Newest Issue of Beckett's Fun Online Games - Crafed Pets for the Future?!? -YES!

Today I just received my newest issue of Beckett's Fun Online Games magazine(Sept./Oct. 2010, Issue 6.) In it was a really great interview with KingsIsle Staff: Senior Writer Jason Durall and Senior Designer Justin Wingard.

I am not going to list the article here but I urge you to go out and buy this magazine, if you are not already subscribed to it. The staff members discuss the Advanced Pets System and Celestia, they even hint at things to come.

One part that really caught my eye was the actual mention of crafted pets, as opposed to hatched....like they actually said you would have to have a recipe to get these pets! I definitely don't regret, especially now, making nearly all my wizards Master Artisans...meanwhile so many others dismissed crafting as boring and tedious, but now all those people have been scrambling because they have just realized how cool it really is to be a MA...heh!

In this issue of Beckett FOG there was a code for a 7-day rental on a Starlight Pony. Yeah, I wish it would have been something we could keep, but as the saying goes; Don't look a Gift Horse in the Mouth....or in this case Pony ;-)

There were also some cool pics in the article, including the awesome Shark guy here:

Also the little mini-intro telling about the summoning of wizards to Professor Balestrom's to begin the prequest for Celestia. There was also mention of many more worlds to come and that Celestia is only the beginning of a new story arc, after wizards finish the Malistaire story arc.

This issue is not yet available on book stands, but if you subscribe you might be able to get your hands on it in time. If not, I am sure it will be available on order from their magazine shop here in the future.

See ya in the Spiral!

Grads, & Another One of Those Great Glitches I LOVE!

So, this past evening a I had a couple pets graduate on up to their next level...


First up is Keira's Satyr, Tyson(cause he loves chicken THAT much...lol.) He ended up giving her Health Gift, which is very awesome! Both Keira's Defender Pig and her Satyr have this skill, so by the time they both top out she won't be gaining or losing much(health-wise) when she switches between them.....that's my guess anyway.

Next up we have Taryn(my Myth GM, her Orthrus went up  and is now giving Myth-proof. Not as useful as I would like, but not the worst thing either.

______________________________________________________


Now for the great glitch of the night...


I was with Edward, The Pet Master, when his Hydra appeared to be gigantic. Here are a few still shots and then a video to follow...

 Then my friend Sean Emeraldweaver from Modern Auto Magic took this picture of us in Sunken City. Looks like Taz kinda took over the world here...Get 'em Taz!

Maintenance tonight...*wonders if there will be any surprise or if it's just maintenance as usual*


See ya in the Spiral!

Nightshade's Wraith Goes Epic! & More...

Yeah, so my Grandmaster Death, Heather Nightshade, her wraith reached Epic level this past day. He had already got the Health Gift talent, which was nice, but he saved the best for last when Death-Shot manifested. I wanted to post his stats for you all to take a look:

This is only my second pet to reach Epic as I have been working on a few main pets when I get the chance. I have been switching around between the six wizards on the first account, working on Emeraldflame, even with Taz topped out. I have Emerald working on one of her Storm Cats now that she, at least, got her Storm Serpent to Ancient....so it has it's card active now.....and that is one sweet little spell by the way. At least it looks pretty cool...

I made a little video of the Storm Serpent Spell. What the spell does is the serpent attacks with a small attack and then leaves a 25% Storm Trap after the attack. The trap does stack with other Storm traps. I only wish that the spell would have included a Blade(like Ice Bird does for Ice,) instead of a trap. A blade would increase damage to all, not just ONE enemy. Also, the problem with it being a trap vs. blade is that it forces you to use it at the beginning of battle on the target that you want to use the trap on. And you all know how one spell card can get lost in a deck in battle. That spell you want may never show up if it's the only one. Otherwise, using the spell later on; you will lose any other Storm or Global traps you have placed on that enemy.

With Ice Bird you can target a minion with the spell and get the blade to use on all enemies. I, obviously wouldn't want to use this ONE trap on a minion and would rather put it there to help stack with more traps to kill a boss. And one more problem with this is that it can make your Storm wiz take on unnecessary aggro in exchange for a small attack and a trap left behind for the big hit. You better hope that you have someone else around that will take the aggro back off of you after using this...like Keira did in the video here, with her healing.




On the bright side; a good use for Storm Serpent's spell, if you can find it in your deck when you need it(good luck with that...and BTW I used a very short, tiny deck in the video so that I had a very excellent probability that the spell would show up quickly,) would be to take out one of those nasty 80% shields that the Myth mobs and bosses love to throw on. And then you will also get that trap you can use to help kill the offender...not that you really need it against myth(since we boost on them,) usually, but what if that Myth enemy threw the shield on a non-myth buddy on his/her side....which you don't boost on? Then that trap could be very handy...maybe even a replacement for a trap you had to break in order to use the spell.


Such messes, as always, would be easily avoided if only Storm had one simple learned DoT.


Other training, & Pet fun...
On my second account I have mainly worked on Keira's defender pig and her satyr, as well as working on Danielle Thunderblade's Stormzilla, Duncan.


