Critical Change: The Celestia Update

Rowan Ironblood is a long-time Wizard101 player who has seen many an update to the game. During my Fourth Blogoversary, she won second place in the contest to write a post about the most game-changing update to Wizard101. Last year, Mary Darkriver became the first guest poster on Swordroll's Blog and gave her opinion. This year, the second-place finished, Rowan Ironblood, takes the spotlight. Rowan is not a regular blogger; this new experience will hopefully be a learning opportunity for everyone. This post was written in June of 2015.

There are many things that changed Wizard101 over the years, but the thing that I think most changed the game was when critical chance was introduced in the Celestia Update. At first, people might not have thought this was a big game-changer, but it actually impacted how all of our battles and even how our gear was arranged.

PvP and PvE

Critical can make or break you in a boss fight. If you critical, you could potentially win the duel, but if the boss criticals, you could lose the whole thing after all your hard work, including adding blades and trapping. 

PvP especially was changed because of this - more gear for lower levels have begun to include critical chance, and with it they joined in the big leagues with the higher leveled players. Some wizards rejoiced and others threw fits. It was pretty even on both sides.

Upper-Level Benefits

When the system first came out I was frustrated at how easily I could now be killed even with great healing cards; a well-placed critical on the Balance spell Judgement was all it took to defeat me. After I learned that this new element wasn't all bad, it was actually a great help in later dungeons. For instance when KingsIsle made the three dungeons update for the Skeleton Keys, we could easily go through it as higher levels and finish it in a matter of minutes with criticals left and right. This also led the developers to include bosses with higher health than we ever faced before. Bosses in the Waterworks seemed tough but when you got that sweet critical and landed the killing blow, it was all worth it. 

An even later update included getting up in the millions when Malistaire the Undying was introduced to us in the Darkmoor dungeons update. I was so amazed when I could actually kill a person with so much health! KingsIsle also added a badge for getting a hit so big called "One in a Million." 

Critical Block

Of course, this update also had more key features than just critical chance. It also had critical block. With critical block, players were happier and at the same time more frustrated. On one hand, you could block a high-powered spell from those evil Starburst Spiders in Mirror Lake, but they could also block your well-planned Scarecrow attack.

I absolutely love this feature now, especially if you plan your gear out to get the best coverage for all schools. To top that all off, our pets now have a chance of giving us additional critical chance or block. This makes pets with those talents more sought-after for their special features. With these talents, the pet combinations are endless! 

I can't wait to see if this gets developed further. Imagine the possibilities of critical chance on shadow spells or even the blade and trap fields! A lot of people don’t really think of the critical feature as the thing that changed Wizard101, but in my opinion it's the most important one.

Guest post by Rowan Ironblood. Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!