Really great points in this video! You mentioned degrading school identity, which is something I haven't really touched on, but is absolutely an issue I think we all need to be talking about more. And honestly, I'd be so excited to get a side world, even if it was short, when we're waiting on the next world to come out. I think that would make so many players of all intensity levels want to come back and play. Thanks for the kind words and shout out!
I feel like with all of the Advanced Combat, raiding, challenge mode, and spellement stuff they're alienating returning players. (which IMO is the majority of the playerbase) I honestly can't remember the last time I played this game for more than 3-4 months straight, it's been a really long time. It's wait, wait some more, wait, new update comes out with content that me and my friends want to play, either play it or don't and do it later, repeat. It's unfortunate, because the core game is amazing, but lately I feel like they've been neglecting what made it so great in the first place. They're toying with the nostalgia that brings people back to the game in the first place. Don't even get me started on class identity, they BUTCHERED that with systems and itemization in 2 years or less, absolutely insane.
I feel this. I played back in like 2009. Loved the game for a few months. Then through the years I had been on and off. I stopped for a while, then when I came back it was too different farming for keys and spellements and pins. I couldn't get into it again.
@@adelg8 Exactly the same for me, it's just not worth the effort to learn it all, especially when the endgame for PvE-only players is so limited/minimal. It's interesting too because things like Beastmoon and Deckathalon don't even really include your maxed progressed character, there is progression, but it's exclusive to the gamemode and not related to your actual character in any tangible way. Super strange imo.
I love Wizard101, have a tattoo and everything. Used to absolutely love PvP and play wiz every single day just to get Warlord on every character, muck around in 4v4 practice, etc. It was the main thing I did. I stopped around the time turn-based came out. Now I'm just PvE only, and play maybe twice a year just to level up, get the best gear, and help people in team up for the remaining membership time. I was hoping that the summer update might have something big for casual PvE players, but seems like that's not the case. I do hope we get something that's worthy of playing and buying memberships more regularly. Even just low-level PvP (5, 10, 30 even) would be a good return, it was fun, worked well for entry-level players who were looking to try out something that wasn't PvE, people were rarely toxic at that level range because at the end of the day, you could easily just make a new character and try again if you were doing particularly bad. Also on school identity, one thing I've noticed leveling my 7 characters through Karamelle, Novus and Wallaru is that my Ice tends to finish solo boss fights first, by far. That is not something that should be happening. With life wizards, there's not much of a point in going for a healing build, because everyone's HP is so high that even with 200%+ outgoing, you simply aren't healing enough to make a difference. Kinda sad to see because I'm a really big fan of making specific setups for my wizards, but they simply aren't worth using.
This may be a bit of a rant but oh well. I was a long time player who recently came back to the game thanks to the free membership week. I played really heavily from 2009 to about 2013 or 2014 (not really a PVPer, mostly PVE). First, the adversarial relationship between PVE vs PVP players has pretty much always been there. From my perspective of the time (so take it with a grain of salt, it might be a little outdated), it was mainly because they refused to make a separated meta between PVP and PVE from the start, which ultimately wound up screwing everyone over any time any balancing needed to happen. This made the relationship between PVP and PVE players inherently a zero-sum competition, since changes in favor of one usually wound up making the other worse. The only time I can remember everyone being universally happy (or at least unperturbed) with a spell change was the Bad Juju separation between PVP and PVE, which apparently KI never wants to do again because it was "too much work"? Looking at it now, I think we're all just seeing the logical end to the game design philosophy KI has been trying to juggle for years. I wasn't around for a lot of the new PVP changes and I'm not familiar with all of them, but knowing the historical animosity it feels like it's their last ditch effort to balance meta and keep everyone happy without fully separating PVE and PVP out entirely. New systems layered on top, but few fundamental changes to the "roots" (e.g. the cards). But then, by dumping a bunch of new systems on top of the game, you've fundamentally changed the game people had fun playing in the first place. They've kind of backed themselves into a corner with this one, because it seems they can't make fundamental changes to one without mucking around with the other. I always felt the devs leaned toward catering to PVP players moreso than PVE, which makes some degree of sense. They're the people who are going to spend the most time and money on the game at the end of the day. But they seem to have lost sight of one crucial thing, which you hit perfectly in your video: ALL players are PVE players. If there is no PVE content to draw people in/keep them interested, then no one is going to stick around for the endgame content. PVE MUST be fun and rewarding. And yeah, it was pretty dishearteneing to come back a few weeks ago and realize just how much content I was going to be locked out of. I don't have hundreds of hours to spend anymore on grinding for the perfect gear, doing raids, pet training, etc. Stuff like the raids, key bosses, etc. all feel super out of reach for your average casual/semi-casual player. I used to love grinding for cool looking gear. Like I can't tell you how many hours I spent running the Mooshu bosses to get the katana wands. I pulled multiple all-nighters to gather reagents to craft Watchtower Hall. Chances are, back in the '09 - '13 era, if you saw someone running around with something cool, then you could get it yourself with a little effort. Now it feels like every time I see something cool it's either a skeleton key boss (I am NOT wasting whatever is left of my short life grinding out gold keys) or it's a pack/gift card item. It's kind of like, "What's even the point anymore if I can't get half the cool stuff I see without an ungodly amount of resources, effort, or money?" Don't even get me started on fishing and the other side activities. I've been trying to fish up a celestial wolf mount for two weeks now. Who decided to lock cool drops behind something that isn't even the core gameplay. I would have NO problem farming a boss (regular boss, NOT key/gauntlet/one time housing instance boss), but half the time I log on I'm not even playing the card game. I'm fishing, or gardening, or pet training, which sucks because what's the point of playing Wizard101 if I'm spending all my time FISHING and playing minigames, not casting cool spells and saving the world? Anyway, sorry for the rant. I'm having fun with the game now that I'm back when I'm sticking to questing and the like, but it's definitely got a much different vibe than it used to. Idk what happened at KI but I do believe they might have lost the plot in some respects
As an old player who recently came back, Roshambo and this Advanced Combat stuff to me seems completely unnecessary and makes the game too complicated.