Over this past weekend I got to take Danielle's Danger Hound, Mister Sparky, and mix it with A Mythspent Youth's Lisa Jonte's Danger Hound. So we now both have a new Ghost Hound. I named mine Harley(yes, after the motorcycle):

That's it for now...

See ya in the Spiral!

Taz hits EPIC!!!

Thanks to the updates from last night I STORMED through the training today with Taz and he has hit EPIC! Not only that, but he is finally going to give me something! He is now giving me added Storm resistance(the best single resistance in the game...j/k....but not really...heh.)

Take a look at everything here...
Us at the house with Taz proudly showing off his Epic Status:

Stats & New Powers:


So, anyway....now I can go on to work on some of my other storm pets. I am also working on Danielle Thunderblade's Stormzilla, and depending on how things go I may still combine both Zillas for a hopefully even better one for each Storm wizard.

Until next time....See ya in the Spiral!

Thank you Video to KI for Max Stats Pet Update

In thanks to KI for the wonderful change to help out pets with maxed stats make their way, more quickly, to Epic, I have made this video to show off my pets at my house...



See ya in the Spiral!...

Train, Train, Train, Farm, Farm, Farm...

The title about sums it up! It's pretty much what weekends have turned into; major pet training and farming days. It's been kinda fun, though very chaotic at times. In fact it has really taken away from the little bit of family time I usually get.....well, that and certain people that don't get that I am busy when I tell them three times or so.

After training Emeraldflame's and Winterbane's pets that I am working on...getting the energy down to zero, I took them both to the ravens where a friend, Michael Owleyes, joined me. A friend of his joined us and we all spent about an hour and half, I think, farming them. We all got pets...I think I got 3 more Silverback Wildclaws(at least) between my two wizards.

We then went to farm Kanago for the Myth Leprechaun. Michael's friend got one. Michael wasn't so lucky there, hope he gets his soon! I wish I could have given him one of mine cause I ended up with three between my two. Winterbane got her second and I took her out in hopes that it would let Michael get his...but that didn't work. Before I left to help out other friends Emeraldflame ended up with The Last Leprechaun....almost sounds like a movie, eh? (Hint:Think Friendly Necromancer here.)

First Myth Leprechaun drop:


Then it was on to farm the secure house...which I am not convinced does much, but I enjoy the company of my friends...so whatever.

After that there was more training for Emeraldflame, then some for Nightshade, I am not entirely sure what happened after that. I think I was going to start on Jadeblade but was asked about going to Kensington...so I did that...twice.

Hmmm...Saturday...Most of it was a blur, more farming, I'm sure. Then there was the party for Autumn from Homework in Graveyard. It was total chaos. My old friend Blaze Rubyleaf ported in to me not knowing what he was coming in to. After all he didn't know me as a blogger, nor does he care that I am one, nor does he read any blogs. But he was always a great friend to me. It actually confused and freaked him out some when he saw the crowd of people and all the running around and screaming in CAPS. He left soon after and we continued to talk in whisper. He is a really good, solid kind of person and seeing all those people acting so insane was a bit much.

I really felt bad for Autumn, even though she couldn't be there...and in a way; maybe, for her sake, it might have been good she wasn't. I mean the party was for her and all anyone could talk about was "Where's Friendly?"....*sigh* While Friendly is very important and respected by us all, there are times when people need to give a little respect and admiration to others as well. After all; are we not all members of the community? Well, then, we all deserve our moments to be ours and not overshadowed by another. I think Friendly would probably agree with that too. I so wish people would think before they act and speak more often, but that is asking too much, obviously.

Friday, I did do some farming then. I was on a real roll with the Hall of Valor...and I mean I was enjoying it. I really enjoy those dungeons there in Nidavellir, For one thing it has really great snack drops for Storm pets. For another thing; it's such a different atmosphere to battle in compared to the same old DS garbage. And while I actually do enjoy MB and the characters there, as well as the music...it is a city; and I am not a city person. Besides, there, in Nidavellir, is so much blue, aqua and green there...it's so beautiful.

So I was farming there and our beloved Pet Master, Edward, wants to drop in. He is always welcome farming company. We always seem to have a good time when we battle together. So we went through there maybe 5 times or so in the Hall of Valor. I got more Lifebats and Death Trolls. But I also got this Silver Colossus...

...now I just need that zombie out of there.

How about all those Firebats, guys? My Fire wiz is now well stocked in flappy-winged friends. Nice on KI's part to give those to people. Of course I had spent 3 days, at random times, trying to farm it from the Gurtok Barrier Demon and had finally won one beforehand...LOL!

Well, hopefully the weekdays can be a little more calm. Maybe mom and I can actually talk on the phone and go farm for her missing Ice gear.....that would be nice!
She started up a Death wizard a week ago and is already level 16 or 17! That is awesome-sauce! She has been doing it completely on her own too, so that is really great! I know I will try and help her out when possible and when needed.

Other than that I am hoping to do a little solo farming early in the day...if I'm awake. Sometimes it's nice to go back to the basics of that and do it all at your own pace and not have to worry about what anyone else thinks/wants...haha!

