points​

  • Ice School  – Tower Shield
  • Sun School – Gargantuan
  • (Prepare for the weird one) Fire School – Phoenix, Infection, and Stun Block.

Main Deck Set Up​

  • 6 Queen Calypso’s
  • Max Damage enchants, thus being Gargantuan
  • 3 Lightning Bats
  • 5 Wild Bolts
  • 4 Tower Shields
  • 3 Volcanic Shields
  • 3 Glacial Shields
  • 3 Pixies
  • 3 Darkwinds
  • 2 Storm Dispells
  • 3 Storm Shark
  • 2 Insane Bolts
  • 3 Storm Lord
  • 2 Storm Snakes
  • 4 Storm Blades

Side Deck Set Up​

Now, for that phoenix spell I mentioned earlier – you are going to want to enchant a lot of them from the Mutate Phoenix spell.

The Spell Thunderbird has such high utility, as it gives you x3 +30% traps universally, pack 3 of them.

  • 2 Storm Lord
  • 4 Tower Shields
  • 5 Infallible
  • 3 Kraken
  • 5 side Queen Calypso
  • 3 Triton
  • 2 Storm Shark
  • 3 Triage
  • 2 Gargantuan

Strategy​

The goal is to hit as fast as possible, preferably trying to pull an infallible first round to get that maximum amount of Pierce through the first couple of hits. If you can get infallible up, you can then hit with multiple Queen Calypsos and small hits, dealing good damage, and keeping them on the defensive.

If your opponent hasn’t stun shielded, that’s where Storm Lord comes in play. Switch back from playing offensively and defensively as you will need to make sure you can be able to out damage per second them and survive. Don’t just hit randomly, as we’re built on strategy. Make combined hits that make sense.

For example, you have the pips needed for the 5 pipped Thunderbird. You cast that into a Queen Calypso, giving you a +30% and a +20% traps on your opponent, making use of that utility you have.

Avoid spamming cards like a wild bolt or insane bolt as you are wasting pips. Use a Wild bolt to get off a shield, or start off with a hit, or need to get rid of a card.
Infection is for your heal spammers, and with all the pierce you have, it’s fine to hit through shields. All your other hits, use in situations where you know your opponent is open, and you can do mass damage. All spells and all battles aren’t all the same. Different situations occur, just have to be patient and committed to learn and understand what to do in different situations.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the guide. If you got any questions, my Discord is 𝕴𝖓𝖋𝖊𝖗𝖓𝖆𝕲𝖆𝖒𝖎𝖓𝖌 #1999, and I will gladly answer all questions related to storm Legendary PvP.

Skull Island’s Tavern Band

Posted on by

Somewhere in the Spiral, there’s a refuge for young pirates, orphaned when young who have turned to a life of crime. Marked by skull-shaped mountain, there is danger and treasure lurking all throughout the island region. Whether it’s hoodoo, dueling, brawling, treason, or smuggling, pirates ally with Captain Avery for their own safety and a large cut in the treasure of Captain Gold.

Main Theme

The pace is set immediately with a waltz-like rhythm with the percussion and quacking trumpets. The mood gives us the feeling that something is off, there is a mystery at hand and we’re just the pirate to look into it. This vibe continues as it moves into a 12/8 section 00:12 seconds into the piece, which means there’s three notes per beat. We are given one of the main arpeggios used throughout the soundtrack of Skull Island.

The arpeggio sets up our next section 00:20 seconds in, as the brass features the melody. We also carry over crescendoing chords sustained in the horns from the previous section. The harp twinkles down as the melody passes onto the low reeds, giving a dark and damp feeling, reminiscent of the sewer-like passages within the Skull Mountain.

The climax of the piece comes in at 00:52 seconds. We are no longer in a mysterious minor key, but now an adventurous major key. The violins stir the excitement on their high strings as the oboe plays the melody. The low voices crescendo as the piano strikes along on the downbeat. The resolution drives us forward with a feeling of hope in our adventures as a pirate.

We move on to a clambering call and response from the ensemble before a joyous celebration, alluding to Celestia’s crab march with the castanets and xylophone. 

City Theme

The mood of this piece is serious. Unlike the spookiness, joy, and film-like nature of the other pieces, we begin with a fife- like military march with flutes and drums. After the strings play the main melody, we move into a major key at 00:39 seconds. The strings play rolling hills of arpeggios as other strings instruments accent the first note of each bar.

