A Life of Fire

Springtime Happenings (And perhaps a contest or two...)

2012-02-14T14:27:00.000-05:00

Hello, my fellow wizards! It's been quite a while since I've made a post here on A Life of Fire. You haven't seen me around because a new semester of school is in full swing. All my homework and group rehearsals are keeping me from the computer. BUT NEVER FEAR! I am back with some exciting news!

~~ PARTY and CONTEST(S) ~~

So I just came up with this idea the other day, and I hope you will all give me some feedback. Since winter is slowly coming to a close, and spring is just around the corner, I think we're all due for a party to celebrate! The big holiday of spring is Easter. We all love fluffy bunnies and coloring eggs, so I thought I could hold a party with a spring/Easter theme.

When: Since Easter this year falls on Sunday, April 8th, I was thinking of having the party the Friday or Saturday beforehand. I know some people travel to visit their families, so if Saturday doesn't work for a lot of people, we'll have it Friday, April 6th... let's say, around 6:00 PM EST (5:00 PM CST, 4:00 PM MST, 3:00 PM PST)

Where: This party will be held at my Massive Fantasy Palace, complete with hedge mazes and PvP arena!

But wait, Cassie, you mentioned a contest?

Why yes, yes I did.

Winning the contest will involve an EASTER EGG HUNT! I will be hiding 10 baskets of eggs around my house, inside and out, and you will have to find them, screen shot them (with you in the screen shot as the focus), and send them to an email address that will be given at a later date. There will be something else involved, because the prize is worth more than just a few screen shots ;) I will reveal the prize at a later date.

Signing off for now...
See you in the Spiral!
<3 Cassie

Candy Cane Mount!

2011-12-16T10:56:00.000-05:00

So today's Wizard101 present is a 40% off Candy Cane Mount! It rides like a broom and comes in three different colors: rec/white (original), green/white, or red/green. I'm partial to the red/green...

I think it goes well with my Christmas colors, don't you?

So that's today's surprise! In other news I'm home on break, and probably will not blog much about Wizard. It hasn't been giving me the thrill it used to. I still log in to garden and watch PvP matches, but other than that..... well, not much else.

UPDATE: Apparently most of us missed the other three colors of mounts. There's blue/white, pink/white (which I now own thanks to John Lifeglen), and yellow/white.

See you 'round the Spiral!
<3 Cassie

Zafaria: Level 68... Rain of Fire

2011-11-19T12:56:00.000-05:00

Hello, all!

It's been quite a while since I've blogged. School has become slightly overwhelming and I've hardly had any time to get in game for things other than gardening. I did get in the Spiral yesterday and today to quest Zafaria though! And this morning I received my Rain of Fire spell!

Wahoo!

Anyway, Thanksgiving break is coming up (if that's what you want to call three days off...) so I may think of something to blog about other than little snippets of information like this.

Happy Zafaria-ing!
<3 Cassie

You are all invited!!

2011-10-21T13:47:00.002-04:00

Just giving my readers a head's up...

2011-10-19T14:26:00.000-04:00

I will most likely be holding a Halloween party the Saturday before Halloween. That would be October 29th, and it would probably start around 7:00 or 8:00 Eastern time. I will update with more details as the date approaches. Keep a lookout here and on my twitter for more info!!

<3 Cassie

My Storybook Castle

2011-09-20T19:50:00.000-04:00

Hey, everyone! I finished another themed house yesterday and that is going to be the subject of this post.

Just a step through the blue portal and you will be whisked away to a land of magical beings.

After a few moments, you begin to feel yourself slowing down. Brown, red, and blue begin to materialize around you. Stone flooring rises up to your feet and you stagger as you finally touch down.

You are greeted by a little myth elf. "Hello and welcome to the Wizard101 Storybook House!" In awe, you stare at the crackling fire, the many books and trophies that reside around the room, and the strangely-placed fountain in the corner. "How--how did I get here?" you ask yourself. As though she read your mind, the little elf claps happily and jumps around the room. "You've arrived at the Storybook House! This is the library. After you exit this room, you will enter a land of magical creatures. Please do not harm the flora or fauna -- we're trying to preserve one of the last locations in the Spiral that has been overtaken by creatures and plants. Enjoy your stay!"

Although it looks very cozy in this room, you know there is more to witness outside the walls of the library. Smiling at the little blue birds in cages next to the comfy chairs, you turn around and are struck with a glorious site outside the door.

"Wow!" you exclaim, stepping off the stone flooring and onto the soft green grass. Clear blue water rushes through a fountain in front of a tiny house in the mountains. The sky is clear blue, give or take a few clouds, and the air is warm, despite being a few thousand feet up. In the distance, you spot platforms rising further into the sky, but they are a good ways past the closest mountains. Curious, you approach the small house.

