Higher Learning Achievement Guide
You may have noticed players standing around certain locations in Dalaran, or Guildies always /afk in certain spots every other day. You may even notice players spamming trade chat with a location of a book you have no idea what they’re talking about, and when you go to that location, you see nothing. That is the Higher Learning achievement.
For this time consuming achievement, you are required to find and read eight rare book spawns located in Dalaran. The problem is, the spawn rates are random, and when they do spawn, they only stay up for a short period of time. Luckily, the spawn locations and the spawn rates are known. All that is left that you will need is a bit of luck, and a lot of time to spare.
The School of Arcane Magic – Introduction
This book is located in the Teleportation Crystal Room at the coordinates, (56.7, 46.1). It will be found on the floor next to the bookshelf.
The School of Arcane Magic – Conjuration
This book is located in the Violet Citadel at the coordinates, (30.9, 46.5). It will be found on the first bookshelf on the bottom shelf. The bookshelves are on the right side if you are entering the violet Citadel.
The Schools of Arcane Magic – Enchantment
This book is located on the second floor balcony of the Thread of Fate (cloth armor) shop, at the coordinates, (43.5, 46.9). You will find it on top of a small box which is located next to a bigger box.
The Schools of Arcane Magic – Necromancy
This book is located on the second floor of the Legerdemain Lodge in the room with the empty bookshelf. The coordinates are (46.9, 39.1). The book will spawn in the middle shelf of the room with four beds.
The Schools of Arcane Magic – Abjuration
This book is located in the Dalaran Visiting Center (tabard shop) at the coordinates (52.2, 55.2). You will find in on the floor next to a small table, two chairs and bookshelves.
The Schools of Arcane Magic – Divination
This book is located on the second floor of the Violet Citadel on the side with the Caverns of Time Portal at the coordinates, (26.5, 57.1). You will find the book on the floor between the two bookshelves.
The Schools of Arcane Magic – Illusion
This book is located at the Violet Hold next to Archmage Timear (normal dungeon daily) at the coordinates, (46.5, 52.8). You will find in on the box in the northern most corner.
The Schools of Arcane Magic – Transmutation
This book is located in the Legerdemain Lodge on the bottom floor at the coordinates, (46.9, 39.8). You will find the book on the empty bookshelf near the western doorway.
Spawning Rates and Rules
Now you know the locations of each book, you now need to know the way they spawn and you will need to know these spawn criteria if you want to be able to get them all.
- Each book will ONLY spawn at their specific location.
- When a book spawns, it will stay out until it is read.
- When read, it will de-spawn in 3 minutes.
- That book will re-spawn in 3 to 4 hours.
- When a book spawns, it could also be one of many possible fake books.
- Many of the books spawn when the server resets.
- You have to actually click through to the last page to get credit for “reading” the book
Once you’ve read each book, you will get the achievement. That’s not all, in the mail, you will receive [The Schools of Arcane Magic - Mastery]. This book can only be used in Dalaran, and will allow you to teleport to a secret room in Dalaran where you will find Archmage Vargoth. Turn in your book to him and he will give you a [Kirin Tor Familiar]. You also get to keep your Arcane Magic book and can teleport back to this room at any time. There are no exits to this room, but to leave, simply use the book again to teleport out (Serena!).
Good luck on getting this achievement done! It took me around 2 weeks to get this one done. If you have any tips to add or questions you need answered, feel free to add a comment. Many thanks goes to the players who have contributed information on WoWHead.com.
[Book location images taken from WoWHead.com]
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I’ve been looking into this achievement, recently. Thanks for the great, succinct guide to getting it done! Now please cross your fingers for spawn luck. >_>
Bookophile,
~Rhoelyn
Rhoelyns last blog post..A Look Back: First Responses
I’ve been trying to get this done as well, doing my rounds in Dalaran whenever I am there. So far I am only 1/8, but that’s better than nothing. Thanks for the guide.
Kadomis last blog post..
why called me out! lol *look away*
Man, i hate this! I have one book so far, every time I am up there I look for the books with no luck:-( Maybe one day.
Ive done this for hours and hours a day for the past two weeks. Im at 4/8 books. Keep your hopes up and remember you only have to do it once but if for some reason you have to do it twice think about quitting the game before you put yourself through that again
You have to be pretty hard core to do this achievement. Are the rewards worth it, or is this more of a bragging rights thing?
I recently wrote a blog post about the whole concept of Achievement systems, and how they are the hot, new feature in MMOs. Direct link:
http://muckbeast.today.com/2008/12/28/achivements-the-new-hot-feature/
What do you guys think about such system’s in general?
-Michael
Muckbeast – Game Design and Virtual Worlds
http://www.muckbeast.com
omg tuna….i also got my warlock a pet too! within a week also!!! now i’m getting my 3rd char a pet~
I’ve been looking for the books too. I have 4 of them on Mae, but Majesty has only been lucky enough to get 2. I’ll keep looking, maybe one of these days I should camp the spawns. Ugh! One thing, you don’t actually have to read the book all the way to the end to get credit, you just have to open it. At least, I got credit for opening it. It’s sorta like the Well Read achievement, you just have to open the book. Hopefully I’m not spreading misinformation.
