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WoW Insider speaks with Nymh, world first level 80
Wrath of the Lich King has only been live for a little under a week, and already players are tearing through its many challenges. Blizzard once said that players have a voracious appetite for new content, as soon as something is released they need to start on something else. Wrath has really driven that point home.The first of many firsts was Nymh, world first player to level 80. WoW Insider had an opportunity to talk to him directly about his journey to level 80, and just what inspired it. Read on to see what he (and we) had to say!
World first Level 80 Death Knight?
A screenshot and a quick Armory check shows that Dessembrae of Mazrigos-EU is quite possibly the world's first Level 80 Death Knight. Unless proven otherwise, Dessembrae earned the feat at around 19:00 CET. Deathknight.info, the resource for all things Death Knight, reports the achievement after making a call-out to all Death Knight enthusiasts. It appears that Dessembrae overtook Arello, whose Death Knight reportedly hit 70 ahead of everyone else. It's quite apparent that the early launch of the game in European realms proved to be too much of a hurdle for US realm-based players as most major achievements were obtained by European players such as the first player to Level 80, and even the mastery of all current PvE content. With most world first and realm first Achievements getting snapped up, it looks as though it'll soon be time for most players to settle into a more comfortable groove. That is, um, maybe actually enjoying the scenery.
TwentyFifthNovember beats all Wrath PvE content
Just an hour ago, we reported that über mutant guild conglomerate TwentyFifthNovember, a merger of two of the world's bleeding edge guilds -- SK Gaming and Nihilum -- beat the 'entry-level' raid of Naxxramas. This was fast, although not entirely unexpected considering that Naxxramas was an old-world raid that was retuned for 25-man (and 10-man) content. However, TwentyFifthNovember's website reports that they have also defeated Malygos, currently the end, and supposedly most difficult, boss of current Wrath of the Lich King content (Icecrown and Arthas will be accessible in a future patch). Their website says 'soon...' but I didn't take that to mean 'right now'.This means that within three days of the game's launch, a guild has leveled to max level (although some members of the raid were below 80) and defeated all available raid content. While Blizzard has admitted to tuning the game to become more accessible to more players, or a more casual audience, TwentyFifthNovember's defeat of all PvE content available in the current game brings into question just how tuned down PvE content has become. It will be interesting to see how long it will take another Guild to clear through all of Northrend. Congratulations, TwentyFifthNovember! You can now all go an play Guitar Hero. Or something.
Naxxramas world first by TwentyFifthNovember
How long has it been since the game launched? Two, three days? It was news when French player Nymh power-leveled his way to 80, but barely a day after that... guess what? Naxxramas has been cleared. This feat was achieved by TwentyFifthNovember, the newly merged SK-Gaming and Nihilum über-guild of Magtheridon-EU. The two bleeding edge guilds have had the most combined world first achievements of any guild and their clearing 25-man Naxxramas is almost expected.What's not quite expected is how soon they achieved it. I know Blizzard already said that there would no longer be any raid dungeons as hard as Sunwell Plateau, but this is somewhat ridiculous. I mean, getting to Level 80 is one thing, but clearing the first 25-man raid before the weekend is over? Did Blizzard make it too easy? Are they really just that good? Or do the rest of the world just... suck? It's greatly impressive but somehow also seems to leave me with a feeling that the game is just a little less fun now. Just a little. Congratulations to TwentyFifthNovember! It's a phenomenal feat -- but it looks like their Guild name stands for something else, though. I wonder what they will have cleared by November 25?
First level 70 Death Knight on the realms
Odds are, I'd say, that we'll see our first level 80 sometime this afternoon (and probably in Europe, since they got a little bit of a time zone head start) -- we've had reports come in from one very obnoxious Paladin, but his claims to level 80 aren't actually true. But in the meantime, here's the first level 70 Death Knight we've heard of: Arello of Raptors Open Doors on Shattered Hand dinged 70 as a Death Knight in Northrend's New Agamand. The Armory doesn't have his character in yet, but this seems credible to us.We're not sure he's the absolute first, though, just the first we've heard of -- anyone else have proof of a Death Knight at 70 already? And we'll keep an eye out for (credible) claims of level 80 firsts -- the run from level 60 to 70 took about 28 hours the first time around, so unless Blizzard did things a lot different, we'll probably see it sometime today.
