Sunday, January 27, 2013

Lunar Festival '13

The Lunar Festival really has not changed much over the years since it's original inception back in 2006. The holiday itself is the in-game version of the Chinese New Year and Blizzard actually changes the occurring dates of the holiday to correspond with the real holiday's dates. The 2013 dates are currently January 27th through February 9th.

On the actual date of the Lunar New Year, there are firework shows in Stormwind City, Thunder Bluff, Booty Bay, and Moonglade. On the final day of the festival, there is one more firework show put on display in Moonglade, with an increased number of lanterns placed around Lake Elune'ara to create parallels with the Chinese Festival of Lanterns.

With all that said, you'll know that the Lunar Festival has started because most, if not all, of the capital cities will have Chinese-style lanterns set out on display around the scene showing the start of the next holiday. Bread crumb quests will show up on your mini-map, and depending on where you log out in cities, right in your face.

The only purpose of the bread crumb quests, of which there are three, is to get you introduced to the idea of shooting off rockets and rocker clusters from the launchers placed around. As well as how to use your Lunar Festival invitation to come and go from Moonglade, where the vendors and fighting bits of the holiday all occur.

  1. The Lunar Festival/The Lunar Festival: The true bread crumb quest. All capital cities will have a Lunar Festival Emissary. This is the quest they offer to start you on your way toward doing an awful lot of flying/running.
  2. Lunar Fireworks: Like I said, these quests are the basics of the holiday. Purchase eight (8) fireworks, of any color, and launch them off from the firework launchers placed around the quest giver. Do the same thing after purchasing two (2) rocket clusters, of any type. 
    • Lunar Festival Invitation: This little bad boy is your free pass-port to Moonglade. As long as you're standing in a Greater Moonlight effect. As of last year's event, the invitation no longer has a 24 hour duration and now persists through the entire holiday, so you won't have to go back to get another one every single day.
  3. Valadar Starsong: Now that you have your invitation, use it in the Greater Moonlight nearby to port to Moonglade. Head into the town of Nighthaven and speak with Valadar. This gentleman is your go-to guy for some of the items to be purchased for this holiday. A list of his purchases will be further on down the guide.
  4. Elune's Blessing: You have to be at least level 40 to be able to grab this quest. It requires you to summon and kill a raid-level boss to gain a buff from the moonlight spawned within the corpse. We will get to Omen later as well. We have something a little more important to get to first.
Now that we've knocked out all of the holiday quests, and what an adventure they were, it's time to get down into the meat of the holiday. The Lunar Festival is all about traveling the world, literally. There are Elders placed all around Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms, as well as Northrend. The Outlands are left out of this holiday.

As you go around speaking to these Elders, you will receive Coin of Ancestry from each one. You also receive a Lucky Red Envelope upon completing the quest; talking to them. There are two potential rewards inside of the envelopes:

  • Lucky Rocket Cluster: The same as the normal clusters of rockets that can be purchased from the holiday vendors, only this one comes with a little extra:
    • Lunar Fortune: When you launch these rockets off, you get a health buff. This buff does not adjust by level, so you always only receive +250 health. Amusingly, it has an area effect to it, so all those around the launcher get the buff, not faction specific either.
  • Elder's Moonstone: This item creates a pool of moonlight that you can stand in, much like the Grand Moonlight needed to use your  Lunar Festival Invitation, only it DOES NOT work for the invitation. Very helpful, or was, for indicating zones in Heigan's Dance Room in Naxxramas.
There are a total of 84 Elders to locate and collect coins from:

EASTERN KINGDOMS - Roughly placed dots, but good indicators of approximate locations.

KALIMDOR - Roughly placed dots, but good indicators of approximate locations.

NORTHREND - Roughly placed dots, but good indicators of approximate locations.

CATACLYSM  Vashj'ir/Deepholm - Roughly placed dots, but good indicators of approximate locations.

Once you've gone out and collected all of your coins, you're going to need something to spend them on. Time to head back to Moonglade and talk to the Starsong's.

Valadar Starsong:

Fariel Starsong:

Maybe I should have mentioned that aside from the holiday outfits, if you're not a tailor or an engineer, this holiday is pretty much a worthless event for you. But it's a holiday, so chin up, and let's move on. Now that you've purchased anything you can get with your 84 coins (and whatever you have leftover from previous years), it's time to move on to the items that are sold that actually cost you coin.

Lunar Festival Vendor:

Valadar Starsong:

Now, it's time to finish off this holiday with a bang. It's time to bring out Omen, get your buff, and get your holiday quest reward.

In Moonglade, there is the Lake Elune'ara. During the Lunar Festival, there is a small patch of cluster rocket launchers on the far side of the lake away from Nighthaven. You're going to need a stockpile of cluster rockets to get the fight with Omen underway. I've heard anywhere from 20 - 70 cluster rockets are necessary to complete the summoning.

