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What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

Complete the world events achievements listed below.

Criteria

	To Honor One's Elders
	Noble Gardener
	The Flame Warden/Keeper
	The Flame Warden
	The Flame Keeper
	Hallowed Be Thy Name

	Fool For Love
	For The Children
	Brewmaster
	Merrymaker

Rewards

You will receive:

	Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake

Guides

Children's
Week
(April 28 - May 5)

Feast of Winter
Veil
(December 16 - January 2)

Love is in the
Air (February
10 - February 24)

Lunar
Festival (January
20 - February 3)

Midsummer Fire
Festival
(June 21 - July 5)

Mount Collecting: The
Completionist Guide

Noblegarden Guide
(April 21 - 28)

Pilgrim's
Bounty (November
25 - December 2)

The Entitled: A
Guide to Titles

Comments

Comment by fragmonkey

Named after a Grateful Dead compilation album.

The title of the compilation comes from one of Robert Hunter's most famous lyrics, the line from "Truckin'": Lately it occurs to me: What a long, strange trip it's been.

Comment by dhomeli

Here's the look of the Proto-Drake: Image Link

Comment by Tyrsenus

As it currently stands, players will not be able to complete this achievement until September 20th, 2009 at the earliest, when Brewfest 2009 begins. ~~All new characters, including death knights, will be unable to complete this achievement until September 2010 at the earliest.~~

Update: Brew of the Year was removed as a requirement for this achievement in patch 3.1. Players can now complete the achievement in one year.

Comment by Mumpley

This Achievment could very well take a few years to complete. Knowing very casual or strict players,many usually hold-off on paying for more Game Time when it expires. An average player would pay for a 30$ Game Card once every 2 months. And since theres practically a Holiday every 2 months or so,especially during Fall-Winter Seasons Desperate Players wouldn't want to miss out on any Holiday and wait next year. Do the basic math and the 'average' person will spend 180$ a year,possibly more just to complete this achievment.

Now if It's worth the reward,then go for it. =)

This However will not apply towards Hardcore Players or anyone that endlessly pays for Wow. =P

Comment by tehMurloc

Events are as following:

Comment by Aqualung

The name of this achievement is a nod towards the track Truckin' by The Grateful Dead (who by the way started life as The Warlocks). The band are well known for their live shows, eclectic sound, extraordinarily dedicated fans known as 'Deadheads', and drug culture. Many LSD prints feature art from the bands album covers.

The lyrics "What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been" were supposedly used as a metaphor for the bands troubles on the road and how they adapted to them. Similar to the aggro we're in for in trying to obtain this achievement - clever Blizz. Although one can't help thinking that it may be a reference to a different kind of 'Trip'.

It's good to know that there's possibly Deadheads working at Blizz!

Comment by tekr

alot of people don't know that the violent proto-drake is a 310% mount. so it's worth waiting a year for

Comment by shizniticus

I noticed Blizzard has now added Noble Gardener to the requirements for this achievement. So now, everyone who's been doing the achievements since Merrymaker, have to wait longer than a year since it was first announced?

I ask because I didnt start focusing on these seasonal achievements until Elders. So i figured I'd be getting the mount a few months after the first people who did every achievement since Merrymaker. Now it looks like everyone is back to square one...and has to wait a year from today, unless of course Blizzard adds another requirement somewhere down the line.....

Comment by Arowico

These are the level requirements for the World Event Achievements:

Lunar Festival ------------------- 80
Love is in the Air --------------- 80
Noble Garden ------------------- 1
Children's Week --------------- 75
Midsummer Fire Festival --- 55
Brewfest -------------------------- 40
Hallow's End -------------------- 25
Winter Veil ---------------------- 70

Comment by Nema

also a reference to "that 70's show"
season 4 episolde 12 (ep. 96 from the begning of the show)
"It's been a long, strange journey...in Forman's basement!"
http://www.tv.com/that-70s-show/class-picture/episode/129027/summary.html

Comment by jappiekees

I love that mount. unfortunately i missed noble garden and childrens week this year. Does anyone know if this mount gets removed like the plagued and black protodrake? would hate to miss this one

Comment by Lebeline

Anyone else think that this achievement should also grant the title 'the Traveler'? After everything we have to do to get the Proto-Drake it just seems fitting.

