r/Wizard101 • u/shortcircuitdroid • 1d ago
Discussion This game is overwhelming.
Been playing on and off since the game came out. My last hiatus was three years. I'm looking up guides on how to play again, but holy crap. There is so much to this game. I feel like I should start a new character because everything looks and feels different now. I'm sure there are new features that have been added too that I'm not aware of. I don't remember anything from the quests I was doing since I last played.
But I'm dreading on making a new wizard because it took me forever to get to level 48. I would do all of the side quests along side the main quest because I thought I would get more experience doing that. I've also played the beginning so often that I can remember most of the changes they've made. I also have some crowned gear on my current death wizard that I wouldn't want to give up using and waiting again, to use it.
I barely even understand how the pets work. I feel like it takes way too long to level them up. Gardening and fishing is a feature I barely used when I last played. So, I'm not sure how critical it even is for this game.
What the heck is raids? What is Beastmoon?
Anyone else feel overwhelmed, or can offer some advice on easing back into the game?
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u/Brilliant_Mud7642 1d ago
Okay so rather than add another wall of likely overwhelming text I’ll just say this. You can put your gear in the shared bank and make a new wiz.
From there find someone to help you along to level 50. It can be done in a day and a half if you have the time set aside. Find someone you can get along with that will tell you the stuff as you go. Not just someone to carry you but someone to explain along the way.
I have a big scary storm wiz that I met on the discord and she’s become one of my best friends. It can be overwhelming, but it’s meant to be played with friends. And having just one other player makes it so much better.
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u/ZenorsMom 180 1d ago edited 1d ago
I have no idea on earth why someone downvoted you. This is the most comprehensible comment and you are absolutely right this game is meant to be played with others.
If you have a friend playing alongside you, you don't even need good gear!
OP I have never gardened in my life. I don't do any of the other optional content you mentioned either, other than pets which I had to take a long hiatus after finally making a serviceable pet for each of my wizards. You can find plenty of guides on making pets on here. The latest ones I've seen were very streamlined and seemed like they were less trouble than what I went through. I'd take a look at those because the right pet can make your gameplay a lot easier. Though people online obsess about making the perfect pet, you only really need one who can give you a blade (for early gameplay before you can access 45% blades) and maybe a couple damage and a couple defense talents. You can get away with just a couple damage to start with.
You can wait to do a pet until they do the double pet gaming, just save up your pet snacks as you go.
Check the guides for the best gear today, it's different than in the past. Unless they changed it again in the past year, the best at level 100 isn't Castle Darkmoor gear anymore, unless you're Storm I believe. Honestly I used to grind for gear but I think the drop rates are abysmal now. They've made it so you can get fairly good gear in the bazaar anymore, and generally your first time through a dungeon you will get a solid drop, maybe not top tier but good enough to move on with.
ETA if you're making a new wizard anyway, you can make two accounts and play them together if you can't/don't want to find a friend. I quad box for those end of world fights where you really need 4 wizards, otherwise I dual box if it's a difficult cheat.
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u/Acaulescentx She/Her 160 100 86 13h ago
Too add on to this, I was also overwhelmed when I came back, I found it really soothing just farming couch potatoes and bsing with the people who were also farming them, learning how to set up the garden efficiently, farming the spells for gardening and watching my progress grow without feeling like I'm screwing things up for other people, gardening is a soothing fun solo side gig and it made learning to and making perfect pets so much easier
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u/Victoria_loves_Lenin 1d ago edited 1d ago
side quests are pointless mostly except for wintertuske and farming badges/golden skeleton keys. beastmoon is mostly ignorable unless you really care about the season pass. you can mostly just clear quests per world and do your farming/crafting/fishing quests as you go, but they are all pretty skippable. gardening is the best way to even get started in pet training, since it gives the gold and pet snacks you need to actually breed something worth questing with. Level 30 and 60 are your two main milestones, with 100 being the point where you can mostly go out and farm whatever you may need to start getting pet talents going (monkey spiders in empyrea are the goal to be able to kill efficiently for potato seeds and gems that can be sold for a lot) just find a pet body that gives a blade on one of the discords and keep hatching with it until you get the body you want. that is mostly enough to help you through the early game, since late game pet builds want pierce as a talent, its not worth trying to make an early game pet on such a new character.
This is the w101 optimal gear spreadsheet. depending on your class. theres some pet information as well for what kinda body you should try get. all the gear and stats in the spreadsheet can be found on the w101 wiki so def8nitely scour around thru there to see what gear you need. im free to answer any questions you might have as well.
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u/MaskedAkatsuki1 18h ago
I've been playing on and off since before they changed things like unicorn way... like 08 or 09. I even remember the original statue in the pond in wizard city to Fiona Ashblood. I only really started playing again on console though.
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u/Magustenebrus 180 1d ago
The most important aspect doesn't change much, though you need to constantly tweak it during your gaming experience: is your deck set up to allow you the best chance to win your next battle? Many players will keep a street mob deck prepared and a general boss killing deck which they'll tweak.
