Ditto faces the Test of Spirit
The final task in my quest for enlightenment, I get to talk to a big old statue and he says something about sandwiches, or was it yogurt? Maybe eggrolls? See, I wasn’t really paying attention and I was kinda hungry, so I might have missed out a bit on that whole ‘enlightenment’ thing… but I guess I did OK because my buddy Noribu Akitame gave me and Madame Jasmine the thumbs up – though it looks like things aren’t going to be nearly as easy as I had hoped. Looks like this time we’ve got an emperor to save!
DItto versus the Laptop Battery, and the Test of Strength
Still on the path of Mind, Body, and Spirit in Mooshu, I face one of my greatest challenges yet – my laptop battery dies as I’m talking to Noboru Akitame at the Jade Palace. Thankfully I’m able to cast the ‘plug the laptop in’ spell and get back into game with a minimum of fuss.
So far I’m really loving Mooshu – it’s a beautiful world and I LOVE the music – so tranquil and wonderful. I’m going to really enjoy it here!
Ditto faces the Test of the Mind… and finds rocks
As part of my adventures in beautiful and tranquil Mooshu, I must face the tests of Mind, Body, and Spirit. the first test, the Test of Mind, is traditionally only given to monks, and I am apparently the very first furry orange monster to attempt it. I pass the test by apparently being able to see rocks. It wasn’t all that tricky, come to think of it.
All kidding aside, I have to say there was a really wonderful message in this quest – the ‘Book of Celestial Wisdom’ stated that Happiness never decreases by being shared. That’s a really wonderful sentiment, made me feel all warm and fuzzy. Oh Ok – warmer and fuzzier….
Thanks for that nugget of wisdom, Kingsisle. Really made my day.
Crafting Bloopers in Mooshu
I was making videos in Mooshu and thought I was on the ‘Mind, Body, Spirit’ quest, but it turns out I was actually on the crafting quest, which was fine but kind of amusing. In the middle of that, however, I had a Java update on my laptop and it froze the game, so it turned into kind of a double-blooper… Well I thought it was funny anyway.
Can Daring Adventurers garden?
So the new fad sweeping across the spiral is gardening – you can buy seeds and use magic spells to grow adorable plants in your dorm room or house, and then you can harvest things like spell cards and gold from the plants. It’s fun and cute and looks like it will be a good time, with some pretty decent rewards.
My problem with this is that if you’re spending all this time and energy gardening, then how do you go on daring adventures? How do you swing into action and save Grizzleheim villages when you’re worried about watering your daffodils? How can you defeat Meowiarty if you’re fertilizing your sunflowers? And how is a furry orange monster supposed to work his way all the way through the perils of DragonSpire when his Dandelions are almost ready to harvest?
Instead of complaining, however – as monsters try very hard not to complain, we’re very ‘people’ oriented – I have some potential solutions to this dilemma! And in the interest of both enlightening and entertaining, I shall list them here:
1. Get a crafting quest to build a clanker style robot with a rake for a hand and a watering can for a head. You can program HIM to be your robot gardener and take care of the plants while you are on your daring adventures! A drawback, of course, is that like most clankers he goes haywire and attacks you every time you come home, but a surprise duel will help keep you on your toes!
2. Pocket-garden! Plant a full garden, then get a ‘shrink’ spell that enables you to keep it with you at all times. IF the plants need water or some sunlight, the pocket garden can beep and let you know it needs attention – a real Palm(tree)Pilot. You can stop and take care of the plants at your leisure. Of course one downfall is that if you’re too active in your daring adventures and jostle the mini-garden around too much, you could open it up to find tossed salad instead of your lovingly cared for plants.
3. Daring Adventures in Gardening!! Instead of shrinking your garden, YOU can shrink down to the size of a bug (eewww, bugs!!) and then go on many daring adventures and exciting battles against the pests and creepy-crawlies in your own garden! Duel mites and tomato worms and horrible squishy grubs as you defend your garden! Sure, you have a high chance of getting eaten by, say, your own pet CrimsonZilla (Madame Jasmine, you spit that out right now!! Bad dinosaur, bad!!) but just think of the possibility for adventure you’d have!!
