Hallowed-Helm
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Breakfast Topic: Hallow's End ends
This is it, the end of Hallow's End. Let's make today's Breakfast Topic a quick one... how did your Hallow's End go? Were you able to obtain everything you needed? It took me logging on every hour on the hour (alright, on the hour when I remembered it, anyway) to get the Hallowed Helm which I didn't manage to pick up last year. Along the way, I lined my bags with an assortment of wands, loads of ridiculous masks that still didn't complete A Mask for All Occasions, and enough Tooth Picks to make a family of sharks sparkly clean. I finally got it with forty-something hours to spare, after five straight tricks from Innkeeper Gryshka. How did you fare? Did you manage to get The Hallowed title on all your characters? Were you able to beat the Headless Horseman into coughing up more candy? Did you go around making those emotes just to get treats for those kids? Time's run out on this World of Warcraft holiday, so share your in-game stories about this past week or so.
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: 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]
Planning for the Hallow's End title
A lot of folks found the article on planning for the Brewmaster title helpful, so we thought we'd put one together for the upcoming Hallow's End holiday as well. Getting all of the sub-Achievements for the Hallowed Be Thy Name Achievement will reward the title "The Hallowed," but frankly I think this one is going to be a little tougher than the Brewfest one. As with Brewfest, part of the Achievement is going to depend on getting very lucky with a drop, but it's also going to depend on getting lucky with a few other things.This, however, is going to be the first holiday after patch 3.02 hits with the Achievement system firmly in place, so you'll be able to track Achievements ingame for the first time (by the way, "Y" is the default hotkey for pulling up your Achievement screen). Even if you're not interested in the Achievement, you have another reason to participate, at least for the Headless Horseman kills: we're pretty sure his loot table's been updated and expanded, and you'll have a chance at a permanent mount drop (his horse, not the temporary broomsticks from last year).But if you want to be (Your Name Here) The Hallowed?
