Mathew “Sparck” Anderson

Posted on January 25, 2019January 31, 2019 by Ravynlea

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 10^th Anniversary events, Pirate101’s recent 6^th 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.

Castle Magic Triggers

Posted on January 25, 2019February 27, 2019 by Ravynlea

Introduction

To start, I would like to explain what a castle magic trigger is for those who do not know. Castle magic at the base operates by having one item perform an action when certain conditions are met. I like to refer to this as the item “triggering.” This guide will be covering all the items that can be used to trigger things to happen.

Buttons or levers are some of the most common triggers. I will be covering both how to use them, and some interesting ways to include them in your designs. Remember, you can buy all castle magic items from Babbage Basset. This guide will be split up into beginner, intermediate, and advanced triggers because they vary in complexity.

Beginner Triggers

These will be the simplest items, generally only consisting of a single condition and a single output. If you are just testing the waters of castle magic. I would suggest you play around using these items first. After you are familiar with the basics then explore the more advanced sections.

Magic Buttons

There are two types of magic buttons. The magic button which gets placed on the wall, or the magic floor button, which gets placed on the floor. They operate the same way and only differ in where they can be placed. These are the simplest castle magic triggers and only contain the condition “When Button Pressed Cast Spell.” So, to use a button you need to place the spell you want to cast in the main section then select a target that you want the spell to cast on. Now when the button is pressed, that spell will cast.

Magic Start Detector

Similar to the magic button, but with a much easier condition to meet. This item has the condition “When Area Started Cast Spell”. This means that when someone enters the area the detector is placed in, they will see the spell get cast one time. This can be useful if you want to adjust the size or location of an object. Just like with the magic button, place the spell you want cast in the main section. Then pick a target and the spell will be cast automatically.

Magic Lever

The magic lever is slightly more complicated than the previous triggers. Unlike the buttons and start detector, the lever has two possible states. Therefore, there will be two outputs. The lever has one condition for “When Lever Switched On”, and another condition for “When Lever Switched Off.” This means it could cast two different spells, depending on which way it is pulled. Even though it is slightly more complicated, I put this in the basic section because both parts of this trigger function the same way.

Place the spell you want to cast in the main section, then pick a target. The lever will cast the spell when it is moved into the matching position. I like to use levers when I want something that can be undone. For example, levers are great for making magic doors. You can make an object move one direction when switched on, and then make it move back the opposite direction when switched off.

Magic Pressure Plate

The magic pressure plate is almost a carbon copy of the magic lever. It has two states as well, “When Plate Pressed Cast Spell” and “When Plate Released Cast Spell.” I use this less often than I use the magic lever because it’s a lot easier to accidentally step on a pressure plate and trigger accidentally. Yet, this can be used in the same way the magic lever can and could fit into your design in a better way than the magic lever in some cases. I always keep this trigger in the back of my mind when starting a new project.

Conclusion

This concludes the beginning castle magic triggers. There are many more triggers as well as additional uses for these beginner triggers that will be covered in our next installment. If you have any questions on how to operate or use these triggers or about castle magic in general, feel free to ask in the comments below. Otherwise, stay tuned for the intermediate and advanced castle magic guides.

Winter Chill Party

Posted on January 23, 2019January 30, 2019 by Ravynlea

Join us on Sunday January 27th 2019 in the Commons, Realm Troll (we will have porters there) at 6pm Eastern American time for a Winter Chill session community style. As always, we will all hang out while we run Gauntlets and PvP just for fun with all of your friends from the community! Everyone is welcome, meet us in game or watch the party on Twitch. We sure hope to see you there!

Prizes: Packs, Wand Codes, and Bundles!

If you have any questions or concerns feel free to comment here or email us at [email protected]. We are always open to hear about your event ideas or suggestions!

Legendary Storm PvP

Posted on January 14, 2019February 8, 2019 by Ravenwood Community Guest Author

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.

The Valencian Philharmonic

Posted on January 14, 2019July 1, 2021 by Peyton Lionheart

he home of the ruthless clockwork empire and our own Diego the Duelmaster. Valencia was once a land of pristine culture and beauty until the clockworks came onto the scene.

This is best shown through the music of Valencia. Elegant classical instruments such as the piano and strings identify the culture. Played in a tense style, they represent the threat of The Armada to our pirate.