4. Zombies. Seriously – you’ve got the plants already. Throw in some lumbering zombies for the plants to attack and you’ve got some serious daring adventure material! As long as you don’t do anything to make the birds angry, this definitely cant’ miss!!
So there you have it – Can Daring Adventurers garden? Maybe not quite yet, but just you wait… I’m sure KingsIsle is writing all this down right now!
See you in the Spiral!
PLOX!
Ditto discovers Mooshu!
After our epic battle against Meowiarty in Big Ben, Malistaire still got away with the Krokonomicon, stealing the spiral key to Mooshu in an attempt to reach the dark and mysterious Dragonspire, which the headmaster assures me is a really bad thing.
So taking the spare copy of the spiral key to Mooshu – it was under the door mat – I headed out to Mooshu to talk to the Emperor in order to keep him from giving Malistaire the Dragonspire Key. Of course as I expected, this isn’t going to be as easy as I had hoped, and so my adventures in the beautiful and mystical Mooshu are just beginning!
Big Ben – With a little help from my friends!
So I finished Counterweight East, no sweat. Counterweight West gave me some trouble, but I got through it. Big Ben, though… I knew Big Ben and Meowiarty were more than one furry orange monster could handle, so I called up a few friends to see if they could give me a hand!
Ditto and friends in Big Ben
Leesha Darkheart, Steven Spiritcaller, and the amazing IcyWiz all dropped in to help me out with Big Ben, and I am SO GLAD I had them with me, because there is just no way I could have done Big Ben by myself. It had like thirty seven floors, all with big mean monsters on them! It was pretty scary, but I knew we could do it!
There were some really fun parts – well, it was all fun questing with the Ravenwood Radio team – but I liked the big floor puzzle, and then knocking over the milk bottles and making Spike the Crusher mad, that was really funny. Of course it wasn’t as funny when I realized that Spike was a 3500 health boss who attacked us near the top of the tower, but even he was still no match for us!
As for video, this dungeon is looooong – like an hour or more – so I didn’t take video the whole time. I DID get a great video of the final fight, though, so here you go – Ditto and Team Ravenwood defeating Meowiarty, with me dealing the fatal blow with none other than my trusty meteor strike!!! Yay me!!!
Ditto’s Adventures in Counterweight West – the finale!!
Here it is, my final – and ultimately successful – battle with the mighty storm boss Bellows at the top of Counterweight West. This was definitely the toughest dungeon I’ve done so far, as you can tell by my rather lengthy string of embarrassing defeats.
I think the big lessons learned from this dungeon are that you ALWAYS make sure you have full health when you go into a fight, which is common sense, but also I think I should have had more shields in my deck. The biggest problem seemed to be Bellows spamming storm sharks, which were hitting for 500ish damage every time. Your health goes down quickly when that happens. Maybe more ways to get health back, too, as I have kind of abandoned my ‘gain health’ ability in favor of doing more damage more quickly, ending the fight as soon as I can.
So next up – Big Ben!! I’m definitely not trying this one alone, so I’m going to be trying to set up a night soon to grab some friends/fans and face the dreadful Meowiarty!! I’m looking forward to that!
Ditto’s Adventures in Counterweight West – Bring on the Boss!!
Here is my first (and, sadly, second, and surely not final) attempt at the final boss fight in the Counterweight West dungeon. This is a really tough fight! The final boss, Bellows, is a rank 6 storm school boss who seems to LOVE throwing storm sharks. His minions like tossing elemental shields too, which can really throw a wrench in a pyromancers plans!
I’m pretty sure this was my first ‘Third Time’s a Charm’ battle, but I was eventually successful! I’ll post the winning fight a little later to show you what I changed to finally beat the mighty Bellows!
Ditto’s Adventures in Counterweight West – Part 3!
Here it is, another epic battle in Counterweight West – this is part three, where Ditto and Madame Jasmine battle multitudes of maniacal mechanical minions in the quest to throw the third lever and make it to the top of the counterweight tower!!
Once again we’re defeated on our first attempt – I must say Counterweight West seems much more challenging than counterweight East for some reason. We are finally victorious, however, and make it through to the next level!
Ditto’s Adventures in Counterweight West – Part 2
So here is the first step on my road to ruin, or at least a chain of defeats while completing this dungeon. I wasn’t paying attention (one of the pitfalls of recording yourself for a blog, I think) so I go into my first battle with less than half health. It was a close fight, but starting with 700 health was just too much badness to overcome.. I do win the second fight, however, and move on to the next level.
