nicos-w101-liveblog

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

🚨🚨IT'S PRIDE101 TIME!!!!!🚨🚨

year SIX!!!! give it up for year six!!!!! of pride101. where i randomly select FOUR winners over the month to get their wizard/pirate drawn for free!!!

PRIZE:

a winner will receive one (1) drawing of their wizard or pirate from the hit mmos wizard101 and pirate101 with your pride flags of choice

HOW TO ENTER:

REBLOG this post (likes do not count)

you do not have to be following me, but i appreciate it ;)

i will be selecting a winner once a week at the beginning of the week (sundays) using a random number generator, which means there will be a total of four winners

the winner will be messaged privately, so make sure your dms are open! if not and/or i get no reply after 48 hours, then ill select a new winner

if you've been selected but you've decided you no longer want the prize, please lmk so i can select a different winner

when i dm you, ill ask for a reference photo of your character and which pride flags you'd like featured. when sending pride flags, PLEASE send an actual image of the flag, as flags change over time with different meanings or if it's a more niche identity that i might have trouble identifying the correct one you want. there's no limit to how many flags you can have

all identities are welcome except those who inherently are harmful to others and/or nonconsensual (exa. MAPs). if you ask for that not only will you lose your prize but i will fucking block you!!!!!

remember to check out the previous years masterposts! and this years pride101 post of my characters :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! THEY CANNOT STOP US FROM OUR QUEER JOY!!!!

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

Saw that one post and this wouldnt leave my brain JKFDHFKJHSDJK

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

If my idea for my Vikings and Sagas class final presentation gets approved, get ready for me to speedrun my way to Grizzleheim and Wintertusk.

I'm very much hoping to do a comparison of its accuracy to actual Viking Scandinavia and Nordic Mythology. I could, of course, watch someone's playthrough to get the quest details and in-depth lore, but consider this my motivation to get back into playing (so my live reaction isn't spoiled by videos)!

I may hop onto my higher level wizard to get a look at names and geography, though. Nico will be my lore investigation, lol

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

Turns out I'm a big fat liar-

My hyperfixation has somewhat faded for wiz, in full honesty. It'll be back, I know for a fact, but I'm not sure when. So, uh, until then, I'll probably still be reblogging from people and interacting in the community, just not actually gaming.

Sorry to those who came for the reactions. They'll be back eventually, but for now it's kind of on hiatus, I guess.

My finals are over, and I'm going home for the holiday break! Which means I'll finally have some time to do some gaming!! No set schedule, obviously (this is still a for-fun thing, not a work thing), but there'll be some liveblogging coming in the next few weeks!

First is Colossus Boulevard, by the way!

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

so i haven’t beaten wiz yet and but i recently found out that grandmother raven is the narrator of the game and know that in the third arc you do something to make her dislike you, so like… does she get snarky in the narration after that? do you pick something up and she’s like “the useless, annoying, good-for-nothing wizard picks up the letter but i doubt they can even read it because they’re just that stupid”

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

w101 character building asks

1. what does your character dream about after a good day?

2. what does your character dream about after a bad day?

3. what exhausts your character the most?

4. what is one secret your character will never reveal?

5. what’s a weird quirk of your character?

6. does your character have test anxiety?

7. what is your character’s favorite thing to do on summer break?

8. what makes your character focus?

9. does your character have a pet?

10. what is your character’s favorite meal?

11. does your character enjoy drinking/smoking?

12. what kind of person can your character connect with?

13. what is your character’s favorite story?

14. is it hard for your character to fall asleep?

15. does your character have freckles? where?

16. does your character have any birthmarks? where?

17. would your character ever get a tattoo?

18. does your character enjoy parties?

19. would your character ever hook up for a one night stand?

20. does your character have any irrational fears?

21. is your character more masculine or feminine?

22. is your character a lover or a fighter?

23. what is your character’s best school subject?

24. what is your character’s worst school subject?

25. does your character like spicy food?

26. in a game of truth or dare, what would your character pick?

27. does your character ever spread rumors or gossip?

28. does your character eat any weird food combinations?

