Welcome to the Wizard101 Message Boards


Player Guide
Fansites
News
Game Updates
Help

Follow important game updates on Twitter @Wizard101 and @KI_Alerts, and Facebook!

For all account questions and concerns, contact Customer Support.

By posting on the Wizard101 Message Boards you agree to the Code of Conduct.

Summer Test Realm Changes

AuthorMessage
Survivor
May 24, 2010
1
The new faces do not look right, the old models look better, if the faces were to be updated, it needs to be more cartoony. Trying to make the faces more realistic looks off putting and creepy. The nerf of the shadow spells is completely bogus, awful, and unwanted. PVP and PVE are two different things, I know it’s possible to make a single spell work differently for PVP, bad juju for example. Changing these spells to this degree is uncalled for, especially for schools who already struggle life, balance, myth and death for example. It’s really going to make playing this game less and less enjoyable. Please, listen to the players, we are what makes the game successful and we are tired of being ignored! I haven’t talked to a single person who wants this update to be added to the game, none of us wanted the last spring update either. Please, stop ruining the game, not everyone PVPs, allot of us don’t. It is unfair to lump us all together when a majority of players and uninterested in PVP. The higher hatching costs and changing the search option in the kiosk were bad enough, please don’t make It any worse.

Survivor
Feb 28, 2014
2
As a long time Myth wizard, Mystic is truly the only spell that we have thats worth anything. Reducing the damage by half kind of kills off an entire school. I get that the developers are concerned about the balance but getting to level 100 was an achievement, the shadow spells were something to look forward too, a reward. With the damage being lowered, there isnt really a reason to look forward to the level 100 shadow pip spells as you already have something better already learned. The only reason to do darkmoore would be if you really want the gear and thats it. The changes to the damage will hurt PvE and the game SHOULD be getting harder, which means we need hard hitting spells. You have the power to ban spells from pvp. Why don't you just ban them from pvp or increase the amount of pips required by adding 2. If the changes go through you will likely see a decline in membership sales as I have seen many comments here stating that they will no longer be supporting Kingsisle. Ultimately, PvE players should not be punished for PvP being unbalanced, especially when a majority of people do not play PvP. Please listen to your fanbase. Nobody likes the changes.
- Michelle

Survivor
Aug 20, 2018
1
I personally don't feel like PVE was unbalanced in anyway with shadow spells. I only have one wizard with access ti shadow spells and I don't do PVP with him. But part of the satisfaction of using a shadow spell is the insane amount of damage they do. When I'm playing on my Exalted Necromancer, even when I have enough blades to kill, i love to continue to stack blades and feints because the satisfaction of hitting for higher numbers is immense. When hitting for a lot of damage it's a lot of fun because I know the only reason I'm able to hit this hard is because I grinded to reach level 100 and get this spell. So making the level 100 AOE barely better than the level 48 AOE would honestly take the purpose and fun out of it. I don't play high level PVP but I really hope shadow spells don't get touched in PVE. If necessary hopefully there's a way to separate PVP and PVE like the Bad Juju spell does or even take shadow spells entirely out of PVP. It feels like these shadow spell nerfs would take the satisfaction out of the grind to level 100. When I was in the middle of Azteca, the game got a little stagnant and the only reason I pushed to Khrysalis was for the Call of Khrulu spell. Please don't nerf our favorite spells.

Survivor
Jun 10, 2009
17
Why use Shadow spells at all?

The question above has not been considered when making these changes by KI. Most Late game Wizards start with 5 pips. Storm Lord needs 7 pips and is 690 damage, that's one round. Sirens needs 9 pips and gives 880 damage that's just 2 rounds. If We are going to have to wait 3-5 rounds for a shadow pip and it's doing around the same or less damage than the spells above, Then Why use Shadow magic at all?