How many end games have there been?
Today on the WoW Insider Show Mike Schramm, Turpster, Daniel Whitcomb, and BigBearButt were talking about the number of times the game has been beaten. This got me thinking, what exactly is that number? Off the top of his head Mike said 5 or 6 times, and I think that sounds about right. Let's take a closer look though at how many times the game has been beaten, and who's claimed the top spot.Molten Core – The first end game instance. For a while this was truly the end game. The first guild that beat Ragnaros was Ascent on the Medivh server.Blackwing Lair – Added in patch 1.6, it existed for a short time as the pinnacle of end game raiding. Drama of the Shattered Hand server was the first guild to kill Nefarian, the end boss of BWL.Temple of Ahn'Qiraj – Added in patch 1.9, and was opened up after the server completed the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj. C'Thun is the end boss of AQ 40, and was first killed by Nihilum.
Breakfast Topic: Do you pay attention to 25-man progression?
I was having a discussion with my brother yesterday, and he was telling me that he really doesn't pay attention much to the raid game anymore. Back in Everquest, he used to be a pretty hardcore raider, part of a giant guild that could field raids of 100 or more people, ready to track down and kill bosses the minute they spawned (since they were never instanced, you only got kill each boss around once per a week on each server). Because so many people were needed, and you might not even get to kill some bosses some weeks because other groups would beat you, you might go months without loot. Because of this, he says, he doesn't really care any more about server firsts or world firsts. The 25 man raids don't really interest him, and he doesn't feel like 25-man raiders are worthy of respect. They get loot at a much faster rate than he ever did, and even if they don't get the drop they want, they still get badges. There's probably other people like him. There's also other people who may ignore 25-mans because it really doesn't affect them. They run their 5 mans, maybe an occasional Karazhan, and they really don't care what people do beyond that.
Breaking News: Death and Taxes guild disbands [Updated]
Something strange is afoot in the wee ours of the morning here, as Nihilum is reporting that the Death and Taxes guild on the Korgath US PvP server has disbanded. This guild has long been considered perhaps the premiere raiding guild of the US Servers. As of this writing, there is no further word on why they have disbanded, only that they have and that some of them will reroll Horde. The front page of the official Death and Taxes site does not have any sort of news post on the issue, but does have a banner that reads "Rest In Peace Death and Taxes, Beta 2004-May 2008," and has a list of their world and US first kills. The forum's name has been changed to "Death and Taxes - Keep in Touch," though there does not appear to be a forum post accessible by a basic account that gives any insight or information as to the disbanding. Hopefully more information is revealed soon. Death and Taxes has been hot on the raiding scene for some time, gaining US and world firsts starting in AQ40 and Naxxramas, and continuing into the Burning Crusade, including their most recent US first kill of Illidan Stormrage and a few key PTR kills in the Sunwell Plateau as well. For now, we'll watch and see if more information comes forth. Perhaps they may be like Risen, believing the end-game progression is worthless but possibly reappearing in WoTLK. Either way, their achievements were many, and they will be missed. Thanks to Liam for tipping us off on this. Update: A poster called Flux (who is not a DnT member but claims he has talked to some), posting on Nihilum's forum thread on the disbanding, claims that they were having trouble retaining guild members due to the long stretch of time between Illidan's downing and any new content, and that the first week of Sunwell raiding was difficult. After attempts to mass-recruit to fill holes ended in a lower level of raiding ability than they were used to, DnT's leaders decided to disband. Apparently, many DnT members will be rerolling Horde on Blackrock. You might want to take this information with a grain of salt, but it's the best we have for now. Behind the cut is a list of Death and Taxes' world and US first kills.
