I wanted to ask if others are in the same position as my Legendary Theurgist, Balance, Fire, and Death. All are at the level cap, and have had a ball getting there. Here's the problem and my modest plea:
Dear KI,
Please revisit the XP allocation and redistribute XP for a more balanced game progression experience. A wizard either goes the DS/WT, CL/WT, or DS to CL to WT in current game progression, and XP runs out quickly well before the storylines are completed.
Here's an example of my problem:
Moira Shadowmancer is Legendary, which she earned in DS. Yes, she was Legendary in the Necropolis, because she started WT at level 46 and completed it well before Crystal Grove. She has completed all of the quests, main and side, including crafting, gardening, and storyline up to CL. She is finished with all of GH, including WT, DS, AND has finished Wysteria, including Helephant Tower. She has completed the Warehouse, Waterworks, and Crab Alley as well. Since she is legendary, she has all of CL to complete for no XP, little gold, and poor gear drops. There is nothing for her to gain in CL except to complete the storyline there. However, I know that there are hundreds of thousands of XP to be gained in CL, and I am reluctant to spend the large amount of time necessary to finish CL without it, or something equivalent to the effort. Additionally, the gold rewards are pitiful compared to the level of challenge.
Another example:
Rowan Earthsong, is a Legendary Sorceress. She is currently in Austrilund, WT. She has completed the Warehouse and Waterworks. She has not:
Earned GM Artisan Earned GM Gardener Completed WT Completed Crab Alley Completed Wysteria Completed a few CL quests, totaling about 80,000 XP Completed Helephant Tower
I wonder how much XP is attached to all of those quests? I'll be enough for about 5 more levels, maybe even 8. That's quite a lot of XP to knowingly waste just for the sake of emptying one's questbook.
Final example(s): Iridian Shadowweaver is a Legendary Theurgist. She completed WT for no XP. Scarlet Ravensong, Legendary Pyromancer, completed half of CL and all of WT for no XP, and she has not finished Wysteria or Helephant tower.
I'm not XP greedy, I have 4 legendary wizards, and am enjoying leisurely game progress for the last two in my classroom. It was fine the first 3 times around, but the prospect of completing high challenge quests for no XP, little gold, and irrelevant gear drops is frustrating. But I think that XP should be balanced out to to help avoid Moira and Rowan's predicament.
Please, KI, would you consider revisiting the existing XP distributions and balance out the progression so that wizards don't find themselves with this frustrating predicament.
I can understand what you are saying. Although I just enjoy the story lines and am only for xp while I am low level and getting my tail kicked. But I do have an idea. So you wouldnt be low level in a world you would need to be higher level in.
What if there was an a bar kind of like your xp bar that colected your points that you would be earning. You could then use these point to cash in for gold, reagents, pet snacks, cool gear, and dare I say it maybe even a few crowns. Each one would have a price just like when you buy something from a shop.
This way you can not worry about being to low of a level. You would have something to still work for. Something besides the story lines. They could raise the level cap but that may be something they are already working on you never really know with KI.
Although raiseing the level cap would mean new gear new cards new pets. So I think that if and when the do It will take them alittle while to finish it then work out the bugs. Well I will quit rambling on. lol :D I hope maybe this is an idea people would like. Well have a wonderful day bye for now. :)
I always thought that KI gave a little too much XP. With Wysteria, Grizzleheim, and Wintertusk, I bet you can become legendary before reaching CL. I'm not sure if its right for KI to lower the XP though.
The experience is balanced out IF you do NOT do any of the side quests. By only doing main quests (including Grizzleheim and Wintertusk) you will achieve level 60 in the Chancel (The dungeon right before the Trial of Spheres). Your suggestion would require that side quests (all or some) become mandatory for level 60.
To me, side quests and optional dungeons SHOULD be only for gold and gear, but still give experience should wizards choose to go in a different order or need more levels to overcome a certain area (the way it is now).
