The OverAchiever: Examining patch 4.3's new achievements

Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, all hell breaks loose.

Hey folks. The Littlest Pet Shop option was the most popular choice in last week's The OverAchiever: Wrapping up Mountain O' Mounts, but that was before all manner of patch 4.3 goodness was datamined on Tuesday night. I spent the subsequent 24 hours in a caffeine-fueled haze running three characters around the PTR investigating the new achievements for you.

I bring tidings of great, albeit currently bugged, joy to you all.

Holy Darkmoon Faire, Batman

Blizzard's putting a lot of effort toward the Darkmoon Faire and seems to be interested in turning it into a genuine attraction. Until now, the Faire's been a mildly interesting sideshow that's attracted player attention mostly due to the inclusion of its horrible reputation grind within Insane in the Membrane. I think it adds a nice bit of color to the world, but it's been a largely static feature for years.

No more. In alphabetical order, these are the new Darkmoon achievements that have been datamined as of the initial patch 4.3 PTR build:

• Blastenheimer Bullseye Score a bullseye when launched from the Darkmoon Cannon.

• Come One, Come All! Attend the Darkmoon Faire. I'm not certain how this will be "counted," as my copied main has it (understandable), an older premade has it (which makes no sense, as she's never attended the Faire in any capacity), and a fresh premade doesn't. Whatever criterion Blizzard is using to count toward attendance probably isn't working.

• Darkmoon Defender Turn in all three Battleground Darkmoon Artifacts.

• Darkmoon Despoiler Turn in all nine Darkmoon Artifacts at once.

• Darkmoon Dominator Win the Darkmoon Deathmatch 12 times and receive a Master Pit Fighter trinket.

• Darkmoon Duelist Win the Darkmoon Deathmatch and receive a Pit Fighter trinket.

• Darkmoon Dungeoneer Turn in all five dungeon Darkmoon Artifacts.

• Faire Favors Complete at least six profession-based quests at the Darkmoon Faire.

• Fairgoer's Feast Consume one of every Darkmoon food and drink.

• I Was Promised a Pony Ride a Darkmoon Pony. (I sense the hand of Ghostcrawler.)

• Quick Shot Score a Quick Shot at the Shooting Gallery.

• Step Right Up Play five different Darkmoon games.

• Taking the Show on the Road (Alliance)/Taking the Show on the Road (Horde) Launch off Darkmoon Fireworks in every friendly capital city.

So what do these mean? I'm not too sure. While the PTR is now active, the Faire isn't actually listed at any point on the PTR's in-game calendar, in contrast to the live servers, where the next is listed as Sunday, Oct. 2. There's also no sign of it in either Mulgore or Elwynn at present. (There is, however, a very entertaining bunch of Alliance PVPers on the Elwynn fairgrounds as I write this.) Blizzard's probably still working on it. It's pretty obvious that the new Faire achievements are going to involve Battlegrounds, dungeons, a new set of artifacts (archaeology-related or not, I wonder?), and an ominous-sounding game called the "Deathmatch," which is likely to please the PVPers currently making rude gestures in my direction over my refusal to accept duels.

For hardcore achievement hunters, the Faire is your single best source of points in the next patch -- for now. So far we've only seen two achievements related to the new 5-mans and one related to the final raid. No doubt this number will increase.

New noncombat pets

Hot on the heels of the new Darkmoon Faire achievements comes a set of new Darkmoon-related pets and -- still more interesting -- a set of what I think will be new holiday-related pets. The Festival and Lunar Lanterns are likely to be rewards from a Lunar Festival that's had at least a small update (see below), and it looks like Blizzard's changed the criteria for summoning the four preexisting Winter Veil pets. This looks like a good thing, because having to have a Snowball on hand to summon a pet was annoying. However, it does look like it's come at the cost of being able to summon your Winter's Helper and Reindeer pets year-round.

As for the rest of them? I'd been crossing my fingers that the more obviously sea-themed among them would be fishing drops, but it appears that at least a few will be rewards from the upcoming Trading Card Game expansions Throne of the Tides and Tomb of the Forgotten. However, none of them are currently active on the PTR.

• Darkmoon Balloon Right-click to summon and dismiss your Darkmoon balloon. Instant.

• Darkmoon Cub Right -lick to summon and dismiss your Darkmoon Cub. Instant.

• Darkmoon Monkey Right-click to summon and dismiss your Darkmoon Monkey. Instant.

• Darkmoon Tonk Right-click to summon and dismiss your Darkmoon Tonk. Instant.

• Darkmoon Turtle Right-click to summon and dismiss your Darkmoon Turtle. Instant.

• Darkmoon Zeppelin Right-click to summon and dismiss your Darkmoon Zeppelin. Instant.

• Lunar Lantern (Alliance)/Festival Lantern (Horde) Right-click to summon and dismiss your Lantern.

• Fetish Shaman Right-click to summon and dismiss your Fetish Shaman. Instant.

• Gregarious Grell Right-click to summon and dismiss your Grell. Instant.

• Lumpy Right-click to summon and dismiss your Coal Elemental. Instant.

• Purple Puffer Right-click to summon and dismiss your Purple Puffer. Instant.

• Sand Scarab Right-click to summon and dismiss your Sand Scarab. Instant.

• Sea Pony Right-click to summon and dismiss your Sea Pony... because "seahorse fry" doesn't sound very cute at all. Instant.

• Father Winter's Helper no longer requires a Snowball. Helpers are very busy year-round and only have leisure time during the Feast of Winter Veil.

• Tiny Snowman no longer requires a Snowball. The snowman is larger and lasts longer during Winter Veil.

• Winter Reindeer no longer requires a Snowball. The Winter Reindeer only dresses up for Winter Veil.

• Winter's Little Helper no longer requires a Snowball. Helpers are very busy year-round and only have leisure time during the Feast of Winter Veil.

New mounts

Of the mounts below, we've already gotten sneak peeks of the Darkmoon Bear, the Spectral Gryphon and Wind Rider, and the new drakes, courtesy of Boubouille at MMO-Champion. The Mountain and Swift Mountain Horse are the two "new" Gilnean mounts, added to even the mount count between the factions.

As for the new drakes, the smart money's on them as possible raiding rewards for the Dragon Soul meta, but we don't know yet. Like the noncombat pets described above, some of the completely new mounts will be rewards from upcoming TCG expansions. Others, like the Space Charger and the Swift Forest Strider ... no idea.

• Corrupted Hippogryph Summons and dismisses a rideable Corrupted Hippogryph. This is a flying mount. 1.5-second cast.

• Darkmoon Dancing Bear Summons and dismisses a rideable Darkmoon Dancing Bear. 1.5-second cast.

• Mountain Horse and Swift Mountain Horse Summons and dismisses a rideable Mountain Horse. 1.5-second cast.

• Ruthless Gladiator's Twilight Drake Summons and dismisses a rideable Ruthless Gladiator's Twilight Drake. This is a flying mount. 1.5-second cast.

• Space Charger Summons and dismisses a Space Charger. This mount changes depending on your Riding skill and location. 1.5-second cast.

• Spectral Gryphon and Spectral Wind Rider Summons and dismisses a rideable Spectral mount. This is a flying mount. 1.5 second cast.

• Swift Forest Strider Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Forest Strider. 1.5-second cast.

• Swift Lovebird Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Lovebird. 1.5-second cast.

• Swift Shorestrider Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Shorestrider. 1.5-second cast.

• Swift Springstrider Summons and dismisses a rideable Swift Springstrider. 1.5-second cast.

• White Riding Camel Summons and dismisses a rideable White Riding Camel. 1.5-second cast.

• Orange Red Drake Mount [DNT] Summons and dismisses a rideable (???). This is a flying mount. 1.5-second cast.

• Purple Red Drake Mount [DNT] Summons and dismisses a rideable (???). This is a flying mount. 1.5-second cast.

• Red Red Drake Mount [DNT] Summons and dismisses a rideable (???). This is a flying mount. 1.5-second cast. Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.

New feats of strength, holiday changes, and dungeon achievements >>