Survivor
Jun 22, 2018
39
i'm gonna try to keep it as simple as possible:
PVP players complained about how over powered the shadow spells are and how lucky based getting shadow pips was.
PVE bosses: did not complain about the shadow pip spells (obviously they can't)

KingsIsle: nerf the spells to Balance PVP which i'm ok with but since no game boss complained why does the change have to be applied to PVE ?

unless you were not ok with some level 130 storm boosting his alt account
or friend account from 1 to 130 in less than a week :D

Survivor
Jun 22, 2018
39
Joshua Soulhammer0... on Jul 2, 2020 wrote:
Hey there, I really hope a KI employee reads this, because I think it says what they need to hear the most. As a result, I have worked extremely hard to make sure this post's content is precisely what needs to be said in as few words as possible. Thank you in advance for reading.
This update is not the problem.
Myth wizards would not have cared about this update if myth had a good late-game AOE. The issue is that the best they had was STILL frog after all these years... until darkmoor came out. They finally had a decent-damage AOE. And it was annoying that it relied on a shadow pip, but it would do. It's fine to nerf colossus, but the fundamental problem is that myth has nothing else in the strong AOE department. If you ask me, keep the colossus nerf (maybe 1 tad more damage) and give myth a good high-pip AOE. You can do this a number of ways: you could change earthquake (for example, buffing the damage in exchange for making it only delete 1 charm/ward per enemy), OR you could add a new myth spell into the game with decent AOE damage OR you could change another existing spell like basilisk to be AOE (I mean come on, does myth REALLY need another high-pip single-target spell that stuns? No. I don't think so. And the DOT is something myth doesn't need, they have orthrus and minotaur to bypass shields anyway). It doesn't matter what you do but you HAVE to do something. And this spell doesn't have to be super high-damage but it's gotta be higher than colossus, like something with 600-700 damage. And sure, many people will say that myth shouldn't even have a good high-pip AOE, since not ever school has to because they're all different. This sounds great in theory: if you're on a team with 4 wizards of different schools, one of them can have more AOE potential and do the AOE hitting, while the others can do something else. There are 2 rebuttals I'd like to offer to this point. Firstly, getting a team is something you often only do for big bosses in the team up kiosk. For most people, a huge portion of the game is done solo: fighting street enemies and minor bosses. With this in mind, myth needs a good AOE for late-game plays. We all agree colossus had it coming, but there's nothing to take its place. Secondly, and I mean this in all seriousness, myth's niche is far too narrow. If you're going to argue that every school has a niche and that myth not having a good late-game AOE is just part of the school, then ask yourself what myth's niche actually IS. Multi-hit spells, minions, stuns, and shield deletion come to mind. But multi-hit spells aren't unique to myth (take fire's DOT or balance's multi-hits, for instance), also they're situational and hard to use because the 2 hits split the enchantment, making it harder for the second hit to deal any real damage (kinda like immolate). And remember, multi-hit attacks are meant to break shields: you don't want half your epic going into a hit that is weak and designed to use up a shield. As for minions, I shouldn't even have to say how useless minions are outside of pvp. Every major fight is already a 4v4, so they can't even be summoned, and the minions myth has are all useless in high-level play anyway. And again, this is a pve problem, so I'm ignoring the utility of minions in pvp for now. As for stuns, a huge portion of the game is fighting bosses, which are immune to stuns anyway. Plus, pretty much every school can stun anyway: myth just has it baked into a higher proportion of their spells for some reason. What I really find awful is that the best stun hits, like medusa (2-round stun is amazing) is just a single-target spell. Single-target spells are for bosses, right? But bosses are immune to stun. Yeah, that completely downplays its utility: it's essentially a pvp-exclusive spell at this point, though the damage is decent. Lastly, shield removal is situationally nice, but ice can steal shields, fire can DOT hit through them, and literally anyone with or without a myth mastery amulet can pick up shatter TC at the bazaar. Myth's niche is so narrow it might as well not have one. Contrary to this notion of AOE being "outside of myth's niche," one should instead consider the following: myth is the master of none: it can do everything decently but nothing exceptionally right now, because the things it really is exceptional at are very, very situational. But at least it was decent at everything before this update.
Now, with colossus nerfed, their foundation is beginning to crumble. Myth was already a bad school. This made it worse. Here's the most important part of this whole post: we know you're planning to rework myth to make it better. And we believe you. But you need to make that change BEFORE you nerf colossus, because, right now, myth is utter garbage. It can no longer compete with the other schools for the time being in pve. All you have to do is keep colossus at decent damage (not as high as it used to be, but higher than this), even if that means changing the shield removal to after the spell hits or even deleting it entirely. Myth wizards don't care what you do, so long as you leave them with any AOE that does at least 600 damage. It could cost 9 pips for that kind of pathetic damage and they'd be happy (or, I guess, happier). But they're back to having nothing: they no longer have no good niche, but they now have lost their foundation of being decent at best at most things: they're now actively bad at a good portion of the game. And that's a problem. That's why this is such a polarizing topic for myth wizards: you've effectively taken the school that needs the most help and nerfed them to the ground. Sure, plenty of them know change is coming eventually, but it doesn't always feel like it. You either need to change myth NOW or keep colossus at passable damage until you do have time to change myth, but either way, myth NEEDS to change. Period.
Death is basically the same issue. And yes, I know scarecrow exists, but its power is shockingly low and it only gets 200 added power from an epic. That's 600 damage to all enemies... AFTER an enchant. That's their only other option.
That's terrible.
For comparison, fire can do 1100 damage to all enemies BEFORE an enchant, and 1400 AFTER. That's literally more than double. Heck, fire is almost more than double death even when death is enchanted and fire isn't. The difference is just... way too much. Death cannot currently play the game. They need a good AOE that is NOT a steal. Khrulhu was their best bet, even though it was a steal (and thus doesn't get enchanted fully): it was at least something they could use that wasn't as pathetic as scarecrow. Sure, death has it better than myth, but not by much. They're angry for the same reasons myth wizards are. And, honestly, I don't blame them.
To discuss the actual nerfs, some of them make sense, but some of them simply do not. Gaze was just absolutely slaughtered to the point where it is, in my opinion, less viable than savage paw, a balance spell of the same pip cost but which does not cost a shadow pip. At least savage paw works with traps. At least savage paw puts up a blade instead of a bubble, since the bubble is easier to remove. I mean, 500 damage for 5 pips AND a shadow pip? When you can't even use traps on it because it's 2 hits? Come on. That's WAY too far.
And then there are the people complaining about bugs. I would have given it 100 more damage than it has in the test realm rn, but honestly that's fine. Storm has other options. Fire does too for ffa (bull is another story but I'm running out of characters that I can put in this message) so I will say this: before you do anything else, fix 2 things: 1. Make sure every school has a good AOE for late-game. Whether you want to revert the nerfs on the darkmoor spells or add new spells/adjust old spells to fit this need, it HAS to happen. This is not optional.
2. The gaze nerf was beyond extreme, to the point where I cannot comprehend what could possibly catalyze that decision. It does not need to be nearly as powerful as it was before, but it has to be better than savage paw.
Now even if you take my advice and change death and myth and fix gaze, some people are still going to complain about bugs, ffa, etc. I think those were hit slightly too hard, but those schools have other options. None of this takes away from those schools in a fundamental way, and people will have to accept the nerfs. I do NOT recommend giving in to the demands of those who want those spells back to their former power: it is detrimental to the game balance, I agree. And colossus and khrulhu also needed a rework, yes, but, and I am going to emphasize this as much as possible:
not
at
the
expense
of
the
entire
school.
You cannot throw an entire school under the bus just to balance 1 overpowered spell. You need to look at the big picture of the changes you're making. If you've made it this far, I would like to thank you for reading, and I dearly hope that this has met the eyes of a KI employee somewhere in the world. I would write for hours here but I have a character limit to adhere to so I will wrap this up. This game has the potential to keep going for a long, long time, but it's not going to happen if you think about your decisions from a purely numerical standpoint. I feel like nobody on either side of the argument is saying what I just said, despite the fact that, in my opinion, it's the entire reason this update is so hated by the community, even if many don't realize the larger problems at hand. Please respond to this comment if you have any questions, any disagreements, or any elaborations on my points that you would like to make. And if you're reading this, make SURE KI sees this. It has to happen, because nobody is saying what needs to be said right now. Thank you so much for your time, and I dearly hope that however this turns out, it works in a way that balances the spells, fixes the schools, and allows the game to move forward.