Wizard101 has always provided more experience than necessary to reach the level cap. Which if you've ever played a "grinder" MMO, Wizard101's approach is a great thing. Months upon months of fighting monsters or questing to reach the level cap or to cap achievement points is even more frustrating than going through content and not receiving experience for it.
I think there are different kinds of experience: quantitative experience, which shows up on that nice bar, and the less tangible kind. I reached level 60 somewhere around District of the Stars. In other words, before I had done much questing in CL. I frankly liked WT more, and spent my time there. But I guess I don't much care/mind about not getting points any longer. I've learned a lot since reaching Legendary, and I am a better player now than I was when I got to the magic number. Of course, this is my first wizard. I may feel differently as successive wizards get to the top. But in general, I've always been willing to play and/or work without needing milestones to keep track of my progress. My stats still say the same thing they said a few weeks ago, but I'm not the same player I was then. So the lack of tangible reward doesn't bother me. I know I'm moving forward, regardless.
Yes, yes, I realize that I am supposed to cultivate a Zen-like desire to complete ALL of CL without any reward except for the pleasure of repeating street battles over and over and over for the excitement of reading that "did not collect, please try again" message. But I just can't do it, I can't be like my fellow wizards who have an inner motivation, pure and unsullied by the desire for rewards to keep moving forward. I want a decent reward for the hours and hours and hours of repetitive battles. Sorry, but the aesthetic of loads of street mobs and few bosses just doesn't do it for me.
I would appreciate it if someone would address my full problem, which I'll reiterate in brief:
With the current XP distribution, I have found myself with 3 wizards who will reach Legendary well before they even begin Celestia. They will have AN ENTIRE WORLD to complete for no reward. Using myself as an example, I request that KI revisit the XP allocation and even it out so that millions of other wizards will not face the same discouraging prospect.
Secondary, @kingurz mentioned that the current XP distribution rewards wizards who choose to ignore all side quests and activities in favor of blasting through the main storyline quickly. I suppose that's fine, but the extended effect makes no sense. The message I get from this is that those of us who DO take the time to sample the other activities and master them are penalized for it in terms of no XP at the end of the game. Further, we are already penalized by the fact that all gear drops in the game are targeted to 5-10 levels lower than we full-game experience wizards. Thus, we rarely find gear that is useful to us at the end of a battle.
@kingurz also made an astute suggestion: XP rewards be removed for all side-line activities and other, better rewards given instead. However, I don't think that will solve the ultimate problem of a wizard finding herself facing the prospect of questing in CL for absolutely no reward but love of time spent in street battles and in the bazaar selling a bunch of unusable gear.
Sorry fellow wizards, my inner gamer-yogi is just not as pure as yours.
My Balance wiz completed all quests (main, side, school-specific) and hit Legendary somewhere in Wintertusk (just before Nastrond/the 4 brothers, I believe). I was going to hold off until the level-cap was raised, but got bored and decided to go to Celestia anyway... Now, I'm fighting rank 12 bosses and rank 10 Star/glorified Balance monsters for no XP.
I agree that it would be nice, were things a bit more even. Grizzleheim, for one, is terrible- the XP there is almost nonexistent, and I'd forgotten how annoying that could be until I took my Death wiz, who's only doing main quests, through there the other day. Tabby does make a good point, though- even though I like tangible milestones, I agree with her that we continue to gain valuable experience long afterthe bar disappears.
Sorry fellow wizards, my inner gamer-yogi is just not as pure as yours.
Gosh. I wasn't trying to sound self-righteous or superior. I'm very sorry if it came off that way. I was merely offering another perspective, which I assume is at least partly what this forum is for. Forgive me if I offended you or sounded like I know it all. I have been playing for 4 months. I surely don't know as much as many players. And I'm not into Zen. Just not into counting, either. Sorry for the miscommunication.
Sorry fellow wizards, my inner gamer-yogi is just not as pure as yours.
