World of Warcraft’s Midsummer Fire Festival has players running all over Azeroth honoring their faction’s bonfires and desecrating the fires of their enemies. Every flame characters honor brings players closer to the Fires of Azeroth achievement, which requires players to honor all faction bonfires in Kalimdor, the Eastern Kingdoms and Outland.
On the other hand, every enemy bonfire player’s stamp out helps earn the Desecration of the Horde or Desecration of the Alliance achievements. Both honoring and extinguishing fires earns players Burning Blossoms, the Midsummer currency. Burning blossoms can also be used to restart fires stamped out by the opposing faction, which gives players the Fire Festival Fury buff—for one hour the characters critical strike chances are improved by three percent for both combat and spells).
So where are the bonfires? Running around Azeroth at random isn’t the best way to find the fires, whether players are honoring their faction’s noble flames or stamping out the opposition’s inferior bonfires. The most effective way to find the fires is to work off a list.
Here are the bonfire locations for Kalimdor, WoW’s western continent. Honor all the flames here to earn the Flame Warden of Kalimdor achievement, and desecrate the opposing team’s fires for the Extinguishing Kalimdor achievement.
Alliance Midsummer Fires in Kalimdor
Ashenvale: the Alliance bonfire is just outside of Astranaar.
Azuremyst Isle: Go to Azure Watch. The fire is down the hill to the west.
Bloodmyst Isle: the Alliance fire is at Blood Watch.
Darkshore: the bonfire is to the west of the Auberdine griffin master.
Desolace: at the bottom of the path leading up to Nigel’s Point.
Dustwallow Marsh: outside of Theramore.
Feralas: the Alliance fire is on the same island as Feathermoon Stronghold.
Silithus: the Alliance bonfire is east of Cenarion Hold Tanaris: to the east of Gadgetzan
Teldrassil: the Alliance fire is in Dolanaar (making this one of the hardest Alliance flames to desecrate, as Horde players have to run through Darnassus to get there).
Winterspring: by the Everlook griffon landing .
Horde Midsummer Fires of Kalimdor
Ashenvale: close to the watch tower just outside Splintertree Post.
Desolace: near the beach by Shadowprey Village.
Durotar: the Horde fire is to the south of Razor Hill
Duskwallow Marsh: Outside Brackenwall Village. The Alliance should watch out for ogres.
Feralas: the Horde flame is on a bluff by Camp Mojache.
Mulgore: on the outskirts of Bloodhoof Village.
Silithus: on the south side of Cenarion Hold, opposite the Allaince bonfire.
Stonetalon Mountains: take the turn into Sunrock Retreat off Webwinder Path.
Tanaris: outside Gadgetzan, opposite the Alliance fire.
The Barrens: outside Crossroads.
Thousand Needles: at the base of Freewind Post.
Winterspring: next to the manticore landing.
Once player’s have honor all the Kalimdor flames (and stamp out the hateful flames of their foes) they can move on to the Eastern Kingdom flames and the Flames of Outland.
Factions in World of Warcraft
Players can create characters belonging to one of two factions:
The Alliance – The Alliance faction is headed by the Human race under the leadership of King Varian Wrynn in Stormwind City. The other races of the Alliance faction include the Dwarves and Gnomes of Ironforge, the Night Elves of Darnassus, and the Draenei of the Exodar. The starting zones for the Humans, Dwarves, and Gnomes are located on the Eastern Kingdoms continent, and those for the Night Elves and Draenei are located on islands to the northwest of the continent of Kalimdor.
The Horde – The Horde faction is headed by the Orc race under the leadership of Warchief Thrall in Orgrimmar. The other races of the Horde faction include the Trolls, also in Orgrimmar, the Tauren of Thunder Bluff, the Undead of the Undercity, and the Blood Elves of Silvermoon City. The starting zones for the Orcs, Trolls, and Tauren are located on the continent of Kalimdor, while those of the Undead and Blood Elves are located in the northern portion of the Eastern Kingdoms continent.
Differences Between the Alliance and Horde Factions
Prior to the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, the class of Paladin could only be chosen by members of certain Alliance races (Human, Dwarf), and the class of Shaman could only be chosen by members of certain Horde races (Orc, Troll, Tauren).
However, the introduction of the Blood Elf race allowed Horde players to choose the Paladin class, and the Draenei race allowed Alliance players to choose the Shaman class. However, the Alliance faction still allows for racial choice when creating a Paladin class character, and the Horde faction still allows for racial choice when creating a Shaman class character.
Two of the main Alliance cities (Darnassus, the Exodar) are located on islands, and can be difficult to reach for some Horde players. This provides some difficulty for Horde players to launch attacks on these cities or to complete achievement quests that involve traveling into those cities.
On a vast majority of servers, the Alliance faction is more highly populated than the Horde faction. This can provide some advantage in terms of numbers in player-versus-player combat, but can also create competition for end-game raiding guilds and auction house purchases.
In general, there is no overall difference in the two factions. Each faction has equivalent options for quests, mounts, achievements, and other in-game rewards. For most players, choosing a faction is based on racial aesthetics, or based on which faction they have friends in on a server.
