world-first
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Exclusive: Watch "Race to World First" documentary free through Feb. 3
In a game where tools like the Raid Finder have democratized raiding, how does the mindset of players in top-echelon guilds pushing for world firsts differ from yours and mine? How much time do bleeding-edge guilds really put in? What tricks help them push past wipes and overcome raid challenges? How do they make up time and nudge past other guilds to claim world firsts? And why do other WoW players love to follow the action? The whole sprawling scene plays out onscreen in the feature-length documentary Race to World First -- and you can watch it free right here at WoW Insider now through Feb. 3. (The film is also available at RacetoWorldFirst.com for a small fee.) The Looking for Group Productions film, begun back in the day when clawing to a top spot on raiding progression charts was perhaps at its cut-throat peak, follows a handful of top-tier WoW guilds in their sprint to the top. Producers John Keating and Zachary Henderson conducted some of the early interviews for Race two years ago at BlizzCon 2010's WoW Insider reader meetup, including familiar faces like WI Editor Adam Holisky and GM/actress/huntress extraordinaire Michele Morrow. Get a peek at this film for free while you can right here at WoW Insider. Who knows what in-game challenges you might feel up to tackling after seeing that much fiery motivation in action?
Korean guild KIN Raiders scores world-first heroic Madness of Deathwing
After more than three weeks of intense strategizing, planning, fighting, scandals, and more, the race to world-first heroic Madness of Deathwing kill is over. KIN Raiders, the group that swept by Paragon, Blood Legion, and the rest, for the world-first heroic Spine of Deathwing kill took their time advantage and pressed on. Only one other guild, the Korean team In extremis, has downed the Spine of Deathwing on heroic mode, so not many people were even currently working on the fight of the instance. KIN Raider's kill happened in 25-man mode, an interesting departure from many of the world firsts now happening in 10-mans after being forced to raid light when raiders were banned for exploiting the Raid Finder for extra loot. Blood Legion also rounded out the list with many top kills on 25-man mode, but in the end, it was a 25-man Korean guild that swooped in and took the top spot. Congratulations to KIN Raiders on their first kill of heroic Madness of Deathwing. Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
New documentary follows the Race to World First
MMO players, have you ever thought that your in-game exploits were worthy of a feature film? Well, they probably aren't, but at the very least they're worth a documentary! An upcoming documentary film by the name of "Race to World First" is about the World of Warcraft guild Blood Legion and its journey to become the number one guild in the world. The only catch is that the current numero uno guild is the internet-famous Paragon. The full documentary can be watched at Looking for Group Productions' website for the meager fee of $2.99. If you'd like a peek at what you'd be getting yourself into, follow on past the cut to watch the documentary's trailer.
The Daily Grind: What was your most memorable first?
OK, we're all nerds here, so let's not look at the title and think of kissing or snogging or whatever other deviant "firsts" you may have in your criminal record. Instead, let us swim to the safer waters of gaming firsts, where we either accomplish something before anyone else or do it for the first time in our lives. Seriously, folks, CLEAN UP YOUR MINDS. That's my last warning! MMO players have a long-standing obsession with firsts of many kind -- world firsts, server firsts, cheerily posting "FIRST!" in any comment thread as if there were a Pulitzer Prize for Fastest Internet Responder (although there could be -- I'll check into it). Our first MMO experience tends to be the one we remember the most fondly; the first character that we took to the level cap becomes a sign of our immense prowess. So what was your most memorable first, either personal or server-wide, in an MMO? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Lady Sinestra, Paragon, and the cutting edge
Yesterday, <Paragon> got the world first kill of Lady Sinestra, the hardmode-only encounter in Bastion of Twilight. As you might have expected for a boss that only two guilds in the world have even reached, the encounter was not as well tested as it might otherwise have been, according to <Paragon> themselves. Today, in response to a forum thread about that, Zarhym chimed in with a response discussing the issue. Zarhym - Did Paragon enjoy their journey? I do think you have to take the tone of that post in the context in which it was written. Because Sinestra is a super-hardcore boss, they were pretty much the first ones to really push her mechanics to the limits. It's easy to see from their post that they were understandably frustrated. Not only were they trying to learn the mechanics and develop strategies, but we were watching closely, hotfixing several different issues as they stumbled across them. This meant they had to adapt to the changes we were making on the spot in addition to figuring out how to kill her -- and she's definitely no pushover. We do wish it would have been a cleaner fight for them, but we really appreciate them pushing the limits of hardcore raiding, and testing us to design new and compelling challenges. :) source Basically, what this means is very interesting for guilds and players who want to push content as hard and fast as possible. It means when you step into these fights that require unlocking and are intended for the best of the best, you're effectively going to have to accept that with great selectivity comes great unknowns.
