WoWGrrl's World

Brewfest and the Ram Racing Festival have started, outside of Orgrimmar on the Horde side.

This morning it's swarming with people riding around on the Racing Rams that can ultimately be purchased as mounts (in both the level 40 "Racing Ram" style and the level 60 "Swift Racing Ram" style) for some 600 Brewfest tickets and either 10g or 100g depending on what version you're going with (and remember, you need to have the riding training already).

Truthfully, normally I'm not one to jump on the "festival activities" bandwagon - there's a billion people swarming around, sometimes competing for the same resources, making them scarce and even more difficult to find than usual quests... but both of my guildmates on this morning were already doing it so I figured I'd join in and see how it went.

Where It Starts

Any major city now has a couple of guys walking around with quest marks over their head - guys who weren't there before. In Undercity it was right near the mailbox, same with in Ogrimmar, so I can only assume it would be similar in Thunder Bluff and Silvermoon, although I haven't confirmed.

I didn't actually start with those quests - I just headed out the front door of Ogrimmar into Durotar because that's where my guildmates said everything was set up... and I talked to the first guy I saw near the Ram stables who had a yellow exclamation mark over his head - Ram Master Ray.

First Ram Racing Quest

He gave me a quest called "Now This is Ram Racing... Almost" and some [Ram Racing Reins] and sent me on my way to learn how to ride and control the Racing Ram I was mounted upon.

The goals of the first quest are to learn how to get the Racing Ram up to three various running speeds and hold them at each of those speeds for 8 seconds: Trot, Canter, Gallop. You increase the speed of your Racing Ram by using the Reins on him, so be sure to find it in your inventory and put it on your Action Bar.

Tips and Things to Note:

• Some quests that put you on a mount don't like it if you're already mounted - this one works fine! No worries about having to dismount.
• Canter is the same speed as an Epic Land mount, and Gallop is faster. I didn't test Trot directly.
• In terms of not really worrying about steering while you're worrying about getting and maintaining the correct speed, the road south towards Razor Hill is long and straight and great for this quest.
• The 's' key on your keyboard can be used to stop your Ram so turning in your quest is less of a timing issue ;)
  

More Ram Racing Practice - There and Back Again

After finishing that first quest and turning it in with Ram Master Ray, a yellow exclamation pops up over the head of the guy on his left - Driz Tumblequick. If you don't want to play with the Racing Rams any further for now, accept Driz's quest and follow his direction. For now, I'll cover the second Ram Racing Quest, "There and Back Again".

This quest has you use your new-found Ram Racing skills to make three trips down the road towards Razor Hill and back to Ram Master Ray again, picking up Barrels of Beer from a stranded Goblin and running them back to the Ram Master.

All you need to do to pick up the barrel is to run near the stranded goblin (by the name of Bok Dropcertain) and he'll lob a barrel at you, which you catch without any player effort. From there, you run back to Ram Master Ray and again, when you get close enough you'll automatically lob the barrel towards them and get credit for it. Repeat this three times and you'll have completed this particular quest.

It's this quest that you're first most likely to run across Ram Fatigue in its worst form - the one that stops you nearly dead in your tracks and makes your Ram walk slower'n a glacier moves!!

Fortunately, dealing with Ram Fatigue is rather easy once you know what to look for. [insert picture of ram fatigue buff signs] Ram Fatigue goes up in increments of one when you are in Canter mode. When you up it to Gallop mode, the fatigue points go up in increments of 5. When you're trotting, Ram Fatigue is reduced instead of increased, because your Racing Ram is going slow enough to get some "rest". When Ram Fatigue reaches 100 or 101, your Racing Ram is reduced to a very very slow crawl for 10 seconds and there's NO WAY to cancel it.

Within this quest, the best way to reduce Ram Fatigue is to hit a bucket of apples whenever you see one on your way to and from Bok Dropcertain - literally, run into it to ensure your Ram gets its Ram Fatigue reset to zero before moving off the bucket and continuing on your run.

Turning in this quest gets you 10 Brewfest Prize Tickets which can be redeemed for special outfits and items, like [Blix's Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles] which are "guaranteed by Blix Fixwidget to make EVERYONE look attractive" for 100 Brewfest Prize Tickets. And of course, there's the ["Honorary Brewer" Hand Stamp] for 600 tickets that allows the purchase of a racing ram.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Related posts:

1. Repeatable Brewfest Quests?
2. Brewfest Bugs and Griefers Delay Event