Ah, Celestia. So many marvels in this new world of The Spiral. My absolute favorite thing about this expansion is that it finally allows students of the Life School, also called Theurgists, to realize and demonstrate their true and mighty powers.
I’m best known for shipping the Ice School (witness: my Wizard101 identity as “Icy Wiz”), but I also have a high-level Theurgist. Fiona WillowWhisper was my second Grand Master back when 50 was the level cap. Now, don’t tell Christina IceDreamer, but Fiona regularly dishes out more damage and one-shots than Christina ever has! My nickname for Fiona is “The Beast.”
Life School takes a beating in many forums and fan discussions. One of the more rampant and unfounded criticisms is that Life School is underpowered. I respectfully beg to differ. With proper use of training points and well thought-out equipment, Life School can deal impressive amounts of damage. This is due in no small fact that Life School can virtually guarantee 100% casting accuracy, which means the damage is consistent and therefore adds up rapidly in any battle.
Another vapid observation is that Life School is truly useful only for healing. This is only true if the player lets him or herself be pressured into the healing role. When playing my Theurgist, I used to be very annoyed by the “heal me” attitude. First of all, I like wreaking havoc on bad guys. Almost as important is my belief that every wizard is responsible for managing their own hit points and ensuring they don’t do the “Spiral Head Roll”.
Kids, don’t rush into a street battle with a Theurgist you don’t know expecting that you can rely on their wind drag to finish up your “kill x of y” quest. When this happens to me, I merely carry on with my strategy as planned and ignore the inevitable demands for healing. I pack one or two “heal all” spells. If they come up, I will cast one if needed, and I heal myself. But I don’t discard to get to those healing spells in order to help unknown and uninvited people on my side of the battle circle.
The exception to this is when I head out as part of a group of four with the agreement that I will heal all. In this case, I use an alternate deck that’s almost 100% healing spells. If you’d like to play this role, I recommend standing in the fourth position of the battle circle (the one with the crescent moon). This gives the healer the chance to make the final spell of a battle a healing spell, bringing back to life anyone who may have died in the final stages and ensuring that everyone can move onto the next stage of the instance or tower without using a potion bottle.
So, what does all this have to do with Celestia? I promise, I’m bringing this in for a landing. One of the most common – and valid – complaints about life school was the complete lack of a “damage all” spell. Celestia addressed this in spades. At Level 58, Life Wizards are given a quest that results in the Forest Lord spell. Forest Lord is fondly called “Chewbaccca” and with it, Theurgists are finally able to unleash the full might of the power they have worked through 58 levels to amass.
If you ever take the Life School for a spin, I recommend using secondary training points in the Balance School first. This will give you a damage all spell (Sandstorm) at Level 16. After Sandstorm, switch to Death School and train up to Feint, which will exponentially increase your damage against the enemy. At some point, work in a visit to Niles (the palm tree) on Krokosphinx Island to train in Spirit Blade and Spirit Trap. The rest of your training points should be saved for Astral School spells or possibly used in the Ice School up to Tower Shield. Personally, I think that stashing Tower Shield treasure cards is smarter than spending several training points with Professor Greyrose to get that one spell. Find an Ice School buddy who will craft those tower shields for you, and trade Fairy cards you have crafted.
Leveling a Life Wizard is not for the easily frustrated or distracted. The introduction of a powerful damage-all spell is an outstanding reward for those who have stayed the course. Two of my favorite wizards ITS, Fallon MoonGem and Jason LifeWielder, come to mind. If you ever think that Life wizards are underpowered, observe them for a few battles and you might just walk away ready to roll a skull-bashing Theurgist of your own.
Excellent info, as always, Christie :)
January 23rd, 2011 at 2:27 pmQuote
I actually disagree with your suggestions about training secondaries schools for Life wizards.
I think Sandstorm is not a good idea as it would only be good in krok because you will have no way to boost it. Power pips are not readily available in krok so unless you have some crown gear going 4 turn to Sandstorm could take to long. Then those pips are spent to heal. It is much more efficient to just to attack one then the other instead of trying to kill both same time. Also allowing you to heal in between. Killing one mob fast so you only taking one attack makes it easier for Life.
I don’t think training an AoE is necessary for Life either. Once power pips % increases it is not hard for Life to stack buffs and attack each mob in consecutive turn or even healing in between. If you just really want an AoE then I think training fire is the best way to go. You get Fire Elf which is useful as a shield breaker to support Meteor Strike. You will also get Gracial Shield which will give you an Ice and Fire shields.
You could also go Myth for Frog AoE. If you train spirit blades then the Myth blade will work well with the frog. Training Myth may also have another upside if Mutate Minotaur is ever released. As of now its only for death. In all honestly though I do not feel Life needs a AoE due to theit healing and survivability.
Life minion is a huge help in the more difficult parts of the game. She keeps you alive while you can focus on attacking.
I don’t agree with not training tower shields. Most enemies cast random out of school spells and that is the power of Tower. You can add a few towers and be prepared for anything. Life being able to heal really only needs to prvent some damage sime they can easily heal most damage dealt. Tower TC’s are expensive and it is better to just train it. You also get Volcanic shield which protects you from the highest damage oput schools.
I do agree with Feint though. I also feel you can train it first as life can heal of damage fast and efficient. Feint will allow you to kill mobs. Life blade then feint will one hit kill most mobs all the way through Dragonspyre. Again take one enemy out fast then you only defending against one attack. Then heal if you need to while powering up 2nd attack.
As far as Astral speels go I think Gargantuan is clearly the best thing you can do for Life. Empowerment good be usefull as well.
7 – Feint
3 – Weakness
1 – Spirit Blade
5 – Tower Shield
4 – Gargantuan
1 – Empowerment
This leave 3 points left. If you like to Pvp then I suggest Infection, Reshuffle, and Conviction. If you don’t prefer to PvP then those are free points to use as you se fit.
Dav_gro
February 16th, 2011 at 3:11 pmQuote