Thanks for the great info, Tuna!!
Maes last blog post..Merrymaker? Merrymaker!
If you could do your fellow travelers a favor, try announcing when you find a book spawn in Dalaran so others can get there too. (Best to do it in /yell probably.) Hopefully the favor will be returned. Some guy did that on my server the other day, and I was able to run and get the book.
You don’t have to read the whole book to get credit.
For Proof: Pull up the Higher Learning Achievement and Track it. When you click a book, it will be removed from your track and be ‘green’ in the achievement’s page. This happens when you click the book, not when you read any part of it.
Having said that, the ‘fake’ books are often times very funny. ‘Proper Use of Portals’ and ‘The Worst Mage in Dalaran – A Children’s Story’ were my favorites.
Server crashes and resets (like all the ones we’re getting after 3.0.8) are the best times to try to get these books. I took advantage of all the Northrend crashes in the first few days of WotLK and got my pet 4 days after the expac went live. I’m positive I was the first on Kul Tiras to get the pet.
WOW got 2 books in less than ten mis the one in the tabard shop and then right under my nose the one by the portal crystal spawned
i come and googeld the achievemnt cause i cant find the book that i need left now i know by th ecloth vender well AHappy hunting guys GL
I found that once u have found a book the next book will spawn in between 20 and 25 minutes from that book and i already have my second which i would have my third but a fake spawned on my third go so…. good luck book hunting : )
-ikepeppermint – that is because each book has a 3-4hr random respawn time. What’s happening is someone ran around and read all the books after a reset or a restart. In under 5 minutes all of the books could be read. With all of them on roughly the same timer, statistically speaking most of them will pop within 30mins of each other.
Don’t go with your gut or what you observed in a single day. This thing has been observed and tinkered with by many people.
This guide is spot on, the only error I found was the one I already commented on.
@ GreyOTG
It appears that you DO NOT have to fully read the book to get credit for it, like you said. I’ve gotten a few emails saying so also.
I thought that you did because of my own experience with opening a book and not getting credit. I was woken up by my friend when she found that a book spawned. It looked like no one has read it yet so she called me and told me to get on. She would wait til I got there before she would open it (which begins the 3 minute despawn timer). When I got there, we both open the book and the book disappeared. We both didn’t get credit for it. That could the fault of lag or some other reason.
@ Adlib
Saying in /yell or even general chat would be a nice way to help out your fellow book hunters, but general chat (or even trade chat) is already filled with spam and other nonsense, it doesn’t need anymore.
On my server, players has created a chat channel dealing specifically with this achievement to help each other out, and sharing spawn timers. It is most likely different for each server, but for mine, the name of the channel is: Bookclub
day 3 …. 3 books… I just do my rounds whenever i’m in dal…. once i’m down to 2 or 3 books left i’ll just sit on the points they show up.
Responding to Tuna’s post above…. You clicked one of the FAKE books. Not all the books see are the ones you need. I thought the same thing when I started… Why didn’t i get credit for the book!? answer: wrong book.
I’ve been taking some tours around these places and I’ve got 4/8 now, though I’ve never seen a book downstairs in the Ledgermain Lodge :/
I got the Ledgemain downstairs one this morning after running circles from spawn to spawn for 3 hours straight….
The best and fastest way to get the achievement done is to find a group of like-minded people and have everyone track the timers for when the books go out of cooldown. We have a global channel /bookclub on our server, and at any one time there is always someone with the addon to track the timers, so people can find out when to camp the books. Granted, sometimes nobody knows but its a lot better than spending 2 weeks camping dalaran yourself. I got my achievement 2 days after I started looking for the first book.
This achievement is definitely frustrating. I’ve been running the course of the books for three days now and have only seen 3 or 4 of the decoy books… Considering what you have to go through to get this achievement, the pet you receive should give your toon a buff or something, but it’s still a neat addition to the game…good luck finding your books guys =)
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I found that you don’t have to camp once you see a book read it and start a timer for 3 hours and 30 min (note That book may not spawn but another one on that timer) only 2 books will ever be out at once (unless server restart) All the books run on the same timer and only 1 book will spawn but sometimes 2 will spawn and 1 will always be a fake book!!
This guide super awesome and with a few target macro’s i hooked up im just using mind vision on me priest and can instantly check any of the locations , also managed to get 2 books in an hour
@Handy Info:That is incorrect. I have seen 2 real books spawn in Violet citadel at approximately the same time. (Can’t be exactly sure of course since I can’t be in two places at the same time. But I’m still pretty sure of it.)
Do fake books start the timer over again?
To look, i run the route from teleporter. Run outside then with flying mount just run thru (no dismount needed) LL lower looking at bookcase, exit door then up to balcony, run inside to look in bedroom bookcase. back to balcony, remount. Fly to Threads of Fate balcony look on little crate. Fly into Violet Citadel look on right bookcase bottom, then run upstairs on the left side look on floor between bookcase. Run back out remount, fly to Dalarian Visitors Ctr, from outside the door, look on floor next to crate in front of book cases. Fly to Violet hold Look on crate. Three books now and lookin…
To what amount perform punks plead borrow or perhaps steal winner warnings?