The Northrend Gourmet has been a hot topic achievement since Northrend hit live realms, because it simply wasn't possible. Four of the required recipes were completely missing. As of the current PTR build, that's no longer true. Two of the recipes have been re-added to the game, and two recipes have been wiped out of existence. Not added to the game, but no longer an achievement requirement either.

Shoveltusk Soup and Succulent Orca Stew were the two that didn't make it back into the game, which makes one of 3.0.8's patch notes make a lot more sense. You know, the one about Shoveltusk Meat being converted to quest items? And orcas are just Chilled Meat fodder now, it seems.

Kungaloosh is now taught by a drunkard in the sewers of Dalaran, who apparently has the recipes etched into his arm. And Fish Feast? I hope you like doing the Cooking daily, because it now requires 5 Dalaran Cooking Awards.

Are there any major ramifications from removing the soup and stew? No, not really, unless you were sitting on a mountain of shoveltusk flesh. The buffs they supplied were redundant, offered by other meat as well as other fish. Sort of pointless recipes, really. This streamlines how many recipes you need more than anything else.

Edit: The math on this actually comes out to 44, not 45, as has been pointed out to me. Curious! I'll take a second look as soon as I get back onto the test realm, it's possible the third tier of the achievement has become 'cook them all' and not 'cook 45 of them.'

Tags: 3.0.8-ptr, breaking, dalaran-cooking-award, fish-feast, kungaloosh, northrend-gourmet, patch-3.0.8, ptr, shoveltusk-soup, succulent-orca-stew, wow-cooking

Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Achievements