The Tyranny of World Events

In WoW, it's another World Event, and another frantic effort to complete the meta-achievement on my part.

Usually mounts get faster as you train higher and higher ranks of your riding skill. The first flying mount is 150% of your (unmounted) running speed, the second flyer is 280%.

But they also offer a special speed : 310% on certain hard-to-obtain mounts. Most of these mounts come from being at the top of an arena bracket at season-end, or completing a difficult raid task or some difficult achievement. All of these are pretty much unobtainable for your average Joe Gnome.

And then there's the Violet Proto-Drake.

If you can complete all the meta-achievements for every holiday event, you are awarded the What a Long Strange Trip It's Been achievement, which comes with a 310% mount.

So you can imagine I'm a huge sucker for world events and I'm always frantic to complete them. This is actually only my second, Brewfest being my first. Finishing this one will actually require some luck, as you need to get two rare-ish drops from a boss you can only kill five times a day.

So maybe I won't get my 310% mount until next year around this time. Assuming that I can complete the Midsummer Fire Festival next year, which occurs right around when I'll be having what my benefits package at work refers to as a "Life Event".