Media ☞toxicdrule Talks: Episode 2☜

Hello everybody, and welcome back to
TOXICDRULE TALKS
where our talented team dedicates themselves to provide the best information for you to enjoy. And by talented, I mean average. And by team, I mean me. Guess you could say there was an 'I' in team just this once...
If you missed the first episode, it's not too late to catch up! Actually who am I kidding, there's only one episode prior to this and you didn't miss out on much: https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/☞toxicdrule-talks-episode-1☜.169431/
With some minor feedback under the belt, I've come up with some new content for this episode that I hope you'll get a kick out of and enjoy at least 30% more than you did with the last one ;D
Now, in case there's anyone confused with the production schedule, I'll just add this - seeing as this is only the second episode, I don't know how the rate of episodes will be released. If all goes well, I may move the schedule to weekly episodes or so. Fingers crossed!

Now, without further ado, let's get into it!

In this episode, I've shaped it up a notch. Instead of the two main stories like the previous episode, there's now:
Yays and Nays
(the main article of the episode)
and
Adventurers journal
some of you, if you've followed my older work on the forums, may recognize the working title. In this article, follow our most daring and courageous reporter (me, lmao) in adventures every week, as he braves the unknown of the two current provinces, going further than any other adventurer has gone before!


Yays and Nays
This episode? Magic - The core aspect of Wynncraft's gameplay!
Magic. It's been around since the creation of Wynncraft itself. The backbone of the game, that defines everyone's playstyle from the moment they begin their journey. And with the recent updates in the past year developing magic further, the amount of fun you can have testing your abilities has never been this high. An alight spear that sets monsters on fire? Summoning meteorites from thin air? Sometimes I think a few more well-known games could learn a thing or two from stuff like this.
But, as you may have expected from the title; it's not perfect. Let's be real here - a lot of stuff has definitely been done recently to make using magic more exciting, but that's polishing on stuff that's been around in the game for a while. And it's worked! There are still thing's that I think could be done better though, which I'll explain shortly. But first; the yay's of magic!
- Elements: Yay! Enjoy extra damage and defense based on the elements, and bonus special attacks for each one of them at higher levels!
- Spells: Yay! Obvious pick. Buffing yourself and allies to temporary superhuman status, controlling meteorites, summon ice from the depths of the earth to coil around your enemies, then simultaneously setting them on fire, vanishing into thin air then reappearing somewhere else. It just works!
- Different play styles: Yay! Do you enjoy beating undead scum into the face of the earth with a hammer that's bigger than your entire skull and chest put together? How about the stealthy approach with a simple dagger? Or maybe you just want to fire arrows nonstop from a bow like a machinegun? How does that work? Who knows?!
There's a lot more involved in each of these point's, like how it affects you while playing with a friend, how it affects your dungeon runs and quest playthroughs, but the top three are the most major aspects of magic.
Now, for the Nays!
- Mana: Nay! Before the gameplay update, no sprint bar had been implemented. Which meant that your mana was being used up for running, as well as spellcasting. That was a bummer, but every player had to deal with it. With the recent changes however, this isn't so much of a problem anymore.
- bad identifications: Nay! Again, not much of a big deal, seeing as debuffing has always been a part of MMORPG's. But don't you just feel annoyed when you get -2000 health on a level 70 chestplate?
*cough* I mean, I sure don't. Not like I've ever had that problem before. *cough*
- Not that much spells: Nay! Okay, so that's probably never gonna be attempted to be changed, seeing as you can only make enough click combinations to make four spells for each class. Some consideration has been put into it, seeing as you can obtain ultimate elemental spells after putting two or more powders of tier 4 or higher together into a weapon, and there's different effects with every upgrade you get for each classes spells, but it's something that's lacking overall. A new class could be added, sure, but that means more items would have to be designed and created for the class, and that would just raise more problems. The whole ordeal is like trying to ride a camel. Sure, it seems cool at first, but you're gonna end up anywhere but the final destination, seasick in a desert.