-Josh
you lost them at ''I really hope a KI employee reads this'' LOL

Survivor
Aug 18, 2009
39
Hi folks.

I'm currently working on visualizing the changes to the spells to give players a better way of describing their frustrations with the shadow power rebalance. Hopefully it makes talking about the numbers easier than individual comparisons.

Link to the code in working on. If the mods aren't comfortable with that, please feel free to remove it. If any other coders are out there, I will take MRs!

https://gitlab.com/ethanzeigler/datascience

Survivor
Jun 04, 2011
3
Fred Frost on Jul 2, 2020 wrote:
Hey Flamea some concerns i have with the shadow spells power would be.
Gaze of fate is already really bad in pve being a double hit spell making feints be no use. On top of that it is so weak now no one will use it at all. It is weaker then the other shadow spells too. In pvp people have 100 flat resist and gaze hits twice which means it hits into flat resist twice. This means gaze is reduced by 200 damage while other spells that hit once are reduced by 100 damage. This two hit thing is a double edged sword in pvp and is bad in pve. I think the damage should go up a bit. Compare gaze of fate to the fire spell hephaestus a none shadow pip 5 pip spell. It does about the same damage and puts up a bubble like gaze. This makes gaze look like it shouldnt even need a shadow pip.
Glow bug squall hits for less then raging bull. The problem i see here is i believed storm cards always had a higher Base damage then fire cards (except overtime spells like fire dragon) With glow bugs 5 pip shadow compared to raging bull a 6 pip shadow spell i believe bugs should hit just as hard as bull bec storm should have higher base damage on their cards. Fire already has been getting more damage on their gear then storm, AND they have more health then storm. This makes it seem like storm gets the short end of the stick.
Mystic colossus is REALLY bad right now. 450 damage when frog a 4 pip none shadow spell does 325 max damage. I would never save up for a shadow pip just to do 150 more damage. The pierce part is ok but this spell is very bad imo. AND myth doesnt get an AOE from level 42-100. They have waited and gone through worlds like azteca without a good aoe which is really really frustrating. Myth needs a better aoe in general for middle level. Now that mystic is gone too this is very frustrating for myth wizards.
This spell i believe should have the shield moved up to 60%. Life pillar kept its 800 absorb and imo weaver should keep its 75 shield. The ONLY reason why its been nerfed to 50% is because of pvp players complaining. Efreet has been untouched so the school with the most damage gets the best defensive card. If weaver got its 75% shield back it would be more defensive like it should be but it wouldnt even have the most defensive card. Even a slight damage nerf like 50 damage for the 75% shield back would be ok with me. Ice is a defensive school and needs its defense.
Concern why does winged sorrow do more damage then resulka? Death is not supposed to be as strong as storm but its 6 pip shadow spell got BUFFED and makes resulka look like a joke? This is unbalanced.
since resulka got nerfed i do think the chance to get a weakness back should be removed. I think it should be a blade all the time.
I agree with you about weaver getting the 75% shield back. Although I feel that all the spells need to be left alone. If people doing PVP are bothered by it, then the change should only come into effect during pvp. I have personally talked to a variety of people and most to all of them didn't like any of update. Personally the way the game is currently is just fine.

