The Finnish guild Paragon is now considered a legend in World of Warcraft, known only to older players. Since 2016, one of the formerly best guilds in the world has not been active anymore. Paragon – or more precisely, its hunter Usso – is responsible for one of the most famous scenes in the MMORPG.
This is Paragon: The Finnish guild was once the second-best guild in the world, right behind Method – with both guilds trading places at the top several times. The group mixed it up at the top until Warlords of Draenor:
- Paragon achieved the World Second Kill on Yogg-Saron with 0 guardians (WotLK) as well as on Garrosh Hellscream (MoP) and Archimonde (WoD)
- Among the World First Kills are Ragnaros, Nefarian, Sinestra, and Al’akir (all Cataclysm)
- Paragon, together with Method, became the world’s best guild, surpassing the world-renowned Kungen and his guild Nihilum after The Burning Crusade
The biggest achievement for which every veteran knows Paragon today is the World First Kill on the Lich King in the Icecrown Citadel in March 2010. The boss was considered at that time and still is one of the hardest fights. In the anniversary events, he still causes massive wipes today.
That’s why everyone knows Usso today: Usso was one of the hunters of Paragon. He is mainly credited for the guild being the first to defeat the hardest boss in the world at that time. The scene in which his raid leader repeatedly urged him to use his taunt is now already a meme.
During WotLK, Paragon gained world fame. The entire expansion is considered a masterpiece, among other things, due to the best cinematics in the history of the game:
“Everyone must see this”
In the community, the World First Kill on the Lich King is considered a “Must Have Seen” because Paragon barely reached the end at all. The fight is divided into several phases, each of which has special mechanics.
After the last “ghost” phase ends, in which all players must avoid abilities while killing ghosts, the boss enters his berserk mode (“Enrage”). His damage is increased so much that he can virtually kill any player instantly, even tanks.
This enrage actually means the end of the fight, but good players can at least survive for a few more seconds. In the case of Paragon, the Lich King had 1% health left before the end of the fight. The guild decided to have a hunter taunt: Usso.
With “Distracting Shot,” hunters at that time could draw the focus of enemies for 6 seconds. Since the Lich King then had to run a long way to the distant hunter, the raid had enough time to finish off the boss. What followed is one of the first recorded nerd screams in World of Warcraft.
You can watch the entire kill video here. You’ll find the taunting scene starting at minute 16:53:
2016 marks the end of the journey for Paragon, 2023 finds the guild nearly empty
Paragon secured the kill on the Lich King back in 2010. Subsequently, the guild continued to raid actively for another 6 years and achieved top positions in every content, often even the World First. Their peak time was during Cataclysm.
In 2016, however, Paragon announced its end. They could no longer find enough Finnish players to maintain a top raid, and opening up internationally was not necessarily the plan. The guild announced it would cease its raid operations.
Thus, the last great achievement of Paragon remains the World Second on Archimonde in the Hellfire Citadel in Warlords of Draenor (2015), right behind the world-famous guild Method – which also disbanded shortly thereafter. Method today exists again under the name Echo.
Paragon tried raiding one more time in Legion. Here they managed to defeat the final boss Argus, but only in the normal mode. This was enough for a rather sluggish rank of 26,846 worldwide (via wowprogress).
Today, the guild is nearly empty. There are still 8 characters at level 70, played by only 3 players. All others are far behind or left the guild a while ago. There is certainly no comeback – even though it would fit, as Cataclysm is soon to be released as a new
expansion for Classic.
