Children's Week Revisited
Children's Week is back and seemingly less impressive than in previous years. On the plus side, this week is good for as many as three separate minipets (with new options added to the classic and TBC editions this year) for anyone who collects them.
Of the six achievements, three are pretty trivial, and one requires only some pastry purchases from the AH and/or vendors. Of the two "real" achievements, one is the dreaded PVP battleground grind, which can go very poorly if your entire PUG is ignoring the match objectives in the hopes of getting the achievement (ironically making the achievement harder to snag for all concerned).
I made a point of not advancing my warrior from 84 to the current cap at 85, just so I could stay out of the max level PVP bracket for this achievement, and it looks like it paid off - I got all four battlegrounds done in a single match each and didn't even have to behave too badly in order to do so (excepting Eye of the Storm, there's really no sugar coating that one). It's still a bad idea for an achievement, but at least it wasn't actively painful - the Horde even won half the matches I fought. (Perhaps the numbers of people who still need this achievement are dropping over time?)
Ironically, the one I had the harder time with called for the death of King Ymiron in Utgarde Keep. This dungeon was popular and reasonably easy back in the Wrath era, but level 84 characters are too high level to queue for it, which makes it very challenging to find a group. I tried asking in general chat for a while. Then I tried soloing the place - I actually killed all the trash and Skadi on normal mode, but the final boss was more than I could take - perhaps with that last level and better gear I might have managed. Fortunately, I was able to identify a group of achievement-seekers with an empty slot (not many 80+ characters in that area anymore) and got the missing achievement.
Now my Warrior lacks only the Midsummer Fire Fest for my second Violet Proto-Drake.
Of the six achievements, three are pretty trivial, and one requires only some pastry purchases from the AH and/or vendors. Of the two "real" achievements, one is the dreaded PVP battleground grind, which can go very poorly if your entire PUG is ignoring the match objectives in the hopes of getting the achievement (ironically making the achievement harder to snag for all concerned).
I made a point of not advancing my warrior from 84 to the current cap at 85, just so I could stay out of the max level PVP bracket for this achievement, and it looks like it paid off - I got all four battlegrounds done in a single match each and didn't even have to behave too badly in order to do so (excepting Eye of the Storm, there's really no sugar coating that one). It's still a bad idea for an achievement, but at least it wasn't actively painful - the Horde even won half the matches I fought. (Perhaps the numbers of people who still need this achievement are dropping over time?)
Ironically, the one I had the harder time with called for the death of King Ymiron in Utgarde Keep. This dungeon was popular and reasonably easy back in the Wrath era, but level 84 characters are too high level to queue for it, which makes it very challenging to find a group. I tried asking in general chat for a while. Then I tried soloing the place - I actually killed all the trash and Skadi on normal mode, but the final boss was more than I could take - perhaps with that last level and better gear I might have managed. Fortunately, I was able to identify a group of achievement-seekers with an empty slot (not many 80+ characters in that area anymore) and got the missing achievement.
Now my Warrior lacks only the Midsummer Fire Fest for my second Violet Proto-Drake.