The Guide to Great Clock Gauntlet

As you will see on this post, it will contain some spoilers for the newest dungeon for wizard101 so please read at your own risk.

Hello everyone, recently we've seen Valencia part II got released on pirate but now Valencia has arrived in Wizard101 in the form of a mini Gauntlet. 

(Thanks to @BenTheSorcerer for the dungeon)

Now it starts you off in Valencia talking to Bernardo Dondi telling what's the function of the Great Clock but tells us that all of a sudden that the time on the clock is going very fast and he wants us to investigate with him what was the cause behind this.

Once we head into the tower, we will be greeted by 2 Clockworks who are both balance.

Once we defeat these 2 workers, we move on a floor to where we see a grey clockworker talking to our main boss of the dungeon, Lucia. Then after she leaves, the elite clockworker and one other clockworker faces you on.

Surprisingly so far, there was no cheats to be founded during the first two battles. But once we step onto to the next room, things just got real. We get to face Lugs a ice elite. 

Cheats:

"Better Keep my Guard Up!"

Gives lugs a -99% Tower Shield

Triggers to recast this: Single Targetted Spells

Once we finish off Lugs, we move on to the climax and the near ending to this dungeon. We move up a step to see Lucia once more but this time, it is determined to give us a show by battling her.

Cheats:

"Lets Even the Odds!"

Summons in a Clockwork Minion (Balance)

Triggers: Whenever Lucia is Alone for 3 or more turns

"Time to Even the score a bit!"

Removes all debuffs on self

Triggers:Whenever a Debuff(Weakness,Dispel,Mantle) is casted to Lucia

"This is my Show! Mine!"

Steal Charms & Steal Wards all buffs from player

Triggers: Casted every 4 turns

Once you finish with Lucia, the dungeon ends off with Bernardo with Lucia telling us that we did a great job.

Some Easter eggs that I found:

Louis (The Musketeer companion from Pirate101) Makes a cameo appearance as a painting.

Drops:

From Clockwork Spanner:

(Thanks to @DanielSunSword for picture)

From Lugs:

From Lucia:

If you find any drops that are in this dungeon and you want it to be featured on The Burning Spiral, then please message me on twitter (@connorcameo99).

The state of KI, The "Dark Age"

How did it happen?:

The "Dark Age" era :

It all supposedly began when J. Todd Coleman, the former Computer game designer of KI left the wiz community to pursue new passions which for him led to the formation of Artcraft Entertainment. I can atest why this would be considered a downturn however, you still had people at that time such as Gary Scott Smith the senior software engineer of KI, and Josef T. Hall the creator of Wizard101 & Co-Creator of Pirate101.

Does Pirate101 contribute to the Dark Age?

When pirate101 was first disclosed in closed beta and open beta, I was one of many to test out this new game. I thought personally from my standpoint that it would be an amazing concept. When it was released, I beated the game (Back when it was level 50) within a month and a half and I had fun, but like Wizard101, what were you suppose to do within pirate101? The only thing you can do in pirate101 back when it was in its original state was the side story quests. However, the question still remains, does it contribute to the Dark Age? In my opinion, I would say during the 3 year hiatus yes because since aside from PvP, the addition of the advanced pets and Marleybone/Aquila, there was still nothing else to do even after you complete all that. It wasn't until the introduction of Ranked PvP when things got more interesting. However, there was tons of people who want that Book 15 released and finally in 2016, KI revealed several teasers of images along with vine video of what Valencia part II is gonna be like.

Did the hiatus of Gary Scott Smith's twitter contribute to the Dark Age?

Gary Scott Smith, the senior software engineer of KI was considered by many to be a fan favorite (Next to Tom, also known as the Friendly Necromancer) since he gave insight on how many days until test realm begins, reveals content little by little, and even at one point suggested to KI to add something of his ideals into Wizard101. Everyone admires Gary for being that guy who interacts with the wiz community. But ever since his twitter account, @GaryScottSmith2 stopped posting (With his last post being from October 2015), many have speculated that he left KI just like J.Todd Coleman but in a private way. However this was confirmed to be false, he is indeed still working at KI but I have a little speculation statement here though. What if Gary was signed onto a contract that doesn't allow him to disclose any information with the public until it's shown by the Community Managers? Now, back to the question, did Gary's twitter hiatus contribute anything to the Dark Age? Well for me, it was kind of a hit and miss since on one side, he did interact with the audience/community via twitter which made this community unique but at the same time I feel as though since his hiatus, Belloq (Also known as W101 & P101 Spoilers) has taken over his position of revealing in game content. I just wish that Gary can return to his twitter so he can interact with his community again.