As the violins descend their quick sixteenth notes, the dynamic of the piece raises and adds in with more instruments. Percussion notably accents the first beat of each bar along with the strings section. After a cymbal roll, we begin a waltz with the brass. The low brass and plucked strings keep the time as the horns play the melody, eventually passing to the accordion.

We enter a new, flourishing section at 1:17 as the brass sustains the chords as the quick violins play speedy figures. The fife adds in to the violins to accent their melody. We end the phrase in a dissonant cluster that seems to be magically cleared by the flute’s ascending glissando.

Skyway Theme

The Skull Island Skyway Theme is a stark contrast to the other pieces. It is bright and joyous and begins with a fanfare, compared to the damp textures the other pieces convey. There is a certain kind of silliness to the piece, like a young child earning their sea legs.

The melody gets passed around from instrument to instrument, taking turns with the texture. Along with that, there is notable hemiola. A hemiola is a complex rhythmic figure where two groupings of three notes can be played as three groupings of two notes, which gives the piece syncopation. A famous hemiola is “America” from West Side Story.

Haunted Theme

The mood of the piece is established right away with the bass end of the piano, swaying back and forth between the notes. Notice how on the harp part, it develops the main arpeggio I pointed out earlier. Also take note of the how the horn pitch bends downward, also like the Main Theme.

This change of mood and instrumentation is what enhances a story. By developing the music along with the story, the music becomes more complex by giving itself a narrative to follow.

 Vaguely like Stravinsky’s The Firebird, we hear the piano and horns play an aggressive melody before the tension breaks with a hauntingly beautiful waltz. The music fits well with the original story of Lasko, Manny, Mo, and Jack who were Ratbeard’s poisoned crew mates, murdered by Ratbeard himself. Lasko wanted his crewmates to have their final wishes before being released to the afterlife and one of them wanted to return a locket to their lost love.

Jungle Theme

The very first bit we hear in the music is the brass pitch bending upward rather than downward, developing a motive we’ve heard in previous pieces. As the brass starts the chord progression, the harp comes in with the arpeggio motif at 00:09 seconds in. This pattern continues as the bassoon comes in with a new idea 00:36 seconds into the piece.

The musical content is layered into the texture while the harp plays a new idea as an ostinato or repetitive figure. The percussion bangs away on the drums, representing the idea of danger in the jungle. This leads to the eventual arrival of the horn taking away the melody. The low strings heavily approach a new ostinato, replacing the melody. The harp and voices add-in, trading off the strings for the brass to lead the orchestra back to the beginning.

Thank you, Starlights, for venturing through the music of Skull Island with me. Have a wonderful night.

Click here for our selection of Music Guides

Disclaimer

Please note: I transcribed the music from the original/classic mode music scrolls. Not all of my transcriptions are 100% accurate, but they are close and the rhythm is properly notated

The Dragon Titan Army Band

Posted on by

Intended for Musician and Non-Musician Alike

"Things started turning darker. Kingsisle were talking about dark and epic Mordor Wagner 'Flight of The Valkyries' in The Ring Cycle. I am looking at concept art and the NPC characters had Russian military influence; All the architecture was darker - more foreboding."
- Nelson Everhart in "Musical Tour Of The Spiral 6: Dragonspyre"

“Main Theme”

Just as mentioned in Everhart’s video linked above, we begin our adventure in Dragonspyre with a world-stopping minor-Major seventh chord, which flourishes throughout the ensemble as the harp and woodwinds flutter downward, providing emotional dissonance. We typically associate the word “dissonant” with something that sounds bad, but in this piece, it provides an unsettling air. 

The ninth of the chord is added to the melody bringing even more color and lending an elegant dissonance to the third tone. The third tone of the chord gives the emotion, so this dissonance that rubs against it creates a feeling of tension and suspension.

The intrada stops 00:10 seconds into the piece, bringing us a chord progression that starts in a minor key, then becomes uplifting and progresses back to the same chord with a picardy third. A picardy third is when a minor chord changes the third tone to become a Major chord. This progression carries along, developing the arpeggiating figures and changing the chords before it reaches a climax into a new section at 00:30 seconds. The strings play the main melody as the brass plays a counterline beneath, eventually joining together into a dismal setting at 00:40 seconds. The trumpet enters, bringing a sliver of hope before it fades away into the darker minor chords and ends.

The next section frolics dastardly within the woodwinds and harp, quickly arpeggiating, presenting the feeling of sneaking and slyness. The strings caress the melody beneath this texture, giving support to the voices above and conveying a kind of dark magic brewing within.

