Tips on completing Higher Learning
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 2nd 2009 at 7:00PM
Higher Learning is one of the most peaceful achievements in the game (all you have to do are read a few books that spawn around Dalaran), but it's no less desirable for that -- the achievement grants a miniature Arcane Elemental pet that looks awesome. Teniblue over on WoW Ladies has a few good tips if you're trying to get all edumacated in Dalaran -- she's got links to two addons (including the perfectly-named Dalaran University) to use to help you track spawn times, and she's got a link to Breanni's great guide over on WarcraftPets.com (which our own Allison R. touched on briefly in a recent OverAchiever post).What's fun about this achievement is that reading the books won't delete them, so it can be very social -- people have created #bookclub channels on many servers to keep track of when and where books are appearing in the city. That makes it a lot more fun than the, say, cooking daily quest that sends you after mushrooms in the sewers. It actually makes this social game, well, social.
So next time you see a book sitting around the city, be sure to give a shout to the chat channel -- here's one in-game situation where everybody can benefit from a little extra chatting.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, Odds and ends, Quests, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Amethyst Mar 2nd 2009 7:09PM
I managed to get my Kirin Tor familiar pretty soon after the expansion launched when not that many people were in Dalaran or looking for the books, I also had a few people on my friends list who were doing the same thing so we kept each other informed. If I see a book spawned now I'll give a shout out in trade :)
Mognet T Mar 2nd 2009 9:01PM
I picked it up early as well. I planned ahead, picked up Wrath at a midnight launch event, and power leveled in HF, hit 71 and went straight to Dalaran (being a Mage helped). I was able to reach Dalaran at 8am the day Wrath came out and was the first person in the city on Magtheridon US. I collected half the books for the achievement before the first day as up and had my familiar by the third day.
Slightly related: I miss empty Dalaran. :(
Evaline Mar 2nd 2009 7:12PM
Another tip is checking after maintenance or server restarts (And we've been getting plenty of those...). AFAIK all the books (or dummy books) pop up when the server comes back online. Don't know if this is frowned apon or anything though.
Jamesisgreat Mar 2nd 2009 7:54PM
One of the few benefits of playing in the middle of the night (I'm a Brit living in the US playing on an EU server) is that the servers often restart then. As soon as I saw that 15 minute warning prior to a reset I'd head back to Dalaran and get in position. Funny how many other people you'd see hitting the same book spawn spots as well at 430 AM :)
peagle Mar 3rd 2009 9:38AM
I was under the impression Blizzard tweaked it to make only fake books spawn after restarts...
tonedeff Mar 2nd 2009 7:12PM
Tried looking for these books ever time i went to dala, Did this for a week without finding a single book. Even checked all the spawn locations.
I have now given up :(
Gessilea Mar 2nd 2009 7:27PM
You really can't do this just by running around. If you decide you want the pet, you really do need to join one of the channels (or start one), pay attention to spawn times, and have something to distract yourself while you sit in one place for an hour at a time. If you just try and pop in, it's not terribly likely that you're going to find anything - after all, the books are only up for a couple of minutes every 3-4 hours.
The least time intensive approach, of course, is just to join one of the book channels and pay attention to general chat while in Dalaran, since people do often announce when books are up. You'll grab a few eventually that way, but it could take a pretty long time.
Slacker Mar 2nd 2009 7:34PM
These are all time wasters. The more time they can get you chasing books the longer it will be before you cancel your account.
Well done Blizzard.
As for me, I could care less about achievements, the only ones I have are the ones I got for just playing the game.
Offeep Mar 2nd 2009 7:52PM
Your bold rebelliousness is noted, dear sir. Continue on.
Matchu Mar 2nd 2009 7:24PM
Managed to get one of the books, seen countless fake ones.
Kierachel Mar 2nd 2009 7:25PM
This achievement requires only one tip.
- Log on straight after a server restart, every location will have a book spawned, with about a 50/50 chance of there being an achievement book instead of a fake.
Do this 3 or 4 times, achievement done, takes about 5 minutes a week on the server restart day, as oppose to several hours of running round each spawn point. I know a couple of people who got all but 1 book first time like this.
steve Mar 3rd 2009 6:28AM
A couple of things I would add here:
1. Working on this achievement will actually make you want to see server restarts -- the other day my realm had an emergency restart with the dreaded 15 minute warning and all I could think is that I needed to get to Dalaran before the restart to camp the book spawn locations. Well played, Blizzard!
2. The books only stay up for 3 minutes(?) after someone clicks one. So you'll find yourself hearthing or porting to Dal the second you see someone announce a real book spawn in /bookclub. Had someone port out in the middle of a trash pull in Naxx because the last book she needed for the achievement had spawned.
3. You'll notice other bookclub people camping spawn points around Dalaran. I remember wondering why there would be twenty people standing in front of a bookcase in Violet Citadel. Mystery solved!
4. Of course both factions are working on this achievement, so you'll sometimes have a bit of drama around books that have already been clicked by the other faction despawning before you can click. And, people will jump the gun sometimes and announce a real book that turns out to be fake, wasting a trip to Dal.
Schadenfreude Mar 2nd 2009 7:27PM
I've gotten 3 books both times I managed to get back on right after a server restart. I've been trying to schedule another go on some idle Tuesday and hopefully finish it off.
vocenoctum Mar 2nd 2009 7:27PM
I would camp the locations for the character I wanted to get the achievement for, and try to grab it when the tuesday maintenance resets came back on, but they didn't spawn on server start.
What DID get them for me was when Wintergrasp was crashing Northrend every 20 minutes. They'd spawn each time and I got it that night.
Tim Mar 2nd 2009 9:18PM
That's how I got mine too. 10 server restarts in a couple hours lol.
Tim gibson Mar 2nd 2009 7:44PM
Managed to get all but 2 books. I got all mine on that day that Northrend kept crashing would have gotten them sooner if my guild friend had told me about it earlier but owell still looking.
Rosie Mar 2nd 2009 7:45PM
What is the deal with the fake books?
stormeh Mar 2nd 2009 8:43PM
Fake books are just books that spawn, but not for the achievement. It's often pretty funny to read as well, but after a while you get sick of seeing fake books (for my last book I camped Violet Hold, and it spawned 8 fake books in a row (I even woke up during the night to check, because someone else was also camping the book and we had an agreement so someone will always be there when something spawned :P)
Atlas Mar 2nd 2009 7:49PM
Got mine just last night, after camping the spawn in the bottom of violet hold forever getting nothing but fakes ^^
jurandr Mar 2nd 2009 7:49PM
I've only gotten one book so far, and I only got it because somebody was /y'ing about it.