From the Bleachers to the Track: Knowledge is Power

Welcome back to the last installment of “From the Bleachers to the Track!”

Before you begin reading this installment, make sure to check out the first two posts in this series:

Part 1: The Racer's Handbook

Part 2: Can't Rush Perfection

This time we take a look at derby abilities!

Any pet has the potential to be a great racer, but knowing what each ability does and how to use it, allows you to have many options when it comes to creating your perfect pet!

Removes Jump/Duck

Abilities: Baffle, Befuddle, Disconcert, Distract, Dumbfound, Flummox, Perplex, Stumble, Stumble On, Stupefy, Super-Dizzy, Think Fast!

What they do: Removes jump or duck from your opponent for a certain amount of time.

How to use it: Timing needs to be perfect to use these well. Try using these abilities when your opponent is near many hurdles or attempting to jump many in a row. Not only will doing this possibly cause your opponent to run into hurdles and slow down…but it also prevents them from gaining precious morale!

Lane Drops

Abilities: Banana Peel, Bananas!, Bombardier, Bomber, Dead End, Oil Slick, Slick-N-Slide, Stonewall

What they do: These abilities drop items into one or all the lanes. 

How to use it: No matter what the item is, running into any obstacle on the track causes your opponent to slow down or maybe even change lanes. For these abilities, try to drop items when your opponent is directly behind you. If you have a decent lead, try “hiding” the items by placing them behind walls or hurdles. Another good strategy for these abilities is to place them in front of hurdles, causing your opponent to either bypass the hurdle or suffer a slow when attempting to jump it.

Speed Boosts

Abilities: Big Boost, Big Hurry, Boost, Hurry, Mega Hurry, Mega-Boost, Super Hurry

What they do: These abilities give you a speed boost for a limited amount of time!

How to use it: These abilities are good to use any time in the race! Although, if you find yourself way ahead of the other racers, it may be a good idea to conserve your speed boosts in case an opponent has spiffy pop. (See below for details on that)

Removes Positives

Abilities: Big Downer, Downer, Killjoy

What they do: These abilities remove “positives,” or “speed boosts” from your opponents.

How to use it: The best way to pull these abilities off is to keep a lookout on the bottom of your screen. If you see your opponent use a boost or hurry….quickly use your ability to take that boost away!

Removes Morale

Abilities: Big Drain, Big Exhaust, Deplete, Drain, Exhaust, Exhausted, Mega-Deplete, Siphon, Siphonizer

What they do: These abilities remove morale from your opponent.

How to use it: These abilities are good to use almost anytime. The only thing I would be aware of is where the stars are on every course. If you see an opponent near a spot with a star on the corner map, wait a bit….they might have a star and have immunity.

Lessens Cheer Cost

Abilities: Big Rally, Clay Post, Dirt Post, Grass Post, Huge Rally, Rally

What they do: These abilities lessen your cheer cost on certain terrain (or all terrain) for a certain amount of time.

How to use it: These abilities can be used any time. Although, these abilities are best used when you are on or near the surface(s) that you will be decreasing the cheer cost on.

Morale Chance Increase

Abilities: Big Recovery, Recovery, Restorative, Restore

What they do: These abilities give you a morale chance increase when jumping or ducking hurdles.

How to use it: Morale is the key to winning races, if you have these abilities and have the opportunity to get even more…do so when there are tons of hurdles up for grasp!

Slows Speed

Abilities: Big-Check, Check, Dawdle, Delay, Freeze Frame, Halt Leader, Overtake, Slow Leader, Slow Motion, Slowpoke, Stall, Stop Leader, Super Delay, Super-Pass, Super-Stall

What they do: These abilities slow down your opponents for a limited time. 

How to use it: These abilities are good to use almost anytime. The only thing I would be aware of is where the stars are on every course. If you see an opponent near a spot with a star on the corner map, wait a bit….they might have a star and have immunity.

Steals

Abilities: Bummer, Leech, Mega-Leech, Sap, Super-Sap

What they do: These abilities steal morale from your opponent(s).

How to use it: These abilities are good to use almost anytime. One thing I would be aware of is where the stars are on every course. If you see an opponent near a spot with a star on the corner map, wait a bit….they might have a star and have immunity. The other thing to be aware of is how much morale your opponent actually has. If your opponent is already out of morale, don’t use your ability, it will be useless and take away nothing! Wait until your opponent jumps a hurdle or uses an ability like “Charge” or “Supercharge” (Which replenishes their morale) to do more damage.

