Test Realm – Azteca Fishing!

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Test Realm – Azteca Fishing!

With the latest test realm, comes 11 new fish with Azteca Fishing! Along with these, come a new questline and TWO new spells – chest related! Keep reading on to see the new fish and new spells!

Azteca fishing is here – we have some new chest related spells – one you can get for gold (10,000 gold) and the other when completing the quest in Azteca! One is to sink all the chests to the bottom, and the other doubles your chance at catching a chest!

Sink Chests

Azteca Fishing

Buoy Chests 1

 

Also, 11 new fish are added to the magical waters of Azteca as follows (they are all rank 3 by the way!)

Ax-Xolotl

  • Balance Fish
  • 1500 initial XP
  • The Zocalo

Anglyosaur

  • Myth Fish
  • 1500 initial XP
  • Tierra De Brea

Chupacarpe

  • Life Fish
  • 1500 initial XP
  • Saltmeadow Swamp

Dolphinsaur 

  • Life Fish
  • 1500 initial XP
  • Floating Mountains

Megloteca

  • Balance Fish
  • 1500 initial XP
  • Three Points

Parrot Fish

  • Storm Fish
  • EPIC Fish
  • 2000 initial XP
  • Cloudburst Forest

Pirahptor

  • Death Fish
  • 1500 initial XP
  • Mangrove Marsh

Quetzacodl

  • Fire Fish
  • 1500 initial XP
  • Cloudburst Forest

Stegogar

  • Life Fish
  • 1600 initial XP
  • Mangrove Marsh
  • Cloudburst Forest (more rare here)

Triceratorpedo

  • Myth Fish
  • 1700 initial XP
  • Cenote

Tunasaurus Rex

  • Ice Fish
  • EPIC Fish
  • 2000 initial XP
  • Saltmeadow Swamp

Will you catch them all?

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The New Bad Juju

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The New Bad Juju

Wizard 101’s Test Realm has been released with a slew of quality of life updates. One of the biggest updates is the change to Bad Juju highlighted below:

How Bad Juju now functions

Bad juju was given a massive overhaul in PvP. Here are some of the new functions:

-Bad Juju will take 25% of your max health each cast. Example: If you have 4000 health, each cast of bad juju will deal 1000 damage.

-Bad juju’s self-hit is unaffected by your damage boost or resist. It will always deal 25% of your max health every time.

-Bad Juju no longer triggers any hanging effects. Blades and traps both positive and negative are unaffected by the self hit.

-Bad Juju’s changes only activate in PvP, it remains unchanged in PvE

 

The Impact of the Bad Juju changes

The Bad Juju changes will likely have a number of impacts:

-The first most likely impact is the destruction of the feared Jade/Juju stall strategy. At 25% max health each cast, a mere 2 casts will lower a Jade/Juju wizard to half health- necessitating a heal lest they stay within kill range for too long.

-The flat percentage damage with the new bad juju leaves offensive death more opportunity as they no longer have to sacrifice their blade setup to use juju. However, 25% of max health- is a steep price to pay, which may preempt the spell’s use even by offensive death wizards.

-Finally, Bad Juju becomes the first card in Wizard 101 to have a context-dependent function. In PvE, Bad Juju remains unchanged but in PvP the new effects take hold. This is a revolutionary change for Wizard 101 and if applied to other spells consistently, has the potential to stop the inevitable PvE vs PvP debates that ensue after every nerf or buff.

What do you think of the new Bad Juju? Let us know in the Comments below! 

 



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Wizard101 Test Realm! – Wizard City Update, Photomancy, and MORE!

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Another test realm has hit the servers, and with it comes the much anticipated .. Wizard City update! Along with these shiny new graphics, come Photomancy, Azteca fishing, and much more! Keep on reading for the full scoop on this summer test realm!

For a full list of changes – go HERE

Wizard City Graphical Update

It’s been a long time coming, with some parts coming in chunks, but now the FULL graphical update to our beloved Wizard City is here! From the library, to the shopping district, to our very own professors, everyone and everything got an upgrade! Take some time to stroll around and get your own look (but don’t worry, we’ll include some pictures for you if you dont have access!)

Magic Mirror

For those who pressed random one too many times in the character selection screen, this is for you! Introducing the new Magic Mirror shop, where you can makeover your wizard – from hair, to face, to eyes, pretty much everything! The Magic Mirror also has some NEW styles from you to choose from for each category, including a brand new category – Face Paint! This is located in the Shopping District, right in front of the Dye Shop.

Azteca Fishing

MORE FISHIES!! After a little drought of new fishing, Azteca is the next home of fishing! With this update, comes new spells, a new questline, and new fish to catch! Eleven new fish are yours to catch – as followed! (Credit to KI Patch Notes!)

  • Megloteca
  • Pirahptor
  • Triceratorpedo
  • Anglyosaur
  • Chupacarpe
  • Quetzacodl
  • Doliphisaur
  • Ax Xolotl
  • Stegogar
  • Parrot Fish (Epic)
  • Tunasaurus Rex (Epic)

Photomancy

For those that love taking pictures in Wizard101, a new system has been added for you! In Photomancy, you can move the camera around, edit pictures, add filters, and much more! There’s a fun little quest line to do from Annie Shutterbug!

Monstrology Updates

More monstrology! The following areas can be accessed for the following creatures now!

  • Krokotopia – Manders
  • Grizzleheim – Imps
  • Zafaria – Elephants

Other Changes:

  • Bad Juju now deals 25% of players’ MAX health instead of a flat 300 damage. This damage can’t be mitigated and is no longer effected by blades, wards, traps, shields, and resist. This change is PVP ONLY (unchanged in PVE).
  • Added a feature where you can now right-click on a Treasure Card and use a slider to delete several treasure cards at once.

