Grizzleheim Gallantry
Grizzleheim is another world in Wizard101 that Rynala and I recently finished. It is also a zone in contention for my favorite in game (an honor currently held by Krokotopia). The world is split up into four main zones as well as a multitude of dungeons. The zones are gated by level. The first two can be done at level 20, the third at 30, and the final at level 40.
Grizzleheim is the Norse world of bears, wolves, and ravens. KingsIsle does a great job taking Norse lore and weaving it into a simpler story perfect for a younger audience and yet still refreshing for an older crowd.
The world is not connected to the main Malistaire story of Wizard101 but has an equally compelling story arc to it. You are initially sent to the world to hopefully open up trade relations with the land. In order to have council with the king, you must first prove yourself as a warrior and a hero. After accomplishing some basic tasks and proving yourself, you are sent to investigate the why one of the local Thanes has become increasingly war like and allied themselves with some evil bears. In the end, it turns out that the original Thane was kidnapped and replaced by a raven in disguise and that the ravens are trying to start a war between the bears of the land and the warrior wolves. In the final zone, the main goal of the ravens is revealed and leads to an exciting conclusion and the most difficult boss battle in the game.
One of the first things I noticed is that the later areas of Grizzleheim are not easy. Rynala and I to this day have had no problem two-manning everything in the main storyline. At level 22 we were easily able to two-man the Sunken City in Wizard City and nothing in any of the other worlds has provided much difficulty (except Kensington Park which we still have not touched yet). When you can first go to Grizzleheim at 20, the two zones you can go to provide some challenge, but nothing unbeatable. At level 30 and 40, the zones and dungeons they send you to are brutal.
At level 30, you are sent to Nidavellir, a three-winged dungeon filled with Grendals. Your goal is to defeat the head grendal in the center dungeon. The two flanking dungeons are optional, but if you do not defeat the bosses in the side dungeons they will join the final boss of the central dungeon. Each one of these final bosses has 8000 health with which is an incredible amount after being used to facing bosses with 3000-4000 health. In the left most dungeon, you are forced to face a boss of each element before fighting the final boss and in the right most dungeon, you are forced to navigate a labyrinth to get to the final boss. When tackling these dungeons, make sure to set aside a nice big block of time because they will take awhile if you go in with a few people. I expect that these dungeons would be fairly easy with 3-4 people, but with just the two of us it turned out to be very stressful.
Nothing could prepare me for what we would face at the end of Ravenscar, the final zone. Your final boss is in fact four bosses in one encounter. Each boss has about 4500 health. With two people, this was nearly impossible at level 40. I am assuming KingsIsle expects you to be around level 45 or go in with a full group of four because all of the loot these bosses drop is level 45 loot.
The encounter consists of four ravens: one life, one death, one fire and one storm. 4500 health is not an extreme amount of health. It is the fact that these bosses all pump out high damage is what makes this encounter so challenging. The fire, the storm, and the death bosses all do AOE attacks frequently and even just only healing and letting Rynala do all the damage, we kept dying in this fight. Eventually we figured out a strategy of focus firing the fire boss down first, then the storm boss, then the death boss and ending with the life boss. With the two of us, it took a great deal of luck but after about eight times dying on the encounter we were able to beat it. It was hands down the most satisfying experience in the game for me so far. At a later time, we went in with two others to try the encounter with a full party and did not have any difficulty. A warning: with just two people in the fight when we did beat them, the fight still took over 45 minutes to finish. Take that World of Warcraft! And you thought some of your boss fights were long! Even at the max level of 50, I do not think the final Ravenscar battle will ever be soloable. The four bosses together can easily put out over 3000-4000 damage in one turn and that will kill anyone.
Grizzleheim overall was a refreshing experience. The lore was interesting, the world was beautiful, and the fights were difficult. If you do not want to bang your head against the wall, either go there greatly over the level or go with a full party of four.