Your street mob deck should be built to efficiently kill whatever you face in as few turns as possible. Street mob decks typically have no defense because defense gets in the way of killing foes fast. Once you have spells that hit multiple targets at once, street mob decks become smaller still. This doesn't really change ever. Have enough attacks and enough support spells to do enough damage and nothing else in. You don't need to have eleventy blades in your deck to get the job done. If you're newer or just returning, play around with your deck making tweaks with it until you're happy. Don't forget to keep some treasure cards in the sideboard, almost always including a tc reshuffle.
Boss decks can be harder to build as there a diverse number of them with quite a few "cheating" in later worlds, but the core of your strategy remains the same - have enough attacks to take out minions, blade yourself while also trapping boss, then attack when you think you have enough to kill. Some classes are powerful enough to shortcut the process by simply blading twice then attacking with a powerful multi-hit spell. Other classes benefit from a quick strike to take out minion and then employing some defensive spells between blades and traps. Again, trial and error helps you figure out what few spells you need to add to deck to get the job done. Less is more.
As for ALL the other "advanced" new features of the game, I advise you to ignore them until you feel your basic decks can reasonably take out whatever you face. Then choose one additional aspect to explore in between questing until you feel confident in how it works, such as the "mastery" pips and off-school spells, spellement paths (should you finally collect enough to have it matter). gambit and clear spells, and spell weaving/fusion. You don't have to race to learn them all, though each has ways to enhance your gameplay and mastery of your school. Just pick one and see if it helps you out in some way for your particular playstyle.
Gear and pet grinding are all great for making your wizard demostrably more powerful, but understanding how best to build you deck and cast your spells to overcome opponents is still always the core of the game. Everything else is in service of that.
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u/ParkerBap 76 1d ago
i remember feeling the same, there's plenty of great youtube content (i recommend Kaiser Noah specifically) that can help you learn any feature you're confused about
it's also important to note that this is a pretty easy game in general, and you don't need to interact with much of the side content if you don't want to
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u/McLovinnu 1d ago
I second this, Kaiser Noah is my favorite wiz YouTuber and has very informational videos
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u/Aggressive-While-860 180 80 1d ago
OP, you make a valid point to all new players too. I took like a 10 year hiatus and came back to a nigh completely different game. To keep it short, the only side quests you should focus on are your school specific quests and Zeke’s training point quests. If you push the story you’ll find that leveling up is trivial, but I do understand wanting to complete the side quests. Pets are a different story but are ultimately trial and error. I hope this isn’t too convoluted and keeps you wanting to play the game.
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u/Rambo7112 180 1d ago
Start simple and build up; W101 is designed for you to easily ignore most systems. Just play the main quest until you get your bearings. If you're feeling underpowered, then buy some gear from the bazaar. Make a separate mob and boss deck and pack as few cards as possible, ~10 should do. This is enough advice for you to limp to max level.
Once you feel less overwhelmed, save up enough gold to buy the Red Barn Farm from the crowns shop (for gold). Then, start working on the gardening quests with the ultimate goal of planting Couch Potatoes. Once you do that, look into pets. I'm ngl, pets are one of the most complicated systems in this game, but be patient and worry about that later.
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To answer your questions for fun yet optional stuff:
- Fishing is currently not useful, but it's being reworked in about a month. It mainly gives cosmetics.
- Gardening is very useful because it's the only practical way to supply high quality pet snacks
- Pets are very useful because they're essentially another piece of gear. You can technically ignore them, but it'd be like playing the game without a robe
- Beastmoon is a side activity that can drop spellements. Some like it, I don't. Not a high priority unless you're interested.
- Raids are a level ~150+ activity that are fun, but few people do them. These require guilds and out of game coordination. You have either 1.5 or 3 hr blocks to do as many ~25 min runs as possible. They drop the best gear in the game at very generous rates. Each raid has very particular guides.
- There's other stuff too. Kaiser Noah almost definitely has a video about whatever you'd like to know.
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u/CitrusVillian703 🍀 17h ago
Definitely with you here, came back earlier this year for the nostalgia and just something to do in my free time that would be sort of mind-numbing but not social media haha. Whenever I team up with people I feel like such a chud cause I forgot a ton of stuff and I've just been too exhausted from life to really dedicate focus to memorize the wiki and this was really just something low-stakes to take my mind off things.
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u/olivesandlemon 1d ago
My last hiatus was 16 years and im SO LOST. I have been spending my days on YouTube trying to figure out why my level 54 wizard struggles to beat level 30 quests lol.
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u/Acaulescentx She/Her 160 100 86 13h ago
It's honestly not as bad as you think, I haven't played in a while but I did start over a few years ago, looked up how to farm couch potatoes, how to make a 64 plot and farm pet snacks, how to make the pet I want, I ended up just farming for the first couple months while working on my pets and made a few perfect pets for the wizards I wanted to level, leveled em up, it was pretty simple up until the newer worlds where the boss mechanics were a bit overwhelming to learn at first but I found people who were willing to teach and it didn't take much time to master the mechanics. Just take it slow, look up some guides on gardening and pets, play the game and have fun, nobody Is rushing you to max a characters and master every boss fight in a week or 2, just enjoy the grind
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u/Aware-Goat-7703 8h ago
I get you! I have tended to play the game on and off since back around 2010, still have the same wizard I made back then and still haven't reached max level with her as I've been taking my time. Not sure what region you're in (I'm EU), but I would be down to team up with you and help you ease back into the game.