Gosh. I wasn't trying to sound self-righteous or superior. I'm very sorry if it came off that way. I was merely offering another perspective, which I assume is at least partly what this forum is for. Forgive me if I offended you or sounded like I know it all. I have been playing for 4 months. I surely don't know as much as many players. And I'm not into Zen. Just not into counting, either. Sorry for the miscommunication.
Tabitha
No, no! Tabitha. I wasn't referring to you personally. I was making a sarcastic joke, mostly about myself :) I didn't think you were being self-righteous or superior. In fact, if you read the other comments, there are others here with much purer inner gamer-yogis than my own :)
I absolutely agree with you that experience on what is existant should be scaled down a lot from what it currently is at. Setting up the game to baby those that want to bypass everything except main quests sounds very foolish to me as these are by far the worst and most abusive to others people in the game of which I swear most of them have trouble doing anything alone and heavily complain how hard the game is which tends to lower the overall quality of the game when they complain about it.
If the current experience system wasn't already bad enough, Wizards101 continues to put even more low level quests in the game making the matter worse and worse while irritating about everyone since its more stuff to do for no experience and no real drops.
Now that mega foods have been taken out of waterworks my high level friends and I have virtually nothing left to do together that benifits any of us.
Secondary, @kingurz mentioned that the current XP distribution rewards wizards who choose to ignore all side quests and activities in favor of blasting through the main storyline quickly. I suppose that's fine, but the extended effect makes no sense. The message I get from this is that those of us who DO take the time to sample the other activities and master them are penalized for it in terms of no XP at the end of the game.
I wouldn't put my characterization as the current system "rewards" those that ignore side quests. Remember, they ARE side quests and KI deemed them not neccesary to complete the game. Some worlds are level dependant, so if they start making side quests required for leveling to level cap, then they are no longer side quests then (you would have to do them to get to Celestia at that point).
I understand your frustration in feeling like your not receiving a proper reward for the effort put into it. I grudgingly accept the Wysteria content at Legendary for five of my wizards too. However, if your suggestion was implemented, those wizards who do enjoy doing every single quest WILL be rewarded with level 60 and those "other" millions of wizards will not. Plus, worlds like Wysteria (new mid-level target worlds) would require a "redistribution" of XP every time. So a wizard that was level 27 before the patch, would magically become 25 (and might lose spells or equipment!).
I can't be like my fellow wizards who have an inner motivation, pure and unsullied by the desire for rewards to keep moving forward. I want a decent reward for the hours and hours and hours of repetitive battles.
By no means I'm I trying to say nothing needs to be done, I'm just saying maybe level experience doesn't need to be that reward for mastering all of the worlds and quests, due to the side effects it will possibly bring.
Other MMO's with this dilemma created concepts called Alternate Advancement. Alternate experience for those wizards who need to see a bar/number keep rising for their inner-gamer yoga (since AA is NOT tied to main quests, prerequistes, etc and can be increased at a whim).
Please revisit the XP allocation and redistribute XP for a more balanced game progression experience.
No matter what game I play, I always feel a sense of disappointment when I reach a level cap. It makes me want to stop playing whatever game I'm playing because, well, because I'm not gaining any more experience.
It seems to me KI could figure out some way to compensate Legendary wizards who still have quests to complete. Even if it is simply gold or even extra treasure cards. Or you earn some other kind of credit that can be cashed in at the Legendary Wizard Extra Credit Store. All kinds of unique goodies could be stocked there.
For most people, reaching a level cap in any game is a bummer.
