Breakfast Topic: The Midsummer Fire Festival has begun!
by Mathew McCurley 
Jun 21st 2011 at 8:00AM
For me, the Fire Festival is the final holiday achievement I need for the mega meta-achievement What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been on my warrior, who was created around this time last year when I decided to change classes. The warrior went from orc to goblin to blood elf and finally night elf when I moved over to Alliance to raid with a new group. He's had a shaky year, but every challenge has been met with resolve. The Fire Festival represents my new beginning into a different class, and it is interesting to see how much has changed in a year.
But for Ragnaros, King Fire himself, this will be his last. Little fire elementals all across the land who aspire to greatness like Ragnaros will have their hopes dashed and dreams crushed -- the Firelord's end will begin, ironically, while we celebrate fire.
What are you looking forward to most about the Midsummer Fire Festival? Are you going to queue up for Ahune right away when the servers come up?
If you're not sure what you're doing this holiday, check out WoW Insider's guide to the Midsummer Fire Festival achievements.
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Tobias Jun 21st 2011 8:06AM
kinda disappointed the quest chain didn't reset this year either; will I ever get the second tabard?
Straz Jun 21st 2011 9:01AM
You can destroy whatever tabard you have, then speak with the tabard vendor in your faction's capital city. She will give you the choice of replacing it with red or blue, so you can swap them out indefinitely.
relmatos Jun 21st 2011 12:51PM
They never reset it. The 2nd tabard should be a rare drop in the bag. I'd also like to have both.
MusedMoose Jun 21st 2011 8:05AM
Oh, hell yes. No pun intended. ^_^
My fire mage has pretty much become my new main - as much as I love my hunter, taming and working with fierce beasts just doesn't quite have the same appeal as hurling giant flaming boulders at things and making them burn from the inside *and* the outside at the same time. So I'm going to get everything while the festival's on - the title, the fancy clothes, the tabard, the dancing flaming draenei thingy, the fireball pet, and especially the flaming halo, so people can be tricked into thinking my mage is some kind of angel.
Before she sets them on fire.
I have to admit, though, now that we can fly over enemy cities, I'm oddly looking forward to having my mage divebomb the Horde capitals in her flying machine, stomp out their fires, then leaving a spell or two in her wake as she turns invisible and runs like hell. Bwa ha ha.
Therinor Jun 21st 2011 8:14AM
I already queued up for Ahune with my casters (I'd love to have the scythe... I really really would love to have that). Things went fine, apart from one wipe because the tank didnt know the fight mechanics, yet didnt ask beforehand. No scythe..yet, but Ill keep hoping, after all I can queue once per day.
Knowing my luck, the scythe will drop for one of my melee chars =)
Other than that, I finally managed to get torch juggler. I had severe problems with that, even though I followed all kinds of guides. Eventually, I tried on one of the floating rocks next to Dal, and switched of all addons, plus lowered graphic settings. That worked. I cant stress enough how important latency is, because that made all the difference, I went from 25 torches in 15 secs to 40.
Looking forward to working more on the achievements later this week. Good luck and have fun, everyone!
Darkseid Jun 21st 2011 8:17AM
As with every year at this time, I'm looking forward to all the daily quest that come with the fire festival. These daily quest, (when combined with heirlooms and NOW guild exp boost) allow you to not just power level a toon, but super...turbo...rocket...power level!!!
As an alt-iholic...you just gotta love Fire Festival! =)
Eirik Jun 21st 2011 3:20PM
... unless you're already artificially holding your alts back so they don't outlevel the zones they are questing in...
Billlop Jun 21st 2011 8:19AM
Its really crap that the Scythe is worse than a Blue heroic drop. I mean, if your going to have an epic, rare staff for casters drop from a limited time boss...try make it a decent staff at least! As it is, its pretty useless as a staff unless you just dinged 85 and have been very unlucky
Scooba Jun 21st 2011 9:06AM
I agree. Nothing like a good rp staff...lame.
MusedMoose Jun 21st 2011 8:46AM
Yes, of course... because everyone has a full set of heroic-ready gear shortly after dinging 85, so the staff is utterly worthless.
[/sarcasm]
But seriously, the staff could be a real help to someone who's trying to gear themselves up for heroics, so it's far from useless. You seem to understand that not everyone has good luck with drops and/or rolls, so I'm not sure how you don't see this. Also, it makes no sense to have heroic-level items dropping from a non-heroic boss.
And besides: the staff looks awesome. That's reason enough to try to get it. ^_^
MichaelBerean Jun 21st 2011 2:36PM
I am also disappointed. In the past, the Ahune gear was a fun upgrade over the other pre-raid options. It should at least be 359 given the cheap alternatives coming in 4.2 right in the middle of the fire festival.
Personally I will be grabbing the i365 Masterwork Elementium Spellblade as soon as the patch drops but there are a lot of alternatives:
http://ptr.wowhead.com/items=2?filter=maxle=384;cr=82:23;crs=1:1;crv=40100:0#0+2+1
Dboy Jun 21st 2011 7:54PM
@MusedMuse
From what I understand, the staff is worth far less than a heroic-level equivalent. Fox Van Allen mentioned that it sits around the 318 budget level for caster DPS (factoring out the stamina).
So a quest level green from the Twilight Highlands would be better than this staff.
Dboy Jun 22nd 2011 12:40AM
It's fair to say, then:
a) it would be extremely rare to find a level 84 or 85 toon for whom this staff is an upgrade (real, not perceived), because such a toon would have had to level to cap without getting any decent weapon drops from dungeons, or quest rewards from higher level zones;
b) this same toon cannot contribute adequately to the boss fight (unless they are carried by others);
c) toons who are able to successfully down the boss will not have any use for the staff, beyond its aesthetic appeal.
I wonder how many random heroics we will be entering where we see the healer equipped with the scythe because that person assumed that purple = good weapon (and who can blame them?).
Conversely, I wonder how many new players will equip this weapon and be notified by the system that they are 'ready for heroics' (ilvl 329 average), only to find that when they queue up they are berated for performing badly.
Neyssa Jun 22nd 2011 6:54AM
I actually like the idea of having lots of stamina on it, for me it marks that this is really a warlock weapon. Do I remember correctly that in BC the warlock gear had much more stamina than other cloth, so you can safely tap your life to get mana?
All in all, it would be nice to have some intellect on it, but I still hope it drops for my lock. Also, now that Archeology brought all kind of epic - account bound items, why not make this one like that also?
Rai Jun 21st 2011 8:40AM
HAPPY RAGNAROS WEEK!
We invited the druids from Hyjal, right?
...right, guys?
patgamer Jun 21st 2011 8:49AM
Queue'd for Ahune on my Resto Sham as soon as I could, Opened the bag and grabbed the Scythe.
I am still upset that it doesn't have +int on it or that Mongoose/Hurricane effect won't appear along the blade part but meh, Still super happy to do Arch with it on my back :D
Now if only I could master the torch catching -.-
Shinae Jun 21st 2011 11:21AM
Gratz on the scythe.
If you're having trouble with torch juggling, try this addon:
http://wow.curse.com/downloads/wow-addons/details/juggler.aspx
Noyou Jun 21st 2011 11:39AM
Protip for torch throwing: You only need about 10 (you could buy more to be safe) but the key is to go up through the portal to the Violet Parlor. It's in the Violet Citadel with the portal from WG and to CoT. You could even toss them in there itself. I found the lag to be much less there. Once there hot key the torches so you can press a button and throw a torch. Place the target circle at your feet and go to town. Don't wait for the slight cooldown. Get into a nice rhythm then go to town. It might take 2-3 tries. Good luck!
Straz Jun 21st 2011 8:59AM
The Ice Stone has melted!
Nathanael Jun 21st 2011 9:00AM
McCurley!! HOW could you go Alliance as a warrior and NOT CHOOSE DWARF????
FOR SHAME!