July 8, 2020  November 5, 2023

Wizard101 Spell Changes
Summer 2020 Test Realm

Overall, the KI developers really put a lot of work into the first major patch of Summer 2020’s test realm. Mattnetic confirmed on Twitter that he planned to do a full spell audit, and KingsIsle has definitely put the hard work into this gruelling task. We’ll be going over all spell changes detailing what changed from the previous version, and give our thoughts about them.

Why have these changes happened?

The answer here is not quite as straightforward as you’d think. We do suggest checking out Eric Stormbringer’s article detailing why the shadow school spell nerfs took place.

What has changed so far?

First of all, it is important to remark that these changes are still on test realm where anything can change. After all, test realm is for testing, so make sure to jump on, test these new spell adjustments and submit your constructive feedback. With each patch to test realm, we are seeing more and more changes, so we have divided this article in separate parts.

Patch 4 Spell Changes – July 20th – 21st

Patch 3 Spell Changes – July 15th

Patch 2 Spell Changes – July 13th

Patch 1 Spell Changes – July 8th

Patch 4 Spell Changes

Balance School Spell Changes

Ra

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage Reduced by 140 Damage
  • -40% Attack Debuff now Added to all enemies after attack

Thoughts: I think most Balance wizards will prefer more damage as opposed to increased debuffs. Not sure how I feel about this

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Death School Spell Changes

Dr. Von’s Monster

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage Reduced by 100
  • Infection is now a -50% healing debuff

Thoughts: I think I speak on behalf of most deaths when I say that I’d rather have more damage over an infection.

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Ice School Spell Changes

Snowball Barrage

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Now does 95 Ice Damage per pip to all opponents

Thoughts: Why? Just why? This is an AOE Judgement. I’m expecting a nerf on this one.

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Shadow School Spell Changes

Dark Fiend

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduced Damage by 30

Thoughts: Honestly, 30 damage doesn’t seem like a lot, but with the lack of shadow buffs, it makes a large difference. I’m not too worried.

Dark Nova

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduced by 400 Damage

Thoughts: This spell could pack a punch before, but I’m still not worried about it because of the lack of shadow buffs available.

Dark Shepherd

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Increase of 65 damage

Thoughts: I never really used this spell on my death, so it doesn’t impact me as much. I think this mainly affects PvP players, and it’s nothing substantial to be concerned with.

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Patch 3 Spell Changes

There have been some changes to pip values in this patch. Any pip changes observed will be patched as they are currently bugged.

Balance School Spell Changes

Power Nova

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Now does 665 to all Opponents

Thoughts: Balance now has a low cost AOE that does a considerable amount of damage. A little more damage wouldn’t hurt though.

King Artorius

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction of 60 damage
  • Weakness is now -45% instead of -40%

Thoughts: This spell now became much more useful in PvP. More utility is always a plus, and for the loss of a little damage?

Sabertooth

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 195
  • Spell now gives Elemental and Spirit Shields (13 Pips is a bug)

Thoughts: This spell might be doing a little too much damage with the amount of utility it gives.

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Death School Spell Changes

Skeletal Dragon

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Initial hit reduced by 30 damage to 170.
  • DOT decreased by 30 damage to 780

Thoughts: This spell is more in line with other Death spells, and wasn’t nerfed too much.

King Artorius

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction of 15 damage
  • Increase in Infection debuff from 30% to 50%

Thoughts: This spell gave up very little damage for more utility. Combined with Bone dragon, some players might make some fearsome PvP combos.

Avenging Fossil

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction of initial Damage by 140.
  • DOT Increased by 10 Damage.

Thoughts: This spell didn’t really get too much of a change; the damage might be a little concerning at first, but Death’s full damage enchanted drains should make up for that.

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Fire School Spell Changes

Efreet

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 115
  • Negative Damage rebuff Reduced to -45% instead of -90%

Thoughts: This is a huge change, since the spell was initially overtuned. I personally believe that it’s more in tune with other rank 8 spells though, and that’s what makes it a beneficial change..

King Artorius

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 5

Thoughts: This spell is more balanced and in line with other fire spells.

Rain of Fire

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Initial hit decreased by 170
  • DOT increased by 10

Thoughts: This spell is still viable for cheating bosses such as the Renegade Druid, so I’m not too concerned.

Sun Serpent

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage of Initial hit reduced by 115
  • Damage of secondary hit increased by 30

Thoughts: The spell’s unique double hit mechanic is still pretty handy, and will still do a lot of damage.

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Ice School Spell Changes

Frostbite

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Initial hit increased by 10 damage
  • Dot Damage increased by 15

Thoughts: This spell became even more dangerous than it already was in PVP. Additional damage is going to be a little questionable.

Colossus

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Spell Damage increased by 15

Thoughts: The spell needed a buff, but I think it needs more damage. The fact that it barely does more than the Rank 4 Storm Spell is concerning.

Woolly Mammoth

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 60 Damage

Thoughts: This spell is more in tune with other Ice school spells. Definitely a good nerf, since the spell can still stun.

Lord of Winter

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 115

Thoughts: With the amount of utility this spell still offers, it’s still a great choice.

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Life School Spell Changes

Rebirth

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Increased  healing by 220
  • Pip Cost increased by 1

Thoughts: This spell just got much better, but still isn’t a viable alternative to Pigsie.

Gnomes!

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage Reduced by 40
  • Double Life Dispel Removed
  • 30% Healing Boost Charm Added

Thoughts: It’s a good way to rework Gnomes’ utility. Infection wasn’t a good method, and a double dispel was terrifying at best.

