Inquiring minds want to know ...

is there any interest out there for another 4v4 Legendary tourney?  I sent this out via twitter and got 2 responses ... not quite enough for me to start planning.  So let me know you if are interested either via comment, email or a tweet!

PvP and Winston Churchill?

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.  Winston Churchill


I ran across this quote while surfing the interwebz and it reminds me quite a bit of PvP.


TPC took part in Katherine Light's the More the Moneyer Midlevel Mayhem Tournament over the past few weeks.  One of the MANY reasons I haven't posted in a while, but we wont go there ;)


Katherine or (KK as I call her) was nice enough to drum up some prizes for participants based on things other than winning.  One of those was a Good Sportsmanship award that she gave in my honor.  Thanks KK!  And that is how the above quote by Winston Churchill and PvP merged in my mind.


Cassandra StarDreamer was the winner of this award, and to quote KK: She was kind to both teams and spectators before the match, and wished even her competitors good luck. After their team lost she complimented her opponents, wished them luck in the future, and was very happy just to have been able to play a clean, fun mid level match, whether her team won or lost.


And THAT is what makes a good sportsman and the quote SO appropriate.  PvP is a form of war against another team, but it doesn't mean you can't smile and have a good time while battling.  As y'all know my personal opinion of PvP changed quite a bit from when I first encountered Wizard101 to now.  I absolutely AND completely HATED PvP with a passion bordering on obsession!  It was not the thought of PvP, but the Trolls inhabiting the Arena that turned me away.  If more people had Cassandra StarDreamer's attitude I think many more would be willing to try their hand at PvP.


If you are a "hardened" Arena RAT or just a sometime player remember that we were all new to Wiz AND the Arena at one point and treat your opponents with respect.


Until next time,


Be well

United We Stand ... so far

Well, we got off to a rocky start but with this being a first time event these things WILL happen, and we use them as a learning experience.  We did only get 7 teams, not 16 so the matches are progressing quickly.  The standings:

The next matches are Saturday July 23rd, 2011.

Shadow Arcane will face off against SASSY
at 1 pm Eastern/12 noon Central/11 am Mountain/10 am Pacific.

The Narwhals will go against The "Noobs"
at 4 pm Eastern/3 pm Central/2 pm Mountain/1 pm Pacific.

Final Match to take place Sunday July 24th

3 pm Eastern/2 pm Central/1 pm Mountain/12 noon Pacific

All meetups will be in front of Diego in Vampire Realm 15 minutes prior to the beginning of the match.

United We Stand

The next match takes place TODAY -- Sunday July 17th 2011

5 pm EST

4 pm CST

3 pm MST

2 pm PST

This IS a change from the earlier stated time!

We will meet at Diego in VAMPIRE realm 15 minutes prior.

Good Luck to our last two remaining first round teams!

And We're Off!

Well we have our teams -- only 7 :( -- so the Tourney will be much smaller than we had anticipated, but we move forward and have fun, ah yeeaahhh!

A round of appaluse for all of our participants please!

The Teams:

Shadow Arcane
 Jacob ShadowSword (Necromancer)
Alexander LionHeart (Thaumaturge)
Devin StormSword (Diviner)
Ian LionShield (Conjurer)

Mercs for Honor (M4H)
Katherine LightWhisper (Thaumaturge)
John Shadow (Pyromancer)
Joshua WyrmGraden (Theurgist)
Zachary LegendForge (Conjurer)

Narwhals
Cody SoulMender (Thaumaturge)
Sophia (Diviner)
Destiny (Conjurer)
Paul LifeHammer(Theurgist)

The "Noobs"
Colin Petal (Theurgist)
Chris NightFlower (Sorcerer)
Luis DragonHeart (Pyromancer)
Chris (Thaumaturge)

Inferno Storm
Mason FireThorn (Pyromancer)
Jonathan EmeraldSwrd (Thaumaturge)
Blake Stone (Theurgist)
Jeremy EmeraldFlame (Diviner)

Kettle Corn Killers (KCK)
Heather Raven (Conjurer)
Angel WinterBreeze (Thaumaturge)
Benjamin FrogStone (Sorcerer)
Paige MoonShade (Theurgist)


SASSY
Alia NightEyes (Diviner)
Jasmine SpellCaster (Thaumaturge)
Sydney LifeStone (Theurgist)
Angel Stone (Sorcerer)

Since this is now a 7 team Tourney I went out to random.org and used thier number generator.  I have a spreadsheet showing in what order I received the team rosters and that is how this first round bye was created.  SASSY has been givin the bye, number 7 was generated.

