PvP Knight Rank!

Regarde, the all-holy PvP rank!

I'm giddy with happiness! :D

Legendary Life PvP Guide, Part I

---Written for players Level 58 and above---

     Part I: Overview

     This guide will be released in several parts. This part describes the general features and idea of the Life school and the advantages and disadvantages.

     With a big chunk of our spells being heals, it’s no surprise that we are the ‘healers’ of Wizard101. This applies in PvP too.

    

     We are responsible for keeping ourselves and our teammates in the fight as long as we can. We are the doctors, nurses, and hospitals of group PvP. Usually, when there’s a Life player involved, they will be the first target and the most heavily shielded and hit, plus expect a lot of Infection spamming. I suggest dying your clothes and/or stitching them.

     Features of the Life school:

     Pros:

1.    Healing ability

2.    Great minion

3.    High accuracy (90%)

4.    High health

Cons:

1.    Minion is fragile (only 350 health)

2.    No Damage-over-Time spell

3.    Weak attacks

4.    No low-pip AOE (hit-all spell). The only one is the 8-pip Forest Lord.

     In 1v1

     Since there is no team for you to be healing, you’ve got to be offensive. Being a turtle won’t be fun, or productive. If you’ve got a decent power pip chance, chances are, you’ll be able to heal just as fast as your opponent will be able to hit.

     The main thing is to not be bogged down by shields. As a 1v1 Life wizard, your main concern is the Tower Shield, since Life shields aren’t very common in the typical PvP-er’s deck. However, you don’t have a Damage-over-Time spell (DOT).


     One thing to help overcome this would be to stay unpredictable. People expect you to Centaur at 6 pips, and they WILL shield accordingly. To avoid this, I suggest varying your attacks. Centaur one turn, Seraph the next. Keep the pressure on your opponent, not yourself.

     More on spells in Part II.

     In 2v2

     When playing your Life in 2v2, you play healer, but also the role of the buffer. Meaning: when you’re not healing, you can put blades, traps, etc on the players. Be active in helping boost your partner’s attacks.

     I only suggest taking on this secondary role in 2v2 because there are only 2 opponents, so you probably won’t be full-time healing. In 3v3 and 4v4, most of your time’s going to be spent fending off attacks, since there are more opposing players.

     Also, when choosing your partner, pick a “powerhouse” school, or a heavy-hitting school, like Fire or Storm. It makes up for your lack of attack power. And going hand-in-hand with this is: equip a wand of your partner’s school, so you can remove shields for him/her.

     Keep at least 1 attack card in your hand at all times. There will be scenarios when you need to be the one to finish the opponent off, if your partner’s hit didn’t do the job.

     In 3v3 and 4v4

     Forget attacking. You’ll be constantly assaulted with attacks, Infections, traps, and what-have-you’s. Play defensively and don’t try to spend your pips attacking, unless it’s going to decide the winner. A life wizard with 0 pips---avoid scenario at all costs.

     Worry about shielding yourself. If you die, your team’s just been thrown in a deep hole.

     Don’t get hampered by Infections. Use that handy-dandy Guiding Light spell to counteract it, or equip gear with good Outgoing Heal boost.

     If your team has 1 designated hitter, equip a wand of their school to help remove shields.

     Last Notes:
--Don’t be afraid to use treasure cards! They are available to anyone and everyone, so don’t hesitate to use them. Sometimes, it’s the matter of drawing that one Tower Shield that saves your bottom.


--As suggested by Kevin Battleblood, as a Life wizard, consider choosing a Life wand instead of another school's wand since many people do tend to carry Life dispels (Entangle). The upside: you won't have to dig through your deck for a low-pip card, since you'll have five more at your disposal to get rid of the Dispel. However, this does mean to rid Tower Shields and Weakness, you'll have to waste traps and blades.

     Part II next—Gear and Deck Setup

     Comments/arguments/criticism?

     -Jessica.

