I love Azerothian holidays, especially those with associated festivities.  It’s been a little while since the last big event and my associated jaunt down into the familiar territory of replayability - the one aspect of the game which particularly intrigues me.

Wow is an addictive game, it’s also one which is intended to be played for more than a few months and then tossed aside.  How do they keep things interesting and fresh for those who’ve leveled their 8th alt to max level and are looking for a bit of fun?  How are they appealing to the new players and getting them roped into the world?

This year’s Brewfest, as predicted, has gone one (or two) better than last year.  Last year, to be frank, Brewfest had a lot of problems.  However, it also was a lot of fun and so I was looking forward to it immensely.

Brewfest this year consists of the usual quest hub featuring two dailies, one twice-per-day quest for tokens and a new boss in Blackrock Depths.  There is also a twice daily tapping of the keg and, don’t forget, the chance to have an excuse to get drunken and have a laugh with your friends.

Looking at the  ‘list’ I made when comparing the events at Midsummer there’s been some additions:

• Quests
• Daily Quests
• Non-Combat Pet
• Consumables
• Outfits
• ‘Fun’ Items
• Mounts
• High Level Items
• Dungeon Boss

These bring it up to ’standard’ with the Midsummer event - though I had forgotten to add mounts to the list before, shame on me.  Given that they are both long festivals (two weeks) I was expecting them to up the ante with Brewfest this year and was not disappointed.

Invasion!

One of the biggest issues Brewfest had last year was with the dark iron invasion event.  It was a wonderful idea but the amount of traffic it generated was horrible!  Each person could request a mob throw them a drink (by waving at them), then they would drink it and throw it at a dark iron dwarf and, if they hit, would create tickets.  This encouraged people to be at every invasion for the chance at more tickets and thus bad lag around the event - not to mention the /wave spamming macros which ended up in the servers falling over.

This year they were a bit smarter about it - the npcs automatically throw you a drink when you’ve used yours up and you do not get tokens from hitting Dark Irons (someone mentioned this is a bug but I cannot find a blue post to confirm) - rather you get them from a ‘cog’ which is left behind if you manage to save the barrels.  There are up and down sides to this, though.

Pros

• Less people at each event
• Guaranteed tickets - no need to spend too much time at the event
• Much less lag

Cons

• Less tickets
• Fewer people around at the event
• Sometimes the event ‘fails’

In all, I think the changes are for the better - the Dark Iron invasions are an integral part of the Brewfest ’story’ and not having them would be a bit sad.

The one thing they did remove, however, was the Wolpertinger quest from last year.  I was a shame as this was a pretty fun quest and it feels somewhat ‘boring’ to just be able to walk up to a vendor and purchase it.  Of course this may be an attempt to streamline the activities and keep them closer to Ironforge / Orgrimmar.  Brewfest, in fact, feels a lot more insular than the Midsummer Fire Festival - which encourages you to roam all over the world.

Coren Direbrew

Of great interest, for a lot of people, is the new boss in Blackrock Depths.  Coren drops an array of shiny trinkets, the likes of which would normally set you back around 41 badges and some stamina ones which also summon a Brewfest Maiden to fight or heal you.  For those with a lot of alts (like myself) it’s a way to get them a little gear boost without much effort - for those who simply don’t have the time or resources for lots of heroics / Kara it’s a way to get a piece of gear which might otherwise be inaccessible to them.

The addition of [Direbrew's Shanker] is a nice tribute to the old, acclaimed [Barman Shanker] - both are broken bottle ‘daggers’ which look rather cool.  In general it’s also brought people back to Blackrock Mountain who’ve not been there in quite some time.  A few of my guildies mention not having been there since their Molten Core days!  Luckily, they need not get lost in the labyrinth of the Depths as this event also features ‘mole machines’ which transport you directly to the boss from just inside the entrance.

The use of the bar room is one I approve of greatly - an old space being put to new use is an excellent idea and it brings back memories to those who have spent a lot of time running these old instances and introduces the place to those who’ve joined later and never had the opportunity.

