Wizard101’s Backpack Butler!

Posted on November 14, 2019November 17, 2019 by Sarai Willowbreeze

Have you ever done this? You put an item somewhere because you are in a hurry to make some room in your backpack. And then you tell yourself you’ll remember where it is. Well, I never do remember, do you? Now you can worry no more as the Backpack Butler will show you exactly where you left it!

Finally, after years of losing items in your castles, banks, and shared banks. KingsIsle has given us an amazing solution! Being designed in the Steampunk style, this item is adorable! You’ll see it’s a twin to Gearwise, the recipe vendor in Celestia. And with his help, you can now locate any item, anywhere. No more lost mounts, pets or gear!

You will find him in Aubert Quickhammers shop, in the shopping district. Easily located under housing items, on the last page. What a great deal at only 2500 gold!

Using the Backpack Butler

Start your interaction with him by walking up and clicking X. Fortunately, they have made the interface quite straightforward. For instance, it starts by cataloging every item your Wizard owns. After completing the load, it will have the entire backpack highlighted. Of course mine showed over 600 pages! Yes, I’m a proud member of Hoarders Anonymous! As you can see, it has tabs for gear, pets, mounts, and potions. There is also a second page for housing items.

After opening these pages you can search for a specific item, using the find items text box. You can also scroll through different tabs to see what you have and where it is. In addition, there are 4 columns that show you the location, how many of the item there is, the name of the item, and the type of item.

The location column is where the Butler shines. You’ll notice that they have emblems to represent different places to find your items. You will hover your mouse over the emblem to see the location. Above all, it will tell you not only which castle it’s in, but also whether it is inside or outside. Gear on a mannequin? No worries as not only will it specify a mannequin, but will tell you where the mannequin is. Gear in a vault? Same thing, in a gear vault and in which castle.

The last thing we will be looking at is the sorting system for pets. As you can see, in the bottom right corner of the screen, there is a pet button. Clicking on this will change how you see the pets. It will change the display from type of pet, to pet by name. Very helpful either way you use it!

For information on the Castle Magic update, here is my article explaining the new spells!

Here are the Update Notes, with everything that went live yesterday.

Update Notes

There you have it, the newest housing item to hit the Spiral! And, I’ve got to say, it’s a great addition for all Wizards. Sarai will definitely be buying these for all my Wizards 🙂

Will you be getting one? Do you think it will make your Wizards life easier? Let me know in the comments, what your thoughts are!

Fall 2019 Test Realm: PvP Update

Posted on November 5, 2019November 8, 2019 by Songibal

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

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

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

Upgrades to the Pet Hatching Kiosk!

Spellwrighting is a new option for your spells!

New Castle Magic spells have arrived!

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

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

November 2019 Update Notes Wizard101

Fall 2019 PvP Updates

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

Guardian Spirit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Loremaster

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

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

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

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

Burning Rampage

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

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

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

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

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

What do you think?

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

Castle Magic Update!

Posted on November 4, 2019November 5, 2019 by Sarai Willowbreeze

If you are an absolute nut about Castle Magic, you will be delighted with the new spells that KI has added! Each of the 7 schools have new “Effect” spells available. Some of the most loved spells in the game will be available when Test Realm goes live. No shadow spells at this time, (dad-gummit), but we can always hope for the next update. There is even 3 new “Utility” spells, one of which allows you to basically turn-off access to your PvP ring in your castle, if there is one.

So without further ado, *drum roll please*, let’s take a look at what is being introduced!

New Utility and Action spells

We’ll start off with the first “Utility” spell that is being added. If you have a PvP Ring in your castle, it effectively “turns off” access to it. I could see this being useful for those large parties we like to have, helping to keep your party organized and on schedule. Just as you can control when a housing game is played, you can now control when PvP is activated.

The last one, is a wonderful addition to Utility spells. This one will allow you to make something that appears solid, more ghostly. Whether it’s a housing item, a pet, or a monstrology creature, you will be able to give it a shadowy appearance.

The second one we have, allows us to change the appearance of an item from shadowy, to solid. This will come in handy for the DS monstrology creatures that are ghostly looking. You can now give them a more solid look.

Next we’ll will take a look at the only “Action” spell that is being added. This one allows you to use castle magic to port all visitors in your castle to one spot. I could see a lot of fun being had with this one! When activated you could port everyone to a tricky place, or simply somewhere crazy.

Effect Spells by School

Each of the 7 original schools have new spells being added. They are the higher level spells that can be found in most level 130 decks. Some are rare spells normally found in packs and by farming Loremaster. Each one of them will create your favorite spell in your castle! I’ll break them down school by school for you here.

Balance

Gaze of Fate
Loremaster
Nested Fury
Samoorai
Savage Paw

Death

Call of Khrulhu
Deer Knight Attack
Headless Horseman
Winged Sorrow

Fire

Brimstone Revenant
Burning Rampage
Fire from Above
Krampus
Raging Bull

Ice

Abominable Weaver
Angry Snowpig
Handsome Fomori
Snowball Barrage
Snowball Strike
Winter Moon

Life

Goat Monk
Hungry Caterpillar
Luminous Weaver
Pigsie
Sacred Charge
Wings of Fate

Myth

Athena Battle Sight
Keeper of the Flame
Mystic Colossus
Ninja Pigs
Witches House Call

Storm

Catalan Attack
Catch of the Day
Glowbug Squall
Queen Calypso
Rusalka’s Wrath

For those of you just getting started with Castle Magic here are some great tutorials, by Mofodo, to get you on your way.

