by David Piner on Oct 18, 2011
Hallow's End is World of Warcraft's equivalent to Halloween. It's a yearly holiday that goes on between October 18th and November 1st each year. It's a celebration of when the Forsaken broke free from the Scourge. In Arthas: Rise of the Lich King we learn that it was celebrated by the Alliance before the Scourge even came, so to the Alliance it's exactly like Halloween.
There is a lot to do during Hallow's End. Trick or Treating gives some of the most festive and fun items in the game while the Headless Horseman is a purple piñata. There are daily quests that give a small chunk of gold and a lot of lengthy achievements to visit every inn in Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Outland, Northrend, Cataclysm, and Pandaria zones. So let's start digging into this festive holiday.
Looking for how to defeat the Headless Horseman? Visit our handy Headless Horseman.
There isn't many new changes this year. Ultimately, the biggest change is that level 89 players and up get a chance at some sweet level 90 ilvl 470 rings and gear. All loot has been updated. Other than that, the general event remains the same. There are now candy buckets in Pandaria!
You can now buy masks and two neat pets for "Tricky Treats." You need 2 of 'em to buy a mask and 150 for the pets. They're quest rewards and, of course, come from the buckets of candy. The Southshore quests have been removed and replaced with a neat bombing run styled quest. See our quests section below for the new info and the old is still there if you're wondering what you missed.
Nothing has changed with the holiday this year other than how you face the Headless Horseman. You can now queue for his encounter via the dungeon finder. His loot works the same as all updated bosses with an equal chance at his equipment for everyone in the party and then a reward bag with badges and a chance at his rare items the first time you kill him in a day.
The following are the available activities for Hallow's End. We'll go into more detail on the Headless Horseman, Trick or Treating, and the various quests down below.
The Headless Horseman: The Headless Horseman is a level 90 (available at 89) boss in the dungeon finder.The quests have changed this year. The Alliance get their own bonfire and their events kick off in Stormwind. The Horde events kick off in the Undercity this year.
A Time to Gain / A Time to Build Up: The Alliance will want to go to their wicker man outside of the gates and use the bonfire while the Horde will want to go to their wicker man and do the same.
A Time to Lose / A Time to Break Down: Go to the Alliance or Horde wicker man (outside of their respective towns) and "douse" them with water. The easiest way is to land on top of or as close to the wicker man as possible, use the item and either die then res somewhere safe and fly out of there or just try to mount up and get out as fast as possible.
Stick Bombs Away!: Beside the quest giver will be a taxi ride to take you to the Stormwind / Undercity to unleash stinkbombs. Just drop 25 and you're good to go.
Clean Up in Stormwind / Clean Up in Undercity: Remove 10 Stinkbombs and you'll be good to go.
The last two quests are daily quests and award 2 Tricky Treats each. That's four you'll get a day for sure. You can get another Tricky Treat from "Let the Fires Come!"
There is also a quest chain called "A Friend in Need" (Alliance / Horde) which awards the Creepy Crate. It mostly involves running around town, just follow the quest around.
Ah, Hallow's End, why wouldn't you want to be trick or treating? There are three main components to trick or treating:
Tricks and Treats of Azeroth (Meta Achievement)
This requires you to visit Candy Buckets in every inn in Azeroth and Outland. It's a rather daunting task, but if you have a lot of flight points then it becomes more of a time consuming endeavor.
Treats
The following are the available treats during Hallow's End from treat bags:
Hallowed Wand: Comes in different varieties. Allows you to transform yourself or someone in your party into a Bat, Ghost, Leper Gnome, Ninja Pirate, Skeleton, or Wisp. There is one that will transform you into a random one of the previous outfits. You cannot cast in some of those forms.You get treat bags from pumpkins in the inn. They disappear right after Hallow's End, so use your treats before then! Treat bags disappear on logout. You need an inventory space to take a treat bag, but if your inventory is full you won't get a bag but will still get the hour long debuff.
[protip]You can log off and the debuff will still tick down. So you can just login once an hour to get a treat bag if you're doing something else.[/protip]
There are Hallow's End Pumpkin Treats which give a random fun buff.
Tricks
Innkeepers used to "trick" you with a random polymorph effect or a disguise. The polymorph effect will last 30 seconds while a disguise will last an entire hour. This is now done by candy buckets. Each candy bucket will give out at least two Tricky Treats, and sometimes a tricky as a bonus.
