Watch this space -- part 2

4v4 PVP Tournament 

hosted by Perfect Catch member,

Cassandra Dragonheart

Single elimination

4v4 tournament

16 teams

One Victor

The rules are simple:

Must be level 58 or higher.

MUST be a team of mixed schools.…in other words, you must have 4 different schools on your team

I prefer that teams are members of the DoaW PVP party forum, but it’s not required.  (To become a member of the PVP forum, you must have an account or create an account on DoaW  – go to Groups on my.diaryofawizard.com and find the PVP Party Forum group – you can ask to join the group from that page)

Teams must submit their team name and roster in advance to UnitedWeStandTourney at gmail.com by July Tuesday, July 12. The email must include your teams name, the schools, and each members in-game name.

Once you submit your roster, you can’t change the members or their schools…so choose wisely. If more than 16 teams register teams will be chosen at random using random.org.

After each match, both teams must email proof of their win or loss to me at UnitedWeStandTourney at gmail.com.

All matches must take place in the practice arena, this will prevent a specific team line up. This is also so that all wizards have a chance to watch – it promotes the Arena more.  The only downfall is we can’t boot people for bad behavior….so be on your best behavior  Teams must also be on their best behavior.  They can lose their chance at advancement if behavior issues arise. Elimination can happen for bad sportsmanship!

The matches will take place on Saturday and Sunday afternoons between 1 pm and 5 pm Eastern, so PLEASE do not register if you cannot make this time frame!

The line ups will be posted on July 14 on the DoaW PVP Party Forum, right here  at http://fromtheheartofadragon.blogspot.com, Ravenwood Radio forum and my Twitter account @CassDragonHeart

The first matches will begin Saturday, July 16, 2011

First place team members will each receive - Couch Potato seeds, Dragon's Hoard pack and a code for 2500 Crowns.
Second place team member will each receive - Dragon's Hoard pack.


I am extending the deadline for registration until July 13, 2011 at Midnight CST! PLEASE have your rosters to me by that time!

Watch this space:

Upcoming contest, stay tuned for details!

Turmoil in the Spiral ... and on Twitter

The past few days have seen a burst of posts across the Blogoshere and a spate of tweets flying over the air and landing on the #Twizards.  Many of them only know what they are told are are "picking sides" based on one person's point of view, and this is VERY sad.  As we all know there are two sides to every story, but it appears that only one is being heard.  Someone is crying poor, pitiful me, people are picking on me.  They are pointing fingers and smearing the good name of others in the Spiral.  The thing is, those people getting pointed at know the truth, the whole truth.  We were there and heard/saw with our own ears/eyes the whole of the conversation.  We have put no twist on it to paint ourselves in a favorable light.  No one was called a troll, no one said anything derogatory to another.  It was a rational discussion but one person decided that her point of view was the ONLY point of view.  I believe you all know who Fallon and I are and can figure out who were we speaking to. Without further the ado, here are the screen shots of the conversation.

 You can click on these pictures and they will enlarge in another web page.  Press your "back" button to return.

Some of the conversation bleeds over into other pages, but it was required in order to get it all. Fallon and I are being painted as witches of the highest order, if that is what y'all would like to think of us based on one person's "statement of facts" I am sorry.  I do not condone people acting as this person has.  Fallon has been a guardian of children's safety on this game since DAY ONE.  Fallon was looking out for the emotional well being of the child in question.  Being subjected to the invective some players hurl at spamming teams is something no one should have to deal with, much less a child.  The adult in this scenario should have said NO firmly and left, suggested she play another school, any number of things.  Instead she decides that since she has had a "bad day" she will use this cheap tactic to make herself feel better.  There was no thought about the people on the other side of the battle.  How did they feel losing in 2-3 rounds?  What if THEY had a bad day also and just wanted to have some fun PvPing with friends in the Arena?  Does the good of ONE person override the good of the many?  She claimed that the other team could use any number of spells to defeat them.  It is possible to defeat a tempest spamming team, but only with A LOT of luck on your side.  I know TPC is working on a way for us to survive the onslaught, but many teams are abandoning the Arena.

Please, please don't allow one person to cloud your judgment of others.  There are always 2 sides to a story, and one picture IS worth 1000 words.

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!

Trolls and Gobblers and Onis OH MY!!

I have some things to say about behavior and attitude among the denizens of the Spiral.  Time to get on my soapbox and let those of you who read this know MY thoughts of things happening lately.

I know many of you know what Trolls are in the blogoshpere.  Here is a definition from Urban Dictionary: One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.  Many of the Twizards (Twitter Wizards) also agree that trolls inhabit the common Areas of the Spiral.  People who are looking for a boy o friend, or "I need a girl", or they spam messages to fill up our chat boxes.  Y'all know the types.  The best way to deal with these trolls is humor and liberal use of the ignore button.  They really can't hurt us -- they are just annoying, and that's what they want to be! So don't give them the satifaction of knowing they bothered you.

Now Gobblers -- Gobblers are the darker side of Trolls.  All Gobblers are Trolls at heart, but not all Trolls are Gobblers ;)  Gobblers take the annoying factor and multiple it by at least 10.  The will use profanity, be vulgar, talk of subjects that do NOT belong within the confines of the Spiral.  If you want to be one of THOSE types please go find another game!  PLEASE use you report button for these people!!! The report button is your BEST friend in these situations!  Report them once, if they keep it up Ignore them.  If you are not a subscription player you do it the opposite way, Ignore THEN Report. Everyone can report, mechanics are just different.

Onto the Onis.  What you may ask is an Oni?  An Oni is THE very worst thing you can run across in the Spiral.  We all know how the Plague, Oni No Death, et all like to hide within an important personage within the Spiral and cause heartache and harm.  Well my version of an Oni is someone who impersonates a very well known player in order to cause them embarrassment, grief and heartache.  They are a million times worse than ANY Gobbler you may run across!  If you see one PLEASE spam your Report button, take screenshots, call your friends in to do the same.  These Onis  should have NO place in the Spiral to rest, hide or cause havoc.  They DO NOT BELONG among a community such as Wizard101 is -- family friendly. 

Please helps us rid the Spiral of the Oni!  Rise up and let them know their behavior is NOT acceptable and we will do whatever it takes to bring them down!