I agree. remove roshambo, and remove spellments, and dont lock content behind pay to win raids, and dont lock spells that you need in pvp behind things like beastmoon, which most pvp players dont want to play at all. The barrier to entry for pvp is just so high now, compared to when 130 was max, everyone had every card and gear they needed through easy methods, and boom u were ready
Played W101 on and off since 2009. Was a literally kid at the beginning, but was a lower-end hardcore player until polaris, had the best gear and stats (no 2.0 pet but i very much enjoyed mc pets more). IIRC that’s when skeleton keys first dropped, i didn’t do them for various reasons. Over time i came back to wiz for a few months as a middle-ground player, with a majority of time spent farming weeks on end for lore spells from OG Loremaster. Stopped playing for a good bit after her nerf. But for me, every update always had something more catered to p2w/hardcore players, and it doesn’t seem like an immediate switch as you portrayed (imo). From Bundles, op gear pack sets, gauntlets etc. to me, things like raids is just an extension to that type of content.
I haven't logged in since March so my expectations for this update were already zero because of the lacklustre spring update. I looked at the notes for this one and there is no appeal for me. I feel like KI with the rematches is trying to re-emulate the success they had back in 2015 with the exalted challenges, but that was on the heels of massive updates like Darkmoor and jewels just months prior when wiz was undoubtedly at it's peak. The rematches this time I don't think will have even close to the same success because the content released in the previous months was catered to people who do raids in guilds, pvpers, and people who enjoy farming a dungeon multiple times just to get a badge to unlock crafting recipes. The new direction for crafting absolutely broke my trust with KI because up until Revered, all you had to do was do prerequisite crafting tasks to unlock the next badge and associated recipes. Now an item's recipe is locked behind a non-crafting related badge?? Yeah, no.
They should add a gothic themed wysteria like world as a side world. Id say have more fights that are like the ones in the drains, darkmoore and aquila. A lot of these flights have minor cheats too imo, it feels vanilla still. Id like fights with bosses with 50k+ health and a minion with like 15k+. They dont gotta do anything crazy with cheats, i feel moving forward things need significantly more health and actually make their spells cheesy, rather than adding cheats for the cheese. I feel the gladiator dimachaerus fight achieved this. Fights like this, but just even more health would be a solid win imo.
What's driving me absolutely bat guano bonkers these days are these Sisyphian tasks. Want to upgrade your guild museum? Go farm a metric ton of azoth. Yeah, get some more. A lot more. Open the portal. Now do the same mind numbingly boring fight for an hour. And how about the housing item drop rates, kids! A week and a half is simply too much for one giant cherry housing item to drop. KI's answer to almost every question these days seems to be farm, Farm, FARM. I'm about to the point where I'm ready to take a nice long year long break
Wizard101 is a game I've played very much off and on over the past few years and the end game is REALLY unfortunate. For context I've finished questing Wallaru for the first time, enjoyed the fights and tried to figure out what to do next. 170 gear farming hasn't been too bad in terms of the non-nightmare dungeon drops, but my experience with Nightmare Team-Up even while being fully prepped on the cheats has made me never want to touch it. I'm sure raids could be fun with a group but I got to this end-game by soloing. So I'm just stuck at this point of what is there to do? Advanced Combat while an interesting idea doesn't appeal to me and feels like it falls flat because my only experience with Roshambo is from the Aeon fight. Archmastery with it's fix coming in the upcoming patch in my opinion puts it into a better spot where I don't have to worry about not getting my pip while helping out some low levels. Beastmoon PvP and regular PvP I don't find myself wanting to touch with a ten foot pole with how it currently is. So I pretty much find myself just wanting to help people quest through the game and enjoy it at their pace and then enjoy a bit of PvE beastmoon. For me seeing something like an Arc 4 sideworld would be great just as something to do and also potentially fix the 170 gear block out where everything is entirely overcomplicated (Nightmare Dungeon), Gauntlet locked, Raid locked or soon to be Gold Skeleton Key locked. It's not a good experience if I feel incentivized to keep my Aeon gear cause all the other options are too painful/out of reach to get. Oh and bring back loremaster spell/spellement farming, I feel like we completely lost a community cornerstone when that got removed :(
I am from the first age with 6 time warlords on 4 characters through different ages … Wizard ruin the game and team PvP which was when the game was at its peek … If wizard wanted to fix this game all it needed to do was make 2 spells to stop the spamming , but nooo they nvr did and team PvP and tourneys died out …. This game still could be fixed with these two spells 🪄… The PvP wall is too much for anyone that has a full account of characters … on another hand they shouldn’t spilt PvP and pve ….. if you choose to grind then there should be the rewards and if we choose to do spellments they should let us just choose which direction we want to use these spell upgrades it should cost nothing so that either group can use their spellments in which ever way they want … we spent the time to lvl them …
I think the pvp system should be like WoW. You pvp and get currency that can buy the best pvp gear, but this gear isnt good in pve to balance it. All KI needs to do is implement actual good pvp gear for max like they did back in the day with warlord gear for level 50 pvp
Thank you Liam for actually being real about things this game isn't what I fell in love with when I was a kid who didn't really have friends and just wanted to get away from everything negative. I remember when I first did Tartarus and darkmoor even when I did the Greatspyre those dungeons felt so original. They felt like they put the story and school identity above everything and every school felt different but cool. Now I don't even know what I'm looking at anymore spellements, roshambo, Raids, and etc. like this game feels like they released a whole new game. Sometimes I even cry because all the friends I made all the memories everything feels like they will be all lossed because the game is going to be gone .
