It’s the festive season, a time of goodwill and friendship. A time of giving and receiving, and all the joy of spending time with those you love.

Alternatively, a time of free chocolate and some PvP.

If you’ve run far too much Wintergrasp and whatever in hell the battleground is this weekend, and you’re looking for a change, why not turn your attention to the relatively little-pursued Gurubashi Arena Grand Master achievement! It ticks all the right boxes. Killing? Check. Standing about tensely hoping someone else doesn’t kill you? Check. Torturous timed events that you miss at your own peril? Check. What more could you want from your Christmas holiday?

Let’s get cracking. Cracking. Like a Christmas CRACKer. See what I did there.

First of all, you should know that this is the second part of a two-achievement chain. The good news is that the first part is pretty easy to get and is good practise for the second, which is pretty much more of the same.

Where the F**k?

Gurubashi Arena. You may have run past the place at a relatively low level in Stranglethorn Vale and briefly thought to yourself “…wtf?”. Anyone entering this arena (even you lowbies who may be tempted) is immediately flagged for PvP against everyone else. Most of the time on ED you’ll get away unscathed, but if you get “lucky” you can end up with an excellent battle on your hands.

What the F**k?

Every 3 hours, at 12, 3, 6 etc server time, Short John Mithril will spawn inside the arena and wander (painfully slowly) into the centre. Once there he will let out a zone-wide yell inviting all and sundry to fight to the death over the chest he has deposited.

“Arrr, Me Hearties! I be havin’ some extra Treasure that I be givin’ away at the Gurubashi Arena! All ye need do to collect it is open the chest I leave on the arena floor!”

First to open the chest wins the contents. The trinket will start a quest asking you to speak to the elusive Mr. Mithril, and hurrah…stage 1 complete!

I’m Going to Stop Swearing Now

Good. There’s really no need. Mr. Mithril will now give you a followup quest to….you guessed it….collect more trinkets. 12 in total, to be precise. You know the drill by now, camp those chests good and hard and you’ll be Grand Master in no time.

I’m Scared

It’s ok, we’re all scared. Here are some tips:

• Early morning hours tend to be the least camped, and are much easier especially if you are not at max level.
• Try stealthing in the centre of the arena by the chest area to cut down your looting time once it finally spawns.
• If the area is camped and you have no chance of survival, hire a gnome to wander into the area naked, thus distracting your opponents for a short time.
• Remember to leave a space for the trinket in your bag; trying to delete mage strudel while fighting off an enemy paladin is not for the faint hearted.
• The trinket will present you with a generic “This item is BoP, if you take it I won’t let you put it back” confirmation box, so get ready on that “Yes” button.

The more astute of you will of course notice that the trinket in question is level 35. This may sound far-fetched, but I for one did manage this at the “correct” level. If you’re level 35 and sick of your woefully unused trinket slots, stay up really late and go sneaking in Stranglethorn. The followup is admittedly higher level, but winning the Gurubashi Arena as a lowbie is from my own experience a /flex-worthy event.

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