Media The Adventurer's Journal #1 - An All-new Wynncraft Magazine

Issue #1 - Feb. 2019​

[Click Here to View All Issues]
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Hello, and welcome to the first issue in what will hopefully be a series. The Adventurer's Journal is inspired by 2015/2016 era Wynncraft newspapers, but I hope to create a different experience than those. This is also based on a magazine rather than a newspaper, meaning things such as guides will usually be prioritized over short-term news. It will also be posted a lot less frequently (probably around every five weeks)

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Every issue will consist of various articles, with each one condensed in a spoiler. Articles generally include:

• An analysis of a certain topic. Oftentimes, community members will be asked about their opinion on that topic.
• Short yet helpful guides.
• Interviews.
• Fun and lighthearted articles about the world of Wynn.

At the start of each issue, there will be a table of contents that lists all articles, and each article itself can be found in a spoiler. There will also be a poll every issue that usually relates to a topic in this magazine.

This is the first issue of The Adventurer's Journal, so I'd really like to know what you all think of this! I hope to continue making these magazines, and I have some ideas for cool stuff to show you guys in the future.

Spoiler: TABLE OF CONTENTS

Recent News
By @WithTheFish
A recap of notable events that have occurred this past week.

A Look at Crafted Items
Analysis - By WithTheFish
An examination of the crafting system now that 1.18 has been out for a while. Features interviews with @Dondasch @RemRin and @Trickster1399

Travelling in Time: From Nivla to Time Valley
Travel Guide - Article and Pictures by @Emilia
This is the first part of a travel guide series. For the first few issues it will focus on the province of Wynn.

TP Scroll Management
Guide - By @Dofima
Tips on how to manage your Teleportation Scrolls without spending a lot of money.

Quest Reward Materials - How Good Are They?
Analysis/Guide - By WithTheFish
A lot of the lower-leveled quests now provide T2 and T3 materials upon completion. This means you can get only one per class, so are they worth it?

The Bestiary - Mahogany Colossus
By WithTheFish
A guide on one of Wynn's rare mobs from the perspective of a wandering explorer.​

How You Can Help
Interested in helping with The Adventurer's Journal?

Recent News:

Spoiler

• Demon Cave grind parties are back! If you join a server that has 45-50 people on it and there's an XP bomb, consider heading to the Demon Cave. There's a decent chance you'll find a party of people standing around a totem killing demons, and if you ask they'll likely invite you to your party. Right now, D-Cave parties are maybe the best way to gain experience, so you should seek them out if you're aiming to reach level 104. The cave can be found at [1407, 25, -5067]
• "The Factions", a well-known community event from last summer, recently started up again in Wynn's official discord. You can join in on this cryptic event in #the-factions. The event has been fairly complicated so far, but luckily there's a google doc to get you caught up.
• Interested in giving your feedback on Wynncraft's music? Composer Selvut283 has made a thread to talk about the game's many songs, complete with a short feedback form to fill out.

A Look at Crafted Items​

Spoiler

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It’s been a month since 1.18 was released, and at this point several people have made pretty good items ingame. So far, crafted items seem very different from the existing items we have. There is a ton of flexibility in the system due to the amount of ingredients there are, and players have come up with cool ideas for making items such as "flipping" durabilities. Many crafted items have also been overpowered, and this has lead to several ingredient changes and rebalances, and more are yet to come.

In this article, I'm interviewing RemRin, Dondasch, and Trickster1399 to see their opinions on crafted items.

Mythics Vs. Crafted Items

The main reason crafted items were added was so players can get powerful items without having to rely on luck. Is this a daunting task for these items to live up to, however? After all, mythics have been a big part of the game for a while. They’re a central part of the economy and obtaining a certain amount of them is a goal for most players.

“Right now, do you think crafted items are equal to mythics? Worse than them? Could they possibly replace mythics if they become both stronger and more common?”

Dondasch:
I feel like real crafted weapons (not those powder abominations) do have the ability to be at least equal to mythics (stronger than some, like Fatal, weaker than some, like Strati), if you put the right ingredients on there. I don't think that crafted weapons will ever truly replace mythics, for 2 reasons: 1 is of course the factor of durability. It doesn't sound like a big downside at first, but people hate being limited by having to visit a blacksmith once in a while. The other is, there simply aren't any ingredients you could use to replace the niche mythics like Warp, so these will probably always be high in demand, no matter the strength of crafted weapons (This could change in the future, who knows).

