Tag Archives: achievements

Playstyle

Avast, Ye Scurvy Dogs!

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Bloodsail Admiral Sailan

Almost exactly a year ago I swore I was never going to do it, but in the end, I just couldn’t help myself. How could I pass up that sweet, sweet hat and title?

(Of course, it’s entirely out of character for a servant of the light to slaughter thousands of innocent businessmen for the sake of ingratiating herself with a bunch of pirates, so let’s just call this a psychotic break and move along, yes?)

I’d actually been thinking about the Bloodsail grind for months. The biggest delay in getting started was my dithering over Insane in the Membrane, the Feat of Strength for the truly obsessive, because that affected how far I’d be going with Bloodsail rep and how I chose to repair my goblin reps afterwards. Naturally, in the end, I chose the crazier option, and I’ve been killing goblins and pirates ever since.

So, my to-do list! This is entirely unrelated to any kind of progression, but this kind of thing is the reason I have a ridiculous number of days /played on my main. :)

The Insane/The Exalted

  • Exalted with the Steamwheedle Cartel factions. Currently Hostile with Ratchet and halfway through Hated with the other three factions. About 30-36 hours’ worth to go. Halfway through I’ll also pick up the Exalted as a title.
  • Exalted with Darkmoon Faire. Lots of herb farming, milling, carding, and turning in. This will probably take me a couple of months on and off.
  • Exalted with Ravenholdt. This means I’m going to have to dust off my actually-not-very-much-loved rogue, or bribe someone else to do the pickpocketing for me.
  • Exalted with Shen’dralar. This just makes me want to cover my face and cry, to be honest. Requires lots of farming of Dire Maul for librams, and lots of camping the AH for Pristine Black Diamonds, plus some Scholo and Strat Dead runs for the libram mats. Still, once I get this and the above three finished, I’ll officially be Sailan the Insane – possibly in RL too.

Mountain o’ Mounts

  • Baron Rivendare’s stinking mount. I’m up to forty-something runs now – one of my guildies got it on his first run, another took 106 runs to do it, and knowing my luck I fully expect to still be at it in 500 runs’ time.
  • Finish off Wintersaber Trainers rep – currently about 48 rounds of quests away, which … isn’t as bad as I thought, actually.
  • Keep farming ZG, Anzu and Attumen for mounts as often as possible.
  • Keep at the AT dailies, which I tend to slack off on; I still need seven of their mounts and the upgraded squire – and then I get to start on tabards!
  • PvP more, since there’s a lot of PvP achievements I still need, and I need AB and WSG tokens for the Black War mounts I don’t yet have. Plus I want Exalted with AB and WSG for the Justicar title and the tabards.

Other factions because I’m a completionist:

  • Keep doing the two dailies that reward Frostborn and Explorer’s League rep respectively, since it irks me to see non-Exalted factions on my reputation list. 120 days left for Explorer’s League, and 134 days for Frostborn. Oogh.
  • Another Black Temple run or two should see me at Exalted there.
  • Brood of Nozdormu. I’m a smidgen off Revered, so I need at least a few more runs through AQ40, which are scarcer than hen’s teeth on my server.

Loremaster

  • I’m 180 quests away in Kalimdor, and 89 quests away in Eastern Kingdoms. Probably can’t finish this one before I do The Insane, as I’ll probably have to do some goblin quests (which would screw my Bloodsail rep).

I’m not sure whether this to-do list looks better or worse, now that it’s in black and white. Help?

