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Paragon scores world first mythic Highmaul clear
Paragon scored the world first clear of mythic Highmaul this weekend. Method, the first to slay 6 out of 7 Highmaul bosses, was anticipated to finish first, but Paragon came from behind to win the day. Congratulations to Paragon! Hopefully this means their raid team will be able to take a break for the holidays -- assuming the pursuit of mythic gear doesn't override their celebrations. Blackrock Foundry isn't slated to open until early 2015.
Method wins their second BlizzCon live raid
Congratulations to Method for winning their second BlizzCon live raid! This year, both Method and Midwinter raced in Highmaul (Heroic), one of the upcoming Warlords of Draenor raids. Unlike the Siege of Orgrimmar race from last year, this race was from start to finish -- including the trash, which proved to be one of the deciding factors for Method's victory. Midwinter started out strong by killing the first boss, Kargath, while Method still had about 20% to go. This advantage quickly shifted when Midwinter had some hiccups on the trash on the way to Twin Ogron (the 3 bosses in between are optional bosses, which they skipped for the purpose of the race). Method killed Twin Ogron with Midwinter still at 25%. Midwinter slowly caught up during Ko'ragh and ended up pulling the final boss, Imperator Mar'gok, only 10 seconds behind Method. The final fight was pretty exciting, with Method and Midwinter only about 5-10% apart on boss health throughout the whole fight. There were several close calls, but Method ended up pulling it off. If you have the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, I'd recommend checking out the VOD. Lead Designer Ion Hazzikostas gives some good background information on the fight mechanics and some of the lore behind the raid.
Skullcandy's Method sports buds will get tunes stuck in your head
If you've ever gone running with earbuds, you'll be familiar with the condition "pushem-backin-itis." It's an affliction that troubles many music-loving joggers once they break a sweat. Some companies prescribe over-ear hooks, or "wing tips" to combat this; Skullcandy is taking a different approach. Its new "Method" and "The Chops" in-ear lines come with sensual "Stickygel" technology. No points for figuring out what that is. Skullcandy claims their proprietary bud gels are 30 percent more loving to your earlobes (well, the skin at least) than standard tips. We mean loving in the attachment sense of the word. The sensual part? The adhesive action only kicks in once you work up a sweat, so you've got to earn that affection. As per always with Skullcandy, there's a choice of colors and styles -- and at $30 for the Methods, the grabby part doesn't extend to your wallet, either.
BlizzCon 2013: Method vs. Midwinter live raid recap
Ion Hazzikostas, Lead Encounter Designer, and community manager Josh "Lore" Allen hosted this year's live raid where Midwinter (US Alliance) and Method (EU Horde) competed in the Siege of Orgrimmar on 25-player heroic mode. All of the raid trash was removed, and the bosses they had to fight were Sha of Pride, Kor'kron Dark Shaman, Malkorok, Siegecrafter Blackfuse, and Garrosh Hellscream. The race started out with Midwinter killing Sha of Pride a few seconds before Method, but things took a turn for the worse on the Kor'kron Dark Shaman where Midwinter experienced 4 wipes (one of them at only 3%). Eventually, Midwinter breezed through Malkorok and Siegecrafter Blackfuse with little difficulty, but their wipes gave Method the opportunity to kill the next two bosses and get several attempts in on Garrosh before killing him on attempt 3 to win the race. Congratulations to Method for the win!
Method square off against Midwinter in the BlizzCon live raid
BlizzCon is just a shade over one week away, and the time to start getting excited is now! In the past, one of the most fun player events at the convention has been the live raid, and this year will likely be no exceptions. Blizzard has brought in world #1 ranked Horde guild Method to face off against world #1 ranked Alliance guild Midwinter (what is it with M names anyway?) in a race against some of the Siege of Orgrimmar's most challenging bosses. The live raid will feature the heroic 25-man verions of Sha of Pride, the Kor'kron Dark Shaman, Malkorok, Siegecrafter Blackfuse, and Garrosh Hellscream. It will begin at 10 am Pacific time on Saturday, and commentary will be provided by lead encounter designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas and community manager Josh "Lore" Allen so us audience members can better follow the action. Make sure to tune in for the live raid, and let us know if you're for the Alliance (Midwinter) or the Horde (Method)!