Comment by whosurdady

Well , paladins already have a 310% mount (crusader aura) or ,(non paladins) arena end season mounts :) ,or both (310% + 20% aura) but I , as a rogue want that mount :D

Comment by Sharitha

On the PTR it looks like they're revamping the Harvest Festival, or whatever fest is the one that's based on Tanksgiving Day. In addition, I've seen a few other World Events Achievements: one based on the day of the deads and another about the Pirate Day. While I'm happy to see new achievements being added, I'd like to ask to someone who's on the PTR if there's any chance that the new Meta Achievements will be added? This way, the people (Like me) who just need a few Brewfest achievements for the drake would be sort of shafted. I don't want to farm like a crazy every day for a new meta achievement as it was for Noblegarden.

Comment by Nulgar

Here's the mail you get upon completion, at least Horde side (yes, it's two times "remeber")

With the drums of war pounding in the distance, it is easy for the denizens of Azeroth to forget all that life has to offer.

You, on the other hand, have mainteind the dignity of the good races of Azeroth with your ability to remeber what we fight for. To not celebrate our victories is another form of defeat. Remeber that well, reveler.

May others be inspired by your good cheer.

Alexstrasza the Life-Binder

Comment by Buddits

I missised the first day can i still get brewmaster title?

Comment by Fonjask

Once completed, Alexstrasza the Life-Binder will instantly send you a mail saying the following:

With the drums of war pounding in the
distance, it is easy for the denizens of
Azeroth to forget all that life has to
offer.

You, on the other hand, have
maintained the dignity of the good races
of Azeroth with your ability to remeber
what we fight for. To not celebrate our
victories is another form of defeat.
Remeber that well, reveler.

May others be inspired by your good cheer,

Alexstrasza the Life-Binder

And yes, remeber is a Blizz typo (2x).

Comment by Htipiti

As of September 20th, 2009, this Drake is now obtainable. Granted, you must have completed all the Hollidays up to this point, but Brewfest, the final holliday, has been released and it can be obtained NOW.

Comment by TheAshenVerdict

i posted this a couple weeks ago, not noticing that this achievement was split between the Horde and the Alliance, so here you go:

To earn this achievement you must meet the following requirements:

You must be Level 80 (heroic Gun'drak elder in the Lunar Festival)
You must have access to Dalaran (many)
You must have access to Naxxramas (I Pitied the Fool, Love is in the air)
You must have access to several 5 man dungeons, from old Azeroth to Northrend.
You must have the ability to perform well in battlegrounds/pvp (many)
You must have 325 cooking (The Winterveil Gourmet, Winter veil)
You must have a lot of time (even if you subtract that months of total time without events, during each event you must spend a lot of time chasing achievements.)
You must have the willingness to travel EVERYWHERE.

Comment by spyvingen

finnaly i made it how do i get my drake does it come in mail?

Comment by indore

This final achievement name pays homage to one of Jeff Kaplan's aka Tigole (A lead developer for Blizzard) update from his former life in EQ as a "reporter" from Legacy of Steel. You can find his titled 11/18/00 update here: http://www.legacyofsteel.net/oldsite/arc94.html

Also as a fun fact there are a number of NPCs in Dalaran named after Legacy of Steel members.

Comment by Ethesis

This is an achievement that awards mages and teleportation. I've been amazed at how much faster this has been going for my mage than it was going for my 'lock. With the warlock the quests were too much work. With the mage, the daily quests are a pleasure.

Comment by Tarkovskij

What a long strange trip it's been... in Forman's basement.

Comment by frizzle

You must be Level 80 ~~(heroic Gun'drak elder in the Lunar Festival)~~

The elder has moved to the room with the Drakkari Colossus and is accessible on normal mode.

Editted to be more correct, thank you brionl.

Comment by Jasmynne

I just got my Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake in the mail, which was well worth the insane amount of time I spent working on holiday achievements, plus it gets me that much closer to the Mountain o' Mounts achievement and the Blue Dragonhawk that comes with it. GL to everyone working on the achievement! =)

Comment by warpollo

for me this will also get a title named (name) the violet rider! that will be cool :P

Comment by Toxicstrike

Thanks to 16h queues in "School of Hard Knocks" I lost a whole year of achievements and will be able to get the Proto Only on 2011's Children's Week.

Comment by JackaBdB

A Lot of People are asking me if this achievement is hard and theres a simple answer: no its not its just consuming a lot of time especially if you miss 1 of the events that require you to go around the entire world (Haloween, Lunar Festival, Flame Warden ) . Some of the Achievements can get a little tricky but its still doable even for ppl who havent got full ICC gear or so :)

GL to all who want to be a Proud owner of the Violet Proto Drake :D

JackBdB

Comment by Thistlefur

AS of 4.01 this is just a diffrent skin it is not or does not give you 310% mount speed. We should all submit a request that the reward for thei long hard achievement be the mount and a tome to learn the mount speed riding skill.

