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Stuck... rambly request for help...

AuthorMessage
Survivor
May 01, 2010
38
Hi- i am new to Wizard101. I have been playing about a month. I have two characters on two different accounts and play them as a team with a family account:

Balance/Death(up to feint) lvl 31, health 1695, mana 100+, 3 training pts

Ice/Life(up to Satyr) lvl 30, health 1786, mana 100+, (12% resitance) 3 training pts

I have been using the starter deck with a minimal set of cards and usually end even boss fights with minimal loss of health. I am in Marleybone. Up to this point I have done all the quests... side quests, running around quests, crafting, etc. Mostly because I am not sure what leads to what, but also because the experience difference between the quests and street fights is so great that this seems to make sense to me to do that. I have only PvP'd a couple of times. (I have two adult pets, but cannot possibly afford to hatch them and have already bought and spent too many Crowns, not something I really wish to continue... I tried a few different secondary combos to see what I liked the best.)

So I blithely cruised into Kensington Park with my starter decks and level 30 team and was promptly handed my lunch by Skitch. (I am sure you saw this coming.) With a two person team you get Skitch and three of the clockwork bots, as you know. Skitch is what, 2500hp and the others are about 2000+. Basically I can kill one or even Skitch, but I am toast afterward. Oh, I tried switching to decks with 35 cards, 5 of each. I use reshuffle on the short decks. Up to this point I have not used treasure cards, but I have some item cards like Guidance and Balefrost.

So after losing multiple times I decided to create a spread sheet to figure out what I would actually need under optimal conditions to win. In essence I would need a strategy to deliver 8500+ dmg, while taking less than 3481 or recovering from more than that with heals. Of course this is complicated by the 3481 being split between the two Magi.

At 31 my Balance Magus's most damaging spell is SB or Judgment. Storm SB is useless I am guessing, but will still come up. With BB, EB, Hex, and Feint the Fire SB total, if I get that, looks like it will be 1641. BB is 1 pip, EB is 1 pip, Hex 0 pips, Feint 1 pip. (I have not added the Elemental Trap...) According to the Judgment spreadsheet it looks like a 4pip Judgment does 1631. So for the same pips and long risky set up less damage than a fire SB, more than an Ice. No idea about storm SB since I don't know the baddies resistance and have not seen a storm SB on them with this set up yet.

The same Judgment set up might be able to be a 5-8 pip though if I get power pips and don't have to do other things. Not quite clear about all that yet really... just got Judgment a bit ago. I guess with 6-8pips and that full set up I could one shot them, more or less. A hex, blade, feint at 5-6 pips would come close enough so my Ice Magus or minion could finish them between shielding and healing I guess? I will try that and see if I can get Skitch before or just as the storm golems join.

I often start with 1pip, 1 power pip (Crown wand ). So that is four rounds to set up and one to cast if I have the pips and don't have to wand a Weakness. With Balefrost (2 pips) it looks like Ice is even a bit higher, but I am not sure if it is counted first or last. I am also not really sure if I am making my dmg calculations right, but I think I am. and I don't really know what resistance the bad guys have. Plus Fizzles.

Anyway, that is four rounds to set, and more of course if they cast Weakness or something like that. Each round I am getting 4 attacks. Interestingly they seem to consistently focus on the Eye or second position. I try to get my Ice guy in there and shield him up. Wyvern is his most damaging spell and even all bladed and feinted up it is only about 1300.

Oh.. in the counting, what gets counted first? Does it go in order of casting or order of strength or what? Blades before traps?

As an aside note, there is an interesting economic planning methodology that can be applied to fizzles over the course of a fight. Essentially you calculate the total worth of something and then take into account the percentage chance it has of manifesting. So let's say I have five SB in hand. This is a total of 8204 dmg if everything goes perfectly, before reshuffle, over 20 rounds. Not including fizzles on anything else, the fizzle rate on SB is 85%. So you take 85% of the total as a planning estimate for the result over the 20 rounds. This equals 6973 in dmg. This is not an actual number it is a planning figure. To really calculate this I would have to add any fizzle rates for the blades/buffs and calculate the chance of damage difference according chance of getting ice/fire/storm on the SB, etc... but it is useful for strategic planning.

This is not enough to kill them. Of course my Ice Magus might also be doing damage/mop up, but with that straight damage and no shielding of course one or both of us are dead by then. My Ice Magus has the fire/storm shield and towers, naturally. My Balance Magus has all the elemental and spirit shields and can cast those if saving pips. Oddly, these storm mobs seem to cast Cyclops a lot too though... but no worries got the shield for that too. So I have been trying my Ice Magus tanking, shielding and healing while my Balance Magus works on setting up and delivering damage. Before you tell me this wont work, I have sort of figured that out, but I can't quite figure out what would work. I have tried casting the Mander and the ice minion early. I have used Balefrost. I have tried going straight damage with minimal set up. I have tried shield walls and strategic healing. DOTs really seem by far the most pip effective damage with multiple opponents, but I don't think even bladed sandstorms and blizzards will really make a dent and don't really eliminate an opponent so you still have the x4 incoming damage. I have not really stacked a deck for Judgment yet and will try that.

Mostly I simply get behind so fast that I can't really set up anything. Anyway, you get the picture. I have considered making and leveling a Myth/something to add to the team (what is a good secondary for myth?) just to deal with this, but I have real trouble running the team with larger decks sometimes as it is. It is not an issue with starter decks really... and I don't really want to start another account.

I have one more thing to try.