Method talk about their world first race
Fresh from being the first guild to down Garrosh in 25-man heroic difficulty, several of Method's raiders were kind enough to take time out and answer some questions for WoW Insider. We touch on encounter mechanics, difficulty, scary moments, creative tactics, and whether they're all still friends! WoW Insider was joined for this interview by Treckie, who is the main tank and plays a paladin, Sparkuggz and Gabzz who both play Warlocks, Noxe who plays a rogue, Sonie, who's a restoration shaman, and Leeds who plays an elemental shaman. How did Garrosh compare to the other fights in the tier? Was he the most challenging boss? Sparkuggz: It was a long fight, but not hard per se. I feel like Siegecrafter, especially if people didn't exploit the belt and put people up twice in a row, would be rated as a harder fight. All last bosses of the expansion felt nice though, because you had the feeling that everytime you hit a new fight you hit a new wall. Gabzz: He wasn't the most challenging in term of fight mechanics, but progression on him was hard due to multiple phases and fight length. Treckie: Most challenging for sure, considering the other "hard" fights were done with a reset, less gear and still less tries than Garrosh. It proves he took a lot more to get down.
EU guild Method takes World First Garrosh 25-Heroic
The World First race is over, with EU's Method taking the World First 25-Heroic kill of Garrosh Hellscream. The guild that has dominated the expansion, taking all but one World First of the five available, has done it again. They were somewhat held back by a rather quick start to the race, with the main US contender, Blood Legion, taking a huge seven-boss lead in the day before Method could even get started. But, as is so often the case, they surmounted that lead and took World First on Thok the Bloodthirsty, Siegecrafter Blackfuse, Paragons of the Klaxxi and Garrosh Hellscream. A convincing finish. Now, I can already anticipate the comments pointing out that this isn't a World First, because an Asian guild already killed Garrosh in 10-man over the weekend. Since Blizzard made several key changes, alas, Asian guilds can't really be considered as participating in the same race as the Western servers. For starters, they have separate 10- and 25-man lockouts, allowing two runs per week and better gear. They also have significantly higher item level drops in 25-man. Boss health is increased to reflect that, but only in 25-man, not in 10-man. So it's not the fault of the Asian servers, and you might wish to assert that regardless of the substantial gear differences, a world first is a world first, but Blizzard removed Asian guilds from the NA-EU race by making these changes. If you want more information, Manaflask has a great article. Now the race is on for the bronze and silver medals, and excitingly, US guild Midwinter is representing the Alliance in the top five. It'll be really interesting to see whether an Alliance guild can take one of the podium positions. WoW Insider congratulates Method on their World First!
Siege of Orgrimmar World First race 10/14 after 24 hours
If you look back to the last world first race, Lei Shen was vanquished to riotous acclaim just before the weekly reset by top EU guild, and eventual World First race winners Method. Thanks to the EU's raid reset being one day later, this Tuesday night victory gave them an extra 30 attempts on Ra-Den. The EU has always received the patch a day after the US, meaning the top EU guilds start the race a day behind their US counterparts. It's never usually a problem. But this time around, those of us who are fans of the EU teams were a little worried. Top US guild Blood Legion went 9/14 in around twelve hours, with the tenth boss dropping late last night on Pacific time. This is incredibly fast, particularly compared to the last race, which as we mentioned above, took almost a week. Now, at the time of writing, Blood Legion stands at 10/14, with Method and Exorsus at 9/14. Among the 10-man competitors, Avast stand at 8/14, and Paragon are at 7/14 with Hordlinge and Sanitas at 6/14. So what's going on? Was there just not enough time left for Heroic tuning? Are the fights too easy? Or is the skill gap between these top guilds and the "normal" heroic raider so great that the fights have to be easier? Many Blizzard representatives have mentioned lately that they were looking for a smooth ramp-up, without brick wall bosses like Dark Animus, so maybe this is a result of that. What's your take on it?
