Yellow arrows = Direct counter

Green arrows = Synergizes With

Hey guys, I was watching [King Phaestus](https://www.youtube.com/@kingphaestus)'s video on how spells are made in Wizard101 and the philosophy behind them, and found some glaring issues with how things are developed from my point of view.

As you can see from the left image, schools are treated like pokemon types where one school is supposed to have advantages and weaknesses against different schools. This makes for inherently imbalanced match ups, instead of each school having an equal chance against opposing schools. In a group vs group setting, it isn't as bad because at that point it's more like pokemon where you have multiple school types that can counter each other. In a 1 vs 1 setting though, this ideogoly falls apart and makes for uneven match ups. Also in this video, [King Phaestus](https://www.youtube.com/@kingphaestus) talks about schools opposite the wheel like they are supposed to be opposites, but this isn't how Wizard101 works. Just because it's opposite the wheel doesn't mean those schools oppose each other. Fire and Ice are at an elemental war, Life and Death are in a spiritual war, and Storm and Myth bridge the gap between the two and are at war with each other. Lastly, the green arrows show that schools can inherit aspects from other schools neighboring them. I really like this idea and think it makes sense.

The right image is my proposition for how the philosophy of balancing the game should be. Schools aren't designed to be better than another and create losing match ups. This idea focuses more on empowering what each school does well and building on that, rather than directly countering their neighbor(s). The schools exist in balance with each other and repel each other equally, that's why I love this image of the schools so much. It's shows the foundation that everything is in balance and each school has it's own way of dominating it's place in the spiral.

How things are isn't all bad though. the green arrows in both images are unchanged because I like the idea that neighboring schools will share afinities with each other. It can also make for more rich complexity when designing cards. At the same time though, it is important that these affinites remain small in effect to what the main school can do, like storm should never be a better healer than life, but it should have qualities of healing like life does.

And now for my final hot take. Dual schooling should've been restricted to only being able to dual school with neighboring schools. I.E fire-ice should never be a thing, but fire-life or fire-myth makes complete sense. Dual schooling should allow you the choice to lean more into one of your affinities OR allow you to double down on your school and allow you to use spells exclusive for remaining true to your school. So every school essentially has 3 different areas they can spec into, your main school or one of your neighbors, each option of course coming with it's own upsides and drawbacks.

Anyways, that's everything. Thanks for reading and let me know your thoughts about this, along with your thoughts of how the game is currently and the things YOU'd want to see changed.

Wizard101's Magic Wheel Isn't Right