2020 Summer Update Overview

The 2020 Summer Update is up beginning July 22nd, and with it comes some controversial updates, along with many not-so-controversial updates. Here’s a “quick” overview of everything that was changed, so that when you get into a heated argument on Reddit about how bad the faces are, you’ll know what you’re talking about and ascend to the level of an infallible debating god.

Character Appearance Changes

As you’ve probably noticed, your characters are looking pretty different. The face editor has been revamped! Now when making a new wizard or going to the Magic Mirror in the Shopping District, you can change almost every aspect of your face. You can mix and match eyes, mouths, eyebrows, and the glasses sit on your nose instead of being plastered onto your face.

This comes with some new features. Your character’s face will now move along with emotes and the talking animation, and your character will occasionally blink, which is a great addition if the one change you wanted in Wizard101 was for your wizard to blink.

The best part is, the Magic Mirror can be used for gold, and the price for changes will be 100-200 per changed feature, so there’s a very low bar to entry if you don’t like your wizard’s look.

The Daily Spiral

Once you frantically boot up Wizard101 after seeing screenshots on Twitter about how bad someone’s wizard looks, you’ll notice that the Crown Shop opens automatically. Well, it’s not the Crown Shop, it’s The Daily Spiral, a new menu that turns the Recommended for You tab into a place to see your next quest, the daily assignments, and events that are going on, as well as a couple of packs recommended at the bottom for… good measure.

This isn’t a big change, but it will help those who just want to see certain information right when they enter the game. Plus, there’s an easy link to the News page of Wizard101, where you can see current and previous releases, discounts, and member benefits. Great!

Beastmoon Monster Mayhem Event

Have you ever wanted to play a Capture the Flag game in Wizard101 without the stress of worrying if a level 100 Death main is going to yell at you for doing something wrong? Well Kingsisle has responded with the Beastmoon Monster Mayhem, a version of Beastmoon where you work as a team against AI!

Because you’re not working against other players, the objective structure is a little different. Instead of trying to keep your hold on as many areas as possibly, you fight enemies scattered around the map. When you’ve defeated them all, a boss will spawn in the middle.

New Beastforms

There are three new Beastforms! Death Cyclops is a debuffing counter to Life and Storm forms with DOTs to boot. Fire Ninja Pig can burn through shields and stun blocks, as well as create and detonate strong DOTs. Myth Draconian focuses on support, specializing in getting rid of traps for pips and finishing this sentence.

PvP Player Interaction Improvements

Although the community is perfect and generous and wholesome, abuse of PvP systems done to harass people still happens for some reason. To combat this anomaly, Kingsisle has changed how players can interact within and outside of the match.

PvP Chat

There are now three categories of player in context to a PvP match:

Combatants are the players in the dueling circle. These people can only chat with outsiders and people on their own team.

Spectators are players in the crowd, watching the battle. You must be level 15 and a PvP Sergeant in order to chat with the combatants. Even though all PvP Sergeants are always kind and respectful, Kingsisle can also temporarily or permanently revoke your PvP chatting privileges as an added safeguard.

Outsiders are people not battling or watching. They can’t communicate with anyone in a battle in any circumstance, but they can communicate with spectators.

While this still technically allows particularly elaborate exploits, I believe it is a step in the right direction in regards to preventing abuse.

(Side note: the Ward Wrecker and Incredibly Infallible pet talents now activate at normal rates. It has also been observed that you can’t see the schools of the participants in Practice PvP anymore.)

Grizzleheim Lore Pack Spells

The Grizzleheim Lore Pack Spells are craftable! There’s not much to talk about with this, but crafters will find this change very exciting, so I figured I should mention it. Check out our Ratatoskr’s Spin Crafting Guide, our Grendel’s Amends Crafting Guide, and our Hammer of Thor Crafting Guide!

Lifesteal Enchant Revamp

Enchants now fully boost the damage of lifesteal spells! There’s not much to talk about with this, but Death wizards will find this change very exciting, so I figured I should mention it.

Advanced Move Update

You can now freely rotate furniture with the Advanced Move option. There’s not much to talk about with this, but decorators will find this change very exciting, so I figured I should mention it.

