Posts with tag hallows-end

Now that Hallow's End is over for another year, it's time to settle up. We already asked whether you got what you wanted, but according to the informal polls (and the feedback I've been hearing), quite a few people didn't actually get everything they were trying for. As we mentioned on the podcast the other week, many people who said they did everything they could probably didn't (did you really go trick-or-treating every hour of every day during the holiday?), but it's not too far a stretch to suggest that maybe the drop rates for some of the hardest items to get (the Horseman's helm and the Sinister Squashling pet seem to be the toughest, though I heard a lot of stories about hard-to-find toothpicks, too) are a little bit lower than they should be for fairness.

Not so, says Bornakk -- he said while the holiday was ongoing that the drop rates were fine, and now that it's over, he says they're still fine. That doesn't mean Blizzard won't change it for next year, but it does mean that they don't have any current plans to change the holiday at all. "The randomness," as he says, "can win sometimes."

Our condolences if you were trying for an item and didn't get it -- even on a 50/50 coin flip, there's still a chance to see one side 1000 times in a row. We sincerely mean this one: better luck next year.

This is it, the end of Hallow's End. Let's make today's Breakfast Topic a quick one... how did your Hallow's End go? Were you able to obtain everything you needed? It took me logging on every hour on the hour (alright, on the hour when I remembered it, anyway) to get the Hallowed Helm which I didn't manage to pick up last year. Along the way, I lined my bags with an assortment of wands, loads of ridiculous masks that still didn't complete A Mask for All Occasions, and enough Tooth Picks to make a family of sharks sparkly clean. I finally got it with forty-something hours to spare, after five straight tricks from Innkeeper Gryshka.

How did you fare? Did you manage to get The Hallowed title on all your characters? Were you able to beat the Headless Horseman into coughing up more candy? Did you go around making those emotes just to get treats for those kids? Time's run out on this World of Warcraft holiday, so share your in-game stories about this past week or so.

Happy Halloween, dear readers! Today's the day, the spookiest day of the year! In the real world, prepare yourself to sit through hours and hours of random children in costumes ringing your doorbell begging for treats from strangers. In Azeroth, you only have two days left to finish your various Hallow's End achievements, everything disappears into the aether on November 2nd it ends tonight! Whoa!

Halloween is being celebrated in worlds beyond Azeroth and our own, too. All month long, our sister site Massively has been covering the numerous celebrations going on in the various ongoing MMOs, from Free Realms' Spooky Spectacular to Aion's Harvest Revel. If you're interested in any of those, head on over to Massively's Halloween roundup to check out their coverage, as well as a screenshot gallery of some holiday eye candy from those many games. Some of the events were quite cool, so I highly recommend taking a look. Guild Wars still has some pretty fantastic aesthetics.

As long as you're all here, I'm curious: Are you dressing up today? If so, what's your costume? If it's something WoW-related, we would love pictures! And are you taking anybody Trick or Treating, or will you be giving out candy? Personally, I'm dressing up as a chubby computer nerd (it's a classic) and handing out Dum Dums by the handful.

As part of their Halloween celebration, the Escapist magazine is giving away twenty Grunty the Murloc Marine codes to sharp readers able to answer their 10-question quiz about the World of Warcraft's Hallow's End event. Readers, who have to register at the site (go ahead, it's free), need to get all ten questions correctly in order to be entered in a random drawing to receive one of the codes for the murloc pet. Aside from being unbearably cute and badass at the same time, the Starcraft-themed baby murloc which was given away at this year's BlizzCon also gets into a shootout with the Zergling pet. Or explodes in green goo. It depends on who gets the jump.

Fortunately for you readers, there's no need for that kind of violence. Just head on over to the Escapist Magazine and answer their fairly easy quiz (insert Headless Horseman laughter here), a multiple choice affair that doesn't have any time limit -- so it's actually kind of a giveaway. Well, a giveaway for players with a good grasp of wowhead and wowwiki the game, as it's not exactly easy. Well, it wasn't easy for me, but I'm no expert on Azerothian Holidays (I got 9/10, so I'm out of the running). If you think you've got the chops for it, though, hop on over to the Escapist and start the quiz!

The Guild is on holiday vacation this week -- instead of the latest episode in the series (which is episode 9, and will come out next week, we're told), they've posted a Halloween special video, which you can watch over on MSN or right past the break below. It's more than just a chance to don their actual guildie costumes, too -- they go on a "socially acceptable real-world looting" run, with each guildie terrorizing one unlucky couple in their own special way. What's scarier than a Tuesday with all the servers down for maintenance? Vork showing up at your door.

And while we're on the subject of The Guild, our good friends at Massively got a chance to speak with a few of the cast members at GameX earlier this week -- Jeff Lewis, Robin Thorsen, and Sandeep Parikh got cornered by Massively's cameras, and talked with them about Wil Wheaton, MMOs, and Sandeep's famous backflip. Have a happy Halloween, Guild fans, and we'll be back next week with the third-to-last episode of season 3.

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Like The Guild? We do, too! We chatted with all of the folks at BlizzCon, including Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh, and Jeff Lewis and Michele Boyd. We also saw their panel, and the guys were nice enough to stop by our meetup as well. Stay tuned here every Tuesday for a brand new episode of season 3!

