Today one of our amazing fan sites, Duelist101, has a huge treat for all of you Wizards that enjoy Pvp!  Player vs Player combat can be challenging and maybe even a little confusing, but here are some helpful tips to get any Wizard started.

In 2009, my Pyromancer had just finished defeating Malistaire and saving The Spiral. The professors in Ravenwood were all astounded at his capacity for magic, and every monster in his path had been thwarted. He was awesome.

It seemed only natural that I should take him to Diego on Unicorn Way, pummel a few opponents, and collect that shiny Warlord badge. I set up my spell deck, signed into the queue, and soon got my first opponent. Ten minutes later I landed back in the PvP waiting area, my head spinning in defeat. This was not the Wizard101 I knew. These people were, well, people! They played intelligently, and had access to all of the stats and spells I had. They were tough!

I did eventually make Warlord. It took lots of trial and error, and many more losses at the hands of those wily human opponents, but PvP quickly became my favorite part of playing Wizard101. There’s lots to learn, and the environment is always changing as new things are introduced.

Here are a few things I wish I had known when getting started, hopefully they will help you too.

Wizard101 Ranked PvP Tips

Controlling Health is Important

This seems like silly advice – of course we need to heal if our health gets low! In PvP, however, our opponent is thinking the same thing. So, a player ­must control not only their own health, but also the health of their opponent. Suddenly, spells that we’ve never used in Wizard101 become very, very useful. Spells like Infection, Doom and Gloom, Entangle – these are important in a PvP deck, to ensure that the opponent we have damaged stays that way.

Gear Up for Anything

PvP matching is random. We’ll never know exactly who our next opponent might be. We need to pack spells capable of defeating any of the other schools, and defending against them.

• Tower shield (trained from the Ice School) gives 50% protection against any kind of damage. Similarly, negative charms like Weakness and Plague are great ways to reduce enemy damage.
• Random matches also make Universal Resist helpful. Gear with this type of resist will reduce damage from anything an opponent can hit with, making it easier to survive and making heals more effective.
• Universal Critical Block can be a life saver. Usually found in crafted boots and advanced wands, this stat will help block critical attacks from every school. Getting hit with a big critical is very inconvenient, often game-ending, so this is another stat that helps us survive long enough to win.

There is one other reason that universal defense is crucial: It is the only way to defend against Balance damage, and Sorcerers know it!

Shields: Awesome and Frustrating

Shields are a great way to foil your opponent’s attempt to beat you, but there’s a problem. Our opponents have them too! Shields are stumbling block for many players as they adjust to PvP. The standard plan of putting up blades and traps falls apart quickly when the other player throws a shield down in the middle of it.

• Damage over time attacks are a great way to get damage past shields.
• In 1v1, most minions are also very good at removing shields so that a player can blade up and attack. Keep your minion on the battlefield and remove their’s as soon as possible.
• Some schools, like Storm, make due by removing shields with low-cost attacks that hit hard and keep opponents on their toes.
• Finally, there are tools like Earthquake that can remove all shields from an opponent.

As with everything else in PvP, be careful because your opponents have access to these tools too!

Teaming Up

Some players enjoy the control of a 1v1 match, but others like to team up with friends. Sometimes it can be nice to have an assigned role instead of doing it all alone, or just to have pleasant company while you duel. The Life school’s team-wide healing spells shine in a team environment, and schools like Storm can have fun throwing out damage without worrying so much about defense. Death wizards have lots of tricky spells that can turn the tide of battle quickly in teams. Everyone has something unique to offer, and the playing experience is different with every team you make.

Anyone Can Play

You don’t need to be top level to play PvP in Wizard101. Players still questing in Wizard City can go to the arena and get matches, and the Ranked PvP matching system will do its best to make sure they get matched against a similarly leveled opponent. Even if you’re not ready for Ranked, the practice PvP kiosk is available to all players!

Wizard101 Tournament PvP

In case being able to play Ranked PvP at any level, with any school or any team didn’t seem like enough diversity, there’s also Tournament play! Tournaments are a new feature that allow players to earn bigger prizes that are unique to the arena.

Tournaments run at scheduled times, cost Crowns to join, and consist of several matches with a time limit. Tournaments also have big prizes, and everyone who enters is guaranteed to win something.

The time limit on matches really changes things up; you can spend as little as fifteen minutes in a 1v1 Tournament fight. If you don’t like the idea of a PvP match that could last hours, Tournaments may be for you! If a match hasn’t ended when the timer runs out, Diego will step in and decide a victor.

This style of play tends to lean more towards gear that gives up some basic defense in favor of more damage, critical attack, and armor piercing. You’ll have a very short time to make a very big impression, so make your attack count!

Study Up!

The best advice for any new PvP player is to educate yourself: read PvP guides, learn how spells work from all the schools of magic, and try different strategies to find what works best for you. Study the gear available for your School and Level, and see how many Training Points are available to you and how to best spend them. Don’t give up. Go in there and have fun, roll with the punches, accept that sometimes we lose and it’s fine. Learn from your losses, treat others with respect, and enjoy the game for what it is – a game. That’s the trick to succeeding in PvP.

If you enjoy Wizard101 PvP, visit Duelist101 today!