The Brackets for the first matches, to take place Saturday July 16, 2011 and Sunday July 17, 2011 -- Practice Arena -- Vampire Realm:

Shadow Arcane versus Inferno Storm to take place  Saturday July 16th 1 PM Eastern/12 noon Central/11 Mountain/10 Pacific

Narwhals versus M4H to take place Sunday July 17th 1 pm Eastern/12 noon/11 Mountain/10 Pacific

KCK versus The "Noobs" to take place Saturday July 16th 3 pm Eastern/2 pm Central/1 pm Mountain/ 12 noon Pacific

Round 2 matches will take place next Saturday July 23rd, 2011.

BEST of LUCK to all participants!  and Thank you all for joining and helping us Rock the Arena with TRUE Arena RATs (Radically Awesome Teammates)!

Hmm .. community would like to know about Spamming huh?

Let me fill y'all in a little bit -- now this involves some math so bear with me.  There are 2 4v4 teams facing each other -- one with mixed players from 4 different schools (Team A), the other consist of 3 storm players and either a myth or fire player(Team B).  Now Team A has all kinds of different spells in their decks -- shields, manipulations, attacks, heals, etc.  Team B only has Gargantuan Tempests for the Storm players (and maybe a Darkwind bubble) and SmokeScreen/Choke/Meteor (Garg'ed of course) for the Fire or Blinding Light/Frog/Treasure Smoke Screen for the Myth.  Team B gets first turn advantage -- VERY bad for the Team A.  Why you ask?  Here's the math:

A 4 pip (2 power pip) garg Tempest does 320 + 225 (or 250 if Treasure Card) base damage -- add in a 80-90% attack boost (which is VERY easy for Storm to achieve) that means somewhere between 981 - 1083 damage for ONE Storm wizard's attack -- not taking into account any resist of Team A.  Now 3 wizards on Team B are using this spell -- that means you are looking at 2943-3249 base damage.  The fire or myth on Team B then uses a Blinding Light/Choke or Smokescreen to prevent Team A from using any card they make have picked first turn.  So Team B hits for massive damage, and Team A is forced to pass after taking damage.

Team B then "spams" that Gargantuan Tempest again -- granted then now have only one pip, or a power pip now so damage is less.  The math for that hit, using same 80-90% attack boost:  549-627 damage PER Storm wizard using that "one pip Spam" Tempest.  Add in more damage for team A, the total damage they have taken so far you ask?  Somewhere between 4590 damage and 5130.  If you are a walking tower shield (have 50% resist) you only took 2295-2565 damage.  How many of us are walking Tower Shields?  I know I am not! And how many have the health globe to withstand that?  And don't forget that Myth or Fire Wiz -- they use Frog or Meteor in there somewhere to pour on more damage.

NO other spell can be spammed like Tempest can -- NONE.  There are no other XPip spells that are AoE (Area of Effect) attacks that hit ALL enemies -- NONE!

I would like to see ANY other wizard spam an AoE, its not possible.  You cannot Gargantuan a 4 pip spell that is elucidated, only one enchantment can be applied to each card.  

You cannot Spam any cards but small hits (1-2 pips) at all!  Only Storm can hit every round and be assured that they  will do damage to all enemies.

Now I ask you -- those that may have stuck around through the math -- do you REALLY find this fair to the people behind those pixels on the other side of the screen?  Do you really think THEY are having fun being Killed in 2 rounds and NOT being able to do anything about it?  I don't think so.

I hope this post will help open your eyes to just want us loyal Arena Rats call Spamming.

My version of Stormy Wiz ;)

Now that myth has reached Legendary, and I have gotten back in the groove of questing I have begun working on my LONG neglected Storm Wizard.

I made her a LONG time ago and she has been sitting in the classroom just IMpatiently waiting her turn out in the Wide Worlds of the Spiral.  Surprisingly I am enjoying my time questing on her.  I have to be careful as I am used to a MUCH larger health globe, but all in all it is fun.  I usually run around with King Bosco the Spinyfish, who has Storm Shot, May cast Storm Trap, Spritely and Storm Giver.  The pig up there is a reject from the Perfect Catch breeding program -- I needed to change my pet to enter PvP for the first time on this wiz.  I know, I know -- Stormy is level 40 and hasn't entered PvP yet you are asking? No she did not, I didn't feel a need to do low level PvP on her.  But now that she is in Ravenscar and almost ready to enter WinterTusk she NEEDS conviction! So I broke out a reject pig that has Spell proof and Spritely to let her withstand some hits and hit the Arena this evening (or last night I should say).

