In Destiny, the hard mode started around 19:00. By 19:50, the race for the first kill was already over. There he lay.
Yes, it is getting faster in Destiny. It took around 50 minutes, then Crota was defeated in the hard mode of Crota’s End. His new level and the resulting damage advantage did not help him.
The new champions of the “World-First-Belt” are, as it currently looks, the players of tripleWreckTV. They replace InvigorateGaming, who had claimed the title of “World First” the last few times.
The last World-First for the “normal kill” of Crota came after six hours. This one after 50 minutes.
The final fight against Crota plays out somewhat differently than in normal mode.
There is no “Chalice” and no cups, and some adds spawn more. For the sword bearer, according to reddit from the Crota killers, not much has changed. For the other five in the team, though, the fight has become significantly more stressful. Now they kite the Gatekeepers and do not kill them anymore. Additionally, there are considerably more “yellow” mobs than before – and the enrage timer is either tight or directly tied to a health value, which is still uncertain.
Are they too tough or is he too weak?
The speed of the World First is impressively high. This raises the suspicion that the raid in Destiny would be “too easy.”
Here, difficulties in balancing become apparent: If you keep hardcore players in the starting blocks for 6 weeks, let them refine the tactics further, and then scale the raid only relatively linearly, it will quickly be over.
Furthermore, raiding in Destiny differs significantly from classic MMO raids: A days-long rehearsal of specific tactics is not feasible. There is also no “real” progression within the raid, that you need gear from boss A to defeat boss B, in Destiny.
We will bring further updates about the story as it develops. The kill by tripleWreckTV seems secure. Now it’s just a matter of whether maybe another fire team that hasn’t streamed themselves was faster but is now silent.
According to the first reports, the upgrade material for the Necrochasm has supposedly NOT dropped. It seems not to be a “guaranteed” drop, but rather like the Vex Mythoclast, a drop probability in the game.
Legendary weapons are definitely already dropping at least two before Crota.
Update 20:50: Oh, there was actually another group faster. According to Bungie, the folks from “One and Done” are the champions (with a guest player):
Bungie User Research has confirmed the World First finishers for the Hard Mode version of Crota’s End. One and Done. pic.twitter.com/jRxFsUcPxN
— Bungie (@Bungie) January 21, 2015
The kill by tripleWreckTV has also been confirmed. It just wasn’t the first. Whether everything happened without any glitches or shortcuts being used is currently a topic of discussion. If no one streams it, it cannot be verified. And the raids in Destiny have been known since release for having “shortcuts” or being prone to tricks that significantly simplified the raid.
According to data from DestinyTracker, “One and Done” completed the raid in 27:50 minutes, while tripleWreckTV needed 39:07 minutes for their kill.
Small Guide: And here is the tactic for Crota Hard Mode in Destiny
Update 1:50: Here are two videos demonstrating a tactic that is currently considered relatively good. The tactic is based on defeating Crota in just two sword phases, keeping the fight under 4 minutes and saving a lot of hassle.
The tactic focuses mainly on staying in the middle, ignoring the Boomers, and providing the sword bearer with a Titan bubble. On reddit, they are quite excited about this.
This is the kill from the sword bearer’s perspective:
This is the kill from the perspective of a Gjallarhorn player:
