pilgrims-bounty
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Taiwanese player earns all of the achievements
Yes, that's right, all of them. You've probably heard about this already (we're a little late to the party, just because it seemed a little fishy to us at first), but a player in Taiwan has an Armory profile that claims he (or she, though the character is a male tauren druid) has achieved all 986 achievements available in the current version of World of Warcraft. That's everything, from Loremaster, to all the ToGC Tributes, to the Pilgrim's Bounty holiday rewards, even Insane in the Membrane. If there's something you can do in WoW, this guy seems to have done it. He hasn't finished this year's Winter's Veil achievement yet (it's not actually possible until the 15th), but he has done a PvP achievement twice, apparently, so he's still 986/986. I'm still a little doubtful: as you can see above, the Feats of Strength bar looks like it's empty, but this guy actually has lots of Feats done as well, including all of the realm first feats (including First Aid, and Leatherworking, all within days of each other). It just doesn't seem possible that one character could do all of that. But it all seems to check out, so we'll give him his due: Congratulations, "Littlegray" of Wrathbringer. And just in case you hadn't heard: there are other games to play. Update: I thought Insane in the Membrane was an achievement, but it is actually a Feat, and he does not have it. Thanks commenters for the clarification.
Cooking after Pilgrim's Bounty
So you took advantage of Blizzard's little Cooking leg up during Pilgrim's Bounty (don't be ashamed, I did, too), and you want to know: what's next? The holiday let you level up all the way to 350 Cooking with easily purchased vendor items, which was awesome, but cooking tops out at 450, so maybe you're wondering how to get up there. Let us help. You may not have made it all the way to 350 during the holiday -- if you need to nab a few other points, you'll have to head to Outland and level up there for a little bit. Talbuk Steak is a good one to do if you need that extra boost -- it's vendor purchased, easily farmable (or buyable on the AH), and the Stam boost isn't bad. Once you've hit 350, then you'll need to head to Northrend. You can train at the cooking trainers in the faction inns in Dalaran. You'll probably also want to stop off and pick up the Northern Cooking quest, as Northern Stew will help you get relatively easily to 375. After that, it's time for the booze.
WoW Insider Show Episode 118: Taking sides
We had a great time as always on last weekend's podcast -- Kelly "Cadistra" Aarons and C. Christian Moore (a.k.a. Colby, a.k.a. C-money) joined us on the podcast to talk about comics and PvP, respectively, and we hit on the most popular posts of the past week as well, including wrapping up Pilgrim's Bounty, our favorite memories of the game for the fifth anniversary, and how GDKP works -- both in terms of mechanics and as a loot system. Additionally, we talked again about the Dungeon Finder system and how it will affect the game, as well as why Blizzard probably won't provide any more character slots per realm, even in Cataclysm. And we hear some more great fan-made intros -- if you'd like to send us one (or anything else, really), the address as always is theshow@wow.com. Thanks for listening and enjoy! Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
It came from the Blog: We partied like pilgrims
Last Wednesday night, It came from the Blog got together to Party like Pilgrims. We got some Pilgrim's Bounty achievements and won some loot. Unfortunately, the Guild Roster gets buggy when there are more than 500 members. So I don't know exactly how many showed up, but I estimate it at around 240 over the course of the event. Blog Overlords Adam Holisky, Michael Gray, Matt Low and Kelly Aarons were there. Adam held a trivia quiz and gave out some loot codes to speedy contestants. And, of course, I was there, but I am the brood Blog Mother. We had a great time and really enjoyed running around with everyone. And of course, we took pictures. We have more events planned soon. Expect a Battleground Bonanza, a Hogger/Faire excursion and some Feast of Winter Veil fun all in December. We hope you'll join us! %Gallery-79024%
Breakfast Topic: Did you meet your Pilgrims Bounty goals?
Thanks to an obliging (and naked) dwarf rogue in Dalaran, I was able to obtain my Pilgrim title without much trouble. Well, trying to get the Turkinator on the first day was definitely "much trouble", but waiting a few days for Tirisfal Glades to empty out proved to be the less frustrating course. For my alts, I was happy just leveling my cooking on the cheap... and getting a level here and there. Pilgrim's Bounty was a great opportunity for easily working on what I consider a necessary secondary profession. This first instance of Blizzard's version of the U.S.'s Thanksgiving Day holiday didn't have any bosses with fun loot, and wasn't included as part of the meta, but it was casual fun without much time expended. And I am very fond of my suicidal turkey, though disappointed he didn't try to hook up with the Lonely Turkey. Were you able to do all you wanted to in this holiday? Did you enjoy it or is there something you wish they would change for next year?
The Care and Feeding of Warriors: A Warrior's Bounty
The Care and Feeding of Warriors is about tree sloths. Why do you do this to me? We all know it's about warriors as written by an extremely hairy man who crouches in a dark corner of his apartment muttering about block value vs block rating until his wife hits him with the hose. Matthew Rossi fears the hose. Completely unrelated to anything even tangentially warrior in WoW: Dragon Skin Armor. We're one step closer to gigantic magical battle axes being viable in modern warfare. Since it's a holiday in the States (which I'm from, although not currently residing in) and because I'll take any excuse to gorge myself on turkey flesh and loll around in a swollen food coma (like, say, last week, when I used the fact that I'd washed red clothing with white clothing and now have a lovely pair of bright pink underwear and I don't care if you know) I thought this week we could compile a list of things we, as warriors, can be grateful for. If it's really an issue for you, assume it's Pilgrim's Bounty of something. Anyway, let's you and I get our best grateful faces on (that's me being grateful up there, in case you couldn't tell) and discuss things we as warriors can appreciate. Charge/Intercept/Intervene - I'm not sure what people in Azeroth actually pray to when they pray to the Light... it seems like an abstract benevolence slightly akin to the Force from the Star Wars series...but whatever it is, thanks for Charge and its iterations, boy howdy. No other ability can be seen to be as iconic and representative of a class (only Death Grip and Totems come close) as the warrior ability to get from point A to point B in order to put point C into something, or prevent point D from going into that helpful person in a leather miniskirt or what have you.
Pilgrim's Bounty ends today
Pilgrim's Bounty ends tonight at 1 minute before midnight, server time. That means today is the last day to do the following: Get really frustrated fighting people for wild turkeys. Hit people in the head with cranberries. Crash the opposing faction's dinner parties. Coerce a druid for a chance at the Raven Lord while wearing Puritan attire. Go from 0 to 350+ in Cooking quickly, easily, cheaply. Even if you aren't interested in chasing turkeys and looking like a Mayflower reject, I highly recommend taking advantage of leveling Cooking. To get the Winter Veil Gourmet during the Feast of Winter Veil, you'll need 325 cooking. And of course there are all of those yummy food buffs. For a complete list of Pilgrim's Bounty achievements, please see our OverAchiever Guide. Have fun with your last minute, food-related fun!
Listen to the WoW Insider Show today at 3:30pm Eastern
Our podcast (which is nominated for a Podcast Award, by the way -- this is the last time we'll ask you to vote for us over there, since voting ends on November 30th) is headed back to the virtual airwaves as usual, and this week we're bringing two new voices into the mix. We'll welcome not only C. Christian Moore, informally known as Colby, to the show (he's the new author of our PvP Blood Sport column), but also Kelly Aarons, informally known as Cadistra, both of WoW Eh and our brand new comic here on WoW.com. Should be a lot of fun -- they'll chat with Turpster and I about the biggest stories of the past week, including Pilgrim's Bounty and some superfast cooking leveling, the game's 5th anniversary and what things were like back when it all began, and this GDKP system everyone's using, as well as other player-created looting systems. Sounds like a full show (and that doesn't even include answering your emails and our other silliness). It all kicks off at 3:30pm Eastern/8:30pm GMT this afternoon over on our Ustream page (or on your iPhone or iPod touch, or just after the break if you want to do it that way) and if you are listening live, don't forget to show up a little early for the pre-show, and stay a little later for the aftershow. Hope to see you this afternoon!
Breakfast Topic: What are you thankful for?
It's Pilgrim's Bounty, folks, and that means that it's a time for family. A time for friends. A time for giving. A time for mercilessly slaughtering hundreds of thousands of helpless game birds. And a time, of course, to be thankful. While you stuff your polygonal face with potatoes, pie, and, of course, the ol' bird, remember to keep that in mind. So, on that note ... What on Azeroth are you thankful for this Pilgrim's Bounty? What's warming your heart besides cholesterol? Me, I'm thankful for heirloom items. I'm thankful for The Art of War and Judgments of the Wise. I'm thankful for Predatory Strikes and Lightning Overload. I'm thankful for my readers and my faction leaders. And you guys? How about you? Pass the gravy and let us know.