Did a total of 10 matches -- ended up with the following:

And let me tell you it was a weird trip getting there!  I would win one lose one, win one, lose one -- and was facing level 18 Warlords as a level 40 Private.  WEIRD Matchups for sure. I would gain 17 rank facing a private and lose 19 rank facing a Knight!  I had one opponent -- Brian Thunderpants, a Legendary Theurgist!  And those 2 matches were the weirdest of all!  He apparently goes into the Arena with no deck equipped in order to build up the confidence of wizards just starting PvP.  I understand what he is doing -- all he wanted me to say was "I can do this, I can win" -- was building confidence in wizards, but I think he was going about it the wrong way.  Losing on purpose in that manner doesn't build confidence, it just made me shake my head.  The funny thing is I don't talk during PvP and he just wanted me too SO badly!  My cheer squad, da Piplets, were there to tell him I would NOT talk during PvP.  That it's just something I don't do.  Wait, go back you ask -- cheer squad? and What's with the name?? da Piplets??  Yes, I had a cheer Squad -- here they are:

Ian IceBlade, Jeffrey (Jeffy) IceHunter and Michelle (Chel Chel) SilverShield are da Piplets.  They came up with Piplets as a name for white pips, and I certainly had a BUNCH in my PvP matches!  They made my time in the Arena VERY enjoyable and for that I heartily thank them!  They even wear white for the white piplets!  Pretty snazzy looking if you ask me!

So I now have the rank I need to get Conviction, just need the training point -- figures doesn't it?

Whatever you do, enjoy YOUR time in the Spiral, I know I enjoy mine!  Until next time, be well.

Pet Success!!!!

The Perfect Catch team has been working hard toward pet version 4.0 for the team.  The past few weeks we have been hatching like crazy .. and doing the farming that a massive amount of hatching requires!  I am sure we spent MILLIONS in gold to hatch these pets, and some Crowns in the bargain too.  But personally, I think MY pig was MORE than worth it!!!  Kevin asked that we name our pets "Patches", so I did, with a twist ;)  I just HAVE to be different!

3 "May Cast" talents plus 10% Spell Proof, not too shabby!

We are currently working on more pets after facing a ANOTHER tempest spammer team, check out this outcome:

and yes, that's a loss of 30 Rank points, 30!  That is just crazy and totally unacceptable! They killed us in 3 turns! Tempest, blinding light, tempest, smoke screen ... cheap strategy and totally cheap win but there is not much anyone can do about it until KI fixes the Arena.  And on top of it these players were Trolls, Arena Trolls -- making fun of us for losing to them and being just generally bad sports.  One of these players had a 90% attack boost, that's just OUTRAGEOUS!

Please KI look into fixing some of the issues we are facing in the Arena?  Thank you!

TPC and PvP since WinterTusk

Once we all got our gear we were excited to jump back into PvP and play with our new spells and just see how PvP has changed since we started as a team before Celestia.  Well ... things are HORRIBLE ... take a look at these pictures

As you can see in our last 9 matches the VAST majority are against VERY low ranked players.  I have NO idea what is going on with the matchup system but its broken for sure.  There is no possible reason that 4 Warlords should be battling Privates through Knights!  Something needs to be done to address this situation.  I don't know if many are still trying for their Legendary gear, or is many just wont step into the Arena since WinterTusk came out?

It's a very sad situation for Perfect Catch for sure.

Please tell me what YOU think of these matchups!

Wiz .... and Friendships

Wizard101 has brought MANY amazing people into my life.  I am thankful every day that I found this game and the wonderful people that populate it.

Lady Blade, Sorceress Miklai and I all met at the Tri~Harvest Festival that Mercs for Hire sponsored in April of 2010.  I look back on that day now and am always SO thankful that I attended.  The 3 of us form the Unholy Trio and are closer than real family at this point. I actually talk more to my wiz sisters than I do my far-flung family!  We are on Skype most nights, instant messaging if we aren't voice chatting.  I also met Mi Tio, Alric RavenSinger there.  He loves to get into our Skype convos too -- but us females outnumber him!  Lady Blade is a sister of my heart for sure.  All too generous for her own good and has a heart bigger than God should allow!  She has been a shoulder to lean on in times of trouble, and is a master at making me laugh!  Sorceress Miklai, the other sister of my heart.  In many ways were are twins, born of different parents.  SO many many things in common, is not fair to others but we finish each others thoughts and think the same way.  I love my "Wizard" family as much as I love my IRL family.

