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The Problems with Balance

AuthorMessage
Geographer
Apr 29, 2012
861
Okay, let's get the good stuff out of the way now:

-Average accuracy.
-Strong trap.
-Average damage.
-Heals.
-Dispels.
-Mander Minion.

Which of these do we use? I've made them blue. Which ones don't many people care about ever? They're red. Which ones become useless beyond level 50? They're green.

Now you may be thinking 'There's better things', I'll show you how they work.

Anything with Elemental, Spirit, Hydra, Blast or Chimera go out the window. The first two are a waste of pips when a Hex is almost just as good, Hydra is a waste of pips (Hello? Judgement?), Blast never chooses the school you need and Chimera is also pretty weak. Oh, I forgot about the Spectral Minion. is okay, isn't , and is horrid. I removed that spell from my deck a long time ago.

So what are we left with now? One weak blade, and another weaker blade that costs more. If you're soloing : two things. 1) Good luck. 2) You will learn soon after getting it that Bladestorm is completely useless. You may be thinking the fact we get two blades is useful; it's really not. Where a wizard might get a +20% & +25% on them, for the same pips a can get a +40% & +35%. I'd say 30% is a pretty big difference. It costs a training point? Well guess what: needs those training points more. Our bosses have the lowest boosts and the earliest you can boost on them without a Mastery Amulet mandatory is level 68. I have a Mastery Amulet on my main wizard, but only because Humongofrog is how I survive. Without that thing; I'd still be stuck in Dragonspyre.

Okay, so doesn't have the best luck with these things, but it has more than other schools. Oh really? When fighting bosses of our own school, the other 6 all have it easier than . How? Prisms. And. Shields. The ONLY learnable shield against requires putting 5 training points into for a -50% shield. Other schools get a -80%, 6 levels sooner and for free. Oh yeah, the Prisms. We need to hit with either the weak spells above, get a Mastery Amulet, or work in groups.

As a solo player and having as my main school; I was often frustrated. The amount of times I've been angry at the game for people not doing the same boss as I was would probably require more paper than the Amazon can supply. Now we have the 'Team Up' function, it should be solved, right? Wrong. Wait 10 mins for a single person to join, get in the dungeon, and watch them leave for reasons I have still yet to understand. Bladestorm is only useful for team players and without a Sharpen Blade item card; you're stuck in multiple enemy fights.

Hex is good. I won't complain about the good things, Hex is good. But can we please swap the percentages of Balanceblade & Hex around? And I have a genuinely helpful suggestion for a prism: Convert damage into , & . A third in each, hitting like a Chimera but sooner and with a bit more damage. As for the shield, get Prof. Wethersfield to tutor Sabrina Greenstar for a while. -80% is fine. But I'm out of room for now.

Explorer
Jan 03, 2010
59
Read all of this and completely agree.

I think Balance wizards are bad at battling without some epic gear. We barely heal ourselves and we basically aren't that powerful in my opinion until later. Somethings need to change.

Hannah GoldenRiver
Level 58

Delver
Mar 31, 2015
203
LOL. I've also made a few posts about this.

As I am a Prodigious Balance Warlord, I happen to think that I also am in a pretty good position to talk about what spells Balance needs, or could really use (for PVP and PVE).

For starters:

1. Balanceblade (as in an actual BALANCE blade). +35% to next DMG spell. (0 Pips). The other one can be called Spiralblade or something, or maybe even removed altogether.

2. Elemental / Spirit Prisms. (0-1 Pips). Do I really have to grind through 108 Levels for a decent AOE PVE spell? I did, but come on.

3. Balance Shield. -80% to next DMG spell. (0 Pips). Attainable from Regina Flametalon. It's only fair as we're getting a Blade and a 2 Prisms.

