The thing about top level PvP these days is that stat-enhancing amulets are dominating in the Arena, and most people who use a Mastery Amulet cannot compete. The reason I'm saying this is because there aren't many offense based strategies where a Mastery Amulet can fit into in top level; your block rating will be far too low. I used to love the use of a Death Mastery Amulet in the top level when critical wasn't so dangerous, but then when the release of Darkmoor introduced lower block ratings (the robe gives no form of block rating) and higher damaging spells, you need to block as much as possible.
The second thing about Mastery Amulets is that you can't use them for off-school attacks and have a well integrated strategy with it; our armor pierce and damage is far too low for other schools. So for this cause, I came up with an idea for more balanced forms of Mastery Amulets, which promote the use of off-school attacks and spells, received through tickets.
Since stat-enhancing amulets are still very difficult to get, I don't think that these forms of Mastery Amulets should completely outclass stat-enhancing amulets, but here are my ideas (note that all these amulets will be level 100+ and PvP exclusive, meaning they will reduce mana by 100%):
Fire Grandmastery Amulet: Allows power pips for Fire spells, +35% Fire damage, +10% Fire armor pierce, +60 (11%) universal block rating, +2 Shadow Shields. Costs: 8,000 arena tickets.
Many people could argue that Mastery Amulets like these will be overpowered and outclass the basic Mastery Amulet or the Darkmoor Mastery Amulet, but we've already seen Arena gear outclassing all other forms of gear, so this won't be anything special or different than what we've seen. Anybody agree with the idea?
I love the idea but instead of them giving attack boost it would be much more helpful for them to give some attack boost and some accuracy. I would also enjoy seeing a health buffer added to these masteries. Here is an example:
Fire Grandmastery Amulet: -250 health - Allows power pips for Fire spells -25% Fire damage -10% Fire accuracy -5% Fire armor pierce -60 (11%) universal block rating, +2 Shadow Shields.
I think the mastery amulet should not be used in pvp at all everyone should have to use their pips
Mastery amulets should be used in PvP, they add creativeness and open more opportunities for more strategies, and they also make dueling Jadezillas a lot easier in some cases.
The thing about top level PvP these days is that stat-enhancing amulets are dominating in the Arena, and most people who use a Mastery Amulet cannot compete. The reason I'm saying this is because there aren't many offense based strategies where a Mastery Amulet can fit into in top level; your block rating will be far too low. I used to love the use of a Death Mastery Amulet in the top level when critical wasn't so dangerous, but then when the release of Darkmoor introduced lower block ratings (the robe gives no form of block rating) and higher damaging spells, you need to block as much as possible.
The second thing about Mastery Amulets is that you can't use them for off-school attacks and have a well integrated strategy with it; our armor pierce and damage is far too low for other schools. So for this cause, I came up with an idea for more balanced forms of Mastery Amulets, which promote the use of off-school attacks and spells, received through tickets.
Since stat-enhancing amulets are still very difficult to get, I don't think that these forms of Mastery Amulets should completely outclass stat-enhancing amulets, but here are my ideas (note that all these amulets will be level 100+ and PvP exclusive, meaning they will reduce mana by 100%):
Fire Grandmastery Amulet: Allows power pips for Fire spells, +35% Fire damage, +10% Fire armor pierce, +60 (11%) universal block rating, +2 Shadow Shields. Costs: 8,000 arena tickets.
Many people could argue that Mastery Amulets like these will be overpowered and outclass the basic Mastery Amulet or the Darkmoor Mastery Amulet, but we've already seen Arena gear outclassing all other forms of gear, so this won't be anything special or different than what we've seen. Anybody agree with the idea?
It is a nice idea. But there are a few issues that are nagging me.
Mastery amulets are a blessing to begin with. Not in any way a cheap blessing, but one nonetheless. I don't agree with the arena tickets and each having different prices. I understand they would be PvP exclusive but why price them differently? I know they offer different stats (some lower and some more advantageous than others) but there is no way the majority of players will accept the clear price gaps. Life mastery is the most common mastery amulet there is currently used for those who have a rank, and yet it is the cheapest. Also, I know this is your way of having a balance, since you apply certain schools having more or less stats, but simply put, I think the stats shouldn't vary too much to keep the peace. Just keep it simple with similar block ratings, since the main point of this post is critical block, and everyone should be happy. Also, I am skeptical about the damage stats, however, since I hardly see most high levels with high universal attack stats, I think I would let it slide for now.