Ditto’s Adventures in Counterweight West – Part 1
So Madame Jasmine and I, following hot on the trail of Meowiarty, enter Counterweight West and begin the long climb to the top. This is the intro to the dungeon and our first battle, which we won handily. Sadly, I think this made us a little too cocky, because this would be the only duel we won on the first attempt in the dreaded Counterweight West….
Ditto defeats Smogger! Full walkthrough
So after defeating the evil Katzenstein, I was told that there is a secret, secondary boss called Smogger in the lab that gives a special title and some good drops. I decided that this sounded like a fantastic daring adventure and headed back into the dreaded Katz’ Lab to find and defeat Smogger.
The area was easy to find – right inside the lab itself, on the left, there’s a platform. When you walk onto it, the narrator tells you to find some boards and build a bridge. It took me a little while floating around on my Koi to find the boards and, once I used my handy-dandy carpentry skills to build a bridge I found Smogger, a rank 7 storm boss with terrible dialog. He had 4,000 health, which I think is the biggest thing I’ve ever fought thus far…
I did try something new – I hired a level 60 life henchman early in the fight, in the hopes she would help keep me alive during the epic battle. I have to say, the henchman was a mixed bag – she burned my feint a couple times with low level rank 1 or 2 spells, which was unfortunate, but she also healed me for 1000 points a couple times and did, in fact, keep me alive throughout the fight, so she did do what I needed her to, it just made dealing 4,000 points damage take a bit longer.
Anyway here is the epic 13+ minute video that details every part of this exciting side quest. If the video is just too long let me know, I can break them into more digestible chunks in the future.
I will wear my title ‘Smogger Smoker’ with pride!
PLOX!!
Ditto fights random mechanical spiders…
I was in the middle of figuring out the Smogger side-quest in Katz Lab, looking for stacks of wood to build a bridge, and I got pulled in by a couple evil steampunk spiders. It’s a fun, quick fight with some great meteor strike action… It’s very funny in that I get my last opponent down to two health and couldn’t take him out because I had to wait for more cards… I thought it was amusing anyway.
Daring Adventures of Ditto, Episode 13!
Here it is, as originally heard on Ravenwood Radio Episode 28 – The Daring Adventures of Ditto Episode 13, where Ditto and Madame Jasmine face the unthinkable – Marleybone Zombie Apocalypse!! At least they THINK that’s what it is…
Ditto’s 100th video post!!!
So here it is, my 100th video! I had so many awesome things planned for this big special video, but as I tried to do all those things I realized that it actually takes planning and organization and time – things I didn’t really have going for me this time. So instead, you get to see Ditto in Celestia, kind of, in a very special 100th Video Bloggy Thingy… hope you enjoy!!
Links that I talk about in my video:
Celestia has arrived!!
So I’m not going to have the awesome ‘Here’s Celestia, here’s the awesome new quests and spells’ coverage that the other awesome blogs like Friendly Necromancer and Diary of a Wizard and of COURSE Ravenwood Radio are going to have, because Digby is still just level 33 and adventuring through Marleybone. I WILL, however, show you a picture of my new Ancient Koi mount!! Squeee! I love all the new mounts, like the turtle and a adorable seahorse, but the Koi just really makes me smile, I love the animation, and hey, it’s bright orange, so it works with my awesome Pyromancer skills AND matches my fur!
Anyway – I’ve got lots more coming up, but just wanted to say Hi and ‘Welcome, Celestia!!!’ – enjoy everyone, see you in the Spiral!!!
My new Ancient Koi mount in Wizard 101
The Daring Adventures of Ditto, Episode 12
Here it is, as originally heard on Ravenwood Radio Episode 27 – The Daring Adventures of Ditto Episode 12, where Ditto and Madame Jasmine defeat menacing Steampunk robots, Ditto confirms his dislike of the immolate spell, and once again Sherlock Bones needs even more help managing the criminal element of Marleybone…
Ditto versus Baron Mordecai!