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]
Nihilum does it again, downs Twin Eredars
Despite a scare last April 1 that Nihilum would disband, the bleeding edge guild made true on a promise to continue setting world firsts by downing the Twin Eredars Lady Sacrolash and Grand Warlock Alythess on April 10, 6:00pm CEST. The Rogue-less 25-man team were able to down the twin bosses, their first "world first" in the new raid instance, despite EU Realms having the first Sunwell Plateau gate open a day behind the US owing to the time differential. The drops were Boots of the Forgotten Vanquisher, Equilibrium Epaulets, Shiv of Exsanguination, Sin'dorei Pendant of Conquest, and Spaulders of the Thalassian Savior. Although Nihilum didn't seem to bother getting world firsts with the first three bosses Felmyst, Kalecgos, and Brutallus, whom many guilds were able to down on the first day that Sunwell Plateau opened, they seem to be geared towards downing the remaining bosses ahead of everyone else. The second gate blocks Nihilum's progress so far, preventing them from attempting M'uru. Will Nihilum continue to make World of Warcraft history? The second gate will probably open in a couple of weeks, so we'll find out soon enough.
Do records even matter?
There have been a few records set recently. Some are people claiming to have leveled to 70 the fastest, some are groups of players downing a boss on the PTR before anyone else in the world, while others are PvP records yet to be made. Everyone likes to say "we broke a record." It makes them feel good, gives them a sense of purpose and measurable accomplishment, and generally will put a smile on their face. Even I've done that here at WoW Insider occasionally: "Hey, we had a record number of hits that day, cool!" (No, I'm not going to say when that was, I'll leave it up for you all to comment on and guess.)With all these record breaking accomplishments, it begs the question: do they really mean anything? Does it matter if you've leveled up to 70 in the time that most people are still working on getting the Deadmines quests done? Let's take a look at what records do and do not provide.One thing that they do provide is competition amongst a small group of players. To borrow a phrase from marketing, we'll call these players "alpha players." They are the ones that will always be the first to jump on new content, the first to let everyone know how to do it, the first to complain, and the first to get the benefits of completing the content. These alpha players are pretty hard core, and use world firsts and records to challenge each other. There is literally a whole 'nother side to the game that many of us don't ever see – hard core time based competition.Read on for more and vote in our poll, after the jump!
WoW Things Considered interviews Vis Maior
As scheduled, our good friend Duncor (and his co-host Cadwallion) on WoW Radio's WoW Things Considered podcast sat down for an interview with three guildies from Vis Maior, the guild that's been rolling through the PTR so far. It's a good interview -- Duncor and Cadwallion go through Vis Maior's (not Vis Major) history, how they've moved on to the PTR and begun raiding there, and what they think of the new content.It's interesting to hear not only from a guild that has been around for a while, but is just now coming into the spotlight. And it's also cool to hear what the GMs are doing for the guilds testing the new content on the PTR -- they've deathtouched trash a few times, and even spawned "flaskators," which are NPCs which will give out consumables and other raiding standbys. They also tackle the debate of whether "world firsts" actually count on the PTRs. Vis Maior does agree that PTR kills don't necessarily count if they're just being tested, but a world first kill of a "final" version of a boss should count. Duncor and Cad don't press them on this, unfortunately, but I'd disagree -- the only way you know a boss is final is if it is on the live realms, so only live realms should count. Still, Vis Maior sound like a great bunch of people (they sound like they really love to raid, which is always good for a high-end guild), and what they've done so far on the PTRs is definitely impressive. Kudos to them, and nice job to WoW Radio on the interview.
The Eredar Twins dead in PTR
Vis Maior once again adds another PTR first by slaying the Eredar Twins, Lady Sacrolash and Grand Warlock Alythess (courtesy of worldofraids). If you were fortunate enough, you were one of the 1300+ viewers of their live stream when they killed the 4th boss of the new Sunwell raid instance. The loots were:Band of Ruinous DelightGrip of MannorothShroud of Redeemed SoulsSin'dorei Pendant of ConquestEssence of the ImmortalsAccording to their Ustream schedule, they're at it again at 9:00 p.m.(EST) tonight.Video of their kill inside.
World firsts on the PTR
So here's the question: Do PTR world first kills count? MMO Champion has done a great job of following along with world firsts in the Sunwell on the PTR, and Vis Maior, an Alliance guild on Bonechewer has done most, if not all, of them-- they were the documented first to topple Kalecgos, Brutallus, and Felmyst (Forgotten Heroes and our old friends in Death and Taxes are also among the first boss downers on the PTR). But do kills on the PTR count as world firsts, or do the kills need to happen on live realms before they're considered world firsts?Now, I know lots of you readers don't care about world first kills anyway (and you've got a point-- the only down that matter is the one you do with your guild), but lots of players believe there is value in being the first guild in the game to down a boss, and certainly the best guilds in the world work really hard for that honor. But technically, a boss isn't really "done" until it reaches the live realms. Then again, it usually isn't "done" yet anyway even after that.Personally, I don't think they do count, which is one reason why we haven't yet reported them on this site. I have to applaud Vis Maior and the other guilds for their hard work, and I'm definitely impressed by what they've done, but this content isn't done yet, and in terms of documenting who got there first, my opinion is that we need to wait until after the bosses hit the live realms. You readers disagree?
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.
WoW Moviewatch: Nihilum vs. Kael'thas Sunstrider
Nihilum has released the video clip of their world-first Kael'thas Sunstrider kill. This means they have completed Tempest Keep: The Eye. Congrats to them, and thank goodness the GM gave them all the Black Temple attunement items! Nihilum has also mentioned that they will be releasing multiple videos of boss encounters over the next few days, so stay tuned for more!
Another world first: Curse slays Azgalor!
After a perfectly executed 30-minute wipe fest, Curse has downed Azgalor - the fourth boss of Hyjal. This means that there is only one more boss in their way: Archimonde himself. Unfortunately, since everyone died, the corpse despawned, which resulted in no loot. Hopefully a GM will be on later to rectify their issue. Congratulations to Curse! Good luck with Archimonde!
Nihilum - Taking down even more bosses
There are a couple of hazards of being a blogger on this side of the pond. The first being that, when you consider one of the largest raiding guilds currently tearing through raid content is in the EU, there's quite a bit of time lag between when they take bosses down and when I sit down to run news postings. The second thing is that in the case of a guild like Nihilum, they've trained on the PTRs for quite some time and are thereby completely ready to tear through these fights and rack up the official Live Server World First kills in nothing flat. This said, as if to answer my progression post yesterday, Nihilum returned to Black Temple on the heels of their last string of accomplishments and took down three more bosses. First they turned their collective might toward Teron Gorefiend who dropped some quite tasty goodies. From there, they chewed up Gurtogg Bloodboil and spit him out. (again, not without snagging some sweet loot first!) From there, Nihilum headed for (and successfully tore down) the Shade of Akama for lots more nifty purple goodness, and another live server World First. While they did not finish the Essence of Souls event (pictured) they are hoping to return and knock that out in short order.Now some of the reactions I got in mail the last time I posted a progression post for Nihilum raised an interesting question to me. If a guild goes on the PTR and learns the strategies there does that somehow lessen their world first accomplishment on live servers? It seemed like several people felt that the accomplishments were diminished due to having been done prior on the PTRs. Personally, I've got mad respect for those who blaze the trails -- whether on the PTRs or on Live servers, although I am nostalgic for when it was a bit more of a surprise as to who would do so. (One of the few downsides of the job, I suppose. heh)[via Nihilum]
Death Wish downs Astromancer Solarian for world first
Looks like we've got a new player on the World First scene. Death Wish, of Cho'Gall-H, has downed High Astromancer Solarian in Tempest Keep. Loot was a pally healing belt and a magic damage wand. It appears that Solarian is the last boss before Kael'Thas Sunstrider, so there's a good chance we'll be seeing the blood elf prince go down soon. Grats, Death Wish, and may all your hits be crits!