So, we can see that not even magic is perfect. But it's not like it's that much of a big deal. For all I know, more exciting gameplay mechanics could be getting created right now, that could make my entire argument invalid. And it's certainly not anything to get angry about and start a flame war in the comments, right guys?
Guys?

Moving on!

Adventurers Journal -
A Runic Discovery!
If there's one one word I can say that will sum up the entirety of Trom's Jungle, it's humidity. As the usually familiar warmth of the sun crept up above the length of tall, gnarled jungle trees, I noticed that I was already sweating profusely, my armor and strapped belt rubbing uncomfortably against my already soaked shirt.
You can say that it's the creatures of this accursed jungle that will kill you first all you want, but the only things that are likely to make this unfortunate reporter/adventurer drop dead in this place is the heat - and the maze of Trom's Jungle itself. The place is a nightmare to traverse for anyone, even for the most skilled of survivalists.
You may be wondering how I managed to find myself in a predicament like this - stuck out in one of the most secluded areas of the Wynn Province, complaining to thin air. I too, wonder why I didn't take that comfortable office job in Detlas, writing about my previous adventures, sipping on a pint of Nemract whiskey on this hot summer's day, shooing away soldiers asking about that cave of howling ghouls who had been disrupting farmers in the suburbs that I was 'supposed to have cleared out a month ago' (I forget to mention the small detail that I had already checked, and that it was merely an emerald imp caught in a giant spider's web making a racket... old people can rush to any conclusion these days). As it turns out, I have a very good explanation.
Actually, now that I think about it... no. I don't.
In my defense, I thought it was going to be a small story. Something about a 'interesting occurrence developing deep in a Jungle of sorts' that got me interested - the prospect of a new adventure, to a barely explored region. Wait, scratch that - an unexplorable region. So naturally I wanted to be the first to investigate. I must've misheard my contact, because I didn't actually realize where I was heading until I had made the trip.
Allow me to clear any confusion here. Trom's Jungle is hell, rest assured. But the Dernel Jungle? Think of the deepest, darkest pit of the nether, filled with the most terrifying undead creatures. Got it? Right, now crumple it up and throw it into a boiler. That's the Dernel Jungle, in case you were lacking any information. Dernel Jungle is, essentially, the underbelly of Trom's jungle, filled with packs of fearsome, mutated wildcats, wandering corpses of lost adventurers and fierce cannibals. It's also home to ancient magic, or so some say. And I was heading into all of it. Lucky me...
At about 2 clicks after dawn, my guide - a villager who had lived his entire life in Iboju village, one of the remaining settlements near Troms - arrived at the campsite I had made for myself high up in a small alcove, between two hills surrounded by dense bush and impossibly tall trees with trunks bigger than a giant's calf. We had set off, and thanks to a few tricks and secret paths the villager had kept secret (I don't know why he'd be so generous as to reveal his secrets... maybe because I was the first traveler to willingly want to go to the Dernel Jungle? Or was it because he didn't expect me to survive?) we had arrived at our destination within 2 hours. I had gone to the edge of Trom's jungle - now I stared into a nightmare.
My guide had brought me to one of the two entrances that lead to the Dernel Jungle, and I saw then why adventurers barely made it a top destination for exploration.
The entrance was a massive crevice in an overhanging mass of rock, dirt and moss, reaching into the sky and going above the clouds. The tunnel itself was huge; at first glance it looked like the maw of a gigantic immobile beast, set in stone. An old treacherous path of rotting wood and broken rock was laid at a downward angle, going for gods know how deep. The entrance's shadow enveloped the rest of the path till it looked like it swallowed it whole.
The villager guide took one look at it, then gave me a glance of guilt, as if he was sorry he sent another adventurer to their demise. "You're on your own, kid," he said, before turning right around and disappearing into the secret path we had come from.
Well, that had been comforting. I shuddered, then loosened my crossbow, holding it in sweating hands. With nothing but worry in my head, I made the first step down the path.
You're wondering now if I'm dead or not, aren't you? I'll give you a hint. My organ's are all still in one piece. And I did find something in that jungle - but that's a story for another time...
To be continued!