That about wraps it up for this test realm! As always, for a full list of changes, you can click the link toward the top of this article!

What is your favorite part? Do you like the graphical update? Comment down below, and happy testing!



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Accursed Play Gauntlet – Wizard101

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Accursed Play Gauntlet

A brand new gauntlet just appeared in the Spiral! The Accursed Play Gauntlet has just recently hit the stores (more specifically, Walmart) and has now been officially announced by Kingsisle. I’m sure you theater lovers will enjoy this gauntlet starring Mac…Death! This bundle includes the following:

  • Drama Llama Pet
  • Dramaturgist’s Attire
  • Dramaturgist’s Wand
  • Stage Ship Mount
  • Theater Gauntlet
  • 5000 crowns or one month membership

Drama Llama Pet

Accursed Play Gauntlet - Pet

Pet Details

Accursed Play Gauntlet - Pet

Talent Slots:

  • ???
  • ???
  • ???
  • ???
  • ???
  • ???
  • ???
  • ???
  • ???
  • ???

 

Stage Ship Mount

The bewitching Stage Ship mount is ready for the performance of a lifetime! This magnificent two-person mount just says it all, doesn’t it?

Accursed Play Gauntlet - Mount

Accursed Play Gauntlet - Mount

 

 

Dramaturgist’s Attire

Quite a popular new stitch among wizards. It can be observed on the first two bosses in the gauntlet, the Phantom bosses! More on that later…

Accursed Play Gauntlet - Attire

 

 

Dramaturgist’s Wand

Spooky? Creative? I’m not entirely sure what to say here. It sure is an interesting wand!

Accursed Play Gauntlet - Wand

 

Theater Gauntlet

Accursed Play Gauntlet - Dungeon

I ventured through the top tier of the gauntlet with my army of wizards to explore what secrets lie within. The story is quite enjoyable especially if you are a theater fan, and the loot is also very rewarding! Here are the loot highlights from the Accursed Play Gauntlet:

  • Polished Mending Opal +5%
  • Polished Resilient Opal +5%
  • Pigsie Treasure Card
  • Crimson Spectre Pet
  • Skeletal Gladiator Pet
  • Platinum

Battle 1: Phantom Olivier & Phantom Kenneth

  • Phantom Olivier – 11,000hp Fire Boss
  • Phantom Kenneth – 10,000hp Ice Boss
  • No cheats recorded

 

Battle 2: Fan-tom Stagehands

  • Fan-tom Stagehand (Myth) – 3,920hp
  • Fan-tom Stagehand (Myth) – 7,840hp
  • Fan-tom Stagehand (Life) – 8,720hp
  • Fan-tom Stagehand (Balance) – 9,960hp
  • No cheats recorded

 

Battle 3: MacDeath

  • MacDeath – 12,000hp Death Shadow Boss
  • Summons random minion of the following: 
    • MacStorm Understudy
    • MacLife Understudy
    • MacDeath Understudy
  • Casts a 100% resist aura on round 1 – casts an aura that is -10% less every time he takes damage, or bring your Shadow Shrike!
  • Casts Doom & Gloom if an aura is cast or a wizard/pet heals.
  • Both the boss and minions are available through Monstrology!

 

Are you looking forward to obtaining this brand new bundle?
Don’t wait any longer and head to Walmart right now!



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Pirate101 Companion Spotlight – Haywire Battle Angel

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Companion Spotlight

Haywire Battle Angel

Formerly fearsome foe turned friend… Learn how to best use this powerful battle angel randomly dropped from the Ashes of the Armada pack below!

Type: Offensive/Utility

Swashbuckler companion

Base Stats

Battle Angel PvP

 

Health: 2117

Accuracy: 120

Dodge: 140

Weapon Power: 375

Agility: 84

Movement Range: 4

 

Overview

The battle angel is a primarily offensive companion. She has two hits that can each do more than a hidden assassin (both Haywire hits). The third power is a fantastic utility power.

Her available epics are somewhat lackluster, but with an agility or critical buff, she can chain damage together quite nicely.

Her somewhat low health and very dangerous powers make her a prime target for your opponent, but she is almost ensured to take a unit down with her.

 

Base Talents, Powers, and Epics

Haywire Shot: This is the Battle Angel’s most potent damage dealing power. It has two different “rolls” it will randomly select from, a 2x weapon power and a 3x weapon power roll. 

Haywire Shot

The high roll.

Haywire Shot

The low roll.

If you’re a buckler and use her Haywire Shot coming out of Fog, a “low” roll will do just over 2000 damage. The high roll easily does over 3000 damage and a critical can do nearly 6000 damage! Anything but the lower roll will one-shot an unprotected unit. Getting this attack off whenever possible should be a high priority.

Haywire Strike: Although this isn’t as hefty of a damage dealer as her Haywire Shot, Haywire Strike is quite the beast itself. It will (generally) sacrifice damage in exchange for the ability to chain while using it and slightly higher range-of-use.

Surge of Technomancy: Surge is essentially a long-range, single target, mini-Purge Magic. It removes the lowest buff on the target. It also does 400-600 damage before criticals are factored in and can target hidden units. This is a fantastic utility power that will make any opponent’s life miserable!

Flanking- Not a particularly great epic if you’re a swashbuckler, but if you can avoid it if she’s hidden and take advantage of it when she’s not, it can be quite beneficial.

