Most Popular Wand Stitches (2017)

We have many awesome wand designs in Wizard101. I made an overview of the most popular wands a year ago. Now, I want to revisit the issue. Last year, the most popular wand was the flute. Has this changed? Has anything changed? Let’s take a look!

For this guide, I collected pictures of 208 overlords with their wands. An overlord is a warlord with more than 1000 rank. I had a little bit more trouble finding overlords this time around! So many people seem to get to warlord (900) and stop there and then. The few warlords I asked for a reason told me that PvP has gotten more difficult and that they’re happy as soon as they get the warlord badge. These overlords were collected during November and December of 2017.

Why overlords and not just anyone I ran into?

People who spend a lot of time in the Arena usually want to look fashionable doing it. The Arena is a pretty judgemental place. Your look is one of the things you get judged on, besides your gear and your strategy. Overlords spend a lot of time in the Arena and are probably hyperaware of this. As such, they’re the perfect group to collect data from!

In addition, I used overlords in my previous article, so it makes sense to do so this time as well. That way, I can compare last year’s wand fashion with this year’s.

Most popular wands: shape

Wands come in all shapes and sizes. First of all we have swords, staffs, axes, hammers and bows – the fairly normal sort of weaponry. In addition, we also have flutes, skulls, floating eyes, floating books, guitars, crystals and that weird ball thing from Barkingham. Isn’t it lovely that we have such variation?

Last year, swords were the most popular wand shape, with 37% of overlords being of the sword variety. Staffs were not far behind: 31% of overlords used some kind of a staff as a wand. In 2016, the third popular wand, with 61 wizards carrying it, was the flute.

This year, flutes have risen to first place, with 33% of overlords using a flute-shaped wand! Sword-shaped wands are in second place now, with 32%. Staffs are still in use, but less popular. This year, only 16% of overlords use a staff-shaped wand.

After that, the amount of people carrying one shape of wand starts to dwindle. The remaining 19 % of wands have maximum 2 % of overlords using them. This includes: mandolins, sticks, axes, scythes, bows, floating crystals, throwing stars, spears, hammers, maces, a whip and a book. Interesting is also how the floaty eye has lost its popularity, going from 4 % to 0,5 %!

 

 

Most popular wands: how they were acquired

This year, things have been mixed up a bit. Bundle wand usage has increased dramatically in the past year (from 16 % to 36,5 %). This is due to the fact that the flute has risen in popularity. Last year, the only way to get the flutes was through buying the bundle. As of recently, there have been Throwback Thursdays that offer the chance to buy a flute without having to buy the whole bundle. This event has been incredibly popular, making the flute more available to the masses. As such, the flute could now be counted as a Crowns wand instead of a bundle wand, but it would be hard to compare to last year if we catogorize them differently this time around.

The amount of wands that are dropped in battles has subsequently fallen from first to second place. Interestingly though, the percentage hasn’t really changed: dropped wands went from 28% to 24%. Pack wands have also remained nearly at the same percentage, with 11%, compared to last year’s 12%.

Code wands, crown shop wands, crafted wands and arena ticket wands have all lost popularity, probably in favor of the flute. New on the list are a couple of Bazaar wands!

Bundle Wands

Flute Bundle Wands

To start with, bundle wands (in particular flute wands) are the most popular group of wands overlords use in 2017. They’ve experienced a dramatic increase due to Throwback Thursdays, offering the Charmer’s Mystical Flute wands for a smaller price. No need to buy the mega bundle anymore! Of the 76 bundle wand overlords I collected, 71 were sporting a flute. The black and white flute seems to be the most popular, with 30 overlords sporting one.

Other Bundle Wands

The remaining five wands consisted of two Throwing Stars (Shinobi bundle), one Thornblade (Evergreen bundle), one Shard Warrior’s Hammer and one Abyssal Eel Whip (Fantastic Voyage bundle).

Dropped No-Trade Wands

These are wands that are dropped somewhere in the Spiral that are no-trade. They require a bit of farming, but the consensus amongst overlords seems to be that they’re worth it. In general, my data allows me to conclude that the wands in this category have undergone very little change compared to last year. They still account for about 24 % of the total amount of wands (compared to 28 last year) and the actual wands included have changed very little.

Mooshu dropped wands

In total there are 17 Mooshu dropped wands in my data this year. If we’re looking at the popularity of a single dropped wand, the top contestant is Plague Oni’s Sapphire Blade, with eight overlords. Jade Oni’s Amethyst Blade is the second most popular, with four overlords. I found this handy guide with pictures of all the Mooshu wands. I love these wands and have multiple wizards sporting one. They’re simple but elegant. Both of these were also very popular last year.

Dragonspyre dropped wands

Dragonspyre also drops some wands that have remained popular. All of these wands are dropped by bosses in the Drake Hatchery. Avalanche’s Legendary Cutlass (four overlords) is the most popular of these. It’s dropped by Avalanche. In addition, three overlords use Redwind’s Viridian Blade (dropped by Valeska Redwind), two use Longblade of the Homunculus and another two use Soulsinger’s Soulswords (dropped by Ivan Soulsinger).

