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Midsummer Fire Festival starts tomorrow!
There are a few unmistakable signs of summer -- the days get longer and the sun stays up later, the smell of barbeque drifts around the neighborhood, and oh yeah, the Midsummer Fire Festival starts. June 21, tomorrow, marks the start of the Midsummer Fire Festival in game, and this year we've heard that there's going to be some new things going on. In addition to all of the old festivities (firepole dancing and flame honoring, or desecrating), there are lots of new things to do as well -- Ahune the Frost Lord is threatening the Slave Pens (he's a boss similar to the popular Headless Horseman of Hallow's End), and there are new daily quests around, including a "torch tossing" event and a bounty on a Twilight Cult NPC.Stay tuned to WoW Insider -- we'll have coverage on all of the new stuff in game, as well as fill you in on exactly what's going down when during the Festival. It lasts until July 4th, and right around then there are also lots of terrific fireworks shows ingame as well -- those goblins really know how to put on a good time. The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events and a break down of Lord Ahune's loot table.
The best of WoW Insider: February 19-26, 2008
Quite a week in the World of Warcraft, which Joystiq sister site WoW Insider covers like a Warcraft Adventures-style bedsheet each and every single day. We continued to get lots of great information about patch 2.4 (including big news from the new raid instance,The Sunwell), and Heroics made a nice return to the news, with all the new badge loot. Oh, and we even had a liveblog go down straight from GDC. Here's our best stuff.News GDC08: Live form Rob Pardo's talk about Blizzard's approach to MMOsThe Senior VP of game design lays out what the big plan is for Blizzard's biggest game. PTR Notes: Patch note watch 2/20New buffs and nerfs continue to drop from the Public Test Realm as Blizzard gets the next patch ready to go live. 2.4 PvP sets gold and rep requirementsWhat you'll need to do to get what you want. Meet Lord AhuneBlizzard is also updating the Midsummer Fire Festival, and so here's the new Headless Horseman -- epics for everyone! Thrall gets a new Big Brother: US government wants to search for terrorists on WoWCould Bin Laden be hiding in Elwynn Forest? Features What does the Warlock Lifetap nerf mean?Lifetap got taken down a notch, but why is everyone up in arms about it? Breakfast Topic: Heroic PuGs from hellEveryone's been in a group like this, but being in a Heroic makes it even worse. Know Your Lore: The story of the Burning CrusadeThe expansion's lore is going to get wrapped up in the next patch, so here's what you need to know before we all go see the ending. Dress yourself up completely in Badge LootGot Heroic Badges? Now you can gear yourself all out. Hybrid Theory: What's a hybrid v2.0Our column on hybrid classes returns with a new writer and a new outlook on what it means to step across lines in the RPG class trinity.
Around Azeroth: The Brazier of Dancing Flames
While many players on the Public Test Realm and delving into the mysteries of Sunwell Terrace, Kadathwack of Cenarion Circle has been collecting Burning Blossoms. They are gathered during the Midsummer Fire Festival which, though not due until June, is currently on the PTR. He has turned in 350 Blossoms to acquire a new festival reward: the Brazier of Dancing flames. Worth the price?Do you have any unusual World of Warcraft images that are just collecting dust in your screenshots folder? Because we'd love to see it on Around Azeroth! Sharing your screenshot is as simple as e-mailing aroundazeroth@wow.com with a copy of your shot and a brief explanation of the scene. You could be featured here next! Remember to include your player name, server and/or guild if you want it mentioned. We prefer full screen shots without the UI showing. And please, no more sunsets. No, really. Ok, only if it's a sunrise in new Patch 2.4 lands. We'll take those anytime.%Gallery-1816%
Meet Lord Ahune
First off, I'd like to warn everyone that this post contains fairly detailed spoilers for the upcoming holiday, the Midsummer Fire Festival. If you'd like the details of the new boss to remain a surprise, this post probably isn't for you! But I know quite well that most WoW players can't stand not knowing what's what, so I'm sure many of you will continue.As mentioned in Daniel's post a few days ago, this Festival will bring us another Headless Horseman-esque boss, complete with phat lewts. You can check it all out on the PTR right now. Found within the Slave Pens, this boss, named Lord Ahune, is another Ragnaros look-alike. As you can probably guess from his appearance alone, Ahune is another lieutenant of the Elemental Lords, like Prince Thunderaaan. Ahune is serving one of the Lords in particular: Neptulon. Is this another bit of the story of Skar'this? Time will tell!The Lord Ahune encounter is an alternating two phase battle, again similar to the Headless Horseman. Without giving away too many details, be prepared to fight a number of adds in one of the two phases and have some burst damage queued up for the other. Most any group worth their salt should be able to put away Ahune relatively easily.While the battle is fun, the loot is funner. More fun? Funnerer.
