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School of Hard Knocks

Take your orphan into the battlegrounds and complete the feats listed below.

Criteria

	Capture the flag in Eye of the Storm
	Assault a flag in Arathi Basin

	Assault a tower in Alterac Valley
	Return a fallen flag in Warsong Gulch

Guides

Children's
Week
(April 28 - May 5)

School of Hard
Knocks

Comments

Comment by 32ndShadowwind

Wait, we're teaching our poor orphans violence? /evil giggle

Comment by Quelion

it's a hard knock life for us
it's a hard knock life for us
instead of treated we get tricked

Comment by AxelF

Would Returning a dropped flag be possible if u lets say "drop" the flag by right clicking its buff and picking it up again?...of couse not when ur under attack by heaps of horde

Comment by Linithia

For a rogue, the only hard one is returning the flag.

Comment by Linithia

As a rogue, the only hard one is the assaulting an AB flag. Stealth to a base in AV and cap it with your orphan out. Easy. Stealth by flag and cap it when you get the chance, summoning your orphan before you do. Easy. To whoever said returning the WSG flag is the only hard one for rogues, I don't know why its hard to simply beat up the guy with the flag and click it when it drops.

Comment by Groundlord

Why does Blizzard keep doing this to us? We shouldn't HAVE to do PvP just to get something from an Achievement. Believe it or not, some of us either aren't good at PvP or just flat-out don't like it; forcing us to do it is just cruel.
Why not make it so that you only have to do so many of the Achievements to get the larger one, instead of having to do all of them? Like for Children's Week, you have to do 6/7 of the Achievements to complete For the Children.

Comment by kaze950

I really hope blizzard changes this achievement.

I can understand having to win a BG. But to have to actually return a fallen flag or capture a flag? Not to mention your other team mates will probably want the achievement as well. It will just lead to a lot of people %^&*ed off. Especially if you are in a lousy battlegroup.

Plus you might be playing a class that isn't preferable for capturing a flag.

Comment by WoolFever

Here's hoping that someone in the raid group doing these count... otherwise it's going to be one %^&*! of an achievement.

Comment by Daesor

Step 1: Advertise in Trade or Guild (preferably the latter) that you are forming a School of Hard Knocks PvP raid
Step 2: Decide the order in which you would like to accomplish the prerequisites. Eg. EotS, WSG, AB, AV
Step 3: Get everyone to /roll to determine the order of who gets the prerequisites done for them. Eg. Person A rolls a 100 and gets their prereq done first in EotS. Repeat this process for the last BG just so the original top rollers have an incentive to stay (unless they managed to maintain their order by chance). Avoid rolling a one multiple times...
Step 4: *cue Monty Burns voice* Release the orphans!
Step 5: As a group, defend the person who is earning the prereq, let them obtain it, then move down the order of who's up next. Eg. EotS: Person A captures and returns the flag whilst the raid swarms around them in defence. Person B then goes, etc.
Step 6: Rinse and repeat for each BG. Where applicable, coax the opposing faction to instigate the process of accomplishing the objective. Eg. WSG - let them assault the flag then pounce to recover; AB - let them win a flag then assault, etc.
Step 7: Pray no one leaves and can follow simply instructions.

BGs that benefit the most from an organised raid are EotS, WSG.

If none of the above are achieveable due to ineptitude, selfishness, or the server decides to delete your character and eat your orphans...

/wrist

Comment by wolfjr

Hopefully the achievements act differently. If anyone remembers doing quests in Alterac Valley where you have to Assault a Tower, Capture a Graveyard, etc. you don't have to be the one that clicks the flag in the base or graveyard to get the credit, you just have to be around when it happens. This is how I hope these achievements work:

In EotS, you simply have to be at the base that your team mate with the flag decides to capture it at.
In Arathi Basin, you just have to be around when a team mate is assaulting a flag.
In Alterac Valley, you just have to be in the area of a Tower being assaulted by your team mate, and
In WSG you just have to help your offensive team grab your flag back from the enemy

Lets hope.

Comment by feles

I am trying to block that pain from my memory - I actually removed the keymapping form my shapeshifting abilities for the duration of battlegrounds because I kept shifting by habit.

Comment by Jaylen

The Purple Proto-drake is the casual, but long playing, 310% drake.

There are casual PvP and casual PvE players. If Blizzard really wanted to be a pain they could have made an achievement along the lines of:

Create an Orphan:
Win a ranked Arena game with a minimum rank of X.

X being just high enough to prove you just didn't create a team after never doing arena just to get the achievement.

Comment by chknnuggts

Comment by Fraglimat

I just did the AV one, and we actually had a horde taking the tower flag back every time an ally took it, so that everyone there could get that part of the achievement done. Big thanks Kheal, didn't see which realm you were on.

Comment by Timmeh

I just got this. To those who are feeling demotivated:

I play on a PvE realm and completed it using purely PvE gear. I'm what you'd call an adequate PvPer, certainly not exceptional or even that good; the odd BG, but I don't like it enough to collect any PvP gear and have never played in a "serious" arena team. I had no outside help (and definitely no premade). It took me a little under 2 hours to complete the four objectives.

Some facts:

You must complete each one yourself, these will not mark as done if someone else completes them and your orphan is near.

Your orphan has to be out. No orphan, no achievement.

Your orphan despawns when you die and must be re-summoned with the whistle. Don't forget to resummon when you die (or cause it to despawn with range). Someone somewhere is going to complete the EotS objective and realise they forgot to get their orphan out, do not let it be you.

Don't plan on doing any regular PvP for the duration of this holiday, it's not going to happen.

So, tips.

WSG: This one's easy. If most people are off assaulting, I'd recommend sitting around your base somewhere hidden. If you don't feel confident you can bring down the enemy who picks it up by yourself, bring a friend to help. If everyone's sitting around your base trying to camp the achievement, you can either sit with them and likely have a very frustrating battleground or wander into midfield and play with the enemy for a bit until those with no concentration span in your base wander off. Either way, this one won't give you too much hassle.

AB: The second easiest. 12/15 on each team will probably rush for farm/stables and thanks to latency all believe they got there first so sit there for the duration of the 10 seconds. Those who realised they didn't get there first will go on to lumber mill (as the flags are positioned towards that side, people will aim for what they're closest to). I personally rushed GM at the start and found myself the only one there (I assume everyone else was still sitting at farm/stables). If this doesn't work for you, I'd suggest picking a fight for a flag you can see your side is going to win and sitting on the flag in the most protective gear you own right clicking until all the enemies die and stop poking you. Keep persisting, this one's not that hard, there are 5 bases and only 30 people, if the worst comes to the worst, within a couple of games, you'll find yourself alone at a base ripe for the capping at some point.

AV: Potentially the joint hardest. I say that, it would be the hardest if it weren't for the mechanics of the place. There are only 4 towers you can realistically hope to capture over the course of an AV, doing the maths, 40 people on your side in the BG, 90% of the people in it are going to go away disappointed. However, the faction rivalries seem to've fallen away for the purposes of this holiday. One person can capture the tower, an enemy can restore it, another person can capture it, enemy can restore it... this continues. I sat on a tower we'd captured, saw two incoming horde players, they attacked me, I /wait'd and /point'd at the orphan. They stopped attacking me, recaptured the tower, I captured it /bow'd and jumped off leaving them to do what they like with it. Chances are if you sit on a tower you'll meet some nice people like this. If you don't... you'll have to work real hard to get to one first, be under no illusions, this won't be easy (bring swiftness potions). A better idea is that, if you have a friend who plays the opposing faction in your battlegroup, you can probably arrange reclaiming and recapping a tower with them.

EotS: Oh god. 30 people, one flag. This one is a toughie. First thing I'd suggest is installing deadly boss mods (or any mod that'll show you the flag respawn timer). If you want a good chance of getting this one, you'll need a battleground in which your side is outplaying the enemy. Simple maths, the more times you get a chance to go for the flag, the more likely you are to capture it. If your team has full control of the center and are just waiting for the flag to spawn, an important fact is that the flag is clickable before the graphic appears. Hover your mouse over where the flag is going to be, watch the DBM (or whatever) timer; as soon as it runs down, right click. You won't see the flag for about a second and a half, but you'll be taking it. If your team is letting you down, try to stay out of the way a bit until it looks like your team is going to gain control of the center then run in and play the persistent right clicker as in AB. You then need to plan your escape and pray there aren't too many enemies in the way and that your team will help you.

Ultimately they're all doable; you'll need to have a reasonable idea of what you're doing, some luck and potentially a lot of patience. Even if you're a rubbish PvPer, you have a whole week, if a moderate PvPer such as myself can manage it in 2 hours, you can manage it in 7 days assuming you're prepared to invest the time. :)

Comment by Vath

Time of day is going to be key for getting this. It's about 2 am server time, and I just finished an EoTS where it was 15-4 horde. The EoTS was stupidly easy and that was the one I was worried the most about. If you guys are having trouble with any of these, give it a few days. You have until next Thursday. People are going to be looking to get you out of the way moreso than ever in these BG's now, and first/second day world events are always the worst for people zerging to get all the achievements. Let things cool down a bit if you have too and try again when there's less people going for the same thing.

Comment by Drulus

I'm doing the achievement right now, and I'm sorry to say that's not how it works.

AB: Have to cap a base yourself, doesn't count just standing close to one being capped.
AV: Have to cap a tower yourself, doesn't count just standing close to one being capped.
EotS: Have to cap the flag yourself, doesn't count just standing close to one being capped.
WSG: You have to be the one clicking on the flag to return it. Like when it appears <your name> has returned the <your faction> flag.

In Alterac Valley the achievement doesn't trigger by capping bases like Stonehearth, Frostwolf or Iceblood, only the 4 towers that each side have/can cap.

Good luck with your achievements!

Comment by enderfish001

I wanted to update this and unforunately at least in AV and EotS you don't get credit for being in the vicinity, you acually have to carry the flag in EotS and assault a tower personally in AV. I haven't done the other 2, but I'm guessing its the same rules :(

The EotS one is just going to be a pain because you will have to fight everyone off and get lucky with clicking the flag. As for AV, it seems that SH tower might be a kind of meeting point for horde and alliance to swap flag control. In the AV I did we just took turns with the horde and alliance capping the flag over and over and aside from a few griefers it went pretty well.

The way they've been reducing the metas recently there is a good chance this one might be taken out, or changed to requiring only 1 or 2 of the BGs, so if you can't get them all I'd recommend at least getting 2. Good luck.. BGs are gonna suck this week ><

Comment by Valygar

I can tell ya right now that here is where ENGINEERING pays off! In Eots, line yourself up with the path to the flag when you start. Then put on your Rocket Boots Extreme and parachute cloak. When the game starts, pop your boots, jump off the edge, and pop your cloak. If you do it right you can float right to the flag and click off the buff and youll be the first to get the flag, about 5 seconds before everyone else gets there.

Comment by Djumen

39 EotS' and still counting, haven't even touched the flag. It's like the worst achievement ever to get..

Comment by mosess

Just did this achivement. Clarifying a few things.

Flag in EOTS.
You don't need the orphan out until you deliver the flag at the base.

Flag in WSG
You have to be the one the game recognizes as the flag returner after an enemy has dropped it while your orphan is out.

Arathi Basin cap
You need to have your orphan out when you click a flag in AB and the cast finishes. Doesn't matter if it's capped by the opposite side or not capped at all (gray)

Alterac Valley cap
You have to have your orphan out as you click the enemy's tower flag and finish the cast. You don't have to wait for it to belong to your faction. Remember the tower's in the enemy's base are also possible in the achivement.

Comment by trebor103

Just incase anyone wants an idea how insane this is at the moment, i joined a WSG, extreme lag, disconected, some random errors when trying to log back in, several minutes later of trying to log back in, i find myself falling through nothing to my death.

complete server meltdown

Comment by Drudatz

absolutly worst archivement ever!
not possible at all....

Comment by miike

I finished up all of mine pretty easily as a rogue (alliance) solo.

WSG: play as normal, travel in groups and zerg the efc.

AB: I usually run to lumber mill first as alliance, if unavailable, wait the game out and assault a base that the horde have taken already.

AV: Best to have a paladin come with you for crusader aura and run straight to RH, assault both east and west towers,

EotS: I found the easiest way to do this was wait on the opposing end the enemy comes out and burst them as quickly as possible, kill, take flag and sprint away.

Good luck everyone, these requirements are !@#$ty if you're not much of a PVPer. Just try and have fun and don't let others ruin it for you :)

Comment by Ichimanako

This achivement is a mistake. Today I was in WSG - horde helped alliance, and alliance helped horde. Okay cute and nice, but AB, AV, EOTS is unplayable. And the whole week is going to be like that. Really, changing that it requires only one of these is a very nice idea.

Comment by velanakultiras

most retarted achievement ever.

i hate PvP and wish there were servers without it. Now what does blizz do? Make me assault a tower in AV with like 20 other people trying the same and 20 retard alliance having fun killing me in my raid specc/gear.

Great fun, THANK YOU!

Comment by Declannic

I started the morning of the first day and I got most of these done rather quickly, and i'm not the best PvPer, although I am geared for it. WSG is the worst one because of the turtle fest.

Draka-Horde, Disc Priest

Comment by Drudatz

Sorry but nomatter what u say this archivement is really the worst there is
especially when ur in a bg where u allways start ie in EotS 5 Horde vs 15 Allys
Just the worst Archi Blizz ever came up with...

Plus you see a lot ppl just doin the Archi in the BG and then do an /AFK....

Comment by Eralyn

Yes you have to be the one to "assault the tower" or "get the flag" I just spent 2 hours running around in BG's . They were a complete mess. 1 guy in WSG was "helping his horde friends" kept picking up the flag and dropping it for them to each get it, while the horde just kept taking our flag, lol. We all sat and waited for them to "help us" pff yeah right

Comment by Wolfein

Idk if its like this on other battlegroups, but as soon as Children's Week started the Allies and Horde reached a mutual consent to allow one tower/base to be constantly capped and recapped. In WSG both teams would constantly pick up, drop, and allow the opposing faction to return the flag. :D

Comment by AsatruFolket

I just managed to assault an Towerflag in AV with my orphan out and.... nothing.. did i missed something? i'm quite frustrated because i really suck in PvP

Comment by Sounder

You have to be the first one to click the flag and you have to complete the channel. If you did all the above, it's a glitch, but not a common one, just keep trying.

Comment by dhrin

Just knocked this one out in about 2 hours or so.

AV was a real pain in the butt. Got lucky when a rogue recapped the Northern tower, and I killed him and capped back.

For EotS if you zerg the middle after getting a tower or two it's pretty easy. Hell, if you cap three towers you typically dominate the field already and you can farm out the flag caps amongst the team.

AB is a breeze, go for the Farm, or if you miss that one, just keep your eyes open, watch the momentum of the game and go for the recently recapped area when the attackers move on.

WSG, just hang back with the flag, or sit mid-field and pick off flag runners with a group. Either way you can all alternate flag pickups.

For hardcore PvPers this achievement sucks, as it really wrecks the BGs. And for carebears this may appear to suck, but honestly once you get in there you'll see this achievement isn't nearly as bad as a lot of people are making it out to be.

Good luck!

Comment by Cloudchaser

I can report that several times in WSG I was right next to a person that returned the flag and did not get credit. I had to be the one clicking the flag to return it to get the credit.

Edit: Here's a theory to test: Is it possible that you get credit if someone else performs the action who is in your pre-formed group and don't get credit when you're only in the battleground-assigned group?

Comment by Monsun

seriously why the hell i should bring a baby to a battle field! stupid achievement :(

Comment by coyote72

There goes all hopes of getting a Violet Proto Drake...

Comment by silversg

I'm a Horde Hunter who just spent the last few hours doing this achievement. The hardest task (and the one that took the most attempts) was definitely assaulting a tower in Alterac Valley, just because of the number of other players all wanting to do the same thing. For Eye of the Storm and Warsong Gulch, I just hung around the flag and let others know what I was there for. Those of us there for the achievement all helped defend the flag, and took turns grabbing the flag (either to capture it in EotS or return it in WG). It helped in Warsong Gulch that a friendly Alliance player showed up who picked up and dropped the flag a few times so we could all return it and get credit. No such luck in Eye of the Storm; our group was in direct competition with the group of Alliance players who also wanted the achievement, so the flag base was constantly going back and forth between Alliance and Horde control as we fought over it.

For Arathi Basin and Alterac Valley, one of my favorite Beast Mastery talents came into play. Pathfinding allowed me to be the first to get to the Gold Mine (AB) and one of the towers close to the Alliance base (AV) so I could be the first to cap the flags. In Alterac Valley, nearly all of my fellow Hordies made a mad dash for one of the two Alliance towers near the middle of the map, since they're closer to our base, but I found myself with little to no competition in my attempts to get to one of the farthest towers near the Alliance base. You do have to get lucky and not be stopped by Alliance players or NPCs, but I did manage that easily after a couple tries. Since I came under fire from NPCs as soon as I entered the tower, I simply used Feign Death to drop aggro, and managed to stay out of their aggro radius when I went up the stairs and got to the flag. I capped it without interruption, which again, could take a couple tries depending on whether there are any Alliance players out to stop you.

I hope I've managed to help others get this achievement by sharing my experience. Good luck!

Comment by Baldulf

BTW, you do not get credit for *defending* a flag in AB; i.e., if you turn a contested flag back to your side, no good. It's gotta be an enemy flag, a neutral flag, or a flag going enemy that was previously neutral.

Comment by TheBestHunter

Definitely a hard achievement, but possible to do.

Just did it, like 40 minutes ago (23:50 Server Time) on 1/5/2009 (Woo)

Gz to all others, who got it :)

And gl to all those, trying to do it :)

Comment by Lugklash

Irritating achievement, but not as bad as the old Be Mine! achievement. You can either put together a premade for farming achievements, or hope to get lucky in a pug. I personally pugged all mine the first day before my guild could get a premade rolling. Expect everyone else to be going for the same achievements, and expect the "hardcore" bgers to complain the whole time about you caring more about your achievement than winning. EoTS was the worst since it was the holiday weekend and players on both sides were actually looking to win. None of them were particularly fun as a healer.

I understand that blizzard wants its players to experience all aspects of this game, but I wish they'd respect the wishes of those of us who were tired of battlegrounds before TBC was even released, and the livelihood of those who DO enjoy battlegrounds by not forcing people who don't enjoy battleground pvp into battlegrounds.

Comment by Turkey111

This achievement was by far the hardest to get. I got mine today but purely out of luck!
Here's what happened: So there's 40 Allys all running for the first tower in AV, some get side tracked by some Horde we collide with, other's didn't seem to care and just went for Galv. So there was about 5 or 6 of us all rushing for the tower with our orphans out when a Shaman/Druid runs to us and pops that spell that mass entangles (Forgive my lack of knowledge I have never played a Shaman or a Druid). So there everyone is entangled, everyone but me! So I carelessly run up the tower, AoE fear the archer mobs and get the tower. It honestly could not have worked out better :)

Comment by Saintbush

I must be bugged cause im not getting credit for the tower in AV and the response from a GM was we'll look into it

Comment by Kvasaari

I don't get what you all are whining. This achievement is easy to get, even for hc pve'er like myself. The only part which was semi-challenging was capturing an AV tower. It's just matter of luck if you're the first one to cap it. AB was the easiest, EotS second and WSG is again matter of luck.

This is one of the funniest meta-achievements there is. If you can't do this in 2 hours, either you or your server/faction sucks.

Comment by maruf42

Gawd! Your preparation makes my attempts sounds so naive. Well, in fact I did all of these going into each BG only once. As an Alliance, in AB I targetted Gold Mine as most of the people will be after Stable, Lumber Mill or Blacksmith, and got my task done in the first few second of the battle.

In AV, I keep my child out and as soon as the battle started I mounted and start running. I wasn't the first one in the group, but here is what I did, instead of targetting the first available Horde tower I run toward the last one, and at each tower I saw many people going in leaving me uncontested when I reach the tower I wanted to assult.

In EotS, as soon as the battle start I went to the flag respawn point, and get the flag, and run to the tower where most Allaince party members to capture it, as soon as we capture the tower, I capture the flag.

In WSG, well - its the tricky one. I was hiding in a corner of the room, waiting for some Horde to pick the flag, and as soon as some1 did, I start following him, hitting while one hand on mouse waiting for the flag to drop. Most Hordes were waiting in their area for the same achievement, so almost none was helping the flag carrier - makes my job easy, and as soon as the flag drops, I clicked, outclicking the other person with his child.

Well, I did them being a Warrior and not a Rogue.

Comment by xstaindx

If you don't do much BGs in AV: If you're horde capturing a bunker in AV will award you credit. Good Luck in the mad dash at the start.

Comment by hotet

"Assault a tower" is actually "Assault a bunker" in Hordes' case, and NOT "Defend a tower".

Comment by garrison13

Managed this surprisingly easily for a non pvp'ing warlock.
The way I did AV was to run straight for Dun Baldur South from the off, let someone else go in first to pull the Alliance corporal, run up to flag and cap while out of LOS of the archers.

Comment by Wafs

I got this today, and AV was the hardest one by far.

I lucked out hardcore on this, the last tower had 4 hordies who weren't attacking us, and told us in horde speak not to kill (jumbled but still understandable). They just spam healed themselves if someone started attacking, anyway, they would let us capture with an orphan, and when we did so they would quickly change it back to horde, kept doing it for everyone , so I /thanked all of them :)

Comment by redhed

i got so fed up with the frustration of this dumb achievement and the abuse from other players that ive cancelled my account and quit wow altogether.

Comment by kamiawolf

Oh man, I finally beat it. As someone who hardly ever does PvP and never even thought of setting foot in Battlegrounds, this achievement seemed impossible at first. By far, the easiest one was EotS - with everyone trying to get the flag, there were plenty of people who were nice meat shields. The hardest was WSG, especially since none of the horde on my server wanted to cooperate for the achievement. I was lucky in AV, because there was a hordie who just sat there recapping the tower so everyone could get the achievement who wanted it. I couldn't even tell you how i got AB. It seemed like that one was just really lucky!

So there's the experience of someone who has never done Battlegrounds before. If I could do it, so can you!

Comment by Epiethius

Thought I'd add my thoughts to this crappy PvP achievement! I'm a hunter, which helps. Some experience in AV, but that was all I had and I was absolutely dreading this whole damn achievement. By some miracle I have now completed it, so here are some top tips.......

1 - make a QQ rant post on a forum. Any forum. Preferably before you've put any serious effort in to doing the achievement. I did and the sarcastic replies I got really helped drive me to do this damn thing.

2 - don't plug away at the same BG too long - it will drive you nuts. Switch to a different one, have a break, have a kit-kat, before you explode.

3 - don't try AV first. It will make you hate everyone and/or cry.

4 - when you do get around to AV, head for the furthest towers. Most achievement seekers try the nearest first, then /afk when they fail. The players heading on down actually want to kill the opposition boss more often than not and leave a tower begging to be capped.

5 - don't know if it was just luck, but spamming my /wait macro at the big bad horde trying to stop me climbing his tower worked a treat.

6 - Eye of the Storm - turns out that grabbing the flag doesn't get you far if your side has no bases. Be patient. Quite often I could see we were about to get a flag to a base and most of the opposition had followed it there. Opposition then destroyed base in fit of vengeance, leaving someone like me free to grab the newly spawned flag and score lovely points by running it in the other direction to a different base (assuming there was one!).

POTENTIAL BUG - I got the flag, got the Storm Capper achievement, had orphan running behind me, didn't get the SoHK achievement. No reply to ticket yet, but I suspect I failed because orphan was too far behind. Even so, can't have been more than about 20 yards away. Had to do it all again.

7 - Don't forget to summon your orphan after each resurrection and before you try something like flag carrying.

8 - Don't give up!

9 - Think of all those other achievements you'll get and let it motivate you. I got 5 PvP ones doing this, including guaranteed achievements like Storm Capper. Still haven't won WSG though.....

10 - Don't just /afk when you've done the task. It's rude and lazy. Take the opportunity to feel self-righteous by sticking with the BG and wreaking bloody vengeance on all those who made you do AV 39 times today.

Comment by Pyropa

I know a few people on my server who have this title already and surprise, surprise they are palys and rogues. >.>

As a healing priest I find that this is probably going to wreck my chances at this title. The Hordies on my server aren't even remotely cooperative and my allys suck just as badly for not allowing the enemy to complete some of these achievements. There has been no truce in any of the battles I've done since this event started.

I've completed all the titles from Hallow's End through to Noblegarden and to be shut down this far in the 'What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been' ach it's horribly disappointing. The 'With a Little Helper from My Friends' achievement was easy compared to this PvP one. At least I had a chance to heal and still have kills count for me if I was in the proximity before the enemy noticed they had a healer to exterminate. Granted it took about 20 battlegrounds to accomplish but it was doable. Had that achievement said that I would personally have to have 50 killing blows while still in costume? Well.. I'd have given up right there. I get one or two killing blows per battle by accident if I'm VERY lucky and If I manage to DoT some enemy players. To do that over and over again and maintain that costume would have been just as bad as this achievement.

This nonsense of being ~the~ person to capture the objectives reeks of injustice to the squishier classes. I'm not a stanger to PvP and I'm not QQing that we have PvP requirements in some of the World Events but I really hope Bliz removes this from the requirements since they didn't rethink how this achievement could be accomplished by all the players.

Comment by Kabby

The word "tower" apparently translates to "bunker" in Orcish.

These are the towers that will count for this achievement in Alterac Valley:

Alliance Towers (Horde captures these):

Horde Towers (Alliance captures these):

Map locations are approximate.

Comment by Lugklash

10 - Don't just /afk when you've done the task. It's rude and lazy. Take the opportunity to feel self-righteous by sticking with the BG and wreaking bloody vengeance on all those who made you do AV 39 times today.
Haha, I did exactly that actually. I was in an EotS with us holding 3 bases, 1800something to 1500ish with us in the lead, and after I capped the flag for the achievement, I told everyone thanks and /afked. Such is the disdain I have for the BG system.

Comment by ithilyn

This was hard. Worse than the RNG is dumb luck, which is pretty much all that got me this achievement. Well that and the determination to just keep trying in the face of absurdity. I had no help, no wonderful stories of cooperation from the other faction, nothing. I had trouble sleeping last night, thinking my violet proto drake was gone. Each success was its own story of sheer dumb luck.

If you're having trouble, I'd say plan of burning a long evening and just keep trying. Eventually you can get it. Easy to say from my position though.

Comment by deaiel

this one was quite easy did it a couple hours. The one i wished they would take out is the one in Utgarde... I haven't done an instance since sunken temple 2+ years ago. 3 attempts and 3 fails grouping sucks

Comment by jessika

I seem to be one of the lucky ones; a guildie and I did BGs all night to get this achievement, and a few BGs were preforms and didn't work out, but others the alliance were there to get their achievements just like we were, and they would actually help us out. Had a rogue in WSG repeatedly and intentionally pick up and drop the flag, just so we could all return it. And we, of course, returned the favor. EOTS, however, was a completely different story... >< My suggestion: Help out the opposite faction and they may just help you in return.

Comment by Mirre

Okay guys, I know it seems impossible at first but I just did it (finally). I am a priest, and I thought this was absolutely undoable. But here's how I did it - and believe me I was furious at Blizz for 2 days before suddenly figuring it out.

After about 7 games in EotS I got lucky and everyone was drawn away from the flag for a few seconds.
After about 20 tries in AV and getting super mad, I finally took a paladin (helps if they're a good pvper). His mount speed increase + his survivability saved me. We just ran straight up to the south tower at dun balder and I capped it while he distracted the NPCs.
The first AB I tried I just ran straight to mine, capped it, done.
The first WSG I tried it took about 30mins but I did finally manage to elbow the other horde out of the way and return the flag.

Hope this helps, it's really not as hard as it seems. Granted, we should still be mad at Blizz for ruining bg games for those who actually WANT to be in there. A very poorly designed achievement, yes. Impossible? No.

The key is to get a couple friends to help you. You don't need a whole premade, or even a whole party. Just 1 or 2 people who are willing to help increase your chances.

Comment by Tucker28

Like others that have posted about this, I've also been thinking of cancelling my account because of these pvp achievements. I hate pvp, Blizz... why do you think I'm playing on a PvE server? I'm tired of being forced to pvp just so I can get these achievements and earn the mount. But more than that, I feel for the pvp players out there. All of their BG's have been ruined for the week as they have to suffer from all of us non-pvp players suddenly flooding their games and ruining the fun for them. It's the overall picture that has me thinking of cancelling my account... with Blizz popping things like this in, it makes me wonder where they're going to take the game.

Blizzard? A suggestion here... how about you get it through your head that some people love pvp and some people hate it? These attempts at forcing non-pvp fans to "experience" it do NOT cause us to suddenly think "hey! I've had it all wrong! this is fun!". We still hate it. And what's worse is you ruin things for the people who love pvp because they have to suffer through those of us who don't coming in and ruining their games.

Comment by Wendello

AV is by far going to be the hardest. With 39 other peeps trying for the piddly few towers this is going to be very difficult for a non-BG player like myself.

Comment by sashasally

I'm not much for pvping, and I don't even use a pvp trinket to say the least. As a shaman with imp ghostwolf getting the EotS flag wasn't actually that difficult - the hardest part was ensuring we actually had a tower to bring it back to.

WSG wasn't too bad either, I guess being a spammy clicker when the flag carrier is about to die is a bonus here.

AB seems simple enough so far, I haven't gotten it, but that was my own fault. Essentially just be the first to get to farm flag and hope to heck you clicked fast enough :P

As for AV... I did click and cap it when it was grey turning blue for the Alliance, but I did not get credit. I had my orphan out and another Horde near me said he had the same problem. Any confirmation on needing a tower to be fully blue/red to get the achiev?

**And on a side note I'm utterly suprised by what these achievs did to my battle group. Pretty much every single battleground I've been in trying to complete the achievements was a win for Horde. It was a little odd considering since WotLK Horde in this battlegroup have a history of bg failures.**

Comment by Keppler258

After a lot of frustration at getting the EotS flag, I was starting to wish this achievement would be altered or taken off of the meta for the holiday.

But...

in the end, I really hope it stays. I absolutely hate PvP and didn't even go into these with one piece of PvP gear, so I really wasn't looking forward to the requirements to this achievement; so far they've probably been the hardest ones to accomplish outside of the purely random ones like the bag of candies for The Love Fool.