There are pink and blue gardens in full bloom in front of the house. You knock on the door and say, "Hello? Is there anyone home?" A small giggle and faint music plays, but no one answers. You shrug and continue to descend the mountains.

More little houses! The cloud cover makes this area a little colder and much darker. Lamps on trees light up the front entryways of the other houses scattered through the landscape. You hear more giggling and what sounds to be faint string instruments playing. Wandering a bit further, you finally discover the source of the laughter and music.

It's an imp colony! You smile and laugh along with the imps as they float around playing their song. You notice the platforms rising up to the sky on the other end of the room. Curiously, you creep up the steps.

You find a pair of beetles living on the first level of the platforms. They approach you and stare up at your face with wondering eyes. Cautiously, you squat down and pat the little blue beetle on the head. It makes a sound reminiscent of a cat's purring and spins around happily. The purple beetle blends in with the beautiful, small field of purple flowers and you squeal as it sneaks up on you from behind. You give it a pat on the head as well and make your way up to the top platform. What you find throws you into terror.

A yellow wyvern! You don't dare leave the shade of the elm tree in fear of being discovered. For a moment, you feel the eyes of the wyvern on you, and you stand perfectly still. You're not exactly sure what this great beast is capable of.

Luckily, it turns its back on you and you slowly make your way back down the stairs and out the front door of the house.

The outside is as, if not more, miraculous than the inside. Patches of colorful flowers grow out of the lush, green grass. A fountain with crystal clear blue water stands proudly in the center of the path. You dip your hands in the pool and are amazed at how fresh and cold the water feels.

Over to the left, you spot a bridge. After crossing, you notice the lush meadow has disappeared and is replaced with a few dead trees. You hear more giggles, which are more like cackling this time, and you spot blurs of purple and pink whizzing around your head. Dark fairies have killed this area of the land. In order to keep them from destroying the rest of the greenery, the other creatures banished them to this area of the castle, and put an enchantment on the bridge so they can not cross. You brush the fairies away from your head and cross the bridge again.

To the left, you see a small path almost hidden by a large, green tree. It leads down to what looks like a beach.

You find cyclops and trolls living here! They seem to really love the hot sand, running back and forth, playing with one another.

On the other side of the forest, fountains stick out of the side of a building, as though the building was constructed around them. A stone bench and stool are here to let you rest. You take a seat and stare out at the house and the rest of the forest. A little bird lands on the birdbath between the fountains and you hear some rustling in the trees ahead of you. You stand up and move down the hill to spy...

... a unicorn colony! Many different types of unicorns roam the meadows here. In the distance you spot the mother unicorn taking shelter under a tall tree. The small unicorns run up to you, happy to see someone else here in the meadow. You play with them for a while, watching them gallop through the colorful flowers, before heading behind the castle.

Here you find a small fairy and pixie colony. A small orange fairy flies over to you and floats next to your shoulder. You smile and it buzzes around your head. The other fairies seem to keep their distance. You think it would be best to leave them be, so you head back over to the front of the castle and up to the large building you spotted before.

It is blocked off by a rope barrier. Trees have grown up into the building, almost making a statement that it should not be in the middle of the forest. You smile, thinking how great it is to have a place like this in the middle of the chaos of today.

I hope you all enjoyed my little story! If you'd ever like to actually visit the house, let me know in game!

<3 Cassie

test post

2011-09-03T18:34:00.001-04:00

Posting from my phone! Let's see how this goes...

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly -- Wysteria Updates

2011-08-20T01:18:00.000-04:00

I'd like to start off with a disclaimer:

These are the opinions of Cassandra Hexthorn and Cassandra Hexthorn only.

If you disagree with something written here, please voice it, but don't bash or be rude.

These are my assessments of the new updates and how I feel about them.

Opinions are subject to change, however, right now this is how I feel.

THE GOOD!

New Housing Items!

All these new furniture items are great! I've wanted one of those wooden wells from MS for SO LONG.
Aren't those sunflowers the best?! I think they're so cute, and will look great in a garden/forest themed house.
With the chicken coop, you get a golden chicken and little golden chick! Also adorable. Makes me smile. :D
The bird bath has been something I've sought after ever since it showed up in the pet store in the pavilion.
The bird cages are also super fun! I just wish they were hanging from a pole or sitting on a table.
(That wooden bridge isn't from the recent update, but House-a-Palooza is also a really good thing!)

New Gear with Energy!

Pictured here is the Greenwarden's Energetic Shroud.
+315 max health, +18 max energy, +5 pips, +40 block and +6 defense -- lvl 60+, no auction.
The 18 energy makes it better for gardening than the Piggy suit, which only gives 10.
The hat gives the same amount as the Piggy hat, which is why I won't be hoping for that.
I would like the boots however, as they give 12 energy -- more than Piggy shoes' 8 energy.
This is helpful for both gardeners and pet trainers -- I'm glad to be both in this case.
With the whole outfit, you get 112 energy. Add the Wintertusk Ring of Valor? 116 energy.
And with the Garnet Bear Claw? That's a max of 118 energy!! Wowsers, that's a lot of yellow goop!

