lunar-festival
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The Queue: Elders, pet battles, and more
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. It's Monday, so let's jump right in. alpha5099 asked: Question in honor of the last days of the Lunar Festival: Given that the holiday is centered around Moonglade and the druids, it makes sense that the majority of the Elders are either Tauren or Night Elves, the pre-Cata druid races. But then the other race of Elder seems to be Earthen. Does this mean that there are Earthen druids?
Reminder: It came from the Blog's Lunar Lunacy 2014 is tonight
Tonight we will be roaming around honoring nobles together during It came from the Blog's annual Lunar Lunacy event. When: Tonight, Jan 31 at 10:30 p.m. EST (7:30 p.m. PST, 9:30 p.m. server time) Where: Meet at the Lunar Festival in Orgrimmar (near the flightpath) on Zangarmarsh/Hellscream (US-PvE-Horde) Who: Any Horde character level 10 or above How: Ask any It came from the Blog member for an invite, if you're not already in our family of guilds. This is a lowbie-friendly event. The only reason we ask for level 10 or above is so that we can form raids for mage travel. So please come along even if you don't have a mount. We hope to see you tonight! Please join us on Zangarmarsh/Hellscream (US-PvE-H) in It came from the Blog. All guild ranks can invite, so /whisper Tizzi or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
It came from the Blog: Join us for Lunar Lunacy 2014
It's time for It came from the Blog's annual event: Lunar Lunacy! When: Friday, Jan 31 at 10:30 p.m. EST (7:30 p.m. PST, 9:30 p.m. server time) Where: Meet at the Lunar Festival in Orgrimmar (near the flightpath) on Zangarmarsh/Hellscream (US-PvE-Horde) Who: Any Horde character level 10 or above How: Ask any It came from the Blog member for an invite, if you're not already in our family of guilds. We will be making things go boom, achieving, running, and perhaps dying. If you don't normally play Horde, please join us anyway. This is your chance to see how the other half lives. We always have a good time and the more, the merrier. Hope to see you there! Please join us on Zangarmarsh/Hellscream (US-PvE-H) in It came from the Blog. All guild ranks can invite, so /whisper Tizzi or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
The Lunar Festival begins today
The Lunar Festival is upon us! Every year, Moonglade's druids hold a celebration of their triumph over an ancient evil, and that celebration involves sending out druidic ambassadors to various points all over Azeroth. There are several of these Elders, mapped out by Wowhead for the collector or achievement hunter, and since 2012 "honoring" them awards XP and a little gold. Go see them with your alts! There are also various quests, clothes and pets to earn, and a few recipes. The pets are the same ones as were added back in 2012, the two lanterns, both of which are account-bound battle pets. Most of these items are obtained by collecting and redeeming Coins of Ancestry, which are the items received when you honor elders. To honor them, you basically just go up and say hi, so it's pretty easy. You can earn a maximum of 84 coins from honoring elders, enough to buy at least a pet and a couple of outfits. For more detailed information, do check out Perculia's excellent in-depth guide over at Wowhead, updated for 2013. The festival runs from today, January 20, until February 3.
It came from the Blog: Lunar Lunacy snapshots
At the end of last month, the It came from the Blog family of guilds celebrated the Lunar Festival with Lunar Lunacy 2013. We delivered on the promise of playing with things that go boom, achievements, and risking our lives. First we gathered in the throne room of the Ruins of Lordaeron. (We made no sacrifices to The Elevator Boss on that day.) While we waited for everyone to arrive, we completed the initial Lunar Festival quest to get our invitations, and some attendees achieved both Frenzied Firecracker and The Rocket's Red Glare. Then we were off to Moonglade, via our invitations, to beat up Omen, with many lowbies dying. Regardless, Elune's Blessing was ours. We then headed back to the festivities and made our invitations take us to Thunder Bluff to honor the elder there. Afterwards, we flew to Orgrimmar and completed the Elders of the Horde.
