After spending a couple of weeks soaking on the Wizard101 Test server, KingsIsle yesterday released the underwater-themed expansion to the wider world. By the time I logged in, there were already many wizards halfway through the run from level 50 to level 60, and every world and every zone of Celestia was filled with spells and wandfire and confused, dazed looking monsters with WTF? looks on their carapaced faces.

As in, “Huh? First this tiny expedition of Marleybone hounds, and now an invasion?”

It looks like the Celestians may have been just trying to save themselves when they closed off the portals between Celestia and the rest of the Spiral. But those resourceful Marleyboners took an airship across the Spiral and provided an anchor to help Headmaster Ambrose of the Ravenwood Wizarding School and his friends re-open the way.

And now, invasion. Millions of wizards poured through the portal yesterday, intent on mastering the secrets of Astral Magic and killing every creature they could find. Excitement for the new expansion couldn’t be higher.

As far as the astral magic goes, I’m still unsure of it. I had the chance on the test server to try out all three of the new schools — sun, moon and stars. While I had to grin when I used Moon magic to polymorph into a ninja pig and cast ninja pig death magic, I found myself feeling less useful. Polymorphing replaces your carefully tuned short deck with a random selection of spells specific to the polymorph. I’ve heard the treant polymorph, which turns your character into a healer, has some utility, but the fart-powered gobbler and the necromantic ninja pig were not improvements.

Now, the Sun school — card enchantments — did find heavy use with me. Adding one of their super-strength enchantments to my life wizard Centaur card turned it into a real one-shot killer. And my friend Michael works the Star school — buffs — pretty heavily. Sun and Star cards will likely find homes in my deck; I might stash some ninja pig polymorphs on my sideboard, though.

What can I say about my own first night in Celestia? I got to the Grotto, which is precisely as far as I got in the quest chain on Test (I spent the rest of my time helping friends farm the higher level instances). Celestia is a beautiful expansion, but for all that it is said to have 300 hours of gameplay, I imagine regular players will be finished with the expansion far sooner than that.

Not that it’s a race, of course, but finding groups to farm the final instance for Legendary gear will be much easier when there’s still crowds of people looking for the groups to do it.

This is Mithraya, the final boss in the Trial of the Spheres. I’m not certain, when Celestia actually goes live, that the Trial of the Spheres will turn out to be the ultimate dungeon in the world, but it IS the one that drops all the level 58+ legendary armor. Putting traps on Mithraya is pointless; she just removes them.

I’ve heard again and again that Celestia is very difficult. I heard on Twitter that some are pronouncing the short deck dead in Celestia. That is wrong on both counts. We fought Mithraya with three wizards — a level 50 life wizard, a level 50 balance wizard, and a level 58 (and again at 60) fire wizard. There was never any doubt that we would win. Sure, the bosses in the Trials CHEAT — all Celestia bosses do. Sure, they start out with six power pips. But they don’t pump out the damage the way the bosses in Briskbreeze or the Warehouse do.
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Before I get started, wow, thanks KingsIsle for the stuff! I was shocked to find a code in my in-box this morning for a new house (a Fairy Palace!) and some other random items. Shocked, and overjoyed :) W101 truly does have the best community team — and the best community.

I’m so excited to be so close to Celestia. Some of the people on the Test Realm have already completed all the Celestia quests (aside from, perhaps, defeating the Umbra Queen, the final boss). One wizard claimed to have completed the expansion in less than 24 hours, which seems a little… over-enthusiastic. Nonetheless, wizards with their special level 58 class spells are not uncommon in the Test server. Dedicated players have almost solved the collection quest (“Lounge Lizards” — in a nod, no doubt, to the satirical bluegrass group, “The Austin Lounge Lizards”). Some players have already settled in to start farming the high level gear.

Even though monsters routinely cast the level 48 grandmaster spells, or start out with a large number of power pips, or use a higher grade of strategy than we’ve come to expect — even though many players complain that Celestia is too difficult — is it actually too easy?