Roshambo is convoluted. Archmastery is great for dual schooling. but our default pips are school pips. So deer knight should not require an archmastery death school pip, if we are already death.
I definitely think if wiz ever went away... The fans should definitely do what Toontown and Club Penguin fans did. Fans do a better job bc corporate is always outta touch. It sounds terrible but i kinda look forward to the day that happens.
its a shame I came back to this game at this time, it really feels like a content drought as far as casual playing is concerned, I am enjoying it solely because I started a new wiz but overall the game feels lackluster, feels like every new spell is pvp-oriented and it feels like pve, despite being the core gameplay loop until you hit max level, has been left in the dust
I'd say this has to do with the general state not just with Wizard101, but for MMO's in general, is the fact that, games like this have lost their "Second Home" feel to them now which made this genre special, you come home from work/school, maybe you had a bad day and you just want something to dull the mind and help you forget your troubles for the day and of course you get on wiz, you hang out with some friends you made, do some quest, watch people do stupid stuff in the commons, PvP back in the day was practically accessible and fun for everyone as end-game content, I mean it was the best, it was like you had a whole second life that you were living and that's what makes these games what they are and that's one of the aspects that has turned this game upside down and it's sad to see that part gone. Then you have to consider that back then when games like this were out, you didn't have many games to choose from I can only think of a handful of MMO's that were out at the time (fusion fall, WoW, toon-town, club penguin etc.) and you kinda had to choose a MMO you liked and you had to stick with it for a long period of time, but now since we have SO many options with games to choose from, it's getting quite clear that this game is massively outdated, especially in terms of its subscription model, the entire look of the game and of course it's gone down the route of milking you guys with microtransactions etc. You also have it where there just isn't really much reason for people to stick around either, I mean look at the state of the game now, a lot of the OG players of the game have left either to do the game just changing so much (and not for the better) they've just decided to call it quits or they just moved on to better avenues in life and so there aren't that many people showing how fun this game is anymore, and of course you do have people like Sauce and BlazeLifeHammer (not even sure if this guy has still been doing content for the game) that are still trying to keep this game alive, but it's just not the same. Then on top of that, PvP is practically dead, which doesn't give you more reason to stick around, cause that was the main end-game content in the past (not sure it is now though since you guys have raids, but not sure how that's been going lately), so when you get done questing you have people that are just left with nothing to do and just leave the game on hiatus for a few months till new content drops and they do that and repeat the process and it doesn't help there isn't a lot of new content you can come up with for this game either, cause a lot of it has already been done before, there's just "nothing new' with the game that sparks people's interest, literally the only publicity that Wizard101 had gotten that put it through to other people is when that Dev went out of control and started posting a bunch of messages (which was pretty funny). And I think one of the biggest reasons that the downfall of Wizard101 happened far longer before this was when J. Todd Coleman decided to step down due to "creative differences" and he didn't like the route they were taking Wizard101, so he ended up leaving and keep in mind he was the brains behind the operation that came up with all this stuff, so what do you think happens when the brains behind the operation is gone? The game usually has no real direction at this point, and it's shown throughout the years up to this point as we see where it's just making people not happy with the game; balancing awful now, most of the decision being made by the higher-ups/devs don't make any logical sense, Kingsisle tried to dabble in the mobile market which completely tanked and that's why they've done down the route is milking players so much harder these days to make up for the losses (and at this point it just makes them a ton of money anyway), it's just a crap shoot and it's sad to see the game once loved by many, just become something you barely even recognize anymore. As a long time player I miss the game as well, but I had to come to terms with the fact that the game just isn't what it used to be anymore and that's okay, things change and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I thoroughly enjoyed the years that I played the game, no regrets here.
Also, as a somewhat returning player, I LOVE archmastery, this should have been in the game 10 years ago in place of crowns only mastery amulets. I understand your complaints about “school identity” but I don’t think that people realize that you should broaden your outlook on what specific thing classes should/can do and think more about what they can do *with* other classes. Forget about Ice being the tank school, let’s think about what the playstyle and identity a dual school ice/fire should do. I don’t believe there’s any sense in trying to go back years ago to old playstyles, but rather look ahead and see how we can improve and make the game more entertaining with the new systems. I truly believe that dual schooling would be a great system to delve fully into and expand out for players to try. I just don’t see why anyone would want to stick with 7 old bland single class schools.
This game was good from 2009 to 2015, the most fun and had a spark and thats all she wrote i been there since the start thats the best i seen in those 5 or 6 years everything was fun and cool , team pvp in 2012 and 2013 was some of the most fun i had in the game so was pet derby , Central tournaments ect . As well story line made sense at least to me before it turned in to nonsense like its somebody its nobody its whatever lmao. My favorite world is DS and the story of the titan army as well as the hype up about Malistire .Also the most players played back then i think.And then thereafter they killed it slowly over did and over add millions of Hoard packs and other stupid things that ruined the game.