Gaming For Good's Siege raises over $2M for Save the Children
Well-known PvPer Athene made his return to WoW this weekend with GamingForGood's The Siege. A plethora of top streamers did independent fundraisers, including Athene himself and his colleague Reese. Athene tells us in the video above that they had set a goal of $500,000, and were amazed to hit over $2M over the weekend. They extended the goal time and time again, and hit it. There were several great events, but a huge highlight was the Throne of Thunder 25-man heroic raid race, which tens of thousands of viewers tuned in to watch live, along with several Blizzard Community Managers and Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas. World First EU guild Method took on the US guild Midwinter in what turned out to be a pretty close race. Method led out strong, pulling an early lead on Midwinter, which they held solidly until a wipe on Dark Animus suddenly put their advantage at risk. Midwinter had a great chance to take the lead, but unfortunately also got grounded by the garrulous golems, and wiped. More excitement followed as Method had a big early error on Ra-Den, allowing an orb to hit the boss, but somehow recovered to win by approximately 2 minutes. If you want to see what the world's best guild can do, you can check out the video here.
Method takes down Ra-Den for world first
The world first race is now genuinely over, Method have killed Ra-Den on 25-man, with no bugs or glitches, and a full 25-man raid's worth of health. Method Raider Blatty says on his facebook page: It's over. We'd predicted that we would get him this week, and after two pulls it was done. We are now the only people in the world to have killed the last boss of tier 15. After the previously reported issues experienced by Asia's 七 煌, who apparently switched to 10-man and managed to get Ra-Den to bug out, there was a hotfix implemented to prevent the issue where Ra-Den was apparently able to be kept from gaining many of his abilities. Many people thought it might be the case that the limited attempts would therefor be removed, or at least that the race would carry on for a while longer. Now that he's down, we can look forward to Method's videos showing off the fight and kill, and see what all the fuss has been about. Method have taken this last boss down ahead of Paragon, who have led the race all along, albeit in the 10-man size, and ahead of Blood Legion, Russia's Eksorsus, the EU's Sanitas and Envy, as well as the US guild, Midwinter, all of whom were on 12/13. Congratulations to Method!
25-man raids have harder challenges and better rewards on Asian realms
The European raiding team Method had a chance to interview Ion Hazzikostas, World of Warcraft's Lead Encounter Designer. Most of the discussion centered around the recently released item upgrade system that came in patch 5.1. One of the more interesting tidbits is how item rewards and raids are slightly different in Asia compared to the European and North American regions. Ion Hazzikostas How does the upgrading system work on the Asian servers? From what I have seen their items are upgradable not 2, but 4 times. Won't this result in a problem while tuning the bosses of the next content? Ion: The way it works in Asia, we actually use the upgrade system to create the distinction between 10 player and 25 player that we previously announced for 5.1. So in Korea, Taiwan and China, when you kill a boss in 25 player mode, it drops an item that is already 2/4. So instead of 496, it drops as 504 but can be upgraded 2 more times, so effectively they are 8 ilvls higher but you are still only upgrading any item twice. The other thing that is changed in 5.1, is actually that all 25 player bosses have 8% more health and do 8% more damage, than they do in the US or Europe. It is a bit more like the Wrath of the Lich King system, where 25man is just harder and drops higher item level loot but in theory doing 25 player with 25 player loot in Asia should be the same as doing 25 with 25 loot in Europe/US. source Items that drop in 10-man raids have 0/2 upgrades. Items that drop in 25 man raids have 2/4 upgrades. This is similar to the Wrath of the Lich King model of rewards. Blizzard has already stressed that Asian realms aren't used as "experimental realms" for possible system changes in other regions around the world. In other words, it isn't likely that we'll see these types of reward systems in place anytime soon. But it's an interesting solution to the whole 10 man vs 25 man raiding issue and logistics incentives. The interview dove into other topics such as: Brawler's Guild Dominance Offensive Current raiding discussion To those of you who play on Asian realms, we'd love to hear from you regarding your raiding experiences and this reward structure. 25-man raids seems to be the dominant raiding format compared to 10-man raids in that region. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
EU guilds snatch both world first Sha of Fear kills
In a world first race that saw Method and Blood Legion pretty much neck and neck in WoW Progress' points system, Method and fellow European guild Paragon snatched the Sha of Fear from under the noses of their US competition. WoW Insider sends their heartiest congratulations to both guilds! It looks like the world first Sha of Fear kill went to Paragon, narrowly beating Method to the punch, but Method weren't far behind with their world first 25-man kill. It's an interesting conundrum, really, given how many people consider 25-man raiding to still be "proper" raiding. They're opposed by the detractors of that view who assert that 10-man is just as hard and therefore should be considered in parallel with 25-man. In WoW Insider's recent interview with Method, all their players asserted that the two were completely different beasts. With Paragon, a previous world first guild in 25-mans, moving down to the smaller raid