The Arena: Prologue (Wild Bolting)

There are a lot of negative views towards the arena, but I feel that the image of human-vs-human play has been tainted unjustifiably by a magnitude of poor sports and cheap shots.  However, KingsIsle recently made some fixes to the game that has arguably increased the call for creativity over cookie-cutter techniques.  Brian,  also known as The Overachieving Necromancer, mentions two notorious "methods" for what was heavily deemed unfair:  Wild Bolting and Chain Stunning.  We'll explore the former in this post.

"Wild Bolting" is a tactic that involves attempting to "spam" (cast over and over) a primary Storm Spell (meaning it's not available as a Secondary) called Wild Bolt (pictured below).  (Ahh, attack of parenthetical explanations!)

Zap, zap!

The reason that this card is widely despised is because of the damage output (a whopping 1,000) for such a low cost (2 Pips).  Now, there's only a 10% chance of hitting, naturally.  But, with a Sniper (+20% Accuracy) enchantment applied to it, and if the user wears Arena Gear, Wild Bolt then has a 46% chance of hitting.  Add in a Pet giving Storm-Shot and/or Sharp Eye, and that player can reach the odds of 51-56%.  Before KingsIsle implemented the fix on Enchantments, players were able to distribute "Snipered" 'Bolts to others. 

It was a game-bending issue, since players with twice as much heath than a Storm player, such as Ice, Life, and Balance, had access to this potent spell.  What was the point of using a Diviner when you had more endurance with other classes, AND the same chance to hit with universal accuracy boosts?  It became totally uncalled for when someone with over 2700 hitpoints to spare was taking advantage of their health to try to "spike" (an action that causes a very sharp health loss; think about losing half of your max health in one turn) the other player.  With a possible 51-56% chance, given today's windows.

Fortunately, a past update has stopped imports and exports of enchanted cards between Wizards.  Bolts that were made right before the updates (rapid manufacturing due to anticipation of patching) turned into Storm Elves, according to Ronan Dawn and Cheryl Fire.  Thus, access and utilization of this ability was minimized to Storm Wizards, and PVP was a little more balanced.

More recently, in the early Test Realm (Celestia debut), this seemingly endless window of accuracy was shut down by this change:

Zzz or Zip or Zap or POW-BOOM!

...which more recently changed to "10 or 100 or 1000."

Now with two tiers of probabilities to go through (whether the spell Fizzles or not, and what value of damage is generated), winning by "Wild-Bolting" has been significantly reduced, and should someone claim a victory doing 1,000+ damage with one of these, it's all down to real great luck on their part, and empty of strategy (in my opinion, at least).  If someone claims to use these as "shield breakers," I'd call them out on it; Lightning Bats does a solid 245-285 damage (equivalent to a 100-damage bolt with a Critical), and is a much better use for two pips.  Consistency is more reliable than chance (Hey!  An advanced PVP concept to explore in the future!).

Thus, fear not the tales of 4-minute battles against Storm Wizards.  Losing easily in the arena is, well, not so easy anymore!

BUN: Media Items

Second Petnome Project segment just below.  It was meant to be on Ravenwood Radio Episode 27, but I was late on editing...but here it is anyway:

Alric Ravensinger drew this AWESOME doodle for me:

...which I colored:

I may have to ask him to do a banner-sized one for me...and for Petnome...maybe bribe him with some Mega Snacks....then request for glossies....

Then here's my personally rejected Petnome Project logo...Alpha stage...but it looks psychadelic!  

My chessboard at my Watchtower Hall, completed!  Life-based pets vs. Myth-based pets.

Myth:

Pawns - Silverback Wildclaw - Too easy and common to find when farming Coven as much as I did

Rooks - Guardian Dragon - "Tower" Shields; natural role here

Knights - Minotaur - Hooves, can't get any closer than that

Bishops - White Rat Magician - Noble and dignified

Queen - Myth Sprite - Only female-depicted Myth pet I could find/remember at the time

King - Red Gobbler - Because he "can't wait to be King"

Life:

Pawns - Imp - Found very cheap from Pet Pavilion's Pet Store

Rooks - Defender Pig - Tower "defense"...best protection you'll ever get

Knights - Unicorn - Self-explanatory

Bishops - Life Banshee - I had two, so...

Queen - Pixie Queen - That should be self-explanatory too...

King - Green Cat Thug - He's buffer than the Treant...

Yep, fun stuff here!  See you in the Spiral!

Grandmaster Crafter Preparation on Live Realm

Good news!  The latest Test Realm update reduced the difficulty to advance to Grandmaster Crafter!  Check out this table I've made showing how you can prepare in the Live Realm before Celestia is released (click to enlarge):

Of course, these numbers are for the dedicated Artisans who want to obtain that badge within the first hour of Celestia's Live release.  I'd rather farm mobs and nodes for most of those Pearls and Stones...

In case you didn't know, you can transfer reagents from one Wizard to another in this update.  So, if you've been doing lifelong collecting sprees on your main or alternates, you're well on your way to the next badge.  Good luck, happy hunting!

Test Realm: Understanding Critical Hits and Blocks

As promised, I managed to get a good amount of research on Critical Hits and Blocks.  A few nights ago, Alric Ravensinger and I hopped into a few Practice PVP, each donning just the Spartan helmet that is given to all Wizards who listen to Dueling Diego's new lecture. 

Way too much pride?  Nah.

The Vicious Helmet gives the wearer +200 Max HP, and +15 Critical Hit Rating.   

What exactly is "Critical Hit Rating?"  How does having a larger or smaller amount affect my battles?

Our very own Sierra Starsong had this to pitch in: 

I've done a little study on Criticals with a wand (fixed damage amount). It looks like the Crit# is your % chance of getting a Critical hit with that spell type, your Crit# gets reduced by the target's Block# for a net chance. (I'm not sure if a Blocked Critical does regular damage or if it gets blocked completely.)

Yes, a Critical Hit does double damage.

Healing spells can get Criticals as well, healing twice as much, if you've got a Crit# in the appropriate school (or a universal one).

Thanks, Sierra!  Basically, having even one point in Critical Hit Rating (CHR) will give you an opportunity, albeit a small one, to double the value of your successfully casted spell.  If I "crit" on a 100-damage wand strike without any damage boost in that school, I will do 200 damage (on a non-resisting opponent) whether I have 5 CHR or 120 CHR.

However, if the opponent has some value in Block, it doesn't decrease my chance of doing twice my damage.  Instead, it is a passive bonus that directly affects the Wizard with the Block attribute; they have a chance on the same scale as CHR to completely nullify (that means cancel, void, ignore, etc.) the extra damage from Critical Hit.  So, if my wand attack "crits", and becomes Blocked, it means I'll still do 100 damage as normal, but my "crit" won't be counted at all.

Similarly, if I cast a Pixie--and "crit"--without any Incoming % or Outgoing % or heal-related charms, I will receive up to 800 recovered health, whether I have 5 CHR or 120 CHR.  "Up to" considers that there may be a Doom and Gloom and/or Infection in play.

Thanks for reading!

Beyond the Spiral: Extra Life (Ravenwood Radio)

Click the above picture to root for Stephen Spiritcaller and Leesha Darkheart as they tread through 3 hours of broadcasted gaming in the Spiral.  Start time is at 12 PM Pacific, 2 PM Central, and 3 PM Eastern Time!  See you all there, and mind the chatroom rules!  Banhammy's polished up nice and "good" in honor of the children's hopitals, so be good, or your wizard may get sent to some shabby medical center....say...St. Mungo's?  Peace!