The Spirit of the Arena

The Spirit of the Arena
-----
Whew, I haven't updated my blog in forever, it seems! I guess that mountain of ever-increasing schoolwork is really boggin' me down. Plus, I've been in kind of a 'blog-writin'-block.'

'Kay, time to de-dust this blog :D 

The other day, I started PvPing on my level 13 Fire wizard. 

In one match, I was against a Journeyman Necro. He started off with a Power Pip and a regular.

At first, I was thinking: this should be easy. He wasn't shielding at all and up went a Deathblade, a treasure Spirit Blade. And up went my Death shield. He, using a Storm wand, took off the Storm shield I had on. Well I figured that was okay. I was at full health and a Kraken wouldn't kill me. He completely caught me off guard with his next move: a Triton. I'm guessing it was an enchanted one, traded before that update. It hit me for 800+ (must have been Monstrous-enchanted). I was left with little more than 100 health. Then he used a 0-pip stun (another TC). 2 turns later, he used a Wild Bolt, which hit 1000 (TC #3). And that was that.

I had the Firezilla in my hand the whole duel. Why didn't I used it, easily killing him? For the same reason I don't go around killing Lost Souls: it's not *fun*.
 
The main point of PvP is not to WIN, it's the fun of pitting yourself against others, testing your skills, the thrill of a successful hit, or a well-placed shield. It's the thrill of the chase, the kill. It's the lessons you'll learn, the great times you'll have, and the amazing people you'll meet that makes PvP so fun.

However, such things are easier said than done. Especially when our egos are involved. The draw of feeling superior and powerful drive people to do negative things. Cursing. Taunting. Using unfair advantages to ensure a win.

Now, all of this has been said before. But ask yourself: if the purpose of the Arena is to have fun and learn new things, what am I learning just by cheap one-hit-KOs? Or by degrading someone with rude words?

Nothing. 

In the long term, this would actually be adverse for your PvPing career. Because you WILL meet people who shield intelligently. People who can counter your OHKO strategy. Lessons you should've been learning when you started PvPing.   

Just like a Sorcerer who only knows Judgement, you'll be getting a heck of a wake-up call in high-ranked PvP.

And it's not just aspects of the Arena itself. You could miss out on so many other things. Friendships you could've made. Good times you could've had.

So have fun; accept your failures as the world's greatest lessons and embrace them; offer a smile to your opponent. For that is the true spirit of the Arena.

Happy (early) Holidays, everyone.
JGR   

My First Ranked Match

Sorry I haven't updated this thing in forever. School, projects, all of that stuff. But....guess who won her first ever ranked match? 

Me!

Prior to this, I've only done PvP on Practice.

The matchup ended up being me and my Myth partner (Talon) against a Myth and Death. 

So me and my Myth teammate started the match going second. Immediately, I did a *heddesk* Going second usually prolongs a match for about half an hour. Annoying, no?

However, I got the feeling the other team didn't exactly know what they were doing. The opposing Myth passed twice and the opposing Death put up Elemental shields, which were no help against us.

In four turns flat, Talon whipped out a Medusa (and lucky for us, I had a Feint) and the Death was out. 

We thought we had it won, but neither of us had Infection and the opposing Myth Polymorphed into a Treant. However, with a very well-placed dispel, I managed to rid him of all his pips when he used Dryad ;)

Eventually, he used two Satyrs, but was knocked out by Talon's Medusa and my Forest Lord. The Myth followed soon after. 

I think we got lucky, too. I drew just the right treasure cards at the right time and we didn't fizzle. 

Good fight, it has really opened my eyes to the amazing world of Ranked PvP.