And Now, The News!
Remember that talking mushroom I talked a little bit about in the previous episode, and how I said that more lore was being uncovered? Well, a shocking revelation centered around the talking mushroom and how he came to be has recently been uncovered, thanks to more than one knowledge-hungry adventurer!
@icebreaker, a youtuber who posts up regular Wynn videos, hosts his own series called Wynncraft: Myth Hunting, a show where he hunts for traces of stories in secluded but fascinating areas around the two provinces. In the latest episode, Icebreaker tackled the mystery of the Talking Mushroom, going so far as to find the original birthplace of the foul-mouthed fungus:

Icebreaker also noted @SnerpEXE, @MarstaVidar and @FrameTimeMC as the first players to discover the hidden lab and dialogue. Excellent work, guys!
Make sure to check out the rest of Icebreaker's Myth-hunting series for more sp00ky stories uncovered! (It's like the X-files, but with less aliens).

@I'm the Ice Guy posted a new thread yesterday showing his recent views on the current state of the Wynncraft community. He raises some very good points about the situation of popularity and groups within the forums, and it's well worth a read: https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/the-community-as-of-now.169660/

As christmas & Wynnter fast approaches, more and more players are creating giveaways on the forums for people to partake in. There's still plenty of giveaways to pick from, if you're interested in gaining a few new items for the holidays - check them out on the main Wynncraft forum for more info.

If you've been following Wynncraft's official twitter page recently, you'd know that they've been releasing small pieces of trivia for different parts of the game that were actually references to other popular media, or just curious facts. Here's a few:
- Slykaar, the Undergrowth Ruins boss, was originally a slime, but dialogue was too hard to write so it became a man in a slime.
- The new Pirate Cove was loosely based off of Pepe's image. This is easily seen from above.
- The Bantisu temple was originally made as a homage to Avatar The Last Airbender.
Their page also releases teasers for upcoming updates, as well as news and general updates. You can find their twitter here: https://twitter.com/Wynncraft

Finally, meme of the episode!
Yes, I changed it to episode, it's probably not gonna be permanent, chill

Posted by @Florfy5

And that's all the time we have for today's episode! I hope you all enjoyed the new content and sections, but feel free to leave some feedback in case you think there's something still missing. And comment down what random forum topic you want me to talk about for the next 'yays and nays', would really appreciate it!

This has been Toxicdrule Talks
A pleasure as always,
Peace​

 

I was tagged?

Spoiler: Meme

Nah jk, it's good. It was just that mandatory meme was mandatory.

 

Hence why it was made meme of the episode ;D

 

No, it was mine, I just used it a few times. I have the world file as proof.​

 

Noted, I'll make sure to update the thread.
Guess there's no one for suspicious lenny face to be suspicious at now ;-;

 

^

 

Hey my thing got a mention that's pretty kewl!

 

Your thread's are always worth a mention, man. As is anyone else's, if they fit the standard.

 

Do I fit the standard? c:

 

Does a submarine swim? ;D
Seriously tho, does anyone know, it's been bugging me for days

 

Definition of Swim: "to move in water by movements of the limbs, fins, tail, etc."

I guess so...

 

Bumpity bump
Progress report on the next episode - don't expect it to be as soon as it was this week. Might make the shift to weekly posts now.

 

Lmao i was like wait why did i get tagged? then i realised i've just made a big af discovery lol

 

Probably one of the biggest discoveries for a while, yeah. I could've never been able to figure out the way into the lab, unless I was being guided...

 

HOLY SHIT IS FRAMETIMEPVP NOT TIMEFRAMEPVP, WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT

 

Sorry about that, I didn't realize you were TimeFramePVP until I had a look back at the first episode. I'll make sure to change it.

 

Srsly

 

Yep.
Ik, im an idiot