Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Pink Spirals


Take Single's Awareness Day and extend it to an entire week and I'm sure the suicide rates around the world would skyrocket. What a macabre way to start off a holiday blog about love and happiness!

Love is in the Air is the in-game event based around Valentine's Day. In 2012, it started on February 5th and ended on February 19th. All of the previous years' items are still available, but they added in something new. All of the people who repeatedly went year after year without the Big Love Rocket now have a.. "Plan B" mount called the Swift Lovebird.

This holiday is comparatively simple in its related quests and structure, the main emphasis is collecting Lovely Charms to turn into Lovely Charm Bracelets and spam-completing the daily quests to gather up Love Tokens en mass . Do NOT forget to pick-up the Lovely Charm Collector's Kit or all of your farming will be for naught, cause you won't receive any charms.

To start off with, make sure you head to your main capital city to start your holiday "bread crumb" quest, so you can knock out the pleasantries early and really get into the spirit of things. Both faction's quest starts with a Snagglebolt goblin. Do his detective work for him and you'll end up chasing another goblin all around the capital, until eventually catching him and making him talk. You learn that the Crown Chemical Company is up to no good with their perfume and cologne distribution, so it's up to you to stop them! There's an 'additional' quest upon beating the Apothecary Trio that leads you back to the Snagglebolt, but it's an abrupt finish.

In addition to the detective work, there is also the completion of daily quests. There's a randomly selected daily quest that involves testing the Crown Chemical Company's products on the local denizens of the capital, whether it be NPC or PC doesn't matter to the completion of the quest, as long as they haven't already been tested on. Certain NPCs are excluded from being targets of these quests for reasons I'm not quite sure of. I also believe, if it's the same as the year before, shape shifted druids are unaffected by these products as well.

One of the other dailies is level-dependent on your objective. While still doing the same thing no matter where you're sent, your level selects your destination.
  • Level 05-13: Sends you to the Westbrook Garrison in Elwynn Forest/West of Orgimmar's Gates in Durotar.
  • Level 14-22: Sends you to the Grove of the Ancients in Darkshore/just outside of Ambermill in Silverpine Forest.
  • Level 23-31: Sends you to an abandoned southeastern farm in Duskwood/just outside of Hillsbrad Village in Hillsbrad Foothills.
  • Level 32-40: Sends you to just outside of Theramore in Dustwallow Marsh.
  • Level 41-50: Sends you to the east of Aerie Peak in Hinterlands.
  • Level 51-60: Sends you to the east of Everlook in Winterspring.
  • Level 61-70: Sends you to the east of Shattrath City in Terokkar Forest.
  • Level 71-80: Sends you to the Forlorn Woods in Crystalsong Forest.
  • Level 81-85: Sends you to the east of the Tomb of Khartut in Uldum.
And the final set of dailies consists of creating Lovely Charm Bracelets and turning them in to your faction's leaders. In the past, each turn counted toward a vote to establish who the favorite faction leader was. This polling system is no longer in place and is now just a regular daily turn-in. Each leader hands over a Lovely Card in return that grants a buff to a specific stat (they don't stack with each other) that is calculated into what level you are.
  • Agility - Darnassus/Orgrimmar
  • Intellect - Stormwind/Undercity
  • Stamina - Ironforge/Thunder Bluff
  • Spirit - Exodar/Silvermoon City
I'm going to go ahead and quote what I said last year about this holiday's boss. I will probably continue to add in the boss strategies year after year, especially if they change something about the boss, but mostly just as a refresher course so that no one screws up and dies on a holiday boss fight. Kind of embarrassing, don't you think?

It wasn't very difficult at all when it was first introduced last year, this year wasn't much more difficult, just you had to teach the new people that didn't know what to do. It was also harder to use the same tactics from last year, and much more difficult to DPS tank. Like we were doing last year, hehe. 
Apothecary Hummel is the "main" target of the fight, but he comes with two others; Apothecary Baxter and Apothecary Frye. There are items off to the side to negate certain effects used by the bosses during the fight. Hummel uses an Alluring Perfume, using the Perfume Neutralizer negates all but his melee attacks. Baxter uses  Irresistible Cologne and the Cologne Neutralizer takes care of him. Frye is simply and annoyance and uses both, but he can be completely ignored for the most part of the fight. Upon initiating the fight, you can only attack Hummel. After, I believe, 15 seconds, Baxter activates and you can attack him as well. About the same time after that, Frye activates as well. The easiest way to do this is for the tank to hold both Hummel and Baxter and wear the Neutralizer for whichever boss gets downed first and then switch to the other. Another possibly strategy is to just have a DPS hold Baxter until Hummel is downed. Frye has no aggro table, which is why I said to just ignore him.

