The Midsummer Festival is one of the easiest of the holiday achievements, but one of the most time consuming. As a bonus though, you will make at least 500 gold at level 85 doing this achievement. Its largely unchanged from 2011 other than the fact that Cataclysm Fires and Desecration achievements have been added to the metas.
To get The Flame Keeper/The Flame Warden achievement you need to get the following:
- Ice the Frost Lord – kill Frost Lord Ahune
- Burning Hot Pole Dance – dance around a pole for 60 seconds wearing the completed Midsummer set
- Torch Juggler – Juggle 40 torches in 15 seconds in Dalaran
- King of the Fire Festival – Complete a quest chain that ends with you stealing fires from the opposite faction’s capital cities
- The Fires of Azeroth – Honor all the fires of your own faction in Eastern Kingdoms, Kalimdor and Outland
- Desecration of the Horde/Alliance – Desecrate all the fires of the opposite faction in Eastern Kingdomes, Kalimdor and Outland
There are no achievements that are not part of the meta, but you can also obtain two pets:
- Ice Chip drops from the bag you get for killing Ahune.
- Midsummer Flame can be brought for 350 Burning Blossoms. Since you need 415 for the meta, thats a lot of blossoms. You can get these by completing the daily quests each day and visiting all the Northrend and Cataclysm fires that aren’t a part of the meta.
You will also get bonus achievement points for the achievements that make up The Fires of Azeroth and Desecration of the Horde/Alliance. They are not listed on the meta but you can’t do the meta without them.
How you do it
Start with these things, which you will do each day:
- Queue for Frost Lord Ahune from the dungeon finder. As with all holiday events the queue does not take long and you will get a few bonus Justice Points for your time. Do this every day until you get the pet and any of the cloaks, or the caster staff if you want them (ilevel 353). [Completed: Ice the Frost Lord]
- While you wait go to the fire in one of your capital cities. I would suggest not Stormwind or Orgrimmar. Pick up all the quests and complete the torch catching and brazier hitting ones so you have access to the daily quests. Torch catching is much easier in some clear space (you have to follow the shadow on the floor). Do both dailies every day.
The rest of the achievement is a once only thing:
- Start with the quest chain. Go to the Zoram Strand and do the quests and you will be sent back to a capital city. You can then steal flames from the opposite faction’s capital cities. Don’t make a special trip – just pick them up as you go around.
- Of the Horde cities, I managed to do Undercity (in the courtyard in the Ruins of Lordaeron) and Orgrimmar (in the Valley of Wisdom up high) without even aggroing a guard. I aggro’d a guard in Thunder Bluff after grabbing the flame, but jumped off the edge (on my Levitating priest). In Silvermoon you can’t fly so just run. I ran through to the Court of the Sun and then managed to get out of combat to go and steal the flame.
- Of the Alliance cities, Darnassus is the easiest (in the courtyard just inside the entrance from Teldrassil) and you will just be able to swoop in and out. Exodar is in the Crystal Hall. You will likely have to run to the fire, die, corpse run and then steal it and stone. You can stand by the fire without pulling aggro but you have no chance of getting there without doing so. Stormwind is quite hard and you will want to do at a quiet time. The fire is just outside the entrance to the Stockades in the canals and is right next to several profession trainers and the fishing and cooking daily quest givers. The Alliance are busy there, but not so busy they won’t stop to kill you. The Ironforge flame is at the back in the Hall of Explorers. You should be able to fly to this without aggro if you stay up high and use the flight path slits in the walls. [Completed: King of the Fire Festival]
- Then visit all the flames and honoring or desecrating them (you do this by completing a quest at the fire). It doesn’t matter when you do Outland or Northrend, but remember that both have a portal to your capital city or to Tanaris so when you are planning a path keep this in mind. Also remember you can jump around using the portals to the Cataclysm areas and flying from there. I’m not going to write an order up because you might tie it in with other dailies, grinding – I tied it in with doing some Archaeology on one character and farming random herbs on another. Northrend and Cataclysm do not count towards the meta and is only required if you want the extra Blossoms for the pet. You can fly in Azeroth, but you can also make use of flight paths still while you go and do something else. [Completed: The Fires of Azeroth & Desecration of the Horde/Alliance]
- You’ll need to farm 400 Burning Blossoms and buy the Midsummer clothes set from the vendor (shoulders, chest, feet). Then put them on and dance at a pole until you get the achievement. [Completed: Burning Hot Pole Dance]
- Torch Juggler needs to be completed in Dalaran so you need to go there either during your tour around the flames or at the end. Buy some torches , preferably with some to spare (I managed with 20 which cost 15 Burning Blossoms since I had 5 from the quest) and put them on a hot-key. Unlike the other torches you can target these. Target them at your feet and start spamming the key and then your mouse to place the targeting circle. If you have lag try and face a wall to reduce it some (don’t know if that trick is still needed but it was helpful back when Dalaran was highly populated). You will probably not manage it at first – keep spamming. You will start your second 15 second counter with torches in the air this way and then get the achievement. You can send these torches between characters if you are doing more than one round of this achievement.
Flames it might be hard to find
Most of the flames are fairly obvious when you look at a map. Remember this achievement has been around for a while so flames tend to be at the older settlements and main settlements. Just look at your map and you can see where the Alliance and Horde flight points are for a rough guide. Where theres a goblin town, both flames tend to be there. The following are those that aren’t as obvious:
- Cape of Strangelthorn – both flames are on the pirate beach just east of Booty Bay
- Westfall – this flame is at Moonbrook
- Burning Steppes – the Horde flame is at Flame Crest
- Eversong Woods – the flame is outside of Falconwing Square
- Northern Stranglethorn – the Alliance flame is at Fort Livingstone
- Swamp of Sorrows – Bogpaddle! Just … don’t …
- Ashenvale – the Alliance flame is now at Forest Song and the Horde flame at Silverwind Refuge
- Darkshore – the Alliance flame is now at Lor’danel
- Southern Barrens – the Alliance flame is at Fort Triumph and the Horde flame at Desolation Hold
- Stonetalon Mountains – Sun Rock Retreat (I think it always has been but there are a lot of Horde flight points here)
- Twilight Highlands – these are at the daily quest hubs of Bloodgulch and Thundermar, not the entry towns.
- Vashj’ir – the flame is at Silver Tide Hollow.