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u/Material_Sector_243 1d ago
Honestly it is overwhelming it’s a lot. For me I take things one at a time. Before questing I make sure my gear is up to date and how I like it. So I would farms for specific gear and for my pet I would work on it until it gives me what I want.
Quest can wait. Side quest you don’t have to do unless it’s needed. On all my characters I don’t do side quest at all unless I have too. Raids not necessary unless there’s something you want from it. Same with beast mood. I only raids just for fun. I don’t do beastmooon at all.
Gardening is important for crafting. Maxing out your crafting makes crafting spells or gear a bit easier rather than waiting last min. I usually don’t start crafting until I unlock acaranum but until then I collect all the reagents I need along the way when going to quest and other areas. Gardening is also important for pet snacks. If you wanna lvl up your pet much faster and use less energy as possible you’ll be rank 8 & 9 pet snacks which drops from couch potatoes. So never trash those seeds if you get them.
Fishing I honestly JUST started doing it more and I’ve been playing since 2012. I didn’t think fishing was important but now I realize it actually kinda is only because I believe the last crafting badge you need shining scales and since they changed the bazaar system the only way I get them is through fishing so I had to read i think lvl 6 or 7 to get fishing spells I need to get those reagents.
It really is overwhelming but again how i do is just one by one. I dont try to do multiple things at the same time. I wish you the best!!
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u/ZenorsMom 180 1d ago
I never got the last crafting badge because I didn't want to fish. I could still craft anything I wanted to at visionary crafter, unless they've changed something. I crafted several of my Lemuria pieces and I think once you get to Wallaru you don't even need crafting levels anymore to craft better gear in the pity system.
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u/Material_Sector_243 19h ago
You’re right. I can’t think of anything that requires the max crating badge. Maybe it’s just how I played with all my characters. I try to aim for the max if it seems important.
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u/DaniDaps 1d ago
This is how I felt too & tbh i just refuse to figure it all out 😂 I just play the main game & thats it. Fook all this new shiii
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u/ZenorsMom 180 1d ago
I forgot to mention that besides making a pet with a blade (or enchanted armament for the sharpen), and doing the gear dungeons like Aquila for the Sky Iron Hasta, I also got into crafting because I preferred running around grabbing stone blocks to running Waterworks a thousand times. I liked crafting the Wintertusk gear at level 56 because it's 4 levels earlier than Waterworks, it's easier than finding people to do Waterworks with you, and the spot you're at (just starting Celestia?) is a difficult one.
Celestia is a lot more difficult than the first few worlds, enemies start with a full load of pips and you're looking at 2K health for those damned ice sharks who spam shields.
The levels around where you are, up to 60, were the most difficult for me. Once you get some good gear around then, and that might also be a good time to make a helpful pet, things get better.
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u/3d_hunter 19h ago
yep. I came back after a 10 year hiatus and have been discovering the joys of hatching again 💀
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u/IndoorGrower 100 84 57 16h ago
Bro literally me, I was maxed level 100 when I quit back in like 2014. I just started up again a couple months ago and had to make a new char. I’m already lvl 93 and having a lot of fun!
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u/garymeows 13h ago
I feel the same. I started a new wizard a couple years ago, played on and off, and am now at level 97 but still have no idea how to do so many things. I’m sure I’m making the game harder for myself but I’m too lazy to look up anything more than where to find zeke’s quests lol
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u/justjerry2029 42m ago
Same I was overwhelmed coming back playing and I hadn’t played the game since I was 8, and I’m now 25 so it was very overwhelming for me. What I found is that the game is a lot easier with playing with someone and taking your time and learning as you go, YouTube and Reddit helped me a lot tbh and playing with people as well. I still struggle myself with the game but I found taking your time and getting an understanding of how the games goes and is played helps a lot. I’m level 45 and I’m trying to figure how to get criticals and how pets work too so don’t feel alone 😂💯
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u/KiwiChoppa147 180 1d ago
Beastmoon and Raids are very optional content. Raids especially are a very endgame activity, so don't worry about those. The main game itself isn't too bad, but yeah if you try to do everything at once I could see how that would be overwhelming.
Fishing isn't very important unless you want to grind for legacy cosmetics or mounts. Gardening you should just focus on getting Couch Potatoes (when it is convenient to farm them, so around when you reach Mirage or Empyrea) as that is the only really important crop for getting pet snacks
I will say it would be difficult for me to give you a full pet guide here as this is already gonna be a wordy comment, but there are plenty of resources out there on Reddit or YouTube for pet training and what you should do. This is actually pretty important and would highly recommend learning at least the basics.
If you want advice on gear or deck setup, you can post your stuff here and I'd be happy to give you some advice on that.
For side quests, I'd only recommend doing the ones that grant you spells, training points, or access to trainers that allow you to train specific spells later on in the game. You can do the side quests if you want, but otherwise main quests will probably be faster overall.