Nothing new, in terms of items, was added to the boss' loot tables from last year, but they did make it so the once-a-day Heart-Shaped Box dropped Love Tokens as well. They also still drop the necklaces that you can continuously farm if you so desire.
  • Forever-Lovely Rose: A simple headpiece that makes your character have a rose in their mouth, if male, or a rose tucked behind an ear, if female. No required level, but since you have to be 84 to queue for the fight.. You get the idea.
  • Vile Fumigator's Mask: A headpiece that makes your character wear a gas mask. Also has the added effect of stunning your target for 30 secs. Completely worthless, honestly, at max level. Amusing for recreational and transmogrification purposes.
  • The Heartbreaker: I finally got my hands on one of these this year. It's only purpose is to make your target burst in to tears. It doesn't work on the opposite faction and if used with no target, you burst in to tears instead. It's off the GCD, so it could technically be worked into a rotation if you want a free debuff and to just cry your heart out.
  • Toxic Wasteling: Just about every holiday now has an acquirable companion pet. Except the mini-holidays that only last a day or two, but give them time.This one is just like the Disgusting Oozeling, but as this one travels past critters.. It eats it. And gets bigger. Also, no debuff!
  • Big Love Rocket: The crème de la crème of mounts. This is the money maker. It's a giant pink rocket with a zebra-striped seat cover. Plus.. the in-game icon for it is pink and phallic-shaped. Innuendos everywhere!
Before taking the last step into the realm of the achievement spam.. Remember all of those Lovely Charms, Lovely Charm Bracelets, and Love Tokens you collected? It's time to get serious. About purchases.

Quick side-note. The Swift Lovebird is, in fact, BoE. Meaning you can farm up multiples and sell them on the AH or hand them out to friends who didn't quite reach make it to the 270 Love Tokens. Though if you do all of the available dailies everyday of the holiday, defeat the boss daily, you should be able to meet the requirements without farming for a single extra Lovely Charm. If you don't, the conversion of Bracelet to Token on the vendor is going to be your lifesaver.

Second side-note, not only is the Swift Lovebird BoE, but so are the created Lovely Charm Bracelets. You can't sell your tokens, and you can't sell your charms, but you can sell the mount and the bracelets for profit.

On to the achievements, which is why everyone reads this! Woot.

