The Aspiring Drunkard's Guide to Binge Drinking

Pretty close. Each town has a fixed window that repeats every minute, yes. Because we're each zoning to and from different guild halls (and since different GHs seem to have their own different windows), I can't tell you which town will have the best window for you. But once you've experimented (and it shouldn't take but a couple minutes to test a given location), you'll get the timing on your town's window down. Once you know it, you drink prior to the start of the window, then zone to AND from your GH, drink again and repeat until the window ends. Then start the process over again. Repeat until you're so hammered you can't see straight.

I also want to clear up one point of confusion that a couple people have mailed me about: This method is only more expensive if you use regular alcohol. There is no extra cost when using spiked eggnog! One of the reasons I posted this guide now is that there is a fair amount of spiked nog floating about with the end of Wintersday. So if you can get your hands on enough to make even a bit of a dent in your minutes at a reasonable price, go for it because it'll enable you to earn minutes much faster at no extra cost.

Finally, I'd like to be able to update my original post with information about the windows of different guild halls. I listed 3 outposts that worked well for me when zoning to/from Warrior's Isle GH. I believe that people zoning to/from a different GH may have different optimal zoning outposts. So what I'd love is for people to post places with long windows that they've found, and what GH they were using. This would help determine for sure if GHs impact window length. With enough information, it may be possible to make a list that would point people to the best zoning location for use with their GH.

So, it's like this:

1) Zone into outpost and start your 1-minute egg timer.
2) Wait for Drinking-Window to begin. (depends on the town)
3) Drink to level 5 or 6.
4) Zone to GH and immediately zone back to outpost.
5) Repeat seps 3+4 until Drinking-Window expires.
6) Start over at step 1 every minute.

Also: the Drinking-Window is different for every town, player computer and connection, so find your own best town. Right?

Yes, that's exactly it except that I'd flip #2 and #3 so that you're drinking to level 5 in preparation for the upcoming window. You don't actually have to drink during a window for it to count; you just have to zone then.

Having spoken with a few people who have been using this method to go for the title, it's clear that different people are finding different optimal zoning locations. Now exactly why that's the case is up for debate. My theory at the moment is that each of the two locations you're zoning from - the outpost and your GH - have their own windows, and you only get credited for minutes when the two windows overlap. Since it's likely that each GH has a different window, this would account for people getting different results from the same outpost. Hopefully people can start posting which location worked best for them and which GH they were using - then we can see if my theory is right and perhaps make a list of the optimal outposts to zone from for each GH.

Thanks for explaining it Awsome research!

Great thread - and excellent research!
I was just about to disagree with you that zoning had indeed been nerfed, when i read the part about the different locations. I remembered the first time i did the zoning - it was in Lair of the Forgotten (nice out of the way place that load fast), and i remembered that i got pretty much 3 min. all the time (may well be as much as the good places you mention).
When i tried zoning later (after farming like crazy all christmas) it was in some of the places near Ascalon and i figured it had indeed been nerfed, because i only got minutes some of the time and often not all in one zoning

You should get a medal if this work as well as you say it will! - Going to try tomorrow!

Cheers

worked brilliantly for me (about 10 secs downtime) Ember Light - Frtozen Isle

actually got through my stash I thought I'd be using for months in under an hour!

Time to get some more alchol...

Through Wintersday and a bit beyond, I had a method which worked every time all the time. I used my GH (Imperial Isle) with one particular town, namely Nolani Academy. Drink a spiked at Nolani, zone to GH, I earn 1 minute. Drink 1 nog, zone to Nolani, earn 3 minutes. Repeat as quickly as my fingers can manage, no resting or waiting was ever needed. 1 spiked, 1 nog, 1 round-trip, 4 minutes drunk time. Sweet,

But now, zoning between Nolani and my GH does almost nothing. Once in a while I'll notice 1 minute when zoning from my GH, but that's a rarity. I no longer experience a 3 (or even 2) minute gain in drunkard minutes.

OP I think you're onto something, but there's definitely more to it. Any idea why my results have completely changed?

I have been testing this for well over 2 hours now and have some imput.

I am working in Dasha Vestibule with zoning to guild hall "isle of meditation". I am able to almost 99% of the time able to use this method and have it work.

drink spiked nog - wait 3 seconds
zone to hall (1 min added) take absinthe or other 1 min drink - wait 3 sec
zone to Dasha Vestibule (3 mins added)

Repeat.

The only quirk im getting is that every few mins when i zone back to the guild hall i get 2 mins instead of 1. then it takes a couple zones to get the last 2mins. my guess is that this is where i hit the couple seconds where i cant zone to skip the time

Unfortunately I can't say for certain if there have been changes to the windows over longer stretches of time. My tests ran over the last couple of weeks. During that time the results have been consistent and repeatable. Now it's possible that changes to the game - something (maybe inadvertently) included in a patch, perhaps - might have an effect on the windows. I can say that the recent test weekend didn't change any of my results. Now that there's a greater awareness of these windows, we can pay attention in the future and see if we can notice if/when changes happen.

That's another quirk of the system. From my experience (and I hope I explain this well) you get awarded 2 mins. on an initial zone whenever you drink during one window and zone in the next. So when you're getting 2 mins. when you should be getting 1, it means you've just crossed over to a new window. And I too sometimes noticed a delay before being able to accumulate more minutes when this occurred. I was going to include a description of it in the guide (I was thinking of calling it "greed punishment" ) but the behavior wasn't 100% consistent so I decided to let it go.

Iron Mines >> Isle of Solitude = 48sec window for me.

I actually commend OP for figuring this out, I've been trying to for months and that he was able to do it earns him the title imo

truely one of GW's bigger oddities...

thanks for sharing, i'll share the link with some Drunkard hunters..

So how easy is it to get Spiked Eggnog now? I know I have SOME of it stashed in Amazing Storage Bob's inventory from Wintersday ... along with witches brew ... but not a great deal.

Where are people selling it and how much should I expect to pay for it?

The only other alcohol I can think of off the top of my head (that I know how to acquire) is Rice Wine.... which I know is 400 gold a bottle. Having to go through 2plat per 5 bottles and have some of it wasted seems like an absolutely insane amount of money to spend....
So...
.... Tell us about the nog, and I'll consider whether I'm going to try this trick before or after getting my 15k Kurzick Armour...

i don't understand it.... i drink an spiked eggnog in hell's prepracie or something and click GH and i loose all my lvl of drunkness

I have seen one Drunkard in pre-searing. From a practical standpoint, getting the ales 2 at a time from the hunters or buying them for 100g a piece would be more of a tedious process than actually getting the title once you acquire the ales needed. It takes at least five minutes to get two ales. As you need 1200 ales or so to allow for starting and stopping, it would take 50 hours just to get the ales!

It would take a group effort to get someone to the max drunkard title in Pre-searing.

To those reporting your window findings, thanks for the info! So far we have ~48 second windows reported from JMFD (Ember LC -> Frozen Isle), Pale-Dim (Dasha's Vestibule -> Isle of Meditation), and Kade (Iron Mines -> Isle of Solitude). If we could get another person with these GHs to confirm these findings, I'll edit my original post to include the information. And if anyone else has discovered locations that feature long windows, please post them along with which GH you're using!

During Wintersday it wasn't uncommon to see people selling spiked nog for 300g/per. The further we get from the event, though, the more rare and expensive it will get. If someone is selling now, I'm sure it'll be for more than 300g. IMO, anything up to 500g would be completely worthwhile to buy in mass quantities. After that, it's up to you and your budget to decide.

I'd also suggest that, if you can't find spiked nog and must purchase regular alcohol, dwarven ale @ 200g/per is a better deal than rice wine @ 400g/per. Both raise your drunk level by 1, so dwarven ale is twice as economical. As an alternative, you can try purchasing Monastery Credits (in Factions) or Battle Commendation (in Nightfall) from players in the 100-125g range. Trading in one of those will give you a hunter's ale, so that can be an even more cost-effective route.

Interestingly, the only place that works for me with the GH zoning trick is Deldimor War Camp. However, if I do try in another town or outpost and get 0 minutes, I just keep zoning between the two until I get my 3 minutes. My GH is Corrupted Isle, by the way.

I really don't get it, I've wasted 57 spiked eggnogs at 1 min each...
can someone explain it in-game?

You can actually get more Ales than just the two before you have to reload the map. There are bears to the east towards the healing Spring. *Just be sure to clear out all the Spiders, Crawl & Skale first so they won't hinder your time when you run back to git you a bear.

Well I'd test but my GH is a Isle of the Dead, so can't help there. But ill let you know if i find a town that works good.

Now time to get drunk!

EDIT - I quickly found that there is about a 15second downtime if you zone from Iron Mines --> Isle of the Dead. I just racked up 150 minutes easily. I can get about 3 minutes every 5 seconds. So every minute - with 15 second down time between 0:00-0:10 and 0:55-0:60 - i can get about 24-27drunk/minute.

Yes, I know about those. And I am not sure that clearing the area first would save you any time over going back to Ft. Ranik and reloading the map. I might give it a try. In any event, the process of getting that many ales in pre-searing takes an incredible time investment.

My hat is off to anyone that had the patience to get and sport the drunkard title in Pre-searing. It might even rival the LDOA title that everyone there these days seems to be working on (myself included).