But that's exactly why it -should- stay, as is. It's the random (or double random, in the bag of candies case) achievements that should be looked at as "unfair". The most dedicated person in the world can still not get the random rewards, but these PvP achievements...even if they're annoying...are right there in plain view. It may be hard to go get them, but this is one of those things that separates the men from the boys, so to speak.

I was cursing at the screen over people without orphans capping the EotS flag just out of spite. I even managed to cap it once myself -without- my orphan out and had to go do it again. But in the end, I got it done. And if I'd just stayed calm and not let all the petty %^&* get to me, I would've gotten it done without raising my blood pressure. And now I can stay out of EotS until another holiday achievement happens to require it.

Blizz, keep this achievement in there and don't change a thing about it. Just because some particularly vocal people kick and scream and flail, that shouldn't mean they should be hand fed the reward just to keep them quiet. I understand people loathing PvP; I'm one of them. But with the overal meta-holiday achievement, and the Violet Proto-Drake it rewards, we're all going to have to bite a bullet somewhere along the line. You draw a series of achievements up over the course of a year or more then there's no way you're going to make everybody happy with them. Suck it up, go get your achievement, and keep working toward that drake......or don't. The choice is purely up to you.

Comment by goatsicle

I was prepared for the worst after reading these posts in anticipation of the holiday.

I did all of the other parts of the meta first, feeling that i would need the rest of the week to be frustrated.

I felt the achievement should be removed because of the bias against certain classes (and the bias against me: i just suck as a pvp'r).

I seldom have done bgs since wotlk came out.

AV first try -- lucky to cap TP after the horde stole it
AB first try -- capped mines while a huge melee ensued, i was ignored :)
EoS first try -- ran right to MT, waited to have control, ran to flag, grabbed it and ran back unabated
WSG fifth try -- i could never seem to click on the flag before someone else, until i got lucky

the moral of the story: try it before you really complain, it's really not that bad. just hope to get lucky, and be in the right place at the right time.
if i could do it, so could you

-goat

Comment by Dunefire

Its sad to Say i kinda Suck at pvp as well, my biggest contribution to any BG is tying up 3-5 people trying to kill me because i usally have 7-10k more HP than everybody else there not in full pvp gear, after 5 AB attempts, and as many on EotS and WSG, i gave up on this achievement sadly. I agree that it should have been different set-up for this acheviment playing to the middle of the road players, or have a PvP element that is a brother to a PvE element like a choice of doing Heroics or BG. That would be the best IMO. Let the +/- begin

Comment by Sarkreth

This whole achievement is soloable by a shadow priest (raid dps spec clothy) with no PvP gear (albeit pretty good raid gear), as just proven by yours truly.

WSG- 2nd or 3rd try
EotS- 2nd try
AB- 1st try
AV- 2nd try

All this is is just seizing the proper oppotunities. If I can do it, I daresay any skilled player can. Quit your QQing, buckle down, and do it. This is an achievement for a reason.

Comment by Zmanz

AB- not so hard just raced everyone to the flag and got it first

WSG- kinda hard since there was holy/prot pally with the flag accompanied by a priest but we got him down and i was spam clicking the air to get flag and got it

EotS- pretty easy, we took turns with the flag since no horde were there

AV- hardest to get, took me 3 hours to get it, i went into the enemies territory at end of map and raced up a tower
wzs close to getting it but got tag and interrupted by a lock, turned and tried to kill him
i almost died but a very helpful DK came by and finished him off while i got flag
THANK YOU RANDOM DK

Comment by Deltamarine

AB - Probably the easiest. As others have mentioned, just race to a flag in the beginning. If that doesn't work, just spend some time looking for undefended flags. If you are Alliance, hang around the Stables and recapture it when you can. If Horde, do the same for Farm.

AV - Generally not too bad. Just race to the end of the battleground and capture a tower. The opposing side is very likely doing the same and the towers on their end of the BG are usually uncontested. One of my guild members had to try capturing several times before the objective listed as completed for some reason.

EotS - This was by far the hardest for me and my guild members. We were facing constant premades and everyone was always mobbing the flag. This took several games to complete. Killing the opposing faction's flag carrier, picking up the flag and returning it seemed to work the best.

WSG - At first this was challenging because nobody would focus on the healers keeping the flag carrier alive. After people coordinated, this was pretty easy.

All in all, this took about 4 hours to complete. Not terrible, but it was frustrating at times (not a big PvPer, even though I play on a PvP realm). I'd rather have spent that time doing something else.

Comment by Jysafae

For AV, even as a Hunter, I lucked out and just ran straight south to the East and West Towers of Frostwolf Keep. There were no Horde around, and apparently most of my Allies felt storming the first two towers (Iceblood & Tower Point) along the way was a better choice, so that in itself shed many competitors for the last two towers. I ran up to the top of the West Tower, LoS'd the guards who left me alone after I entered the flag room, and voila, flag was all mine! Purely luck, but at the same time, fairly easy knowing that most people tend to charge for the first available towers they see.

AB was merely a race to the Stables, first attempt, very easy.

I have yet to do EotS and WSG, and being a non-pvper, I do not look forward to these lol.

Good luck.

Comment by Utukku

Well, as I'm a PvE player, I can understand all of you when you complain about this particular achievement.

But you all should try more than once before complaining. I'm a holy/disc PvE priest and I managed to get the achievement with 0 resilience. None of these things are impossible for anyone, even for ppl that don't play PvP.

You have a whole week to try, so give it a chance.

I really prefer to try to make a hard achievement than to /cry and get it removed... even if I cannot complete it. Achievements should be hard, that's what I really think.

Comment by noname111

i do feel for the dedicated pvp'ers who feel like their game gets ruined periodically by having pvp noobs running around looking only to get an achievment in a bg. I played for about a year and a half before i stepped foot into a bg. And the only reason I went then was because a friend got me hooked on completing the seasonal achievements. And I was not happy about the pvp requirements. But i gotta say, I found out that i actually LIKED pvp. Not all the time....not enough to respec or regear for it...but enough to jump in and participate once in a while. I'm a healer and I know i am contributing in a worthwhile way when I'm there. And i wouldn't ever have been there if Bliz didn't "push" me into it via the achievement system. Makes sense to me that they find ways to get people to explore all aspects of the game. :)

Comment by berny

just to say i h8 this one :D just hating it from deep of my soul ^^ but i will do it

Comment by Sithicus

I feared this achievement for a long time and wasn't sure how it would end up once Children's Week actually started. Judging from the above posters I got pretty lucky.

EoTS - Ran straight down the cliff when the bubble popped open and did a b-line for the flag..was at 20% health and saw 2 horde running towards me but somehow they got crushed before they ever stopped me from grabbing the flag...total luck. First try.

WSG - Took me two tries but eventually got it just by camping the base and following the enemy flag carrier until he got creamed. Tip - the flag is actually there as soon as the carrier dies but due to lag is may not show up right away on screen...as soon as the guy drops start clicking all around as fast as you can.

AB - Another lucky one. First try I somehow got out of the gate ahead of the group. I happened to be grouped with a pally with the speed buff who did not go to stables.

AV - This one worried me but some cool horde helped me out. I ran up the tower and did a quick /plead and /point (to the orphan) to the guy guarding the flag. He /nodded and let me cap, then took it back...I then capped it again for his buddy who was also there and we all got it. Good times....how I get a nice couple month break before the Midsummer Fire Festival!

Comment by Selayna

This is not the worst achievement, but it certainly makes the top 5. The worst was brew of the year. The second worst was the valentines day candy achievement. This is a solid third worst, though. It is not fun, not fair, and ruins battlegrounds ( which I actually play and enjoy from time to time).

Comment by Nighthawke

Well I have 3 of the 4, but AV is killing me, I have personally captured the flags several times in the Dun Baldar North and South Bunker with my orphan out and nobody else there, still no credit for the achievement! WTH!
On the bright side I am now 10121 of 12000 into honored and have received a lot of Alterac Valley Marks. I have put way too many hours into this damn achievement.
Alas, I will not give up, I am going to try the orphan from Org, maybe the Shattrah one just does not like me anymore, complains of too much killing. Poor traumatized little creature.

Comment by kwicked

Assault a tower in Alterac Valley

A trick for non DKs (on a pale horse) or paladins on Alliance (same concept with horde just different tower names). If you are a paladin or DK with pale horse, even better:

Having some sort of potion that increases your run speed will help.

Step 1: At the beginning of the game, look for a paladin with a kid out. Chances are this guy is trying to get a tower achievement and most likely will have crusader aura on (hopefully even aura mastery so he'll even get a little boost).

Step 2: Follow this guy as closely as possible when the game starts (run through the lake with him) and chances are he'll be going to the Ice Blood Tower (the closest one). Once you both run in there with your mount and when you get auto dismounted, hit sprint or rocket boots or whatever else you have to dash up the tower faster than the paladin. (Hint: At the very top go left instead of right to avoids the bowmen and get into the flag room more quickly)

Optional: If you notice that Ice Blood Tower is impossible because someone else made it way before, Tower Point isn't far away and if you stuck with the right paladin you should be the first one there.

I know it sounds greedy but the people who never PvP and aren't familiar with how AV works are going to have a painful time with this achievement. If you fail to get the flag in the AV game, don't leave yet, take a chance to get familiar with the towers so you don't fall off or something dashing up to the top. Good luck and remember to have your kid out!

Comment by Thadyn

You may also want to create a macro to notify the opposing faction of your intentions.
/wait
/target Orphan
/point
/target last
/wait
They might stop killing you and and actually assist your team in completing the achievements - as long as you assist them.

WSG - have one person pick up their flag, then drop it in their flag room for one of them to return. Continue until their whole team gets the achievement. Odds are, they will do the same for you.
EoTS - each faction take a turn returning a flag. (Only 1 base controlled per faction)
AB/AV - assault a flag/tower, let them defend it, then let someone else assault. (If each person needs to assault)

Server: US-Coilfang
Toon: Talisin - Horde
Battlegroup: Retaliation

AB/AV were both very easy for me to get done, only took one try.
WG took a few tries. I mainly just waited in the flag room with a few other players and took turns returning the flag after we killed the flag carrier.
EoTS was hardest for me as it was the Holiday weekend. After many tries and a lot of nerd rage I stripped down my armor and ran up to the flag naked with my Orphan out. No one attacked me and as the battle raged on around me I was allowed to grab the flag and return it. "Worked for me, might work for someone else."

Also big thanks for the help from both sides on this achievement.

Comment by LoqueNahak

A Hunter's feedback
(never PvP'ed in my wow career)

Notes:

level 80
blue/emblem gear
zero PvP experience/skill/knowledge
zero PvP gear
zero BG's knowledge (maps, tactics, locations, ...)
crappy reflexes, button smasher (I know...)

I tried with my my primary MM spec but speed was not enough to beat other competitors. Specced BM with talents in Pathfinding (+10% mounted speed) really helps a lot when running for the tower (AV) or assaulting the 1st flag (AB). It will also help you running away in (EotS) as soon as you grab the flag in the middle of the map.

When it comes to (WG)... well that's pure luck, no matter what you try to do. Speed does not count as you will be constantly stunned, slowed, feared or just frozen to the ground as son as you shot the flag carrier. On my realm the "/beg /point <children> /wait" did not work at all: instead, they just kept destroying me as never before, maybe with more anger (if possible).

The only thing I did was staying as close as possible to the flag carrier hoping to be ignored by others and be ready to grab the flag as soon as possible. I did 10 WG runs. First 8 did not produce anything but frustration. 9th allowed me to kill the Horde player AND grab the flag... but I forgot my child (ARGH!). 10th I was able to followe the flag carrier and kill him with some other alliance players. I was lucky because everyone was frozen/rooted and I had those 2 seconds to click the flag and get the achievement done. Pure luck, that's all.

Overall I think Blizzard should just remove this achievement from the meta. Yes I was able to complete it but as a pure PvE player I felt very frustrated, useless and noob while running the BG's. I've been a sstupid player who joined BG's just for my personal interests (achievement) more than actually help other people. I did not like that, I think it's just a bad way to introduce PvE veterans to PvP.

To sum it up: 2 out of 4 achievements (tower and flag capping) are doable if you're fast and no Paladins are doing the same. 2 are just a matter of pure luck. Given that we got a week, I found a bit pointless forcing people to repetitively join BG's just to get the job done and then bye bye.

Comment by Whisternefet

Been trying to get this one for the entire week. The only thing I'm missing is the Flag Recap in WG. It's really sad that the people on my side that can see I have an orphan out recap the flag right in front of me, even though I'm right there and helped kill the flag carrier. When I ask them why they did it, all I get is verbal abuse in return. Really, this achievement brings out the worst in people. Both in the PVP'ers and in the people trying to get the achievement. (I'm guilty of AFK'ing out of AB after getting the achievement.)

I got the achievements like GNERD rage, and the fifty kills in a santa's helper costume. Those were really painless compared to this piece of work.

AV: running to the farthest tower worked for me.
EOTS: it's pure luck that I came upon the flag when everyone else had been chasing down the carrier.
AB: I ran as fast as possible to the mine.
WG: No love. From my side or the opposition. I tried the /wait /point /beg /cry and any other emote I could, as well as standing by our flag naked, with my orphan out, dancing. Multiple times. The opposition killed me as a matter of fact.

I've gotten a whole lot of tokens and honor, and got my ten tabards achievement from it. Still, having this for the meta is crazy IMHO. I hope they do something with this one. It's caused all sorts of pain to the people that want to PVP and the people looking to get their achievements done.

*Update: Finally got the achievement by dumb luck in WG. Killed the flag carrier by myself while his defenders were killing my "allies" and they were all still in the flag room some 30 yards away. Even then, I barely managed to click the flag before everyone else came after it. People on my side that weren't after the achievement were still recaping the flag and being extremely rude to the people trying to get the achievement. I guess my battlegroup is just full of people that only play to grief others.

Comment by Glyphstream

That's a negative. After 4 hours of trying to do this in AV, I've gotten a number of the PvP achievements despite the fact that I've not a single honorable kill in my life just by being near someone who got one.

I've been near someone with my orphan out assaulting every freaking tower in the place twice, and no dice.

They really should rework this whole thing.

Comment by darkye

Think at the end much more people got this achievement comparing to what we expected before Children's week start.
Only Midsummer and Brewfest left for those who started the achievements when they came out. :>

Comment by Kinqo

I can't be entirely sure but I think that this achievement was named after a song called School of Hard Knocks by P.O.D(a Rapcore band and one of my favorites.)

Okay, now as for everyone who is complaining for this achievement it is optional, meaning that you do not HAVE to do it. I found it pretty easy in my battlegroup since some of the people in there helped heal me when I tried EoTS. When it came to WSG, my guild made a pre-made WSG group and I got it easily. Arathi Basin, in my opinion, is by far the easiest to obtain.

Also, I think that Alterac Valley was the hardest to obtain somehow, it was my last one I got for the achievement. The reason why it was hard was because I was in a 40-man raid group with about half of them being my competition in racing to a tower and assaulting it.

EoTS - All I did for capturing the flag in EoTS was ask in battlegrounds chat for a healer to help shield and heal me when needed. Luckily, I found someone nice enough to do so. So, I went into the middle of the map and camped for a while while fighting off the Horde. The first few times I did not capture it, but I just kept camping then when I got it I ran my ass out of there.

WSG - WSG was quite easy for me since my guild wanted to make a random pre-made for Warsong Gulch for no reason. I joined and eventually they gave each of us a chance to return the flag. I figure this part of the achievement is pretty easy, even when you randomly join a battle without a pre-made.

AB - Okay this one is pretty easy also. You don't even need a pre-made for this just gotta beat the others in your raid. I just quickly summoned my orphan then mounted up and right when the battle started I got my ass to the Stables and assaulted it.

AV - Woo, this one takes a lot of patience, well it did for me anyways. Since you basically are racing a big raid group in order to assault a tower. I was very lucky on this when I got it after my 3rd AV match. I ran all the way down as far as I could go and ran in a tower. As I reached the top I noticed one of the Ally's were already trying to assault it for their achievement. This was the last tower to be assaulted so I figured I would have to wait for another match but actually... the Ally got dazed by a NPC Horde guard and I had my chance to capture it. It was pretty funny because after I assaulted it he just cursed me out, I just left.

Okay so that was my take on it, feel free to mark this comment as "negative" or whatever it doesn't matter to me. I'm just here sharing my experience with it and... killing time. Sorry for all who couldn't get it in time.

~Kinqo

Comment by Ellana

Yes, the achivement has to be completed within the Children's Week. The whistle to summon your Orphan will be deleted once the Festival is over sadly :( Good luck on getting the achivement thou! :D

Comment by reverendvader

I can confirm that completing the quests with an orphan even after Children's Week is over still counts toward the achievement. (I completed Hail to the King, Baby just last night, 4 days after Children's Week ended...)

I picked up the Stormwind orphan two days before Children's Week came to a close. The whistle has a seven-day cooldown regardless of when it is acquired.

So, here I am with one day left on my orphan whistle still trying to capture and return the Alliance flag in a Warsong Gulch battle. (My one last task to acquire the Patron title!) I don't know if it's going to happen... (Especially with the extended maintenance on Nathrezim today, I'm rapidly running out of time. Squishy priest and all...)

Hopefully I'll be able to get some guildies to head into WSG with me and help me finish up the achievement later today. (I'd rather not have to wait until next May to acquire the violet proto-drake!)

UPDATE: It looks like I'll be waiting until next May. Grrr! I must have run WSG nearly 30 times over the past couple days... begged people to let me return the flag just once... But as a priest (experiencing slight yet frequent network lag), this part of the achievement turned out to be (apparently) impossible. The level of frustration in attempting this one "simple" task unsuccessfully over and over and over again was beyond annoying as I watched myself one-shotted, pounded into the dirt more times than I can count, and seeing fellow Alliance players send the flag back mere nano-seconds before I reached it myself.

Comment by Engwadur

Can anyone confirm that you can't acquire this achievement with the new wolver pup or with the oracle orphan?

Edit: Alright, I've confirmed you can't obtain this achieve with the resently released Northrend orphans. W/ screen shot.

Comment by velde046

I still wish they would modify or remove this one from the meta-achievement. I don't enjoy PVP, then only BG's I like are Wintergrasp and AV (like is overstating it btw). BUt I would not like doing them often.
I agree with someone above who says that it's no fun having to do PVP for anahcievement whilst not playing on a PVP server. I wish that the PVP achievements were in a separate world events PVP achievement list.

I am doing the PVP achievements but to be honest I am afraid I'm ruining the experience for a lot of other players that do like to do the stuff. Cause I don't care about anything else but getting the achievement so you won't see me capturing mines, attacking other players, killing generals etc in AV. I won't be defending towers in EOTS or capturing them, I just want the flag and will be waiting for the opportunity to get it and get out.

Blizzard should make a section in PVP achievements for this stuff... really. And have the PVE stuff in a different...

Comment by K0m4

I'm surprised nobody told that this is a reference from "Rock your Sock" by Tenacious D, it actually ROCKS!

Comment by misthoof

i like pvp , but this one is the only thing that going to prevent me to take the drake .. :( !

Comment by shmog

Wait, we're teaching our poor orphans violence?

Hmm...

Matron:What did you teach your orphan?
Orphan:How to slaughter people.
Matron:Excuse me?
*screaming*
You: I'm so proud of little Timmy!
Orphan: My name is James.
You:Shut up or I'll feed you to my Elekk.

Comment by gcvetclinic

Sometimes I wish I could just get the Blizzard developer who made these achievements and blow his knee caps off.

thank you. I agree,after 2 years of waiting on this achievement all i have left is a tower in av and a wsg flag return. peeling their skin sound to good for the developer also...i guess that would be flaying huh?

Comment by tyguy21g

I am a achievement junkie

I have better things to do with my time.

these things dont mix.. plus this is one of the easier achievements, im a squishy enhancement shaman and i have no trouble, if you really are an achievement junkie you would realize that some achievements just have to be earned less common ways, such as:

Capture the flag in Eye of the Storm:
well i personally have it easy here im an engineer, and a shaman i use my rocket boots and parachute at the start of the match land right on the flag pick it up before the enemy team can get anywhere near me ghost wolf and run to a tower being capped and im done. (cloak can be replaces with a mages slowfall/priest levitate and rocket boots can be replaced with a mount if you have a pally with crusader aura in group, and the ghost wolf at the end to ensure you get safely to tower can be replaced with swiftness potion)

Assault a flag in Arathi Basin
this requires no PVP gear or experience whatsoever just mount up run to a flag at start and cap it. being an engineer also helps here because i can use my rocket boots for the last few seconds to ensure i get the first click

Assault a tower in Alterac Valley
slightly more difficult than the others but still not hard, just run past the enemy team and assault icewing bunker/iceblood tower. most of the time they wont even touch you at the start of the match because they wanna get into the big combat areas/towers to cap

Return a fallen flag in Warsong Gulch
easy as long as you have a decent computer, so the flag loads fast when dropped, state that you are going to play defense at the start of the match at least 1 or two people will stay with you, wait untill someone picks up the flag slow them if you can while your allys kill them and mash click on where the flag is going to drop.

Comment by TehScat

My girlfriend is a carebear of epic proportions, she couldn't pvp her way out of Northshire Abbey. So, for this, I had to carry her through a few things...

AB: Easy, crusader aura on, she runs to farm and caps it before anyone else. Just luck and speed.
EotS: She waited at FRR and capped that, while I grabbed flag. Ran near her, dropped it, she grabbed it, capped.
WSG: Luckily alliance were playing along, sending a 45k hp tank to grab and drop flag over and over. Took a while for some scrubs to stop killing him, but we all got this and Frenzied Defender too! One in a million players in WoW are nice.
AV: She ran with me all the way to end bunkers, like in a zerg. I tied up archers and she capped.

EotS was by far the hardest, since there was so much competition for the flag, and alliance premades were cashing in on the horde carebears sitting on the flag by 4-capping us every game. Had to go through 5 or so losses before we got to a game where both teams were going for achie.

On that note, trading flags in WSG, bases in AB, and towers in AV, are great ways to get their respective 'grind' defend achievements. I got frenzied defender, overly defensive, and tower defense so far, and I will be going for To The Rescue! and Persistent Defender before Children's Week is over!

Comment by nelfilicious

Last year my fear of this achievement stopped me from completing the meta. I admit, I'm a pretty huge carebear but I used to do a lot of PvP and wasn't afraid of the BGs themselves so much as that I couldn't trust the people to play nice for a few minutes.

Now I'm halfway through with this and while it isn't fun by any means, it's not horrible. I went ahead and tried AV first, though maybe I should have gone after WSG before that. First game went badly, the Horde either didn't understand my /waits or they just didn't care. Second time around I got to Iceblood Tower where there were probably 4-5 Horde who started to attack me, but I /waited them and they jumped back and let me do my thing. So gracious!

Then I did AB, which also took two games. Both times the other side wasn't letting me or anyone just waltz up and cap a flag. But towards the end of the second game, the Alliance zerged the Stables and while they were all distracted I managed to get the flag. I had actually assaulted the farm earlier without my orphan out! Ugh.

Edit: just did EotS, by far the quickest and most fun! As expected everyone rushed to the flag and the Horde got control over it pretty easily. They were just swapping people out for capping the flag for a minute or two while the Alliance took control over 2-3 bases. At one point there was so much chaos in the center I went to get the flag and was surprised when I wasn't interrupted. Promptly capped it at MT and collected some HK's until we won. Got a couple achievements too.

All finished! WSG was mostly a breeze, there was a bit of confusion at the start but then for a good couple of minutes this troll warrior kept going to get the flag so all we Allies could finish our achievement. I went to the Horde base and did the same. It was a precious moment.

Comment by Shadock

"School of Hard Knocks" also mentioned in the song "Rock your Socks" by Tenacious D.

Comment by Hairband

It might be nice to explain to those with NO battlegrounds experience what the objective is a bit more step by step. Rate this up if you have no BG experience and you want to know more about what to do. This is not going to be a /rant to nerf the achievement or a /whine how hard it was or a /brag how easy it was. Also for starters, don't mount when you have a flag or you'll lose it.

Capture the flag in Eye of the Storm:

In summary, the objective is to click a flag and return it to a base owned by your faction. There are 4 bases (2 each by the Alliance/Horde entry points) and a center flag placed on a mound on sort of a bridge, so don't fall off. Everyone will need to run to the center obviously to click the flag (it'll have a cog/gear tooltip). The flag takes like 10 seconds to attach to you when you click it, like a cast. You cannot be in combat or else there will be an "Interrupted" message. If you are successful, a message is broadcast " has the flag," or something similar. Nothing will go into your inventory; the flag just appears on your back so you know if you have it! That is, if you are lucky enough to get to it, because there will be traps, rogues, AOE everywhere on that center mound. But at some time in EOTS (for me, 4 BG's) that mound is going to be clear--AND you will see a message broadcast "The flag has been returned to the base" or something like that. Hopefully you'll be in the right place at that time, and hopefully with a base owned by your faction to run to.

My advice is to just try to keep that center mound clear of the opposing faction, and try to be first to click it while everyone is elsewhere, and be patient. Once you do have the flag, you have to make it to one of the 4 bases, as long as it's owned by your faction. If you're NOT the first to click the flag after it respawns, but someone of your faction IS, then protect the heck out of them. I put Aspect of the Pack on, and lay down traps for my flag carriers, and Flares if they were up. Eventually, the opposing faction will kill an unlucky flagbearer and the flag'll be on the ground for you to pick up and click. Then, when you are successful, hopefully you will run right for your base and the minute you land there, you should be done. Look at your Achievement tracker and your EOTS should be cleared off.

Assault a tower in Alterac Valley:

The objective here is to find a tower owned by the opposite faction, run to the top of that tower, and click a banner inside. (Again, cog/gear tool tip and about a 10 second cast time and you can't be in combat to click the banner.) Initially, there will be 4 each Alliance/Horde towers. What do the towers look like? I was expecting a tower, but they're not towers really. The Alliance ones look to me like the lookout stations in Loch Modan (we've all done the Tunneler's Ear's Quests) and the Horde ones look a little like the Orcish towers in The Barrens where you pick up Harpies Threaten. Anyway, at the top of these towers are some NPC's guarding these banners. If you're lucky, you can run past the NPC's and click the banner if you're in a group, but if not, try using your pet for classes with them. I've done this twice and both times my group's synergy got me this prong of the achievement. One person was dual boxing with a horde/alliance toon, and the alliance person organized everyone's achievement at the tower using his hordie to help click the flag to make it a Horde flag, just so we could turn around and reclick it and make it an Alliance (for as long as he could, anyway--someone on the Horde didn't appreciate the help as you might imagine).

The thing everyone is saying about this is kind of true: everyone of the other faction is running past you and not wanting to kill you; if they have their orphan out, they probably are looking for a tower guarded by your faction's NPC's and don't care about you. But because of the layout of the map, you're trying to go past YOUR territory into THEIR territory, so you will cross paths with quite a few of the opposing faction so just try to be speedy and use the posts here that contain the maps of the bases if you don't know how to read your BG map.

Assault a flag in Arathi Basin:

I'm a little bit fuzzy about what I did to get this but I'll edit this tonight when I do it on my alt. If I remember correctly, there will be 4 bases you need to capture, and each base starts out neutral (ie., with a grey non-Alliance, non-Horde flag). I think once you touch a grey flag, it takes about 10 seconds of cast time, and if you are the first successful person to click the flag,the flag becomes that of your faction. Like the other two above, you cannot be in combat or else you get an "Interrupted" message. And like the other two, there will probably be three or four people trying to click the flag so you may not be first, so be patient.

ETA: For patch 4.3: This one I got on an alt today and I had to click the opposing faction's flag. I came in with my /beg and my /help emotes to the one defender that was there. It seemed as if the defender was going to let me have the flag, because he wasn't casting any spells. Meanwhile I was saying "I need a flag for my orphan, so please let me have one!" in the /bg chat. Just then, the defender started to get ganked by a rogue and I just did a Hail Mary and clicked their flag.

Return a fallen flag in Warsong Gulch:

I'll confess I didn't know what to do at first, but it's really easy, in theory. First, someone of the opposing faction has to take your flag from your base and begin to run it back to their flag room. You'll stop them by killing them, and the flag will be on the ground for you to pick up. You'll pick up YOUR OWN faction's flag and voila! Ignore their flag, because if you try to be a hero and run their flag to your base, you won't get the achievement. A lot of ranged classes might have problems with this if there is stiff competition and scads of orphans running around the dropped flag. With good communication, hopefully you will be in an understanding BG group and help each other out. Doing this, everyone was rooting for me and helping me, and was a really positive experience.

Hope that helps. Remember to rate up if this helped you figure out what you were supposed to do. ETA: I don't think anything has changed in 4.3.

Comment by Abcat

Thought I would put in my feedback about this achievement.

I tried EoST yesterday and found that not only are you going against an opposing team where many were trying to get their achievement, but also the folks on your side doing the same. You have to be lucky to get this one but with the chances stacked against you. I was not able to get mine.

The next day I tried to get into the fights in the morning but of the 4 battle-grounds needed, AB was the fastest with the rest of the waits were averaging 15 minutes and up. I went in as a healer and noticed that my side charged the first point and whoever has the fastest mount gets to cap. The rest of the fight even rushing in with others, I ended up being focus of the enemy and so I spent the majority of my time waiting to be rezzed. After a bad match and losing, I decided to switch to shadow and that helped some. I was still not able to get at least AB done and a number of players upon getting their cap, left the fight. At the farm I just helped kill the last enemy player there, and the other player capped the flag even with my child being out.

I can see that attempting this event is utterly pointless and basically a waste of time. It does not encourage team-work. At least I wished I could have received credit for being close to the point when it was capped or if we had won.

With things and how they stand, I decided to not bother with getting the achievement and the drake at the end of this whole debacle just isn't worth it.

Comment by Manstus

I was fortunately able to complete this achievement this evening. All told, I was about 5 hours of PVP playtime, and I was getting kind of frustrated so I would quit after a handful of attempts and go do something else. I feel for everyone that does this achievement, and also for the people who actually love BG's for the objectives and accomplishment as the BG's can be very difficult to do when everyone is in it to win it. This being said, I am a casual PVP'er, in that I love BG's, premades, etc, and I do have a full PvP gearset and do alright, but I'm not terribly gifted in the reaction time department.. here is my analysis of the BG's you need, and their difficulty:

Warsong Gulch: This one can either be very annoying or very easy depending on what the other side is doing. This one is probably your second easiest one, in that in about half the BG's there are groups that are just trading flag caps. One person from alliance goes horde side, picks up the flag, and keeps dropping it, and vice versa from the horde side. If you find yourself in WSG, you may want to announce to teammates to be slightly patient when the opposite faction grabs the flag and don't immediately go to killing. If they're playing it properly, you will need to kill them, but wait until they start running. If its a fun game of trade the flag, just wait your turn (by non-stop clicking where he's dropping the flag until you get it!)