Alert- Half damage from traps. Every swashbuckler companion has it

 

Recommended Setup

Haywire Battle Angel

Talents:

  • Rough 4– Maximizing an offensive companion’s damage is always good
  • Tough 4– This brings her health up to a slightly more survivable level
  • Accurate 4– Missed hits = Missed damage
  • Dodgy 4– Since she doesn’t have multiple ranks of Bladestorm, we don’t have worry about maximizing critical chance. Thus, we should make her more survivable with dodgy 4 rather than increasing her damage and critical rate slightly with agile 4
  • Agile 1– Only real option for the extra talent

Epics:

The battle angel gets 5 epics + Flanking, which should be spent as follows:

  • First strike 3– Mandatory talent for swashbuckler companions that can get it
  • Relentless 2– Another mandatory talent for offensive companions

These epics may seem boring, but they keep an otherwise overpowered companion balanced.

Who can best use the Battle Angel?

The battle angel suffers from a low movement range (a measly 4 tiles). Her Haywire Shot has an even lower usage range, merely 3 tiles.

This means that you must get very close to your opponent in order to use her offensive powers. Because of this, they will have an opportunity to attack the battle angel upon her approach. Since she is a very fragile unit, they can lower her health greatly, or even kill her rapidly, before she has a chance to wreak her havoc. Therefore, the angel is weak against teams that can attack her before she approaches

What does all of this mean for her usage? Well, it means that the battle angel is an all-star on a team that can allow her to approach without being targeted (Swashbuckler with fog) or when used on a character that can invest resources into protecting her (Privateer with accuracy/dodge buffs, forts, heals, etc.). A buckler can fog, approach, and use a haywire shot or strike to instantly kill or cripple a high threat unit. Privateer can’t give her hidden, but they can use forts and revives to extend her longevity and ensure that she remains a thorn in an opponent’s side for a long while. Other classes can use her, especially since she has first strike 3, but there are better options.

Usage

If she can get off all 3 of her attacks, you’re generally on your way to winning the match. I struggle to think of a time when I used all 3 of her attacks, got good value from them, and then went on to be defeated. If you’re a privateer, don’t be afraid to use a fort or revive on her in order to guarantee her survival. Swashbucklers should not waste their much more limited heal and fort supply on her. The angel should be used to spike down a high threat unit, ideally when coming out of fog.

 

Some more tips:

  • Keep in mind that any offensive strength unit, while buffed, can one-round the battle angel if she is unprotected… hate you too Pete </3
  • Units with quick draw and true grit can and will respond to the angel’s haywire shot, possibly resulting in a chain.
  • Count her movement and shot range. Unlike other high tier swashbuckler companions, she has a limited move range that is very easy to escape from. If you lose count, you’ll find yourself 1 tile away from a unit that you need to hit this round
  • Haywire strike has a chance to stun her or the targeted unit. This effect is random, so there’s no controlling it.
  • If an opponent or their companion’s bottom-most buff is a fort or an absorb, prioritize using Surge of Technomancy to remove it. However, if she’s hidden, don’t waste the hide damage. If she’s hidden, only use it to remove protection when the targeted unit has an absorb on since your hide won’t break.
  • Surge of Technomancy is a magic attack, and will thus be Witch Hunter’ed if she is in Witch Hunter range.
  • Assume that, if she is hitting while in hidden with a haywire shot, your attack will not kill (unless the opposing unit is below 1.8k health). Leaving an opposing Pete or Temujin alive with 600-700 health is very dangerous, especially since you are unlikely to kill him before he has a chance to attack in Turn the Tide.
  • Haywire shot knocks the affected target back 1-3 tiles whenever possible. This can be taken advantage of in order to knock your opponent into traps. It can also be detrimental, if the unit you knocked back has htl (if the knocked back unit doesn’t move, its hold the line radius will be in the same place it was before it was knocked back).
Haywire Battle Angel

Poor troggy never saw it coming!

Conclusion

The battle angel, although fragile and hard to obtain, is a great unit for PvP. She shines in the hands of swashes and privies. Her powers have a good balance of heavy offense and utility and she can chain rather well on her own. Definitely give her a whirl if you get an opportunity

 

Have you used the Battle Angel in PvP?
How did it go? Let us know in the comments!



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Grandmaster Ice Turn-Based Tournament Strategy Highlight: Balance Mastery

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Grandmaster Ice Turn-Based Tournament Strategy Highlight: Balance Mastery


Balance Mastery over Life? What? I know, I know! Run to the hills, I’ve gone crazy! But listen to this: Balance Mastery is an extremely viable alternative to Life in Turn-Based tournaments.

Pros to Using a Balance Mastery

For starters, you can use spells like Sandstorm or Scorpion to kill minions without wasting any Ice blades.

Secondly, Balance has access to fantastic spells that work beautifully in turn-based because your opponent cannot immediately respond. Mana Burn, Supernova and the notorious Loremaster are terrifying weapons in Turn-Based tournaments; dealing damage while preventing them from doing the same to you: complete control – in a nutshell.

At the same time, you still have access to healing spells such as Availing Hands, and the Flamenco’s pet cards – Availing Hands, as well. Loremaster is a very useful utility spell in turn-based, adding weaknesses and mantles into your arsenal. You essentially get 4-pip damage, a mantle, and a weakness in only one slot. It can also be used to kill heavy-healthed myth minions if need be. If you run a Life mastery, then you probably only carry it for the occasional Satyr and maybe Luminous Weaver. But if you recall in our tournament guide, I told you to remember aggression. So those healing spells won’t do very much if you’re trying to kill your opponent quickly. Balance, however, offers those same 4-pip heals but also so much more!

