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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.
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.
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!
Breakfast Topic: Do you race for world (or server) firsts?
The race for world firsts in the new Siege of Orgrimmar raid has been moving faster than ever before -- with the first 10-man defeats of Garrosh Hellscream (warning: spoilers behind that link) arriving a day after the patch landed. But while most of us watch world and server firsts with great interest -- how many of us are actually out there in the race ourselves? Tell us, readers -- have you been in the race for first kills? How many hours have you put into devouring the the latest content, both before and after the patch arrived? Tell us about it -- and be sure to share all the crazy raid stories you may have accumulated in your adventures!
The Daily Grind: Have you ever scored an MMO world first?
Back in the days before achievement systems reassured us that we were indeed having fun and badges were considered content, I had a dream: a dream to be the first Master Image Designer on my Star Wars Galaxies server. With the help of my guildies, I put together the staggering amount of money to train my skill and made at least a thousand people "look like Neo" for tips, becoming so well-known that newcomers to the profession traveled the galaxy (literally!) to seek me out for training like some NPC. (I promptly used my newfound fortune to round out my template as a Smuggler because nothing says "upstanding hairstylist" like drug-dealing and hacking.) Back then, games didn't reward you with a pretty badge or fancy title for being "first," but modern MMOs do. Players and guilds will go to ridiculous lengths to ensure their place in history as "first guild to down such and such boss with 13.5 players" or "first tailor to sew hot pink level 500 epic boots." How about you guys? Have you ever landed a world or server first, recorded or otherwise, and what was it? 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!
Guild Wars 2 world first: Tequatl the Sunless is down
It's official: The Blackgate server is the first to down redesigned Guild Wars 2 world boss, Tequatl. Less than 24 hours after the Tequatl Rising patch went live, players from across Blackgate rallied to the cause and managed to down the beast after several failed attempts. The kill was confirmed by ArenaNet on the Guild Wars 2 Facebook page. Our own Richie Procopio was present for the killshot; check out his video of the encounter after the break.
Rolled back druid has World First level 90 reinstated
WoW Insider readers who have been around for a few months may remember the strange story of a druid. On the same day as the expasion released, a druid by the name of Fs hit level 90. He was subsequently rolled back to level 87, as the linked article was updated to reflect, and many cried foul, asserting that he had cheated, that he had somehow made use of an exploit to get through the levels at such speed. Athene sat down with some of the guys who had helped Fs to 90, and chatted with them about how they'd done it. They asserted that it was simply related to a buff that was put onto them by some mobs in Townlong Steppes, shamans to be specific, which they'd used to farm mobs for XP. They said they'd done nothing else, but the fact that Blizzard rolled Fs back didn't really support them. The latest development in the story happened late last night, when Blizzard Community Vaneras posted the following: Vaneras After some lengthy deliberation on this topic and evaluation of all facts, we've decided to overturn our decision on this matter. We will be re-instating Fs's achievements. Our apologies to Fs for any frustration this has caused. source So it seems from this that, actually, the claims were true, there was no exploit, no cheating, and the achievement was legitimate. Fs's achievements have also been reinstated on the armory. Almost 7 months down the line, congratulations!
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!
"World First" Ra-den?
Manaflask, ardent follower of the World First race, has reported that the final bonus boss of this tier has been defeated by a Chinese guild named 七 煌. So why the question mark? Manaflask has looked deeper into the kill, and it appears that there's something fishy afoot. Asia's guilds are already considered to be on a separate racecourse, so to speak, to the EU and NA guilds we habitually report on, thanks to their increased item levels and higher HP bosses, but this is far beyond that. Manaflask reports the following: Apparently 七 煌 switched to 10 man after downing Lei Shen in 25 and that made all of Ra-Den's abilities work as it if were 10 man (except they had 25 people there fighting him) [...] The guild supposedly reported the issue to Blizzard so there isn't any actual exploiting going on, just a bug due to the different way in which 10s and 25s are handled in Asia (different lockout etc). What's more, and this is unconfirmed so should be treated as such, theories have surfaced that there is a bug with the boss. The guild's raid leader is quoted as having said that they also "met something usual in the encounter". We assume they mean unusual, and Manaflask also has theories that, by preventing Ra-Den from reaching his adds, he is prevented from gaining any of his abilities. They also mentioned that Ra-Den turns friendly at 5.5%, which seems likely to be an intentional feature, given what we've heard already in sound files and the like. The guild have, as mentioned above, reported this to Blizzard, and are convinced that, given all the aforementioned, their kill shouldn't be considered valid. Ion Hazzikostas previously asserted that if he was badly bugged the limited attempts would be lifted, but that seems unlikely at this late stage. We will wait and see, but for now, he's down.
DREAM Paragon take world first Heroic Lei Shen
All-Finnish guild DREAM Paragon have done it again, taking down Heroic Lei Shen late last night in EU time, before their 10- and 25-man rivals, to add yet another world first to their long list. It's taken almost two weeks for Paragon to get this far, with Method and Blood Legion hot on their heels, along with Eksorsus and Moonz, the only other 10-man guild in the top ten, although they skipped Dark Animus the first time around. Paragon have been leading the pack throughout the race, with the 25-man versions of both Dark Animus and Twin Consorts needing either "tuning" or flat out nerfs for the 25-man guilds to get past them. Paragon took down the Twin Consorts on March 17th, three days before either Method or Blood Legion, so it's taken Paragon a full week to get Lei Shen dispatched. Blizzard has said all along that Lei Shen was a very difficult fight, and we're just now seeing the extent of that. It'll be interesting to see if the 25m version of Lei Shen remains unchanged through the upcoming raid reset. Paragon now move on to Ra-Den, they'll be the first players in the world to see this top-secret boss in action, but we wouldn't expect them to be free and easy with the details until he's down. They've only got 30 tries to get past him, but they're in a good position, given that they've taken out Lei Shen just before a reset. Unless the other guilds can catch up today/tomorrow (raids reset on a Tuesday night in the EU), they'll have a full week with only 30 attempts on Ra-Den to play with.
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.
GuildOx interviews new World First guild Arctica
While the rest of the world were banging their heads against the overtuned first boss in the Heart of Fear raid, one relatively unknown Finnish guild decided to go about their initial look into the new raid a slightly different way. Arctica, of Chromaggus-EU, is a Finnish guild just like Paragon, and just like Paragon they only take players who understand Finnish. You don't have to speak it, only understand it. And that's no mean feat. Finnish is one of the least spoken languages in Europe, with only five million native speakers, and having tried it myself, one of the most baffling to learn. But despite their relatively small pool of eligible applicants, Arctica look to be taking after their better-known fellow Finns, and progressing into World Firsts, taking two of the five available in this 10-man heroic progress race, having defeated both Ta'yak and Garalon before any other guild. They, unlike the others, skipped straight past the infamous Vizier Zor'lok, facing Ta'yak first in Heroic. GuildOx was joined by Kapsu and Sponde of Arctica to discuss their progress into 10-man Heroic Heart of Fear. Check out the interview over at GuildOx, and find out what's in the water in Finland that makes such good raiders! 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.
Heart of Fear World First race hit by Heroic Nerf
The first boss of the heroic version of Heart of Fear is causing some problems. The irony of the mantid raid having some bug issues has not escaped us here at WoW Insider, but there are some more serious issues at hand than light hearted jokes can describe. After nearly 17 hours of raiding in the US, and 8 in the UK, Blizzard Community Manager Nethaera took to the forums to say the following: Nethaera The Heroic Zor'lok encounter is currently more difficult than intended. While we prefer to avoid changes to encounters in the midst of progression, we would like to fix a few quality of life issues and make some targeted balance changes that do not invalidate the efforts that guilds have put into learning the encounter so far. Later today a hotfix will make the following adjustments: Zor'lok's Echoes will pause briefly before beginning to cast Song of the Empress. Zor'lok's berserk timer has been increased slightly. Zor'lok will no longer summon Echoes of Force and Verve during the final phase of the encounter. source Nethaera later returned to the forums to add that the hotfix was implemented shortly after the original post, and yet there still hasn't been a kill of Imperial Vizier Zor'lok on heroic, in 25-man or 10man. A couple of guilds have bypassed Zor'lok altogether, with Finnish guild Arctica taking world first 10-man heroic Blade Lord Ta'yak, and DarkStorm taking the 25-man world first. Arctica have continued through the raid and taken down Garalon, too! It's great to see a small guild taking on the big names, and the 10-man race for World First seems to be between one Finnish guild, Paragon, challenged by another Finnish guild, Arctica! What is it about Finland? Two further guilds have defeated 10-man Ta'yak, but still no kills on Zor'lok. There's already been a twitter account set up in Zor'lok's honor, where he mainly talks about his occasional moves to the left. UPDATED: EU Guild Method just took World First 25-Heroic Grand Vizier Zor'lok! No 10-man kills so far. Paragon took World First 10-Heroic Grand Vizier Zor'lok! 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.
Maximising your gaming endurance for that precious realm first
Derevka, of Tales of a Priest fame, is looking to add a string to his bow by joining the race for Realm First level 90. He's already one of the top Discipline priests out there, and will be engaging in the leveling battle along with his guild, Something Wicked. Mists' launch is at 3.00am in Derevka's local time, and anyone who has tried to engage in a Realm First, or even World First race before will know full well that it's a long hard slog. This time around is no different, with a massive 97.5 million XP to get through from 85 to 90. We will be speaking to Derevka after his race attempt to get the low-down on all his innovative tactics and tips, so be sure to check back for that. But today's post concerns you, the player. Staying up for as long as it takes to get from 85 to 90 is not something anyone does every week, and it can be a real endurance test for body and mind. As gamers ourselves, who understand what it's like, we would never tell you not to do it, so we're going to talk instead about ways you can do it better. How can you increase your endurance and mental acuity for the race to 90?
WoW Archivist: A raid exploit compendium, part 2
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? If you missed last week's Archivist, I recounted some of WoW's earliest raid exploits. Guilds have been pushing for ways to make raids easier since Molten Core went live, whether for the glory of a first kill or simple convenience. This week, I'll continue our tour through this sordid side of raiding with more recent exploits. Many of them ended with suspensions. Shadow Word: World First In her heyday, Serpentshrine Cavern's Lady Vashj was considered one of the hardest raid bosses that the game had ever seen. In March 2007, more than two months since Serpentshrine went live with the release of The Burning Crusade, EU guild Nihilum posted screenshots of Vashj's loot and claimed the world-first kill. Nihilum was the dominant progression guild at the time, earning 20 world firsts throughout the expansion -- more than three times that of their closest competitor. There was only one problem: An ex-member named Lewt claimed that Nihilum exploited a bug to kill Vashj. As with Razorgore and other bosses, the mechanism seemed to revolve around that troublesome spell Divine Intervention. Using the spell despawned the pillars that are connected to Vashj's health, leaving her with 1 HP. Lewt popped a Soulstone and killed her with Shadow Word: Death. He even provided a screenshot to prove it. He also went on to badmouth the guild about exploits in Blackwing Lair, gold buying practices, and even an unlikely situation where an officer was paying the guild leader's real-life bills.
WoW Archivist: A raid exploit compendium
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? One week after Mists of Pandaria goes live, the expansion's first raid will become available and the race to world first will officially begin. To the most dedicated progression raiders, a world-first kill is a dream come true, the ultimate achievement in raiding. Other raiders are just as excited to get a regional or a realm first. To realize those dreams, however, some guilds bend the rules. Whether you call it cheating or a "creative use of game mechanics," it's been happening throughout WoW's long raiding history. The myriad methods have been as varied and creative as the bosses themselves. Let's take a look back!
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?
