UPDATED: Brew of the Year removed from Brewmaster achievement on PTR
by Michael Sacco 
Mar 6th 2009 at 3:32PM
EDIT: Bornakk says that the achievement will be replaced in the meta achievement with one that requires you to simply sign up for the Brew of the Month Club. And for those who doubted my psychic powers: Noblegarden achievements are being added to Long, Strange Trip.
Following the pattern of removing achievements that take a while to complete from the holiday meta-achievements, Blizzard yanked Brew of the Year from Brewmaster on the current 3.1 PTR. This means that anyone who was missing it now has yet another fair shake at getting their Violet Proto-Drake for completing all of the other holiday achievements for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been.
I'm pleased that players who missed that one achievement can still have a shot at the big prize, but man, there seems to be an awful lot of meta-achievement caving lately. It just creates the impression that complaining about something will get it changed, and I don't think that's what Blizzard wants players to believe.
To be fair, it was physically impossible for Death Knights to get this achievement until sometime in 2010. This is a good change for them and I'm okay with that. And no, I'm not against Blizzard removing unfair achievements from reward-bearing metas. This was also the only achievement which was impossible to complete during the event itself.
We'll see if the pattern holds after people miss another impossible-to-miss achievement in the Noblegarden set.
Grats to those for whom this achievement change will make a difference, and early props for your purple dragon.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Mastique Mar 6th 2009 3:34PM
Yes, why don' t they just go ahead and send everyone a Violet Protodrake that has logged in for more than 30 seconds over the past year...
GutterIsATool Mar 6th 2009 3:45PM
I'm with you. These are achievements, not gimmes.
Joe Mar 6th 2009 3:53PM
Wow... So the 200 tickets I used during Brewfest are essentially wasted. I bought the Brew of the Year membership simply because I wanted the proto within a year of Wrath launch.
Apparently I should have used the tickets to buy the brewfest clothes and dance drunk in Dalaran. The constant nerfing of the Long Strnage Trip achievement is going to make the Violet Proto common on every server. Why not just bump base epic flying to 310 if Blizz is going to make it so easy to get one!
This is not a welcome change. Blizzard is constantly bending over to QQing and bitching on their forums. Next change is going to be all new toons start at level 40. -_-
Putts Mar 6th 2009 4:00PM
Yes, because checking your mail once a month for 12 months is so much more achievement-worthy.
Get over it. This was a stupid achievement and it needed to go. It didn't reward effort, persistence, or skill. It rewarded nothing more than just standing around for a year, essentially. Don't sit there and pretend like you're more hardcore than somebody else because you managed to check your mailbox 12 times.
Jezebel Mar 6th 2009 4:15PM
"These are achievements, not gimmes."
Um, "Shave and a Haircut"? "Can I Keep Him?"? "Duel-licious"?
Sorry. Some of them ARE gimmes. The holidays are meant to be fun, entertaining, and have achievements that have range from easy to tough.
How come no one was complaining about Perma-Peddle or Lovely Luck is on Your Side being removed? I had PP a year ago. I wasn't pissed off they removed it, even though I had it.
It's a HOLIDAY ACHIEVEMENT. You want to look impressive to your friends, go grab The Undying. No one's going to say, "Ooh, do me, sexy Brewmaster!" after seeing your title.
Well, okay. Some people might.
Mastique Mar 6th 2009 4:41PM
@Putts - not sure where the hostility is coming from, but i assure you i am not elite by any standard. and by the way, there was quite a bit more to it than checking your mail. you had to earn enough tickets to get the membership to start with. i personally did the achievement, but not for the drake, everything that i do in this game is for me, not anyone else. i don't do things so i can stand around somewhere and get oohs and ahhs... nor do i stroke a virtual epeen. i just think its sad when things are changed after the fact. granted, circumstances cause changes to be made, but i didn't see where this was a necessary change.
