Celestia

I’d hoped that the Giving Tree would give, as its final gift, the seed for another Giving Tree, but – no such luck. A bunch of rare Celestia harvests, a handful of gold and Rank 7 – Expert Gardener – will have to do in its place, I guess. I’d been saving a Rank 7 seed just for this occasion, the Maelstrom Snap Dragon, which was intended to fill the Giving Tree’s empty plot. The Large Enchanted Soil required for the plant couldn’t fit in the spot where the Giving Tree had been planted, so I had to plant it across the path, which is going to be inconvenient. I planted more Baby Carrots where the tree had been, instead. ...

I SHOULD be playing the BTCNBM… oh what the heck, I should be playing in this weekend’s Rift beta event. And I have, but … past few days, I’ve been getting closer and closer to finishing Celestia. The turning point was getting Ra and the Forest Lord. With a one-two AE punch that could clear through trash in a couple rounds, the remaining quests went MUCH faster. ...

It seemed level 58 would never come to my dynamic wizarding duo in Wizard101. Slogging through grindy grind after grindy grind. Last night, The Friendly Necro kindly help me kill a bunch of Megamind-style Minions in the Science Center for one sort of thing. THAT took forever. Then the quest continued – I had to go back and kill the OTHER kind! Ugh! So I logged off. ...

We’ve been through the Stellarium, the Lunarium, the Floating Island, the Celestia Base Camp, the Grotto and half a dozen other mini-worlds in Celestia. Quests have been shoveling experience points at us, and we’re level 56 and starting to get some gear upgrades – most recently, school-specific wands that add an incredible boost to the new stat, Crit. Is Celestia everything I thought it would be? I’d have to say yes – a qualified yes. And I say qualified, because I’m not really sure what expect from expansions. ...

After spending a couple of weeks soaking on the Wizard101 Test server, KingsIsle yesterday released the underwater-themed expansion to the wider world. By the time I logged in, there were already many wizards halfway through the run from level 50 to level 60, and every world and every zone of Celestia was filled with spells and wandfire and confused, dazed looking monsters with WTF? looks on their carapaced faces. ...

This is Mithraya, the final boss in the Trial of the Spheres. I’m not certain, when Celestia actually goes live, that the Trial of the Spheres will turn out to be the ultimate dungeon in the world, but it IS the one that drops all the level 58+ legendary armor. Putting traps on Mithraya is pointless; she just removes them. I’ve heard again and again that Celestia is very difficult. I heard on Twitter that some are pronouncing the short deck dead in Celestia. That is wrong on both counts. We fought Mithraya with three wizards – a level 50 life wizard, a level 50 balance wizard, and a level 58 (and again at 60) fire wizard. There was never any doubt that we would win. Sure, the bosses in the Trials CHEAT – all Celestia bosses do. Sure, they start out with six power pips. But they don’t pump out the damage the way the bosses in Briskbreeze or the Warehouse do. ...

Before I get started, wow, thanks KingsIsle for the stuff! I was shocked to find a code in my in-box this morning for a new house (a Fairy Palace!) and some other random items. Shocked, and overjoyed :) W101 truly does have the best community team – and the best community. I’m so excited to be so close to Celestia. Some of the people on the Test Realm have already completed all the Celestia quests (aside from, perhaps, defeating the Umbra Queen, the final boss). One wizard claimed to have completed the expansion in less than 24 hours, which seems a little… over-enthusiastic. Nonetheless, wizards with their special level 58 class spells are not uncommon in the Test server. Dedicated players have almost solved the collection quest (“Lounge Lizards” – in a nod, no doubt, to the satirical bluegrass group, “The Austin Lounge Lizards”). Some players have already settled in to start farming the high level gear. ...

Updated! Links to information about the new spells at the end of the post. Whoa! Celestia’s finally on the Test server! I’ve been playing on it a few hours, just long enough to learn the mystical incantation which allows wizards to survive underwater and to start investigating the Crab Realm. The crabs, you see, have been attacking the underwater city constructed by the Marleybone explorers, who traveled across the Spiral by balloon. ...

Sure, Wizard101 is free… for certain values of free. I guess I’m just going to have to fall back on definitions, here. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to KingsIsle’s VP of Marketing, Fred Howard, today! Thrilled and a little surprised. What about yesterday’s Wizard101 post, I wondered, could have caught his attention? The gentle fun being poked at the humorously irrelevant Facebook sidebar ads? ...

Seriously, KingsIsle? You’re blatantly shilling teen actor/singer/Disney creation Selena Gomez’s new CD in the game? It’s the one that’s driving all the amphibians and crustaceans in the Spiral MAD! Talking fish can’t get enough of her intoxicating beauty! The indescribable sweetness of her music! She MUST become queen of Crab Alley! Except that her parents would freak that she, like, disappeared. The same way all the parents of every other wizard in the game (all presumably separated from their families back on Earth) don’t. ...