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weakness spamming is getting old. :/

AuthorMessage
Archon
Feb 07, 2011
3175
<rant>

dear kingsisle,

please give the balance mobs & bosses in empyrea something other than weakness. like, do they know any other spells? did anyone who actually plays a balance wizard even test this?

all of the major bosses i've encountered so far have been balance. it's bad enough that i have to bloat my deck with all kinds of stuff~ shrike, infallible, etc. etc. (because, you know, we're the only school without prisms)... and, on top of that, all they do is spam weakness; it's like dragonspyre all over again, but ten times worse.

now, if i were storm (like every other person i've encountered thus far), this would be a non-issue. mob stacks 5 weaknesses on you, you just wand and they're all gone, your setup still intact. us balance wizards, on the other hand, still have no reasonable way to counter weakness without 1) sacrificing all of our buffs, and 2) the use of off-school tc.

i just finished the fight with shade of sycorax. balance boss, balance minion. basically mavra flamewing and protection pox on overdrive.

their entire repertoire consisted of weakness, shields, lore, nova, that colossus tc thing... by the end of the third round, i had 6 weaknesses on me and they just kept stacking them...cleanse charm was useless since, for every weakness i got rid of, there were 2 more to take its place.

i figured that cleanse was a waste of time, so i tried to buff up as best i could and just hit through all the weaknesses and umpteen shields. but balance isn't known for high damage, so it took forever, even with 100% pierce. basically blade, blade, feint, shrike, flawless, fury, repeat.

i like the world so far, and this is my only real gripe. i'm hoping that, with the release of empyrea part 2, we'll finally get an effective way to counter weakness after 125 levels of dealing with this ridiculousness. that, or please tweak the ai to add some variety, please & thanks.



-von

</rant>

Astrologist
Dec 16, 2009
1035
Why don't you use elemental blades traps so you retain your buffs and can wand off weaknesses? Nested Fury is a powerful hit and while shadow pips are unreliable, as balance you have access to availing hands so survival shouldn't be an issue.

A+ Student
Dec 24, 2009
1895
Yeah the weakness spam is pretty obnoxious.

Alia, my Balance, has found she struggles to take out Balance minions. Last night I was battle testing a new pet (with may cast Enfeeble and Shatter) on Crusher and found the battle went horribly awry if I didn't take out that Balance wasp fast enough. Between the shield spamming and the weakness spamming....? Ouch.

My Fire is not liking it much, but managing fine with her DoT spells. Alia had to go out and get a brand new pet to survive this world. (But oh, it was glorious watching my Piranha shatter off all those shields!) Also, I'm finding a new love for Mana Burn.

Never a dull moment in Empyrea.

Alia Misthaven

Archon
Feb 07, 2011
3175
literally every. single. main-arc boss i have faced so far is the same school as me, and i've barely left aeriel.

two major gripes:

1) the weakness spamming is out of control;
2) i have to bloat my deck with umpteen extra cards, meaning that i can't get to what i need when i need it.

to be clear, i am not asking for a nerf or to eliminate weakness entirely from the ai. but do these guys have anything else in their arsenal that's *not* weakness?

it was manageable back in dragonspyre. sure, everything and its mother spammed umpteen weaknesses at you, but at least they weren't stacked 5 or 6 high.

i can't counter weakness; i can't wand or my entire setup is toast; and, for every one i do manage to cleanse off, 2 more take its place. the other schools don't have to deal with this. i don't know what ki has against us, but this isn't fun: it's obnoxious.

up until now, i was having a great time. but i just logged out in the middle of a dungeon because i was so beyond frustrated. are there any main-arc bosses who *aren't* the same school as me, or is the rest of my time in empyrea gong to be spent hitting through 5 or 6 weaknesses?

no love,
-von

Mastermind
Oct 21, 2013
398
What school are you? I am a death wizard and you're right, the wand attacks I have are death, so my setup goes down with it as well.

So far, only the boss Shade of Sycorax (Not sure about the spelling) has gotten me seriously annoyed, that I too, have gone offline during the middle of the fight.

Everything about your post is relatable and I can agree 100% with everything that has been written.

Ever since Empyrea came out, I've seen posts like this every other day. If that is not a sign that something has to be done, please tell me what is????

Armiger
Jan 11, 2012
2497
What I've done to combat that, is to grow Evil Magma Peas, which gives you Cleanse Charm at elder

Archon
Feb 07, 2011
3175
@mirajane, i am balance and therefore don't have the option of using an off-school wand to get rid of weakness because my blades and traps are all universal and will be triggered by the next outgoing damage spell.

sure, i can use elemental blades and then wand off the weaknesses... but i only have 2 of those (regular + sharp) whereas any other school has all of their school blades + ours. i don't get white pips either, so wasting 2 pips for a blade doesn't make much sense when i need them for hits or heals.

because every boss i've faced so far is balance as well, i have to bloat my deck with all kinds of extra spells. 100% pierce is nice, since it cuts through that boss resist, but it often means that i can't get to attacks or heals when i need them.

