Project Lore

It's 5 O'clock Somewhere! The closing of International Talk Like a Pirate Day ushered in another of WoW's seasonal events, the much loved Brewfest.  Ahh Brewfest.  Who could dislike two-week long celebration based upon the ancient Dwarven tradition of drinking?  No one, that's who.  Not even the Elementals, Old Gods or Titans could turn away a good brew, tall mug of ale or flagon of mead.  Each and every being in the Warcraft universe has their vice, thus we all love to celebrate the joy it brings.  Oh, except Coren Direbrew.  He probably hates the event since everyone tries to kill him for his purpalz.  Unfortunately for that Dark Iron dwarf, this year will be no different. The double-fisting dwarf has been updated to a level 80+ boss for 2009's Brewfest, and is complete with a new loot table.  Included in his table are the staples of old, the Ram and Kodo and the summoning remote, alongside some sexy new ilvl 200 trinkets (Dodge/Spell Power/Attack Power/Healing Haste) and the second successor to the dagger that almost forced me to quit the game, Direbew's Shanker 2.0.  Yes, Azerothians apparently label their daggers like we Earthlings label our software. Other than the new loot and raise in level, Direbrew's encounter is essentially the same.  To the tickets! Quests:

• Brewfest! - This is the simple starting quest to the event (Alliance/Horde).
• Now This is Ram Racing...Almost - You need to do this quest if you want to unlock the other ram racing dailies and/or grab your souvenir stein for Brewfest 2009 (Alliance/Horde).
• Say, There Wouldn't Happen to be a Souvenir This Year, Would There? - You'll be able to grab your free stein once you complete Now This is Ram Racing...Almost (see above), so be sure to do that quest first.  A very simple quest (Alliance/Horde)!
• There and Back Again (10 Tokens) - This is the most challenging, but not the most time consuming, quest.  You have to run back and forth on a temporary ram delivering kegs, while keeping your fatigue in check.  And you only have four minutes to do three runs.  If you do this quest then you can help the quest giver one more time (Alliance/Horde).
• Do you still need some help moving kegs from the crash site... (2+ Tokens) - That bit about helping the quest giver one more time refers to this.  You'll be tasked with doing the same thing as above, but you'll get 2 tokens for each trip made.  However, once your four minute timer is up you are done for the next 18 hours.  It's like a daily quest, only not a quest, or on a daily timer.  I guess it's the tuned up "Do you have additional work" from last year.
• Catch the Wild Wolpertinger! - One of the quests where you need to be completely smashed on booze or wearing the Synthebrew Goggles, available from the quest giver, to complete.  If you can't see any Wolpertinger's at the Brewfest camp grounds it is because you aren't inebriated enough (Alliance/Horde).
• Pinks Elekks On Parade (40 Tokens) - Another 'be smashed (or goggles) to complete' quest.  Only this also happens to be our token traveling quest for the event as well.  Alliance have to hoof it to Azuremyst Isle, Elwynn Forest and Teldrassil, while Horde will have to head to Eversong Woods, Mulgore and Tirisfal Glades to slay the figments of drunken imagination.  Please, no drinking while driving (Alliance/Horde)!

Daily Quests:

• Bark for a brewery! (15 Tokens) - You have to chose which brewery you bark for per day.  You can swap between the two available beer makers for your faction though.  You'll mount another ram, and then run amok in your capital city screaming about how awesome the chosen brewery's bubbly is.  Pretty simple  way to score some tokens (Horde - Drohn's Distillery/T'chali's Voodoo Brewery; Alliance - Barleybrews/Thunderbrews).
• This One Time, When I Was Drunk... (10 Tokens) - The beginning to all good stories...You can only start this quest after a Dark Iron invasion.  They happen every 30 minutes, so you should be able to find a keg to strike a Dark Iron baddie pretty easily.  Once they've aborted the mission pick up the Dark Iron Mole Machine Wreckage on the ground to start the quest.

In addition to the quests and the loot we also have Brewfest's achievements.  Most of them remain the same, so I won't bother running through them all.  The important one is the new Brewmaster (Alliance/Horde), which forces you to complete all the Achievements except Brew of the Year.  For many people, the completion of Brewmaster means they will have completed the monster meta-Achievement of What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, earning themselves a Violet Proto-Drake.  Congrats to those who do. I'll be wondering around "completely smashed" later today to finish off my token collecting for my very own pink elephant elekk.  Already snagged my wolpertinger.  Once that's complete, it's off to BRD for farming of the non-shattered dagger from Direbrew.

