W101 Farming: You're Doing it Wrong!

What is Farming in Wizard101? It’s an end-game activity to keep top level players busy while waiting on new content. You fight the same boss over and over until they eventually drop the gear you want from them.

Farming is a necessity to be competitive in PvP, and it will make your life a great deal easier in PvE. The problem is that many people are doing it wrong. This article will explain why, and offer some advice on becoming a happier Wizard.

Why Do We Farm?

There are two main motivations for farming in Wizard101. Understanding why you farm is the first step in deciding what you should invest your game-time doing.

Best Gear/Bragging Rights/Cosmetics

The first group of people who grind bosses for gear are doing it because they want the absolute best, or best looking gear available. These are generally fully leveled, sometimes hardcore players who want the challenge of the hardest bosses and want the most “perfect” gear possible. They understand that they don’t need this gear, but they want it.

I want to make this very clear: If you’re one of these players, this article is not for you.

These players are the primary reason that farming content gets released. It pushes them to the limits of their skill and patience with tough bosses and low drop rates, and keeps them busy between the content updates that they burn through in a few days.

In Need of Good Gear

The second group of players are just trying to get the gear they need. Either to get through content, or to compete in PvP. I think that this type of player is far more common, but many of them end up grinding for perfect gear anyway. Why? Because gear in Wizard101 is confusing, and it’s easy to assume that new is better, and it’s hard to ignore the hardcore players when they talk about the “best” gear.

I think that many of these players are being pushed away from the game because they don’t have the time or patience to continue farming for “amazing” gear. They feel it’s too much to keep up with, and they’re right. Much of the gear players think they need is very hard to get.

But the truth is that they don’t need this gear 99% of the time. Many players are being frustrated by this misconception.

The Lies We Believe

Here we’ll point out some of the most common misconceptions that leave players banging their head on the keyboard in frustration.

Amulet of Divine Influence, I must have it!

This is a very cool piece of gear. It has stats that simply aren’t available on other amulets, and for that reason it offers an advantage to our Wizards. The problem? It’s one of the most rare drops in game, from a boss at the end of one of the hardest dungeons in game which takes an average of two hours to complete. Literally, it’s bait for the hardcore folks.

The truth? You don’t need this amulet. The stat boosts it offers are small, and so many other amulets offer more interesting benefits. Is that 3% pierce going to win you a match? Is that 3% resist going to save you? Probably not.

Morganthe’s Gear, I must have it!

Nope. The amulets are similar to the Amulet of Divine Influence – they’re very cool, but far from a necessity. The drop rate is almost 0. There are other options.

Her athames have a very low drop rate also, and their only advantage over the Blade of the Felled Titan is like 2% damage. Is 2% damage a game changer? Does it mean that you need to spend your entire summer farming for this necessary piece of gear? Not at all. Spend a day or two at Cronus and get the Felled Titan athame, move on with life.

Her rings? Same as the athames. They actually offer less stats than the Alpha and Omega ring.

Everyone Needs Hades Gear!

This gear is only useful for very specific reasons. Let’s talk about the wands first.

If you’re not building a “glass cannon” wizard with as much Critical and Armor Piercing as possible, don’t use this wand! Ever! You are shooting yourself in the foot by reducing your critical block AND not having off-school wand strikes to remove debuffs. This is a huge one in PvP – so many players seem to be under the impression that the Hades wand is the best thing available, and they pay the price for it when they can’t compete.

The rest of the Hades gear falls into two sets: Offensive and Defensive. First, the offensive set. Unless you’re trying to be a glass cannon, this is not for you. And if you are trying to be a glass cannon? There’s crafted gear and crowns gear with more Critical at this point, so you gain very little, or even lose some stats by sticking with the Hades gear.

The Hades Defensive gear has more to offer, but I suggest thinking long and hard before deciding you need any of it.

The boots do not have enough block.
If you’re a low-accuracy school, this gear has almost no accuracy. Hurts more than it helps in some cases.
It’s worth considering for schools with built-in heals, as the critical can really make heals awesome. However, there are crowns and crafted options that are far easier to get.
Also noteworthy that these items give Accuracy to Balance/Life/Death where WW gear does not. However the KR crafted robes give far more accuracy.
Unless you have some great need for the enhanced Critical and Armor Piercing, crafted robes/boots and your old WW hat generally offer better stats.

And there’s far more out there. These are just a few examples where tons of people make themselves unhappy farming for unnecessary gear. Even worse, many players get this gear to PvP with and become disheartened when they can’t win matches – because it’s not that great!

Leaving the Bandwagon Behind

All of the places listed above are great if you are bored and want to spend some time with friends, grind out tough fights, and maybe win some awesome stuff. But please, please don’t fool yourself into believing it’s necessary to succeed in Wizard101. Don’t farm it just because it’s popular so you assume that the gear is necessary for you. Always compare it to what else is available, and weigh the benefits against the effort to attain.

I think many players will find that they are frustrated for no reason, and the items they are striving for simply aren’t worth the effort. In many cases they may be a downgrade to important stats. I hate to see people walking away from the game in frustration because of these illusions about “must have” gear.

Here are a few tips to save you time and trouble when gearing up:

Crafting is your Friend

Compared to farming Hades, leveling up your Wizard in Crafting and hunting for reagents is far faster, and more reliable. The best boots available are still crafted, many of those hard-to-get spells are crafted, and the crafted robes are always close to the best. Level up one of your wizards on Crafting and pay attention to the gear available there, it will save you time and headaches in the long run.

Waterworks Hat and Robe Still Work

The crafted robes are better, in my opinion, but your WW robe is still fine. The WW hat is still one of the best in the game. Most of the crafted ones lack Universal Resist, and the Hades ones lack accuracy. Unless you really want to boost your Critical stat – there’s no reason to farm these from Tartarus.

Always Compare Stats

There will always be new and interesting gear entering the game. People will always be talking about it, and farming for it. If you simply compare this new gear to what you already have, you’ll save yourself a great deal of trouble. Often it’s not worth the tradeoffs you’d have to make, and even more often it’s not worth the trouble to attain. Do yourself a favor and make your own decisions, don’t just follow the crowd. It will probably make you a much happier wizard.