Arathi Basin: I actually find this one not terribly bad, but I am pally with Crusader Aura + Aura Mastery to get there first. Head to Goldmine or Lumbermill and start capping, hopefully the other team is ignoring one of them (I always go LM at the start of AB's, and typically get a free cap 50% of the time when Children's Week isn't on). Shouldn't be too bad. I've also seen groups go to the goldmine and dance and trade caps. Alliance caps, horde waits until its fully capped, then takes it back (you need to take it, not defend it, returning a flag thats not fully capped counts as a defence, so be very patient).

Alterac Valley: I can see this one being absolutely horrendous with 40 people and 4 towers... fortunately when I did it, people were all standing in towers not attacking each other, but capping and recapping the flags.. pray you get as lucky as I did, or run to the opposing BG chief and cap one of those two towers, as it is possible to win the race - speed potions help - alot of people stop off at the first two towers.

Eye of the Storm: I had a miserable experience with this one, as you're fighting the other team, your own team, and the objectives because your own team isn't doing them. You MUST have at least one base capped to get the flag. No bases, no capture. Everyone is going to bum rush the middle, and shaman's will knock you off and its super annoying. That being said, go slightly slower than others (also resummon your orphan there, i typically outrun mine for some reason, and had to get two caps). I hate to suggest being selfish, but help your teams carrier to the base, and you will be followed by the opposite faction, protect them until close, let them die, and grab the flag for yourself... I'm very sorry to recommend this, and if you can do it normally, all the better!

These are just how I did it, and a couple of suggestions, but it will be one of the least fun achievements for the PvE and PvP players alike, as both seem to strongly dislike the others presence in their BG's.

Edited a couple times for spelling and clarity.

Comment by Piovra

Having low latency is the key to soloing this achievement.

I did every part of this achievement on my first attempt except EoTS, which I had to do twice simply because I forgot to have my orphan out...

You need the following:

1. Low latency.
2. Deadly Boss mods or any mod which will count down to when the BG starts.
3. The ability to move in a straight line from A to B.

You do not need:

1. PvP skills.
2. PvP gear.
3. Speed potions, auras or anything to increase mount speed.

At the start of a BG, get as close to the gate/barrier as possible, but don't run. Wait for the BG to start and start running at the exact time when the battleground starts (use the timer from DBM or similar addon) and you should be able to get a slight head start on everyone else, if you time it right and your latency is low enough. Then just make sure you run as economically as possible, shortest route to the flag/tower and it's easy as pie. I can do this 90% of the time thanks to my low latency.

Getting first to the farm in AB is trivial, most people get stuck in the doors since they run before the BG starts or don't know how to run in a straight line to the flag.

In EoTS you might be the first one to be attacked so you may fail to cap but usually the other players will run past you when you have clicked the flag and engage the enemy - all you need to do is turn around and deliver the flag. If you fail there is no point sticking around, just abandon, wait 15 minutes and retry.

In AV you can't mount immediately, but run/sprint/blink until the icon for your mount lights up and hit it immediately as it does so and you should be one of the first to get off. You obviously need to know the shortest route to the towers, if you haven't been in an AV before, get one match in before you attempt this, the BG lasts long enough for you to get a couple practice runs in if you need that. In AV you can actually be the second one to reach the tower, the first person will likely get attacked and will fail to cap the flag. Having an aggro reset helps of course.

WSG also benefits from low latency as you don't necessarily have to be the one to kill the flag carrier, all you have to do is click the flag first, to which having low latency works like a charm. Just make sure you are close to the flag when the carrier drops it.

So if you are a PvE type person who is afraid to do this achievement but you are lucky enough to have low latency, go for it! It is not as difficult as it seems.

Comment by Obolon

Yridar,

The descritions for the achievements are in fact exactly correct. In Arathi you have to ASSAULT the flag. That means just click it, let the progress bar complete for the assault, and then walk away with that task complete. The flag does not have to turn to your side.

In EotS you have to CAPTURE the flag. That means bring it back and CAPTURE (CAP) it on the base. It doesn't say assault the flag or grab the flag.

The terms are used correctly. Capturing implies that you end up owning it, completely. Assaulting it, as in Arathi basin, doesn't guarantee you capture it. You have to wait until the allotted time expires and the flag converts, during which the flag is still at risk of being assaulted by the opposing faction before it becomes captured.

Comment by Kurtosis

I'm finding the problem is not so much the achievements, but the bg queue times. It takes forever just to get into a single bg, and then you've got tons of people all going after the same things.

And if you're on the undermanned side of a dominated battlegroup, good luck when AB lasts 5m and you have to queue for 30m+ just to get back in.

The achievements themselves are fun and challenging, but for those of us who can't spend half a day at a time on them, the bar is a little too high. Bliz should mix up these achievements with some more-accessible world pvp and WG pvp ones too.

Comment by Kurtosis

After queueing for AV several times, I discovered that the Towers/Bunkers near the center of the BG are often hotspots for Horde and Alliance helping each other with this quest, taking turns capping flags.

The pvp'ers usually cap those then run straight on to zerg opposing side's generals to try to win the BG, leaving only the achievement-hunters hanging out together in the middle of the bg.

Pay attention to your BG warning messages in chat/combat log. You may notice the BG warnings showing that one particular bunker or tower is getting captured and recaptured over and over throughout the fight. If so, make a b-line for it, b/c that is where the cooperative capping is going on.

Comment by twizzlus

One of the hardest things about this achievement is the queue times. I mean, US BG9 is a pretty popular battlegroup but very horde heavy if I recall correctly. An hour + queue for Arathi basin, only to join a game which is in progress and lost half a minute later? Great. It took my alliance character, on a BG9 realm one morning to knock out all achievements. Can't say the same for my priest, who is half way there, half way through children's week.

Comment by Jhannath

First, I'd like to say thanks, sincerely, for all the useful hints and tips to those who posted them. I have an active dislike for PVP, I was dreading this achievement, but since it's the only thing standing between me and that mount, I gave it a try.

In spite of the helpful advice found here, and the attempts to help by my patient guildies, two hours of frustration later I have a grand total of ONE of the four requirements, WSG, which is supposedly one of the easier ones. I also have an ulcer and a greater contempt for my fellow gamers, who all left their brains and their manners in their other pants when they came out to PVP that day.

It was not fun. It was not even hard, challenging, or difficult. It was horrible. And I thought...why am I here? I'm not having fun. These other people aren't having fun. And we're all giving up our hard-earned dollars and leisure time for the priviledge.

I am not a person who gives up easily. I am not afraid of a challenge. I have loremaster, seeker, and numerous rep achievements that involved long, tedious, tiring grinds and sundry other proofs of achievement addiction.

So, I have decided to not get the mount. This is MY recreation, and if I'm not having fun, I'm doing something else. I'm sure those of you who like PVP will be relieved to hear you won't have to contend with me bumbling about out there anymore, and I advise others who feel as I do to just skip it, as I have. There are plenty of other mounts to be had, and really, if you're not having a good time, why are you here?

Edit: lol..I just re-read over some of the other comments here, and realized Ineluki's "Suck it up and be Conan" post, which is pretty much exactly opposite to my own. Not to say that over-the-top-with-fixed-bayonets mindset is wrong, or anything...but I have a job, and WoW isn't it. Just saying.

Comment by Transducer

This can be very easy, through two different strategies.

The hardest two, WSG and EoS, require just one thing, surprised it's not mentioned yet:
a well-timed SWIFTNESS POTION : Swiftness Potion
Much, much easier to grab the flag when it's down. Better get several just in case...

edit: my mistake, the SWIFTNESS POTION was mentioned earlier too,
BUT IT CANNOT BE STRESSED ENOUGH! GET SOME SWIFTNESS POTIONS! ----> Swiftness Potion <----

In WSG, I'd recommend lurking near the edge of the battlefield, towards the middle of the map, away from enemies but in sight of your base. You are far more likely to get to an almost-dead enemy flag carrier from here (presuming the enemy team's doing good, otherwise may as well lurk at base).

In EoS, definitely good idea to protect a teammate that DOES have the flag though, because it still has to be brought to a tower for the achievement.. otherwise, you'll have to compete with them again.

AB and AV are really just a matter of rushing to a location that ISN'T commonly attacked.
AB, rush for one of the two outer bases, Gold Mine or Lumber Mill, and right-click the banner. Very good chances you'll be the one to get it first.

AV, rush for the second tower, climb to the top ignoring all mobs, right-click the banner. Contrary to a few earlier comments, you do NOT have to stay or survive the waiting-to-capture process. You need to be first to click banner.
Also, the two further towers can be done as well, but it's much more risky (more likely to get killed by an enemy player on the way).

Comment by Pinkitteh

As chknnuggts said you can emote to the opposing faction and hope they co-operate.

I just completed this achieve on my 3rd toon this week with this method of using a macro to emote my intentions and taking turns with them on flag caps.

It was only very difficult on one character because I kept getting into BGs where people were just selfish and didn't want to co-operate on both my side and the opposing faction side. However, the other two I completed very easily because I got into bgs where people helped each other out.

It does help to pre-make even if it is just 3-5 of you together and not a whole premade, as you can take turns to assist and can count on at least your pre-made members to agree to co-operate which tends to encourage others to also join in and co-operate.

After doing it on more than one character I just want people to know that if you're really lucky and get it first bg grats, but if you have to try many times don't loose hope, just keep que-ing eventually you'll get into a good bg where people are willing to work together.

It is understandable that if you have to que a lot it does get frustrating, but remember you're not the only one that "just wants this stupid achieve, that's all I'm here for and I want to get it and get out!" You'll find most people doing the achieve is feeling that way. Especially since a lot of people are finding the que times ridiculously long.

So I suggest you que first then go do the other children's week quests and achieves while you wait for the bg to pop, or farm something you've been putting off doing for sometime, or shop/sell on AH while you wait, generally stuff you can do in-game that you can stop immediately if bg pops and can resume after bg.

And be realistic about estimating the time, it will take a few hours. Don't drive yourself nuts because you think it will take 5 minutes and plan a whole lot of other stuff in 10 mins time then stress because you can't do those things. So you should get your snacks and drinks set up, put aside a night when you don't have other things planned and prepare for a bg stake out!

Good Luck All, I hope you all find a friendly person of the opposing faction that will oblige to help you out. I sincerely am grateful for those that were so kind and polite to help me out (and I did make sure I returned the favor by helping them out too.).

Comment by Eilonthay

I started working on this in about the same hour that the event opened, because I knew the PVP part was going to be the most difficult and the BGs were going to be the most active. Also, while I'm passably decent at PVP, I knew I'd be fighting so many other people for the same thing that at some point I would be about ready to hurl the mouse across the room in frustration and shut the game down for the day. That's what the lack of cooperation does to you. Besides give you a gut ache from the stress. Also, it was the EotS BG weekend, so there was extra honor every time I went in--let's just say that I spent so much time trying for that particular part of the achievement that I about earned myself a PVP mount. =/ Still didn't get it though.

I went through EotS about 15 times the first day with no luck and switched to WSG. The first one was a hair pulling experience that I just wanted to end (being camped at the graveyard by a rogue is absolutely no fun because you're generally dead within just a few seconds after coming back--yes, thank you, Mr. Rogue, I hate you too, even though we've never met before now.). It was also my first time in WSG, so there was some dying that had to happen before I figured out that no, there's a wall there and you can't jump over it to or go around it to escape the paladin gunning for you. The second time was so much better. We decided that we'd hang out in the base and wait for the Horde to come over...eventually they did, but it must have taken them a bit to figure out that we were after the achievement. They might have even been doing the same thing. Thankfully, they were a decent set of people and helped out. They came over, picked up and dropped the flag a few times, and we killed them a couple times when they wouldn't drop it, but still just stood there and danced, and when we were done, we went over and sacrificed ourselves so they could get it done. Once that was out of the way, we got down to the ruthless killing, though it was pretty laid back, compared to the first one I was in. I don't think anyone was really trying all that hard, but we had our fun and I didn't mind losing. But rogues drive me crazy and can be real asses. I still don't know my way around the map and I can honestly say that it will be a cold day in Hell before I go back there ever again. Hats off to those of you that become exalted with the Silverwing Sentinels.

I went into Arathi twice with no luck...hard to do anything when you come in a minute from everything being done. The third time was difficult, but a Belf priest was nice enough to let me cap the stables before taking it back--then I got stun-locked by a stealthed rogue and died. I felt bad about my pet trying to eat her face for a couple seconds before I figured out what she was doing. Oops. >_<;;; Arathi's not so bad, overall, but again, I'd only been in there a couple of times before, so I didn't really know where I was going. I remember that the first time I was there (for the Love Fool achievement, actually), I had fun, so I might go back.

EotS happened completely by accident. Before, everyone made a mad dash to the center--I realized quickly that I'd never get the dumb flag first, so I always ran to MT to cap it before trying for a flag later. I can't tell you how many times I managed to pick up a flag, only to have a rogue destealth and stun-lock me, or pick it up and have the BG end before I even had a chance to run anywhere. Well, last night I ended up in a group that went about it waaaay differently than usual. The leader gave cap assignments and threatened to kick anyone that rushed to the middle like a "nubcake" (I thought he was being a bit of a jerk because of what else he said)--I rolled my eyes at that and was like "yeah, yeah, whatever," but went off to FR anyway. Well, I was off and running to BE a few minutes later, when I glanced over and saw that the flag was about to respawn! And there was no one else there! So of course I ran over, clicked, looked around for other people, saw no one, hit Cheetah and took off—there was not a single person around and I was so excited and worried all at once and my heart was pounding so hard…it was more stressful than any raid I’ve ever been in and I didn’t enjoy the feeling. I did enjoy getting two achievements at the same time as the Hard Knocks requirement. After that, I was able to go back to killing.

The last one was AV. It was my first BG and it's still my favorite because of the utter chaos that can result, so I knew exactly what I was getting into. I wasn't looking forward to it because everyone goes after the first two towers. I ended up not having to recruit a guild mate after all, like I had originally thought. It took 2 BGs to finish it, but that was just incredible luck...and I did it the Friday before the event ended, so maybe that had something to do with it. (/shrug) I knew it would be difficult and it was--the first time in, we zerged to the end, but because of lag, I was at the back of the pack and wasn't able to grab a tower. The second time was just plain dumb luck...we had planned zerging to the very end and so we did...except that somewhere about half way, we got separated in about three groups, probably because the Horde intercepted. I was too busy racing in the foremost group to check the map. I was able to race all the way to the end and found to my great delight that absolutely NO ONE had grabbed either of the towers (humanoid tracker FTW)!. And I hadn't even been the first one there. I didn't know what the other people were doing, running around like ninnies, when it was obvious everyone was already capping, but I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. I raced my butt up that tower and clicked...and promptly spammed guild chat with achievement bars. It was, in a word, AWESOME. I was sooooo happy to be done with it that I was grinning for hours afterwards. Silly, but true. I can now resume PVPing at my leisure.

Perseverance is the key. Also, some patience, but totally expect to get so frustrated with every other person in the BG that you want to reach through the monitor and punch them in the face. You WILL eventually get it because there are actually nice people out there on both sides…it’s just sometimes difficult for some people (I’m looking at you, you stupid rogues!) to hit pause on their PVP instincts for a moment to let things get done. Make sure you're at the front of the pack, with all those paladins and you might be able to edge out that competition.

You know why I'm really so happy? Because I’ll have gotten the albino and violet drakes and a title in one fell swoop. I’ll be able to rest easy on major achievements and finish up the last couple holiday ones that weren’t requirements for the mount. Good luck to everyone and may the gods of fortune smile upon you! =)

(Also, it's stuff like this that makes me glad that I decided I was only going to have one toon gathering up serious achievements like this.)

EDIT: Forgot to update the AV part after I finished 5/7/2010.

Comment by CaptainFalafel

I managed to do this last night, and was the last achievement I needed for the Violet Drake. Here was my experience, it may, or may not, be helpful. I credit 2 of the metas to engineering:

WSG: First one I got, very luckily. 2 Horde were standing near the flag and would pickup and drop our flag letting us get this.

AB: We capped the Lumbermill, and fended off the Horde there coming up from the east. A group made their way over to the Blacksmith from the North side, and the Horde occupying the blacksmith went to defend against them. Using Nitro Boosts and my cloak with Flexweave Underlay, I leapt from the lumbermill landing right next to the BS flag and managed to cap it just before the Horde noticed, and slaughtered, me.

EOTS: First we capped two towers, then I made my way to the flag. In the fray, we downed the mage aoeing us, and I managed to grab the flag before anyone else. On my way back to a tower, a Warrior caught up to me. Thank goodness for the priest, Fel Healthstone, and people defending the tower.

AV: Used Nitro Boosts right out of the gate. Before the buff wore off, about 4 1/2 secs in, I mounted up. Had a fairly significant lead on the rest of the raid. Made my way to the first tower via the shortest rout possible, got hit by the archers, even fell off the third story to the second due to a malfunctioning mouse and STILL managed to cap the flag here.

I was ready to give up and boycott (like it would do any good) trying to get the EOTS one. Then I realized how close I was, how friggin cool the mount is, and that I probably wouldn't be able to get a 310% mount until Cata. All told, I probably put in 6 hours to complete this.

As the person above said; Luck. Plain and simple. And let me go on record as saying this is, indeed, the worst achievement ever.

Comment by Iceveiled

The only luck I've had getting these 4 PvP things done was when both sides agreed to let it happen and NOT through natural battleground PvP.

In AB the entire horde team capped the flag at the mine then stood around with their orphans out. Their intentions were pretty obvious as soon as I rode up and none of them attacked me. I whistled out my orphan and capped the flag. They they did it and somebody else on my team would re-take it, repeat. We all stood around emoting back and forth, laying down campfires and dancing with one another. It was the strangest battleground I've ever been in, but fun.

Warsong Gulch is easy. Just defend a flag, wait for somebody to come along and take it, and then jump that person and return the flag. There were 5 of us guarding the room and only 1 opponent, maybe 2 would come try to take the flag. Needless to say we all took turns returning the dropped flag. Easy.

EOTS has been a freaking nightmare. The dozen times I've tried has 7-8 opponents just camping the flag and NONE of them are willing to let me come up and take it, regardles of how many /truce emotes I spam. Gonna have to keep trying and hope I get a lucky roll of the dice and get a group that is more cooperative. A prot warrior in decent PvP gear,and receiving heals CANNOT take the EOTS flag with 8 enemies lobbing everything they have at him.

AV - I haven't tried yet but when I did it last year with another toon it was basically a few horde/alliance guys in a tower trading caps.

I'm all for working for achievements but having spent over 5 hours trying to get this one is a bit much to ask. If this achievement is blizzard's attempt to get people into battlegrounds to experience them, this achievement not only woefully misrepresents the typical BG, but it also makes BG newbies completely and utterly despise them prematurely.

Comment by Obolon

Ok, I have a lot to say. Some people might not like what I have to say, some may mock me, but some may appreciate it and say to themselves, "WoW! Great idea!" and then finally have a way to get this achievement.

First a side note to Andiae, about a dozen posts up : More than likely those Alliance guys are camped out to help you and you have to get your guys to stop attacking them, so they can help. I have been one of those Alliance guys camped out to try to help the Horde in AV and all too often, even if I was lying there sleeping, emoting /truce, /wait, /bow, etc. the horde would simply slaughter me. I would go back and persevere in my quest to help the horde who needed it.

Alrighty then...

Like so many others, I had a devil of a time with this achievement, mostly with the Warsong Gulch and Eye of the Storm caps, because I am stationed overseas on a military base with quite possibly the crappiest internet connection on planet earth, on a dialup and behind countless firewalls, filters, and proxy servers. I can play PVE realtively well, run 5 man instances and sometimes struggle through 10 man raids on a good day. I never have less than 4000ms latency in a battleground, and the more people the more my latency. I have roughly 10,000ms latency in EotS. I constantly disconnect. PvP is impossible for me. The later at night I get on, the better, just because fewer people where I am stationed are sharing the same crappy connection through their dialups, so my latency can improve, but my bandwidth never improves.

Because my connection is so bad, I have no choice but to solo for the most part, because I would not want to burden other people with my crappiness, so I am not part of a fantastic raiding or PvP guild who I can ask for help. I looked at this achievement as insurmountable. Period.

However, did I whine about it? No. I figure that for a 310% speed mount, you probably have to overcome some pretty big obstacles. It's not going to be a freebie. There is probably some part of this year long trek that is hard for everyone. I am dreading Midsummer where I will have to juggle 40 things in 15 seconds. That's the last thing I have to do for the mount.

All of that said, I did overcome this impossible task. How? Well, what I lack in bandwidth, I make up for in GOLD. Low bandwidth leaves you with a lot of time on your hands sitting around in the Auction House doing nothing but making money, because you just don't have the latency to run an ICC rep run at the moment. I make gold hand over fist.

My character is alliance. I have a couple banker toons on Horde side, so I logged on with one of those and offered 1000g to the first Horde character who saw me in Warsong Gulch on my Alliance character and would drop the flag for me to return and then wave at me and wait for me to wave back after I returned the flag (in case another alliance player ninja'd the thing). Most people just thought I was pulling their leg. I wasn't.

Then I got back on my Alliance toon and advertised the same thing in the trade channel in case anyone had a level 80 Horde toon and wanted to make some gold. Instead, an Elite Alliance Warrior chimed in and said he would group with me and make sure I got the flag return by killing any horde that grabbed it and letting me return the flag. He was true to his word and it took him killing about two dozen flag grabbing horde before my click on the flag registered. Several attempts failed at first, because other Alliance people would click it first or it would time out and return on its own before my latency allowed my click to register. Eventually I got it.

I paid him the 1000g.

Then I offered him 3000g to bring me a flag to cap in EotS. "No problem," he said. I suffered through about 12 disconnects and failed attempts to click on the flags he seemed to effortlessly bring back to me until I finally got the cap and hence the achievement completed.

Following the example set by the family recently in the news, I sent my stupid orphan packing on a plane back to Russia!

So, paying a hired merc is in fact a proven way to get through this that hasn't been mentioned yet. If you have the gold and no bandwidth or PvP experience, hire some help!

I was able to get the other two on my own very easily.

AV was the easiest, simply because of a nice Horde guy that stood there recapping the flag while all of us Alliance folks took turns capping it, me being last of course, because I was suffering tremendous lag. I wonder why this truce only seems to be taking place in AV and not the other battlegrounds?

Arathi Basin was rather simple. I never find it hard to at least assault one flag, being a rogue.

My only point in all of this diatribe is to stress that while some of the achievements we want may be extremely daunting and even downright impossible, there is probably some way you can overcome them. For me it was with Gold. I probably offered too much, but 4000g is nothing to me and I wanted to be certain that the burden of babysitting me through it was well worth it to the kind stranger who helped. I hate it when Blizzard nerfs achievements that I found a way through already, just because other people with no patience and 100 times the bandwidth I have want to compalin about it.

My suggestion : Stop banging your sippy cup, get mommy to change your diaper, so you have a nice, dry bottom, and sit down and get to work.

I haven't figured out how I will be able to juggle 40 of anything in 15 seconds for the midsummer meta, but even if I don't get through it and have to wait another year until I may be back in the States on vacation with high bandwidth or something, you won't hear me whining about it. I figure that if other people have done it, then so can I, somehow. No one ever said that life was easy. Not even virtual life!

Comment by maniamanea

As many ppl have stated already, this can be a very annoying achievement for anyone who's not into pvp, and even for the ppl who's pvping a lot since the battlegrounds tend to fill up with non-pvpers running around not caring about anything else than the achievements.

By far the easiest one in the list is assaulting a flag in AB. The only thing you need rly is to know where you're going, and to have an mount with equal speed to that of the others. Having some kind of speed boost like crusader aura or similar also helps a little. Simply burst out the gates when the battle starts and head for the mines. Most people tend to charge for the stables which should leave you pretty unchallanged.

The one i found most difficult was returning a flag in WsG. Luckily, i finally after many tries ended up in a BG where the people where helping the oposite faction to get it. If you dont happen to be that lucky, try to stay as close as you can to the person carrying the flag, and avoid killing the player from the oposite faction befor he manages to actually take the flag. when the flag is about to drop, spamclick the place where it'll spawn and hopefully you'll get it.

Capturing a flag in EotS can be about as tricky as the WsG, depending on if you're facing serious pvpers or not. Since im on a server where the hordes most of the time crush the alliance like &%#&", i spent many hours in battles where the horde were keeping the flag base, without the alliance even daring to come anywhere near it. My advice if you're having the same kind of silly luck as i did, is to simple keep joining battles and hope someone will let you get the flag at some point. This one was by far the one i spent most time doing, and i entered EotS way more times than any of the others.

AV is fairly easy, if you keep the pace up and have some patience. A tip for this one is to not aim for the first tower, since thats what many other ppl are gonna do, but keep running closer to the oposite base. If you still dont manage to get a tower at the start, dont panic. Stick around and keep checking the map to see if any tower gets taken by the enemies. Thats how i managed to do it. Spoted a tower with noone around it and got the achievement without having to do much fighting or desperate runs to get ahead of someone.

Comment by gof22

This is one of the worse achievements in WoW. Why are we forced to PvP? We should not have to click on the flag first. As long as we click on it while it is being contested for control than it should count.

It should be we have to let the orphans visit the battle grounds, not make us PvP. No achievement should be worth this much frustration.

Comment by chatnoir

Sorry, but this achievement isn't doable. There are achievements that requiring like minute or two to complete, some that requiring some grinding or some kinda stupid race around the world. Then there is this one. Random BG throws you into SotA or IoC. Queues for AB and EotS are like 30 minutes and if I'm patient enough, I'm usually getting almost finished battle without having a chance to do anything.

To sum this, I'm going to use a sentence from World of Crycraft: What was Blizzard thinking ? Were they smoking the hella-hella-hella?

Comment by Ryan256

I still don't understand why Blizz will not fix this achievement. As it stands the only way to complete it is luck.
Luck - that you get a battleground with competent team mates.
Luck - if after waiting in the queue for 45 minutes your battleground doesn't end 30 seconds after you enter (yeah, happened to me 8 times)
Luck - if you are able to hire someone that will help you achieve these.
Luck - if you happen to be the first one to click the flag.
Luck - if the opposing faction is willing to let you get your achievements.
ALL LUCK! Blizz has removed other luck based achievements from being a requirement for the meta. Why not this one? Because if you're good enough you can still do it? BS! I don't care how good you are at PvP. When you grab the flag in Eye of the Storm but your side controls no towers you are not going to succeed. You'll be the lone person trying to retake a tower agains 5 or 6 enemies while the rest of your team camps the flag spawnhoping to be the next one to miserably fail.

I can understand what Blizz might have been thinking when they put this achievement in. They wanted to get players that might not normally go into these battlegrounds to experience them. The problem is the way this achievement currently stands it creates a very negative experience. Most people I have talked to will never again venture into any of these 4 battlegrounds because they don't care to remember the endless frustration and all of the hours put into this 1 achievement that was blocking them from getting their Violet Proto Drake.
Change this achievement so that it can be completed by a group. They guy defending the flag carrier deserves just as much credit as the one carrying it. This will also encourage more team play rather than the gross doushebaggery it currently does.

Comment by gof22

I have been trying to do EOTS for the last two hours and I have not been able to yet. Every time I get the flag some Horde bastard kills me. I have my orphan out, but no, they still kill me. Forcing us to PvP against other players who are there to PvP is bull*!@#. Forcing us to get flags and towers is also bull!@#$. A concerted Efforts like achievement would make this achievement much more doable.

Comment by kexmonster

I don't see what the problem is with AV.
The most important factor in this, is the start. You have to be asap out from the starting room. If you are an Engineer, you can use rocket boots. Get mounted up before everyone else. That way you will have a little advantage over the others. You wont get that far ahead of the others, so if there if a paladin who isn't slacking, you will get Crusader Aura aswell.

Get to the base furthest away. Pray for there not to be any hordes there. If you dont screw up, this is easymode! If there should be any hordes there (and you really really need this achievement), you can let someone else desperately trying to get this achi take the focus of the hordes. Then just 'sneak' past them and capture :D

The thing that REALLY sucks about this achievement, is the fact that Eye of the Storm was unaccessible for the last 3 days of Children's Week. I would stand 2 hours+ in queue, and still not get in EotS (on Kazzak anyways). After CW, i still had my orphan. 5 hours after midnight, i logged on, got in right away, and captured the flag with the orphan out. In the achievement, it is not stated that this has to be done during CW, only to be done with the orphan out. But what do you know? No credit for capture -.- bb proto =(

Comment by fieryshadowcard

No, gof22, you don't need to be good at pvp for these achieves. A lot of the people who are accusing the complainers of qqing seem to be under the impression that the complaints are saying "It's hard because you have to be good at pvp to do it," which isn't the case. I have minimal pvp gear on, if any, whenever I queue up, and I've done all of these criteria at several points in my bg experiences. On a holy priest. Without assistance. These are all criteria that present themselves through opportunity. Being the first to assault the flag/assault the tower/pick up the flag and hold it long enough to capture it/return the flag is very, very easy once the opportunity has presented itself. In fact, all of those are dependent on opportunity first.

No one would have an issue with this achieve if it had to do with skill, effort, time investment, or RNG. A lot of the other RNG achieves reward you for putting more time in with a higher chance of success.

When no matter how long I queue for something, it is half a day before the game even lets me enter, or when I try to take a chance on landing in a bg randomly and it lands me in any bgs but the ones I need (and yes, 90% of random-queuing for me landed me in Strand and Isle), that's less RNG and more sheer dumb luck.

The blue posts claiming to have fulfilled this achievement on multiple characters have likely never attempted this horde side in the Cyclone battlegroup. None of the blue posts on Blizz's stance seem to have described 3-hour-long-minimum queues. Yet all of them seem to be suggesting that failure of this achievement comes down to the person simply not trying hard enough. I could understand their logic if it were consistent with the experiences I've had with this achievement, but that's hardly the case. I was never aware that the ability to have a queue pop for me was entirely dependent upon my skill and/or effort. I guess I simply did not wish myself into Arathi Basin hard enough.

