Pirate101: Gold laundering

As I have said on this blog, I'm currently working on my Witchdoctor, having already gotten my buck to lvl 50.  The WD is currently lvl 24 and I ran into a snag a few levels ago where I though I was going to have to fight ships that were significantly higher than my current ship level (my ship was 18, the ships I thought I had to fight were 23-24).  It turned out I was reading the quest wrong, but before I figured that out, I decided that I'd go back and do some sidequests that I had skipped (I have about 10 pages worth) to try and get enough gold together for the level 22 ship.

I worked on a few sidequests, got frustrated that it wasn't going faster and then logged on to my buccaneer to try and farm some gear from Friar sand (3 attempts, one witchdoctor drop.  Bummer).  On my way to the corrupted shrine, I saw some folks farming lvl 41-43 pig ships in the Subata skyway and joined in, as I was still nlvl 42 and had a nlvl 46 figurehead from the Admiral's bundle that I hadn't been able to equip yet.  I ground all the way up to nlvl 45 or so and then realized something: I'd been getting a lot of ship equipment from those ships that I couldn't use (I have the lvl 50 Royal Navy light skiff from the Admiral's bundle) . . . why don't I send them to my Witchdoctor and have her vendor them?

I went to the shared bank, dropped in somewhere between 30-35 ship items, logged onto the Witchdoctor, got the items out of the shared bank, took them to a ship parts vendor and sold them all for just over 20,000 gold.  Combine that with the 10,000 gold I had already and I was sitting pretty.

I figured I would share this tip with you folks, since there is not other good way I have found to boost an alt character.

Short version: If you have a lvl 50 character and want to fund an alt, do nautical battles to gather ship equipment and have your alt sell it to a ship vendor.  The ship parts from MooShu go for 500-900g a piece. Happy hunting!

Pirate101: Guide to Epic Abilities

I received this guide from Shiningfantasia and would like to share it with you all.  We discuss it on this week's  episode of the show, but here is the full version.  Hope you find it useful!

Epics from Shiningfatasia

I made this list as time went by, for my own satisfaction and just for my own knowledge. I reset some of my companions just for that purpose.
Hope it is a little helpful. Those companions I have reset were unable to learn certain epics, I wrote that in a side note on the bottom of the Musketeer section.

Note that I don't have any knowledge of any Witchdoctor related epics other than those few I have listed.

WITCHDOCTOR

Improved Mojo: larger are of attack.
Rank 1 - Hits the target, and 4 other targets in each of the 4 'corners' of the 'square'.
Rank 2 - Hits the target, and all enemies surrounding that target. Up to 9 enemies in the 'square'.

Mojo Echo: 35% bonus attack. Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack.
Rank 2 - 3 bonus attacks.

Counterspell: Bonus attack when enemy misses.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack after up to 3 different misses in same turn.

Coward's Bane: Bonus attack when enemy disengages.
Rank 1: 1 bonus attack.
Rank 2: 1 different bonus attack on up to 3 different retreating mobs in one turn.

Witch hunter: Bonus attack when enemy uses magic.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack when enemy uses up to 3 magics in one turn.

Witchdoctor's talents:

Agile: AGI stat +3, +3, +5
Rough: damage +3, +7, +15
Spooky: +5% power effects each rank
Lucky: +2, +3, +5 Resistance
Spirited: WILL stat +2, +3, +5
Dodgy: +2, +3, +5

MUSKETEER

Double Tap: Bonus attack when you defeat an enemy.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack after defeating enemy 1 time.
Rank 2 - 1 attack after defeating up to 3 different enemies in one turn.

Quick Draw: Strike before your attackers.
Rank 1 - 1 preemptive attack before a mob attacks.
Rank 2 - 1 preemptive attack before up to 3 mob attacks in one turn.

Return Fire: Bonus attack when enemy misses.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack after 1 miss.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack after up to 3 misses in one turn.

Burst Fire: Bonus attack after you hit.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack after you hit. 35% chance.
Rank 2 - Up to 3 bonus attacks after you hit. 35% chance after each hit.

Overwatch: Bonus attack when enemy approaches.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack when enemy approaches.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack for up to 3 different enemies that approach in one turn.

True Grit: Bonus attack when enemy hits.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack if enemy hits.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack if enemy hits up to 3 different times in one turn.

Quick Adjust: bonus attack when you miss.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack when you miss.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack when you miss up to 3 different times in one turn.

Parting Shot: bonus attack when enemy disengages.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack when enemy disengages.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack when up to 3 different enemies disengage in one turn.

Crossfire: bonus attack when flanking (ranged).
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack when flanking 1 enemy.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack when flanking up to 3 different enemies in one turn.

Bonnie Anne can not learn TRUE GRIT or QUICK ADJUST. Both Bonnie Anne and Rooster Cogburn can not learn PARTING SHOT. Bonnie Anne, Rooster Cogburn, and Tricky Vinny do not learn CROSSFIRE.

Talents for Musketeers:

Accurate: +2, +3, +5 accuracy
Tough: +10, +100, +200 health
Rough: +3, +7, +15 damage
Lucky: +3, +3, +5 resistance
Agile: +3, +3, +5 AGI
Spirited: +3, +3, +5 WILL

While average Musketeer learns 12 talents, ROOSTER COGBURN only learns 9.

Epics PRIVATEER, SWASHBUCKLER, and BUCCANEER.

Relentless: bonus attack when you hit.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack when you hit. 35% chance.
Rank 2 - Up to 3 bonus attacks when you hit. 35% chance after each hit in one turn.

Vengeance Strike: bonus attack when hit.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack when hit.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack when hit up to 3 different times in one turn.

Riposte: bonus attack when enemy misses.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack when enemy misses.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack when enemy misses up to 3 different times.

Second Chance: 1 bonus attack if you miss.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack if you miss.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack if you miss up to 3 different times in one turn.

Flanking: bonus attack when flanking.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack when flanking.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack when flanking up to 3 different mobs in one turn.

Repel Boarders: 1 bonus attack for approaching enemies.
Rank 1 - 50% chance for 1 bonus attack on 1 approaching enemy.
Rank 2 - 70% chance for 1 bonus attack on up to 3 approaching enemies in one turn.

Cheap Shot: bonus attack on retreating enemy.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack on retreating enemy.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack on up to 3 different retreating enemies.

Bladestorm: bonus attack when defeating an enemy.
Rank 1 - 1 bonus attack when defeating 1 enemy.
Rank 2 - 1 bonus attack when defeating up to 3 enemies in one turn.

Hold the Line (Buccaneer only, I believe): immobilizes approaching enemy for 1 turn. Enemy can still attack.
Rank 1 - Immobilizes 1 approaching enemy for 1 turn.
Rank 2 - Immobilizes up to 3 different enemies for 1 turn in one turn.

All preemptive strikes are half damage. That includes First Strike, Quick Draw, Repel Boarders, Overwatch, Flanking, Crossfire. All the enemy retreat epics I believe are only half damage. Tested Cheap Shot with Milo but it was inconclusive. That includes Cheap Shot, Parting Shot, and Coward's Bane.

Talents for SWASHBUCKLER:

Accurate: +2, +3, +5 Accuracy
Agile: +3, +3, +5 AGI
Armored: +2, +3, +5 Armor
Rough: +3, +7, +15 damage
Dodgy: +2, +3, +5 Dodge
Strong: +3, +3, +5 STR

Swashbucklers can learn everything except Tough and Spirited. Buccaneers can learn everything, except Spirited. Privateers can learn everything except accuracy and dodge, but can learn Spirited. Of course those 3 melee units won't learn talents such as Spooky.

***Note that the only talent that can hit more than once in a row is Relentless. Any epic that lists # of hits is based on the number of enemy ACTIONS (or positions/scenarios) per turn.*** (Just in case anyone wonders about this.)

Relentless is triggered by anything and any other epic. Only exception seems to be Burst Fire. No matter how many times Bonnie Anne uses Blast shot, it will never trigger her Burst Fire. That is why I generally never use that ability of hers. I thought I saw Old Scratch's Jobu's Breath trigger Mojo Echo, but not 100% sure.

Everything here is stipulated. Different units may learn different talents, epics, and can come with different abilities, outside the usual set up. For example, the crown companions Gerard and Caracticus come with Berserk. (+25% damage when health below 50%.)

Talkin' the Plank Episode 10 goes live!

Episode 10 of Talkin' the Plank is up!  Brandon and I discuss talents and epics, promotion quests, an open letter from the game's producer and announce the latest contest with our biggest prize to date!  You can listen here!

Pirate101: Witchdoctor Breaks Lvl 20

My Witchdoctor hit level 20 last night . . . and then quickly got to 21.  This was after a lot of hemming and hawing at my part trying to get through the last chunk of lvl 19.  Every enemy I faced was killing me.  I haven't been doing a lot of sidequests since this is my 2nd time through most of this content, so I'm going through it fairly quickly.  That finally caught up to me, I guess.  I started looking through the 11 pages of quests in my quest log (I still pick them up, I just don't do them), and found out that I was two boxes away from getting enough xp to reach level 20.  I went out, got them, leveled up my crew (I bought some training tomes) and had no problem with the rest of the content.