At first, there will be Minion of Omen summoned by the rockets. You can either slay these beasts or leave them to settle the bigger prize. Overtime, Omen will eventually spawn. He only comes with two attacks; Cleave and Starfall. There is potential for soloing, but your best bet is simply to assault him with others. You do not have to be grouped, as Omen's death will not complete the quest for you. If your groups happen to wipe, Omen's health does not reset. So simply resurrect and return to battle until Omen has been defeated. Do not fear being under-leveled for Omen, as you can simply participate in the battle using Elune's Candle. It doesn't deal a tremendous amount of damage, but it gives the lower level players something to do instead of sitting around and waiting for the battle to be over. Just make sure to try and avoid being hit by the Starfall.

When Omen is slain, a stream of moonlight will spawn in the middle of his corpse. This is the Elune's Blessingthat is required to complete the quest. Head back to Valadar to complete your quest and get your reward:
  • Elune's Lantern: This fancy little item lets you create Elune Stone using Solid Stone. It has a 1 day cooldown, so it'll take some time to stockpile any amount of moonlight pools, as that is all the Elune Stones do.
And now that we've gone over ALL of the questlines, for both Alliance and Horde, it's time to look at getting those achievements. Hopefully you still have some time left after traversing multiple continents and separate worlds to get some of these in.

Completing all of the achievements listed below will net you the meta achievement: To Honor One's Elders!
  • A Coin of Ancestry / 5 Coins of Ancestry / 10 Coins of Ancestry / 25 Coins of Ancestry / 50 Coins of Ancestry: This achievement scales over time as you acquire more and more coins. It's the easiest of the achievements to get for this holiday simply because this is what you'll be doing to gather up most of the rest of the achievements anyway. So don't worry about not getting it completed, as long as you're doing the Elder achievements, you'll be fine here.
  • Lunar Festival Finery: Take five of those lovely little Ancestry Coins you've been tracking down from the Elders and use them to purchase a Festival Pant Suit or Festival Dress of any color. To note, the red festival dress/pant suit made by tailors does not count toward this achievement.
  • The Rocket's Red Glare: Spend a tiny little bit of your money on purchasing up 10 -red- rocket clusters. Make sure they're red or they won't count. After that, find yourself a cluster launcher and have at it. With 25 seconds on the timer, you really can't mess up unless you purposely screw it up or lag hates you.
  • Frenzied Firecracker: Just like the rockets, purchase firecrackers from the Lunar Festival vendors. You'll, again, need ten of these. Set them to a hotkey and toss 'em out on each cooldown. This one is easier to screw up, missing a single cooldown will make you fail. Grab some extra 'crackers if you don't think you'll get it in the first ten. Just keep going until you get it.
  • Elune's Blessing: Complete the pre-requisite quests to gain access to the Elune's Blessing quest to go after Omen. Whether you actually participated in besting the beast or if you showed up during the aftermath, you can still complete the quest. As long as the beam of moonlight is there to grant the Elune's Blessing buff, you're good to roll. Turn the quest in to complete this achievement.
  • Elders of Eastern Kingdoms: Simply honor all of the Elders located on the Eastern Kingdoms. There are 24 total Elders on the Eastern Kingdoms that count toward the various Elder achievements.
  • Elders of Kalimdor: Simply honor all of the Elders located on Kalimdor. There are 26 total Elders on Kalimdor that count toward the various Elder achievements. See the complete list after the break.
  • Elders of Northrend: Go around Northrend and honor the 25 total Elders there. Some count toward the Dungeon Elders count, but they all matter toward completing the Meta.
  • Elders of Cataclysm: Venture forth to the newest additions to the region with the Cataclysm expansion pack and find the 9 hidden Elders there. See the complete list after the break.
  • Elders of the Dungeons: Seek out the 13 Elders hiding away in instances on any of the three continents. These Elders might require some creativity, ingenuity, or friends. As always with instance achievements, doing this at level cap is significantly easier.
  • Elders of the Horde: Saunter, or tip-toe, your way through the Horde capitals and honor their very own Elders. There are 3 total Elders for this achievement.
  • Elders of the Alliance: Much like the Elders of the Horde, make your way through the Alliance capital cities and honor the Elders of the Alliance. There are 3 totals Elders for this achievement as well.
See you at the end of Lunar Festival with my post-holiday completion post!
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1 comment:

  1. ParagonJanuary 27, 2013 at 12:24 PM

    Revisions 1-27-13:
    Removed disclaimer at the top.
    Updated the date to Feb 9th instead of Feb 10th.
    Adjusted spacing.
    Removed Pandaria section for potential Elders.

    ReplyDelete

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