The worst part about this achievement is that a lot of the people who managed to pull it off think themselves the rule, not the exception. The difficulty of the criteria is irrelevant if you can never get a queue for the bg that has the criterion you need. It's funny how the people calling this a challenging achieve associate queue times with difficulty. They're seriously likening this to Alone in the Darkness (25-man) or a Tribute to Insanity (25-man) as a challenge. It certainly is a tribute to insanity, to be sure, but for an entirely different reason that has nothing to do with challenge or the skill required for that challenge.

Comment by Altherac

Tried to get this achievement past the week's end, as I still had a few days left with the whistle.
I just helplessly tried to get into an Arathi Basin for several days, but none would start on my battlegroup.

Today (the day after children's week's last day), I finally entered Arathi, managed to tag a flag and capture it with my orphan out. Nothing happened. I'm disgusted.

TL;DR : seems you can't complete this achievement outside Children's week.

Comment by Dragonstarr

I capped two flags last night with Northrend orphan out (from Alliance and staying put till I capped for horde) and di not get the achieve

Comment by shadowdragon986

Pro Tip: Orphans give away stealthed rogues.

This limits the effectiveness of roguery. We are reduced to luck and patience as the rest of you. That being said, I managed to do this in a few hours early in the week because my time was going to run out that night anyways. It's hard, it's frustrating, it's a pain in the ass in EoTS, especially when I died with the flag from dots, but it's definitely an 'oh hell yeah' knowing I did it and now only one holiday stands in my way.

Comment by Andiaen

Altherac, i had the same issue.

Ive started waiting for AB 20h00 and got just 2-3 runs till i went to bed at 02h30 the following day.
Next morning, i started to do more AB's and only focus on AB and que'd up during 12h00.
Waiting time was over 2h's and ive waited 4 hours without getting any AB BG.
Again, ive waited all night and got some help from my guild to fill up some vacations in the Que's for the Horde site.
Waited another hour and no result.

18h05, Yay AB triggers! --> I rush to the mine, get my ass kicked by 4 allies (love being a PvE lock!).
I wait till i respawn and rush toward the Lumber Mill. Lots of Allies and Hordes fighting over the flag, so i guess ill pop the flag for them.
First run, damn ally rogue bows at me and hits me right before i cap the flag..... but didnt kill me because of my fear.
Second run on LM, yeah orphan is out and i was capable of capping the flag!
Chatlog results in Andiaen assaults the Lumber Mill!
but.... no achievement!
After BG i made a ticket but havent got a response yet. Will let you guys know what the response will be.

23h30, i wasnt in the best mood since i was waiting for 2 days for AB to trigger (it triggered once between 18h45-19h00 saturday but i was having dinner >< karma!) Ive asked a guildy who was doing the BG and he said no horde player got the achievement, not even the one claiming the farm. And he was sure his orphan was out since he was watching the scene.
00:30 Woof, magic occurs! Suddenly Que waiting time pops from 1h45 min to 15 min! ... I was afraid it would be too late for the achievement, but still tried to do it :)

0:35 my AB BG starts :) Alliances rushes over and takes all the flags while me and the rest of the Horde try to get their achievement, no one got the achievement, not even the one owning the 1st claim of the farm!

0:45 AB que waiting time drops from 15 min to 2-3 min. People complain they cant get their achievement and ppl complain about idiotic waiting times.

I wasnt lucky, i will need to wait another year for my Proto drake.
I dont like to complain, but this achievement should be changed imo. I dont mind a bit of PVP'ing but player ganking players just to make sure they cant get their achievement isnt my cup of tea.

Comment by qwerty337

I'd like to offer a little perspective as someone who does a lot of pvp, almost exclusively on bg's, but also raids and grinds heroics.
Nobody likes pvp durring children's week. For people looking to get the achieve, it can be frustrating because of others not cooperating on either team. For those of us who do bg's regularly, it's infuriating because after our waits which can last over an hour we end up on a team with a bunch of people who just hang out in the flag room waiting for someone to grab the flag.
Lets be clear here: in bg's, the goal is to win. It's not like raids where if you fail and wipe you just do it again but hopefully better. We want to beat the other team, not only for the sake of winning, but also because we want to get some better pvp gear with our honor points. I'd compare it to a tank in heroics who wants something to drop from the first boss, and when it doesn't drop he leaves the group and lets the others either ragequit or wait half an hour for a new tank to que, costing you valuable time and emblems you could be getting if the tank weren't a %^&*!@. I'd actually say it's worse for us because instead of one person leaving and getting replaced it's often half the team, or more doing nothing for the entire battle. Would you let half your raid group fart around while you try to down the boss? Hell no. You'd probably boot them from the guild and replace them with people willing to play the game.
Same with our bg's, only we can't just get rid of you. We're stuck with you for the duration of the battle. I've read some people who've said it would be better if you just stay around for the whole bg. That would in fact make it worse. Instead of at least having some people guarding the flag, we'd have entire teams staying in the start room only moving around to keep from /afk'ing out. Again, nobody wins.
Granted, sometimes teams agree to help each other with the achieves, and that's fine when everyone wants to play nice, but if it's only you and a buddy you're not doing anyone any favors.
The simple solution to all this is to invest in a little pvp gear and play the damn game. I freakin' love the pvp in WOW. I think it adds a challenge and unpredictability that raids can't match, and I love besting other players directly in a field of battle. Pvp gear is cheap, you can do VOA, use Emblems of Triumph, or spend honor points and get geared. I got full Furious in under 2 weeks using nothing but emblems.
I'm not trying to say pve players don't belong in bg's, but if you are gonna play with us, then PLAY WITH US. I think a lot of us might even be more helpful if you showed a little respect in our playground.
So next year plan ahead a little. And if someone is griefing you at Warsong, do the right thing. Kill his ass and shut him up like a man instead of whining on Wowhead.

Comment by tapczan100

The school of hard knocks is name of 9 episode from Pokemon series. (Season 1).
Pokemon trainers show orphans how poke battles look like.

Comment by Ryan256

Ok... I know alot of people are upset with this achievement... and rightfully so. That said its not impossible. I managed to get this achievement on both my mage & warrior. I'll relay how I managed to get them in each battleground.
First of all obtain the following supplies.
Swiftness Potions
Healthstone
Glyph of Charge
Glyph of Blink
Either Enchant Boots - Tuskarr's Vitality or
a Meta gem that increases runspeed (Swift Skyflare Diamond, Swift Starflare Diamond, Tireless Skyflare Diamond, or Tireless Starflare Diamond)

First up, Warsong Gulch: There was an Alliance in our base picking up & dropping the flag for people, both times. So I got this one completed by... charity .. yep... charity from the other team.... moving on.

Second, Arathi Basin: On my warrior I managed to be the first one to reach the farm's flag. So.... luck.
On my mage I blinked off of my mount up to the farm's flag. This again got me there before anyone else. So... more or less luck.

Next up Alterac Valley: With my warrior I used a Swiftness Potion a split second before the gate came down at the start of the match. This enabled me to get out to where I could mount up before the other players. Once mounted I ran for the Alliance towers in the rear, not stopping for anything. Once there I ran up and after killing only a few archers was able to cap the flag.
On my mage I did roughly the same thing except instead of a potion I simply blinked out. Mounted up first & ran for the rear. However when I got there I found an Alliance resetting the flag for a Horde who managed to beat me there. So.... again... got this one through charity.

Finally Eye of the Storm: I would highly recommend having additional supplies for this one. Like Tylenol, some sort of antidepressant, and a good scotch or whatever other tasty beverage you use to relax. Next... get ready for a screaming, jibbering nightmare. If you are fortunate enough to happen upon a battleground where the factions are cooperating to get this achievement consider yourself extremely lucky. However.... once you finally manage to get into a battleground where you have competent teammates, your teammates don't try to screw you over to get their achievement, your teammates don't all charge the center and neglect to capture a tower, another teammate doesn't click the flag ahead of you to pick it up, and other similar crap doesn't happen you may actually have a chance at completing this.
For my warrior. Switch to protection spec & equip the tank gear. Remember... the goal here is capturing the flag, not getting kills. This will give you hopefully massive health and mitigation but more importantly Warbringer (you did spec that talent right?). While you are in the process of picking up the flag look around and pick the best place to run to. Which tower does your team solidly control? Are a number of enemies headed towards that one? Once I chose where to run and had the flag I immediately used a Swiftness Potion to get moving. It wasn't long before the first enemy came running to stop me. Fortunately he was between me & the tower so I charged, bonked him with Concussion Blow, and kept running. I still had my Intercept but fortunately didn't need it. A teammate came to finish off the guy I'd just left so instead I used Intervene on my teammate giving me another nice charge towards my destination. Eventually I got there and made the capture. Had to fight for this one but made it.
For my mage. Managed to be the one to grab the flag then Blink, Swiftness Potion, Blink. Only encountered 1 enemy during my run & left him behind using frost nova. This one was pretty much luck. I happened to be the first on the flag & the guy that came to stop me was a n00b.

So lets recap. Out of 8 achievements:
3 - were gotten through charity from the other team.
4 - were gotten through pure luck.
1 - was gotten through actual skill & fighting for it.

YMMV! Good luck!

Comment by gof22

The only problem with this achievement is that it does not try to encourage teamwork. Many people who do PVP regularly get mad because people who don't PVP regularly just join the BG's for the achievement and nothing else. When I tried to get the achievement I didn't care about winning the BG. All I cared about was getting the achievement. That does not help me or anyone else in the BG.

Comment by Kybil

I wonder if this will be infinitely easier to do with the new War Game function. Well, you can't earn regular PvP achievements in a War Game, but if they allowed War Games to award credit for just this one achievement, that would be awesome.

I don't even PvP, and even I thought "Why the hell does this battleground-breaking achievement exist" when I was doing it last year.

Comment by Laustia

This will be the last holiday I need to complete for the Violet Proto. As a PvE Healy Priest.... I dread this to the core. I'm certain, if I get this, it will be either by the dumbest of dumb lucks or charity (read: dumbest of lucks). Most of my PvP is running around healing people or helping to defend. I've never been very good at the flag-thing. I usually leave that to the tanks or deeps.

Blizzard - Seriously? The other PvP holiday activities are annoying at times, but not that bad. This one seems a bit over the top.

But...I will remain hopeful. It would make a nice B-day prezzy to get my drake. (good timing that would be!)

Note to hordies on the Retalliation group: Be gentle! And I'll help you with yours! =)

{Update} I GOT IT! I had my DK/Pally/Druid guildies helping me out. While I did have to work pretty hard for most all of them, I actually encountered one of those fabled, mythological helpful hordies in AV who would recap the flag for the Alliance masses (after the 4th run).... and even more surprising - the Alliance masses did not destroy the benevolent hordie! So.... THANK YOU EVERYONE! Now, off to help my other guildmates (and hordies). =)

What a long, strange trip it's been.... indeed!

Comment by Frostfever

Just got this ach to complete my meta, took me 57 minutes to get all four tasks, the only tip i can offer is get up @ 2am server time and knock it out, it appears to be easier eariler in the morning.

GL to all

Comment by Sunac

Pain in the neck to complete normally, but when you add an utterly incompetent PvPer to no resil gear, you have sad face. =(

Comment by Frostfever

im am the worst pvper in wow, i just got up early set my mind to getting this done and i did, i think i killed like 2-3 ppl out of 4 Bg's to get this ach

Comment by Zaratje

Removing this achievement from the Meta-achievement for Children's week will not only be good for us PvEers, but it'll also be good for the PvPers. Because of this achievement, they have to work together for a week with fully PvE geared people who have only one goal, which is most of the time not even close to winning. I really hope for change :/

Comment by Lortah

This is way too hard for people who don't do PVP or like it, it should be removed from the requirements of For the Children. My point of view anyway.

Comment by voododoll

This is really insane it was the only achi i needed last year, and couldn't done it in a whole week of pvp, this year is the same, god damned, it's the only i need for the big achi and the drake

Comment by Nulgar

Has anyone checked yet whether it works with Wargames? Couldn't find enough people to test this on my server.

Comment by Meemol

Just got my drake... woohoo!

biggest tip I can give for AV is it only works in opposing towers ie if you are Alliance the ones in the bottom half of the map - don't change 10 flags and then wonder why you're not getting the achievement like I did. All you are doing is helping the Hordies get theirs. (not that that is a bad thing).

Just be patient, eventually you will find a BG where the majority are there to get the achievement and help you get it - you might have to do it 20 times but you'll get a good one eventually.

Comment by Kopert

Doing WG, I walked up their room as alliance. They started hitting me, all grouped together, and I asked them to /wait several times, until they stopped hitting me.

Then I proceeded to pick and drop the flag until they all got the requisite for the achievement.

/thanks, /cheers and /bows were thrown my way. I /waved and left. Best time I had in a BG, by far.

Comment by Khadrict

I totally agree with those saying that this should be removed. Everybody trying to get this achievement makes it totally impossible for regular pvpers to have an actual game. Plus I don't think a single person trying to get the achieve actually has fun with it. It's nothing but frustration for pvers and pvpers alike.

Comment by elrond2002

This is by far the most insane achievement out of all of them. I don't mind spending time. At least the others it is key you spend your time. In this case the duration is affected by others. I've done about 20 AV runs can't get it. I don't PVP... i don't like PVP. I'd like to get this one done. But the mechanics makes it 'Fun' for a single opponent to sit on a flag and just whack everyone and get a kick out of making other people miserable. This shouldn't be the point of the game.

Comment by minari

As a Holy Priest, this achievement has to be the most annoying, pain in the ass, piece of sh*t achievement in the game. It's bad enough I die all the time because I heal. I can live with that. What really, really rubs me the wrong way is that I can't kill flag carriers, I can't assault anything really and I can't cap flags by myself. When there is someone 'helping'? They take it and run off going /lol at me just to be jerks.

Comment by Agronok

Does this work with Wargames in cataclysm?

Comment by chibiusako

My experience with this achievement is that 95% of players are nice and want to cooperate, and the other 5% are ^&*!s who ruin it for everyone else. AV is by far the worst. I would be in a tower with several others and our orphans, waiting for horde to come along and defend the tower so we could cap it again. One would come along, and then some moron would kill him, while we all shouted "Stop! Let him cap!" This happened repeatedly. After 4 matches or so, I finally wound up in a group with no jerks, and was able to get the achievement. Once I got it, I decided to do some more AV matches and be the "helpful enemy" to help the horde get their achievements too. 95% of them were grateful, would /dance and /thank and /cheer at me, etc. But almost every match, someone would come along and start attacking me even though I was clearly trying to help. I would spam /truce and /love and point at their orphans (half the time the person killing me would have an orphan too!), and their teammates would yell at them to stop, and yet they persisted.

Here's some advice:
- If someone on your team is being a jerk and killing your helper, try to life grip them out of the tower, or turn them into a bunny with the Noblegarden branch item, which stops them attacking temporarily.
- If you are trying to help and the opposing team has a spoilsport, bring a rogue along to sap him (or be a rogue like I am :D) The sap lasts just long enough to recap the flag and run away.

Comment by daerelas

Blizz took the opportunity to continue to ruin two different facets of the game yet again this year. PvPers get their BGs ruined for one week, and achievement hounds get to face the realization that an entire year's worth of work has been made wasted for most people. I set a goal for myself late last year to get seeker and finish all holiday titles (with the mount and master riding). Safe to say this lone 10 point achievement may stop me from reaching my goal. I don't play WoW for PvP; in fact I detest PvP. My gear doesn't have resil on it for a reason. Don't get me wrong, I will try. However, I don't know anything about any of the battlegrounds, and after doing it for some today it's clear the "pros" take pleasure in preventing the rest of us from getting this achievement. PvPers QQ about stuff like this, and I support them. They don't want cheev hunters in their BGs, and frankly I don't want to be there. But for some reason Blizz insists that I spend hours and hours dying and rezzing just to "try" to get an achievement.

I'm profoundly disappointed that Blizz would make an achievement that another player can actually prevent you from getting.

There are a lot of great things in this game, but this is perhaps the lowest point in the entire affair.

Comment by WhitePhoenix86

Finally got this after a painful night of staying up till 3am.....I would like to thank Freakadin from the Horde side for helping with the WSG part of the achie, when every other player just completely ignored the fact that so many of us were trying for the achievement. It's just a shame our side didn't return the favour, I was actually a little ticked off by that. =/

To all the PvPers complaining about people wanting the achievement: you have all year to have your battles. This is just one week where this silly achievement has to take place. Not everyone does PvP (me included) and the sooner you allow us to get it out of the way, the sooner you can go back to knocking seven bells out of each other. =)

To Blizzard: Remove this achievement as part of the meta. It's far too stressful and I really only got it through sheer luck. Let the PvE people do their thing without having to worry about the PvP side of things. I for one am not going back in a BG for a very long time. =p

Best of luck to all going for the achievement! You WILL need it.

Comment by badmonkey

Much like everyone else is saying, I am an avid PVE player and have a passing relationship with PVP: I only do it when I have to. I won a PVP piece from BH that I use and an alchemist +50 resilience flask. That is as much as I do to prepare for PVP.

I can add some advice for this week: DO NOT HEAL YOURSELF OR OTHERS!

Most avid PVP'ers use an add-on that announces which player cast a heal spell. They are then targeted by every player running that mod as a priority kill. Take the eventual death due to slow damage rather than the immediate one due to a focused attack of the entire other team. Hope that the other team notices you are not attacking or you have your orphan out before the killing blow is received. It also takes time to heal instead of using that time to complete the capping the flag cast bar. You will be interrupted, but keep trying. Your teammates may even focus on and kill the one locking you down.

Remember: You're not there to kill enemies, you're there to get an achieve... and die a lot.

PS: If you have a tank spec, use it. Most PVP'ers don't know how to deal with a prot warrior. I am sure the same could be said for the other tank specs too.

Comment by pancakelizard

this achievement alone has me considering to quit playing the game. i invested a lot of time into this game and to have one achievement not obtainable by a bunch of horde !@#$%^&s who get off by killing PVE people who solely need an achievement and then will be on their way has me infuriated.

Comment by Prydan2k

Like most, I too was dreading this achievement after realizing that it required some PvP work. I never do PvP so I had no clue what to do in each of the zones so I came here to read up and got it done. So there is hope! Below is what I experienced to maybe help ease the fears of others who are thinking about giving up.

WSG: On my 3rd visit to this BG, I spawned while it was ongoing. To my surprise, there were Horde characters letting everyone get their updates!

AB: Others suggested heading straight for the G.M. I did this on the 2nd BG and got update right away! It was free and clear. Note: The 1st visit to the BG I was just thrown in, so probably could've gotten this right away otherwise.

AV: On my 2nd visit to this BG, I went to the closest tower and there was a Horde player allowing everyone to get their updates!

EoTS: On my 2nd visit to this BG, I was first to get to the flag. No tower had been captured yet, so I ran to the one with the most teammates and no Horde. I then helped 2 other guidies get during the course of the same BG.

Hope this helps give some people incentive to get this done. It seems most of the times others were willing to help in spirit of this achievement. It can be done!

Comment by rivlel

Intro/Cred:
I just did this on my g/f's Blood Elf Warlock because she was dreading doing this (she hates PvP). I don't play Horde, I have no clue how to play a warlock, and she had no PvP gear. Needless to say, I wasn't happy about starting this.

That having been said, I was done in 5 games (had to do WSG twice). Some advice based on my experience tonight:

1) Buy your PvP starter set. Resilience matters.
You can't get achievements when you're dead, so spring for your starter PvP set. As a warlock, I saw that I should get the emberfire set from the AH: http://www.wowhead.com/search?q=emberfire (other classes have similar starter PvP sets)

2) Buy the 2 enchants that matter:

Enchant Chest Mighty Resilience: Enchant Chest - Mighty Resilience
Enchange Boots Earthen Vitality: Earthen Vitality

Having more survivability and a quicker run speed are important for getting places first and for staying alive.

3) Get some helpful potions:

Invisibility Potion: Invisibility Potion Useful for EotS, AB, or AV when you want to get close to the flag without attracting enemy attention, and without letting your own team know that you're going to do this. Yes, you play against your own team for this achievement, so don't feel bad about this. Note: you can't mount when you use this - it will make you visible again
Lesser Invisibility Potion: Lesser Invisibility Potion Same as above, just 3 seconds less time.
Swiftness Potion: Swiftness Potion Sometimes that extra burst of speed will allow you to get to a location first.

4) Get a basic PvP spec off of a decent website.
In my case I googled to find this site: http://www.wowpopular.com/PvP/warlock It looks this is an armory data-mining site, so it should be updated for each patch. You can find specs for other classes as well. Use that same site for glyphs.

5) Kebyinds/Hotbar buttons:

Put your orphan whistle on your hotbar or a common keybind. You wouldn't want to do this achievement without the orphan out!
Put your potions (health, swiftness, invisibility) on your bars so you don't forget to use them also.

And now to the part that you probably actually care to read (though you really should read the stuff above!)

6) All maps:

Have your battle map open all the time. Shift-M is the default to open it. It will tell you which nodes can be captured, where the EotS flag can be returned, and where you're likely to find your teammates.
Don't run around by yourself. You will die. The only exception to this is in AV where you can run ahead of the pack to cap a bunker solo (especially as alliance, but horde can too).

6) Warsong Gulch:

Summon your orphan at the start of the game.
Help kill people, don't try to kill the flag carrier solo, and when the flag carrier starts getting low on health, stop trying to kill him (dots and other people will do that for you), star spamming your right click button above their head.
Run to where the flag carrier will be, not where he is. Get on your horse and ride there.
Don't be the first to engage the carrier. You're going to be on foot and the rest of the team will be on horses and will be near the flag when it drops.
If you have a PvP trinket, don't use it until the flag carrier is about to die. You don't want to have it on cooldown and get frost nova'd or feared away from the flag when it drops.
Keep your health up - you'll probably die in here a lot, and waiting 20+ seconds for a rez and then another 20 seconds to run across the field is a maddening experience. Play better safe than sorry until the flag carrier is engaged, then start taking the risks.
When you die, resummon your orphan first thing when you rez.

7) Arathi Basin:

Summon your orphan then mount up at the start of the game.
Try to be the first one to the farm/stables flag, blink/heroic leap the last bit if you are a mage/warrior
Watch for completely unguarded nodes
When assaulting a node, often people will start fighting and ignore the flag. That's your best chance to cap it. Stop fighting and cap the thing.
Use your invisibility potions to your advantage
When you die, resummon your orphan first thing when you rez.

8) Eye of the Storm:

Summon your orphan then mount up at the start of the game.
Head to the flag first thing, don't worry about fall damage. If your team has overwhelming numbers, spam click the flag location and maybe you get lucky.
If you don't get it first, just keep watching the flag. Stay mounted as much as possible. Any time you see no one near the flag and an enemy or friendly runner about to cap, especially if no one is in mid, ride there on your mount.
If you aren't the only person approaching the flag spawn point, don't dismount, you need to get there first if there are no enemies.
If there are enemies, don't get in the middle of the fight - stay away until you have a clear shot at the flag.
If you ARE the only person running at the flag, pop an invisibility potion so that you don't attract the attention of your or the other team.
When you die, resummon your orphan first thing when you rez.

9) Alterac Valley:

Summon your orphan at the start of the game.
Blink, Heroic Leap, Sprint, or Swiftness Potion out of the tunnel at the start so you can mount as soon as possible.
As horde, don't follow the road at first, ride straight north for the first bit. When you get to Ice Wing Bunker, the shortest path is around the right hand side. Hopefully you can get there first and drop aggro (either through an ability like vanish, or by sicking a pet on the guard).
As alliance, when you are riding up the steep hill to Stonehearth bunker, go around the tree on the left - it's quicker. Also, if you're a pally or DK, you can be selfish and ride through the middle of the Field of Strife in order to get to Ice Blood Tower (or Tower Point) quickly without giving your buff (if pally) to the rest of your team.
If you're alliance capping a horde tower, you can get into the flag room in a spot where the guards can't shoot to interrupt you.
When going up the horde towers, the quickest route when you get to the top of the tower is to go the *opposite* direction as you've been traveling (hang a sharp left instead of continuing on to the right).
When you die, resummon your orphan first thing when you rez.

10) Good Luck!

I got pretty lucky getting 4 achievements in 5 games, but a lot had to do with the planning as well I think. Best of luck to anyone doing this achievement. As easy as it was in my case even on an unfamiliar class and faction, I'd still have no problem with Blizzard dropping this from the meta - I love PvP on other classes, but think that PvE people shouldn't be forced to do this sort of thing. At worst, it should be just to win one of each BG with the orphan out instead of these character-specific achievments.

Best wishes on getting your proto-drake!

Comment by Megz2290

I don't know if they changed it since last year, but we had alliance members standing there swapping the tower flags back and forth with us in AV and it never counted it for me. I had my orphan out, clicked and waited for the cast to end. The flag changed back and I never got credit. Is it because I am a horde toon and the tower was originally owned by horde?

Comment by Anvilhammer

Originally did this on my hunter a few years ago, when ally & horde assisted each other to get this achievement. Sadly it seems thats no longer the case, as I am now trying to get this on my priest ( last achievement for the violet drake). Not only are horde deliberatley ganking me when my orphan is out, but other allies dont seem interested in helping. I have grabbed the flag in EotS so many times and got halfway to an ally held tower to only be smashed by 5 or 6 horde with no assistance from my team members. Thats just 1 example, all other bgs have had similar results. I have even been abused when asking bg members to help out. Would it hurt the full on pvpers to allow us pve'ers to do this, its only for a week.

Comment by Thecanman

AB: Easy as piss. Beat everyone out from the gate and capped farm. Done in one game, which we won.

EotS: Easy as piss. Once we've secured 2 bases, I went and fended off the allies at the flag and took it back to the BE tower. Having a healer watch my back made it easier (though I didn't get any trouble). Done in one game, which we won.

AV: Almost as easy as piss. While everyone was fighting Bal, I headed off to the Stonehearth Bunker and capped it. Dificult part was all of the archers; I needed to kill each and every one before I could cap the flag in peace. Done in one game, which we won.

WSG: This was the hard one, because I play a warlock and it's not a good idea to go toe-to-toe with opponents, meaning melee classes will generally get it first. I stuck myself on defense and time and time again missed out on returning the flag. Eventually, out of sheer luck, the person who was on defense with me lagged a bit after we downed the wannabe flag carrier, and I took the opportunity to return the flag (but he was mad bro). Done after 5 games, 3 of which we won.

It wasn't a walk in the park, but it wasn't difficult.

My lock has just under 1k resil in his PvP kit and 3k kills under his belt when I started the achievement. If I can do it on this character, you can too.

Comment by whitey552

A guildie brought up a good question today.

Can these be done in war-games? This would totally trivialize this achievement and get twenty people who PvE out of Bg's.

Comment by MrNatural

This Achievement seems to be the one that Blizz has drawn a line in the sand and become obstinate about changing or removing. PvPers don't want people in their BGs ruining their week trying to get the achievement, and PvEers don't want to be there either, but are basically forced to do it if they want the Drake.

Every year there are hundreds of posts in their forums decrying this achievement, both from PvP & PvE players alike, yet Blizzard's only comment thus far has been they are happy with the way it is working. We can only surmise that Blizzard is "happy" with griefing it's own player base, generating a lot of ill will towards Blizzard and within each faction toward each other.

Comment by RaivynOfNorg

Oh noes! The only achievement I actually dread! I am most definitely an achievement junkie, but this is just crazy. (I don't even consider the fact I spent a ton of gold on chocolate cookies for getting the 'gain 91 stacks of the happiness buff from chocolate cookies' achieve as crazy as this one is, especially for those who aren't that great at PvP) I don't pvp much, so this is certainly unfair to me and all the others out there who enjoy the PvE aspect of the game more than the PvP.
You'll Feel Right as Rain is the achievement I was looking for there

Comment by adamtodd6

So far, I've completed the AV, WSG, and AB parts of the achievement with ease just soloing. I think speed is the main factor if soloing is the way you're going to go. Being a rogue, using Sprint is a great technique when assaulting a tower in AH or a territory in AB. As for WSG, follow the carrier using Stealth (since 4.1, it has no speed decrement), then when someone kills him, snatch the flag to be returned. Today I'll be trying EoS and I'm thinking about Smoke Bomb flag area, grab flag, then Sprint and Cloak of Shadows to capture the flag, hope it goes well.

Comment by Pixiegirl50

Im with ya buddy, being a druid heals myself, the enemy targets you(and you die a quick death), and you cant kill anything if you wanted to!And all the others are just tryin to play the game( I dont blame them) and they dont help. Worst achievement ever! NEVER GOING TO GET THE DRAKE!

Comment by voododoll

Asking them to let you do the achie doesn't work

I even had a friend in the opposing team asking them to let me do the achi and that i will help them do theirs, and guess what they basically told him to STFU and kicked him from the bg and they didn't let me do it. It is extremely hard to join together in the two factions in the same time. 4 days we can't do it.

It is good that Blizzard are making achies which are not face roll, but this one is really extremely hard. And waiting whole new year just to meet one criteria of one achie is messed up. This is my second year and this is the only one i have left.

This is ruining the game not just for PVPers but for PVEers too

Comment by Organthrone

This is definitely one of the more frustrating achievements, and now I've done most of them, it's the worst in the twelve-month span of World Events.

I’ve not done BGs in some time, so I re-familiarised myself with them on a Monday night. The next day, did WSG three times before I got my shot at returning the flag. As soon as their carrier was dead, I was on it, and satisfied. Did AB after, and came close several times to assaulting, but others on my team kept getting ahead. Finally made it a few minutes later, and kept going (I’m not one to AFK out just because I got the achievement. I’d rather see it through to the end). Took a break, did EotS, and fortunately, everyone was off at bases, so there were only ever at least two people at the flag respawn. Picked it up, made it to a base, and died just before I captured it. Tried again, and made it with support from a healer. Did those three in the space of a few hours, so I set myself the evening to do AV.

In my opinion, assaulting towers/bunkers on AV is the worst. Because you have such a high number of other players (most of which are trying to do the same thing you are), you’ll be hard-pushed to find people letting you do it yourself. I spammed my orphan macro constantly, all night and into the next morning, but I just kept barely missing it. People on my team, again, ignored the fact there was an orphan present. In one battle, they ended up segregating those wanting the achievement, because they should be ‘taking the battle seriously’. I took a break (running AV all morning is exhausting, especially when you lose every time), and when I gave it another shot, I seemed to be moving with a completely different crowd, aiding one another in the process. Raced out to Icewing Bunker, with some support, pointed to my orphan, and they took care of the enemies while I assaulted the tower. Was getting pretty intense towards the end, but once I got it, and the achievement flashed up, I breathed a sigh of relief, thanked the guys around me, and pressed on north. Not only did I get my achievement, but we finally won the BG, so I was doubly satisfied.