 

Turn-Based Tournament Deck

Gear for Turn-Based Tournament  

 

Stats for Turn-Based Tournament

 

 

School-Specific Strategies

Vs. Ice:

Mirror matches can be extremely annoying. I’d even go as far as to call it the most annoying of all. A regular Grand Ice will Seraph to kill minions, blade stack, Frost into Moon, blah blah blah. Those ideas have been run into the ground. Repetition kills innovation and we’ll prove that here. Over time, people learn what works against that classic Ice and what doesn’t.

However, if they’re using a Balance Mastery as well… what you know about your opponent is turned upside-down. Sandstorm offers a unique way to take out minions, Mana Burn prevents them from getting enough pips to significantly dent your health, with Loremaster acting as a damage buffer: adding weaknesses to your opponent and removing your own.

Vs. Fire: 

Fire has, as I’ve said before, the greatest pool of tech spells in all of Wizard101. However, while facing an Ice with Balance mastery in a Turn-Based tourney? Nope, sorry. Fire immediately starts out with a heavy disadvantage (lower health than most) and usually they try to stay away from Satyr spamming in favor of getting some blades on and burning you for damage. With this in mind, it’s important to remember that what damage you do will often stick to them. This means they won’t be able to – or won’t be willing to – heal it off. Aggression against schools like Fire and Storm is vital. If you’re passive, they might be able to gain an advantage and you might end up fighting to Diego.

Remember also that you don’t want to be digging through your side for Availing Hands as much as you want to be for those Frostbites, Infallibles, and Lores! I don’t recommend Infection spamming as much against Fire, so just focus on spamming Lores instead. They’re great because of Fire’s lower base accuracy and it also keeps the blades all but negligible.

Vs. Storm:

Against Storm at Grand, you’ll play even more aggressively than you would against Fire. They have no access to trained heals unless they’re using a Life Mastery and opt to try and heal instead of hit. However, that’s often an oddity and not something you should take too much account for. Besides – to use a good quote of Dawn’s – “If they’re healing; they aren’t hitting”.

If they heal, outplay them like you would any other school. I mean, come on, it’s Storm. However, their damage can be a problem if you let it. Keep a bubble on them as Storms try to keep theirs up for as long as possible. In my experience they favor bubbles more than their blades. Storm is another low accuracy schools that like to stack damage. Because of that, Loremaster is the key to this match up. Spam Lores, but shield when you can’t or blade if you’ve already got some defense mounted. They don’t have DOTs readily available unless they use Lightning Elf, but that’s usually not the case.

Vs. Death:

First of all, Deaths are very uncommon, so there is not a lot of meta-play here. The most important thing against Death is to NOT SUMMON A MINION. That sounds counter-intuitive, but remember that Death heals most effectively off their draining spells. If they blade a bit and Wraith you, it won’t do too much if you’ve got your Glendemming gear on, but your minion? Honestly, your minion will cause that Vampire’s hit points to go through the roof. Do not allow them access to that drain off of your minion. That’s essentially giving them a Fairy off of your 3 pips- don’t.

Instead, focus on keeping your Balefrost up. They won’t want to change it to Doom while you’re comfortable with your health. Blade heavy and hit fast – that’s about it for Death! They’re not meta at Grandmaster for a reason. They have a lack of main deck tools and the only really effective spells in Turn-Based 1v1 are Headless Horseman and Deadly Minotaur. Don’t underestimate them: Death is a terrifying school if you let them pressure you. Use weakness often to keep that comfortable position, don’t let your health get too low without casting an Availing Hands and you’ll be fine.

Vs. Life:

Against Life you’re going to find yourself in one of two situations: Either you’ll be fighting a genuinely decent Life who knows what they’re doing or one wearing Zeus gear, essentially. If it’s the latter, just blade and stab for damage when it’s too heavy to be healed off effectively. If it’s the former, you will need to keep Sandstorm in hand for their minion spam and Infections up to discourage any jade strategies.

They won’t be very difficult to beat once you remember that they don’t have very many options to do damage back. Even the most adept Grandmaster Lifes try to jade in Turn-Based tours. Diminish their access to heals with Infections, Sandstorm their minions, and blade when you have an opportunity in between the mayhem. Either you’ll defeat them outright or you’ll win Diego over.

Vs. Balance:

Against Balance in turn-based tournaments, you’re going to want to be wary of certain spells that will make your fight all the more unpleasant. Spells like Mana Burn and TC Supernova are all too common amongst higher-tier players, so be careful if you try and build too many pips.

Ice manages to best Balance if you can play through interruptions, as a good balance will try to stack weaknesses galore. A neat little trick I always try is to carry Scarabs if I’m going Balance Mastery or Imps if I’m going Life Mastery (to take off stacked weaknesses and also good for dispels). With that in mind, take off what weaknesses you can, but if you can’t: hit through them. Force a struggle and keep pressure, not allowing them to settle in and sand your defences down.

Don’t mind the Infections, though; remember that you’re trying to kill them before they can settle in and wear you down. Get your blades on early, force them to Mana Burn if they’re going to do it early game as late will cost them the kill. If they Burn with the full 10 minutes still on the clock, you’ve got more than enough time to rebuild your pips and counterattack. Put up a bubble, but don’t stress about keeping too many readily available. Balances don’t often change bubbles unless they’re jading or doom spamming, but you’ll play the same either way. Put your bubble up early, blade, and start putting dots on them as fast as possible.

Vs. Myth:

Myth can be the most annoying school to fight in a Turn-Based tournament, especially as an Ice. It’s excessively hard to keep pressure on if you’re being either Earthquaked, Aftershocked or even better, Shifted, every time you try to take an offensive stance. However, trust me, fellow Ices, there is a recipe for success. One thing is certain: they definitely do not like Earthquaking off one blade. Occasionally, you can put on two, but in Turn-Based, you might have to bait their pips (i.e. make them use pips so they can’t immediately Earthquake you before you hit).

Generally, I play the same as I do against any other School except for one tiny thing: I’ll toss up a Bubble, put on a single blade and then Infallible. Infallible makes up, in a way, for the lack of other blades and trust me, you’ll need every little buff possible. If they don’t have the resources as far as pips go to Earthquake and they don’t look like they carry Aftershocks (some people just have that air about them – you know they won’t carry Shocks), then you can potentially toss on a second blade, but never go above 2. If you do, the likeliness of losing all of them and effectively having passed that many turns becomes deadlier.

Try to avoid dots because – let’s be honest – who enjoys having their own spells used against them? It can be crushing, so carrying lower-value overtime spells such as Ice Elf (if you have any) may be to your benefit. If you have to, a Frostbite into a Winter Moon often does the trick, but I always try to make room for an open Lord of Winter, if possible.

 

 

Don’t believe me? Try it yourself! I think you’ll be surprised with the results: Balance Mastery has become my go-to for Turn-Based Tournaments.

 

Good luck!



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Wizard101 Test Realm Teaser – Bartleby’s New Look!

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Hello everyone, hope you all are having a lovely Friday today. We have received our very own test realm teaser, so keep on reading to find out more about what we got!

KingsIsle has sent out some exciting teasers for what appears to be a visual update to Wizard City, and we were lucky enough to get one of our own! Take a look at our good ol’ friend Bartleby before:

and now we have the new, updated Bartleby below for everyone to see!

Seems pretty cool, right? This test realm should be coming soon, along with other updates to Wizard City (other fansites have teasers, so make sure to check ’em all out!), along with other updates for sure!

Just a short one for you guys today, hope everyone has a nice weekend!



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Grandmaster Ice & Balance Turn-Based Tournament Guide

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Classic 1v1 Tournaments

Grandmaster
Ice & Balance
Tournament Guide

Turn-Based 1v1

Classic 1v1 Tournaments

In our previous article, we discussed effective Classic 1v1 builds for Balance and Ice, Now we’re back with another one… This time, Turn-Based Tournaments!

Turn-Based is a relatively new addition to the game. Regardless, Ice is already recognized as one of the most formidable schools in this tournament style. Given the new dynamic of turns, Ice is essentially able to “go first” every round. This makes strategy much simpler. 

 The other top-tier school for Turn-based is Balance. With spells like Mana Burn and Supernova, cutting your opponent down to size is a piece of cake!

 

Gear for Turn-Based Tournaments

Ice

Hat

Robes

Boots

Athame

Amulet

Ring

Wand

Deck

Pet

~Preparation makes it’s own luck

Balance

Hat

Robes

Boots

Athame

Amulet

Ring

Wand

Deck

Pet

I use a very complicated and hard to get pet, but anything with MC Infallible and damage works. The preferable pet for this strategy would be a Flamenco Tocador; for the Availing Hands cards it gives.

 

Decks for Turn-Based Tournaments

Ice Deck

ice & balance turn-based tournament guide

ice & balance turn-based tournament guide

Balance Deck

ice & balance turn-based tournament guide

ice & balance turn-based tournament guide

Basic Strategy for Turn-Based Tournaments

Ice

The basic concept of turn-based tournaments is blade stacking. Blade stack frostbite, blade stack Winter Moon, heck; even an Arcticzilla works. Though the tried and tested bladed Lord of Winter into a Winter Moon works just as well, too! 

Summon your beautiful minion as fast as possible, much like in Classic. His job is to keep shields off your opponent while you blade. If there is no minion among your first seven cards, use an Iceblade. Make sure to keep at least one Global up and one in hand at any given time. If your opponent summons a minion, use Snow Angel. Not only does it do massive damage, but it also takes out their minion as well. At times it is a risky move; you could have the overtime shifted back onto you.

When you have three blades or more and your opponent doesn’t have any Stun Blocks, you can use a Winter Moon; because why not? It’s damage your opponent would have to heal off. More often than not, I find myself either Snow Angeling or Frostbiting into a Winter Moon to wrap up the game. Your goal should always be to try and end the matches as quickly as possible. Don’t give your opponent the chance to counterattack.

Grandmaster doesn’t have the surplus of health seen at higher levels, so a bladed high-damage DoT like Frostbite or Angel can do massive damage. Even if they remove the overtime, it usually leaves them open for a Winter Moon or Arcticzilla to clear out whatever health they might survive by.

Balance

Balance has great time in Turn-Based, with spells like Loremaster and Mana Burn at our disposal. We usually freeze the opponent’s offense and turn it around. Mana burn will destroy your opponent’s pips. As such, you don’t have to worry that they’ll use them just as you cast it. I run a more offensive build under the theory: If they’re healing; they aren’t hitting

Most of my matches are against slower-paced grandmasters used to the heal-and-shield spam defensive playstyle commonly used in Ranked PvP around this level range. This means that they carry larger decks. This hampers their ability to draw what they need when they need it. I operate a control build; few heals and shields, and a small to medium sized deck. The one sacrifice in my Sideboard is simply to remove stacking Feints or perhaps an Efreet debuff.

I usually start off my matches by dressing up my opponent with Weaknesses (Loremaster, regular, TC) and Infections. This discourages both aggressive and defensive play. After all, who feels comfortable being unable to remove negative charms? Then I gradually increase the tempo of the match. I kill their minions with Deer Knight (for the shield-removing overtime) and encourage defensive play by restricting them from their usual high pip cost combos with Mana Burn. If they take a very defensive stand and start shield spamming, Deathbat -easily the best TC I carry- is your friend. 

Once your opponent’s health is slightly lowered by the Mana Burns and Lorematers, toss a Doom and Gloom. It’s particularly effective right after Mana Burn. Your opponent won’t have the pips to start recovering their health. After that, the large amount of Headless, Loremaster and Deadly Minotaur will easily clear out the rest of their health. Remember to keep a Doom and Gloom in hand. This is in case your opponent tries to change the Global and undo all your work.

Things to think about:  
Balance has many underrated spells. Amongst these primarily are Hydra and Sacrifice Minion. Both of these offer an unconventional way to get an ordinary job done.
One of my personal favorite spells, Deathbat, is fairly rare and requires a lot of time spent in the Bazaar with Elik. A much less effective alternative — Fire Elf — could potentially be used instead.

Ice vs. Ice

In normal situations, you’ll be playing the same as every other Grand Ice: Seraph on minions, blade stack, Frostbite into Lord of Winter or Winter Moon. Those ideas are tried and trusted and can prove sucessful for new Thaumaturges. After all, repetition helps solidify strategies that can hold up over long spans of PvP history.

Against a usual Ice, you can feel free to save your pips for your heals while they endlessly blade stack and try to one-shot you with their weaker-than-average spells. Boring. Nothing else, just straight up boring. You know what to expect out of them then, yeah? You want to make sure you can get Infections onto them and Weaknesses as well – as many debuffs as possible before you start actually punishing them. Your goal: giving your opponent too much to respond to at the same time. Meanwhile, you’re able to Iceblade here and Elemental Blade there and when you’re ready, you can Frostbite their shields and Winter Moon.

 

Balance vs. Ice

Most Ices play slowly, blading up before attacking. This is their downfall while facing Balance. Most Ice wizards are easily discouraged by early aggressive play by a large amount of weaknesses. This gives you time to Mana Burn them before they get any threatening ideas. I like to wait until I have at least two Infections on the Ice before going offensive. Since most of them can heal out of just one heal debuff. In principle: Infection and Weakness while striving for pip control.

  

Ice vs. Balance

Against Balance in turn-based tournaments, you’re going to want to be wary of certain spells that will make your tour fight all the more unpleasant. Things like Mana Burn are all too common, so be careful if you play slow and build pips. Ice CAN best Balance if you can play through interruptions, like Supernova and Mana Burn -as well as the good Balance’s habit of stacking an unhealthy amount of Weaknesses. Don’t mind the Infections, though; remember that you’re trying to kill them before they can settle in and wear you down.

Put up a bubble, but don’t stress about keeping too many readily available, they don’t often change them unless they’re jading (sanctuary) or playing damage (doom). Put your bubble up early, blade, and start putting dots on them as fast as possible. A neat little trick I always try to do is carry Imps if I’m going Life Mastery (to take off stacked weaknesses and also good for dispels). With that in mind, take off what weaknesses you can, but if you can’t: blade through it. 

 

Balance vs. Balance

Balance on Balance matches can either be very slow paced or decided within the first few rounds. Slow-paced matches are very similar to Balance v. Jade Lifes, however fast-paced ones are more comparable to Balance v Storm. Everything depends on their mastery amulet; if they’re using a Life Mastery amulet; make sure to Infection a few times before going in for the offensive, you really don’t want them healing all your damage off with a Satyr or two. 

If the offending Balance is using any other amulet, you don’t have to worry as much about them healing everything away. Availing and Helping Hands offer a good, but slow, overtime heal that can easily be countered with one or two Infections and together with TC Sacrifice, they don’t really offer efficient healing for defensive play. When I play against another Balance with Loremaster, I often spam Weakness and Tower Shield until I can control their pips   enough with Mana Burn for me to consider going in for the kill with a Deathbat combo.

Ice vs. Myth

Against Myth. It’s excessively hard to keep pressure if you’re being either Earthquaked and Aftershocked or even better, Shifted, every time you try to take an offensive stance. The easy way to counter this is by hitting with 1-2 blades, not blade stacking to keep Earthquake as an unappealing option for the Myth. 

Balance vs. Myth

Myth lacks low-pip and even-pip cost spells, making it a hard school to maintain pressure from. Regardless, a bladed Orthrus is still a huge threat, as are the plethora of higher-pip cost combo spells which, if not properly countered, can mean a rapid end to the match. The best way to counter Myth Wizards is by stacking debuff charms, like Weakness and Infection, to prevent them from either playing too aggressively or defensively and keeping them in an uncomfortable medium, trying to remove your debuffs and heal off the damage of Loremaster through Infections.

  

Ice vs. Life and Death

I’ll stack Life and Death side-by-side here because in Turn-Based, they play roughly the same at Grand. Both schools will try to bubble war with you, both schools will try and take advantage of your low damage and try to manipulate both the timer and debuffs in their favor. Against both, you’re going to need max minion coverage and max globals present. Both of these Spirit Schools are going to want to keep their respective bubbles up to try and either apply pressure or relieve pressure. You’re going to need Seraphs and Imps for both – the 4 pips for killing minions and the 1 pip for removing weaknesses and plagues as well as dispels (both regular and Virulent because death loves to weakness every chance they can).

Generally, you’ll be able to blade more effectively than they and either force a Diego decision or win by “outright triumph”. Life has a lower than average damage output and will generally try the jade strategy that some deaths also use, but a forceful head-on battle plan counters it. Against an aggressive death, rare as they are, don’t summon minions and focus on attacking instead. That’s about the only difference as a skilled aggressive death will rely on killing your minions for the drains since they’re not going to be wanting to spend as much time using Sacrifice.