Comment by Isolte

Yay! I spoke too soon! *Deletes her last comment*. XD

From Zarhym (blue poster) here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?sid=1&topicId=27187849344&pageNo=28

Q u o t e:
"I have a slight update to spread to the masses. We are going to be adding a hotfix for the achievement What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. This hotfix will make it so that obtaining the Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake will award players Master riding.

The way in which 310% will be awarded is going to be a little quirky at first, but we plan to make it a more smooth process in a future patch. For now, you will need 280% flying in order to learn to use the Violet Proto-Drake. Once you mount the drake for the first time it will teach Master riding. The only catch is that you have to dismount and mount the drake again in order for 310% speed to take effect."

Comment by Freila

I only need Merrymaker (PvP part), Love Fool and children's week, so I'll be getting those instead of paying 5000g. Yeah, I'm a cheapskate too.

Comment by zahoan

I just obtained Violet Proto Drake from what a long strange ... achiev

You will gain Master Riding only after you mount the Proto Drake

I don't know if it applies for other Proto Drakes but it sure does for this one, as Blizzard said it's a hot fix ( for the momment)

Comment by mrgummage

It is worth noting that this achievement also now grants Master Riding, if you have not yet learned it. If you are close to getting this and want to save 5000g, consider holding out on buying Master Riding.

Comment by Mabaroshi

What I wonder now is if I get this on an alt with regular 150% flying, will it suddenly be rocketed to 310? if so I'm going to need to do this on alot of alts...

Comment by TbeL

If I were to complete this achievement at a level <80 would I still get the master riding skill even though it has a req. level of 80?

Comment by HieiVulcan

If you get this achievement before you have epic flying, and you get master riding from it, do you get epic flying as well? If so, this could save me 8k just to wait a while to finish this meta

Comment by zorati

Alas... I triumped over Omen, prevented the next Ice Age, and got drunk like a frat-boy at a Stag Party. I saved the stupid Reindeer, and picked up hidden Eggs like a little Pamsy. And all I can say is boy... What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been.

Comment by shardsofpower

This might be a stupid question and I'm sure the answer is no but just thought I'd ask anyway. If you already have Master Riding do you get a gold reward instead?

Comment by Solaire

As you probably know now, if you still play, the mount is still available. I hope you got it! :)

Comment by Solaire

I'm under the assumption that the reason you have to mount on it before earning Master riding, is because the physical mount (proto-drake) is 310% and it is the actual thing that gives you 310% (it's not just bestowed for getting the WALSTIB achievement) on all your other mounts.

Comment by Phobu

in game the achievement says it gives master riding (the skill) what if you don't have the riding skill below that? Does it just give you that skill and master riding or what?

Comment by Geecko

This achievement also gives you Master Riding if you don´t already have it. Nice to know.

Comment by Warhamer117

You need Cataclysm expansion in order to complete this achievement.
Mainly due to the fact that some of the necessary achievements require you to be over lvl 80 (like Brewfest etc)
Just FYI, you can't get it with WotLK anymore.
:(

Comment by Waddafack

So... I will get my 4000 gold from Master riding back, once I complete this achievement... right?

Comment by Hexanite

So, I just picked up the "WaLSTiB" achieve on a couple of alts during Children's Week.

There seems to be some discussion concerning how the Master Riding bonus works. When you finally get the WaLSTiB achieve, go check your mailbox. In your mailbox is Reins of the Violet Proto-Drake. In order to use this item, you MUST have Artisan Riding. So, you cannot get "two-free" riding levels. You need to shell out the gold for Aristan Riding. It also says, "Upon first mounting, a character without Master Riding will learn Master Riding." Once you pull the drake from your mailbox, add it to your mount collection and then mount up. As soon as your mount, you will get Breaking The Sound Barrier. If you already paid for Master riding, you do NOT get a refund.

Enjoy the drake and faster flying speed.

Comment by I3rawler

This just in the latest MoP beta build:

World Events
What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been Rewards: Violet Proto-Drake ~~and Master Riding.~~

Any other sad pandas? (pun not quite intended)

(Source: MMO-Champion)

Comment by julienpdx

as of today (8/3/2012); the current beta has removed the Master Riding component as a reward for completing this achievement

Comment by rasbabz

As of Mists of Pandaria, this achievement only rewards you with a title and a mount. You will no longer be awarded with 310% flying.

Comment by Derren

Thats sux, 1year and they cant even give us master riding?

Even if the mount do award you master riding (they can simply put a "artisan riding req") and reward master riding to all your characters, so what? You spent 1year doing this.