Wysteria, Pigswick Academy and the Spiral Cup!

Wysteria is for wizards of level 25+. Being level 60, I can't get the experience, but that's okay.
At first, I was going to put this under "The Bad," but the more I thought about it, this is a good thing.
Even though us level 60 wizards cannot benefit much from this world at the moment, there are lots of good things.
1) Another training point: Zeke is here again with another task for us -- finding Wallflowers! (I thought it was clever)
2) Introducing other new worlds: Only in text, but two of the competitors in the Spiral Cup mention different worlds!
Also, one of the shop keepers hints at yet another world through a quest to gather items. Go check them out!
Who knows if we'll actually ever see these worlds they speak of? It's fun to theorycraft in the meantime. :)
3) The Tower of the Helephant: This tower is for wizards level 60+ and is located in Pegasus Place.
I have not yet run this tower, but I know there's a nice piece of 60+ jewelry waiting for me at the end!
So you see? Wysteria isn't all that bad! Playing with low levels can be irritating sometimes, but hey, it's fun!

THE BAD

The New Teleporters.

I know what you're thinking -- "What? The teleporters aren't bad! Take it back! Take it back!"
It's not that I think the teleporters are BAD really... but the way KI made them is what I don't like.
These are not movable -- you can't put in the shared bank for other characters to use.
In other words, if you want them on all characters, you have to either buy them or craft on each character.
Sorry, I'm not getting to GMA on any other wiz right now. Or paying lots of crowns for them. Meh.
Also, when you place the destination for the teleporter and then set the teleporter down, if you decide you want
to move the teleporter to another house, you have to reset the destination... which is sort of a hassle in my opinion.
I do like how they allow you to make your dorm a home base and have teleporters branch out to all houses.
I did that earlier -- I connected my dorm to my Sultan's Palace lamp, my MFP garden, and my storybook house.
I'm excited to see what people do with these for PvP parties and mazes and such!!!

The Wyvern's Hoard Pack

For most of you, this pack may be a bit of a blessing. For me -- well, it's not exactly that.
Sure, you can receive teleporters, new furniture, gear, mounts, and other various items, BUT...
Unfortunately, like the Dragon's Hoard Pack, the rare items rarely pop up. See what I did there?
Honestly, the only thing I really received from these packs were trees and bushes I already owned.
I did get two pair of boots, the gardening robe, a cool wand (see above), and furniture I've been waiting for,
but this was only after being gifted and spending most of the 9500 crowns I had on my account. Humph.
KI, why put crafted items in the WHP? The aquarium? A sideways palm tree? The bamboo fountain?
And why do these items have to be from Celestia? With the DHP, I can understand going back to DS,
but why on EARTH return to CL, especially when you have Wysteria all fresh and new for us to experience?
I'm lucky to have such great friends. I received both the staff above and a golden wyvern mount from gifted packs.
If I were you, I would snipe some of these great items off the bazaar. You can find most of them there.
And please, if you're trying for one of the 5 wyvern mounts, use caution when buying crowns.
Don't let KI drain you dry like they're attempting. Be strong. It's gambling -- an addiction. Don't feed it.

THE UGLY

The New Pet Page(s).

When I viewed the new pet pages, my first thought was, "Oh what did they do?!"
This is what the left side of the new pet page looks like. Two different tabs to view the stats.
There's a lot of space around the talent names... it really just looks messy to me.
Unless you make all the talents named something long enough to fit in the box, it looks dumb.
In order to view the derby talents, you click on the "Derby" box below the pet card spot.
Then you click the "Talents" option to go back to viewing the regular talents. Awkward, right?
And they haven't even fixed the 'dots' glitch yet -- where the rarity dots are not the correct number.
Why make such a big change and leave out that one detail people have complained about for so long?
Because of the page change, Petnome will now have to figure out what to do with new pets and talents.
Will they stick with the old layout and just edit the pics down themselves when they're new talents?
Will they go and change the whole thing? I'm guessing the first one. The latter is a little to much work.
KI, why can't we just stick with the old layout? It makes life so much easier! No useless clicking... sigh

No Houses like on Test Realm?

Alright, KI, what gives?!
Although Cassie has no room for more houses and probably will not buy another,
KI gave us a teaser of two brand new houses on Test Realm, both of which are super cool.
Many people were excited to see new housing -- Calypso's ship was a much sought-after feature.
With the updates, KI decided to keep the housing out of the Spiral... but... I don't get why...
Maybe there were some more things KI wanted to do with them and just wanted us to try what they had?
I'm sure wizards would love to see the new houses out soon! All this waiting makes us wizzies impatient.

