Treasure Card Marketplace, PvP Talk, and New Backgrounds!

Between the holiday celebrations and festivities, there's hardly been time to sit down and do some questing, or one of my favorite activities - Practice P.V.P. Between out-of-game death threats, cheating accusations due to "may casts," and a number of crazy Warlords, PvP (If you don't mind if I leave out the periods) never ceases to hold my interest, despite many crazy players.

I always try to reply to opponents - they'll figure out my school eventually, so if they say "Hi," I don't hesitate to respond. Now if you say, "Your Pathetic, Cole" I might not want to hold a conversation. Especially when you can't distinguish "your" and "you're," but I suppose I'm in no position to criticize word choice - believe me. Anyway, I'd like to share today's ideas, PvP experiences, and some other new items.

Recently, I've come up with a few ideas, and one is a Treasure Card Marketplace, perhaps simply called the "Marketplace." It would be located in Wizard City, and have a large, circular area surrounded by columns. Since everyone could go there, there'd a three tunnels leading to separate areas, each uniquely themed. The first is for level twenty and up wizards, the second for level forty and up, and the third for level sixty and up. This gives wizards of both intermediate levels and higher levels with certain dedication to the game areas that are not like the main area, where even level one players can go to trade cards. It is possible that new players will go here begging for cards, but this both solves problems and is taken care of. When you're making your trips to the Bazaar, or visiting Felix Navidad, there will be no more "Cards for a mount." And if you have a wish to trade for upper level cards, visit the level sixty and up pavilion.

This would probably create a need for new menu chat options, including "Offering" statements and "Wanted" sayings. I'd love to hear your opinions and ideas, too!

It's been quite a day of PvPing, meeting quite a variety of opponents. The highlight was probably an Ice Warlord. I was trying a new strategy - summoning and making use of minions. He had his own ideas, though - summoning his friends who began cussing left and right, calling me things, etc. I decided not to respond. I piled on some shields, summoned a minion or two, and placed several weaknesses. He was prepared, and with one or two pip spells, he'd finish off the first few of my minions, and remove his weaknesses and my shields, but by the time he was done, he's used all of his power-ups, and I certainly had a pip advantage.

PvP these days can be interesting. I choose not to turn off what my PvP opponent says, because many are friendly, like to chat, and we even exchange tips and stories. It all depends on the wizard, I suppose.

My pet has four "may cast" talents, Pierce, Balanceblade, Spritely, and Cloud O' Bugs. It's hard to explain to some opponents that your pet casting Locust Swarm on them in addition to your spell isn't cheating. I also gain power pips every turn. That means that after summoning a minion, I'm two power pips short, and the next turn only one. He accused me of summoning minions for only one pip, and then complained that I had more pips than him. He also decided to record the match so that he could report it to KingsIsle.

Despite a few interesting opponents, I've had a lot of fun testing out a new strategy. The new method makes use of minions, which means you end up with a theoretical two turns per round, and even if you don't, you opponent burns pips taking care of the minions which you can quickly re-summon. I'd normally improvise, throwing many smaller hits and killing creatively. With the healing power of life, and the damage power of the elemental schools, plus shields of all types, Balance is a truly powerful school. The new strategy was all thanks to Onion Knight's Central Guide for Balance characters.

Speaking of minions, I've never given too much attention to Talos, but as a five pip minion that is like another wizard altogether, I wonder why I don't see him more with Myth characters. You know, everything you can do, your minion can do better. Myth gets a variety of minion-enhancing spells like 80% shields and 40% blades. These are prime examples of how much more efficient your minion can be than you. Talos, being able to stun, attack, etc., plus these advanced power-ups could be a deadly combination in which you only need to sit back and shield and watch your minion do the work. Invest five pips, and get two turns per round until the end of the battle. Myth also has Shatter, which means you opponent can bury themselves in countless shields, but three pips undoes everything.

Ice is another school with options where PvP domination is concerned at the moment. With a Life Mastery Amulet, and the correct playing style, they'd be very difficult to defeat. It is possible for an Ice to have a good 4500+ health plus 52%+ universal resist, not to mention impressive universal block rating. This means that, even without shields, the enemy needs to do over 9000 damage to the Ice wizard to win the duel. Throw shields, pet "may casts," and the healing efficiency of Life in there, and they'd be hard to beat, though I'd still bet on the Myth plus Talos.

I'm waiting for Fire to make a come-back in the Arena, at least in 1v1. They do quite well with Power Link, Efreet, and many cheap DoTs, but because the majority of their damage is done over time, it can be easily healed. A fully-pipped Heckhound could be deadly, but in the event that it doesn't kill quickly, the Fire is left with no pips for healing if the opponent decides to attack. With the correct playing style, a Fire can still do quite well. Just stop by Central and ask some of the PvPers there to help you with your neck rolls. Fire in general, however, has been lacking lately.

Win or lose, I'll always enjoy PvP, and if you ever come across one of the Goldrivers in battle, I'm always open to suggestions and tips, or just a nice conversation.

Be sure to stop by the Background page (http://www.swordroll.com/p/backgrounds.html) and check out sixteen new backgrounds for your computer in addition to sixteen others! There's also a guide on how to upload your new backgrounds to your computer so that you'll have Wizard101 with you no matter what you're doing online, plus there are some pretty neat pictures in there! Be sure to check it out!