And, of course there is always: more training! Taz, my Stormzilla is up to Ancient. I am not seeing anything wonderful out of him and really hoping he will get SOMETHING at Epic. Of course that will take forever, though. However I think I am making pretty good progress with him. I am also working on my Storm Serpent and so far it's giving me both Storm Resistance and Storm Damage bonuses....not bad!
Most of my other wizards...I am working mainly on their defense pets, except with Death I am working on the Wraith. Wraith pets seem to, at least, consistently give health.....Umm, gee, don't you think Storm could have used this more??? But it's still nice to see some actual progress being made with the Wraith...instead of wondering about my poor Taz ever having any potential at all.

One thing I can say safely, and really I don't care one bit if you disagree: The pet does not make the wizard. So even if my Zilla isn't great(*still loves Taz anyway*) it makes me no less of a Storm wizard *sticks tongue out*

Until next time...

See ya in the Spiral!...

Has KI Opened the Door to the "God" Character?

It's just a thought, but I think that KI may have produced some "monsters" in the creation of this new Advanced Pet System.

I can understand and I can appreciate the new pets and their possibilities, but I am wondering if there should be more of a limit on certain talents(and possibly some derby skills...but I am not going to speak derby here since I don't know enough on those to form a good opinion.)

There are certain pets which, we, as consumers of the game who have bought Gift Cards or bought crown item pets, may now give us a huge advantage over others in the game. Is this really fair? Certain pets that, before the APS(Advanced Pet System) went Live, came with what we now call "talents" or "skills." An example is the Defender Pig with it's 6% (now starting) Global Resistance, or the Dream Ghoul with it's +50 Health and +50 Mana(the ghoul is a minor example as that is nice to have but really doesn't "give" much advantage, really.) Although for the heck of it I trained Val and Esmee's ghouls up the other night until they ran through the 5-6 snacks I allowed them to give their pets, and I did see a rather steady increase in the health and mana, just in that short time they trained them.

But there are other talents out there, such as resistance, pip boosts, accuracy, which could create the feared "God characters." No longer will everyone's stats from the same school with the same gear make and level you "equal" until you duel and find out who is really the best strategist. Now, there is the addition of what extra boosters the pets give....and many of them differ from one pet to another, even with the same pet types.

Some of the pets that give these bonuses are no longer, and may never be, available again. And even if you could get one; in the future you will start with a blank slate when you buy that gift card/pet because it has yet to hatch and will only be a baby. You will not know exactly what to work on for a certain pet. I know it's reasons like this that my friend, Kevin Battleblood, is working on his Petnome Project, and that is with the help of the community, and also is in need of even more help. Read Kevin's latest post to see why this is so important and that even if you post something someone else has already that your post is just as important as the one who did it before you.

My issue with the entire pet system is that there are some pets that will probably never be available again, and those pets are also able to manifest certain skills that would make a wizard in PvP(or even PvE) nearly unstoppable, especially if they know what they are doing. I think some of these pets need to be tuned down a little, like all the pets with Dragonblade that were released over the holidays. Those pets were already special without the added skills. And I am not saying they shouldn't have those skills, but how high do these skills really need to go? I am sort of glad that the sheep pet is basically an extremely rare ornament, because how fair would it be if Friendly's and Olivia's sheep did something that none of our pets could ever hope to do? And what if they came with an especially rare card on top of that?

For PvP Storm may already have an advantage since we are the ONLY ones, now, who can even have Wild Bolt. It has been discovered that anyone other class that had previously held an enhanced Wild Bolt in their treasure cards have now turned into Lightning Elves so KI was on it with leveling the playing field with the Bolt situation that was causing such a problem in PvP. It IS actually fair that we(Storm wizards) have it when you consider the weaknesses of Storm...it really is a spell that no one else ever should have been able to use in PvP because people stopped using their own schools and relied on Bolts to reach the highest ranks, thus taking away any strategy that a real PvP person would enjoy.

But imagine a Storm wizard in PvP with full Grand gear or the best accuracy arena gear(whichever is higher since I have never compared the two,) and a pet that makes their regular Storm attack accuracy better than Life when applied to their own school card attacks, plus the pet gives a rare card that makes them even stronger. KI has just created the "God character"....and it's a "monster."

With pets giving additional accuracy(as well as resistance or pip chance,) and the possibility that you might be able to mate certain stackable characteristics into future generations of pets, it could be possible, for Storm especially, to obtain 100% accuracy(and if it could go above 100...it would also be that,) or at least close to it. And if enhanced Storm spell attacks are used in combination with all this gear and pet as well; we will never miss, unless a Dissipate, or Black Mantle, or Smoke Screen is used. No other school gets the accuracy modifiers we already do with just our regular GM gear. Our GM gear brings our regular 70% accuracy to 85%, comparable to Death and Balance...and getting us closer to Life. Now, if you have a pet that gives you even more...or even better a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th(or even farther down the line) generation pet with stackable manifested accuracy talents....it could be very possible to approach, and even surpass those numbers(if going above 100% were possible in this game.)