So far, I have enjoyed the witchdoctor, though there are an awful lot of abilities to wade through.  It seems like every round of combat, my biggest choice revolves around which of the abilities that may come in handy I need to get rid of so that I can get to the ones I very much need immediately.  Not the most fun way to add strategy to the game.  This is in stark contrast to my Buccaneer, who barely had enough special moves to fill the action bar.  It has been an adjustment, but I think my strategy is improving as I move through the game.

I will keep leveling Witchdoctor up to 50 (I have shelved my Buccaneer for now, as I want to try out all the classes in turn) and have set up my lvl 10 Swashbuckler to be my next alt, meaning whenever I don't have time to do whatever's next for my WD, I'll play a bit of Swash.  I would imagine that, in this fashion, my Swash will be around level 20 by the time my WD hits 50.

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

Pirate101: Should Stormzilla be Removed?

The most complained about quest, based on most of the social media I've seen about Pirate101, is the Stupendor-X/Stormzilla quest.  During the quest, your Pirate pilots Stupendor-X, a battle mech, against Stormzilla, a large lizard monster.  You are given battle mech specific abilities and are tasked with defeating Stormzilla.  This quest is part of the main storyline and, as such, cannot be skipped.

The problem that people seem to have is that you can't engage in direct melee combat with Stormzilla, due to it's epic abilities that will give her (she did lay eggs, seemingly) 2 or 3 hits to your 1.  You have to destroy her eggs, so that they don't hatch into little stormzillas and hassle you, and then drag her through the fires you lay down via kiting.  It's not tough, but it takes some getting used to.

A lot of the complaints suggest that this quest be removed altogether.  I couldn't disagree more.  One of the things that keeps an MMO fresh is quest variety, which admittedly is a bit lacking in Pirate101.  The Stupendor-X quest is one of the few where you are tasked with doing something out of the norm.  As the expansions are released, I'd like to see more of this: more variety, more risks taken, more ideas that we haven't seen in the game before . .  . just anything to break up what can become monotony.

I think that the Stupendor-X questline is a good one, I don't think it's impossible, and I'd like to see KI come up with even more varied ideas on different types of quests.

Pirate101: Level 50 . . . now what should I do?

I finished the main story line the other day on my lvl 50 Buccaneer and have been since trying to figure out exactly where to focus my efforts.  As there is no guild-type system or real end game to speak of, once you have finished all of the quests the game has to offer, it's not up to you to make your own fun.  For some, this might be endlessly farming bosses for gold, items and pets.  For others this would start their PvP career.  While I may farm a bit for some gear and housing items, and I'm sure I'll get into PvP as soon as there are rewards for it, I've remembered what I like the most about MMO's: playing with a group and leveling alts.  The playing with a group part is tough, given the hours I play (they are wee hours) and no group organization other than a friends list so it's off to level some alts!

I have decided that I'll start with my Witchdoctor (currently lvl 15) then Swashbuckler (10), Muskateer (10) and finally Privateer (10).  Once the Witchdoctor hits level 20, I'll pass off all the gear she isn't using to my Swashbuckler and alternate between the two with my main focus being the WD.  Once the WD is 50, I'll do the same with Swash and Musk.  This should keep me busy and allow me to experience the game through all 5 classes so that I can better report on all the issues that arise for each class in turn.

As to what I though of the main storyline, having now completed it:  it was good!  It ended a bit abruptly, but it wasn't a true ending and wasn't meant to be.  At this point, we can only complete the first part of the story. I don't know when the next expansion will happen, but I look forward to it!

Talkin' the Plank Episode 9 is Live!

The latest episode of Talkin' the Plank is live!  Check it out here.  Brandon and I discuss the end of the game, some new tips and tricks and announce the twitter contest winners.  Enjoy!

Pirate101: Rats of Nim Bait & Switch?

I just did this quest on my Witchdoctor last night (I think she was level 14) and I saw that the goal was to defeat Nim, the rat.  I sent my two companions (Battacuda and Ratbeard) on a direct assault and got him down a round after they had both died from the other enemies attacking them.  Bummer, but at least I finished it, right?  Nope.  The battle continued and I saw that the victory condition was now "Defeat All Enemies".  Uh-oh.  There were 3 left against only my Witchdoctor!  Time for some hail-mary strategy.

I was able to knock out one of them with an ability, but the other two got some hits in.  At that point, I used hide in the shadows (have that card on my hat).  The remaining enemies, one at half health, the other at full health, ran for the south of the battle board.  I ran for the north and healed myself, which brought me out of stealth.  Then, I cast slow on the full health mob and tried to burn down the half-health mob before he reached me.  I knocked him out, but not before he got a few hits in.  Now, the full health enemy starts making her way up the battle board and I'm at half health with no abilities left.  I start hitting her with my wand and she's at half health when she reaches me.  She gets a critical.  I get a regular attack.  She gets a regular attack.  Now I'm at 2 health and she's at 120ish.  I get a regular attack.  She misses.  I get a regular attack, she moves and doesn't attack.  I get a regular attack and she's knocked out.

I got incredibly luck on those last two hits (or the game had mercy on me) but I wonder if it was a glitch that the battle conditions changed the way they did.  Obviously, I didn't remember this particular battle from my first runthrough, but I do make sure to read the conditions carefully, just in case.  In this case, that backfired.

Pirate101: Last day for the Twitter contest!

Today is the last day for our contest on twitter for a free Crocogator mount.  To enter, just follow out twitter account (@talkintheplank) and send us a tweet with a topic you'd like discussed on the show.  We're recording this afternoon, so get those submissions in!  The top three will be read on the air and will receive their mount codes after Ep9 goes live on Thursday.

Pirate101: 12 Days of the Spiral Training Point

Don't forget to enter your code for the free training point that comes to us via the 12 Days of the Spiral promotion.  There's only one day left.  I wonder what they have in store for the last day?  Holiday House?!?!  Here's hoping!

Pirate101: Bonnie Anne Finally Replaced!

It finally happened.  I finally replaced Bonnie Anne as first mate for my Buccaneer.  You had a good run, Bonnie, but you just aren't the most powerful anymore.  Kobe Yojimbo has that title.  With First Strike, Relentless and Riposte, he's just so much more useful, even against ranged opponents.

I made the switch last night as I started to go up against the Elemental bosses on the giant turtle when I realized that if I selected Kobe, Monkey King and El Toro, I wouldn't have to worry about losing.  The epics I have set up on those three absolutely destroy everything in their path much faster than any other combination of companions.  I went through 4 of the five elemental bosses with no problems using just those 3.  I'm glad I made the switch, but I'll miss Bonnie Anne.

Maybe this is for a separate post, but are Privateers the worst type of companion to get?  No accuracy boost, don't hit as hard as they could and maybe one heal or a critical as an ability.  Otherwise, nothing great for epics, just relentless and vengeance strike, which doesn't land as often as it should due to poor accuracy. Am I missing something with them?

Pirate101 Guide for Levels 8-10

This will be the last guide where I tell you exactly where to go and in what order to do things.  After level 10, the game opens up an bit and you will most likely be doing extra quests, class quests, companion promotions . . . all sorts of stuff.  But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Here's how to best get from post-Presidio to the the end of the Ratbeard quest line.

After you have gotten back from the Presidio and gotten your new companion, you are tasked with seeking out One-Eyed Jack in flotsam.  I would recommend grinding to nautical level 5, if you haven't already, since you are already near those ships and the good equipment you can buy from the shop in Gullet for your new ship requires lvl N5.  Also, be sure you go spend the first practice point you got from reaching level 8!

When you get to Flotsam, there will be a bit of runaround which is pretty straightforward (though Flotsam roads are anything but): just follow the arrow.  You help out Mustang Sally, who will be joining Swashbucklers much later in the game and rest of us can eventually buy her in the crown shop.  This fight is very standard.  Just burn down the dog pirates one at a time.  You're supposed to protect Sally, but she can fend for herself, so just worry about getting through it as efficiently as you can.  As a side note, there are a lot of treasure chests in this room, but you can't open any of them so don't bother trying.

Once you finally meet One-Eyed Jack, you go to where Ratbeard was hiding out.  About 50% of the times I did this part of the quest chain, there was a treasure chest sitting just outside the door to Ratbeard's hideout, so keep your eyes peeled!  You could get as much as 8-15 gold coins!!!  Treasure chests are pretty weak this early in the game.

You are then sent to Corsair's Cove.  Make sure you grab the training tome from the table, though it's tough to miss and one of your crew mates even mentions it.

After that, you go to the Lighthouse.  You are tasked with locating 5 tombstones.  Now, while it is possible to avoid all combat, on the first tombstone, you'll probably get dragged into a fight.  If you try really hard (I was only able to do this once out of 6 tries) you can sneak past the mobs on this tombstone, but you have to go around through the fern and then time it just right.  Once I had done that on my Privateer, I just warped to the Lighthouse lifestone as I didn't think I'd be able to sneak out the way I came and it would be faster to run back!

Once you enter the Hoodoo House, you can't avoid the first fight there.  Make sure you have a mojo potion full, because there is a good chance at least one of your companions will be knocked out on the first fight (which you cannot sneak past, at least I couldn't find a good path).  There's no weird strategy, they just hit really hard, so be careful and focus your attacks.

