Test Realm: OPEN! and Thriller!

I am a HUGE Gleek and have been waiting since.. uhm.. the week before Christmas for a new episode/song to come out. The next episode, for those wondering, will be playing next Sunday after the Super Bowl on Fox. Woo-woot!

Now to the main reason for two posts in one day! If you're a fan of Wizard101 on Facebook (or you've seen Central at all in the past hour..) you know that the Test Realm has been opened for Celestial Housing and other small additions/changes. My files haven't finished patching/updating quite yet, but did anybody notice that the icon is different now?

Okay not a major difference, but I like it!

So I think I'll be documenting my "adventures" on Test in this post, check back later if you want, for pictures. Or I might lie and make a totally new post.. who knows! Here's a checklist for those of you like me and need a little order to everything: (in corresponding order to the Update Notes located here.)
Housing
○ Buy Island Getaway House and CHECK IT OUT!
○ Check crafting requirements for new Celestial Observatory--it's got a dueling ring!
Gardening--Not Testing
World Updates 
○ Check out Orn's Quest.
○ Laugh at Ahn Nao's name--LOL! Ooh, check! (Get it, On Now; Ahn Nao... yeah..)
Membership Benefits
...Hmm.. these should be interesting (and might cause quite a ruckus--seems like an issue similar to those Open Chat "updates")
○ Use that faster Crafting Timer to Craft something super complicated! (Like the new CL House.. Coincident? I think not!)
○ Randomly add people until I reach 120! And then delete everybody I don't know!
○ Use that 2x As Fast Refilling Energy to train my Storm Snowman! (Oh, did I mention I finally got one? AND I hatched it with Moose. I'll put a picture below with the predicted talent outcomes..)
Crowns Shop Updates
○ Mourn the passing of some nice 7-Day Mounts. (Momentary silence...)
○ Check out the Gold Price changes.
Misc. Updates
○ Make my Ice Hound cast itself!
○ Quickly find Golden Pearls/Pearls! (Woot--got to Master Artisan just in time on my Myth wiz!)
○ Buy some GH Wallpaper and Flooring for my GH themed room!

Phew.. looks like we've got some work to do.. As promised, here's that Talent spread, and I'll talk to you guys next post!

Yellow is from Taz, my Stormman. Purple? (can't tell, I'm colorblind..) is from Moose. White means that those talents were EXACTLY THE SAME according to Petnome. Maybe they've fixed this weird Talent display problem? **That second "Spell Proof" (Rare-2 Dots) should say Health Gift. Oops!

midmorningowl@gmail.com

Badge Get!

Master Artisan get! Yes, that's right, Zachary LegendForge, Legendary Conjurer, has achieved Master Artisan rank. Amazingly, the second time around these quests is really easy. I had most of the reagents stored up in my Shared Bank. And for the horrible Black Pearls requirement? You will never believe this, but somebody sold 35 Black Pearls to the Bazaar. I only bought the 4 that I needed, no need to be greedy, right?, but WOW! I'm guessing they got those from the amazing Pink Dandelions that every boss and their mother drops.

That little tidbit of information prompted me to start my own Pink Dandelion garden; I had a spare MFP laying around, thought I might as well put it to use. Hopefully they aren't super needy...

midmorningowl@gmail.com

Where's the Great Depression?

Just kidding!
(...It's in Nevada, right?...) ;P

Loong, busy week. So long and busy that I got to play Wizards.. uhm.. Well, I didn't get to play at all! Between writing a Demonstration Speech and finding the Integrated Rate Law, I didn't really have the time or energy to work on my Wizard-ing skills. Every night for the past week or so, I've fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. *sigh*

So I finally got on today for a while and have been farming at the Sea Lord for that blasted Storm Snowman. You would not believe how many extra pairs of Iceburg Waders that Fish Stick has.

The most recent Producer's Letter asked players what areas they'd like to see expanded upon, such as Barkingham Palace in Marleybone. I could really care less about Marleybone right now; I want to know what this is for:

I'm sure it's not new or anything, just something I've never crossed until tonight. It's in the Plaza of Conquests by the Gurtok Demon... just seems kinda random to me, like it's screaming "I had a point at one point in time!"

Oh well, maybe it's the sleep deprivation talking..

midmorningowl@gmail.com

Legendary Diviner!

Aaaah! The sweet, sweet smell of near completion. Got to Level 60 this morning after beating up on Glauco  and his little Warlord friend.

Not much else for me to report.. I had an Honor Band commitment on Saturday and when I got home from that I was exhausted! Still beating up on the Sea Lord in my in-between time; no Storm Snowman yet. The hatch I planned on Central was a dud--another Spinyfish! How useless is that? Quinn also got another Starfish when I hatched it with my Ice Elf. Seems like this is going to take a while.. :P

midmorningowl@gmail.com

Open Chat Announcement

This was posted on Central earlier today from Prof. Greyrose:

Accounts that are NOT currently subscribed with a credit card will no longer have 18+ open chat. Those accounts will revert to Text Chat. Open Chat is a feature for accounts currently subscribed with a valid Credit Card. We try to offer a full range of player account options (ie. Credit Cards, PayPal, Gift Certificates, Gift Cards, subscriptions, access passes, free trial, etc). Each of these comes with its own set of benefits and limitations. For instance, as a crowns player, you have lifetime access to areas purchased. As a credit card subscriber, you’re given the option to enable 18+ chat (if you’re 18+ in age of course). The fact that some accounts were able to retain their 18+ chat ability even when they were no longer subscribed, was a bug. In an effort to keep the player options equitable for all, we fixed the bug. We thank you for your understanding. Please note, your ability to chat is not gone, your account will retain the filtered chat option.

I can't say I'm all that upset about this as it doesn't really have any effect on me.

midmorningowl@gmail.com

Ice Elf

Woot! With many thanks to SorceressMiklai (of SorceressMiklai's Hexing Spells & Vexing Tales) and her New Years Resolution contest, I am now the proud owner of an Ice Elf (and what used to be 5000 crowns..)!


Her requirements to enter the contest were to post your resolutions and follow her blog (which you really should do; she's great!). Without further ado, here are the resolutions I posted:

My resolutions:
1. Become more comfortable with the more difficult instances. (For M4H purposes.)
2. Run my own blog. (Took the first step and created one! Midmorning Owl) (You're reading it! :P)
3. House all of my wizards. (This one shouldn't be too difficult to finish. Just hope those Raven$ are ready for me..)
4. "Create" the dream pet for (most if not all of) my wizards. (Have some updates on this one below.)
5. Get my last two wizards to Legendary. (RainCaster is almost there, about 20,000 more XP. Alric still hasn't started CL. *whistles*)
6. Attempt to become a serious PvPer. (I plan on attempting to tackle this this summer, when I can go a long time without being disturbed.)
7. And finally, get Grandmaster Crafter on ALL of my wizards. (Maybe one of KI's resolutions will be to up those Black Pearl drops..) (KingsIsle didn't do ANYTHING about those Black Pearl drops, but I'm getting closer on this one. I have everybody up to Adept--my Ice Wizard has been Grandmaster Artisan for a while--and my Myth wizard is finishing up this Master Artisan quest. Just 4 more Black Pearls!!)

Huge thanks to SM for hosting that!

Today, well, about an hour ago, I got my Ice Elf and have already trained it to Adult using the 5000 Crowns to purchase a couple of Mega Snack Packs (they're great for these purposes; otherwise I stick to the cheap Energy Elixirs and craft my Snacks).

Jack--as in Jack Frost.. :P

Jack threw himself (or well, I blasted him) into his training and we pulled out with two reasonably helpful talents--Ice-Giver and Ice-Proof. Sometime this weekend I'll have to get to farming so I can start hatching him with my Starfish, Milo. Milo has Snowborn (a talent that gives me a Blizzard card), Spritely, and Iceblade (May Cast). If I had the ability to hand-pick my Talents, I'd go with Ice-Giver and Spritely--maybe even pluck out that unmanifested Spell-Proof that Milo didn't get (well, he could, but I'm not going to get him to Elder).