Other schools could possibly use this to their advantage too. I do believe some pets give other school specific accuracy boosts. I know I have seen Ice, Fire, Myth, Balance, Death accuracy modifiers in pets(as I have at least one pet from each that gives all of these. I don't know if there is one for Life(I only checked my main account so it's possible I might have one on another account that gives this....though I doubt that this would exist. Actually, all a Life wizard needs is a pet that give a global accuracy boost and work on that and see how far it gets you, though I have doubts you will reach 10%, but I could be very wrong about that too...maybe you can. I would believe that after seeing pictures. But, really, that already 90% Life has is high enough. Even I, as a Storm Wizard, do not think it's fair for any school's accuracy to be higher than Life. Equal to Life; sure...why not? It's no longer a game when you can virtually guarantee a result.

I always thought it was the intention of MMOs to NOT give such advantages to the very, very few, and I thought that most of them tried their best to keep a pretty even playing field so that everyone could at least have the chance to excel if they applied themselves, and without out the use of such rare, and mostly purchased items.

Has anyone out there ever read or watched .Hack//SIGN or any of the other .Hack anime? In those shows and graphic novels there is always someone within the game with an extremely special and rare item which unbalances the game.

By the way, for those that don't know .Hack//, it is based on a game called The World, which is a MMO, which all the characters in the book/shows are playing. I recommend it to any gamers out there as you will really be able to appreciate the thoughts and feelings that those characters have who are playing characters in a game....just like we are. They also develope the same sort of relationships/friendships with each other and the feeling of community, much like W101.

The difference with .Hack// and reality is that in .Hack// the ones with these items didn't chose it to happen. In fact they are just regular people who were trying to escape reality a bit and be in a different world(called an MMO.) In fact the first character introduced in .HACK//SIGN was a loner with a serious health issue occurring and they were actually physically stuck within the game. They really just wanted to be left alone but they were given this gift(a hack) that made everyone want to come after them because it didn't belong in the game, it was a hack(not created by them) and gave the character access to areas that gave him special privileges, even though he really didn't want the attention that was received because of these privileges. He was only trying to escape and be left alone, and was also trying to figure out who he was since he had sort of lost his own personal identity on being stuck within the game.

Now, in reality, one with these additional abilities could also be making the game unbalanced, but to the point where they might start believing themselves unbeatable. Not that anyone is truly unbeatable. All it takes is one slip up. But when the chances are increased so far in someone's favor because of an item it really creates a huge imbalance...not to mention the ego trip that the one with the item would suffer, making them almost unbearable to be around.

Anyhow, those are my thoughts on that. I do think we all have some serious potential in our pets. The problem is no one knows what it could be right now, for sure, unless the pet already had a bit of a headstart....such as with old crown and gift card pets with resistance(Defender Pig for example,) pets with extra pip chance(possibly other than the level 48 pets,) accuracy, the crown ghoul and spider that use to give health and mana from the get go. By the way has everyone noticed that the pets in the shops, now, that use to have these bonuses, are now clean slates since they have yet to hatch? But I think we should all try to contribute to Kevin's Petnome project, even if you only fill it out one time; it will help everyone when it is finally able to be put together into something that we all can read and obtain information from.

The only thing that I can say stinks on training pets right now is that we could seriously mess up our pets to the point where they are useless house decorations. I have a suggestion I wish KI could hear:

How about having an XP buy back for pets? Some of these pets we have and are trying to obtain and train might be impossible to near impossible for us to get again. AND if we train them and the pet is forever ruined because we were trying to figure out what it could do; well, that is a HUGE loss in my book. I don't plan, nor do I care to, have multiples of any one pet, so usually the one I have is the ONLY one I have...and I really don't want to mess them up :-/
But if there was at least a way I could wipe my pet's XP back down to zero and start over if I messed up(and even if this is only do-able with Crowns,) I might feel a little better about experimenting with my pets.

I have other news but will post it later on. I wanted to keep this post only about this topic.

See ya in the Spiral!

Advanced Pets: Day 3

I really didn't get a lot of chance to do things this past day, at least not as much as I would like. I got two more pet drops, though. Another Silverback Wildclaw at the Coven...and then I got a couple Ice Birds from Nightwing in Ravenscar.

I got a few pics to show of my latest pets, and ones from the day before too:

Myth Sprite:

Silverback Wildclaw(ummm...one of 5 or so??? I really do wish they would drop to some other people when I am in there...how many do I need?...lol.)
Lifebat(really hard pet to use in Gobbler Drop, it's so small it doesn't get under things very easily.:

Death Troll:
Ice Bird:

Life Minotaur(my favorite of this bunch, though the bird is a close second. I just love that Emerald green toga and the glowing green eyes, even the wrist guards on him are so well designed...very cool looking pet):
Then I also got to level three of my pets up to Teen, which I am so glad to get them to that since I won't have to play games as much per day on each as they get older...even though it will take longer to level up. I mean 2 energy when they are babies and you have 48 energy...as I always say; "I am no mathematician," but that is 24 mini-games....that is WAY too much for ME on three wizards in one day. I am just not that obsessed with leveling to kill myself over it. Like I have said; it really isn't that enjoyable to me. I AM enjoying collecting the pets though...that part is mostly fun. Twelve games per wizard....that will be easier to deal with...and then just 8 games a day....ah, that sounds so much more relaxing. That is when you can actually use it as a break from battling/farming/questing.