Administrator
deNoob on Jul 3, 2020 wrote:
you lost them at ''I really hope a KI employee reads this'' LOL
We're actually reading every one of these posts for your feedback. Thanks everyone for your thoughts!

Survivor
Apr 24, 2010
2
so I want to let people know that I to enjoy an love the update but you realize that this is test realm meaning nothing is meant to stick stuff will get changed around so plz don't be all negative about the new update. the developers did an amazing job an I think everyone needs to know that your face can be changed an nose too some changes will alter the look of your characters chin an a jawline. you just need to toy around with the new features to find the face that most suits you. I can say that I tested out what a female character looks like when I did my testing an you just need to change or more acurrately tinker around until you find the look that suits your style. but only some of the faces do look like they have wrinkles under the eyes I did myself have an issue I think it was with the boy face number 4 or number 5 I forget which but there was a line on either side of the mouth that looked little broken I could see through it almost but it was hard to notice if you didn't look hard enough. that being said keep in mind that as I said before this is test realm stuff will be buggy an have issues an it is our duty as the players to notify the devs of the bugs not request them to change stuff around because we simply don't like the look of a character. now im not saying you cant have an opinion but the devs can only do so much to ask them to shorten the necks on the girls or say that some look more pasty or washed out more then others is like asking them to completely redo the entire update. it has taken them long time to come out with this update an while I do agree that giving opinions is needed but asking them to completely change stuff around an even going so far as to alter the look then posting the before an after looks on twitter is I feel insulting them they work hard on these things an I feel they don't get enough appreciation on the work they do. I was just in the test commons an people already were complaining for no given reason because they flat out said the update sucked they complained that kingsisle butchered their charecters an said that kingsisle should revert the update. plz do not come on to test realm just to have something to complain about for no given reason. if all we do is whine an complain about an update everytime test realm comes out then they are less inclined to wanna give us nice things. I have been playing sense 2010 an I can say that I fully appreciate kingsisle in everything they do even down to the smallest details. they do these changes for a reason also they do it to make room for new things a lot of mmorpgs I have played do this same exactly thing as they do not want someone to become over powered they make the required fixes an balancing so that we don't burn through content like some of the other mmorpgs I have played . they do what is called an stat squish of sorts for the spells now I am not sure if this will stick of not but plz we must have an opened mind test has only been out for 2 days an already people are ready to throw the book at kingsisle because of this update. with that in mind plz have an open mind an open heart an understand the reasonings behind why they do what they do for reason. with that I want to wish everyone a safe an happy month an continue to stay safe

Survivor
Sep 08, 2018
2
Honest opinion is that I think most of these changes are just straight up bad. There are a few good things but the cons in this update out weigh the pros. My first issue is with stitched gear i have seen many wizards where their outfits are screwed up because you went and changed the appearance of some gear completely ruining someones stitch they spent crowns on and worked hard to accomplish the look that they like. Most eyes on the characters are way to disproportionately big compared to the face. The faces with the bags under the eyes are super depressing and dark. The lips for guy characters i feel like you put less work into that than you did the female lips. I wish there was better options as far as noses go as there are only three selections and like two of them are just off in size. The shadow spell nerfs are way to drastic you have made myth a dead school and made gaze of fate the same as savage paw accept savage paw requires no shadow pip. Im a main storm level 130 and bugs as of right now i will tell you that i will never use bugs again ever. I will use tempest or sirens also i wont use lord as the stun is useless endgame as you cant stun mobs in the endgame anyway. Deaths aoe spell lulu is nerfed bad as enchants on the half life spells font even have a full effect. Also with these nerfs You take away storm as being the hitter school as now fire does more damage has more hp resist and is just overall better making storm obsolete. I hope you guys take the feedback and actually consider what is being said instead of saying you are reading it then ignore all the feedback. Thank you please dont make the wrong decision because otherwise 2020 will take wizard101 with it.

