Triumph of the Second Violet Proto-Drake

I wasn't that excited about the Midsummer Fire Festival, other than the prospect of collecting my second Violet Protodrake for my Horde Warrior.  The only real change since the last time I did this achievement run is that the timer on the torch juggling achievement had its timer slashed since 2009.  At 20 seconds, catching 40 torches required players to perform four actions per second, and I was able to complete it without issues.  At 15 seconds, the attempt was physically painful.  Fortunately, there's an addon for this problem. 

The final achievement I completed was already a four for one deal, since completing the continent completed the fires of the world, which completed the Fire Festival, which completed the holiday meta.  I decided to throw in one more achievement for good measure.  

What a long strange ding it has been

Timing this was more challenging than you might think - a single mob kill in Twilight Highlands is worth 11K exp, and a flame for the festival is worth only 30K, so I had to get within two kills of level 85, but it's as good a way to hit the level cap as any, I suppose.  The level 85 achievement made five dings for one turnin and a bonus achievement for dessert - you are awarded Master/310% speed riding when you actually mount up on your new protodrake, which requires 280% riding to use, so I was correct to pay for that upgrade earlier on. This marks my fourth current level-capped character across three MMO's - I haven't had two capped characters in the same game since Wrath launched. 

Overall, the holiday achievement grind was nowhere near as bad as it was back in 2009, when it pretty much literally drove me out of Azeroth to pick up EQ2 (which I suppose has worked out well enough). I'm still not convinced that limited time holiday events are a good place to put a grind, but at least the current system is something that you can do without going too far out of your way.  Other than the torch thing that I had to cheat with an add-on, and the hunt for a female dwarf for the creepy Easter achievement, there wasn't anything this time around that was actively non-fun to complete.  If you're looking for the occasional change of pace from the daily (quest/dungeon) grind, I suppose there are worse ways to go.