Reminder: It came from the Blog Pilgrim Party tonight
You are cordially invited to party like a Pilgrim tonight with It came from the Blog! Here are the details: When: 11pm EST (8pm PST, 9pm Server time) Wednesday, November 25th Where: Meet at the Ruins of Lordaeron (Undercity) on Zangarmarsh (U.S.) Who: Any Horde character of any level. No mounts required. How: Ask Robinator, Robinella, Robiness or any It came from the Blog Lurker or above for an invite to the guild. What: We will be gaining some Pilgrim's Bounty Achievements: Food Fight!, Sharing is Caring and Pilgrim's Paunch. Robinator will be providing ports to each city (as long as I don't just port myself like I did the other night), so there will be no need for mounts or flightpaths. We may have a few WoW.com bloggers join us for the fun and we also may (no guarantees) give out some loot codes. Regardless, we should have a good time filling up the tables and throwing food at each other while spamming up guildchat with Achievements. If you have any questions about our guild, please see our FAQ. Hope to see you there!
The best of WoW.com: November 17-24, 2009
Happy Pilgrim's Bounty, everybody! That's the brand new Thanksgiving holiday going on right now in the World of Warcraft, where you can level up your cooking for cheap, chase turkeys around in-game, and even earn yourself the title of "Pilgrim." You'll find information about Pilgrim's Bounty and everything else in Warcraft over on Joystiq's sister site, WoW.com. Check out the links after the break for much, much more.
It Came from the Blog server outage party
When Emberstorm and Whirlwind battlegroups went down due to a massive power outage and nastiness resulting from it, we invited displaced players to join us in our It came from the Blog guild on Zangarmarsh. And they did. For the most part, it was a guildchat party, but many of us gathered for a picture outside of Silvermoon to commemorate the occasion. I also offered ports to Shattrath so people could set their hearthstones. I'm not used to giving ports, however, so I accidentally ported just myself on one occasion. Oops. Joining us for the party were Adam Holisky, Michael Sacco, Matt Low and Kelly Aarons. We all had a great time hanging out together and getting some cooking done. Just because we had this impromptu get together doesn't mean we're still not going to Party like Pilgrims on Wednesday night, however. Everyone is invited, so come join us at 11pm EST on Zangarmarsh, Wednesday night for some Pilgrim's Bounty fun.
It came from the Blog: Party like a Pilgrim
According to my sources, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. is the biggest drinking night of the year. I don't know if that's true, but if it is, that means the roads are more dangerous. So, in the interest of your safety, we are having an It came from the Blog Pilgrim Party that night. Ok, that's not the real reason. We are actually having the party at that time so that we will all still have time to get the Pilgrim title on our It came from the Blog characters before the event ends on Saturday -- if we so choose. Here are the particulars: When: 11pm EST (8pm PST, 9pm Server time) Wednesday, November 25th Where: Meet at the Ruins of Lordaeron (Undercity) on Zangarmarsh (U.S.) Who: Any Horde character of any level. No mounts required. How: Ask Robinator, Robinella, Robiness or any It came from the Blog Lurker or above for an invite to the guild. What: We will be gaining some Pilgrim's Bounty Achievements: Food Fight!, Sharing is Caring and Pilgrim's Paunch. There will probably be some cooking Achievements after the event as well. We will not, under any circumstances, be doing The Turkinator Achievement as that would be counterproductive with a large party. Speaking of inators, I have recently transferred my mage to Zangarmarsh and named her Robinator. She will provide portals for all to make the bouncing from city to city much easier. If you have any of the normal questions, like why Horde (coin toss), see the It came from the Blog FAQ. Please join us! Update: We may even be giving out some loot codes. Possibly. Perhaps. ... I hope.
Breakfast Topic: Pilgrim's Bounty and you
Pilgrim's Bounty, WoW's brand-new holiday, has gone live on all servers by now, and players worldwide are busy inhaling huge quantities of cranberries and stuffing in pursuit of the Pilgrim title and the uber-adorable turkey pet. I have to admit -- I was kind of worried that the first day of the holiday would be a nightmare along the lines of Noblegarden's egg-camping hell, but was pleasantly surprised by the fast respawn rate of the Wild Turkey mobs and the sheer number of them. I'm also optimistic that the holiday will encourage more people to level cooking, because once you're got the requisite cooking skill for the achievements, the Pilgrim title and turkey pet are fast, easy, and fun (or they would be, if I could just find the ever-elusive Dwarf rogue). But Pilgrim's Bounty isn't part of the meta-achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, so I'm wondering if anyone's just going to ignore it as a result. Are you planning on going for the Pilgrim title, enjoying the holiday in a more casual way, or not planning to participate at all? If you are participating in the holiday, how is it going on your server so far?