Survivor
Aug 01, 2012
7
I also wanted to mention how I want to keep the 'serious' type face that I use on all my characters. All the eyes seem like they have been made bigger and some aren't as faithful to their original counterparts as they should be.

It doesn't sit right with me at all seeing my characters age down. I think there's a case to be made that some characters are becoming older and some younger than intended. I've often seen complaints from both sides.

In general I feel like many of the new eyes need to be sized down on the male spectrum as they take up too much of the face. Thus making some them appear even younger or creepier than they should. Eyes in general should not take up a large portion of the face. Some also need to be readjusted, especially for the males, because they don't even look close to how they used to.

** I want the characters I picked out to remain serious and look like teenagers/young adults to still be that way. Here is how my characters looked before. https://imgur.com/R4w4CT0 **

Also to add on, I know this isn't the place for it, but there's likely an unintended bug with the new models. When moving on foot or on a mount you don't blink at all. The only time you blink is while standing in place or using emotes. You may also blink in combat, but I forget to check. I've even equipped a mount in the middle of a blink and it became stuck.

Anyways thank you for listening to our feedback. Can't wait to see you all back with test realm on Monday.

Survivor
May 19, 2009
9
I love all test realms and updates, The change for our characters are good but I would love if is possible make differents forms of eyebrows and add eyelash for females, and please add more colors and pastel colors for hairs and lipstick.

This update will bring a hope for our spells remain the same, The company decided to nerf the shadow spells because PVP always complain about it. You will make more powerful shadow spells and in a future this PVPers will complain again and we will be in a nerf circle over and over. If only KI decided to put non-pvp in the shadow spells this will not has to be rebalanced again in the future.

The 7 school has to be reconsidered for a good future of kingsIsle business. If you make 2 school powereful with this changes , why I need to spend crows for the weakes schools? I will not spend crowns for wizards schools that I make if the powers are useless.

This is my point of view thanks for read it.

M.Alfara

Survivor
Nov 25, 2019
29
I also feel like you guy's took the wrong type of style to go with when making the new faces. Perhaps something more cartoonish would blend better with the art style of the game. I feel like the new faces don't interact well with the game as a whole.

Survivor
Jun 10, 2012
3
I would like to make it clear, that the community backlash is mostly because of chosen nerfed spells, not the nerfs in general. Right now, it simply feels like shadow pips are obsolete or poorly balanced. Our question is, do you plan on nerfing EVERY shadow spell? Right now, the 4 pip spells haven't been touched. Our biggest concern is that if you simply nerf pve accordingly, that doensn't fix how useless shadow spells currently are. As it stands, no storm wizard in their right mind would ever use a spell like Glowbugs, when sirens is simply superior in every single way, since it removes more blades, does more damage, and has the accuracy debuff, and is worth (taking into account the 3 pip worth of a shadow pip) a single more pip. We understand that you're going to nerf pve, however the community feels that if you're going to nerf pve, you should go all out and nerf a lot more than those shadow spells. The idea always felt like shadow spells (even if they're only worth 3 pips extra) were drastically stronger than a regular spell. Right now, even with pve nerfed, not a single person is going to use the shadow spells, since there are still higher damage or more useful spells. Extreme examples of this can be seen in the storm, death, and myth school. Sirens is better than bugs, Khrulhu is slightly better than scarecrow, and myth has no alternatives outside of a PET SPELL.

Another complaint i've seen is that the balances dont make sense in the grand scheme of things. Myth is widely agreed to be the "third strongest hitting school," and currently mystic does less damage than forest lord an 8 PIP LIFE SPELL. If shadow pips are supposed to be 3 pips, and myth is a "hitting school" then this makes no sense. Balance now holds the best aoe attack, Nested Fury as well.

I think most people agree, if you're going to nerf pve to match the shadow spells, you should nerf all the other spells to match it.