Conclusions:

 Its quite understandable why KI needed to lay off workers(Due to money problems), but how come did you lay off some of your best? KI should had gone with compromises to several average working to extraordinary working employers to keep them and let everyone else be laid off. I know that last statement was a bit harsh to the below average workers of KI but you gotta consider this, at the end of the day, KI is a gaming company that needs revenue to stay afloat and if it needs to lay off some workers, its gonna need to so it can stay stable.

The Status so far:

(5/12/2016) There has been around several workers Laid off by KI along with everyone's beloved turkey, Lealea. Not sure if Tom is also gonna be laid off but I'll update as the rumors continue.

  

The Skeleton,Daily assignments, and Fishing update: My thoughts and review on it

Omen:

Hello everyone, it's been awhile since my last post but I am back and alive. So anyways, ever since my last post about the omen speculations, all my predictions were in fact correct. However, I didn't predict any of their cheats since shadow seems like an unknown for me. I just noticed though, the omen boss actually uses more of SHADOW pips instead of power pips since his PP is actually lower than his SP. Regardless though, that felt like somewhat of an adjustment since he relies heavily on shadow magic.  His drops aren't half bad if you love housing decorations of Greyrose or if you are a fan of his wings or his slightly better deck. But most of the time he drops mounts, which for many non paying hoard pack wizards is a blessing. Aside from that, his gear isn't the best from the one shot dungeons or malistaire.

Fishing:

Now normally, I wouldn't talk about fishing since to be honest I just hate the concept of waiting (I'm a man of action you know) but regardless, when the rumors came around that code wands were in the zafarian area, I was shocked to see code wands as fishing items. So I decided to take a look at one of the most popular places to fish in Zafaria, Elephant Graveyard. It was a struggle at first since I have to deal with the diverse spreading of sentinel fish.

However, I figured out a trick to combat that without using banish sentinel spell. This will involve the "Charm" spell to lure all fish to the location along with a rank 2 or rank 3 lure of your choice. 

How to do it:

1. Charm on the far right(or left if your using the other side of the pond)

2.Charm on the far left(or vise versa)

Typically, the shadow sentinel is much faster in fishing speeds than your regular fish so that's why typically they go faster to the destination than the other fish.

Anyways getting back to the story, I eventually fished out a chest and it had an wand I never heard of called the warpwood wand.

.

I never knew what was the warpwood wand in terms of its looks since its one of those code wands I never heard about. But regardless I felt amazed how I can get code wands via fishing. This in my opinion makes fishing more fun and more rewarding. I mean you can get amber of all things within one of these fishing chests. 

Daily Assignment:

To be honest, I really loved daily assignments ever since I was introduced to the free to play mobile games of Game of Dice and many free RPGs. But when I heard it was coming to this game, I was hysterical about getting some free items just for logging in. However, W101's modeling of the Daily Assignment though requires you to actually do something rather than just login and pop in. Its divided into 2 categories(From what I can see), Defeat one enemy or Go to this place. Once you finish your daily assignment, the rewards go from gold to more gold than to arena tickets, than to crowns, and lastly a mysterious chest. I was amazed what items I can get within the mysterious chest, I mean look at what I got as my reward.

 A unique pet gem that so far you can get only via playing the daily assignment. I can tell you now that the chests will most likely drop unique items such as pet gems (Spell Proof, Spell Defy, Pain giver, Pain Bringer, etc...). Side note though: This fire pet will become a trend for years to come #Doublemeup 

My overall summary:

The Final verdict for this update is a 9 out of 10 since most of the content that is within this update is quite amazing, Unique pet gems and items, fishing up code wands and other rare reagents such as amber, and lastly new upgraded decks that is designed only for the omen boss. So what are your thoughts on the update? Comment on this post or use #BurningSpiral on twitter along with your comment. 

A comparison between the 110 wands, Fortune Teller v. Skulls

Hello everyone, I checked out the road warriors pack via a friend's gift of 6 pages in total and I got 2 skull wands one of which I can use. Now since this skull seems as though it's actually pretty good or in some cases better than fortune teller. I'll explain what are the pros and cons of these 2 wand sets and see if your preference changes.For this example, I'll be using the elemental damage of fire as my damage basis.