Alric introduced me to Kevin BattleBlood one night -- someone was farming the Ravens (I don't remember who at this point) -- so Alric Kevin, Sorceress Mikali and I farmed them for hours that time.  That was the start of ANOTHER wonderful friendship.  It took longer for Kevin and I to hit it off, in many ways we are radically different, but have enough in common to bridge the gaps.  PvP is of course one of those things ;)

One of my bestest friends of course is Nathaniel EarthWeaver.  We started hanging out after I became a Merc, but he has been a staunch friend thru thick and thin.  He is actually the one who showed me how much fun PvP could be, and for that I thank him (even though he no longer likes PvP).  He isn't on as much as he used to be, but its all good.

Fallon DeathSlinger -- the warrior with a heart of gold.  Always ready to lend an ear -- or lay some tempests down to cool me off when things may not go well.  Glad I met you lady!

Ronan Dawn -- clown at heart, but has one of canniest minds I have met.  Has a wonderful insight in game mechanics AND life mechanics.

Scarzstripes aka "Missy" -- daughter of my heart, wonderful person and all around do-gooder.  Keep your chin up chica! Know we miss you!


Angel WinterBreeze (aka Sir WinterBreeze) has also turned into a very good friend.  I may not "hang" around as much with him, but it's always a good time when we are together.  I refer to him as my big brother, so Alric would quit teasing him quite so much.  He is an ice wizard, with a heart of fire ;)

Cassandra HexThorn -- what can I say but she is a "sister" in "name" for sure!  Hexy is one of kind and I am glad I met her and my circle of friends expanded once again.

John LifeGlen -- a gentlemen who shares the same home state with me.  At one point we were at odds, but no longer.  He is a gentlemen for sure, he inquires how I am doing and does his best to cheer me up when things aren't going so well.  He was kind enough to gift a Tawny Ram when I was at a low point emotionally shortly after WinterTusk came out.  Another person I am glad to have met.

Icy Wiz -- her Royal Iciness has helped me quite a bit from the day I met her.  Willing to lend an ear, and help in any way she can.  Truly Royalty in every sense of the word.

StephenSpiritCaller -- the necro with a sense of humor, and a heart large enough to hold all the fans of Ravenwood Radio.  He is a wonderful person and all around good guy.  He proves that men in black can still be heroes.

I am fortunate to name these people among my friends.  Take the time to think of YOUR friends, and what they mean to you.  Let them know, so they can see the joy you have in your relationships with them.

PvP Mentor??

It's been a few weeks since I have written anything on my blog -- what can I say but I have been busy? and please forgive me??

Busy with PvP of course, among MANY other things.  Perfect Catch is doing well in the Arena :D  We win many more than we lose.  Part of the "secret" to a "Perfect" team is trust.  If you don't trust your teammates your team WILL fail, whether it be in the short-term or the long-term. There is NO blaming, no finger pointing for our losses and no hogging of credit for our wins. Each of us brings something different to the team.  Ronan has a life wizard, but that doesnt mean he plays Life like I do -- or that I would play my balance like he does.  We are NOT cookie cutter players but rather a TEAM of individuals that thinks as one pretty much of the time.  Our wizard schools are NOT interchangeable as the PERSON behind the wizard defines how they play.

Kevin BattleBlood has been recording all of our matches and posting them to his YouTube page, and I do mean both wins AND losses.  We aren't afraid to show our losses.  Each of those losses is a learning opportunity. We have faced many "stacked" teams.  By this we mean either there are multiple wizards of the same school OR multiple BLADES stacked upon one wizard.  We have faced up to 5 blades on one Ice wizard PLUS a balefrost bubble.  Something doesn't seem quite right when you can be hit for 4900 damage WITHOUT CRITICAL on one hit :/  It's not like we are bosses and need to be killed in a single hit, we are NOT Angrus or Orrick of BriskBreeze Tower! I don't spawn minions that hit with 10k meteors.  Due to these teams we have been playing with our deck design -- little change there for Fallon, little change here for me, a tweak for Ronan and a little extra something for Kevin too ;)  Our decks are not static and have not been for quite some time. Kevin LOVES when Ronan can "Bronate" (donate) pips to him.  We are winning from second -- we outlast the competition, its what we do and who we are.  The best Offense is a good Defense as Kevin says. 

