Elders of Northrend

Last year, a host of Northrend elders joined the holiday, so you'll need to make the trek to the snowy north. I've listed them all in rough counterclockwise order going around the continent (from Borean Tundra to Dragonblight -- Grizzly Hills -- Zul'Drak -- Storm Peaks -- Wintergrasp -- to Sholazar Basin). There are no Elders in Icecrown or Howling Fjord. If your class is capable of soloing normal dungeons (or at least surviving normal dungeons long enough to reach an Elder inside), by all means hit the relevant Northrend dungeons for Elders while you make your way around the continent. Otherwise, it's easy to reach just about all of the Elders eventually if you're using the Dungeon Finder.

• Northal the Elder: 33,34 in the Transitus Shield (Coldarra, Borean Tundra).
• Pamuya the Elder: 43,49 outside Warsong Hold (Borean Tundra).
• Sardis the Elder: 59,65 outside Valiance Keep (Borean Tundra).
• Arp the Elder: 57,43 at D.E.H.T.A. (Borean Tundra).
• Morthie the Elder: 30,56 in Star's Rest (Dragonblight).
• Skywarden the Elder: 35,48 at Agmar's Hammer (Dragonblight).
• Thoim the Elder: 48,78 at Mo'aki Harbor (Dragonblight).
• Whurain the Elder: 64,47 at Camp Oneqwah (Grizzly Hills).
• Lunaro the Elder: 80,37 in Ruins of Tethys (Grizzly Hills).
• Beldak the Elder: 60,27 at Westfall Brigade Encampment (Grizzly Hills).
• Tauros the Elder: 58,56 in Zim'Torga (Zul'Drak).
• Graymane the Elder: 41,84 at K3 (Storm Peaks).
• Fargal the Elder: 28,73 in Frosthold (Storm Peaks).
• Muraco the Elder: 64,51 in Camp Tunka'lo (Storm Peaks).
• Stonebeard the Elder: 31,37 at Bouldercrag Refuge (Storm Peaks).
• Bluewolf the Elder: 49,19 in the fortress in Wintergrasp.
• Wanikaya the Elder: 64,50 at the Avatar of Freya (Sholazar Basin).
• Sandrene the Elder: 50,63 at Lakeside Landing (Sholazar Basin).
  

Elders of the Dungeons

Not only are Elders in the open world, but they're in the instanced world as well. Most of these can be comfortably solo'd by a level 80 character, but one of them has to be done in heroic Gun'drak. In rough order from lowest to highest-level dungeons:

• Zul'Farrak: Wildmane the Elder: By the pool where you summon Gahz'rilla.
• Maraudon: Splitrock the Elder: Take the port to second half of the instance, then head for the Princess. Drop down into the lake where Rotgrip is located, and swim up to the ramp. Because this probably makes no sense, a Wowhead user created a map.
• Sunken Temple: Starsong the Elder: Up the spiral staircase on your left immediately upon entering the instance.
• Blackrock Depths: Morndeep the Elder: Located smack in the center of the Ring of Law.
• Stratholme: Farwhisper the Elder: If you have the key to the service entrance, zone in there, hang a left through the Elder Square Gate, and then follow the road to the right. If you don't have the key, zone in, hang a left, continue to your right through the Market Square Gate, andtake a right once you're through the Gate (you'll have to kill a bunch of rats while you're in the Market Square Gate).
• Lower Blackrock Spire: Stonefort the Elder: Finding this guy is a pain in the ass, but the Wowhead user Pallybeb had a good set of instructions even if you're completely new to the instance.
• Utgarde Keep: Jarten the Elder: In the first room with a staircase (between first and second bosses), in the alcove to the left.
• Nexus: Igasho the Elder: In Ormorok's room.
• Azjol-Nerub: Nurgen the Elder: In the pond area after the drop following Hadronox.
• Drak'tharon Keep: Kilias the Elder: In King Dred's enclosure.
• Gun'drak: Ohanzee the Elder: Ohanzee was once located in Eck's room, requiring Gun'drak to be done on heroic difficulty (as Eck is only accessible there). He's now been moved to the room with the Drakkari Colossus (second boss).
• Halls of Stone: Yurauk the Elder: Just before Krystallus.
• Utgarde Pinnacle: Chogan'gada the Elder: Underneath the staircase that you go down after killing Skadi the Ruthless.

