Petmaking 101

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

The Masteries of Wizard101

Greetings fellow wizards! In this article I will discuss the different type of masteries, where they are dropped and their usage in PvP/PvE.

What are Masteries?

Masteries are a subgroup of amulets that allow a wizard to use Power Pips with spells that are not of their own school.

This is what a mastery looks like.
This one is the Life School Amulet.

Where to Find Them

Any Level

Dropped from either Waterworks, located in Crab Alley, Wizard City, or from The Tower of The Helephant, located in Pegasus Place, Wysteria.  Both are avaliable to wizards at level 60 or higher.
It can also be bought from the Crowns shop for 9995 crowns

Level 90

 

 

Dropped by all 3 secret bosses in Aquila.
Mount Olympus – Gladiator Dimachaerus
Atlantea – Sand Squid Tentacle
Tartarus – Cronus

Level 100

 

 

Dropped by the hidden chest in the first part of Darkmoor. A gold key is required to gain access to the boss. Castle Darkmoor becomes available to wizards who reach level 100

Level 110

 

 

 

Dropped by Omen Stribog in the River of Frozen Tears in Polaris. A gold key is required.

Level 130

 

 

 

Can either be crafted from a recipe bought in Nimbus Recipe vendor Romar sells the recipe for 50,000 gold

Usage in PVE and PVP

Life: Mainly used because of the amount of healing spells it offers. Regenerate and Satyr are the most popular to save you which in battle either in PvP or PvE. 

Death: Mainly used with damage, life steal and healing spells. But its more commonly used to spam the enemies with plagues.

Myth: Mainly used to stun, using earthquake to remove all the enemies blades and shields or the use of shatter. 

Balance: Mainly used to spam Loremaster and Mana Burn in PvP, but also used when the wizard wants to be a support focused player.

Fire: Mainly used for damage over time hits (DOTs) which include Fire Elf and Burning Rampage. Also good for the Eirikur Axebreaker spell that comes from the ColdFire Dragon pet.

Ice: Mainly used for the shields that ice has to keep their damage low and you can use it to stun your enemies.

Storm: Use if you want to land high damage hits on your enemy or cast dispels.

What else are Masteries good for?


Masteries are not just used for PvP and PvE, they can also be used as part of a stitch. For example,  if you’re trying to make yourself look like a life wizard it looks cool to have the orbs flying around your wizard’s head.

To the right is an example of the Mastery Amulet stitched to a matching look.

You can use a mastery from another school to take care of some of the weaknesses that your main school has. For example, Storm wizards have low health so some Storm wizards might use a Life Mastery to get themselves out of any sticky situations. 

If you buy or farm for a Mastery Amulet, I hope this guide helps you to use it to your best advantage in game!

A Game Changing Deck Strategy

Have you been spending your training points on a secondary school thinking it’s the best option to help on your questing journey?

Well, I have a little game changer for you! Personally, this helped me so much in my journey through the spiral. I am a life wizard and everyone knows us life wizards don’t hit hard in the beginning. It’s a struggle until we get Forest Lord. So, I thought learning the spells of the strongest school in the game would help me out a lot. I was wrong. I struggled through all the worlds until I got to Celestia, which is main world no.6! I spent all my training points on the wrong cards.

It wasn’t until I found a useful set up that saved me more times than I can remember that life in the Spiral got a bit easier.

Let’s elaborate shall we?

ICE - Tower Shield

Tower shield is a necessary spell in case you are facing an enemy you don’t have a shield for or didn’t pack a treasure card for. It reduces 50% damage from any school. I don’t take this spell out of my deck unless I have a shield to match the school of the enemy I’m facing in battle. You have to be level 16 to learn it. All spells require 1 training point but you will have to learn Frost Beetle, Snow Serpent, Volcanic Shield, and Evil Snowman before getting access to train the spell. You will need a total of 5 training points.

Tower Shield is also available as a Treasure Card which gives an additional 5% shield. It can be bought from the Bazaar in Wizard City Olde Town.

DEATH - Feint

Feint is one of my favorite spells from the death school. It’s a trap that adds 70% damage with a small catch of also casting a 30% trap on you. It is not linked to another school, so can be used on any enemy to add more damage. You will have to be level 26 to be able to get this spell. You will have to learn Dark Sprite, Ghoul, Dream Shield, Banshee, Vampire, and Skeletal Pirate before getting it. You will need a total of 7 training points.