29. would your character ever drink pickle juice?

30. does your character know how to play chess?

31. does your character enjoy reading? why or why not?

32. if your character got to choose one thing to eat forever, what would it be?

33. when your character gets lost, how do they react?

34. would your character prefer to travel alone or with others?

35. would your character travel by land, sea, or air?

36. is your character afraid of the sea?

37. is your character religious?

38. what’s the dumbest thing your character has ever done?

39. if your character got assigned a school based on appearance, what would it be?

40. does your character like where they came from?

41. does your character have a good relationship with their parents?

42. does your character have any allergies?

43. what is one thing that your character cannot do that many others can?

44. when running late, what does your character do?

45. how often does your character cry?

46. has your character ever broken laws? if so, what?

47. does your character like surprises?

48. is your character faster physically or mentally?

49. if your character could be any creature, what would it be and why?

50. finally, if your character could be anywhere doing anything right now, where are they and what are they doing?

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

My finals are over, and I'm going home for the holiday break! Which means I'll finally have some time to do some gaming!! No set schedule, obviously (this is still a for-fun thing, not a work thing), but there'll be some liveblogging coming in the next few weeks!

First is Colossus Boulevard, by the way!

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

"oh i really love xyz character-" really? outside the context of shipping?

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

Looking through retired quests...

...So THAT'S WHY I remember Duncan so differently. Determined kid with a bit of an ego, but believing in his professor's integrity no matter what.

I feel so bad for the Necromancer kids. Without a classroom or a teacher, so many of them probably couldn't just forge with independent study, and it's not like Ravenwood could find a new teacher in the middle of the undead apocalyse.

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

It's really hard to put into words but...

I have this idea that when a wizard summons a spell for the first time (i.e. Dark Fairy), it's the same one each time it's summoned. But it's unique to each wizard. Every spell has a different form of sentience and personality based on the wizard that summoned them.

Some are summoned solely for the idea of being in battle, and are thus mindless soldiers. Some are summoned with the intention to learn, and are thus excited to learn alongside their wizard and teach what they know. Some are summoned with the idea of friendship, and they become more of a companion than simply a spell.

They are wholly their own. Sure, it's the wizard's magic that allows them to exist in the first place, but once they are summoned for the first time, they think and feel for themselves. They are linked to the mana, not the mind.

Does that make any sense?

im bored reblog this post with a w101/p101 character headcanon

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

wizard101 headcanons

Scars. pt 1

The Young Wizard carries many. Some visible- some faded- some never meant to be seen. Silvery lines etched into their skin, leaving their mark, leaving a reminder.

Storm Wizard scars are like lightning across the dark sky. Fractals rippling across their skin from bursts of magic and mana licking out against their skin from their wand. Many a Storm Wizard's scars are from cause of their own magic- the energy and excitement from commanding such unwieldy chaos reflects upon their body.

Fire Wizard skin is burned and marred like fresh flesh on a fire. Darkened and raw- hands healed over again and again from the heat of their mana. Now discoloured and delicate skin stretched across what was once young hands. The pain from the first flicker of fire felt as the same for the latest. And will be for the last.

An Ice Wizard's scars aren't as visible as the rest- but they are felt all the same. A coldness felt from their chest, tracing along veins and through stiff muscle. Felt through the skin as fingers trail along unseen ridges and dips, following along carved, freezing lines that splay out from the the centre. Their magic leaving much the same mark.

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

W101's Advanced Combat 103: Clears, Gambits, and School Synergy

Over the past few years, Wizard101 has been trying to add more variety to gameplay by introducing Advanced Combat, which focuses less on raw damage and more on hanging effects, the additional ‘things’ that can be present in battle.

In my last post on this series I introduced the theory of School Identity and the Roshambo wheel, using metaphor and the conceptual identities and themes of the schools to explain the relationships between them. This post will demonstrate how the Roshambo is used in combat, using many spell examples.

Clears

Clears allow you to remove hanging effects that benefit your opponent to get something that benefits yourself. Let's look at two examples of Ice school Clears.