Crafted Armour however, oh boy, these outclass everything. So mythic boots are probably going to be replaced by them. (Except Discoverer ofc)

RemRin:
As of right now it is definitely possible to create crafted items that are on par, and sometimes even better than most mythics. The most common way to do this is by "powder stacking" T6 powders, which means you only put T6 powders in the recipe. Because T6 powders don't add -durability, nor a requirement, it is very easy to abuse. Combining this with full tier 3 materials and you got yourself an item that is up to 30% above the power baseline a mythic should be. However, if you have not caught up with Silvermirror's post, this is due to change in one of the next pushes, making these items unusable. But even ignoring powder stacking, i still think it will be possible to create crafted items that are on par with mythics. I do however not see them replace all mythics, and that is for 2 reasons: First of all, not all mythics are re-creatable. Unique mythics such as Warp, Lament and Guardian, which excel in one or more particular stats, are simply too complex to create with the limited ingredients out there. Mythics like Thrundacrack, Spring, and Fatal on the other hand are quite easy to re-create, so i could perhaps see those replaced by crafted items in the future. Second of all you have the durability, something you don't have to worry about when using mythics. When making an item on par with mythics (at least when powder-stacking gets a nerf), the result will almost always have a relatively low durability value. But as of right now i don't think this is a major problem, as scrap is quite easy to obtain.

Trickster1399:
"I think that right now, crafted items are a little stronger, because of the raw damage amounting to quite a lot in some cases. Alongside that, the ability to gain attack speed is pretty easy through crafting as well. However, in other cases, I don't feel they're as strong. With the nerf to Powder ingredients soon, it'll be harder to get insanely high raw damage on weapons. The durability helps keep the items in check, along with the randomness of attack speed and identification rolls. Often times, stats can't become too absurd without a harsh hit to the durability. I think crafted items will stay superior though, because the versatility you have when crafting is amazing, and shines over Mythic items in that regard.

Some Mythic items could probably be replaced. Items like Spring, although it has good Mana Regen, it's not hard to craft another item to patch that hole. You can certainly make a much stronger spell oriented water bow with the new crafting system. An item like Warp is next to impossible to replace though."


Meta Ingredients

Right now, powders are all the rage when it comes to making cool items. However, the item team recently announced that powders will come with restrictions that will prevent you from just slapping a bunch of them onto items. For armor, Decaying hearts were a very popular choice until they got nerfed. (100% effectiveness to non-adjacent ingredients pre-nerf). “Flipping items”, such as the obelisk of inversion, were popular too until changes were made…

“In the future, do you think that there will be a lot of variation in crafted items, or does it seem like there will always be superior ingredients that you’ll always want to use?”

Dondasch:
As long as there are ingredients like Decaying heart and borange fluff there will always be kind of a meta on how to make the best item (Although it's kind of balanced out by hard hard it is to get them). But since wynn offers so many different playstyles, builds, classes etc., i think there will be a lot of different crafted items with different ingredients.

Since you can craft pretty much anything, you can craft very specific items that only fit 1 build, which is pretty cool. And these items often use ingredients that are probably not the best on their own. So yes, i think there will be a lot of variety.

RemRin:
I feel like in every item/crafting system there will be some kind of meta. Now don't get me wrong, the Item Team is doing a great job balancing out ingredients so that there is multiple usable ones for each element. But some players don't look for usable, they look for the best, and there will always be a best, and when that one gets nerfed, they will just figure out a new best. So yes, as of right now i feel like there is definitely a meta on which ingredients are the best, and i don't see that changing before new ingredients get added that can compete for the top spot, lots of them.

Trickster1399:
"I definitely feel as if there's potential for interesting and unique ingredient combinations that haven't really been looked into yet. If you're trying to craft an item to sell, I feel as if the ingredients that are the most powerful will be the way to go. However, I've been making a few builds, and a lot of the items include interesting combinations of Tier 0 and Tier 1 ingredients in some cases that provide great flexibility that stronger ingredients can't cover, as too many strong ingredients and you tend to have a really low amount of durability. Especially once powders are balanced, I think these lower level ingredients, and just unused ingredients in general, will certainly have a greater importance in crafting as a whole."


