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Can anyone help me understand deck building?

AuthorMessage
Survivor
Nov 24, 2013
3
Hi, so I am just getting back to the game after a few years (Last time I played was the month Grizzelheim was released); and I'm not sure if I have that good of a grasp on the mechanics of the game anymore.

On the account I used to play on I was a Grandmaster Ice and Life hybrid. It was a nice, straightforward tanky build. Now, I am a Death and Fire hybrid. This seemed like a neat combination (albeit a little overused), and now I'm at a loss. I just hit level 30, and my deck stills feels pretty poorly made to me. I know how to use my buffs and such reliably but I notice I tend not to use my fire spells very much. I can handle many bosses solo but I always seem to struggle.

I guess what I'm asking is if there is a good balance between death and fire spells you guys (and gals) have found that could improve my performance.

Thanks

Historian
Jul 18, 2010
602
Well on my I too trained Up to helephant. Ugh bad choice lol.
Isn't a great school for second unless you are an elemental () spirits being ().

I don't even use fire at all except for the And Shields.

What is your gear? I usually don't Need my second school, just my main with good gear with damage power pip percentage health and even resist. Try getting gear suited for your level. As you probably already know new gear is available every 5 levels until 50 where it's every 2 levels. So anyway .......... What's your gear you currently have?

Survivor
Dec 27, 2009
17
um hello here i am a storm and life hybrid but i'm gonna try to clear this up as much as i can. First of all no offence to fire but as a secondary school fire is only good for its DoT spells. i don't use my life hybrid much anyway even though i have low health.so nothings really wrong now that i read this over you are doing just fine

Survivor
Apr 05, 2011
24
Well for deck building the trick is to balance defense, healing and offensive spells. I normally play balance but have gotten to a point that I have all the fire spells for the damage they can do. I also trained deathto feint, Iceto Tower Shield(only defense for balance school spells), and lifeto saytr. I also got some of the star school spells. I am not much on myth or storm but am playing wizards from those schools to understand them better.

I would also highly recommend spending the training point to get the balance spell Shuffle. You only need to put a couple of them in your deck since the change KI made to that spell. It is really good to have if you are fighting a boss so long your deck is about to run out. That happens a lot at the higher levels you get to.

I would do PVP to get Stun block and Conviction because they are handy spells to have. If I need myth or storm spells I buy treasure cards for them at the bazaar.

Now you have my take on what spells are important how do you put them together.

What I suggest doing is the following. load your deck up with at least 2 shield spells from the schools you have. Then add some blade and trap spells, then some health spells. Also do not forget prism spells for any of you who are not balance. All these should not add up to more than 50% percent of your cards. I would try doing about 25% or these first they add more but no more than 50%. Since you need to kill monsters the remainder should be attack spells from you own school and the best attack damage spells from your other schools.

I am now at level 89 so I have also added a second deck to my charater just for fighting balance monsters. I also switch my robes, hats and boots when i know i am going to fight balance monsters to get more resistance for them

Good luck and If you want more information on deck building there are a couple of article about that on the site Wizard101central

Adherent
Jul 03, 2010
2634
I made so many foo boos with my first wizard "Life" with training points I decided any wizard from then on would only train spells that enhanced their school given ones.

To that extent I start with the Tri-Blades from Niles, traps are optional, and the at lvl 50 start the Sun "fist" spells. Death is known to be a trap happy school and it can work to you advantage. As you level and get better gear and your pip percentage is raised it becomes less likely that you will use out of school spells unless you have the amulet for that school. By lvl 40-45 power pips will start to get better.

Setting up a short deck for mob fights, blades, Vampires and a Ghoul and bigger one, add feint and traps here, for boss fights helps, I usually start that around Mooshu. It doesn't take long to figure out how much damage is needed in your deck to defeat the monsters in an area and you can always stick a few extra cards in your sideboards.

On my first Death wizard I was able to solo to the end of Zafaria. I had help with Trial Spheres, on the second floor area I fought half the monsters the other Death helping me fought the other half, it's the quickest run I have had in there and then with Mirror Lake. I do all quests and side ones but no optional ones like BriskBreeze, Helephant Tower, Marleybone tower etc. I also craft the level 56 gear rather then do Waterworks.

I like this school because you can enter a fight and exit it with the same health if you work the steal health spells to your benefit. We are on all different wizards now but do use our Death wizard as the tank, he enters the fight first because he can take a fair amount of damage and gain back all the health.

Mary

Survivor
Nov 24, 2013
3
Northlite on Dec 2, 2013 wrote:
I made so many foo boos with my first wizard "Life" with training points I decided any wizard from then on would only train spells that enhanced their school given ones.

To that extent I start with the Tri-Blades from Niles, traps are optional, and the at lvl 50 start the Sun "fist" spells. Death is known to be a trap happy school and it can work to you advantage. As you level and get better gear and your pip percentage is raised it becomes less likely that you will use out of school spells unless you have the amulet for that school. By lvl 40-45 power pips will start to get better.

Setting up a short deck for mob fights, blades, Vampires and a Ghoul and bigger one, add feint and traps here, for boss fights helps, I usually start that around Mooshu. It doesn't take long to figure out how much damage is needed in your deck to defeat the monsters in an area and you can always stick a few extra cards in your sideboards.

On my first Death wizard I was able to solo to the end of Zafaria. I had help with Trial Spheres, on the second floor area I fought half the monsters the other Death helping me fought the other half, it's the quickest run I have had in there and then with Mirror Lake. I do all quests and side ones but no optional ones like BriskBreeze, Helephant Tower, Marleybone tower etc. I also craft the level 56 gear rather then do Waterworks.

I like this school because you can enter a fight and exit it with the same health if you work the steal health spells to your benefit. We are on all different wizards now but do use our Death wizard as the tank, he enters the fight first because he can take a fair amount of damage and gain back all the health.

Mary
Thanks, this helps a lot.

So far I've used my Training points up to phoenix, and two from Zeke's quests on Balance (Scarab and Scorpion).

Should I go to Helephant on Fire? And Should I keep training Balance spells or should I move to a new school like Life or Ice?

Adherent
Jul 03, 2010
2634
Cloud Collapse on Dec 4, 2013 wrote:
Thanks, this helps a lot.

So far I've used my Training points up to phoenix, and two from Zeke's quests on Balance (Scarab and Scorpion).

Should I go to Helephant on Fire? And Should I keep training Balance spells or should I move to a new school like Life or Ice?
I think by level 45 you are going to be slowly dropping out of school spells due to it costing you more pips to cast them. Keep in mind white pips count as 1 but yellow count as 2 only toward your schools spells. As you are able to get gear with power pips boosting you will be able to use in school spells at higher damages.

You may want to consider that up coming the Sun spells (fists) will be available to you at lvl 50, getting Strong though Colossus will cost you 7 training points. You don't have to take the accuracy ones to progress though the series. These spells are handy to boost the power of your schools spells.

Your ability to blade and trap up with Death will make you quite the force to be reckoned with. Only by using your steal health spells will you be able to gain back health easily in any battle. My fondest memory with my Death wizard was how easily I was able to solo Big Ben with out having to reenter once.

The only Balance spells I take are the ones from the Tree Niles, the tri blades, you can also get the traps but in winding up for a hit sometimes spending that extra pip or round is wasteful.

Stay true to your school it won't let you down in variety of spells you will need to get you though.

Mary