For the Old Scratch fight, Make sure you have 1 or two ranged crew members (or if you are a Witchdoctor or Musketeer, 1 other ranged crew member).  You may also want to un-equip your pet.  The fight condition is "Defeat Old Scratch" so don't worry about any of the other undead attacking you, just focus on him.  The reason for the ranged and no pet is that it's very easy for Old Scratch to get bottle necked on the map, making it impossible for you to reach him with more than one or two of your characters.  Get them all close to him, then just wail away as fast as you can, ignoring everything else.  Congrats, you've got a new crew member.

Once you're done there, you're sent to Gunn's Island.  At the quest turn in, if you haven't done any other side quests or grinding, you will hit lvl 9 with enough training points to promote Bonnie Anne to lvl 8, where she gets her first promotion.  At this point, I go ahead and do the promotion quest.  It's fairly quick and simple and makes her a lot stronger for the final fight in Waponi Wu.

Back at Gunn's Island, you have a little more busy work, then you fight a bunch of crabs.  A standard fight, though the crabs can hit hard so be careful!  Once you've done that, on to Waponi Wu!

You have to fight some water moles before you can enter the instance.  I would recommend focusing on the Witchdoctor types first as they have a strong area of effect attack.  Also, on the right hand side as you run through the very first Water Mole area, there's a training tome on the ground by one of the huts.  I missed this on 4 out of 5 runs through this area.  That reminds me, I'll have to go back with my other characters and pick this up!

Once you go in the instance, the first fight is against two gold fish who are a huge pain.  It's just you and your first mate, so make sure if you are ranged, your first mate is melee and vice versa.  It is very easy to get bottle-necked in this one as well.  Also, the fish hit really hard and dodge a lot, so absolutely focus your efforts and use all of your abilities early to take down the first fish.  After that, one more water mole fight and your at the top of the volcano.

Make sure you grab the Funky Bunch for the Prospector Zeke quest (you can grab it after the fight as well, if you forget) and start the battle.  Focus fire Chumba Wumba, the big water mole, and, while you're doing that, make sure you're positioning yourself so you have one crew member near the northwest corner, one near the southwest corner and one near the south east corner.  They don't have to be right on them, but make sure they are within one turn's movement away.  When Chumba Wumba goes down, he gets back up again (you're never gonna keep him down), so you have to destroy three idols that appear in the 3 corners I mentioned.  When you do that, the fight is over, you get a pile of gold as a housing item, 4,000 gold, a new crew member and, once you return to Captain Avery, you reach level 10!

Pirate101: 12 Days of the Spiral: Free gold!

Yesterday's 12 Days gift was a promotional code sent to your email for 10-50% off you purchase (of crowns.  Not sure if it would work for a subscription purchase).  Today's gift is up to 5,000 free gold for entering the code "Coins" to promotions on Pirate101's website.

I think I will once again give the coins to my Witchdoctor as she is the tip of the alt spear and the next character I will shift my focus to once I have done all possible quests on my main Buck.  My buck just got the ninja cat last night and is on the cusp of attaining the last turtle ball.  I'm very interested to see how this portion of the story ends.  Hopefully, I'll be able to finish up tonight!
See you online . . . If you play at the same weird hours I do, that is!

Pirate101: 12 Days of the Spiral Crew Member

Yesterday's 12 Days of the Spiral promotion was new holiday themed card packs for Wiz101, so nothing exciting for Pirate101 only players, like myself.  Today, we get a new companion in the crown shop!  It's the Yule Trogg.  Here are the details:

Announcing a New Pirate101 Companion - The Yule Trogg!

A brand new Pirate101 Companion has landed in the Pirate101 Crown Shop today, and he's ready to battle with a festive flair. This Buccaneer fights with a vengeance... and with his cozy red hat! 

The Yule Trogg is priced at 3,995 Crowns and is available for a limited time only. You can find him in the Pirate101 Crown Shop under the Companions tab. Happy battling!

As the description states, he is a buccaneer class crew member who comes with vengeance.  He's for sale for 3,995, so I went ahead and bought him for my Witchdoctor, who can use more meat shields.  I only got to use him in a few battles, but so far, he is shaping up to be a good crew man.  Weird glitch where his damage doesn't show up every 5th hit, though.  Hopefully, KI will fix that.

Talkin' the Plank Episode 8 is live!

The latest episode of Talkin' the Plank is live and can be heard here.  In it, Brandon and I discuss where we are in the game, PvP, some new suggestions and as always, Important tips.  Stay tuned until the end for a new contest involving our recently created Twitter account (@TalkinthePlank) and then some breaking news and an additional Sail's Pitch after the episode.  Enjoy!

Pirate101: 12 Days of the Spiral, Holiday Items in Crown Shop

Today's addition to the 12 Days of the Spiral is housing decorations and seasonally themed weapons from the crown shop.  I assume that the housing items will be purchasable with gold whereas the weapons will be crowns only.  No sure exactly what is available, but when I find out, I'll let you know here!  I would guess that these items will be in the crown shop until the 19th, though they don't say that.  Here's what they do say:

Yuletide Items Now Available in the Wizard101 and Pirate101 Crown Shops!

Yuletide items are now available in the Crown Shop for both Wizard101 and Pirate101!

Your Wizard101 favorites have returned including the Boon Tree, Candy Cane mounts, Snowball Pet, housing decorations and much more! Pirates never fear - you can have the holiday spirit too with new housing decorations and seasonally themed weapons!

Check out all these cool items in the Crown Shops soon since they are only available for a limited time! Remember, some Yuletide items are available for either Crowns or Gold, while others are Crowns only.

Pirate101: Crew members above level cap? How?!

This is meant to be an information post for those of you who are thinking about buying crew members from the crown shop.  The short of it is, if you wait until your Pirate is level 50 to buy crown shop companions, they will be somewhere between level 51-53, so 1-3 levels above the current level cap. 

The reason this happens is that when you acquire any companions in Pirate101, in order to make sure you try them out and don't just leave them at the bottom of your roster, they start out a few levels higher than you.  The idea being your regular crew members will be a few levels lower than you are making one you just got who is 4 or 5 levels above all the rest of your crew very attractive to place at the top of your roster and see what they can do.  It makes sense, when you think about it.  However, when you reach the end of the game this still applies and they can actually be several levels over the level cap.

The developers left this in the game and I haven't heard any buzz saying this was a bug, but seems to be working as intended.  This comes as a shock to some players who have spent money in the crown shop prior to Pirate level 50 to buy companions that now won't reach the pinnacle of what they could if they had been bought once you reached max level.

Now, is this game breaking?  From what I hear, not really.  It's annoying if you didn't know about it, sure, but I can say from personal experience that the 2 crown companions I bought at max level (53 Inoshishi Necromancer and 51 Doctor Noh) don't appear to be that much stronger than the rest of my companions.  My level 47 Bonnie Anne still holds her spot as my first mate, indefinitely.  The point of this post isn't to say this should be fixed or that it's something everyone should do but merely to inform everyone that this is currently part of the game and that you should be aware that if you hold off on buying companions, they can exceed level cap.  If it's worth it to you to wait, the choice is obvious.  If you don't want to wait that long to enjoy crown companions or side-quest acquired companions (this trick works with them as well, by the way, as my lvl 51 Monkey King can attest to), then at least you know the option was there.

Pirate101: PvP Update Live by Wednesday!

Just got the word that the latest update, which includes practice pvp, improved loot, and 1,500 other changes, will go live after a brief maintenace 3am-5am Central time on Wednesday morning.  I had a feeling this might happen this week.  KI seems to be very quick with their updates, as far as going from test realm to live.

Well, it's good news all around as I like being able to play the latest version of the game.  Once I know changes are on the horizon, I almost want to wait until they happen to do anything.  Keep up the rapid fire pace, KI!  The best part of MMO's is change and this one's a doozy!

The most recent update notes can be found here.  Doesn't look like anything has changed since I last went through it.

Pirate101: Today's 12 Days of the Spiral Promotion . . .

 . . . is for Wizard101.  Sorry Pirate only players! (I am a Pirate only player myself, so I feel your pain).  Wizards get a free housing item.  I guess we already got ours on the 3rd day, so it evens out.

Follow up to yesterday's post, I did go ahead and buy the Thunderous Kirin mount and gave it to my Witchdoctor.  That means that I now have a mount for all 5 Pirates: Buccaneer=Falalala Llama, Witchdoctor=Thunderous Kirin, Musketeer=Lobster, Swashbuckler=Flying Manta Ray, Privateer=Crocogator.  All very fast mounts.  So much for my plan of having a mount for my main and then just one more that is shared by all my alts.  Oh well.  One less thing to transfer when I switch between them.  The shipping items alone are enough of a chore to move from toon to toon.



Even though I don't play Wizard101 anymore, I still entered this code into my account in case I ever decide to start up again . . . or need something to do during Pirate101 maintenance.

Pirate101: 12 Days of the Spiral Continues UPDATED!

It seems that the Fa-la-la-la Llama will be available until the 19th, first of all, so you don't have to rush to get one, if you decide you want it.  I got mine and it has a very cool look to it.  I dressed my main all in red and white for the month, just to be silly, and put her atop the ice skating llama.  You have to keep yourself amused, right?