Well, here are the grads, pictured below(click to enlarge, of course):

I started to go through Big Ben to farm snack with Kevin Battleblood, Ronan Dawn, and Kevin's friend Allan...Kevin must have got disconnected or something about halfway through, but the rest of us continued. We got to the top and killed off Meowiarty and company.(By the way, Kevin; you missed, yet another Bolt by me ;-) )

Anyway, Ronan found this great glitch up there. It's in about the center of the room there, you walk up to it and actually end up in the air.. It was pretty fun to play with for a little bit. Here is a video of that:


I will tell you what is really awesome for me: in the last two nights I have had some old friends show up on Wizard. These are guys I knew back in the beginning. So it was especially awesome to hear from them again....really made me happy. Their wizards are Blaze Rubyleaf and Blaze Moonsword....both Fire guys, of course...lol. We use to have some really great and hilarious conversations back then. So I hope to see them pop online a little bit more often now with schools being on vacation and with the new content being added. I know that for Moonsword, especially, he was getting kinda bored...so hopefully the new stuff will make him want to come around a little more. I have thought of them both often and how simple things were back then...before I started blogging or before I even knew there were Wizard blogs.

Yes, everyone, there are people out there that really don't know or care; they just play the game and occasionally might google something they would like to know about...then they find one of us bloggers...and after that they may not pay much more attention again, unless we can answer another future question for them. I have actually bumped into quite a few of these people in-game that never read blogs and probably wouldn't know one blogger from another.

I know when I discovered it I didn't take to blogging immediately either. And I very casually read Friendly Necromancer's blog without really thinking a whole lot on it. More or less I found his blog to be a good reference tool for a little bit, but never thought more about it than that. I would say what probably got me more into doing this than just him was also the first Ravenwood Radio I listened to, and then seeing the real personalities of these people come out. So I started to pay more attention and read more on TFN's blog...I mean at the time I didn't even really know or think about what his main character name was...even though it's listed at the top of his page. At the time it was just something I read on occasion.

Well, later today id the big Ravenwood Ball, So I hope to see you all there!
...with all the Twitter talk about how people are having such a hard time figuring out what to wear for this thing...it makes me think I might be the most under-dressed person there....I don't know. But I do like the outfit I chose; it's very traditionally wizardly. I could be Merlin's daughter with that outfit on... And, hey, you guys will get to see Emeraldflame's hair for once!...heh...

Until later, friends:
See ya in the Spiral!

Advanced Pets: Day 2

Well, after my last two posts I feel like I started to get into some rhythm with things, and was actually starting to have fun again.

I worked on Emeraldflame, Danielle, and Alric, for pet training one pet each. After getting H.E. finished I joined up Savannah and Kaitlyn with Gabrielle(mom.) We finished off the Forum with the Father Drake Tower, made the quick trip back to the Drake Hatchery for a minute, then we were sent to see Ashley, the Fire Tree, who gave us the quest for Malistaire's.

We actually had enough time today to do Mali's. Computer issues were more eventful than the actual dungeon. Sorry, but I would consider myself a real veteran with that place. I really have done it too much.

With two Ice wizards it was made a little more interesting with the Gurtoks', but after that it was nothing at all. Really, the Gurtoks were easy, just annoying with their shields. Even with that it didn't take us too, too long at all.

Mom got her Ice ring(I believe...either ring or athame...lol,) so she just needs the other thing now. Next time it will be a speed run with her tanking and probably one of my Storm and one Life. Storm is so much better in there....no prisms to deal with, no shields to worry about...I mean towers are a joke.

I brought in Alric, my third GM Life, for the little bit of heal support for the group. It's just too hard for Balance to heal a group enough for several battles, while still giving the support spells it should.

We got up to the point of the two draconians you have to beat at about the same time to unlock the door. I left Kaitlyn and Alric out and had mom and I prepare a short deck for the two, so we could whip through them fast.
Mom's draconian decided to throw a tower up at the last minute when she went to hit, but she quickly took care of it...in time for the doors to unlock with no problems.

So we headed up and beat the Soul Servants, got our last rose, and went and listened to the "blah, blah, blah" drama from Mali, Cyrus, and Sylvia.

Here is where the drama with the computers started. Mom lives south of me by about 30 minutes and they were having a storm there. She has a wireless laptop and during the Mali fight her screen kept going black...I was really afraid she would lose connection.

Meanwhile, here at my place, it's dark out but there is no storm happening, and the sun seems to be peaking through the trees a bit. But, as we are fighting, the Wizard Graphics client on Kaitlyn's window goes out...and this is as I am only needing her to give Savannah a Bladestorm. So I closed Kaitlyn's window and I was like..."man, she needs this too," I mean just to finish the quest.

So I stalled the group a bit while I logged Kaitlyn back in and she was back in action and I furiously discarded to get the Bladestorm so we could finally end the thing. So we beat him and went back to talk to Ambrose and we all are done with DS now...thank goodness!