With Perfect Catch I have managed to become an "Overlord" (over 1000 rank) and keep that ranking now.  I have over 1000 Arena tickets and nothing I want to spend them on, I will just keep them until -- hopefully -- Warlord gear comes out, something with some critical block please!  We all do carry the Life Force sword and conviction, but they only provide so much block ;)  I had crafted the Everlasting Thunder cap for use in the Arena, but was NOT getting any more criticals with it than I was when wearing Arena gear.  So I have switched back to full Arena Gear as the resist allows me to live longer.

Fallon hit Warlord and then OverLord within the few weeks!  Woot Woot!  We have had a LOT of fun getting us all to Warlord status.  Our current ranking ranges from high 1300's to the 1000 -- not too shabby if I do say so myself!

But I think I should get onto the title of the post -- PvP Mentor?? ME??

As you know I was doing some PvP with my Wizzy Family -- Sorceress Miklai (Sabrina FrostShard), Lady Blade (Autumn FireBlade) and mi Tio Alric RavenSinger.  Sorceress Miklai and I did some one on one "training" for her at my Massive Fantasy Palace.  She had only stepped into the Arena a few times and did NOT like how others treated her.  She had some Trolls -- both on her opponents team AND on her own!  BUT she did tell me she was doing Quick Join ranked 4v4 which makes a BIG difference.  I would sooner cut off my wand hand than do a Quick Join teamed match!

Lady Blade went another training route -- the Wizzy Family did some practice and ranked 4v4 as ehr training.  I think 1v1 is  MUCH better way to get a feel for your deck though!  Need to get Ms. Blade into my MFP and tweak things a bit!

One of my fellow Mercs, Joshua WyrmWraith also asked for some "training" - which I was happy to help with a couple of months ago.  He has been in and out of the Arena since then  he got as high as Commander (and bought his Bronze Helephant pet) and then stepped away for a bit.

Since these trainees I have had a couple of more people approach me for help in getting ready for PvP.  I have to wonder, Why ME??  Autumn DuskHunter (of Homework in a Graveyard) and RavenWood Radio's own Christina IceDreamer have both approached me for help getting ready to step into the Arena.  Her Royal Iciness and I went a few rounds in my MFP and I gave her a few tips on her deck set up.  Cant wait to see how she does in the Arena!

As for Autumn, we are having a difficult time getting together.  She is working some odd hours and with me on a M-F work schedule its making it hard to get in some training time.  Never fear - We WILL get work together somehow, some way!

This upcoming weekend ...

I won't be in the Spiral and it's making just a tad sad :'(

I am a Girl Scout Leader as some of you know IRL and I will be an Event at one of our local Camps with 300 other people O_o.  It will be a BUSY weekend but I am hoping to be ITS on Sunday afternoon.

The sad news is I won't be PvPing with either of my teams, Perfect Catch OR CASA (Cass, Autumn, Sabrina, Alric).  I will really miss you all and hope to catch up with the weekend happenings as soon as possible.

There is ONE thing I won't ever have to deal with though and that makes me happy -- my teams competing against each other!

More Weekend Fun

Beside doing some PvP fun with the Unholy Trio + 1 four of the members of Team Perfect Catch were able to be together and so some PvP.   If you are not aware the members of TPC are Kevin BattleBlood, Fallon DeathSlinger, Madison Star, RonanDawn and myself.  Ronan Dawn has been out of game for a bit dealing with IRL issues (I really hate IRL issues!).  He was able to be in game for a substantial amount of time so you KNOW what we did -- PvP!

One of the things I love about PvP with TPC (hey that rhymes!) is the amount of fun we can have!  Here is a LINK to Kevin's LiveStream page.  Now keep in mind that's 4 hours of PvP so I am not sure many will want to sit through it.  We decided that we would use some transformation potions so we had just a "tiny" bit of fun with that.  Here are some pictures I stole from Fallon's FaceBook.  I hope she doesn't mind, I am at work and don't have access to mine!

We had some very GOOD sport opponents about the whole thing.  We brought mass chaos into every battle ring we were in!  Our #twizard friends were there and transformed also.  Sir WinterBreeze was a pig at one point and being chased around cause they all wanted bacon or ham.  I never could figure out which!

We only lost one match the whole time we did PvP.  It was so totally awesome to have Ronan back!  We have missed you sir and can't wait until you are back on a more regular basis. Now if we could just get Missy a bit more!