Thank goodness it's not too expensive..

I'm also getting into the Mixing industry with my Storm wizard. As you all know, Moose has quite the array of Talents manifested. He didn't/hasn't gotten Spritely, but I don't want to level him up to Elder, so I've decided to head another route. I will be hatching to try and get the Ideal Storm Snowman for him. I know, I know--so many of these Dream Pets never become reality, but I really only want to keep Spell-Proof from Moose, so it shouldn't be to difficult--er, expensive.

I plan to hatch with a member of Central. His Storm Snowman has some AWESOME Talents; ones that I would not mind manifesting on the offspring (which I'm hoping will be a Storm-man, if you were wondering).

I'm just waiting for him to get the gold to hatch. We were going to do it earlier, but he spent a little too much on Gardening supplies. I don't mind waiting--"Good things come to those who wait." Right?

Again, if you ever have any questions or comments (or just want to chat!), send me an email at midmorningowl@gmail.com. I'll have to find a way of sticking that somewhere permanently.. Anyway--enjoy your time in the Spiral!

(I'll be trying to remember to use this as a signature from now on..)

Grandmaster Gardener and Leviathan

Busy, busy day. Started the morning off checking up on my garden of Silver Trumpet Vines (which then inspired me to go practice my trumpet.. but back to the topic!).

Grandmaster Gardener achieved! Personally, I think once these guys reach Elder I'll be done with gardening. Waaay too much work for such small reward (most of the time..).

After that I spent the rest of the morning leveling up my Storm wizard. Stormriven has NEVER been so easy--nothing faster than a Critical Storm Lord.  But quest by quest, level 58 got closer. I seem to have when exactly I'll hit it down to a science now; seeing as I always hit 58 once I'm in the Science Center.

Leviathan's ingredient is probably the weirdest yet. Worms.. Ick.. Anyway, with the help of all the guides piled up on Central, Khai wasn't nearly as hard as people make him out to be.

I love Spell Quest spell appearances. They give the best photo opportunities.

Great spell. Great quest. Great day. Hopefully your weekend is/was kind and productive.

- Owl

Level 55! And Crafted Gear!

Zachary RainCaster, my Storm wizard, hit level 55 this afternoon! On top of that, I spent last night and the entirety of this morning gathering the Golden Pearls to finish crafting his Level 55 Gear. Sooo happy I did, though I know I whined about it earlier.

Coming for you, Critical Gods of Celestia!

So the Surging Spirit Armor isn't the most attractive stuff in the world.. I'll be changing that later tonight, though. As you can see in the second picture I'm low on Crowns.. (That 8% Resist is from Moose, if you were wondering. Hopefully it makes it up to 10% once I get back to the Dancing Game.) I'm really happy that KingsIsle made December and January the Dragonblade pet months; I'll have a Thunder Colossus for just about all of my wizards soon. ;)

Ahh, this was a crazy week. Back to school, new classes, Pep Band just about EVERY night.. was nice to sit on my butt and veg out for a while. I keep meaning to say this, but if you ever want to get a hold of me you can send me a PM over on Wizard101Central, or shoot me an email at midmorningowl@gmail.com--I know I'm registered at BlogSpot with a different address, but I don't seem to check it all that often.. Oops!

- Owl

In Other News..

Today is my last day of winter break. I know a lot of people had to go back to school today already. (I just swallowed my gum as I typed that.. Yikes!) Believe it or not, I like school. I have good classes with most of my friends. However, I've been procrastinating and still haven't taken my Chem and History notes.. Oh well.

My life on Wizard101 has been rather slow over the last few days. Quinn finally reached Master Gardener yesterday morning. Silver Trumpet Vines are Da-BOMB!

