Project Lore

Love is in the Air is over and done with, but not before I made a major mental lapse.  Amatera was kinda enough to remind us on Saturday that the seasonal event ended that night, but I hadn't acquired a single Love Token upon reading his PSA.  The event is far easier than in the past, but there was still a limit on the number of tokens one could acquire in a given day.  Unfortunately, the limit is lower than the amount required for a Truesilver Shafted Arrow.  I thought I had more time!  My rogue now has to stare at 30xLove Token in his bank for the next year.

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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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So I am now proudly wearing the Merrymaker title over my head, and am still on track for my violet proto-drake. As I look back at the Winter Veil holiday event there is one thing above all else I am grateful for. There was not special holiday boss with a super rare mount drop!! Don’t get me wrong, new bosses are fun, seasonal loot is fun, but for my own personal sanity I am glad I didn’t have to put myself through the grinder this holiday season.

Yes I am the guy that killed Coren Direbrew over 200X during Brewfest, and no Kodo mount for me. Then I kill The Headless Horseman about 100X before I lost my sanity at not seeing the Horseman’s Reins drop, and swore off mount grinding (at least until the next opportunity).

See somewhere in those hours and days of praying for a mount to drop, I lost perspective on the whole thing. It stopped being a game and started being an obsession. Something about limited time only exclusive items just flips a switch in my head.

I would like to think I have learned my lesson, but I know that I haven’t. After all I did log every alt I have opening every gift under the tree for all the seasonal pets. Fortunately for me that was a 30 minute activity and not a 30 hour one.

All in all I am relieved. The event was fun, there was lots of to do, and great achievements to achieve. All this and I didn’t have to live in some obscure dungeon begging guildies to let me use their summon. It was a happy Winter Veil!

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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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