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In conclusion, I think that crafted items will have a very positive effect when it comes to buildmaking to due their potential strength and the fact that you can make lots of unique stuff. Right now these items aren't the most common since it's hard to level up your professions and they're expensive on the market. In the future, they should be much more common and hopefully easier to get.
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Travelling in Time: From Nivla to Time Valley:

Spoiler

The province of Wynn is slowly being forgotten. Beauty of the natural landscapes, dream-like tranquility of plains and fields, many of these majestic creations of the Content Team are slowly fading out of our memories after we set our footsteps into the zone of higher levels. Although I’m neither condemning the cycle-like hustles of loot running nor criticizing the hastily marching of fighters rushing into the next guild war, but putting aside these purposeful journeys, the Province of Wynn still contains numerous sceneries waiting to be discovered by the players. So, wanting to explore the innate beauty of Wynn and to awaken my sleeping memory, I set forth a journey back to where everything begins.

Stepping South from Detlas’ crowded noisiness, the tranquility of the Nivla Forest unveiled itself almost immediately after I cross the river gilded with the melancholic afternoon’s sun. Through the jade-like mattresses of leaves, millions of little sunlight fragments hop on the forest ground moisturized from layers of rotten leaves and branches. As I advance deeper into the heart of Nivla, the silence of nature embraces me kindly and whispers the same story that had passed through hundreds of years. Legends say that these woods are believed to be magical – so are the creatures.


Mysterious as it is, Nivla Forest is never short on stories. It is believed that ancient ruins are still towering somewhere under the cover of layers of leaves, continuing to speak the history of Wynn. Although digging deeper into the lore of this majesty Province seems tempting, I’ve decided to let the historical side of Wynn condense for a while before the lore unveils itself in my later journeys. So, instead of spending time trekking off the main road, I rush to the first stop right before sunset to give myself the opportunity of enjoying my favorite time of the day.

The Nivla Village is a small sanctuary in the Spider-infested forest. Three medieval-styled houses cut out a small space under the towering, sunlight-blocking trees, isolating the serenity in this small village. Unlike the previous version with giant treehouses and glooming lanterns floating in mid-air, the newer version of the Nivla Village is more approachable with patches of pot-plants and realistic buildings. Although some might prefer a scent of magic in the magical Nivla, I am still in love with the quiet friendliness that new Nivla Village can gift.



Nivla Village | The “hidden” accessory shop is a good place to go if you want yourself a little souvenir.





Nivla Forest | Make sure to stop by the edge of Nivla to check out the charming moonrise.



With the last sunlight still lingering on the Emerald Trail, I gallop away from the embrace of Nivla and head to the next stop: the Time Valley. The name of this location, although appeared to be self-explanatory, has attracted many to seek for the ancient legends that were weathered by time. According to prudent scholars and, of course, survived travelers, the time here was apparently twisted and trimmed by unknown forces, making the place a haunted void for both humans and lost souls.



Time Valley | Each weathered pillar in the Time Valley speaks their own story of time.

Although intrigued by the decaying beauty of the ancient ruins, I should not spend too much of my time in this valley just like those who never returned. The Time Valley is not a place for afternoon wanders or late-night walks; nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that the Province of Wynn has nowhere poetic for one to linger.

After nightfall is an interesting time in the Little Woods. Starry reflections of the sky shimmer in the ponds, floating glimmers that dimly decorate the woods, everything in the Little Woods seem like they just walked out from a fairytale. Although the little creatures in this woods are not particularly welcoming, it’s not difficult to find yourself some alone-time by the corners and edges of this magical woods if you leave the creatures alone. Besides, according to the alchemists, the Little Woods is a goldmine for the reluctant apprentices to collect necessary materials during their trainings. Who knows? The alchemists are always right.



Little Woods | Is meditation a thing in in Minecraft?



Earlier in my journey, I intentionally reminded myself that spending too much of my time at one place is dangerous for a traveller. It looks like I’ve made the same mistake – I am welcomed by a fresh sun by the time I walk out of the Little Woods. Although it’s a shame that I only have half of a day to travel to the starting point of my next journey and rendez-vous with my travelling companion, spending an entire night in the Little Woods is undoubtedly one of my most precious experiences during my journey of Wynn.

Heading north-east from the Little Woods, I reach my last stop of this journey – the Abandoned Farm – that is located by the south entrance of the Pigman Ravine. Although my discovery of this place is completely accidental, the scenery of this corner in the Wynn Province is still unparalleled. With the morning sun gilding on the outline of the snow mountains in the distance, I turn around and leave the magnificent landscapes behind. For that up ahead lays a newer path, and only by keep marching, can one eventually discover the entire beauty of the world.



Abandoned Farm | Located by the south entrance of the Pigman Ravines, the forgotten farm hides unforgettable sceneries.

TP Scroll Management:​

Spoiler

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You can get a tp scroll for almost every town and it helps you navigate the world and saves a lot of time! But some scrolls are expensive or maybe you don't want to fill your inventory with them.

For starters you don't have to buy a tp scroll for both Ragni and Detlas because there is a way to fast travel between them (by the level 5 quest tunnel trouble).

Next you don't need to buy a Cinfras scroll because again you can fast travel to there from Detlas (after completing Acquiring Credentials and a Flight in Distress quests) and Detlas scrolls are cheaper so buy them.

Next, I suggest instead of buying Selchar scrolls, buy Nemract scrolls and from there use the sea skipper to get to Selchar ( by doing this you have a chance to get an item from the sea skipper but if you want to go there faster you can always just buy the Selchar scroll they are the same price).

Corkus scrolls are a wee bit expensive so what you can do is use a Selchar scroll and from there (after starting The Envoy part 1 quest) you can take the big red boat on the docks to go to Corkus.

Finally, Ahmsord scrolls are kinda expensive so what you can do is, get to Corkus and from there as you exit the castle and get to the fountain, turn right and go in some tower thingy with a staircase inside, after climbing the stairs and following the signs you will reach a hot air balloon, go in and you will end up in Kandon-Beda, from there go down and follow the path to Ahmsord.

I also suggest having all of your scrolls together in the corner of your inventory so that you can get to them easily.
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Quest Reward Materials - How Good Are They?

Spoiler

During the 1.18 beta, a common criticism I heard regarding the crafting system was that it was too unrewarding at low levels. Why bother crafting when you can quickly upgrade items? There may be a solution to this now: low-leveled quests giving T2 and T3 materials as rewards. There are 7 of these materials in total, and I'll talk about each one. They are all extremely powerful at their level, and they might even have applications once you're crafting stronger items...

However, there's a catch. You can only get one of these per class.

Therck's Chain (From "Enzan's Brother")
Therck no longer gives you a powder upon completing his quest: instead you get this cool item. From what I can tell it's intended to teach new players about materials, and using this item in a level 1 recipe will give you a ton of XP! While you can make a great weapon with this in the low levels, Therck's chain eventually becomes very much outclassed.

Royal Cake Slice (From "Cook Assistant")
Crafting consumables may seem a bit underwhelming at first, since those items will give you minor buffs for only a few uses. Unless you use this ingredient, that is. The health regen makes the item far better than your standard potion, but the walk speed is what really makes the cake. Only Smokebomb and Bat Heart have equal or better walk speed, and they're both higher-level rare ingredients. Keep in mind you can only get one slice per class, so use that consumable wisely!

Cleaned Saccharum (From "Infested Plants")
A reward from the new Infested Plants quest (aka spider cave 2.0), for alchemism and scribing. The health regen % boost isn't really that strong though, since it won't have much regen to increase. The health isn't that bad though... at level 5. This is probably the weakest of the quest reward ingredients, since you can replace it with dried kelp 20ish levels later.

Vibrant Augment (From "Elemental Exercise")
At level 10, this item is essentially "gain +5-7% elemental damage in 2-3 elements," because it's pretty much impossible to use all five at that level. I guess that isn't too bad, but it isn't groundbreaking like a lot of other quest reward items. However, high-leveled mages and archers will love using this, since there are no other rainbow damage materials (warriors and archers can use Ocea Steel). Use two of these, two powders, and some durability and mana boosting stuff and you've got yourself a good infused-hive imitation.

Old Treasure (From "Underwater")
This looks great. No jeweling ingredient has the loot bonus to compare to this, and six treasures on one accessory will give you a loot bonus higher than any other in the game. It's still good in the early game, especially since I think it's hard to obtain accessories at those levels.

Familiar Essence (From "Deja Vu")
At level 10 you won't need to worry about the -80% Ingredient Effectiveness, so you can just use it to get a 1/4 Mana Regen armor piece, which is nice. When you're a high-level though, you'll need to be careful about where you put this so you don't negate the effect of certain materials. This makes other mana regen items like Crystalline Growth, Bottled Fairy, and Enhanced Behavior Microchip more appealing when making endgame armor.

Weakening Catalyst (From "Potion Making")
A 120% XP Boost potion that lasts a long time sounds very good. Yes, there's a downside, but since this potion can provide so much XP you could potentially swap out a piece of XP gear for something that boosts your damage. Furthermore, if you're gaining XP in a group you won't have to worry about damage as much. Potions that use this will be pretty helpful, but keep in mind they don't last forever unlike XP gear, and they aren't as replenish-able as Potions of Wisdom.


