Monday, I found myself running around Kharanos hopped up on leftover Peeps and Jelly Beans collecting hundreds of virtual eggs. That's right, Noblegarden is here!
Though the holiday has been around for several years, this is the first year I've really given an egg about it. Sure, I tried a few years back. But the competition for egg spawns was (and remains) hellacious. That kinda killed the holiday for me. However, aside from Noblegarden, my single remaining obstacle to the Violet Proto-Drake is now Children's Week (more specifically the PVP element of Children's Week), so I figured I could spend a day gathering eggs and still complete What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been.
Anyway, Monday was mission Noblegarden. The result? Success!
Now that I did it (and made some mistakes), please consider some advice...
First, accept the A Tisket, A Tasket, a Noblegarden Basket quest for your Egg Basket. Save yourself 10 chocolates by not turning in the quest unless you'd like the extra gold. Next, settle into collecting a few hundred Brightly Colored Egg. I did the majority of my egg collecting in Kharanos -- mainly because it's not Goldshire and I didn't want to travel too far from Stormwind. Goldshire made my skin crawl; it's so camped that you have to camp a camp (or ninja-loot the eggs being camped, but that's a 50 DKP minus in my book).
So, I settled in for Kharanos. As I progressed, I got into a rhythm. I basically made circles around the village (in front of the Inn, weaving back behind the warlock trainer, past the flight master, crossing the road to the hunter trainer, looping back in front of the trade building towards the mountaineer on the hill by the crossroads, and then back across the road to complete the loop. Once you make a few loops, you get to know where the eggs spawn and then it's simply a race to clickie.
Oh, yeah... make sure you've equipped your Egg Basket. I used this macro (bound to F1) to assist my collection and inventory management:
#showtooltipWhen I wanted to open my eggs, ALT-F1 did the trick. When I wanted egg-powered rocket boots, F1 did the trick. I felt pretty fancy, and I didn't even need to ask a gnome to help me with the macro!
/use [mod:alt] Brightly Decorated Egg; Egg Basket
Word to the wise: do the Chocoholic achievement first, not last. I saved that one to the end, and in the process of farming up the remaining chocolates, I received two duplicates of my Spring Rabbit's Foot that I had already spent 100 chocolates purchasing. Items needed for other achievements also drop randomly out of the eggs, so if you get really lucky you may only need to collect 105 chocoloates (100 for Chocoholic and 5 for Noble Garden).
My recommendation: collect eggs until you have enough chocolates for Chocoholic and you've looted either the items required or you've gathered enough chocolates to purchase the items from the vendor. Once you've got it all, start the achievement spam!
While you're heading to Stormwind for Noble Garden, don your White Tuxedo Shirt, Black Tuxedo Pants and Elegant Dress. Now you can kiss or be kissed for Blushing Bride while you're there!
Also, equip your Spring Flowers so that you can stalk female characters of the various races (except Goblins and Worgen) for Shake Your Bunny-Maker. I was able to knock out the alliance requirements fairly easily with a few stalks of the Auction House in Stormwind, but for Horde requireements, I flew over to Razor Hill in Durotar and hung out for a while. When you do that, just watch the guards because you will get pegged as PVP if you get close to them (unless that's your thing). Another option -- to the detriment of your battlegroup team, is equipping your flowers in your BGs and tossing ears on players before you swap weapons and re-acquaint them with the spirit healer.
Hard Boiled requires you becoming a rabbit in Un'Goro. I did this one the hard way (instead of having a buddy zap me with the Blossoming Branch already in Un'Goro. The hard way consisted of getting a random bunny buff from looting an egg, then popping my Kirin Tor ring (because hearthing or porting doesn't break illusion like flying does!), hopping my way to the Caverns of Time portal in Dalaran and then hopping across Tanaris into Un'Goro while avoiding all the bad guys (because damage kills the buff!). All told, took me 10 minutes to get the achievement once I was transformed in Kharanos. Be smart... bring a buddy with a wand and just transform when you're already there!
Desert Rose requires Spring Robes (looted from eggs or purchased with 50 chocolates) to be activated in 5 zones. I could have nailed this after I did my Hard Boiled, but I didn't think to purchase the robe first! So I wasted some travel time back and forth.
Once you get your companion from a Spring Rabbit's Foot, he needs to get frisky in each of the four starting areas. Not hard (especially with other players there farming). If it's late or sparse, you may need to bring a pre-arranged partner for your love-bunny.
All in all, Noblegarden is one of the easier holidays. There's not much strategy to it besides collecting eggs and seeking out females of the opposite faction (especially now that neutral cities like Dalaran and Shattrath City are ghost towns). Still, a pretty easy way for the "Peashooter the Noble" title and one more notch in the Meta!
Besides... with 4.1 dropping today (according to rumors), who wants to spend all their time on holiday achievements!
