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“A Festivus for the Rest of Us”

A Guide to World of Warcraft’s Lunar Festival

By:  Thurston “Ratboy” Hillman

Only the minds of Blizzard Entertainment could tie together a giant corrupt two-headed dog, a scattered group of elders who hand out coins, crazy revelers, and (because every holiday needs it) fireworks!  All of the previous items are the ingredients that Blizzard has mixed together for their “Lunar Festival” holiday!

Here’s some basic information on this in-game Holiday for those who are intrigued:

Date: February 16 - March 8
Place:  All Major Faction Cities, & Moonglade
Events:  Fireworks, Elders, & “Omen”

Now it’s time to go into some detail about these three main attractions…

Fireworks
If anything, the Lunar Festival could be considered the “4th of July” of WoW.  Festival Vendors (keenly placed at major cities) are willing to sell a plethora of Fireworks to those who have the silver to spare.  From single rockets, to clusters of colored bombs, there seems to be a limitless supply of incendiary devices coming from the relatively peaceful members of the Cenarion Circle, this obviously has to do with some kind of feud with the goblins and gnomes.

While the holiday specific fireworks can only be shot off from specially made launchers, there are quests that allow players with the engineering Trade Skill to make the fireworks (and associated launchers), giving this holiday event a lasting impression on the WoW World.  To get these recipes will require you to partake in some questing, and a fair bit of travel if you want to collect all there possibly is to collect.

If anything, the sheer amount of fireworks that are required to complete associated quests with the holiday teaches the underage players of WoW one important fact; no matter where you live, there’s always one holiday every year when you can buy fireworks even if you’re not of legal age!  And some people think Video Games don’t teach our youth anything…

Elders
Since the 4th of July was not enough of a holiday to steal, Blizzard found it necessary to take poor defenceless Easter and mix it into this made up holiday.  The Elders of the Lunar Festival are scattered across the world and if spoken with will reward the players with “Coins of Ancestry” which can be turned into the quest giver in Moonglade for Festival related rewards.

There are a total of 50 elders scattered across the entire world, and Blizzard was even kind enough to hide some of them in Instances…  The WoW Easter Egg Hunt is on!  Thankfully we here at TenTonHammer have done a bit of digging and have found the following list that you may find useful…

            Elder Locations 

Eastern Kingdom:

1- Elder Morndeep - Blackrock Depths - Ring of Law. This is right in the middle where you start the arena event so be prepared.
2- Elder Stonefort - Blackrock Spire - (LBRS) (follow the way as if you were doing omokk <big ogre boss> first, when the elder is at the first of the rope bridges, easy to spot)
3- Elder Bellowrage - Blasted Lands - Dark Portal. just over the North lip of the crater (58,51)
4- Elder Rumblerock - Burning Steppes - Dreadmaul Rock. to the east of the highest cave (82,46)
5- Elder Dawnstrider - Burning Steppes - Flame Crest. just West of the flight path, off the ramp.  (64,24)
6- Elder Goldwell - Dun Morogh - Kharanos. just North of the Inn along the outside wall  (46,51)
7- Elder Windrun - Eastern Plaguelands - Crown Guard Tower  (39,75)
8- Elder Snowcrown - Eastern Plaguelands - Light's Hope Chapel  (81,60 )
9- Elder Farwhisper - Eastern Plaguelands - Stratholme - 'streets of Stratholme' (The fastest way to the elder in strat is reached by going in the Baron entrance. Take the first to your left, through the gates, then take a right and then a left again and you should reach him in less than 10 pulls.)
10- Elder Stormbrow - Elwynn Forest - Goldshire. behind the blacksmith shop by the lake. (40,63)
11- Elder Highpeak - Hinterlands - on the hill at The Creeping Ruin (49,48)
12- Elder Brozebeard - Ironforge - The Mystic Ward in the central pool (29,16)
13- Elder Silvervein - Loch Modan - Thelsamar , on a hill overlooking the graveyard. (33,46)
14- Elder Ironband - Searing Gorge - Blackchar Cove  (21,78 )
15- Elder Obsidian - Silverpine Forest - The Sepulcher. at front gate (45,41)
16- Elder Hammershout - Stormwind City- The Park around the center  (22,52)
17- Elder Starglade - Stranglethorn Vale - Zul'Gurub. right outside the instance portal to the south (53,18 )
18- Elder Winterhoof - Stranglethorn Vale - Booty Bay. near the boat dock on the lowest level.  (27,74)
19- Elder Starsong - Swamp of Sorrows - Sunken Temple[/url].  Go into the instance, up the left spiral staircase, fight through two sets of dragonkin, go left around the circle into the first alcove to the left.  Total 4-5 sets of dragonkin to fight.
20- Elder Graveborn - Tirisfall Glades - Brill, by the Inn on the path (59,51)
21- Elder Darkcore - Tirisfall Glades - Undercity. in the throne room at the city entrance.  This is a straight run in from the front entrance jogging around two walls. you don't have to go down the elevator. (66,22)
22- Elder Moonstrike - Western Plaguelands - Caer Darrow (enter the tower, Instead of going to the Scholo instance, Go to the right and upstairs. He's on the roof.) (52,26)
23- Elder Meadowrun - Western Plaguelands - Between Weeping Cave and Gahrrons Withering. (66,47)
24- Elder Skychaser - Westfall - Sentinel Hill. at the top of the tower.  (56,47)

