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The OverAchiever: Achievements to do before it's too late
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, time is of the essence. Where have we heard that before? I recently talked to a player who managed to solo most, though not all, of the Glory of the Hero achievements from Wrath. He mentioned ones like Share the Love that been impossible to complete without putting a group together, and as you can imagine, getting four more players for heroic Wrath achievements isn't the easiest thing in the world at 85. People who want the achievement for their alts are rarely interested in doing a meta piecemeal, and this is probably going to get worse, rather than better, once account-wide achievements go active. Once someone's got a red proto-drake on one character, they almost certainly won't repeat the process on one of their alts. The vast majority of achievements get easier as you level up, but the canny achievement hunter will pay attention to the ones that don't. As the game changes, players' priorities and interests change, and older content has a tendency to fall by the wayside. It's best to strike while the iron is hot.
The OverAchiever: Mountain O' Mounts from achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, 10 little points are all that stand between us and a new ... something. Many of the mounts this week be familiar to you if you've read The OverAchiever: Pimp Thy Ride, which I wrote before the Cataclysm content patch with an eye toward the number of people who wanted to slap a 310% mount on their toons before it had to be trained. Sadly, none of the mounts described in that article, barring one, will grant Master Riding for free now. Also read: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain O' Mounts Mountain O' Mounts in Outland Mountain O' Mounts in Northrend Mountain O' Mounts in 5-man dungeons Mountain O' Mounts in raids
The OverAchiever: The Glory of the Hero revolution
Greetings, fellow achievement hounds. This week we return to the Glory of the Hero series and tackle two dungeons at once: Utgarde Keep and Utgarde Pinnacle. This is the full Glory of the Hero guide, organized by dungeon: Part I: Ahn'kahet Part II: Azjol-Nerub and Culling of Stratholme Part III: Drak'Tharon Keep Part IV: Gun'drak Part V: Halls of Lightning Part VI: Halls of Stone Part VII: The Nexus Part VIII: The Oculus
The OverAchiever: Night of the Glory of the Hero
In 2009 I had started an OverAchiever series on completing Glory of the Hero that I wound up abandoning due to an influx of new holiday material. Because things are a little slow now while we're waiting for more information on Cataclysm and the final content patch, I thought it might be a good (albeit somewhat belated) time to revisit the series, especially because it's easy to get many of these achievements even in PUGs now. This is the Glory of the Hero series thus far, organized by dungeon: Part I: Ahn'kahet Part II: Azjol-Nerub and Culling of Stratholme Part III: Drak'Tharon Keep Part IV: Gun'drak Part V: Halls of Lightning Part VI: Halls of Stone Part VII: The Nexus And today we do everybody's favorite instance -- The Oculus! Get back here! You know perfectly well they're bribing us to stay with a goody bag these days.
The OverAchiever: Voyage of the Glory of the Hero
98 out of 100 people at that party would walk over my corpse for free gum. -- "Veronica Mars." Ah, poor Veronica; so young, and yet so...correct. Well, let's not dwell on that for too long, because we've got more heroics to steamroll in pursuit of a badass mount. If you're just joining us or want a quick set of links, here's what we've covered in our Glory of the Hero series so far: Part I: Ahn'kahet Part II: Azjol-Nerub and Culling of Stratholme Part III: Drak'Tharon Keep Part IV: Gun'drak Part V: Halls of Lightning Part VI: Halls of Stone Let's get cracking. Head west, young player!
The OverAchiever: Attack of the Glory of the Hero
Mr. Daniels: This is punishment, gentlemen, not party time.Logan: Well, that would explain the absence of balloon animals. -- Veronica Mars, "The Girl Next Door." Heresy! A Veronica Mars quote rather than Firefly. Eh, who cares, it's a holiday weekend, so we're wild and crazy. We're continuing our march through Glory of the Hero, and today we're going to tackle the first of Wrath's "halls," the Halls of Lightning. Before we do, here's a round-up of what we've done previously in the OverAchiever: GotH series: Part I: Ahn'kahet Part II: Azjol-Nerub and Culling of Stratholme Part III: Drak'Tharon Keep Part IV: Gun'drak HALLS OF LIGHTNINGLightning StruckAs long as your tank and healer aren't in greens, this isn't an overly difficult achievement. Bjarngrim and his adds path around a series of 3 platforms and will pause at each, gaining a Temporary Electrical Charge that increases their damage. You simply need to pull Bjarngrim while he still has this buff. During the fight you can force him to lose it by killing his adds, and if you're still gearing up, that's a more reasonable option than trying to survive the damage. The abilities of note here are Mortal Strike, which is a fairly nasty hit in the range of 15-16K, and Whirlwind, which can two-shot melee DPS.
How to: Five Amber drakes in The Oculus
After yet another Cracked Egg with nothing but a Cobra Hatchling in it, and the bigtime raiding proto-drakes constantly getting dropped out of the game, there's really only one other option: the Red Proto-drake, a reward for the Glory of the Hero meta-achievement. It's not easy: you've got to not only beat all of the heroics in the game, but all of the hard mode achievements for each of them. Guides like our OverAchievers can help, and a really great group to go along with helps more, but some of the achievements are so tough they need extra attention.The Oculus' achievement, however, is one that needs an even closer look. And 4 Haelz kindly provides exactly that, with an in-depth guide to toppling two achievements in one, both the Emerald and Ruby Void, by doing the boss with five Amber drakes. The Amber drakes are usually meant as DPS, which makes this fight extra tough: you can't take much damage at all, because you can't get any damage back without healers. So what it requires, instead, is communication and coordination. Basically, you use the drakes' Time Stop ability to slow the fight down, and then try to do some coordinated kiting while DPSing like mad, all the time hoping that you can bring him down before he takes one of you out.As Bell says, once you get the idea (and have wiped a few times -- you should probably be riding the drakes naked, since not only does your gear not affect their performance, but it'll save you repair costs), the fight's not actually that hard to pull off, but it's the learning that's going to hurt.
The OverAchiever: Return of the Glory of the Hero
Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle. -- Firefly, "Our Mrs. Reynolds." Just as a recap, this is what we've covered so far in the OverAchiever: Glory of the Hero series: Part I: Ahn'kahet Part II: Azjol-Nerub and Culling of Stratholme Part III: Drak'Tharon Keep Having finished the first of the two "troll dungeons" in Wrath, let's head to the second: Gun'drak! Gun'drak is interesting in that it houses both the easiest heroic achievement and (arguably) the most annoying all at once, What the Eck? and Less-rabi respectivey. If you're planning on doing all of these achievements in one go (which may or may not be a good idea depending on group composition), I would recommend taking a group with a Bloodlust/Heroism (you may have seen me make mention of this point before) and several interrupts. A Shaman with Reverberation can be useful on Moorabi. You will also need an off-tank and off-healer for Share The Love. Snakes, Why'd It Have to Be Snakes? As a note, this achievement seems to be individually- rather than group-based; you can get it even if someone else gets wrapped. However, if you're interested in getting multiple people the achievement all at once, there are ways to ensure it doesn't happen at all.
The best of WoW Insider: May 5-12, 2009
Welcome back to the Wacky World of Warcraft, where the men are men, the women are usually dragons of some kind, and the average faction leader is probably being mad with some kind of ill-gotten power. Confused? Wondering why that ugly-looking orc is approaching you with sword drawn? Worry not, WoW Insider is your all-encompassing guide to Azeroth. Just please keep your arms and legs inside the tram at all times -- you don't want to hear what happened to our friend Wirt. News WoW Insider interviews Tom Chilton on Patch 3.1 and beyondWe talk to the game's lead designer on the latest updates, and what's coming up next. Star Trek references in the World of WarcraftWe've all (well, most of us -- ahem, Alex and Dan) seen Star Trek and loved it, so we compiled this little list of sightings in game. WoWMatrix responds to Curse and WoW InterfaceThere was a kerfluffle in the addon scene lately, and popular addon updater WoWMatrix finally responds. BlizzCon tickets on sale May 16thBlizzard's convention is returning to the Anaheim Convention Center, and it'll cost you $125 and some time in line to go. Flying in old world AzerothBlizzard has long said it wouldn't be possible to allow flying mounts in the original game world. And here's why. Features Disappointment the patch 3.1 game worldNot everything is hunky dory after the latest update -- at least one of our bloggers is a bit bored. Officers' Quarters: FragmentationOur column for guild officers takes a look at who should get the game's newest legendary. The OverAchiever: Glory of the Hero strikes backHow to do one of the biggest achievements in the game. WoW, Casually: Guide to the latest featuresNot every WoW player is a hardened veteran -- for the newer folks, there's WoW, Casually. Arcane Brilliance: PvPing as a Fire Mage after patch 3.1What's new in the world of Mages? Our Mage blogger Christian Belt tells you.
The OverAchiever: Glory of the Hero strikes back
HARROW: I know him. And I think he's a psychotic lowlife.MAL: And I think calling him that is an insult to the psychotic lowlife community. -- Firefly, "Shindig." Another OverAchiever, another Firefly quote. I wonder how much of the series we'll manage to get through here before we finish off Glory of the Hero, because this is one looooooong meta. Having gotten through Azjol Nerub and Culling of Stratholme two weeks ago with a few breaks for holiday achievements along the way, it's time to hit Drak'Tharon. Next week we'll be tackling Gun'Drak (which, as Amanda observed this morning, contains one of the more frustrating achievements). Live trolls, dead trolls, undead trolls, we got your trolls right here, pal.DRAK'THARON KEEPConsumption JunctionThis has a tendency to confuse players because most aren't aware that Consume even exists (and I was among them; my group got this achievement entirely by accident). Consume is a buff that Trollgore gains based on how many things -- NPC or player -- are within his line of sight when he casts it. The adds that run down the stairs toward him? Any of your groupmates within line of sight? They're all potential Consume charges. He attempts to re-cast the ability roughly every 15 seconds.
Breakfast topic: The impossible achievements
Every evening there's a guy on my server who spams looking for group for an "experienced" group to do the Less-rabi and Make it Count Heroic Dungeon achievements. This has been going on for weeks now. I kind of feel bad for the guy. Some of the dungeon achievements are harder than others, but these have clearly been a pain for him. He really wants the Glory of the Hero achievement, and I hate the Occulus enough that I really can't bring myself to help him. I never hear him complaining about the achievements being difficult, he just keeps at it. It's actually quite admirable. My guild has a few overachievers in it. We usually do the best we can to lend them a hand, but they seem to grind endlessly to earn their points. I don't usually go off in search of achievements, but there's one I just can't seem to get. Since I'm playing Druid it seems appropriate to get the Guardian of Cenarius title/achievement. The problem is not that it's difficult, but since my character was created after WotLK was released, I have no Cenarian Circle rep to speak of. I find it hard to make the time to go back to the old world and grind rep while still working on endgame progression. What's your elusive achievement?
The OverAchiever: Starting Glory of the Hero
Time for some thrilling heroics. -- Jayne, "The Train Job" When I look at the Dalaran landing pad, I see fewer red proto-drakes than I should be. This pains me, dear readers. The 5-man heroic achievements are a lot of fun, if admittedly time consuming, and they force you to think on your feet and wring the most out of your character's abilities. Plus - it's a proto-drake. If you didn't get a 10-man or 25-man drake before 3.1 hit, you're out of luck there. Odds are good that you're still waiting for a green one to hatch out of the worthless egg that snake-oil salesman from the Oracles sells you, some jerk is camping the Time-Lost spawn 24/7, and the worst DPS in your Pinnacle PuG was the guy who won the blue drake off of Skadi, right right?A lot of the WoW population has been at 80 for a while now and has some quality gear under their belts, much of it obtainable without setting foot in a raid. You should be able to pull off all of the 5-man heroic achievements in decent blues with a good group. I highly recommend trying to run with a stable set of players and -- if at all possible -- at least one Shaman. This is more true if your group is still gearing up and needs the damage boost provided by Bloodlust/Heroism.I thought initially about organizing these from the easiest to the hardest, but I think it's ultimately less confusing to list them dungeon by dungeon. We'll address each dungeon alphabetically, so let's get started with Ahn'kahet:
Breakfast Topic: Unintended ownage
I was pretty lazy about heroic achievements at first. Too many people needed frozen orbs for their resist sets, or badges for gear, and the general consensus in most groups (whether they were pugged or guild runs) was that achievements would be great to have, but not really worth going out of our way to get at the time. Why spend 3 miserable hours trying to get Watch Him Die, we reasoned as fresh 80's, when we could finish Azjol-Nerub and do 2 or 3 other heroics in the same time period?With better gear, some free time on our hands, and the siren call of a cherry-red drake, heroic achievements became less an afterthought and more an interesting challenge. The odyssey's been an education on the limits of the otherwise admirable mantra "Bring the player, not the class" (does said player bring Bloodlust?), how much DPS you can squeeze out of your tanks and healers ("Smite harder!"), and the welcome role that luck often plays. I am ashamed to admit that Less-rabi, one of the most difficult and frustrating hurdles of Glory of the Hero, was accomplished because yours truly can't tell the difference between her Maul and Bash hotkeys in the heat of the moment. Accidentally interrupting a 0.4-second cast ability within a tenth of a second is going to go down as one of the great Fortunate Fool moments of my tanking career. My friends, if you're working on heroic or raiding achievements, whether casually or seriously, I wish you that kind of dumb luck.
"Gotta Go" getting easier
I like the heroic dungeon achievements a lot. They give you something to strive for if you're bored if the instance, or just want an extra challenge. I recently had a great time getting Zombiefest! in what would have otherwise been a pedestrian CoS clear (not enough DPS to try for the timed boss; we were running with some fresh 80s and a Holy paladin DPSing). However, some of the achievements are currently though to be near-impossible. One that is often talked about is Gotta Go!; typically, it's Anub'arak's burrowing that throws attempts off. Good news to those of you working towards your Red Proto-Drake: the time limit on Gotta Go! is being doubled to four minutes in 3.0.8. Many groups were getting quite close to two minutes before, so this change ought to make it relatively easy.
New achievements and mount rewards in beta build 8962
Like most Wrath beta patches, build 8962 comes packing new achievements. This patch doesn't have a massive list like some previous builds, but what it does have is pretty cool: Leading the Cavalry - Obtain 75 mounts, be rewarded with an Albino Drake. For the Alliance! - Slay the leaders of the Horde, be rewarded with a Black War Bear. For the Horde! - Slay the leaders of the Alliance, be rewarded with a Black War Bear. Glory of the Hero - Complete all of the Heroic Dungeon achievements, be rewarded with a Red Proto-Drake. Glory of the Raider - Complete the Normal Difficulty raid achievements, be rewarded with a Plagued Proto-Drake. Heroic: Glory of the Raider - Complete the Heroic Difficulty raid achievements, be rewarded wtih a Black Proto-Drake. What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been - Complete the World Event achievements, be rewarded with a Violet Proto-Drake. (Note: World events means holidays here, like Brewfest, not things like the Ahn'qiraj gate event.) The rewards are definitely the most noteworthy part of this. Wrath of the Lich King is introducing a ton of new mounts, so it won't surprise me to see massive diversity in what people are using after the expansion has been out for awhile. There are plenty that come from things other than Achievements as well, but we'll get to those later.[ via MMO-Champion ]