4. Liberating Hands. This one is a bit tricky, as there are many variations of this heal that would work. The first is: 90 + 1090 over 3 rounds, OR: 620 + 560 over 3 rounds. (Both of these could be one-person or group heals, costing 5-6 Pips for one or 8 Pips for all). I like the first because it's in-character, the second because it is more practical. I prefer having a one-person heal.

5. Clockwork Elf. Like I've said many, many times, it's about time that Balance got a DOT. (Steel Giant doesn't count, for obvious reasons). Again, many potential versions of this. I'm feeling a bit apathetic right now, so I won't list all the workable variations, but one could be: 60 + 540 DMG over 3 Rounds, at 6 Pips. If this spell had less damage, but was only 2-4 Pips, it may be OP, but then again Balance is supposed to be tough to defend against, and it will certainly help with the shield and dispel spam.

6. Spirit Blast. 660 DMG, 545 DMG, or 770 DMG to opponent (6 Pips). I know a lesser version of this already exists as a TC, so feel free to rename it.

7. If you haven't noticed, Balance has no only DMG spells at 6 Pips. So really this could be anything. I'm thinking a Salamander or a cat from Mirage.

8. Mass Hex. 'Nuff said.

Adrian

Level 110 , 70 , 48 .
Promethean Crafter

Defender
Jun 15, 2013
126
The comments here are definitely along the lines of what I've been thinking. I like Balance but sometimes it's a real pain. It seems like all the other schools have the best cards and we've been kicked to the curb. There really needs to be some serious changes.

Astrologist
Sep 19, 2013
1006
Blaze Sandblade on Dec 27, 2015 wrote:
Okay, let's get the good stuff out of the way now:

-Average accuracy.
-Strong trap.
-Average damage.
-Heals.
-Dispels.
-Mander Minion.

Which of these do we use? I've made them blue. Which ones don't many people care about ever? They're red. Which ones become useless beyond level 50? They're green.

Now you may be thinking 'There's better things', I'll show you how they work.

Anything with Elemental, Spirit, Hydra, Blast or Chimera go out the window. The first two are a waste of pips when a Hex is almost just as good, Hydra is a waste of pips (Hello? Judgement?), Blast never chooses the school you need and Chimera is also pretty weak. Oh, I forgot about the Spectral Minion. is okay, isn't , and is horrid. I removed that spell from my deck a long time ago.

So what are we left with now? One weak blade, and another weaker blade that costs more. If you're soloing : two things. 1) Good luck. 2) You will learn soon after getting it that Bladestorm is completely useless. You may be thinking the fact we get two blades is useful; it's really not. Where a wizard might get a +20% & +25% on them, for the same pips a can get a +40% & +35%. I'd say 30% is a pretty big difference. It costs a training point? Well guess what: needs those training points more. Our bosses have the lowest boosts and the earliest you can boost on them without a Mastery Amulet mandatory is level 68. I have a Mastery Amulet on my main wizard, but only because Humongofrog is how I survive. Without that thing; I'd still be stuck in Dragonspyre.

Okay, so doesn't have the best luck with these things, but it has more than other schools. Oh really? When fighting bosses of our own school, the other 6 all have it easier than . How? Prisms. And. Shields. The ONLY learnable shield against requires putting 5 training points into for a -50% shield. Other schools get a -80%, 6 levels sooner and for free. Oh yeah, the Prisms. We need to hit with either the weak spells above, get a Mastery Amulet, or work in groups.

As a solo player and having as my main school; I was often frustrated. The amount of times I've been angry at the game for people not doing the same boss as I was would probably require more paper than the Amazon can supply. Now we have the 'Team Up' function, it should be solved, right? Wrong. Wait 10 mins for a single person to join, get in the dungeon, and watch them leave for reasons I have still yet to understand. Bladestorm is only useful for team players and without a Sharpen Blade item card; you're stuck in multiple enemy fights.