Survivor
Nov 09, 2017
1
As a storm who only does PVE, I get Storm Lord at level 48, and it does 690 damage and stuns all enemies. Cool. After getting that, I'd expect higher damage spells when I become level 100. Then when I reach level 100, I get all excited for my new shadow spell, Glowbug Squall and then I see that it only does an extra 40 damage, at 730 to all enemies and removes a single blade, which isn't very helpful when it comes to PVE... .-. Do you guys see what I mean? If you worked so hard to go through quests, leveling up, getting gear, and spending months or years of your time, just to get a spell that does an extra 40 damage, and requires a shadow pip..? I'd be pretty mad... I don't want to be punished for working so hard to get to where I am now.

What is the storm school? A high damage, low resist, low health class.. That's what we are. And if you remove that from us, then there's nothing left for us. The fire school has more health, accuracy, resist, and has 1% more damage when equipping the perfect gear. So we rely on higher damage spells because either we die, or we kill. But if you make our damage lower, then we won't make it anywhere. We'll just die in every single place before we get the chance to hit.

My solution? Increase it to 1020 damage, that's it. Not asking for too much. As for the other shadow spells for the other schools, just reduce their damage by 100, no more, no less. The new drains bosses are already pretty tough, no need to make it even harder for us PVE players.

Survivor
Jan 08, 2020
1
Hello.

So, I used to play this game a long time ago and made a new account with a new membership in January out of nostalgia.

I have never once had access to the Darkmoor spells. My highest account is a storm that I have been power leveling, and I'm proud to say I've gotten him almost up to level 80 already!

My concern with these changes is not game balance. I am sure that the devs will tone down monster power to bring the post level 100 content in line with what players can reasonably be expected to do.

My concern is with player satisfaction. I already have the Sirens spell and have had it for 10 levels now. I was previously very excited to eventually learn Glowbug Squall, but now I'm not sure why I would want to.

I can understand the logic behind it. If the spell is valued at 8 pips, and Sirens is 9 pips, it should be weaker. That I get. But then my question is, why would you introduce this spell first? If you're considering these spells to be 8 pip AoE spells, wouldn't it make sense to introduce them earlier than level 100, and maybe move some of the other spells back?

What do I, as a new player, have to look forward to about unlocking and questing for spells that are weaker in power than the ones I already have? What reward is there for leveling up? Yes, Darkmoor can get you some excellent gear, but I always thought that spells should feel special and exciting to learn. What satisfaction should I as a player be getting out of unlocking Glowbug Squall? Storm already has several high damage AOE spells, including AOE spells that clear off blades. And if the goal is to be able to hit first round with it with 2 power pips and a deck, the shadow pip rating changes largely prevent that, from my understanding.

What value is there in casting Glowbug Squall over Sirens if I can reasonably amass 9 pips relatively quickly? If I get 100% power pip chance, I can cast it on turn 3, which is when I would expect to get a shadow pip as well, right?

Survivor
May 19, 2009
9
I read all comments and people are concern about they own spells and make their opinions. I have 7 school wizards and all are level 130, I love all school spells. I work very hard to make them better, I spend years, time and money to on packs, mounts, training pets, farming, gardening, for all my 7 wizards.

If you nerf the spells from my 7 wizards maybe 2 will be powerful, 5 wizards will be annulled. I will spend less crowns that's for sure.

If you continue nerfed the spells only because the new world will bring more powerful spells or because this is an PVP issue, this circle will never stop.

I suggest to make a PVP spells separate from PVE same as you do for BeastMoon.

Thanks in advance for this matter.

Explorer
Jul 23, 2009
77
Survivor
Jul 04, 2012
1
Imo I think the only nerf you did right was Weaver i think the 50 shield is perfect for PVP but for PVE its impossible to solo as an ice i love ice as a PVE school and since i solo and this nerf to Weaver just screwed me over and now i have to redo my deck all over I love the nerf to FFA but thats a good PVE spell and i say do the nerfs for PVP only because in my option you did all of these nerfs for PVP and not PVE or heck make the shadow pips non PVP i think PVP was better without shadow i love this game but this Update killed it for me

Survivor
Jan 18, 2020
1
I have also taken the time to read the (currently) five pages of comments when it comes to shadow spell changes. As for the changes to the character faces I like the suggestion to have the option to keep the current character faces. There's another an option for classic mode so why not keep that option available?

