Happy New Year!

Wishing you Health, Wealth, Happiness, Good Friends and Good Cheer in this coming year!

Love and Blessings,
Rowan

Night Hawk and Giraffe Hatch

I am still working on my project to hatch pets with spritely to give to my five "baby" toons.

Last night I had enough gold in my pocket to hatch, so I tried my epic Night Hawk Maya, with my adult Giraffe, Rudy. Maya the Night Hawk is from the Night Hawk card, and my Giraffe, Rudy, is from the Sun Palace epic bundle. Both of them got Spritely at teen. I was, of course, wishing that the new pet, Lady Mocha, would also get Spritely at teen, but she did not. Lady Mocha got Life Giver, +1% Life Damage at teen. I was also hoping that I would get a Night Hawk, and not a Giraffe. Yes, yes, Giraffes are very cute, but I wanted a sleek looking Night Hawk for Iridian, my Death wiz.

Perhaps, because my hatcher, Rowan, who is a Life wizard, influences which school I might hatch. Maya is Storm, Rudy is Life. I have only hatched several pets, but it seems that the tendancy when I hatch with others is that I get a pet that looks or acts more like the pet I have, not the other person's pet, or when I hatch with myself, I tend to get a Life pet, if I am hatching pets of two different schools and one pet is Life. I still have so much to learn.

What to Wear?

During this holiday time in the US, I've been spending a lot more time on the Real Life server.

As I have come in and out of the Spiral, especially to garden on most of my characters, I have done a little questing here and there on a few of them. I want to advance my Death wizard to at least level 25, so that I can pass her gear onto one of my lower level toons, so that I can slowly advance her up. It would be nice to eventually have a toon at each decan (10, 20, 30, etc), so I am not having to buy duplicates of the same crown gear. I also do not know enough about gear, so I might be passing up some very good gear that could be farmed from a boss, instead of having to use crowns to buy something suitable.

As I was looking through the gear on all my lower level toons, all five of them, I saw that I had a very nice level 25 hat for my storm wizard, Sestiva - Spike's Mechanical Visor - +64 Max Health, 3% Storm Accuracy, 6% Storm Damage, 8% Resist. The Accuracy and Damage are very nice for that level, I think. It is a hood, which I think is not the most flattering style, but the detailing on it is very pretty.

Ah, Spike the Crusher! He is the boss that shows up when you spill three milk bottles. You won't see him unless you do spill the milk ... three times, mind you. I went back to Big Ben with a friend so that he could get the alley cat there, and we fought Spike. So that is where that hat came from. Oh, gee. -smiles-

After reading the information from the link above on Wizard Central, I see that Spike drops many nice items. I was hoping he'd drop a pet, of course. He drops Myth Ghoul and White Rat Magician, but he didn't on that trip. I'll be going back there to try again.

There is no really great website that puts all the gear together, I don't think. The main Wizard forums have some information, as does the Wiki, but I have not found anything that has all the different gear compared all in one place. I'll keep looking online, but I don't think there is one. In a way, this makes it fun, to discover the best gear for a toon. On the other hand, searching around for gear for a toon can be exhausting. And then, when you are doing it for six of them - oh, my weary brain!

Still this is what I love about this game - there is always so much to learn and do, if one just looks around a bit.

Have a safe and happy New Year! See you around the Spiral!

Snowball Pet

It is a pet, sort of like a frozen pet rock, perhaps.

I think I want one. The googly eyes ... hmmm, not sure. Maybe I can see one before I commit. It must be an Ice pet ... might it have Spritely? Intarwebs, here I come.

Happy Holidays, All!

First Epic Sea Dragon

I'll have to check her talents when I am next ingame, but Miss Honey, my Sea Dragon from a card deck drop, did not get Spritely. I thought that all Sea Dragons got it, I see so many of them with it. Her talents are good, yes, but I was looking for Spritely. Either I will get one from a boss drop as I continue through Celestia, or I'll buy one. I like it more when a pet "comes to me", either via drop, school quest, or card deck rather than that I buy it. May be magical thinking, but it seems like if it comes to me, then it more likely will be a better pet choice.

It is also known that pet drops have better pedigrees than crowns pets, but I bought a Nightmare at Hallowe'en, and he has some lovely talents, and is the proud parent of my friend James' Nightmare hybrid (parents were my Nightmare Maximus and Jame's Inferno Beast). Jame's Nightmare Miss Jessie got Spritely by Adult, and also has the Meteor card that her Nightmare parent has. I got Oscar, an Inferno Beast, who also got Spritely, when he turned Ancient.

