The Road to Mirage, Week 5

We actually started on Day 27, because of technical difficulties. Anyways, Destiny had her first run-in with Morganthe(who was kind enough not to smear our young Diviner's guts all over the Chancel floor) and that basically ended the cinematic zooms as Zafaria and Avalon didn't have any. :( Here's hoping for more cinematic zooms added in Zafaria, Avalon and Azteca when KI promotes the third new world(probably Empyrea, it has to be).

With that and the Trial of the Spheres(with the help of two nice young Necromancers up to Mithraya), Celestia was in the books and it was time to sweat it out in the jungles of Zafaria. Just kidding, this is one of my favorite worlds - it's the borderline between decent and Nintendo Hard when we hit Avalon, where even the mobs gets four powers pips out of the gate. It's nice to hear Inyanga Whitestripes say jambo to you for the first time all over again, and help Koyate Ghostmane out again... even if the Spirit Caller drums take FOREVER to craft. Even with the recipes nerfed, getting 18 Sunstones was NOT easy - I was very lucky someone decided to Wonder Trade their stash to the Bazaar so I could get enough so the Sandstone transmutes filled it out.

Destiny and Sierra started their journey into the Savannah, and Destiny started her collection of ingredients for those two blasted Spirit Caller Drums to become Legendary. Not like it matters - the Storm Lore Spell, Catalan, is completely manure compared to Deer Knight. :p

Sadly, expect to see a lot of the horned helm for a while - Waterworks was not kind and refused to cough up anything other than the slightly weaker Skyscream Shoes. Still, Destiny took them as they boosted her power pip % and damage for a loss of 1% universal resist. Pet hatching was still not kind as the third egg had the stinking May Cast Ice Trap from the pet's grandfather. (Sierra's Armament with Fairy Friend was hatched with Christina Dawnblade's Armament whose grandfather had May Cast Ice Trap. Bleh!) And the Wintertusk crafted hood has only 4% Universal Resist while this helm we got from Vestrilund has 6%.

At least we got a much better mod for it - the new holiday pack(Winter Wonder) gave a nice little ice shard hat so Destiny doesn't look like a viking. As for the Santa suit, well, it's Christmas in the Spiral, why not? Besides...

I FINALLY GOT THE SKYSCREAM ROBE! (Yep, modded the Santa Robe into it for the looks.)

This shot was just after Sierra used Satyr and the other Myth took out the big guy

Sadly, it didn't help jack against Poseidon, who completely raped Destiny after she tried to do some damage. Storm Wizards have met their match against the Kingfisher God, which dispels all Feints and Storm Prisms. (cries) Luckily my alt, Sierra, healed her as the others in the group(another Storm and Myth combo which I abandoned as they wanted to fight the Sand Squid, not having it now!) took Poseidon down. At least I got a couple of helpers. NEVER DOING THIS DUNGEON AGAIN. X(

 

With that out of the bag, I did not spend much of this week in-game; it WAS Xmas after all and that meant road trip to my little sister's place in the next city to open gifts so my little neph could have pictures to remember me by long after I am cremated. But I did manage to clean up Stone Town, Waterfront and the Drum Jungle, finally getting into the Elephant Graveyard, the last main area of Zafaria. I was spending time farming Sandstone with my Death Alt in the account, but...

Natalie's search for Sunstone harvests was slim pickin' at best. :(

I decided it would be better to wait until Destiny could use the Stiela herself before I finished Legendary Crafting. That or hope for lucky RNG. I did re-install MapleStory because of the awesome new update that gives a fifth job level but I am trying to avoid playing that until I can set a schedule so all my games get some attention. I haven't even finished the story of Pokemon Sun/Moon yet!

Well, ciao for now!

The Road to Mirage, Week 4

Week 3 of the Road to Mirage ended just before my birthday. Week 4 starts with my 44th year of existence, and boy howdy are we moving! I made an effort not to do any sidequests that involve combat until I completed the world so I could get to the end, have a bit of challenge, and be ready for the next world. Now that worlds don't care if you do their sidequests or not, it's only viable to do them if they don't get in the way, like the Zeke Scavenger Hunts(I need the Training Points badly) or the history quests(since I'll be in the neighborhoods anyway). I also do parts of sidequests that don't involve battle, like searching for rare and exotic items or talking to NPCs. I'll get to the battling later.

Not like it matters much... now that Destiny has reached Grandmaster Artisan level.

Of course, I had to rope and cannibalize my poor Necromancer and Sorcerer to get the reagents - I forgot that the Grandmaster recipe I needed to complete was the first involving the Dread Reagent, Sunstone. X( Natalie Owlwraith spent two hours of real time getting enough Sandstone and lucky drops to get the six Sunstone for the Seal of the Seven Seas. She also got harassed by Babbage's castle magic, but she ain't for that s***. (Considering that's she nerfed to gardener and gatherer now. I know I should try to get her to Mirage but man, I don't like Khrysalis.)

But all in all, Destiny finally got her universal resist... robe. Yep, the only gear I crafted was the Chief's Garb of Gales. Destiny's Puppeteer Boots(a rare drop from Marleybone) and Grizzled Helm(which she got early in Austrilund) give far more universal resist at the cost of Storm-related goodies. I also bought the Garnet Bear Claw and Ring of Battle recipes, but the former needs more freaking Sunstones. Argh! Still, 18% resist across all boards is nothing to sneeze at...

Considering that she REALLY needs to reduce damage from spells... THIS is how badly she came out of that one fight with Mimir Winterbane!!! O_O

The goons in Celestia are not going to be kind to her if she continues wearing Malistaire's Wraps. :(

 

It seems that the Daily Assignments are giving out holiday-themed items now - Destiny got this halo hat just for visiting the Wizard City athame shop. ^_^

More birds than you can shake a stick at.

Oh come on! I got rid of you, you ugly crow! X(

Seriously, this is all Wintertusk was, just spamming the Colossus.

The birthday was spent completing Wintertusk and avoiding all sidequest but picking them up for later. I was surprised by the Sons of Ymir dropping the Delectable Hooves, part of the Ninja Pig costume. It was great because it boosts Destiny's energy and gave 7% universal resist, one better than the Puppetmaster Shoes she had.

I also crafted the robe, but not the boots or hat - their universal resist was actually worse than the Delectable Hooves and Grizzled Helm. So I only had the Storm Trap item card. (This was actually from before Nastrond, so ignore the boots.)

I never realized how creepy her smile was until they gave a close-up. O_o

THIS GUY. (Claims three easy training points)

I speak for the trees! NOT! :p

I know a good plumber, and he's good at stomping on fish too. ^_^

After that, the rest of the week was basically Celestia-Celestia-Celestia and Waterworks runs. (I'm not crazy enough to challenge Tower of the Helephant, even with my Exalted Wizards! The first encounter there is a cheat-gimmick boss which can rekt you if you fizzle a lot. Also, still not doing Briskbreeze yet. I'm not confident, even with my new gear.)

Destiny: "No, it wasn't washing my hands which makes me angry... WHY DID YOU NOT WARN ME?!!" X(

Destiny: "Nice sea serpent, I don't taste good." O_O

 I also got the Leviathan spell, but not the Kraken egg. To say that Storm Wizards have the roughest time with their Level 58 Spell Boss fight is being kind - even with the boss being Fire(and thus weak to Storm), Destiny was defeated no less than two times. I had to spam Wild Bolt to get rid of the damn ninja pig servant, and it luckily got the best RNG. Then it was just mano-a-mano with Khai Tangiri until he was roast beef.

So with that, I bid you adieu for the week. See you in a couple of weeks!

PROGRESS: Doing well. The help Sierra provides is getting more and more prominent - no longer can I just spam Tempest; bosses have health in the 3000+ range.

Destiny is Nice, you jerkwad! (Holiday Feast 'Dungeon')

(The Road to Mirage will continue soon.)

The holiday season is upon us at the time of this writing and it seems KI is going to make the 12 Days of Christmas theme a running event. What they do is that every day for twelve days until Christmas, they give something holiday-themed. This year, they start with something impressive - a Skeleton Key fight!

They call it a dungeon, but it's more of a choose your own fight. You find the door to this skeleton key boss in Colossus Boulevard, at the statue everyone's favorite Pixiecrown is hanging out at. When you enter, you get a sort of a little event where the matron starts to throw a feast and then someone runs in the hall and it changes to a spooky mood. Then you choose which boss you fight based on what key you have...

