Elders of Northrend

A host of Northrend elders joined the holiday when Wrath of the Lich King launched, 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 them long enough to reach an elder inside, which should be doable at level 85), by all means hit the relevant Northrend dungeons for elders while you make your way around the continent.

Because Northrend hasn't been affected (much) by Cataclysm, the coordinates below should still be accurate.

• 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. We heard recently through the tip line that players without this achievement already completed in 2010 may have had it wiped in the rollover to the new expansion, so if you were at work on this when the Lunar Festival ended last year, you may have to start from scratch.

• 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. It's among WoW's prettiest holiday-related clothing, and lots of players wind up keeping them (I know I did, much to the everlasting irritation of the overworked Orgrimmar bankers).

The Rocket's Red Glare

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 to buy the rockets from a vendor, though.

All set? You'll have to find a "cluster launcher" in order to shoot these off. 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 clusters 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 and/or find one of your faction's more deserted cities.

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 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 (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 a lot of time healing otherwise avoidable damage. Omen doesn't have an enrage timer and can technically be duoed by a tank-and-healer pair, though I'm not sure I'd recommend that now, given that we're in the earliest tier of Cataclysm content. His health also doesn't reset if you fail to kill him; simply resurrect at the nearby graveyard and head back for another try.

Directly after he dies, a large moonbeam will appear on the corpse, and anyone who steps within it will receive Elune's Blessing and complete the quest. Even if your toon's a lowbie, you 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). If you're on the quest and come upon someone else trying to kill him, though, it's considered polite to help DPS him down.

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 have to depend on someone else's good graces to get a kill, I'd advise making this achievement a priority.

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Working on achievements? The Overachiever is here to help! Count on us for advice on Azeroth's holidays and special events, including new achievements, how to get 310% flight speed with achievement mounts, and Cataclysm reputation factions and achievements.

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Filed under: Events, Achievements, The Overachiever