The entire idea of having counter schools is wack. In old pvp there was difficult matchups, and a lot of times it did end up coming down to broken spells, or stupid mechanics like round based pvp, but no school was literally designed to beat another. Ratbeard thought he was cooking with that
If they actually listened to pvp players..the last update killed the game. Idk anyone who wanted leagues. They took away enchants. Made some classes useless. Not you but some streamers it's painful to watch them complain incessantly about the state of pvp. The thrill of 1st, 2nd and even 4th age is gone.
New worlds, new spells, new ways to interact with players-dual emotes-new house items-new activities all together. It’s a great game but definitely needs MORE more more
Roshambo complexity was unnecessary. Archmastery is fine, allowing dual schooling. Spellements is ok, offering some damage with removal/recovery spells. The upgrade path is "very weak" for the work need to fully upgrade it.
Hey Liahm, been watching for awhile and wanted to say that I think you've done a great job at keeping the positivity. It's noticeable when you try to provide feedback but seem like you're walking on eggshells due to others in the community being a little sensitive to the game criticism. It seems easy for more casual players to label PvP enjoyers (or just hardcore players in general) as "negative" or "toxic" from disliking something. But I don't think that's actually the case and you have stayed true to being positive and supportive of Wiz as a game. Don't let those people get to you.
Good vid! As a middle-ground player (A few maxes, just getting into raids) I def agree with your points. I feel like the PvP PvE divide or the animosity between the two began began a few years back when spell nerfs came out and people blamed PvP players when the real problem was KI not properly separating PvP and PvE. I don't think advanced combat or content is a bad thing by any means but the Novus backlash made it clear that most players really don't want to deal with it, I'm personally open to learning it for raids but even then I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer regular Wiz rules and as much fun as running the Polaris raid has been a side world sounds a whole lot better!
For me Beastmoon isn't as toxic as a lot of ppl say it is. I mean you just go in and play you don't worry about losing or having gear.. And if you don't want to listen to mean people you can ignore them or just accept that some ppl are really mean
@@AntonConstanti I get you but it's not what people just say it's what people do also that makes it toxic: logging in the animation when you see you're about to die so a fully hp friend can join, person getting their friends to spam report you when you exit the run, a person intentionally pulling fights just to flee to get the run over with. I could go on but don't want to write an essay
You yourself said you're a one percenter almost everybody I meet can barely get a max wizard. So of course wiz by your logic won't be able to keep up with the one percent of the fan base their gonna move at the same pace as the casuals and above average players.
i actually like the update they just need to stop making everything behind a pack pay wall... my csr raid got put off for 2 weeks because of members.. and certian schools just needs balancing
Every mmorpg that lasts over a decade becomes a money squeezer out of its remaining player base. Dcuo,wiz,eso etc. It’s sad. I’m coming back to wiz as a 22 year old, last time I played i was 9. So far questing and getting back up to date is fun but clearly there’s a dead end
I hit warlord after 300 matches in pvp 3rd age and it was a trip dude. I would rather not pvp now due to the new change in school pips and the raid coordination between a bunch of people for gear.
Before 2021 you could hop on any wizard any level grinding for like an hour or 2 and be completely PvP ready, now it’s like a part time job just to be entry level. Never picking back up this garbage game 😂
Game peaked when Legendary was the cap, would have been better if they found alternative power progression options rather than everything becoming so inflated and them trying to overcomplicate the game
I've been playing (and had membership) since 2008. Schools had their identity then; Satyr was 5pips, Storm damage outpaced everyone with only a poor accuracy rating to counter the massive damage. Balance sucked. Ice was weak; Myth had double hit Orthrus. Then along came Avalon, and the game became unbalanced. The developers didn't know how to do math, and gave Ice 90% resist to fire and storm, but also upped Fire and Storm damage thinking that was a fair trade off. However, every third grader knows 90% resist means only 10% damages gets through. An 8-pip Efreet unleased at 2,000 damaged after being buffed only did 200 damage on Ice. The Devs sucked at math. Balance was given Loremaster; Ice became immune to everything; Death sucked - they were the worst at PVP FOREVER until Bad Juju - and that was changed. The game has certainly changed and there isn't a way to fix it for the PVP crowd. The pendulum to make changes swings in one direction with an update and then the other direction with the next update, but never lands on a good compromise..
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Really great points in this video! You mentioned degrading school identity, which is something I haven't really touched on, but is absolutely an issue I think we all need to be talking about more. And honestly, I'd be so excited to get a side world, even if it was short, when we're waiting on the next world to come out. I think that would make so many players of all intensity levels want to come back and play. Thanks for the kind words and shout out!
I feel like with all of the Advanced Combat, raiding, challenge mode, and spellement stuff they're alienating returning players. (which IMO is the majority of the playerbase) I honestly can't remember the last time I played this game for more than 3-4 months straight, it's been a really long time. It's wait, wait some more, wait, new update comes out with content that me and my friends want to play, either play it or don't and do it later, repeat.
It's unfortunate, because the core game is amazing, but lately I feel like they've been neglecting what made it so great in the first place. They're toying with the nostalgia that brings people back to the game in the first place.