Wizards are all in such a rush to get to reach legendary, then when they get there, they're upset. Oscar Wilde put it best when he said: "When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers". Ignoring any religious connotations, i find this a very appropriate quote. Perhaps if we reflect on aspects of the game besides raising levels, such as the friends we make in our journeys, we can overcome this feeling of 'post legendary depression'. -eli and crew
Wizards are all in such a rush to get to reach legendary, then when they get there, they're upset. Oscar Wilde put it best when he said: "When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers". Ignoring any religious connotations, i find this a very appropriate quote. Perhaps if we reflect on aspects of the game besides raising levels, such as the friends we make in our journeys, we can overcome this feeling of 'post legendary depression'. -eli and crew
I wanted to ask if others are in the same position as my Legendary Theurgist, Balance, Fire, and Death. All are at the level cap, and have had a ball getting there. Here's the problem and my modest plea:
Dear KI,
Please revisit the XP allocation and redistribute XP for a more balanced game progression experience. A wizard either goes the DS/WT, CL/WT, or DS to CL to WT in current game progression, and XP runs out quickly well before the storylines are completed.
Here's an example of my problem:
Moira Shadowmancer is Legendary, which she earned in DS. Yes, she was Legendary in the Necropolis, because she started WT at level 46 and completed it well before Crystal Grove. She has completed all of the quests, main and side, including crafting, gardening, and storyline up to CL. She is finished with all of GH, including WT, DS, AND has finished Wysteria, including Helephant Tower. She has completed the Warehouse, Waterworks, and Crab Alley as well. Since she is legendary, she has all of CL to complete for no XP, little gold, and poor gear drops. There is nothing for her to gain in CL except to complete the storyline there. However, I know that there are hundreds of thousands of XP to be gained in CL, and I am reluctant to spend the large amount of time necessary to finish CL without it, or something equivalent to the effort. Additionally, the gold rewards are pitiful compared to the level of challenge.
Another example:
Rowan Earthsong, is a Legendary Sorceress. She is currently in Austrilund, WT. She has completed the Warehouse and Waterworks. She has not:
Earned GM Artisan Earned GM Gardener Completed WT Completed Crab Alley Completed Wysteria Completed a few CL quests, totaling about 80,000 XP Completed Helephant Tower
I wonder how much XP is attached to all of those quests? I'll be enough for about 5 more levels, maybe even 8. That's quite a lot of XP to knowingly waste just for the sake of emptying one's questbook.
Final example(s): Iridian Shadowweaver is a Legendary Theurgist. She completed WT for no XP. Scarlet Ravensong, Legendary Pyromancer, completed half of CL and all of WT for no XP, and she has not finished Wysteria or Helephant tower.
I'm not XP greedy, I have 4 legendary wizards, and am enjoying leisurely game progress for the last two in my classroom. It was fine the first 3 times around, but the prospect of completing high challenge quests for no XP, little gold, and irrelevant gear drops is frustrating. But I think that XP should be balanced out to to help avoid Moira and Rowan's predicament.
Please, KI, would you consider revisiting the existing XP distributions and balance out the progression so that wizards don't find themselves with this frustrating predicament.
Warmest Regards to Our Wizarding Community,
Yes, it is very understanding and annoying to waste and to leave thousands of XP out there in the later worlds after reaching level 60 somewhere in Dragon Spyre. I would like to see the level get raised and all. But this is one thing I like about Wiz 101...I didn't have to grind on bosses and dungeons to reach the max level like a few other online games...now that is really annoying.
I don't think the exp should be changed. Leveling up beyond the minimum means that the younger, and less strategic, players the game is aimed at can leave a difficult, yet mandatory, boss and go gain a level or two, or even just reach the next spell tier, rather than hurling themselves repeatedly and in frustration at a boss that mops the floor with them. And yes, there are those of you out there who are adults who think, "Well, if they mom/dad helped them, they could do it", but I am telling you there are many parents who would not or even could not help at all and many children who have been so drilled in "Don't talk to strangers" that they afraid to ask for in-game help...even if it is just a game. That would likely leave a younger player jaded and abandoning what could have been a fun and rewarding game for them to go play something less carefully monitored than W101. My suggestion is if you don't want to 'waste' exp, skip the side quests on your characters, but don't nerf them for everyone else just so you can have all your badges and all your exp.