Tense Theme

You may receive this music scroll from fishing in the Amber Estate, the Fire House, the Polarian Shipwreck, or The Acropolis

The intrada is unique and notable for its thin texture. Only the piano and high strings begin before the lower instruments join in, creating rhythmic contrast. We are next greeted with an arpeggio that has the same melodic contour as Skull Island’s Main Theme at 0:07 seconds.

Changing instrumentation and mood, the music develops alongside the story. This maintains the spirit of adventure. The music leads us to the idea of the strings and piano repeating one another in a game-like fashion.

In the next section at 0:25 seconds the beat is emphasised with bass and snare, like a military march. This is intentional and reminds us of Valencia’s dominant military power.

The next section at 0:50 seconds brings us back to Skull Island. The music paints the adventure of being a pirate in the lion’s den, with a choir sustaining chords behind it. The brass joins in as the piano continues, a feature of Valencian music we will continue to see later. The brass that welcomed us bursts forth accents where the melody does not play. This counterpoint presents throughout the music in classical Valencian style.

Combining the previous ideas, the piano joins the percussion in emphasizing the beat. The contrasting ideas of the Armada and the cultured Valencians are now one and the same. Valencia has been conquered.

Espionage Theme

The strings slyly play their chord progression leading us to a melody in the piano we hear in other tracks. This leads us back to the strings, and they keep trading off in this manner. Every time the pattern occurs, there is a slight variation in what they play. This keeps the music interesting in its development.

At timestamp 0:40, the piano and strings finally come together in harmony. They start a new chord progression together, leading into a new section. In a mournful style, the piano plays a new solo line as the strings quietly sustain in the background.

The piano repeats this line in an ostinato. More texture is added by other instruments of the ensemble. The pizzicato strings, clarinets, and string bass are most prevalent in the texture. They either contrast or harmonize with the melodic line.

The brass and strings unify together at timestamp 1:06. Bold and bright, this section contrasts with the moody sections before, like a beacon of hope.

The section at timestamp 1:16 is the realization of devastation. The atonal piano line seems to stop time itself before the clarinets come in. The line these reeds play is a common “Easter Egg” in many video games and movies. It is a reference to the Dies Irae, the clarinets are warning about tragedy and horror.

The line ends on a major chord, bitter-sweet. The next section is a morbid and joyous waltz, before leading back to the beginning.

Skyway Theme

You may receive this music scrolls from fishing in the Botanical Gardens, Fire House, Life House, Serpentine Escape

Throughout this piece the orchestra is light and exposed, like a mournful ballad.

Like a cog at work, the piano begins by hammering away at its lower end. This trades off to the higher register of the piano with an added delay effect. The English horn enters next with a sixteenth note run, playing twice before resolving to the next section.

Now the piano with its delay effect, takes over the melody of the piece, louder than before. After this hallucination-like solo at timestamp 0:42, the bass of the piano pairs up with the contrabass. The cellos play arpeggios and violins sustain chords over this more driving section. The bassoon and metal strikes enter, resolving the tension.

Contrasting with the previous vigorous section, this section brings a breath of relief. This piece emotes anxiety, yet we see a melancholy side. The swelling strings and quiet murmuring of the machine that backs up the clarinet solo posses a relaxing ambiance.

Almost playful, the bassoon at 1:40 plays the theme we heard from the previous track. The mood changes here to balance the sad and mournful with hope as the adventure progresses.

Danger Theme

Silent but driving, the strings begin with an underlying ostinato. The other orchestration is layered throughout the first 0:38 seconds of the piece. We see this texture from the previous piece, but orchestrated to fit a new mood. The theme plays through the ensemble beginning with the bassoon, and carries to the horns.

This leads to a climax in the music as the strings, horns, and piano join in homophony. Playing similar melodies that harmonize into one.

The next section at 0:53 seconds leads back to a driving ostinato with strings and percussion. The horns have the melody in a short-short-short-long pattern that develops by changing chords. At 1:10, there is a chromatic mediant, a change to the chord not within the key we are in.

Timestamp 1:18 brings us a piano solo, ending the horns’ melody on a short note. A new motif emerges of even shorter notes that get passed to-and-fro from the piano and oboe. As the piece gets more wild, the low bassoon carries the motif, keeping stability. We hear the theme from previous pieces hinted at, reminding us of our pirate’s heroic nature.

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

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

How to Get “One in a Million”

Posted on January 10, 2019October 27, 2019 by Kyle Sword

“One in a Million” is one of the most popular badges in Wizard101. Unfortunately, without the proper setup and strategy, you may fail at your attempt to earn it, wasting time and gold. So, here are my tips and tricks on how to achieve “One in a Million.”

