nihilum
Latest
Your WoWJutsu rank
The folks at WoWJutsu provide a great little competitive tool that ranks guilds according to the PvE raid content they've completed. The site is pretty popular, and a lot of guilds use it in their advertising over at the Guild Recruitment Forums. My guild has been known to pay pretty close attention to the number. I have to admit that about once a week I find myself checking our ranking against those of other guilds my friends are in. This got me thinking... what good does basing your progress against other guilds do? Sure, there are the ultra competitive guilds like Death and Taxes and Nihilum. However they approach the game in a way that leads them to needing to care about how close the guild behind them is doing. For most of us, competing against other guilds is only going to lead to unforeseen frustrations. Most guilds have a boss or two that they get hung up on. Back in the days when BWL was hard, my guild spent a long time defeating Razorgore, and after he was gone the rest of the instance fell within a month. This kind of common hurdle in WoW is not reflected in WoWJutsu; all you get to know is that a guild is stuck on a boss, not that they're going to have amazing progress after it.
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.
WoW Insider's top ten WoW stories of 2007
We had a gigantic year at WoW Insider-- from January 1st to December 31st, we've posted over 4,500 stories here on this very site, about nearly every facet of the World of Warcraft (and you guys didn't slouch, either-- we had over 150,000 comments on the site in 2007). We've reported on everything from hearthstone soaps to Norweigan mooses, and everything from Arena PvP to Zul'Aman. We've posted guides, rumors, insights, jokes, and everything else we could find connected to this game that we all play (17 hours a week on average).And seeing as 2007 is just about to end, we figured it would be fun to take a look at the year behind us, and list the top ten stories that we reported on during that time. From comedic to controversial, these ten stories run the gamut, and they also comprise the most important news that happened in the World of Warcraft this year. As a staff, we collected all of the biggest stories of the year, and then rated them from one to ten.So click the link below to finish out this year, and check out WoW Insider's Top Ten WoW Stories of 2007. Before the year ends, let's take a look back at what happened in Azeroth and the culture surrounding it.
Nihilum raided Leipzig as Ogres
Last month in Leipzig, uber Euro guild Nihilum downed Archimonde in front of the crowd at the Games Convention. Ho hum, they've done this before -- the difference this time was that they raided as Ogres. Upper Deck Entertainment has a UDE Points Store where you can purchase the Ogre Disguise Trinket. Unlike the Murloc Suit obtained at BlizzCon which is a buff that disappears after entering combat, the Ogre Disguise Trinket (as you can tell by its name) takes up a trinket slot but remains on during battle. All 25 members of Nihilum's raid donned their Ogre Disguise Trinkets and killed Archimonde appearing in nothing but loincloths and armbands. It is unclear if they purchased these trinkets themselves (they are fans of the TCG and one of them has the Spectral Tiger Mount) or if UDE provided them.For the full story and more screenshots, go to the article at the UDE website. Or go take a look at how to get UDE points and what other items you can get with them.(Update: <fires unpaid proofreader> Errors fixed. Sorry for the mixup.)
Blizzard interviews Nihilum at Leipzig
In the last four days, we've reported on interviews with Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan at the European Game Conference going on currently in Leipzig, Germany. So far he has dropped many new bits of information about the Wrath of the Lich King and some new patch content coming before that. Turns out, Blizzard is reporting on its own activities at Leipzig on its official European page. In addition to the Wrath and Starcraft II demo stations, Blizzard hosted the demise of Illidan Stormrage. Uberguild Nihilum performed a Black Temple raid live at the Blizzard booth in front of 5,000 spectators. Afterwards, Blizzard gave away the keyboards signed by members of Nihilum to the crowd. Blizzard also interviewed the guild. You can read it here.With the convention wrapping up today, we'll have to start looking elsewhere for more news on the upcoming expansion.