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We had a fun show as always on our podcast last Saturday -- Gregg Reece joined Turpster and I to talk about the most popular stories of the last week. We talked at length about Hallow's End and how it's going for everybody, the new LFG system coming to patch 3.3 and what to expect in there, as well as last week's developer chat on Twitter and whether or not Blizzard should do it again.

And of course we answered your emails, and actually went longer than I think we ever have before. Not three hours long -- we're only doing that if we can get 25,000 followers on Twitter (and hey, though we're not there yet, we're actually moving pretty steadily towards that). But it was a nice long show this past week, full of the usual information and fun. Hit it up to listen on any of the links below, and enjoy -- we'll be back next Saturday afternoon as usual.

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Hallows End Summed Up in 2 Minutes, subtitled (Hot Bloodelf Chicks included!!!) is Wowcrendor's new offering regarding that infamous candy-based event. It's got the same critical-but-loving eye that Wowcrendor uses in his other informational WoW series.

Now that Wowcrendor has a few of these under his belt, I can't think of a better voice for this kind of saracastic, endearing narrative. It's something about the way he portrays the events with an equal mix of frustration and sheer joy. He manages to convey that he really loves the game, even if he's still aware of the absurdity of it all.

Even while Wowcrendor's reviewing Hallow's End, he manages to slip in an amusing meta-commentary. The video is subtitled Hot Bloodelf Chicks included!!! True to his word, the blood elves appear in the video, even if only for a few seconds. It's definitely a commentary on contemporary machinima elements in things like Belf Rap. It was worth a brief chuckle.

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Don't forget to join It came from the Blog for some Hallow's End fun today!

• When: 4:30pm EDT (2:30pm Server Time, 1:30pm PDT) Today
• Where: Meet at Falconwing Square on Zangarmarsh (U.S.)
• Who: Any Horde character, any level. There will also be a second part of the event for epic mounted, flightpathed characters.
• What: Various Hallow's End activities in the Eastern Kingdoms.
• How: Ask Robinella or any It came from the Blog Lurker for an invite to the guild.

We will be doing some all level activities for the greater portion of the event and will finish up Trick or Treats in the Eastern Kingdoms with the epic mounted/flightpathed (yes, they will mostly be death knights) players.

Have any questions that are not answered here? Please see our FAQ.

We hope you'll join us!

As the Horseman once again appears without his head attached to his body, we'd be remiss not to talk for a bit about this creepy cranially challenged boss. Pugs upon pugs will form offering nothing more than member's souls in return for the coveted mount. Those that get it will dart about showing off their satanic spirit, while those without it will look on enviously.

Of course the mount isn't the only thing to be had -- there are plenty of other goodies dropped by the scourge of Sleepy Hollow. I'm going to be running some alts through and pick up the Ring of Ghoulish Glee on a few of them. The nice combination of attack power, crit, and hit makes it a solid choice for nearly every beginning level 80 melee DPS.

And while my warrior has been sporting the level 70 helm for three years now, he's going to have to go back and get the updated level 80 one. Gotta' collect them all.

I think this is one of the holidays that the loot from the boss overshadows the achievements and the holiday themselves. Perhaps it's just because this was the first real holiday boss we had that dropped enough special stuff everyone had to farm it as much as possible, or perhaps it's just because the mount is so cool. But nonetheless, the achievements are all there too waiting to be completed.

For more information on the holiday, check out our Over Achiever Guide to the Hallow's End Achievement, and the list of the level 80 Headless Horseman rewards.

How much do you plan on farming the Headless Horseman? Every day on every alt possible? Or just a bit?

The burning question about Hallow's Eve this year has been whether or not the Headless Horseman's loot table would be updated for level 80. It had seemed pretty likely, since Coren Direbrew had his myriads of drops tuned for the current expansion. Boubouille answered the question, though, when he posted the newly updated items over on MMO-Champion.

Of course, old Headless is still going to have three pretty key items. He'll still drop the Magic Broom, most likely, which has always been a crowd favorite to zip around the world. You can definitely expect the Hallowed Helm and Sinister Squashling pet, since those are key to the Hallowed Be Thy Name achievement. Weighted Jack-o'-Lanterns will still be common for the same reason.

Jump behind the cut to see the new stuff, though.

It always starts the same. You stand in the graveyard of the Scarlet Monastery. You take a candle and carefully place it upon the Hallow's End altar.

"Horseman rise," you say, "your time is nigh. You felt death once. Now, know demise!"

He rises from the distance -- a little to your right, actually, as you face the tomb. The cackling voice and flaming horse make it clear the Horseman has risen again. "It is over, your search is done!" he warns. "Let fate choose now, the righteous one!"

While this well-known and titular fight against the Headless Horseman is probably the most recognizable portion of Hallow's End activities, it's far from the only one. Let's take a look behind the cut at what you need to do to become "The Hallowed."

Happy weekend (and happy almost-Hallow's End!), everyone! Are you sitting comfortably? Catching up on a little Warcraft time after another tedious work-week? Of course the WoW.com team is in-game this weekend, bringing down bosses and collecting loots and maybe -- just maybe -- having a bit of fun in the process. So what are we playing this weekend? Well, we'll tell you!