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Myth School Spell Changes

Medusa

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Spell Damage reduced by 70

Thoughts:  With the spell still keeping its unique 2 turn stun, the damage had to be lowered a little to be fair. Good nerf!

King Artorius

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Now Pierces before hitting
  • DOT Damage now does 195 less damage

Thoughts:  The spell gained much more utility, so I’m not worried about the reduced damage.

Basilisk

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Initial hit reduced by 5 Damage
  • DOT reduced by 75 damage.

Thoughts: The spell is now much more in line with other spells, and still provides high damage.

Celestial Calendar

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 140

Thoughts: With the spell still keeping its utility, a damage reduction was necessary. It’s still balanced.

Scion of Myth

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 140 from 1150 to 1010

Thoughts: This spell is extremely easy to achieve double damage with, so I’m not too worried about the nerf, since it’s more in line with other myth spells.

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Storm School Spell Changes

King Artorius

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage lowered by 5 from 1120 to 1115

Thoughts: I thought the accuracy buff is useless on this spell. I’m happy giving it up for more damage.

Leviathan

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage lowered by 55

Thoughts: A miniscule nerf in exchange for keeping the double disarm is fine.

Sirens

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage changed to (765-905)
  • No longer Removes two Charms from everyone
  • No longer reduces threat on everyone
  • Accuracy Debuff reduced to -40%

Thoughts: This spell’s reworks make it much more fair. It didn’t need all of what it had before. Its increased damage is a little scary too.

Storm Owl

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced from (1525-1625) to (1330-1470)

Thoughts: This spell now does a little less damage, but still a very high amount. I’m fine with it.

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Patch 2 Spell Changes

Balance School Spell Changes

Scion of Balance

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced from 1125 to 955 (-170)

Thoughts: This spell is very easy to get the double damage requirement for, so I’m not that disappointed by the change, especially since it’s more in line with other spells.

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Death School Spell Changes

Scion of Death

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction of damage by 125

Thoughts: This spell got a small nerf, but with enchants now giving their full value of damage, this nerf is virtually nonexistent.

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Fire School Spell Changes

Fire Dragon

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Initial Hit increased by 100 Damage
  • DOT increased by 84 Damage

Thoughts: The spell is still struggling to find a balance between a strong up front hit, as well as a good DOT. I think a little less initial damage will be the way to go.

Scion of Fire

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 80

Thoughts: This spell was already a very easy one to qualify for double damage, so I’m not too worried about this. A small nerf means nothing.

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Ice School Spell Changes

Snow Angel

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Initial hit reduced by 65 damage
  • Taunt Mechanic Removed

Thoughts: The spell was mainly used as a shield breaker and to kill using the DOT. However, with the removal of the taunt, this spell might see a higher use in group PvE.

King Artorius

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 75

Thoughts: The spell is more in tune with other Ice School Spells.

Scion of Ice

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 170

Thoughts: This is a substantial nerf, but the spell did a disproportionate amount of damage before.

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Life School Spell Changes

King Artorius

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced by 55

Thoughts: Not a huge nerf, especially since Life has some alternative hits.

Spinysaur

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Initial hit decreased by 125 Damage
  • Overtime Decreased by 60 Damage

Thoughts: This spell does a lot less damage, but is much more balanced.

Scion of Life

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Heal increased by 380.

Thoughts:  I still wouldn’t use this spell. This needs to be an aoe heal for life to get more value out of this.

Wings of Fate

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage is now dealt as 75 +375 over 3 turns as opposed to 525 over 3 turns
  • Healing is now dealt as 75+ 780 over 3 turns as opposed to 525 over 3 turns

Thoughts: This spell became more useful, but needs more upfront healing.

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Myth School Spell Changes

Mystic Colossus

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Spell now pierces before the hit, instead of shattering after the hit
  • Damage reduced  by 245 to 635 damage

Thoughts: This spell is still struggling to find the right equilibrium between damage and utility. I believe a happy median between the latest two versions might be the best damage.

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Storm School Spell Changes

Scion of Storm

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage increased by 125 from 1275 to 1400

Thoughts: This buff makes me nervous, since it did a lot of damage already. I understand it might be on a better damage per pip scale, but this may require a nerf.

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Patch 1 Spell Changes

Balance School Spell Changes

Hydra

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Each head now does 230 Damage each, as opposed to 190 Damage Each (+40 damage each;120 total)

Thoughts: Balance needed more powerful hits, I think it’s a great idea!

Chimera

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Each head now does 345 Damage Each , as opposed to 340 Damage Each (+5 damage each;15 total)

Thoughts: While this is a small buff, it is a buff nonetheless. This update gives Balance a few more options to hit with

Gaze of Fate

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Spell now does 325 Balance Damage and 345 Random School Damage instead of 550 Balance Damage and 550 Random School Damage
  • -5% Accuracy

Thoughts: The spell is starting to become more balanced. I’d hope for a tiny bit more damage though.

Nested Fury

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Spell now has fixed values for each school damage. It will either do 805 Ice damage, 970 Fire Damage, or 1050 Storm Damage, as opposed to doing 818-866 damage of one of those schools.

Thoughts: I’m happy knowing the spell has more consistent spell damage values. The Fire and Storm Damage Provide a nice amount of damage.

Sand Wurm

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage decreased from 1020 to 768 (-252)

Thoughts: This spell valued at 4 pips and a shadow pip was doing a bit too much. I believe the right balance was found to be in line with the other spells.

