Noblegarden has started! And it wasn’t five minutes before I saw the first bunny-on-bunny violence .. or at least excessive yelling and use of obscene language.
The problem, so far as I can tell, is that about have the population of any given realm believes that the “right” way to gather eggs is to find an egg spawn spot and sit in front of it until an egg spawns. That eggs is then “theirs” because they were specifically waiting for it.
The other half of the population believes that the “right” way to gather eggs is to hop frantically from spawn spot to spawn spot, grabbing any egg that happens to spawn and isn’t grabbed by someone else first. That egg is then “theirs” because at that point, it’s in their inventory.
Unfortunately, these two methods don’t necessarily work well together. When an egg spawns by a sitter and a passing hopper grabs it … well, there may be words. And regardless of your personal predilections, I find that too much yelling can get on my little bunny nerves.
Personally, I love hopping frantically … in general, I mean, not just when gathering eggs. There’s something about being a bunny that makes me want to hop about frantically, and it’s not just that I can’t mount up without dropping the shapeshift, either.
At any rate … try to have fun gathering your eggs. If you aren’t having fun, skip it. There’s no title for Noblegarden and it’s not part of “What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been” either.
Edit: Sheesh — I completely misread my Achievement panel. Noblegarden does have a title — “the Noble” and is part of “What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been”. I apologize for the misinformation.
Thanks for catching me, Kestrel.
I’ve found that Azure Watch is the best place to gather eggs, followed by Dolanaar.
Two corrections: Noble Gardener is very much a part of the “What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been” achievement. And there is a title: “the Noble.”
Hopping gets it, hands down. Sitting in one spot forever and waiting on spawns is the most boring way to spend this holiday.
I find that I have more fun hopping all over the place. I learn the spawn pattern, and then hop along from spot to spot, sometimes changing directions midway, because I just -know- that snowshoe rabbit that is following me is telegraphing my moves to everyone else :p
I saw more complaints about “80s wanting titles” today while I was hopping all over Falconwing Square than I did about ninja bunnies. Of course, I only happened to catch sight of that particular complaint section because my chat log happened to be over the top of an egg at the time. If I’m trying to get my mini pet, I’m focused on getting the material that will get me the pet, not on everyone else complaining.
Expect the fervor to die down by day three. Because then, either everyone that wanted the title will have it, or the people that have been waiting for it to quiet down will be playing and there will be fewer egg hunters either way.
The character I wanted the rabbit on, has it now, so I’m good. Hmm. Maybe my SAN hunter should get it…
Hopping or sitting, first to click wins.
I’ve tried and done both methods, and you’re gonna get beat out to the egg sometimes. It just happens, and in WoW, possession is 11/10ths of the law.
The only time I seem to see words get heated is when you get an existing sitter and a new sitter comes over and tries to camp the same few spawn points.
Early in the week, when the number of collectors is high, the best strategy is to camp one spot for one to three spawns. The number of eggs in existence is limited but because collection rate is high, respawns are fast.
Later in the week, when the number of collectors is low, the best strategy is to make a circuit of several spawn points. You must do this because if no one collects the eggs at unmanned spots, new eggs will not spawn at your spot.
So ettiquette-wise: early in the week, respect everyone’s camp. Late in the week, anything goes.
I’ve just been doing laps of Azure Watch. There are several egg-spawn spots that people tend to miss, so each lap usually yields at least a few eggs (and often several).
The other advantage is that moving around automatically adjusts for increases and decreases in the number of people hunting eggs (you’ll get more eggs per lap if the number of people hunting them goes down, whereas fewer people hunting means the respawn rate will slow down for people camping specific spots).
I like hopping. Agreed on the bunnies-should-hop reasoning. ;) I have no trouble with sitters, since some of them tunnel vision pretty badly and are so intent on THEIR spawn that they miss two more eggs that spawn behind them. :D
My favorite areas were Dolanaar (A) and Razor Hill (H). Nice visibility.
