world-firsts
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Russian player unlocks every WoW achievement
Russian player Хируко has become the very first person to earn all 21,995 total achievement points possible in World of Warcraft. This human priest has filled out every single bar in every achievement category and has racked up 205 Feats of Strength along the way, as well. According to his own post on MMO-Champion, he managed to get the Realm First achievement for every single class to 90 on the same day by multi-boxing on a low-population PvP server while his guildies killed other players trying to out-level him. Perhaps not the kindest or most ethical manner of getting to the top but it certainly worked. In addition, he had to build a special PC rig in order to be able to run all 12 open screens simultaneously. Over at WoWProgress you can check out the achievement point leaderboards--currently Хируко is the only one to have all 21,995 points, however as of this writing there are five other players who are only 10 achievement points behind, and even more trailing only a few more achievements behind that. For serious achievement point collectors, the gauntlet has been thrown.
Aion community update details server-first boss kills and more
Wondering what's been happening in the world of Atreia lately? Quite a lot according to the latest Eye on Community update from the Aion team at NCsoft. The post is packed with content including player screenshots, artwork, profiles of Aion community managers, and a detailed accounting of the first western shard boss kills for both Sematariux and Padmarashka. There's also an embedded video (which you can view after the cut, below) if you're looking to get a few pointers for your own raiding party. Finally, check out the helpful how-to for those of you interested in designing your own legion cloak emblems, as there's a special emphasis on making logos with transparent backgrounds. All of these juicy details can be found at the official Aion website.
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!
"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!
Major Ulduar testing news: PTR soon, not all bosses available
Quite big news from Daelo, the lead encounter designer concerning the release and testing of Ulduar. First and foremost, Daelo says that we're getting close to the point where Ulduar will be available for testing on the PTR. That means that PTR is soon, and given the maintenance today and other major announcements, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see it tonight.Secondly, Ulduar will not be tested like a normal instance. The testing will be in phases and only happen according to the schedule Blizzard lays out. They'll announce times when certain bosses will be available for testing, and that means that only during those times will those bosses be open for play. This also means that Ulduar will initially be closed on the PTR.But think for a moment about what this does – it means that we won't be seeing strategies and other guides immediately available upon release of the patch (or in most cases before the patch). It means that world firsts will actually mean something again, and it won't just be a rush to see who can log onto the server first.That is quite big and exciting news. Daelo also lets us know a few other things.Need more news about Ulduar? We've got updates, previews, speculation, and everything else you need to know about the next big raid coming in patch 3.1. If the Titans are hiding it up there, we'll tell you about it here.
Age of Conan: The siege warfare is a buggy lagfest
Age of Conan players should think twice about partaking in the lag-ridden siege action this weekend; they're better off waiting until this coming Monday's patch. The naysayers concerns from beta were certified two days ago, when Sinister took part in Age of Conan's first full on siege since the game went live. If you want the quick recap it was buggy and the performance was terrible; however, Funcom deserves kudos for responding as quickly as they did. Unfortunately, the only viable solution at this time is for players to crank down the graphics and wait it out. It's hard to tell from the picture but it shows 0.3 fps and a 3389 ping, with many players reporting similar results on their superior gaming machines. Since Funcom's response a player reported better performance on the second siege averaging about 15 fps on dual 8800 GTs.We'll see if Monday's patch improves the performance or not for all players involved. If you'd like to see some rough footage from the second siege battle Sinister has posted it on their website. (NSFW)
Breakfast Topic: How does a raiding guild avoid the fate of Death and Taxes?
So it's been a day or so since we first heard that Death and Taxes was disbanding, and since then, DnT member Xi- has posted a somewhat lengthy explanation as to why. In the end, the biggest reason Xi- gave is pride. Many people, he says, just stopped thinking about the raid and the guild as a whole, and were more focused on their own advancement and their own needs, and became impatient when a boss did not fall easily. When it was time to progress, many of them, even officers, would disappear and stop supporting them. He also does get in a few Risen style digs about how none of the BC content was half as good as Naxxramas up until Sunwell Plateau, but he did manage to sound a lot more classy than Risen did. But the point about pride, about guild members who disappear for a while and expect to pick back up where they left off when they return, and about people who never show up for progress kills, or show up and complain if the boss doesn't fall after one or two tries, that rings true with me, as I am sure it rings true with a lot of current and former MMO raiders, whether from WoW or other games.