Game Info, Playstyle

Two Wintergrasp Tips

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Two handy Wintergrasp tips for you:

  • It’s a great place to get the With A Little Helper From My Friends achievement. WG is one place where it’s fairly easy to get a lot of HKs without getting repeatedly killed by the other side, provided you’re smart and you use cover and teamwork appropriately. It’s easier if you’re the defending team, of course. And best of all, there’s no deserter debuff – if you loseWeight Exercise your gnomeness halfway into the match, just nip out, regnomify yourself, and get back in there to finish the battle. I got all my kills in about 25 minutes of a defending WG this morning.
  • If you’re a healer, you can heal from the back of a moving siege engine. I had always assumed it would be impossible for spells with a cast time, that you’d get prevented due to movement, or that you’d be locked out from doing anything when you’re a passenger. But no! Protected by the tank, and free to cast to my heart’s content? I have a new favourite hobby.
Playstyle

Five Things I Love About 3.0.2

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In no particular order:

Raid boss nerfs.
I know it’s disappointing for raid groups who were just about to beat Boss X on pre-nerf difficulty, and I sympathise, but: overall, I think this is a nice dose of fun for the people who get to see a few bosses they otherwise would have missed, and it’s a nice chance to just goof around and not take things terribly seriously. Raiding should not be srs bzns all the time, after all.

New talents.
For the first time in three years, I specced Retribution for a couple of days, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I went back to my Holy comfort zone right quick mind you (to heal an AQ40 pug I should have known was doomed, really), but after years of struggling and making do with shockadin, to play Sailan and actually do real DPS was great fun. Ret has plenty of nerfs incoming, so it won’t last, but it was fun while it did.

The Scourge Invasion world event.
There are a lot of negative things you could say about the enforced PvP aspect of the zombie plague, and Lume said them very eloquently; I’m not going to talk about it now because this is a positive post, darnit.

There are two things I love about the Scourge Invasion, 3.0.2 style:

  • The old content of 1.12 – the necrotic crystals, the killing masses of zombies and skeletons and ghosts, the fighting for mob tags and the mad accumulation of necrotic runes – is just fun. Speaking as a paladin, smashing the undead is kind of my raison d’être, y’know?
  • Lore and Storyline. While the effects of the zombie invasion are frustrating, it’s engrossing to see history repeating – this is what happened to Andorhal, Stratholme and other human towns. The quests surrounding the event give a glimpse of history, and at the same time they lead into the storyline of Wrath of the Lich King, foreshadowing what is to come.

Achievements.
I’m sure no-one’s surprised that I think these are great fun. I do have a couple of quibbles about the system – mainly that there’s not enough distinction between meaningless achievements (like using a toothpick) and achievements that require some effort (like reading every book on the ‘Well Read‘ list, which requires a couple of instance runs to finish). However, I love the system and I love its rewards – I’ve already scored myself the Ambassador, Diplomat, and Guardian of Cenarius titles, and Stinker the Skunk pet.

Now There’s A Name I’ve Not Heard Since…
The guild is livelier than I’ve seen it since we stopped official raids; the people who were still playing a night or two a week are on all the time, and people who’d cancelled accounts or drifted away are back to check out 3.0.2 and get ready for Wrath. Although we’re not doing anything in particular that needs numbers, a more lively and dynamic guild is always a good thing, and it’s reaffirmed my belief that we’re going to have a good solid raid group come WotLK – we’re pretty close to raiding strength already, despite having lost enough of our old raiding team to drama, RL obligations and differing priorities to put an end to our 25-man raids a few months ago.

Playstyle

How Not To See Achievements

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I’ve heard quite a few people unhappy that the new achievement system spams their guildchat relentlessly, even when they’ve turned off global achievement announcements.

Here’s how to disable them:

For nearby/chat announcements

  1. Right click on the tab of your chat window
  2. Go to “Settings”
  3. In the left-hand column, pick “Other”
  4. In the right-hand area, look for an option for ‘Achievement Announce’; uncheck it

For guild announcements (as discovered by my guildmate Wildence, after a bit of adept Googlefu)

  1. Right click on the tab of your chat window
  2. Go to “Settings”
  3. In the left-hand column, pick “Chat”
  4. In the right-hand area, look for an option for ‘Guild Announce’; uncheck it

Enjoy!

