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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsUPDATED: Brew of the Year removed from Brewmaster achievement on PTR
by Michael Sacco 
Mar 6th 2009 at 3:32PM
EDIT: Bornakk says that the achievement will be replaced in the meta achievement with one that requires you to simply sign up for the Brew of the Month Club. And for those who doubted my psychic powers: Noblegarden achievements are being added to Long, Strange Trip.
Following the pattern of removing achievements that take a while to complete from the holiday meta-achievements, Blizzard yanked Brew of the Year from Brewmaster on the current 3.1 PTR. This means that anyone who was missing it now has yet another fair shake at getting their Violet Proto-Drake for completing all of the other holiday achievements for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been.
I'm pleased that players who missed that one achievement can still have a shot at the big prize, but man, there seems to be an awful lot of meta-achievement caving lately. It just creates the impression that complaining about something will get it changed, and I don't think that's what Blizzard wants players to believe.
To be fair, it was physically impossible for Death Knights to get this achievement until sometime in 2010. This is a good change for them and I'm okay with that. And no, I'm not against Blizzard removing unfair achievements from reward-bearing metas. This was also the only achievement which was impossible to complete during the event itself.
We'll see if the pattern holds after people miss another impossible-to-miss achievement in the Noblegarden set.
Grats to those for whom this achievement change will make a difference, and early props for your purple dragon.
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 8)
ScytheNoire Mar 6th 2009 3:36PM
It shouldn't of been part of the holiday meta achievement because it could not be completed during the holiday event. It still takes a lot of effort over the year during the holidays to complete the meta achievement, but at least they can all be done during the holiday event, unlike Brew of the Year, which cannot be completed during the event.
Gene Mar 6th 2009 3:37PM
Wow.. I'm totally shocked and surprised. /sarcasm
Here's the deal. I knew this was on the way out for the simple reason, 3.0 launched after brewfest. No one knew they should have been dumping their brewfest tickets into brew of the month club. Its very simple.
Here's another change I expect happening to the violet proto drakes, their 310% speed being downgraded.
Amaxe Mar 6th 2009 3:58PM
Well, I knew because I had read it on WoWhead. I didn't know that the brews you drank before 3.0 wouldn't be retroactive though. So anyone who got this membership would still have to do it again for next year to get credit for Binary Brew.
Some things you could prepare for. I had my Brewfest gear all ready to go to get "Disturbing the Peace" the day I hit Dalaran. But since I never got credit for the "This time when I was drunk" quest, and the mount never dropped when I went after Corin, it's something that I wouldn't get until next time anyway.
I think Blizz should have just made the membership the achievement requirement and not having to drink every brew, but it is hardly "giving" the mount away to remove this requirement.
Lish Mar 6th 2009 3:58PM
>>Here's the deal. I knew this was on the way out for the simple reason, 3.0 launched after brewfest. No one knew they should have been dumping their brewfest tickets into brew of the month club. Its very simple.
Hmm. No one knew??? Interesting. Because with a tiny bit of net browsing I knew about it long before Brewfest began last year. And I'm obviously not the only one.
Now how simple is it?
Xino Mar 6th 2009 3:38PM
YaY now I don't have to be punished for actually playing a DK as my main.
Jason Mar 6th 2009 4:29PM
Death knights are going to have to be nerfed pretty hard before I'm going to have any sympathy for them, especially with regard to non-essential rewards like a mount.
Mintaka Mar 6th 2009 3:42PM
So I deliberately didn't do the last two event achievements because I knew I'd already missed this and now they remove it.
Great, thanks. Send me prot drake now Blizzard, mmkkay, thanks.
Patrick B Mar 6th 2009 4:35PM
Same here. Also did the same thing with the stupid Valentines Day bullshit because I couldn't get all the candies.
I'm done with achievements. I figure that if I just manage to do one of them for each holiday that blizzard will sooner or later nerf them and I'll get my drake anyhow. Lol
Its too hard to wait for a year to get the achievement! Please please please blizzard just give us the drake. I pay $15 a month I deserve a drake like everyone else. blah blah blah!
Blizzard is destroying the game one small piece at a time.
Grats to all who don't have to do anything to get anywhere in the game!!