Now we will just be farming, and if possible we will finish up GH. We are up to Ravenscar with that. After this is done I doubt I will run Savannah with Gabrielle much anymore. It's sort of nice to have more of a mix of schools most of the time. Mom actually mentioned to me, that she will miss having Savannah there...as they have been sort of like "The Ice Twins," with their many matching outfits and horses.

Mom actually has a new look to her Grandmaster Ice, which is one I like on her, but it's not for me. Here's a pic:
...Cute, eh? She looks like an English Victorian doll...which I think she likes :)

After all that and selling things like mad....which will become the new norm...I took Alric, since he was out, and had him do some pet training until he couldn't anymore. I then did the same with Danielle. After she was finished I took the pair to finish up at Mirkholm Deep in Grizzleheim. They finished with that. Then I took them to Nidavellir, where it was about to be pet party-time.

I don't just go in and fight Jotun, I do all three dungeons, and now with the pet thing being so expensive, I decided to fight every boss in those dungeons instead of skipping any...including the one in the maze that is in there twice. I even fought every mob in there...it was worth it as some good snacks were dropped, along with other items.

I have a constant tab open in Firefox to this thread at Central. So I knew what pets could be dropped in the dungeons at Nidavellir. I am happy to say I wan't too dissapointed with it all.
It started with getting the Lifebat from Grettir in Winterdeep Warren, then I got Life Minotaur from from the Brownwood Tormentor in Helgrind Warren, then I got the Death Troll from Jotun's SCC in the Hall of Valor.

What I hate most is the time you have to wait for these to hatch, cause I would love to post a picture of all the pets I have got recently, but I can only show you the first two I got from yesterday:

Storm Cat:


Storm Snowman:
I really like the cat. I think I want to work on it and see what it gets at teen level, etc. I wonder if it might be a good derby pet...if I was going to do that. I think that would be a fun pet to race with the way they pounce/run...so cute! I hope I can get one for Danielle sometime, and a Snowman for Emeraldflame too. was going to try for the Snowman after I got the one for Danielle but got distracted.

What is cool, and incentive is that both pets give cards at Ancient...so it kinda makes you want to work on them.

After Jotun I didn't get to do much else. More maintenance tonight too...otherwise I'd be playing the Vampire Twins right now.

Anyway, sitting here yawning...so more later on...

See ya in the Spiral!

To Clarify Things...

I am NOT trying to level ALL my pets to Epic. I am only working on one pet, per wizard, at a time. I am picking the ones with good stats as teens and leveling them to adult, no further than that at the moment. Once I get some adults with good stats I will breed them, but that is going to take a long time with only focusing on one at a time and one with each wizard.

Basically I want one worthwhile breeding pet from each wizard, for the time being.

I have 14 wizards though, and to even work on one pet with each wizard, per day, and still have time for anything else; well, it seems impossible.

I had planned on doing this because a friend of mine had suggested/advised it, but I have to remember that my friend doesn't have this many wizards. So they can go and work on maybe 5 wizards a day and it works out, even with farming.

This is the one time I have found having so many wizards to be a hindrance. Any other time there have been many people, including myself, who like that they can call on one person and maybe get 2-3 extra hands to help them out. It also makes things like Kensington a breeze to "solo," as I really only need two wizards of my own to do it and without too much stress.

When I woke up today I sat there thinking for a few minutes on how I could do any of this and still have any fun.

Well, I think for now I am just going to work on one wizard's pet on each of my THREE accounts. Unless you truly enjoy boring mini-games and don't mind sitting in a box all day grinding away, the advanced pet system is something you can never win at with more than maybe a couple or three wizards. And if you do have that many or more and are still grinding away...then you are avoiding the outside world completely. And guess what...your friends are going to miss you and all you will have is that little game and some awesome pet in the end that no one will care about because you were not there.

So, my advice to everyone: try not to get too over-involved in the mini-games, remember your friends...remember to help them out, remember to get out there and do some questing and farming. Most of all: remember why you got into this game; I am certain it wasn't because this was a pet site.

See ya in the Spiral!...

First Day of Advanced Pets on Live

Well, I would love to hear what others are feeling about all of this, especially those with more than say 4-5 Grandmasters. I am finding it pretty impossible to be able to train even one pet on every single one of my wizards PLUS have the time for doing anything else. The training itself isn't even very fun. What it is is very monotonous and very expensive.

What I would rather be doing:

• Being able to talk to friends and do things with them, help them out if needed.
  
• Farm for new pets that can be got from "boss" drops(boss in quotes because Rattlebones is not and never has been an actual boss, he is only a Elite.)
• Working on Luis
• Working on the Vampire Twins
• Helping friends with setting new records
• Have a certain friend help me out with something not involving being on W101, but possibly having something to do with that in the future(hint; Kevin B. ;) )
• Working with Mom's wizard, my Savannah, and Kaitlyn and finishing Dragonspyre
• Helping Mom farm for her Grandmaster gear
• Having coin to buy Savannah, Alric, and Luis houses....which seems impossible with the expense of the pet thing if I continue that
• Having time to be able to keep up with Twitter while I play...seemed impossible today.
• Having time to be able to keep up with people's blogs....also seemed impossible today :-/
• Feeling like I can get off the computer for an hour and go watch TV...maybe eat...without losing time on training.
• ...oh, and I would like to have enough time to blog leftover more often.
  