Feint is also available as a Treasure Card too! Instead of a 30% trap on your self it reduces to 20%. Also can be bought from the Bazaar.

BALANCE - Reshuffle

Reshuffle, a spell I had no idea was actually trainable in Wizard City itself! This spell is another favorite of mine and never leaves my deck. It is a massive help when you’re fighting a boss, or even a mob battle and haven’t packed enough attack spells or heals. Reshuffle does exactly what it’s called, reshuffles all your cards back into your deck. This spell is located in Colossus Boulevard in Wizard City. Mildred Farseer has the spell for you to train along with a few others. You will have to be level 20 to be able to train it and will only be 1 training point. You do not need to learn all the spells that she offers in order to train one. 

Reshuffle can be bought from the Bazaar. If you haven’t trained the spell and see it in the Bazaar, buy it quick as it is fast to go. You can also buy Reshuffle from the Library in the commons of Wizard City.

Below is a picture of Mildred Farseer and a map of where she is located in Colossus Boulevard. 

BALANCE - Spirit and Elemental Blades/Traps

These 4 spells are great for setting up a boss or mob to increase your damage. The blades adding 35% and traps adding 25% damage. They are not only great for yourself but if you are working with a team of other wizards, you can also help out by trapping the enemy they are aiming to hit or casting the blades on them. So these are a multi-useful spell. I would only get the cards that match your school.

Niles, the Balance tree has these spells. He is at the entrance of the Krokosphinx in Krokotopia, which is the second main world in the Spiral.  You will have to be level 15-25 to get these spells and you also must complete all the Wizard City main quests to gain the Krokotopia Spiral Key. Each of these spells needs 1 training point. 

Below is a picture of Niles and where he is located.

Training Points

To learn all the spells above, you will need a total of 15 training points. Don’t panic! Every four levels, you gain 1 training point and your school spells don’t cost anything! Also, doing Prospector Zeke’s quests in every world, which involve you exploring the world you are in to find whatever item he has requested, will help you gain another training point in each world.

A picture of Prospector Zeke along with 2 of his quests are below.

saffron22

I hope this guide helps you the way it did for me! 

Shields101

Shields are a type of ward and are the exact opposite of traps. While traps add damage to a spell, shields detract damage. Charms and blades trigger first, and wards go second. So any shielding you do will affect the spell with the charm buffs.
 
There are three different types of shields: Absorbs, Universal Shields, and School-Specific Shields.
 

ABSORBS

Some absorbs absorb a set amount of damage.
Life gets absorb 400 damage at level 16
 
Other absorbs take damage based on the number of pips the wizard has when it was cast.
If the wizard had 3 non-power pips, the absorb would absorb 375 points of damage. Ice learns this spell at level 18
 

It’s important to note that any damage will be absorbed by this shield, making all absorbs also universal shields. If there is a boss that takes universal shields, they will take absorbs that are individually cast. (Rebirth users, rejoice! Some bosses won’t take your absorb, but some will. Depends on the boss)

UNIVERSAL SHIELDS

These are the shields the Ice school is known for. You guessed it; the tower shield. The other, slightly less common one is the legion shield. A universal shield takes a certain percentage off of any school-type damage before it hits you. A tower shield, specifically, halves the damage. A spell that does a 100 damage will only do 50. The legion shield takes off 30% damage.

SCHOOL SPECIFIC SHIELDS

These are the most numerous. There are school shields for every school except balance. There are different amounts of damage they take off as well. Everyone, starting at level 10, can get a -80% shield of their school for no training point cost. Others can be trained for one point each if you wish. Sabrina Greenstar, in the Commons, by Hilda Brewer, trains these spells

Each school, except for Balance, gets a spell with two -70% shields of the other members of its trio. The elemental trio (Storm, Fire, and Ice) can get the Glacial (Fire), Thermic (Storm), or Volcanic (Ice) shield. The spirit trio (Life, Death, and Myth) can get the Legend (Life), Dream (Death), or Ether (Myth) shield.

As you can see, the Volcanic shield gives the user two shields; one-70% storm, and one -70% fire.

Just because Balance isn’t a part of a trio, doesn’t mean it gets left out. Balance wizards get two different spells. One spell has the spirit trio shields, all at -50%. The other spell is the elemental shield.

NOTE: Damage over time’s (DOTs) do count as incoming damage, meaning that any shield placed will be used by the DOT. This is either helpful or just a nuisance.

Be careful, and pay attention.

LAYERING SHIELDS

Just like traps and blades, shields can also be layered. However, two shields of the same kind will not stack. Three of the same type of tower shields won’t work better than one tower shield. However, it is worth noting that different types of shields can be stacked. For instance, a trained tower shield can be stacked on top of a treasure card tower shield to increase its protection.
The rule of layering: First thing on, last thing off!
 
When it comes to layering shields, you should watch carefully. A tower shield placed before an absorb will only trigger after the absorb has been broken. A tower shield placed after an absorb will trigger as soon as you take damage, halving the damage the absorb takes. If you’re in charge of shielding think about whether you want an absorb as the last line of defense, or if you want standard shields last.
 
Consider this scenario, you place a Spirit Armor (400 absorb) on a teammate. The teammate suffers no damage, and next round you place a -80% Storm on top of it. The enemy casts a Storm Lord (690 base damage) and ends up doing a total of 0 damage. This is because the -80% storm shield lowered the damage to 138. The absorb had enough to take the damage, lowering the amount left to 262.
 
Now, consider the reverse, with the storm shield on first, and the absorb on second. The opponent hits. The absorb takes 400 damage, leaving 290. The -80% shield pops, damaging the wizard with 58 points.
 
These two scenarios are basic, but, as you can see, layering shields so you can get the best advantage out of them is important. Keep track of the shields going off and on.


GETTING RID OF SHIELDS

Ice has this handy little spell called Steal Ward. It takes a shield off of the chosen target and places it on you. However, this only works for the most recently cast shield. If a wizard places a tower shield followed by a -80% Myth shield, the spell will take the -80% shield off.
 
Myth’s infamous Earthquake will take every ward off including any traps. If there are important traps that need to stay in place, Shatter can be used instead on a single target for 3 pips. After reaching level 100, Mystic Colossus will do a mass shatter, taking all unused shields and leaving behind any unused traps. Myth can also use Pierce to remove the last shield cast in much the same way as Ice’s Steal.
 
Another way of taking shields off is with small spells. Wand charges, for example, will take a tower shield off, or a school-specific shield. A decent DOT will be enough to take off most absorbs. Having a teammate hit before you will also be semi-helpful if they can pull the absorbs and universal shields.


CONCLUSION

Shields are just as important as blades and traps. When soloing in attack gear shields can save you. They can give you enough time to save pips for that one-shot. When shielding others, keep in mind their health and resist. Don’t just shield one person, pay attention to every Wizard. Properly used, shields can make all the difference in your quest for victory.

Basic Deck Building

INTRODUCTION

This is a guide that is designed to help people build their decks accordingly, as a lot of people tend to overcrowd, under-pack, and/or leave out some useful cards.

This focuses on max level decks, however lessons learnt here can be applied to any level of play.

This guide is broken down into 4 categories of decks, of which each category will go into further specifics and detail: Offensive, Supportive, Healing, and Defensive.

Just remember that there is no rule to sticking to one certain build type. Logically mixing sets and types for maximum output within the game makes a whole lot of sense. A very basic idea of this is how Defensive and Healing can easily be mixed, for a little less here and a little more here. It’s not all about min-maxing.

We also recommend having multiple decks, and having each of them set up for their certain task. This will make going into battles easier and will ensure you won’t be That Guy who takes 5 minutes before every boss to “Fix your deck.”

Please note that we differentiate between a “boss fight” and a “dungeon”.  

A boss fight would be a single boss, no cheats etc.  A dungeon is, well… a dungeon!


OFFENSIVE

Single target hits ARE NOT always needed. While they may be useful in solo boss fights, all of the offensive schools have AOE hits that can rival a Single Target attack in damage. (e.g. Glowbug Squall VS Rusalka’s Wrath) Unless you’re in a boss fight alone, you typically only need a max of 4/5 blades, a few hits, and epics for those hits. And potentially some feints depending on the health of the boss.

  • This is an example of a basic, offensive Storm deck. With an amulet and pet blade, this can OHKO just about anything with a bugs or lord. Tempest would be used against really weak minions or to clean up low HP enemies.

  • This is an example of a basic, offensive Fire deck. The exact same principle as the storm deck, just fire!

Of course, the addition of traps, potents, and auras can all work to your advantage, too, should you require them.  However if you’re not alone, someone else can normally help out with these. There’s a lot of class specific traits too, Death’s LOVE to use frenzy but Storm tends to be a little too squishy for those drastic means. One thing I’d never recommend using are bubbles. For 2-4 pips, they’re usually not worth using! Try keep your Offensive decks slimmer and more concise. You don’t want someone dying because you couldn’t pull a hit!


SUPPORTIVE

This Class we’ve created is a little oddly named. But it is by far the most versatile and in some cases important role in the team. This role will consist of various uses, all very different yet important.

  • This variation of Storm deck would be used if you are required to spam hits in order to prevent a certain cheat. But it also allows for you to help set-up should the opportunity present itself.

  • This sort of deck is a set-up deck, including side. You aren’t hitting, merely making sure whoever is does so much damage everyone simultaneously says “overkill lol”. However should the enemy survive, your back up hit can clean up the 1k health or so.

Supportive by nature is there to support your team in whatever way is needed. You may be used to bypass a cheat system, set-up your attacker or help out with shields and healing. It’s an ultimate mix of whatever is needed by your team, but this is also the easiest build type to overcrowd your deck. Try and know what you’ll be doing more of before the fight, so you focus more on that. Important to note, if the main hitter is fully bladed and just waiting on pips or to pull, feel free to blade yourself up, just don’t hit. You don’t want to clear any feints or traps in place. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised!


HEALING

This one is fairly self-explanatory. You’re there to refill those little red spheres when they get low. This is by far the hardest role for anyone to just randomly pick up, and is normally very class dependent Eg: Life or Death

  • This is a pretty healing-focused Life deck. You worked your way up to 159% outgoing and you’re gonna make sure your team knows it! It’s just all about healing here. You’d also include some Pigsie, sadly I’m not that good.

  • This is a more balanced healing deck for Death. This allows them to pump out high intensity healing, but still provide some extra Support. This is more of a Supportive/Healing build. Healing in combo with traps, blades, feintsetc.

Healing is normally only really needed inside of dungeons. A core thing to note is you’ll want to expand on these decks further. Find what works for youReshuffles are also rather important. Running out of cards to heal your team is never a good thing!  It also wouldn’t hurt to incorporate shields into your deck, so support your team in a bulkier way, but that is for our next category!


DEFENSIVE

This is quite possibly the most useless of the classes, in modern Wiz that is. Nowadays the dream of an Ice or a Jade entering first to pull their aggression, with the rest of the team entering late doesn’t exist thanks to the wonderful addition of Late CheatsHowever it can still find use when used in combination with other class types. But the basic premise is shields, or debuff spamming the enemy.

  • This deck for Death would be used against a Storm boss. Of course this isn’t all you’d use, but these are the core ideas for this concept.

So you’ve got all your shields, and then all your weaknesses. Then you’re gonna wanna throw in some extra debuffs, soinfections, mantles etc. Lastly, adjust it to suit who you’re fighting, by changing out dispels and set shields! This class has basically been absorbed by Supportive and Healing builds in today’s game. But I figured I’d include it due to the cards being really useful and worthy of their own section. But these decks are basically used to increase your teams longevity, and make those pesky hits hurt a lot less! But alone they will be rather weak, so make sure to mix these in with other builds.


DUNGEON EDITS

This idea isn’t too hard to understand. Do some research on the Wiki and learn a bosses cheats. Then simply adjust your deck accordingly to help you better fight it!  You can find a variety of boss guides on this site to help you out! Below I’ll go through some nifty examples to help you understand:

  1. Omen Striborg: It’s kinda funny that the boss in this fight isn’t the challenge, it’s his minion with way too much health. However, you can’t blade! So no supercharge! But traps work, so get a fire to hit after using a backdraft or two, on top of a million traps.
  2. Rasputin: You’re gonna need to spam a lot of hits, as every time you do just about anything he’ll summon a minion.
  3. Malistaire: You’re gonna need to learn his cycle if you’re gonna wanna hit. He’ll clear all blades, traps, shields etc every 4 rounds. So pack multiple of each type of blade, you’re gonna need them. Also, Doom and Gloom is needed.
  4. Fight Club: This one is a pain to fight. You can’t blade other people, you have to spam hits, and you cannot feint. This dungeon is just not enjoyable all round.

So please, look up your bosses and cheats! You don’t wanna be that guy who triggers an enfeeble cheat the round you hit!