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Death School Spell Changes

Scarecrow

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage increased from 400 to 590 (+190)

Thoughts: I love this buff! Scarecrow gives so much utility with its drain, and now it also does a good amount of damage too!

Qismah’s Curse

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage decreased from 1020 to 768 (-252)

Thoughts: This spell was far too strong. At 4 pips, doing a thousand damage was overkill.

Call of Khrulhu

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage decreased from 830 to 675 (-155)
  • – 5% Accuracy

Thoughts: Khrulhu’s nerf makes it less overpowered, and much more fair.

Winged Sorrow

 

Changes from Live Realm

  • Damage lowered from (850-1030) to (940-1120)
  • Weakness lowered from -30% to -20%

Thoughts: I’m not particularly sure why this spell was nerfed, but the damage is more in line with other spells.

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Fire School Spell Changes

Scorching Scimitars

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction of damage from 1092 to 876 (-216 damage)

Thoughts: Doing 1092 damage with only 4 pips was a tad bit overkill. A nerf was welcome for this spell.

Fire From Above

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction in damage from (1100-1300) to (960-1080) (-140 damage)
  • -5% Accuracy

Thoughts: Finding the equilibrium for this spell’s damage is going to be tricky. This damage seems well placed though.

Raging Bull

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction in damage from (775-900) to (705-825) (-70 damage)
  • Accuracy Debuff Increased from -25% to -40%

Thoughts: This Spell’s Damage wasn’t affected very much, but the accuracy debuff was dramatically increased. I’ll be curious to see how PvPers react to this.

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Ice School Spell Changes

Frost Giant

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction of damage from 475 to 460 (-15 damage)

Thoughts: Minor as it was, I’m not really sure why this change was made. The spell was fairly balanced.

Climaclysm

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage reduced from 984 to 732 damage (-252)

Thoughts: Being able to do about a thousand damage for 4 pips is too strong in my opinion. Good nerf!

Abominable Weaver

 

Changes from Live Realm

  • Damage Reduced from (950-1150) to (790-910) (-160 Damage)
  • Shield reduced from 75% to 50% (-25%)
  • -5% Accuracy

Thoughts: This spell was due for rebalancing. The shield it gave was just far too much, and it dealt too much damage. This will take some time to find the perfect numbers though.

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Life School Spell Changes

Guardian Spirit

Changes:

  • Now useable in PVP

Thoughts: The spell should have more viable counters, and is a little more balanced in PVP.

Forest Lord

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage Increased from (540-620) to (620-680)
  • Now 7 Pip spell instead of 8 Pips

Thoughts: Life wizards were always asking for a harder hitting aoe. With the pip cost also reduced, this spell will really help them.

Lamassu

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction of damage from 984 to 732 (-252)

Thoughts: Doing almost a thousand damage with just 4 pips is too overpowered in my opinion. I’m happy the nerf was made.

Hungry Caterpillar

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage Reduced from (950-1150) to (790-910)
  • -5% Accuracy

Thoughts: With the reduced accuracy and damage while still keeping the 800 absorb, this spell is balanced in my opinion

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Myth School Spell Changes

Earthquake

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Damage increased from 310 to 370 (+60 Damage)

Thoughts: Giving Myth a more powerful aoe is a great idea. Ratbeard has said that he’s looking at more alternatives for Mystic Colossus. Zafaria will be a nightmare with this spell though.

Orthrus

 

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Spell has now been made an AOE (Same total amount of damage with 700)

Thoughts: This. Is. HUGE. Myth now has a very good high damage aoe, a tool it severely lacked before level 100.

Witch’s Housecall

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Increase in damage from (992-1132) to (1035-1175) (+43 damage)

Thoughts: The increase in spell damage will be welcome for Myth wizards.

Snake Charmer

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction of damage from 1056 to 840. (-216 Damage)

Thoughts: Being able to do 1056 damage with just four pips to one person was a little too strong, even with a shadow pip. Keeping in mind that the divide spells are not really intended as AOEs, the nerf was well done.

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Storm School Spell Changes

Iron Sultan

Changes from Live Realm:

  • Reduction of damage from 1152 to 948. (-204 Damage)

Thoughts: Being able to do 1152 damage with just four pips to one person was a little too strong, even with a shadow pip. The nerf was well done.

Glowbug Squall

Changes from Test Realm Version:

  • Damage increased to 940 from 730 (+210)
  • Removal of Blade Removal Mechanism
  • -5% Accuracy

Changes from Live Realm Version:

  • Damage Reduction from 1120 to 940 (-180 Damage)
  • Removal of Enfeeble Effect
  • -5% Accuracy

Thoughts: I’m very happy about this. The enfeeble/disarm wasn’t something I relied on, and I would much rather have raw damage. The accuracy is a fair trade off.

Rusalka’s Wrath

Changes from Previous Version:

  • Damage raised from 1165 to 1350 (+185 damage)

Changes from Live Realm

  • Damage Lowered from 1445 to 1350 (-95 Damage)

Thoughts: The damage increase from the first nerfed version is nice, and the damage doesn’t seem out of place. Good change!

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So what do you think about these spell changes?
Let us know in the comments!

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Dakota TitanHeart

Dakota's been playing Wizard101 for well over ten years now. He's seen a lot of change in the game, and loves to check everything out on his trusty Storm and Death. When an update comes out, expect to see him running around to create strategies and discover secrets. While he's more of a PvE player, Dakota isn't new to PvP, formerly a tournament PvPer. Nowadays, he spends his days playing Beastmoon and working on his fire wizard.

