There’s a fresh spring aroma in the air, and it’s not just Nana baking cookies over in Karamelle! To celebrate freshly cut grass in Wizard City, flowering fields across Aero Plains, and those yummy Karamelle cookies, this year’s Spring Update is now available with tons of exciting new content!
We've introduced new items, events and event rewards, and improvements on many adventure systems. A couple of quite challenging new skeleton key bosses also await you. Need a friendly guide to explore it all? We’ve also added new social systems (with more to come) to help you connect with fellow wizards.
The 4th Arc Continues! Players who have completed Karamelle can also now pick up a new mainline quest, 'Old is New Again.' in the Arcanum. Uncover lost mysteries that set the stage for our next world release!
Highlights Include:
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SPEEDING UP AOE SPELLS
Many AOE spells have been given a facelift! We focused on the most used AOE spells to shorten their run timings. This will keep the pace of action going without the feeling of waiting too long for spells to play out before you can counter or use another spell.
This was a big change to make, so let us know what you think of each affected spell’s shortened animations as you experience the animations in combat.
List of all spells with AOE Animation Changes
- Balance: Sandstorm, Ra
- Death: Deer Knight, Scarecrow
- Fire: Meteor Strike, Fire Dragon, Rain of Fire
- Ice: Blizzard, Frost Giant
- Life: Forest Lord, Rebirth
- Myth: Humongofrog, Orthrus, Mystic Colossus
- Storm: Tempest, Storm Lord, Sirens
NEW SKELETON KEY BOSSES
Grizzleheim
King Borr is sitting on a hoard of Spellements! Find him in Savarstaad Pass to enhance your Grizzleheim Lore Spells! Unlocked with Wooden, Stone and Gold Skeleton Keys.
Karamelle
Venture deep into the Nibbleheim Mines to find the Stay-Puffed Marshfellow. Defeat him for a chance to win unique Marshmallow Wands! Unlocked with Gold Skeleton Keys.
NEW BEASTMOON EVENTS
New Beastmoon Monster Mayhem Events
We have three new Beastmoon Monster Mayhem Events with new rewards to keep you coming back for more fun. May's Mayhem event features a new Ice Elf pet. The Life Draconian pet is going to grace the progress bar for June. And we don’t want to leave out July’s Mayhem event with the Fire Ninja Pig pet. New talents are of course instilled on all these fabulous pets.
Did you know if you complete the Monster Mayhem Challenge quest and get the Moondust off the progress bar you can craft a Gold Beastmoon Idol?
Be sure to complete the progress bars to get your shot at Spellements to give your wizard an upgrade!
New Beastmoon Hunt Events
These fine new Beastmoon Hunt events have everything you need to up your hunt game. Coming up in May we have the Gold Unlock Idol for the Balance Krokomummy. If you truly want to tip the scales in your favor though, then complete the June Beastmoon Hunt progress bar and get your Gold Unlock Idol for the Balance Cyclops. July’s Beastmoon Hunt progress bar will have you ice cold with the Ice Krokomummy Gold Unlock Idol.
Be sure to finish your progress bar and collect your Spellements!
NEW BEASTFORMS
Myth Ninja Pig (and minion) - Myth Ninja Pig (and minion) - If you are forced to solo a battle this beastie may be the one to do it! This Beastform can deal the damage has a Detonate to synergize with DOT dealers. June and July’s Beastmoon Hunt events are going to feature the Myth Ninja Pig.
Life Minotaur – There is also going to be the newest healer to the mix, the Life Minotaur. This one works well with those that deal DOTs and is a wonderful counter to those who summon Minions. The Summer Scroll of Fortune will be featuring the Life Minotaur Gold Unlock Idol.
NEW EVENT REWARDS
Shiny New Gear
Going into battle half-dressed is just not the wizard way. One must dress for the occasion, so be at your best with these shiny new gear options! Available only through our Beastmoon events, as seen below, get the Wolf Warrior Set’s robe, hat, and boots from either the Beastmoon Hunt or Beastmoon Monster Mayhem events.
The Deckathlons will offer this wicked Tiered Wolf Warrior Weapon to complete your Wolf Warrior Set:
New Spellements and Spellement Recipes
We’ve added 14 new trainable spells (2 for each school) chosen from among spells that were previously only available as Treasure Cards. These new “Trainable TCs” were chosen because they are particularly useful in PvP, but we are releasing them in a way that is friendly to both our PvP and PvE communities. These new spells can be trained (at the applicable Professor) by using a Training Point, and can be upgraded from Tier 1 via the Spellwrighting system. Spellements for these spells will be made available in various ways, starting with our many popular Events (Beastmoon, Mayhem, etc.)
There are a few ways to get these new spellements. The first is by winning matches in both Beastmoon events, where you may either receive the spellements directly, or a recipe for crafting the spellements yourself! Once you have the recipe, one of the ingredients you will need (the Dust) comes exclusively from the Beastmoon Monster Mayhem event. You’ll also need some variant of the treasure card and some Beastmoon idols. The idols are available in Beastmoon events and can also be obtained by gardening the Beastmoon plants.
