What is the general "vibe" of each school?

[jcorb]

I'm new to the game and unsure which school I want to pick.

[Yin]

From my perspective, each school is very unique from each other. If you prefer playing in a 4-man group and know what role you play, pick the school that fits that role. Each school fills a niche in a 4-man group and fills it pretty well. The Wizard 101 4-man group usually runs with a Tank, Support, Damage Dealer, Backup Damage Dealer. The below is my run-down version of each school.

Death: This is by far, the easiest school to solo Wizard 101 on as you get health back by dealing damage. Death fills the role of Jack-Of-All-Trades as you can heal others (by sacrificing some of your life), damage dealer as your damage can get pretty nutty, support as you can debuff the enemies, and tank as (again) you heal back the half of the damage you deal. Due to the Death school having a Jack-Of-All-Trades role, it makes it easy to solo Wizard 101. The only downside for the Death school is the lack of any noticeable AoE spells until you get Scarecrow around lvl 55. You could spend IRL cash on spellement packs in hopes of getting Deer Knight, but you could also grind for crafting reagents in hopes of getting the elusive Deer Knight gem until you can farm Lore Master to get the Deer Knight spellements to properly unlock the card.

Life: Another school you could solo on, but not easily. Same as the Death school, no easy access to any AoE (until you manage to get Rat Spin or grab a pet that gives AoE card). In a 4-man party, the Life school plays as support/healer/tank. Most of Life cards do not give a lot of attack (being the 2nd weakest class in terms of damage) and has a ton of healing. Your party will never die if there is a good Life Wizard in it. Life Wizards can act as pseudo-tanks since their school has the 2nd highest health pool in the game.

Myth: A school that has been uniquely dubious for all time. It's original purpose has been to be a school all about minions (still is to some extent), but has shifted to be more about attacking and debuffing (mainly stun). The Myth school can act as a backup damage dealer, a tank (if pressed) and support. I would not put Myth as the main damage dealer as their are better schools for that (Fire and Storm), but Myth damage can be no joke. Some Myth school spells have the option of removing your opponents charms and stunning (one or the other usually). Myth also has some good options for AoE spells since their first AoE spell HumongoFrog has a higher base damage than Fire's Meteor.

Balance: An out-of-favour school by KI since they have not buffed or nerfed the school. This school is all about supporting via buffs and debuffs. This school also gets the earliest AoE spell card. Nothing more to say about this school other than the fact that this is one of the easiest schools to solo Wizard 101 on. A good Balance Wizard is just as sought after as a good Life Wizard, but not as necessary.

Ice: A school with almost no chance of survivability, but pure tank. This class has the lowest damage out of all of the schools, but the drawback for that is you get more health and more tanky stats. Your school gear options (from the Bazaar early on) revolve around universal resist and health. You could mitigate the survivability drawback by spending training points into Death school up to Feint and using Death's attack/heal spells (Ghoul/Vampire), you could spec into Life to get Absorb (gaining useful healing spells to stay alive), and grabbing Balance's Elemental Blade, Elemental Trap, Spirit Blade, Spirit Trap. Ice is one of the hardest/easiest schools in Wizard 101. Hard because you need game knowledge to utilize the school effectively and easiest because you can mess up and pay almost no repercussions for it. In a 4-man group, Ice is the Tank due to the aformentioned above.

Fire: A school that has somewhat lost its original identity. The fire school used to be all about DoT effects, and still has those throughout the spell roster, but has became a predominate Damage Dealer (sometimes out damaging Storm). Fire Wizards has the 2nd lowest health pool, favouring more damage. Starting out, I would recommend focusing Feint (from Death) as you can use those spells in lieu of your own schools (Fire Elf is a DoT). The 2nd card you gain is Fire Elf which has solid damage (100 initial + 75 per round for 3 additional rounds). I would usually pair Fire Elf with the starting wand and just use the heal card on the 2nd round if Fire Elf kills the next round from DoT. You gain your AoE, Meteor, at lvl 22 and will be using that throughout the game as it is a really solid spell. Just make sure that you get your early gear focus on maximizing your Fire damage.

Storm: The school that has the best chance to fizzle. The school with the lowest health in the game. The school with the highest damage in the game (save for Fire with good gear setups). The school that takes the longest to prepare as you need to focus your deck specifically for each individual instance (should be done anyways, but a definite for Storm). The school that is considered the main Damage Dealer in a 4-man group. The hardest school to solo Wizard 101 on. If you are looking to play with friends, I would recommend playing Storm (if you like dealing damage) due to Storm Wizards having one of the highest damage in the game. Storm spells are all flashy (compared with every other school).

[Duskyer]

These are my two cents on schools.
Fire: All rounder. Decent health. High damage.
Good for Solo

Ice: Tank. Best health. Piss poor damage.
Not good for Solo

Storm: Glass cannon. Piss poor health. Best damage.
Okay for Solo

Myth: Decent hitter. Decent health. Good damage.
Good for Solo

Life: Healer. Good health. Poor Damage.
Okay for Solo

Death: Life stealer. Good health. Good damage.
Best for Solo

Balance: Pure Support. Good health. Okay damage.
Good for Solo

Any school CAN solo the game. Some just have harder times than others. If you're wanting to party up, Life and Balance are always sought after for their healing and buffs respectively.