After the release of each major patch in World of Warcraft, a striking event begins – the guild race. Raiders spend a lot of time and effort to be the first to kill the final boss. Cybersport.ru explains how to follow a race or even become part of it.
On American World of Warcraft servers, any patches are released 12-16 hours earlier – the guilds in this region are the first to start the race. In the current patch 8.3, the Complexity Limit, Midwinter, Big Dumb Guild, Imperative, Blood Legion and other guilds are participating in the race for the first kill of N’Zoth on epoch-making difficulty from North America.
Europe starts the battle later, but has other advantages – knowledge of the most convenient way to kill bosses, the selection of classes and the subtleties of tactics. The raid of patch 8.3, entitled “Ni’alota, Awakening City,” was challenged by the European guilds Pieces, Aversion, Exorsus, Method, Practice, and many others.
Many of the guilds that qualify for World First (from the English. “First in the world”) – this is not just a company of friends of interest. These are serious organizations with sponsorship, managers and other staff. For example, the Method team not only participates in the race, but also makes of this show on Twitch. Live Raiders are watched by professional World of Warcraft players, famous streamers, commentators, and regular viewers.
In addition to the top 1 guild, which will break the jackpot in the form of a landmark loot from the “flipper”, there is also a “Hall of Fame” from Blizzard. Each patch includes the top 100 guilds from around the world, without division into regions. For getting into this list and getting an achievement that will be displayed in the profile, they fight no less zealously than for the first kill of the final boss. In the Ni’alota Awakening City raid, more than 10 thousand guilds fought in the first week after the release of the content – and all of them are racing for a rare achievement right now.
New raids come out about once every six months. In the last expansion of the Eternal Palace, Queen Azshara was the final boss. We talked with the leader of the Guild “Unity” Rustam “Rinkyu” Ergashev and his Raiders and found out about their preparations for the N’’alota and the murder of N’Zot.
Six months ago, “Unity” was the first on the Russian-language server “Soul Flayer” killed the final boss of the “Eternal Palace” on an epoch-making difficulty. In this guild, the statistics of the Cybersport.ru portal are played by Alexander “Daveh” Geiko. According to him, combining raids and work is difficult, for the most part because of the need to constantly play. There is practically no time for ordinary life, and walking with family and friends becomes a luxury.
Adding a new raid to the game is always increasing the maximum available level of equipment, and sometimes large-scale patches greatly change the balance of the game. To squeeze the most out of his character, the player needs not only practice, but also theory.
In World of Warcraft, you need to constantly pump artifacts. According to the lore of the game, at the end of the Legion expansion, the fallen titan Sargeras pierced the planet Azeroth. Now, players are helping her recover by collecting energy – Azerite – in the necklace “Heart of Azeroth”. In each patch, there is a maximum level of this artifact, after which it is no longer possible to collect Azerite. At the beginning of Appendix 8.3. the maximum level was again raised, and all raiders needed to quickly raise it. This is a rather routine task – you either perform monotonous tasks, or kill a huge number of monsters on expeditions.
It is advisable for all raiders who want to participate in the race to have the Heart of Azeroth artifact of maximum level. This is not a prerequisite, but this increases the chances of success.
In addition, in patch 8.3, all players received another legendary item – the cape “Ashzhra’kamas, the Veil of Resolve”. The characters were handed over by Wrathion, the son of Deathwing from the family of Black Dragons, who did not succumb to corruption. According to the plot, he wants to avenge his family, because earlier it was the Ancient God N’Zot who subjugated them and made them serve the darkness. The cloak (an incredible surprise from Blizzard!) Needs to be pumped, and for this it is also necessary to perform several daily tasks. Of course, their implementation takes time, and this must be done outside of guild events.
Many people think that getting into the Russian-speaking guild with good progress is very difficult. In fact, World of Warcraft has a career path. For example, one of the members of the Unity Guild recently moved to Exorsus, a top Russian-speaking team.
At the time of publication of the article, the American guilds went on vacation – they spent more than ten hours in the raid. Complexity Limit is the leader in the race, her progress is seven bosses out of 12. In second place is the European Pieces, despite the fact that she started the race 14 hours later.
Typically, Blizzard arranges bosses so that the difficulty of mastering the raid increases consistently. Sometimes, as in the case of the new raid, guilds can choose in which order to kill the monsters, but in the end they will still have to face the most difficult enemy.
At some point, all the teams begin to fight with the same boss, and the previous stage of the race determines only how many attempts they made. Each wipe teaches something – how to properly use powerful abilities or which point is best to get up to get the least damage.
Race Broadcasts:
- Complexity limit (US);
- Method (EU);
- Exorsus (EU, Russian-speaking guild).