Typhoon Struggle claims world first strict 10-man heroic Lich King kill
Big congratulations are in order for <Typhoon Struggle> of the Defias Brotherhood (EU) server, the first guild in the strict 10-man GuildOx rankings to kill the Lich King on heroic. GuildOx interviewed Sheeana, Typhoon Struggle's guild master, who shared some of the trials and tribulations of the kill, especially the brutal first phase of the encounter. What are the 10-man strict rankings, you ask? GuildOx ranks the progression of guilds all across the different realms. The strict 10-man rankings are, essentially, 10-man raid groups that never have access to the 25-man versions of the instance. This means that a strict 10-man raiding group will never have gear or drops obtained through 25-man raiding. To be considered and ranked on the GuildOx strict 10-man rankings, members of the 10-man raiding group can never earn an ICC-25 or ToGC-25 kill. Even though ICC-25 drops the same iLevel gear as ICC-10 heroic, GuildOx discourages the practice, as this allows strict 10-man raiding groups to gear up twice as fast. "Strict" means "strict." In addition, strict 10-man guilds usually only have a limited roster of between 10 to 12 people, since most others go on to the 25-man versions of the encounters. According to Sheeana, the toughest phase was the first, as the Lich King's minions on heroic scale in power exponentially. These are raiders using, at the most, iLevel 264 gear. For the full interview and announcement, including the criteria for the strict 10-man rankings, visit GuildOx. You can learn more about the criteria surrounding the strict 10-man rules here. Again, big congratulations to Typhoon Struggle!
Paragon's world first heroic Fall of the Lich King video
<Paragon> of EU Lightning's Blade has released the video of their world-first kill of the Lich King on 25-man heroic mode. The video itself is in three parts and includes the viewpoints of a combat rogue, restoration shaman and holy priest over the course of the fight. Only one other guild to date has made the 25-man heroic kill; the guild <For The Horde> of EU Nazjatar claimed the world-second kill earlier today. Congratulations to <For The Horde> on the kill, and congratulations to <Paragon> on not only the world first but the absolutely gorgeous video they've put together. Check out part two and part three of the kill video after the break.
Paragon scores world first heroic Fall of the Lich King
Our tipline has just exploded with tips about the latest raiding news: Paragon of Lightning's Blade (EU) has just scored the world first Heroic Lich King (25-man) kill. GuildOx backs up the tips with a brand new listing for the achievement and you can see it for yourself on the armory. Each member of the raid is now the proud owner of the title 'the Light of Dawn.' Not the coolest sounding title around, but the level of prestige is through the roof. We would include a screenshot of the kill in this post, but their guild website seems to be down for the count. Congratulations to all of the players involved. The Lich King is a harsh fight on its own, and we don't imagine doing it on heroic is a walk in the park. How did Defile treat you? Update: Azizrael supplied a kill shot in the comments below.
World first Shadowmourne
Modk of Juggernaut has obtained the world's first Shadowmourne! It's the final legendary weapon in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion (at least, that we know of) before Cataclysm is due out. The quest line to earn the weapon is both costly and long. So a big congrats to Modk! I suspect we'll gradually be seeing more and more of these. Who knows how many we'll have by the time the new expansion is released? If you're curious to see the proc of the weapon in action, check out the video on MMO Champion.
Goon Squad downs Tirion Fordring
Perennial pariahs Goon Squad, Horde-side on Mal'Ganis-US, have really carved out a niche for themselves in the World of Warcraft. Well, two niches. The first is a rock-solid reputation of being the foremost trolls and griefers in the MMO market, period -- a reputation perpetuated by a community that operates mostly on word-of-mouth and lovingly crafted by the guild itself. The second is providing some of the best and most hilarious WoW videos on the internet. This one is no exception -- they managed to score a victory for the Lich King by defeating the dread paladin Fordring. It's a rare ability, possessed by Goon Squad and a few other community figures, to be able to take the building blocks of the game experience provided by Blizzard -- strictly compartmentalized and defined by sets of incontrovertible rules -- and then cobble together something wholly new and, frankly, ridiculous out of them. You're not supposed to be able to bring together two often-'shipped faction leaders for an impromptu date. You're not supposed to be able to blow the Wintergrasp fortress wall to smithereens in a minute's time. You're certainly not supposed to be able to kill the head of the Argent Crusade who, by the way, should learn to cast Consecrate.