Does anyone have useful suggestions? If I just skip this and come back do I lose the end of Marleybone spell until I finish it? (I hate to skip things, but I can get therapy for that I am sure.) I don't remember what that might be for Ice, but for Balance it is BladeStorm and you can see, given how I am playing, that would be a useful spell. Should I just give up until I am in my 40's or is it possible?

Man... rambly post. Sorry. Just stuck.

Sincerely,
Team Tristan
Tristan OwlStone, Balance/Death
Tristan HawkStone, Ice/Life

Survivor
May 01, 2010
38
Progress report: (Not that anyone is reading this long rambly thing)

I made it through the first two bosses and then my net crashed in the middle of a street fight. (I only have access to wireless and a laptop and this happens sometimes.)

I underestimated some things. Most importantly I underestimated the importance of specialization. So here is what I have done.

Ice/Life has a completely defensively stacked deck. All Ice Armor, Taunts and Shields. Literally one or two offensive spells at the most. The rest is sprites and a Satyr or two. I might add the Ice Minion.

Balance/Death is BB, Feint, Hex and Judgment. Couple of Weakness, Mander, Reshuffles and nothing else. I had some SB and EBlades, but using them actually messes with this strategy, so they are out. No shields or traps beyond Feint/Hex.

I am using the decks that allow the most copies of spells (5) that I can have at my level, because I need all of these.

Time the round so I get one or two rounds alone with the boss, but I have also won street fights with four from the get go this way.

Ice shields up and taunts to save pips for Ice Armor. It is important to taunt and wand to get all the aggro on Ice. Then Ice hides behind the absorb and heals up whatever damage both have taken by using sprites, stacks shields on both, re-taunts/wands to keep aggro and saves pips for the next Ice Armor. This means that Ice also get any weaknesses and whatnot cast on him, but his attacks are only really wand taunts, so this does not matter.

Meanwhile Balance Hexes, Feints, BB. Balance never attacks except for Judgment. This way Balance almost never gets aggro after the set up. After the Hex/Feint/Blade, Balance has close to enough pips to one shot the Boss or a mob. Sometimes I cast Mander, but occasionally he Locusts off my Hex/Feint, takes three pips to cast (=860 dmg from the H/F/BB Judgment) and his Donate was bugged (is it fixed yet?) so I may take him out of my deck for this. He is also not really useful for shielding in this strategy, though the blades are nice.

This has worked amazingly well in several ways. They both usually end the fight with good health, so minimal down time between fights. Secondly, experience is based in great part on pips used apparently and though the fights are longish, I get great experience - several hundred per fight, because both Ice Armor and Judgment, the two main tools here use all the pips you can generate very effectively. If I were farming items or gold this might not work so well since the fights can be 20-30 rounds. Because of the deck specialization though I have only had to reshuffle once and that was when I stupidly wanded off my Hex/Feint with Ice. Sometimes by the second or third Judgment I am still saving pips and and so I just Hex, Feint, BB for the next one. Only flaw with this is if Ice loses aggro on that one it reduces options.

Secondary schools. There is no use for anything from Death here other than Feint and it is crucial. Ice uses most of the Sprites he can pack on himself and Balance when he has non power pips. I wish there was a little number on Ice Armor that came up saying how much it was worth. Other shields seem to be counted first, so a Tower for instance seems to reduce the damage absorbed by 50%. Anybody know if this is right. Also, it is possible to cast multiple Ice Armors. Anyone know if they stack? I will test this later if I can.

Ice Armor is 125/pip. Does the shield resistance on the character sheet add to this? At level 30 I have 12% resists I think. So is this 125/pip*1.12? Or 125*1.12/pip or something? If so an 8 pip shield raises my health to close to 2815. A 14 pip shield would be 3746 and I have had those in these long fights already. Even without the resistances that is 3536. Add to that stacked Volcanic and Towers and it takes a long time for him to notice attacks.

You get the picture. I am amazed at how well it works.

I was going to try Fleeing out, potioning up and coming back with Ice or Balance, but I have found this unnecessary, though I go to Commons between fights to heal and mana up.

Respectively,
Team Tristan

Survivor
Feb 03, 2010
35
Wow. Dude, simple answer?
Make some friends and get help, lol...
No offense or anything but that's easiest way. I think you're trying way too hard. I finished it with help of a friend, our minion (we both are fire), a bunch of heal cards, and a henchman here and there. I went back and finished it at level 49 when I was bored with DS.
Good luck!

Survivor
May 01, 2010
38
Thanks. As you can see by working way too hard I managed to figure it out. I also enjoy playing the 2 person team I am running and would like to do most or all of the game that without having to rely on treasure cards.

Also, after I think through something like this once, begin to understand the different strategic trade-offs, set up some simple structure to accommodate those I then end up having more fun. (Not to mention I enjoy that process itself. Different people play for different reasons?)

I did start casting the Ice Minion and that has worked great in the specialization strategy I am using.

The only thing that would be better is if Taunt and Distract had a percent chance of re-directing an opposing players spell in PvP. This would have to be handled something like stun so it could not be abused.

Taunt and Distract are great. Taunt in particular, but Distract as well if you consider the 2 pip investment compared to say the pips for healing to multi-pip attacks. It is interesting that even if no one else is attacking it only lasts a round.

Mastermind
Mar 16, 2010
346
Kenningston Park is a challenge in Marleybone. You should be lvl 40-50 to do the quest there.I even tryed but i kept dying there. The eneimes have 2,000 health so it is a challenge. I need help on it too.I tryed alone but died.