KingsIsle has fiddled with the difficulty of the game in the past. Malistaire, the final boss in the story arc that brought players through all the worlds of the Spiral through Dragonspyre, was considered easy, and soloable once you got through the puzzles that required more than one player. Clearly too weak for a boss. KI buffed him so that he would do ever-increasing amounts of damage to the entire group, such that if he lived past the fourth round, the entire group would be wiped out. (And he suddenly gained 10x his normal hit points. Also, he had friends.) Players complained, and Malistaire was brought back to his original, humble station.

Encounters in Celestia SEEM more difficult at first, but it doesn’t take long before you adapt. Yes, you’ll want some heals available now. Yes, you’ll want to spend a couple of rounds setting up shields. Yes, you will want to carry an assortment of pets, wands, and amulets for various fights. But you’ll also get powerful new abilities through the Astral spells. Plus, if you level up with the crowd, you’ll never have to fight alone — and that’s a powerful equalizer.

But let’s say you’re a wizard without much time to play. Maybe you’re not even a grandmaster yet. For you, the old world suddenly became much emptier outside of the free areas. Those Celestia fights, when you get there, are going to be hard to do solo. Will Celestia still be easy then?

Celestia wasn’t designed to be done alone. Though KI may at some point lower the difficulty so that the solo player can complete it, Wizard101 remains a MMO — meant to be played with other people. I have friends who absolutely refuse to play with other people. For them, a MMO is just a setting for their solo adventures. Wizard101 encourages you to play with friends! Every player gets the ability to instantly teleport to any friend, even if it’s to a place you don’t yet have access. It’s easy to join in on the fun.

I suspect the people who think Celestia too difficult will be those who for one reason or another, tend to play solo. Some people feel bad about joining someone else’s duel circle, as it can make the fight harder. That’s the wrong way to think about it. If you join a duel and you have a heal or just the right kind of shield ready to cast on who needs it, you will be welcomed. And probably gain a new friend.

Updated! Links to information about the new spells at the end of the post.

Whoa! Celestia’s finally on the Test server! I’ve been playing on it a few hours, just long enough to learn the mystical incantation which allows wizards to survive underwater and to start investigating the Crab Realm. The crabs, you see, have been attacking the underwater city constructed by the Marleybone explorers, who traveled across the Spiral by balloon.

The journey from level 50 to 60 will eventually (at level 58) get you a quest from your trainer for a new spell, but other folks you meet along the way will be able to teach you spells from the Astral Magic schools. Save those new training points.

Aside from the new Critical and Block effects you might find on new gear and spells (Block blocks Crits), the Astral schools bring entirely new abilities to your deck.

Sun spells are enchantments — they are the same sort of spells used to make treasure cards, except that Sun-enchanted cards disappear at the end of battle. Their powers can go well beyond just affecting accuracy or power — they can mutate cards into entirely different cards. Sun spells can even cloak your other cards, disguising your blades or shields so your opponent is unaware what buffs you have.

Moon spells confer the ability to polymorph into another creature entirely, with its spells and abilities. If you come against a monster strong against your school, pop a Moon spell and become its worst nightmare instead. Moon magic looks to be a real winner.

Star spells cast Auras — short term buffs to damage, fizzle rate, resistance and so on. Could be useful in a pinch.

Of course, adding too many Astral spells to your deck will likely run the danger of crowding out your regular spells. Only time will tell how they will fit into the short decks used by most grandmaster wizards.

There’s a good chance you won’t be able to hang with Selena Gomez once Celestia goes live, so if you haven’t gotten your Gomez statue — which has over a hundred and one uses — best hold your breath, dive deep, and help her get back to recording her new hit CD! And video!

The full Celestia patch notes are —> over here!

Thanks to commenter M.W.S., here’s a link to the level 58 Storm spell, Leviathan. There’s a thread on Wizard101 Central about the new school spells — the new Fire spell, Efreet, has been discovered, but no video. It appears to be a 895 point direct damage spell that also casts a 90% shield — very nice. I wonder if the Life spell will be another heal? Shadowrunner has compiled a list of all the Astral school spells available on the spell vendors. After looking at them, I still feel the Moon spells will be the most generally useful for how I play, unless trash fights turn out to take forever. The first couple of areas didn’t seem any worse than Dragonspyre.