I may have mentioned before how much I hate achievements. It’s true. Now I like to achieve things and I even like the hardmode achievements for raiding (and once upon a time, heroics). It’s an additional challenge, and I feel good accomplishing them with my teammates.
But let’s be honest here, clicking on hallows end candy until you puke isn’t achieving anything. And the holiday quests seem to represent the worst of the achievement system.
Alas they are also tied to the only actual meaningful reward of the achievement system (other than the raiding achieves) — the Violet Proto Drake, a 310% speed mount. Flying faster is, to me, a very significant reward that greatly impacts my play experience.
Of course to get it, you have to do approximately a bajillion holiday achievements. I learned about the drake late, just after brewfest in ’08. At the time you had to get every brew from brew of the month, so I figured I had a year before I needed to start doing the holiday achievements. They they changed the brew of the month requirement and I was way, way behind.
At any rate, I started them with Brewfest this year – which was horrible. And Hallows End is proving to be even worse. It started well enough, if painful. I got every achievement but 2 in the first day (after all, they’re just a time sink, they don’t actually require any skill). I was only missing Sinister Calling and That Sparkling Smile. The next day I got the toothpick, and had only Sinister Calling left.
If only I had thought to shoot myself then.
I still don’t have either the squashling or the damned helm. I’ve run the Headless Horseman almost every day. I’ve done the stupid fire quest in Goldshire almost every day. I trick or treat 4-8 times a day (often logging on just to trick or treat). Still nothing.
Hell, I’ve even gotten the Horseman’s mount – I saw that drop – but I haven’t even seen the squashling or helm drop.
I am going to be so filled with rage if the holiday ends with me empty handed – actually I’m rage-filled already. This achievement is like having a pack of deranged rabid squirrels down the front of my pants.
It’s not pleasant, is what I’m saying.
[Update: got the helm today. Still haven't so much as seen the squashling.]
I have a friend on almost the same situation than u. but he got early the helm…as the pet, he still didnt got it. And i already saw like 3 or 4 times the pet droping in HH (got it at 1st time) and I got like 5 or 6 times the pet at the inn’s trick or treat. if only i could sell them i would be rich! lol
good luck with it, only 2 days left
I’m with you Frost…………….I would rather stick needles in my eyes that do many of these “seasonal” quest thing.
I know exactly how you feel, I want to kill everyone who has a toothpick. I got the lot exept for it
My husband has two 80s and is constantly getting the helm on the one that does not need it and the pet on the one that does not need it. He is almost ready to throw his computer out the window. I got lucky and breezed my way through it and got both fairly quickly. I am an achievement nut but I still hate fighting the twerp, it is one of the most irritating holiday boss fights.
I feel ya Frost, we put the guy on farm for mainly the mount but the method applies. Get yourself a warlock and 2 other random people. Advertise a summon to the lower level people and summon one by one.
At that level they usually cant get a group and are more then happy to get a summon in for a shot at the achieve/loot. When the pool dries up your done for the day. We did 43 summons in one day, 30 the next. Boring but effective.
I’ve needed only the squashling since about day 3. I’ve seen it drop every single time I have been in there, just never won the roll. I have four alts that I don’t care about achievements on that have the squashling, one of which only exists as a palceholder until cataclysm rolls out and will be deleted. They all got it from trick or treat bags… The other night I actually PAID for people who already have it to run it with me so it was guaranteed that I would get it and it never dropped, same last night…
Yeah, it’s pissing me off. I already have to wait till children’s week to get my violet drake, if I have to wait until next Halloween I’m probably going to commit acts of violence against someone.
Frost,
I feel the pain. It’s my _second_ year trying for the Squashling – last year I at least got to roll on it. This year, not a glimpse. I’m putting out fires, opening treat bags, hanging out in that graveyard…
I’ve decided that Violet is an ugly colour, totally unbecoming, and I’m going to go run timed COS a bit.
Sigh.
I’m right there with you Frost. In fact I haven’t done the HH at all this year. I have decided to go for the Violet Proto Drake though. The one thing that kept me from go after it was I used to really hate PvP, but now that’s changed.
I was lucky to have gotten all the Hallow’s End achievements last year except G.N.E.R.D. rage and the wand costumes. Suffice it to say it was a much more pleasant holiday experience this year.
Best of luck.
At what point does the complete lack of fun make up for the increased fun you’d have with the 310 mount? I looked at the cost/benefit, and decided that if I don’t get a 310 raid mount and I start feeling like I’m not getting places fast enough, I’d just afk in flight. But there is no way in the 9th circle of hell that I am participating in any of this holiday hoop-jumping.
We’re here for you buddy.
I have to say I agree with Euripides.
I went to visit Mr. Headless once this year just to see if things were any different, it wasn’t, actually it seemed easier despite the fact it’s been upped to 80 apparently. Saw the pet drop, didn’t win it, ended up with a ton of candy so made myself sick. So now I’m all done with Halows End, it was great. Trick what rage with fires in the village? No thanks
I must of really got lucky, I got the Hallows End achievement done in 3 1/2 days. But, I do not have the mount ;(
Good Luck
Matt – code
Got the achievement on both of my 80′s but never saw the mount drop in over 120 HHM summons. I gave up. Got tired of finding a group and then flying all the way out to chillwind point only to have a 5 minute ride to SM (alliance anyway).
Meta achievements that require luck need to go away….
please spare me a toothpick, have been hunting for it ever since the event started > <
feel better? : = )
It would be nice if you could trade in some of the useless garbage – Candy, Lollipops, Tricky Treats, excess Toothpicks (really, why do we get 10? Stupid.) for Halloween tokens which we then used to purchase the Squashling or Hallowed Helm, like the Brewfest or Midsummer events. At least those ones you know you can get the title if you put in the work. Relying on random luck is a frustrating way to do things.
for a time span of over 90 straight days, i ran Anzu trying to get the mount drop (i have a druid on a separate account and i solo it with my hunter after it drops). i had a friend levelling a druid, and after he got to 80, he was reminded of the mount after i said something about my grind. so he goes after it as well.
second try, he gets.
i know its not the same thing, but rage is rage, and i feel you on that.
I got the helm last year and the squashling this year. I don’t sign on every day but still took a lot of time.
My nemisis is the ^(%)@#@% masks. I’ve trick-or-treated every opportunity and only have 2 of the masks, that being between last year AND this year. I have about a 99.99999% drop rate on candy for the treat bags, never mounts, pets, wands or masks…..
i have to say yes:D the violet drake is the bomb:D (tee hee hee) Good luck guys!! and remember… sometimes you are the dog, and sometimes you are the hydrant. (–sherrilyn kenyon said that.. i am not that clever)
Hahaha! This is how Blizzard gets us. I’m just happy the Horseman doesn’t drop any tanking gear like the brewfest boss did. I ignore the seasonal stuff on general principle, and was happy I didn’t have to bother with HH.
as im sure many have, i have seen the same ring drop 5 times in a row. its also quite common to see the same ring 3-4 times out of 5. makes me want to punch things.
the thing that has been bringing me down is trying to get the achievement for all the different masks, though to be fair, I havent looked at the hallows end achievement to see if that one is tied to it.
Frost, you should come do HH with me more. so far I have seen 3 helms and 2 squashlings rot because everyone already had both.
It took me FOREVER to get the helm to drop. I had it drop on m y alts before it dropped on the one I cared about. However, my group has run this damn headless bastard at least 7 times a night every night since Halloween started, and have yet to see the mount drop. Not once.
Frost, I feel your Pain. I have done the HH almost everyday since it started. We have had the same 5 people in our group everyday. Between the 5 of us we have over 20 summons. We are apporaching the 300 summons mark and STILL have not seen the mount. not even once!
I very much agree with Rades. You should be able to turn in something to be able to buy the Hallowed Helm and Squashling maybe Pumpkin Treats or something.
But the Catch 22 is everyone talks about the Achivement system feeling worthless but if something is very hard to get and not everyone is going to get one wouldn’t that make it more of an Achivement?
In the end it still sucks “wee salty balls” to tie a Mount reward to a bunch of events that have a random chance of dropping what you need and thus invalidating an entire years woth of work if luck doesn’t play in your favor, I was lucky enough to get the Squashling and the Helm before the achivement system was put in place so I became AFK Rogue the Hallowed the first time it was released but…..stupid me decides to do it on my Lock this year I was again lucky to get what I needed but I make no mistakes its pure Luck and if WHU has taught anyone anything Luck is a bad stat to try to build up!
AFK….
Disagree with your Catch 22. Making something rare by increasing the luck factor does not make it more of an achievement to get — just means it requries more luck. If it took skill instead of just time and luck, then you could argue it was an achievement.
Argh i feel you, I’m still missing the squashling too while other people run around merrily with it, and I’ve been trick or treating around 5 times a day ever sicne the holiday started. i’m too low level to run HH, but I’ve had two groups take me…got a magical broom mount for my efforts. ><
I feel ya.
3 of us wanted the pet (2 for the meta, 1 because she loves non-combat pets). Doing the HHM every night, it took us about 100 HHM pulls for all of us to get the pet. We never saw it last year, saw it on day 1 but another guildie got it, then it dropped 3 times. However, we burned through 30 pulls over 3 long nights to get it (yay for alts!). And this was in addition to trick-or-treating every hour we were on.
