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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Grunty Going Nuts Just shy of a year ago I had a gripe.  I know, hard to believe, but I did.  Blizzard had dropped the ball with vanity pets, and I wanted it fixed.  The gist of the ancient article is that the most recent non-combat pets lacked animations.  The beings, the Spirit of Competition and hard to get Archangel Tyrael, would simply be.  No movement and little, if any, interaction.  In the case of the Diablo II buddy (released to attendees alongside the Diablo III announcement) it was a missed opportunity of epic proportions.  Tyrael flat out ignored mini Diablo, his arch nemesis. Blizzard seems to have learned from the mistake.  Grunty, the space traveling Murloc decked out in Tier Terran Marine gear does battle with the Zergling.  The Zergling was part of the Collector's Edition for the original World of Warcraft, so coming across a toon with the insectoid may be difficult.  Given the chance, you should travel to the ends of Azeroth to see this far reaching space battle take place on our humble planet/dimension/time.  Here's the flip side. Even though BlizzCon 2009 attendees didn't get a beta key, or access to the Diablo III beta it seems, at least we have this consolation prize.  Even if it is far more common than any other BlizzCon pet before it. Onyxian Whelping's First Appearence Let us not forget the upcoming fifth anniversary of WoW itself.  Forget a shot at an Onyxia mount, I'm not a masochist.  Even if I was, I'd take a cute companion pet any day of the week.  And that's exactly what the incoming ("sometime in November") Onyxia Whelpling is.  It's animation you ask?  Why the little bugger tries to Deep Breath, what else?  Even cuter is a failed attempt, where rings of smoke billow from its mouth instead. What a magnificent time to be a vanity pet collector.

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