Posts with tag easter

Noblegarden ends just before midnight server time tonight. So if you don't have your Noble title yet, you still have time to fight over egg spawns with your fellow procrastinators. See our guide to Noblegarden for help with the holiday achievements, how to get them and egg-collecting strategies.

Warning: don't wait until the last minute. Holidays have been known to close up shop a little earlier than the time on the calendar.

Have fun and good egg hunting!

I've been looking at the Noblegarden items for awhile now, since they first showed up on the PTR. For some reason, it never hit me until I saw it on live realms how cool one item in particular actually is. For five chocolates you can buy your own Noblegarden Egg, which allows you to lay a Brightly Colored Egg. Yes, that's five eggs for one egg of your own, which is a pretty horrible exchange rate.

What's so cool about it? They're the exact same eggs you've been picking up that whole time, except that you can set them out. You can loot them right away for an added chance of whatever loot may be in them, but I'm not sure why you'd do that, except for possibly completing Dressed for the Occasion/Sunday's Finest. What makes it better is that other people can loot them.

What makes that so great? If you can get an organized crew (and their alts) together, you can set up your own Noblegarden Hunt for your guild or your friends and family. Laying an egg has a 1 hour cooldown, so each of you will only be able to set out one egg each, but with a sizable group that might not be too terrible. A brief hunt, but you can make it exciting! Feralas, perhaps? Icecrown? The interior of a cleared Ulduar? Just take it far, far away from busy cities or hubs. You don't want to lay an egg out in the Stormwind Trade District. Joe McMullet will loot that thing in a flash, and that's no good.

Thanks to the astute eyes of reader Jadissa, we can report that Noblegarden is no longer present on the in-game calendar. This is likely a clear indicator that the in-game world event is getting pushed back. Based on what we know already (that it will be part of other achievements), it should not be assumed that the event was removed.

We've spoke about the upcoming changes to Noblegarden before: it might get delayed, and it will be part of the overall world event achievement What a Long, Strange Trip.

There has been no indication from Blizzard when exactly it will start up, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it go live towards the end of the month. We'll have to wait and see when this start date is, and we'll be sure to announce it here on WoW Insider as soon as we know.

This is not an April Fools joke.

Well that'll teach us to assume -- earlier this week when mentioning the upcoming Noblegarden holiday, we pointed out that considering it was being tested on the PTR right now, we'd likely see 3.1 hit the live realms by the time Easter came around in the real world. But Kisirani has appeared on the forums saying, "Not so fast." Blizzard has apparently gained the power to cancel Easter, because they say Noblegarden and 3.1 will start when it's ready, not because there are kids hunting for eggs on the White House lawn.

So basically, if patch 3.1 isn't done by Easter, we won't see the holiday ingame until it is done. And while it'll be a little strange to be looking for eggs in May (if it comes to that), we have to agree that's the right decision: we all know what happens when Blizzard releases a patch that isn't fully tested.

We can wait. Noblegarden might not match up with the real-life holiday this year (if the patch does come late -- Kisirani still says this is a plan, so maybe the patch will be done by April 12th), but hopefully when it does appear, it won't be broken.

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?

Sunday Morning Funnies has quite the line-up this week, with even more on the horizon for next week. As always, don't forget to leave a tip about a WoW-themed comic you know!

• A new WoW-themed comic from Action Trip. I would explain but I think I'll just let you click through and see for yourselves.
• Regrettable Choice from Extra Life. Just mentally scratch out "Youtube" and replace it with "WoW Community Forums."
• A New Beginning with Shakes and Fidget. It comes complete with gratuitous Bar Maiden.
• Feel like an economic squabble? GU Comics has Just a Little Suggestion for Activision and Gibson.
  
• If you'd rather chew on politics, LFG lays out the facts of a prison break.
  
• Manic Graffiti has some insight on the Frostmourne Replica. That's pretty self-explanatory, but if you'd like more information, check out our coverage and opinions.
  
• Ding! has an opinion on Tauren hunters.
• From Teh Gladiators comes an intro, or a prequel, to soon-to-come shenanigans.
• The Brotherhood of the Hat from The Adventures of Disgraph T. Dwarf.

Head through the break in order to vote on the one you liked best.

"The great feast of Noblegarden has long been celebrated by the races of the Alliance and recently adopted by those of the Horde. On this joyous day, it is customary for the nobles and lords from each race to hide coins, candy, and the occasional treasures within special eggs painted to look like wildflowers. These eggs are then scattered around the major cities for the citizenry to find. From heroes to commoners, and everyone in between - the feast of Noblegarden is meant to bring communities together to share the joy of life and friendship."

Good morning readers and Happy Noblegarden! If you didn't know yet, today is a pretty neat(if mundane) holiday in the World of Warcraft, which coincides with the real life holiday of Easter. And just like Easter, you're in for a lot of eggs. Most of the actual rewards are just toss away items like candy, but you can also get your hands on neat fashion items like an Elegant Dress or a Tuxedo.

This'll be my third year plucking eggs now, and I haven't gotten a dress for my priest yet. Wish me luck, and I hope your luck is better than mine has been!