Yesterday's addition was a housing item (I think there are a few different ones you can get) that you are awarded for entering the promo code DECORATE at the Pirate101 website.  I got a wreath.  I thought I saw that a plate of cookies was also possible.

I'll post here when I find out what today's is, though I haven't seen it yet.

UPDATE!

Here is the information on today's promotion:

For one day only, save 50% OFF select items from the Wizard101 and Pirate101 Crown Shop!

Wizard101 Items
• Mega Snack Pack
• Life Mastery Amulet
• Keeper's Lore Pack
• White Stag Mount
• Red Cap Pet

Pirate101 Items
• 5,000 Gold
• Thunderous Kirin Mount
• Silver Buffaloon Pet
• Livsey's Ring
• Mojo Potion

Hurry, this sale ends tonight December 10th at 11:59pm US Central Time! Take advantage of 50% OFF these items today!

So a sale on some popular items.  I'll have to seriously sit down and think about whether I want that Kirin mount. . . . .hmhmmmmm . . .  I don't know.  I guess I'll decide tonight!  But a sale on Livsey's Ring should be a boon for new players, as it is very useful when you're first starting the game.  Having an extra healing spell is nice, for sure!

Stock image of Kirin Mount.  I still don't know if I want it or not.  Decisions!

Pirate101 Ginger Bread House Contest

I don't  know if this is day 2 of the 12 days of the spiral or not, but here is a contest to build a gingerbread house that could win you 60,000 crowns!

Create a Gingerbread House or Ship & Win Crowns!

Today kicks off our annual holiday contest. This year we want you to put your creative drawing or baking skills to the test and design your original Wizard101 gingerbread house or Pirate101 gingerbread ship! You can win 60,000 Crowns by either creating an original drawing on one of our templates below, or baking and decorating your own Wizard101 or Pirate101 themed gingerbread creation.

Contest Rules

One entry allowed per player. You can choose to enter a Wizard101 gingerbread house using the template below, a Pirate101 gingerbread ship using the template below, or a photo of an original, created by you, real life gingerbread creation that has a Wizard101 or Pirate101 theme.

Submit your entry to the Facebook contest page by 11:59pm on Wednesday, December 19th.

The top 10 overall most shared entries will win 60,000 Crowns. Also, KingsIsle staff will be picking some of our favorite entries! Those picked by KingsIsle will also receive 60,000 Crowns as a prize.

Read complete contest rules »

Download the Templates

Want to design a gingerbread on paper instead of baking one? Here are our two templates for a Wizard101 house or a Pirate101 ship!

Pirate101: New Update Notes Added

There have been a few additional notes added to the update that is currently still in the test realm and here they are below:

PvP

• PvP matches will now randomly pick which team goes first.
• Players will receive a "Waiting for other team . . ." message during PvP that will remove the powerbar when it is the other team’s turn.
• The Chat Window will no longer appear beneath the Battleboard during PvP combat.
• PvP icons were added to the map to help players identify where the PvP halls are located.
• Barrier and minion summoning (Stone Bastion and Rally the Clay) were updated to function properly in PvP.
• A fleeing PvP team member will no longer make their teammate’s powerbars available to use.
• Traps will no longer remain after PvP combat ends.
• The "Collect the Treasure Chests Quickly!" message will no longer appear behind the winning team’s message.

Misc

• Gallant Defense is now working as intended.
• Players will no longer be able to skip Mick Dagger's conversation and thereby become stuck and unable to progress with Sarah Steele’s promotion quest.
• An item purchased from the crown shop will remain selected, instead of the selection defaulting to the first item in the crown shop list.

No major changes, just little adjustments.  Looks like they were trying to fix a few issues that inevitably pop up when this sort of thing is implemented.  Keep up the good work letting them know about the issues you find as you explore the test realm.  Ratbeard put out a request for information about how the new drop rates are working in test, so if you get the chance, kill a few bosses in Cool Ranch and report your findings on the forums here.

Pirate101: My first casualty

Farewell, Glib Edward!  I hardly knew ye!!

Tragedy struck last night to my Privateer who was deleted when I discovered, upon reaching the Frogfather and getting the Presidio quest, that I had selected the wrong parent death backstory for him.  My hope was to collect all the crew members I could through questing by leveling all 5 classes to 50 (and writing helpful guides along the way). Glib Edward was set to receive Gaspard De Vole instead of Milo Greytail, so I created a new Privateer and deleted ol Glibbie.

My new Privateer, who's name is too new for me to remember (Silver something something), though he followed the guide I wrote, had a heck of a time trying to get through the initial quest area of Skull Cave.  He got sucked into a failing combat (which I tried to save but soon discovered the reason it was failing was not luck but bad decisions made by new players.  I won't fault them, but the battle was lost whether I fault them or not).  So I had to run all the way back (thank goodness I sent him a mount to use!) and had a few more frustrating combats.  It was a bad night for new players for some reason.  I have not run into this issue before.  Very strange.

Anyway, he's now sitting pretty at level 4 and awaiting all the gear and ship equipment I have in his bank for when he starts sailing.  Good luck, Silver something something!!

Pirate101: 12 Days of the Spiral

KingsIsle has started their holiday promotional events!  It's called the 12 Days of the Spiral and will be in both Pirate101 and Wizard101.  According to their website, there will be a different promotion or giveaway in Pirate or Wizard or both for the next 12 days.  I'll post here as early as I can what that days promotion is, so stay tuned!

Today's promotion is a charity for Austin Children's Center and Children's Medical Center at Legacy.  The site says this:

Available for a limited time, the Fa-La-La-La Llama mount will directly benefit two organizations devoted to helping children.

This ice skating Llama carries your character quickly and is available in both Wizard101 and Pirate101! Hurry and catch him during the holiday season, because this is one Llama that won’t be around forever.

So, a one time mount that benefits charity sounds like a worthy cause.  According to Black Angus Atworth, the Llama is 7,500c, so plan accordingly.  I'll probably get one.  It looks cool to me.

Pirate101: Guide for levels 5-8

(UPDATED to include info about Mojo Potions)

This guide starts at level 5 in Jonah Town and runs all the way through the end of the Presidio.  I'm focusing on the main questline up until level 10 because you don't level any faster with the sidequests than you would without them and I don't think you can get to level 10 any faster by doing them.  You could grind it out, I guess, but I don't like just grinding experience and prefer the questing method, so that's what I focus on in these guides.

At level 5, you have your raft, you've finished the cave with the ghost rats and have headed to Jonah Town looking for Ratbeard, as you are both after Gunn's gold and he has the head start!  When you get to Jonah town, you are first told to rescue Brody from some sharks in a nearby vortex.  A lot of people have had trouble with this quest, and there is a chance you could get in trouble with it if you're unlucky, but if you get over to Brody as fast as you can, you shouldn't have any trouble.  The encounter starts when you board his ship.  The sharks go first (this is where you could get unlucky.  If more than one of them gets a critical hit, there's nothing you could have done and Brody dies) and then you get your turn.  If you're a buccaneer, you can use Mighty Strike to rush over and start mixing it up with the sharks.  Any other class, just get over to his ship ASAP.  The goal at this point is to give the sharks more targets to worry about than just Brody.  Focus your attacks on one shark at a time and you shouldn't have any trouble.  I think the worst that's happened to me on 5 runthroughs of this quest was I lost a Bonnie Anne.  When you turn this in, you should be level 6.

Next, you're sent to look for another pelican on an island of Water Moles.  They have you down some ships from a neighboring tribe.  These aren't that much different than the cutthroat ships, though they may be slightly higher level. Just make sure your raft is equipped with anything you've gotten as a drop (or that you have bought all the best gear from the vendors on Blood Shoal and Jonah Town topside) and you shouldn't have any trouble.  Make sure you give this quest a priority as it awards you your first Mojo Potion.  Mojo Potions, when activated, revive all fallen companions, and return your pirate and your ship to full health.  That's a lot of power at your disposal and a life saver in dungeons.  Recharge the Mojo Potion by collecting blue yum you'll find floating around basically everywhere you go.

After that, you're sent to Skull Island sewers to rescue the Pelican the Water Moles told you about.  There's nothing terribly difficult about this fight either.  The same strategies you have been using will apply here.

Once you rescue the pelican, you head back to Jonah Town and are able to go down to Gullet to meet the Frogfather.  There is a brief skirmish when the password you are given turns out to be bogus.  In this fight, you can get a little advantage by causing the barrels to explode.  All the enemies start out on the other side of a barrier rigged with explosives.  So, if you have a ranged AoE attack (I usually use Bonnie Anne's scatter shot for this, depending on how she's positioned at the start of the skirmish), you can get a little HP off of all the enemies.  After you have defeated them, talk to the Frogfather and get your 7th level.

The Frogfather sends you to the Presidio, the first instanced dungeon in the game.  It's fairly straightforward but there are a few things you can do to move through it quickly and safely.  One big tip is to make sure your Mojo potion is full before going to the Presidio.  No matter how well you do, there is a good chance that at least one of your companions will go down at some point.  Don't be shy about using your potion!  You can recharge it in the court yard with all the blue yum fruit there.  If there is no blue yum floating around, go inside your next area and go back outside again and some new yum will have spawned.