Fortune Teller (Level 110)

Pros:

- 1% more pierce

- A May Cast Astral that focuses solely on damage

Cons:

- 1% less damage

- Lacks a Square Socket*

- wand hits are one school sided

Road Warrior Skull (Level 110)

Pros:

- 1% more damage

- Provides a Square Socket*

- A May Cast that provides traps*

- Provides wand hits for more than just one school 

Cons:

- 3 less critical/critical block

- 1% less piercing

*Questionable but its all on preference 

Conclusion:

In the end though, its all based on how the user plays. If they love to combo off things with a partner and don't mind taking 1% less piercing, than the Skull wand would be amazing. If they love to do a decent amount of damage that is astral based and doesn't mind the wands being one school sided, than the Fortune wand is for you. With that in mind, I'll see you later whenever I can get the road chopper.

The State of PvP in Wizard101

Hello everyone, as the month of march rolls around, I wonder to myself, "Will KI ever fix PvP?". Recently, Wizard101 was updated to contain the Critical/Critical Block formula more towards a realistic approach. I actually approve but on the other hand, many people can agree that before the recent update, farming in darkmoor & morganthe was quite easier since critical goes off like a firecracker. But as we move on to the current state of PvP, is there anything good/bad about them?

Low level PvP(1-10):

Pros:

-Easier to rank in PvP

-Gambling for a win (Via new pet)

-Faster PvP matches

Cons:

- Critical Pets 

- Could face privates in commander gear

- Limited TC deck

-Higher emphasis on TC usage

Intimate level PvP (10-20):

Pros:

-Easier to rank in PvP

-Faster PvP matches

-Expanded TC deck

Cons:

-Critical Pets 

-Could face privates in commander gear

-Higher emphasis on TC usage

Adept level PvP (20-30):

Pros:

-Expanded TC deck

-Higher Health

-Faster PvP matches

-Opportunity to craft Gargantuan 

Cons:

-Critical Pets

-If warlord, you could face level 50s with critical gear

-Higher emphasis on TC usage

Magus and Master level PvP (30-49):

Pros:

-SKY IRON HASTA

-Higher Health

-Opportunity to craft Gargantuan

-Massive Combo possibilities

Cons:

-Easier to be defeated by warlords

-Critical Pets

Grandmaster level PvP (50-59)

Pros:

-Higher Health

-Can use the astral schools as trainable spells

-Biggest TC deck expansion

Cons:

-If warlord, you can face exalted

-Critical is broken

-PvP strats are sometimes predictable (Especially to ice overlords)

Legendary, Transcendent, and Archmage level PvP (60-89)

Pros:

-Higher Health

-Higher Critical/Critical Block

-Has more selections for astral schools

-Can obtain universal resist gear via crafting

Cons:

-Harder to get through PvP

-Takes longer for PvP

-More spells that are able to stall you

Promethean PvP(90-99)

Pros:

-Higher Health
-Higher Critical
-The start of universal resist in dropped no auction gear

Cons:

-Longer PvP time

-Stalling 

-Utility spell abuse

Exalted & Prodigious PvP (100-110)

Pros:

-Highest Health

-Highest Critical / Critical Block

-Highest Universal Resist & Damage via dropped no auction gear (Darkmoor & One shots)

Cons:

-PvP stalling

-Longest PVP time 

-PvP tactics are repetitive

  

Connor's Top 10 Fire Spells

In order to qualify, it must follow these guidelines 

1.It must be trainable
2.No item cards unless it's honorably mentioned

3.No Shadow spells

Number 10:

Efreet

Now what can I say about this spell that hasn't been said already? Well, it is a symbol of when a fire gets really raged.I placed this on number 10 simply because of the pip cost plus with recent addition of bad juju tc, I feel as though efreet has been cheated for its aftereffects. The only thing that bad juju doesn't have compared to efreet is the amazing cast animation ;) 

Number 9:

Backdraft

Ah yes, the fire's equivalent to the supercharge spell for storm,it has amazing uses in PvE like when you're trying to defeat a boss but this certain boss has moves such as earthquake or sirens then backdraft won't be an issue to worry over. The only backdraw to this is well, its a trap which only applies to one enemy.

Number 8:

Krampus

Ah yes, the holiday devil for christmas how can I forget about you? Well anyways, getting back on topic, the spell pretty much is meteor strike only it applies a -45% mantle which is actually useful in PvE and in some cases PvP but it only applies to one target. Now you maybe wondering, why is it only at number 8? Well, the means to get this specific spell only happens during the month of december when the spell along with its tc counterpart is dropped by Loremaster. So unless you got your friends that have krampus tcs they don't want, then you have to wait until its christmas or get into legendary crafting (Which I know most of you don't want to). 

