Ho ho ho! Ah huv tae admit, ah love the christmas season an’ ah widnae miss the celebrations fer anythin’ – especially no them ragged-arsed scourge buggers.  Food, drink, dancin’ an’ bein’ cosy inside watchin’ the snow ootside. No that different fae normal in Ironforge but it’s whit yer drinkin’ an eatin’ that makes the difference… *ahem*

I’ve been busy, maybe more than some others, an’ it’s taking me a bit longer to get back into the blogging swing and get writing regularly when there’s so much cool stuff going on but I made a special slot in my schedule, logged off, put aside my doodles and pulled up a blank page in Wordpress for this. World events, I love them, and I will wax lyrical at ye mercilessly and pitilessly with my take on them!

So, Winter Veil,  the holiday season vaguely associated with Christmas – Snow, presents, special food, drinks and corporate enterprise!

Achievements

For many, all that they will be concerned about this holiday season ar the associated achievements so lets look at what we have:

Merrymaker – Alliance // Merrymaker – Horde

Not to onerous, in my opinion, and it certainly looks to be less painful than some of the previous ones.

• On Metzen
• Scrooge (A) // Scrooge (H)
• Tis’ the Season
• Simply Abominable
• Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho’s (A) // Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho’s (H)
• He Knows if You’ve Been Naughty
• With a Little Helper From My Friends
  
• Fa-La-La-La Ogri’la
• Crashin’ & Thrashin’
• Let It Snow
• The Winter Veil Gourmet
• A Frosty Shake

Some of these quests might be a pain for low levels, new Death Knights and those who hate PvP.  I was a bit surprised at “Fa-La-La-La Ogri’la” as it requires you to have done a quest chain which people even hard a hard time getting a group for just prior to Wrath never mind post-wrath. I guess there will be groups made and suchlike but it seems a little unfair that some will have to go through a lot more than others just to get their achievement.

The Horde version of Bros. Before Ho Ho Ho’s has a lot fewer NPC’s to visit but at least one of them is in Icecrown and far hader to get to for lower level characters.

Once again we get a pvp-based quest and, whilst I’m not as much of an anti-pvp-er as some, 50 HK’s might be a bit wearing since the costume doesn’t persist through death.

Let It Snow will also be interesting given that I’ve not yet seen an Orc Death Knight on our server – I’m sure a bit of pvp for the previously mentioned achievement will solve that, though, or running around Dalaran in th early evening.

Quests

Winterveil has always had a few fun quests (most now with associated achievements) and I have to admit I rather like this, in a world event.  Quests allow you to get into the spirit of the event within the ‘format’ of the game and often introduce the story better than a simple collection of dailies and repeatable quests.

• Metzen the Reindeer
• The Reason for the Season (A) // The Reason for the Season (H) (and follow up)
  
• Stolen Winter Veil Treats (starts a chain for seperate Horde and Alliance versions)
• Treats for Gratfather Winter (A) // Treats for Gratfather Winter (H)

It would have been nice to get something new here, other than the quest which simply allows yo to ‘buy’ preserved holly.

Items

Winter Veil comes with lots of gifts and presents and suchlike as well as some seasonally associated items. Some are associated with achievements and some not, but most are fun to have and collect.

Winter Garb

• Red Winter Hat // Green Winter Hat
  
• Red Winter Clothes // Green Winter Clothes
• Winter Boots

To craft 1 set you’ll need:

• Clothes: 4 bolts of runecloth (20 peices of runecloth), 1 bolt of woolen cloth (3 pieces of wool), 2 red or green dye & 1 rune thread.
  
• Boots:  1 copper bar,  1 bolt of woolen cloth (3 pieces of wool), 4 rugged leather & 1 rune thread.

The rune thread can be bought from most tailoring or leatherworking suppliers or a trade goods vendor.  Wool cloth is easily garnered by making a quick run through stockades if it’s too expensive on the auction house and runecloth can be picked up by the dozen in Tyr’s Hand in Eastern Plaguelands or a quick trip to Stratholme.

Rugged leather and copper will need to be bought unless you have the associated gathering skills (though if you do the above ‘Treats for Greatfather Winter’ first you might get the copper you need!).

Alliance tailors with the requisite levels will usually have a pattern sent to them to make the red winter clothes and Horde tailors  get the green winter clothes pattern sent to them.  However, vendors also sell the pattern – red in Ironforge, green in Orgrimmar and since they are goblins and thus neutral, if you fancy getting a hold of the othe faction’s pattern colour you can have a go at corpse-running your way through an opposite-faction city.  It took me three ‘tries’ on my level 65 tailor to get into Orgrimmar, buy the pattern and hearth out and I’ve already made a reasonable profit selling green costumes on the Alliance auction house.  *Grin*

The  Winter Veil Disguise Kit is a quest reward costume that you’ll also need for an achievement.  Proper winter clothing!  It should turn up in your mail box some time after completing the quest line started by Stolen Winter Veil Treats.

Food

• Gingerbread Cookie
• Egg Nog
• Hot Apple Cider

These are all recipes trainable during Winter Veil and are needede for the Winter Veil Gourmet achievement.  The necessary materials are relatively light:

• Cookie:  1 small egg, 1 holiday spices
  
• Egg Nog: 1 small egg, 1 ice cold milk, 1 holiday spirits, 1 holiday spices
• Cider: 1 sparkling apple cider, 1 holiday spirits, 1 holiday spices

Remember you will need extra to make the 5 cookies needed for ‘Treats for Greafather Winter’!  Everything except the small egg is buyable from a vendor – the milk comes from any low level drink vendor (the nearest one usually being the innkeeper) and the rest from the Smokeywood Pastures vendor.

Small eggs, at this time of year, can go for silly prices on the AH given how easy they are to get.  If you can’t be bothered then fair enough, but if you have a spare hearth and don’t want to pay silly AH prices for things then go to Westfall, Azuremyst, Darkshore, Mulgore,  the Barrens or Eversong Woods and kill one of the many low level creatures which drop small eggs.

• Graccu’s Mincemeat Fruitcake

This is required for ‘Tis the Season and is contained in items you get in the mail after completing some of the Winter Veil quests – Treats for Greatfather Winter and Metzen the Reindeer.

Fun Stuff

Also contained in the special gifts sent from Greatfather Winter, can be:

Recipes

• Formula: Enchant Weapon – Winter’s Might
• Plans:  Edge of Winter
• Schematic: Snowmaster 9000
• Recipe:  Elixir of Frost Power
• Pattern: Gloves of the Greatfather
• Pattern: Green Holiday Shirt
  

Other

• Mechanical Greench
• Preserved Holly

Revelers

During the holiday season, you can blow a kiss (/kiss) to a winter reveller and recieve:

• A Handful of  Snowflakes
• Fresh Holly
• Mistletoe

These are all used in some form for the achievements and the mistletoe, if it’s still the same as last year, will give a small spirit buff if you use it on another person.

Enjoy the Event!