As some of you may have noticed, there was a maintenance early this morning. I don't know what they changed, but the Christmas decorations are back in The Commons and Felix Navidad is waiting in the Shopping District again. I usually check my plants in the morning, and surprisingly, one of my Mature Silver Trumpet Vines rolled-back to Young. That's kind of annoying, because I don't have any of their "secret likes" so they take FOREVER to age up... *sigh* I think I'm done with Gardening once I hit GM Gardener.

My Storm conquered Selwyn earlier today, too. THAT was annoying, but not as hard as I was expecting. Unimatus (spelling?) was a lot harder than Selwyn, to be honest. Every time he had 7 Pips he'd Orthrus, and twice (not in the same duel, of course) they hit Critical. Of course, you can't heal with Unimatus, so being Storm and soloing is somewhat harder than it should be.
On the note of Criticals, what are your opinions on them? I personally don't mind when I get them, but they're sooo annoying when I get hit with them. Double standard? Maybe.. I really wouldn't mind them if they were saved for the later areas of Celestia. Several times in the Survey Camp/Grotto, I lost a duel due to untimely Criticals, for which at level 50 there are NO ways to Block.
Just you wait, monsters of Celestia, once I hit level 55, I may or may not be out to get you. Did you know that to craft Stormzilla cards you need Tempest treasure cards (for which there are no recipes..)? That'll be interesting, and may even turn me away from Crafting my Storm's gear completely.

In Pet news, Moose the Spinyfish manifested some helpful-but-not-exactly-what-I-wanted Talents.
Yesterday he got Pip O' Plenty, which is nice, sure, but it's not Spritely. And this morning he manifested Health Gift, which is.. nice, but still isn't Spritely.

There's still one more try. I'll keep at it and praaay for something that is (or is better than) Spritely. My Sea Turtle on my Life wizard manifested Mana Gift--yuck. Who needs Mana once you're out of Unicorn Way? I mean.. seriously.. Ugh.

But sometimes we have to remember that it's all just a game. One of my In-Game resolutions was to take up PvP, and I think I'll start with my Storm wizard. Odd choice, I know, but I've never been one to follow the typical pattern of things.

Until next time!
- Owl

Celestial New Years

Aaah; 2011!
Hopefully 2010 was good to you. It was for me, in numerous ways.

So I've spent my morning (and large majority of afternoon, now that I look at the clock) questing my Storm wizard through Celestia. Going rather fast; I guess having a powerful AoE spell makes all the difference. I've died my fair few times, and I admit to buying some Henchmen for some of the more annoying boss fights (but, honestly, I don't really ever use my Crowns for anything other than stitching..).

I just started the District of the Stars. Celestia sure goes fast your fifth time through.. Level 51, about a bar away from 52. I realize I said I wasn't going to start Celestia until I finished his Level 55 Craft-able gear, but I was fighting Cuthalla (Pylon in Stormriven) yesterday and I got a Spinyfish drop! Second duel--amazing luck, I know.
So between my levels I take time to drain aaaall of that Energy and train it. I'm super happy with it so far. I've only gotten it to Teen, but the very first--yes, VERY FIRST talent it manifested was Spell Proof.

 

Yes, Moose the Spinyfish. 

Can't wait to get back into the Cannon Game and see what he'll get next. (Spritely, I hope..)

~

Well, that's about all I have to talk about for now. I have to get on and try hatching that Reaver again; 4 failed hatches so far, on two different wizards (I've been passing my Satyr and Hyrda back and forth..). I think this'll be the last hatch, not that I don't want one, but it's really not worth losing all this gold for.. and I'm just a little to antsy to sit and farm Oyotomi for gold. :P

My resolutions for this year are the same as last.. Keep my grades up, meet new people, yadda yadda. Hopefully you fulfilled all of yours last year, and good luck to the ones you've set for yourself this year!

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!

I'll have a more extensive post tomorrow. For now, I've got a party with a special eBook planned. ;P

Talk you you later in 2011!
- Owl