This achievement requires patience, tolerance, and acceptance for the fact that you’ll only meet nice, decent people on occasion, but when you do, it makes the difference.

Comment by Ishkandir

Has anyone else with only a Wrath-updated game had any sort of success with this achievement?

As a restriction on myself, I put off getting Cataclysm until the end of finals, and as a result my 80-capped paladin has been sitting in the queue for BG's (AB and EotS, specifically) for over an hour. This is the last achievement I need for my Violet Proto as well, so I would like at least the chance to complete it.

Any suggestions?

Edit: No luck. Will be finishing next year.

Comment by witteafval

I finally got it on my paladin tank, after four runs through Alterac Valley (where I wasted a bunch of time in the wrong kind of tower for the first three battles), one run through Arathi Basin, four runs through Warsong Gulch, and five runs through Eye of the Storm. I didn't notice a huge change in battleground dynamics in WG or AB compared to other weeks of the year, but AV and EotS are ridiculous. In the former, half the people are standing around trading flag caps with each other, until the griefers show up and interrupt the fun for the other team. In the latter, half the players are just trying to cap flags instead of towers, even though capping towers, not flags, is the way to win.

But unless a future momentary lapse of reason makes me decide to do this again on my alts, I'm most relieved that this, the most evil achievement in the game, is behind me.

Tip for paladins: try concentration aura when clicking on the flag, I'm pretty sure it helped me get them picked up faster despite some attempts at interference.

Comment by Psychospy

I have been trying this all week long and have only 2-4. I have had the same frustrating experiences as everyone else. All I need for the Long Strange Trip is these 2 PvP tasks. I was thinking last night after my second unexplained dezoning and deserter buff (I was not AFK, had just rezed at a graveyard and was mount running to the north of the zone). If they are so determined to have the PvP aspect of this achievement...why not just make it you must just win the battle grounds with your orphan out. It would still require at least one BG of each type and be a lot less disruptive to the actual objectives.

Having 5 people standing around the flag room with orphans out or half a dozen standing in a tower waiting for an enemy to come in and recap the flag does not really do anyone any good. At least if you could just participate in the actual BG events it might attract some people to it. Instead they get a taste of rude frustrated people annoyed at the disruption to their PvP. I saw in BG chat the other night a PvPer saying 'I'll be glad when this stupid holiday week is over'. Everyone feels like that. Why cant they just alter the achievement slightly.

Comment by sonshynetwin

I suppose that's why it's called "school of hard knocks". They don't want it to be easy, but surely there could be a better way to do the achieve, when people like me don't enjoy pvp (which is why i joined a pve server). The achieve is doable, just finished it up yesterday on my priest and it just takes some patience.

Comment by lagmoose

I'm currently the AB achievement away from completing this. I have to say that today has been a giant stressed induced stroke in the making.

WSG wasn't too bad, there were people who were letting others get a dropped flag. I returned the gesture by letting them gank me to get their honor kill and the flag. It took a couple of games for me to get a decent group like this.

Eye of the Storm was an utter nightmare. Being yelled at for "ruining their game" and even more so for not having many killing blows. Hey, I think I didn't do too shabby with 4 being in non-resilience gear, but that's just me :3 But now that's over with, I can stay out of there so the "Pros" can stop whining about "scrubs in their battleground, killin their honors"

AV got really frustrating especially when I would watch cap trading and then when it was my turn, a mage would start casting and interrupting right before the cap completed, while sticking their pet on people so no one else could get the assault achieve. All while "lol"ing each time. Both horde and the alliance with their orphans out were getting pissed with him.

Going for AB tonight. I don't anticipate much problem with them as before I haven't had any difficulty getting to the farm or BS and getting the first cap when I used to BG in BC.

This is definitely one that needs to have the achievement linked to anyone with their orphan out that's in range of a cap and not based on a single person cap. Or (as both PvE and PvP people suggested) make it a feat of strength, removing it from meta. It isn't exactly hard... its just a pain in the ass and luck based for the most part, where the luck is getting in a BG that people are friendly and willing to help out.

Good luck to all those gunning after it this year and each year after!

Comment by Peperz276

Guys, I know this is really frustrating... I spent about 10 AV matches before I met a really nice Ally, who played Patty-cake with me with Stonehearth.

Comment by DivineIxen

WSG is easily the most painful of the achievements. I've run several battles today and the Horde specifically targeted me as soon as they saw I had an orphan out. They then spammed a lot of rude emotes on my character and laughed. They proceeded to willfully hold onto the Alliance flag inside their own base without turning it in to make sure no one was able to recapture it.

I'm honestly starting to give up hope getting this whole thing done.

Comment by icreatedseth

While this WAS a complete pain in the ass achieve, it was not entirely that hard or time consuming -for me.-

Today (Thursday) I realized I had been procrastinating with this thing all week, and only had two-ish days to finish it if I wanted my proto drake before next year. After reading several helpful posts about making macros to beg Horde to stop killing you, I figured what the hell.

My biggest annoyance with trying to get this achieve was actually Alliance players refusing to lend a hand. Not sure if this is just my server, the nature of PvP, or what, but I kept getting people raging all over me for being a PvE-er "wasting everyone's time with achievements" and to gtfo. :(

The macro to /wait a Horde member and /point to your Orphan was only heeded once out of at least a dozen BG pugs. This was exceedingly frustrating in AB (Horde camping the flag and raping me whenever I casually stolled up) and WSG (total annihilation by rogues and such in the flag room while trying to camp my own damn flag). EotS really is all about cooperation on your faction's part, and someone was generous enough to let me cap the tower in AV.

The gist of my advice here is, bring a LOT of patience with you to these BGs because you are probably going to get trolled for wanting to do this achievement. By everybody. Switch the BGs you're farming so you don't facedesk too hard, changing scenery DID help my patience a lot. And most importantly, don't give up! It only took me 5 hours (lol) to burn through this, so it definitely is possible if you're on a time crunch.

Comment by Marielena

I have WSG left. It has turned out to be the most frustrating of them all. We have tried having people cover the exits, midfield. On a high note I have managed to get the Supreme Defender achievement but can't seem to grab the FLAG fast enough. *sigh* I've been at this single BG for four days....

I found AV to be easier to get once I took off my armor and waved and danced at the horde. They let me get the tower then killed me immediately, but oh well.

EOTS.....sheer luck. Period

AB I got last year.

Comment by laserfloyd

This one was a complete pain but it's doable. Patience and luck are needed. You can bring patience but luck is just one of those things.

In AV, the alliance basically setup camp in a tower and we went back and forth recapping. First one; easy. Although I rogue toyed with me by NOT recapping the flag in a tower. We didn't fight or anything. I just begged like a fool to no avail. I went to the tower where the patty cake capping was going on and go the heck out.

WSG was surprisingly easy? I don't know if the alliance guy just dropped the flag but I was in the right place/right time. I got this one in less than a minute. I dreaded it...

EotS first match was amusing. We shut out the other team 1600/0 and in less than 6 minutes. The flag runner was maybe 100 yards from capping with his orphan out. DOH! Next match I went right for the flag, got into a fight. It moved away. I grabbed flag, popped a speed potion and bolted. Not too bad.

AB ... The one that I though would be easy was one of the most annoying. EVERYONE makes a break for farm (stables if alliance) and you have 8 or so people simulcapping (i made that up, nice). Only one gets it obviously. So the other 7 or so, bolt off to the next flag. Once they're all capped you just have to be in the right place to recap one. I wasn't at ALL in my first two matches. I would get interrupted or fight off the enemies while someone else capped, etc. Finally got it in my third match.

I could have done without this one but it was the last one for my violet drake so I had to! :)

Comment by warragh

This achievement is nothing but pure luck, especially in WSG. But if you're lucky you can do it rather easily. I managed to do so as a lvl 85 Warlock with little to none PVP experience.

1.EOTS is probably the least luck-oriented. Just wait until you get an opportunity to get the flag then run for it. Did it on my first try.
2.AB is all about speed. After a couple of failed attempts at the gold mine i just sprinted to the farm and managed to get the credit.
3.AV. The best advice is to go for the farthest towers since most of the players will hurry for the closest ones.
4.WSG. Luck is the only chance. I had the dumbest of luck when i managed to do it by desperately clicking on the dying flag carrier. I didn't even notice when the flag came, only saw the achievement popping up.

In the end they are all doable. However be ready for frustration and many harsh words coming from people who are in Battlegrounds for PVP and not for achievements.

Comment by Pelourinho

No bones about it. This achievement will test your patience and does require a good bit of luck. It does help to request in BG chat to let players with orphans capture the flag, etc. (In some way that might take the burden off other players who just want to PVP.)

On a broader note, you get massive honor points and will probably rack up other achievements in the process - both personal and guild. In four battlegrounds, my level 85 warlock earned close to 3k honor points and up helped rack up Human, Worgen, and Gnome Slayer for the guild, plus Sickly Gazelle, Disgracin' the Basin, Perfection, and others. She was also able to finish a grayed-out quest in Arathi Basin. Besides, you might make a few new friends along the way as you build your pvp muscles.

Comment by Zandhali

Well, same frustration this year.

I only miss the fallen flag in WSG with a bunch of guildies and we weren´t able to do it for a few hours now. The counterside just seems to be so stupid (Alliance in my case) all the time. We all went into their flag room, got the flag and started dropping it one by one, pointing at our orphans and facepalming. Then went into our room waiting there for them, but noone appeared. So i even mounted and went there lurking them pointing at my orphan. Nothing (not to even mention that they weren´t able to kill me and I´m a clothie). And when they finally /no-ed us, at that point we were all already so angry that we nuked them down. Most frustrating WSGs ever. Bad example how to introduce PvErs into PvP, Blizz.

Dammit.

Comment by ladyluna

Got mine over the course of a couple of days. Some hints:

1) If at all possible start as early in the week as you can. The earlier you start, the more achievement hunters are in the battlegrounds. This may seem counter-intuitive, but, other achievement hunters are way more likely to co-operate with you, taking turns and helping you out in general than PvPers who have no interest in the achievement and will likely despise you; purposefully trolling you to try and make your experience as difficult as possible. The more PvPtrolls are in a BG, the harder a time you will have.

2) Remember YOUR purpose in there is to get an achieve, not PvP. The achievement goals are actually slightly different than the ideal PvP goals in any situation (For example -- in WSG the ideal PvP goal is 3 flag caps -- not people chain returning flags. The PvP goal and the achievement goal require different strategies). This means doing things like, when you have to channel a flag of some sort (3 out of 4 goals require this), get yourself in close to the flag, if there are other people there try and stand on top of them so you're harder to click on, and just keep clicking that flag. Even if you get interrupted the first 3-4 times, you might not get interrupted the 5th time.

3) If you're in a situation where it looks like you won't be able to get your achieves, help someone else get theirs. They might try and return the favor.

3.5) In WSG and AV you have opportunities to help out the opposite faction in getting THEIR achieves. I would recommend doing this. By giving horde charity returns in WSG I discovered that usually at least one hordie would try and give us some charity returns. It's a little harder in AV because there's always some creep PvPtroll there, killing the people trying to helpfully cap back no matter how many members of their own faction yell at them. To a lesser extent you can help out the opposite faction in AB by not killing the opposite faction until they've assaulted the flag, and then taking it back, and in EOTS by not chasing flag carriers that have their orphans out. In the latter two it can be hard for the opposite faction to see what you're doing though, and thus, they may not realize there's a favor to be returned.

4) Keep a sense of humor about the whole thing. Try and crack jokes in BG chat (/bg) whenever you can. Be courteous and friendly in your language. If you run into PvPtrolls explain that you'll just keep queuing until you get your achievement, and that the rest of the meta is pretty much all PvE -- some of the PvPtrolls are completely unaware of the mostly PvE meta, and think you're in the BG to leech PvP achievements. If the PvPtrolls keep being jerks then just ignore them and try and work around them. Do not be a jerk back -- A few PvPtrolls I ran into stopped being such huge jerks after a couple of BGs with the same achievement hunters. I think they realized that we were just going to keep queuing. I don't doubt though that if we'd been creeps and acted nasty in BG chat that the PvPtrolls would have delighted in acting out a kind of revenge on us.

5) Do NOT drop a BG just because you got your achieve. This is a jerk thing to do to everyone else in that BG who also needs the achieve. When you drop, you'll likely be replaced by someone new who needs the achieve, thus not improving the chances of the remaining people at all. Major, major karma bonuses to you if you spend your remaining time in the BG helping people out with their achievements -- but that's not necessary. You sitting in the BG completely AFK is better than dropping, since it will at least take a couple of minutes for you to be kicked out.

If people are co-operating in a BG, and focusing on the achievement goals instead of the PvP goals then this achieve becomes roughly a hundred times easier. Everyone keeps saying this achievement is luck -- and yeah, that's a part of it. But, it does take some degree of skill in that if you can get other players (of both factions) to work with you then the achievement becomes ridiculously easy; so it's an achievement dependent upon one's people skills as opposed to one's kinetic skills. :)

ETA: I'm a disc/shadow priest, in roughly ilvl346ish PvE gear. I got EoTS, and WSG in shadow, and AB and AV as disc. I PvPed quite a bit in Vanilla and a little bit in BC and WoTLK so I knew the maps, and the goals of the various modes. YMMV.

Comment by LaCrysta

This really sucked, Arathi Basin was fairly easy, and I got Alterac Valley once I got a handle on it, but Warsong Gulch was an absolute nightmare! I eventually lucked out and after rezzing ran towards toward our (Alliance) exit and managed to get into a scrum with the Horde flag carrier and a couple of our guys; got in a few hits, and as his HP was hitting zero, I spammed the right mouse button on him and got it.

That was the worse in terms of hair-pulling frustration, but the worst in player behaviour was Eye of the Storm.

So on my second try, I managed to get the flag and started running back, and got hassled by some Hordies. Now that much I understand, but when some Alliance players showed up, and DID NOTHING, that's when I got pissed off. They were waiting for me to die so they could grab the flag, instead of helping me get back with it. One of them was even calling dibs on the flag BEFORE I died.

I got back to the center after rezzing, and another Alliance player had gotten the flag, so I helped her back to safe territory before trying for the flag again, and got it.

My suggestion for Blizzard, make some of these achievements optional, like make it so you do either "School of Hard Knocks" (PvPers) or "Hail to the King, Baby" (for PvEers).

Comment by kikitin

No matter how one looks at this particular cheeve, I'm willing to bet good money that most of us didn't care for it much. I think alot of my QQ came from the fact that those of us working our way through Children's Week not only have/had to fight the enemy faction who may help, lull us into thinking they're helping and then gank us or, who may just whip our butts outright since it is a BG and they're tryin' to win...

We also have/had to compete against our own faction who are also trying to complete the cheeve and are prolly (like ourselves) on their fifty gazillionth run through EotS and just as determined to 'get their's done" too!

That said, my advice is simple; stick with it!

It's Friday Night and I've been working on this thing since Monday evening (off and on).

I had alot of 'almost got its'...and of course at least one time when I actually did the requirement without having my orphan out...ugggg! But eventually, I did get a group that was considerate and some enemy faction types who showed a little empathy. That and a huge bit of perserverance along with a little luck did the trick.

So, I'm squishy proof that it can be done and i'm encouraging ev1 out there still trying to relax just a bit and stick with it...it will happen!

Comment by Zancana

I'd figured since I finished, I could try to help the opposing side on their achievement for this holiday at AV, but emoting pointing at their/my orphan (I had the Matron title and had the orphan out to try to show what I wanted to help them with), wearing no armor/weapons, and telling them to wait and offering didn't always work. They'd cap the flag and then kill me despite not making any threatening gestures or running back in trying to frantically emote I wanted to help them :(

This was about most of the time, but sometimes they'd get it that I was just one person in a tower at the very back of AV and they'd start lining up and taking turns, leaving me to cap it to give another player a chance to cap. The big problem seemed to be for me EOTS trying to get the flag.

For me, what happened was this:

AV -- had to do a few runs. I somehow ran into one of the towers where there was a group of Horde and Alliance trading caps. There's also a better chance of capping if you head to the very back towers instead of the middle ones. This is really much easier if you can agree to work together with the opposing side, but like others mentioned, some people will be gankers.

AB -- Again, a few runs. We lucked out again with friendly Alliance, but there was a mage trying to troll by pretty much harmless interrupts. But before that it was every man for himself trying to get to farm or mines. The luck though was that we had a call in BG saying they were doing caps at mines instead of stumbling upon it like AV.

EOTS -- this one was luck. I was standing right next to the flag and basically booked it back to the closest base, but for me, this was the hardest because people weren't very likely to help with one flag out there.

WSG -- Another helpful Alliance (this was early on in the achievement week). We had a helpful enemy guy just running into the base, grabbing the flag and standing there letting us kill him so we could return the flag right there in the base. I do wish I'd gotten this guy's name so I could thank him.

The achievement is pretty ridiculous though, especially if you're not into PVP and even if you are, you generally run defense or back-up to better PVPers. I think it would have been better if you could get credit for basically being in the same area. Like protecting the flag carrier/protecting someone capping, etc.

Comment by Serelina

I've tired these macros all week & nothing seems to work. This is the only achi I need to complete Childrens Week & it looks like I won't get to do it.
Blizzard are deffo pitting those who want the achievement against those who want to play the battlefield causing frustration & friction all around.
Ah well maybe next year I can do it. Looks like I've now got a whole year to practise pvp as I'm a pve player. :)

Comment by niffboy

Would have to disagree with the order of toughness listed. If you are a non PvP'er like myself with no gear, trying to take down a geared PvP player is tough at best, but even tougher is withstanding the barrage of incoming damage as a clothie with NO resil.

That being said, anytime I have ventured into the BG's, I can usually cap a flag in EotS at least once in 5 battles. IMO, EotS would be the easiest. The reason I believe it is so easy is if your faction is controlling the middle, it will take a zerg effort by the opposing faction to take it back. They generally go try to take your towers since they are most likely lightly defended, if at all. While they are doing that, it's just a matter of being the faster clicker on the flag. One you have it, you will almost always get an escort to the tower so you don't even have to be that good at PvP. Simple.

Arathi Basin is a close second if not a tie to EotS. Just depends on how fast you can get to the Stables (Alliance) and click. I can get this one about 50% of the time I actually try for it. Just make sure your Orphan is out.

If Children's Week is in full swing, AV is generally not too difficult. In the Whirlwind Battlegroup, Horde have been unusually kind to Alliance in AV during the event. I had no problem whatsoever getting Tower Point capped.

Now. WSG. In my entire 5 year history of playing wow, (much of which in the early days was spent as a lvl 19 in WSG) I have returned a fallen flag 3 times. That's it. The problem, I believe, falls mostly due to lack of skill. WSG does not suffer noobs well at all. Going back to my earlier statement about lack of gear and therefore resil, even skill wouldn't help too much in today's BG's without gear. It's dog eat dog and one on one matches against skilled PvP players never end well. That's IF you can get a one on one. Not to mention if you are a ranged player you may have a hard time actually getting to a fallen flag to return it. You have to be right in the mix and clicking where you think the flag will pop up when it drops, IF it drops. With the nature of PvP so unpredictable, a would be defeated flag carrier could easily turn the tides and escape if everyone around him all of the sudden switches over to clicking the "flag" rather than finishing off the carrier. I know it has happened to me more than once. Flag carrier sitting at 5% health with 3 players hounding him waiting for one of the others to finish him off, when an enemy healer comes in to save the day.

All this is just my opinion. I'm sure some players can return flags like it's their job but it's not even in the realm of doable for this Warlock with no gear or skill. So I will sit for yet another year with one simple feat keeping me from getting What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been Would be nice if Blizz would separate the achievements into true PvP and PvE and stop muddying the water with achievements that make non PvP players do something they have no interest or skill in doing.

Sorry for the QQ, GL everyone!

Comment by Iscariet

I'm down to WSG and I don't think it's going to happen. I've tried spamming macros, which are ignored. Today the PvPers are spewing abuse in the bg chat, telling those with orphans to stop queuing. I've been in there three times and I don't think I can handle much more of it. Does anyone know if the ones I got this year will carry over to next year, or will I have to do all four again next year?

AB: I ran for the GM, using Crusader Aura to increase my mounted speed. I was the first one there and capped. A fellow Hordie was there beside me and clapped and pointed to my orphan, so he might have gotten there at the same time I did and let me do it.

AV: On my first try, the bg was in progress when I arrived. The battle ended as I arrived at my first Ally tower. On my second try, someone else capped the first tower I tried. So I took the advice I saw here and ran for one of the last towers. I was the first one there and was killing npc's when another Hordie arrived. I asked him if I could cap and he let me. So big thanks to that guy - I didn't get his name.

EOTS: Luck. If you suck at PvP like I do, you have to manage to be at the flag spot pretty much alone when it resets. That's what finally happened to me. It was only my 2nd try in the bg, so I really can't complain. I grabbed the flag and ran back to the closest tower the Horde occupied.

ETA: I got WSG on my 4th time in the bg. This time through, almost everyone was trying for it, so the environment was friendlier. But it was still right place, right time - I was in the Ally tunnel on the way into the fr when I finally managed to right click on the flag. Every other time I tried, too many other people were around, or I was feared away. Best of luck to anyone still trying to get this one.

Comment by BrookeGravitt

Well, I tried all week for the WSG re-cap with no luck. I jumped on real quick today and got it in 5secs. Don't give up! Finally got my Voilet Proto. The best thing to do seems to just chug through the battlegrounds. This is a wicked awful requirement for the achievement, IMHO.

EotS: Just kept grabbin' the flag till I got it. Took 4-5 runs through EotS

AB: Man, I lucked out on this one - I was pretty worried about it, but I managed to cap it at the mine when an ally pulled the single defender off the flag. 1st run!

AV: Got lucky, horde was trading caps with us. Took 2 runs.

WSG: Worse than death. I spent all week trying to get this, and finally got it today. I have no idea how many runs I made, but I know it was A LOT. Got sniped by others trying for the achievement 1/3 of the time, griefed by Horde or ally by being a PVEr ina PVP battleground 1/3 the time, and chased the flag for all my worth the other 1/3.

Good luck!

Comment by applebear

First of all, I think it's a load of bull this is part of the achievement, but since it is...I am the worse pvper there is. My gear is horrible and I'm probably the last person anyone wants to see in their BG. I however just finished this final hurdle tonight, after about 2 hours. I asked a friend who lives to pvp to help, and I have to say this made a load of difference.

For AV: We ran straight to the last tower, she spammed her aoe keeping the trash on her, while I clicked the flag. Was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be, especially after reading all the horror stories.

For AB: She accidently kicked me too soon from her chopper, lol so our original plan of getting to flag and me grabbing it first didn't fly. However we just kept running to flag to flag, and eventually I got lucky and nabbed one while everyone was fighting without getting interupted.

For EOS: Another fairly easy one. We simply waited by the flag area, while I focused on just clicking the flag when it popped. Friend kept me healed until I got to destination.

For WG: Now this one, we found to be the hardest. We tried getting it the old fashioned way, with no luck. We even tried begging, which didn't work one bit. Eventually, after bringing friends hubby in and lots of running around, we simply got lucky downing the flag runner and getting my click in.

Overall, I don't think it was that bad, with the exception of wg. Having the helpful hands made it much easier for me and we finished out each bg regardless of pass or fail on getting what I wanted.

Good luck, it's a nice mount....but I can't say I'd do it again simply for this single achievement.

Comment by MoarHeroisms

Accomplished this achievement on three separate toons this year. And yes, I lost sleep. It's a toughie but there are ways to lessen the frustration:

Run BGs in off-peak hours. I got most of these done in the morning, and with the merging of battlegroups the queues weren't too long--usually 3-6 minutes.
If you're not at the level cap, be at or close to the top level of your BG bracket. All level brackets below 85 end with "4" or "9" (30-34, 35-39, etc), and you don't want to be up against levels that are orange or even red to you (if that's possible).
Communicate with your raid. Even when having your orphan out is a dead giveaway, let people know that you're working on the achievement. There's always the possibility of puggers organizing turn-taking.
Don't procrastinate. A good portion of people will hold off until the last 3 days, only to be confronted by the same level of competition.
Make sure your orphan is out. Yeah, pretty basic, but even the best of us can forget after rezzing at the graveyard.

Warsong Gulch
Turtles are highly common during Children's Week, so it's all a matter of being the fastest clicker. Raids tend to cap a flag first then turtle, so be patient. Remind your raid not to kill the enemy until they take the flag, unless they're just there to whack people then murder them viciously.

Arathi Basin
The easiest base to cap is Stables/Farm when the battle starts. Mount up, start running before the gate opens and beeline for the flag. Hold down your movement button(s) while mousing over the flag, ready to click the moment your mouse cursor lights up. If you don't cap stables/farm, focus on the most contested base that isn't overrun by enemies, spam-clicking the flag while your allies fight. Standing up against the flag can cause visual or line-of-sight issues with your enemies, giving you an extra second or two to cap. If you're a tauren, best of luck.

Alterac Valley
Similar to AB, mount up and ride out quickly as possible, except aim for one of the 2 towers near Van/Drek. Do your best to stick with allies so as not to be singled out by the enemy. If there's competition alongside you, enter the tower they approach the least. Again, stacking on the flag can help here.

Eye of the Storm
This is it, the final trial. As mentioned, if you're not at the level cap, be close to the highest level of your bracket. Every level gives you much-needed stats to survive the enemy. Have all your crowd-control and survival cooldowns ready. If there's a high enemy presence at the flag, either rally allies to mid or help capture bases. If mid is open, go for it. Often the first person entering mid is the first to be attacked, so have a 2+ allies at your side. If few enemies are attacking, spam click the flag; if more, join the fight. In a scenario where the enemy is fixated on you while you have DPS and a healer defending you, continue spam clicking the flag while your friends beat him down. Should you acquire the flag, confirm your surroundings and head for the most secure base. If your allies have 3 bases captured, the 'corner' base (one not adjacent to an enemy base) is usually the safest. Don't even think about holding the flag until mid is secured, make every second count.

Comment by Taraezor

Alterac Valley

Hmmm.... maybe I seem to get lucky with this achievement or there is something in the drinking water at the time but I first helped the Alliance by putting on my best fancy dress clothes, so that I was obviously no threat, and then camping one of MY towers. Then for a very long duration, the Alliance came one by one and "assaulted" the tower. We all danced around, threw down our archeology reward toys, had a crew of Burgy Blackhearts running around and it was generally lighthearted fun.

So I could get my side of the achievement I bolted for one of the Alliance towers at the far north. So did some others. One of us, in non-threatening fancy dress, hang around the entrance. We laid a trail of fun archeology toys on the ground, leading all the way inside. Sure enough an Alliance player came along. In BG chat we warned others of what was happening.

I used one of my random mount (as well as pet) macros near the entrance of both towers to gain "friendly" attention.

By the way.... it is still very possible to win AV without the tower. And you will need to contend with the players upset with you for not playing seriously. But as of posting this, we have players now who are clueless with PvP but getting their daily "carry" for Blizzard's 100 Conquest Points daily win welfare reward that we are increasingly used to "non-serious" players (aka "bads") in Battlegrounds, lol.

Warsong Gulch

Similar story. But after a while when it was obvious everyone had done their bit... we got down to pwning the Alliance, as you do.

The Others

Not much achievement love going at the time. Had to be conventional.

Comment by dayglowvista83

This has to be the most poorly thought out achievement in game, and I'm still baffled why they don't remove it or make it a feat of strength. Let me just point this out: I am STRICTLY PVP. I never, ever PVE. That being said, I hate these achievs just as much as you do. The problem is, you've got the PVP kids angry that their team is useless because they are there for an achiev, you've got the PVE kids angry because their team won't help them out, and you've got everybody angry that this is even happening. At least make the achievements satisfactory to both sides of the coin. None of these achiev goals actually encourage the achievhounds to WIN the bgs, so it goes against the entire point of the bg. And as much as you would all like to tell the PVPers to stop whining, this does in fact screw with our week, too, since we count on wins to get conquest and honor. It's the equivalent of having PVPers run heroics and instead of killing the boss they're off picking flowers in the damn corner. I wish Blizz would listen up and either remove this from the meta, or make it as simple as winning these 4 or something. I'll do what I can to help anybody on either side if I see them with an orphan, but I can't say as much for the rest of my team. Most rage inducing week of the year, that's for sure.
The only tips I can offer:
For WSG, DO NOT HEAL. The other team will massacre you. I don't care if you're getting yelled at, just stand there if need be. Soon as you see that health dropping on enemy flag carrier, spam right click for your life. You'll eventually get it. If you're struggling with this after a couple runs, you can try staying back in your flag room while everyone else runs out. When the enemy team comes in to grab flag, point to your orphan, beg, plead, whatever it takes. They may be nice enough to drop it in the flag room, let you return it, and grab it again for the run.
For AV, don't even bother to attempt the towers closest to you. Run for the hills and go for the furthest away, since most people honestly playing the bg to win will be stopping along the way for other purposes. Make sure it's a tower originally held by the opposite team. Recapping a tower your team starts off with will NOT get you the achiev.
For EotS, your best bet is running straight for mid, and attempting to be the first there. Use crusader or speed potions, whatever you've got. If you aren't the first to grab it, Don't go chasing it. Park yourself there. As soon as it is capped or dropped, it will respawn and you'll be there waiting. Pay attention to which bases your team holds, because I've seen one too many people running for a base help by the opposite team.
For AB, just head straight for farm/stables. A lot of times you will see your team fly right past them and head for other bases, so point yourself straight for them. If they see you going for it, they'll head for another. If you don't get those first, check out which base has the biggest fight. This usually happens to be BS or LM. Head into the fray, and spam that flag until you get it.

Good luck guys!

Comment by gmyburgh

First. Started doing world event achievements at Brewfest last year, and been getting every one, every time.
Secondly. I do quite a lot of battlegrounds.

But after reading the requirements of this achievement I'm very unhappy.
From my normal BG experience I can only state that all 4 achievements are luck of the draw. During battle there are multiple ppl trying to perform exactly the required actions anyway. So for you to be able to get it right will require luck, helpful people in your team AND helpful people in opposing team.