The first step is to try and sneak past the Monquistan guards.  If you are patient and watch their patterns, you can sneak by all three sets of guards on the wall before you go down into the courtyard.  I have gotten past them without incident 3 times, so I know it's possible.  Just make sure there isn't one facing you and make a run for it!  After you get down from the wall, there are no more skippable fights, so don't bother trying to sneak around anymore.

You fight several sets of guards, all standard strategy will apply.  You are then introduced to the companion you selected through the "How did ye lose your parents" question you were asked at character creation.  Once you get to them, they'll tell you to get the key to their cell to let them out.  To do this, you fight the boss of Presidio.  This fight has a "kill the boss" victory condition, so ignore the other Monquistans and focus on the boss.  This is an Epic fight, so you get to choose which companions will join you.  Unless you bought a few in the crown shop, you'll only have 3 companions anyway, so the choice is easy!  If you do have to choose, make sure you bring Bonnie Anne.  When the fight starts, run all the way across the board, again ignoring all the other Monquistan guards, and focus fire the boss.  The reason I say to bring Bonnie as is so she can use scatter shot and reduce the boss's dodge.

Once, you have downed the boss, be sure to grab the training manual that's sparkling on the ground to the right of his desk.  Then you can release your new companion, fight one more battle with the new companion's help (he won't be under your control yet) and then head back to see the Frogfather.  At that point, you get level 8, the companion you just freed and the next quest is for your new ship.  Stay tuned for the next guide that will take you to level 10 and the conclusion of the Ratbeard story arc.

Talkin' the Plank Episode 7 is live!

The latest episode of Talkin' the Plank is live and can be heard here.  In this week's episode, Brandon and I discuss the new test realm update and how PvP will be integrated into the game.  Enjoy!

Pirate101: Level 50 at last! What now?

I finally got to level 50 last night when completing the Monkey King questline.  40 to 50 went a lot faster that 20 to 30, or at least it felt as though it did.  Maybe I'm just better at the game now than I was!

Now, I'll try and go back to finish all of the side quests I skipped and get all of my companions up to at least lvl 48.  Also, I'll be taking my 5th character through the Presidio, and will have my guide for lvls 5-8 very soon, followed by 8-10.  After that, we'll see how much further I can go with leveling 4 characters concurrently!

Lastly, I bought my very first crown companion last night: the Inoshishi Necromancer.  My lineup was pitifully short of Witchdoctors (only Oldscratch) and he was less than 3,000 crowns.  I may also buy Doctor Noh since, again, short on Witchdoctors and I like the look of him.  Also, he has some sweet abilities . . . I just sold myself on him.  I'll buy him tonight!

Pirate101: Stormzilla defeated . . . barely

I've heard a lot of complaints on the forums about the difficulty of the Stormzilla fight mid-Mooshu.  Having just completed the fight myself, I thought I'd offer my perspective.  The fight is not impossible, but it is difficult.

I went in not knowing much of the strategy other than fire doesn't hurt Stupendor-X and to try and get Stormzilla to walk through it.  Also, something about eggs.  The first few round of my first attempt we spent trying to figure out what all the abilities do, as the tooltips aren't terribly helpful, though I didn't have much time to read them on the fly!  Basically, you get two long range attacks, two beam attacks that will light a row of fires, two AoE attacks and two slowing abilities that will stop Stormzilla in his place for a few turns.

In my first try, I didn't realize where the fires would come from, only that they were useful, so it was a while before I even lit them with the beam attack and when I did so, they ended up being in unfortunate places.  Then, I didn't destroy as many eggs as I could have, so I got a lot of little adds.  They didn't hit me but they got in the way and used up the fires before stormzilla could be kited through them.  I ended up fleeing and trying again (it's a long walk back, so I did not make that decision lightly).

Second attempt, my pet Tawny Turtle went over and wailed on Stormzilla a little harder than he had in the previous round and, for some reason, Stormzilla destroyed most of the eggs he was nearby with AoE attacks trying to kill my pet.  Convenient!  I misfired one of the beam attacks, as I didn't understand how they worked and just destroyed a building with it instead of a line of fire (by the way, the buildings drop gold if you destroy them, about 100g a piece).  Quick tip: target the ground on a tile next to yourself to send a line of fire all the way across the board.  Since ol' Stormy had taken care of most of the eggs, I finished off the rest.  By that point, he'd finished with my pet and came after me.

I used all the attacks on him and dragged him through all the fire I could, but in the end, we were just trading blows.  He got me down to about 50 health and if my last hit had missed, I would have had to start over again.  Thankfully, it landed and I won.  Phew.

Make sure you get as many fires to work with as you can on this one.  Hopefully, it will take you as few tries as it took me!

Pirate101: What Classes Get Which Companions Automatically? UPDATED!

UPDATED 1/7/13

I wanted to compile a list for anyone who was curious as to which companions you get automatically with your class. Pretty straight forward concept, so on to the list!

Buccaneer:
Kobe Yojimbo
Barnabus
Water Mole Slingman
Monquistador Crossbowman
Thunder Hoof
Mustang Goucho
Lost Ranger
Billy the Kid
Nadya
Taro Moomori
Pig Raider Crossbowman

Musketeer:
Wing Chun
Louis le Bisque
Water Mole Spearman
Giacomo Rossi
Ridolfo Capoferro
Corporal Sanders
Bison Scout
Tyson
Duck Holiday
Masamune Goto
Hidenari Kuga
Ju Hao

Privateer:
Egg Shen
Ensign Emmett
Iago
Tonka
Black Angus
Monterey Jack
Mustang Rowdy
Nanu Nanu
Monquistador
Bison Scout
Bison Shaman
Jane Canary
Wild Bill Peacock
Eric Jolly
Inoshishi Necromacer
Jim Masterson
Horse Crossbowman
Inoshishi Chief

Swashbuckler:
Subodai
Sarah Steele
Crab Hermit
Crazy Monquistador
Monquistador Explorer
Tricky Vinny
Steady Tom Rollins
Weasel Gambler
Mustang Toreador
Buffalo Bill
Nurse Quinn
Chicken Miner
Mustang Sally
Froggo Villa
Yakooza

Witchdoctor:
Kan Po
Mormo
Bones McGee
Skyfire
Ghost Singer
Lefty
Batacuda
Scorpius
Sky Snake
Bat Masterson
Helephant Destroyer

This is a work in progress, but I figured I'd post what I had. I can't seem to find a complete list anywhere for any class. That being the case, if you notice any that I missed, please let me know!

Pirate101 PvP: An Initial Look

I had a brief chance to jump on the test realm last night and check out half of a PvP battle.  My level 10 Witchdoctor vs a level 16 Swashbuckler.  From that brief experience I can say . . . that PvP works about how you'd expect it to.

You go into one of the PvP-designated buildings, stand on a sigil and, when there is more than one person, the battle counts down and begins.  The victory conditions are "Defeat all enemies", so my initial thought was to focus fire the pirate, as I know that's what would hamstring me the most, especially at that low a level.  I was at a slight disadvantage though, since I hadn't done two of the promotion quests I really should have, so my crew was a bit underpowered.

When the battle starts, it's randomly decided who goes first (in this case, the Swashie) and while was thinking about his moves, I could see the count-down timer, so I'd know how long before he'd be forced to stop.  It appears to be the same length as the regular battle timer.  Then it was my turn.  We went back and forth, it appeared that he would win, though I made a dent, and then my internet went down.

Hopefully, I'll have another chance to try it this evening.  As I understand it, there are currently no rewards or penalties for PvP at the moment, so it's just a diversion for now.  All the other trappings they will add later after they have a chance to see how balanced things are.  For now, it feels like it should and I look forward to testing it again.  It is werid playing against another person and it will be interesting to see what sort of strategies emerge.

Pirate101: Test Realm Open! Go PvP'ing!

Well, the latest list of updates has been put up on KI's website and the list is a doozy!  If we follow how long the test realm was active before the last update, I would guess that the update will be implemented mid next week, just in time for the new episode of the show!  I'll hop on the test realm this evening to check out the PvP and see how it works so I can report back here.  In the mean time, here is the list of all the changes that were made to the game.  My comments are in blue.

The letter that they mention is from J Todd Coleman, VP, who let's us know the intent behind this incarnation of PvP.  It seems this is just to test the waters and get a jump start before the implementation of full PvP will all features.  We'll see how it goes!

