Wizard101: Concept Art Reveals New Gear

KingsIsle Senior Concept Artist Kevin Chin has posted a number of great pieces of concept art on his site in the past, but his most recent works are particularly stunning... and telling about some of the gear we've not seen yet!

More Art

If you're not a regular at Swordroll's Blog, you've probably missed out on some awesome concept art. There some cool (and adorable) Marleybone art HERE, a few future companion promotions HERE, Pirate101 Darkmoor art HERE, and so on. There's plenty if you look through the archive.

The Four Dungeons: What You Might Not Know

The new dungeons contain a ton of new items - from old gear with new stats to amulets, decks, recolored Beckett Wands, new pets, and more. One thing that's easy to miss among old items and the excitement of new locations and stats, though, is the look of gear.

There's actually lots of new gear in terms of looks. In fact, if I am assuming correctly, there's two new sets of gear per location, for a total of eight. Oftentimes, it looks something like what the bosses wear.

What's the Trend?

There is certainly a method to this madness. In each new area, there are three tiers of new gear, all at the same level requirement, but one set slightly better than another. The top two tiers have a new look and are unique gear, often modeled after bosses they drop from.

Kembaalung Village

In the Hollow Mountain in Kembaalung Village lies Shangri-Baa, a hidden sanctuary in which an evil hog is attempting to empower the spirits of Hamakala. Sinister, right? Relatively little of this armor has been discovered. The last boss seems to drop some interesting gear, and the last boss in the Pagoda of Harmony does as well. So far I've not seen a lot, but there was a notable piece collected by Beatriz Abbott HERE.

Unfortunately, we have no shots of this gear and so we're not sure what it looks like. Hopefully, as people stumble upon it, we'll learn more.

Barkingham Palace

Here's where the first of our hints begins. If you've watched carefully on Twitter or Central or elsewhere, you've seen hats and maybe even boots with flowers. But how about a robe?

You, too, can have a collared outfit like Henry Wellingbrook outside Barkingham Palace. If I had to take a guess, I'd say this is the highest tier of gear dropped by Dr. Jackall on the Rooftop (as well as a few other places, much like the Malistaire gear tiers) and that the gear below is the second highest tier, dropping from the Noxious Golem. It seems to be available in one or two spots, though, and when we do find that robe, it'll be awesome! That's not all, though.

This looks very similar to some unique gear in Pirate101, with its own Marleybone twist. Is that the cape design in the top left? This gear looks awesome, and I can't believe we haven't seen more than we have of it in-game. I'm excited to see if this can be uncovered.

House of Scales

If that gear wasn't impressive enough for you, I think you'll be pleased with these sets. This first one, if you'll notice, looks like the concept of the enemy shown earlier in this post. It is, of course, adapted for players, but the idea is there. This solidifies the concept of unique boss gear in Wizard101, which is a very good thing.

The enemy it's based on is named Izft, and is found in the House of Scales. He's the third fight. I've already received both the hat and robe, and am now hoping for the boots to complete this set.

It gets better, though. The next set requires going all the way to Ammit the Devourer, six battles into the dungeon (and the final one). I've gotten a couple of hit hats, but no robes or boots yet. I'd really love to take a look at these in-game, and have been farming the House of Scales on and off.

Darkmoor and the Graveyard

The graveyard has one obvious and one not-so-obvious set. The one that's clear is Malistaire's. It's designed based on his gear and, while not exactly the same, gives you a pretty close idea. Obviously that gear is only dropped by Malistaire in Darkmoor.

I believe the other is an armor set, but its been hard for me to distinguish first and foremost because I haven't done the Malistaire dungeon at all, and second because I've only done the first two dungeons once.

Tracking Down Gear

I'm going to be farming in a few different spots in the lower-level dungeons for these pieces of gear. Of the gear pictured, I have five pieces so far, and that leaves seven left to go. That's not including the other two dungeons or weapons.

If you've discovered any of this gear, let me know! Best of luck in your search for it. To check out more awesome new art from Kevin Chin, click HERE. Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!