Erogroth Mar 6th 2009 3:43PM
This is the one achievement I wanted to see removed. It was the only one that could not be completed in the time frame of the event that was for a meta. I would not have minded it being there if there were other achievements for other holidays that took as long. Once they removed veteran nanny they kind of set a standard. People say But Veteran Nanny Takes 3 years this takes 1. But if you look at if from when the achievement system launched there was only a 6 month difference.
The system was launched about 2 weeks after the end of brewfest. So If you did not pick up Brew of the Year last year you would complete this in Oct of 2010. If you had none of the pets for Veteran Nanny you would pick up the first this April, the second in April of 2010 and the third in April of 2011. Months after you finished Brew of the Year.
My point is if you are gonna remove 1 like that remove them all. Or leave them all. Don't have one achievement that will take a year after ALL your others are complete. I say good call on this one Blizz and thank you.
dpoyesac Mar 6th 2009 4:00PM
^ This ^
I mean, they took out the 'Mask For All Occasions" because it was almost impossible to get, what with the laws of probability being what they are and all. You can't break the laws of probability -- that's why they are LAWS.
The 'Brewmaster' title is the same thing: if you missed the 'Brew of the Month Club' membership for ANY reason, you actually had to violate the laws of physics and travel BACK in TIME in order to fix it. And fusion-powered DeLoreans are in short supply on eBay.
Jason Mar 6th 2009 3:44PM
Next up, please remove the hallowed helm/sinister squashling achievement from the Hallowed meta because I didn't get that one. I did buy the brew of the month club membership so it's only fair, I think.
Also, if I miss any other holiday achievements throughout the coming year, I expect Blizzard to promptly remove those from the meta as well. In fact, let's just cut to the chase and send me my violet proto-drake now. Anything less is just punishment, amirite?
Erogroth Mar 6th 2009 3:51PM
They increased the drop rates on both those so you will have your mount by the end of October. They are not going to require you to join a club and ear a pumpkin every month for a year to get those. You will just have to wait a week. Big difference from waiting a year. Plus Brewfest happened BEFORE the achievement system launched. Most people had the tickets to join it they just didn't because they were unaware of the achievement.
Rational Mar 6th 2009 3:53PM
The sinister squashling used to drop like crazy. I can't think of any of my friends who didn't get one if they wanted it.
Amaxe Mar 6th 2009 4:03PM
Actually, the Squashling is the one thing I *don't* have to complete the Hallowed achievement. Every other requirement is done. I ran the HH daily and trick or treated hourly on my main and did not get it.
Of course the last day, my *alt* got the frigging thing from trick or treating... O_o;;
itrus Mar 6th 2009 4:10PM
@erogroth
actually i bought the membership because i knew about the achievement... so yes we didnt have achievements in-game but we knew about them. just called using the internet a tiny bit, during brewfest WoWinsider did have an awesome writeup about the achievements
Osc Mar 6th 2009 4:16PM
I've said remove the squalishing pet/hallowed helm every time one of these "we removed this from the meta" has come around.
The lame "but they upped the drop rate!" excuse is tired. RNG is still RNG.
At least with Brew of the Month, it was IN YOUR HANDS (except for DKs...at least DKs have a viable excuse). No RNG to screw you there.
They can drop the pet/helm any day now.
Erogroth Mar 6th 2009 4:17PM
Oh. I must have misread the achievement. I didn't realize it said "read about this on wowinsider then do X".
Look. I don't want to argue this point. Its retarded. The only reason I am against this achievement is because it is the only one like it. If every or even most holidays had achievements that spanned a year that it would be standard. But it is the only one of its kind and it doesn't take you really doing anything other then checking your mail once a month. I do that every time I log on. The real achievement came from joining the club. Also Blizz set a precedent when they removed Veteran Nanny which would only have taken an extra 6 months from when you completed Brew of the month assuming you did not join last year and currently have zero of the pets.
Osc Mar 6th 2009 4:21PM
Yeah, check your mail every month...
AFTER you blew 200 coins on it.
Oh wait, I guess that last part was the real effort, wasn't it?
Nathanyel Mar 6th 2009 4:30PM
Erogroth: If you had the tickets, you were still able to join after the end of Brewfest - the troll in Org/the (probably) dwarf in IF still offered the stuff you could buy with them as long as you still had one ticket.
peon47 Mar 6th 2009 3:44PM
This is bullshit. I dont care about the violet drake, but I wanted the "Brewmaster" title, and I wanted to have earned it properly.