Kalimdor:

25- Elder Riversong - Ashenvale - Astranaar. center of city in a gazebo (35,48 )
26- Elder Skygleam - Azshara - Ravencrest Monument. Very southeastern tip of the zone near the fallen green statue (72,85)
27- Elder Moonwarder - The Barrens - Crossroads Next to Crossroads Wind Rider. (51,28)
28- Elder Windtotem - The Barrens - Ratchet. near where the engineer trainer/suppliers are in the North. (63,37)
29- Elder High Mountain - The Barrens - Taurajo. East gate (45,58)
30- Elder Starweave - Darkshore - Auberdine. just South of gryph along the beach. (36,46)
31- Elder Bladeswift - Darnassus - Cenarion Enclave (33,14)
32- Elder Splitrock - Desolace - Maraudon (???) (You have to get all the way to the water section that you have to jump down into after killing the princess, and follow the ramp upwards and stick to the right I believe and it'll get you there. )
33- Elder Runetotem - Durotar - Razor Hill. south of the Razor Hill Barracks (54,44)
34- Elder Darkhorn - Durator - Orgrimarr. outside Thrall's chamber in the Valley of Wisdom (42,34)
35- Elder Nightwind - Felwood - Jaedenar. North of the first cave, heading towards the river (37,52)
36- Elder Mistwalker - Feralas - Dire Maul in the southern part of the PVP Arena. (62,31)
37- Elder Grimtotem - Feralas - Larris Pavillion (76,37)
38- Elder Bloodhoof - Mulgore - Bloodhoof next to the bridge on the path leading to Thunder Bluff (48,53)
39- Elder Proudhorn - Mulgore - Thunder Bluff.  Up the north lift to Elder Rise. (72,23)
40- Elder Bladesing - Silithus - Cenarion Hold. in the moonwell (50,36)
41- Elder Primestone - Silithus - Crystal Vale. Right before the Northwest tent. (23,12)
42- Elder Dreamseer - Tanaris - Gadgetzan. south gate (50,28)
43- Elder Ragetotem - Tanaris - Valley of the Watchers, behind a pillar on the west side of the giants in Uldum (36,80)
44- Elder Wildmane - Tanaris - Zul'Farak (inside, near the gahzrilla gong)
45- Elder Bladeleaf - Teldrassil - Dolanaar. just South-East of the Inn next to a moonwell (57,60 )
46- Elder Skyseer - Thousand Needles - Freewind Post.  Up the lift to the middle of the post. (45,48)
47- Elder Morningdew - [url ]Thousand Needles[/url] - Mirage Raceway, next to the start/finish line.  (79,77)
48- Elder Thunderhorn - Un'Goro - Slithering Scar. just north of the underground hive. (50,75)
49- Elder Stonespire - Winterspring - Everlook. outside the bank (61,37)
50- Elder Blightspear - Winterspring - Ruins of Kel'theril, south-east of the frozen lake in the ruins. (55,43)

Not only has Blizzard been generous enough to give us this little “hunt” to satisfy our gamer needs to accomplish every quest out there; but they have also included the spam mail along with it!  That’s right; each time you speak with an Elder and receive a coin, that same elder will mail you with a Moonstone that creates the same halo that the Elder stands in.  A cute, but ultimately useless item; the Moonstone is another “hallmark” item of the event.

On a “technical” note; each time you receive a coin from one of the Elders, your reputation with ALL related factions (Horde / Alliance) are raised by 50.  This means that after the collections you will receive a total of 2500 reputation with all your related factions.  On top of the 2500, you will also receive more faction for turning in the coins for holiday items…  ho ho ho, epic mount here I come!

Omen
So far we’ve seen the 4th of July and Easter crammed into this holiday event, but I don’t have any wacky explanation for how this got thrown into the mix…

Omen, the two-headed raid boss dog that inhabits Moonglade’s lake likes to wake up around the Lunar Festival and cause some mischief.  It is up to a group of adventurers (who need to be level 60 if they have any hope of standing against him) to defeat him and gain Elune’s blessing.  This quest is another of the more interesting quests that’s offered during the event.

Omen himself is incredibly difficult, and is on par with an Onyxia style raid encounter.  This means that you will need a moderate (25+ minimum) group of level 60’s to take him on successfully.  Omen has an Area of Effect attack that deal about 800 damage per tick, and will wipe the floor with most groups.  Aside from this AoE attack, Omen is unlike any other raid boss in that he has no other special abilities.  Just keep your main tank healed and DPS up and eventually Omen will fall.

So what’s the reward for killing the raid level boss “two-headed dog from beneath the waves” (sounds like some kind of 80’s B-Movie to me)?  You get a white item that can make “glowy rocks” as they have been called.  No epics, no blues, no greens, just a simple white item that lets you make glowing rocks.  I think I’ve discovered the third holiday that’s been mashed in now…it’s Christmas, but you only get coal!