Wizard101’s summer update is in full swing now with players enjoying new astral spells, a Make-A-Wish boss, 2 new packs, and more! One of the less explored features of this fantastic new update is what I call the “buff list.” The buff list technically shows more than just buffs. It displays global effects, wards, charms, and even traps and debuffs on your opponents. This post is meant to help you understand all there is to know about the buff list and how you can best use it to your advantage.

The Basics

Here are some key terms that will be useful to know throughout this guide.

• Buff – Anything that will affect your attack positively and make it do more damage
• Debuff – Anything that will affect your attack negatively and make it do less damage
• Charms – Buffs and debuffs that circle around you or your opponent’s head
• Wards – Mainly traps and shields that circle around you or your opponent’s feet
• Globals – Buffs and debuffs that affect everyone in the battle. Globals are also known as “bubbles.”
• Aura – A star spell that will give you a variety of additional stats for 4 rounds

What Types of Things Will the Buff List Show?

The buff list will show the following:

• Blades (including pierce blades)
• Traps
• Prisms
• Debuffs such as dispels and weakness/plagues
• Shields
• Globals

What it will NOT show:

• Auras
• Shadow spells

Understanding It and Using It

To get the buff list to appear, you’ll have to hover over the symbol of the person or enemy that you wish to view. For example, if you want to view your buffs and you’re in the first spot, hover over the sun symbol. If you want to view your first opponent’s wards and charms, hover over the dagger symbol.

Every time you place a buff or debuff, the buff list will designate it a certain color and tell you what effect that particular spell will have.

Here is the color code:

• White – Trained spells/Item spells

• Gold/Yellow – Treasure card spells

• Light Blue – Pet spells

• Purple – Spells that have been enchanted

Things To Be Aware Of:

• The buff list will separate each part of a spell. For example, if you cast a sharpened elemental blade, it will appear as though you cast 3 different blades.

• If you happen to place a duplicate buff, it will put a (X2) next to it. If you put another, it would show a (X3) and so on and so forth.

• The buff list will forget a spell’s origin as soon as you enchant it (more on that later.)

Possible Issues

As stated earlier, white text is shown for both trained and item spells and the buff list will forget a spell’s origin as soon as it’s enchanted. In my opinion, these are two flaws that work against the buff list’s purpose.

Above is a picture of a few buffs. The top set of 3 white blades (+35%) are from a trained elemental blade. The bottom set of 3 white blades (+35%) are from an item elemental blade. They’re identical. If you were to look at the buff list to see which buffs are currently on, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

Similarly, let’s look above to see the effect of forgetting an enchanted spell’s origin. The top set of 3 purple blades (+45%) are from a sharpened elemental blade. The bottom set of 3 purple blades (+45%) are from an item sharp elemental blade. Once again, they’re identical. This will occur with any type of buff or debuff that you enchant. No matter if your enchant started as a TC, item, pet, or trained spell, every enchanted spell will turn purple.

Possible Fixes

To remedy the above issues, KingsIsle could possibly change how the buff list designates color.

• Have item cards be represented by an entirely different color such as green or orange.
• Have everything but trained sharp and trained potent spells keep their origin color. By doing this, spells enchanted with sharp and potent would keep the purple color, but TC sharp/TC potent would appear gold, item sharp/item potent would display as green/orange (from above), and pet sharp/pet potent would appear as blue. Since enchanted spells never have the same value as their original counterparts, there would be no confusion.

Overall Thoughts

Overall, I think the buff list is a great tool for everyone to use. It’s not as precise as I would have hoped, but who knows, maybe that will be adjusted in the future. In the meantime, I still think it’s a great idea to call out your buffs aloud so there is complete transparency within your team.

What do you think of the new buff list? Let me know in the comments!