Teleporter Recipes

2011-08-18T23:14:00.000-04:00

For those of you wondering, here are the teleporter recipes! The different jewels/gems are all "Perfect" gems so make sure you have more than just regular jewels!

List of reagents needed for ALL:

Pristine Vial

Golden Pearl

Sunstone

Black Lotus

Scrap Metal

Earthquake cards

Frost Giant

Fire Dragon

Storm Lord

Power Nova

Regenerate

Scarecrow

Orthrus

Hexy Has Returned! ...sort of...

2011-08-15T15:49:00.001-04:00

Hello! It's Hexy unable to think of anything to blog about!

Yes, you read correctly. I have returned to the blogging world. However, this isn't going to be a substantial blog post... I don't exactly have anything great to blog about.

Over the past week, I've had a visitor here at my house. You all know it was Kevin Battleblood, and if you didn't know, well... WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, WIZARDS? Kevin and I spent a week developing our long-distance relationship that we decided on having a couple months back. I had an amazing time; Kevin is just as great in real life for those of you wondering. I do believe he is writing up a post about our time together, so I'll be sure to link that here on my blog when that is complete.

In other news... *cricket* Oh yeah, I really don't have anything else to say.

I leave for another vacation this Saturday and will not return for some time, as school starts on the 28th for me! Move-in day is always hectic, as are the first few weeks of school, so don't expect to see me around much. Sigh...

<3 Cassie

Another Week Away...

2011-08-05T10:31:00.000-04:00

Starting this Saturday (tomorrow!) I will be taking another brief intermission and step away from blogging. As you can see, the countdown on the side of my blog (over there >>>) is ticking down, which means I'll be off the computer for a week or so. You'll most likely see me around occasionally; I'll be on to watch a PvP match or two, or tweet about some happening in my life. If you don't follow me on twitter, you may want to start now (if you don't want to be out of the loop...) Follow me here at casshexythorn.

Anyway, I'm off to try test realm again. Yesterday I couldn't get in to fight the 2nd boss. Fail.

<3 Cassie

A Bit of Theorycrafting...

2011-08-02T15:57:00.000-04:00

Here's a bit of news straight from Professor Falmea in the August 2011 Ravenwood Newsletter:

August is here, and despite Lydia's best efforts to keep it cool, the heat is certainly winning that duel here at KingsIsle's offices. Thankfully, it's always temperate in the Spiral!

We've got some really exciting news coming up for you this month young Wizards, but I can't say too much yet or it'll spoil the surprise. Just know that there will be some new challenges for Wizards who are level 25 and up, and a brand new challenge for Wizards who thought Waterworks was difficult! Watch for more information coming very, very soon!

As for the rest of this month's newsletter, we have our wonderful Book of the Month Club, a happy birthday shoutout to Wizard101 Central, a change to KIFreeGames rewards and a very important message from Mr Lincoln about protecting your Wizards. Read on!

I have been thinking about that middle paragraph, which I have bolded and italicized for your reading, and I have been able to come up with a few possibilities.

First, I'm going to rattle off the towers with difficult bosses we have now in the game, so bare with me here while I refresh your memory:

Briskbreeze Tower | The Warehouse | Waterworks

Let's start with Briskbreeze. This tower, located in Wizard City's Colossus Boulevard, came for level 50+ wizards a while back and is made up of 10 floors. The bosses here were the first we had seen use cheats to get ahead of us wizards. You could receive a special ring for your school in this tower. I know some wizards who still use this ring from time to time, depending upon which sort of situation they're in.

The Warehouse (also known as "Spiral Geographic") is located in Reagent's Square in Marleybone and was created as part of the plot leading to Celestia, though it is not required to access CL. You have to obtain the Spiral Key and defeat the bosses here. This tower gives you the Wayfinder gear (hat, robe, boots) which isn't that great of gear when you measure it against the other gear we have, even at level 45.

In Triton Avenue resides The Waterworks, a tower for level 60 wizards. Both the first boss and final bosses use cheats to try and get ahead. Here, you can receive level 60 gear, aka the best gear in the game. Wizards strive to find the easiest way out of this tower, and many succeed in getting out within an hour. Supposedly the hardest instance in the game, wizards have squashed it like a bug.

In any case, we're definitely due for a new challenge and I hope you are ready for some major amounts of rambling.

There have been 2 towers in Wizard City and one in Marleybone. KI has skipped over Krokotopia, and I'm not exactly sure if this is on purpose or totally unintentional. Falmea says some of these updates will be for level 25+ wizards, which means, if it is a tower, it must reside in either Wizard City or Krokotopia. Because there are already 2 towers in WC, I am inferring this tower will reside somewhere in KT. If this is true, where will it be? Many wizards are curious about that random island in the sky. I believe I heard somewhere that KI originally was going to use that for something, but then left it there. Perhaps this is where the new tower will be? Teleport up to the island and meet some baddies? And what sort of cheats will the monsters have? We've seen interrupting meteors, interrupting heals, changes in the type of round, smokescreens and hexes. What could we see next? Interrupting frost giant? Probably not, considering this could be a 25+ tower. And what sort of drops will there be? New low-level gear? Crown gear? That would be pretty sweet.