Weekend Fun

Did some practice 4v4 with my "wiz" family, Sorceress Miklai, Alric RavenSinger and Lady Blade.  We did 3 matches total.  Poor Lady Blade was scared to death, she had only stepped foot in the Arena one other time!  Lady Blade coined us "The Unholy Trio + 1".  Sorceress Miklai, Lady Blade and myself are like sisters, and since they are both younger than me I have a lil sis (Sorceress Miklai) and a liller sis (Lady Blade).  Lady Blade has taken to calling Alric Tio just like I do, difference is she doesn't know WHY I call him Tio!  And by the way Tio means Uncle in Spanish for those you you who might not have known. BUT we are NOT related :P

Anyway, onto the real stuff!

3 Practice matches -- we won 1 and lost 2, both losses were when we were going second.  Both Sorceress Miklai and Lady Blade don't have experience in PvP and it why we chose practice.  They are still getting a feel for their decks and what to do at each stage of the match.  Each person comes to PvP with a different mindset.  They have their own way of battling.  When I am on my life wiz I am VERY defensive.  Some people have taken to calling me the "Queen of Defense", or the most defensive player they know.  In many ways I am both, if i dont protect myself I will not be there for my teammates when they need a heal.  Once I am well protected I start shielding teammates and doing what I can to help offensively.  BUT I try to keep enough pips for a heal when we need one.

The Unholy Trio + 1 went into ranked last night for the first time.  We won our first match, which is ALWAYS an awesome feeling!  Unfortunately we lost our second :( Boo Hiss.  We ended back at the same rank we had, 9 points from first win, and 9 points lost.

When I got up this morning and jumped in wiz to check my garden I got a whisper from Sorceress Miklai.  She and Alric had done ranked 2v2 most of the night and she had a win:loss ratio of 11:2.  Pretty darn good if I do say so myself!  I know one the reasons she is doing it is to get those PvP pets ;) but it's all good.  If more of us polite, good sportsman type players join the Arena we MIGHT be able to teach the Arena Trolls that their attitudes dont pay!

Until next time, I hope you ENJOY your journey around the Spiral!  I know I enjoy mine!

Farming Decks and PvP decks

One of the things I have discovered since I picked up PvP is the difference in deck set up.  PvP can take anywhere from mere minutes to several hours per match.  It all depends upon the skill level and luck potential of all the wizards participating ;)

My life wizard's deck is MUCH different for farming than it is for PvP. In farming (or questing for that matter) I like to have as few cards as possible in my hand. That way I can draw the card I want and/or NEED when it's useful, not 3 turns later!  I basically run around with blades, gargantuan, Chewies (Forest Lord) and a few heals.  I don't even bother to carry shields any more unless I am with a group of lower level wizards or the farm we are doing can be difficult.

Now my Pyro will carry some shields as she isn't quite the tank that Life wiz is!  But again it all depends on what I am doing.  I usually just carry blades, gargantuan and some meteors.  Having a AoE that can hit for 900 health at four pips is pretty darn nice and if it goes critical  BAM! dead mobs :D I was farming Calypso the other day with Kevin SoulStalker, a fellow Merc, and hit a crit meteor that did over 5k damage -- talk about POWER!  lol

My death wizard runs around with empowers, blades and crows.  If she is going against balance mobs or life mobs will pack some poisons for those pesky shields!  Again my death wiz is pretty much a tank and doesn't pack shields unless I am with other wizards, after all she can steal back health ;) 

Now my balance wizard's deck can vary the most.  Again, depends on who I am with or what I am doing.  I don't really even pack Lady Judgement anymore, blades and Aoe all the way!  If I am with elemental schools, or spirit schools I will pack blades for them to play with too.  I do love my Spectral Blasts and will use them the most it seems.

Now onto PvP deck setup, at least for me ... I play very defensively on all my wizards when in PvP.  I will max out all the shields I can in my deck across all wizards.  If I don't use them I can always place them on a teammate or discard them. I find that I prefer a large deck -- scratch that -- HUGE deck in PvP.  I know many will not agree with me BUT its my opinion and I'm sticking to it!  Since I have been doing mostly 4v4 lately I find myself being even MORE defensive.  If I can reduce the damage that I or my teammates take that means I can conserve my pips and heal less often.  The faster your team can build pips, the quicker you can dish out damage, the quicker you dish out damage the more likely you are to spike the other teams health and win!

