I think the concept of the patch is great. Although it seems like there is a lot of hate towards the patch, I am going to take a guess that most people agree that the concept is great, it is just a few tweaks here and there that really messed it up. I am not going to rant and rage and threaten to close my account, as I enjoy playing Wizard101 and I think that any downsides of the current patch can easily be fixed.
Having played through Grizzleheim, the new Mooshu and Dragonspyre boss encounters, and the other parts of the patch, here is some feedback:
- Grizzleheim
Grizzleheim is a great zone. It really is. I'd say that it easily matches Mooshu in terms of enjoyment. However, it is still very buggy. I am not sure if there was a hurry to release the patch, but I do not think it should have been released without fixing some of those bugs. I could go into detail about the ones I have seen, but I am sure KI has already been notified several times over about them. That is really my only concern with this part of the patch. I don't mind that it is a "side" world, it was fun either way.
- Enhanced Boss Encounters
Again, the concept is great. I am all for making boss fights a bit more challenging. I think the big thing here is that it was overdone. Wizard101 is a turn based game that revolves around pips. The more pips you have, the more spells you cast, the better you do. This is part of the reason why boss fights got to be too easy (and asked for change) in Mooshu and Dragonspyre. Players started to get high power pip chance, while enemies had to still work with regular pips. The changes that were made, however, put it too far in the other direction. Bosses are, at times, attacking up to three times in a row and not needing to use any pips.
I do think that a few small changes can make these enhanced bosses much more fun again, while still remaining challenging. My personal suggestion is to keep having bosses use pip free attacks, but take away the free interupt rounds. For a more detailed look, I will outline two of the more difficult fights.
Malistaire: He casts meteor for free at the start of every round, and this damage increases each round. If we take the changes listed above, we could isntead take the fight and say that he still casts a free meteor, but make it his actual turn and make it say every three rounds, instead of every round. The damage on the meteor attack could remain the same, as since it is only being casted every three rounds, it is essentially reducing the overall damage by three. Malistaire's health could also remain the same, as since players have more time to kill him, his higher health is less of an issue. And furthermore, since there is more time in between attacks, players could actually use strategy, and put up fire or death shields to help with imminent attacks.
The Raven Fight: Again, just like listed above, take away the interupts but continue to give the ravens their free attacks say every three rounds or so. In my personal opinion, that would make this fight just perfect. This fight is really not all that bad, except for when due to random chance, a player takes a high damage tempest, two fire birds, and ghoul attack in between turns. That is almost 2,000 damage before the real turns even take place.
The main point here is that the pip free attacks are not that big of a deal, it is the interupts that is killing the fun. No one likes watching their character get attacked three times in a row by the same enemy, before they even get a chance to react. Keep the pip free attacks, but take away the interupts.
As a special note to the players: Give the new boss fights a chance. Yes, they are a bit extreme right now, but I do think that with a few decent changes, they can be fun.
- Crafting
And yet again, the same message, the concept is great but how it was implemented is lacking. There are three different points I'd like to bring up on this.
First, the number of spawn points and respawn time needs to be increased. To finish the Marleybone crafting quest (again, just finish, not actually craft anything for your own use) you need 80 scrap metal. If you are playing alone, jump realms, and try to be extremely effecient about it, you are still lucky to get a couple every 5 minutes. We are talking several hours just to finish a single quest.
Second, crafting treasure cards is currently, for the most part, pointless. Why is anyone going to spend several hours (yes hours, because of the above issue on spawn rarity) to craft a single spell card that they already have access to for free? What is the incentive here? There are several changes that could be made. If all treasure cards were open for every wizard, rather than their own school, they may be of use. Also, if crafted treasure cards gave a significant damage boost, they may be worth it as well.
Third, there is no incentive for grandmasters to craft. For everything that can be crafted, there is a better item that can be dropped. Why go through all the crafting quests, which take several upon several hours to complete, and then not make use of the craft skill? Obviously the treasure card fix would help this, but in addition I have a suggestion. Bosses in DS should have a small chance to drop a "pattern" so to speak. The pattern is a crafting recipe for an item that is better than anything else in the game, however it needs the materials to be crafted. Even if it was only a very small boost in stats, if the armor had a unique look, players would continue to play Wizard101 to get said armor.. That is the whole point why MMO's add farming stuff to games, right? Add time played, which in turn equals money for the company. Give us something worth while to spend time on, and the money will come in return.
As a short summary for those who do not like to read:
- Fix bugs in Grizzleheim - Keep pip free attacks on enhanced bosses, but take away interupts - Make crafting worth it, especially for grandmasters
If the above was accomplished, I think the game would be better than ever before.
