The final boss of WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Classic has fallen – and in record time. It took less than two hours to kill Arthas – on heroic difficulty.
For many fans, it is the most important and significant fight in all of World of Warcraft. The final battle against Arthas Menethil aka the Lich King. At the end of the long and relentless raid “The Icecrown Citadel”, Arthas awaits as the twelfth and thus final boss for everyone who has defeated all previous bosses.
Back when the Lich King first became available as a boss in 2009, he held out for a whole 46 days on heroic difficulty.
Now, in the Classic version of Wrath of the Lich King, he and all previous bosses had their undead life lights extinguished in less than 2 hours.
Who was so fast? The guild “Progress” has once again lived up to its name and sent the Lich King to the ground particularly quickly on heroic difficulty. In under 2 hours, they were already through the raid.
Progress is a well-known raid size in the Classic area anyway. In previous raids, they were either first or second and still hold several speedrun records today.
However, Progress was not alone for long. Just one hour later, there were already 7 guilds that had defeated Arthas – now there are 14 (as of October 13, 2023, 11:40 a.m.).
You can watch the entire run of the guild here:
Why did the Lich King die so quickly? The main reason is, as with all other bosses in the Classic games before, that the fight is simply known in the smallest detail. Unlike back then, guilds no longer have to work out strategies or try new methods. Instead, there are guides that have been tested and optimized for nearly 14 years. So everyone in the raid already knows exactly what to do when.
An additional factor was that the weekly attempts on the “heroic Lich King” per week were limited. Raids could not try indefinitely but had to manage their attempts and carefully weigh whether to try again. Because once all attempts were exhausted, Arthas disappeared for the rest of the week and only returned after maintenance.
Additionally, bosses – compared to modern “Mythic” raids – only became really complex around “Mists of Pandaria” and made another jump in Legion. In between, bosses were so overloaded with abilities and timers that it was nearly impossible for even professionals without appropriate addons to keep everything in sight.
Did you think the Lich King would survive longer? Or did you know right away that Arthas has simply aged a bit?
Some players in WoW are so attached to their characters that they have nightmares about them.
