Wizard101 Level 98 Spell Analysis (Shifts)

Wizard101 Level 98 Spells - Khrysalis Part 2

With Wizard101's release of Khrysalis Part 2, there comes three new sets of spells. The first I'll be covering will be the new shift spells. Much like crafted spells, there provide a number of unique effects along with some damage. They have the potential to be very powerful, but do they live up to our expectations upon closer review?

What are Shift Spells and Where do I Get Them?

Shift spells are essentially just attacks. To give them a creative twist, however, you will polymorph into a creature and use their natural attack instead of summoning a creature. You do not actually polymorph, then wait a round to cast it, you use the spell and will change, attack, and change back. To get these, you need to be level 98 or higher, and talk to Arkyn Moonblade in the Eclipse Tower back in the Moon Cliffs. You can train any and all that you choose, but you'll only get the one from your school for free.

The Trouble with Shifts

If these were four-pip spells, they'd be pretty appropriately powered and quite useful. The problem is, they're not. They're eight-pip spells, as no one can use power pips with Moon spells, and that decreases their usefulness almost to zero. I'm unsure if this is intended or not, as these are powered like rank four spells. If these were obtained at low levels, they might still be useful, but at this point, they are not.

Level 98 Fire Spell: Shift Grendel

Wizard101 Level 98 Fire Spell - Khrysalis Part 2 - Shift Grendel
Shift Grendel does 95 + 280 fire damage over three rounds, then adds a negative charm that's either -25%, -45%, or -60% accuracy. There's no real rank four spell to compare it to, as Fire's is an AoE, but their rank five spell is Phoenix, which does 515-595 damage, as compared to 375 and a ward from this spell. So if it were to change to four pips, it would be quite useful for stacking those wards while attacking to get rid of shields. Fire's eight-pip spell is Efreet, not only doing over two times the damage of Shift Grendel, but also adds a more powerful negative charm. Ultimately, this could be a very useful spell for Fire if it only cost four pips.

Level 98 Storm Spell: Shift Piscean

Wizard101 Level 98 Storm Spell - Khrysalis Part 2 - Shift Piscean
Shift Piscean does 350 Storm damage and steals one pip from an enemy. That makes the pip cost only seven (or potentially three), but taking that one pip won't prevent an attack the same round that uses that pip, and the lower damage is not entirely impressive. Compared to Kraken, Storm's four-pip spell doing 520-580 damage, it isn't terribly effective at such a high level. Even if it only cost four pips, I have to conclude that Storm got cheated here, and won't have an additional weapon for their arsenal with Shift Piscean. What might be more appropriate for four pips is 425 Storm damage and steal two pips. That'd be one worth using. Or perhaps, if it remained eight pips, it could be a 100 + 250 damage over three rounds and steal one pip spell.

Level 98 Balance Spell: Shift Thornpaw

Wizard101 Level 98 Balance Spell - Khrysalis Part 2 - Shift Thornpaw
Shift Thornpaw does 290 Balance damage and add a 10% accuracy charm and 10% armor piercing charm to the caster. Balance struck gold with Loremaster, and now they might have yet another spell to make use of. This is an attack with two positive charms instead of negative ones, and that alone makes the spell pretty powerful. At four pips, this would be quite useful to Balance, especially considering the fact that their other rank four spell is an AoE. However, compare it to their rank nine or ten spell (eight and seven are AoEs), and it isn't of much use. If these are changed, it may be one of Balance's new major attacks, and will be particularly useful in PvE where buffing yourself is usually more important than negative charms on enemies (Loremaster).

Level 98 Life Spell: Shift Greenoak

Wizard101 Level 98 Life Spell - Khrysalis Part 2 - Shift Greenoak
Shift Greenoak does 250 Life damage, adds a -25% damage to the enemy, and adds a +25% damage charm to the caster. I'm a huge fan of spells that place all kinds of things like this. Life got a good one. Compared to Seraph's 335-395 damage, this isn't any too bad, and the wards would lead me to swap the two any day. But right now, it costs eight pips, and that makes it a definite no for Life wizards. Should they be changed, however, Life will definitely have gotten one of the most powerful new Shift spells.