Practice Player Versus Player (PvP)! Pirate101 is proud to present our initial implementation of PvP! For 2012, we are introducing a "Practice Mode" PvP combat system that you can experience in both your housing and in open PvP areas on Skull Island! The new Practice PVP system only showcases battleboard combat and currently does not feature a ladder, matchmaking, awards, or the introduction of "PvP Only" / "No PvP" flags for player gear. (This is just the beginning as a full implementation of PvP is still in the making.) Please read more about the philosophy behind our newest feature in this public announcement from J. Todd Coleman. How Do I Get Started? PvP totems and sigils have been added to the Pirate101 World in a couple of different areas: Open 4 versus 4 PvP can be found on Skull Island. Look for the Brawlin' Hall and Spar Chamber behind and to the side of the Kraken Skulls Tavern. 1 versus 1 PvP can be found in a couple of our Player houses: The Volcano Island from the exclusive (and no longer available) Boochbeard Bundle and the Castaway's Cove from the GameStop Cutthroat Bundle To begin, approach the PvP sigils and press X. Next, select if you’d like to join the blue or red team. You must have at least one player for each side to begin a practice PvP session (you’ll know how many players can join a PvP match by the number of available sigil spots displayed). Once the sigil countdown has completed, you’ll then have a limited amount of time to choose the companions you’d like to bring into the fight (much like you would for an Epic Boss Battle).  Thank goodness you get to choose which companions join you.  There would be rioting in the streets if this was random! Special Rules Fleeing is allowed. Bummer. The "Pirate" talent will be active. That should make the battles go a bit more quickly. Player avatars cannot be charmed (or targeted) but Companions can be. Players cannot eject someone from their house (via Friends menu) during PvP. The Crown Shop is available during combat. Okay . . . . (Known issue) Traps can be seen by opposing team. (Known issue) Players using stealth abilities can still be seen by their opponents. Combat Phases After choosing your companions, each team will have their own Planning / Execution stage and the game will randomly choose which team enters combat first. That team will plan and execute their combat phase, followed by the second team. Finally, the pets/summoned creatures of first team will then get a turn followed by the pets/summoned creatures of the second team. Combat will continue in this order until one team is defeated. Victory! At the end of combat, both teams will receive a notification of which side won the combat.

Bug Fixes Galore! Over 1,500 bugs and changes were made in this update to the game. There are so many fixes that it’s simply impractical to list them all; however, here is a general overview of those changes with some of the Pirate101 community’s key topics highlighted for your review: Performance Several performance improvements and memory leaks have been addressed! Art Fixed many minor art issues, including lighting, particles, mismatched portraits, and textures throughout the game. Fixed weapons so they are now properly holstered while mounted. Changed the “busy” icon above pirate’s heads from a spell book to a treasure map. That makes sense.  Always thought it was weird that they had this holdover from Wiz101 Added several interior maps that were missing from the game. Added many missing map icons including the landing in Kaizoku Jima, Moo Manchu's Sanctum, Black Storm Raiders, Sun Pollen, and more! Enemy Waponi Watermoles are now be more easily identifiable by their silver color. Sound Additional NPCs now have audio accompanying quest text. Also, several fixes were made where audio did not match the quest text. Music has been added to several zones. Added/tweaked sounds for many combat powers, broadside powers, and companion barks in combat. Reduced the volume on the Kraken's Coils and Wind Spirit buffs. Players will no longer hear a “sell” sound when trying to sell an equipped item that can’t be sold. Quests Fixed a lot of minor quest text issues. Fixed a lot of Quest Helper bugs, both in the quest arrow and in the text below the Quest Helper. Lowered the respawn time of several quest collection objects to support more players (including the Doom Shards in Avernus). Added more Troggy Warriors to the Scurvy Dog dungeon. Adjusted the difficulty of Senjo for the “This is the Pits” quest. Ensured Brother Owl now disappears after completing his quest, “Stray Feathers.” Ensured Sargent Shepard no longer assists players with Fin Dorsal after they have successfully completed the fight once before. Ensured Skeletal Corsairs in the Ghost Town are now harder to avoid. Improved the Cave Fish in the quest “True Love Triumphs?” They will drop the ring needed to complete the quest more reliably now. Only Privateers will be prompted to visit the Old Chirp Place by Timmy for the quest “The Gang's All Here.” Accommodated Count Brastillo de Brass who simply wanted to be known as “The Brass Monkey.” He also now sails a much higher level ship in the Vortex of Disruption. Ensured Ordaz and his goons don’t stick around after they’ve been beaten in the Gortez encounter. Players may now group up together to fight the Dread Droga for the side quest “Emperor Moo.” Strengthened Brody so he can withstand shark attacks a bit better. Added a 1,000 gold reward for completing “Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”  Better rewards are always welcome! Players shouldn't have to repeat the Iron Monkey fight during Kan Po, Egg Shen, and Wing Chun's promotion quests. Improved the loot drops for the Don Rodrigo line of quests. Navigating between Holy Monquistan ships should now prove more manageable. Isao Murasaki will no longer use the First Strike ability more than once. Significantly revised the Buck Bronco encounter in Arroyo Grande. Added several floors to the Inoshishi Pagoda encounter. Added additional chambers to the Cave of Whispers. The Shadow Fortress encounter is now longer and more challenging. Masamune's last line of the quest “off duty” will be played only for Musketeers. Removed the Mooshu level gear from Baron Cimitiere’s loot table. Deacon’s barrage ability no longer hits hidden characters. Fixed the Chapter 3 side quest badge so it will be properly awarded. Marleybone ships in Port Regal will no longer spawn more officers than redcoats. Equip Made a lot of fixes for equipment name typos. Gear with powers that have weapon equipment requirements will now display those requirements.  This is a big deal and I think is a necessary step to alleviating confusion.  Nothing worse than equipping a new piece of gear with an ability you can't use but you have no idea why. Reduced the Nautical level requirement on the Pagoda Sails sold on the Hamamitsu docks from level 32 to level 26. Added the missing Sneak Attack power on the level 40+ Tier of the Dread Pirate's Outfit. Vendors Both a ship vendor and a parts vendor have taken up residence in St. Bonobos Abbey in Monquista. More parts are now available from most ship part vendors.  Good.  The game is lacking a bit in things to buy with gold.  Until the bazaar is introduced, this will have to do. Ned Cook has taken his leave from Jonah Town. Fixed a number of errors in the Vendor interface. Charlie Burrow now properly shows he’s a Boot Vendor. Vendors now warn when selling will exceed max gold rather than preventing the sale, so the gold cap may be more easily reached. Ships Players can’t begin combat in the skyways with another player’s creature fight by flying through their ship while they’re in combat. Ships will no longer occasionally be invisible when docking. Ensured barrels created by player attacks on enemy ships can now be attacked and destroyed by players. Nautical XP awarded now appears in the chat log.  Another convenience item. Added a pop up that asks players if they really want to delete a ship if they try to put it in the trash. Ensured other player ships will no longer show a red nameplate if they are higher level than you. Passengers on ships will not be separated from the boat they were sailing on when the captain of the ship enters a new zone. Added a rubber ducky pirate icon to indicate a ship is unsinkable (you can’t sink a rubber ducky after all). Housing Increased the number of housing items that can be placed in premium housing to 200 instead of 100. (Both on the inside and outside!)  People were clamoring for this.  Glad to see it implemented. Wood Kabuiki Wallpaper no longer applies as flooring. New players may use the “Go to Home” button as soon as they leave Avery’s office. Ensured rugs can have housing items placed on top of them. Housing items and more uncommon items have been added to enemies throughout The Spiral. Powers and Talents Changed Talent cards so they have a different color background to help players identify they are different at first glance. Clarified wording for the power “Walk in Shadows” to indicate all hidden sneak attacks do double damage, not just Backstab.  Clarification is always welcome, especially on some of the less straight forward abilities. Changed the Mighty Strike power to “Mighty Charge” and the description has been updated. Witchdoctors can now no longer train either Peaceful or Loud, and they have been removed as prerequisites for Witchdoctors training up the other class talent trees. Swashbucklers will now be able to train Riposte at level 37. The Witchdoctor second and third tier “Haste” powers now correctly add a First Strike/Riposte capability to melee companions and Quick Draw/Return Fire to ranged companions. Zones Fixed cases where zone overhead map didn’t match world, and added missing text to overhead map icons. Added wisps to many zones that were lacking them. Fixed many areas that were sometimes causing players to become stuck. Added a little extra distance between ships and creature enemies in several skyways. Added more enemies to Valley of Titans. Affixed many Life Fountains to the ground so they won’t “float away” on players. Made the grassy sidewalks in Yagizawa Village a bit safer to navigate. Riding the blue wind lane coming from Hamamitsu Skyway into Subata Skyway will now allow players to continue along the wind lane’s path. UI Made several fixes to chat system Changed the chat icons next to players’ names so they now correctly display chat capability: Open chat players have no icon. Players with filtered chat have a chat bubble. Players with menu chat only show a chat bubble that is crossed out. Menu chat players can see chat log by hitting enter. Menu chatting players will now see a chat bubble with “…” above a chat-enabled player to know they are speaking. Badges pages only show next available badge for defeating multiple creatures, not all the badges in the chain. Ensured badge pages now show rewards.  This is good.  I wonder what was in there that we couldn't see . . . Removed the Gift Button icon during combat. Fixed the placement of many name tags and weapons. Ignored player names will not show duplicates in the friend’s list. True friend names will now always appear green.  That's helpful. I'm not the best at remembering my friend's in game names. Mousing over your ship’s health globe will show both current and maximum health. Fixed a bug causing the player’s ship action buttons to become unresponsive. Players may now more easily left-mouse click sigils on docks to board ships. Keyboard Shortcuts Pressing “End” on the keyboard will act the same as pressing the Life Fountain button on the interface. Control+N will now open the Notification window. Companions Some shrunken companions were made bigger again. Crown shop companions will no longer change names (including Unicorn Duelist Companion Ridolfo Capoferro). Made multiple fixes for companion quests. Companions now properly participate in important combats during their promotion quests.  Sounds like a "duh" but glad they did this. Companion statistics will now update immediately when promoting (previously they didn’t update until players closed the window and reopened it, so it appeared as if promoting companions made their statistics worse). Companions that were revived inside the Bison Sacred Cave will no longer appear defeated during combat. Ensured Sarah Steele's Swachbuckler’s stab reduces defense as advertised. Made notifications that you have gained new companion training points clickable so they open the companion management screen. Corrected Bonnie Anne’s Scatterblast ability so it now functions even if the character targeted moves during the turn. Pets Rebalanced the Armadillo pet to be in line with other pets (it was incorrectly flagged as a much stronger henchman). A second talent, Relentless, was added to the Armadillo to still make it a unique and desired pet among players. Removed the duplicate name “Cookie” from the Pet name list and changed it to “Rascal.” Crown shop / Premium Areas Changed wording on Premium Areas to indicate “Books” and “Chapters” instead of “Chapters” and “Parts.” (Badges previously awarded for completing “Chapters” are also now labeled “Books.”) Ensured players can only purchase a Mojo Potion only if they have first completed the initial Mojo potion quest and do not already have full Mojo. Passengers on ships will now auto-unbottle their own ships if they encounter a premium area instead of being teleported back to the last life fountain visited. Miscellaneous Fixed several instances of incorrect ‘0’ damage numbers with certain companion and boss attacks. Made several minor grammatical changes to quest text throughout the game. Players are no longer able to teleport to a friend while their friend is playing a minigame. Loot tables have been adjusted globally. Overall, I don't see anything negative in here.  Looks like mostly changes for the better.  The jury is still out on how well PvP will work, but I'll find out tonight and report back soon!

