In World of Warcraft, two problems plague the race for the “World First Kills”, the holy grail in PvE content. A race that has transformed over the years, now seeing one side, previously serving as a chronicler, stepping up as an arbiter.
But let’s first look at the history of the world-firsts: How has it evolved over the years?
Progress raiding has always been hardcore
The “race for the World First” in World of Warcraft refers to the competition between various top guilds to be the first to defeat the final boss of a raid instance on the highest difficulty level.
The race has changed dramatically over the years. In the beginning, it didn’t exist. No one really attempted a race on Ragnaros, the first raid end boss. He stood undefeated in Molten Core for 154 days. A little later, a raid scene did emerge, but Blizzard had yet to implement the complex framework of lockouts, loot, raid sizes, and difficulty levels we have today.
Back then, it was still “only one instance and one group size for all.” By the end of Vanilla WoW, a boss like Kel’Thuzad in Vanilla WoW lasted 90 days. Over time, various group sizes were introduced, hard modes, and the lifespan of bosses shrank. This was likely due to players becoming more professional and approaching the game more seriously.
On April 25, 2005, Ragnaros fell for the first time… and it was not at all a “race for the World First”
http://youtu.be/Br1hXGXJ7Tg
The golden age in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King
The progress raiding for world-firsts has always been hardcore. 12, 14, 16 hours a day for weeks on end, it is said that raid guilds were engaged in, throwing themselves against the bosses until they finally surrendered.
They were observed by the rest of the players. Some looked on with a smile and a bit of concern, others with envy, and yet others with deep admiration.
Probably this race, like WoW itself, peaked during the late Vanilla-WoW, The Burning Crusade, and certain tiers of Wrath of the Lich King. At that time, guilds like Nihilum, SK Gaming, or Death and Taxes competed hard for first kills, fame, and sponsorships.
The “drama” among the guilds gained attention. Which tank switched where? Which guild disbanded? Who ganked an advantage in Ahn’Qiraj? Which guilds were shooting poison arrows at each other?
But this era did not last forever. Blizzard changed the tuning of the raids, introduced different difficulty levels and group sizes, making raids more accessible. Not everyone liked it. Additionally, the first generation of raiders wasn’t getting any younger and began to change their priorities in life.
The first era of the race for the World Firsts in World of Warcraft was over.
Players longed for a return to those “glorious earlier days” of fame and recognition so much that this year, the SF-MMO WildStar launched with the barely concealed promise of bringing that time back.
And even though many players from back then have turned their backs on World of Warcraft, many still benefit from the battles and battle fame of that era. Kungen, the main tank of Nihilum, is now a successful streamer.
In Pandaria and Cataclysm, the raiding scene fell apart; now it is back
After the previous expansions Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria led to a fragmentation of the raiding scene into 10-man and 25-man raids, Blizzard has now reintroduced a “unified raid size,” the 20-player “Mythic” mode.
This has reinvigorated the race with Warlords of Draenor. The Finnish guild Paragon won the race for the first World First. The final boss Mar’Gok did not hold a single ID.
The world-first raiding has changed significantly compared to earlier times.
Paragon defeats the Lich King World First on March 26, 2010 – perhaps the last great World First
http://youtu.be/RSeVCw3hVgQ
10-man or 25-man the true World Firsts?
The main discussion in the community in recent years has been about whether kills in 10-man or 25-man were more difficult and therefore “counted more.” It was a “on the one hand, on the other hand” discussion.
On the one hand, it is easier to find and coordinate 10 top players and the encounters offer much more space.
On the other hand, 25 players have significantly more raid cooldowns and the bosses are tuned differently.
Now that this discussion has been settled once and for all with the 20-player raid, a new one arises: the Twink raids.
The two problems of progress raiding today
Twink raids increase item level and effort
Since the middle of the second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, there has been a tendency among top guilds for players not only to raid with their main characters, referred to as Mains, but also to play raid-capable secondary classes at a high level.
Thus, guilds began in the middle of Lich King when Blizzard introduced Algalon: a “special” mob for which raids only had one attempt per week. It became a custom for top guilds to also go to Ulduar with their Twinks to squeeze out one more chance per week, to see Algalon, study him, and thus defeat him faster. Because these top guilds have always served as a model for others, the trend spread rapidly.
