One of the fun parts of playing massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft is completing achievements. Some achievements give the player a special, rare reward. Some rewards include tabards, pets, and mounts. Completing the achievement What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been rewards the player with a violet proto-drake epic flying mount.
Holiday Events
What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been is a meta-achievement made up of eight lesser achievements. Each of the lesser achievements is completing during several of the holiday events spread throughout the year, coinciding with many real life holidays.
Each of these holiday achievements is itself made up of smaller achievements. The holiday achievements often reward the player with a title, such as the title "The Hallowed" achieved during the Hallow's End holiday around Halloween.
The names of the eight achievements needed for the violet proto-drake are To Honor One's Elders, Noble Gardener, The Flame Keeper (or The Flame Warden, for Alliance players), Hallowed Be Thy Name, Fool For Love, For The Children, Brewmaster, and Merrymaker. Each of these achievements can only be completed during the once-yearly holiday it coincides with.
So, it would take any player at least one year to complete What a Long Strange Trip It's Been. If a player misses one of these holidays, or has trouble completing all the smaller achievements leading to the larger one, then the player must wait until next year's holiday to complete it.
Difficult Achievements
There are many of the lesser achievements needed that might be hard for certain players to complete, such as some classes or lower level players. With the exception of Noblegarden, players must be at least level 25 to complete all the necessary achievements. Many of them require levels 70-80.
For example, the achievement School of Hard Knocks during Children's Week might be hard for some classes to complete. The player must take their adopted orphan into battlegrounds and complete certain tasks. For many classes that only wear cloth, they are easy targets in some BGs. As for low level characters, there are several achievements completed by killing a daily level 70 or higher boss.
While low level characters might luck out and find a kind group of 80s willing to take them along to kill the boss, most players won't be so lucky. Also during Children's Week is an achievement where a player must take her orphan into the dungeon Utgarde Pinnacle and defeat King Ymiron. Players must be at least level 75 to even enter this dungeon.
Violet Proto-Drake Reward
The violet proto-drake is a very fast (or epic) flying mount. Flying mounts can only be used in Outland or Northrend. The player must have learned Artisan Riding to use an epic flying mount, and must have learned Cold Weather Flying in order to fly on Northrend. The violet proto-drake increases a player's speed by 310%, which is actually faster than most flying mounts, which increase speed by 280%.
For level 80 players who enjoy getting achievements, this is a great achievement to strive for. Not many players will be able to get the violet proto-drake, so riding it will be an attention-getter. However, for some players, it might just be too frustrating trying to complete so many achievements over the course of a year (or more). Still, it's worth looking into for a great reward and a sense of accomplishment.
Allison Russo - Allison Russo holds a B.S. in Psychology with a minor in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Most recently she ...
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