I don't pack many hits, my job as a life wizard is to keep my team ALIVE.  I can't do that if I have wasted my pips on a hit that my teammates are better able to accomplish.  With that being said there are times that I do get to make the final blow as my team has spiked our opponents health and we need a killing AoE to finish them off.  Some days the cards fall into place, and some days they don't ;)

You know ...

one of the hardest things I find in blogging is catchy titles!

So, no title on this one, just a small update on what I have been doing, whats keeping me occupied and all that fun stuff.

Let's see SO much has happened since my last blog post I am not sure WHERE to begin.

Well I am a Merc for Hire over on Wiz101Central but have to admit I have not picked up many runs lately.  It seems the thread is well covered between very ACTIVE Mercs and our Friends. I do need to get my feet wet again with helping others out, as it is something I do enjoy.

PvP occupies a LOT of my time, not so much ranked right now but PvP parties and what not.  Kevin BattleBlood has created the PvP Party Forum over on Diary of a Wizard to let others know when a PvP party is planned.  We do these parties, and some have audio commentary (via Kevin's LiveStream page), to have fun, promote PvP as a fun activity, to teach AND to learn.  Just because I have a certain way that I play PvP doesn't mean its the ONLY way, and that's what these parties do, promote the learning of new styles.  I am a VERY defensive life wiz, but I have seen many offensive life wiz and each has their own advantages and drawbacks.

I have been working with Petnome and helping update the site with talents that are submitted by wizards around the Spiral.  And since test Realm is out I have been leveling pets and seeing what talents they have, my own pets and the Crown Shop pets. It's an wonderful feeling to find the last talent we need to complete a pet!

Speaking of Test Realm, my Pyro has decided that she will craft the Celestian Observatory.  She would like a PvP battle ring of her own.  Every once in a while she gets REALLY upset that Cass Life gets all the PvP action!  Speaking of crafting ... I have crafted the "Walkers of Natural Law" for my life wiz (2 pairs too!) for her to use.  The critical block they provide is AWESOME!  I have yet to have a crit get thru since I started wearing them!  My pyro is wearing "Pryo's Carefree Hat" as she LOVES to hit crit!  I might be crafting the robe also, I have bought the recipe but am saving my reagents for the CL house.  Death is wearing a set of crafted level 55 boots also, the name of which escapes me at the moment. O_o  Poor Cass Balance hasn't been able to do much lately, too busy with other wizards, she is even stalled in gardening at the moment as I concentrate on other things.

I have also helped mod RavenWood Radio for their last broadcast.  Leesha was unavailable so Fallon DeathSlinger was co-hosting with Stephen SpirtCaller.  I had never been a mod before, was glad we had an AWESOME chatroom that night! The nice shiny new banhammer that IcyWiz got me didn't need to get dull by use!

My First Wizaversary was this past Saturday (the 12th).  I threw a PvP party at my MFP that Lady Blade gifted me.  I had such a great time!  But I was so busy having fun I forgot to get screenshots!  So if you happened to be there mind sending me some?  lol  The only dim spot was someone decided to get report happy :(  I got reported at my own party for no reason, false reports are no fun!

So, I think that covers MOST of what I have been doing, and will try to be a much better blogger and update y'all a bit more than I have been.

See ya 'round the Spiral, and enjoy YOUR adventures!

Spiral Time

My time in the Spiral lately has been filled with leveling my Necromancer and some PvP (of course) plus gardening and pet leveling a bit.  Just keeping busy with a bit of this and a bit of that.

Couple of very nice things happened over the Christmas holiday that I failed to mention -- BAD CASS!

One of my best in-game friends The EarthWeavers gifted me the Epic Game Stop bundle for my myth wiz account.  So now I have a Massive Fantasy Palace on each account I play.  :)

Nate (TEW) has been a very good friend since shortly after I became a Merc for Hire.  When we first met I don't think either of us liked the other!  Things change over time, we spent MANY hours in game together, farming or questing or in the Arena.  Nate is actually the one who got me hooked on the Arena.  He was on his Death wiz, Vanessa EarthWeaver and I was on my Pyro (my first and favoritest wiz).  I did Arena and PvP because he REALLY wanted to, I wasn't much into it AT ALL!  It was something to do that he enjoyed and it did fill the time ... I wasn't ready to get a fourth wiz to Grand yet at that point -- the Advance Pet System had just come out and CL was MONTHS away.

