Some people raid, others PVP, some people level a multitude of alts. Myself? I'm obsessed with collecting vanity pets. For those of you not in the know, vanity pets are little critters you can collect just for the sake of collecting them, because they have no affect on your character's power or his/her performance in the game. They're just that - vanity pets.
Since Wrath was released, its become even easier to collect these, since the entire way vanity pets work was overhauled. The items that used to summon the pets are now "spells" that you learn, so you don't have to clutter up your inventory with dozens of items - one for each pet you want. Along with that change in mechanics came the achievement system and, naturally, several vanity pet achievements. There are achievements for collecting these pets (two of which reward pets themselves and some focus on collecting specific hard-to-come-by pets) and some achievements aren't pet-related but do reward with pets.
One of these achievements is called Higher Learning. This achievement has been my obsession the last week or so. Here's the deal - to complete the achievement you must find and read eight different books scattered around Dalaran (interesting tidbit: each book is an homage to one of the schools of magic in the original Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG). This sounds easy, right? Not so much.
Its simple in the fact that each book does have a specific spawn location, so, with a bit of research, you can find exactly where they all spawn (they are not always there). The catch is that, when a book spawns, it only remains visible for three minutes after the first person clicks on it. Its not like you have to race other players to click on the book first - you have three minutes after the books is first clicked to get it read yourself, and an unlimited number of players can do so. However, once a book disappears it won't respawn for at least three hours, but no more than four hours.
There's one last monkey wrench thrown in this that makes things even more frustrating. There are "fake" books that can spawn in the place of the real book you need for the achievement. These "fake" books are actual books you can read, and they are often quite hilarious if you do spend the time to read them, but they aren't the book you need. So, you could spend several hours waiting for a book to spawn, only to have a "fake" spawn instead, then have to wait several more hours for a chance at the achievement book spawning (and, again, it could spawn a "fake" instead).
I'm down to needing one book to finish the achievement. You would think the less books you need the better off you are, right? In the sense that you're much closer overall to finishing the achievement, yes. But, I'm under the impression that the less books you have to get, the more difficult and frustrating it is. The more books you have to get, the likelihood that one of the actual achievement books you need will spawn is greatly increased. Being down to one book, there's more of a chance of "fake" books to spawn, since there's only one spawn location I'm watching (instead of all eight, for example).
My best bet at this point is to just camp the location until a book spawns. If it’s the achievement book, the great! I'm done! If its not, make a note of the time and go do something else (in or out of the game) until the three hour mark from the book spawning, then log on and camp it until another books spawns (should be within an hour from the three hour mark). Repeat this cycle until I get the last achievement book I need.
Why do I go through all this trouble? Its simple - I'm obsessed with vanity pets, and this achievement rewards one of the coolest vanity pets in the game, a Kirin Tor Familiar. In other words, a mini arcane elemental. For everything else Blizzard is, they do know how to reward you for the time you put into things. Now, if only they would come up with some use for all these achievement points we've been racking up since last November...
Since Wrath was released, its become even easier to collect these, since the entire way vanity pets work was overhauled. The items that used to summon the pets are now "spells" that you learn, so you don't have to clutter up your inventory with dozens of items - one for each pet you want. Along with that change in mechanics came the achievement system and, naturally, several vanity pet achievements. There are achievements for collecting these pets (two of which reward pets themselves and some focus on collecting specific hard-to-come-by pets) and some achievements aren't pet-related but do reward with pets.
One of these achievements is called Higher Learning. This achievement has been my obsession the last week or so. Here's the deal - to complete the achievement you must find and read eight different books scattered around Dalaran (interesting tidbit: each book is an homage to one of the schools of magic in the original Dungeons & Dragons tabletop RPG). This sounds easy, right? Not so much.
Its simple in the fact that each book does have a specific spawn location, so, with a bit of research, you can find exactly where they all spawn (they are not always there). The catch is that, when a book spawns, it only remains visible for three minutes after the first person clicks on it. Its not like you have to race other players to click on the book first - you have three minutes after the books is first clicked to get it read yourself, and an unlimited number of players can do so. However, once a book disappears it won't respawn for at least three hours, but no more than four hours.
There's one last monkey wrench thrown in this that makes things even more frustrating. There are "fake" books that can spawn in the place of the real book you need for the achievement. These "fake" books are actual books you can read, and they are often quite hilarious if you do spend the time to read them, but they aren't the book you need. So, you could spend several hours waiting for a book to spawn, only to have a "fake" spawn instead, then have to wait several more hours for a chance at the achievement book spawning (and, again, it could spawn a "fake" instead).
I'm down to needing one book to finish the achievement. You would think the less books you need the better off you are, right? In the sense that you're much closer overall to finishing the achievement, yes. But, I'm under the impression that the less books you have to get, the more difficult and frustrating it is. The more books you have to get, the likelihood that one of the actual achievement books you need will spawn is greatly increased. Being down to one book, there's more of a chance of "fake" books to spawn, since there's only one spawn location I'm watching (instead of all eight, for example).
My best bet at this point is to just camp the location until a book spawns. If it’s the achievement book, the great! I'm done! If its not, make a note of the time and go do something else (in or out of the game) until the three hour mark from the book spawning, then log on and camp it until another books spawns (should be within an hour from the three hour mark). Repeat this cycle until I get the last achievement book I need.
Why do I go through all this trouble? Its simple - I'm obsessed with vanity pets, and this achievement rewards one of the coolest vanity pets in the game, a Kirin Tor Familiar. In other words, a mini arcane elemental. For everything else Blizzard is, they do know how to reward you for the time you put into things. Now, if only they would come up with some use for all these achievement points we've been racking up since last November...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment