How to make Wiz

1. I remember reading Cat’s article about wizrunning on his website when I was on Wireplay and saying that if I ever made wiz it would be one of two things I would definitely do. (The other was to be visible to mortals most of the time)

2. I want to document it before it is lost in a sea of red wine and whiskey.

3. I want to encourage other players to use their high lives and learn and develop as players.

OK. I first started aiming to reach wizard way back in 2000. I had several mages, all about 117k and all tea-roomed. I decided to play them. All were killed around 130k by various player killers of the time. I was frustrated by being so slow without the use of swampward and constantly getting battered and beaten up. So, I started again. I then built up characters by never using the ZW command. This was difficult. But, after many months I finally stopped needing the command. In fact up until a few months ago, It wasn’t until a fellow wizard told me he still used it that I realised I didn’t. Many would say it helps to make a map. It may do but I have never in my life made a map. I cannot think of anything more boring when you could be scoring points and killing things. N.B I did score 4% explorer in the Bartle Test so maybe don’t take my ideas as gospel.

After this, I managed to get a mage up to 186k. I was flying high but then disaster struck. I was bundled by a house called Knights who professed to being Anti Pk. We wont dredge up the past but needless to say I was bitter. I left MUDii and didn’t return until March 2007. 3 months later I was a wizard.

I first created Noir as a backup to my main character, a mage called Disorder. After his death, I switched back to Noir. Her max stam was 86 due to an drunken accident with the vials so I held out little to no hope of making wiz.

OK. So. What did I do? My first tip I always assumed was an axiom of any serious wizrunner but after snooping many players it appears not. Every point counts. Most mages ignore things like the attic treasure or things lying around The Land because other things are worth more. This is the case. Certainly don’t swamp flowers to the detriment of, say, doing the Dragon or Dwarfs but its worth doing say when your stam is low instead of sleeping (I presume your stam will be going up of course without sleep). Once you get past 200k , you will regret every point you didn’t score that could have put you that little bit closer. If you want to speak to someone about surface treasure, speak to Hal. He can make 1-2k after even the best of us have been playing.

My average set would consist of doing the following:

*Dragon *Druids *Dwarfs *Keep *Hedgehog *Goblins *Getting mobiles down to 50 to get bonus. *Multi Mobile

Also I would try and do icons and maybe if I was bored, do the water-snakes. All in all, it is very possible to get an average of 15-16k alone, more if other folks are on. This brings me to another tip. Other plays are so often seen as a hinderence. OK, yes, you have to be more careful BUT treasure is worth so much more (if you don’t believe me, try doing Dragon with two heros on and see how much more its worth).

My main tip is to play. You can read this, ask me for advice but its all worthless if you don’t play. Mages mean nothing. You want a wizard. Trust me, it’s fun. You can do silly things, make quests and help make the game a much better place. I know this probably hasn’t helped much but I hope it gets a few more you playing your mages. Some final words of warning.

It wont be easy.