Inside the latest Wizard101 Test Realm, you'll find three new bosses on top of two new gauntlets, all with a couple of interesting goodies for your wizard. Among them would be four new spells, three of which can be permanently trained. Check them out!
New Bosses, New Loot
Along with three new Skeleton Key bosses comes new loot. But, instead of permanent pack mounts, or new pets or wands, these things are dropping spells! Much like the Loremaster, you may find yourself fortunate enough to come up with a "New Spell Learned" screen after a battle. The boss drops are combination spells. They take two, lower-level creatures that we've all seen before and combine then in an interesting and surprising way.
Metalops
This Death spell is the special case of the four. It's not actually a spell you can train, as with the other three. Metalops is an item card. You get two copies from wands dropped in the new Baddle of the Bands dungeon. The final boss, Pat, drops a number of gear goodies, and her wands are interesting. They're a sword and shield look, except they're drums and a drum stick.
Metalops is four pips and is a Death spell. It does 280 Death damage and adds a +35% Fire Trap and a +35% Death Trap. It's not a particularly powerful spell, and its effect is rather odd, producing two traps from schools seemingly unrelated. However, what it lacks in power it makes up for in cinematics. This decorated cyclops appears with a number of different poses before striking the ground with his guitar, damaging the enemy in a fury of musical notes. The animation is shown in the video further down.
Catch of the Day
This spell is dropped from a Wooden Skeleton Key boss, Takanoku the Masterless, in the Cave of Solitude, Mooshu. These type of spells are notably more difficult to get than the Loremaster's, not because they have lower drop rates (in fact, I'd argue higher), but because you need a key for each time you attempt the battle to get the loot. The good thing is that if you take in the full four people, at least one usually ends up with another key, and you can then repeat the fight many times until you're all out.
Catch of the Day is a Storm spell costing five pips. It does 550 to 590 Storm damage and removes all positive charms. So it's essentially a five-pip Kraken with an Enfeeble. That makes this spell crazy powerful, and a must-have for Storm wizards who PvP. Unlike Metalops, Catch of the Day is a great addition to your deck in terms of power.
Catch of the Day is a Storm spell costing five pips. It does 550 to 590 Storm damage and removes all positive charms. So it's essentially a five-pip Kraken with an Enfeeble. That makes this spell crazy powerful, and a must-have for Storm wizards who PvP. Unlike Metalops, Catch of the Day is a great addition to your deck in terms of power.
That said, it doesn't have to compromise creativity, either. The spell starts out like a normal Kraken, but before he can throw his lightning bolt, a huge Storm Shark falls out of the sky and into his arms, slapping the Kraken with its tail fin. The Kraken then tosses the shark, mouth first, at the player.
Burning Rampage
For this one, you can throw out your wooden keys. You'll instead need a Stone Skeleton Key. Head to the Crystal Caves in Avalon. Here, you'll find a special sigil. My initial question was why the sigil was necessary at all given that the lock was inside, but then I realized that all sigils are typically inside a dungeon. These serve as a way to determine your group before going in, and if a "random" pops in, you can go back out before ever having spent a key.
This one comes from Lambent Fire in the Crystal Caves, Avalon. Burning Rampage is a Fire spell that costs five pips and does 70 initial damage, then adds a DoT (Dame over Time) effect. The DoT will appear to burn the enemy one round later, but will do no damage. The following round, it will hit for 700 damage. This is a significant spell that creates some interesting scenarios. The damage per pip here is pretty stellar, and so I imagine Fire Wizards will be after this spell for that reason. It's also a double hit, meaning shield removal. Not only that, but it's only two hits instead of three or four, and there's a two-round delay, so Fire wizards have an opportunity to trap the second hit, making it potentially quite powerful. The downside is that it's a DoT, meaning we could see Cooldown or Triage remove the second hit altogether.
The look of this spell is great. It starts out as your standard Firezilla, but before it can stomp and roar on the enemy wizard, it is distracted by a Sunbird flying around it. It follows the bird around, and then, in an unexpected twist, the bird shoots a fireball, sending the Firezilla up off the ground as a projectile that comes down on the wizard.
Sacred Charge
I was actually fortunate enough to snag this spell on my first attempt. It comes from Aphrodite Two in the Graveyard in Darkmoor. You can sneak around the first boss and use a Gold Skeleton Key to enter. You'll want a full four wizards for this one, as this four-vine cheating boss is a force to be reckoned with.
Sacred Charge is a five-pip Life spell that does 500 Life damage and adds a 250 damage absorb shield to the caster. It isn't quite up to par with the others in terms of power for the pip cost, but it isn't totally under-powered, either.
