by Allison Robert

This year, the Midsummer Fire Festival will go live at 3:00 am server time , June 21st and will run through 3:00 am Sunday, July 4th. While it doesn’t outwardly appear to be a very time-intensive holiday — the meta, awarding the Flame Warden title to Alliance players and Flame Keeper title to Horde players, consists of only six achievements — three of them will have you trekking all over the world.

We don’t believe that the holiday has changed significantly from its 2009 incarnation (if it has, the information hasn’t become available yet), but there have been a few changes to how you’ll do some of the achievements, and the holiday’s boss, Lord Ahune, also has an updated loot table. Consequently, I’ve updated and expanded our 2009 guide to reflect the changes we’re aware of.

Altered achievements

First things first; how you do Ice the Frost Lord has almost certainly changed from its 2008 and 2009 versions:

Ice the Frost Lord

Lord Ahune was a fairly easy fight in both 2008 and 2009, and we don’t think the encounter itself has changed. However, he’ll probably be inaccessible to anyone who isn’t using the dungeon finder. Before patch 3.3.3, Blizzard indicated its interest in having players queue for holiday bosses solely through the dungeon finder. Upon completion of the encounters, players receive a bag containing special holiday items from the boss once — and only once — per day. You can queue and farm the boss as much as you want for their regular drops (i.e. cloaks, necks, rings, etc.), but you’ll only get one crack at a pet or mount per day. The intent is to cut down on the endless resummoning of holiday bosses that players have been able to manage by press-ganging a huge line of alts. While I’m having trouble locating the blue post where this was stated, I also believe the drop rate on mounts/pets has been raised to compensate for only getting one chance a day.

Since this system is supposed to have gone into effect for patch 3.3.3, it should be live in the game when Lord Ahune becomes available (although of course we won’t know for sure until the Festival starts). When the holiday goes live, I’ll be around to snap a pic of how you queue for the boss and update our guide.

Otherwise, Ahune should be the same fight with the addition of an updated ilevel 232 loot table. The quest chain that leads to slaying him starts with Earthen Ring Elders located around city fires everywhere. However, you need to be at least 65 to get the follow-up quest to head to Outland, then queue for the encounter through the dungeon finder and kill Ahune. Ahune will drop an item (group loot) that starts Shards of Ahune, rewarding you with your choice of tabards (the blue Tabard of Summer Skies or the reddish Tabard of Summer Flames) and 20 Burning Blossoms.

Additional information:

• Suspected 2010 cloak drops: Frostscythe of Lord Ahune (ilevel 232 spellpower staff), Icebound Cloak (ilevel 232 tanking cloak), The Frost Lord’s War Cloak (ilevel 232 agility-based physical DPS cloak), The Frost Lord’s Battle Shroud (ilevel 232 strength-based physical DPS cloak), Shroud of Winter’s Chill (ilevel 232 caster cloak with crit and haste), Cloak of the Frigid Winds (ilevel 232 caster cloak with haste and spirit).
• Other drops: Enchant Weapon — Deathfrost and the Scorched Stone noncombat pet. UPDATE: The Scorchling noncombat pet isn’t available this year per Blizzard poster Aredek. In its place we’re seeing the Frigid Frostling pet drop.
• Will Ahune drop earlier ilevel 110 cloak/necks for lower-level players?: We’re not sure yet, so stay tuned.

Unchanged achievements (we think)

The following should be mostly unchanged from the holiday’s 2008 and 2009 versions. I’ve updated and clarified 2009 achievement guide to reflect what happened last year.
The Fires of Azeroth (Alliance) and The Fires of Azeroth (Horde)

The Fires of Azeroth encompasses each faction’s Flame Keeper of the Eastern Kingdoms, Flame Keeper of Kalimdor, and Flame Keeper of Outland achievements. It requires a lot of legwork and travel time, but should be easily doable for any character with a full set of flight paths. If you don’t have a full set of flight paths, now would be a great time to get them; the vast majority of the Midsummer fires are within a few seconds’ walk of a flightmaster. For all new players, in order to “honor” or “desecrate” a fire, all you need to do is right-click on it.

Big thanks are due here to Wowwiki, which had an enormously helpful set of coordinates for each fire. The sites for honoring flames aren’t the same for the Alliance and the Horde, so I’ve split them up for the convenience of each character’s faction. However — as you’ll note from the Desecration achievement following this — you still need to know about the other factions’ fires in order to complete Flame Keeper.

The 2009 Midsummer Fire Festival was initially bugged, and players were unable to honor or desecrate any fire that they’d visited in 2008. Although Blizzard was able to fix it, hopefully it won’t happen this year.

Alliance fires

Flame Keeper of the Eastern Kingdoms: There are 14 Alliance fires in the Eastern kingdoms, located in:

• Arathi Highlands — Refuge Point at 50,44

• Blasted Lands — Nethergarde Keep at 58,17

• Burning Steppes — Morgan’s Vigil at 81,63

• Dun Morogh — Kharanos at 46,47

• Duskwood — Darkshire at 73,54

• Elwynn Forest — Goldshire at 43,63

• Hillsbrad Foothills — Southshore at 50,47

• Loch Modan — Thelsamar at 32,40

• Redridge Mountains — Lakeshire at 26,60

• Stranglethorn Vale — Booty Bay at 33,74

• The Hinterlands — Aerie Peak at 14,50

• Wetlands — Menethil Harbor at 13,47

• Western Plaguelands — Chillwind Camp at 43,82

• Westfall –Sentinel Hill at 55,52

Alliance — Flame Keeper of Kalimdor: There are 11 Alliance fires in Kalimdor, located in:

• Ashenvale — Astranaar at 37,54

• Azuremyst Isle — Azure Watch at 44,52

• Bloodmyst Isle — Blood Watch at 55,67

• Darkshore — Auberdine at 37,45

• Desolace — Nijel’s Point at 65,17

• Dustwallow Marsh — Theramore at 61,39

• Feralas — Feathermoon Stronghold at 28,43

• Silithus –Cenarion Hold at 55,35

• Tanaris — Gadgetzan at 52,28

• Teldrassil — Dolanaar at 54,60

• Winterspring — Everlook at 62,35

Alliance — Flame Keeper of Outland: There are 7 Alliance fires in Outland, located in:

• Blade’s Edge Mountains — Sylvanaar at 41,65

• Hellfire Peninsula — Honor Hold at 62,58

• Nagrand — Telaar at 50,70

• Netherstorm — Area 52 at 31,62

• Shadowmoon Valley — Wildhammer Stronghold at 40,54

• Terokkar Forest — Allerian Stronghold at 54,56

• Zangarmarsh — Telredor at 69,52

Horde fires

Flame Keeper of the Eastern Kingdoms: There are 11 Horde fires in the Eastern Kingdoms, located in:

• Arathi Highlands — Hammerfall at 73,41

• Badlands — Kargath at 4,50

• Burning Steppes — Flaming Crest at 61,30

• Eversong Woods — Falconwing Square at 46,50

• Ghostlands — Tranquillien at 47,26

• Hillsbrad Foothills — Tarren Mill at 58,25

• Silverpine Forest — The Sepulcher at 50,39

• Stranglethorn Vale — Booty Bay at 33,74

• Swamp of Sorrows — Stonard at 46,45

• The Hinterlands — Revantusk Village at 76,74

• Tirisfal Glades — Brill at 57,52

Horde — Flame Keeper of Kalimdor: There are 12 Horde fires in Kalimdor, located in:

• Ashenvale — Splintertree Post at 69,69

• Desolace — Shadowprey Village at 26,77

• Durotar — Razor Hill at 51,46

• Dustwallow Marsh — Brackenwall Village at 33,31

• Feralas — Camp Mojache at 72,47

• Mulgore — Bloodhoof Village at 53,60

• Silithus — Cenarion Hold at 46,43

• Stonetalon Mountains — Sunrock Retreat at 50,60

• Tanaris — Gadgetzan at 49,28

• The Barrens — Crossroads at 51,26

• Thousand Needles — Freewind Post at 41,52

• Winterspring — Everlook at 59,35

Horde — Flame Keeper of Outland: There are 7 Horde fires in Outland, located in:

• Blade’s Edge Mountains — Thunderlord Stronghold at 50,58

• Hellfire Peninsula — Thrallmar at 57,42

• Nagrand — Garadar at 51,34

• Netherstorm — Area 52 at 32,68

• Shadowmoon Valley – Shadowmoon Village at 33,31

• Terokkar Forest — Stonebreaker Hold at 52,43

• Zangarmarsh — Zabra’jin at 36,52

Desecration of the Alliance or Desecration of the Horde

See all those fires I just listed? More specifically, the ones that don’t belong to your faction? You get to visit them too! Again, this is a lot of legwork, but for most zones you should be able to honor your faction’s fire and desecrate the opposing faction’s, then simply move on the next zone.

Please note that even on a PvE server you will get flagged by desecrating the other factions’ fires. If you’re not fond of world PvP, you’ll probably want to try this during a slow period (or, better yet, with a group). That said, if my experience is any indication, enemy players will usually leave you alone in the smaller townships and villages because they’re too busy getting their own achievements. Enjoy it while it lasts, because after that you get to do –

King of the Fire Festival

This achievement is awarded for stealing the flames from four enemy cities and completing a turn-in quest for all four. When you right-click the enemy capitals’ fires, a small flame appears in your pack as a quest to turn in at a Festival Loremaster (located around major city fires everywhere). Grab all four flames (Orgrimmar, Thunder Bluff, Silvermoon, and Undercity if you’re Alliance; Stormwind, Ironforge, Darnassus, and the Exodar if you’re Horde), and you’ll get a final quest called A Thief’s Reward that, once completed, will give you the King of the Fire Festival achievement.

Alliance

Undercity and Thunder Bluff are easy; Orgrimmar and Silvermoon can be painful.

Stealing Thunder Bluff’s Flame: The Thunder Bluff flame is located on Spirit Rise at 20,26. The city can be a nuisance because the bridge system has a tendency to confuse players, but on the bright side, TB is usually deserted. If you have Slow Fall/Levitate, a parachute cloak, or a lucky Noggenfogger slow fall effect, you can also jump off the mesas after getting the flame and evade any guards or players chasing you. Tip: follow the signposts, and then mouse over the doorway of each bridge-building to confirm it heads to the Rise you want. After this, visit Bloodhoof Village to desecrate the flame there, then ride out of Mulgore, desecrate the Crossroad’s flame, ride east to get Razor Hill’s, then ride toward the extreme northwestern edge of Durotar to get to Orgrimmar’s least-troublesome entrance.

Stealing Orgrimmar’s Flame: The Orgrimmar flame is located at 46,38 in the Valley of Wisdom (the area in front of the building housing Thrall and the shaman trainers). This tends to be the most difficult of the Horde fires to capture; Orgrimmar is typically the most crowded city and the fire is located pretty far in. For Alliance players, it’s easiest to enter the city from the little-used western gates and just stay on that road until you reach the flame. While this leaves you susceptible to high-level players porting in from Dalaran in the troll huts located over the pond to your right as you ride in, this route will at least keep you away from the masses of players congregated between Orgrimmar’s bank and AH. Either way, try to do Orgrimmar during a slow period.

Stealing Undercity’s Flame: The Undercity flame is the easiest of the four Horde fires to steal and is located in the Ruins of Lordaeron courtyard at 68,9. You don’t actually have to enter the city, although you will get PvP flagged because the Ruins are Horde territory. While you’re there, ride to Chillwind Camp in the Western Plaguelands (detour to Brill to desecrate that flame) and take a flight up to Zul’Aman. Ride to Silvermoon (and desecrate the flame at Tranquillien along the way).

Stealing Silvermoon’s Flame: The Silvermoon fire is located at 69,39 in the Court of the Sun at 69,43. Silvermoon itself is generally not crowded and you should have little trouble.