NOT looking forward to doing this in 3 months time.... but will edit this post when i'm done.

*EDIT. Right... so this turned out to be much easier than I expected.
Completed all 4 parts in just under 2 hours.

I started with this at 00:05 day the event started.
It helped that this was way late in the evening, and early in the event. Most people just wanted to get the achievement out of the way to enjoy the rest of the holiday event in peace.

Comment by Mantrhax

OH yeah, the time of the year that pve people go to pvp bg and do nothing , just sit down spoiling the others game just because Blizzard said so....

its my turn to sit down and watch other people run around trying to pvp and ill be there just doing nothing, and if i got the achiev ill just leave....because blizzard said so...
since they are forcing pve players to run pvp stuff, illl be there just to spoil everyone funs in to pvp and dont complain with me , complain with blizzard , i bet its working as it intended to be ! as always

Comment by Tibirias

When I do BGs, the only things I care about are killing enemy players and winning. The concept of forcing players that don't PvP (and as stated, do nothing) into battles with those that do takes away from the purpose of BGs. If winning was required, then maybe I could see it. In it's current form however, this should be an optional, not mandatory achievement. It's kind of the same with the Dinner Impossible achievement for the chef title, which I have. Yes, serve your feast but at least have it required to win the BG as well.

Comment by zionide

While I do not support foul play in-game especially in a battleground, this achievement, whether by poor design or the sadistic nature of Blizzard, may force good natured people to “step on a few toes” to say the least. There is one class that has a distinct advantage for one part of this achievement: The Paladin.

“Why the humble Paladin,” you ask? Well, below is a guide to part of this achievement using some of the “dirty” tactics Paladins can employ.

Eye of the Storm: This is one Paladin can get no problem provided they can learn to bubble off the insults thrown at them after doing so. All you have to do is sit back at one of your basses that your side controls and wait for that unsuspecting mage on your team to finally get a hold of a flag. Right before they reach the base you are camping “Defending” use your Hand of Protection spell to force them to drop the flag then spam click the ground nearby to quickly retrieve it and cap it for yourself. You can also wait until you see that a team member has a flag and tell them that the base you are at is clear to ensure they go to your base. Also try using a potion of swiftness to cap the flag before your own dirty tactic is used against you. I suggest replying to insults with song lyrics, “It’s a hard knock life-for us”, “If a man’s gonna make it he’s gotta be rough.” And remember your kid is with you, so be sure to point that out to those with harsh language.

I would like to apologize to all of those that are on the less fortunate end of this, please file a petition to Blizzard to have this removed from the meta!

Comment by Lolus

I agree this achievement is basically a selfish 'all vs all': you kill horde, make your allies fail, steal caps, etc. I don't like the tasks and the things I can do to 'cheat' this. I'd rather have co-op tasks, it's not about PvE vs PvP people or alliance vs horde, it's about being a complete a&%%$@.

Btw, I wonder if achievement works in wargames

Comment by m4DD0gg

Well with just under a week to go till till Childrens week i thought i would read the guide for this.

Cheers bliz for making the Drake mount unatainable for me :(

Comment by Lucilite

For all you people who are complaining about how bad this achievement is and how it shouldn't be part of the What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been meta-achievement... I agree with you, and I just made a post in the forums about it.
Go here to see the post, and add your own feedback if you feel so inclined.
Maybe we can Blizzard to agree to help us out on this one.

Comment by Pubrulz

Why can't ppl (You Hordies on Bladefist know who you are) just let us get our achieve out of the way so they can get back to their lame PvP crap? We hate it as much as you do, so just let us get it done and out of the way so we don't have to bother you anymore!

Comment by Yardys

I agree with everyone that finds this achievement to be a complete pain in the rear. Luckily it didn't take me all that long…almost 4 hours from the time I started. Granted a lot was luck, but with the help of other people and even the opposite side, I was able to get it. While not a huge PVPer, I can hold my own and having PVP gear certainly did help survivability. Being an Arcane Mage isn't easy in battlegrounds, but for the benefit of those who are struggling to get this achievement, all I can say is keep at it and it is possible to get. What everyone else says about starting early in the morning is absolutely true. Also, the luck of both sides cooperating do help immensely. And lastly, have patience and don't be a jerk. There will be plenty of those on both sides preventing people from reaching the achievement.

Here's how I did it:

Started 4:00 AM the day the event started

Warsong Gulch
---------------------
Thought this was going to be the hardest one at first based on the posts others have written.
Got lucky on first attempt and was able to return the flag from a lone horde that picked it up in our flag room

Arathi Basin
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First attempt came in mid-battle and had no chance of trying to assault a flag
On second attempt speed rushed the stables flag got credit for it while everyone was arguing it had to be an assault, not a capture. Yes, capturing the base when it's not controlled counts toward the achievement.

Eye of the Storm
---------------------
First attempt came in mid-battle and everyone was going after the flag, so was impossible to get flag first
Second attempt never could get control of the flag
Third attempt same as second
Fourth attempt everyone went mid and the horde 4-capped
Fifth attempt held and defended a base, but we could never get control of mid to get flag
Sixth attempt same as 5th
Seventh time looked the same and then I got lucky. Horde wasn't in middle and I lucked out and got the flag. Then bolted to MT. Achievement completed! This was definitely the hardest of the lot for me, because of the complete random nature of how both sides are playing in any particular battleground.

Alterac Valley
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First attempt there was a nice horde that let me solo assault Tower Point. Many thanks to Shocky on Frostmourne for helping the opposite side!

Comment by Hasheeshish

I am curious if this would work in an all guild "war game"

Comment by Undreadll

I was able to do this achievement the minimum number of attempts (1 try at each bg) so it is possible.

Also, the highest rated post is wrong on an important point in regards to the Arathi Basin part of this achievement. You CAN get credit for this achievement by capturing a grey/neutral flag. It does not have to be a flag controlled by the opposite faction.

Comment by Maquili

Just to let people know, for the AV part of the achievement, the tower must be captured ALL the way by the opposing faction before you can "assault" it. For example, if the opposing faction has just attacked a tower, there is a timer that shows how long it is before that faction gets the tower. THEN you can assault it. If you're not sure which towers are good to assault, look for the SOLID colour towers on your map.

Comment by Kallana

Below I have written what I found helped me for each one. Bear in mind I'm playing as Alliance, however I have tried to write it so that it applies to both sides:

WSG: Try to stick with the main group as much as possible; attempting to go lone-wolf against any flag carrier isn't a move that's likely to yield any results. Hot-key any trinkets/abilities that remove moment impairing effects. Aside from this monitor the opposing flag carrier's health and attempt to learn the position where the flag is going to drop and when.

AV: For this one I made sure that as soon as the timer was getting down to the final few seconds I was running against the gate. I mounted up as soon as I could and pressed number lock so that I'd be moving automatically, allowing me to more precisely control the direction I was going. The main strategy here is running all the way to the opposing teams base (for me it was Frostwolf Keep). Make sure you completely ignore the other towers regardless of whether you are in-front or not, by doing this you're allowing the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th (and so on) characters behind you to attempt capping places like Tower Point giving you a huge distance advantage should you make a mistake or a sneaky druid makes use of a sprint.

EOTS: As soon as that timer reaches zero you know there's going to be a zerg rush to that midfield flag. I took a different route however and went straight to the Mage Tower and capped it alongside a Holy Priest. Upon gaining control of the tower both me and the priest went to aide the midfield battle. I was pretty lucky and managed to both pick-up and cap the flag. However I wouldn't have gained this feat without the help of the priest. I had gained his respect by going to the tower first in a bid to help everyone and he therefore continued to heal me whilst I was running our flag back to the tower.

AB: Tons of different tactics you can implore for this one!

1, Being the first of your team to the Stables/Farm.
2, Going to the Mines first. Any Alliance who didn't get the Stables is likely to proceed to the Lumber Mill and any Horde who missed the Farm is likely to go to the Blacksmith.
3, If neither of these are working for you then just play the BG as you normally would. Sometimes luck plays into the hands of someone not specifically aiming for the achievement.

Good luck everyone :)

Comment by SnapesImp

I just got this ach last evening (Horde). Me and my friend waited as Children's Week started, took the quests then started in WSG, (which IMO is the hardest one to ach.)
We failed the first time because the opposite faction never came into our flag-room and our group ran the flags fast. But the second bg, we stayed in the flag-room when a hunter and rogue came in. (My friend a hunter, with me feral.) They picked up the flag, and we picked them off twice in a row, one we had to chase onto the field to kill him outside our bunker. So both of us took turns returning the flag while everyone else, (who we didn't know), was in the middle killing. Still wasn't easy to do. Alli were camping their flag. (I managed to get their flag during fighting, and running it all the way to our base earning a second ach for a fast run. We won that one too with my one flag return.) I think this one would by far be the hardest for any healz to accomplish!

Next was AB, I got mine when everyone was fighting at BS right at the beginning, I turned the flag there first thing, my partner waited til they were all fighting at farm, then took Mine back. Easy one if you do it while everyone is fighting around you...(helps to have resistances so take a potion for that.)

I had done EotS last year, so I'll help my friend on that one yet, feral makes it more easily done...altho i see a lot of priests running the flag, mostly disc, I don't find this one as hard to do.

AV is easy if you run straight to the second bunker and get behind the wall (behind the flag.) Arrows can't hit you, and archers will usually find someone else to target in few seconds. Just stand beside the wall and change it. Do this while everyone is killing the first boss there, and go to the second bunker not the first one. If you can't seem to get there in time, speed running potion works well up the stairs to get behind the wall for any clothies, then use your fade to lose aggro for priests. All bunkers for Horde achieve will have those walls, but not for Alli.

Hope this helps anyone trying to get this done who hates it, please don't give up. The one's who don't have pvp gear, get a tailor to make you some with mats, cause it works just as well for one achievement, you can always disenchant it later or vend it.

Comment by Modran

Hi all, I just wanted to share a nice little trick that helped me significantly for the AV criteria of this achievement, along with the separate AV Tower Defense. This only applies to Hunters unfortunately, so if you do happen to play one and you need this, I would strongly recommend trying this out. You could also get a Hunter friend to do this as well if you'd like, since that should work too :)

Note: It may also affect everyone on your team (and in this case increase competition), since it is not guaranteed you will get to take the flag after the horde/alliance stop attacking each other.

For starters, get any pet, but ideally one that is "large" so that it is clearly seen - I used a Gorilla.

Then, name the pet "PLSLETMECAPP" or something similar in all caps. Enter a tower and put your pet in the middle of the flag room. As soon as you see your opposing faction come in, spam emote /beg and /point at it. I even made it attack someone once or twice before putting it on passive again.

Keep your target on your pet and continue to spam your emotes at your pet. Note that it may not work all the time, but there is a quite a good chance they will understand what's going on (give or take 50/50 chance of success). Good luck everyone!

Comment by Lucilite

I need some instruction on really basic levels. I know how to do these BGs in general, though I'm not very good (meaning I'm a PvE player). I see a lot posts here suggesting strategies on how to each of the 4 achievement parts, but somebody please explain to me the basic mechanics how one simply does each of the 4 required actions.

AV - How does one "assault" a tower? I just asked in a BG and they said to just stand in it 'till you get it (like in the Hellfire Penninsula PVP dailies). I stood in it for a while with a group... it was 1/2 blue... then it caught fire and they said "too late," I don't know what they meant. What determines when one side has successfully assaulted a tower? How long does it need to be controlled? What kind of tower does it have to be when you assault it (fully controlled by enemy, not fully controlled by own side, etc)? Is it a matter of taking control away from the enemy, or of capturing & controlling the tower for your own side?

AB I know how to click on a flag in order to take control of it's node (smith, mine, etc). When you click on it there's a few seconds of progress bar (like a non-instant spell being cast). Does it make a difference if several players of same side click on the same flag within those few seconds? If they do, then who gets credit for capturing the flag, just one player or all who were clicking/capturing simultaneously? Do you have to assault a flag that's controlled by the enemy, or assault one so that it becomes under your side's control?

EotS To "Capture flag" I assume you have to return it all the way to one of your side's controlled towers, not just carry it partway. If so, then can only one player get credit for the achievment for each time the flag is returned? Can the credit be shared in a single instance of flag-returning?

WSG I think I know how to make an enemy flag-carrier drop the flag. And how to pick it up. And how to capture the enemy flag (meaning place it in the flag-spot in my own side's base). But how is a flag returned? This is where I'm really not understanding a most basic simple concept. When I see the flags on the "zone map" (lower-right corner one), and then it disappears and the chat channel auto-posts "The Alliance flag has been returned..." it looks like it gets dropped on the field and automatically disappears & reappears at it's base, not carried back by a player. When that happened, what player got the credit for returning the flag? What did they physically do to do it?

(this post has been brought to you by a player suffering from PNS, aka "Perpetual N00b Syndrome." A term I made up for myself. I can learn2play pretty well, but only if people actually teach me. I'm not good at just figuring things out for myself intuitively, I'm sorry.)

Comment by baredgara

What about in a wargame, with guildies for example?

Comment by Eclipsegirl

My suggestion is if this achieve is important to you, do it on the first day (sunday) as early as possible.
The BGs on my server had tacit truces or agreements to allow people to get the achieves. But I would think that while this is true for Sunday, that by Thursday, the truces may no longer exist.

I did AB last year. I am not a PvPer, and it didnt seem too hard. Attack an enemy flag, and have enough support to win the battle for that area. The Objective to attack an enemy flag in a staging area like the farm or the blacksmith, and change it to your faction. You have to be the first to click on the flag in the assalt.

I though WSG was going to be the most difficult. It wasn't because some truces had been set up for both sides. The main flag room had a player of each side in there. The opposing would pick up the flag and drop it. The friendly side would replace the flag and PREVENT anyone from harming the enemy. When you came in needing the achieve the friendly player let you get your achieve. This allowed the rest of the BG to go on like normal with the understood truces being carried out in each others main flag room. This allowed for non PvPers like me to get the achieve and continue to play that particular round. The objective is to take your faction flag from an enemy player and return in to your faction's flag room and place it where it belongs.

EOS - I probably got lucky. There was a lot a jostling around the middle. Then it calmed down. 3 of us were spamming for the flag in the middle. I was lucky, and made it to a tower without losing it. And continued with the rest of the BG as expected. The objective is to take a flag from the middle and take it to one of your bases. If you die, one of your faction can pick it up but you wont get the achieve. In front of each of the towers is a round medallion lon the ground. That is where the flag has to go.

Alterac Valley - What a pain this was. I spent more than 8 hrs of trying to get this before I figured out there were two towers being traded. Of course there are idiots on both sides who do not realize that it is children's week, or just don't think there should be a truce of exchanging caps. When I figured out what tower it was, It still took about 3 BGs before I got my achieve. The objective is to be the first at an enemy tower, and click on the flag. If an enemy player is in the same room and is not threatening, they are actually trying to be helpful. They are continually switching the flag back to their faction so that others may get the achieve. If the two sides can agree to two towers being dedicated to people getting their achievements, you can actually have a decent time doing the BG as expected. If the flag in the tower already is of your faction, it is not going to change unless the opposite faction can click on it. You have to click on the flag to make it change to get the achieve.

In every case you have to be the clicking on the flag, and possiblur taking it to the desired area.

Comment by DiscordianKitty

As a hunter who never ventures into PVP, I thought this achievement would be impossible. When I tried Eye of the Storm to find orphans popping up like daisies and a good ten fellow horde players camping the flag in a way that made the egg farming of Noblegarden seem mild, I was sure of it.

Couple of hours later, tho, I have the Children's Week achievement. And looking at it from this side, I kinda enjoyed it. My breakdown:

1) Eye of the Storm - Pure Luck, though pointless to go for the flag unless Horde had 2+ bases. I managed to grab the flag while we halted allies on their way towards it. It just so happened no one else was going for the flag at that exact moment.

2) Alterac Valley - I am ashamed to admit it took me ages (and several embarrassing bgs) to figure out just how the hell to assault a tower. Once I got that sorted, I got dropped into a BG that was nearly finished. All the towers were wearing horde colours so I thought I'd never get to assault one. Amazingly, one right close to me was taken back by the alliance. I ran to it expecting to be too late or else to die, but even more amazingly there were no horde or allies in sight. Boom.

3) Arathi Basin - Pure selfishness. I gave up trying to go for the stables and farm as the BG started. Too many people had the same idea. After running around with packs of fellow hordes, helping to reclaim bases only to have the flag taken by someone else, or else attempting to take the flag only to be nuked by the psycho-iron-bubble-men who call themselves the Alliance, I eventually gave up trying to help my team and hid by the mines while it was ours. When the allies came, fighting started immediately but one Ally bubbled and took the mines before carrying on with the fighting. I slipped out and managed to take it back before they turned their attacks on me. Then I died, but happily.

4) Warsong Gulch - Took only one bg. This one was by far the most fun. The entire BG seemed to work together effortlessly. Possibly because people were focusing on protecting and chasing flags rather than hanging around in the middle farming whatever it is PVPers farm there. Possibly because we naturally ended up grouping into PVPers, who were going after the ally flag, and achie farmers, who were protecting our own flag. The Alliance gave us a battle and a half, even managing to evict us from our own base at one point. We won 3-0, and every single achievement farmer got to pick up the flag at least once. Epic!

My suggestion to all those insisting they'll never get this achievement - Go on and try it. Eventually you do luck into getting the thing you think is impossible to get, and it's one hell of a good feeling once you have.

Comment by SpookyKat

This achiev sucks BIG TIME

Comment by SpookyKat

Ok, my internet fell off and now I'm a "deserter" for 15 minutes -_- mygod..

Comment by elzeebeth

I viewed this achievement with complete horror. It was the last one I needed for children’s week and I had ignored it last year. But, this year I am aiming for the violet proto-drake so there was no way I could not do it. My anger at Blizzard was immense as, although I have pvp-ed in the past I completely suck. However, all that aside, I did achieve it – ok it took me most of the day to do it (which included time to go and calm down and stop being so potty mouthed) but the main thing is I achieved it. My advice is don’t give up, try to relax and don’t think about how much of a pain this is and how difficult it is. There are some really kind people out there who will help you, ok it might take you ten bgs to find them but they are there, and good luck to you all.

Arathi Basin
Pure luck, happened to be running past the farm and no one was there, it was under horde control so I clicked it – result.

Alterac Valley
This was incredibly frustrating as the best thing to do is to run for the furthest tower, in the hope everyone else is attempting to get the earlier ones – missed out so many times, but eventually ran up a tower thinking I had lost my chance as several other alliance had gone up but I was chasing a hordie and that bastard was going to die as I was so annoyed. Rushed in attempted to kill him and realised no one else was touching him so I sat down and we all took turns in assaulting the tower with the hordie’s help. Strangely enough everyone then started blowing kisses at the horde and each other – it was surreal.

Warsung Gulch
Another one of many trials but eventually after too many attempts to count I ran into our flag room to see a hordie pick up the flag and I was just about to attack him when he dropped the flag for me. I picked it up, result . Ok, I then let him take the flag but even though the pvp-ers out there will hate me I am sure the pve-ers doing the achievement will understand.

Eye of the Storm
This I found the most difficult. Twice I managed to get the flag, was running to cap it flanked by a healer and another dps and what should happen…. We won the battle and it ended with me standing about 20 feet from the cap clutching the flag screaming NOOOOO. Had several failures but finally managed it.

Comment by Bristlebane

I was semi-dreading this achievement having never tried it before and reading all the angry posts on the wow-eu forums about how badly this sucks. I was online on Saturday evening and as midnight approached I got ready. Was doing this on my lock with about 3,5k res, so nothing spectacular. At midnight I ran to Stormwind and got my orphan and queued right away. Thought I'd get what I though would be the worst ones out of the way first so went like this:
WSG -> EotS -> AB -> AV

Obviously, as it was only just midnight I wasn't expecting to see many others with little orphan companions, but there were quite a few. I queued a total number of five times before I had done the achievement.

WSG: Not really that big a deal. Some people will claim that latency plays a big part, but I don't play on a particularly fantastic connection and I had no problems. You could have bad luck and have to retry this but basically just run after the enemy FC and alternate between doing some dmg and clicking frantically in front of him/her.

EotS: Got this in my first attempt too, but nearly didn't. A lot of people were going for the achievement and so a lot of the action was centered around the flag. My team was winning and at around 1000 - 600 I got the flag. Was awesome and I started gunning for one of our bases. I got to about 30 yards of it and got jumped by a rogue and shortly thereafter a hunter. I was alone and even with cooldowns I couldn't make it and thus died literally a few yards from scoring. That was annoying, but I went back, got the flag at around 1500 - 800 and managed to score. Yipee.

AB: Was never stressing about this one. If you don't make the very first base don't sweat it, you are bound to get plenty of attempts through out a full AB.

AV: This turned out to be the trickiest one and I had to queue a second time. In the end I got it by running to the enemy fortress. When I got there the two towers had already been assaulted. But this being AV I just lurked about waiting for the horde to inevitably reclaim those towers. It happened and I managed to re-assault it and voila!

The best piece of advice I can offer is to do this with at least some pvp gear. If you don't, chances are you are going to have a raging meltdown from just dying instantly again and again (hint: if you pvp a lot and you kill someone so easily that it's practically a free kill, you remember that name and every chance you get in the remainder of the BG you zerg that person).

Did the entire "For the Children" in a little less than 2 hours. Best of luck!

Comment by murph0613

OK, I just did all 4 PvP tasks, and I have a few items that might help those that are "non-PvP'ers".

1. Try to do all of these within the first couple days. This might help you with some of the harder ones, like Alterac Valley. When I did Alterac Valley, I found a tower where there were Horde and Alliance players just standing in there, trading tasks of taking the flag back and forth. This made it VERY easy. When you play AV, look for this. I saw this happen twice at Iceblood Tower.

2. Arathi Basin. This one turned out to be the hardest for me. First thing - if you're first out of the gate, and run to the flag at the Stables, this will NOT get you the task. You have to attack (i.e., click on a flag and not be interrupted for the full 10 seconds) a flag that is already held by the Horde (or opposite faction, if you play Horde). I played this one 20 +times in the afternoon/evening of day 1, and it was nearly impossible to get, because everyone else was trying to do the same. Plus, this week usually makes hardcore PvPers really mad, and your own healers and tanks will let you die.

When I tried this early the next morning, I did it on the first try. Fewer people who are trying to get the task makes this one easier to get.

3. Warsong Gulch. This one can be very easy if you are willing to make a sacrifice in the first half of the battle. Look around on this board and find the "wait" macro - save it and use it. While everyone who is trying to get the achievement will camp at the base (and the PvP'ers will hate it, and refuse to heal and tank), you want to be attacking the flag. What I did - I stealthed into the flag, and as quickly as I could, took it, then dropped it and sat down. The Horde players in there (who also wanted to get the task done) saw that I was letting them retrieve the flag, and they didn't kill me (this doesn't always work, but you have a better chance on the first day of Children's week to make this happen). After 4 or 5 of them got their tasks, I ran out and was lucky enough to have 2 of them follow me back to base, where they returned the favor.

It may or may not work for you, but it might be worth a try if you can't seem to get the flag amidst all of the competition trying to do the same.

4. Eye of the Storm. This one was actually the easiest for me to get (I've never done this BG before, either). The key is, you need to be on a team that is superior to the opponents, and you will see almost ALL of them with their orphans out (no pun intended). Everyone will rush the center flag - you should too. Fight to gain superiority of the flag. DON'T rush in and try to take it right away. Just fight to clear out the area. Someone from your team will get the flag before you do (usually). BUT, don't follow them back to a base - just stay around the middle and watch your DBM timer for the flag respawn. Continue to clear out the center of the opposing faction if necessary. Slip in and click the flag when you feel you won't be interrupted. Eventually, you'll get it.

Another item: I'm an RDPS player, and even though I have a PvP armor set, I found all of these MUCH easier to do with my PvE gear. The PvP players are VERY good at killing others, regardless of the gear they have on, and if you don't have much experience in PvP, you might as well have your hardest hitting gear on. In most fights, if they last any amount of time, you'll probably die, so get your best licks in while you can. As a mage, this worked pretty well for me, as long as I had tanks and heals in front of me, I could stand back and blast away. The PvP'ers appreciated the firepower, and it helped us win.

One final note: When you get a task done, DON'T just quit the BG. Stay and play it out, and help the others that are there to get the achievement as well. It sucks to work so hard to help someone else, only to have them just disappear once they get the task done. Don't be that person; stay and fight it out. Try to win. Who knows, you might just start liking PvP. (Yeah, I didn't, but I'll never give up on a fight, even if I suck and have no chance of winning.) Remember, pay it forward, and eventually your kindness will be repaid. Don't get discouraged by the dillholes who want to see you fail, or who criticize because PvP isn't your thing. You play the game for the reasons you want, and don't apologize to anyone for it. At the same time, if you have to play PvP, make the best of it and stick it out. Who knows, maybe if more of us PvE'ers play the whole BG, PvP'ers won't hate us so much.

Comment by KushoLion

I have officially declared this as impossible. I want Blizzard to note it was THIS achievement that made me finally give up on getting the Violet Protodrake and completely forsake PvP. Until they can make this actually possible, as opposed to just something you can get if you kneel down in front of a Blizzard employee for some trouser fun, there's no point in going for it.

Let the downvotes begin, because an honest opinion pisses you guys off to hell and back.

Comment by mattvct

I accomplished it today, and all the tips here were helpful, here is the one tip I didn't see posted. If you are a mage or warrior, Arathi Basin isn't even an issue. Make sure your orphan is out and then rush the flag at Stables (first flag). As you approach (25 yards or so) either cast Blink as a mage or Heroic Leap as a warrior. Sure it is not fair and gives no one else a chance, but hell, you get credit 95% of the time so who cares, right?

Comment by lilhobbit37

I haven't given up on this achievement, but I opened up a ticket. I've been kicked out of EotS twice now for waiting at the flag rather than "helping". I don't get why PvP'ers aren't more helpful but when I tell them at the beginning that I am there just for that achieve, they all say sucks for you and just leave. I keep ending up with deserter because THEY kick me out because they don't want me there. This isn't fun, and it isn't fair that I am penalized because pvp'ers don't like me trying for an achievement. I don't get why I get the deserter buff if I didn't do anything wrong. Good luck to everyone else that you get better bg groups than me.

Also just a note, I've been trying to finish this achievement for over 6 hrs so far, and counting. If you don't pvp usually, expect it to take this long or longer if you don't get sympathetic groups. Also, I'm a pally, so I'm having this much trouble without being a clothie, so I completely understand the frustration of casters and healers, because if I'm struggling this much, I can't imagine doing this with even less armor.

Comment by Jollygood

This is very daunting for a PVE player. I tried dealing with this last year and went into the No Fun Zone and gave up. This year, much better.

For a PvE player, it's a good idea to pop into those BGs well ahead of time, try them out, and look at the map and ask folks for advice. Don't go in cold as a PvE player, because that is where the No-Fun Zone lies. It is no fun to get lost, not understand the mechanics of the activities, and be unused to some of the ermmm.... personalities you run into in BGs. Bonus is that you may get some achievements in there.

If you don't normally play in large groups (PvP, raids), you may discover latency issues. Turn off all of your apps, shut your computer down, restart it, log into WoW, turn off all of your add ons (seriously, just turn them off) and you may have better latency. If you go wireless, plug the computer into your modem with a wire. Turn down all of the graphics settings (you don't need high quality water rendering and shadows.) Speed is really important in Alterac Valley and Eye of the Storm.

I'm a regular PvPer, but am a dabbler, so I rehearsed some of the parts of the achievement. I taught myself how to do three of the things, but Eye of the Storm was too much for me and my laptop, so I got a friend to help. My advice for non-leet PvPers to rehearse like I did and get help from pals. Another bit of advice is to alternate the BGs that are part of it with other BGs, just to avoid general boredom.

And now, two final things... a lot of people carp and whine about noobsauce PvE players make a mess of everything during this event. I try to explain that they should just help the PvE people get their achievements so they won't come back. It's simple. If you are an experienced PvPer, help the noobs out and they'll be done early in the week. If you're a good leader, maybe come up with a workable zerg strategy for everyone.

Don't be a jerk. I had one person who was clearly not doing the week's event, surrounded by three orphan-laden players who were struggling to take down a couple of paladins, and ninja-ed the flag twice. On top of that, the ninja criticised the players for being too slow. There was no danger the opposing team was going to have the flag. The only reason that person got the flag was because three people were wailing away on enemies for her(probably him). Not cool.

Comment by Sapphrii

My experience with this achievement is that a lot of players are nice and want to help or at least doing it themselves, and the others are the elitists that are in the BGs farming honor off us PVE toons (not that all PVPers are like that :) ). Anyways i did this achievement in about an hour and a half i NEVER PVP, so i was surprised that i didn't run into a ton of problems it is still early in the week. I ended up only have to do all the BGs 1 time ( i think i had divine help from the wow gods) Good Luck with your Achievement it is less horrible then you think it is, I was over thinking it and kinda wanted to panic.

Comment by Hexanite

At first I was quite intimidated by this achieve. Like everyone, I thought it was a horrible decision to require this for the holiday achieve. PvE people hated being in BGs and PvP people hated PvEs ruining their BG. But, it turns out to be fairly straight forward. Others have posted some really great advice, so I will try not to repeat. I completed this achieve on 5 x 85 (Alliance) and 1 x 85 (Horde) before Tuesday morning.

My strategy was to complete each character's "Assault a Tower with your Orphan" portion in Alterac Valley first. I found that at the very start of the holiday week, there are enough Alliance and Horde wanting the achieve that they help each other out. So, mount and ride straight to one of the enemy towers. Use any of your speed boosts coming out of the gate and you may even get there first. If not, just wait for it to be defended. At the start, an enemy will be helpful and you can take turns recapping for the achieve (make sure your teammates know the plan). It took no more than 2 x AVs on any one character to get it done. I imagine as the week progresses, this will be more and more difficult, since less people need it.

My next two were WG and AB. I do not think these are "time sensitive." Flags at AB get capped so many different times, it is pretty easy. It just took one AB per character for this. WG was slightly harder. My alts do NOT PvP. I had at MOST one piece of PvP gear and it was still fairly easy to get the WG portion done. You just need to be fast on the flag.

I left Eye of the Storm for last. Since so many people want the achieve, on Sunday everyone was rushing the flag. One BG, Alliance had 0 bases and lost 1600 - 0 because everyone camped mid. So, there was lots of competition. As time progressed (into late Monday night) I found that less and less people needed the flag and they went back to capping bases.

