The Lunar Festival has started and it’s a simple, yet time consuming holiday. It starts in 2010 on February 14 and lasts 3 weeks, until March 7th. It’s a celebration of the defeat of the Burning Legion during the War of the Ancients, but is more correctly aligned to the real world Chinese New Year. There are fireworks, achievements, and silly clothes to get and a lot of walking to do it. Let’s get started.
There are a few things you can do that aren’t running around the entire world trying to find each elder and I highly recommend you start with them first.
Getting to Moonglade
Each major city has a set of quests that you can do. Find the area where the Lunar Festival is going on and pick up the quest “Lunar Fireworks.” Many of the NPCs in each city will give you a breadcrumb quest to go there. Complete the quest and you’ll get a Lunar Festival Invitation that will allow you to teleport to Moonglade, saving you a ton of time getting there.
Activities
There are two main activities during this event. The first is the raid boss Omen who completes an achievement and gives you an item that creates beams of light for when the event is over and the finding of all 75 elders. Each elder gives a Coin of Ancestry which can be spent in Nighthaven for some cool festive items.
Achievements
There are 15 achievements worth 150 achievement points and a meta, that requires all of the following achievements, that grants an additional 30 achievement points and the title “Elder.”
To Honor One’s Elder: Complete all of the Lunar Festival achievements below.
X Coin of Ancestry (X= A, 5, 10, 25, 50): There are five Coins of Ancestry achievements. You get your first with your first Coin of Ancestry, the next at 5, the next at 10, the next at 25, and the final one at 50. This achievement will be completed automatically if you visit at least 50 elders for the elder achievements.
Lunar Festival Finery: Purchase a festive pant suit for 5 Coins of Ancestry in Nighthaven, Moonglade.
The Rocket’s Red Glare: Shoot off 10 Red Rocket Clusters in 25 seconds or less. Purchase 10 Red Rocket Clusters, find a rocket launcher (usually near vendors) and fire ‘em off.
Frenzied Firecracker: Shoot off 10 Festival Firecrackers in 30 seconds or less. Again, buy 10 firecrackers (from vendors in every major city or in Nighthaven) and use ‘em within 30 seconds. Hotkey them, press the button, click the ground. Repeat.
Elune’s Blessing: See our Omen Guide below, but basically you need to pick up the quest “Elune’s Blessing” and finish it by standing in the beam of light over Omen after he has been defeated.
Elders of Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor, Northrend, Dungeons, Horde, Alliance: All of these are done by visiting the various elders. See our elders guide below.
Omen
Omen himself.Omen is a remnant of the War of the Ancients, blessed by Elune to help people, but then corrupted by the Burning Legion. He began turning on the people he helped and soon was defeated by a group of heroes outside of Nighthaven. He is however immortal, blessed by Elune herself, and returns now and then to harass random people and cause lots of trouble.
There is a quest, called “Elune’s Blessing,” that you will need for the achievement. It’s offered by the Coins of Ancestry Vendor on the wooden overlook in Moonglade. Once you have the quest make your way down to the southeastern part of the zone and use Cluster Rockets on the rocket launchers until Omen spawns. He is a raid boss with about 5 million HP, but can be duo’d or even solo’d by some players. Don’t expect to do that on a PvP server, though.
The key to the fight is to zerg the boss down. Omen uses Starfall, a ground targeted AoE, but it’s rather weak and easily avoided. He has a frontal cleave that gets anyone trying to smash his face, but again it’s not that bad. You can use Elune’s Candle on him to make him not cast Starfall, but that’s completely unnecessary if people are smart about not standing in it. A decently geared tank with a dedicated healer can easily handle the boss while everyone else just plinks at him with their attacks.
When he is dead you’ll find a glowing beam of light over his corpse. Stand in it and the quest will be complete.