Here it is – as ongoing coverage of the GREAT Wizard 101 Halloween events and quests, I have fought and defeated Baron Mordecai!! This was actually a much tougher fight that I anticipated, with the dreaded Baron having 2000 health and tossing lots of damage boosts and high damage spells like Skeletal Pirate at me. In the end I was successful of course, and Madame Jasmine and I claimed victory over the evil Baron of Nightmares and claimed our reward, but it was a tough and exciting fight!
Also there is a brief ‘sneak peek’ of Phillip, one of our new kittens, who decided to get involved with the video making process…
Why I’m not worried about Celestia
There are an awful lot of GREAT articles and videos out there right now around the test realm and Celestia in general. Indeed, it seems a sort of Celestia-fever has gripped much of the Wizard 101 community, and for good reason! Celestia looks amazing, the new level 58 school spells are awesome, and just look at all the new gear, mounts, quests… the list goes on and on! It wouldn’t be at all surprising to find yourself a little Celestia crazy right now!
Celestia on the test realm and I have a Koi!!
In addition to my ‘Celestia Fever’, though, I started to notice other symptoms as creeping in well… I’m only level 32, you see, and with all this Celestia hype it certainly makes one want to ‘hurry up’ and get through Marleybone, then dash through Mooshu and finally, defeat Malistaire in a blaze of meteors and helephants so I can get into Celestia and start checking out the new stuff!!
But then, as I ran past a yellow exclamation point over the head of a defenseless Marleybone citizen (They don’t use magic, you know… poor pups), thinking ‘ah, that’s just a side quest, and it will probably take me forever to get through it – I just need to finish the main quest line.’, I stopped in my tracks.
‘Getting there fast’ is certainly not what Wizard 101 is all about, and it never has been… In fact, some of my very favorite quests are some of the more entertaining ‘side quests’ that are out there. I think about all the work the developers at Kingsisle put into all these great side quests, some of them interconnected, all of them well thought out and entertaining, and I think of how much great work I would be passing by trying to ‘get there fast’ and see the ‘new shiny’ as soon as it comes out.
The truth is, though, that Celestia isn’t going anywhere. It will be there for me to explore whether I make level 50 next week, or next month, or next year. In the meantime, I have SIX other worlds, all exciting and fun, that I will be exploring and adventuring through, all different, all awesome, and I can’t wait to finish them all!
Of course on the other side of the crown, I would LOVE it if Kingsisle did something similar to Grizzleheim and gave lower level players small sneak peeks into Celestia, doing small quests or talking to NPCs, maybe getting access to a few lower level Celestian items in the shops. But if they don’t I’m OK with it, I can wait, and I know that, as with everything else KI does, it will certainly be worth the wait!
So if you’re level 48+ and have defeated Malistaire, congrats to you, Celestia beckons and I’m sure at level cap there is a LOT you’d like to see and do now, with new worlds and spells and quests and bosses to face, new undersea adventures to be had! If I were in your place I’d be truly GIDDY with excitement! But for everyone else – the casual players and the newbies and everyone out there like me who is just taking their time, enjoying all these wonderful, rich, and amazing worlds that have been created for us, I’d say keep enjoying it and keep questing, do all those side quests, find all those poor lost birds and cats and oysters for Zeke, and before you know it you’ll be walking into this amazing new undersea realm.
Of course by the time I get there, there might be ANOTHER new world even beyond that one – but that’s OK, because I’ll get through Celestia in my own time and then that next realm will be ready for me too!
See you in The Spiral!!
PLOX!!
Welcome to Celestia!!!
So Celestia is officially on the test realm!! Of course I can’t actually get to Celestia yet, since I’m not level 48 and haven’t defeated Malistaire, but there is a lot more to this update than just Celestia! First – new mounts! The turtles are SO CUTE!!! But I have to admit, I am completely in love with the Ancient Koi mount!! It’s so cool and wonderful, I want one! Well, in the test realm I have one, I want one in the real world too!
There is so much more to this update that we’ll all be exploring over the next few days, I’m sure there will be lots and lots of great stuff coming soon! Celestia is finally here – yay!!!
Celestia on the test realm and I have a Koi!!
My Current Games
I got some great feedback the last time I did this, so I’m going to do it again – it might become a weekly thing, I don’t know.