Pirate101: PvP in coming!

KingsIsle just announced that PvP is going to be part of the next update.  Here's the link.

Cursory glance shows that it will be arena based from special sigils, both 4v4 and 1v1 are mentioned, though 1v1 may be exclusive to some of the houses from bundles.

I will read through the info they provided and update this post, but for now, just wanted to draw your attention to this major announcement.

Pirate101: New Pre-paid Cards Available

KingsIsle has just updated their website with a new list of all the different pre-paid game time cards that are now available.  In addition to the bundles we already new about, the following new pets are available on various cards:

Seaweed Spirit Pet (like an Ebon Spectre, from Best Buy $20 card)
Rouged Puffer (puffer fish pet, from CVS $20 card)
Durango Buffaloon (brown buffaloon, from Speedway $20 card)
Emerald Budgie (green bird, as the name suggests, from Target $20 card)
North Win Lion (oriental lion pet, from Toys R Us $10 card)
Golden Sky Rattler (brown skysnake, from Toys R Us $20 card)
Dreamy Blue Turtle (looks like the turtles that fly around in Mooshu, from Walmart $10 card)
Vermillion Dragon (oriental pink/purple dragon, from Walmart $20 card)

If I were to pick just one of these pets to get, it would be the turtle, as I am partial to turtles (it's the symbol on my Buck's sail, anyway), but runner up would be a three way tie between the dragon, lion and puffer.  I suppose I'll have to see them in action before I make that call.

Also, there is another big announcement coming from KingsIsle later today.   As soon as I can, I'll post it here!

Pirate101: Best Bosses to Farm for Pet Drops UPDATED!

UPDATED! 12/3/12

This will be another post that I will update regularly as new reports come in.  This will be a list of bosses that not only have the best chance to drop a pet, but regularly drop other nice, class specific gear as well so, even if you don't get your pet, you at least have something to show for your trouble.

Skull Island  [Orchid Chameleon]
Fin Dorsal (Jonah Town, Gullet)

Cool Ranch [Armadillo Verde, Golden Stingtail, Tropical Skysnake]
Johnny Ringo (Cooper's Roost, Cool Ranch)
El Guapo (Banditoad Gulch, Santo Pollo)
Santa Rana (Santa Rana's Palace, Santo Pollo)
Duck of Death (Boot Hill, Cool Ranch)

Mooshu [Ebon Spectre, Tawny Turtle]
Kung Po (Tempest, Khotan Skyway)

Also, the White-Tailed Jackalope is awarded for completing the Frontier Drifter Badge in Cool Ranch, which you earn by visiting 21 important areas.  If you do all the main story quest, you'll probably be close to getting this one.

I think there is a similar quest in Mooshu for a Celestial Dragon Pet, but I couldn't find the particulars.

Post 100! Episode 6 of Talkin' the Plank is Live!

The latest episode of Talkin' the Plank is live, so be sure to check it out!  This week, Brandon and I discuss a little bit of Presidio strategy, as I'm currently working on a guide for that portion of the game, and end up with a change to last week's contest winners.  Stay tuned!

Also, this is my 100th post on this blog.  Whoop-de-doo.  :-)

Pirate101: Sale in the Crown Store Until Nov 29th!

The in game crown shop is having a half off sale on certain items until midnight tomorrow.  The official announcement (if you don't believe me!) is here.

The items that are half off are as follows:

Captain Gunn's Wheel

Mojo Potion

Livsey's Ring

25,000 Gold

Corsair's Frigate

De Bonzo Galleon

Prancing Pony (Very Fast - Permanent)

Golden Stingtail Pet

Buccaneer's Den

1,000 Gold

Mojo Pendant

Ebon Spectre Pet

Given the sale, I bought the Buccaneer's den for 5,000c.  If I remember correctly, that just saved me 75,000g, if I were to buy it in game.  Also, I have been sorely tempted to buy that 25,000g which I think was going for 6,750c, but have been able to resist so far.  For some reason, buying gold in any game still has a bit of a stigma to me.  I would be more likely to do it if I could trade it with other characters on my account.  Oh well.  I'd probably burn through it pretty quickly anyway and I tend to only buy things from the shop that I will use for a long time.  My lobster mount is still being used and my Skysnake pet lasted 35 or so levels until I got the Jackalope.  The house will last until I quit the game, I'd imagine, so a good purchase!

Pirate101: Buccaneer weakness

My Buccaneer is now level 40 and in Mooshu.  Having played the class thus far, I have noticed a glaring exception: no area of effect abilities.  The closest the Bucc comes to attacking multiple targets is if you can pull off a Bladestorm and are stand by a second enemy.  It's seems like a real issue.  Bucc's don't get all that many direct abilities anyway.  The get (by lvl 40) two def buffs, 2 str buffs and 3 direct attacks.  Two of those 4 buffs you won't use as they are lower tiers, and 1 of those three direct attacks, which are all of the same attack in different tiers, isn't very useful as it just doesn't hit that hard.  You get more oompf out of a regular attack.  If you don't spend any practice points, that's all you get.  Now, with a Swashbuckler subclass and a special piece of equipment, i have two backstab/sneak attacks which I always use before my Bucc's attacks, just because they hit harder and one of them causes a bleed effect as well.  The other abilities you get as a Bucc are all passive and, as nice as they are, are no fun.  I'd like some buttons to press and am sorely lacking an AoE attack.

We'll see how it feels once I get to lvl 50, but at this point, my Pirate feels weak and not as useful as I'd like.

Pirate101: Cyber Monday Crown Sale!

If you act quickly and buy before midnight tonight, you can get 90,000 crowns for $80.  This is the best rate I've seen for crowns since the game started at a 1,125c per $1 rate.  If you were going to buy a lot of crowns anyway, now's the time!

Pirate101: Pet drops I can confirm UPDATED

UPDATE!  I have realized since I wrote this that the Jackalope pet is not a drop but rather the reward for earning a badge at the end of Cool Ranch.  Guess I'm not so lucky after all!

I all my playtime, I had never actually seen a pet drop in the game.  Then, over Thanksgiving weekend, I got two pet drops!

The first was on my now level 10 Witchdoctor.  She got the Chameleon pet from the Chumbawumba encounter.

The second came at the conclusion of the Captain Blood fight.  And, seriously, I'm glad I got something because that instance is way to long!  When you go to enter it, you get the regular warning saying about how long they expect you to take and that one says 2 hours.  I really hope there aren't any more like that later in the game.  We'll see!  Anyhow, the last boss dropped a Jackalope that I didn't even notice until the next day since it was so late and I had just stayed up long enough finish that insanely long instance (it ended up taking me about an hour and a half).  I was sorting through my inventory and noticed the little Jackalope sitting there.  He immediately replaced my poor Skysnake who's been my pet since level 2 or so on my Buccaneer.  About time for a change, I'd say.

My Buccaneer is now level 40 and heading into Mooshu.  Hopefully, more fun drops await!

Pirate101: Tomorow is the last day for free gold!

Don't forget to enter the code.   I decided to give the gold to my Witchdoctor who was lvl 6 at the time.  The plan was, I'd level her up first, then whenever she reaches a landmark level, I'll pass all her applicable gear, ship items, eye patch and whatever else I have to the next pirate and so on and so forth until the last one is as geared out as possible right from the start.  She's level 10 now, so everything got passed on to my Musketeer so he won't have to buy much except for a few pieces of gear before he reaches level 10 himself.  When that happens, my guide to the Presidio should be ready!