Omen dead, stand in the glowing light.If you do Omen late, as in not within the first few days, there will probably be no one around to help kill him. There is a good way to solo him if you’re persistent and have some friends. You can kite him up to Nighthaven where the guards and other players will help kill him, but he can also kill you on the way there. Remember he only needs to die in order to get Elune’s Blessing.
Additionally, if you’re on a PvP server, be prepared to be ganked while on Omen, while near Omen, and anywhere outside of the Nighthaven city limits. There is a graveyard right next to Omen so there shouldn’t be a problem.
Elders
Elders sparkle with Elune's Blessing covering them. Speak with them and they'll give you a Coin of Ancestry and in the mail at a later time you'll receive a red envelope with either an item to make a sparkly beam of light or some fireworks.
Elders also give a ton of reputation (75 for each major city) when the quest is done.
Capital Cities
The opposite cities are best done when few players are on in order to avoid players defending their capital cities. Remember, when invading enemy cities it is best to do the neighboring Elders as well since you'll find yourself hearthing to exit many of the cities.
Horde Cities
Darkhorn (Orgrimmar) [41,33]: Located in the Valley of Wisdom, outside of Thrall's hut, Darkhorn is one of the most difficult Elders to get for the Alliance. Horde can just simply walk to Thrall's hut and visit him, but the Alliance must enter through the western entrance to Orgrimmar and speed past the Valley of the Spirits, north through the passageway, and finally land at The Valley of Wisdom. Quickly try to click the elder and speak with them, then die. You can either try to find a safe spot to hearth (hard, there are stealthers on the roofs of most buildings and Horde everywhere) or run as far as you can get back out, die, and repeat until you're free of the strong defenses of Orgrimmar.
Darkcore (Undercity) [67,38]: Stupidly ease, just visit the Throne Room. There shouldn't be anything to worry about except for the Horde sitting in the courtyard.
Wheathoof (Thunder Bluff) [72,23]: Take the elevator up and run across the eastern bridge. You can skirt around the edges or go up the tower for the Flight Master, either way you'll probably have to worry mostly about the guards as few players idle in Thunder Bluff.
Alliance Cities
Hammershout (Stormwind City) [36,66]: Hammshout is located in The Park, meaning you'll need to breach the front gates and take a hard left to, go past the fountain and another hard left. Don't fall into the water, that's a death trap if you have Alliance behind you. Run through The Mage Quarter around the Mage Tower and then go north through the exit there. You'll find yourself in The Park where the elder is located. One thing that's important to note is that you can die near any of the waterways, rez under the water, and Hearth to get out of Stormwind without having to deal with The Trade District where most of the Alliance will be.
Bronzebeard (Ironforge) [29,16]: Bronzebeard requires a lot of death, pain, and suffering. You'll have to go up the hill into the heavily fortified position of Ironforge's gates where most Alliance will be found dueling. You'll probably gain a lengthy rez timer just to readh the inner gates where more of the Alliance await you. There is a gap in the ground where you can fall into or rez in that will allow you some extra time since most Alliance don't look in it. Your goal: the Mystic Quarter. Avoid going through the middle of Ironforge and instead just hang left and follow the circle around. Once you clear The Commons you shouldn't have trouble making it to The Mystic Ward. Remember that canyon? Rez in it and you can Hearth home to try the next city.
Bladeswift (Darnassus) [33,14]: This can become painful if you're not level 80 and even then, getting to Darnassus is difficult. Go to Darkshore and take the boat to Darnassus (it's the northern pier). Once the boat lands, move through the village into the glowing portal. You'll instantly be ganked by a ton of guards as you enter the city. If you die OUTSIDE of the city then you'll have to ride the boat as a ghost. If you get through the portal you'll probably die quickly, so plan to run back. You'll need to go to the northern section into the Cenarion Enclave to find this Elder. When finished, leave out the "main entrance" to get another Elder named Bladeleaf in Teldrassil before you leave. You'll either have to hearth or run through the city, again. The good news is that the city is almost empty all the time.