Lock Lane/Lane Changes

Abilities: Catch, Catch Leader, Clear Path, Eat My Dirt, Eat My Dust, Lock, Move-It!, Musical Lane , No 

Passing, Scoot, Super-Lock

What they do: These abilities lock the lane of your opponent or force them to change lanes.

How to use it: Timing, timing, timing is what these abilities are all about! If you have any of these abilities you want to wait until the precise moment in which you can do the most damage. Try locking or switching your opponent into a lane with lots of obstacles such as walls, or the best of all….mud! Locking your opponent into a mud lane is HUGE! They can’t cheer AND it slows them down! It takes practice, but it’s a great tool if you have one of these abilities. 

Increases Morale

Abilities: Charge, Charge Up, Supercharge

What they do: These abilities replenish your morale!

How to use it: Another ability that’s good to use anytime, but I recommend using it as soon as you think you need it. An important note: Never, I repeat, NEVER use these abilities at the start of the race! I can’t tell you how many times I see these abilities wasted at the start when you already have full morale! Wait until your bar is half empty to use these abilities. That way, you’re not wasting the ability and you can get the most out of the ability. The more you use it, the more morale you can gain back. 

Removes Negatives

Abilities: Clear

What they do: These abilities remove negative effects on you, such as slows.

How to use it: If you have clear, feel free to use it whenever you have any type of slows bringing you down. If you don’t have any slows initially, wait until you do! Don’t waste it!

Decreases Attributes

Abilities: Enfeeble, Enfeeblement, Mega-Upset, Sideswipe, Weaken, Weakenizer, Wipeout

What they do: These abilities decrease your opponent(s) stats on terrain, often resulting in an increase of cheer cost.

How to use it: Try to use these abilities when you know that your opponent is on or near the surfaces you will be affecting. Also try to make sure your opponent is not near any stars. BE WARNED: Both Enfeeble and Enfeeblement are glitched! Even when time expires, your opponent’s cheer bar will remain locked in at cheer cost 10 (as if you were still using your ability.) This is a graphic glitch, it doesn't actually take away 10 cheer, even though it says it is. Newbies are often shocked and terrified when they first encounter this.

Immunity

Abilities: Immunity, Unbreakable

What they do: These abilities grant you immunity for a certain amount of time. This means that your opponent’s abilities can’t affect you, and walls, obstacles and missing hurdles won’t slow you down. 

How to use it: Anytime is good to use immunity! It might be best to keep track of your opponent’s cool down time to use it just before they zap you though! :)

Removes Cheer

Abilities: Mute, Pipe-Down!, Shh!, Shush!, Silence, Ultra-Mute

What they do: These abilities restrict your opponent(s) from cheering. 

How to use it: Use these abilities wisely as they can be very effective! Almost any time is good to use these abilities. The only thing I would worry about is using them when your opponent has immunity either by using an ability or by catching a star. (Don’t waste it!)

Teleport

Abilities: Spiffy-Pop

What they do: Allows you to teleport to a racer further ahead. 

How to use it: Ah, Spiffy-Pop, the game maker and game breaker. 

Using Spiffy-Pop: The number one mistake is letting people know you have Spiffy-Pop! Don’t alert people that you have it by using it near the beginning of the race, hold off as long as you can. You ideally want to stay in second as long as you can without using the ability at all. If you must use it to get into second, then use it, but try your best not to. Whether you have used it to get into second, or have held on to second the entire race, start saving your morale and any hurries near the final stretch of the race. It’s at this point when you want to unleash anything you can on the leader. Mutes, saps, anything that can make them suffer…do it! Then, at the same time you’re teleporting, use any and all your hurries and cheer like mad! This method isn't fool proof, but will give you the best shot at winning with Spiffy-Pop. Basically the key to using it is saving all your morale and helpful abilities and unleashing them all on the final stretch! 

Defending against Spiffy-Pop: People who know how to use Spiffy-Pop correctly will lag behind you on purpose to save morale and abilities. If you notice a significant lead or have seen your opponent use Spiffy-Pop earlier in the race, start saving YOUR morale and abilities too! On the final stretch, if you have immunity-use it! When your Spiffy-Pop opponent teleports, use all of your hurries and morale to try to outsprint them to the finish line! The biggest mistake to make against a Spiffy-Pop pet is using up all your morale and hurries before the end of the race. If you do that, you won’t have anything left to use when your opponent teleports! It seems that is the end of this derby series! I hope you all enjoyed it and I wish you all the best of luck in your future derby endeavors! 

~Vanessa Mythdust

I would like to personally thank Vanessa for her awesome work with this series!  I wish you all the best with derby and hope you've learned a lot from this series!  If you are 13 years or older, make sure to tweet @VanessaMythdust thanking her for the series (you can comment below or send Vanessa a visitor or private message over on Wizard101 Central as well)!  If you didn't know, Vanessa is a Derby Tournament Master over at Wizard101 Central.  Whenever you are ready for some Central Derby Tournaments, make sure to go try it out!