Don't even get me started on class identity, they BUTCHERED that with systems and itemization in 2 years or less, absolutely insane.
I feel this. I played back in like 2009. Loved the game for a few months. Then through the years I had been on and off. I stopped for a while, then when I came back it was too different farming for keys and spellements and pins. I couldn't get into it again.
@@adelg8 Exactly the same for me, it's just not worth the effort to learn it all, especially when the endgame for PvE-only players is so limited/minimal. It's interesting too because things like Beastmoon and Deckathalon don't even really include your maxed progressed character, there is progression, but it's exclusive to the gamemode and not related to your actual character in any tangible way. Super strange imo.
I love Wizard101, have a tattoo and everything. Used to absolutely love PvP and play wiz every single day just to get Warlord on every character, muck around in 4v4 practice, etc. It was the main thing I did. I stopped around the time turn-based came out. Now I'm just PvE only, and play maybe twice a year just to level up, get the best gear, and help people in team up for the remaining membership time.
I was hoping that the summer update might have something big for casual PvE players, but seems like that's not the case. I do hope we get something that's worthy of playing and buying memberships more regularly.
Even just low-level PvP (5, 10, 30 even) would be a good return, it was fun, worked well for entry-level players who were looking to try out something that wasn't PvE, people were rarely toxic at that level range because at the end of the day, you could easily just make a new character and try again if you were doing particularly bad.
Also on school identity, one thing I've noticed leveling my 7 characters through Karamelle, Novus and Wallaru is that my Ice tends to finish solo boss fights first, by far. That is not something that should be happening.
With life wizards, there's not much of a point in going for a healing build, because everyone's HP is so high that even with 200%+ outgoing, you simply aren't healing enough to make a difference. Kinda sad to see because I'm a really big fan of making specific setups for my wizards, but they simply aren't worth using.
This may be a bit of a rant but oh well. I was a long time player who recently came back to the game thanks to the free membership week. I played really heavily from 2009 to about 2013 or 2014 (not really a PVPer, mostly PVE). First, the adversarial relationship between PVE vs PVP players has pretty much always been there. From my perspective of the time (so take it with a grain of salt, it might be a little outdated), it was mainly because they refused to make a separated meta between PVP and PVE from the start, which ultimately wound up screwing everyone over any time any balancing needed to happen. This made the relationship between PVP and PVE players inherently a zero-sum competition, since changes in favor of one usually wound up making the other worse. The only time I can remember everyone being universally happy (or at least unperturbed) with a spell change was the Bad Juju separation between PVP and PVE, which apparently KI never wants to do again because it was "too much work"? Looking at it now, I think we're all just seeing the logical end to the game design philosophy KI has been trying to juggle for years.
I wasn't around for a lot of the new PVP changes and I'm not familiar with all of them, but knowing the historical animosity it feels like it's their last ditch effort to balance meta and keep everyone happy without fully separating PVE and PVP out entirely. New systems layered on top, but few fundamental changes to the "roots" (e.g. the cards). But then, by dumping a bunch of new systems on top of the game, you've fundamentally changed the game people had fun playing in the first place. They've kind of backed themselves into a corner with this one, because it seems they can't make fundamental changes to one without mucking around with the other.
I always felt the devs leaned toward catering to PVP players moreso than PVE, which makes some degree of sense. They're the people who are going to spend the most time and money on the game at the end of the day. But they seem to have lost sight of one crucial thing, which you hit perfectly in your video: ALL players are PVE players. If there is no PVE content to draw people in/keep them interested, then no one is going to stick around for the endgame content. PVE MUST be fun and rewarding.
And yeah, it was pretty dishearteneing to come back a few weeks ago and realize just how much content I was going to be locked out of. I don't have hundreds of hours to spend anymore on grinding for the perfect gear, doing raids, pet training, etc. Stuff like the raids, key bosses, etc. all feel super out of reach for your average casual/semi-casual player. I used to love grinding for cool looking gear. Like I can't tell you how many hours I spent running the Mooshu bosses to get the katana wands. I pulled multiple all-nighters to gather reagents to craft Watchtower Hall. Chances are, back in the '09 - '13 era, if you saw someone running around with something cool, then you could get it yourself with a little effort. Now it feels like every time I see something cool it's either a skeleton key boss (I am NOT wasting whatever is left of my short life grinding out gold keys) or it's a pack/gift card item. It's kind of like, "What's even the point anymore if I can't get half the cool stuff I see without an ungodly amount of resources, effort, or money?"
Don't even get me started on fishing and the other side activities. I've been trying to fish up a celestial wolf mount for two weeks now. Who decided to lock cool drops behind something that isn't even the core gameplay. I would have NO problem farming a boss (regular boss, NOT key/gauntlet/one time housing instance boss), but half the time I log on I'm not even playing the card game. I'm fishing, or gardening, or pet training, which sucks because what's the point of playing Wizard101 if I'm spending all my time FISHING and playing minigames, not casting cool spells and saving the world?
Anyway, sorry for the rant. I'm having fun with the game now that I'm back when I'm sticking to questing and the like, but it's definitely got a much different vibe than it used to. Idk what happened at KI but I do believe they might have lost the plot in some respects
As an old player who recently came back, Roshambo and this Advanced Combat stuff to me seems completely unnecessary and makes the game too complicated.