Been getting the title on one of my horde toons, I found hopping a circuit the best way and reversing every other lap. best place I found was bloodhoof, so many egg spawns in hard to see places. makes me laugh when egg hunters run right past them.
Luckily got everything last year so don’t need to enter the chaos this year. Found hopping a circuit was best, partly because you hit more eggs, partly because my mouse was acting up and kept clicking all over the place so there was a good chance that I had to hit the eggs twice and mostly because I’d have given up and murdered someone by my 30th egg is i had to sit still.
For me the most annoying acheivement was the one where you had to lay an egg as a rabbit by the ungoro springs. I thought you had to get turned into a rabbit by an egg then hop all the way there. Starting at Goldshire it took almost the full hour to get to ungoro and I’d almost got to the springs when I got attacked by a dinosaur and got turned back. Luckily a guild friend heard my screams of rage and flew down to ungoro to use the branch thing on me.
I’m a camper because last year my latency and framerate were conspiring against me so that when hopping around I saw no eggs appear on my screen until I was well past them. Camping gave me enough of a chance to gather enough eggs to get the title on my main and the poly book + pet on my mage alt. Camping is not just sitting staring at my screen either: last year I did my taxes and other paper tasks that I always leave until the last day, cleaned my room, giftwrapped a dozen real eggs, and finished 2 books.
This year I’ll probably start by camping and will try hopping around when the madness dies down a bit. There’s half a dozen alts who would like the title, but none that actually need it. Question from the Horde alt: in which town are they easiest to find/see?
As for who has a right to the egg? Both methods are valid and whoever clicks the fastest has the rights. As a camper you can place that mousepointer over the spawnpoint and click the moment it spawns. If you get beaten to it by a hopper then I say grats to the hopper. And campers often forget that they still need those hoppers to get their point to spawn stuff, unless each and every spawnpoint happens to be camped.
TEAM HOP! My favorite is when a camper goes AFK and so some people leave them be because of the yelling but if you are sneaky (like a bunny) you can grab the eggs the afkers are sitting on and NO YELLING!
Hoppity hop hop! :D
@ Tsani – a lot of people like Bloodhoof Village, but I love Brill and Falconwing Square for egg collection. Brill, because it seems to have more spawn spots, and Falconwing because they’re easier to see and usually less people are there. Either way, going in the wee small hours of the morning is my favourite tactic!
Brill – I run a circuit around the outside of the houses, checking in all the bushes, under the wagon in the center of town, and under the benches near the wagon. There are also spawns down the well, balanced on top of light posts, and tucked in behind barrels or stacks of boxes next to the walls.
Falconwing – There are a total of twelve spawn spots in the fountain and under the benches around it, and about eight in, under, and around the cart the cheese vendor stands next to. The rest are behind trees and fence posts, plus there are a few under the other wagon including one in a box next to it. If you prefer camping, or need to because of latency issues, the cheese vendor wagon is probably the best spot – I sit at the rear of the wagon whenever my bags get full and I need to open all my eggs, and I usually manage to grab at least four or five more spawns before I’m done. :)
All I can say is, “All the bunnies are stabbing each other”.
For each town I visited to collect eggs, I had a circular route I followed that would pass by most, if not all, of the egg spawns. By running around this route continuously, I could gather up far more eggs in a very short period of time than anyone who decided to just sit and wait for them to spawn. If someone got testy about me grabbing an egg they were going for, I ignored them altogether and they very quickly became quiet when I wasn’t roused by them. The person who grabbed the egg is obviously the one who got there first.
I was also lucky enough to get three of the noncombat pet within 150 eggs on my Rogue, but I couldn’t get a single one of them on my Hunter until I finally got to 100 chocolates and purchased it. It’s too bad they weren’t account bound. I could’ve just handed one to my Hunter!
I thought the easiest place to collect eggs that first day was Dolanaar. Azure Watch and Kharanos were tied for second. I never even bothered with Goldshire!