Back to Blogging, Samoorai Pet, House-A-Palooza, and Wysteria

Remind you of someone?

Well, it's been quite some time since I've blogged about Wizard101, and to be honest, I've been away doing other things, but I'm back and ready to get to it! You know, I ought to write a blog post about "Staying Interested," because Wizard101 has had a difficult time keeping me around. After several weeks, I returned to find only Fairy Wings. I was expecting progress of the latest world, a new tower, or some new pet in the crown shop or something. Well now, all of that is here!

First off, there's a new Samoori Pet in the crown shop. The pet costs 7,500 crowns ($13 at normal price), and has some nice talents actually. It gives a Unicorn card as well.

Speaking of the crown shop, through August 23rd, you can purchases houses and housing items (from the crown shop, of course) for up to 50% off!

The decorations here are definitely appealing

In other news, the new world of Wysteria is here! With the new world, new equipment, plants, quests, enemies, and bosses should be expected. If you are level 25 or higher, you can speak to Merle Ambrose to get your key to Wysteria. Wysteria is home to one of Ravenwood's rival schools - Pigswick Academy. Pegasus Place and Tanglewood Way are the more minor locations surrounding the academy. Apparently, a magical tournament here will be drawing competitors from around the spiral!

Although Wysteria is aimed for players in their mid-levels, legendary characters shouldn't despair! There is a new level 60 gauntlet: The Tower of the Helephant! I'm not sure what sort of twists this new tower has, but I'm excited to see. Based on some quotes Fred Howard gave regarding Wysteria, it leads me to believe that this very minor world won't be the biggest update of the year, and we'll be hearing more soon!

The school of Tempest, based on Storm, where the columns
are swirling with water

Beginning to journey into Wysteria, I was surprised. The environment is different. For one, even the easily defeated first enemy can use auras.

Despite these auras, they're relatively easy to defeat. During combat, I noticed something new - our schools are displayed. If this is true for PvP as well, there won't be any more tricks or guessing as to what school your opponent is. Upon journeying further into Wysteria, I found that like Ravenwood, there are seven different schools, all somewhat based on schools from Ravenwood, and also being taught by quite the variety of teachers from around the spiral.

Despite the various schools, there are no new spells, but that isn't surprising. The various schools were slightly interesting, actually.

The Dormitory at Pigswick Academy

The various shops at Pigswick Academy vary in appearance, which is nice. They seem quite a bit larger than shops in Ravenwood or other worlds where not everyone even had an individual shop.

It's good to finally see something new - new environment, new enemies, etc. The one thing I haven't found yet is the latest gauntlet - The Tower of the Helephant. I think I'll run Wysteria once on the test realm to get used to all of the ins and outs, and then search out this tower. With Wintertusk, I ended up running once on the Test, and about three times in the live realm, so I finally got sick of it, and that's what sparked my "break."

Seeing that now, even something like Wysteria can be exciting, I'm really interested to see what Kingsisle is up to next, because their decorating skills are always improving, and one of my favorite things to do is explore new places.

The Headmistresess' office - Ambrose needs an upgrade!

Looking into Wysteria, it seems odd. I've been in conversation with the headmistress, who says that Wysteria's source of magic is a fountain, not a tree! She hints, however, that the fountain isn't actually magical.

Continuing with questing led me to the Tower of the Helephant, located in Pegasus Place, which is nicely decorated. I'm sure how to enter yet, so I suppose the only option is to continue questing!

Overall, Wysteria looks really good, and I'm excited to see the rest of it!