Or perhaps it's another "new street" like Crab Alley, which may lead to the next tower!

A level 25+ tower seems highly unlikely, but a new street like Crab Alley sounds good to me! This mini-street is located in Triton Avenue. An area in KT that is comparable to Triton Avenue would be... either the Krokosphinx or The Well of Spirits. There does happen to be one place in the Well of Spirits that gets me thinking. On the other side of the Barracks lies a doorway that has been blocked off by rubble. Perhaps this will open up to be something new? There are many sealed passageways and rooms throughout all of Krokotopia, so it will be exciting to see - if they do use KT - what will come next!

Now on to bigger and better things - new challenges greater than Waterworks!

Since WW is a level 60 instance, I'm going to say this will also be level 60. It makes sense, since this is supposed to be more difficult in the long run. In Waterworks, we saw 2 cheating bosses. Perhaps 3? 4? Maybe this will be more like Briskbreeze and have 10 different floors? Maybe it continues the story arc with the spiral keys, though there is no door to open at this point in time. Is KI getting ready to release a new world? Oh, the possibilities!

One possibility that seems more likely to me than others is the usage of that lonely floating island or some other inaccessible area of KT. If this does continue with finding Spiral Keys, KT would be the next place to look. If not? Well, how about Marleybone again? We still haven't set tail or paw into Barkingham Palace!

Who knows what KingsIsle has in store for us?! We'll all just have to wait and see.

<3 Cassie

I'm Back! A Little Vacation Overview

2011-07-27T17:16:00.002-04:00

Aw, you're too kind!

Hellooooooo Spiral! Cassie Hexthorn has returned from her vacation in New Hampshire! It was nice to get out in the fresh mountain air and just relax. The whole reason for the vacation was the annual Family Flotilla, where a bunch of us (25+ people) get together, rent canoes/kayaks, and paddle down river for most of the day. We kayaked 5 miles to our campsite from upriver, and boy, was I tired after! This trip consisted of a lot of walking also, as there really isn't much to do in NH besides hike, boat, bike, and swim. Nevertheless, I had an awesome time! It's great to be back home, don't get me wrong, but I definitely needed the time away from the computer.

Here are a few photos from the trip:
(Click to enlarge them)

This was the view to the left of our campsite.
We were right on the Pemi River in Thornton.
It was a beautiful river, and many people jumped off this bridge.
I... I did not. I'm scared of heights. Poor Hexy, right?

We hiked up a mountain. Well, sort of hiked. We hiked around the mountain.
We climbed Canon Mtn. in a cable car before getting out and walking around.
This is one of many pictures I took to keep me distracted. Boo, heights!

We swam in this here river, which doesn't look like much of a river at all!
This is really part of the Pemi River, and as you can see, it hasn't rained in a while.
It was pretty fun, minus the bruises on my hips from the rapids and rocks.

This little guy (LOL, little...) was on a rock the day of the Flotilla.
I've never seen a dragonfly this big, and just HAD to take a photo.
I really got that close and he sat there like a good little dragonfly. Thanks, pal~

And last we have the Flume Gorge. We -once again- hiked through a mountain to see these sites.
Obviously those stairs and walkways are man-made. This place was beautiful!

And there you have it - basically all I did over the week, give or take a few other things like seeing HP 7 for the second time, eating too much ice cream, campfires, marshmallows, mini-golf, my little cousin who thinks I'm his girlfriend... Okay, Hexy, enough rambling!

In Spiral related news... well... there really is none on my end! I harvested my Couch Potatoes today and got an Empower TC, which I will probably either sell or give to TPC (eventually). I am still working on my Fairy Tale house, inspired by the fairy wings that came out not too long ago. Those pictures will be posted (along with a story) when I am finished. Definitely be on the lookout for that post!

Well, that's all for now, folks! I will see you in the Spiral!

<3 Cassie

New Grandmaster... and a few notes

2011-07-14T12:16:00.001-04:00

As you can see above, I finally have another Grandmaster Wizard! Sestiva is the second member of the Hexthorn family to reach this important marker. I'm really glad she reached 50 before Dragonspyre ended, unlike Cassie, who got Grandmaster in Malistaire's dungeon. It's all thanks to that little extra experience points from Crab Alley, me thinks. When will Sestiva tackle Malistaire? Maybe this weekend. Perhaps Saturday.