The spell begins with a simple Seraph, but instead of attacking, she summons a unicorn. The unicorn kneels in its position as if to heal the opponent, but instead stomps on the ground, causing a miniature earthquake.
Spells in Action
The spells are cool on their own, but to help to see the novelty in at least obtaining these few spells from bosses or gauntlet drops, I've put together a video showcasing the animations. You can watch in HD. Big thanks to Alura Silver for showing me the Fire spell and Morgrim Shadowfist for casting the Storm spell.
These spells are a lot of fun, and with the ability to learn them without the use of crowns (and the inability to buy them in any way, shape, or form), these may easily be considered must-haves. I know I'll be farming for them! They seem pretty common so far, which is probably a trade-off given how difficult the bosses can be at the appropriate level tiers.
These spells are a lot of fun, and with the ability to learn them without the use of crowns (and the inability to buy them in any way, shape, or form), these may easily be considered must-haves. I know I'll be farming for them! They seem pretty common so far, which is probably a trade-off given how difficult the bosses can be at the appropriate level tiers.
Have you gotten any of these spells yet? Which ones will you be farming for?
Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!
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The only thing that bugs me about the fire spell is the fact that it's a DoT. I mean I guess it makes sense just for the way that the game mechanics work here but still though.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't know if you've seen it yet, but there's a huge discussion over on Wizard101 Central about whether or not the life spell should be turned into a low pip aoe for them or not. Out of curiosity what's your current stance on this whole debate there currently?
I wish there were spells for all schools!
ReplyDeleteI hope they will release spells for all schools soon.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I saw that. I will say that it's not as much bang for your buck in terms of pip cost, but I'm not sure I'd go so far as AoE.
ReplyDeleteIf you just bump the absorb up to 500, it's pretty balanced, even a little over-powered. But then it's still not a hugely useful thing. I would almost go 425 Life damage to all enemies, absorb 400 to self.
So why does storm need a new spell? oh and what about the other schools? When in heaven's name is life going to get an aoe? Just a few thoughts kingsisle.
ReplyDeleteWell I found the life cyclops version. Sorry its hard to see.
ReplyDeleteReclops (not 100% sure of the name)
280 Life Damage and +35% to next Life and Storm
when u think about it, life would be over powered if made an aoe unless u decrease the damage from 500 to around 205-255 or something around there. Forest lord is around 500 and thats an 8 pip spell. What they shuld do since since healing is lifes main cards/job is make it a 4 pip aoe spell, 205-245 plus a healing/damage aura after the hit. So that life can do a bit of damage and have pips to heal and support Afterwards.. that way creators will still give life healing abilities plus the option to do damage as well for those hardcore damage dealing destructive life wizards who want to fight and not support everytime ur in group battles.......which is annoying.......and im speaking from experience.
ReplyDeletesomething like the aztecan storm aura card made green would look cool. Green electricity
I dont know why everyone assumes that healing is lifes "job" No one else has a "job" and has to sacrifice their pips to support everyone else. Why should life have to? The only reason we have heals is because they made us so gol darn weak we have to keep healing to just stay alive. But that doesnt mean we "have" to heal everyone else too. Its the main reason I play solo as much as possible so I actually get a chance to hit before some power crazy storm or fire or even ice just blasts everything in sight. And I have to waste all my pips healing them while they get set up. Bah! They'll never give life a really awesome hit. Thats why Im training another school now so I dont have to carry bandaids for everyone in the spiral!
ReplyDeleteLol im sorry but......that was toooooo funny 😂😂 but i know what u mean but the creators seems to make only healing and support spells for life which is why i suggested something for both sides. I hate when a storm buddy use to quest with me and he dies so fast and says "heal me", Like im his slave. Im like "no how about u just die, i got this" i soloed mostly everything on azteca except the final bosses. So i would like to see a big bang without needing to be fully set up Also. But u and i both know the ppls voice is rarely heard. Then someone might complain how its "too opp for life etc etc"
ReplyDeleteOthers do have a job but its just not as important as staying alive and the others job just isnt as important since celestia and everything else that came out.
balance=blading
ice=shielding
fire=now a damager
fire/myth=shield breakers
Storm=damager
Death=backup hitter or feinter
life=healer.
Funny how others cant do their job without healers except maybe a really tanky ice
Well i understand the Storm spell, Loremaster only drops one storm spell, while the other schools has two or there's balance with three different spells. At least we can have a lower pip school spell now.
ReplyDeleteI liked your comment because it was funny, but I don't agree with you. Sure, in early levels Life has terrible damage spells, but later on when you get Spinysaur, Hungry Caterpillar, and even sometimes Forest Lord, life can be a damage monster.
ReplyDeleteThough your right about the part of people expecting life to only heal.