Yes, it is very understanding and annoying to waste and to leave thousands of XP out there in the later worlds after reaching level 60 somewhere in Dragon Spyre. I would like to see the level get raised and all. But this is one thing I like about Wiz 101...I didn't have to grind on bosses and dungeons to reach the max level like a few other online games...now that is really annoying.
Agreed. I played another game for 2 years, buying experience charms and grinding endless repetitions of the same quests, sometimes for hours a day, just to reach half of the level cap. You had to do the same quest, which involved killing 170 mobs, 125 times to gain one level. That is 21,250 kills. And you lost weapon and armor durability doing it. I much prefer this game where I can play casually, here and there, and still see progress.
Wizards are all in such a rush to get to reach legendary, then when they get there, they're upset. Oscar Wilde put it best when he said: "When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers". Ignoring any religious connotations, i find this a very appropriate quote. Perhaps if we reflect on aspects of the game besides raising levels, such as the friends we make in our journeys, we can overcome this feeling of 'post legendary depression'. -eli and crew
Hi Eli and Crew,
I'm not a wizard who rushes to reach any level in Wizard 101. I take my time and enjoy all of the content that is available to me at appropriate levels. I have 4 legendary wizards who have taken around a year and a half to reach the level cap and complete the majority of game content. That's 4 months per wizard! LOL, speedy I am not :) But I love this game, and crave the time I spend in the Spiral with friends and family, so I will continue to work my slow way through 6 wizards worth of fun times.
I really don't care about the level cap. What I do care about is achieving a satisfying reward for the long hours spent in challenging worlds such as Celestia. I doubt that many wizards would enjoy repeating high level content a 4th, 5th, or 6th time for nothing particularly exciting as a reward. Storyline only goes so far, at least for this wizard, once the whole saga is committed to memory.
After some reflection on this problem, I intend to refrain from questing in Wintertusk until at least level 50, and to do so in tandem with Celestia. That way I will hit the level cap approximately in the Science Center and in Austrilund. I hope that this path will ameliorate some of the frustration, since there won't be one entire world to complete for little reward. Somehow the idea of two worlds to half-way complete is more satisfying to me. I can easily manage to finish both worlds with my sons, husband, and good friends, and will have the gratification of good company and conversation. I am hopeful that this strategy will be good fun for my myth and second life wizards. Then I will be finished with the game until new worlds arrive. (Yes, friend wizards, I plan to take an extended break when my sub runs out in March, 2012.)
BTW, I have been talking to my nephew gamer-guru, and he said this (which Kingurz will like): "Story line should be good enough." LOLZ, it is increasingly apparent that I may have an inner-reward grubber who has here-to-fore been silent on her favorite subject.
BTW, I have been talking to my nephew gamer-guru, and he said this (which Kingurz will like): "Story line should be good enough." LOLZ, it is increasingly apparent that I may have an inner-reward grubber who has here-to-fore been silent on her favorite subject.
LOL.
A Wizard101 Hierarchy of Needs (from base to top):
Spell Deck, Red/Green/Blue mana wisps
Minions, Henchmen, Wizard101 Fan Sites
120 wizard long friends list
Phat Lewts and badges to show off in the Commons
and finally at the top.....
the acceptance that you are just too good for the Spiral to handle, wanting someone, somewhere to start some trouble (where are you Morganthe???).
After extensive research, Dr. Von Katzenstein agrees that you cannot live with storylines alone.
Hey, qbb, i thought of an idea- i call it the "power leveling backfire method". If you port into all of the dungeons that give high amounts of xp, the amount of xp you get is reduced to one full level's worth of xp. That's right, that pesky 17,000xp quest in the portico can be reduced to 600xp, if you're low enough level. That's a 16,400 point savings! Whew! And do you have a dungeon that says "defeat so and so"? Just port right into the final battle with that foe to avoid all the xp in the rest of the dungeon! :D -eli and crew
Which if you've ever played a "grinder" MMO, Wizard101's approach is a great thing. Months upon months of fighting monsters or questing to reach the level cap or to cap achievement points is even more frustrating than going through content and not receiving experience for it.