Level 98 Ice Spell: Shift Dread Paladin

Wizard101 Level 98 Ice Spell - Khrysalis Part 2 - Shift Dread PaladinShift Dread Paladin does 270 Ice damage, and then places a trap that is either +15%, +30%, or +45% damage. That's something already, as this trap is universal and therefore this might be a huge, huge spell for non-Ice wizards wishing to break shields without removing blades and placing a little extra damage trap. And with these being Moon spells, they could potentially be very useful for more than just their designated school. Compared to Blizzard, this isn't bad at all, but again, for eight pips, it's not worth using.

Level 98 Myth Spell: Shift Ogre

Wizard101 Level 98 Myth Spell - Khrysalis Part 2 - Shift Ogre
Shift Ogre does 310 Myth damage and removes all wards and charms from the enemy. Now for eight pips, this seems to be the first spell that might actually be worth using, especially time you place a Gargantuan on it. The problem is that Myth already has Shatter, and unless you're having trouble finding Enfeebles or ways or encountering a lot of blade-stackers (which is actually quite possible), you could just use Shatter for five fewer pips. In fact, you could use Shatter and an Enfeeble treasure card for fewer pips than this guy. However, other schools don't necessary have that option, and while this might be a poor choice for PvE, it can't be that bad for PvP. If it IS changed to four pips or you can use power pips with it, I'd say you actually need to bring the damage way down or remove the effect of either removing charms or wards. Very powerful.

Level 98 Death Spell: Shift Sugar Glider

Wizard101 Level 98 Death Spell - Khrysalis Part 2 - Shift Sugar Glider
Shift Sugar Glider does 290 Death damage and places a -25% damage charm and a -50% healing charm on the enemy. Death has gotten cheated with a lot of their spells in pip cost and power, but assuming this gets changed to four pips, this won't be one of those times. At eight pips, this is again underpowered and nearly useless, but at four, it becomes the Loremaster of the Death school. Place a Gargantuan on this, and it's and incredibly useful shield-breaker (or even damage spell), and also packs the Weakness and Infection. As much as I hate to admit it, this is pretty powerful. I'd bring that damage down to 175 or 200. But then, if it remains eight pips, it won't be useful at all.

Solutions to Shifts

The way I see it, these need to cost only four pips. They're powered like four-pip spells, and they aren't going to be very useful otherwise. There are three ways to do it - first, allow each school to use power pips with their spell. This is the most complicated option, but also prevents some problems created with others. The second is to reduce the pip cost on the card to two. This is the easiest option, but also means that we can essentially use power pips with every spell, which could really shake things up, but wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. After all, we all have the same pip cost for every spell right now.

Wizard101 All Level 98 Shift Spells - Khrysalis Part 2

The third is to create a Moon mastery amulet. This would be interesting, as there are only a few spells it's truly be useful for (i.e. these), and it might also be difficult to farm for. If it's anything like Exalted Amulets, this choice is out for me. KingsIsle has to keep in mind that they actually want people to use these spells and add that extra layer of depth to the game, and that won't easily be accomplished (or really accomplished at all) through a Moon mastery or leaving the spells as they are.

What do you think of these new Shift spells?


Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral! Credits: Big thanks to flash33 for the spell card images. Published with his permission.

11 comments:

  1. I really like the Shift spells because I feel it's a new ground for the Moon school. Many people just pass this school by, but now it could make a really good advantage in game-play.

    I really wish you didn't say the cost 8-pips because it's assuming that in 4 rounds you will have 4 power pips and that's not true. My Promethean Death Wizards still can get a couple of pips in the battles he goes through. They cost 4 pips as said. They just don't go toward your Power pips.