I agree. remove roshambo, and remove spellments, and dont lock content behind pay to win raids, and dont lock spells that you need in pvp behind things like beastmoon, which most pvp players dont want to play at all. The barrier to entry for pvp is just so high now, compared to when 130 was max, everyone had every card and gear they needed through easy methods, and boom u were ready
Played W101 on and off since 2009. Was a literally kid at the beginning, but was a lower-end hardcore player until polaris, had the best gear and stats (no 2.0 pet but i very much enjoyed mc pets more). IIRC that’s when skeleton keys first dropped, i didn’t do them for various reasons. Over time i came back to wiz for a few months as a middle-ground player, with a majority of time spent farming weeks on end for lore spells from OG Loremaster. Stopped playing for a good bit after her nerf. But for me, every update always had something more catered to p2w/hardcore players, and it doesn’t seem like an immediate switch as you portrayed (imo). From Bundles, op gear pack sets, gauntlets etc. to me, things like raids is just an extension to that type of content.
Wiz needs to go the route of Toontown and Club Penguin. The fans always do it better
Does that include the pdf developer teams?
I haven't logged in since March so my expectations for this update were already zero because of the lacklustre spring update. I looked at the notes for this one and there is no appeal for me. I feel like KI with the rematches is trying to re-emulate the success they had back in 2015 with the exalted challenges, but that was on the heels of massive updates like Darkmoor and jewels just months prior when wiz was undoubtedly at it's peak. The rematches this time I don't think will have even close to the same success because the content released in the previous months was catered to people who do raids in guilds, pvpers, and people who enjoy farming a dungeon multiple times just to get a badge to unlock crafting recipes. The new direction for crafting absolutely broke my trust with KI because up until Revered, all you had to do was do prerequisite crafting tasks to unlock the next badge and associated recipes. Now an item's recipe is locked behind a non-crafting related badge?? Yeah, no.
They should add a gothic themed wysteria like world as a side world. Id say have more fights that are like the ones in the drains, darkmoore and aquila. A lot of these flights have minor cheats too imo, it feels vanilla still. Id like fights with bosses with 50k+ health and a minion with like 15k+. They dont gotta do anything crazy with cheats, i feel moving forward things need significantly more health and actually make their spells cheesy, rather than adding cheats for the cheese. I feel the gladiator dimachaerus fight achieved this. Fights like this, but just even more health would be a solid win imo.
What's driving me absolutely bat guano bonkers these days are these Sisyphian tasks. Want to upgrade your guild museum? Go farm a metric ton of azoth. Yeah, get some more. A lot more. Open the portal. Now do the same mind numbingly boring fight for an hour. And how about the housing item drop rates, kids! A week and a half is simply too much for one giant cherry housing item to drop. KI's answer to almost every question these days seems to be farm, Farm, FARM. I'm about to the point where I'm ready to take a nice long year long break
Wizard101 is a game I've played very much off and on over the past few years and the end game is REALLY unfortunate.
For context I've finished questing Wallaru for the first time, enjoyed the fights and tried to figure out what to do next. 170 gear farming hasn't been too bad in terms of the non-nightmare dungeon drops, but my experience with Nightmare Team-Up even while being fully prepped on the cheats has made me never want to touch it. I'm sure raids could be fun with a group but I got to this end-game by soloing.
So I'm just stuck at this point of what is there to do? Advanced Combat while an interesting idea doesn't appeal to me and feels like it falls flat because my only experience with Roshambo is from the Aeon fight. Archmastery with it's fix coming in the upcoming patch in my opinion puts it into a better spot where I don't have to worry about not getting my pip while helping out some low levels.
Beastmoon PvP and regular PvP I don't find myself wanting to touch with a ten foot pole with how it currently is.
So I pretty much find myself just wanting to help people quest through the game and enjoy it at their pace and then enjoy a bit of PvE beastmoon.
For me seeing something like an Arc 4 sideworld would be great just as something to do and also potentially fix the 170 gear block out where everything is entirely overcomplicated (Nightmare Dungeon), Gauntlet locked, Raid locked or soon to be Gold Skeleton Key locked. It's not a good experience if I feel incentivized to keep my Aeon gear cause all the other options are too painful/out of reach to get.
Oh and bring back loremaster spell/spellement farming, I feel like we completely lost a community cornerstone when that got removed :(
I am from the first age with 6 time warlords on 4 characters through different ages … Wizard ruin the game and team PvP which was when the game was at its peek … If wizard wanted to fix this game all it needed to do was make 2 spells to stop the spamming , but nooo they nvr did and team PvP and tourneys died out …. This game still could be fixed with these two spells 🪄… The PvP wall is too much for anyone that has a full account of characters … on another hand they shouldn’t spilt PvP and pve ….. if you choose to grind then there should be the rewards and if we choose to do spellments they should let us just choose which direction we want to use these spell upgrades it should cost nothing so that either group can use their spellments in which ever way they want … we spent the time to lvl them …
I think the pvp system should be like WoW. You pvp and get currency that can buy the best pvp gear, but this gear isnt good in pve to balance it. All KI needs to do is implement actual good pvp gear for max like they did back in the day with warlord gear for level 50 pvp
Thank you Liam for actually being real about things this game isn't what I fell in love with when I was a kid who didn't really have friends and just wanted to get away from everything negative. I remember when I first did Tartarus and darkmoor even when I did the Greatspyre those dungeons felt so original. They felt like they put the story and school identity above everything and every school felt different but cool. Now I don't even know what I'm looking at anymore spellements, roshambo, Raids, and etc. like this game feels like they released a whole new game. Sometimes I even cry because all the friends I made all the memories everything feels like they will be all lossed because the game is going to be gone .
