Talk:Wizard Grind and Zhen

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Revision as of 00:09, 15 July 2011 by PWpedia>Flyingsoloist (various fixes; documented in notes)
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Rewrite Notes

Rewriting this may take a bit of time... Work in progress will be in the talk page. Change notes will be kept in this top section, similar to the merges I've done. Also, I won't be changing recommendations. I'll add a couple little things here and there if they've been introduced to the game since this guide was written (such as the use of HY instead of MP charms at Level 75+), but I'm going to try to keep the same recommendations as the original Author's. Even though I took my Wizard in a slightly different direction. --Flyingsoloist 13:06, 14 July 2011 (PDT)


Changes Made:

  1. Reorganized headings/subheadings into appropriate categories.
  2. Rewrote the intro.
  3. Rewrote/moved text in "Solo Grinding" intro.
  4. "Advice for Solo Grinding"
    • Renamed to "Solo Grind Tips".
    • Moved to above which mobs.
    • Changed numbered list to wiki-style formatting.
    • Started reorganizing.
  5. "Some Nice Grind Spots"
    • Renamed to "Good Mobs for Solo Grinding".
    • Reorganized mobs into table.
    • Reworded and moved info from bottom of section to above the table.
    • Color coded and bolded elements for easier at-a-glance spotting and sifting.
    • Content needs to be verified for correctness. I'm pretty sure that some of the data is wrong, such as Pyrofiends being labeled as a Water-element mob. The table is incomplete as well. Coordinates and terrain type (Air/Sea/Land) are missing in some cases.
  6. Added link(s) (determine which is better...and/or if those need to be merged :/ )

--Flyingsoloist 14:24, 14 July 2011 (PDT)


Changes Made:

  1. Rewrote "Solo Grind Tips"
    • Generalizing the tips a bit. It still fits in with what the OP was doing - tailoring his play style for a certain type of fighting, but making this more applicable to others. (OP favored Earth over Fire. Keeping with the sentiment of focusing strength on one-two elements, but letting the reader pick their own.)
    • Got most of it down, but somehow I feel like a lot of it may need to be reworded...and potentially a change in tone in a couple places.

--Flyingsoloist 17:09, 14 July 2011 (PDT)

Page sections (crossed off when rewritten):

  • Intro
  • Solo Grinding
  • Solo Grind Tips (Advice for Solo Grinding)
  • Good Mobs for Solo Grinding (Some Nice Grind Spots)
  • Zhen Grinding
  • Pictures of Zhen Setup
  • Zhen Locations
  • Some Basic Requirements
  • Steps to Setting Up Zhen


Page Contents

So you have a wizard. So you've decided how you want to build it. So you're got your ideal gear picked out.

Great! This is not another wizard building guide but a supplement to get you that last thing you need: levels.

Solo Grinding

There comes a time in every character's life when they run out of quests. When that happens, it's time to start grinding mobs.

For starters, you don't really need to grind at early levels because you'll have quests that keep your level climbing. Always complete your quests first. When you grind, you may want to focus your efforts on air and sea mobs because you'll get more exp off those mobs than off land mobs. The catch is that it's a little harder to maneuver under water or in the air, but being a mage and thus being ranged make this almost moot.

Solo Grind Tips

One strategy to grinding as a wizard is to focus on either a single element, or a single element and a back up. Fire and Earth make excellent focus elements as they have a variety of attacks and generally hit harder. Water is good as a secondary as it is a little more geared towards support skills, but it has a few staple skills.

Skill Priorities

  1. Shields - Shields at max capacity!
    • Stone Barrier - Great all around shield. Lots of mobs will try to hit you with physical melee attacks if you let them get close, so this is applicable to whatever element you favor. Max this ASAP.
    • Pyroshell - You'll want this mainly for fighting fire aligned mobs. Unless those are your targets, this isn't a priority.
    • Glacial Embrace - Barring fire mobs, this is your best shield for fighting magic mobs. It won't increase your resistance against anything but water, but the extra MP regen comes in handy, especially at early levels.
  2. Elemental Attacks - Max two skills of the same element ASAP. If you're focusing your energy against a certain element, it's best to have a hard hitter to open with and then a quick cast to follow up with. Eventually, you'll have plenty of spirit, so you'll be maxing everything anyway. But at early levels when spirit is short, it's a good idea to not spread yourself too thin.
    • Earth Enchanters - Using Sandstorm and Stone Rain is surefire way to keep your enemies between a rock and a hard place.
    • Fire Fighters - The Divine Pyrogram and Pyrogram combo is sure to blaze a trail through any wraith infested wilderness.
    • Water Wizards - Glacial Snare combined with Gush can keep mobs dropping and exp flowing.
    • All Archmages - Do keep the starter spell for each element at a decent level. They make great fillers even though they aren't aligned to the element you're focusing on. Even if a mob is strong against an attack, you're still doing something besides waiting for your favorite element's spell to cool down.
  3. Max Gush. Regardless of your elemental alignment, max it. It's a great filler that slows your target.


C-C-C-COMBOS!

Here's a few good ones:

  • GS>SS>G>SR
  • SS>G>SS

Oh, and here's what those mean:

  • G: Gush
  • GS: Glacial Snare
  • SR: Stone Rain
  • SS: Sandstorm


Preparations

  1. Get buffed. Cleric buffs. Barb buffs. BM buff. Veno buff. Faction buffs. Assassin buff. Whichever. Well, maybe not the last one. What you need is mainly dependent upon your weaknesses and what you plan on fighting.
  2. Level your Apothecary Skill. Farm herbs (if you're lucky, while you're grinding!) and make some Life Powders and Focus Powder. They increase your HP/MP recovery rate and are a godsend in early levels. Also look into making pots that give you back HP/MP (instantly or over a few seconds). If you're lucky, you won't have to use charms and/or meditate much. These don't matter as much after you hit level 75 and get to use event pots, but they make life much easier before that point. Just make sure you get buffs from other classes first (particularly cleric buffs). Some pots/buffs overwrite each other and you don't want to overwrite a buff you have to work to make with an inferior buff!
  3. Grab Hyper XP Stones and/or Martial Arts Scrolls (Golden Silkworms). You're here for XP, so you might as well make it worth your while.
  4. If you're focusing on enemies of a certain element, look out for alternative pieces of gear that match that type of resistance. Further explanation to go below...
  1. Now for your equipment, I'll try to explain it clearly. When you grind Foxing Supremes (fire), try to get your arcane robes with single/double resistance type, because when you have armor with fewer resistance varieties, the resistance of those remaining will be higher than what you would have on an armor having all the different element resistance.
    • For example, if a level 50 arcane robe with all elements gives:
      • 690 metal
      • 690 fire
      • 690 water
      • 690 wood
      • 690 earth
    • Then a level 50 arcane robe with two elements gives:
      • ??? fire
      • ??? metal
    • Then again a counter argument comes about what if you need to do quests which requires killing mobs of other elements? Now I'll say I always carry two sets of robes. One set is for specific element types, fewer resistance types, but high resistance in the given element(s), and the other set which has all element resistance, but average in all.
    • So when you grind you use your element focused gear and when you quest you can swap to your general gear. I'm now assuming you've fully upgraded your inventory slots to carry two sets of armor of course =). And it's not expensive to get these two sets because when you grind or quest, you'll definitely come across these kinds of armor. Just be sure to plan what elements you will need in the future, and don't sell it when you come across it. But please note, it's only advisable to have two sets when you're around level 60 and below. Because when you're higher level, there's a need for you to refine and imbue your armor. It's too costly to upgrade two sets.

Good Mobs for Solo Grinding

Some mobs are better to grind on than others. The best mobs for you depend on your level, build, equipment, and play style. As a wizard, you are the master of the Earth, Fire, and Water elements. Due to their elemental alignments, this makes certain mobs easier to kill than others, especially at lower levels when your physical defense tends to be near nonexistent.

There can be advantages to fighting mobs that are not resistant to your attacks. For example, many wood mobs won't be weak to your attacks (a favorite of the metal-mage clerics), they deal poison damage as a DoT attack. Sometimes poison is easier to handle than hit after hit of another element.

Here are a few recommendations to get you started:

Level Mob Element Terrain Coordinates
35 Vipion Leaper Wood (254,464)
36 Wimple Goldwing Wood (626,727)
36 Bloody Goldwing Wood (626,727)
39 Big Mouth Piranha Water Sea
40 Lofty Pterosaur Metal Air (612,826) (627,869)
40 Vampiric Thresher Lord Water Sea (674,835)
41 Native Vipion Wood Air (379,781)
48 Ramshackle Roc Metal (154,557)
50 Vipion Sentinel Wood Air Above Skull Mountain
52 Blood Thirsty Shark Water Sea (598,976)
55 Terrestrial Foxwing Fire Air (663,995)
55 Bloodthirsty Shark King Water Sea (701,848)
58 Ultrafin Protector Water Sea (712,731) (721,773)
60 Foxwing Supreme Fire Air (435,377) (500,347)
67 Pyrofiend Immolant Water Land (546,473)
67 Wretched Hydrolace Water Land (546,465)
68 Minion of Alucard Water (566,475)


Zhen Grinding

Added from other section

When you get to 59+ and have Dragon's Breath, this is when you would want to start your zhen grinding. Solo grinding cannot compare to the amount of EXP you get when you zhen. Though at the start it's costly due to the need for having MP charms. As you get higher in your level, you will kill faster and get more money for the same amount of MP used.

