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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsNoblegarden will apply to What a Long, Strange Trip
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 9th 2009 at 4:00PM
So remember last week, when we reported that, to the tune of relieved sighs from Violet Proto-drake seekers everywhere, the Noblegarden achievements wouldn't apply to the What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been meta-holiday achievement? Not so fast, says Bornakk. While the achievements didn't appear in the meta one on the PTR, they will eventually apply. If you want your Violet Proto-drake, you better start getting your egg-searching eyes ready.Sacco actually posted about this in an update on Saturday, but it was overshadowed by the news about the Brewmaster achievement changes, and it's a pretty big deal: we thought we were getting a break on this one, but apparently not. Though it makes sense that all the holidays should be in there (and this explains, of course, why the holiday was extended to a full week), it still is kind of a bummer that we've suddenly got a whole other holiday to do.
But Violet Proto-drakes should be tough to get anyway, and we're sure that, as usual, Blizzard will end up removing any achievements that they figure are unfair (or at least that people whine about until Blizzard doesn't want to hear it any more). And there's one more thought to take away from this: considering that all of this Noblegarden talk is going along with the 3.1 PTR, does that mean we'll see Ulduar on the live realms by Easter?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Events, Blizzard, Wrath of the Lich King, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Anteia Mar 9th 2009 6:32PM
Ugh. Not pleased about this. If they keep those two stupid find an easter dress and find a tuxeo and pants (It should be either/or if they did) then it's going to be the RNG screwing people over -more- than they already did. I was looking forward to a holiday I could do for fun rather than obligation towards the drake. Now I'm going to be stressed about getting the achievements instead of actually enjoying myself.
Birdfall Mar 10th 2009 11:55AM
The dress and suit existed for the holiday before these changes and were not part of any holiday requirement. IF they change that, they will increase the drop rate -- it used to be 1 in every 80 eggs for any piece of clothing.
Birdfall Mar 10th 2009 11:56AM
*dress and suit achievement, I should say -- where you find one in an egg
Anteia Mar 10th 2009 5:58PM
Yeah, but they didn't apply to the longer achievement. I intended to try for them anyway, as I have every year (Never HAVE gotten anything but candy from the eggs) but I'm more frustrated that this year I'll be doing that with a 'crap, I need to find it, GAH, I didn't want the stupid dress again, I need the shirt...' sas opposed to feeling "Whoah! I got the dress! And I got it again! this is awesome!" After I got eight lovely black dresses over Valentine's day. Needless to say, it got to the point I was just tossing them over to my bank alt because I had nothing to do with the things anymore. As opposed to the year before, when I only got one on my main, and my boyfriend surprised me by buying me one for an opposite faction alt that didn't have one. That made me really happy...and that happiness, I think, is being taken away by making certain random things 'obligations' instead of 'hope for it because you WANT it and enjoy it'. They have to up the drop rates for everything now on every holiday events. What you get no longer becomes something to be proud of, it just becomes something everyone has because they want the end goal of the proto-drake. I'm not saying I don't want them to up the drop rate. The drop rate is really low because the outfits were their own reward before. But now they're a reward for something else, and that cheapens what they are themselves.
Short QQ is just that Noblegarden didn't count for the protodrake before, so I was looking forward to trying to get those clothing items without the areas even more swarmed by others who don't want them but just want the drake. I want the drake, don't get me wrong, but I like enjoying the events for what they are too.
Pheonnexx Mar 9th 2009 6:40PM
TBH the only achievements that I am really worried about are the ones in childrens week, have you seen those pvp ones?
Its gonna be a real hard time for me even with a respec to something other than a healer.
bundee Mar 9th 2009 7:04PM
Try not dying for an entire Naxxramas run
Rofllol Mar 9th 2009 7:18PM
You wouldn't like that anyways - to see that there are adults that post first that could very well have IQ's over 120, having a brain doesn't mean they use it.
themightysven Mar 9th 2009 7:25PM
so are they gonna add Harvest Festival and Pirate Day too?
Harvest Festival title should be Reaper, and Pirate Day title should be Scallywag
also, are there going to be permanent bunny ears available? my BE pally would wear the crap out of those...
Deadhli Mar 9th 2009 9:50PM
Rofllol, go kill yourself please
SDevil Mar 9th 2009 9:32PM
My only hope is they significantly up the amount of eggs available. I've tried to do noblegarden for the last couple of years and even finding an egg in the "designated" areas has been hard if more than 2 people are there.
Dean Mar 9th 2009 10:09PM
With the Brewfest change you have to wonder if the drake will even still be available next year. If they're being removed from the Naxx achievements then it's not beyond the realms of possibility they'll be removed from this one too.
Todd Mar 10th 2009 12:21AM
Dang sucks for me. I'm moving to a whole nother country during that time and won't have the computer for 5 weeks or so. Not that I plan my life around wow events but I was happy I wouldn't miss any that counted towards the meta.
Joelock Mar 10th 2009 11:53AM
just because some people seem to be missing this:
the Violet Proto Drake is 310% speed, thats why it takes so much effort, 310% speed mounts were ONLY for Gladiators in BC and currently are only for hardcore raiding (be it 10 or 25man, its the hard mode achievements)
Blizzard does not dole out 310% speed mounts freely, if you want one, especially one with a 100% aquisition rate for those who put in the effort, without requiring a single bit of raiding, then stop the complaining about it being "hard"
Deadly. Off. Topic. Mar 11th 2009 1:33PM
Hmm. I wonder if they keep a list of how many posts get downrated to the point of erasure/or count how many times it has to be deleted before they ban someone.
My opinion is that this guy loves the attention from us because he’s unloved and needs to act out. The other option is that 1. Jerk. 2. Idiot. 3.Only way to get their jollies off is to annoy others.
Could be any or all three.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Mar 11th 2009 2:04PM
I'm not exactly looking forward to more rushing around and logging in every hour on the hour for random stuff that doesn't drop or spawn NOR looking forward to running around looking for eggs that just get ninjaed by some selfish player who saw you going for it and had to be a jerk and take it from you.
Sunhead Mar 12th 2009 1:29AM
This is the Pits of Blizzard.
I always go away over Easter, nice camping holiday. Now all the effort I have put into the Meta will be even more borked over by the fact the Blizzard cant seem to write a decent RNG and get it to work properly. And to top it off, over a time when MANY people have AFK holidays they run this thing for only a week instead of two.
Considering I play on an Oceanic server and they FORGOT to run Noblegarden last year anyway, I am pretty cheesed off with this change.
Make the Friggin things achievable, not Roulette... I got onto the Zepplin at L74 FFS, twice, I got into H Gun as a noob 80 and was successful, but this is just starting to get annoying with the moving goalposts.