Enjoy the last day of the long weekend, everyone who doesn't work retail!

Pirate101: Advice for levels 1-5

I've been trying to level all the remaining four classes at the same time so that I can compare and contrast them, so I have gone through the starting 5 levels 5 times now and have the following pieces of advice for anyone who is still at that stage of the game or is about to run an alt.

Firstly, don't worry about saving your companion training points at this stage in the game.  Spend them all, or as many as it takes to get you companions up to one level below you.  Any less that that at this stage in the game and you are bound for frustration.

Don't be worried about joining a group for combat.   At this level, especially in the Skull cave, you may not be able fight anything without a group!  That area is quite crowded.  Doing this will give you a bit extra gold and a better chance at gear.  Equip whatever the first pieces of gear you get and make sure that before you get too far in Skull cave, you check the treasure chest up on the shrine as you walk through.  It will give you a class-specific piece of gear.

All of the battles in the starting area are pretty straight forward until you get to the Defeat the Troggies quest where you have to activate the three pillars.  The best way to do this is to have you companions split up, sending one to the top, one to the bottom and your pirate to the one on the other side of the board.  Once all three are in position, activate all three pillars on the same turn.  Since each pillar adds two troggies to the board when activated, this avoids them getting in your way.  You don't even really need to fight any of them, as you get the same rewards no matter what.

For the Fin Dorsal fight, just get to him as fast as you can and ignore the other sharks.  If you can, hit him with Bonnie Anne's special move to reduce his dodge.  That will make him much easier to hit.

Next, you go back to Skull Island and are shown your ship, at which point you start the Ratbeard quest chain and get your third companion.  Make sure that, on the way to see your ship or the way to the tavern, you stop in every shop there is (clothing, weapon, ring and the totem vendor who is up on a platform) and buy every piece of gear you can that's an upgrade.  Focus on dodge as it makes a huge difference at this level.  If you can't find a vendor, just look it up on the map.

When you fight Ratbeard, focus on all the other rats first and ignore him.  He runs away anyway, so don't waste your damage.

When you go to Blood Shoal, you pick up quests from Manny, Moe and Jack.  The best way to do these is to do the quest where you talk to the crab first.  This one sends you to sink cutthroat ships for 6 ropes.  Make sure you hit the ship parts vendor on Blood Shoals and buy whatever equipment you are missing, prioritizing cannon, then rudder, then anchor and, if you have any cash left, upgrade the rest.  When fighting the cutthroats, don't board them if you can avoid it.  It's much faster to just sink them.  If you accidentally get boarded, just flee.  It's a short trip back from Blood Shoals and it's much faster that way than to actually fight hand-to-hand.

Once you have all 6 ropes, use the "warp to life fountain button" to go back to Blood Shoals and turn in the quest to the crab and then to the ghost rat.  At that point, you will hit level 5.  Spend your training points (you will get 6 of them) to get all of your companions to level 4.  Get your new ability from your class trainer by warping back to Skull Island.  By doing it this way, the Batacuda fights and the fight to rescue the mouse boy will be a lot easier.

That's the advice for now.  Once I have taken all of my alts through the Presidio, I'll write another one of these.  Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend!

Pirate101 & Wizard101: Want free gold?

Of course!  Who wouldn't want free gold?  As part of a Thanksgiving promotion from KingsIsle you can get up to 5,000 gold just for entering a code.  At their respective sites, go to the "Shop" tab, select "Redeem code" and enter "PirateGold" for Pirate 101 and  for Wizard 101, enter "WizardGold."

Initially, I was going to redeem this on my main, who is 35 now, but then I thought "why not give it to one of my low level alts where it can really make an impact?  Who will that lucky alt be?  Not sure yet.  I guess whoever looks like they need it the most!

Happy Leftover's Day/Black Friday!  Be sure to redeem your gold code before Nov. 26th when it expires! 

Talkin' the Plank Episode 5 is live!

Episode 5 of Talkin' the Plank is now live!  You can find it here.  Find out who won the contest as Brandon and I discuss what stats are best for every class as well as a helpful tip that every new player should know . . . that I just discovered this week!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Pirate101: Ninja Pig Update & Funny Ship Names

That's to JSpiral on the Pirate 101 Forums, I now have a ninja pig!  Thanks again, J!

I had a chance to try out my pig-gitsu (ninjit-suey?) expert last night.  He showed up as lvl 34, so was ready for promotion which cost me 1,700g, but was immediate unlike some other companions whose quests I'm currently stuck in the middle of (Ratbeard and Bonnie Anne, I'm looking at you.  Any corner of the map you're not planning on sending me to?  Sheesh!)  Anyway, as everyone has reported, he is awesome and has moved to the top of my companions list.

Short post today since I have to actually work before the 4 day weekend, but I wanted to drop a quick line about naming ships you purchase for gold in game.  I have bought 3 ships and after the first one, have always tried to pick the funniest combination of the two available word categories.  I may have already maxed out on my third ship as I don't think I can do any better than "Oaken Surprise".  Anyone else come up with any good ones?

Pirate101: All classes, lvls 1-3, a comparison

I have made a pirate of every class: Cynical Lucy Andrews the Buccaneer [33], Dark Tatiana the Witchdoctor [6], Eccentric Todd the Musketeer [5], Silent Luke the Swashbuckler [4]and Glib Edward the Privateer [3].  The though being to try out every class and see how I like them and how they compare to each other.  My main focus will remain my Buccaneer, but, I think, eventually, I will level all 5 classes to lvl cap (unless there is one I really can't stand).

So, since they have all gotten to lvl 3 at least, I thought I would do a little comparison and see which was the best and which was the worst for the first few quests of the game.  This means I have taken all of them at least to the point where you fight the sharks for the first time after rescuing the frog from the cage (SPOILER ALERT!).

LVL 1-3

Best Class: Witchdoctor

This class left me feeling the most powerful, even at such a low level.  Swashbuckler would be a close second here, but the starting companion for WD pushes them over the top.  I just really like the look and feel of the goat student: how his eyes look whited out . . . just is really cool to me.  Musketeer wasn't bad here, but I could not really find a use for the initial talent which shoots in a straight line for 3 or 4 squares.  The enemies never seemed to line up that way, to my satisfaction, so I ended up not using it very much.

Worst Class: Buccaneer
Privateer was a close second (I haven't needed to cast healing even once, so that is a bit of a waste at this low level) and it could be that my view is hazy since Bucc was the first character I made, but things just seemed to take so much longer with the Buccaneer than with any other class.  Also, while I came to really like the Samoorai companion in later levels (especially after 1st promotion), I initially thought it just looked silly.  The Privateer's Crane student has a much better aesthetic.

Once they all reach lvl 6, I'll re-evaluate and post again and then every so often when they all reach a new high watermark.

Pirate101 Admiral's Bundle Contest Ends Tomorrow!

The title says it all!  Make sure you get your submissions in soon, as I only have 2 of these to give away.  Contest details can be found here. 



This picture came from ebay where it was bafflingly being sold for $60+.  The price is right on it!

Pirate101 Buccaneer Subclass: Swashbuckler/Privateer

As I mentioned in my last post before the weekend, I wanted to change my subclass for Buccaneer as Witchdoctor sub wasn't doing it for me, damage-wise.

What I ended up going with was the dodge sequence from Swashbuckler, which, while i had to put into stabby weapons, got me a nice bonus to Rough, gave me a better range of movement and gave me a bonus to dodge.  Then I went to the Privateer trainer and got the evasive talent, and skipped the healing.  It doesn't seem to do very much healing, even at the lower levels, so I'm in no hurry to grab it and I already have plenty of defensive boosts, so no need for those yet either.

So far, this is working well, though I miss having an area of effect attack.  My survivability and direct damage seem to have gone up and that's really what I was looking for.  At least my pirate feels like a Buccaneer now instead of a Witchdoctor knock-off.

Pirate101 Contest!

Ahoy, pirates!

A first for this blog, we have a giveaway!  One of the perks of being an official Pirate 101 fansite is that I've received some promotional items that they'd like me to distribute to you.  This one is the Admiral's Bundle, one of the game cards offered at Walmart.  Below are the details of the card:

Admiral's Bundle codes (available at Walmart for $29) for this purpose:

This bundle comes with a Marleybone Warship and figurehead, Bulldog Companion, Naval Outfit, Military Sabre, and Crow’s Nest Housing Add-On. The promotional version of the bundle does not come with additional crowns, but the one in stores also comes with 1 month of membership or 5,000 crowns.

The Bulldog companion is a privateer and I have been using him since they sent this bundle over.  He has quickly worked his way to the top of my rotation thanks in large part to having the Rouse ability.  Plus, he has some cool animations!

Want a promotional bundle for yourself?  We're having a little contest.  I have two to give away, so here are the rules:

Come up with a new class for the game.  What’s missing?  What would you like to see?  Send it to talkintheplank@gmail.com, the top 2 get read on the podcast (Talkin' the Plank, of course) and get the Admiral Bundle.

Please send submissions in before noon (PST) on Nov 20th, so I have time to review them before the next episode of TtP is recorded.  Look forward to seeing some great submissions!