@dayerider, i have 500+ cleanse charm tc and have carried them since i was a baby wizard in dragonspyre.

the problem is that, in empyrea, the weakness spamming is so obnoxious that, for every weakness i get rid of, 2 more take its place. at that point, it's not even worth wasting the round to cleanse and the only real choice i have is to buff up and try to hit through them. that's my issue.

never before have i ever rage-quit in the middle of an instance. but, in this case, it was definitely warranted. i hope that ki will take this into account with future updates and consider adding spells to the mobs/bosses that aren't weakness.

-von

Mastermind
Oct 21, 2013
398
Dr Von on Nov 15, 2017 wrote:
@mirajane, i am balance and therefore don't have the option of using an off-school wand to get rid of weakness because my blades and traps are all universal and will be triggered by the next outgoing damage spell.

sure, i can use elemental blades and then wand off the weaknesses... but i only have 2 of those (regular + sharp) whereas any other school has all of their school blades + ours. i don't get white pips either, so wasting 2 pips for a blade doesn't make much sense when i need them for hits or heals.

because every boss i've faced so far is balance as well, i have to bloat my deck with all kinds of extra spells. 100% pierce is nice, since it cuts through that boss resist, but it often means that i can't get to attacks or heals when i need them.

@dayerider, i have 500+ cleanse charm tc and have carried them since i was a baby wizard in dragonspyre.

the problem is that, in empyrea, the weakness spamming is so obnoxious that, for every weakness i get rid of, 2 more take its place. at that point, it's not even worth wasting the round to cleanse and the only real choice i have is to buff up and try to hit through them. that's my issue.

never before have i ever rage-quit in the middle of an instance. but, in this case, it was definitely warranted. i hope that ki will take this into account with future updates and consider adding spells to the mobs/bosses that aren't weakness.

-von
I honestly do not know why KI has made the Shade of Sycorax quest solo, because it is wayyy too mentally exhausting to deal with them alone.

That is the only boss so far which I have faced which has mentally exhausted me so much that I stared at the floor for 5 minutes thinking about nothing. Fortunately, I am past this horrible boss but all the painful memories come flooding back in when I read posts like this and can't help but relate and join the group who wants a change.

With a team, so many strategies will come up to counter bosses like these; Spam balance dispel, all of them cleanse charm the hitter who is in the last place right before they hit etc.. But guess what, this is solo and we really can't do much about it.

I used the cleanse charm technique but it took a loooong time because they get up more weaknesses on you. I would suggest taking out the minion first. Then trap the boss, use feints. Blade stack A LOT. Then use a few cleanse charms, to get off different weaknesses. Hit, if not dead, repeat. With this it took me quite a while but it does the job.

Just put in what you need, not multiple cards of the same spell. Pack in about 4 reshuffles so you can keep repeating the process. You can train the Reshuffle from Mildred Farseer. Who is in Colossus Blvd. Where you find Mindy PixieCrown, a small slope then a tiny hut. Walk right in. Or just use Reshuffle TC.

Hope this helps, good luck!!!

Armiger
Jan 11, 2012
2497
Dr Von on Nov 15, 2017 wrote:
@mirajane, i am balance and therefore don't have the option of using an off-school wand to get rid of weakness because my blades and traps are all universal and will be triggered by the next outgoing damage spell.

sure, i can use elemental blades and then wand off the weaknesses... but i only have 2 of those (regular + sharp) whereas any other school has all of their school blades + ours. i don't get white pips either, so wasting 2 pips for a blade doesn't make much sense when i need them for hits or heals.

because every boss i've faced so far is balance as well, i have to bloat my deck with all kinds of extra spells. 100% pierce is nice, since it cuts through that boss resist, but it often means that i can't get to attacks or heals when i need them.

@dayerider, i have 500+ cleanse charm tc and have carried them since i was a baby wizard in dragonspyre.

the problem is that, in empyrea, the weakness spamming is so obnoxious that, for every weakness i get rid of, 2 more take its place. at that point, it's not even worth wasting the round to cleanse and the only real choice i have is to buff up and try to hit through them. that's my issue.

never before have i ever rage-quit in the middle of an instance. but, in this case, it was definitely warranted. i hope that ki will take this into account with future updates and consider adding spells to the mobs/bosses that aren't weakness.

-von
yeah, balance totally needs a single cleanse and an all cleanse charm spell.

Archon
Feb 07, 2011
3175
dayerider on Nov 15, 2017 wrote:
yeah, balance totally needs a single cleanse and an all cleanse charm spell.
i'm not sure if you're being serious or sarcastic, but i would not object to that.

Armiger
Jan 11, 2012
2497
Dr Von on Nov 16, 2017 wrote:
i'm not sure if you're being serious or sarcastic, but i would not object to that.
I am being 100% serious. It is the ONLY school that destroys it's power build by not having the ability to remove debuffs. I have no problem with it being the jack of all trades school, but that is one extremely noticeable defficiency when it comes to balance. In my case, I run my balance with a friend, so havent soloed much beyond WC or Krok, and I have my TC deck maxed with cleanse charm, but it would be nice if Balance had an in-school spell to handle this.

