Waterworks Gear Guide | Wizard101

Waterworks gear for level 60+ wizards has been a core part of Wizard101 setups for a very long time. Even to this day, at level 130, I will still catch some max-level wizards using a piece here and there. Just as cheating bosses were being introduced, this dungeon became the number one place to farm. Everybody was trying to get their waterworks gear. Let's take a closer look.

Luska Charmbeak and Sylster Glowstorm

There are two Waterworks bosses that drop the items you'll be after. You'll encounter Luska Charmbeak about halfway through the dungeon, and this boss drops Waterworks hats. At the end of the dungeon, you'll encounter Sylster Glowstorm, who drops Waterworks hats, robes, and boots. This is important to note because you only need to do half the dungeon if you just need your hat. One of the nice things about the Waterworks dungeon is that you can only get gear drops for your wizard school.

Gear Appearance

Waterworks gear doesn't just have great stats. It also looks pretty cool, and can be dyed. Here's the full set for both males and females.

Balance Waterworks Gear

Here are the hat, robe, and boot drops for Balance wizards from the Waterworks dungeon. They are named with the word "Judgement."

Balance Hat

Balance Robe

Balance Boots

Death Waterworks Gear

Here are the hat, robe, and boot drops for Death wizards from the Waterworks dungeon. They are named with the word "Hangman."

Death Hat

Death Robe

Death Boots

Fire Waterworks Gear

Here are the hat, robe, and boot drops for Fire wizards from the Waterworks dungeon. They are named with the word "Firestarter."

Fire Hat

Fire Robe

Fire Boots

Ice Waterworks Gear

Here are the hat, robe, and boot drops for Ice wizards from the Waterworks dungeon. They are named with the word "Frostbit"

Ice Hat

Ice Robe

Ice Boots

Life Waterworks Gear

Here are the hat, robe, and boot drops for Life wizards from the Waterworks dungeon. They are named with the word "Espirit."

Life Hat

Life Robe

Life Boots

Myth Waterworks Gear

Here are the hat, robe, and boot drops for Myth wizards from the Waterworks dungeon. They are named with the word "Tricksy."

Myth Hat

Myth Robe

Myth Boots

Storm Waterworks Gear

Here are the hat, robe, and boot drops for Storm wizards from the Waterworks dungeon. They are named with the word "Skyscream."

Storm Hat

Storm Robe

Storm Boots

Why They Matter

Over the course of this month, I'll be doing a sort of "Significant Gear Series" that covers the most important sets and items that have defined where wizards farm, how they build their setups, and more. This will be an opportunity to compare stats and discuss structure. We'll cover everything from Waterworks to Darkmoor to some of the more recent sets. In the future, we may go further back.

Waterworks gear has been a defining set of gear for Wizard101 for a long time. It was the set to have between levels 60 and 100. Though Hades gear threatened to replace it at level 90, the long and difficult dungeon didn't offer enough of an improvement to attract everybody, and now, Hades gear is on its way out given that Darkmoor gear is available at level 100, and has been the new Waterworks set for awhile. Ten levels isn't enough to make farming Hades worth it - yet another reason these "perfect" sets aren't a great design.

Gear Diversity? What's That?

I've talked a lot about gear diversity. Why does it matter? Gear is big in both 101 games, but especially in Wizard101 where you are 100% reliant on your character and not a set of units which don't benefit from the player's gear. When people use different setups and play styles, PvP becomes more interesting, there's a greater range of strategies being applied in PvE, players aren't stuck farming the same dungeons for the must-have set, and everybody has a chance to compete (in both PvP and PvE) by using gear obtained in different ways that best suit their abilities. 

I was talking about this way back in 2012 before Aquila was released. I discussed it a little more recently in examining Empyrea's gear system. KingsIsle has gotten better at offering a wider range of gear options, but not necessarily on purpose. By changing up their gear structure, we now have more balanced boots that continue to be updated in players' sets, more offensive hats which are replacing some of the existing items but not totally wiping out Darkmoor or Krokopatra hats, and defensive robes which aren't being used at all.

It's not that we didn't have options at level 60 - we did. They just weren't as comparable as, say, Rattlebones robes are to Darkmoor robes. In fact, there were some crafted Wintertusk options - particularly robes - that were great backups to Waterworks drops. And yet, the Waterworks gear was so clearly superior in nearly every case (Ice wizards did get a nice set and particularly a nice robe from Celestia). This is an issue we're going to continue to talk about moving forward.

Do you have your Waterworks set and do you still use it?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!

Credits: Thanks to the following individuals for help with images: FIRE