Balance vs. Life and Death

Balance’s strategy for facing Life and Death is drastically different. Death’s potential damage output, as well as their unique healing methods make weakness spam or Doom and Gloom not always the best option. Beware of spells like Vampire that they can use on your no-resist minion to get more health back, Infection a few times and keep applying steady damage early on. You should be hesitant to play doom. Many Death wizards feel much more confident playing under doom *looks at Jeremy*.

Whereas against Life, you can face two distinct strategies: offensive and jade. The offensive lifes will blade, Infallible, and hit; attempting to defeat you. Meanwhile the jade lifes will heal spam, occasionally hitting, and often wearing set ward pets in tournaments. The first are by far the harder fight; the only thing saving your “small” 40-ish resist are the two Dream Shields in the main deck. It’s crucial to not use it before they have more than two blades. Set Life Shields aren’t something many Lifes prepare for and often choke them.

Little but the speed in which you want to find a Dream Shield changes between those strategies: You still want to make sure they have plenty of Infections and at least one Doom in hand before going onto the offensive. Until then, Sandstorm, Deer Knight or Vampire any minions and control their ability to hit with crushing high-pip spells like Spinysaur using Mana Burn.

   

Ice vs. Fire

Against a Fire, you’re going to be hard-pressed to get an opening. Fire has a lot of utility spells, so you need to handle this as speedily as possible. Keep your heals to a minimum. If you carry Triage, save it for Rampage. Shields do little against Fire due to their holy stock of DoTs so don’t bother too much unless you feel an Efreet coming on. Usually you’ll have a lot of blades before they Efreet.

With that in mind, remember their health is low and they don’t normally go for too much resistance in their pets. Infallible, preferably, and blade up enough to get a solid DoT on their feet before you Winter Moon into victory. It’s always a good idea to carry Snow Sharks in your TC deck as a way of handling those last minute clutches when the Bite-Moon combo isn’t enough to shake them down.|

Balance vs. Fire

As Balance, Triage isn’t such a necessity if you can stack weaknesses properly to block Rampage. The #1 spell to watch out for isn’t what you’d expect – Burning Rampage – but instead it’s a small 2 (or 4) pip spell called “Power Link”. It has the ability to remove Weaknesses, Infections AND Shields. For only 2 pips, it can wipe what took you 3 or more rounds to do. Crazy. The only downside to this is the Fire loses whatever blades they have on, so wait till they have some blades on before casting various debuffs.

Ice vs. Storm

Against Storm, unless you’re fighting a Legendary that can critical an Insane Bolt first turn for 100 points over your max health – which has happened to me before – you should be fine. Their health is low, their spells aren’t made for fighting through shields and they don’t have access to a utility spellbook as handy as Ice does.

Blade up quickly as you have more health to spare than they do and be sure to come out swinging. If you give them time to blade and Infallible and global, you’re going to be stressing and forced to heal your pips away. But if you’re hitting fast enough they won’t be able to follow-up without dying first. Keep your healing to a minimum and only Satyr once if you have to. Stay courageous and remember their often sub-2000 health won’t last them more than a few rounds.

Balance vs. Storm

From a Balance’s point of view, matches like this often look like “shield, lore, shield, lore”. It may not sound pretty. However, especially since Storm wizards don’t often have access to efficient healing, it’s often the most effective. Don’t slack on defense, remember that Insane Bolt hits moon damage and can be stopped with a tower to avoid certain more unpleasantly electrifying moments.

 

Good luck in your Turn-Based tourneys!



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Buccaneer Champion Guide 2018

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Buccaneer Champion Guide 2018

First off, welcome back me. Yay! We’re back on this amazing website and we’re going to start off strong with giving you a new and improved Buccaneer guide. 

With the introduction of Valencia part 2, for the most part, not much has changed. Kane gear really hasn’t changed anything for classes outside of one of the Buccaneer strategies we’ll showcase here and Privateers with utilizing one boon gear item.

In this guide, I will provide you with the following information:

  1. Pros and Cons
  2. Gear Guide 
  3. Companion Guide

Wow, that’s a lot. Well if you wanna be the best, time to study up!

1. Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Tanky
  • Highest damage output in the game naturally
  • Good utility
  • Naturally has control of the match’s tempo

Cons

  • Lots of RNG “Luck” involved with chains
  • Not many powers. Value is key to success
  • Melee. Easily harassed and weak to barricade ranged strategies and specifically summons like Angry Orchard

2. Gear Guide 

Before we can discuss the gear, we need to break down the 3 different strategies Buccaneers currently have the most success with.

Bladestorm Bucc

Bladestorm Bucc explains everything in its title. This strategy revolves around obtaining Bladestorm 5 which is extremely powerful. It will increase your damage when you critical and trigger bladestorm. The goal is to maximize our chances of getting critical hits with items that give super strikes. Alongside our general buccaneer gear, it make us an unstoppable critical machine. Bladestorm also has the additional benefit when ranking 3+. It makes your bladestorm accuracy based on your weapon’s type.

So using a strength-based weapon (which is what we use to get an additional bladestorm rank) will make it so your chance of hitting is on the difference between your pirate and the target strength instead of accuracy. This allows us to finish off normally difficult to hit enemy pirates like Swashbucklers and Privateers who normally have elusive 3-4. This strategy is more effective against non-buccaneer due to this. However, it can still be used against other Buccaneers. It just requires you to always have a strength buff over them before using super strikes.