Prisms

If you use a prism in your setup, you can double the number of traps used for your big hit. By using your counter school traps first (for example, a Fire wizard applying Ice school traps) and then casting a prism before placing fire traps, the fire traps will be triggered followed by the ice traps. This will double the damage your school traps can provide!

You can easily get treasure card traps for your opposing school at the Bazaar. With the help of a friend from that school, you will also have access to the regular trap and regular potent trap.

Universal Traps and Blades

Bringing a Balance wizard along will make your life a lot easier. They can layer you with many blades, you could even end up doing 50 Million if that was possible! You also can get a few balance blades by using treasure cards.

Feints are super important to this strategy. If you use regular feint, potent, treasure card, potent treasure card, item card, pet feint, and mass feint, you’ll have a huge advantage in getting your damage up to one million!

All The buffs!

It’s really easy to forget a couple of blades or traps when you’re assembling over twenty, so try to write a list and quintuple check that you have packed everything. You may forget that one last sharpen or an elemental trap which could result in you not reaching your goal.

Some schools get especially useful spells like Supercharge and Backdraft that will make hitting a million much easier. Be sure that you include these in your setup if you can!

Some extra tips

You need to remember to bubble and aura. Combined, these provide a significant damage bonus.

Also, remember to pack a heal or two. Even max-levels may get too low on health. you don’t want to die and lose all of those carefully stacked blades.

Don’t forget to attempt this on an enemy that your school boosts on. It’s a free, easy damage bonus you wouldn’t get from a different creature. Also remember that if you’re using the prism as I previously suggested, you’ll want to face a creature of the same school that you are to get this boost.

Go to an empty realm if you are attempting this in an open area! I cannot stress this enough. Otherwise, unknowing or inexperienced players may run in and wipe out all your progress. Take preventative measures in advance.

That said, go out there and earn your “One in a Million” badge!

How to Create a Portal Hub

Posted on January 5, 2019September 20, 2019 by Peyton Lionheart

Dedicating one of your castles to store the portals to your other houses can be a laborious task, especially deciding you want to begin a project like this. If you’re not sure what I mean by a “portal hub,” I am referring to a castle that is the central hub to teleport to your other homes. Successfully completing a project like this is a big accomplishment for any decorator, for your friends to tour your amazingly decorated houses and simply teleport to the next once they’re done.

The Math

Before we begin, there is a lot of math to be done. For this guide, I will be doing the most complex option of how we can interpret this project (and very much so the most impressive!).

Open your list of houses and count all of the houses you want included in this project. I want my Balance House, my Storm House, my Death house, and my Midday Estate included in this project, plus my dorm. My Storm House will be the Hub, and my Dorm will teleport the visitor to the hub. Once the person gets to the hub, there will be several portals they can enter. This is described in the main flow chart. The Marleybone and Darkmoor houses will not be a part of this tutorial.

This means we will need one teleporter for the Dorm, three for the hub, and three more to put in the houses. Therefore, all together, we will need seven portals. We need two for every house we have, plus one for the dorm.

The Portal Plan

Next, we need to figure out the route these portals are going to take. The flow chart to the left makes it look easier than it feels when actually doing it.

We must set up three portals to go back to the dorm, the dorm portal to go to the hub, and the three hub portals to go to the houses. Remember, when you click on a portal without the mark in the corner of its box in the decorating menu, it means you need to select the location it will teleport to first. If it does indicate a point has been selected, you may proceed to place it.

An Example

To the right is one possible combination a visitor may take. After teleporting to you in your dorm room, they go through the portal in the Storm House hub, and then the Midday Estate. When they decide to leave the Midday Estate, they will go back to the Dorm Room and begin again to see the other houses.

This visual shows where the portals are going to. The violet portal heads to the Storm House. This is color association. By using violet, it is a hint without needing to use a sign where they are about to go.

This works rarely. Most of the time, we need to put a sign nearby, or in the portal to show where people are going.

An extraordinary example of Paige Moonshade’s Portal Hub. Find her Wizard’s Watchtower on the castle tours!

It is always amazing to see houses on the tours that are connected together. Seeing portals linked together like this makes the house feels that its a part of something much larger, and is a product of greater quality. In projects like these, the more houses you have, the more work it will take to maintain it, but there’s a bigger pay off. In the image to the left, it looks amazing to see the portals of every single house in the game linked up together.