Okay, I found this on Facebook the other day and scoffed. No game beats Wizard101! And sick of PvP matches? If you are, it's only because of the spammers and trolls. And that character doesn't look too family friendly........

In other unrelated news, I'll be gone from the Spiral, blogging, twitter, etc starting on July 17th until the 25th. I'm going on my annual camping trip with my cousin, aunt and uncle to New Hampshire. I will miss you, Spiral!

And One More Thing...

2011-07-12T13:09:00.000-04:00

I recently enabled ads on my page. If you see anything that should not be accessible to those under 18, PLEASE email me at cassiehexthorn(at)gmail(dot)com. Just replace the (at) with @ and (dot) with a period. I'm sure you knew that, but I had to tell you... some people can be really thick. The ads will appear below my page views.

Thanks!
<3 Cassie

Hexthorn Family Updates (and a little plug...)

2011-07-12T10:41:00.016-04:00

First off, a little plug for my good friend Cassandra Dragonheart's PvP Tourney. Click HERE for the details! It's a 4v4 tourney where the 1st place team wins some great prizes, including Couch Potatoes! Those plants are the BEST. You can get mega snacks and conviction/infallible cards, which are very helpful in actual PvP and pet training! Be sure to gather your team together and sign up! I won't be signing up (I don't think... unless someone guilt-trips me onto a team), so good luck to all who enter!

Recently I have been working on a new house for Cassie. I've had a Royal Playhouse for quite some time now, but it was only being used to hoard pets. When I received my lovely blue fairy wings at the end of last week, inspiration struck. I decided to turn my Royal Playhouse pet farm into a magical forest of sorts. It's not complete yet, but when it is, you can expect many pictures and an explanation.

I also changed my outfit again. The traditional Cassie outfit just wasn't working with the wings. I needed something more reminiscent of a fairy/pixie. Luckily, I had already stitched my Rockstar Outfit to a Firestarter's Robe. I dyed that dark purple with light blue trim and here she is!

In other Cassie news, I've been working on obtaining all badges possible. I completed the crab, pig, cat, and 2/3 of the ronin/samoorai badges. My next conquests are the final samoorai, draconian and bear badges. I think those are the last three I need to complete my collection! (We'll wait and see...) I ended up having one more quest in both Krokotopia and Marleybone, which surprised me a little... Who visits the deck shop in the Oasis anyway?

As you may have noticed, I updated the banner at the top of my blog. Sestiva recently reached level 48 and received the long-awaited Power Nova card! She also got a brand new outfit at level 45. Along with her 7-day Starlight Pony rental, it makes her look like someone in the armed forces going into battle. Her signature colors are going to be gold with pink trim, as you can see in the little picture above.

I am always a little skeptical about questing alone on her, as she is not as strong as Cassie. She makes me a little nervous. Dragonspyre is a bit intimidating when it comes to questing. She is currently still making her way through the Crystal Grove. As of right now, she's not completing side quests. Eventually I plan to go back and complete them. I may actually go to Marleybone/Mooshu today and pick up any I missed. I probably should have kept track of where I stopped doing every single quest.

Alright well that's all for now. Catch y'all later!

<3 Cassie

Spread Your Wings!

2011-07-08T11:37:00.007-04:00

KingsIsle and Wizard101 Present

A New Wizard Mount... Fairy Wings!

Has your transportation needed a touch of glitter and flutter lately? If so, these fairy game mount wings add some sparkle to your flight around the Spiral.

Fairy wings are now available in the Crown Shop! You can try out these colorful wings for a 7 Day Rental for 2500 Crowns, or if you already know you're 100% down with the fairies than the permanent wings are available for 7500 Crowns.

When you can travel as a fairy, game outfits have never been so delightfully pixie inspired! With purple, orange, and blue fairy game wings there's sure to be a perfect match for your Wizard.

These fairy wings will increase your travel speed by 40% when you wear them around the Spiral. You can get some for just yourself or gift to friends as well! Head to the Crown Shop now to choose the perfect fairy wing mount for your Wizard.

I woke up this morning to a pair of sparkly, blue fairy wings under my gift icon~! A big thank you to Kevin Battleblood for those :) They go really well with my new purple outfit because the wings go out from purple to blue! They're so pretty and sparkly~ I'm such a girl *giggles*

<3 Cassie

Created a New Header!

2011-07-02T13:48:00.003-04:00

In honor of the new month (and out of pure boredom) I have created a new header! This one actually features all of my wizards. It will obviously be updated each time a character hits a new level (or however many I hit while I play them). Sestiva is SO CLOSE to Grandmaster! I can hardly contain my excitement~

<3 Cassie

After the Ravenwood Ball

2011-06-25T23:29:00.021-04:00

The pictures I've included in this post are the outfits that my date, Kevin Battleblood, and I wore tonight at the ball. We changed outfits every 10 minutes before the ball even started, and then stayed in our original outfits until the PvP started for Kevin.