 

And guess who you fight? Kranpus, the mythical "Anti-Santa" character of Christmas folklore, was already a lore-based Fire spell in Wizard101. It took the bigwigs long enough to finally make him a holiday-themed monster.:)

But before you go in with your Level 3 wizards with the free Wooden Skeleton Key you get from KI today, don't think it'll be easy. This was the WOODEN Skeleton Key variant, and he's Rank 8, has over 7000 HP, and for most wizards(including Destiny) is the first pet-using boss. Yep, starting with Polaris, bosses can have a pet as well! He is also the first boss which has two schools, Fire and Death, so he can use power pips for both Fire and Death spells!

Also, he has tricks to remove your traps, he RESISTS Storm(unlike normal Rank 8 Fire Bosses at that time, which are WEAK to Storm), and he can summon Gingerbread helpers which are Storm or Ice. Needless to say, this is not an easy fight.

(Oh yeah, and did I mention he has the Rattlebones rematch cheat that punishes people fleeing and coming back into the fight? He hits them with Power Link. :p)

Luckily, it seems all the Helpers do are weak normal attacks and Destiny drove the Anti-Santa off with a max pips Tempest and Storm Lord. And, like the Anti-Santa he is, he gave Destiny nothing but a lump of coal and some Christmas lights and she had to walk all the way out. Thanks, jerkwad. X(

Still, kudos to KingsIsle for making a cool holiday fight with one of their Lore-spell monsters. Can't wait to see what else the 12 Days of the Spiral give us(probably stuff I have to use Crowns to buy).

The Road to Mirage, Week 3

Destiny: "Yes, I think I can." :p

Welcome to the summary of Week 3 in Destiny the Diviner's rise to being the first Wizard101 Champ-- er, sorry, Pokemon Sun and Moon on the brain. It's hard to hold off playing those games. :)

EDIT: And now Super Mario Maker 3DS, doing the Super Mario Challenge. ARGH! X(

I've been doing the Daily Assignments with the Gravulum Foundation, and the Dog gave me a nice rental mount to temporarily replace that god-awful Chinese Dragon. I'm sorry, but the Shinobi Dragon is horrible. I've been snapping shots of all the times it glitches into NPCs and I'll show a montage after the Road to Mirage is ended. :)

Of course, that was really a moot point and a trashed mount because !WOOT! thanks to being active on December 2nd, the account got a free promotional item - a PERMANENT magic carpet with the Astral symbols on it! Yeah, for shame making a lady stand on a flying carpet, but it sure beats a glitchy dragon that gives saddlesores! (Also, I had the holiday flying carpet for Sierra anyways.)

So, continuing to follow the journey of Blaze Firehammer and Ethan Iceblade, Sierra helped Destiny get through Grizz; it's pretty boring because it gives so little EXP at Level 40. I usually went to each area at the appropriate level but following the co-op of Ethan and Nate wasn't great.

 

Also, Triton and Tempest are pretty OP at that stage in the game, and Tempest will probably be Destiny's go-to for the rest of her digital life. It's just SO OP if you can get off seven power pips and you'll be buffing while waiting for that sweet spot, making the damage more OP. I was worried about dying on the Gurtok Barrier Demon since it's a Solo, but nope - threw out the Water Elemental to be a meat shield and bam, one-shot. ^_^

This shows how much contempt Destiny had towards the Coven - she read the final book in the Grizz histories while Sierra set up the wazoo for them. :)

Grizz was pretty much completed in two days. Even the Coven was a joke. I did have to port briefly into the two side areas around Nidavellir to get the Yardbird and history tome for those areas(and Sierra got freakin' pulled by the Grendel Scarsippers, big jerks), but I didn't bother fighting the two brothers of Jotun seperately like I did the first time I went through Nidavellir. :p

I returned to Marley and found this shady mutt... but it turns out his "new kind of magic" isn't actually drugs, it's castle magic. Yep, the Mirage update has finally come to the Spiral and with it comes silly magical cards that you can bind to objects to make them do silly things, including casting spell effects like the type you see in the spell quests. Once we're uber rich, we'll be turning our Alolan(aka the Island) Getaway into a funhouse. XD

While Blaze and Blue went straight to the second Secret Dungeon, Barkingham Palace, I held off until after Grizz was done and dusted because this place is TOUGH. Poor Sierra nearly died in the final battles. (Mainly because I swapped out her old pet for one with Fairy Friend, thus dropping her resist to 36% for universal. Still, Mr. Hound is no joke.)

Fun new ring to replace the old one - yeah, we lose a lot of Mana, but I can't ignore 12% increase in healing to self. :) She also fished up some Dekoi in the fountain as well as a chest... with a Fire-only wand. Boo. :(

Anyways, it was mostly just the big bug vaporizing everything. Sierra got hit with a bunch of unlucky Wild Bolts which did mass damage to her. Ouch!

After that, it was on to Dragonspyre to stop the insane warlock Malistaire. This place is pretty depressing with all the lava and undead and ghosts and draconians. Ugh. Destiny got to Level 48 well before she could access the Labyrinth to get her Storm Lord spell...

But it was worth it in the end. This will be the go-to when I don't want to waste time building up pips. (I got lazy in Crystal Grove and my game froze up and crashed as I was finishing up side-quests. I didn't want to do anything more with Wizard on the 3rd. :( )

I won't bore you with the details, I have a ton of screenshots of Destiny's travels through the three rings of Dragonspire, which went pretty well. I tried to get the materials to complete the Master Artisan crafting quests but Diamonds were a pain to harvest, so I just said "f*** it" and cleared the Great Spire, faced Malistaire, yada yada. Everything died to Mystic Colossus.

I wanted to be epic and let Destiny fulfill her, well, destiny, but when Storm Lord decided to freaking FIZZLE, I threw my hands up and got a nice Tempest to wash that evil warlock into the Abyss. :p

The game capitulated and gave me the Grandmaster Storm robe. (Hides behind a bunker to avoid the millions of angry Grandmasters who got the wrong school robe; hey, it's happened to Sierra! Sheesh!)

So I decided to do the Society Archives quest line, which you may call me out for insanity on. I understand; this is not for the weak-hearted. You have to do three solo fights(one which nearly DESTROYED Destiny because I wasn't getting my attack cards) and then go up a dungeon which has two very nasty cheating bosses. In foresight, I would say the Archives Warehouse bosses aren't as bad as, say, the Tower of the Helephant, but they're tricky. I would have destroyed the Crab Boss and avoided the skeletal counterattacks had Mystic Colossus not fizzled while Destiny was attacking! Murphy's Law was smokin' mushrooms and laughing at my misfortune.

It did not help that the girl we teamed up with had one of those May Cast wands that summoned Hephaestus and busted all my traps, and I couldn't even talk with her, she refused to listen. X(

 

But all in all, we survived(and had to flee battle because the rats decided to respawn X( ) and Destiny found out that someone had put the Nomad Camp from the Mirage Keeper's Bundle on tour, so she got to fish up some rare fish that are near-impossible or seasonal. She even caught the Qismah Doodlefish with only a Rank 1 Lure! :D After that, she hit Rank 5 in fishing and was able to buy the Rank 2 lures(she was super-rich now).

The remaining two days were spent exploring Grizz Part 2, aka Wintertusk, and meeting the Wizard101 Narrator --- I mean, Grandmother Raven, and helping her get the Golden Seals to ensure that the Ice Titan never woke up. Wanna bet that the Coven are behind this? :)

Conclusion: Progress is coming along 'swimmingly' - the reason I haven't done Celestia is because I'm following Blaze and Blue and also because Sudrilund is where Destiny has to solo another fiend to get her second special spell at Level 55 and get her first universal resist armor to replace the stuff she has now; Malistaire's Wrap is nice but now that we've crossed over into "Enemies get full pippage and can RYNO(Ratchet and Clank reference) with high level spells out of the gate" territory, Destiny's health is not going to be enough to avoid dying without serious universal resist. Of course, I will need to do Pierce's quest in the Floating Land, but that's what Sierra is for. When I get up tomorrow, first thing is to get Destiny ported to the Floating Land to train in Monstrous so her Storm Lords do enough damage to one-shot Wintertusk mobs which aren't Storm.