I am not going to comment much on the spell changes but I laughed out loud in disbelief when I first saw the proposals. I am actually afraid to comment on them in fear that the nerf all approach will be used (and kind of has been used).

But I would like to add some food for thought, perhaps anyone who has a max wizard and has been working on another likes something about whichever school they are working on. Maybe they want to try their hand at supporting, or they like being able to do good damage, or whatever. So perhaps that indicates the PVE community was fine with how spells are right now. Enough so that they would devote hours, days, weeks, and months if needed to max another character when they have already beat the game once already. Personally, I am working on fire because I want to be able to hit instead of being expected to be the juju slave. I personally don't care about PVP because I don't feel good about bashing another wizard into the ground even if it's just for fun. I would rather enjoy the story and quest.

Survivor
Apr 01, 2020
3
My Concerns with Shadow Pip Changes.

I am perfectly content with the idea of nerfing the level 100 shadow spells. No one is completely against the idea of nerfing them. I do however think that by doing so 6 years later. You now have to change a lot about the game.

1. Rebalancing the schools that relied on the level 100 shadow spell.

2. Rebalancing the 108 and 118 shadow spells.

3. Finding a unique place for the 100 shadow spells currently. A lot of the purposed changes to the level 100 shadow spells end up making them useless. The big contenders being Gaze of Fate, Mystic Colossus, and Khrulhu, but across the board the nerfs to the 5 pip shadow spells all make them useless. There are just better regular pip options for example sirens is now going to be better that glow bugs, and no one is going to use glow bugs cause siren offers more.

4. Explaining why you do certain things in your patch notes. Not just generally, but specifically why through each spell change write 3 scentences why you do something to give the player base more incite into what the dev's are thinking.

As things stand right now in the summer update on the test realm its all sorts of bad. Like there is just so much that is wrong with it. And overall I am disappointed in you for even considering these were good enough to test out. Just because shadow spells will be more spam-able, doesn't mean that its balanced or better than other spam-able options. For example Gaze of Fate vs the new spectral blast spell balance is getting. I am not going to waste 5 pips, and a shadow pip to do less damage than Spiritual Tribunal.

Survivor
Feb 25, 2011
1
I’m sorry but with all due respect, the amount of money people put into this game and you guys can’t bust out a simple updated character design without nerfing spells and completely ignoring everyone’s ideas. I’ve been playing since 2011 and I feel so sad and wronged by this. Please listen next time.

Survivor
Oct 13, 2008
3
I left for 7 years, cuz of the updated content back then. I've been back now 6 months about. Finally get my storm to max and perfecting my stats. Now the nerf. OMG don't you care about the revenue you will loose if players leave. I woll consider leaving too. I worked to hard and spent to much money on this just to be nerfed. I guess back to my other online games until KI actually listen to there players who give them the funds to pay themselves. Go ahead im sure you can pay yourselves on FTP players and loose us pay to play.

Survivor
Mar 16, 2009
3
Not directly tied to the update but to the idea of changing the mechanic of getting shadow pips: so much of the game is based on percentages and luck, why is there a need to change just shadow pip accumulation? Accuracy, power pips, who goes first, which cards you pull, what damage is done for a spell with a range, whether your pet or wand does a may cast, what the AI chooses for bosses/mobs/minions/henchmen.

Maybe it won't matter with the new mechanic, but I prioritize gear / jewels that increase shadow pip %.

I am guessing that with nerfed hits and new mechanic, there will be less interest in shadow pips overall, which is a shame. It would be good if there were more viable shadow spells ... I rarely see any cast by players other than shrike.