And yes - we definitely plan to roll out more Trainable TCs! Stay tuned!
COMBAT BALANCE IMPROVEMENTS
Damage/Resist Stat Limits
The biggest change in this update from a combat perspective will be the new Damage and Resist stat limits. Rather than continuing on a 1% bonus per 1 stat point linear progression, both Damage and Resist will now follow a stat curve – a limit function – that gives diminishing returns for higher stat values.
First, in keeping with our current design philosophy, we have created this new system such that we can customize the results differently for PvE and PvP. We recognize that these two important communities have different needs, and as designers we also have different needs and expectations of each.
The stat limits work by allowing players to continue to earn 1% per 1 stat point (a linear progression) up to a certain point (which we call the “intersection”) and then transitioning to a stat curve that approaches a limit.
| Affected Stat | PvE | PvP | | Damage Intersection | 150 | 100 | | Damage Limit | 200 | 200 | | Resist Intersection | 100 | 50 | | Resist Limit | 125 | 70 |
Example (PvE Settings)
A player with a Damage stat 150 or below will see no change to his Damage bonus; players with a Damage stat over 150 will see diminishing returns in the amount of bonus Damage he or she receives, with a practical limit of +200%.
A player with a Resist stat of 100 or below will see no change to his Resist values; players with a Resist stat over 100 will see diminishing returns in the amount of Resist he or she receives with a practical limit of 125%.
The Pierce stat is unchanged at this time. It is important to note that Pierce is applied to the Resist stat before the Resist stat is applied via the new limit formulas. Players may find some value in chasing Resist well above the intersection in order to serve as “Pierce insurance.”
We would like to extend a special thank you to “Charlie” from Final Bastion, who provided both guidance and feedback for the limit function formulas. If you would like to know more about how the limit functions work, or other mathematical analyses of W101 systems, you can find Charlie’s writing at https://finalbastion.com/.
Spell Audit
Our spell audit continues. The goal with the spell audit is to ensure that all spells (past) adhere to the same design standards, that those standards are documented, and that all future spells can adhere to the same standards. Note that the spell audit is not meant to address how useful a particular spell is. We certainly intend to revisit all spells, with player feedback, to address the overall desirability of each spell – but this is work that must wait until after the audits are complete.
The majority of the audits in this update fall on the 0 pip spells for all schools, as these spells are typically the building blocks of higher rank and latter-day spells. This is not inclusive of all audits but there are significant changes we would like to call out.
First and foremost, in order to address creeping game-balance and school disparity issues, all Blades have been standardized to +35% (a slight nerf for some schools) and all Traps have been standardized to +30% (a slight buff for some schools). Balance blades and traps, because they are universal-type damage and easily stacked, remain at +25%. Similarly, all global damage spells (aka “bubbles”) have been standardized to +25%. Treasure Cards for these spells are largely unchanged, but TCs whose values are out of alignment with these new standards will be marked No PvP.
We have also audited a large number of Maycast spells, primarily to address bugs in the trigger logic that were causing these spells to trigger far more often than intended. For more on this issue, see the Dev Notes.
Shadow Gauge feedback changes
We’ve improved the Shadow Gauge to give you a more precise look at exactly how full your Shadow Gauge is (and how close you are to the next Shadow Pip). Mouse over the gauge to see the % fill popup. Note that the % shown is the percentage of fill, NOT the % chance that your shadow pip will appear on the next turn.
Crit/Crit Block feedback changes
We’ve also improved the feedback for the new Crit/Block system. During spell selection, hover over any spell for a moment and the new feedback UI will appear under each opponent. You can see your % chance to critical, the damage multiplier IF you critical (assuming the opponent does not block) and the opponent’s chance to block your crit. If you hover over a healing spell, you will see your chance to “crit heal” on your teammates’ name plates.
PVP MATCHMAKING UPDATES
Level Opt Out
We’ve made a significant improvement to the Matchmaking system from our last update. In addition to fixing a couple of bugs that prevented players from receiving an Opt Out prompt for Tier and Rank mismatches, we have now added an Opt Out prompt for Level mismatches. If the Matchmaking Server offers you a match against an opponent in a “level band” above your wizard, you will receive an Opt Out prompt to allow you to return to the queue and continue waiting for a better match. (Level bands are groups of about 10 levels: 1-9, 10-19, 20-29, and so forth.)
As an added measure, players at Private and Corporal rank will no longer receive Opt Out prompts – they are automatically opted out of any mismatch and returned to the queue for a better match.
This change indirectly addresses exploits that some players were using to take advantage of the Matchmaking server. Nevertheless, we are continuing with efforts to directly safeguard against further exploits in order to ensure that 5th Age PvP is free of exploits and boosting. We remind players that boosting or abusing exploits can result in sanctions against you, including but not limited to rank adjustments and account bans.