Spoken like a true grinder xD But thats exactly it. Imagine if you had to deal with all those irrelevant drops and gold. At least you can currenty be happy with a legendary without that added frustration. The grass definitely isn't greener on the other side for this case.
Hey, qbb, i thought of an idea- i call it the "power leveling backfire method". If you port into all of the dungeons that give high amounts of xp, the amount of xp you get is reduced to one full level's worth of xp. That's right, that pesky 17,000xp quest in the portico can be reduced to 600xp, if you're low enough level. That's a 16,400 point savings! Whew! And do you have a dungeon that says "defeat so and so"? Just port right into the final battle with that foe to avoid all the xp in the rest of the dungeon! :D -eli and crew
Well, then I would miss all of the best battles. Where's the fun in that!?!? What would be awesome is if a legendary wizard could skip all of the street mobs and fight all bosses, all of the time in remaining quests and worlds. WOOT! (Yes, I know this is a fantasy, but wouldn't it be fabulous???)
Agreed. I played another game for 2 years, buying experience charms and grinding endless repetitions of the same quests, sometimes for hours a day, just to reach half of the level cap. You had to do the same quest, which involved killing 170 mobs, 125 times to gain one level. That is 21,250 kills. And you lost weapon and armor durability doing it. I much prefer this game where I can play casually, here and there, and still see progress.
Yikers! See, I must be spoiled, as I have never played any other rpg, online, console, etc. In fact, Wizard 101 is the very first video game in which I have had any interest whatsoever. I must thank my son for sharing his excellent taste in games.
Here's a question: Why do people continue to play games such as these? What is the source of satisfaction and motivation to continue? This is something I've never understood about Wizard 101: there are more repetitive tasks than new adventure, yet 20 million wizards grind along, mostly happily, enjoying basically the same pattern of play over and over, myself included. And many of us repeat the process 6 times, myself included.
Ahh Queenly I so dearly love reading your posts. What a command of the English language you have. Pure delight reading your musings.
On to the topic--I have given up worrying about it. My Legendary has not completed Celestia. Eh, maybe she will, maybe she won't. She is enjoying a spell of gardening to help her sisters level their pets (Actually all the girls Garden. Those high rank snacks are loved.) Her Balance sister got her Samoorai to Epic. The first one ever! WOOT Now her Fire sister is 200 points away from Epic on her Assailing Dragon. I see hatching in the future. Next I think will be the Wookie pet. LOL I must be bonkers. The only game I can play is the Maze. I am perfecting it.
So many wizards are in the pot leveling. ROTFL My Fire is the one moving forward now. I am having a blast in Mooshu with her. Soloing except for dungeons and Oni battles. Then my son brings in his Legendary Pryomancer and shows her what we are working toward. It is a joy to watch him play.
My just roll along doing whatever has taken firm root. I am in a stage of eh, whatever.
I ramble and offer no solutions. HMMM this shows my general attitude these day. LOL Megan
AT one time, I felt the same way you did. I was reluctant to finish Celestia (I am still working on it; I got behind) because I gained my legendary badge in the middle of WinterTusk. However, I think that KI should keep it the way it is. Waiting for a new world to come out because you've finished all of the posible quests only makes you look forward to a new world all the more, and also makes the world more fun. And if you are bored, try a new goal. For me, this was crafting, then gardening, then getting to pet Warlord. If you've already done EVERYTHING, I would do the quest so that you can collect some pets. I have started collecting all of the hounds, all of the collosuses, and all of the bats. So far I have a death, life storm and fire bat, an Orthrus and ice hound (my next goal is tempest hound, grimtooth or jade hound), and I have the ice, life, myth, storm, and fire collosuses. This helps to distract me from doing the new worlds, and if you manage to finish these collections you can stand out from everyone else. So if you're bored, try doing another goal; and it doesn't neccessarily have to be pet collecting, either. That's just what I chose.