Xfire has chats up from BlizzCon
Yes, even though we've been extremely busy here at BlizzCon, the guys from Xfire (who stopped by our party on Thursday, as did a few folks from Upper Deck and Blizzard), haven't been slacking off, either. They've posted quite a few live chats over the weekend, and here's a roundup for you to browse through. Their biggest event was probably a chat with Jeff "Tigole" Kaplan-- I actually was standing right next to him when they did this one. If you're an Engineer, check it out for sure-- he says they'll be able to craft flying machines! They also chatted it up with a few high profile players: The1Crow and Beraa from MYM (and here's part 2), The Hukhukhukhukhuks from Team EG (parts 1 and 2), and even Jonas from Nihilum. And we have no idea why they wanted to do this, but before the Con, they even sat down to chat with us-- here's part 1, part 2, and the Lightning Round! (guess which is my favorite part) Amanda, Elizabeth and I all made predictions about what would happen, and we got a lot of stuff right (and, ok, some stuff wrong). Plus, Xfire has lots more from the floor, including pictures, updates, stories, news, and tons of other stuff. Thanks to them for all their help this weekend, and go check out their coverage!
Four endgame guilds on WoW Radio today
Our friend Totalbiscuit of WoW Radio sends word to remind us that today at 2 pm EST (in just about an hour and a half from now), he'll be hosting a roundtable with members of Nihilum, Death and Taxes, Forte and Method-- in other words, pretty much every endgame guild that matters. I guess he could probably go for Curse as well, but "Four Horsemen" just sounds better.On the menu is supposed to be "all aspects of the endgame," so it'll be interesting to see what gets talked about. Expect to hear about what they thought of the Black Temple and the attunements being lifted from the Eye and SSC, and TB would probably be remiss if he didn't ask what they think is coming next (even though no one but Blizzard has anything but speculation about that right now, probably until Blizzcon). But nevertheless, WoW Radio always does a good interview, and this should be a good listen for sure.
Stratics interviews Awake from Nihilum, too
Stratics has posted their own Nihilum interview (here's ours, from last week), and while the piece doesn't actually appear to be in interview format (?), it does have some good info from Awake about how to manage a huge guild, whether PvE players will be able to go professional in the future, and how Nihilum stays on track and GTD.Not too much is new since last week, but Awake does offer up some new info about Nihilum's PvP plans-- they're trying to bring at least two teams into WSVG. Also, Awake mentions that they'll be at Blizzcon in some form (so will WoW Insider, of course, and if you don't have your tickets yet, be sure to watch for our contests all week), and hints that it might have something to do with... Leeroy Jenkins?So there's not too much to learn if you read last week's interview (or if you're just tired of hearing about Nihilum-- yes, I know there are some of you out there), but if you just can't get enough Nihilum, go check it out.
Exclusive interview: Awake from Nihilum speaks with WoW Insider
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Exclusive_interview_with_WoW_guild_Nihilum'; There might be no guild in all of Azeroth that has attracted attention like Nihilum has. They've charged through the endgame, gaining an unimaginable four world firsts in one day. They've downed Illidan. They've beaten the game.And even out of the game, they seem to be a lightning rod for controversy. They don't like girls. They supposedly cheated on Vashj, and maybe they buy gold. Players have followed Nihilum's exploits like no other guild-- some hate them and some look up to them, but everyone who follows news from the endgame must know who they are.Now, in their first exclusive interview after downing Archimonde and finishing off the current content, Awake from Nihilum spoke with us to talk about all of these things and more. What did they and did they not like about the endgame they just beat? What's Nihilum going to do now? And exactly how many of them have girlfriends?Click the link below to read this exclusive interview, and get a glimpse of what it's like to run with the guild that beat the game. Questions were collected from both WoW Insider staff, and from members of our own casual guild, It came from the Blog. Thanks to Awake from Nihilum for doing this with us, and good luck to him and his guild in future content.
WoW Moviewatch: Nihilum vs. Illidan
You've seen the screenshots. You've debated the impact. Now, you can watch the movie. All 711mbs and 21 minutes of it. It's the world first kill of the bad boy of Patch 2.1, Illidan Stormrage of the Black Temple by European raiders extraordinaire Nihilum.I'm grateful that Nihilum took the time and resources to record this event and make it available to those of us who will never see this content, but 21 minutes? How about a highlight reel? In fact, how about a highlight reel of all the bosses in 2.1 they smacked down cut down to, oh say, 2-3 minutes? Anyone got one of those coming down the pike?
WoW Moviewatch: Nihilum vs. Essence of Souls
I don't care how you feel about Nihilum as a guild, this looks like a great fight. Props to the art folks at Blizz for the animations; this is definitely the coolest-looking boss I've seen in a while. One warning, though: the video is rather long. If you want to download the full 365-MB WMV version, head over to WarcraftMovies.[via World of Raids]Previously on Moviewatch
Breakfast Topic: What should Nihilum do now?