James' Inferno Beast Rascal is a hybrid. His parents are his Life wizard's Forest Lord and his Fire wizard's Phoenix. The Forest Lord has Spritely, I am assuming, but his Phoenix does not have Spritely. Still, little Rascal is a great pet, casting Spritely quite regularly, as well as some other useful Life talents.

Night Hawk and Phoenix

Hatching Night Hawk with Phoenix gave both James and me Night Hawks.

James Night Hawk has 1 Epic, 2 Uncommon and 7 Rare talent slots. Mine has 3 Uncommon and 7 rare. We both trained the pets up to Teen. His got a fire talent (his main school is Fire, and he owns the Phoenix (Fire) pet) and I got a storm talent (my main school is Life, and the Night Hawk parent I have is Storm). Maybe evident to others, but I'm new at hatching, so it is interesting to see that the owner of the Fire pet got a Fire spell on his new child, and the owner of the Myth pet got a Myth spell oh her new child.

We are both hoping to get Spritely from the newest baby Night Hawks. Gotta get to the Bazaar for some more Big Squash.

Jade Egg Hatched!

My Jade Egg, Lady Brady, is a Forest Lord, and has Enraged Forest Lord card. Her pedigree is 56, which is less than her parents - Forest Lord, Lord Chester, pedigree 59 and Nighthawk, Maya, pedigree 59. What I find odd is that last night Lady Brady egg had a pedigree of 57, but when she hatched today, her pedigree was 56. This is my second hatch, so maybe that sort of thing is common.

As I had said before, she has 3 Uncommon and 7 Rare talents.

I trained her tonight up to Adult, and at Adult she got Spritely! I was so excited about that, I have forgotten what her first talent was ... maybe Life Proof?

I do want to see if I can hatch another Night Hawk. I don't know if it is possible, but it seems to me that since Lady Brady is half Night Hawk, if I hatch her with Maya the Night Hawk, perhaps the egg will be a Night Hawk, as then half of one parent (Lady Brady/ Forest Lord) would be Night Hawk (the other being Forest Lord) and the other parent would be Maya, Night Hawk, which would make 3/4 of her parentage Night Hawk. Did I say that right?

I love that we have the ability to hatch pets with each other. It is just one of the many great features of this game!

My friend James wants to hatch his Phoenix Bentley with my Night Hawk Maya. We may be doing that tonight. Two flying pets, oooo! I have not looked up whether or not there is any information on this combination. I'll have to see.

Another Week ...

I cannot believe another whole week has gone by, and I have not posted. I swore I would, but then, I'll blame it on Mercury retrograde. Yes, that's it.

Yesterday I gathered up several of my pets that could get spritely who have not been trained fully (or at all even). I thought it would be nice to give my baby toons on this account a spritely pet for the holidays. Besides, someone jumped into a duel with one of my tiny toons in Firecat Alley yesterday, and I swear it was just to show off his uber gear and his spritely casting pet. He just stood there passing at every turn, I guess to keep it going long enough for his pet to cast spritely.

Well, it inspired me! -giggles- So, I spent my free day training up pets. I had some from crowns card deck drops - sea dragon, assailing dragon and vigilant dragon; I had bought a ghost dragon, and night hawk; from drops I have a jellyfish and sea turtle, and from my first hatch ever, I have an inferno beast (from my crowns nightmare and a friend's hybrid inferno beast, whose parents are forest lord and phoenix).

The only pet that got spritely was Oscar, my inferno beast. He was already Adult, with Pips and Life Trap, and so Spritely was his Ancient talent. His inferno beast parent Rascal has spritely, but his other parent Maximus, the nightmare, did not. Oscar did get Enraged Forest Lord card, which was nice. I was worried that he might not get spritely, but now he has it. Huzzah!

(I always seem to get the pet level progression stages wrong ... but it seems to me that Ancient would be older than Epic, or other words should be used. Baby, Teen, Adult, Ancient, Epic ... that is how it goes, but I still often get confused, thinking that Ancient comes AFTER Epic. Oh, well.)

Almost all of the rest of the pets are trained to Adult. I still have hopes of getting a few more spritely out of the bunch.

Have a happy journey around the Spiral!

Jade Egg

What hatches from a Jade Egg!?

I web searched Jade Egg, but found little information ... so now it is a really big surprise. There are still about 10 hours to go until I find out. I'm trying to keep busy so that I don't keep obsessing about what is in that JADE EGG!