I am sure there are other things, but those are what pop into my mind immediately.

I am not saying the entire pet thing is bad. It isn't. But the costs alone are enough to make you rethink it.

On more positive notes I will say that I am extremely happy to have my Swiftshadow Wings for my Main, as well as the Trident....Emeraldflame looks too awesome now :D
I will be getting the wings for Danielle Thunderblade too, but I didn't really have time to even do that with her once things got going.

Also I really could enjoy trying to collect all the new, different pets, or at least most of them. I mean they really made some cool pets, and it seems somewhat sad that I am wasting all this time and energy(quite literally) on leveling up my old pets that I never had use for before this.

I actually had a somewhat decent day of it all, I just felt like I couldn't breath and I felt like I was being forced to have to work on leveling...so much so that it seemed almost a task to stop and talk to people cause it was taking away from training and snack finding/buying/crafting time.

I play this game to relax, and when it starts to become work I get bored, tired, frustrated....I don't have fun with it anymore.

What I did have fun with today was farming the coven with friends, most of us got a Silverback Wildclaw pet at some point during the farming. I also took my two Storms and farmed Herkir a little and on the first try Emeraldflame got the Storm Cat(I so can't wait until the egg hatches...such a long wait(24 hours).) Later in the evening I took H. Nightshade and went and farmed Rattlebones. I got the Myth Sprite on maybe the second or third try. Then took her to Lord Nightshade(her father,) and she got a one-day use Purple Glider and two Dark Spites....no Blue Banshee though....yet.

Now we have more maintenance tonight on W101. I must say there are some bug, for certain. Some people can't even press "X" to interact with NPCs, portals, treasure chests. There is stil an invisible "thing: you can run into in Regeant Square. Some of the graphics are really messed up too. Satyr looks like he is stuck on a pole and barely moves when he is supposed to be dancing. He also has a sort of 3-point cross-hair underneath him when he is dancing(looks suspiciously like a model stand.) The Humongofrog snack is spelled wrong....I don't *think* it was intended to say "Humongofrong." In a group when more than one AoE is used, even after the mobs are killed, if one person had used a AoE it goes off anyway...even with nothing left to hit o_O

Some of the graphics are just way too bright...like to the point of needing sunglasses(and I really feel sorry for people who get migraines and have to look at all this,) and seriously; you can only adjust brightness so much. If you turn down the brightness it just makes the dark areas so dark you can't see them correctly. It's like certain things and areas are on "glow." Certain areas of water and Storm spells involving water now have no texture and are way too bright blue. Anyone ever seen the sea during a storm?....it's not bright colored, it's dark and ripply(has texture)...ominous. It certainly shouldn't be bright aqua blue and flat looking with sparkly splashes. The water in back of the main fort in GH is extraordinarily flat looking, and the waterfall is so bright you will go blind trying to get to the cat tails out there. Everything in the balance house is seriously on glow too...it's just all way too much. Then there are some new sounds...Dryad, for one...is...well, a little weird for a game geared towards young people. I will say that Storm Lord so much more clear with his thunder around him. And there is the oldie but goodie...which made me oh, so happy to hear; Seraph....that actually made me smile and very happy every time I heard that today.

I'm sure there are other bugs that need to be worked out, but it's all I can really think of right now.

Also it isn't to say that some graphics haven't improved; Anyone notice the Frostflowers?...they are awesome looking now, and I think bigger too. Also some spell creature details seem much more crisp, as well as texture on roads and sidewalks. Triton Avenue, I noticed this on most...on the way towards the bridge near the Kraken. And speaking of Krakens; he looks a little better, the spell I mean. Nice that the details seem sharper, same with Storm Lord. And Scarecrow seems slightly different now in that it doesn't happen so fast that you can't see what the damage and leech totals were. The Frost Giant is certainly different, a little faster to disappear, but he seems to really linger(blow more) when stunning.

Anyhow, I would appreciate some feedback, pointers, if anyone has any on how to deal with this many wizards training pets....and still have time to have fun. There just doesn't seem to be an efficient way to do them all.

Well...maybe I can go relax for one hour before falling asleep now....that would be nice....

See ya(later on) in the Spiral!...

First Thoughts on Things I have Seen in the Test Realm

Ok, so contrary to what some might believe who have followed me on Twitter; I am excited about some of the stuff I have seen in the Test Realm. I have seen a few negatives, though, as well....and I am going to be bluntly honest, as usual, about it.

I will start with what I saw that is good:

- The new pets I have seen so far are all pretty awesome, though I think the Gobbler pet is UGLY...lol.

-I love what has happened to level 48 pet stats. I mean to give a Storm person increased health and accuracy through their pet - TOO SWEET! And what I have seen happen to other level 48 pets is great too(for the most, there is one slight downside I saw, but will get to that.)

-The Pet Pavilion is awesome! There is so much one can do in there!

-Even though I have a severe dislike for PvP I think I might even have some fun in the Derby. And, yes, I do consider that a type of PvP...just with our pets.