    42 COMMENTS

    • Jeffrey Zents Reply

      I have 7 wizards and have played for over 9 years. Do not like the nerfs. As a player who does not do PvP, ever, I slightly resent my spells for PvE being nerfed for the sake of the PvPers. I wish the game would have taken the time to develop a way to auto nerf the spells only in PvP if they thought that was necessary, but leave us that only PvE alone. The change to Fire Dragon I do not mind, but I will probably stop using Effrete (spelling sorry, in a hurry) with that damage except when needing to prism forces me to use a one hit spell. Sad, now the animation looks overblown. Nerfing Sirens was insane. Nobody depended on the utility aspect, so nerf that if you want, but not the damage. Storm should never had spells with damage and utility, they were the Rocky Balboas of the damage. Myth, yes, they were more the boxer type like Apollo Creed, but storm and fire and hitters. Fire utility should have been its AoE combined with DoT. My balance got some benefits, like the change to PowerNova, but Ra and Saber were ruined. Understand my point of view. I do not run in a group (my daughter and I help each other on very rare occasions), so I need my spells to hit hard and not fizzle (why I would risk my life with a 65% accuracy spell like Glowbug Squall is beyond me). So overall, not happy and anticipate have to work harder to advance my wizards. I do not wish the PvP crowd and ill will, but not happy with what their influence has done to the game.

    • Skipph Reply

      Heyho, nice article! When do you suppose from your experience, we get those update on Mainserver?

      Aaand no one mentonied some of the most broken things in w101.

      1)Minions
      As long, as we cant choose their card uses and targets, they are sadly still quite useless. Hoped for a rebalance of them for years but no one seem to care.

      2)Provoke
      The for Provokings paid Pips are not much more worth then for attacks used. So even with Provokespells an Tank cant hold against Lifestealers and DDlers. They should count them at last 6-10 times as high as otherwise used (Heal/Damage). I never ever meet an worse MMO provoke system, than in w101.

      Greets
      Skipph

      • Cody RavenTamer Reply

        They actually are already on the live game 😉
        As for the unaffected spells, I wouldn’t rule them out yet. The spell audit only hit the higher rank spells for the time being.

        • Skipph Reply

          Ah yes, thx! Didnt recognise the higher ones to have changed. Always wished to play a myth but dont wanna frog till lvl 100, so cant wait for the Orthorus change to finnaly start one ^^

    • Zuriel Reply

      Lol i realized alot of these nerfs were made based on pvp mainly,\

    • Rogan Owlpyre Reply

      Is no one going to point out that Fire Dragon does more than Rain of Fire now?

    • gpmtn Reply

      I feel like they should have just made efreet a 9 pip and rain of fire an 8 pip, that way efreet could keep the damage it had. I still approve of the weakness nerf, that thing was op, but the damage is kinda low for my taste. Rain of fire would be more worth it as well. 9 pips for a dot that is weaker than fire dragon is kind of unappealing.

    • TheRealSeeth Reply

      these spell changes are very dumb every spell should be 2k base dmg besides the ice ones

    • Chiraux Reply

      This most recent iteration feels a bit rushed… Like, clearly they understand that the king art utilities are overall not very useful, so they took the accuracy charm off of storm to increase. To my knowledge, though, it seems that they only took it from storm. Why? I understand making some schools more supportive, but if nobody values the side effects, make them useful so that the reduced damage makes more sense. Or better yet, do what you did with storm and take one off! It’s confusing sometimes why they do what they do how they do.

      • Amram Torczyner Reply

        Storm King Art should definitely have an effect; it’s too strong without one. Owl should be the same. However, Storm doesn’t have many utility options associated with it. It’s all blade removal, and Leviathan already does that at 8 pips. That’s why it was given the useless accuracy buff in the first place. If test realm wasn’t already four weeks old, I’d guess that they’re going to add a different utility. At this point, that seems unlikely.

        • Chiraux Reply

          Frankly, to continue on this response would take ages and get nowhere. I understand why you would believe that, I just don’t. Also not sure what you might think about the other King Arts, the main subject of that point. There are just way too many questions that would have to be answered. What purpose should storm serve? What alternate DPP would fix owl, or what utility wouldn’t break owl? If you think a utility should be added just to reduce the damage, you haven’t argued why that’s good, and the utility added in place matters tremendously to the balancing of the spell.

          • Anonymous Reply

            Well obviously the point of storm was to have damage, if you take damage away you ruin the purpose of storm. The reason they didn’t reply is because this is common sense. If they aren’t going to add a utility the damage really needs to be higher not lower.

    • Wolf L Reply

      It might be worthwhile to add a note about the current (fourth) iteration of Snowball Barrage, pointing out that the current adjustment is a nerf assuming the spell was cast at 12 or fewer pips (1140 vs 1150 @ 12), and only a buff if cast at 13 or 14 pips (1235 vs 1225 @ 13). I wouldn’t consider that to be stronger, though I am curious why they added a “Shadow Pip Damage” part and then took it away. This is a nerf, not a buff.

      I like the change to Ra – it’s not meant to do damage at this point. If you want to do damage, you use your rank 7 spell (unless you’re Ice and it’s a utility spell instead for some reason). Ra is there to provide a useful utility – it’s a strong AoE Weakness that also does some damage, not a weak AoE attack that also applies a Weakness.

    • Brittany Walker Reply

      I think Mystic Colossus should deal more damage. Myth is already an underplayed school for PvE. Given that mystic colossus is supposed to be the most powerful aoe spell for myth, I don’t think it should deal less damage than orthrus, which is now the new 7-pip aoe. Why nerf one of myth’s signature spells so much when the school is already not so popular?