Number 7:

King Artorius

The King of Avalon rolls on by number 7 since its effects are actually more appealing when being compared to other kings of different schools. The only spell that can rival this version is the myth one with the DoT aftereffect + 1 shield remove. This spell has more usage than efreet in PvP and has potential combos with it. I placed this at 7 simply because like with number 10, the pip cost is high.

Number 6:

Heckhound

The dog from the ashes comes in at number 6 with its legendary status of doing what balance's Judgement only in DoT form. This spell can be indeed deadly if unnoticed and is in fact one part of the strats of early fire PvP back in the day. But with new updates comes new counters, for example life can triage it and myth can shift the damage back to you. However, if you stack DoTs, you can pack quite a punch with heckhound.

Number 5:

Rain of fire

 Now the reason why I love this spell is the total usage of DoT, it does 300 damage to all at first then does 800 over time which if you can enchant, its actually pretty op in the aftertime. I like the usage of first hits not being the deadly blow kinda like what minotaur does. I would had made this number had it not been for one thing, PIP cost.

Number 4:

Power Link

The powerful version of link, it provides (with the cost of 2 more pips) more healing in exchange for more damage to the opponent, you can use this in so many ways, I mean after all this is a utility side quest spell. Power link provides many options for which a fire wizard can do such as provide more healing to themselves while providing a threatening DoT to remove any upcoming shields. 

Number 3:

Brimstone Revenant

The Fire equivalent to loremaster, it does about as much as a maxed out loremaster hit but it provides a buff to the next fire spell instead of debuffs. This can in turn provide fire with a deadly spammable weapon in both PvP and PvE. This used to be nothing more but a damage only spell kinda like catalan when it was first introduced. But recently, KI gave both those spells a buff. Its 4 pip cost makes it ideal for enchanting (+250, or +300 if your a tryhard) for all levels. Unlike Krampus though, this spell isn't restricted by the holidays and is dropped by Loremaster ;) 

Number 2:

Choke/SmokeScreen

I included these two spells in the same spot simply because they both perform the same function; utility spell. Obviously this wouldn't be number one because besides PvP functionality, where else can you use choke on a boss? Smoke Screen on the other hand can distract both PvP  and PvE for a single pip. Combine that with the tc version, your unstoppable. 

Honorable Mentions:

Eirikur Axebreaker

I did mention that item cards were in fact gonna be on this list and here's one of them. The Eirikur Axebreaker spell also known as Coldfire Dragon pretty much acts more utility then attack considering the buff/debuff mentioned alongside the 440 fire damage. It also is a symbol of me and I didn't want this to automatically to be my number 1. 

Fire Beetle

This spell on its own is actually quite op in PvP for the potential combos it can do. But like my mascot's item card, it cannot be trained and therefore ends up here.

Magma Colossus

This seems like something that it can be a trainable spell with the damage being almost reasonable along with the shield effect but its not. Magma colossus is just basically Weaver(Ice) only it doesn't cost a shadow pip, less damage and -30% less tower effect.

Number 1:

Burning Rampage

And for our number 1 pick we have Burning Rampage. Now before you say why is it at number one besides damage, I would like to say that this spell actually is 2 spells in disguise, don't believe me? In the card image itself, it shows a Sunbird with firezilla. I love when they mix in two different spells and see what results you can get from it. This spell in terms of looks also symbolizes the 1933 movie King Kong with the sunbird being the plane and the firezilla being King Kong. 

Now what are your favorite fiery spells? Post it down below in the comments section below.

 

The Omens of Shadow

Well, as I saw KI's march newsletter they released a little teaser for their next semi-major update. I say semi-major because it's part of the spring update but it holds no importance unless it has an amazing drop spell card or provides an challenge with good rewards. What i'm predicting right now is that this key boss will drop the morganthe spells that were rumored to by dropped by the plant monster in darkmoor. That or perhaps a new shadow spell that costs 1 but provides the benefits of two shadow creatures like the sentinel and the seraph along with the backlashes. As we inch closer to the update, I wonder, are we gonna face more shadow morphed creatures as regular bosses and not just end boss within the upcoming worlds? I get that question because in the picture, there is 3 shadow creatures, two we can morph into and one we cannot. But anyways, what are your guys thoughts on KI producing this next key boss for the spring update?