Spell Rebalancing and Shadow Pip Revamp

Yes, the juicy gossip has revealed its presence! Everything mid-game and beyond has been changed, and people are pissed. Let’s see what they’re pissed about!

Shadow Pip Revamp

Ah yes, this is the spice I was waiting for. Tell me why this is a bad change and why I should hate it! It’s broken!

Shadow pips now work on a meter instead of a random chance. Players will start with the meter at a random position and the meter will increase after every round depending on your Shadow Pip Rating.

Okay, I’ve already heard this, so what does it make bad?

Well, not much. In theory, a purely chance-based system can, on incredibly rare occasion, completely refuse to give a player a shadow pip for many, many rounds. The new system just removes the rarer options of waiting 8 rounds to get a shadow pip and getting two shadow pips back to back. As the position of the meter in the beginning of the fight is random, you can still get a first-round Shadow Pip, but that’s about it. The new system otherwise functions extremely similarly to the original system. So yeah, it fixed the bad parts while leaving most of the good parts.

Shadow Spell Rebalancing

Most of the Shadow-Infused Spells got nerfed. Not all of the nerfs were of the same magnitude. To some pairs of extremes:

Single-Target Shadow Spell Nerfs

Gaze of Fate got nerfed from 1100 damage total to 670 damage. That’s a nerf of an astounding 430 damage. (It also lost 5% accuracy.)

Rusalka’s Wrath got nerfed from 1445 damage to 1350 damage, both iterations giving the caster either a +/-30% charm after casting. That’s a nerf of 95 damage.

AOE Shadow Spell Nerfs

Mystic Colossus got nerfed from 880 damage AOE with an AOE Shatter to a 635 damage AOE with an AOE Pierce. That’s a nerf of 245 damage. (It also lost 5% accuracy.)

Raging Bull got nerfed from 775-900 damage with a 25% smoke screen to 705-825 with a 40% smoke screen. That’s a nerf of 70 damage.

Shadow Spell Buffs

But there are a few spells that got buffed:

Snowball Barrage got buffed from 85 ice damage per pip to 95 ice damage per pip. How will we deal with that?!?!?! If they use 5 pips like Glowbug Squall it does 475 AOE without enchant!!!! This is broken!!!!!!!!!!

Oh.

Wings of Fate got an added initial hit/heal while lowering the damage dealt and increasing the healing over time, and nobody screamed and cried because they don’t heal so they don’t care.

Nested Fury was changed so that all of the possible elements have different damage amounts, ice being by far the worst possiblity and storm and fire being obviously the best possibilities, and because it reinforced the idea that Storm and Fire are the best, nobody cared.

Shadow Rebalancing Conclusion

Yeah, look at the nerfs: it doesn’t matter how often I get a shadow pip if the spells can’t even kill!

Okay. I get what you’re saying. After the Shadow Spell nerf, you can’t kill Viggor with 11 blades and a Glowbug Squall or whatever. That’s unfortunate. But have you considered using a spell that you can also use on round 3 that’s stronger? Like Rusalka’s Wrath? You know Glowbug Squall in particular doesn’t have to be able to do everything perfectly? Isn’t that, like, kind of the point of having stronger single-targets?

General Spell Rebalancing

This is a multi-faceted part of the update, as it has gone in many directions, but people are relatively okay with this section after a couple of iterations. (There are still quite a few issues with the balancing.)

Balance

Death

Fire

Ice

Life

Myth

Storm

Shadow

Nested Fury had its damage increased by on average 160, getting a different damage amount depending on the school of the hit. Gaze of Fate had its damage reduced by 430 and lost 5% accuracy. Sand Wurm had its damage reduced by 252. Scion of Balance had its damage reduced by 170. Sabertooth had its damage reduced by 195 but gives and Elemental and Spirit Shield. Chimera had its damage increased by 5 per element. Ra had its damage reduced by 140 and got an AOE -40% weakness. King Artorius had its damage reduced by 60 and had its weakness increased to a -45%. Power Nova had its damage increased by 195 and had its weakness removed. Hydra had its damage increased by 40 for each element.