Are these items farmable?
Like I said at the start, you can only get one item here per class, and there's a chance that you might have done some of these quests before 1.18 (namely Cook Assistant and Underwater). Sure, stuff like Borange Fluff is rare, but at least you know you can farm it infinitely. Once you've done all your quests on all your classes, there's no other way to get these items aside from the Marketplace and starting brand new classes.

Starting a brand new class is something that not every player would want to do. If you have 5 class slots max, then you probably won't want to sacrifice a class. Same applies to people who have all their classes at level 100.

If you do have an open class slot, things can get a bit grindy. Royal Cake Slice, the easiest of these ingredients to farm, probably takes around 20 minutes if you factor in the tutorial, grinding, and deleting that class to start over again. Underwater could take 10+ more minutes, and the rest will take even longer (especially if you delete that class to repeat this cycle). It's a lot of work and it will probably get repetitive fast. I do think that it is an interesting way to get ingredients though. It's nice to know for a fact that you'll get the item you want since there's no RNG to worry about here.

The Bestiary - Mahogany Colossus​

Spoiler

✤ Attack
✤✦❉✹❋ Defense
Located in the Dernel Jungle
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Drops:
[Lv. 70] Ironwood Chips // [Lv. 66] Mahogany Heartwood
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I won't lie, I mistook this creature for a small jungle tree at first. I soon realized my observation was incorrect, as trees don't sprout arms and use them to rip apart undead.

Despite its wooden carapace, I consider this being to be no different from the average animal. It's highly territorial and I've witnessed it attacking undead, leopards, and humans such as myself. I've dubbed this creature the "colossus" due to its size and immense resilience. It can win fights through brute force alone, although in the end it finally fell to my magic.

The strangest part about this creature is its organ system, which makes me wonder whether it's an animal, plant, or some ancient jungle spirit. At the center of the colossus' chest was a motionless heart with veins made out of vines connected to it.

It's been a few months now since I've encounter the creature, and despite returning to the Dernel Jungle a few more times I have yet to see it again. I can't help but feel that by killing it I've defiled the jungle like some common thief. One that steals hearts, to be exact.
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How You Can Help

Spoiler

If you can't tell this is a pretty big project, so I'm looking for anyone interested in writing who wants to help me. Just send me a message on here or on Discord! (I'm mainly looking for someone to write articles about the community)

If you have any article ideas let me know too, and I'd appreciate it if you'd vote in the poll!

This is the first issue of the Adventurer's Journal, so be feel free give myself and the writers some feedback if you want to. I'm interested to see what you guys think of this, and I hope this magazine can become a regular series around here!​

 

Looks fucking good dude

 

I feel compelled to tag Pillowpet


if you know why, you deserve a medal




Here's an idea for a section to the journal: A place where you only do math. How much xp to level up gathering 50-60, and how many hits is that? How many crafted items do you need to craft to level from 10 to 20 in scribing, using ingridients x and y! What's the maximum potential damage with crafted items, elemental weaknesses and buffs?
And so on.

 

but that meme isnt
I mean, it's like 2 months old
Please, it's ancient history

 

This is really cool! Reminds me of the old Wynn news that @PillowPet ran a while back. Excited to see more of this content :)

 

Haven't been able to get on the past week and a bit, and probably not for another week or so. Laptop battery hasn't been doing well, so I don't trust playing any games currently. Never knew about the return of D-Cave! That sounds super exciting, and I can't wait to join in on the fun :)

I'm amazed with the amount of work put into this thread. Huge thank you for providing us with this! It was a super fun read! I hope we can see more of these in the future! Once again, thank you very much!

 

Absolutely love it!

 

I haven't read anything in the spoilers yet, but I noticed a few grammatical errors you might want to fix.

To start off, it's not 2018 anymore :p

 

Mfw they talkin about crafted items but ignore consumables smh

 

This is pretty epic

 

what have you done to my poor mahogany child...

 

Mission Complete: Bring back Dcave and restore it to its former glory. 104 here I come...

But otherwise, this is pretty good. I respect those who create content for the entirety of the community on their own. Keep up the good work!

 

great magazine
very kind of u to make this for community and ice dude :D

 

i just found a new business.. orange wyble slayer..
sells borange fluff

 

Really awesome, especially like the Bestiary and Crafted items commentary.

 

TRUE MEN
grind mirror man
@YYGAYMER don't bully me with dragon boss or we will discuss spider build more.

 

Really excited for more of these!

 

Very nice

 

Excellent work to all the writers! It is sometimes a bit daunting and scary when posting and officializing a new project, but you guys did great!