MEET YOUR FELLOW WIZARDS
Friendly Players
Questing with friends is easier and more fun than questing alone! Sometimes it’s difficult to find players who will join you on an adventure. The new Friendly Player feature will help you find players to quest with and help you take that next step with your wizard.
There’s a new Social button under the Friends button in the upper right corner. Clicking it will display a list of players who are looking for other players to quest with. Their name, school, level and current main line quest are displayed. Their main line quest is highlighted if you happen to have that quest too.
Click on a friendly player to chat with them or to teleport to them.
If you would like to become a friendly player, click the Mark Your Wizard as Friendly button at the bottom of the Friendly Player Window. You won’t be displayed as a friendly player to players that you’ve ignored. When you’re a friendly player, the special Friendly Player Symbol is displayed with your name.
If you would like to exit this mode, click the Cancel Friendly Flag button at the bottom of the Friendly Player Window.
When there are any friendly players in the world, the Social button has a glow as well as an icon that will float above the player’s head. These wizards want to chat with you and may need your help, so do reach out to them if you would like to help them!
Team Up Volunteers
We’ve made it easier than ever to team up with other players by reducing the wait time involved in joining a match. Help the longest waiting players in the Team Up Kiosk by joining the Volunteer queue, passively wait for a match to be recognized, and voila, you’ve become a Team Up Volunteer!
The Team Up Kiosk has a new Volunteer for Team Up Button. Clicking it allows you to select which worlds you would like to volunteer for. Once you volunteer for a world, you can also decide to volunteer for longer instances and to volunteer to help players who are farming.
When you have a volunteer opportunity, you are prompted with the name of the instance where a team wants help. You may then accept or decline helping.
When you’re a volunteer and you help a team, after the instance is completed your health and mana are restored.
To CANCEL being a volunteer click the Team Up Kiosk Volunteer button.
Other Team Up changes- The first time you open the Kiosk, it displays teams in the highest-level world you’ve unlocked.
- Level appropriate players are favored for teams wanting help in first arc worlds. Over level players can still help teams in first arc worlds that have waited a long time.
- The Team Up options for team size and farming or questing can now be changed after a player uses Team Up. On the team up window, there’s now an options button where you can change these Team Up options. The first player that asks for help at a sigil controls the options.
HOUSING CONCEPT ART BOOKS
Just like the art book found in Pirate101, now Wizard101 gets its very own art book housing item! From the comfort of your own wizard home, you’ll now be able to view some of the great concept art of the game. The initial launch will be the Wizard City Art Book with others to come sometime after the update goes to the live realms.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS UPDATED
Since the very beginning of Wizard101’s development, we kept in mind the support for a wide range of hardware and operating systems. While we’ve kept this range quite wide with support going as far back as Windows XP for a time, we’ve recently had to update the System Requirements for the game to support the latest hardware and software.
Wizard101 64-bit
This latest support includes 64-bit programming for Wizard101. This will allow us to further develop the game’s capabilities far into the future beyond the limitations of 32-bit code.
Unfortunately, we’ve need to restrict the System Requirements to only include Windows operating systems at or newer than Windows 7 and macOS Big Sur or later. This includes of course all versions of Windows 10. It’s possible the game ‘may’ work with earlier OS versions, but we cannot provide support for them.
If you have any access issues since the update went live, please ensure your system is fully supported and updated, including drivers.
MISCELLANEOUS MISCELLANY
Castle Tours
- The New Today and Random buttons have been replaced with a Rate a Castle button. Rate a Castle will let you select the type of castle. If you select Any, then we’ll favor sending you to a castle added within 24 hours.
- Badge credit for rating a castle is now displayed in the chat window.
- You can now rate a dorm whether or not the owner is present.
Crown Shop
We’ve made some improvements to how players access and navigate the Crown Shop, including updating the list of currently available items:
- Added ability to hide or display items now based on school, level, and other such requirements.
- Added ability to dynamically change price by set variables.
- Added ability to make some items in the crown shop CSR only for testing.
- Added ability to have discounts automatically applied via either a whole number or a percent.
- Removed old pets and mounts that need rest from the rigors of adventuring.
Other Updates
- Corrected Solar Surge spell cast damage numbers display
- Players can now go through the Midnight Sun Pagoda Gauntlet properly
- Players should no longer be pulled while on Saltwater Swamp paths
- Fixed several Triton Ave quest lights not displaying correctly
- Khrysalis map should now display teleporter locations
- Pet Cactus Hopper pets no longer turn invisible when placed in a house
- ‘Ten Years Gone’ quest now shows Gwendolyn entering the building
- Updated Spell and Floaty Text with new Icons for all Beastmoon Spells
- Removed the % character from item popups for Damage and Resist
- Various animation and other graphical tweaks
- Various performance and stability improvements
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