Sinystra Mar 6th 2009 4:47PM
I can't agree with you more. I'm disgusted by all the QQing about the achievements that seemed to be ratcheted up around Valentine's Day.
I'm even more disgusted by the fact that WoW Insider has been one of the most vocal QQers about these things (look up any article surrounding the candies on this site and you'll see what I mean).
It's random. It's not meant for everbody to achieve. It's meant to take time, effort and work to get each of these achievements.
I can't wait to see dozens of protodrakes covering the summoning stone at Nax next October. Sigh.
Bob Dewane Mar 6th 2009 4:52PM
Good Freaking God! It's not like this is a 280% mount here. This is the Cadillac 310% one. It SHOULD NOT go to everybody. It SHOULD go to the ones who busted their humps gathering the crazy amount of tokens it took to get Brew of the Month or who logged in evey hour on the hour in pursuit of their bags of candy. I mean even a mount whore like me realized this was too much work given my limited play time.
If this change is fair then so is this one:
I stopped going for the Brewmaster achievement and the Fool for Love achievement when I realized that I jsut wasn't going to have the time to finsih the Brew of the Month and Bag of Candy ones, respectively. Given that, I basically stopped working towards these achievements without finishing other easier parts of the meta achievement. HOWEVER, if I had know that they would be TAKING OUT these two parts of the associated meta achievements, then I would have certainly finished the other, easier ones. SO WHEN TAKING THESE OUT, CAN BLIZZ PLEASE ADJUST MY META ACHIEVEMENTS AND GIVE ME CREDIT FOR THE ONES I DIDN'T DO BUT WOULD HAVE?
I mean, come on! When will it end?
I guess when the Ashes of A'Lar is made a 100% drop from Kael. That's GOTTA be coming, right?
oppai Mar 6th 2009 4:54PM
OMG!!! Nerd Rage!!!
Video Games are supposed to be enjoyable...not a second job.
Yeng Mar 6th 2009 4:58PM
"Edit: To be fair, it was physically impossible for Death Knights to get this achievement. "
How is it impossible for them to get the achievement? It may be impossible for them to get it THIS YEAR, but it is not impossible.
Jorge Mar 6th 2009 5:57PM
@Mastique
"and by the way, there was quite a bit more to it than checking your mail. you had to earn enough tickets to get the membership to start with."
And Blizzard is going to reward precisely that. But checking your mail once per month for a whole year is plain stupid as an achievement requirement.
rosencratz Mar 7th 2009 3:26AM
@Jorge - Agreed. This is not a nerf at all. You still need to farm the same tokens and be a member of the club.... the only difference is now you can take a month or two off between now and next october. It's a bit dodgy of Blizzard to create an achievement that requires you to be logged in for at least 12 consecutive months...
The article is misleading by saying teha chievement is being removed when it's really being changed.
chris Mar 6th 2009 3:35PM
Wait...so if someone completes this achievement on the PTR, they can get the Proto Drake on a regular server? I'm confused...
Zyli Mar 6th 2009 4:36PM
no, it's on the PTR meaning that it *may* make it on to live servers (and I'm sure is likely to make it live). Anything done on PTR's stays there, it doesn't transfer over to any live realms. the test realm is just for testing ^_^
Jon Mar 6th 2009 3:36PM
Wow, you came off as a little bit bitter there Michael.
Michael Sacco Mar 6th 2009 3:43PM
Oh, I'm unironically not bitter about it. You can see how little I care about holiday achievements:
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Elune&n=Mostaccioli
http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Argent+Dawn&n=Strozzapreti
Jon Mar 6th 2009 3:49PM
OMG!
I'm on Elune too. We are gonna be bestest friends!
mibluvr13 Mar 6th 2009 8:00PM
Oh, you play Alliance. Explains a bit more.
Oh and a human female! Surprise!
DruidGuard Mar 6th 2009 3:36PM
Oh what a joyous day this is.
Kakistocracy Mar 7th 2009 2:47PM
Yay for another victory for not thinking ahead!