Summertime is heating up in the Spiral with fun new content to explore!
Do you enjoy creating new Wizards but wish there were more character customization options, or would like to see a bit of touchup done to your existing Wizards? How about experiencing the fun of teaming up to take on challenging new creatures, or perhaps going one-on-one in PVP?
We have new content for all these areas and more in the Summer Update!
Choosing a name is one of the first steps of starting your career as a powerful Wizard and a very serious business to get right. We wanted to streamline the process so you can get into the game faster to start exploring around. For example, you can hit the letter of the name you’re looking for and jump right to those names – e.g. pressing M would immediately take you to Madison. We've even improved the browsing speed when selecting a name.
Just like how you can customize the visuals of your existing Wizard in the enhanced Magic Mirror, those customizations now carry over to the general character creation process. We made it easier than ever to get a look just the way you want. Presets allow you to scroll through various enhancements and be able to go back to one you liked if you remember which Preset it was. If you are not a picky-choosy type of Wizard, feel free to press that Random button and see what interesting combination comes up!
Perhaps the most exciting thing you’ll notice in the Summer Update are immediate changes to the way existing Wizard looks. We’ve added eye blinks for enhanced expression and increased the texture resolution for more facial detail. Your Wizard's overall appearance should stay the same but appear sharper and more alive now. The Magic Mirror itself has numerous additional options to choose from to truly make your Wizard even more unique than they were when first created!
The Magic Mirror - Change Your Look!
With this update you may be thinking about your Wizard, "Hmm, could use a bit more flair in the hair. I wonder if I can change that?" Yes, you can! If you wish to change the look of your Wizard, head on over to the Magic Mirror shop in the Shopping District of Wizard City:
All eyes will be on you as you walk down those world sidewalks. You'll instantly be seen as a Wizard with a bit of flare and style that’s up to the challenge of exploring the Spiral!
INTRODUCING THE DAILY SPIRAL
Did you miss the last event or offer? Been away for a while and not sure what’s happening in the Spiral or what there is to do? Our team is big on ensuring you know what’s happening around the Spiral. So many exciting things are happening every day that you don’t want to miss! Every day when you first log in, you’ll now see The Daily Spiral happenings!
Included are your current mainline quest, the current daily assignment and daily PVP quest, game news that links to the Ravenwood Academy section of the official website, event updates, Crowns status, and some item recommendations that may aid you on your journey across the Spiral.
Want all the fun of Beastmoon Hunt team play but without the competitive stress of going up against other Wizards? We’re introducing the new Beastmoon Monster Mayhem event!
To help you get started in this new event, we’ve added a brief in-game tutorial that walks you through the event and describes how Beastmoon Monster Mayhem differs from classic Beastmoon Hunt matches. Once you’ve gotten the hang of how everything works, you’ll be ready to take on the challenge of defeating some of the nastiest of creatures in the event!
You’ll notice that Beastmoon Monster Mayhem looks and feels much like the classic PvP version. How you enter a match – group up with up to 5 other Wizards (or just join the queue and you’ll get matched up with others waiting to play). You’ll find your choice of a selection of the familiar Beastforms available to play. Gameplay mechanics and progression are also similar, including the conditions we’ve established to keep matches fair and fun for your team.
Beastmoon and Beastmoon Monster Mayhem will share Beastforms and be selectively available by us per event just like the PVP event. New Beastforms will only be debuted in the Beastmoon Hunt and may later be unlocked in the Beastmoon Monster Mayhem. If you have unlocked or tiered up a Beastform, it will be unlocked and/or tiered up in the Beastmoon Monster Mayhem as well.
Upon entering a match (the event is opening with the existing Celestia Beastmoon map), creatures are spawned across the map to fight. Defeat all those monsters to spawn a powerful boss in the middle of the map which of course has even more creatures to defend itself. During the boss fight, Artemis has placed some additional monsters outside the Spiral which unlock buffs for the players in the boss battle when defeated! If you succeed in defeating the first boss in the time allotted, you’ll move onto the second wave. If you can quickly make your way through three waves of monsters and bosses, you’ll win the whole event.
Be wary – this is very challenging and only the most skilled, coordinated, and luckiest Wizards will make their way through the whole event. Who will be the first to earn the coveted Master of Mayhem badge someday for defeating 100 rank 3 Monster Mayhem bosses? Only time will tell!
Also new in this event are unique repeatable objectives to challenge your Beastmoon skills, challenging you to defeat Beastmoon bosses, access to temporary crafting recipes only available when the event is active, and the means to complete your Beastmoon Plate set with crafting recipes available for the hat and shoes exclusive to this event.
Assemble your team, start talking strategy, and keep watch for when it runs!
NEW BEASTFORMS
Updates to Beastmoon Hunt and the new Beastmoon Monster Mayhem wouldn’t be complete without a fresh round of Beastforms. Three new Beastforms are being added to these events. Select carefully as they are a rowdy bunch with quite a diversity in tactical capabilities. Check out their skill profiles below and see which one interests you the most!
