Welcome, fellow achievement hunter.

Ever since the introduction of the rewards track, each expansion has always brought us a handful of achievements to complete in order to gain more rewards: while some of them are relatively easy to complete, some others may take some time or a proper set up. In case you're wondering what's the best way to gain all that sweet sweet XP locked behind Fractured in Alterac Valley's achievements, do not fret, as we have the answer you're looking for!

In this guide we'll focus our attention on the Alterac Valley Shaman achievements (here's the full list of all the Alterac gameplay achievements) and provide at least one way to complete each of them so that you'll be able to get closer to the end of your reward track.

Disclaimer: as always, all expansion achievements can be completed in Ranked Standard, Ranked Wild, Arena, Casual & Heroic Duels and Classic - Casual Standard, Casual Wild and Tavern Brawl will not count towards your hunt! Moreover, we'll always take Ranked Standard as the default game format for our strategies: if we happen to have some strategies or particular interactions belonging to other modes to highlight, we'll be sure to specify it.

In case you're still deep in your achievement hunt, worry not: we prepared a guide for each class (and neutrals!) for you to take inspiration from, so that you'll be able to complete them in no time for those sweet sweet XP points.

Table of Contents

    Alterac Shaman Achievements Overview

    Shaman's set can be divided into two parts:

    • The first one is made of long, but rather easy to accomplish achievements, that ask you to play the new Fractured in Alterac Valley Shaman cards - it may take you some time to finish them, but it's a matter of 'when' and not 'if'.
    • The second one is... probably the black sheep of the entire set, but we'll get to it in a minute.

    The huge upside of Shaman's Alterac achievements is that all three can be pretty much completed with the same deck, which saves up quite a lot of time!

    Edit: updated with the Onyxia's Lair Mini-Set "Run Away, Little Girl" achievement.

    How to Complete the "Snowball Effect" Shaman Achievement

    Requirement: Have 10 minions participate in a single Snowball Fight!

    Speed Rating: 1/5.

    As we already stated, this is probably the most frustrating achievement of the entire Alterac Valley expansion: not because it requires you to own many expensive cards, not because it just relies on your opponent doing something (well, partly yes), but because it needs a lot of setup and it may not trigger nonetheless.

    Just so we make it clear, Snowball Effect requires you to cast a Snowball Fight! that hits 10 different minions, which means that:

    • There has to be a board with at least 10 minions on it.
      • You can do your best, but even in that case you need your opponent to contribute with at least 3 units.
      • No, hitting two big minions over and over again doesn't count...
    • You need to cast Snowball Fight! and hope it hits each of the 10 minions.
      • You can hit the same minion twice: it won't progress the achievement, but it won't break it either.
    • If one unit dies before you get to 10 minions hit, then all your work is in vain.

    Unless you're a seasoned achievement hunter that worships the RNG gods, this achievement is not worth the trouble and the frustration it will give you.

    For those who are still interested in trying to complete Snowball Effect, our best advice is to just include Snowball Fight! in each Shaman list you're going to play in the foreseeable future. The second tip is to contribute to the achievement as much as possible, leaving little for your opponent to do. How are we going to do that?

    There are two ways:

    That's it: nothing more we can reasonably do. Good matchups are obviously Vanndar Stormpike decks like Deathrattle Priest (going Bearon Gla'shear into Snowball Fight! after a juiced up Amulet of Undying has really high odds to get your job done), but Buff Paladin and the occasional Clown Druid will also do the trick.

    Snowball Effect - Shaman Alterac Achievement
    A Freeze Shaman Deck created by Avalon. Last updated 2 years, 11 months ago
    0

    • Brilliant Macaw is your best friend, as it gives you more flexibility and replicates Battlecries you may have spent for survivability.
    • Spell Damage is a no-go: you want to have low chances to kill a minion before you're done!

    How to Complete the "Winter Vacation" Shaman Achievement

    Requirement: Freeze 150/300/600 characters as Shaman.

    Speed Rating: 4/5.

    The number is impressively high, but Shaman has access to lots of tools to freeze stuff: Windchill, Bearon Gla'shear and Wildpaw Cavern's Frozen Stagguard, Snowfall Guardian and Brilliant Macaw to double down on the former. Trust us, you'll get there in no time.

    Therefore, the best way to complete Winter Vacation is to play Freeze Shaman and... Snowball Fight! is a tech card you can include just to speed up the process, which also comes in handy for Snowball Effect purposes.

    Winter Vacation - Shaman Alterac Achievement
    A Freeze Shaman Deck created by Avalon. Last updated 2 years, 11 months ago
    1

    How to Complete the "1-800-ELE-MENT" Shaman Achievement

    Requirement: Call upon the Elements 100 times with Bru'kan and his Hero Power.

    Speed Rating: 3/5.

    While there aren't ways to somehow avoid the fact that you need to own a Legendary to get this achievement done, the rest the requirements are the same as Winter Vacation: play Shaman. Nothing more and nothing less.

    100 seems a big number, but consider that you get two triggers every time you play Bru'kan of the Elements and you may get a third one if you have 2 leftover mana for that turn.

    1-800-ELE-MENTS - Shaman Alterac Achievement
    A Freeze Shaman Deck created by Avalon. Last updated 2 years, 11 months ago
    0

    • Duels format note: Elemental Chaos, one Drek'Thar's Signature Treasures, does give you progression points for this achievement.

    How to Complete the "Run Away, Little Girl" Shaman Achievement

    Requirement: Deal 8/10 damage to a single minion with Don't Stand in the Fire!.

    Speed Rating: 4/5

    Shaman doesn't have remarkable buff spells, so for this achievement you'll have to rely on your opponent's thirst of victory. In case you need to isolate the target to kill with Don't Stand in the Fire!, you'll need a decent amount of removal: for this reason, Command the Elements Overload Shaman is a very good deck choice.

    I personally completed this achievement with this strategy while playing against a Ramp Druid, forcing my opponent to play a Deathwing the Destroyer from Resizing Pouch and then answering it with Don't Stand in the Fire!. Ramp Druid also runs Abominable Lieutenant, another great target for you to exploit.

    Run Away, Little Girl - Shaman Onyxia's Lair Achievement
    A Overload Shaman Deck created by Avalon. Last updated 2 years, 9 months ago
    0

    Other Resources

    Our clever community members set up a forum thread to share your achievement progression journey, and we have added an #achievements channel on our Discord server if you want to talk with others in real-time. If you need an assist, you can also respond to this guide and we'll do our best to help you out; the comments are also a great way to share your own decks that you've used to complete the achievements above.

    Good luck tackling any of these achievements for your experience boost or just for the sake of satisfying completion!