size that they had previously derided, it adds credence to 10-man raiding. But, in this tier at least, Paragon have so dominated their bracket that there's not much competition. From Method's completion tables, there wasn't a single US guild in the running for the 10-man progression in this most recent, and final, world first race of this tier. Will more competition emerge? Earlier raids haven't had such an EU-dominated 10-man race, certainly. Was it simply thanks to the holiday weekend? For me, and this is only opinion, the reason I've followed the 25-man race more closely this time around is that there is more competition. Method, Blood Legion and Vodka have duked it out for the top spot all the way, with the closeness of the final Sha of Fear push making it a really exciting one. Blizzard Community Manager Taepsilum commented on a forum post that a stream of the race would be something they'd like to watch, and I agree, but I'd like to watch two guilds competing for a close win, rather than Paragon utterly controlling the entire race! But what do you think? Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Top guild Method discuss their World First
Top EU guild Method came from behind to beat the US guilds' head start and take the World First 25-Man Will of the Emperor by 12 hours before any other guild. Three of Method's raiders answered our questions about their World Firsts. What's your role in Method? Artzie: I play shadow priest. Vailaine: Also shadow priest. Treckie: I'm one of the two main tanks in Method, I play protection paladin. What did Method do in the way of planning? Artzie: We had a basic plan that included everyone having at least a second character levelled to 90 before we start clearing normal modes, so that we could create as many raid groups as possible. Other than that, our goal was to become #1 in this progress, we'd do anything we can for that.
Mogu'shan Vaults world firsts
Following the release of the Heroic version of Mogushan Vaults on October 9 in the US and October 10 in the EU, the very, very early morning of October 13 -- 00:43 UK time to be precise -- European guild Method took down Heroic Will of the Emperor 25-man. Despite the delay, where the raids were released in the US several hours earlier, Method came from way behind in the starting grid to snatch the World First from Vodka and Blood Legion. World second went to another European guild, Envy, with Vodka third and Blood Legion fourth. Blood Legion and Vodka set up a healthy lead, alternating first and second between them for Stone Guard, Feng, Gara'Jal and the Spirit Kings, but Method crept into second place for Elegon, the penultimate boss, pushing Vodka into third but still behind Blood Legion. According to Method's website, the world second took place a full 12 hours after their world first. But, the race for 6/6 Mogu'shan Vaults had already been won over 30 hours earlier, when Finnish guild DREAM Paragon swept to the end of the heroic 10-man version of the raid, downing Will of the Emperor on the afternoon of October 11. Paragon came in world 4th for the second 10-man boss, Feng the Accursed, and world 1st for every boss thereafter in the 10-man raids. But it seems that people still count the 25-man race as the "proper" race, despite Paragon's remarkable achievement. What do you think? Can 10-man world firsts be considered the same as 25-man world firsts? Should Paragon try to go back to 25-man? Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Report: Ashton Kutcher is going method as Steve Jobs
Ashton Kutcher is currently shooting the first of two Steve Jobs biographical movies coming out soon, and the reports from the set via RadarOnline are that he's taking the role very seriously indeed. Crew members claim that Kutcher is trying to stay in the role of Jobs around the clock, demanding perfection and work from crew members even when it's not really appropriate. "He was preparing for a scene the other day where he had to fire a bunch of people and he got himself really worked up," says a source from the set. "We were taking a break between filming and sitting around relaxing when Ashton walked past and screamed at us, 'If you are just gonna sit in these fu**king cubicles like you're at home you might as well stay at home.'" Does that sound like Jobs? "Everyone thought he was actually yelling at us to leave," the report goes on, "we didn't realize first of all that he was just 'being in character.'" During the actual filming of the scene, Kutcher's Jobs was asked if he was going to fire everyone, and the crew member says the character just serenely responded, "Probably." We'll have to wait and see if the method acting works, I guess. Kutcher's film is called "Jobs: Get Inspired." James Woods, Dermot Mulroney and JK Simmons are also cast in the film, and it's set to come out next year. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Diablo 3 world first scored by World of Warcraft raiding guild
Method, one of World of Warcraft's top raiding guilds, has decided to take their thirst for world firsts into the world of Diablo. A three-man team from Method scored the world-first Skeleton King kill on Inferno. For those wholly unfamiliar with Diablo, that means they killed the first boss of the game on the most challenging difficulty level available. A WoW raiding team moving into competitive Diablo is something we found surprising. Dedicated gaming is in the blood of these players, so maybe it really shouldn't be surprising. What we're really curious to see is how many hardcore WoW raiding teams will jump on the Blizzard All-Stars bandwagon when that game launches, too. Will Blizzard All-Stars support that sort of competition when it launches? Will we see a real e-sports scene grow from it, like League of Legends currently supports? And if so, will the World of Warcraft community latch onto that, or will it be an entirely new audience?