Other dropped wands

Lambent Fire‘s wands have also maintained their popularity. You can find him behind a skeleton key in the Crystal Caves in Avalon. The Fire wand was the most popular (three overlords), but the Ice wand (two overlords) and the universal wand (1 overlord) are also represented.

Another 5 wizards used Malistaire’s wands. I’m still surprised that people don’t stitch this one. It seems the wand’s rough look and color scheme pleases some people.

 

Pack Wands

Next, wands from packs account for 11% of all the wands sported by overlords during the months of November and December of 2017. That’s about the same percentage as in 2016, when it was 12%. This year’s 23 pack wands were spread over 11 packs.

The most popular pack is Hoard of the Hydra, with 6 mandolins. Flutes and now mandolins! Music is in fashion! On a more serious note, mandolins are a really popular wand for its stats too right now. It’s the most popular wand there is at the moment, especially at Legendary and Grandmaster. I might write another article about which wands are being used rather than which wands are being stitched if anyone is interested in that.

Last year’s most popular wands were the ones from Terror’s Hoard and Road Warrior’s Hoard. Of those two, Road Warrior has disappeared completely and Terror’s Hoard has to be satisfied with one overlord under its name.

 

Code Wands from Wizard101 Fansites

Code wands are wands you could originally only get by receiving a code from one of Wizard101’s official fansites. As a result, these codes were hard to get and people almost fought over them. Right now, the pressure has gone down, because you can fish for these wands as well! If you go to Elephant Graveyard in Zafaria, you can get these wands with a little bit of patience and luck.

This year’s list is very different from last year’s. In 2016 code wands counted for 22% of all the wands used by overlords. In 2017, we’re down to only 9%. The top contenders are also different.

Last year, at the top of this list were Fog Staff and Amaranthine Staff. Strange how they disappeared in a year’s time. Maybe it’s time for a comeback?

I’m glad to see that Duelist101’s own wand, the Dragonclaw Blade, still has some users, yay! I personally also love the Warpwood Wand, so I’m glad it’s present in this list! I guess for honesty’s sake, I need to mention that one of those three users is ME, lol. Hey, I’m an overlord too, I can include myself!

 

 

 

Arena Ticket Wands

Starting from here, the amounts of wands start to dwindle to very low numbers. None of the following categories are very popular with overlords. Still, they’re worth mentioning! There are currently only two wands available for Arena Tickets, so there isn’t much variation here. The amount of Arena wands dropped from 9% to 5%.

The Staff of Flashing Blades looks magnificent with its turning blades. It’s of course also one of the best wand available for Legendary wizards. Two of these were not stitched, while 4 were stitched to look like this wand. The stitched ones were carried by 1 Initiate, 1 Magus, 1 Grandmaster and 1 Exalted overlord.

Another, slightly less popular arena ticket wand is the Duelist’s Dancing Blade, which five of the overlords favored. Of these, 2 were stitched, by a Magus and a Grandmaster overlord. I suppose these overlords bought the level 10 version for 3000 tickets and stitched it to their actual wand.

 

 

 

Bazaar Wands

We didn’t have a category for this last year! This year, however, 5% of the wands overlords were using came from the Bazaar. That’s not a large percentage, as it comes down to 10 actual overlords with these wands. Nevertheless, I’m glad to see some Bazaar fashion coming to the Arena!

 

Crown Shop Wands

Only 3% of the overlord wands I collected were Crown Shop wands (I’m excluding flutes here, because I counted them under bundle wands). I counted the Cerulean Blade under Crowns Shop Wands, even though you can get it from Malistaire in Dragonspyre as well. It was hard to place it, because most people are both lazy AND cheap, so neither the crowns nor the farming option seem attractive. Five people decided to stitch their wand to a Cerulean Blade.

I listed the 3 holiday wands overlords were using separately, but these are of course also considered crowns wands. Two were Christmas wands and one was a Halloween wand. I do appreciate the use of holiday wands, because there are some very pretty staffs out there.

One person used the Tundarian Hailstone Staff, which I think is an excellent wand, but maybe not quite worth the price (6495 crowns). Then again, last year we had three overlords using the Talon of Pestilence, which costs 6295 crowns. This year this particular wand didn’t appear in my data at all.

 

 

Crafted Wands

Crafted wands account for 3% of my data, which is a lot less than the 7% from 2016, which at the time I found a lot amount already. Exactly zero of the crafted wand types from 2016 made it to 2017. Instead, we have four Arcanum crafted wands on max level wizards and three from Celestia (the Everlasting Staff and two Tridents of Typhoons)

The most popular wands overall

Place	Wand name	# of wizards
#1	Flute	71
#2	Plague Oni’s Sapphire Blade	8
#3	Cerulean Edge	5
#4	Avalanche’s Legendary Cutlass	4
#5	Staff of Flashing Blades	4
#6	Umbra Blade	4
#7	Jade Oni’s Amethyst Blade	4

Flutes galore!

As you can see from the list, flutes are currently overwhelmingly in fashion, even more than in 2016. It seems the Flute is too easy to get now, since everyone is using it! Seems like it’s a good time to start using Fog Staff and Amaranthine Staff again! A crafted wand from Celestia or Khrysalis could be another good choice.

Did I miss anything you really wanted to know?

What’s your favorite wand?

 

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