The lowdown on Wizard 101: What you need to know

There’s a lot of hidden numbers in Wizard 101. How do you know if a new hat you just got is really better than your old hat? Is accuracy more important for Storm wizards than it is for Life wizards? Is Crowns gear really the best gear?
After trying on nearly every piece of gear I owned and seeing how it changed my stats, I have answers to some of these questions (and a really, really large spreadsheet!)
What are Accuracy, +Damage and +Power Pip? Which is best?
Greater Accuracy reduces the chance you will fizzle. It is added to the base Accuracy on the card you are playing. The max Accuracy you can have is 100%. The only gear that improves accuracy is Crowns gear, which is bought either with Crowns or huge, Harry Potter’s Gnomish Vault-piles of gold. The current maximum possible bonus to Accuracy by wearing Crowns gear is 9%, making my total Accuracy when wearing all the Crowns gear, 99%.
Greater Damage increases the damage your cards do. It’s either general damage covering all schools of magic, or just one (typically your primary school for the best items).
Greater Power Pip percentage increase the chance you will receive a Power Pip instead of a normal pip on a new turn.
To quickly determine how much a given item will increase your damage — other bonuses aside — add four points for each point of accuracy, three points for every percent of damage, and two points for every percent of power pip.
What should I choose for my secondary school?
Well, I’ll tell you what NOT to choose for your secondary school. Don’t choose a secondary school based on its damage. Power pips apply only to your primary school, and give such an overwhelming bonus that your primary school spells will ALWAYS be the best to use on average, no matter how weak your school is or how much your school fizzles, except against monsters of your school. And for them you use prisms to turn your magic into something they are weak against.
Choose a secondary school (or schools) based on what non-damage cards they can give you. Heals, or better shields, blades and traps, or cards that affect the entire opposing group.
Balance damage cannot be specifically blocked, so that gives it an edge in the secondary school department. The fire school’s Fire Elf is the most efficient damaging spell in the game, and at two pips for a non-Fire wizard, worth getting. Myth has two Area of Effect (AOE) spells Humoungafrog and Earthquake. The Fire school has Meteor and it is fairly cheap compared to other schools’ AOEs. Ice school has Blizzard.
Is Crowns gear the best gear?
It is very good gear, and the easiest to get, if you have the real money or the game gold to pay for it. But it isn’t the best, even though it’s the only gear with +Accuracy. Still, if you can afford it, it’s definitely worth the purchase. The extra cards Crowns gear gives, especially if it is in your primary school of magic, can give you a nice boost.
Should I choose gear with +Damage for my primary school of magic, or is it better to get +Damage that is good for any school?
Whichever kind has the highest number, since you are at your best casting spells from your primary school of magic, anyway. Don’t put away a piece of gear that has a higher +Damage number solely because it is only in your primary school. Don’t even consider gear that has a +Damage in a non-primary school of magic.
Is it a good idea to wait as long as it takes to cast a powerful spell not in my primary school?
No. And might I add, it really bugs me when wizards pass for six straight rounds so they can cast a spell out of their school just because it looks cool, but which is underpowered in their hands. Always cast damage from your primary school if at all possible. The difference in power is not even close.
Is accuracy more important for schools with low accuracy, like Storm, than schools with high accuracy, like Life?
No, it is just as important for both schools. Schools with inherently low accuracy have more powerful spells, but the power increases in equal proportion for all schools with more accuracy. The only way it would make a difference would be if your base accuracy was already 100%, in which case, adding more would give no benefit. This is not currently possible to do.
How important are health and mana when choosing gear?
That’s situational. If you do a lot of dueling, you might value health more than anything else. If you solo a lot, mana might be your thing, as you can usually refresh health between battles, but not mana. If you are often in a group, then you might want to focus entirely on damage, especially AOE damage. That said, I would feel a level 50 wizard with less than 2500 health or less than 200 mana would find themselves struggling. When I tune my own gear for straight damage, bringing both my health and mana below these limits, I struggle a LOT.
Is it better to be strong or look fabulous?
Don’t you be visiting MY dorm room wearing your battle clothes. Strut your stuff. Just saying 🙂

49 thoughts on “The lowdown on Wizard 101: What you need to know”

  1. i love this article good job really did help me i think i made the right choice on pucking my school I picked balance as my main school and my second school is life so far i had a blast not trouble i have the strong attacks from balance and if i need healing i use my spells from life.