Look at this first one... We're each other! Isn't that cute? ^-^ He even copied me with the sword, which I thought was hilarious. We actually wear the same robe normally, which is also hilarious, because we never realized it before we really started hanging out. Teehee!

So as most of you know, I was the host for one of the many mini parties that went on around the Spiral tonight. From what I heard, some people didn't even have anyone show up, and I am very sorry to those people and those who ended parties early.

Mine, however, seemed to go on for EVER.

At 6:15 CST my date, Kevin Battleblood, and I headed over to my house for the start of the mini parties. I had my other Cassandra Hexthorn account as a port bus, running back and forth through Ravenwood, picking up every wizard I could find.

Through this party of mine, I met a BUNCH of nice wizards! I even opened my friend requests to those who stayed until the end. I gotta tell ya, we are SO LUCKY to have the community we do. I was very surprised at the turnout of my party. I didn't expect as many people as I got.

In this picture to the right, we're in the Beastmaster Gear with wildclaw pets. It looks like we took each other's wildclaw! Heh heh

And thank you to all those who said something nice about my house. It took a LONG time to make it perfect, and a lot of hard work was put into it. Maybe some of you were inspired. I sure hope so! :)

Stormywiz actually asked to be trapped in the tiger pen! So funny! And lots of people liked my bird cage. I worked SO hard on that, and had a lot of help from Kevin because I'm still new at floating.

In this picture, we're wolves with fierce hounds to match! There's a purple scarecrow in the back behind me... but that's okay! I think we look really good, but that's just me.

Ravenwood was PACKED even before the ball started! We all played around with transformation potions, ran in circles, and just had a grand old time. I don't think I've ever had that much fun in this game! And I have all of YOU to thank for that!!!

In the last picture, we're ravens. You don't see our shadow phoenix pets, but we took them off so it wasn't so laggy. I think we look like our friend Autumn, don't you? A little tribute to her! :) I think I may keep this look for a future outfit... I really do love this robe. And Kevin looks dashing in blue, as always.

I met so many great new wizards tonight. We should be so grateful to have the community we do, and Fallon Shadowblade & DoaW are a HUGE part of what makes this game so great. A special thanks to her for making all of this possible and putting so much hard work into planning the contests, mini parties, and everything else in between. If you see her in game or on twitter or on DoaW, don't hesitate to thank her for everything she's done over the last 2 years.

Well, that's it for me... I'm just trying to fill out the space between these pictures so it flows correctly. Heh heh...

<3 Cassie

Ravenwood Ball Mini Party Hostess!

2011-06-24T14:49:00.003-04:00

Lampnome Launch!

2011-06-24T01:10:00.017-04:00

Alright, so you probably thought we were kidding when we were talking about Lampnome in the comments of the previous post. Well, you are completely incorrect! Here's is *drum roll*

LAMPNOME

"Poof! Whaddaya need?"

2011-06-22T12:14:00.016-04:00

In honor of my all-time favorite Disney movie, I have dedicated this post to the Genie.

Let's see if you can catch all the references I use... *snicker*

I guess ten thousand years also makes you irritable.

No offence, Genie, we know it wasn't your fault.

I suppose Aladdin's genie is a different concept than what KI has given us, but in my opinion, KI's is pretty fantastic. Genie in the Sultan's Palace (seen below) allows a wizard to get a gift from the lamp once every 24 hours, and no, you cannot switch houses and receive another gift. It's a once-a-day affair, no matter whose house you are at. Maybe if you have nice wizard friends, they'll let you take a chance at the lamp in their house (that is, if you don't have a Sultan's Palace).

The ever impressive, often imitated, but never duplicated Kevin Battleblood and I have been using one another's lamps for a while now, depending on who gets to their house first. We both know I have such bad luck with his lamp! It's okay, Kevin, I forgive you.

We try to do a lamp run every day...

"But, Cassie, what's a lamp run?"

*You must be crazy. A little punch-drunk.

One too many hits with the snake...*

What is a lamp run, you ask? Well, sit back, relax, and I will explain!

In case of emergency, the exits are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here anywhere!

Keep your hands and arms inside the carpet! We're outta here!

All right, sparky, here's the deal. It's true: you can only receive one "wish" from Genie every 24 hours on your wizard, but have you considered using your alts as well? Kevin and I travel to one of our palaces, collect what we can for our mains, and then do a little switcheroo. We log out of our main wizards (one by one of course) and use our alts to collect loot, too! "Hey, I never said it was one ACCOUNT per day, it's one WIZARD per day."

In order to do this, you need to be friends with your friend's alts. Once you both collect on your main, one of you logs out and ports in on another alt. Then, your friend can log out and port to you, and collect from the lamp again. Repeat this until you have collected on all of your characters! Believe me, this is very beneficial, especially if you need items to craft.