Illuminator
Aug 03, 2016
1475
Only way I know to get around weakness is to use a wand that's not of one's own school. Or a wand that has different potential schools in it.

I had a friend who kept insisting I use everything of my own school but I had good reasons why I didn't and this was one. I like having a pet and a wand that are not of my school; sometimes the opposite school is better, even.

For instance if the enemy puts up a big shield against its biggest impact school, and you are carrying a wand of that same school (the opposite of the enemy's school), you can easily remove its shield.

It's annoying when they either cast weakness on me or a huge shield on themselves right after I've already chosen to use my big spell.

Mastermind
Nov 27, 2013
363
Use Empower or Dark Pact TC when you are ready to hit

A+ Student
Dec 24, 2009
1895
ChicoValerian on Nov 17, 2017 wrote:
Use Empower or Dark Pact TC when you are ready to hit
Balance can't do this, especially not when they're ready to hit.

Balance blades are universal, meaning that ANY damage done will trigger the blades and destroy the hit they just spend several rounds trying to set up. A Death or Balance wizard who tries Dark Pact while fully bladed for a big attack might even end up killing themselves.

Alia Misthaven

Archon
Feb 07, 2011
3175
ChicoValerian on Nov 17, 2017 wrote:
Use Empower or Dark Pact TC when you are ready to hit
that's not a bad idea; i might start carrying dark pact for same-school boss fights.

even my death wizard (who's retired now) hasn't really used empower. if i used it on myself, would it take any blades or traps i had up?

@dayerider i completely agree with you; i've soloed most of the game with balance, as she was/is my first wizard, and same-school boss fights have always been a huge pain. with my death or storm, i would just slap on a prism, wand off the weakness, and away we go, but that doesn't work for balance and is possibly our most glaring shortcoming.

one possible solution: what if we got a utility spell like the one you suggested?
(here's my take on it: feel free to suggest changes etc.)

embolden
(like enfeeble, but it removes debuffs instead of blades)
remove all negative charms:

from target (2 pips)
from team (5 pips)

either no pvp or make it pvp-friendly(ish) by making it so that it doesn't work on cloaked debuffs. unbalance would counter it, obv.

hmm, might go post this on the dorms now.

-von

Defender
Mar 18, 2012
106
From what I've seen in Empyrea, it's either weakness or stun. Personally, I'd rather take stun. But I'm sorry to hear that you're upset.

Astrologist
Feb 28, 2014
1113
I can see why some of you are having a hard time soloing Empyrea. It's not you. It's the school, Balance. Balance is one of the most difficult school to solo. Many can no longer do it. Life and Myth are also facing difficulties because the spells are lacking in damage and weakness makes it worse. I'm not say get rid of or nerf weakness. I'm saying these schools need spell adjustments to conquer the harder worlds in the 3rd arc and beyond. When empyrea part 2 comes out, we'll see more battles dealing with weakness, stun and smoke screen type of spells. My advice is load up on cleanse, stun blocks, conviction, unstoppable tc and anything else that may help you get through these challenging worlds. Don't give up hope. KI stated they will work on improving Balance and I'm sure other schools will follow.

Defender
Aug 03, 2015
150
Hello, iv'e been soloing most of Empyrea lately and the bosses aren't the problem, the mobs are!.

When Empyrea was first on test, the myth and ice mobs stunned 90% of the time and myths don't stun as much now but the ice mobs stun bad. If you thought the balance mobs spamming weakness was a problem, you got another thing coming. As a solo player, I think countless rounds of being stunned and having weakness on you is annoying. I'm just asking if the chance of ice mobs stop spamming stun and that balance stops spamming weakness. I know a lot of you guys are probably thinking ''use cleanse charm'' or ''use conviction'' but when your up against 3-4 mobs that spam the same card over and over again and fleeing, using countless potions, it kinda gets to the point where you want to bash your computer with a hammer. Just a suggestion that the rate of those cards getting spammed gets lowed, thank you.

Astrologist
Feb 28, 2014
1113
Giving Balance an all cleanse on self spell is not a bad idea. It will sure help them get through Empyrea and beyond. So i"m in favor of that idea.

Astrologist
Feb 28, 2014
1113
Trigon101060 on Jan 7, 2018 wrote:
Hello, iv'e been soloing most of Empyrea lately and the bosses aren't the problem, the mobs are!.

When Empyrea was first on test, the myth and ice mobs stunned 90% of the time and myths don't stun as much now but the ice mobs stun bad. If you thought the balance mobs spamming weakness was a problem, you got another thing coming. As a solo player, I think countless rounds of being stunned and having weakness on you is annoying. I'm just asking if the chance of ice mobs stop spamming stun and that balance stops spamming weakness. I know a lot of you guys are probably thinking ''use cleanse charm'' or ''use conviction'' but when your up against 3-4 mobs that spam the same card over and over again and fleeing, using countless potions, it kinda gets to the point where you want to bash your computer with a hammer. Just a suggestion that the rate of those cards getting spammed gets lowed, thank you.
Conviction doe help a great deal no matter how many mobs are on you. The spell gives you 95% resistance to all stuns for 4 rounds. Don't forget to cast it again the following round and hopefully you get to go first.