Thank you, Starlights, I wish you the best in your Portal Hub creations! Please remember to email your lovely interpretations of this guide to us at [email protected] because we would love to see them. If you have any issues following along with this guide, please get in touch with me in the comments below or on the Ravenwood Academy Discord!

The Dragon Titan Army Band

Posted on January 4, 2019January 10, 2019 by Peyton Lionheart

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

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.

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.

Winter Fishing

Posted on December 29, 2018December 3, 2021 by Erin EagleCaller

Every 3 months the seasonal fish change.

From December to March, the winter fish are swimming in the spiral!

Cold Cod

Ice School | Rank 1 | Seasonal/Regular | 1600 XP

Small Fry: <10
Whopper: >40

Yuletoy Fish

Myth School | Rank 1 | Seasonal/Regular | 1400 XP

Small Fry: <15
Whopper: >45

Mistletoe Angler

Life School | Rank 1 | Seasonal/Regular | 1400 XP

Small Fry: <15
Whopper: >45

Locations

These 3 fish all have the same locations:

Wizard City:

Garden of Hesperides
The Commons

Krokotopia:

The Oasis

Zafaria:

Baobab Crossroads

MooShu:

Jade Palace

Avalon:

Caliburn

Grizzleheim:

Northguard

Housing Items:

All the Castles and Houses

How to Catch them - Best Locations - Spells

Cold Cod: The Oasis is the only Ice school fish in the pond that season. Use Reveal Fish School or Winnor Ice Fish/Lesser Frost Lure or Minor Frost Lure.

YuleToy Fish: Use Reveal Fish School or Winnor Life fish/Lesser Fable Lure or Minor Fable Lure.

The Commons: There is only one Myth school fish in the pond that season.

Mistletoe Angler:

The Commons: There is only one Life school fish in the pond that season.

Use Reveal Fish School or Winnor Life fish/Lesser Vitality Lure or Minor Vitality Lure.

Tips: If you don’t have the spell ‘Summon Fish’, go into the pond, scare away all the fishes and wait 15 minutes before attracting new fishes. That will save most of your energy. Don’t forget that each player has their own fish in the pond, meaning other wizards can not scare away your fish.

Used In These Recipes: Make your own music with the crafting recipe from Eudora Tangletree in Old Town. You can listen to the music player which is a house item! You can select different music for outside or inside the house.

The music items with fishes ingredients are:

Carol of the Bells Theme

Deck the Halls Theme

Jingle Bells Theme

I wish you all the best catching the seasonal fish, and Merry Christmas!

Crafting101 – Zafaria

Posted on December 27, 2018May 8, 2019 by Peyton Lionheart

Welcome back to Crafting101, young Wizard! Congratulations on achieving your Grandmaster Artisan Badge. You are now well on your way to becoming a Legendary Crafter. The Zafaria crafting quest is unlike any other crafting quest. You cannot complete this quest by teleporting to a friend to access the trainer early as you could with the others. You must complete the quest “To Market, To Market,” before being able to collect his quest.

Koyate Ghostmane

After completing ‘To Market, To Market,” Koyate Ghostmane will have the quest for you. You can find him near the large hollow log in Baobab Market. He is the first lion you see when you enter the area. Once you talk to him, you get the quest “Drum a Little Drum.” This quest requires you to craft two Spirit Caller Drums. The recipe for the Spirit Caller Drums will automatically go into your recipe book.

You will notice that you need Conga Drums for the Spirit Caller Drums recipe. These will also need to be crafted. Gearwise sells the Conga Drum recipe for 4,755 gold. You can find him in Survey Camp, Celestia.

The Recipes

There are many reagents required to craft both of these drums. Below is a list of all the reagents you will need in order to craft them.

Conga Drum

You need two Conga Drums to make the two Spirit Caller Drums. In previous worlds, we crafted two items twice. Now we will learn how to craft items that are an ingredient in other recipes. This is an essential tool if you plan to craft a house, such as The Wyrd or The Treetop Getaway.

Legion Shield

The Spirit Caller Drums need 8 Legion Shield treasure cards between them. These have a chance of being harvested from White Tiger Lillies or Missile Toe plants. If you’re lucky, you may find this Treasure Card in the Bazaar. It’s price ranges from 540 gold to 1013 gold.

You can farm Winter Skulls in Nordrilund and Nastrond for a chance at this treasure card. These places are in Wintertusk, Grizzleheim.