Simply being curious, but what do you mean by promoting off-school spells? At level hundred, what spells from a different school, that you learn legitimately, would be of use? Or do you mean school based TC? I know there is a high critical boost and astral spells to charm them, but I'm still curious as to what you mean. Though I do believe that having another school attack would be beneficial at that level.
Other than that I think it's okay. It would be yet another advantage exclusive to PvP though. The prices, the tickets, the varying block ratings (and the varying stats on a whole), are my only issues. I agree there should be more critical block ratings in gear in general, and not just for a high level, since the plague of criticals doesn't have a proper counter measure.
I would suggest making them all have similar block ratings, and taking out the universal resist for ice (in my opinion offering ice more resist will cause another problem). Although the life amulet has very tempting stats, it is still offering very drastic stats in comparison to the rest. I would love to say I agree with the life stats, but all it is promoting is healing, (though that is another school spell) but it wouldn't, in my opinion, cause a problem like the resist for ice, especially with an ice jadezilla (ice with all jade gear). So it barely passes. Since offering it for tickets is a pivotal point in your idea, I really don't want to suggest a change for that aspect. Though I don't agree with it.
Overall, it is a very thoughtful concept, and it might promote what you are looking for, but in retrospect, it is still a PvP based item. Meaning another benefit for players who can acquire tickets. This then creates a top heavy totem pole in PvP. As only the players who can amass those amount of tickets can purchase them. They also tend to be the ones that are "skilled." What about the others?
The thing about top level PvP these days is that stat-enhancing amulets are dominating in the Arena, and most people who use a Mastery Amulet cannot compete. The reason I'm saying this is because there aren't many offense based strategies where a Mastery Amulet can fit into in top level; your block rating will be far too low. I used to love the use of a Death Mastery Amulet in the top level when critical wasn't so dangerous, but then when the release of Darkmoor introduced lower block ratings (the robe gives no form of block rating) and higher damaging spells, you need to block as much as possible.
The second thing about Mastery Amulets is that you can't use them for off-school attacks and have a well integrated strategy with it; our armor pierce and damage is far too low for other schools. So for this cause, I came up with an idea for more balanced forms of Mastery Amulets, which promote the use of off-school attacks and spells, received through tickets.
Since stat-enhancing amulets are still very difficult to get, I don't think that these forms of Mastery Amulets should completely outclass stat-enhancing amulets, but here are my ideas (note that all these amulets will be level 100+ and PvP exclusive, meaning they will reduce mana by 100%):
Fire Grandmastery Amulet: Allows power pips for Fire spells, +35% Fire damage, +10% Fire armor pierce, +60 (11%) universal block rating, +2 Shadow Shields. Costs: 8,000 arena tickets.
Many people could argue that Mastery Amulets like these will be overpowered and outclass the basic Mastery Amulet or the Darkmoor Mastery Amulet, but we've already seen Arena gear outclassing all other forms of gear, so this won't be anything special or different than what we've seen. Anybody agree with the idea?
I think that these could be a bit overpowered - for example, say I use level 100 jade gear, one of these masteries, a triple damage, double resist pet to the school of the mastery, and a damage athame and ring - it would be possible to get 75+ resist with 70 + damage and get high other stats. If this was used with a school where you can get a good spell with it (loremaster) it would be possible to have extremely high aggressive and defensive stats at the same time, which I would find to be a bit overpowered.
I think that these could be a bit overpowered - for example, say I use level 100 jade gear, one of these masteries, a triple damage, double resist pet to the school of the mastery, and a damage athame and ring - it would be possible to get 75+ resist with 70 + damage and get high other stats. If this was used with a school where you can get a good spell with it (loremaster) it would be possible to have extremely high aggressive and defensive stats at the same time, which I would find to be a bit overpowered.
Yes, that's true, and I thought about it for a while, but then I also realized that jaded wizards have none of the following: 1) Shadow Enhanced spells for other schools, which means in return they can't attack as hard 2) None of the non-trained spells. So, they would never have access to spells like Triton, Skeletal Dragon, etc. and will be limited to a 6 pip attack spell use. 3) Jaded duelists have no critical rating and a bare minimum in armor piercing. They wouldn't be able to spike enough damage to knock somebody out unless they don't heal.
So with that, I believe that the high damage high resist issue won't be so big.