Picking up into timestamp 1:26, we transition into the brass as the bridge takes us into the next section, with heavy Lydian chord dissonances in the bass. The music is ascending into this one epic moment. At timestamp 1:45 we are given the antithesis to the main Wizard101 theme, an operatic technique. The same descending arpeggios and textures are used as the brass plays the ascending melody in a minor key. This reflects the darkness of the world and the danger the Wizard is in.

“Theme 1”

Calling back to the previous piece, we begin with the hard percussion, horns, and masculine choir. Through borrowed chords (chords that are similar to the key, but not the same) and chromatic mediants (chords that have slight or no relation to the key), we get a dark and enchanting texture. Also calling back to the previous piece, we have these four-note motifs played in the horns that bring us through the chord progression. The texture thickens with the addition of the woodwinds, but it 

Concept art of the fire wizard from the original Wizard101 loading screen

harkens forth, like a great army coming from the distance, closer and closer.

This brings us into the next section at 00:50 seconds which uses a repetitive eighth note figure in the horns as the rest of the orchestra brings forward tutti stabs, transitioning us into action. The same texture is still present, but now the melody in the brass and the high strings add-in, playing the chord progression while the trumpets sing in the higher register.

Next, the strings section glissandos in unbreaking unison as the flutes play descending Danny Elfman triplets. In film-scoring or in this case, game-scoring, notes in pairs of threes that have the same note on the first and third beat are considered “Danny Elfman triplets”  because it is characteristic of his work in pieces such as his Batman Theme or Alice’s Theme. The triplets develop, changing notes along the chord progression, giving the piece sass.

As the texture from before returns, the arpeggio transforms from being a Danny Elfman triplet, to playing the entire arpeggio. The notes rock up and down, leading us to a flourish that counterpoints between the sections. The piece calms down and recapitulates the music before returning to the beginning. 

“Theme 2”

A military march kicks the piece off, setting the texture and pace with some aggressive snare and bass drums. The dark minor tonality in the low brass gives us the feeling that something powerful is coming, and it is nearby. The choir joins in as the pauses in this motif get closer and closer until an ostinato in the strings takes off with the chimes adding further texture.

The solo trumpet comes in like before, continuing the style of the piece. The low brass and choir responds to the trumpet’s call. This idea repeats, leading to the addition of the strings. At 00:50 seconds, we introduce new musical content. The higher voices of the ensemble play ascending arpeggios, developing the arpeggiating ideas from the other pieces and giving the impression the single idea has split into two. While this is happening, the arpeggio splits among the other instruments, trading between them when they play, creating a more complex texture. Then, we return to the original arpeggio in the woodwinds as the rest of the ensemble sustains onto the chords. This idea trades off between the other instruments in the ensembles, growing in volume. 

At timestamp 1:15, the woodwinds move onto a new idea. Great swooping arpeggios that feel like dragon wings fly over the melody that is being played by the strong brass. This texture is prominent in the next track as it comes to its climax as well. This presents the idea as something we can ground our emotions onto, so we will remember this section when it is recontextualized.

Then the ostinato kicks in as a power drive to the end. The brass plays familiar motifs from the previous melodies to latch on to our memories of the ever-dangerous Dragonspyre.

“Theme 3”

 In the beginning, the drums set the tone of the piece with a stately march, keeping tempo for the horn’s repetitive melody. The lower brass joins the bass drum, thickening and supporting the texture as the woodwinds play the eighth note motif that the horns played in the melody.

The motion stops as the bass instruments play introducing the   

orchestra which joins in with a similar motif. The idea develops through a different articulation by stabbing at the notes rather than playing them legato, or smoothly. Next, we are greeted by a familiar idea in the woodwinds, rocking back and forth between two notes before completing the rest of the arpeggio. This idea can be found in the other tracks and provides texture as the brass harmonizes. Finally, the choir joins in bringing the rest of the brass section, the strings, and additional percussive flourishes, such as crash cymbals.

The excitement halts as the orchestra becomes homophonic, playing in a similar fashion, but harmonizing together. Afterward, the trumpets lead us into a climactic section that develops the two-note repetition idea by playing the first two notes in the woodwinds only, while the strings and brass take the melody. A familiar idea, but now re-imagined in a flourishing major key before becoming tense and heroic to reflect our now deathly situation.

In the end, we come full circle to a military feeling before engaging in an anthem. Very patriotic in style, it presents the strength of Dragonspyre as a force to be reckoned with. This dissipates into the bras and chimes, leading us back to the beginning.

