Noblegarden 2011

Noblegarden is upon us so I'd like to offer up some tips and advice from my experiences so far! If you know nothing about Noblegarden yet, read this fantastic guide over at WoW Insider first, which is how I got started.

1. Azure Watch is the quietest place to work on this (on my server at least). As it's a circular settlement on a hill it seems that eggs will spawn no further out than the back of the buildings, which makes your hunting easier.
2. Do not camp the egg spawn locations! I promise that it will be much slower this way - I've tried both camping and constant movement today and if you keep moving you will find more eggs.
3. Vary your route. This is especially important if there's a quiet patch with few people hunting as the eggs must be collected before they can respawn in new locations.
4. The speed boost from the Egg Basket is not always your friend. I watched people whizz around like bunnies on speed, missing eggs that were right in front of them.
5. Empty your bags beforehand! Keep an eye on free slots too. It's extremely annoying to run out of bag slots and watch someone else grab that egg.
6. Lastly, don't take 'egg thieving' seriously. It's every rabbit for themselves and there are plenty of eggs to go round.

If you haven't hunted for eggs in Azure Watch before, here are some visual clues to where you might find them (click to see larger):

There are 10 achievements to get during Noblegarden, but you only need to complete 8 to get the Noble Gardener meta and title. Completing those 8 will require items that can be bought from the Noblegarden vendors in each town, but you shouldn't run off and buy them as soon as you can.

Here's a list of the items you need to acquire:
Noblegarden Egg (5 chocolates)
Blossoming Branch (10 chocolates)
White Tuxedo Shirt and Black Tuxedo Pants (25 chocolates each)
Spring Robes (50 chocolates)
Spring Flowers (50 chocolates)
Spring Rabbit's Foot (100 chocolates)
Sounds pretty daunting - if you bought all of them, you'd need to gather a total of 265 chocolates plus another 100 chocolates for the Chocoholic achievement. 365 chocolates!

Here's what dropped for me while I was working towards that total:
5 Blossoming Branches
3 White Tuxedo Shirts
Black Tuxedo Pants
Spring Robes
2 Spring Flowers
3 Spring Rabbit's Feet
The first thing I bought was the Spring Rabbit's Foot, for 100 chocolates, which dropped about 10 eggs later. 100 chocolates could have been used for the Chocoholic achievement so I then had to gather 100 more. Once I'd learnt that lesson, I only had to spend 5 chocolates on a Noblegarden Egg to hide in Stormwind.

My advice is to keep a running total of how many chocolates you need. Some of the items will drop while you hunt, at which point you can subtract their price from the total you still need.

Lastly, here are some tips for completing the various achievements:

• You'll have to team up with a friend to complete the Hard Boiled achievement, as it requires someone else turning you into a rabbit using a Blossoming Branch, preferably near the Golakka Hot Springs in Un'Goro Crater or it's a long hop there! If none of your friends or guildies can help there will likely be some other people there that could if you ask.
• If you're feeling especially nice yourself, travel around in the Elegant Dress (drops from the eggs or can be bought for 50 chocolates). This will allow people with the shirt and pants to get their Blushing Bride achievement with a minimum of hassle - a lovely way to spread some Noblegarden spirit. Of course, you'll end up covered in kisses...
• The dress, shirt and pants all remain tradeable when equipped. Try and find a friend or guildmate who has the dress and/or suit, and borrow them. You can swap outfits to get the achievement for both of you! I'm a big fan of how this makes the achievement easier whilst still allowing you to keep the snazzy clothes for a bank alt or just chilling out-of-combat.
• Try and combine Spring Fling with Shake Your Bunny-Maker. The 5-minute cooldown on Spring Flowers should wear off as your travel between towns, and you should be able to complete most races in your faction this way.
• Speaking of Shake Your Bunny-Maker, finding females of the other faction can be hard. When I was looking the advice from various quarters was to lurk over/outside the other faction capital, their Tol Barad camp, raid portals and busy quest hubs. In the end, I dive-bombed into Orgrimmar to catch two, found two at Razor Hill, and two outside Orgrimmar gates. (Hordies, I'd recommend trying Stormwind and Goldshire). This is the hardest part of the meta in my opinion and if you have any great ideas I'd love to hear them!

That's all the information I have for you :D please drop anything I've missed, got wrong, or could add in the comments - I'll edit it in with full credit/linkage. Happy Noblegarden!