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Hallow's End has come and gone, leaving me with only the helm standing between Syrana and Syrana the Hallowed.  Stupid RNG eluded me again.  Granted, I didn't go after it as much as I could have…

As Hallow's End ended, Day of the Dead began.  I was looking forward to this in game event.  I have fond memories of learning about it as well as celebrating it in Spanish class back in high school.

candy skulls

Mmm, sugar skulls.

When I heard it was being introduced into WoW, I was very curious how it would be.  I heard about an awesome little pet, which certainly made me giddy with glee.

Unfortunately, the reality of this short holiday was that it did not meet the high expectations I had built up for it.  Is that Blizzard's fault? Probably not.  Is that my own fault? Probably… (#iblamesyrana)  Honestly, I didn't think I had “high” expectations, but it felt like it fell short.  Lackluster.  Short.  Disappointing.

It took all of 5 minutes to complete all there was to do with the holiday and get an achievement.

Now, I understand that a short, two day event isn't going to require a lot to be done.  I understand that.  But, I thought there would be more than ONE quest.

In the wee hours of the morning, a post on WoW.Com went up about Day of the Dead that included this:

There's also a recipe in-game for Bread of the Dead, another translation of the holiday's Pan de Muerto. This is required for The Grateful Dead, which appear to be a collection of quests requiring players to bring the bread to various ghosts in graveyards all over the game world.

I am not saying WoW.Com misled me, but I read that to mean there'd be a few spots to go… at least to each capital city.  Which, to me, made sense.  However, there was only one quest to complete at your racial capital city (or apparently anyone could use the graveyard at Dalaran.  I had originally went to the Undercity – fitting, I thought – but was not able to get a quest).

Along with that, I surprised that players weren't really directed towards the festivities.  For most holidays, the commoners in the capital cities have a quest or otherwise direct you where to go.  These commoners did not have a quest and indicated that you could check out the festivities at any capital graveyard… yet, the only festivity I could partake in while at the Undercity was to dance with Catrina.

Baila conmigo!
Baila conmigo!

Sure, that gave me the achievement and 12 hour costume, but no quest.

I know there were some different guides posted up this morning on how to complete the holiday, but honestly, no one should have to read a guide beforehand to complete a holiday event.

So, off to Silvermoon City I go, in search of festivities that I can partake in.  I locate Catrina and her merchant buddy (how are they in several places at once? Spooooky~) just outside of Falconwing Square.

silvermoon no spirits

But I still don't see a quest.

I check out the goods.  Ooh, a skull mask, that could be fun. (Bought)  Oh, there's the recipe.  (Bought)  Hey, a bouquet of flowers! (Bought)

I admit, I was a little stumped on how to proceed next.  Knowing I'd need some bread, I learn the recipe, get flour and milk, and find out I can't bake it until I returned to the graveyard.  After the bread finished baking, I still don't see a quest.  I pop on “low level quest tracking” to be on the safe side.

Still no quest.

Huh.

I take another look at my inventory, decide to equip the bouquet of marigolds, and right-clicked to use them.

Now you see them!
Now you see them!

Voila! Spirits be wit you, mon.  And there is the quest – held hostage by a cheerful spirit.

If someone used the flowers to see the spirits before baking their bread, they would be able to pick up the quest and then have to use flowers again to turn it in.  Nice how the quest tells you to use a marigold when it's time to turn it in… but nothing told you to do that in order to obtain the quest in the first place.

Once you give the cheerful spirit some bread, you get your own macabre marionette, who is the cutest darn lil' thing, but will take up a bank slot for 354 days a year.  That's right, he doesn't get “learned” like other pets and can only be brought out to play during the Day of the Dead.

I haz maracas.
I haz maracas.

Possible Solutions/Suggestions

First of all, make that lil' guy an actual companion.  The other holiday event pets can be summoned any time of year.

Secondly, bring people's attention to the holiday.  Some people didn't even realize there was a new one.  Have the commoner's give you a quest to go talk to Catrina.  Even if it doesn't quite send you to the cemetery you need to be at, at least it's a start.  If there isn't a golden ! above an NPC's head, a lot of people just ignore them.

Thirdly, have a quest at a headstone that requires you to buy a flower to place upon it or use near it.

Good spot for a quest, yeah?
Good spot for a quest, yeah?

Fourthly, be able to offer bread to a spirit at each of the capital cities… or a quest from Catrina to honor a spirit at each capital.

Fifthly, when I click on one of the dancing spirits (who have chat bubbles) and they say they are enjoying a chance to talk and share stories with the living – let them tell me a story!

Now that I'm done ranting, what did you think of the event? Did you participate in it? What would you like to see done differently?

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5 comments

  • I didn’t even know there was an event until I saw people in the costume.
    I was told to head for a graveyard, so I did that, finding one out in the wilds (and there was nothing there (wrong graveyard).

    Hohum. So I went to the nearest city, and finally saw the vendor and the dancer. So I bought the vendor stuff, and I did the little dance.
    I put on the mask – nothing. Ok, it’s just a mask, but I had quite a few of those already during Halooween and I had thrown all those away. So, whee I got a mask, big deal.

    I learnt the recipe for the bread, and bought the ingredients from a vendor inside the city, then tried to make them, only to be told I needed the ghost fire. Meh.
    Ok, so back to the fire, and I made the bread.
    Then I ate one of the 5 I had made – nothing happened. /shrug.

    Right, time to use the bunch of flowers – ah, dead people; progress!
    No quests though. Also, I realised as a Warlock I didn’t even need the flowers to see the dead people; simply casting Detect Invisibility brought them out into the open.
    Still no quest giver to be seen (apparently I was at the ‘wrong right graveyard’, as opposed to the ‘wrong graveyard’ I had been at the beginning, though I didn’t know that at the time).

    I then asked in guild chat if anyone knew how to get the pet, and no-one did. At about that time my interest in the whole thing had reached rock-bottom, and I gave up.
    Was it a fun event? No.
    Will I do it next year, now that I know how to get the pet? No.

  • I was also kinda disappointed by the whole event. It was kind of a non-event, if you ask me. Just another excuse to get people out of Dalaran. Hell, an excuse to have at least some people visit the beauty and splendor of Silvermoon. I literally finished it on my bank alt in like, 20 minutes. Walking sucks, by the way. ^_^

    After doing it on two characters, I gave up. It just wasn’t that exciting… and to be honest, I think I might be a little burnt out on holidays anyway.

  • It was a huge fail. I had to read a guide and even that didn’t tell me to go to my home graveyard. I did everything in Org instead of SilverMoon. By the time I found out or figured it out I had destroyed all my remaining bread etc and didn’t actually care about a pet that couldn’t be learnt.

    Fail holiday. Love your idea about the grave though.

    Lorey.

  • It seems across the WoW community there has been a mixed reaction to the event, but definitely a lot of disappointment so I’m glad I’m not alone. Hopefully they’ll tweak it for next year.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences! 🙂

Welcome

We are a family of gamers. Mom (Darcy/Syrana) and Dad (Brian/Sideshow) have been gaming for as long as they can remember back when you only had a joystick to use and saved your games to cassette tapes.

They've been gaming together since they met in 2002. Sometime after 2006, they both started playing World of Warcraft and did that for many years. They started this blog, originally called Sideshow & Syrana which has now transitioned to the new Stay-At-Home Gamers site, while keeping all of the original content.

Starting in 2010, two more gamers came along (now known as Princess Boo and Mr. X) and they are now old enough where they both enjoy playing games and watching others play games. They are both excited to have others to watch them play their favorite games. Come along with us and let's enjoy these games together!


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