Christmas is here and the pros in World of Warcraft are still not finished. The final boss Raszageth is causing issues in the “World First”.
Actually, Blizzard wanted to accommodate the professional guilds by opening all raid difficulty levels of the “Vault of the Incarnations” at the same time. However, the first raid in WoW: Dragonflight has proven to be tougher than anticipated on mythical difficulty. The last boss, Raszageth the Storm-eater, has still not been defeated – and the Christmas holidays are just around the corner.
This is the state of the World First Race: We are now in the second week of the “race to the World First Kill” of mythical Raszageth. Four professional guilds have now reached the final boss, namely:
- Liquid
- Echo
- BDGG
- Method
At least two of the major guilds (Liquid and Echo) have now reached the final phase. However, it is doubtful whether this can be completed so quickly.
While Team Liquid managed to bring Raszageth down to 14.20% of her health points, Echo’s best attempt currently stands at 19.60%. The other guilds are significantly further behind and have not reached the final phase yet. BDGG is at 64.72% and Method at 67.68% (as of 23.12.2022, 11:00 AM).
Everything is leading towards a decision, but the last phase is likely to bring a huge problem.
Here you can see one of Echo’s best attempts so far:
What is so bad about the last phase? As it currently stands, the last phase of Raszageth seems mechanically quite simple. There are hardly any changes compared to the normal and heroic modes. Only the ability “Storm-eater” is new, where every mistake almost guarantees a defeat.
Raszageth calls small whirlwinds to her, which slowly fly towards her. If a whirlwind reaches her, she not only deals 20% more damage for the rest of the fight but also heals herself for 5% of her maximum health – which equates to an instant defeat.
In fact, this mechanic does not seem to be that difficult. The small whirlwinds are quite slow and can be easily intercepted.
The real challenge is the race against time. Because the last phase of Raszageth is extremely time-constrained. With every passing second, the area available for players to move becomes smaller. Ultimately, the entire area is enveloped in lightning effects, so in the end, all players must inevitably die from the damage.
Although some guilds have already managed to reach this phase with all players alive, Raszageth still has about 20% of her health left at the end. That is so much that even “small optimizations” are unlikely to tip the scales.
Currently, it looks like the raid will go into extra time for the professionals, even during the Christmas period. Blizzard actually wanted to avoid this – but the Vault of the Incarnations turned out to be much tougher than expected.