Example gear set;

 

Haywire Bucc

Haywire Bucc is pretty much your general Buccaneer build, except you don’t use summons or get extra epics. Instead, you aim to out-grind your opponent and use the Dreadnaught axe or great sword’s Haywire Strikes to finish off your opponents. Haywire Strikes do come with a lot of luck “RNG”. The payoff, however, is massive. Haywire Strikes can essentially be like a hidden assassin strike worth of damage. It can also do a crazy effect like knocking enemies back or stunning them. This can be game-changing.

A good example is in a Buccaneer mirror being the one to charge forward into the enemy pirate first. This is a huge disadvantage due to Hold the Lines 3 reducing your dodge by half! So you use haywire to deal tons of damage and knock the enemy back. This gives them two options. On the one side, they can either run and heal up which throws away any tempo of the match they had. On the other had it can force them to risk running into your Hold the Lines and then getting chained on. 

Example gear set;

 

Fall Bucc

This strategy is more or less only for more advanced/veteran players. You will have to obtain the fall champion weapon which gives the summon power “Angry Orchard”. This strategy is the most consistent but has the lowest ceiling in terms of power. Personally, this is my favourite strategy when going into ranked or fighting a strategy that I’ve never dealt with before. As consistency is key.

The strategy is simple. You use your angry orchard alongside the Kane robe team triton song to make bulky hold the line trees. This deals damage and gives you defence while you prepare your charge. The trees will eventually deal too much damage to the enemy to ignore and force them to break apart. Or they will put themselves in a spot that opens you to pass through them to avoid enemy hold the lines. The chip damage from the trees will allow you to easily kill the entire enemy team’s companions forcing you into an advantageous position in the 1v1.

Example gear set;

 

3. Companion Guide

Buccaneer is an aggressive class. Due to this, you want to utilize companions that can also be aggressive. However, depending on some matchups you may want to use more defensive companions. 

The main 3 companions you will need to climb ranked and in general, do well are;

Peter Quint

Peter Quint is the advanced starter companion you obtain. If possible try not to take him on your crew until you max level. Wait at least (until the next blue moon) until the level cap increases , so your Peter Quint will be lvl 71. That’s a tiny bit extra stats which could make all the difference!

He has Whale’s Might which is an extremely strong buff to your Pirate. It addects the majority of your team since you normally aim to use all 3 Buccaneer companions.  He also has the Brutal Charge ability. This will help him cross the map quickly alongside the rest of your team for a massive tempo turn. Finally is a super strike which will allow him to begin his critical chains and a good late game against classes that normally dodge with Elusive and Turn the Tide epic mixes like Buccaneer, Privateer and Swashbuckler.

For epics you can use the set up I provided. Alternatively, you can go for a more aggressive one with only Vengeance Strike 1 and Relentless&Bladestorm 3. It really depends on your playstyle. The talents shouldn’t be changed except you can try giving agility over the dodgy. This helps a little to decrease the chances of swashbuckler and musketeer units getting critical and epic chains. 

Goronado

Goronado is a crowns only companion. However, if you plan to invest in only 1 companion that requires real life money, Goronado is by far the one I would recommend. He is a very powerful Buccaneer that has a vicious charge to cross the map and is able to utilize the Bladestorm and Relentless 3 combos very nicely. He is a glass cannon. You want to rush him in and pretty much go 1 for 1 with a key enemy unit. After he takes down a unit or 2 he has done his job and should just try to basic attack as much as he can before he eventually will die. 

The Vengeance strike 3 Relentless 2 Bladestorm 1 build is popular for Goronado. However, I highly recommend using the Relentless and Bladestorm 3 combo. After all, putting everything into offence for Goronado will be much more beneficial in ensuring a 1 for 1 trade as if he gets reduced accuracy then is unable to do much even with his vicious charge turn he essentially is like starting 1 companion down in every other matchup other than the mirror. Bladestorm 3 also gives him the chance to hit through enemy Pirates that he is about to put down to elusive where normally he would be unable to land a hit on. For epics, you can either copy the ones shown in the picture or also go with the agility over dodgy single talent for the same reason stated for Peter Quint.

 

Nausica

Nausica is an extremely powerful unit. If you’re interested in PVP at all, picking her and Goronado up is almost required on every single class. Buccaneer can abuse Nuasica the best, however. Utilizing her high range and load of powers with True Grit 3 is key to making an unstoppable charge against the enemy team. One of the most successful strategies for stopping a Buccaneer’s huge early tempo is slowing them down and chipping them away with companions like Emmet. Hold the line units like Ratbeard. While also some epic based strategies like Repel Boarders and Overwatch rank 5.

Nausica, however, can really ruin all of these as she can be a charging musketeer to kill any units with Hold the lines as well as place herself to make a passing gap for your team to bypass it. True Grit 3 on her allows her to stun any Overwatch 5 strategies. While also being a musketeer you can place her to negate knockbacks from Repel Boarder 5 strategies and still hit enemy units. Nothing should be changed in her epics or talents besides possibly -dodgy 1 for +strong 1 for a similar reason to why you would run agile 1 over dodgy for the buccaneer units.

This team alone can win vs any strategy or matchup if executed correctly. I highly suggest investing in the 45$ for them. It will be worth it.

 

Conclusion

That’s it for this update to a champion Buccaneer gear and companion set up. When it comes to powers I highly suggest checking on my general guide for power sets up which can be found in my “So You Want To Be A Champion” series.

If you were looking for some more in-depth strategies and tips, Stay tuned as that will be in an entirely separate series of guides coming throughout the next few months! 

 

 



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