  2. Balance/Life is an amazingly great all-around combo, with good damage, buffs and healing. You’ll be very happy with that combo. Since Balance can ignore all spirit and elemental shields, it is strong against everything but other Balance mobs. My alt is a Balance/Death wizard and has very little trouble handling anything her level, or above. She often (at 26) outdamages my level 50 Life wizard. Plus, Judgment is one of the most powerful cards in the entire game.

  3. My main was a Myth/Fire combo, and he worked fairly well… but Myth wizard damage output depends too much on the minions, and timing on putting one out can make for very swingy battles. I’d either dominate with a lot of unanswered minion damage or falter because of relatively low base damage.
    I’m much happier with my new Balance/Death main. Just two more levels until Feint. Yum. And yes, Balance may not hit terribly hard, but it’s nice and consistent. I appreciate that.

  4. It may just be low level gear, which would make sense, since it’s really only useful with low level spells. (Which you’ll probably use throughout the game, but later on the +Damage Percentage is better at that point.)
    My Gobblestone’s Bib, for example, is a Balance School only cloak, level 10 required, with +72 HP and +4 Damage for balance spells. It was a gobbler miniboss drop from Wizard City’s Colossus Lane. (I’ve still not found a drop outclassing it; there have been a few with +5% Balance defense, but no HP boost. I’m saving up for a crown gear cloak, while hoping for a lucky drop.)

  5. it’s me again my little brother is getting a wizard 101 character so he wants to be a life wizard for his main but secondary he doesn’t know and i don’t know what other school is a good mach should he make his second school balance or what what other school is good with life.i’m balance and life so if he becomes life first and then balance is it good or what or is another school better?

  6. Well, anything would be okay, but if you want my suggestion, and you and he will always be playing together, I’d suggest Death for a secondary school. There’s no real need for a Balance secondary if you’re a Balance primary. If he will mostly be playing on his own, then Balance might be a better choice.

  7. i’m thinking on making a wizard 101 character i’m thinking on being a life wizard and for my second school a death wizard is it ok.

  8. Sure. One of the few schools that give a Life wizard any trouble are other Life wizards. They love casting a death shield so not only do your Life spells do almost nothing, because they are Life as well, but using your prism to change your magic into Death magic ALSO doesn’t work. With a Death secondary school, you can both keep those Death shields down, use your prisms freely, AND have some nice Death magic.
    You probably won’t want to use too much Death magic except when facing Life mobs, though.

  9. my character is a straight forward pyro; i’ve been using him casually until i convert my gaming box to wireless and set it up for wizards. i’ve learned alot of lessons already pre level 20.
    watching the ghoulfriend play her 30ish ice wizard has confirmed alot of my theories. behind the fuzzy bunny exterior, this is a min/max game. i’ve been curious about myth and balance schools; thanks for the insights.

  10. Well, the good news is that you don’t really need to watch your numbers that much. Few fights are really a problem. This article was more for the curious who were trying to decide between two pieces of gear. Really good gear is rare enough so that you generally know it when you get some 🙂

  11. Wow great information, thanks! I started playing my balance/life last night after a pretty long break. We’ll see how long I can keep up my enjoyment this time around.

  12. One question i have im still trying to figure out what school has bonuses against which..ie use fire vs ice etc. Thats the problem what are the other ones?
    Thanks

  13. I’ve only been playing W101 a few weeks and I’ve been reading your archives for tips. Do you have any pointers on deck construction? I know you prefer smaller decks over larger ones, so you can draw the cards you need (I run into that a lot). What would you say are the best combos or must-have spells? Are there any general rules that would apply regardless of school?

  14. @sxserage — I don’t think the spreadsheet is very easy to use, and I certainly haven’t put any time into explaining how it works, but if you’d like to have a look, I’m more than happy to let you have it. You can check it out at https://chasingdings.com/docs/w101dps.ods. It is in Open Office Spreadsheet format.
    @Starsong — my best advice would be to keep all your damage spells in your primary school, use training points to buy useful spells to bolster your primary school, and if you ever find yourself discarding cards you DON’T need when you’re looking for a card you DO need, ask yourself if the card you are discarding really needs to be in your deck? Could you have fewer of them? Or make a treasure card from it?