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I’m not sure if it’s the recent holiday events, the new achievements system, or something that has been here all along, but it seems the whole world is going crazy about mounts. People want them, want to show them off, and are going to extremely lengths to get them. The most obvious example is the holiday mounts. Groups of dedicated people are spending hours everyday farming the latest seasonal boss and hoping they will drop the latest mount. First it was the Kodo/Ram now it’s the Horseman mount. I’ll admit, I am one of them, and because I don’t have luck like Juggy, I imagine I will be in SM everyday for the rest of the event. It doesn’t stop there however! It’s just the tip of the iceberg. With the new achievement system in place lots of folk in my guild have spent tons of gold and farmed tons of rep  to buy every mount they can get their hands on. The goal is the 50 mount achievement, and yet another mount. (A very cool one, given). While we are on the topic of achievements, the other reason the whole world is farming away inside SM this week is to make sure they get the squashling and the Hallowed title. Not a mount, I know, but guess what you get if you finish all the seasonal event achievements? You guessed it: another mount. The problem actually predates the newest batch of content. People have been mount obsessed long before this. Rare mounts are certainly nothing new. On the extreme end, there is a friend of mine in my guild that has soloed Stratholme several times every day for the last few months. The reason is the Baron Mount. Rumor is that it is the lowest drop rate in the game, and from the stories I’ve heard I believe it. This is one for the truly dedicated, or truly insane (sorry, Feralface). Then of course there is the Huntsman Mount, The White Hawkstrider, The Anzu Mount, The Ashes of Alar, The ZG Raptor and Tiger, and the now inaccessible Bear Mount. While given mounts are really really cool, is it really worth all this time we put into farming them? The are (usually) cosmetic, they don’t improve our ability to down a boss. The are vanity items, but then again, perhaps that is their appeal. What about you? What lengths have you gone to to get a mount? Or are you just happy riding around on your boring faction mount?

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I'm not sure if you've noticed, but Hallow's End is here in the World of Warcraft. With all of the new achievements in the game, there are tons of people heading to the Scarlet Monastery to kill the Headless Horseman for his rings, helm, sword, or mount. It seems like the hardest thing to get for the long list of Hallow's End achievements, other than all twenty masks, is the squashling pet. I'm one of the many people in the Totally Rad Guild who, once the twenty mask achievement is removed from the meta achievement requirements, only needs that pet in order to complete the Hallow's End world event achievement and get the Hallowed title. I've seen that pet drop maybe five times in the past few days, and the last one I rolled a two on. That's ok though, there's still a lot of days left in the holiday. The Horseman, though, is starting to feel a lot like that other farmable holiday boss, Coren, from BRD just a few weeks ago. I've got every single drop off of the rider without a skull that I want, including the Horseman's Reigns (which I rolled a 100 on the first night of Hallow's End). I feel like it's really only a matter of time until I get that pet. Of course, that's how I felt about the Kodo Mount, and I never got that drop. Although, as much as I would have liked a kodo, the Headless Horseman's mount is about a quadrillion and five times cooler to me. I personally never really participated in the world event quests until now, but the seemingly improved rewards that have been creeping into the game have made it worth my while. While browsing through the hundreds of achievements, these useless points really encourage players to go out and experience all of the world events that Blizzard puts together so well. My only worry is that every time one of these new holidays comes up, we'll have another flavor of the month title. Right now, it seems like at least half of the people I see are in the Jenkins family. I'm sure after the Hallowed achievement is changed, most of those people will that one up. I'm sure it's only a result of new titles and achievements having just been implemented, but I look forward to seeing all sorts of new titles around, instead of everyone having the exact same one. Either way, I am loving the holiday season in WoW so far.

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Juggynaut was one of those lucky players to see a Brewfest mount drop during the seasonal event.  Sadly, Juggy was not lucky enough to win, rolling an amazing 30.  On the last possible run of the event, started at 11:59PM server time, Juggynaut's squad was once again met with a trinket drop.  So long to Brewfest for another year.  But don't worry folks, like in the real world, the citizens of Azeroth have plenty of holidays coming in the next few months.

• Hallow's End (October 18th – November 1st) – Blizzard's take on the North American holiday of Halloween.  Event includes the Headless Horsemen, Bobbing for Apples, Innkeepers handing out Tricks or Treats and more.
• Feast of Winter Veil (December 15th – January 2nd) – Celebration of various religious holidays although primarily focuses on the idea of Santa Claus and gift giving.  The event allows all players to receive free loot from the main cities, kissing under Mistletoe and the always annoying fun, snowballs.
• New Year (December 31st – January 1st) – This one should be fairly obvious, the celebration of the new year by the Gregorian calendar.  This event doesn't have too much to do but does have fireworks at Stormwind, Thunder Bluff, and Booty Bay.

Those three events, which are subject to change before they go live, round out the end of another year for World of Warcraft.  In mid-February we have Love is in the Air, commonly known in our realm as Valentine's Day.  Then we hit a bit of a dry spell until Noblegarden, an event that is timed with Easter's revolving celebration. Blizzard managed to find time to add two brand new calendar events this year.  The first addition, Spirit of Competition for the Olympic Games, promoted many strict PvEers to PvP for the first time in ages.  The second was to highlight the made-up holiday known as International Talk like a Pirate Day, which Azerothians know simply as Pirate's Day. Brewfest has become my favorite holiday due to Blizzard's addition of Coren Direbew in Black Rock Depths.  Mainly, I love the fact that Blizzard took the time out not only to add another boss with good loot, but to add it to old content.  It wouldn't be that hard for them to continue the trend lore-wise. Have Greatfather Winter be late to his event because he is held captive by Troggs in Gnomeregan and Ragefire Chasm and needs to be rescued.  The Fireworks shipment can be stolen for the New Year celebration and kept in Uldaman.  Why Uldaman you ask?  Simple, because everyone hates Dark Iron Dwarves. I don't expect Blizzard to go nuts on seasonal content, but I am sure they could give some developers a break from the norm to flesh out one seasonal event per year.  How did you guys do on your mount drops and what is your favorite seasonal event? Oh, and one more event I should mention.  Wrath of the Lich King goes live Novemeber 13th.

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It seems like the entire world (of Warcraft) has gone into a bit of a holding pattern lately. Many people (myself included) have stopped raiding, we just heard about the arena points reset, so there is not a whole left for anyone to do other than count the days until November 13^th. While I am very much in the same boat, like hell I'm going to stop playing the game! So I have been trying to find a few activities to keeping me going. In the short term, I have been spending my days grinding the Kodo mount for Brewfest. I have over 200 kills and still have yet to see the thing drop, I'm beginning to suspect the cake is a lie. I imagine I will get it eventually, and if not, Brewfest will ultimately come to an end. Soon I will be looking for other alternatives. I have been trying to stay positive and look at this as a good excuse to catch up on those things I have always been meaning to do. I'm talking about all those projects I have always meant to get around to, but never did because I was busy raiding. Here is my list of things I think I will finally be able take a shot at:

Netherwing - I want to finally grind out the Netherwing Dailies, and get my nether drake. Although I must admit, with all the new mounts on the horizon, my desire here is waning a bit.

Fishing / Cooking - I have played around with the idea of leveling my fishing and cooking. It seems like a good way to make some cash and be able to make all that tasty raid food.  Problem is I hate fishing, so I guess this one is just a matter of how bored I get.

Farming Gold - The last thing I could even thing to do on my main is stockpile gold. Certainly not a bad approach, but I question what is going to happen to the WoW economy, and if this will pay off in the long run.

Alts - I have a Rogue that is closing in on 70 fast, and want to make her a priority. I have a few others sitting in 60 range that I may have time to get up there as well.

New Professions - With the prices on the AH falling through the floor (at least on Executus), this isn't a bad time to powerlevel a new profession on one of my alts, and I've always wanted to try Jewelcrafting. For some it may be a good time to push to 375 on your main.

Roll Horde - I've always wondered how the other half lives.

I'm sure there are lots of other worthy projects that would be worth taking on during this time. So tell me, what are you guys doing?  Have you come up with a productive way to spend your WoW time? Please don't tell me you are still raiding... I may become incredibly jealous.

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The annual celebration of Oktoberfest began over the weekend.  Brewfest, as it is known in Azeroth, is another fun filled seasonal celebration like the earlier Harvest Festival.  Those of you that may have been disappointed by the lack of stuff to do at this year's Harvest Festival definitely need to check out Brewfest. The Brewfest offers much more than paying your respect.  The latest seasonal even even gives players a reason to venture back to Black Rock Depths.  Those of you who participated in the Brewfest last year likely have the old 2007 tickets.  Fear not, for those tickets can be turned into the 2008 tokens via one of two NPCs, Belbi Quikswitch for the Alliance or Crest Blix Fixwidget for the Horde.  Be aware though, this year's tokens are not savable for the 2009 Brewfest so use them all.  For all of those out their who fancy Achievements, you should purchase the "Brew of the Month" Club Membership Form.  By the time the form runs its course, you will unlock an achievement for the 2009 Brewfest. Probably the biggest change to the Brewfest this year is the removal of a purchasable item. Previously, players who saved up 600 tickets could purchase the Brewfest-exclusive mount, but that ability has been removed for the 2008 celebration.  Players who wish to score the mounts will now have to return to Black Rock Depths with a daily quest called [Insult Coren Direbrew].  The drop percentage has been reported to be as low as 2-3% and as high as 15%, so good luck.  Regardless, Direbrew has some pretty good loot – especially his trinkets - for characters that don't regularly run Karazhan or own Season 2 PvP gear or better. Direbrew has proven to be a fairly easy boss and very farmable.  For starters, you need to complete [Welcome to Brewfest!] and then [Save Brewfest!] before you can get the daily.  Once everyone has the daily quest, your group can summon him five times without having to switch up the line-up.  Then, have someone switch to an alt with the quest or look around for a new player entirely.  Naturally, having a Warlock around would make the whole process go faster.  You only need to be level 65 to start the quest, although tanks and melee should be 70. Brewfest 2008 will end October 4.  See you in BRD!

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