Reminder: It came from the Blog's Lunar Lunacy is tonight
Lunar Lunacy. It came from the Blog. Tonight. When: Tonight! Thursday, Jan. 31 at 10:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. PST, 8:30 p.m. server time) Where: Meet at the Throne Room at the Ruins of Lordaeron Who: Any Horde character level 10 or above How: Ask Tizzi or any member of It came from the Blog for an invite Achievements. Fun. Death. Be there. Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in It came from the Blog. Any guild rank can invite, so /whisper Tizzi or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
It came from the Blog: Join us for Lunar Lunacy 2013
The Lunar Festival has begun, which means it's time for It came from the Blog's annual Lunar Lunacy event. When: Thursday, Jan. 31 at 10:30 p.m. (7:30 p.m. PST, 8:30 p.m. server time) Where: Meet at the Throne Room at the Ruins of Lordaeron Who: Any Horde character level 10 or above How: Ask Tizzi or any member of It came from the Blog for an invite We'll be getting some achievements, playing with things that go boom, and risking our lives. We'll have to work harder at it this year, as we don't have Have Group Will Travel anymore, but we've never been squeamish about running through enemy territory. Hence our motto: Protect the lowbies! As usual, everyone is invited. If you don't normally play Horde, we would still love to have you. Keeping a Hordie in our guild just for events won't make you feel too unclean. I promise. Just don't roll a Pandaren if you don't like our current warchief. That will make you feel unclean. We hope to see you there! Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in It came from the Blog. Any guild rank can invite, so /whisper Tizzi or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
The OverAchiever: Guide to Lunar Festival 2013 achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the Fed-Ex quest from hell. This year, the Lunar Festival runs from Sunday, Jan. 27 to Saturday, Feb. 9. (As always, check your game calendar for specific start and stop times for your server.) On a very important note, this year cuts the length of the holiday from three to two weeks, so if you're a new player or you're starting a fresh character, you won't have as much time as you usually do to get everything done. I think Blizzard limited it so as not to clash with Love Is In the Air, which begins Sunday, Feb. 10. If you're new to the Lunar Festival, the holiday mostly revolves around involve talking to a number of elders in order to honor them, receiving Coins of Ancestry in return, and then using the coins to purchase holiday items, including clothing and pets. The To Honor One's Elders meta-achievement is also a requirement for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, so if you're still after a Violet Proto-Drake, make sure you get this done. The Lunar Festival is definitely not one of Azeroth's more difficult holidays, but it's time-consuming if you need all the NPCs. However, it's also a good time to do other travel-intensive achievements like World Explorer.
Holiday replayability and the Fed-Ex quests from hell
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, get off our lawn. One of the things I think about while revising and updating the holiday guides is that the audience for them is doomed to get smaller over time. It's reasonable to expect that, because people don't need the guides after they finish doing the events on characters they care about, and there's generally a few years between Blizzard's major updates. However, with the introduction of account-wide achievements, pets, and mounts, the replayability of holidays has probably suffered a bit. That doesn't mean that the content's not enjoyable, just that each successive character derives less reward from it. This is a particularly acute problem with the approaching Lunar Festival and how one element gets a lot more onerous as the game continues to expand.
The Perfect Ten: MMO tributes to real-life people
When a beloved friend, family member, hero, or role model dies, we feel the pain of that loss and grieve in many different ways. Part of that grieving and healing process is often entails those left behind constructing some sort of tribute to the dearly departed. Sometimes this comes in the form of a shrine of flowers, sometimes it's the establishment of a charity, and sometimes it's creating an in-game memorial that thousands if not millions of people will see over the course of years. So while death and illness are depressing topics to dwell upon, I find the many MMO tributes that studios and even gamers have erected to be inspiring and a celebration of individual players' lives. With the help of my fellow Massively staffers, I researched 10 wonderful in-game tributes that serve to honor the lives of fellow gamers.
It came from the Blog: Lunar Lunacy 2012 snapshots
Last week, the It came from the Blog family of guilds celebrated our second annual Lunar Lunacy. We gathered in Orgrimmar at the Lunar Festival area near the flight path. The minimum level to participate was 10, so that we could organize a raid in order to make good use of guild perks. With participants from level 12 to 85, we got the following achievements: Elders of the Alliance Members of The Insiders (our sister max-level guild) summoned us with Have Group, Will Travel to the enemy cities and used Mass Resurrection as needed. Elders of the Horde Mage ports took us where we needed to go for this achievement. Elune's Blessing We defeated Omen and basked in the afterglow. Some players also got the Frenzied Firecracker and Rocket's Red Glare achievements while we were organizing the raid. Then those of us with all of the sub-Cataclysm Azerothian flight paths completed the Elders of Eastern Kingdoms achievement by following the Overachiever's Guide to the Lunar Festival, only abandoning one non-flying person along the way. (Sorry, Pricecut!)
WRUP: 1 (900) 555 - WRUP
Every week, just at the start of the weekend, we catch up with the WoW Insider staff and ask them, "What are you playing this week?" -- otherwise known as: WRUP. Join us to see what we're up to in and out of game, and catch us in the comments to let us know what you're playing, too! Don't sit there sad and alone on yet another Friday night. Come on, give us a call and find out what the hottest WoW Insider writers are playing this weekend. Alex Ziebart, Adam Holisky, and more ... just waiting after the jump. WRUP is $4.99 per minute. Please be 18 or older, or have your parents' permission. Or don't get your parents' permission. We'd actually prefer you don't, cause they'll probably just say no. This week's bonus question: Do you still participate in in-game holidays? And do you participate in the Lunar Festival, in particular?
The OverAchiever: The worst (maybe) holiday achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, some holidays are easier to survive than others. I've been getting a lot of comments and feedback from players recently over troublesome elder placement during the Lunar Festival (the one next to the Razor Hill flightmaster seems to be a particular issue -- more on this in a future article), and it spurred me to start thinking about problematic holiday achievements as a whole. Thing is, Blizzard's really put a lot of effort into its holidays over the past few years, and most of them are much less time-consuming and frustrating then they used to be. So how many really troublesome holiday achievements are there these days, anyhow? Most of them didn't figure prominently in our evil achievements series (with one sterling exception), but I'll grant that not all of them are sunshine and roses. But then of course, there's that one. Yes, that one -- the achievement shat into existence by Satan himself onto a bed of Ed Hardy clothing with bad Japanese pop music playing in the background. You know the one I'm talking about.
It came from the Blog: Join us for the second annual Lunar Lunacy
This Saturday, the It came from the Blog family of guilds will be holding the second annual Lunar Lunacy event. We will be attempting a few Lunar Festival achievements and respecting our elders. Hopefully, they weren't paying attention to those of us who got the Scrooge achievement during the Feast of Winter Veil. When: Saturday, Jan, 28 at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST, 11 a.m. server time) Where: Meet at the Lunar Festival area near the flightpath in Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H). Who: Any Horde player level 10 or higher (for raid forming) How: Ask Roblinator or anyone in It came from the Blog for a guild invite if you are not already in our family of guilds. What: The plan is to get Elders of the Alliance, Elune's Blessing and a few other achievements. The highest character you have will probably have the most fun, as otherwise you may be abandoned with the other lowbies if we honor some flightpath elders. Death knights don't take too long to be event-ready -- just make sure you are done getting food thrown at you by the time the event begins. Hope to see you there! Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in It came from the Blog. All members can invite, so /whisper Roblinator or any online member. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules -- basically, don't be a funsucker! Visit the guild FAQ for more details.
Breakfast Topic: What are your goals for the Lunar Festival?
If getting mail from dead people is your idea of a good time, then good news: The Lunar Festival starts today! Lasting until Feb. 11, the in-game holiday pays homage to the real-world Chinese New Year celebration. If you're interested in participating, there's a lot to do during the Lunar Festival. You can set off a bunch of fireworks (don't blow your fingers off), grind out a lot of easy experience by visiting elders, and the perennial WoW holiday favorite activity, killing stuff. Check out Allison Robert's Guide to Lunar Festival 2012 for more details. What are your goals this Lunar Festival holiday? Are you going to be making the rounds to try and finish off your What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement? Try to level some alts with the aid of that sweet, free experience? Or are you going to just sleep your way through the holiday because "been there, done that"?
The OverAchiever: Guide to Lunar Festival 2012 achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we burn through a lot of shoe leather. The Lunar Festival is one of WoW's more fun and forgiving holidays, and this year it runs from Sunday, Jan. 22 until Sunday, Feb. 12. That's right, folks; you've got three weeks to get everything done, which is definitely a good thing if you're new to the holiday and unfamiliar with the amount of travel time it requires. The basics of the holiday involve talking to a number of elders to honor them, receiving Coins of Ancestry in return, and then using the coins to purchase holiday items. The To Honor One's Elders meta-achievement is also a requirement for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, so if you're still after a Violet Proto-Drake, make sure you get this done. The Lunar Festival is definitely not one of Azeroth's more difficult holidays, but it's time-consuming if you're starting from scratch due to the number of NPCs you'll need to hunt down. However, it's also a good time to do World Explorer and Surveying the Damage for just that reason.
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.
Breakfast Topic: Did you accomplish your Lunar Festival goals?
Your first kiss. The night of your senior prom. Lunar Festival 2011. Some events are just so memorable they live in your heart forever. And though we may wish they could last forever, they don't -- all good things must come to an end. Try to hold back your tears: Lunar Festival, the World of Warcraft in-game holiday based around the Chinese New Year, has come to an end. Personally, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself now that the event is over. I've been spending the past few weeks obsessively running old and outdated dungeons on my max-level characters, watching 20 different people standing around Moonglade without any idea about how to summon Omen, and deleting tons of spam-like in-game mail from all sorts of "elders." And what do I have to show for it? Nothing, because I still haven't done the stupid Children's Week PvP achievements. (And I probably never will.) But enough about me. What about you? Did you accomplish your goals for the Lunar Festival? And, gosh darn, how are you ever going to survive the next 40-plus months without experiencing the joy and fun of the holiday? World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Live Stream: It came from the Blog's Lunar Lunacy
Fireworks, bowing and death: this is what's on the agenda for today's Lunar Lunacy event, happening now. Join us in game on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H), if you can. Or watch the stream above and participate in the chat room after the break. The achievements we'll be attempting along with rules and tips are all located in the original announcement. Please read them before joining us in game. Everyone is welcome, as long as you're not a funsucker. Update: The stream is now over. You can watch the video replay by clicking on the image above.
It came from the Blog: Join the Lunar Lunacy on Sunday
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! It's Lunar Lunacy! Join the <It came from the Blog> family of guilds for fun of lunatic proportions! You may participate in game by bringing a character of any level, or you can watch on the stream. Admission is free! Free! Free! Standard internet connection and WoW fees may apply. So pull up a seat, but you'll only need the edge! When: Sunday, Jan. 30 at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST, 11 a.m. server time) Where: The Lunar Festival near the flightpath in Orgrimmar on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) Who: Any level Horde character is welcome, but you will probably have the most fun with your highest-level character. What: Fun, achievements including Elders of the Alliance, more fun How: Ask Robinator or any member of <Blogling> for an invite if you are not already in one of our guilds. The Lunar Festival achievements we will be attempting, along with other tips and rules for the event, are after the break.