Game Info

Brewfest – Preparing For Achievements

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Note: this post contains spoilers for Patch 3.0.

Patch 3.0.2 is expected to herald the introduction of the new Achievement system, so for many of us it’s time to start planning ahead and working on Achievements for which we can get retrospective credit.

There are a number of Achievements centred around the current seasonal event, Brewfest. With a bit of careful planning, you might well be able to get credit for a number of these achievements from Brewfest 2008, instead of having to wait for next year.

Please note that this is currently in development, and could change wildly at any time. Achievements have appeared and disappeared frequently during the Wrath beta; these may suffer the same fate.

Also, please note that the Brewfest is a fun and original seasonal event, and the following guide is a very dry and analytical way to maximise a certain kind of reward. Don’t forget to actually play the Brewfest content, too. Get drunk, clobber Dark Iron dwarves, have fun! If you’re looking for a good guide to the Brewfest in general, I recommend Dwarf Priest’s “Beer Me!” guide.

Brewfest Achievements

Achievements You Can Complete In Advance

  • Direbrewfest – kill Coren Direbrew, the Brewfest special boss in Blackrock Depths.
  • Down With The Dark Iron – defend the Brewfest camp from the Dark Iron attack and complete the quest, “This One Time, When I Was Drunk…” (which is the quest that becomes available every half-hour after the Dark Iron attack).
  • Disturbing the Peace – while wearing 3 pieces of Brewfest clothing, get completely smashed and dance in Dalaran. Obviously you can’t complete this until WotLK goes live, but you can get the clothes in advance so you won’t have to wait for Brewfest ’09.
  • Does Your Wolpertinger Linger? – obtain a Wolpertinger pet. In Brewfest ’07, the Wolpertinger was a Brewfest quest reward – this year it’s purchasable from the Brewfest vendor for less than 50 silver.
  • Strange Brew – drink the nine Brewfest beers. These beers are sold by the various brewmasters around the Brewfest camps; however, like the foods, they only last 2 days. The same trick of mailing them to an alt and then returning them should work, however.
  • The Brewfest Diet – eat 8 of the Brewfest foods. These foods are sold by the various vendors around the Brewfest camps; however, they only last 2 days. They’re not BoP, however, so you can buy them and mail them to a banker alt, and leave them sitting in the mail (which doesn’t cost any lifespan), and mail them back when Achievements go live.
  • Have Keg, Will Travel – obtain a Brewfest mount. Last year’s Brewfest Rams count, as do this year’s rams and kodos dropped by Coren Direbrew.

Achievements That Will Have To Wait

  • Drunken Stupor – fall 65 yards without dying while completely smashed during the Brewfest Holiday. Unless 3.0.2 goes live before Brewfest finishes, this will have to wait for Brewfest ’09.
  • Brew of the Year – sample 12 beers featured in the Brew of the Month Club. You join the club by handing in 200 Brewfest Tokens to the Brewfest Vendor, and every month you’re mailed a new sample of beer.

    Each beer only lasts 14 days, so I’d recommend leaving them sitting in your mail (which doesn’t cost duration) until Patch 3.0.2 hits, and then drinking all the ones you have saved up – however, finishing off the achievement will have to wait twelve months unless the beers are indeed available from a vendor who sticks around after Brewfest. (Update: I’ve just checked the vendor, and she only sells one brew at the moment – so either she sells only the brew of that month, or only the brews that have been release so far. Either way, you’ll have to wait the full year for this achievement.)

  • Brewmaster – complete eight of Brewfest achievements (all of the above except “Have Keg, Will Travel”). The reward is a “Brewmaster” title.

    Obviously, as Drunken Stupor and Brew of the Year can’t be completed when achievements go live, neither can this achievement – and nor can any achievement which requires it (like What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been, the overall World Events achievement which awards a Violet Proto-Drake mount).

