November 17, 2016 April 8, 2023

Mirage Expectations

Mirage, the newest world in Wizard101 has just made its first appearance. And with it come new areas with some of the most beautiful scenery in game. In addition to that comes a noticeable increase in difficulty. This article will give you a general idea of what an area will contain and some Mirage expectations so that you might feel more prepared when doing main line quests.

Some tips to keep in mind while questing in Mirage would be:

Always be prepared for bosses/mobs to cheat!
If you are solo, a life mastery and a couple heals will be handy, unless you have a more reliable school heal.
A shield can save a wizard’s life!
Make room in your jewel pouch!
A dungeon can take more time than expected.
Shatter or pierce and cleanse charm tcs can be occasionally handy.

Warning: This might spoil some details but no major story line content will be mentioned.

You will start off with the quest ‘Post-Polaris Prognosis’ from Fitzhume in the Arcanum. Following up will be a trail of solo quests that will take you in unique locations (but that is for you to discover). There is a total of 4 solo battles.

Caravan

Here you will be greeted by Burdie. You will find an even mix between D&C and boss battles against different kinds of creatures such as Ghultures and Trengils. Make sure to keep multiple hits in as the first boss is already famously known for his guardian spirit AOE cheat!

You will also notice that as you quest and help NPCs with their distracting quests you will start populating Caravan’s hub area with vendors you can browse for some goodies.

Alkali Barrows

Next up we have Alkali Barrows. In this death infested location you will have to do a couple D&C quests and the rest is tower styled dungeons (remember the fun you had in Dragonsypre). But saying they are exactly the same as DS wouldn’t be doing Mirage any justice! The story is much much better and the attention to detail is superb!

Be prepared here! Don’t be deceived by that shiny chest, it will turn into 4 moon bosses with around 16k health each and they will keep polymorphing into another school. It can be soloed but a team can make things a lot easier. Luckily KI already added Mirage in the team up kiosk if you require any help.

To finish up the area, we meet with Overlord Xerxes. If you followed the 1st Mirage teaser from October’s KI live you will recognize him and yes it is him! I recommend a strategy where you spam him with hits (kind of like Belloq). This is due to his cheats that steal every single blade cast and removes any kind of feint. However you can blade if you use Aegis, but it will only allow 1 blade at a time.

Aggrobah

Questing through Aggrobah felt quite longer than other areas but the story was very intriguing. For those of you that usually skip the dialog, you will find an even mix of D&C quests, bosses and a little bit of both in tower styled dungeons. Don’t despair! Defeat and Collect quests might involve tough minions but you will probably always collect on the first try. Also you will occasionally be travelling with companions like the clumsy Istar, or the mysterious Ozzy to help make things more interesting.

As per usual you can expect to get side tracked. The wizard will be tasked to track down and ask for the aid of different entities all over Mirage. Sounds easy enough, I mean that’s what the next few areas are mostly about. 😉

Caterwaul Canyons

Oh what a view! KI really outdid themselves with this one. At first it might look like any other desert area but wait till you see that canyon. Don’t take my words for it, you’ll have to see this one yourselves!

As for combat, you won’t notice any difference. However, a couple of bosses would stick out from the others like Melanj and Reverand Mother Meowheim. I would recommend using a single target spell to kill Reverand Mother Meowheim in order not to accidentally kill any teammates because of her beguile cheat.

Rubal Wastes

This area is split into different parts, so you will have a lot of back and forward going on here. You will enter House Calixco and discover what strange things are going on with Baron Hairknonen. You will meet (and fight) strange new allies that serve as a guide and you will depart on a quest to save a princess (you know, the usual stuff).

The combat isn’t anything new here. At this point you should be used to the advanced fights in Mirage. Although you will notice more dungeons rather than the 3 different D&C quests here.

Look out for the fight with the Baron Hairknonen because he can be quite riddling as how to defeat him. Trick is to kill his minions (the mirror images), or else you can try to whip up over 100+ pierce.

Istanboa

Warning for all snake lovers: You will love this area! It’s not the easiest or shortest of areas as it is combined with the ruins of Catstantinople. A vast amount of boss battles and tower dungeons was noted. D&C quests weren’t as overwhelming, but in dungeons minions have to be fought to ultimately defeat the boss.

Something you shouldn’t miss in here is the so called ‘snakish prison’ that apparently is hard to break out of (unless you are a wizard from Wizard City that is). The design of this prison is remarkable and something we never seen in W101 yet, but I won’t spoil that either.

Yakhal Mountain

Qhats fighting, rebels starting revolutions, ice princesses, genies and more! The quests don’t differ from any other area, but the environment is what caught my eye.

At a point you will be sent back to Rubal Wastes to storm the Tower of Babble for some artifact or another (just another Tuesday). I’ll say this again, before stepping into a sigil, make sure you have time to complete the entire dungeon.

In my opinion this is where the real fun starts! Before you reach the Thieves Den you will do some running around and I highly recommend to pay attention to this part. Basically it involves heading back to Aggrobah to confront some neat bosses like Ali Baboon and the Scorpion himself. Yep that’s right, you already reached the epic fight with the Scorpion!

Hint: Only feint allowed is with indemnity.

Thieves Den

When you reach this hidden jewel you will be amazed, (or you will not, whatevs). It’s where everyone, no matter who or from where, goes to hang out. Also running into some old “friends” like Ghost Dog, Santa Muerte or the Gladiator will bring up some memories. Don’t worry though, you won’t have to fight them!

Here you will just have to do 1 D&C quest and the rest is dungeons, which are quite interesting if I may add.

Eerem Palace

This location is also a bit hidden, as to gain access to it you will have to solve quite the riddle. Fortunately a certain ‘neat freak’ genie is there to assist us when betrayal hits! In Eeram Palace you will face only 1 D&C quest and 1 dungeon.

But beware, it’s not just any other dungeon! In the Eerem gardens you will face a total of 4 bosses, the last one being quite the cheater. Eerkala will pack a punch, but I do recommend just using traps and bladestorms to avoid weaknesses on the hitter. Hit fast though or she will hit even harder!

Zruvan Grotto

Before you reach this hidden spot back in Caterwaul Canyons, you will need to do some running around. From Mirage, to Wizard City, and then back to the Arcanum. Be prepared for a couple solo battles here (2 bosses more specifically). Right after you will be able to get the quest for the lvl 118 spell.

I won’t say much about this area, except that you fight 2 bosses and 2 different mobs. Mostly because this area is more associated with lore, so I highly recommend you check it out. The final boss, Vigilant Adapa (name sounds kind of familiar *wink*) will cheat by removing all shadow pips from any wizard that gets one. This means that you shouldn’t hesitate one bit, and when you get a shadow pip use it that same round!