The Classifieds: Me too
The Classifieds brings you weekly updates on guild recruiting, rankings, splits and merges, progression and more. Have guild news or a Random Act of Uberness to share? E-mail TheClassifieds@wow.com. Skilltastic death knight Raegwyn of EU Zuluhed-H isn't the only player who's become renowned for soloing older instances and bosses. Demonstrating the power of the light is Kurushimi, a paladin from US Staghelm-H who's working his way through the heroic five-mans of Northrend. Already under his belt (all heroic): Azjol-Nerub; Culling of Stratholme; Halls of Lightning; Drak'Tharon Keep; Halls of Stone; Old Kingdom; The Nexus; Utgarde Pinnacle; The Oculus; Utgarde Keep; Gun'drak. Back in Burning Crusade content, Kurushimi has also soloed Magister's Terrace, Doom Lord Kazzak, Doomwalker, Morogrim Tidewalker, Al'ar and High Astromancer Solarian. See more of the carnage on Kurushimi's YouTube channel. There's plenty of new content to talk about this week, too, with world firsts and guild rankings popping like mad. Let's open up The Classifieds ...
Paragon scores world-first legitimate 25-man Lich King kill
GuildOx reports that Paragon, from the European Lightning's Blade realm, has defeated the Lich King and acquired the Frozen Throne achievement. While well-known guild Ensidia had defeated him yesterday on 25-man difficulty, they also employed some dubious techniques to win and later paid the price for it by having their loot and achievements removed. Paragon, on the other hand, appears to have completed the encounter in an exploit-free manner and, according to MMO-Champion's Boubouille, did it on their first try. Congratulations go out to Paragon on their clean kill. Now let's see some of those heroic achievements!
Ensidia scores world first 25-man Lich King kill [Updated]
Last night was the world first 10-man kill, tonight it's the world first 25-man kill. The infamous Ensidia of Tarren Mill-EU has scored the kill, and there's a news post on their website confirming it. (Ensidia's site seems to have fallen offline, but you can still read their story via Google cache.) They walked away with Glorenzelg, High-Blade of the Silver Hand and Fal'inrush, Defender of Quel'thalas. Well done, crew! WoW raiding is a bit strange these days, because this kill is actually just the beginning of the road. Now we get to watch the hard modes, which is likely to take quite a bit longer. That's our hope, at least. Will Ensidia walk away with hard mode Lich King as well, or will a group of underdogs come from behind? Will Stars show up in the spotlight again? Only time will tell. Update: Ensidia's raiders have received a 72-hour ban from the game for "abuse of in-game mechanics or glitches with intent to exploit or cheat in World of Warcraft." A hotfix was applied last night to prevent the use of Saronite Bombs (which Ensidia used) in the encounter and Ensidia's loot and achievements have been removed. So that world first? Still up for grabs.
Blood Legion scores world first Lich King kill
About one hour ago, WoW.com was notified that Blood Legion of Illidan-US has scored the world first of 10-man The Fall of the Lich King (as well as The Frozen Throne.) Ten lucky Blood Legion members walk away with the Kingslayer title, and a... statue of Tirion Fordring? Well... okay. Why not? Congratulations, Blood Legion. Good luck on the hard modes next week! Before everyone jumps to conclusions and bemoans WoW being easy mode, keep in mind this is only the normal mode of the 10-man difficulty. Blood Legion is a high end 25-man guild, so this kill was not what you would call "pure." A kill this quickly doesn't mean the encounter was trivial, because if that were the case we'd have seen many more kills last night. It simply means Blood Legion had an edge, to say the least.
Seagate's 7mm Momentus Thin 2.5-inch hard disk for slim, high-capacity laptops: a world's first
Any advancement in commercial storage is big news 'round here so we're stoked to learn of a new ultra-thin hard disk from Seagate meant to slake our jones for super-slim portable computing. Seems that Seagate's already sampling a 7-mm high disk as part of its Momentus Thin series of drives scheduled to be launched at CES in January. Impressive, especially when you consider that just about every 2.5-inch SATA disk we cover measures in at 9.5-mm high. Although Seagate doesn't give specifics, we assume the drive will be spinning a single platter. And knowing that dual-platter 2.5-inch disks currently max out at 640GB (or 320GB per platter), we expect Seagate to at least match that single-platter capacity, but probably improve upon it via a boost in areal density. Feel free to offer your guess in comments until all is revealed on January 5th.