-I LOVE the maze game, and the Cannon game is not too, too far behind on my enjoyment of it.

-I love having my pets out at my house. And doing this lets you leave them at home and not clog up your backpack; so now you can go out on those long hours of quests and farming and have a little more room in your backpack because your 20 or so Unicorns could stay home and play instead of being stuffed into your backpack....suffocating...

-I absolutely LOVE the new black Swiftshadow Wing Mount!!!...Ok, how many times have I ever said I wanted black wings?!?!....this is soooo great!...Now I have double-wings that match!

-I Love the new Crown staff, Celestian Trident, with the Ice attack. That thing is so awesome looking!

-I like seeing my pets stats increase as I play games, train them.


What I don't like that I see:

#1: My most major gripe: That we will NO LONGER BE ABLE TO TRADE CHARMED CARDS WE HAVE MADE! This is the most awful thing they could have done in the updates. This seriously hurts Storm, Balance, and Life people(who actually do more than heal or support.)
For the longest time I have made Steal Wards and Pierce cards for my Life and Storm people. Life, Balance, and Storm are the only schools that have no way to get rid of shields other than to completely destroy their entire set-up. We have no DoTs, and we have no shield breaking spells, or steal ward spells. I can not include Storm Hound as a reliable DoT, and it is not a learned spell, nor is Lightning Elf...which the pet that gives this card seems to only be for ranked pvp players to equip. This really hurts anyone who is trying to make a high hit. It makes you absolutely have to depend on having others do your work for you in a battle and I am VERY against that. Storm Hound only gives one card anyhow...and what if I am in the Labyrinth fighting all those Myth dudes? How am I going to be able to take care of that now? I would have to have someone else in there to break all those shields so I don't have to bust my own blades doing it.
For Life people this is especially awful. They don't even have the power behind their spells to work much past a 50% shield that a Balance mob might throw up. At least with Storm I can power past that and still kill!, though not past the 80% shields that even low rank mobs use.

I think the reason this no trade thing is coming is because of all the selfish people who made Warlord in PvP by making tons of Bolts and other spells to basically cheat their way to being Warlord. So now, by them doing that it is hurting the rest of us who don't even care to participate in that.
Just because you buy your way to a rank in PvP does not make you a good PvP player; that much I do know. How about you guys try using what you have actually learned(for spells) and your brains, and not your coins, etc.?

KI, if any of you happen to read this:
This whole problem could have been solved with banning most treasures from the arena, maybe except for a few exceptions...like let them have some healing cards but limit the number of treasures they have of this type of thing.

If anyone out there agrees and can see the problem this causes for many of us, please write in and urge KI not to let this happen. Or at least request they come up with a different way to even out the PvP playing field without it effecting the rest of us.

Ok...on with other problems...

-The commercial made it look like the pets could be called to you at your house, but pretty much all they do is run in circles and stay in the same general area. It would be nice if they followed you, came to you when called :)

-I know this is a bug but the pet games are crashing quite often, as is the Hatchery. It's so bad that you actually get stuck in them and have to shut down the game and log back in to fix it.
Also many games are acting like you already played before you even started. Like I hit "play" and the next thing I get is an "end" screen, as if I had just finished the game.

- Level 48 pets have lost at least one power pip! There goes 80% + for all who worked for that!

-The energy drain from training pets is too much.

1. It also costs way too much, with real money for kids to be able to enjoy this. A kid is gonna want to play these games as much as possible, maybe it might even be the one thing they want to do on here. So they play a game a few times and their pet's energy goes down to zero, or low enough not to be able to do any more games. So the only options one has is either wait....an extremely long time....like, "hey, kids maybe go to sleep and come back tomorrow and try again," OR you shell out 250 Crowns to refill your pets energy so you can continue to train and play with them...which costs real money, and WILL eventually lead to even more spam in the commons areas with kids begging for coin gifts from passer-bys.
   
2. The coin cost of the pet foods is a bit high when you want to buy a bunch of it to train your pet up even more. And is there even a inventory in your spellbook to see what foods you have on hand without having to play a game?...Having an inventory list of snacks would help when shopping.
   
3. The coin costs for the Hatchery are completely outrageous. Most kids or any normal players are lucky if they even have 50k, let alone 80k or more! It takes hours of farming to get that kind of money, usually...and that farming can only be done in higher level areas.
   

-You can no longer buy or sell pets at the Bazaar. Meh...really I don't care much about this one, save for if it wasn't for the kindness of Mr. Edward Icespear and the fact that he was able to sell an extra pet to the bazaar for me; I may never have got one single Sprite pet.

There also needs to be more explanation as to what all the numbers mean under a pet's characteristics/stats.

I will add to this in later posts as I see fit.

For now, here are a couple pics of Emeraldflame with those awesome wings and staff:


And as a random comment...I saw my evil twin today. I was on another wizard of mine so she probably wondered why I and my mom's wizard were starring at her...take a look:
She was a Ice wizard, but tell me she doesn't look, here, like Emeraldflame's twin, save for the pet name...though one of my others do have a ninja pig with that pet name, which I could have dug up if I really wanted(lol)...see Emeraldflame below: