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I realized that I wrote over 2500 words on this topic, so I will have to post it in parts. This first part will be the bugs and the various critiques that I have with the most recent Beastmoon changes. I will put the "Stunning Analysis" (yes, it's a pun on the Stunning Mechanic in Beastmoon involving the Storm and Ice Forms) as separate reply's to this post due to the length/level of detail. Thank you in advance for reading this, I will also include an abbreviated Synopsis if you don't want to read in detail about each form. If Moderators could help with formatting that is also appreciated. For now: Bugs...

1. 1. Occasionally players can’t join a ring even though only one form joined. This might be a feature, but it would be nice to know exactly what is going on so that players understand? Someone mentioned something about Health Differences?
   2. Life Draconian’s Afterlife Blade: Harvest Spirit is counted as a negative charm. This means that an allies’ spell that affects negative charms such as Storm Elf’s Galvanize can remove it etc. Quite sad when this happens because both parties are generally confused.
   3. Fire Colossus’ Healing spell: Thermodynamics does not show the Heal Over Time (HOT) the DOT appears as normal, but the HOT is invisible.
   4. Myth Pigs Minion Target AOE: Pip, Pip, Hooray costs 3 pips is conditional upon a minion and only removes traps from team. There is no Pip mechanism at all so a different name might be in order. It may also need a pip cost reduction or some sort of pip mechanic whether that is to give a pip or a double pip thing to the minion at the very least.
   5. Myth Draconian’s Pip AOE: Pip Rally has a small animation bug where the pip animation only shows on the first player each time instead of the animation appearing on each player. Not game breaking, but just a minor visual bug.
   
   

Miscellaneous Critiques:

Storm Wolf/Krok Health buffs were not needed and may even be slightly detrimental. Storm Krok now cannot reach it’s conditional of <50% Health as easily (and it makes the math harder) and Storm Wolf already had “too” much health for a Storm. (I recognize that this was because Storm Rat’s Health was low, but it’s health should just match Storm Elf’s health).

Myth Dragon’s DPP should not have been lowered, it needed its number of 2 pip hits reduced. As it currently stands now Myth Dragon is neither an effective hitter nor effective support. It should have 100 DPP like the other Myth forms (Minotaur, Ninja Pig) etc. because it can’t give pips effectively like say Ice Elf or Balance Fairy and now it can’t hit. See the link here to the forums post about this issue in more detail (sorry I can't find that post, it may have been removed? I just hope that it was honestly considered, as many players had invested in that form).

Fire Cyclops and Death Draconian, I don't think will see much use after the initial "newness" where's off. The Death Draconian’s new Force Spell into opponents Hand Mechanic is interesting, but I think largely useless. It is useless in Mayhem and likely only to work on New Players in Hunt. The Heal should be either made more enticing or should be “no discard” or something. I’m also not sure how well received the Taunt Mechanic will be on the Fire Cyclops just because while it does have higher health I don’t think that it really will have the health to be sustainable (aka it’s gonna die too quickly and the Taunt Mechanic might have made more sense on an Ice Form?) However, with both of these issues, time will tell because they are still very new.

Please stay tuned for our Feature Presentation: "A Stunning Analysis: Storm & Ice Forms Stun Mechanics in Wizard101 Beastmoon". Thank you!

Storm/Ice Stuns & Counters

Let’s talk about Chain Stunning. Chain stunning was an issue back in the olden days of PVP, so much so that is resulted to a change to all stun spells Spiral wide! Now in PVE whenever a target is stunned, they receive a complementary stun block to prevent this mechanic from being spammed, in PVP you even get more stun blocks based on the number of players present! This to me sounds like a very important piece if it resulted in a Spiral wide change. It makes a lot of difference if you force an opponent to effectively pass indefinitely. So along comes Beastmoon and the identity of most Storm Forms is to have a stun available to them. This is fine! It makes sense and is appropriate for the school (Ice and Myth are also well-known stunners in the main game.) To counter this Ice Forms are supposed to have Stun blocks, except wait! Not all of them do and those that do are often inaccessible! This means that chain stunning within Beastmoon effectively has NO counter available to players so that the biggest Stun culprit of all the Storm Wolf Warrior effectively wins EVERY battle. So, let’s take an in depth look at each form and their stunning and blocking capabilities and what we could do to make it more balanced. First the Storm Forms:

Storm Elf:
Storm Elf is probably what I consider in a perfect place in terms of its stun, Nerve Shock. Nerve Shock is a 2-pip stun that does 125 damage. Why is this near perfect in terms of balance? It allows for Storm Elf to choose between doing damage (Bluster Blast) or to stun and costs two pips. This means that it is not guaranteed to show up each time and the player has the option to choose for the damage or the stun. If they wanted to chain stun then they need to have the pips to do so (through saving them up, having an ally donate pips or meeting appropriate conditions).

Storm Krok:
The Storm Krok is what I would consider below average, it’s only stun is available as a conditional for having <50% health via Serpent’s Twist which does 200 damage unrestricted. I think it’s fine to have the conditional stun, I just wonder if having an AOE version of this conditional stun would also suit the form. Overall, they are okay.

Storm Wolf:
Okay, here is the problem child Storm Wolf. While Storm Wolf does have a AOE Stun (Sea King’s Thunder), its problem lies with it’s 1 pip stun Thunder Gaze, known by Beastmoon players as Storm Owl. The problem with this spell that does 50 damage and stuns is that it is available essentially every turn. Being one of the older Beastmoon forms it is leveled up quite high by a lot of Beastmoon players (Tier 4 or 5) this means that they can buy many copies of this spell and just cycle through their deck looking for a stun for each turn. This effectively means that the Storm Wolfs Team Controls the battle by chain stunning one target to death by chipping away at their health while they can’t do anything to counter at all. This form suffers as the same problem that Myth Draconian did before it was nerfed that it suffers from having too many copies of this spell available to it. Is chain stunning a viable strategy? Yes. However, should it be a win condition? No. This form needs to be looked at in the next update because it is a problem and completely decimating essentially every game. Especially given its high health which was also recently buffed. There’s no way for the opposing team to kill it or withstand.

Storm Rat:
Now, Storm Rat also has a 1 pip stun, known as Decelerate which stuns the target and has a conditional +50 trap if there is already a trap. Honestly, a 1pip stun on Storm Rat makes some sense. Storm Rat has the lowest health of any form (recently raised to 325 to match Elf thankfully) but like all its Rat brethren is usually target number one. Its low health is what makes why you don’t see Storm Rat’s out here trying to pull Storm Wolfs strategy. It can’t withstand too many hits from the teammate that isn’t stunned. This however, I feel like is the reason that it’s 1pip stun may be okay it gives the form the chance to last beyond the first round of the game. I honestly wonder if giving Storm Rat Thunder Gaze (Owl) may be prudent so that it has a chance to live more than the first round, at least sometimes, or at the very least making it so that Decelerate’s trap is not a conditional. The only thing as with Storm Wolf, is to be careful with how many stuns it can do before it dies, but as I said with it’s lower health chain stunning is less of an issue. If only it could do the damage. It’s sad that given its low health that it’s effective DPP (the amount of damage that it can deal before it dies) is lower than that of Storm Elf. Storm Rat only has 1 extra pip slot making it so that it can only do 200 Damage via Blitz Beast before it dies. It might make sense to buff Blitz Beast to be more in line with Bluster Blast from the Storm Elf and do 250.

So, Storm being able to stun is a fundamental and basic mechanic of Beastmoon. It makes sense for the school and can be fun to chain stun the enemies! However, the problem is that Storm Wolf effectively has no counter to being able to stun EVERY turn due to the large number of 1pip stuns it can carry and has such high Health that it’s impossible to kill. However, the people in the back ask, “well didn’t you say that Ice forms have stun blocks?” and “shouldn’t that be the answer to this problem?” To them I say, you would think so, but no. Let’s look at the Ice forms.

Ice Colossus:
The only form that can counter Storm Wolf is basically Ice Colossus. Ice Colossus has two spells that offer stun blocks a zero pip Aegis of Artemis, and a 3 pip AOE shield Armory of Artemis both of which are unlocked at level 1. These spells prevent the team from being stun blocked into oblivion and depending on the matchup even if Storm Wolf goes first and stuns the Ice Colossus, they have the turn next time to be able to block the stun (assuming they go first as well if not then the team still gets stunned chained to death because the Colossus can’t get a spell out). The problem that has happened is that like with many of the other Ice forms, Ice Colossus is not available to everyone because its’ not “unlocked” and instead the Fire or Life versions are offered. This means that you can’t pick the form to counter Storm Wolf.

Ice Krok:
Ice Krok would be a form to counter Storm Wolf, however it too also suffers from not being “unlocked” quite frequently. The second problem that it has though is that Storm Krok and Balance Krok are usually too popular of forms and will get picked before the Ice version. If it is available, it does have a zero pip, Mummy Wraps, (75 Absorb and Stun Block)and a 2 pip Shield Ancient Wraps (200 Absorb and Stun Block) available to it, but as mentioned it also is not available.

Ice Wolf:
Ice Wolf basically doesn’t exist because everyone chooses Storm Wolf and even Balance Wolf over this form. It seems to have some of the lowest hits out of any school/form and it has the biggest problem of all. Not a single stun block. The best you get is a spell Ice Fortress, that is like Ice Colossus’s Armory of Artemis but costs an extra pip (4pip), has no stun block, and will remove a trap if it’s there. This is ridiculous. As an Ice Form it should be able to counter a Storm, but nope, if an Ice Wolf did manage to manifest it too would get stun chained into oblivion. It honestly needs a stun block at level 1 as well probably via Brisk Blast and on Ice Fortress. This form already has the lowest DPP of any form if it’s conditionals are not met.

Ice Elf:
Ice Elf is the form that needs some help. It is frequently available as an option to players however it suffers the same vital flaw that Ice Wolf has Not a single stun block. It needs this to be an effective Ice form. Every Storm has some sort of Stun, but Ice Elf doesn’t even have something fundamental to it’s Beastmoon school as a conditional! Honestly, it’s 1 pip Shield Fateful Ward should have the stun block added to it automatically just to put it in line with Ice Krok’s zero pip Mummy Wraps. I don’t understand how the form that is offered for free every Beastmoon has no counter to stuns. It’s a travesty. (Sorry, I’ve been writing for too long…)

Ice Fairy:
Ice Fairy, when it exists, will probably be a good form. Currently there is no way to get it as it wasn’t unlocked and there is no Gold Idols available. I think it fits in a good spot given that it’s 1 pip spell Glacial Dampener exists as well as the new interesting Pacify mechanic. However, I also worry that it will suffer the same problem that Krok and Wolf face that it will never be available due to the other forms just plain and simply being far too popular. Only time will tell though.

Plain and simple there are just not forms that the average player can use to counter a high leveled Storm Wolf. If you get two Storm Forms, you get a very “toxic” situation where you are just punished for having existed due to the chain stunning from multiple forms. At that point I wonder if Ice Forms should even be offering 2 Stun Blocks at a time like PVP/PVE! If we are worried about having too many Ice Forms then perhaps introducing some Balance Forms that also have a stun block may also be an idea.

Ran out of room synopsis and solutions in next post....

Maceryn on Aug 10, 2021 wrote:

Hey exp613! Thank you for the feedback! I wanted to see if you could possibly make a separate post in Halston's Laboratory of just the bugs. I've made note of them, but it would be great if they could make it there for others. I would post them, but if anyone had questions, I feel like you would be the one they would need to ask for clarification or otherwise.

Thanks Maceryn!

This has been completed.

Out of all of the solutions offered to limit the Storm Wolf's chain stunning capabilities, I've already mentioned elsewhere that I believe that solution #1 is the way to go. Not only would this limit the number of turns that a Storm Wolf can chain stun someone (4 turns of stunning in a battle is just absurd), it would also make chain stuns more difficult to pull off successfully.

I'm not as big of a fan of taking away the damage from Thunder Gaze because this would make the bonus effect of their Storm Surge spell take too long to use (at least on themselves, in most cases if they use this on a teammate there is no bonus effect). You would need to wait 3 turns after playing it to use the second blade. If Thunder Gaze loses its ability to deal damage, perhaps Feeding Frenzy could be adjusted to cost 1 pip.

As for counters to stuns, I definitely agree that every Ice form should be able to place Stun Blocks. Another small thing that could be done as well is to buff the Beastmoon Ward spell, which is perhaps the worst of the Beastmoon Chest TC, to give a Stun Block as well as the shield. This could be a way of giving everyone access to Stun Blocks, though not reliable since 1: you have to find chests and 2: you have to get the Ward instead of any of the 5 other spells.

Alexis Silverdust on Oct 11, 2021 wrote:

I have recently run into a lot of cheating in the beastmoon event. So much so, that it is not fun and not worth the time we put into a match that is being cheated in. This is in regular PVP beastmoon, not beastmoon mayhem. Although I am sure cheating occurs in there also.

The first way I have noticed people cheating is that when in the Spiral and someone has died and it looks like they might lose. They have the dead spiral member exit the match so that their spot opens up and someone new can join in their place.

The second way I have noticed people cheating is by having moles join the other team. Then they start fights and flee, they pass constantly, they attack the wrong target, cap circles when the team has asked them not to, or they just blatantly disregard any pleas for help and run around the whole time.

The prior 2 methods are unfortunate, but we have still been able to play the match. (With issues of course). The third method to me is the worse. It makes the game seriously a pain and makes everyone want to quit even if it means a 15 minute penalty. This is one player playing a team on multiple accounts at once. I have seen a few people do this. The worst is a player whose wizard's name is Cass. Sometimes with a surname, sometimes just Cass. She plays 4 separate forms in the same battle at the same time. Talented, yes. But very devious. She plays her 4 forms and I believe she has 2 friends join to fill her team. The 2 friends cap and stay at one circle where they fight over and over. Cass's forms all get pips, one at a time, then line up at the spiral doors. Then when the spiral opens, one by one, she brings them into the spiral to fight. This means that once the player's team has capped all the circles 2 people can fight the 2 members on the Cass team. While the other 4 members of the other 4 people are bored stiff with nothing else to fight or cap. Then, they have have no choice but to go fight the 4 Cass' in the Spiral. If the match is not over at that point, they are forced once again to fight the 4 Cass' in the Spiral and the 2 members in their one circle. So, basically it is cap once and be at Cass' mercy the entire rest of the game and be bored out of your mind until the spiral doors open and you can fight her 4 maxed out goons again.

I'm sure you have a record of who fought in beastmoon today and can figure out this Cass player. We fought her numerous times today before our group gave up, disbanded and stopped playing beastmoon for the day.

Please do what you can to fix these cheat methods. Thank you

Alexis Silverdust / Stormweaver / Mythpetal / etc.

Hello! Thank you for the notice here!

I want to chime in and say be sure you report the person just so Customer Support can get a ticket notice and can look into what is happening and if you would like you can also send an email with the full extent of the issue.

This does sound extremely annoying and I'm sorry that this has been happening.

The issue is worse than cheating, it appears to be a form of bullying - Not only does Cass' 4 wizards get all the pips, she positions them to intentionally prevent the other team from obtaining any pips. Then her team forces the other team into fights where the other team having no pips has almost no chance of winning a fight.
Denying other players the opportunity for equal play to the point that many no longer enjoy Beastmoon because of one player should provide serious consequences for this one player.

exp613 on Aug 9, 2021 wrote:

I realized that I wrote over 2500 words on this topic, so I will have to post it in parts. This first part will be the bugs and the various critiques that I have with the most recent Beastmoon changes. I will put the "Stunning Analysis" (yes, it's a pun on the Stunning Mechanic in Beastmoon involving the Storm and Ice Forms) as separate reply's to this post due to the length/level of detail. Thank you in advance for reading this, I will also include an abbreviated Synopsis if you don't want to read in detail about each form. If Moderators could help with formatting that is also appreciated. For now: Bugs...

Bugs!

1. 1. Occasionally players can’t join a ring even though only one form joined. This might be a feature, but it would be nice to know exactly what is going on so that players understand? Someone mentioned something about Health Differences?
   2. Life Draconian’s Afterlife Blade: Harvest Spirit is counted as a negative charm. This means that an allies’ spell that affects negative charms such as Storm Elf’s Galvanize can remove it etc. Quite sad when this happens because both parties are generally confused.
   3. Fire Colossus’ Healing spell: Thermodynamics does not show the Heal Over Time (HOT) the DOT appears as normal, but the HOT is invisible.
   4. Myth Pigs Minion Target AOE: Pip, Pip, Hooray costs 3 pips is conditional upon a minion and only removes traps from team. There is no Pip mechanism at all so a different name might be in order. It may also need a pip cost reduction or some sort of pip mechanic whether that is to give a pip or a double pip thing to the minion at the very least.
   5. Myth Draconian’s Pip AOE: Pip Rally has a small animation bug where the pip animation only shows on the first player each time instead of the animation appearing on each player. Not game breaking, but just a minor visual bug.
   
   

Miscellaneous Critiques:

Storm Wolf/Krok Health buffs were not needed and may even be slightly detrimental. Storm Krok now cannot reach it’s conditional of <50% Health as easily (and it makes the math harder) and Storm Wolf already had “too” much health for a Storm. (I recognize that this was because Storm Rat’s Health was low, but it’s health should just match Storm Elf’s health).

Myth Dragon’s DPP should not have been lowered, it needed its number of 2 pip hits reduced. As it currently stands now Myth Dragon is neither an effective hitter nor effective support. It should have 100 DPP like the other Myth forms (Minotaur, Ninja Pig) etc. because it can’t give pips effectively like say Ice Elf or Balance Fairy and now it can’t hit. See the link here to the forums post about this issue in more detail (sorry I can't find that post, it may have been removed? I just hope that it was honestly considered, as many players had invested in that form).

Fire Cyclops and Death Draconian, I don't think will see much use after the initial "newness" where's off. The Death Draconian’s new Force Spell into opponents Hand Mechanic is interesting, but I think largely useless. It is useless in Mayhem and likely only to work on New Players in Hunt. The Heal should be either made more enticing or should be “no discard” or something. I’m also not sure how well received the Taunt Mechanic will be on the Fire Cyclops just because while it does have higher health I don’t think that it really will have the health to be sustainable (aka it’s gonna die too quickly and the Taunt Mechanic might have made more sense on an Ice Form?) However, with both of these issues, time will tell because they are still very new.

Please stay tuned for our Feature Presentation: "A Stunning Analysis: Storm & Ice Forms Stun Mechanics in Wizard101 Beastmoon". Thank you!

I agree with you on Death Draconian. I think Needful Things should be made so that it's an effective spell. Either for 0 pips or the cards appear in the enemy's hand (and increase based on how many cards they have tiered)
Taunt and Pacify are both 0 pip utility spells that are effective.
While Needful Things basically does nothing and costs pips to do this.
I like your idea that the heal card he gives you should be more enticing to use (like if it was for 0 pips as well)

I really wish that all forms had mostly useful spells, and not some forms having completely useless ones, while others have overpowered spells like the Storm wolf's Owl (compared to Needful Things)