Noblegarden, the most underrated of holidays and the only one I’ve never managed to participate in! I am looking forward to experiencing the newly extended event but the fact I’ve not done it myself (and that few people have via the ptr as its testing phase was short there) will mean that some information may not be as entirely accurate as I’d like it to be.

Achievements

Meta:

• Noble Gardener (A) // Noble Gardener (H)

Sub-achievements:

• I Found One!
• Chocoholic
• Hard Boiled
• Spring Fling (A) // Spring Fling (H)
• Noblegarden (A) // Noblegarden (H)
• Shake your Bunny-Maker
• Desert Rose
• Blushing Bride

Two other achievements directly associated with the event, but not required to get the meta achievement for Noblegarden are:

• Dressed for the Occasion
• Sunday’s Finest

The achievement Chocolate Lover is also associated with this holiday but it is the prequel to Chocoholic and so will be gotten on the way to that achievement should you decide to do it.

Quests

Like most events, there aren’t a whole lot of quests which come with Noblegarden

Spring Collectors (A) // Spring Gatherers (H)

which lead to

The Great Egg Hunt (A) // The Great Egg Hunt (H)

Nothing much, but a small introduction and gives you an idea of how the event is run – like most holiday questlets.

Egg Hunting

Whilst eggs will be in similar areas to previous years (iIn the secondary starting areas such as Goldshire, Razor Hill and the like) they will apparently be more common and, no matter how many are trying to find them,  there will be available eggs (the first comment on this item references a blue post). Of course, even if eggs are constantly spawning as others are used there will still be a mad scrabble for them – I think I will probably make my way to Dolanaar because it’s inconvenient enough to get to compared to the other starting zones that it will hopefully be quieter.

Almost the whole event is based around egg collecting – they are the currency you need to buy items and, if you’re lucky, the items themselves so that you don’t need to buy them in the first place.   The currency itself is also used to do quests and is eaten up by some achievements – 100 chocolates alone for Chocoholic, so expect to be collecting quite a few.

Of course, with 3.1 items are now able to be sold back to the vendor for their purchase price in non-gold ‘currency’ within two hours of buying them.  This means that if you’re not bothered about keeping the items, but need to use them for achievements, you can buy the items, do the achievement and sell them back – so don’t do Chocoholic until after you’ve done all of your other achievements! *ahem*.

RNG

Unlike the other events so far, the RNG is mitigated by a system whereby you can buy the items if you do not find them in eggs – this means that people are not subject to not getting this section of  their “What A Long Strange Trip It’s Been” achievement due to bad luck.

Of course,  it wouldn’t be a blizzard holiday event without some form of RNG based luck so two achievements – Sunday’s Finest and Dressed for the Occasion – require you to find the items in eggs, not buy them.   Luckily, as mentioned, these are not needed for the holiday meta achievement but I would guess that this will still frustrate some avid achievement hunters.

Shinies

• [Tome of Polymorph: Rabbit]
• [Elegant Dress]
• [White Tuxedo Shirt]
• [Black Tuxedo Pants]
• [Spring Circlet]
• [Spring Robes]
• [Spring Flowers]
• [Egg Basket]
• [Blossoming Branch]

The first six come from eggs or from the vendor for chocolates, the last three come from the quests – though the blossoming branches can also be bought for eggs.  Blossoming branches can be used to help in completing achievements so make sure you don’t use them all up randomly until you’re done with ‘Hard Boiled’.

Shiny of the Event

I’m giving one item a spotlight here as I feel that it’s one of those little things which Blizzard has added to  the game which is just a nice touch – one of the things you can imagine started as a ‘wouldn’t it be kinda cool if…’.

[Spring Rabbit's Foot]

Wrath brought a plethora of new things for non-combat pets – it was the expansion which has really seen ncp’s go from being something not many people (except the dedicated few) wasted bag slots on to something which many people are interested in – even if only because of achievements!

Not only do pets have grooming kits, leashes, balls and the like, they can also act out little skits with other ncps – such as that between the Black Tabby and Stinker.  The pet from the Noblegarden event, whilst unassuming in its looks, is another step in that direction:

Noblegarden Rabbit Video

For those unable to view video’s or who just don’t want to – the rabbits, when brought next to others of their own kind, create little lovehearts, and erm.. the best word for it is ‘eject’ eggs into the surrounding area… which hatch into cute baby bunnies.   If that wasn’t enough, if one rabbit is then put away the remaining one’s heart will break – identical to the way the loved and heartbroken buffs looked during ‘Love is in the Air’.

The achievement ’spring fling’ is based around doing this, but I hadn’t quite expected much more than just bringing them near each other and pop, achievement, move onto the next… This is just absolutely awesome in my opinion – it’s a small thing but a nice detail which makes it more than just a fire and forget achievement and pet.

Reccomended Reading

Kaliope has a great Noblegarden guide which gives you tips on how to find eggs and get your achievements more easily!