      • Wolf L Reply

        It’s not supposed to be the most powerful myth AoE – just the most expensive. The idea is that it should have some utility, and not just be all damage, which brings down the damage total. The timing isn’t great – it feels like a nerf of the most powerful spell and the buff of a weaker spell as a replacement. But you also need to think about it from two other perspectives.

        For a Myth wizard who doesn’t have Mystic Colossus yet – say they’re midway through Dragonspyre, or in any of the (roughly) five later worlds which come before they get access to it – this update is amazing. Finally, they have a viable AoE, and don’t have to rely on Frog. Mystic is off in the distant future. If you asked them whether they’d prefer a Mystic Colossus eventually which deals 750 damage and has no pierce or shatter effect (probably still too strong for Myth DpP, but whatever) or Orthrus as 700 damage immediately, few would agree to the trade.

        For someone who creates a Myth wizard post-update – say, next year – and hits max level, they may be disappointed that their Darkmoor spell is more of a utility spell. (It’s great against enemies who use Tower Shield or Legion Shield, for example.) But it doesn’t need to be much better, because they already have a damage AoE in Orthrus. There’s no need to replace it, since (post-nerf) very few enemies will have enough health to pose a problem for someone with plenty of blades, enchants, and Orthrus. There’s no expectation that it will replace the previous spells, so it doesn’t feel odd.

        In summary:
        – The idea that a new spell should replace a/every previous spell is logical, but not necessarily accurate.
        – Mystic Colossus is being nerfed because (as a consequence of the separate buff of the rank 7 spells) it doesn’t need to do a ton of damage, and maintaining the amount of damage it had previously done would have left it far above the power curve.
        – This only feels the way it does because current high-level players are used to the status quo. People will adjust, and there will be plenty of new players – and lower-level current players – who will look at things differently.

        • Brittany Walker Reply

          Hmm, if Mystic Colossus is going to be used as a utility spell, I’d recommend more than just one shield being removed. Often times, I think mobs will have more than one shield on them. Removing one shield and then hitting still seems underwhelming to me for a shadow spell. Removing 2-3 shields before hitting, or removing one blade as well would give Mystic Colossus the utility it deserves, imo.

      • Dakota TitanHeart Reply

        A shadow pip is currently equal to 3.6 regular pips. Mystic wasn’t meant to be the most powerful, just the most expensive. The fact that rank 7 aoes are getting buffed is a great sign for the future, since lower level players have a good aoe, and higher levels can use it as a no shadow pip hit.

        • Jeffrey Zents Reply

          Please remember that by changing Orthrus Myth lost its great 7 pip double hit spell, which is a utility of its own. Second, now why would you ever cast Medusa? The utility is not worth the extra pips and lower damage. Medusa just was rendered useless. Its value was when you needed to feint or prism a boss. Now cast Orthrus. It would have made more sense if they had reversed the pips, then the single hit spell would have had a higher DPP. Much in the same way that Leviathan was almost rendered useless now that the damage is not that much more than Triton 100 (points for two pips). Now spamming Triton rather than 1 hitting with Leviathan looks better. It should not, high spells should not be mere moderate hit spells with utilities added. Why bother collecting them. Who depends on utility spells? I do not. Fire used it DoTs to beat shields, Myth used its double hit spells to beat shields (of which they now have one less). Storm just punched the devil out of you. Now the trend seems to be cute and clever spells. I vent, sorry about that. But as a solo PvE player I am not happy. Sirens is ruined not only in terms of damage, but strategy. When it was a single value spell, you could be confident on what would happen, before the screwed with the critical anyway. Now it is always possible that you will cast a minimal damage sirens and end up screwed because the mob is not down or the minion of the boss survives to make one more hit.

          You are correct people who start post nerfville will not understand the issue. They will raise up their wizards in the strategic environment. But those who are leveling up now, especially those over level 50+ will have to relearn how to approach a lot. I run wizards from different schools for the variety. I did not expect KI to force that on my wizard in each school to make PvP happy.

          I know this vent is late and I owe the readers an explanation. Since covid I have spent much more time on teaching my classes, because they are all online. I had to stop and have cataracts out in October. My dog has been working with tumors, cancerous ones. So when I have played and I have usually run my Ice (my lowest level wiz) and done daily quests. I had noticed that something did not match my memories about Snow Angel’s damage. Last night was when I go to look into it. That is why the belated rants.

          So I have a question. When did Balance get a real damage aura to replace Power Play was it?

        • Jeffrey Zents Reply

          You overlook that in the case of Orthrus they have lost a great double hit spell, part of the method of Myth, to beat a shield. Now that is not just nerfed, it is gone. Now high level bosses that shield are as much a problem for Myth as Storm. That is not the way it is supposed to be. Myth was supposed to gain shield bypassing in exchange for less damage. Now gone, in one of its instances. Also, Myth did not need a 7 pip AoE. Proper handling of Frog and Earthquake was more than enough to get you up to Mystic Colossus. They seem to leveling the schools in regard to damage rather than over abilities: types of spells, what pure utility spells the school had (e.g. Shatter or Infection), gear. Leveling just in respect to damage seems shallow. I hope I am wrong and am willing to listen to an argument to that effect that does not depend on problems in PvP.

    • Swagrid Reply

      My suggestions for spell changes.

