"And Then There Was Wintertusk," Feedback Friday, and Crowns Sale

Before its release, there was a lot of buzz on the new world on Wintertusk. Shortly after, we discovered that it wasn't a world at all, but the first ever expansion of a previous world - Grizzleheim. For so many, this was a "problem." A good percentage of Wizards had never felt the need to complete Grizzleheim with its tedious tasks and small rewards, especially at the beginning. Personally, I had all of my characters do Grizzleheim simply for access to the ravens. This was a great farming spot, one of the best in fact, before Celestia and Wintertusk.

In time, we learned that Kingsisle had really stepped things up a notch with this update, introducing the first cut-scenes to the game. As simple as a bit of magic in a tree was, it was exciting to see this new element added to the game. I definitely remember my first time freeing Grandmother Raven. Because I usually kept my sound off, however, I missed an important part of that quest that I later discovered thanks to a post on Wizard101Central (You can visit the site at wizard101central.com or click on their name on the sidebar).

With this new introduction came new, well... everything! New gear, pets, quests, experience opportunities, crafted equipment, dropped equipment, instances with cheating bosses, and plenty of new opportunities to get the latest crown gear; The Baconator Set, the Lifeforce Blade, and Mastery Amulets! With some good luck, my Fire received the Baconator Robe (don't quote me on the name), and my balance received the Baconator Boots. Guides for Wintertusk can be found HERE, including my own "The Ongoing Game of Tag," explaining the final instance. My Balance/Ice/Death can do quests or farming alongside my Fire and Storm, so normally, my Balance, Fire, and Storm (besides when we do our two turn farming with Thunderfin in Stormriven - I use my Ice) will tackle the Waterworks together in hopes of their gear or other rare drops. To the day, my storm is missing his robe, and my fire and balance are missing their boots.

There was a lot of controversy with the new gear, especially with Ice and Storm. Ice, now not only losing some resist, but everyone else gaining some, was falling behind now. Storm had this new spell, Insane Bolt, that was literally hitting the arena hard, and there was quite the question as to whether the lack of strategy for the new spell in the arena should dictate what happened outside those doors in the rest of the Spiral. For some disscussion (which has hopefully died down) on the spell, you can visit several threads located HERE, HERE, HERE, and did I mention HERE? Yes, it has really sparked some discussion. Read through some of those threads, and you'll easily find my view of the spell. :)

Even the pets and their cards had some discussion going, what was fair, what wasn't, etc. In the end, the decisions that were made seemed very reasonable, but still left some unsatisfied users. 

Crafted gear was another topic of interest. Were the new crafted rings and athames better than the Celestian ones with such fantastic healing bonuses? And the wands. Were their great cards only a problem when you needed a quick shield remover? And then there were hats, robes, and boots, but in the end, they didn't seem able to live up to the Waterworks gear.

In other news, Feedback Friday is here (and practically gone, by now)! Kingsisle asked players what items they would like to see introduced to the housing world as objects. The thread with a great number of submissions can be found HERE (is it just me, or is "HERE" with a link overused?). Did I mention that crowns are on sale as well. Now if you want to purchase those, you can go THERE (who doesn't like a little variety?).

That concludes this informational blog post containing news and recent updated for Wizard101. Next time around, we'll discuss the ups and downs of the Sultan's Palace, and let you know about Diary of a Wizard's Second Annual Ravenwood Ball and Birthday Bash! (Happy Birthday!) In the mean time, lets see what kind of creative advertising we can do to get this blog up and running! See you in the Spiral!