Guide: Brewfest 2014
by Magistrate - 10 years ago show comments
Stack the mugs and salt the sausages–Brewfest is here! From September 20 through October 6, the loose World of Warcraft take on Oktoberfest has enough meat to it to keep you busy for days.
Celebrated by both the Horde and the Alliance, the Brewfest is a time to enjoy the fermented fruits of the harvest: pretzels, cheese, and booze! The competing breweries Thunderbrew, Barleybrew, and the Ogres, all come together outside of all the major cities in a bid to outdo each other with their special ales, meads, and beers. Brave adventurers are invited to sit back, take a pull, and sample the finest wares these brewers have to offer!(Source)
This year, BlizzPro put together a guide to get you on your wasted wobble through the streets of Azeroth cities. There’s toys to be had and achievements to be earned, so let’s get right to it!
Overview
Brewfest is a fully-featured holiday with a lot to do, win, and achieve. While we’ll certainly get into the specifics of these things, the holiday festivities chiefly involve:
- Slaying Coren Direbrew of Blackrock Depths (see the Seasonal Dungeon section below)
- Grinding daily quests for seasonal tokens (see the Quests section below)
Of course, there’s also the usual plethora of decorations, celebrating NPCs, and events, coming together for a cohesive experience for anyone over the age of 21.
The main staging areas for the festival are Orgrimmar (Horde) and Ironforge (Alliance), but smaller versions can also be found in Silvermoon City, Stormwind, Thunder Bluff, the Exodar, the Undercity, Shattrath, and Darnassus. NPCs in these locations will allow you to redeem Brewfest Prize Tokens, the seasonal currency.
Index
Things to Do While Sloshed
Brewfest as a ton of more overt activities, including the seasonal dungeon and daily quests, but you can also find some other neat things hidden throughout Azeroth. A daily dungeon run and each of the quests reward Brewfest Prize Tokens, which are used to purchase many keepsakes at vendors (see the rewards section below). It takes roughly 8 to 10 days to complete the required activities (although some things, like the Brew of the Year achievement, take much longer).
Seasonal Currency
Brewfest Tokens are the seasonal currency for the holiday. They’re awarded from completing the daily dungeon run and all of the quests, but some quests have a variable reward of tokens depending on how efficiently you complete them. If you do all the once-and-done quests as well as the three daily quests and dungeon run in one shot, you can get 135 to 165 tokens on the first day. Each day after that, you can earn between 35 and 65 tokens doing the dungeon run and three daily quests.
To finish the festival, you’ll need at least 550 tokens to get the Brewmaster meta achievement and title. This depends on how good you are at the ram racing daily quest (see Quests section below).
Seasonal Dungeon
The seasonal dungeon for this event is a trek back into Blackrock Depths. Players face off against the Dark Iron Dwarf Coren Direbrew, as well as his lesser-known kin Ursula and Isla.
Once daily, finishing the dungeon yields the Keg-Shaped Treasure Chest, which has a chance to reward any of the following goodies (including mounts!):
- Direbrew’s Remote
- Direbrew’s Bloodied Shanker (iLvl 470, level 85s) / Direbrew’s Bloodied Shanker (iLvl 365, level 90s)
- Tremendous Tankard O’ Terror (iLvl 470, level 85s) / Tremendous Tankard O’ Terror (iLvl 365, level 90s)
- Great Brewfest Kodo
- Swift Brewfest Ram
- 10-15 Brewfest Prize Tokens
Boss
- Name: Coren Direbrew
- Classification: Level 92 Elite
- Base Health: 15.1 Million+
- Abilities: Direbrew’s Disarm and Paralyzed
Additional Enemies
- Name: Ursula Direbrew
- Classification: Level 90 Elite
- Base Health: 1.1 Million+
- Abilities: Barreled!, Chuck Mug, Dark Brewmaiden’s Stun, and Ice Trap
- Name: Ilsa Direbrew
- Classification: Level 90 Elite
- Base Health: 1.1 Million+
- Abilities: Chuck Mug, Dark Brewmaiden’s Stun, and Ice Trap
The battle will also spawn Dark Iron Antagonists, who have no special abilities and deal negligible damage.
Battle Tips and Basic Strategy
To begin, you’ll face off against Coren and three others. Although late Mists of Pandaria gear might make some elements of strategy superfluous, the idea is to get the adds down (including Ursula and Isla) first and then focus on Coren. Large, iron drills will randomly shoot up from the ground, which have knock-back effect and release an additional Dark Iron Antagonist.
If you’re not in a melee specialization, you’ll want to keep well away from Coren to avoid his disarming ability (which temporarily removes your weapon and all its benefits) and stuns. Additionally, Ursula and Isla each have their own ranged stuns–to keep them from using them, they must be killed or otherwise incapacitated.
Some other tricks from around the web:
- Dark Brewmaiden’s Stun only applies its stun if the mug from Chuck Mug gets into your inventory. If you started the battle with full bags, you don’t need to worry about this attack. If you do get ale in your bags, make sure you drink it promptly.
- Ursula’s Barreled! stun attack is targeted at whoever has the most threat from her. Some say that it’s better for the tank to ignore aggrowing her to avoid being stunned and losing control of the fight.
- Dark Iron Antagonists spawn more rapidly as Coren’s health diminishes.
- Coren is tauntable.
Rewards
Coren has a chance to drop one of six iLevel 470 epic trinkets, and you can fight him as many times in a single reset to obtain any (or all) of these:
- Bittersweet Balebrew Charm
- Brawler’s Statue
- Bubbliest Brightbrew Charm
- Coren’s Cold Chromium Coaster
- Mithril Wristwatch
- Thousand-Year Pickled Egg
He also drops Direbrew’s Dire Brew (Horde) / Direbrew’s Dire Brew (Alliance), which begins a quest (see Quests section below).
Trivia
If you happen to go into battle a wee bit inebriated, you will see Corin’s level as lower than it really is. Don’t overestimate yourself! (Also, who the heck fights for their life drunk on purpose?)
Quests
Bark for Drohn’s/T’chali’s Distillery!/Bark for the Barleybrews/Thunderbrews! (Daily)
- Reward: 15 Brewfest Prize Tokens
- Begin/End: (H) Cort Gorestein/Ja’ron or (A) Daran Thunderbrew/Becan Barleybrew
Every day, players can represent one of their faction’s two competing breweries. Horde players can choose between Drohn and T’chali, and Alliance players can choose between the Barleybrews and the Thunderbrews.
For any variation of the quest, you are given Racing Ram Reins. You must ride through your faction’s capital city, reaching each of the Brewfest banners; at each banner, your character will “bark” automatically, giving you quest credit.
Tips
- Don’t go full out with your ram! Avoid letting it hit 100% fatigue by keeping it to a steady trot.
- You don’t need to return to your quest giver before the timer runs out to get quest credit. Just get to each of the banner points.
- Once you hit every point of interest, right-click on the ram buff–you don’t need to ride it back to the vendor. Just mount up and fly back.
This One Time, When I Was Drunk… (Daily)
- Reward: 10 Brewfest Prize Tokens
- Begin/End: Dark Iron Mole Machine Wreckage/Bizzle Quicklift (H) or Boxey Boltspinner (A)
Every half hour, the Dark Iron invade your faction’s Brewfest camp just to the west. To get the quest, you need to loot the Dark Iron Mole Machine Wreckage, which appears after players defeat the Dark Iron with beer from nearby kegs.
Tips
- Anyone from your faction can loot the wreckage once it appears.
Now This is Ram Racing… Almost.
- Reward: 10 Brewfest Prize Tokens
- Begin/End: Ram Master Ray (H) or Neill Ramstein (A)
This is a pretty easy quest meant to show you how to ride your ram, which you’ll be doing a lot of for the rest of the holiday. You’ll get Ram Racing Reins and be placed on a ram, and then you need to use your reins to control your mount speed. For 4 minutes, you have to alternate between 3 speeds for 8 seconds each, as indicated by your player’s buffs and the visual speed of your ram.
Tips
- Use Canter to speed up, but Trot to slow down as you get near 100 fatigue.
- If your speed is too great, your ram will get fatigued quickly, which will make it extremely slow.
- You can lower your fatigue by using the apple barrels near the riding paths.
There and Back Again
- Reward: 10 Brewfest Prize Tokens
- Begin/End: Ram Master Ray (H) or Neill Ramstein (A)
You’ll have 4 minutes to race and deliver Portable Brewfest Kegs, which will be thrown to you by Bok Dropcertain (H) or Flynn Firebrew (A). You must return to your quest giver with three kegs over three rounds to finish the quest.
Tips
- You can lower your fatigue by using the apple barrels near the riding paths.
- You need to do Now This Is Ram Racing… Almost. to unlock this quest.
Brew for Brewfest (Daily)
- Reward: 2+ Brewfest Prize Tokens*
- Begin/End: Ram Master Ray (H) or Neill Ramstein (A)
You’ll have 4 minutes to race and deliver Portable Brewfest Kegs, which will be thrown to you by Bok Dropcertain (H) or Flynn Firebrew (A). You must return to your quest giver with three kegs over three rounds to finish the quest.
You get 2 Brewfest Prize Tokens and 30 additional participation seconds for each successful keg run. This is a great way to get more tokens if you really need them, as you can do this as many times as you can until the timer expires.
Tips
- You can lower your fatigue by using the apple barrels near the riding paths.
- *Some players are able to finish a round every 40 seconds, allowing for as many as 20 consecutive runs (40 Brewfest Prize Tokens).
- Make sure you turn around to the direction you need to run before you drop off or receive a keg.
- You need to do There and Back Again to unlock this daily.
Brew of the Month Club
- Reward: Brew of the Month Club membership
- Begin/End: Ray’ma (H) or Larkin Thunderbrew (A)
This is the quest to get into the Brew of the Month club. Simply purchase the Brew of the Month Club Membership Form from your faction’s vendor for 200 Brewfest Prize Tokens. For more details about the club, refer to its section below.
Brewfest!
- Reward: Barleybrew Clear, Thunder 45, or Gordok Grog
- Begin/End: Holiday Commoners (H A)/ Tapper Swindlekeg (H) or Ipfelkofer Ironkeg (A)
This is the easy holiday beginner quest that opens up the rest of the quest chains. You can get it from a variety of sources, including the holiday commoners that pop up in cities, as well as some other zones and daily hubs. Simply accept and find your faction’s Brewfest Organizer at the main Brewfest festival ground outside Orgrimmar or Ironforge.
Catch the Wild Wolpertinger! (North American Servers Only)
- Reward: Wolpertinger’s Tankard
- Begin/End: Glodrak Huntsniper (H) or Goldark Snipehunter (A)
For this quest, you need to get completely smashed or equip the Synthebrew Goggles, which you can get from your quest giver. Once sufficiently drunk or goggled-up, you will be able to see Wild Wolpertingers around your faction’s main Brewfest festival grounds. You must use your Wolpertinger Net to capture 5 of the critters and return to your NPC.
Tips
- This quest is not available to European servers because it conflicts with their PEGGI 12 game rating restrictions. European players must purchase their Wolpertinger’s Tankard from Blix Fixwidget (H) or Belbi Quickswitch (A) for 200 Brewfest Prize Tokens.
Chug and Chuck!
- Reward: 10 Brewfest Prize Tokens
- Begin/End: Bizzle Quicklift (H) or Boxey Boltspinner (A)
Go to the tables and loot an Alcohol-Free Brewfest Sampler. Then, target the Self-Turning and Oscillating Utility Target and use your (non-alcoholic and therefore totally pointless) brew 5 times. Bam. Done.
Direbrew’s Dire Brew
- Reward: 40 Brewfest Prize Tokens
- Begin/End: Loot Direbrew’s Dire Brew/Tapper Swindlekeg (H) or Ipfelkofer Ironkeg (A)
After killing Coren Direbrew (see the Direbrew dungeon section above) the first time, you will loot Direbrew’s Dire Brew. This will prompt the associated quest, which can be turned in at Tapper Swindlekeg (H) or Ipfelkofer Ironkeg (A)
Pink Elekks on Parade (North American Servers Only)
- Begin/End: Glodrak Huntsniper (H) or Goldark Snipehunter (A)
As with Catch the Wolpertinger!, you must get completely drunk or equip the Synthebrew Goggles, available from your quest giver. You must then use the Elekk Dispersion Ray to defeat 3 pink Elekks at 3 specified locations. Horde players must go to Eversong Woods, Tirisfal Glades, and Mulgore, and Alliance players must go to Teldrassil, Azuremust Isle, and Elwynn Forest.
Tips
- This quest is not available to European servers because it conflicts with their PEGGI 12 game rating restrictions.
Other Activities and Events
The Ceremonial Keg-Tapping
Each day, you can participate in the Ceremonial Keg-Tapping event at 6:15 AM and 6:15 PM server time. Vol’jin (Orgrimmar) and High Tinker Mekkatorque (Ironforge) will appear at their respective Brewfest festival grounds for a speech, and anyone hanging around to listen will receive the Brewfest Enthusiast experience buff (10%). The buff lasts for two hours.
The Brew of the Month Club
The Brew of the Month Club subscribes you to receive a new brew every month in your mail box. To join, select the “Brew of the Month” Club Membership Form (200 Brewfest Prize Tokens) from Ray’ma (Orgrimmar) or Larkin Thunderbrew (Ironforge).
If you like the effects of any month’s brew, you can purchase them in six-packs these same vendors throughout the year for 1 silver and 50 copper. The membership is also tied to the Brew of the Month and Brew of the Year achievements (read more about achievements in the Achievements section below).
- January: Wild Winter Pilsner (Buff: The Beast Within – makes character roar)
- February: Izzard’s Ever Flavor (Buff: Gassy – makes character burp green gas)
- March: Aromatic Honey Brew (Buff: Honey Touched – spawns bees)
- April: Metok’s Bubble Bock (Buff: Bloated – spawns bubbles)
- May: Springtime Stout (Buff: Flower Child – spawns flowers on ground)
- June: Blackrock Lager (Buff: Internal Combustion – makes character vomit fire)
- July: Stranglethorn Brew (Buff: Jungle Madness! – starts “Jungle Madness” music, makes stuff look green, and spawns an Angry Jungle Gnome)
- August: Draenic Pale Ale (Buff: Summon Pink Elekk Guardian – spawns a pink elekk mount and pets)
- September: Binary Brew (Buff: 0100100 (H) or 1000001 (A) – lets you understand a binary language)
- October: Autumnal Acorn Ale (Buff: Watched – spawns squirrels that throw nuts at you or follow you)
- November: Bartlett’s Bitter Brew (Buff: Nauseous – makes character vomit)
- December: Lord of Frost’s Private Label (Buff: Chilled – freezes character in an ice block)
Warning: This club subscription does last forever, so if you don’t like constantly seeing stuff in your mailbox, you might not want to do this. In Warlords of Draenor, the Angry Brewfest Letter will let players opt out of the club.
Goodies and Gewgaws for the Groggy
Epic Gear
Brewfest offers a collection of varying iLevel items. Unfortunately, with gear available from the Timeless Isle and other sources, most of it will not be practical to players that have kept up with content. Some of them may be useful to returning players that are filling in item slots.
Trinkets that drop from Coren Direbrew, which drop any number of times on any day:
- Brawler’s Statue (470 Trinket)
- Mithril Wristwatch (470 Trinket)
- Thousand-Year Pickled Egg (470 Trinket)
- Coren’s Cold Chromium Coaster (470 Trinket)
- Bubbliest Brightbrew Charm (470 Trinket)
- Bitterest Balebrew Charm (470 Trinket)
Daggers sometimes contained in Keg-Shaped Treasure Chests, which drop from Coren Direbrew once daily:
- Tremendous Tankard O’ Terror (470 Dagger)
- Direbrew’s Bloodied Shanker (470 Dagger)
Toys
Toys purchasable from Ray’ma (H), Blix Fixwidget (H), Belbi Quikswitch (A), or Larkin Thunderbrew (A) with Brewfest Prize Tokens:
- Pandaren Brewpack (100 Tokens)
- Blix’s Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles (H) / Belbi’s Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles (A) (100 Tokens)
- Fresh Goblin Brewfest Hops (H) / Fresh Dwarven Brewfest Hops (A) (5 tokens) (Consumable)
- Fresh Brewfest Hops (2 Tokens) (Consumable)
- Preserved Brewfest Hops (20 Tokens)
- Brewfest Pony Keg (100 Tokens)
- Brewfest Keg Pony (200 Tokens)
- Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm (100 Tokens)
Direbrew’s Remote is sometimes contained in Keg-Shaped Treasure Chests, which drop from Coren Direbrew once daily.
Pets and Mounts
Mounts sometimes contained in Keg-Shaped Treasure Chests, which drop from Coren Direbrew once daily:
The Wolpertinger pet is taught by the Wolpertinger’s Tankard, which is acquired from finishing the quest Catch the Wolpertinger! (H) / Catch the Wolpertinger! (A).
You can also acquire the Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm, which is sold by Bizzle Quicklift (A), Blix Fixwidget (H), Larkin Thunderbrew (A), and Ray’ma (H) for 100 Brewfest Prize Tokens.
Costume Pieces
Costume pieces purchasable from Ray’ma (H), Blix Fixwidget (H), Belbi Quikswitch (A), or Larkin Thunderbrew (A) with Brewfest Prize Tokens:
- Blue Brewfest Hat (50 Tokens)
- Brown Brewfest Hat (50 Tokens)
- Green Brewfest Hat (50 Tokens)
- Purple Brewfest Hat (50 Tokens)
- Brewfest Dress (200 Tokens)
- Brewfest Slippers (100 Tokens)
- Brewfest Regalia (200 Tokens)
- Brewfest Boots (100 Tokens)
- Brewhelm (2 Tokens)
Achievements
- Brewmaster (Title)
This is the holiday meta achievement awarded for completing numerous other holiday achievements. This achievement can be earned within one occurrence of the holiday and counts toward the What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been meta achievement. To get this achievement, you must completed The Brewfest Diet, Brew of the Month, Direbrewfest, Down with the Dark Iron, Have Keg, Will Travel, and Does Your Wolpertinger Linger?. Finishing this achievement awards the Brewmaster seasonal title. - Brew of the Month Club
This achievement is tied to the “Brew of the Month” Club Membership Form, which costs 200 Brewfest Prize Tokens and can be purchased from Ray’ma (H), Blix Fixwidget (H), Belbi Quikswitch (A), or Larkin Thunderbrew (A) at the main Brewfest staging areas. To learn more about the Brew of the Month club, refer to the Other Activities and Events section. - Brew of the Year
Once you’ve signed up for the Brew of the Month club, you will begin receiving signature brews in your mailbox once a month. You must drink one of each of these in order to fulfill this achievement’s requirements. It will take you at least a year to finish, assuming you don’t skip a month. To learn more about the Brew of the Month club, refer to the Other Activities and Events section. - Direbrewfest
This achievement is tied to the seasonal dungeon run in Blackrock Depths. You must be at least level 89 and get credit for defeating Coren Direbrew. To learn more about the instance, refer to the Seasonal Dungeon section. - Disturbing the Peace
This achievement is one part “the usual costume achievement” and one part drunken revelry. To finish it, you must equip at least three pieces of the seasonal costume and /dance in Dalaran while completely smashed from any in-game alcohol. Attempting this while completely smashed IRL may not be entirely successful. To learn more about how to acquire the seasonal costume pieces, refer to the Costume Pieces section. - Does Your Wolpertinger Linger?
For this achievement, you simply need to finish the associated quest, Catch the Wolpertinger! (H) / Catch the Wolpertinger! (A). You also get a pet. The Wolpertinger pet is taught by the Wolpertinger’s Tankard (quest reward). To learn more about this quest, refer to the Quests section. - Down with the Dark Iron
This achievement is tied to completing the daily quest This One Time, When I was Drunk… (H) / This One Time, When I was Drunk… (A), which has players defending their faction’s main Brewfest staging grounds against a Dark Iron invasion to the west. To learn more about this quest, read about it in the Quests section. - Strange Brew
This achievement will send you to each of your faction’s Brewfest vendors drinking most of their trademark brews. You’ll find the vendors at any of your faction’s Brewfest staging grounds.- Horde members must drink one Path of Brew, Long Stride Brew, Small Step Brew, Stout Shrunken Head, Brewdoo Magic, Jungle River Water, Mudder’s Milk, Ogre Mead, and Gordok Grog.
- Alliance members must drink one Mudder’s Milk, Ogre Mead, Gordok Grog, Barleybrew Dark, Barleybrew Light, Barleybrew Clear, Thunderbrew Stout, Thunderbrew Ale, and Thunder 45.To read more about the various drinks sold during Brewfest, see the Seasonal Foods and Drinks section.
- The Brewfest Diet
To get this achievement, you must eat one of each of the foods sold by the Brewfest vendors. You can find your faction’s vendors at any Brewfest staging ground outside a major city. You can find a list of each of the food items required in the Seasonal Foods and Drinks section. - A Brew-FAST Mount (Feat of Strength)
For this Feat of Strength achievement, you must obtain either the Great Brewfest Kodo (H) or the Swift Brewfest Ram (A) from Coren Direbrew in the seasonal dungeon. To learn more about the seasonal dungeon, see the Seasonal Dungeon section.
Seasonal Foods and Drinks
Brews
Here’s a list of all of the specialty drinks you can purchase for varying amounts of silver. You will need to drink certain combinations of these brews for the achievement Strange Brew (H) / Strange Brew (A). The related vendors can be found at any of your faction’s Brewfest staging grounds.
Horde-Specific Brews
- Crimson Stripe, sold by T’chali’s Voodoo Brewery Apprentice (H)
- Stout Shrunken Head, sold by T’chali’s Voodoo Brewery Apprentice (H)
- Brewdoo Magic, sold by T’chali’s Voodoo Brewery Apprentice (H)
- Jungle River Water, sold by T’chali’s Voodoo Brewery Apprentice (H)
- Promise of the Pandaren, sold by Drohn’s Distillery Apprentice (H)
- Path of the Brew, sold by Drohn’s Distillery Apprentice (H)
- Long Stride Brew, sold by Drohn’s Distillery Apprentice (H)
- Small Step Brew, sold by Drohn’s Distillery Apprentice (H)
Alliance-Specific Brews
- Thunder’s Plunder, sold by Thunderbrew Apprentice (A)
- Thunderbrew Stout, sold by Thunderbrew Apprentice (A)
- Thunderbrew Ale, sold by Thunderbrew Apprentice (A)
- Thunder 45, sold by Thunderbrew Apprentice (A)
- Barleybrew Gold, sold by Barleybrew Apprentice (A)
- Barleybrew Dark, sold by Barleybrew Apprentice (A)
- Barleybrew Light, sold by Barleybrew Apprentice (A)
- Barleybrew Clear, sold by Barleybrew Apprentice (A)
General Brews
- Chuganpug’s Delight, sold by Gordok Brew Apprentice (H A)
- Ogre Mead, sold by Gordok Brew Apprentice (H A)
- Mudder’s Milk, sold by Gordok Brew Apprentice (H A)
- Gordok Grog, sold by Gordok Brew Apprentice (H A)
Foods
You will need to eat one of each of the following food items for the achievement The Brewfest Diet:
- Spiced Onion Cheese, sold by Agnes Farwithers (H) and Anne Summers (A)
- The Essential Brewfest Pretzel, sold by Uta Roughdough (H) and Arlen Lochlan (A)
- The Golden Link, sold by Bron (H) and Keiran Donoghue (A)
- Pickled Sausage, sold by Bron (H) and Keiran Donoghue (A)
- Dried Sausage, sold by Bron (H) and Keiran Donoghue (A)
- Succulent Sausage, sold by Bron (H) and Keiran Donoghue (A)
- Spicy Smoked Sausage, sold by Bron (H) and Keiran Donoghue (A)
Special Thanks
A big and well-deserved thank-you goes out to multiple sources we compiled for this guide, including Wowhead, Icy-Veins, Wowwiki, Wowpedia, and several other blogs. Your work has informed, entertained, and inspired players for years.