Pilgrim's Bounty FAQ
Around the feast areas, at least on my own server, I've seen the same questions keep popping up about the new holiday, Pilgrim's Bounty. I thought it might be helpful to try answering them here. By necessity, these are a little general; if you want a closer look at getting the holiday achievements, please read our updated guide to Pilgrim's Bounty achievements. Help! Where do I go to get started? Go to any of your faction's major cities and find the feasting area. For Alliance, head to Stormwind, Ironforge, or Darnassus: for Horde, head to Orgrimmar, Undercity, or Thunder Bluff. While you can start the holiday in either the Exodar or Silvermoon, it's a little faster to start in any of the "classic" cities because you don't pick up any quests in their BC counterparts.
The OverAchiever: Guide to Pilgrim's Bounty 2009
UPDATE: Pilgrim's Bounty is now live on my server as I write this at 4:30 AM EST Sunday, and this guide has been updated. We've also written a Pilgrim's Bounty FAQ to answer the more common questions we've seen concerning the holiday. Pilgrim's Bounty is a brand-new holiday that in 2009 will run between 1:00 am server time Sunday, November 22nd and 11:50 pm server time Saturday, November 28th. Because it's new, expect to see this post updated extensively in the 24 hours after the holiday goes live. We'll have new information on quests, items, and vendor locations, plus screenshots of WoW's newest holiday. As an FYI, Pilgrim's Bounty is not part of the yearlong meta What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been, so if you fall short on any of the achievements below, you're not running the risk of having to wait another year for a crack at a violet protodrake. However, you will miss out on the Pilgrim title and plump turkey pet that are rewards for completing the Pilgrim meta. Let's get started! "FOOD FIGHT!" (Alliance) and "FOOD FIGHT!" (Horde) This is a pretty simple achievement. The Bountiful Tables located around each capital's feasting area (all of them are very large and easy to spot) are actually vehicles. Each of the 5 chairs at the tables is dedicated to one of the specific dishes (mouse over them and you'll see them named "The Stuffing Chair" or "The Turkey Chair"), but for this achievement you don't need any particular food. Take a seat, target a fellow player at the table, and use the first option (to "pass" a dish), and rather than passing the dish you'll smack them over the head with it and get your achievement.
Cooking for the holidays
Artwair complains over on the forums that there is cooking required for the What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been achievement (that some of you have done -- grats! -- and others of you are deciding to do in the next year), saying that something as significant as leveling up Cooking all the way shouldn't be required for what is basically an optional achievement. But Kisirani replies with as good an answer as you'll find: the achievement is designed to send you all over the world, including to some professions and abilities that you wouldn't be leveling otherwise. Especially because the achievement is optional, it's not out-of-place to ask for some cooking to happen. And I'll add that cooking is worth leveling anyway -- not only does it get you some nice buffs, let you use up some of the trash collecting in you bags, and hook up your guild or raid with some excellent items, but it's pretty easy to do, especially if you do it with fishing (which is also very useful by itself).While she's at it, Kisirani also provides a nice tease at Pilgrim's Bounty, which isn't a part of the big meta-achievement anyway, but will have some extra recipes to find and cook, as well as a new Thanksgiving-style celebration (two words: "Turkey shooter"). Can't wait to see it.
Insider Trader: Patch 3.2 Q&A
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Patch 3.2 has been shaping up to be a welcome event for professions in World of Warcraft. Soon, we will all have access to the next "tier" of gems and profession-unique buffs. This week, I will be devoting the column space to answering some reader questions. Pre-patch notes and Public Test Realm data can often create confusion, especially when we know that anything could change before we ever see it live. At the very end, I have included a bit of a spoiler, although I attempted to keep the details to a minimum and the wild speculation to a maximum. Are the new flasks for Alchemists only? - JoemamaThe new flask is called Flask of the North and can only be used by Alchemists with a skill of at least 400. This flask is clearly inferior to the Wrath raiding flasks because it is meant to be used in arenas. While it should give you a bit of a boost, Blizzard does not want everyone suddenly becoming Alchemists in order to compete. Of course, if you play the game primarily for arena, then you might consider switching if you haven't already. The most exciting changes for Alchemists will likely be the new epic gem transmutes and the fact that potions will stack to 20.
New information found in patch 3.2 achievements
The first patch 3.2 PTR client is now available for download, which means it's available for datamining. The ever-resourceful people at wirebrain have done just this to all the achievements found in the client, and have unearthed some interesting new details. We are unable to verify this information right now, but here's what they've found. Read on after the cut for: A new holiday. The names of the bosses in the new raid and 5-man dungeon, and their related achievements. A new Vault of Archavon boss. To be clear, there will be spoilers.