So, all in all, I found this achieve fairly easy if done correctly. I certainly understand the frustration, but focus on this achieve before the others. Once this achieve is in the bag, the rest are trivial.

Good luck all!

Comment by DaddyBoJangles

Not sure if its been mentioned yet but on Alterac Valley my buddy took his Warlock in with us and gave me a soulstone. Went for a Horde Tower and waited for a little bit eventually someone wandered in, killed me, recapped tower and left. Used Soulstone revived and capped tower.

Hope that helps some of you on that map. I used most of the other strategies on the top voted up here for the other ones.

Comment by codeytherhino

After 2 days of nonstop queuing, I finally got this. I've seen a bunch of people mention how they were able to one shot this for all the battleground and think it's incredibly easy, but the reality is that it's very bg-specific and less skill dependant. I have a decent amount of PvP gear and experience, but no experience in the world is going to help when you have people intentionally don't cap the flag in EoS or everyone stays in the flag room in WSG.

A couple pieces of advice:

Keep trying and don't be discouraged, the competition will lessen as the week progresses.

For the AB , try your hardest to be the first out of the gate and cap the easiest node for your faction (stables/farm for AB)

For AV, skip going to Bal/Galv and try to cap a tower. Many will also be using this tactic, so hope the defenders in the tower (the mobs, not the enemy faction) stop your teammates. You can usually line of sight the mobs if you cap the flag from behind the wall.

If you have them, use any abilities that absorb/make you immune to damage. As a priest, my shield worked wonders to stop myself from being interrupted on low cap times.

Comment by MrScuba

Tried clicking a tower taken by Horde, then horde took and reclicked and so on... its not working for me apparently in AV? any ideas?

Comment by Lucilite

So it seems that I've learned the basics now of How To Do this achievement. However, I still need some SERIOUS help with AV.

First of all there's one thing I'm not clear on: When I'm in a tower and it's on fire & just stays on fire, does that mean it's too late for either side to re-cap it? Like the tower's been destroyed or something? Twice this week when this has happened I've asked in BG chat but not gotten any response.

Second, people say "get this achievement done at the beginning of the week because after that most people will already be done and will then just be working on PvPing" and also "play during off-peak hours". Well it's already Tuesday evening (for half of the world it's already Wednesday actually) & I don't have it done yet, and I don't have the option of playing during off-peak hours.
I've been queueing AV repeatedly yesterday & today, and at first yesterday I got 2 battles in a row where there was a tower that both sides were "exchanging." Unfortunately both times some idiot Hordie ran in & started attacking, ignoring what the rest of his faction was doing @ that tower at the time, and then the battle ended before I got one of the lucky caps. The rest of the time it seems the Horde are just hardcore slaughtering anyone they can, even if I don't fight back & point to my orphan & their orphan etc etc. I'm afraid I may have missed the window where most people are trying to get the achievement & helping the other side, and have moved on to just fighting to win. ESPECIALLY Horde side which as we know wins the vast majority of BGs. Since I'm Ally side, that puts me at a HUGE disadvantage.
Somebody, PLEASE talk with the hardcore PvP crowd Hordeside on your servers and try to explain to them about this acheivment! See if there can be some sort of agreement made on a specific tower to be used for "trading" by those focusing on the holiday (like Stonehearth Bunker or Icewing Bunker). PLEASE!

*EDIT* Nevermind. I quit. As of today, I quit trying for all holidays, because of this one. The anxiety is far too dangerous for my health.

Comment by luanfrota

Does anyone know weather or not this can be completed in war games?

Edit: After further research, I have received reports that this does not work on war games, although i haven't been able to verify that.

Comment by Kynleath

If there were an achievement that most resembled Hell, this is what it would look like.

Comment by daaani

For all of you who maybe think that Blizzard messed up, or that achievemnt is not reachable like I used to until 5 min ago here is my suggestion for you for the Assault a tower in Alterac Valley part of the achievemnt:
Assault > you have to take the flag, not recapp it just take (if your Horde go for the full blue locations and cap the flag there; not half-blue but FULL blue).
Second of all and even MORE IMPORTANT, it can be done anywhere in Alterac Valley, not just in a "tower" per-se, but you can cap a bunker (that's how I got the achievement).

So at the beginning of the BG rush for the upper part of the map, get rid of the trash around an Allie flag and cap it, OF course WITH YOUR ORPHAN "out of the pocket".

Comment by ShutTheFrightUp

A great way to get the EOTS / WSG / AB achievement parts, as of 4.0.0, is to double-queue Rated BGS. Get two groups of 10 (20 total, for those who cannot do math) people together, queue rated BGs at the same time and hope to get matched against one another. This will NOT work if MMR is different by allot (I.E. Team A has 1300 MMR, and Team B has 2000 MMR), so you're better off doing this on a character with similar MMR to your friends / guild mates you do it with. Also, for you W/L ratio fanatics, just make a simple compromise with the other team, I'm sure you could exchange wins and losses even and oddly.

I recently did this and it worked great. I could no longer stand the fact that EVERYBODY is attempting these achievements in the BGs, and the odd time I would get a cap, I would forget my orphan. Of course, the annoying-as-hell AV part of it was still there, but a great way to get that is to keep going for the far north / south towers, in either Dun Baladar or Frostwolf Village. For an odd reason I found that one easy, and I am a warlock, a class with no talents that increases me mounted/running speed.

If you do this, you're bound to get the achievement quick and easy. You'll even help a few guild mates / friends out too! Besides, it's not nearly as hard as finding rogues of all races (blast those stinking Dwarves!).

Comment by lerant

So the General thought about this Achivment, None PvP Despise it! (I'e been trying for four days now...) and PvPers Loath it because they're battlegrounds are ruined for a while week by people after this one achivment. As a achivment unter it all boils down to this One achivement that is almost impossible if you have a full time job or school to complete as they're isn't enough hours in a day, and unlike a fair few of the holidays, you're given a single week... at least make it two for the achivment hunters so we don't want to /wrists after a years worth of grinding for a week of nightmare that for the majority of us, is bound to end in disaster and a year of complaining... I'd hoped that when looking at the achivments for the first time around You'd only need to be in the same group as someone who achived it instead of having to do it yourself, at least that would getus out of the Battlegrounds Faster so the PvPers could get rid of the achivment hunters and get back to what they want to do without us crying about this mental torture.
-Dies inside-

Comment by Ganorn

Was having trouble with the av part of the achievement. But then i put on my Bloodsail Admiral gear and got it in one go. So yeah, try being a pirate.

Comment by Jadzeya

Feel exactly the same. This is the only part of the "What a long strange trip It's Been" I haven't done and it's been a nightmare. In BGs nobody cares if you are trying to do this so unless you have nothing else to do but spend hours trying
, you have to wait till next year. This sucks full time.

Comment by Muums

Just did this as allied
Just be polite to horde. :)
I took off all my armor and weapons and used some macros.

/target Human Orphand
/point

and this one

/helpme

(wanted to make all three lines in same macro, but it didnt work)

Place yourself where you can accomplish the part of achievement and use the macros.
Sooner or later there will come a hordie who are willing to help.

I was beeing an ass for the rest of my team, but its blizzard who want me in the BGs NOT me. dont do PVP cuz i sucks at it.

Comment by wfrazier

Warsong Gulch - Yuck. I've spent the last 5 hours trying to complete this one. Got near the flag only once, and was killed when the flag carrier had just 5K life left. I hate this battleground. Looks like this one will probably not get finished till next year (2013) at the earliest. Blizzz....take this one out of the list of requirements!

Update -- Another 3 hours wasted, no glory. I quit, gotta put my time to better use. You kind of loose motivation for this whole 'Long Strange Trip' thing when you run into roadblocks like this.

Comment by lagoon8

In my humble opinion, something that helps doing this achievement is talking to the rest of your bg. Simply saying when you join that you're after the achievement is usually enough to get some help.

For instance, I joined WSG today, said I needed the achievement's part and asked if anybody else was after it. Someone said "me too" and so we decided I'd take the first flag, and him the second (he was a nice sport like that, but in other case you can just roll to see who gets it first).

Same for AB, as the bg was preparing, I asked if it was okay for the rest of them if I took the first flag and, since no-one was on the achievement, they all let me.

Of course there are sometimes people who don't read the /bg or don't want to help, but it costs nothing to try. Generally, if you ask nicely, people are pretty receptive and so you can get the achievement quickly.

Comment by MzKitty1964

I would like to know why Blizzard requires us to do PvP activities to get Achievements. The Achievements were introduced as a "fun" feature. But not everyone enjoys PvP. I for one hate it; it's not my cup of tea. But to have to be forced into doing PvP is truly unfair. I have three toons now stuck on the School of Hard Knocks Achievement and will most likely never get their Violet Proto-drakes since this is the last Achievement they need. Come on already, Blizz....do away with this totally unfair requirement!

Comment by LorB

Ok, just finished this achieve on my feral druid, and did it all in a day. I mostly do pve and though I have some pvp gear, it isn't great.

AB: basically just kept trying until I got lucky. Capping the first flag out of the gate is pretty much hopeless (unless you're one of the mages who blinked past the rest of us every time), but there were plenty of opportunities to take bases during the BG. Got it on my third try by ninja capping a base - but if you aren't a stealthie, just stick with a pack and wait for your chance.
WSG: This one sucks because the people doing the achieve are at odds with everyone else. Stay at your own base and wait for the enemy to take the flag - hopefully you're with other acheivers who won't kill them before they can - then if they don't drop it for you, zerg them and be ready to click when they die (took me several tries to beat the other allies to the flag). Then be nice and pay it forward by sticking around and helping the next player get it. :)
AV: Trying to be the first to cap a tower is pretty much futile with so many people going for the achieve, but you can hang out and wait for an enemy player to recap it - unless your allies are as stupid as mine were and keep killing a lone enemy player with an orphan out as he climbs the tower.
I ended up doing it the other way around: stealthed up to a horde controlled tower, unequipped all my gear and walked in naked on my female nelf. Worked on the first try, lol.
Eye: I thought this would be difficult but actually got it right away. You might want to bring a friend along to watch your back (because everyone else could be camping the flag spawn point) and use a speed boost, but it really isn't that difficult if your group ever has control of the middle.

This achieve sucks because it pits you against your own side more than the enemy, but there are some decent people out there who will cooperate and it doesn't need to take forever.

Comment by fatpally

I agree with many of the other comments about how bad this achieve sucks, especially for people like me who absolutely despise PvP. But yet, the powers that be, decided that I just had to do it..... Been trying this for 4 days now, close to 6 hours or so per day, and all i have is a flag cap in EotS, and a very bad headache... Maybe a little high blood pressure in there too.... would love to see this achieve moved into the Player vs Player category, and get it out of my world event, so I can actually get my "Long strange trip".

Comment by Orentis

I thought this achievement was next to impossible for me, as a holy PVE priest, to complete. However, I took the advice of some of the posters here and combined that with pure luck, and I was able to get the achievement with 2 hours to go before CW ended. Below are the TL;DR examples of how I got it done:

Arathi was by far the easiest. Just run to the mines or the other deserted location, and you should be fine.

AV was the hardest for me because everyone else rushed to the towers before me. I ran as fast as I could, but someone always beat me to it. When I told my team what I wanted to do, I got the following responses: "ya me too lol", "good luck with that lol", "youve got a lot 2 do", "sux 2b u", etc. When I finally got it, it was sheer luck on my end. I went to the farthest tower, which had no alliance there, only the guards. They kept firing arrows at me, but I was able to use Psychic Scream to get them out of the way, and then out of nowhere a hunter came up and took them out while I finished. I don't know who this hunter was, but thanks <3

WSG was also difficult. During each encounter I asked my teammates what to do, what should our strategy be, can I get some help, etc. I was either ignored, laughed at, or raged at. Finally, I figured out that if I stay in the flag room, let the ally get our flag, kill them, and then pick it up right away would be the best strategy. The biggest problem I had was killing the ally. Think about it: how is a PVE-wearing, no experience with PVP holy priest supposed to attack and kill a PVP-wearing warrior? Shaman? DK? Rogue? Or any of the other classes? It just simply is impossible to do alone. I finally got a group of people who were also doing the achievement, and we agreed to take turns with returning the flag. So far, so good. We had at least a plan. We decided I would go first, then the next person, etc. As it turns out, this group screwed me over because they all got to the flag before I did (after agreeing otherwise), and then they /afk'd. I was the last one left just as the bg ended. I was able to complete this objective with a group of about 4 others who needed the achievement as well. Two alliance members (a priest and warrior) grabbed the flag, dropped it, and allowed all of us to return it, like we were in a line at an amusement park. If it wasn't for these two, I doubt I would have been able to earn this objective at all.

EotS was a nightmare. My success in that bg was sheer luck, and nothing else. Every time I tried to get the flag in EotS, someone else came up and grabbed it before me (even after asking my Horde team mates if I could please take the flag, which was met with derision and ridicule). Because it was the last day of CW, I think everyone got the idea that most people there needed the achievement. So I was able to run in, get the flag (the alliance were occupied with other things, I guess), run it up to our base, and boom - got it. I helped out everyone else on my team though by popping a shield (Body and Soul ftw!), instant heals, Renew, etc. and they were thankful for it. I also made a macro and emote for my orphan (target Oracle Orphan /point /stop, etc.), which seemed to help when the alliance came by. Some of them were nice enough to let me go; others attacked and killed me without mercy (an easy thing to do when you're squishy and lack resilience).

I am thankful and happy that I earned this terrible achievement, but my opinion on it still stands: it sucks. All of these TL;DR examples prove one thing: one player depends on everyone else to earn this objective, where other players can easily and deliberately block you from your goal. At least with the dungeon objectives, for example, everyone is working together to achieve a common goal. It is a mutual event where all who participate benefit, but not so with SoHK. Here you have an absurdly specific task that only you and you alone can complete. Other classes may have an easier time with this, but not PVE holy priests.

I hope this helps someone for next year though (unless Blizz changes it). It CAN be done, but not without great difficulty, teamwork, and lots of swearing. Good luck!

Comment by Isini

First post, please excuse any transgression(s).

I tried so very hard on this. Dozens of attempts in each battleground. Half a fail. Could not get EoTS or wsg. I know once even though the cast bar completed, I did not get credit for the flag.

The two I did get were more luck than anything. I tried every hint in here. Thanks to all for input.

A hearty congrats to all who managed this. Now excuse me while I go curl into a fetal position and weep. =)

Comment by XkcdofDentarg

like if the reason you're thanking God for account-wide achievements is so that you will never have to do this again!

Comment by Rayzan1000

It actually pays off to be nice at this time of the year!
For those achievement hunters out there. - I would suggest farming the 'Tower Defense' and 'Overly defensive' achievements.

- These are easier to obtain at this time of the year, as there will be lots of people who would want to assault flags/towers/bunkers for the 'School of Hard Knocks' achievement. So by farming the 'Tower Defense' and 'Overly Defensive' achievements, you will be helping both yourself and other players :)

I personally did this last year. It went extremely fast and I even had people thanking me for helping them out in the process :)

Comment by HierarchKhas

If you have an add-on that auto summons companions (like collectme or Gubpet), make sure to turn that feature off because when you summon s companion, your orphan is dismissed.

Comment by irishbloke

Does anyone know if you can do part of the achivement on one toon and then part on another? or do you have to do all 4 on the one toon?

EDIT:
Nope you cant:(

And to make it even worse it doesnt count when you retake a captured tower in AV i.e its half taken..

Comment by Mantrhax

u know what happen when blizzard insists in pissing the players ? they left... then they ask thenselves, what we doing wrong? duh

Comment by chaotixninja

And this may have already been asked.....can these be done in war games?

Comment by Eraserturds

Ok so I don't pvp. I have, but I don't do well at all. I really have only done for non-pvp related cheeves. Last year I failed completely at this, and I'm sure this year will be the same.

Is it possible to put a group, or even raid, together and join the BG like that? I'm sure there are plenty of people with the same goal as me that would be willing to get together and do this?

Eraserturds.

Comment by kevinalemany

In the case of Alterc Valley, if you have a female player like me, and if everybody for some reason runs faster than you and everytime every tower is taked first than you, well, you just wait in a taked tower until 1 or more hordes appear to take it back, well, in that momento you play the "lady" card by doing a /cry and after the horde turn the tower to its side, hopefully he/she wont kill you and let you to take it.

True story, believe me.

The funny part was when I killed the horde after I get the achievement lol.

Comment by Rj23

So whatever you do, if you die, blow the whistle and summon the kid back. I completed this once and then looked to make sure I got the achieve. Apparently when you die the child leaves. And you cannot summon them in combat.

Comment by Rj23

Comment by stym

I lost sleep over this in dreadful anticipation of the difficulty and frustration but it turned out better than I hoped.
I am bad at PvP. Really bad. Not even average. The people in the BG's were unfriendly and uncooperative. The other faction did not care at all about people trying to get this achievement.

I suspect there are three elements that helped me:
1- It is possible that my battlegroup is not that good at PvP. If everybody else is bad too, that kind of improves your chances.
2- Comments on this page! Kudos to you all, especially Hairband and Timmeh.
3- I'm a rogue. It helps a TON. Between the stealth, vanish and multiple cc cooldowns, it is a great class to try this achievement.

In Summary:
Arathi Basin: Easy. There are plenty of opportunities to click a flag, just pick a spot that has a raging battle going on or a spot that is completely empty.

Warsong Gulch: Probably got lucky. I camped my faction flag, waited for a single enemy to grab it and whaled on him. I started just right-clicking on him like a madman when he was at 10% life to make sure I'd be the one returning the flag.

Eye of the Storm: It helped that my faction was dominating the battle. I don't think it's feasible otherwise. Anyway, DBM let me know when the flag would respawn, and I clicked again like a madman on the flag's respawn point starting a few seconds before the DBM timer expired.

Alterac Valley: Harder, but I did go to the furthest possible tower, which thankfully was guarded by a single foe. I sapped him, waited a second to make sure he would not use his PvP trinket and clicked the flag. Sap lasts long enough for you to capture it. If he had used his trinket, Blind was my next cc.

Overall I spent under 2 hours getting this achievement, which should be removed as a part of the meta. I mean, getting the necessary kills for G.N.E.R.D. Rage or With a Little Helper from My Friends can be a grind, but at least you don't need to be working against the goals of everyone else in the battleground.

Comment by Shayuri

Hi guys.
I was just wondering if there is a specific time of the day it may be easier getting this achievement? Or is it equal hopleless all time of the day?

Comment by rogomatic

I would like to add my feelings to this forum. I love chasing achievements but I think it is soooo wrong of Blizzard to include a pvp element in a World Event. Like so many have said, it belongs in a PVP category of it's own.

I feel so incredibly bad when I join a battleground just to try to obtain a part of an achievement. In my opinion, it is an insult to those pvp players who work so hard to make their part of the game the best that it can be. I feel a fraud but how else will I achieve those things to get the achievement?

I am willing to work as hard as Blizz can make me to obtain achievements and the nice rewards that go with them but please, don't make us insult other players in the process. I cannot imagine how awful it must be in Children's Week to see all those damn orphans whilst waiting for the battle to begin. It must be agony!

Today I managed to return the flag in WG and only thanks to a Warlock and a Monk who were defending the base. I wanted to do it so badly after trying for the 3 previous years. I really let loose on those horde who took the flag. They were not going to get away this time! I missed the flag twice so I asked, as humbly as possible, if they would allow me to return the flag and they did. Thank you both :D

I hope I am as lucky in AV!

Comment by Farzeer

Seriously, PvP people, your "Well, we need to do PvE for world events so suck it up" argument is totally invalid. Why? Because mostly you're only required to kill one dungeon boss ONCE. Your argument would be valid if you'd be asked to do one of these:

1. Get a rare mount from a dungeon boss (1% drop chance). You could do the dungeon as many times as you'd want. You could get lucky and get it on your first try, but mostly you'd have to grind that same dungeon multiple times and at the same time, fight for that drop against 4 other players.

2. Get a drop from one of the raid bosses (4 bosses in a raid, 100% drop chance and 40 people in the raid, can be done as many times as you want). Would be equivalent of the AV part of this achievement. Sounds easy but you'd be fighting for the drops against 39 other people.

3. Same as 1 and 2 but the bosses would have a buff that allows them to 2 hit kill everyone who is wearing full PvP gear. The more PvE gear you have, the less they'd hit.

Now, would those achievements sound fair to you? No? Well, then don't tell us PvE players to just "suck it up". It's just as luckbased for us as those achievements would be to you.

Comment by Lordplatypus

"You taught him to kill things?"
"I taught him my job, I'm an adventurer, Put two and two together before you give me a kid."

Comment by r3fund

For Arathi Basin claiming the Stables/Farm off the bat does count.

Comment by iNemeq

Hey everyone!

I just want to share a tip that helped me get this one - Do NOT do it at max level! If you have some lower level alts that you can send into BGs do that instead. Almost no competition and if you're close to an expansion level cap (level 79, 84) you can "twink" yourself out for way more survivability while you do this one.

Hope it helps someone, was much easier for me to get it done on a level 84 character than at 90.

Comment by bettybae

I've just completed three out of four objectives - I only have EoTS left.
Coming purely from a druid's perspective(I'm a NE resto druid) these are my thoughts. This all presupposes an uncooperative enemy team and an even more angry home team. Also, all this goes with the primary objectives of the BG so you won't be screamed at (as much);

WG : Even if you are geared for spirit resil gear, go balance. You don't want to be healing because as a healer, you will be the FIRST target for fears, ice trap, and other CCs. These things prevent you from mad clicking on that flag. As boomkin, don't forget to spec Ursol in Tier 5 of your talents and bring out Solar Beam. Used in sync, these two skills make for the best CC you can provide for your team and by extension, yourself. Trap the flag killer in the solar beam+Ursol and just pop everything. Your DoT's will do the trick so don't forget to start clicking early.

AB : Make use of your travel form or kitty form even if you don't use them very often. Run to the stable/farm because either 1) no one will be going there or 2) it's the closest. If you can't get one of these bases, there are some other bases you can try as a druid. In AB, it is imperative that you have your Typhoon ready on hand. If you can, Glyph of Hide comes in handy. Scout the mill in kitty form+hide. If the enemy is near the edge where the flag is, Typhoon them out of the way, into the grassy cliff below, and capture your flag. Sometimes the other faction's home bases are left unguarded (Farm if ally, stable if horde.) Sneak along as kitty+hide and capture the flag.

AV : Run for your life. I mean it. As a druid, you can use your mount, then your travel form, then when you get to the enemy lines, a kitty. Important thing though, don't have your orphan out when you're sneaking on past enemy lines. Even if you are invisible, the orphan isn't. The kid won't draw aggro from NPCs but sure will draw attention from enemy players. Get to the farthest tower - bow shooters don't exist in these towers. When you are safe inside the cubicle of the flag, then get your orphan out and capture the tower.

EoTS : I haven't dont this personally, but a friend of mine told me to use travel form whenever necessary. Which will be most of the time. Stay at the flag spot - don't go chasing, because like WG the flag will respawn when it is captured. Kitty+hide, get the flag, and before you start running, pop Roar, and then travel form.

Most of my advice here is, well, behaving like a rogue - being stealthed yet active. Do make use of the fact that as a druid you have many forms you can take that grant you speed boosts - something that other classes can only dream of.
All this having been said, I want to add some QQing of my own. I'm just a light player. I used to PvP, I used to PvE, I know both sides of the game, but not particularly good at neither. I'm geared for spirit resil(50% Malevolent gear, 50% S12 Dreadful) and gemmed for full resil, culminating in 65% resillience. I still had considerable difficulty doing these things - to the point that an experienced guildy running rated BGs in full Tyrannical gear had to help me out. When I see people with crafted dreadfuls, I feel awful because I know they will have a harder time of it than I do, they will probably have to try for years on end, being extremely frustrated. Please please please remove this thing, or make it easier. Stop insulting your player base.

GL to all, you will need it.

Comment by ColadaVC

I finally just got this achievement and now completed What A Long Strange Trip It's Been. More like a Long pain in the ass Trip!

As a T15 PvE geared Feral Druid, I thought i'd encounter huge problems trying to get this achievement. In fact, it was the opposite.

The only one that really gave me trouble, was EoTS. Because of the fact the horde were dominating the flag area. I got that part done out of luck. I managed to pick up from base, teleported forward and ran for my damn life to the base. When I got to the base, there was a good few horde fighting the Ally. I was getting pounded to hell but out of pure luck, I done it.

So pleased this is finally over, and will never have to do it again. GL to all who are in process of doing this achiev.

Comment by adiamaea

I have been trying to do this achieve for 3 years.

I got one of 4 objectives with the help of my guild this week. None of us do PVP. Most of us hate PVP because of the trauma of this.

Yet, it eats at me that I have every single title except this one, so every year I try again. I have tried on my DK, my priest, my hunter, my mage, every alt I have, and I have many.

I am 54 years old and have health problems and it is probably not a good idea to strive for this. But, I can't stop. I want that stupid Violet Proto Drake!

Why spoil a week that is one of my favorite holidays, because I love children, with a PVP objective that is so self-esteem racking to get? Psychologically speaking, it is far too stressful to throw people into PVP who maybe have never done it. I tried PVP for a while, and got tired of being cussed when we didn't win, ganged by more players than I could ever hope to defeat when I was alone, all sorts of nasty things that shouldn't happen to anyone. If I ever thought PVP was fun, this achieve made me want to run the other way, and I did. I hate PVP.

I have nothing against folks who love PVP, and in fact I feel sorry for them having to put up with us non-PVPers this one week of the year.

Why put all of us through this? The game is not fun for a lot of us working for this drake. I wish that the expert players that make up the employees of WOW would remember back when they were new players and listen to the voices crying for this achieve to be changed. Perhaps this game has so many subscribers the powers that be feel we don't matter :( If you agree with me, please post!

Good luck to all.

Adiamaea and Viae, among others, on Zangarmarsh server and Alliance Faction.
Fyia and others, Zangarmarsh, on Horde.
Many other alts on many servers, yes, I am an alt-aholic.

Comment by Ixtaria

02/05/2013 - European dating convention (i.e. the correct one). This is for the non-guilded (helpful guilds anyhow), non-PvP geared character (* non PvP geared means that you have not/do not grind honor/conquest items, but can still manage to buy a few basic crafted pvp bits)

- EOTS:

Not too bad, but you must lay some groundwork here - help your team assault the towers and capture them. Once you have them, it logically follows that the flag cap comes easy. What I found was that once I spent the first 5 minutes doing this, my team helped me get the cap without even asking. If your team is dominating (hopefully with your help), this one is easy.

- WSG

Very easy also. Because the mechanic is that the flag carrier must actually enter your base, you can simply camp the flag room. I did this one first. and it being the first day of the achi, all of us (bar one) were up for trading flags. Not a hard one. However, don't be a *!@#. If you get yours, then try to help others get theirs. In my case, this meant "camp the entrance and look for incs, then run back to flag room, warn people, then shield til the flag boy was dead".

- AV

At first, an absolute &^%^ of an achi to get. In this one, a little diplomacy and teamwork is required. What I mean by that is that you can announce at the start of the battle that you want Stonehearth (for horde), but you will not get it alone. Several people may declare in which case your best bet is to run North immediately and try to cap another. Base trading is rife in this map, so you might get it easily. I bloody didn't. :P

- AB

The easiest. I got this in two matches by announcing that I wanted the Lumber Mill for the achi, As it' always a solid secondary base to grab, I had a nice pack around me for defense, and I was allowed to assault it without any problem. The reason it took 2 matches is because another player needed it in the first and I protected him (disco priest)

Anyhow, it's not as bad as people make it out to be. I DID spend approx 800g on crafted PvP gear to start. This made a HUGE difference. Not only was I harder to kill, but I got taken seriously by the group inspectors.

Hope this help.

Ix/

Comment by Macree

Alright, so after years of complaining about this achievement, I finally broke down and decided that THIS was the year I got it done. As for my previous battleground experience, I essentially had none. I have been playing WOW for 4 years and have multiple level 90's, and I can estimate that until this achievement, I had done less than 30 battlegrounds total.

I am a paladin in PVE gear. I do not PVP. I do not do battlegrounds. Here is how I did this achievement. These are sorted by difficulty (as I experienced them).

1. MOST DIFFICULT -- Capture the flag in Eye of the Storm

This battleground was the worst. I suggest doing it first because then you know they only get easier as you go along. Basically, you run from the start to a single flag in the middle. I did not have much luck getting the flag at the beginning, but once you see the opposing faction taking the flag back to base, get to the center! If you have the addon DeadlyBossMods (DBM), it will be of tremendous help, and here is why! When the flag is captured by a faction, it respawns in the center. DBM will give you a countdown timer. The flag actually spawns about a second or two before you see it (because of latency). So, the key is the be in the center and spam the right click where the flag is. Also, if you use any of the interface (life bars, spell bars, etc), turn it off. Spam the right click until you have the flag. By this time, you should have some idea which towers are held by your faction. Get to them as fast as you can. The shortest distance is a straight line. Rather than going straight up the road, go to the outside of the large rocks and directly for your tower. If your group is worth a damn, they should protect you because some of them still want to actually win the battleground! Get to your tower and this objective is complete.

2. Assault a flag in Arathi Basin

This battleground is also pretty simple. Basically, you approach one of 5 areas and "assault" it by clicking on the flag at each location. For this one, you MUST find an area controlled by the opposing faction. Walk up, click their flag and pray for 10 seconds. Do not attempt the farm/stables. This is the first place everybody runs to. Personally, I went for the Gold Mine and it worked perfectly. If you do see an opposing faction member, its usually 1 on 1, which is much easier than going to the other areas.

3. Return a fallen flag in Warsong Gulch

I am a little fuzzy on the specifics of this battleground because it is the only one I had accomplished prior to this year. Essentially, you wait for a member of the opposing faction to capture your flag from your base. Then, you simply kill them, they drop the flag, you pick it up, and return it. Usually a group of your teammates will also be going for the kill and for this achievement. So, similarly to EotS, when they are almost dead, STOP your DPS and spam your right click. Pick up the flag, return it, and mission accomplished.

