Wizard101 July Test Realm Thoughts, Feedback, and Bugs

The Test Realm is drawing to a close, but several bugs remain and it's not too late to give feedback. Here are my thoughts and suggestions for this latest Wizard101 update!

Ultra Pets

• Thanks for making the ultra level 2000 XP and not 4000. 
• I'm glad KingsIsle decided to reinstate an option to view the old pet interface.
• I was pleasantly surprised by pet jewels and the pet pack giving them so commonly.
• I would like to see the jewel awarded at Ultra on a pet come from the pet talent pool itself, or something other than a random one. Presently, the majority of jewels are selfish talents, and while the community of derby players may be thrilled, there's not a lot so far for others. With the likelihood of getting a selfish jewel at ultra, I have noticed many players feeling that it's not worth training a pet there unless they already have a jewel they'd like to affix. I'd love to see an alternative to help engage players in leveling pets to this new tier.
• Stat boosts granted by pet jewels are not able to be maxed. [More Info]

Ultra Dungeons

• Ultra Dungeons are a big indication to me that KingsIsle has been very closely listening and responding to player feedback and concerns.
• The concept of bringing back old bosses is great, and leaves the door wide open for future gauntlets of a similar nature.
• Rattlebones's difficulty is too extreme, and the cheats in the dungeon appear to be broken. Disallowing or punishing for Feints, blades, and heals is a bit excessive.
• There are a couple of potential solutions. First, you could change the Fairy's cheat so that she casts Enfeeble on the person who plays the blade. Alternatively, she could cast Enfeeble only if you blade yourself.
• Giving Rattlebones gear nearly as powerful as Malistaire's was actually a great idea. It gives "normal" players, and even your target audience, a chance to get a solid set and be competitive in PvP.
• Krokopatra uses her beguile quite often. In fact, she spams it on the person in first, it seems. I'm unsure if this is intentional. Either way, the fight is not too tough.
• Meowiarty is just challenging enough with Jaques. Katzenstein makes him a little tougher, but not impossible.
• The Marleybone furniture drops from this boss were a great addition.
• Zeus's difficulty is challenging but not ridiculous; it is the perfect difficulty level, and the different immortals make it my favorite dungeon of the four.
• Including old bundle gear and designs with updated stats was a great idea and much appreciated by players.
• The moon spells on some of the new jewels are going to suffer in popularity just as the Khrysalis moon spells do because they are not up-to-par for what is essentially an eight-pip requirement given that they're level 95+.
• Wrath of Cronus, for example, adds 85 damage to Earthquake, increases the pip cost by 3, then only hits one enemy. These spells are simply not realistic. They don't need to be overly powerful, simply usable.
• This is, again, particularly true with the shifts, which are costing wizards EIGHT pips, as, with the addition of jewels, having under 100% power pip chance is becoming increasingly unusual.
• These dungeons and their drops are, overall, exactly what players needed. They drop a mote for cosmetic crafting, meaning tough dungeons aren't "required" for your average player. They drop ultra plants and decent gear, some of which is very powerful, but not a new "must-have," but instead a much-needed alternative to Darkmoor. They're also an engaging challenge.
• There was a big risk of pay-to-win with these, and it can be frustrating when the biggest part of new updates costs crowns for what isn't truly NEW content, but the fact that these are dropped is a good sign that that concern was noticed by KingsIsle before the Test Realm ever went live. I hope the drop rates from various bosses remain the same.

PvP Gear and New Age

• On some of the new gear, not just in PvP, I feel that there's more and more emphasis put on shadow enhancements. Malistaire's outfit gives two shadow traps. However, these can only be used for three spells. It might be nice to see some stun resistance start to build up in small quantities on new gear.
• Addressing puppeting has been requested for some time. The new solution seems to work (minus a few major bugs of team switching and such [More Info]), but does create some unforeseen consequences. If a level 100 wizard and his level 80 friend are doing 2v2, it's not puppeting, but they'll be paired with two level 100 wizards. 

Ultra Seeds and Gardening

• I'm loving the new gardening seed storage. I'm glad it's also craftable.
• I like the drop rate on ultra plants in both the new dungeons and from base versions of ultra plants.
• From what I have seen (and I've seen quite a few ultra harvests at this point), ultra plants are simply not providing enough rewards for the additional effort they appear to require. They are very rare and do not reseed at elder, so it's interesting that drops from one are generally less desirable than an EMP harvest, which would provide a duplicate of the plant, gold, perhaps treasure cards or reagents, and a rank 9 mega snack.

Celestia Fishing

• While I was a little disappointed there were only ten new fish with the update, it was a little refreshing after Dragonspyre.
• Celestia has a lot of places where you can actually get IN the water, and that makes fishing much less frustrating and much more fun.
• Right now, there are two beaches on the Floating Lands with fish - Blue Sky Beach and the one off the Water Mole village. I think these have a ton of potential, but I'd love to be able to walk out just a little further so that we can actually reach fish beyond just the edge of the area. This would probably make the beach a very popular fishing destination.

School Mounts and Crafting

• School mounts have been yet another long-time request that KingsIsle has so wonderfully fulfilled in this update.
• These mounts make of particle effects are something I think a lot of players hoped for but that they never imagined KingsIsle would actually create. I think it's safe to say that everyone was pleasantly surprised.

Other

• Additional idea: Could we add to the pet attributes which ones increase fishing luck?
• With this update and the exalted duels in particular, I think it's an important time to request this: I'd like to see full lists and/or sorting options on the inspect tool. Currently, it will show only the highest-level bosses. However, in some cases, an item is dropped from different, lower-level bosses, and that information would be useful to viewers. 
• It is very difficult for testers to try out new things for bugs when they are restricted on the Test Realm.
• Requiring Warlord after a PvP reset is not going to provide adequate testing for the new Sword and Shield pets that require the rank.
• Many users are running out of crowns within a single day to play exalted gauntlets, and given that not all drops have been discovered an tested, it's essential that this testing continue.
• Players are attempting to train pets to Mega often with few or no snacks. Mega Snacks are removed from the Test Realm, which is not only an impediment to testing, but I'd also think that trying out pets would be a sort of member perk for those who purchased in the last 30 days or are members.
• We haven't obtained jewels for all of the Olympus bosses yet, and even when we do, they are 9 pips and often from a different school, so testing their actual animations and sound and effects is tough if a player isn't carrying enough crowns (2/3 of their TR balance) to buy a mastery amulet.
• Several new bosses receive second-chance chests with this update. I think if any boss in the game deserves one, it's Malistaire the Undying.
• The new chest mechanic for awarding drops can be frustrating because it limits the player to one set instead of two, but if you placed both sets inside a chest for Malistaire, this would be a huge relief to players who have a hard time completing the battle without having to flee and return at least once (often causing loss of at least one drop set).

Thanks, KingsIsle, for all your hard work. By no means should recommendations underplay just how fantastic this update is.

What do you think of the update?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!