Most of the blogs I have written that feature Riglee, my Gnome Death Knight (DK), are about her attempt to solo a dungeon. (It’s the “Riglee Does Dungeons” series). This time, I did something a little bit different. I wanted to see my DK, who is now Level 70 after doing some world events, could visit all of the Elders in Northrend. Last time I tried this, she lacked Cold Weather Flying and only managed to reach a couple of Elders.
This time? Things went a little bit better, but ultimately ended in failure. There are two Elders that she simply cannot get to. Maybe next year Riglee will be big enough to get to at least one of them. The screenshots you see here were taken on February 25, 2015.
I have not completed any of the world events in World of Warcraft (WoW). The biggest reason is that I have simply not made doing them a priority. The other reason is that there are some Achievements that my characters are still too small to earn. I don’t think any of them are able to get into the dungeons that connect to world events yet.
I tend to play WoW in a way that is different from most people. I pick something fun to do – and then I do that thing. Often, that thing involves running through old content with Shawn or trying to solo old content dungeons just for fun. I’ve never focused on leveling my characters, which is strange, because I love leveling characters in other video games. There is something about WoW that makes me become especially distracted by shiny things.
This year, I noticed that Riglee the Death Knight actually had completed quite a few of the Lunar Fest Achievements. It made me wonder if she could actually reach all the Elders in Northrend this year. My goal for the day became to earn the Elders of Northrend Achievement.
Here’s a quick look at the Lunar Fest Achievements Riglee has already earned:
50 Coins of Ancestry: Receive 50 Coins of Ancestry.
Elune’s Blessing: Complete the Elune’s Blessing quest by defeating Omen.
Lunar Festival Finery: Purchase a festive pant suit or festive dress with Coins of Ancestry.
Elders of the Alliance: Honor the Elders which are located in the Alliance capital cities.
Elders of Eastern Kingdoms: Honor the Elders which are located in Eastern Kingdoms.
Frenzied Firecracker: Shoot off 10 Festival Firecrackers in 30 seconds or less.
The Rocket’s Red Glare: Shoot off 10 Red Rocket Clusters in 25 seconds or less.
It looks to me like the last time I put effort into completing the Lunar Fest Achievements on this character was back in 2011. As you can see, Riglee has completed a lot of them. This year, I decided to see what would happen if I tried to earn one more – the Elders of Northrend Achievement. My attempts in previous years were painful and quite expensive (due to armor repair).
Getting to Northrend was the easy part. Start in Stormwind Harbor and get on a boat. It takes you to directly to the continent of Northrend.
My first attempt this year wasn’t going well. Riglee isn’t big enough to fight against the monsters in Northrend all by herself. She can, however, outrun some combat if she rides a Swift Springstrider. This isn’t an ideal solution, however, as I have no idea where I’m going in Northrend. Outrunning the first mob does no good if you end up running directly through a second mob in an attempt to evade the first one. It didn’t take long until I got lost and had no idea how to find any of the Elders.
Two things changed that. One, Shawn suggested that I use a flying mount. I tried that, and then remembered that I couldn’t fly in Northrend yet. Fortunately, Riglee had enough gold to purchase Cold Weather Flying after she returned to Stormwind. Two, I logged out of WoW and searched the internet until I found a map of Northrend that had all the Elders marked on it. (I even printed it out so I wouldn’t have to switch between WoW and a browser to see where I was supposed to go next).
Last time I tried to earn this particular Achievement, Riglee managed to find about half of the Elders that were on the list. She did a lot of corpse running, wracked up a big fat repair bill – and was still unable to complete the Achievement. Northrend can be very violent!
Elder Sardis is located behind Valiance Keep.
Elder Beldak is in Westfall Brigade.
Elder Morthie is in Star’s Rest.
Elder Fargal is in Frosthold.
Elder Arp is in D.E.H.T.A.
Elder Northal is in Transitus Shield.
Elder Sandrene is in Lakeside Landing.
Elder Wanikaya is in Rainspeaker Rapids.
Elder Lunaro is in Ruins of Tethys.
Elder Bluewolf is in Wintergrasp. This posed a problem that I could not find a solution to. Wintergrasp, as it turns out (unbeknownst to me who rarely ever travels to Northrend) is a battleground. It is possible to fly into the area without actually queueing up for a battleground.
At the time I was there, it was Horde controlled. This meant that if Riglee landed anywhere, the Horde guard non-player characters (NPCs) would “one-shot” her (and she’d be dead before she got to the Elder). I suspect things would have been a lot easier if the area happened to be Alliance controlled at the time.
The map showed that Elder Bluewolf was inside Wintergrasp Fortress. The door in front of it is guarded by two Horde NPC’s. The door itself is unclickable. Even if Riglee was somehow more powerful than both the NPC’s, she still wouldn’t be able to open the door to get inside Wintergrasp Fortress. I flew around it, searching for some other way inside, but there was none.
A “glitch” allowed Riglee to see into Wintergrasp Fortress while still in flight. Yep, Elder Bluewolf is in there alright. She’ll never be able to reach him.
Elder Tauros is in Zim’Torga.
Elder Thoim is in Moa’ki Harbor.
Elder Graymane is in K3.
Elder Stonebeard is in Bouldercrag’s Refuge.
Elder Pamuya is outside of Warsong Hold.
Elder Whurain is outside of Camp Oneqwah. This is another one that didn’t work out. He stands just outside of a Horde town. I must have tried this six or seven different times, from different angles, to no avail. It is impossible to click both Elder Whurain and the “accept” button on the quest that pops up after you click him in time. I kept getting “one-shotted” by the NPCs.
Eventually, I gave up. I think the only possible way to get this Elder is to do it with a Horde character. I have a few Hordies, but they are all very low level. It will be a very long time before any of them is ready to travel through Northrend (even with Cold Weather Flying). That’s disappointing.
Elder Skywarden is in Agmar’s Hammer.
Elder Muraco is in Camp Trunk’lo. This one is also located just outside of a Horde town. Blizzard was kind enough to put a barrier behind Elder Muraco, which made it a lot easier for my Level 70 Alliance character to honor this Elder. Hey, Blizzard, would it be possible to turn Elder Whurain around and stick one of these little barriers behind him for next year’s Lunar Fest?
This ends Riglee the Death Knight’s attempt at earning the Elders of Northrend Achievement. There’s no possible way for her to earn this Achievement right now. Fortunately, the effort I put into this attempt wasn’t a complete waste of time because the Elders she managed to visit to will count for next year, too. Or, they will for Riglee.
I don’t think they count for the rest of my characters, but that’s fair enough. It was disappointing to get this close to earning the Elders of Northrend Achievement only to discover it was impossible.
Will I try it again next Lunar Fest? Right now, I’m not sure. I suppose I might consider doing it if Riglee hits Level 80 before then. I suspect that should, at the very least, get her into the Wintergrasp battle. Maybe, if she’s super lucky, she will manage to run over and click on Elder Bluewolf before she gets killed by the Horde players. As for Elder Whurain… I don’t see how this is possible to do on an Alliance character.