Yes, that's true, and I thought about it for a while, but then I also realized that jaded wizards have none of the following: 1) Shadow Enhanced spells for other schools, which means in return they can't attack as hard 2) None of the non-trained spells. So, they would never have access to spells like Triton, Skeletal Dragon, etc. and will be limited to a 6 pip attack spell use. 3) Jaded duelists have no critical rating and a bare minimum in armor piercing. They wouldn't be able to spike enough damage to knock somebody out unless they don't heal.
So with that, I believe that the high damage high resist issue won't be so big.
Aaron does bring up a valid point. For a school such as balance with a high health buffer and reliable heals its not a big deal but for a school such as storm with a low health buffer and an unreliable heal it is. That is another reason I am more in support of accuracy/block as a more effective mechanic.
Aaron does bring up a valid point. For a school such as balance with a high health buffer and reliable heals its not a big deal but for a school such as storm with a low health buffer and an unreliable heal it is. That is another reason I am more in support of accuracy/block as a more effective mechanic.
Oh right I forgot about Storm's low health. Alright, let's do some math here. If somebody were to use jade gear, a triple Storm damage pet, the Storm Grandmastery Amulet, and another 26% damage from the athame + ring, assuming the triple damage is equal to 21, that wizard would have a total of 87% Storm damage and 77% resist if their pet gives 15% resist. With the Teeth of the Lord's Night, their block percentage could be up to 72% universal block rating. Yeah, I suppose having high damage and high resist simultaneously could pose a problem to non-healing schools, and I do find accuracy being a great second option. Tell me how these amulets sound:
Fire Grandmastery Amulet: -250 health -Allows power pips to Fire spells -10% Fire damage -5% Fire armor pierce -60 (11%) universal block rating -18% Fire accuracy -2 Shadow Shield cards -Efreet
Oh right I forgot about Storm's low health. Alright, let's do some math here. If somebody were to use jade gear, a triple Storm damage pet, the Storm Grandmastery Amulet, and another 26% damage from the athame + ring, assuming the triple damage is equal to 21, that wizard would have a total of 87% Storm damage and 77% resist if their pet gives 15% resist. With the Teeth of the Lord's Night, their block percentage could be up to 72% universal block rating. Yeah, I suppose having high damage and high resist simultaneously could pose a problem to non-healing schools, and I do find accuracy being a great second option. Tell me how these amulets sound:
Fire Grandmastery Amulet: -250 health -Allows power pips to Fire spells -10% Fire damage -5% Fire armor pierce -60 (11%) universal block rating -18% Fire accuracy -2 Shadow Shield cards -Efreet
It is a nice idea. But there are a few issues that are nagging me.
Mastery amulets are a blessing to begin with. Not in any way a cheap blessing, but one nonetheless. I don't agree with the arena tickets and each having different prices. I understand they would be PvP exclusive but why price them differently? I know they offer different stats (some lower and some more advantageous than others) but there is no way the majority of players will accept the clear price gaps. Life mastery is the most common mastery amulet there is currently used for those who have a rank, and yet it is the cheapest. Also, I know this is your way of having a balance, since you apply certain schools having more or less stats, but simply put, I think the stats shouldn't vary too much to keep the peace. Just keep it simple with similar block ratings, since the main point of this post is critical block, and everyone should be happy. Also, I am skeptical about the damage stats, however, since I hardly see most high levels with high universal attack stats, I think I would let it slide for now.
Simply being curious, but what do you mean by promoting off-school spells? At level hundred, what spells from a different school, that you learn legitimately, would be of use? Or do you mean school based TC? I know there is a high critical boost and astral spells to charm them, but I'm still curious as to what you mean. Though I do believe that having another school attack would be beneficial at that level.
Other than that I think it's okay. It would be yet another advantage exclusive to PvP though. The prices, the tickets, the varying block ratings (and the varying stats on a whole), are my only issues. I agree there should be more critical block ratings in gear in general, and not just for a high level, since the plague of criticals doesn't have a proper counter measure.
I would suggest making them all have similar block ratings, and taking out the universal resist for ice (in my opinion offering ice more resist will cause another problem). Although the life amulet has very tempting stats, it is still offering very drastic stats in comparison to the rest. I would love to say I agree with the life stats, but all it is promoting is healing, (though that is another school spell) but it wouldn't, in my opinion, cause a problem like the resist for ice, especially with an ice jadezilla (ice with all jade gear). So it barely passes. Since offering it for tickets is a pivotal point in your idea, I really don't want to suggest a change for that aspect. Though I don't agree with it.