4. Assault a tower in Alterac Valley

Surprisingly, this battleground was the easiest. Basically, from the start, you mad dash to the towers on the opposing end of the battleground. You need to beat your teammates to the tower, so be smart! Avoid excess turning, getting stuck on terrain, running into the NPC hostile mobs that are present. Know your basic route so you don't get lost and miss out! Be flexible - if your teammate is ahead of you and will beat you to the first tower, go to the second. Do NOT go for the two on the far side by the opposing factions base! If you did not get the first two towers, help your team and be ready to take one if they die. There are opposing faction NPC's on the top of the towers - you do not need to kill them to click the flag, but be mindful that they will attack you. In my experience, my teammate passed the first tower, so I chose to assault it and got it right away!.

Overally, this achievement took me 3 years to do, but in reality, only about 2-3 hours. And as I said above, I am about as inexperienced as you can be at PVP. But I just put my mind to it, did my research, and now I have School of Hard Knocks, For the Children, What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been, AND my prized Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake!

Some hints/comments:
1. When you queue, for the battleground, you will at times (slightly less than half for me) get put into a battleground already in progress (or in some instances, already lost). Just finish it out, and queue again if you don't succeed.
2. When you get a piece of the achievement done, don't be a !@#$%^bag and abandon the battleground. Stay and play for the win - help others get the achievement too. No matter how frustrated you got, you didn't do it without help!
3. I personally did not do any of the /point /wave /bow that others have recommended. It didn't seem to hinder my progress, but anybody who cares about your orphan to stop because you are pointing all over the place already sees your orphan anyway. All it does it cost you valuable time - and when we are talking about half seconds or less, you don't have any to waste!
4. Don't try to do any regular PVP in the four battlegrounds and don't expect battlegrounds to operate the same way outside of children's week.
5. Last, and most important....this cannot be stressed enough....ALWAYS HAVE YOUR ORPHAN SUMMONED WHILE IN THE BATTLEGROUND. DO NOT forget and be the one that returns the flag in EotS and doesn't have their orphan. You cannot summon after and get credit, a GM will not fix it, and you will have to do it over. SUMMON YOUR ORPHAN! You also must resummon your orphan when you die or when you lose them by going out of range.

So for those of you like me, who rarely (or never) PVP, aren't equipped or interested, and are stuck on this achievement, it is doable. And it doesn't take very long. Good luck for all those trying, and I hope to see you on your Violet Proto-Drake soon!

If this helped you, please comment to let me know and rate this up so it helps others. Thanks!

Comment by ZooBear

Two things:

1.) Do this on a lower level character if you don't have a max level, geared and experienced toon. So much easier.

2.) You can do all the other holidiay achievements on your main. You will get account-wide credit for the meta this way without the pain (and expense) of level 90 pvp.

Comment by Arietrix

Okay, so this is still the worst achievement ever, but it is doable. There are some wonderful tips in this thread that have helped me a ton, so I definitely suggest taking a look at all the other comments. Here are some things I found helpful:

1) Use a character that can stealth. For all three of the BGs where you have to steal a base/flag, it's a lot easier to do this if you have a Rogue or a Druid, even without PVP gear, they both work well enough on a BG.

2) Try to do it on a lower level. You will have a lot less competition that way. I think the lowest level you can be is 51 for AV, so if you are leveling a character just for this achievement (I'd recommend a Rogue over a Druid since Rogues are easier to play), stop on level 58-ish that way you will be one of the top levels in the group and won't have to worry about gaining level 60 and ending up on the bottom. Do as many BGs as possible while leveling so you understand the maps and how to play that character in a PVP environment. Trust me, it will make your life a lot easier.

3) Recruit friends to come with you. Beg, offer gold, whatever you need to do. I had two guildies with me for EotS and that's the only reason I managed to get that done. Ideally you want someone who has awesome DPS so they can down the enemy while you steal/return the flag/base.

4) AV: Stealth to the very last tower. It seems most people have issues with AV, it was the easiest for me to get after AB, here is how: Most teams will meet in the middle to fight. What you do is, you stick with the group until you start seeing enemies, then you stealth and stay out of their way. Stealth all the way to the enemy team's base (be careful with animals who can see stealthed) and capture the tower closest to their boss. It takes a while to walk there, especially stealthed but it's easy because everyone is fighting far away, no one is bothering guarding those towers and enemy players who are dying, are res-ing on the graveyard closest to the main fight.

5) EotS: Run for the flag, but wait while stealthed. Just like AV, most teams will meet in the middle to fight. When you get there, stay far enough so you're not hit by AOE and wait. Hopefully your team will be majority and as soon as everyone else is focused on the fight, grab the flag. If you're getting damage, keep spamming the flag until you can complete it. Once you have the flag, run for the tower that has most people from your team and ask for a healer to come with you in the chat. Also, wait for your orphan to run up to you when you go cap the flag, if the kid is too far away, the achievement will not count.

6) WG: Wait at enemy base. While sometimes the EFC (enemy flag carrier) will get killed on the way there, most of the time they will actually make it back to their base. Normally they will take the tunnel into the base and take the side door to the roof. Stealth and wait on the roof, announce on chat when you see that they are coming so you will have help taking the EFC down. Once their health is really low, stop DPSing and spam click the area above their heads, especially if you have a crappy, laggy connection like I do. This was by far the hardest for me to get just because someone else would always return the flag before I could, and mostly because of lag.

7) AB: Run to the base right away. This is the easiest one to do, so don't stress out too much. You can try running to the base closest to your spawn point right at first and get it that way. If that doesn't work, do something similar to AV. Mount up and run halfway to the next base, but when you're getting close, just stealth the rest of the way. Once you're right under the flag, click on it. It's good to have backup who can bait the enemy for you and get their attention away from the flag, but sometimes bases are just left completely unprotected, especially at lower levels.

8) Ask for help on trade. There are a lot of idiots, but there are also a lot of us who want to pay it forward and help others get the achievement.

I hope this helps, I know some tips are repeats but this is what worked for me. I'll keep checking back, so if anyone has questions, I'll do my best to answer them. But mainly, don't give up and good luck!

Comment by Anedill

I found the key to this MOST HORRIBLE ACHIEVEMENT EVER, is to do it on an alt that is not max level. I had an alt I used to PvP on at 85, and finished this achievement within an afternoon. Here's how I did this, but I assure you, it's unfair as hell but it's mostly down to luck.

WSG: Defended the flag with a few other players. I was just lucky enough to be the one clicking the flag. I guess my advice here is to start clicking when the enemy's HP is at like 5%.

AB: Here, I asked the raid "Hey guys, I'm doing the achievement, can I get stables?" and sure enough, the first one to reach stables actually rushed past to let me have it!

AV: This took by far the most time. I guess the key here is to race to the towers and try NOT TO BE THE FIRST. The first who will try to assault will aggro the mobs - leaving you to steal it out from under him!

EotS: There's a complete frenzy around the flag usually. It's funny because after some time, people get caught up into battling, they almost don't see people sneakily trying to take it! Like me! I hid 'inside' a warlock's demon who was casting something, so I guess I was hard to click!

Hope this helps even a little bit, because no-one deserves this kind of punishment. I was so happy I got, my brother in the next room was wondering why I was cheering so loudly.

One more thing; Blizzard hasn't deleted it (evidently) but it did get a lot easier now you can do it on an alt without having done the rest of the Holidays, because For The Children is account-wide now!

Comment by stevetl

Got mine on my Warrior today so this is doable. Persistence is key. As much as I hated this, I will say it made me learn how to PVP. I started as soon as MoP dropped, doing a few BGs at a time to slowly accumulate Conquest Points and be ready for this week.

I had already gotten EotS last year, mostly by pure dumb luck. I was a squishy noob back then.

AB was easy, one group let me have Stables. Done.

AV was terrible, but after about 20 tries I first to the Frostwolf towers, only to find a Hordie hanging out there who attacked me. Killed him, ran up the tower and lo and behold I was still first! (At level 90, you can run past the mobs on the towers and kill them later.) So I feel I earned this one fair and square, having killed a hordie on the way.

WG was the worst. Several times I got close. Other times the Horde pre-mades made it impossible to even get started. One time I found myself in a group of 5 that kept advancing and eventually camped the Horde graveyard; I was so caught up in that, the battle ended before I knew it. In another battle, four people got the achieve, but not me. Someone was always quicker to click on the flag. I actually earned the achievement for killing 100 flag carriers before I finished School of Hard Knocks! Returned the 101st dropped flag and I was golden. If that isn't doing it the right way, I don't know what is.

Finally, I'll say that Blizz shouldn't remove this. I hated it, we all hated it, but getting rid of it will devalue the achievement for all those that have completed it.

Comment by mizzhalo

Is this not working for anyone else (Ive seen it not working for 3 people so far today). Ive captured / etc.... orphan out all the good stuff and AV is not taking! I have screenshots etc.. This is really getting frustrating! Im 3 away from long strange trip and this girl needs help Plz & ty ((HugZ))

Comment by KharaPaws

MMMM! Okay..
I've only been playing for a little under a year and though I'm still seen as quite NEW to this game, I've picked up on PVP fairly quickly and don't TOTALLY suck at it. But this achievement.. THIS achievement is SO bad.

Though I don't HATE on PVP, I am primarily a PVE player and I think it is incredibly ridiculous for Blizz to force a greater portion of players to PVP for no truly significant reason. If by the Grace of Elune they MANAGE to get these BGs done and get this achievement, they aren't going to come back! You haven't shown them how fun BGs can be, you run them off because you've forced them into a corner and a greater percent of the time, the players have had HORRIBLY negative experiences.

I'm not even saying "DO AWAY WITH THIS ACHIEVEMENT" cus I like CW, my Orphan is adorable, but.. maybe TWEEK this to work in the favor of ALL your Players. PVPers can continue on with this headache cus they LIKE BGs and let PVEers doing something else! Maybe make the Hardknocks and Veteran Nanny achievement an EITHER/OR thing. PVEs will gladly come back year after year to get it cus they wont have to do BGs.

IDK.. That's just my take on the situation.. I know plenty of people have said the same but I just needed to say it TT_TT

Comment by DavoleBomb

I don't feel bad for anyone who is having trouble getting this and I have less sympathy if you are actively complaining about it. The vast majority of achievement in WoW require no effort or ability, just time. If you really want the Violet Proto, suck it up, get some PVP gear, learn your class, and kick some ass. If that's too much trouble for you, then play an easier game.

That said, this achievement does suck for the reasons people have already put out.

Comment by Fir3shadow

I have to agree with most people, I absolutely despise this achievement. Hell, I almost had it at one point, that is, until a priest used Life Grip to prevent me from capping the tower (AV battleground). It baffles me that a company who says they are completely against griefing would create an achievement that other players can actively prevent you from obtaining.

That said, since Achievements are now account-wide, as of the release of Mist of Pandaria, you would be better off using a Paladin or a Death Knight trying to get this achievement. If neither of these are your main character or an alt, I would suggest making a Death Knight and using him. You'll still be able to get the meta achievement.

Comment by Pyxxie

I'm literally three world event achievements away from my Violet Proto-Drake, so I would probably beat myself up if I didn't get it this year. It's been an easy run so far, and then. . . It came time for the School of Hard Knocks. I like PvP, and I consider myself to be decent at it. I hate having to wait until the last second to do this, but as a college student with final exams this past week, I barely had time to use my computer for anything but school. However, I'm a Beast Mastery Hunter with a 471 PvP item level, so surely this could go well?

Right?

The concept of the achievement isn't the hard part, if you have PvP experience. It's the players that take these battlegrounds way too seriously. Since Arathi Basin is the Call of Arms, I got in pretty fast, and posted at the very beginning in chat that I needed to assault a flag for the achievement. I was ignored five times in a row. When it was finally acknowledged, I was made fun of and called a "noob" for wanting an achievement. At that point, I accepted the fact that I was probably screwed this year, and would have to wait until the next Children's Week for my mount. What I didn't expect was the Alliance ignoring me because of my orphan. When I joined the group assaulting one of the Farm, they attacked my party and left me alone, leaving me to get my part of the achievement. Truthfully, if I saw an orphan out, I didn't shoot the player either, just because I felt it was common courtesy. I don't take this game so seriously that it impairs my personality, let alone my life. But, apparently, the person who called me a "noob" and an other stream of insults picked up on this, and got everyone to bash me and call me a "spy" because the enemy team helped me. I had to leave the group, it was so bad.

I have Eye of the Storm, Alterac Valley, and Warsong Gulch left. . . And I'm dreading it. People make this game a hellova lot harder than it has to be.

Comment by Arborcorien

The AV bg was the only thing I needed for the meta achievement last year. My comp was having lag issues so it was impossible to get to a tower fast enough to cap it. I upgraded my RAM and OS on my 2008 Macbook (which is on the edge of no longer being supported for WoW). My comp is running faster now, but I was still worried that I wouldn't get it this year. But after only a few tries, I got finally got the achievement, and am now showing off my Matron title.

This is what I did to earn the Alterac Valley portion of the achievement (which is arguably the hardest). Keep in mind I did this on my Alliance toon, though a similar strategy may work for the Horde. In the immortal words of Sweet Brown, "I raaaaan Jesus, I didn't grab no shoes or nothin' Jesus, I raaan for mah life!" Run like the &*!@ens straight to the East Frostwolf Tower. Your experience may be different, but for me it seems like more people go towards the West Tower. I also seem to encounter less guards on the East Tower. I know it's tempting to race up that thin ramp to the top, but be careful not to fall off the ramp. If you do, you'll lose more time than you would have if you were just a bit slower going up. But go as fast as you feel confident. The ramp spirals counter-clockwise up to the top. But once you get to the top, if you continue counter-clockwise you will run into mobs. It also takes longer to get into the tower where the flag is that way. Get to the top, then switch directions to go clockwise around the hut on top of the tower. You soon be inside where hopefully you will be the first to cap the flag. Just remember to have your orphan out when you do. I recommend summoning your orphan before the battle begins to make sure it's already out. Don't worry, it will keep up with you.

Oh, and after you cap the flag and complete the AV criteria for the achievement, don't be a $%^& and leave the bg. Stick around and help your team finish the battle. If you don't know the basics of Alterac Valley, check out http://www.wowwiki.com/Alterac_Valley

Comment by BoGu5

This achievement was too hard on my lvl 90 hunter. I had more luck on my lvl 78 PVE Holy Priest. Only thing I had to try multiple times is WSG (got it after 5 times). EotS, AB and AV where quite doable. Ofcouse enough luck involved ;-)

Comment by frakbt

Well, for those of you who may be wondering, this is NOT achievable by putting two teams of friends together and picking a War Game for the corresponding Battleground.

Comment by Jadira

Yikes, I won't go on and on about how frustrating this achievement can be (I think that's been pretty well covered)

I'll just say, for the love of whatever deity you prefer, don't forget to have your orphan out.

It's extremely easy to do, as I just did and would have completed the final bit for the ach if I had just set up a quick key for the dang whistle. I'll be doing this and finishing my long strange trip as soon as my bp drops from kickin myself. ;)

Comment by Manwe152

Completed this achievement this year. Warsong, Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm were done in one try. All you have to do is focus SOLELY on the actions required for the achievement. Which sucks for the people trying to win the bg, ie. follow around the flag carrier in warsong, follow the group in ab and ignore the other faction and focus on capping, and camp the flag in eye of the storm, it's an easy run from there for those with at least one pvp type doing what they should do in the the group (which I hate taking advantage of the pvp guys that are trying to win, and I'm the ahole noobing their experience up).

AV took me 15 tries. It's a race to the towers and being a Shammy, I didn't have some built in advantage. It's just luck. Rush to the second or third tower (most folks Zerg the first one or the general). Check the map to see where people are going. Hit the one with less people. Finally got lucky with one or two other people that the ally NPCs went after. Again, sucks, but at least in AV I can contribute at the end taking down the general.

Comment by Nessalina

So this achievement is over for another year, but I thought I'd post my experience to help those trying next year...
As a Level 89 PVE Frost Mage who likes to play solo and has few in game pals, this achievement is pretty much my idea of hell, and I went through the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth before deciding to knuckle down and get on with it.
Let me be clear - if you want that drake, then you need to put the time in, and I assure you, it doesn't matter how little PvP experience you have, it doesn't matter if you don't have a mob of guildies to help you, just keep trying - you CAN do this!
My bible for this achievement was Cynwise's School of Hard Knocks Guide (google it, it won't let me post a link) which is a few years old (April 2010) but comes with good practical advice and You Tube video guides with soothing voiceovers. I won't regurgitate what he says here, but read the page, it has 80% of what you need to know, and I advise that you try the BGs in the order he talks about them.
After following his advice I did Arathi Basin, Alterac Valley & Eye of the Storm on my first trys, but then the nightmare of Warsong Gulch began...
This is the only BG task that you have very little control over, especially as a PVE-specced clothie. The others you're picking up flags and capturing bases which is not so bad with quick feet & brains, but WSG involves teamwork.
To get the achievement your flag has to be in the hands of the enemy already. If that player dies, the flag drops and stands in the ground - if an enemy clicks it they pick it back up, but if someone on your team clicks on it, it zips straight back to base. To get this achievement YOU have to be the one to click it. Easier said than done in a frantic melee where everyone wants to click that flag!
The basic premise of WSG is this - you have to capture the enemy flag and run it back to your base, but you only get a 'cap' for it, if they *haven't* got our flag. I figured as a BG noob that the most sensible strategy would be for half our team to wait by our flag to stop them taking it, whilst half our team go get their flag, but this is not what happens. In fact when the whistle blows, everyone runs from our base to the enemy base to get their flag, and they run to ours. So both teams have the enemy flag but can't 'cap' because their flag is captive. This happened pretty much every one of the 15 runs I did. Once they've got our flag they have to get it back to their base, and this is where you have to try to stick to them like glue - you can see the location of our flag on the map, and if you (or your harder team mates more likely) kill them, then the flag will zip back and then our carrier of the enemy flag can cap and we win. More importantly, hopefully it will be you than clicks it back.
I was present for probably 20 or so Enemy Flag Carrier kills, but it's the clicking that's hard - sometimes by the time the flag has faded into visibility someone has already clicked it - lag can be a real issue here. Your best bet is for the fight to be taking place in an enclosed space - their flag room is ideal if you can lead a posse with a tank up there to ambush the EFC - set the tank on them and have health bars up so that you can see when the EFCs health is failing. When they are very close to death then stop whatever you are doing/killing and focus. Keep the EFC still with CC if possible and bubble up in some way if you can so YOU don't die, and then wait... As they die the flag is dropped, but don't wait to see it, just be ready hovering over them with your mouse and you will see a gold cog appear - right-click. And fingers crossed you'll be the first to click it!
The real key is if at first you don't succeed, try try and TRY again. Good luck! :-)

Comment by S1lv3rw0lf

lol this achiv is super easy, you dont need to be good to do any of these things. just be discreet and dont play like a scrub who doesn't know what the **** he's doing

Comment by Ticj

For those having trouble with the AV part, because you are a Non DK/Pally, then try getting a friend who is one of those classes with a motorcycle (or any other 2-person mount) so they can drive you to one. In my experience, the first two towers are usually taken, but if done right you can make it to the last 2 at the bottom of the map (top if you are horde) so you can grab the flag.

Comment by Ooko

Oh boy. I understand the crying about The Lion Roars, it's a must-have PvE item that requires PvP.

Crying about this? Please. It's for purely cosmetic rewards. If you don't like it, don't do it and don't get your proto-drake. Nobody is forcing you to do this and you won't be at a disadvantage because you don't have another proto-drake recolor in your mount collection.

Comment by Sesshoumaru

Tip for free for paladins: use Hand of Protection on your teammates so they won't be able to capture the flags! ♫ Ooonly you! ♫ Easy mode ON ;-D

Comment by tmelton

yet again blizzard forces you to do something you hate just for a mount last time it was for a 600 cloak i dont like pvp i hate pvp but yet again blizzard never ever listens to me they must be deaf thats like having someone force you to do something againist your will for some candy i think this achievement just made my mind up to quit playing wow

Comment by maely

The Arathi Basin one is really easy if you're an engineer (goblin glider). You can pop it right at the start of the bg, and you'll be miles ahead of even the Paladins/DKs to that first flag. The goblin glider/rocket boots also come in handy in AV if you use it to jump off the ledge at a good point.

Comment by firefreezer3

just ONE problem, change or make this PVP achievement allot easier, or like all the other holiday achievements. Working towards the mount reward all year and not fair to have one nearly impossible one to do, hope they change this. So that maybe we win a certain amount of btg or play a certain amount.

Comment by Skibobbers

This is absolutely possible to complete even as a hardcore PVEr, even on the first day of the event... it just requires some patience and determination. I found it extremely helpful to recruit some guildies for help; if you know anyone who can help at all, even as a distraction while you grab the achievements, bring them along. Vent was helpful as well, but isn't required by any means.

WSG is the easiest one; just camp at your base and wait for someone to come in and grab. During the event, a lot of people will be waiting in the base with you, so it's easy to overpower people and return the flag. I got it after about four tries in one battleground.

AB was the second-easiest. Basically you have to keep assaulting any bases you can and hope that you can complete it within the timer before the opposite faction interrupts. It's a matter of luck, but I was still able to do it in the first BG. If you're fast at the start, you'll be able to grab it right off the bat; don't go for your closest base, but one of the middle ones first.

EotS was the third easiest, but you may need help. Run to the center of the battleground with most of the group and get someone to AoE the center so the opposite faction can't grab the flag. Have some people take out enemy AoErs. Then, spam the center flag until you can get it, and run back to your base. A speed boost really helps if you've got it. Having some friends to coordinate this is very helpful, but not necessary. I was the third person to grab the flag out of four who earned the achievement; first battleground again.

AV was the hardest for me. I do play Horde, might have something to do with it. It took five tries, even with help. We tried multiple strategies, but in the end it's mostly just a race to who gets to each tower first. If you don't cap a tower early, it's unlikely you'll get one in the rest of the match. One strategy is get someone with a 2-seater and a mount speed boost who can get you to the SECOND furthest tower quickly; not many people go for that one off the bat so you have a better chance to get there first in my experience. I managed to get this on the third furthest tower out of sheer dumb luck; Alliance had capped it right as me and my friend were the only ones there.

If you run into helpful members of the enemy faction, you are extremely lucky. I got specifically targeted by lots of people because of my orphan. Just stay determined, keep queuing, and you'll get this. Good luck!

Comment by markzim

As a PVPer, i really hope they remove this achievement soon. This holiday makes battlegrounds completely unplayable, having your entire team sitting in mid while you get four capped in EOTS, or having your entire team turtle the flag room in WSG, its all extremely stupid. The week PVErs ruin PVP.

Comment by wowogamer

Stealth, Invisibility and Shadowmeld: Does it affect your Orphan?
Ever wondered, if your orphan turned into stealth when your rogue or druid turned into stealth? Or if your orphan became invisible when your mage used Invisibility/Greater Invisibility, or one of your toons drank an Invisibility potion?

From your own point of view the orphan always looks the same, that is, totally visible. There are no stealth or invisibility animations for the orphans, so it is hard to know for sure what it looks like for other players.

The short answer is: Players you are grouped with will see your orphan exactly as you see it, that is, as being totally visible all the time. But what about players you are not grouped with, not least enemy players in AB, AV, EotS and WSG? Out of curiosity I did the test on several of my toons, on two different accounts, and this is what I found out (which, in turn, is the long answer):

Stealth/Vanish and orphans
When you go into stealth, and your orphan is out, the orphan will also become stealthed. Your orphan will become stealthed with a small delay, that is, 2-3 sec after your toon disappears from sight. From your own point of view you cannot see any change at all with your orphan, but for all other players that are not grouped with you, your orphan will disappear from sight.

In other words: As a stealth class, don’t hesitate to have your orphan out at all times in BG’s, as it won’t reveal you when you are stealthed. Tested on a druid and a rogue.

Vanish works like stealth, so your orphan will vanish with a 2-3 seconds delay.

Beware: If you activate or de-activate your orphan when stealthed, it will break your stealth!

Shadowmeld and orphans
Night Elfs beware: If you Shadowmeld, your orphan will NOT Shadowmeld, but remain visible!

Mage’s Invisibility (base ability) and Greater invisibility (talent) and orphans
Works like Stealth/Vanish: Your orphan will become invisible a few seconds after your mage.

With “Invisibility” it takes 3 seconds for your Mage to disappear from sight. After your mage has become totally invisible (after 3 seconds), it will take a few more seconds for your orphan to disappear – so that is about 4-5 seconds total for your orphan to disappear from sight.

With “Greater Invisibility” your Mage will become invisible instantly, but it will still take a few seconds (2-3 sec) for your orphan to disappear from sight after your Mage has become invisible.

So Greater Invisibility is the fastest way to get your orphan invisible, as it takes 2-3 seconds from you activate “Greater Invisibility”, whereas it takes 4-5 seconds for your orphan to become invisible from you activate “Invisibility”. (Disclaimer: Latency may be part of what I measured, so other players might get different results, but I’m just reporting what I experienced when testing on two different accounts on the same PC.)

Beware: If you activate or de-activate your orphan when invisible, it will break your invisibility!

Invisibility Potions and orphans
Invisibility Potions will NOT make your orphan invisible! And it goes for both “Invisibility Potions” and “Lesser Invisibility Potions”. So don’t use these, if you want to go unnoticed in a BG with your orphan out.

Comment by Reqquuiiem

Ok, this nonsense of making PVP a requisite for this YEAR-LONG achievement is buuuuuuuullsheeeit. Nice foooking' job, Blizzard team. Either change it and give an alternative to the "School of Hard Knocks" or go eat a bag of d's. I don't play PVP anymore because I find it frustrating; I just like to play the game for fun. So, thanks for making this nearly impossible for those of us who are forced into playing PVP while we pay your salaries. Most people are casual gamers, and being that this achievement takes so long to finish, introducing a PVP necessity in order to finish it is beyond ludicrous.

PS---this isn't bypassing any profanity filter, sound fair, Sas148?

Comment by Sas148

I really freaked out on this achievement, as I don't like PvP and have no PvP gear, but I completed it on the first day. The first step is to know what to do and where to do it before the battle begins. In AV it is most confusing since for the Horde the towers are named Bunkers instead, other than that it is fairly straightforward. Learn the actual process and cross your fingers. For non PvPers it doesn't matter if you are successful in actually controlling it for your team--that is, if you assault a flag but the other team defends it you still get credit since its the actual process that awards it.

Lots of other people will want it to, and lots of other people hate achievements and will try and spite you. I even had trolls who completed the achievement before me but still took the flags away from me, shouting "SORRY" in caps while they did it. Just keep at it.

A mini-guide below, though its mostly been stated by others on this page.
For AV stealth classes have an advantage though. I was able to stealth into the alliance base and capture a tower inside while the rest of my team fought over the commonly assaulted towers and fought randomly over graveyards.

Warsong gulch is a button mashing and hoping that some crowd control doesn't throw you away. (I now hate druids after this). Some people click the flag before the gear even shows up but again takes patience. If you have no PvP gear you have to hope that you can "steal" the dropped flag after your PvP geared team takes the flag carrier out.

Arathi is simple enough, as there are 5 possible flag targets that satisfy the criteria. Defending a flag does not count (that is, if you previously had control but the other team is trying to take it; for the horde this base will be half blue, for alliance half red). Though if no team controls it then it will count.

Eye of the storm is probably the easiest but only if the opposing team isn't full of "noobs" that randomly skirmish in the middle. Just take that flag before someone else (spam right click over its spawn point if others are around) and take it to one of your bases, hope you don't get wrecked on the way.

Good luck.

Comment by snowgirl468

Anyone having problems getting "Assault a tower in Alterac Valley" part of "School of Hard Knocks"?

I did AV numerous times last night (with my orphan out) and still have not received the credit. I helped take over - burned a tower, assigned an ally flag to horde, killed bosses etc.

This is the ONLY thing I need for the meta achiv!

Is there something I am missing? Is it a bug? Any ideas? Please help! I don't want to wait another year!

Thanks all!

Comment by rinjalie

Does anyone know if it matters WHICH orphan you have out when trying to get this achievement? For example, does it have to be my Stormwind orphan, or can it be my Northrend orphan?

Comment by babneri

This is getting ridiculous! I have been trying since Children's week started to get these battleground achievements in all PVE gear. It almost has nothing to do with the gear you have, but more on the amount of people trying to also get the achievements as well! This is my last of the Achievements to get the Violet Proto Drake too :/ Cmon Blizzard why you do this to us?

Comment by traumatic

All joking and QQ'ing aside, this achievement isn't any easier for PvP'ers than it is for those who never PvP. Gear and skill do not seem to matter much at all. What matters is being in the right place at the right time.
Stick it out and make sure you're doing the correct thing. Read all of the comments posted here on how to do the achievement. All of these comments together give you some really great tips on how to make it. I LIKE and participate in PvP to the point where people say, "Oh, he just mostly does PvP." when they talk about me and it took me 2 years to get this achievement.
Seriously, stay with it and keep plugging away and you WILL make it.
When I see people in there with their orphans out I always try my best to help them. Of course, I'm not the only one who does that. I've even seen the other faction help out wayyy more than once.
You can do it.

Comment by maddanhansson

And there goes years of work. It´s not only you have to pvp in general or win a battle; you have to compete with hundreds (if not thousands, if you try for a week) of others for one single specific capture. That is a great element of luck in this achievement. I waited to complete the achievement to get my violet proto drake for a year but I have to realize it´s not going to happen. Ever. I just dont have the diligence or the time to spam bgs for an entire week, waiting to maybe get lucky.

Comment by Pitya

Does anyone knows if you can get this achievement in war games? I mean premade groups (one horde, one ally) let the members get the achievement? I think 2 hour enough to get all of them for both team, and everyone will be happy...

Comment by maely

Just found out the hard way in WSG that you have to re-summon your orphan every time you die in order to get credit for this achievement.

Luckily, I was able to return two flags in the same battleground. Got all four parts of this achieve on the first try. (I'm a PVEr not PVPer.)

Comment by morleena

I have this achievement, and I still want it removed from What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been.

Comment by TamiayTheGnome

This one is easy, Think of it this way, when does anyone else on your team ever do things right in a battleground?

Comment by RufusHonkerIV

It is worth pointing out that folks in Battlegrounds are a little more forgiving than normal during children's week. Keep at it - you will eventually find a battleground where the other faction will see your child out and cut you a break. Try to play late or during the day when kids are in school and adults are playing.

I was dreading this achievement but was pleased to get it in one evening. Yes, I died a bunch and there were idiots out there, but thank you to all the Horde who stayed their hand to I could get my achievements - and to the Horde I let get theirs, you're welcome.

School of Hard Knocks

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