Some of the best times i've had in World of Warcraft have been participating in Blizzard's entertaining holiday events. Large portions of the world are revamped with decorations, new quests, and of course, prizes! And, while the prizes may not be that important (food, Halloween costumes, etc), participating in the holiday events is always a fun change of pace from the norm. However, I have to say Noblegarden -- Blizzard's Easter event -- pales in comparison to their other holidays. Why?

• No decorations or changes in any of the cities... not even a lone NPC to inform players that they can hunt for eggs.
• A one-day holiday as opposed to the week(s) of festivities for Halloween, Winter's Veil, etc.
• Noblegarden eggs are quite rare... and the prizes are sub-par at best.
• No holiday quests. Not a single one!

If you didn't participate in Noblegarden this year, I'll give you the rundown. In the secondary newbie zones (not the starting zones, but the zones after that), eggs were hidden. You could loot the eggs to get a few copper coins, assorted candy (61 health over 18 seconds), and a chance at an Easter dress or pieces of a tuxedo. Yesterday I spent four hours (can you tell that I really wanted an Easter dress?) scouring Elwynn Forest for eggs. During this time, I managed to locate 26 eggs (which comes out to about one egg every 9 minutes). While I got plenty of candy and perhaps a whole silver worth of coin, I didn't get any of the holiday clothes that were the only appeal of the event -- but after spending 4 hours at the hunt, I couldn't bring myself to keep going. (And I imagine most sane people would have stopped sooner than that.)

So what could Blizzard do to make this event fun and worthwhile for its players? Read on for speculation!

Don't forget, tomorrow, April 8th, is Noblegarden in the land of Azeroth. What does that mean to adventerous players like us? That there are colorful eggs to collect -- and some of them might contain unique prizes. (I'm still hunting for that Noblegarden dress!) For those interested in egg hunting this year, they're found in the lowbie zones around major cities. So hunt in Mulgore, Tirisfal Glades, Dun Morogh, Elwynn Forest, Teldrassil, and Durotar Eversong Woods, and Azuremyst Isles -- at least presuming they've updated the event to include these new zones. The screenshot above (Blizzard's official Noblegarden shot) is deceptive -- last year, at least, the eggs were half that size at best.

Happy hunting, everyone!

Update: Fixed two errors in my initial post, adding Teldrassil and Tirisfal Glades as locations, and removing Silverpine Forest. Also, according to reports, there seem to be no eggs spawning in the new Burning Crusade zones, Eversong Woods and Azuremyst Isles. Thanks to commenters Auriea and Rob!

The quality of the various ingame events seems to vary a lot. Some cause a lot of excitement and make their presence well known by infiltrating the capital cities -- Greatfather Winter and the Lunar festivities (a well known Azerothian rock band) are examples. However, some tend to just quietly happen, without barkers or much fanfare at all.

I went egg hunting for a couple of hours yesterday; I missed Noblegarden last year, so I had little idea what to expect. After a few false starts looking in the capital cities (as the official website implied) I ended up running around Elwynn and Teldrassil on a couple of characters. In all my searching I found about ten eggs, and ended up with a bagful of lollipops and chocolate squares giving 61 health; I managed to find a pair of Black Tuxedo Pants, identical to a craftable item, though I was angling for the formal attire.

I didn't run into any other egg hunters, and most of my guild didn't know the event was running, despite the EU launcher promoting it. Although I'm reasonably pleased I had the trousers drop, meaning I got something for all my effort, I spent a lot of time looking for eggs and finding none at all. Perhaps my time would have been better spent at the regular ingame events taking place yesterday, getting a pet chicken or painting an egg; how was your Easter Sunday?

Well, the latest holiday event from Blizzard proved to be considerably less...eventful than the rest. In fact, aside from a few scattered eggs about Ellwyn Forest, I didn't even really notice an even going on at all.

Then again, I wasn't lucky enough to find one of these little guys...a real live Easter Bunny! Ok, it's not real or live, but it's still pretty cool. But still, my question stands...why aren't they called Noblegarden Bunnies?

If real-life chocolate eggs aren't enough for you, you'll be able to find some in Azeroth on Sunday thanks to the feast of Noblegarden. Themed as "bringing communities together", there will be an egg hunt across the major cities with festival attire and goodies to find.

Of course, the regular world events are still going on: the Darkmoon Faire is in Elwynn until Sunday (if you haven't been lately, mini tank races are a fun minigame), the Gurubashi Arena Booty Run goes on daily and there should also be the weekly Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza this Sunday. It's also an Alterac Valley "Call to Arms" weekend; more reasons to log in this Easter!

Have you found the Shiny Dinglehopper? Have you seen the Sea Giant fart and then try to pop the bubbles? Do you have a pet chicken yet?

If you think I am crazy and I have no clue what I am talking about, I would advise you to check out the WoW easter egg text file!

I would highly recommend combing through the file a bit; there is some funny stuff in there! I know I will be running the chicken quest soon - stay tuned for screenshots...

[Edit: As GameFAQs doesn't allow direct linking, here's a link to a list of FAQ's including the WoW easer eggs one. You can get there from here.]