Hex is good. I won't complain about the good things, Hex is good. But can we please swap the percentages of Balanceblade & Hex around? And I have a genuinely helpful suggestion for a prism: Convert damage into , & . A third in each, hitting like a Chimera but sooner and with a bit more damage. As for the shield, get Prof. Wethersfield to tutor Sabrina Greenstar for a while. -80% is fine. But I'm out of room for now.
Heals aren't useless beyond level 50.
No wonder you're having so much trouble with Balance if you throw your most important tools for Balance bosses out the window. Using Hydra against a Balance boss is going to do so much more damage than Judgement. Spectral Minion is bad simply because minions are bad.
I will agree that Balance is somewhat lacking in damage output, but those blades are really, really useful in a team.
If you're doing it right you aren't gonna need shields. I never shield on my Death, and Balance is even tougher than Death.
Team Up is pretty worthless for minor bosses tbh. If you need Sharpened Blade, go fight Gladiator Dimachaerus. He drops an Enchanted Armament pet with that item card, so helpful. And don't bother complaining to me about how he's too hard, I defeated him at Magus level with a team of Magus wizards. Just ask some higher level wizards to take you, and blade them.
Balance Shield and Balance Prism will never happen. Balance has no shield and no prism to distinguish it from other schools.
If you're still having trouble, try another school to get better at the game, or bring a friend. Balance is a hard school to master, especially alone.

Defender
Jun 15, 2013
126
Robobot1747 on Jan 11, 2016 wrote:
Heals aren't useless beyond level 50.
No wonder you're having so much trouble with Balance if you throw your most important tools for Balance bosses out the window. Using Hydra against a Balance boss is going to do so much more damage than Judgement. Spectral Minion is bad simply because minions are bad.
I will agree that Balance is somewhat lacking in damage output, but those blades are really, really useful in a team.
If you're doing it right you aren't gonna need shields. I never shield on my Death, and Balance is even tougher than Death.
Team Up is pretty worthless for minor bosses tbh. If you need Sharpened Blade, go fight Gladiator Dimachaerus. He drops an Enchanted Armament pet with that item card, so helpful. And don't bother complaining to me about how he's too hard, I defeated him at Magus level with a team of Magus wizards. Just ask some higher level wizards to take you, and blade them.
Balance Shield and Balance Prism will never happen. Balance has no shield and no prism to distinguish it from other schools.
If you're still having trouble, try another school to get better at the game, or bring a friend. Balance is a hard school to master, especially alone.
I'm sitting here thinking, how in the world does he not shield his Balance wizard? When I'm taking on bosses, I'm shielding often. Instead of shielding, what do you do in place of that? Thanks.

Astrologist
Sep 19, 2013
1006
Alexan580 on Jan 12, 2016 wrote:
I'm sitting here thinking, how in the world does he not shield his Balance wizard? When I'm taking on bosses, I'm shielding often. Instead of shielding, what do you do in place of that? Thanks.
I don't play much Balance, I main Death. I mostly just tank the damage and recover health at the end of the battle with a big drain. I find that shields aren't very effective in PvE because enemies tend to use weaker spells more frequently.

Survivor
May 21, 2011
26
I enjoy balance and can solo with it if I have to. I mainly quest my balance along with my storm wizard and just basically use it as a heal and buff factory, but it does seem it kind of gets the short end of the stick a lot.

I mean, spells like hydra and chimera and spectral are of limited utility. I don't really want to use hydra or spectral against and elemental school or chimera against a spirit school since 1/3 of my damage output (or all the damage for spectral) will automatically be null unless I also am constantly going out to obtain prisms for every single other school and always adding that to my buff sequence. And now the level 100 darkmoor spell (which I have yet to obtain) does both balance damage and random school damage? I don't.... I'm glad I rarely ever have my balance do any attacking to be honest because that spell sounds like it would be way more trouble than its worth to set up. What am I supposed to do? Spend tons of turns buffing for both an elemental AND a spirit attack because I don't even know which one it will be and then also make sure I have a prism for the school the boss is just in case the spell randomly decides to use that damage type?