WoW in an Hour: Holiday Achievements

Just a quick aside to start with - as mentioned last week - I was looking to do the raid weekly again this week. The astute might be able to tell that my early Christmas present above is the candles that Ignis drops - Pauldrons of Tempered Will. However it did take me longer than an hour all up. It was an evening for birthday celebrations in Singapore (where a vast majority of the guild I'm in reside) - so a fair number of my guild members weren't available. So it took about 40 minutes to form a group mixed in with pugs and then about 40 minutes to down FL and Ignis (we had to clear the towers because the event was started with the Lore Keeper instead of Brann). And now onto the topic of the day: Holiday Achievements

Holiday Achievements or the World Events heading in your achievement tabs are that interesting beast that potentially give some nice (if purely from a flavor perspective) rewards. I'll start out by say that I'm am a jaded lover of these events... and it all begins with Hallow's End.

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Back in the times of yore - otherwise known as October 2008 - I had recently finished leveling Coaz and Gameldar to level 70. Along comes the Headless Horseman and I joined the masses clamoring to take his head and any loot that might be with him. I ran and ran and ran the daily quest to kill him as much as possible, and in between ran all the other quests and tasks to compete the achievements including annoying my wife by logging in every hour I could to trick or treat. And what happened? I was one random drop and one successful roll away from becoming Coaz the Hallowed. To come so close and not get it was frustration in the extreme. In all the times I ran the daily killing of the headless horseman (across two characters) I only saw the Hallowed Helm drop once and I lost the roll (knowing my luck pretty dismally too). And it is a bitter pill I still taste today.

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Holiday Achievements in an Hour

Completing the holiday achievements if you only have an hour can be rather hit and miss - there are a number of factors. If you have an hour a day there is a good possibility you could achieve them (with a bit of luck). If you only have a couple of hours a week (like me) then it's likely you'll have to wait till next year (or the year after) to complete it (Coaz is still waiting for the helm... I was still baby wrangling this October - not to mention he isn't quite 80 yet).


I'll break it down to what I consider the pros and cons of the holiday achievements:

Pros

• They can be fun!
• They get you to branch out and do things you don't always do (it usually gets me back into some PVP)
• The achievements (such as The Tricks and Treats of Azeroth and The Fires of Azeroth) are a great way of getting some easy XP and gold for those characters that aren't riding the level cap.
• The holiday bosses add a bit of variety and spice to your normal kills, and have some interesting mechanics too.
• It can be a good excuse to do something you've been meaning to for a while - for example power leveling Keluin's cooking (see the screenshot above). Although it also can mean inflated prices for the materials.
• The loot dropped from the holiday bosses is usually pretty good gear if you have time constraints that stop you grinding out the equivalent from raiding/dungeons/emblems.
• The titles, pets and mounts that are awarded are cool.
• You are getting into the community spirit.
• Who doesn't like throwing snowballs at Blood Elves!

Cons

• Random loot is random loot (and then you have to win a roll)
• An hour cooldown is a long time if you can only play for an hour and need a lot of random items. (Note: you can trade the items from kissing under the mistletoe - but you can't mail items with a duration!)
• To do all the sub achievements for a meta achievement is a time consuming process - if your time is limited it may be better to spend it doing something else.
• The holidays always seem to end just before you've done that last thing.
• Random loot is random loot
• Random loot is random loot

The pros probably out-weight he cons here - so I'd say go ahead and get involved - but be sure to do so with the proper expectations in mind!

In general I have avoided doing the holiday achievements (because of my jaded history...) but this year I'm getting into the spirit of Winter Viel and doing as much as I can. I'm not expecting to finish it (Fa-la-la-la-Ogri'la I'm looking at you! I'm not sure I have the time to do all the lead-up quests), but I'll give it a hearty go and if I get some extra time (since I'm on holidays) who knows maybe Keluin will be a little Merrymaker!

P.S. As I'm going to be on holidays I probably won't post next week - but we'll see what presents Great-father Winter brings!