      Frost Giant: buff it to at least 590, because Scarecrow is 590 life steal damage, and Death Life steal damage is meant to be the minimum of the range of Ice’s normal damage, as seen with Wraith and Colossus. Death gets the full damage from enchantments now, so Frost giant is gonna be dealing 130 less damage, and have a much worse secondary effect (there is no way a stun is as valuable as life-steal damage).

      Mystic Colossus: in Test Realm currently removes 1 shield then deals 635, for 5 pips. There’s gonna be no point using this spell if a regular 7 pip spell is gonna do 65 more damage (Orthrus). The removal of one shield just isn’t worth it, it’s only going to be useful on rare occasions, and even then it only takes one more round to Shatter or Pierce the shield off. As KingsIsle has told us, a Shadow pip is worth 3.6 regular pips, which means Mystic Colossus is a bit more valuable than a rank 8 Myth AoE. Orthrus is a rank 7 Myth AoE, and it deals 100 damage per pip. Using the same damage per pip, Mystic Colossus should deal 800 damage, and then have a secondary effect for the remaining 0.6 pip value left: removes all shields after it hits, like it used to. A shatter after a hit is actually more useful than removal of 1 shield before the hit, as most of the time removing 1 shield isn’t enough. However, say there’s a Fire wizard hitting with Raging Bull on the same turn, and the enemies have elemental shields, you can cast Mystic Colossus and then remove the shields for your teammate. The way it is now, it only removes 1 shield, which means only the Storm shield will get removed from the Elemental Shields, and your Fire friend will have to get rid of the shields or deal half the damage.

      I believe that all schools should have an AoE that deals at least 700 damage. So far the only schools that can’t deal at least 700 damage to all enemies are Life and Death.

      Call of Khrulhu: 675 (5 pips). This spell should be swapped with Winged Sorrow, so that it’s a 6 pip spell. Then, keep the same damage per pip, which will make it 810 damage.

      Forest Lord/Rebirth: 620-680 average damage (7 pips). This spell should be swapped back with Rebirth, which would fix Rebirth and make Forest Lord an 8 pip spell like it used to be. Then just use the same damage per pip as it is currently in Test Realm, which would make it 710 – 770 damage.

      • Cody RavenTamer Reply

        Re: Mystic Colossus

        I understand your reasoning behind this. However, one cannot compare Orthrus and Mystic in the current scenario. The devs have specified that they are allowing each school an AoE spell at the same level that does more damage than it is supposed to. How so? They didn’t remove the 25% damage that is applied when a spell is an AoE.
        Orthrus is doing the damage of a single target myth spell at seven pips and so are the other level 48 spells now (Forest Lord included). If you want to compare Orthrus with other spells, you need to calculate 700 – 25% = 525 damage (the damage Orthrus is supposed to do). Now, take a look at both of them together.

        I know that the fact remains that they are doing more damage and you have the right to compare them together. However, this was a one time exception to help players adjust to the balance that was supposed to happen long ago. At the same time, it helps PvEers go through the game easily. I don’t fully agree with what has been done, because other spells are looking bad next to them, but it is something that needed to happen to appease a lot of players.

      • Wolf L Reply

        Yeah, Ice is definitely worse off coming out of the update with the lack of a damage boost for Frost Giant. Storm’s not much better off, since Storm Lord’s staying the same. It would certainly feel better if every spell did more damage than its predecessor – it gives us a feeling of growth. But it puts KI in a tight spot. If every spell does more damage, it must be more expensive. And that forces them to create new mechanics – like Shadow pips – to keep spells progressing.

        The best solution is to not make spells which only do damage. By adding effects, you can tone down the damage to a level that won’t break the game with a few stacked blades. At this point, KI could release a second ice spell at seven pips, which is an aoe and applies a shield to the caster. Or, they could release one which does much less damage than Frost Giant, but also applies four Tower Shields to the caster, which would be helpful against a DoT. I’m not sure whether they’ll go down that route, but it fits well with Spellwrighting, and the spell tuning they’re doing now opens the door for new, carefully balanced spells, which can be compared to spells of similar rank without feeling under- or overpowered.

        Personally, I’d like to see enemies nerfed to the point where you don’t need to stack blades to win, (though it would be a great option), because it could make spells like that much more useful. Otherwise, all KI is doing is finding ways to keep spells from being as useful as they could be. That’s what the Mystic Colossus nerf feels like, since the pierce is, as you said, rarely useful. It just keeps the damage down.

        • Brittany Walker Reply

          I saw no reason for frost giant to be nerfed. It was already the weakest hitting 7-pip aoe, and now it’s even worse. If storm lord wasn’t nerfed, why nerf frost giant? I’m not understanding KI’s logic when they implement some of these changes.

          • Wolf L Reply

            I agree that Frost Giant looks out of place on the list of 7-pip spells. It comes down to the damage curves in the end. As weak as it was, Frost Giant was still too strong for an ice spell with an AoE stun. Personally, I’d prefer to see it lose the stun (and the same for Storm Lord), since the rank 7 spells seem (currently) to be intended as pure damage spells, as opposed to the later spells which provide utility. That would buff its damage to around Scarecrow’s 590.
            The problem is that we see the nerfs as players, which means we can only compare the spells to what they did in the past. KI has graphs and such that project where damage should be, and it’s all about balancing relative to that line – not about buffs or nerfs. Ice didn’t gain much from the update, because it was already where it belonged. Other spells – Efreet, for example, or one of the Shadow hits – were farther out of line, and needed greater correction.

      • DragonLady18 Reply

        Sorry but I disagree with you on Rebirth and Forest Lord. The switch is well worth it. As a Life Main, it makes more sense to have Forest Lord as a rank 7 AoE along with the rest of the schools. FL is the first straight damage AoE Life wizards have and should be in line with rank 7.