Winged Sorrow had its damage lowered by 50 damage and had its AOE weakness reduced to -20%. Call of Khrulhu had its damage decreased by 155 and lost 5% accuracy. Qismah’s Curse had its damage decreased by 252. Scion of Death had its damage reduced by 125. Avenging Fossil had its initial hit reduced by 140 damage and its DOT increased by 10 damage total. Dr. Von’s Monster had its damage reduced by 100 and had its Infection boosted to -50%. Skeletal Dragon had its initial hit and total damage over time reduced by 30 each. King Artorius had its damage reduced by 15 and had its Infection increased to 50%. Scarecrow had its damage increased by 190.

Raging Bull had its damage reduced by 70 and had its Smoke Screen increased to -40%. Fire From Above had its damage reduced by 140, lost 5% accuracy, and only puts down one Fire Trap. Scorching Scimitars had its damage reduced by 216. Scion of Fire had its damage reduced by 80 damage. Sun Serpent had its initial hit reduced by 115 damage and had its secondary hit reduced by 30 damage. Efreet had its damage reduced by 115 and had its weakness reduced to -45%. Rain of Fire had its initial hit reduced by 170 and its DOT increased by 10 damage total. King Artorius had its damage reduced by 5. Fire Dragon had its initial hit increased by 100 damage and had its DOT increased by 84 damage total.

Snowball Barrage had its damage per pip increased to 95. Abominable Weaver had its damage reduced by 160, had its shield reduced to 50%, and lost 5% accuracy. Climaclysm had its damage reduced by 252. Scion of Ice had its damage reduced by 170. Lord of Winter had its damage reduced by 115 and only destroys two pips from the opponent. Woolly Mammoth had its damage reduced by 60. Snow Angel had its initial hit reduced by 65 damage. and lost its taunt. King Artorius had its damage reduced by 75. Frost Giant had its damage reduced by 15. Colossus had its damage increased by 15. Frostbite had its initial hit increased by 10 damage and had its DOT increased by 15 damage total.

Wings of Fate had its damage decreased to 375 over three rounds, had its heal increased to 780 over three rounds, and have a initial hit/heal of 50. Hungry Caterpillar had its damage decreased by 200 damage on average and lost 5% accuracy. Lamassu had its damage decreased by 252. Scion of Life had its heal increased by 380. Spinysaur had its initial hit decreased by 125 damage and its DOT decreased by 60 damage total. Gnomes! had its damage reduced by 40 and had its double life dispel replaced with a 30% Guiding Light. Rebirth had its pip cost increased to 8 and had its healing increased by 220. King Artorius had its damage reduced by 55. Forest Lord had its pip cost reduced to 7 and had its damage increased by 70 on average. Guardian Spirit is now usable in PvP.

Witch’s House Call had its damage increased by 43 damage. Mystic Colossus had its damage reduced by 245 and pierces, before the hit. Snake Charmer had its damage reduced by 216. Scion of Myth had its damage reduced by 140. Celestial Calendar had its damage reduced by 140. Basilisk had its initial hit reduced by 5 damage and its DOT reduced by 75 damage total. Medusa had its damage reduced by 70. Orthrus was completely changed to a 700 damage AOE. King Artorius had its DOT reduced by 195 damage total and pierces before hitting. Earthquake had its damage increased by 60.

Rusalka’s Wrath had its damage reduced by 95 damage. Glowbug Squall had its damage reduced by 180, had its AOE enfeeble removed, and lost 5% accuracy. Iron Sultan had its damage reduced by 204. Scion of Storm had its damage increased by 125. Storm Owl had its damage reduced by 175 on average. Sirens had its damage reduced by 45 on average, had its smoke screen reduced to 40%, doesn’t remove charms, and no longer reduces threat. Leviathan had its damage reduced by 55. King Artorius had its damage reduced by 5 and lost its 10% accuracy blade.

Dark Shepherd had its damage increased by 65. Dark Fiend had its damage reduced by 30. Dark Nova had its damage reduced by 400.

See also:

New World Reveal: Karamelle Prequests

Fall Scroll Of Fortune Overview

So those are the big changes made in the 2020 Summer Update. I hope we have all learned something today. Happy casting!