M'uru world first by SK-Gaming
On the fourth day of the second Sunwell Plateau gates being opened there, the European guild SK-Gaming has achieved the world-first kill of M'uru, the fifth SWP boss. Good job, guys! This is all the more surprising because I don't think of SK-Gaming as one of the big-name guilds, but maybe I've just been missing out. Edit: D'oh! That's the guild formerly known as Curse. I knew the name looked familiar. Also, I would sort of have expected the US realms to get there first because their gates opened a day earlier. But on the other hand, Europe has been on top of the world firsts for a while. You can see the loot above -- click to embiggen. That Shifting Naaru Sliver sounds fun. [via MMO-Champion]
Don't call it a comeback
Nihilum, everyone's favorite (okay, some people's favorite) guild, would like us all to know that they plan to come back and world first the Sunwell Plateau the way they did Illidan. Apparently since putting Hyjal and the Black Temple on farm they've, well, been farming them and PvPing and taking more or less a 'holiday' away from the game, which makes sense, insofar as they don't really have any new content to see. Sure, Zul'Aman, but when you've already beaten Illidan going back to the ten mans is kind of anti-climactic. So they've basically been done with WoW. But they haven't actually stopped playing, so it's not a comeback, they've been here for years.Yes, I made an LL Cool J reference. I went there.They've also redesigned their site if you intend to make use of it to keep track of their progress: I have some old friends back on Norgannon I know will be watching them intently. For those of you who won't, well, it's still a very pretty site design, and you can always watch this Babe Ruth like 'calling' of their eventual success and discover with us all if it's genius or hubris.
Death and Taxes: They're Just That Good
Death and Taxes has been hard at work racking up those world first kills, but they've encountered a problem with Kel'Thuzad - namely, the event begins, ends, and there's no Kel'Thuzad to fight. Nnep describes the problem thusly: ...during our buff period we noticed he sort of, uh, dissapeared. Phase one still triggered as normal, although afterwards when kel'thuzad would normally become an entity, a la thaddius, he was still missing.Not that you can blame poor Kel'Thuzad - several forum posters have speculated that if they were a raid boss and saw Death and Taxes running down the hallway, they'd disappear as well. Fortunately, however, Tigole claims this is not the way the encounter is intended - and perhaps we'll be seeing another world first soon.
From Ragnaros to C'thun
Interestingly enough, the day of the first world C'thun kill is exactly a year to the day of the first Ragnaros kill. This must make one wonder, due to the timing of revisions to the C'thun encounter - has this all, in fact, been orchestrated by Blizzard?[Thanks, spencer]
World First: C'thun Down
Only hours after Blizzard made additional changes to the C'thun encounter, European guild Nihilum (Magtheridon realm) seems to have managed to kill C'thun. Forum post with details here, and screenshots and loot are listed on their website. Congrats, members of Nihilum for this impressive world first![Thanks, spencer, for the quick heads-up on this one!]
Ahn'Qiraj Bosses Hotfixed
Two of the most difficult bosses in Ahn'Qiraj - C'thun and Ouro, neither of whom have yet been defeated - have both been hotfixed to make the encounters (presumably!) less difficult. With major PVE raiding guilds on the verge of giving up on the buggy C'thun encounter (see Death and Taxes and Elitist Jerks for examples), CM Drysc posted regarding changes to both encounters. If you approach either of these two bosses in the future expect the following: Ouro's Quake effects deal significantly less damage Lowered hit points for C'thun's Giant Claw Tentacles and Giant Eye Tentacles Decreased damage from C'thun's Ground Rupture ability, which should also now be resistible Significantly decreased melee damage from C'thun's Giant Eye Tentacles The faction changing debuff applied to players in C'thun's stomach should no longer appear Tentacles should no longer spawn in C'thun's stomach A player in C'thun's stomach can no longer be the target of C'thun's Eye Beam Will this be enough to encourage disheartened guilds who have been wiping for over a month on the C'thun encounter? This seems the way of many of the game's major bosses thus far... Ragnaros was impossible, until the encounter was tweaked by Blizzard. Nefarian was impossible, until the encounter was tweaked by Blizzard. Does it surprise anyone that C'thun is impossible in the same way?[Thanks to Wreckless and Dave for contributing links]