This example Clear is from the Arc 2 prequest's tutorial. It can clear a Charm because Charms are representative of Storm, and Ice freezes Storm.

And this B Path Evil Snowman is able to clear Curses because Curses are representative of Death, and Ice survives Death.

Sometimes, you'll have spells that have their Clear condition after doing their damage, rather than before, such as in this example below. As a reminder, Storm can clear DoTs because DoTs are representative of Fire, and Storm douses Fire.

Gambits

Gambits are the opposite of Clears. They let you sacrifice something that benefits yourself for another thing that benefits yourself. This can be a stronger hanging effect, higher damage, or pips.

Wait, that last example seems odd. It's a Death spell, but instead of gambiting or casting a Curse (which is its representative hanging effect), it's gambiting Charms (which represents Storm) and recieving Wards (which represents Ice). What's going on here?

School Synergy

Schools are not only able to counter one another, but synergize with one another, using the hanging effects of other schools in their own spells. Specifically, schools can synergize with the other schools adjacent to them.

Death is in between Ice and Storm, and so it can synergize with those two schools. Death spells can gambit or produce curses, wards, or charms. Weaknesses, Shields, or Blades.

While the official concept of School Synergy and using it with the roshambo system is relatively new, there are some examples of older spells that display Synergy as well.

These are a pair of old Fire school spells, and they fully display all the synergies Fire has within Advanced Combat. Damage over Times (Fire itself) and Heal over Times (Life) in Link, and Jinxes (Myth) in Fuel.

In my eyes, Synergy isn't just a brand new system meant to make the schools more interconnected and able to interact with each other, but expanding upon older mechanics and lore to make it more thorough.

What About Balance?

As mentioned near the end of the last post, Balance sits within the School wheel, not countering and not countered by anything. Additionally, because Balance is in the center, it's adjacent to all the schools, and able to synergize with everything.

Thus, instead of Clearing or Gambiting anything, some B-Path Balance spells have a unique mechanic called Echo. If your opponent has a certain hanging effect active, your spell will give you the same kind of hanging effect without removing theirs.

Other Key Terms

There are some spells that don't include Gambits, Clears, or Echoes, but still lean into the roshambo and the concepts of Synergy, or just provide additional utility. As an example, often times DoTs HoTs and Bombs won't be officially gambited, but some spells will trigger a secondary effect of some kind if a DoT or Bomb is on your target, or if an HoT is on you. Most can be understood just by reading the symbols, but some use additional terms that I haven't yet covered and so I'll cover them here.

Detonate: Deal all of the damage in a single DoT or bomb

Activate: Deal all of the healing in a single HoT. A HoT detonate, essentially.

Swap: Trade one of your hanging effects with one of your opponent's hanging effects of the same time. (E.G., swap 1 of your charms with your target's charms) (Exercise for the reader: find the spell that has this effect.)

Push: Put one of your hanging effects onto your target.

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

I'm seeing height headcanons for OCs going around wizblr rn so thought I'd join in.

Nico is short af. Tiny lil guy. He wears boots with heels that add some height, but they are stuck forever at 5'2''. They were 4'11'' when they first arrived in the spiral, got to 5'2'' with a magic-induced growth spurt, and stopped growing. Small.

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

So I could go on an entire rant about multilingualism in the Spiral for hours on end, but for now I really like the idea of multilingual wizards using the words that sound best to them in spells that require verbal components (if they do in combat).

Spanish is my L2, and a small example of what I mean is the word "miel," which is "honey" in English. When I think of honey, the first word that comes up is usually miel, and I end up having to correct it if I plan to say it out loud.

For card names spoken as verbal components, it could look like names being translated the best they can be in someone's native tongue or L2, L3, etc. Serpiente de tormenta, (storm snake), murciélago de sangre (bloodbat), unicornio (unicorn), just to name a few examples (in my best Spanish).

There are concepts that don't seem to translate as well, for example the spell "Treant." I cannot seem to find if there is a name for it in Spanish, so the best I can come up with for it is "Árbolombre" (sort of a mix between árbol and hombre (tree & man respectively)).