Wizard 101
First and foremost is, of course, my beloved Wizard 101. I’m now level 31, two bars away from 32, and deep in the heart of Marleybone! I’ve completed the Ironworks and I’m ready for Newgate Prison, but for now I’m focusing on the many, many side quests, because I’m really busy with other real life stuff and cant’ break out the video equipment as ofter to get fun play session videos.
And just so everyone is aware, Mashable is currently running voting for best online game – you can vote for Wizard 101 and show your support for this awesome game! And apparently you can vote daily!
Ditto and Madame Jasmine in Marleybone
Clone Wars Adventures
Well, I did get my real name, so I’m known as ‘Ditto Monster’ in-game, and I’ve been playing a lot of the mini games – which is pretty much all this is, a group of Clone Wars themed mini games. It’s well done and really entertaining, but I’ll admit, I’m a bit disappointed in how little you get to do for free – I’ve already gotten to max allowed ‘free’ level on a few of the mini games, and even when decorating my apartment the furniture vendors have furniture there that you can buy for in-game currency, but you’re not allowed to buy it unless you subscribe. Still, this has almost completely replaced my Shockwave addiction for fun and silly mini-games!
Ditto Monster in Clone Wars
Backyard Monsters
OK I’m definitely still enjoying this daily distraction – I’ve gotten all my defensive towers up to max level and I’m currently building up my monstrous hordes to sweep across the landscape, bwahahaha!!! Oh, sorry, got carried away there. Anyway – still a cute and fun game, I think my focus will now be optimizing my defenses, kind of like a tower defense game with PVP elements…
My Back Yard in 'Backyard Monsters'
Lord of the Rings Online
This game does keep impressing me. I’m just about to ding level 15, still exploring the depths of the frost-shrouded dwarven lands with my fearless hunter, Ditto. There is so much to do in this game I find I sometimes get a little overwhelmed, but the visuals and the amazing soundtrack always keep me engaged in the game world. I’m not sure I’ll be one of those ‘finish the whole game’ kind of players, as the scale of it seems far beyond what I’m used to, but I’ll certainly spend a bit of time every week exploring the gorgeous lands of Middle Earth…
One thing to note – unlike Wizard 101, you cant’ just hop between servers to meet people in LOTRO – the server you start a character on is the server they’re locked into unless you pay for a ‘premium service’ to move your character, so if any ‘twizards’ out there want to try out LOTRO and get together in-game, we should all decide on a single server and create characters there. I play on the Imladris server, character name Ditto, but I’m open to start a ‘twizards’ character on any server if people are interested.
Ditto the Dwarf in LOTRO
School of Wizardry
I made level 120 and I’m a few days away from ‘finishing’ the game, meaning completing all the ‘lessons’ one time. After that I think it’s just about unlocking special badges and rewards… Yeah, I’m rapidly losing interest here…
I am looking to start trying a few new smaller games – nothing I need to devote a lot of time to, but something fun and entertaining. I’ll let you know what I find, but feel free to drop me suggestions too!! I love finding new games to try!
Ditto saves Selena Gomez – Part 3
The final part of my epic adventures in Crab Alley, where I face the not-so-dreaded King Thermidor and rescue Selena Gomez! There is singing, dancing, Vogon poetry and mad Pyromancer’s skills!!!! You don’t want to miss it!
The Daring Adventures of Ditto, Episode 11 – plus outtakes!!!
Here is the wonderful Daring Adventures of Ditto, as originally heard on Ravenwood Radio Episode 25 – fire study hall!! Join our intrepid duo as they travel through the criminal underworld of Marleybone, dropping meteors on their unsuspecting foes. That’s right – Ditto gets Meteor Strike!!
The Daring Adventures of Ditto – Episode 11
In addition to the regular episode this week, a number of people have asked how Ditto and Miss Narrator keep from laughing while we’re recording these daring adventures… Well, the truth is, we actually don’t – that’s all done in editing, and sometimes we have to do a LOT of editing. I decided to share a bit of what hit the virtual cutting room floor for this past episode, we hope you enjoy it!
As always, thanks to Leesha and Steve and all the crew over at Ravenwood Radio for their continuing support, and thanks for all the great feedback from all our fans and the awesome Wizard 101 community at large!!!
See you in the Spiral!
PLOX!!
Ditto Monster's Bloggy Thingy 