Vampires; Done with Hyde Park

The Vampire Twins finished up Hyde Park tonight and are off to Chelsea next. If it were not for the extended maintenance tonight I would have definitely been pounding away at that with them...seeing as I haven't had so much time for them lately.

I did experiment a bit with the Animate spell. By experiment I mean I used it more than I ever did with my first death wizard, Heather Nightshade. I only got about 3 different minions, but that was cause I didn't feel like wasting so many pips summoning them. The minions were mildly helpful, but honestly, with a 2-man team I really don't need the extra hand. But at the same time when flying solo I hate wasting pips I might need for attack or set-up, to use to summon a minion who will usually find a way to get in my way.

Even when I try to work with a minion, which is always if I am using one, they usually can find a way to mess me up...and it's usually due to me fizzling and their weak or useless spell going through. Like I love how the skeleton would use Evil Snowman on Ice, and Fire Elf on Fire mobs...brilliant! o_O

Speaking of fizzling; I always find it both frustrating and hilarious that schools with 85% accuracy to their spells, like Death and Balance, fizzle so much. I mean 2-3 times between the two wizards, per battle. I have always noticed that with Balance too. And these schools don't get accuracy modifiers when they get to higher levels. I, honestly, have never had as much trouble with Storm. I mean, yeah, Storm fizzles for me sometimes, but not near as often as this, and rarely more than twice in a row...at the most! Today must have been extra-high fizzle day too, cause I had Alric out with Danielle earlier(plugging away in GH) and three battles in a row he fizzled Rebirth! This is LIFE! They are suppose to have the least of that, and you certainly don't want heals fizzling that much. Funny enough Storm Lord worked every time...haha! I *heart* Storm :)

As I don't use Nightshade very often, I can't remember, but I do hope that fizzles become less as the Twins move on in the game. I seriously don't use Nightshade very often. She is lucky if she comes out to play even once a week. As for the minions "taunting, as The Friendly Necromancer says happens with some of those low level ones....I didn't see it happen *shugs*

Maybe I didn't have them out enough to see that happen. I really don't know. I tried using them in every fight but they are so slow to attack compared to my wizards...by the time they attack it's just a weak attack, usually, and/or my wizards being in the circle ahead of them usually made the kill first...which I want them to, since they are Death and can heal themselves that way.

I just don't see how the minions are at all taunting. I am pretty sure they don't actually use the Taunt spell from the Ice school, so I am thinking that whenever he said that he meant that the minion attacking would draw aggro. Well...with the puny hits they make and the time it takes to get those attacks, it doesn't seem to happen. And if your minion just keeps using Fire Elf, much like the Fire Minion, it will never get noticed. Those Elves count for nothing to the mobs, even when it's an Ice mob and it boosts. The Ice mob will sit there burning to death and still keep hitting your wizard and not the one who caused it to disintegrate ...lol.

The biggest spell I saw any minion use was the one time I ended up with the Banshee. She used Vampire. I am not fond of minions using same school spells, though. Being Death is a spirit school, I would much rather the minions use some elemental spells, which they usually do. It's just that the one Death spell they do use could really mess you up in a big fight.

Well, now we sit here and wonder what the morning might bring to W101. I am actually hoping that the extended maintenance is only preparation for the pets. Though I did hurry on to all my wizards before the countdown to maintenance was over and distributed all my pets, just in case this is already going live. I can't believe that after, yet again, resetting the test realm that that they would already put this out Live, unless they had some kind of deadline they were trying to meet for some reason. I can't say KI has never rushed anything....people know how that happened with Grizzleheim. I really do hope they aren't rushing into things here and maybe they are only preparing data in the the live realm or maybe setting up some way of introducing the Pet Pavilion to the Live game without actually starting the madness that will be the Pet Pavilion and Hatchery.

Tune in later....

...and See ya in the Spiral!