the-insane
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Breakfast Topic: The achievement pie-in-the-sky
Ever since "the Insane" title was announced and implemented into World of Warcraft, I have wanted to complete it. I leveled a rogue, for the Ravenholdt requirement. I started collecting Black Diamonds and Darkmoon cards--for this was in the days pre-Cataclysm, when the Shen'dralar were required and the Darkmoon Faire was much less forgiving, rep-wise. I set my jaw. I squared my shoulders. I flexed my typing and clicking fingers. And I accomplished precisely squat. I mean, there was my master's degree to finish, and then I was moving, and then I had a new job, and then... well, any number of excuses got between me and this achievement. But no longer, my friends! I have, at last, set myself to killing oodles of Booty Bay residents, and though I was well down the hated rep bar with the Bloodsail, I'm now approaching the required Honored. After that I'll have to turn back to the Steamwheedle Cartel and start that long grind, but at least I'll have the motivation of wanting to have my flight points back without having to worry about hordes of angry goblin bruisers swarming my way. My only regret is that, thanks to my laziness, I missed out on the chance to be exalted with the Shen'dralar, and now I have all these useless diamonds. Sure, it makes it easier now, but I really like their lore. I have no one but myself to blame. Which are your "pie-in-the-sky" achievements? The ones you've told yourself that, of course, you're definitely going to do that one, you really want that title/mount/pet and you're totally getting started on it tomorrow. Have you actually gotten around to getting it done, or is it still on your check list, ink fading forlornly into an index card? Let us know in the comments!
Breakfast Topic: What's the most difficult thing in the game to farm?
My warrior recently found herself farming a lot of Khorium in order to build her Turbo-Charged Flying Machine, and while flying a seemingly endless number of circuits in Nagrand in order to get the metal (which is a rare spawn on other Outland ore nodes), I started to wonder where this farm fell in relation to other grinds. Khorium sometimes cooperates by spawning regularly, but this time, it was its usual, awful self. I'm sure the Burning Crusade-era players can relate. And yet, somehow I still don't think that khorium is the worst thing in the game to farm. Off the top of my head, I can think of others that are or have been equally bad or worse: Non-combat pets A lot of farmable non-combat pets (e.g., the dragon whelps, the firefly, the Fox Kit) have a 1-in-1,000 drop rate and a limited number of mobs up at a given time. Combat pets Waiting for a particular pet to spawn somewhere and then finding and taming it before someone else does can be maddening if you're consistently unlucky. Fishing Accomplished Angler is justifiably famous for being stuffed with requirements full of RNG. Let's talk about the year it took me to get Mr. Pinchy's Magical Crawdad Box! On second thought, let's not. The Scepter of the Shifting Sands quest This disappeared in Cataclysm, and with it went all the work that went into farming up bug parts and Elementium Ingots, which is where I got stuck in the chain. (So close, and yet so far.) The Insane This almost goes without saying, although it's easier these days than it used to be. Your thoughts, readers? What's the toughest thing in the game to farm?
The OverAchiever: Help update our list of evil achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the abyss stares back. Almost two years ago, I wrote a series of articles for OverAchiever that turned out to be one of the most popular themes the column's ever visited: evil achievements. It turns out that a lot of folks care deeply about achievements that have been -- allow me to quote myself -- "milked from the angry teat of Satan himself." Now, it has to be said that all achievements are technically optional. No one is forcing you to do anything, why do you play this game anyway if you aren't having fun, yadda yadda ... all true. But I assume you're reading The OverAchiever because you really like achievements and you think they add something to the game. (Either that, or you're just reading because you're bored, but that's fine too.) Personally, I don't think players really mind difficult achievements or even achievements that they have to peck away at over an extended period of time. But there's a line between an achievement that is genuinely difficult on its own merits and one that makes you privately think the developers want you dead. So with that in mind, how would we reconstruct a list of evil achievements in 2012 during the Cataclysm era? You can find the original series here if you're interested in a trip down Memory Lane, although I'll give you a quick rundown on them past the cut: Evil Achievements: Spotlight on Justicar/Conqueror, The Immortal, and Accomplished Angler Evil Achievements: The 25 most evil achievements, #25-16 Evil Achievements: The 25 most evil achievements, #15-6 Evil Achievements: The 25 most evil achievements, #5-1
The OverAchiever: Evil achievements
I love achievements, but sometimes you look at them and realize that somewhere on the development team lurks a sadist of the highest order -- and not just any sadist, but one with a business plan and an unwitting audience of 12 million players. What are evil achievements? They're the soul-killing rep grinds, the raiding milestones that required sacrificing a farm animal to get, and even fun pasttimes like battlegrounds into which a sizable dose of misery has been added. Eventually you just want to grab the nearest developer and shake him back and forth, screaming, "What the hell were you thinking?" Below are three of my top picks as the most evil achievements in the game, chosen via the scientific rationale of hating life and myself while doing them. They're selections from a lengthier OverAchiever I've been slowly assembling on the 25 most evil achievements in the game. While my main's a hair's breadth from the It's Over Nine Thousand! feat of strength, there are still quite a few achievements (many of them PvP-related) that she's missed, and I think it's pretty easy to underestimate the agony-value of achievements you haven't personally done. So, rather than simply ignore them, I'd love to get some commenting feedback on the worst, most annoying and most soul-destroying achievements of which you've been a part. Some may disagree on the ultimate difficulty of the following three achievements, but I remain undeterred from my belief that every single one has been milked from the angry teat of Satan himself.
The OverAchiever: Insane in the Membrane
Most of you are excited for 3.1 so you can start raiding Ulduar, or take advantage of the new class changes. But I know what some of you are on pins and needles for. It's the new title The Insane. Insane In The Membrane is exactly what it sounds like -- an achievement for people who are completely nuts. To earn this title you must be willing to spend a lot of time destroying and raising obscure factions in Azeroth. I mean a lot of time. It requires that attain the following:Honored with Bloodsail Buccaneers Exalted with EverlookExalted with RatchetExalted with Booty BayExalted with GadgetzanExalted with RavenholdtExalted with Darkmoon FaireExalted with Shen'dralarYep. If you want to get started on this brain-breaking journey, just follow the jump.
Death Knight goes insane (in the membrane)
A Gnome Death Knight appropriately named Nutshell from Mug'thol reported on the forums that he had completed the requirements for the upcoming Achievement Insane in the Membrane. The Achievement, to be implemented in Patch 3.1, requires a character to gain Exalted reputation with the Steamwheedle Cartel (Everlook, Booty Bay, Ratchet, and Gadgetzan), Darkmoon Faire, Ravenholdt, the Shen'dralar, and Honored with the Bloodsail Buccaneers. Unlocking this Achievement also rewards the fitting title 'the Insane', arguably one of the cooler titles in the new patch.Most of the faction reputations listed aren't easy to grind, particularly the little known Ravenholdt faction in Hillsbrad Foothills. Most players who have been playing for years are unlikely to have considerable reputation with them nor the come-and-go Darkmoon Faire and the Dire Maul-based Shen'dralar. It's an impressive feat for any character, and even more impressive for a Death Knight -- Nutshell might possibly be the first one to complete it. Considering Loremaster Nutshell has 5870 Achievement points to date, it's probably not that surprising the player made the grind. To all of this, Bornakk simply responded, "you're insane."