“Theme 4”

Once again, we are greeted by a familiar symphonic texture, giving Dragonspyre continuity in its musical identity. After establishing the mood, the piece drifts to become sad and wistful in the next section. The strings lull us as the harp gently caresses the arpeggios. The flutes join in, embellishing the texture.
The brass crescendos quickly as the rest of the orchestra comes in

referencing the homophonic texture from before. This leads us to a climactic point in which the repetitive arpeggio from before creates tension as the brass sustains the chords. The next section contrasts this texture with stabs. Ideas from the previous tracks peep throughout this piece, greeting us like an old friend for this finale.

At 00:51 seconds in, we hear a theme being carried from instrument to instrument. The theme goes deeper and deeper, much like our wizard coming closer and closer to Malistaire in the story. This theme is played in The Crown of Fire, during the time that our wizard is carried by the young Battle Drake to our final confrontation with Malistaire.  

In the final section, the orchestra splits beats with the ensemble, creating syncopation before joining together. This thrilling moment dies down as the choir begins to solemnly sing. The flute and strings join in, introducing a new melody at timestamp 01:24. We enter a new key. It’s a major key, bright and happy. The future is looking bright and we are uplifted. Although the story is not over yet! Magic and mystery shroud us, and we can never be too sure whether those enemies we have conquered in the past may come back to haunt us.

Thank you, Starlights, for venturing through the music of Dragonspyre with me. Have a wonderful night.

Click here for our selection of Music Guides

Disclaimer

Please note: I transcribed the music from the original/classic mode music scrolls. Not all of my transcriptions are 100% accurate, but they are close and the rhythm is properly notated. The example in “Theme 1” comes from Nelson Everhart’s video, as linked.

Dorm Decorating: Xmas Edition

Posted on by

It’s Christmastime in the Spiral once again! I’m sure all of you are just about as excited as I am (as if that’s even possible!). It’s the most wonderful time of the year and you can show your Christmas cheer with an exciting and original Christmas themed dorm room!

I am completely new at glitching and Castle Magic, but I’ve picked up a bunch of fun tricks this season to share with you all! For my dorm, I didn’t want to use any of the Christmas themed trees we all love so much. Instead, I decided to make my own original Christmas tree.

For my Christmas tree, I chose to use six of the Blue Holiday Ornaments and glitched them into the air using my trusty Maple Bookcase and Black Checker. For this glitch, all you have to do is set down whatever object you want to float and then place the bookcase next to it. Then you place the Black Checker on whichever shelf that you want your item to be in the air. You grab your Black Checker on the shelf and move it so your bookcase sinks into the floor. Once it’s there, you can move the item into the bookcase and then move the maple bookcase and your object is in the air! After this, to remove your bookcase, you grab the checker again and move it so your item stays in place.

I found all of the ornaments used for this in the Bazaar (and for quite a cheap price). All around my tree I have floating presents using the aforementioned ornament glitch. I thought this would be a really magical focal point and it turned out better than I had imagined. Speaking of the actual Christmas tree, it’s the Snowy Polarian Tree shrunk down twice along with the ornaments using Castle Magic. As you’ve probably noticed by now, my not-so-Christmas tree topper isn’t actually on the top of my tree. I did this because outside of Photomancy, the tree is too tall for it to show. For this, I just grabbed a handy Star Staff and enlarged it five times with Castle Magic as well.  

To the left of my tree, I made a cozy sitting space featuring one of the goodest of boys. Right next to him, I glitched a Regular Keeper Tank with a Red Cap Carpe (the perfect Santa fish!) into the floor using a rug and the Maple Bookcase. For this glitch, you start by placing your tank in your dorm and then set out your Maple Bookcase with the Black Checker on the lowest shelf. Once that is done, you grab the checker and move the opposite end on the bookcase into the tank. Grab the Maple Bookcase and set it down so that your tank is up in the air. After this you grab the checker once more and move it so that the bookcase is no longer touching the tank, which is now floating. Then you pick up your bookcase and then place it once more. This time you will put your checker on the second shelf and place a medium rug (either the Medium Magenta or Medium Purple). You then move the checker so your bookcase sinks once more and place the opposite end on the long side of your rug. Next, you move the bookcase and make sure that the rug is placed evenly inside of the tank. As you’ll see now, the rug fits perfectly where the wooden bottom stops and the blue base starts. Once this is done, remove the bookcase by grabbing the checker and place it somewhere else in the room. Pick up the bookcase. Grab the rug and move it anywhere in your room where you want your tank and you’ll see that the tank is sunk into the floor without the bottom wooden piece showing!