Whew, sorry you had to endure that super-long narration. I'll have my deck posted later; always opened to suggestions :)

PvP: Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned

PvP: Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned
---
     I started seriously PvPing (well, as serious as one gets in Practice) recently. It started with reading every guide on Central so I'd know how wizards of certain schools attacked. Then I took my new knowlege into the Arena and tried it for myself. 
     Within the first half hour, I lost three out of four matches. All the strategies in the world couldn't help me because I didn't know how to *apply* it.
     I always used my Theurgist for matches because I figured, "Hey, everyone loves a heal right?" Wrong. I was constantly bombarded with dispels, infections, and attacks. I didn't like how all of the agro was trained on me so I switched over to my Sorcerer. 
     And then there was the problem with my deck. I used to just throw in any and every card I had, with the philosophy, "It might come in handy." But when will you need seven Hydras, or five Reshuffles? I rearranged my deck with more advice from the guides on Central. I noticed all of them trained Tower Shield and they rarely had more than 4 copies of a card in their deck. I made adjustments accordingly.
     It worked. I won more and found the cards I needed faster. And learned some important lessons along the way:
     
1. Don't talk. 
It's a sure way for people to check your school, stats, gear and that gives your opponent important info. Some people will try to provoke or purposely taunt you into chatting. Don't give in. Meanwhile, you can check *their* info. Also, responding to taunts will just make matches more unfriendly and stressful to you. We're all here to have fun right? 
    
 2. Reshuffles. 
2 Reshuffles will be enough for any duel. They will keep reshuffling each other in so you'll have an unlimited supply of cards. But be careful not to discard one of them. Only pack more if you're in team matches. 
     
3. Minions are evil.
"What? That cute little Cyclops?" Yeah. They're the evilest things ever. Especially in 1v1, it's crucial to keep your opponent's minion out of play. I usually pack a few emergency Sandstorms in treasure for these cases. Each minion reflects their school's abilities and strength. The fire minion will keep up an endless stream of Fire Elves and the Myth minions rid shields. The Life minion, the Sprite, is a little healing factory. The Helpful Mander minion from Balance is indeed helpful, donating pips, buffing and shielding you, and trapping the opponent. If you're lucky, he may even use Sandstorm or Locust Swarm. 
See? Minions are like evil in 4 pips. 

4. As for shielding....
You've got a Tower Shield in the first round. Now what? Unless you're up against Storm (Bolt Alert!) you're not going to want to cast it. The opposing team can just wand it right off. 
Now say you're up against a Balance. They've got blades around their heads and traps around your feet. They're at full pips. That is the perfect time to Tower Shield/Weakness because you can bet your jellybeans, they're gonna use Judgement next turn. 
It's all about timing against your opponent's attacks. However, some people are like mind-readers. They don't attack when you think they will and catch you off guard. A lot of PvP is mental- analyzing, keeping track of cards, math. Be careful and consider wisely before clicking your cards. 
     
5. Which wand?
Depends on your school. I used to run around with a Balance wand on my Sorcerer. Now it's either a storm or Fire wand. Why? 
Storm is a strong part of Balance's spectral attacks (Hydra, Spectral Blast) so it could be helpful shieldbreaking for you. Before enchanted-treasure-cards were un-tradeable, people would carry Storm wands also to trick opponents to think they were bolters.
I only carry the Fire wand against Fire people because of Immolate. It's a deadly 4-pip spell that does about 700 to you and 250 to themselves. A lot of Fire wizards will put up a fire shield right before a huge Immolate to reduce damage to themselves. Carrying a Fire wand lets you get get rid of those shields.  
Unless you're Life or Storm (both have no damage over time spells), you probably don't want to carry a wand of your own school. Why not? What if you've got blades and traps on them and they put a weakness or Tower shield on? Having a different-school wand lets you rid of that without destroying your own buffs in the process.

6. And lastly:
Beware of these 3 types of Arena-goers:
-Bolters: Mostly Storm people. They carry a deck packed with Wild Bolts and stuns, a deadly combo. I suggest wearing the amulet that gives you the 3 Storm shields. 
-Chain stunning teams: Usually made up of Myth/Fire wizards who stun, then Earthquake to destroy Stun Blocks, and repeat. 
-The Meanie-Beanies: Rude people who don't take a loss without a few choice words. Best solution: turn off chat bubbles.