Overall, it is a very thoughtful concept, and it might promote what you are looking for, but in retrospect, it is still a PvP based item. Meaning another benefit for players who can acquire tickets. This then creates a top heavy totem pole in PvP. As only the players who can amass those amount of tickets can purchase them. They also tend to be the ones that are "skilled." What about the others?
I priced each amulet differently due to its usefulness in a PvP situation and how commonly it is used. For example, since a Life Mastery Amulet is on high demand by many wizards, the Life Grandmastery Amulet would be the cheapest one to buy. I didn't set each school's amulet to give the same amount of block rating because simply put, some schools have way higher chances to critical than others.
By off-school attacks, I mean attacks that are outside of your school of focus, whether it be a trained spell or a Treasure Card. No high ranked duelist in the top level uses off school attacks offensively, which causes jaded wizards to have an easier time setting. If more Exalted duelists saw more ways for attacking and had attacks outside of their own school, PvP would allow for a more acceptable environment, and plenty of new strategies can finally show up.
Ice will not be able to use the Ice Grandmastery Amulet, similar to how every school can't equip their own Mastery Amulets.
Every game has points where somebody who pays for has more advantages. If one does not do Tournaments, they can simply do ranked PvP until they have enough tickets. It works the same way with everything in Wizard101, if you don't want to wait 2 days for a pet to hatch, you use your crowns to buy a hatching elixir. Same way with all Arena gear, if you want to get everything faster, you use crowns for it. If you want to be patient, you get it the longer way.
I priced each amulet differently due to its usefulness in a PvP situation and how commonly it is used. For example, since a Life Mastery Amulet is on high demand by many wizards, the Life Grandmastery Amulet would be the cheapest one to buy. I didn't set each school's amulet to give the same amount of block rating because simply put, some schools have way higher chances to critical than others.
By off-school attacks, I mean attacks that are outside of your school of focus, whether it be a trained spell or a Treasure Card. No high ranked duelist in the top level uses off school attacks offensively, which causes jaded wizards to have an easier time setting. If more Exalted duelists saw more ways for attacking and had attacks outside of their own school, PvP would allow for a more acceptable environment, and plenty of new strategies can finally show up.
Ice will not be able to use the Ice Grandmastery Amulet, similar to how every school can't equip their own Mastery Amulets.
Every game has points where somebody who pays for has more advantages. If one does not do Tournaments, they can simply do ranked PvP until they have enough tickets. It works the same way with everything in Wizard101, if you don't want to wait 2 days for a pet to hatch, you use your crowns to buy a hatching elixir. Same way with all Arena gear, if you want to get everything faster, you use crowns for it. If you want to be patient, you get it the longer way.
You would think that what is in more demand would cost more. That's kinda how it works everywhere else. If you know someone WANTS something badly, they're going to be willing to spend more on it compared to something that is less coveted. If it must be based on how commonly it is used, then ones such as a fire or storm mastery should be cheaper, as those are less widely used. Otherwise, I believe that they all should be priced the same. You don't really see regular prices on regular mastery amulets being different-instead, they're all uniform, just to be fair.
I think the mastery amulet should not be used in pvp at all everyone should have to use their pips
for some people like Ice that is low level that do pvp a lot then they should probably need life mastery or other mastery and stuff like that. If Mastery is not a allowed then people that are overlored by now wouldn't get that much rank, (I'm saying this to low level wizards). But if your probably a top high level pvp player then you should need the block athame and other stuff.
You would think that what is in more demand would cost more. That's kinda how it works everywhere else. If you know someone WANTS something badly, they're going to be willing to spend more on it compared to something that is less coveted. If it must be based on how commonly it is used, then ones such as a fire or storm mastery should be cheaper, as those are less widely used. Otherwise, I believe that they all should be priced the same. You don't really see regular prices on regular mastery amulets being different-instead, they're all uniform, just to be fair.
The original mastery amulets were priced the same because that was the very beginning of mastery amulets, nobody knew what was the best to use at the time. Now as we advance, some mastery amulets have been easier to get than others, such as the Ice Exalted Mastery amulet being dropped by 3 bosses in comparison to the Death Exalted Amulet being dropped by 4 bosses. Some even have better stats than others, like damage and block rating.
The more commonly used Exalted Mastery Amulets were dropped by 4 bosses rather than 3, to make them easier to get.
Yes, the ideal thing would be to make a more popular item more expensive, but in contrary, something that is a necessity is made cheap no matter how popular it is. The Life Mastery Amulet is a necessity by most competitive duelists, as it is people's sole item that grants the ability the heal effectively.