Conclusion

So there you have it! All the fabulous new additons to Castle Magic spells. I’m very excited for it to be released live and can’t wait to bring these spells to my castles. I already have some great ideas for Headless Horseman and Krampus! Are you excited for the new spells? Let me know in the comments!

I cannot wait to see how all you wonderfully creative Wizards use them!

The Fall 2019 Update!

Posted on October 24, 2019November 18, 2019 by Kyle Sword

As has become an annual event, the Fall 2019 test realm has just been released, and brought with it a major content update! With new areas, expansive lore updates and some really epic features, this update has it all! So lets delve deep into this vast array of new content and explore what it has to offer.

The Wizard City Underground!

After months of waiting, we finally are given the chance to learn about what happened to poor old Landscaper Doug! Level 15 and above Wizards can adventure down into the Old Town Drain Gauntlet, in the hopes of finding him. Down under, you’ll find the Subterranean Sanitation Operations Boss, or Boss for short. He’ll definitely remember our Wizard’s assistance!

Many levels later, upon completing Bartelby’s Scion quest line at the beginning of Empyrea Part 2, the next part of the Underground will unlock! Renee will call to us again, as we are the only “topsider” trusted to solve this mysterious issue. Something has corrupted the trash of Wizard City and brought it to life! It is our job to find the source of these monsterous creations and put an end to it! Along the way, we learn an insane amount of new lore that has to do with the origins of Ravenwood and so much more. We won’t spoil that here however, so stay tuned for our next article aptly titled The Wizard City Underground Story!

These new areas bring with them new mobs, storylines, characters and content for you to sink your teeth, and your wand, into! I’ve spent the last four hours on test realm and I’m still not done!

The Backpack Butler!

How many times have you had to spend hours, days, even weeks looking for an item? Whether it’s a piece of gear or a housing item, you just can’t seem to remember where you stashed it. Well this, right here, is your solution! The Backpack Butler will cost you a mere 2500 gold, and can be found in many furniture stores throughout the Spiral!

Now our Wizards can search for an item of our choosing! The new Butler, I named mine Gerald, will then search every single location possible for our character in order to locate it!

He’ll search our inventory, bank, shared bank, houses, attics, vaults and more until he finds what you’re looking for! This feature will revolutionize the Wizard101 inventory system! Perhaps more remarkably, it marks the first time we’ve seen an in-game search function (besides that of the Crowns shop). Could this lead to new search features in the future? What about one for the Bazaar?

Only time will tell. But for now, I’m going to use Gerald to find my old 50 Million Player Monolith, an item I have been missing for months!

Hatchmaking Kiosk Talent Search!

If there was ever a feature we needed to have added to the already great Hatchmaking Kiosk, it was this. Simply select the Search for pet talents option located in the top right hand corner of the Kiosk. From there, simply search for whichever talents you want and select them! What will follow is a list of every possible pet with those talents available.

Alongside this massive improvement, there has been a change made to the browsing pages in the Kiosk. A new check mark will appear next to any pet you’ve acquired in your Pet Tome! Collecting all the pets in the Spiral has just been made a lot easier!

Spellwrighting!

This new feature has me extremely excited about what’s to come for the future of our spells in Wizard101! The ability to farm for Spellements, a new type of reagent, that allows us to modify our own spells is incredible! Variations revealed by Kingsisle have shown accuracy increases, damage range increases and even the removal of damage ranges as a whole, replaced by a consistent amount! It’s exciting to think of the crazy variations that might one day become possible!

It appears that at first this feature will be limited to our original 1 pip spells, as shown by Kingsisle in their update notes, and the two new spells. Nightbringer and Daybreaker are two new Sun school enchantments, found throughout the Wizard City Underground area! Collecting enough of these rare Spellement reagents will allow you to modify them! This involves increasing the amount you can carry, their added pip cost, and how many of them can be reshuffled.

It’s likely these enchantments will have a role to play in PvP, as their delayed effect can allow for combinations and strategies not previously possible. It’s only a matter of time until someone finds a new, exciting way for them to be used!

Castle Magic Additions!

Housing enthusiasts rejoice! Castle Magic is receiving a set of three new additions for you all to play with. A whopping 36 new effect spells have now been added to your arsenal. These include Shadow and Loremaster spells!

A new utility spell will allow you to disable the PvP sigil in your house. The action spell will allow you to teleport all players within the castle to you! These can be very useful, as well as great fun and cause for mischief!

Event Updates!

This update also brings about expansions to the two major events in Wizard101 as of right now, the Beastmoon Hunt and the Deckathalons. We are unable to see this content as of right now, but we’ll be bringing you all the information when it drops in a future update of the Test Realm!

The Spiral Showcase event has also been made a little easier to gain points for. Changes have been made to pet training and team up options to allow points to be gained more easily. However no new means of gaining those points have been added as of right now.

Slap on your theory caps Wizards, maybe all the spoilers and leaks about new maps and other updates are going to come true!

So what else changed?

Lots of other little details have been changed in our precious Spiral. Some of the more notable changes include the removal of a level requirement for owning houses and fixes to friend’s list issues. These quality of life changes fall in alongside a couple bug fixes and optimization changes to help the game become an even better version of itself!

What do you think?

For me, this is probably the best update we’ve received in a long time. I left out a lot about the Underground areas for my next article intentionally, because the content is genuinely amazing. I enjoyed every second of the hours I played for, and I know that tomorrow I’ll be doing the exact same thing! It’s these massive updates, alongside the beautiful changes we’ve all wanted for years, that allows the game to continue to flourish. I believe that this update will go a long way in continuing the games legacy!

So what do you think of these changes? Let us know with a tweet or a comment down below. And of course, make sure to stay tuned for the rest of the upcoming update articles!