They've done it all, raided from one end of Azeroth to the other, and now they've conquered Outland as well. So what is next for the golden boys of raiding? I imagine they themselves may be wondering the same thing. They have the gear, they've done all the encounters, so what now? What would you suggest Nihilum do as they set out into the unknown? Is it time to set their sights on The Card Game perhaps? Or maybe start ramping up to compete in the Arena season 2? What do you think?
Archimonde down, Nihilum beats TBC
And here I thought Nihilum was going to take a break. But no! They have just defeated Archimonde, the final boss of Mount Hyjal, which means that they have cleared every PvE encounter currently available in WoW. Um...good job, guys! (This was, of course, another world first.) What's next?MMO-Champion has Archimonde's loot table. Here's what Nihilum got.
Are Europeans better at gaming?
When a forum troll puts up a thread on the forums I usually ignore them. But this intrigued me enough to read on and pass on the thread to you. Essentially the troll started out by asking where Death and Taxes is lately in the world firsts list. Honestly it's been a while since we've seen them. However, one could make the argument that Nihilum's list of world firsts are essentially all in one run of the Black Temple, and if they happen to get there first then naturally every boss they down will again be a, err, first. However, Nihilum has definitely been making the headlines, as has Curse, leaving the American guild Death and Taxes no where to be seen. Perhaps they are spending their time pushing through the PvP ranks, who knows. Where the thread began as a discussion on the top raiding guilds, it then turned into an interesting argument: are Europeans better at gaming? Of course, the original poster went so far as to say that since Europeans are better at WoW they must therefore be better at everything. In a small way I can see how WoW might be considered a microcosm of the outside world, but I don't really see how we can use the game as a benchmark for world superiority of one group of people over another. But I am intrigued by the original thought. Are somehow European guilds better equipped culturally to excel at gaming? Is there something in the culture of the Europeans that makes them more able to excel at the end game than Americans?
The pacing of the new endgame
So Illidan met his match yesterday in the form of Nihilum, which means that since the Black Temple is the last and latest bit of content to show up on the live servers, the game is effectively beaten. That's it. We're done. Time to go home.Didn't that seem a little fast? The original WoW content took a few years to "beat," it seems, and now Burning Crusade (and the 2.1 patch) has been beaten by players in a matter of months. Is the endgame going too fast? From Boubouille's wrapup of the Illidan defeat yesterday, we get this post on the Elitist Jerks forums by Tigole. He says Blizzard is very happy with the way Black Temple is tuned. He also takes a look back at Naxx, and says the Four Horsemen were an example of an encounter that was well-tuned, but players at the time didn't have the gear they needed, so it took much longer for guilds to finish them off. The biggest hole in WoW content right now, Tigole says, is the lack of options after Karazhan for 10 man raids-- but, he says, "we're fixing that." So /cheer for more 10 mans to come.But is the endgame dropping too fast? In my estimation, not at all. In my estimation, Nihilum is not a normal guild. If you're willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on gold buying (and frankly, I am not-- I believe they're cheating), they clearly play the game more than anyone else, driven by both their own determination and the fact that they are basically raiding celebrities in Azeroth. They are the hardcore. And if you're asking me whether hardcore players should finish the endgame content quickly, I'd say they should.Why? Because that means it will be that much easier for casuals to get there, too.
Illidan slain by Nihilum
This should mark an end to this string of world-first posts, and hopefully the poor raiders of Nihilum can get some sleep now. Illidan has now been defeated: the Black Temple is cleared. But how did the fight go? Do you actually kill Illidan, or is it more like the Majordomo Executus fight from MC? At the moment, I don't know, because they haven't uploaded any pictures or information to their site -- no loot, no fight shots, no kill shot. But I'm sure these details will surface soon, and when they do, I'll update this post. For now, I offer one more "congrats" to Nihilum, the current champions of WoW raiding.Update: loot, via World of Raids; apparently there were also 2 Tier 6 chest tokens. Also, if you look at the killshot above (click for a bigger version), Illy certainly looks dead...
