Watchtower Hall's Humongofrog Tadpoles(Yes, they are not Fish!)

And, guess what, fellow wizards?...They wear wizard hats! Check out the pics!

So watch out for those baby humongofrog bombs out there, wizards!

See ya next time in the Spiral!

Keep it in the Family...

Hey, guys! Luis Roseheart here!

It's been a fun week for me, lots of questing got done; I finished Mooshu, soloed the Jade Oni, beat up on Cyrus; well...he did ask me to, so I couldn't refuse, and I made it to Dragonspyre and have already finished the Tower Archives and am more than halfway through The Plaza of Conquests!


In all this time I have also been working on my Burnzilla and have gotten some new gear...which I LOVE! This gear is giving some pretty awesome stats for being dropped, non-crown gear, so it's also my recommendation for any upcoming Fire Wizards; IF you can get your hands on it all! Two pieces of it come from the Ravens at the Coven in Grizzleheim, so unless you can get in and get them or if you have a brother or sister(Alts/other wizards on the same account) then you won't be able to get them. The third piece is from General Firetusk; whom I haven't met, yet, either, but my bro, Alric got the boots for me, as well as he got my Athame a while back. So, for now, the only Crown gear I have is my ring...and that may change as well...if Alric is feeling generous again soon.

My gear:


Robe and hat from Raven Coven. Boots from General Firetusk in the Grand Chasm Past instance, and can also be purchased for a very high amount of gold at the bazaar(Alric got it for me within 2 hours time farming,) Athame is, of course, from Yeva, and then there is the crown ring, available(usually) at the DS ring shop(or if you are lucky sometimes it's on sale in the crown shop.) My Burnzilla is still giving me 9% global resist and now up to +104 health.

Anyhow, check me out here...and BTW, the clothing is stitched, it didn't come looking like this(which is why Firetusk's boots say "no auction" above, in their natural form they are auctionable):

This house will be mine sometime!

After completing a tower in The Plaza, I paused for a sweet picture of myself :P

Yeah, I know; not much gold, but Al has been helping me along too so I could train my pet: best big brother ever!

Here was something funny that happened to me a few nights ago before I was heading to DS. I went to train my pet and before I entered this weird bug happened to both Jade and myself. Our spellbooks disappeared and everything and we were kinda "stuck," so we had to exit and enter back in and when I came back this happened:

Note that before this happened my health was full, and then I came back and it was continuously generating this health number....wow, that would be some MAJOR health!!!

Health and stats here were COMPLETELY WRONG, I had a LOT more resist than that BTW...like 25% global cause I had crowns gear and my Burnzilla.

Same goes for this view; only even more strange looking.

By the way, yes, I know my pic is missing in the banner...since I had been studying for such a long time and hadn't had much time to quest...I sort of got skipped when it came to picture time. But Emerald promises to get that fixed in the near future. Plus Gabi & Tabi really need their updated pics added to it too!
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Other happenings...


Alric & Danielle:


Before our friend John Lifeglen went on his vacation we had been doing the ravens quite a bit to fund Winterbane's housing-crafting project (by the way, she is finished with collecting reagents and making parts for the upcoming GH house; now just waiting on it to come to the Live Realms to make it,) I ran into this awesome port bug:

Hope you are having a great trip John! I am sure it's been a great escape for you...miss ya & hope to see ya soon and hear all about it!

Nightshade:

Tabitha and I finished up Big Ben for her and I had to show her the cool bug there...plus she just deserved to have her pic here since she hadn't yet!

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General News:


Well, straight from Greyrose's mouth it sounds like due to the issues many young wizards were having getting through the Warehouse Tower in the Test Realm; KI has chose to not have it as a requirement to get to Celestia. Instead the tower will be another tower, like Briskbreeze, which is completely optional and not required for advancement in the game.

I, for one, was really hoping that they would do this. Not because it's horribly hard, though it can be difficult at least your first time through, but because I am actually trying to take into consideration here all the very young people who play this game....as well as thinking about that some mothers(like mine,) fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers; people that may not be as use to computer games/MMORPGs are playing this game together as a family and it can and would put a whole lot of pressure on certain individuals to have to take someone through there who never wanted anything quite so intense as what that tower was originally.

I had only done the tower once, the night after it was first introduced. I 3-boxed it with John Lifeglen there with me, so it was a full group. John had already run it at least once before that with Kevin and company, and I had got tips from both on what to expect. So we were very careful on how we knocked off the bosses, etc. It was definitely very different from most things in game, save for Brisk. It was a lot like Brisk in ways.


I'm not sure if making a bunch of towers with bosses that cheat is really that big of a deal. Once you have done it once, heard what others have had to say, heard other suggestions from the community....these towers are basically like doing the same puzzle over and over again. I mean these guys cheat, but after you learn what to do; it's not a big deal.


Anyone out there ever remember or did you do Tomb of the Beguiler or Kensington on your own the first time(or try to...lol)? Those dungeons have tricks to them once you learn their tricks they are easy. It's just that first time or so through them that is hard.


I am really glad about KI's decision, though, for one other reason; I will now not have to coordinate time when both Gabrielle(mom) and John will be on so that I don't have to 2-box with them...or even have to 3-box with Gabrielle. She was NOT looking forward to the time-consuming and stressful situation it would have been for her. She is really a more casual player and isn't really into the long fights, or even puzzle-type deals. She likes to enjoy the scenery and people-watch, as well as decorate her homes and sometimes just randomly collects reagents in Mooshu to relax. So the game is really all about fun for her...and, really; I think it's what it should be for everyone:just fun :)

Also, it has been mentioned several times by many people about how hard this tower would have been for those with menu-chat....it would have been near impossible in any combination of numbers of people in a group using that system to have successfully completed this tower unless they could freely talk to each other to communicate ideas, strategy, etc.


So props to KI for taking into consideration the very wide range of wizards there are out there; from the young to the old...from those with heavy gaming experience to those with little gaming experience...and from those with little computer knowledge all the way up to the expert level of experience with them. This really is a game for EVERYONE, just like the rating says(lol) :D

Winterbane Report: Diamond Mining = Success!

Heather Winterbane here! I did some major reagent hunting this past evening. Ever since I saw that new crafting recipe for the house I have been really focused on it, and really not caring much about anything else! It's the house I have wanted for such a long time too...and as anyone who watched my video tour of it could see: I loved the place!


It was such an excellent night hunting, I gathered a massive amount of diamonds and ore...more diamonds than what you'd think too; the luck was definitely with me and nothing was going to pull me away from that hot streak! In fact I was able to get all the Carved Stone Towers made, which was probably one of the biggest things on this recipe. In my opinion 80 Diamonds should make something a lot prettier than 4 ugly towers. I can't, for the life of me, understand why anyone would actually WANT to build those towers on their own...unless you had to have it as some part of a collection...quite possible ;-)


Funny little fact here:
75 Diamonds was what was called for in the original first Dragonspyre Crafting Quest for 5 Rings of Apotheosis. The quest requirement was toned down after much complaining(along with other quests.) The complaining was somewhat understandable at the time as there were NO TRANSMUTE SPELLS. What really should have been done now, in retrospect, was not to change both the requirement for the crafting quest recipes as well as give transmute recipes, but just to add in transmutes. Transmutes made it all a lot more possible without taking away the challenge too much. You would still have to go, at least, find the common reagents and spend plenty of time crafting them to their more rare forms. Where without the transmutes; finding a Diamond among all the Ore with so many others trying to find them, was a lot worse than searching for a needle in a haystack. I mean one could have spent months and months on that 5 Ring quest before getting 75 Diamonds when no transmute was available. Now, all it requires is just a little determination to get the 80 needed for these Carved Stone Towers to make the Watchtower Hall house! And it's totally possible to get those diamonds together in just a couple days or less, depends on how focused you are, how lucky you are, and how you are running your time slots.


I have been doing a LOT of crafting in preparation for the new house and I am pretty close on having all I need crafted and ready. I can hardly wait to actually craft the house and move in! At the moment I am 7 mounds away from having it all finished. I am just waiting on time slots now. Those mounds take some time too, well over 12 hour cool downs. 


That was another recipe that seemed really "out there." I mean why do I want a half-fenced lump of grass...with broken down looking fencing, at that?!?!


Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about it. I actually find it hilarious. Though as I and another MA friend discussed that we could see exactly WHY these items, but there was still a part of me that would have rathered have a list of raw reagents...even when some of those reagents could run up in the 500's...or if you are crafting a lot of Diamonds...1000+ Ore! 


They made this recipe both challenging as well as made it a way to really get and keep their little economy running like Usain Bolt at a track event. They sort of forced those of us with taste enough not to have a giant water tower, ugly carved tower, a mound of grass, and wood planks laying around to go out and buy these recipes, which all required massive amounts of rare reagents...and we are not even talking Blood Moss here! Blood Moss, in fact....is pretty easy to get compared to some of this stuff...especially when you need large quantities. I mean things  required in these recipes; they seem common, but when you need to find a massive amount of them: they are less common than Black Pearls and Blood Moss. 


This sorta shows that it was never originally thought of that anyone would actually WANT to build 4 Carved Stone Towers, or 8 Grassy Mounds, etc. Because a lot of the materials for these are actually a lot harder to find than the ones so many "novice-type" crafters complain about. Really...I mean if you think Diamonds, Black Pearl, and Blood Moss are hard to find: well you might as well stop right where you are cause these are really some of the most easy reagents to get now, especially with having transmutes! All these reagents' common forms can be found in areas where they are somewhat "clumped together" and very easy to run between collecting them all. 


On the other hand; if you think Deep Mushrooms and Nightshade are so common...you are SO wrong! Yes, we see them everywhere, but there is no ONE good place to gather a massive amount of them without having to run all over the place and hope that someone hasn't already taken what "might" have been there.


I am thankful to the creators of our lands, that they have made such a challenge to true Master Artisans. I see a good amount of people really trying for this house and it makes me proud to see others who are as determined as I am to take on this massive challenge! I do hope that there might be an even bigger one to come someday.


One thing you find out when you are reagent hunting is who your real friends are. When it can somewhat silently be agreed upon to have all parties hunting a separate reagent, so as not to step on another's toes....then you know you have a true friend. When you can be on the hunt and have a "magic" conversation with a friend who is far away and shares your same thoughts, and minor success on findings is shared between both parties: well, this is a TRUE friend. They are not demanding anything of you, and you are demanding nothing of them. All that matters is that little bit of conversation to keep both parties awake and motivated.


A true friend in this game is a prize indeed. True friends don't have to be "bought" by offers of money, mounts, special rare prizes from some contest that requires you follow that person and comment their blog, the offer of selling off your rare reagents to them. In turn you are expected nothing to feel obligated to do for them other than be their friend, talk, and share thoughts, good conversations.


No, in fact; a TRUE friend you will want to do things for, and they will want to do them for you...and without even asking!  The best friendships are always those that require no expectations and you can take each other as you are. You don't criticize each other and you truly appreciate the other's company...you actually feel like you can relax around these people because you know they are not judging you. These friends are definitely Diamonds in the rough. 


And since the topic on this post mentions "mining diamonds" I think I have covered that here from the view of two seperate planes, so I will wrap this for now.


Hope everyone here in the States are all having a Happy 4th of July!


See ya in the Spiral!