Buffalo SuperSpeed USB 3.0 external hard drive reviewed, fast
Was anybody else surprised to see that Buffalo (fine purveyors of USB hardware, including kitschy dice speakers, and teeny, tiny thumb drives) was able to start pushing USB 3.0 hardware out the door so quickly? The fine citizens of TweakTown definitely were -- and now they've gone and given HD-HXU3 external hard drive a thorough going over. The verdict? They've likened performance to that of an internal drive -- not disappointing in the least. Physically, this guy is constructed "very well, much better than any of the enclosures that are sold without a drive" that the reviewer has tested. The only sticking point? The price seems a little steep -- and since USB 3.0 will soon be ubiquitous anyways, perhaps you want to hold out a minute before investing. But if the latest and greatest is your bag, this ain't a bad place to start. Hit the source link for the full story.
Buffalo now shipping SuperSpeed USB 3.0 external hard drive
Yes, you've heard it right, kids! Buffalo's wild'n'wooly USB 3.0 external hard drive (the HD-HXU3) is now shipping. Available in 1TB($200), 1.5TB ($250), and 2TB ($400) designations, the package includes Memeo AutoBackup and a one year warranty. It's also backwards compatible to USB 2.0, but never mind that -- the company is concurrently releasing its dual-port USB 3.0 PCI Express Interface Card (IFC-PCIE2U3). Welcome to the future, indeed. PR after the break.
Ensidia snags world-first Tribute to Immortality
Ensidia, now of Tarren Mill-EU, reported today that they have captured the world-first A Tribute to Immortality. Considered to be one of the most difficult, if not most difficult, raiding achievements currently in the game, A Tribute to Immortality requires a perfect run of heroic Trial of the Crusader-25 with no player deaths and all 50 attempts remaining. The reward for pulling this off is the Crusader's Black Warhorse (Alliance version here), but I wouldn't expect to see too many of these running around in the near future. I'm most impressed that they managed to get through the heroic version of Faction Champs without losing anyone, although -- as Mackzter acknowledges on the news release -- the achievement "involves a bit of luck." Congratulations to Ensidia, and best of luck to all the guilds out there working on this as well!
Buffalo ships world's first USB 3.0 hard disk drives this month
It's fine to announce USB 3.0 gear, but it's another thing entirely to actually put it up for retail. Buffalo's making the boast today that its HD-HU3 series of USB 3.0 hard disks will be the "world's first!!" to ship. Since a USB 3.0 device is pointless without a controller to support it, Buffalo will also make NEC's ¥5,300 (about $60) IFC-PCIE2U3 2-port PCI Expressx1 host controller available with its hard drives when they ship late October in Japan, almost a month before Freecom's disks hit the market. The 1TB and 1.5TB drives will cost ¥20,000 (about $225) and ¥25,300 (about $284), respectively, with a ¥46,600 (about $523) 2TB disk coming sometime later. Imagine it, soon you'll be able to take advantage of those USB 3.0 cables you bought back in April. Controller after the break.[Via Engadget Japanese]
"For the Horde" gets world-first A Tribute to Insanity-10
With the heroic versions of Trial of the Crusader going live yesterday, raiding guilds are already venturing into the more challenging versions of Tier 9. As of evening Tuesday EST, the European guild For the Horde has claimed a world-first A Tribute to Insanity-10 (a no-wipe full clear of the instance) on 10-man heroic Trial. Unfortunately, I don't speak German so I might be missing some of the finer points related on their website (anyone who can shed more light on this, please drop a comment!) but it looks like they weren't deliberately aiming for the achievement until they reached Anub'arak with all 50 attempts remaining, and then decided to go for it. Next in achievement progression? A Tribute to Dedicated Insanity -- repeating it without any gear from 25-man ToC, which is broadly equivalent to the Herald of the Titans achievement. Ouch.Boubouille at MMO Champion has since confirmed that the Swift Horde Wolf and its Alliance counterpart the Swift Alliance Steed are drops from the tribute chest upon completion of the no-wipe clear, and it's quite possible that the mounts also drop from the 25-man version as well. However, I doubt we'll be seeing A Tribute to Insanity-25 this week, as none of the guilds doing the heroic-25 mode have reported a wipe-free experience thus far.We'll keep an eye on guild progression for you, and congratulations to For the Horde!
