2-12-12
A bit late on this, but I'll link to it next year.
Whew, the Lunar Festival, Darkmoon Fair, and Love is in the Air all happening around the same time makes for a very busy altoholic.
You definitely want to do the 4 Gift for XXX chief daily quests on as many toons as you can, as it allows you to turn 1 bracelet into 5 love tokens. Do all 4 Chief dailies, and 4 bracelets becomes 20 tokens, getting you closer to the 270 tokens needed for the mount, without the headache of grinding it out. Plus, 16 gold at level 85 for each daily adds up to a lotta gold, especially on multiple toons.
The holiday, like most of them, is a lot easier and more rewarding at max level, as you have access to the holiday boss, which always drops more tokens that you need, plus you have a chance at the ultra-rare Big Love Rocket. At 0.16% drop rate, the more toons you do it on, the more you increase your chances. It's also a whole lot easier to do on a max level toon because of the HUGE difference in monsters. On a lower level toon, for example my hunter Bloodshrike on Darrowmere (76), I can kill mobs that are maybe 5-6 levels lower than me. They die easily, but it still takes a bit of time, and I'm only getting a Charm on every 3rd kill (though it seems like more). On Demon Soul, with all my 85's, I have tons of options to annihilate mobs that were designed for level 80 toons, in ilevel 200ish gear. With toons geared in Cataclysm gear, even crappy 318 greens or 371 PvP gear, you cut through whole groups of mobs in seconds, and watch the charms just pour in. It's all about the efficiency of killing, optimal results for the minimum of time spent grinding mobs.
Cold at Cold's Gold Factory had some ideas, which I gleefully seized upon. The Slags in Halls of Lightning normal mode is a brilliant idea. Since they don't drop loot, it doesn't slow me down in my killing frenzy, so I just run around the central pillar. I've done it on my hunter, paladin, and death knight, and racked up 130 charms in about 25 minutes.
Alto at Altosgoldishadvise recommended Rokir in Icecrown. I tried it out, but didn't seem to make many charms.
Over at Power Word: Gold, he suggests the Fractured Front in Deepholm, since you can use a Treasure Potion to get even more reward for your time spent.
Whatever your favorite spot is, you're still going to need to turn in the Bracelets for the Gift to the 4 Chiefs of each Faction.
For Horde, here's my rotation. My guys are all logged in Orgrimmar for the holiday. I log in, grab the Crushing the Crown daily, the Perfume/Chocolate daily, the Gift for the Warchief, and take out 3 or 4 bracelets from my guild bank. I join the Q for the Apothecaries, then go turn in 1 bracelet to Garrosh, tossing out candy/perfume to all the NPC's in the throne room. 2 dailies down already, I take the portal to Uldum for Crushing the Crown.
Once that's done, I either fly straight north to Thunder Bluff to turn one in to Baine, or I just hit my hearthstone. At the beginning of the holiday, I changed my hearth to the Wayfarer's Inn, located just off the Bazaar in Silvermoon City. The reason for this is that the daily for Lor'themar is given at the Bazaar, allowing me to pick it up ON THE WAY, not having to backtrack to it from getting a teleport there. And, once done, I just take the portal behind him to the courtyard of UC, where I pick up the daily for Sylvanas.
Now, here's the difference with having the Darkmoon Fair running at the same time. With the DM Fair, I'd come back up to the central section of UC, talk to the DM mage to instantly port to Mulgore, then fly up to do the daily for Baine. Once done, I'd use my guild teleport cloak to instantly be back in Orgrimmar, turn in Crushing the Crown, then log over to my next toon. Less than 20 minutes total time spent, 30 tokens plus the extra from the holiday bosses, plus 16 gold x6. You'd have to collect 300 Charms for the same result, and at a 33% drop rate, that would be over 900 monsters you'd have to kill. Now that the Fair is over, I usually don't bother with Baine.
For Alliance.....you're screwed, just like during the daily for killing the Greench. :)
I kid, I kid, but it probably adds on a lot of time to try to get to Ironforge, as well as go to Darnassus and the Exodar.
I haven't been doing much on Alliance side this year, since my main Clockwrkmage only got to level 81. I'd imagine you'd log in, join the Q for the apothecaries, grab bracelets out of the bank, toss perfume/candy, get the Crushing the Crown daily, then turn in a bracelet to Varian. Take the portal to Uldum for Crushing the Crown, then hearth to the Inn in Darnassus, pick up the daily for Tyrande, turn it in upstairs at the temple, then hop down and take the portal to the Exodar. Turn in the daily for Prophet Velen, then use your teleport cloak/Dalaran teleport ring to quickly get back to ......Stormwind, to turn in Crushing the Crown. Darkmoon Fair or not, there's no fast way to Ironforge, unless you get a port from a mage. The Alliance Darkmoon mages port you to Goldshire, right by Stormwind.
You could take a flight from a flightmaster, or take the portal in Stormwind to Twilight Highlands, then fly south-west to Ironforge, since you'd only have to cross the Wetlands.
Well, just a few random thoughts about the holiday, hope it helps!
Edit 2/24/2012:
I got 4 of the Wasteling, 2 Roses, and 7 Masks (Buriza got 4 of them). No Rocket mount for me. :(
Buut, I did save up enough tokens for 8 Lovebirds, and 13 pets, both of which will fetch a good price later on.