Midsummer Fire Festival now active on the PTR
World Designer Kisirani has just announced that the Midsummer Fire Festival is now active on the PTR. While the Lunar Festival and Love is in the Air Events have mostly been about the same (aside from the occasional love rocket), it looks like the fire festival got some major additions this year, and they've activated the festival on the PTR a few months early so that they can be previewed and tested. New quests and a seasonal boss not unlike the Headless Horseman in the Slave Pens of Coilfang Reservoir will be awaiting us this summer. There is also a new quest chain that in part has you disguising yourself as a crab in order to spy on Twilight Cultists for the Earthen Ring, which sounds like enough fun in and of itself. The all levels quests have gotten a slight revamp as well. The quests to visit various smaller fires are gone, replaced by a quest to visit just one of the smaller fires. As well, there's now some torch tossing and catching games to play. In addition, the Burning Blossoms that once mostly took up space in your inventory (since you could only use so many for that buff) will now be useful for buying things at various Midsummer Suppliers, including a rather intriguing looking dress and pair of boots that promise to "add fire to your dance moves" when used, a brazier that looks like it may create that Firedancer Draenei we've seen from patch mining expeditions, some Midsummer Ground Flower fireworks, and a Bag of Smorc Supplies for making your own Toasted Smorcs. It sounds like this summer is going to be pretty hot indeed, and it's great to finally see some long awaited world event changes showing up. The Midsummer Fire Festival is upon us! Check out WoW Insider's complete quest guide to collect those Burning Blossoms as well as our guide on how to spend them. Also, don't forget to eyeball our screenshot gallery of Midsummer events. Finally, find out how to kill Lord Ahune, and check out our break down of his loot table.
It Came from the Blog: Running the fire festival
The Midsummer Fire Festival has come and gone -- but a group of enthusiastic readers in our It Came from the Blog guild got together celebrate the last night of the festival by running the Eastern Kingdoms festival quest. Our trip to the Eastern Plaguelands, the Hinterlands, Searing Gorge, and Blasted Lands was an absolute deathfest at our levels (ranging from 7 to the 30s) -- but I think everyone had fun, learned a bit about Azeroth's geography, and netted some swanky looking shoulders in the end. And, hey, even if you missed out, you can enjoy our adventure vicariously, through screenshots!Our journey, for those of you who wish to re-create it for your own amusement, started in the Undercity. From there we went through Western Plaguelands and into Eastern Plaguelands to pick up the first flame. (Most of us travelled on to pick up the flight path at Light's Hope Chapel.) Then we went back through Western Plaguelands and cut down to the Hinterlands (yes, there's a path near the bridge to Scholomance that sends you out right near Aerie Peak.) After picking up the Hinterlands flame, we continued on to the Horde flight path at Revantusk Village and then jumped into the water and swam south, down to the Wetlands. From there we ran through Loch Modan (meeting a friendly Gnome near the Thelsamar graveyard), through the Badlands (picking up the flight path at Kargath), and into Searing Gorge for the third flame. From here, we ran through Blackrock Mountain, into Redridge, through Duskwood, Deadwind Pass, and Swamp of Sorrows, finally winding up in the Blasted Lands for the forth flame. Finally, success!%Gallery-4565%
It Came from the Blog: Midsummer Fire Festival
There are only a few days remaining for Blizzard's Midsummer Fire Festival, so over in our It Came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh, we're going to take full advantage of the final days of the festival with a last minute run through high-level areas to collect our quest reward shoulders. You'll have to be at least level 7 to pick the quest up, and while the quest is going to be dangerous for the level of most of our players, we're going to make the run to the Blasted Lands, the Plaguelands, the Hinterlands, and Searing Gorge as a group. My advice: come expecting a few deaths and leave your armor in the bank.If this sounds like fun to you (or if those shoulders just look too cool to turn down), meet up with us in the throne room above Undercity at 6:00 PM server time (that's 8:00 PM EST) on this Wednesday, July 4th. Look forward to seeing you all there!