  15. u rock the they should hire you to help in the game……u are a HUGE help for us newbs……..wasnt really diggin the game until this artical….thnx sooo much

  16. Hi I’ve been playing up to level 35 with storm as primary school. I took death school up to feint as secondary and brought balance school to sandstorm – so as to have a second mass damage spell (not named tempest). Now I play a lot with a friend that is life first – fire and ice second and third. Looking at the next couple spells up for death school “dooom and glooom” followed by wriath – i’m not convinced that I should take them. Wraith doesn’t impress for 6 pips not much better than vampire. And for balance – as a secondary school no judgement – not real useful – spectral blast and hydra don’t impresss. A freind suggested that I visit Niles for some blades or traps – or get reshuffle from the lady on colossus bouldevard. My current pet is a ghoul (+50 health and mana). Or I could start a fourth school but wouldn’t make it far… Please advise.

  17. First of all, your friend is going to be struggling with Fire and Ice as secondaries; I know I did with Fire. Your secondary school(s) should always support your primary — when spending training points, ask, how will this card make my primary school better?
    I respecced and trained Death up to Feint, bought some shields from other schools and Reshuffle from Balance, and that’s it. I have two points entirely unspent because I can’t spend them to support my main school yet.

  18. Just a slight quibble…you mention that accuracy gear is equally helpful to all schools. This is actually not true and a bit of ‘back of the napkin math’ can show us why.
    Basically, when you add 1% of accuracy you’re adding 1% of the spell’s damage to the total damage that you do.
    Let’s take a generic example from balance first – Scorpion does 160-200 damage for 2 pips with 85% accuracy for 136-170 damage per cast. Adding 1% accuracy here changes the damage per cast to 137.6-172 for an increase of 2 damage or 1.18%.
    Now let’s take two examples from Storm. Lightening Bats does 245-285 damage for 2 pips with 70% accuracy for 171.5-199.5 damage per cast. Adding 1% accuracy here changes the damage per cast to 173.95-202.35 for an increase of 2.85 or 1.43%.
    Now those numbers may sound small in scale and difference. But between 1.18% and 1.43% we’re talking about a 21.2% larger effect on Storm (70% success) than on Balance (85% success).
    Now for the fun numbers though…Wild Bolt does 1,000 damage for 2 pips with 10% accuracy for 100 damage per cast. Obviously right off the bat this spell is NOT a good value of damage per cast. However, accuracy DOES have a very large effect on this one. Adding 1% accuracy here changes the damage per cast to 110 for an increase of 10 or 10%!!! So for this one specific spell Accuracy is insane. Now, from my reading earlier in the thread the cap on accuracy is 9%. So the best we can do with this spell from accuracy alone (assuming you get a 10% buff from someone as well) would be 29% for 290 damage per cast. That would be one of the most effective spells in the game at the 2 pip level but the uncertainty of casting it would be problematic enough to make it hard to use effectively still.
    One last thought…let’s take a look at where Balance and Storm end up w/ their 2 pip attack spells with the max (9%) accuracy from gear alone. Scorpion jumps to 150.4-188 per cast at 94% (85%+9%) accuracy. Lightening Bats on the other hand jumps to 193.55-225.15 per cast at 79% (70%+9%) accuracy. That’s 19.8% more damage per cast after adding the crown gear versus just 17.3% more damage per cast beforehand for a difference of 2.5% cumulatively. So while you might not notice the difference, you get a bit more bang for your buck out of accuracy the lower the base accuracy of your spells happens to be and also the game provides some hefty per cast rewards to those willing to put up with the fizzles on Storm.

  19. Just wanted to say that you said that attacking over and over again is better then building up for a strong attack and attacking. well thats wrong because many people have between 1k-2k health. thats an easy 1 hit – 2 hit if you know what you are doing. i have 2 low level toons with warlord rank and i kill grand masters daily. its easy you just shield up and let them put their shields up, take them off with wand, build up attack 1 hit – 2 hit. easy as 1 2 3 🙂 ESPECIALLY if you are going first because if you are going first they really cant stop a 1 hit or a 2 hit. i have a death/ice toon and have every shield there is in the game besides stun which who needs that, i have death shield which gives life/myth, i have ice shield which is storm/fire, i have – 50% shield which stops balance noobs from useing judgement and i have a -85% death shield. pfft i shield up and deflect every attack then build up a strong 1 hit – 2 hit and its over 🙂 and i love when people attack me OVER and OVER and OVER again because i have so many shields that can do nothing to me. (by the way my death toon is only level 23 with 1.6k health and no feint and i still can 1 hit – 2 hit)
    anybody care to try me you let me know.
    Malvin Bloodblood
    (Warlord Rank)

  20. i need help playing wizard 101 i have a lvl 35 wizard i went for holiday when i came back i got a new laptop and then when i try to turn on the wizard 101 it doesnt work
    if you know the prob plz let me know
    jordan ironfist
    (warlord rank)

  21. How doesn’t it work? Are you able to download Wizard101 from the website, and does it install? Is your laptop running Windows? Do you have required software such as DirectX installed?
    If you’re still having trouble, try going to the main Wizard101 site (West Karana is not affiliated with Wizard101 except as a fan site), and pressing the “Help and Support” button at the bottom left of the page.

  22. hey which is it better to have clothes that have you resist alot or clothes that give you more health because i have a storm person and as you know they have the lowest health but if i resist most of the damage it won’t hurt me so much, what should i do?
    any answers?

    • Depends. Do you find yourself in danger of defeat in battles? If you’re generally good on health, you can look into other factors. As a general rule, though, resists on clothing are only valuable if they are resists for every school of magic, not just one.

  23. I think tipa has a point.It may be different for people depending on how they battle and what they normally battle.You may find that as you progress it takes alot more stratigy.It will also become easier to get better clothes with better stats.

    • Are you level 50? Because the very best clothing for any wizard is reserved for grandmasters. Malistaire himself drops the ice robes…

  24. I’ve been seeing alot of ice grandmasters wearing a robe called smock of the frost giant that gives them around 500+ health.Is that robe good too?

  25. I have a lvl 8 theurgist, which has alot of spell cards so i’m lvling up my lvl 24 character, so if u want to be friends with me i’m always my lvl 24 charac so hello peeples

  26. Sure that is tomorrow right?My lvl 44 can help.tell me by tomorrow where you want to meen and what you want help with.Mason Nightblood lvl 44 Death master.

  27. Here’s my suggestion: from your secondary school, use the 1-4 rank damage spells + 1 type of buff (if it is available). Then, stack the rest with your primary cards. This works best in a big deck.

  28. Health is king for storm, accuracy second, damage third unless fighting storm when it is resist. Storm is frustrating until level 45 (but is always good with friends).
    I have a grand master storm – Kane Shadowrunner. My second class is life (for heal), balance elemental blades (Niles – tree near Krokosphinx) and third ice for tower shield. I did not take death for feint since I think storm hits hard enough as is, but I don’t duel so I don’t know if it helps there.
    Top of the line level 45+ storm clothes (not crown shop) can give a +15% storm accuracy. That means wild bolt has a base 25% chance. My clothes give +35% damage, so my wild bolt does 1,349 (King Isle math is a little off) when it fires. It is easy to buy keen eyes in the library and make +10% accuracy wild bolt treasure cards, which would give me a 35% accuracy. I don’t use them myself, but I have played with a storm wizard who did – “I make my own luck”. I tend to trade them with friends, who enjoy using them while building pips for other spells. I have been caught off-guard when the bolt fires unexpectedly (such as building pips for a storm lord) when the bolt uses my blades.
    It is highly recommended to buy tough for 50 gold at the library and make treasure cards of your favorite attack spell, so you can put it on your sideboard, and you will always have it available. (Tough also works great with meteor, humungofrog, blizzard, etc since the boost affects all victims.)
    Also, damage over time spells – fire elf, scald, frostbite, poison are double boosted (or resisted), which means they are incredibly effective (or ineffective) against bosses with boost (or resist). They make great treasure cards, too.

  29. If I were you, I would get hats, robes and shoes(maybe crowns ones), and then buy athames and rings that give you health, but a fairly good amount of mana too. I am only a level 37 fire wizard and I have 2208 health and 405 mana(I may have 50 less health and mana depending on what pet I am wearing). Hope I helped!

  30. Well i have also a level 40 life that is well better than me on health, but not on mana. The problem is with him, is that he is solo

  31. i read some comments about balance and death and balance and life
    i am thinking balance and death because of feint or balance and life because you can heal a lot better

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