Beta Achievements, First Round

Intrepid dataminers have been working hard to get the juiciest morsels of beta information to the rest of us. Which means more achievements have been found! Here's an overview of the new ones for those of you, like me, who enjoy planning these in advance :3

General

• Level 90
• To All The Squirrels I Once Caressed

The obvious tip-of-the-hat for hitting the level cap is there, as expected. The bit that's exciting is the new critter /love achievement! I really appreciate having a reason to look at all the little critters that my eyes miss normally. Thinking about the theme of the expansion we might see cicadas, pond skaters, miniature cloud serpents...lots of possibilities!

Exploration

• Explore Jade Forest

Standard zone exploration achievement, one for each zone is guaranteed.

Raid

• Settle Down, Bro - Defeat the Sha of Anger in Kun-Lai summit.

3rd edit: Seems like the Sha of Anger is a world boss in Kun-Lai Summit. Pulling beta information together is an inexact science!

Dungeon

• Bombs While Bomb - Trigger 15 explosions within 15 seconds during the Saboteur Kip'tilak encounter on Heroic Difficulty.
• Return To Sender - Defeat Mantid General while he has 20 stacks of Detonate in the Siege of Niuzao Temple on Heroic Difficulty.

Return To Sender reveals the name of another Mists dungeon to be Siege of Niuzao Temple, joining Stormstout Brewery, Shado-Pan Monastery, Temple of the Jade Serpent, Mogu'shan Palace and Gate of the Setting Sun as the 6 new dungeons that will be available at launch! Personally, I think that '20 stacks of Detonate' is a similar enough theme to '15 explosions...Saboteur Kip'tilak' that I'm going to say Bombs While Bomb also takes place in Siege of Niuzao Temple.

Quests

• Jade Forest - Complete the following storylines in the Jade Forest
• Chun Tian Monastery
• Walk the Land - Complete the following storylines in the Valley of the Four Winds
• Thunderfoot Farms
• Chen's Masterpiece
• Zhu's Bastion
• New Taurajo
• The Hidden Master
• The Salvation of Stoneplow
• Mudmug's Place
• The Stormstout Brewery
• The Crane Temple
• Farwalker Refuge
• Nesingwary's Safari

Jade Forest is an 85-87 zone where we will make landfall in Pandaria and basically start ruining everything for them. Valley of the Four Winds is listed as an 86-87 zone. It's interesting to see the names of these story arcs - New Taurajo will doubtless provide some great lore and story detail, and it's always good to see Hemet Nesingwary again. It's not an expansion without one of his safaris, whether or not you agree with him!

Professions

• Zen Master Cook - Obtain 600 points in cooking

This confirms that the new rank for all professions will be Zen Master, but nothing else we didn't know already.

World Events

• That Rabbit's Dynamite! - Slay the ferocious Darkmoon Rabbit

If this isn't a nod to Monty Python and the Holy Grail I will eat my hat!

So there we go, another handful of new achievements to get excited about. Do you have any thoughts on how they will work? What critters do you think we'll be /love-ing in Pandaria? Tweet me your thoughts or comment below!

All data pulled from MMO-Champion and Wowhead

IntPiPoMo: My guild is all grown-up!

Angelya of Revive & Rejuvenate has proposed International Picture Posting Month (IntPiPoMo). The goal is to post 50 pictures during November - a picture is worth a thousand words, you know - which can include game screenshots or real-world pictures. Click here to see my other IntPiPoMo posts!

This week got away from me, a little. Hectic evening schedules and no screenshots folder at work means that I've fallen behind! Four pictures posted when I should be on fourteen - have some extras today as an apology, if you will. This is the story of how my lovely guild has gone from a startup of 7 to the triple-figure guild with 10-man raiding roster that it is today :)

We started Discombobulated not long after Cataclysm was released. All of the original 7 members were in the same guild previously and today 6 of those members still have active characters in the guild. This screenshot was taken after we finished the last heroic for our Cataclysm Dungeon Hero achievements on 24/03/11 after nights of learning, wiping and improving. Setesh, we still hate you!

About a month later we found ourselves in Blackwing Descent, raiding for the very first time. It took us three nights to down Magmaw but I'll always remember how great it felt when he collapsed, vanquished, at our feet. Magmaw taught us a lot; the importance of placement (and what happened if you stood too far out!), how to watch the boss and stay ready for another event, switching targets, effective AoE usage, timing cooldowns, watching our feet for fire/bad stuff, clicking the Lightwell (seriously, just click the darn thing)...we've been building on the things we learnt during those first nights ever since.

It took us about 3 months to take down all of the Tier 11 bosses and get our <Defender of the Shattered World> titles. By that point, we'd started Firelands and had been doing trash runs for upgrades, not to mention there had been huge T11 nerfs. That didn't take anything from it though - we had become the guild that could and we loved it!

We downed 4 bosses in Firelands pre-nerf and 2 post-nerf. Majordomo Staghelm was a one-shot, something we were totally unprepared for! That aside, we were suddenly 6/7 while it was current content and it felt good. All that was between us and our first ever full tier clear was Ragnaros...and he's still there. It's the hardest, most demanding fight we've ever tackled together, as it should be. We've started to hit Phase 3 though and it's only a matter of time before we get that elusive kill. Keep an eye open for my victory post! ;)

We'll get you yet, Firelord...

A mixed bag of achievements!

A blog called Achievements Ahoy should probably have a little content on achievements, right? Right? So here is a round-up of the achievements I have earnt in the last 3 weeks:

King of Dire Maul - obtained while going after Runn Tum Tuber Surprise for the Iron Chef achievement, which I can't get until more recipes are released. Curse my late introduction to the game/the 25k cost of recipes that aren't available anymore.
Got My Mind On My Money - raid trash runs are useful if you're not far short of the 5,000g mark.
The Guardians of Hyjal
Ramkahen
One Hump Or Two? - two more mounts towards Leading the Cavalry! For those who don't know, this is my current goal ^.^
Heroic: Blackrock Caverns
Heroic: Deadmines
Bullet Time - I really contributed nothing to this, apart from my normal role in dungeons. We stood in a cheeky place while the melee took care of it - I'll try and get a screenshot of it next time I'm there.
Ready for Raiding - an immensely fun achievement that's easy to get. Stay on the outside and run just behind the Fire Wall. Sophisticated directional diagram ahoy:

Really, it's ridiculously simple. This diagram is completely unnecessary!

Cataclysm Dungeon Hero
Pit Lord Argaloth - the first big guild thing we've done together and one we enjoyed a lot. No PvE loot but the achievement made up for it!

They're a mixed bag, to be sure. I haven't been chasing any of these with intent, as I'm still focused on Leading the Cavalry at the moment. After becoming exalted with Ironforge, the dwarves of that grand city have granted me the right to ride their rams and 6 more mounts are now happily stabled in a secret location...

What achievements have you added to your list lately?

Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

Running heroic Halls of Origination last night, we hopped on some camels and got Straw That Broke the Camel's Back crossed off the heroic achievements list. Very easy to do, just stay out of the Earth Spikes and the Quicksand - all five of us got it when he died.
I don't dare to dream that we'll get the drake, but it's nice to pick up another achievement regardless!