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Is it time for new Utility spells?

AuthorMessage
Explorer
Nov 21, 2011
51
The last set of utility spells each school received in the game was back at level 72-75, but since then, we had no new utility, or really any spells at all to flesh out each school aside from the mainline attack spells.

With the level cap now at 130, we've now gone 55 levels without any new school-specific utility. Isn't it time we received some more? There are plenty of spells that i can think of that exist in the game only as item cards or treasure cards that could easily pass as unlockable utility spells.

Explorer
Jan 10, 2012
85
Being a life wizard in a team healing situation in empyrea is fustrating.
I lack natural team defensive spells, The old saying is true,
An ounce of prevention(weaness) is worth a pound of cure(team healing).
Yes iyou can train balance weakness and use indemnify(needed) for storm titan.
Weakness are not effected by pierce unlike resistance gear and ice towers.
Yes I would like leafstorm, or new forest lord AOE spell.
When bosses do big damage criticals and has a 30% pierce and takes out the whole team
one shot (if i survive), the team can flee, or i can heal spend the next few rounds,
hoping the boss does not concentrate on the hitter (which he has a high probablility to do).
Yes storm can carry extra tc towers and tc fortifies ,or death can bad indemnify juju spamming.
When bosses and minions with big hit criticals and high pierce become the standard.
I think life needs at least one "natural" low pip enchantable defensive team spell.
Shadow four round -40% mass brace, or a enchantable 1 pip -45% weakness..
.
.

Explorer
Jul 05, 2014
77
Geographer
Sep 30, 2018
837
Mirandaassassin II on Nov 30, 2018 wrote:
The last set of utility spells each school received in the game was back at level 72-75, but since then, we had no new utility, or really any spells at all to flesh out each school aside from the mainline attack spells.

With the level cap now at 130, we've now gone 55 levels without any new school-specific utility. Isn't it time we received some more? There are plenty of spells that i can think of that exist in the game only as item cards or treasure cards that could easily pass as unlockable utility spells.
I think its time K I put some big nerfs on the major schools spells first then focus on utility spells after. Most damage spells now have a double effect on them.

Explorer
Nov 21, 2011
51
TiffanyHex123 on Dec 1, 2018 wrote:
What do you mean by utility?
What i mean by utility is side-spells like Shift, Bad Juju, Healing Current, all of which are spells that aren't just your mainline attack spells, but those that offer some effect to help the player or hinder the opponent.

As i mentioned in the original post, i've seen plenty of things that are item cards only or treasure cards only that could easily pass for a utility spell, for example, Mass Feint or Mass Tower Shield.

Delver
Mar 31, 2015
203
Mirandaassassin II on Dec 2, 2018 wrote:
What i mean by utility is side-spells like Shift, Bad Juju, Healing Current, all of which are spells that aren't just your mainline attack spells, but those that offer some effect to help the player or hinder the opponent.

As i mentioned in the original post, i've seen plenty of things that are item cards only or treasure cards only that could easily pass for a utility spell, for example, Mass Feint or Mass Tower Shield.
Balance needs Mass Hex, so badly

Armiger
Jan 11, 2012
2497
Exabytes on Dec 3, 2018 wrote:
Balance needs Mass Hex, so badly
as a PvE only balance, I would prefer a debuf removing spell instead, like one suggested HERE.

Delver
Jan 17, 2013
251
Mirandaassassin II on Nov 30, 2018 wrote:
The last set of utility spells each school received in the game was back at level 72-75, but since then, we had no new utility, or really any spells at all to flesh out each school aside from the mainline attack spells.

With the level cap now at 130, we've now gone 55 levels without any new school-specific utility. Isn't it time we received some more? There are plenty of spells that i can think of that exist in the game only as item cards or treasure cards that could easily pass as unlockable utility spells.
I think the problem is that they are releasing new utility spells, but they're all stuck on bundle/pack gear. I just don't understand why they're making so many spells but not allowing us to actually learn any of them.

Explorer
Nov 21, 2011
51
FusionSun on Dec 3, 2018 wrote:
I think the problem is that they are releasing new utility spells, but they're all stuck on bundle/pack gear. I just don't understand why they're making so many spells but not allowing us to actually learn any of them.
I agree completely.

I can understand with certain spells being exclusive, but there are many across the board that could qualify. If it were me, i'd put the unlock somewhere in the 3rd arc: it's the only arc where we have no utility right now. Having them all locked to gear-exclusive cards just seems wasteful.

Armiger
Jan 11, 2012
2497
FusionSun on Dec 3, 2018 wrote:
I think the problem is that they are releasing new utility spells, but they're all stuck on bundle/pack gear. I just don't understand why they're making so many spells but not allowing us to actually learn any of them.
It drives profit. Now, that might not be the ONLY reason, but it certainly is one. Another, perfectly valid reason, is to see how often it actually gets used for those that have it; consider it like beta testing if you will. We should have access to more spells than juts hit spells. Another issue is, if the L130/138 spell isnt a hit spell, people are going to become unstable. That's how the W101 audience works. What they need to do is get away from releasing a SINGLE new spell every 10 levels and do 2 or more. Perhaps make the XX8 level spell but then release an earlier level spell that fixes the school. KI's approach is to just put it out later and now it's a fix. Wings of Fate and Call of Khrullu are 2 examples of spells that were needed MUCH earlier in the game than they were released. There's still spells that SHOULD be released, in EACH school, that need to be released earlier on in level, but releasing stuff on pack gear allows them to test out new spells. I think the new concept tree spells should have introduced earlier on as a test. What harm would it have done to make them rank 4 - 6 spells, with effects that were level appropriate, and see people actually USE them to see if they're a viable option? A rank 11 spell really isnt viable as I imagine most people dont bother using damage spells over rank 8.

Delver
Dec 13, 2008
223
i agree 100% i honestly think that the spells in the professor gear should have been learn-able next most of them have pretty good uses for pve like mass feint, incindiate, mass tower (understand that its just a stronger legion still useful), double cleanse or whatever just a few things that should be learnable just not for pvp


Explorer
Nov 21, 2011
51
dayerider on Dec 6, 2018 wrote:
It drives profit. Now, that might not be the ONLY reason, but it certainly is one. Another, perfectly valid reason, is to see how often it actually gets used for those that have it; consider it like beta testing if you will. We should have access to more spells than juts hit spells. Another issue is, if the L130/138 spell isnt a hit spell, people are going to become unstable. That's how the W101 audience works. What they need to do is get away from releasing a SINGLE new spell every 10 levels and do 2 or more. Perhaps make the XX8 level spell but then release an earlier level spell that fixes the school. KI's approach is to just put it out later and now it's a fix. Wings of Fate and Call of Khrullu are 2 examples of spells that were needed MUCH earlier in the game than they were released. There's still spells that SHOULD be released, in EACH school, that need to be released earlier on in level, but releasing stuff on pack gear allows them to test out new spells. I think the new concept tree spells should have introduced earlier on as a test. What harm would it have done to make them rank 4 - 6 spells, with effects that were level appropriate, and see people actually USE them to see if they're a viable option? A rank 11 spell really isnt viable as I imagine most people dont bother using damage spells over rank 8.
I understand KI needing to make money, after all, it pays for those who work at KI and keeps the game we know and love alive, but that said, it's still been 55 levels. If you count the utility given by the Artorius spells then that's 45 levels instead, but either way you spin it it's kinda getting long in the tooth at this point.

If you look back at the levels every school gets a new spell, it is as you say, only the mainline attack spells every 10 levels or so and then we're starved for any fillers. I'm not even complaining that there's loads of new utility restricted to item cards, but it's more along the lines that we've just been starved of them for so long.

I don't even mind if it's just an upgrade over an earlier spell, for example, Fire getting a better version of Power Link, Ice getting a bigger tower outside of Abom.Weaver, etc., but the lack of new utility is a bit concerning.

Armiger
Jan 11, 2012
2497
Mirandaassassin II on Dec 10, 2018 wrote:
I understand KI needing to make money, after all, it pays for those who work at KI and keeps the game we know and love alive, but that said, it's still been 55 levels. If you count the utility given by the Artorius spells then that's 45 levels instead, but either way you spin it it's kinda getting long in the tooth at this point.

If you look back at the levels every school gets a new spell, it is as you say, only the mainline attack spells every 10 levels or so and then we're starved for any fillers. I'm not even complaining that there's loads of new utility restricted to item cards, but it's more along the lines that we've just been starved of them for so long.

I don't even mind if it's just an upgrade over an earlier spell, for example, Fire getting a better version of Power Link, Ice getting a bigger tower outside of Abom.Weaver, etc., but the lack of new utility is a bit concerning.
I agree with you about non attack spells being far between, and that the gap is only growing. I would ignore King Artorus as, first and foremost, it's an attack spell. You are very correct that the fillers have been waning for quite some time now. While I agree the link spells could be better, I think having some new non-attack spell effect would be nice.

Out of ALL of the non-damageing (for fire) spells, the only one has a use in any battle (smokescreen), and steal charm could be upgraded to be more useful. MOST of the non-damage spells are worthless. Reducing threats on targets? A great idea, but not worth the time loading it into a deck. Minion killing for pips? Would be better off using Empower and taking the damage to give 3 pips as it happens in ONE round, and you have a chance of a maycast healing offsetting the damage you take. Pierce boosting and ring spells have great use, and I would imagine are used more often than not, but somebody WILL correct me if Im wrong.

The problem is, WHAT spell does fire NEED that it doesnt have? That's the real question. Does it need it in both PvE and PvP or just one of those options? Should it act differently in the different options? Does it ACTUALLY need it or is it a wish list (which is a valid option of course). I stated above that utility-wise, only balance sticks out in my mind, from a PvE perspective, as NEEDING a new utility spell (to get rid of weaknesses and not blow their whole power build).

Please note I am NOT against doing more, I am asking the question of what does the school NEED. Perhaps the devs feel the schools have everything they NEED and the rest is gravy (especially with TCs and TPs).

I had to edit this post as I went on a long description, deleted it, and forgot to readd the part about looking at ONLY fire's spells as an example

Armiger
Jan 11, 2012
2497
So, while these things arent NEEDED, they would help a lot:

1) Prism Blade - this is a blade that we can use to change the whole spell into damage from another school. This way, we don't have to stack 3 or 4 prisms before hitting. We would place the prism blade FIRST, then all our other blades, so that when the prism hits, it's the LAST blade effect to happen

2) Single target mass prism - instead of doing 1 prism on all enemies, this would stack 3 prisms on a single enemy.

3) School specific Prism Aura would be another one that would be good

The main purpose for BOTH spells is for DoTs