Illidari Council down
Warning: this post relates what is popularly known as a "world-first" kill. If you are not interested in a certain high-end European raid guild that shall not be mentioned destroying enemies you may not have heard of, read no further. Right. Still here? OK then.A mere 15 hours after their last kill, the current superstars of WoW PvE have vanquished the one remaining obstacle between them and the big man himself, Illidan. Yes, the Illidari Council is no more. This means they have tonight and tomorrow to try to take down Illy before the raid resets on Wednesday morning (right? Wednesday for EU raids?).What's the secret to their success, you may ask? Well, Kungen claims "Key to success is 4 rogues in all raids." That's good to hear, as it may assuage some Rogue concerns over being edged out in PvE. According to their site they're working on Illidan as I type this, so good luck, guys, and congrats once again. Check out their site for a nice gallery of Illidan killing everybody, and here's the loot from the Council. [via MMO-Champion and World of Raids]
Ex-Nihilum member claims guild exploited
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Insider_Ex_Nihilum_member_claims_they_cheated_to_down_Vashj'; There's some pretty interesting forum drama going on in the European Raids and Dungeons forums. Lewt, an undead priest who spent two years in the guild before quitting WoW, claims that Nihilum purposely exploited a bug on their world first Lady Vashj kill (instead of an accidental bug that took away HP, as the guild states.) According to Lewt, you can purposely wipe at 20 percent and have a paladin use Divine Shield, which I don't really understand unless Lewt actually meant Divine Intervention. Then Vashj will reset to Phase 2, but since her HP is connected to the pillars she has, the HP will disappear when they despawn. This leaves her at 1 HP. Presto, a priest pops a soulstone and Shadow Word: Deaths her, and there you go. Lewt even provides a screenshot of him finishing off Vashj with an SWD, complete with chatlog. Kungen, Nihilum's guild leader, fires back with some screenshots of guild chat immediately following the kill, which are full of confusion. He said that the HP loss was a bug during the fight that surprised Nihilum, not a specific strategy that they exploited to get the kill. Lewt responds by saying that Nihilum had exploited in the past on BWL, bought gold, and had the guild second-in-command, Awake, pay Kungen's real-life bills. I've heard the first two accusations, but the last one is freaking awesome. My guild leader never pays my bills. And from there, the thread goes on in many entertaining ways, with Nihili (or whatever) and ex-Nihili arguing about the guild: whether it's possible to lead a normal life in Nihilum, whether the "Danish Mafia" edged out the English players, and a lot of other things that I'd probably understand if I spent more time on the Euro forums. I really don't know enough about the Vashj fight to judge this. I don't like Nihilum's guild recruitment policy and the gold buying rumors, but I'm not exactly ready to take the word of someone who named themself "Lewt." Another forum poster probably has the right sequences of events: The raid wiped, they noticed that Vashj had bugged out, Lewt decided to pop the soulstone and SWD her, writing "Sorry, I couldn't resist" in chat. Then the Divine Intervention thing was when they were trying to get their loot off Vashj #1 while Vashj #2 had spawned. And now that Vashj is fixed and the top guilds are on to Black Temple, it's sort of a moot point anyway. As proven with Overrated, guilds who truly cheat will get found out eventually. What do you think?
Nihilum takes down Mother Shahraz
Nihilum have scored another in their seemingly endless string of world-firsts: the Black Temple boss Mother Shahraz. Dang, guys. Give old North America a chance, huh? Nah, I'm just kidding -- congratulations once again, of course! This only leaves two encounters left undefeated in the Black Temple: the Illidari Council, and Illidan himself.As with the Essence of Souls, nobody really seems to know much about the fight, although the boss appears to be a six-armed demon. And like EoS, they got their loot, with no bugs to get in the way there. Here's what dropped: [via MMO-Champion and World of Raids]
Essence of Souls killed by Nihilum (world first)
Nihilum is really on fire these days. Fresh from seven world firsts in the past week or so, they have now achieved the world-first kill (on the live realms, anyway) of the Essence of Souls, a Black Temple boss. No details have emerged about the fight that I've been able to dredge up, although WoWWiki speculates that the boss has a different phase for each of its three different faces.In their comments thread, Nihilum deem the Essence of Souls "the hardest encounter we've met so far in WoW, ever" and "likely the hardest and most intense encounter in the history of world of warcraft," so my guess is it was probably pretty hard. Congrats! And in an unusual turn of events, they actually got their loot upon killing the boss: MMO-Champion has this boss's full loot table, thanks to PTR kills.
