So long Elders, there is a new Love in my life…

Say goodbye to the many Elders scattered across Azeroth; the Lunar Festival ends on Thursday, February 12th. The good news is if you are still interested in getting your Meta Achievement and your “Elder” title, you still have time if you get started with it right now (if you are already level 80). It took me about 14 hours from start to finish to get to all the Elders.

However, the even better news is that a new event starts tomorrow: Love is in the Air! Just with any other WoW Event, this one has plenty of Achievements that go along with. While this event doesn’t require you to traverse the globe, you will have to talk to the Innkeepers of Major cities every hour to get different items you will need to complete the various Achievements. One big downfall to this event is that it only last for six days, meaning that you better hope your Valentine decides to give you ample time to play WoW this weekend instead of a box of chocolates or a dozen red roses.

I will, as usual, have plenty of posts to come once I can dig my claws into this event. I am not overwhelmed with the desire to get the title “Kathoid, the Love Fool”, I still will head into this event full speed ahead so I can write up a helpful guide or two and spend some time on Valentine’s Day with my most favorite Rogue.

WoW Insider already has up a pretty in-depth article on the event, so if you plan on getting started right away I would read up now.

Getting to know your Elders: Lunar Fest Tidbits

There is more to the Lunar Festival than just the Elders and Achievements. There are lots of little bits of extra info that are helpful to know about the event.

Level Requirements – You must be level 80 in order to complete the Meta achievement and get your “Elder” title, as one of the Elders is located in a Heroic Northrend Instance. Remember that the Lunar Festival does run until Thursday, February 12nd, so you still have plenty of time to work on leveling up before then.

Reputation - Each Elder you visit will give you 75 Reputation towards all factions of the Alliance or Horde. There are 75 Elders, adding up to a total of 5,625 reputation if you go visit each one. If you are trying to get the last of your reputation in order to get your Mechanostrider, this is an easy way to get a bunch of rep that doesn’t require massive amounts of Runecloth.

Pen Pals - Every Elder you visit will send you a letter through the mail a few hours after visiting them. They will thank you for visiting them and give you a present; either an Elder’s Moonstone or a Lucky Rocket Cluster. The Elder’s Moonstone will summon a ring of light that will last for 3 minutes, just like an Elune Stone. When thrown into a cluster launcher, the Lucky Rocket Cluster will give you a buff  called “Lunar Fortune” that gives you +250 Health. If you visit all of the Elders, this means you will be receiving 75 letters altogether.

Yarr!? – You can be hated by the factions of the towns where an Elder is located and still be able to talk to an Elder. For example, if you have become hated with the Steamwheedle Cartel in favor of becoming Exalted with the Bloodsail Buccaneers, you can still reach the Elder in Booty Bay.

Flight Path – If this is your first trip to Moonglade ever, make sure you pick up the flight path while you are there. From where all the Lunar Festival Revelers are, head East along the road to the South of the Lake, and after the two bridges make a right. At the end of that path is the Flightmaster, which will connect you directly to Auberdine, Talonbranch Glade, or Everlook.

Rewards – There are several rewards to spend your Coins of Ancestry on. Both Valadar and Fariel Starsong of Moonglade have goods they will exchange for the cost of a few Coins.

Festival Dumplings only cost 1 coin, and you get a stack of 8. It is just your standard festival food that restores health and mana, without any kind of additional buff.

Dresses come in a variety of colors, including Green, Pink, and Purple, costing 5 coins apiece.

Suits also come in a variety of colors, including Black, Blue, and Teal, costing 5 coins apiece.

Lunar Festival Fireworks Pack contains a whole ton of fireworks, so make sure you have open bag space before you open up the pack. It costs 5 coins, and will give you 4 each of small Blue, Green, Red, White, and Yellow fireworks and 2 each of large Blue, Green, Red, White, and Yellow fireworks.

Tailoring Patterns are for sale for 5 coins each. One is to make a Red dress, and the other is to make a Red suit.

Engineering Patterns are aplenty, also at 5 coins each. You can learn the recipes to make Small Rockets, Large Rockets, Cluster Rockets, and Large Cluster Rockets as well as the Firework Launcher and the Cluster Launcher.

Getting to know your Elders, Part 2

Now onto the “fun” part!

I just loving watching the fireworks, don’t you?!

The Elders of the Dungeons

These are the Elders you really have to work for. There are 13 of them, and many are solo-able, especially as a Night Elf Druid.

BRD and LBRS – Soloable. Blackrock Depths and Blackrock Spire are easy, and even easier with a group. Since you can still use the BRD summoning stone, you might as well and bring a few friends along with you. In BRD just head straight, avoiding the bad guys, until you get in to the Ring of Law. The Elder is right in the middle, so you have to start the event to get to him. Move quickly, because you should be able to get the Elder and get back out before the gate closes and locks you in. InBRS, head up the chain to enter the instance up there, and once inside make a right and then a left and you will be in Hordemar city. Go straight and after you cross the first wooden bridge he will be on the left.

Stratholme -  Soloable. It will be easiest to do this if you have the key, someone in your group has the key, or if you bring a Rogue along. The elder is easiest to reach if you go in the back door. Make a left, then a right and you will see the Elder. You should be able to solo this withoutaggroing any mobs, but if you do they are just a few kitty swipes from their final resting place.

Sunken Temple - Soloable. You will have to encounter a few mobs, but at 80 you will have no problem. Go to the left once you enter the instance, and up the long spiral staircase. Make a left at the top of the staircase, and then head to your left around the circle. The elder is in the first nook.

Zul’Farrak – Soloable. This elder is in the same room as where you would use the Mallet of ZF to summon Gahz’Rilla. So if you head to your left once you enter the instance you will reach that room fastest. Don’t forget that ZF is one of the few instances where you can ride your mount to your destination.

Maraudon – Soloable. If you are like me, you have never been to this place before. It is in the lonely area of Desolace, north of the Horde city in the Valley of Spears. Once you head into the instance, continue along the tunnel until you get to a room with three different tunnels to choose from. Take the middle one, with two statues on either side, and head down and take the portal. It will put you in a place that will make you say, “WTF! HOW IS THIS AN INSTANCE!!” and be all confused, as I was when I was trying to figure this place out last night. Head south whenever you can, and you will work your way to the Elder. I used this Map to help me out a lot.

The Nexus – Soloable with cloaking, and can be done on Normal. You will need to be very careful about some of the mobs in here, as they can see through stealth. If you do accidentally aggro one though, you can always run away and Shadowmeld, or fight them. I could kill one with minimal difficultly as feral. Head into Keristraza’z room, and make a right. The Elder is in the same room as Ormorok the Tree Shaper, and I could walk there stealthed with little problems. You just have to be very careful as there are tons of those little flowery mobs around.

Drak’Tharon Keep – Soloable with cloaking, and can be done on Normal. The Elder is in the same room as King Dred, the big T-Rex. There aren’t any mobs that can see through stealth, so all you have to worry about is not stepping on anyone’s toes. The only place that is tricky is the room with the spiders, because the babies run around at a very fast pace. Just take you time and figure out their path, and go when the coast is clear. You can get into the corner by the Elder and not aggro anything even when out of stealth.

Halls of Stone – Soloable with cloaking, and can be done on Normal. Make a right, and then a right again towards Krystallus. Again this is another one where you don’t have to worry about anyone seeing your stealth, but there are little rock dudes who run around haphazardly to watch out for. You can unstealth without being seen if you back is up against the wall by the Elder.

Utgarde Keep – Soloable with cloaking, and can be done on Normal. This one takes a bit more than just cloaking to get through. You will need to have your Shadowmeld ready to go if you want to solo this. In order to move through the room with the flame walls you will need to aggro the Forge Masters. You can either root them, or simply faerie fire them so that they open up the flame walls. Do both in a row and run into the next hallway and Shadowmeld to leave combat. Once you are safe, pop back into kitty form and cloak your way to the Elder.

Utgarde Pinnacle – Need group but can be done on Normal. The Elder is after the boss with the harpoons, Skadi the Ruthless. He is down underneath a staircase. You need a group because you need to kill Skadi in order to open the door to get to the staircase.

Azjol-Nerub – Need group but can be done on Normal. The Elder is located between the second and last boss. You need a group because you have to kill the first and second bosses in order ot clear the way, but because it is a level 70 instance you do not need a full 5 people. After you drop down into the water after the second boss, you will see the Elder off to the side of the lake you land in.

Gundrak – Need group and has to be done on Heroic! This is the only one that has to be done on Heroic, so get your best friends together and go grab some badges. The reason this needs to be done on heroic is because the Elder is in the room with Eck, the big tongue dude. You can only get to Eck on Heroic mode.

Getting to know your Elders, Part 1

Now that my “research” has been done on the Lunar Festival, it’s time for me to spread the wealth of knowledge onto you.

The Lunar Festival is an event held every year by the Alliance and Horde Druids of Moonglade, wherein they celebrate the city’s triumph over ancient evils. During the Lunar Festival, they welcome all races and classes of Azeroth into Moonglade to join in the celebrations and honor their Elders; seeking out and celebrating in their wisdom, and everyone’s favorite: fireworks.

There is, of course, the great beast Omen to defeat. A quest is given in Moonglade to seek out, summon, and defeat him. This has to be done in a raid group, as he is a level 80 Elite boss. And there are fireworks to launch! And some beautiful clothes to buy, too!

But the real draw to this event, and to its accompanying achievement, is to seek out all the Elders of Azeroth and honor them with your presence and a few mouse clicks. They are scattered across capital cities of both Alliance and Horde, all of Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor, to the great north in Northrend, and into many dungeons across Azeroth (but luckily, not Outland). Finding out where they are is only half the battle – actually getting to where some of these Elders have decided to hang out for the next few weeks is really the hardest part of all.

Just a warning, this took me about 14 hours from start to finish all in one sitting to get the title. Of course I took breaks to eat and what not, but this seemingly easy achievement is very time consuming. So get your Mountain Dew and your Gamer Grub ready: here we go!!!

Elders Elders Everywhere!

There are way too many Elders for me to talk about every single one, especially when it has been done so well by many other people. Here are some links to help you find Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, and Northrend Elders.

WoWWiki is a very good resource and has maps of where each of the Elders are.

WoWHead also has a very nice guide put together on the Lunar Festival.

Elders of the Alliance & Elders of the Horde

(Written from an Alliance Druid point of view.) Yes, you have to visit both factions Elders. Darnassus, Ironforge, and Stormwind are home to the three Alliance Elders. You can use the special portals from Moonglade, or regular portals from Dalaran or Shattrath to get to the cities. Or you could always rely on a Mage for ports. As for the Horde Elders, I went to the cities when I was near them while visiting other Elders. They are located in Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, and Undercity.

Orgrimmar was the hardest of the three for me, and also where I went first. From the Azshara flight path area I swam down the river south to where the bridge into Org is located. I stealthed in kitty form into the city, carefully hugging walls and avoiding guards to avoid being seen. The Elder is located right by Thrall’s house in The Valley of Wisdom, so if you have raided on Org before you will know the location. Unfortunately you have to un-stealth to talk to the elder, but luckily as a Night Elf I have shadowmeld! As soon as you are done talking to an elder, run a little bit away, make sure no guards or players are too close, and use Shadowmeld. Wait a few seconds then pop back into kitty form and stealth once again. If you are working towards your “Salty” title, make sure you head over to The Valley of Spirits or Valley of Honor and do a little fishing. For the Fishing Diplomat achievement, all you need is to fish up one thing and then you are good to stealth or hearth out. I chose to die and then spirit rez which put me right next to another Elder I needed.

Thunder Bluff should be easy for anyone, whether you can stealth or not. It is not a very popular city so as long as you can dodge the guards you will be fine. This Elder is located in the (duh!) Elder Rise. This Elder is new this year, and you may recognize his name: Ezra Wheathoof. Ezra was a brain cancer sufferer who through Make-A-Wish got to spend some time at Blizzard and influenced the creation of the Pheonix mount. He sadly passed away last year, and this is yet another tribute to him in game. I spent some extra time with him while in Thunder Bluff this year.

The Undercity is probably the easiest of the three Horde cities for an Alliance to visit. If you go in the front entrance the Elder is above ground before the elevators. You should be able to run in on your mount, talk to him quickly, and mount back up and run away.

Don’t forget that there are starting level towns by each of the major cities that you need to visit: Brill, Dolonaar, Goldshire, etc.

In the next post I will cover all the Elders of the Dungeons!

Happy Lunar Festival!

Happy Lunar Festival! I will elaborate much more on the event in a coming post, but I have been busy doing “research” on the festival.

See!

Happy Lunar Festival to all, but for now, goodnight!