Inside the tank, I have a shrunk down Snowman and a Snow Pile. Remember that when glitching items inside of the tank, you need to place them where the tank will be first, which can get tricky if you need to float each item. That’s why sinking the tank is a perfect option if you want some extra flair! For the Snowman and Snow Pile, I shrunk them both using Castle Magic Reflectors and Start Detectors with the shrink cards in place (this is all trial and error, depending on how small you want an item. Using a Magic Reflector, you can use castle magic on up to eight items and you can shrink or grow a single item at least eight times!).  On top of the tank, we have another Snow Pile shrunk down. I also included some Yuletide Candy Canes and peppermints for all of the guests to enjoy.

One of my favorite glitches of all time would have to be putting the Silver Chest over the plain wooden one for your bank. It was revolutionary for me when I first tried it and it worked so well! I simply used two medium rugs and the chest. All you must do is place one rug on top of the other at different angles and rotate the first one until it is under the wooden chest. Once that’s done, you set down your Silver Chest (which is the one found under the furniture tab in the Bazaar) directly on top of your wooden bank chest.  You’ll never have a plain chest for your bank again!

Next to the chest, we have a matching table with the Cookies and Milk glitched on top using the Maple Bookcase once again since they wouldn’t fit normally, you always have to give a little something back to Santa! (even if he is trapped in your fish tank at the moment).

Next to my glitched chest, I used up my spare Blue Holiday Ornaments and glitched them into the air and placed the Azteca Basket underneath. For that, I used the Maple Bookcase and Black Checker glitch with the bottom shelf, one with the second shelf from the bottom. All ornaments were shrunk two sizes down and I enlarged the basket by a size. All the String Lights were enlarged twice with Castle Magic as well. Last but not least, in the window, I placed the Gingerbread House to finish off my dorm.

I hope you all enjoyed my article on How to Make the Most of your Dorm: Christmas Edition! Decorate those dorms and have a very magical Merry Christmas!

This article is by Community Contributor, Jen Skullbreaker

The Elements of Decorating

Posted on by

Intended For the Novice Decorator

I have no doubt you’ve been to homes with phenomenal mazes that extend to places in the sky you didn’t think they could reach, or beautiful portal displays of every house in the game. Each portal with an angel plant at elder, dancing elegantly nearby, or player-made homes of building blocks that are realistic in exterior and interior design. They all grab something within us. A kind of magic different than anything else in the game. When we enter those phenomenal homes, we are pulled into their absolute splendor.

Whether it’s to find a housing gauntlet or be inspired by other decorators, we’ve all entered another player’s in-game castle and felt a sense of awe in its aesthetic. As an avid housing decorator, I have won contests and have earned positions on the Top Rated houses leader board. Today, we will delve into the elements of decorating and see how you can apply these skills of craftsmanship to your own interior and exterior decor.

The Elements

Scale

Evaluate the overall size of your decoration in comparison to your character as well as your screen. From creating three-story high towers that can’t fit in your screen, to the smallest flower pot, the element of scale is probably one of the most important considerations.

Depth

Similar to “Space,” we need to think about angles and balance between the items. We cannot be decorating too flat, but we also need to decide what should get the most attention with depth. Debatably, this element can also be considered the most important.

Space

Next, we must determine how much space there should be between your items. Where can people walk through? Where should people walk through? At times, I find the best use of space in my home is when I block off areas I simply don’t want to decorate in order to focus on the bigger picture.

Realism

The truthfulness and believability that your decoration style can be accepted as possible in the game. For example, this does not mean you cannot have floating candles, because that can be explained with magic. Therefore, that would be truthful and believable. What this rule suggests, is to justify your room or exterior, and try to think of it from a new perspective. We must justify how believable the design is by looking at it with our visitor’s eyes in mind. 

Originality

 Does that stunning, beautiful, masterful home you just decorated feel like it’s yours? Of course, incorporating other’s ideas doesn’t hurt, but what does taking that idea add? How do you develop upon the different styles and themes within your castle? Remember, context screams louder than the idea itself.

Texture

 Make sure nothing feels too repetitive in your decor. Try to find items that break up your texture and gather attention, or create textures that repeat well together. With repetition, the simpler an idea is, the better. With complexity, it is better for it to stand-alone.

