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The OverAchiever: Guide to Hallow's End 2012
Every week, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. Today, our yearly sugar rush. Hallow's End 2012 begins on Thursday, Oct. 18 and runs through Wednesday, Oct. 31 this year. As with most of the game's holidays, Hallow's End is required for the yearlong meta What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been that grants the Violet Proto-Drake. Completing the required Hallow's End achievements will also award the title the Hallowed. Last year, Blizzard added some major updates and improvements to the holiday, one of which completely eliminated the hassle behind one of WoW's most hideous RNG nightmares, and one of which left us with two very badass non-combat pets. In essence, Tricky Treats -- once a vomit-inducing item that dropped in spades from the holiday boss, the Headless Horseman -- are now a form of currency that players can use to buy pets, masks, wands, and other holiday items. 2011 also introduced a new set of quests associated with Hallow's End, one of which sends you into an enemy city without the fear of ugly death. Bottom line: If you weren't around for last year's holiday, a lot of stuff may interest you this year. If you were around for last year, you'll still be interested, as the Headless Horseman's set of dropped epics are a lot more compelling at the beginning of an expansion. Hardcore achievement hunters will also be pleased to note an additional 10 points in the form of Tricks and Treats of Pandaria. As with most of our holiday guides, I've arranged the achievements in the rough order they should be completed, noting which achievements are required for the meta and which aren't.
The Queue: Vanilla Coke edition
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.Hey, everybody! How's your Friday afternoon so far? Mine is full of rain and Vanilla Coke. Mmm. Delicious Vanilla Coke. You know, I'm definitely a Mountain Dew man, and Voltage is my lifeblood, but some days you just want something else. I couldn't drink Vanilla Coke every day, but cracking one open now and then? Caffeinated heaven.* Now, if I can just find my dentures, I'll start answering your questions...Hellscreamy asked... A few days ago I read in one of the posts that Noblegarden would be getting new achievements, items and events. Is there any indication at the moment (PTR or otherwise) that this will count towards the 'What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been' achievement?
Breakfast Topic: Starting the year with fail
It's probably not a good sign, but I started the year off with fail. I had wanted to reach Merrymaker but unfortunately, I never got my cooking up to speed and my last minute rush to level my cooking was a bit too last minute and the seasonal event wrapped up before I could learn Hot Apple Cider. With mere minutes to go, actually. It's kind of like how I only needed the Hallowed Helm to complete Hallowed Be Thy Name. My wife had her own share of fail, too, when she her Mysterious Egg hatched into an Aged Yolk for the third time in a row on New Year's Day. Instead of looking at them as bad omens, why not take things like these as some form of catharsis? Start the year right by getting all those bad vibes out the way. It's always best to start with fail than end with it, right? Yeah, positive thinking. So what about you? Have you gotten anything particularly unsavory to start the year? Maybe losing a roll by 1 point to get that weapon? Disconnected during the last match of a 9-0 Hot Streak? Let's get all that bad energy out and hope everything goes well from here.
An end to Hallow's End
Hallow's End went away today at 4am server time, just as sneakily as it arrived. The end of the Seasonal Event brought to a close about a month of the Scarlet Monastery being just about the most popular instance in the game. Some players ended the event completing the Meta-Achievement while others, like myself, fell short. With a mere twenty-eight minutes to go, I rounded up a bunch of guildies and used up about five summons to try and complete Sinister Calling.While I ended up missing the Hallowed Helm, two Squashling pets dropped out of five tries, which was a pretty good deal for the short time we had. We ran out of time on the last summon... as my guildie completed the quest to call out the Headless Horseman, he was able to utter the challenge but nothing came out from the grave. In fact, as the clock struck precisely at 4pm, the giant pumpkin disappeared, leaving us stupefied.It was a fun Hallow's End event, even if it did get rudely interrupted by zombies. I hope that unlike me, most of you got what you needed from the event. The mount would've been nice, but I suppose there's always next year. By that time, I hope Blizzard will update the encounter for Level 80 with matching new loot. The Headless Horseman has about 12 months to level up.
Breakfast Topic: Last minute tasks for Hallow's End
The Hallow's End event is set to end in a couple of days. During its first years, the event was merely a way to get some moderately useful candy. Last year, the introduction of the Headless Horseman gave away some pretty sweet loot, giving everybody reason to visit the least popular wing of the Scarlet Monastery. Actually, before the Headless Horseman arrived on the scene, quite a lot of players had never even gone into that part of the instance!So anyway, this year Hallowed's End came along with the introduction of Achievements, and a lot of players have gone after the Meta-Achievement Hallowed Be Thy Name. Some people want it for the title, others merely as a component of the Meta-Meta-Achievement that grants a Violet Proto-Drake flying mount. My wife already has the Hallowed title in the bag for her Warlock, and the Squashling was pet number 45 towards getting herself a skunk. I just used the trick or treating to level up my Hunter -- at over 4,350 xp per bucket and the reduced XP requirement, I actually got lots of bubbles in. How about you? Have you been enjoying Hallow's End? The zombie invasion caused a bit of havoc for some people, and I'm sure it led to more than a few aborted Horseman visits, but now that its over, we can all go back to enjoying the Seasonal event in relative peace. What last minute tasks have you yet to accomplish? I know a lot of folks still need those elusive Tooth Picks, while others got really lucky with their treat bags and got the pet and helm. Daniel asked this a few days back, so I'm gonna see how everyone's done so far. With only a couple of days to go, I hope everyone's gotten what they want or need!
Breakfast Topic: The elusive achievements of Hallow's End
I have to admit. Achievements were a pretty bright idea. Holiday achievements, even more so. Now I have something to keep me focused through the holiday seasons, keep my eyes on the prize so to speak. For example, with Hallow's End fully underway, I've been racking up the achievements on my Hunter, looking to get that title. It's a nice goal to strive for. It's a good thing that the A Mask for All Occasions requirement will be off Hallowed Be Thy Name in 3.0.3, or I'd be in trouble. Collecting one of each different mask? Please. Actually, I haven't even managed to collect one single mask, leaving The Mask Task woefully undone. I'm not sure what it is, but even doing 3-5 Trick or Treats a day, I have not managed to get one of those flimsy things on my Hunter. In past Hallow's Ends, I seemed to be destroying masks constantly, saying not nice things under my breath. This year, I pray for one, and instead have to deal with Penny Pouches and Candy Corn and costumes and no sign of a Mask. The random number generator just hasn't been kind to me. As it is, I was afraid that the toothpicks would do me in. I didn't even get a set of Tooth Picks on my Hunter until yesterday. The other item I need to finish out my Hallowed Title is the Hallowed Helm, which comes both from the Headless Horseman and Trick or Treating. I've seen it drop from the Horseman a few times, but I've always lost the rolls. But it's a rare drop, a low drop rate and a bit of luck should be expected to be needed for this stuff. But here's the funny thing: I have actually found Hallowed Helms while Trick or Treating. The problem is, I got them on 2 of my alts, my Paladin and my Warlock. Not exactly useful for my Hunter. But I keep trick or treating, praying my Hallowed Helm luck will strike one more time, and in the meantime admire how badass my Warlock looks with a pumpkin head. How goes your achievement hunt? Do you have one or two Hallow's End Achievements that just keep eluding you? For that matter, how's your luck on the Headless Horseman? I know that despite having done a run a day on him, I have yet to see a sword, a horse, or a flying broom, so I'm interested to find if anyone is seeing those in abundance.
Squashling, Hallowed Helm trick-or-treatable
Like many of you, I've been heading into the Scarlet Monastery to fight the Headless Horseman every day since Hallow's End started. It's a fun fight, I like the Magic Broom, and I've gotten some decent rings for my off-specs, but the main attraction, at least for me, is a chance at some rare drops: the pet, the hat, and the mount. The first two of these, in addition to being pretty cool on their own, are required for the Sinister Calling achievement, which is in turn required for the Hallowed Be Thy Name meta-achievement. I've taken him down a couple dozen times at this point. I've seen the hat twice (didn't get it either time), I've never seen the pet drop, and I don't think anyone on my server has gotten the mount. Some people in the forums are a bit upset about the drop rates on the pet and the hat, given that they're required for the achievement - they don't like the fact that the meta-achievement requires a chance-based event. I have some good news for those people, via Wow_Ladies: it seems that the Sinister Squashling and the Hallowed Helm both have a chance to come out of the Treat Bags that you can get from trick-or-treating once an hour. This doesn't make it less chance-based, but it does raise your chances, although I imagine the chance to get either of those items from trick-or-treating is very low. Still, if you're interested in getting these items, stay on top of those one-hour cooldowns. [thanks, Flairy]
Hallow's End 2008 guide (updated)
>>Click here for WoW.com's Guide to Hallow's End 2009<< Hallow's End is scheduled to begin in a few hours, and you know we loves us some candy. There's been a big change to the Achievement needed to get the "Hallowed" title (it's actually gotten a lot easier), the Headless Horseman has a new loot table, and -- well, it's been a year since we've seen it anyway, so here's a round-up of WoW Insider's articles on Hallow's End. As an FYI, we're also expecting patch 3.03 to hit alongside Hallow's End, and it should contain a number of bug fixes for problems that have cropped up since 3.02 hit Tuesday and some class tweaks. With that said, nobody's 100% certain of what's actually going to go live, so check back; we should have more information this weekend.Read on for a guide to the holiday quests, the new Achievement related to the holiday, and some fun stuff you can do ingame til November 1st!EDIT (11:50 pm EST): we've confirmed a few changes to the holiday with some readers on the EU realms, and I've updated the post.