What is zhen ? The word 'zhen' (derived from the Chinese "Zhen Fa") refers to skills/spells that causes damage within a magic/spell circle!!! Anyways, in PWI context zhen grinding refers to AoE grinding. Where a squad can consist of usually up to 5 people max! 2 pullers, 2 DDs, 1 cleric (you seriously don't need more than this).

Best Pullers - Barbarian, BM
DD - Do your best to get 1 wizard, 1 archer (2 wizards is not so good in case mob has Magic Resist)
Cleric - Self explanatory

For me, I never liked two pullers, sucks my EXP. I always look for a barb that is really experienced and does not stop running. And knows the perfect timing as to when to pick the loot. In conclusion when I was level 62-69, I did zhen in a quad squad. At 70> I did trios =).

Pictures of Zhen Setup

1. This shows 5-man squad and their positions, if you look carefully, our archer Whitney is standing beside Muii (cleric) inside the BB. And the 2 wizards are spread out with the two circles touching each other. Wizards shouldn't stand too close to each other as to let our range spread further. Left-click photo to zoom in! 5-man zhen squad

2. This shows 4-man squad (archer, wizard, barb, and cleric) We are all standing together, so that's her position =) 4-man zhen squad

3. As for 3-man squad (wizard, barb, and cleric), well, just take out the archer LOL!

Zhen Locations

At your low 60s I can suggest 2 good spots:
1. Around Sanctuary (South) (Seaweed Thief : level 72)
2. Nightscream Island (South Region) (Pirate Minions : level 76)

At your higher 60s:
1. Nightscream Island (North Region) (Chief Assassin : level 80 )

At level 70 Onwards:
1. East of Cave of Sadistic Glee (Rockenwolf : level 84)
(Rockenwolves can be done in trio squad: 1 puller, 1 cleric, and 1 wizard. But please do have at least 3k HP, TT70 +3 or higher, and at least level 6 DB.)

2. Southern Part of Boundless Grasslands ( Spiders : level 8X )
( Spiders hit harder than wolves, but good EXP too! Should be done in 4-man squad: 1 puller, 1 cleric, 1 wizard, and 1 archer. <-- You can try trio if can get 3.4k HP unbuffed and +6-7 TT weapon with flawless sapphire.)

3. Heaven/Hell (level 89+)

Some Basic Requirements

1. Please do have at both HP/MP Charm (preferably gold or platinum) before you zhen. Having your Dragon's Breath turned on continuously for 1 hour is gonna be mana consuming and spamming pots isn't usually as economical or easy. Just let your MP Charm tick, but please don't go AFK during your zhen unless you have been grinding at that spot and you are confident you can handle all the mobs easily without dying. Cause if you AFK and die, oh boy, no one's gonna take you for further runs. HP Charms self-explanatory, have this just in case too many mobs are lured and BB's healing isn't enough to keep you alive.

2. Get buffs from cleric/barb/BM, whoever is in your team, whatever buff there is get it before you set up zhen.

Steps to Setting Up Zhen

Setting up will definitely be confusing for beginners, but I'll try my best to explain it! To start zhen, cleric and archer have to have two chi sparks (one for wizard).

1. Many times the spot you want to set up on, have mobs surrounding it. So the puller will have to run in gather all the mobs and run off to anywhere else leaving the wanted spot free.

2. Now comes the confusing part for beginners. Normally when archers use their zhen spell (Barrage) it automatically goes off after the targeted mob dies. But there's a way to keep it running even though target is dead, and that is by having one of the group members duel the archer. And you aren't supposed to actually duel, you are supposed to get killed by the archer's barrage. Once the duel is over, the barrage keeps going because the target is still alive. Also, once barrage is set the archer can't move, same as a wizard using DB.

You should not be standing too far from the archer, because if he steals aggro you would need to be able to hit the mobs that hit him too. The wizard's DB range is a 12m radius, though the animation of the Dragon's Breath is only 6m. This means that what you can see is half of the range you can actually hit the mob at. If you are too close to the archer, he will not be able to survive aggro from the mobs that are on top of him. The archer's barrage range is centered around his dueling partner, so if you are too far away mobs can get stuck hitting the archer out of range of all DD.

All DD should stand about the same distance from each other. In a two-wizard situation, both wizards can stand further apart from each other, such that the circle of your DB's animation touches the circle of the other DB's animation since the range of DB is about twice the animation. The archers animation is a little smaller radius, so if your circle doesn't touch his it's OK.

3. Cleric then goes to the spot and turns on BB ("Blue Bubble", the nickname for Regeneration Aura, the continuous area heal skill).

4. Scroll and pull.

Thats it for setting up.

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