Wizard101 has released a new Halloween pack - the Harrowing Hoard! This unique new card pack contains guitar weapons, new gear, a new pet, and ghostly wing mounts in three colors! Take a look at my thoughts on the new pack here!
The Harrowing Hoard Pack
This new pack is now available in the Crown Shop, with the official announcement page being HERE. You can purchase the pack for only 299 crowns! These packs provide a chance at rare items.
So far, I've only seen one or two permanent mounts, but a lot of rentals. It appears that the trend with this pack is that you'll get general Halloween items for 6/7 slots, then one will give you a guaranteed Harrowing Hoard item - most likely a rental wings mount, but potentially new gear, weapons, or that pet! Grab a few today!
Gear That's Perfect For Halloween
These new gear sets are pretty great. They not only look cool, they have decent stats, too. The hat is a top hat with a half skeleton mask. The outfit has a pumpkin shoulder guard and spider web textures galore. The boots are the classic striped socks and shoes. Awesome!
What sets this pack apart from others is that there aren't just three sets. There are three sets, with each style having a stat set for each school. So, if I'm not mistaken, that's 63 new items to get. Then you've got either 7 or 21 new wands depending on how those work, plus the mounts and pet put the total new item count somewhere around 74-88, as opposed to packs normally having 14 or so.
Overall Gear Rating: B+
Pets and Mounts Sure to Please
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| Alric Ravensinger's new pet |
These new mounts, for as simple as they are, look very cool. Their special effects are awesome, and even their idle animations are entirely unique, as opposed to wings in the past which simply borrow animations from either the dragon wing style or the faerie wing style. Swordroll approves. They go perfectly with the outfit.
The pet is a creature that originated in Azteca, but that we also see not only as a boss, but a companion in Pirate101. We know them as Grim Calacas, but the "Harrowing Bones" pet is a miniature version that I'm quite fond of. The Petnome Project has started a page for the pet HERE.
Overall Pet and Mount Rating: A-
New Wands with Crazy Critical!
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| Alura Silver's Death weapon |
There appear to be anywhere from seven to twenty-one new wands, with at least one geared for each school. These wands feature insane critical, with Storm getting a 223 bonus! These wands appear to be pretty darn good, but their stats just might hurt them more than anything.
The wands certainly look cool - there's no arguing there. The little guitars are to die for. However, the insane critical reinforces the two extremes we see in PvP today - Jadezillas and Crit Monsters. Now, to be fair, the insane critical setups were a result of the high-defense, "turtle" setups, but I don't see why we're not working to gradually balance out gear instead of push it to opposite ends of the spectrum.
Overall Wand Rating: C-
Pack Drop Rates Disappoint
You'd think that with one of these items guaranteed each pack (though it's mostly one-day rentals) that I'd be satisfied, and maybe a year or two ago, I would have. But when Pirate101 started releasing packs, they set a new standard in the world of KingsIsle. Their "filler" items were all brand-new furniture. They didn't have a bunch of useless snacks and reagents. Instead, the snacks from their packs are megas! Plus, you've got a shot at multiple companions on top of pets and gear that will help you outside of looking great.
This pack had a lot of potential with its item in the third slot each purchase, but gave up the chance at being a must-buy pack when it was filled with existing Halloween items that are essentially free at the Bazaar, on top of old Nightmare gear and snacks and reagents and treasure cards that are entirely too common and hardly useful for the average wizard.
Overall Drop Rate Rating: D-
To Buy or Not to Buy
That is the question, isn't it? My advice: Definitely try your hand at a few of these packs. It's not very hard to get a set of gear, and all of those one-day mounts will last a little while as well. But once you have that, my advice is to not to buy excessively. I think that in the future, I'd love to see the drop rates remain constant in packs, but to have a few new items added as opposed to filling with old gear. But... I've certainly purchased my share of packs already! Give it a try and let me know what you find!
Overall Pack Rating: B-
Compare to:
Winter Wonder Pack (B+) | Gloomthorn Nightmare Pack (A) | Immortal's Lore Pack (C+) | Witch's Hoard Pack (B-) | Road Warrior's Hoard Pack (A) | Terror's Hoard Pack (A-)
although almost everytime i bought the pack(18,000 crowns spent) i got the common outfits and wands, i still have to say that the mount is to die-IF ONLY THEY WOULD MAKE THE PERCENTAGE OF GETTING A PERMANENT ONE A LITTLE HIGHER!!!! >:( !!! BUT i gotta say the outfits, pets, and mounts are very cool and a HUGE improvement to the nightmare pack. Although sense i'm ice i got like nothing i could actually use really :( still i recommend!
ReplyDeleteNice review. I also got a few packs. Am loving the hat half mask with its little tongue sticking out. All the clothing looks good.
ReplyDeleteNot too sure about the guitar wands. Not the stats, more that they are flat and that noise is bound to get irritating after a while.
I'm also with you on not particularly liking the fillers.
And congrats on getting the pet!
That outfit definetly suits you. also, im having trouble getting the halloween fish. could you please do a post on that? thanks.
ReplyDelete-Liam redstaff
Hey, thanks!
DeleteI'm not sure the Halloween fish are worth a whole post of explaining, but let me point you in the right direction.
I would first take a look at this guide. Scroll down to the bottom where it says "Seasonal Fish."
http://www.swordroll.com/2014/07/wizard101-fish-school-guide.html
I'll frequently mention clearing a pond. There are two ways to do this: Either run through all the fish to scare them away and wait a bit for them to respawn, or use the Summon Fish spell (no need to scare them away first in that case). Keep in mind that changing realms doesn't change fish.
1) The Black Catfish is in the Commons. It's the only Death fish in the pond, so use your Reveal School spell, and if you don't see it, clear the pond and try again.
2) The Frankenfish is in Unicorn Way and it's the only Storm fish there. Reveal School (potentially multiple times as you make your way around the "river" to check all the fish), and look for Storm. If there are no Storm fish, clear the pond and try again.
3) The most difficult fish to catch is the Vampire Squid in Cyclops Lane. He's a Death fish. Check in the biggest pond area, not either of the rivers, and catch all of the Death fish, ignoring the others. If you don't find one, clear the pond and try again. It may be helpful here to watch for it to load on the left side of your screen. Then you'll know that one is someone in the water at that time.
Best of luck!