Color

Color is quite powerful. I suggest knowing or learning some color theory. Learn about the emotional impact of colors, what colors represent, what different colored roses represent, which are the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors- the list goes on. Think about how different colors make you feel.

Palette

A palette is a collection of colors that are consistent throughout your design. As this is a video game where we cannot always pick specific colors, we should be lenient with where our shades and tones happen to fall within the overall color family.

Example: Garden of The Albion Enchantress  

 

My entry for Paige Moonshade’s annual Summer contest.
Honorable mention 2018.

Here is one of the dorm rooms I’ve decorated, entered in Paige Moonshade’s Ninth annual best little Wizard City dorm contest. Let’s go through each of the various elements to see how we employ them in this example.

The scale might be one of the first things you notice. Several well-placed items make the room feel more grandiose because of their stature. The objects barely fit into the frame. Next, let’s see the depth. We create depth through the garden between the archways. Very diorama-like, it sits with us having to peer in, with each one of us taking a different perspective. This technique is used in Mooshu, with there being a fence next to the sidewalk and bamboo plants spread out between the wall of bamboo.

By examining this space, we see it is very tight, crammed, and in-your-face, especially when viewing it from an in-game perspective. Standing there, You are filled with a view 360 degrees around you of items. You can barely find your way out, and it’s not the door you think it may be. It is overgrown and wild, the feeling, like an enchanted garden that belongs to an evil queen.

We may find ourselves questioning the truthfulness of this design. Would an overgrown, enchanted garden of a witch looks like this? I  believe it would be. It was very W.I.T.C.H. inspired, after I had binge-watched the short running television series for the second time, and I wanted to incorporate its dark and contrasting magical vibe into my own decor (notice how that also covered the color section too? These elements can correlate to each other in intriguing ways!).

 

Selfie!

Some of the ways I break up the texture of items in my design is by using wall lamps to pretend to hang them on pillars and wall-like items. In a similar fashion, the bright mushroom breaks apart the dark violet texture, while still being within the color scheme established. In our palette, we see bright greens, dark violets, vibrant and dark reds, and light blues. These are consistent and rarely fall out of line.

As decorators, we strive to create new worlds within our own homes or give homage to the ones we have quested in, and bring it to life. Each Wizard is given one dorm in Ravenwood and I hope this helps you make the best of it and the other castles that you own. Thank you, Starlights

Renee Wooften Interview

Posted on by

Recently, the Ravenwood Academy staff had the pleasure of spending some time with Renee Wooten aka Renee Wooften, one of the Associate Producers at KingsIsle. After spending 3 years answering customer inquiries, in-game issues, billing concerns, and bug reports and then becoming an Associate Producer we decided that she had an interesting perspective we would like to hear more about. We really appreciate her taking the time to answer our questions and can’t wait to see what exciting things she brings to the team in the future. Also, what IS she up to in Olde Towne at that tunnel??? Let’s see if we can find out. 

Q. Empyrea Part 2 added Whirlyburly, can you tell us if there are any plans to build on and expand it to make it more appealing?
A. We always envisioned Whirlyburly to be something that we wanted to expand upon depending on how players received it. I hope we get a chance to expand upon it and would love to continue getting feedback from players on the forums!

Q. Can you tell us if there are any plans for updates to keep the current influx of players interested, or will we be continuing to mainly see the big half-year updates?
A. We always strive to balance out quality of life and content updates. Quality of life is typically revisiting systems that are already in place and how we can make them more enjoyable or accessible to players. 

Q.  Have you heard of any plans to create further side content? (like pvp, whirlyburly, fishing, gardening)
A. We are in constant conversation about creating new side content. 😉

Q. Will we continue to see graphics updates in the worlds past Wizard City?
A. Currently, there are no plans to expand past Wizard City. This does not mean it could not potentially change in the future.

Q.Will we see more of these crowns events? Will we get other different types of events in the future? 
A. We are always trying to brainstorm different events and have always wanted to reward our players that choose to not be members, but also maintain the value of having a membership. We are looking into making adjustments to future events in hopes to make it more rewarding based on feedback from the community. 

Q. Will we ever see a new side world like Grizzleheim and Wysteria?
A. There’s always a possibility. 🙂

Q. Can you give us any hints about what other exciting surprises are coming to the Spiral in 2019?

A. We are currently still working on a solid plan for the year, but it’s going to be exciting and ambitious once again. Hopefully we’ll have more to share in the coming months.