~Sophia

From the Bleachers to the Track: Can't Rush Perfection

Hello again!

It’s time for the second installment of this derby series, and maybe the most important…training!

Make sure to check out the first part of this segment:  A Racer's Handbook

What You’ll Need to Know

The first thing you’ll need to know is what each attribute translates to on the derby course.

Strength=Cheer cost on Water

Intellect=Cheer cost on Clay

Agility=Cheer cost on Grass

Will=Cheer cost on Dirt

Power=How much total morale you have

The second thing you’ll need to know is the “level spots” or points at which the cost to cheer goes down.  Every 45 points a stat goes up, your cost to cheer on that surface goes down by 1.

*PLEASE NOTE: The stat corresponds to your MAX stat, not your trained stat. If for example, you have trained 235/245 on agility, 245 would be your MAX stat.*

                 Stat:                        Cost to Cheer:

 1-14                             10

15-59                             9

60-104                          8

105-149                        7

150-194                        6

195-239                        5

240-284                        4

285-329                        3

330-374                        2

375 and Higher            1

The next piece of information is optional, as it’s not as important as cheer cost, but, there is a table for power as well.  Every 6 points your power stat increases, you gain 1 morale.

*Same deal here, the stat corresponds to your MAX stat.*

Power:             Morale:

0                           40

6                           41

12                         42

18                         43

24                         44

32                         45

36                         46

42                         47

48                         48

54                         49

60                         50

66                         51

72                         52

78                         53

84                         54

90                         55

96                         56

102                       57

108                       58

114                       59

120                       60

126                       61

132                       62

138                     63

144                     64

150                     65

156                     66

162                     67

168                     68

174                     69

180                     70

186                     71

192                     72

198                     73

204                     74

210                     75

216                     76

222                     77

228                     78

234                     79

240                     80

246                     81

252                     82

258                     83

264                     84

270                     85

276                     86

282                     87

288                     88

294                     89

300                   90

Selfish Talents

You’ll notice on our nifty table, the max stats extend beyond 250. How is this possible, the max stat on a pet is 250?!  Well, you do this with the help of SELFISH TALENTS, aka, stat boosts or attribute boosting talents. Talents like Durable(+50 Agility), Crafty(+50 Will), Relentless(+65 Agility) etc.. are all useful in derby.

Having a pet with high stats already is very beneficial. Take for example a pet that starts with 225 agility vs. a pet starting with 240 agility. With Durable, the pet with 225 agility would be increased to a MAX of 275 agility, this would equal a cheer cost of 4. Now, do the same thing with a pet that starts in the 240 range. With the help of Durable, that pet would have a MAX of 290; this reaches the next “level spot” and gives our pet a cost cheer of 3 on grass.

It’s best to stack selfish talents when you train higher level pets. For example, with a pet that starts with 250 agility, Relentless and Durable together will increase your MAX agility to 365, which brings you to a cheer cost of 2 on grass. Add another talent that increases agility and you’ll have cost cheer 1!

Although it’s good to stack, it’s also good to balance the stats as well; this means you’re good on virtually all surfaces. A max stat pet with Durable, Relentless, and Crafty would be a pretty good pet. That pet would have cost cheer 4 on water, 4 on clay, 3 on dirt and 2 on grass.

So What?

So what? 4 is so close to 3 anyway, right? WRONG! Even a difference of ONE cheer can make the difference between winning and losing! Let’s take a pet with cost cheer 4 and 3 respectively and compare them. For the sake of this example, let’s say both pets have a power of 250 which translates to 81 TOTAL morale.

81/4=20.25, so you would get approximately 20 total cheers.

81/3=27, so you would get 27 total cheers!

That’s SEVEN more cheers than a pet with cost cheer 4! That’s HUGE in a race!

Training

Derby pets are tricky because you train them differently depending on what level you want to race them at. With that in mind, it’s best to know which level you want to race at before you even start training. If you wait, you could make a mistake and that perfect pet will no longer be perfect.

The first thing you want to do is find a pet with high stats and good abilities/talents. The best way to do this is hatch with already existing derby pets. But, if you’re up for the challenge, creating your own pets allows for endless possibilities.

As far as high stats go, you want all your starting stats to be at or above 240. This isn’t necessary, but certainly is preferable and will make your cost to cheer significantly better from the get go.

