The Twitch streamer Maxim Markov is one of the players at the Sauercrowd project who get to experience World of Warcraft for the first time. With his unusual playstyle, he has gained many new fans over the past weeks. However, just before hitting level 60, he had an unfortunate encounter …
How did Maxim perform at Sauercrowd? The popular caster of League of Legends has been joyfully diving into World of Warcraft for the first time thanks to the Sauercrowd project of the German Twitch scene for several weeks. Having grinded for a long time, his warrior was at level 55. Over time, his unique playstyle has won him many fans:
- Maxim’s goal was to create an unbreakable tank as a complete WoW newcomer, fully utilizing the talents of the Protection tree, defensive stance, a broad shield, and as thick armor as possible.
- While his damage was relatively low (which also affected his leveling pace), he took hardly any damage – perfect for the Hardcore mode!
- Maxim supplemented his survival build with several rules: no fights in water (due to drowning risks), no heights (due to fall damage), no caves (because they are dangerous). The streamer primarily focused on quests that supported simple mob grinding in the open world.
- In dungeons, he was known for making the healer present work-free. However, his teammates appreciated his cautious and calm playstyle. With Maxim as a tank, there were basically no pull mistakes or sudden danger situations. As a result, he even insisted on being the main tank for the first raid in the Molten Core.
- As part of this tank fantasy, Maxim worked his way up to being one of the best blacksmiths in the guild. Almost daily, he dedicated an hour in the evenings to crafting for other Sauercrowd members, earning regular praise during the guild’s meetings.
For many weeks, Maxim enjoyed this playstyle so much and was so successful that he even dreamed about WoW and wanted to jump straight onto his PC to continue leveling as soon as he woke up. The streamer reported this some time ago on YouTube.
According to Sieglinde, “the best main tank of the guild” has died here.
Suddenly at the Spirit Healer
What went wrong? Anyone who followed Maxim while leveling would probably never have thought that he could fail against a simple opponent without elite status. However, this exactly happened in the Western Plaguelands. While attempting to bypass the ruins of Andorhal, he caught the attention of a 56-level Scourge Ghoul.
Normally, this wouldn’t have been a problem: Maxim was on his mount and could have easily ridden away. However, he stopped after a few meters and considered whether he should fight instead. After a few blows, the player realized that the ghoul deals primarily fire damage, thus bypassing the thick armor of his warrior.
Consequently, Maxim’s warrior’s health points fell unusually fast – for his standards. So, he retreated while trying to keep the enemy in front of him, which increased the chance of being stunned. Unfortunately, he accidentally dealt damage to the ghoul, causing it not to relent.
At this point, one must recognize that Maxim is a WoW newcomer. His attempt to escape with the “Light of Elune/Heartstone” macro failed because he cast it while running. So, while he was protected by the light, he couldn’t activate the heartstone.
He did not use his stun attack, his Piercing Howl, or a slowing Knee Thrust in battle. These measures could have saved his virtual life. Alternatively, he could have simply jumped into the nearby river since ghouls cannot swim. But of course, one only knows that after playing WoW Classic for a long time.
You can watch the whole situation on Twitch as well as on the YouTube channel of Sieglinde, who as an experienced Classic veteran provides his assessment:
According to Sieglinde, Sauercrowd has thus lost “the best main tank of the guild.” He would have loved to see Maxim in the Molten Core. He has the utmost respect for the WoW newcomer because he went his own way in Hardcore and made it this far.
Why is Maxim’s playstyle a meme? In the context of WoW Classic, this type of tank warrior is typically not played by experienced players because the damage (and thus the generated threat) is too low. Warrior tanks instead often utilize as many offensive talents and gear pieces to deal nearly as much damage as offensive warriors.
Consumables, World Buffs and of course healers must cover the significantly poorer defense… in dangerous moments or against bosses that hit hard, one simply switches to sword and shield and activates a protective cooldown.
By the way, Maxim will not create a new character, but will now switch to Nioh 3 in his streams and start his upcoming vacation in a relaxed manner. Sauercrowd must therefore head into the Molten Core with another main tank. Perhaps they even need two main tanks: Sauercrowd now has so many players at level 60 that the guild could achieve its goal in WoW Hardcore twice
