Halloween is Here, Week Two Winners, and Discussion of the Day

While Halloween isn't actually in the game yet, the contests aren't waiting on Kingsisle, and neither is the excitement! While Kingsisle is very busy with Halloween preparations, they seem to have forgotten some other minor contests like their Weekly Giveaway on Facebook and announcing the winner for the Teleporter Video Contest, both of which should have happened yesterday. Don't worry though, because Kingsisle is doing all they can to make this Halloween something extra special. Not only will you see the Black Cat pet return, the Nightmare will be for sale as well. This Halloween, however, brings the release of a mystery mount, item, and pet as well! How do I know? Wizard101 Central is giving some away for contests as well as crowns, pets, and even Umbra Swords! They have said, however, that they will not be revealed or awarded until Kingsisle has officially announced their release.

Whatever the case, stop by Wizard101 Central and check out the front page news with most of the contest details. The Pumpkin Hunt starts tonight at 8:00 PM CST! There's a contest for everybody, so be sure to check it out!
With Halloween comes the Halloween tower, and for those of you who haven't done it, it's incredibly fun! It's an instance with several floors and you can choose from three levels of difficulty based on your level, but if you've mastered instances like the Waterworks, it shouldn't be any problem on the hardest setting, which also offers the best rewards! The final boss gives you a chance at all of the Halloween items as well as other rare things! Nightshade also usually drops several holiday items if you aren't up for an instance, but you can't rely on his loot to be nearly as exciting and rewarding!

Spooky Bob is the Halloween salesperson in the Shopping District and he offers some of the most popular outfits of the year and wands and pets and such for crowns. You can also expect Halloween quests and decorations.

Now a few questions to get you excited. The Zombie Piggle has been one of the most searched-for pets on Google, and has drawn in wizards to my blog on more than one occasion. Will this special pet be the Zombie Piggle we've all been so curious about? And this is the first time that Kingsisle has released a mount on Halloween. Is it ironic that the whole "1 passenger" thing came up on the Test Realm right before Halloween? And what's this special item that they keep mentioning? And one more thing, on Oct. 12th, when they announce Game Developer's Choice Online Awards, will Wizard101 win, and will we receive this newly retired pet? It's all part of the month of October, so keep your eyes peeled, and watch out for the cobwebs (That's random, Swordroll)!

Ok, so it's already later in the day, but I haven't forgotten. I wasn't surprised when I received no bonus entries for this second week, but perhaps I'll try again another week. For those of you that "Liked" Swordroll's Blog on Facebook before 8:00 PM CST last night, you were entered into a drawing for two KI Free Games codes that could give you anything from seeds, snacks, and reagents, to housing items, permanent mounts, minigames, and retired swords! Don't be discouraged if you didn't win or didn't "Like" us in time, though, there's always next week (and the two weeks after!), so log onto Facebook and search for us or simply use our sidebar!

And now it's time for the Discussion of the Day! The topic is Talos. Having obviously been abused on multiple occasions by lower level wizards and upper level wizards with or without mastery amulets, the treasure card was removed from PvP. This meant that Myth could still use their fairly earned card, but other schools with mastery amulets, and low level wizards without them, couldn't. Now, on Wizard101 Central, StorySmith argues that the card is like any other - Wild Bolt and Insane Bolt are allowed in PvP after all, right? Even Polymorphs could be used by level 55's and up, so why not Talos? Well, here's a few reasons I can think of that made Kingsisle change their mind about Talos: he's a minion who stuns, uses Humongofrog and Earthquake, and a variety of other things. It's like summoning a whole new character. Talos come from having to do all of Grizzleheim and portions of Wintertusk, so if Talos was all that that was good for, Kingsisle wanted players to have to do it! Because Talos was so popular in PvP, this was motivation to do these side worlds. In the end, Talos was just too powerful and overused for it to remain in PvP.

Now while I did come up with a few ideas, I'm not against making the spell level-restricted. I haven't taken a a side, but many Central users have. Let's take a look!

StorySmith's original post:
"I actually feel that they should have put a Level restriction on it instead of No PvP. If you're Legendary, you should be able to use Talos. Many Balance Life and Death wizards retrained to Myth and we can't use in -deck Myth minions. That solves the low level wizards using Talos issue and allows high level wizards to continue using Talos as part of 1v1 strategy."

GAGM200's response:

"Level restrict and no trade will not solve the problem for low levels using it because all they need to do then is just get on there 2nd account and go some where its dropped then they can get all the talos they want, level restrict does not stop the person from getting it as a drop or stop them from using it I should know I can use gargantuan that I got as a drop on one of my low level chars and thats restricted to lvl55 also I have a lvl18 with polymorph's (that I got from gardening) which is also level restricted and I have no trouble using them on my lvl18 so level restrict does not stop low levels from using them."

To which StorySmith responded:

"Level restriction makes it unusable for wizards less than Level 55. So it doesn't matter if they get it as a drop because they have to wait until they are Level 55 to use the TC. Some Polymorphs are No Trade and No PvP. You can't buy it at Point of Sale the Archivist if you're not the right level. That is different from level restricting a spell. It's what they do when they level-restrict gear. You can't use the Malistaire gear when you're only Level 15. If you go to Malistaire and you get the drop, you still can't use it until you're the right level."

This raises from questions. What Storysmith is suggesting is a whole new system for treasure cards where any level can obtain the card, they simply can't use it until level 55. This would take Kingsisle extra time that they could use to work on worlds or other problems. This doesn't seem to be the best solution. I'm thinking that you simply make them unavailable to purchase until level 55 and untradable, as well as preventing them from being dropped. That, or keep them no PvP. And who knows, maybe this is a temporary solution? For more on the debate visit http://www.wizard101central.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213789.

Keep an eye out for Halloween specials... Halloween should be in the Spiral by Monday! Until then, check out the blog and become a member, leave a comment, follow us on Twitter, "Like" us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel, tell your friends, etc., etc. And one more thing, don't forget to vote on our poll and check out Wizard101 Central! Thanks again for reading!