  • Be Mine!: Purchase the Bags of Heart Candies from the vendor using Love Tokens and eat one of each of the eight Heart Candies. Each bag costs two Love Tokens and the Heart Candies aren't soulbound, so you can AH or trade them off to friends to assist others in getting their achievements.
  • Charming: Grab your Lovely Charm Bracelet Kit and get to destroying lots of mobs. You're going to need 120 Lovely Charms for this achievement, because you need to create twelve Lovely Bracelets. Lovely Charms are soulbound, so there is no avoiding this achievement. Though if you don't need those bracelets once you get the achievement, you can pass them on to someone else or try to sell them.
  • Dangerous Love: Being the Crown Chemical Co. questline in either capital city and run it through to its completion of crushing the crown and turning the daily back into the investigator in Stormwind City or Orgrimmar. You'll receive the achievement at that time.
  • Fistful Of Love: Since Cataclysm's release, this achievement got a little harder. Since we don't have Dalaran or Shattrah to hang around in anymore, finding the correct Horde race/class combinations are going to require people to actually head into battlegrounds. Or have a friend who has free open character creation slots who is willing to waste their time creating toons for you to throw rose petals on them. You get Handfuls of Rose Petals from the holiday vendors; two Love Tokens for five Handfuls. Since it's uneven, you'll have to over-purchase just to complete the achievement, but keep an extra on hand for another achievement. Handful of Rose Petals are also not soulbound, so you can give away your extras or sell them.
  • Flirt With Disaster/Flirt With Disaster: Head over to Ironforge/Undercity (according to your faction) and stop in at a bar. Pile up on the heavy drinks. For the Alliance, you're going to need to head over to the Great Forge and wait for that sexy pie vendor to make his rounds. When you see Sraaz, drink up and get hammered. Chuck a Handful of Rose Petals at that darling gnome face and "plant" a wet one on him. He sells pie, so he can't be all bad, right? For the Horde, you're going to have to stick around the central bank area. Drop down to the lower levels and find Jeremiah Payson playing with his cock.. roaches. Drink up and get hammered, slathering him with rose petals, and give him a little tongue action. I have no idea why I went there with that...
  • I Pitied The Fool: This one is going to take some time. You have to be at least level 80 to complete this achievement, since you need to be able to enter a level 80 raid instance. You're also going to need the time necessary to collect and acquire 50 Love Tokens so you can buy up five Love Fools. Or have a friend who has extra, since they're not soulbound. You have ten days of real time to throw these puppies down in Naxxramas, the Culling of Stratholme, the blacksmith in Arathi Basin, anywhere in Wintergrasp, or the Gurubashi Arena in Stranglethorn and give them the ol' pity stare. Simple in it's execution to say the least.
  • Lonely?: Throw down ten more Love Tokens to pick yourself up a Romantic Picnic Basket and then ten more Tokens for a Box of Chocolates and hope you get the chocolate treat you desire. You're going to need to head over to Dalaran, plop down your picnic basket, and wait for someone who is as lonely as you to plop down beside you.. So you can share a Buttermilk Delight with them. Warcraft isn't all rainbows and sunshine anymore. As usual, the chocolates from the Box of Chocolates aren't soulbound, but the box itself is.. As is the picnic basket.
  • Lovely Luck Is On Your Side: Head over to our lovely holiday vendors and use twenty of your Love Tokens to pick up a Lovely Dress Box. Open it up and if inside you find yourself a coveted Lovely Black Dress, you earn this achievement to go alongside your newest fashion statement. The Lovely Dress Box has an even 25% chance to drop one of four dress; Black, Purple, Blue, or Red. There is also a Dinner Suit Box with three dinner suits in it, but who cares about those. It's not a pretty black dress! None of these dresses, or even the suits, are soulbound. Share them with your lowbies or friends who need something for a date.
  • My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose: Bouquet of Red Roses and Bouquet of Ebon Roses are your target items here. You do get to pick and choose where to go to find your bouquets though: Admiral Ripsnarl of the Deadmines, Lord Godfrey of Shadowfang Keep, Corla, Herald of the Twilight of Blackrock Caverns, Drahga Shadowburner of Grim Batol, and High Priestess Azil of Stonecore all offer 100% drop chances on Heroic/Normal (where applicable). With the addition of the latest dungeons, it seems that Queen Azshara of Well of Eternity, Asira Dawnslayer of Hour of Twilight, and the Echoes of Jaina and Sylvanas of End Time all also have a chance to drop them.
  • Nation Of Adoration/Nation Of Adoration: You know how you made those twelve Lovely Charm Bracelets awhile back for the Charming achievement? Hope you kept four of them to turn into the four faction leaders of whichever faction you are to gain this achievement. If not.. Get back to farming, you're going to need forty more Lovely Charms.
  • Perma-Peddle: Use forty of your Love Tokens to purchase a Truesilver Shafted Arrow to acquire this permanent companion version of the pet gained from the Silver Shafted Arrow you can purchase from the holiday vendor for a five for five deal.
  • The Rocket's Pink Glare: Love Rockets are currently on sale at your local holiday vendor for a five-for-five deal. You're going to need to pick up two sets, because you need ten for this achievement. Your goal is launch all ten of your rockets in twenty seconds or less. It's pretty simple, just don't dilly-dally if you're bad at placing your targeting area.
  • Shafted: Pick up some Silver Shafted Arrows from your local holiday vendor, turn around, and being your role as Cupid. The arrows are another five-for-five deal, so you're going to need to pick up double the initial purchase to finish off this achievement. And again, the arrows are not soulbound.
  • Sweet Tooth: Remember when I told you to buy Box of Chocolates for your romantic picnic alone in Dalaran? Well, this one is to eat one of each of the four chocolates that can come out of that box. The chocolates aren't soulbound, as usual.
  • Tough Love: Defeat the Apothecary Trio inside of Shadowfang Keep. You're going to need to be at least level 84 to even make an attempt on these guys. At least this isn't a part of the meta, so it's not required to get your "Love Fool" title.
  • Big Love Rocket: The Feat of Strength attached to this holiday through acquiring the Big Love Rocket mount from the Apothecary Trio.
For more information on this holiday, please follow this link here: Love is in the Air '12 to find all of this information and more over at Wowhead.


And now my own personal achievement list..

Warrior: Love Fool of '09. No dice on the Big Love Rocket or the Toxic Wasteling.

Paladin: Love Fool of '10.

Druid: Love Fool of '11. First and only toon, so far, to get The Heartbreaker.

Death Knight: Love Fool of '11.

Mage: Love Fool of '11. Crumpled the trio in '12.

Rogue: Love Fool of '12.

Still hoping my main will get the Big Love Rocket and the pet before the account-wide pets and mounts system goes into place with Mists of Pandaria, but it doesn't seem likely, especially so if Mists comes out in '12. At least the account-wide pets will net my warrior the wasteling.

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