Roshambo is convoluted.
Archmastery is great for dual schooling.
but our default pips are school pips.
So deer knight should not require an archmastery death school pip, if we are already death.
I definitely think if wiz ever went away... The fans should definitely do what Toontown and Club Penguin fans did. Fans do a better job bc corporate is always outta touch. It sounds terrible but i kinda look forward to the day that happens.
*To sum it up W101 updates have been in reguards to cash grabs and have been that way for nearly 4 years now.*
its a shame I came back to this game at this time, it really feels like a content drought as far as casual playing is concerned, I am enjoying it solely because I started a new wiz but overall the game feels lackluster, feels like every new spell is pvp-oriented and it feels like pve, despite being the core gameplay loop until you hit max level, has been left in the dust
ratbeard made advanced content to manipulate the game it was never needed rhoshambo was never needed
He made pvp a monster!
I'd say this has to do with the general state not just with Wizard101, but for MMO's in general, is the fact that, games like this have lost their "Second Home" feel to them now which made this genre special, you come home from work/school, maybe you had a bad day and you just want something to dull the mind and help you forget your troubles for the day and of course you get on wiz, you hang out with some friends you made, do some quest, watch people do stupid stuff in the commons, PvP back in the day was practically accessible and fun for everyone as end-game content, I mean it was the best, it was like you had a whole second life that you were living and that's what makes these games what they are and that's one of the aspects that has turned this game upside down and it's sad to see that part gone.
Then you have to consider that back then when games like this were out, you didn't have many games to choose from I can only think of a handful of MMO's that were out at the time (fusion fall, WoW, toon-town, club penguin etc.) and you kinda had to choose a MMO you liked and you had to stick with it for a long period of time, but now since we have SO many options with games to choose from, it's getting quite clear that this game is massively outdated, especially in terms of its subscription model, the entire look of the game and of course it's gone down the route of milking you guys with microtransactions etc.
You also have it where there just isn't really much reason for people to stick around either, I mean look at the state of the game now, a lot of the OG players of the game have left either to do the game just changing so much (and not for the better) they've just decided to call it quits or they just moved on to better avenues in life and so there aren't that many people showing how fun this game is anymore, and of course you do have people like Sauce and BlazeLifeHammer (not even sure if this guy has still been doing content for the game) that are still trying to keep this game alive, but it's just not the same. Then on top of that, PvP is practically dead, which doesn't give you more reason to stick around, cause that was the main end-game content in the past (not sure it is now though since you guys have raids, but not sure how that's been going lately), so when you get done questing you have people that are just left with nothing to do and just leave the game on hiatus for a few months till new content drops and they do that and repeat the process and it doesn't help there isn't a lot of new content you can come up with for this game either, cause a lot of it has already been done before, there's just "nothing new' with the game that sparks people's interest, literally the only publicity that Wizard101 had gotten that put it through to other people is when that Dev went out of control and started posting a bunch of messages (which was pretty funny).
And I think one of the biggest reasons that the downfall of Wizard101 happened far longer before this was when J. Todd Coleman decided to step down due to "creative differences" and he didn't like the route they were taking Wizard101, so he ended up leaving and keep in mind he was the brains behind the operation that came up with all this stuff, so what do you think happens when the brains behind the operation is gone? The game usually has no real direction at this point, and it's shown throughout the years up to this point as we see where it's just making people not happy with the game; balancing awful now, most of the decision being made by the higher-ups/devs don't make any logical sense, Kingsisle tried to dabble in the mobile market which completely tanked and that's why they've done down the route is milking players so much harder these days to make up for the losses (and at this point it just makes them a ton of money anyway), it's just a crap shoot and it's sad to see the game once loved by many, just become something you barely even recognize anymore.
As a long time player I miss the game as well, but I had to come to terms with the fact that the game just isn't what it used to be anymore and that's okay, things change and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I thoroughly enjoyed the years that I played the game, no regrets here.
Advanced Combat single handedly keeps me away from joining a gulld and raiding. Pvp rules should stay in pvp
Also, as a somewhat returning player, I LOVE archmastery, this should have been in the game 10 years ago in place of crowns only mastery amulets. I understand your complaints about “school identity” but I don’t think that people realize that you should broaden your outlook on what specific thing classes should/can do and think more about what they can do *with* other classes. Forget about Ice being the tank school, let’s think about what the playstyle and identity a dual school ice/fire should do. I don’t believe there’s any sense in trying to go back years ago to old playstyles, but rather look ahead and see how we can improve and make the game more entertaining with the new systems. I truly believe that dual schooling would be a great system to delve fully into and expand out for players to try. I just don’t see why anyone would want to stick with 7 old bland single class schools.
This game was good from 2009 to 2015, the most fun and had a spark and thats all she wrote i been there since the start thats the best i seen in those 5 or 6 years everything was fun and cool , team pvp in 2012 and 2013 was some of the most fun i had in the game so was pet derby , Central tournaments ect . As well story line made sense at least to me before it turned in to nonsense like its somebody its nobody its whatever lmao. My favorite world is DS and the story of the titan army as well as the hype up about Malistire .Also the most players played back then i think.And then thereafter they killed it slowly over did and over add millions of Hoard packs and other stupid things that ruined the game.