I love the atmosphere of Hallow’s End, but the RNG effin’ blows.
Don’t want to gloat…. but I got the helm first run through, and the squashling 2 days later….
BUT now I have a bad case of 9800ms lag-litis…. I have every achievment aside from GNERD rage….. I can’t get into WOW without dropping out after 90 seconds.
Only need 3 HK’s under GNERD influence to get it… And now two days left *sigh*
Never seen the mount show up and people I play with have never seen it either.
…. wife got the helm last night – we’re “cheering.”
get the rusted drake if you want a 310, one light yogg isn’t so bad, and neither are freya and firefighter after the nerfs, especially once you’re in Totc gear.
To me this is nothing but a whine on doing a task you don’t want for a reward you do want. It’s a simple equation – you have to choose which is more important: the reward or not doing the task. To get the reward you obviously will know what is required before you undertake it, and then factor that in to the decision process. Not doing the pre-Brewfest research is no-one’s fault but your own.
Please stick to giving advice on how to be a better hunter, which for me is the value of this blog.
My complaint here is that there is only one – one – actually meaningful reward of the achievement system outside of raids, and they have tied that to pure chance, rather than skill or grind time. It’s totally possible that I’ll put in all the time and not get it.
That, I think, is poor design.
I have done HH everyday, stop the fires everyday, and trick or treated at least 8 times each day and i have yet to get that helm. I feel your pain.
I’ve gone through the same pains, got the helmet now but am still waiting for the pet. Seen it drop twice in all this time (both times HH, obviously). At the end of the day, this is much an achievement as, say, Needy or Greedy. Pure dumb luck, nothing else.
Just wanted to say that while we all DO read this site for ‘advice on how to be a better hunter’ its value also lies in the fact its an entertaining read. As least thats why I read it on a daily basis
I finally got my squashling and title today. (given up expecting to even see the mount drop, let alone winning it) Don’t think I’ll be getting the fast drake though as that would involve pvp during childrens week and I totally suck at that
Yeah, that pet… i decided to do the full achivement for the drake last year from brewfest. doing well until Halloween. Damn pet didn’t drop, finished everything else. Every other one since has been done, just waiting on that pet from Halloween. Year two rolls up… new toon finishes entire achievment in less than a day ( new toon as in one month old)… my main? pet only drops on the second to last day. OF YEAR TWO. damn i hate that pet now >.<
I’m rather indifferent to achievements overall…BUT…
I HATE BG achievements. They encourage run around like headless chickens, capping flags and then leaving it undefended. Not that people really needed encouragement for acting this way but achievments made it even worse. Remove BG achievments except the ones where you require to win BGs. Thank you
Well holiday’s almost over and I’ve still seen no sign of the toothpic, I am debating with myself wether i should ticket this, a drop rate this low for a common toothpic
it’s unheard of
Does it hurt to know that I have mulitple helmets in my toons’ inventories and that I’ve seen the pet drop sooooooooo many times. I even have it on 2 characters :0
I only say this because I am EXTREMELY jealous of your mount.
Whew, finally got the pet — managed to get this one done just in the nick of time. Damn I hope the other holidays are less horrible.
I’ve completed all the seasonal quests except for 1 – I couldn’t find a group to get the honor the elder’s in the dungeons. I’ve completed all of them last year – including both mounts from brewfest, and the Headless Horseman mount. So this year I just went farming for friends or for the extra gold. Lady luck can be good…….sometimes.
The only achievement I’m missing, for halloween, is the toothpick. And now the event is over. Lame.
normally i would jump on the bandwagon and say damn that sucks and all- and i felt that way till i got to
“Hell, I’ve even gotten the Horseman’s mount”
I then lost all of my pity for you and am now more to the- stop QQ’ing you got the mount!!!
wait for childs week!
return flag, capture tower. and all wanna do that, you gona ‘love’ it.
The only thing i wanted out of this holiday was the stupid mount. I got all the other crap really early. I ran the horsemen every single day on two lvl 80′s and never even seen the mount drop. I could have a bag full of the plate helms and the sword but i never saw that damn mount. I think out of our guild (not huge but not a tiny guild either) i only heard 2 people seeing it drop. Stupid halloween….
…Omg..I love the way u write….down to earth and real…very me…
..I hate the headless horseman too…U had me in stitches reading about that…lol.
*squirrels in ur pants.* Bwaahhaahhaa..
Ty for putting this out there for the new Wow peps like myself to see the funny side.