Rowan hatched her Forest Lord with her Night Hawk (from the gift card). Both of them have spritely. Forest Lord has a pedigree of 59, Night Hawk's is also 59, and Jade Egg is only 57, with no card, so I am assuming that it is not another Forest Lord.
Jade Egg was given the name of Lady Brady (oh, why did it have to rhyme?). She has 3 Uncommon and 7 Rare slots and no card.

Still waiting ... tick, tick, tick ...

Pet Surprise

Last night, while completing the Library Book quest with Iridian, after defeating Lord Nightshade in the cave, Iridian was surprised with a dark sprite pet! This is my first dark sprite. I've tried many times on Rowan, and never got one. It will be hatching this afternoon. What a perfect pet for a little Death wizard!

Moar Decorating!

I decorated one of my houses outdoors and also my dorm room for the Fall Fest aka Hallowe'en contests. This was my fist time decorating for a holiday in Wizard101. Gathering up all the items to decorate can be quite an event in itself. First, you have to know what to look for in items, then you have to have enough gold and/or crowns to get those items, and then you have to find them - many can be found at the Bazaar, but competition can be fierce for those unique and desirable items, not to mention that you must know the proper name for the item you wish to find.

I had played Wizard101 a few months after it went live, then went off to pursue other things, coming back to visit the Spiral every once in a while. I love this game, especially housing and pets. I level so that I can have the gold to get more housing items and have and train more pets! It is what I enjoy.

I came back to the Spiral just before the Hallowe'en festival activities to play with my house and pets, and ended up getting completely drawn into the game again. Much has happened since I first played Wizard101, a lot of it having to do with more worlds and most especially the pet enhancements and the housing enhancements. I love them all!

When I heard about the house decorating contests, I wanted to give them a try, as in the past I have not been much of a joiner ... more of a dreamer, just thinking of what might be possible. I did not have a mount yet, and was constantly porting to the friend I was questing with in Krok. He urged me to get a mount, and finally parsimonious little Rowan purchased a ram mount. After that, my friend and I got the Special Mount Bug, and when we could, we started buying Wyvern Packs from the crowns shop. I have explained before that this little "Bug" was the cause behind my tree explosion, and then that led to Nightmare Fever. Many many cauldrons, bones, skulls and various other Nightmare Pack items later, I did finally get my Nightmare mount. Oh, and did I mention, oh so many new pets (and several other mounts).

My point - one of the best ways to get started in house decoration is to buy card packs from the crowns shop. No, it is not free, but if one chooses gaming as a form of entertainment, the pleasure factor for purchased crown card packs give a lot of entainment value, well, at least in my opinion.

I received one each of three very rare mounts - Nightmare, Wyvern and Bone Dragon. I also got several permanent mounts, which I spread around my six characters. I got the standard and deluxe brooms, a few horses, dragon wings, butterfly wings and even some bat wings. I have way more pets than I can even list, more than enough to keep me busy traing and hatching. I got a few nice wands, several pieces of stat gear, not to mention enough housing items to decorate at least 4 homes, not to mention all the forests I now have to maintain. -smiles-

I am hoping that there will be a holiday themed pack like the Nightmare pack, in the crown shop, as it is always fun to decorate for a new holiday.

Happy decorating, and may you have much fun as you travel around the Spiral!

Its Beginning to Look ...

... a lot like Winter Solstice around the Spiral!

I just found a great tutorial on how to create your very own "Christmas", Winter Solstice, Winter Holiday Tree. Thank you, Kevin BattleBlood at The Chillanthropologist for this excellent tutorial.

Chillanthropologist's Tree Decorating Tutorial

I am hoping to try this, if time permits.

What's In a Name?

As a Life wizard, I am often accompanied by a forest lord, aka wookie. My wookie friend was named Samson. He has spritely, but he doesn't use it very often. Well, he does it for show ... he mostly heals when I am grouped with others, but even then, he is no healing champ.

I thought that by calling him Samson, I'd bring out his fierce protective nature, thus I'd receive regular heals from him. Not so, well, at least not so far. He is almost epic ... three more runs through the maze and he will be epic. I mostly feed him food that he at least likes, but lately I have been feeding him foods that he loves - Small, Medium and Large Fish. Still no regular heals.

So, this morning I took him to the dye shop and changed his name to something a bit more ... forest lord like ... Lord Chester! We'll see if he likes it.