    I didn't know spells that correspond to school will be given free to that school. When I looked at Arkyn Moonblade's inventory, it appeared all of them costed 1 training point. I'll check this on Monday though.

    I'm most in favor of either a Pip decrease or an allowing Power Pips to work with the spells (only for schools that correspond with the spell). A Pip decrease will make the spells heavily more useful and really put the Moon School back up there. My only fear is that in decreasing the pips, will cause the damage to go down.
    Allowing power-pips to work with the spells will create a whole new dynamic for them game. Since Astral spells are for universal usage, may be spells like these should warrant universal power pip usage.
    I don't like the idea of a Moon School Mastery Amulet because there is such little use for it. It would more than likely be restricted to Level 95+ (because these spells only work in that range), cost probably 9995 Crowns (for using maybe 1-2 spells? Really?), and be hard to come by within the game (Waterworks or Tartarus? Your choice).

    Maybe a fourth option could be to in crease all the spells to be in the 350-475 damage range or increase their percentage after-effects to make them more desirable.

    Also another suggestion for the Shift Piscean spell is to:
    A.) Increase the damage to 370 and add "Stun 1 Round" to the spell so it's more in line with the other spells.
    B.) Add a universal Windstorm side effect
    C.) your suggestion but more so at 380.

    I think you've also forgotten (or at least didn't mention) a few factors to these spells that make them 4-pip spells:
    -These spells have 100% Accuracy, so you get instant effects.
    -These spells are slightly based off of creature natural attacks which make them somewhat at lower power.

    Overall, I pleased with the spells but they should definitely do a few improvements on the Pip Cost and maybe tweak Shift Piscean.

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  2. Interesting post and I also like 'Nonny's comments.

    I was wondering if there might be a side quest, in Part 2, relating to the Moon school? A quest that gave Moon mastery.

    .This would mean that the Moon Masters could use the spells for white or power pips.

    I'd imagine that the moon master quest would have to work like an individual school spell quest. A one on one battle. With a new badge of 'Master of the Moon' after success.

    It would be so cool if such a quest did exist. Has anyone completed all of Part 2 and all of the side quests yet?

    Once again, interesting post and thanks for the explanations of how all the spells work.

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  3. I am a myth wizard, and assuming you have all power pips, earthquake could do the same effect for less pips to all enemies. This makes the shift completely useless. They need to do something that would make it more useful like lowering the cost, but to me the use of power pips would be the best option.

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  4. What if since they all do specifice school damage, they use power pips for THAT school? Like Greenoak would use powerpips for a life but not a myth?

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  5. Part of the nature of moon spells is constant change. While I haven't had actual experience with these spells as of yet, I do know that as a level 93, no moon spells previously have cost pips. It could be that in keeping with the moon theme of change that any power pips would work for any moon spell.

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  6. Myth one OP, it attacks and remove all traps, which is awesome. Kinda over power isn't it?

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    1. I am pretty sure you don't get any of the spells for free, since they are all moon school, technically.

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  7. Storm one isn't unqiue, but all the other classes are good

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  8. Hate them all. I mean these were supposed to be the big finish, the badge of mastery indicative of hours, if not days spent trying to get them. And this was the best they could come up with? Pass.

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    1. Really? I think these could be incredibly useful if they only cost four pips. But that's a BIG if. Right now they've been changed to 3 (6, because anyone level 98 and up is gaining power pips 95% of the time unless they have a gear issue), and so they're not very useful. We'll see.

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  9. Still have not managed to get any of these yet, though I am finally on the final part of Khrysalis but I believe that I am very close now, so, this is why I was re-reading - to help me decide which to get.

    And have just noticed - the spell pictures now show that they are 4 pips and not 8 - so looks like your comment that they would be useful if they were 4 pips was heeded :)

    Cool.

    Oh and congratulations on your 3rd Bloggiversary!

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