What can you collect from the Genie's lamp?

Our good friend Genie gives out all different sorts of items. You'll see different treasure cards (choke, storm shark, imp, etc.), various amounts of gold (1 gold, 2 gold, 50 gold, etc.), reagents varying in rareness (I've received everything from mushrooms and blood moss to sunstone and aquamarine), and pet snacks (I have not received any snack over rank 4 or 5). Though many claim it has nothing to do with the level of your wizard, I seem to be proving this wrong. My lowest level wiz only receives 1 or 2 gold each time, while Cassie gets one TC, one reagent, one snack, and some gold every time I visit. I'm going to keep testing this out.

So there you have it! You have been a fabulous audience! Tell you what, you're the best audience in the whole world. Take care of yourselves!

<3 Cassie

PS: In case you were wondering, I used 6 references. I tried to use more... it didn't work out. :P

I'm the Backpack Loaded up with Things...

2011-06-16T17:20:00.012-04:00

I really hope you all got the Dora the Explorer reference in my title. Being a 90s child, I watched Dora growing up, and you have no idea how excited I got when backpack and map would appear on the screen. Sigh, enough about my childhood...

This post is going to be about keeping your backpack free of extra items after farming and collecting many reagents, snacks, and treasure cards. This is going to basically be a list of the actions I take when I get a full backpack, so if you do some things differently, that's your prerogative. I am also including some things to do when you reach maximum gold. Once again, these are only the things that I and many others I know do. Don't think you HAVE to do any of these... they're just ideas. :)

What do I do when my backpack is full?

After a few hours of farming certain bosses, you'll end up with 120/120 filled slots in your backpack. This simply will not do! Of course you need room for MORE farming. C'mon... farming is a way of life! What I do is head over to the bazaar and start in my clothing section of my backpack. More often than not, the clothing you get from farming will not be as helpful as the clothing you have on, especially if you're a legendary that has completed the Water Works and crafted some of the WinterTusk gear.

I personally do not keep anything I get from farming, especially when it comes to clothing. Lately, my friends and I have been farming Halfang in Vestrilund, and he drops amulets that are 8k a piece, and they give a triage card. Pretty useless for me, so I sell them all, along with the robes, rings, athames, and boots I receive, as they're all at least 2,000 gold each. Halfang drops a TON of monstrous and tough treasure cards, none of which I keep. If you have alts that have not reached Celestia and do not have gargantuan or any of those spells, these TCs would be useful for questing. I don't keep them, and they just crowd my space.

Those are just examples of items I would definitely sell.

When it comes to items you would like to keep on your wizard, you must pick and choose carefully so you have ample room for other items. On Cassie, I have my every-day farming outfit which just happens to be my PvP clothes, and an outfit with extra energy (the Dragon's Utility outfit), two rings and athames with varying stats for farming or PvP (if I choose to do so), many different decks so I don't have to keep switching up builds, and two or three pets of my choosing.

I sell all my items on Cassie so she always has max gold, but if you use alts just as often as your main wizard, you can put items in the shared bank to help them reach max gold as well!

What do I do when I reach max gold?

When I reach maximum gold, there are a bunch of things I do! First, I go treasure card swiping for maybe a half an hour or so. I swipe fireblades for Cassie, dragonblades and balance blades for farming and donating, and other blades, healing cards, and astral spells to give to friends to use in PvP. Helping friends is a good way to get rid of gold fast. Other items I swipe are pet snacks for my fire pets, furniture items I've been searching for, and reagents for crafting items for my Sultan's Palace. I'm currently working on gold place settings, which take 40 fossils each. Lame.

If I still have lots of gold, I go to the reagent vendor in CL and buy so I have 999 of all he has to offer. That will be helpful in the long run, especially if KI creates more craftable items in the future! I also buy spare mounts. I bought a lion and lioness for the inside of my palace, and will probably end up buying more to have roaming around, keeping watch.

The last thing I do is go back to the bazaar and swipe again! You never know what you'll find at different times of the day.

So there you have it... my tips for full backpacks and max gold. If you keep farming and selling and buying, you'll have many items to call your own.

Happy farming!

<3 Cassie

Cassie's New Look

2011-06-09T15:35:00.001-04:00

Okay so this look isn't permanent, but I thought I would post a picture of the new gear. This is the Utility gear; it gives more energy than my bear suit, so that's why I have it on. That sword is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I feel like I'm about to kill anyone who talks to me. Running with it is a little weird... but I love it!

<3 Cassie

Dragons Unite!

2011-06-08T19:36:00.004-04:00

Okay so... I didn't get the skeledragon mount. Boo. I did get the wings though! Here's a picture of Cassandra Dragonheart, Angel Winterbreeze, and I hanging out in the commons. :D

I'm in the middle in full gear, with the level 60 balance sword. Love it!

<3 Cassie