Tuesday, December 16, 2008

What a Long, Strange, (Hard) Trip It Will Be

What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been

I saw this, back when Achievements were released, and thought it would be a fun way to check off all the holiday achievements as I went through the seasons.

Hallowed Be Thy Name - Was a pretty good start. GNERD Rage got me out and PvPing some, and Trick or Treating got me out of Outlands to the ole leveling grounds. However, there were some more obnoxious ones. As the season came to a close, I got increasingly panicked about getting a Sinister Squashling and Hallowed Helm. Aertimus and I both got one eventually, but I'll admit to "LF 3 DPS, whom are willing to pass on the Squash Pet for 25g" - this achievement was the forerunner of there "random luck needed in short time period" block . The other worrysome quest was Power of Pine, where opposite faction interaction was required. If horde didn't bomb SS, we couldn't clean it. Darkspear has more horde then alliance, so it wasn't a huge issue - but servers where it is switched, have a cap on the number of alliance players that can complete the achievement.

Anyway, that got me thinking. The thinking turned into looking, and the looking turned into fearing. There are some obnoxious looking achievements on the horizon. Be they purely random drop, or other faction interaction required.

Merrymaker - Actually pretty easy. If your Cooking isn't 325, or your a DK that doesn't have Ogri'la unlocked - you've got an extra achievements worth of work ahead of you. The holiday hat drop, while random, is farmable in Non-Heroic Nexus. With a Little Helper from My Friends will bring you back into AV, but this time instead of having to ration your GNERDS, you'll have to just hide your little gnome self in the back, and hope others aren't thinking the same.

To Honor One's Elders - Another easy one (its deceptive for what is yet to come). First, you'll need to make suicide runs on opposing faction's cities for the spirits contained within. Then, you've got a pretty lengthy list of dungeons that you'll need to run (Wrath ones), or go back and solo (from Vanilla WoW), in addition to running around the world getting other coins. The achievement here is really just having time to get in all the dungeons.

For The Children - This one concerns me the most, on grounds of requiring opposite faction actions, and same-side cooperation. School of Hard Knocks requires some PvP objectives, that you'll be competing against up to 39 members of your own faction for - like assaulting towers in AV, or returning the flag in WSG. Normally most people are indifferent as to whom does these things - but now that there are achievement points on the line, don't be surprised if the flow of BGs goes differently. Now, this achievement does feed into Once an Orphan, where you need to kill opposing faction that have their orphan out. The big concern there, is how many players will be unsummoning their orphans when faced with a losing fight. A devoted faction can shut down the other sides chances at being a Matron/Patron.

Brewfest - Did you get a Brewfest Mount last time? Have Keg, Will Travel requires you to get one. I personally saw two drop last time around, and did five attempts nearly every day. This one scares me quite a bit. Then Brew of the Year. This one is killing some people, who didn't get it this past season. Aeritmus, for example, didn't get a subscription. This means that she can't complete WALSTIB for a year *after* brewfest ends next time. Kinda harsh, imo. I see this as being the one that hangs up the most people based on pure, dumb Luck.

Fool For Love - Has a few luck based ones. Getting all the different messages from candy hearts. Getting Peddlefeet from a random gift. Heartmender will also require that you fix 20 broken hearts - probably best done with a friend.

The Flame Warden - No Luck Whatsoever. This one is easymode.

Summary?

I'll be trying my hardest to get that 310% speed mount, and crossing my fingers that luck doesn't screw me over at any of the numerous opportunities. If it does, it won't be a QQ fest - I know that not all achievements are for everyone - but I would be envious of those edging past me

1 comment:

Rakhman said...

To Honor One's Elders is concerning; thats 7 Wrath dungeons which need to be run in 19 days. Seems reasonable unless you can't run instances once per day, then it's 6 play sessions for me.

Hopefully there will be groups running these instances, otherwise we have to factor persuading guildies in. This is going to need some serious assistance to work.