        I would prefer to see Dispels back on Gnomes instead of a Heal charm. Gnomes @ 9 pips with dispels was very effective against Life Bosses. A good life wizard cab EASILY get rid of those same dispels when hit with Gnomes by Life Wands, low rank Life spells or Cleanse Charm

      • Anonymous Reply

        Yet Myth has a 700 aoe for 7 pips that has higher damage than storm… Buff storm lord to 760 or 790 at least.

      • Angel SilverBlood Reply

        Honestly, I am glad that Forest Lord is a Rank 7 Spell and is before Rebirth. I love my life character and I was lucky getting Ratatoskr’s Spin. However, if I didn’t get lucky with that spell, the only AoE I would have is Forest Lord. I would much rather get Rebirth later on since I already would have pixie, sprite, unicorn, minor blessing, satyr, dryad, Regenerate as healing spells. It is nice to get an AoE before going to Celestia.
        That is my 2 cents

    • angel Reply

      I was super angry seeing the week 1 changes and thinking they were just killing the game for the hell of it but seeing these weekly changes side by side really helps. You can see how many iterations each spell’s going through to find that sweet spot and get a good picture of where KI’s planning to take the game. I just hope they do find that balance because spells like Efreet (which we said we wanted to be nerfed but not like that) are way underpowered for the number of pips it takes

    • Hunter Hexweaver Reply

      I like how they are changing all these spells and making the game more balanced. But I don’t think I could have possibly maxed my death at a worse time. I mean, with all these changes I have no clue what school to make my next wiz. One week I could be in love with one school and then they nerf it into the ground and I don’t want to play it anymore, so I switch schools and then, BAM, more changes and they nerfed my new school into the ground and buffed the old one. I have no clue what to do.

      • Cody RavenTamer Reply

        All schools are bring rebalanced equally. Everything will be scaled accordingly. For instance, if you were able to one shot an enemy before, you will still be able to do it now if not more easily.

        Change can be scary and unsettling, but we will get used to the changes and maybe end up loving them when that happens 🙂

    • Brittany Walker Reply

      For Call of Khrulhu, you wrote “Damaged decreased from 830 to 625” under “Changes from Live Realm”. This is a typo because it should be 675, not 625. So the difference should be -155, not -205.

      • Dakota TitanHeart Reply

        Thanks! I’ll fix that 🙂

    • Falon IceHeart Reply

      Snowball barrage needed the nerf, but I get it. Now life hits like a truck with the 620-680 and myth is hitting for a nice 700. Ice is he best tank but dang nerfing frost giant? I don’t remember anyone saying woah that frost giant is slapping a little to hard right now. MAYBE snowball barrage but still really wasn’t overpowered but I get that all shads got a nerf so it makes since, I can understand the change. Balance needs a improved AOE if they really don’t care about the damage being op for the level 48 aoes and frost giant needs a buff and keep snow barrage at maybe 70. Once again fire dragon? What is KI thinking?. They really like them some fire wizards. Me having every school in the game max, I feel the school I no longer would want to play is storm, its just the only school that wont receive any buff whatsoever, ice will get a buff to frost giant for sure, fire already was buffed, life and myth got some nice aoe buffs, death was buffed (Scarecrow), balance got some shad buffs but either needs RA to hit harder or SuperNova.

      Thoughts?

    • Scott Reply

      Well I think Snowball barrage should probably just be a hit instead of a X pip. With Snowball barrage sitting below tempest with a shadow pip makes no sense to me. Like a shadow pip is supposed to mean three extra pips. So let’s see what it looks like.
      Storm lord is 7 pips and so is frost giant.
      Storm lord does 690
      Frost giant does 460

      Storm lord does 230 more damage than Frost giant.
      Storm lord is 50% better than Frost giant.

      Tempest at 7 pips does 560
      Snowball barrage at 4 pips does 300

      Tempest does 260 more damage than Snowball barrage at 7 pips vs 4 pips (plus shadow). Which is 30 damage more than the 7 pip difference.

      Also tempest does 86% better than snowball barrage. Making it 36% greater than the 7-pip spell difference.

      I believe the percentage matters more. So, at 7-pips, to make it fair, I believe snowball barrage should be 85 again. Even with 85 it doesn’t match the differences from 7-pip —93/pip would with the shadow as three pips included. However, the 14 pips would be too overpowered at 93/pips. Honestly, they should just make it cap at 10 pips for 85 per pip.

      Or just a 5 pip (plus shadow) AOE spell that does 500 damage.

      Sirens at 9 pips: 730
      Snowball barrage (SB) at 6 pips (+3): 450

      Sirens is 1.62 times stronger

      SB (85/pip at 6 pips +3): 510

      I feel this is okay. May be a bit too overpowered according to frost giant and storm lord. Storm is only 1.43 times better. Tempest is weaker here at 720.

      SB at 80/pip makes Sirens 1.5 times stronger.

      People don’t like to go past 11 pips. Below 5 pips makes no sense to use SB since it costs a shadow and 4 pip AOE are used for farming mostly. Shadow makes it hard to farm with.

      Conclusion: I feel like 80 damage per pip with shadow is fair. 75 is too big of a nerf even despite ice being a tank.

      • Charlie Reply

        Just to add – the issue with balancing Snowball Barrage is that it’s an X-pip spell with an added flat 3.6 pip cost (in the newest notes devs made clear that they value shadow pips at 3.6 pips rather than 3 pips). It’s probably more useful to compare to other Ice spells rather than Tempest, so that’s what I’ll do here.