As someone who is coming back the game is just too much lo, I use to do pvp casually now it's too much work
The entire idea of having counter schools is wack. In old pvp there was difficult matchups, and a lot of times it did end up coming down to broken spells, or stupid mechanics like round based pvp, but no school was literally designed to beat another. Ratbeard thought he was cooking with that
100% agree
If they actually listened to pvp players..the last update killed the game. Idk anyone who wanted leagues. They took away enchants. Made some classes useless. Not you but some streamers it's painful to watch them complain incessantly about the state of pvp. The thrill of 1st, 2nd and even 4th age is gone.
New worlds, new spells, new ways to interact with players-dual emotes-new house items-new activities all together.
It’s a great game but definitely needs MORE more more
Wizard101 was at its best when only the first arc was out.
I feel ya!
Roshambo complexity was unnecessary.
Archmastery is fine, allowing dual schooling.
Spellements is ok, offering some damage with removal/recovery spells. The upgrade path is "very weak" for the work need to fully upgrade it.
I haven’t played this in like 15 years 😂
u does really meet some assholes in beastmoon
Hey Liahm, been watching for awhile and wanted to say that I think you've done a great job at keeping the positivity. It's noticeable when you try to provide feedback but seem like you're walking on eggshells due to others in the community being a little sensitive to the game criticism. It seems easy for more casual players to label PvP enjoyers (or just hardcore players in general) as "negative" or "toxic" from disliking something. But I don't think that's actually the case and you have stayed true to being positive and supportive of Wiz as a game. Don't let those people get to you.
And this is why I've been focusing more on Pirate101. Which they keep neglecting.
I stopped my membership a week ago 😂😂😂 I feel like there’s just nothing to do with member. I’m having fun being f2p decorating my houses
Good vid! As a middle-ground player (A few maxes, just getting into raids) I def agree with your points. I feel like the PvP PvE divide or the animosity between the two began began a few years back when spell nerfs came out and people blamed PvP players when the real problem was KI not properly separating PvP and PvE. I don't think advanced combat or content is a bad thing by any means but the Novus backlash made it clear that most players really don't want to deal with it, I'm personally open to learning it for raids but even then I'd be lying if I said I didn't prefer regular Wiz rules and as much fun as running the Polaris raid has been a side world sounds a whole lot better!
Idk the new pin system is lit af, gives a degree of customization that separates one death wizard from the next
Pvp is one of the main reasons I retired from the game
I agree.
wiz fell off fr
For me Beastmoon isn't as toxic as a lot of ppl say it is. I mean you just go in and play you don't worry about losing or having gear.. And if you don't want to listen to mean people you can ignore them or just accept that some ppl are really mean
@@AntonConstanti I get you but it's not what people just say it's what people do also that makes it toxic: logging in the animation when you see you're about to die so a fully hp friend can join, person getting their friends to spam report you when you exit the run, a person intentionally pulling fights just to flee to get the run over with. I could go on but don't want to write an essay
@@128chris yea that's bad I just think the good outweighs the bad for MY taste personally
I don't consider myself a hardcore player but I do raids because there is lack of end game content outside of pvp.
You yourself said you're a one percenter almost everybody I meet can barely get a max wizard. So of course wiz by your logic won't be able to keep up with the one percent of the fan base their gonna move at the same pace as the casuals and above average players.
i actually like the update they just need to stop making everything behind a pack pay wall... my csr raid got put off for 2 weeks because of members.. and certian schools just needs balancing
Every mmorpg that lasts over a decade becomes a money squeezer out of its remaining player base. Dcuo,wiz,eso etc. It’s sad. I’m coming back to wiz as a 22 year old, last time I played i was 9. So far questing and getting back up to date is fun but clearly there’s a dead end
They need to hire you!!!
I hit warlord after 300 matches in pvp 3rd age and it was a trip dude. I would rather not pvp now due to the new change in school pips and the raid coordination between a bunch of people for gear.
yeah they need to do something to impove both pvp and pve
People who haven’t played wiz in years and is watching this be like wtf is these new spells changes note I am one of them 2020 retired
Summer update would be great.
So to someone who wanted to make videos on this game, what would you say?
Before 2021 you could hop on any wizard any level grinding for like an hour or 2 and be completely PvP ready, now it’s like a part time job just to be entry level. Never picking back up this garbage game 😂
Hey I made account but it won’t let me load in to the game it says connection lost every time idk why can’t figure it out can I get help
Email their CS if it's super severe ig.
Happens to me a lot sometimes it's annoying
pvp should be toxic its literally more comp
Game peaked when Legendary was the cap, would have been better if they found alternative power progression options rather than everything becoming so inflated and them trying to overcomplicate the game
I've been playing (and had membership) since 2008. Schools had their identity then; Satyr was 5pips, Storm damage outpaced everyone with only a poor accuracy rating to counter the massive damage. Balance sucked. Ice was weak; Myth had double hit Orthrus. Then along came Avalon, and the game became unbalanced. The developers didn't know how to do math, and gave Ice 90% resist to fire and storm, but also upped Fire and Storm damage thinking that was a fair trade off. However, every third grader knows 90% resist means only 10% damages gets through. An 8-pip Efreet unleased at 2,000 damaged after being buffed only did 200 damage on Ice. The Devs sucked at math. Balance was given Loremaster; Ice became immune to everything; Death sucked - they were the worst at PVP FOREVER until Bad Juju - and that was changed. The game has certainly changed and there isn't a way to fix it for the PVP crowd. The pendulum to make changes swings in one direction with an update and then the other direction with the next update, but never lands on a good compromise..