Horde

I would recommend doing these in the following order:

Stealing Darnassus’s Flame: Darnassus is a freebie; you’ll find the flame located outside of the city proper in Rut’theran Village at 55,91 as soon as you step off the boat from Auberdine (that said, you’ll still have to get through the city to get the flame in Dolanaar for Flame Keeper of Kalimdor). When you’re done with both fires, catch the boat back to Auberdine, desecrate the flame there, then transfer to the one heading to Azuremyst so you can do –

Stealing the Exodar’s Flame: The Exodar’s flame is located in the Crystal Hall at 41,25. The Exodar is generally uncrowded and this one shouldn’t be too difficult, but the fire is still pretty far into the city. When you get off the boat, take the side entrance into the Exodar (located to your left off the road) in order to avoid as many players as possible. While you’re on the draenei islands, desecrate the flames at Azure Watch and Blood Watch. Afterwards, head back to Auberdine and transfer to the boat heading to Stormwind for –

Stealing Stormwind’s Flame: The Stormwind flame is located at 50,72 around the entrance to the Stormwind Stockades. If you’re coming from the docks, you should be able to avoid the more highly-trafficked portions of the city, but the odds of running into some high-level players are still pretty good. If you get mobbed, try to zone into the Stockades and wait a few minutes. Afterwards, mount up, ride for the Deeprun Tram, and head to Ironforge.

Stealing Ironforge’s Flame: The Ironforge flame is located at 64,24 in the Hall of Explorers. You can get to it relatively fast if you’re coming off the Tram (head out, hang a right, steal the fire, then sprint back to the Tram). Bear in mind that while the Tram is neutral territory (and on a PvE server your flag will drop there after 5 minutes), anyone who decides to make your life difficult can and probably will follow you back there.

Got all four flames? Head back to a Festival Loremaster, turn them in, and enjoy your achievement.

Burning Hot Pole Dance

Sounds simple, right? Well, it would be, but buying these threads is going to run you 400 Burning Blossoms if you’re starting the holiday from scratch.

Do yourself a favor and get the Fires of Azeroth, Desecration, and King of the Fire Festival achievements done first. As of 2009, Blizzard’s also provided a ton of fires throughout Northrend (you can find the locations and coordinates here; we won’t be discussing them in OverAchiever as they’re not actually part of any achievements) as another source of Blossoms. These — and the Festival dailies, easily doable with the NPCs located around any capital city fire — will leave you with a ton of Burning Blossoms, which are the currency needed for purchasing items from Midsummer vendors, including the three clothing items required.

The 3 items you need for the set are:

• Mantle of the Fire Festival: 100 blossoms

• Sandals of Summer: 200 blossoms

• Vestment of Summer: 100 blossoms

Why the shoes cost so much compared to the much flashier chest and shoulder pieces, I can’t say, but the full set will run you 400 blossoms. This is easily doable if you’ve completed the achievements referenced above, but it will mean that if you’re still interested in purchasing the Captured Flame pet or the Brazier of Dancing Flames, you’re going to have to: a). put some work into the torch-juggling dailies: b). complete the Northrend fires, and/or: c). sell the clothing back to the Midsummer vendor for a refund. Actually, you may want to do that last part anyway (assuming you don’t want to keep the Midsummer costume), as you’ll need a bunch of Burning Blossoms for Juggling Torches. UPDATE: Don’t bother. We’ve received multiple reports now that Blizzard’s axed your ability to sell the clothing back to vendors for a refund. If you need to get this achievement, that’s 400 Burning Blossoms you’re not going to get back.

Torch Juggler

If your computer wheezes its way through Dalaran at server high time, you’ll definitely want to wait for a slow period in order to get this achievement done.

What you will need to do is purchase around 20-25 Juggling Torches from Midsummer vendors, then hotkey them somewhere convenient. Using a torch will allow you to target a specific area where you want it to land. Target it at your feet, then spam the hell out of your torch hotkey. This will automatically force each torch to come down where you’re already standing, so you can instantly “juggle” it back. Use of the torches doesn’t trigger the global cooldown, so as long as your latency and framerates are cooperating, you should be able to “juggle” 40 torches easily within the space of 15 seconds.

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