A general rule of thumb:

You want your lowest cost to cheer on a terrain that appears OFTEN. Take for example Grass vs. Water. While grass makes up a good portion of derby courses, water takes up almost nothing! It’s worthless to have a cost cheer of 1 on water if you’ll only be able to use it for 3-5 seconds a lap! Grass on the other hand is almost always an option and therefore would be more useful than water. Why have good cheer cost on a surface that only appears 10% of the time, when you can get that same cheer on a surface that appears 50% of the time?

As a result of that theory, my suggested “order” to training stats at the lower levels is as follows:

1.     Agility (Grass)

2.     Will (Dirt)

3.     Intellect (Clay)

4.     Strength (Water)

Teen

In order to maximize a teen pet, you’ll have to train one stat exclusively and put your “leftover” stats toward power.

Using my suggested order above, when choosing ONE stat to focus on, I would choose grass. But, that is completely your preference.

Once you choose a stat to focus on, find the game that focuses solely on that stat.  Since I like grass, the WC Dance Game (+4 Agility) is what I need.

For dirt-Way of the Ninja Pig(+4 Will) and/or Cannon Game (+4 Will)

For clay-Maze Game(+4 Intellect)

For water-Way of the Ninja Pig (+4 Strength) and/or Gobbler Drop (+4 Strength)

Once you find which game suits your needs, play ONLY that game, and do the best you can, it will make training go faster. Because…..for teen pets-NO MEGA SNACKS!

When it comes time to give your pet a snack, you’ll want to use snacks that focus on that same stat. This way you can maximize your cheer cost. Since I like grass, I feed my pets Spicy Popcorn(+4 Agility).

For dirt- Golden Biscuit(+4 Will)

For clay-Swirled Lollipop(+4 Intellect)

For water-Huge Ice Cream(+4 Strength)

There are other options when it comes to snacks, but just make sure it only focuses on that one stat. +3, +2, are all good as well, but these +4 just make the process go quicker.

After you train your pet for a bit, you’ll want to keep track of your trained stat. This is where those “level spots” come in. The “level spots” determine different times that your cost to cheer decreases. You want your cheer to be the lowest as possible, but you also don’t want to waste points. Take for example my teen pet. My teen pet has a max agility of 270 thanks to the help of durable (+50 Agility.) But look at our table, the cost cheer of 4 starts at 240, and then cost cheer of 3 doesn’t start until 285.  Since my max stat is only 270, it would be pointless leveling past 240 since my cheer cost won’t change. Therefore, I train the dance game(+4 Agility) until my agility reaches 240, then I stop. This prevents me from wasting points that aren’t benefitting my pet.

After I have maximized my agility at 240, I put my “leftover” stats in power, increasing my morale. I do this by failing the dance game (+0) so that I do not waste any stats, then proceed to feed my pet Fairy Cake(+4 Power).

You ideally will continue this until you reach 249/250 experience, but BEWARE, this is risky! If you accidentally feed a snack your pet likes or loves, or even the wrong snack entirely, it will cause your pet to level up and waste all the training you have done for a teen! So, be cautious when approaching that. It’s best to stop maybe 3-4 points before 250 to stay safe.

In the end, you should end up with a pet like this; maximize one stat entirely, with the rest filled in power:

Using this pet you would ONLY cheer on grass.

Adult

Training an adult is very similar to training a teen pet. What you’ll want to do is exactly the same, but instead of stopping to train power after your first stat, you’ll want to switch to a second stat. Let’s go back to our teen pet. Let’s say we just finished training agility to maximize our cheer. Now, we would move on to maximizing a second stat. Like it says on my little list up top, I would recommend training dirt next, but again, it’s a personal preference. So, at this point, since I would be training will, I would switch to playing ONLY the Cannon Game and feeding ONLY Golden Biscuit until I maximize my cheer. Once that happens, I can then finally switch to maximizing my power by failing the dance game and feeding Fairy Cake!

In the end, you should have an adult pet with two stats maxed and power maxed.  Using a pet like I described, you would cheer ONLY on grass and dirt!

Ancient and Up

These are the easy pets as far as training goes….but beware! Getting races for ancient and above is extremely difficult! Even though racing the higher level pets is fun, you’ll have to be prepared for the wait, and honestly, getting 6+ perfect talents instead of 2 or 4 for teen or adult is much harder.

Anyway, if you are looking to develop a higher level pet, you can use mega snacks because all your stats will end up maxed anyway. So, you can train it just like you would a PvP or questing pet! :)

Using a pet like this (With all stats in the 240 range) would allow you to cheer on ALL surfaces! 

Well, there you have it! Everything you need to know about training derby pets! Stay tuned next time for abilities!

~Vanessa Mythdust