Comment by Jeolene

Just a quick note that I'm passing along, if you're finishing achievements for this after MoP has been released and you have not received your drake in the mail, fear not, look in your mounts folder and it should be there. I had a ticket open and was about to rage about yet another glitch until I was looking for another mount and passed by it. I had forgotten that mounts are now automatically added to your account if not purchased through a vendor (though that would be nice too... curse those turtles :P). So look again and make sure you didn't miss it because there is nothing that will notify you that you got it.

Comment by skatterbrain

The tooltips say this achievement is based on account-wide progress--so, if I have four holidays on one toon and four on another, all complete, do I get the WaLSTiB achievement?

Comment by yissu2707

Well I finally got this achievement today. After a strongly worded email to blizzzard ref hard of school knocks, I dusted of my pvp gear and give it a go! Got all 4 in about 2 hours of game play. It was hard as a mage but I had luck. Eots was easy. Everyone just capped and made sure we all got it. Assaulting Tower took a while. Def worth going straight for furthest away ones! As for Wsg..I just hung around flag room and then owned the fg with loads of frost :-D well worth the wait

Comment by robinlight74

So how long does it normally take to do all the achievements for this mount? And also I don't know what half of these things even are? Lunar festival?

Comment by Manaplz

I earned this achievement on 4/4/10 on my BE Mage. It was a glorious day in WoW for me as it was the culmination of a solid year of hard effort. I went through a lot of IRL problems and there were many times I would only log in for the world events. Now that I finally have my Violet Proto, it's the one I ride almost exclusively. I am most happy that Blizz made the mounts account wide as I can now show off my mount on any toon I want too. For those of you struggling to finish this, do it. The gratification of getting what I consider one of the most time intensive achievements done is great. Although it would have been easier if it was like it is now where you don't have to complete it all on one toon. :)

Comment by Cabbos

Takes 1 year, Hard :P.

Comment by Machinea

Can you guys update me on something on this achive?
All achives are now account wide, just like mounts and so... So why don't all the chars get the max speed flight perk?

Comment by globalgirl1977

***CAUTION***

A STRONG word of caution before you embark on this Achievement:

...if you like WoW holidays and don't want them to become work...
...if you don't want to try and try and try and be crushed beyond measure when the holiday ends and you didn't get that last flag in EotS or the last Elder in Outlands or whatever trivial small detail you missed that has caused you to now have to wait another full year before having a hope of achieving this milestone...
...if you don't like the idea of all future holidays actually not really being that interesting anymore (particularly because Blizzard hasn't added anything new or spectacular in a very long time)...

----------------------------> Recommendation: Don't pursue this one! <-----------------------------------------------------

I have had the What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been Achievement for over a year now and I can assure you, while having a relatively rare mount is cool, WoW holidays have been ruined for me and, generally, just make me sad now.

Seriously consider whether you want to feel that way and, perhaps, leave this on the "never-never" pile.

NB: No, I'm not saying this because I want the mount to stay rare-ish. I really think this one can take a significant portion of the fun out of holidays and playing.

Comment by Peanut502

Where there's a will, there's a way.

As a proud owner of this achievement and mount since 5/2/10, I would like to share with you my troubles and joys.

It all started when I had my first character, a DK that literally couldn't beat a fresh 80 elemental shaman. (Keep in mind this was wrath of the lich king era)

I was so bad, it was a shame for me to play that character, but I blame it mainly on the fact that I was fourteen years old, naive, and didn't have enough play time to learn and master a class.

Okay, maybe I did. But I instead spent that time going for What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been.

It was that dang flying speed! 60% flying speed! Can you even remember that? 60% flying speed was SOO slow it burned your brain to fly around at that speed!

I learned that you are INSTANTLY granted 310% flying speed, just for earning this achievement!

I went hard. After a year of sneaking onto my laptop in my dark, quiet room in the middle of the night, my journey was done. Of course, it didn't come without hardships.

My step dad was completely against world of warcraft, so I had to deal with him constantly barging into my room as I made my last few precious seconds of a ram race for brewfest, or an enemy faction bonfire for midsummer festival.

In fact, it wasn't until brewfest that he had caught me... Three months of no WoW. Do you know what that does to an addicted 14 year old?

It's okay, now. I have the drake. All is well. Good luck to all :)

Comment by Coldpaw

What a long, stressful trip it's been. I'm just glad I'm finally done.

Comment by Takkana

This achievement almost made me cry :) Too bad this trip is over.
Hoping for more events in future, thank you for fun, Blizzard!

What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been

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