How To Do The Achievements

Food and Drink

Buy one of each type of Brewfest food and drink from the vendors, and mail them to a bank alt. Leave them sitting in the bank alt’s mail; return them after 29 days, and mail them off again if Achievements still aren’t live. Once Patch 3.0.2 goes live, mail them back to your main character and consume each one. This will complete Strange Brew and The Brewfest Diet.

The Brewfest Camp

Apart from normal questing, there are two important things to do in your faction’s Brewfest camp. The first is to buy a Wolpertinger pet from the Brewfest vendor if you don’t have one from last year, for Does Your Wolpertinger Linger?.

The second is to stick around until the hour or half-hour, and help defend the camp from the Dark Iron dwarves by throwing beer mugs you pick up from nearby tables. Once you’ve defended the camp, you can click on a piece of leftover Dark Iron machinery to get the quest that will give you the Down With The Dark Iron achievement. This quest is repeatable daily and awards Brewfest tokens; see below for more details about tokens.

Kill Coren Direbrew – A Lot

Go and see Darna Honeybock in Kharanos (for Alliance) or Slurpo Fizzykeg on the road to Razor Hill (for Horde), and get the quest to find the Brewfest spy in BRD. You’ll need to be level 65 to get this quest. Head to BRD, zone in and just to the right you’ll see some Dark Iron dwarves digging around some rubble. Kill them and use the consoles, and you’ll be transported via Mole Machine to the Grim Guzzler bar within BRD. The spy is just around the corner; he’ll give you a follow-on quest to insult Coren and kill him.

Coren drops a quest item which you hand in for Brewfest tokens, and completing the quest will ensure that your kill of Coren will be credited for Direbrewfest when Achievements go live. Coren also drops the Brewfest Ram and Brewfest Kodo mounts; you’ll need one of these to get credit for the Have Keg, Will Travel achievement. There are no concrete figures on drop rate right now, but it’s looking fairly low – probably less than 10%. You’ll probably need to kill him quite a few times – each person can trigger the event once a day (on the standard daily quest reset timer) so a normal group can try five times a day for a mount.

Get Brewfest Tokens

Brewfest Tokens are used to buy things from the Brewfest vendor, and can be gained from a number of quests, some of which are repeatable. You’ll need tokens to complete the Disturbing the Peace and Brew of the Year achievements.

  • Disturbing the Peace, completed after Wrath goes live, requires you to have three pieces of Brewfest clothing. The hat (available in four colors) costs 50 tokens, the boots or slippers cost 100 tokens, and the dress or regalia costs 200 tokens – so completing this Achievement requires 350 tokens, minus the cost of any Brewfest clothing you got last year.
  • Brew of the Year requires you to join the Brew of the Month Club, which costs 200 tokens.

Ah, but how to get tokens? The WoWwiki Brewfest page has a listing of all the Brewfest quests, but in short:

  • If you have any Brewfest Tickets left over from last year, you can exchange them (at a 1:1 ratio) at the Brewfest vendor.
  • Killing Coren Direbrew the first time awards 40 tokens.
  • Completing one of the Barking quests (riding around the city on a special ram) awards 15 tokens, repeatable daily.
  • Completing There and Back Again (ferrying 3 kegs to the Brewfest camp, non-repeatable) gives 15 tokens.
  • Completing keg runs awards 2 tokens per keg you ferry back; typically you should be able to do 10 kegs or more in the time limit. This is on a 12-hour timer, separate from daily quests, so if you time it right you can get 40 tokens or more a day.
  • Completing the daily quest to defend the Brewfest camp from the Dark Irons awards 15 tokens.

Thus, you get 55 tokens from non-repeatable quests, and can easily get 70 tokens a day (or more, if you’re good at ram riding) from repeatable quests.