Watch Paragon tackle Lady Sinestra
<Paragon> was the first guild to successfully defeat Sinestra, the heroic-only boss of Bastion of Twilight. After what amounted to a difficult and sometimes buggy encounter, <Paragon> was victorious against Deathwing's consort. Be warned: There are spoilers for the encounter in the video. The encounter itself looks hectic and challenging, with constant streams of adds and a pretty epic confrontation between Sinestra and an interesting lore figure from Twilight Highlands. <Method>, the second guild to down Sinestra, has also released their video, which can be seen here. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has destroyed Azeroth as we know it; nothing is the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion, from leveling up a new goblin or worgen to breaking news and strategies on endgame play.
Storyboard: Putting the RP out of the G
Roleplaying happens in the game, that much is a given. For some players, it's a supplement to the other parts of the game; for others, it's the whole point of playing. And there's nothing wrong with leaving your roleplaying as just an in-game thing, something you put down as casually as any other in-game activity. But there's also nothing wrong with working on developing your character and her story when you aren't logged into the game, and this week, I'm going to look at some of the more effective ways to do just that. The obvious question about taking RP out of the game in part is the question of why. It could be for any number of reasons -- maybe you can't access your main game computer at a given time, maybe you want to fill in the gaps in your character's life, or maybe you just want to make the experience of the character herself more immersive. Whatever your reasons, there are three main ways to keep your character interactive and living even if you haven't logged into the game proper.
Nintendo to Greenpeace: We do care about the environment
Greenpeace harshed on Nintendo's eco-coolness last week, and this week the House that Miyamoto Built is firing back. It's released a statement to Gamasutra saying that it takes environmental responsibilities seriously, and that the company is committed to saving energy, making both of its consoles energy efficient and using carefully picked and clearly-labeled materials in an effort to make post-usage recycling easy. To be fair to Nintendo, most of Greenpeace's argument against it was that the company didn't share information about what it did for the environment, and let's be honest here: Nintendo's not really one for sharing. While Nintendo did get blamed for increasing its CO2 emissions, most of Greenpeace's other complaints (as you can see in the PDF) were not actually about mistakes Nintendo was making, but its failure to share information or release reports about its operations. We can't really blame Nintendo for that -- on at least a few of its points, it seems Greenpeace's methodology was more responsible for the big N's bottom-of-the-barrel listing. [Via GoNintendo]
Ensidia and Method to compete in Ulduar timed run
Live PvP competition is old hat. 2009 appears to be the year of PvE (if you ask me, every year should be that year). At the Games Convention Online, in Leipzig over the weekend of July 31 – August 2, two of the strongest PvE guilds in the world, Ensidia and Method, are competing in a timed run of Ulduar. It's going to be on 10-man, which is kind of strange, given that most people (and especially hardcore raiders) seem to think of the 25-man version as the "real" version of the raid. Maybe they wanted it to be easier for spectators to follow the action. Points will be awarded for killing end bosses of a "zone" faster than the other guild, with points increasing from zone to zone. I'm guessing that by "zone" the press release refers to the Siege, the Antechamber, the Keepers, and the Descent into Madness, but the translation is not perfect - I could be wrong. The Ensidia/Method matchup is going to be on August 2nd; as a prelude, two German guilds (Irae AoD and For the Horde) are going to compete on the same event on August 1st. Apparently the raids will be streaming live on allvatar.com, although I can't really get very far on that site - WTB English translation. Does anyone know if it will be free to watch or not?
