Breakfast Topic: The not-so-easy achievements
If you're like many of us, you've probably looked at the Achievement system coming to the game in patch 3.02, picked a few favorites, and considered getting some of them done before Wrath hits and all hell breaks loose. The last few weeks before an expansion tend to be relatively relaxed and quiet, leaving you with plenty of time to, say, Explore Kalimdor, visit zones you may have missed for 1500 Quests, or just convince more factions that you're really not so bad.Some Achievements, however, are a little tougher, particularly those that will reward your character with a special title or mount. While I'm not sure I want to think about what something like For the Alliance! is going to be like, the one that I'm most concerned about is the Fishing Diplomat one. It's an an achievement needed for Accomplished Angler, and requires you to fish something up in both Orgrimmar and Stormwind. My main is a Tauren Druid, so fishing anything in Orgrimmar is a piece of cake. Stormwind, less so. While I can stealth into the city easily enough, fishing necessarily leaves you exposed for a period of 15-20 seconds. I don't think it'd bother me as much as it does if it weren't for the team of bored Alliance on my realm who typically camp quest objectives during holiday events. While I somehow doubt they've got the numbers or inclination to cover every inch of the Stormwind canals, I'm equally doubtful that my eight-foot cow's presence in the city will go unnoticed.
I don't really have that much to worry about compared to the Hordies going after Old Ironjaw (in Ironforge) or Alliance going after Old Crafty (in Orgrimmar) for the Old Ironjaw and Old Crafty achievements respectively (what sadist came up with the idea of having you fish for a 0.1% drop in an enemy city?), but one thing's certain: some achievements are going to be more taxing than others.
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Fermac Oct 9th 2008 8:05AM
Can't you disguise as a pirate and hope no overzealous alliance player sees your red name for 15 secs?
Kaidou Oct 9th 2008 8:14AM
Better yet
http://www.wowhead.com/?item=1973 turns you into a gnome.
Ravdoss Oct 9th 2008 9:05AM
Hahaha... any player who has been around awhile will pick off a horde disguised as a gnome. The red name remains no matter what and of course NPCs are not fooled by disguises.
Doh Oct 9th 2008 2:46PM
If there a sadist involved, my vote is for kalgan.
sephirah Oct 9th 2008 8:10AM
Set your alarm clock between 4 and 6 a.m.
You shouldn't meet too many players at that time in the morning... yawn...
Adbiku Oct 9th 2008 8:12AM
Definitely why they're defined as "Achievements". Not trying to rag on you, but I think that they should have some element of danger or difficulty to be worth anything.
Fishing for the 0.1% drops though.... I think sadist might be understating the issue a bit.
On an off note, and begging forgiveness for my lack of knowledge... is there a list of the achievements available anyplace? I don't need something that is 100% complete, just a rough guide and a starting point.
Thanks, and good luck fishing. What kind of cow runs around with a rod anyways???
sephirah Oct 9th 2008 8:15AM
Not sure if up to date, but however:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?achievements
Adbiku Oct 9th 2008 8:46AM
Absolutely delightful. I should have thought to check the mecca of knowledge. Thank you very much. Now to sit and dream my whimsical dreams of being an over achiever.
One further question, I scrolled through the list of 934 achievements, not sure if I missed it... are there any achievements based on the number of achievements you've completed? There should be.
Connor Murphy Oct 9th 2008 2:28PM
Is there a list anywhere of the titles earned through achievements? I definitely want to pick an achievement title and work towards it but I haven't found a list of them yet... and plodding through all nine-hundred-something isn't my idea of a fun afternoon. If only wowhead had a filtering system....
Adbiku Oct 9th 2008 2:41PM
I saw a few here and there, simply by flipping through. I don't know of a list on wowhead, other then simply examing each achievement. One thing that might help is that a large volume of them are chained together, and if you can eliminate large blocks it goes a ways towards narrowing your search. Check the top achievement in each series, ya know?
Evelinda Oct 10th 2008 4:22AM
There's a list of new titles over at wotlk wiki, which seems pretty complete... theres a fair few there at any rate :)
http://wotlkwiki.info/index.php/Guide/Titles
MooGooGaiPan Oct 9th 2008 8:25AM
You should be able to fish in bear form and just swipe the fish out of the water ;)
h8rain Oct 9th 2008 8:49AM
That would make fishing safer and more in an enemy city!
JPN Oct 9th 2008 8:29AM
15 - 20 seconds might be an overstatement. If you're lucky you're looking at 5 seconds or so. Just depends on how quickly you can get a bite. Plus rogues can vanish and try again :) I agree with the above commenter though, off hours would be best.
Sarem Oct 9th 2008 8:34AM
Have they revealed and I missed some reason to care about achievements? Or , is it just straight Epeen-no-lifer.
I personally don't see any reason to "work" at achievements, we old world played chars will have lots anyway. But what is the purpose?
Alamtor Oct 9th 2008 8:38AM
How many times have you found yourself running around Shat looking, or even waiting, for something to do (BG, instance, whatever)? Why not spend some of that time working on an achievement. The main idea is to keep the player busy
CaffeineRage Oct 9th 2008 8:42AM
Some of the achievements gives rewards, for example the one that has you killing leaders gives a black war bear mount.
The meta achievement for fishing gives the title "Salty", I personally like the cooking title of "Chef" better.
Flint Oct 9th 2008 8:43AM
There's some minor prizes for some achievements, but I'm personally in it for the fun collecting part. Plus they give me something new to do after hitting the level cap and doing most of the interesting leftover quests after that.
Clasifyd Oct 9th 2008 8:43AM
The biggest draw, in my opinion, is going to be the titles and mounts that the achievements provide. The Proto-drakes, as far as I know, are only obtainable through achievements, and look terribly awesome.
p3ngu11 Oct 9th 2008 8:43AM
i don't see the point either; except that every other game these days has them.
it's just another thing for people to do...