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

Please keep talking. You are teaching me so much

W101's Advanced Combat 102: School Identity and The Roshambo

Over the past few years, Wizard101 has been trying to add more variety to gameplay by introducing Advanced Combat, which focuses less on raw damage and more on hanging effects, the additional ‘things’ that can be present in battle.

In a previous post, I went over each hanging effect and their symbol, as an intro to reading spells. This post will dive further into the inner workings of Advanced Combat's logic. It's somewhat of a tangent from the topic of learning how to read the spells, but I believe it's a necessary one. Simply reading spells is one thing; understanding why they work the way they do is another, and far more important in my opinion.

School Identity

In Advanced Combat, each school is represented by a hanging effect, except for Balance, because Balance is All Things. As such, when we talk about schools interacting with other schools (via synergy or countering), what's really happening is that the spells are interacting with the hanging effects associated with other schools.

This graphic is provided in-game by the prequest, and it is a higher-res and less comprehensive version of the post I made earlier.

Each school's representative hanging effect is based partly on its previous identities, the ways each school worked before.

Fire's hanging effect is Damage over Times, as it's always been since the game first came out with its iconic DoT spells like Fire Elf, Heck Hound, Fire Dragon, and Rain of Fire.

Ice's hanging effect is Positive Wards, derived from Ice always being characterized as the tank school and getting more defensive utility than any other school (Tower Shield, Legion Shield, Frozen Armor).

Storm's hanging effect is Positive Charms, easily remembered by the most infamous wizard101 player archetype Wolf Stormblade.

Life's hanging effect is Heal over Times, because Life has always been the healer school. Think back to the 1-pip Sprite spell.

Myth's hanging effect is Negative Wards, and it's certainly the most changed from how it used to play, partly because Myth has had So many different gimmicks over the years that aren't hanging effects.

Death's hanging effect is Negative Charms, since its old-school primary mechanic of draining HP isn't a hanging effect. An easy way to remember Death as the Weakness school is to remember its utility spells of Plague, Virulent Plague, Infection, and Bad Juju.

Roshambo

Rather than having pairs of schools that are both super-effective against each other (Fire/Ice, Storm/Myth, Life/Death), each of the two Triads (i.e., Element and Spirit) has a rock-paper-scissors dynamic going on now. This system was first introduced in Beastmoon, and introduces an updated version of the School Wheel:

However, while this graphic is good enough for Beastmoon, I believe it can't be used to explain Advanced Combat's system unless you're already familiar with Roshambo. So I will be making my own graphics to introduce and break down the Advanced Combat Roshambos.

First, we have the Elemental Triad of Fire, Ice, and Storm.

Storm douses Fire, and Storm's immediate and hard-hitting attacks overpower Fire's slower overtime method.

Fire melts Ice, and one turn of a DoT activating can remove the shields Ice puts up and leave the Ice user vulnerable to the remainder of the DoT's damage.

Ice freezes Storm, and a Shield can block most of the damage from an otherwise buffed-up Storm hit.

Then we have the Spirit triad.

Death ends Life, and Death's many Negative Charms can hinder Life's ability to heal or attack.

Life surpasses Myth, and Life is able to heal back the extra damage that Myth would do with its traps.

Myth conquers Death, and Myth's traps can make up the lost damage that Death's weaknesses give.

And when we put the two triads together, we see relationships between Element and Spirit schools form:

Death withers Storm, and Death's Negative Charms overpower Storm's Positive Charms.

Storm washes away Life, and Storm's immediate damage can knock out a target before they can try to heal it back.

Life survives Fire, and Life is able to heal back the gradual damage that Fire gives.

Fire burns Myth (think the Library of Alexandria), and Fire's overtimes can whittle away at Myth's traps the same way they plow through Ice's shields.

Myth shatters Ice, and Myth's infamous double-hits of old and trap spam of new can overpower Ice's defenses. (Think also of the old spell Shatter, which can remove multiple shields from a person)

Ice survives Death (think of prehistoric animals being preserved in glaciers), and Ice's defenses can keep Death from draining enough health to keep themselves alive.

Each school is able to counter two other schools, but can also be countered by two other schools. Except of course for Balance, which sits in the center of the wheel and has no arrows pointing to it. It doesn't directly counter any one school, but can't be fully countered by any one school.

A Note About Astrals

Auras (both positive and negative) aren't as immediately representative of any of the main seven schools. However, they are closer to some schools than others.

Star is situated inside the triad of Storm, Life, and Death. Following this, the developers have begun to add Auras as supplementary parts of Life and Death's identities, with Life getting Positive and Death getting Negative.

We can see this new association with Spellweaving. If you weave into Life or Death, your exclusive weaving buff is an Aura that increases the damage of your main school and Life/Death damage.

[nicos-w101-liveblog]

I think I'm in love with you /platonic

W101's Advanced Combat 101: Hanging Effects, Symbols, & How to Read Them

Over the past few years, Wizard101 has been trying to add more variety to gameplay by introducing Advanced Combat, which focuses less on raw damage and more on hanging effects, the additional 'things' that can be present in battle. Because the cards have limited space on them, the developers have decided to use symbols to represent each hanging effect rather than type the entire word out.

This post should serve as a guide and dictionary to these hanging effects and their symbols. Later posts in this series will dive further into the nuances of Advanced Combat.

Charms boost the power of outgoing spells. Charms are colloquially just called Blades (since most of time when you see a Charm it WILL be a Blade), but can also include spears, accuracy boosts like Precision or Lightning Strike, and heal boosts like Guiding Light

Blades are a specific kind of Positive Charm that boost your outgoing damage.

Negative Charms, also called Curses (not to be confused with the spell Curse, which is a Jinx), weaken the power of outgoing spells. They're often just called Weaknesses, but also include mantles (which lower accuracy) and infections (which lower outgoing heal).

Weaknesses are a specific kind of Negative Charm that weaken your outgoing damage.

All Charms (positive and negative) appear around the Wizard's head.

Wards reduce the power of incoming damage. These include both Shields which reduce damage by a percentage and Absorbs which nullify a set amount of damage.

Absorbs. Wards that nullify a set amount of damage taken. Rather rare.

Negative Wards, also called Jinxes, increase the power of incoming damage. Like 99% of the time, they're just Traps or Prisms. There used to be spells that Jinxes that weren't either Trap or Prism, but these spells have either changed (like Lord of Night) or only exist as retired Treasure Cards (e.g., Lifebane)

Traps increase the amount of damage you take from an incoming spell.

All Wards (positive and negative) appear around the Wizard's legs.

Heal over Times (often abbreviated to HoTs) heal you over a series of rounds (typically 3 to 5, depending on the spell)

Damage over Times (often abbreciated to DoTs) damage you over a series of rounds (3 to 6 rounds, depending on the spell) Some spells are purely DoT while others have a main hit and DoT component (B Path Fire Dragon is the former, while A Path Fire Dragon is the latter).

Bombs are a variant of DoT that don't do their damage incrementally, but rather go off all at once after a few rounds. A handful of B-Path Myth spells use Bombs, but the only A-Path spell to use them is Blast Off. They're generally not considered good in regular PvE contexts.

All OverTimes appear at the Wizard's feet.

Auras give you a buff in one or two of your stats for a few rounds. Some Auras such as Frenzy and the Aztecan Auras do include a minor drawback.

Negative Auras give you a debuff in one or two of your stats for a few rounds. The most well known Negative Aura is likely Impede, cast by a handful of cheating bosses, but now there are some Negative Auras that wizards can train and cast too

All Auras (positive and negative) appear as a ring or hemisphere of light around the Wizard.

Some Hanging effects can be Chromatic, meaning that they either take on your own school or your opponent's school. They're always chromatic in a way that's meant to help the caster. Chromatic Blades, Spears, Traps, and DoTs will always take on your school (so that the DoT can be boosted by your school's damage, and the Blades/Spears/Traps can boost the next spells you cast). Chromatic Shields & Weaknesses will always take on your opponent's school (so that you can hinder their damage).

I'll finish this post off by showing a few spells and breaking down their symbols, as examples.