Giant

Our Conga Drum recipe requires four Giant treasure cards. The easiest place to find this treasure card is from the Archivist in Celestia. You can also harvest Giant from Sunion plants.

Dromel Merchant, Lost & Found, and the Treasure Chest all have this item as one of their daily rewards. Avery Templeton’s treasure card recipe is listed below under ‘Transmute Recipes.’

Amethyst

The bright violet accent in the Conga Drums requires 2 Amethysts. Amethysts aren’t found in the Spiral. Buy them from vendors like Al Saf’wan or Campbell Hodgson for 15 gold per gem. Harvesting plants such as the Fortune Cookie Tree, Ivy League, and Snap Dragon can also give you this card.

Perfect Onyx

The Spirit Caller Drum recipe requires 4 Perfect Onyx. Noxolo Fasttrack and other reagent vendors sell them for 100 gold each. Noxolo lives within the large hollow log in Baobob Market, Zafaria. Additionally, Perfect Onyx may harvest from Ivy League and Maelstrom Snap Dragons.

Crystal Vial

The Conga Drums recipe needs 2 Crystal Vials. It is a pricey reagent when bought from a vendor or the Bazaar. The vendors in Wysteria, Mooshu, and Dragonspyre sell them for 330 gold.

Buying them from the Bazaar can cost between 165 to 1650 gold each. Their cost depends on how many are available. Harvesting Pink Dandelion can also get you some of these vials.

Pristine Vial

Four Pristine Vials are in the Spirit Caller Drum recipe. Pristine Vials are either bought or harvested. Archytas sells these for 500 gold each. Also, if you grow the Maelstrom Snap Dragon, you will have a chance at harvesting this item.

Black Pearl

There are 28 Black Pearls in our Spirit Caller Drum recipe. Black Pearls are a challenging reagent to find. It can be a rare harvest from Black Lotus or regular Pearl. You can also buy Black Pearl from Diego for 175 arena tickets. The Bazaar has them available for 188 – 1875 gold each.

A few gardening options are: Alligator Pear Tree, Deadly Fly Trap, King Parsley, and Ultra Tiger Lily. The transmute Recipe is listed below.

Golden Pearl

The gold accent in the Spirit Caller Drums calls for 16 Golden Pearls. These are a rare harvest from pearls found in many underwater places in the Spiral. This includes Stormriven Hall, The Grotto, The Portico and Waterworks in Crab Alley.

This reagent can be harvested from Maelstrom Snap Dragon, Evil Magma Peas, Deadly Helephant Ears, and Fickle Pickles. The Gorilla, Minotaur, Magic Eggs, and Dragonfly all have this item as one of their daily rewards. The transmute recipe is listed below.

Sunstone

18 Sunstones are required for our Spirit Caller Drum recipe. These are a rare harvest from sandstone.

Sunstone is harvestable from Maelstrom Snap Dragon, Evil Magma Peas, Fickle Pickle, and Deadly Helephant Ears. The transmute recipe is listed below.

Aether

12 Aether will be required in order to complete both sets of drums. This is a rare harvest from Kelp and Shells. You may harvest this reagent from Deadly Helephant Ears, Evil Magma Peas, Fickle Pickle, King Parsley, and Maelstrom Snap Dragon.

You also might get this reagent from housing rewards. This includes The Dragonfly Ride, Dromel Merchant, Giant Gorilla and the Horn of Plenty. If you have arena tickets, Diego sells Aether for 200 tickets each. The transmute recipe is listed below.

Shell

16 Shells are in our Conga Drum recipe. This reagent is common in Celestia. Shells can be found in places such as Base Camp, Stormriven, District of the Stars and The Grotto. They’re also in Wizard City’s own sunken Triton Avenue, Crab Alley.

You may be lucky enough to harvest this reagent from Fickle Pickles and Maelstorm Snap Dragons. The transmute recipe is below.

Fossil

24 Fossils are required to craft our Conga Drums. This is a rare harvest from Stone Blocks. They can be found in places like Stone Town and Waterfront, Zafaria. Buying this reagent from the Bazaar can range from 100-1000 gold each. The transmute recipe is listed below.

Scales

The Conga Drum recipe requires 8 scales. You might harvest this reagent from Maelstrom Snap Dragons. Additionally, there is a chance to receive this item from The Magic Eggs housing reward instance. This reagent goes for 400-4000 gold in the Bazaar. You can find the transmute recipe below.

Transmute recipes