Death Cyclops – Debuffin’ Dots is a tank designed to counter both Storm and Life Beastforms. He reduces the enemy team's ability to deal and prevent damage and can steal blades and heal-over-time effects for his own use.
Fire Ninja Pig – An unabashed damage-dealer! Slash n’ Burn removes positive wards (shields and stun blocks) and can create and detonate damage-over-time effects. The Fire Ninja Pig also has spells that require a Minion to use, similar to Myth Beastforms. This Beastform really likes to synergize with other DOT and HOT creators. A deadly fire combo could be the Fire Ninja Pig pairing up with the Fire Elf.
Myth Draconian – Pips n’ Pops is a pip generator, who also happens to dish out decent damage. Pips tends to focus on traps, clearing them for more pips or even create them when his target has a shield. He is not alone in his thirst for ensuring enough pips are available, as his minion is as well. While his minion is useful for generating pips, it is also rather weak, so be careful in relying upon it too much.
IMPROVED PVP AND PVP CHAT
Improving PVP Chat
Even though PVP is a competitive area of the game by its nature, we still want and expect players to be able to enjoy a match without worrying about being harassed. This is why we are looking at numerous ways of improving communications between and across players during PVP matches. This also includes adding new ways to mitigate and filter toxic behavior and comments.
Players are now categorized as combatants, spectators, or outsiders with respect to PVP chat privileges. Combatants include any players who are currently engaged (on the sigil) in a PVP match. Spectators are players who are inside a PVP zone but not engaged in combat. Outsiders are players who are not located in the zone but attempt to chat with players inside of it.
Combatants may only chat with other combatants on their own team. Neither spectators nor outsiders can communicate with combatants while they are engaged in a match.
Spectators must meet certain requirements in order to use chat. Currently, those requirements are Level 15 and rank Sergeant or above. Once you meet those requirements, chat is enabled. Chat privileges can be temporarily or permanently suspended by Customer Support, as always.
These restrictions have been added in order to address public harassment. As always, if you feel you are being targeted or harassed, please use our in-game reporting tools to alert Customer Support.
PVP Roundtable with Blake PVP
We had the opportunity to speak to a veteran PVP community member, Blake PVP, about some of these upcoming changes. There was loads of questions answered by our team from the community during a recent community Q&A livestream with Blake:
Expect more of these community hosted Q&A livestreams with our team on other topics soon!
SHADOW PIPS AND SPELL REBALANCE
Shadow PIP Changes
We have rebuilt the Shadow Pip System. The Shadow Pip % stat has been replaced with a Shadow Pip Rating. At the start of each turn, players (with access to Shadow Pips) will fill their shadow meter. The higher your Shadow Pip Rating, the faster the meter will fill. When the meter fills completely, you will generate a shadow pip, the meter will empty, and the meter will begin filling again on the next round.
The Shadow Pip Rating is comparative, and players with a higher rating will generate shadow pips faster than opponents with less Shadow Pip Rating.
Shadow Enhanced Spell Rebalance
With these changes to how Shadow Pips are accumulated, we have re-evaluated Shadow Enhanced Spells and have rebalanced them to be in line with expected power per pip cost with all the other spells in the game. We realize that these changes are reductions in power, and we don’t do this lightly, but they are needed to keep the game in balance for years to come.
Read here a message by Professor Falmea on how we used Test Realm to balance this content.
Spell Balance Audit
From Ratbeard during Test Realm: "We wanted to give you a bit more insight behind the changes to spells currently on Test Realm (as of July 2020), as well as to remind you of our wider rebalance plans moving forward.
The most important thing for our community to understand is that we are undertaking an audit of the game mechanics (systems) throughout the entire game. We understand that changes make players anxious, and this partly explains why we have put off these changes for as long as possible. When it was possible to make small changes, or delay them, we did so; but the time has come when we can’t put them off any longer.
The good news is that these changes are undertaken with the goal of positioning W101 for many more years of growth – including new content, increased level caps, cool new spells and gear.
Two new quests added! One in Wizard City from Bryce Crispie (Marketing is Everything). If you complete this quest and you’re past Empyrea, a follow-up quest becomes available (Life is Like).
Added teleporter tutorials to Cyclops and Firecat Alley
Dr. Zigmund from ‘For Science’ quest will no longer respawn after combat
Pet talents Ward Wrecker and Incredibly Infallible in turn-based PvP now fire at the normal rate
Some Triton Underwater quests no longer show after using a level 50 elixir
Housing
Items can be freely rotated using the Rotate option in housing’s Advanced Move options
‘Medium’ Bunny Planter labeled as ‘Small’ to match the seed requirement
Events
All Deckathalon hamsters are now tradeable
Life Fairy now takes proper damage from Death spells
Players can now teleport to the pet park for the Pet Promenade event
Graphics & UI
Added mouseover tooltips for some of the item comparison sections
Some student NPCs updated with proper facial visuals