Checklist

As a summary of everything above, here’s a quick checklist to help you get the biggest Achievement bang for your Brewfest buck:

  • Buy one of each Brewfest food and beer, and mail them to a bank alt. (Strange Brew, The Brewfest Diet)
  • Buy a Wolpertinger if you don’t already have one. (Does Your Wolpertinger Linger?)
  • Do the quest that becomes available after the Dark Iron attack on the Brewfest camp. (Down With The Dark Iron)
  • Kill Coren Direbrew. (Direbrewfest)
  • Kill Coren Direbrew repeatedly until you get a ram or kodo. (Have Keg, Will Travel)
  • Gather 350 Brewfest Tokens and buy three pieces of Brewfest clothing, minus any you have from last year. (Disturbing the Peace)
  • Gather 200 Brewfest Tokens and join the Brew of the Month Club. Leave beer samples in mail. (Brew of the Year)

Happy drinking!

Playstyle

That’s What Now! or, Things To Do In Azeroth When You’re Bored

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Tiny Phoenix HatchlingI recently posted about my difficulty in finding things to amuse me in the pre-Wrath period: everything I could think of to do was either boring, or irrelevant in the face of the upcoming expack.

Well, here’s something that’s been occupying me for the last few days: catching up on Achievements, in advance!

I’m a completionist and an explorer at heart, which means the Achievements system is going to occupy a lot of my time during the lifespan of Wrath. However, there are a bunch of Achievements that I can easily work on before Wrath Day.

First, I logged into the Wrath beta to check out the Achievements panel and found all the pre-WotLK achievements I hadn’t yet completed. (Those of you without access to the beta can do the same thing by checking out the WoWHead Achievement list.) I broke these down into subsets:

  • Achievements I won’t get credit for until Wrath goes live: certain boss kills, a lot of PvP achievements, achievements like ’emote /love to one of every type of critter’, and so on. No point doing these in advance as I’d only have to redo them.
  • Achievements I can’t complete until a certain time of year: these are all the Achievements for seasonal events that I haven’t yet completed, from ‘get all three pets from Azeroth’s Children’s Week’ to ‘discover an Elegant Dress by opening eggs during Noblegarden’.
  • Achievements I can complete, but shouldn’t: yes, I can go and get 15 different non-combat pets right now, but I won’t have bag space for them until Wrath goes live with its new pet-and-mount storage system. I could do it now, but it’d be a lot smarter to wait.
  • Fast and easy achievements I can complete now: mostly finishing off map exploration, chasing down those pesky few unexplored subzones, and making sure Achievement-earning quest chains are finished off (for example, the Nesingwary quests, completing X many quests in a given Outland zone, etc).
  • More time-consuming achievements I can complete now: Can you say ‘rep grinds’? I knew you could! There are Achievements for gaining Exalted with specific factions and groups of factions, as well as getting a certain number of factions to Exalted overall.

And now I’ve been working on them. So far I’ve finished off a few of the individual general Achievements (like buying and equipping the “Gigantique” bag) and finished exploring every single Eastern Kingdoms zone. Now I’m working on factions, and I’ll break that up with some Kalimdor exploration.

None of it has any mechanical advantage, true. But it warms the cockles of my obsessive completionist heart to tick off all these little things I’d always meant to do but never had time to do – now I have time to do them, and a reason to boot.

(Tangentially, in one of my next few posts I’ll talk about some tips and tricks for levelling old-world factions, for those of you stranded in the doldrums of Revered reputation.)

Game Info, Playstyle

The Achievements system is awesome!

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Note: This post contains spoilers for Wrath of the Lich King.

This post could also be titled “I’m never going to run out of things to do”.

Upon loading into WotLK for the first time – and oh, I was bouncing in my chair! – I set about checking out some of the banner items for Wrath of the Lich King. Unfortunately, Inscription and the barber salons haven’t been implemented into the game yet; the next thing that caught my eye was the new Achievements system.

I’ve long wanted something like this, some way of measuring all the things us explorer-types (and rabid completionists) do for kicks. Star Wars Galaxies had badges; Lord of the Rings Online had titles; WoW had… nothing. Until now.

Continue reading The Achievements system is awesome! →