Nate and I switched our PvP team up -- and made the "Dream Team" -- he on his Myth wizard (Fallon DreamBreaker) and me on my Life wiz ... this is where I became hooked on PvP :D  Bailey the Shin Kicking spritely Satyr  came into my life and things CHANGED!  lol

Since then I have been in the Arena much, MUCH more than Nate has.  I got  involved with "TPC", Team Perfect Catch and doing 4v4, not just 1v1 and 2v2 though I do those those forms of PvP also.  4V4 is a different kind of PvP than 1v1. 4v4 depends on the TEAM working together to accomplish their goal -- i.e. winning!  PC is a pretty well coordinated team, it has gotten to the point that we don't have to talk much at all during a match, we just do what needs to be done.

Since I mentioned my Necromancer I guess I need to finish up her update ...  drum roll please!

I am please to announce that she did hit Grand in 2010.  That made her my fourth GrandMaster wizard in 2010, and considering I started playing in February not too shabby!  In addition to her hitting GrandMaster I was able to get her to Legendary yesterday with the help of friends.  So I currently have 4 Legendary wizards to help out around the Spiral.

See ya 'round the Spiral and enjoy your journey, I know I have enjoyed mine.

Another Myth Update ...

Dear Readers ...

Just another update on my low level Myth pvp wiz.

One I am VERY happy to announce at that!

WOOT WOOT!  Commander Robe obtained on a level 22 Myth :D

Just a tiny Update on Myth Baby

Got to start my Christmas break yesterday afternoon a bit early.  Thank you work for letting us go home early.  So y'all know me, I jumped in game!  Wasn't really sure what I was going to do though.  I was tending my garden when scarznstripez (aka Scarlet DeathBlood, aka Missy) and I started chatting.  She wasn't sure what SHE was going to do either.  She was thinking about doing some PvP on one of her low level wiz but wasn't sure.  I started to ask about the wiz, and what her rank was, etc.  Y'all KNOW I am interested in PvP so of course I asked for info!  Turns out her fire wiz is level 22, the same as my myth so decided to team up and play for a bit.  Well ... that "bit" turned into 6 hours and 16 matches O_o.  We did do just one 3v3 with my friend Keller NightSword on his death wiz, Keller EarthBlood.  That was an nasty match ... one of our opponent was a Legendary Pyromancer Warlord!  But in the end it was a WONDERFUL and VERY productive evening.  The ONLY match we lost was that 3v3!  Missy and I were rocking the Arena! 

SO, I am proud to announce my Myth's new rank ... drum roll please ...

WOOT! WOOT! Commander attained :D

Current ranking of 840 with 54 wins and 8 losses, making her win percentage 87.  Not bad for a level 22 myth huh?

Have fun in YOUR adventures around the Spiral!

Legendary Pyromancer

Over this past weekend I finally got my first wiz, my pyromancer, to Legendary.  WOOT!

I mostly soloed her, though my good friends were kind enough to help with some boss battles and instances.  And I am amazed at the amount of power this wiz has ... after playing on my Balance and Life wiz so much I forgot how much FUN it is to be the big hammer and take down the mobs and bosses.

She is also my Grand Artisan wizard and has crated the Cosmic Kris and Stellar Signet for her and her wiz sisters to share.  The heal boosts on these 2 items is AMAZING!  When my Defender Pig decides to cast a Spritely on me the Initial heal is 99 and each tick is 199!  Now that's some serious healing!

Took her into PvP the other night as she had not done much PvP at all before the CL update.  She was ranked at Sergeant with a record of 22W/22L -- not so good O_o.  She is pretty much kicking Cass and taking names now.  Even a double bladed Gargantuan Snow Angel couldn't kill her!  I just used a sprite after the hit, and my Piggie used one too ... was healing for almost as much as the damage tick was! 

As always I am enjoying my time in PvP ... Win or lose I learn something each time I am out there.

As for Gardening -- Have to admit I really do enjoy the benefits of gardening, but with the newest updates am not caring too much for the massive expenditure of energy.  It's one thing to give us the option, and let us plant, but to update so quickly to make the plants MORE needy after we have planted our gardens is not so cool.  I bought 2 new houses just to garden in!  So with the newest updates to plant neediness it really is hard to care for all of my many plants.  I know once my current crops are harvested I will be dialing back on what I do plant.  HoneySickles and all forms of SnapDragons are high on my list of keeper plants.  I love me some SnapDragons cause I do love dragons in all shapes and sizes!  Why I picked it as my name after all!

Here is a picture of ONE my gardens as it looks now:

See ya 'round the Spiral!