Forum post of the day: Happy Hallow's End, or is it?
by Amanda Dean 
Oct 22nd 2008 at 1:00PM
It seems the jury is out on this year's Hallow's End celebration. Chakras of Cenarius is loving the event. She's excited about the holiday achievements. In her thread she was met with agreement from many posters. Ritsuka of the Thorium Brotherhood agreed that it's been fun to farm decent gear off an easy boss with her friends. Halloween is a favorite holiday amongst many WoW players, and it's a good addition to the game.
Not everyone is entirely thrilled with their experiences so far. Some folks are frustrated that they've not yet gotten the Sinister Squashling or the Horseman's helm despite many attempts. Some like Crexia of Hyjal have made better than twenty-five attempts today without seeing either of those items drop all. Her attitude is to try again tomorrow since Blizzard has stated that there will not be a change to the event. (EDIT: though now it appears you can get these items from trick or treating and Blizzard has stated the drop rates of the pet are significantly higher than last year.) On the other hand Orcshock of Archimonde reported seeing two drops out of five attempts today. Such is our fate when using Random Number Generators (RNG).
I have to admit, since the patch I've had other goals in mind so I've turned down most invites for holiday groups. So how has your Hallow's End been?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Instances, Forum Post of the Day
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Bloodletter Oct 22nd 2008 1:04PM
Not sure about the US servers, but due to insane amounts of Q_Q on the Eu forums, it's now possible to get the Hallowed Helm and Sinister Squashling through Trick or Treating an innkeeper every hour.
The drop chance of the squashling and helm from ToTing is actually quite high (estimated to be at 30%)
You have a much higher chance of getting a pet or hallowed helm rather than a toothpick.
Coming from a person who farmed the HH mercilessly to get both pet and helm, this recent change (yesterday) makes me VERY angry.
rick gregory Oct 22nd 2008 1:16PM
Um.. what? Are you sure about this or is it something people have claimed on the boards? Neither of those is available outside of the HH event as far as I know and they shouldn't be. They're SUPPOSED to be rare. If they're not, what's the point in having one - it's no longer an accomplishment.
Sanic Oct 22nd 2008 1:18PM
He's right, but I'd put the % at lower then 30, I cycled through 8 characters over the course of 3 hours and my level 31 hunter got it.
Was kinda dubious of it myself, but its there.
Believe it or don't. I'd recommend alt cycling just to confirm it for yourself as well, otherwise theres always that shadow of a doubt.
kodan Oct 22nd 2008 1:21PM
I just got the Helm from ToT on an EU server
Cryptorchild Oct 22nd 2008 1:37PM
30% may be a little high, but possibly not far off. Since the hotfix yesterday to the bags and title, my first round this morning netted me both the Squashling and Hallowed Helm on different characters. (Did ToT on 7) Definitely nice Blizz did that so not only can lower levels get a crack at them, but the achievement for 'the Hallowed' is so damned hard anymore.
Suzushiro Oct 22nd 2008 2:01PM
Welcome to killing any pre-nerf raid boss ever.
Seriously, though, I think what made them change this this is the amount of farming/RNG-dependance in getting this (and by extension the main hallow's end achievement) vs. any other holiday achievement. Look through the other holiday achievements on wowhead, the only one I caught that even requires a random drop is the Brewfest mount one.
Ryan11 Oct 22nd 2008 2:27PM
His observation is indeed correct. Confirmed in blue.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=11676578647&pageNo=3&sid=1#45
Shadowisp Oct 22nd 2008 1:04PM
3 Horses dropped so far, lost rolls, wouldnt of been so bad but I found out the nubs are all Alts and none had epic flying. *facepalm*
Thank my guildies for graciously passing to me the Squashling, finished the achievements for the title (3.0.3) and was the last "rare" item I need for getting the Proto-Drake after day 1 of Brewfest 2009 :P
offday Oct 22nd 2008 1:07PM
Kinda bummed I'm only level 51. I was hoping to be near 70 by the time Hallow's End came around. Darn college. But the other quests have been a lot of fun. Gotta love those penny pouches.
Biglebowski Oct 22nd 2008 1:10PM
I've killed HH about 50 times since the event opened and have only seen the squashling once. I've never seen the mount.
I farmed this thing early and often last year, and only saw the squashline once and the helm once, which I lost on a roll to a guildie.
I got the helm this year, but after 13 months of being lvl 70, I have 2 helms that are better DPS options, anyways.
Oddly enough, in my Trick or Treating, I've not gotten any wands and it seems like I had a million of them last year.
Mitch Oct 22nd 2008 1:38PM
I've killed him over 50 times as well except NOT ONE pet has dropped. I've seen the cloth helm a bunch of times and the mail helm a couple, but not one pet.
::sigh::
Guintof Oct 22nd 2008 2:21PM
Had the squashling since last year and managed to get the helm and all other achievements except the mask ones.
I am now missing a simple mask (Any mask will do) for the title but the innkeepers refuse to give me one despite me trick or treating every hour at least 4 or 5 times a day :(
Oh and yeah ppl were quite surprised when everybody was getting squashlings and helms out of the trick or treat bags :P. So much for a nice achievement that's difficult to get.
Rihlsul Oct 22nd 2008 1:12PM
I'm pretending there's no event going on at all. To give in to the obsession will kill me.
VSUReaper Oct 22nd 2008 1:13PM
My friends (and some of their guildies) are calling me a good luck charm for them. Whenever they roll into summon the HH, there is a 1 out of 5 chance that the helm, the broom, or the pet will drop. There is also a 99% chance that I will loose the roll with a 10 or less....
But seriously, I have seen the helm and pet drop an astounding 40 times now, and I have lost every single roll except one (for the helm). And the only reason I won that roll was because everyone in the party felt sorry for me and passed. Btw, I still rolled a 3. RNG hates me.
Arcaria Oct 22nd 2008 1:17PM
Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the winner of "The RNG Hates Me Most" contest. Luckily, the people you group with don't feel the same way.
herjo Oct 22nd 2008 1:14PM
*cough*bullshit*cough*
Kolo Oct 22nd 2008 1:14PM
LOL im so happy, i got the pet from trick or treating today, and then got it a 2nd time! Same thing happened to my guildie.
Im all done with halloween achievements, now to get the title in 3.0.3
Also it was my 50th pet, so i have the skunk :D
Great day.
Evan Oct 22nd 2008 1:15PM
I've been trying to farm the HH every day, and I haven't seen the mount or the pet drop yet. Tons of rings though... tons of rings...
It's sort of fustrating to have the hallowed title hinge on two rare drops off the same mob, but I guess titles are meant to be hard to earn right?
Anyway, i'm a little sad that the Random wand dosen't count for the wand tranformations achievement, and even more sad that the specific transformation wands are rare enough that people are selling the charges on them. I enjoyed how people would just randomly pirate or ninja up their 5 man groups last year. Now it seems transformations come at a cost.
Bemaha Oct 22nd 2008 1:19PM
I spent twenty or so minutes in Stormwind offering to trade wand charges with people who had what I didn't and vice versa. It's a nice way to chat with people you might have never met. I have yet to pay for a charge and all I need is a bat costume. Keep your chin up!
JPN Oct 22nd 2008 1:43PM
Transforms were going for about 5g on my server...so 35g to spend total is nothing you can't get so easily from dailies. Now they're cheaper.