50 Coins of Ancestry

Each Elder to whom you speak will give you a Coin of Ancestry, so getting this achievement will happen as a matter of course. In case you're curious, there are 75 Elders available.

Lunar Festival Finery

The Coins that the Elders will give you can be used to purchase clothing and items from holiday vendors. For this achievement you'll have to talk to one vendor in particular -- Valadar Starsong, located at 53,35 in Moonglade (the wooden platform overlooking Lake Elune'ara on the eastern side of Nighthaven). For any of the clothing items, you'll have to fork over 5 Coins, but you only need to buy one for the achievement.

The Rocket's Red Glare

This achievement is much like one of the achievements you've probably done recently for Love Is In the Air, with one important difference.

First things first -- you'll need 10 Red Rocket Clusters. These can be purchased from any Lunar Festival Vendor for 1 silver each (so 10 silver total), or -- if you're an Engineer or know one -- made by Engineers who buy the Schematic: Red Rocket Cluster from Fariel Starsong (next to Valadar Starsong in Moonglade at the coordinates given above). Generally it's cheaper and faster just to buy the rockets from a vendor, though.

All set? Here's where the Lunar Festival achievement's a bit different -- you can't shoot these things off without being close to a "cluster launcher." These can be found in the Festival areas of any major city. Mosey on over, hotkey the Red Rocket Clusters you've bought, and spam, spam, spam. Be forewarned that the Cluster do trigger the global cooldown, and latency also has an effect. If you're used to playing with ugly latency, don't do this at server high time.

Frenzied Firecracker

This is an easier version of The Rocket's Red Glare. Festival Firecrackers can be purchased from any Lunar Festival vendor for 3 silver each (so 30 silver total). Got them? Hotkey them the same way you did for the Red Rocket Clusters, and spam the hotkey while alternating mouse-clicks to target them (they can't be fired without being targeted). As with The Rocket's Red Glare, try not to do this during a busy period on your server if you tend to suffer from bad latency.


Elune's Blessing

Omen is a boss who appears in Moonglade only during the Lunar Festival. Valadar Starsong -- yep, the same NPC who will sell you Lunar Festival duds -- will give you a one-off quest called Elune's Blessing. Once you've got it, you'll need to trek to the southeastern portion of Moonglade around the Stormrage Barrow Dens and -- if Omen's not already dead or in combat with other players -- "summon" him by tossing cluster rockets into the cluster launchers that line the shore of the lake.

If you've never done Omen before, he's essentially a tank-and-spank with a cleave (so melee beware) and some occasional raid damage by way of an AoE Starfall ability. He doesn't hit hard, but tanks will need to be vigilant to keep moving him out of Starfall unless you want your healer/s to spend an inordinate amount of time healing your melee. As of last year he had about 5.5 million HP. To put that in context, Anub'Rekhan in Naxx-25 has 6.7 million, and Omen doesn't have an enrage timer. Last year he could even be successfully duo'd by a decently-geared tank and healer pair. His health also doesn't reset if you fail to kill him; simply resurrect at the nearby graveyard and head back for another try.

Interestingly, you are not actually required to kill Omen yourself for the quest, or even take part in a kill (although if you're a spectator to someone else's Omen raid and still on the quest, it's considered polite to help DPS him down). Directly after Omen dies, a large moonbeam will appear on the body, and anyone who steps within it will receive Elune's Blessing and complete the quest. So even if your toon's a lowbie, they can still easily get the quest done as long as someone else has recently killed Omen (lowbie characters can also buy Elune's Candles from Starsong and toss them at Omen for about 1K damage a pop).

Omen raids tend to be quite popular early in the holiday and then taper off as time goes by. If you're mostly a solo player or your toon's not yet to 80, you should head to Moonglade for this achievement sooner rather than later.

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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Achievements, The Overachiever