Wizard101 Gloomthorn Nightmare Pack Review

Wizard101's newest pack is available from the Crown Shop just in time for Halloween. The Gloomthorn Nightmare Pack contains the latest Halloween goodies - quite a variety of spooky goods. There are new NPCs for homes, new permanent mounts, new furniture, new outfits and wands, and more. For only 299 crowns in the Crown Shop for a limited time this Halloween, you can get your chance at some of these cool items.

Gloomthorn Nightmare Pack: What's Inside

The Gloomthorn pack is a little bit interesting. The main attraction seems to be a new pet with an epic new spell - the Jack O Lantern. Then there are two mounts and quite a few new items worth having.

New Pet and Spell

The Jack O Lantern is a pretty cool-looking pumpkin pet that offers the Headless Horseman spell - a 4-pip Death spell doing above-average damage with an epic animation. Thanks to Scarlet for showing me the pet! Take a look at this new spell!

My hope is that this new spell will be either crafted or dropped (maybe both) in the near future. This was the case with the Immortal's Lore Pack, but in reverse.

Spell and Pet Grade: A

Werewolf Armor and Moon Staff Weapons

What could be more appropriate for Halloween than a costume? While dressing up as some creature (I'm looking at you, dinosaurs) hasn't worked out well for outfits in the past, the Werewolf look is surprisingly cool. Along with the full moon staff in three colors, it's an outfit that could very well become part of your permanent wardrobe.

The stats offer a little bit of variety - stun resistance and shadow power pip chance aren't on your normal drops. However, as is usual with pack gear, the items aren't overwhelmingly good. Even the wands, while they include a fancy new may cast ability, seem a bit underwhelming in terms of stats, though the recent critical and block scales above a certain level may have something to do with that.

Armor and Weapon Grade: A-

Gloomthorn Vine and Bat Swarm Mounts

This pack has not one great new mount to grab, but two. The first is where the pack gets its name. The Gloomthorn Vine uses the model and animations for the regular vine mount from the Spiral Cup Gauntlet, but comes with a great new texture including some sinister eyes.  

The Bat Swarm mount is pretty unique - you're not in it. The Bat Swarm is just what it sounds like - a swarm of bats. However, the player character is invisible (or transformed into bats). Instead, you run around with a bunch of bats. This is a great addition to any haunted house or just a fun mount to travel the Spiral with.

Mount Grade: B+

New Halloween House NPCs

Wizard101 has been adding in House NPCs with animations in recent packs, and the Gloomthorn Nightmare Pack is following that trend. While all of the house NPCs are existing creatures of the Spiral, there's quite a variety you can get - a rainbow of different colors of ghosts, different color banshees, the banshee boss model, pale maidens, wraiths, and so forth. These are a great addition to your haunted houses.

Halloween NPC Grade: B-

Gloomthorn Furniture and Other Items

One of the hidden gems of this pack is the furniture. It seems to get overshadowed by all of the other new items, but it's really worth looking at. These are all unique furniture pieces, and many have animations. They're ultra-rare pack drops, making them even less common than NPCs. In my experience, it's pretty uncommon to get one.

Besides the furniture, this pack is stuffed with treasure cards, and not necessarily the best ones either. I found that a lot of my pack was composed of the TCs, but because there was almost a guarantee of a noteworthy item, this didn't trouble me as much as some other pack structures have.

Furniture and Other Item Grade: B

Pack Analysis

The Gloomthorn Nightmare Pack seems to follow the same structure as the Immortal's Lore Pack, which was a new one and is used for a second time here. The pack places its unique items in the second two slots, most commonly the second-to-last slot. Other item slots might occasionally have furniture pieces or spooky items but are mostly filler content.

The bad news is that 5-6 of your items are probably treasure cards or pet snacks you'll never use, but the good news is that it means you get a shot at one of these new items in almost every pack, which I much prefer to the structure of hardly getting anything. If you manage to snag an epic drop, it'll probably show up in the last slot, and occasionally rare and ultra-rare drops will also show in the last slot, opening the door for two noteworthy items in one pack.

The Verdict

I was pleasantly surprised with the Gloomthorn Nightmare Pack. For being yet another Halloween pack, it has a surprising number of new and interesting items, and is definitely worth checking out. Plus, at the discounted rate of 299 crowns as opposed to the usual 399, you're getting more bang for your buck. Definitely give this one a try.

Overall Pack Grade: A

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Compare to:

Winter Wonder Pack (B+) | Immortal's Lore Pack (C+) | Witch's Hoard Pack (B-) | Road Warrior's Hoard Pack (A) | Terror's Hoard Pack (A-) | Harrowing Hoard Pack (B-)

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Have you purchased any Gloomthorn Nightmare Packs? Did you get anything good?

Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral! Credits: Thanks to Scarlet for showing me her pet and spell!