World of Warcraft®

Hey all,

I've been recently looking over the next couple of months in regards to upcoming events relating to completing the quests for the beautiful Purple Proto Drake, and one achievement made me feel like giving up already! :P

It's the dreaded....School of Hard Knocks achievement....

Now, I admit that I am absolutely terrible in PvP, and in Warsong Gulch alone, it has been a living nightmare trying to just capture the flag. Trying to complete these quests in such a short time period with the orphan, feels almost impossible, unless being a good PvP'er or just extremely lucky.

I'm not moaning or anything by the way! :P

Anyone else feel that there is any way at all to get this achievement when on a battle-realm where most Alliance members don't bother helping each other?

I don't want to feel I'm wasting my time trying to get this Purple Proto Drake, to only be stopped by one damn achievement :(

Just do it, stop whining.

Your worried about that achivment O.o?

So many worser once that takes far more RNG or time.

Really, the hardest part of that is actually getting in to a alterac valley battle. The rest is pretty easy. Just defend in WSG and you'll get it eventually. In any EotS where you're winning it's trivial to cap the flag, and as for Arathi Basin.. well that just involves running quite fast.

Alterac Valley is the hardest. Generally, you'll get this by trading with the horde. Achievement hunters cluster in the towers and trade caps back and forth. It may take a few battlegrounds to get this set up, but it'll happen eventually if you're persistent.

Æß I can see that you did not bother reading my post, so quit your childish actions and get off my post to flame someone else.

Nightelfsb, I'm not worried. It's a game, and there are much more things in life to worry about than an In-Game Mount.


I just posted up a MINOR feeling regarding an achievement (that's normal...).

I did not flame/ I did not blame Blizzard for making a hard achievement, just posting up some minor feelings.


Ekatarin, thank you for your constructive post ;)

Æß I can see that you did not bother reading my post, so quit your childish actions and get off my post to flame someone else.

Lol'd at your all bold post. Nice one.

If you had bothered to read MY post you would see some helpful advice.

Just stop whining and do the achievement, you might find it's not as hard as you think.

If you really want it, just do it, if not... stop now. Simples. I know of your guild... it's a good friendly one, with many strong players... it's not like you don't have people a) who will be wanting this too... and b) willing to help.

Failing that, join 4 other people from trade (2 healers, 3 dps) and join EotS together.

hehe ok mate, I take back what I said then ;)
I reread it and I sounded harsh then! >.< Silly me!

Wow.. you think this is hard?

I did it 30 minutes after the holiday had started..

I agree that this is one part of the meta achievement which can seem daunting to non-PVPers.

I'm not a PVPer.

I've done it twice now (with a fire mage 2 years ago when they were a bit crappy, and with a holy priest last year).

You will probably die alot.

You will get frustrated and scream at your monitor.

But if you start working for it as soon as Children's Week begins, you can do it.

Persistance and determination are the key.

A few potions of speed can help too if you play a class without any speed-boosting talents.

22/12/2010 10:13 AMPosted by Loulu

Persistance and determination are the key.

/end thread :)

21/12/2010 1:20 PMPosted by Nightelfsb

Your worried about that achivment O.o?

So many worser once that takes far more RNG or time.

For the voilet protodrake that was by far the most annoying and retarded achievement of all the world event achievements. I got the drake and still think that that one should be removed.

21/12/2010 1:27 PMPosted by Ekatarin

Really, the hardest part of that is actually getting in to a alterac valley battle. The rest is pretty easy. Just defend in WSG and you'll get it eventually. In any EotS where you're winning it's trivial to cap the flag

Not with 10 other people of your faction trying to grab that flag it isn't. Took me ages, bloody annoying.

22/12/2010 3:53 PMPosted by Sammia

Really, the hardest part of that is actually getting in to a alterac valley battle. The rest is pretty easy. Just defend in WSG and you'll get it eventually. In any EotS where you're winning it's trivial to cap the flag

Not with 10 other people of your faction trying to grab that flag it isn't. Took me ages, bloody annoying.

You are talking about joining on your own. If you join in a group of 5 (ideally with 2 healers and 3 dps) you have a much better chance of being able to work together and get this done.

As a fellow terrible PVPer I had the same feeling when I saw the achievement, I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to obtain though. Took me a grand total of 5 battlegrounds and that was only because the first WSG I got into lasted 20 seconds (3-0 victory, boo-ya!).

My suggestion is to just try it, you should have more than enough time to complete it and more than enough time to practice your BG-ing skills before Children's week rolls around

I suck at pvp but getting the AV/AB ones were actually very easy as it's all about getting to the flag first :) I got a guildie to do the WSG/EotS parts for me though :D My guild mates were congratulating me going "wow Tinker, you're awesome in pvp", when I suddenly got 4-5 pvp achievements in 15 min - but it was actually my sweet & pvp loving m8 helping me out :D hehe

22/12/2010 4:07 PMPosted by Æß

You are talking about joining on your own. If you join in a group of 5 (ideally with 2 healers and 3 dps) you have a much better chance of being able to work together and get this done.

If you can get them to join, sure. Doesn't change the fact that in my opinion it's a stupid achievement. Most frustrating one that was, with your own team actually trying to prevent you from capping the flag.

Doesn't change the fact that in my opinion it's a stupid achievement.

Have to agree there. I'm quite skilled in BGs so didn't find it too tough, although it certainly wasn't "easy"... I definitely remember saying in /g at the time something along the lines of "wow this would be almost impossible for a beginner".

In comparison to the tedious faceroll of every other seasonal event, this specific achi certainly doesn't fit.

Also, consider the effect this has on players who do a lot of battlegrounds. It effectively destroys any hope of a half decent EotS for a couple of weeks.

24/12/2010 10:46 AMPosted by Æß

Doesn't change the fact that in my opinion it's a stupid achievement.

Have to agree there. I'm quite skilled in BGs so didn't find it too tough, although it certainly wasn't "easy"... I definitely remember saying in /g at the time something along the lines of "wow this would be almost impossible for a beginner".

Also, consider the effect this has on players who do a lot of battlegrounds. It effectively destroys any hope of a half decent EotS for a couple of weeks.

As a beginner at PVP the first time I did this, it was not impossible. It took me about 2 days, and was frustrating for sure. But nowhere near impossible.

The argument that it spoils the BGs for the PVPers is valid though, because it means many achievement-hunting players have no interest in doing the BG properly, they just want to get the achievement done.

I have always suggested that it would be better if Blizzard made the PVP parts of the achievements something which encouraged players to play the BGs properly, such as "Win AB whilst holding all 5 bases with your orphan out" or " Win 10 EotS battles with your orphan out".

This would end all the silly behaviour in BGs which must annoy the heck out of the PVPers.

Sigh..I dread while being reminded that I still have this achievement left. This and Hail to the King, but that's easy. But this..I've delayed it too many times now. Worst achievement of all the seasonal ones, far worse than anything that includes RNG. The "50 kills with G.N.E.R.D" and stuff ain't too bad, but this one..shrug.

And my heart goes out to all those dedicated PvP'ers who actually want to do something properly in the battleground and have to endure this crap.

Whining won't get you the achievment.

I did it solo, even while losing the battleground.