Looking for how to defeat the Headless Horseman? Visit our handy Headless Horseman guide all fresh for the new 2011 Horseman!
Various quests and treat bags give "Tricky Treats." These can be redeemed two at a time for the masks and 150 each for two pets (the Feline Familiar and Little Wickerman).
These quests are no longer in the game and can not be completed as I understand, since Southshore now belongs to the Horde.
Alliance
Sergeant Hartman gives you two quests. One of them involves going to the wickerman next to the Undercity (it's on the road) and coming back ("Crashing the Wickerman Festival"). The other involves using a stink bomb cleaner on one of the Horde's "Forsaken Stink Bombs" ("The Power of Pine").
Horde
Darkcaller Yanka is west of the Undercity and has a quest for you to go to the kegs in Southshore and plant some rotten eggs. When you complete that quest you'll get one to return back to her. You can also get the quest "Stinking Up Southshore" which involves throwing 3 stinkbombs in the middle of Southshore. Easy enough. Do that while you do the "Rotten Eggs" quest.
Looking for how to defeat the Headless Horseman? Visit our handy Headless Horseman guide all fresh for the new 2011 Horseman!
Go to Kharanos, Goldshire, Azure Watch, Razor Hill, Brill, and Falconwing Square where there will be a Masked/Costumed Orphan Matron. She'll give you a quest to practice firefighting. You'll find some burning practice targets near each of these cities. Use the bucket of water and douse them with water to put them out. Do it five times and the quest is done. You can return back to the matron.
When that's done, you'll be able to accept a quest ("Let the Fires Come") to start the event unless the event is already started (then it's "Stop the Fires!"). You'll need to grab buckets of water and put out the fire on nearby buildings. This is very hard to do solo because you have a time limit to do it in, so try to do it with a friend. Once the fires are out a Shade of the Horseman will spawn. Defeating him (a few hits from an 80 do it) and he'll spawn a pumpkin on the ground.
The pumpkin will give you a daily quest to turn in where you'll receive a "Crudely Wrapped Gift" that will have a random treat in it (including Weighted Jack-o'-Lanterns and Rickety Magic Brooms). The pumpkin will give you the quest to go to the Scarlet Monastery and defeat the Headless Horseman as well.
The "Let the Fires Come!" quest is a daily quest and awards a "Weighted Jack-o'-Lantern" and 1 Tricky Treat.
Looking for how to defeat the Headless Horseman? Visit our handy Headless Horseman guide!
Here is a quicker guide to it, but if you're curious about the loot to the lore, check the link above!
Unlike in the days of old, you can only do this with five people in the instance. Your goal is the Scarlet Monastery's Graveyard wing. You won't need a key to enter it, so don't worry about that. You'll need a group with a healer and a tank and any DPS you can get. He's not very difficult, so you don't need any super gear checks or anything silly like that. In 2010 you can now use the dungeon finder to get your group going, skipping the need to do any of the quests or walking to Scarlet Monastery.
Once you zone into the instance you'll be ready to face him. Take note of the macro below, but other than that most groups will be able to steamroll this boss in about 30 seconds with almost no strategy.
You can make a macro for "/target head of" to make it easier to target the head.
Phase One
He does nothing special at all in this phase outside of cleaving. When you kill him in this phase he'll throw his head down and start healing. Get his head to 66% to start the next phase. If you don't, he'll start phase one again. He'll go around whirlwinding while his head is off.
Phase Two
Same as phase one, except this time he'll use Conflagration. It'll confuse you for 5 seconds and do 10% of your health every second for five seconds. You can trinket out of it. DPS him down to 1% and he'll lose his head again. His head will pop off, again, and you'll need to DPS it down to 33% while he's healing. Phase three starts when his head is either at 33%. If he heals to full he'll start phase two again.
Phase Three
Same as phase two, except this time he'll throw four pumpkin adds (Pumpkin Fiends) on the ground. They're pretty lame and you can AoE them down or a Paladin tank can consecrate. At 1% he'll lose his head and you need to destroy it this time or else phase three starts again.
Once he's defeated he'll drop the following loot, either ilvl 470 rings. The first time each day you'll get a chance at the Loot-Filled Pumpkin which will drop one of the following, plust a chance at a hat/sword or a flimsy mask: