Midsummer Fire Festival (WoW)  

Midsummer Fire Festival is a celebration of summer and merrymaking that takes place in World of Warcraft from June 21st to July 5th.

The event also coincide with the Engineers' Explosive Extravaganza on July 4th, where the sky is filled with Fireworks.

Like most holiday event in World of Warcraft, this is a good occasion to run some new unique seasonal quests and earns some interesting "toy" rewards.

And of course, with Wrath of the Lich King, this is also a once a year occasion to earn achievement points.

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The Festival

The cities will take a much more festive look, with bonfires and fire dancing poles adorning several locations. More then mere decoration however, those items can be interacted with for some interesting results.

  • The Ribbon Pole - Clicking on the ribbon pole will create a red colored energy ribbon between you and it (similar in look to Drain Life or Mind Flay) and cause you to dance. Aside from the entertainment factor, you can also receive a +30 Fire Resistance Buff that lasts for 1 hour if more than one person is using the pole. After all, it's no fun to dance by yourself.
  • Touching a Bonfire will remove most debuffs that your character might be under.
  • Bonfires can be used with Burning Blossom - a quest item earned from a Midsummer Festival Quest - to earn a rather powerful buff, Fire Festival Fury, which grants +42 Critical Strike and Spell Critical Strike rating for 1 hour! Definitely not a bad idea to use those before an instance/raid or a Grinding session.
  • To add a bit of PVP mayhem, it is possible to steal the flame from the opposite faction's bonfire. Doing so will start the quest Stealing the [1]'s Flame (example, Stealing Orgrimmar's Flame). When you complete the quest, everybody in the capital city will receive a +30 Stamina buff called Fire Festival Fortitude which last for 1 hour. If you are brave enough to collect all 3 flames (only the original 3 cities of pre-TBC count), you will earn the Crown of the Fire Festival!
  • Tending the Flames: Across Azeroth, brilliant bonfires have been lit to signify the hottest months of the year. The chosen Flamekeepers are eager to ensure they continue burning long into the days and nights of the celebration - and they seek the aid of able explorers in doing so. Traverse the land and delve into dangerous dungeons at their behest. You may return hot, sweaty, and a little sooty...but these spiritual guides understand well the need to reward adventurers beyond the promise of "enlightenment."
  • Ahune, the Frost Lord: One of the main additions to the Fire Festival this year is a new summonable boss. Level 70 players can undertake this questline that takes you to the Slave Pens to seek and defeat Ahune, the Frost Lord. Ahune is a special summonable boss, similar to the Headless Horseman, that is only available during the Fire Festival. Luma Cloudsister, located just inside the Slave Pens, directs your party to where you can find and defeat Ahune - and loot his special rewards. The loot in Heroic mode is more powerful than on normal mode and includes epic items.

Ahune's Loot Table

Killing Ahune will also net you a Shards of Ahune which begins a quest that'll give you a new tabard.

Burning Blossoms

Burning Blossoms are the currency used for the Fire Festival and are used to purchase seasonal reward items from Midsummer Suppliers and Merchants. You can collect Burning Blossoms by completing quests, including the daily quests that are part of the festival. Using them near a Fire Festival Bonfire also grants a temporary but useful buff to your character, or reignites an extinguished bonfire - but consumes the blossom in the process.

Most of the quest during the festival give you Burning Blossom, which on top of granting the aforementioned buff, can also be used as a currency with the many vendors of the festival. A lot of are repeatable, ensuring a constant supply of Blossom, while the festival last.

The easiest quest involve simply visiting the capital cities of your faction and finding the bonfire. It is given by the Festival Talespinner for the Horde and the Festival Loremaster for the Alliance - it is called The Festival of Fire.

You can earn additional Burning Blossoms by;

  1. Honoring your own faction's flames (talk to Festival Keeper near any flame) - 5 Blossoms, 5g95s.
  2. Desecrating your opposing faction's flames ("open" the fire) - 10 Blossoms, 11g90s.
  3. Retrieving a fire from your opposing faction's capital cities ("open" the fire, return to Lorekeeper/Talespinner) - 25 Blossoms, 9g10s, choice of festival items (food, petals, drink)

Bonfire Locations

Kalimdor

Eastern Kingdoms

Outland

  • Hellfire Peninsula - East of Honor Hold (A) and South-East of Thrallmar (H)
  • Zangarmarsh - South of Telredor (A) and East of Zabra'jin (H)
  • Terokkar Forest - West of Allerian Stronghold (A) and East of Stonebreaker Hold (H)
  • Nagrand - West of Telaar (A) and West of Garadar (H)
  • Blade's Edge Mountains - East of Sylvanaar (A) and South-West of Thunderlord Stronghold (H)
  • Netherstorm - North-West of Area 52 (A) and South of Area 52 (H)
  • Shadowmoon Valley - North-East of Wildhammer Stronghold (A) and East of Shadowmoon Village (H)

There are also quests relating to Lord Ahune. These start with a quest given to you by the Earthen Ring Elder in Shattrath City:

Achievements

Flame Warden / Flame Keeper


 Flame Warden (Alliance) and Flame Keeper (Horde) are the name of the Achievement and Title you'll earn for completing all the Midsummer Fire Festival achievements. The following section will cover each achievement individually.

The Fires of Azeroth

This achievement has the same name for both Alliance and Horde, but not the same criteria. You need to go and talk to the npc of your faction that will be standing by the bonfire near your faction's outpost in several zones. They will be marked as quest npc, and completing the quest will give you credit toward as well as 6g 63s (at level 80). The list of location for every fire can be seen in the section above.

In order to earn it, you need to first complete the 3 achievement listed below:

Flame Warden of Eastern Kingdoms / Flame Keeper of Eastern Kingdoms - Visit the fire in Eastern Kingdoms and talk to the npc gathered there.
Flame Warden of Kalimdor / Flame Keeper of Kalimdor - Visit the fire in Kalimdor and talk to the npc gathered there.
Flame Warden of Outland / Flame Keeper of Outland - Visit the fire in Outland and talk to the npc gathered there.

Desecration of the Alliance/ Desecration of the Horde

This achievement's name will change depending on your faction. You need to go and interact with the bonfire of the opposite faction. Doing so will take 3 seconds and then allow you to complete a quest to desecrate the fire. The fire will be marked as quest npc. Completing the quest will give you credit toward as well as 13g 23s (at level 80). The list of location for every fire can be seen in the section above.

On a pvp server, this may be ground for skirmishes. Be watchful.

In order to earn it, you need to first complete the 3 achievement listed below:

Extinguishing Eastern Kingdoms - Visit the fire in Eastern Kingdoms and talk to the npc gathered there.
Extinguishing Kalimdor - Visit the fire in Kalimdor and talk to the npc gathered there.
Extinguishing Outland - Visit the fire in Outland and talk to the npc gathered there.

Ice the Frost Lord

Ahune is already discussed in this page, you simply need to kill him to get the achievement - both normal and heroic kill count toward it. With a group of level 80, the fight is trivial.

Burning Hot Pole Dance

Dancing at the fire pole is easy, but in order to complete a full set, you will need to earn over 400 Burning Blossom. Do the daily quests, make sure you visit every bonfire and do not waste any by throwing them in the fire and you should have no problem getting there. Once fully dressed, simply interact with the pole and you'll get the achievement.

King of the Fire Festival

This achievement requires earning the crown of the fire festival, mentioned above. You need to sneak in the enemy's faction city and steal their fire. Stealth Class will have an easier time of it, but there's no real easy to do it. Perseverance and a lot of corpse run are to be expected.

Torch Juggler

This one is relatively easy, if a bit tricky. You will need 10 to 20 torches, so you'll need to purchase some with your Burning Blossom. Keep that in mind, since you already need over 400 for the Burning Hot Pole Dance Achievement. Simply hot key the torch and spam the ground underneath you with them. You will easily catch the 40 torches under 15 seconds and earn the achievement.

Notes

The official write up of the Midsummer Fire Festival can be found at the Blizzard page.

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This page last modified 2009-06-25 09:07:01.
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