        First, I’m going to had wave a bit and say that Ice’s shadow dpp is around 110. This is based off Climaclysm, which does 732 damage for 7.6 pips, taking away around 1 pip for the splitting utility (this dpp is consistent with Weaver too, which deals 7.6 pips of damage, docking 1 pip for the effect’s existence and 0 for the effect’s value).

        Next, factor in the AoE reduction. All AoE’s take a 25% dpp reduction (except the rank 7’s, which are intentionally overpowered in this way). Therefore, Snowball Barrage should be doing 82.5 damage per pip value.

        This issue is that this doesn’t mean what you think it means; at 1 pip, the “pip value” of barrage is 4.6, and at 14 pips the “pip value” is 17.6, meaning it should theoretically be doing around 380 damage at 1 pip, but only 1452 at 14 pips. I would propose that it makes sense to take the worst-case dpp here, which is the value at 14 pips, that being 103 dpp.

        So maybe Barrage should be doing 103 damage per pip plus shadow. But KI (I think rightly) greatly values the utility of having an x-pip AoE, as seen with Tempest being theoretically underpowered by 20% (I won’t go into that analysis for TLDR’s sake). So it probably makes sense to knock off around 20% and put it at 80ish dpp.

      • Anonymous Reply

        Yikes. Comparing the weakest hitting school to the school that is suppose to hit the highest (well not anymore). Myth has a 700 aoe and dragon is vastly superior to both storm lord and myth. Storm needs a damage buff, making ice do more than storm is just stupid. Oh lets have a 10k ice with 60 plus resist do 4k aoe. Great idea… Not.

    • Chris Reply

      Do we have any idea as to when this will come out?

    • Talon Fire Reply

      Storm:
      Okay, Myth now has a 7 pip spell that hits harder than storm lord? Life can nearly DPS with storm and the accuracy is much improved. Fire now hits harder than storm lord by far with a 975 hit compared to 690.

      The storm lord stun is nice but the accuracy is lower than all of these spells and the damage is lower than myth and fire?

      This is a problem, considering the new move toward making storm have no utility just damage, it is getting out of hand when Sirens for 9 pips is not hitting as hard a fire dragon and is on par with a 7 pip aoe from myth?

      So the lower health and accuracy you receive by being storm is not warranted considering they don’t do more damage at a higher rate.

      Rusalka should not have a negative affect period, no other school has this terrible utility option, Storm would rather just forget the possible utility for more damage, the negative is a huge draw back.
      Storm is quickly becoming the second best damage school and losing their identity but keeping their low health.
      Fire:

      The new storm, hit harder, have better health, have better stats, and more utility in their spells.
      The fire dragon is insane.
      Raging bulls accuracy debuff is 40%? what in the world are they thinking?
      Fire is very very strong in pvp and pve.

      Myth: WHOOP WHOOP! Best school in the game, hit hard and be a god is the name of the game now for myth, you cant shield them they will just remove it, you cant out aoe them if our storm lord. The absolute best 6 plus one shad hit in the game. WE ALL are myth from here on out! Working on the perfect pet for pvp on my myth as we type this. HAHA

      ICE: SO STRONG and we signed up to be a tank but with the dps changes we can start to finally not be a good dps and the best tank in the game. THESE CHANGES WERE SO NEEDED. I know the majority of the community loves ice so I doubt wiz will keep the nerf to snow barrage and let them hit over the 140 even though they are the best tank school lol.

      LIFE:
      In a perfect spot, so strong but forest lord being as strong a storm lord is a little too much, storm lord needs a slight buff and so does sirens.

      Death: Good changes overall the drain improvement was needed hope for no more changes to death they are perfect.

      Balance: in a decent spot gaze needed the nerf maybe slightly more damage so like 15 more per hit. all the other buffs are evening the playing field.

      FINAL THOUGHTS:

      STORM LORD: needs a slight dps buff make it 705 and silent the storms crying
      SIRENS: give it a slight buff to 815 and silent the storms crying on this spell
      Fire Dragon: lower the dps, are you kidding me? 975 is insane
      Myth is perfect right now
      Life is perfect right now
      Gaze: needs a slight dps buff to 370 per hit, reduce the bubble to 20%
      Death: Is perfect slight raze the 6 plus one pip to a reasonable dps
      Rusalka: remove negative effect, no other school has such a poor utility added to ther shadow spells. Storm is already struggling in pvp and this doesn’t help pve at all, what is the point?
      Rebirth: increase the absorb or the heal slightly since the pip was increased.

    • misthead Reply

      Nice to see these side by side like this, thank you!

      • Dakota TitanHeart Reply

        Anytime!!!

    • Blaze DarkBlood Reply

      After recently making a myth, I was very upset seeing the nerf that Mystic Colossus received on Test Realm (as well as the other shadow spell nerfs aside from Raging Bull). Seeing these adjustments to higher rank spells as a whole after having some feedback, I actually agree with these changes. None of these new changes make me upset enough or think that they should just leave them alone. I’m not big on PvP but knew much of the spells needed adjusting towards PvP but also PvE. I’m especially glad that they gave Myth another AoE with good enough damage to not have to rely on Mystic Colossus every time. I don’t see these changes making that bad of an impact going into Live Realm right now especially with the note that they will also be adjusting mob health pool based on the DPP value. Good fix from KingsIsle, not perfect, but a promising step forward.

      • Dakota TitanHeart Reply

        I agree with you! I think that this is the right course of action going forward.

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