Ironically, Blizzard’s idea to move raiding away from “lazy work” and allow only one try per week has led to the “super-lazy work” we are currently seeing.
For from the “We do 2 Algalon tries a week” raids, the trend arose over the years that guilds not only have “one raid” but several to exploit the loot system.
Twink raids fully exploit the loot system
Raids are formed from Twinks and a few “main characters,” which are then given loot priority, while the other “unimportant” characters only get what the Mains don’t need. In a 20-man raid with 4 main characters enjoying loot priority, the top guild can gear up significantly faster (if all goes well, 5 times faster) than if all 20 main characters were in a single raid.
In the week when only the HC version of Highmaul was open, the top guilds had run the raid so many times with all possible carrying Twinks and raid Mains that their item level was significantly higher at the start of “Mythic” than it would have been if they had raided Highmaul HC only once with the Mains.
Item level today significantly higher compared to earlier times
This has been discussed in various places online and in the community: In the past, players stood before tough bosses totally undergeared and had to play perfectly to defeat them, as the bosses were designed for a significantly higher item level. After all, the bosses were tuned for groups that had already defeated the “previous difficulty level” multiple times.
Classic World First achieved these kills back then “practically naked” – without raid gear. Due to Twink raids and “Blizzard gating” (the mystical raid only opened a week after the heroic mode), the kills today are easier.
Others argue that while it is true that one starts a new instance stronger due to Twink raiding compared to earlier, the instances are tuned to become significantly tougher over time, as they require farming of the bosses previously defeated.
A big boss like Mar’Gok is still a real challenge and tuned exceptionally hard.
Stacking is also an issue
Due to Twink raids, some criticize that the effort to participate in the World First race has become even greater, not at the top, but over time.
While the “progress” time was exhausting before, the “farm” time has become more relaxed. But what used to be one raid night during farm time has turned into four or five.
Additionally, raiders have to maintain their Twinks. If necessary, they are needed for raids. If a specific class is too strong in a boss fight, members of that class are stacked, meaning they are preferred for inclusion.
WoW Progress excludes real money involvement
The race for the World First is documented on the website wowprogress. There, players check their progress after a kill. There are leaderboards that reach back far and document the race for the first kills.
But wowprogress no longer considers itself merely a “chronicler” of the race, but takes responsibility when “what is possible” comes at risk of becoming “what one must do to keep up.”
With the next raid tier, the blackrock foundry, they want to exclude guilds from the race that transfer characters for real money to another server to buy items from their black market AH.
Exploiting these transfers could massively affect the balance in the race for World Firsts: Because every server has its own BMAH, where best-in-slot items can appear, promising an advantage if a guild acquires a significantly high number of them.
This became a topic when an Asian guild extensively made use of it. Allegedly, a guild collected 78 black market AH items for 20 raiders. In Asia, server transfer is significantly cheaper than in Europe.
WoW-Progress has not made new friends with this decision. They want to ensure that real money involvement does not influence the race. In this new role as “arbiter,” they must also listen to some complaints: “Who do you think you are? Maybe it’s time for another site!” a user bitterly posted.
Who are you? lol, everyone is able to use the BMAH. Maybe its time for another site.
One can only guess what would await WoW-Progress if they began to intervene even further in the race for World Firsts. No, these changes must come from Blizzard.
Ending Twink Raids would be just a mouse click away, but would affect everyone
Mein MMO states: Ultimately, Blizzard’s design with lockouts, complicated loot rules, and such has led to the current raiding scene. And in a highly professionalized environment, as we currently observe in WoW, everyone will do their utmost for success if they wish to. Whether they like it or not.
It would be simple to fix things if the well-being of raiders was really the priority: Twink raids could be a thing of the past if “Personal Loot” was mandatory. An end to twink raids would likely be welcomed by many top raiders, as the classic “We wipe 150 times and on the 151st time, he goes down” would be much more preferable to them than a lengthy grind in farm content.
However, Blizzard does not balance WoW for the “top 0.01%,” but for the majority of players in World of Warcraft. And among them, the idea of group loot is popular.
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