The fight itself is a lot easier than the Ahune fight but still a little challenging - akin to the end boss of a harder level 70 normal instance.  As long as someone keeps the adds off the healer you can generally be guaranteed a good outcome and some shiny loot.  Or perhaps grubby loot, looking at the state of most of the npcs around that area…

Mounts

Of course, the most talked about part of Brewfest, at the moment, is the mounts that Coren can drop.  There are awide variety of opinions surrounding this aspect of the festival the most common ones being:

• They should be for tokens
• Alliance should not have gotten kodos
• Only level 70’s can get them
• The drop rate is too low

  

I have mixed feelings.  It would be nice to get the mounts for tokens but I like the fact I can spend my tokens on silly things (outfits, goggles, etc.) which I would not be able to do if the mount were token-based (ok, so I would have the choice but to be honest, I want that damn kodo!).

I was happy to hear they’d added the kodo for the Alliance and ram for the Horde and surprised it got as far as going live before they did.  When Brewfest was on the ptr people pointed out that they didn’t like the split but nothing was done about it until after the event started.  Blizzard could, in my opinion, have seen this one coming a mile away.

The inability of low levels to get one, though, is sort of a shame.  It would have been interesting if they had added some sort of low-level event for a non-epic mount or even a free 30-day version (like the Hallow’s End brooms).  I can understand why Blizzard cater more to the max-level crowd but I can also sympathise with those who are not - I always have a few low level alts around whom I like to get fun stuff for.

Newbie Friendly?

On the subject of low levels I have been wondering how effective the ‘tutorial’ quests are for new players.  When I first started WoW the Midsummer Fire Festival was on - I vaguely noticed it but I couldn’t do most of the quests because I was too low level and I didn’t really understand what was going on…  Now, in both the Midsummer and Brewfest events,  there have been ‘tutorial’ quests which teach you how the mechanics of a quest work before giving you the daily version.

Though these quests are nice I have found that the other quests don’t really flow very well - there are a lot of people standing around asking how to do the various quests.  I know a lot of those could be ‘fixed’ by simply reading the quest text but some of them just aren’t noticing the barrels or understanding their effect.  Should they maybe add a “and use a barrel of apples” to the first ram quest which shows you how to change speeds?

Dailies

The dailies are a welcome break from the usual dailies that are available - they involve no killing or collecting and involve either racing rams or getting very drunk - the essentials of Brewfest! However, it can be a liiiitttllle frustrating to have one which can be messed up by lag - during the ram racing (twice per) daily quest the apple barrels will sometimes not take away exhaustion if you pass by them at max speed whilst you have a little lag.  It also takes a reasonable amount of time and concentration to do the quest effectively and I find I have to ignore guild chat or lose out on tokens due to making mistakes.

Problems

Of course, it wouldn’t be Brewfest without a few hitches… Currently not everyone is able to do the ram-racing delivery quest every twelve hours - I’m one of them, which is why I’m aware there is a problem.  It seems to  be fairly isolated as the forums are quiet on the subject - though I suspect a lot of people just aren’t noticing.  So far it’s meant I’ve lost around 80 tickets…

I asked a GM about the issue and, although he wasn’t able to give me a ‘fix’ for my problem, he did give me a hug, so that’s ok! Silly GM’s and their ‘goodbye’ flavour text, hehe.

A quick poke into the general forums and I found out that they were ‘working’ on a fix and, come maintenance it did seem to be fixed… for a while.  Currently it seems a bit of a lottery for me - sometimes I will be able to do the quests once per twelve hours and sometimes only once per twenty-four hours.

Where Next?

All in all I’m enjoying the festival again and, despite the few hitches, I find that Bliz have upped the ante once again and made yet another more polished event.  I am wondering now if they will ’scale’ them for max level next year or will leave them as level 65-75 type events.  Only time can tell, I guess.

Enjoy the rest of your Brewfest!

Further Readin’

• Big Bear Butt - Tips for Coren
• Abbey to Outlands - Tips for Coren
  
• Banana Shoulders - Achievements Guide